Fuck both Blu-ray and HD DVD.  There, I got that off my chest; now let me explain.

We are in the middle of a brutal format war.  Blu-ray and HD DVD are vying for position in your living room.  The war just got bloody with HD DVD convincing Paramount and Dreamworks to exclusively release on their format for the next 18 months.  The HD DVD group is hoping that in that 18 months (which includes two holiday seasons) the can kill off their Blu-ray based competition.

Speaking as a consumer that craves high definition content, I am very interested in watching the new HD formats.  I already put some bank into Blu-ray wining when I purchased my PlayStation 3.  And while I don't regret that purchase, because I do feel that the PS3 will have some amazing games, I really don't want to also have to get an HD DVD player to watch all of my favorite movies in HD.  Now, this doesn't mean I won't buy the HD DVD add-on for the Xbox 360.  

My only concern is that if Blu-ray ends up wining the war, I now have the essentially worthless drive.  I really don't care that it is a USB based drive.  I would prefer to use the Blu-ray format on my computers for storage given the extra storage capacity.

All that being said.  There is a good chance I will end up with a HD DVD player in addition to my Blu-ray capable device.  This is simply because I am an early adopter and I am foaming at the mouth for HD content.

However, the average consumer probably doesn't know about this format war.  Michael Bay had it right the first time (even though he did retract it).  The consumer should be able to watch his movies on the format of their choice.  The consumer shouldn't have to get drawn into these battles.  They should just be able to go out to their big box store, buy their shit, and be done.

Now consumers need to pay attention to which studios are making which movies, and if the format they are supporting will play in their device.  However, I don't think there are many consumers that are fitting in that bracket.  Most consumers are just saying fuck it and staying with DVD till the water settles.  For people not craving HD, DVD is still a perfectly good format.

If the studios could have settled the format dispute before release, I personally feel that HD media sales would be a lot stronger.  The consumer would be more comfortable purchasing these players, not having to fear that they just bought the new betamax player.

Finally, I can't understand some of the misconceptions I have been hearing about the two formats.  One guy at work told me that he heard Blu-ray was 6 times more detailed that HD DVD.  This is a complete absurd statement seeing as far as video is concern, they both us the same damned codec.  There are some differences in terms of audio ability, but in my opinion it is nothing major.

I get really frustrated by this war.  Personally, I am hoping for Blu-ray.  Simply because of there is more storage capacity on the disc.  If Blu-ray doesn't win, I will move on, I feel that I have a different view toward technology as the average consumer though.

The ESRB can suck my dick.

I understand the concept.  There are parents who simply cannot be bothered to look after their kids and make sure that they aren't getting into trouble.  Thus, a group must be formed in order to deflect blame from the already demonized video game industry when some bat-shit crazy teenager goes nuts and kills some people.  This way, when the unspeakable happens we can say that, as an industry, we take responsibility for the content we produce.

The thing that bothers me is that Manhunt was an *exceptional* game.  Rockstar produced extraordinary graphics along with a soundtrack and story that really pulled the player into a horrific world that isolated you against drug addicted white supremacists.  I would expect nothing less from Manhunt 2 and I am patiently waiting while they work with the ratings system to cut their product to an acceptable level of horror.

I realize that video games are different from movies.  I know that there are different systems of producing these video games.  I know that the consoles have policies against games that don't reach an agreement with the ratings systems.

If this is the case though (please, stick with me for a minute), why doesn't this apply to DVDs?  Right now, you can go to any number of websites (believe me, there are plenty) and order hardcore pornographic DVDs.  You can also drive over to your family friendly Blockbuster store and get an "Unrated" version of recent comedy or horror movies, all of which will play on your DVD player. 

What would have happened if Rockstar would have been able to sell Manhunt 2 "Unrated" through their own distribution channels?  I would have certainly bought it.  I would imagine that plenty of other people would have purchased it too.  In addition, if they produced a rated "M" version, sold to stores like Best Buy and Target, it would sell there too. 

