BlogAllAlong » Video Games

Toy Story 3 Video Game, Just How All Movie Games Should Be

Bashar — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 14:49:37 +0000

How many movie games are released each year? How many movie games have you tried in your life time? How many did you really like? The answer would be I bet very close to zero! Well I can say I added one to mine. The moment I saw Toy Story 3 video game trailer it felt like something different. Like something with a hope of enjoying it. Having gone through the story mode game now, the game really delivered the promise, setting an example of how video games should be made.

First of all, voice actors are all real not a replacement like many other Disney games I tried, this by it self tells you the company is taking the game seriously. Graphics was really great as well, and the game followed the real story to a very good extent, and added some extra fun levels as side stories that won’t really spoil the game, but rather add extra spice to it. Yes there were some critical scenes I thought should be included, like what happened to the bear. They made it look like he was no evil or anything, just a side character you pass by. Other characters were also missing, but nothing that spoiled the joy in my opinion.

What’s the best part for me was the multi-player mode. For the first time I’m really able to enjoy a game with my kid, playing together through the story mode, making our through the obstacles, helping each other, and most of the time, the lack of one player doesn’t hardly affect the other. You die, the other player resumes play until you respawn at next point. So this was for real a family + gaming time in one. I was kinda pushing him to play it over other games toward the end really :).

Is this because of the Avalanche Software? I never liked THQ games, but UP demo sounded a bit nice for kids.

Either way, I hope this isn’t an incidental success but a sign of better Pixar movie games to come. And why don’t other movie studios give such focus to their games? Have you ever heard of a good Harry Potter game? Yes Lego version was probably fun for kids, but that’s a lame shift after the successive failure the movie games have seen. I guess massive movie game failures have given them a bad reputation. It’s just something they have to get done, get quick cash from and leave.

NOTE: Zurg character is playable on PS3 version of the game.

Monkey Island Playground

Bashar — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 10:49:58 +0000

Without any relation to the game (but it should), HERE IT IS!

Why not real one? You know with hidden dirty T-Shirt treasures, lovely governors, spit contests, real grave digging and all. That would be much cooler.

Monkey Island II Tie

Bashar — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 16:23:20 +0000

Remember those Monkey Island sneakers? You do? Wow.. your life must be so empty! But anyways, I got an email that seems from the same shoes designer and you can now wear ties that match your shoes while going to work.

You can read her Spanish page if you like (or use Google Translate). And to bid for the Monkey Island tie (currently standing at 99 EUR!), you can do that here.

Don’t you wish now you wear formal?

Quake 2 on HTML5

Bashar — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 14:43:33 +0000

Unbelievable huh? If you know me very well you’ll know how much I hate April Fool, and this video was released the same day. But so was Gmail! I hope Gmail isn’t a long time joke as well cause I’ve been swearing my life on it for years. So anyways, this is the official Google Code page for the project. There are people saying it’s April Fool, and even TechCrunch was confused about it. But if you look at the Wiki and people’s comments, you will see people really trying and building it. No single comment from someone who tried it telling it’s a fool. So it seems pretty real, an for the sake of the future of the web, I really hope it remains real. This could be a serious threat message to Flash.

Is Sony Vegas Movie Studio Windows 7 Supported Or Not?

Bashar — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:37:20 +0000

Few years ago, I got this HD Sony Camcorder to enjoy HD video quality family videos, and it has served me quite well, despite it’s few short comings. Sony, which have developed the technology with Panasonic, use the AVCHD high definition recording format to record their HD videos, making it compatible with Blu-ray Disc format. But here comes the problem. Dealing with these large HD files turns out to be not easy at all.

For first, sharing these videos files with others is not easy because of size, and the difficulty to find a suitable player for it. Converting it to regular formats would always compromise the quality. Second, editing these HD videos, on top of being intensive on resources, is not easy to accomplish at low cost as well, for there is a huge lack in good reliable free or cheap AVCHD editing software out there. But having made the huge investment already in the camcorder, I swallowed the extra bullet and bought what seems the best AVCHD editing tool out there that is affordable, which happens to be Sony Vegas Movie Studio. Mac Final Cut handles AVCHD files, but only directly from the camcorder while they’re in their original file structure. Pretty silly if you ask me.

