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2007-10-08
DSmania
Sony has recently released the "Slim & Lite" version of PSP, but looks like the winner has already been decided: DS Lite. That's a great news for a proud owner like me.
How do I know DS Lite has won? Well, if you go to my office's cafeteria at around 4pm each day, you'll see a gang of 4 to 5 people playing networked games. Last time, when I went to Ralph's for grocery at 6pm, I also saw one of their employees taking a break outside the store with none other than a DS Lite. I can't remember when was the last time I saw someone playing a PSP in public.
How do I know DS Lite has won? Well, if you go to my office's cafeteria at around 4pm each day, you'll see a gang of 4 to 5 people playing networked games. Last time, when I went to Ralph's for grocery at 6pm, I also saw one of their employees taking a break outside the store with none other than a DS Lite. I can't remember when was the last time I saw someone playing a PSP in public.
Labels: game
2007-03-13
Losing Weight
I have an important news to announce: My belt is getting loose! Too bad I don't have an easily accessible scale, so I can't digitize the result for you.
It is probably contributed by several factors. One, eating unclean food and got sick; two, changed diet, eating yucky oatmeal for breakfast; three, walking almost two miles to work a few times a week. But most importantly, it must be gaming.
The first game is WiiSports. I play it as realistic as possible, with full body motion. Not only it is good exercise, but also it is more fun playing this way. Tennis was the game I played most in the beginning, but once it is mastered, it becomes too easy. On the other hand, boxing is a much better exercise, forcing you to move your body even when you are tired. The second and more important gaming is dancing. Never thought I would be interested, turned out the experience is better than I thought.
Now what if you combine the two and create an ultimate exercise game, I would be in perfect shape... This is not a dream. It has already been announced that Konami is making a dance game for Wii that would somehow make use of the wiimote... Can't wait for that game to come out!
It is probably contributed by several factors. One, eating unclean food and got sick; two, changed diet, eating yucky oatmeal for breakfast; three, walking almost two miles to work a few times a week. But most importantly, it must be gaming.
The first game is WiiSports. I play it as realistic as possible, with full body motion. Not only it is good exercise, but also it is more fun playing this way. Tennis was the game I played most in the beginning, but once it is mastered, it becomes too easy. On the other hand, boxing is a much better exercise, forcing you to move your body even when you are tired. The second and more important gaming is dancing. Never thought I would be interested, turned out the experience is better than I thought.
Now what if you combine the two and create an ultimate exercise game, I would be in perfect shape... This is not a dream. It has already been announced that Konami is making a dance game for Wii that would somehow make use of the wiimote... Can't wait for that game to come out!
Labels: game
2007-02-12
Worst. Game. Ever.
Reviewing games seems to be a kind of ideal job, where the daily activities seems to include having fun with the latest games for the good ones and writing sarcastic remarks for the bad ones. But, like any other "ideal" jobs, they seem to be so great only because we don't always get to see the down sides of their work.
Random browsing brought me to a review of a game that many say is the worst game ever: Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing. Reading the review would give you an impression of the helplessness of game reviewers, but you have to actually seeing how poor they are in a review video. I couldn't help but laughed for 3 straight minutes...
Random browsing brought me to a review of a game that many say is the worst game ever: Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing. Reading the review would give you an impression of the helplessness of game reviewers, but you have to actually seeing how poor they are in a review video. I couldn't help but laughed for 3 straight minutes...
Labels: game
2007-01-10
Damn Time Warner
Now that I have got my PS2 and Wii, apart from exhausting myself from swinging my arms playing tennis and bowling on Wii, I'm thinking about improving its quality on my 32" LCD TV. This process is a bit demanding; even the connection to TV has lingos like HDMI, component, composite, and SVideo. I did research a little bit on TV quality before buying my current TV, and I knew that I want it to support 1080p, although realistically I got myself only one that supports 1080i. A little research reveals that I want to use component cables, but the only component input on my TV is already connected to the cable box.
My cable subscription is digital through Time Warner. I have a few channels in high definition, but the quality on the rest channels are pretty bad. I thought it is because my TV now is much bigger than before, so the bad quality is just due to scaling. Checking about these cables and inputs makes me wonder, am I really getting the best performance I could from the cable service?
You can tell from the title that I weren't. Turns out the cable box supports 480i, 480p, 720i, 720p, and 1080i. With my TV I should use 1080i (or enable all the video modes for the cable box to choose), but my cable guy didn't bother to set and just left it to default with only 480i enabled. Setting it properly made the picture so freakingly much better. This also means I have been paying 4 months of cable service without really utilizing it! How could that guy be so lazy and not to set it for me? Why did I trust him and not bothered to check?
