Happy New Year!

Here I am sitting in front of my computer on the eve of the coming New Year and I can't help but reflect on what an amazing year 2005 has been for me. So many changes have occured including a job switch(from EA to Activision) and the arrival of my first child, Aiden. Just those two things, alone, have brought me so much joy, sress and rewarding moments. It will be interesting to see if 2006 can top all of it, especially since I don't see anything major happening (aside from the PS3 and Revolution launches, of course). I assume I'll just continue to work hard on my current game and try to raise my son as best I can and then see where it all leads me.

Since I've been terrible at updating my blog in recent months, I'm going to try my best to update more frequently... starting today. Hopefully, I can keep it up and spark my friends to update their blogs, as well (cough, cough... Chris Slate). So, let's see what has been happening recently:

- I finally got my own Xbox 360 as a result of a trade with this guy I have known for a year or so. His current hobby is trying to get every single PSone title that has been released in the U.S. and have them be in mint, sealed condition. So, I've been trying to help him out as best I can and digging into my huge stack of titles and seeing what he needs. This last trade was our biggest yet with around 38 games changing hands in return for a brand new 360. I'm still a little bittersweet about the trade, as some of the games were somewhat rare, but I think it was worth it in the end. I was never in a real rush to get the console since we have plenty at work and there are no real games I'm interested in, but it was a good opportunity so I took it. Currently, I'm digging into DOA4 and should have comments soon. So far, I dig the refinements to the fighting system, but I honestly don't think the game looks that dramatically different from previous Xbox-based DOA titles. Sure, everything is high-res and smooth (with bigger environments), but it's not quite the leap I was expecting. The characters still look like dolls and a lot of the textures look kind of basic. Still, the focus is on the gameplay and I'll have more opinions on that shortly.

- Those of you wanting to pre-order PS3s should probably do so soon. I put money down at two different locations and was already numbers 8 and 16. It's still a year out and people are already freaking out. Maybe the frustration with getting a 360 has convinced people to be safe and pre-order early. I can only imagine the chaos that is going to ensue when Sony launches its systems. I think I might even wait in line at the Metreon if I can get some other friends to join in. It might be fun to hang out, talk games and play some multiplayer PSP.



- I'm only a few more weeks from ordering my dream tv, which happens to be the 50" Grand WEGA™ SXRD™ Rear Projection HDTV KDS-R50XBR1. I've been salivating over it for months and it's finally almost here. My only gripe with it is that it doesn't accept 1080p signals from external sources, but rather upscans everything to that resoluton. Affordable 1080p sets that can accept the signals (which the PS3 will transmit via its hdmi ports) may come around March 2006, but how many things are really going to take advantage of that resolution... besides Blu-ray players? I wonder if it's worth waiting. What do you guys think? Samsung seems to be leading the charge in this department as Sony hasn't officially announced any new sets yet. Maybe CES will reveal more.


Well, the baby just woke up so I'm going to have to cut this blog short today. Hopefully, I'll have some time tomorrow to share some more thoughts and info with you guys. Until then, happy gaming and enjoy the New Year.