7 posts tagged “xbox 360”
This is pretty significant. M.I.A.'s single, "Paper Planes", has reached #5 in Billboard's Hot 100 chart, which takes into account sales, radio airplay, downloads, etc., of singles. The song has been steadily rising (due to the "Pineapple Express" trailer, among many other reasons), but what is amazing is that the album, "Kala", which the song is on has been out for almost a year.
"Kala" has re-entered the Billboard Top 200 albums chart, which is even more impressive in my opinion. I am glad people are buying the album, too. "Paper Planes" is a great song, but people should listen to "Bamboo Banga" and "20 Dollar", too.
If you want to continue the rise of the album and the song, you can buy Kala at the following links ...
Buy Kala on Amazon's MP3 Downloads site (very easy, better quality and cheaper than iTunes)
Buy Kala on iTunes
Buy Paper Planes on Amazon's MP3 Downloads site
Buy Bamboo Banga on Amazon's MP3 Downloads site
Buy 20 Dollar on Amazon's MP3 Downloads site
Here are the three songs, again, if you want to listen to them ...
Here is the playlist (it is short right now, and I am only including games that I actually played ... I only solved a handful of them) ...
Here is another playlist I am going to be working on to provide an easy way to see all of M.I.A.'s videos ...
Another item I have been reading about is Yahoo!'s new "Fire Eagle" (Firefox's cousin?), which allows advertisers to know where you are. It kind of reminds me of the advertising in "Minority Report" ...
It sounds a little scary and Big Brother-ish, but I think something really cool will come out of it, and I think Google will take it and make it into something a lot better. I just want to be able to play with it on my Blackberry Pearl 8110. ;)
This morning I woke up from a long night of partying (it was a friend's birthday), and all I could think about was that I wanted to hear "Voices" from Madonna's album, Hard Candy. Justin Timberlake sings a little on the song, too. It's the last song on the album, and I used to skip over it, but I really like it now. Here it is ...
In other news, there is an updated version of my favorite video game ever, Final Fantasy IV, on the Nintendo DS. Now, I will not buy this because I do not have the Nintendo DS, and I think some of the graphics look downright awful (because they are designed for the Nintendo DS and not a more powerful system like the XBOX 360, PS3, or Wii). However, the little movie parts of the game do look cool, and it is very interesting to see the old characters of Cecil, Rosa, Rydia, Kain, etc., turned into 3-D computer animation. It's interesting to hear the music updated, too. Final Fantasy IV was actually Final Fantasy II in the U.S. Here is the trailer from www.gametrailers.com ...
I don't have a PS3, so I will not be able to play the new Final Fantasy game (part 13, I think), whenever it comes out, but I will be able to play the new Resident Evil 5 game (which is called Biohazard 5 in Japan) on the XBOX 360. I can't wait for it. I read about the Resident Evil franchise on Wikipedia, and it said that some people believe the franchise was based on a survival horror game for the original NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) called Sweet Home (I don't think is proven, thouhg). I missed out on all of the Resident Evil games growing up because I never had a Playstation or Nintendo Game Cube. I had an NES (the first Nintendo system), a Super Nintendo, and then I went straight to the PC and Playstation 2. You can download a lot of video game system emulators, though, especially the original NES, and play the old games on your PC. I tried playing a little of Sweet Home. It was very much like playing an old Final Fantasy game (well, it was like playing part 1 I guess ... not as good as part II, which was part IV in Japan ... ok, this is getting confusing).
Here is the old NES game, Sweet Home (English version) ...
I love the cheesy, creepy music.
Here is the Japanese movie, Sweet Home (I think it is "Suito Homu" in Japanese), that actually went with the game (they were released together) ...
Here is the trailer for Final Fantasy XIII or 13 ...
Here is the latest trailer for Resident Evil 5 ...
OK, that's enough nerding out for right now. ;)
If there is anyone out there who likes to chat on XBOX Live or knows some cool multiplayer game to play (that maybe I can just download on XBOX Live), let me know. I am markaus77 on XBOX Live, and I don't know that much about it. I will be playing GTA 4 for the next couple of months or however long it takes me to complete all the missions. I know there are some multiplayer games you can play within GTA 4, though.
I just figured out how to send pictures, music, and video from my PC to the XBOX 360 to my TV using a wireless router, and I think it is awesome. I don't have that much of a need for it, but the technology is still cool.
Now, if you could watch the "Watch Instantly" Netflix movies on your regular TV using the XBOX 360 and a wireless connection ... well, that would just be awesome!
