Apple Disaster

Today is iPhone 3G day and Wow! has Apple has really screwed it up! Everyone is trying to download the new iTunes 7.7 software, iPhone 2.0 update, the new applications and games in the App store and set up new iPhone 3G activations all on the same day! Apple's servers are down, phones can't be activated and 1st gen iPhones are being bricked upgrading to the new software. I'm a HUGE Apple supporter but this is really unacceptable and could have been avoided by doing the following:

1) iTunes 7.7 should have been released last week to get everyone ready.

2) 1st gen iPhone users should have been able to download the new 2.0 software on Monday as a thank you gift from Apple and been able to play with the new apps and games before everyone else. This would have made the early adopters happy and given Apple more free publicity that the new 3G iPhone was coming Friday.

3) With all this traffic out of the way, the servers would be open to handle all the new 3G activations on Friday making a great worldwide launch!

It makes no sense to expect your servers to handle all of this traffic on one day and after having launch issues with the original iPhone, I would have expected Apple to be more prepared this time around. Apple FTL

Full Story: Click Here
iPhone 3G Review: Click Here

Seven7th Day

Today, July 7th, Bungie has released a new Halo 3 map on Xbox Live for FREE!!! It's called "Cold Storage" and is a remake of "Chill Out" from the original Halo. You will need the Heroic map pack (it's free), and the Legendary map pack (it's being dropped from $10 to $7.50 today) to play this new map online. If your still waiting for the Legendary map pack to become free, you can still download this new map and play it in custom and offline games.

Get Smart

In "Get Smart," Steve Carell re-creates the bumbling Max Smart character, with Anne Hathaway playing the capable (and hot) Agent 99 as the duo try to stop a plot to arm unstable governments with nuclear bombs. Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson also co-stars as a superstar spy colleague.

Let me preface my review with stating that I've never seen the original TV show so I really didn't know what to expect. With that said, this movie is really good and funny! If you like "The Office" and Steve Carell's 2007 movie, "Dan In Real Life" you should really enjoy this. This is one of those movie's where you may think you have seen all the best parts in the trailer and commercials but that is not true. This movie is funny from beginning to end.

My only small criticism of the movie would be the story line was pretty predicable and weak. Surpisingly though, it doesn't hurt the movie that much and I still really enjoyed it overall. Exp. Rating +5

UFC 2009

Below is a link to the first trailer released for the upcoming UFC video game titled, UFC 2009 Undisputed. This game looks absolutely amazing and I can't wait to play it! Click Here to watch

Kung Fu Panda

"There is no charge for awesomeness... or attractiveness." One of the best opening lines by Po (Jack Black) in Kung Fu Panda. I have been wanting to see this movie since it came out, a few weeks ago, and finally got to see it. If you think this movie is only for kids you are so wrong! Jack Black is hilarious as Po the panda. This movie reminded me a lot of Nacho Libre and is just as funny. The animation is amazing and the movie, story and acting are as good, if not better, than a Pixar movie! I really enjoyed every minute and laughed A LOT! Kung Fu Panda and Iron Man are the two best movies so far this summer. Exp. Rating +10

Virtual NES

This is beyond awesome. VirtualNES.com is the largest Virtual Nintendo Entertainment System online with 765 Games! It's all free too! Go check it out!

Incredible Hulk

Let's get the obvious question out of the way first. Yes, it's MUCH better than the last Hulk movie. This is the movie they should have made the first time. Now that that is out of the way, this film was not amazing like Iron Man. It's pretty much a 2 hour chase film. The story is not that great and predictable. The special effects are an improvement over the first film but they are still disappointing. The Hulk still looks fake! Why does Hollywood always feel the need to go over the top with everything? It's time to go back to the "less is more" style of movie making. Let the audience use their imaginations a little. It's difficult to believe that a human being can transform into a giant Godzilla like monster. It would have been more believable to have a human actor become "enhanced" physically with special effects instead of becoming an animated character that looks like it came out of a video game. On a positive note, the acting is great in this movie and Ed Norton is a much better Bruce Banner than Eric Bana and Liv Tyler is way hot as Betsy Ross. Comic book fans will enjoy this version also because the Hulk has been provided with a more reputable villain to fight: The Abomination. Marvel really needs to ditch the over the top CGI and hire better writers next time if there is going to be a Hulk 2. Exp. Rating +1

SSFIITHDRLOLOMGBBQ

The Capcom Blog says a beta version of Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix will begin June 25 and can only be accessed by purchasing the Xbox 360 version of Commando 3 on Xbox Live.

