So I love my PS3, like anyone else who owns one. But I do find that the back round on the XMB gets pretty old. If you happen to have a HDTV and also happen to have a favorite set of video games you have even played or are excited about, then you most likely would want to put a screen shot of that game as your wallpaper. I use to put up the Resistance 2 wallpaper and thought it looked really good. Nowadays though, I seem to be scouring Playstation Network (PSN) for wallpapers. From what I have noticed, they stopped making wallpapers for games, upcoming or current, and started making wallpapers involving sexy biker/dragon/kitten/mythical/game/sports girls. I don't see how this is beneficial to PSN. Don't get me wrong, it's like hanging up swimsuit calendar in your room, you do it because it's fun to look at. But this is my Playstation, not a central hub for soft-core porn images of cartoon characters. And the problem is that they keep increasing. Every time I remember how much I am bored with the XMB back round, I go to PSN to look for a new one only to find more sexy dragon-girl wallpapers all over the place. On top of all of this, they are all around $3. Who would pay money for that kind of stuff? I'm confused.

Not a big deal or anything. Just bothering me.

P.S. Gamefly is on my side.

I recently just got the free 2 week trial to Game Fly. I have been contemplating whether of not I should fully commit to it completely, or if it's a waste of money. If I did eventually end up getting the full subscription, it would only be for the absolute minimum amount of games:money ratio. I'm pretty broke. I wish I could take a poll and see how many people actually use Game Fly. Or if it is just a advertisement whore, whose only goal is to sponsor every single website, vlog, and television show that I watch. Who knows, maybe this will launch me deeper into my inconsistent video game life.

I just got done watching the Google Wave Preview at Google I/O '09 I'll have to say, I think it is pretty nifty. Essentially, it is a mass communication device that is a cross between instant messaging, SMS, e-mails, and a forum. With Google Wave you can post text, pictures, documents, etc. for certain, if not all, people in your Google Wave friends list to see. These are all categorized into a "wave". This wave is essentially a forum for whatever document, text, etc. is contained inside of it. Upon seeing the wave your friends list can edit, comment, and somewhat personalize your wave contents. Your friends can pick apart the contents and comment on certain areas, which in turn can be commented by anyone you allow to. Creating a makeshift forum aspect. Your friends can also edit certain parts, as well as insert their own content. Intitally, I assumed this would be a huge hellish train wreck in which your work can be destroyed by anyone. In fact, you get to pick the people who are allowed to view and edit your wave. Also, at any point during the wave conversation you can decide to omit people from certain edits, comments, or information. To assume responsibility amongst editors, the wave keeps a record of the initial wave and then keeps track of who does what, at which time. Anyone viewing the wave can then look at a time line in which the wave will playback it self repeating the actions taken(edits, inserts, etc.) in the order they were inserted, by the person who inserted them. The author of the original wave is also notified when a change is made to their wave, so immediate action can be taken place. This prohibits flaming or spamming of any kind, since the tool to simply delete a person from the wave is an option. The great thing about all this is the real-time factor. Every time a person post something or edits something it is happening in real-time, viewable to all the participants in the wave itself. You actually get to see a person adding content or editing in your own window, while they are actually doing it. You can even see the person typing their comments as they are typing, letter by letter. This adds to the SMS/Instant Messaging factor and takes away from the dull waiting/refresh sequence involved in forums. Another great thing about Wave is that it saves all conversations in personal files(folders) so that anyone can view them in later times, and also so that you are able to back track and look at them. Too many wave files? Well there is a search device in which you can search for certain waves, searching by who was in the conversation as well as the topic. On a side note, the wave also uses a suped-up version of spell check. It takes into consideration the context of the word, along with the spelling, opposed to the usual matching of words from a dictionary. Google Wave can also be integrated into different Internet devices such as twitter and blogs and so on, so that you can use Wave without having to stay inside of the interface. I did not fully understand how that worked, but I assume it is still early to worry about that. Google Wave was also compatible with mobile devices so that you are not constricted to a computer constantly to use Wave.

