Maybe Wii?

It's been on my mind for a while. Should I get another Wii?

I had a Wii before, but it was stolen when my house was burglarized last June, along with my TV and Xbox360, not to mention I didn't have renter's insurance at the time and didn't get reimbursed for any of it. Since then I have replaced my TV, and I do have a 360, but it's one that I'm borrowing.

I of course needed a new TV since I watch all the time, but I've been hesitant to replace the gaming systems because I really don't play them that often, so I'm not sure if it would just be a waste of money. I think it's also partially because I'm hoping against all odds that I'll get my stuff back, or at least they'll find who stole them and I'll get reimbursed.

Right now though I'm sort of at a transition. I'm living in a fairly small place, and it isn't that close to my friends, so I rarely have people over. I plan on moving though, once my lease is up, and while it may or may not be to a bigger place, it will definitely be closer to my friends and I will probably have people over a lot more.

See, I sort of consider the Wii to be a system that excels at fun games for multiplayer, but not so much in the single players games. Sure I have Rock Band on the 360, but even that game can start to get old if you play too much. That's when the Wii would really come in handy.

So, I'm thinking that when I actually move and start to have people over again, I'm going to want to have a Wii, if for nothing else than to provide a variety of entertainment. Even the Wii Sports game that comes with the system can provide hours of fun, especially for people who have never played it before.

So with tax season coming around I'm hoping to get a pretty good tax return, and I'm really thinking of using that on a Wii and maybe a few extra games and accesories to go along with it. Actually I might buy one before I even get the tax return, because when I turn in my taxes I'll know how much I will be getting back.

I guess at this point it's a matter of priorities, but I'm hoping that when I do move and start to have more people coming over I'll have a bunch of options in which to keep them entertained. Plus this time I have renter's insurance, so I'm not quite so worried about things getting stolen.

Reconsidering the PC

With Windows 7 on the way, I've been reconsidering my earlier decision to get a Mac as my next computer. From all the testing that's been done, it's looking like the new Windows has fixed a lot of the problems that was making me hate Vista so much.

My big reason for going with a Mac was how much more reliable they are. I hate troubleshooting computer problems, and this isn't to say that previous version of Windows didn't crash every so often, but with Vista it got to be ridiculous. If Windows 7 is as reliable as XP, then I really won't mind the occasional error.

I'm also thinking it might be time to go back to a desktop. I love my laptop and how I can take it anywhere in the house if I so choose. The problem is they are hard to upgrade and the parts are way more expensive if you want them to compete with a desktop. Not only that, but they overheat very easily, and I think that's partially to blame for my computer crashes.

What I really want is a computer that I'm familiar with, and those are PC's. I can build a PC from the ground up, which means I'm only paying for the parts, and not all the labor and testing that I would be paying for with a pre-built system. Some of my older games aren't even made for Macs, and that's a big factor as well.

Doing some research online, I found that if I look at the specs on a brand new pre-built PC and then compare that to the price of the parts that would actually go in it, I could save about $600 by building it myself. And this isn't a low quality system either; I splurged on the main parts, like processor, motherboard and graphics card.

With money being tight as it is, I'm thinking a Mac may not be the way to go. Their products certainly are more reliable, but the price tag and compatibility with software, not to mention the inability to upgrade individual parts, may not be what I'm looking for.

In the meantime my laptop suits me just fine, so I'll wait for Windows 7 to be officially released before I actually buy a new computer.

Sci fi planets

I read a lot of sci fi books, watch a lot of sci fi movies, and consider myself pretty well versed in the genre. There's one thing that I find very interesting, and that is how the other planets we encounter almost always tend to have just one uniform climate and the land features are the same across the planet.

Let's take Star Wars for example, since most people can relate to it. In Episode IV the first planet we see is Tatooine, which is entirely desert. The only other planet we get to see in that movie is Yavin 4, which is actually a moon, but still it's entirely jungle. Moving on through the series we see Hoth, which is all frozen and snowy, Dagobah is all swamp, Bespin we don't really get to see except the clouds, and Endor is another moon which is all forest.

Sure it can get more creative depending on the athors. Worlds that are entirely ocean, some with no continents but lots of mountains sticking up surrounded by water, some are just entirely like Hawaii (which would be awesome). Gravity can be different, there can be strange weather features, and obviously the animal life will vary, but this still tends to be uniform across the entire planet.

So why is it that Earth can have such a huge variety of climates and land features, but all the other planets we imagine don't? Do we just not have the imagination for it?

