Last night was drink with the boss night, tonight was drink with a lot of other people night, and tomorrow is drink with some other guys night. Lots of drinking means not much PS3’ing (or WoW’ing). Maybe I will get in some late night (or early morning gaming), but for now, lets just call it a night and see if we can get some new content on Thursday. Terrapin Rye Pale Ale is a very naughty mistress.
Last night I download the GT HD demo; free is good, right? I was not sure what to expect because I have not read any reviews, comments, or anything about the demo other than it was free. Apparently at one point in time it was going to be a regular GT game in HD, with downloadable content (pay as you go or for the options, tracks, cars that you want).
The download took a good three hours. I started at 8:30PM and at 11:30PM the download manager indicated that the download was 98% finished. However I was done for the night, so I went to bed. I am using a standard g-band wireless setup; have not calculated if three hours was on target or not. This is a little off topic, but the system gets pretty hot if you leave it on all night. I have my PS3 in an entertainment center, but there is plenty of space around the PS3.
Back to the game. It takes 3-5 minutes to install, and then you are ready to play. The game automatically connects you to the network (presumably to record lap times). The game is pretty barebones, which is to be expected with a demo. You start with a single track in Time Trail mode. Your initial car is a less than impressive Suzuki cappuccino ’95. As you meet time objectives (I think for each car) you open up additional cars, a drift trail mode, and a reverse version of the regular track.
I only ran one time trail, and completed the lap around 1:45′, which was good for 900 or so in the rankings. I have no idea out of how many, and I assume the game used some sort of PS3 step or network id for my user info because the game did not prompt me for one. Coming in under the 2 minute objective opened a Mazda Eunos Roadster ’89, but it is time to get back to work.
The only other comment at this point is that the game looks beautiful in 1080p.
At this point there is not much to write, but I wanted to get something down before I called it a night. First, the background story is fairly compelling; the alternate history seems reasonable to me. Second, the graphics in 720p are outstanding. Third, I am too damn old, slow, and uncoordinated to play this sort of game.
I spent about 15 minutes with this game and just could not get the controls. I cannot get the look around with the right analog stick system down. I got slaughtered a handful of times before I made it to the second area. It was really more of the same with the second area, so I called it a night. All that on easy level.
I think I am going to need some sort of auto aim or auto enemy lock feature to succeed with Resistance. I will have to read the manual tomorrow (when all else fails, right?) or maybe look for some sort of FAQ with some control setup tips.
If there was ever a reason to rent a game, this one screamed “rent me.” I made the purchase because there is not a whole lot in the PS3 library that I find attractive right now, and because the game received fairly positive reviews. All that is well and good, but I have never been a fan of FPS, and I am not into online games or military type stuff. Sounds like I set myself up for failure with this one. I am not about to judge the game after 15 minutes, but I hope I can get the controls down fairly quickly so I do not feel like I threw $60 + tax down the drain.
No, I have not gone to the dark side and signed up for a subscription based rental service, but I did find an interesting comparison of the most popular services at Gaming Nexus (click here for a direct link to the quoted article). Apparently GPlay is the top service. I just do not see myself paying for one of these rental services any time soon, but then again, I never thought I would pay a monthly fee for WoW.
The nice thing about a Sunday morning without a Grand Prix race is that I do not have to throw the entire family into sin and disarray by coming up with an excuse to miss church. Of course I am kidding; well partially. There are some F1 circuits that I enjoy more than others, but today I do not have to worry about that all important decision.
Prayers for rain have been answered, well sort of answered. Before yesterday, I am not sure when we last had rain, and while it did not rain much, every little bit helps to get some of the South GA forest fire smoke out of the air. The Columbus, GA area is about 10 inches behind for the year. Not very good.
