Although more of an obsession nowadays...

Those are games I've bought in the last month. Well, I don't remember when I bought Fable. Rise of Nations : Thrones and Patriots came out a while ago though. It's an expansion pack for Rise of Nations. It's a good game. I'll have more about each game as they slowly take over my life, and I get hooked to each one.

Those cover the spectrum of video games, as pretty much every major genre is represented. I like my video games like I like my music. Varied. Just like in music though, I have a favorite. It's Strategy. Civilization IV, Rise of Nations, and Age of Empires III are all strategy. Fear, Brothers in Arms, and Call of Duty 2 are all first person shooters, and in the genre "Action". That's my second favorite. See, you need more FPS to keep you interested for a while, whereas one strategy game will usually keep you interested for a long time. Well, me anyway. However, FEAR is the best game I've ever played in that genre. Fable is an RPG, and it has the potential to be awesome, but it takes a really long time. Except Fable, which was awesome, but it was too short!! 10-12 hours on a RPG is way too short. You need them to last at least 40 hours.

Games not pictured that I bought in the last month : Serious Sam 2 (sorry Zatko!) and Dragonshard.

Woohoo! Today, I was offered two jobs literally 20 minutes apart. I've never been offered more than one job at a time, so I would always just take the next job. This is a different experience completely. Getting to choose is a pleasure, however, having to choose SUCKS!! In the end, they are both great companies, but one was more along the lines of what I feel that I want in this stage in my career. Money is hardly an issue, I knew they would both be sufficient to my needs. I didn't get into programming for the money, obviously!! Just read under "Computer Science" on the left! I'll take the money though, because I have bills and stuff that I need or might eventually want. However, two jobs to choose from wasn't an easy choice. I had a feeling yesterday that I would be offered both jobs, so that's when the deliberation started. I had to really find out what I wanted, and it was tough. Anyway, I am back on the career ladder. And just in time! Some great video games came out today.

F.E.A.R. (First Encounter Assault Recon) is the best game I've ever played. It's gorgeous, the combat is exciting and beautiful, the atmosphere is freaky as hell, and it's just an all around great game. I'll have screens soon.

Dragonshard is being installed now. It's a real time strategy game (RTS) based on the rules defined in Dungeons and Dragons. That's a role playing game (RPG), or rather, a board game RPG with a set of rules that many computer RPGs follow. Neverwinter Nights uses the D&D rules, for instance. So, it'll be an interesting mix between RPG and RTS. I look forward to playing it.

Another game worth mentioning, which isn't out until at least February '06, is S.T.A.L.K.E.R. I know, lots of acronyms. I've been following the development of this game ever since I first heard about it. I'm happy to report that they are still working on it! They actually had it done at one point, then decided that it wasn't fun enough, so they reworked some things, rewrote the story, tweaked some things, and are well on their way to seeing the February '06 deadline. You can read about it here.

Overall, a pretty exciting week :)

Read about it here. It's stupid that a game is considered responsible for that action. I played that game, and beat it. It's all about how you interpret the game that depends on your possible fate later down the road. Sure, I would go on rampages with a sniper rifle from the very top of a parking garage and take out passerbys and cops, but what was I thinking about when I was doing it? Using a controller to aim at what seemed to be heads on a digital person. Mostly, I would try to drive around as fast as I can without crashing, that was where I had the most fun. This guy probably imagined killing cops. So where is the problem? Not in the video game, I say. Afterall, it's just a video game. It doesn't make someone violent. Years of abuse does or an aggressive attitude does. I can't imagine someone playing Doom 3 and thinking it's real, but I also can't imagine someone playing GTA III and thinking it's real. The overall concensus is that it's not, which is why they're allowed to be released to the masses in the first place. It's the sinister few that might ruin it for everyone.

I haven't given a coffee update in ... ever. Well, once I did. Anyway, I'm lost as to which coffees got here during which months. I'll just tell you I'm drinking a blend called "Reggae Blend" during my "working from home" days. Actually, I'm working on a new video game. Fresh idea. Screw this web stuff, I'll get to it later. This game will be everything I've ever wanted in a strategy/RPG/economic game. I might play it exclusively, and I might play it exclusively, if you catch my drift. Meaning it might be the only game I play, and I might be the only one playing it... dumbass ;)

So, I've realized this after 3 days (Lemonade Tycoon days, which is like a minute of game time) of selling in the "Mall". The beach and the mall are capable of making the same amount of sales if the weather dictates it. If it's 80 - 100+ degrees out, I'm selling at the beach. If it's 50 and raining, it's the Mall or bust. I can keep the price the same, if it's 50 and raining, the mall people still pay $1.10 for a cup of lemonade, just like the beach people will if it's 100 and sunny. Obviously. You just have to learn the rules before you can assume that a program realistically simulates human tendencies. Especially one written for a cell phone.

