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[jjmoohead]

Ok, so I unglued myself from the TV for long enough to tell you about my night. I got to the store at about 7pm, there were 3 others in line with me. Not 1 minute after that 2 girls showed up followed by a father son team. We all established our numbers in line and one at a time we went to our vehicles and got blankets and chairs and such. The store was really nice and supportive, and since it was open till 11 pm we were able to warm up from time to time.

It reached about -20 at one time we figured with the wind and by 6:00 am my legs hurt and I was so tired. At 6:00 some guy from the store walked out and said ok who was here first (as the line of people started spreading towards the front of the store and those of us that were there for 12 hours already stayed in the lineup.

He walked over and said 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 the rest of you can go home now. I was not impressed with this as some people waited all night to find out they only had 6. There were so many rumors all night that they had 3, then 6 then 10, then 15. I was even worried i wouldnt get one sitting 4th.

The relationship of us few sitting in the front of the line was really impressive. We started off with introductions but after about 30 mins one of the girls called me number 4, and it stuck. So after that we were commonly refered to as number 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 ,7 etc. So if someone was getting your attention it was HEY 3!

The night went fairly fast but it was damn cold, and I am more then sure I am going to get a cold from this. But dont worry that wont stop me from bringing you some impressions and some photos. I am just waiting for my camera cord to connect it to my computer and ill show you some pictures.

Until then...the system is all hooked up. I was able to rent Tiger Woods 2007, and actually ive got a fairly decent review about 70% complete already. Yeah im just that excited.

I just popped in Marvel Alliance and my first impressions are good. I am not a huge fan of this style of game, so I dont think its the best idea that i throw out a review at this time, but I will give you a few details as i get more involved.

Finally I also purchased Tony Hawk Project 8 and its still in the wrapping. I want to play Marvel for about another hour befiore I pop that in. Plus the system came with Talledaga Nights and so I plan to watch that tonight before bed and Ill get out a impression of the Blu-Ray shorly after.

Well so for now thats my details. Im sure I could put more detail into it later, maybe I can get hairy to publish something with the website about my day there. WHen i get more sleep, Im sure ill remember some more fun details.

[Harry]

That's a great story JJ, it would be great to have an article about your adventure published when the network launches (I hope you took some pictures of the people waiting in line, that would be awesome!).

You were smart to arrive there at the right time, and lucky to have such nice and well organized people waiting with you in line... it's a kind of comforting story, considering the horror stories coming from a few U.S. towns. After I wrote my reply to Beretta's post, I saw the news about the guy who got shot in Connecticut. I still feel the media are overreacting, as usual, but these stories are still quite creepy.

[merylsilverburg]

Congratulations jj, you did it! I would've been really depressed (and angry) to find out that I couldn't get a PS3 just because I was the 7th one in line. But that's the way things go unfortunately.

I'm really surprised that you still had so much energy to play and write a review up considering your rough night. Looking forward to some pics and more impressions on the PS3. Thanks for the information. ^_^

All the assaults on people really makes me pity how pathetic the perpetrators are. Such stupid losers to go out and attack people just for the sake of a piece of hardware...how sad is that? I hope nothing retarded like that happens to me and my sister tommorow night because we're going to check some 24 hour stores for the Wii...but no way in hell are we standing in line/sleeping overnight. The thought of potentially bumping into someone we know and having to pretend we're "overnight buddies" makes us nauseous. So, if the Wii ends up to be a no-go, my sister is just going to pick up the games first and buy the console later.

[jjmoohead]

I just recalled a detail and figured id pass it on before going back to bed

At the store next to ours, a girl sold her spot in line (5th) for $1200. She said she would give it up for that amount as thats how much she would have gotten from ebay. Not bad for 30 mins work considering she sat down and 30 minutes later went home to a nice warm bed. Damn you Manitoba, Canada, for being so damn cold in November.

We joked how in San Fransico the lineup was started like a week before it came out. If anyone tried that here, they would have died, no question about it. I thought i wasnt going to make it at one point to be honest. I almost gave up.

[Harry]

https://www.travelmanitoba.com/default.asp?page=77

Yeah, those white bears can help us understand better what you went through last night...

[jjmoohead]

LOL Harry. This is actually travel season to go see Polar Bears too. But just to stop the rediculus imaginations of some people in this world, I dont live in an ingloo, and its not snow 12 months a year. Infact we have no snow on the ground right now. That been said, its still cold and will get colder.

Now onto other news.

I am about 95% done my review of Tiger Woods, and I picked up NHL 2K7 as a rental today so I will get into that one tomorrow. Since I don't want to give you to much detail and allow you to do some reading I will just tell you that until you get to read the review please go out and try Tiger Woods.

I finally got around to putting Tony Hawk Project 8 into my machine. I must tell you that if you enjoyed any of the other Tony Hawks then you will enjoy this one too. I will come out and say that the simularities are both good and bad, but with inclusion of a few new things (like a trick mode where the camera zooms into your feet and you use the analog sticks as your left and right foot to kick the board) it does make the game enjoyable.

