I have a nice 51in Toshiba HDTV that I got a few years back.  I wanted to move it to another room in my house & get something just a little more discreet for my gaming TV since the room I game in isn't really huge & the 51in seemed a bit big.

I picked up a 46in LCD Sony Wega for $1400, (that included a 4 year warranty), and I have to say that it is one stellar TV.  The picture quality is ridiculously good, it has 5.1 Surround sound, a fast refresh rate & the color saturation is astounding.  It has 2 HDMI ports, 3 component ports, 1 vga port & 1 composite port.  My 360 & PS3 look wicked on it, (unfortunately no TV in the world is going to make my Wii look any better graphically), & Blu Ray are so freaking crisp that it almost makes me not even want to go to the theater any more. :o

The TV was originally priced at $1650, but I had a coupon that brought the price down by several hundred dollars.  So for those of you on the fence about HDTV's, this is a TV that will not break your bank, but will make you glad that you bought it & is worth every single penny.  Just thought I would post a quick review on it since it is such a great TV at a really reasonable price.  Hope you all get the opportunity to jump on the HD bandwagon very soon, you'll never go back to an SDTV once you have experienced the joy of HD.

The title says it all.  Yes, we are getting games with better graphics, features, online capabilities, interactivity, etc.  But we need to look at what we are losing in the process.  It seems that with the advent of the new consoles, exclusivity may be going the way of the dinosaur.

Obviously there was a lot of multiplat games between the XBOX, PS2 & GC, but IMO, those consoles really distinguished themselves by their exclusive IP's.  It was the Halo's & Killzone's & Metroid's, the Forza's & Gran Turismo's & Mario Kart's that really set the consoles apart. 

Understandably, we'll almost assuredly never see a Halo game on a Sony machine & would never see a Gran Turismo title on a Microsoft machine, but beyond those stalwarts, anything is fair game at this point.  Never thought I'd see a FF game or VF game on the 360, (yeah, it was FFXI & it sucked bigtime, but still).  Never thought we'd see a Ninja Gaiden game on the PS3, but guess what???  GTAIV launching on the PS3 & 360 on the same day!?!?  Yeah, I'm still pretty shocked over that one.

I understand that the cost of game development has risen & that devs & publishers need to reach as many people as possible to make their money, but I think there's something to be said for keeping an exclusive franchise exclusive.  As evidenced by the System Wars forums, fan (or fanboy), loyalty accounts for a lot.  If a dev chooses to keep their game exclusive to one system, they may not make as much money right now, but they probably will in the long run, because it benefits the system to be the only platform that you can play the title on & true fans will stick with the series. 

And the funny thing is, exclusive doesn't even mean exclusive any more.  Most of the time, it now means you're getting it before the other systems, but it will be a multiplat title.  That's ridiculous!  Since when can a word totally change it's meaning like that???  I'm sorry, but if it says exclusive, then I don't want to see the game on another console 3-6 months later!

At a time when 2 of the 3 competing systems seem so similar, (360 & PS3), I hope that we can see more true exclusives that will really help people decide which system is right for them.  And as always, Nintendo's system is all about the exclusive franchises so they have the right idea.

If every system was the same & had more or less all the same games, then everyone would just try & buy the cheapest console.  I don't want that.  Competition between consoles is good, it makes the companies stay on their toes & release better products & not allow them to just sit back on their laurels & release the same rehashes ad naseum. 

Here's hoping that this new era of videogaming doesn't kill exclusivity.

Picked up Splinter Cell Double Agent for the XBOX today.  I already beat the 360 version several times & spent a good amount of time with the online multiplayer.  I am a long-time series fan & really enjoyed the 360 version.  I was a bit disappointed with the fact that there seemed to be less of a reliance on gadgets & darkness, & more on just straight up sneaking.  The fact that half the missions take place in broad daylight is a huge departure for the series.  And the multiplayer spies vs. mercs mode that was so awesome in Chaos Theory felt completely neutered on the 360.  Change is good to be sure, but it didn't really feel like an evolution for the series, it just felt different.

I picked up the XBOX version because I heard that although the main story was pretty much the same, (infiltrate the JBA as a double agent), the gameplay was more along the lines of what was seen in Chaos Theory, (a focus on gadgets & darkness).  Surprisingly, I actually like the XBOX version of this game better than the 360 version.  It gives me more of what I expect in a Splinter Cell game, & the co-op modes are brilliant, (which are pretty lackluster in the 360 version).

