A couple weeks ago I purchased Batman: Arkham Asylum on Steam because they were practically giving it away (Great game). I was surprised when I was prompted to login to Microsoft Live after installation; For some reason I assumed Steam games wouldn’t support that. I was even more surprised that the Windows Live features and UI were unobtrusive and actually added to the enjoyment of playing.

Periodically throughout the game, I’d get a cute pop-up notification in the corner saying I’d earned another Live achievement. Funny how that makes you feel like you’re accomplishing something. Naturally, those awards appear on the Xbox 360 and anywhere else that shows your Live achievements.

Games for Windows live is actually a really nice implementation and it’s great to get Live achievements on PC. Here’s hoping more upcoming games support it.

By the way, I just discovered that you can get a free collection of classic arcade games called Game Room via GFWL.

If you are like me, you found other 3rd-party hacks claiming to enable widescreen and high resolution support for Just Cause, but were disappointed to see they didn’t work for the Steam version of the game.

So far, it looks like I’ve gotten it to work, albeit in windowed mode, by doing the following:

1. Download the “UResChanger v2″ from http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/wiki/Racer_S_Hacks (Thanks Racer_S!)
2. Follow the directions in the included Readme, placing the unzipped files in your Steam/steamapps/common/just cause folder.
3. Edit the resolution.ini to set your preferred resolution. Here the important part, set the “Windowed” line to:

Windowed=1

That’s it!

If you don’t set that last value, your game will likely crash on startup (let me know if you find a way to get it to work in full screen).

Disclaimer: I haven’t played the game extensively but it appears to work fine at 1900×1200 so far. Will try 2560×1600 next.  Apologies if you run into any problems.

Do you want to transfer files to your ENV2 phone using a micro SD card and a USB cable, without buying the VCast $bundle or Rhapsody? This caused me more confusion than I ever thought it would so I wanted to help you out. These instructions might even be applicable to other Verizon or LG phones.

The main problem I ran into is that these phones assume you are a VCast or Rhapsody subscriber (or intend to be one). So, for people who just want to manually store and transfer data and music, the interface isn’t as intuitive as it could be.

Here’s what you need:

• USB to Micro-USB Cable. This is the newer, smaller USB standard. I bought the Tripp Lite USB to Micro-USB Cable
• Micro SD Card for your phone. You can get these from Verizon and most stores. Just pop it into the side slot of your phone.
• PC Drivers for your phone. Choose and download the appropriate file at http://www.vzam.net/vcastmusic/Step1.aspx and run it to install the drivers.

Initial Settings

1. Turn the phone on and insert the micro sd card if it isn’t already.
2. OPTIONAL: If you want all your new photos, video and sound to be stored on the micro sd card you paid for (why not?) go to “Settings & Tools” >> Memory >> Save Options and change the option for each of the three file types to “Card Memory”
3. Go to “Settings & Tools” >> USB Auto Detection and select “Sync Data”. (“Sync Music” appears to rely on the commercial VCast software). Now you can Exit the settings area.

Managing files on your cell phone with your PC

Now that you have all the parts, here’s how to store and play music on your phone:

1. Plug your phone into your PC, using the USB cable. Give your computer time to recognize the device.
2. On your phone, go to Settings & Tools >> Tools >> USB Mass Storage. If everything works correctly, your phone will display a message saying it is connecting to the computer. Oddly, when the connection is successful, a big scary red circle will display, warning you not to unplug the phone while it’s connected.
3. Your computer will display “AutoPlay” options. Choose “Open folder to view files”. (If the Autoplay prompt does not appear, but the phoen is successfully connected, go to Start Button >> My Computer and the drive should be listed as a “Removable Disk”)
4. In the drive, you’ll see a few folders clearly labelled as “my_pix”, “my_music” etc…”. Your media must go into the appropriate folders.

Important! For some (stupid) reason, you cannot put your music in folders. If you do, the phone will simply not see it. All music has to be put straight into the “My Music” folder.

To play your MP3′s, just hit the “Music” button on your phone and select play. You’re Done!

I hope this helps people. Let me know if you find other helpful advice or have any additional updates for this post. Thanks!

Well I’ve all but given up hope on seeing a trackball controller released for consoles, as I have had no meaningful updates in around a year. In the meantime, I just wanted to quickly plug a pet project that is just getting started:

Nick Venable and I have just started a gaming community for Guild Wars, based on Grupthink technology. If you are a Guild Wars fan and have been looking for a place to throw out your Guild Wars 2 suggestions, check out the Guild Wars Feedback Community! The Grupthink platform allows us to have productive, free-form discussion, without the noise and redundancy typical of forums. I think this platform finally gives gamers the voice they have wanted and needed.

Visit the Guild Wars Feedback Community…

Grupthink is a project I co-founded in 2006 and we are just now making the platform available to other organizations looking to establish feedback communities of their own.

Guild Wars Feedback Community

Readers, I received this on Feb 2 from bodielobus:

Dear BuyReflex.com Pre-Order Purchasers,

A year has gone by since we launched our controller’s pre-order website, BuyReflex.com, and it comes with great displeasure that we are informing you that we have been unable to fulfill your order in the timeframe allowed.

Even though we are very close to finalizing a manufacturing and distribution deal for a full-USB version of the controller, we just couldn’t pull it off in time. As promised, we will begin refunding your orders in batches, starting immediately.

Please allow up to 4 weeks for your refund to appear in your Google Checkout Account.

So it appears that the future of this controller may in fact be stalled or even dead. I have had contact with the developers in the past, but nothing since this announcment. If I hear anything new I’ll post it here right away.