Category: Gaming

Console Gaming without a TV part V (Samsung 2333HD monitor)

Posted on by Forge77

From my last post I had talked about getting a new Monitor and retiring the Wii VGA cable . The thing is the post was getting to the epic dictionary size so I felt the need to make another post, After doing much research after my first failed attempt at getting a monitor I noticed they were making Monitors with TV tuners built on to them. Personally I don’t want a TV with a VGA input on it for many reasons, TV generally have very limited resolutions as far as computers are concerned.

Looking around I stumbled upon Samsungs lines of monitors with TV Tuners built in, the T2#0HD line of monitors are basically monitors with an HD Tuner built in.  I like the idea of a monitor that has a built in TV tuner,  It removes the need for a TV and also it is more convienent for me,  The major problem with these monitors is there fucking imposible to find locally in a store, best buy has them on there site but there all WEB ONLY which is a pile of moose shit, they went you to purchase a TV rather than taking more convienent route of getting a monitor with built in tuner.

After the fun I had with the Samsung 2253BW, I just for the hell of it looked at TV’s on the Office Depot site- which hit me with a profound yet silly answer– I had to look twice because the model number did not make sense- Samsung 2333HD 23″ Widescreen LCD HDTV? Wait a sec.. 2333HD? And I just had a 2253 ? and the T220HD ????? What the.. going to google it made alot more sense after.  The model number didn’t look like a HDTV Model number, after dealing with a TV problem in the house that needed to be replaced I became familiar with model numbers. Usually a model number from samsung for a monitor would be ####AB where-as tv’s used a much differnt sequence like – Samsung LN26A450. The only exception I’ve found was the T###HD monitor line, which is still much different than any model numbers for TV’s.

Comparing the T220HD to the 2333HD yielded another interesting result. The 2333hd Can goto 1080p while the T220HD could only achieve 720p.  After a call to Office Depot I manages to get the 2333HD.

For A TV analog channels do look a little fuzzy but on HD channels this monitor really shines, as for the Wii, It Removes the need for a VGA cable, it also has enough inputs to not clusterfuck the back of the pc with inputs and outputs. The sound from the built-in speakers is very tinny. The easy fix is to use the optical out on the back of the monitor which provides excellent sound through a Stereo reciever. As for the wii using a RGB Component in with the audio inputed in through the TV Also is a huge bonus (less cables all over the place).

As for the monitor end of things the monitor give an excellent response time for gaming with no noticeable trails or other things that would otherwise annoy you. Also the monitor goes into standby when you turn the PC off which is the BIGGEST thing I wanted and the reason I did not want to buy a TV. When you turn off a TV with a PC connected 95% of the time your left with a screen that says “no signal” and your just wasting power. the 2333HD does not do that after you shut down your PC the monitor happily goes to standby.

the Images look great as far as I’m concerned and this really is the best of both worlds when considering your options for a setup for a console without a TV.

Console Gaming without a TV part IV (Samsung 2253BW monitor)

Posted on by Forge77

I’ve written in the past about not having a TV to play Console games on , And through many trials I settled on the VD-W2 Wii VGA cable.  The cable definitely served its purpose, after trying many TV Cards that just could not hold up to console gaming I decided to try that cabled on a whim.  Honestly it was one of the best things I bought to use with my monitor.  So if you have a small room and do not want to deal with the annoyences of  TV Card or having a TV and a Computer monitor in the same room with your console and PC, The Vdigi Wii VGA Cable is worth the buy!

well….

The cable earned its retirement after almost a year of faithful service, I had given away one of my monitors due to the fact we still had a monstrosity of a CRT monitor in the house, That given, It started me on a new quest.

To find a monitor to fit my needs….
Since I was using both the VGA and the DVI inputs that meant I needed a monitor to have at least 2 inputs. The last time I had purchased a monitor was 2007 and, I was not sure exactly sure how things have changed in that technology.

Well I took a little crash course.

(click more to read on)

Continue reading “Console Gaming without a TV part IV (Samsung 2253BW monitor)”

Site Dry spell.

