Headphone amps are pretty much standard equipment in the setups of audiophiles everywhere. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been doing a lot of research on headphone amps and come across a number of different amps in all shapes and sizes but the one type of amp that piqued my interest was the “CMoy” amp. This type of amp, designed years ago by Chu Moy is an unconventional but powerful amp design that can be made by anyone with the right parts and a soldering iron. Well, I don’t consider myself one of the handiest of guys with a soldering iron at the moment so, instead of taking a chance and trying to build one myself, I decided to buy one that had been pre-made from a company called JDS Labs. After a few hours of listening, I’m impressed.

My previous experience with headphone amps is definitely limited, as the only ones I’ve ever owned are the Fiio E5 and E1 portable amps. I decided to get these after buying my RE0s because of their relatively high impedance and thinking that they would need a bit more power than my iPod Touch could provide on its own. The Fiio amps are good for what they are but they really don’t pack a big enough punch to add that special something to most of my headphones. So, I decided to pick up a more powerful amp that I could use to power the headphones I currently have and those I add to my collection in the future.  A CMoy amp was a natural choice because they are plenty powerful, offer great sound quality and are inexpensive.  As long as you get a good one that is.

And let me tell you, the JDS Labs CMoy BB is definitely good.

It would be good enough if it merely amplified the signal going to my headphones enough to unleash their full sonic potential but the one thing that makes this CMoy stand out from the average homemade CMoy amp you can find on eBay for varying amounts is in its very name. I am of course talking about the bass boost feature.

As you can see in the picture above, there’s an internal toggle switch that boosts the low end considerably. The Fiio E5 had a similar feature but it was nowhere near as impactful or enjoyable as the boost generated by this amp. Toggled off, the frequency response is quite flat and neutral; coloring the sound no more than any other amp I’ve used but with the bass boost feature on, the bass comes alive. This feature turns my normally neutral RE0s into bass monsters. The RE0s already had good bass detail so the result of this amplification merely allowed that aspect of the RE0’s performance stand out. As much as I enjoyed my RE0s before, I enjoy them even more now with the increased bass response which benefits my tastes in music.

Honestly, the bass boost feature is almost worth the price of admission by itself. For people who desire more transparent sound, as I said before, without the bass boost feature toggled on, the frequency response is flat which is good if you have headphones that already have enough bass for your tastes. Seeing as I love my bass and the RE0s are relatively light in that regard (but not too much so that it sounds imbalanced), this was a natural choice for me. The geek factor of owning a headphone amp that’s enclosed in an Altoids tin is a nice bonus too.

Overall, despite my limited experience with headphone amplifiers, I can tell that this one is pretty good. I don’t expect that this can compete with the likes of more expensive amplifiers that can cost hundreds, even thousands of dollars (!) but for the price (about $70 including shipping); the performance is excellent so far and I’m sure that this competes well above its price range. I’ve heard that many headphone amplifiers (as well as this one) need a few dozen hours of burn in before they sound their best but even now, I’m definitely impressed. This is an easy recommendation for people on a budget who need a little more juice to power their high impedance headphones and/or would like to add a bit more “oomph” to the low end.

Since I got my RE0s and I started going to Head-Fi, I’ve been…experimenting with a number of different headphones/earphones and listening to the various sound signatures these devices create. In the short time since I received my RE0s, I’ve heard (of course) the RE0s the V-Moda Vibes, MEElectronics M9Ps, Koss KSC75s (with some light modifications) and one of the only things I haven’t yet heard is an IEM with a balanced armature speaker. Well, a few nights ago, I happened to be browsing eBay for some reason and in that time, I came across the Altec Lansing Backbeat Pro IEMs.

The auction I happened upon was open-box and on sale for about $16. I did some research on them and saw that the MSRP was about $100 but they were retailing at most online retailers I saw for about $30. Apparently, Altec Lansing has a number of IEMs on the market and many of them are simply rebranded versions of IEMs from Ultimate Ears with the Backbeat Pros being Altec Lansing’s version of the Super.fi 4 IEMs from Ultimate Ears. After doing a little more research into the sound quality, I said “what the heck” and ordered them. Shipping was strangely fast for USPS and I received them early Saturday and went about putting them through their paces after watching a movie (The Hurt Locker, great film by the way).

