HD fluffiness and a curious cow

I downloaded some demos on Xbox Live last night, which I tried out today. I played Stuntman Ignition for literally ten seconds before deciding it was shite. Project Gotham Racing 4 was better, but I'm never going to buy it, and it has loads of minute text which is unreadable on a standard TV.

However, Rez HD was released today on Xbox Live Arcade, so I downloaded the trial version. I was one of the few who bought the version of Rez for the PS2 back in 2002. I was intrigued to see how the HD version actually looked, so I connected the 360 to one of my 17" LCD monitors using the VGA cable. The 360 will run it at the native panel resolution of 1280x1024 so it can display the HD resolutions on it. The response time isn't great as they aren't gaming monitors but the image quality is still pretty good.

Oddly enough, Rez HD included a standard mode so it was easy to compare. Basically the HD version has sharper, clearer lines and the odd bit of surround sound and subwoofer rumble. It also has some pointless optional visual effects, most of which make it unplayable. Nice indeed, but I think I'll just get my PS2 version back from Will rather than buy the HD version.

The trial version only has the first level, but I played through it about ten times. I'd forgotten just how much it draws you in, as the music builds and the controller begins to pound in your hands. Interestingly the Trance Vibrator is not compatible with Rez HD but instead you can get all FOUR 360 controllers vibrating at once. Dear God, it was bad enough with that Japanese guy giving his girlfriend orgasms! 'Play through Level 2 again,' she would gasp.

While I had the monitor hooked up, I played through the last levels of Portal with the Developer Commentary turned on. It was quite interesting.

The thing that really appeals to me about an LCD TV is the lack of interlacing. It's the one thing I absolutely detest about playing consoles on a CRT. It's one of the things I'm saving up for. I've seen a Hitachi 37" 1080p for about £499 from Richer Sounds, which would be perfect. Hopefully, by the time I can afford one, prices will have dropped further.

Work was OK today, got a lot of things done and managed to time my support call to a training session just in time for the buffet they had ordered. Mmm, caramel slices...

Today was the first chance I had to take the dog for a walk for the entire route on a weekday for the first time in a while as it's started to get lighter in the evenings now. We did have a rather startling experience. I went past a farm gate and saw something enormous and black on the side of the road. When I shone my torch on it, it had EYES and I had a heck of a fright. Fortunately it turned out to be a cow. I like cows, they are pretty placid creatures but they can be quite inquisitive too. For some reason, cows always seem to be fascinated by The Hound. They seem to think he's an odd looking calf or something, and if they can, they'll come up and sniff at him, which unsurprisingly he finds quite worrying.

It was trying to snow as we got back to the car, and it's pretty cold tonight. Hmm, could be interesting.

This really creeped me out for some reason.