• Help me Obi-wan, you're my only hope
• Why set up road blocks when they are off road?
• As always, trust Jack
• Why does the VP care about Bill?
• Russians--well, that can't be good
• A love triangle--pumping her for info I guess
• Bluff and they will call it
• Is the appropriate response a nuke strike?  But against who?  I guess the US and Chang's last location
• Typical, another mole somewhere
• I don't know if it is wise to be playing with that in the hummer
• Ha ha
• Guess that means that Morris is in trouble again
• Is he Russian?  Probably
• You told the truth Chloe, so it's over
• Strapped down, not a good sign
• Totally wasted
• Not good odds
• Power play with district
• Nadia by the books, also not a good sign
• Loose lips sink ships, Lisa
• Bingo, and what will the VP do to protect her?
• Hmmm, not going to end good for Lisa, something tells me that the VP has a jealous mean streak
• So he admits it?
• The look on Tom's face is priceless
• The leak goes all the way up to Noah.  He's gotsa to go
• You mean turn her into a double agent? 
• Letting Jack go, hmmm
• Down goes the Rick
• Gotta move the body, Jack! 
• Making Nadia doubt herself, not good either
• Locking himself into a room for the interrogation
• Sealed from the inside, don't you listen?
• I bet the I love you opens her up
• Pause for drama
• Now Nadia grows a pair
• Bloomfield--seems it's in Northern California--Sonoma County
• Never get involved in a land war in Asia
• Pretty cold reception
• Jeez, just fess up
• Turn him into a double, duh
• Off to Gitmo for you, Lisa if you cross Noah
• Back from the dead, it's Heller!
• She'll never be the same again
• He's going to force Jack away from Audrey
• Why blame Jack?
• Jack becomes quite the pussy around Heller
• Then why aren't you dead, sir?

 

• Looks like insurance fraud time for the Rick
• Bet the Chinese made him disappear
• Oh, maybe the interference from the power lines...ah
• Tom is playing him and he doesn't even know
• Gross
• The Rick: super tracker!
• Is Chloe up to something here?
• The one thing you don't want to say...'don't arm nuclear weapons for terrorists!"
• Tom seemed strange on that exchange with Tom
• Dirt on Bill
• Karen in some dookie here, how does she explain it?
• You see...there are laws that you must abide by and not just hold on to the terrorists just because...oh wait, maybe we shouldn't mention Guantamo Bay
• Bill eats it in terms of the job
• So they want to cover this up with another cover up?
• Back to Jack and the hotel, so how does he play this?  He has to make sure Audrey is safe before he goes boom, otherwise it is for nothing
• Jack doing his quick recon of the rooms
• The Rick is now on target
• Seems like she didn't close the door all the way
• So is this Jack's idea for a suicide note?
• Someone has to take the fall for letting Fayed go, even though everything was done by the books.  Sort of like how Clinton has been blamed for letting Bin Laden "escape"...seems this is a running political commentary this season
• Or you could find his poorly hidden truck!
• So Bill does bite the bullet
• And the buzzerr, time's up...pencils down!
• I'm betting something goes wrong here
• Chang is going to make sure Audrey stays near
• Jack must know Chang can't let him go alive
• And there's the plan for Jack
• 10 guys would be nothing for Jack...but for the Rick?
• Audrey is also dead anyway
• Uh oh
• Down goes the chopper and the plan
• And split up, just like in season 4
• Audrey is fried

• Absconding with a cell phone!
• Probably in some non-descript warehouse section in LA...perhaps San Fernando Valley or Industrial City
• They want technology?
• Typical villain--explaining too much
• So they are likely planning for a war against Russia?  Sounds more like another Tom Clancy novel: the Bear and the Dragon
• So now Jack has to steal the nukes back from the Marines?  I guess he'll just try and get the component first and then grab the whole thing
• How come Wayne doesn't think that the 24 hours aren't over yet?
• Must be Jack calling Chloe
• The drama of the file load screen
• Does Wayne demand his resignation?
• Yup and Wayne will play the tape
• Better hope Wayne doesn't have any skeletons
• Oh wait...giving Russian technology to the Chinese...that may do it
• Oops on Chloe
• Cuz Jack said so
• I'll take you out to dinner if you don't do it Morris!
• Ballsy move
• So which one will begin questioning what Jack's doing?
• The Rick to the rescue
• Buchanan wants to play it safe
• Jack, of course, wants to talk to Wayne
• Jack will guarantee it because he's Jack Bauer
• Jack's already dead, so what's the hold up?
• Jack wants the Chinese guy dead.  DED. 
• I'm Jack Bauer, I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth
• The VP...wants someone to seduce Tom and get the tape
• Uhm...eww
• Oh jeez, he's going to have her hand it over...
• It would be funny if one of the reporters asked about the 24 hours not being over
• Uh-oh...a slip up on the Jack operation
• And now he's going to collapse
• Tear up that letter, VP!
• Someone typed that up?
• Jack has super hearing, you know
• Ha, you can't go against the White House...the Rick doesn't know Jack

