V for Vendetta

I just saw this in an all digital DLP theater. The tech looked great! The movie wasn't bad either. I came into this film knowing nothing about it or the comic it is based on.
- amc uses multiple projectors. While you are sitting around waiting, they play the ads on this horrible low rez projector. You could really see the pixels (major screen door effect). I was getting worried that this was what pro DLP was like. It looked like 480p blown way up. Then right before the real trailers start it switched over to the "real" DLP projector. They even do this funny film melting DLP promo. WOW! Now that is pro DLP! Btw the silent hill trailer looked VERY GOOD. It might be the best video game movie yet (ok I guess thats not actually saying a whole lot).
-It needs more knife fights. More Knife Time!!!
- good performaces all around, good Wachowski writing. Production values look good for the 50 million they spent on it.
- Natalie needs her hair.
- Some of the political points get hammered into you over and over and over. Ok we get it! I think about 20 min of editing would have helped the film a lot. - Overall it wasn't quite what I was expecting but I still enjoyed it and made for some good discussion aftewards. Just remember this really isn't an action film.

film 7/10
DLP 10/10

Burnout Revenge (X360)

I spent some quality time with this title over the weekend.
- picked it up for $48 at frys
- Graphics are kicked up a notch. Explosions look quite a bit better. Incredible sense of speed. Crash mode really looks great now.
- Online is a complete blast. It plays great, smooth. I've already made a few rivals.
- Revenge is structured into classes. Each class has a good mix of events (races, crash junctions, etc) to earn medals in and to earn stars. Stars = your aggression level in the event. You increase this rating by boosting, drifting, checking traffic, takedowns, big air, etc. Sometimes you may even want to skip some shortcuts for more aggression opportunities. The highest level is 4 stars (awesome). Finally, your medal either subtracts a star (bronze), keeps it the same (silver), or adds a star (gold). To get a "perfect" on an event means not only getting a gold medal but also achieving an awesome aggression level. When you earn a certain number of stars another class is opened. To earn any of the single player achievements you have to get perfect for the entire class. I just did that for harmless and unsafe classes which took quite a few hours.
- On some races you get crash breakers. I want more of these! There's nothing quite like getting taken down, then immeidately activating your crash breaker to get instant revenge.
- burning lap tips: first I usually run through it a few times without boost just making note of all the short cuts and plotting my path. Once you get that down getting gold isn't too bad. Now some of the burning laps are really short (49 sec for gold) so getting your aggression level up is a bit tougher. Boost the entire time. Never let go of boost. Look for traffic early on to check so you can boost right at the start. Look for big air opportunities. Never let go of the boost since the longer you boost the quicker you earn aggression. If you let go (say for a turn) then it kind of resets things. Drift by applying a bit of break at the start of the turn but again never let go of the boost.
- I really like the game so far even though getting perfects can get a bit frustrating with a lot of repetition and memorization. But the good thing is once you get perfect on a burning lap you KNOW that course inside and out and that will pay off in online races.
- Local multiplayer only seems to allow 2 player split screen. I kind of wish it had at least up to 4 player split screen.

Highly recommended especially if you didn't already buy it on current gen.

A 3 month look at XBOX 360. Should you get one?

Xbox 360 has been really great for me so far and this month has made it even better.

Current games I own:
* Ghost Recon Advance Warfighter
Burnout Revenge
* Fight Night Round 3
Need for Speed Most Wanted
King Kong
Call of Duty 2
Dead or Alive 4
* Kameo
Ridge Racer 6
* Condemned
* Project Gotham Racing 3
* Perfect Dark Zero

* = finished single player

You know I've always considered myself primarily a PC gamer in the past. I pretty much buy all the consoles and loads of games but I always find myself coming back to the PC after a month or so with a new console. I only play the AAA titles that really interest me and then I'm usually right back on the computer for the majority of my gaming. I'm a big fan of FPS and I do prefer the mouse/keyboard control.

Having said that I think I've gamed on the PC all of about 1 hr total since I got my X360 back in December. Now granted that is partly due to the fact there hasn't been any killer PC titles released recently that interest me. The X360 has been getting some very top grade titles especially recently.

Don't let the Internet hype on faulty machines, etc scare you. It is all very greatly exaggerated. Just use common sense. Keep it in a well ventilated area (including power supply), don't move the console while a disc is spinning, etc. I personally know two other people who also have no issues at all (my other friends are still having issues finding the premium pack). Early lock up problems like viewing the gamer card in pgr3 while online were dashboard related bugs which have been now patched. The system isn't perfect but I wouldn't call it glitchy either. As far as fan noise goes I guess it is louder than current gen but I can't tell. I've got three 24/7 computers in the same room so I can't hear it over the pc's anyways :-)

I built my a64 with ati x800xl not 10 months ago (for quite a bit more cash too) and already my x360 looks better and plays at a better frame rate at an equivalent resolution than my pc.

