Etnernal Sonata, and Xbox Live

When I first heard of the story behind the forthcoming Xbox 360 RPG Eternal Sonata, I figured it was going to be one of those strange, childish RPGs that would hold absolutely no interest from me. As it is, while I enjoy some of the RPG heavy hitters like a Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy, they just take up too much time for me these days.

A little while ago, I downloaded a video of Eternal Sonata through Xbox Live, and I was blown away by the graphic fidelity and art style. The game looks like an anime comic brought to life, but it's even more detailed than that. I really can't explain it except to say that it seems like they got the cel-shaded style and lighting exactly right. Still, the story seemed a bit silly ... an imaginary world dreamt of by Frederick Chopin while he lay sick on on the verge of death. Silly, and a bit dreary. And yet, the world he dreams of is vibrant and full of life.

When I heard that there was a demo in the new issue of the Official Xbox Magazine, I grabbed it (while out getting the final installment in the Harry Potter series). Before delving into The Deathly Hallows, I fired up the 360 and popped in the demo disc, and was absolutely blown away. Eternal Sonota is an incredibly accessible RPG, adds a few new gameplay twists (different special attacks depending on whether you're in the light or the dark), and some absolutely beautiful music. In fact, I think the music (which had to be good, if the game is about Chopin) is what really puts the game over the top.

Hard to say until a final copy is in my hands in September, but I think it's going to be easy to give the game a Buy It review. Until then, go grab the magazine and play it!

On a side note, Microsoft is really onto something with Xbox Live. Being able to download demos, trailers, movies and other content helps open gamers' horizons to new experiences. For example, I really disliked the Blue Dragon demo for some reason (probably the aforementioned dislike of overly childish RPGs), but quite unexpectedly played the demo of EA's The BIGS repeatedly.

I'd really like to see OXM delivered electronically through Xbox Live, but I don't know that the publishing industry is ready to make a jump like that. Given that the content in OXM was dreadfully old by the time I read it, electronic delivery seems like it would make a lot more sense in terms of timeliness and convenience.

Creating a Community is Hard

AMD is really tying to reach out to the enthusiast community with their news AMD Unprocessed website and forum, but so far, the going is pretty slow. It's always that way, because building a community takes time. The conversations are kind of forced at first, and no one knows quite what they can get away with, and when the community is somewhat exclusive (Unprocessed is primarily for tech bloggers) it takes even longer.

That said, the joint appears to be run by AMD and notable Windows blogger Robert McLaws. It looks like the idea is similar to what Microsoft is doing with The Hive (of which I am also a member), but focused on AMD products primarily.

I've got a bit of advice for AMD, and we'll see where it goes from here. First, they need to get more involved. Right now, a few of us are trying to get the ball rolling, but there has been very little involvement from AMD directly in the conversations. While it might not be Scott Carroll (who took over for Chris Aarons), some AMD people need to be there talking and assuring us the place is open for business. The only way bloggers will make a point to come there is if they have a direct conduit to information ... it's all about access. Otherwise, they can probably get better information from other third-party sources.

Second, with all due respect to Scott, get your welcome message off the home page. The idea of AMD "Unprocessed" flies against the idea of a PR guy providing us with information, so you may want to consider hiring an experienced Community Manager. Either that, or you've got to "open the kimono" right away and give bloggers access to information they couldn't get otherwise. Building trust takes time, but if you want to jump start a community, sometimes a grand gesture is required.

Lastly, if it's going to be a community, give people more places to talk about off-topic stuff, and maybe even about your competitors. Communities don't always stay on-topic, and sometimes it's the off-topic stuff that keeps people going in that difficult genesis period.

Anyway, it's an interesting experiment, and I hope it works. AMD has an opportunity to grab a little more mindshare from their competitors, and it's critical at a time where AMD is falling behind in the performance area, both in processors and graphics. Hopefully this will be great impetus for them.

Microsoft Natural Wireless Laser Mouse 6000 Impressions

Sweet Mother of Pearl ... what is it with companies and these ridiculously long product names. Let me tell you, there's a reason why "Flickr" is popular, and it's probably because it's easy to say.