• Fayed won't break, so what's the point?
• Shades of Jack Ryan here, trying to prevent the nuke strike
• He's doing this because the VP called him a pussy
• Bluff?  Probably
• I bet he's interrogated near the strike zone
• 2 minute warning
• Sounds like Pakistan
• Bluff by Wayne to get more info/cooperation.  And what a bluff
• Double bluff!
• Good old fashioned Jack interrogation
• Why not just electrocute his testicles?  I guess even Fox won't show that
• Uh-oh, the Rick is going to blow it
• Burke again?  Don't they learn?
• Is this a bluff between Jack/the Rick?  Good-cop/Bad-cop?
• Let me guess...GWOT is the world war?
• Do they try and spring Fayed?
• Mighty fine driving!
• Why are they by themselves?
• Ah, there's the red shirt CTU guy
• I think this is part of the plan...lead them to the bombs
• Will Fayed buy it?  Looks like a no
• They need some Mission Impossible voice technology
• Tell 'em Wayne!
• You'll make the call now, or I'll tighten the vise on your balls
• Milo, get your head out of your ass and do your job
• This reminds me of season 2 and the threats on the family
• I have my doubts that Fayed bought it
• There might have been some codewords spoken to alert Fayed of the deception
• Wayne's about to go out
• Tom's in a bind again
• Ah, there's the codeword to alert them
• Interference...not good
• Maybe he's going to jump off the edge of a dam?
• Jack's going to hitch a ride?
• Better hope he doesn't hit a speed bump
• Wayne knows that if he goes out to medical, the VP wins and will get his way
• Downtown LA? 
• Poor dumb lone guard, just like Sam Fisher
• Jack vs. 4, I like those odds
• Make that 6?
• There goes Jack, calculating the odds
• Hope he packed extra clips
• Fayed is trying to arm it?
• That's gotta hurt
• The biter!
• Just like in Die Hard!
• So this still leaves a few hours...what else is going to happen?
• The Rick is impressed with Jack
• Phone call--uh oh
• Audrey!
• Those damn Chinese men again
• So I guess it becomes personal now for Jack

Coming the week of May 7, we get some new features on the dashboard as well as some other goodies.

-You can see what's in the tray via the dashboard
-Windows Live Messenger integration
-A keyboard attachment to the controller
-Updated achievement notifications that show what achievement you unlocked (picture below)
-New Xbox Live Marketplace blade
-Updates to Arcade
-New option in auto downloads for faster access for trials on Arcade
-Progressive download for videos on Marketplace
-Turn off the 360 automatically after downloads are complete for background downloading

You are probably wondering about the keyboard and how it feels on the controller. I've used the controller with the keyboard attached. It's not too much heavier and it feels pretty good. It won't get in your way if you plan on gaming and it's pretty easy to use.

I'll have more on the new dashboard in the next few days. More info can be found here, with the official release

Looking for a guide for this great Xbox Live Arcade game?  Rare has now posted one:

http://www.rareware.com/jetpacguide/jetpac-gameguide.pdf

Gamerscore blog had a little blurb on the state of HD-DVD. I think the big problem with HD-DVD is lack of advertising. For example, each week Circuit City or Best Buy have ads for Blu-Ray players and deals (get x number of movies free with purchase of a player) or even advertising the new releases. Target has the best prices for HD-DVD and Blu-Ray but their stock of HD-DVD is lacking. Happy Feet was released for both formats and advertised as on sale for Blu-Ray. But the HD-DVD version is missing from the store. How come?