Posted on by Forge77

I’ve not posted in awhile , Just a little dry spell but, now i’ll get back up posting on the site. One of the main reasons was I updating my PC, The computer i was using has been having a rough time with things.  Upgraded to 2.7GHz processor and a new geforce 9800 gt  to boot.

so after going through a few reformats and 20 gallons of coffee I’ve finally got everything together. My biggest annoyance is Windows Activation, I’ve reformatted through almost every hardware change and activation for xp is just a big pain in the ass because you get the “you’ve activated this product to many times”.  Which is nothing short of saying FU to the customer who has a legit version of xp.

Also I have currently installed window 7, I had it installed before but made the mistake of installing it over XP, That was a huge mistake – for as well as 7 runs there are some things that just don’t run and your better off having a dual boot  to get around that.  Windows 7 as far as i am concerned is an improvement over Vista but, I am not totally confident that the current state of 7 will last. Microsoft started vista the same way , in the early beta’s it looked good but once they let the devs put all the crazy shit like UAC in it went down the hole. The methods they use to get to certain menus is silly.  Gaming for the PC with vista has been hit or miss but, mostly miss. the performance hits I’ve seen from vista keep me going to XP , With 7 I’ve actually seen some decent frame rates in games without taking a huge hit.  The annoyance factors with windows 7 Have been slightly minimized but not to a level I like, Its not like Vista where every action is followed by a warning (are you sure you want to breath *accept/deny). Also with Microsoft coming out with 7248572 version of vista is pure annoyance, Windows XP started with 2 editions Home and professional that was fine, They later added MCE (media center edition).  But when Vista came out they went with version clusterfuck, most sites list 6 version but in reality its 11+ versions of the same OS

  1. Windows Vista Starter
  2. Windows Vista Home Basic
  3. Windows Vista Home Basic 64
  4. Windows Vista Home Premium
  5. Windows Vista Home Premium 64
  6. Windows Vista Business
  7. Windows Vista Business 64
  8. Windows Vista Enterprise
  9. Windows Vista Enterprise 64
  10. Windows Vista Ultimate
  11. Windows Vista Ultimate 64
  12. Windows Vista Ultimate bill gates limited edition
  13. Windows Vista Ultimate bill gates limited edition 64

Sure you can say some of its redundant but its way the fuck too much. hopefully with 7 they have ALOT less versions  because going through all that feels like going through all the Sims 2 expansion packs from EA no thanks. Hopefully windows 7 will be like XP was after they released there nightmare windows ME

Wii have a problem with Media? Media Thinks your Wii is going to kill or injure you….

Posted on by Forge77

Recently I’ve seen alot of news on how the wii “injures” people and at first I was going to ignore it but, Instead of going away its just grown into the flavor of the month of Media trying to scare people.  Reading this article is pretty hilarious on its own because of how badly its sourced and the numbers they are coming out with. anyways on to the goods.

The article starts in huge letters

Wii puts 10 in hospital a week

Wow…. so they bait you with that. what the hell is the Wii doing beating people down who play Xbox? Its very interesting how an inanimate object is “putting” people into the hospital.

The growing toll has prompted NHS doctors to warn of the dangers. Wii-itis sufferers usually have excruciating pain in the right shoulder or knee.

The Toll? WII IS ON A RAMPAGE!!!! LOOK OUT ITS GOING TO CAP YOUR ASS! no, seriously this bugs me because usaully the people ending up hurt by the wii are either playing like jackasses or have no concept of moderation. They fail to state the conditions leading up to whatever caused the injuries, in most cases the Game system did not cause the injury the person caused the injury themselves by not following instructions,  reading further…

A rheumatology consultant said: Most are admitted after playing the tennis and running games which involve sudden movements and violent tendon stretching. Dr Dev Mukerjee, of Broomfield Hospital, Chelmsford, Essex, said: There has been a 100 per cent increase in patients complaining of Wii-itis.

I don’t know about this it sounds like a load of bullshit to me,  Tennis maybe , Running ? What the hell? Even with wii fit it tells you not to slam down on the board, so again this comes back to the person playing the game. I’ve seen some people who play the Wii and use crazy amounts of force or movements while playing, When you play the wii you dont have to swing the controller like your hacking an axe through a tree, using fairly slow movements can actually acheive the same results as swinging like a madman.

