Thursday, May 19, 2005

My game collection is better than his | I didn't go down to Florida this time

Today, I’ve been looking at game collections and looking at how users with older games tend to be less valuable than owners with newer games even though sometimes they have more old games.

For instance, Akdirzzt has 420 games all together even though his collection is worth $765.16 less than mine with 3 games more. In the next generation everything will decrease in cost anyways, but my collection will still be worth more unless he suddenly buys a whole bunch of next generation games new at $50 - $70 each.


My collection (wisconsinite54)


Akdirzzt's collection


Who can have this many games?

Eternalldarkness surely has a lot of money to burn as you can see. Look at how many games be bought for Xbox, PS2, and PC. That’s way too much. It’s like $8,000 more than mine.

So the question is would I rather have more games or more valuable collection. Videogames loose their worth over the years, but if you own older games, your collection would be less anyways. Akdirzzt’s collection serving as a fine example of what I’m talking about here.

I am going to buy a Playstation 3 even if IGN said it’s $450. That’s a lot of money. Although I could ask money for my birthday which would cover more than half the cost of it so I would have at least one next generation console. My favorite RPGs are on Playstation 2 so staying with the Playstation brand is smart. The controller may look strange, but I can deal with it, cause this new PS3 controller probably plays better than it looks. That’ll be in spring. It looks like that seriously good looking Killzone 2 it’s looking like a PS3 launch title. Madden Football 2006 is the best looking sports game by the way for any next gen console.

So lately, I had nothing to do so I was playing Forza Motorsport placing 2nd and 3rd at the end because somehow when I try to be aggressive and cheap stunts to get ahead, the competition somehow nudges my car enough that it’ll spins out of control. The other drivers do that so I don’t have an easy victory. One time I was in the lead for a two lap race and on the second lap I had braked too hard and two or three A.I. drivers passed me up so I immediately tried to make sharper turns with my car, but failed and drove into the grass right before the finish line! I got mad at the controller and didn’t want to play any longer and as a result of feeling depressed over it all I’ve had chatted on the gaming forums again.

The game is well designed as far as the graphics go and the control is good, but the cars come with no hand brake so I’m relying on normal breaking pads to slow down which is bad. All racing games except this one have hand brakes and in every game the hand brake button works better than normal brake. The point of a race is never shifting into reverse by driving off the road, and if that happens, the race is already lost. That doesn’t keep me from playing the game any less. The artificial intelligence only makes driving more frustrating, because I’m no good at it yet much like many other games I own. When I wake up, I’ll probably go down to my other room and turn on the xbox to play it.

I believe after I write this I will go to bed and then play more Forza Motorsport than review the game on two sites. Yes, I do review games for free and post it on two forums.

Morning, I had an experience on a board where this one person I knew on another board said Americans are dumb. This all started when Sega Genesis is a stupid name. My response to that was that’s just how things are. So as a result this person I knew on another board called me dumb. Then my response was “we have bigger guns than you British” His response to that was, “Yes, Americans have very, very big guns, but you can’t aim for the enemy!” I continued by saying that our arsenal is all computerized and is targeted with the help of a GPS targeting systems and/or laser targeting systems so there isn’t a chance we could miss the target. I believe he was thinking about the terrorists and saying that there has been friendly fire in some American battle zone…possibly Iraq. The British are not apart of it so I can understand why some of them are a bit confused.

For my Angelfire website, I want something simple and can navigate well, and I’ve achieved both with my current template using minimal html code, but it looks way too simple and unsophisticated. I would feel better if I complicate things a tad, and I’m unsure how I’ll go about it. I’ve been known to borrow other site’s html code, but I pretty much have everything on it that a personal webpage shall be. I belong to two forums and one Playstation Club.

My next game purchase when this new anime RPG comes out on Wednesday. The local videogame store I buy games from said they’d never have Stella Deus in stock, but now they do so they don’t say what they mean very well. Not that the people working there are lying, but Toyriffic eventually has games in stock only sold in Game Stop and “don’t know” a week later. By the way, I hadn’t had time to play Stella Deus – Gates of Eternity yet. I hear this new RPG is better than Stella Deus. My mom owes me $30 for cropping photos and printing out photo quality graphics on phone paper in black and white.

