hex65000

If I were you, I'd avoid reading any more reviews until after you had a chance to play with it personally -- especially since it looks like you preordered it. To me unless the camera punishes you at every turn, its prolly just ign being.. ign. :v] I assume you'll get your copy in the next couple of days since the release date is tomorrow. I'm interested in hearing what you think. Or if you hate it, let me know, I may pick it up off of you if it sounds quirky enough. Tangent: I still want to crank out a mini-review of Destroy All Humans: Path of the Furon... but I read the reviews after I had played the game for a couple of days straight and gotten half the achievements... Hex. [ Likes playing so-called 'bad games' every once in a while... ]

I view them as unnecessary. Short answer: Don't waste your money and validate what is in my view a self important, self appointed entity. To me their purpose is to create a need that doesn't really need to be there. Yes, there are 'professional graders' for toys, comics and the like. I most cases, you'll spot this kind of stuff in the hands of a reseller with dollar signs in their eyes. :v] I did see the plastic slabs mentioned earlier that they put comics in at BotCon one year, a bunch of brand new comics all 'graded' in the mid 90's -- because they can't be perfect -- in a 1.5cm(~1/2 inch) thick slab. The guy who had these (low value in this case) comics couldn't get rid of them for $5(US) ea. (cover price was around $3.50) In that case, some speculator wasted their money having them 'appraised' and the only entity making money was the grader. If you're looking to resell in the near future and want the item to feel super pretentious get it graded. If you just want to keep it nice, pick up those box protectors that pop up in the marketplace every once in a while or get a couple of good-sized comic bags and cover it from both ends and be careful how you store it so it doesn't get crushed. To me, a sealed game is like a Transformer that's MIP: What good is it if you can't play with it? :v] But that's a debate for another day. Hex. [ Baby Bang! Bang! Bang! ]

I'm surprised that nobody has suggested or mentioned plans for creating 'open Xbox live 1.0 servers' for people to play on. If Microsoft has decided to abandon the platform then the feeling is mutual. This also is the strongest argument against DL Content if I ever saw one. I still remain mixed about the paltry amount of DLC that I have purchased from XBox Live Marketplace, and what will my options be when MS decides that the 360 is obsolete and moves on? Maybe I'm happy with the -not-very-reliable-360... when it works correctly. Also, I wonder how XBox1.0 live accounts will be handled after they shut stuff down. Transfer to a 360 gold? Just out of luck? <shrug> I doubt it'll involve a refund of any sort. Hex. [ If a company refuses to support your purchase, why should you be forced to continue to purchase from the company? ]

I use three methods to keep my collection straight: - My Memory; most up to date, but tends to lose important data periodically - Spreadsheet; Good detail, but isn't updated regularly. - Palm Visor; This ancient PalmPilot has just a straight text list and is the quick reference list to prevent inadvertent doubles from being bought. Think of it as my field list. Also not updated regularly, but I'm working on improving that bit. I'm considering expanding my Palm list to encompass my guide books too. Just the typing in the first time is a total pain. Hex. [ Knows most of the 'palm' jokes... It does what I need and that's all I care about. ]

The last time I bought something on Ebay was about 3 months ago... I bought: Einhander (ps1), Ninety-Nine Nights (360), Namco Virtual Arcade (360), and Wario Ware Smooth Moves (Wii). Of those transactions, I had to open a dispute on the Wario Ware. The others arrived without incident -- although I was worried about the 99 Nights because it was being sold by a speculating power seller. I got Einhander for a good price and everything was pristine. Other than that, I've done two deals with AA-ers when I wanted a particular group of things they had on Ebay and offered to buy them through AA instead. Everyone involved has a good reputation, so they have been low-stress transactions. Amazon is a different story entirely. I've been grabbing all sorts of stuff there at least once a week. Hex. [ Is happy that he sifted through at least the 360, Wii, and GCube stuff in the house... ]

Bought some items from Chris -- A couple of guide books and some miscellaneous hardware. Everything arrived as expected and I'd buy stuff from him again... Hex. [ Last seen playing Elite Beat Agents... ]