Anyway, my research reveals that I need to get component cables for PS2 and Wii. Or better yet, get this multi-console cable from Play-Asia, which can connect PS2/3, Wii, and Xbox to the same input at the same time. Since I don't have enough inputs on my TV, I also got this box that takes at most 3 component connections, a very low-cost option. The only down side is that they ship from Hong Kong, so it might takes a while for the cables to get to US.
My cable subscription is digital through Time Warner. I have a few channels in high definition, but the quality on the rest channels are pretty bad. I thought it is because my TV now is much bigger than before, so the bad quality is just due to scaling. Checking about these cables and inputs makes me wonder, am I really getting the best performance I could from the cable service?
You can tell from the title that I weren't. Turns out the cable box supports 480i, 480p, 720i, 720p, and 1080i. With my TV I should use 1080i (or enable all the video modes for the cable box to choose), but my cable guy didn't bother to set and just left it to default with only 480i enabled. Setting it properly made the picture so freakingly much better. This also means I have been paying 4 months of cable service without really utilizing it! How could that guy be so lazy and not to set it for me? Why did I trust him and not bothered to check?
Anyway, my research reveals that I need to get component cables for PS2 and Wii. Or better yet, get this multi-console cable from Play-Asia, which can connect PS2/3, Wii, and Xbox to the same input at the same time. Since I don't have enough inputs on my TV, I also got this box that takes at most 3 component connections, a very low-cost option. The only down side is that they ship from Hong Kong, so it might takes a while for the cables to get to US.
2007-01-07
Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You heard me right, I finally got my Wii!!!!
I have been tracking Wii's on forums like WiiLoaded.com for a while, but didn't really bother to camp for a few hours just because of some rumors. Then someone mentioned that iTrackr provides pretty accurate updates on availability, particularly for Target. Last night, I found out that it mentioned three of the Targets had Wii's in store, so I went to the one in West Hollywood in the early morning, and Bingo!
I still can't believe it. I played WiiSports for the whole afternoon, and it was as much fun as I have expected, with pleasant surprises (the controller, Wiimote, has vibration and produces sound effects) that ignorant me didn't know. I am so exhausted playing with it now, but man, it was really fun exercise.
I am one very happy boy. Just don't ask me about my dissertation...
I have been tracking Wii's on forums like WiiLoaded.com for a while, but didn't really bother to camp for a few hours just because of some rumors. Then someone mentioned that iTrackr provides pretty accurate updates on availability, particularly for Target. Last night, I found out that it mentioned three of the Targets had Wii's in store, so I went to the one in West Hollywood in the early morning, and Bingo!
I still can't believe it. I played WiiSports for the whole afternoon, and it was as much fun as I have expected, with pleasant surprises (the controller, Wiimote, has vibration and produces sound effects) that ignorant me didn't know. I am so exhausted playing with it now, but man, it was really fun exercise.
I am one very happy boy. Just don't ask me about my dissertation...
Labels: game
2006-12-26
What I Got for Christmas
Not being able to get Xbox on the cheap (and Wii at all), I had to get myself something for fun. I ended up getting, guess what, a 6-year-old console in PS2. Of course, it has to be a deal to get something this old. I got it from Overstock.com with another 20% off certificate I got from American Express. This makes the price goes from $128.99 to $103.19 and tax free at the same time.
If nothing else, this at least gives me the chance to pick up again the greatest game of all times, the Final Fantasy series I have missed since playing the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VI in Super Nintendo Entertainment System. I still wonder how I could finish the game without understanding the story...
If nothing else, this at least gives me the chance to pick up again the greatest game of all times, the Final Fantasy series I have missed since playing the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VI in Super Nintendo Entertainment System. I still wonder how I could finish the game without understanding the story...
2006-12-24
Still No Xbox
But this is no longer because I don't have my Toysrus wishlist certificate. I finally got them 2 days after being told that it hadn't been sent, yet the tracking system from UPS reveals that it was sent the week before. So not only American Express sent my certificate late, they also lied to me that they have already sent it. Nice job!
By the time I got the certificate, the Christmas catastrophe is already happening. I am referring to the mindless shopping spray that happens before every Christmas. And L.A. is crowded like nowhere I've experienced before.
Of course, the big mystery of whether I got a deal using my certificate or not has a sad ending. When I got my certificate and went to two Toysrus, they were all gone. Wii. Playstation 3 (which I was not particularly looking for anyway). The greatest discounted Xbox 360. Nintendo DS Lite. Even Playstation 2 or Gamecube (!). They have sold out every single game console that they had.
It certainly sucks to live in a crowded place like L.A.
By the time I got the certificate, the Christmas catastrophe is already happening. I am referring to the mindless shopping spray that happens before every Christmas. And L.A. is crowded like nowhere I've experienced before.
