Music format support on Nintendo DSi
Today I bought a new microSD card for my phone. My son also wanted a SD card for his Nintendo DSi. He wanted to use it to put music on for playback. So I figured that I would give him the 2GB card that was I was using in my phone.
When I copied some mp3 files to an SD card, and they were not playable. It looks like the Nintendo DSi only plays AAC files. On their web page they link to the Nero software where they sell it for $6. You can do the same thing for free with iTunes.
Project Natal on Late Night
Here is a pretty cool video Jimmy Fallen playing with the Project Natal demo
[via Joystiq]
Xbox 360 video games on demand
This post talks about the Video Games downloads that Microsoft announced at this past E3. With what they are planning, any one who has an Xbox 360 connected to the network, can download full games directly to the console’s hard drive.
I think that this is great, especially if you can save money over buying a game on disc.
Project Natal
I think that the Project Natal demonstrations show some pretty cool technology. I think that, if this actually ships, this will easily give the Xbox 360 an easy way into the casual gaming market, and could be a serious competitor to the Nintendo Wii.
Project Natal, use a camera/microphone device to allow you to interact with the Xbox interface. Facial and voice recognition allows a deeper interaction than the Nintendo Wii implements.
Below, I have embedded several videos of Project Natal. I hope that when it actually ships it does just half as much as is shown in these videos.
raptr
In this post, I mentioned Twee60.com. One problem with Twee60.com is that it only does a rudimentary amount of filtering. (It only filters duplicates.) For games that change the Xbox Live status often, this will still cause a lot of Tweets to be created.
raptr is a site that does a better job at broadcasting Xbox Live status on Twitter. Instead of posting a status every n minutes, raptr will post a message, like “paul just started playing %s”, when starting to play a game. In addition to sending statuses when playing games, it will also send messages when you get achievements. Raptr also supports gaming systems other than Xbox Live.
Here is my profile on Raptr:
Twee60.com
There are a lot of services that integrate with Twitter. Twee60.com posts messages to your twitter account with your status on Xbox Live. This includes the title of the game that you are playing, and the information of where you are in that game, if it is available.
Goozex
I have been trying to figure out what to do with my Xbox 360 games after I finished them. I have been selling games back to GameStop, but the amount of money that you get is pretty low. My friends recommended that I try Goozex.
Goozex is a site that you can trade your games for points, and you can use those points to get other used games. Goozex sets the point value for the games. You can list your games, and then when your offer gets to the top of the list, you print out a label and send the game directly to the person who requested it. When they receive it, they acknowledge it, and you get credited for the trade.
The main benefit of Goozex over GameStop or Amazon Video Game Trade
Lips
A few weeks ago, I picked up a copy of Lips. Lips is a karaoke party video game. The game play is pretty simiar to the rythm based music games, but instead of pushing buttons in time with an onscreen display, you have to sing along with the song. Using the included microphones the game detects your pitch and compares it to what it thinks is appropriate for the song.
They put a lot of nice touches on the microphones. There are embedded LEDs that pulse and change colors with the music. Also, there is an embedded accellerometer in the mic, and you can impove your score in the game by moving around. In a party situation, other people who are not singing, can use the controllers to play backup instruments.
I am not a singer, my wife is, but this can be a fun game, especially in a party situation.
I do have some problems with the game. The main problem that I have is that it appears that this game was ported to the Xbox 360, but doesn’t correctly implement some of the main features.
- Achievements – Most games that allow multiple to play on a single Xbox 360 use the Xbox user that is associated with a controller to determine who gets Xbox Achievements. So normally, if I and my wife are logged in, I will get achievements for the accomplisments that I do, and she will get them for hers. But in Lips, only the person who launched the game gets the achievements, even if they were earned by the other player.
- Downloadable Content – Most games that have downloadable content will use that content, if one Xbox account has downloaded it (The DRM that the Xbox 360 uses makes content available to every user on the first Xbox that downloaded it and the user who authorized the download on any Xbox. But not Lips.
In Lips only the user who downloaded the content can use it to sing. So if a different user launches Lips, that content is not available.
Update: This problem has been discussed the Lips Xbox forums. You need to launch Lips as each user that wants to access the DLC. Then you need to select the content that you want to add to your library.
Ragtime Call of Duty
This is pretty funny. The developers of Call of Duty 4 added a cheat mode that lets you play the game like it were a ragtime movie.
[via Wired]
The future of Halo
This is pretty funny:
