Revolution specs beginning to be revealed

[Roac]

Who are the people who refuse to drop money on a game before it's $20? Maybe if less people did that shit game developers wouldn't be dropping like flies.

Me too.  I don't care about developers "dropping like flies" - I care about my entertainment.  I'm not charity for dev houses.  I'm a fan of a lot of them, but when it comes to dropping cash, I'm going to act in my and my family's best interest, which usually does not include dropping $40-50 for every new cool game on the shelves.  I budget for personal entertainment, and I can fit a lot more $20 games into that than I can $50 ones.  And you know what?  A lot of those $20 games are just as fun.  Hell, I have both my NES and SNES hooked up and occationally play those games.

Something has to be really, really good to attract me at the higher bracket.  I did buy RE4 at $40.  I think that's the only console game I have that I've paid more than ~$25 for, although I have a couple that are gifts that go higher.

[voodoolily]

YEah, having antique consoles really does facilitate the affordable shopping spree. When you can get 5 games for the price of one new PS2 game, it's pretty much guilt-free spending.

[Sky]

But I spend about 10x more time in front of my pc then my TV.

Your point? The last two years I've spent with a 61" widescreen pc monitor have been some of the best gaming years of my life. The hd and dvd/theater stuff is just gravy, really. Dell's 24" widescreen is over $1k and you need to have a future pc to push the 1920x1200 resolution, whereas 1280x720 is very playable on my current pc:


Anyway, I'm also a cheap bastard. I still won't drop $$$ for a PSP, I won't drop $$$ for a 360. Instead of those two, I'm halfway to a new pc. I also wait for most games to drop, because most games are shit quality, and I simply can't afford to pay $50 for every new title I want to try out, especially with short and/or linear games. Civ4, GTA:SA, BF2; paid full price the day they came out for the pc. Silent Storm, $20, and I still feel I overpaid the $19 for Call of Linear Duty with Shit AI. I have no problem paying the shot for great games, the rest of it I have no problem buying used or bargain bin. I keep a list of B List stuff that I wouldn't mind having. Just put Gun, The Movies and X3 on it.

[squirrel]

Your point? The last two years I've spent with a 61" widescreen pc monitor have been some of the best gaming years of my life. The hd and dvd/theater stuff is just gravy, really.

I'm completely in the same boat except i'm a huge film buff so the HD films and excellent DVD quality is more meat than gravy. Bluetooth Keyboard/Mouse + Couch gaming FTW!

[Yegolev]

Great, now I have soiled myself.  Happy?

[MrHat]

Soon...

..soooooon....

[Strazos]

I still don't see how you can reliably game, or even type, while reclining on a couch. I have to use a PC desk, so I have to be pretty close to it (2-3 feet from monitor). Anything over about 19 or 20 inches would be pointless. Same for many others I suspect.

[Sky]

I will never lean over a damned desk again, I was so happy putting mine in storage. I rest the keyboard on my lap with my feet propped up on my coffee table (which has a little wood strip in the middle that's perfect for it), but the floor or fully on the coffee table is great, too. The mouse is a bit trickier, I have a pillow next to me that I can rest my arm on and the mouse sits on a thin hardcover book with a good textured cover. That's it, it totally rocks. Text is easily readable (1280x720) from about 10' away on the sofa. I've posted here from that pc before, it's a non-issue, really (and I need new glasses, even).

I should update that shot with a more current game :P I just like that Reaver hovering, looking for my cloaked ass. Gaming nirvana, though I guess a high resolution projector on a 12' screen would trump it...but that's a few years off, when I get my house and build a theater room...

[MrHat]

I will never lean over a damned desk again, I was so happy putting mine in storage. I rest the keyboard on my lap with my feet propped up on my coffee table (which has a little wood strip in the middle that's perfect for it), but the floor or fully on the coffee table is great, too. The mouse is a bit trickier, I have a pillow next to me that I can rest my arm on and the mouse sits on a thin hardcover book with a good textured cover. That's it, it totally rocks. Text is easily readable (1280x720) from about 10' away on the sofa. I've posted here from that pc before, it's a non-issue, really (and I need new glasses, even).

I should update that shot with a more current game :P I just like that Reaver hovering, looking for my cloaked ass. Gaming nirvana, though I guess a high resolution projector on a 12' screen would trump it...but that's a few years off, when I get my house and build a theater room...

That sony front projector 1080p is fucking 12k.

[squirrel]

I still don't see how you can reliably game, or even type, while reclining on a couch. I have to use a PC desk, so I have to be pretty close to it (2-3 feet from monitor). Anything over about 19 or 20 inches would be pointless. Same for many others I suspect.

?. People game on their couches all the time. This is after all a thread about consoles no? Do you play your PS2 at your desk too?

[Margalis]

People are talking about using a PC on a couch. I don't think I could do that.

[schild]

People are talking about using a PC on a couch. I don't think I could do that.

It's actually pretty goddamn easy. We used to to it in our old dorm shitty college apartment. Only reason I haven't hooked up the projector in this house is that it's not 720 native. Meh.

[Merusk]

The only way to play golf is with $2500 clubs at a $20k a year members-only course while sipping 100 year-old scotch while being chauffeured between holes.

Oh, it's not?

Plebeans, you just aren't in it for 'the full experience.'

[squirrel]

People are talking about using a PC on a couch. I don't think I could do that.

Depends on what you're doing. Working or email or even MMORPG? I do that on a 19" LCD. FPS, Flying games or media (movies, music visualizers) are better on on the TV. But irrational dislike is just fine too i guess.

[Velorath]

People are talking about using a PC on a couch. I don't think I could do that.