Of course, the big mystery of whether I got a deal using my certificate or not has a sad ending. When I got my certificate and went to two Toysrus, they were all gone. Wii. Playstation 3 (which I was not particularly looking for anyway). The greatest discounted Xbox 360. Nintendo DS Lite. Even Playstation 2 or Gamecube (!). They have sold out every single game console that they had.
It certainly sucks to live in a crowded place like L.A.
2006-12-20
AmEx Wishlist Hatred
I'll say it again here. I know American Express is doing us a favor by offering the My Wishlist, and I am grateful to that even though I couldn't win any discounted product. But they really need to improve in multiple departments.
The first dumbness is mailing Overstock certificates with a generic URL. Of course that URL would be posted on every single deal site under the sun, and of course it would be abused by thousands, if not millions. I am ok with them disabling the URL and send me a one-time use instead, but why on earth do they need to shorten the use time from more than a month to 3 days? That completely destroyed my purchasing plan.
Worse, I still haven't got my Toysrus certificate I won 18 days ago. I just called, and they told me that they haven't even shipped it. My sister won the certificate later than me and she got it last week. There are plenty of people getting it a couple days after winning it. I would be fine if it were logistic issue and no one could have the certificate soon, but I can't take on this kind of unfairness. Particularly when the $100 gift card Xbox promotion is ending Sunday, and the next shipment of Wii is the day after tomorrow...
The good feeling I got for this whole promotion has completely gone. Time will tell if it turns into hatred.
The first dumbness is mailing Overstock certificates with a generic URL. Of course that URL would be posted on every single deal site under the sun, and of course it would be abused by thousands, if not millions. I am ok with them disabling the URL and send me a one-time use instead, but why on earth do they need to shorten the use time from more than a month to 3 days? That completely destroyed my purchasing plan.
Worse, I still haven't got my Toysrus certificate I won 18 days ago. I just called, and they told me that they haven't even shipped it. My sister won the certificate later than me and she got it last week. There are plenty of people getting it a couple days after winning it. I would be fine if it were logistic issue and no one could have the certificate soon, but I can't take on this kind of unfairness. Particularly when the $100 gift card Xbox promotion is ending Sunday, and the next shipment of Wii is the day after tomorrow...
The good feeling I got for this whole promotion has completely gone. Time will tell if it turns into hatred.
2006-12-18
Deal of the Year
I am recovering from the mourning from missing possibly the deal of the year.
I mentioned about winning some 25% off certificates from American Express' Wishlist. Another certificate I won about two weeks ago is from Toysrus. Together with the $100 giftcard they give for each Xbox 360 purchase, it effectively makes it 50% off, from $400 to $200.
Wait, there's more. There was also new shipments of Wii. Those people camping outside Toysrus for the Xboxes "accidentally" also get new Wiis. With 25% off. So for less than the original price of an Xbox, they get both an Xbox and a Wii...
The saddest of all, of course, is that I haven't yet to receive my Toysrus certificate, so I didn't even have the chance to get them... I shouldn't blame American Express for not sending my certificate sooner, as they're just doing people favors, but I have to blame my apartment. They have this hateful practice of sending our packages to the cleaners in the garage in one of our buildings. And then X days later, where X is a random variable with possible outcomes in { 0, 1, 2, 3, ∞ }, a slip will somehow show up on my mailbox. Yes, with an ∞. Sometimes they don't even bother to put the slip to notify me.
Do I need more reasons to leave my apartment once my lease expires? Yes? Fine. What about constant noise from emergency vehicles and helicopters? Remember what happened in New York?
I mentioned about winning some 25% off certificates from American Express' Wishlist. Another certificate I won about two weeks ago is from Toysrus. Together with the $100 giftcard they give for each Xbox 360 purchase, it effectively makes it 50% off, from $400 to $200.
Wait, there's more. There was also new shipments of Wii. Those people camping outside Toysrus for the Xboxes "accidentally" also get new Wiis. With 25% off. So for less than the original price of an Xbox, they get both an Xbox and a Wii...
The saddest of all, of course, is that I haven't yet to receive my Toysrus certificate, so I didn't even have the chance to get them... I shouldn't blame American Express for not sending my certificate sooner, as they're just doing people favors, but I have to blame my apartment. They have this hateful practice of sending our packages to the cleaners in the garage in one of our buildings. And then X days later, where X is a random variable with possible outcomes in { 0, 1, 2, 3, ∞ }, a slip will somehow show up on my mailbox. Yes, with an ∞. Sometimes they don't even bother to put the slip to notify me.
Do I need more reasons to leave my apartment once my lease expires? Yes? Fine. What about constant noise from emergency vehicles and helicopters? Remember what happened in New York?