I bought Grand Theft Auto 4 for the XBOX 360 at Best Buy last night. I also bought Madonna's new album, Hard Candy; the new Portishead album, "Third"; and the debut Santo Gold album, which was surprisingly on display right out in front at the store. That's pretty cool for such a mainstream place as Best Buy (the way the Santo Gold album was displayed, I mean). I will blog about all of that later.
When you begin playing GTA 4, you hear a very catchy song that is in Russian or German or both, I can't tell. I don't speak either of those languages. I know eins, zwei, drei is German for one, two, three (thanks to songs by Atari Teenage Riot about burning Berlin or something like that).
The song is "Schweine" (Pigs) by Glukoza aka Natalia Ilinichna Ionova. The song is from a 2005 album called Moskva (Moscow).
Here is the catchy song ...
You can download the song here (this link was updated on 5-13-2008). Here are some badly translated English lyrics from her official site.
You can watch the music video of the song on YouTube ...
So far the game is a lot of fun. GTA: San Andreas was the most fun I had ever had on the PS2 (until other games like Resident Evil 4 and Final Fantasy XII came along ... but those games aren't as humorous as GTA) so GTA 4 has come along at a good time for me for the XBOX 360 since I am done with Lost Odyssey, which was a really great game.
EDIT ... This song reminds me of the song, "New Looks", by Dr. John that was featured in the scene of National Lampoon's European Vacation (Chevy Chase and Bevery D'Angelo) where the whole family is trying on dated clothing in Rome. It's a great cheesy fashion montage scene that movies from the 80s were full of. I should have the video soon.
EDIT (again) ... OK, here is the video ...
Aqui esta musica latina para las orejas. Ha, I am not going to try to type en espanol. I will just butcher it. Anyway, here are three songs by Jorge Moreno from his self-titled album way back in 2001. I decided to take the CD with me on my way to work this morning. I am not very good at discovering music (although, there is a lot of new music I like), but I am great at drudging up music from the past. I bought this CD way back when I would go into music stores and listen to entire albums on the headphones provided to you at one of those listening stations. We used to have a Tower Records in Austin, where you could do just that. The only place you can do it now is probably Borders, Barnes & Noble, and Waterloo Records. However, Tower was definitely my favorite record store to go to.
It is funny how parts of a song can be so strong, but the rest of the song is kind of weak. For example, my favorite song from Jorge Moreno's album is "Si Yo Fuera" because it starts off like an old James Bond song (I am probably thinking of "Goldfinger" by Shirley Bassey), and it stays strong for a while, but then it gets repetitive. I still really like it, though.
Jorge Moreno - Si Yo Fuera
The first song on the album, "Reloj", is pretty good, but I think my favorite part is the ending that provides the segue into "Despertare". I wish artists would realize that the subtle parts of their songs are sometimes the best part, and they should incorporate more of that element into their music.
Jorge Moreno - Reloj
Jorge Moreno - Despertare
In other news, "Lost Odyssey", the game I am completely addicted to right now, got a good review from CNN here. The game is everything I have been waiting for since it is like the Final Fantasy series and has wonderful graphics and music. It makes buying an XBOX 360 totally worth it.
I have been listening to The Cranberries' album, "Bury The Hatchet", a lot lately. I first heard the song, "Promises", while staying at a Hampton or La Quinta in Costa Rica (Santa Ana or San Jose, I can't remember which, but they are right next to each other). I had gone to Costa Rica to learn more Spanish, and I was supposed to be there for four weeks, but I only lasted one week since I got so homesick. I had never traveled to another country before, and I also never traveled by myself before so the experience was really new for me. I was also dating a really cool guy back in Austin so it was weird to just up and leave everything behind. Costa Rica was really cool, and I got to go horseback riding, which I love more than anything so I really regret that I left so quickly. The night I was staying in the hotel was my last night before I went back to Texas, and I just felt like a complete failure for leaving early. I also kind of knew that the relationship with the guy in Austin was not going to last for many reasons. The song, "Promises", came on the MTV channel that they show in Costa Rica. The song seemed to sum up everything I was feeling, and I can still listen to the song today and think of every regret I felt at that time. Ugh! Anyway, here is the song ...
The Cranberries - Promises
The Cranberries - Animal Instinct
My final piece of blogging is a question I have asked other places on the internet, but I never get an answer ... Who is this woman in the "Yes, we can" music video? ,,,
She kind of sings the "Ohhh" part of the song. You can watch the video here if you need to.
