Welcome to the Home of Game Strategies and Stories


Talk Strategy

10 Jun 05

With the FCC moving up the Digital TV deadline, I figure it's time to give my home theater report. As you know with a baby, I had a very limited budget. We also wanted this upgrade to last us for a few years at least until the 1080p sets (which aren't really out yet) become widespread and affordable. I also had the irrational desire to keep using my entertainment center despite having a 4:3 aspect ratio hole for the TV.

I should point out that I don't really qualify as an audio or videophile. I like clear music, sharp channel definition, and a clear picture. I can tell when I don't have those things. I can't tell you much about the warmth of a speakers sound or the acoustic properties of a room. Basically, compared to people who don't pay that much attention to it, I have quite an eye and ear for details. For those who are passionate about home theater, I'm still a rank amateur.

We were able to fit our needs and our budget with only minor compromises. HDTV's are still the hard part. Prices are falling. Of course, that just makes it harder since whatever you get, they'll have a cheaper, better model out soon. Based on our limited budget, a tube set made sense. You could get an LCD for the same price, but it would be very small. The plasmas and the DLP's hadn't fallen to those price levels yet. After some research into price/performance ratios, it appeared that Samsung and Toshiba had models I was interested. I was a bit surprised to find all the models that didn't take a 720p input. I eventually settled on this one from Toshiba. Admittedly it up converts 720p to 1080i, but the games I've played look quite good to me.

I have to say I'm pretty pleased. It natively supports 480i, 480p, and 1080i. My cable box outputs everything at 1080i. Most games are 480i or 480p so that's not a problem. I've already mentioned the few 720p games I've played. Probably the best thing about the set is the sharp color gradient. Blacks are deep and dark, while whites can be blinding. Of course, I had to do some major adjustments in the video menu to get the display I was looking for, but overall I'm quite pleased. Sometimes the HD channels will knock my socks off. Overall, highly recommended. By the way, there is a cheaper version out there from Toshiba that doesn't boost the HDTV signal. It's the same model number without the 'X' in it. I saw both and it was hard to tell the difference. The deciding factor for me was the complete satisfaction reported by owners of the Cinema series compared to some complaints about the standard model. It's an option to keep in mind with a limited budget especially if you have a friendly retailer who will take care of you if you have problems.

Moving on to audio. I had a nice, old Harman Kardon 2.0 stereo system. It was great for listening to CDs, but didn't support anything for surround. I needed a new system. I did some searching around. I was almost sold on an Onkyo home theater system when I found multiple references to AV123's ELT speakers as the most amazing buy for home theater. Unfortunately, they had recently kicked up the price to $1100-1200 depending on the finish. Of course, now they have them on sale for much less, look Here. I couldn't afford that much and get a decent surround sound tuner. But then I noticed the Tyke bundle. Sure they weren't the ELT's, but I couldn't find anyone complaining about them. In fact, to the contrary, everyone seemed amazed at the quality pumping out of those tiny cases. There were similar glowing comments about the Kenwood VRS 7100 (now upgraded to the 7200 from AV123).

So what's the verdict? Well, as always, running speaker wire sucks. Beyond that generally running all the wires sucks. However, once it was set up, I was impressed. The Tykes has a short burn in time. The center channel really impressed me. Some people have complained the bass isn't powerful enough with the sub that comes with the Tykes. All I can say is I don't want to party with those people. I've turned down the level several times and there are still occasions (yes I'm looking at you ESPN) when there's too much bass. Overall, amazing sound out of the tiny speakers. Highly Recommended.

How about the receiver? It supports up to 7.1 DTS or something crazy, but you have to jump through some hoops. It does 6.1 easily. I'm running it 5.1. It's all digital, quite versatile, and has many useful features. I have no complaints about the sound quality, mode recognition or supported modes. It's versatility is part of the problem. There are menus buried in menus. Some features are hard to find. I wish all the video inputs supported component. In the end, those are minor quibbles when faced with the quality output and feature set. Recommended.

Finally, all this can be a bit overwhelming for the family to control. So my wife got me an early Father's day present. It's the new Harmony remote control. Check it out. While I have come across a glitch or two, it still ranks as possibly the coolest thing ever. If you're willing to spend money on a high end remote, get this one.