The problems are its the same game with huge combos and unrealistic lines to collect points and earn reputation, to be apart of Tony Hawks new Project 8. I was hoping for more of a simulation experience then a arcade style of the past, so im a we bit disapointed, but I have yet to really get into it to much to say its good bad or otherwise. What I will say is that my thumbs hurt. I believe this is from months of not playing consoles, and not really Tony Hawk related.

I have not spent to much more time with Marvel Alliance. Admittedly not my favourite game right now. Please dont read into it that its a bad game, its not that at all, its just not my style of game. I have never been a huge comic book reader and so its just not as appealing to me. Now that been said, I am impressed with the entire idea and concept of that game. There are many playable characters and something like 140 total characters (enemies and playable combined). I have no way to offically comfirm this other then websites, cause i think i have seen 12 so far. Im really not to far into the game.

Games aside I also watch Talladega Nights:The Ballad of Ricky Bobby on Blu-Ray. There were no special features or anything amazing on the disc itself, pretty much just the movie and a preview for movies to come. I watched the preview thing first, and noticed a difference in the picture quality. Now I don't have a HDTV where I am currently living, but have access to one, and I can honestly say the picture looked great on my TV, you could notice a difference even without the HD. As for the movie it self, its damn funny. I saw it in the theaters so I already knew its greatness and I enjoyed in during this new technology.

Finally, (for now) I also put in a burnt DVD (I promise nothing illegal) which the PS3 recognized right away as a DVD+R. It did not say what was on the movie or anything like that, but you hit the button to play and sure enough the movie played without any skipping or sound problems. And The picture looked good too. It doesn't improve the picture, like people hoped, but still I was impressed that I can watch burnt DVD's on it. I also tested 6 other retail DVD's and experienced no problems.

My only complaint right now is the learning curve of the system itself. I am not one for reading manuals. So please excuse me lazyness, but I knew the system could do certain things, but I found a couple things to be somewhat hard to figure out. Like when playing a game and returning to the PS3 menu, It says push the PS button, I push it and push it nothing, and then i decided to hold it and it felt like 10 seconds but if said quit game finally. More details on the PS3 itself in the near future, as well as some new game play details on some of the other new games.

[merylsilverburg]

Originally Posted by jjmoohead

But just to stop the rediculus imaginations of some people in this world, I dont live in an ingloo, and its not snow 12 months a year.

Hmm, this image is usually stereotypically associated with Alaska...at least it was when I was growing up, lol.

Anyways, thanks for the heads up on Tony Hawk...I think the aspect that made the game popular was the unrealistic elements so it's no surprise they kept it. The new concept of a zoom-in while doing tricks sounds neat...though does this occur in slow-motion or in real time? Because, I think real time would make it hard to focus on performing tricks while the camera targets that one specific area.

It's great the PS3 plays DVDs in addition with Blu-ray.

[Harry]

Nice info, JJ. Yes, the PlayStation 3 can play DVDs, Blu-ray discs, and also MPEG encoded files (so you can burn discs with many movies on them), and isn't even too picky about the format of the video.

Out of topic: JJ, about Manitoba - the place looks wonderful, I really wish I could live in Canada. All the photos, movies I have seen about Canada, depicting its immense forests, its prairies, the breathtaking wastelands of the extreme North (which seems to me like a unique mixture of Russian wastelands and Norvegian landscapes), always captured my imagination. Since I was a kid, I have always been a great fan of Western movies, and the ones shot in Canada had all this unique, unique feeling that made me want to live there. Few know that recent Western movies like The Unforgiven and Open Range (both unforgettable pictures, with this unique, melancholy feeling that can wrench the heart of any fan of old Western movies) were shot in Canada. On top of all these natural marvels, I also heard only good things about Canadian cities. And by the way, I really didn't know it was possible to see polar bears in Canada, that's really amazing!

[jjmoohead]

Started work on NHL 2K7 review today, really only about 25% done at the time of this post. Tiger Woods is now 100% complete. My initial recation to NHL2K7 is a positive one. There are many ups and downs but the overal feel of the gamebut, it iis a good game. Not great, but not good. Ill have more on this later.

Meryl - Yes the zoom in on tony hawk is a slow motion action that allows you to make up new kick flip ticks, I actually find myself doing that more then actually play the games goal mode. Its new and its fun, where the rest of the game is basically the games of the past. I heard rumors that Project 8 was actually going to be more simulation then arcade, and hence my dissapointment when I found out it was the same game.

As for Manitoba - It is a great place to live, and honestly I take it for granted. The problem is the extreme change in temperature that happens throught the year. It can go from 40 to -40 over a 6 month period. We really only get about 3 months of great weather. Of course that depends on what you like for weather. Some people really like the winter months, the snow, the cold. I myself enjoy the sping and fall times because the temperature is just right for me. Not to cold, not to hot. That being said no mater what time of year the landscape is always very pretty. The absolute best times are around July when the crops are blooming. You see a great combinations of yellow, purple, green and blues and unfortunately after living here for 20+ years I really don't look at it that way anymore. As for polar bears, yes you can see them in canada, and you don't even have to go to the extreme north to see them. Every year there is about a 6 week period where their are tours offered to go to norther manitoba to a city called Gimli. They give tours of the countryside and you get to see polar bears. Every year thousands of people take these tours. I have a friend who drives people around the city of winnipeg for the night and helps you get to your hotel, you then fly out the next morning to polar bear country . Its a really neat experience that everyone needs to experience.

