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So I had a chance to play the demo for Mini Ninjas tonight for the PlayStation 3. My first impression of this game was “wow, this game is colorful!”, not to the point where its photo realistic but high definition cartoon art style. Not only that, the music and the environment combine really give that “zen” and oriental feel.

Personally I don’t think this game is for me, I feel that this game is aimed towards the younger crowd. Mini Ninjas puts you in a team of ninjas, you will be able to switch among 3 initially. And as you progress through the game, you will unlock (rescue?) the others with each ninja has his/her advantages.

Although I mostly won’t buy this game, Mini Ninjas certain has a lot of interesting features like having you to hold down “X” and shake your controller to collect fruits and honey from trees and bushes. You will also be opening doors with this action which makes the game more engaging because you are not just mashing buttons. You will have a few scrolls at your disposal as well, one of them being the Spirit Form where you can take on the form of an animal. You can attack your enemies if you take on the boar or a bear by running into them.

You can also fish in the ever virbrant river for sushi, which obviously is for bring your health back up. You have the option to swim (very slow) through your way or you can sit in your huge round hat and paddle across. Both have a timer so you can only be swimming for a limited time, although most likely you won’t run out of time, at least based on the demo. Too bad you can’t experience what I call it snow-hatting, where you will be sliding snowy slopes in your hat which I saw at the end of the demo.

If you are looking for some “zen” and/or casual third person action game with mini (chibi) characters. Mini Ninjas should not disappoint you. Although this game isn’t really for me, I highly recommend this for the younger crowd, as in younger than 20 (yes I’m old!).

Mini Ninjas will be released on September 8th 2009.

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Took me more than a day to finally convince myself to get this game. The main reason is because the game consists of only 12 levels and second reason is I’m a cheap gamer. In the end its the combination of sci-fi theme plus the fact that I’m a semi-hardcore fan of tower defense strategy games that made me make the purchase. I was a bit skeptical at first but after playing the first 4 levels, I must say this game offers a lot of content for the price I paid.

The goal of the game is simple, defend the mining operation from swamps of deadly alien insects called Insectocytes. The first 3 levels are basically tutorials, although you can switch off in the Options menu if you decide to replay those levels and I’m pretty sure you will. Just like any other tower defense strategy games, you will always start with the basic towers, just like PixelJunk Monsters, but instead of an arrow tower, your first tower will be a machine gun tower. By killing of waves and waves of enemies which gradually grow stronger than the previous waves, you will earn money to research new towers as well as upgrade your existing towers (up to level 5). You can als earn more money by advancing the enemy waves, if you feel that you can handle more without preparations.

Unlike PixelJunk Monsters where different types of enemies only take away one life from the total (one villager), different enemies take away different amount of health in Savage Moon. The stronger the enemy the more health or damage it will deal to your mining operation’s overall health.

As I mentioned before that this game offers more than what you are paying for, at least in my opinion. There are a couple of features that are not in PixelJunk Monsters – Command system, new types of towers that can be researched and you can rotate/zoom in and out of the map as well as camera mode from a particular tower.

Another difference between this game and PixelJunk Monsters is that you can only build a limited number of towers based on the available drop pods, even if you have the resources to build more. This makes the game more challenging as you need to plan carefully where you want to place the towers. A very nice feature. But don’t worry, the number will refill itself after each wave.

The command system has three aspects – more money per kill, stronger tower attacks and defense. At one time you can only have up to two of the three prioritized and sacrificing the third aspect. Or you can choose to have all three balanced. Early on you will pick more money per kill plus more fire power so that you can build up more, upgrade existing towers and research new ones.

There are also new types of towers to defend your mining operation such as the Repair Tower that will constantly repair nearby towers and Amp Tower that will make your nearby towers stronger as well as the very useful Block Tower that will allow you to block a path (not all paths can be blocked) by building multiple of these towers beside each other. Other towers can also be built on top of these Block Towers. There are more powerful ones as you progress through the game, I haven’t finished the game yet but I know there are more just by looking at different loading screens. I can’t wait til I get my hands on the Orbital Tower!

One negative comment I have for this game is the lack of multiplayer support (co-op) but I am sure a simple patch can change that?

Overall this game isn’t easy, except for the first 3 levels. The 4th level on Duergar on Xipe took me a few tries before figuring out what’s the best to deal with those pain-in-the-ass giant Insectocytes. This level is the first challenging level that will sure frustrates a lot of people playing for the first time. For those that are stuck on this level, just build a lot of Mortar Towers and you should be fine, at first I thought the Laser Towers would take them out quicker but I was wrong. And don’t forget to upgrade them as much as possible.

