“Rewards”?! You can't sign up for no stink'n rewards!

Ahh, Microsoft, where art thou brains...?

So MS gets all geared up to offer rewards for xbox gamers who increase their gamerscore. You would think that in a company as large as MS, and with as large a membership as xbl, that somebody would have come up with the idea of creating a large server array just for the sign-up purpose.

But no, instead they created a separate served site requiring another sign-on to xbl, in order to register for the rewards program. Go figure the site is flooded and crushed under the load of xbl members wanting access. MS should have just put all members into the program, then made an opt-out for those not wanting to partake.

In my personal world of gaming, I've taken to playing Chomehounds. I've never really liked 'mech' style games after having played one of the earliest games on a pc. In that game, the controls were keyboard-based and with permanently poor placement. That and the game was incredibly boring due to having to walk most of the map to get to the skirmish. There were also some weapon, armour & gameplay balance issues.

Chromehounds is almost of a completely different genre. The controls are good to adequate and now with tactile feedback. The maps are fairly small, at least in story mode, and you are usually placed close to the initial action. There are occasional bug-hunts, where you have to find the lone enemy mech, but the map is small enough not to make that too tedious. I think there may still be some gameplay balance issues, namely with being rewarded with parts that you really could have used two maps before. Overall I like the game.

Da pocket movie review you cannot refuse...

The Departed – Crime-drama. Yous see, its like dis – yous watch da pretty picture show or Franky here cuts off yer balls, capisci?! Okay, its a gangster/organized-crime genre movie. You got the twins, Damon & DiCaprio (I can't be the only one who has trouble telling these two apart), and the great Jack Nicholson (yes, some other good actors are in it, but really - Jack!). Unless you really hate this genre, then you will enjoy this 2.5 hours ride through many twisty turns of the plot. Recommended.