An older article that I somehow missed... regarding Sony's response to the upgrade Microsoft is providing over Xbox Live to increase the output resolution of the Xbox 360 from 720p to 1080p.

Sony Responds to Microsoft's HD Bid (via IGN)

To quote Sony from the article:

It's unfortunate that Microsoft's external HD-DVD drive will not enhance the experience at all for the gamer. Sony realizes that to truly take gaming into the next generation requires a larger data format for both games and movies. PS3 uses the Blu-ray format for gaming, giving developers 50 GB of high-definition storage on a single disc, while Microsoft's 9 GB DVD gaming format is an obstacle for storing HD content. Furthermore, Microsoft's announced HD games patch is really just a compatibility feature -- upscaling lower-resolution content does not make it Full HD (1080p), something that PS3 can do out of the box.

Yes, it is unfortunate that Microsoft didn't tack an extra $200 onto the 360 and force people to buy something not required to experience FUN games. The only thing a 50 GB disc will do is promote lazy programmers. Come on... 50 GB for a game? Sure, I can see that becoming an asset in a few year, but seriously... we have only just started using DVDs for games! (Well, for PCs, at least. I guess they're been using DVDs for consoles for 5 years now.) The fact is, the general consensus is that games do NOT need 50 GB of space and, if they do, someone's being a little too lax on the compression. Big discs do NOT equal big games... as in, the time it takes to finish the game. People have been saying this for a LONG TIME. This is just Sony tooting their Blu-Ray horn.

That last bit about the game patch being just a compatibility feature? A lie. Maybe they spoke too soon before hearing all the details, or maybe they're just being complete morons. The "patch" to play games in HD allows the 360 to output at true 1080p, upscaling games that are NOT 1080p, and playing 1080p games without changing anything. Sorry, Sony, but this is exactly what the PS3 does.

As they say, trying to make yourself look good by smearing the competition is a sign of weakness. It tells people that you have nothing special to contribute, so you try to make their accompishments look not so great in an effort to make your achievements shine. (Isn't that right, Apple? I'm-a-PC-I'm-a-Mac, hoho. I change the channels on those commercials. Their precious little Macs can't carry the weight on their own, so they have to resort to smearing PCs. Riiight.)

Wow, wow, wow... where do I even begin? Consider this another entry in Sony Says, but, man, I don't know where to start! Sony just needs to NOT talk in public and shut up. They're just... I have never seen any company so bent on self-destruction!

Let me just start at the beginning. I Digg every anti-Sony article that comes around, not just because I agree with it, but because I want to keep track of it. I even Digg pro-Sony news, so I can find them easily after a few weeks. Let me go through all the articles I've found this week:

Gran Turismo HD: The $1000 Game (Digg)

Like the article says, there's buying Horse Armor for 2 bucks in Oblivion, and then there's Gran Turismo HD. In a nutshell, since I have so much to cover: Gran Turismo is a racing game. So far, there are 4 games, I believe, with a 5th coming out "soon". Gran Turismo HD is a remake of Gran Turismo 4 into 1080p. It's being sold in two versions. There's Gran Turismo HD Premium, which includes 30 cars and two race tracks, with 30 more cars and two more tracks available at a later date. Then there's Gran Turismo HD Classic, which... prepare yourself!

Gran Turismo HD Classic comes with NO cars and NO tracks. You are essentially buying a menu system! There will be 750 cars you can buy online for 50 cents to a dollar. There will be 50 tracks you can buy online for $1.50 to $4.50. If you want to buy a complete Gran Turismo HD set, it will cost you far more than the gaming console itself! Does ANYONE see the sense in this? Selling individual cars for a game that won't work without them? Now, see, I think if the Premium game came with all the cars and tracks, then it might be something worth doing! If you don't WANT all the cars, for some reason, then get the Classic for really cheap and buy the few you want. But the way they're doing it, is that you're going to want/have to buy cars for BOTH versions!

This isn't like buying completely and totally optional armor for your horse, this is making you buy the horses online. Heck, it's making you buy GAME FUNCTIONALITY online. It's a RACING game! Okay, enough time on this... next!

