Unusual interest in survival

I've never been a big fan of the survival game(or movie) genre. I just never really got into it. This is especially so in with the Resident Evil franchise. I'd seen the first incarnation of the series on the GameCube and it never impressed me. The controls looked kind of clunky and the aspect made it look difficult to see anything.

However, Resident Evil 4 has really sparked my interest. After a few incredibly high reviews from Gamespy, Palgn and IGN with comments such as "The best graphics on any console so far" I'm putting firmly at the top of my list of wanted games.

Admittedly it was watching a couple of in game video footage that sealed the deal for me. The game seemed to flow so smoothly from live action to cut scene that it presented a cinematic gaming experience.

From IGN

There are no pre-rendered sequences in Resident Evil 4, but you wouldn't know it
when watching the opening cinematic, which quickly and conveniently brings you
up-to-date on the situation. Always a stickler for presentation, Capcom has
really outdone itself with this game, going the extra mile to deliver you truly
gorgeous, beautifully choreographed cut-scenes that drive the story. What's
more, because these sequences all use the game engine, they're seamless.

The only problem is with the lack of Gamecube support in the Austalian market finding a copy to buy is a almost impossible task.

Plans for the Black Screen to Hit Australian Stores

After being disappointed that Sony's DVP-CX995V a 400 Disc SACD/DVD Player wouldn't be coming to Australia because our market is too small. (Apparently the UK market is also too small as the player is only made with support of NTSC discs, so even if you were to import one you'd have to get rid of your PAL dvd collection)
So it was with hesitation that I emailed Sony Central asking if the Sony HCS-W90 was due to be shipped here.

To my surprise the screen is expected to hit Australian shores around christmas, no word on the expected cost (although the screen does cost USD$2000 in the US). The screen is such a big innovation in the world of projectors because it allows the screen to be used in environments with high ambient light. This brings the projector and screen combination in direct competition with the conventional flat screen market, making the more likely to succeed in duel purpose rooms.

The strange world of pop culture

I was browsing through a Video game store today trying to see if there were any new title's of interest on my floundering console the GameCube. Tucked away on the bottom two shelves of the Gameboy advance stand were a smattering of old titles. Still no sign of Resident Evil 4 a game recieving rave reviews (including quotes such as 'the most accomplished graphics across all consoles... ever' looks like my favorite little black box is going the way of the N64. However, back to why I started this post, I had a brief glance over the DS titles where I spied Nintendogs sitting on the coming soon shelf. As I picked up one of three versions on the shelf one of the assistants confronted me with the notion "That's going to be a huge game for the DS!". What is it about disposable pets that's so appealing. In the late nineties it was the Tamagotchi and the Furby that were the must have items. Has our society become so "convenient" that we have on demand and customisable pets to carry around in our pockets? Is it at the point where consoles are reliant on the "cutes" of patting a dog with a stylus to make a break? I think although it is one of the only "games" to fully utilise the DS interface I won't be rushing out for this one. Anyway I better get back to it, I'm sure it's about time to train the pokemon or feed the neopets.

The Next Gen Console Bickering begins (or continues).

From an article in The Age, Sony has come out with all guns blazing against the new Xbox360. Phil Harrison, executive vice-president of Sony Computer Entertainment, says PS3 will be the most powerful next-generation console.

"PlayStation 3 is going to eat up huge amounts of content. We need 50GB of storage on a disc in order to really bring those games to life. There's no way
Xbox 360 can compete because they're only using DVD."

This comes on the back of Bill Gate's comments directly challenging the PS3 release.

'The day Sony launches [the new PlayStation], and they walk right into Halo 3.'

This all seems to be a bit much for the game developers with Gabe Newell, the Founder and Managing Director of Valve, who has come out this week sheading some darkness on the light of the new consoles.

Technologically, I think every game developer should be terrified of the next generation of processors. Your existing code, you can just throw it away. It's not going to be helpful in creating next generation game titles.

Most of the problems of getting these systems running on these multicore processors are not solved. They are doctoral theses, not known implementation problems. So it's not even clear that over the lifespan of these next generation systems that they will be solved problems. The amount of time it takes to get a good multicore engine running, the Xbox 360 might not even be on the market any longer. That should scare the crap out of everybody.

Maybe it will be end of the giant consoles as we know it with the humble revolution rising from the ashes with it's plethora of downloadable back catalogue.
Unlikely I know but nothing a Big Nintendo Fan hasn't drempt of already...

