Over the weekend, I acquired the second half of the reason that I bought an Xbox, Jade Empire.

I managed to squeeze a few hours of play in, and at this point, I feel that the game seems pretty much like “Knights of the Old Republic, in Asia”. The main difference — besides the completely different setting, story, characters and so on — is that the combat is real-time, action combat. Once I’d gotten used to the control scheme and figured out the best way to defeat the evil minions of whoever-is-sending-them, I’ve found most of the battles aren’t too difficult. I have still ‘died’ a few times since but overall they’re not too taxing.

Unlike Fable, which I was a bit disappointed with, Jade Empire has been pretty good so far. BioWare has a history of releasing quality video games, and this game is no exception (their reputation isn’t quite as solid as Blizzard’s, who — in the eyes of many gamers — could release a game where you control a grain of dirt through the sea and it would still sell millions of copies).

As usual, I am finding that my character is a good-guy, but so far I fully intend to return to the game and be an evil character again — it depends on whether I feel it’s worth playing through again.

The next game I’m waiting for is Forza Motorsport, which is being developed by Microsoft and touted as a contender for more realistic driving ‘game’. BioWare should be releasing Neverwinter Nights 2 next year, which should also be a big release.

Over the last couple of days, I’ve been playing with my Xbox quite a bit. The main reason for this is that it’s been getting a lot of use while I’ve been on holiday, and I’ve been tweaking it just so (i.e. exactly how I want it).

When I first received the Xbox, it had the “traditional” EvolutionX (aka EvoX) dashboard installed, which was adequate until I’d learned how the Xbox worked. A few months later, I replaced it with the Avalaunch dashboard, and also installed the most recent version of Xbox Media Center (aka XBMC) for use when watching video files or wanting to listen to some music. Eventually, I configured XBMC to play videos/music directly from my computer’s hard disk so I didn’t have to burn it to a CD/DVD for it to be watched.

Right, now you’re up-to-speed. The other day while playing KotOR II I began missing my Gamecube’s wireless “Wavebird” controller, so went out and bought the Logitech wireless unit for the Xbox. Shortly after playing, I realised that if the Xbox remote control worked with XBMC, it would be a lot more convenient, so I bought that too (well, used a gift voucher I’d received from my credit card points).

So now, the Xbox boots straight into XBMC (unless a game or movie is in the drive) and I can use our universal remote (programmed from the recently-purchased Xbox one) to watch TV on the Xbox (and thanks to Optus’ current download-all-you-can-at-night offer, there’s quite a lot). Great stuff.

The next things I want to purchase are a wireless bridge and access point so I don’t need to have this ugly cable running through the house. I can see a big future for this unit. Oh, and it plays games occasionally.

So I’ve recently dumped my current “must-play” game Pirates! in favour of Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords (one of the shortest titles ever), and am about seven or eight hours into the forty-ish hour game.

It seems that a lot of people prefer playing evil roles in games (there are probably more links, but I can’t remember right now) but I for one have difficulty playing an evil character in games like this. In Fable, for instance, I played the game exactly how I felt at the time. Sometimes I was slightly evil, but mostly I was a good-guy. This is pretty much how I always play video games with a “good/evil” choice structure (usually it’s pretty obvious, too).

I wonder why that is; if there’s an option to talk a poor person out of his money, and then send him on a quest to attack his mother-in-law with a chainsaw, I just can’t do it. Instead, I save their whole family, pay off their mortgage and arrange for their daughter to marry a wealthy prince. I can’t bring myself to hurt these poor little digital characters.

Perhaps it’s just my nature, perhaps it’s from years of playing RPGs and being forced to be the good-guy. Often when I finish a game, playing it “as I feel” (in other words, I end up as a very good-guy), I will go back and play a little bit as the bad guy (or in the case of the first Knights of the Old Republic, go back to the pivotal point where the endings are chosen, and play as the evil character. Still, it’s not my first choice to act like that.

I wonder then, with so many people saying they enjoy playing as evil characters, is it because they are inherently bad themselves, or just prefer to play things out in that way because they aren’t “allowed to” in real life?

After umming and ahhing for many a month, I’ve decided that I actually do want to get an X-Box.

There had been a number of reasons I didn’t want one; one of which is that it’s a Microsoft product, and I have an icky feeling whenever I give them money (y’know, because they need it more than I do).

The other is because I didn’t really want to have too many consoles floating around; especially since we’re nearing the end of this generation of consoles. Also, I’d usually been able to get any other games on PC, which was fine. Recently, however, many games are beginning to be console-only (or at least for a long length of time).

