The Onkyo TX-NR1007 is a 9.2 channel A/V Receiver, and by this time next week, it will be the receiver powering the venturai.com home theatre.
Out with the old Pioneer 1019, and in with the new Onkyo.
When it comes, I'll up new pics, and will advance the home theatre another iteration. We'll be at v1.3, woohoo!
I've had Playstation Move for about 24 hours now. I bought the starter pack, an additional controller, Sports Champions, Start the Party and a charging station.
We spent the first evening with Start the Party, and this second evening I've just unlocked the bronze trophies in table tennis and gladiator duel. I've also played completely through the demo from The Shoot that came on the starter disk that's with the starter pack.
Impressions?
It's a bit of a double-edged sword. I'm not having the time of my life, but I think the combination of the camera and the controller makes for a much, much bigger step forward than the Wii remote was. Maybe it's because the camera has the ability to track the controller in 3D space far better than what's possible with the Wii's sensor bar, I don't know.
Shoot the Party is a game where you have to perform party tasks on camera. They use the position of the Move camera to attach a device to your hand, like a hammer or a tennis racquet. The game then has you perform things like swatting flies out of the air or popping balloons. It's gimmicky, but excellent, if just because for the first time in the game you're actually doing it yourself, rather than just controlling some avatar. It's not the best game you'll have played this year, but the potential is there to do some crazy fun stuff with the technology.
Sports Champions is Sega's take on Wii Sports. The table tennis experience is at least on par with that in Resort, which I consider a huge compliment considering the excellent job that Nintendo did. There are times when it doesn't quite do what I want, but that's an issue I've experienced with both games. The gladiator game is reasonably well done, especially when you're using two controllers, one for your shield and the other your sword.
I quite enjoyed The Shoot too. I'm definitely going to have to get a gun attachment for this controller. After a quick calibration, I found the aiming to be much more accurate than I was ever able to get shooting on the Wii. This had me enjoying the game a whole lot more. Assuming it also retails at $49AU, which is under half the price that normal new release games launch at down here, this is one game I'll have no hesitation in grabbing when it lands next month.
Much like with Wii Sports, then, I found the Move's launch titles to be excellent hardware demonstrations. There's not a lot of depth in anything, but the technology behind it all has some serious potential.
Coupled with Microsoft's upcoming Kinect, I really like how each system is now going to have its own motion-capture technology. With any luck it will force the big companies, like Activison, Electronic Arts and Ubisoft, to have to think outside of the box (for once). No longer will they just be able to make the same old shooter and port it across, having it work pretty much exactly the same way but on slightly different gamepads.
Outside of the Rock Band franchise, which I will continue to support, and of course, my recent return into World of Warcraft, I'm officially done with normal games. I'm not shooting using some fiddly thumbstick thing on a gamepad when I can just point the Move controller at my target, no way! :D
Yes, you can assume that I'm still playing World of Warcraft :)
Less than four months I've been back into that game, and I'm now my guild's main tank. I've been main tank for both 10 and 25-man raids. I have a gear score of 5765 and I've got just over 41 thousand unbuffed hitpoints.
All things considered, for someone new to the endgame who also has a fulltime job commitment, I've come a fuck of a long way in a very short amount of time.
It was great at first, because it felt like there was always something to do, but now, like so many other people I know, it's become just about the raiding.
There's just nothing in it for me doing anything else anymore, because only getting together with a lot of other people and downing big bosses is going to net me gear that's better than what I already have.
In the meantime, you stare at the screen, sitting around in Dalaren, pretty much waiting for something to happen.
So I went and pre-ordered Playstation Move.
The Playstation Move is Sony's answer to the Nintendo Wii, and it comes out tomorrow. You hold a remote with a light bulb on the end, and a camera plugged into the ps3 picks thats up.
Initial reports are that it's actually very precise, and the wife and I were watching a Youtube video on the "Start the Party" game that had us laughing about halfway through.
I was particularly impressed with the sorcery game they demonstrated at E3 this year, but that's not due until next year. Bah.
If I don't write about Playstation Move ever again, you can assume it sucks more than Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen.
Assuming anything could suck more than that :)
