XBOX 360 Slim AC Adapter Power Supply (100V - 240V) Review

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I have wait all this time to make an accurate review, it is been 3 months so far and it is working great, I hope it last at least a year

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Worked fine for the first few weeks. Didn't get a lot of play...then boom. Stops working and needs to be replaced. Maybe you should buy them in pairs.

Best Manhunt 2 - PlayStation 2 Deals

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List Price: $29.99
Sale Price: $16.25
Today's Bonus: 46% Off

When I played the first Manhunt (way back when), I thoroughly enjoyed it. That game, much like its successor, received lots of negative exposure because of its "subject matter content" and overall violence. I, like most others who waited patiently for the sequel, plowed through yet more negative publicity; watched RockStar cancel its original release date for the game, and waded through all sorts of internet gossip about what had been done to the content of the game.

Manhunt (the original) is a far better game than Manhunt 2--and not becaue its gore factor was untouched. It was a better game, guys, because it had "soul." The characters were way more interesting, the writing was better and more creative, and the last stages were absolutely some of the creepiest I've ever encountered! My personal favorites were the Smileys (a tongue-in-cheek answer to Insane Clown Posse). I got killed so many times because I was laughing my butt off at some of the lines, e.g. "passing out before the main course...REALLY;" "well, I look divine? Why, thank you so much; it was just something I threw together;" and "My God; they're dropping like flies!"

In Manhunt 2, you get NO interesting characters. Instead, you get caricatures. It seems two people are involved in some sort of mind-altering experiment; the inmates riot, people escape, others are killed, and you try to retrace your footsteps to see what it all means. Along the way, you are urinated on, have feces thrown on you, you puke a lot, and you kill a lot. And that's about it. The big difference in Manhunt 2, is that even though the killings are much more grotesque than in the first game, you can't see any of them because of what RockStar had to do in order to get the game released. A "filter" has been installed and all you really get in the ability to HEAR what is happening to your victims. The controls are used differently, which I also didn't care for.

I do not blame RockStar for what it did; it simply did what it had to do in order to sell its product. I would suggest, however, that if there is a Manhunt 3, you see if you can't create characters that are more memorable; a storyline that is more than just killing; and have a main character your playing audience can feel something for.

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I loved the original manhunt, I have to admit it, I loved it. I though it was a sick and delightfully twisted game...no...art! It was spooky, gruesome, smart, intense, and totally enjoyable for someone like me. This one, like most sequels....sucks. It looks like the first, it plays like the first, it's in the same vein as the first, but it's the details where it falls apart, and I mean bad!

In the original, the levels were layed out where you were mostly stealth killing or getting into cover-based shootouts and sometimes a blend of the two, and the levels and AI were set up for that type of experience. This game has no clue what it wants to be! I tried to do mostly stealth kills, but sorry to say, you wind up just shooting most of em'. Speaking of AI though, the AI in this one is really bad!!! In the first one a hunter would inspect a brick, hitting a wall, or finding his dead buddy, but in Manhunt 2, they usually don't care, spoiling any opportunity to lure a hunter away from his friends to disfigure and break him. Thus, you will find it wayyy easier and much less frustrating to just snipe a guy from the shadows, turning a once great stealth platform into...a really lame shooter.

Another real problem, is the story. In place of a meager, bare bones type of plot, (Kill for sick director's pleasure and survival, then revenge) with a simple plot that has been made far too rushed and scattered. Gone is the simple and enjoyable kill from point A to point B plot, now, it's all twisted with "gotta find this guy, gotta find this chick, gotta figure this out....who am I, what happened" This doesn't directly affect the action, but somehow it makes for a very rushed and detached experience, hardly any of it worth remembering. Essentially they made a mountain out of a mole-hill, and it really just annoys more than anything. I had a hard time of following why I was at a place and found it much simpler in the original to just know I was on my way through to fight another type of gang for the director's joy, but now it's all finding out about a character I care nothing for in a story I care nothing for. Coupled with useless flashbacks and twists in the plot, I don't care enough to remember any of this game.

Even when the director in Manhunt bacame impatient, you were scolded by the talented Brian Cox, now an annoying nobody screeches at you which really disrupts the type of flow the first had. No velvety voice of a known and great actor, now your just getting bitched by some guy that kinda sounds like a cross between a bitchy girlfriend and Ray Liotta, but not nearly as cool as Ray Liotta, and almost as irritating as your ex-girlfriend.

Thinking about it, I doubt even if the stealth kill weren't blurred, this still wouldn't be anything nearly as fun as the first. When a you execute a hunter, at the point where you strike or shoot or stab or slash a guy, a fast and artsy blur jolts everything and the shade of everything goes negative for a bit. About 60% of the kill is plainly visible, but 40% is blurred. These kills are actually pretty good, and I especially like the firearm executions, but coupled with the filters and obstructions they had to program in, it really doesn't matter. Some of the environment kills are entertaining, but hardly worth the addition if they were at the cost of everything else I disliked.

In short people, everything in this game reminded me of Manhunt, it reminded me of how it's NOT...manhunt and certainly of how it's not as good as Manhunt. I will now sell this game, and fire up the original for the experience that this game failed miserably to acheive, and no doubt I will crack a sinister smile and bathe in the joy of hearing Brian Cox direct me to massacre a bunch of scumbags.

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So, Rockstar finally got to release the sequel the controversial cult classic "Manhunt", now part of the Sony`s "Greastest Hits" roster. In this game, there is no continuity involving the first title, this is a brand new story. You play the role of Daniel Lamb, science guy turned mental patient at the Dixmoore Asylum for the Criminaly insane.

Right away, I noticed a few glaring problems. One would be the unmappable controls. This is stupid, since these controls are acutally completely different from the ones used in the orginal Manhunt. Why change the controls when the gameplay is still the same? (I read somewhere that the PSP and PS2 versions share the same setup. Lazy) So what should have been familiar territory is now forcing me to relearn how to play the game all over again. Strike 1.

Another flaw that became apparent was the complete lack of charisma involving your enemies, or "gangs". The only gang that comes close would be the Bloodhounds, who seem like an offshoot of the Wardogs from Manhunt 1, what with their thick Southern accents and spouting the usual stereotypes you would expect from a group of Deep South hardcore hunting enthusiasts ("I been huntin` since I was wee high! Animals, humans, don`t mean nuthin!). The Watchdogs and the Project Militia, two of your most common foes in the game, just so happen to be the least interesting, never approaching the intimidation factor of Manhunt 1`s Smileys, Skinz, or even the Carcer City police. There`s a street gang known as the Kings, as well as the police,but who cares? They have nothing to do Daniel`s quest, are just there to be butchered for no reason other than the fact that they are in the way. Strike 2

Another thing I hated about this game. TOO MANY GUN BATTLES. in the first Manhunt, they were wisely introduced at point when the developers felt the player would have grown weary of a the ol` "hide and kill" routine, and gave you a chance to take the fight to your aggressors head-on. In Manhunt 2, they are numerous, and they are repetitive, and they are tiresome. Without the stealth elements, this game turns into a sub-standard 3rd person shooter, whuch is not the reason I bought this game. This is mostly during those awful flashback routines involving Daniels partner in crime, Leo Kasper. In fact, even the gunplay is not as tight as it was in the first Manhunt. In the original, lock-on was instantaneous, whilst here, in the sequel there`s a slight, but noticeable delay in having to wait for the target recticle to line up with your victim. Just long enough to catch a slug in your chest.