Now that I've gotten this out of the way, I got a box of goodies from Microsoft the other day. Included in the box were a couple of cameras for Windows Live Messenger that I'm going to put to use over the next couple of weeks (especially while I'm in Orlando in April), but the one that has been the biggest surprise was Microsoft's new ergonomic desktop mouse.

Strangely enough, it wasn't that long ago that Microsoft's mice were considered to be the most ergonomic that you could get, but in reality, while they were more comfortable to hold, they were never truly ergonomic. I've been using computers from a young age, and as a result, I have a fair amount of RSI built up in my wrists, mostly the right wrist. I can't use a non-ergonomic keyboard for long without experiencing pain, and that's why although I've tested a great many keyboards in the past, I keep coming back to Microsoft's Natural series of keyboards. Finally, they put a mouse through the same ergonomic design process as their keyboards and what came out was one of the goofiest looking mice ever made.

The Natural Mouse (and that's all I'm calling it, thankyouverymuch) looks a lot like a ball sitting on your desk. The flat edge is smaller in width than the rest of the mouse, which widens out for your thumb and palm to rest on. Speaking of your thumb, that's one of the first things people will notice about the mouse ... it has a thumb rest. Your right hand (sorry, this mouse is for righties only) is sort of hanging off at an angle, which will feel strange for a while. In fact, everyone I've handed the mouse has said how weird it feels. That doesn't go away when you actually start trying to do work with it; the mouse feels like it's moving at angles, and that's because you haven't adjusted to it yet. Just like the Natural Keyboards, an adjustment period is needed. Thankfully, it's less of an adjustment than the keyboard, you simply need to think of mousing as moving your arm and not your hand. Once you make that transition (it took me only a day), you'll be moving as precisely as ever.

In just a couple of days, I've noticed that I haven't had any pain or numbness in my right wrist and arm, which I normally feel towards the end of a long mousing session. This is because your wrist is now on it's side when resting on the desk, not the unprotected bottom compressing the nerves. OK, so I'm playing doctor here a bit and I have no clue whether this is technically accurate, but suffice it to say that it works. Other than that obvious benefit, the mouse is functionally equivalent to the standard Wireless Laser Mouse 6000, with the notable addition of a battery life indicator on the mouse itself, which sadly, can't be seen when you're holding the mouse..

I want to give it a few more weeks and see how things go, but so far, I'm a big fan of this mouse. I did notice that the driver has specifications for a 7000 series Natural Mouse as well, but I haven't heard anything about it or what the differences might be. Curious.

Vanishing Point, LOKI Revealed ...

Just got the final contact from L.O.K.I. I'll let you read it for yourself. But it doesn't look like AMD will be making a "SuperRob" Athlon any time soon. Pity.

Congratulations on a game well played, and thank you for helping us disappear.

You were not the first to guess our identity, but because you played our game, we want to tell you our secret.

There is no such person as Loki - or rather, she is four sisters who decided to be one extraordinary person.

Each of us has a unique talent:

Lorelei is our tinkerer. Clocks and counting, space and time: she is our genius.

Odessa is our performer, our actress and magician, the girl we send in to dazzle and charm. Odessa goes to meetings: Loki gets promoted. It's very convenient.

Kara is our reader. With a love of history and a photographic memory, she gives us access to any fact, figure, or event at a moment's notice.

Ivy is our spy. She's the girl you dont notice, the face you don't remember, and vanishing is what she does best. Ivy has gotten us out of more than one impossible situation.

Together, we have presented L.O.K.I. to the world. Our mask and super-hero, LOKI has allowed us each to be bigger than ourselves.

When we heard Microsoft and AMD were looking to give extraordinary prizes to exceptional people, we knew LOKI could never find a more perfect job. This, Odessa said, would be a trick we could never top. O, how we wanted this job! (And what clever, unfair, underhanded things we did to the other applicants to make sure we got it! But that's another story.) And once we got the job, we all agreed that Loki's greatest triumph would be her last.

We created the Vanishing Point to reward the smartest minds (and communities) on the planet - and still we underestimated you. We used our smarts and our guile, not to mention money and connections and countless hours of time - and still you humbled us. We knew the terrain and barely gave you a mapand that didn't stop you. We built puzzles that should have taken you days and you solved them in hours.

