Grand Turismo 5

Gran Turismo has always been my favourite PlayStation game. It's the only series I've always anxiously awaited the next release of. The fifth installment is planned for release early next year. It will be the first 1080P PS3 game.

Here's a short trailer that was shown at E3 last month:



Sony quite a while ago made a concept version of the game, Gran Turismo HD Concept, available free for download. As you can imagine though, the file was rather large and the bandwidth in SA rather lacking. Yesterday being the last day of the month however, I was able to let the the thing consume all the bandwidth it required - which turned out to be 690MB!

So I started playing around with it this afternoon. I must say I'm pretty impressed. This concept version is based on the new engine built for GT5 and I can certainly feel the difference. They provide ten cars to test, but only one track. One of the cars is a Ferrari, which I'm glad to see they've finally sorted out a license for! The graphics aren't there just yet, but that we can judge when the full game is launched.

Let the serious PS3 games roll on out!

I Have a TV

Remember my post about my home theater? All I was waiting for back then was the TV. Well, it arrived on Friday and was installed on Saturday. Unfortunately the news of its arrival has been swamped by my participation in the ICFP. Nevertheless, it is here!

Up until a week ago we were going for the 42". Well, that all changed when the price dropped by a huge amount. We are now stuck with an even bigger 50"! I tell you, seeing these things in the stores is one thing. Having them in your own home...that's the first time you truly see how beatiful and how enormous these beasts truly are! Here's an attempt at trying to awe you readers out there, although it barely touches the true beauty this thing reveals:


A couple of weeks ago we got a PS3. I was amazed at the graphics on an SD TV..you can imagine my amazement when connected to this beast. Currently we're waiting for the real games to come out so we only have Resistance and Motor Storm. I am anticipating the launch of GT5, which is said to be the first ever full 1080p game.

We also have one of these wonderful devices hooked up. It streams divx content over the network. I tell you, with an HD panel you can't not notice the low quality of divx. That's to be expected, but I didn't realise just how noticeable it would be.

Then finally we have Multichoice's PVR, which there isn't much to talk about.

You have to see and hear it for youself to understand just how amazing the whole setup we have going is. The guy that came to install the TV said the sound was the best he's ever heard, and he even has the same amp! He also loved the Ziova - to the point where he's trying to get one for himself now. :P