You may have noticed (or maybe not) that I have been writing a lot more over the last 10 or so days. There are a couple of reasons. First, I have been feeling like crap of late, which has somehow given me a little more time to write. Second, getting a PS3 (and the process of lead up to the purchase) has given me a whole host of things to discuss. PS3 vs. Xbox 360, Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD, PS3 games, and more. Longtime readers probably appreciate game related ramblings more than my diatribes on the Braves, Falcons, and Bulldogs.
I plan to put together some more posts on my PS3 impressions, and my game purchases. As a teaser, Formula One is a ton of fun; the Six Axis controls are interesting with the game. I have not opened Resistance or Elder Scrolls; M-rated games have to be played after the kids go to be. I hate that the controllers can only be charged while the PS3 is in use (i.e. while I am playing a game or watching a movie). I am not sure what to make of PSX and PS2 up converting, and the same goes for DVD movies.
Happy Sunday!
As a counter point to the Blu-Ray post below, today’s Circuit City circular lists a Toshiba HD-DVD player for $299.99 (original price was $399.99), and includes five free HD-DVDs (after a mail in rebate). The Xbox 360 HD-DVD attachment costs $199.99; throw in the price of an Xbox 360 and you are at least $200 over the cost of the Toshiba stand alone unit (really depends on which Xbox 360 system).
Is there a point to the comparison? Probably not, but to me it shows that if you want to go HD-DVD, there is no reason to go with an Xbox 360. If you want to go Blu-Ray, you are better off going with a PS3. This is very similar to how the PS2 helped the DVD format achieve market success. However, there are two key differences. First, the price of a PS3 is a lot different than the price of a PS2. Second, the quality of the PS3 Blu-Ray player is far superior to the quality of the original PS2 DVD player.
Now that I have a PS3, I am more in tune with all things PS3 and Blu-Ray. Today’s Circuit City circular lists a Sony Blu-Ray player for $799.99 (original price was $999.99) and includes three free Blu-Ray titles. I have no idea how this unit compares to the player included in the PS3, but the gap between the two is only $200. Unless the stand alone player is far superior to the PS3, it makes sense for someone that wants a Blu-Ray player to go with a PS3. Not sure how much longer that will be the case.
I am not ready to make any proclamations about the greatness of this game (or the lack there of) because I have only played the game for a few minutes. I will say that I picked up this game for three reasons. First, most reader feedback on various boards seems very positive. Second, I am always interested in a sold racing simulation. Finally, there are just not a lot of compelling options in the PS3 library right now. If you are not a fan of racing simulations, I am not sure why you would bother with this game, much less write a negative review.
With that out of the way, I think this game is very accessible to fans of arcade racing. Sure, if you are looking for Gran Turismo style racing and a variety of car types, you are going to be disappointed. After all, this is a fully licensed F1 game.
So far I have only messed around with the quick race mode, which allows you to easily jump in and start racing. You get to pick circuits and drivers based on the 2006 season. You also get to pick a variety of driver aids, AI difficulty, damage, mechanical failures, and probably a few others that I cannot remember to mention. This should make the game easily accessible to most gamers.
Case in point, I ran a three lap race at Indy as Scott Speed, with all driver aids turned on, and easily came in first after starting from the last position. This victory opened a classic Ford Lotus (I do not remember the year), which is available for the time trail mode.
Next up, Joshua, my eight year old son, ran the same race as one Michael Schumacher; he managed to finish fifth.
I then changed some of the options; I adjusted some of the driver aids, I turned on damage, enabled fuel and tire use consumption, setting up Scott Speed for an eight lap Indy race. I rallied from back of the pack to a solid fifth place before my disastrous pit stop half way through the race. My stop took a slow 18 seconds; I had some wing damage, and I did not quickly respond to the pit sequence (you are presented with a series of buttons to press). I left pit lane in 15th place, but I managed to pull off a seventh place finish after some, shall we say, overly aggressive driving. The end result was a lot of fun.