I haven’t met either of my friends for two weeks. Either they’re loosing interest in me or they don’t have time to visit me. I’m out of school and no one at WITC invited me to a PC LAN party like that one time during Easter Break last year when some people in the network technician class were going to get together and I drove around Hammond in search of the his home address since the note on the college room door said meet somewhere in Hammond, but the address on the paper didn’t exist. Bob’s working at a gas station and I can go meet him if I choose, but won’t because I prefer hanging around in my room alone with the low bandwidth Internet which gets me to a gateway to infinite information not to mention free music. The broadband guys are behind schedule, and aren’t the only family in the middle of no where around here who wants broadband so we’re on the list somewhere.

This week, I’m driving to KOULS to buy athletic socks because most of the socks I own have holes in them as a result of walking around the basement. That’ll be exciting. I might look at some new baggy cargo pants too! I haven’t worn jeans for years so I don’t own 1 pair of jeans! My father flown to Maples, Florida near the Atlantic Coast to attend a national financial business conference and golf so he’s picking up one or two of those multi-colored dyed T-shirts for his son. Only tropical places have these. It seems like his company invited him to a golf tournament of some sort. It’s what my old man does and he calls golf a sport. He bought a slightly used driver worth $300 and he says it drastically improves his game. By drivers I mean golf clubs. He mentioned it comes down too bad golfers with a high quality driver can be better in a game with good golfers with a cheap driver. You’d think the PGA golfers have the elite versions tailor made to their height. I haven’t been in Florida since 1999.

In Wisconsin, you have to be tough to adapt to the drastic weather changes. Most people don’t realize it, but Wisconsin has all four seasons with temperatures ranging from -10 to 80 degrees with everything from snow storms to rain storms. It can be as high as 70 degrees in the day time to about 50 degrees at night in one day. In the summer Wisconsinites deer hunt with rifles or bows, go fishing, drive to Canada, ride motorbikes on dirt trails, or join baseball leagues. Winter is a whole different can of beans, Americans snowboard or snowmobile. You got to love the many recreational stuff going on around here in Wisconsin. Soccer usually isn’t one of them, sorry.

Night everyone.

Monday, May 16, 2005

Hot off the press Playstation 3 information | Nintendo Revolution also revealed today

05/17/05 8:43AM - DMC4 and DOA4 images on Geocities server instead of Imageshack.ws and are able to be viewed.

Look what I've found! This is Sony's new renderings from the showcase of pre-E3 conference. AT least we know the successor to Playstation 2 is Playstation 3.

Launch Date - Spring 2006 in North America and Japan.


Nice, a slot in drive. Sony's thinking.


Why is the controller so futuristic, everyone?


Nice, it's white. I love it.


Looks like PS2's back with more USB ports

Known Specs
CPU

Cell Processor
PowerPC-base Core @3.2GHz
1 VMX vector unit per core
512KB L2 cache
7 x SPE @3.2GHz
7 x 128b 128 SIMD GPRs
7 x 256KB SRAM for SPE
* 1 of 8 SPEs reserved for redundancy
total floating point performance: 218 GFLOPS

GPU

RSX @550MHz
1.8 TFLOPS floating point performance
Full HD (up to 1080p) x 2 channels
Multi-way programmable parallel floating point shader pipelines

Sound

Dolby 5.1ch, DTS, LPCM, etc. (Cell- base processing)

Memory

256MB XDR Main RAM @3.2GHz 256MB GDDR3 VRAM @700MHz

System Bandwidth

Main RAM 25.6GB/s
VRAM 22.4GB/s
RSX 20GB/s (write) + 15GB/s (read)
SB< 2.5GB/s (write) + 2.5GB/s (read)

System Floating Point Performance

2 TFLOPS

Storage

Detachable 2.5" HDD slot x 1

I/O

USB Front x 4, Rear x 2 (USB2.0)
Memory Stick standard/Duo, PRO x 1
SD standard/mini x 1
CompactFlash (Type I, II) x 1

Communication

Ethernet (10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T) x 3 (input x 1 + output x 2)
Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 b/g
Bluetooth 2.0 (EDR)

