Kind of like Crackdown, or Saints Row 2, I suppose. A sort of “One more mission, okay, one more mission, really, I mean it this time, just one more… You know what? I’ll just play another hour or – it’s what time?! Well, one more mission won’t hurt” logic starts running through my head. I can kill hours doing almost nothing in the game, and enjoy it all.

Yesterday was Apples developer conference; nothing major came out of it. Cheaper laptops, cheaper (sort of) iPhones, updated OS’s for both… Nothing revolutionary, nothing really worthy of causing me to head to the Apple Store this weekend to spend money.

One nice thing, though, was the price structure for the next OS X upgrade: $30. That’s right, $30 to upgrade the OS. $40 if you want to do it on five machines, and $130 if you don’t want an “upgrade” version, although what the difference is I’m not sure. Compare that, if you will, to Microsofts price structure. Vista upgrades start at $90 per machine, and the full OS is $250. So, yeah, you might pay a bit more upfront for the Mac, but it evens out over the life of the machine.

At this point, come September, I should have the money stuffed away to pick up – with cash – a new 13″ MacBook Pro the “family” pack of Snow Leopard to update my current Macs. I’m going to offer Nadia my current Mac, and if she doesn’t want it I’ll figure something else out.

So, how’s it work?

Well, not to mince words: It works great. It’s been quite some time since I’ve been this happy with a new piece of hardware, but the DSi is just great.

It’s roughly the same size as a light, if a bit thinner and lighter. This is due to no longer having a GBA port. The shell isn’t that slick, glossy plastic that was on the DS Lite – it’s a matte finish, and doesn’t feel like it’s gonna slip out of your hand. Not sure how it’ll stand up to scratches over time, but since none of my other handhelds have ever had a problem with scratches, I don’t expect this one to either.

The screens are much larger – and both brighter and more colorful. It’s much easier to see what’s going on, and games just look better on it. I’m not kidding – comparing the DSi and the DS Phat, it’s easy to see which one looks better in terms of graphics.

The buttons, I think, are placed better than they were on the DS Lite as well. Things are spaced better, and my hands no longer want to cramp as I’m playing. Can’t really say exactly why, but that’s just how it is.

So, the hardware is – in my opinion – better.

How’s the software?

When you power the system on, the system menu is a combination of the standard Sony XMB (seen on the PS3 or PSP) and the Will home screen – a welcome update from the funky, dated four-button mashup that was the original DS screen. Going in and out of any of the included software (settings, camera, recorder, etc) is simple, and – get this – does not require a re-boot of the DSi! Amazing, huh? Finally, changes can be made without having to power down and back on!

In a related note, simply tapping the power button acts as a soft reset- doesn’t power the system down, but does cause it to reset back to the DSi home screen.

The free web browser, available as a download from the DSi Ware store, sucks. It’s not good at all – it’ll barely display web pages, but it does so very slowly. Even though it’s based on Opera, it’s still a pile of crap. Hopefully other, better freebies will show up in time.

The OS is also vastly improved.

How’s the camera?

It’s a mixed bag. Taking pictures with it – in good lighting conditions – is fun. The camera works, in that pictures are taken – and some of the filters are fun too. By popping in an SD card, you can transfer your pictures off your DSi and on to a computer… And, as you can tell by the gallery below, this is not a replacement for a regular, real camera. It’s not even close. But, for messing around it’s pretty good. I’ve included a gallery of shots taken on my, and Nadias, DSi.

Final Thoughts?

All told, this is a great system, and the DS that you should by if you don’t already have one. If you still have a DS Phat, it might be worth considering a trade – it’s far superior to the old hardware. If you happen to have a DS Lite, however – it might not be worth it.

All told, with my DS Lite as trade, the system set me back $120. I think it’s money well worth it – I’m actually happy to play my DS again.

I’m so not gonna be able to get back to sleep.

Crazy, crazy shit. As much as I loved the apartments (and I really, really did like them), I don’t want to deal with crazy rent prices that make no sense… and, honestly? The lady kind of pissed me off. She had this attitude the whole time, like she was better than us.

Still, we’ve got plenty of time – and Rosenberg has given me a couple of ideas, namely houses being cheaper than apartments, so no worries.

Sort of.

See, money has gotten to be a bit on the tight side lately, what with my actually attempting to pay off my credit cards within a reasonable amount of time and all that, so I’ve decided to take up some extra work on the side. Extra tech support work, stuff I’m already good at, stuff there’s already a market for.

