It doesn't break easily. And so NoE2 joins the long list of gaming blogs with a post about how the author's 360 has got the RRoD. Luckily they're all still in warranty. Still, pain really, when games such as Fallout and Fable are only recently out. Not that I play them, I just wanna play some GTA4 now!
Also, this blog isn't dead, I have some entries lined up. Well, planned. Anyway, maybe I'll do them, maybe I won't. I'm feeling INCREDIBLY lazy lately...
Saturday, 8 November 2008
Wednesday, 15 October 2008
Not dead!
The forum isn't dead or anything, don't worry. IF have just cocked up a bit and broken one of their servers. Don't worry, there are backups. If you read this, pass it on to others via MSN etc...
Wednesday, 24 September 2008
Spore Corruption: Killswitch
So, after the whole Spore shenanigans I thought I'd educate you all. It's actually more interesting and important than you think, as it's goes past Spore. Hell, Spore is only the start. You can realise just how corrupt everyone is when it comes to money. Here's what's going on:
You may not know that Amazon had a "glitch" where all of the Spore reviews (around 500 negative, averaging 1 star) were removed from the site. Unlike Amazon, Game are not having a "glitch" but seem to be openly censoring reviews.
Metacritic, the most important review site out there, were also at one stage censoring user reviews. This is odd as Metacritic aren't directly affected by the sales. They have now fixed this, but that's big. REALLY BIG. Metacritic is one of the most respected sites out there when it comes to reviews so there's no doubt that Spore creators didn't like it.
What I've found to be most shocking is this:
http://forum.spore.com/jforum/posts/list/3869.page
Yes, you read that correctly. If you mention DRM on the OFFICIAL forums EA hit the killswitch on your game. I think that this is unacceptable. No wonder piracy rates are so high when opinions are censored and customers are treated as criminals for buy a game at a higher price than average.
Trust no one.
You may not know that Amazon had a "glitch" where all of the Spore reviews (around 500 negative, averaging 1 star) were removed from the site. Unlike Amazon, Game are not having a "glitch" but seem to be openly censoring reviews.
Metacritic, the most important review site out there, were also at one stage censoring user reviews. This is odd as Metacritic aren't directly affected by the sales. They have now fixed this, but that's big. REALLY BIG. Metacritic is one of the most respected sites out there when it comes to reviews so there's no doubt that Spore creators didn't like it.
What I've found to be most shocking is this:
http://forum.spore.com/jforum/posts/list/3869.page
Yes, you read that correctly. If you mention DRM on the OFFICIAL forums EA hit the killswitch on your game. I think that this is unacceptable. No wonder piracy rates are so high when opinions are censored and customers are treated as criminals for buy a game at a higher price than average.
Trust no one.
Monday, 22 September 2008
PC for the price of a console
"PC's are too expensive"
So, you think PC gaming is too expensive? Why? Sure, original costs may be slightly higher than a console, or slightly lower if it doesn't perform quite as well. But, there are other costs you don't seem to think about.
Let's take the 360, as it's the best value for money. By far.
What about that crappy £100 PC sitting in the corner which has the majority of components you need? The one that you bought as well as your 360? So what's the cost of the 360?
Xbox 360 Arcade Console: £130. You get the bare minimum. It's essentially for those who can't access the internet to download other crap for their games. Most people can and, when the crap is free why not? Let's take another look.
Xbox 360 Premium 20GB. Same price. Excellent, right? Wrong. If you actually download content for more than 5 games you're going to run out of space very fast.
Xbox 360 Premium with 60GB HDD space. Perfect. Sort of. It gives you plenty of space. What else do we want? To play online, of course. For every 12 months it's going to cost us £35.
So, this "upgrade" after 5 years argument against the PC. Where are we with consoles?
Xbox 360:
- Redundant after 6 (or less) more years. Developers aren't going to be interested by the next gen.
- £165 initial cost.
- £35 yearly cost.
- £10 (likely) repair cost.
For a good 6 years (if you purchase now) it's going to come up to a massive £385. Let's see what the PC will cost us for each year of gameplay. The build cost comes into it later. So let's give the 360 a fair chance...
Xbox 360: £220
PC
- Cost to play online: Free (even on LIVE games).
- Cost per game £10-£15 less than the average 360 game.
