So . . .

Having never played XBOX Live, I can only guess at how amazing it is. I have had MANY people tell me that online Halo 2 is next to godliness, and I believe them now. Even though XlinkKai is not the same thing, I think I'm getting the same feelings. Being able to log in, and play against somebody else is truly fun and challenging.

Up to this point (like I said earlier), I had only ever played against other people in the same room, either on the same TV or on an adjacent TV via systemlink. Playing like that, there are entirely different strategies and methods. Like the difference between playing poker online versus in person, its a different experience. You can see the other XBOX players' "tells" when you're in the room with them. Attitude and expression can give away crucial info when you play in the same room. An excited noise can signal an impending sniper hit, and allow you that crucial moment to get out of the way. It also made me a somewhat lazier player - as I found out when I started playing online.

The first few times I played over XlinkKai, I got my butt handed to me. The other guys seemed to be everywhere at once, and were just reacting faster than I could seem to. I realized I had to change my game if I wanted to keep playing online. I learned to watch for subtle clues, and tried to hone my skills, as it were. I also tried to focus on the parts of the game I was better at, to find some kind of edge. I am quite nasty with the energy sword, a pretty decent shot with grenades, and lethal with double needlers. But I'm going on too much - this stuff can be saved for a future post . . .


On another topic, I want to let everyone know about what they can accomplish with a modded XBOX. The XBOX is basically a computer in disguise. It has a hard drive, ram, a video card, etc. It is capable of far, far more than what the basic Microsoft dashboard allows. Running the XBOX Media Center has opened a whole new world of possibilities for me. Beyond allowing me to run tunneling software (like XlinkKai), I can play more than just DVDs through my television. Instead of having one movie per disc, I can put almost any format of video onto a DVD. I can fit a dozen or more high-quality AVI or DIVX files onto a single disc. And, they all look DVD quality or pretty close to it. I can fit a whole season of 24 on 2 or 3 DVDs this way!

Other things the XBMC allows include playing DVDs without the Microsoft DVD playback kit. I already own one, but saving the $30 Microsoft tries to jack you just to play movies is nice. I can get weather updates on my XBOX. I can check IMDB from the XBOX. I can stream the latest movie trailers right from the studio websites from my XBOX to my TV. The list goes on and on. Suffice it to say that I have definitely gotten my money's worth out of the XBOX now!

Well, unfortunately work is a calling, and I must go. Until tomorrow . . .