First off, I was immediately slapped in the face by the midrange presentation. The midrange is the dominant frequency range on these IEMs by quite a bit and is very forward and aggressive. Because of this, it’s also somewhat fatiguing. I did notice a tiny bit of harshness when listening to some busy tracks. High end and treble is in many ways, similar to the midrange in that it too is quite aggressive. Treble is sharp and sparkly and pretty much devoid of harshness but it’s also somewhat edgy and fatiguing. The low end on the other hand is somewhat recessed and lacking in comparison. Bass is there and makes its presence known when it needs to but it lacks in quantity in sub-bass levels and there’s a prominent midbass hump. Texture and definition are also lacking in regards to the low end.

Upon taking them out of the box, I wasn’t wowed by the clarity of these IEMs because they sounded somewhat veiled to my ears, despite the aggressiveness of the midrange. After a few hours of listening to them with various types of music, the veil seems to have been lifted. In comparison to the RE0s, my benchmark in terms of overall sound quality and clarity, the Backbeat Pros can’t compete but they are still very clear to my ears. Soundstaging is less impressive, as it is pretty narrow but separation is good. The result of this somewhat narrow soundstage is a very intimate listening experience.

Overall, the sound signature is pretty good, if surprisingly aggressive. While the low end doesn’t impress, the quality of the mids and highs goes a long way towards making up for it. I will say that the Backbeat Pros sound a tad artificial and, in a word, clinical in comparison to my other IEMs. This may just be one of the cons of the balanced armature design and it’s not something that I consider a big turn off.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t at least partially impressed by the Backbeat Pros. Fit and comfort are surprisingly great and I can hardly feel the IEMs in my ears when using the standard single flange eartips. Sonic performance is good considering the current retail price, which typically hovers around $30 but honestly, I’m having more fun with my M9Ps than I am with the Backbeat Pros. In my current collection, these are in a strange position. When I’m in the mood for fun, I’m going to reach for my M9Ps and when I want to feed my inner detail freak, I’m grabbing my RE0s. These are difficult to recommend in that regard. Are they good? Certainly. But at either end of the spectrum, there are better choices. I will say that these are probably going to be better than the M9Ps for some genres due to their emphasis on the mids as opposed to the low end so my advice is to give them a trial run and see how they work for you. Who knows? You may like what you hear.

Early last week as I was browsing the forums at Head-Fi, I was alerted to a discount special by MEElectronics, a small California-based manufacturer of various gadgets such as DAPs and IEMs. Having read a few reviews on their more popular IEMs, the $40 M6 and the M9, which apparently uses the same dynamic driver and retails for about $20, I looked over their product lineup and settled on the slightly more expensive M9P, which comes with a built-in inline microphone which I figured I could use for making Skype calls with my iPod Touch. Yesterday (after a few shipping gaffes by USPS), I received my M9Ps and immediately gave them a listen straight out of the box.

When listening to these for the first time, you can’t help but notice the bass-centric presentation of the M9P because it practically reaches out and smacks you with it. The sound signature is dark, warm and dominated by the low end. The deep, punchy and decently textured bass is easily the biggest strength and biggest weakness of the M9Ps. On one hand the increased bass response is great for Hip-Hop and Rap as well as Techno, some Jazz and Electronica. On the other hand, the bass may be too boomy and “flabby” to some listeners. I’ve found that it does bleed  into the midrange a bit and as a result, the mids are slightly recessed. To my surprise, the treble has a decent amount of sparkle and is pretty well extended, which rounds out the sound signature nicely.

One thing that’s missing from the experience is clarity in the sound signature. These are not the most detail-oriented IEMs out there and due to that pronounced low end, there’s a lot to be desired in terms of transparency. Accuracy lovers probably aren’t going to be pleased with these overall. Then again, it’s highly unlikely that detail freaks would be looking at a $20 pair of IEMs to suit their needs.

What’s really surprising about the M9Ps is their airiness and the depth and width of their soundstage. Instrument separation is excellent for the price and imaging is fairly decent as well. I’d even go as far as to say that the soundstage is wider than that of my RE0s which, for a $20 pair of IEMs, is pretty impressive.

As I said before, the M9P IEMs feature a built-in inline microphone which is designed to work with current generation iPhones and second and third generation iPod Touch devices as well as other media devices that accept microphone input through their 3.5mm jack. I’ve tested the inline mic of the M9P on my second generation iPod Touch and it works pretty well. It’s very clear and picks up voices very well while doing a decent enough job of filtering out ambient noise. I would’ve liked to see some volume/playback controls but considering the low price, I think that’s asking a tad too much.

You may have noticed how often I mention that these IEMs are only $20, almost to the point of total redundancy. Well, that was intentional. Try as I might to find something to criticize, that’s all for naught the instant I remember that I paid $23 (including shipping) for these.

