Tag Archive for ‘entertainment’ at T. Longren

Tag Archive for 'entertainment'

Twee60: Automatic Xbox Live To Twitter

Published

on May 16, 2008

. 0 Comments

Twee60 is a web based application that tweets your status on Xbox Live to your Twitter account. The nice thing about Twee60 is there’s no software to install, unlike the Xbox Live to Twitter application I wrote about previously.

Don’t get me wrong, Martin’s Xbox Live to Twitter app does a very nice job and offers many more customization options than Twee60. Twee60 is ideal for me though because it doesn’t require any software to be installed.

Twee60 is especially nice for Linux or Mac users who don’t even have a software package they could install to tweet their Xbox Live status. I installed a Windows box at home just so I could run Martin’s Xbox Live to Twitter app. Now that I have Twee60, I can take that box down.

There’s only a few options you need to set in Twee60 before it’s ready to tweet your Xbox Live status. All you’ll need is your gamertag, twitter e-mail, twitter password, and zip code. Xbox Live members who are also Twitter users should check it out and register an account.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Halo 3 Screenshot Site

Published

Tyler

on March 6, 2008

in Games, Internet, Personal and Xbox

. 1 Comment

There’s some truly amazing looking screenshots people have taken in Halo 3. I absolutely love the fact that you can take screenshots from Halo 3 matches, I could spend hours watching movies looking for good screenshots to take.

i <3 halo 3 is a site that features some of the best Halo 3 screenshots I’ve ever seen. If you want your screenshots featured on the site, just get in touch with bs angel, the site operator. bs angel will browse through your screenshots at bungie.net. If she finds something good, she may post the screenshot to the blog. Now, go check it out!

Popularity: 10% [?]

Gears of War 2 is official

Published

Tyler

on February 22, 2008

in Games, Internet, Personal and Xbox

. 1 Comment

I’m a bit late and it’s been covered a lot already, but since this is the first official teaser video for Gears of War 2, I had to post it.

I got so excited last night when I watched this on my Xbox 360. There’s only been one other game I’ve been this excited for, and that game was Halo 3. Gears of War is one of my favorite games of all time. The other day, I had an urge to play some Gears. A buddy and I sat down played through the whole campaign on Casual in a few hours. It was lovely.

I can’t wait for Gears of War 2.

Popularity: 12% [?]

Xbox Live To Twitter

Published

Tyler

on February 7, 2008

in Games, Internet and Xbox

. 3 Comments

Duncan Mackenzie released an application in May of 2007 that checks your Xbox Live status and sends your status to Twitter so all your followers on Twitter can see what you’re playing on your Xbox 360.

A short while after the initial release, Microsoft made some changes to Xbox Live that broke Duncan’s software, so he came out with an update. Then, a short while later, both Xbox Live and Twitter made some changes which totally broke Duncan’s software. It hasn’t worked since those updates were made.

Since then, I’ve been looking for something similar every few weeks or so. The other day, I set out to find a replacement for Duncan’s software and I came across Martin Hinshelwood’s blog.

Martin has picked up where Duncan left off with his Xbox Live to Twitter application. Martin was having trouble getting Duncan’s software to work, so he just wrote his own. I’ve been using Martin’s Xbox Live to Twitter app for a few days now and haven’t had any problems with it. It’s been posting my Xbox Live status to Twitter like mad.

If you use Twitter and have Xbox Live, you should give Xbox Live to Twitter a try. You can download the Windows installer or the source code at the CodePlex.

Popularity: 13% [?]

I’m Addicted To Halo 3

Published

Tyler

on October 11, 2007

in Games, Internet, Personal and Xbox

. 5 Comments

I’ve been playing a lot of Halo 3 lately. I have yet to finish the campaign on Heroic or Legendary, but I have completed the campaign on normal. I’d say it took me roughly 8 hours of playing to finish on normal, but I did a lot of exploring around the levels.

After I beat the campaign on normal, I started in on multiplayer on Xbox Live. That may have been a mistake, multiplayer on Xbox Live is horribly addictive. It’s not just the online gameplay that’s addictive though, the ability to watch movies of yourself playing is equally, if not more addicting.

Halo 3 records video of all the games you play, weather it’s an online multiplayer game or a single player campaign. You can watch all your videos and choose which ones to save in the Theater, the place in Halo 3 where you can access all sorts of Halo 3 media.

