First, my new monitor I just ordered today:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824254026

27.5" LCD monitor
1920 x 1200 recommended resolution
1 HDMI port
3 ms response time
Two time winner of customer choice award on Newegg (in the running for a third from what I hear)

Grand total was about $376, because CA charges a recycling tax on monitors like these. It would have been about $350 after tax with promotion code. But since the purchase is over $250, I can pay it off over 90 days, which I can easily afford. It should be here in around 2-3 days, I think.

Here is what the monitor will be used for:

PS3:

Bioshock
Dead Space
Devil May Cry 4
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion GOTY Edition
Folklore
Killzone 2
Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga
Little Big Planet
Metal Gear Solid 4
Orange Box
Resident Evil 5
Silent Hill: Homecoming
Street Fighter 4
Valkyria Chronicles
Warhawk

PS2:

Dark Cloud 2
Final Fantasy X
Katamari Damacy
Rygar
Shadow of the Colossus
Viewtiful Joe
Xenosaga Episode 1
Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner

I have a gaming PC that is just good enough to play WoW reasonably well lol. And I have a macbook with 2gb RAM and the upgraded hard drive for web browsing and work.

Future plans:

I will buy a Wii sometime in 2009 (I want both Wii and GCN games), and I'm building a new gaming PC when Starcraft II or Diablo III is released. Until then, my PC gaming is on hold since I quit WoW last November. I'm also putting Linux on my PS3 and dropping $149 for a 1.5 TB hard drive from Samsung in it, but that's not until I fill up the 80gb hard drive, which I'm not even closed to doing yet.

http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13083&Itemid=1

German fines Microsoft €9 million

Written byNick Farrell Thursday, 09 April 2009 11:11

Forced retailer to sell at a particular price

The Germangovernment has fined Microsoft €9 million for illegally pressing a retailer to sell its Office productivity software for a certain price.

Microsoft employees and those of a national retailer met twice and agreed on the resale price of "Office Home and Student 2007." An advertising campaign for the software then launched in October.

Under German law suppliers and retailers are allowed to discussed pricing strategies within some limits.However, they are not allowed to coordinate the pricing activities of the retailer and thus retailer and supplier agree on future actions of the retailer.

The government said that in the present case, this boundary has been crossed. Microsoft has accepted the fine although Microsoft has not said anything yet.

Tsk. Tsk.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/162840/jury_awards_388_million_in_microsoft_patent_violation_case.html

ouch, that's going to leave a mark. Think of how many exclusives M$ could have bought with that money!

http://www.gamingtarget.com/article.php?artid=9664

5GB a month: $29.99

10GB a month: $39.99

20GB a month: $49.99

40GB a month: $54.99

100GB a month: Price TBA

Each additional GB of bandwidth used after exceeding the cap: $1

Ouch, huge blow to PC gaming and DD/DLC as well as streaming services such as Netflix.

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/04/03/microsoft-downloads-growing-but-wont-eliminate-packaged-goods/

With more and more people taking advantage of the convenience ofdownloadable content, some might assume that this new trend will start to take away from traditional brick-and-mortar retail. Not so, says Microsoft UK 's Neil Thompson, as he toldMCVthat there is "growth of the download and digital content market – but it is complementary to boxed content and services." He doesn't see the packaged good business declining at all.

Think of it as the peanut butter on that PB&J sandwich. It's essential, yet complimentary at the same time. Anddelicious.

Sorry, DD fans, looks like you were wrong. :(

With that said, yay for blu-ray! :D

As you may well known, due in large part to the 360 being first to hit market, many multiplat games have been built from the ground up on the 360 and ported to the PS3. FF XIII marks one of the first multiplat games to be designed completely opposite to that trend and has been designed from the ground up on the PS3 with the 360 port to follow after the PS3 version is complete.

In a recent interview with Square Enix, it seems that the PS3 version really might show what happens when you build a multiplat game from the ground up on the PS3 instead of the 360. Tekken 6 is said to be another such game, but that's a story for another day.

