The FNG-Spot: Games

GTA IV is officially Here

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 14:43:56 GMT

It's finally here... well, it's finally "officially" here. Many gamers have been playing GTA IV for several days now due to advanced sales & leaked pirated copies, but today anyone 17 years of age+ can get their hands on an officially released retail copy of GTA IV. (If you're got the extra coin, and you want a safe place to keep your M rated games, I suggest picking up the Special Edition.)

Here's an early image of what the Special Edition would come with:

GTA IV Special Edition - What We Got:

Grand Theft Auto IV: Special Edition - Box

GTA IV Special Edition - What's In The Box:

Grand Theft Auto IV: Special Edition - Lockbox

Grand Theft Auto IV: Special Edition - Duffel Bag

Grand Theft Auto IV: Special Edition - Audio CD (not entire soundtrack)

Grand Theft Auto IV: Special Edition - Art Book

Grand Theft Auto IV: Special Edition - Game Disc & Key Chain

I checked my Xbox Live Friends List at one point last night and there were 19 out of 95 people online; 19 of those 19 people were playing GTA IV!! (This is going to be so much fun!!)

Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 18:33:55 GMT

I now consider Guitar Hero one of my favorite games of all time.... I'm still not that good at it, but it's so much damn fun that I really don't care. I'd even go so far as to say that I enjoy it as much as, if not more, than Street Fighter. (Anyone who knows me in the "real world" will tell you that a statement like that is crazy talk.)

Right now, Guitar Hero fans are excitedly anticipating the release of Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s. The latest installment of GH is heading to PlayStation 2's everywhere on the 24th of this month... that doesn't do me much good since I haven't really played my PlayStation 2 since November 15th, 2001. [NOTE: 10/15/01 is when the Xbox was 1st released.] Of course, I'll have to play it at work on the PS2 for an hour or so to make codes, but I doubt I'll play it at all after that. Anyway, I don't understand why this game is a "PlayStation 2 Exclusive"; it's rediculous.

If Guitar Hero II never released on Xbox 360, I NEVER would have had the pleasure of becoming an addict. I also never would have forced everyone that has ever come to my house to play it... Every person that has come over and picked up the guitar has left my house a Guitar Hero II junkie, and so far, every one of them has purchased a copy of the game for their Xbox 360 and an extra controller. I found out recently that several of those people have introduced several others to the game and they've all become addicts as well. One friend of mine, Tom, doesn't even own an Xbox 360... he has a PlayStation 2.. After I got my buddy Wayne hooked on the game, he purchased it and made Tom play it at his place. Tom was immediately hooked and then he went out and picked up both Guitar Hero I & II for his PS2!!!

So what's the moral of this story? Console exclusivity isn't the best idea for developers if they want to make good games seriously profitable.

Will Xbox 360 owners be able to rock the 80's any time soon? Is Microsoft going to make us shell out 500 M$ points for every pack of 3 songs on Guitar Hero Encore: Rock the 80's, or will we be able to purchase the full game some time by the end of thsi year? My original prediction was that this would end up being a downlaodable "expansion pack", but after seeing the list of songs I realized how expensive that would be.... oh wait... overpriced 'add-on content' that's only accessible via the console you originally purchased it on is what the marketplace is all about... (Sorry, I almost forgot.)

Here's some of the songs that have been confirmed to be on Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80's:

Caught in a Mosh (as made famous by Anthrax)
Balls to the Wall (as made famous by Accept)
Electric Eye (performed by Judas Priest)
Los Angeles (as made famous by X)
Police Truck (as made famous by Dead Kennedys)
We Got the Beat (as made famous by The Go Go's)
(I Think I'm) Turning Japanese (as made famous by Vapors)
Seventeen (as made famous by Winger)
Because, it's Midnite (performed by Limozeen)
Hold On Loosely (as made famous by .38 Special)
No One Like You (as made famous by Scorpions)
Only a Lad (as made famous by Oingo Boingo)
Ballroom Blitz (as made famous by Krokus)
The Warrior (performed by Scandal)
What I Like About You (as made famous by The Romantics)
Wrath Child (as made famous by Iron Maiden)
I Wanna Rock (performed by Twisted Sister)
I Ran (performed by Flock of Seagulls)
Round and Round (as made famous by Ratt)
Metal Health (as made famous by Quiet Riot)
Holy Diver (as made famous by Dio)
Heat Of The Moment (as made famous by Asia)
Radar Love (as made famous by White Lion)
18 and Life (as made famous by Skid Row)
Bathroom Wall (as made famous by Faster Pussycat)
Lonely is the Night (as made famous by Billy Squier)
Nothing But a Good Time (as made famous by Poison)
Play With Me (as made famous by Extreme)
Shaken (as made famous by Eddie Money)
Synchronicity II (as made famous by The Police)

Oh yeah, 1 more thing..... I plan on throwing a "Guitar Hero party" very soon & I need some ideas. I'm thinking about having plenty of 'adult beverages', a few snacks, Guitar Hero II on the big screen, another copy hooked up on the PC monitor with headphones for people to get a little practice in, a PS2 hooked up outside on our patio with Guitar Hero 1, and prizes for the best Guitar Hero II players.

Any ideas / suggestions are welcome! (Thanks)

- Jay

Stupid Mistake, Xbox AR, PS3, PSP & Xbox 360 News

Mon, 20 Mar 2006 02:16:44 GMT

I know it's been a while since my last blog entry; I've been experiencing some 'problems' with my laptop ever since my trip to Miami. Allow me to bestow upon you a valuable lesson learned over the last few weeks… If you have anti-virus & an “Internet Security” program installed on your PC / laptop, DO NOT disable it when connecting a foreign network! If you do, you could end up with adware, malware, and viruses installed onto your system faster than you can say "OH $#!T !!!!!"

After a few days of battling with the processor halting viruses & malware, I finally had to resort to reformatting my HDD and reinstalling EVERYTHING... I'm almost back to 100%.. I still need to find a few pieces of software to be back to where I was before I 'effed up'!

So, what's been going on over the past few weeks?

Well, I'm about to tell you.... First, here's the list of my latest Xbox Aciton Replay saves..

*XBox Action Replay:* Xbox Action Replay Saves Recently Updated...
GAME:	SAVE NAME:	RELEASED:
Final Fight: Streetwise	01 Begin with Respect, Tension, and Cash Maxed out!!	Mar. 6, 2006
Final Fight: Streetwise	02 All Bonus Material Unlocked. Respect, Tension, and Cash Maxed!!	Mar. 6, 2006
TOCA Race Driver 3	01 All Bonuses Unlocked (0% Complete)	Mar. 9, 2006
Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter	01 All Missions & Ghost Leader Difficulty Unlocked	Mar. 15, 2006
Driver: Parallel Lines	01 All Cheats Unlocked (0% Complete)	Mar. 16, 2006
	02 All Cheats & $999,999,999	Mar. 16, 2006
	03 Start with $999,999,999	Mar. 16, 2006
	04 Super Start: Max Cash, All Cheats & All Cars Unlocked	Mar. 16, 2006
	05 Super Start Upgraded: Max Cash, All Cheats, All Cars Unlocked & Fully Upgraded.	Mar. 16, 2006
Rainbow Six: Critical Hour	01 All Missions Unlocked	Mar. 17, 2006
Rainbow Six: Critical Hour	02 Infinite Health & Invisibility (All Stages)	Mar. 17, 2006

NOTE: All Xbox Action Replay saves I create for Codejunkies.com can also be found on GameFAQs.com.

PlayStation 3 NEWS:

Launching November 2006
The lateset news is that Sony has 'officially announced' that the PlayStation 3 will be released this November; GameSpot ran the headline "It's Official: PS3 launching worldwide November 2006". Sony also announced an online gaming service similar to Microsoft's Xbox Live service & a 60 Gig hard disk drive. Some sources say that the 60 Gig hard drive will be shipped with the system, and a 100 Gig hard drive will be sold separately as an "upgrade".

