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iam(still)kevin. » 2006» May

Archive for May, 2006

E3 - part 1

Monday, May 8th, 2006

I watched the Sony Press Conference from E3, here are some (largely negative) comments.

Their games look no better, and often worse, than the Xbox 360’s.
about 3/4 of their showcased games were just pre-rendered videos.
half of all the games they showed were not exclusive to the PS3 - there will be versions on the Xbox 360, probably earlier than the PS3 version.

it is horribly expensive - $499 for the “cheaper” version, which has a 20GB hard drive, $599 for the more expensive version, which has a 60GB hard drive.
The “pro” SKU also has - 802.11b/g wireless built in, 1 HDMI port, a multi-card reader (memory stick, Sd, flash).

Things different from what they promised last year (i.e. lies they told):
Last year’s console prototype had 2 HDMI ports on the back promised, and 1 analog AV output (now it has only 1 video output - the more expensive version has 1 HDMI output)
Wireless built in vs. only the $600 version has wifi (and no 802.11a)
7 controllers at once vs. 4 controllers
Last year’s console prototype had 2 USB Ports on the back (now it has none)
Last year’s console prototype had 3 Ethernet ports (now it has 1)

They showed their new controllers - oh, it’s a PS2 controller. It does have motion sensing built in, which is neat - XYZ, Pitch, yaw, etc.. (Nintendo Wii controller?) However, there is no rumble in the controller, supposedly because it interferes with the motion sensor. It probably has nothing to do with getting sued by Immersion Tech for infringing on their rumble patent. MS paid Immersion to get the rights to use it, Sony tried to fight it and lost. No more rumble for Sony.
Their controller has 4 lights on it to show which player it is (xbox 360 ring of lights is better)
Their controller has a button with the sony logo on it (Xbox Guide button)

They Mentioned back compat, but no details as to how it works, or how many games will work with it.

Some weird PS1 emulation on the PSP thing. Not that many people are interested in emulating 10 year old games. Woo… Ridge Racer.

Online service is a copy of Live, but from a couple years ago. They showed a karaoke game with a store where you could buy content, and it was pretty cool, you could preview the song, and it had pretty 3d flashy UI for the store. However that means they don’t have a standard store, and each game has to create their own storefront UI. Which means that for the most part it’ll be pretty boring, and cost the developer time to implement. Their online service has micropayemtns (Microsoft Points), downloadable content (Live has had that for 3 years), Friends (check), player profile (check) rankings (check), video chat (hmm), voice messaging (check), text messaging (check).

The console is larger and heavier than the ORIGINAL Xbox.

Sony stumbled a year ago and they’re having a hell of a time getting back up, and it doesn’t seem like they’ll ever fully recover. It is all about the games, in the end, but if nobody can afford their console, and they have insulted their audience too badly, too many bridges may have been burnt. Time will tell, but i wouldn’t invest in Sony right now. Even with their $500-$600 price tag, i’m sure they’ll be losing $100+ per console.

tool & new music.

Wednesday, May 3rd, 2006

i saw tool last night. they’re very good.

tool fans however, are largely a bunch of idiots, but if you ignore them, you can listen to a band with 4 talented musicians who make interesting progressive hard rock in all sorts of neat time signatures.
Also the band isn’t the best at improvisation, they’re very good technically and don’t do a whole lot of unplanned music trickery during their shows. They do play differently than what’s on the album, but don’t do guitar/bass/drum solos (which isn’t really a bad thing). Also Maynard (singer) made the same joke about seattle having some music called “munge” or something like that 4 years ago when i saw them.
But that doesn’t matter.
They’re a great band, and i’m glad i got to see them yesterday (without having to pay $250+ for a ticket), and i’ll lbe looking forward to their return at the end of the summer for their main tour.

I got a bunch of new cds lately -
The Darkness - Permisison to Land: silly 70’s hair rock emulating band.
Wolfmother - Wolfmother: non-silly 70’s rock style band. Pretty good album, havent really listened to it enough to decide if it’ll be something i listen to very often or not, but so far it’s looking good.
Pearl Jam - Pearl Jam: a return to more rocking, less politically charged music. not my favorite album, but good nonetheless.
Pearl Jam - Live in NYC 12/31/92: new years concert from 92, got it as a bonus for preordering. cool show from 13 years ago.
Tool - 10,000 days: crazy album cover with stereoscopic images and two lenses built in to see them. The album is good too - a little more just plain rock and less trippy spiritual than Lateralus, except for Vicarious which sounds like the song they couldn’t fit on the previous album. I like the album, not my favorite, but good.
Rob Zombie - Educated Horses: more rock, less electro-metal. Not the greatest album, but it’s alright. I’ve only listened to it a little bit so far, but it’s alright.
Buckcherry - 15: straight up no-frills rock complete with a pretty ugly yet rock n’ roll-sexy lead singer (a la Steven Tyler) . i like it, even if no one else does. “hey, you’re crazy bitch, but you fuck so good i’m on top of it” How could you not love that? oh right… it’s not wussy indie rock. :)

i’m leaving on friday for LA and E3!