Controller

Bluetooth (up to 7)
USB 2.0 (wired)
Wi-Fi (PSP)
Network (over IP)

AV Output

Screen size: 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p
HDMI: HDMI out x 2
Analog: AV MULTI OUT x 1
Digital audio: DIGITAL OUT (OPTICAL) x 1

Disc Media

CD PlayStation CD-ROM, PlayStation 2 CD-ROM, CD-DA, CD-DA (ROM), CD-R, CD-RW, SACD, SACD Hybrid (CD layer), SACD HD, DualDisc, DualDisc (audio side), DualDisc (DVD side)
DVD: PlayStation 2 DVD-ROM, PlayStation 3 DVD-ROM, DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW
Blu-ray Disc: PlayStation 3 BD-ROM, BD-Video, BD-ROM, BD-R, BD-RE

Sourced from SONY CORP.

What’s in development for Playstation 3?

# Devil May Cry 4 (Capcom)
# Eyedentify (SCEJ)
# Fifth Phantom Saga (SEGA)
# Fight Night Round 3 (EA Sports)
# Final Fantasy XII (Square Enix) – Isn’t this a Playstation 2 game as well?
# Formula 1 (Liverpool Studio)
# The Getaway "Screen Test" (Team Soho)
# Heavenly Sword (Ninja Theory)
# I-8 (Insomniac)
# Killing Day (Ubisoft)
# KillZone (Guerrilla)
# Metal Gear Solid 4 (Konami)
# Mobile Suit Gundum (Bandai)
# MotorStorm (Evolution Studio)
# NioH (KOEI)
# Oni (KOEI)
# Tekken (Namco)
# Vision Gran Turismo (Polyphony Digital)
# WarHawk (Incognito)

Screenshot galore! Hot links for your viewing pleasure. Just comment on this post please. That’s all I ask of you.



Dante’s gun has a lot more detail than was possible in DMC3. The polygon rate is outrageous!

Screenshot of WarHawk

Screenshot of Vision Gran Turismo



This is an Xbox 360 title and Tecmo’s launch title.

The new Nintendo Revolution Specs

Launch Date: Summer 2006

Megagames got an insider of the latest Nintendo Revolution prototype and it's 700 MHz slower than Xbox 360. MoSys, the Gamecube memory manufacture is adding memory to Revolution.

Another slot in drive. Gosh. We’re getting high tech now. Serious business.

The real next generation Nintendo console? Internet says it is.

In its final form, Revolution will be about the thickness of three standard DVD cases and only slightly longer. The versatile Revolution will play either horizontally or vertically, allowing the user total flexibility in setting up a gaming session wherever they have a television.

The controller isn’t revealed because that’s the most revolutionary part of the Revolution. Nintendo wishes not to show the controller at E3 2005.



Specs of IBM Hollywood, the Revolution CPU.

Four 2.5Ghz IBM G5 Custom cores with 128KB of level 1 cache and a 512KB shared level 2 cache.

ATI "Broadway"

GPU will offer a dual core RN520 chipset with a 16 MB on-board eDRAM frame buffer.

Other Known Specs

• 802.11B WiFi connectivity with Dual Screen and/or another Revolution with 10 meters away
• Wireless controllers
• backwards compatible with Gamecube software meaning it has a Gecko 485 MHz co-Processor
• Gyroscope controllers with handle rubbing and grip abilities.

More information at

Playstation 3
Xbox 360

These games are already added to my IGN collection list and that blog entry with the videogame list.

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Five New Games : Doom 3 (Xbox), Stella Deus – Gates of Eternity (PS2), Forza Motorsport (Xbox), Guild Wars (PC), Silpheed – Lost Planet (PS2)

Sunday, May 15, 2005

Speculating Xbox 720 Specs | Able to run Sega Genesis Emulation on my Playstation 2

Well everyone, I had missed the Xbox 360 special. I’ve heard it had a lot of music in it. In my opinion, the show was suppose to be about the Xbox 360’s games and previews, but it was mostly concert. Anyhow, http://xbox360.ign.com has news on it.

Today has been interesting. Randy has gone deer bow hunting for the weekend up North without his dad because his dad answered the phone when I asked for him. Randy really likes to deer hunt you know, and has been buck hunting with his family for 10 years.

