So we finally got a Wii and I have to say it’s a great system for the family and kids. When all was said an done we spent $347 to get it up an running and I think that is pretty much the bare minimum for anyone. I suppose we could have just bought the extra controller and nunchuck an shaved a bit more and skipped on Wii Play, but my kids are loving those games. That price point is really close to an Xbox 360 by the way.

Speaking of games, more and more titles look an appear to be very kid friendly on the Wii and I'm happy with that most of all. I've already loaded my Gamefly up with some Wii titles to test out. Nights Journey of Dreams was the first and it was pretty cool, a bit more challenging for my daughter at this age an time, but she liked most of it.

I can clearly see why this is a great choice as a 2nd console for us or even a first time console for some families. We have some friends that own a Wii and they also own a PS3 for Blu-ray. I think Nintendo has hit on something here and making huge numbers with first time buyers looking for family friendly titles and I think owners of the others consoles are clearly looking at the Wii as a 2nd choice over each others brand.

In the end we are family having fun learning and playing games together and that's what is important. The Wii is sure to be a blast in more ways than one. Perhaps the wireless motion stuff will get old. I just hope they keep on looking at family friendly titles like Animal Crossing. I'd also like to see the numbers on how many Wii owners actually own other consoles, I can't help but think they have some large numbers of bi-console fans.

Prizes, Prizes, and more Prizes just for playing games. Starting tomorrow you can get a chance at winning a weekly prize of 4000 MS Points and just for playing some of the arcade titles. Best of all you don't even have to buy the game right now, you can simply play the trial version to secure your entry for that week.

I love the fact that you can download trials an demos and think this is really great to have a sweepstakes and allow you to simply play a trial version. So with Five games lined up and an entry for just playing at least once, I think its well worth the time to download and try. Not to mention a chance at winning 100,000 MS Points is not to shabby as well. Take a look at the list of games and make sure you download them and give them a try at least and if you like the game, spend a few points and add them to your collection to keep.

July 30 - August 5 - Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2
August 6 - August 12 - Braid
August 13 - August 19 - Bionic Commando: Rearmed
August 20 - August 26 - Galaga Legions
August 27 - September 2 - Castle Crashers

So I came up with this idea around the first of the year, shortly after my wife announced that she would take part in the Breast Cancer 3-Day, a 60 Mile walk in November. If its one thing that my wife has always done, its been very generous and always giving of herself for others. Out of anyone I've ever known, she has always lived by the rule its better to give than receive.

If you haven't heard of the Breast Cancer 3-Day, its put on by the Susan G. Komen foundation and those who walk agree to raise at least $2,200 to walk. Most try and raise more than that, but still you have to raise at least that amount in order to walk. So I decided I would work at helping her raise those funds and came up with an idea.

So what I came up with, I called the Power of 360 and I wanted to focus on the gaming community for Xbox Live. My thought was dividing the $2200 by 360 Xbox Live members, you would only need to donate a total of $6.12 each. That should be a very easy and small amount to sacrifice, about the cost of a daily Lunch or say an Xbox Live Arcade title.

Now some people could very well donate much more and with out even thinking twice. Xbox Live is made up of members from all kinds of backgrounds, but hopefully most of us can at least afford to donate $6.12 for a very worth cause. The fact is Cancer can strike anyone and at anytime. That is pretty much why my wife wanted to support a cause like this and to help out others.

I've done what I can this year in helping out a few other worth causes and this is my latest. I did say its better to give than receive and I'm hoping I can reach a few others willing to help support and give. I've created what I like to call the Ultimate Hero Prize Pack for those willing to help us.

Lionhead Studios has donated a signed print of the Hero & Dog for starters. In addition to this I've purchased a brand new copy of the original Fable: The Lost Chapters and I'm also purchasing the Limited Edition of Fable 2 to round out this package. I've also made a donation myself and I'm not eligible for any of the prizes. That means 1 out of 359 will be selected to win this prize pack. Now I'm going to see what I can do to round up a few additional prize packs for a few others and will update the site with what I find. All I can do is try, but rest assure, one of you will win the Ultimate Hero Prize Pack.

Thank you for your time and support, thanks for believing in this cause and in the journey my wife is about to take. Thanks for believing in the Power of 360 and making a difference.

When you visit Bungie.Net your greeted with a few different pages it seems. The latest is a message from Harold Ryan and expresses the disappointment or some recent events at E3. You have to admit it was a bit strange to not hear from Bungie at all. Granted its not like they have an expected game, but it was rumored they had something special to talk about and that something in the lines of a Halo 4 was coming down the pipe. The Microsoft Press event came and gone and no sign of Bungie. Here is what I found when I went to the site a short time ago.

From: Harold Ryan
Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 7:00 PM
Subject: E3 Announce

For the last several months, we've been building toward a reveal of something exciting that Bungie is working on. We were looking forward to sharing that with our fan community during the week of E3. However, those plans were just changed by our publisher.

We realize that many of our fans are disappointed by this turn of events; members of the Bungie team share that disappointment.

When the right time comes, we look forward to sharing this exciting announcement with you. Until then, we appreciate your continued support and patience.

Harold Ryan
President
Bungie LLC

What is rumored to have gone down was a last minute change & announcement about Final Fantasy XIII coming to the Xbox 360 and this news forced Bungie to sit this conference out, in order to get the word out. It was a huge surprise to hear FFXIII would be on the Xbox 360. What ever has happened, fans are forced to wait until the dust clears and things return. A few days are left for E3, but will we see something during that time? Your guess is as good as mine.

