a blustering cold

the above title i only used because i seem to recall this being a catch phrase too often used by weather people on network news. i always picturing blustering as being kind of like bumbling, and it's far colder than any weather could accidentally cause.

as for news, today hasn't been that eventful, or yesterday for that matter.

microsoft released the fall update for Xbox 360 consoles in North America. You can now see the friends of your friends, just like on Facebook. Neato!

but they are also harassing silver level Live! subscribers, not letting them get their hands on free content (like demos and such) until gold subscribers have gotten a week to play/download/talk snootily about them.

As always, resident Xbox representative, Major Nelson, says on his blog*:

This is not done to annoy our Silver members—limited time exclusive access to content is just one of the many benefits of having a Gold Xbox Live account.

yeah, that's it. we're just giving those gold subscribers a pat on the back for handing us shovels-full of money. it's not a punishment per se, we're just not rewarding the unwashed filth who only paid at least $400 for our console and at least $70 for Halo 3. it's a little off-putting.

elsewhere, capcom sent me an e-mail letting me know that the new street fighter was indeed a 2D fighting experience, with updated 3D graphics. sooooo, like soul calibur 2? Oh, it's exactly like street fighter 2, but with polygonal fighters. And about the same control scheme. forgive me if i'm not jazzed.

this week has not been my favorite gaming week really. i'm getting into mass effect, like really getting into it, but like a dumbass, i still can't seem to navigate swiftly through all the things i have to do. once i learn something, they through another new thing at me without full explanation on how to do it.

now, i seem to be stuck on the ship, not able to actually get aground. so we'll see how that pans out. either way, it's getting interesting enough that jen is looking up from her laptop glazed over news watching to watch cutscenes with me and is following the plot closely. i've got the suspicion that she knows more about what's going on than me...

everything else is going good, got some christmas shopping done, most of jen's stuff is in the bag-well, in hiding specifically, but really in the bag as our apartment is really quite small and without hiding spaces.

so i head into the weekend now, with another full feature due on monday-of which i'm writing 4 or 5 articles-and i've got to attend a pr party tonight. whee.

thinking of you all fondly-and with a bit of a dirty mind;),

JD

*link credit to kotaku, my bible