Point being, why don't consoles allow for "AO" or "Unrated" games?  Why would Sony apply this protective measure to their DVD player?  Let's say you put your "Unrated" copy of Hostel into your Sony DVD player.  Sorry!  This DVD has not reached an acceptable rating level assigned by the MPAA.  Please insert another disc.  I'll tell you why these DVD players don't exist:  Nobody would buy them.  People want the freedom to watch violent, gory, scary as hell movies; they also want to be able to buy video games that provide the same experience.

It's a shame that the console companies would limit the creative breadth of the development studios by making moves like these but it's all too common these days.  Unfortunately, we'll probably never see the unrated games or games that fail to meet the "M" rating standards because the console companies are too few and it would be crazy illegal to implement a system that allowed for "unrated" games to be played. 

The only avenue left, which would really take some balls, would be to make a PC game that wasn't rated and sell it only through your own website or digital distribution system.  The media frenzy surrounding a game like this would provide all the advertising and promotion needed, even if a studio backed down later and released an edited "M" rated game.  The only company I see doing that is Rockstar, who constantly pushes the boundaries of the silly ratings system.  Whether they do it in the name of excess and not in the name of freedom of expression probably doesn't matter; we just need someone to pave the way for the rest of the studios.  I think as long as the adult-aged gaming crowd showed their support, the rest of the industry would come around.  

Keyboards were never really something that I cared much about. I pretty much just accepted whatever keyboard was put in front of me and didn't think about much else. Standard keyboards usually very slightly but they can always be counted on to be very... standard. I've never really had a problem with standard keyboards; in fact I would say I have preferred them for the most part. My favorite type of standard keyboard has always been the chicklet style keyboard, or for anyone not familiar with that vernacular: laptop-style keyboards. I can type much faster on them than I can standard keyboards for whatever reason, and I like the feel of them much more. That is why to this day anytime I'm writing anything more than just instant messages I always use my laptop.

This has always been a perfectly fine solution for me. In college I would write a paper about every other week and after getting a laptop for my last two years of college, never wrote a paper on my desktop. Don't get me wrong I love my desktop keyboard; everything about it feels great. I've been using the same desktop keyboard since 2001 and can't seem to get comfortable with any other. My desktop keyboard is now being used on it's third completely different desktop system and I don't see it going anywhere any time soon, but then again, I really don't do much typing with it.

As much as I like my desktop keyboard, I don't think that I would hold onto it if I did much typing on that computer. I've looked into getting different keyboards for my desktop; keyboards similar to laptop keyboards for the sake of being able to type faster. I usually don't think about it for too long since I don't do much typing, and I don't really want to get to learn a new keyboard layout. So when I started my current job I had the choice of using the built in laptop keyboard, or using a separate standard 108-key keyboard. Since I have 3 laptop computers hooked up, all using the same keyboard and mouse combo via Synergy, using the laptop's keyboard doesn't really make sense, as I really need to have my keyboard be more in the middle of all the computers. So for the last three months I've been using a standard 108 keyboard made by Compaq, and it's worked all right for me.

A few weeks ago I noticed that I was starting to get a little discomfort while typing on that particular keyboard and I started to figure that I was just getting older and it really was probably just my time to begin the exciting adventure to carpal-tunnel. One night I actually put some thought into it, however, and realized that I actually type quite a bit at work. You see when I write up a ticket at work (a ticket contains information from any calls I take from customers) I have to be very thorough. This means typing up a lot of information to be as accurate as possible, and doing this all day long. It's no wonder they my hands were beginning to hurt anytime that I would type, they were typing more volume and on a more regular basis than they probably ever have!

I knew I needed a solution to help alleviate some of the discomfort. At first I really just tried holding my wrists off the desk and positioning my hands the way they were technically supposed to. I did this, combined with getting up and moving around every now and then, and just generally making sure that my joints and my muscles wouldn't tighten up to much. This helped a decent amount, but it still didn't seem like the best solution. I had looked into ergonomic keyboards earlier in my life but didn't think too much of them. Microsoft's early version of an ergonomic keyboard was all right, but it had an odd shape to it and overall there wasn't a big enough difference in comfort for me to justify having one. When I started having discomfort in my wrists again, however, I decided it was time to give the ergonomic keyboard another look.