Capcom, what is the point of this beta? Are you worried Commando 3 won't sell without this? Just release the final version already plzzzzzzz!!!1!!one!!

Halo Wars

The latest issue of GamePro has information on the upcoming Halo Wars, including news that the game will support Xbox Live multiplayer with up to six players as well as two-player online co-op. The magazine also reveals new UNSC units such as the Vulture, Cyclops and Cobras and the game's current control scheme. Check out Halo Wars Addict for more information.

UEFA EURO 2008

The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2008, will take place in Austria and Switzerland from June 7 to June 29, 2008.

A total of 16 teams will participate in the tournament. Austria and Switzerland automatically qualified as hosts; the remaining 14 teams have been determined through qualifying matches which started in August 2006. Austria and Poland will be making their first appearance in the tournament. The winner of Euro 2008 will represent UEFA at the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup in South Africa, unless Italy wins the tournament, in which case the runner-up will be entered, as Italy is already entered as the winner of the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

The XBOX 360 game is also really good and highly recommended! Exp. Rating +10

Lost Season 4 Finale

Season 4 of Lost was the best yet! This show is amazing and completely blows my mind every time I watch it. After watching the 3 part season finale last week, I came across some interesting articles on Popular Mechanics website about some of the crazy stuff going on in the show.

MythBuster: Lost Finale's Bombs Were Crap, but I Get Big Picture
Lost geek Adam Savage traces the chemistry of those 500 pounds of C4, and explains why the space-time continuum from the Season Four finale changed his theories on the future of our favorite sci-fi show. Click Here for Story

Physicist: Einstein Would Approve of Moving the Island on Lost
How did Ben make the island "disappear" in the season finale? It's all relativity, argues a top professor who even uses Lost in his classes. Wormholes, 305-degree bearings, the Casimir effect—it all checks out with quantum mechanics, and could explain a lot for next season. Click Here for Story

Time-Travel Expert: Lost Finale Opens New Trap Door in Space
How do you move an island, then show up halfway across the world? Let's just say the Looking Glass has nothin' on Ben Click Here for Story

Lost for Dummies: Your Must-Have Science Glossary on New Island Mysteries!
Click Here for Story

Street Fighter IV News

Capcom recently made mention on a press site that Street Fighter IV is headed to the PS3, Xbox 360, and the PC as well, with all three versions slated to hit retail shelves this winter.

Speaking in an interview with Japan's Weekly Famitsu, producer Yoshinori Ono revealed that the home version of the SF4 will include online play and exclusive characters. Two of the exclusive characters may be Fei Long and Dan. According to IGN, Japanese publication Famitsu Xbox released concept art illustrating a Bruce Lee-inspired Fei Long and Alpha vet Dan Hibiki.

Finally, check out the newly released trailer! Click Here
And actual game play videos here: Click Here

Retrospectives

There is an awesome site called GameTrailers.com and they have been doing a series of retrospectives on classic video game franchises. The first big one was The Legend of Zelda. Then they covered Metroid followed by a massive 13 part Final Fantasy retrospective. Currently they are doing both Star Wars and Metal Gear. Each series is done really well and watching them brings back a lot of memories. Highly recommended viewing for all gamers! Click Here to Watch

Prince Caspian

Prince Caspian is the second movie in the Chronicles of Narnia book series. The first movie, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe was good but slow. I had higher hopes for Prince Caspian because the book has a lot more action.

Prince Caspian unfortunately is just another average movie. It's long, (2 and half hours) and the special effects are much improved over the first movie. For me though, the Narnia movies so far are not even close to the same level of greatness as the Lord of the Rings movies.

In the end it's worth seeing if your a fan of the books. The next movie planned is the Voyage of the Dawn Treader and let's hope it's much better! Exp. Rating +1

Indiana Jones

I have been really anticipating the new Indiana Jones movie. It's been 19 years since we last saw him ride off into the sunset, closing out the classic 80's trilogy. Raiders of the Lost Ark and Last Crusade were both great movies - where Temple of Doom was just ok.

