Rob's Gaming Blog

I Pre-Ordered Grand Theft Auto 4 Today!

The Gamestop in my area is having a midnight sale of GTA4 on the morning of April 29th.  I might go to this event and see who else is buying GTA4.

Pre-ordering guarantees you a copy on opening day.  I’m totally psyched about this one. 

 Finally, GTA4 has multiplayer capabilities — thats going to be off the hook!

Excellent HDTV

I finally did it friends.  I broke down about a week ago and ordered my very first HDTV.  This is a big leap for me.  I went from a Sony 24″ WEGA regular standard TV set to a brand new Panasonic 46″ 1080p plasma screen.  This set is awesome!!!  Its the latest model out there.  In fact it is so new that they dont even have them yet in Circuit City or Best Buy.  I bought it off of Amazon, which to me was a little tough to order a TV set from a non-brick and mortar store.  But, here was the deal that I got.

 Circuit City sells the same TV for $2199.  Best Buy – $2199.  Amazon – 1,797.86.

So, immediately i saved $400.  I saved at least $60 for shipping and handling.  And i probably another $150 – $200 because of no sales tax.  I don’t think you can beat that deal anywhere.

 The TV arrived on Friday.  They called me the day before to let me know that they could deliver it the next day.  So I setup the time and they gave a ballpark time between 12 and 5pm.  They arrived around 2:30pm.  The receipt said that it would be delivered by 2 guys and they would unpack it.  It was actually delivered by 1 guy and i helped carry it into the house and down the steps.  That part i wasn’t too impressed with.  I expected two guys to come in unpack it and set it up.  He basically just took apart the box and plugged the TV in to test the remote and the TV set.  Everything worked and the TV looks fantastic.  The delivery guy bolted after i signed the paper.

All in all a good experience.  They were prompt and the customer service was on the money, i just wish i didn’t have to set the base up and put the TV together.  I needed help putting it on the stand.  I guess I would Amazon a 4 out of 5 stars if we were rating this.  I definitely would recommend them to everyone.

 So anyway, now let’s talk about the TV.

Panasonic makes some of the best TVs out there.  I think there mid-range models have a better picture quality then some of the Sony.  Its a plasma screen so the glass on the front is quite shiney, but it has a antireflective screen on it so this minimizes the glare.  Also use it with low light in the room and your ok too.

I first tested regualr TV.  The picture is better then my old TV because its so big.  Its not an HD picture because i haven’t upgraded my cable box yet.  That is next on the list.  So, cartoon network looked pretty good.

The next thing i tried was hooking up my PS3 with a new HDMI cable to the TV set.  This is a very exciting step.  The first time seeing your PS3 in all its glory!  When i turned it on it asked me if i wanted to register the new tv and up the resolution to 1080p.  I clicked the HELL YEAH button!  The screen goes black and then turns itself on looking 10,000 times better!  The colors are vivid, the picture ultra sharp.  This is sweet!  So, i wanted to see what a DVD picture would look like.  I punched in Spiderman 1.  It looked decent but because the picture is so big you can see the artificacts in the picture of the video (mainly in the menu video where spidey is swinging from building to building).  The movie itself was sharper and looked really good.  It was a joy to watch it.

The next thing I tried was putting in a Blu-ray movie.  This is where my jaw really hit the floor.  I put in “The Corpse Bride” and holy shit man, this movie looks fantastic.  I have 4 other blu-ray movies to watch on the TV set and I’m planning on getting The Transformers and some other good movies too obviously.  I might also pick up Rock Band while I’m out there.  So, the picture quality is incredibly sharp, detailed, and just ridiculous – its sooo clear.  Get a HDTV for sure if you have a PS3 or Xbox 360.

The last thing i tried was I popped in Call of Duty 4 and played some online.  Just like the blu-ray movies the games looked jaw-droppingly awesome!  Very, very pleased with how the TV performs.  I played for like an hour or so online.  The only thing I noticed was every once in awhile I would trails when I move fast, but its very subtle and i think my eyes are more sensitive then most peoples.

The TV is the Panasonic 46″ 1080p Plasma screen model number: TH-46PZ85U.  Kicks ass.  Pictures coming soon.

until next time….I’m going to mess around with the TV settings some and also try hooking a computer into it, that should be interesting.

Grand Theft Auto 4 Coming on April 29th!

Finally, Rockstar lets us know that Christmas will be held in April this year as well as in December!

The game looks truly amazing — I have a PS3 and I’m looking forward to this game big time!

Call of Duty 4 – Excellent Game

I’ve been playing Call of Duty 4 for a little over 2 weeks now.  I haven’t had as much time to play it as I would have liked to play but everytime I’ve sat down to play it it has been non-stop enjoyment and I’ll play for a minimum of 3 hours.  Once you pick up the controller and start playing multiplayer online, its just so much fun.  My name on the PS3 network is IJoeR316 — so if you see me in a game, just try to snipe me.