Microsoft no longer produces the ergonomic keyboard that was my first introduction to comfort-keyboards, so I wasn't exactly sure where to start looking. Microsoft still made a basic ergonomic keyboard, and while it looked relatively similar except for the color, I remembered that wasn't really comfortable enough for me, even if it was a slight improvement. It was fortunate for me then that I have a father who is even more concerned about wrist posture when typing.

They keyboard that he has, which is now the keyboard I have chosen as well, is the Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 (Microsoft never has been good at naming products). While still not perfect, what really sets this keyboard apart from others is that not only is it split and curved in the middle like Microsoft's original ergonomic keyboard, it also has a reverse angle on it that raises the keyboard up on the side of the space-bar. The combination of these two features makes the keyboard very comfortable and much easier to type on for hours and hours at a time.

This article isn't meant to promote Microsoft's products, but rather is meant to promote comfortable typing. Typing on a standard keyboard in the proper manner isn't really the easiest thing in the world. Quite honestly holding my wrists up for extended periods of time gets rather tiring and regular wrist rests on regular keyboards don't really do anything for me, and don't really do anything to help prevent carpal tunnel. If you're experiencing stress in your hands and wrists when you type don't ignore it, find a keyboard that promotes good hand/wrist posture.

There has been plenty of posts and news articles on Network Neutrality and a Tiered Internet over the past couple years.  There have been tons of links posted on digg and slashdot about companies like Comcast running packet shaping utilities to throttle bandwidth to paying customers.  There was a little talk about this at Defcon and there are some threats to the internet that are probably just as upsetting.

    My freshman year was completely defined by two video game franchises, Tony Hawk Pro Skater and Madden (not in any particular order).  Any given night, I would be up playing one of these two games until the odd hours of the morning, giving myself only the smallest amount of sleep before heading into class for the day.  When Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 came out, we had almost everything unlocked within a day or so.  We honestly played the hell out of that game.  It might not have been the best of the franchise, but it was new and fresh.

    As time moved on, I got THPS4 and the first THPS:Underground game.  But, I honestly didn't play those two that much, for me at least, the series was become played out and stale.  I often consider picking up Tony Hawk Project 8 for my 360, but in the end, I couldn't see that sixty-dollar came holding my interest very long.

    They could do whatever they wanted to the storyline for the Tony Hawk games, however, at the end of the day, the controls were the same thing.  Given, Tony Hawk Project 8 introduced some new 'bullet-time' like controls, but I still found myself using the same control patterns I've basically used since the third game.  There was very little new about the game and they kept moving out of the realm of realism and into a super-human skills realm.  I was craving a skating sim.

    From what the skate. demo shows, I have my realistic sim.  When I first heard about skate. I was very apathetic about its release.  It looked like EA was finally trying to cash in on the success of the Tony Hawk games.  With the EA name I was even more hesitant to care.  EA has a track record for trying to capitalize on a market with sup-par games.  This is not to say EA doesn't have good games . . . but they also have a lot of bad games.  EA rant aside, I didn't care about skate. until today.

    The easiest way to describe the controls is to relate the game to Fight Night Round 3.  That is to say that one stick handles body movement and the other stick handles board movement.  There is no button to ollie; you have to flick the board stick back and then forward, simulating the movement of an ollie.  There are two buttons for pushing, left foot and right foot.  And there are two buttons for grabbing, left hand and right hand.  You can essentially do all of the moves with a combination of grab, board movement, and body movement.
   
    The controls are new and fresh, and because of that they pose a new challenge to the gamer.  I was unable to pick up the control and dominate the park right away.  One of the coolest features in my humble opinion is that when you ollie up to a rail, your board doesn't magically find it because you hit a grind button.  If your board isn't on the rail, you're not grinding.
   