- Massive back catalogue which will never be unplayable, but actually becomes free.
So the average number of games bought by a 350 owner a year is 3.5. Say the average user gets one DLC download (I have no evidence here, but a lot of people have the Halo and CoD4 map packs, as well as content from other games) that's an extra £5 a year. That makes the cost of running a PC for the next 6 years...hmm... -£460. Yes, NEGATIVE £460. Already the original argument starts to sound fishy.
----------------
The base cost of buying a PC is more, you say. Ok, let's work that out. For the first year of playing a 360 game it's £200.
You're on the internet. There's no easy way to browse the web than with a PC, right?
- Mouse
- Keyboard
- Case
- PSU
- Monitor
- Speakers
- Operating System
- DVD drive
- RAM
If this was a personal computer (for a large percentage of people, it is) this would save you a lot. So, the options are: upgrade and get a damn good PC, or buy a whole new PC, which you will have to upgrade. But one component every two years (instead of buying Live, plus the money you save on games) can futureproof it for the next generation. That's around the same spec of a 360, but after 4 years it will be ready for the next generation. So, what have you saved if you upgrade over the next 6 years?
PC costs: £340
360 costs: £375
You can do the math, right?
If not: you save £35. Every two years you spend £70. A better PSU should be bought with the original build, but this was a quicky. An extra £10-15 on the original build is a fantastic investment.
Here's the mock-up:
Please, don't buy this. I doubt you would, but I haven't looked into all components properly. If you really want to buy a gaming PC, though. I'm happy to help. The bottom line is: For the same cost of an Xbox 360 for 6 years, you can have a PC which is ready for the next generation. What would I recommend? Spend your money on a Blu-Ray drive and 30" monitor that year.
Starting from scratch? It can be done, but I admit, I need Quickspark and/or Col to help me out there...
So, you think PC gaming is too expensive? Why? Sure, original costs may be slightly higher than a console, or slightly lower if it doesn't perform quite as well. But, there are other costs you don't seem to think about.
Let's take the 360, as it's the best value for money. By far.
What about that crappy £100 PC sitting in the corner which has the majority of components you need? The one that you bought as well as your 360? So what's the cost of the 360?
Xbox 360 Arcade Console: £130. You get the bare minimum. It's essentially for those who can't access the internet to download other crap for their games. Most people can and, when the crap is free why not? Let's take another look.
Xbox 360 Premium 20GB. Same price. Excellent, right? Wrong. If you actually download content for more than 5 games you're going to run out of space very fast.
Xbox 360 Premium with 60GB HDD space. Perfect. Sort of. It gives you plenty of space. What else do we want? To play online, of course. For every 12 months it's going to cost us £35.
So, this "upgrade" after 5 years argument against the PC. Where are we with consoles?
Xbox 360:
- Redundant after 6 (or less) more years. Developers aren't going to be interested by the next gen.
- £165 initial cost.
- £35 yearly cost.
- £10 (likely) repair cost.
For a good 6 years (if you purchase now) it's going to come up to a massive £385. Let's see what the PC will cost us for each year of gameplay. The build cost comes into it later. So let's give the 360 a fair chance...
Xbox 360: £220
PC
- Cost to play online: Free (even on LIVE games).
- Cost per game £10-£15 less than the average 360 game.
- Massive back catalogue which will never be unplayable, but actually becomes free.
So the average number of games bought by a 350 owner a year is 3.5. Say the average user gets one DLC download (I have no evidence here, but a lot of people have the Halo and CoD4 map packs, as well as content from other games) that's an extra £5 a year. That makes the cost of running a PC for the next 6 years...hmm... -£460. Yes, NEGATIVE £460. Already the original argument starts to sound fishy.
----------------
The base cost of buying a PC is more, you say. Ok, let's work that out. For the first year of playing a 360 game it's £200.
You're on the internet. There's no easy way to browse the web than with a PC, right?
- Mouse
- Keyboard
- Case
- PSU
- Monitor
- Speakers
- Operating System
- DVD drive
- RAM
If this was a personal computer (for a large percentage of people, it is) this would save you a lot. So, the options are: upgrade and get a damn good PC, or buy a whole new PC, which you will have to upgrade. But one component every two years (instead of buying Live, plus the money you save on games) can futureproof it for the next generation. That's around the same spec of a 360, but after 4 years it will be ready for the next generation. So, what have you saved if you upgrade over the next 6 years?
