I'm not dead, dammit! That would be me, Kip Lange, or Kip Lang if you can't spell, and I'm NOT DEAD! :-)

Okay. Let's put things to rest, here. No pun intended. Bear with the weird list I have to put up, cuz this needs to go first, for the search engines which are going to spider this:

Kip Lang Wellesley High School
Kip Lang Berkeley
Kip Lang dead
Kip Lang suicide
Kip Lange dead
Kip Lange suicide
Kip Lang alive
Kip Lange alive

There. Kip Lang Wellesley High School, Kip Lang Berkeley, all that crap. I'm misspelling my name because a lot of people do that and there may be some people looking for me online, spelling my name wrong, to see if I am DEAD or NOT DEAD. I am not dead.

I got a panicked call from a friend, one Ms. Emily Stifler, who had met a guy I knew from, like Middle School, named Joey D'Agastino. Joey asked Emily if she still talked to anyone from Wellesley, and she said, "Yes, Kip Lange." Or perhaps "Kip Lang". I don't care. Anyway, Joey said, "Oh...I'm sorry to tell you this..but I heard that Kip killed himself." To which Emily responded, "What? What? I just talked to him about six months ago!" And Joey indicated that apparently I killed myself during the last month or so.

He indicated he got the information from Ian Fitzpatrick, this kid who used to live around the corner from me -- his parents still do -- who said that his parents told him that I had killed myself a month ago.

Which is interesting, because it's hard to play MLB 2k7 all day long when you're dead.

So, to clear this up, you whacko bastards, Kip Lange, or Kip Lang, if you insist on misspelling my name, is not dead. I'm not even depressed! Not in the slightest!

Here's what's going on in Kip Lange's life: I am alive, I am fine, I lost my apartment a couple of years ago, I've been crashing with my parents since then, doing freelance contract writing and looking for a job that doesn't have a lot of pressure, and I am absolutely fine. In fact, I've never felt better (although I could stand to lose fifteen pounds or so)!

Nigam Shah is also alive and well, I am in constant contact with him, and Carlos Kase is also alive and well, and I am in constant contact with him.

To repeat: Kip Lange is not dead. Kip Lang is not dead. Christoper "Kip" Lange is not dead. I have not committed suicide. In fact, I'm feeling pretty righteous about things.

Okay. Now I gotta wait for the spiders to pick this up.

Jesus.

Quick impressions of MLB 2k7 for the PS3

Well, I got my hands on MLB 2K7, since the old standard and lovable EA MVP series is dead.

My first impression? Pretty good. It's not full of eye candy (the best looking games I've played for the PS3 so far have been NBA 2K7 and Resistance: Fall of Man), but there's enough there to tell it's a next-gen game. And, of course, it's in high def (720p, I believe, I don't think it's 1080p, but that really doesn't make much of a difference, as I've been ranting about).

Aside from that, the gameplay is pretty darn good and -- a lot of people will like this -- a hell of a lot like the ol' MVP play. You won't have a hard time adjusting to pitching. Hitting is set by default to SIXAXIS control -- thrust the controller forward to hit, at an angle to hit up or down. Of course, if you're anything like me, you'll get really annoyed at the SIXAXIS style very quickly and you'll switch the game over to the MVP-style control -- swing with the X button and direct your hit by using the left analog stick. You can also go into "swing stick" mode, which gives you a bit more control and uses the right analog stick to swing -- a little bit touchy, but more reliable than the SIXAXIS mode (is SIXAXIS ever going to amount to anything interesting? Give us rumble back, Sony!).

You can, of course, download an online roster, the latest of which is supposed to be as of 2/16/07 -- but it ain't. So, fellow Red Sox fans, I hate to break the news -- Dice K isn't in there yet. I imagine he'll pop up on the next roster update. Truly annoying for Sox fans, though.

There's a great deal of depth the management of the game, better even than the MVP series. You can use InDepth to purchase scouting reports on your own team, or opposing pitchers, and whatnot. And it helps, it really does. You can call up and send down teammates, although I am not entirely sure there is any way to play minor league games yet (don't yell at me if there is, I just haven't had time to muck around enough).

Oh, and if Dice K really is in the new roster and I'm missing him, somehow -- would somebody please tell me? :-)

Overall, a solid game. Promises a lot of fun. Includes a season mode as well as a franchise mode. On a scale of one to ten -- Graphics: 6, Gameplay: 8, Learning Curve: 10, Pure Fun: 8.

Overall: 7-8.

