For the past week I have been testing a 3D home entertainment setup in my lounge thanks to the guys at LG that sent me some equipment to combine with my own system. The picture above is of the wall in my lounge. Before we talk about the realities of 3D television, let’s take a look at the bits and pieces and their prices.

1. LG LX9500 47” LED LCD TV - This is the heart of the system: a beautiful 47″ monitor with 4 HDMI inputs that handles five different ways of producing 3D imagery. This is honestly the most ridiculously thin television I’ve ever seen and does a great job of rendering 1080p high definition visuals and, of course, 3D. More about that later. Price: R42000
2. LG AG-S100 3D glasses - The LX9500 television comes with two pairs of glasses and additional pairs can be bought separately. The glasses are charged using included USB cables and a micro USB port. A 2 hour charge and they’re good to go for at least a week of moderate viewing. Price: R1000 per pair.
3. Microsoft Xbox 360 - The Xbox 360 with HDMI port is 3D compatible, but older XBox 360 units without HDMI don’t cut the cheese. The only game I had to test with the Xbox is Avatar, which was provided by LG. The Korean company has allied with Microsoft for the development of 3D gaming. Price: R3000
4. Sony PS3 Slim - The Sony Playstation 3 is also 3D compatible, but I don’t have any 3D games to test it with. Time will bring them though. Price: R3300
5. LG BX580 Blu-ray player - LG’s latest model of Blu-ray player handles 3D and also has n-class wireless for accessing network media silos and online services like YouTube. That said, the n-class settings are curiously missing from the menu. It did produce the goods in 3D, however, with a disc of demo 3D footage provided by LG. Price: R3500
6. Sony HT-CT150 - This is a compact sound system that makes use of a speaker-bar and woofer to produce 3.1 sound. It also does a great job of playing 5.1 surround sound audio. Most importantly, it has 3D-passthrough for compatible devices. Price: R3000
7. Logitech Harmony 1100 - A universal remote is a must when you’re dealing with this many components. The 1100 is overpriced but does the job fantastically and is programmed via Logitech’s online Harmony service where just about every device known to man is catalogued. Price: R2500
8. Dude with a camera - That’s me. For 3D effects to work properly I need to be at least two meters away from the TV with powered-up glasses on my face. Price: Name it.

Now my only problem is that all I can watch in 3D is the demo Blu-ray disc that LG sent me to play with and the Avatar game for Xbox 360. But it is early days. If I was in the USA and signed up with a compatible pay-television company I’d be able to watch live sport in 3D on ESPN. Japan has also commenced live 3D broadcasts. In South Africa none of our pay-television providers have plans to do that just yet but we should have 3D movies on Blu-ray and console games arriving soon.

I am suitably impressed with the footage on the LG demo disc. High definition 3D is a fantastic experience although there is some noticeable blurriness here and there. The only real disappointment I’ve had is with the Avatar game for Xbox 360 which doesn’t look very good at all. The 3D works, but when you start running around in the game things get blurry and unplayable. It’s also a crap game. Definitely not a shining example of what the LG television can do.

It’ll be interesting comparing 3D gaming on Xbox and PS3 in future. PC gaming is also entering the fray with 3D monitors now making their way into the market and technology from Nvidia that even converts existing titles into 3D.

3D is a nice to have, but it’s not indispensable and I would wait for prices to come down before investing in a compatible HD TV. That said, this is one of the most fantastic monitors I’ve seen and if I could I would definitely keep it attached to my wall. As I continue to use it I’ll post more reviews in the various publications I write for, and on Twitter.

Platform: PS3, Xbox 360, Wii
Price: R400 – R600
Verdict: The best official FIFA title to date.

I’m  not big on sports games, but a good football title is a must for any gamer’s collection and 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa by EA is the one to own right now. The world cup is in South Africa for the first time and this game introduces some firsts too.

One of the new features is the Virtual Pro that allows you to customise a virtual player and then insert him into any team you want. This opens up a sort of career mode for you and there is a set of achievements linked to your Virtual Pro.

The game is also rich with features. For example, you can map out your own set-pieces for games and then have these played out by your team. There is also a Manager Mode for team and player management.