    The graphics seamed to be very sharp, the characters face seemed a little weak, but I haven't been impressed with face models in many of these games, so that didn't surprise me.  Outside of face models, the graphics was crisp and clean.  The animations were fun and drew you into the game.  If you land a little sideways, the character sways on the board to find his center.  If you set down the controller, the character stands on the board, so if you are on a slight hill, you will start to roll down it.  It is little touches like these that made me feel connected with the character on the screen rather than button mashing to hit some mad combos.  What excites me about that element is that this is what drew me into Fight Night Round 3.  I am not a huge fighting game fan, I usually just end up button mashing till I loose.  However, with Round 3, I was in control of the fists and the body movement, I was the character.  It immersed me in the play and I was hooked.

    So, if you have a 360, go download the demo, it is fun and offers a little training to ease you into the game.  I am not sure if this will steal the hearts of other die-hard THPS fans, but it certainly has now come up on my radar.

Amid the rush for the long awaited Bioshock demo last Tuesday, I totally forgot to download the demo for John Woo's Stranglehold.  With Halo 3 pre-orders already surpassing the 1 million mark and the wildly successful Clancy series, it must be awfully tempting for acclaimed novelists and directors to try their hand at creating a video game franchise.

I got around to playing through the "Stranglehold" demo this weekend and despite the entertainment provided by shooting connected guys in the testicles, I wasn't that impressed.  The textures were kind of sketchy, the mouth to voice connection was off and the fact that I couldn't just walk up to a counter without sliding across the top of it in a matrix-ish effect really made gameplay unpleasant. 

Admittedly, the games that Stranglehold emulates totally ripped off John Woo's trademarked style. The cut scenes are reminiscent of an action movie but don't do the vision justice as it's just not as pretty in this engine compared to the camera-based medium.  I think this is something that some novelists and movie directors struggle with as they attempt to draw players into their games.  There is a distinct difference between the comics, movies, television shows and books and the video game format.  The difference is interaction.  The characters in the former mediums are separated from the reader or viewer; the main character in the latter is controlled by the gamer. 

As I mentioned before, it's difficult to really criticize this game for biting the style of Max Payne and The Matrix.  This *is* John Woo, complete with dual pistols.  It's fun and entertaining but it won't have lasting value, as games like Final Fantasy or World of Warcraft (even Bioshock seems to do well here, even though I've only played through the demo).  If you look at the latest Splinter Cell iteration, you can see a good model of how the "action movie" game should play out.  The character makes "choices" that affect the outcome of the game (SC might not be a good example but bear with me here).  Compare that scenario with Stranglehold, where you run through a few alleys, watch a shitty cut scene and then run through a few more alleys.  The key is to draw the gamer into the character and include them in everything by choice.

I could be wrong about Stranglehold but in my experience as a gamer (and trust me, I've logged the hours here), but I'm probably not.  It's rare that the model around the first 20 minutes of action games, whether it be first or third person based, will differ from the rest of the game.  Point being, I think I'll pass on this game, pick up Bioshock and get lost in a story you can't get from John Woo.

I've been doing a decent amount of gaming recently, much of which has revolved around World of Warcraft, but a significant amount has also been focused on games I can play at my work. I've found that the best type of game for this is the turn-based strategy game. The games are perfect because they don't require constant attention so if I get a period of time where I have to be doing work and I can't even look at the screen for an hour or two, it's no big deal since the game goes at my pace. The games are Master of Orion, and Civilization, though probably not the versions you'd think. My personal preference for each series is the previous iteration of each game, in this case Master of Orion II and Civilization 3.

While it's true that I can't play the newest version of each game due to hardware limitations, I also don't have much desire to. I put a lot of hours into Master of Orion 3 with high hopes for the game since I liked MOO2 so much. Overall the game was all right but there were a lot of things that bothered me about it. To begin with you actually need to read the instructions to begin playing it. This isn't that big of a deal I realize, but the game is far more complicated that both of its predecessors and aside from a graphical improvement that's about it. It seems like all the things that made MOO2 great were taken out of the game. Don't get me wrong, I don't miss the space dragon searching for treasure that much, but the series really lost it's uniqueness with MOO3. The game felt like a combination of Homeworld and Imperium Galactica and really wasn't anything that I expected. I'm sure one of these days I'll give it another shot, but I'll have to get bored with MOO2 in order to do that

