I had previously posted about Monster Cable Company, exposing their bottom-feeding legal tactics and their deceptive marketing which thrives on the technical ignorance of the masses. Best Buy is Monster's biggest evangelist, and consequently also corporate scum. Already afoul of the FTC with their bait and switch techniques via their "secret internal website" vs external website pricing schemes, the old Yellow and Black's scumdom was further exposed in this recent article. (Look at the comments/testimonials!) After posting this link on Facebook, I got two more testimonials attesting to their shady ways. Circuit City sucked because it was inept and the employees (in my experience) were clueless. Best Buy has simply joined the ranks of sucking 'cause they're evil. Fry's FTW! (Truth be told: If you can wait, get your electronics online from a reputable vendor. It's almost always cheaper and less hassle.)
Three emerging tech concepts, two of which are supposedly ready for market, could usher huge, game-changing (pardon the pun) disruptions/advances. Mind you, all three have been labeled vaporware by many if not most observers. I list them here in order of potential impact from least to most.
Spawn Labs HD-720 In a nutshell, it's a Slingbox for gamers. It will allow you to remotely turn on your gaming console and play your games over the internet. I saw a demo on the Engadget show and it looked promising. The caveat is that you are limited to whatever game disc happens to be in the console tray, unless you have a number of downloaded Games on Demand. Of course, you could always phone the wife and ask her to put in your Halo ODST disc when you tire of GTA. Unfortunately, if Spawn Labs doesn't get this product out soon (expected ship date is January 18th, 2010), the product will be obsolete once OnLive releases its cloud-based monster (see below).
SteornLab’s Orbo As I am not a physicist, I don’t pretend to fully understand this technology. But what the creators of this technique claim is that they can create energy
It’s been a great year for time sinking, er, gaming. I finished Gears of War 2, Bioshock, Resident Evil 5, Arkham Asylum. I sold Mass Effect, Prototype, Borderlands, Unreal Tournament III, and Fallout 3 GOTY Edition without even getting ¼ through them. (That was my second go round with Fallout…) It’s final: RPGs are not for me.
So, now spinning:
Xbox 360: Call of Duty MW2 (Spec Ops), FIFA 10, NHL 10, GTA IV, Midnight Club LA (surprisingly addictive), Dead Space (still), Forza Motorsport 3, Halo ODST, Left 4 Dead, (GTA IV) The Lost and The Damned, and (GTA IV) The Ballad of Gay Tony. The latter includes some rather racy cut scenes I wasn't aware of, much to my embarrassment and my wife's horror. (Sorry, hon.) My 19 month old son will be chomping at the bit for Forza Motorsport 13, when the time comes.
PC: World in Conflict (still), Crysis, Crysis Warhead (dormant)
iPhone: Too many to mention. But EA, SHAME ON YOU for the iPhone port of FIFA 2010. I’m embarrassed for you.
Games in 2010 I am really looking forward to (in order of release date):
Aliens vs Predator (Xbox): The trailers say this will be even better than the PC original released 10 years ago. This is the game that really planted the gaming seed in my head.
Bioshock 2 (Xbox): The first was a stunningly detailed production, featuring an underwater art deco world populated by genetically enhanced lunatics. The next version looks to be more fantastic eye candy with some new characters AND you play as a Big Daddy.
Dante’s Inferno (Xbox): Sure. It’s basically God of War with more literary cred. So what's not to like?
God of War III (PS3): Though I never finished the original on PS2, Chains of Olympus on PSP was the first game on ANY platform I ever beat. So I have a soft spot for this franchise.
Red Dead Redemption (Xbox): I guess if games set in the Renaissance, the Middle Ages and the Crusades can be hits, why not the Wild West? Besides, it IS a Rockstar game and it looks AMAZING:
Split Second (Xbox): Not just another racing game. But one that let’s you blow things up and knock LARGE things down to slow down/defeat your opponents. Whoda thunk someone so vehemently anti-NASCAR like yours truly would be such a racing game fanatic?
Update: Gave Mass Effect a second try via Games on Demand and DAYUM! I am hooked!!!
"I promise I won't go into the whole OH MY GOD! Edwin, HOW THE HELL ARE YOU?!!! But I did find you first! Did you even look for me???"
The comment above was in response to an earlier post regarding my on again/off again relationship with Facebook. One may be tempted to think that this person was being tongue-in-cheek here. But they're what many might refer to as a "friend hopper" (what I prefer to call a flake). I don't care HOW much you (think you) love yourself. The road of narcissism is an unhappy and lonely one. I know: I was on it. Lucky for me, I got into a spectacular collision one day (with my soulmate) that knocked me clear off that road. To my (former) friend, Narcissus: I hope you are headed for a similar collision. That road is a long downward slope that goes nowhere. No man is an island... - John Donne
I'm sure that like me, many football (soccer) fanatics can call up and/or cross reference life memories based on what major football event was taking place at the same time. For me, the Summer of 1986 comes rushing in like a flood. A random collection of memories in no particular order: - I lived in a college flop house near the Syracuse University campus (Ostrom Ave) with my best friend Jeff, but rarely saw him as most of my time was spent in the "blink-and-you'll-miss-it" town of Tully to the south (where my girlfriend lived). - In a stunning display of irresponsibility, I walked out the back door of my dead end dish washing job at a rib joint one day. Not long after that, I blew off an interview at McDonald's. - I learned to really swim in a small pond for the first time. - I watched the England-Argentina match on the SU campus in a room full of Argentinians. I hate the little bastard (Diego Maradona) for the first goal, but can't deny him the second-one of the greatest ever. (They should have dropped him! That was the pre-professional foul era. The worst that would have happened would have been a yellow card.) - I watched the France-Brazil quarter-final with Jeff on a small 13" black and white TV in the aforementioned flop house. - I can't remember which match we watched at Jim Gorant's place (another flop). But all his roommates and their friends were huge (American) football players and/or fans. They kept parroting "DA WORLD CUP!" in mockery of the beautiful game. No malice intended. They just didn't get it. - My girlfriend's father gave me odd jobs, with no chiding whatsoever on quitting the one I had. - Jeff and I had a huge, unfortunate misunderstanding with our Nigerian roommate, who may have been plotting to kill us all after what our other roommates were doing to him (spoiled rich kids with no tact). My most heartfelt, profuse apologies were repelled (thrice!). - Perhaps in solidarity, Jeff quit the co-op he was working too. - I bought many (vinyl) albums from the Record Theater off Marshall Street, despite having almost no money. - The intellectual metal dude I worked with at the rib place played the same classic rock station whenever he was on shift. I may have heard "Kashmir" about 20 times in my 4-6 weeks there. Also in heavy rotation that summer: Secret Separation by The Fixx In Your Wildest Dreams by The Moody Blues When the Heart Rules the Mind by GTR (Reviewed by one crtitic in a single acronym: "SHT". Poor Steve Howe...) Sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel - The Monkees were on a reunion tour. And our roomie Bob had a facial structure such that, when asked, he could contort his face into a dead ringer for Micky Dolenz (Monkees drummer). - We had a "communal cat" (Bob's actually) named Lord Byron. (I think Bob was an English major.) he was the coolest feline ever. - I got my lifetime fill of Benny Mardones. - After a weekend trip back home where I retrieved much of my vinyl collection, I stumbled with a full crate of LPs, tripped, fell, and ruptured a vein at my arm bend. Said vein blew up like a grape and fuelled my hypochondria. (I had no health insurance at the time.) It did go down and morph into a rainbow-colored bruise.