All this to say that I saw Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Friday night and WOW, what a disappointment! This is by far the worst Indy movie ever and a complete disaster! The story is terrible, the acting is cheesy, and the whole movie is just too unbelievable that it's ridiculous.

Problem is, no matter what anyone says, people are still going to go see it. It's one of those movies that is critic proof. Everyone knows and loves the 80's movies and will want to see new one. I was the same way. I had a few people tell me who saw it earlier that it was bad but I didn't care. I needed to see it for myself!

For me personally, I will pretend that this movie doesn't exist. I would never want to sit through this mess again. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg should not be allowed to make any more sequels (or prequels) to their classic movies. The Star Wars prequels sucked and now they are ruining Indiana Jones! Exp. Rating -10

The Bloopcurve!!

We are excited to announce a new link to the Experience Points blog, something a little unrelated, but we figured with all the other random stuff this baseball blog should be just fine.


Bloop Curve is a Baseball related blog written by two brothers, whom some of the editors here at Experience Points have the wonderful privelege of knowing. Check out their site for all MLB related info, the guys really know their stuff over there.Click Here for Link

Rockin' out in Albuquerque

We are now featuring some new content on Experience Points. While we normally try and stick to all the techy and nerdy stuff going on in the world of video games, TV, and movies, we figured it would be good to show some outdoor related stuff. Two of our local writers are into Bouldering and we hope to have more articles and problem guides up in the future.

For now though, you will have to enjoy some pics from a cool bouldering spot out in Albuquerque, New Mexico that I went to with my girlfriend and some friends.

Oh and here is a picture of Hansele too. Probably the meanest looking cry baby in the whole world.

Iron Man

This weekend I saw the first summer blockbuster, Iron Man. It stars Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges and Gwyneth Paltrow. First off, I don't read comic books and haven't really liked most of these comic book movies, but Iron Man has changed me. I really, REALLY liked this movie! Great story, acting and special effects (which were done by the same people who did Transformers). Unlike Transformers though, this movie is good! The director, Jon Favreau, did an amazing job with everything.

In an interview on the radio, Jon Favreau said big movies like these don't start out with scripts (like most other movies do). They start with an opening date. Then all the special effects and fight scenes are planned, because those take the most time to complete. Finally, the story is filled in around all the fight scenes and special effects shots. Using this model, you can now see why most comic book movies are terrible! He said it was a lot of work to make sure this movie was good. I say he did his job! Exp. Rating +10

Halo Fiesta

It's a Halo 3 Double XP weekend! There is also a new playlist (which spawns players with random weapons) called "Cinco de Mayo." Everyone can get double XP this weekend but you need the Heroic and Legendary map packs to play in the new playlist "Cinco de Mayo". The party ends on Tuesday.

How Long Have You Been....Dead??

We all know that fatality is a fleeting thing in Halo 3. You die, maybe take a breath or two, yell a little bit, or complain about lag and then hop right back into the game. Have you stopped to wonder how much time all those deaths actually add up to?

Well we found a cool little script that pulls out that info from your Gamertag name at Bungie.net. Not sure who the orginal creator of this was, but here is the website, go check it out here and see what your death stats are!!

Here's one of our Gamertag results:
killer moike
You've wasted 0 days, 8 hours, 54 mins, and 30 seconds waiting to respawn
In ranked matches, you've waited to respawn for: 0 days, 3 hours, 24 mins, and 25 seconds
In social matches, you've waited to respawn for: 0 days, 5 hours, 30 mins, and 5 seconds

You've caused people to waste 0 days, 12 hours, 49 mins, and 45 seconds waiting to respawn
In ranked matches, you've caused people to wait to respawn for: 0 days, 4 hours, 36 mins, and 20 seconds
In social matches, you've caused people to wait to respawn for: 0 days, 8 hours, 13 mins, and 25 seconds

Street Fighter IV

Fighting games are not as popular as they used to be (and don't really interest me much) but the Street Fighter series is THE king of all fighting games. Street Fighter II is the game that started it all for most people and it holds a special place in a lot of gamers hearts. Street Fighter II was pretty much one of the best fighting games ever made and it's still even fun to play today after all these years. Capcom released many, MANY versions of Street Fighter II over the years and when they finally got around to Street Fighter III most people had lost interest in the series and fighting games as a whole.