All things considered, I’m very impressed with the out-of-the-box performance of the M9P IEMs. They are well extended at both ends of the sound spectrum (particularly in the low end) and work well with a wide array of music. Overall, the sound signature is definitely on the dark end of the spectrum which will definitely appeal to fans of most modern music. Because of their lack of neutrality and transparency, these are definitely not for accuracy freaks or those interested in neutral tonal balance from their IEMs. These definitely aren’t going to replace my RE0s as my primary IEMs but they make competent backups when I want to listen to something with a little more kick in the low end.

For the price, these are definitely worth checking out. They make great gifts for folks still using stock iBuds, serve as nice backup IEMs and even function as a nice headphone/microphone combo for folks with iPhones and second gen iPod Touches. All in all, I think the MEElectronics M9P IEMs are a great product and I’m very interested in seeing where MEElectronics goes from here.

Over the last week or so of listening to the RE0s with a wide variety of music, I’ve grown accustomed to its unique sound signature because they are so unlike all of the various headphones/earbuds/IEMs I’ve listened to so far. Everything I’ve listened to prior to the RE0s has colored the music I’ve listened to with its own sound signature. From the cold, analytical presentation of my HD280 Pros to the deep, bloated bass of my V-Moda Bass-Freq earbuds, everything layers a bit of itself over the music. With the RE0s, there’s nothing there. The sound signature is entirely flat and while that may sound like a negative, trust me, it isn’t. This neutrality creates total transparency and allows the source to come through exactly as the artist intended it to. Because of this, the RE0s are unquestionably the best headphones I’ve ever heard.

The beauty of the RE0s is that they don’t color the music coming through them. There are no peaks and valleys in the presentation and it’s entirely smooth, creating a very enjoyable listening experience. Some headphones can cause fatigue after long periods of listening, which prompts a break. Even some of the best headphones out there can cause this “listening fatigue” but with the RE0s, this hasn’t been an issue for me because they’re so well balanced.

When I wrote my first impressions of the RE0s a short while ago after listening to only a couple of songs, I remarked (on my GameSpot blog) that the treble was a bit harsh on the upper end. Now, after breaking them in for a while, they’ve settled into their final sound signature. Treble sparkles nicely in the high end without being strident. Chimes and xylophones sound wonderful and slightly warm on the RE0s which I greatly enjoy.

I originally thought that the bass and low end in general was lacking at first, missing a certain fullness and impact, but it has grown stronger and is now very pleasing, even to the bass-head in me. What I’ve noticed about the bass though is that it is lacking a bit in terms of body. See, the bass hits and extends pretty deep into the low end, only rolling off at the lowest frequencies and just like that (imagine I snapped my fingers here), it’s gone. It’s tight and quick, almost to a fault, but its presence is enough to be heard and, most importantly, felt.

The RE0s improve in terms of bass response and warmth when paired with a Fiio E5 portable headphone amp. The bass boost feature adds some body and weight to the bass as well as a hint of warmth to the RE0’s sonic presentation. For me and my tastes in music, this is a plus, but without the bass boost feature or even using them un-amped entirely, the RE0s are more than satisfactory.

It’s worth mentioning that microphonics can be an issue with the RE0s. If you’re unaware, the word “microphonics” in the case of IEMs is a phenomenon that occurs when vibrations (usually external) are transmitted through the earbud itself and into your ears. For instance, if you tap the cable with your finger while the IEMs are in your ears, those vibrations will likely be heard in your ears. With the RE0s, practically every external force can be transmitted through the cable and into your ears, be it the cable brushing against your clothing or simply waving in the wind. While this isn’t much of a problem if you’re, for example, sitting at home listening to music on your laptop since you probably won’t be moving much but when on the move, unless the cable remains very close to your body and doesn’t move much, regular movements like walking can create microphonic noise. This noise can be very loud and distracting at times when you’re trying to get immersed in music but for me, while it’s certainly annoying at times, it’s far from a deal breaker. To combat this, Head-Direct includes a shirt clip which helps to deaden cable vibration noise before it’s transmitted to your ears. Wearing the headphones over the top of your ears (as opposed to dangling down from them) also helps with microphonic noise.

I’m a novice when it comes to reviewing headphones so it’s worth taking everything I’ve said here with a grain of salt. I don’t have a ton of reference hardware that I can really compare these to in terms of sound quality except my full-size HD280 Pro cans, the V-Moda Vibes I received recently and my outgoing V-Moda Bass-Freq earbuds. One thing I do know is that I can recognize high quality headphones when I hear them and even though I haven’t heard much audiophile-grade equipment, I can tell that the RE0s are in the upper echelon. I describe myself as an audiophile on a budget so as much as I would love to listen to a pair of Sennheiser HD800s paired with a high quality CD player (or maybe a fifth-generation iPod that’s received the “iMod” treatment) my budget is not going to permit me to do that. But for $84 shipped from Head-Direct (at the time of this writing), I am very pleased with my purchase.

