I know I've said this probably a hundred times, but I am constantly so disappointed with the Wii's graphic capabilities.
I picked up the Wii copy of Okami today, and just gone done with firing it up a bit now. Well, it didn't take more than a second of seeing the real time footage before I thought to myself, "what the hell is going on here?!?".
It's blurry. Reeeeeally blurry. Not just a little blurry. Not just you woke up and your eyes are playing tricks on you. I'm talking virtually snow storm blurry.
Look, I know the frigging Wii isn't high definition and that has an awful lot to do with it, but it can't just be the resolution. There are many things (menus and so forth) which are clear (well, for 480p standards, anyway), but all of the in-game footage is heavily blurred.
You can't even see Ammy's face properly at anytime. It's a blurred mess!!!
*sob*
Yeah, I'm a bit disappointed, because the Wii has taken one of my most loved games of all time, and chewed it up and spit it out as a shoddy impersonation of its original and intended nature.
I'm hoping this is just a first impression, but I know even if I change my mind, it will only be because I've gotten used to it.
I actually have the PS2 copy of Okami playing right now on the PS3 (since it's the European release, and my PS2 is American, but the PS3 is European). I also have the Wii version of Okami playing right now. I am at the same exact part in the game on both (the beginning) and I keep switching between the two channels (PS2 version, and Wii version). All I can say is there is a dramatic difference.
I can guarantee if I asked 100 people to tell me which one they think looks better not a single sap will say the Wii version.
And so I am brought back to the source of my gripe. How on earth was Nintendo able to get away with completely cheaping out of hardware inside the Wii, and how have they possibly been able to present this console as being in the same generation as the PS3 or Xbox 360?
(Look kids - you can throw your arms around and act like you're in the game! hehuhhh! Wow, a motion sensitive control will make me completely ignore the fact that they've thrown the engine of a motorized wheelchair under the hood of a Ferrari.)
Grrr...
It blows my mind, because I can't really think of a single Wii game that I thought could stand up against any original Xbox game. This really disappoints me, but doesn't really surprise me. I went into the game expecting a minor bummer, as I knew they had removed the canvas texture filter (supposedly for "performance" reasons - I don't even want to go there). But, I never expected the game to look as blurry as it does.
Has anyone else out there played both, or even had both running at the same time to do a comparison? Surely, I can't just be completely HD-spoiled..?
I just have a hard time understanding why a game released on a last-generation console looks superior to the same game running on a current (or "next") generation console.
I know, I know... There are other subtle differences at play here (such as the PS3 being connected via HDMI, and the Wii as component), but the fact of the matter isn't necessarily the resolution throwing me off (as the PS3 only upscales, it can't recreate the graphics as if they were natively HD). The Wii version is just very, very blurry.
Poor Okami. And poor Issun. The poor little bugger doesn't even look like he did anymore because he's so damn hard to see.
posted in: Video Games · posted on: Thursday - Jul 03 2008 (8:18pm) · posted by: Lev
I paid over 1000 kronor for a strategy guide thanks to adlibris
ADLIBRIS.SE SUCKS THE BIG HAIRY ONE
Okay, now that I've gotten that out of the way...
I've paid more than 1000 kronor for a strategy guide now, all thanks to the wonderful incompetence of adlibris.se.
Needless to say, I will not be giving them any of my business in the future, ever again. In fact, I will ask that my account my closed, to ensure I'm never tempted to shop with such imbeciles.
Do you remember a long time ago, when I mentioned a story about how I had ordered a bunch of guides (the Lost Odyssey guide being one of them)? Anyhow, to recap, they claimed the Lost Odyssey book was in stock, so I ordered it with the rest of the guides I wanted. About a week later they removed the Lost Odyssey guide from my cart (even though, they admitted it had been restocked by another wholesaler), so it was never paid or shipped. I complained repeatedly until I got assistance. I told them I wasn't going to pay for shipping twice because of their muck up. Eventually, I was sent the book and given the impression it had been paid for with my Visa card (like all the other books and purchases). It wasn't.
