5 posts from September 2007

We hate you, Microsoft. You have broken our xbox.

I am not special. I have no connections. But my copy of Halo 3 which was supposed to arrive today arrived three whole days before public release and I had some extra time to play through it this weekend. I felt a strong and unnatural drive to finish the single player campaign (mostly because the multi servers aren't up yet) as soon as possible and I will give you the quick-and-dirty. You, naturally, have already decided to purchase this game and I salute you. A solid choice.

Without further ado, it was amazing.

I'll get my only significant complaint out of the way early: it was short. I couldn't possibly have played for more than 10 hours. And I died about a million and a half times in chapter 9 which means that it must be more like 8 or 9 hours for a really good player on normal. Strangely, my frustration with dying so close to the end of the game wasn't too strong and my controller-throw-count was a mind-blowing zero. Now that Halo Day(tm) is in t-minus hours instead of days, the multiplayer servers are probably warming up and there'll be plenty more hours of playtime. Apparently the skulls aren't in the game the first time you play each mission so don't bother, you'll have to go back anyway. If you're looking for even more hours, campaign score mode (co-op, but with running score for each player!) sounds awesome but I haven't even looked in to turning it on yet.

Killing your first scarab is pretty freaking amazing in Halo 3. In fact, most of the things you've done before in halo are pretty freaking amazing when you do them again in 3. You will marvel at how everything looks again and again and then you will remark about how the prophet, 1080p and all, still looks like a wrinkled piece of plastic fruit. Now, the awesomeness list:

• Spiker (awesome)
• Mongoose + dude with rocket launcher (better-than-warthog awesome)
  
• Customizable Armor on multiplayer (4w3S0m3!!!1)
• Bubble shield (protection awesome)
• Spike-grenade tagging (gibs-and-bits awesome)
• New environments (shadowy-sunlight awesome)
• No multiplayer before the release date (LAAAAAME)
  
• Letting the arbiter do your killing for you (priceless)

It is possible that we will be playing in the office this afternoon. Please keep an eye out.

In the spring of 5th grade my class went on a week-long trip to Williamsburg, Virginia. When I returned my parents had bought "the family" a Macintosh Performa 6300CD. The reality of the situation was that I was the only one to use it. I was 11 and I now owned my first computer. This computer shipped with Lode Runner: The Legend Returns which occupied me for far longer than I expected. It brought me (without warning) all my favorite lucasarts games, my first excursions on to the internet (via Hotline) and MacOS System 7.

Every time I buy a smaller and more powerful handheld device I want to write a comparison piece about it and my old Performa but I always get hung up on the fact that the 15" screen on my Performa made 640x480 pixels in thousands of colors and none of my devices came anywhere close to that. I can now make this comparison.

Processor:
6300CD: 100Mhz
iPhone: ~400Mhz (according to investigations)

iPhone FTW, easy.

RAM:
6300CD: 16MB
iPhone: 117MB (according to investigations)

iPhone FTW, again.

OS:
6300CD: System 7
iPhone: OS X (eh, kinda)

iPhone FTW, never OS 7 again.

Keyboard:
6300CD: Full, keys got sticky sometimes
iPhone: Compact, virtual, touch, hopefully never sticky

6300CD FTW, I don't think I'll ever be able to type without looking on my iPhone.

Screen:
6300CD: 640x480, 64dpi
iPhone: 480x320, 160dpi

iPhone FTW, finally!

Drive:
6300CD: 1.2Gb
iPhone: 8Gb

iPhone FTW

Communication:
6300CD: 33.6 Modem, Infrared
iPhone: EDGE, Wifi b/g, Bluetooth 2.0

iPhone FTW, although EDGE is almost as slow as 33.6

Weight:
6300CD: 50 (19 + 31) lbs
iPhone: 4.8 ounces

Uh, iPhone FTW.

Music:
6300CD: CD Player? Sad speakers...
iPhone: MP3, AAC, Etc

iPhone FTW, we had other cd players back in the day.

Mobility:
6300CD: With back strain only
iPhone: Because you have to

iPhone FTW.

Doom:
6300CD: Yes
iPhone: NO

6300CD FTW. Also iPhone WTF! Shouldn't this be done by now?

iPhone also wins in categories such as: Least buttons, Shiniest, Comes With Dock, Integrated Microphone, Can Order Pizza, Can Find Maps, and Does Hokey Pokey
6300CD wins the last few though: Has Lots of Cables, Enabled Command & Conquer Obsession, Must Be Plugged In To 120V and most importantly, Saved My Childhood

Finally. The decision is in.
iPhone wins! Finally, a machine that can match my 6300CD in the palm of my hand, horray!