Blu on Black

Samsung BD-1500 and other stuff I got from Best Buy.

Today's Black Friday and, despite the horrible deals and the rising unemployment, people were flocking the stores buying stuff like there's no tomorrow. It's a good thing I avoided all the chaos by planning ahead and did half of my shopping online. I did wake up early though (5:30 am) and bought some books (40% off), and an Iron Man BD at Amazon. Then I left the house around 7:30 am, which at this point there would be no lines outside the stores. I went to Toys R' Us first to buy some Lego sets. But all the good ones were gone. Instead, I got some cool Transformers toys for a total of $35. Then I proceeded to Best Buy to pick up my Blu-ray Disc Player, some cheap BD (Kung-Fu Panda and Ratatouille), and a couple games that I wanted.

By 11 am, I was already back in the house to install my BD player. However, the HDMI cable that I bought, which was the second expensive thing I got today [sucks], was too short. I didn't want to go back and get a longer one (costs about $80). So I just drilled a little hole behind our TV stand instead. When I finally got the thing to play, I was mesmerized. The image was just so clear. So clear that you could see boogers on the characters' noses. I didn't move in front of the TV after that, and did a BD/DVD marathon. I watched two of the BD that I bought today and watched a couple of my old DVDs as well.

So far, the BD player worked stupendously and it withstood a nine-hour movie marathon. Plus, with its 1080i upconverter, the image quality of my DVDs improved exponentially. Now, that we have a home movie player in our house, I expect more movie marathons on lazy afternoons around here. The only thing I need right now is that Unlimited, 3 DVD at-a-time, Netflix subscription.

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Black Friday 2008

Black Friday, it's almost that day again, the day when The United States celebrates consumerism after Thanksgiving Day. I took a day off at work so I could go this Friday and get my holiday shopping done with. I know, because of the huge sales, the stores will be bedlams. In order to avoid being trampled by rabid mobs of consumers, or getting killed by a mother over a Nintendo DS game, I checked out the leaked Black Friday ads over at BFads, to see what's what, before I head out.

A stampeding horde of Black Friday consumers.

It seems to me that this year's Black Friday is going to be horrible. I thought, since retail sales has plummeted down because of the economy, retailers are going to offer something more enticing so that consumers will pile up outside their doors as early as 3 AM. But the ads just look horrendous. I'm especially disappointed with the lack of deals on newer PC games. The only ones I found, that are worth getting, are Assasin's Creed and BioShock for $10 at Best Buy.

Samsung BD Player.

Nonetheless, there's still some good deals that are worth checking out. Toys R' Us PS2 bundle is very tempting (PS2 with 6 Free Games, "21" DVD and a DVD remote only for $130). Best Buy's Samsung HTDV (40" 1080p LCD for $800), Toshiba Laptop (AMD Turion 64 X2 Dual-Core w/ 3GB Memory and 15" Screen for $380), and Samsung Blu-ray Disc Player for $200 are also worth getting.

As for me, I decided to get a BD player and a Netflix subscription for my parents. We don't have Cable TV anymore and our DVD player died a couple months ago. So, there's little entertainment for my folks in the house. Besides I hate to see that 46" 1080p LCD HDTV they have in our living room go to waste. As for my two godchildren, I'm getting them Lego sets. Can't go wrong with a Lego. Anyways, here's my checklist.

1. Samsung BD Player ($200)
2. The Departed BD ($17)
3. Kung Fu Panda BD ($17)
4. Assorted Lego Sets x2 (40% off)

It's not much because I'm holding out on the stores. I've yet to see what Amazon has to offer. So, that's that. You guys enjoy your Black Friday, and I hope you find some great deals.

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A Timeline of Gaming Pt. 2

Here's the next, and the last, installment of my Timeline of Gaming series. During my last post, I covered the first five highlights of my 22 years in gaming. So, now, I'm going to list the last five highlights that happened from my teen years up to this date. Honestly, I wasn't that active as a gamer in the early 90's. It's because, during those years, I forayed into extreme sports (skateboarding) and was engulfed in the world of music. But gaming affected me profoundly by the time I got back to it.

And so it continued on to...

1996 - PC Gaming
Favorite Game: Fallout 2

During my last years in High School, the computer was getting common in households. Internet cafes were also slowly sprouting up in my area. Since I didn't own a computer until '98, I'd frequent the cafes to research and write school papers. Sometimes, when I get my work done early, I'd poke around their installed games, and that's how I got into PC gaming. The first games I played were real-time and turn-based strategy games like Red Alert and Heroes of Might and Magic. Their gameplay was so much different and advance than the Platformers and Beat 'Em Ups that I played on any Nintendo console. I was so astounded by them that I became a PC gamer for life.

