I saw that the demo for Tropico 3 dropped yesterday on Xbox Live, and double-timed it over to the console to download it. As it was downloading, I remembered that the PC version of the game came out a couple weeks ago, and wondered when the Xbox 360 version would hit. February? Really?

Then I got to looking around. You can buy it right now! Seriously. The Region-Free Asian version of the game in English is available from Play-Asia for $50 bucks, which is ten dollars off what it will go for once it releases here in the States.

Why it is Asia has an English version, and we have to wait until February for essentially the same disc? I have no clue, but if you liked the demo and the series in particular (The PC version of Tropico 3 has a metacritic of 80 at the moment) why wait until next year right? (LINK)

Also, PC version of Left 4 Dead 2 is $40 dollars at GoGamer.com (LINK)

Okay, so everybody has had a chance to play around with the new functionality in the Xbox 360 Fall Update. I believe that means the time is ripe for me to punch holes in it and give my two cents as to why each new feature is rubbish.

Twitter - Twitter is for telling people what you are doing at any given moment. Seeing as Twitter only works from the main menu, and not in game, the whole purpose of the feature is ruined. What happens if cool happens in your game? Are you going to get out of your game to go into the menu to Tweet about it? Hell no.

The best way to use twitter would have been in game, assessable through the Xbox Guide button menu.

Facebook – Facebook on the Xbox 360 has the same in game issues as Twitter, why can’t we post stuff to Facebook in game? Also seeing as Facebook is more media friendly, the ability to post screen captures and achievement updates would have been good.

Last.FM – Why do most people use services like this? From my experience, it has been so they could listen to music while doing something else on their computer. I don’t know of many people who use it to turn their computer into a jukebox of sorts. So why would people want to do it with their Xbox 360?

Well, with most TVs these days hooked up to a sound system of sorts, I can see people leaving the Xbox 360 on to listen to music, so I have no gripe there. What does get me though, is keeping the functionality out of your games. You can rip music to your 360 and play it while playing your game; you can even stream music from your computer to play in game. Why can’t you stream Last.FM?

To me, the failure of these three additions is that they don’t enhance the games you are playing. In the instances of Twitter and Facebook, the problem runs deeper, as they are just stunted versions of the actual websites themselves. Who really wants to type this stuff up through their controller? Even with the chatpad it’s a pain.

What do you think? Are you using these services on your Xbox 360? Do you enjoy them?

Ah, the weekend is upon us, and as of yesterday, I do not have any reviews lined up. That means I can play anything my little heart desires. I will probably finish Uncharted 2 sometime this weekend, and a friend is coming over Saturday night, so I have a feeling a little NCAA Football 10, or Madden 10 is in order.  Might just play a little more DJ Hero as well, we will see on that though.

What is on your plate for the weekend?

Others:

Once Upon A Pixel: Bioshock

Once Upon A Pixel: Metal Gear Solid

During a media event in Tokyo today Nintendo announced the next redesign of the DS, the Nintendo DSi LL.  The screen size will see a sized increase to 4.2 inches, up from the DS (3.0 in.) and the DSi (3.25 in.) The handheld will release in Japan for ¥20,000 (US$220) November 21st.

Source: Kotaku

Ready to have your breath taken away? Youtube user 1oneclone decided to remake Monkey Island 2 as a modern 3D game, using Maya and CryEngine, and the results are phenomenal.