Rent it first if you're unsure about wanting a baseball game, or if you're really interested in what Sony's MLB: The Show will be like. But since I don't trust SCEA sports games, and my most replayed games are all sports ones, I'm sticking with my decision to purchase MLB 2k7.

Finally, just so you know, voice-wise, Jon Miller does the play-by-play while Joe Morgan is the color guy. Now, I'm not a huge fan of either of them, especially Morgan, but they do a pretty nice job on the chatter in MLB 2k7.

Happy gaming!

Quick review of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2007 for the PS3

Well...I spent some of my hard-earned cash on the newest Tiger Woods installment, and I have to say, I'm a little disappointed.

Those of you expecting eye candy, as I was, will be disappointed as well. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2007 is in high-definition, at least, but the graphics look almost exactly the same as the PS2 version. The TIger Challenge is there again, in a slightly different form, that is, a match ladder. It's easier to beat this year, it seems, although one difference is you can now adjust the difficulty level of the game (forgive me if I'm wrong about this, but in previous versions, I don't remember being able to change the difficulty settings).

There are a few minor gameplay tweaks, but nothing major. The game is, of course, good solid fun, it's just I was hoping for more out of the next-gen version. It's a great game, and very addictive, although you'll probably start to lose interest after you beat the Tiger Challenge. Although you do have the option of playing two different online modes (one of which is "battle golf", which I'm not so fond of).

So, bottom line: same Tiger as always. No major changes. No big jump in graphics on a next-gen system. If you like the series, you'll still like this game, it just won't seem any different or significantly improved to you. Save yourself some money and rent this one before you buy.

Now...I'm waiting on Major League Baseball 2k7 (they now have the official MLB franchise, which means your only other baseball option is Sony's "MLB: The Show", which I don't trust given Sony's tendency to make their games too arcadey -- case in point, the dunkfest that is "NBA '07" by SCEA). MLB 2k7 is released on the 26th of February (tomorrow - Monday) and I should have it in my hands within a day. And, sadly, again, the game so many of us loved that was EA Sports' "MVP" series is dead and gone. Also, there will be no next-gen version of EA NHL this year for the Playstation 3 -- you're going to have to wait for EA NHL '08 (one of the greatest sports franchise games ever, in my opinion -- and I don't like real hockey much).

1080 and 720 once more...

Before someone comes whining to me about this, first, I'd like to add that yes, I know 1080i and 1080p are different, I know that framerates are different, and so on.

Now, if you do a search on the Internet about 720p versus 1080p, you're going to lose your mind. I've just been through about four threads on the topic. I have neither the time nor the patience nor the flame-retardant underwear necessary to post to any of them.

It comes down to this: the uber-geeks are going to scream at you that 1080p is superior. Oh, my God, is it superior, what the hell are you doing even suggesting 720p could rival it?

Of course it's superior. I'm not arguing that. I'm trying to boil this down simply for the average person who wants to 1) Watch HD television and 2) Play next-gen console games. As for the first scenario, watching HD television, 1080p simply doesn't matter yet because barely anything is ever *shown* in 1080p. You're usually just scaling up a 720p image. As for next-gen systems, you're not going to notice the difference unless you've got a massive TV set, one much bigger than the standard 42-inchers that most people are buying right now. Does resolution make a difference? Yes, slightly, most especially in computer monitors. I have a native 1080 resolution monitor I'm using right now. There's one downstairs that's 768-native. This monitor looks better. But put a good looking game on either of them, and you can really barely notice the difference.

Do your own research. Go look at 1080p sets that you know are broadcasting in full 1080p next to 720p sets. You will see a difference, but not a large one at all, and only if you're looking up close. Put it across a coffee table and watch it a little further back and you won't be able t notice a damn thing. Again, there are too many other things that determine picture quality.

So go look. For God's sake, do not go surfing around the Internet looking for an answer, because all you will get is a massive headache. For instance, Consumer Reports, which accepts no advertising, and is thus relatively free from being bribed, rates several 720p sets above 1080p sets. Now, if you bring this up in a discussion on the Internet, you're going to have people sneer at you and make comments like, "Consumer Reports should stick to rating toasters, what do they know about tech?" Well, for one thing, the people they had reviewing the sets were all professional engineers. They weren't idiots.

In ten years, 1080p may be making a big difference, and the standard TV set you might buy will be an affordable 73" set. Go figure. But right now, 720p is virtually indistinguishable from 1080p. Therefore, go with the set that you think has the best picture, not with an inferior set merely because it's 1080p. And in six years or so, when your plasma set wears out, maybe then go ahead, re-evaluate the whole market, and maybe pick up a 1080p. Of course, by that time, there will probably be a higher resolution that people are trying to sucker you into.