Thinking about it further something about this article stinks badly enough to think a landfill with used diapers is nearby and someone is just trying to get there 15 minutes of fame, my logic is the numbers dont play out. Think about this for a moment, This asshats are just playing with numbers to make them look alot worse than they are.

10 People a week get “injured”, in 52 weeks that means only 520 people get injured in a years time. Given the population of the world. Your chances of getting “injured” by the Wii beating your ass in any given day is  0.0000077%, There something seriously wrong with this. This doctor is Should not even be considered remotely useful. if you really think about this

the odds of you getting injured by your Wii is

1 in 12,884,615ish

Lets look at the odds of things than your  Wii Injuring you and see how retarded this article is for all its worth.

  • becoming president: 1 in 10,000,000
  • dying from parts falling off an airplane: 1 in 10,000,000
  • dying from contact with hot tap water: 1 in 5,005,564
  • dying from food poisoning: 1 in 3,000,000
  • winning the lottery (single state): 1 in 18 million
  • being struck by lightning: 1 in 2,650,000
  • killed in an airplane accident: 355,318 to 1
  • asteroid colliding with Earth in the next 100 years: 5,500 to 1
  • becoming an astronaut: 12,100,000 to 1
  • drowning in the bathtub: 693,000 to 1
  • dying due to a shark attack: 300,000,000 to 1

The news networks and various blogs are Picking up the story and focusing on the injury end, where the statistics speak for themselves. its all Silly medias fascination and irresponsibility with scaring people with stuff that is next to impossible to happening and the fact they blame the machine rather than the person is just poor writing on there behalf.  From the articles i’ve found theres no stated sources, no actual facts, No history, and no clues to the actual cause of this.

A year with with my Wii………..and let the puns begin!

Posted on by Forge77

This month is comming up on me having the Wii console for 1 year.. How has the Wii stood up as time has progressed? After owning the wii this long, there have been a few thoughts  i’ve had as far as how the system has matured, Honestly the system is still good but still needs to grow up a bit.

I Do Still pay with the wii, but Not nearly as often as I used to due to the fact of a lack of games with depth to them,  Some games do come out with depth but, the issue is quantity. The fact that developers have shunned the Wii kind of makes for an interesting senario. Sure its taken the market by storm but, im seeing where the Wii’s weakness is, theres just not the title market out there.  Forevery good game for the system theres a SHITLOAD of vomitware for the system and it shows, Goto gamestop and look on there used shelves and you will see TONS of craptastic games.

As far as price has gone, The wii is not the lowest man on the ladder due to the x-box 360’s agressive pricecuts but in the long run the Wii is cheaper due to the online component being cheaper (Free). The Wii’s online component severely is lacking still due to lack of interaction in games, If you play Mario Kart Wii , Theres just no feeling to it due to the lack of interaction between players. Sure you can see the asshat that just knocked you off the track as you swear your brains out at the screen but, does the person on the other side of the connection know your mad …. NO. They did add keyboard support awhile back but, its so unused the most it maybe used for is to put in a creditcard number for more Wii Points, Nintendo could highly benifit from at least adding chatroom or some other way to talk to players while using the system.

The system has been pretty faithful to me with one exception of having the send in the wii to Nintendo for service. But The repairs were extremely quick and had the system back within the span of one week.

While the Wii’s gaming library has some good games that come out every few months, I’ve never really been stuck in a situation of a choice to make over one game to another. Nintendo’s first party titles are pretty much unmatched in terms of gaming on the system theres a few noted exceptions such as Raving Rabbids, No More Heroes, Final Fantasy Fables, and Starwars the force unleashed but, The lack of quality 3rd party titles I think is my biggest mark against the system.

Given that fall us upon us maybe we will see the Wii mature a bit or maybe we will see the Wii not Mature. I said wii huh-huh-huh…

Review: Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo’s Dungeon

Posted on by Forge77

I Picked up Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo’s dungeon not sure what to expect after buying Dragon Quest Swords , You see Dragon Quest Swords I figured Might be good but instead it turned into a steaming pile of Suck after the first 20 minutes of play realizing that you were stuck on rails, In the Sense of an RPG its not because you are firmly stuck on rails with no real choice of where you can explore. BlueSteel really has the game Pretty much nailed in this review on his site.

