mikeszekely

Which would, at the time of your posting, make it 10:20-ish on the morning of the 17th, and I was under the impression that the trailer is due on the 18th. I think we still have to wait. Unfortunately. I lust for new VFs.

So... DLP for the win?

Are we only talking console games? I kinda liked Minsc in the Baldur's Gate games.

I actually canceled my subscription to EGM for that very reason. If it's a popular franchise, like Zelda or Final Fantasy, they rate it absurdly high. If it's a a game that's trendy to like, like Okami, they also give it overly high marks. (Not saying that either Zelda or Okami was bad, but not as good as EGM seems to think, either. And yes, I am in fact saying that Final Fantasy XII was crap.) Meanwhile, great games without a name or a trend get 7's, and good games get 5's and 6's. That said, I've maintained for awhile now that the buzz about Lair was likely to be undeserved. Rouge Squadron was cool because it was Star Wars, but it was honestly kind of shallow. I don't think replacing X-Wings with dragons, no matter how pretty, will make for a good game. And control issues, even in EGM, are usually legitimate concerns. I'm enthusiastically passing on Lair and waiting for Heavenly Sword.

Nied, what's you're current home theater set up? I have a pretty good TV and home theater receiver, so rather than build a PC specifically for a multimedia experience, I've decided instead to build server on the cheap, connect it to my network, then stream media from it to a Mac Mini connected to the TV home theater.

I don't know why some of you were having problems, it only took me about a half hour. I downloaded it, Eternal Sonata, and Beautiful Katamari, then played them all plus the Blue Dragon demo I never got around to playing because I was too busy playing Ace Combat. My thoughts as follows: Eternal Sonata: Interesting story and concept, and I like how you actually have to move in battle... it works better here than it did in FFXII. I thought the demo was pretty hard, though. The pig boss thing killed me good. Blue Dragon: I played the Nene's Tower demo, killed the boss of the first floor, and got bored. Toriyama's character designs remind me more of DBZ Dragon Quest. And, it seems everyone's trying to reinvent the turn-based wheel. Blue Dragon's attempt (charge all your actions to take longer, but have better results) is a huge turn-off, especially with regards to healing... you can either cast a heal that goes off right away, and probably won't restore enough HP to stand up to a boss's assault, or you can charge it to heal massive HP and give the boss more opportunities to kill you before it goes off. Beautiful Katamari: Impressive. Katamari Damacy had a simple graphic style that worked well on the PS2, and BK somehow both retains and improves it. When you start, you right away notice that you're not on the PS2 anymore, but you're definitely playing Katamari, as there's zero change in the gameplay department. I like how the King of All Cosmos has some demo-specific dialog, but the demo is over much too fast. BioShock: I LOVE the game's atmosphere. LOVE it. Can't stress that enough. This game is creepy in a way that more closely resembles Silent Hill than Doom, and I really dig that 50's style "futuristic" setting. The gameplay is a little loose and simple, though. I might be in the minority on this one, but with all the other great games coming out in the next four months, I'm going to pass on BioShock now and grab it used and cheap come next spring.

According to Kotaku, the new non-Elite 360's with the HDMI out do NOT have the 65nm "Falcon" chipsets, but David, you might be interested to hear that they are using Ben-Q drives. Perhaps they'll stick with them when they do release the Falcon models?