PC costs: £340
360 costs: £375
You can do the math, right?
If not: you save £35. Every two years you spend £70. A better PSU should be bought with the original build, but this was a quicky. An extra £10-15 on the original build is a fantastic investment.
Here's the mock-up:
Please, don't buy this. I doubt you would, but I haven't looked into all components properly. If you really want to buy a gaming PC, though. I'm happy to help. The bottom line is: For the same cost of an Xbox 360 for 6 years, you can have a PC which is ready for the next generation. What would I recommend? Spend your money on a Blu-Ray drive and 30" monitor that year.
Starting from scratch? It can be done, but I admit, I need Quickspark and/or Col to help me out there...
Sunday, 7 September 2008
Noolsey Reviews Spore
Spore. There was so much hype. It was nearly as bad as the Brawl hype. I never could see what appealed to people. It didn't look like it did anything new. It didn't redefine any genres, it was just there. I'm not saying that this is bad, but it isn't hype-worthy.
As you probably know, there are several stages in Spore, and I will explain them all, giving an individual rating as well as recommendation. Before you say "No, you haven't had enough time", I say "I don't care". I've played through one game, and I've finished one game. Most reviews are from one watch of a movie, and one play through of a game. Just read on...
The Cell Stage
Spore first offers you a nicely made menu screen, from which you can choose a planet to start on. Each of these offer a new game, while the planet itself offers minor changes, such as colour. It really doesn't matter what you pick. As I was using Spore's image capturing (there is also video capture) I haven't been able to catch the logo, or menu bars. However, I would like to point out that the logo itself looks like something Inphoar has created. I'm not saying it's bad, but it doesn't look professional.
You're an ugly cell, what do you do? You choose which you would like to be, a carnivore, or a herbivore. Of course, this doesn't matter as when you've eaten around 5 of whatever it is you eat you can swap your mouth piece. In fact, when a new cell is born, you can create an entire new species, so it doesn't really make sense. What I found in particular, was that this stage is a mini game. It's, what should be, a tiny segment of a game. It's essentially a mini-game which you're forced into in order to go back to the Creature Creator page for the cells. You can find various upgrades (6 of them, actually) which will help you out on the next stage. I was looking around for close to half an hour for the last damn component. Not only does the cell stage become very boring very quickly, but it's graphically horrible in places, and has pretty poor growth details.
Growth details? Yes, for example, you can eat 10 pieces of whatever that plant it and grow 5 times the size you were before, this will make you so big that you then consume the entire plant. Yuo also find that your worst enemies can barely harm you as they're smaller and that any that were your size before of slightly smaller seem to be completely gone. Have an example:
The third picture is of a new plant that's introduced later, one which you will not see until then. The first time you hatch is by far the best, it isn't too frantic and it has the best scenery. There are giant Jellyfish, massive plants and...more Jellyfish, but the Jellyfish are very well done. When you begin to grow, the rest of this disappears. Horrible graphically? Yes, when you grow the backdrop changes to large fish, so you may have lots of bright colours going on with lots of fast movements. There is also a blur on the edge of the screen. It isn't fun to look at.
Boring? But the hype! The hype can do, say and sleep with whoever it wants, it doesn't change a thing. This section is so terribly repetitive that few people will actually stay around for a long time to find that last component which is floating around somewhere.
Instead of this, try Feeding Frenzy [50%]
The cell stage obtains: 43%
The Creature Stge
Well, this stage is definitely unique. I can't name a game like it.In the creature stage, after you've designed a creature in a larger creature creator, you're off to click on other creatures. Youhave to hunt (which, as a herbivore is close to impossible for most "angry" species') or make allies with other creatures. At first you basically just click on them to sing. There's no reason for you to even upgrade your sing levels as you'll pass the first milestone, then go back to creature creator. You will realise that there's no chance of charming more species without more parts, so you're off to look for skeletons and charm other species. Of course, while there are lots of skeletons out there, to gather parts from (mainly eyes, which aren't even useful), you can't impress any other races. So, you're off home to the creature creator to drastically change your creature to an all-out offensive. This is easier said than done. Although it's far easier to do this (then switch back to a "kind" creature later) the other species will not be easy to kill. You can't build up power if you put three level 1 parts on your creature, you just get a level 1 attack. Anything under level 3 is useless and level 3 isn't particularly good. After milestone 2, you will need to completely change again, to an all-singing all-dancing...thing. Of course, you'll need to find many more creature parts.
