Has anyone else noticed that almost everyone you game with/against in GTA4 online is a bit of a douche? I think Halo did it right by not allowing teams to hear opponents until after the game is over. Currently, in GTA4, you have to grin and bear the immature blabbering of the other team in the pregame lobby.

While I'm on the subject, the GTA 4 matchmaking system is in dire need of an overhaul. Maybe I'm spoiled by Halo 2 and 3, but something needs to be done. It's no surprise to me that GTA took the #3 spot on Xbox Live this week. Rockstar, listen up:

1. You can't change teams in the pregame lobby.

2. There are frequent connection issues from people with open NATs.

3. Ranked games should be a standard set of parameters. For instance, in Ranked games, auto-aim should always be off. This would avoid arguments in the pregame lobby and allow us to pend more time playing.

That's all I can think of right now. What do you think about GTA4's matchmaking system?

I just wanted to tell everyone about FPSBuddy, an amazing tool I've been using to really step my game up in Halo 3.

It's called the Halo 3 Respawn Timer by FPSBuddy. Basically, it's a tool you can use from any computer's browser to help control respawns of weapons, vehicles, items, and powerups. It's really simple to use. Just load up a map / gametype profile (i.e. Blackout / Team Slayer) and you will be presented with a list of icons representing different items which appear on that particular map / gametype profile. So, if you choose Blackout and Team Slayer, you'll get an icon for the Sniper Rifle, Sword, Shotgun, Bubble Shield, etc.

To use the tool, just click the icon on the FPSBuddy respawn times tracker and the timer will start. Just keep playing as you normally would and you'll be reminded by a visual AND audio cue when the weapon is about to spawn, and when the weapon is up. You'll literally hear the tool tell you that the Sniper Rifle will be up in ten seconds... Sniper Rifle is UP!" It's pretty surreal.

FPSBuddy Tutorial Video #1 - The Basics

More info and videos of FPSBuddy's Halo 3 Respawn Timer after the break

Anyone else experiencing matchmaking issues in Grand Theft Auto IV on 360? Here are some of the issues I am experiencing:

Certain party members almost never show up in the pregame screen. When a player is bumped from the party, he will sometimes end up back at the single player campaign - forcing them to watch and wait through the loading screen, only to have to message his friends to beg for aother invite - only to repeat the process again.

No way to switch teams in the pregame screen - My party seems to outnumber most other parties, which causes them to quit either before or after the game starts.

Players get no credit towards cash or rank when the opposing team quits out of the game - is the quitting team penalized? They should be, and the other team should be told so.

GTA4's matchmaking isn't all bad though, as it tends to find available games much fastr than Halo 3 does. And that's a call for celebration.

How have your gta 4 matchmaking experiences been?

First of all, I'd like to apologize for my long absence. Hopefully a few of you still have GamingPhreak in your feed readers. The truth is, along with a crash of the old site, I've been busy with news of a new baby on the way. My daughter was born last week, and I am finding out the hard way how hard it is to get my game on while I'm feeding or holding her. I am happy to say that I did find a good amount of games on Xbox Live Arcade that can be played with one hand.

Here are the Xbox Live Arcade Games that can be played using only one hand:

3D Ultra Minigolf
Carcassonne
Frogger
Feeding Frenzy
Geometry Wars (possible, but VERY hard with one hand)
Ms. Pac Man
PAC MAN
PAC MAN Championship
Spyglass Board Games
Texas Hold'em
Worms (roping is a bit hard, but everything is is nice!)

These are just some of the games that can be played with one hand. If you have anything to add, comment below and I will add it.

If you are interested in a full one-handed controller for people with disabilities, check this out.

here you go, a live chat about EA's upcoming skateboarding game, entitled "skate."

jcsickz: yo I just played the demo for EA's new skateboarding game
it kick's tony hawk's fucking ass
badass gane


stankbreath: no shit
i dont know if i could get into a game like that but that's cool
what's the point of a skateboarding game like tony hawk?