It's a stretch, but a 1 byte input that modifies behavior could be called a program -- or a control module. Feh, it's not worth mucking about over. The other two examples support my point. Hex. [ Has spent too much quality time over analysing this... ]

I don't agree. I think it's silly when the statement is framed like Nintendo pulled motion sensing out of left field. The technology has been there for a while. Nintendo thought they could market to consumers with it because the technology has been refined to an extent. It also has worked for them as a game plan overall I'll give you that, but I still would not call it 'first gen' as it's been done before -- just not on this scale. It's like saying That the Atari was a first-gen console. In terms of removable media it was among the first. I keep wanting to say The Studio 2 and a handful of other obscure machines did removable media before the 2600; If my memory is correct, then Atari probably refined the technology they had -- and probably made some decisions on removable media based on what their competitors did -- to support and market interchangeable media that was accepted on a mass scale. The Wii remote has enough attachments to do pretty much whatever you please. Getting the developers to support it properly seems to be the hard bit (still). You also aren't accounting for other attempts at motion technology. If we stay with accelerometers, the field is narrow. If we widen it up a bit to things like the Activator for the Genesis (I also have some 3rd party baseball bats that were designed to be game controllers for the Genny too that attempted to do motion sensing -- I suspect a leaf switch is used in this case, but the intent is similar enough in scope). The Eye-toy as I mentioned before could fall into this category as well since the intent is to get the player up off the couch and moving about. So yeah... Not 'first generation'. Perhaps 'first successful generation'. Hex. [ Did check into removable carts and the Studio 2, Odyssey 1, and Fairchild systems did it first. ]

According to vgchartz, both versions sold about the same:360 sold 80K copies Wii sold 70K copies Which is more embarrassing? That I own both versions, or that I've only cleared it mostly on the 360. I will say that the interface for the Wii is super clunky. The 360 isn't great, but it's like they just neglected the user interface for no good reason on the Wii. I'll have to dust it off again just to make sure I'm not forgetting something important. Hex. [ Really found the 'cool combo' challenges to be an insane pain in the butt... I just can't do them... Okay. I did one of 10. The last one requires you to be perfect for either 17 or 28 hits in a row... in. a. row. ]

Not entirely true. Nintendo has been messing with motion sensor games as far back as the game boy color. For example: Kirby Tilt n Tumble , Warioware: Twisted , and Yoshi's Topsy Turvy My argument is this: Nntendo has been working on integrating this technology for a while now -- even if only in the background. The Wii is unique only in that it is used as a primary interface for a lot of things. As it has been said before, if it's done right with some thought, it works well. I'm not sure where Sony and MS are going with this. I'm not into the PS3 scene so I have no idea if the six-axis sticks are used much let alone well at all. There was also "The Eye of Judgement" for PS3, which makes me think of an Eye-toy with some image recognition software loaded on top of it. In a way it sounds like they are doing some bandwagon jumping and this is more like 'no-news' than anything else. Hex. [ Hasn't fired up his Wii in 2 weeks and even then it was for a 2-3 hr stint v/s the marathon sessions on the 360... ]

Wow. All of those auctions are for some amazing items. Too rich for my blood though. While my wife wouldn't kill me, I would be faced with the classic question: "Where are you going to put it?" Seriously though, that Agent X cabinet is really nice. I wonder what your game room(s) looked like in its full-on glory in person... coupled with the fear of not wanting to touch anything. I know with my Transformers collection when I would let friends or my wife attempt to transform my toys, I'd involuntarily make this face where I feared they were about to snap something important. I could see myself making that face with a cabinet like this... Hex. [ did you know that I do have a rather massive loose Transformers collection? ]

Very nice. I slapped down some cash on a few of those... Oh yeah, free bump! Hex. [ is currently looking to finish filling out his ps1/2 game collection... ]

