God of War burst unto the scene like a juggernaut in early 2005. It was by far the best action game on the PS2. Kratos, the protagonist in the game is a Spartan warrior. He was a loyal servant of Ares, the God of war. Ares bestowed a godly weapon called the blades of chaos on Kratos. These deadly, swinging blades were wielded to his forearms. Over the course of time, Kratos committed massacres on the command of Ares. Unbeknown to Kratos, he killed his family on one of his murderous rampages. Grief stricken, his pain turned to rage when he found out that Ares had tricked him into killing his family. As you can guess by now, the tale is one of revenge. Kratos goes on a journey to destroy Ares, and usurp the title of the God of war.
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Blu-ray is currently the best medium to view movies for the consumer. Anyone serious about maximizing their audio and video experience at home need not look further than blu-ray at the moment. It’s the pinnacle of home entertainment.

So that said, what should you purchase for the blu-ray addict in your life?

The first thing should be a nice, 1080p display. To get the most accurate, cinematic detail from your movies, then you should go with a plasma panel. When it comes to displays, my philosophy is always to go big. The price of many 50 inch sets have come down dramatically. Case in point, the Panasonic TC-P54S1. This is a 54 inch television, and it is a steal at the current asking price.

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The long wait is finally over. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is finally here. Modern Warfare 2 is the sequel to the critically acclaimed Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Modern Warfare 2 picks up a few years after the first game. Like all veteran COD players know, you get to traverse various locales in the different mission settings. You will fight in Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Brazil and a bombed out Washington D.C. The single player is brief and intense.

After the single player campaign, grab a partner and jump into the Special Ops mode. It’s a cooperative mode that uses locales from the single player not related to that campaign. You can play Special Ops alone, but what fun is that? Coop is definitely the preferred way to play this mode.
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How do you improve a wonderfully designed universal remote like the Harmony One? For Logitech, it was simple, add an RF (radio frequency) module. Their latest universal remote, the Harmony 900 has RF capabilities.

In terms of functionality, the Harmony 900 is almost identical to the Harmony One. However, the Harmony One is only IR (infrared), while the Harmony 900 is both IR and RF. The main benefit to RF is that you can store equipment in a closet, or even in a different room and be able to control all your components. Unlike IR, you do not have to be in the same line of sight as your equipment to control your gear.
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It’s hard to believe that it’s almost been a year since I blogged about the WD TV HD media player. I was really impressed by it, especially at the asking price. Never one to rest on their laurels, Western Digital went back to the lab, and they came out with the WD TV Mini. Think of the WD TV Mini as the little brother of the WD TV HD. Little brother might be a bit of a misnomer, since the Mini is a competent media streamer in its own right.
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Have you purchased a Billboard top 10 CD lately? If you have, more often that not, it’s probably very loud. That’s awesome, isn’t it? Not exactly. Most of the public is unaware of this, but this is probably the worst thing you could do to sound reproduction. This is done through a process called Dynamic Range Compression (DRC). In simple terms, it reduces the dynamic range of an audio signal. In a normal song, there are highs and lows. Quiet chapters, and loud chapters. With excessive DRC, all the nuance and range between different parts of the song are lost. To the untrained ear, this might sound good since records with heavy DRC are louder. However, you are not hearing what the artist intended you to hear through their music. It’s akin to going to an art gallery, and then having the curator smearing paint all over the art because they think it’s better that way. Generally speaking, many people have never heard a pristine, clean recording, so they have no frame of reference as to what something with minimal compression sounds like. The video below illustrates the detriment DRC is to modern recordings. It really hit the nail on the head.
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Toshiba has officially accepted defeat. It’s been almost two years since the demise of their HD DVD format, the lone high definition, physical disc medium that was a viable threat to blu-ray. However, they sure took their time to release a blu-ray deck.

Toshiba has finally licked their wounds, and have gone on to release the new BDX2000. It’s the real deal. It has a sleek, modern, svelte design, with premium fit and finish.

In terms of specs, the BDX2000 does everything any modern blu-ray player is capable of. It’s Profile 2.0, so it will support BD Live content. It will bitstream and decode both Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio for maximum fidelity. Video quality is fantastic with a 1080p24 signal. In short, you simply can’t go wrong with this player. Kudos to Toshiba for finally coming around. Life is good in the winners circle, isn’t it Toshiba.
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Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is the sequel to the critically acclaimed Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. So what’s the verdict on the sequel? It is superb. It’s currently the highest rated console game of the year on gamerankings.

Without giving away spoilers, you resume the role of the protagonist, Nathan Drake. The adventure starts a few years after the first game. Nathan is tasked with investigating the mysterious voyage of Marco Polo from China in 1292. Marco Polo left with fourteen ships and had a crew of over 600 men. However, Polo only arrived with one ship and a crew of 18.

Nathan traverses different terrains, and exotic locales to get to the bottom of this mystery. I won’t say anymore, but I will say that this is the best looking game I have ever played, and I have played just about everything. The graphics are stellar. Check out the IGN video review below. If you have a PS3, you’d be foolish not to buy this game.
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In what was perhaps the worst kept secret on the internet, Apple updated some products in their line up, as well as introducing new ones. Products getting a revamp are all on this page and include the iMac, MacBook, Mac mini, Wireless Keyboard, and AirPort Extreme. The new products are the Magic Mouse and the 60W MagSafe Power Adapter that is similar the 45W model, and the VESA Mount Adapter Kit.

The biggest update came to the iMac line. The 24 inch model has been replaced with a 21.5 inch and 27 inch model. They are LED backlit now, the image quality is even better. Aside from the bumped up default configuration RAM, hard drive space and processor prowess, the 27 inch model is sporting a native resolution of 2560 x 1440. The 21 inch model has a native resolution of 1920 x 1080. The iMac is the best it’s ever been. We’re still waiting on that blu-ray drive Steve Jobs.
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Buying a new HDTV should be a very thorough process. You must first decide on how much you are willing to spend. Once you have a realistic budget, then you can proceed from there.

If shopping for a plasma panel, the first thing you need to be aware of is the lighting in the store. Is it bright? You should know that a typical store with industrial fluorescent lights is the last place you would want to judge the picture quality of a plasma. Many reputable stores counter this by only displaying their HDTVs in a darkened room, or in a room with soft lights comparable to the lighting in most people’s homes. However, I have been to many stores that clearly don’t know what they are doing. They have plasma displays front and center, under harsh, bright fluorescent lights. Those are conditions in which no one watches a TV, so do not make a judgment under those circumstances. Ask the manager or an employee to see if they can dim the lights, if they can’t, then go to another store. It may seem a bit melodramatic, but if you are going to spend your hard earned money, then the store should accommodate you if they are not displaying their wares in an optimal environment.
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