Great article about where old Xbox Live-enabled games go to die. Bret and I experienced this playing NHL ‘07. While we weren’t looking for other opponents, the lobbies were almost always vacant sans us.

Xbox 360’s Dead Online Games

Yesterday, after my 100K ride, I went out to my friend’s bachelor party barbecue in Raleigh and hung out with friends and had some good grilled grub.

We were introduced too to a game that we didn’t know what it was called, but it was easy to pick up and play. It consisted of two “racks” with three horizontal bars – one of in red, blue and white. Two people (or teams) alternately toss three sets of balls with a string between them at these horizontal bars. The blue is valued at 3 points. The red is 2 and the white is 1. The first to 21 wins.

Well, I really enjoyed it and thought it’s be the perfect addition for our back yard for barbecues, gatherings, and just for Amanda and I to duel. It turns out it’s called by several names including ladder golf, ladder ball, hillbilly horseshoes, hillbilly golf, redneck golf, etc. Whatever it’s called, it’s fun.

So while we were out for lunch and running errands we picked up a set at Dick’s Sporting Goods. We only got a couple rounds in, but it’s a lot of fun and look forward to using it when friends and family are over. I wouldn’t mind having this scoreboard for it as well.

Ladder Golf Entry at Wikipedia

So soon after we got Rock Band in the Keefer household, we had friends over to play Rock Band. That first weekend, the included guitar’s strum bar went soft and almost completely non-functional. That guitar also was iffy with lifting the guitar to activate “star power.” I contacted support and sent it back and got a replacement guitar a few weeks later.

Fast forward a few months later and this replacement guitar won’t activate star power at all, without hitting its back button. So I sent that one back. Last week, I got its replacement. Same problem. How about some 1) testing before bringing this stuff to market? 2) How about testing the replacements before sending them out to people that have already had problems?

I’m on my third Rock Band guitar and still don’t have a fully functional guitar. Meanwhile, my guitar from Guitar Hero II is working as well as the day it came out of the box.

Anyone else having defective Rock Band equipment? Please comment below.

Yesterday, Harmonix announced the full 86-song setlist of on-disc tracks (to obviously be vastly supplemented with lots of tracks in the form of downloadable content, like the original Rock Band).

It’s also cool because it’s been confirmed that tracks from the first game can be ripped from the original disc into the sequel, basically doubling the possible setlists you can have in Rock Band 2 for all of us many Rock Band original owners.

I’m loving the setlist from the 60’s - 90’s. It’s great and features varied music styles throughout! Most of the stuff from the 2000 is crap, but I guess that is kind of reflective of the music industry as a whole. Overall though, this is going to rock to play.

My only other complaint is one that people have had since the original Guitar Hero. Sometimes, the game includes strange entries from bands. I don’t know if it’s a cost of licensing, or the band’s choice or whatever. But we finally get AC/DC, but instead of an anthem like “Back in Black” or “Thunderstruck,” we get “Let There Be Rock.” It’s a decent song, but not one that everyone in the room is likely to know. Here’s to hoping for a DLC AC/DC “Back in Black” album track pack (or the entire album) consisting of “Shook Me All Night Long,” “Back in Black” and “Hells Bells.”

Rock Band 2 Track List Revealed

This is great – another way to get movies to the TV quicker. We tried doing the unofficial plugin route. We got that working, and while I give them credit for making a free plugin to stream from a Media Center PC to the Xbox 360, it was close to unusable in our network setup.. very laggy to the point that movement on the joystick translated to multiple seconds until there was an-onscreen response at best.

Regardless, this new official support will be great and will keep all of us Netflix/Xbox 360 users from having to shell out another $99 for the Roku Netflix Player.

Can’t wait for this *free* update to show up in the fall.

Netflix & Microsoft Partner to Bring Watch Instantly to The Xbox 360

So it sounds like Rock Band 2 is going to build onto the super-smooth and successful original. I love the fact that they’re adding a battle of the bands mode and that the world tour mode will go to Xbox Live. This next round of music games should have even better set lists as more and more bands realize the popularity and revenue stream potential of these games. Sign me up for a copy upon release (sans the instruments):

Rock Band 2 Hands-On

*sigh* I was sifting through the images on the Keefer Madness web server, looking for art to add to some of the recent posts and came across a whole bunch of old pictures that used to be part of a front page image rotation. These bring back so many memories – twofold: my skinnier/leaner days (I still miss kickboxing!) and the days when my Back to the Future pinball machine was working.

See all those lights on the pinball machine’s display? I can almost imagine hitting those circular white buttons on either side of the cabinet and making the flippers toggle. *sigh* I’ve got to get that CPU sent off to Coin Service Technology up in PA to see if they can fix it. I long for a real game of pinball. Plus, it’s become a running gag. I’ve owned it for 8 years. Amanda’s never known me when it did work. I’ve got to get it working and soon!

So things are looking up in the Guitar Hero universe for me. For Independence Day, they’re releasing the “Top Gun Anthem” for free on Xbox Live and the Playstation Network. I’ll be downloading that for sure. But the better news are the rumors of future Guitar Hero releases. Rumor has it that on the heels of the recently released Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, two more bands are in the works – both of which are tops in my most often played: Metallica and Van Halen. Sign me up for both please!

I’d rather have both of those as Rock Band, getting the drums in the mix as well, but I’ll settle for whatever I can get in playable content from those two.

Free DLC for GH III on July 3, GH: Van Halen in the Works?

This sounds like a no brainer for the good part of the population out there who have three things: a Netflix subscription, an Xbox 360 and a PC running Windows Vista. Luckily, we fall into that category and I’m going to try to get this setup in the next couple days, or possibly this weekend.

We already stream video content from the Mac to the Xbox 360 via Connect360.

Turn Your Xbox 360 into a Streaming Netflix Player

Uneventful and low-key day here at the Keefers.

We did finally meet up with our good friends Bret and Tina this afternoon and evening in Durham. Amanda hadn’t seen either of them in awhile and we always have a good time hanging out.

With all of our travel, and miscellaneous activities, it’s kep us from hanging out with them (or really anyone). Hell, I hadn’t even played Bret online on Xbox Live except one time in the past few weeks.

The four of us started over at Frankie’s for some Go-Kart, arcade, skee-ball, etc. action. Then we headed over to our restaurant of choice when we all get together in this area – Wild Wild Cafe, with dessert at Maggie Moo’s.

Eventually we ended back here for the staple of Rock Band (World Tour), even getting Amanda in on vocals for a few tracks. Bret and I especially are getting pretty damn good with him on drums, and me on guitar. At some point, it’d be great to make a serious dent in the World Tour mode.

We also introduced them to the Xbox 360’s first version of the Karaoke Revolution series, explaining the pictures in this post. It’s not as much fun in my humble opinion as rocking out with a four piece band in Rock Band (especially if they would get back on releasing good new downloadable tracks!) Keefer Madness needs more unique photos. We need a few of us doing the Rock Band thing. Oh well, maybe next time. Regardless, the 360 with group games rocks, especially with good friends.