In the interim, here are some of the devs. themselves on FF XIII for the PS3:

http://finalfantasyxiii.net/index.php?subaction=showcomments&id=1238553686&archive=&start_from=&ucat=&

An Uncompromising PS3
---With FFXIII, I've heard that you're aiming for even more movie-like expression than before?
Kitase:Up until now, scenes we wanted to have a sense of real-time were done in realtime and scenes which we wanted to have higher quality and presentation atmosphere were done with CG movies. But with the PS3, expressions that could once only be done with CG movies before, can be done in real-time. Thus, we've incorporated CG movie quality scenes that are drawn in realtime.

---By developing FFXIII for the PS3, what are some aspects you think have evolved greatly?
Kitase:Probably the graphics. The huge change from PS1 to PS2 was the number of polygons which could be output, resulting in further details in character design. But going from the PS2 to the PS3, the change is even more drastic. Primarily in texture (i think?). For example, FFXIII has a character named Suds who has an afro. When the character modelling was brought to me, I saw the quality of Sud's afro and thought to myself that the PS3 really is different (lol)". But yeah, in reality, the afro isn't due just to the PS3, but also due to the creativity of the designer. Also, skin and fur texture is quite amazing, Chocobo's plummage and Vanilla's skirt's cloth texture...that you can actually almost get a sense of what they might feel like in your hands are some of the many things that really surprise us.

---To ask the opposite, are there difficulties that cropped up because it was for the PS3?
Kitase:Up through the PS2, character modelling was very similar to being an extension of sprites, and it was important for the textures themselves to be relatively detailed. Even facial textures were used as they were being modified in photoshop. But with the PS3, realtime modelling is similar to designing a CG movie. Of particular importance is dropping in post-effects into a completed sequence. For example, the realtime effect of backlight pouring through foliage is something that can be done because we're working on the PS3. To show this as realistically as possible, these environmental effets are the most important aspect that cannot be compromised on, and simultaneously, take the most work and effort. Also, going off on a tangent, while moving around and during battles, you can move the camera around freely, but for example, grass blades, depending on angles, the polygon looks like a flat board. With the PS2, we could have said there was nothing we could really do about that, but at the PS3 level, we can't make those excuses. Because we didn't compromise on these aspects either, I believe the amount of work required increased.

---Finally, with FFXIII, how far do you think you've been able to tap into the PS3?
Kitase:Maybe about 50% in the demo? Of course by the time the final version rolls along, I believe we'll be close to 100% of the PS3's potential. Like with FFVII on PS and FFX on PS2, we're always working our hardest to use the full potential of the hardware at that point in time.

If you're a fan of Lost, you already know who Martin Keam is. If you don't watch the show, you're missing out! First some background about Martin Keamy:

LOST SPOILERS AHEAD

Martin Keamy makes his debut in Season 4 of Lost.

He is a former U.S. Marine who has done mercenary work as a gun for hire in places such as Uganda. In Lost, he is working as a mercenary for Charles Widmore:

Widmore was originally from the island. He was/is a "Hostile" or "Other" (as they are more commonly known today). At one point, there was a power struggle between him and Ben Linus. Ben Linus allegedly "stole" the island and leadership over the Others by tricking Widmore to leave the island. Widmore has put together a group to travel to the island by freighter with the objective of capturing Benjamin Linus (aka Dean Moriarty and probably other aliases):

Widmore's freighter consists of two teams who are trained to infiltrate the island. A science team comprised of an anthropologist, a physicist, a "ghostbuster" (he talks to dead people apparently), and an alcoholic pilot. Then there's the mercenary team headed by Martin Keamy. There's also the ship's crew members who aren't really part of either island infiltration team.

Eventually, Keamy and his mercs have Ben and some others surrounded, and Keamy tries to "shock and awe" Ben into surrendering. When that doesn't work, Keamy tries a different tactics:

*WARNING MAJOR SPOILERS IN THIS CLIP*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rlg4qh6ohI4

Ben is eventually taken into custody, but he is freed by the Others with some help from Kate and Sayid. Keamy eventually tracks down Ben again, but this time Keamy has taken out some "life insurance" by rigging his body with a "dead man's trigger":

While a lot of the above mentioned events had been going on, others had been evacuating survivors of Flight Oceanic 815 to the freighter. Keamy, however, has rigged the freighter with enough C4 to blow it all to hell, and the trigger is a device on his arm that is connected to his heart. If his heart gives out, in other words, the C4 will detonate and kill everyone on the freighter.