[Berserker]

Congratz JJ! Great news! Could you please check one thing for me, can you pop in an old (cdrom) ps2 game(the ones with a blue backside) and see if it plays? I heard something that the first batch of ps3's had problems with the backwards compatibility. Great that one of us got the new system already, so we get an honoust hands-on impression...great job!

[merylsilverburg]

Originally Posted by Berserker

Could you please check one thing for me, can you pop in an old (cdrom) ps2 game(the ones with a blue backside) and see if it plays? I heard something that the first batch of ps3's had problems with the backwards compatibility.

Omg, fantastic question, I can't believe I forgot about this...if the PS3 plays blue PS2 games with no problem, oh man.....*stares at ICO longingly*

[jjmoohead]

Yes I will check that out for you tomorrow, my roomate has all the old PS2 games in his room at the moment and hes sleeping..sigh.

Here is what I am hearing though, without my own personal tests.

The PS3 plays more then the Majority of PS1 and PS2 games. At the last report I heard there was 189 titles out of the 8000+ games available for the PS1 and PS2 that have some sort of issue as to what makes the game less enjoyable. That being said, it doesn't nessessarily mean you can't play it, but means there might be some kind of issue in gameplay.

A couple noteables is Tekken 5 where the screen may freeze during the demo, but this is not on all occasions. Also Final Fantasy XI i believe won't work because the HDD upgrade for the PS2 is a different format then the PS3, but there are plans to fix this on an updated software release that you can download easily with your PS3 or pick up the update disc. This is also to be noted that any games that were HDD compatable with PS3 wont use HDD on PS3. Socom3 for example says "unable to preform intended HDD functionality." I don't know if this means you can't save or that you can't preform certain things you were able to do with the HDD. I have an unopen copy of Socom3, I will test that out tomorrow aswell.

Other problems include, none compaitable controller types, like Guitar Hero, where a PS button is required and the guitar itself doesn't have one, again rumors that this is already being created. Basically what is happening here is that PS1 and PS2 games require the pushing of the new PS button added to the new sixaxis controllers. So you can't use old controllers to play PS1 and PS2 games. This means GH won't work cause the guitar doesn't have the button. NOTE: You can use PS2 Controllers with PS3 games, just not PS1 or PS2 games...yes its weird, don't ask me.

Also its important to know that of these titles some of the numbers might be the same game. For example lets use Grand Traismo 3. There are I believe 6 different versions of this game. Greatest Hits, Special Edition, Japan Edition, PAL edition etc. If GT3 had a loading problem on the demo, and it effected all 6 of the versions then that would be a total of 6 games that have an error, not one.

Anyway Sony has released an offical website regarding compatible issues. It is said they hope to have all games working eventually and they will with updates to the systems themselves. And yes if you own a PS3 now, your can download the updates that will install on your PS3, so just cause you bought one now doesn't mean you wont be able to play those games later too.

Here is the link. Simply type the name of the game you want in there

https://www.us.playstation.com/Support/CompatibleStatus

AS FOR ICO...this is what it said. "Description: Throughout gameplay and FMA's, the screen flickers." (if this is a huge flicker or a unoticeable tiny flicker I have no idea.) Sorry don't own the game to test it.

Anything else please let me know.

[Berserker]

Great post JJ, according to the link there are no major problems concerning a game like Marvel vs Capcom 2 which is a cd-rom....so great news I hope.

[jjmoohead]

So I found my first huge deal on a PS3 game. I was in Wal-Mart and found Tiger Woods 2007 for the PS3 for $44.28 (Canadian), games are normally priced at 69.99 here.

I went over to future shop and asked them if they price match games and they called wal-mart and proved the price was in fact legit. Because of this Futureshop not only matches it, but also will give 10% off the matched price. So I just bought a game for $40 Canadian.

[REChick14]

hello to everyone, well i didnt get my ps3 on launch date but luck was indeed on my side. This past friday I get a call from a friend after work saying how he found a ps3 at the mall and he asked if I wanted it and said I would have to pay him back. At first I thought he was joking at my expense since he knew I didnt get it at launch and I thought he was being a meanie but instead he was telling the truth. I screamed at the top of my lungs and said yes get it for me! He got 1 of 3 that was available. The lady double bagged it so no one could tell it was a ps3. He told me how people were watching him as he walked around the mall with the bag. Turns out it was the 20gb one but thats ok. I still love it with all my heart and that friend of mine will be honored in my household for the rest of my life. I got the game Resistance: fall of man. Its pretty awesome, I love it. I can go for hours on it until my father tells me to get off his tv and then I have to get off. Hopefully it will last a long time, I got a warranty on that baby so its all good

[Berserker]

Congratz REchick, that's one lucky way of getting a ps3! Enjoy it to the max and let's hope that RE5 is coming soon.