Call of Duty 5 vs Resistance 2

When the PS3 initially was launched, Resistance Fall of Man was one of the premium titles, being a good example of what was possible with the PS3. It was one of the first games I got and a game I enjoyed quite a bit. As far as first person shooters, it reigned supreme for quite a while and now with Resistance 2 out, the experience of an alternative historical timeline continues.

2008 was the year of Call of Duty 4, the year in which thousands jumped into the FPS battles of the modern era with one of the best shooters ever. With Call of Duty World at War, the experience has now been moved back to World War II but remains largely intact.

This fall, COD5 and Resistance 2 were both released just weeks apart. With Christmas behind us, both games are now in my possession and I have had a couple of days to take in both games and get that initial impression that seems to determine whether you'll play a game to the end or not.

Starting with COD5, it was very easy to get back into the game since it's so similar to COD4. I started with the single player missions to just get things going and then jumped online in short order. After all, that's where the action is.

It took me a few hours to get familiar with the more common maps but once I got into it, I have to say I enjoyed it as much as COD4. I'm getting used to the weapons, the darn dogs and the artillery strikes that seem to be more severe than any airstrike in COD4. So, overall I like the game and once I get some more time with it I will actually post a proper review. At the very least, I want to get through the single player levels first.

So, on to Resistance 2. Resistance Fall of Man was an epic game. Resistance 2 continues in that tradition but goes even further. I've only played it for about an hour and a half so far...maybe...but I'm impressed. I really get the feeling that things are huge and more global even though I'm just running around in my little world. The first mission on the base on Iceland is pretty impressive...starting the game out fighting a colossal Goliath. Moving from there to the U.S. mainland and a base on the west coast, the enormity of the story and the part you play is very much evident and in some areas I feel like I'm running around in Bioshock. Water is dripping, sections are flooded, lights are low in some areas and aliens are popping up left and right. In fact, the water is one of my favorite aspects of that whole level. The water surface is superb and the reflections on the ceiling on some levels are very cool.

In short, Resistance 2 is a very cool game and I haven't even gotten to the online play yet.

So, which is better? It's too early for me to say which one is my favorite but the single player missions in Resistance 2 are definitely more engaging than those in COD5...at least for me. Time will tell which one I end up playing more. With different friends that play these games, I'll be able to do my online evaluation in the company of friends either way and with four days off, I'll have plenty of time for that.

Intrepid Ibex on PS3

Previously I have shared some of my adventures with Ubuntu on my laptop and desktop. A few weeks ago I also went ahead and installed Intredid Ibex (Ubuntu 8.10) on my PS3.

Now you might wonder why in the world I would attempt such a thing. Well, there are several reasons actually. Although the PS3 has a browser, it's slow and buggy and the flash player doesn't always work as expected. My wish is to be able to essentially surf the internet, play movies online and such using my PS3 and my hope is that one day I can do exactly this on my PS3.

Now, before all you experts start telling my that I can't do that, I already know a lot of this functionality isn't quite mature on the PS3 version yet. Flash, for example, relies heavily on Gnash, an open source implementation of Adobe Flash, that I haven't even tried yet. However, as it develops hopefully at one point it will be capable enough. Time will tell, as they say.

Anyway, at the moment my Linux installation is very basic. I haven't done anything to it yet so I'll be sharing some of my experiments with this as I attempt them so that those of you interested in the same can share in any discoveries.

EVDO instead of DSL

These days, the economy being what it is, saving money is always a good thing. A year ago I singed up for a 4MB DSL line with a local teleco company plus their DTV service. With HDTV on the horizon, it was a more attractive alternative than the other local cable provider. Unfortunately, their HD plans didn't quite work out as I had expected. Yes, they launched HDTV alright but not with DVR service.

I said "what?"

Being completely dependent on my DVR service, I had no choice but to decline and start looking elsewhere. It didn't take me long to figure out that if I got DirecTV with HD service and their DVR plus a EVDO Rev A device to replace my DSL that I would be able to cut my Internet/TV bill in half.