"Loki" is a genius: but you were far more brilliant. You were thought made fire. You were lightning.

Thank you for your work, your talent, and your dedication. It has been a privilege to witness: an honor and a delight.

For each of us to live, Loki had to die. Thank you, thank you beyond words for taking her to the Vanishing Point.

Lorelei
Odessa
Kara
Ivy

I will say that I'm stunned at the level of detail woven into the game. In retrospect, everything makes sense. Even back to the very first video, the clues were there. The candy wrappers on the table that were assumed to be an homage to 4orty2wo Entertainment were actually a clue after all. Six total chocolates, but only four eaten, all of different flavors. I also love that the game had a great payoff, not in terms of the prizes, but a satisfying ending delivered in a personal manner. Something that even games you pay for frequently get wrong. You're asking someone to do more than pay for the privilege of playing your game ... you're asking them to devote time and attention to existing in your world for a time, and that's not something you should take lightly. Companies like EA don't get that. AMD, on the other hand ... does.

The website now hints at a "sequel", but much like their other efforts for Microsoft, I'd be willing to bet that it'll be a new game for another major launch, mostly likely for Halo 3.

Vanishing Point Goes Out With a Bang

Well, the live-blogging didn't go as I expected. It never works when I want it to. Oh well.

Microsoft threw what they told outsiders was a "Thank You, Seattle" event, and what the rest of us knew was the finale for Vanishing Point. They were easily some of the most spectacular fireworks I've ever seen, enhanced by the speculation of how the clues were imbedded in the display. After the show, Microsoft shuttled us off all Secret Squirrel-like (the busses had the windows covered in butcher paper) to Fremont Studios, where they had a relatively lavish party for the community. Plenty of laptops running Vista were on display, including one that not many people noticed ... a limited edition ASUS Tablet with a light-up Vista logo in the lid. Oh, it was a pretty, pretty machine, and I'd kill to get one.

While most of the party goers wandered the location convinced that there were more clues to be had, I took the opportunity to talk with some of the people involved with putting on the game. One of whom was Chris Aarons, the head of AMD's Community Relations department. We had a great conversation, and he's definitely someone what understands that technology buzz can be managed at a grass roots level. Eventually the conversation diverged into creating personalized experiences for consumers who are spending large sums of money on products. Why doesn't Porsche put a nameplate on the dash of their high-end cars that says that the car was designed specifically for the buyer? Why doesn't Dell do is on the high-end XPS products? It's low-cost and goes a long way towards building customer relationships as well as satisfaction and advocacy. Speaking of advocacy ... hey Chris, do you know where I can get one of those ASUS Tablets?! :)

Of course, before the in-depth marketing conversation with Chris, I was goaded by my buddy Andru into interviewing Chris on camera for The Bleeding Edge, where I asked Chris about Vanishing Point and the inscribed AMD chip prize. If I win, watch out for the special edition AMD Athlon 64 FX "SuperRob Edition" processor ... coming to a box near you!

When I got home, there were still puzzles to be solved, and the Neowin and Unfiction communities banded together again to break them down. Less than 24 hours later, we're headed down the road to immortality, but to get there, we have to figure out what Loki's name is. Didn't I already do that? Not exactly ... see, Loki isn't one person. She's FOUR distinct people, and you have to find the names of all of them. First person with the right answer wins.

What was my guess? Based on the clues given, I'm certain that the first three names are Lorelei, Odessa, and Kara. The last is somewhat murky, but I submitted Irene as my official answer sometime around 1PM Pacific. We'll see what happens. Regardless, I have over 1300 entries for the contest, so there's still the possibility that I'll be headed into space sometime in 2009. Either way, I'll have the distinction of being the first person to have figured out the prize, and that Loki was more than one person (though I thought she was twins).

My hat's off to the amazing and talented people at 4orty2wo that put together this fabulous contest for Microsoft. I can't wait to see what they do next.