As For Final Fantasy fables though its a complete turnaround from DQS , I Started out playing and i was taken back how it reminded me of final fantasy 9. Final Fantasy 9 i personally enjoyed due to the fact you dont get clusterfucked by Cut scene movies, The Story so far seems to be fairly decent but what had caught me as the funniest thing was the dungeons. As i started play around in the dungeons something came to mind a game i used to play.

fatal labyrinth an old yet addictive game on the Sega Genesis it seems all the dungeons are randomized and Loot is randomized, If you die you also loose everything you had, that said its best to use the storage in game. I’ve so far made it through half of the game. Some parts are just outright agravating to the point you want to fire your wiimote out a window, but as Agravating as it can get theres always another path you can go and just go back to the spot your stuck in later.

One of the hardest parts of the game is the “special rules” dungeons.. basically you have any number limitations that makes your life harder than being awake two weeks straight without an ounce of coffee, If you feel like your going to fail a dungeon best thing is to bail out and retry it, because the randomization affords you a luck factor of getting an easier setup.

Overall so far, I really like the game, but due to the content it may fly under the radar for alot of people , Its a great experence so far. also it lends a little nastolgia to old school gaming.  The gameplay effectively nonlinear in a way. but inorder to advance the story you have to play with the story.

The name roguelike  Rpg as everyone calls it is sort of fitting but theres a sence to why stuff is randomized.

but as far as FFFCD Its Definantly worth a buy because the replayability is up there.

Games: Guitar ____, Rock_____ (insert random word in blank space)

Posted on by Forge77

First guitar hero… that wasn’t so bad. Than rock band… Now Rock revolution, And so it begins.. the Rock____(fill in blank with something Cool sounding) Wars.

Whats next Rock Philharmonic, *You need 45 Controllers to play, a small loan , your first born and a contract for 3 years. it maybe just me but i have no damn interest in a simulator simulator (your simulating someone simulating playing a song). I just cant stand games that you do not truly play – It would be like playing Unreal Tournament by playing the player that controls the character thats boring as hell. After all doesn’t violate some sort of paradox rule? Just imagine playing Mario brothers by the Guitar hero method .. red red green green and you screaming the whole time GO RIGHT DAMNIT.

Sure its *new* to gaming … NOT SO MUCH, Cue: NES power pad(wait thats more fun).. Dance Dance revolution, Or for that matter any sports game where you Can only play by simulating the seasons. Sure Maybe the first time around its fun but after that i’d see it getting boring as hell.

But what i find Is the silliest fucking thing to this is with the DLC + Need to buy 74 Plastic toy instruments its getting ridiculous. This is all falling into the horrible black hole of your typical EA game.. Rather than improve on the game structure and make it better, Redo the whole came and complicate the fuck out of the Interface and controls, Guitar Hero has your guitar, Rockband has Drums + 2 guitars, Rock Revolution has a Even more complicated 7 button drum set plus who the hell knows what.. Perhaps the Special Kazoo controller, guitar Hero IV not to be outdone will have also a six button drum Annoying taping banging sound kit.

If you have ever walked into a big box store you can normally hear the rock band drum set from across the store and normally you want to kill the person on the drums because they pound away at the things like a Drunken steroid Infused gorilla. Honestly I cant stand this type of game because its a horrid step backwards, Now if the companies making these games would let you plug in a REAL Instrument to the game and actually play the song, I’d likely not have to say a word about this crap. But, Since this crap is turning into a monster its going to be horrid.

This game type is mutating at such a fast rate its getting scary. Rockband I think will have the most room for mutation since its evil EA overlords will probably whip there slaves into making some awful brain feasting zombie game, where in order to run it you must buy the all the options.. Wait there already doing that, Rock band wants you to bend over and take it a little harder with the Light and smoke Stage kit for 99$

Whats next, The Rock Band bender washout years kit, Complete with 9 tons of blow and acid with optional hookers, (Groupies sold separately).