If you are looking for HD-DVD movies, the best place is Amazon. The upcoming releases look pretty good: Planet Earth (BBC version) and the Matrix Trilogy. There is also a rumor that Heroes will ship on HD-DVD in August followed by Battlestar Gallactica in September. Since these are owned by NBC Universal, they will be exclusive to HD-DVD. Lots of geeks and dweebs with money like these two shows, so this should help out. I'm definitely getting the Heroes set and probably the Battlestar Gallactica set (haven't watched this, but have heard good things--especially on Kevin & Bean on KROQ).

Picked this up yesterday and my wife has been playing it almost non-stop.  She's much better at these games than I am, but I still find it fun.  My oldest son (4) wanted to give it a spin because he likes music.  He even gained an achievement (fail a song on easy) for me!  My youngest just likes the music, so he was dancing.

At $90 for the game (and controller) it's steep.  So you have to hope there is a lot replayability and new games (Rock Band?) in the future that take advantage of the controller.  If you like these types of games, it can be fun for the whole family.

Well...this year, Bud Selig and his evil minions decided to sell the extra innings TV package exclusively to DirecTv.  I would have no problem with that, except that I can't get it.  The only other option I had was to purchase the package on the internet.  You get a few more games and it is cheaper.  They sell a package called premium which includes games streamed at about 700kbps.  The video quality isn't bad.  I even hooked my laptop up to my CRT HD-TV and the picture looked comparable to picture I used to get on cable.  They also have this mosaic feature where you can have six screens on their viewer and get alerts about your fantasy players.

The issue: the mosaic was slow to update and couldn't keep up even at the lowest possible video quality.  The feature to track your players and get alerts doesn't work.  I don't know how many times I tried updating/editing my roster.  It never loaded up to mosaic.  Then I had problems with the premium stream for the A's game.  It would drop out and took forever to reload.  They better fix this.

I finally got going into the campaign mode after trying forever to find that last damn orb in Crackdown...still haven't found it.  The annoying thing about (potentially my copy of the game) the game is that it freezes on the campaign every now and then. It sure gets annoying.

I've found the campaign on elevated risk to be pretty easy so far.  I've just started Act 3, but I haven't had any of those maps/missions where you just struggle for a bit.  I remember on GRAW, there were a few battles/missions that were pains in the butt.  The first one was the night time assault on the rebel camp where you had control of a helicopter and either a Stryker or an M1A2.  I somehow managed to get the chopper shot down each time.  The other pain was the solo assault on the castle to take out the AA.  And the final battle in GRAW.  There hasn't been one of those missions or even an area that is frustrating.  The AI isn't too bad as they do flank and move.  Your teammates aren't bad either, for a change.  As long as you keep them alive, they will help you out.  Maybe it's just me getting used to the interface and using the UAV to scout ahead...this time it doesn't get shot at. 

But I just can't get over the feeling that this game is far easier than GRAW and much easier than Rainbow Six Vegas.

• Rehash of season 2?
• Time to put on your poker face, Jack
• Does Wayne make it through?  Would be a twist on season 2
• So basically, the VP says Wayne is a pussy
• Nadia just goes?
• So now he's after Milo?
• Why not just have the VP killed?  Turnabout is fair play
• Who would have thunk the AG would do good
• Ah, Karen Hayes' resignation comes back to bite them in the ass
• Vote may not matter with that Wayne expression
• Tom might be a dead man now
• Milo, I need to distract you...
• Huh?
• Milo saw it all, but what will he do about it?
• The previews clearly show a doublecross on the doublecross later
• Culver City to the Santa Monica Pier in ten minutes?  Hmmmm
• Let me guess, the terrorists will be "emboldened"?
• Sense a big theme here from the current administration
• Surveillance!
• I hope Tom wasn't dumb enough to have only one copy
• Could that be a bigger wire?
• Duh, something is wrong...you gave him a huge wire!
• Is his arm off?
• Yes
• Let's leave a trail of blood!
• Who knew RAV4's were bulletproof
• A double double cross?
• They may not get him alive...phew
• So, how long does Wayne have left?
• Over/Under at 3 hours
• Looking for the one armed man
• He's dead, Jim!
• Nuke strike?  Wha?
• No going back now