So what is it about MOO2 that I like so much anyway? Well first and foremost it's incredibly simple. You can play the game for the first time and figure it out in 15 minutes. The learning curve allows you to quickly advance in the game as well, after the first time playing you could safely go onto the next level of difficulty. Each level of difficulty is gets appropriately more difficult and at the same time doesn't stay too easy. You can decide how much control you want over the game, and decide on certain added challenges like size of the galaxy, control over battles, Antaran attacks and random events. You can customize your race as well and once you've played through the game a few times you can customize your race so that it best reflects your playing strategies. I'm playing the game again and I am remembering how much I enjoy playing it. MOO3 held on to a lot of what made MOO2 great, but it made all those aspects more complicated and overall less fun.

Civilization 3 is a bit more complicated than MOO2, but like MOO2 I still prefer it to its successor. Civ3 takes a bit more time to get good at but is still overall a very good game. Personally I consider it the best in the series because it took care of a lot of the issues of the first two in the series, and didn't get overly complicated like the 4th in the series.  Like all Civ games it suffers from unbelievable battle losses since battles are determined on stats and random chance. Because of this it isn't uncommon for me to lose a tank unit to a phalanx unit. What's sad is that this is still an improvement over previous versions, what's even worse is that it still exists in Civ4, though has gotten slightly better.
Overall the biggest reason why I chose the older games over the newer ones is because they are so much easier to get into. If I don't play one of the older ones for a year I don't have to worry about remembering how to play. The newer games, by contrast, are much more complicated and because of this I can't just randomly decide to start playing again. MOO2 and Civ3 are classic games in my book and until the companies come out with sequels that aren't just prettier versions, will remain my preferred version of choice in the series'.

So as a big geek, these are five things that I want to get into.  Not all of them are tech-related, but hey, maybe you guys have some ideas to help me or maybe share a common goal.

1.    Tea - When I was a kid growing up, my family would drink a fair amount of tea.  However, being a kid, I would load up a cup with a bunch of sugar, which would take away from the delicate flavors of tea.  If you look at the beverages I enjoy most as a young adult now, coffee and beer, they are not really known for having soft flavors.  While underneath their bold flavors they can have subtle hits at other flavor, beer and coffee still have pronounced flavors.  However, tea (when not loaded with sugar) is subtle and delicate.  I realized that to enjoy tea, I will need to start drinking more loose-leaf tea instead of those crappy little tea bags.

2.    Conserving Power - This is something I already try to do, but I am still a creature of comfort.  I enjoy using the AC in my room and I enjoy having big computers, big TVs, video game consoles.  You know, all the stuff that draws heaps of power.  The biggest thing preventing me from not changing my life style and conserving more power is that I still live in an apartment.  If I was a home owner, I would totally set up a solar/wind farm and generate the power I want to live with all of my nice shiny toys.

3.    Buying Organic Food - Right now, as I settle into my life, I am trying to strike a balance in my budget.  That balance is between buying good foods (good for me and good for the environment) and not spending a gang of money at the store.  I am still mostly on a college diet; frozen foods or boxed foods.  Once I can shake this habit, I think going organic shouldn't be that hard.  It will just come down to expanding my menu selection of what I am willing to cook after a long day at work.

4.    Playing More Video Games - I love video games.  However, it seems with all of the time I dedicate to other stuff in this life, I get little time to actually sit down and play some vids.  Between working, sleeping, catching up industry news, and working on new ideas I have don't have time for much else.  And when I do get that time, I seem to mostly dumbly staring at the TV.  I think what I need to start doing is just dedicating evenings to nothing but playing vids.

5.    Learning Computer Security - Computer Security is a huge field and I am still trying to figure out where I want to start with it.  However, I think between attending DEF CON and participating in this years Capture the Flags prequals, I am starting to get a handle on what to start reading and what to start caring about.  It is still a hazy picture for the most part, but I think I will be able to get it all straightened out.  At least I hope so.