The world goes mad... again

This little rant is proudly brought to you by the woman who is sueing Rockstar Games over the sexual material in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
From The Age

Gamemaker sued over hidden sex in GTA

A woman, who was upset she bought the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for her 14-year-old grandson without knowing it contained hidden, sexually explicit scenes has sued the manufacturer on behalf of consumers nationwide.
Ms Cohen said in the suit that she bought the game in late 2004 for her grandson when it was rated "M" for mature, for players 17 and older. According to the suit, she directed that it be taken away from her grandson, which was done.

Ok I haven't played the game but from the reliable review from Amyo, the basis of the story involves you leading your gang to take over the streets of San Andreas. To claim the streets you basically spend your time

running from crooked cops, starting and finishing gang wars, stealing guns from the army .....

So my gripe comes from the fact that it was perfectly fine for Ms Cohen to buy the game for her 14yo when he had to run a gang, murder cops, murder rival gang members, steal cars, steal guns, start gang wars and so on, but as soon as it has sex in the game it becomes unacceptable... surely if she was worried about her poor innocent 14 you grandson she would have bought him Mario Party.... anyway I think I might go through in Counter Strike and settle in for some wholesome Counter Terroist killing.

Morning Mini Disc Musings

As I trundle in on the bus this morning, listening to the 6th album on my MD I wondered about the slow desuction of the format.Having long been a supporter of Sony's MD format my recent move to the NetMD and HiMD technologies has been a surprisingly beneficial. The NetMD technology makes the previously tedious task of transferring music to a disc a breeze (even if, as previously mentioned, the SonicStage program is unfriendly). It's amazing that this didn't make the MD the portable music device the IPOD now is. Guess the marketing machine at Apple was running a little smoother than Sony's.

The irony of commercial radio

It's rare that I'm listening to a station other than triplej but on my way home I was station surfing (because my MD deck in the car has stopped reading discs all together, but that's another story). I stumbled across one of the marginally less main stream stations and the were playing the latest single by Brisbane band 'Butterfingers'. They have a very catchy Australian brand Hip Hop , often with very funky back beats. They made it into the hottest 100 last year with 'Yo Mama'. But I digress, the radio station was attempting to play 'FIGJAM' (if you can remember back to school you'll work out what it means) the trouble is with the nature of 'Butterfingers' lyrics they ended up cutting out more of the song than they played. If you going to play the song you're likely to offend your listener base regardless whether you blank out the swearing or not. You may as well play a warning, leave the song intact and just enjoy the awesome wordplay... Oh well enough ranting, back to triplej.

Sony not the only ones to have black screens

Screen Innovations have introduced the latest convenience in home and commercial entertainment with the new Mirage Screen, a new front projection screen product that allows users to see clearly in high-brightness environments. This new technology represents a true breakthrough as it allows viewers to enjoy a realistic home theater experience in environments other than darkened rooms.

Sony unveiled a similar technology back in November of last year, but the technology has yet to reach the commercial market.

Mirage revolutionizes screen technology, letting customers enjoy the benefits of big-screen entertainment in virtually any setting, transforming home theater into home entertainment.Set for official launch at the Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association EXPO (CEDIA) on September 9, 2005 in Indianapolis, Indiana, the Mirage Screen offers 10 times greater contrast than standard front projection screens.“We are pleased to introduce to the market a new product that offers consumers better technology, with a creative flair at an affordable price,” said Ryan Gustafson, president of Screen Innovations.“The key to quality home entertainment is always comfort. Now consumers will enjoy the best performance from a product that fits any lifestyle.”
How does it work?
The Screen Innovations Mirage Screen, with optics by DNP, features a patented high-contrast filter that covers 60% of the screen surface. This filter allows the projected image to be reflected by the screen and effectively absorbs incidental light from other angles from such sources as windows and room lighting. As a result, the screen is virtually unaffected by ambient light.
Screen Innovations Mirage Screen Product Highlights:
• Optical Front Projection
• Projection in Brightly-lit Rooms
• 10x higher contrast than standard front projection screens
• 2x brighter images
• Compatible with all LCD, DLP, and LCOS projectors
• Screen sizes available in 1” diagonal increments:
4:3 60”-100”16:9 60”-120”

New Music

I was lucky enough to catch a concert on Friday night from Topology and Tyrone at the Brisbane Powerhouse.