Games like Jade Empire from legendary developer BioWare (Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Knights of the Old Republic), Fable from even more legendary … guy Peter Molyneux and I’m sure there’s a bunch more than I can’t be bothered searching for. There are also a lot of exclusive games that are already out (Top Spin, Crimson Skies, Project Gotham Racing 2, and again, probably a lot more than those).

I’m loathe to say it, but the Gamecube seems to be in a steady-decline. There’s not really been anything exciting me for the console since Mario Kart, and I didn’t even buy that because of the negative reviews. That was released in August/September last year. Many publishers are leaving/abandoning my favourite console in droves; recent news has fantastic developer Silicon Knights seeking to break their exclusivity deal with Nintendo (which means they probably don’t think it’s a viable platform, though I’ve not seen anything other than they’re going separate ways). All these things lead to a bleak future for the Gamecube. Hopefully things will pick up next-generation; I bet Nintendo has already admitted defeat internally.

So back to the X-Box. Yup, I’m getting one. I’m planning to get it modded so I can do whatever foul experiments I feel like, but I’ll have to see what that costs. Because of the awesome WaveBird I’ve been spoiled. There doesn’t appear to be any good wireless controllers for the X-Box; the only one I can see that appears decent is a Logitech controller but it’s over a hundred bucks (the WaveBird costs about half that).

Apparently some lucky person Won the Internet. Good on them, I say. Don’t think it’s a prize I’d like, what with all the whiny kids and all. Maybe stuff accessible from the Internet, like all of Amazon’s stock would be nice. Our house doesn’t have much storage space though; I could try and fit it in the shed out the back.

Note: Ever wondered what would actually happen if some sort of asteroid collided with Earth? Now you don’t have to

When America’s Army was originally released, I eagerly downloaded it. Hell, a free FPS game, funded by a government? Who wouldn’t?!

The idea was that the American government was allowing the US Army to commission a few games, through to 2006 if I recall correctly. They will be creating a “Starcraft” type game down the track, but at the moment, it’s just the FPS.

These games were designed to recruit new … recruits into the US Army, by showing them how exciting it all is.

The original version of the game included a small amount of “training”, which basically amounted to infantry training (i.e. shooting targets, running through obstacle courses). Afterwards, you were able to play the game. As time went on, a few more types of training were added to the game. Last time I’d played, there was “Airborne” training (parachuting) and “Marines” training, which I never bothered doing as you had to play the game a lot before doing it.

The game was fun, but I decided to come back to it after it became a little bit more mature.

Now, they’re up to version 2.00, which is a rather large milestone. So, last night, I decided to grab it and give it another go. The file weighs in at 650MB or so, which isn’t a big deal since I’m on cable. But it’s quite hefty anyway.

Installing the game, I found my original character data had been gone (your data, including how you perform in training, is stored on a US Army server) and my account deleted. Oh well, whatever, I’d only done a few training missions anyway. Why not start fresh?

And fresh I started. I completed the training missions I’d done last time — in fact, they hadn’t changed a bit since the last version I’d played (I think it was around 2 years ago). I also completed the Airborne training which I’d never bothered with last time.

On a bit of a roll, I decided I would try the new training. The types were “Medic” and “Special Forces” (I guess they renamed the “Marines” training). Well, why not give “Medic” a shot, since it’s before “Special Forces” in the list (and this is where the topic of today’s post may start to actually make sense).

So, I start the Medic training. You are in a hospital (logical I guess, for a Medic) and attend a lecture. Wait… A lecture? Yep, that’s right. You’re actually sitting in a 3D classroom, with a 3D projector beaming images onto a screen, and a 3D lecturer explaining how to give a casualty first aid. But that’s not enough. Oh no. After the lecture, you have to complete a test. That’s right, a test.

Since this was the first time I’d seen this, I thought I’d sit through it, and I sort of paid attention too. Except that I made my virtual person look around the room, bored. Well, I got 75% on the test and was allowed into the next Medic training.

The next “level” of training was… You guessed it. A LECTURE. Except this one went twice as long. So, I grabbed a drink and watched some TV. Well, I failed the test with 50%. That’s right, I FAILED AN IN-GAME TEST. Bugger that. I don’t play FPS games to LEARN, I play them to MAIM.

Special Forces should be fun, right? They blow things up and sneak around. Nope, after having to listen to guys bitching about what they do, guess what’s next? Oh yeah, another bloody lecture, followed by a test!

It was at this point I turned the game off, and played Star wars - Knights of the Old Republic (which is actually FUN). I know the US Army is trying to recruit people, but surely this is stupid. Maybe I’ll look online for answers for the test…