It's been a long time coming but Street Fighter IV was announced this year and it is promising to go back to the good old days of SFII and bring back all the original characters again! I'm very excited to play this game and can't wait for its release!

Official Site: Street Fighter World

Where in the World is Abry 'n' Chief

**UPDATE: Arby 'n' Chief is now back online on both Youtube and Machinima. No word yet on why the series was down. The two most popular rumors circulating are hackers attacking the Machinima account or a ban by Youtube over copyright infringement issues.**

Speculations are abound as Youtube no longers seems to be hosting the popular Halo Machinima, "Arby 'n' Chief." Rumors are flying as to why the videos no longer play on Youtube and why their website www.machinima.com isn't working (or timing out). We are checking as much as we can on this and will definately let all of you know when Arby 'n' Chief is back on.

Until then, let's all just hope there are no copyright infringement issues or anything like that. It's a great little series, the guy does awesome work (Check out "It's A Wonderful Live" and "Master Chief Sucks At Halo") and I laugh my butt of at it.

Bungie making third-person Halo prequel?

Game magazine, EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly) is reporting in the June issue of Quartermann's rumor column that Bungie's first game post-Microsoft will be a third-person Halo prequel "chronicling early skirmishes between the ODST troops and the Covenant" (that means: no Master Chief). They're not sure if this is related to Peter Jackson's mysterious Halo project, as Microsoft recently confirmed that they are hiring a team specifically for that. EGM says that Microsoft will be ready to reveal all once the hype-train for Gears of War 2 has come to a halt.

NASCAR Bar

"A clear winner in the fast lane of treats—a chocolate cookie layered with caramel frozen dairy dessert with caramel, wafer and milk chocolate flavored coating with peanuts."

Today, we had free ice cream at work and I selected the Klondike NASCAR Bar. It looked really good and, without looking at the ingredients, it tasted really good too. What surprised me most about this bar though was reading the ingredients on the wrapper (broken out in 4 sections):

Ice Cream: Nonfat Milk, Buttermilk, Milkfat, Sugar, Corn Syrup, High Fructose Corn Syrup, etc.

Caramel: Sugar, Water, Corn Syrup, High Fructose Corn Syrup, etc.

Wafer: Bleached Wheat Flour, Sugar, Corn Syrup, High Fructose Corn Syrup, etc.

Notice a pattern? Why does one product need (or even have) High Fructose Corn Syrup in it 3 TIMES!!! This is a really scary example of how bad mass market food has become. Please read product labels and educate your family and friends about healthy eating options. It's no wonder why America is overweight! Exp. Rating -10

More information on reading food labels - Click Here

Landmark: Irvine Ranch

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced Tuesday that 40,000 acres of Irvine Ranch land will be designated as the state's inaugural "California Natural Landmark." Full Story

This is amazing news for all us mountain bikers/hikers who love this area and were fearful that the greedy Irvine Company was going to come in and eventually develop this precious land. The Governator gets +10 Exp. Points for a job well done!

Halo Movie (On Again?)

Microsoft has confirmed that they are hiring for Peter Jackson’s “Halo” project. The company is looking for a Creative Director, Producer, Game Engineers and more to “help develop a new experience in the Halo universe.”

This is the best news yet for the Halo movie since it was announced in 2006. Click Here for full story.

Arby 'n' Chief

**Warning: These videos are entirely too funny and may cause irreparable damage from laughing too much. Also there is some colorful language**

After playing a few late night games of Halo 3 and trying to find a few Halo videos on Youtube to bring me down gently from my Halo high, I wandered upon this gem of a series: Arby 'n' Chief

Watch one episode and if you don't die laughing then just put down your controller and realize that you should never play Halo again.

I believe it all began with a set of videos called "Master Chief sucks at Halo" One of a few of these videos is here:


It always gets me to see them sitting there with the controller on their laps, talking smack to themselves and other players. Also, just my personal opinion, but Arby FTW!!!