Take cover. Wait for the bad guys to to break cover and take a shot at you. Fire. Duck. Like a violent game of whack-a-mole. Strike 3

And finally, my biggest gripe with the game, the complete lack of any meaningful bonus content or alternate gameplay modes! They took the scoring system, claiming it didnt "fit in" with the game. Again, lazy! There`s no incentive to beat the game again, no reason to even abide by the rules of stealth, since there`s no kind of penalty for being spotted, nor is there any reward being beating a level quickly or getting a lot of gruesome kills. No concept art, no behind the scenes, no merchandise, NOTHING. Even the strategy guide features zero in-depth information on the game itself, nor the gangs. Strike 4

I guess you can`t talk about Manhunt without bringing up the executions, but I`m pleased to announce this is the ONE thing the game did right. Ignore all the poorly written reviews from 15-year old rebels who honestly think they`re making a statement about freedom of speech by playing a slapped together, violent cheap cash-in. For the PS2/PSP, the "censoring" is NOWHERE near as bad as anyone makes it out to be. Unless you have crappy eyesight or a crappy tv, you can still make out whether Daniel is beating someone in the back of the head with a sledgehammer or applying a scythe to someone`s family jewels. The screen takes on a red hue with random chromatic distortions along with a brief flash of inverted black and white during the physical blows. (NOTE: The Wii version is even more heavily censored, probably to compensate for having perform physical motions with the controller to perform executions). if anything, this makes it MORE violent, since the distortion leads to a bigger focus on the sound effects, what with all the bones popping, skulls crushed, power tools sawing through flesh, blood-curdled gasps of agony, need I go on?

The concept behind executions remain the same. Sneak up on the would-be assailant, hold down a button to generate to go from white (quick kill), yellow (violent kill) to red (gruesome kill). But, since there is no score system, there`s really no incentive to go for the higher level kills outside of personal amusement. Rockstar also ups the ante by allowing gun exectutions, something which not possible in the first Manhunt. Gun executions only have one animation per weapon as opposed to three, but rest assured, they`re just as vicious as the melee weapons. There are also enviromental executions, where Daniel can use special points on the map to lure his enemies into, and the don`t require a weapon. Most of them are a one-time-only deal, but yield some of the best executions (personal favs being the manhole and the liquid nitrogen).

So there you have. For all fuss about children not being exposed to game is ironic since they are the ones who will get the most mileage out of what is strictly a rental. This is the "Hostel" of video games: Torture porn a violent titillation with no actual substance to back any of it up. Buy the original Manhunt instead, and if there is a third in the series, lets hope Rockstar actually manages some content and new gameplay elements, instead of re-wrapping the same thing in a slightly shinier package.

Honest reviews on Manhunt 2 - PlayStation 2

Maybe I'm sick, but I was really looking forward to this sequel; The first game, however violent and twisted it was(and it WAS!), it was also one of the most intense, heart-in-your-throat, challenging games I had played; There was dread around every corner; There was a feeling that your very own life was on the line; Plus, you actually cared about the story and fairly straight-forward premise: Escape w/your life and get the guy that did this to you. And you wanted to get him, too!!

Even though I had heard part 2 was unrelated character-wise, I put my faith in Rockstar; They rarely put out a bad title in my experience. The storyline sounded interesting and the settings/level ideas had some potential promise. I was excited to play, hoping for a game that was thrilling and tough. Instead it seems like a half-baked retread that is missing more than the violence it had to take out.

The lack of violence wasn't the troubling factor here; It was gruesome enough, although it's hard to believe anything could surpass the 1st one, which is still out there uncensored(as it should be...). It was more the horrible control scheme and poor camera angles that appeared during the most critical of times, like fights or flight. I died due more to not being able to tell where I was or which direction the punches were coming from than by lack of skill(not the best player, but not the worst either...). The story had some nice moments, some great cut scenes, and the interactive deaths were a nice touch. But too short and uninspired to me. I really didn't care about my character, what my goals were, the twist you see coming from a mile away, and the fact that I never really felt like I had to be fighting for my life. And w/so many great games out there to play, nowadays I have little patience for games that control poorly, esp. one from Rockstar. That just makes me sad.

They should have delayed this longer and made it right. I just expect more from them.

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The executions, 90% of what made the original great, are completely censored. They put a heavy red and blue blur over the screen whenever you perform an execution and move the camera repeatedly. The end result is you can only see the outline of your character and victim, and not what he's doing. This game is pointless now. Thanks a lot to the ESRB, censorship advocates, and gutless retailers who won't sell AO rated games for making sure this 31 year old couldn't play a gory video game. You've saved the world, and cheated me out of $30. This is the worst gutting of a game since the original Mortal Kombat on the SNES where there were no fatalities. BTW, the graphics are awful by modern standards. Not even worth a rental.

Review of Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3: Uprising

Customer Ratings:

I bought this game to take the edge off during finals week. I love the Red Alert series and this was a very fun find. The graphics are still pretty decent a few years on, music and sound is great and gameplay is superb. There are three parts:

1) Single-Player Campaign

You have your standard 4-mission campaign for each of the 3 armies. A bonus campaign in which you control only Yuriko (the Japanese commando version of Tanya) is also short but substantially fun and fresh.

2) Skirmish Mode

Just your basic custom-map, custom-army, custom-computer-players battlefield

3) Commander's Challenge

THIS IS IT!!! In this mode, you are taken through 50 extremely UNIQUE and challenging Skirmish battles with your army of choice, trying to beat first the scenario and unlock new units, and then improve on your time. If you are competitive, you will spend close to 50 hours beating it. If you love RTS and cannot get bored, you will spend almost 100 hours beating all the Challenges in record time. Very fun.

Pros excellent single player options, long life, good price

Cons no multiplayer, low replay value once you beat it

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One of the things that I enjoy about playing the Red Alert games is building a massive force that I can use to destroy my enemies. To me, that is the best feature of any RTS game, especially the Red Alert franchise. RA3 Uprising from my perspective was a huge disappointment. First there really isn't much of a storyline. It seems like the RA 3 creators decided to put together a number of concepts that they couldn't use in RA 3 with Uprising.

In addition, there are way too many covert ops missions. I don't mind one or two missions where I have a few units and spies and I need to accomplish an objective, but to make an entire mission out this is just beyond frustrating. I completed the first 3 Soviet Missions and the first 3 Allies Missions then I just decided I've had enough covert ops missions. I easily got tired of the game because it wasn't giving me what I wanted, which is more opportunities to build a massive force to destroy.

I hate to say it but I can't recommend this game even for the die hard RA fan. It's just not as fun as the previous RA games.

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The game has great add ons and expansions but with the multiplayer being taken away the game kind of stinks and the super short campaigns suck

Honest reviews on Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3: Uprising

First, I love this series. I love these kind of games. However, someone at EA must have been beaten as a child and wanted the rest of us to suffer.

Reasons why this game needs 6 months more in development.

1. The computer is NOT effected by the FOW, (fog of war). It seems like it plays at trying to make you believe it can't see you, but it can. (i.e. hide something out in a corner of the map, away from everything. Without a scout or any hint of something "finding" you. The computer will head right to you.

2. This game should have been called Exploit Rampage, or Super Bum Rush.... There was obviously hundreds of hours put into thinking up all the different vehicles and characters...Buuuuut the only way to win many of the battles is to use exploits. Forget studying all the details about what shoots how far, and balancing your air and cav to achieve the right force balance. Screw it, just hover cheap ERS air units over your targets and let them shoot them down and they will become the most powerful bombs in the game. Or just bum rush you opponent with a Dojo and flood the computers base with tank busters. Nice to know all the work on those beautiful stats and details went to waste.