In what sick, twisted world do we live in where the release of a 1.2 GB demo destroys the XBL demo releasing machine?  As it's been demonstrated, the hype-machine known as the internet has created a number of BioShock enthusiasts so eager to play this game that the XBL servers handing out demos got exhausted and almost shut down (note to MS, search the internet for this "bittorrent" technology, I heard it helps with these problems).

Having a 360, I felt obligated to download this demo after hearing reports that it kicks some serious ass.  In the future, I think I'll wait until games are actually available to purchase before sneaking a taste of the goods. 

My problem is simple.  The demo contains an opening sequence.  It's pretty.  The sounds are amazing.  You can feel yourself being drawn into the world that has been created for you, regardless that you can't actually control the person in the opening sequence.  This annoys me for a little bit until I realize that I have actually been put into the game and that it's patiently waiting for me to start moving this poor bastard around (I should note, at this point, that I haven't fully described my problem). 

Like Tom's reaction when I told him how glorious this game truly was, I swore a few times at the fact that I have already made up my mind to buy this game.  This is the problem.  I can't buy the game yet! 

Really though, from the "demo" standpoint, you can totally get drawn into this world.  For a game to really be an epic game, it has to draw me into the story and surroundings (as in, a well written book) and it has to look outstanding.  I can say, with little doubt, that this game will meet both of those criteria. 

The game has enough eye-candy to stand on its own, without help from story or character development.  Gears of War was a little like this, as I didn't understand what happened in the beginning and I think it's asking too much for me to have to research the plot-line on the internet.  It's not like you start to read a Stephen King novel and go to google to find out what the back story is.

The beginning part of the BioShock demo reminds me of the intro to Half-life, where you are slowly brought down into the core of the lab (where all hell breaks loose and you have to get back to the surface).  This is a strong tactic, allowing the gamer to immerse themselves in the game as they are slowly brought down into a seemingly inescapable city.  This is the part where supplementing the beautiful graphics with a killer story basically makes for the most desirable gameplay.

The game doesn't come without hiccups though; the controls are a bit clunky and the "jump" button is Y on the 360 pad.  From years and years of playing counter-strike (in the bunny-jumping days), I have this awful habit of jumping everywhere and I am a little offended that I have to reach so far across the controller to get there. 

I can't lie though, I'll buy this game right away when it comes out.  So, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go count out 60 one dollar bills and count the days until my local gameshop allows me the opportunity to trade them currency for BioShock.

            I am sure most of you have heard about the problem with Dateline at this years Defcon.  If you haven't, ZDnet had a very good run down on the events at the following link, http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=653.  I think that the Goons at Defcon were completely in the right asking for that report to both wear a badge and play by the rules or to leave.

            The sad thing is, this event just gives the press another black eye.  I would like to think that there are some noble and honest reporters out there, but as stories like this and the recent PC World debacle; it is becoming hard to see whom you can trust.  With Dateline's whole goal to scare Middle America, they were setting forth an agenda before even knowing what was going on at Defcon.  And this is the scariest kind of reporting.  It is irresponsible and is a disservice to the very people they are trying to scare.

            From what I saw, good portions of the talks this year were aimed at responsible security research.  Finding a bug and responsible telling the company what you found.  The people that she was trying to vilify could be the very people making sure your bank transactions and online experience are more secure.  If somebody is talking about it at Defcon, they are talking it out of the personal toolbox and offering it up to the world, which should eventually lead to a patch.

            This is the same kind of irresponsible reporting that made most Americans fear all Middle Eastern Nations.  Almost anytime the media talks about those nations images of people firing guns into the air and screaming are shown.  There are seldom reports showing any other aspect of life in those nations.

            If this report would've been made the way Dateline wanted it to be, all hackers could've been associate as felon crazy kids wanting to pwn your bank account.  While I am sure there are some of those people out there, just as I am sure there are evil people in this world, however these are generalizations that shouldn't be made.

           So, how do I see through all the bullshit?  First off, I take everything I read from a grain of salt.  I try to cross compile many sources to see what is the agenda and what is the news.  I use the major media outlets for breaking news and I use the smaller media outlets for op-eds and opinion pieces.   Sites like Digg, Slashdot, and Fark are good for finding some random opinions.

