I played Lego Star Wars with my son for a long time - that is a great game. Another good one is Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer (same deal: 2 player co-op)
Regarding HD - you can get a VGA display adapter for the 360 so you can run it at 1280x1024 resolution on your monitor. So if you're like me and you have a crappy old TV but a real nice monitor you're in luck.
XBox Live is a great service - this is why I bought a 360 rather than using a PC. Some of the things that make it worth the money (which is actually $5/month when you subscribe for a year):
* Voice communication totally changes the experience and is essential for many types of games (e.g. playing Ghost Recon as a squad in co-op mode)
* Single ID across all games, and with the 360 you get a single UI shared across all games to handle game invitations, messages, etc.
* Easy ability to set up games and keep track of people on your friends list. You can open a chat channel even if you're in different games.
* Closed network without all the BS (cheaters, etc.) I don't have much time to play online so I would gladly pay $5 / month just for this aspect of it.
Of course, nothing's perfect, but Live is definitely well worth the price in my opinion.
I also got a "second wave" 360 and I am very impressed by it. The dashboard UI is slick and easy to use, and there's a ton of good stuff in XBox Live Arcade. The wireless controllers are also great.
There are some good comments in this thread about not being too paranoid about the baby breathing, etc. However, a video camera pointed at the baby's crib can be very useful. For example: you'd like to take a shower, but you can hear the baby stirring - you can check the camera to see if he's just moving around in his sleep or if he's wide awake and enjoying those wonderful seconds of relaxation and play before screaming as loud as he can. (Nothing is worse than having the baby start to cry halfway through a shower). It is also great to be able to leave the camera view up when the baby is sick. From my experience it is impossible to open the door and peek in on a baby without causing a smiling face to pop up and look back at you, regardless of the time of day or how badly a nap may be needed.
We have a small color camera with IR LEDs that switch on when it gets dark. The output is modulated on to a TV channel we're not using. I haven't set up any sort of web access because we almost never leave the house these days. This setup gives an excellent image we can check from any TV in the house.
I agree with that. I used a VOIP line for a few months out of necessity, but I switched back to landline as soon as I could. VOIP wasn't much cheaper at all, and while it was good, it wasn't perfect. Just enough reliability and quality issues to remind me (and everyone I work with) that I didn't have a "normal" phone line.
I've also recently switched to this approach using Mozilla mail: view->message body as->plain text. Even for mass mail that I choose to get (news summaries, etc.) it is a lot easier to read the plaintext as opposed to waiting for the images to load, then scanning through all the extraneous junk.
The biggest advantage is that I am immune to coworkers who insist on "personalizing" their mail with colors, fonts, graphics in their sigs, and "stationary" (shudder).
Since you mentioned MediaChance - I've been using their image editing software PhotoBrush for a long time and have been very happy with it. Easy to use and a ton of useful tools.
It isn't entirely off topic - you need something to make those button and menu images:)
There have been a lot of good points raised on the practicality of producing such a game successfully, but assuming someone could do it and make money on it I would definitely be interested in a format like this. I've been playing games for a long time and I still think like someone who plays a few hours a day, but in reality I now have a time-consuming job, a wife and 2 kids, and I'm remodeling my house. I'm lucky if I get 2 hours a week to relax. With a lot of games it is too much effort to sit back down after a week away and remember what the hell you were doing. I'll pick up a game like KOTOR or Morrowind when I have some vacation time coming up or if things are going to be slow at work for a few weeks, but it would be cool to have a game that was designed for episodic play. Even if, in the long run, it is more expensive than your typical $50 game. I'd rather pay $75 for a game that I could enjoy and finish over time than blow $50 on a game that I never get through because I can't put in enough hours to stay engaged. And I know that there are a ton of people in the same situation.
Also, I think that if this was done well it could generate a lot of attention as the game progresses. If there was anticipation and a general "buzz" as each episode was released it could really grow.
I've been using an iGesture pad for over a year - it is awesome. Gestures are easy to learn and you can customize them if needed. Anything with an emacs mode is all right by me:)
I'd agree with this. I moved over to gaming on an XBox and life is much simpler - since I use my PC for real work I always dreaded upgrading DirectX or various drivers just to play the latest game I got (for the obvious reasons).
XBox Live and XSN Sports is pretty sweet, too.