3. BUGS...enormous numbers of console locking bugs. On multiple occasions I have been ready to deal the killing blow, but guess what. I can't... why?... don't know. push the button and NOTHING....

4. the computers AI is smart... your troops are not. 9 times out of 10 you send a troop to do something and it will take the longest route or the route that will get it killed. I've seen engineers circle an oil well TWICE before it finally tried to capture it. Your troops will always, ALWAYS shoot at the least important target. They with ALWAYS shoot at the thing not shooting at them (unless that thing is the only thing in the area). They will NEVER shoot at the thing shooting them. (unless again there is only one thing in the area)

5. The computer can execute millions of commands before you can even think about what you want to do. AND it does. Most of the time its like playing against 50 other players.

6. You cant take any of the new units back to the old game...FAIL...

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Not working in WIN8!!!

If you are using that, DO NOT BUY THIS!!

I've tried many ways, all of them are not working

Penguin United Eagle Eye Mouse and Keyboard Converter for Xbox 360 Review

Customer Ratings:

After using the Eagle eye PS3 3.0 version I see no difference in performance on the Eagle eye Xbox 360 version. Very responsive movements and nice micro aiming. I was impressed with the quick twitch wrist aiming translating to screen movements even though not 100% 1:1 definitely close. Having used all the emulator products on the market the last 4 years this product has excellent price to performance. This is a very good option for keyboard and mouse users who want to play on console. The video basically shows the movements I observed right out of the box I tuned the sensitivity that was it.

Slight jaggy vertical aiming no scoped without tuning out of the box but this wasn't an issue just something to be noted. I also noticed this on the ps3 version and on the xim3 it very well may be my mousepad... Anyway hope this helps people out.

Pros

Keyboard and choice of gamer mouse

Nice alternative to gamepad

Price

Cons

None that I found

Mousepad used Rocketfish control side.

I will update this review if anything changes but as of right now I found no bugs and I torture tested this product on MW3 stay sharp.

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So...as you have probably read from other reviews, This product performs very well once you take the time to properly calibrate it. With a little bit of trial and error I was able to fine tune it into to near perfection.

Buyer Beware:

Must have a wired xbox360 controller (a wireless one with a play and charge adapter wont work)

Not all devices will work. Most will, but only a few are "officially" approved by the company. (I have a wow cataclysm mouse from steel series that works great)

******Deal breaker for me****** Does not support headsets. (which is why I give it a 3 outta 5) The only way to chat with this device is to use a wireless headset that syncs with the xbox and does not require a controller. If you have a normal headset and feel like upgrading, i believe you can pick one up for $30, which isn't too bad. Unless, like me, you have a high end 5.1 surround sound headset that you never play without. This wasn't something i came across when reading reviews (and i did read a few) so here is your heads up.

If this supported headsets i would keep it. As it is, I am returning it and will be spending an extra $20 on the xim edge

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I picked one of these up at Frys Electronics after reading a few reviews on the internet.

Although the specification clearly said that it wouldn't work with a wireless keyboard, I decided to try one anyways. It's working 100% with no problems for me.

I am using it with the keyboard from the "Microsoft Wireless Desktop 800" for the Mouse I am using a Razer Deathadder. I will definitely update this post If I start getting any issues with this wireless keyboard, for now I'm thrilled it's working even though it shouldn't.

I downloaded one of the available profiles for Modern Warfare 3 from the company website, and after playing with it for a few minutes I was planning on returning it. The movement seemed erratic and jumpy.

Then I decided I would give the calibration a try before returning it. calibration wasn't super easy, but it wasn't rocket science either. It took me about 30 minutes to get all the different calibrations and sensitivity settings the way I thought I they should be.

Not more than 5 minutes into an Xbox Live multi-player Free for all match and I got used to this thing and was thrilled at how well It was working.

It's a definite keeper, but it NEEDS TO BE CALIBRATED. I'm a recent PC to Xbox 360 convert and while this does not provide the exact accuracy and speed a computer keyboard and mouse does; It's much easier to get accustomed to than a gamepad controller. And for me the bottom line is that Xbox games are just funner with it, I'm looking forward to trying it out on more games.

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I think it may have just been the one that I ordered but when I plugged the proven and tested keyboard and mouse into the Eagle Eye it only worked half the time. I was using the Razer Naga and Razer Lycosa. Every time I would plug them in the light on the 360 would go out saying that the converter was not plugged in. Having said that, I would recommend this to any user who does not want to throw down 150+ on the Xim3. When it worked...it worked flawlessly. It took a little tuning to get it to the way that I liked it but after that it worked wonders.

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Make sure you have the right tools to use this hardware. You absolutely should check and make sure your mouse and keyboard are compatible with this device prior to buying, and make sure you also have an official xbox 360 wired controller.

Apart from the peripherals. this product works wonderfully. Setup was quite easy, you must have to make sure you run the software as administrator on your computer when setting up your device.

In game the controls worked perfectly for modern warfare 3.here is an ingame demo of how well it works.

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List Price: $19.99
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This is my fifth Kinect title and is by far the best yet. The controls are very accurate and game play is lots of fun for my entire family. The half pipe event and big air events are fun and spur on lots of competition. Performing different combinations of tricks while in the air and landing them for points is well done. I'm impressed with the two player split screen options (easy to track where your play space is defined) and the kinect tracking seems to be flawless. This has been more fun than Kinect Sports for my family.

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first of all, when you are playing, this game is fun, just plan fun.

why it got 4 stars and not 5 is because a couple of the actions (forward footstomp) does not pick up that well and it is a very important part of the game.

also gettting to the game, you have to go through a lot of screens and fairly boring screens.

overall though, once you get to the courses and are playing the actual game, like i said it is just fun, which is what it is all about anyway

info on me:

casual gamer, not hardcore

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Amazon was offering a buy one game get one 1/2 off deal. Adrenalin Misfits was one of the choices for 1/2 off, we took a gamble and love it. Lots of fun and a great workout, these games that work with the kinect provide a lot of action and a fun time has been had by all. One of my sons favorite games.

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I read the reviews given here which are probably mostly by parents who bought this for younger kids. I bought it largely due to these positive reviews but I really should have checked IGN.com first (5 out of 10). I can certainly echo the common complaint about always having to go through the same menus over and over. It should allow you to choose a character and a board and stick with it unless you actually ASK to make a change. But instead it forces you to tediously choose these things EVERY time you play a course. I didn't have as much problem with the foot stomp to activate an item, but doing so successfully is kind of hard to notice anyway. It's not like a cart game where you know you're targeting someone with an item, and they know they've been hit.

Anyone who's played any other skate/snowboarding game knows that turning can often be difficult in some situations. I find myself regularly and frustratingly turning 180 UP the hill while trying to collect items, get on a rail, or pop balloons. There's not a lot to do in this game which is common with a lot of Kinect games. At least some of the other games give you a bit of a workout, this one kind of gives you a pain in the back and neck due to the required stance, and it doesn't get your heart rate up.

Youth (~6-12): probably fun

Teens (~13-17): maybe fun for a short time

Adult Gamers(~18-30s): quickly lose interest (my demographic)

Oldies :) (~30s): probably fun IF playing with their kids

Sorry I just expect a little more out of even a simple game like this. (Simple is ok as long as it's done right)

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The initial reviews for this title were poor across the boards. Upon reading positive reviews on Amazon, I decided to give it a try after finding a seller that offered it new for $16. I am pleased with my purchase.