    Back in my freshman year of college we played a lot of Madden.  And when I say a lot, I truly mean it.  We ran a bracket for the entire season consisting of 10 or more teams.  We went through two full seasons this way at a minimum.  We were playing Madden around the clock.  We played both Player vs. Player and Player vs. Computer mash up.  It was a lot of fun; we would all gather in dorm rooms and cheer each other on.  And when it was time for a Player vs. Player game, the trash talk would fly.

    Sophomore year came around and we did another season, however my interest started to wane.  I was simply Maddened out, I had played too much of the game.  With freshman year and half of sophomore year, I had probably played over 100 games of Madden.  All of this while studying for my Electrical Engineering degree, I was burnt out.  The last madden I fully played was Madden 2002

    Then 2K Sports released 2k5, and the game hooked me in.  I easily blew through four seasons. 2k5 reminded me of the fast passed fun of playing with my friends, yet I was play with the computer.  It was everything I wanted in a football game.  But then, EA had to go and ruin it all for me, the locked up an exclusive agreement with the NFL.

    Recently, my friend and fellow Tech-Shui writer Rob convinced me to get NCAA 08.  I have yet to play a full game of football, however I am completely absorbed in the Campus Legend mode.  It is exactly what I needed.  It combined what I loved about Role Playing Games with the football days of my college years.

    In the Campus Legend mode you create a character of any position, well almost any, I don't think you can be a kicker.  Then you are shoved into the High School State Finals and you have to work through the bracket.  The better you play, the better chance you have of starting at a good school.

    When I started out, I lost the State Championship.  One top 25 schools offered me a starting position as QB; however, I wanted to play for my alma mater.  The University of Minnesota would take me, but as a 4th stringer.  I humbly accepted this lowly position, but through my hard work in practices, within three weeks I was starting against Purdue.

    I love that you practice during the week.  This not only improves your stats, but it also helped improve my controls as the QB and also where to be looking on the screen.  So rather than be absorbed with the whole offense, defense, and play calling; all I had to focus on was doing the job of a QB.  Getting the play from the coach, and executing the play.

    Now, I can say that I am actually excited to get Madden 08 and that EA has recovered a little from their bastard move towards 2K sports, at least in my mind.

I just got back into town after spending the weekend at Defcon and I am in desperate need of sleep.  Spending five days in Vegas with daytime obligations makes it pretty tough to go all night, so I'll be making this quick. 

Defcon has a lot of geek culture and one of the associated traits of a geek is a love for games.  It should be no surprise, given the steady increase of contests and side events at the con, that someone would start up a guitar hero contest.  I didn't see much of the contest but there were some pretty good guys there.   I've heard of people who can get 100%, on expert, with their hands behind their heads, so I found some really kickass videos to tide over your Tuesday:

5: Sweet Child O' Mine


Fast forward to:  4:10 or so.



4: Carry On My Wayward Son




Fast Forward to:  2:53

3:  YYZ



Fast Forward to:  0:18

2: Trogdor



This is a really crappy video but I have to toss it out there because it's Trogdor.

1: Freebird


Watch this whole thing because it's just sick.

Until next week, keep the videos playing!

A few months ago I decided to just bite the bullet and get myself a nice HD television. Since the moment I set it on my dresser I've absolutely loved it; such a vast improvement over my regular 20" CRT television. One of the first things I did after purchasing the new TV was go out and get an up-convert DVD player to replace my standard DVD player with one that had an HDMI port. The quality of video increased dramatically from the old DVD player with just an s-video connection (which would be expected). The vast improvement in the quality of picture started to get me thinking... maybe it was time for me to look at next-gen consoles... but which one?

My first thought was to just stick with my standard first next-gen purchase, which means going with whatever Nintendo put out on the market. Generally this has been a pretty good practice for the type of games that I'm usually into. I really enjoy a lot of the first-party titles that Nintendo has to offer. Mario, Mario Kart, and Zelda can always be expected to be pretty decent titles so I always knew with Nintendo consoles that there would be a good number of enjoyable games without even having to go looking for them. So because of this the first console I looked at was the Nintendo Wii.