I think the other big factor for me is getting that 40" LCD HDTV. Don't under estimate the impact of gaming at 1280X720 with 40" widescreen with a nice dd5.1 sound system. Trust me, it's hard to go back to even our nice 20" dell 2001fp. It makes a bigger difference than you think.

I've really enjoyed the games so far and the quality just keeps getting better with recent releases like fight night round 3, graw, burnout revenge, and very soon Oblivion and far cry (must buy!). further out you've got Gears of war! Then you also have the incredible live integration, live arcade (geowars! and sf2 and Texas holdem poker soon), playable demos (I would not have considered buying FNR3 if it wasn't for the excellent demo), and those darn addictive achievements/gamer score.

Also, don't forget the great media capabilities like streaming music and photos. Add HD video to the list if you've got a MCE PC. The x360 has become my center piece for providing hdtv content to my HDTV: games, dvd progressive scan movies, local broadcast HDTV tv shows recorded on my MCE and streamed over my network to the x360, and HD WMV files like the entire terminator 2 movie (only $10 at DeepDiscountDVD).

For me the decision was simple. I pretty much buy all the consoles. Now if you only plan to get one next gen console then the decision gets tougher. I would wait at least until march 15 when sony is suppose to make some big ps3 announcements. If the ps3 gets pushed back to xmas or even next year then I see no reason to wait. Get the x360 now. Enjoy nextgen gaming now because make no mistake it has arrived. By next year you will probably have the budget to get the ps3. Besides you can justify it by saying it's a "cheap" blu ray movie player oh and it also plays games :-)
If the ps3 is still going to hit the spring date (even if it is only in japan) then I would wait. At least you'll have a lot more hard facts to compare the two consoles and make a more informed decision.

So far I've felt it's been worth the $400. Also, check frys ad often (wed, fri)! You can almost get every major x360 release for $45-50. I got FNR3, GRAW and burnout revenge for $48 each. The Outfit which comes out this week is onsale for $50. You can even just buy it at best buy (which gets it a day earlier than frys usually) and just bring in the ad to price match. Gamestop sometimes runs a buy 2 get 1 free on used games. Also, check out gamefly.com for more used x360 games.

If you can't afford an HDTV and the x360 you might want to wait a bit. I finished a few games on the x360 before I got my hdtv and it looked and played great. But when I got the hdtv I felt like I got a new console all over again.

I highly recommend the X360 (premium only, tard pack is a rip off).

UPDATE: 3/15/06
Sony has just announched that they are delaying the ps3 world wide launch until november so might as well go pick up a X360 now.

- PS3 delayed until nov
- global launch in nov. only 1 million units and another million in the following month. SHORTAGES!
- lots of psp integration stuff, psone emulator on psp - you download and play the games off of memory stick
- full backwards compatibility with ps1 and ps2 and upscale to HD
- lol final dev kits aren't even out yet (not until june). Spring release HAH!
- PlayStation Network Platform - live like service. basic (can you say silver) service is free.
- 60 gb hd required, linux

Ghost Recon Advance Warfighter (X360)

These are some early impressions of the game. I'll be updating this post as I get further in the game.

- I played a couple of hours single player(about 4 missions including the training one)
- wow, really nice graphics, the level of detail is simply amazing, good explosions with really good sound.
- Pretty steep learning curve but a very well designed, intuitive, consistent interface. Read the manual since not everything is covered in the training mission. After about 1 hour you'll get the hang of things.
- Great dense urban setting. Lots of action and shooting combined with some tactical aspects like deploying your squad like in the Brothers in Arms games but doesn't require the strict suppressive fire/flank structure. You also get to deploy unmanned drones to scout out the area. Besides commanding your squad at certain times you can control vehicles (tanks, helicopters) in a similar fashion giving them orders to attack, move to a specific position, or rally at your location. Nothing quite like sending in an apache to destroy armor and infantry when you are up against overwhelming odds.
- Best hud yet with lots of info. You can toggle on/off the colored outlines on people.
- default view is 3rd person over the shoulder. You can also switch to first person view (but no gun model). 3rd person works just fine.
- You can't just run and gun. Cover is your friend. One of the best cover/hug wall/popup/look around corner/shoot systems yet. You can go prone.
- Seamless mission structure. All the missions are connected and you usually get moved around by helicopter speaking of which....
- you get to kill hordes of baddies using the side mounted mini gun on the helicopter.
- continue points within the levels so if you die you don't have to completely start over. So far it hasn't been frustrating.
- amazing draw distance that goes on forever.
- stick with the default gun. I tried using the one with the grenade launcher and then realized you lose the scope on that gun. You only get to change weapons every so often at certain rally points.
- the aiming seems to be pretty forgiving.
- from what I've read it seems that this version of GRAW is different than all the other versions (including the pc). so basically it's an x360 exclusive.
- it's the best of tom clancy games + brothers in arms + full spectrum warrior all rolled into one.