The creature stage is so incredibly boring it's unbelievable. You can spend 3 minutes walking to another nest, be attacked and killed by a random wandered and need to start all over again. The combat, and charm sections, are both turn based. Wait for them to dance, sing, charm or pose, then copy what they did. If your level isn't high enough, however, you can't do anything. This stage can take up to two hours, and is boring after 10 minutes. Not just boring, so much so that I wanted to turn the game off. I did. I hated my next half an hour of playing that awful stage, and will never return to it.
The creature stage obtains: 15%
Now, I want to thank whoever decided you didn't need to complete the entire stage before you could more on. If you had to, I couldn't finish this play-though, or this review. Thank you, whoever you are!
The Tribal Stage
This is the first stage which didn't get boring within the first 20 minutes of gameplay. It finally starts to show it's "true" colours, as the strategy game that it was marketed as. It isn't quite there, but it's much better than the last stages. You send your creatures to attack other tribes, or make friends. This is the first stage where killing is actually more fun that befriending. There are very few things you can actually do in this stage. Think of it as the tutorial stage of a RTS. A tutorial stage which takes an hour or two to complete, but tutorial nonetheless. I think that a screenshot explains this stage as well as I ever could, so this will do:
Instead of this, try The Lord Of The Rings: Battle For Middle Earth[61%]
The tribal stage obtains: 49%
The Civilisation Stage
Finally. A stage that you can enjoy. There isn't a lot of depth, and the world is set out in the annoying round Animal Crossing style, but there's more game to play than the other stages. You will spend your time securing resources and building a town. As the big selling point of Spore is its ability to customise (even though that has been severely lacking in previous stages) I decided to have a go at building designs. I found that, in this stage, there are many more creature options, too. The building construction doesn't make any difference to gameplay, as there are no stats etc. You're doing it so you have something nice to look at. There are plenty of options, and you can create something which looks quite good overall. This stage is aimed at artistic people who, for every 3 minutes of gameplay want to spend 10 minutes building designing. However, some appeal will be lost as the only colour is in the stock design styles. For example, you can't have a background colour, as well as a pattern or two. Two different sections can't be different colours, either.
The best stage so far, as there was no point at which I started to hate it. In fact, I quite enjoyed it. It turns into a spam after a while, as there's very little variety and very little actual strategy involved. If you play it, rather than design it you will only be spending 10-30 minutes on the planet, depending on the difficulty.
Instead of this, try Command and Conquer Red Alert 2 (Review coming soon)
The civilisation stage obtains: 75%
The Space Stage
Now this, I can enjoy. It brings back great memories of a game I used to play, a PC game. I can't remember the title but it was like this, but there was more to do. In the space stage you become a trader. Your colonies produce Red Spice. They can produce a certain amount an hour depending on how you set up the town. For example, there will be a low production rate if there aren't any entertainment buildings, but if there aren't enough house/factory combinations then there won't be produce. Each of these can be sold for a nice 300+ Sporebucks. You may be able to guess that Sporebuck are the currency. You will need this to buy colony set-up packs, with a value of 150,000 each. It's a large number, but it's well worth it as an investment, because that extra +2 Spice an hour is very useful. The start of the space stage is slow. Very slow. But it isn't bad, in fact, it's fun. The problem is that it offers very little variety. You have two options. Stick around your home planet (which you should do for an hour or two) or head to the middle of the galaxy, where you will encounter a lot of resistance. The space map is massive, and the amount of toold you will need to buy for your ship is massive, too. Hours need to be put into this section, but it, partnered with the civilisation stage, is the best. By far. I see no reason to ever return to the stages before this. I was actually annoyed that I had to spend 2 hours finishing those crappy areas (especially the creature one).
The space stage obtains: 83%
So, an overall score. The horrible first hour or two, playing through the first three stages is going to take it down a few marks. Who would I recommend Spore to? Hmm...
Did you buy all 16 expansions for The Sims 2?
Did you really like the Creature Creator?