Yeah, the 360 version kills the XBOX version graphically, (although the XBOX version is no slouch in the graphics department), but I don't really care.  I'd rather have the great gameplay & excellent co-op & online modes over the shiny sheen of "next-gen" graphics. 

And funnily enough, there are also several PS2 games that I find myself going back to again & again over my PS3 games.  I think R:FOM & FNR3 are both really good games for the fledgling PS3, but right now I'd rather play Okami & God of War again because what they may lack in graphical quality, they more than make up for in gameplay & art direction. 

Just goes to show that next-gen isn't necessarily always "best-gen" & that the PS3 & 360 need to have more than just flashy graphics to keep my gaming dollar flowing.  I pretty much almost always expect really great graphics on the 360 & PS3 at this point, (barring a few exceptions here & there), so the gameplay needs to make sure that it's keeping up with the tech.

I went to Gamestop today, (I actually work for EB part time so I like to go to Gamestop when I'm not on the clock just for a change of scenery).  They actually had a hand-written sign on the front door stating "We have PS3's in stock, 20gb & 60gb available".

Now I had seen people posting this type of stuff in System Wars & basically thought it was pretty bogus, (I take everything I see in System Wars with a grain of salt), but sure enough, there was the sign.  It was like they were begging people to buy one. 

Now this wasn't some out-of-the-way Gamestop in bum-freaking nowhere or anything.  I live in Aurora, Colorado which is a pretty big town & this particular Gamestop is actually a high-volume store.  So I went in & asked them how many they had & they said they had at least a dozen 20gb units & 7 60gb units.  They said they hadn't sold a single PS3 in over 4 days. 

I must say, this seems pretty surprising to me.  I mean, yeah, it's a pricey unit to be sure, but what the hell???  Personally, I have all 3 next-gen machines now & there appears to be good reasons to own all 3 right now, (although I am somewhat disappointed in the Wii), so I wonder why it is that the Wii's sell out as soon as they show up in the store & the PS3's sit there to the point that stores have to put signs up basically begging people to buy them?

Have people simply forgotten how awesome the PS2 was?  Is the machine just too expensive?  Was Sony too arrogant in assuming that people would want a Blu-Ray drive in their console?  I simply cannot put my finger on what is happening here. 

I happen to enjoy my PS3 but am bummed about the lack of great games on it right now, (R:FOM being the exception).  If I hadn't gotten a 360 last year though, the PS3 would probably seem really mind-blowing to me because I wouldn't have already played most of the games on my 360 & would think that the PS3 was incredible.  Is this the reason that the PS3 isn't doing as well as everyone might have thought???  Could the 360's year head-start really have hurt Sony that much??? 

I'm looking forward to seeing what happens in the future with the PS3.  Maybe a slight price drop would be a good incentive to get people to buy, or maybe when tax money starts rolling in folks might get on board with the system.  Personally, I think we just need to some really great exclusive titles on the PS3 to help it pick up some steam.

Maybe Sony has made some mistakes with the PS3 launch, but sometimes what you do to correct the mistake matters more than making the mistake.  Let's see what Sony can do before we write them off completely or assume that they have somehow already lost the "console war" for this gen.

Good stuff!  I really enjoyed this game.  It reminded me a lot of Gun Valkyrie on the XBOX which is an old fave of mine, (it was pretty underrated for it's time). 

A lot of people complain about the controls & there were a few instances where I cursed them, but for the most part I thought they were handled pretty well, (once you get used to the learning curve).  It was helpful to me to turn the aiming sensitivity up to 7 instead of the default "slow as hell" setting.

The boss fights were a mixed bag IMO.  If you like old-school shooters with bosses who have multiple weakspots & have to be fought in stages, then you will love the battles in this game.  If you frustrate easily, it's very possible that you might end up breaking some controllers in frustration because not every boass has obvious weakspots, you really have to think outside the box & look at the environments for clues.

The graphics were pretty great.  Not Gears of War great, but right up in the top-tier of 360 games graphically, (playing on a 51in LCD HDTV really makes the game pop off the screen).  And those explosions & smoke effects are probably some of the best on the system right now.

The multiplayer modes are fun & run smooth & lag-free for the most part.  The online doesn't necessarily do anything we haven't seen before, but it feels different & exciting due to the anchor mechanics which give the levels a great sense of verticality.  Having an online character that levels up persistantly from match to match helps increase the fun factor as well.  The lobby system is well-implemented & goes a long way towards keeping you in the game as opposed to spending all your time searching for a match that interests you.

I'm going to go back through on the 2 harder difficulties to earn some more achievements & look for those hidden marks throughout the levels.

Keep the 360 love coming Capcom!!!