Archive for November, 2006
Christmas came early this year
When I posted about getting the 360, I neglected to mention an import part of our decision process: Cath and I had already decided to buy ourselves an HDTV for Christmas this year. The story goes like this. My parents have an HDTV, and last Christmas at their house Cath and I were able to watch NBA games in high def on TNT. The detail was stunning: You could read players’ names on their jerseys, see every detail of Ernie, Kenny, and Charles’s studio set, actually see the faces in the crowd. It was difficult going back to watching sports on our normal TV, and Cath was convinced of how much better it was in HD.
Fast forward to about one month ago. Cath and I were watching an NBA game on ESPN, and she turns to me and says, “When are we going to get that HDTV? I’m sick of not being able to see anything in these games.” The gears in my mind started turning, and the next day we discussed it further and decided to go for it.
I started my research and narrowed the choices down to a ~50″ DLP. I wanted 720p because that is the Xbox 360’s native resolution, and also because I’m not convinced I would be able to tell the difference between that an 1080p. My original choice was a Samsung, but only the top-of-the-line Samsungs are able to tune HD cable channels without a box. That was a feature I really wanted because neither Cath nor I wanted to have yet another piece of electronics underneath our TV. I eventually settled on the Toshiba 50HM66, which has the HD cable tuner and had been rated highly by Consumer Reports.
We had a brief period where we considered buying the 56″ version of this TV because it was going to be on sale on the day after Thanksgiving for a ridiculous price. But we decided against it because it would be too large for our apartment. We ended up paying a little more for the 50″, which seems kinda ridiculous, but having received the TV and set it up, I’m convinced it was the right choice.
Cath and I also spent a long time looking for stands. I wanted something with good ventilation for my Xbox 360, and she wanted something nice looking, “grown-up furniture,” in her words. We ended up with this stand, which we bought from Sears. It’s very nice and feels pretty high quality.
We received both the stand and TV yesterday, and I spent most of the day putting the stand together and setting up the TV. The picture is incredible, especially on the high def channels. The 360 looks incredible on it. Sitting on the couch, you almost feel like you are in a movie theater. It’s crazy.
Not another 360 post!
Can’t help it. Some more thoughts about my new 360.
- I’m really impressed with the Live service on the 360. On the original Xbox, basically all you could do was play online with people. Now there is a lot more stuff to play with. You can download demos, movie and game trailers, minigames, etc. Just being able to play the demos adds a lot of value to the system. I’m pretty sure that, so far, I’ve spent more time playing demos than I have playing either of the 2 games I got with the system.
- I originally thought the backwards compatibility was just a gimmick, but I’ve come around a bit. I just played Forza and they did a good job with the emulation. It works perfectly, and you can even play online. While only 3/5 of my original Xbox games are supported, most of the ones I would actually play again are there. So this definitely adds some value to the system. It’s nice to know that, if I get the itch, I can play Halo or Knights of the Old Republic without hooking up my original Xbox.
- Graphics look very good, even on a standard definition TV. This was another thing I was worried about. People online say that you really need an HDTV to appreciate this console. While I’m sure that’s true to an extent, a good-looking Xbox 360 game still looks quite a bit better than an Xbox 1 game on a normal TV. For example, I’ve been playing a lot of PGR3 on the 360. It looks good, not mind-blowingly so, but good. When I put in Forza today, it looked noticeably like a last-gen game. I was surprised that the difference was so large since I hadn’t been blown away by PGR3’s graphics.
- The media center stuff is cool. I mentioned how you can stream MP3s from your computer, but last night I got the video streaming to work. It’s very cool. Now you can download your favorite TV shows and watch them on your TV rather than on your computer. You have to convert them to WMV though, which is a pain. I’ve hatched a plan to use my primary computer as a Media Center box, recording shows, and stream those to the 360. I had previously thought I would need a new computer to do this, but with the streaming capabilities of the 360, I should be able to get away with doing this on my current computer.
360 is here!
My 360 arrived today, just as UPS predicted. I left school early to check it out. First of all, the guy I bought it from did an incredibly thorough job of packing everything up and sending it to me. He included the original box for the 360 and all the manuals. He included batteries for the wireless controllers. He even included the little caps on the ends of the optical audio cable he included. I was very pleasantly surprised.
So far, I am most impressed with the Xbox Live service. I had no idea how awesome it would be to be able to download demos to this thing. You can also download videos and game trailers in high-definition, and in about a week, you will also be able to rent movies and buy TV shows through the thing. It’s a great service that adds a tremendous amount of value to the console. You know how usually when you buy a console, you need to buy a game because otherwise you can’t do anything with it? Not true with the 360. Just go online and download some demos. There’s enough to play for days.
I’m also impressed with the media center features. You can set up the 360 to stream music from your computer, so I’m currently listening to Weezer being streamed from my computer onto my nice 5.1 audio system in the living room. This is great; no more hooking the iPod up to the speakers.
As I said before, the seller included two great games: Oblivion and Project Gotham Racing 3. Of the two, I’ve played more of PGR3. It’s a nice racing game and not too hard to get into, after playing Forza on the original Xbox. Cath and I played a split-screen game tonight, and she enjoyed it. I played a little bit of Oblivion, but frankly I’m scared to get into it. I haven’t played many RPGs, and I’m not that familiar with the genre. Plus I know I’ll have to dedicate 60+ hours to the game.
