AT&T U-verse or Cable

My wife and I will be moving into our new home at the end of the month and are deciding on whether or not to continue with our current cable service with Time Warner or switch to AT&T's new U-verse.

My complaints with Time Warner are the shitty cable boxes, the $10 per month charge to have digital cable in another room, and the fact that the signal constantly degrades during peak viewing hours. Plus, only about 1/3 of the channels are actually digital. However, I have very few complaints about their internet service. it's fast and rarely goes down.

U-verse on the other hand, has 100% digital quality channels, offers three rooms at no additional cost (all HD with one a DVR), more channels, on demand, more HD channels and a better cable box (developed by Microsoft). However, their fastest internet service is only 6mbps down and 1mbps up compared to cables 10mbps down 1mbps up.

So here's my question, am I going to be lagging during my marathon online game sessions with the slightly slower U-verse DSL or will I not even notice it?

Does anybody have U-verse that can tell me more about the television and DVR service? Some things I've seen say it can only record 1 HD channel and three SD channels or 4 SD channels. Is this true?

Thanks

Update: I read a review article and it does in fact record up to 4 SD streams or 1 HD and 3 SD streams which is a bummer since most of the shows I watch are in HD. However, rarely are they on at the same time. Also, a big bonus that may have me overlooking the 1 HD annoyance is the fact that the other recievers in the house, can pull the content from the DVR.  NICE!!!!  Now my wife can watch her recorded Nouvelas in the bedroom without bothering me.

Posted by syphaqlies @ 11:08 am EDT | Permalink | 4 Comments

'I Am Goliath'

In my little fantasy world....this is the way the game really ended.

Damn I'm glad college football starts this week.

BOOMER SOONER!

Posted by syphaqlies @ 5:48 pm EDT | Permalink | 2 Comments

Screamed Like a Little Bitch

Fucking Bioshock. Happened lastnight as I was exploring the dentist's office (the foggy room, not when the lights go out).

Just like this:

 

Posted by syphaqlies @ 9:58 am EDT | Permalink | 3 Comments

Nintendo Shows Promise at E3 Press Conference

Nintendo recently wrapped up their E3 press conference. I watched this with high hopes that they would redeem themselves after the earlier announcement that Metroid Prime 3 would not have online multiplayer capabilities.

In my opinion, their announcments today gave me a lot of hope for the Wii. Several new things are in its future and I'm happy to say that I'm looking forward to all of them.

First off, the biggie...online play.

While they didn't announce an online community function like Live or Home they did mention several games that will be released with online play.

The first one, and the one I'm most excited about, is Mario Kart. I've been in love with this game since its days on the SNES. More importantly Nintendo announced the game will come with multiplayer race and battle games. This was the game that all my friends and family wanted to play when we got together. However, when they weren't around, I rarely played it after I had won all the single-player races. Now that this game will finally have online play it will be hard for me to ever put down. Nintendo didn't say exactly how many racers a match could have but said it would be "many." As an added bonus, the game will ship with a steering wheel that the Wiimote snaps into. Nice. This game will be available in the first quarter of 2008.

EA Sports will be releasing Madden 08 and FIFA 08 with online play on the Wii as well. I'm not a real big fan of either of these games so this doesn't excite me all that much. Also, there was no mention of NCAA 08, which I'm going to be getting on my 360, and since you can draft your college players in Madden 08 I'll get that for the 360 as well if I decide I must have both of them. Interesting side note, FIFA 08 will allow you to play with your own Mii (I think only as a minigame though).

Guitar Hero III will also be online capable.

Nintendo did not mention...at all...how the online multiplayer will work. Because of that, the only one I'll be purchasing for the Wii will be Mario Kart. The rest I'll get for my 360.

