dblue

I did pick up a Wii...very cool system. Not much power, no HD graphics, but very much fun, and the controller is genius. A good second system next to one of the big boys.

I have thought about this also, but I have come to the conclusion that the shortages are not planned...the company would make much more money for the fiscal year (and sell many more consoles, which is their immediate goal) if they had the supply to meet the demand. Problem is, they never will. WIth the consoles all being totally custom pieces of hardware (with totally custom chips and chipsets), it will always be impossible to meet demand. In any chip-making manufacturing process, the process is constantly refined until you have under X percentage of 'bad' chips. When the process is first implemented, even big manufacturers (lke Intel and AMD) are lucky to hit 70% efficiency, which means 30% of their chips are trashed as soon as they come off of the assembly line. Plug this into the console equation, where the hardware specs are 'fixed', and the window for launch with the hardware still being relavent is small, and you see that they have a very small window to announce, produce, and refine their manufacturing process, always resulting in not enough supply to meet the launch demand. It was the same way with SNES, N64, Gamecube, PS2, and so on. It is compounded this time because Sony shoehorned a blueray drive into the PS3 that they admitted having major issues manufacturing. The Wii, by contrast, is not that hard to get. Steady shipments are coming in, because they opted for a proven chipset (basically an overclocked Gamecube). Their manufacturing efficiency is high and their cost is low (they're the only of the 3 companies making any profit on the actual hardware, sony is losing about $300 per console now and MS is losing about $100...MS lost about 6 billion total on the whole XBOX outing since the beginning...they don't care they want to get into the market). My 2 cents.

Let me know when you get it...the co-op is amazing, I'm always looking for new online friends. MOON, you have to get this game.

Well, I got the HDDVD add on for my Bday. I am FLOORED by the video quality here. It makes broadcast HDTV look like crap, let alone standard DVD. The images are crisp, defined, and take on a 3d look because of the amazing depth, contrast, and black levels possible on this format. I'm sold...now if only HDDVD wins over blue ray...hehe. BTW, the 2 discs I have have DD Plus soundtracks...amazing dynamic range and super clear bass. Nice. It's basically a 1.5MBPS DD feed I believe, but I'm not an expert on these new formats. Yet. Highly recommended.

Bought one, sold one, doubled my money...Now I'm playing Gears of War. hehe.

The latest firmware update (about a month ago) now lets you select 1080p as an output resolution. If you have it hooked up to the internet and have an xbox live account, the update comes in automatically. This includes the free 'silver' xbox live accounts.

It looks TOTALLY awesome on my 51" HD in 1080i....the 360 can also output 720p and 1080p.... This game was designed to be played in HD...I read an article a few weeks ago about how some guys hooked it up in an IMAX theater. Article here.

It didnt' surpass total games played...just how many people are playing it now each day. Halo 2 had the crown for 2 solid years, now it must bow down to Gears. And yes, multi is AMAZING...so much fun.

OK, got Gears of War, have been playing it online and off this week...this game is unbelievable. I'd say it's easily the best game Epic has put out, and easily the best game on 360. A masterpiece. Online 4 on 4 (sound like a small amount of players, but once you play and 'get' the mechanics, you'll see why) Online co-op through the entire campaign. Someone can join you at any time thorugh the single player campaign. Nice. Best graphics EVER. Any system, including PC. Amazing: http://media.xbox360.ign.com/media/747/747891/imgs_1.html AMAZING 5.1 sound....everything is totally positional. I know most XBOX and 360 games support DD 5.1, but this is a step up in impact and quality from anything else I've heard. Bottom line, if you have a 360, GET THIS GAME. I'll see you online.

Well, they don't have the launch list finalized, but here is a list of all the games in development: I'm sure there are some that are still secret, but any game that will ship at launch has already been revealed. It's very unlikely that any game launching in November would still be a secret. Even if you're interested in Gran Turismo, rumor is that they're rushing out an HD version of GT 4 (real HD, not what was shown on PS2). GT 5 isn't expected for at least another 1 1/2 years. Most of the rest of the big titles on this list are multiplatform, and out of those most will probably look as good or better on 360 this round (lots of devs are complaining about how hard it is to utilize the PS3's architechture and lack of texture memory at this point). There's also the issue of no rumble in the controllers...Sony's need to copy Nintendo's motion sensitivity in their controllers at the last minute forced them to forgo what is now a staple in gaming, force feedback in the controllers; While this may sound like a nitpick...I just can't see playing an immersive title such as an FPS in HD with 5.1 going on and not having my controller shake when I shoot...I'm too used to it and I think it's integral to immersion in a lot of genres. I think sony will probably eventually work this back into the controllers, but it should be there from the get go. Anyway, I'm sure it will be a great system eventually, but to me it's not worth the $600 at launch for any of those games. Also, I'm not a big believer in Blue-Ray, it's ridiculous that Sony is still using MPEG2 on HD movies. I also don't buy their claim that games need this much space. Unless you're going to make a game that is nothing but HD cutscenes that aren't in-engine, you don't need that much space yet. I can't even think of any games currently that span more than one dual layer DVD...I'll wait till I see something that compels me to buy one.