The tracking works fine. A few times I have seen the often reported problem with uninitiated board stopping. Otherwise, the boards are responsive and the interface, while different, is intuitive. I take issue with the "soft" physics. I have seen a couple of occasions where I initiated a big-air trick too long and landed on my head, but conveniently ended up on the board without losing time or points. I personally would prefer more realism.

Having said that, the characters and environments are definately more fantasy than realistic. Thankfully, the characters are edgy and unique. The "X-TREME" theme is certainly dated (late 1990s), but I guess I give it a pass as a period piece.

The game types are varied, and there seems to be a good deal to unlock. I found the narrator's (DJ) voice to be incredibly irritating, but you have the option of turning it off.

I would be upset with this title if I had bought it at full price, but from a discount seller it is a fun way to pass a little time. I would love to see a more realistic snowboarding game with unforgiving physics and a huge mountain to explore, but you can definately see the Kinect's potential with this little game.

I put the fun to dollar ratio at $25.

Review of Scene it? Box Office Smash (GameOnly) - Xbox 360

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $19.99
Sale Price: $5.55
Today's Bonus: 72% Off

We own both Xbox 360 Scene it? games. I have been a fan of the previous edition, and was excited to see a new version available with new puzzles. The thing I like about this series of games for the 360 is that the game flows well, compared to the traditional DVD-based game, and the scoring is a lot of fun. You can see where you or your team stands against your opponents in real time. The bonus scoring is fun as well. This edition (Scene it? Box Office Smash) adds an interesting element of in-game avatars that represent each player/team on screen. If you have an avatar set up on your Live account, that is who you see representing yourself in-game. The new challenges and game types are fun and are a nice addition to the previous version of the game. If you don't have the special Scene it? controllers, I would highly recommend purchasing the package deal that includes the controllers. Especially if you plan to play with "newbies".

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This one is much better than the first one. Its very fun to get your family together to play this game. There are a few puzzles that are kind of boring, like word scrambles. Besides that this game is very fun for the price!

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Got this for my wife to get her into the xbox thing. It seems that when we have friends over this is all that we play. Great fun for a small party.

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Scene It? is a great family fun game. Sit around and play it together as a group or play against each other. Either way it's awesome!

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Great game to play with friends and a real improvement to the former game. I like seeing my avatar whoop butt. I love the nes style animation questions.

Review of Phantasy Star Universe: Ambition of the Illuminus

Customer Ratings:

Phantasy Star Universe had a few flaring flaws in the original title: a lackluster storyline, heavy loss-rates for items and repetitive hack-and-slash gameplay. But they made up for it.

PSU AoI introduces several new features, mainly nostalgia relating back to Phantasy Star Online. The addition of PSO based clothing, areas, and timed-hits bring back what made PSO fun, and expands on it. Unfortunately, they did not fix the ratty ally AI, nor did they make it any less cheap with traps or enemies that seem just a tad faster. But the game is still fun, and the flexibility in weapons, clothing and hairstyles they have added make your Guardian completely customizable. I recommend only buying this if you play online, since that is part of the charm of the series.

Offline play does have its merits, even though the story is a carbon copy of Online's Episode 2. Also, it would've been more fun to be able to remodel your room and add more objects like in online play, but it is still solid.

Overall, I enjoyed it, and it is worth checking out, especially online.

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If you enjoyed Phantasy Star Online for Gamecube/PC/Dreamcast you'll enjoy this game as well. The only issue is that the servers are no longer around, so the game is rather short. Since you can transfer your character data from the first game, this expansion adds a couple more hours of play time and a lot of new items and quests to do and you can start out from where you left off in the previous game.

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The game is great but I noticed sumthing right after I beat it. The ps2 doesn't have the 2nd part of the story in it but alas still is a good game

Honest reviews on Phantasy Star Universe: Ambition of the Illuminus

Great game!! Very fun to play when there is free time!! And the game works great no problems!!

Thanks you

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Phantasy Star Universe: Ambition of the Illuminus

I originally started playing PSO with my brother on Nintendo Gamecube and I'm amazed at the similarities. I have heard that in PSU the user was unable to modify their character for story mode, which I've always really enjoyed, and I'm glad to this game does. In addition, the game is great and addicting :O) I'm glad I purchased this from Amazon and I couldn't ask for a better result at a great price!

Thanks!!

Discount PINK ZEBRA Xbox 360 Modded Controller (Rapid Fire) COD MW3, Black

Customer Ratings:

I bought this as a gag gift for a friend.

He loves it, and uses it all the time

I have the exact same controller just different skin.

Mod works great and quality is top notch

I liked it so much so that I bought a 3rd for another friend and now half the guys I play with online have bought one from this company as well!

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The rapid fire only seems to work for the pistols and sniper riffles and the burst mode is quite difficult to figure out but otherwise great control and definetly improves your gaming.

Cheap XCM 360 Hard drive shell *CHROME*

Customer Ratings:

First of all the only reason I am giving this the 2 stars is because once you are all done it looks really nice and they did do a good job with the chroming. That's where the complimenting stops tho.

Don't buy this unless you have a full Dremel kit and know what your doing... And I mean that. If your not handy with a Dremel and are not good at fixing things STAY AWAY FROM THIS!

When I opened it up it the top drive shell (the part you see) was not even fully snapped together. It was like they just slapped it together and threw it into the box. You have to carefully squeeze the sides and push in tell it snaps into place.

So the the next step is to take apart your old hard drive with the screw driver they supply and there is the next issue. They give you one Torx bit screw driver to open the case but not the bigger bit one to remove the drive. (I only make a issue with this because XCM says they give you all the tools needed. Which they don't.) They give you a chrome bottom plate too but I don't see the point. It was such a cheaply made thing and it would add a whole ton of work to it. All that for something you don't see when its locked into your Xbox 360.

After you get it all switched out and you start to put it all back together that's when you run into a whole mess of issues and you have to take your Dremel out. First there is this plastic bar that runs on the bottom of the top shell and XCM never notched it! This stops you from even being able to close it up! Then on the front of the top shell they don't have the little tabs above the locking pins shaved down enough. (That makes the locking pins catch and not fully come out.) After all of that (And these are small parts so you have to have a steady hand.) the release button is too ruff and unfinished along with the release button hole being to small and making it catch.

I am still happy I bought this because the finial result was really nice looking. But I would have been very mad if I that didn't know how to fix it. Because no matter which way you look at it this thing comes broken.

I am sorry my review was so long I just hope I can stop one person from buying this just to waste their money.

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Buy Xbox 360/PS3 HDMI Cable - 1.8m - Metal Netting Braids - Ver 1.3

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $16.99
Sale Price: $6.99
Today's Bonus: 59% Off

TV Type:

Sony Bravia S-Series KDL-40S5100 40-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV, Black

Samsung LN52B550 52-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV with Red Touch of Color

Speakers:

Bose® CineMate® Series II Digital Home Theater Speaker System

Cables:

Monster Cable THX 1000 4' HDMI A/V Cable

Xbox 360/PS3 Metal Braiding Ver 1.3

I guess you could call me an entertainment freak, I've tried all sorts of HDMI cables, component cables, and speaker systems to get the "best of the best" type entertainment. The rushed down to best buy the first day of purchasing the bravia and bought a super expensive monster thx 1000 4' cable. It came in a ridiculously blistered packaging that was tough to open.

