Better Know a Gamer: #27: Qualitybeats84

This week’s Gamer was nominated by our good friend PimpMethod. This gamer can be found on PodBean, Twitter, and at his own blog. So let’s dive in to it, shall we?

Nu: What’s your Gamertag, and what’s the story behind it?
I’m Qualitybeats84 – which comes from my music production name: Qualitybeats. Nothing special here – sorry!

Nu: Where are you from?
I’m Southeastern, MA – 40 minutes from Boston

Nu: How old are you, and what do you do (school, job, family, hobbies)?
I’m 25 years old. I’m a licensed electrician by day – a music producer-composer-blogcast site running-avid gamer by free time.

Nu: How long have you been gaming in general?
Since 5 years old. NES 4 Life! 🙂

Nu: How long have you been a 360 owner?
Since release.

Nu: What was one of your favorite Xbox / Xbox Live moments?
This is a hard question. ONE of my favorites would be experiencing the opening scene to Prey and playing it through. I’ve never seen portals done that well before Prey. Another might be the first time I stepped into “The Mall” in Fallout 3’s D.C.

Nu: Which Xbox 360 Achievement are you most proud of?
One Gun – Dead Space – It was so difficult to hold myself back from using a new weapon when achieving this one. I get extra credit points cause I did it on my first and only playthrough.

Nu: Are you currently working toward any achievements?
Bustin’ Out – Burnout:Paradise – Collecting all Billboards seems impossible at times…but I’ll get it.

Nu: What game(s) are you playing the most now?
Bully: SE, Mass Effect, Burnout:Paradise, Bioshock – I’m backlogging….as you can see.

Nu: What’s playing now (what music do you listen to when away from your Xbox or when listening to music ON your Xbox)?
Only 2 CDs on my Xbox right now. Meshuggah: Nothing and Wu-Tang: Forever

Nu: Do you try to stick with one Gamerpic, or change it frequently?
I’m constantly changing it. Currently, I got my podcast logo on it – but I have had a tribute to EGM and Mario/Nintendo.

Nu: What is your current favorite Xbox related website to visit?
Hmmm….I spend most of my “e-time” on multi-system Blog/cast sites but I use Xbox.com for a lot of ques and purchases so – Xbox.com.

Nu: What game are you looking most forward to in 2009?
I Am Alive, Prototype, and H.A.W.X are looking great.

Nu: Do you have an all time favorite game, for any console or the PC?
My favorite game to date on consoles is Final Fantasy III – PC would be a tie between StarCraft and Half-Life.

Nu: Do you have any gaming buddies you frequently play with / want to make almost as famous as you?
All the guys at rejectedgamer.com – X3R0_9, Mr.B4, Kemanswar, DaPhilth84 from our Booom!BoxCast and my homie – PimpMethod.

Nu: Any parting words for the droves of readers?
Don’t let casual games run us out of water. Keep an open artistic mind when it comes to gaming experience and support development companies that do amazing work. Play Portal, Braid, Flower, & Bioshock – cause their great games. Last, please give Booom!BoxCast a listen – we’re conciouse hip hop infused hardcore game geeks…..how many of them do you know? 🙂 Thanks for reading this. WinBreak rules!

Nice of you to say, #27! 😉 Thanks for taking part in BKAG, and I’ll certainly be listening to your podcast very soon!

WBX: Halo’s "CALL TO ACTION" on Windows and Xbox?

Update 1.5: (see bottom of post)…
WBX: WinBreak Exclusive
I have got some “BIG” articles coming your way. Not necessarily the most exciting stuff, but lots of little goodies for you to take a gander at!

But before all of that comes to pass, take a look at that picture above. I have multiple pictures, all different shapes and sizes (“Tower” type pictures that webmasters can put in their side bars, banners for websites, along with these normal “block” type images). I have several that show “Games for Windows Live” branding, Xbox 360 Live branding, and this little beauty, which is co-branded. What in the world could be coming to the Halo Universe that includes a “call to action” on both the Windows and Xbox platforms? I haven’t heard anything of Halo Wars or Halo 3 ODST coming to Windows, nor any promotional heads up about Halo 3 being available on Windows. This logo, simply showing “Halo” could boil down to anything. So what do you think is coming our way? Register, then leave comments, or discuss it in the forum!

UPDATE 1: Well, it must be that people think I made this story up, because after 5 hours, not so much as a peep. I am an Xbox MVP under NDA, but these images all came from a Marketing source, with the intent to be used as advertising, but I still have no idea for what. Here are links to all of the original files (and there are many!):

UPDATED AGAIN (1.5): My damn webhost is having problems with PSD files. I think I need to modify my .htaccess file. Another time. For now, here is a ZIP file containing all 25 of the PSD files (I named it myself, do not bother scouring the internet for the zip file). I will leave the links below, for now, and hopefully be able to get them fixed in the near future.

see also: How to Open .PSD Extension Files Without Installing Adobe Photoshop.

New WinBreak.com features, new forums!


In an attempt to make your life easier, entice you to visit this site, and in an all around attempt to satisfy the masses, I have made several changes to the site over the last week, though many of them may not be noticable just yet.

First: the site is now mobile-web friendly! As my recent exploits with my own mobile phone grow, so does my conciousness of mobile-device users. You don’t have to go to a special “NuAngel.net/xyz” or “mobi.WinBreak.com” or anything fancy – just load up WinBreak.com on your phone, PDA, or even PlayStation Portable, and keep up on the latest information.

Next: I have expanded your user profiles to allow a little more customization. You should now find it easier to describe yourself, promote your interests, and even show off a little bit!

Finally: NEW forums! The last ones were never very busy, but they were very buggy. So I found it was a good idea to try and simplify a few things. While it still needs some work, it’s far less buggy and is driven off of the same database as the main website. If you’re registered and can leave comments on the blog posts, you’re registered for the forums! So why not just register, login, and visit the forums!

ELSPA says video game ads are A-OK!


Not every day is “good news” but this one counts. On a day when I’m trying to find content that isn’t plastered on every other website you see, I stumbled on to a “positive” article. “The Market for Computer and Video Games” UK website lets us know of an article being published by the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association in which they found that 99% of games are advertised responsibly (PDF).

The article was picked up by GamesIndustry.biz. They give the video game advertising industry a rating of 99%, even though of the 241 advertisements sampled, only one was found to be in poor taste. Do the math, that would technically mean 99.996% of the advertisements were considered acceptable, not just 99% – almost a perfect 100.

I think maybe GoDaddy and Carl’s Jr. / Hardees have more questionable content. That’s good news, since gamers are still dealing with the pressure of being this generation’s rock and roll, criticized and chastised at every turn.