Summation

[chuckro]

40" (or larger) HD TV: $1,000
XBox 360: $300
Final Fantasy 13: $60
Ikea TV stand suitable new TV: $200
Trip to Ikea: 1 day plus borrowing/renting appropriate car (or +$100 for shipping)
Dealing with Comcast: ~several days of my life

Playing FF13: Priceless Apparently not worth it, after all...

Comments

[edgehopper.livejournal.com]

Suggestion: Assuming you don't intend to use the XBox for significant group play purposes, substitute a new 25" LCD computer monitor for the HDTV, and replace your old computer monitor. The XBox can then be plugged into the computer monitor, and you don't need a new living room TV setup, nor do you need Comcast to come out. This reduces your price to the XBox, the monitor, and the game (and an HDMI cable, if you don't have one already). Since I know you do significant Bittorrent video downloading, you add significant extra use to the new monitor.

[hyouneko.livejournal.com]

Depending on the bit torrent format, you can stream them to the XBox as well if you decide to go with the setup.

[oblvndrgn.livejournal.com]

You can still play on your old TV anyway, or if you want a new TV you don't have to go 40", 40" is pretty dang big.

[hyouneko.livejournal.com]

+1 40" is a pretty good sized TV. How big tv do you have now?

You realize you don't HAVE to have an internet connection to play FF13.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

I currently have a 21" TV, I believe. It was the one that used to live in my dorm room.

I'm getting the impression that you HAVE to have an internet connection to assure your 360/PS3 will work properly at all.

[hyouneko.livejournal.com]

/facepalm

As I've said before you DON'T have to patch the games in order to play them. They are NOT broken and in dire need of a patch for them to play through out of the box. Patches != Fatal Flaw game is unplayable. As I've also said multiple times, you CAN NOT get through XBox cert with this kind of problem. The xbox patch limit is less than 5 megs. The average size picture file coming from a DSLR camera is bigger than that.

You don't even need it to upgrade your firmware. Games that require a certain version of the XBox firmware automatically install said firmware from the game disk.

Please come to grips with the fact that these are still console games and not PC games from the bygone era when they'd just release crap and patch it later. I can't tell you how much exactly, but every time a game goes through the cert process for XBox, it costs the video game company the price of a small luxury sedan. You fail cert the first time, your company just bought 2 small luxury sedans. No cert = no release key; no release key = won't play on device.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Of all those expenses, I'm certain all would be worth it save the last. Trips to IKEA are fun (and assembling the new furniture is like LEGOS for adults); a new, bigger TV will only make watching things more pleasant and less of a strain on the eyes; and the XBOX will eventually provide so many hours of entertainment, you won't need much else.

And yet, for all that, the idea of wrangling Comcast into order is enough to make even me go, "Er..."

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Remembering how expensive my current tv was and how hard it was to get it home (and I had a car then), I absolutely refuse to get a new one until this one breaks. But the center-cutting on network shows is starting to drive me BATSHIT CRAZY. OMG. Give me an option for watching it letterbox and I will. Don't just cut off half of McGee's face.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Well, if you end up buying one and need someone to assemble a TV stand for it, I'm up to the job!

I feel you on the TV issue. Ours, though it works impeccably, has roughly a jillion connections so we don't need an AV receiver, and is a big scren, is too heavy and large and eats up too much space in our place for my comfort. When we end up moving, too, that thing is going to require its own trip. I'm starting to panic about it more and more as we get closer to the end of the lease. Why are TVs never perfect?

[cubby-t-bear.livejournal.com]

Definitely agree. Ikea is awesome. If it was closer by, I'd probably go there just to hang out, and eat swedish meatballs.

[lyriendel.livejournal.com]

$1660 is nothing. I bought a >$2K desktop years ago just to play FF8. Got my PS2 to play FF10, and I already have a slimline PS3 (although it broke already and now it's getting warranty-repaired) just because I want FF13 to be *prettier* than it would be on an XBox 360. :)

Besides, if dealing with Comcast is the main barrier, you could get one of these instead:
http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-F5D7330-802-11g-Wireless-Ethernet/dp/B00020H1TG

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

Well, one could argue that you bought the fancy desktop for purposes other than just FF8. It's not like you only booted it up to play that game.

I really should take the time to hook up the wireless router I have and get a repeater so it can reach the living room, independent of video game purchases. My study group has been disappointed by the lack of available wireless in my apartment.

[lyriendel.livejournal.com]

Sure, but you could argue that if you bought a fancy TV, TV stand, and XBox 360, it would also be for purposes other than just FF13. :)

You *could* just run a longer ethernet cable and stick your router in the middle of your apartment. And run another ethernet cable to an XBox 360 in your living room, for that matter.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

And run another ethernet cable to an XBox 360 in your living room, for that matter.

Not really feasible--that'd be 100+ feet of cable, basically from one end of my apartment to the other.

[lyriendel.livejournal.com]

'Not really feasible' is the wrong descriptive phrase here. There are plenty of 100' ethernet cables out there. 'Really ugly' is the right descriptive phrase. :)

[hyouneko.livejournal.com]

You realize FF13's graphic engine is the Unreal engine which is optimized for the 360? We pay epic a good amount in time, money and resources to make sure of this. Neither version is going to be prettier.

[lyriendel.livejournal.com]

Huh. That's interesting. I read that having the game on Blu-Ray rather than on DVDs where higher compression is required, might make the game crisper on PS3. You're probably right that they'll be the same, though.

Anyway, I also (more importantly) bought the PS3 in anticipation of wanting to play FF versus 13, which is exclusive to PS3.

[hyouneko.livejournal.com]

Yeah, most games on the PS3 use compressed graphics to begin with. Since the 360 uses dvd's, they already know they'll be space constrained on one platform (which also happens to sell more games and have more consoles in the wild). Having uncompressed graphics on the PS3 and compressed on the 360 would mean a lot of duplicated work, which just isn't economical in terms of money and time.

Also, the initial press showings have come back with the versions looking almost identical.

[bigscary.livejournal.com]

Why on earth would you get such an expensive, enormous HDTV? Is your living room even large enough? Do you have a significant number of 1080p sources? Where is your couch?

A 720p/1080i 37incher is barely half the price -- I have a 32" I got for barely $425 and I have not regretted it for a single second.

Also, the bedbathbeyond stand is about 75$ cheaper, is shipped cheaper, and you can use those ubiquitous BBB 20% off coupons.

(Good news, though -- the 360 is good for many things besides ffxiii.)

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

Ah, but does the 360/PS3 look sufficiently beautiful on anything smaller? The indication seems to be that it doesn't.