So, I’ve started compiling a list of prices that currently existing support places charge, just as a baseline so I know what would be fair and what I should shoot for in order to undercut them, yet still remain profitable in the long run. I’ve also started looking into getting bonded so that I don’t have to worry as much about lawsuits or the like.

There are a few things I’m not fully comfortable with, but I’ve got the support of my parents backing me on this, so it’s not like I’m doing it entirely on my own. I hope to be up and running fairly soon, and once that happens, well… Who knows?

Side note: Have you seen what Geek Squad charges for stuff? $170 for a single application install! $150 to burn a DVD! I’m really not getting paid enough at work, that’s for damn sure…

Thought this was interesting – Someone asked how much I’ve put towards gaming, and so I attempted to the math… The results were a bit shocking.

250 for Wii
+ $20 x 2 (Classic Controllers) = $40
+ $20 x 2 (Extra Wiimote + Nunchuck) = $40
= $330 (roughly)
$400 for XBox
+ $50 x 3 (Controllers) = $150
+ $50 (Wireless headset)
+ $50 x 3 (XBL for three years?)
+ $40 (Charge Kit)
+ $100 (HD-DVD)
- $200 (Sale price of refurbished XBox when I got it back)
+ $400 (Costs of Halo 3 XBox when I bought it to replaced RROD XBox)
== $1,090 (roughly)
$600 for PS3
+ 50 x 2 (Extra Controller + DS3) = $100
== $700 (roughly)
Grand Total:
$2,120 (Roughly, Not including taxes)

So:

I’ve spent more money on my 360 than I have on the Wii and PS3 combined.

Fuck.

Have been kicking around the idea of a Mini for the living room. It’d be nice to have a media center hooked up to the TV, to do double duty as a media server and a torrent work-horse. We’ll see, might end up getting it next week end. Trying to hold off on any Apple purchases until after the 9th though, as I’m expecting some cool shit from Jobs at the WWDC.

Another thing I’ve been thinking about buying, and probably will do, is a guitar. I’ve often wanted to learn to play and I figure now is as good a time as any to actually start trying. I know I want an electric, not some bloody acoustic. I want to learn to play good riffs, the kind of shit that Queen did, the kind of stuff that made Hendrix a god, the only kind of guitar hard enough to make Dios songs of rainbows and magic and shit sound hardcore… That’s what I want to play.

I wanna wail, ya know? Not rock but WAIL.

So, erm, yeah.

Nerd side, added the twitter feed back. Will get around to tweaking the font size shortly – I know it’s rather small, but until I can figure out just how many “tweets’ it’ll show I’ve gotta keep them small for space reasons. I’ll get it all sorted out shortly.

I’m not about to debate – or even discuss – the legality of this software, as I haven’t read the EULA of WoW in quite some time, nor am I a lawyer. What I am going to rant about – since this is my blog and I feel the need to rant – is the “fairness” issue, or possible lack there of.

Typically, in games, when something is unfair it is called “cheating”. But in this system, who is being cheated?

WoW is not a game that, normally, pits players against other players – the majority of the game is player vs. environment (PvE). Most of the time it’s one against the world, ones lone sword/staff/wand/small knife against legions of bears, wolves, small ogres, slightly larger ogres and the occasional economy size dragon. Rarely one may enter into combat against other players, but such battles are mostly geared in such a way that the person with the better skill stands a greater chance of winning, regardless of stats and other outside influences.

There are also guilds, player created communities with shared goals, and occasionally, money. Normally these are the groups you run with when fighting the dragons or other large “end game” beasts. These people tend to take care of their own rather well, and help out when needed (as long as one is within a half-hour walking distance. No, really WoW is that big.)

This all said, who would be cheated by a bot? Who in the game suffers because one has the computer slog through the bits found to be boring and/or pointless?

The other players? I don’t think so. The bot is not taking anything away from them: Anything killed will re-spawn shortly afterwards, and had it been a player instead of a bot, it would still be just as dead. Anything mined will also regenerate given a short amount of time: again, if one weren’t botting, it’d still be gone.

There are no winners or losers in the game, in so far as there is no score, no prizes, no “A Winner Is You” ending followed by credits High Score board with initals and limited spaces. This game is not meant to be a competition between players, but a contest between them and their environment, them and the small woodland creatures. Botting does not give anyone an unfair advantage in such a world as that, as all the regular rules of play still apply. One still has a limited ammount of health, one still can only cast spells so fast, and one still can only take so much damage – all that has changed is hours are not being spent on the mindless boring shit – one is merely skipping to the good bits.

