TheJoey.Net

This Christmas I got an 8GB Zune, as my 2 Year Swing is rapidly reducing to the 1.5 year swing. After 18 months with the Creative Zen Vision:M I realized I didn’t really need 30GB of space for my music, and wanted a smaller model. I thought the new Zune looked excellent, and I was not wrong.

I want to break this down into two parts- the Zune and the Zune vs. the iPod. The reason being people, I feel, buy the iPod solely because of name recognition. I honestly feel the Zune is a better product- but I will get to that later on. Right now, the Zune as a device.

• Interface: Extremely intuitive. 3 buttons, clearly labeled, and the direction pad is touch making navigation very quick and easy. The software interface is excellent. One menu with bigger fonts and then top navigation for the sub-menus. Smart idea by Microsoft. And, it looks great. You really feel at home using the Zune.
• Zune Player: I think even if I didn’t have a Zune, I’d use the player. It’s light weight, visually stunning and super easy to use. I’d also like to attribute my listening/watching podcasts to Zune player, as it makes podcasting (word?) very easy. Integration with any number of Zunes is a snap. And don’t worry about losing your music to autosync, because the Zune player prompts you for auto or manual sync. Furthermore, it allows two-way sync, which means I can take music from the Zune and put it on my computer.
• Functionality: I could go on for days about the Zune’s functionality. The features it offer are second to none. First, the social. This function is awesome. You can tell what other Zunes are near, what they are playing and you can send music from your Zune to another Zune. Sure, it only allows for three plays, but you can’t scrutinize Microsoft for not wanting the RIAA on their back. This can really open up a lot of possibilities for the future of mp3 players, even if no one talks about it. The other awesome feature is the built in WiFi. If you have a wireless network in your house, just connect the Zune to that network (using Zune Player) and you can send music, videos and pics to your Zune wirelessly, anywhere the network reaches. Excellent.

All in all it’s an excellent device. In the next post I will talk (in some detail) about why the Zune is better than the iPod, though you might be able to tell I set myself up pretty well in this post.

posted on January 4th, 2008 in Reviews, Tech| | show comment » « hide comment

It’s actually pretty surprising I haven’t written about this game sooner considering I got it over Thanksgiving break and have been completely obsessed with it. However, I have been busy with school and the business, and a new project I recently launched. But now that I do have some time (thank God for the holidays), I’d like to take a moment and talk about just how great this game really is.

It’s no secret that Call of Duty 2 was a work of art that I played every since Xbox 360 came out. Call of Duty 3 was made by a different company and was an utter disappointment. Call of Duty 4 (COD4) however, was made once again by Infinity Ward, making it an excellent game. COD4 takes place in modern day (a few years from now actually), in two countries- Russian and some unnamed Middle Eastern country. You play as the British Special Air Service (SAS) and the US Marine Corp (USMC). Your objective is to stop a Russian militant group working with a terrorist group in the Middle East. I don’t want to give away too much, but it’s a very encapsulating story that makes the game seem all the more real. After I beat the game I told people it was the best movie I’ve ever played.

The game play is what really does it for this game. The controls and physics really make you feel like you are in the battle. During one level ( a flashback to the Chernobyl incident), you are a sniper that has to take out this target from a very far distance. You have to take into account that distance, wind speed and the Coriolis Effect. It’s actually a pretty draining level. As far as other features go, You can shoot through thin materials to kill your target, you can throw grenades back at the enemy, and there is a new feature called last stand, which lets you shoot people with your pistol (the same way enemies did in COD2) until you die. You are not just ground infantry either. You provide air support for a couple of levels, and that is a lot of fun. The fact that the graphics are incredible doesn’t hurt the realism of the game either.

Multiplayer is a pretty different experience for COD4. There are multiple classes with different attributes, strengths and weaknesses to choose from. You can also create your own classes. The more experience you have the higher your rank and the more classes, guns and extras there are for you. So of course to get the cooler stuff, you need to log a lot of time. I actually think this is a neat feature. Since I beat the game pretty quickly, I didn’t think there was much more for me to do. However, as I do enjoy playing over Xbox Live (note to self- renew that soon), I now have some work to do to experience the game at it’s fullest.

I know some consider this blasphemy, but I honestly think COD4 is better than Halo 3. The campaign mode, definitely. Better storyline, better game play, more strategic. Multiplayer is arguable, but I like it better for more team oriented stuff or if I don’t feel like getting tea-bagged with I get killed. Looks like I’ll be playing COD4 until the next Xbox 360 installment comes out.

posted on December 25th, 2007 in Gaming, Reviews| No Comments »

Halo 3 was the most anticipated game of the year, and quite frankly in a very long time. The Halo franchise has done to the video game industry what only a few have done successfully. It is to video games what Star Wars is to movies. Books were written to talk about things not covered in the game and Peter Jackson is working on a movie that he wants to be better than his Lord of the Rings Trilogy. There are even rumors of a prequel game. But right now, the all important question is: is Halo 3 up to snuff?

In short: Yes. It arrived at my house at school on Friday. I was home by 2:00pm and my friend and I sat down at 2:30pm to play it. Seven hours later, we beat the game, but on a mere difficulty of Normal. In that time, however, I was able to take in the game for what it was worth- the story line, the new controls, weapons and other equipment, and the graphics. Oh my God the graphics. That seems like a logical starting point.

Halo 3’s graphics are unlike anything I have ever seen before. Playing it on my HDTV is incredible. I would say even better than Gears of War. The shadows and lighting are so precise and everything has such great detail, you almost forget you are watching a video game. The physics in the game are also very accurate. Halo is known for it’s excellent physics engine, but it seems to have gotten better. Even a couple of my friends who understand the stuff noticed it.