I was watching videos about video games on GameTrailers.com today, and I realized that there is already a Final Fantasy XIII (13), and that it is only going to be available on Playstation 3 (PS3). That is really, really sad since I bought an XBOX 360 (however, deep down I knew this would happen).
Well, GameTrailers.com had many videos that are part of a Final Fantasy retrospective. I watched some of them, especially the one about Final Fantasy II (which was part 4 in Japan), and I now know that the the genius creator of Final Fantasy, Hironobu Sakaguchi, has made a game for the XBOX 360 called "Lost Odyssey". The composer behind the best game soundtrack ever, Nobuo Uematsu (who composed the Final Fantasy II score) composed the music for Lost Odyssey, too. Another person who helped create Lost Odyssey is Hideo Minaba, who has worked a lot on the Final Fantasy games, too. Sakaguchi, Uematsu, and Minaba are all part of the company, Mistwalker, which works with Microsoft. They were part of the company, SQUARE (which is now Square Enix), which put out all of the Final Fantasy games.
I've watched a trailer for Lost Odyssey, and it looks really good. It definitely has aspects of Final Fantasy in it. I wonder if it will be better than Final Fantasy XIII. It's kind of weird how PS3 has FFXIII and XBOX 360 has Lost Odyssey. It seems like the two games are symbolic of the competition between the two consoles.
It's very stupid for games to be exclusive to one console. I am sure FFXIII will be on XBOX 360 one day, and I bet Lost Odyssey will be on PS3 one day. For the meantime I will buy Lost Odyssey, though, which comes out on 2-12-08. I don't know when FFXIII will come out, but I am sure it will be in 2008.
Here is a preview of Lost Odyssey on YouTube, but you should go to video websites like GamerTrailers.com or IGN if you want to see good quality trailers of games. The official page for the video game usually has good videos, too.
Trailer for Final Fantasy XIII
In other news there is a Highlander game for the XBOX 360. I was worried about not really liking the XBOX 360, but I just haven't found the right game, yet. If there is going to be a Highlander game and this "Lost Odyssey" game, then I am going to be doing pretty well. There will be a Resident Evil 5 game for the XBOX 360 one day, too. However, I think there is going to be some controversy around the release of that game.
Here is an article about Resident Evil 5 and racism. The point that you were killing Spanish people in Resident Evil 4 and no one cared is a valid point; but I can understand why people are worried about Resident Evil 5, too. It's a white man who runs around killing Africans (of course, they have become the "undead" so they are not really human anymore). The graphics look amazing, but the game may never be released if it is deemed too controversial, and I can understand the controversy. It will be interesting to see what happens with this game.
Well, I have some money from Christmas now to buy a video game system. I want to either get an XBOX 360 or a PS3. I have no idea which one to get, but if I had to choose right now, I would get an XBOX 360 because of the game, Bioshock, which came out a while back. I actually posted 2 videos of a walk-through of this game a while back on YouTube, and the videos got tons of views and comments because everyone thought the game looked really cool. The videos were from someone who works for the IGN website, I think. My account got suspended at YouTube, though, so I don't have the videos up on YouTube anymore (I have a new YouTube account now).
Bioshock is not available on the PS3. It is available for the PC, but my video card is not good, and it can't be switched out because my DELL is not set up for that (Damn!). Here is a video of Bioshock ...
Another game I would like to play is Halo 3 since it got so much buzz this year, and TIME magazine called it the game of the year in their recent Top 10 issue. They also included Bioshock in that list.
Oblivion, the Elder Scrolls IV (I think that is the right name), is another game that would probably be pretty cool on the XBOX 360. I think it is available for PS3, too, though.
Assassin's Creed (update: this game is on XBOX 360, too, so that is great!) is a game on the PS3 that looks really great, but it is probably the only game for the PS3 that looks good to me. There is an older game called Darkness that is on the PS3, but it is available on the XBOX, too.
A lot of people say "Oh, you have to get the PS3 because it comes with Blu-ray", which they seem to think is the future of DVD. However, I like to watch just regular DVDs. I don't think I am even going to notice a difference between normal DVD and Blu-ray DVD on my TVs. I don't have any large, flat-screen TVs. I have the older kind, but the picture still looks really good. That will be a purchase that I make much later in the year or even next year (I mean 2009 since I already feel like we are in 2008). I think the flat-screen TVs are still way too expensive.
