Mind over matters, E3’s motions controllers. (project natal)

Posted on by Forge77

After following the news for E3 for awhile I knew MS and Sony would announce there motion controllers.  The funny thing that comes to mind is that for 2 years most people complained that the wii motion controls were a gimmick .. alrighty than.

Interesting yes but, As far as the Microsoft motion controller is concerned it has many faults that are not pointed out.  I could point out that this system is the eye toy but thats been beaten to death with a dead horse. From the demos I have seen there are seemingly a lot of lag time in motion to screen reaction, at one point in on of the demos you could clearly see that the person and on screen avatar were completely out of sync, The wii’s controls seemed more in sync than this and I’m curious that the people playing around with natal were just in a state of ZOMG NEW TOY mode rather than objectively using the device.

The second thought of this is natal with more than one player it just doesn’t seem like it will even work,  If it does it maybe more a space issue since your stuck in the field of view of the lens. Just imagine trying to play rabbids in the point of view of a camera with two or even 4 people, Hospital visits would rise to the point of Armageddon and Bruce Willis would have to be sent in to nuke your console.  From another site

Natal is so smart, in fact, that, if your room is narrowed by a pair of couches, it can signal to a game to narrow the level. It can see about 15′ x 20′ of a room, according to project leader Kudo Tsunoda’s informal estimation.

(this was part of a post I made on june 5th but I decided to hold off to see if this held water or not.  I left this part of the post originally to show where my thinking was at the time. Anyways)

2 weeks later and finding out where the motion controller is now, and many articles later.

gamemediasites

Sony’s motion controller seems to be playing the same Houdini game where its a announced and disappears. I think its because its closer to the wii controls and everyone’s uppity about the project Nu-toy, As i had Started to point out the Microsoft Motion controller seems to have more faults than positives.  Even further It seems that the technology in this “controller” (to which i lightly say) implemented is going to confusing as fuck compared to the normal – In a video of them playing burnout paradise it looked closes to step dancing for dummies playing that game. Car Racing games is not really the best format to show responsiveness.  Microsoft here has put up the unicorns farting rainbows approach to marketing this device, Hyping the living hell out of it.  It almost feels like a Fail in motion.

the second thing about the microsofts control setup is that all gaming sites have jumped on this like its the best advance since pong(again eye-toy).  As far as I’ve seen with the pre-natal, It just seems more of a “gimmick” than the wii-mote, I mean since “you” are the controller do you really think people are going to play Halo with this? also the lack of a device will make the experience more confusing, it will basically come back to the hell people went through of getting the powerglove to work  right.

Everyone’s gone bullshit over this to the point of gollum and the one ring.  but as far as the experience is concerned microsoft is expecting you to fill in too many blanks, There has to be some device in between to work and feel correct.

bing? bing.. Its just uhh.. yeah..

Posted on by Forge77

Microsoft has been flapping there PR mouth over there new search engine bing. After the failed livesearch and another companies shit fest of a search engine.  It seems like Microsoft has learned a thing or two about search engines but, not much. It was more like “lets just rip off another popular search engine. ” Microsoft has been smearing there new Bing.com everywhere, Hulu is running ads , likely there is ads on TV . but, it appears that bing will be not ignored like cuil was, Microsoft will likely force bing down our throats every way possible.  Just to give an idea how microsoft will pull is.

  • Windows update will force some update as “critical” to internet explorer forcing bing to the front
  • Update MSN clients to have bing built in
  • Windows 7  will likely have it forced on the desktop
  • Come out with some goofy firefox plugin (maybe already done mystery plugin for firefox had come out *cute stealth install too*)

hemantm writes “A routine security update for a Microsoft Windows component installed on tens of millions of computers has quietly installed an extra add-on for an untold number of users surfing the Web with Mozilla’s Firefox Web browser.”

Looking into the name  bing the first definition that comes up on dictionary.com is

bing

1 –noun British Dialect. a heap or pile.

As funny  as that is , Bing is almost an identical ripoff of  Google.

binghere’s the same same search in google .

googlethe result pages look almost EXACTLY the same.  Microsoft has made an attempt to make a search engine but, its a blatant ripoff of Google.  Playing around with Bing it seems alright but, again looking at the search engine there’s no fucking difference. The supposed Smart search engine that bing is just tries to give you the same results. Yes there are features in this search engine but Google already does 99.99% of bings search results.

Do we need another Google? NO, if Microsoft actually made something unique it would be one thing, At least cuil made an attempt at being unique.  In order to do something better with the search engine Microsoft should try something different than work from there with a dynamic interface that takes opinions from users.

But my vote on this search engine is no , its a shamefully blatent ripoff of google.  Its insulting, microsoft has billions of dollars yet they can’t come up with there own search engine?

