The Star Wars Saga – Here’s the Order to Watch Them
George Lucas is milking Star Wars again with a new release of the entire saga on blu-ray with new special effects, deleted scenes & three documentaries… But Greedo still shoots first.
The natural inclination is to watch these films in numerical order: I, II, III, IV, V, VI.
Don’t do that.
My preference is to watch them in the order of their release because that’s the natural way that the story unfolds: IV, V, VI, I, II, III.
However after a long drawn-out conversation with some friends I’m willing bend a little and go with this order: IV, V, I, II, III, VI. This order lets you see Luke’s story unfold, followed by Anakin’s, and both of their narratives collide and resolve in the final chapter.
Either option is solid, just please don’t watch them in numerical order. Every time a person watches Star Wars in numerical order Yoda sheds a tear.
Star Wars Blu-ray Announced
May the 4th be with you.
To celebrate Star Wars Day, Lucas & co have announced yet another opportunity for you to purchase the same content from them.
On September 16, 2011 the complete Star Wars Saga will be available on Blu-ray. This might be enticing if it weren’t for the fact that I’ve bought the original Trilogy at least three times in the past.
Sure they’re including 40 hours of bonus material, but that sounds kind of torturous to me. I feel no need to brush the rust off of my encyclopedic knowledge of the Star Wars universe.
If you’re clamoring for the latest graphics update to the Star Wars saga, look for them in September.
Burn my geek card if you must, but I’m tired of Star Wars.
Be Patient, Don’t Switch to 3D TV
A few people have emailed in with questions regarding 3D televisions. My advice is to wait.
3D televisions are new, and therefore they are expensive.
If you decide to go 3D on the cheap, it will still cost something in the neighborhood of $2,000.
You will need:
- 3D television: $1,600 (for a crappy one) – $4,000
- IR emitter: $100 (if you went with a cheap TV, you will need one of these)
- Glasses: $100 a pair
- 3D Blu-ray player (you need a special one too, PS3 will receive an update in a few months that will make 3D capable)
Give it a year or two, and the price will fall, while the quality will rise. Even if you buy a great 3D TV today, it will most likely be junk in two years.
Lastly, there isn’t much 3D content yet. Avatar and Up are pretty much the extent of solid 3D TV at the moment. Unless you are a rabid Avatar fanboy, I can assure you that you will be happier if you wait.
PS3 Price Drop, Xbox 360s Fail & We Discuss Brand Loyalty
PS3
The rumors are true. The Sony PS3 will receive a $100 price drop beginning on September 1st. The new incarnation of the PS3 will also be considerably slimmer.
Xbox 360
It happens
The infamous “Red Ring of Death” happens… a lot.
I’ve been hit with it twice. I’m fairly certain my brother had to deal with it at least twice. The reports were that somewhere between 30 and 40 percent of Xbox 360 owners had to ship their console back to Microsoft, after it perished in a not so spectacular red glow.
A new reader survey by dying gaming magazine, Game Informer claims that 54.2 percent of Xbox 360s have failed. That’s a pretty staggering difference.
However, it doesn’t seem to matter because…
“Only 3.8 percent of 360 owners surveyed said they’d never buy an Xbox 360 again.”
Brand Loyalty
I’ve read a lot of posts that attribute this to brand loyalty (I had links before this nasty storm killed my power).
When my 360s failed, dealing with Microsoft was slow and painful. So, why I am one of the 96.2 percent of 360 owners who would buy another 360.
It's the games stupid!
Most of the Xbox 360 owners I know really like video games. They didn’t buy their console to exercise, and they didn’t get it to watch Blu -ray.
They bought it to game.
With the exception of a few titles, the Xbox 360 has the best game library available. It might not be as family friendly or gimmicky like the Wii, and it certainly isn’t as slick as the PS3, but my noisy, ugly, prone to failure 360 “has it where it counts kid…” just like the Millenium Falcon.
It has good games.
What better reason could you think of to buy a gaming console? No my friends, it’s not brand loyalty, it’s a brand that is currently meeting the needs of it’s user-base. That’s how Microsoft continues to dodge bullets with Red Ring of Death. It sure as hell isn’t great service or PR.
When God of War III comes out, the PS3 should call me. Until then, it doesn’t have the games to make me want to play it.
PS3 Price Cut Looming?
I don’t talk much about Sony’s PS3 because I’ve never actually played one. Seriously, I’ve never touched a PS3 controller.
There are two reasons for this.
- It was way too expensive at launch, and still kind of is.
- There weren’t any games I wanted to play that weren’t available on Xbox 360.
The rumor spreading around the Interwebs is that sometime in the next few months Sony will be introducing a new, thinner PS3, at a lower price.
This is exciting to me because up until now, they only had one game that I had any interest in playing (Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots).
Soon they will also be releasing the new God of War; the third installment in an exceptional series (I will be posting on that one when I feel like it).
No one has a firm grasp on what the slim PS3 will cost, but my recommendation is to hold off on buying one if you are thinking about acquiring the console/ Blu-ray.
Leaked photos always look like picture of the Loch Ness Monster... except they are real.
It’s the User Experience Stupid!
The PC vs. Mac ad war continues to rage.
A few weeks ago I wrote about the first of what has become a series of PC “Laptop Hunters” ads. I’m continuing to stand being my original analysis of the “Lauren” ad. The two subsequent PC Hunters ads weren’t quite the train wreck that Lauren was, but I still found the people in the ads obnoxious and ill-informed; shouting off random computer parts and claiming to be tech savvy doesn’t appeal to me at all.
The biggest problem with these ads is that they completely ignore the user experience. Microsoft doesn’t sell Blu-ray drives, monitors, or graphics cards. They sell software. They sell a user experience, and that experience is lacking but it isn’t unsellable. These ads were pretty damn good:
These two ads are simple and elegant. They address the user experience in a clear and friendly manner. Plus, how can you get have a problem with those little girls? They seem far more intelligent than the tools that appear in the PC Hunters ads. The four year-old came across as more authoritative and likable than Lauren, Giampalolo, Lisa, or Jackson.
In response, Apple is using the same old formula to continue point out the flawed Windows user experience, and why not? These ads have been working wonders. Here are two of the new ones:
Another problem that Microsoft has is that Apple has had an active and preachy community for decades. There wasn’t a completely devoted community of PC users in the same way that there was a Mac community. Tight knit communities form around minority views. Additionally, many of the devoted PC users of the past (like myself) jumped ship to Apple over the past few years.
If Microsoft want’s to plug the holes, the answer isn’t poking holes at Apple; Microsoft doesn’t have the credibility to pull it off. They need to prop up their product and make it as cute, pretty, and above all, as likable as possible. They need to highlight the virtues of their own user experience, even if there aren’t many of them.
It's the user experience stupid!