Most of the time you will use your money for researching, upgrading and building towers but occasionally you will want to use the Repair Base option to repair your damaged base.

PixelJunk Monsters has a relaxing and cartoonish feel to it, on the other hand Savage Moon has a totally different theme that takes place in space. Graphics are obviously more realistic, I am not criticizing PixelJunk Monsters’ graphics though because it was meant to be cartoonish and unrealistic. While its not Metal Gear Solid or Call of Duty quality, the graphics are more than enough to justify the price you pay.

I think the audio is what stands out the most besides the game play. When you kill waves after waves of enemies, you will constantly hear death screams which are very, very satisfying. I also love the sound each tower makes when it fires as well as when it upgrades and transforms into a stronger tower (great animation too!).

I highly recommend this little downloadable game on PlayStation Network for 9.99+tax. Fans of the sci-fi Tower Defense genre will not be disappointed with its refreshing style of game play. If I was to pick between PixelJunk Monsters and Savage Moon, I think I will pick Savage Moon over Monsters because there are just more things to do and the battles are much more intensive. Let’s hope there will be add-ons for this game in the future.

8.5/10

[Update]: If you are looking for Savage Moon walkthrough, there isn’t any so far, not even in gamefaq.com. But I have found video walkthrough from PSU’s Savage Moon Walkthrough

Image source: PlayStation.Blog @ Flickr

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I have not played the original version of GTI Club which was released back in the 90s by Konami for the arcade. I gave this PS3 demo a try and I must say the game was better than I expected. Though I still am not convinced if the full version is worth it or not. Call me cheap but I like to buy games that I think is worth buying, even if its only $9.99!

So just like the original arcade game, this HD version still have that heavy arcade feel to it, from the graphics as well as from the commentator who I find somewhat annoying. The demo is pretty short, you only get to drive one car, a Volkswagen Golfs, with the default color and race around one single map. The race is pretty short, but sweet. I actually played three times non stop. One thing I absolutely hate is the demo doesn’t allow you to restart a race, which is stupid. You have to go all the way back from the first screen, pick everything again and start the race.

 

Forget about realistic car physics, there isn’t any. You hit something? Don’t worry just keep driving. I don’t think you should care much, unlike GT5 because this is an arcade game, its no simulation. Without the real physics, its a different way of driving and boy its fun because you can go out there and drive as reckless as you want. I think that’s the beauty of this game.

During the demo play, I was able to find a short cut as well so I can only assume there will be more hidden places and short cuts for all the courses. AIs DO actually drive into these short cuts.

Even though the graphics are no Metal Gear Solid quality, it doesn’t have to be nor does it need to. I think the graphics are sharp and vibrant. Everything from buildings to reflection from the cars are nicely designed, again for an arcade game.

Again, although I won’t be getting this game, because I just don’t see myself playing this game for more than a day or so, specially with such a short demo. Another reason might be the fact that all my attention AND patience are allocated to Killzone 2 which is coming out end of Feb. But I still think this one is perfect for GTI Club fans as well as those that are looking for casual video gaming, or should I say casual video driving. Not sure how many courses there will be in the full version, there will be more cars (obviously) like Mini Coopers and Volkswagen Golfs etc. The full game also supports up to 8 players online. And there is this game mode called Bombtag which actually sounds crazy fun.

If you haven’t tried it out, get it on PlayStation Network and go for a spin!

Image Source: GameSpot

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Finally I got my hands on a copy of this game, Dissidia: Final Fantasy is the newest Final Fantasy game released for the Sony PlayStation Portable or PSP. I have the Japanese version and the North American version will arrive sometime mid year in 2009. Honestly I thought this game wouldn’t suit me but I was wrong, very wrong!

Story and game play
After a quite long but very enjoyable opening cinematic of the good and evil, you will pretty much get the idea of what’s going on. Cosmo, the goddess of harmony (the good) and Chaos, the god of discord (the evil) have both summoned a few of the past Final Fantasy characters to fight for his/her side. Honestly I didn’t know any of those characters prior to Final Fantasy 6 until I played this game. I was in grade 6 when Final Fantasy 6 (3 in America) came out, so can’t blame me.