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Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us

Genesis Emulation on standard Playstation 2

Anyhow, two days ago, I’ve bought an Action Replay Max Evo Edition which allows ELF files to run on my Playstation 2 or PStwo. An ELF file is always an emulator. The two emulators able to run on my PS2 were SNES Station and PGEN. A.R.M.E.E runs Genesis ROMs out of the box. Genesis games on PC or console with SMD file extension. Max Media Center formats CDs that’ll work in A.R.M.E.E. Media Player. PGEN’s instant saving function makes up for the Game Genie. Emulation is perfect in my opinion. PGEN is based off the best Genesis emulator for PC, GENS. The Emulator loads itself and the ROM into RAM so the game won’t freeze. In fact, I could eject the CD and the game will continue running. The storage limit is 600 MB. For $40 this is good deal, because I’ve 80 Sega Genesis games I can play on my PS2 ….

I figured out maybe if when I find my PS2 memory card, I could format it and save 1 ROM onto it via Action Replay’s memory card management software. Problem is always deleting game saves off the memory card, and my game saves are worth more than any old game. With A.R.M.E.E., I had bought my code lists patches in a sense. Now I can download code lists straight off thumb drive given too me. I can leave the 3 MB worth of codes on the thumb drive and it would have all the codes of any game I own in my collection so I can cheat in the RPGs like I’ve done for 3 years without the slow process of inputting numbers.

[May 16, 2005] I’ve deleted my ROM list in this entry because no body cared for it when the list existed. Anyhow, I am so happy I got to play Phantasy Star IV – End of the Millennium on my LCD TV. The game looks better than Phantasy Star II and III. Phantasy Star IV starts again on a planet where the mother brain is starting to produce monsters again and the crews have to save the planet *again*. The cut scenes are interesting. I played that for 4 hours the other day. I have a problem of not playing my old games especially my Genesis games. It could be because they’re old, but I bought these games to own some history before the 32-bit generation. I remember the good times I was playing Super Mario Bros. on a Nintendo only last month. My friend says that everybody into videogames shall at least played Super Mario Bros on NES once because it’s a classic. I said, “Whatever, Randy.”

Xbox 720 Speculation For Fun

I was also going to speculate Xbox 720’s future specs estimate by the way technology is advancing with Xbox 360. It was something to post in this slow transition time when there is nothing new to post on the forums. Comment if you wish.

• Since Xbox had a Pentium 3 at 733 MHz vs. the IBM Xbox 360 CPU at 3.2 GHz I shall suggest that Xbox 720 has 4 times the MHz as Xbox 360s CPU. So Xbox 720 will have a six or nine core 64-bit CPU clocking at 12.6 GHz made by IBM in 2010 remember.

• Xbox had only 64 MB of shared RAM because the money was spent on the XGPU, a modified Nvidia Geforce 3 with 128 MB GDDR clocking at 200 MHz, I suggest that the RAM of the Xbox 720 will be 2048 MB of RAM or as much RAM as my PC has now in 2005.

• The Xbox 360 has a 256-bit GDDR2 ATI GPU clocking at 500 MHz so I think I'll double it saying the Xbox 720 GPU will be approximately 512-MB GDDR3 DRR at a whopping 1 GHz in 2010.

• I think the Xbox 720 will 512 MB as standard storage in flash media cards.

• The Xbox 720 disc ROM drive will have the currently classified ROM which Blu-ray and HD-DVD manufactures are putting together holding as much storage as Blu-ray Discs or 25 GB.

• The controllers will similar to the Xbox 360 controller and probably will be wireless as well. For Xbox games the two triggers above the L and R triggers replaces the Xbox 1 controller’s white and black buttons.

• The Xbox 720 will be smaller than Xbox 360.

• The Xbox 720 will have 802.11G unlike Xbox 360's 802.11B connection


Games to add to list:

None today. New ROMs, but I have respect too. I only count the physical cartridge form of software I own.

Bye, that’s all for now.