Sony Vegas Studio could make better conversion than the freely provided tool with the camcorder. Something to wonder about really, given that it’s from the same company selling the camera. Looking the other way however, I managed to enjoy a slow-life video editing on my old XP machine, until it could handle no more all the pressure. Now I have a new Quad-core Windows 7 machine, a beast hungry for giant task to do. But what I realized when I started editing 5 Gigs of videos is that Vegas Studio kept crashing on me on and on. I split the videos into halves, and then into 3 parts, to no avail. And here I wasn’t even dealing with HD videos, but normal SD ones from the same camcorder. It would get to the point where it crashes once I open the project, giving messages like:

Exception 0xC0000005 (access violation) READ:0×0 IP:0x0In Module ‘VegasMovieStudioPE90.exe’ at Address 0×0 + 0x0Thread: ProgMan ID=0xDF4 Stack=0x5DBF000-0x5DC0000

I Googled and found this is a pretty common error, to which Sony tries to claim has nothing to do. Some say it doesn’t support multi-core hardware, others say it’s Windows 7. But if you go to Vegas Movie Studio System Requirements, you see that it supports Windows 7.

And frankly, multi-core is old stuff now, and for such video editing, you would assume they will support it. But hey, let’s ask them just to make sure. I filled up the long form, answered all questions, and once I submit, this is what I got.

Really? It’s “not supported on any Windows 7 operating systems”? That’s weird, cause I could swear your page still reads Windows 7 supported! So now I’m like out of luck?

Ohh well, guess I’m gonna have to upgrade my self to Vegas Pro 9… for FREE ;).

Top 100 Anticipated 2010 Games

Bashar — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 21:58:13 +0000

Games Radar have published a list of top 100 anticipated games of 2010. I’m extremely thrilled to see Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands there. Hope it matches the old trilogy in quality, and it seems will be between Sands of Time and Warrior Within. Also, Mafia II. Sequel but not related to best Mafia game ever, Mafia. If you haven’t played Mafia I already, I say do it. There is also the long awaited StarCraft II, ohh and… Metal Gear Rising. That came out fast I think.

Assassin’s Creed 2 Lineage

Bashar — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 13:10:40 +0000

Prequel to the upcoming Assassin’s Creed 2 game. The short film is not a spoiler for the game, but rather an intro to it, you should watch it before you play the game.

NOTICE: Contains some blood scenes, so do not watch if you can’t tolerate it.

Embed is disabled, you can watch the three parts here.

PS3 V3.01 Slowness Fix

Bashar — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 22:59:43 +0000

If you’ve updated your PS3 to the latest V3.01 and are facing some problems in performance, this simple fix might help. Note that I immediately updated to 3.01 passing 3.0. I suffered from slow game response for several games like Ghostbusters even at 480p, and Uncharted 2, while other won’t run at all like X-Men demo. FIFA 10 was running fine though. The main PS3 menu was also so slow in showing the icons. So see if this helps.

Backup all your important data. For me, this was just the save games and I could manually transfer them to a USB stick. Note that PS & PS2 game saves may not backup automatically through the Backup utility, so if it’s just saved games for you, you may wanna do manual backup
Make sure you followed Step 1 and have all valuable data backed up.
From PS3 menu go to Settings -> System Settings -> Format Utility -> Format Hard Disk -> Full Format.

NOTE: This may take few hours, and I haven’t tried Quick Format. So if you wanna try it first, please do so and let me know how it goes.
Do the first time PS3 settings.

That should be it. For me, now the PS3 menu works quite fast, and I’m enjoying Uncharted 2 now.

Good luck!

If it’s not broken, don’t fix it!

Bashar — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:31:49 +0000

That’s the motto to live by, at least when dealing with PS3, and I should’ve known from the last PS3 update. But hey, I’ve given Sony more faith than they ever deserved.