Edit: Turns out that the final name was "Ivy", but I figured it out too late. Despite the website saying different, the winner was notified immediately. Also, they added clues after the fact, which I didn't know until it was too late. Somewhat unfair, really, but I'll live. :)

New, Cheap Lumines Live Content Wednesday

Gotta give credit where credit is due ... Microsoft just announced that three new Lumines Live! packs would be available on Wednesday at a discounted price for a limited time (until Feb. 21). What would normally cost over 600 Microsoft Points, you'll be able to get the Puzzle Pack and VS. CPU Pack for just 100 Microsoft Points each. The Heavenly Star pack, basically a "skin" for the game, will be FREE.

For just 200 Microsoft Points, that will take a little of the sting out of feeling like I got screwed on the initial purchase. Maybe I can feel like I've purchased an entire game now. :)

Why Aren't Retailers Crying Foul Over Vista?

One feature of the "upcoming" Windows Vista that has been getting a fair amount of the virtual ink is "Anytime Upgrade". Regardless of the version of Vista that you buy, you can upgrade directly through Microsoft to any higher version. On top of that, Microsoft has announced that you can now buy and download Vista online, and that Ultimate edition buys can buy up to two lower-cost Home Premium licenses for only $49 each.

Here's what I don't understand ... why aren't retailers super-pissed about this? Microsoft is essentially going direct to the consumer, and had built that into the OS itself. For the Anytime Upgrade feature, you don't even have to get another disc at the store ... every version of Vista is on every disc. You're literally just buying a new key.

Microsoft has thought about this a little I'm sure, since the upgrade prices aren't significantly different from the in-store prices, but that means far higher margins for Microsoft as a result. Still, I'm pretty surprised that I haven't heard much about the retailers grousing, so the wholesale prices must be fairly decent. Also, I'm sure the retailers are taking a bit of a "loss leader" perspective on it, knowing that Vista is likely to drive additional hardware and software purchases. And yet ... a ball has been set in motion to make retail irrelevant.

Would you buy your Microsoft software directly through them if given the option, or would you prefer to have a boxed copy? What if there was a price premium for buying the box?

Another Week of Puzzles Come and Gone ...

Week 2 of Vanishing Point is here, and for some of us, already gone. Despite hiccups for Microsoft in delivering clues (they were written in the sky, and weather problems caused delays and cancellations), fans managed to crack some of the puzzles without needing the clues at all. There are some really smart people in this community!

Of course, the part that's really driving many of us is the "Meta Puzzle", the chance to win our names on an AMD processor. Unfortunately, those hopes stalled out today as we realized that it doesn't seem like we're going to get any further for at least a week if not two due to the nature of today's secret message in Loki's congratulatory video.

That's not to say that progress hasn't been made. So called "white boxes" were discovered in the first week that were linked to today's part of the meta puzzle, and people have been working furiously to find out what they mean. They're clearly related to the next step in the meta puzzle, but no one knows how ... yet.

Apple Computer Inc. is now ... Apple Inc.

Why'd Steve Jobs go through an entire MacWorld keynote without introducing a Mac product? Because like it or now, Microsoft just spent five years building an irrelevant product in Windows Vista. Apple, just two hours, and with one product ... moved the playing field entirely. Companies like Microsoft and Sony have been trying to do it for years. Problem is, they've been trying to move the battlefield to the living room.

In retrospect, it's obvious. In a global world, your living room isn't how you reach out. It's not going to be in front of a giant screen. It's going to be in front of a tiny one, big enough to fit in your pocket. Look at the sales figures Apple touted. Cell phones trump everything. People are out of the living room more than they're in it. It makes perfect sense that the real fight is for that one device you have in your pocket.

What, then, of Apple TV? Consider it a hedged bet, but it isn't, really. Notice how Apple TV, right down to the name, is all about entertainment. iPhone is about information, connectivity ... reaching people. iPhone is everything a convergence device is supposed to be.

I hardly use my Xbox 360 or even my Wii as of late. I'm too busy, and when I'm at home, I'm probably asleep. My phone is my constant guide. Apple's the one that gets that. Me, a die-hard Windows guy, who's only wish is that his iPod were a phone and that he could get down to one device. Make it play games (watch your ass, Nintendo), and you've got me.

Nuclear War?

I'd heard a quote thrown around in the wee morning hours about Apple's MacWorld event.

Apple's going to start a Nuclear War.

Normally, I hear something like that, and the hype alarms go off. Something told me this would be different. I had absolutely no idea.