Here, check out GameSpot's story on it... Lemonade Tycoon. I'm addicted, but soon, when my popularity in the mall gets to 100%, I consider that game over. I just want to be famous :)

From GameSpot:
Start small, and focus on the fundamentals. Lemonade Tycoon is a business simulation for our uncertain times. Beginning with just a tiny stand on a suburban street corner, you buy supplies, mix up a batch of lemonade, and hustle your drinks on the street. If your price is too high, the line is too long, or your recipe stinks, you'll be stuck with melted ice and spoiled lemons. With finely honed marketing skills, a canny grasp of what customers want, and a double-squeezing of luck, you can work your way into bigger stands, better equipment, and big-time venues, like the beach or a mall.

and...

The sim is deep and complex, with hours of gameplay for the dedicated sidewalk lemonade hustler.

one more:
As mobile games go, this sim is quite deep. Not only must you set the right price and buy appropriate supplies, but you've also got issues of weather, market awareness, demographics, and advertising. Stripped to the essentials, the dynamic and interconnected nature of business is represented here in a fun and clever manner.

They just make it seem harder than I do :) I have to admit, I am quite awesome at the game.. you might even call me a Tycoon.

Over the past week or so I've been playing a game on my cell phone on the bus and train ride into work. It's incredible. It's called "Lemonade Tycoon". Don't laugh. Obviously, all you do is sell lemonade, but, there's lots of twists.

First, you invest $40 of fake money into your venture. You get a stand and apparently the tools to make lemonade. You have 4 things to buy: lemons, ice, sugar, and cups. There are multiple places you can set up shop. The suburbs are free, so that's where you start. The places that cost money are guaranteed to be more populated. Before setting out on your first day of sales, you have to decide a few things. The recipe is first. You pick how many lemons, sugar and ice to add to each pitcher of lemonade. People will not buy bad lemonade. The next thing to consider is your price. This is based off of numerous things like how popular your brand is in a particular location, and of course the weather. Don't charge $1.00 per cup on a 50 degree day! Lower your prices, you'll sell the same amount of cups as a 100 degree day, but you won't make as much, but you'll still cover your costs for that day. People will pay $1.50 for a cup on a hot day.

Repeat this as desired. You'll notice that it takes a long time to make a pitcher, and also a long time to serve someone. Lemons go bad after a few days, and you're always buying ice, always. There are upgrades. To make the time between pitchers go down, buy a "Lemon Juicer 9000". It's now instantaneous. Customers will complain of long waits if they are in a line with too many people in front of them (which I've found you can't control), if they are in line when you have to make a new pitcher, or they are in line and you don't have this upgrade: the cash register. Processing a sale is instant with this thing. You go up from maybe 25 sales at a location to easily breaking 60. They have an ice machine, but I noticed that it only gives you 100 ice cubes (which is nothing, I'm now buying 500 on top of the 100 given with the ice machine), and it will slowly regenerate them during the course of a day. It's useless when you start making 100+ sales in a day. Another thing is a fridge, so you can stock up on lemons and they won't go bad. The last upgrades in the game are pretty convenient. You have all this new technology for speeding up sales, capable of making hundreds of sales in a day, but you might not be able to hold enough supplies to support those kinds of sales. You can buy 2 different types of lemonade stands, which will hold all your stuff and increase your capacity. I now buy hundreds of lemons at a time, and up to 800 cups at a time, along with my 600 ice cubes and 100+ sugar kept in stock at all times, I'm pretty much set. I am using the second most expensive location, the beach, rented at $40 a day (the mall is $50 a day), and selling different amounts of cups a day (sometimes 160, sometimes 50), charging an arm and a leg when the temperature spikes over 80... like $1.20-$1.50. I have all the upgrades. The most expensive one is the Lemon Stand (a stand shaped as a lemon), and it goes for $999.99. The cheapest upgrade, the lemon juicer, is $149.99. This price, $149.99, seemed insurmountable when I was selling 10 cups a day, making $.36 profit on each cup. Now, my cash on hand is $1,500 with plenty of stock, and the market is ripe for the picking.