Why do this? Because it’s a game, and a game is meant to be fun.

So, no – I don’t think it’s unfair, as it’s not creating any sort of advantage for anyone. I don’t think it’s cheating – as such – as the only person “losing out” is the person using the bot, not the rest of the players.

Please be seated.

As many (can all four readers be called a “many”?) of you know, I’m an avid gamer. Or, rather, I like to think of myself as an avid gamer, but in reality I’m more of an avid gadget whore who focused his skill points on games.

Either way you split it, I enjoy video games and talking about them, and as such I think it’s time to once again update on what I think of the current System Wars situation.

Handheld

I figure this time I’m going to actually delve into some thoughts on the fairly quiet handheld formats, an area that I’m really not overly I familiar with. While I know – and own – the major handheld systems, I don’t actually play them as often as their home-console counterparts. That may make my views slightly less informed than others, but that’s never stopped me from spouting whatever was on my mind before, so it sure as hell won’t now.

First up, the Nintendo DS, which is currently in its second iteration, the DS Lite. The DS is the one that folds up and has the touch screen, right? The one for small children?

I kid, I kid. Please, put down the torches.

I’ve had the DS since launch (DS “Phat”), and the Lite is a good system. It’s not too big, is fairly comfortable for short gaming sessions (waiting for car repairs, using the restroom, passing the time at an All Hands meeting), and the games normally fun. As they should be, seeing as the majority of the ones I own are mostly scaled down counterparts of existing console franchises. You’ve got at least two Mario games (the shitty one and the not shitty one), a Zelda game (kinda fun, if frustrating) and Tetris.

It’s a good, solid system (literally) with good, solid games.

But, I rarely play it anymore. Mine has been sitting on the table by my bed for the past two months, unused and unloved. The Phat has been sitting in the living room for at least four months now, and the last time it was turned on was to verify that it actually worked.

I have nothing against the system, and do recommend that others pick one up if so inclined, but portable gaming isn’t something I’m into anymore.

That brings me to the Sony PSP, which is also in its second iteration. The only major differences being a bump in system memory and making it slimmer. It is very uncomfortable for long-term play, but it makes up for this in not having much worth playing in the first place. It also provides many scaled down versions of normal console titles, but where the DS does it with new gimmicks and hoobajoos, the the PSP tries to get by with a more “standard” approach to porting. Which is to say, they play like traditional games, screw the innovation.

That said, of the two I prefer the PSP. The games it does have I find more fun and entertaining over the long haul, and they fit my normal play-style, which is analogous to that of a mildly retarded autistic trying to count toothpicks while they are still inside the box. More simply put: I’m not very good but I keep trying anyway, much to the mirth of others.

I am also captivated by the many half-baked features it packs in, such as video playback and internet streaming of content on my PS3/home network, including games and pr— Movie trailers.

Of the two, for the more serious “gamer” I would have to recommend a DS over a PSP. For everyone else, those who just like shiny gadgets what do neat things, I’d suggest a PSP instead. For idiots with too much money? Both.

Home Consoles

Alphabetically, the Microsoft XBox 360 comes in first place amongst the three current generation home console systems. One could also argue that this is the only way in which it comes first, unless one were inclined to make puerile jokes or maybe point out that it is also first in epic fails.

I, however, am above such mockery.

Statistically speaking, three out of four people in the world own at least one 360, and a further 2 out of five have at some point purchased a second 360 due to reasons of Red Ring, and/or Death. Quite honestly, the Epic Failure rate of the 360 is the only thing I have against it, but it is such an overwhelming issue that it taints all other aspects of the console.

For my money, many of the best games of this generation of available for the 360 – exclusively or not. Bioshock, Oblivion, Crackdown, Halo 3, Lego Star Wars… The list goes on and on. The online experience as provided by Xbox Live is unparalleled by either of its competitors, and fully integrates into the system in such a way as to make not having it almost crippling. Quite honestly why one would own a 360, and then play it exclusively offline is one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard of.

With the latest system update, the 360 is also a major media hub, allowing it to play divx files over your home network easily, as well as the pre-existing music streaming. There’s also the pretty decent video download service.

Yet, with all this in favor of it, I hardly use mine, and have no plans to buy more games. It is, in all honesty, something with a near perfect feature set, and yet I’m so scared of it crapping out that I refuse to actually use it anymore, and cannot bring myself to further invest in the system through software purchases.

