Dawn of a New Era 2010-12-12T23:04:42-06:00 Cabal http://www.cabal17.com/index.php william@cabal17.com tag:cabal17,2010:Cabal17 Pivot Copyright (c) 2010, Authors of Cabal17 2010-11-19T15:21:00-06:00 2010-11-19T15:21:00-06:00 tag:cabal17,2010:Cabal17.38

Originally I was going to write about the war of the motion controllers, but I’ve become so frustrated at the Kinect, I would just focus on it. For those who don’t know the Kinect is Microsoft’s answer to the Wii for the Xbox 360. It’s a fancy two camera system with a microphone that allows you to play without using a controller. It works surprisingly well, but is currently lacking in a compelling library of games that use it.

What frustrates me about the Kinect though, is not its gaming capability. At the last two E3s, Microsoft touted its voice commands and Minority Report-like motion controls for controlling the dashboard and multimedia feature of the Xbox. Unfortunately these are rather limited; you have to launch a limited dashboard to use them that is lacking many of the features of the full dash. I can understand this for the motion controls, but not for the voice commands. Oh, and to get this menu you can use a voice command or wave…
Once in the menu, you can many of the features you would need or want on a regular basis; what is missing are the system options, the marketplace, and most annoyingly the media center and other streaming options.

So the hyped multimedia controls can’t be used if you are streaming music on videos from a computer on the network. Ok, well I guess I can just watch videos from the Zune marketplace using the new commands. Well, actually, not really. The Zune library’s Kinect interface is a complete mess, it’s near impossible to find anything. For example, I was going to watch the Guild, but since it isn’t classified as either a TV show or a movie, I never could find any of the episodes other than the recently downloaded ones that showed up on the start page.

The other major problem is sometimes you’ll select something and suddenly you have to use a controller to navigate a menu or select something in a menu box, which really makes me wonder how much testing they actually did with this interface to make sure it was intuitive. Thankfully, Microsoft has been good about radically changing the 360’s dashboard to make things (arguably) easier to navigate, so hopefully the Kinect Hub will get an overhaul in the near future. ]]> tehadmin 2010-10-03T16:24:00-06:00 2010-10-03T16:24:00-06:00 tag:cabal17,2010:Cabal17.37

Its been awhile since I've posted a new entry here, although I have been more active on Twitter. Since micro-blogging is usually enough for what I have to say here, and now link has completely replaced the old Current Zeitgeist posts, I'm planning on doing a complete redesign on this place. The site will be less focused on being a place for my few rants and will be centered on whatever projects I may or may not be working on and centralizing links to all the various networks I am on.

Twitter. Since micro-blogging is usually enough for what I have to say here, and now link has completely replaced the old Current Zeitgeist posts, I'm planning on doing a complete redesign on this place. The site will be less focused on being a place for my few rants and will be centered on whatever projects I may or may not be working on and centralizing links to all the various networks I am on. ]]> tehadmin 2010-06-09T10:00:00-06:00 2010-06-09T10:00:00-06:00 tag:cabal17,2010:Cabal17.36

Currently Listening to: Sybreed's Antares, How to Destroy Angels Currently Watching: The Wire Currently Playing: Red Dead Redemption Currently Reading: Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy

Currently Listening to:
Sybreed's Antares,
How to Destroy Angels
Currently Watching:
The Wire
Currently Playing:
Red Dead Redemption
Currently Reading:
Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy ]]> tehadmin 2010-06-09T10:14:00-06:00 2010-06-09T09:54:00-06:00 tag:cabal17,2010:Cabal17.35

So a new report indicates that violent video games only affect some people, and guess what its those that already aren't well adjusted. Big surprise. For the most part video games just reinforce already existing behavior. You can read my rambling on the topic after the break.

report indicates that violent video games only affect some people, and guess what its those that already aren't well adjusted. Big surprise. For the most part video games just reinforce already existing behavior. You can read my rambling on the topic after the break.