It makes me want to make a game like it.

Check out F.E.A.R. First Encounter Assault Recon is what it stands for, but really, it's more about being scared out of the room and hiding under a blanket with a baseball bat, calling friends over and sucking your thumb. I've written on this before, but it's very close to being released, and it looks unbelievable. The demo was a short 10-15 minutes the first time through. I got chills each of the three times I played it. The graphics are unbelievable, the particle system and effects also, the sounds, the lighting, and now the Artificial Intelligence.

AI has always been an interesting subject to me. It's incredibly complex, but that hasn't stopped me from reading books on genetic algorithms, path finding routines, and other broad subjects. The AI that this game uses is called Goal Oriented Action Planning, or (GOAP). You can read about it here under the header "Designer Diaries". It doesn't get deep into technical details, but it is just a fascinating read, and I can't wait to play it.

AI is the next thing in games. You have these games that look outstanding but have the dumbest enemies ever. They pop their heads up in rhythm, it's like that groundhog game where you use the big padded hammer, only easier, since those are more random. Games even realistically portray interactions between objects pretty well. If there are a few wooden boxes stacked, and you shoot the bottom one, it might not get that far from underneath the other ones, but the resulting effect is that the tower of boxes will probably fall towards you, if the bullet doesn't just go right through. They haven't done that in games yet, realistic surfaces, at least not really well. A great effect in this game is watching its particle system. Bullets spark metal, blow concrete off walls, creating huge chunks in the wall, shatter glass, and grenades. Cool game huh?

Now, add SLOW MOTION!! Slow down time in the game and watch all this stuff happen. I tell you it's a thing of beauty.

My college buddy, Zatko, and I play video games. We played through the first Serious Sam (Serious Sam: The First Encounter) and maybe also what I thought at the time was Serious Sam 2 (Serious Sam: The Second Encounter). It later became widely known that this was, in fact, not Serious Sam 2. I became confused when GameSpot (not the store, that's GameStop) started putting up screenshots and articles about Serious Sam 2. I'm like, I already have it, beat it, it rocked, etc. But then I clicked one. "What the F@#%#@@ is this?!!?" I thought. Well, this is the real sequel. New graphics engine, physics, new monsters, real time shadows, lighting, and everything else that makes today's games beautiful and immersive. So Zatko and I made a pact: To only EVER play the game cooperatively when it comes out. See, another beautiful thing about the Serious Sam games is that they're $20 and that they ALWAYS have cooperative mode. NO games today have coop. It's stupid. Every game would make a killing if they let you play through the missions with a friend or family member. They don't do this, citing "technical difficulties" or some crap. Anyway, today, I hop onto GameSpot, and lo and behold, there's a Serious Sam 2 DEMO. Knowing my pact with Zatko, and knowing that he'll b@#%@# and moan at me for YEARS if I break it, I went to him:

Jason Connell: serious sam 2 demo
Zatko: you better not play it
Jason Connell: can i play?!?!?
Jason Connell: DOH!!!
Zatko: hell no!
Zatko: don't even look at it
Zatko: tear your eyes out
Jason Connell: can i download it?
Zatko: :)
Jason Connell: at least?!!
Zatko: you can pretend downloading it
Zatko: but thats about it
Jason Connell: alright, i'll write a program that says it's downloading the serious sam 2 demo, but it's really not
Zatko: yea, thats ok
Jason Connell: sweet! you want a copy?
Zatko: i might have to take you up on that
Jason Connell: alright
Jason Connell: oh wait, there's a brothers in arms 2 demo out too, i'll play that instead

So, I can't play :( I will hold to the pact though...

Here's a 2 for 1. These have nothing to do with each other, I am sick, so I don't feel like making new entries for each thing I have to say.

I feel for those Israelis in the Gaza strip who don't want to leave. I really do. The government just came up and said "Get the F%@#! out, BI%#@!ES!!!" Like those people who bought a house where a highway will be built many years later. Except, this is way different. If your house is needed because of a highway, you can probably find another house in the same town to buy. It would be like our government taking New Jersey, and telling those people to get out, and giving it to us Pennsylvanians. Alright, that's probably a somewhat invalid analogy, since, who would want New Jersey?! Just kidding. Point is, that sucks, and I feel for those poor Israelis.