The quality was decent, took it all the way to 1080p. Because my tv was 120hz, sports games really came alive. I also ended up purchasing a second tv, the samsung 52" touch of color. I'd tell ya, it's an AMAZING TV. I moved my bravia to my room for close viewing, and my 52" was my center masterpiece in my living room. I didn't want to spend another $100 for a hdmi cable, so I ended up purchasing one of these hdmi cables on ebay. I was torn between the amazon one and this one. I figured, version 1.3, 1.8m, why not?

The metal braids on the product really is what it states it is. I switch back and forth with this cable between my ps3 and my WD media hard drive reader. To me, honestly, the $100 cable and this cable performed exactly the same. This product delivers exactly as stated, it delivers crisp vivid images no matter what I switch the source to. My main sources are:

Cable TV: HD Channels --> Makes Life on Discovery look RIDICULOUSLY GOOD

PS3: Just watched Avatar Blu-Ray, amazing clarity and sharpness when the Navi are near those ancestral white threads.

Western Digital Media Reader --> I was honestly surprised at how clear the hdmi cable made the .avi files. my tv goes to about 1920 x 1280, so when you load the .avi files and stretch them, I was expecting some distortion, but I was blown away. Highly recommended!

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Buy The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth II - Xbox 360

Customer Ratings:

When I gave up computer gaming for the cheaper and more simple world of console gaming I had one regretstratgy games. They are my alltime favorite form of video gaming and I knew that they were next to impossiable to find and translate on a console. The last real time stratgy game I remember on a console was a port of Red Alert 2 on the old Playstation. When I heard LOTR Battle for Middle Earth was coming to the 360 I was hopfull but still afraid it wouldn't workbut I was happilly wrong. The controller works GREATnot quite as good as a mouse but it is the next to the best thing. In fact one can argue that the camera control works better witht he 360 than the pc.

All that aside this is also just agreat game. It is very balanced and a lot of fun. The cpu is smart and tough and gives quite a challange to you. But of course the real deal is this game on Xbox live. It is a lot of fun and there is a lot of challange. I cannot reccomend this game enough. I just now pray that the upcoming C&C game will also be on the 360. PLEASE ea make it so.

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Another highly anticipated game for me, but yet another game that you feel slightly disappointed with. EA has a bad habit of making games that just do not live up to the hype and this unfortunately is one of them.

The graphics are fairly good until you get a lot of your armies on the screen at the same time. It really gets choppy with the more you have. Many quick graphics pauses. The small map that shows the entire region is almost pointless. As another reviewer said, if you have one army off by itself, good luck seeing the blue dot on that map to find them. I am not color blind and have very good vision and I could not see it most of the time.

The controls to do many things seem cumbersome. I never played this on a PC, but I would bet PC style controls probably would be better versus many menus to traverse.

Game play itself is sort of fun. However, I find some of it almost too easy and brainless. Unfortunately, as long as you are willing to take the time, you could get through many levels by just continously creating armies and attacking until everything is dead. You really do not need to do anything special or use any special magic. The enemy is usually too easy as well. If you retreat and back away, many if not most will not come after you. Again, if you have the time, just do that and keep building armies until everything is dead.

I really think this game is just OK. Not worth the $60 and not as good as it should be on a next generation console. Though that really seems to be the trend so far with most new games.

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LOTR 2 for Xbox 360 leaves a person with mixed feelings. It looks good and sounds good. But there are some quintessential problems which might leave a dedicated gamer dissatisfied.

I am heavily in to RTS (Real Time Strategy), Its my favorite genre, followed by RPG (role Playing games), not much in to FPS (First Person Shooters). I remember starting off with the RTS classics, Tiberian sun, Red alert 2, homeworld, etc, moving on to Generals, warcraft 3, etc.

Now those games had character, it made you think, it made you strategize. In a game like Homeworld, you could never win with out capturing enemy ships. In Command and conquer, it was about resource gathering and key defensive placements.

After playing LOTR extensively the last few days, I havent yet figured out what sets it apart. It is too generic. Its just about make a lot of cheap melee units, and send them en masse to rush the enemy positions.

Finer points of a RTS such as defensive placements, resource domination, specialty units, etc are available, but due to the way the game is set up, you cant really utlize them to the full effect.

Lets go in depth shall we?

I was skeptical about game control issues using a XBox 360 controller as opposed to the trusty mouse on a computer. The interface is about 30% as efficient as compared to using a mouse or having short cut keys or the lot as experienced on a computer.

The Minimap (called the "Palantir" is very vague, you can not zoom in and out on the palantir and you can not issue move commands through the palantir. So most of the times, you will see blue colored smudges which indicate your units or red colored smudges which indicate enemy units. Now these smudges are prominent only when you have about 2 or 3 units in an area. So, if you have just one group of (say) elven soldiers, the blue dot representing them might be so small (read invisible) in the palantir, that you will completely miss them. And honestly after about 2 weeks of playing this game, I still cant locate individual squads by means of the palantir.

Combine that irritation with the fact that you scroll through the map with the left stick and zoom in / out or rotate the camera by the right stick and you have massive control issues.

It is a night mare trying to view a particular area where some thing might be happening. For example, you notice flashes on the palantir, and you want to move the view to that region. Since you cant navigate through the palantir or snap the camera to the region of interest, you will have to manually pan the camera to that region. The camera movement co-ordination between the main map and the mini map (palantir) is based on the direction the camera is pointing at. So it is extremely difficult to move the camera, while your gaze is fixed at the palantir.

I used to curse out aloud as my forces were being attacked and I was hopelessly panning the camera right to left or up and down trying to focus on the region of interest.

Now the game creators did try to solve this problem with some rather half hearted attemtps. If you press down on the left stick you will zoom in on your fortress. Given the fact that you will have several fortresses, and this snap on feature only focuses the camera on the fortress that was most recently built, what use is that?

Also there is the feature, that when there is some thing happening and a warning is issued, you can press the "Y" yellow button to snap on to that region.

This is very quirky, it usually directs to some innane area of the map where nothing might be happening.

This game doesnt make sense when it comes to the warnings that keep getting issued. The irritating voice over keeps crying out warnings at the wrong times.

So it is extremely difficult to keep track of the events going on in the different areas of the map.

Micromanaging units is not possible here. First and foremost, selecting a unit is done by moving the cursor over that unit and pressing "A" (green button). If you hold down the left trigger and press and hold "A", you can select all units in the area. Or you can hit "A" twice to select all units in an area which you are viewing.

But the problem is, how do you select a few particular units of, say, one type. I dont want to send archers and swordsmen to the same battle zone. But then individually selecting a group of similar units is very hard. You will have to hold down the "A" button and move the cursor to the units you want to select. Now if you want a group of archers. You select one squad of archers, keep "A" pressed down, and move to where the other squad of archers are. But if by chance you pass over a squad of swordsmen standing in the same area, they too will get selected. After a while, I stopped trying to micromanage.

Can you imagine that, no chance of micromanaging in a RTS!!

The only way to effectively micromanage units in a RTS is by means of shortcuts. This game offers the concept of short cuts, but in a very usuer unfriendly manner.

Shortcuts are not linked to hardware, but by software (on screen menu) You will first need to select all the squads you want in a group, then hold down the right trigger, then scroll to the shortcut tab on the screen, click on the shortcut tab, then scroll through the shortcut signs (why cant they just use numbers?!?!), and then click on that particular shortcut sign to assign or select a particular group with it.

Now you cant add or remove to this shortcut group, and so with the changing dynamics of the battle, you will need to compeltely restart the procedure of assigning groups to shortcuts.

