The Xbox Experience. More fun than one console should be allowed to give…but it does anyway!

November 22, 2008

What do you do for a gamer who is looking for the next best, coolest and most fun experience online? Why, you send them an X-Box and hook them up with the fun new features, games and show them how much their life will freaking ROCK when you hook them up with an XBox Live account.

On November 20th, Xbox launched their new Xbox experience. I have to tell you that it is absolutely amazing. I will admit that I can be a rather harsh critic when I hear abot something New! and Wondeful! but in this case? This new experience actually is wonderful.

It’s not just about the games anymore with Xbox. If you sign up for an Xbox Live Gold acccount– a massive steal at only $60 a year–you can do so much more than just play your Xbox games. They are trying to make your Xbox experience an all inclusive package. Which means, not only can you and your family play games with the Xbox, but you can do so much more. Take for example if you combine your Xbox Live account and you have a standard (unlimited) Netflix membership, you can watch movies from Netflix through your Xbox. Yes, you can! In fact, the day they launched the new Xbox Live experience, my daughter and I immediately watched a movie. Why? Because we could! It does’t involve any downloading either. Netflix streams the video to your television, allowing you to watch movies and television shows immediately after ordering them. Instant gratification, baby!

Being a gamer, I am quite used to using voice chat when gaming. But the Xbox? It includes video. Yes! Now, when I pwn a n00b on one of the many online games I can play with Xbox, they can see that it was an “old mom lady” who pwned them. (Or? I can just sit and chat with friends who have Xbox live and a video camera. Video conferencing through my Xbox? Now, that? Rocks my socks off!)

Now, let me get the heart of what most parents want to know when it comes to games and online gaming. Parental controls. Xbox is big on parental controls and making sure that parents have many ways to ensure their kids are kept as safe as possible when playing online by using the Family Settings on the Xbox.

Family Settings perform two functions on the Xbox 360 console. When playing offline, they can be set to grant or restrict access to games based on the ESRB rating. When playing online, they can be used to restrict access to content and contacts based on the parent’s choice.

With Xbox LIVE Family Settings, you can set different levels of protection for online gameplay, online communications, and downloading member content or items from Xbox LIVE Marketplace.

Xbox LIVE Family Settings let you:

Control access to all the features of Xbox LIVE.
Set a pass code to limit who can change your Family Settings.
Decide what your kids can play, both online and off.
Decide who your child can communicate with online.
Control who can see your child’s profile or friends list.

Other additions to the new Xbox Live Experience? Avatars. If you are familiar with the Mii avatars for the Nintendo Wii, you will recognize the feel of these avatars. And? The new interface? It is very cool! Gone are the old skool look of the former system and in its place is a new system that scrolls both horizontally and vertically. It is a sleek, clear and bright interface.

I was a casual fan of Xbox before this new experience and “overhaul” but now? I can really get into these new features. Not only that? I think I may love it. Seriously? The Xbox Live Experience is awesome and it will rock your world.

Give it a try. You will not be sorry. You have my word on that one! (And? I would totally love to video game and chat with you. And will try not to pwn you in front of your children. Ha!)

Posted by Jenn @ 9:19 pm | Comments |

World of Warcraft

January 18, 2007

Don’t they make a beautiful couple?

Is it wrong that I slept with this:

I even licked it a little. And whispered words of love and devotion to it.

~~~~~

So, all those times I made fun of geeks for getting in line early for a midnight release of something and all of those times I rolled my eyes and all of those times I said, “You wouldn’t see ME out at midnight for some stupid game!”…well, I owe you an apology. I won’t actually give you one, but I do owe you one.

Monday night around 11:00pm I found myself in the electronics department at Wal-Mart with 2 other ~~geeks~~ WoW players.

I met up with Jordan, a saxophonist who has been playing WoW since back in the day of 2004ish. (The cult got him early.) He, too, was hoping to score a copy of the Collector’s Edition since he scored one of the originals. (I hear you, Jordan! I was a bit freaked thinking I would have to play without knowing I had that big box announcing my cult membership.) He knew way more about this game than I could ever hope to know.

And then there was Doug who writes for Beckett Gaming. Leave it to me to end up with strangers and the writer in me strikes up a conversation with an editorial director of a magazine. And I didn’t even hit him up to write for him or for him to write up this whole momblogger turned gamer experience. But it was late and I was obsessing about getting a copy of the CE. I learned a lot more about gaming and WoW just from this time spent talking.

Jordan and Doug were great companions to keep me entertained and educated while we waited.

As we waited for midnight, David–a store employee– came by and told us and three other people that the store received six copies of Burning Crusade CE. Since there was six of us waiting patiently and rather well behaved that we would each be able to purchase the game. (I was number 3 thankyouverymuch!) We were told to go wait by the register and we would get our copy at midnight. (There was much rejoicing–in our well mannered way.)

Meanwhile, at a WalMart miles away sat my unsocial husband who didn’t actually “meet” anyone but rather spoke briefly with others in his line. (Have I taught him nothing??)

Which leads us to the question: Who gets the Collector’s Edition? The teen boy who brought WoW into the house in the first place? The tween who really wants to have something cool that his friends don’t have? The husband who really knows more about this game than God Himself? Or me? Because Blizzard loves me?

What do you think?

tags: gaming, Burning Crusade, world of warcraft, Blizzard
(more…)