I found that out later when I received a bill in the mail for the price of the book, plus an interest percentage and additional fee for being late. Angrily, I sent back another email to them stating it was unfair to charge me additionally for something I was under the impress had already been taken care of. I made it clear I had no intention of avoiding payment for the book (if it was unpaid), but that I would not pay the extra fees.
Eventually, someone heard my plea and said they'd send me a new bill without those extra costs. They never did.
Soon enough, I received a bigger bill in the mail now totaling over 300 kronor (when the book was only 120 kronor). If the bill wasn't paid quickly, they warned it would go to Kronofog (basically the Swedish black list office when your bills haven't been paid to collectors).
I had enough of them at this point, and wasn't going to deal with the monkeys behind their support, so I paid the bill, and said in my head, "f*ck adlibris, I just won't buy a damn thing from these idiots again".
Today, I received a letter from Kronofog, stating that I now owed some 800 additional kronor. We rang up Kronofog literally minutes after getting the bill and asked what is up. They told us, the collection bill was paid 2 days late (we were given no means of knowing this) and that we had to pay even more now. So, now I have paid an additional 639 kronor, on top of the earlier paid 300-400 kronor to the collection agency.
All because of incompetence. Pure and simple. Idiocy at its finest.
I wanted to get a book that cost a mere 120 kronor (roughly 15 bucks), and now I have paid more than a whopping 1000 kronor (roughly 130-150 bucks).
Adlibris.se won't see another penny from me. I couldn't be more furious at how this played out, and how it all stemmed from a mistake they made in the first place. Absolutely unbelievable company.
According to my account details, I've placed 9 orders with them, totaling 5156 kronor (well over 700 dollars). This is just on BOOKS (mainly strategy guides). In other words, I've been an enormous customer for them, and now they won't see another stinking kronor from me.
What a bunch of incompetent morons. I can't stress how very disappointed and angry at the idiots over there.
posted in: Rants · posted on: Wednesday - Jul 02 2008 (9:11pm) · posted by: Lev
Today rocked
I got a TV again (finally), so I spent a good portion of this evening going through a bunch of games in my collection and having some fun.
Bioshock has me the most sucked in, so I have a feeling I'll be playing that tomorrow as well.
Of course, maybe I should go back and finally finish MGS4, so I can write the review. I'm too jazzed having a working TV again to think of reviews right now, so hopefully in some days I'll have the MGS4 review posted.
Oh, and I had a surprise I was planning on sharing, but I think I'll wait on that for right now...
I gotta say, I hope they get fined for this, because I've sat by and watched as countless pirated goods are sold without ebay doing a thing, and hiding behind its terms of use. I complained to them once, after buying a pirated pro memory stick duo chip, and they did nothing and told me they can't tell the seller to stop selling them and I should just report it to the consumer goods review group. Of course, they didn't take into account that I am in Sweden and the seller was in England so I highly doubt minor international offenses on an online auction site are much of a priority. Without a doubt, ebay definitely allows pirated/bootlegged merchandise to sell regularly, because they make money out of it.
I'm hoping ebay takes one in the crotch over this, in order to realize how important it is to protect your consumers.
posted on: Monday - Jun 30 2008 (9:52pm) · posted by: Lev
Semi functional tag-cloud
As you may have noticed, I've added a tag cloud to my personal site finally. I noticed it still needs a bit of tweaking since some words (and characters) that are supposed to be ignored are slipping through sometimes.
This pulls the most common words from all my content on the site, and is different than the one that displays on TT for member interests and such. I will add this functionality over to TT shortly.
posted in: Programming · posted on: Monday - Jun 30 2008 (4:12pm) · posted by: Lev
I'm 25 years old and I wet the bed
I woke up this morning is a puddle of piss.
I felt it was my duty to report to you all on this.
