I’ve updated my various Maj Release galleries, plus I added a Wii gallery, you can check them out here:
And I added more footage for the PS3 and Zune over at Youtube:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGIeNFuRXAo]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2v9inTplyxk]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWcIBDvLx7k]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSIy15LjhAA]
Enjoy!
Today Nintendo released the Wii, their fifth generation video game console, and the final console in the current generation lineup. Best Buy didn’t have one on display (apparently their demo kiosk was broken or something), so I didn’t get to try one out. I did get some photos of the game rack and the Legend Of Zelda: The Twilight Princess box. Oh well, a bit disappointing. Speaking of which, the console’s specs are a tad on the low side, but the $250 price tag looks mighty fine next to the PS3’s $500 minimum.
The Wii’s claim to fame is its revolutionary controller design. It is based (I don’t know why I’m saying this, if you are interested in this you already know this) on a TV remote, but is completely motion-sensitive. There’s a “sensor bar” which is placed on top of your TV, and it can detect where all the Wii controllers (or “Wiimotes”, as they’ve been dubbed) are at once. They also have force feedback and a built-in speaker, which is pretty cool, plus it’s extendable (with extensions like the “nunchuck,” a joystick held in the left hand which is connected by a wire to the wiimote).
Well, I’ll post more (and pix) when I get a chance to play one myself. 🙂 Happy gaming to those of you who got one!
I went and saw the new Bond movie today, and despite the fact that it had a new actor as Bond, and payed no attention to some of the classic traditions of the Bond films, it was pretty good.
First of all, it doesn’t start with the revolver barrel-POV-shot like every single other Bond movie does, but it does explain where that actually comes from about 3 minutes into the movie, and then it shows it, so that tradition is partially upheld.
The second tradition smashed is the usage of the Bond Song. You know the one I mean. It’s used twice in the whole movie, at the very beginning and very end. Not cool, man. Not cool. That song needs to be weaved in every time Bond does something kickass.
The third tradition is the Girls. There are 2 girls in the whole movie (average number, yes), but one is a serious relationship (not that I’m promoting objectifying women or anything) and the other dies less than halfway through the movie. Actually, they both…nah, that’s a spoiler! 😀 But anyway, there’s very little action on the shallow-minded romantic front, which is a main theme of the Bond movies.
I must give them credit for the kick-ass parkour-style chase scene at the beginning. That ruled.
Oh and destroying that AM was not cool, guys. It did not deserve that death…
Today, Sony’s third generation video game console was released. And what a beast it is. I went to Best Buy to try it out, and got some pictures and a video.
Let me just say this. Wow. And I mean that totally sincerely. Wow. I expected it to be amazing (well, with a $500 core model and $600 full, it pretty much has to be), but this is ridiculous. The graphical quality is freakin’ amazing. It looks insanely photorealistic. The images it produces on the fly are like images pre-rendered by Pixar or something. I feel like I’m preaching here, but I really believe this stuff.
The new controller design (as in, redesigned l2/r2 buttons) is awesome. I really like the trigger-style buttons. They move much faster and more fluidly.
I took some photos of it at Best Buy, go to this gallery to check ’em out.
And here’s the video I took (pardon the quality, youtube ruins movies…):
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb0Ua0TxjWQ]
(check out this photo for an idea of what the footage actually looked like)
Took a visit to Best Buy today, snapped a few pix of the brown Zune they had on display there. I have to say, the brown looks good in person, and I totally forgot about the FM tuner in my first Zune post. Woops!
Two annoying things about Best Buy’s PMP stand:
Today Microsoft released the first version of its PMP (Portable Media Player), the Zune. Supposedly M$’s “iPod Killer,” the Zune costs $250 and comes in 3 “colors”: Black, White, and (get this) Brown. Those are some colors there, yup…I could make a whole freakin’ rainbow of Zunes. It comes equipped with WiFi, but (for some reason, most likely legal) you cannot use it to transmit music to it from your computer, and you cannot use it to buy music from M$’s online music store.
What can you use it for? Trading music from other Zunes (The 3/3 deal though: you can either listen to the song 3 times or keep it for 3 days before it deletes itself, whichever happens first), trade pictures from other Zunes, or synch it with your 360 (score keeping, friends’ statuses from Live, etc). It’s one of the largest wastes of money I’ve seen so far. Why bother making customers pay more for a Zune with WiFi, when the WiFi doesn’t even do anything useful yet? I would release a cheaper, smaller Zune (which maybe costs less than the iPod, its rival, and therefore sell more?) that has the same features as the iPod Video (plus the larger screen, more customization features, and sadly yes, larger color selection…), while they worked on developing that WiFi a bit more so it could do PC syncing and wireless music purchasing. But that’s most likely a problem with the RIAA, not M$. Stupid RIAA.
But for all the good things about the Zune, its software looks horrible. Check out Engadget’s review for more information on that front. I don’t plan on buying one any time soon ever.
Oh and I should mention the Zune ad campaign, most of which sucks (“Welcome to the social” is not English, folks!), but this site has many of the TV ads and posters (or maybe they’re just concepts? I’m not sure) that are actually good. Watch the one with the robot and the two birds one, as they are the best.
My WordPress chart showing the people reading my blog jumped up a while ago when I got 133 visitors in one day, and the chart has been marked off in increments of 40 ever since then, but usually the first number is 2 and the next is 42, and today it starts at 8 and goes to 48. I’ve gotten 17 unique views today, not including me, and that’s pretty much the lowest it’s been in a while. What’s attracting people to my blog? I’m not sure, since nobody ever comments. But apparently it’s this:
I get at least two people google searching for that every day that end up here, so maybe posting this picture again will get me more hits 😛
Since a new version of Boot Camp has been released, I want to update my drivers on my Windows Partition (for iSight support, mic use, headphone jack, etc…) and I’d like to not have to reinstall Windows.
But in case installing the new drivers without reinstalling windows corrupts my windows installation, I’m backing up my important stuff (Uru saved games, Gametap stuff, etc.). The only thing I haven’t done yet is Space Cadet 3D Pinball. I’ve gotten some pretty good scores on this computer, and I’d like to back them up, but I can’t find the file where they’re stored. Does anyone else know?
Well I tried reinstalling Myst V on my Macbook Pro again, just for the hell of it. To my surprise, it actually worked. No patches, nothing, it just installed using Rosetta. This means, of course, that it is as slow as hell, and practically not worth playing. But still, it did install. Maybe it’s the 10.4.8 upgrade that did it. Who knows?
So yeah, if you haven’t tried to install Myst V since the jump to 10.4.8 from 4.7, try it now because I’m pretty sure it will work.