I don't want to spoil too much more, so I will stop here, but that's the story of my PSN. :D

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/Microsoft-takes-up-to-60-per-cent-of-Community-Games-revenue

The developer's president, Nathan Fouts, received the sales data for the company's XNA title, Weapon of Choice, describing the results as "sobering", with less than 10,000 units sold, stating "that hurts".

In hisblog post, Fouts explained that Microsoft takes a baseline cut of 30 per cent and remittance rate, plus an additional 10-30 per cent cut for advertising. This put the developer under strain, he explained, as it also pays for membership, software licenses, hardware and marketing as well as royalties to contractors.

"What all that means to our bottom-line, we do not yet know, but it does not feel great," he wrote. "Maybe rational people hang up their keyboard and call it quits. But if you played Weapon of Choice, you realise we're far from rational."

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/03/30/one-creator-disappointed-with-xna-community-games-sales/

If indie devs thought that XNA Community Games would be the ticket to untold riches well, let's just say they may not want to toss their name tags and hairnets just yet. Mobeen Fikree, the force behindcaffeine monster software, revealed his XNA sales numbers, which he deemed disappointing. Of the 7595 downloads his gameDUOtrixhad received, only 157 were converted into full purchases, a conversion rate of around two percent. Unsurprisingly, Fikree doesn't think its an issue with his game's quality, rather blaming the lack of a user-rating system that allows the best games to rise to the top.

Ranking 30315
I hit Lt. General (top 4-6% for the week).

http://www.killzone.com/kz/mykillzone.psml?kz_user_id=Martin_Keamy

^_^

Games I play very frequently:

Kilzone 2: I still haven't beat it on veteran or started the elite campaign yet, but I'm on the last level on veteran. I took a break to start playing online and got hooked on online play. I've been rank general for a while now with a valor citation. I'm working on getting the other percentage based valor trophies and still collecting ribbons and trophies. As I type this, I'm ranked about 37,600. I need to get within rank 3,500 or so to get in the top 1% and get the hardest trophy. I used to be ranked 90,000 something, so I'm making progress slowly.

RE5: This has become my second most played game lately since I just got this game. I'm having a blast with it. The game is gorgeous. For my general impressions without spoilers, see my blog post posted just before this one.

Valkyria Chronicles: I'm still on Chapter 14. I love this game so much. It's a nice break from the frantic pace of KZ 2 and the serious tone of RE5. I'm going to be very sad when I finally beat this game, but good thing there's DLC coming for it soon.

Games I play as a break from the above:

Bioshock: I'm only a little bit past the part where you get the fire ability. The game is very nice, but I have enough shooters in my rotation at the moment, so I don't play this one too often. I definitely want to beat it though.

Street Fighter 4: I love this game, but it's not my top priority as a game I want to beat and max out. But this is probably the first time I liked a Street Fighter game this much since Street Fighter II and Street Fighter II Championship Edition. SF 4 is a masterpiece.

Orange Box: Portal: Portal is another nice break from fast-paced games just like Valkyria Chronicles. The puzzles in the game are fun.

Silent Hill: Homecoming: I'm at the part where you open some gate with two halves of a plate. I'm enjoying the game, but it's not a top priority for me to beat right now.

Devil May Cry 4: I barely got into this game, and I like it. But I have way too many other games I need to beat still.

Metal Gear Solid 4: I already beat this game. I want to unlock all the stuff in the game, but it's taken a back seat to my other games for now.

Warhawk: Not much to say about this game. It has awesome online multiplayer. It's a fun game to play.

Little Big Planet: I love this game, but I have to be in the mood to play a platformer these days.

Games I barely play:

Folklore: Gorgeous game, and I love how story driven it is. This game makes the best use of the Sixaxis technology as well as far as I've seen. I was playing this a lot at one point, but I've put it on hold for now.

Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga: This is my only game that I regret purchasing. It was only $20, but the game is a lot less fun than I thought it would be.

Oblivion GOTY Edition: I actually like this game a lot despite the ugly as **** character models, but it's not a top priority game for me to beat right now.

Dead Space: This was the first game I beat on PS3. When I first checked it out, I just wanted to check out the intro and some of the first level before I went to bed. Well, as soon as I started playing, I knew I HAD to beat this game. I was hooked. I definitely want to replay it some more, but I have other games I need to beat still.