My roommate already has a Nintendo Wii so I've been able to play around with it a bit. It's a pretty fun system to be sure, and the fact that it comes with Wii Sports is an added bonus since it's got to be the most enjoyable bundled game I've ever played. It offers a completely new and unique way to play video games for the developers that choose to utilize those options. It's already got Zelda out for it with the next Mario, Marko Kart, and Mario Party titles on the way, all taking advantage of the unique controls of the Wii. Despite the pluses that the Nintendo Wii has going for it, there were a couple issues that worked against it. The first issue is the amount of space I have. My TV is in my bedroom and because of the Wii's unique control scheme (depending on the game), there will be some games that won't play as well without being able to stand up, such as Wii Sports, Raymon, and Warrio. The other issue is that the system doesn't take advantage of HD content, nor will it ever be able to. I can deal with the space issue, but as much as I like Nintendo, I really want a system that will take advantage of my HD TV, and the Wii just can't do that.

I started taking a serious look at the Xbox 360 Elite. Unlike the standard 360, the Elite offers an HDMI port to take advantage of HD televisions. Sure the Component connection does a decent enough job, but the HDMI is certainly a bonus. The 360 also has it's share of quality games like Gears of War, and the upcoming Halo 3 to name a few. The advantage of going with the 360 is that Microsoft has done an excellent job with their online content and gaming. The 360 gets updated online content far more often then its competitors and Xbox Live is a more robust online gaming system then either Nintendo or Sony can offer. The 360 has its own share of drawbacks, however. To start with the 360 Elite may have an HDMI port but it still comes with a standard DVD player. The biggest downfall of 360 however, is its tendency to stop working. At least half the people that I know to have a 360 have had to get it replaced; one of my previous coworkers is on his 4th 360 and counting.
The final option in next-gen consoles is the Playstation 3. Admittedly I wasn't even considering the PS3 for quite some time. The price tag of $600 just for the console, its regular freeze-ups, and lack of games that I was interested in, all discouraged me from purchasing the console. A major bonus for the system, however, is the Blu-ray player. Having Blu-ray capabilities officially makes the PS3 the only next-gen console with the ability to play HD-content disks. While it's true that the format war between HD-DVD and Blu-ray isn't over yet, Blu-ray will still be around for some time. Like the 360 the PS3 also has an HDMI port, but jumps ahead of the 360 by having blue-tooth built in. Not really a huge deal, but I've already got a blue-tooth headset for my phone, and it'll work just fine with the PS3. Another major advantage the PS3 has is updatable firmware. Unlike the 360, the PS3's OS is not on it's hard drive (which is also easily upgradeable) so if you're hard drive dies after warranty, you only need to get a new hard drive to have a working PS3 again, instead of buying a brand new system. The biggest advantage to the PS3's OS, however, is that updating the firmware has added many new features like up-converting DVDs, and fixing many of the freezing issues that were present in earlier revisions of the firmware.

Official decision time for me doesn't have to be until I finish paying off my HD TV, but I think I've made my choice: The PS3. The Wii and the 360 both have their advantages (such as unique controls and there still being more games I'm interested in for the 360), but in the end the PS3 has won because of retainable value of the system. If I go out and get an Xbox 360 Elite, I'll pay almost as much as I would for a PS3, and I would still have to buy a HD-DVD or Blu-Ray player later should I want to watch HD movies. Sony has also taken tremendous strides to upgrade the reliability and performance of the PS3, simply through firmware updates, which is something the 360 will never be able to pull off. At first I really didn't like the PS3, I wanted nothing to do with it and never thought I'd be interested in one until a major price drop (more major than the one it just got), yet now I can think of no better system. From the ground up it takes advantage of HD TVs, and since I really want to find a console to take advantage of my HD TV, the PS3 takes the win.

There will be no article today (Thursday August 2nd, 2007).  I've been busy contacting friend and family, making sure that everyone is ok after the 35W bridge collapse.

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