Actually, if you really liked the creature creator stick with this. The first three stages seem to be boring tasks required to unlock creature parts. It's like an extended Creature Creator but you start with less freedom, and are heavily restricted. The later stages, with building and space ship creator are smaller creators, which I enjoyed using more (the ship creator mostly, as it gives the right amount of freedom, even though the look you're going for could be difficult to find with the limited amount of base shapes. The space stage will appeal a lot more to most gamers, and I would recommend it to most, if you can play a slow game in half hour sections. It has a higher score than I originally intended to give, because I have some strange love for achievements/pins/badges and Spore is full of them.
Spore: 65%
As you probably know, there are several stages in Spore, and I will explain them all, giving an individual rating as well as recommendation. Before you say "No, you haven't had enough time", I say "I don't care". I've played through one game, and I've finished one game. Most reviews are from one watch of a movie, and one play through of a game. Just read on...
The Cell Stage
Spore first offers you a nicely made menu screen, from which you can choose a planet to start on. Each of these offer a new game, while the planet itself offers minor changes, such as colour. It really doesn't matter what you pick. As I was using Spore's image capturing (there is also video capture) I haven't been able to catch the logo, or menu bars. However, I would like to point out that the logo itself looks like something Inphoar has created. I'm not saying it's bad, but it doesn't look professional.
You're an ugly cell, what do you do? You choose which you would like to be, a carnivore, or a herbivore. Of course, this doesn't matter as when you've eaten around 5 of whatever it is you eat you can swap your mouth piece. In fact, when a new cell is born, you can create an entire new species, so it doesn't really make sense. What I found in particular, was that this stage is a mini game. It's, what should be, a tiny segment of a game. It's essentially a mini-game which you're forced into in order to go back to the Creature Creator page for the cells. You can find various upgrades (6 of them, actually) which will help you out on the next stage. I was looking around for close to half an hour for the last damn component. Not only does the cell stage become very boring very quickly, but it's graphically horrible in places, and has pretty poor growth details.
Growth details? Yes, for example, you can eat 10 pieces of whatever that plant it and grow 5 times the size you were before, this will make you so big that you then consume the entire plant. Yuo also find that your worst enemies can barely harm you as they're smaller and that any that were your size before of slightly smaller seem to be completely gone. Have an example:
The third picture is of a new plant that's introduced later, one which you will not see until then. The first time you hatch is by far the best, it isn't too frantic and it has the best scenery. There are giant Jellyfish, massive plants and...more Jellyfish, but the Jellyfish are very well done. When you begin to grow, the rest of this disappears. Horrible graphically? Yes, when you grow the backdrop changes to large fish, so you may have lots of bright colours going on with lots of fast movements. There is also a blur on the edge of the screen. It isn't fun to look at.
Boring? But the hype! The hype can do, say and sleep with whoever it wants, it doesn't change a thing. This section is so terribly repetitive that few people will actually stay around for a long time to find that last component which is floating around somewhere.
Instead of this, try Feeding Frenzy [50%]
The cell stage obtains: 43%
The Creature Stge
Well, this stage is definitely unique. I can't name a game like it.In the creature stage, after you've designed a creature in a larger creature creator, you're off to click on other creatures. Youhave to hunt (which, as a herbivore is close to impossible for most "angry" species') or make allies with other creatures. At first you basically just click on them to sing. There's no reason for you to even upgrade your sing levels as you'll pass the first milestone, then go back to creature creator. You will realise that there's no chance of charming more species without more parts, so you're off to look for skeletons and charm other species. Of course, while there are lots of skeletons out there, to gather parts from (mainly eyes, which aren't even useful), you can't impress any other races. So, you're off home to the creature creator to drastically change your creature to an all-out offensive. This is easier said than done. Although it's far easier to do this (then switch back to a "kind" creature later) the other species will not be easy to kill. You can't build up power if you put three level 1 parts on your creature, you just get a level 1 attack. Anything under level 3 is useless and level 3 isn't particularly good. After milestone 2, you will need to completely change again, to an all-singing all-dancing...thing. Of course, you'll need to find many more creature parts.
The creature stage is so incredibly boring it's unbelievable. You can spend 3 minutes walking to another nest, be attacked and killed by a random wandered and need to start all over again. The combat, and charm sections, are both turn based. Wait for them to dance, sing, charm or pose, then copy what they did. If your level isn't high enough, however, you can't do anything. This stage can take up to two hours, and is boring after 10 minutes. Not just boring, so much so that I wanted to turn the game off. I did. I hated my next half an hour of playing that awful stage, and will never return to it.