All-in-all it seems useful. It is a combination of many communication devices, configured into a mass media outlet that is capable to simplify communication and outstretch the arms of communicating not only in general, but also information, in a variety of ways. And even thought it is not even created yet, Google is already creating widgets and add-ons that would only help and be useful to waves that exist inside itself. Assuming that the Google Wave would only be use full is a lot of your friends have it, I cannot imagine this being useful if you don't know anyone else who uses Wave. Whether or not it will replace Gmail or SMS's, nobody knows as of yet. Otherwise, it is a great combination and has potential to be a great communication device. Only time will tell.

T-Pain + ATHF + Live action = Yummm.

So the new Windows 7 OS BETA has been released from CES this week. Now I never have used Vista itself as an OS mind you. I owned a PC but it has XP on it and I refused to upgrade because of all the things that I herd bad about Vista. Then I went out and got a Mac. So I cannot really judge Vista on anything except for what I've herd and the few times I have used it on other computers that are not my own. That said, Windows 7 looks just like Vista, appearance wise, except a little more glossy. I have seen that it has implemented a new media player, a suped-up form of paint, a more convenient task bar, and various new apps. including something identical to the Mac's Expose. Oh, and they changed the name of the security system. Basically from what I've gathered Windows 7 seems to tweek and fix all the little things that were flawed about Vista, and more. It seems to make navigation and control of the interface itself much easier. Vista was a broken car and Windows 7 is that same car repaired and cleaned. But, of course I have herd different problems but this is only the BETA so that's expected.

What I have noticed is that Windows 7 is trying to make navigation and control very easy by adding apps. and controls that eliminate certain unneeded things, or that provide easier access to everything. This is very like the Mac in my opinion. The Mac may be hard to get use to but after you do you realize how easy everything is to get to and how uncluttered everything is. It seems to me like Windows 7 aimed to essentially get to the same control system that the Mac is at, then they added some gloss. With Window 7's "Library" which is identical to Mac's "Expose." I am not saying this is a bad thing, companies know what is good and easy, and my ideas may be blurred because believe me, I do not know close to anything about computers themselves. I am only offering my perspective. Not to sound ignorant, but with computers, I am ignorant. But the whole Windows 7 OS and the Mac's OS is kinda like when the PS3 made it's games had trophies when the 360 already had achievements.

I just reneted a movie on PSN, and it started downloading.

3 days later; my PS3 is burning hot with the fires of hell because it has been left on so that the movie I rented could finish, but it's only at 67%.

Maybe I just have really slow internet, you never know.

But, probably not.

So basically my game status has been obsolete for the last couple of....weeks. See, what had happend was that I had finals for college and now I am essentially waiting for my new 42" LCD screen to come in to continue to play video games and write reviews and such. So I have not really been playing video games a whole lot. Well, except for World Of War...... well, I don't like to speak about it because it's my little secret. I'm not gonna brag about playing WoW until I am a decent level. So until Christmas, I play the waiting game.

Oh, and I wrote a review for Resistance and LittleBigPlanet .

I had recently ordered an iMac 2.66 GHz. Today it finally came in. I know it has 4GB of RAM and a 500 something or other of hard drive. I am not a big computer wiz, nor am I a big computer gamer, but my other laptop was quiet ancient. So I updated. I got all these upgrades because I wanted a good computer so I could play games. WAIT A SECOND! Before you do or say anything keep in mind that I am aware that Mac's do not get most of the PC games. But as i said, I am not a big PC gamer. Most of the games I'd play would be the most popular ones, and the most popular ones are mostly made for both the PC and Mac. I ordered WOW the other day, so I cannot wait to waste my life away for hours upon that. Also, I have put aside enough money to buy two PS3 games. The icing on the cake? I get a month and three days off of school after my finals this coming week. So what am I to do with this time off? One can only wonder. But I have a feeling this week is the calm before the storm. And by storm, I mean me playing video games for a whole month.

