Last week I was looking forward to a few new PC releases -- Locomotion, World At War, and Kohan 2.  EBWorld showed them all arriving!  Alas, World At War and Kohan 2 are actually not until later in the month or even into next month, and I haven't been able to track down a copy of Locomotion.

On the upside, wandering through Fry's today I discovered copies of Chicago 1930!  This is the latest from Spellbound (the folks who did the under-rated Desperados and the somewhat justifiably under-rated Robin Hood).  Not that you'd even know it was them from looking at the box -- no logo.  How bad does your standing as a developer have to be when you can't get your logo on a Microids published box?  Anyways, I'm hopeful it will be as fun as their previous games... I can't believe I missed it's release altogether.

This week is just insane, game release wise.  Sims 2, Sly Cooper: Band of Thieves, Fable, and Call of Duty: United Offensive.  Wow.  Also Demon Stone and Port Royale 2, though I imagine I won't pick those up right away just due to sheer overload.

As if that weren't enough, I've finally broken down and gotten an HDTV.  I'd put it off for quite a while but now the time has finally come -- and just in time for all the console releases of the holiday!   There is a bewildering array of choices when buying an HDTV, and honestly I'm not sure how anyone who isn't a videophile, engineer, or both makes sense of it all.  I ultimately settled on the Samsung HL-P6163W.  I'm a little concerned about video sync issues folks on AVSForum have been complaining about -- lag introduced when converting from some formats, specifically composite video input.  I'm most concerned about it being a problem for playing video games, though at least I can use proper component video on the Xbox & PS2 once I acquire all the needed cables.

If anyone is still reading after slogging through all the gory details of game releases and other material acquisitions, I also survived the Austin GDC last week.  Some good talks (and some great jawboning about random design philosophy with smart folks) -- I'll try and write up some more detailed thoughts later this week in all the copious spare time I'm sure to have.