Unless you expect to buy a lot of games from the PlayStation Store, no, it won't really make a difference to you. Regardless of which one you choose, you can always upgrade the hard drive with a standard SATA drive for notebooks. Yes, you can play both with the PS3. Unless you like using the controller, you'll likely have to buy a remote, since the PS3 uses Bluetooth instead of an IR receiver. PlayStation 1 and 2 games, no. PlayStation 3 games, up to the publisher, but happily yes for the most part. DVDs, no, unless the disc is Region 0. Blu-rays, I'm not sure about. They are regionally coded, but Blu-ray uses a different region scheme than DVD. You will have to run the network setup wizard. If you have a wireless router, your PS3 should, in theory, be able to connect wirelessly. I say in theory because even though my PS3 is maybe 4' from the router, the connection was so unreliable that I went wired. All-in-all, though, it's fairly painless, and free (unless you count buying stuff from the online PlayStation store). Out of the box, the PS3 comes with plain vanilla composite cables (the trusty red, white, and yellow). The PS3 knows that you're using it, and will output a 480i signal, so the menu will look okay. The games will look better than a PS2 game, but nowhere near as good as any previews you might see browsing the net. DVDs will look the same as you're used to, and a Blu-ray movie will look the same as the DVD. FYI, standard definition television is optimized for a 4:3 19" or 20" television. When it's displayed on large, HD screen, it's going to look crappy the way a jpeg file starts to look crappy if you blow it up too much. So, saying that an HD TV isn't worth it because standard def channels don't look as good as an SD TV is kind of missing the point... that HD media looks MUCH better on an HD TV than SD media looks on either an HD TV or a SD TV. PlayStation 3 games will look much better on an HD TV than an SD TV, Blu-ray discs will look much better than DVDs, and on the PS3, with the right hook ups, even DVDs will look better than you're used to.

It will, apparently enough, be easy to tell if an Xbox 360 has the newer Zephyr boards before you buy them. Similarly easy enough to detect if a unit has the HDMI. via Kotaku

I hate it. It is, of all the various Primes I have, my absolute least favorite. "Looks cool?" Yeah, if you think a cool pose is standing straight with arms hanging limply at his sides. His alt mode is ugly and doesn't stay together well. The paint on his chest is too thin. His limbs fall off VERY easily, and he really can't hold any poses because his joints are too lose. He and the G.I. Joe Megatron that was released at the same time were both so awful that I swore off Titaniums, until RID Prime (I'm pretty much a Prime whore). I'm sorry I did, because the QC obviously improved greatly over the course of the line. My local Target wound up with a few restocks, and I'm tempted to get Rodimus Prime (to compliment Classics Hot Rod). But I digress. If you're set on getting WW Prime, check Toys R' Us. They have an exclusive pack that comes with WW Megatron. I doubt it, but if you're lucky, maybe the WW Prime is up to the higher standards of the later figures in the line.

I still have a Dreamcast, and I still dig out my fishing controller to play Sega Marine Fishing... which was a lot like Bass Fishing, except you could catch sharks. Unless you mean few good US games as in few good games from American studios, I have to disagree with you. Even in America, the Dreamcast had plenty of great games, especially from Sega. Some of my favorites include Soul Calibur, Sonic Adventure, Sega Marine Fishing, Dead or Alive 2, Space Channel 5, Samba de Amigo, Seaman, Hydro Thunder, Sega Rally Championship 2, Crazy Taxi, Cannon Spike, Confidential Mission, and Air Force Delta. And yeah, it's true that some of those games might not have held up super well, but (excluding Hydro Thunder) they were all great experiences that none of the other consoles offered at the time. (And the DC version of Hydro Thunder was head and shoulders better than the PSX or N64 versions.

After a theme is applied, I can change the guide background to any other guide background color of any other theme on my HDD. Only the Dashboard trim is limited.

PSP Updates reports the 10th (I was off by two days, must still be thinking of Heavenly Sword) for the core and bundle, and October 9th for the Vader one. And their source is a CNet interview with Sony's senior product manager, so I'd say that's pretty official.

September 12th for the core pack and the Daxter Pack. October 9th for the Darth Vader one.

I liked all of Zahn's books except Outbound Flight. Zahn's the one of only two writers that I felt were trying to carry the Star Wars universe into the future and not just tricking someone into publishing their crappy fanfiction. The other is Drew Karpyshyn. He's worked for both Wizards of the Coast and BioWare. He wrote all the scenarios and dialog for the first Knights of the Old Republic game, as well as Darth Bane: Path of Destruction, the only EU novel I enjoyed that wasn't written by Zahn.

