I Wonder if I Did This as a Baby, Too ...

... because I still do it now.  (Thanks, Kotaku)

Blame Bieber, Bleszinski! Gears of War 3 "Announced"

I missed it, and probably most of the Live community did, too (because it's been pulled), but a dashboard ad this morning claimed that Gears of War 3 has been announced and will be released in April of next year.  Not all that unusual, right?

Wrong.

Haha, oh man, the Dashboard Ad Guy over at Xbox Live must have been streaming some Netflix instead of watching Late Night with Jimmy Fallon because developer Epic's main mouthpiece Cliffy B (Cliff Bleszinski) was scheduled to be on last night with a huge game announcement.  Epic's claim to fame is it's Gears of War series and though Bleszinski never said what this new announcement was going to be, Gears of War 3 info would not be a bad guess.

Unfortunately, tweens continue to rule these last few years and pop star Justin Bieber was brought on instead last night, bumping Cliffy out of his guest appearance and moving him to Monday night.

Then this happened early this morning:

Whoops.

Apparently it's been pulled, but someone's always watching the dashboard it seems and this is all over the gaming world.  I feel bad for Bleszinski.  If they haven't taped his appearance yet, I hope he makes some reference to his thunder being stolen.  I think Fallon is pretty good at making recent pop-culture references, as well as being an unashamed gamer.

I might have to watch Monday night.

(Found via Joystiq)

"Look at him. He's so cute ..."

"... and plushy." - King Julian, Madagascar

This is hilarious!  Now when I get angry, I can throw this little thing around instead of be tempted to smash my real one!

Your Xbox 360 Now Loves USB Memory

As of today, Xbox 360 consoles are now able to sync with any USB memory unit, up to two units total, and units that have a maximum of 16GB.  Major Nelson of Xbox Live fame has a blog post heralding this technological advancement, as well as a link to a FAQ page if you have any questions that have been frequently asked.

I think this is a great option for those of us who can't afford to pony up for a higher memory capacity hard drive and who are having to delete cool video game trailers and teasers to make room for new demos.

Time to take stock in Sandisk Cruzer USB flash drives!

UPDATE April 7th:  IGN took a test drive for us and played around with the process of using one; apparently there are good and not so good (but not detrimental it seems) goings on so you might want to check out the article before diving headfirst into Flash Land.

Can't Afford a New 360 Hard Drive? Try a USB Memory Stick ...

First, I'm back!  I've just been consumed with the beautiful Final Fantasy XIII (and work), and really haven't had the energy to post.  But it's time for me to buck up.

Now, onto the news, and what cool news it is!

Via two articles by Joystiq and Kotaku, it looks like one of the next system updates will allow the usage of USB storage devices (that have a maximum storage of 16GB)!  512MB will be used to "recognize" the storage unit, but the remainder on the device sounds like it's fair game!

This is fantastic news since I've had to delete some demos and content I didn't want to because my hard drive is steadily dwindled away!  According to the Joystiq article "Xbox Live Arcade games, Xbox Live Indie games, Games on Demand, DLC and Title Updates" are transferrable ... but I don't know why you'd want to move/save a TU to one ...

One drawback, however, is that one console can only recognize two memory sticks at a time, so we can't keep buying Sandisk after Sandisk stick when we need it.  But still ... 32GB of extra space?  That's more than my hard drive came with, so that's incredible news to me!

Natal Prototype Is Like Number 5's Third Cousin Twice Removed

Joystiq got a hold of a pic from a Seattle Times article revealing the Natal prototype Microsoft is sending out to its makers.  Also of note is that the manufactuer, Taiwanese company Pegatron Technology, is producing both the newest iPhones and Natal systems.

Humor ensues about accidentally switching or merging the two technologies, but what caught my fancy was the company's name:  Pegatron.  Is that like a Predalien version of Pegasus and Voltron (who already is a bunch of animals)?

NES stands for "Nicely Edible Sweets"

Cake Wrecks is one of my favorite sites.  Today was posted a very gamer friendly series of wedding cakes in an homage to classic NES and old school video game culture.  Enjoy here.

A side note.  Now, I loved my wedding, and despite it not being perfect, I wouldn't change a thing ... except maybe one.  Here's what I would have done for my groom's cake now that I know it can be done well:

Xbox 360 cake
Xbox original cake

One Caveat

I unflinchingly call myself a gamer because in my life I've owned or played a myriad of systems from Intellivision and Atari, to Sega CD and 32X, to the legendary PS2 and most everything in between and after (sadly, my thumbs were never graced with the TurboGrafx-16).  However, I am a major Xbox 360 fanboy and that is the only system I own and will own until my wife and I win the lottery and can afford another console.  It'd be incredible to own a PS3 someday, but if I don't, I won't die because of not having one.

I'll give a diatribe about owning a Wii another time ...

So most anything I talk about will be Xbox 360 related, hence my blog title ... see?  It's playing off biblical writing ... and I play 360 ... get it?  GET IT?!?  :)