 I’ve mainly been playing multiplayer online, but I am 1/2 way through the single player campaign – which so far is excellent.  I think I am about 8 missions into the game.

 From my friends who are playing the game now they have already completed the game and beat the game so they tell me the next mission I have in single player campaign is a doozy!  Probably one of the hardest missions in the game.

I’ll tell you all about it in my next post, until then…

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare – I just got it!

It was almost a really, really freakin sad Tuesday night.  I went to the local Gamestop.  When i got there some guy was trying to return an Xbox 360 with a serial number that didn’t match the one on his receipt and well Gamestop basically told him that they wouldn’t accept the Xbox360 unless the serial number matched the receipt.  So remember that. Don’t go out and buy a new one and think you can put your old one in the box and return it.  Gamestop is on to you already fools.

So why was he returning it?  Apparently whenever he put a disc into the Xbox 360 he gets an error saying that its not a valid Xbox 360 disc.  The remedy from what I heard from another customer is you have to keep opening up the xbox and closing the xbox until it reads the disc.  I’ve never had this problem with my PS2 or PS3 yet, knock on wood.  So there is another reason why you shouldn’t get an Xbox 360.  They are expensive and the hardware is cheap = rip-off.

Ok, sorry for starting this topic off with that little story, but when I went to Gamestop I waited 10 minutes for all that to happen only to find out that Call of Duty 4 had sold out.  I had them call the White Marsh Gamestop and they were sold out too.  This is really starting to suck.

So, i remember years ago when i bought my PS2 the day it came out, I went to Toys R Us near my house.  I’m not sure if people have forgotten that it is there or what not but everytime I’ve needed to get something like a PS2 or a game, they have always had it in stock.  So, I pressed my luck and gave it another try.  Sure enough they had like 10 copies of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.  Winner, winner!  5 minutes later I’m the proud owner of a new PS3 game.

 A couple of quick things about the game.  #1, its beautiful.  The graphics are astounding.  But more importantly, #2, the gameplay is exciting and fast paced.  I don’t want to give anything away, but the first mission is really well done.  I felt I was in a movie.  So go buy it, play it, and tell me if I’m crazy.  I think this game totally owns Halo 3.  The Multiplayer game is alot of fun and unique too.  You start of with no XP points.  The more kills you make, the more XP you get and you get to unlock things in the game by earning XP.  A very neat feature to make multiplayer even cooler then it normally is.  Now, you’re actually out there fighting to get XP.

Well, i just wanted to tell you, I give this game clearly 2 thumbs up, 10 out of 10, 5 out of 5 stars, and so on.

So, stop reading this and go buy it.  Meet me online sometime to you punks…my name on my PS3 is IJoeR316.  Don’t be surprised if i snipe you.

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune Arrives on 11/19/2007

Uncharted Drake’s Fortune looks to be one of the hot games of the Christmas season and its about to be released in a couple of weeks.  So what is this game like?  Well, remember back in the old days when Atari 2600 kicked ass and there was an awesome game called Pitfall?  Picture Pitfall on Steroids and on next-gen PS3 console and thats what makes this game awesome OR if you want compare it to Tomb Raider or Indiana Jones, feel free.

The environments, the animations, the graphics everything looks top-notch.  I’ll definitely be spending my dollars to get this game when it is released in a few weeks.  11/19/2007 is the date.  So look for this one at your retailer.

More Halo 3 Game Footage

My cousin and Swab taking down the other team in a hurry. Hysterical! Nice work guys.

You can order Halo 3 online from the following retailers:

Halo 3 from EBGAMES.com
Halo 3 Limited Edition from EBGAMES.com
Halo 3 Legendary Edition with Halo Spartan Mjolnir Mark VI Helmet!

Halo 3 Game Footage…

My cousin doing some awesome sniper work in Halo 3.

Halo 3 from EBGAMES.com
Halo 3 Limited Edition from EBGAMES.com
Halo 3 Legendary Edition with Halo Spartan Mjolnir Mark VI Helmet!

Halo 3 for Xbox 360 is released today

Millions and millions of Xbox360 owners are rejoicing today because the most anticipated Xbox 360 game was released today — Halo 3.

I’m not an Xbox fan, but this game looks like alot of fun so I’m probably going to breakdown and buy an Xbox 360 just so i can play this game.

Anyone know of any good HDTV + Xbox 360 deals ?  I’m in need of a good HDTV too.

You can order Halo 3 online from the following retailers:

Halo 3 from EBGAMES.com
Halo 3 Limited Edition from EBGAMES.com
Halo 3 Legendary Edition with Halo Spartan Mjolnir Mark VI Helmet!

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune for PS3

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune for the PS3.

I’m getting really psyched about Uncharted.  It sort of takes me back to good old days of playing Pitfall on my Atari 2600 for hours and hours on end except Uncharted has next gen ultra high quality graphics and environments.  Its looks incredible.  Since GTA4 was delayed, this game might be the one that forces me to go buy that HDTV.

You can see the official trailer at the PlayStation website here:
Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune Official Site