Dane Cook Done, Halo Style.

If you've never heard of Dane Cook you're missing out. His is the funniest comedian right now and one of my favorites of all time. Check out this other clip of his too, it's about 24 minutes long and some of the best stand up I've ever seen.

For All Your 360 News Check Out: 360insight

Two Words - Halo. Three.

You damn right! Yeah I said it! A number of gaming sites today have shown to the world, against copyright laws i might add, a series of high resolution scans (read photos) of a Swedish magazine giving us an inside scoop on what's really been going down in Bungie Studios. Below is what has so far been extracted from the articles (they are in swedish after all!), courtesy of xbox360fanboy:

Weapons
Spiker - a new Brute weapon
Spartan laser - a laser that tears vehicles apart
Nail Grenade - sticks into walls and sends nails everywhere

Vehicles
The Mongoose is in! This is the ATV that was cut from Halo 2. It seats two and has no weapons. Designed from recon and quick travel.

Multiplayer goodies
The "Man Cannon" - Spartans do their best Human Bullet impersonations for some extremely rapid transport. Players can still shoot in the air, and can be shot down.

Controls
The X button has a new, still secret feature. Reloading has now been allocated to the bumper buttons. Right bumper reloads the right weapon, and the left bumper reloads the left. Genius.

Miscellaneous
You can now see your secondary weapon when it's not in use. In other words, it's actually slung over your shoulder instead of magically appearing out of thin air. Also, a 4 DVD "Legendary" edition is planned that will have material from Red Vs. Blue, documentaries, and a collection of all cut scenes from the game (possibly the whole series?).

Additionally, 1up, one of the other organizations to have the honour to be invited for a massive press day at Bungie's Studios, has officially come out to confirm this information to be correct, and has also hinted at the ability to save video's of yourself playing, machinima style, but this was in the form of a rhetorical question so it's anyone's guess at this point.

Another awesome product of this Halo 3 news bombardment was this, it has become my new homepage, you want to know what it is i hear you say, well, it is a mini site exclusive to 1up, dubbed '3 weeks of Halo 3', the site will be updated with a series of articles, ranging from 'multiplayer map analysis' to 'halo 3 single player'. If you check out the link it will show when these articles will be hitting. God damn, roll on this months EGM already...

For All Your 360 News Check Out: 360insight

PS. Sorry if i beat you to this Jay!

Sony: Dear Customer, IOU One PS3...

Well, ok so Sony it stating that they will give out IOU's to customers waiting for the PS3. it is unclear so far if Sony is going to make you pay for the whole thing up front or just a down payment... But as Dracula Jones pointed out, " Is the voucher in True HD?" Genius.

(Via: Joystiq)

For All Your 360 News Check Out: 360insight

F.E.A.R. Review, and its good news!

IGN have finally reviewed the once higly anticipated (hype for the game seems to have died down of late) first person shooter, F.E.A.R.
It's got a very respectable score, one of the highest 360 scores from IGN to be more specific, coming in with a 9.1.
Things which really impressed the guys over there were the AI, which they say 'provides powerful combat sequences'. I agree, after playing through the demo, one of the biggest things which stuck out for me was how clever the AI was, not 'splinter cell clever' (knowing where you are even though you're the other side a concrete block), but humanly clever - if they're getting pummeled, they retreat, then come back at you from another angle, fantastic for firefights because it keeps you guessing, much alike a multiplayer session.
Also particularly impressive was the sound. The sound effects are all excellent, notably the guns you wield, they all sound wonderfully meaty. But moreso, according to IGN, was the ambience, the creepy sound effects, they 'add volumes to the atmosphere'.
And last but certainly not least, this game keeps you on your toes, why? because it's one scary mother of a game, IGN don't hesitate to tell you that more than a few times during the review.
Hype, they say, will certainly pick up for this game once it hits retail. I for one agree, and am looking forward to picking this game up come it's November release date (can anyone say PS3 launch?) and dipping into the 'Instant Action' mode, which drops you into different situations throughout the single player game and records how well you do, and sticks your statistics onto an Xbox Live leaderboard. Good stuff. See you on the leaderboards.

I hope you've enjoyed my first *proper* post. More to follow when there's actually some blogworthy news flying about.

For All Your 360 News Check Out: 360insight

Australia Loves The 360.

Well the Xbox 360 is really taking off in Australia. Here's what 360 fanboy had to say:

...the 360 was released down under in March -- the 360 has gone to sell 100,000 units. This handily beats the PS2 total of 78,000 units in its first seven months. Also, Australians have purchased 400,000 games for their 360s since launch, trouncing the PS2 total of 198,000 during the same period after its launch.

Now if they (Microsoft) just had more games like Blue Dragon, for the RPG, anime lovin' Japanese...

(Via: 360fanboy)

For All Your 360 News Check Out: 360insight

Visitors From Around The World.

Wow. That's all I can say. I was doing some checking up on the site and I have had visitors from 61 different country in just the last year. I never imagined I would every get this many visitors let alone from this many different parts of the world. I appreciate everyone for stopping by from time to time to see what I have to rant about. I try my best to post all least every other day, but sometimes there is just nothing that I feel is news worthy, and I'm not just going to post crap...