I won't be buying one till: 1. A God of War game comes out, or a game from the makers of Shadow of the Colossus. 2. It's not $600. 3. I see how their online system stacks up to Xbox Live (which dominates). 4. I see how the format wars go (the PS3 would probably be $400 without a blue ray drive). There are no launch titles that are worth that much to me, and no titles in development that interest me really. Plus I have a 360 now and there are tons of great games coming out this year. Also not keen on PS3's limited video memory. Devs are already complaining that 256 Megs is not enough. Look of screenshots of PC ports like F.E.A.R for 360 and PS3, the PS3 shots have noticably reduced texture detail compared to the 360 shots. I'm sure I'll get one some day, just not until the price drops and/or the price difference between the 360 and PS3 is justified.

Moon, Try it again on Hard, it's great. Much better enemy AI. Also, there are 4 online coop levels that are great, plus 4 more that you can purchase online.

Moon, we play GRAW and Halo 2 quite a bit online...shoot me a friend invite if you wanna play. My Gamertag is KungFool.

Is this for real? ...

Easily the funniest show on TV. It's the only show I tivo and watch each episode multiple times (It gets funnier every time). I think some people don't know that in the show's universe, there's a documentary being taped and that's what we're seeing? I don't know....I can't see not laughing at this.

Thought it was really good. It can be taken on a few different levels, and the depth is what appeals to me. Viggo's character is a representation of humanity itself, and it's history of violence. Througout our history, violence has been a centerpiece, and history constantly repeats itself in this respect. No matter how civilized we think we are, how far we think we've come, the past always repeats itself. Violence is part of who we are, and it is never far from the surface despite our intentions or notions.

What is PAL, SECAM and NTSC? NTSC (National Television Standards Committee) is a standard used in North America and Japan. It has the ability to display up to 525 lines of resolution. PAL (Phase Alternating Line), a standard used almost everywhere else in the world, has the ability to display 625 lines of resolution. SECAM (Sequential Color Memory) is used sparingly around the world and can be found in France, parts of Greece, Eastern Europe, Russia, Africa and a few other parts of the world. However, any SECAM country can display PAL tapes in full color, but not all PAL countries can display all SECAM tapes in color. Only if they are true SECAM and not MESECAM can those VCR's display SECAM. http://www.dvdcity.com/codefree/codefree-ntsc-info.html

OK, to clear things up here: Just got back from Japan, everything there is NTSC, not PAL. Otherwise japanese VG systems wouldn't work over here, and they do. They have NTSC DVD players, NTSC TV's, etc.

Thought it was really good. It can be taken on a few different levels, and the depth is what appeals to me. Viggo's character is more of a representation of humanity itself, and it's history of violence. No matter how civilized we think we are, the past always repeats itself. Plus, the violence scenes are totally brutal. hehe.

Hmmm..I actually thought the 3rd and 4th films were the best (the 3rd was my favorite). I actually thought the 1st one was pretty bad, and the second one was slightly better.

Saw it in the theater, once was enough...I'd actually say that this is one of the most over-rated movies ever. Some of the action sequences were great, but some were laughable (Brontosaurus stampede with Brody's character kicking raptors in the head...TWICE???? I thought I was watching Jurrasic Park 2 again). The beginning was too long, they developed way too many characters that we don't end up caring about, the scenes with Naomi and Kong were too many, too long. And the ice scene at the end....that just about made me walk out...I couldn't believe my eyes. I think it would have been much better had it been properly edited. To think that they are going to release an extended version of this makes my head hurt... BTW, loved all 3 extended editions of LOTR series, so it's not my attention span that's the problem here.... King Long

I have an SVS 25-31 PCi...and it rules for both movies and music. If you're looking to accurately reproduce what the engineer intended, SVS is your best bet. If you want the sub to 'enhance' the sound of poor recordings, by boosting the bass in certain frequency ranges, then SVS is not for you. Depends on what you prefer.

OK, gotta chime in again...I'm about 25 hours in, and this game is AWESOME. I haven't even scratched the surface yet...there's so much to do, I can see myself playing this for a LONG time.

Got it last week...it is HUGE. I love it. It's very engaging, tons of things to do, places to go, people to talk to, you can spend hours in each town gathering information and items. I often get sidetracked in a cave, clearing the cave out for treasure. I will say it is not for the impatient...you can spend hours on the character creation if you so choose...there are probably over 60 sliders for the way the face looks alone. Anyway, highly recommended. Looks great on an HDTV and sound great on Klipsch! haha

Bummer! Yeah, I know a few people who this has happened to...I'm glad mine is still running (knock on wood). I did get one from the second wave, so hopefully no problems.