My plan to beat sleepless night with some gaming to finis Ghostbusters and get ready for Uncharted II turned out to be worse than I could’ve imagined. Since I’m having problems with so several games after the latest PS3 v3.01 update, I opted to install the latest Ghostbusters patch thinking it may be related to the problem and actually fix it. Well it didn’t. And not only did I waste 15 minutes waiting for it to download and install, but it actually somehow deleted my saved game progress! How on earth and what kind of a patch would delete your saved games?

Fact is, I could see a saved game file from the PS3 menu, and obviously from the date, here is my saved game mocking me. It’s just that the new patch doesn’t pick it up.

I tried deleting the game, re-installing it to the original version but that didn’t help either. Is there a way now? There is no way I’m gonna replay the whole game. And hey, we I still have the flickering thing.

Would a demo be a good test drive to tell if game will work or not before I buy it now?

UPDATE: Fix For Save Games

This really made me laugh out loud. If you turn your Display Settings by Custom to 480p you can find your saved games and resume the game. Set it back to anything higher and you lose it! So the smart guys tied the save of the game to the display settings?

With 480p, game still loads much slower than before, but game play seems tolerable. Now how about Uncharted 2! I gotta do more testing to know how ugly it’s gonna be.

Lawsuit against Sony PS3 v3.00 firmware update

Bashar — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 04:39:03 +0000

You would think things are supposed to get at least better with newer updates and upgrades, but a quick look at reality tells you, you’re wrong! Vista is the successor of Win 95 in it’s disastrous results, and is being phased out with a new fancier Windows 7 named one. Snow Leopard with all the hype is yet to amuse me once, and last time I updated to latest PS3 v3.01 the totally unexpected happen.

All of a sudden I noticed short trailers I downloaded are not playing smoothly, and they pause for a second or so every now and then. Playing some simple games as well like Wall-E, the game was flickering a lot that you can’t focus. (Note: Wall-E game is my punishment for getting my kid into PIXAR world)

Now it seems that’s not only me, but a whole group are filing a lawsuit against Sony for their latest firmware update which apparently is damaging some PS3 units, costing $150 to repair! So I guess I should be thankful, and perhaps slow down on PS3 usage until a newer fix comes in. The funny thing is, the lawsuit is coming from v3.00 and Sony claims it’s v3.01 fixes most issues, while I never had the chance to try v3.00 as I installed v3.01 directly, and yet I’m able to get these problems.

Guess I was lucky not to turn on my PS3 so often lately. I should do that more often. Ohh wait, I didn’t buy my PS3 as a souvenir!

Monkey Island 2 Special-Uber Edition

Bashar — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 20:20:09 +0000

I can’t believe I call my self Monkey Island fan and I haven’t heard about this proof of concept for Monkey Island 2 Special Edition with 3D environment. And I haven’t even played the Tales of Monkey Island yet. I shouldn’t blog about this or else… Err, what do you mean I just did? Umm… back to topic.

Enjoy the videos.

PS3 120 GB Slim Officially Released for $299

Bashar — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 11:19:37 +0000

Today is the official release of the new slimmer PS3 120 GB Blu-Ray player, which can also play some awesome video games. At the cost of $299.99, I really find it a smart buy.

He should be named mayor!

Bashar — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:08:46 +0000

This guy took the game a bit too seriously!

Quite amazing huh?

Steven’s RCT3 Page

Top 10 Anticipated PS3 Games

Bashar — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 15:34:54 +0000

I got this list of upcoming PS3 games from Amazon.

Top 10 Anticipated PlayStation 3 Games

“Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2″
	Learn more

“God of War III”
	Learn more

“Bioshock 2″
	Learn more

“Uncharted 2: Among Thieves”
	Learn more

“Assassin’s Creed II”
	Learn more

“Batman: Arkham Asylum”
	Learn more

“The Beatles: Rock Band”
	Learn more

“Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time”
	Learn more

“Infamous”
	Learn more

“Madden NFL 10″
	Learn more

Now for me, the list would go like this:

1- Assassin’s Creed II

2- Uncharted II

3- God of War III (Although I did not play any previous part)

4- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

5- Batman: Arkham Asylum

6- Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack In Time

Someone once mockingly told me I play too many games for a father. Ironically, ever since then few months a go, I have not finished a single game, and may hardly have made 10 hours of gaming. Why do I bother with this list then? Just because I can dream!