You read the procedure to assigning shortcuts, now imagine doing this rapidly while in a pitched battle as squads die off and new squads are brought in. You are right, you probably wont be using this much. So you will end up sending all melee and ranged units to the same area of battle.

Next problem is with the way units respond to your commands, you can keep issuing orders to a unit, but most of the times it will just ignore you completely. For example, in the final mission of the "good" campaign, I sent a giant eagle to knock down some archery and catapault towers on the walls surrounding the castle. No matter how many times I ordered the eagle to concentrate on a particular target, it kept flying off to attack some thing else and died in the process.

In this game, You could "theoretically" control the units behavior "aggressive" or "hold ground", thats it. You dont have the option of "defensive", meaning you CANNOT use hit and run techniques very effectively. God forbid if the enemy comes close, your troops will engage them, and will not back out, no matter how much your order them to. The artillery units will indiscriminately shell the region where enemy troops are present, even when these enemy troops are fighting your own troops. Guess they are really open to the idea of collateral damage. And given that your troops generally refuse to obey orders, chances are as your artillery units start shelling, you will take just as much loss from it, as your enemy.

Artillery units can be made to be in either of 2 modes : "Halt auto acquire" or "halt auto fire". Which is funny, because conversely, it is always in "auto acquire" or "auto fire" mode, and in either mode, the artillery unit WILL fire automatically when it sees the enemy. And in a battle you WILL take collateral damage.

Resource gathering is done by placing static resource generating units (like a tree for elves, a mine shaft for dwarves, a tunnel for goblins, etc) in various locations of the map. Now you can only place these resource generating units at a fixed distance from each other. If they are too close, then they infringe on the other, and the efficiency of the process is reduced.

So you are required to explore the map and keep placing resource generating units at diffent locations. But this creates an extremely big head ache in terms of defending these important resourcers. Since you can only build defensive structures, like walls, at a fixed distance from a fortress. You will need to keep building fortresses all over the map to defend these resource generating units. Now each fortress is 5000 gold, about 25 times the cost of a standard squad of swordsmen or archers (this gives you an idea of how expensive it is), so you will not be able to build too many of these fortresses. So your resource generating units might be left undefended, and thus your revenues will run even lesser than before. Of course you can dynamically defend these resource generating units by moving soldiers to the resource generating units if under attack. But then with the whole concept of rush tactics and massed troops squaring off in pitched battles, you wont have squads available for guard duty of resourcers.

Another surprising problem in this game is the save game feature. You can only save a set number of games.

This is the single greatest flaw in this game.

So if there are 16 battles (8 each) for the good and evil campaigns, you might be allowed to save a total of about 10 games. So effectively, you wont be able to go back and play a certain scenario after finishing both the campaigns. I dont understand why those stupid developers had to limit the number of saved games a person can have!

The way this game works is also surprising. For example, when my elven and dwarven armies stormed the black castle in the final mission of the good campaign. I was met with a "Balrog" that pretty much decimated 3 of my squads and killed a hero. And then started coming towards my buildings. I dispatched a Giant Eagle, and it just killed that balrog within a second. Now this verisame eagle is not very effective against other units of the same kind. It can get killed pretty easily by say 3 groups of enemy archers. This is very confusing. You might build up defenses or an attack force by estimating the relative strengths and weakness of your forces and that of your opponents. But then the units might react in a way completely unforseen, and this might turn the tide of battle.

One more problem here is, you are limited to the number of units you can build. But then you might receive reinforcements, which might be of no use but which might push you over the limit. You cant kill or retire certain units like ents or giants or ships. So you might end up keeping those useless units, while retiring useful units to get units that you desperately need.

E.g.: when facing melee battles, you might end up having to decomission swordsmen, which you do need, to get some specialty melee units, like Mirkwood archers, which have greater damage potential. And at this time,you might have 4 ships lying at anchor doing nothing and no way of retirng them.

Another problem with this game are the walls. Firstly they are SUPER expensive and not too strong. If a certain section of a wall breaks, you cannot rebuild it. And depending upon your race (elven / dwarven/ human, etc) you might be able to repair it. And there are these big wall hubs that you need to build, which in turn expand to form walls. Now the sections of the walls can be modified to hold catapaults or archery towers or wall hubs. If a certain section of the wall is under attack, you cannot ask your builder to repair it. You will have to sitback and watch it get demolished. Then after the assault is over, you will need to destroy the rest of the wall yourself, to get to the "wall hub" and then have a fresh new wall built. Now this new wall cannot be built in the same spot as the old wall, so you will have a mess of overlapping walls all over the area in a region of heavy conflict.

Also you cannot have your structures repaired by the builder, you might have a spell to do it (again race dependent). But since you are limited to the number of spells you can have, you will find you will go for spells which are more useful than "struture repair", some thing that kills the enemy.

Lastly, there is very limited strategy employed in this game. Like when playing the skirmish mode, against brutal enemies, you will find that the enemy has NO limits on the amount of money and the number of troops he has, where as you are limited. The only way you can win is by building large numbers of soldiers. Your cash flow is limited, and if you were to spend money on upgrades (like better armor or weapons and which are extremely expensive), you wont have money to built more troops for the meat grinder. And you will loose the battle.

This game is dismal as compared to the real RTS gems, it hardly has any element of strategy.

It does try to innovate in some new areas, like you have a points system, you earn points by killing enemies, and if you have enough points you can "buy" spells. But then if you have a lot of points, you can pretty much buy all the spells. Then you can let your armies rest, and fight the enemy by spells. Heck, I have done this so many times.

For an RTS, this game limits you from having the units you want to field, it doesnt allow you micromanage them, it doesnt allow you to deploy them or view their actions, or in any way control them or let them be effective. You can only build up massive armies and send them to die, and keep doing so to merely survive against the enemy. So the spells are the only way you might actually establish an edge over the enemy.

Its dismal really. Imagine, playing red alert 2 with just nuclear strike (or weapons of mass destruction, like the weather machine) and having quite ineffective tanks or armies! Imagine no apocalypse tanks! Just masses of conscripts!

The spells go on to allow you to deploy a hero (like Tom bombadill) or soldiers (3 squads of Dale men archers or a group of eagles, etc). I guess the developers of this game themselves realised the futility of having armies being strategically commanded in this game, and have pretty much tried to replace the strategic element of a conventional RTS gaming with the concept of spell casting.

It is disgusting!

Overall the game does look good, however, you cant zoom in too close. The sounds / music are nothing to die for. The voice overs are EXTREMELY irritating. The elves sound like goody two shoes whom you will feel like punching on the nose.

While supposed to be such tough warriors, these elves certainly sound like wusses.

Its an irritating game. And with just 16 single player missions, The skirmishes are extremely boring. So for $60, it is not enough value for money.

It is a very sad attempt at introudcing RTS genre to the TV console game sector.

Would I recommend buying it? Only after the price falls to under $20!

