This was announced and previewed I Gen-Con. They showed some pre-alpha stuff. Managed to take a few pics. Even the early stuff looks promising.

This gaming is actually starting to interest me more and more. However, I would still like to know more about how the actual multiplayer elements fit into all of this. I mean, from most of the vid docs that I have seen, it would almost appear as if this game was designed purely for solo adventuring or just random PvP space battles. How exactly does the party system work. It would seem that everyone gets their own ship, so are parties just fleets? Or can multiple players work together on one ship? If only they would just release the beta already....

While this may be "1080p", the bit rate is no where near where it needs to be to provide a high quality image. AVCHD consumer camcorders record at about 24mbps (Blu-Ray is about 40mbps). How many people have a CONSISTENT 24mpbs conneciton at their home? Very few, so this video has to undergo heavy compression or else you would have to wait a long time for the video to buffer. This heavy compression introduces a ton of artifacts which degrade and soften the image. It's a step forward, but untill ISPs can provide faster connections, it will be awhile before streaming video is TRUE HD (which with the monthy caps they want to force on us will never happen).

Got the game on the 27th. Even pre-ordered the Renegade Edition (the carrying case/table is nice if you plan on traveling with this game like as I do). I was skeptical about this game at first untill I played a demo copy about a month ago. Plyaing DJ Hero for the first time reminded me of playing Guitar Hero for the very first time and made me realize why I love music games so much. The crossfader does take alot of getting used to, but after just a little bit of practice, I was able to position my fingers in such a way that I was able to tell where the crossfader was by touch alone. My only main complaint about the game is that it seems to me that certain songs digress into random scratch fests and that sometimes extra scratch sections are thrown in just to inflate the difficutly of the mix. But the mixes for the most part are very clever. Never thought I would ever play a game that mashed-up Ice Ice Baby with U Can't Touch This. Oh, and and the Daft Punk set list is my favorite so far...

I thought so too at one time. But after spending a little time practicing with virtual keyboards, I find that I can type much faster on them. Plus, the tiny keys that many physical keyboards have are so difficult to use that they almost render the keyboard useless.

Still don't understand why so many touch-screen phones insist on sticking with slide out keyboards. That is so 2006 and I think by now everyone knows that the future is touch interactive displays. Even Windows Mobile is moving in that direction. People just need to realize that physical keyboards on touchscreen phones are redundant and un-necessary and just add to the overall bulk of the phone.

If you really wanted to upgrade from a 3G to a 3GS wouldn't it jus be cheaper to cancel your current plan and then sign up for a new plan as a non-current customer? For people who got the 3G last July, the pro-rated ETF at this point is $120-$125. $200/$300 + $120/$125 = a lot less than $600/$700. I really don't know what AT&T/Apple are thinking...it's like they DON'T want people to PAY $$$ to upgrade and extended their contract by another two years (does that make ANY business sense at al....oh, wait, I forgot who we were talking about here).

One of the best uses of this product would be to play full featured games on mobile devices that lack the hardware necessary to play them locally (such as a cell phone, netbook, i.e.) but given the state of wireless broadband coverage in the US and the fact that all carriers have a 5GB per month cap, that will not happen anytime soon. And by the time that happens, these devices will mosly likely have the hardware necessary to play these games without having to stream video feeds. Also, once metered billing becomes a fact of life for home broadband (which I am afraid is enevitible), services such as this will be far too costly for the "average" consumer.

But with ISPs (i.e., AT&T, Comcast, Time Warner, etc.) talking seriously about, and in some cases already putting, monthly download Caps in place (with some caps being as low as 40GB/month), how can any of this be feasible. I think the idea here is great. Same as streaming HD Movies/TV. But with ISPs starting to take steps to "extra monetize" their existing customers, any of these streaming services don't seem like they are going to go anywhere with consumers (unless you are willing to pay alot of money every month in overage fees).

I am tempted to say wait untill AVCHD catches up to HDV (which appears to be happening sooner than later) and get a Cam that records to solid state...HDV and tape's days are numbered...especially with the increased capacities and falling prices of solid state media...