Thursday, May 12, 2005

Pic of 2048 MB RAM | DOS doesn't recognize 2048 MB of RAM | Bought Slipheed Lost Planet today

Well, low virtual memory is a thing of the past. That's also the case if you have 1024 MB of RAM. When there is 786 MB of RAM installed you’ll never get low virtual memory problems. 2 GB decreases lag by a lot when switching between Winamp and Guild Wars in window mode. If anyone tries this with 786 MB of RAM or less your computer will most likely freeze up.

Concerning 512 MB of RAM is good for 2D applications don't expect any less in 2005, because everything comes with 512 MB now-a-days until Xbox 360 is launched which will have a generous 512 MB of RAM.

Proof here:




MS-DOS has problems only recognizing 1024 MB.

Meanwhile, my female warrior is level 5 now, completed 6 quests, and now looking for another class. Guild War players are suppose to be dual class. I’m deciding whether I want to be a paladin or a melee-Elementist (elementist and warrior). I’d added another friend to a messenger service. A paladin is another name for a holy warrior which was a playable character in Diablo 2.

As for today in 12:20am in the morning I drove to Wal-Mart to find a game called Forza Motorsport, an May 2005 best seller, and a stellar as well as most awesome Xbox racing game on the market! This is the Lamborghini Diablo of racing games on Xbox! Everyone else wants it too because gamers aren’t dumb so when it comes to games like this…we’re all in the same wagon…. Unfortunately, that game was sold out within the first day it was at Wal-Mart. Instead I had bought the Treasure shooter, Silpheed: The Lost Planet. Silpheed was published on Sega CD in 1992 and the PS2 version is the remake. Silphead - The Lost Planet has been extremely rare in Wisconsin until I just magically saw the game retailing for $20 and immediately purchased it. Silpheed is my 77th PS2 game! It was a pretty 2D shooter when it came out, but it’s score had been decreased because Silpheed is 3rd hardest PS2 game. Every decision has to be synced and drilled into my brain much like Gradius V and Ikaruga (also Treasure made 2D shooters) were, and hadn’t made it far in either of them.

Anyways, I haven’t met one of my real-life friends in 2 weeks. Damn, this is disappointing! I was bored so I went out to Wal-mart to buy Forza Motorsport. Problem is I didn’t expect to be ignored that way, but I wasn’t exactly myself that day. People like me know a lot about games so I know the nerdy stuff normal people don’t. While I’m not a good FAQ writer I’ve three years experience writing detailed game reviews.

Games to add to list:

• Silpheed - The Lost Planet (©2001 Treasure/Game Arts)



Let’s all put this to rest and live another day to tell another story! Goodnight blogging mates.

Saturday, May 7, 2005

Talked to Bob who I haven't met in 5 months | Bought and played Guild Wars Online PC game

Bob ignored me for the pass six months, but I decided I had the guts to call him back on his cell phone yesterday. He works in a town 10 minutes a way from where I live so I drove to the gas station in the evening after the electricity suddenly went out, and that’s the first time this year too. My dad was sleeping so I had to wake him, because the garage door was locked or was it? Anyhow, he used his muscles to get the garage door open for me so I could see my former best friend Bob. I hanged out in the Freedom gas station for 3 hours and it there were few people around at that time of night. Talked about videogames with him and told him about my big collection. Bob says he lives in a house with his friend Jim who is a nerd. Jim lives with his girlfriend and their 2 yr old daughter (they aren’t married yet.) He’s suppose to be very smart at what he does best…figuring out many software problems by himself. Bob told me how I shall buy Everquest 2 and have him pay the subscription fee so we can play together. I wasn’t sure about it. To get off the Everquest 2 topic I’ve had instead suggested Guild Wars to him where the men are buffed up and the women are run-a-way babes with nice curves and wear bikini mails (the female elementists anyhow.) I’d showed him Lumines for PSP. He didn’t care for it partly because PSP wasn’t important. As I was standing around talking to him there were young adults coming in picking up a 12 pack of Budweiser so I stand around not look interested. You know it’s one of those young men who still wear their high school jeans and cap backwards, but who cares…it’s their style….I’m still a stranger from the country who likes computers, but the new kind who likes technology! I’m really behind in my urban lifestyle wisdom. There is no time like the present. I’ve stayed here talking to him to about 11pm before I headed back home. Bob listened to The Perfect Circle (loves that band.) Perfect Circle is on the edge of vocal rock and heavy metal. They’re okay in my opinion, but not as groovy. Perhaps that’s because I’m listening to dance music it made me uneasy at the beginning, until I ‘veheard it wasn’t metal so I was fine, because everyone listens to heavy metal in Wisconsin. There is your Country crowd (small portion), your hip hop crowd (largest portion), and your heavy metal crowd (2nd largest portion). I’m like half way between the trance crowd and the heavy metal crowd. More unique than many people. Bob said he phone me tomorrow so meanwhile I’ll play Guild Wars which is fine too, because it’s simply stunning to look at.