To get a picture of what I typically do with an Internet connection, I have two computers that are on 24/7. One I use to stream media to my cellphone on occasion. In addition, I have a PS3 I use for gaming, movies etc plus another laptop that I use for work. So, at any given time, there are at least three devices using the connecting.

Being a gamer, my concern was naturally that the speeds and ping wouldn't be sufficient to game. I found that fortunately for me, they are. Although the ping at times gets a bit high, it's not that much different than what it was with my DSL connection that it makes a huge difference. I have played numerous hours of Battlefield Bad Company now without any significant issues (except when the DO signal was lost and the modem reverted to 1X for a few minutes).

Here's how I did it:

I have one computer hooked up to my 42" TV, a computer that I typically use for watching movies online and such. That computer is set to automatically boot into Windows and auto-connect the EVDO unit (which is a Franklin CDU-680 device with service provided by ACS). I'm then using ICS to share the connection with the rest of my network through a wireless router. Ironically, a side effect of having the DTV service is that I now have a high-speed ethernet connection between my office and my den (where the TV is) so I plug my computer into the wall and then connect to my router upstairs. Very convenient. My computer upstairs is connected right into the router and then my PS3, PSP and laptop connects wirelessly.

So far, it works pretty well. My average download speeds are typically in the range of 1.5Mbits to 1.8Mbits, which is good enough to still download stuff at a decent speed as well as watch online TV shows at a decent quality. The only problem I have at this point is that my "host" computer appears to disconnect my EVDO connection every 24 hours or so and when it auto-reconnects, it doesn't go anywhere. Not sure at this point if it's a problem with the wireless modem or my computer so I'm going to connect it to my other computer here in the next day or so.

Overall though, it works well. I have a good Internet connection, better TV service and I'm paying only half of what I was paying. Can't get much better than that.

TV shows and Movies Online with PS3

As many of you know, many shows seen on TV can be seen online, anytime you want to. If you have PS3, the ideal thing would naturally to be able to do this all on the PS3 without having to plug a computer in every time you want to watch a show you missed. I have started doing a little bit of research and I have found that some sites work great while others don't. So for your benefit, I have started putting together a list of all of these sites I have found.

Please note that some of these sites might not be accessible outside of the USA and functionality is based on access to these sites from the USA. If you live elsewhere, I can't say whether they work or not.

Also note that you will need the latest firmware, 2.53, for proper functionality since widescreen in the Flash player wasn't properly supported before 2.53.


Sites that work

http://www.hulu.com [W]
http://www.joost.com [FW]
http://www.youtube.com [FW]
http://www.history.com [W]
http://www.discovery.com [3][P]
http://www.veoh.com [P]
http://www.g4tv.com
http://www.nationalgeographic.com [FW]
http://www.cartoonnetwork.com [FW]
http://www.toonamijetstream.com [FW]
http://www.adultswim.com/video/index.html [FW]

Legend:

3 - Third party player required for full length shows, will not play on PS3.
P - Partial video functionality, depending on content.
W - Widescreen option available, does not use full screen.
FW - Full Widescreen as permitted by content.

Sites that do not work

Naturally, there are sites that don't work as well, mostly because they use some other third-party solution. I wanted to compile a quick list of these as well.

http://www.fox.com [O]
http://www.nbc.com [O]
http://www.abc.com
http://www.cbs.com
http://www.scifi.com [O]
http://www.southparkstudios.com

Legend:

O - Some content available from other online sources



More will be added as I find them to either work or not with the PS3 browser.

Silverlight for Linux

After a very, very long time, the Linux Silverlight implementation is available to the public for release. Although just version 1 at this point, it's at least something to dig into.

The project goes under the name Moonlight and the homepage is http://www.mono-project.com/Moonlight. That page has a link to the actual download page for the Firefox plugin.

As it turns out, although not everything Silverlight works, some of the sites that I have used in the past on Windows machines now work fine, both video and audio, so for me, it's a start. Now we just need to get the Netflix Silverlight player to work but that might be a little longer since I think that one uses Silverlight 2.0.

Anyway, a good start and my Ubuntu computers are now just a little more compatible with the rest of the web.