In terms of bang for your buck performance, the RE0s are perhaps the best deal in portable headphones/earbuds you can get and I find it hard to believe that anyone could be disappointed with them. Overall, sound quality is simply superb, exhibiting a decent soundstage, thoroughly natural and exceptionally clear sound that isn’t lacking in any area. The design, while a bit derivative of the V-Moda Vibes feels sturdy without being heavy in your ears. I really can’t recommend these highly enough. They’re absolutely fantastic and if you’re looking for some great sounding portable headphones for on the go and home listening, you’d be quite remiss in overlooking these.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B43PlCcOhZ4]

After my Bass-Freq earbuds decided to call it quits, I did a bit of research into the world of portable headphones, coming up with a number of positive candidates in the process. My search turned up quality portable headphones from a number of manufacturers both familiar (Ultimate Ears, Klipsch and Shure) and not so familiar (YUIN and Fischer Audio) and after reading reviews on a multitude of portable headphones, I finally decided on the Head-Direct RE0 IEMs.

A few of you may know Head-Direct and they’re pretty famous in the audiophile community for being one of the leading importers of headphones and other audio accessories from a number of small overseas companies, some of which I’d never even heard of before venturing to Head-Direct’s site (YUIN being chief among those).  As it turns out, Head-Direct decided to venture into the highly populated IEM market themselves and begin selling their own RE line at varying levels of quality. Among the highest of these was the RE0s which, until the fairly recent release of the RE252s, were the company’s flagship IEMs. I checked out a number of reviews on the headphones before making my decision and saw that they were very close to the top of their class and could easily hang with some of the best on the market, even those which cost 2 – 3 times more than the RE0s themselves. After going to Head-Direct and seeing that they were on sale for $79 (down from $169), I was sold and placed my order.

So, I’m pretty sure you’re wondering if these things live up to the hype. So far, I have to say yes. I’ve listened to a number of songs on them already such as Wale’s Contemplate, Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven and 2Pac’s Temptations and they all sound great. I instantly noticed that the sound is, above all, transparent. The clarity in the sound signature jumps to the forefront the instant music begins playing and is immensely satisfying. After listening to my V-Modas for as long as I have and comparing them to the RE0s, they’re far muddier and less…open. The low end on the V-Modas is satisfying, but it really can’t compare to the RE0s and honestly, I didn’t expect them to, given how inexpensive they are (about $20) in comparison.

Now, I haven’t heard a great number of the more expensive IEMs so I can’t vouch for the quality of the RE0s just yet in comparison but I can say that they have impressed me right out of the box and, considering that IEMs with dynamic drivers such as the RE0s sound better after they’ve been broken in for a number of hours (10 – 50 is usually enough but some audiophiles say they need upwards of 100 hours to sound their best), things can only get better from here. I haven’t even listened to them with my portable headphone amp yet so I can tell that I’m in for a treat when they’ve been broken in and I listen to them amped.

As of now, I’d give the RE0s a high recommendation. This should be taken with a grain of salt seeing as I’ve only had a few minutes’ worth of listening time with them thus far. At the price they’re currently available for ($79), I honestly can’t see how you can go wrong with these as they offer exceptional depth and clarity even now, before they’ve been broken in and settled into their final sound signature. So, if you’re interested, you can check them out here. Keep in mind, however, that this is marked as a “Christmas Sale” and Christmas has obviously been over for a long time now. It’s highly likely that this sale price isn’t going to last for much longer so get them while you can!

Two days ago, I picked up Race Pro, a game I’ve been highly anticipating since its announcement in the form of an Xbox 360 version of the PC racing sim, GTR 2. This title hails from Simbin, a developer that has been heralded as one of the best in the business of creating racing simulators. This is their very first console racing title and the racing simulation community has been abuzz, wondering if they can replicate the notoriously hardcore PC racing simulation experience on a console with little compromise. After investing a few hours in the game, I can say with ease, they’ve done a damn fine job.

As I popped the game into my Xbox 360, I decided to jump into the game by playing it for the very first time with Microsoft’s official wireless racing wheel, which I’d purchased a little over a year ago for Forza Motorsport 2. It seemed fitting to play this title with the wheel in hand. If you own Microsoft’s official Racing Wheel, you owe it to yourself to use it for this game. Racing with the wheel, coupled with the interior view, feels incredibly natural. It can be tough going from racing with the controller to the racing wheel but undoubtedly, it truly is the best and most immersive way to play.