Regards,

Kaushik Lodh

Honest reviews on The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth II - Xbox 360

Let me start by saying im a huge rts fan, if only i could have all those hours back, never learn i guess. Ok down to business, when i fired up LOTRBFME 2 i immediately went online and played a couple matches ranked and unranked. I prefer to play unranked cause you get a lot more variety of players and not just the ones who are in it for the rankings. The ranked part is only beneficial for those who want to keep track of all their stats like how many wins and losses and how many kills etc. I meen if leaderboards are your thing more power to you. The fact that you can talk smack while your ents are pummeling someones fortress is great adding some deinate competition factor i ad hours of fun playing online alone. The ea server worked very well the games were never had too much lag or any boots. Sometimes when both sides would have massive amounts of units onscreen there would be a hardly noticeable lag. There still is a good amount of strategy though most players do a building rush along with the typical build more units than the other and keep attacking strategy. The fact that walls are expensive and deiffucult to rebuild and are somewhat weak kind of makes it hard for the defensive player who likes to build a nice base and wear down the enemy. But the game still has a lot to offer as far as variety is concerned there are alot of races with different strengths and weaknesses so learning the goods and bads of each while developing a strategy to exploit the strenghts of your race adds replay value. There are a few hangups managing units is difficult youll find yourself ordering your entire army just to kill a single enemy squad, very hard grouping of units makes it very difficult. also the map is pretty useless other than to give you an overview of the land and you cant make it larger to order units to specific parts and such. Also the resource gathering is a pain forcing you to spread out to get maximum efficiency from them. Hopefully they can somehow fix some of the more frustrating problems with an update from xbox live. Bottom line if you have xbox live, or youre a lotr fan then this is a definate buy,if not then you might want to wait for the price to drop.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth II - Xbox 360

So its not worth buying Battle for Middle Earth 2 anymore.

The online Service for Battle for Middle Earth games (BFME 1, 2 and Rise of the Witchking) has been terminated on December 31th, 2010.

The game itself is good, its just that you get no real worth out of your money anymore, since the CD-key is not needed to play online anymore.

There are no goodies inside the box, its just the DVD and a small installation handbook inside.

Best Hauppauge 1196 WinTV-HVR-1250 PCI-E x1 TV Tuner 1196 Deals

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $73.60
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Pros:

One of the lowest cost Hybrid Tuner Cards out there that can do both Analog and Digital Tuning. It works well, can view a clear picture on the computer, smooth, NOT choppy nor freezes. Includes WinTV7 which is needed to watch digital channels (ATSC or clear QAM), Windows Media Center only supports Analog (NTCS) Channels. The card is small (1/2 Height with 1/2 Height headers that can be swapped on) and its PCIe so it will fit a PCIeX1 or PCIeX16 slot.

64Bit supported just as well as 32Bit, running this on Vista Home Premium 64Bit.

Cons:

Does NOT have a MPEG Encoder chip, so no hardware conversion of the Analog signal, your CPU will have to work harder to do a software MPEG conversion. With weaker CPU's that might be a problem, my Athlon X2 6000+ runs at 40%-50% utilization while watching analog channels. I'm pretty sure Digital Channels do NOT need a MPEG Encoder chip, the digital signal is already streamed as MPEG, and watching digital channels my CPU utilization is 15%-30%, more often at the lower end near 15%.

Like mentioned, WinTV7 can crash suddenly, but restarts and runs fine after a crash. Its NOT to often, but enough that its more than a fluke. Runs just as well 64Bit as 32Bit. Remember, you can't watch Digital Channels in Windows Media Center, only analog, you'll need WinTV7 or another 3rd Party Program to watch Digital Channels.

Other:

Windows 7 will support Digital Channels in Windows Media Center.

If your cable company offers clear QAM, Comcast in my area has a digital alternative for every analog channel as well, so I can get every channel they offer in digital, then there is NO reason to pay extra for a Tuner Card with a MPEG encoder chip onboard, its NOT needed for Digital Channels. I'm pretty sure its NOT used at all for digital channels.

Remember, this card is PCI"e" NOT PCI, it will NOT fit your PCI slots, its for PCI"e"X1 or even PCI"e"X16 slots.

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I purchased this card to be put into a MythTV (Linux) home-built DVR. I previously was only recording standard definition non-digital cable channels. I recently purchased a HDTV for my bedroom/office and wanted to be able to take advantage of that. This card works perfectly with MythTV and Linux. The tuner found all of the digital channels in the air that my TV was able to find with the antenna connected directly to it. This card seems to lock onto signals very well, as I havnt seen a single issue in any of the recordings made from it yet. You can't beat free over-the-air high definition of the local networks!!! I'm thrilled. Buy it!

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If you have Windows 7, there's really no point in delaying the purchase of this TV tuner. Windows automatically identifies the tuner, installs the drivers, and then it's only a matter of opening up Windows Media Center (WMC) and letting it guide you through the steps. I was concerned that just having a direct cable connection (no cable box...obviously) would limit the channels. But I get pretty much all the cables I do normally plus the HD channels. Having an HD monitor and a large hard drive (HD recording takes up about 5 GB/hour) makes this capable of taping full seasons and plenty of movies without batting an eye. Movies on all cable and basic channels are categorized for you. You can browse titles in an iTunes-like view and BluRay movies are even marked as such just the way they would in the store. I use iTunes for a lot of things, but not anymore. Why pay the money for shows and movies you can record yourself? Why wait patiently for buffering and annoying commercials on Hulu when you can just fastforward? WMC has really come into its own, and this Hauppage tuner really allows you to exploit its full potential.

Honest reviews on Hauppauge 1196 WinTV-HVR-1250 PCI-E x1 TV Tuner 1196

This TV tuner card works great in a Dell Dimension desktop with Vista. Highly recommended when combined with Windows Media Center. Note that the card will fit in either a PCI Express x1 or x16, but not in a regular PCI slot. I did not set up the remote as I did not need it, so I can't speak for how it works. It looked somewhat cheaply built, though, so if the remote is a selling point, you may want to look elsewhere.

If you want a cheap and easy recording option in Vista, go with this card.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Hauppauge 1196 WinTV-HVR-1250 PCI-E x1 TV Tuner 1196

The card works well on my win 7 media center system with QAM Clear channels from Comcast (no cable box). Here are some concerns.

o The remote supplied seems to not launch media center from the desktop like another Hauppage remote (USB) that I have. It appears you need to have Media Center Launched, then the remote works. A minor inconvenience.

o The cable tv receiver is not as strong as my TVs. When my signal was weak, my TV would receive the channel, but the 1196 was getting dropouts.

o I put a Wireless N PCI express card in the slot right next to the 1196. It was causing a dropout of the cable signal every few seconds. I tried to build a shield, but that didn't work. I had to take out the wireless N card and the 1196 worked perfectly after that. Definitely confirmed interference between the PCI express Wireless N card and the 1196. I'm not sure which card to blame. I have a small form factor PC so I couldn't try separating the cards more, so I don't know if that would have helped.

o Many clear QAM channels scan in the setup as if they are locked and scrambled, but if you select them, many can be viewed. After finding them in setup, you need to manually set them up in the guide so that the system knows what shows are on what clear QAM channel. That is a bit of a pain to do but worth the effort it makes it very easy to record shows. In my area Comcast offers HGTV, History, Comedy Central, CNN, MSNBC, PBS, Fox News, CNBC, Golf, Style, and many more through clear QAM.

All in all, I like using this card with Windows Media Center and not having to have a cable company's DVR or cable box. Comcast offers plenty of basic channels through clear QAM, but you can't get premium Comcast channels or encrypted channels through this card. You need to set up a cable box and use an IR blaster to get those to record on this card.

Edit 7/4/2012: Comcast has moved most of the basic cable channels off Clear QAM now, forcing subscribers onto their cable box so the use of this DVR is limited to local TV and PBS. There was no good reason to do this except to gain control over the viewers equipment (especially after they promised the digital conversion would have no impact). There was no impact when they broadcast in clear QAM, but then they forced everyone off their own TV's remote and DVRs and onto Comcast's equipment for the same channels (impact: extra rental costs, loss of use of personal equipment, and their ability to monitor all my activity). I filed an FCC complaint on this (Comcast offered me one time discount, but has no intention to change). I'm using internet channels now more than ever and hope that Comcast eventually realizes the folly of this and makes our TVs work without a box in between (if it isn't too late....based on the number of people leaving cable).