Sent at 3:08 PM on Tuesday
jcsickz: basically they give you a number of challenges but it's unrealistic and you can do ridiculous tricks with ease
and what EA did with skate. is make it really realistic, and make it hard to pull off tricks, like in real life, but the realism is there, and its way more fun


stankbreath: you compete in tournaments like x games or something?
for a high score?
i thought i remember reading that tony hawk games were like GTA but you roam around town on a skateboard


jcsickz: in the skate demo they had you doing a local competition, and the other competitors are all getting in your way and stuff, like it probably is in real life
tony hawk was weird, it ended up being like GTA where you go around and talk to people and was more an adventure game than it was a skateboarding game


stankbreath: i see. well it sounds like it could be fun. I never got into skateboarding nor do I watch those events on tv but it sounds like a game people involved in that niche would enjoy

here is chat #2 between stankbreath and I after a week of playing Madden '08

jcsickz: dude I played 4 games of madden in a row, earlybird special 6AM, then halfway through the 4th game the power flickers and the xbox resets
i was pissed man

stankbreath: oh no
you needs to save homie


jcsickz: I know, I wish there was an auto-save, cuz I didn't think about it
and 360 version has no in-game saving


stankbreath: dayum
lameness

stankbreath: jesus christ. the rams are torching me


jcsickz: yo can i ask you a question


stankbreath: my dbs can't hand
hang
yeah


jcsickz: how the fuck do you pass on all pro
its so hard


stankbreath: shit, i have good numbers. 8 games in im 6-2 with a 86% qb rating. lemme see if i can help you


jcsickz: do you use that qb vision cone? or have some money plays? I can't seem to complete many passes at all, I probably average 20 passing yards a game


stankbreath: you use NO?


jcsickz: yeah


stankbreath: NO playbook?


jcsickz: yes


stankbreath: kool
first, i think madden is gangsta smart
like, you cant run same play 2, 3 times in a row against a good D
so i set them up
like, if i have a 2nd and short after a good run, i go I-Form, normal, Playaction pass (the one with both WR running streaks
if a Safety bites, throw a lob up to that receiver
gotta be quick and step into pass
next
Shotgun 4WR, 1 back. make the back Reggie
there's a play where he has an option on his route. he can run up and turn around or cut to the right. regiie will get open a lot because when he cuts to the right, he smokes the LB. If it's a nickel back or safety on him, he may or may not get open and usually doesn't go right but turns around. Be careful when he turns in, if there is a LB around there, he'll jump up and pick you


jcsickz: ok cool


stankbreath: another good one
4 WR empty backfield


jcsickz: so how do the options work? the ai decides which route to take?


stankbreath: yeah
whit's like a 5 yd route
fast


jcsickz: i always wondered about that... proceed


stankbreath: ok
4WR empty backfield
there's a play where the TE will block, the wide receivers run streaks, and the slots run 7 yard in then out routes. I like to sub in reggie for that formation as a slot and devry as the other slot.
look to see if a LB or slow safety will cover either slot


jcsickz: ahh
good shit


stankbreath: if there is a LB or Safety playing man on either slot, they'll turn out and be wide open
that one's a bit risky


jcsickz: how can you tell if its an lb or safety? number range?


stankbreath: if the D is playing zone, Im usually getting sacked, throwing a pick, or getting an intentional grounding
the number on jersey


jcsickz: cool


stankbreath: the good corners won't ever cover slots when there is a slot on both sides of the field
they always cover the wide receivers
but nickel backs and fast safeties will hang with slots pretty well. SS and LB get burned by Bush, Copper, and Henderson


jcsickz: all about finding the matchups then huh


stankbreath: yeah man


jcsickz: word


stankbreath: it definitely is
im actually impressed with the tips i just gave you
i didn't realize i was thinking that much about it


jcsickz: i pay so much attention to the player icons that i don't even notice the positions


stankbreath: fucking lock down corners kill me


jcsickz: yeah


stankbreath: when i think my guy is open they make picks


jcsickz: I have my best success in passing in screen and hb dumps, but it's very risky cuz I'


stankbreath: im playing St. Louis and they're #2 corner is garbage. I'm killing him with Devry's speed


jcsickz: ll either get 5-10 yards at best or get sacked like 70% of the time
nice


stankbreath: YEAH! screens actually work!


jcsickz: yeah they do


stankbreath: hey never worked for me in any other game


jcsickz: they worked last year too actually


stankbreath: oh no shit
i love screens!

stankbreath: sir
got the 1st down marker thing
"advanced routes"


jcsickz: no way
fuck yeah
u da man
how to get it?


stankbreath: right thumbstick hotroute
select receiver and pull dwn on right thumbstick. will button hook at first down marker


jcsickz: no fucking way... you don't know how happy that makes me.. ok, it's officially official
#1 madden


stankbreath:
lol


jcsickz: is it just a single route?


stankbreath: only one i tried
dont know what the other right thumbstick routes do
fucking Rams are amazing
jesus
3 bombs for tds on me in first quarter
and their LDE, Leanord Little is insanely fast for a DE

Below is a transcript from an actual chat about two bloggers opinions of Madden '08.