Onto the driving physics, there’s no doubt in my mind that Simbin has created one of the most realistic racing simulators ever, thanks in large part to the physics engine. Even driving something as seemingly mundane as a Mini Cooper (a highly modified version of a Mini Cooper no less) can be very exciting and trust me when I say the Radical SR3 is not to be taken lightly. I have yet to get behind the wheel of the Dodge Viper SRT-10 and Audi R8 (two of my favorite supercars) as of yet, two of the unmodified cars included in the package, but I did get behind the wheel of the Dodge Charger Super Bee, an exclusive download included in copies of the game sold at GameStop (don’t think of that as an ad…). Race Pro does an excellent job of simulating the high weight and power this car possesses, which makes it characteristically difficult to stop at the end of a long straightaway.

Race Pro is one of the rare racers on the market today that is able to blend accessibility with, at times, crushingly realistic physics. The instant you enter the career mode, it defaults to the professional difficulty setting, in which all assists are turned off. For the sake of accessibility, it’s nice that these settings can be changed to your liking. They can all be adjusted in varying degrees, from low, medium to high.

So far, the AI drivers generally make for fairly competent opponents but, on occasion, they exhibit some…questionable behavior. For instance, as the Autodriver lead me out to the track in my Chevy Lacetti, a sequence that you can’t override as far as I can tell, it nicked a barrier while exiting the pits and compromised my aerodynamics. I was essentially forced to restart the session due to my bent front bumper. Hopefully, this isn’t a common occurrence.

I’ve played a couple of online races so far and they all have been free of any perceptible lag, even with as many as ten vehicles on the track at once (the game supports 12 online). Despite the fairly limited options compared to other racing titles on the 360 such as Forza Motorsport 2 and PGR 4, it is nice to have the ability to take to the track in a practice session to play around with vehicle setups before beginning the big race.

Perhaps the only thing I don’t like about Race Pro so far is its incredibly basic presentation. The menus aren’t presented with any sort of visual pizzazz or flair and hardly go beyond the call of duty.  This can be somewhat off-putting, even for me, a person who appreciates what lies under the hood far more than visual aesthetics (which is why the Corvette Z06 has captured my heart more so than the far more visually appealing Ferrari F430).

Overall, after investing just a few scant hours into the game so far, I’ve very much enjoyed Race Pro. It has delivered exactly what I expected to, an involving and incredibly realistic racing simulator. Race Pro may be a little rough around the edges especially concerning the interface and overall presentation but it delivers where it counts. Stay tuned for the full review, which should be posted very soon.

In the days, weeks and months since the announcement of Sony’s Xbox Live killer, Home, I’ve been on an emotional rollercoaster. I’ve gone from hotly anticipating this feature to almost completely uninterested after numerous delays. I began to think that this was one of many things that looks and sounds great on paper but ultimately fails in execution. And who could blame me for feeling this way? What was supposed to launch to all Playstation Network users as early as September 2007 is still only in the beta stages well over a year later.

Oh how quickly things change when you press the right buttons…

Yesterday afternoon, I opened my email account to see that I’d received a long awaited invitation to the pubic beta for Playstation Home. Naturally, I quickly rushed over to my Playstation 3 to turn it on, input my beta access code and start playing around with it. So, how do I feel about it? Well, in a word…conflicted.

First and foremost, I jumped into the beta as everyone before me has, by creating my avatar. The character creation system is rather robust and there are a bunch of adjustments to be made, on par with the best character creators I’ve used. The wardrobe, on the other hand, was lacking. The selection of clothing, jewelry and accessories is on the slim side but that’s to be expected given that this is a beta.

Conveniently enough, the last four words of the previous paragraph can be applied to pretty much everything I’m going to say from here on out so remember to take everything I say with mountains of salt.

After creating your avatar, you are swept into your studio apartment. This is your personal space, which you’re free to decorate in any way you choose. Unlike games like The Sims and Animal Crossing which use a rigid grid system to determine where furniture can be placed, everything in your apartment is physics based and furniture can be placed anywhere there’s an open space. So, this can inspire gamers everywhere to tap into their inner interior decorator and create some nice furniture arrangements or do what I did and stack a few couches and tables on top of one another. As was expected, the furniture selection is incredibly limited but that’s excusable.