As far as game play goes, the boys at Bungie managed to change it, but keep it familiar. Some of the controls were changed to take advantage of the Xbox 360 controller, which also made shooting and reloading easier. They brought back the pistol and the assault rifle, which has become one of my favorite weapons. There is an onslaught of new guns, two new types of grenades and some other tools that can help or hurt you depending on how you use them. That adds a nice element of strategy to the game that I think was missing from Halo 2. For example, with the Power Drain, it’s great if you use it correctly, but if you don’t, you will be on the losing end of that battle.

Finally (for now), is the story line. What’s in a video game story line? Most people just want to play on, runnin’ and gunnin’ until they can’t look at a screen any longer. But with Halo 3 (just as with Halo 2), you want to watch the movies. You need to know what happens next. Not to mention it gives you the opportunity to admire the graphics without having the fear of being killed. Cliche at times? Sure, but it’s a video game, not some Academy Award winning piece (we’ll wait for the movie for that). Even during the game, it messes with your head, and maybe you’re a little freaked out, but want to play on. It’s encapsulating and you feel like you are a part of the Halo Universe.

I say this post covers my first impressions because I haven’t even scratched the surface. This weekend when I go home, I will pick up my WiFi adapter so I can partake in massive online play (assuming my Xbox Live membership is renewed), which should be great. Up until now I have played multiplayer with a max of 3 including myself, which can’t compare to online games with 16 or better. I will also be playing the game on Heroic and Legendary, though I am not sure how well I will fair on the later. Those two things should give me enough to do a follow up. But I will say this- Halo 3 and Halo 3 alone is worth having an Xbox 360.

posted on October 3rd, 2007 in Gaming, Reviews| No Comments »

I didn’t write too much about music over the summer due to the fact that I was not really impressed by any new music out there. I did see some kick ass concerts, starting with Incubus and ending with the incredible Projekt Revolutions Tour (Linkin Park, My Chemical Romance, Taking Back Sunday, HIM). However, my summer of no new music is made up for in the first two weeks of school.

Up first is Paramore and their awesome album, Riot!. I am no music reviewer, but they have an awesome sound, and the lead singer, Hayley Williams, has a fantastic and very controlled voice. She is like Avril but with talent. This very young band (the oldest member is 21, Hayley is 18) has some great raw talent and writes some fantastic songs. I listened to their single, Misery Business, and was hooked. You can see just how good they are by checking out their acoustic performances on YouTube.

Up next is Monty Are I and their CD, Wall of People. This band came to my school the first weekend, putting on a really great show, especially considering most of the kids there have never heard of them, myself included. They were energetic and funny; oh, and they rock. They’ve got a great sound of intricate guitar riffs- the classic rock ones, which are highlighted by keyboards and trumpets. Their songs Dublin Waltz and Between the Sheets really showcase this. Another great song is Only the Weak. They introduced it by saying, “This song is about weight lifting and fighting Russians” (a Rocky IV reference) and I think you can really tell they were going for a “Rocky-esq” song. It’s got the build up of songs like Hearts on Fire and Eye of the Tiger, but of course with their spin. Overall, a very enjoyable CD .

These two bands, along with Rise Against, have really impressed me and I have been listening to them non-stop. They were definitely worth the musically dry summer.

posted on September 10th, 2007 in Reviews| No Comments »

Week 2 into being a Blackberry user and I am still very happy with the device. Two major things I have tested since the last post are using the device for multimedia and tethering it to my computer to use it as a modem.

Multimedia

One thing to note about the 8830 is you need a microSD card to add music, video, mp3 ring tones and photos to it. This I feel is a pretty good precaution to protect the on board memory, which is 64MB, and should be reserved for applications and the OS. I was able to buy a microSD extremely cheap on Amazon. Once that came, I went right to work. After figuring out the media manager program for the Blackberry, I loaded my old ring tone onto it, an album and a number of 7 megapixel photos (1 or 2 MB each). The music player is a pretty nice program and playing music in the background doesn’t really slow the device down (not to the point where it’s frustrating anyway). The pictures, however, did take a long time to render on the device, though working with smaller images was much faster. If you shrink photos you want on the device down, there is no problem there either. As far as battery life while using the media player, that is something you need to look out for. It does not drain extremely fast, but faster than normal. My philosophy on the matter is while it’s nice to have both combined, I’d still keep phone and mp3 player as separate devices.

Tethering

One feature I was really excited about was using my Blackberry as a modem. This is something you do have to pay extra for through Verizon, and I figured at $15/month, I’d give it a shot for one month (we don’t have cable set up in the new house at school yet either, so it’s applicable). After activating it on my account, and installing the VZAccess software, connecting was as easy as connecting the blackberry to the computer. VZAccess automatically connects to the internet.

Now of course this won’t be as fast as say cable, but it wasn’t as slow as I thought it would be. I was able to visit most websites I normal visit with little lag, and I was able to ftp (though that took longer than I would have liked). I’m not so sure I’d enjoy do work over this connection because of the longer load times and ftp times, but it’s nice to know I’d be able to if I had to.

My over all experience with the two functions were good ones, and two more reasons the 8830 is worth the buy, and much better than my Treo. My friend just picked up an 8830 also, so I will probably be doing a write up on Blackberry to Blackberry communication, including using Blackberry Messenger.

posted on July 15th, 2007 in Reviews, Tech| No Comments »