It's true. I did, and I actually thought it was pretty funny.
I was pretty dazed out of it, after taking a little more than normal of my Theralen (I take this each night to sleep better). I woke up this morning having a dream where I had walked into some shabby cabin and was pissing in the outhouse thingy. It was at that point that I woke up realizing I had to take a piss. I went to the bathroom as quickly as I could, but my pants were already wet. I finished off in the toilet, but that unfortunately did no good for my pants or the sheet I was on.
It was even more amusing to me because we had watched a Seinfeld episode last night where he was talking about how people incorporate things like their alarm clock going off, or the radio going on, into their dreams. He must have jinxed me.
Either that or I took a bit more Theralen than I thought.
posted on: Saturday - Jun 28 2008 (7:52pm) · posted by: Lev
Yet another annoyance - Firefox 3
I think I should make a weekly "yet another annoyance" bit on all the new ways Firefox finds to irritate and disasstisfy me.
Anyhow, I just came across another while posting my last item.
It seems that, with Firefox 3 at least, once you have clicked the "browse" button to upload a file, you can't erase that field, if you don't have anything to upload!
I discovered this when I accidently tried uploading my image as an icon. My software threw the "maximum icon size" error, so I went back to correct it. I could easily use the browse button on the appropriate field to have the file uploaded, but there is no way to remove the selection from the previously selected failure.
In other words, an entire form of contents can be wasted in a split second because you aren't able to erase the path to a file to be uploaded. Previous versions would allow you to select the path and erase it (I believe IE handles this the same). Not anymore! Anytime you click or select the text already stored, the damn browser opens up the dialog box to upload a file. Clicking "Cancel" only cancels out of the current dialog and the previous value remains!
Seriously... I'm just waiting, hoping, and waiting some more for the next great browser to come along. I've never been fully satisfied with Firefox from day 1 - sure, it's still the best bet - and my frustration at the constant hurdles the team keeps throwing in are really a turn off.
posted in: Computers · posted on: Saturday - Jun 28 2008 (7:01pm) · posted by: Lev
Got a gold chocobo (and Knights of the Round materia)
To avoid going crazier than I am, I knew I had to get my gaming fix.
I bought Super Smash Brothers Brawl today, while out, but since I don't have a working TV I had to connect my Wii through my PC's TV card. Needless to say, the quality was really poor.
So instead of fussing about how lousy the graphics are, and how much better they could be, I decided to hook up my PS2 instead (since the graphic loss is negligiable).
I played Resident Evil for about 20 minutes, but then got bored since I forgot what I was supposed to be doing. Now, I fired up good ol' FF7.
Man, did I leave off at a good spot. I had a black chocobo and a yellow (wonderful) chocobo just waiting to get it on. I mated them, gave them the required Zeio nut, and low and behold, my first mating try was a success: GOLD!
I couldn't even tell it was gold at first (because the colors are a bit off and not exactly "premium"). I took him out for a spin, and he walked on water, so I knew I had a gold on my hands!
Yippy!
Man, this lack of a gaming TV is driving me nuts... We got an SMS from Siba saying our TV being repaired is being sent off to ANOTHER place because the first repair shop couldn't fix it. Did I mention I am paying for their incompetence, and even told them exactly what was wrong when I gave it in? Grr...
Soon.
Very soon.
This will change. As long as El Giganten doesn't screw up on me.
Oh, yeah, I named my gold chocobo "Pika" since it was the only thing that came to mind. I blame Super Smash Brothers on that.
I'm with ebay on this one. I think it's about time European residents stop paying ridiculous fees on imported goods. It's because of this that I am so often geared towards only purchasing from within Europe.
It would be a really nice change, but I am not so confident much will change.
posted on: Thursday - Jun 26 2008 (6:16pm) · posted by: Lev
Glurgle
Today was just as boring as any other day recently, with one minor exception: fun with the TV B Gone.