Oh and Dan, welcome to the site.

(Via: Blogflux)

DannyOB? Who the...?

As seen above my gamertag is LivePyromaniac, and i'm the new contributor in these here parts. I've been a fan of this site for quite some time now and am delighted to a contributor to this awesome site. I currently reside in Oxford, a famous (over here at least) city in the UK. I wasn't gaming as far back as Jay (that's the NES days for anyone that doesn't know), but I have been gaming since the SNES days. I was with Nintendo up until Microsoft stepped up to the plate and haven't look back since. I currently run my own xbox360 site at 360insight. I will be mainly posting 360 related news, as well as on my site. Soon i'm sure i'll expand onto tech related posts also. Well, that's DannyOB in a nutshell, it's great to be here and i hope you enjoy my posts, i'll sure enjoy writing with them.

Extensions: Making Firefox You Own.

To people that are new to Firefox, extension are one of the things that makes it so great. Extensions let you basically do whatever you want with your browser, Firefox being open-source means that everyone has access to the source code and anyone could make an extension. With this being the case there are very few if any extension that come directly from Mozilla. The extensions all come from the community, and they are all made to make you web browsing experience better. I have compiled a list of all the extensions that I use so maybe you guys will find some useful ones.

• Adblock Plus - This virtually block every ad on every page. This is the main extension I couldn't live without, it amazes me how many ads are on most pages. When I am at work (and forced to use Internet Explorer) I surf the same pages and I see them littered with ads and pop-ups.
• Adblock Filterset G - This goes with adblock plus and all it does it keep an up to date block list, so when new ads come out they are all ready blocked!
• Foxmarks - This one is great for me, with as many different computers that I use, and with how many time I install and re-install Firefox, this keeps my bookmarks synchronized between all my computers.
• IE Tab - There are still pages out there that only work in Internet Explorer, this puts a button in the bottom right corner of Firefox and lets you switch between IE and Firefox.
• Mouse Gestures - This is another great extension, when you right-click and hold it turns your mouse into a paint brush. If you draw a stroke from right to left it goes back a page, left to right, forward. It's a huge time saver for lazy people like me so you don't have to go "all the way" up to your back and forward buttons at the top of the browser.
• Tab Mix Plus - Firefox 2.0 has nearly made this useless (by including them into the browser) with the exception of one must have feature: Undo closed tab. So if you accidentally close a tab, you can now just right click anywhere inside Firefox and select "Undo Closed Tab" and bam its back! And not just one tab if you close 5 you can restore them all.
• Colorful Tabs - This extension is just a ascetic change, but a nice one. It make all your tabs a new color instead of them all just being gray, useful for differentiating them.
• CustomizeGoogle - This is a great extension for anyone that using the Google suit of products: Gmail, Google Maps, Google Docs, Google Search, Google Calendar, etc... There is specific setting for each service but one that transends all of them is switching to a secure service, meaning that you will always be logged in over a secure server (https:// instead of http://).
• Outlook Blue - This is a theme for Firefox, one of the cool things you can do is change the "look" of Firefox. From just the color to the buttons, and even the size and shape of the browser. This one is my favorite as it tends to blend-in with Windows XP very well, although there are some great Mac ones out there as well.
  

Mozilla Releases Firefox 2.0!

After a few Release Candidates Mozilla has now released Firefox 2.0 to the world. I strongly recommend that anyone everyone using Firefox upgrade to as soon as possible. A few notable upgrades are:

• Spell Checker - Now Firefox checks your spelling for you! As you type and it notices a spelling error Firefox underlines the error in red and if you right click on it gives you a choice of correct spellings or to add it to the dictionary if it's a custom word like, leet, n00b, or even gasp jayman.
• Phishing - Firefox now checks the website you're on to make sure it's not a phishing site.
• (Next bullets strait from Mozilla:)
  
• Enhanced search capabilities: Search term suggestions will now appear as users type in the integrated search box when using the Google, Yahoo! or Answers.com search engines. A new search engine manager makes it easier to add, remove and re-order search engines, and users will be alerted when Firefox encounters a website that offers new search engines that the user may wish to install.
• Improved tabbed browsing: By default, Firefox will open links in new tabs instead of new windows, and each tab will now have a close tab button. Power users who open more tabs than can fit in a single window will see arrows on the left and right side of the tab strip that let them scroll back and forth between their tabs. The History menu will keep a list of recently closed tabs, and a shortcut lets users quickly re-open an accidentally closed tab.

I love it you'll love, just make sure you're not using Internet Explorer ok (Tim)?

Get The Update Here.

Rainbow 6: Vegas Demo Impressions.