This was on the back of purchasing the Palimpsest CD. It is the debut solo project from singer from Tyrone Noonan.

The concert with Topology was excellent. It was an eclectic mix of contemporary songs from the likes of the Finn Brothers, the Rolling Stones and others teamed with a few original compositions all given the Topology work over. I don't think "Satisfaction" will ever be the same again. It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening and event. Having never heard Topology before I was impressed with their own blend of classical flair. My favourite piece from them was the composition from Robert Davidson (the double bassist) for Viola, Sax and Double Bass. I guess it was more of a quartet of instruments in the end than a trio as the Double Bass was also used for percussion.

Having trouble finding a storage solution for your DVDs

Sick of having to get up, pick a DVD from the shelf and put it in your player? Having trouble finding somewhere for all you DVDs to live? Sony may have the answer for you... the soon to be released Sony DVP-CX995V 400 DVD Disc Explorer.

The Sony DVP-CX995V 400-disc DVD/Super-Audio CD (SA-CD) changer up-scales video to High-Definition (1080i/720p) pixels resolution and transmits high quality audio through a High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI). HDMI connections allow for the transfer of uncompressed digital signals to other HDMI-equipped components such as HD televisions.

The changer's re-designed Disc Explorer(TM) on-screen graphic user interface provides intuitive access to the expansive disc library making it easy for users to locate their favorite movies and SA-CD music.

The product features Sony's Precision Cinema Progressive(TM) circuitry, Dolby Digital(R) and DTS 5.1 channel outputs and compatibility with DVD-RW/-R/+RW/+R, MP3, JPEG, CD-RW/-R, VCD and SVCD playback. Additional features include multi-disc resume (40 discs), custom parental controls (400 discs) and playback memory (400 discs). The player also offers coaxial and optical digital outputs and a universal remote control.

I already have one of Sony's 300 disc CD beasts which is quite handy. I've recently been trying to listen to a few of my older CDs and a result have just been listening to my entire collection on random. Sure beats having to pick which CD to play next (and always picking your current favourite)
The upscaling would be also be a welcomed feature with most new displays (including the projectors I'm looking at) supporting at least 720p.
The unit has a RRP of US$799.95 so it will probably be a heafty piece of kit... but if you keep in mind the price of all the stands to keep your DVDs on it's not that bad after all.

Cool stuff (that isn't technology based!)

While I was filling in time at Syndey airport I was having a browse around Live Play that stocks heaps of great stuff from Top3 by Design. They have some of the coolest gear around (and yes there is stuff with technology there). However some of the most unique gear is notechno based. For example check out these light sculptures:-

Wall mount horizontal or vertical to provide low level background room lighting.
Create any mood with your own unique photographs using interchangeable slides,
simply slot your images into place. Also looks great leaning against the wall.

And if you've only got a few CDs to keep organised these would have to be on your wish list!

And if you want to have a TV that doesn't look anything like a conventional TV why not invest in a Cube TV.

Brionvega presents its new Cuboglass transparent, reflective crystal cube shaped TV. Due to its unique and elegant design, the Cuboglass will complement any interior design.
The history of the Brionvega Cubo TV began in 1969 with the Black ST 201 model. This unmistakably shaped TV was signed by Mario Bellini and became a classic of that era and is on permanent display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

However, $1320 is probably a little much for a 34cm TV but it does look cool.

Flight Grumbling

What is it about people and airports that causes them to loose all respect for people's personal space?
It's bad enough that I've already been at the Airport for 3 hours, after returning my hire discovering that I wasn't on a flexable fair.
I thought at least it would give me a chance to catch up on a few dvds. However about one quarter Of the way through 'House of flying daggers' seems one person decided there wasn't enough time ahead being crammed in next to some one.
The airport lounge is less than a third full, but apparent the seat next to me was the best. this wouldn't be so bad accept for the endless edging closer trying to watch my laptop.
I must admit this guy must be one of the luckiest flyers on earth... Enjoying the cattle class experience!
Argh.. now his falling asleep on my chair!
At least being a techno geek I can belittle him on the web (whilst feel good inc.) before he even boards... Oh well time to find a new seat near a power point!

New Music

My favourite track at the moment is from Perth DJ FDEL. The track is 'Ladies and Gentlemen' of his Audiofdelity release. Every time I hear the track it just makes me want to get up and dance. The track is very funky and had a great bass line.