What's up with the distortion in the third image? I had no idea that Farscape bootlegs could modify the space-time continuum in a rectangular pattern. Hex. [ "I think it's a shop. I can tell by the pixels..." --stupid meme... ]

Battlecruiser operational... Not mine, but this guy's other stuff is awesome too. He's done little space marines and Mutalisks too. :v] Linky: Starcraft Battlecruiser... Hex. [ Can't even wrap his head around how this guys designs go together... It makes it all that more impressive to me. ]

PM sent... Hex. [ There's a reason I need some empty genesis shells... ]

Well, yeah. I do believe that they use some pretty slick algorithms to keep you from modifying the same chunk of space over and over again where possible. Also, he's copying CDs onto a 'hard disk' for read only purposes a majority of the time. That and the fact that flash has gotten into the hundreds of thousands (if not more) of write/erase operations means that he'll not likely need to worry about failure in the grand scheme of things. Again, ideal solution, just way to pricey. Hex. [ wants to avoid thinking about digital things, but that's not gonna happen for long. ]

This reminds me, after reading this thread I went forth to research using DD-WRT for my home setup and wound up buying a new ASUS RT-N16 router to play with, the thing has a ton of memory, a good clock speed and works like a champ in the house. I then reflashed my 'crippled' WRT54GS v6 Linksys router to DD-WRT micro and set it up as my bridge connection from upstairs to downstairs. The only problem right now is that the link is kinda crummy. I'm tempted to play with the settings a bit more before I give up and reconsider using the Dlink unit again. It is incredibly feature rich to the point you aren't sure what needs to be on in the grand scheme of things. However, it's neat that you can actually over/underclock the broadcomm processor on the linksys and also poke at the transmit power settings and bandwidth. It was also a good excuse to upgrade my encryption to WPA2 where possible. There is also historical data you can pull from the units too. So yeah, thanks for the tip guys! Hex. [ Wants to mess with this some more tonight, but really won't have time until Fri or Sat... ]

I really don't think you're gaining a ton in the grand scheme of things really. Sure, it's fewer moving parts and a transfer rate boost that's nice, but the cost/performance is a bit lopsided to me. Just grab an affordable 7200rpm PATA drive (or two), load the thing up, and away you go. The typical load times are really quite acceptable for the technology, and instances where they have tuned the game to access the DVD to provide a seamless (or mostly seamless) loading experience you'll not even notice these events since the drive is faster than the DVD drive in your system by a fair amount. The only real worry you have is just the eventual mechanical failure of the drive, and that can be recovered from pretty painlessly provided you still have all your original media. If Solid state PATA drives become affordable, making the jump is a no-brainer, but IMO I honestly think it's not a good allocation of your money. Hex. [ Hasn't done the timing formally, but Katamari and Guitar Hero load times are very acceptable. ] (EDIT: dumb grammar err.)

The yellow light typically indicates that the hard disk you have in your PS2 is being accessed. As for loading games, definitely just use winhiip (SP?) and do the copies this way. It still doesn't guarantee flawless use, but most games will be serviceable. I've noticed that typically streaming video and sound will get munged up. However, it's a glorious thing to use to play RPGs on. (Played Digital Devil Saga 1&2 this way -- I'd hate to think about the wear and tear of 160+ hours of game time would be on my PS2 ) There are dated compatibility lists out there too, just do a googley search and it'll get you started. I've kicked around using a removable hard disk tray to keep me from having to tear my computer apart every time I want to load games. The other problem is that PATA drives are slowly going the way of the dinosaur. I'd pick up a nice 200 gigger (The older HD loader apps had a limit on how much space it could address, the newer versions fixed this I think) You can also use one of those USB -> hard drive (Sata/Pata/laptop) adapters -- they are about $40 or less. and use winhiip that way. The transfer rate when I last tried it was super slow though, but it was on an old machine that had problems -- I haven't tried it on my more modern desktops. Hope that helps a little. Hex. [ Has pirated a couple of PS2 games to his HD, but eventually did come across legit copies to add to my collection... ]