The creature stage obtains: 15%
Now, I want to thank whoever decided you didn't need to complete the entire stage before you could more on. If you had to, I couldn't finish this play-though, or this review. Thank you, whoever you are!
The Tribal Stage
This is the first stage which didn't get boring within the first 20 minutes of gameplay. It finally starts to show it's "true" colours, as the strategy game that it was marketed as. It isn't quite there, but it's much better than the last stages. You send your creatures to attack other tribes, or make friends. This is the first stage where killing is actually more fun that befriending. There are very few things you can actually do in this stage. Think of it as the tutorial stage of a RTS. A tutorial stage which takes an hour or two to complete, but tutorial nonetheless. I think that a screenshot explains this stage as well as I ever could, so this will do:
Instead of this, try The Lord Of The Rings: Battle For Middle Earth[61%]
The tribal stage obtains: 49%
The Civilisation Stage
Finally. A stage that you can enjoy. There isn't a lot of depth, and the world is set out in the annoying round Animal Crossing style, but there's more game to play than the other stages. You will spend your time securing resources and building a town. As the big selling point of Spore is its ability to customise (even though that has been severely lacking in previous stages) I decided to have a go at building designs. I found that, in this stage, there are many more creature options, too. The building construction doesn't make any difference to gameplay, as there are no stats etc. You're doing it so you have something nice to look at. There are plenty of options, and you can create something which looks quite good overall. This stage is aimed at artistic people who, for every 3 minutes of gameplay want to spend 10 minutes building designing. However, some appeal will be lost as the only colour is in the stock design styles. For example, you can't have a background colour, as well as a pattern or two. Two different sections can't be different colours, either.
The best stage so far, as there was no point at which I started to hate it. In fact, I quite enjoyed it. It turns into a spam after a while, as there's very little variety and very little actual strategy involved. If you play it, rather than design it you will only be spending 10-30 minutes on the planet, depending on the difficulty.
Instead of this, try Command and Conquer Red Alert 2 (Review coming soon)
The civilisation stage obtains: 75%
The Space Stage
Now this, I can enjoy. It brings back great memories of a game I used to play, a PC game. I can't remember the title but it was like this, but there was more to do. In the space stage you become a trader. Your colonies produce Red Spice. They can produce a certain amount an hour depending on how you set up the town. For example, there will be a low production rate if there aren't any entertainment buildings, but if there aren't enough house/factory combinations then there won't be produce. Each of these can be sold for a nice 300+ Sporebucks. You may be able to guess that Sporebuck are the currency. You will need this to buy colony set-up packs, with a value of 150,000 each. It's a large number, but it's well worth it as an investment, because that extra +2 Spice an hour is very useful. The start of the space stage is slow. Very slow. But it isn't bad, in fact, it's fun. The problem is that it offers very little variety. You have two options. Stick around your home planet (which you should do for an hour or two) or head to the middle of the galaxy, where you will encounter a lot of resistance. The space map is massive, and the amount of toold you will need to buy for your ship is massive, too. Hours need to be put into this section, but it, partnered with the civilisation stage, is the best. By far. I see no reason to ever return to the stages before this. I was actually annoyed that I had to spend 2 hours finishing those crappy areas (especially the creature one).
The space stage obtains: 83%
So, an overall score. The horrible first hour or two, playing through the first three stages is going to take it down a few marks. Who would I recommend Spore to? Hmm...
Did you buy all 16 expansions for The Sims 2?
Did you really like the Creature Creator?
Actually, if you really liked the creature creator stick with this. The first three stages seem to be boring tasks required to unlock creature parts. It's like an extended Creature Creator but you start with less freedom, and are heavily restricted. The later stages, with building and space ship creator are smaller creators, which I enjoyed using more (the ship creator mostly, as it gives the right amount of freedom, even though the look you're going for could be difficult to find with the limited amount of base shapes. The space stage will appeal a lot more to most gamers, and I would recommend it to most, if you can play a slow game in half hour sections. It has a higher score than I originally intended to give, because I have some strange love for achievements/pins/badges and Spore is full of them.