Nintendo also announced the Wii Zapper. It's a moulding that houses the Wiimote and Nunchuck. It will be packaged with a game at a suggested retail price of $19.99. Not to bad even if it is just a plastic moulding since you also get a game. No mention of the cost for a stand alone device. Nintendo mentioned that Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles, Ghost Squad and Medal of Honor will all utilize the new zapper. I have to say it looks cool but I need to see this thing in action before I'm sold. The press conference only had brief video of what gameplay would be like with this zapper.

Nintendo also had a live demonstration of Metroid Prime 3. The game seemed to play nicely, allowing you to lock onto a target and still provide free aiming. They also made it seem simple to change visors but I didn't see when they actually did it in gameplay. Your also able to switch into Hyper mode for more powerful weapons but again I wasn't able to actually tell when they engaged it on the game. (Video was choppy at this point.)

A new Wii channel was also announced. It's basically a beauty contest for the Mii. It's titled Check Mii Out (or maybe Check Me Out I don't really know). You submit your Mii for the Nintendo population to vote on. (Nintendo's version of Hot or Not?) They also mentioned celebrity look-a-like contests.

Nintendo also listed off a few games slated for release on the Wii:

Mario Galaxy - November. The gameplay on the video looked pretty good. I might have a reason to get into a Mario Bros game again.

High School Musical - Whoever thought of this should be shot. I mean seriously what the hell?

My Word Coach and My Life Coach - Yawn and Yawn

My Sims - I'm a Sims fan so this title immediately appeals to me. Plus I prefer the cartoony feel of this one to the more life like Sims games.

Rayman Raving Rabids 2 - So what.

Soul Caliber Legends - Nice.

Smackdown 2008 - Not a wrestling fan.

Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword - Just put it on my list of games I must have. Video of it looked sweet.

Dragon Quest Swords - We'll see.

Smash Bros Brawl - December - I'm looking forward to this game but I'm a little upset that this game wasn't mentioned when they were talking about online gaming. If it doesn't have it, I'll pass. The only reason I'll buy this game is to play with other people.

The final game they mentioned that I will own when it's released is Wii Fitness. My wife and I are both trying to loose weight and be more fit. I hate excercising and refuse to go to a gym (despite her constant nagging). However, I can easily see both her and myself using this. It comes with a Balance Board that measures body weight and detects how it's being shifted on the board. This allows the users to calculate their BMI (body mass index), keep perfect form in the excercises, and take part in active mini games, all by leaning, stepping and by doing many more physical activities I'm sure.

Here's a link to video.

There was also a lot of DS talk in the press conference but since I don't own one I didn't really care too much about what they were saying. However, there are two games coming out that will have me putting it on my Christmas list. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom HourGlass and Dragon Quest. There was a live demonstration of Zelda and it looked fun. You control link on the lower screen with the styllus while the upper screen displays the map. Gameplay seemed smooth with the styllus and graphics looked clean. The video for Dragon Quest also looked very nice.

There was also plenty to be skeptical about. First, there was no mention of how multiplayer would work. Will it be like the free for all game lobbys in Live or will you only be allowed to play with the people listed in your Friends List. Also, there was no mention about making adding people to that list less complicated and more user friendly. I haven't added people to my friends list since the first week I purchased my Wii, it's just too damn time consuming.

Overall I think Nintendo is moving in the right direction. Still not fast enough for my taste though.

Posted by syphaqlies @ 2:54 pm EDT | Permalink | 1 Comments

Getting this

I tried to embed this video a few times but the embeded link kept changing to an E3 interview for some reason (I think because it requires age verification).

So here's a direct link. It's the Call of Duty 4 E3 trailer.

This game looks so good. Graphics look crisp, gameplay seems solid, battle scenes look chaotic and overwhelming. I can't wait.

http://media.video.ign.com/ev/sv.html?dlURL=ps3movies.ign.com/ps3/video/article/802/802473/COD4_E3_Trailer_07092007_flvlowwide.flv&object_ID=902590

Posted by syphaqlies @ 4:46 pm EDT | Permalink | 0 Comments