My Gaming News

So first off, I'm super excited that Nintendo decided to use Virtual Console to bring some titles to us that have never been commercially released in the United States before. This is bloody brilliant. I've also heard it suggested that we could even one day see "new" titles developed directly for virtual console. I'm not sure we'll see that or not, but to be able to play the real Super Mario Bros. 2 (and not the re branded Doki Doki Panic) is really cool.

On a personal gaming note. I took advantage of Toys 'R Us's recent "Buy 2 Get 1 Free sale" to pick up Guitar Hero 2 for the PS2, Heavenly Sword for the PS3, and got Metroid Prime 3: Corruption for free. This clearly violates my "I only buy games for $20 or less policy", but I can explain...

Metroid Prime 3 is a game that always got an exception to that policy. I would gladly pay the full retail price of $50 for that game. Likewise Guitar Hero 2 needs a custom controller. Given that the game retails for about $80... I was willing to spend $50 for that game with the controller. Finally, Heavenly Sword was worth $20 to me. So all told I was willing to spend $120 for the three games. Well, Guitar Hero 2 was $20 off for $59.99 on top of that sale. Heavenly Sword retails for $59.99 and that meant Metroid Prime 3 was free. So I was willing to spend $120 for the three games and I spent exactly $120 for the three games. Given that their full retail price for all three right now is $189.97 (a savings of $75.76 when you could sales tax)... that's not too shabby. Especially considering that Heavenly Sword had just come out that week (and Metroid Prime 3 hadn't been out real long either). BTW, it appears that Toys R Us is going to turn around and have this sale again!

I have not touched Heavenly Sword or Metroid Prime 3, but I have complete Guitar Hero 2 on both easy and medium. I'm going to spend some time completing 5-star ratings on all the songs before moving on to Hard.

I've also finished Enchanted Arms. I think it took me somewhere between 45 and 50 hours. I may go back and spend some garbage time playing around, but for the most part I'm done here.

As far as I'm concerned Metroid Prime 3 is the next "real" game I'm starting. Guitar Hero is something that's really fun that I can pick up and put down. That said, I'm finding myself picking it up a lot.... and I haven't started Metroid Prime 3 yet. Hmmmm....

One last aside, I hooked the PS3 back up in the study to play Guitar Hero 2. I did pick up Pelican's PS2 to USB adapter. My initial thoughts are that it didn't work too well, but I didn't realize that I need to "calibrate" the game for my television and if the adapter is introducing any delay, I expect the game's built-in calibration mode should compensate for that. The fact that you have to switch the adapter from "menu" mode to "Right Hand" mode to play (or "left hand" if you are actually playing left-handed) is super kludgy and Pelican admits that Hammer-Ons and Pull-Offs will not ever work. So on the whole not real great. That being said.... this adapter does let you use PS2 controllers and since I only have one SIXAXIS that might be useful for multiplayer PS2 games. Also, Guitar Hero 1 is supposed to work perfectly (GH2 is the only one that's so difficult to use) and finally, I will need this adapter if I ever get around to playing my couple of Taiko: Drum Master.

What I Did On My Summer Vacation (err... Monday after work)

IMG_2603, originally uploaded by arwild01.

So Shannon saw that Houston Plants and Garden Centers was having their annual fall clearance sale... she didn't find any plants there she liked, but she did find some crape myrtles on sale at Lowe's. So Monday she planted one of them in the front flower beds while also ripping out some of the flowers we had and replacing them them with some mums and fire bush.

However, Monday after work we went crazy and built a new flower bed. We dug out all the sod, installed plastic edging, added dirt, mulch and planted 3 more crape myrtles. We literally worked into the night. I dug up the sod so I didn't feel too bad letting her dig the holes for the plants while I held the flashlight :)

Tuesday she purchased the rocks to line the edge of the patio. They were only about $2 at Dirt Cheap Mulch.

Now we have something to look at outside our bedroom window.

IMG_2616, originally uploaded by arwild01.

I had to get photos of the results. The first photo above also gave me an opportunity to use my new wide-angle lens for my digital camera. I also went ahead and got some photos of our other landscaping. You can see that our Knock-our Roses are really growing.

Our flickr site has more photos, but their only accessible to flickr members we've marked as Friends and Family. If you don't have access, send me a note (My e-mail address is available on the sidebar to to the right) and I'll send you an invite to our photos.

More HD Media discussion

If anyone is interested in following it, Newton and I have continued our HD Media discussion via a post (and subsequent comments) on his Blog here.

Finally, to muddy the waters even further... a new HD Media format has been announced that undercuts everybody. I highly doubt this format has a future given its backing, but frankly I don't think the waters need to be any murkier then they already are.