I know some of you are going to think this is strange feature to talk about, but there is a suburb mode that allows you to watch an AI race. It looks like you can also save a race (or maybe a reply). I am not sure how to do this, because I could not find a replay option when I looked for it in the middle of one of my races. The graphics in this mode are just balls out impressive – you can change from driver to driver, and are afforded eight different views including some impressive side-pod views. The level of graphical detail, which hints at the game’s excellent physics engine, is amazing to watch. You see drivers heads moving with every bump and turn on the track, and even the reflective visors display what is going on around the driver. Good stuff. I doubt I will sit around watching the AI race, but it was a very interesting distraction.
I am not even at the preverbal tip of the iceberg with this one, but from a fun factor standpoint, this one looks promising.
I finally entered the new so-called next generation of gaming by purchasing a PS3 from Circuit City online. I use their “pick it up” option for major purchases, and Circuit City was running a deal where you get a free Sony Wireless Six Axis controller. I also ordered a Sony Memory Card Adaptor; figured I would need it to transfer my PS2 saves. Final tally was $658.03 including tax.
Circuit City had a crap collection of PS3 games; nothing I wanted. I also could not quickly locate the Blu-Ray movies, so I quickly took my goodies and left the store. The Circuit City mall complex also features a Toys R Us, an EBGames, and a GameStop. I figured I would try Toys R Us first, because I hate getting repackaged games from EB and GS. I left Toys R Us almost $200 poorer with Resistance, Elder Scrolls, and Formula One.
After getting the system home, I disconnected the PS2 and started unpacking the PS3. My first impressions of the system are great packaging job by Sony, and the system itself is solid as a brick; a super sexy brick. You may laugh at the packaging comment, but that sort of thing matters to me when I am sending several hundred bucks. Reassuring? Maybe. Thankfully my HDMI cable arrived today from monoprice.com; no idea why Sony ships this system with an old fashion composite cable (cost savings no doubt).
System setup was quick and painless. There were a few options to setup a user profile, date/time, and screen resolution – the PS3 automatically switched me to 1080i. Next up was the network setup. The PS3 easily located my home network, and after entering the connection info (network password), I was connected to the internet. I was then told that I needed to update my firmware.
This particular system came with 1.51 firmware. The system told me that 1.80 was available, and I started the update at 8:08PM. The download was completed at 8:21PM. Next up was accepting the end user agreement. Applying the update took 5 minutes. By 8:28PM, the PS3 was rebooting, ready for me to play some games.
I threw in Formula One Championship Edition, and my oldest son remarked at how nice the graphics looked. My wife was obviously not that impressed; she said she can “make milk.”
At this point I am not going to comment on the games; that can come later with some more play time. As it stands now, I have a lot in front of me. How long does it take to charge the controller? Does the controller charge while the PS3 is off? How do I upscale my DVDs? What sort of adaptor do I have to buy to use PS2 accessories (assuming I need them)? What sort of DVD/Blu-Ray remote should I purchase? How do I connect my PSP and what are the advantages of connecting the systems? How do I transfer other media to the PS3 (i.e. iTunes music library)? And so on and so forth.
I think I am going to need a drink.
I have been feeling like crap of late. A sinus infection and another not so nice type of infection pretty much zapped me, made vacation not so fun, putting me behind at work. Sigh. I guess I will have to catch up sooner or later.
On the positive side of the ledger, the Dell support person showed up today, on time no less, and replaced the display screen (and wiring harness) in my wife’s laptop. Things look good as new. Happy days. This level of support has once again made me a satisfied Dell customer.
Things took a turn for the worse with the wife’s Chrysler Voyager today; a new transmission and controller is extremely expensive. Major downer; that would be not so good. That may be enough to put the brakes on the PS3 purchase, which may or may not be a good thing (see my last post about the state of the PS3 library).