Now to the fun part!! w00t! I bought 2 MORE video games the other day. They are both awesome. Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War is the first one I'll talk about. It adds some great gameplay elements to the traditional real time strategy (RTS) game. There are strategic locations that you have to control to gain resources. These are just points on the map, usually in a strategic location. You control them by having guys there to defend it, if it's your furthest point from your base that you control, or you leave it and go get another one. These give you resources to buy things like more units, buildings, vehicles, upgrades, etc. The other cool thing about it is the squads. You build a unit, which is in fact a squad, like a "Space Marine Squad" and it pumps out with 4 space marines. Then, you can reinforce the squad with more guys. You can also add a Sergeant and a hero (if you have heros left) to it. Next, you can upgrade up to 4 members of the squad's weapons. You can give them a flame thrower, heavy bolter gun, plasma rifle, or a rocket launcher. I can beat the computer with 3 fully upgraded squads and a few "Dreadnought" robots. The game is awesome.

Next game. Psychonauts!! Get this game. It's awesome. Check out Tim Schafer's news posts and practically everything on the website over at DoubleFine.com. There are a very high number of great and fun aspects to this game. The level of creativity in the level design and abilities that "Rasputin" gets and the story makes the whole game wreak of outstanding quality. It wreaks so much of quality that when I'm not playing it, I have to put it in a airsealed bag and spray the room with Lysol. When I am playing it, well, let's just say that you don't want to come in the room. I actually emailed Tim Schafer a few times now, and he's always written back. I keep them because he's a "celebrity" in the gaming world. You might have played "Grim Fandango"??? I did. He thought up that one. He's a genius. He has other games out there, but I'm sorry to say I've only played two of them. So, buy this game. It's out on PS2, XBox and PC. I bought it for PS2. I actually asked Tim what his beef with Nintendo was. Here's what he wrote back for those of you who can't buy the game because you only own a GameCube:

"Jason,

We here at Double Fine definitely have no beef with Nintendo! We love
Nintendo. We all would have been overjoyed to see Psychonauts on the
Gamecube. But it's just not up to us. The developer doesn't make such
decisions. The people with the money do, and in this case they decided
not to."

Fridays always sneak up on me now. Before, at other jobs, it would always seem like months had passed before you would get a few days off. Now, it's like HOURS. It's wonderous.

So, to kick off the weekend, here is a list of some funny things and some trying to be funny things:

40% of the internet population would refer to this website as a "blog". I don't care what you call it, I don't call it a "blog". Here is a comment I made on this topic earlier today:

"We have to come up with a better term than that."

Amen. As if not being considered anywhere even close to cool wasn't enough, now I have to contribute to something that 40% (+) of the internet population classifies as a "blog". Wonderful.

One popped in my head: "Vulcan"... That planet!! In Star Trek! ;-) Honestly, having never watched Star Trek, I still think that's better than "blog". My girlfriend from a few years ago was the first person to use the term "blog". When she got sick after drinking a lot, that's the sound she made.

Another one popped in my head: "Iceman". This would create better situations at the bar.

Me (to girl at bar): I write an iceman.
Girl: Awesome! Like Val Kilmer?!!? Here's my number.

And there you have it.

Next. I don't think Terrell Owens will be an Eagle this year. He might play a game or two, but Andy Reid will get sick of his B.S. and trade him.

Next. I play video games. Last night I played Battlefield 2 on my newly rebuilt computer. It was neat. On one map, I climbed to a roof behind the other team's base, and picked off like 9 guys before running out of ammo, jumping off the roof, parachuting down (you always have a parachute on you), and reloading all of my ammo, only to be killed by an artillery strike. I laughed at that one though. It was like I had just reloaded all of my ammo from a supply crate that dropped from the sky, and thought "Alright, time to go kick some more ass!"... The first artillery shell is what got me. I had no idea it was coming! At one point, before refilling my ammo, I was shooting 100 yard shots with my pistol! I only got a kill or two with that thing.

Next. Linux and the mug still hasn't arrived.

Damn, I know I had more. Here, let me check the newspaper...

