Next Gen War more interesting than ever

According to this interesting page, http://nexgenwars.com, which shows the sells of the next gen consoles with updated information, Nintento Wii sold twice (631,396 units) the Sony PS3 did, 319,827 consoles.

Microsoft xbox 360 has already sold almost 8 million consoles, and is by now the best-sold console, not forgetting it was released a year ago.

Who will win the Next Generation Consoles War? Sit down and wait, soon we'll know.

OMG New Avril Lavigne song rocks!

[...]
Keep holding on
because you know we'll make it through, we'll make it through
just stay strong
cause you know i'm here for you, i'm here for you
there's nothing you can say, nothing you can do
there's no other way when it comes to the truth
so keep holding on
cause you know we'll make it through, we'll make it through.
[...]

It's so freaking awesome! I missed so much hearing something fresh from Avril, and this song got some tears from my eyes!

This new song has nothing to do with Avril's third album, but it will be part of the Eragon's movie OST to be on theaters soon.

3Mb of Internet Connection

Yeeeeeeeeah, this is one of those great days when you download anything you find just to see how fast it goes. I got a 3Mb update, which is 3 times what I had before (one poor megabit). I download now on average at 320KBps, it's amazing, I only downloaded at 90-100KBps before. And I got my high-ID on Emule back!

Gears of War sold 1 million copies

This fact already shows that GoW has been greatly accepted by the general public, people have liked the game and it's clear. 1 million copies of a game is the highest cypher in the shortest time since the first xbox, which makes it the fastest-selling game in the Microsoft consoles history. Congratulations Epic.

The online mode has also been played widely, more than 850.000 users have played it, and it's now the most played game in xbox Live, taking the place of the former most played game online, Halo 2. More than 10 million online games have been created. Users through the xbox live have gotten up to 7 million achievements.

The different magazines and websites don't think any different, the average score for GoW they give is 95/100, critics everywhere overwhelmingly agree and have united to make “Gears of War” one of the best-reviewed games of all time.

“From the very beginning, we knew ‘Gears of War’ would be an industry-defining hit,” said Shane Kim, corporate vice president at Microsoft Game Studios. “As we watched both the game and its hype grow, it became obvious that ‘Gears of War’ was the rare title that could live up to such incredible anticipation, and judging from the reaction of critics and fans, it’s done just that.”

This is the list of the top ten online games on xbox Live.

1. Gears of War
2. Call Of Duty 3
3. Contra
4. Call of Duty 2
5. Madden NFL 07
6. RAINBOW SIX VEGAS Demo
7. Tony Hawk's Project 8 Demo
8. Splinter Cell Double Agent
9. Ghost Recon 3
10. Need for Speed™ Carbon

Gears of War is here

Finally, I have Gears of War, and.... IT RULES!
It's going to be one the best games in the history, they said the graphics were awesome, and online mode was cool, nothing compared with seeing it with your own eyes. It's even better.
I've already completed the history in the easiest mode, it's short yeah, but you can replay it as many times as you like, it doesn't get boring.
I'm replaying it now in the second difficulty mode.





See you in Live.

No more @live accounts

The exploit in the registration form that let you register a @live.com account has been fixed, and now you can't create them anymore.

If you have not been able to create one in that period of time, don't worry about it, Microsoft has promised they will make that accounts available in a near future.

Source.

EDIT: I'll even maybe lose my account. According to www.mess.be:

They write that "if you created an @live.com account using the instructions below, it's quite likely the account will get blown away."

Let's hope not, I spent some time transferring all my contacts to the new one...

EDIT2: Nobody will lose his account, no worries!

Gears of War booked

I phoned yesterday the shop where I'm buying Gears of War, and I reserved it. They'll phone me on friday to tell me there are available units, and I'll go to get it.

I was already sure I was gonna buy it, but after testing it in the SIMO, I'm so surprised, I need to get it.

Back from the SIMO

I'm just back for the second day in the SIMO, I'll tell you about it in a future post, I'll tell you all I saw / did, and I'll post a lot of photos. Keep an eye here!