I saw a commercial for the new XBOX game called, You're In The Movies which was advertised impeccably by Bert Reynolds. Not. It seems as thought the whole idea of this, "motion capture camera fun" thing, isn't really taking off like it should. And it has gotten to the point where it seems like people are trying to PUSH this idea onto us. Playstation, I am talking to you. Sony was very focused on it's Playstation Eye for a long time, but what really happend to it? Who cares. Recently in LittleBigPlanet there are certain collectables that you get which can be used only if you have the Playstation Eye. It's as if Sony doesn't really talk about it but try to throw it back into games every now and then and say, "hey this rules!!!!!." And now Microsoft has decided to jump in the pool to get a shot at this wonderful marketing success. Who is really entertained by the video of themselves running like fools from a monster in a 60 year old movie? Maybe if you get about 30 people together they MIGHT have fun. Give them a bunch of alcohol? Maybe. Pay them to pretend like they like it? Works like a charm.

Recently I was playing Resistance 2 and by recently, I mean ten minutes ago.  When I came across something that stuck me as odd.  I didn't really want to continue the game.  It wasn't because the game was boring, nor was it because I was tired or any other excuse.  Then why was it?  Why did I hit the point in which I just had to drop my controller and walk around for a while?  I was scared.  Now don't get me wrong, I have played horror games in the past and yes, I have been scared.  But the thing that got me was that Resistance 2 isn't really suppose to be a scary game.  See, it was the fact that the games graphics, sounds, and overall feel got to my head.  It seemed realistic to me.  I was in a room by myself, with the lights off, and focused in on this screen fully immersed into the world of Resistance.  I didn't want to go into the town and search the house because I thought that if my character died, then I too would die.  Is this an odd thing to think?  Not so much.

Why do we get scared at the movies during horror movies?  Because the screens big, the noises are loud, and the actors are real.  The scene is real, the people are real, and the situations are sometimes real.  It's because it is realistic that we are so scared, because these situations could happen to us.  This is why I was so scared to keep playing.  Opposed to say, that I will never fight aliens.  BUT, it felt real.  This brings me to what's bothering me at the moment.  Will games in general, regular or horror,  get to the point in which they are so realistic that you do not want to proceed or play at all?  I don't think so, but maybe.  Will it ever get to the point in which you are afraid do hit the jump on a motorcyle game because the "air" you get is so realistic you almost seem to loose your breath or feel your stomach drop.  And don't say you've never felt that, because we all have. 

It's almost like virtual reality, in a sense.  So realistic, that if you are fully entranced into the game you become a part of that game.  The jump you do on the motorcylce becomes thrilling and the enemy hidden in the house makes your hands sweat.  The game effects you beyond the game itself, and it is in which at that point you realize that the game scared you to that point because the characters DO look like humans, and the enviroments ARE real.  It is, in essence, like a movie.  So it has the same effects and brings itself to that limit.

Although, can games go beyond that limit? Can or will, games ever get to the point in which they are so realistic that they become too realistic to play, because of fear, because they do in face reach out to us further than a movie?

But then again, I was never a big fan of horror games.  They scare me too much.

So over the recent days, one to be exact, I did a multitude of things. I started playing more of Resistance and got quite deep into the story. I also started to play online, which I am not very good at, as of now. I said to myself, "Why spend so much focuse on these games you are playing now, why not try one of those downloadable puzzle games or somthing?" So I did. I downloaded the Eternal Sonata, LEGO: Batman, and Valkyria Chronicles demos. I'll break it down like so:

• Eternal Sonata: Game seems very fluffy and fun. Didn't seem too non-linearand the battle system has a timer of 3 seconds to complete a move/heal. Which means, that if you do not know what you are doing, prepare to die.
• LEGO:Batman: Very fun, like all LEGO games and you can be villans! BUT, it adds a lot to the LEGO series based on what you can do such as change into different suits and vehicles. Puzzles arn't so helpful and they are cluttering the game with all this new things that take away from the LEGO vibe.

• Valkyria Chronicles: This game actually seems fun. It is somewhat like a 3-d version of Advanced Wars.

Aslo, I downloaded the two games Linger In Shadows and Penny Arcade game.I havn't started the PennyArcade game yet. And I beat the Shadows game in about an hour. And well....you'll just have to read my review.