Yeah I'm really enjoying this so far. Next Gen gaming has really arrived. Go buy it!

I was able to grab it a day early from best buy for only $48 by price matching against the wed fry's ad.

GRAW XBOX vs GRAW X360
ok I've got to briefly try GRAW on regular xbox (about 30-45min still on mission 1). Here are some impressions

- main objectives, story, and general environments are similar but everything else is different. This is a completely different game from the x360.
- pretty impressive graphics for the old xbox. 480p wide screen support. Very good draw distance but a pretty drastic detail reduction. The cityscape from the chopper definitely looks current gen, good current gen but current gen none the less.
- the hud is similar but looses a few things. first the cross com pip shows more of a slide show of what the other person is seeing instead of the nice smooth real time with cool effects that the x360 gets. Also, instead of the color outline on the targets you get just a colored diamond on the center of the targets.
- initial load times are very long but once in the mission it streams most of the data.
- in mission save points and check points
- In a lot of ways the xbox ver plays a lot more like a traditional shooter. Many of the tactical game play elements have been removed. There is more strict mission scripting and less options to the player. The game is still fun but in a more shallow way. In many respects the xbox graw feels like what you would expect from a console shooter and the x360 graw is more what you would normally find as a PC offering.
- No hide/cover mechanic. Instead you get the usual lean controls. They also added a sprint command. No going prone, only crouch.
- You only get 1 additional squad member to control. You get 3 on the x360.
- You don't get to actually control the UAV. You just deploy it to fulfill a scripted requirement and to give context to why you know where the enemies are on your hud. On the x360 you got to control the UAV location and adjust it's altitude. You fly it low for brief periods to scan the area for enemies but then it's susceptible to fire.
- The map is 2d and you can't really do anything else with it. On the x360 you can position and direct all your assets (squad, tanks, helo's) on the 3d map.
- 1st person (with the usual gun models) vs 3rd person
- when scoped on the x360 you have to hold your breath to steady your aim. Not needed on the xbox (at least with the first weapon you start with).
- no variable distance grenade toss. On x360 you have a visible meter to gauge how far to toss a grenade.

I think it's a fun game and probably worth playing but it's no where near as ground breaking in game play and graphics as the x360 version.

UPDATE (3/13/06) FINISHED single player on normal (X360)
- play time 8h 31mn 49s, score 17180, command grade A+, brotherhood grade A+, aim 15%, headshots 117, neutralized enemies 491, destroyed vehicles 37, wounds 52, healed 26, casualties by support 295, lost support elements 0, lost teammates 0, distance moved 28695.56 meter = 17.8 miles, average speed 1.45m/s
- there's one level (counter sniping) that was a bit frustrating (almost as bad as MOHAA and sometimes worse because of the checkpoint save system). At least that section is pretty short.
- when commanding armor, the tanks are on rails. You can only move them forward, back, stop and shoot. You can direct them to a specific point on the map. Everything else you command you can just have them move to a specific point on the map.
- always stick to the default weapon load out they suggest. It switches to the best weapon to use for each weapon so by them time you finish the game you've pretty much tried them all.
- You can heal your buddies (or have them heal each other) an infinite number of times (they also seem to have infinite ammo). You only get healed at specific checkpoints/mission end. Once a buddy goes down (grey box status) you have a set amount of time to patch him up (back to red status). During grey status the time is fixed no matter how much more he gets hit. If you take too long eventually he will die and you'll just have to do without him until you get a replacement (usually at end of mission).
- Fire! Fire! Once you start something on fire (usually by blowing it up) it stays on fire and creates some nice dynamic lighting and shadows.
- I really like the mostly urban settings and the focus on infantry combat and small squad tactics instead of vehicles like in some of the more recent games.

There is really good mission variety that puts you in all sorts of different roles, there are even a few surprises in the helicopter missions. I only got a bit frustrated on one sub mission. The rest seemed pretty fair. The last mission wasn't too bad (don't take position in the obvious spot, try other areas). The ending wasn't too bad but the story for the most part is forgettable.

Overall, a great single player experience.

Now, on to multiplayer!

Multiplayer
- about 3 hrs of play
- developed by a different team. Controls are the same and in general graphically it looks about the same. Not quite as nice as the single player.
- The whole cover/pop out mechanic is gone.
- tried a game of ctf that was fun.
- Co-op campaign is a blast and is something really special. There's nothing quite like 8 players (up to 16) all on one side going after an objective based mission using voice comms and controlling the UAC to help each other out. The missions are tough with just hordes of baddies!
- Games were very stable and pretty much lag free.