In my experience, there just wasn’t much to do in the apartment outside of walking out to the balcony and taking in the virtual sights so you’ll want to head out to the Central Plaza as soon as possible. The Central Plaza is the hub for everyone participating in the Home beta. Think of it as a message board but, you know, all interactive and stuff. In this large, open area, you’ll see your fellow gamers beta testers walking around, chatting, dancing and the like. This is also where you’ll access pretty much everything Home has to offer. There’s a bowling alley/arcade, a mall, the theater and s music pavilion for players to hang out in.

The bowling alley is easily the most fleshed out area in the entirety of the Home beta. Everything here is fully realized and accessible to everyone. There are three arcade machines, each featuring very simplistic minigames, including a stripped down version of Echochrome. Also available are pool tables and (obviously) bowling lanes. While I’ve had the chance to try out the pool tables and arcade machines, I’ve yet to have a turn on the bowling lanes to see if I can replicate my terrible bowling skills in the virtual world.

This brings me to one annoying limitation within Home and it’s not one that has to do with it being in the beta stages. All of the games in Home functions much like they would in real life due to the fact that you’ll have to wait your turn if someone is already using them. In theory, this isn’t so bad. If you’d arrived at a bowling alley and all of the lanes were filled in real life, it wouldn’t be so hard to wait until a lane is free but it doesn’t translate so well to the videogame world, which is built on the principle of instant gratification. It’s not really a bad thing when put into perspective, but given the general impatience of gamers, it doesn’t exactly bode well either. To put it simply, I don’t want to have to sit down and wait for…however long it takes for each person ahead of me to finish bowling.

Eh, maybe I’m just too impatient.

Moving on, I visited the Home mall, which promises to offer users many things to purchase within Home ranging for new clothes for their avatar to new personal spaces to live in. Unfortunately, none of the stores in the mall have anything for sale but that will undoubtedly change by the time the full release is ready. For now, many users seem to use the mall as a meeting place and upstairs, there are a few chess tables set out for everyone to use which follow the same rules as the games in the bowling alley, meaning everyone has to wait their turn in order to play.

Finally, the Home Theater is open to everyone, showing brief sort of video documentary of SOCOM: Confrontation. This is the only thing showing there and, again, this will be expanded on in the final release. I have to admit, I like the concept of being able to go to the theater in the future to check out the trailer for the newest games and the like. Once you’ve seen the SOCOM video, though, there isn’t much else to do in the theater besides chat with your fellow PS3 owners.

And…that’s pretty much it. After just a couple hours of play, I’ve seen just about everything Home has to offer. I can’t help but feel a bit disappointed by that. Home delivers on the promise of being the ultimate social networking tool on the PS3 but I can’t say you can accomplish very much more than if you’d pointed the PS3’s internet browser at Myspace or Facebook. As far as things to do with your friends and others in Home beyond chatting, the options are very limited and unless the final release expands on this, will likely grow old fairly quickly. Nevertheless, Home does add a number of features I genuinely like. Home is very easy to use and it’s very easy to make new friends using the social networking aspects of the service. The ability to gather your friends and jump straight from Home into a multiplayer game of your choice is a great addition as well.

So, whether you’ll love or hate the Home beta will ultimately be determined by your expectations. If you expected it to be the one-two punch Sony needed to knock Xbox Live off its pedestal, you’ll probably be disappointed. On the other hand, if you expected an easy to use social networking service that expands on the Playstation Network’s online features in a meaningful way with a few frills thrown in for good measure, you’ll be getting pretty much exactly what you asked for. Based on my few short hours with the service, I can see its very high potential and I’m eager to see what Sony plans to add to the finished product. Overall, I’ve enjoyed my time in the Home beta. It might not be everything I was hoping for but what I have seen so far has been promising.

Stay tuned folks, as a video tour of the Playstation Home Beta is on the way!

If any of you have been on Xbox Live recently and seen me online, you’ve probably been seeing me play Far Cry 2 almost non stop for the past week or so. Well, as I noted in my last blog post, this is the next title on my to-review list. I just finished spending some last minute reviewing time with it a few minutes ago and I think I’m finally ready to finish the review.

But first, some impressions…

Far Cry 2 has a lot in common with its Xbox and PC predecessor. They both feature a large, open ended setting, allowing you to tackle missions however you like. Unlike the first, all of the science fiction elements of the first Far Cry have been removed (IE no more mutants or the Xbox version’s feral powers).

So, how is it? Well, let’s just say I’ve been enjoying myself quite a bit. The weapon variety is very impressive, the open world is almost impossibly large, dotted with small towns and even smaller guard outposts here and there, and the visuals…oh man. The visuals are absolutely gorgeous. I would even go as far to say that they’re in contention with Gears of War 2 and Uncharted: Drakes Fortune as the console graphics king of this generation (I say “console” graphics king because we all know nothing beats Crysis). This fictional portrayal of an African nation, deeply embroiled in a civil war that threatens tear the country apart has to be one of the best open worlds I’ve ever seen behind GTA IV’s Liberty City, but only just. I’ll save the raving about the visuals for the review but needless to say, I was very impressed.