I downloaded the RB6: Vegas demo through the Xbox Live Region work-around listed here. Now keep in mind this is a violation of Xbox Live's TOS (Terms of Service), but I gotta tell you this demo is almost worth it. First off let me say how beautiful this game looks, truly next-gen. Bright vivid colors (it's Vegas baby!), explosions, fire, neon, water, this game has it all. I've been a little disappointed with RB6 games in the past, they were just shy of being great. They always had something I couldn't quiet put my finger on that made then a 5 or 6 instead of a 8 or 9. Well from the demo of Vegas things certainly look much, much better. The character animation looks good, your team move well and does not put themselves into danger like most AI teammates. Enemies take and shoot from cover, they don't over expose themselves to you. There is a new much improved cover method used in Vegas, you simply come close to cover (walls, cars, columns, boxes, etc...) and hold the LT button down. You can then look, shoot, and move around said cover until you release LT. This make taking and leaving cover much more intuitive and easy to pull off, as apposed to trying to hit A on the right spot of the correct piece of cover and A again to release you. Aside from being short (it is a demo) this is a great download and I can't wait for the game.

For All Your 360 News Check Out: 360insight

Achievements? Gamerscore? Not For The PS3.

My favorite part of the 360 is my gamerscore/achievements (Go ahead call me a Gamerscore whore!) and Sony confirms that they (1st party) will have nothing of the sort:

Speaking with Game|Life, SCEA's executive vp Jack Tretton confirmed that PlayStation 3 user accounts will not feature an aggregate score based on gaming accomplishments, squashing rumors that Sony would counter Microsoft's gamerscore/achievement system with "entitlements."

...third-party publishers will have the option to include their own achievement-like rewards, "on a game-by-game basis."

Wow. So 3rd party individual games can have their own score? Sounds great... Well you get what you pay for and Sony keeps saying, "free".

(Via: Joystiq)

For All Your 360 News Check Out: 360insight

Xbox 360 To Out Sell The PS3?

These are the number as reported by IDG (International Development Group) of their prediction of Next-Gen console sales up to 2010. I agree with everything but the Wii. My belief that at Nintendo will sell WAY more Wii's than that.


(Via: Next-Gen)

For All Your 360 News Check Out: 360insight

TWiT On Life Support?

This Week in Tech is, in my opinion, the best pod/blog/net-cast there is. All of the boys from the beloved TechTV, reunited in grand Web 2.0 fashion. Never heard of TWiT? Here's the 411 strait from the site:

In 2004, ZDTV, then called TechTV, was sold and dismantled. Former TechTV hosts, Leo Laporte, Patrick Norton, Kevin Rose, and John C. Dvorak, and producers Robert Heron, David Prager, and Roger Chang went on to other jobs, but we stayed in touch, with each other, and with fans of the late TechTV. Those fans told us again and again how important TechTV had been in their lives, and how much they missed the channel. We missed working with each other, too.

On a rainy evening in January, 2005 a few of of us got together for dinner after spending the day covering MacWorld Expo in San Francisco. Leo, who was working as a radio host, happened to have a microphone and recorder. He turned it on and recorded 20 minutes of idle chatter about the Expo and the tech world in general. He posted that recording on his web site. Within a few days tens of thousands of people had downloaded the recording. TechTV fans began clamoring for more. A few months later, TWiT was born.

And recently here's what Leo had to say about the future of TWiT:

It's about 80 degrees out - in all likelyhood the last nice day of summer in Northern California - so all the TWiTs decided to play hookey. At the same time. Unfortunately that means there will be no show tonight.

It's my turn to play hookey next week. I'm off on a Geek Cruise next Friday, and will be gone through November 4, so there will be no TWiT next week either.

I'll decide what happens to TWiT, the show, when I come back, but at this point it looks like it's on life support and the heart monitor is flatlining.

Yeah we all miss TechTV, don't make us miss TWiT too Leo.

(Via: Digg)

Gear Of War Is A Series Of Tubes...

This is few of the achievements from Gears Of War, you got to give credit to Epic for their hilarious titles. They pay homage to other games and movies with achievements such as:

• "I can't quit you Dom." The obvious Broke Back Mountain quote.
• "My love for you is like a truck." From Clerks.
• "Is it a spider?" Referring to sticking a 'nade on a opponent, The 'is it a spider' quote comes from the wildly popular Halo series, Red vs Blue.
• "The Money Shot" Well... I think we've all seen a few "movies" this could be from.

There is a couple other notable achievements:

• "A Series Of Tubes" This is my favorite of the bunch. If you don't know the reference it's from Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and a speech he gave on Net Neutrality. He says that the internet is quote, "...A series of tubes..." And that these tubes can get clogged. He claims that he was sent an email and didn't receive it till the next day because too many people were downloading movies/porn/music and other items that clogged the "tubes" and didn't let his email go through. Anyone with half a brain know this isn't true, and Mr. Stevens have been flamed all over the internet for his idiotic comments. Make sure to check out my earlier post on Net Neutrality that has got a great Halo 2 short "explaining" this whole mess.
• "Dom-Curious" Now this one is just funny.

(Via: 360 Achievements)

The Cards Off To The World Series!

Here's pic I took at the second to last game at the old Busch Stadium. I love the archway shadows on the field and the Arch in the background. Anyway, being from St. Louis I wanna see the Cards win the World Series this time.