This Is How The World Ends

Check out this crazy story on Europe's enormous $8-billion particle accelerator.

It's the most complex piece of scientific equipment ever built, and the collider will send particles crashing into each other at just shy of the speed of light, generating energies more powerful than the sun. Scientists believe that this instrument, when it begins operating as early as this summer, will peer into a looking-glass world that could contain entrances to extra dimensions and super-massive partners of the familiar particles that make up our world. Critics think the collider could also spawn a black hole that will swallow Earth.

Click Here for the full story.

The Video Games New Responsibility?

I recently heard two different NPR shows referencing video games in different usages. The first was a show on the evolution of music in video games and how it went from little blips of noice to full blow symphonies. They discussed how its interesting that many video games went that route and how it gives musicians a new way to approach their music. Great games were referenced, but I was a little annoyed that Marty and Halo didn't get any reference, I thought they desreved a mention due to Halo's popularity and the quality of gameplay music.

The second show was on video games and its lack of responsibility to political awareness. This wasn't one of the common video game violance rants, but an attack on the fact that video games are not taking a stand on global issues, be it the plight of 3rd world countries or corrupt political parties. The interviewee claimed that since video games now reach billons of people and have established themselves as a prominent media giant on the ranks of TV, Movies, etc that they now face a responsibility to the public to educate on global and local issues. It was cited that the Movie and TV industry do this by creating politcally aware media and that they are the model the Video Game industry should follow.

I personally think that the Video Game industry should be left apart from the political spectrum of things and operate without political relevance. Sure there can be games made that accomplish these political goals, and it will happen if someone really wants to make it, but it should not be thrust upon the industry or asked to appeal to a certain norm. Video Games are fun because they step the player away from that and let them enjoy a good story or fun competition.

Lost Season 4 News

The 4th season of Lost has been the best yet and the show will return with new episodes on Thursday, April 24th. This season was supposed to run 16 episodes straight, with no breaks, but because of the writers strike only 8 episodes were made and have aired. When the strike ended, 5 additional episodes were announced to finish the season but on Monday 4/14, ABC announced another episode will be added to bring the final season total to 14 (2 short of the original planned 16). Lost will have it's 2 hour finale on Thursday, May 29th.

Legendary Map Pack Tour

X3F scored early access to Halo 3's upcoming Legendary Map Pack, and made this video tour of all 3 new maps!

Behind the Game: Master Chief

Interesting story on how Halo 3's marketing team molded the image of Master Chief from being a hardcore game to a pop culture hero.

"Microsoft knew Halo 3 could be big, bigger than gaming itself. It wasn't about video games, wasn't about video games press, but the franchise had to become part of pop culture."

"We didn't have an awareness problem – people knew Halo 3 was coming out. We had a perception problem."

"People thought the game was hardcore, and not mainstream. To change that perception, the team wanted people to think about Master Chief as a hero. That's how we transcended from video games to pop culture."

Click Here for the full story.

Sweded Movies

In one of the funniest films of 2008 Be Kind, Rewind, (Exp. Rating +10) Jack Black and Mos Def must re-record classic movies to replace broken VHS tapes. The process is described in the film as sweding, or “re-making something from scratch using whatever you can get your hands on.”

Click Here to watch this amazing sweded version of Tron!

This sweded version of Star Wars is one of the funniest I have seen!

Pace's Sweet Three Feet of Air

I let my roomate take the wheel for a few games of Halo and after a few games of dizzying play he got in the Warthog and somehow pulled this off.

Exp. Rating +10

Ocean's Rush

Another weekend and another 2 movies, so let's get to it!