Another aspect of the game that impressed me was the dynamic propagation of fire. This is a very realistic concept that many games have only tip-toed around. Fire in this game spreads quickly and burns everything in its path to a crisp, including enemy soldiers that are unfortunate enough to stand in its way. There have been times when I’ve merely thrown a Molotov cocktail into the middle of an enemy outpost and watched it go up in flames, taking every one of my enemies down in the process without me having to fire a shot. That’s how great a weapon fire can be in this game.

Enemy AI has been hit or miss in my experience. There are times in which they showcase some brilliant tactics such as setting up flanking maneuvers, throwing grenades to flush me out, utilizing stationary gun turrets when they could. And…there are other times where they make me think they’ve just gotten off of the short yellow bus. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been able to walk up next to an enemy soldier and stand there, right in front of his face before he recognized me as hostile and opened fire. There were times when I threw a grenade toward a vehicle I saw two guys running toward (they love using vehicles to take you down) and they got into the truck, suddenly realized how stupid they were and then (unsuccessfully) tried to scramble out before my grenade blew them to Kingdom Come.

Despite how alive and vibrant the game world is I couldn’t help but feel like there could have been more done to make it more entertaining to explore. After I got over the initial shock of how great the world around me looked, the will to explore wore thin. This isn’t Liberty City and there aren’t people and buildings to explore everywhere you look. There’s just miles and miles (literally) of open countryside. I still enjoyed myself for the most part but without some kind of fast travel option (aside from the bus stations generally situated in the four corners of the map) it made driving to and from mission locations a bit tedious.

Overall, I was impressed by Far Cry 2. Stay tuned for the full review, which will be posted on Talk Xbox very soon.

Yes, I’ve finally seen the proverbial light I mentioned in my recent MGS 4 related blog post. I’ve finally played Metal Gear Solid 4 and…let’s just say I am very, very pleased.

It all began last Sunday when I was at work and a customer walked to my register with a copy of the game in question in his hand to trade in. Once I completed his transaction, I promptly informed my co-workers that I’d be checking the game out when my shift ended and set the game aside. That night I took it home and…didn’t play it. That day at work had worn me down so I was in no mood to play any games. Of course, the very next day, I finally popped the game into my Playstation 3 and started to play.

Let’s get the wild praise out of the way first before getting into the meat of these impressions. The game is freaking great. It reached out and grabbed me from the first minute like no other Metal Gear Solid game has. The story is keeping me compelled to see it through to the end to the point where I had to force myself to stop playing the other day after having played for nearly 4 hours.

Now that the unmitigated praise is out of the way, I can start being a critic. Now, one of the reasons why the Metal Gear Solid series has never reached out and grabbed me before now is in part due to the clunky shooting and combat controls. I’ve never gotten the hang of the whole, press lightly on the button to raise the gun and hard to shoot thing that has been utilized in previous entries. While I realize that this is a stealth game and thus, shooting and hand to hand combat shouldn’t be your main priority but almost inevitably, the game would find a way to make you do so, which puts a bit of a damper on the experience if you’re a stealth purist.

In MGS 4, this isn’t a problem. The shooting controls have been completely revamped and vastly improved. The camera instantly jumps into an over-the-shoulder view, similar to Resident Evil 4 or Gears of War, once your weapon is drawn. From there, it plays sort of like a third person shooter, a very good third person shooter at that. It’s because of this new perspective on combat that it becomes significantly easier. The emphasis on stealth is unfortunately diminished and the consequences for alerts take a nosedive early on. It’s far too easy to take out the squad of soldiers closest to you and then duck into an out of the way corner for a little while until things calm down.

But despite the ease of combat, stealth is a very viable option, especially with Snake’s new Octocamo. This invaluable addition to Solid Snake’s equipment is one of your greatest allies in the field and perhaps the greatest sneaking tool ever utilized in any stealth game. What it does is automatically change its texture and appearance to blend in with whatever surface you’re pressed up against, be it a brick wall or grass covered dirt. Oftentimes, AI soldiers and NPC’s will walk right past you without noticing, should you p

Everything isn’t all rosy and wonderful though. One of Metal Gear Solid 4’s biggest strengths is also its biggest flaws. I’m referring to this series’ particular brand of storytelling in which impossibly long cutscenes tell its far-reaching, rich and sometimes utterly convoluted story. It doesn’t help that the ratio of cutscenes to actual playing time is damn near 1:1.These cutscenes are entertaining to sit through sure enough, but occasionally, I can’t help but wish the game would shut up and let me play.