Stankbreath: let's talk madden
your thoughts?


jeff: best madden ever. presentation could be better, but it's great
I love the player icon stuff and the defender control
but I suck at it, I lost like 40-0 to the colts last night on all-pro
might need to go to pro
I like the new kicking system
I like how they kinda got rid of precision passing


Stankbreath: im winning on all-pro but it's been very competitive. im 4-0 with some nailbiters. also, the saints are a really good team and that's who im using so that gives an advantage.
I'm really enjoying it. It's very "playable".
I'm looking forward to the offseason and seeing all the stuff i can do for scouting, etc.


jeff: yeah it's a good year for madden. "bout time"


Stankbreath: overall 8/10 from me. it loses points because it doesn't make me feel like im a part of the nfl too much like 2k5 did


jeff: it really feels next-gen with all those player icons, gives a whole new element of gameplay
and that smart player stuff is cool too for cheese ballers


Stankbreath: lol


Sent at 2:38 PM on Thursday
Stankbreath: just tried to hit stick (up) the Panthers running back with josh bullocks. Dislocated Bullocks' shoulder


jeff: snaps
sounds like a nasty hit


Stankbreath: yo
think i just figuired somethign out
if you get picked, go for a strip. got two balls back doing that
guess cuz the defense guys don't have good carry ratings


jeff: nice
a to strip right


Stankbreath: dont' know on your controller
i think r1 or r2 on 360


jeff: oh yeah i forgot ur on pc


Stankbreath: r bumper maybe


Stankbreath: injury animations stil the same in madden. lame
if it's a serious one, id like to see a cart
id also like to see trainers go out there


jeff: the animation is just basically the guy limping right


Stankbreath: if drew brees is on the field hurt and im playing franchise mode, I'm worried. They should make injuries more exciting
yeah gets up on own always and limping, grabbing arm, whatever
maybe play it out a bit like have madden or whoever talk about their stats for the game or season or something while trainers looking them over on field
if it's something that's going to keep them sidelined
and there should be like broken fingers, pulled muscles that linger. say Brees breaks a finger on his throwing hand. he can still play but his accuracy should be down and as the finger gets better, it starts going back up.
also there could be lingering injuries
same with the hand


jeff: good call
thats realistic


Stankbreath: if he gets hit a lot in the game, he could reaggrivate it and accuracy would go back down
that would make you really careful when playing with him to make sure he wouldnt get hurt
thus, affecting your play style
same as in real life
you could bench him for faster recovery
could be like that for RBs
say deuce broke some ribs but he's still playing
he would still run the same speed and agility but maybe hit break tackle goes down because he's not going to want to or wont be able to muscle out extra yards cuz his ribs hurt
how the fuck hard is that to add in the game?
dude, copy this and make a post out of it on gamingphreak!


jeff: word

Well, hope you enjoyed our little chat. Do you agree with Stankbreath about the injuries? also, do you think that Madden '08 is the best Madden ever?

Just got done playing the BioShock demo, and it really is looking like a must-buy.

You start out swimming out of a fiery plane crash (I still don't know why the plane crashed, I looked down for a second in the cutscene and missed the cause of the crash) and then being taken into some awesome futuristic town which has elements of the 50's in it. Kind of a future-meets-past kinda thing. It is truly a badass concept. It kind of reminds me of the 80's revival fad earlier this century, but way cooler. This game has s-t-y-l-e.

Ok. So you start by getting in some tiny elevator and going up a few floors and watching a 50's style movie that teaches you a few of the story and gameplay elements.

Did I mention that I really like the style of this game?

The demo gives you a good 30-60 minutes of fun, and there's even a point in it that might have you stuck for a few minutes. Let's just say I respawned on more than one occasion.

I've decided not to ruin any more of the demo for you. You just have to play it for yourself.

Anyway, you should really be playing this demo instead of sitting here reading this. Have fun!

This post is for all the parents of young PC gamers out there. I want to reccommend piece of software called SoftwareTime.

Basically, it allows you to set up a specific amount of time that each of your children can be using the computer. This is especially useful for the parents who have children who like to play PC Games.

As you know, children have a habit spend far too much time on the PC playing games. This will give them a certain amount of time to play and then their account is temporarily banned until the next day.

