Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, WWE increasing the prices of its PPV events, “Bad” Chad Dawson boring the hometown crowd, or the sleep vs. Dragon Age: Origins debate (again) Coffee Talk is the place to do it.
Last week, I finally got around to updating my Xbox 360 dashboard. As most of you know the update included Facebook, Last.fm, and Twitter functionality (for a select group of users and the gaming press). The whole thing just reminded me of how far consoles have come this generation. It used to be that consoles were strictly gaming machines. Later on they became gamine machines and movie players. These days, they’re multifaceted devices that let you enjoy games, movies, social networking, the Internet, and so much more.
Surprisingly, I greatly enjoyed the Facebook features of the update — totally wasn’t expecting this. A friend and I were going through photos of our common friends. We did this for about an hour and were like, “Whoa. We just spent an hour on the Xbox tooling around with Facebook. What the hell?!?” While some gamers scoff at the inclusion of these features, I’m up for anything that extends the functionality of consoles.
So today’s questions have to do with all the ancillary features your consoles have. Aside from gaming, what do you use your console for? Do you stream a lot of movies on your Xbox? Do you web browse on your PlayStation 3? If you’re in the beta, do you use Facebook, Last.fm, and Twitter on the 360? If you’re not in the beta, do you plan to? Leave a comment and let me know (please)!
for Wii. Spector told 
. I wanted to see which race you selected for your first run. If you haven’t picked up the game but are planning to, let everyone know which race you intend to play as the first time through. As for me, I picked a Dalish Elf rogue that will eventually become an assassin or a duelist.
a break for a week or two. One of my closest friends is starting up 
and I want to play some co-op with him. I love playing cooperative games with a good friend; other than family and a couple that has a child together, is there a stronger bond in humanity than between two people that play co-op games?
. All my industry friends are telling me that the net code is a mess, but I’m actually playing this one for the story and Panda. I’m not sure why, but I’ve always been fascinated by the world of Tekken 6. Some of the plot points are goofy, but I’ve always enjoyed the story. *shrug*
. I like that consumers can spend as much or as little as they wish for chatting with their fellow PS3 gamers.
series. The models are very stylish and also feature effective noise reduction. The “noise killer” feature of the Jawbone is fantastic for those that use their headsets outdoors or in crowded areas. Gamers that play in a living room full of noisy siblings will also appreciate the noise reduction. I’m playing around with Aliph’s latest model, the 
, and will have a review-type article up next week.
is now available as a digital download on Sony’s PlayStation Network. Today’s press release stated:
. Today’s press release stated: