well, i’ll admit it.  i really never got into GTA III prior to GTA IV’s release. it may have been due to the fact that i passed that generation of console gaming for pc gaming (ah..  imo, kind of the glory days of pc gaming thus far; tons of good games and the fact that your hardware outpaced game requirements was nice on the pocket book too!). 

i really wasn’t sure what to expect with GTA IV on my Playstation3 ; i had played GTA III a few times at my pals and on my psp but i never for more than 20 minutes.  GTA IV’s hype was pretty huge especially with the release of the first batch of reviews giving it mainly 10/10, perfects.  so my impressions are not of a GTA vetern but of a newb after 3 hours of gameplay (not watching others play, hehe).

First things first, the intro is very well done.  gives you a movie feel and warms you up to getting down and dirty.

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launch, review, ps3, culture, console, gaming | 4 Comments »

as most PS3 owners are well aware, the second to last firmware update, v2.20, brought BD-Live to the Playstation3.

what is BD-Live you ask? BD-Live, also known as Blu-ray Disc Profile 2.0, allows compliant players to go online and retreive info/trailers about the movie.  During the heat of the nextgen format wars, HD-DVD used this feature as a selling point of HD-DVD however the Blu-ray camp later added the functionality w/the release of the 2.0 Bluray Disc Profile.

lets take a look at my Sixth Day Blu-ray disc and BD-Live in action on my Playstation3.

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ps3, fanboy, review, blu-ray, hd, culture, opinion, console, geek, gaming | 4 Comments »

well, its been a bit too long since i’ve last posted and i apologize for the lack of updates/posts/ranting/fanboyism.

a few weeks back, i was hosting a mini Rock Band jamfest/party and had the whammy bar on one of my Rock Band guitars break.  it was still useable but would not reset back to the original spot.

so, being the DIYer i am, i decided this last weekend that i would fix it myself and thus avoid having to wait who-knows-how-long to get back my guitar from Harmonix.  here is a basic guide on what you need to do (its not very scary or hard, only requires a screw driver and some macgyver skills). Keep reading to see the details.
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fanboy, guides, rock band, ps3, culture, gaming, console, geek, hardware | 1 Comment »

we’ve all seen the auctions/’deals’ on SDHC cards.  16GB class 6 no-name, generic for $30, etc.  however more and more often we are seeing name brand memory being knocked off on ebay.

most memory formats have a standard and in turn a standard way of identifying the card is what it says it is (with either logos or specs). 

today, i’ll just explain how to spot a fake SDHC card, perhaps not a fake but a non-certified SDHC card (and most likely one that will prob not work as claimed either; speed / capapcity-wise).

 the SD Card Assocation (yes, there is an association for sd cards.. hehe) states that in order for  a card to be certified by them as a true SDHC card, it must have both an SDHC card logo and also the class speed logo ( http://www.sdcard.org/home ).

so there ya go, hope that helps ya spot that knockoff sdhc card or even fake namebrand one.

life, eee, fanboy, culture, mobile, general gadgets | No Comments »

as promised in my previous post, here is a somewhat longer video of me and my eee…  my eeExperience….

i have  an Asus 4G Eee PC with 2GB DDR2, 16GB SDHC class 6 running my customized XP Prof lite version (fat32 fs, temp hacks to sdhc card, apps running off of sdhc).

hit the jump to see the embedded youtube vid.

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culture, fanboy, life, eee, geek, mobile, web, windows, music, opinion, hardware | 4 Comments »

well, i am just gonna come out and say it: i love my eee! 

why you ask? well, let see….

i can be up and going in less than 30secs; no, not at my login screen but up and ie open and reading my rss feeds..

i can watch my tv/dvds anywhere using either available wifi or my phones edge data connection and bt dongle (laggy but still works) and my sony locationfree setup (eee can handle video streaming pretty well)…

i can fire up IE and head over to netflix.com and stream a movie…

i can run most programs off a 16GB SDHC card w/little lag..

i can run windows xp lite w/o a page file and boot faster than most $2k desktop systems from off to desktop… or blow their doors off running the custom Linux OS.

i can podcast from anywhere w/the builtin webcam and windows movie maker…

i can do anything the other computers can do but faster and cheaper…

can you? 

fanboy, eee, culture, geek, mobile, hardware | 6 Comments »

wow! who would have guessed that begining a rollout of new hardware at my ‘real’ job would be so busy? hehehe.  i apologize for the lack of updates last week; i had a ton of great posts brewing in my head but didn’t get the time to actually materialize them.  

this week i hope to follow up to my previous PS3 vs HTPC post with the HTPC look.  I finally got my Vista Ultimate up and going on that machine and now think that will make for a more fair comparison.

also, expect to see an Eee pc related posts on how I am using mine and a few useful windows xp tweaks for the Eee.

and finally, i hope to have a few ‘breaking’ pieces where i hope to dismantle my PS3 (which is now out of warranty and still having  a few freezing problems; want to see if problems are due to blocked airflow in case or dust/smoke) and also plan to take apart my new work Dell Latitude XT tablet.  Now if only work would slow down to let me get these babies going!

life, fanboy, review, tablet pc, eee, htpc, blogging, opinion, gaming, modding, culture, ps3, windows | 5 Comments »

well, i figured i’d rap up my current Playstation3 blog rapid-fire action with a roundup of current PS3 related guides/recipes over at techrx

• PS3 - How to convert movie DVDs to MP4 for playback on Playstation3
• PS3 : How to backup PS3 game save files to memory stick / sd / cf
• PS3 : Zoom In/Out, Go Forward/Backward in Photo Album Slideshow and Tips
• PS3 - Upgrade Harddrive Notes and Tips
• PS3 - How to use Bluetooth Remote as Controller in Games
• PS3 - How to do a factory / hard reset
• PS3 - Change visual player screens when playing audio files
• PS3 - Music / Photo / Video Tips and Tricks (prepping, copying, playing)
• PS3 - Create video thumbnail of downloaded movie/trailer/video

enjoy!

fanboy, guides, PlaystationStore, ps3, culture, gaming, psp, console, web | 6 Comments »

This entry is one that i’ve been waiting to do for quite some time now.  Today i’ll will be pitting my PS3 up against my Home Theater PC(well, mine is a Frankenstein’d laptop w/o lcd, hehe).  

Sony has boasted about the PS3’s multimedia and computer-ish functionality since its launch in 2006, however can it really stand-up to a similarly priced HTPC?  Does the PS3 live up to its multimedia hype? 

Lets find out, read on for more and see the embedded video.

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ps3, hd, culture, htpc, fanboy, tv, review, life, geek, dvr, psp, web, hardware, vista, music, console, opinion, pc | 4 Comments »

Well, a new year means a new list!  its been a while since i’ve written about my PS3-wishlist of features (ingame XMB FTW!!! still of course at the top of everyone’s wishlist, along w/Home). 

i’ve always been told that once a person/thing stops receiving criticism is when you really have to start worrying about if people care anymore.  so in other words, i really care about my PS3 thus the creation of ‘wishlists’. 

again, most of the features i am wanting are related to using the PS3 more as the multimedia hub that sony originally was pushing for or dreamed of than the gaming aspects (since really games are the solution to that one, duh!).  lets get onto my PS3 wishlist, keep reading for the list!

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ps3, hd, fanboy, life, PlaystationStore, culture, geek, gaming, web, psp, opinion, console, hardware | 1 Comment »