Maybe it's just our idea of travel and going to new places. Right now we live on one planet, where you can travel around and see various climates and land features that are much different from what we're used to.

Then in the future we imagine ourselves traveling not to different places on one planet for vacation, but to different worlds altogether. Well what would be the point of that when every planet had such a variety like Earth; where you could spend a lifetime just seeing everything on the world you're already on? They are basically expanding our own planet into a galaxy, where lightyears in a spaceship is analogous to hours in a plane, and where other planets are analogous to other timezones.

I'm not sure if these sci fi writers know it or not, but I think it's just human nature that makes us think that Earth is perfect, and no other planet can possibly be like it. I mean, it's our planet after all, and while nobody actually knows how it would be to live on a different world, I don't think we'd entirely feel at home anywhere other than Earth.

Not to say this takes away from the experience of a good sci fi. Sure it may be a little unrealistic, but sci fi is obviously fiction anyway, and I don't think I'd even want to think about how long a book would be if it had to describe every planet when those planets are each as diverse as Earth.

Does anybody else notice this or is it just me? What do you think?

Replay value

It's no secret that my favorite games I played while growing up were the Final Fantasy series, and I have recently gotten the urge to play them again.

The problem is, I don't have the systems that play those games anymore, and I won't be spending any money to get them. That means I need to find another way.

The solution? Emulation. A program that enables your computer to emulate that game system, and this allows you to run roms of the games, or copies of the original game made into files that are playable on the emulator.

I was originally going to get an the various emulators for the different systems that the Final Fantasy games have been released on over the years, but I remembered that all the early games were later re-released on Playstation, and figured that only having to deal with one emulator would simplify things.

So I went online and found that the preferred emulator, called the epsxe. There is a little setup involved with configuring plugins, but I this guide walks you through it enough to get you started, and then you can mess with settings from there. I would suggest downloading the file pack near the top of his guide, which includes all the necessary plugins so you don't have to go searching for them.

Next I needed some game files, and after a quick Google search I found this site. It had everything I needed, and not only do the downloads go pretty fast, but there aren't a bunch of ads you have to follow in order to get them like I've seen on other rom sites.

I figured I'd start with FF4, one of the games in the series that I remember the least, and then work my way up. I got the game working and all, and have now made it about 3/4 of the way through the game. It's been great, and there is so many memories it brings back, but also so much that I had forgotten about.

There is one drawback to having chosen to use the PSX emulator over the original system the games were released on, and that is the sound. For some reason the emulator doesn't play back the sounds correctly. It seems that the sound plug-in doesn't know how to deal with looped music or multiple sound files at once.

What ends up happening is any music playing will play through fine on the first loop, then it cuts out and just repeats the first note until you enter an area with different music. I also have no music during battles, just the sound effects. It's frustrating, and I've been tweaking the sound plug-ins to find one that works but I haven't had any luck so far.

Now that I'm so far into the game I really don't want to start over again, but part of the nostalgia is gone because that battle music was a big part of it for me. If there is anyone out there that has a solution for this I would love to know.

Other than that it's been great, and I'm looking forward to beating this game and moving on to the next. I expect this to keep me busy for a good while.

New car

It's been a while since I've posted. I've been focusing mainly on my WoW blog, and there hasn't been much to update about recently anyway as far as geeky stuff goes.

That being said, I finally went out and got myself a new car. Well, not brand new, but it's new to me at least.

I had a post a while back about hybrid SUVs. I didn't end up getting one. Instead I went for a Subaru Outback Sport. It's smaller, still keeps my gas mileage low, and with all-wheel drive it also does well in snowy weather, which is why I wanted a 4wd SUV in the first place.

The trouble wasn't actually finding a car as I expected. I ran into a huge road block when I went to get a loan to pay for it. Being young I sort of expected to be turned down just applying on my own, but I also had a lot of trouble having my dad there to co-sign for me.

He has great credit, is a home owner, and has been using the same bank for over 30 years. Despite all that, because of the fact that he doesn't have many credit cards, they still didn't want to approve the loan.

We ended up having to threaten to change banks before they finally gave in and approved us, provided we gave them copies of our most recent paystubs to show we actually make what we say we do (which I would have expected to have to do anyway).

I understand the state of the economy, and it is probably a big reason why banks are hesitant to give out loans, even to people with good credit, but just the fact that they don't factor in all the details is what made it so frustrating.

