I'm building a new PC for FFXIV

So, it has been announced that the PC version of Final Fantasy XIV is to be released September 30th for the standard edition and September 22nd for the collector's edition. The PS3 version will not be released until March 2011, which is disappointing news to me. I really wanted to get the PS3 version, because my current computer, an Asus gaming laptop, that I bought last year, isn't quite up to snuff. I scored around a 1600 on the benchmark on the low setting, which isn't all that great. There's no way I'm waiting until March '11 to play FFXIV, so this has got me motivated to build a new gaming rig.

I've been using laptops exclusively for the past few years. I didn't play many PC games, except for FFXI, so I didn't need a computer with a lot of horsepower. I liked the portability of laptops, but I came to realize they'll never really be as powerful as their desktop counterparts. I have built my own computers before, so I'm not totally in the dark. I actually built my very first computer and one for my parents as well and I managed to not blow anything up.

I now have everything ordered and will update this post as components arrive and as I put things together.

Pre-order from Amazon.com:

Final Fantasy XIV Collector's Edition (PC)

Final Fantasy XIV (PC)

Final Fantasy XIV (PlayStation 3)

Zune HD Review

I owned a third gen 20gb iPod. It has since been sold on eBay. Then I got a first gen iPod Shuffle with some store credit that I had for the Apple Store. I somehow lost that while mowing the lawn. I was in the market for a new MP3 player. I could just get an iPhone and kill two birds with one stone by having a cell phone and MP3 player, but I'm not rich enough for AT&T's plans. So it came down to the iPod Touch and the Zune HD. Two devices that can do a lot more than just play music. I went with the Zune HD.

It arrived to day with release day delivery from Amazon. First impression was it's thin. The OLED screen is nice, with three brightness settings. Looks great, but no better than LCD screens in bright sunlight. You have to sync it with your computer before doing anything. The 4.0 software is pretty much he same, but it now has a quickplay screen and something similar to Genius from iTunes. I tried out the browser and it worked fine. No flash support, but neither do the other similar devices out there. Played some music and liked the navigation. Checked out some video podcasts and they looked nice. Checked out the apps and there wasn't much available. Some lame games, calculator, and a weather app. Disappointed. I should just give it time, right? Surely, they'll release an SDK and let people have a hand at making apps. Then I read this Seattle Times article and lost all hope. Doesn't Microsoft want to win? Zune HD would be a better product than the iPod Touch if you they would let third parties make apps.

I got hyped by the Zune HD. They were really secretive on any info about apps before the launch and now I know why. If I read that article before, I would have canceled my preorder. I'm returning the Zune HD and getting the latest version of the 32gb iPod Touch. It won't have an OLED screen. It won't have HD radio. It won't have a subscription service that Microsoft is trying so hard to push. But it will have a ton support from app and game developers. I do know a good amount of those apps are crap, such as iFart. Anyway, Microsoft has let me down again.

Sony E3 2009

Today was Sony's turn to announce their big surprises at E3. The biggest surprise, for me, was the announcement of Final Fantasy XIV Online and that it's exclusive to PS3 console wise. It may not be big news to others, but I'm a hardcore Final Fantasy XI player and the engine is seriously outdated. It looks like Nobuo Uematsu is on board doing the soundtrack. Square Enix's conference is tomorrow, so hopefully there will be more details released. Can't wait to see Mithra in hi-def!

Sony also revealed a much more cleaned up trailer for The Last Guardian (Trico). Games from Fumito Ueda are special. He knows how to tell a story with little or no dialogue. His games have a reoccurring theme of companionship. In Ico it was the princess, in Shadow of the Colossus it was your horse and in The Last Guardian it's the griffin creature and you just have the feeling, even without playing the game, that it's going to die. I cannot wait to experience this game.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker has me thinking about getting a PSP Go. Kojima really emphasized that he's heavily involved in the development, unlike with Metal Gear Solid: Rising. It looks like it'll play just as good as the console versions and it's a true sequal to the series. I'm glad it's not another AC!D or portable ops. I don't know what was up with the four Snakes on screen, but the two Snakes one box thing was funny. Oh, and Snake no longer runs funny.

Also, Jack Tretton did a great job presenting and seems like a funny guy. All the cheering for the Hannah Montana game was funny. Good showing by Sony. I won't blog about Nintendo, since I don't care for the Wii.

Microsoft E3 2009

The biggest news out of the press conference is the Metal Gear series coming to the 360 (not exclusively). A megaton as huge as the Final Fantasy XIII announcement last year. A wise business decision for Konami, but a lot of hearts broken to see the once PlayStation exclusive series coming to the 360. Sony has lost their last huge third party franchise. I'm really interested to hear more information about the game. All we know is that it's called Metal Gear Solid: Rising, with the subtitle, lightning bolt action and that Raiden is the main character. I don't feel that Raiden is about sneaking, so it could possibly drop the stealth aspect and be more action oriented.

