Now, if only they would issue a statement lowering the price of the 120 gig hdd.

Via Xbox.com :: Xbox 360 Fanboy

Whatever – I’ve got to figure out some time in my schedule where I can fit in some training…

Via Capcom Digital

The demo is not incredibly long and does not introduce you to the characters but it is enough to give you a feel for the game.  I have to say I really enjoyed it.  It looks great and plays great too.  I was thrown by the battle system for a moment since I expected old school RPG style fighting instead your thrown into a small area with the ability to move about and attack your foes – provided you are near them or have a ranged attack.  There is a battle timer along the left had side of the screen which rapidly decreases.  This setup allows you to say run over to an enemy – beat on him with a normal attack (which helps fill a special meter) and finish with a special attack.

I’m not the biggest RPG player in the world but I may actually pick this one up when it comes out.

Via Joystiq::Xbox-Scene

Looking at a tare down AnandTech did of the original 20 Gig drive you can see the simple cable that connects the HDD (a common laptop hard drive) to the 360. Microsoft was kind enough to post the instructions for the HDD’s on their site. Looking closely we can see that the first step of installing or removing the drive is to shut down the console. Think about it this way – imagine your installing a hard drive in your laptop – you’d shut it down first – if you were using a self-powered external drive it would be at least USB so you could just plug it in. Now pretend that you ran a SATA cable out of your case and glued it to the top so you could simply plug in a drive. Starting to see the picture?

What Microsoft has created is simply a proprietary SATA to 360 connector, which is housed in a plastic shell with the hard drive. They then tried to convinced everyone that it’s the equivalent of an actual external hard drive. Which it’s not.

Maybe the extra cost is coming from the “transfer cable”…

Holding back free downloads on Live? Over priced song packs? Over charging for accessories? I’m starting to hate the way this is going…

Anyway, now that I’m starting to feel better hopefully I’ll be able to fall into my old pre-game tester schedule…

All in all the 360 is great!  The only thing that I can seem to get over is the damn Live Arcade store.  I haven’t been able to bring myself to buy anything off of it.  The whole points thing just kills it for me – not to mention that I already own many of the retro games.  I don’t get achievements from them but hey they are free.  I’m going to attempt to add some points to my account again today…

Sony and Microsoft have made it nearly impossible for me to continue playing into the new generation. I just don’t have the income to put down on these new Mr. Fancy-Pants video game systems and an HDTV – not to mention $60 a game. It will be quite sometime before I have enough extra cash on hand to drop on this stuff. So where does that leave me during the next generation? Well, for the most part it looks like I’ll be sticking to the retro gaming. I will also be picking up a DS Lite (with a protection plan so when Navy is released I can “break” mine for a quick exchange). I had a DS for a short time a while back but after the touch screen started coming up with dead pixels I quickly got rid of it. Along with the DS I’ll be getting the Datel MAX Media Launcher and the M3 Perfect mini-SD so I don’t have to carry around a bunch of GBA carts.

I’ve been sitting quietly by this week watching the next generation unfold and I’m not really all that excited. Sony has an awful price point and no games that I am looking forward to. Microsoft has Live Anywhere (and Vista) which sounds interesting but who knows if they can actually pull it off. And then there is Nintendo’s Wii – which, I admit, I am looking forward to. If it shapes up well I may even buy one on launch day. The virtual console for retro games does not interest me however, the idea of using it to show case small developers (ala Xbox Live) is good and might land us some very fun games. I might need to brush up on my Gamecube coding.

I’ve got a few more E3 reports and some videos to watch so…

“A mob war is brewing as Philadelphia’s and New Jersey’s most powerful families are about to collide. As the illegitimate son of “Big Pussy,” you have been born into the organization and are now being given an opportunity to demonstrate your loyalty to Tony Soprano. As a soldier you must earn money on collections, protect your turf through intimidation, and gain admiration within your own family to move up in the ranks of the organization. Carry out orders from Paulie, Silvio, Christopher and Tony in familiar locations such as the Bada Bing!, Nuovo Vesuvio’s and Satriale’s. Storyline collaborated with show creator David Chase and voiced by the show’s key cast members.”

Full Press Release

According to the press release it is due out for the holidays on the Xbox 360 and the PS2 and with E3 right around the corner I’m sure we will get some screen shots or video. Rumors of the game originally surfaced about a year ago in a CNN/Money report. We’ll have to wait and see…