In the end, the game is everything I expected it to be and more. I expected it to be great but the sheer magnitude of its quality and ability to make me hopelessly addicted (I’ve actually taken time off from playing it because I didn’t want to finish it too quickly). This truly is the best Metal Gear Solid game and one of the best reasons to own a Playstation 3. Looking back on my previous blog post once again, I see that my lack of excitement was unfounded and that playing truly is believing.

Against my better judgment, yesterday, I purchased a copy of Gran Turismo 5: Prologue. Ever since I saw the limited amount of content to be included in this “game” for such a steep price ($40 USD), I couldn’t shake the feeling that Polyphony Digital was merely delivering a glorified demo to milk hardcore Gran Turismo fans out of a quick buck before the real thing comes out, which some speculate won’t be until some time after 2009. Well, having played it for a few days prior, I’ve changed my tune…for the most part.

I guess before I truly begin to discuss my impressions of the game, I should explain how I define a “lack of content”. First off, Gran Turismo 5: Prologue features around 70 cars, from over a dozen manufacturers, including series newcomer, Ferrari. What’s surprising about this is the fact that GT5: Prologue includes more cars out of the box than many full games, including the likes of the recently released Need for Speed: Pro Street. Clearly, the number of cars couldn’t be the issue, could it? No. While 70 cars is only one tenth of the 700 featured in Gran Turismo 4 and an even smaller fraction of the rumored 900 cars set to be included in the full release of Gran Turismo 5, there’s still a nice variety of cars to choose from.

So, what could be the thing that troubles me most? Well that’s simple. While there is an abundance of cars available to the player, the track selection is meager at best, limited to six tracks and twelve layouts. No, not twelve layouts per track, just twelve layouts in total. This is where GT5: Prologue stumbles and falls to the ground. Before long, the track selection can grow stale and repetitive, seeing the same environments over and over again as you race around the same track for the umpteenth time during the career mode. This is where the sting comes in and your wallet begins to curse you for making this purchase.

But…(There’s always a “but”)

For the most part, what GT5: Prologue lacks in content, it makes up for in presentation and gameplay. Polyphony Digital knows how to draw the player in with an attractive set of front end menus and, most importantly, how to make cars look sexy. As you navigate the elegantly presented menu screen, the car you’re currently “in” sits behind it, amidst one of several eye-catching and gorgeous backdrops relevant to the location you most recently drove in. The camera slowly pans around the car, allowing you to see the entirety of is svelte figure and wonderfully proportioned lines.

To merely say this game looks good would be the understatement of the year. Gran Turismo 5 truly puts other racers to shame with its incredibly detailed and well lit car models (it’s amazing what good lighting can do to make a car look stunning), and detailed environments. While I’ve been a staunch supporter of the impressive graphics delivered in Project Gotham Racing 4, I can’t say it looks better than GT5: Prologue in any way other than the convincing weather effects. The in car view is also mighty impressive and my current favorite way to view the race, despite the loss of visual real estate.

All the great looking cars and environments wouldn’t save the game if the gameplay was lacking and I can happily say GT5: Prologue isn’t lacking in that respect. The numerous cars in the game have their own sort of “feel” to them in their handling and overall performance and all drive with an impressive realism about them, which feels great. A new feature, borrowed from the Forza series is the dynamic racing line, which changes color from blue to red to indicate you’re going too fast. Of course, for a most realistic and suitably challenging experience, this, as well as the other driving aids (variable traction/stability control) can be turned off prior to a race.

Overall, GT5: Prologue isn’t a bad game. I’m almost willing to say I overreacted a tiny bit. Almost. Once I came to grips with the fact that my only real issue was with what I perceived to be a high price tag (if the game was $20, I’d have no problem at all buying it), I was mostly fine with the lack of content because the gameplay made up for it. For me, a new fan of Gran Turismo 4 as of late, this is a pretty fun stopgap between the two full games that should, alongside its PS2 brother and my reigning favorite racing game, Forza 2, keep my simulation racing needs satisfied until Gran Turismo 5 finally decides to come out.

That or Forza 3, of course.

It goes without saying that diehard fans of the Gran Turismo series are going to add this to their ever growing collection regardless of what I say about it. For the rest of you who happen to be on the fence, take these words with a grain of salt. If you can, like I have, get over the initial shock over the lack of content, there’s a good game to be had here.