Posted on February 23rd, 2008 by Chris
Sony has finally exacted revenge for their loss in the “original” home video format war with the announcement that competitor Toshiba is pulling support for HD-DVD effective immediately.
So what do I do as a result? Go out and buy a brand new HD-DVD player of course! On sale for $100 at Amazon I decided to take the plunge into a dead format that I know I’ll have to replace in a year or two.
I know, it sounds silly. But does anyone really want to go out and spend $500 on a standalone Blu-ray player? The cheapest player is a PS3, but I can’t possibly scorn my Xbox360 for another system. Why exactly did this format win anyway?
The answer lies with Sony themselves, whose seemingly endless cash flow allowed Blu-ray to emerge on top in the end. I guess they learned from the first time around that the better format doesn’t always win out with consumers - especially when you have all of the major film studios in your pocket.
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Filed under: Fun and Games, TV
Posted on February 1st, 2008 by Chris
I’ve been playing the hell out of a couple of games on XBL’s Live Arcade- so much, in fact, that I felt the need to share…if you aren’t into gaming then you can probably stop reading now.
Geometry Wars Evolved
Wildly addicting, there’s nothing quite like running for your life in a perpetual circle- the simple graphics are vividly highlighted with bright, vibrant colors that pop off of the screen and burn into your retinas. It’s single player and absolutely glorious in HD. Check out this video of this crazy dude scoring 21 million points - unreal.
Rez HD
The simple looking wire-frame graphics are deceiving, because the game is about so much more than graphics. 30 seconds in and you’re completely immersed in sensory overload - the controller vibrates with the beat of the music while you try to destroy enemies which also rounds out the overall score for the game (yeah, it’s as crazy as it sounds). The game is an absolute mind trip, and as Carm put it - “it’s like playing a visualizer”. Wiser words have never been spoken.
By the way, both of these games are revamps on older games- proving once again that you don’t need to have crazy textures and long cut scenes to make an entertaining, attractive looking game. Obviously neither of these games have the kind of depth that actual Xbox 360 titles have, but at only 10 bucks they are both easy purchases. I rail on Microsoft a lot for a lot of their software, but I think Xbox LIVE is one thing that they’ve actually gotten right. Nintendo should take note.
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Filed under: Fun and Games