Watch out… You might be locked on

Bashar — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 12:31:20 +0000

My Thoughts: Good try that could be made a lot better :)

Assassin’s Creed 2 Trailer – It’s Strictly Business

Bashar — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 09:39:25 +0000

I bet you didn’t see that coming in the second trailer! Oww… can’t wait for it. And for further screenshots, click here. Thanks ltmit.

UPDATE: It would seem I was totally wrong about my excitement over the second trailer, as it’s for Assassin’s Creed I not II. Sorry about that.

Monkey Island Sneakers

Bashar — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 11:09:24 +0000

This is for you Kroms ;)

[Source]

Uncharted 2 Among Thieves Trailer

Bashar — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 09:01:12 +0000

Naughty Dog seems to be coming back even harder here. Look at the level of details in his hand. Definitely an improvement over the already magnificent first game. At first I felt disappointed I hate ruining a good game with a bad sequel, but now I gotta finish the games in the queue for this one.

PS3 Blu-Ray Disc Remote, What a relief!

Bashar — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 19:55:37 +0000

How wonderful this PS3 Blu-Ray remote controller is. I hesitated for a while from buying it but after getting it I knew what nightmare I have been putting my self through. The controller just needs one time configuration and identification on the PS3, and then through bluetooth you can use it from far away, quickly and easily, with all regular DVD functionality including the necessary functions such as Subtitle. I hate when I need to move to the menu to select my language.

The problem with the PS3 game controller is simply, it’s designed to be a game controller, period. To perform a function you have to press the Triangle button, and then search for your functionality. You can do quick seek using the Ls & Rs button, but that means if you simply want to place the PS3 controller on the floor, R2 or L2 button could easily get triggered by mistake and there goes the movie.

If you’re into HD Blu-Ray movie watching, this thing will definitely make your life easier!

Console Vs PC Gaming on aMap.com

Bashar — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 22:43:33 +0000

So I came across this aMap new site via TechCrunch, which takes your debat into a tree-like fascinating way to flip through the debate as it grows. So I started just for the sake of testing (and I have a very strong feeling I wil l regret it) the debate of Console vs PC Gaming…

Ohh I’m already having the Deja Vu of last time I posted about gaming preference.

Call of Duty: World at War for $34.98 at Amazon

Bashar — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 11:40:22 +0000

Call of Duty: World At War is available at Amazon as deal of the day for $34.98 on both PS3 and Xbox 360. That’s less than 10 KD. It’s one day offer if you want it. Frankly, I wasn’t thinking about it but the price was so tempting to resist :).

Mightier- Draw Your World, Play Your Game

Bashar — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 09:10:04 +0000

Rules of the game:

1- Draw your world & Avatar on a printed piece of paper
2- Scan your drawing
3- Play your game

Mightier from Ratloop on Vimeo.

PS3 Green Light On and System Won’t Start

Bashar — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 04:15:02 +0000

I had this weird problem yesterday knowing I have not done any video setting changes, nor recall a pending software installation. When I start the PS3, green light comes up and then nothing happens. Insert the Game into the slot, blue light blinks and again nothing happens. No video, no sound, and no, it’s not output setting problem as many others have guessed in forums. Try to assign your wireless controller and you’ll know. It doesn’t. If it was on, output and controller assigning I assume should be two separate things.

Symptoms:

On start, PS3 Green light comes up but nothing happens. No sound or video
Insert game or any disc into the slot, blue blinks and again nothing happens
Try to assign wireless controller, nothing happens.
Try restart the console, unplug it for a while, or keep it on for long time again does not solve the problem.

I was hoping for some reason it’s replaceable hardware failure rather than software one in a closed box like this. I didn’t know about the system restore feature.