Depends on what you're doing. Working or email or even MMORPG? I do that on a 19" LCD. FPS, Flying games or media (movies, music visualizers) are better on on the TV. But irrational dislike is just fine too i guess.

Personally I can't even play console games on the couch.  I have to either be in my chair or sitting on the floor, and just a few feet away from the TV either way, but that's just how I am.

[Velorath]

That's another thing that prevents me from getting into this HD thing, hidden technical jargon.  I see the great prices that seem to jump from nowhere and still have to hold up and think, "what's the catch."  There seems to always be one.  What the hell is the difference between 1080p and 1080i?  Hell I had to look 2-3 times to even notice the difference in the designation (small "p" versus small "i".)

The first link I could find that explains all that shit.

[squirrel]

That's another thing that prevents me from getting into this HD thing, hidden technical jargon.  I see the great prices that seem to jump from nowhere and still have to hold up and think, "what's the catch."  There seems to always be one.  What the hell is the difference between 1080p and 1080i?  Hell I had to look 2-3 times to even notice the difference in the designation (small "p" versus small "i".)

The first link I could find that explains all that shit.

Essentially 480, 720, 1080 refers to the vertical lines of resolution - ie. 720p is 1280x720 - same as your monitor. i=interlaced which is bad, p=progressive which is good. Interlaced is bad because it essentially means that the signal only renders every other line per refresh - so 1080i is really 540 odd then 540 even.

1080p isn't really important right now unless you're doing a lot of stuff with a PC for a number of reasons:

1. HDTV signals are usually 720p or 1080i - more often 720p. This will likely stay the standard for some time as 1080p signals take up more bandwidth and the whole reason the feds are mandating digital broadcast (they aren't mandating HD in anyway btw) is to conserve bandwidth on existing OTA frequencies.

2. It's expensive. 1080p sets are $1500 more roughly than the equivalent 720p native sets.

3. There's no non-HDTV media that can take advantage of it. Until Blue-ray, high-def DVD is defined and penetrates the market all the DVD's we get are 480p anyway.

It's been linked before but if you have any interest in this stuff the premier resource is http://avsforum.com/ - people there are as fanatical about HD/Digital TV as we are about games.

[Margalis]

People are talking about using a PC on a couch. I don't think I could do that.

Depends on what you're doing. Working or email or even MMORPG? I do that on a 19" LCD. FPS, Flying games or media (movies, music visualizers) are better on on the TV. But irrational dislike is just fine too i guess.

No, I mean I physically could not do it. There is no way I could sit on a couch and use a keyboard and mouse. It's not that I would dislike it - I just don't see how it's even really possible. Putting my mouse on a book on a pillow? I have enough problems with my mouse on a normal mousepad.

[Margalis]

How come people only talk about vertical res on HDTV. What about horizontal resolution? With a 16:9 aspect ratio the set is wider than it is tall. 1280x1080 is pretty odd in that case. On 16:9 the pixels will be highly elongated no?

[squirrel]

How come people only talk about vertical res on HDTV. What about horizontal resolution? With a 16:9 aspect ratio the set is wider than it is tall. 1280x1080 is pretty odd in that case. On 16:9 the pixels will be highly elongated no?

I don't know why the vertical resolution isn't defined as clearly. It might have something to do with the support for the different formats (4:3, 16:9 etc.) In any case the 1080 resolutions are 1920 x 1080.

[Sky]

How come people only talk about vertical res on HDTV. What about horizontal resolution? With a 16:9 aspect ratio the set is wider than it is tall. 1280x1080 is pretty odd in that case. On 16:9 the pixels will be highly elongated no?

When I'm talking resolution, it's 16:9. So 780p is 1280x720. When I set that resolution in Windows, I have a pixel-perfect picture, you can walk up close to the screen and see each windows pixel corresponding to a physical pixel on the tv. That's one reason I bought the Samsung DLP: standard resolution. On Plasma sets, I believe they have rectangular pixels or summat, because the set my supervisor is looking at is 1024x768, a 4:3 resolution, but the set is a 16:9 form-factor. Odd imo.

That sony front projector 1080p is fucking 12k.

Now. I won't be looking to buy one for at least three years, because (as I said) you'd need a pc from the future to play anything on it. They'll be more reasonable by then. My DLP is selling for about half what it listed (not what I paid!), with better internals. The inevitable march of technology and whatnot.

[Shockeye]

CNN/Money's Game Over hands-on with the Revolution.

By adding an auxiliary thumbstick controller, I was able to play through a level of a retrofitted "Metroid Prime 2" (a GameCube game). Confession time: When it comes to console shooters, I'm terrible. I can finish them, but I'm nowhere near as competent as I am with my mouse/keyboard setup for the PC. In the early stages of the "Metroid" demo, it looked like this trend would continue, as I was all over the screen. By mid-way, though, I was better able to move and aim – and enjoyed the game far more than I did with the GameCube controller. ("Metroid" fans... well, you're probably already pretty excited.)

[Hokers]

No, I mean I physically could not do it. There is no way I could sit on a couch and use a keyboard and mouse. It's not that I would dislike it - I just don't see how it's even really possible. Putting my mouse on a book on a pillow? I have enough problems with my mouse on a normal mousepad.

Heck with the couch, I am writing this from my bed with a wireless keyboard and mouse.  The Hidef LCD TV is about 8 feet from me.  Optical mice work well on blanckets.  I have little trouble reading text and the only game that has made me move to the foot of the bed was Battles in Normandy, but that had Apple II graphics.

As for the Revolution, I will prob pick one up as soon as there are a couple of compelling games that use the funcky controller well.  A sword fighing game and a fishing game will do it.  I will likely attach it to the stndard def TV in the living room, as nintendo seems to have some good party games for their systems, and so it will be the public console of the house.