I was fortunate enough to get an invite and attend After Hours in person! I've never been to an E3 or any similar event, so it was a real treat for me. I am a big FPS fan so I spent much of the time laying the smackdown on the GameSpot crew and other attendees at the BF2142 kiosk. I got to see many new games and the closed-session BioShock demo was definitely cool. Playing the PS3 for the first time was definitely an "interesting" experience because I was involved in the silicon design at IBM, so I especially wanted to see the hardware in action for the first time. What was interesting is that more than half of the PS3 units were pre-production boxes in very large rackmount chassis. As far as the graphics quality of the PS3 games, Full Auto 2 was definitely eye-candy, but Mobile Suit Gundam was a bit choppy and full of jaggies (anti-aliasing problems). Also, the new controller was very to light vs. the DualShock 2 I'm used to, but perhaps after time I can get used to it. I also placed my hand next to a final form factor PS3 and man does it put out some heat! I could not find a single person who said they were going to buy a PS3 at launch, and I asked a random 10-15 people that were playing at the Full Auto booth. You'd think that coming to an event like this at least a few would be Sony fanboys! Don't get me wrong, the PS3 is a great machine and I'm sure it will do well in Japan, I just don't think it is worth the money vs. the other options on the market today. The lack of units shipped to North America before christmas will only exacerbate the situation and next thing you know it Sony will be #3... but that's just my opinion.

I got to meet a bunch of cool people including Greg Kasavin! Here's the picture to prove it:



- Dave, Greg, and me

I was watching the most disappointing delay and I would have to concur with the Twilight Princess delay as being the most upsetting. I remembered that I had purchased "Oracle of Ages" many eons ago and meant to play it, but didn't get around to it. Maybe this game would suffice to quell my Zelda-playing urge, since it is one of the few Zelda games I have not played yet.

So I sat down, played for about five min, saved my game, then came back a bit later to find my entire save game GONE. After a bit of tinkering, I found that the save feature was broken. Like a good engineer, I opened up the cartridge and got out my trusty multimeter. The thing has a battery in plain view due to the clear case, so I immediately probed the terminals and found 0.253 volts... Not good.

I thought I'd post the rather trivial replacement of the battery, because who knows, maybe one of you out there will find this useful:

Equipment needed:

• - Small hex screwdriver (to unscrew the lone screw on the cartridge. This is what I used but you might get by with some really small needle-nose pliers)
• - Small flathead screwdriver (or some other small, rigid prying instrument)
  
• - Soldering Iron
• - Some solder
  
• - 3V lithium replacement battery: CR-1616 (Radio Shack has them)
• - Some glue or electrical tape
• - Grounding equipment (so you don't statically discharge and zap the components. Omit at your own risk)
  
• - Voltmeter (optional, but helps check your work)

Step 1: Disassemble

• - Unscrew the lone screw in the middle of the cartridge.
• - The cover of the cartridge slides down and lifts off easily. Be careful here because if you try to pry it off without first sliding it, you could break the plastic:

• - You might want to check the battery voltage with your voltmeter before you go any further. If it is around 3V and your cartridge was not working, then merely replacing the battery will probably not fix your problem.
• - Remove the PCB from the plastic housing (you should be grounded at this point). You don't want to warp the plastic with the soldering you are about to do.
  
• - Remove the battery (you will need your soldering iron for this)
• - My battery had two strips of metal affixed to the terminals that no amount of heat would get off. I took a small screwdriver and carefully pried these metal strips from the battery.

Step 2: Replace Battery and Re-assemble:

• - Solder the bottom (positive) terminal back to the PCB
• - Place some glue on the PCB to keep the battery in place (or wait until later if you are using electrical tape)

• - Place the new battery on the terminal (positive down obviously) and solder the remaining (ground) terminal.
• - Measure the voltage at the terminals on the PCB to verify you have 3V. (if you don't, disassemble and try again)

• - Put some electrical tape on the battery and terminal if you didn't use glue (optional. I just used glue since it looks nicer)
• - Put the PCB back in the plastic housing, replace the cover, and replace the screw.
• - Enjoy playing your newly fixed game now that it won't forget your save games! :D
  

This is my first gaming blog, but I think I'm going to try to log some of my experiences here to see how it goes...

Last night my wife and I fired up Guild Wars again. I really enjoy playing my Necromancer/Monk with her Ranger/Mesmer. We usually can only play a few hours at a time because our 8 month old daughter (rightfully so) requires much attention during the day. We usually find time after she has fallen asleep.

We did some of the Maguuma jungle sidequests. We had a pretty easy time except a few times when we were inundated with the floating eye-like monsters (I forgot their names). We quickly learned to run like hell if we saw more than 10 roaming towards us. We could usually find another way around them.

I was excited to find a max damage foehammer (my first max damage weapon ever). We were exploring so much of the territory that we each ran out of keys, so we reluctantly had to pass a few chests up. (You'd think that three keys would be enough... but I think I'm going to carry at least five with me from now on.)

I am always amazed as the visuals in this game, and yesterday was no exception with the stunning waterfall and lush jungle scenery. I truly believe that Guild Wars has some of the best graphics of any fantasy game I have played to date. And the content seems to go on forever...

After we stopped playing I played a few minutes of COD2, finishing up the English campaign and starting the American. I thought it was interesting that they forced you to watch many fellow soldiers die as they were exiting the landing craft after being shell-shocked on the beachhead. It was blatently obvious that the game designers were somehow trying to attone for their sins of creating a game that glorifies killing by forcing us to watch this gruesome, horrific scene of wartime violence... as if to remind us of the brutality of war and that people actually did die in this manner about 60 years ago. That said, it was a stunning scene that had my attention moreso than any WWII movie, complete with intermittent blurring as if I was slipping in and out of consciousness. I enjoyed it immensely.

It is scenes like this that make me realize how the lines between the gaming and movie industry are blurring, with gaming offering a bit more in terms of immersive content. With movies, you are merely an observer, with nothing at stake; but with modern games you are thrust into the action, where your decisions and movement affect the story in an direct way. While watching a movie, I never feel that I am transported to that time or place, because I can't interact with it. Unlike video games, I have never had my heart pound fast or got sweaty palms, because there is nothing at stake. For me, I'll take gaming over watching movies anyday. I think that one day soon, when someone asks, "what was it like when..." we will sit them in front of a monitor or have them put on the VR goggles rather than show them a movie. Don't get me wrong though: movies are possibly the greatest storytelling medium ever. But movies can't compare to the immersive content in even today's games when it comes to transporting you to that other "time" or "place", making you feel as if you were actually there.