[my 2 cents]

As I've been saying since Sony debuted their PS3 vaporware at E3 2005; I'll believe it when I see it.

None of the 'oooh..' and 'ahhhh..' titles that were shown were playable....
(I still call "Bull$*** on that Kill Zone video... I can't see how that was 'real time' game play.)
The "amazing" Fight Night Round 3 demo that was shown is even more "amazing" on the Xbox 360....
(BECAUSE IT'S AVAILABLE NOW & FULLY PLAYABLE!!!)
How much is this system going to set consumers back?
(Due to the HDD, BluRay, and "System Specs", I can't see it being less than $499.99 when it ships.)
If the industry rumors are true, and the final development kits don't ship until late June, how is the PS3 going to be done, ship in November, and have adequate software support?

[/my 2 cents]

Not Quite 100% Backward Compatible
During the PS3 confrence Sony presented a slide stating that the console would be 100% backward compatible with PStwo and PSone titles. Apparently that statement wasn't entirely accurate due to the comment "TRC must be observed!"

Not all games pass the TRC (Technical Requirements Criteria), therefore 100% backward compatibility cannot be guaranteed; after all, not all PSone games are fully compatible with the PS2 hardware. Some developers are claiming that 50 - 85% of PStwo and PSone games will be backward compatible.

[my 2 cents]
If only Xbox 360 owners would be given 50 - 85% backward compatibility.
The current list of backward compatible games for the Xbox 360 SUCKS @$$!!!
[/my 2 cents]

PSP NEWS:

Choosy over on the Maxconsole forums has posted a quick tutorial for PSP owners....

Firmware Dumping How To Do It.

Ok i have seen many post cluttering up threads so i thought i would clear up
firmware dumping for once and for all.

We first need to download the relevant tools.

1)MPH Firmware loader V1.4

http://mphwebsite.tuxfamily.org/index.php?program=15

2)Firmware V2.00 & V2.5 eboots.

Once we have these we can proceed to installing and dumping the firmware.
Extract the firmware loader and install to PSP/GAME on your MS.
Extract the V2.00 eboot and place in root of your MS.
Create a new folder in root of MS called Firmware.
Run the MPH firmware loader & select Launch/Install A Firmware/Automatically (with an eboot.pbp).
On the automatic installation screen press up on the dpad so choose is highlighted on pbp file & select it.
On the choose file screen press up on the dpad then scroll down to the eboot.pbp & select it.
Do the same with the install folder option selecting the firmware folder we just created.
Leave the Copy Flash1 option set on Yes.
Once we have done this select Install and wait for it to dump the firmware.
When you see the MS led stop flashing and The Firmware Has Been Successfully Dumped press OK.
Exit the MPH firmware loader and goto the usb option on your PSP.
Create a new folder on you PC called firmware then one inside of that called V2.00 & V2.50.
Copy the flash0 & flash1 folder from your PSP MS firmware folder to the v2.00 folder on your PC.
Delete the flash0 & flash1 folders form your MS & repeat the whole process again the the V2.50 eboot.
You now have 2 complete dumps of the V2.00 & V2.50 firmwares.
To create a hybrid firmware create a new folder on your PC in the firmwares folder called hybrid.
Copy the v2.00 Flash0 folder to it & rename it to Flash2.
Replace flash2/kd folder with 2.50 flash0/kd folder.
DO NOT REPLACE RESOURCE FOLDER INSIDE KD FOLDER..use 2.00 resource folder.
Then replace the flash2\vsh\module folder with the one from 2.50 dump.
Then copy the v2.50 Flash1 folder to it & rename Flash3.
Bingo all done.

I hope this clears everything up and people will stop asking for firmware dumps to be posted.