The game I’m most impressed with so far is actually the NBA 2k7 demo. It plays very similarly to NBA 2k6 on Xbox, but the graphics are ridiculous. The characters look a heck of a lot like real people, especially the better players (Dwayne Wade, Shaq). It’s really crazy. Plus they have depth of field effects on the replays, which add a lot to the presentation. It’s awesome.
Will probably post again soon once I get more time in with this thing. Back to playing. 
360 is on its way
I just got the Paypal out for that Xbox 360 I bought last week. It’s such a pain to work with Paypal. First, the checking account I have linked to my Paypal account is not our joint one, and I keep very little money in there. So I had to transfer $350 into that account to cover the cost of the system, and that took 2 days. Then I had to transfer that money into my Paypal account before I could send it to the seller. That took 5 days. This morning it was finally ready to go, so I sent it out to the seller.
Once the seller received my payment this morning, he sent me an email. He had packed up the system and games last Thursday and had everything ready to go in a box by the door. His girlfriend, trying to be helpful, went ahead and shipped the package for him. All this time, before I had paid for it, the system has been in transit and is due to arrive tomorrow. I’m very pleased as this means I’ll get to play with it about a week earlier than I had expected. The seller is lucky I’m such a trustworthy guy.
Next-gen, here I come!
Well, now I’ve gone and done it. I just bought a used Xbox 360 from someone on an online forum I frequent. It was too good a deal, and I couldn’t pass it up. For $350, I’m getting:
- Xbox 360 Premium (comes with hard drive, wireless controller, etc.)
- Extra wireless controller
- Play and charge kit
- Project Gotham Racing 3
- The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion
That’s a tremendous deal. All that stuff new would be $550. And I do want most of it, in particular the extra wireless controller and Project Gotham Racing. Oblivion is supposed to be a great RPG, but I’m not really an RPG guy. I’ll give it a try though.
The system itself is only 3 months old, so hopefully it will be more reliable than the launch systems. I’m planning to buy the extended warranty for it anyway, so it shouldn’t be a huge deal if it does fail within the next 2 years.
I’m very excited for this! Can’t wait to play Gears of War and NBA 2k7.
It’s faaaaan-tastic!
Yes, it’s that time of year again… the beginning of the NBA season! All summer we heard about what various teams and players were doing, how they were going to be so much better this year, etc. Now we get to see how it all plays out, and it’s never quite like you expected.
I’m personally very excited for the Rockets this year. It looks like Yao and T-Mac are both healthy, and they’ve added Shane Battier and Bonzi Wells. Yao had 22 and 9 last night against Utah (though they lost). Yao and T-Mac are as good as any other 1-2 in the league, and Battier and Wells could get them over the hump. If they stay healthy, they could go all the way. Stay tuned.
A lot of people are down on the Grizzlies, with Pau out with a broken foot for the first few months of the season. But the Grizzlies have a lot of good young players, plus Rudy Gay had a tremendous debut game last night. I think this could be the year they win their first playoff game (famous last words).
Have you seen the Lebron swimming pool commercial? It’s hilarious and very creative. Who came up with the idea of multiple Lebrons for these commercials? It’s brilliant.
Was disappointed by the 40-point Miami loss on Tuesday night. These guys should have more pride than that. Was actually pleased by the Lakers’ win over Phoenix, though. I hate to admit it, but I have a soft spot for the Lakers, with Phil Jackson coaching and them being a bit of an underdog. Lamar Odom played really well, and they executed their game plan — pound the ball inside — to perfection. It was especially gratifying to see them win this without Kobe. I think they are going to be better than people thing this year. They surprised us in the playoffs last year, nearly knocking off Phoenix, and they will carry over that confidence into this season.
On the flip side, I’m don’t like Phoenix, and I don’t know why. They are fun to watch, and I’m really rooting for Amare to make a full comeback and become the high-flier that destroyed the Spurs defense in the ‘05 playoffs. But for some reason I always find myself rooting against Phoenix in any game I watch. I dunno what’s going on there.
Enough random thoughts. It’s a long season, I’ll save some for later.
BeerAdvocate is tempting me
Apparently I spend enough time on BeerAdvocate these days that they now send me emails about local events. I get a weekly “beermail” from Bauer Wine and Spirits (probably my favorite beer store in Boston), listing their upcoming tastings and incoming beers. This is not something I signed up for, and I am specifically listed on the beermail (i.e. not a mailing list). I think the Bauer guy grabbed my name off a review I wrote on BeerAdvocate. One of the few times I’ve been happy to receive an unsolicited email.
Today I got a message from BeerAdvocate about the beer guy at the Linwood leaving and having a blow-out tonight. Apparently he is planning to break out all kinds of rare stuff from the cellar.
They are trying to tempt me. So much tasty beer, just a 20-minute drive away…
Update: We went to the Linwood. Cath mentioned it to a couple of her friends at work, and they wanted to go, so we did. I was reminded of why I liked the Linwood so much in the first place: Excellent beers, cheap prices ($4 for each beer we had), friendly and helpful staff, and a very low-key, non-pretentious atmosphere.