Create an @live.com account! [No working anymore]

This is exclusive from www.mess.be, so I just want you to check it, I quote it here, but the original source is, remember, mess.be

Today we present something many of you have been waiting for, the how-to register your live.com account with included 2 gigabyte mail account! We have tried- and found it working on several top level domain accounts as well. But to keep you from waiting here it is:

1. Goto this page to start registering your windows live account.

2. Press the sign-up button and you will be presented a form to sign up for a hotmail account.

3.Copy the following javascript injection code:



4. Paste the code in your address bar (you know, that thing you normally type www.mess.be).

5. Hit enter, if all went well it should show a message box telling you "Success - additional domains added!".

6. Now you can select a multitude of domains, fill out the form and you are ready to go!

Thanks Mess.be a lot for this! I created myself one!
It works on Firefox, it's the only browser I tried it on.

If you are smart, and know a little bit about programming, you should know how to create addresses like somebody@somewhat.whateveryouwant. I have tried and the registration works, I haven't been able to try it yet since the Messenger service seems to be down now.

It didn't work :P

NOTE: The exploit has been fixed and this doesn't work anymore.

Decided, I'm buying Gears of War

Just have a look at this, Gamespot gave it a 9.6 of Score, and the Editors' Choice award!

It's definitive, the day it comes out, I'm going to buy it. I'm really looking forward to it.
At first I knew it was an expected game, and it did look pretty well, but I was still a bit careful in case it was in the end not that good.



Gamespot is never wrong, and I trust them, this is going to be one of the better games of the history.

"Gears of War is a game that capitalizes on all of the promises made by the next generation of gaming. It looks more than a few steps beyond what consoles have been doing to this point, and the gameplay is supremely fulfilling from start to finish in all of its various modes."

Click to see full score.

Microsoft Office 2007 RTM too!

"Monday Microsoft will announce that the 2007 Microsoft Office system products have been released to manufacturing (RTM). This gold code milestone concludes the largest Office beta program to date, with more than 3.5 million people downloading Beta 2. RTM also marks a critical step toward worldwide business availability of the 2007 Office system, Windows Vista and Exchange Server 2007 on Nov. 30, 2006."

SIMO starting this week

SIMO, a Spanish electronics show in Madrid will be starting this week, and it'll last until Sunday.

It's the biggest thing about that we have in Spain, there will be a whole building for Microsoft, they'll have xbox 360s with Gears of War, and they'll maybe show Windows Vista (which recently went RTM)

I still have no invitations, I always get them eventually, though if I don't I'll buy them for 10€ (their official cost).
Last year I went with my friends once and with my father the second time the day after. This year I don't know what I will do. Anyways, I'm really looking forward to it.

I'll post about it, and will leave photos here, don't worry about it :)

Wikipedia used to spread a virus

Wikipedia's freedom philosophy is one of the greatest ideas that anyone has had in the Internet. And it's a great way to offer updated information to anyone for free.

But I had never thought that it could be used for bad aims too.
It happened with an article in the German Wikipedia, de.wikipedia.org, which was created by hackers claiming to include a link to a fix for a supposedly new version of the Blaster worm. However, the 'fix' was actually a piece of malicious code, designed to infect visitors' PCs.

Hackers then spammed out an email to German computer users, claiming to come from Wikipedia, and directing them to information about the 'new worm'.

"The good news is that the authorities at Wikipedia quickly identitifed and edited the article on their site," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "Unfortunately, however, the previous version of the page was still present in the archive and was continuing to point to malicious code. The hackers were thus able to send out spam pointing people to the page on Wikipedia, and try and lead them into infection."

The good point of this, is that Wikipedia can improve their security measures to make this not happen again.

Source.

Windows Vista goes RTM

Finally, it's here, no more BETAs or RCs, Windows Vista is complete. The final build number is 6000, beautiful, isn't it? :)

File information:
Title: WK RTM build 6000 16386
Release Date: 11/3/2006
Size: 2,377.45 MB
Description: WK RTM build 6000.16386
Filename: WDK_6000.16386.061101-2205.iso

Last.fm

Thanks Kenkku for showing me this site. I have to say I hate him for showing it to me cause right now I should be studying instead of browsing it :P

However, in case you don't know it as I didn't, this site works with a program you download, that detects the music you are listening to at every time. Then it uploads that information in real time to your account in last.fm.

The site has huge databases, with information about singers, most played tracks, most played artist, etc etc.

Check it out, and register, it's absolutely worth it!

http://last.fm
My user account: http://www.last.fm/user/JaviSoto/

First Details of Halo 3 Released?

