Work hard, spend hard, play hard… ish

I seem to be in the mood to part with my hard-earned, so after watching a full feature in 575i on the Bravia two nights ago, I decided last night to do something about it, ‘it’ being the ghosting and artifacting that occurs when a 575i signal gets put through a 720p panel.

Last night I jumped in the car, zipped on over to Chibi-R’s place which was on the way, and went to what we both now call the Church. The Church of JB Hi-Fi. See, we’re devout Church-goers, and I’m so committed I’ve decided to become an Archbishop of the Order of the JB. More than once a week, sometimes three times, Chibi-R and I attend church. We pray, and hand over our hard-earned, and blessings are bestowed upon us; blessings in the form of CDs, DVDs and various audio-visual and computer equipment.

Only twenty minutes later, and I am the proud owner of a bouncing baby Pioneer DVD player with HDMI output. Chibi-R was going to get one also, but didn’t… for some strange reason. Getting it home perpetuated a total re-fit of my AV cabinet, not because there wasn’t any room, but just because I felt like it. I knew there was a better way I could cram all of that stuff in there, but when I initially set it up, the first and most convenient setup won out over careful thought. I suppose now that I have a panel and not a monsterous CRT, that I’ve decided to take the whole affair quite a bit more seriously.
After 45 minutes or so, the setup is complete, and testing can begin. I have to say that HDMI makes a big difference. The player upscales to 720p and looks a whole lot better than ye-olde lo-fye signalle.

As for playing hard, I haven’t actually had much time for games. When we can, we jump into Burnout Paradise for a bit, and my brother-in-law’s crew is still really into Halo 3, so I join them once in a while. I’ve been hanging out to play some co-op Rainbow Six: Vegas with A_Spec, but we just don’t catch each-other online. I’ve been spending a whole lot more time watching films and hanging out than gaming, and I’m wondering whether my gaming days are drawing to a close. What will make me play games again? I guess more co-op of the quality of R6 would be nice, and a decent Mario Party would be great (remember ever even-numbered game sucks), Super Smash Bros. Brawl will certainly get some play-time, but really, that isn’t a whole lot. Games just seem so samey now, we keep treading over the same old ground, and other activities are winning out because they’re more compelling, more original, more thought provoking and often times more fun. Is fun being sacrificed for the sake of trying to make that next big blockbuster success or graphical marvel? Perhaps. This question and many more warrant asking, and indeed warrant answering, but I’m not the one to do either really. I just vote with my wallet, so until the industry asks me, I’m sure it can take care of itself.

My, what an entry.