Just don't listen to the geekspeak that pervades the Internet. Look at honest reviews of a particular set, look at that set in person, and choose based on that, not whether or not individual beads of sweat in NBA '07 look slightly better on a 1080p set.

The Blogger Navbar

I go back and forth on adding this little item. It's the navbar you see at the top of my page that allows you to search my blog for specific terms.

It's extremely helpful, but I find that it often slows the loading page of my blog down, and being an HTML purist, I hate that.

But, for the time being, it's back up there. Enjoy. Use. Learn.

Kip Lange Wellesley High School

Here you go. Just another search term I want the spiders to pick up for the search engines, in case people are looking for me. I am the Kip Lange, or the Christopher Lange, that attended Wellesley High School (WHS) and graduated in 1993.

Got that? Kip Lange, Wellesley High School.

Now spider me, baby!

Next-gen NBA games...

Well, it's too bad, but EA Sports -- the king of the sports franchise games, in my opinion -- has pulled the plug on NBA Live for the next-gen consoles, which is a shame.

You're left with basically two options. First -- Sony, SCEA, has released its own NBA game, NBA '07.

Your other option is 2k Sports' NBA 2k7. Now, I originally started NBA games with NBA 2k2, and I loved it, but I moved to NBA Live because I was enticed by somewhat more fast-paced gameplay.

Now I've returned happily to NBA 2k7. I tried out NBA '07, Sony's offering, and while the graphics are wonderful, the game is a mess. It's strictly "arcade" play -- meaning the game is nothing but a dunkfest, with little defense, little strategy, little simulation value. Playing it online gives you the same problem amplified; it's plagued by "cheesers" -- people who exploit and abuse bugs or weak spots in a game instead of trying to play an honest NBA-like game.

NBA 2k7, when played online, can also suffer from the same problem, but there are many leagues you can join which ban "cheesing" and stick to playing a more sim-oriented game. In general, offline, though, NBA 2k7 is a great simulation game. It's hard to play, it's not a dunkfest, and you have to really try to play like you're playing a real NBA game to win it. In other words, it's the Madden of the NBA franchise videogames.

Some people may not like this game, and prefer the fast-paced dunking of NBA '07, but there is no doubt in my mind that those who really like basketball will prefer NBA 2k7. And, by the way, the graphics in NBA 2k7 are just as good as those in NBA '07; perhaps even better, as NBA '07 is so obsessed with eye candy over gameplay that they've made the players appear almost plastic -- and kind of creepy.

NBA 2k7 also offers a wealth of different modes to play; there's something for everyone in the game. It may throw a few people off with its complexity at first, but once you get some of basic controls down, you will love this game.

I advise you to rent both titles first and judge for yourself, but as far as I'm concerned, NBA 2k7 is the new standard by which next-gen basketball games should be judged by.

"I support the troops" -- an interesting op-ed piece by Jeff Jacoby.

This piece, published by Jeff Jacoby on the February 18th in the Boston Globe, addresses one of what I consider the most annoying trends emerging in today's politically correct society -- the dreaded "I support the troops, but I don't support the war!" statement.

Is this truth, hyperbole, newspeak, or worse?

Either way, it's an interesting read, and I recommend it.

I don't know how long this link will stay alive; I'm not sure how many back issues the Globe keeps online (at least before making you pay for it). If it disappears, I may put the article up in full (the version that Jeff sends out in email to his mailing list -- which you can subscribe to at http://www.JeffJacoby.com -- contains many detailed and well-thought out hyperlinks, which makes the article that much more thoughtful) or I may try to link to a stable version of it.

Let's get ready to not rumble -- the PS3 and force-feedback

Well, folks, if you have a PS3 and you're praying that Sony will introduce a rumble controller, don't hold your breath.

Sony maintains that the "rumble" technology would interfere with the SIXAXIS controller's motion feedback. A rather silly contention, considering the Wii's elaborate motion-control doesn't exclude Nintendo from including force-feedback.

The real problem is Sony's fight with Immersion, who produced the original rumble technology. A lot of game companies ripped it off, and a lot of them settled out of court so they could keep the rumble tech in the controller. Like Microsoft.

Recently, a company named SplitFish announced that it had developed a controller that would provide force feedback without screwing up the motion control of the SIXAXIS. Sony wasn't interested, and so even if SplitFish introduces the controller, game companies will have zero incentive to put force-feedback in their games.

