Blu-ray
This is a list of posts tagged with Blu-ray.
Year in consumables: 2011 games
I love video games.
I hate video game publishers.
I guess that’s biting the hand that feeds you, but it is true. And, it is for a very simple reason. Their scheduling. The continued trend towards releasing new games in the Fall to capitalize on the pending holiday shopping season is killing me.
I get it. I understand that games cost a lot to develop, market and support. So they need to maximize their return on investment by releasing at the best time possible. But, I would argue it is the worst time possible. They are forced into competition with every other publisher and game doing the same exact thing. Thereby increasing the competition for people’s dollars. And games aren’t cheap these days, which has led to rising reliance on used game sales, which the publishers hate because they don’t get a piece of that. So then we get stuck with there attempts to curb that by adding on weak multiplayer experiences in games that should not have them. And... Continue reading »
Year in consumables: 2010 games
And you, future OB1, went crazy as past OB1, writing lists on this day.
Unfortunately, there is no summer 2010 post to fall back on for a games post, so this is straight thoughtworks. Why couldn’t past, past OB1 have written a half year post on games instead of wasting his time on movies. That would have been more useful right now since past OB1 didn’t want to write about movies anymore. (Because they mostly all suck.)
Good thing your Xbox Live achievements will help guide you in making out this list, although you maybe played a PS3 game or two. Maybe. We’ll have to see, but doubtful it would make a ranking list. Continue reading »
Year in consumables: 2009 movies
Every year it seems I debate how to approach this list. Is it based on the movies from the year that I actually viewed during that year? Any movie I viewed that year? Any movie that came out in that year that I have seen as of the date this is posted?
Traditionally it is the first of those choices and I double checked last year’s post and that’s what I did. I guess I can stick with tradition, but it kind of sucks. I can tell you right now that the best movie I watched during 2009 was Slumdog Millionaire, but that came out in late 2008. The best movie I have seen from 2009 was The Hurt Locker, but that was this past January (2010). Both would top the list for their given year of release, but that’s not how I am doing the list. That’s the rub.
Besides Locker, I have also watched eight other movies from 2009 this year, and yes, some of those wou... Continue reading »
Flixd: one
I think I have dropped notice here or there that I planned on doing something with all this movie watching activity. Well, this is it and I am going to keep it super simple. The name of the flick, a rating and a sentence or three about it. That’s it. No review, but maybe a recommendation. The rating should handle that, no?
So, I figure I will do this monthly or maybe every two months depending on how many movies I get thru at a time. Television is coming back off repeats so I expect the March activity to slow down a bit, plus I may actually start playing a video game again once and a while. I have enough now to do two for the first two months of this year.
As a bonus though, I am throwing in some of the movies I streamed with Netflix to the Xbox 360. This ability was released in November and it is pretty much going to be the future once the streaming HD gets better. Oh, and the amount of selections in the library. I actually trimmed this list slightly because some of it was mindless garbage you might watch... Continue reading »
Year in consumables: 2008 movies
I am still ahead of the curve from last year, so I don’t feel too badly about delaying this post a couple weeks from when I thought I’d get it out. It was my intention to watch a handful more movies released in 2008 to see if they’d make my top five for the year. I watched them, but they won’t make the list.
Also, I realized that I should do this list like I do the others, movies that I consumed during that year and not necessarily released. I’m still not sure about that as a criteria or not because as I Netflix stuff it can be pretty old — if you count 2-3 years ago as old — and may seem out of place. That said, I am going to start doing something like Ed’s Netflix Notes starting this year. That can cover anything I don’t... Continue reading »
Year in consumables: 2008 games
I am mixing up my order a little bit this year. In the past I have done music, movies and then games. This year I am doing a reverse order. Games are first because I am more or less done with games to play from last year. I am still catching up on movies but expect to have that up by weekend, err… end. Since no one cares about the music one, it can go last. (If you are at all interested in last year’s lists you can find them under the best of tag, but here is last year’s games post.)
Of course, that’s not to say that the game had to come out in 2008 to make the list. I simply had to consume it in 2008. (Although, games from last year still on my list for this year are Tomb Raider Underworld and maybe Fallout 3.)
Last year I ranked 10 games and then did a li... Continue reading »
Xbox 360 in 1080p
Paul Thurrott has an item on WinInfo about Microsoft releasing the HD DVD add-on for the Xbox 360 for only $170 this Fall. What is more interesting to me is that a 360 firmware update will boost the max resolution of the 360 from 1080i to 1080p. This is news, and as Paul says, the last big differentiator between PS3 and the 360.
Is Sony further doomed? Not in the least. The Sony zealots will still shell out gobs of cake for a PS3, but Microsoft just made their argument even more compelling. I’m just a little happier in that this will help justify buying a 1080p HD set when I get a big one soonish. Even though television programming won’t be broadcast at that level for years to come, at least there could be some earlier benefit in the greater cost over the 720p sets. As it stands now, it’s about an $800 difference for the size set I am looking at. I bet the earliest we see a 1080p game is late 2007 though.
Posts ::
Tue :: 19 :: Feb :: 2008 :: 11.12 pm
Categorized:
Commentary, Film, Web
Tagged:
Apple, Blu-ray, HD DVD, iTunes, Metal Gear Solid, Netflix, Playstation 3, PS3, Sony, Toshiba
Commented:
now closed
Blu-ray wins
So, did everyone that doesn’t own a HD DVD or Blu-ray player yawn like I did?
Toshiba blinked and conceded defeat in the HD optical disc format war today. This wasn’t that big a surprise I guess, although, it still shows that Sony has some weight left to throw around. That said, Sony just ended up on the winning side this time. After all, they lost on Betamax, DAT and MiniDisc. Wow, that’s three failed formats before producing another winner.
Okay, okay… they partnered with Phillips to produce the CD in there somewhere, but those same partners did lose out to Toshiba and others on the DVD front. I guess they turned the tables this time, but failed to avoid the format war that DVD did.
Yeah, shocking… I actually did a little wikipedia research for this one. I thought they were also the Laserdisc losers, but no, they didn’t invent that one either. Glad I checked my facts. I don’t want to be an interwebs fool.
Too late!
Continue reading »