Xbox Live Price Increase

Microsoft has announced that they are increasing the price of Xbox Live on November 1st. They have been consistently adding features to the service, and the price has been pretty low all of these years, however I am wondering what prompted the price increase. Perhaps they looked at what Sony was doing with PSN+ and felt that they could finally get away with charging more since PSN isn’t totally free anymore (although PSN has never offered anywhere near the level of service that Xbox Live Gold offers). Anyway, the price breakdown is below.

The price increase is pretty modest, especially if you buy in one year increments. Still, you might want to take advantage of the current discounted offer of $39.99 for one year and either renew or extend your current subscription. Want to know when your current subscription expires? Visit this page to find out.

Halo 3 Montage

Having fun with Halo 3 and my capture card. Made it mostly so I could learn Sony Vegas.

How the Nintendo 3DS Works

Thanks for explaining Jeff. Pretty simple when you get down to it.

Raptor: Call of the Shadows

Raptor: Call of the Shadows was one of my favorite PC games back in the day. It was a top down shooter that offered a lot of challenge without being ridiculously hard. While most shoot ‘em ups required you to memorize patterns while throwing tons of enemies at you, Raptor was more about having solid aim, dodging enemy attacks, upgrading your ship wisely, and using the right weapon for the job. The game features a number of different “sectors” that each had a different visual style and enemy set, and multiple difficulty settings that significantly increase the number of enemies you will be facing. Killing enemies and picking up credits gives you credits to spend on a large array of ship upgrades. Upgrades included things like shields, ground to surface missiles, auto-tracking machine guns, and even nukes. With great music and explosive action, I easily lost hours at a time playing this game.

The great news is that the game is set to be released on Good Old Games later this week. I honestly could not be more excited. Raptor is one of the few games that I could never get working on Windows, and I lost my copy of the game ages ago. The Good Old Games version will be updated to work, and come with copies of the manual and soundtrack. Plus, the game is DRM free.  I will certainly be buying a copy later this week, and I would be ashamed if all if you don’t pick it up and give it a try for only $5.99.

As a mercenary in the not-so-distant future, flying the super-advanced Raptor space fighter, you’ll be sent on interplanetary missions to knock out your MegaCorp’s top competitors. Battle against hordes of relentless enemies. Spend the bounties claimed for their demise to expand your devastating arsenal!

Discover secrets, find bonuses and battle boss ships that appear at the end of every wave! With each ship and ground target you destroy, you’ll earn more cash to improve your ship’s already formidable technology, in preparation for the next wave. You’ll be sent out to kill and destroy… But then again, it’s in your blood.

Raptor: Call of the Shadows – GOG.com

Beyond Black Mesa

I am not sure what it is about the Half-Life series, but they seem to inspire a ton of amateur film makers. I have posted about some previous Half-Life films in the past, but here is another one that I am going to be keeping an eye on. This one follows Adrian Shephard, the player’s character from the Opposing Force expansion pack to the original Half-Life.

Inspired by the Half-Life Video Game series, this is an action packed short film centering around Adrian Shephard and a band of resistance fighters struggling to get out a warning about the impending invasion.

The film’s website can be found at http://beyondblackmesa.com/.