The only information they use to check your eligibility is your credit score, income, and monthly expenses. There is nothing about your history with that bank or anything else that might help turn things in your favor. I was a little disappointed about that.

Either way, I eventually got the loan and made it just in time to buy the car I wanted before the guy sold it someone else who had offered to buy it the very next day.

I'm very happy with it. I paid a lot less than the car was worth with all the extra features it had, but the guy just wanted the base blue book value without those options since he got it at an auction and paid even less than I did.

I'm still getting used to it, but it's a huge step up from what I was driving before, and will last me a long time.

Rock Band 2

It's finally here! Rock Band 2 came out this past Sunday, and I grabbed it later that night. I also had my ION Drum Rocker set show up on Friday, and was able to set it up and a play a song or two on Sunday night before going to bed.

Alright, it's pretty much the same as Rock Band so far. There are some new game modes to play around with, but as far different colored bars scrolling down the screen telling you which buttong to hit, it's not much different.

I haven't had time to try everything out, but it looks like I'll have to unlock all the songs to make them available in free play mode. I love that I was able to transfer over the songs from the original (minus three), and I pretty much bought all the DLC that I wanted, which isn't nearly all of it.

The Drum Rocker set is great. It's taking some getting used to as I set it up a little differently than the old Rock Band set. The best thing is how much room you have to customize where each pad is. I basically set it up as close to a real drum set as I could.

I moved the red pad (snare) to where a snare drum would be in front the two toms and not so far off to the side. I moved the yellow cymbal (hi-hat) to the right of the snare and above. I really want to actually learn to play drums from this, and I figure setting it up this way will make it that much more realistic.

Another cool thing is while the cymbals and drums are the same colors, playing them in free mode they put out the correct sound. The green cymbal is a crash, but the green pad is a floor tom. I'm not sure how they did it, but it's a subtle addition that makes the game that much better.

Right now I think Rock Band really has the edge in the market for these games. The definitely have the superior software and song selection. Guitar Hero had the better hardware, but now that Harmonix is letting third-party manufacturers make official hardware as well, I think they will take that edge away.

I will be getting Guitar Hero: World Tour when it comes out regardless, but it's really just for the songs, I don't expect it to be superior in any way. Sure you can make your own songs, but I don't see that being a major draw for too many people with how much time it probably takes to do that.

Right now I'm having a lot of fun, and looking forward to unlocking all the songs so I can play them whenever I want.

DRM this

Spore was released earlier this week, and I was really anticipating going out and picking it up. The idea behind it is really cool: you evolve a species through various stages and end up traveling around the galaxy visiting (or attacking) other civilizations. There's more to it than that, but I don't want to get into that.

What I was unaware of, until seeing the angry reviews on Amazon, is that the game uses a very strict and invasive DRM (Digital Rights Management) system. The reason the system is put in place is obvious: they don't want people pirating the game. The problem is that it not only doesn't do it's job, as the game has already been pirated, but it also causes many more problems for people who actually buy it legitimately.

First off, it needs to login to the servers and verify every 10 days, which means anyone out there who bought the game to play single player and doesn't have an internet connection won't be able to play.

Second, it is limited to 3 installs, and if you want to make any installs after that you have to call and plead with them to let you do it. I don't know about you, but between hard drive failures, upgraded computers, and failing hard drives, I'd have to call in for a new install after a year, and according to them you are guilty until proven innocent, and that's how you will be treated.

This also creates the problem of how you're going to play this game years down the road. What if EA goes out of business, or they stop providing support for this game? How are any of us supposed to play it anymore? I just started playing Warcraft II again, and that game is over 10 years old. Many people like to go back and play old games, and this DRM system basically makes that impossible in the future.

Lastly, on top of the DRM it also installs SecuROM, which is basically malware, and is pretty much impossible to uninstall without reformatting. The problem is this software doesn't seem to be made for all hardware configurations and will can go so far as to disable your software if it finds something it doesn't like. That's a little scary for those of us with custom built PCs.

The biggest problem is all these rules had to be discovered by consumers. EA never explained how the DRM works, they just included it in the game and let everyone who bought it find out what they can and can't do. That's pretty ridiculous, and even if it is one of the most innovative games to date, I can't support something like that.

I by no means think protecting the games your company produces against pirating is a bad thing, but they way they have done it with this, as well as Mass Effect, is the wrong way to go about it. Make security measures that let legitimate customers play without being restricted and make it hard on the hackers. What they have done is pretty much the exact opposite, and until they fix it I won't buy this game.