Gears of War 5 is absolutely the 5th game in the Gears of War series.

I loved the first Gears of War game. The story was interesting and the commercial for it remains my favorite video game commercial of all time -- even better than the live action Halo stuff. However, everything great about this game series was in that first commercial.

Gears of War is beyond repetitive. You basically run on a track around a map, hiding and ducking behind things, popping up to take shots, and occasionally throwing a hand grenade. There isn't a lot of playing the game and it feels a lot like button mashing to me! This gameplay was fun when the story was fresh and interesting. Doing the same thing 5 games later, with the same story being played basically over and over again? Dull.

The graphics are beautiful. The game runs so smoothly on my Xbox One X it makes me wonder why other games do not. The game itself is OK to play through with friends but is limited by a campaign mode that stops at 3 people. Fortnite lets very large groups of players play together. Fortnite is also more fun.

I do like Gears, but this is getting tired. Read the rest

There is a pretty good deal running on my favorite gaming controller.

I use this with my Xbox, Nintendo Switch and MacBook Pro. It is more durable than the more expensive 'pro controllers' and works just as well.

If you've been waiting for a replacement this is a pretty good price.

Microsoft 4N6-00001 Xbox Controller + Cable for Windows via Amazon

Previously:

The best controller for a Nintendo Switch is the latest model Xbox controller Read the rest

A few weeks back, a number of external hard drives full of state taxpayer information were poached from the offices of Florida's Department of Revenue. Why these drives full of sensitive data were left out in the open where anyone could walk with one is a question I'm betting there's a really entertaining answer to. Maybe we'll get to hear it someday. In the meantime, here we go: the drives have been recovered and the criminal mastermind behind the theft was a janitor that wanted more storage in which to download Xbox games.

According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Florida man (of course) Andru Rae’sion Reed was cleaning the offices of the Florida Department of Revenue when he saw the hard drives and decided to take it upon himself to liberate them from the day-to-day drudgery of storing a whack of taxpayer information. As he took them to their new forever home, Reed promised the hard drives that they could spend their days chewing on game files while they were attached to his Xbox.

On March 30, FDLE agents dropped by Reed's home to see how he was doing and see if he, I don't know, knew anything about the missing hard drives. Reed came clean on the fact that he did indeed have the drives, stating that he had no idea of what was on them. From what the FDLE has to say, it doesn't look like any of the taxpayer information on the drives was shared by Reed, but they're going to do a little more digital digging, just to make sure. Read the rest

As of today both Xbox One and PS4 players can preview Bungie's sequel to Destiny, the MMOFPS successor to Halo.

Wonderful weapons, colorful armor, and well-balanced skills make Destiny PvP the best since the early Halo games. The PvE raids, puzzles and bosses are similarly challenging and fun to play with friends. The story? Bungie's miserable story telling coasts along behind remarkable controls, level design, and gameplay. Unlike Halo, Destiny's story is a confused and boring wonder.

Destiny 2 looks like a new engine, levels, and a lot of new weapons and skills. Evolutionary not revolutionary, I'm sure it'll remain a battle ground for wizened old Atari 2600 owners vs high-pitched pre-teens with excellent reflexes.

I bet the Gjallarhorn will be back. I miss the days of Thorn's supremacy.

You can pre-order through your platform to get into the Beta. It'll also open up next week to the general public. Read the rest

Microsoft long ago stopped saying how many XBox Ones it had sold, but figures released by Electronic Arts expose numbers far short of rival Sony's Playstation 4.

On a financial call with reporters, CEO Blake Jorgensen said the combined install base of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 was about 55 million units. With Sony boasting of 36 million PS4s shifted, that makes for 19 million Xbox Ones.

The numbers tally with rumors, but both machines are doing well given that we're still only 2 years into the current generation of hardware. The big loser this time around is Nintendo, thought to have sold only about 11m Wii Us. Read the rest

Last night at midnight, Halo 5 launched. Will this be the last epic adventure for video gaming's mightiest champion? The Master Chief is back, but all the cockamamie advertising colors our hero as the bad guy.

I wish I could tell you if this game is any good! I've certainly been waiting a long time to play it! I purchased my Xbox One at launch, anticipating that Halo 5 would shortly follow. My Xbox has been around for two years now, with nary a Chief sighting. I could have played the Master Chief collection, but I heard poor reviews of its translation to the Xbox One.