Spore: 65%
Thursday, 21 August 2008
The Consoles: A Retrospective - The PS3
By Noolsey
Playstation 3
The Playstation 3 can be seen as either the best, or the worst of the consoles, it doesn't seem to grab the middle ground. Perhaps it's so big that it can't hold on and is washed away in the tide.
Sony, and many devs have shown they know that the power is there, and that they can use it. While not fully taking on board the processing power, Gran Turismo 5 looks damn well amazing. Metal Gear Solid 4 has taken advantage of the graphical power, as well as the processing power with lots of enemies on the screen at any time, and no drop in frame rate. It's safe to say, the PS3 is definately the graphics titan, and wins this category.
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Having a later release date than the 360 had its benefits for the PS3, as they were able to take on board some of the ideas and complaints users had from other console fanbases, and implement then into their own online experience to make it the best out there. Free online play, and Sony's "Home" system, which allows users to interact with each other like they would in an instant messenger, but with walking 3D avatars. Of course, I think this is a worthwhile as Animal Crossing. There are no goals, and no real object. It's like a free game which you don't play. Oh, right, Wii Sports then?
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The controller, after complaints for some reason, has remained the same. It can't be considered bad when it has been loved for a decade by old and young.
---
The PS3 has a nice variety of games, but most of the best are still "upcoming". The unfortunate thing for most people is that the series they've know and loved since the PS1 days has probably changed now, into an action game despite how well the previous games in the series were loved. See Resident Evil 5 or Final Fantasy XIII for example. There doesn't seem to be a game on the PS3 which has continued to produce the same great gameplay since the early consoles, unlike the Wii or Xbox 360. The problem is that, while the games you came for are still there in bulk (fighting, racing, FPS and RPG) they've probalby very different. The PS1 and PS2 sold a lot of consoles, because of the RPG base that they had. However the PS3 has changed this. While some series are returning and look promising (Tales Of, Disgaea etc.) the originals have been changed. For me, this is quite saddening. It's like a part of your childhood has gone. Waiting years for the next installment of Final Fantasy, but not getting the tingly nostalgic feeling that you had in the past.
---
Backwards compatability is odd here. There's no way to really get cheap classics, and only the more expensive consoles include backward compatability. While the lack of backwards compatability may be better for someone with a PS2 who wants it cheaper, other may feel cheated as they're paying more even though they techinically aren't.
(+1) Best Hardware
(+1) Free Online Play
(+1) Promise Of Games (In Development)
(+1) Best and Biggest Classics Collection
(+/-0) Backwards Compatability...Sometimes
(-1) Price
(-1) Current Lack Of Games
Sony (+2)
Playstation 3
The Playstation 3 can be seen as either the best, or the worst of the consoles, it doesn't seem to grab the middle ground. Perhaps it's so big that it can't hold on and is washed away in the tide.
Sony, and many devs have shown they know that the power is there, and that they can use it. While not fully taking on board the processing power, Gran Turismo 5 looks damn well amazing. Metal Gear Solid 4 has taken advantage of the graphical power, as well as the processing power with lots of enemies on the screen at any time, and no drop in frame rate. It's safe to say, the PS3 is definately the graphics titan, and wins this category.
---
Having a later release date than the 360 had its benefits for the PS3, as they were able to take on board some of the ideas and complaints users had from other console fanbases, and implement then into their own online experience to make it the best out there. Free online play, and Sony's "Home" system, which allows users to interact with each other like they would in an instant messenger, but with walking 3D avatars. Of course, I think this is a worthwhile as Animal Crossing. There are no goals, and no real object. It's like a free game which you don't play. Oh, right, Wii Sports then?
---
The controller, after complaints for some reason, has remained the same. It can't be considered bad when it has been loved for a decade by old and young.
---
The PS3 has a nice variety of games, but most of the best are still "upcoming". The unfortunate thing for most people is that the series they've know and loved since the PS1 days has probably changed now, into an action game despite how well the previous games in the series were loved. See Resident Evil 5 or Final Fantasy XIII for example. There doesn't seem to be a game on the PS3 which has continued to produce the same great gameplay since the early consoles, unlike the Wii or Xbox 360. The problem is that, while the games you came for are still there in bulk (fighting, racing, FPS and RPG) they've probalby very different. The PS1 and PS2 sold a lot of consoles, because of the RPG base that they had. However the PS3 has changed this. While some series are returning and look promising (Tales Of, Disgaea etc.) the originals have been changed. For me, this is quite saddening. It's like a part of your childhood has gone. Waiting years for the next installment of Final Fantasy, but not getting the tingly nostalgic feeling that you had in the past.