Hmm. First headline : "T.O.'s tirades could signal trade envy." Nope, already commented on that one. Second headline: "Owens heads to Atlanta." Nope, I've said everything I can about that one. Third... "Owens errs in telling his Super Bowl story." Nope, can't think of anything to add to that one. Man, the media has to stop writing about T.O.... honestly. Shut UP!! Hehe, get it. Like T.O. and Andy Reid said to each other?! Read the paper, you're bound to find an article or two-ZILLION about it. Cripes.

More video game news. Yesterday, I also bought "Fantastic 4" for the PS2, so Jeff and I or Bean and Jeff or Bean and I or whatever, can whoop some ass together. It's fun.

Don't trust Microsoft's benchmark tests. Here is a security comparison between Windows Server 2003 with SQL Server 2000 vs. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 with MySQL. Seems like a fair test? Well, download the PDF. Nowhere does it mention that the current version of MySQL (even at the time of the test) and the version of MySQL that is used in the test differ in version number by 1 MAJOR VERSION!! How big is the difference of 1 Major Version? Well, SQL Server 2000 is actually SQL Server Version 8.0. SQL Server 2000 was actually released on January 19th, 2001. SQL Server 7 was released in late 1998 or early 1999, I'm not sure. I couldn't find it. So, that's a difference of at LEAST 2 years. Plus, Red Hat recently released Enterprise Linux 4.0, so maybe Microsoft should do another security test? This goes for most of their tests. And you can't blame them for fixing the results, but you can blame them for writing inferior software :)

Next. Thinking back on a certain state's decision to elect a certain Hollywood action star as its Governer, I began to realize the obvious good and bad in that. A good thing is no stupid Arnold S. movies have been released in a while! A bad thing, Hollywood had to find a replacement, so there are still stupid movies, but without Arnold's style of awful acting.

Next. I'm starting to hate Rounders. If you watch it too much, you'll just find Matt Damon to be another awful actor. It's funny, that movie also stars John Malkovich, one of the best actors. When I watch a movie, I want to watch it and say "That's Teddy KGB" not "That's John Malkovich". But every movie in which Matt Damon stars, he's always the same. Whatever happened to the great character actors, and why aren't they all famous, if they are still around. Another way to look at this quality in an actor is to watch a movie with an actor, and then watch another one with the same actor, and not see the previous character one bit in the new character. If they can't do that, I consider them a bad actor. No offense ;-)

Maybe I'll have more, if you're lucky.

After the race was over, I was all upset and wanted to buy more stuff from California to fill that now cavernous void in my heart that only a man-made race across the country between two competing delivery companies can fill. But then I remembered, I have to install my new motherboard and then I can play games! While this won't fill the man-made race gap, it's a start. So I did that in a shade under a day... actually, two hours, but that thing's a pain in the MOTHERF$@#$@#%! ASS!! Oh well, it's over, and it works. And it works well.

I had been watching the development of a certain game, and it prompted me to buy the motherboard. Last week, a playable demo came out for F.E.A.R. (First Encounter Assault Recon). It's insane. It's like a police game, you're going in, taking out bad guys, slowing down time so you can dodge bullets and stuff, then all the sudden you're crapping your pants. I can't say why, but it is one scary ass game. The graphics are unbelievable, and the sound, at times, sends chills careening down your spine. It's scarier than Doom III, which, before I played the FEAR demo, was the scariest game I had played. At least in Doom 3, after you get scared, you get to kill whatever made you crap yourself. Alright, I'm saying too much. I anxiously await the October 10th release date of F.E.A.R. My hair will turn white. This was a 10 minute demo and I had nightmares. Imagine what the WHOLE GAME will do!

I never reported this, but I broke my motherboard on my very expensive gaming computer a few weeks ago. This is how I described the mishap on a forum I visit:

my F#%$@#!ing motherboard broke... it was my fault though. stupid crazy ass place for a 5 gallon bucket of paint... i'm kidding, i tried to put in a pci card but there wasn't room, and i snapped one of those little chip things that sit on the motherboard and make them work...

Woops. So, eventually, after like a month, I decided to finally replace it because I want to play video games like I do sometimes. So, I ordered the motherboard. Here is that forum entry:

I miss playing games sometimes, but I want to play F.E.A.R. more than anything. The demo is out. So I ordered that b@#$%@ today. Plus, I have a 250GB secondary hard drive on there, with no room in my other computers for it, and I need the space. I hope I got a good one, it'll definitely be better than the last one though... it got a score of "5 out of 5 eggs" on newegg.com. plus it has a very similar layout to the other motherboard, which is HUGE. the last thing I want to do is empty out my liquid cooling and recut tubes to make that s@#$% fit.