Jason
Read/Post Comments

9 Jun 05

It's an interesting time in the console world. Despite all the name calling, not much real competition is going to happen until the PS3 gets released. Well, unless Microsoft falls flat on its face with their worldwide launch. I don't expect that will happen.

Despite some people's disappointment with their E3 showing, Microsoft has made some good moves. They've confirmed the price range will be in the neighborhood of $300 for the Xbox 2 (oops I mean 360). I already mentioned the plan to launch worldwide. They'll have some sort of backwards compatibility. Now if they'll just lock down prices at their current level, they'll have everything in place for a big launch.

Except the games. It's always a bit difficult to launch a console. The last generation is peaking. Games that have been in development for years are finally hitting the market. Then launch line ups are always a little weak. Companies proclaim them as the best thing since sliced bread, but they realize that only one or two will be memorable titles for the system.

Microsoft is even referring to titles as in "the launch window." Some have speculated that they could mean up to six months after launch. I'm sorry to break this to them, but when you launch before the holiday season, the launch window closes with the shopping season.

It's one of the ironies of a console launch. You really want to show off what the system can do, but there isn't much worth playing. Most of the games that will knock your socks off are a year down the road. Microsoft is hoping that the second or third wave of games for the 360 will hit Sony in the face as they try to launch the PS3. They hope the biggest punch will come courtesy of the Master Chief. Unfortunately, that's not much consolation when you're sitting there after Christmas with your two Xbox 360 games hoping for more.

It really looks like the big three have solid hardware coming down the pipe. Let's hope all of them can put together solid launch lineups, and keep the games flowing at a steady pace. Because the doldrums are a terrible place to be stuck without gas no matter how fast your car.

Jason
Read/Post Comments

8 Jun 05

I always think it's neat when I do things that I simply couldn't do a few years ago. I guess that's why I still lift weights. But that's not what I want to talk about. Debbie and I got fed up with our regional phone company. It's no fun paying too much for poor service when people literally a couple blocks away have more options, features and company choices all for less money.

So what couldn't I do before? I couldn't port my land line number over to my cell, but now I can and I did. Even though our regional dragged their feet, it was still easy and painless. Since we weren't quite ready to go cell only, we decided to try a broadband voice over IP solution. After some research, AT&T Call Vantage seemed the safest bet.

AT&T offered a great feature set, high marks in sound quality and reliability, and competitive prices. They weren't the cheapest, but we had been holding out for Time Warner cable's digital phone. TWC delayed implementing our area again, so we moved on. The advantage of going with TWC is that they don't take away any of your bandwidth when the phone is in use, but they also charged $10 a month more with less included plan features.

What I don't understand is how a phone company can come up with all these features for a great price for VOIP, but not change at all for POTS (plain old telephone service). I'm not really talking about AT&T. I'm thinking more about the regional Bells. It's hard to even find nationwide unlimited long distance on POTS. It's certainly not available at a competitive price.

CallVantage has included voice mail that will even email me when messages arrive. If I want, it can send me the message as an attachment. My call logs are online and up to date with a link to Anywho the person or to add them to my personal phone book. The service will locate me by ringing multiple numbers at once or in sequence. I can put a do not disturb on my phone. Premium features like 3 way calling, call waiting and call forwarding are included. I can even choose the number where I want to receive my call if my connection is down.

So far, I can't tell the difference in voice quality. Set up was easy. The only problem I has was they suggested putting the telephone adapter in front of the router. Unfortunately, that caused some connection issues. Now it's tucked behind the router and the phone line is working fine. I probably could have left it in front with a firmware update, but that would have killed Xbox Live. I'm going to have to get a new router sometime. I'm just holding out for the Wireless N standard.

So far so good. Don't worry, I'll start complaining if problems arise. If you don't hear any more about it, you can assume the VOIP world is treating us well. Feel free to post or tell me about your horror stories or why your provider is better. I'm all ears.

Jason
Read/Post Comments

7 Jun 05

I want to congratulate Computer Gaming World. This issue they have a researched article on people profiting in MMO games using macros, multiple accounts, and even sweat shops to reap gold or items to turn around to sell to users for cash. They went through several different methods and talked to people at various levels of each operation.