Sony's Tokyo Game Show Keynote Speech was a "trainwreck" (Digg)

Title pretty much says it all. So much to go into, so you should read the articles yourself. Suffice it to say that Sony talked forever about nothing, and people were getting bored (now, a regular gamer might've gotten bored of this news, too, but these are all game developers and people who should have gotten something out of this speech) and were playing their NINTENDO DSes during the keynote! How much better can that get? Sony talked long and hard about absolutely nothing. Whispers among the attendees was that it was worse... WORSE!... than E3.

Sony doing all they can to sink the PS3 (Digg)

More of a blog rumor than anything else, when it comes to the point where there will be less copies of games in circulation than there will be CONSOLES. Less games than consoles? Can you even begin to IMAGINE what that would be like? 500,000 consoles. 100,000 copies of each game. There will be people without the games they wanted their PS3s for. But, hey! Sony did tell us that people would buy the PS3 regardless of the games! Remember that? I sure do! I didn't actually expect them to TRY IT!! But, like I said, it's a blog rumor with no sources quoted, so take it with a grain of salt. I haven't seen any complimentary articles. But, seriously? It wouldn't be something beyond Sony to do.

Fans say the PS3 lacks a "wow!" factor (Digg)

Everyone! Meet the Nintendo Wii. True 3D-space motion sensing technology. New, better, intuitive games that promise a world of fun for a price that won't make you go into shock. Free online multiplayer experience. Current status with the fans: Very wow!!

Meet the Microsoft Xbox 360. Bigger, better, stronger, smarter Xbox with a redesigned online multiplayer experience. High definition graphics that blow your socks off. Cheap for what you get, and what you get is a very solid console with an ever growing population of nice games. Current status with the fans: "Plain" wow!!

Enter the PlayStation 3. Bigger, better, stronger, smarter PlayStation 2, with a redesigned...... uhm. Controller. That they copied from Nintendo when, after they made fun of it, they noticed fans loved it. Er, anyway! High definition graphics that blow your socks off. INCREDIBLY EXPENSIVE for what you get, yet they would have you think it's cheap for a Blu-Ray player. Very problem-ridden console during development with an ever dwindling population of games. Current status with the fans: Very NOT COOL!

Sony is a bunch of idiots (Digg)

Sony, meet the Nintendo DS. DS? Meet Sony. The official sales numbers prove the Nintendo DS has done everything Nintendo needed and wanted it to do, reaching out to new and old gamers alike, having something for everyone, even people who have never played games before! They have expanded the gaming market like never before and are seriously pumping out the units with no slack in sight. Over 22 million units sold.

Sony, on the other hand, insists the complete opposite. They insist the PSP is outselling the DS, and that Nintendo is, infact, LOSING market share. They go on to say that the Playstation will eventually do what Nintendo "isn't" doing right now. Talk about your massive dellusional LIES. This just simply isn't true. It's shocking and... just... man.

Sega denies PS3 Sega backwards compatibility (Digg)

I guess Sony spoke too soon here! It seem that they promised, in their keynote speech, that the PS3 can and does read old 16-bit Sega CD games. Interesting. That could be a neat feature. Well, too bad Sega says that's not exactly true, and is still currently under just being considered. Wow. Oh, Sony, what a tangled web we weave...

So that's the latest dirt on Sony.

Even still, people claim that there will be regular street going fans who are totally oblivous to the fact that Sony is going nuclear and there will still be enough people to buy all the PS3s. Well, that's possible, but you realize that all this stuff we're hearing is the same thing that game developers are hearing, right? Sure, there are some companies who are bound to make games JUST for the PlayStation, but there are many, many, MANY developers who think Sony is too expensive, too hard to code for, and not worth the time and money.

So, hey. Yes, maybe the regular person on the street still thinks the PlayStation name is the best thing since bread and butter, but what happens when there won't be any games for it? What happens when the games they DO have are already available on the CHEAPER Xbox?

Smart people will NOT buy a PS3. Dumb people will buy a PS3, but will be sorely disappointed with the lack of games available. (Heck, they'll be sorely disappointed with the lack of CONSOLES available!) That's my prediction. Just when you think Sony can't sink lower... they do... and they sap credibility each and every time. Sony is losing, people! I have no ghastly idea why anyone would want to buy one, I'm sorry.

Hello, my name is GermanShepherd... and I'm addicted to the internet.
What? Yes! That's my real name! Be quiet!

Could you be addicted to the internet?