Black (XBOX)

- gun porn. Shooting a gun has never felt so good. The shotgun has to be seen. Every weapon (even the pistol) feels like a serious weapon. Some of the most satisfying gunplay in any game.
- controls are haloish and are spot on.
- sfx really make the weapons sound beefy.
- amazing graphics for the original xbox, probably some of the best I've seen (including halo). 480p and widescreen support. Lots of explosions. Everything explodes. Explosions are amazing. I shot an rpg into a second story window with 2 bad guys expecting a little fireball and killing mabye one of them (they were spread pretty far apart). Instead it set two floors completely on fire, shattered all the glass, and flung the bodies out. If that doesn't put a smile on your face then I don't know what will.
- framerate is great, no slow down.
- checkpoint save system. so far no frustrations. Normal difficuly isn't too hard.
- Level design and variety of environments so far have been pretty good.
- interesting depth of field effect when you reload your gun. The background goes out of focus as if you are looking at your gun.
- Gameplay is pretty standard fps fair but the action and battles are just awesome. AI doesn't seem too bad. I was flanked a few times. You can use stealth in certain parts of the game, shoot out lights, etc but it's more fun to just blow everything up.
- the muzzle flashes are huge combined with the reload/focus thing did make me a bit motion sick after a few hours.
- finished it on normal. shows only 30% game competition (must be the other 2 difficulty settings).
- 7:50:34; 224 head shots; fav weapon: spas 12; enemy count 1,512; total bullets fired, 19,553
- can we say these are the best explosions in any game I've played. The smoke trails on the rpg's are amazing too.
- docks were pretty tough with a good mix between sniper hunting and all out m249 suppression against the attacking hordes.
- The sound is really great. You hear that rpg shriek you WILL START running and find cover. Same goes for the crack of a sniper rifle.
- Finding the RPG guys aren't too bad because of the smoke trails. The snipers are a bit tougher but you can take a few hits so it's no where near the frustration of say MOH AA. Save those rpg's/sniper rounds to counter rpg/snipe. Don't go wasting their valuable ammo.
- You can only carry a max of 2 weapons which kind of sucks. Many times I really wanted 3. Typically I would carry either a smg/assault rifle, and something with a bit more stopping power like a shotgun or magnum. Switch to single fire and you can pick off enemies at a distance.
- most things are destructible (at least the items that make sense). This adds a bit to the gun fights as you hide behind a crate that gets shredded by m249 fire.
- head shots are tough to pull off (a lot tougher than most games). I seemed to have better luck with a silenced mp5. If you don't get a head shot then it takes many hits to bring down a baddie especially those armored shotgun guys. Grenades are your friend.
- plentiful ammo. You will rarely run out. you can hold up to 500 rounds and clips are about double real world size (ak47 has a 60 round clip).
- overall I never got frustrated with the checkpoints. I probably only died around 3-4 times. Difficulty felt about right. There are a few points in the game with non stop enemy re spawns until you figure out what to do (usually blow up a bunker or something, use rpg or a couple of grenades). The last fight was a bit tough. I finished it and I'm not even entirely sure what happened. See next point:
- Smoke, good looking smoke, lots of smoke. Add to that the splinter cell lighting which looks great at first and the reload blur effect (which gets a bit old after a while), it really makes it hard sometimes to see what the hell is going on.
- the boy needs to work on his throwing arm. He tosses grenades like a girl. If you are expecting counter strike toss distances you will be disappointed.
- AI isn't too bad. Not near the fear or even far cry levels but they usually aren't totally stupid. Fire a shot and miss or hit a buddy and they will start running, taking cover, and advancing.
- no multiplayer. single player only.
- good variety of environments but I love the urban settings.
- reproduces many of you favorite movie gun battles like matrix, the rock, etc. Ahh the bridge level and your first taste of the m16 with m203 is just awesome. Every gun is just so much fun to shoot.
- hmmm no blood at all.
- 2 types of health packs, one heals you immediately, the other you can store in your inventory up to 3 max to use when you want. On hard you don't get any of the latter health packs.
- no jump but the level design is pretty good so you don't miss it much.
- The levels are huge both in scale and length (up to about 1 hour). Good streaming tech.
- not enough music. I don't remember my action movies being this "silent"
- pretty bad abrupt ending with not much explanation of anything and sets it up for a sequel.

If you like FPS you owe it to yourself to check this game out. The moment you pick up the controller you know you are playing something special.

Short but very very sweet. Go pick it up or at least rent it. It's a definite must finish type of game.