The Oppo has landed

I really ought to give some a try. I recognize that my concern is unfounded, but I was always concerned about picking something up that had questionable content for Seajunior. I assume Miyazaki movies offer no such concerns?

They are sometimes a bit darker than American animated films, and are not afraid to have some characters die, but from your descriptions SeaJunior has seen far worse than you will ever find in a Miyazaki movie. They are all straight G or PG-rated. If you feel adventurous, Nausicca looked great on Blu. Other ones worth looking at (on DVD) include Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Kiki's Delivery Service and My Neighbor Totoro. Porco Rosso, while not containing "adult" material as such is definitely aimed more at adults (it might bore children) and most recently Ponyo was rather disappointing. Castle in the Sky is rather well-regarded, but I like it a bit less, and Howl's Moving Castle was a mixed bag.

It is always an iMaxx-like mistake to think that "anime" is a monolithic entity. But to lump all Japanese animation into one group makes as much sense as lumping all American animation into one group -- a group that would contain Pixar and Disney as well as the likes of Ralph Bakshi and John Kricfalusi!

I have heard good things about Spirited Away. I will look for it and Nausicca when I go out this week to pick up a few other Blus.

The Fighter comes out today, too.

Yes. That one is on my list.

Positive review from Audioholics: Link.

Though Audioholics doesn't say it in so many words, it appears that the benefits of the 95 over the 93 are mostly cosmetic. There are measurable differences, but those shouldn't be audible under normal conditions. Still, that 95 looks sweet.

Well, via HDMI there will definitely be no differences, at least for audio. But while Stereophile may tend to underrate measurements, Audioholics pushes a touch too far the other way. Given my experiences with the 83 vs. 83SE, there may be audible differences that defy measurement. Or not, as the case may be! Either way, since I have no intentions of upgrading to a 3D display any time in the near future, I really have no need to update my player. When the time comes, I may save up my pennies and shoot for one of the Nuforce versions.



By the way, I ordered Texas Flood a couple of days ago. Amazon now lists a release date at the end of the month, so I am curious if I am going to get it or if I will just have to suck it up and pay more from Music Direct.

Perhaps. But it is interesting that this is the second professional reviewer to state that the audible difference was undetectable.

Given what I've read, I think buying the Oppo BDP-93 stock and then buying the upgrade board from NuForce would be a fun purchase. That way, the cost isn't too much and you could play with the different sounds, since you could swap out the audio boards when you please. I'm not sure that I'd pony up the $2500 for the NuForce BDP-95.

Texas Flood becomes available through Amazon.ca around the same time as it appears to be available through Amazon.com.

The release date listed on Amazon has changed a couple of times, which makes me a bit leery. Well, I will know by the end of the month.

I'm curious to know when the rest of the catalogue will be released. MoFi is still showing TBD for the remaining four titles.

The thing that really concerns me about the release date is that I also tried to buy the PC version of Two Worlds II, which has been released on consoles and is available through digital distribution on sites like Direct2Drive and Steam. (Sadly, a 3.5 gigabyte download is a bit steep!) For a while, they had the release date listed as the end of February, but now it has jumped to December. Bit of a hike, that, especially for a game that is already available! Are they hand-crafting the cardboard box?

Not sure what is up with that one, but it has me afraid that the date on the Vaughan disc will pull a similar change at the last minute.

Sounds like distribution problems. And Amazon is often just a front for third-party operations, so Amazon may very well not be carrying the stock.

Regarding Two Worlds II: Is it not available locally through a brick-and-mortar store? Alternatively, are there any other role-playing games that you're interested in? I believe Two Worlds II has its problems.

It is not available in boxed form ANYWHERE. I have been trying. I want to play it because I really enjoyed the first one, and the PC version of the sequel has been getting very good reviews. (Desslock gave it 84% in PC Gamer.) It is not just that I am itching for a good RPG; I do specifically want to play that one. In fact, I want to play it more than I want to play Dragon Age II, though I will certainly also play it as well.

In the meantime, I picked up tbe PS3 Mirror's Edge at Walmart for $15 last night and played it for a while. It is fun, though I can see that I am going to get very frustrated with it. Fortunately, it has been pretty generous with checkpoints so far. I also got $50 in gift cards from work today and went out and got the PS3 version of Mass Effect 2. So I will get some RPGing done.

I see. The only review I read of Two Worlds II was ign's and they gave it a 6/10.

I'm lucky if I can play through a handful of games in a year, so I'm quite selective about committing to a game. I also hate starting a game and not finishing. That is one of the reasons that I did not commit to Final Fantasy XIII -- I know it takes about 60 hours to get through. Plus, it didn't get stellar reviews. I really enjoyed the early games from the Final Fantasy series. It'd be nice to see them get back on track.

Well, IGN tends to combine their reviews a bit more (meaning that they do not always clearly differentiate between the console versions and the PC version.) In fact, I have seen a lot of reviews lately where they use the same text for the body of all the reviews and then add a perfunctory comment at the end regarding the specific format in question. (Not saying that is what they did with Two Worlds II as I have not read the review, but they do have that tendency.) I do know that many of the reviews for II commented on how horrible the first one was, but in most cases that "horrible" status specifically referred to the console versions. The PC version had many flaws, but it was not "horrible" by a long shot.

RPGs are my pet genre and I do tend to finish the games once I start them. I may not finish a game like Mirror's Edge, depending on how frustated I get having to repeat the same sections over and over again until I get them right.

I love a good RPG too, but I am a sucker for a good story. Open-ended RPGs that have barely a thread of a story and rely simply on levelling up bore me. The one exception was the Baldur's Gate series, though even those games got monotonous toward the end.

I do like action RPGs as well as the real thing, so I am willing to play a grind as long as I find it to be fun. Titan Quest was excellent, partly due to the setting (I am a sucker for Greek mythology) and partly because it was a compelling play experience. More recently, Torchlight was a really well-designed clickfest that emphasized the fun parts of action RPGs while minimizing the drawbacks.

Did you ever download the add-on content for Heavy Rain? I read it is only a short episode that takes about 15 minutes to complete, but I'm tempted.

Well, I have no internet access to the PS3, so I really cannot do it. Let me know what you think if you do.

I have been playing Mass Effect 2 for the last few days. It is very good so far, with very good graphics (using the Mass Effect 3 engine) that seem to largely crack the aliasing problems that plague all PS3 games. Not sure if they use heavier anti-aliasing, or if the "film grain" effect (which is pretty cool) helps smooth things over, but it looks very good and is pretty involving overall, despite not having played the first one.

How much of the game is first-person shooter versus RPG?

It is all RPG. As with any non-turn based RPG, there is action. (Third person, by the way, not first person.) But it can be paused to issue orders, change weaponry and use powers. So far, I have not had any real issues, despite the fact that I have a very difficult time aiming with a controller.

Another positive review for the Oppo: .Link

Looks solid again. Well, if I ever do upgrade to a 3D television, I may consider it.

According to Amazon, my SACD of Texas Flood did indeed ship.

I also ordered a copy, but from Amazon.ca. They are listing an expected shipping date of between April 4 and April 6, so there is still a chance that the order will fall through.

Of course, I now need to get myself an SACD-capable player. One of the Oppos is at the top of my list. (Incidentally, my dad actually has SACD support in his Denon!)

I just got an email that thanks to their pre-order price guarantee, I saved .02 when the price dropped from $24.98 to $24.96. Not exactly worth sending an email about that, but thanks!

The extended LOTR boxed set is up for preorder.