It's one of the few CDs I've bought recently. One of the other big albums is the new release for Gorillaz.

Demon Days is a brilliant album although takes a few listens to get into the entire album, much in the same manner as their first album. Feel Good Inc. however is a winning track from the very first listen.

Is Sony's SonicStage the worst digital music program

I've recently upgraded my portible MiniDisc player to a Hi-MD compatible player. My last MD Player met an un-timely demise one day on the way to work when it decided that it nolonger wanted be a portable music device but a paperweight.
My only problem with the whole system is the SonicStage that is used to rip and transfer tracks to the MD unit. It's doesn't recognise new CDs on insertion, using the CD info update will update track names but not the number of tracks. So if you start with a disc of 10 tracks and then insert a CD of 11 tracks it will still only recognises 10 tracks. As a result you end up restarting the application everytime you want to insert a new CD. Even if there is a way to do it the process is not intuitive and as a result frustrating.
The transfer process to MD is a welcome change to the real time transfer from CD for most MD decks but it's not the best software to transfer your CD library.

Whether or not to project...

After considering changing my speaker setup to include 6 identical speakers, I've also started looking around at some options for a larger picture. As a result I've started auditioning a few projectors in the sub $4000 (AUD) price bracket. I'd seen a few reviews and decided to check out a few that had rated highly.

The projector that impressed the most out of the three was the Sony VPL-HS50, the picture (mainly where detail level) was concerned impressed me the most. The one thing that made this unit stand out from the rest was every time I looked at it I could do nothing but enjoy the movie. Every time I tried to look for artifacts or flaws in the picture I always had to catch myself realizing I'd just started watching the movie. In my opinion the picture was more watchable than Infocus 7210 (which we started to audition but found the image difficult to watch for long periods) or as detailed as a JVC D-ILA.
This is not to say that the other two projectors are bad, far from it. I think it would be fairly safe to say that no matter which projector you selected of the three you'd be happy with the picture.
After seeing the projectors in a few different environments I discovered that choice would mainly be what time of environment you would be using the projector. I found that (despite the specifications) the Hitachi PJ-TX100 gave the brightest picture and could be viewed in quite high ambient light conditions. The Sony VPL-HS50 was the darkest of the three and was really only suited to a darkened room but gave the best detail levels. The Panasonic AE 700 sat somewhere in the middle.
As far as negatives were concerned I found that due to the brightness of the Hitachi's picture it occasionally became washed out. The Panasonic displayed the most evident vertical banding, although it wasn't always noticeable, it was visible on some of the units that I saw. The only problem that I noticed with the Sony was a slight problem with jagged edges of some objects but this was only noticeable when the unit was displaying a 150" image, on all the screens around 100" or less the problem disappears.
As I said earlier my pick would be the Sony VPL-HS50, the picture that it displayed was so involving you just wanted to break out the popcorn and keep watching. No matter how often I tried to look for faults I was always draw back to enjoying the picture. Even when displayed on a 150" screen with a viewing distance of 3m it was a pleasure to watch. However, if you are looking for a projector less dependent on you room being completely dark, moving to the Panasonic would not result in any great picture quality sacrifices.

Blown away by the Sony HS-50

I've recently become interested in setting up a projector system and I've been occasionally having a look at the few different models around under the $4k (AUD) price tag.

So far I've caught the Panasonic PT-AE700 and Hitachi PJTX100 in action, although I was disappointed with the poor setups that they were afforded. In almost all cases they are in highly lit rooms. In any case I was farly impressed with the pictures from both projectors but spent most of the time deciding how much the various artifacts that each one displayed would detract from my viewing experience.

However I caugh a review of the Sony VPL-HS50 where I discovered that this LCD projector has a Contrast ration of 6000:1 (yes it's an LCD projector).

Finally Arrived!

My new and very shinny red Pro-ject multi award winning Debut III turntable has finally made it (actually it's been here for a week but I haven't got around to blogging it). The people at International Dynamics have been excellent and I can't praise them enough for all their help over course of the order.

One of the first discs that got look in was Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings - Dap Dippin' a disc Valavien picked up for me a few weeks ago.

It seemed appropriate to have the layed back funky tunes kicking out from the new deck.

The only thing I have to deal with now is where it's going to live... as I discovered in between my speakers and TV has a few too many magnetic fields...