Slashdot Mirror
I played Lego Star Wars with my son for a long time - that is a great game. Another good one is Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer (same deal: 2 player co-op)
Regarding HD - you can get a VGA display adapter for the 360 so you can run it at 1280x1024 resolution on your monitor. So if you're like me and you have a crappy old TV but a real nice monitor you're in luck.
XBox Live is a great service - this is why I bought a 360 rather than using a PC. Some of the things that make it worth the money (which is actually $5/month when you subscribe for a year):
* Voice communication totally changes the experience and is essential for many types of games (e.g. playing Ghost Recon as a squad in co-op mode)
* Single ID across all games, and with the 360 you get a single UI shared across all games to handle game invitations, messages, etc.
* Easy ability to set up games and keep track of people on your friends list. You can open a chat channel even if you're in different games.
* Closed network without all the BS (cheaters, etc.) I don't have much time to play online so I would gladly pay $5 / month just for this aspect of it.
Of course, nothing's perfect, but Live is definitely well worth the price in my opinion.
I also got a "second wave" 360 and I am very impressed by it. The dashboard UI is slick and easy to use, and there's a ton of good stuff in XBox Live Arcade. The wireless controllers are also great.
There are some good comments in this thread about not being too paranoid about the baby breathing, etc. However, a video camera pointed at the baby's crib can be very useful. For example: you'd like to take a shower, but you can hear the baby stirring - you can check the camera to see if he's just moving around in his sleep or if he's wide awake and enjoying those wonderful seconds of relaxation and play before screaming as loud as he can. (Nothing is worse than having the baby start to cry halfway through a shower). It is also great to be able to leave the camera view up when the baby is sick. From my experience it is impossible to open the door and peek in on a baby without causing a smiling face to pop up and look back at you, regardless of the time of day or how badly a nap may be needed.
We have a small color camera with IR LEDs that switch on when it gets dark. The output is modulated on to a TV channel we're not using. I haven't set up any sort of web access because we almost never leave the house these days. This setup gives an excellent image we can check from any TV in the house.
http://www.filerush.com/torrents/d3pcdownloadfinal .mov.torrent
Just in case the server melts. Which it almost certainly will.
I agree with that. I used a VOIP line for a few months out of necessity, but I switched back to landline as soon as I could. VOIP wasn't much cheaper at all, and while it was good, it wasn't perfect. Just enough reliability and quality issues to remind me (and everyone I work with) that I didn't have a "normal" phone line.
I've also recently switched to this approach using Mozilla mail: view->message body as->plain text. Even for mass mail that I choose to get (news summaries, etc.) it is a lot easier to read the plaintext as opposed to waiting for the images to load, then scanning through all the extraneous junk.
The biggest advantage is that I am immune to coworkers who insist on "personalizing" their mail with colors, fonts, graphics in their sigs, and "stationary" (shudder).
Since you mentioned MediaChance - I've been using their image editing software PhotoBrush for a long time and have been very happy with it. Easy to use and a ton of useful tools. It isn't entirely off topic - you need something to make those button and menu images :)
There have been a lot of good points raised on the practicality of producing such a game successfully, but assuming someone could do it and make money on it I would definitely be interested in a format like this. I've been playing games for a long time and I still think like someone who plays a few hours a day, but in reality I now have a time-consuming job, a wife and 2 kids, and I'm remodeling my house. I'm lucky if I get 2 hours a week to relax. With a lot of games it is too much effort to sit back down after a week away and remember what the hell you were doing. I'll pick up a game like KOTOR or Morrowind when I have some vacation time coming up or if things are going to be slow at work for a few weeks, but it would be cool to have a game that was designed for episodic play. Even if, in the long run, it is more expensive than your typical $50 game. I'd rather pay $75 for a game that I could enjoy and finish over time than blow $50 on a game that I never get through because I can't put in enough hours to stay engaged. And I know that there are a ton of people in the same situation.
Also, I think that if this was done well it could generate a lot of attention as the game progresses. If there was anticipation and a general "buzz" as each episode was released it could really grow.
I've been using an iGesture pad for over a year - it is awesome. Gestures are easy to learn and you can customize them if needed. Anything with an emacs mode is all right by me :)
I'd agree with this. I moved over to gaming on an XBox and life is much simpler - since I use my PC for real work I always dreaded upgrading DirectX or various drivers just to play the latest game I got (for the obvious reasons). XBox Live and XSN Sports is pretty sweet, too.