Apple could charge anything they wanted for iPhone, and they'd get it. The device is VERY high-res, 160dpi which is even better than my laptop screen. They appear to be using sub-pixel rendering as well, so everything looks amazingly smooth. If the user-interface lives up to the MacWorld demo, they'll have managed to kill the entire iPod line all at once. THIS is the iPod now.

I'm a Microsoft fan. I've got ton's of Microsoft stuff, save for Zune, because that thing was stillborn. But even if it wasn't, Apple just put a bullet in it. Nothing on the planet, and nothing at CES, is sexier than the iPhone.

And I, for one, welcome my new widescreen, touchscreen overlord.

Update: Nuclear War indeed. Apple just announced that the reason the Google functionality is so pervasive and seamless in the iPhone is because they've been working with them, and Google's CEO just took the stage.

That there in the distance? That's the mushroom cloud over Redmond. Even Vista isn't sexier than this phone. I keep calling it that. Apple calls it an "internet communicator". It's neither. This is a computer, and it's the best looking computer around. People will buy these instead of laptops.

I was right. Vanishing Point prize a trip into space, and more ...

If this photo by Long Zheng can be believed, then I was right with my gut reaction to Vanishing Point. The grand prize is indeed a trip into space. Read the last paragraph.

Other prizes apparently answer the part about being "immortalized", as the winner's name will end up in a computer chip. Maybe the chip in question is the new smaller processor for the Xbox 360? How could would that be?

Xbox 360 in 2007

I was debating going to CES this year, but after having heard that there wouldn't be a lot of innovation (evolutionary, rather than revolutionary, progress), I decided not to go.

Sure enough, sounds like Microsoft is having a big show, announcing IPTV support for the Xbox 360. Never mind that the video downloads are effectively the same thing, just not in real time, but there you have it. Would it get me to ditch DirecTV? Would it get me to get another 360 for the bedroom? These are questions Microsoft needs to be asking, because for all intents and purposes, this is the model you're looking at. Then again, it could be that Microsoft is hoping that IPTV providers will give away Xbox 360 units in exchange for programming contracts.

The elephant in the room with that announcement is the complete lack of mention regarding the "Xbox 360 2.0", the one that had pictures and specs floating around in the past week. HDMI, new HD scaler, and a 120GB hard drive. I could take or leave the rest, but the 120GB drive is absolutely necessary for the sort of features Microsoft is trying to pack into the white box. That leave the obvious question ... what about those of us with first-gen hardware? How do we get our data off the 20GB drive and onto the 120? Could the drives be stackable? Another question people might be pondering is, could a new Xbox 360 be quieter? Features aside, one of the biggest complaints about the Xbox 360 is the distracting fan noise coming from the console.

Surprisingly, outside of the announcement of new Gears of War content, all the news seemed to center on the stuff moving from the Xbox 360 over to Vista, Geometry Wars and Uno being notable examples. Even Gears is rumored to be hitting Vista, after some stray lines of code in an Nvidia graphic driver hinted as being optimized for the game. There's going to be a lot more Vista/360 crossing over as Live Anywhere starts to gain momentum. I'm just wondering if Microsoft will be keeping the promise of making Vista and/or mobile versions of the games free for anyone that purchased the game on 360 already.

Other Vista talk revolved around Gates announcing two specific features that would be released as part of the Windows Ultimate Extras. One, DreamScene, is essentially video on your desktop. Could this be the form that the "Desktop Aurora" will take? The other feature is specialized sports content for the Windows Media Center. No discussion at all of Texas Hold 'Em or any other features that were rumored to be part of the Extras.

Update: Yep, DreamScene is Desktop Aurora (or Motion Desktop), and the guys at Stardock are the ones behind it. Looks like it'll get a lot of community support at dream.wincustomize.com. I expect that "Matrix Desktop" will be available within the week. Also, the Extras page at WindowsUltimate.com specifically lists Hold 'Em.

Finally, Gates specifically mentioned the "secret meeting" at the Bellagio tonight at 6PM. If you needed any confirmation that this is when Vanishing Point officially kicks off, there you have it.

Note: Links coming soon ...