The State of High Definition Media in Home Theater

A recent post on a friend's blog indicates that the state of HD media may be looking up with the introduction of two new "combo" players that can play both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD media.

I'm sorry to report that I feel differently.

Back when I was single, I was clearly crazy enough to lay down $1000 for a player, but these days I don't even get interested until there's something below $400 and baring special circumstances, I think I player has to be less than $200 before I would drop my hard-earned cash on it. Now of course, all new electronics start out at a ridiculously high price point geared toward enthusiasts and then eventually drop into the realm of affordability, but that takes time, and it's not clear if the general consumer is even interested in a "combo" Blu-Ray/HD-DVD player. In fact, it's pretty clear that consumers, in general, don't care.

This recent article, on arstechnica.com, analyzes the state of the market.

As I've posted before, I recently purchased a Sony Playstation3 to use primarily as a Blu-Ray player, and I don't regret my purchase at all. I also don't regret my SACD player purchase or my DVD-Audio player purchase, but I don't know too many people that own those players either.

As thedigitalbits.com as been arguing for years now, a format war does nobody any good. It generally creates confusion in the market and often nobody wins just like what's happened with SACD and DVD-Audio.

After seeing Transformers in movie theaters recently, I walked out thinking that I needed a "High Definition" player because this was one movie I didn't want to re-buy later on in a High Definition format. When it comes out I wanted to buy it on High Definition right away. I wasn't sure which studio produced Transfomers, and I did realize that with the current format war it was possible I was going to buy the wrong system, but the Playstation3 ran its pricing promotion shortly after that and I was sold. I was also presently surprised after connecting to the Playstation Store for the first time that the trailer for Transfomers was downloadable... I thought that was a sure sign that Transformers was coming to Blu-Ray.

Since then, Paramount (studio behind Transformers) and Dreamworks got a big check from Toshiba (primary supporter of HD-DVD) and now those studio are HD-DVD only for a year and half (at least).

And I lose.

Consumers are staying away in droves from High-Definition media for situations just like this despite increased sales in High Definition televisions.

There are some people that feel that the "next generation" video format is going to be downloadable "on-demand" services and not media at all. We've heard that promise before and its failed to really come to fruition. Besides, I think that smells of a clever way to milk more money out of us all.

This format wars needs an end.

For the record, thedigitalbits.com is sticking with the recommendation that Blu-Ray is the format that will ultimately win if either of them does, but they concede that there is a 3rd possibility and that's neither format will win... and that means all of us lose.

RSS? Readers? What?

I've struggled to explain RSS to even my more technical friends.... never mind the "less technical" people in my life like my wife and extended family members.

However, this video post is about the most straightforward explanation I've seen:



I'm a big fan of Google Reader. I started using it, because there is an "embeddable" gadget version that can appear on your "iGoogle" page... or in other words, every time I go to Google, I glance to see if any of the sights I like have new content.

I later discovered that Google Reader has a mobile version too. So if you ever seen me staring at my phone and clicking buttons... that's what I'm probably doing... catching up on my favorite web sites. Between Mobile Gmail and Google Reader Mobile I've run down my phone's battery MANY, MANY times.

If you use an RSS reader, you'll see a link at the bottom of this page to subscribe to this blog (it says "Atom" next to it).... feel free to do so.

EDIT: I also added an Icon (as described in the video) to header up above.

Last night we were the Carinals...

no D.

Clean Fishtank!

So Shannon and I did a bit of chores this weekend including "rebooting" the fish tank. We moved the fish to a separate tub, removed all the old plants, drained the tank, scrubbed it, rinsed the gravel. Then we bought new rocks and plants, a new filter and a new air pump/bubble bar for the tank.

The new filter is twice as powerful as we actually need for our little tank, but hopefully it will overcome some of our laziness and keep it a bit cleaner then it was. We also learned some basic tricks (rinse the filter media once a week) that we weren't doing that should help things our over the long haul. Here's a shot of the entire tank layout as it was on Sunday.


IMG_2582, originally uploaded by arwild01.

I would also like to point out that photographing fish is actually a little challenging. Since the tank is glass you can't shoot with a flash (and of course there's still the risk of reflections as this shot will attest). Then, because it's indoors and your not using a flash you have to worry about exposure. I used a tripod and used the camera's two second timer so that my pushing of the button wouldn't shake the camera during the long exposure times. Of course in two seconds... who knows what fish will do in that span of time. Finally, at least with cats and dogs you can make a noise to get their attention... fish don't care or even comprehend. :)


IMG_2592, originally uploaded by arwild01.