  

The heroes:

-Warrior of Light – Final Fantasy
- Firion – Final Fantasy II
- Onion Knight – Final Fantasy III
- Cecil Harvey – Final Fantasy IV
- Bartz Klauser – Final Fantasy V
- Terra Branford – Final Fantasy VI
- Cloud Strife Final – Fantasy VII
- Squall Leonhart – Final Fantasy VIII
- Zidane Tribal – Final Fantasy IX
- Tidus – Final Fantasy X
- Shantotto – Final Fantasy XI (Ahh our beloved and adorable tarutaru!)

  

The Villains:

- Garland – Final Fantasy
- Emperor – Final Fantasy II
- Cloud of Darkness – Final Fantasy III
- Golbez – Final Fantasy IV
- Exdeath – Final Fantasy V
- Kefka Palazzo – Final Fantasy VI
- Sephiroth – Final Fantasy VII
- Ultimecia – Final Fantasy VIII
- Kuja – Final Fantasy IX
- Jecht – Final Fantasy X
- Gabranth – Final Fantasy XII

Initially you have to go through the Prologue which acts like a series of tutorials for the game. I really like this game because it is a combination of board game, action and RPG all in one! The Prologue will teach you how to navigate through the board, obtain items from treasure chests, fight monsters etc. At first you might feel overwhelmed, at least I did, with all the features and options. But since the menus are so elegantly designed it was easy to get used to and which button is for what option. Unlike the Macross Ace Frontier that I reviewed about two weeks ago. This is what I expect from Square Enix from all its games and so far I have not been disappointed.

  

There are two main modes – the story mode and 1 on 1. The story mode will let you pick which character you want to play the story with. The 1 on 1 to me is just a way to level grind your characters.

As you fight through battles and completing stages, you will gain experience points as well as items and gils (money) which can be used to booster your character’s stats and purchase new weapons/items from the shop.

There are quite a lot of things to cover in terms of the actual game play because its separated between the board game part as well as the actual battles. I will try and cover as much as I can.

The board game part pretty much determines how many battles you will be fighting, on the board there will be treasure chests, healing item, monsters (for you to fight and gain experience and items) as well as a statue that you have to destroy in order to finish a particular stage (note you don’t necessary have to kill all enemies to finish the stage, destroying the statue is enough, at least this is what I’ve seen so far. During each stage, you will be given points called Destiny Points, its basically just points for you to navigate throughout the stage, if you manage to complete the stage without going to the negative, you earn more points after completing the stage, sometimes I find that you have to get to the negative in order to get to everything (or maybe I just suck). You can refill your DP by completing the DP Chance like defeating your enemy within 10 seconds or trigger your EX attack (the special move which I will talk about later) within 10 seconds (not all enemies have DP Chance so you have to plan the way you move throughout the board.

  

On the board, you don’t just move around though, you also have skills that you can use such as healing 30% of your HP or cast negative effects onto your enemy that is adjacent to where you are. Finally you can also press R to go into search mode and check on each enemy’s level as well as the the DP Chance ahead of time. I don’t find it that useful though.

That should cover the basics of the board game part now onto the actual battle!

Battles are very fast paced, the square and circle buttons are for attack, R is defend, L is toggling targeting on/off (sometimes you want to go somewhere else and not looking at your enemy all the time), triangle allows you to walk on walls or jump from one place to another (pretty handy when you fight in a stage where there is hardly anywhere for you to walk on, you will have to jump around) and cross is jump. EX attack or special move is triggered when the EX gauge is full and by pressing R+square. If you have esper equipped, you can call it out by pressing R+circle, again when the EX gauge is full. You will slowly fill up your EX gauge when you attack, being attacked or by obtaining the EX fill up item that appears randomly during battle.

Once EX attack is triggered, a sequence of buttons will be displayed to you, you will have to get them correctly to get the maximum number of hits out of it and in the end, you will hit the button that will be displayed to you for the final blow as well. I haven’t mastered this attack yet though.

  

Upon leveling up, your character will not only gain stats, but he/she will also gain more skills that you can map to your keys. Pressing left and circle can have a different attack than pressing right/top/down and circle! So the combination is endless, well not literally but you get my idea. That goes for the square button attack as well. You can also pick a different EX attack from the EX Mode menu. This should give you at least some ideas of what this game has to offer. I’m PRETTY sure there are more features that I have not covered, like this mini game like option that requires PP that I’m still trying to figure out what its for, all I know is that I used up 30PP to do something related to “treasure hunting in a cave”. Sorry I can’t read too much Japanese.