One really neat feature is the ability to take screenshots from your movies. So, if you had an awesome looking kill or something else that you want to remember forever, you can take a screenshot of it and it’ll be sent to your Bungie.net profile for you to download and save later. I’ve been saving all my screenshots and uploading them to Flickr for permanent storage. You can have a look at them here, under my Halo 3 tag at Flickr. The quality of the screenshots is pretty good, they’ve all got a resolution of 1536 x 1152.

Another cool new feature is custom armor for your Spartan or Elite multiplayer character. You can choose from roughly seven different armor styles. You can set different styles for your helmet, left shoulder, right shoulder, and chest plate. The Halo 3 Player Model Generator site lets you see what your Spartan or Elite would look like with all the available types of armor. According to that site, there’s 187,947,000 different armor combinations possible in Halo 3. Some of the Armor styles on that site are available only to Bungie employees, such as the “Flaming helmet” chest plate. Supposedly, using this chest plate makes the players helmet appear to be engulfed in flames. Seems like it’d make a nice sniper target to me…

Popularity: 22% [?]

Xbox 360: Returning Your Xbox 360 For Repair

Published

Tyler

on April 4, 2007

in Games, Noteworthy, Personal and Xbox

. 716 Comments

Lots of people have been coming here searching for information about sending their Xbox 360 in to Microsoft for repair. My Xbox 360 is on it’s way back to me from being repaired, so I figured I’d post my experience with the repair process.

On March 24th, 2007 I contacted Microsoft Xbox customer support and was able to get the repair process started. My Xbox 360 was still suffering from the dreaded 3 red lights on the Ring Of Light at that time.

Upon initiatiating the repair process, I received an email from Microsoft confirming the repair process had begun. The email stated that I would receive another email once the next step in the repair process begins:

Dear Xbox Customer:

Thank you for contacting Xbox Customer Care. We have received your request for service. Please prepare your console and follow the instructions provided by our customer service department. You will receive an e-mail as soon as the next step in the process has begun.

Thank you,
Xbox Customer Care

The support agent I spoke with gave detailed instructions on what information to include in the box I returned my Xbox 360 in. I typed all the information out, printed it, and put it right on top of my Xbox 360 inside the box I shipped it in. Include this information when returning your Xbox 360 for repair:

Support Reference # (provided by Xbox support agent).
Xbox 360 serial number (from the back of your console).
Your name.
Your return shipping address.

It’s important that you DO NOT SEND YOUR HARD DRIVE, CONTROLLERS, OR MEMORY CARDS! If you send them in with your console you will probably never see them again. Make sure there’s not a game in the DVD drive. Take your hard drive off and make sure all memory cards are out before packing your Xbox 360 up. All you want to send in is your bare Xbox 360 console.

Once you have your Xbox 360 all packaged up along with the necessary information, you’re ready to ship. There seems to be quite a bit of confusion exactly where to send your Xbox 360 for repair. There’s lots of confusion because many of the Xbox support agents don’t speak english as their native language. It’s hard to understand a mailing address from someone with a thick Spanish accent. Now, I’m sure Microsoft has more than one repair center, so make sure to pay close attention when the agent gives you the address to send your Xbox 360 to. I was told to send my Xbox 360 to the following address, your support agent may provide you with a different address:

Repair Center
5700 South International Parkway
Door #18
McAllen, TX 78503

I just took my box to my local post office to ship. I shipped it using the Priority Mail service and purchased $200 worth of insurance coverage for $3.35. Total came to be about $18. Only took 4 days to get there, and that’s counting the weekend. Once they received the package at the repair center I got the following email:

Dear Customer,

We have received your Xbox at our service center. It is our priority to process your Xbox in a timely manner and to get it back to you as good as new. We will contact you as soon as we are finished so you can get ready to get back into the game!

Thanks,
Xbox Customer Care

Exactly two hours later, I got another email stating that my Xbox 360 had been fixed and was on it’s way home. The email said my Xbox 360 should be here in 2 to 5 days, it’d be great to have it before this weekend. They even gave me a UPS tracking number, but there’s nothing there other than a confirmation that the return shipping has been paid for. Hopefully some real tracking data will show up on it tomorrow.

Popularity: 65% [?]