Regards
Chossy

PSP Media Server for .NET v0.7.7 Released

This is pretty cool stuff... If you have v2.6+ firmware on your PSP, this handy little tool will allow you to create a dynamic RSS feed so you can stream all of your MP3 files to your PC from anywhere in the world.. This is worth checking out!

PSPSexX v0.3b Released

Placa of Team Emergency Exit has recently released PSPSetX v0.3b for Firmware 2.00. This is an app that allows anyone to run a game that requires v2.6 firmware to play on a v2.0... slick stuff!

Xbox 360 NEWS:

Xbox 360 Transfer Kit: Available NOW

The Xbox 360 Transfer Kit started shipping last week, and I've seen them in both of my local Best Buy stores!

New XCM360 Faceplates

XCM has announced new faceplates for the Xbox 360... I'm not a huge fan of the 'crystal' faceplates because the rest of the console is white. If I could replace the entire Xbox 360 case, I think they'd look much better.

The special "Deluxe Chrome Edition" is my personal favorite, and should be available shortly for roughly $24.99! This bad boy looks like it comes with a replacement "chrome" DVD tray plate & eject button too; this is GREAT news for 'core system' owners... now you guys might finally have a way to fool your friends into thinking you dropped the extra $100.00 on the 'platinum system'.

(I'm kidding, I know most of you wanted the platinum bundle, but the stores only got the core ones in.)

I've been saving the best news for last....

The Xbox 360 Firmware Hacked & Won't be Released

This is CRAZY.. We all knew it was just a matter of time, but nobody believed it would happen this quickly. 4 months after the Xbox 360 launch pirated games are booting on the console!! If you're drooling over being able to rent Xbox 360 games just to pirate them, don't get too excited; thankfully the team that cracked the 360 is NOT releasing the firmware hack. Releasing this firmware hack would only lead to a massive piracy outbreak on the 360, from information gathered from various sources, this is not the intent of the 'hackers' involved. The purpose of this firmware hack was merely educational as well as to disprove once and for all that Micro$oft's claim that the Xbox 360 was 'hack proof'.

[my 2 cents]
To be honest, I applaud the group for not releasing the firmware hack. The 'scene' doesn't need a bunch of .iso happy children with Blockbuster memberships to start messing things up for the rest of us. Not only that, I don't want to see the same jackasses start cheating Xbox Live or 'padding' their gamer score. Online cheaters are b!tches; plain & simple.

Hopefully, in time, we'll see homebrew apps, games, dashboards and tools for the 360, similar to the ones currently available for the Xbox.
[/my 2 cents]

These 3 articles are a MUST READ!!!

The Xbox 360 Firmware 100% Hacked - PGR3 Back Up Running *Update* Video Available!

Firmware Hack - Everything known so far!

The Specialist (Xbox 360 Firmware Hacker) Interviewed

- Jay

Hillarious Xbox Videos

Wed, 22 Feb 2006 05:03:08 GMT

Since I'm absolutely addicted to Xbox 360 and Xbox Live Achievements, I spend a lot of time reading various Xbox 360 forums; both official & underground forums. While visiting the official forums I stumbled across an interesting topic & I thought I’d share it with everyone…

Topic: Weirdest Thing heard on Live

Topic starter: bolvisoculus

What is the weirdest thing you heard on xbox live. did someone use a wierd voice? did they crack a good joke at the right time? or did someone say or do something hilarious after they made a kill.

This time people, use some discretion so this one doesnt get deleted.

One of the responses was a link to a video called Chocolte Milk Fight! (Alternate site here.)

WARNING (NC17): This video is NOT for viewing at work, not to be viewed by young children, nor by anyone who is offended by strong language, or poor parenting skills!!!

When I showed my buddy ARNickYARLY the above clip, he sent me a URL to another video called Angry Gamer 2. (The web page can be found here.) It's a video with a kid playing Halo 2 and flipping out every time he's fragged. I can't tell if this is staged, or if this guy is REALLY that lame.

WARNING (NC17): The F-Bomb is dropped about 38 times during this clip, along with a few more 'choice words'.

- Jay