There is also a multiplayer mode but I haven’t had the opportunity to test it out.

  

Graphics and audio
The graphics are pretty impressive, and I’m not just talking about the CG intro but game play graphics as well. Character facial animations are one of the best I’ve seen on a PSP, you can really see detailed facial animations from each character. The way their eyes blink to how their mouths/lips move as they talk is so smooth its like watching an anime. This is pretty much the best feature I like about Dissidia: Final Fantasy in terms of graphics.

Also worth a mention is the special/lighting effects of the game, be it whether you are moving on the board, scrolling through menus or battling enemies as well as the destructable objects and when you or your enemy gets pushed into a wall, the wall will break too. All these really enhance the game making it more realistic.

Square Enix has been known for having some of the best music composed in the gaming industry if not the best. And Dissidia: Final Fantasy is no exception but then again the game basically uses music from all the Final Fantasy series.

Final verdict
If you are a Final Fantasy fan, I don’t see why you would want to miss this, of course unless you don’t have a PSP then I can’t blame you. But if you are a fan and own a PSP, I suggest you pick up the Japanese version if you can’t wait for the North American version on ebay or yesasia. The fact that this game has features from board games, action/fighting games and traditional RPG games should be more than enough to satisfy a wide range of gamers that are into different game genres. Finally, this game has so much features to offer that I think its worth more than what I’ve paid for, you don’t see a lot of games like that too often!

9.0/10

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Sony mentioned its long waited PlayStation Home would be released before the end of this year, after so many delays and disappointments, Home beta actually got released today! I can’t imagine what the result would be if it wasn’t able to deliver its promise, again.

I was quite excited about hearing it from wired blog because I’m into virtual reality related games such as Second Life. I downloaded a 70+ mb file from the PlayStation Network and I was in the game within minutes. You start out in your own virtual apartment and let me tell you the graphics are stunningly nice. The view is even more impressive if you want out the balcony and look out the the boat yard. Literally breath taking!

  

There are tutorials here what will teach you about the features of Home such as basic action, words and the ability to move your decorations as you see fit. Obviously you can buy more decorations with real money just like you would when purchasing downloadable contents from PlayStation Store.

Every place requires you to download its piece, for example the Mall, which is around 30mb in size. Hopefully my 40GB PlayStation can last for a while because I don’t want to install a bigger one (too lazy) and right now I only have 12GB left. Anyway back to the Mall, as you can guess, this is where you will be able to purchase new clothes ($0.49 and up), home decorations ($0.99 and up) and even new living spaces ($4.99 and up). Obviously since its beta so there are only a handful of items available for purchase and some stores are still closed. I’m pretty sure there will be a LOT more since if Home goes well, it will be another source of income for Sony. I can already see myself buying all sorts of clothes and decorations to personalize my own character, or avatar and my apartment.

  

Aside from the Mall, there is also a Theatre, a Bowling Alley, a music place where you can vote for which song to play next and in the middle has a mini game in a pond in the central gathering area. You basically fly a UFO around and catch things. I assume there will be more mini games introduced in the future, hopefully free of charge. I assume the Bowling Alley is also another mini game place, I haven’t had a chance to download that piece and experience it yet because I was too busy appreciating the graphics of Home.

  

Unfortunately none of my friends have it yet but there are already many PS3 owners to interact with. Just like many online games, there will always be some idiots annoying others. I guess that’s part of MMO life. You have the option to block and/or mute players. And of course you can also add players to your friends list. Chatting can be slow without the keypad but its nothing major plus there are some preset words and emotions for you to choose from. I am still trying to figure out how to get the emotion of playing the PSP. I asked around and no body answered. Sigh, talking about friendly huh?

I highly recommend the PlayStation Home to everyone, with a PS3 obviously, because its an alternative way to meet up with your friends as well as meeting new friends and play mini games or launch, say, Call of Duty 4 together. The graphics are amazing, and I hardly experienced any lag at all even with many people around me. I haven’t noticed any frame rate issues so far either even with the impressive graphics and the amount of people. And best of all, its free to play unless you start decorating your character and/or your apartment.

That is all I have discovered about PlayStation Home so far, I am sure there are more but that’s for me and YOU to find out!

