One of the things I really dig about my new Xbox 360 is that I can download playable demos of games. Well, now even more good news from Microsoft Japan:

Oh, and I’ll be covering next month’s Tokyo Game Show for Kotaku (alongside regular contributor Brian Ashcraft). Should be fun!

You may more readily recognize Andrew Conti’s name as the art writer for METROPOLIS, but he’s an artist as well, and is currently working on a series of intriguing puzzles for an upcoming exhibition at the cafe (November 20 to December 3). I like where he’s going with these.

I try to avoid posting about PauseTalk here, but since the next one is less than a week away (September 4), following the one we had last week, I’d just like to alert those interested that I’ve updated the site with info on the theme for the next edition.

PingMag talks with Normal Design’s Ross Mc Bride on the challenges of starting up a company in Tokyo.

Patrick is also biking around (but he’s been doing it for way longer than me), and checking out some galleries and cafes. He also has a report on last weekend’s Usagi-chang event.

The Shift Blog reminds us that the competition for next year’s edition of the Shift Calendar is coming to a close (September 10). Same thing for the DOTMOV festival (until September 20).

The image that will be used on this year’s Swedish Style catalogue, with the theme “Another Paradise,” has been released, and is what you see here.

Well, I did it, I’ve joined the dark side: since last night, I’m the very happy owner of an Xbox 360. The seeds were planted just over a week ago, when Brad invited me over to his place for a day of gaming goodness (pretty much 7 hours straight of Xbox 360, PSP, and DS action), and I was witness to the power of the console on an HDTV set. Since then, I couldn’t get it out of my head, and kept chatting it up with people — Kotaku’s Ashcraft was in absolute disbelief that I didn’t have one yet. So last night I went and ended up getting the World Cup special edition they released earlier this year (Xbox 360 Blue Limited Edition), which includes a copy of FIFA 2006, and then with the points I received at Bic Camera also got discounted copies of RIDGE RACER 6 — and I don’t care what anyone says, the RR series remains my favorite racing series to play — and PERFECT DARK ZERO. Today was basically an entire day of Xbox obsession, and here’s the good and bad after 24 hours:

THE GOOD

• Sure, it’s big (and that power adapter is just insane), but it’s a rather slick looking machine, and I dig the curves (and of course the white — I’m avoiding the “Japan Blue” front plate).
• I really dig the console menu system, and it’s nice to be able to go from game to playing demos on the HD to checking stuff online, all seamlessly.
• Long live wireless controllers!
• I was very pleasantly surprised to have all the games I bought play automatically in English, even though these are all Japanese releases. No need to change anything, it was just all in English from the get go. Nice. Anyone know if all games are like this?
• Being able to download demos is just simply amazing and addicting. I downloaded something like 8 demos over night, and then today enjoyed the hell out of stuff like CALL OF DUTY 2, LOST PLANET, CHROMEHOUNDS, TEST DRIVE UNLIMITED, and more. It’s great to be able to try out all these games, to really see which ones I’d like to eventually buy.
• The graphics, oh, the graphics. Sure, it doesn’t look as good as it did at Brad’s on his giant HDTV set, but playing stuff like RR6 and LOST PLANET just makes you want to cry.

THE BAD

• The first thing when I plugged it in and tried to play RR6, I kept getting either a message that the disc was bad, or it would start and then just load forever. I brought the game back today and exchanged it, and the new one works fine. Sure, it’s just bad luck, but it did give me a bad first impression.
• Yeah, everything is high-def and looks beautiful, but a lot of text on the screen is hard to read on a regular TV set (I didn’t have any trouble reading stuff on Brad’s HDTV set).
• When I was setting up the system, I put “Jean Snow” as my gamertag, as I thought that was just for friends to see, but later realized that it’s what will always appear when I play online. When I tried to change it, I was brought to a screen that said I had to pay (something like 1000 yen) to change it, which I think is just ridiculous. Side note: so if anyone wants to face me in some online gaming, you know what to look for.

The new Jet Set Leger record store at Laforet in Harajuku looks rather nice. More from Patrick.

Collect.Apply are a Kyoto-based design company made up of two English designers, James Gibson and Hal Udell. They have quite an impressive array of work — view a PDF of some of their designs here. Pictured here is Block Jam, a prototype for a musical interface.

As you could tell by my moblogging yesterday, I’m still enjoying the hell out of my new bike, and ended up doing the long trek to Tokyo Big Sight. On Thursday I was in and around Ginza for a while, and then headed back to Kundanshita to meet up with Craig at Co-Lab. We grabbed some lunch at a Russian restaurant in Jimbocho, and then went to this really funky cafe I’ll post more about later. When I told him about my idea of biking to the “Good Design Presentation,” he showed me the best route (he’d done the same thing the day before), and I realized that it was definitely doable, and not that complicated a route (quite easy actually). From my apartment to Tokyo Big Sight took me 1 hour and 20 minutes, which I think is pretty decent for someone like me who only started biking around the city a few days ago, especially since I still need to check my atlas every once in a while to get my bearings. The Good Design show was fantastic, but walking around the exhibition space for 3 hours took its toll. On my way back, I remembered spotting a sign for the CODAN Shinonome housing development, and I’d always wanted to check out the mYwaY store by TRICO there, so decided to head inside and try to find it. Finding it was quite easy, and as soon as I walked in I was welcomed by Haruna (pictured above), who works there, and brought me a glass of tea. After having a look at the gallery on the second floor, I came back down and ended up staying a couple of hours, drinking some beer — they have a mini-bar area near the register — and chatting with Haruna. When I finally left, it was around 7, so completely dark out, which made for an amazing ride, as I could see all of Odaiba illuminated.

Everyone’s favorite little Tokyo-based indie publisher, Chin Music Press, has now released their latest book, LAST OF THE RED HOT POPPAS. I bought my copy directly from Craig the other day, and it looks fantastic. By far the most beautiful book they’ve released yet, with an amazing fold-out dust jacket that incorporates the obi. You can buy the book online directly from CMP.

A new episode (10) of Digiki’s POLYPUNK is up, this time featuring selections by Mai Ueda. More info, and links, here.