My digital camera came in the mail two days ago, but my mom has the flash media card I require to take pictures and I am unable to pay her. The leather case which came with the box is made out of cow hide instead of deer hide. O-well. It won’t help me take pictures.

Today, I’ve bought Guild Wars at the local department store….that’s where the catch 22 comes in. On Wednesday, I’ve had drove to both Target and Wal-mart to find it’s sold out….came back again today to get it again.

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I’ve been reading Game Spy’s Guild Wars review and installed it before an hour to downloading 2 patches, but the actual game seems exceptionally fast over dial up. Believe me, I know this, because I’ve experienced many games over a modem, and this has one of the best 3D action of nearly all of them (retail version isn’t buggy at all.) I’ve set the game at 1600x1200 resolution with 4x anti-analyzing which is processed with 2 GB of RAM and 3.2 GHz CPU. Look for yourself, the screenshot is indeed above average. This game looks better than Xbox 360 game shots in my opinion! Graphics are 9.5 out of 10 for sure, but pretty good looking on my PC. Guild Wars is a free online RPG.

I had called Target today, and the store hasn’t even heard of Forza Motorsport! I spoke to a teenager clerk, but rather I was in control so I hung up while he was searching for the game. I mean Forza Motorsport has been out since May 3rd. That game is Xbox’s equivalent to Gran Turismo 4 and currently Xbox’s best racing game. Graphics wise it’s every bit as good as Project Gotham 2. Forza Motorsport is going to be my next purchase, after I can find more money. I’m broke again. I want to start off fighting worms until I can build her up to level 1 and beyond. That takes time which I have plenty of. So the guy asked me to stay on the line.

I might move out of my parent’s place with in the next 6 months. We’re getting into tiny conflicts lately so I stay in my room and look at the Internet all day long. I don’t hate my parents, but rather don’t like them sometimes, and we do have our differences. I checked out for a job at Home Depot and I plan to call more places tomorrow.

[May 08, 2005] Today, I called Bob who said he’s working all day, so I’ve been playing Guild Wars from 7:10AM to 12:30PM over dial up and timed out 2 times. I’ve made two friends had got up to level 3 and died only 2 times. So far we thought we could level up so we’re able to quests the game has. We’ve figured out the best way to spend our time is to level up constantly via killing everything in site as long as it doesn’t kill us first and thus we had fought the creatures we knew we would win against. My xfire account shall of said that I’ve logged on three hours in Guild Wars. That’s my proof I’ve been playing this game for several hours. Its seems like some of the personal commands in the chat window are /help, /dance, /wave, /sit, /jump, /flute, /drums, / guitar, /laugh, /head pounding, /clap, /shout, /yes, /no and probably several more.

Games to add too list:

• Guild Wars (©2005 Arena Net)

Tuesday, May 3, 2005

HD-DVD & Blu-Ray makers join forces! More game shots | Desktop shot | looking at DVD recorders at Tigerdirect | broadband draws near




This shelf was added because of my growing game collection



Photobucket
first videogame shelf I had.

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

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Old shelf I had since 2000


The other shelf I've bought in 2000. Serves it's purpose.


I added all my computer game boxes to the 2 shelves below that shelf by my TV with misc videogame software.

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My desktop today. Stardocks 1.11 is really cool. I like it a lot.

HD-DVD and Blu-Ray Join Forces | The Meetings are classified

There's been quite a few stories recently (on reliable sites like the BBC and The Register) that Sony was saying it's open to negotiations with HD-DVD to merge the two systems. It's possible that the negotiations are going ahead.

