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Dance Dance Revolution Universe was released this week for the Xbox 360. The soundtrack sports over 65 tracks with even more downloadable via Xbox Live. The game comes with a bunch of new modes, with new modes geared toward beginners and multiplayer.

I’ve been waiting for a new DDR game for awhile and I’d probably going to pick this up. I’d really like to see some reviews about the pad first tho. I don’t have the room for the pad without moving some stuff around but with Guitar Hero II coming out (hopefully) next week, I’m going to have to make some room anyways. I’ll wait a week and see what kinda reviews pop up about the pad itself but IGN gave DDRU a 8.7 and winning its Editors Choice award.

Ikaruga, the pseudo-sequel to Radiant Silvergun, is probably the last great shooter. Originally released on the Dreamcast in Japan and then in the US on the Gamecube, it now looks like it may be headed to Xbox Live Arcade. The game has been seen in an unplayable form on the Xbox debug machines.

For those who haven’t played it, its a vertical shooter where you change “polarity” so you can absorb that color bullets. Its hard to explain but it makes it for a new (and difficult) twist on the classic shooter. I would love to see Radiant Silvergun come to XBL too but thats just wishful thinking.

First Castlevania: SOTN and now this. XBL is quickly becoming the “killer app” for the Xbox 360.

Some of my photos from the Lost Planet Release Party in San Francisco were recently featured in the e-zine Science Fiction/San Francisco issue #38. That issue is now available for free download.

[Direct Link to PDF]

After I bought my HD-DVD add-on for the Xbox 360, I started looking at the VGA cable due to that being the only way you can run 1080p(which my TV does not support) and upscale regular DVDs. One other advantage is you can run your TV in native resolution meaning you get cleanest possible picture because the Xbox 360 and TV doesn’t have to scale the picture to match.

Most 32″ LCD TVs use 1366×768 as their native resolution and not 1280×720 which is what 720p is. So when running 720p, the Xbox outputs a 1280×720 signal and the TV upscales it to 1366×768. Its not a big difference but there is some scaling going on. When using the VGA cable, you can run in whatever native resolution your TV is. My TV is 1366×768 and the closest option I can pick in the Xbox is 1360×768 which is about as close as it gets without being perfect. Now my Xbox is outputting a signal that my TV doesn’t have to scale so its very clean.

One problem a lot of people have with the Xbox 360 VGA cable is that it gives a very washed out display compared to using component cables. I was one of these people. The picture was so muddy I couldn’t stand it and went back to using component cables. A couple of days ago an article on digg popped up taking about how to fix the washed out look. Unfortunately, it only applied to Dell and some Samsung monitors.

This got me thinking and I started googling around to see why this was happening . A lot of people seem to have the problem but no real answers. On a whim, I started messing with the brightness and contrast controls but couldn’t really make it look any better, mostly worst but then i got an idea. When I first got my TV, I calibrated it using Avia. But my TV, like most others, have different settings for each input. So I broke out my Avia DVD, popped in in my Xbox and reran the calibration. While the video was playing, it didn’t seem so washed out and honestly, games and movies looked OK with the VGA cable, just the dashboard was muddy.

When adjusting the Black Level (Brightness) everything came into place. I turned down my Black Level to 0 and it was still too bright. I could still see both white bars moving. I left it at 0 as i couldn’t get it any lower and went back to adjust the White Level(Contrast) to make sure everything was still ok and it was.

I stopped the DVD and went back to the Dashboard and boom, the washed out look was gone! I’m sure it could be better as I couldn’t properly calibrate it due to not being able to lower the Black Level any more but it looks damn good. So good I’m sure in 2 or 3 days I won’t even remember what component looked like. So if you getting a washed out picture using the VGA cable, try lowering your Black Level(Brightness) to 0 to see it the picture improves.

Definitely try and get your hands on Avia and calibrate the screen properly too.

After striking out last night trying to score a copy of WoW: Burning Crusade, I stumbled into Walmart at around 2pm this afternoon and walked out with a copy hassle-free. (side note, they had PS3’s in stock but no Wii’s). Got home, installed 4 disc and about 14 updates, then made a new Blood Elf on Bleeding Hollow. After 20mins of going through names that were already taken, Xan was born. I decided to make a Warlock instead of the standard issue Paladin. I really haven’t made a magic user yet and with Mana Tap, Warlock seemed prime.

Got to level 6 tonight just running around doing all the starter quests. Ton of people in the Blood Elf starting town but the servers seemed stable with no noticeable lag. I picked up all my spells and learned my first summon then called it quits for today. I’m definitely not hardcore about WoW as most others are. I play when I can and but maybe Burning Crusade will get me a little more involved.

I’m going to jump on now and do some more quests and maybe let my Imp, Volrot, go apeshit on some stuff. He’s like a spider-monkey on meth. I love it.

Went down to my local Gamestop tonight for the WoW Burning Crusade midnight launch. I didn’t have the game pre-ordered so I was just hoping to get lucky and they would have a few extra copies. No such luck. It wasn’t all for nothing. I meet up with a friend and we BS’d while waiting in line.

I have some pictures of the event up on Flickr.

I’m still kinda on the fence if I want to pick up the expansion as I really don’t play WoW that much. If i could have gotten it tonight, I would have but now I may just wait for the price to drop and pick it up or I just might cancel my account all together.

I lucked out on this one. I just happen to be San Francisco for Macworld the same day that Capcom was throwing its Lost Planet release party. You may remember something about me being on my 5th Xbox 360, well, the only reason I didn’t return it was because of Lost Planet. I played the E3 demo and I was hooked. I couldn’t wait for this game to get released.The Release Party was good times. Free food, free drinks. They had a screen printing booth where you could get your own t-shirt made up for you. (I got two). Rock climbing wall, ice sculptures, DJ and even legos. There was about 100 stations setup for 1000 people, so I didn’t really get a chance to play.I did enter the tournament tho. I was in group 4B for the tournament and placed 12th. I suck.Obviously I had the game on pre-order back here but at around 9pm they started selling the collectors edition for $75 that included a free t-shirt, poster and you could get it signed by the developers. So I got mine copy signed which is awesome.Brian Dunn has some pictures up from the eventThats me baybee!!My own Flickr set