Okay, what's with the sudden influx of so-called "addictions"? It's just... crazy. I guess you COULD be addicted to the internet, just like you COULD be addicted to, well... anything! People just have no self-control, geez, and then the money-pinching "doctors" like to rush in and classify it as some sort of disease that you need to pay to get help for.

According to the dumb article, the "symptoms" of "Internet Addiction Disorder" are:

• A need for an ever increasing amount of time on the internet to achieve satisfaction or a dissatisfaction with the continued use of the same amount of time on the internet.
• Two or more withdrawal symptoms developing within days, weeks, or up to a month after a reduction or cessation of internet use. These include distress or impairment of social, personal, or occupational functioning such that there is psychological or psychomotor agitation such as anxiety, restlessness, irritability, trembling, tremors, voluntary or involuntary typing movements of the fingers, obsessive thinking, fantasies, or dreams about the internet.
• Internet engagement to relieve or avoid withdrawal symptoms.
• Internet often accessed more often or for longer periods of time than was intended.
• A significant amount of time is spent in activities related to internet use (for example, internet surfing).
• Important social, occupational, or recreational activities eliminated or reduced due to internet use.
• Risk of loss of a significant relationship, job, educational, or career opportunity due to excessive internet use.
• Internet engagement used as a way of escaping problems or relieving feelings of guilt, helplessness, anxiety, or depression.
• Concealing from or lying to family members about the extent of internet use.
• Internet user driven to financial difficulty due to incurring unaffordable internet fees.

Hahaha, I'm laughing right now. A need for ever increasing time on the 'net? Dreams about the internet? Come oooon. This is insane. It's like this is some serious problem. Speaking honestly, I use the internet all day long, but I wouldn't fall under any of these "symptoms". If I had a choice, I could easily stop using the internet right now and go do something else that I had to do. Now, if it was TAKEN from me, that's another story. I don't know about you, but there's only so many things on the internet that I can do before I just get bored.

I'm going to level with you. If you're "addicted" to the internet, and simply can't pull yourself away from it... then you need to get a life. This is just as bad as people who just "can't stop playing" World of Warcraft or something. It's all some stupid mind game propogated by the doctors who profess to care about everyone's well-being. (They scare because they care? ...and then they charge you a mortgage for their help.)

Using this list, it seems I am, however, addicted to:

• Music
• Food
• Nintendo
• Gaming News
• Stargate
• Reading
• Animorphs
• Wolves
• Peace and Quiet
• Making Money
• Sleep
• Showers
• Movies
• Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
• World of Warcraft! Hahaha...
• ...and anything else I like?!

Wow. I'm addicted to lots of things. Someone please help me!

...because I got my PS2 today.

This is really odd. For as long as I can remember, I've always gone "ew! playstation!" My obsession of wolves has forced me to turn my back on everything I ever stood for, and now there's an abomination sandwiched between my NES and Xbox, looking quite smug.

It was dirty, and looked like it was dropped out of the back of a moving vehicle. The controllers were indeed "new", but they don't appear to have any rumble feature and they're some sort of weird off-brand that look like Dual Shocks... without the big ol' SONY on the top of them. I guess they'll do, but I was under the impression they were official. Oh well. I can live without rumble, I think. I've always turned it down on my Xbox, anyway.

The drive seems to work, too. It played a PS1 game I've had for ages, it played audio CDs, and it played a movie DVD without any trouble, so that's... REALLY good. So it looks like a big black piece of junk, but it was cheap and it works! So I can't complain. Sound and video sounded and looked normal. Controllers were responsive, though somewhat stiff. (Might be because they're new.)

I opted out of having it modified to play pirated discs. I just don't dig physically and irreversably changing something on my consoles. I even checked to make sure it didn't play a PS1 game I'd copied a long time ago. It didn't play it! So yeah, can't complain. For $38.50, this thing cost less than most GAMES do.

What I CAN complain about, though, is the PS1 memory card I bought from someone on Amazon. Not through the auctions, but... that weird marketplace thing. The item was SONY Playstation Memory Card. Note the "SONY" there. (While I don't like Sony being stamped everywhere, I do prefer my gaming tools to be all official.) The picture had Sony stamped all over a gray brick. It was supposed to be an official card. Turns out it's also some sort of weird off-brand memory card with absolutely no brand on it. It almost looks like a Lego sticking out from the console, it looks that cheap. But... it seems to work, and it was cheap, so...