And guess what? Some people can actually feel bad about killing virtual people too. For example, I'm playing Red Dead Redemption at the moment, and I'm playing it as a white hat. And I often feel bad about all the random criminals I gun down, I wish there was a system to turn them over to the sheriff. Of course this is also a matter of being able to separate fiction from reality. In other game when I'm not trying to be engrossed in the world, I realize that everything is just code and it doesn't bother me what happens to everything. Its just like movies, good movies make you care about the characters, other ones not so much. And these people that become violent from violent video games will become just as violent from violent movies, music, books, or whatever.

UPDATE: I just found this article that pretty much proves my point. ]]> tehadmin 2010-06-06T14:33:00-06:00 2010-06-06T14:30:00-06:00 tag:cabal17,2010:Cabal17.34

Recently, a bunch of DVDs of old anime OVAs from the 80’s and early 90’s have shown up at my local Hastings, many of which have been out of print for awhile. Some of these are shows I watched growing up and were part of the cause of my decent into being an anime fan, but some of them I’ve seen before. The first of these is an OVA from 1991, Burn Up!, which I just watched last night for the first time.

The first of these is an OVA from 1991, Burn Up!, which I just watched last night for the first time.The plot is overly cliché, three female cops go undercover to find out about a human traffic ring that captures young girls to sell to those of the wealthy elite without morals, and of course the youngest/girliest gets captured and the other two go to rescue her despite orders otherwise. The whole thing is rather generic, the cliché plot, no character real development, and no sort of message to the thing; but it has a certain charm. The show seems to know how generic it is, but it doesn’t take itself seriously, giving it a kind of fun energy you wouldn’t expect given its plot. The art has that nice liveliness that a lot of the pre-digipaint anime has; the characters show emotion far better than most modern shows that seem to have three or so static expressions for most of their characters. It’s also a fanservice show, but its feels more tasteful than most modern fanservice. Overall the show is incredibly stupid, but very fun. I just wonder if the follow ups have the same level of charm as the original, probably not. ]]> tehadmin 2010-04-03T21:23:00-06:00 2010-04-03T21:22:00-06:00 tag:cabal17,2010:Cabal17.32

Yes! One of the best OPs of all time to remain intact on the US release.

Yes! One of the best OPs of all time to remain intact on the US release. ]]> tehadmin 2010-06-09T10:00:00-06:00 2010-03-23T16:46:00-06:00 tag:cabal17,2010:Cabal17.30

Currently Listening to: Wumpscut's Wreath of Barbs Currently Watching: Dexter, Zeta Gundam Currently Playing: Final Fantasy XIII, God of War III Currently Reading: Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy

Currently Listening to:
Wumpscut's Wreath of Barbs
Currently Watching:
Dexter, Zeta Gundam
Currently Playing:
Final Fantasy XIII, God of War III
Currently Reading:
Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy ]]> tehadmin 2010-02-12T22:37:00-06:00 2010-02-12T22:37:00-06:00 tag:cabal17,2010:Cabal17.28

Download them now.

Download them now. ]]> tehadmin 2010-01-07T15:06:00-06:00 2010-01-07T15:06:00-06:00 tag:cabal17,2010:Cabal17.27

Currently Listening to: Rammstein's Liebe Ist Für Alle Da, Infected Mushroom's Legend Of The Black Shawarma Currently Watching: Doctor Who Currently Playing: Team Fortress 2, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Currently Reading: Andrzej Sapkowski's The Last Wish

Currently Listening to:
Rammstein's Liebe Ist Für Alle Da, Infected Mushroom's Legend Of The Black Shawarma
Currently Watching:
Doctor Who
Currently Playing:
Team Fortress 2, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Currently Reading:
Andrzej Sapkowski's The Last Wish ]]> tehadmin 2009-11-20T14:23:00-06:00 2009-11-20T14:22:00-06:00 tag:cabal17,2010:Cabal17.25

Alien Vs Predator for PC will support dedicated servers after all.

Alien Vs Predator for PC will support dedicated servers after all. ]]> tehadmin