First up, Leatherheads. This is the new George Clooney football movie about how professional football got up and running. I'm not a big sports fan and I really don't like sports movies (because they are too predictable) but I did like the actors in this so I decided to give it a whirl. The movie is a little slow, but the story is good and it has some funny parts. I really liked Jim (John Krasinski) from The Office in it too. Surprisingly, most of the movie is about a love/manipulation triangle between two players (Clooney and Krasinski) and a reporter (Renée Zellweger). Also, Clooney seemed too similar to his Ocean character and I kept thinking Brad Pitt was going to come in and set up a gambling scam on the final game. Overall it's a pretty good movie and worth checking out.
Exp. Rating +5

I also finally saw August Rush. Ever since Felicity, I fell in love with Keri Russell and think she is an amazing actress (and hot too). Keri should have gotten an Academy Award for her performance in Waitress. Also, Mission Impossible 3 would have been a much better movie if she were in it longer than the first few minutes. She is the sole reason I wanted to see this movie and as a bonus, this movie is really good! All the actors are great but the kid, August Rush (Freddie Highmore), steals the show. The story overall is a little unbelievable but it doesn't hurt the movie and the music is excellent.
Exp. Rating +5

One quick unrelated note: Sunday at lunch I got to eat at a new restaurant in Irvine called "The Counter". When you sit down, instead of a menu you receive a pencil and a clipboard with an extensive list of ingredients that you select to build your own gourmet burger. There are 312,120+ different burger combinations! It was seriously amazing and the best burger I have ever had!
Exp. Rating +10

Computer "How to Guides" at Radified.com

You need a self-help guide to assist in that mind-boggling computer configuration task you were working on? End that call to tech support in India and click on the link below.
http://www.radified.com/index2.html
Chances are my buddy Joe's blog has a link to a guide that will pull you through.
Joe is a great guy and a good friend. His site contains lots 'o computer config info and captions about his personal life and adventures with his son (He is a fantastic father).
Experience Points gives him 1000 points for being a great dad and another 500 for his supply of useful computer "How to" guides.

Dune Re-loaded

New Dune movie confirmed! Best of all is that the producers are looking for writers to create a faithful adaptation of Frank Herbert's classic novel. In the David Lynch 1984 big screen adaptation there were numerous differences. This will be the second big screen adaptation and there was also a TV mini-series released in 2000 (also available on DVD).

The new Dune movie has no firm release date yet. [Full Story]

New Pwnage

New trailer for the Halo Legendary Map Pack. Pwn the noobs!

Blackjack

This weekend I saw the movie 21. It's based on a true story of a really smart MIT student who needs to raise money for Harvard medical school. One of his professors, who notices his math skills, trains him and five fellow students to become card-counting experts, with the intent of swindling millions of dollars out of Vegas casinos. It stars Kevin Spacey, Jim Sturgess, Laurence Fishburne, and super hot Kate Bosworth. I really enjoyed this movie and highly recommend it if your a fan of Ocean's 11 or 13 (12 sucked).
Exp. Rating +10

Speaking of Kate's, my friends and I also had a discussion on who's the hottest Kate: Kate Bosworth, Kate Hudson, Kate Beckinsale, or Kate from Lost (Evangeline Lilly). I think we collectively decided Kate Beckinsale wins after we watched Van Helsing (Exp. Rating +5) this weekend too. She teams up with Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) in this movie and fights vampires, werewolf's and even Frankenstein. And she has Transilvanian horses (the bestest horses ever!) which trumps Kate's horse from Lost.

Monkey Tricks

An Indonesian monkey riding a mini bike in the streets. Probably the coolest monkey trick I've ever seen! Monkey +10 Exp. Points

True Fear

The polar bear discussion (can a human outrun one?) has moved over to a more real level for me this week. You see, a mountain lion was sighted on one of my favorite mountain biking trails, Blackstar Canyon. I know it's mountain lion country back there, but it's been a while since I've heard of a sighting. Mountain lions strike fear into mountain bikers, like sharks do to surfers. It's just one of those things you have to be smart and educate yourself about and never ride in these areas alone. Also videos like below don't help either! And yes, I know it's a tiger in the video but it's still very scary!

Let's Have Cake!

I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts today, Buzz Out Loud, and someone called in asking to explain the saying, "You can't have your cake and eat it too." I also never really understood what this meant and thought it was a stupid saying because, I can have cake AND eat it to. What it REALLY means is, once you eat your cake - you don't "have" it anymore. It's now gone. The confusing part of this saying is the word "have" because in the English language we say we are going to have cake - which means eat cake. So if you want to continue to possess (have) your cake, you can't eat it. It now makes sense!