Discount Turtle Beach Ear Force PX4

Customer Ratings:

FINAL EDIT:

After some use with games and movies, I've come to the conclusion that this headset just isn't worth the money. The build quality is just not good. At first it didn't bother me as much, but after a week it's become seriously annoying. You can just tell that it's not a quality product each component is probably the cheapest available option. It felt like I had spent a lot of money so I really wanted them to be good but they just weren't...

It does it's job "okay" but, in the end, it's not worth $150. It just isn't. I bought a pair of Sennheiser's that will work with the PS4 and the difference in sound is unbelievable! The best part? The Sennheiser's were $50 cheaper. So that's where my PX4 experience ends. Turtle Beach is officially on my list of "popular but poor quality brands."

I'm returning my PX4s on Monday.

Cheers

ORIGINAL REVIEW:

I bought this in anticipation of the PS4 release. I've been using it with my PS3 in the meantime.

Pros:

For a headset, the sound is pretty darn good. If these were standalone headphones, then I would expect better for $150, but factoring in the wireless capability and the mic, I certainly can't complain.

The surround sound works well it definitely gives you that cinematic feel.

Since it uses a wifi signal, the range is excellent. There is no signal distortion or anything of that nature.

They are very comfortable to wear for long periods of time.

EDIT: Adding detachable mic to the pros list.

EDIT: Adding battery life to the pros list. The battery lasts forever and charges relatively quickly.

Cons:

The build quality could be a little better. Nothing's breaking, but the plastic is cheap and the WiFi box feels hollow and far too lightweight.

Getting these to work with the PS3 was actually a challenge. The instructions don't clearly show how to set everything up. In the end I realized that I needed to hold down the "pairing" button on the WiFi box while also holding down the power button on the headphones. That was the only way I could get them to actually connect. While this is definitely not a deal-breaker, it can be sort of annoying.

Bottom line:

This is a decent headset, even for the price. I would go so far as to recommend it to anyone looking for a gaming or cinematic wireless headset. I wish the plastic was better quality, and I wish it was heavier, but other than that everything is built pretty well.

The lack of proper instructions was annoying. There isn't even a PDF on the Turtle Beach website, which is something that really should exist. Still, with some trial and error, I figured it out.

All-in-all I like them and look forward to using them with my PS4.

Cheers.

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This headset sounds great, feels great, and was easy to set up, However there are a couple issues that prevent me from giving it 5.

One, you can't control the chat volume OR mute your microphone when using these on the PS4.

Two, there is a intermittent yet frequent buzzing noise. It may be interference, but with Dual-Band interference free advertised, this should not happen.

Three, the buttons rattle around on the headset cups.

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Headset is cheap for the $150.00 price tag. The sound quality is similar to that of the X12's also made by Turtle Beach.

Honest reviews on Turtle Beach Ear Force PX4

Good headset. Surround sound and wireless for the same cost as some of the wired competition. I have two younger kids (5 and 2) and a knack for getting consumed and extremely competitive in COD; I knew if one of them tripped over the cord and yanked it off my head I would be prone to use some adult language to express my surprise.

Pros: Wireless, surround sound, good sound quality.

Cons: Though marketed as "the only PS4 compatible headset out of the box" there isn't a shred of direction for setting up on the PS4. You can go to their website, though, and find the directions. It is truthfully an XBox 360 headset (even has a sticker of the controller on it) that was wisely equipped with a cable that would make it work with the PS4. Neither here nor there.

It works. Sounds good. Fair price. If I didn't have little ones and a need for wireless, I would probably have bought the Tritton 7.1's

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Purchased for my new PS4 & i am HIGHLY disappointed. The sound is constantly going in & out. Static is horrible.

Review of HK Black Wireless Bluetooth Controller for sony PS3

Customer Ratings:

In most ways, this controller works just like a regular Sony controller, and for a far cheaper price. So if you don't mind a couple head-scratching issues with it, it's a worthwhile purchase. That said, I've noticed two problems with it:

1. If you have it plugged in to the PS3 when you turn the system off, it turns it right back on. That probably sounds ridiculous, but I have tried it dozens of times (not to mention hundreds of times with the other controllers I own, which NEVER do this) and every single time I turn off the PS3 with this controller plugged in, it turns the system back on. If you have a separate charger and/or charge this controller while the PS3 is on, then this won't affect you (and it could be that not all of them do this, but mine certainly does.

2. If you pause the game you are playing for more than a minute or so, the controller shuts off. You have to come back and double click it again before you can push start and continue the game. It's not as if that takes all day or anything, but it can be a bit annoying if you're the type that has to walk away from your game very often.

If these two things don't bother you (and if you're confident enough that the one you buy won't have additional problems) then hey, save yourself $25 or $30 and buy this controller. Who wants to spend $50 on one, after all?

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I bought this for my husband as a second controller for his system. We definitely didn't want to spend the larger amount to get a Sony brand controller. This price was relatively very cheap. My husband noted that the controllers didn't work as smoothly as the standard Sony controller you receive with the gaming system, but the problem wasn't big enough to actually hinder game play. Overall, we are completely satisfied with the product. Considering it was four times cheaper than the name brand, this was a good deal. It was sent from China so it took a full week to arrive, but it did come all in one piece and was actually already charged to play.

I would recommend buying this controller and saving yourself the money.

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Just chiming in to say that this looks and (mostly) feels like the real deal. You can tell if you are a regular gamer but this thing is as advertised. I bought this specifically to use with my android devices (nexus 7 and HTC Evo LTE). Rooting the devices and using the SixAxis pairing tool/app worked great and I am playing pretty much any game with a $16 controller. This thing feels much better than most any mobile device bluetooth game controller and has 4 triggers and thumbsticks with L3/R3 which many mobile game controllers are missing. Consider that this costs less than half as much as a playpad, icontrolpad, icade, etc. and its a no brainer.

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This controller does have a couple of "quirks," but they are not too much trouble. The first is that it has it's own power saver that will automatically turn it off if left alone for a (seemingly short) time. And, this cannot be adjusted at all, as far as I can tell. If this is a problem for you, you can eliminate this by plugging it in. But, this brings me to the other little quirk. If you turn your system off while this unit is plugged in, it will automatically turn your system back on. (With the USB cord unplugged it will behave like the original)

I have to emphasize though that I find this to be a good product overall, especially for the price. With the exception of the aforementioned "quirks" it looks, feels, and acts just like the Sony version. In fact, it is almost indistinguishable from the original.

If you are looking for an off-brand replacement for a wireless PS3 controller (that doesn't require batteries), I would say that this product is a good choice.

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The total I paid for this item was $13 and I can definitely tell I got my $'s worth. The response of the unit is slow and if you are wanting to use this for online gaming on C.O.D. for example get ready to have your stats JACKED up. The joystick controls are out of control and the buttons don't respond on first tap. This controller is now used for the unlucky sap that may come game w/ me. The only reason I bought this controller is because my other one met its demise at the bottom of my foot while I was walking in the dark, and instead of waiting patiently to save the $40 for an officially licensed Playstation controller I rushed and now have to wait for the wife to okay a second controller expense. DONT BUY THIS P.O.S. CONTROLLER!!