Here are pics from the event; I will be editing this and adding information:
The entrance, early in the evening
Sign up
Some Rhinoguy and Vidguy
Early
Later
DJ
The Gears Room
:
HDDVD for the 360:
The true sleeper hit XNA:
The goodie bag!!!!!!!!
I am home finally!
I have a few things to say about the pictures above and the evening in general. This write up is all that stands between me an a getting back to the 360 so I will let it rip.
I wish I could say that I would be going to sleep early this evening, but I would only be lying to myself.
First off I mentioned it above but I would be amiss if I did not compliment MS and Edelman on the evening’s festivities. First off it was an awesome event in an outstanding night club secondly the graciousness of the hosts was unparalleled. It isn’t very often that I look down at my watch and 5 hours have flown by.
For the entire evening I would sit with someone and start talking with them only to find that they were the head of this or the head of that and it would blow my mind how unassuming and down to earth they were.
I must say, for all of the criticism that MS may get for being a corporate giant that is taking over the tech world, that these people really cared about what we want in our systems and have designed a system to cater to our needs, and to grow with their vision of what the market will be several years from now.
There was a lot of great stuff so if I were talking right now I would be excited kid in Stand By Me gasping for air and trying to get a word in edgewise on myself.
Gears has had so much hype that I will just say that the guy running the game room was outstanding and that it lives up to its rep; so all of you who have been worried, don’t you will be completely stoked on this game…maybe not in the ways you imagined but it will surprise you and eventually take over your life…leaving you jobless. In other words, you will want this game.
COD3 while overshadowed by other games and getting dinged a little, here and there, is something that will get a lot of attention as well and will definitely grow on you. Team work is a must in this game for online play, and the updated weapons and vehicles bring even more life to an already outstanding WWII experience.
There are the things we know about like the HD Video Market place, which literally made me want to find a corner and hold myself. There were the games, Gears and COD3 which will both earn your hard earned appreciation.
The HDDVD drive: I stared at it like a work of art for about 15 minutes before I even deigned to touch it. That little guy stood out like a work of modern art, until he almost seemed to tower over his big brother the 360. Now it is strange that this unit is launching simultaneously with the available content on the market place.
When the 360 first hit the market without an HD drive I had almost hoped that the Xbox team was going straight to streamable and downloadable content. But this device made me realize a few things that hadn’t sunk in before. This box will continue to grow with the imagination and vision of its creators. It is not a static device and it will become more and more a central component in our home entertainment system as time progresses.
One feature that instantly got my attention was the versatility of the DVD menu. Simply put it is awesome. No more stopping the movie, everything is now configurable on the fly. The menu pops out like a transparent blade and allows you to make changes while the movie is running. The “U-Turn” feature alone made me want one of these right now-- a pip display that takes the commentary special feature to a new level, with a PIP display that often gives a cinematic pan to the action outside of the scene being filmed.
So that is a quick synopsis on a few of the main highlights of the evening. However, I saved what I considered the most important aspect of the evening for last: XNA. I sat down in a back room adjacent to the Gears area and struck up a conversation with a gentleman regarding XNA. We checked out a few games which ranged from simple little puzzles to racing games with a surprisingly clean yet unique look.
Well, it turned out that the person I was speaking with was Chris Satchell the General Manager of XNA development; while conversing with him it begun to dawn on me how far reaching the ramifications of this product truly were. Here is the largest computer company in the world giving a truly awesome tool to its community and saying: “Here, have fun; be as creative as you want to be. We want to see you make what you want so that you can play what you want; let’s roll back the clock a little to when we were kids and when a good idea could be the Killer AP.”
For whatever reason, this struck me as a phenomenal idea. I was blown away by how much he truly cared about gaming, and the gaming community. Here was the manager of this product’s development taking the time to speak with me, not representing a huge website, just another gameaholic member of the Xbox community on my terms. Thank you!
For what ever reason my imagination ran with this concept and was struck with the idea that this framework could have longer lasting ramifications on the development of our console than any other announcement of the evening. I sort of had a nostalgic and melodramatic snapshot of the movie “Rock Star” flash through my head. That moment when “the nobody” blows away the band of his dreams with the power of his passionate voice.
There may be some stars that rise from XNA who would not have otherwise made it past the horizon, and who could very well change to topography of the gaming landscape.
So, that’s that. What an outstanding evening. I can’t thank Microsoft, Tony Hynes, and Vidguy, of Edelman, enough for allowing me to be the eyes and ears of the PGL community at this event.
We are just getting started here people and I assure you the central theme of our community is taking care of all of you. So the more we grow the closer we get to making things really happen here. Thank you to all of you for making this community such a special place that we can make things like this happen!! Peench, I am still pissed that you got to play Gears before I did, but thanks Mang!
)
I know my long-needed rest will pay off for me when I finally get my copy! Fortunately, I have tomorrow off to play alllllllllllll day and night! w00t!!!!
Looks like Rhino had fun and I'm always happy to spread the fun around!