Double Kill

Once again the battle rifle was set aside this holiday weekend and I grabbed my favorite Easter candy, a box of marshmallow peeps (surprisingly no invert sugar either), and watched two movies.

First up, Beowulf. This is one of the few stories from high school that I remember enjoying, so I was looking forward to seeing the movie adaptation. Beowulf is the story of a young warrior who fights and kills the monster Grendel, then Grendel's mother and finally a dragon. Reading all of this in high school, I had imagined some pretty epic battles against some really scary monsters. Flash forward to the movie and WOW! what a disappointment! Grendel looks like a zombie Gollum from Lord of the Rings - not even as scary as he is written about in the original story; and Beowulf kills the monster by cutting off his arm - pretty much as the original story is told.

From here, the writers of the movie thought they were better than the anonymous author of the legendary, epic poem so they re-wrote the story to have Beowulf not kill Grendel's mother but rather be seduced by her and have a demon child - the dragon. Now Beowulf must kill the dragon (his son) to save the kingdom. Why the writers thought they could re-write the story and make it "better" is beyond me. The final battle between Beowulf and the dragon is pretty cool to watch but other than that, this movie is terrible.
Exp. Rating -10

Next up was Drillbit Taylor. Owen Wilson, one of my favorite actors, plays a homeless, ex-soldier who is tired of his life and has an idea to move to Canada, "Where the government pays you to take the land". In order to get the money, he tricks three kids into hiring him as a bodyguard, so he can steal their rich parents' belongings to sell at a pawn shop. While this movie is not one of Wilson's best, it still has a lot of funny stuff in it to make it worth checking out.
Exp. Rating +1

Free Heroic Map Pack

Bungie announced that this Tuesday, March 25th, the Heroic Map Pack will now be a free download on Xbox Live Marketplace. The 3 maps are: Standoff, Rat's Nest, and Foundry. Click Here for more info.

Week in Review

I learned a few interesting things at work this week and thought I'd share with all our readers.

1) A human can outrun a polar bear (and easily escape on a bike). This topic happened to come up as one of this site's editors is going on a fishing trip to Canada and was worried that a polar bear might eat him. While the polar bear is an excellent swimmer, and you would be dead in the water against one, on land it's a different story. A polar bear weighs on average 660–1320 lbs and can only run a max 25 mph for short distances. Humans FTW.

2) Invert Sugar - Sucrose can be split into its two component sugars (glucose and fructose). This process is called inversion, and the product is called invert sugar. Because this creates very fine sugar crystals, invert sugar is used in making filling or coating for cakes, pastries, and candies which require a smoother product. This was the second ingredient on my pack of sour patch kids after the first ingredient sugar. Since I have started reading labels, I've never heard of such a thing before and while we all know high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is addictive and bad for you, I have to say invert sugar gets +5 experience points.

Legendary Map Pack

3 new Halo maps are coming April 15th! They will be titled: Avalanche (a re-make of Halo 1's "Sidewinder"), Ghost Town, and the third is still a mystery. Let's all hope for a "Hang 'Em High" re-make! Click Here for more info.

*Update*
Just got some more info on the maps. The third one is called Moonlight Sonata and I heard a rumor that it could be a re-make of Lockout!! Lockout would seem to match the name of the map. I don't know what I want more, a re-make of Lockout or Hang 'em High...Can we have both Bungie???

Puzzle Quest 1.5

I really love Puzzle Quest. Other than Halo 3, this is probably my next favorite game. It is available for pretty much every platform (I happen to own the DS version) but the 360 version is by far the best now! A new expansion pack for the Xbox 360 has just been announced that includes four new hero professions, scores of new spells to cast and items to collect, challenging new quests, monsters, bosses and much more. Click Here for more information.

I also can't wait for Infinite Interactive's upcoming sci-fi game: Puzzle Quest: Galactrix too!

Xbox 360 Video Capture

Game Platform: Xbox 360
Capture Card: Pinnacle MovieBoard Plus
Capture Software: Pinnacle Studio 11 Plus

My setup is connected as such:
Xbox 360 (RCA Component) --> Pinnacle Movieboard --> PC Computer (Via Pinnacle Movieboard PCI Card).
The Xbox 360 video output displays in a preview screen in the capture/editing program. Merely make a film clip of your Halo 3 video and go to Studio and you will see Halo 3/Xbox in that preview screen and just navigate to your video. All you have to do is start your film clip and click start capture.