Solution:

With the PS3 in Standby mode (Red light on), press and hold the Start button until you hear a single beep, followed by double beeps.
Connect the controller using USB cable and press the PS button on the controller.
Now, the system restore screen (or whatever they call it) will come up like this
You have several options here for restoring the system, some will unfortunately wipe up all your data, others will make you lose the file naming. For me, I tried the option top-bottom and eventually had to do the Restore PS3 System. Luckily, all I had were demos, trailers, and game saves. only game I was really playing now was Prince of Persia. I felt terrible still though, but much better than if I was playing Ninja Gaiden or MGS right? Or let’s say a game Fallout!

Sharing it for others with same misfortune. Guess we’ll need the PS3 included in the backup plan then.

UPDATE: Alan is suggesting a better solution in the comments that I did not get to test my self, but see if it helps.

“I have found a way to keep all your saved data with this problem.
Follow the steps above but first download the latest firmware update from the playstation website and save it onto a USB key. Follow the steps and choose the bottom option “SYSTEM UPDATE”. Wait for it to update and it should restart with all your music, videos and gamesaves.”

Thanks Alan and everyone else who contributed in the comments.

UPDATE: This simple post keeps getting better with contributions by you guys, thanks a lot for you all. This is a very helpful link with videos to fix the PS3 Yellow Light of Death. Thanks banditopeepuk for the link.

UPDATE 2: So many people are still facing similar issues, and I’m sorry if this suggested solution does not help all of you. Please try the comments below as there are plenty of other tips that might help. Michael pointed out the PS3 controller reset button I didn’t know about. Hope that helps.

NOTICE: To better help identify the problem, it is better if you specify your PS3 version, model, and year of manufacture. E.g, PoS3/40 GB, Manufactured Sept 2007. Thanks Amediar for the tip.

Microsoft & Nikon Collaborating on… Microsoft Surface?

Bashar — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 07:31:50 +0000

BetaNews is reporting on a deal between Microsoft and Nikon that “covers digital cameras made by Nikon as well as a [range] of other consumer products each company manufactures and sells.” according to Microsoft spokesman.

No further details have been revealed yet about the deal between the two, but BetaNews is predicting it could be around the wireless technology. For me, this brings nothing to my mind but the long anticipated Microsoft Surface.

Microsoft Q1 Profits Falling

Bashar — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 05:13:32 +0000

The 67% increase in Xbox 360 sales did not save the company from reporting the 10.9% drop in net profits this last quarter, to only $4.3bn. The net revenue it self didn’t grow much either, less than 1% to $14.45bn. So the drop can’t only be blamed on the $1.42bn EU anti-trust fine.

That said, add to it the very slow growth Microsoft is getting in the online business, and to add insult to the injury, Gartner analyst have recently reported on the danger of Microsoft Windows collapsing due to it’s lack of competitiveness with the fast growing market. Come to think of it, really, for the leader in OS business, Microsoft haven’t been shaking things up at all. So maybe few years from know, Microsoft will receive door knocks by Yahoo for a buyout!

Sony LCD Bravia KLV-46V200A Review

Bashar — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 15:39:16 +0000

Upon request from macaholiQ8, I am reviewing this LCD 46″ V-Series screen from Sony. I should note that I’m not the expert in this field, but it’s mostly an end user opinion of it. Below are the specs, and my opinion along with it.
Product Name: Sony LCD Bravia KLV-46V200A

SIZE: 46″

Supported Resolutions: 480p, 720p, 1080i – This is the drawback for HD Gamers who mostly would want to go with 1080p. Even though for me, when I tried the 1080i, I did not see huge improvement over 720p in the picture quality, and neither I noticed any problems with motion in video games. For more information about the two types, read the post 1080i & 1080p.

Input & Output Slots: The device comes with the widest range of possible options you may think of for connecting external equipments.

