LittleBigPlanet fever is in the air. Lots of people are yammering on about it including me. This Checkpoint will be quite short. I’m distracted by this week’s 1UP Yours podcast.

One of the reasons why this wasn’t posted on Friday was thanks to Iron Man on Blu-ray. It’s the best Marvel super hero movie I’ve ever seen. All that technology had me giddy with joy. Don’t tell me that you all didn’t want to have JARVIS in your home. So awesome.

After I finish up with this episode of 1UP Yours, I think I’ll be spending more time with LBP. There will be some WipEout HD love and Persona 3: FES. Yes, still playing The Answer half of P3. 120 hours so far. Talk about $30 well spent.

That’s it for now.

So I’ve been on quite the movie blitz lately. Correction. I’ve been on quite the Blu-ray movie blitz lately. Since last Saturday I’ve been watching one Blu-ray per day. Here’s the breakdown with ratings. Keep in mind I’ve watched these movies before:

• Saturday-  Terminator 2: Judgement Day (A -)
• Sunday- Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (C +)
• Monday - Spider-man (A )
• Tuesday - Spider-man 2 (B -)
• Wednesday - Spider-man 3 (C+)
• Thursday - Casino Royale (A+)

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Square Enix’s E3 line up was somewhat dull. Nothing huge aside from the announcement of FFXIII for Xbox 360 was there. Fans of Square Enix were hoping that the mysterious DKS3713 would finally give us something to look forward to within the near future. Well, it looks like they have.

Here’s the breakdown courteousy of NeoGAF and other websites. Also, note that all this info was confirmed for Japan only (unless otherwise indicated).

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…Microsoft reduces the third DVD licensing fee? That’s pretty damn ridiculous. How much does it cost to include a third DVD? Apparently, it’s enough for John Carmack to be vocal about the possiblity of an inferior Xbox 360 version.

Obviously, Microsoft won’t let this kind of triviality hurt their game, so I’m guessing they’ll bend to Carmack’s wishes — just like how they accomodated for Capcom’s Bionic Commando: Rearmed and SSF2T:HDR.

At this point in time, RAGE will come on two DVDs for the Xbox 360 version and on a single Blu-ray disc for the PS3 version. As for the Mac and PC versions? They’ll be distributed via multiple DVDs and via a single Blu-ray disc. Digital distribution is unlikely at this time.

Meanwhile, gawk at this awesome trailer:

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Whispers from the “industry” are stating that Microsoft have commissioned Lite-On for Blu-ray disc drive manufacturing. Microsoft adamantly denied such an add-on for their Xbox 360 a while back. Does this mean they’ve reconsidered?

If they have, I wonder if they’re going to make their Xbox 360 Blu-ray Profile 2.0 compliant. It certainly has all the requirements. Except for the Core/Arcade SKU. It lacks the 1 GB of local storage.

Update:  Microsoft will, apparently, have to sell Blu-ray drives at a loss.

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII was released earlier this week and I am currently mashing my way through it. I played through Final Fantasy VII a while ago via my PSP and I was not that impressed with it. I’m going to blame poor translation and dated presentation for my lack of FFVII appreciation. I also didn’t like Cloud Strife as a character, but I did enjoy the story behind Cloud’s rebirth as ex-SOLDIER extraordinaire. So far Crisis Core is doing many things right with only a handful of peculiar quirks marring it; I’ll elaborate more in my upcoming review of it. Don’t expect it soon.

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Well, they said firmware 2.20 and its BD-Live! compatibility was coming and now it’s here. Now the PS3 is one of the first, if not the first, Blu-ray Profile 2.0 players out there.

Fun!

Update #1: 
Dude! DivX compatibility was increased! My Bleach episodes and a bunch of other AVIs, which weren’t working before, are now working fine! This is all through DLNA streaming as well.

Update #2:
For the lazy, there’s a video demonstrating the new firmware’s abilities.

Oh, and if you’re wondering if the PS3 is the best Blu-ray player, it may not be anymore. However, look at it this way, it could always be improved in the upcoming firmwares.

As an testament of the flexibility and evolving nature of the PS3, Sony will be releasing a firmware update and bringing the PS3’s Blu-ray compatibility up to BD-Live (Profile 2.0).

Other changes in the upcoming firmware include:

• “Resume play” will enable PS3 system to start playing a Blu-ray disc and DVD at the point it was stopped, even if the disc had been removed.
• “Audio Output Device” will be a new Remote Play setting, enabling PSP to serve as a remote control for music played through PS3.
• PS3 system’s Internet browser will be enhanced: Video files directly linked from a Web page will be able to be streamed, and the browser’s view speed will be improved.
• DivX and WMV format videos that are larger than 2GB will be playable.
• “Mosquito Noise Reduction” will be added as an AV setting in the control panel of the DVD/BD player for improved movie playback.

I’m very pleased by this upcoming firmware. The improved DivX and Internet browser update are most welcome.

It’s just too bad that Sony can’t patch their way out of the latest BD+ cracking.

Well scratch that possibility. Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg was quoted saying that “Xbox is not currently in talks with Sony or the Blu-ray Association to integrate Blu-ray into the Xbox experience“. Why should they? They want to push their digital movie download service.

Is this a loss for the XBOX 360 fan? I’m not sure XBOX 360 owners even care to buy a $200 Blu-ray add-on. I mean, at that price, you will get a more capable Blu-ray player for $100 more.

In other Blu-ray related news, Metal Gear Solid 4 will be using the 50 GB dual layer disc which doesn’t include multiple languages. That’s damn insane if you ask me.

Microsoft’s Steve Balmer, CEO and almighty ruler of Microsoft, announced that it will include Blu-ray support to its Windows platform. No word about an XBOX 360 Blu-ray drive add-on, but he didn’t exactly “rule it out” either.

This is great and all, but how many people are going to install Blu-ray drives in their media PCs this soon? Hey, why complain though? Support for any HD format is a good thing; especially when it’s the standard high definition format.