Sunday, December 27, 2009

The Big Post Christmas Post

Christmas is now officially over for me. No more Christmas Eve, Day, or Post events. Just a plain old night at home with my GRE breathing down the back of my neck and the New Years right after it. What did you get for Christmas? And what would you wish you could've gotten for Christmas? I mean, as a gamer, most of your gifts will fit the electronics bill. There are a lot of ideas you could have gotten.


The TV
I got a Sanyo 26 inch HDTV. It's hard to believe a few days ago I was playing on a 15 inch LCD television in standard definition. I won't say finally playing in HD after 10 years has improved my competitive execution, but it certainly has relieved the eye strain from staring into a tiny-ass 15 inch display with decade old graphics.

The gear
I didn't get a new controller, but after experiencing small gripes with my wireless controller, I switched over to a wired controller I had on hand for local multiplayer and the hardly used innards of this controller gave me a new lease on execution skills. Several times in MW2, I'd try pressing down on the left stick to spring, but it'd give out and  the sprinting wouldn't stick. On a newer controller, I can finally put some different strategies to good use with reliable execution. After all, what separates two good players with similar skills is their controllers.

The audio
Playing MW2 is actually a very audio heavy experience. People who seriously want to win purchase headphones worth upwards of $50 to hear everything from the direction of gunfire to the sound of footsteps that don't belong to your team. Indeed, there are perks in the game that even affect the volume of footsteps in game so you can sneak around silently or detect enemies much better. There are of course models for practical minded gamers though, like $30.

The games
Of course there are the games themselves, but that isn't limited to physical copies. The Xbox Live Marketplace is offering special discounts in celebration of New Years. I've taken the chance to download the long praised Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition. There will be plenty more deals to come to celebrate the end of the year, so there will be a lot of digital goodies to enjoy at slashed prices/points.

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