I know these companies want to make a buck, but hell come up with something innovative will ya?

like, why not add some actual gaming to these games, add a part where you have to manage your band, A TRUE career mode. manage the band , or hire a manager that could quite possibly rip you off, fend off fights in the venue? Add some Extreme personalization by having your own true “rock band” by each player that plays has there gamertag(xbox) to each part of the band creating a true (even tho simulated simulated) band – with the possibility of offline gaming where all people don’t have to be there at once. One guy does the guitar part, you get a notification that your “bandmember” has attempted a song and You have to do your part. that would lead to better online multiplayer gaming. with this setup You could have Bands that play against each other and Have a Fame rating or something to that effect. If your “rock band” breaks up you also get a penalty or a bonus depending on how that player was.

(note: Rock Band has a mode like this but it seems more linear, see wiki Entry)

It just gets to me on how a game with such a lack of depth is so popular. Drives me completely nuts when i hear people that say “OH YEAH I CAN PLAY THAT SONG” and you finish the sentence with “on your Console….”. but these games need more depth more options than *Red green yellow yellow etc etc*

with the idea I have… you could have battle of the bands …. rather than single ratings or how many “fans” you have..

Hopefully in the future, these games will not be the clusterfuck they are coming out to be right now by adding all the craptastic accessories and needing them all to “play” the game, and game that requires you to buy stuff thats twice the cost of the game is kind of ridiculous in my opinion. I am sure some people enjoy these games but… till they come up with a saner method, instead of flooding the market with 90 tons of crap your going to forget about after you get bored and Have a load of plastic instruments floating around, I think I’ll stay away from these genre….

Just a side note… Strangely interesting that the publisher is listed as MTV GAMES for most versions of Rock Band at Gamestop.com ..

Makes me wonder if they are trying to hide there name in order to stop people that go “EA SUCKS ASS” which they do in 99% of cases.

GTA Moronity part II

Posted on by Forge77

Went out to pick up a shelf today with bluesteel, We decided to stop at gamestop. so we poked around the Gamecube games and picked up a few. but in the time we saw at least 4 parents picking up GTA 4 for there kids. With the news going crazier than britney spears on a normal day about GTA it seems like parents dont give a shit about GTA/NEWs reports. so basically its a few crazy fucks going off on fictional material in the game that doesn’t exist. but Over all it was pretty entertaining to see that.

VD-W2 Wii VGA cable part III.

Posted on by Forge77

Over the weekend i picked up a few GameCube games, Metroid Prime , F-zero GX, Killer7and Need for speed Hot pursuit 2. Now i previously wrote about the VD-W2 Wii VGA cable, This is the first time I’ve had a problem with the cable. The first game i tried was NFS:HS the game starts up and the display on the monitor goes nuts. Typical, EA and more crap they put out, You would figure as the one of the “top” gaming manufactures, it would support 480p. The gamecube supports 480p , but theres a catch. in order to get the game in 480p you need to hold down the B button on the gamecube controller when starting the game.

this is a small problem in my opinion since i don’t play too many GC games. But, if you intend to play Game Cube games using the VGA cable There is a list too help you out at Mobygames.com .

Overall the cable in my opinion is worth it with the one minor downfall of not supporting GC in 480i , but Most of the good games are supported in 480p for the game cube.

overall i’d say the cable too me is a 9/10 with that small drawback (to me)

GTA Moronity.

Posted on by Forge77

Sheesh Im sick of the news lately about video games.. there newest plug is going after Grand theft auto 4, No i haven’t played this one yet. but what the hell, you have all these idiots on TV saying that GTA is going to make you… Kill people , beat up prostitutes, Drive drunk, Eat your parents , microwave your cat than serve it for lunch, brew Decaf at your office and watch everyone suffer.

The News has coined the term that GTA is a “cop killing simulator” That kids are playing the game to train to kill people.. bullshit. Last time i looked at a gun it did not have an Xbox/PS3/Wii Attachment to the barrel of the gun. Nor does the game FORCE you to kill people.