1997 - Trading Card Game
Favorite Game: Magic: The Gathering

When Playstation was becoming the craze, I went low tech with trading card games. It started when I saw a fellow comics aficionado, from my elementary days, playing a card game called Magic: The Gathering. Desperate for more opponents, he taught me the rules and gave me a starting deck the very next day. After that, it was only a matter of time until I became addicted with the game. Addicted because I quit school and broke up with my girlfriend just to play it. While I only played Magic for two years (because I needed to stop before my addiction gets out of hand), I actually made a lot of friends through it.

1998 - Pen & Paper Role-Playing
Favorite Game: D20 Modern

A lot of people started playing Magic: The Gathering in my school, even the whole Tau Gamma Phi fraternity, and it started to feel like a religion. But if Magic was the religion, Dungeons & Dragons was the cult. An older fellow "Magickero" -who's also my English teacher and the theater director of my school- suggested that we should try playing table-top role-playing. Since I was already inside Geekdom, but haven't thoroughly explored it, I capitulated and agreed to the idea. Like Magic, I was hooked right away. For months, we spent plenty of hours on a derelict cottage behind a friend's house, pretending as fighters and mages, pillaging villages and raping elven queens. Not only the game was fun but it was also therapeutic, a quick and temporary escape from reality. Once you enter a campaign, all your problems are forgotten the entire duration of your stay.

1999 - Forum-Based Role-Playing
Favorite Game: RPoL.net

Before the end of the century, Internet Cafes where running amok in my area. Two main reasons that people go to cafes are either chatting or LAN gaming. I don't like to chat, and while I do enjoy a small dose of Counter-Strike, I'd rather be role-playing in a forum. After my RPG group went separate ways, I craved to play more campaigns. Since it's impossible to find a group in Iloilo (Philippines), I turned to online role-playing. This time, however, I was more than a player, I was also a Dungeon Master. But I was so new to the game I don't have mastery of the rules. So I failed as a DM, and my players started dropping out of my campaigns. Although, through planning and plotting campaigns, creating background stories for my non-playable character, I learned that I love writing.

2007 - Nintendo DS
Favorite Game: The World Ends With You

I never intended to buy any other gaming platform, not a console or a portable. PC already keeps me occupied. But when I was working night shifts, last year, I got so bored that I needed some form of entertainment. Reading was allowed but I'd get sleepy if I did. So I asked my boss if I could play some games on my cellphone. She told me it's fine if it doesn't disturb the patients and as long as I could hear the phones and overhead announcements. A month after, I got myself a Nintendo DS. Primarly, I thought the DS would only serve as a placeholder whenever I can't play PC games. But with its innovative and unique games, I just can't put it down even at home where I have access to my PC.

So that's the last leg of my short series, A Timeline of Gaming. I hope you guys enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

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X-Men Films, Getting A Reboot?

It looks like the X-Men film franchise is not dead after all. Fox has just tapped Josh Schwartz, scribe of The OC, Gossip Girl and Chuck, to write X-Men: First Class that will focus on the younger generation of the X-Men.

Fox has been leaning toward using the younger characters introduced in the previous pics in future installments -- teenagers with powers taught at the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning.

Resulting film would likely draw from elements of the Marvel comic of the same name, launched in 2006, and enlist such characters as Iceman, Rogue, Angel, Colossus, Jubilee and Shadowcat, who have appeared prominently or made cameos in prior pics.

Given Hollywood's penchant for reboots with new actors playing familiar roles, pic could also reintroduce characters. Comicbook revolves around the Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Beast, Iceman, Angel and Professor X.

I think Fox made a good decision of getting Josh Scwartz to write First Class. It'll have the teenage drama of The O.C. and Gossip Girl, and the geekiness of Chuck. But, seriously, did they have to kill Jean Grey, Professor X and Cyclops in the last installment just so they could have mutant teenagers parade their angst in the mansion and suck on each other's faces? Or even a total reebot? That sucks. I say, since Magneto is alive and Rogue has been depowered, let's go and start the Age of Apocalypse! (read my post about X3 and proposed X4: Age of Apocalypse here).

Anyways, you can read the rest of the article here.

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