There are still two unexplained teasers on the Kojima teaser site. One is the Big Boss face and the other is the mask. The Big Boss face is expected to be for a PSP game called Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. I hope it's a real Metal Gear game and not another AC!D or Portable Ops. Internet speculation says that the mask teaser is for a new Castlevania game with Kojima involved in some way. I have not played a Castlevania game since Symphony of the Night and have read that all games in the series afterwards have been crap. I hope Kojima does the series justice.

Another thing I want to talk about is Last.fm coming to Xbox Live. This awesome service, that is free to use everywhere else, requires a gold account to use, which I think is bullshit. People are already paying for their Netflix membership, but they also have to pay for a gold subscription on top of that? What are we really paying for if PSN is free? I just think these services should be available for silver subscribers. Funny that they never allowed the Last.fm plugin for their Zune player, but now they're adding it to Live. They also announced that Twitter and Facebook are coming to Live, but I'm not positive if they require a gold membership or not.

Another annoyance is the price increase of Halo 3: ODST. They said it was an expansion and that it would not be the price of a full game, but now they say that there is so much content that it warrants the price of a full game. Okay.

I'm in the process of selling off all my 360 stuff. When I started working again and had money, I bought a 360, instead of a PS3 and I really enjoyed it. I came into this generation of gaming kinda late. But then I got a PS3 fairly cheap thanks to a last gen game sale at Hollywood Video, and a trade in bonus promotion at Gamestop. Now I'm mainly a PS3 user. I don't know what happened, but I rarely turn on my 360, except to play the poorly ported Final Fantasy XI. I still haven't finished The Lost and Damned and have a huge backlog of unfinished games, but I'm not having a hard time letting go.

Google Chrome

Google released their own web browser yesterday, called Google Chrome.  I downloaded it and so far I like it.  It's fast and simple.  I like the minimalistic approach.  Scrolling with my laptop's touchpad seems to be broken.  I can scroll down, but not up.  Seems to work fine with a mouse scroll-wheel.   I don't really like the new start page.  It shows your recent bookmarks, most visited sites, and history.  I prefer iGoogle as a start page, because I have news, email, and my feeds there.  They just have to add plugins and themes and then it'll be the best browser out there.

I just realized there's no RSS feed detection thing.  Why did they leave that out?

Beijing Summer Olympics 2008 over

Just finished watching the gold medal game for basketball. Spain put up a good fight and so did Argentina in the last game.

The opening ceremony was freakin' beautiful. I watched it stream live online since NBC had a ten hour tape delay, so they could put in commercials and shit. Then I downloaded an HD copy of it later. It was revealed that the firework footsteps leading to the bird's nest stadium were CG. I couldn't care less. It was 5 seconds of CG fireworks... so what? Not like rest of the fireworks were faked. People freaking out over nothing. The one thing that was kind of messed up was the lip-syncing in the opening ceremony. Apparently, they used a more cute little girl to lip-sync, because the real singer had bad teeth. Yeah, kinda messed up.

I didn't watch everything on TV, but I did pay attention to some swimming, gymnastics, basketball, volleyball and track. That Phelps dude pulled achieved 8 golds, which is amazing. But in the end... it's just swimming. Kitajima of Japan won a few races. I gotta cheer for Japan. Thems my peoples. He later said that he used the Nintendo Wii to train mentally for competition. What a great plug for that crappy system.

I watched gymnastics, because Nastia Liukin is hot. (Thank God for Blogger's autosave. My browser just crashed.) And who could forget this moment. I wonder what she was thinking in the back, LOL. There are some hot chicks in indoor volleyball, too.

Then a guy named Usain Bolt started getting some media attention. Never heard of him, but now I have through all his showboating. But he has the right to, since he broke a few running records.

Man, they did not air any taekwondo on TV at all, but at least it was all available online. None of the famous Lopez family won gold, but they did earn medals. I had to cheer for Korea, since it's their sport. And holy crap at Cuba. He kicks a ref, because he got a DQ for taking a too long injury timeout. Banned for life. What an asshole, but very exciting! I did notice some rule changes and crappy score judging this year compared to Athens in 2004. Out of bounds seemed to be a problem this year and they would get a penalty for going out. They had a lot more room in Athens. About scoring; the WTF said they'd try to come up with an electronic scoring system some how. I'd like to see what they'll come up with. Kinda makes me want to get back into TKD. I'm a blackbelt, but been out of it for years. Overall, TKD was less exciting this year, because there were no knock outs like this.

I also tried to watch some Judo, but when I did... nothing happened. It was a snooze.

In other news, China jails pro-Tibetan protesters as usual.

Olympics

Damn. I'm excited for the Summer Olympics. There's always something to watch on TV with the games going on. During the '96 Summer Olympics, I would fall asleep watching volleyball or some lame event that was happening. I also remember when that pipe bomb went off. They kept on replaying the same footage over and over of the hurt people.

Well, I'll be cheering for Japan, because I love Japan, and I guess the USA. I wanna see the tae kwon do event, because I have never actually gotten to see it happen live. I watched clips on YouTube and I noticed that they all suck at blocking! WTF! I think judo might be exciting to watch. It'll be easier to catch the events you wanna see this time, because Microsoft and NBC will be streaming them all live online.

Oh, and I saw Wall-E, and EVE's voice is sooo cute!