The amount of game modes and options is overwhelming, but it’s easy to ignore these and get on with things.

As for graphics and animation this is the best looking FIFA game ever and player movement has reached a new degree of realism.

But as good as this game is it’s hard to find much to say about it without boringly listing features. It’s a soccer game, after all, even if it is one of the best I’ve seen. And it’s fun, especially in multiplayer mode.

If you’re looking for a game to satisfy the soccer fever that currently grips the globe then you won’t be disappointed with this title, which is also reasonably priced.

Red Dead Redemption is easily the best game I’ve played this year. It features cowboys, guns, horses and hot chicks – the ingredients of a good time.  The title was developed by Rockstar Games, makers of the Grand Theft Auto series and features the same sandbox-style, go-anywhere-do-anything gameplay of its stable partner.

The game is the nearest thing to perfect I’ve experienced on a console. Your character is former outlaw John Marston. You can ride horses and carriages, hunt animals, pick herbs, have gun battles, lasso and tame wild stallions, hogtie bandits and shoot people in the face.

The storyline is captivating and engrossing, but you can put it on hold at any time to roam the wild west, help or rob characters in-game and cause general mayhem.

The game environment features rich, beautiful graphics and no end of mini-quests, enemies and other encounters to keep you busy with. As with Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption is one of those titles you can kill hours with, just running around and causing kak. It also features a similar ‘wanted’ system whereby you can get on the wrong side of the law, forcing you to evade arrest, and a system for saving your game at specific safe areas where your character can ‘sleep’. In RDR, however, you can also set up camp while in the wilderness and use this to save your game or teleport to parts of the map you have already visited, saving time otherwise spent traveling.

The game did seem a bit buggy in parts and some of the quests feature clumsy combinations of actions that can be frustrating. These are few and far between, however.

The gameplay is rich with everything from being able to whistle for your horse to having choices between killing wanted bandits or tying them up, participating with the law or getting on the wrong side of it and dozens of mini-games including poker, horseshoe-toss and others. You can also hunt and skin animals to earn currency.

If you’re looking for a console game there is no other new title more worthy of your money. Red Dead Redemption offers a perfect balance of fun and challenge and won’t leave you short-changed as it features hours and hours of endless gameplay that is highly re-playable. Rockstar has delivered another winner and its hard to imagine any of its competitors coming up with anything better this year.

Firstly, the Nomad played the same game cartridges used by the Mega Drive or Genesis. That’s right – imagine having a PSP that played your PS3 games. It was that awesome.

The Nomad also had a controller slot on it, so that you could plug in a second Genesis gamepad and have two players on the same Nomad. Rad doesn’t even begin to describe this feature… think two-player Mortal Kombat anywhere.

It also had a standard power port, so you could buy any generic power or even car-lighter adapter and use it to power the Nomad. It came with a cable to connect it to a TV, so it really was like having a full-fledged Genesis with you anywhere. Proprietary ports are the work of the devil and I wish today’s console manufacturers would support standards more widely than just HDMI.

The Nomad’s battery pack clipped off and you could buy spares. The pack held six standard AA batteries so you could pick up batteries anywhere or carry a few loaded packs with you. Batteries, however, were the only down-side of this device as you would only get a few hours game time out of six AAs. I used to use rechargeable batteries with the device. Unfortunately we were a few years away from decent batteries in 1995.

I picked up a Nomad in 1996 while visiting my girlfriend of the time in the USA. The exchange rate was R4.40 back then and I paid around $160 for it – so roughly R700. I brought it back to South Africa and was instantly promoted to legendary status with my friends. I still have it. I throw out things all the time, but the Nomad is a keeper and I’ll never intentionally get rid of it. And you can pick up second-hand Genesis game cartridges now for a fistful of change.

What’s the coolest thing you bought in the 90s? My Sony MZ-R70 MD recorder/player is a close second to the Nomad.

That means that South Africa will be getting the Wii gaming console soon. While there is a world-wide shortage of the console, which is kicking the PS3′s ass in America, we might even be lucky enough to get it by Christmas 2007…