So, hey, Amazon... where's my Okami? It's been preparing to ship for too long now! Lucky for you I can't cancel the order now, or I'd run to Walmart and pick it up there. Urrrgh. At least I have the latest Wheel of Time book to keep me busy. 800 pages of text barely larger than what you're reading here. ...and, of course, I've got Animorphs and a bunch of movies and a room to clean and generally enough stuff to do. I've been sick the last few days, so I've been lounging around. Yay.

...oh, and does anyone know why PS2s have a random firewire port? It's like... just... right there, out in the open, and I can't think of any possible purpose it can serve except for Sony to say "hey, look! ours has firewire! we rock!"

(Oh, and Amazon just sent me a shipping notification for Okami! Yay! It'll be here on the 28th, boo... maybe it'll get here earlier than they estimate, though, yay! But probably not, boo...)

In a shocking turn of events, Sony has confirmed a price drop for the PlayStation 3 from $515 to $410... and only in Japan! So, you hear that, folks? The United States is still cursed with the dreaded "five-hundred-and-ninety-nine US dollars" and Europe... well... they still don't even get to buy one.

The price drop is ONLY for the low-end version. No WiFi, no memory card slots, and less harddrive space. On the bright side, they DID add HDMI ports to the low-end version, now. So you can actually benefit from everything Sony's been ranting and raving about when you buy a low-end.

Considering that there will only be 100,000 total units in Japan (400,000 in Americas), and that I think it was 80% of that number is going to be the HIGH END versions (without the price cut), it will be simply impossible to find one. It was already going to be impossible to find one.

This is incredibly un-Sony-like. The fact that they dropped the price BEFORE release, after being such a moron about the entire thing since E3, show one of a few possibilities:

1) They've wisened up to the fact that nobody wants to spend that much on something that has no noticable difference from what they've sold last generation, and are trying to be a little nicer about it. (Unlikely!)

2) There's something wrong with the PlayStation 3 that they're not telling us. (Possible.)

3) They're terrified of the Nintendo Wii having such an incredible foothold in Japan. (Bingo!)

I don't see this as any threat to anyone else. May Nintendo and Microsoft reign supreme over the videogame industry with their proclamations of fun and affordability! Long live the Wii60!

One of the best moments in eBay is the excuse I was given by someone who didn't want to pay for the auction they won. Remember? The one who claimed their 2 year old kid bid on the item because they were learning how to use the mouse? (Sadly, I am not joking in the least bit.)

Well, I've got two more awesome moments to share with you.

It was a dark and stormy night. I was checking my email before going to bed, just to make sure nobody had anything that absolutely could not wait until the morning. Lo! Behold! Someone was asking where the heck their item was. Oh, like I don't see this everyday. Okay, let me check to see if you paid... la-de-da, oh? Hmm. I don't show signs of payment. My system of checking for payment relies on three to four different places to check for payment, so when I show nothing in my database, you probably didn't pay. But, being the nice customer representative I am, I assume the mistake lies with me, and I reply that "hello, I don't seem to show record of you paying for this item. if you did pay, and it's not showing up, could you tell me if it was paypal or a money order? it may have been lost in the mail."

The next day, I wake up... and check my email. Hey! Look! An email from that one guy! Finally, I can get this thing over with. What did they tell me? "Oh, I didn't send payment." That's it. No "sorry", no "oops", no "I'll send that right away". Just "oh", and nothing else. Wow, where you expecting me to ship the item without getting some moo-lah first? What a creep.

Ah, the next moment. It just happened today. Let it serve as a warning for all you young pups wanting to get out there and buy things. This guy was a noob. 6 positive feedbacks. No negatives. He's just new. He pays... well... more than he should have for a pack of old radios. The description very clearly stated that 1) the radios were dirty, 2) they were UNTESTED, 3) you were buying these AS IS. He wins the auction, he pays, we ship, he gets them... he tests them... uh-oh, I guess they didn't work, because the next message from him was: "Hey! These were dirty! These don't work! I'm not buying from you anymore!"

So I respond with: "The auction was clearly stated as untested, as is. It also stated that they were in storage and required cleaning. Feel free to buy somewhere else!" What else could I do? Honestly, with the sheer depressing amount of total morons on eBay, I'm not sorry at all to see someone "take their business elsewhere". I like to laugh at them. So anyway, after that, he replied with: "These weren't worth the price I paid. I'm not buying from you anymore."