Depending on your perspective, this may or may not be good, but over the last week, I have had a little more time to game. Mostly GT4, with some WoW and OOTPB 2007 for good measure. Faltutin, my gnome mage just hit level 37. I doubt that makes me big time or anything, but I think it is a decent accomplishment. Well, a time consuming achievement that probably has more to do with my hack and slash style instead of any real skill with the game.
It is still early, but I think it is time to call it a night. Tomorrow could be PS3 impression day, or it could be Chrysler Voyager sucks eggs (preventing me from getting a PS3) day.
Yesterday my wife asked what I ordered from monoprice.com. I explained that I ordered a new HDMI cable, but did not explain why – just that that I needed a new cable, and the prices were much better than what I could find at Best Buy, Circuit City, or any other electronics store. Off the hook (for now); no more questions followed.
This morning I told my wife that I was picking up a PS3 this weekend. She knows I have been selling junk over the last few months to build up some cash for some sort of purchase – PS3, Wii, new surround sound system, etc. A simple OK; she said I deserved one.
Now I have a ton of questions like what games should I get? I have been reading reviews for the last few weeks, and all I can say is that in general the state of reviews these days is not so good. At any rate, I am leaning towards some combination of Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion, Formula One Championship Edition, and Resistance Fall of Man for my initial purchase. I think I can stomach two games ($120 + tax = ouch), but pretty much every game has some downside.
Elder Scrolls is supposed to be a great RPG, but I already have a backlog of Final Fantasy (and a few others) to play. Throw in WoW, and maybe Elder Scrolls does not make much sense.
I have always been a sucker for F1 games – I have every one released on the PSX – so yet another F1 game may not be such a great purchase. Besides, I have been playing the heck out of GT4 of late; too much racing may make me grumpy.
The only reason I am considering Resistance is because it is supposed to be a “showcase” title for the PS3. I am not really a FPS fan, and anyone that has followed by ramblings for a while knows how I feel about online games.
Hmmm … where does this leave us? The easy answer may be to rent games over the next few weeks (or months) until some solid titles arrive. I have not rented games in years. Besides, I am not even sure what rentals go for these days, and I do not plan to start some sort of subscription service (i.e. GameFly). Warrants further investigation.
One thing I am certain of is that I am not going to go with any of the existing sports titles because newer versions are on the way. I can wait for this year’s NASCAR, Madden, and NCAA Football – all targets on my radar. I have not purchased Madden in a while, so I think the only reason to get this year’s version is for eye candy. I have not owned a version of EA’s NASCAR in forever, so that purchase may make some sense. What will NCAA Football offer over last year’s PS2 version? More decisions.
The other sports games do not really float my boat. The reviews for the MLB titles have been disappointing. Fight Night? Looks great, but I am not into boxing. Tiger Woods? Never played my PSP version; I am just not a golfer. Hockey titles? Do they still make those? Right now I could care less about the NBA, and I just do not see me getting into College Hoops right now.
So that leaves me with other choices such as MotorStorm, Virtua Fighter 5, and a whole host of other crap that just does not interest me. So ruling out the miscellaneous crap, I am left with almost no other PS3 gaming options. I am not going to kid myself and pretend that I will get my money’s worth from a fighter such as Tekken 5 or Virtua Fighter 5; just not going to happen.
This is actually kind of depressing. I have plenty of PS2 games, OOTPB, and WoW to occupy my limited gaming time; maybe I should not purchase a PS3 right now.
Ah, decisions, decisions, decisions.
This afternoon ESPN Radio is reporting that sources close to the Vick dog fighting investigation claim they have enough evidence to indictment for the whole dog fighting ring deal. With that said, the sources stated that they were not sure if they had the required “smoking gun” to get a conviction.
Joey! Joey! Oh dear. Oh my.
If there were some type of salary cap relief associated with Vick getting suspended, arrested, incarcerated, etc that could be the best scenario for Atlanta. Vick’s contract has to be a financial albatross, preventing necessary roster moves and free agent acquisition.
I have a feeling that things are about to get pretty messy in ATL.