Idiotic Tech Journalists Strike Again

A story I'm seeing all over the blogosphere today is the supposedly "ludicrous" comment by Microsoft that the Aero Glass desktop interface will not slow down a computer powerful enough to run it. I'd have to assume that part of the incredulity comes from a long history of Microsoft flaunting "minimum" configurations that are really stretching the concept. However, in this one case, Microsoft isn't even close to exaggerating.

Aero Glass is FASTER on PCs that can run it than the standard desktop, in most cases. Why?

Aero Glass is designed to use the 3D hardware in computers that usually lies dormant when performing standard Windows tasks. Think of it this way ... it's like having yet another powerful computer processor sitting in your machine that would only get used if you were playing games.

By offloading all desktop compositing to the 3D card, not only do you get some impressive translucency effects and cool stuff like Flip 3D, you also free up your computer's main processor for other tasks, and that results in a boost in performance, not a drop. Of course, this is all dependent on your hardware, but considering the threshold Microsoft put in place for getting Aero Glass to work in the first place, I can't imagine a scenario where this would ever be "slower".

What I don't understand is why so many people that are supposedly journalists in the tech field don't understand this.

New Vanishing Point Grand Prize Theory

There is one other "ultimate vista" that could pertain directly to the Windows Vista launch, and that would be a trip to see the Northern Lights ... the Aurora Borealis. Anyone who's familiar with Vista's beginnings and where things currently stand knows that Aurora was a codename for the animated Windows Vista desktop that is coming as part of the Windows Vista Ultimate Extras.

http://www.istartedsomething.com/20060906/aurora-desktop/

I don't know why it took me this long to put this together, but this is now what I'm leaning towards. Don't know if less than a thousand people have ever seen the Aurora, but I'd say this would be way easier for Microsoft to pull off than shooting someone into space.

Bloggers freak out over free laptops, missing big picture

So I'm insanely curious. Over the past several days, word of bloggers getting free laptops from Microsoft and AMD has lit the blogosphere on fire. Apparently if you got one and didn't disclose it, you're a dirty, filthy liar. Me, I'm wondering if there's a reason why they aren't disclosing it, and if it's at all related to the Vanishing Point game. Supposedly, letters from Loki are coming with them, and there's a couple of different groups of people ... encoders and decoders. We're supposed to be seeking out these people, but maybe some of them have a reason for remaining quiet for the time being. These bloggers are being recruited into the game and perhaps some of them don't even realize it.

That hasn't stopped people from grousing about the laptops and claiming bribery and unfair treatment with hardly a mention of the game they're connected to. Curious. Sure, they're "gifts" to help promote Windows Vista, but come on ... let's have a little fun with it.

I have managed to figure out part of the game, or at least, I think I have. A note from Loki suggests that the one winner will be immortalized, and will be one of less than a thousand people to see the Ultimate Vista. Of course, most people think this means that people will win Vista Ultimate. Suckers. I dug a little deeper, and noticed that one of the keycodes was "3scap3grav1ty" (escapegravity), and that the equations shown in a video provided by Loki look like calculations for Escape Velocity, which is the speed you need to achieve to break away from the Earth's gravitational pull and travel into space. Of course, it all ties into the idea of a Vanishing Point, which is the name of the game. Curiouser.

The only "ultimate vista" that less than a thousand people have seen is a view of Earth from outer space. Sounds like one lucky person will win a trip into space, probably to the International Space Station.

I wonder if the bloggers will freak out over this "bribe".

I wanna be famous!

Microsoft and 4orty2wo are doing another viral game, this one seemingly promising lavish prizes and global fame for at least one person. While it looks like things really start kicking off during CES, there's an event planned for Seattle at the end of January.

Bloggers are receiving mysterious gifts, from small items like puzzle boxes containing memory cards with more clues, all the way up to tricked out customized laptops running Windows Vista (which is what this new alternate reality game is supposed to be promoting). Apparently, I'm not on the A-list, as I haven't gotten anything ... yet.

This sounds like it'll be fun ... hey Loki! I'm in.

Office 2007 Review

I've been running the final code for Microsoft Office 2007 for a little while now, and I'm very impressed. In fact, everyone that has seen the work that I've turned out has been impressed. Sure, the new "ribbon" UI takes a little getting used to (my wife still isn't over it), but it makes finding features much easier now that most of them aren't buried in menus.