You can also set each child's account to a maximum amount of time "per sitting". Such as, you can give Billy and Suzy 1 hour of time each between 8am and 12 noon, and another hour between 1pm and 5pm.

Anyway, it's really good software and it works with PC Games, so you should consider buying SoftwareTime here for only $29.95

Yes, folks, I finally bought the Xbox Live Vision Camera. At first, I didn't want to get one, but now that I notice that a lot more games are supporting it, I decided to go and buy one.



The quality is pretty good, and I like the fact that I could change my gamer picture to a picture of myself I took with the Xbox Live Vision Camera.

Video chat works great with the camera, and it is hilarious to finally see all the people you've been playing with.

I suggest spending the $40 on this camera.

If you want to save a few bucks, buy it here for $35.99

Guess what folks, there's a lighter, fast PSP on the horizon. The PSP v2.0 will be exactly the same as the current version, but will be a bit lighter and have faster load times.

I've never thought the PSP to be "too heavy" (although I might consider the DS to be a bit too light), but I have definitely always thought that the load times were a bit ridiculous for a handheld.

The other thing I've always said the PSP needs is a second analog stick for playing fps and 3ps games like Socom and Syphon Filter. Well, Sony didn't listen. So with the DS I shall stay.

Ok, today's announcement of the release date and price of the 360 thumbboard periph has me wondering how useful it will be. I mean, I like the idea, but how useful will it really be? The dashboard is very sluggish and typing a quick message will still take about a 30-60 seconds, which is longer than it takes to respawn in most online games.

Maybe microsoft should be concentrating on making the dashboard a bit zippier.

The good thing about this release is that it'll make everyone realize how slow the dash truly is, and maybe this will prompt an update.

Here's to hoping so.

Ever since my 360 broke, I have been playing Final Fantasy 3 for DS. Normally, I am not a fan of the RPG genre, but I was growing tired of the action games for the DS. Mario Kart, New Super Mario Bros, and Starfox DS are all fine and good, but they just don't hold their replay value. I wanted something that I could play for weeks or months and still have plenty to explore. I found this in Final Fantasy 3 DS.

I just found a hilarious review of the Halo 3 beta, definitely worth checking out. Just... watch it.

I love the reviews on that site, they are all hilarious. By far the most original video review site on the web.

Much props to the SillyReviews.com team! Keep it up.

Ok, we know that a lot of people with an Xbox 360 will get the flashing red lights of death at some time during their console's lifetime. If your 360 is out of warranty, then Microsoft will charge you for the repair. The normal cost for repair is $139. Here's the story of how I talked them down to $69.

I made a total of three calls to 1-800-4-my-xbox. The details of each one are listed below:

Call 1: I called this number, and told the sales representative my problem. He said that since my warranty had expired, it would be $139 for the repair. I told him I had to think about it, and took down the reference number. After I hung up, I thought about the fact that I'd have to pay $139 on top of the $399 that I paid for the system and got really angry. Another frustrating thing was the fact that if my 360 had died a few months earlier, it would have been fixed for free due to the extended warranty that Microsoft did for launch systems.

I decided to try to negotiate.

Call 2: On this call, I knew what to expect. I hoped to get lucky and get a representative who would maybe mess up and fix my box for free. After giving him my reference number, the guy wouldn't budge from $139, and I eventually hung up. I really didn't want to pay the full price for the repair, so I tried one last time.

Call 3: This time I decided to do it a little differently. Instead of giving my reference number, I said that I was calling for the first time. Eventually, we got back to the $139 sticking point again. I started to get angry, and told him to let me speak with his supervisor. The supervisor came on (speaking much better english than any of the reps), and defended the full price repair to the best of his ability. I wasn't buying it. I told him that I was a huge Xbox supporter, that I was an original Xbox Live beta tester, and that I took a chance on the Xbox 360 at launch and should not be penalized for that. At this point I was talking very fast, and the supervisor was trying to calm me down. I could tell that I had the upper hand at this point. I told him that I wanted the repair done for free, and he said he would see what he could do. After being on hold for about five minutes, he came back on and offered me the repair, one month of Xbox Live Gold, and a year warranty for $69.95. Since that was about half price of the originally stated price, I agreed because I thought that I might not get a chance at 50% off again. I paid the fee over the phone, and that was it.

It just goes to show you, everything in life is negotiable. Try this if you ever see the dreaded red lights of death and tell us how much you talked them down!