Marketplace is offline and content region lock [UPDATED]

I’ve been using Xbox360 a lot, especially the demos and the videos. I enjoy the moments that I can view trailers and try out so many games.

Recently XboxLive offered a web based Marketplace. You don’t have to turn on your Xbox to purchase or download your 360 content, now you can queue them from your favorite browser. I like the idea, I enjoyed the idea so much that I immediately logged on to the store to try it out. As soon as I try it, I was surprised to see that there was so much content. More than what I usually see when I use my 360. I try to download a free video called “The Guild”, suddenly, I was greeted with this message “This offer is not valid in your region”. I presumed as much, but it feels like it’s not fair to show these items to me and not let me get it. What’s this supposed to mean? Like Live teasing me? Telling me that living in the Philippines is not worthy to see free video? I mean, if the marketplace don’t intend to give it to me, then don’t let me see it anymore. I understand region locks, they are there for a reason, but don’t tease me. It’s irritating once you feel like you can get it, then you suddenly notice that you can’t. The Xbox Live Marketplace needs a lot of work, other than the region lock, they should really do previews of the Premium themes. I just hope Microsoft improves their service.

About the Marketplace again… for some reason, I can’t get in. What’s irritating is that once it has this problem, logging in your profile takes very long, to the point I thought my Xbox hangged up. I actually had no problems that Microsoft is working on it, but if you are online it’s a requirement to log into Live, and with the Marketplace down it takes like less than a minute for it to respond. Even when I’m already logged in, there are times that the NXE takes a little longer to load properly. I haven’t tried logging in today, but yesterday was a pain. It’s not an intense pain since I was still able to talk to my XboxLive friends through it’s chat system without a problem. Again, I just hope that Microsoft improves their service.

UPDATE: Looks like the problem with my connection is related to my internet connection. I had to change my DNS and suddenly, everything worked fine again.

Playstation Home Beta Invite! Why just now?

I had my fill of playing the PS3 for a while, since I just borrowed one before. Today, I just received an invitation to join Home Beta, now that I don’t have a PS3. I don’t know if a lot of people have received this, but if not, this is an opportunity that I will miss sadly. I know Home is just like a social MMO with tons of advertising, but I’m a video gamer, I like those small little things that make a console unique. I enjoyed playing around with the NXE (New Xbox Experience), but having this rare chance to play the beta version of Sony’s new interface is something I’m also wanting to try since it was announced the first time, especially it’s home and character customization.

I Officially Have an Xbox! plus installed NXE too. Oh what fun.

After borrowing 360’s and trying to save up for a good future, I finally got my own Xbox, after 3 years after it’s initial launch. I got it about 3 weeks ago, but I was so busy at work that I couldn’t post as much as I wanted. I got the arcade version which is essentially the just the Xbox without the hard drive. What’s the difference? The package is not totally different from any version except that it doesn’t have a hard drive, but it does include a memory card, but no headset.

What’s with the new Nintendo DSi

The new Nintendo DSi is out in Japan. I have no doubt that it will come out here in the Philippines very soon. It has new features that will gain some attention, like the camera and the SD card slot. But what do I think of it?

World Cyber Games’ Soul Calibur 4 Competition

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend the start of the event. This was held in SM Mall of Asia, EOne Center I think is the name of the place. I might be wrong. Its not really a big event, it pales in comparison to Level Up Live. Anyway, we are trying not to compare… try…

Follow up on Level Up! Live on the final day.

Second day at Level Up! Live, still at World Trade Center. I came a bit late though, around 5PM. The Playground booth was now focused on PinoyPS with their PS3 and Monster Hunter Philippines with PSP multiplayer galore.  I was also able to attend the World Cyber Games Soul Calibur 4 competition at SM Mall of Asia.

Level Up! Live

I just got back from attending Level Up! Live 2008 at the World Trade Center. It was interesting to see the event since it has been years since I actually attended an event by Level Up!. I unfortunately don’t have any pictures to show but I’ll get some later from a few friends of mine. After being through some few events of my own in the past years, I really liked the way Level Up! handled everything here. It was organized, the crowed was very good even though they were many, the booths were interesting to see. Although I have to admit that I stayed mostly at the PlayGround booth because I know most of the people there were from PinoyPS and PinoyXbox communities. I am a member of those but I am not as active as I was years ago.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed PSP Review

Its been a while since i written anything. Its been a while since I played a proper console game that I could really get into. I did have a lot of games to try, but since I only had a Wii, PSP and a DS, there was a point of drought in gaming. So, when Star Wars The Force Unleashed came out, I really couldn’t wait to play it. Being a Star Wars fan myself, this is one game that I can’t miss out because of its strong impact in the Star Wars universe. To people who don’t know what Force Unleashed is, this is a multimedia project which involves several formats including video games, books, comics, pen and paper role playing games and more. This was only done years ago with Shadows of the Empire.

Super FamiCom Controller for the Wii

Why can’t we get a controller like this one? Nintendo released a Wii version of our Nintendo’s 16 bit gamepad. I wonder if we will ever find the same love here in our country.

Anyway, you can see or read (if you can read Japanese) more about this on Inside Games.

My brain on Classic Gaming

So far I haven’t been playing any new games. After playing Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core, I really had more time playing other games that I missed playing.