Unscripted360.Com to host Live discussion on July 14th 8:00pm CST
GamerTagRadio.com is Live and on the front lines with streams from this years E3. Tune in this week here or visit their site to see first hand what is coming down for gamers. Watch on July 14th at 10:30am Pacific as Microsoft gives their Live Press Conference. Then on July 15th at 9:00am Pacific you can see Nintendo Live and later at 11:30am Pacific Sony will give their Live Press Conference. But that's not all... through out the whole show Gamertagradio.com will provide more coverage from various Gaming Companies at E3.

Tune in later this evening at Unscripted360.Com to listen in and discuss some of the coverage with fellow gamers at 8:00pm Central Time. I'll be back later in the week with more news and information, but until then enjoy the coverage courtesy of GamerTagRadio.Com

Something I've heard from time to time through out the gaming community is, "Are You Done Yet?" So I'm not the only one who hasn't finished a game all the way through. Some people get started and along the way they loose their way and do something else. It can be a number of reasons, but my intentions are to finish the games.

One of the big blockers in finishing a game for me is all the new releases that come out. So many new games come out and they call you for attention. Not to mention the network of friends you have adding to this draw, "Oh look, everyone is playing CoD4...", so you'll make the switch.

Playing Live with your friends I think is the biggest draw and biggest block to finishing a game. With a small number of games having Co-op and most being straight Team Slayer style, its no wonder people get distracted and never seem to finish a game. Match after match of some of the most fun you'll ever have will come from playing on Live, but its not going to help you beat and finish the game.

So what is the big deal with finishing the game. By all means if you don't have the patience or care to do that, its fine with me. Still I feel your missing out on an important part of the game. Some of these games have a really great story to tell and its an interactive story you take part in. Sure you can wait and hear all the spoilers and know the story with out playing, but that's not really the fun way to do things.

I'm guilty for sure, but with good intentions... so I have a nice list of games that I need to work on and finish. Now in finish I mean the story myself, I'm not talking about getting every single achievement available. That's a fun quest too, but its not something I have to do. So here is a list of the games I'm wanting to finish and need to set time aside and do.

• HALO: Combat Evolved
• HALO 2
• Fable
• Bioshock
• Assassins Creed
• GRAW 2
• Half-Life 2
• Half-Life 2 episode 1
• Half-Life 2 episode 2
• Portal
• GTAiv

Some people might look and this and wonder why I haven't finished these and say its a short time to complete these. Well for someone who has 8 hours a day to set aside and just play games it might be, but my time is limited and to late evenings for most of these games. I don't play these when my daughters are awake really. But I have my list of games to at least attempt and finish the story lines now and at least for the experience of what the designer had in mind.

 
I know your thinking its too good to be true. But it is True! I'm not sure why they are doing it, but I really don't care. Fact is for visiting the site and playing with some online design tools, you can earn MS Points for registering, submitting a design and rating cars.

You get 100 points just for registering on the site and then you can earn additional points daily for rating cars or designing a car. But I can talk about it over and over, but there is no catch and you don't have to give any credit cards or buy anything. You just have to play designer. Trust me, its FREE Points and you should get them while you can.

Click on the first car I played with and rate it. I'll try and share more designs later as I learn to prefect the online editor. Sure would be cool if this was a full blown Forza 2 editor. But I'm not going to complain when I can earn free points. Its a concept car, yeah that's the ticket.

Starting on Monday July 14th, Gamer Tag Radio will stream live coverage from various events at E3. You can view this from their web site and others next week. I'll have the feed embedded on my blog here starting on Monday and keep it up for the whole week of coverage. I hope to have a few items posted over the weekend, but check back next week and see what things are going down at E3. Way to go Godfree & Gamer Tag Radio and thanks for being there on the front lines for us gamers.

The day is getting closer and closer for the release of the much anticipated Fable II. In earlier news about the upcoming game, a set of XBL Arcade Fable II Pub Games would become available and allow you to earn gold before Fable II is released and that day will come in August now. The Gold you earn in the Pub games can then be accessed in Fable II.

The really cool thing is you don't have to buy these Pub games. They will be apart of the officially released versions of Fable II and if you pre-order the game you will get a code to download these Pub games in August. If you don't want to pre-order, you can purchase these Pub games from Live for only 800ms points.

So check with your favorite retailers about placing a pre-order and see what steps they have in place for you to get your code. I've already reserved a copy of the Legendary Collectors set with Game Stop and they have the following instructions listed on their web site for those who are pre-ordering:

Pre-order Fable II and receive the Xbox Live Arcade Fable II Pub Games. While supplies last.

Online / In-Store Pickup Customers: Codes and instructions for Pub Games will be emailed to you. Please provide valid email address at time of order.

Store Customers: Code and instructions for Pub Games will be provided at time of reservation.

This is the games I'm really looking forward to for 2008 and I think will go over really well. I hope to have a lot more on Fable II as the release date draws closer.

It's back once again, July 7th or 7/7 is happy Bungie Day and they are giving away free stuff to all of the Halo Faithful again. What is cooler as a give away other than a free Map called Cold Storage? I can't think of anything cooler than this re-imaging from the Halo Combat Evolved multiplayer map.

You can also pick up the Legendary Map pack for a nice price point of only 600 MS Points and that is well worth that price point. In addition to Map offers, you can get Gamer Pics and a Dashboard Theme. Thank you Bungie, makes me look forward to July 7th more and more. I have a feeling a lot of people will be playing Halo 3 tonight and over the next few days. But don't wait, a lot of these offers are only available for 48 hours, so snag them up fast.