Ohhh, I see. So, you, for some reason, paid as much as you did because.......why? It's somehow my fault you spent this colossal amount of $$$ on an item being sold AS IS? Hahahahaha!! Money in my pocket, and a lesson learned to not spend that much on junk that's UNTESTED and AS IS. I didn't do anything wrong, you know. I just assumed you thought they were worth that much. It's not like I was actively cheating you or anything.

So... moral of these stories: Always pay for auctions you win, and make sure you've paid before you ask where the item is. Also, always be sure to read the item description before pouring mega bucks into something that may turn out to be something you didn't expect. More often than not, descriptions are NOT worded to take advantage of you, and, you know... they actually provide information WORTH READING!

In light of latest developments in my little world of interactive entertainment, here is a revised list of TVs I am currently perusing:

Samsung LN-S4095D, around $2000 new on eBay:

• 40" widescreen LCD
• 1920x1080 pixel resolution
• 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p
• 2 HDMI, 2 Component, 2 S-Video, 2 Composite, 2 R/F and 1 VGA input

Samsung LN-S3251D, around $1000 new on eBay:

• 32" widescreen LCD
• 1366x768 pixel resolution
• 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i
• 2 HDMI, 1 Component, 2 S-Video, 2 Composite, 2 R/F and 1 VGA input

Samsung LN-S2738D, around $500 new on eBay:

• 27" widescreen LCD
• 1366x768 pixel resolution
• 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i
• 2 HDMI, 1 Component, 1 S-Video, 1 Composite, 2 R/F and 1 VGA input

Yes. That's a 40 incher up there. The smallest 1080p TV I've been able to find, that isn't way more than I want to spend. Heck, $2000 is almost too much. Man, if I bought that, I'd feel guilty for spending so much on a TV. On the other hand, it would be unbelievably incredible! I could even use it for computer monitor use. I believe DVI can be converted to HDMI (according to Google, at least), but if that fails, then there's always VGA. It would be a 40" widescreen computer monitor that can play literally every video signal you throw at it!

The downside? It's gargantuan. It's massive. It's really, really big. It's also huge. It would take up the entire desk extension I made. Granted, it's thin, so I could put things in front of it... but it's REALLY BIG! I can't believe I'm even considering this. TVs aren't something I've ever actually considered a necessity. I guess they still aren't, but, see, I have to get a TV that could be used as a computer monitor, also. Then I would be getting twice the use out of it for the forseeable future.

...and then there's the price. I don't know how much mainstream TVs cost. I've never paid much attention. I've seen expensive TVs at Walmart and Best Buy that were... well, total crap. Off brand monstrosities that I wouldn't trust if my life depended on it. (Well, maybe I would if I was going to die otherwise... but you get the idea.) Granted, I've never seen a Samsung display in action. Well, I have, technically... I believe they're being used as Xbox 360 kiosks right now. They're really nice. The 32 inch model is #1 on the PCWorld.com Top 10 32" TVs list.

It would be 1080p. It would be something that would last a very long time. It seems that video equipment is peaking out at 1080p, right now. Computer monitors, TV screens, HD media... it's all leveling out at 1080p. Maybe, just maybe, it'll stay 1080p for a while. I'm sure it won't stay there forever, but I'm sure (I hope) it doesn't progress as fast as computer processors.

Okay, points for getting the 40":

• It's big. Almost too big, but if I ever move into a house of my own, it won't matter.
• It's 1920x1080. The resolution I use on my computers right now.
• 1080p ensures the TV would be useful for longer.
• It can double as a computer monitor.

Points for getting the 32"/27":

• It's cheap.
• It's small. Seems to compliment the size of my room.
• It's 720p, which may be good enough for me.
• It can double as a computer monitor, but at a lower resolution than what I use.

Apparently, Microsoft doesn't plan on offering native 1080p in their games, and they don't see their third-party developers doing that, either. Although it does remain a possibility in the future. Right now, the upgrade only enables the 360 to output at 1080p. If what you're playing isn't natively 1080p, then it will upscale the resolution if it needs to. Seems as if they'll sort of stretch the video to make it 1080p, if you can view that. So... I don't know.

Looks like I'll have to wait and see what develops over the next two months.