Fixed the above for you... ;v] I do like the system, and I'm glad I bought one -- at the same time i live in mild fear that one day in the future the thing will just... die. I have my eyes open for a good price on a spare for the future. Like my PS2, I treat it like glass and with maximum care and ventilation. Hex. [ Notes that component video on the PS2 is relatively jaggy on his big TV yet it remains AWESOME! ]

Well, that was bizarre. At the same time it looked like a puzzle-solving platformer. Stan sounds spot on though as far as this being potentially super collectable in the distant future. At the same time, I'm still not motivated to buy it. The game seems just too weird for me, and well -- I'm not the target audience here. At the same time, there is the potential to get kinda fancy, a little RF-id tag on the various 'badges' that the kid shows at the very end of the video and now you can interact with the monster even more because of what I can only call a Pokemon mechanic. Need to leap over that super high wall... well you need the spring badge kid. You could even sell additional buttons that way with downloadable content to make it a fully integrated system... ... Man, that's good coffee or that is AWESOME disco! Hex. [ If it made sense to you too then I am truly frightened by myself. ]

As everyone else has said, if you can go to hard wires v/s wireless, do that. It's less complex to set up, faster, and more secure than wireless. Not to mention, once it's in place, you'll rarely have to mess with it at all. However, with wireless you do have some options. In my case, the router lives on the top floor of the house near the DSL modem and my ancient print server, but my game machines live on the first floor on the opposite end of the house. I _COULD_ run cat5 through the walls of a house built in the 1940s or earlier, or perhaps outside through two windows would be easier. I'm thinking... no. :v] Since my wife loves roaming around the house with her Mac on wireless, I've had a wireless router for a while. I'm a fan of Linksys generally, and the web interface you use to configure the routers are pretty solid. Also, make sure you do a firmware update on your router and if you're pretty tech savvy check for updates every 6-9months. Sometimes this will fix a few problems that you may care about or won't affect anything. I do typically like my semi-secure devices at least somewhat up to date. Use WPA. The only real downside to this is that you can't connect your DS (fat/lite) to the Internet without extra hardware. Not critical, but something to be aware of. I think the DSi supports WPA though. Now, back to my setup issue. I really don't do a lot of multiplaer online, and attach my XBox360 for my amusement mostly. I also didn't want to shell out the crazy money for their overpriced, half-baked wireless adapter. Instead, I took that crazy money and bought this: D-Link DAP1522 It has worked for me reasonably well, but it is a pain to get set up and running. I had to do a bit of research to get everything configured and talking correctly. the upshot is that now I can hook up pretty much anything that requires a cat-5 connection, including some of my other wired game systems. Hex. [ Went tangenting on some anime videos on Amazon for the heck of it... ]

Primarily I use excel sheets and then recently exported the critical data to my ancient Palm Visor. I don't maintain my collection like I used to, which is scary in a way because I have loaned out a bunch of stuff to friends and don't totally recall what I let them borrow. Still, the migration to the visor has been my most high-tech step and everything there is just a collection of text files with bare min. information. (to prevent me buying doubles mostly) Hex. [ Is sometimes just a shoddy piece of work... ]

Been playing the heck out of this title in 3-7 hour stints with only my wife telling me to do things for the past few days. I was at a toss-up between the hunter and the soldier when I started. I like the hunter overall at this point. Although, I keep running out of sniper bullets for those crimson lance chumps. They do have good drops though, I scored like 4 "legendary" class weapons off of them -- mostly pistols and revolvers, but I have a nice spread of proficiency other than rocket launchers and alien tech. I'm gonna have to try to find these chests again, especially if I can find a decent alien sniper rifle. <pew! Pew! pew!> Also, hate to say it, the Rack Hive fight was almost a joke. Sure I ran and circle strafed, but he went down fast when I pulled out an anarchy type SMG. The thing just lit up with little numbers all over his body. Hex. [ Hates the vehicle combat, the driving scheme is a bit of a pain... ]

PM sent... Hex. [ Has wanted a Kroc cart for a while, and kept missing out... ]