As I suspected, it seems like the new Microsoft ad with the churros and the shoes is actually just the first part of something big. Something a little odd to set the scene, to break the ice, etc. etc.

So says an internal Microsoft memo anyway, which was recently reproduced over at All Things Digital:

The first phase of this campaign is designed to engage consumers and spark a new conversation about Windows–a conversation that will evolve as the campaign progresses, but will always be marked by humor and humanity…

This first set of ads features Bill Gates and comedian Jerry Seinfeld. Think of these ads as an icebreaker to reintroduce Microsoft to viewers in a consumer context. Later this month, as the campaign moves into its next phase, we’ll go much deeper in telling the Windows story and celebrating what it can do for consumers at work, at play and on-the-go. At that time, I’ll be back to share more information about our plans to further strengthen the bond between consumers and Windows…

Sounds like we might have some more interesting antics in store from the B-Dizzle and his new buddy Seinfeld. Perhaps they’ll put those pointlessly smug Mac ads to shame too, which even I, as a closet Mac user, think are pretty damn lame.

I am sure you are all familiar with EA and their policy of buying up smaller companies. Some might suggest this isn’t necessarily a bad thing since EA are a powerful company with vast amounts of resources. I am not the type of person to dance around this suggestion with a statement of “let’s agree to disagree”, as far as I am concerned, anyone who suggests this is at least a little naive.

I have a very long memory when it comes to this type of action from Electronic Arts. Back in 1995 a little UK company you may have heard of by the name of Bullfrog, co-founded by Peter Molyneux of Lionhead Studios, were snapped up by EA. This was the beginning of the end for Bullfrog.

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In today’s age of High Definition and amazing CGI effects I feel we are probably drifting away from the quality television we all grew up with and thoroughly loved. So here I bring you a few of the intros from the kids tv I remember well. So go on enjoy, sing along and enjoy the warm comforting glow of reminiscence on this dismal day in the UK.

Snaarf! Thundercats there wetting your appetite for whats to come.

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This is the first in a new $300 million ad campaign for Windows Vista featuring none other than comedian Jerry Seinfeld and Microsoft’s outgoing CEO, Bill Gates. It basically features Bill shopping for shoes and Seinfeld spouting lots of rubbish.

Strange thing is, this ad doesn’t actually advertise anything at all. I’m guessing that it’s setting up for something a bit more interesting? On the plus side, it does feature churros.

Mmmm… Churros.

This bombshell has been dropped by Andy Griffiths, Director of Consumer Electronics for Samsung UK.

In an interview, Andy said that while Blu-ray will be hugely successful in the remainder of 2008 he believes the format only has another five years before its replaced by something new.

Many devout fans of the Blu-ray format will no doubt be up in arms over this news mainly because they wanted that feeling of victory over HD-DVD to last a little longer but I really can’t see why this revelation should make anyone upset. 

Even at the height of the Blu-ray/HD-DVD “war” I never once believed that either format would outlast standard DVD. 

If people stop for a moment to wipe those tears from their eyes they are more than welcome to get in line with the general consensus:  the future of movies is in HD downloads.

What exactly is there to be upset about?  If the format does last five years I’d say that’s a pretty decent return for something released in this day and age when things go out of fashion and become obsolete faster than they ever have. 

Whenever I purchase a piece of technology I only expect it to last around three years before something much bigger and better comes along to replace it.

Repeat after me.

Change is good!

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The title characters in the Rayman Raving Rabbids games (no, not Rayman, those other ones) may be the stuff of nightmares, but they’re also kinda cute at the same time. So it was only a matter of time before UBISoft would try to cash in with a line of merchandise, and the why the hell not? These things are cool.

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It seems those Guitar Hero boys are up to their old tricks again…  Hot on the heels of the newly butchered version of ‘Anarchy in the UK‘ that the Sex Pistols re-recorded for Guitar Hero 3, Activision have got the Sex Pistols back in the studio to rerecord ‘Pretty Vacant‘, Motorhead for ‘Overkill‘ and MC5’s guitarist Wayne Kramer and friends to re-record ‘Kick Out the Jams‘ for their upcoming game, Guitar Hero: World Tour.

This is all well and good, except that I guarantee that at least one, if not all, of these songs will have an extra solo thrown in that was never in the original just to make it more challenging in the game….  Which is exactly what they did with Anarchy in the UK and it was appalling!  I loved that song and GH3 ruined it!  Well, ok, the Sex Pistols ruined it by actually rerecording it now they are all 60, but the extra solo at the end of the song was truly awful and it really didn’t fit with the rest of the song.  Which brings me nicely to my point, if you are going to get artists in to re-record their past classics for your game because the original masters don’t exist, don’t let them change it in any way, because it will no longer be the same song we all know and love!

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Musicradar recently caught up with Oasis’s Noel Gallagher to chat about his upcoming album.  During the interview the subject of Guitar Hero came up, and Mr. Gallagher gave us possibly the best video game quote ever!:-

Speaking about Guitar Hero he said, “If it puts little plastic guitars into kids’ hands and fires their imaginations, I think that’s a good thing. It’s harmless fun, innit.”

Then he said, “I’d rather that genre of videogames than somebody getting their f***ing head chopped off with a samurai sword while getting f****d by a goblin up the arse with a laser. Do you know what I mean?”

Legendary!

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We love the Korg DS-10 here at TTB. After all, it combines our love of the Nintendo DS with our love of music, and is a lot more innovative and original than most of the trash available for the system.

If you’re also a fan os the DS-10, or just the DS in general, you’ll probably love this MP3 album which was made made using it. It goes from delightfully 16-bit to modern trance and back again, and it’s amazing to hear to wide range of sounds that are possible with this thing.

The tunes were made by 12 different artists in 24 hours as part of a competition. Here’s the main project site which explains a little bit more.

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In a recent interview with Official Xbox 360 Magazine, Realtime Worlds community relations manager Chris Dye broke the news that nobody wanted to hear:-

“Unfortunately from a Realtime Worlds perspective there will not be any additional DLC for Crackdown; the company has moved onto our next Project, APB, and is 100% committed to that and other projects yet to be announced, and as such we are not in a position to work on any new Crackdown content.”

This saddens me as Crackdown was easily the best game released in 2007 for the 360 and some extra DLC loving would have been enough to get me to dust it off and fire it back up.  The only thing that can make this right is if one of those unannounced projects is Crackdown 2!

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