The only game I've really enjoyed in the interim has been Destiny, which was developed by Halo creators Bungie. There is no small amount of question, in my online Destiny circles, around Halo killing Destiny. Destiny has also felt like Halo, without the amazing backstory and hero. Bungie is creating a backstory, and thus far it is pretty much a dud. The game play, and its mesh of FPS with MMO queues, like farming (sigh) are addictive but it is not Halo. I miss stickies. I long to gloriously dual wield the needler, or have a hell bent for leather Warthog chase! Will Halo 5 kill Destiny?

Large online teams of 12 players, mashed with an insane gameplay frame rate, and 4 player campaign mode all sound wonderful! I'm far more interested in the story, however. I have not read any Halo fiction, I have simply played the games, and the Master Chief is my ultimate video game hero. Read the rest

Can the Halo series survive without the Master Chief and Cortana? Halo 5 introduces Fireteam Osiris, a new team of Spartan-IV heroes, but will we care? Read the rest

The headset that came with my Xbox One was chewed by a dog. This Skullcandy SLYR is a fantastic step up! Read the rest

KontrolFreek's Close Quarters Combat joystick extenders have greatly improved my Xbox One experience. I am not sure my game play is any better, but my hands hurt far less. Read the rest

Microsoft's Xbox One's Kinect is not only "completely reengineered to be more precise, responsive and intuitive" it's like X-Ray Specs that really work!

The Xbox One Has A Wee Dong Problem (Thanks, Bob!) Read the rest

Erik Prince, the founder of the mercenary firm Blackwater (dropped from the roster of US military contractors due to their participation in horrific war crimes), has done a deal with 505 Games to produce an XBox 360 shooter game that will be controlled by Kinect motion-sensors. It's just the latest turn for the war criminals at Blackwater, who renamed their business "Xe" and hired John Ashcroft to serve as their ethics officer. For more on Blackwater's past, see Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army.

"This game and its immersive Kinect-based approach will give players the chance to experience what it is like to be on a Blackwater team on a mission without being dropped into a real combat situation," Prince said in a statement issued by 505. The game was developed with in conjunction with former Blackwater members "to ensure accuracy of moves, gestures and gameplay," the 505 release said. "The game also features a selection of officially-licensed weapons for your soldier to choose from."

Real-Life Mercenaries to Star in Blackwater, the Videogame Read the rest

U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez opened the trial of alleged Xbox hacker Matthew Crippen with a bang yesterday, berating the prosecution for calling government witnesses who admitted to committing crimes but asking these crimes to be kept secret from the jury; for their theories relating to fair use, and for a "laundry list" of other complaints. The public dressing down went on so long that it actually drew a crowd, and it ended with prosecutor Allen Chiu saying, "I apologize to the court," whereupon the trial was suspended.

Among the judge's host of complaints against the government was his alarm that prosecutors would put on two witnesses who may have broken the law.

One is Entertainment Software Association investigator Tony Rosario, who secretly video-recorded defendant Matthew Crippen allegedly performing the Xbox mod in Crippen's Los Angeles suburban house. The defense argues that making the recording violates California privacy law. The other witness is Microsoft security employee Ken McGrail, who analyzed the two consoles Crippen allegedly altered. McGrail admitted that he himself had modded Xboxes in college.

Xbox-Modding Judge Berates Prosecution, Puts Trial on Hold

(via Read the rest

Bunnie "Chumby" Huang, whose Hacking the Xbox is a reverse-engineer's bible, has been asked to testify at the trial of Anaheim's Matthew Crippen, who faces three years in prison for jailbreaking Xbox 360s (that is, modding them so that they could run software that Microsoft hadn't authorized). But federal prosecutors have asked the judge to prevent Bunnie from testifying.

The 35-year-old Huang argues that mod-chipping is not a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which makes it unlawful to circumvent technology designed to prevent copyright infringement. He said he hopes to prove that point to jurors via a step-by-step tutorial.

"Basically, what he did was insufficient on his own to violate anything," Huang said in a recent telephone interview from Singapore, where he serves as vice president of hardware and general manager for Chumby's operations in Asia.

Additionally, Huang said, the DMCA should be interpreted to allow for "fair use" exemptions, so chipping a console for legitimate purposes would be permitted, even if it is found to be a circumvention.

The U.S. Copyright Office, he noted, just granted an exception to the DMCA to allow the jailbreaking of cellphones, and the iPhone in particular, allowing the iPhone to run third-party apps not approved by Apple. Modding a game console should be treated the same way, he said.

Prosecutors Seek to Block Xbox Hacking Pioneer From Mod-Chip Trial