We went out to Media Markt so I could price TVs again, and since I brought the TV B Gone with me, I had a field day. The most fun parts were going to the gaming area and turning off the screens for the people playing. One kid said something like "was it thundering again?". The other two kids I did it too while playing just stood there staring at the screen.
If I can't play, they can't play. Of course, I don't stand by that, because I know I will still have fun with them once I have a working screen for my games.
That was the highlight of the day. Other than that, I've just been napping. Been feeling a cold coming on for some days now, and NeroAnima has as bad a time sleeping lately as I do.
This weather is bumming me out as well. There hasn't been a clear sky in close to a week.
posted on: Tuesday - Jun 24 2008 (8:18pm) · posted by: Lev
I really miss my TV
I am so desperately bored without my TV. There are so many games I want to be playing now, and everything is just on-hold until they bother to repair it.
I have enough to get another TV, as I've been saving for one for close to 1 and a half years, but I am so damn indecisive. I've seen a few really nice deals, but there are always catches, and I do plenty of research so it makes it all that much harder.
There is a 46 inch Samsung 1080p screen for only 1299 kronor, and I was very close to going for that because of it's price. But, it lacks some features I'd be interested in, so I'm not sure about it yet.
I'd like to get a TV which accepts an NTSC signal (because of my American PS2 and Dreamcast), I'd really like to get one with 24p support for watching Blurays, and 100Mhz would also be nice. Sony's new line of displays come with 10 bit displays, meaning they are capable of loads more colors than standard LCD displays (which are 8 bit). Many of the new TVs come with USB or memory slots to view images or video files - that would also be nice. And then there is the contrast level, which can vary significantly from model to model.
But it seems if you want everything (including size) all in one package, then it gets super pricey.
I am having a hard time deciding whether I should prioritize features and functionality or size. Getting both in one package is when things get expensive.
I'm leaning towards functionality over size right now, because in a way I see this TV as just being an upgraded gaming TV for the den (the old 32 would be moved to our room to replace our 19 inch low-def screen). Plus, if I went for one with just functionality and didn't make such a fuss over size now, then I'd already have more saved for when I want to go all out on a super nice one for the living room.
I'm so confused and I don't know which way I'll go. All I know is this inability to play the PS3 and other systems is really starting to take its toll on me.
On the bright side, I got my TV-B-Gone in the mail today, so I just had a little fun shutting off TV sets in some store. It was pretty sweet because it was a shelf full of different HDTVs for sale, and I pointed it in the direction, pressed the button, and immediately after a second one shut down, then a second later another went off, and then one or two more went down a second later. LOL Since it was looking kinda obvious something was up when around four TVs go off, I pointed the thing away and walked on my way. hehehehe
posted on: Monday - Jun 23 2008 (3:49pm) · posted by: Lev
I'm still alive
... I just don't like you.
hehehe
No, but seriously - I don't.
I've been really low and bored out of my mind lately. It wasn't until late this afternoon on Sunday I even turned on my computer. Yesterday, I never touched the damn thing or even turned it on.
I've been playing old school ROMs on the Xbox, since that is the only device connected to a functional TV.
I really need a new TV. I hate Siba. I paid 1200 kronor in insurance just to wait for them to take two full days to even send my f*cking TV off. Bunch of lazy, ingrates... They say it will take up to three weeks to get it fixed! What a load of $h!t, considering it takes them two full days to send it, and it only has to be shipped to a shop in the same f*cking town. Grrr...
No TVs out now catch my attention for both price and functionality. There was one I was going to get (a full HD Sharp 42 inch @ 9990 kronor) but then when I went in to get it, they told me it was only a shelf model. I knew the deal was too good to be true.
I've been really stressed out lately. Smoking a lot more cigarettes than normally... I really need to get a new TV, clean my room and just chill the hell out.
And now it's work already tomorrow! This has been the worst weekend in a very long time.
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The other two kids I did it too while playing just stood there staring at the screen.
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