Day until Xenosaga Episode 2 is completed | Blu-ray okayed H264 Part 10 | Next Gen software costing $70!

The following paragraph is straight off Blu-ray.com. Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) has announced three months ago that their single layer BD is ready for manufacturing. It works exactly the same as a DVD, but as high tech as HD-DVD. HD-DVD decks will appear before Xbox 360’s launch date. BDA is ready to use the MPEG4 AVD codec as their primary video codec. MPEG 4 (also H264 Part 10 is commissioned by ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector) is compatible with either PCM or MPEG 4 AAC codec. DivX & Xvid add mp3 and OGG Vorbis support. It would be wise to add Xvid to the deck player’s firmware in case I want DivX on my LCDTV. It’s excellent at halving file size of MPEG2 (H263v2).

On Monday, Silhouette Mirage became my latest addition with me thinking, “Oh man, Treasure usually makes great action games.” The other game I’ve purchased new was Fire Emblem - The Sacred Stone. The franchise has never been 3D until Intelligent Systems developed Fire Emblem for Gamecube which also interests me after couple internet reviews gave the Fire Emblem - The Sacred Stones an 8.5. The noise it makes is amongst GBA’s finest. Fire Emblem SNES carts are very hard to get so I had skipped it entirely. I’ll try out Top Spin after I complete Xenosaga Episode 2 since that’s what I’ve bought it for.


^ The Stream Ripper plugin

Super Mario Bros Winamp Skin
Streamripper plugin

I’ve had found a stream-saving plug-in for Winamp 5 accomplishing what Quintessential Media Player is good at. Now, all I need to do is wait for the broadband technicians to come than I’ll play online at 1 Mbit or 1.5 Mbits given there isn’t a thunderstorm outside.

Yesterday, I am almost finished the 2nd DVD of Xenosaga Episode 2 - Beyond Good and Evil. I haven’t met one gnosis yet which are man eating aliens in the first Xenosaga. I made it to the beginning of DVD #2, but my party needs to escape in the DAMMERUNG to the lost planet Old Militia with Zohar on it. Game play glitches are scarce enough to be fun. The city music in the first disc was something I liked. It took me 4 hours to complete the first DVD. Not off this Federation planet yet and 2 hours passed by. I checked the first DVD which was 4.2 GB than the second DVD which was 4.3 GB. Xenosaga Episode 2 has 100 minutes long of spoken ‘in game’ dialog with English subtitles. PCM does the job well enough for Namco to use it. My idea was Namco’s choice of what audio code to use was irrelevant since Xenosaga Episode 2 needs 2 SL-DVDs for storage. Games formatted on DVD-9 would add more stress on the laser degrading it faster so Sony decided to not use dual layer. We’ve all learned DVD Video has added stress on the laser shorting the lifespan of PS2.

I’ve had driven to Toyriffic in Hudson, WI to look at games, but not before ‘filling my tank’ in River Falls, WI. At Toyriffic, I almost bought some worthless game like Gundam vs. Zeta. Top Spin (tennis) received excellent internet scores so I chose that. Marcus (who works there often) wasn’t available so I gave another guy my largest MP3 DVD out of 3 copies. The conversation with him was about Blu-ray, PS3, Xbox 360, and how Revolution allows ROMs to be downloaded onto its hard drive. We didn’t talk about Blu-ray specs. Never-the-less, he spoke of next generation videogames ending up costing $60 - $70! If I can’t avoid the inevitable than I’ll just live with it.

Games to add to the list

• Silhouette Mirage (©1999 Treasure)
• Fire Emblem - The Sacred Stone (©2005 Intelligent Systems (also Nintendo R&D1))
• Top Spin (©2003 Power and Magic)



See yeah later.