I love movies and I have a pretty good collection of DVDs. With the end of HD DVD you'd think we'd see an increase in Blu-Ray adoption. Sales of stand alone players though were so low that they won't publish the numbers. I'm not too surprised at this because the players are still really expensive and the movies are a ripoff. It doesn't help that the economy sucks. Having two HD TVs at home, I'm left with one player and that's the PS3 in the living room. I'm not going to pay $300+ to get a player to watch $30 movies when a $12.99 up converted picture is still pretty damn good on the set. 

I thought I'd go out and snatch up some Blu-Ray movies to watch especially those heavy on special effects. I usually pick up DVDs on release day of movies I want. I mean I picked up a pretty nice TV a few months ago so I can get the best picture quality possible. But having the movies in hand, I was left with a conundrum. If I pick this up instead of the DVD version I can only watch it in one place in my house. If I want to curl up in bed and watch it in my bedroom, I'm SOL. DVD on the other hand is readily accessible in all the rooms of my house via a dedicated player or streamed through Media Center. I can't do that with a Blu-Ray movie and that's where I stopped. Even with regular DVDs, the picture quality is still pretty impressive so it's hard to justify spending almost double the price on a movie where I am limited in my current household on where I want to watch it.

I guess my other option would be to pick up a Blu-Ray drive, stick it in my server Media Center, and stream it through there but the 360 has trouble sometimes even streaming regular standard definition TV on an Ethernet connection so I can't see it doing too well with a HD stream.  

So, if an avid movie collector and owner of several HD televisions is hesitant to jump into purchasing Blu-Ray products, I can see why the numbers are low. I'm enjoying watching HD broadcasts of local and cable programs so at least the TVs are being used to some of its potential. The companies though need to drop the prices on both the players and movies if they want to see mass adoption and I would hope they do it sooner rather than later. 

I've been taking the past month to work my way through MLB 08 The Show in preperation for a review on the PS3 and I have to say I've developed quite a player. The organization is in need of a third baseman so I decided to make that my position of choice. Currently I'm leading the AA in the triple crown with a .412 batting average, 20 homers, and 79 RBIs with a 63 game hitting streak. I'm also first in doubles and have a .980+ fielding average.

I keep constantly getting emails saying they want me to spend more time in AA ball and that they'll eventually move me up to AAA. For months I've been tearing it up in the league and hitting almost every goal they set for me. I've improved ever facit of my game except for bunting and have a good number of game winning hits as well as game tying hits.

Yesterday I finished another 2-5 game with an RBI and I get a message as soon as I go back to the main screen of the Road to the Show... I've been traded to Boston for a starting pitcher....

WHAT??!?!?! You mean I bust my butt for 2/3 of the season in trying to be the Cleveland Indians 3B of the future and they send me to freaking Beantown for a starting pitcher????  I hope the pitcher's the next Cy Young, Satchel Paige, Roger Clemens, or Greg Maddux because the Cleveland organization just gave up a sure thing prospect in an area where the game says they are weak. It even hurts to be a Cleveland fan in a game.

When playing Rock Band, I had the wired headset out ready in case someone wanted to talk with me online. My wireless one has been acting up lately so I keep the wired one around. My kid likes to watch me play but I turned around one time and saw this: 

The boy's going to be alright. 

Arriving in the land of purple mountain majesties, Niko Bellic doesn't come equipped with any Rock Band instruments, but that doesn't mean Liberty City isn't a musically-driven town, an earful experience.  There are over 200 tracks to flip through across a rather mind-boggling spectrum of genres, and it's natural to gravitate towards our own real-life tastes when it comes to selecting what Niko essentially listens to in the game.

So it makes a lot of sense when my particular version of Niko listens to a lot of rap music.  A quintessentially American concoction, rap conveys truth, delusion, anger, and promise, frequently appropriating pre-existing and emerging elements, sounds, and textures, then remixing them, remodeling them, and finally revealing them once again in the artist's own image.  That’s the essence of rap music.

And this process, this creation of rap music speaks to the trials and tribulations Niko faces as well.  While his cousin Roman's optimism keeps alive the ideals of what the United States purportedly stands for from an immigrant’s perspective, Niko himself is waking up from this oversold American dream, seemingly within minutes of his arrival.  Early on, Niko begins the arduous and unexpected process of stripping down his hyperbolized, smoke-and-mirrors concepts about what America is, chewing it and digesting it during a downward-spiral series of firsthand observances, and then reconstructing that selfsame American dream into what it truly is for him, recognizable only by him, reformed and revealed by his own hand, not the fanciful letters from his cousin. 

And sometimes (not all the time; I don't want to oversell this idea) the rap tracks playing on 102.7 The Beat and old-school hip hop channel The Classics 104.1 manifest the spirit and intent of that GTA IV journey.  To me at least.

So when Niko is blindsided by a betrayal from a respected, well-liked, and trustworthy individual, in a backstabbing worthy of a blood feud … and Nas is on the radio reassuring Niko that “War Is Necessary” … those are the moments that begin to transcend any average videogaming experience.  It just nailed it for me.  Personalized it for me.  Carved out that particular episode for me.

Perhaps, when you play through the above scenario, you’ll be tuned into The Journey radio station, and Philip Glass’ heart-palpitating string and brass ensemble, “Pruit Igoe,” will narrate your scene (that’s the anthemic song heard on the debut GTA IV trailer).  Or maybe Lonnie Liston Smith on the IF99 channel will bathe your day with funk-laden irony as he explores what might happen were there “A Chance For Peace,” when you already know there’s no longer any chance for that.

Those are the sandbox possibilities that leave me absolutely floored.  Not that, yeah, I can pick up a hooker, beat up a hooker, and take my money back from a hooker.  That’s all well and good (if that’s your thing), but it certainly lacks the nuance I’m describing here.  I’m looking at the myriad aural variables that accompany the myriad tactile variables in Liberty City, even on otherwise common occurrences like the loose-leaf description above.

In one other scenario, after I’d been on a first date with the obsessive-compulsive but nonetheless sweet Michelle, my car silently idled outside of her apartment to the tune of Special Ed’s “I Got It Made.”  And at that moment, there was no better song I could’ve turned to on the radio.

"Yeah, so after only three dates, I totally hit that."

 My wife gave me a strange look.  I'd been building up a strong case as to why GTA IV was worthy of an actual purchase (she accepts that I'm a frequent renter, but casually seeks justification whenever I earmark $60 for a video game).  But, despite my arguments that it brilliantly unfolds the fresh-off-the-boat, immigrant-out-of-water, post-millenial terrorist-striken bloody-nosed American Dream experience, it was still possible I'd just said something wrong.  And when she'd retreated to the reading room for the rest of the night to finish Ender's Game ahead of me (she knows I hate it when she does that with books I've been promising to finish), then it only confirmed my suspicions.  Saying "I totally hit that" in reference to a videogame fictional girlfriend I'd only fictionally dated three times, on a game I'd owned less than 24 hours, was apparently crossing some line of marital fidelity I'd previously attributed only an infintesimal amount of importance upon.

 But my wife made it passive-agressively clear that this seemingly minor indiscretion on my part would not go unpunished.  Just a few minutes ago, she came into my Man Cave, set the book down on the corner of my desk, and said "I'm done" before walking right back out.  She shut the door.

I don't necessarily see a connection, but tonight I'll probably go and drop $150 - $200 on lapdances at the Triangle Club before I crawl into my very, very cold side of the bed.