Side Slots: S VHS/Hi8/DVC camcoder & Headphones. So you can easily connet your camera to play videos, or your normal definition gaming device, e.g. Wii or PS2.
Back Slots: Loads of slots are there. Most important are PC IN, Digital Satellite Receiver, Digital Terrestrial Receiver, HDMI-IN (1 only), video game equipment, VCR, DVD Recorder, Hi-Fi audio equipment. Mostly, you won’t miss a thing. But the problem is, this LCD screen best fits on walls rather than TV stand, and once you do so, you will have to take the screen down every time you want to put or remove a new cable. And for that, it really takes two strong men to do. Your house mate won’t help much, I had to call my brother over to the house to get it down. The other option is, if you are so skinny, and lubricate your hand with oil, you might be able to slid your hand in the back and just get the cable in. I somehow managed to do that when I couldn’t wait any longer to play PS3 using the HDMI cable :). Point being is, I guess they could’ve made the wall hanger a bit adjustable to move back and forth when wanting to connect new equipments.

Viewing Angle: 178 Degrees. I’ve heard that others in numbers outdo this one, or that Plasma has a better viewing angle. Regardless of why you may want to watch the TV from such an angle, I have my TV in the living room, lay down in my bedroom and am able to watch it crystal clear though the door. I can’t wish for more than that.

Ghosting effect: Nothing yet.

Fast motion response: This one is usually a take against LCDs, but I’ve seen movies like Blood Diamond and Flags of our Father, watch soccer games, and played hard-core PS3 games with not a single problem yet thank God. Is this where the brand comes in handy? Maybe.

Additional Equipments: Alongside the LCD screen, I got the Sony DVD Home Theater System. It’s not cheap at all, but the great thing about it is, it includes 5 DVD-Exchanger with embedded sound amplifier. Also, the rear speakers are connected to the front ones via infrared. So no wiring all across the room is needed. If you notice the small deive on top left of the image, that’s the transmitter for infrared signal.

Why did I choose it?

Going through lots of reviews and comparisons between LCD and Plasma, while numbers in general favored Plasma, I still inclined towards the LCD. First, it does not have the Burn-In effect, and it’s much more suitable for gamers. Even though I didn’t have any plans for games at the time, I knew I won’t be able to resist for long. Second is LOVE. That’s right. You move inside the showroom, browsing tens of different screens, not even knowing the size, type, or brand of it. And you find your self suddenly standing infont of one only, staring at it. Saying, this is the one I want. I kept doing this for maybe 8 months. Everytime I enter Sony shop I stand infront of the same one. I went then to public showrooms showing different brands. I somehow found my self staring at the very same screen. It got on the nerve of all people around me. I kept saying I want it, and didn’t get it. They just shouted back, just get it “Theba7tna!”. Eventually I did.

Isn’t it so romantic? Let’s make a hollywood movie. Better than the Titanic. Point I want to make is, browse through all kinds, and see the one that you really like. The one that really catches your eyes (and fits your budget!).

Hope this little was a bit of help for some, at least MacaholiQ8. If you have specific question, please fire away.

Useful Links:

Sony Bravia KLV-46V200A Cnet Review: 9/10 on Cnet. Not bad.

LCD and Plasma Pros & Cons: Pros & Cons of both LCD and Plasma.

LCD Vs CRT: Even though I don’t see the need to compare it to CRT, the LCD points them selves are useful.

How LCDs Work

How Plasma Displays Work

1080p Vs 1080i

Bashar — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 06:42:25 +0000

A question that confuses many when going out to buy an HDTV, be it LCD or Plasma, and is not accounted for by others who don’t know about it, like me at the time. So what the hell is 1080p and 1080i? Well, the 1080 is a display resolution (1,920×1080 pixels) in both. OK, so what’s with the p and i then? the p stands for progressive-scan, while the i stands for interlaced or non-progressive scan.

So, for now it should be clear that in terms of resolution, both types are of same image quality, i.e. they have the same resolution. And in most cases, when watching movies, you will not be able to tell the difference. But if you are a gamer, you may see some difference then. Why is that? Well, this is where the p and i come to picture. The thread over here gives good links and explains it in most easiest way for all to swallow. Basically, the progressive-scan p refreshes the whole screen once every 1/60 seconds, while the i refreshes the whole screen once every 2/60 seconds (half refreshed once every 1/60 seconds).