  

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Silent Hill: Homecoming was somewhat disappointing mainly because of its outdated graphics. I know it is not sufficient to judge a game solely based on game play. Although new elements were added to the game such as new combat system and new item/weapon navigations. And I was not happy with the new navigations by the way because you can waste your healing item, mainly the serum which heals you completely, by accidentally move your L3 button and have it selected without even knowing. The game play was kind of expected and I was really hoping for graphics that are next-gen. Ok, enough ranting and time to move on.

Dead Space generated a lot, and I mean A LOT of hype with all the animated trailers, comics and game trailers. Does this game live up to all the hype generated? I would, with no doubt say YES.

  

Story and controls
The story is about a repair ship which crash landed on a large mining ship called ISHIMURA. And as you can imagine, all the horror begins here and almost right away. Some of the controls are rather different from say, Call of Duty, like in order to run, you need to press L3 (move) and L2. The new controls might take a while to get used to but nothing major. If you have been keeping up with your first/third person shooting skills, the aiming should not be a problem either. Again make sure you aim the hands and legs and not the body unless you want to waste ammo. You can also treat your gun as a melee weapon at close range as well as pressing L2 for some foot stamping.

  

Game play and graphics
Dead Space uses a new and innovative user interface for accessing your items, weapons, map and missions etc. Its actually a holographic screen that is projected right in front of you in real time. So for example, you can have the map up and move around at the same time. So far I though, I can’t feel the “survival” part of this game because you get lots of ammo and healing items, I’ve picked up so many that I have to put them in the safe. (I’m playing on normal not easy by the way) Finally, safe points are in many places so I don’t really have to worry about having to restart from far back.

Speaking of which, there is also a store which you can buy healing items, upgrade your suit, called the Rig which increases the amount of items you can store as you go, new weapons, power nodes which are for upgrading your Rig’s max health(which is your health) and your weapons’ damage, ammo capacities etc. Weapon upgrades using the power nodes are performed by accessing another system called Upgrade Bench.

There is also something called Stasis, similar to the “Force” in Star Wars, in which you can manipulate objects by slowing them down or throwing them etc. Nothing new but you need them to solve some of the puzzles as you progerss through the game. And if you ever get stuck, simply press the R3 and a thin line will appear to show you which way you are suppose to go next based on your mission.

Even though both Silent Hill:Homecoming and Dead Space are survival horror, the former doesn’t really make you jump like Dead Space does. Being a survival horror fan for so many years, I’m pretty used to all the scare moments but I was constantly on my toes while playing Dead Space and got a few jumps actually. And finally this game supports the Trophy Collection.

First thing first, I’m sure everyone would want to know about this, YES the game supports 1080p high definition video output. Strangely it defaults to 720p similar to Call of Duty 4. It will only output to 720p unless you explicitly set your console, in my case PlayStation 3 to only output 1080p. And speaking of graphics, it is VERY graphical with tons of blood and body parts all over walls, floors, windows and anywhere you can imagine.

  

Also just to mention there’s no online multiplayer component, it would be even better if there was but with this game, it doesn’t really matter because the single player is just that exciting. And besides, I’m not sure how you can design the multiplayer side based on the story, hmm maybe there could be two races, the humans and those mutated humans? Just a thought.

  

  

Sound
Sound effects are top notch as well, you can hear random screams, objects banging onto other objects. One thing I dislike and makes this game a little bit less difficult and cuts some of the suspense is every time before monsters start coming at you, you will know because you will hear some “horror” noise. So whenever you hear it, you can pretty much expect to ready your limb cutting gun. But like I said before, I still managed to get a few scare from my 2 hours of play time.

  

Final Verdict
Is this game worth the $59.99? I would definitely think so, at least I didn’t regret buying this game like I did with Silent Hill: Homecoming. For those looking for a sci-fi + survival horror and those that are into limb cutting, then Dead Space will be the game.

There may be a part 2 if I find anything that’s worth mentioning

9/10

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As we are approaching the end of analog signal for television which will happen on the 17th of February 2009. There is no better time and excuse to get yourself an HD ready TV. But there are so many options to choose from, it can be overwhelming for some to figure out which TV to buy. Often people will end up buying something different than what they were originally looking for. So I have decided to write this guide to help those who are interested in or are planning to purchase an HD TV. I’m no professional mind you, I just want to transfer any knowledge that I’ve gathered during my research and ultimately a purchase of my first TV. Feel free to correct me!

