November 18, 2006
So it’s been a while since I last updated.
Well I did get around to picking up the HD-DVD drive for the 360 and have to say that it is really cool. After watching all of the movies I got on HD-DVD (Batman Begins, V for Vendetta, Constantine, The Last Samurai, Serenity, and King Kong), I have to say that even if you don’t immediately notice the smaller things, you do notice in the longer run just how much sharper and vibrant the picture really is. But I think the biggest thing to be brought front and center from getting the HD-DVD drive is that I need a better TV. I’m not saying that my TV that I have right now is bad per se, just not where I want it to be anymore in terms of feature support and such (like how it doesn’t do 720p). Another nice thing with the HD-DVD drive is that it does work on Macs without drivers, just that OSX does not have HD-DVD drivers yet so I can’t watch them on my computers yet unfortunately. I know it’s been posted about already since it came out, I was just too lazy to post before everyone else.
As far as Gears of War goes, it is very good although can be quite difficult at times. One part in particular that I am currently stuck on is the end boss, General RAAM — He’s freaking hard, and Dom has suicidal tendencies in that particular part of the game. But Someday I will beat him, eventually.
In other news, I hadn’t played Tomb Raider Legend in a long time (the last achievement I got for it was back in May), so I felt like taking a break from the newer games and stuck it in and finally beat it. Good times strike again.
November 8, 2006
One word, Awesome! Gears embodies every meaning of the word. It’s ridiculously fun to play and can be (and is) a great challenge to play. I have to agree with all the reviews I’ve read so far, Gears of War is easily a ≥~9.5. And for those wondering –Yes– Gears of War has the best graphics of any console game ever. In a few of the reviews I’ve read people have been saying that the lowest difficulty setting is too easy, I wouldn’t go that far, I’ve still died plenty of times repeatedly thanks to the computer. So basically don’t listen to the idiots saying it’s too easy, after all you do get some achievements for doing stuff in the Casual difficulty setting.
Not directly related to the game itself but just wanted to stick this out there. I had Gears pre-ordered at Gamestop and initally was told that they would have it today (Wednesday), so since I had the afternoon off I made a trek up there and am promptly told that they would have it tomorrow — needless to say i was bummed. So I did the usual thing when they don’t have a copy of a game, on my return trek home I made a stop at Best Buy. Apparently I got their last copy of the collectors edition of Gears. Then once I got back home I promptly gave Gamestop a call back to cancel my pre-order on Gears of War and move the money over to my pre-order on the HD-DVD drive which they say will be there on Friday, good this I have friday off already so I can go pick it up.
Well that’s enough rambling for tonight.
November 4, 2006
Well, I’ve been randomly using some of my 40+ hours of PDP time-off from work lately and stopped up at Gamestop for no particular reason– well, actually because I wanted to see when they were going to be getting Gears of War in so I could take the day (or more likely, part of it) off. And while over there I broke down and picked up F.E.A.R. for the 360, and put down $50 (out of 199) on the HD-DVD player add-on for the 360. Too many good games coming out this month dagnabit, not to mention the Wii!
As far as FEAR goes though, it’s a really good game. It basically is Condemned crossed with Unreal or Quake, in other words, really crazy-scary-cool stuff. 
Tuesday/Wednesday here I come. We got Gears coming, the HD-DVD player, and all the stuff I already have.
And randomly coming into my head at the moment is that I got the VGA cable for the 360 — And although it doesn’t support the full native resolution of my widescreen lcd @ 1440×900, it can get awfully close and still look great. Anywho, I’m just rambling now…
October 31, 2006
So Happy Halloween everyone! Anyone?
Anywho, I thought I’d post an update again. My new monitor came the other day, and boy does it look good! It’s incredible having the widescreen display like that. It looks great right next to the 19-inch Samsung LCD that I already have, and since the GeForce 7300 card in the Mac Pro has 2 DVI ports they both get the clean all-digital connections that make them look so good.
Also, I guess I didn’t post about it earlier but my statue came the other day. I got the stunningly-cool looking First Colossus from Shadow of the Colossus through Play-Asia. The figurine really does give a great sense of scale with a tiny figure of The Wanderer (the main character in the game) standing out in front of the Colossus’s giant club. It’s sooooo worth the purchase price.
Gears of War comes out soon (on the 7th I believe), and I have it pre-ordered over at GameStop. But November has so many good games (Tony Hawks Project 8, Smackdown v. Raw 2k7, DOA Extreme 2, Yoshi’s Island DS, etc) coming out! It’s gonna be rough on my checkbook that’s for dang sure.
Well, that’s about it for now. After all, I can post whenever I want to…
October 27, 2006
Well, another friday, another episode of Battlestar Galactica. And what an episode it was. We got to see the inside of a Cylon ship! (albeit only one room) So as usual, I can’t wait until next weeks episode.
Anywho, on to whatever else is floating through my head.
So the Tony Hawk’s Project 8 demo came out the other day on Xbox Live. It’s really, really, really fun. Too bad it comes out on the same day as Gears of War (which I have pre-ordered). So many games, so little time, so little moolah. For Project 8 Neversoft added a cool new feature called Nail the Trick. Basically, when you click both analog sticks, the game goes into slow-mo and both sticks control the left and right feet (with the left and right analog sticks respectively). It’s really fun and can create some really high scoring tricks when you string them together. It’s quite fun and when playing the demo I’ve been messing around a lot with Nail-the-Trick, a lot. So while I look forward to getting Gears, I think I’ll be getting THP8 as soon as I can afterwards.
Well, monday should prove a fun addition to my Mac Pro when my new monitor comes. I honestly hadn’t heard of the brand (Hanns·G) before, but the reviews on NewEgg are positive, and it wasn’t that expensive, so naturally, I bought it. No I’m not made of money like many of my friends and family would like to think, but I can save money and then spend it later such as I did.
Well, that’s about it for now. I’m sure I’ll think of something else later to post about.