This article did two things. First, it showed the size of the secondary market. It's huge and growing. There's a lot of money to be made so people are doing whatever it takes to get it. Second, it showed what gaming magazines can do. Many have heralded the death of the gaming magazine since it can't compete on an equal footing with websites updated daily and having much greater freedom with regard to article length, number and variety of media and even numbers of reviews and articles published. I tend to agree if magazines don't adapt to the times. Why would I want to read a review that's shorter, provides less detail and has less screenshots if the quality of writing is the same. It's a bit of arrogance for all magazines to assume their superior writing makes up for the shortcomings of their format.

I think that article is a good first step. I want from my magazines articles that I can't get online. Sure magazines have to cover the big AAA titles. They should also champion the smaller, quality games that most people haven't heard of. But they shouldn't be trying to cover all the releases like the websites do. They shouldn't waste their precious space on bloated previews of the next big thing when they still fall several thousand words short of a website.

Magazines can provide depth and persistence. It's clear that article wasn't just an afternoon's work. I'm not sure it was completely beyond the scope of a website, but magazines can afford to do that and more. If they change their focus just a bit, they can transform themselves into the vital center of gaming journalism again. A website has to keep updating to be fresh so long term projects get swept away in the flood of today's articles. Magazines need to jump on that opportunity.

So what kind of stories am I talking about? I'm talking about multiple source, in depth articles. Take the recent EA spouse flap for instance. Do the legwork. Contact the spouse through the website. Get a list of complaints. See if you can dig up contacts at EA. Get their first hand stories even if you have to anonymous source them. Get EA's official story. Contact former EA managers. Contact labor unions on work conditions. Contact city officials. Get the opinions of industry analysts. Find out if EA is the ogre some complain or if it's more like the McDonald's of the gaming industry where you go to get experience and use it as a jumping off point for a career or if EA is just taking a hit from a small group with an axe to grind.

That's more work than most websites could afford to do. Those that could afford it would have to sacrifice a lot of output to do it. A magazine with a zealous journalistic staff could do it and so much more. I'd like my favorite magazines to have a future. More importantly, I'd like to read more of those types of articles.

Jason
Read/Post Comments

6 Jun 05

It's the Sixty-first anniversary of D-Day. The size and scope and cost and secrecy and deception involved boggle any strategist's mind. It truly brought the image of a World War home. But then you realize that D-Day was only possible because of the massive conflict on the Eastern Front. It kind of humbles you. Let's remember those who bravely charged into the teeth of Fortress Europe.

On a lighter note, Namco sent over a trailer for the upcoming Gameboy Advance title, Rebelstar Tactical Command. Check it out Here.

Analysts are predicting the Xbox 360 will launch with a $299 price tag. They also speculate that Microsoft will lose $75 per unit initially. In a completely unrelated story, Microsoft is predicting that there will be Xbox 360 shortages this holiday season.

I've stated before that I believe in protecting intellectual property. However, I'm also a big fan of fair use. I tend to think the Digital Millennium Copyright Act went a little too far protecting IP. Fortunately, there's a new bill in Congress that aims to restore the balance. You can check it out Here.

Finally, either there are a lot of people on vacation away from the internet or a big chunk of our readers are in college. I'm just basing that on the drop off in page hits this month. Of course, it's possible I've finally driven a lot of people away. Thanks to those of you who've stuck around.

It's really hot and humid here in Houston now. That's entirely why we have this week's game. It's Rollercoaster Tycoon 3: Soaked (official site) from Frontier Developments. Yes, it's an expansion, but it lets you build an entire water park within your Theme Park. With flumes and wave pools and water slides, your peeps can explore their wet and wild side. Then there's the reason a copy will definitely make its way into our home, aquatic animal shows including dolphins and killer whales. Look for the surf to start crashing at the end of the month.

Jason
Read/Post Comments

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Return to Archive List

 


Unlimited Game Rentals Delivered - Free Trial



Buy at GameStop.com

Thank You for supporting
Talk Strategy


GoGamer - Home of 48 Hour Madness!!



EBHoliday120x90





Free Shipping 2003

Free Shipping

For the Collector in You. Entertainment Earth.

button



Super Savings Only From Overstock.com!

GoDaddy.com $3.99 Domain Name Sale

 

 

 

 1and1 hosting ad


Amazon Honor System Click Here to Pay Learn More

© Talk Strategy 2005