Though we cannot confirm the authenticity of it, some sources believe the information is true, so here it is:

Xbox 360 Dashboard Fall Update

Yesterday I turned on my xbox and it told me there was an update. I was surprised, cause I wasn't expecting the update until December. I wondered if that was the update with the 1080p and HD-DVD support. While I downloaded it, I turned on my computer to check the xbox site and see what the update was all about.

Indeed, it was the big update we all were expecting, and these are the most important new features:

General facelift
What you see at first, is that the marketplace menus look better, with images instead of plain text. The navigation through the menus is now much faster, when you enter somewhere, you see it instantaneously, no wait, that's cool.
The acrcade games menu is also changed, as well as the market place it has images instead of plain text, with new cool features that I detail below.

Arcade:
You can see the speed improvements also in the Arcade games menu, you don't have to wait anymore to see the list of arcade games. They've also been restructured, to make it easier to find the one you want. It also has a new feature to auto-download the demo of any new arcade game that is released, you don't even have to visit the marketplace. Nice idea I got to say.
There is a new feature to see the xbox live friends leaderboard for a given arcade game from outside of the game. And if you want a friend to try a game, you just have to suggest it to him using a new feature that sends automatically a message to a friend you choose.
You have just downloaded a new game from the arcade? Don't waste time going to the arcade menu, select "play now" directly from the marketplace and there you go!

HD-DVD and Full HD Support:


Yes! Finally the Microsoft console supports the Full HD (1080 progressive lines) format, as the PS3 does. The games released by now only supports 720p or 1080i, if you have a 1080p TV and you run a current game, it will upscale it.
But new coming games might support 1080p. They even say that Splinter Cell Double Agent supports natively 1080p already.

With this new update, the HD-DVD extern player will now work, as well as other numerous new devices (like the wireless headset and the wireless wheel)

Video Playing:
One of the features I looked forward the most is the video playing from your computer and from any external device or physical media (cds or dvds). It also reproduces Microsoft formats (like WMV), but at least you don't need anymore to have Windows Media Center to play them. I do have it, but now it's much simpler to play a video. You can even use the Windows Media Player 11 media share function.

---

Those are the most remarkable new features, but there are more, don't forget to check the whole list.

In conclusion, I am very happy with this update. It's the first update I get since I bought the console, and I love that, after buying it, I can get more brand new features without paying a cent.
I'm looking forward for the next one. What will come? An Internet Explorer? Messenger? DivX support? (I doubt this one)

Source
Full list of changes

Wii Launch games unvelied

This is the list of games that will come out with the console the launch day (December 8th), as well as the games that will come out later this year.

December 8th 2006:

• Wii Sports package (including the game system and Wii Sports tennis, golf, boxing, baseball and bowling)
• The Legend of Zelda : Twilight Princess
• Wii Play (Including a Wii controller)
• Call of Duty 3 (Activision)
• Marvel: Ultimate AllianceTM (Activision)
• Tony Hawk's Downhill JamTM(Activision)
• Madden NFL 07 (EA)
• Need For Speed Carbon (EA)
• Happy Feet (Midway Games)
• Rampage: Total Destruction (Midway Games)
• Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz (Sega)
• Gottlieb Pinball Classics (System 3)
• Super Fruit Fall (System 3)
• Disney/ Pixar Cars (THQ)
• Barnyard (THQ)
• Spongebob Squarepants: Creature from the Krusty Krab (THQ)
• Blazing Angels Squadrons of WW II (Ubisoft)
  
• Far Cry Vengeance (Ubisoft)
• GT Pro Series (Ubisoft)
• Monster 4x4 World Circuit (Ubisoft)
• Open Season(Ubisoft)
• Rayman Raving RabbidsTM (Ubisoft)
• Red Steel (Ubisoft)
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent (Ubisoft)

Fall 2006

• Impossible Mission (System 3)
  
• Leaderboard Golf (System 3)
• Tennis Masters (System 3)

Windows Media Player 11 goes final

There is nothing new at first sight in this final version, but I guess it's now stable and has no bugs.

Go quickly and download it.

Windows Live Messenger 8.1 Beta public

After some time on private beta (which I tried to get in), Windows Live Messenger 8.1 is available as public beta.

Check what's new.

Download.