Which brings me to the closest competitor, the Sony Playstation 3, or PS3 for short.

With the latest software update, the PS3 also does a great job handling the majority of divix files you throw at it, and does a far superior job of sorting the media. It does the standard music playback, as well as image slideshows and other such random media features.

It does the Blu-Ray playback, and since BR is the de-facto HD format for home use, this is probably a good thing.

The drive is user replaceable, and the system itself seems a bit more logically laid out and easier to use than the 360.

However, when it comes to games, the library is a bit lacking. There are good games on the system, to be sure, but nothing exclusive that is a Must Own. There is no Halo-killer on the PS3, no matter how much Resistance wants to be that game.

The Playstation Network (PSN) is free to use, but… It’s pretty crappy. It works, when it works, but it has a very last-generation feel to it when compared to XBox Live.

That said, I do much prefer the PS3 to the 360, and it has become the system of choice at the Dunny Cave.

Finally, I come to the Nintendo Wii.

For many in my age group, Nintendo is pretty much where it all started. Oh, sure, we may have had an Atari or a Commodore, but it wasn’t until at least the NES that we realized just Games were Serious Business. It can be argued that the NES is where the current iteration of gaming subculture got its start. Although, this being the internet, anything can be argued, no matter how faulty the logic. I could, for example, attempt to provide an argument showing how Star Wars is an elaborate metaphor of the sexual practices of the lemur, and no one would really care.

But, I digress. The NES is where it started, and now we have the Wii, which through the power of it’s Virtual Console (Wii-NES), we get to experience the glory days of the NES all over again.

For five bucks a game.

Really, the games on the Wii aren’t for you or me: They are for your mom, your grandmother, the crazy guy down the street who talks to trees and small infants. The Wii was designed, and marketed, for those who don’t like games, who are confused by games, and who find games to be scary and/or evil.

The flailing about, the soft colors and not too great graphics, the short playtime and abundance of mini-games… It’s all created for someone other than you or I, someone with a short attention span, too much energy and an overwhelming fear of technology. Hyperactive Alzheimer patients, for example. Or small children.

Yes, it brings a few good, meaty games to the table. There is a Zelda game, although it’s rather rubbish. There is No More Heroes… But mostly it’s mini-games, and sports games, and games that aren’t quite sports games but really aren’t mini-games but more something one might play while in the pub watching a match… And not a whole hell of a lot else.

While this makes the Wii indispensable at parties, as stand alone system, even the nostalgia factor of playing twenty year old games on your 42″ LCD just doesn’t cut it.

At least for me.

That said, I love the Wii and I recommend that anyone who can find it, and who has at least two friends, pick one up. I’m starting to learn more towards a PS3 over the 360, but I still can’t fully discount the number of games there are for the 360. At this point, though, I’d suggest getting a used 360 – the odds on it working long term are about the same as those of a brand new one – and the coin you save can eventually be put towards a PS3. For while I consider the PS3 to be the superior system at this time, and in future, currently it hasn’t got the software library to beat a 360.

I guess I’m becoming a Sony Fanbot after all.

This week has been hell work wise: As of right now I’m on hour 45 of a normal 40 hour work week. When all is said and done I will have logged at total of 17 hours worth of overtime. Granted, that kind of money will *really* help me right about now, but I’m also pretty god damn exhausted and generally worn the hell out.

Not much to report on Project Domicile: The bank is reviewing my offer, and is currently deciding between accepting it or putting the place up for auction. From what I understand, there are two Realtors and a negotiator on my side attempting to convince the bank that allowing me to buy it is their best course of action.

Again with the work, but I’m really not digging the new locale. The lighting is too bright, the floor sways enough that I’m getting sea sick, and there’s a general sense of shoddy workmanship about the whole place. Also, it’s real super far from any food, I can’t take my morning walk to StarBucks, and frankly, I’m having to spend more time away from my desk than I generally like. Also, today we have no bathrooms – they are “closed for repairs” or some such nonsense.

Nintendo finally released Kirby 64 on the VC, so I can retire my N64 from the living room and not be worried. In fact, with all the Zeldas being on GC/Wii and Paper Mario being on VC now too, I could probably retire the N64 entirely. It’s something I’ve been considering, as it’d allow me to be rid of one more thing I don’t really need.

I might try and install Ubuntu on the PS3 this Friday, as an exercise in futility. I don’t see it working well at all, rather it shall end in tears for all involved, but it might be fun all the same.