Star Lens flare Trek

Posted on by Forge77

I watched StarTrek in the theaters a few days ago and the movie in it self was pretty good and, as a series “reboot” (i hate the word reboot for movies).  It Does a somewhat good job of distancing itself from the previous movies while keeping homage to the original series in a way.

The biggest problem with the movies is lens flare….. not just lens flare holy shit lens flare

flare_At first we though if we made  drinking game out of the lens flare it would be funny .. well yes.. it was .. exactly 30 seconds into the movie we lost count of the “lens flares’ more so if you even attempted this you’d be worse than a G W bush Drinking game and probably dead.

As for the plot of the movie it was fairly ok, but it had some momentum issues. it does keep your attention through the movie but, I felt like it tries to keep you on the edge of your seat the whole movie,  the Dark Knight suffers this, and through the whole movie it kind of devalues the scenes after awhile of constant action.  I mean pretty much if you wanted to simplify the movie its:  *action* *action* *action* *action* *action* *action* *action* *action* *action* *action* *action**kirk does something funny* *action* *action* *action* *action* *action* *action* *action* *action* *action* *action**spock and uhura get it on* *action* *action* *action* *action* *action* *action* *action**kirk meets spock* *action* *action* *action* *action* END OF MOVIE ……

still and over all good movie but I felt at some points it lacked character depth, There are some scenes where you go “where the fuck did that come from (spock and uhura scenes) Also it does a fairly good job of distancing itself from the previous treks without causing all trekkies to jump out and say “OMG THAT NOT HOW IT HAPPENS” .

Over all its a good movie and worth the watch in the theater , Just be prepared for lens flare.. ALOT OF IT. Even the trailer does not prepare you for epic lens flare. Even Rick flair could not prepare you for it.

Retail Zombies riiiiiiiiiise!

Posted on by Forge77

just when you thought circuit city was down and out there website is back up .

the only thing that’s weird is

Systemax Inc., a leading multi-channel retailer of computers, electronics, and industrial products, has purchased the Circuit City brand, trademark, website and other assets. The purchased assets include the customer records of the original Circuit City.

As part of our “Customer First” initiative, and respect for your privacy, you can opt-out of having your personally identifiable information transferred to the new Circuit City. Personally identifiable information may include name, address, email, phone, and purchase history. However, it DOES NOT include credit card data or other personal financial information; this information will not be transferred to us at all. If you opt-out prior to June 9th, your personal information will be purged and you will no longer receive email communications from Circuit City.

although they do include and opt-out form for the data retained by the new company.  but if you opt out, they will expell your data from the site.

compusa was also bought by the same company. the funny thing i’ve notice is they have a twitter feed on the compusa page.  I personally don’t like twitter due to its retard factor of dumbing things down to 140 letters. Media has attached themselves to twitter like its the best thing since sliced bread.

Chuck season 3!: Chuck Versus the Network. yay i think?

Posted on by Forge77

Chuck is in for a third season but its more a pyretic victory than anything else.  I could be wrong but NBC seems not want to keep chuck in one of its slots even though they have given into a 3rd season.

Why do I say this … well lets look at the ups and downs of this

Positives

  • Chuck lives on for another season (this one deserves an * though)
  • We get to see the chuck story line progress.
  • Another season of something to watch witty, funny humor

Negatives for Chuck Season 3

  • Only 13 episodes vs the normal 20+
  • Warner Bros. agreed to make significant budget concessions
  • scaling back the number of episodes several members of the show’s stellar supporting cast will appear in

if you looks the negatives directly influence the positives, Yes, Im happy for season 3 of chuck but, at what cost has NBC put it at?

The genius of chuck was the whole fact that they could twist a bunch of story lines together without directly interacting with each other and keep it funny and too a point where everyone could see a bit of themselves in each episode (refering to the buymore and family plots of the show).

Hopefully with the losses, Chuck can still keep up without loosing its charm.

At this point the save Chuck campaign in my belief is only Half done. Hopefully the creators will adapt and keep the show as interesting as it has been and hopefully get renewed to a full season versus the current half season.

I know I’m looking at the negatives here but who knows. Maybe we win and see Chuck season 4

Chuck Keep it on the air!

Posted on by Forge77

I don’t watch too much TV but, the one show I have been following is Chuck . At first I watched a few episodes but, the series proceeded I really began to like the show. The show has a serious but not to serious side and plot that you can follow without having to watch the whole series. After a two season run the fate of the show is up in the air.

the amount of meta-humor in the show is halarious, In Chuck versus Santa Claus Big mikes cousin is Al powell , to movie buffs that would be none other than Al Powell from die hard.

another episode mades a reference in one of chucks flashes to the “great outdoors” with the ol 96’er

chuckWith the show in the great unknown of being canceled out not , I really hope they keep the show on the air , this show is too good to be canceled.