The only really conceivable problem of incorporating rumble back into Sony's SIXAXIS controller is battery life. Force-feedback would drain the controller's battery quite fast. This is certainly an issue, but definitely one Sony could work on if they wanted to. After all, they designed a whole new "batarang" controller which they eventually just dumped for the hell of it. It's not like Sony is short on cash or creative engineering minds.

If you ask me, Sony will continue to ignore the rumble issue -- until it becomes apparent that they're losing customers because of it. And I think that may happen. I love my PS3; I'm a typical "fanboy". I'm sticking with the PS3. I love it. Even without rumble tech. But I sure as hell do miss the feeling of recoil from firing a gun. It's funny, because when Sony first introduced rumble, I wasn't a huge fan. But I quickly grew to love it. But even I sometimes wistfully wonder how much better a particular game on the PS3 would be on the XBox 360, even given Sony's superior technology, just because it would have force-feedback.

So, all I can say is, let's cross our fingers and hope that, maybe in a year or so, Sony will come to their senses and introduce a rumble controller. Either that, or they'll find useful, fun, and creative ways of using the SIXAXIS's motion control feature -- because so far, no PS3 game makes use of it except in the most gimmicky, non-interesting ways.

Oh rumble, how I mourn for thee!

The great 1080i scam...

This is an issue that you should really consider if you're in the market for a new HDTV. Ad after ad after ad on TV -- why, after about three of them, you've probably got it in your mind that a "1080i" or 1080p (which refers to the resolution, by the way, if you don't know what it means -- it's the number of pixels crammed into your screen) is, like, the Holy Grail of HDTVs.

It most certainly is not.

Let's get this out of the way first: the best looking picture available on an HDTV is still from the old, standard TV model -- a cathode ray tube. It's the best picture by far. Unfortunately, those models lack the "oomph" in color, and the slim build (they're behemoths) of any of the flat-panel models.

After the CRTs, your best picture is most likely a plasma. The plasmas have the best color, the most zip. They also can wear out -- and there's really no way of "fixing" a plasma. Whereas if you have a DLP television, you can replace the bulb after a few years (the DLP would be the one advertised with the rather silly "it's the mirrors!" campaign).

LCD is a close second, and in some models, better than a plasma. It has a sharper picture, just by a tad. Of course, the LCD televisions have problems. First, you need to be looking at them at the exact right angle to get the best picture. Second, and those of you who have used a lot of LCD monitors know about this -- sometimes a pixel just goes "dead". It turns into a black spot on the TV screen that, again, you can't fix. Plasmas can suffer the same problem, but they tend to be better.

One good thing you should remember about all these televisions -- if nothing goes wrong in the first two to three months, you're probably set for a few years. With these new televisions, if something's going to break, it's going to break pretty quickly (this is a good rule of thumb for any high-end piece of electronics these days).

Now, finally, the 1080i issue. What I am about to tell you is true for 42" - 50" HDTVs. No matter how much hype 1080i gets, no matter how much you hear how great it is -- it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter one bit. Because at that size, the difference between a 720p/720i picture and a 1080i/1080p picture is indistinguishable to the human eye. Now, I know, a lot of you will refuse to believe me, or even if you do believe me, you're going to notice that the 1080 televisions are not that more expensive than the 720 ones. Go ahead and buy the 1080, but remember what I said. Any good salesman at an electronics store will tell you exactly what I just did.

What you should focus more on with HDTVs, especially the plasmas and LCDs, are other things that affect the quality of the picture. The ability to reproduce true blacks. The contrast settings. The vibrancy of the color. Trust me, these things matter, whereas 1080 over 720 -- does not. Just go to your electronics store of choice and look at the 42" plasmas or LCDs side-by-side. You're going to notice a difference in the pictures, yes you are, and the better looking pictures are going to cost more, but you won't see a dang thing that makes 1080i look better than 720i. It just is physically impossible.

Now, if you're buying a 73" television, it's a different story -- I'd say go for the 1080. Then again, if you're buying a 73" flat-panel HDTV, you have enough money to just get whatever the heck you want, and you might as well opt for 1080. The bigger the television, the more noticeable the pixel count is.

But, I repeat: for 42" and 50" HDTVs, the human eye cannot tell the difference. I know a lot of you are going to disagree with me, or try to, and that's fine, go ahead and buy the 1080, but I'm not budging from this statement, nor I am budging from the position that you need to look at some of the other factors I mentioned to get an HDTV with a truly superior picture.

There ya go, I've said my piece. Happy shopping!

