Those not in the know might not have heard about this new game ‘Rock Band‘ coming out in November.  It’s a video game where you have up to 4 people playing/singing along to music and being scored on your performance.

I was sitting there watching Hugo play the air drums the other day and thought to myself (and to Leah) – we need to get this game.  Leah could sing, I could play guitar, and Hugo could play the drums (all intruments included in the deluxe ($200) version of the game).  That would only leave the bass spot still open.

Luckily – Brody should be here by then, and 2 weeks old is more than enough to back me up on Wheezer’s Say it Ain’t So.

The Colin McRae DiRT demo came out somewhat recently for the PS3 and I downloaded it to check it out. I’m only mildly into racing games, and while this was a pretty one it didn’t really do much for me. Two things from the demo DID strike me however.

The first was the awesome menu system they have implemented (see below). It really is first class.

The second (you can see at the end of the above video) is that during level loading they display current stats on your racing like how many races you have one, max speed, average speeds, etc. It actually gives you something to do while your level loads.This got me thinking… Why don’t more game designers do something along these lines? I grow tired on the ‘loading’ splash screen pretty quickly, even if it has a little tip or something. These just don’t stand up to the replayability of many games. Instead, how about a mini-game that loads very quickly and we can waste time on while the level loads. Another idea is to pull in some sort of news feed so I can read up on current events as I wait for the level to load. I don’t really read current events but this would be a good way to get kids today into reading the news etc. Its something I think the upcoming generation needs in lieu of getting all their news from say digg.com or something.

Anyways, just an idea I am tossing out there for you developers (who aren’t reading this surely).

About 4 years ago for my birthday my wonderful to-be-wife Leah went out and bought me a television. A large television. A HD television. I adore this television. Sure it’s not a fancy plasma or LCD (or even DLP) but it’s easy on the eyes nonetheless. Soon thereafter we purchased a progressive scan DVD player. Then an Xbox. Then I got component cable hook-ups for the Gamecube. Everything was going according to plan. Eventually we also got an HD cable box. Colors and resolution were glorious, life was bliss.

And then we got Tivo…

Tivo was a double edged sword. On one edge we were recording television, skipping ads, getting Tivo’s recommendations, and even Leah was loving it. On the other edge… Tivo had no HD outputs. None. S-video was as good as it got… Sweet jibblets – S-video… Maybe some HD televisions handle s-video input well. Heck, I’m SURE some do.

But not mine…

Instead I got a blocky, fuzzy, washed out image. It was painful. So bad for me in fact that I tried the HD cable box with DVR. I can sum that box up with one word. Unusable. If you have a DVR cable box I hope you never use a Tivo. You cannot go back. I don’t know who came up with the interface for Comcast (my then provider) but they should have been fired. Blacklisted. Shot. Words really cannot express the chasm that separated the usability of these products.

I digress.

Did I say Tivo was painful? Scratch that. It IS painful – we are still forced to use it. The gaming and movies have forged on in HD, moving from xbox and progressive scan to Playstation 3 and it’s Blu-Ray. But television. It lingers behind. Unable to complete the move so needed to make my TV life complete.

So I present to you my birthday wish. 4 years later it is time to come full circle into the HD era.

Tivo HD.

It’s not a Series 3. No, its affordable instead (What has become of technology when $300 is affordable?). Slightly downgraded but hey, I can live with compromise. Honey, are you listening? You’ll love it too – I promise!

Today Leah’s high school friends threw us a baby shower for the 2nd heir to the Luck throne (tentatively Brody). It’s kosher for the repeats to have showers apparently – Nora’s 30 minutes of internet research, a span of time that in todays electronic age must have wielded a frightening amount of baby information, revealed the kosher-ness as well as the name Baby Sprinkle. I like.

I was looking forward to said sprinklefor a single reason. Toys, or more precisely A Toy, a Racetrack, a HotWheels racetrack, with loop, car launching motorization, 8 cars, and Nostalgia. I get as much, or more, fun out of Hugo’s toys as he does, and with the option of purchasing for Brody, Hugo, OR the home for this shower/sprinkle, I opted for myself Hugo… I knew that Hugo, a fan of both tracks AND race cars, would be please with the gift.

Long story short, he wanted to SLEEP with the track when it was time for bed. I explained it was too large to fit in bed with him and it would be there tomorrow morning for him to play with, so off to sleep he went, sans track. This was of course a lie; it wasn’t going to be there in the morning for him to play with… It would be in MY bed, snuggled up close.