It might be that Sony doesn't want to repeat the problems of Betamax, Minidisc and Memory Stick, where it ended up being an expensive minority format. If company founders merge Blu-ray and HD-DVD manufactures, everyone wins with this alliance, because there's no uncertainty of which format to purchase, and customers can go ahead and buy whatever the new format of the new alliance is called without worrying that it'll go obsolete two years later by one of competitor’s better disc with more data capacity. This means that another higher tech ROM drive will be installed in Playstation 3s which prior to the merger was Blu-ray’s debut product.

Both HD-DVD and Blu-ray both use a blue laser, that’s how they can fit so much more onto a disc (the laser is smaller so the pits can be too). The industry had blue lasers burning data storage for 10 years, but it's taken until now for blue lasers to be cheap and easy enough to mass produce.

Blu-ray looked like it was likely to pull ahead and be Hollywood’s media of choice.

More as it comes available.

Wisconsin (USA) life ramblings

I’ve taken a camera shot of all my videogames in their place. On Sunday, I asked my Mom to get Stella Deus Gates of Eternity for $50 at Game Stop. I own Stella Deus now. This morning I’ve been looking at DVD Recorders. This one burns DVDs in both NTSC and PAL MPEG2 codec although I don’t know whether or not it’ll burn Dual Layer DVDs. The disadvantage of DVD is that it’s not enough minutes for most movies I watch off satellite. I’m pretty sure it’s record, and it burns DVDs at default settings on-the-fly. I was looking at the Emerson Progressive Scan DVD/VCR Recorder and the Emerson EWR10DR DVD Recorder. The EWR10DR I can buy for 120 dollars while I’ll be spending 70 dollars more on a VCR to DVD recording capabilities. With some simple cables linking the VCR to the DVD player I can do what the DVD/VCR recorders can for less money. I think I’ll record Heavy Metal episodes on DVD off the History Channel. Heavy Metal has some cool 1 hour episodes about tanks, fighters, and military ships and weapons including various range missiles and torpedoes with mega TNT! I would love to burn them on SL-DVD, and will save me a ton of money and I can spend the left over money on videogames. I’ve added a DivX movie list on my angelfire webpage.

I was also looking at how you can get a 30 inch LCD TV with 750:1 contrast level for $900 plus shipping. That’s less than my 25” TV’s original cost 5 months ago! I don’t need another LCD TV, but the future of TV sets is LCD TVs, and my next TV 5 years down the road could be a 35” LCD TV with better resolution once I find a job and can afford one in 2008. I require an Xbox 360 in November. I’m wondering if Project Gotham Racing 3 will be an Xbox 360 launch title and may be my first choice.

Confirmed X360 launch titles (updated)

• Project Gotham Racing 3
• Battlefield 2: Modern Warfare
• Call of Duty 2
• The Godfather
• Madden Football 2006
• FIFA 2006 (federal international football association)
• Dead or Alive 4
• Perfect Dark Zero (Rareware title)
• Need for Speed Underground 3
• New unannounced Namco franchise
• Kameo (another RAREware title)
• Halo 2.5

By the way, I’m getting broadband with free wireless NICs I’ll get to install sometime this month! The most noticeable change is I can stream-save 192 kbps shoutcast broadcast channels and listen to the music in real time to give it all a way to my friends for free once I can find some. Point is be my friend cause I'll give you free music!

New games to add to collection

• Stella Deus Gates of Eternity



Final Word : Modblog, please fix the domain name server soon so my site looks gorgeous again.

Friday, April 29, 2005

My first Videogame burnout | Buying a new 5.25 megapixel camera for $140 | My life after the 4th semester of tech college