Since movies and TV shows are mostly shot at 24 frames per second only, the i and p usually will not make notable difference. For video games however, and this is where it hurts me, the frame rate could be 60/second, and thus the non-progressive scan will be 1/60 second behind, half screen updated only. This is what I didn’t know when I bought my Sony LCD, which I will review separately as promised, but this is like a preliminary post. Having played some games with the 1080i option, such as Assassin’s Creed, I did not really notice anything. But it’s just the bad feeling that the game could be played better elsewhere.

Some argue that the interlaced is a fallback, and a 720p screen is better than 1080i because of the frames per second refresh rate. Technically his argument is valid, but practically, I tried PS3 on 720p and 1080i, my friend told me the same, we both didn’t feel big difference.

Hope that was helpful, and for more information and sources used for this post, please visit the below links:

1080p Brief (Wikipedia)

1080i Brief (Wikipedia)

Progressive Vs Interlaced

720p Vs 1080i (Forum discussion on the topic)

1080i Vs 1080p (Cnet- You should not care so much)

1080i Vs 1080p (Home Theater Mag – Technical explanation)

1080i Vs 1080p (About.com – Similarities and Differences)

How future games would be played…

Bashar — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 08:34:03 +0000

I’ve posted before about the Brain-control headset and how it could revolutionize the way of gaming. Well, now we read about an adapted Harry Potter version of the game where you lift boulders and throw lightning bolts using only your mind. That would be something right? But is it fun to just use your brain while playing? I don’t really know, but I think about it and feel, I must do some action during the game, and brain signals are not the physical actions you may wanna have. Would it be too tiring to play for long, since it’s purely focusing on your brain rather than your acts?

A Nintendo Wii fan made this clip to show how he wants the Wii technology to be applied to the new Star Wars game. I’m not sure if the current Wii controller can handle all it requires, but it’s an amazing concept he should be paid for doing it :)

To be frank, except that mind-control is something more techy and new, I feel the Star Wars Wii concept appeals to me more. Would the mind-control turn out to be just a fancy way of gaming that would be used for showoff for a while and then just die? Or would it really be a replacement to Wii and traditional controls? What do you think?

PS3, the only Blu-Ray 2.0 Future compatible

Bashar — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 07:28:19 +0000

To be honest I didn’t know about such Blu-Ray 2.0 stuff up till today, and first thing I thought to my self “Ohh God, not again!”. But it turns out, if you have a PS3, you’re already there. As it turns out from this post, the new thing about Blu-Ray 2.0 is that it will require in addition to two secondary decoders for audio and video, a 1 GB of local storage for content and updates (checked), and an internet connection (Ummm… yeah, that’s checked also!). What does that mean?

“The 2.0 profile actually changes the minimum requirements for full compatibility. In other words, there is only one player currently on the market that will be 2.0 compatible: the PlayStation 3, which, with its upgradeable hard drive, Ethernet port, and powerful graphics capabilities, will be able to adapt to any and all future updates. This is quite the slap in the face to consumers who paid several hundred dollars for players that won’t able to be updated to take advantage of the 1.1 profile, much less the upcoming 2.0″

That’s pretty great news for PS3 owners, and new potential buyers. Really really bad one for people who got separate Blu-Ray players. And do you know how much these stand-alone Blu-Ray players cost? I’ve been to Virgin and saw one, I think it was Panasonic. I had to call the seller to double check the “499 KD” price tag. That’s over $1400! I was waiting for long list of features that will blow me away, but he just said “It’s Blu-ray, DVD”. That’s it, I asked again!. “Yeah, he said”. He didn’t argue to the point that PS3 is a much better deal, only that the player is meant for long hours unlike PS3, which doesn’t really convince me at all. A Panasonic Blu-Ray player at Amazon is worth $799, that does not even seem to have a hard disk with it, and is not Blu-Ray 1.1 compatible, let alone Blu-Ray 2.0. This is opposed to the new upcoming bundled PS3 80 GB + MGS 4 + new Dual Shock 3 Controller, all for $499. Only bad thing is the controller for the console. So, you choose :).

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