News from CES 2007 (Updated as Needed)

Well, CES (Consumer Electronics Show) 2007 has kicked off and it seems like the biggest news this year is the use of the 1080p format.  We are seeing the first 1080p Hard Drive based camecorder from JVC (http://gear.ign.com/articles/753/753471p1.html), it's being shown with some of the newest TVs to hit the market, and is even available on a new DVD player to upscale your existing movies to 1080i/p from LG (http://gear.ign.com/articles/753/753472p1.html).

On the Microsoft side, Bill Gates showed off some of the new fetures for Windows Vista for the first time (http://gear.ign.com/articles/753/753481p1.html) including talking about it's direct connection to the Xbox 360 and Vista's ability to use the accessories from the 360 for itself (controllers, etc).  They also announced an IPTV system that will work with the Xbox360 to allow content on demand for the system.  Not many details were given, but it seems like an interesting idea for the most network friendly system ever made so far.

New Page is Up and Going!

Well, after a full weekend of work and a little help from some friends, the page is finally updated and looking much better than the old version.  I moved the services here to a standard called "Wordpress" which was recommened to me and makes posting here much easier.  I'm still working out the details of the page, but 99% of it has been updated succesfully.  Now with that completed, onto some current news.

Got my Wii...and a new PC to Boot!

Well, obviously my promise to keep this page updated every week isn't going very well so far. But on a good note, I did manange to get my Wii about week after the last post (I LOVE that thing!) and as of 12/29/06 I got a new PC to work on the page along with my Photoshop. I'm currently in the process of trying to revamp the page to use Wordpress to make the blogging part of this work better, but this will do for now. As long as I can get the word out is what's important. But back to the Wii. Part of the reason I haven't updated much lately is because I have gotten quite a few of the launch titles for the system and wanted to get some serious play time in with them. I was not let down in the least. The other reason is that I wanted to make sure it wasn't going to be skewed by the whole "new" aspect of it. I wanted to give it time to sink in and give it an honest opinion.

Wii Launch Disappointment, FYE Issues, and Greed in Gaming

(Original Post - 11-19-06)

Well, today was supposed to be one of the best days of the year for gaming. A new system was released, the Nintendo Wii, which was supposed to bring new people as well as make some old ones return to the world of gaming. From what I have heard it has done this well, but there are two problems, neither of which have anything to do with Nintendo.

Wii Announcements and Impressions

(Original Post - 9-16-06)

Well, the day finally came and almost all of our questions about the Wii were answered. The Wii will be hitting North America on November 19th for 249.99. This will come with the system, power cable, video cable (yet to be stated what kind it will be), vertical stand, sensor bar, sensor bar stand, 1 Wii-mote controller, 1 Nunchuck analog attachment, and (for the first time since the Super Nintendo) they are packing in a game - Wii Sports. Wii Sports has 5 separate sports designed for ease of use but to let you use the controller to play the games as real as you can. The sports will be Baseball (seems to be a kind of home run derby mode from what we have seen), Boxing (you use the two parts of the control as your two hands and box..easy), Tennis (you swing the racket, but don't have to actually run around the court, the game does that for you), and the newly announced Bowling (just swing the controller like a bowling ball...again, easy). When I get a chance I'm going to update this later with some images (cross your fingers on that going well) and maybe even some videos (that would be nice).

Wii Announcements Tomorrow

(Original Post - 9-13-06)

Well, tomorrow should be the day that we hear about the new system from Nintendo, the "Wii". If all goes well we should finally hear about the launch date, launch games, more games, packaging, final controller and system stats, and most important - the PRICE! From what I have see, there should be two events happening - one in Japan, the other in New York at the Nintendo World Store. The Japan one is official, the other one may just be repeating the other events announcements. Some of the other rumors / news that I would love to hear about as well - Virtual Console games at release that we will see, their pricing and means of download / storage, what connection can we expect from the DS with the Wii (will it just be for demos and some other information, or will we be able to use it as a special controller for some great touch controls), did the DVD playback really get removed as a later add on, and what is the Opera Browser like for browsing and handling of the web wirelessly from the TV through the Wii. I'll try and get answers for these and any other questions that you send to me via the Questions link above asap. And I hope to have a new version of the forums up and running by Sat 9-16-06 if all goes well.

Sincerely,

Zen

HACKED!!!

(Original Post - 9-12-06)

Yep, we were hacked. Sorry for all (if any) confusion or trouble this may have caused. The page was replaced by another groups page and message with the intent of using it to spread a virus. I made the decision to go ahead and pull the whole page down at the time to make sure as few people as possible were infected with it. But along with that, I ended up loosing the forums. But they will be back soon and better than ever. I'm going to use this chance to pretty much reboot the page and start again...bigger and better than the last. So if you have any suggestions for page design or content, please email me at the suggestions email above. Hope to hear from you soon! And keep reaching for gaming zen!

Jeremy a.k.a. Zen

Welcome!!!

Welcome to Zens Path to Gaming Enlightenment (www.zenspath.com)! This page is still in development but, when completed, will hopefully serve as an entry to all people in the ever growing community of gaming for all ages. We are currently working on getting the forums up and running, so check back soon to sign up and help this site have a place for everybody to come and discuss their gaming lives. I hope to be able to cover games that myself and the future staff choose to let everybody know about ranging from the must haves all the way down to some of the ones that we want you to avoid at all costs. More than just rating and recommending what games we can, I want this site to have user submitted and staff editorials based on gaming subjects of the day that they feel their voice should be heard about. We want to cover everything from censorship, the new political interests of the field, explaining the ESRB rating system, even what games and systems that we recommend for people. Feel free to email us gaming related questions using the "Questions" link above. We'll try and get back with an answer as fast as we can! I hope we can hold this position well and gain some respect in the gaming industry for trying to make it better for our community as a whole. We as a community are growing at an exponential rate and I hope to see that growth continue and evolve right along with all of the new innovations that are being made every day on the tech and political sides of the field.

Sincerely....

Zen