It's thundering and lightening here pretty bad, I'm scared so I'm gonna go under my desk. (19th floor is a lot closer to that stuff than the 1st floor).

hopefully, by friday, you'll hear me mumbling sweet nothings to you on teamspeak after I put a bullet through your mother F@#%@#$ing dome.

A few liner notes. Teamspeak is a program used for talking to other people over the internet for free and in real time. There are a few people that I talk to, but I haven't been on in a while, because it's normally used for trashtalking in games and coordinating strategies in a first person tactical team based shooter. FEAR is going to be a cool game. And a motherboard is a very necessary, very fragile computer part. I ALWAYS censor myself, on any webpage I go to. Anyone who knows those words can tell right off the bat, but what if little kids visit? I can't make them not read it, so I figure I'll just make it safe for everyone, for the most part. These posts are "as is".

The other part of this story is my converting every other computer I have to Linux. When Windows Vista (formerly Longhorn) is released, I won't and can't go buy a copy for each computer I have. If they're lucky, I might buy one for the gaming PC. Here is the post about me ordering Linux. So that's also on the way.

It's a race (as the title indicates). Linux and the coffee mug are somewhere between San Pablo, CA, and Drexel Hill. They left San Pablo on August 6th at 5:01 AM. It's anyone's guess where it is now. The motherboard was ordered yesterday, and left Los Angeles, CA at 9:16 AM today. However, Linux and the mug were shipped through UPS, and the motherboard was shipped through FedEx Saver and is estimated to arrive on Thursday, August 11th. Obviously the UPS package has a bit of a head start.

Place your bets!

But not today! So, while the oil prices are skyrocketing (it's apparently up to around $60 USD a barrel, but that doesn't mean anything to me), the o-zone layer is leaving us, we're almost out of oil, and there's still war in the world (not War of the Worlds...), I still find better stuff to post about.

Battlefield 2 comes out today so it'll probably be in stores tomorrow. However, I have a video game being shipped to me that's not Battlefield 2. I will get Battlefield 2 though, eventually. The game I'm getting is called "Boiling Point: Road to Hell". You play on a piece of land that's 25x25 kilometers. That's 625 square kilometers! I was in the cub scouts, I'll be fine. You get to fly helicopters, planes, drive tanks, cars, buses, and blow everything up. It's a game world like Grand Theft Auto games, but it's in a jungle. Nothing will get done this week. Here's an exceptional review of the game.

I turned back on the gaming PC for reasons other than listening to music while I program. I started playing Guild Wars. I've never been able to get into any MMORPGs, but really the only other one I've tried was Final Fantasy XI. I couldn't get out of the starting town in that one. Guild Wars is incredibly simple to get into. Its main selling factor, though, besides the beautiful graphics, is that it's free to play online! You still have to pay a hefty starter up price of $50 USD to own the software, but I managed to afford that. The cool thing about it is it can be a standard role playing game, but you can also opt to join up with people hanging around. There are a few cool gameplay elements, and it's definitely worth your and my time. Right now I'm trying to save up the god-awful amount you need to buy square fur. They're unbelievably expensive, but after that I can get some major upgrades to my armor. w00t. Rate my geekness below. (Usually I only play games that are less detrimental to your coolness, like shooters and real time strategy games, as well as sports and Mario games)

Have you seen the specs for the PS3?

PS3 Specs

Tell me you're not going to buy at least one of those.

Now read this one.

Nintendo Revolution Specs

I'll take out a loan if I have to, those two systems will be mine. The who-box? Oh, the XBox. Yeah, no way. Zatko said it best when he said
"yea i think xbox is gonna get pounced"

What kind of stupid name is the XBox 360? One sports guy said "we need to turn this team around 360 degrees" which he thought meant to go in the opposite direction. Turn 360 degrees and all you've accomplished is a little dizziness. I wonder why they call it 360 if they didn't mean a circle. It's the only 360 I can think of. On that note, I will again be showing no interest in the XBox. It's funny though, it's the least powerful one by far. The PS3 is just an amazing piece of machinery, and Nintendo has all the great Mario games and other franchises. There's no need for an XBox for me since I have a PC that plays games.