The first thing on your list should be your budget, just like purchasing a house or a car. How much are you willing to pay for a fancy TV? I suggest buying from one of the more known and popular brands like Sony, Panasonic, Sharp, Samsung and LG. Why? These brands have been around longer than another other small brands that just popped out recently so buying known brands are safter in terms of quality and reliability. And you can justify that because, say you are spending $2000 on a new TV, most of you will be watching this same TV for at least 10 years. Therefore if you spread the money into 10 years, you are only paying $200 per year or roughly $17 a month! So when purchasing TV, or any other electronics, please try not to be TOO cheap or there will be a chance the TV will haunt you with broken this and broken that. For now, the average you can expect is somewhere around $1000 for a 37 inch.

Second on the list will be the size, this can also be factored in when you are deciding on a budget though. Size matters but that does not mean the bigger the better. Say you are living in a normal size apartment, with 20 feet or less between where you sit and the wall where you will be putting your new TV in the living room, it doesn’t make sense to purchase a 52 inch LCD or Plasma TV. With that viewing distance, chances are you won’t be enjoying watching TV because its almost the same feeling as going to theatre and watch a 3 hour movie sitting at the front row! The recommended TV size should be roughly 7 to 8 feet away from you and make sure you can view the entire TV without too much eye movement as that will just stress out your eyes by looking all over the screen.

This next item on the list can also be tied into budget and size – HD or Full HD. HD stands for high definition as most of you should know by now. HD ranges from 720p to 1080i and Full HD is 1080p which is the best quality there is in the market right now. Without going into too technical about i (interlaced) and p (progressive), I will pick 1080p as an example. 1080p means 1920 horizontal x 1080 vertical resolution in a 16:9 aspect. To simply put, you have 1080 horizontal scan lines covering each frame, so the more lines you have, the finer the image.

Aside from the size of the TV, you should also know a bit on the technical side. You should ask yourself questions like these:

- Do I watch these mostly for sports or anything with fast movement?
- Am I planning to get other electronics that are HD capable?

I think the first question isn’t as important but its good to point out. In general, HD TVs nowadays, except the newer models run in 60Hz, which is the refresh rate for displaying. So the faster it is, the smoother the transition between frames. 60Hz is the most common speed right now in the market, you can also get 120Hz with the newer models but the price will be higher, obviously. I believe 60Hz is more than enough for most people.

Second question is more critical because you should always plan ahead for the future and again the TV you will buy soon should last you roughly 10 years, there are what they are called HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) inputs. HDMI is basically the HD version of your components cable and normal AV cable (remember the yellow/white/red cables?) that can output 1080p quality. Say you have a PlayStation 3, which supports 1080p output, that will take up one HDMI input from your TV, you should think ahead of how many you need and will need. In general, having three inputs should be sufficient. Again, you should really think about this because buying an HDMI router/switch with 3-4 inputs now will cause you hundreds of dollars on top!

Last but not least, although these are not really questions to ask yourself, but rather to watch out for. Generally you want an HD TV with high contrast ratio. The bigger the contrast ratio, the greater is the difference between the brightest whites and the darkest blacks which means better display quality. But you don’t need extremely high number as you will hardly be able to notice any difference, I suggest anywhere around 10,000 to 15,000:1 ratio is more than enough, at least for now.

And finally, please pay attention to HD and Full HD TVs, HD only goes up to 1080i while Full HD supports up to 1080p. Don’t be fooled by salesmen lying to you about a Full HD TV with 720p for example.

Now that you have a budget and you know what kind of TV you want, I suggest paying an actual visit to store like BestBuy. It has tons of TVs on display so you can really compare side by side the quality of the TVs. Its really hard to just look at one and judge if its good because you have nothing to compare it with. Again I recommend buying one of the five brands I mentioned if possible. You should also consider buying a TV with at least 1080i since I still cannot find any noticeable differences between 1080i and 1080p on my own Sony Bravia 40 inch LCD (for those interested to know the model number, its KDL-40W3000), because again you won’t be buying a TV every year, it is good to invest on something better. The difference in prices is minimal these days. But try not to buy yet, I know you are now all hyped up and want that TV more than ever. But unless you know exactly what you want, I suggest you don’t rush into getting it just yet. Take some time to “digest” what you have seen in the store and be sure to take down notes for each model just in case you forget about each one’s specs.

Now you should be ready to finalize and choose which TV suits you the most in terms of style, pricing and capabilities. After reading this, I hope this guide has helped you, at least a bit, regarding how to buy an HD TV.

Special thanks to Charlie Bradley for giving me ideas for this article!