The news has been using the tag line of “GTA Morality” all week, the thing is its more like Moronity, 9 times out of 10 these news casters have not played these games. But saying a game is making kids go bezerk and killing a bunch of people is the furthest from the truth .. if you have watched most incidents that have *happened* surrounding some sort of video game, 9999 times out of 10000 the person who Killed people or has done something extremely stupid has some serious preexisting problems. Not only that the responsibility of the gamer and gamers parents should be called into question. Letting your kid play GTA 16 hours a day … THATS NOT NORMAL. basically thats waking up Playing GTA till you goto bed.. yeah something is fucked up right there.

Parents should often evaluate the title before handing it off to kids. Rather than letting your little snowflake buy what ever game s/he pleases, Start in one place.. Look at the bottem right or left corner of the box… right there is a small little sign of what the game contains.

That right there kids is in indication of what exactly your walking into. Its No harder than movie ratings and is actually simpler than TV ratings.

Heres a look at the TV ratings and why there nothing but a clusterfuck

Sure there are 7 ratings but it actually gets a fair bit more complicated. After those ratings you normally see something like “TV-14 AVS” because with the TV ratings it goes way beyond the 7 initial ratings. there are also 12 more subratings.

  • V for moderate violence
  • S for mild sexual situations
  • L for mild coarse language
  • D for suggestive themes
  • V for intense violence
  • S for moderate sexual situations
  • L for coarse language
  • D for highly suggestive dialogue
  • V for extreme gory violence
  • S for pornography/extreme explicit sexual nature
  • L for strong coarse language
  • D was used for TV-M until it was changed to TV-MA in 1998; although was used on of Tripping the Rift

Video games have become the hot topic of the media for one reason, it gets the pressure off them and they can produce all the crazy shit they want while looking like the innocent ones. they need to hold that bus up, because if anything the media has caused more shit than anything. As much as i would hate bring this up. The VT shootings, That guy was tapped, and I saw this one comming a mile away, the cho or whatever his name sent a video to the Media networks. by playing the video, they validated that idiots point.

Every time someone shoots someone , the media is there to suck it up and make it into news. sensationalize the fuck out of it and inject it into your brain till you vomit the Fox/NBC/ABC logo out. Its highly hypocritical of the media to go after games when they have the exact same shit on tv..

Lets look at tonights listings why dont we….

CSI: Miami – Crazy person kills people and they go looking for him .
Medium – person Kidnaps blah blah..
48 Hours Mystery – Murders and shooting.
DEA – Drugs Murdering and shooting.

geez all that is on and it generally shows how they murdered people who did and what tools and normally if you watch the news long enough, you will find the occasional footnote that some stupid ass tried to use something they learned on CSI etc to do a crime.

Hitting the A,B,X,Y Triangle Square Whatever the button is doesn’t represent the act of what your doing, and if you are taking games seriously as they are being labeled, You should stop being a hypocrite and also take concern of your TV , movies and music.

Seriously these newscasters need to stop just making shit up and actually play the game through before even making one report about this. Rather than jump on the fearmongering bandwagon and make up stuff like people training themselves to drive drunk on GTA quote from gamepolitics.com

Savannah, Georgia TV station WSAV-3 reports that the Traffic Commander of the Savannah-Chatham Police Department is also concerned. Lt. Scott Simpkins told WSAV:

How many people are going to go ‘hey if I can master this, I can go out and instead of having a glass of wine or a beer with dinner, I can have 2 or 3 because I’ve been training how to drive intoxicated’? So these are the things that I have to worry about when stuff like this hits the market.

Whens the last time you drove to the store with an Xbox controller..? I thought so.. that does NOT translate to even making sense here. this comment alone is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. its like saying “HEY LETS GO HAMMER A FEW DOWN AND *TRAIN* TO DRIVE DRUNK!”.

They say that the Ratings are broken for Games.. Try watching some DVD’s .. watch any police academy , Airplane.. Countless other movies that swear up a storm and what rating do they have? PG , yes only PG.

what it basically comes down to.. is if you can not tell reality from game.. you shouldn’t be playing games. end of story .

How many kids ended up injured from watching power rangers because no one ever explained to them about violence and used the TV as a baby sitter? why doesnt the media go after that crap? Likely they have kids and if they take away the power rangers they actually have interact with there little snowflakes.

So before you blame some video game because your kids fed the cat to the angry pigeon that lives on your roof, Evaluate all things they do rather than scapegoat it because random newscaster said so.