Logitech MX 1100 (review)

Posted on by Forge77

After dealing with so many logitech G7’s , I’d finally given up on them as logitech has sent me a Logitech MX1100.

mx1100After almost a month of using this mouse its a fairly good mouse , it has more buttons than you know what to do with (10 buttons). The most noticable thing is the grip on the mouse it forms to your hand fairly well compaired to the g7 , A handshake would best explain it as it conforms to your hand.

As for mouse speeds its  right up there with the G7, Maybe a tiny bit slower but barely noticable. My only peeve with the mouse is when you use the mouse from an idle state after leaving the mouse for awhile and you first move it after an extended period of time its slow to come alive, its like you shake it awake literly. but, after that the mouse works extremely well.

For now I’ll give this mouse a thumbs up but we will see down the road if the mouse will follow the same path as the G7 …

MovieStop gets stranger.. (possible employee reply)

Posted on by Forge77

While sitting here and realizing i’ve not updated in ages , I decided to check my comments sections, It was kind of funny .  I noticed a Comment sitting in moderation for my moviestop post that I had posted over a year ago. I had an problem with MovieStop, and after a few emails the situation was corrected, I thought it was spam until I decided to read it.

March 26, 2009 at 11:50 am

Policy is, if you reserve a movie they match the lowest “ADVERTISED” price. This means there has to be an in store advertisement stating the lower price. They do not match every price because they sell used movies which are always lower than any other store’s new prices. Sounds to me like you are one of those customers that all retail employees hate to have to service. You think that you should get the best deal even though the policy is different than what you want. Maybe step down from your high horse and come join the rest of us on planet earth.

Maybe I’m on a High horse maybe I’m not, but this comment is basically an attack,  let me break this one down.

  • Policy is, if you reserve a movie they match the lowest “ADVERTISED” price.

From my previous post: Before Leaving the Moviestop lot I had checked the window to see that there was a Large sign in yellow with black large letters “GUARANTEED LOWEST ADVERTISED PRICES”. When i had asked regarding this sign in the front of the store windows the person claimed that there was an asterisk in the sign on the front of the store. Checking the sign again there was No asterisk no Limitation no claim to see in store for details Nothing noting of any policy of what this person had spoke of.This item was new, and the price I saw was ADVERTISED, It was  in the best buy flier for the same week.

  • This means there has to be an in store advertisement stating the lower price.

See above

  • They do not match every price because they sell used movies which are always lower than any other store’s new prices.

That’s a given but, I purchased this product new.  generally used products fall under different rules which are printed in stores (Or at least gamestops that I’ve been too).

  • Sounds to me like you are one of those customers that all retail employees hate to have to service. You think that you should get the best deal even though the policy is different than what you want.

Now your getting a little snippy here, As far as being hated by retail employees, I don’t think so, Now i’ve been nice up to this point. I’m sure a lot of gamestop/moviestop employees are not like you, Hell I know my gamestop/moviestop managers and they know me but,you are a gamestop/moviestop employee In richmond, VA area, who has no  clue what went on and are assuming the customer is always wrong, I never believe the customer is always “right” but, there is a happy medium.  That right there is the first sign of bad customer service, Secondly I pointed out the sign issue, most states have laws saying they are bound by what the sign says unless its a grievously bad error, also by the federal trade commision .

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is the main federal agency that enforces advertising laws and regulations. Under the Federal Trade Commission Act:

  • Advertising must be truthful and non-deceptive;
  • Advertisers must have evidence to back up their claims; and
  • Advertisements cannot be unfair.

But to get this kind of treatment almost a year later is kind of low, I’ve been mostly nice through this post but if MovieStop employees really think they are god to obviously which you think you are, you need to really sit down and think! How do i want my store to be and how can I keep people coming back to my store. Not find a post on the internet and bash the person because what you believe is right, quite simply you need to educate your customers and educate your self and CORRECT problems when you see them, If you store has a sign that says

“GUARANTEED LOWEST ADVERTISED PRICES”.

But, the sign only refers to preorders, The sign is incorrect! You need to correct the sign because the sign says quite different from the actual given “policy”.  A better sign would be

“GUARANTEED LOWEST ADVERTISED PRICES ON PRE-ORDERS: See inside for details”.

After this I think moviestop is on the shitlist again.

Logitech G7 double click Abyss

Posted on by Forge77

I’ve just about had it with the G Series of Logitech mice. I don’t know why but, they always seem to get the double click of death after only months of use.

right now my mouse is inthe process of being sent to Logitech, Thankfully support was willing to RMA my mouse for a completely different mouse.

our Warranty Department and I can offer you the MX1100 Cordless Mouse as a replacement.

The MX1000 I had lasted 4 years before any problems what so ever with that mouse and I hope the quality is better than the Logicrap G7

So hopefully there should be a Review of the MX1100 thats Favorable instead of Hulk angry want to kill a mouse rant.