Bleak thoughts on a bleak winter night...

Man, if you're not in New England, you're missing one hell of a storm. Not a lot of snow, but freezing rain, ice covering everything, wind blowing all over the place...spooky as all hell. And I sure as hell wouldn't want to drive in this weather, thank God I don't have to.

On a night like tonight I wish I could pepper my blog with things a bit darker than tips on connecting gaming consoles or crap like that. People who've known me for a while might wonder why my current blog is so bland. Well, the reason is simple. The Internet is simply too wide-open now.

In the days of yore, before Google indexed everything on the face of the planet, you could get away with posting whatever the hell you wanted all over the place and be fairly sure that people you knew, or your employers, and so on, wouldn't see it. But now you can't. Give your name to someone, even some girl or guy you're asking out on a date, and next thing you know, they'll be searching you and finding that post on a discussion forum from eight years ago where you talk about being hungover or something you really don't want everybody to know.

That was the great thing about the Internet, that it used to be anonymous. Now you can't even hide behind a handle; a pseudonym. Even if I bought another domain name, or hosted my blog on blogspot, eventually someone would connect the dots and figure out who I am.

Which sucks, because there are plenty of opinions I'd like to share. Plenty of problems I'd like to bitch about. Plenty of yelling and carping I'd like to do. Ranting. Like in the good old days. But you just can't risk it anymore. And let me warn you kids out there who are still doing it, who are putting together MySpace pages that boast of, say, your extensive drug use: stop it or it's going to catch up to you and bite you in the ass. I guarantee it. When you go for your first real job, I doubt you want people reading crap like that.

That being said, I swear to God, I'm going to make this blog more interesting. Maybe I'll sacrifice a little respectability and anonymity. Hell, who cares.

I just wanted to apologize for being bland. That's all.

Another Playstation 3 Firmware Update

Yep, another firmware update for the PS3 came through tonight. We're now up to version 1.51. Make sure you hook up the ethernet cable next time you boot up.

Error 80710102 for the Playstation 3 -- one further note

I'm hoping my advice on fixing "Error 80710102" is helping some people connect their PS3s using a Comcast cable modem with battery backup.

But I did neglect to mention one other thing. You may go through the process I described, and get another error, or not be able to sign into the Playstation Network, and so on. Because what I forgot to mention was, once you follow my instructions, you will probably have to reboot the Playstation 3.

That's all. Minor sin of omission on my part. My bad.

Good luck with your online gaming!

Resistance: Fall of Man quick review

Well, Resistance arrived, and I popped it into my PS3 hoping for great things.

I wasn't entirely disappointed. Again, I am not a huge fan of first-person shooters (on a console -- on a PC, where you can freelook with a mouse, it's a different story). But I'm playing my way through this one.

It's much smoother than Call of Duty 3. The graphics are great, but you're not going to lean back and utter gasps of disbelief at what the PS3 can do. This is an early foray into software development for Sony, and while the framerate is smooth and constant, it does not have breathtaking, groundbreaking graphics.

That being said, the key word for this game, again, is "smooth". Everything moves smoothly. No slowdown when there are a lot of enemies on the screen. The computer's AI is very advanced, and it's noticeable. This is a fun game to play.

I've tried the online multiplayer modes just to test them -- I'm not ready to really play yet, I haven't got the controls down well enough -- and I jumped into a quick game of Deathmatch ("Deathmatch", for those of you who don't know, is a FPS multiplayer mode where the sole goal is to kill as many of the people playing the game as you can -- it's a free-for all, there are no teams). Anyway, the game connected quickly, and, again, smoothly, and I was in a ranked game (with players of roughly my own ability) of Resistance in no time at all. It was fun, even if I did come in last and I can't quite get the good ol' "circle-strafe" maneuver going with the PS3 controls yet.

All in all, a good game, worth the buy. I'd like to see some FPS games in the future try to use the Sixaxis system to aid in freelook, but, right now, every game out there for the PS3 is just basically throwing in a couple of token Sixaxis moves. In Resistance, for instance, you use it to shake off an enemy who grabs you. Which rarely happens.

The real games for the Playstation 3 are, again, about a year away. I do look forward to the port of Elder Scrolls: Oblivion in March, but other than that, the only other game right now I'm even considering is Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2007 (I love the Tiger golf games).

That's all for now. Bottom line on Resistance: Fall of Man? If you're a fan of first-person shooters, you should love it. If you're not, it should still intrigue you. And while it looks very nice, don't expect to be blown away by eye candy graphic advances in this one. But it's worth, at the very least, a rental.