I am going through what the average gamer goes through I call a “videogame burn out.” It’s where there are so many choices of games and so little money to get them. I’m actually pulling my hair out finding the best game out now. I didn’t think I would be in this position. I’ve always been someone who avoided “videogame burnout.” The term comes from when an airplanes engine’s stall…they’ll “burn-out” and then you’re in deep trouble to get the afterburners to “ignite” so the plane has power. Same way with videogames, I am so use to buying 2 or 3 videogames every week that off weeks seem like burn out. I’m not financially in trouble or anything, but it’s true I only have $70 cash on hand with check book. I’m allowing my check balance pass $400 so I can afford an Xbox 360 on launch day and one launch title. I want an Xbox 360, and I can afford it if I make some tough decisions now which will cut down purchasing game software by 50%. This year I’ve already spent a good chuck of dollars on Playstation Portable and PStwo. This purchase of a digital camera will affect what I buy the rest of 2005. I’ve bought the PStwo to ensure I have something to play on until Playstation 3 is available. This is my walking around money remember, and doesn’t include money spent on housing or food. I’m thinking of making a birthday list with Xbox 360 at the top of the list. I’ve had my eye on the $140 Vivitar ViviCam 3935! The Vivicam 3935 comes with 4x digital zoom, packaged with USB cable and 32 MB SD media card. I have $90 already saved up for games, but buying a camera instead. I’ve got plenty of games to last a couple months. Needs $60 dollars more to afford the camera! The one I’m using now is 3.3 Mega pixel digital cam with 6x digital zoom, and I’ve gotten 2 ½ years ago. You can bet that my future JPEGs will look nicer. After I get the camera, I think I’ll show everybody my 3 DDR sticks in my Dimension XPS (2x Samsung 512 MB DRR Dual Channel 400 MHz + 1 GB DDR 400 MHz over-clocking stick = 2GB DDR 400 MHZ SDRAM .) I have all day to think it over. I also should mention that I downloaded another 120 MB of MP3s off Kazaa over dialup over two nights so I have 120 minutes of new music added to my HDD.

Midway Games released M rated first person shooter Area 51 today for PS2 and Xbox. It reveals the truth about the Area 51 that has become a talking legend in recent years of government conspiracies. The FMV looks extremely realistic of the President and General of the Army, General of the Airforce, Admiral of the Navy, etc making a speech at a digitalized carbon copy of Pentagon in D.C. much like that Pentagon scene in the movie, “Independence Day” (it’s a rip off of that movie in my opinion.) The FMV is about the fictional conspiracy that the US Government is hiding aliens (the blue Marian type) in the Nevada desert, and they want to take over, etc, etc, etc, and we will send Marines to Area 51 to fight to the death, etc, etc, etc. I’ll be interested in this game for sure. I’m also going to put off buying Stella Deus for a couple weeks so I can afford the Vivitar ViviCam 3935.

All this week has been slow going. I’ve normally been doing nothing in front of the PC these past 6 days looking a various game reviews and writing them as well. I recently wrote a review on Metroid (NES) and it’s remake, Metriod - Zero Mission. I feel that I have to update Catharton Electronica more because I’m needed there. I like games so that’s what there in the first place for…always keep that in mind. I was playing a little Final Fantasy Dawn of Souls. The action replay I put in the game keeps me from opening some chests so I can’t go to the next area. I haven’t played a RPG for over 2 months so I’m rusty on my Final Fantasy game play. To put simply I am dieing regularly…all part of the game. The Gamecube controller isn’t that great for playing GBA games and has been less than helpful to me thus far.

Randy came over to my house on Sunday. We played Extreme G 1 and 3. He remembers Extreme G long time ago, so we played a couple races in that. He won a couple which means my skills aren’t very good. I let him look at my cherished Playstation Portable. He said his sister was bickering about PSP the day before. I feel good now I have one. Then I played my flute, but not well. Afterwards, we went to Fleet Farm (a hardware warehouse) in Hudson, WI so he could pick up a $110 tool box for his used white Chevy pickup he paid $900 for. It was the cheapest model of tool box in stock. We would have gone to Game Stop if I wanted too, but instead we did something more local. He commented how it was the first stick-shift transmission he owned.

I may be in some deep shit in school because I didn’t pass the 2nd visual basic class. Life is hard I know, but I didn’t get through the chapter so now I need to do well in industrial networking classes…somehow perform some additional 50% in school. Life is way too short though…can not let it bother me even though it’s well beyond annoying. I’ve taken one programming course to test what it would be like to program for a living besides a lot of hard work The book was indeed confusing. My college may put me on a 3rd term of probation if I’m that lucky!

To be continued…..