The XBOX 360 has HD DVD, which is the DVD format that will compete with Blu-ray. A lot of people I talk to seem to think that Blu-ray will win out in the end, but I don't know how they know this. There may not be a winner, but there probably will be. VHS won out over Betamax a long time ago so there probably isn't room for HD DVD and Blu-ray.
All this thinking about video game systems and what games they offer made me think of my favorite video games of all time. Here are some of my favorite games ...
Final Fantasy II (I think this was part 4 in Japan)
Final Fantasy II in the U.S. was an amazing role-playing game that came out with the SNES (Super Nintendo). There was a commercial for it in the early 90s where a kid played it throughout all four seasons of the year, never leaving his room. That is an accurate description because I played it for hours and hours, which you must do with any Final Fantasy game to increase in level. The wonderful thing about the Final Fantasy games has always been the ability to get stronger by fighting more monsters. You also get more money to buy better weapons in the shops, and you can get secret items that are dropped by your enemies after a long time of fighting. You can learn new spells and abilites to use on your enemies, and you usually travel through lush landscapes full of mountains, caves, castles, etc.
Another wonderful thing about the Final Fantasy games is the music. My favorite music of Final Fantasy II is the one played by Edward on his harp (I guess it is actually called a "lute") when he is playing a song for his recently deceased love, Anna. There is actually a video of someone playing this song on the piano on YouTube. People are so devoted to these games. It's funny.
Here is a good scene from Final Fantasy II that shows the simple graphics the early 90s offered ...
Another game I liked on SNES was Soul Blazer. For some reason I really love games where you help rebuild cities. Act Raiser (which I just learned was made by the same company) is another example of this kind of game, but Soul Blazer had much better graphics. Here is a video of Soul Blazer ...
Zelda was another great game on SNES, but I am not going to post that here because everyone knows about the Zelda games. Well, here is a link if you need it.
I tried to play games on the PC (I didn't have a PC until 1995, I think, and it was my parents', not mine) like Sim City 2000. They did not always run as smoothly as console games, though. Here is Sim City 2000 ...
Sim City 3000 was better, and I had a better PC to run it on ...
I always turned disasters off in my Sim City games. I didn't want to have to deal with them.
I waited a long time before getting a PS2. It was a good thing because the price dropped down a lot (I wish I could wait now, but I am not that patient). One of the first games I got for the PS2 was Final Fantasy X. I hated it at first for some reason and did not want to play it. However, about a year ago, after talking with a co-worker about it, I started playing it again and realized it was just as great as that old Final Fantasy game that I had played more than a decade earlier. Here is Final Fantasy X on PS2 ...
Enter the Matrix was another game I bought right away when I got the PS2. I loved the Matrix movies, and the ability to do slow motion in the game was the coolest thing ever! Here is a clip of it ...
Another great game for the PS2 is Siren (sometimes called "Forbidden Siren"). As weird as it may sound, I just can't get enough of the post-apocalyptic zombie type games, such as the Resident Evil franchise. The amazing thing about Siren is that you can tap into the perspective of the zombies (you can see through their eyes so that you know if they can see you or not). Siren is an example of a "stealth" game, which I am not good at. In stealth games you do not always have a weapon or spell handy, and there is no way to increase your health if you get attacked. Here is a very low-quality video that I took with my cell phone a long time ago of a scene from Siren (I had this video on my old YouTube account. I decided to upload it to my current YouTube account).
I later got one of the best games ever for the PS2, God of War. The graphics of this game were great, and the theme of Greek mythology was pretty cool, too. Here is a sort of tribute video to the game ...
I received Resident Evil 4 (PS2) and Sim City 4 (PC) for Christmas of 2005 (I think that is right. If not, then it was Christmas of 2006). Sim City 4 is not bad, but Resident Evil 4 became my favorite game ever. It was like being in the middle of a great horror movie. I love the first two Resident Evil movies, too (the third one is in my Netflix queue).
Here is a clip of Resident Evil 4 ...
Final Fantasy XII and God of War 2 are the most recent games that came out on the PS2 that I purchased.
Final Fantasy XII
God of War 2
So that is a summary that shows all of the games I have really enjoyed. Now, I just have to decide between the XBOX and the PS3. I am worried that a new Final Fantasy or a new God of War is going to come out on PS3, and I will have the XBOX 360. However, I don't want to get the PS3 right now because there are games on the XBOX 360 that I want to play. Any advice from gamers out there?
The other dilemma is that I need a new PC with a much better video card if I am ever going to be able to play a game like Sim City: Societies ...
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