The Nerd's Soup

I… just discovered high-definition gaming.

My parents are hilarious about this; they will use an appliance until it drops dead, but when it does (or when they give it away; I’ve inherited  a sickly yellow electric can opener they were given when they got married), they see it as a sign to move into the next generation of technology.  This time, a TV my dad uses downstairs while he exercises died.  The solution, then, is to move the family room tube downstairs and fill its spot with a 23″ LCD.  Since this thing is capable of 1080p and came bundled with a HDMI cord (how nice of them), I lugged my 360 downstairs and tested out Burnout Paradise.

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I can read everything.  It’s like getting glasses for the second time.

HD isn’t amazing because the big things look better.  I played Assassin’s Creed on my 13″ tube TV and I remember being impressed by graphics, particularly the architecture (and not much else).  HD is awesome because the little details are brought into sharp relief.  Maybe that’s not a revelation, but when the mini-map I sometimes have to rely on to navigate is as clear and detailed as the car I’m driving, when I can see clearly the distant, detailed background in the middle of a fast-paced sequence in Mass Effect, it makes me never want to go back to standard.  Ever.  But I’ll have to.  I can’t get Live down in the family room, and some games are slightly more… intense than the family traffic area can handle.

You can bet I feel a little silly about this.  It isn’t the first time I’ve played in hi-def.  It’s just the first time it’s really clicked to me.  So I thought I’d share.  My mom laughed at me when I kept saying, “It’s so pretty…”  You can laugh at me, too!  Enough with all that serious biz-niz.

Now… is it worth it to take a few hundred dollars out of my savings and get one for myself?  Hmm…