In preparation for getting a PS3, I placed an order with monoprice.com for an HDMI cable. I have had great experience with these guys, and you cannot beat their prices. I picked up a HDMI to HDMI CL2 Rated Cable (24AWG) w/ net jacket- 6ft (Gold Plated) for $15.44 (plus shipping). Assuming this cable is up to the same quality as the previous one I ordered for connecting my HD cable box to my TV, I should be in good shape.
I know it looks like I am going out of my way to pimp these guys, but if I can save a reader or two from an overpriced HDMI cable from the likes of Circuit City and Best Buy – they loving pushing the $100+ cables – then I will be doing fellow middle aged gamers a good service.
The cable is set to arrive Friday. Can a PS3 be far behind?
A few post down, a gentleman named Brad responded to my rant about Dell’s customer support and the problems I am experiencing with my wife’s Dell Inspiron 6000. It turns out that Brad is an “Online Community Outreach Liaison” with Dell.
A few days ago I sent Brad an email, but he never received it (I think it went to a generic email account). However, Brad showed some initiative and found my gmail account, contacted me, requesting that I email him some info if I still needed some help. A short while ago we spoke on the phone for a few minutes, and Brad setup a request to have onsite technical support replace the screen (maybe as soon as tomorrow or Friday). Apparently the laptop is under warranty until December 2007, which came as a nice surprise. I told Brad that I never order extended warranties; either Brad is doing me a great favor, or there was some type of deal at the time I ordered the laptop.
I wanted to make sure that I gave credit where credit is due. While I am extremely frustrated with Dell’s support getting my battery replaced (that was an adventure), and I am upset with the screen going belly up so soon, I am grateful for Brad’s help.
Dell is making a positive step forward if they are hiring folks like Brad to actively search blogs such as this one looking for customer complaints. It is one thing to look for complaints, but to actually contact customers is quality support.
I will post another update in the next few days after the screen is replaced.
I think I have pretty much talked myself into getting a PS3 for some of the reasons listed a few posts below, but I still have not convinced myself that $599 (plus some other stuff to boot) is a good purchase. Of course that is the rub when it comes to throwing down a bunch of money on a frivolous purchase. I am not normally too concerned with video game system purchases, but things are a little different right now. The wife’s van is at Mr. Transmission, and her laptop is going to have to be replaced fairly soon. All of which makes it harder than normal to justify purchasing a new console.
Still, the allure of Blu-Ray with my beautiful Sony BRAVIA KDL-40V2500 is starting to capture my imagination. Ah, to lust after stunning HD movies and games. I know. Graphics whore.
Backwards compatibility is a big factor for me for a couple of reasons. First, I have a large library of PS2 and PSX games. Second, I still play some of the PSX games. I know in Europe hardware emulation is a thing of the past, and rumor has it that the next iteration of the PS3 in the US will also go to software emulation. All of this can only mean one thing – I have to get a current 60GB model PS3 sooner rather than later.
Stay tuned.
In other video game news, I actually played GT4 again yesterday. Two days in a row of gaming; that is a record of late.
I need to weed through my gaming library because I just have too many games that I never get around to playing. The only problem is that most of these games have no resale value on eBay. Not really a huge issue, but it does suck when I do not time a sale correctly. Of course there are always the stack of “rare” PSX games that usually do well on eBay, helping to balance out the others.
I have not made a decision on this year’s Madden and NCAA Football. I usually have NCAA pre-ordered by now, but I cannot really tell what (if anything) has been changed with last year’s PS2 version and the upcoming version. I assume the PS3 version will look pretty, but will not include as many options, features, and teams. Typical of next generation releases. I have not picked up Madden in a couple of years now; to be honest I have not missed it much. If I get a PS3, my assumption is that I am going to pickup at least one of these, but maybe I can show some self restraint. Then again, the whore in me will think these games look too pretty to pass up.