If you don't think 80GB is enough, you know you're supposed to watch the shows you recorded, then delete them and buy the DVD sets later, right? I kid, I kid. Seriously, the PS3's HDD is a standard 2.5" notebook-style internal hard drive with a SATA connector. Instructions for replacing/upgrading are in the PS3 quick reference book, or on the online manual. Newegg has then up to 250GB.

I double-checked how to do it, and it's pretty easy. First apply the theme you want. Then, open the guide, choose Personal Settings, then Themes, then Customize. You have two options, Dashboard Trim and Guide Background. Dashboard Trim is the edges of the Dashboard blades where their name tabs are. You have default, Carbon (a much darker gray), and Glass (silver with a touch of blue). Guide Background, lo and behold, changes the color of the Guide background. You have a lot more options there, and Microsoft was even kind enough to include a preview square so you can see what it looks like. Hope that helps not just David, but anyone who was afraid to apply an awesome theme just because it had a lousy guide color. Oh, and David, if you get a friend invite from Pharaohman, don't be alarmed, it's just me.

Not in my area. Target's flooded with those exclusive Cybertron scout repaints, Wal-Mart's down to the Real Gears, and Toys R' Us actually has some deluxes... Swindle, and the Protoforms.

Actually, after you apply a theme, you can change the guide background. I don't remember the steps off hand at the moment, but I remember I did it when I had Penny Arcade theme. And I honestly don't mind the purple guide for the G1 Decepticon theme, although the red for the G1 Autobot theme kinda looks like someone smeared a hooker's lipstick all over it.

You don't have to wait that long. According to Kotaku, Heavenly Sword hits on September 12th.

I got War Within Prime and that GI Joe Megatron when Titaniums first came out... and they were about the worst toys I've EVER owned. The only other one I ever bought was RID Prime, and that's only because I'm really obsessive when it comes to collecting Primes. It was, admittedly, much better, but on the whole, I really preferred the Classics line. FYI, I saw Toys R Us has some exclusive WW Prime and WW Megatron two-pack. I wonder if they retroactively applied any of the improvements from later Titaniums to that Prime, or if he'll still suck. Speaking of Classics, though, I hear Hasbro is bringing Classics back under the Universe banner in 2008. And we're getting Sideswipe and Sunstreaker!

Oh, I know about the digital signal thing. And that $35 is for a low-end Philips at my local Wal-Mart. But, I'd never thought to buy something like cables at Amazon. Thanks for the tip!

Yeah, but the HD-DVD is one of those ones that has the regular DVD on the flip side of the disc. If I had an HD-DVD player, that'd sell it for me every time. Too bad, all I got is a PS3. I'll rent the Blu-Ray, but I'm holding off on any purchases for now.

So, it worked after you went VGA? Okay, now let me ask, after you reseated the HDD, did you try connecting back to the receiver? Because I'll tell you right now, I have a launch day 360, connected to a Sony receiver via component video & optical audio, and from the receiver to a 52" DLP TV via component. And I haven't had a lick of trouble from my 360. And since I'm more or less out of HDMI inputs, don't own the HD-DVD attachment, and my TV only goes up to 1080i, I couldn't really justify upgrading to the Elite. Seriously? Where do you shop? For AV equipment in general, the cheapest HDMI cable I found was $35 for 6', compared to $15 for a 9' component cable. And for the 360 specifically, even if an HDMI cable was $4.99, the system already comes with a perfectly capable component cable.

That's pretty much the way it should be... Nintendo's a software company as much as a hardware company. Besides, I think EVERY game for the Wii should be an exclusive. Developers should make unique games that take advantage of the Wii's unique interface, instead of getting PS2 and uglier next-gen ports with a Wii control scheme tacked on. Meanwhile, Sony and Microsoft can take pot shots at each other over who's console is superior, but the fact is games are looking nearly identical on both. Microsoft and Sony will have a few 1st and 2nd party exclusives, maybe buy a few 3rd party exclusives, but for publishers looking to maximize their audience, and therefore their profit, multiplatform's the next-gen way to go.