In my search to buy a capture card and capture video from my Xbox 360, I found almost no affirmative results of capture cards and devices that worked or worked in a simple manner. I read of people running it through splitters, camcorders, VCR's, TV's, etc. This is my solution to this problem using the Pinnacle Movieboard Plus and its video editing software.

One thing that you may not realize is that not only do you need to be able to capture the video, but you also need to edit and convert it. This is why you also need some sort of video editing software. The Pinnacle Movieboard comes with it's Studio 11 software which allows for decent editing (plenty of tools to make a montage and such) and output formats in AVI, Mpeg, etc

Note: Movieboard does not support HDMI or HD Component cables, it only takes RCA, S-Video, DV, USB, and Firewire. Also , Movieboard installs via a PCI slot.

So what you need to do is get the Moveboard, its about $130.00, not bad when you consider you get editing software and a kick ass capture device. Install it according to how the instructions tell you.

Now, once you are done, make sure that when the Windows: Found New Device window pops and up and asks to try and install it that you go along with EVERYTHING. This will pretty much let Windows go through exactly what you did when you installed the software, but for some reason, the PC may not read the Xbox 360 if the software/hardware is not installed by Windows.

So hook up your component (RCA) connection to the Xbox 360 (Movieboard does not support HDMI or HD Component cables, it only takes RCA, S-Video, DV, USB, and Firewire). Now plug the RCA cables into the little black box that comes with Movieboard and make sure its plugged into the Capture Card installed in your PC.

Finally, start up the Pinnacle Studio software and go to capture. Now click on Setup and go to Capture Settings. From here set Video and Audio to Pinnacle 700-PCI. Everything should now be set to capture and all you need to do is save your Halo 3 film clips and then start the movie in your preview screen and click capture!!

Go through the tabs and select the clips in order and put them in your project then go to the make movie tab and select your output format and make the movie. You now have your first captured video from Halo 3.

Our First Halo 3 Video

Here it is, our first Halo 3 video ever posted to the site. Unfortunately we have to go through YouTube at the moment so the quality won't be that great, the capture card worked wonderfully and captured a quality video.

I have read about people having a lot of problems with video capture devices and their xbox 360; the setup I used worked so well that there will be another post describing how to do this with the Pinnacle Studio Moviemaker Plus.

Halo Inspiration

Can not wait to have this hanging in my office.
Exp. Rating +10

Triple Kill

This weekend I put down the battle rifle and decided to watch a few fantasy movies.

First up was "Stardust". It's about a young man who journeys to a magical world to win the heart of his true love. On his campaign to find a fallen star for his true loves hand in marriage, he upgrades to a much hotter girl, sails with pirates, battles witches and discovers his destiny. It's a really enjoyable movie!
Exp. Rating +10

Next up, "The Spiderwick Chronicles". I haven't read any of the books and knew nothing about the story going into it other than it was a fantasy with monsters. It is a story about a magical, invisible world that exists within our own and a book is discovered that holds this worlds secrets and it must be protected from falling into the wrong hands. It was a fun hour and a half.
Exp. Rating +5

Finally, I attempted to watch "The Golden Compass". I say attempted because I was unable to finish the movie. About 45 minutes in, I just couldn't take any more. One of the worst movies I have ever seen! It has a terrible and confusing story and absolutely zero character development. Avoid it completely!
Exp. Rating -10


--- Tom Kore No More Parries Master Chief ---

Let me 'sticky nade' Master Chief's allotment of points to Stardust and Spiderwick Chronicles. -10 and -5, respectively. Proof that Master Chief would rather plug into the plasma that enhance the innards of his helmet.

Stardust - My halo-loving 8 year-old thought Stardust was lame with lack-luster special effects. Only saving grace was to see Deniro dancing in a tutu.

Spiderwick - My daughter's first eureka that movies suck compared to the book.
Put down the battle rifle MC and read :)

We're Live!

Welcome to Experience Points! The place where Movies, Videogames, TV shows and other things are awarded positive or negative points for being great or terrible.