The biggest changes have come to Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. The new version makes creating professional-looking documents incredibly easy. To give you an example, this picture is a slide from my Market Research project that my group is presenting tonight.

This presentation took very little time to prepare. The data was collected by paper survey, dumped into Excel, and then used the built-in functions to create Excel graphs. Those looked great on their own. Then it was literally a cut and paste operation into the PowerPoint slides.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. All three Office programs have built-in graphic themes that can be applied to your work. The themes are essentially painted with the new SmartArt engine behind the Office programs, basically vector art with some nice polish. However, the real power comes in by the fact that the font packages and color packages for all of the graphic themes are interchangeable and customizable. With literally a couple of clicks, you can take a "basic" theme and customize the look.

The wild thing was what happened when I took a chart from Excel (with one basic theme) and pasted it into PowerPoint. It immediately picked up the local theme settings and conformed itself to the style of the presentation I'd already created. Knocked out a few background elements and viola ... you've got a gorgeous presentation.

My only concern is that once more people adopt the new Office, this level of polish will become baseline, and suddenly my "magical" PowerPoint abilities will have to really step up to the plate. But until then, the new Office makes me look like a million bucks.

Vista RTM buggier than RC2?

I've had the RTM version of Windows Vista on my Toshiba Tecra M4 for about a week now. Strangely, I'm having issues with the machine that didn't happen in RC2. I think it's all traceable to the nVidia video driver, which was updated through Windows Update right after the install completed. I'm getting massive video corruption coming out of sleep mode (making the machine unusable), to the point where I now have to hibernate the machine instead of sleep.

I can't exactly fault Microsoft for this, except that the driver came through Windows Update, so it should have been checked for issues like this before it was released. Hopefully this can be sorted out before the widespread release in January.

Free Windows Vista Ultimate for Technical Beta Testers

Just got an e-mail from Microsoft. Unlike the Office team, the Vista group decided to reward any tester who submitted at least ONE bug. I know that there are a lot of testers out there that used only the Windows Error Reporting tool to submit data back to Microsoft, but in this case, you had to have used the actual Microsoft Beta tool to submit bug data. Even if the bug was a duplicate, you qualify.

You can download the RTM bits as an .ISO formatted DVD from Microsoft Connect. You cannot generate a product key ... Microsoft will e-mail out keys to anyone that accepts the offer. You have 30 days before you need to activate, and you don't need the key to install.

Unlike the XP beta, it appears that this is a SINGLE license, as opposed to the five licenses granted for the XP beta. Also, Microsoft will not be mailing out any product ... it is a downloadable only.

My sincerest thanks go out to the Vista team for this decision, and hopefully the Office team will follow that example (although it's doubtful).

Holiday Gaming

Last week officially launched the holiday game buying season with the Halloween release of Final Fantasy XII. I picked it up for a mere $37.99 at Circuit City, and it was well worth every penny. It's easily the best Final Fantasy game yet, and I'm constantly stunned with the graphic quality that the six-year-old PlayStation 2 is capable of. I wonder if the Xbox 360 or the PS3 will have that kind of advancement in their later years.

I mention that because today marks the release of Gears of War, Microsoft's tentpole holiday game. Gears of War is said to stress the Xbox 360 to its limits, something only the HD-DVD drive (and its corresponding 4+ million lines of code) is going to do this generation. If the ultra-violent Gears isn't your thing, Microsoft has you covered with Viva Pinata ... the collectible animal game. That's not to say there isn't any violence in Viva Pinata ... after all, any game where you can beat an animal to death with a stick and feed the entrails (read: candy) to the other Pinatas is deeply disturbing.

Other notable game launches this week include Call of Duty 3, Guitar Hero II, and Elite Beat Agents. Elite Beat Agents is already in my hands, and it's every bit as fantastic as the wonderfully quirky Osu! Tatake! Ouendan! on which it is based. Agents are most definitely GO!

Every game is worth a purchase, and with new consoles launching in as little as two weeks, it looks to be a very expensive holiday for gamers. Thank goodness for gift-giving holidays!