---
Backwards compatability is odd here. There's no way to really get cheap classics, and only the more expensive consoles include backward compatability. While the lack of backwards compatability may be better for someone with a PS2 who wants it cheaper, other may feel cheated as they're paying more even though they techinically aren't.
(+1) Best Hardware
(+1) Free Online Play
(+1) Promise Of Games (In Development)
(+1) Best and Biggest Classics Collection
(+/-0) Backwards Compatability...Sometimes
(-1) Price
(-1) Current Lack Of Games
Sony (+2)
Tuesday, 19 August 2008
The Consoles: A Retrospective - The Xbox 360
By Noolsey
The Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 has both an advantage and disadvantage being first released. Of course there's a lot of Third-Party support, and they get a lot of sales for being first, but they have to make sure the console works. All Nintendo had to do to break the 360 was release the console with better graphics, but at that same great price tag. Of course, if that had happened the PS3 could have struggled, too.
---
Recently the 360 has introduced the Arcade, where you can play your favourite classics. This is essentially the Virtual Console, all over again, but there are a few more "Mature" shooters, such as Doom.
Currently it isn't amazingly popular. This is probably because the majority of those who have a 360 are fanboys, or those who wanted to be the first into this gen, and have no interest in other games. If they weren't, they would have waited for the Wii or PS3. The "casual" market of the 360 (those people who switch it on once a week) probably aren't going online with it, so can't download content and games for the Arcade. Therefore, Microsoft, and a lot of consumers are missing out.
---
Paying to play online? Hmmph, fine. Wait, what? On top of any RPG costs? What the hell is this? Yes, because of the market the 360 was appealing to (generally the idiots) they could charge them to play online, because there's no way they could have passed by and ignored their chance to be number one on Halo, or make new players on Gears Of War feel unwelcome.
A massive problem for the casual players, and anyone who's looking for a good quality console this generation. Before buying one, it really does have to be considered. Play online, or get a PS3 with an extra game each year?
---
Even today the full potential of the 360 hasn't been brought out, but hell, they never are at the start of a generation. The thing is, it has been about 2 years now, perhaps 3 since it was released and companies are still releasing poorly optimised games, which leave lots of graphical potential. If you've played a 360 game ported to the PC, you'll know what I mean here.
---
The Xbox was the problem of the last generation when it came to controls. After all, it was a controller twice the size of your fist. The 360 pad is easily the best of this generation. It looks good, the buttons are all placed correctly and it's very, very comfortable. It isn't unlike the Gamecube pad, it just had more though put into user comfort.
(+1) First Released
(+1) Reasonable Price
(+1) Great Games Selection
(+/-0) Few Exclusives
(-1) Pay To Play
(-1) Terrible Online Community
Microsoft (+1)
The Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 has both an advantage and disadvantage being first released. Of course there's a lot of Third-Party support, and they get a lot of sales for being first, but they have to make sure the console works. All Nintendo had to do to break the 360 was release the console with better graphics, but at that same great price tag. Of course, if that had happened the PS3 could have struggled, too.
---
Recently the 360 has introduced the Arcade, where you can play your favourite classics. This is essentially the Virtual Console, all over again, but there are a few more "Mature" shooters, such as Doom.
Currently it isn't amazingly popular. This is probably because the majority of those who have a 360 are fanboys, or those who wanted to be the first into this gen, and have no interest in other games. If they weren't, they would have waited for the Wii or PS3. The "casual" market of the 360 (those people who switch it on once a week) probably aren't going online with it, so can't download content and games for the Arcade. Therefore, Microsoft, and a lot of consumers are missing out.
---
Paying to play online? Hmmph, fine. Wait, what? On top of any RPG costs? What the hell is this? Yes, because of the market the 360 was appealing to (generally the idiots) they could charge them to play online, because there's no way they could have passed by and ignored their chance to be number one on Halo, or make new players on Gears Of War feel unwelcome.
A massive problem for the casual players, and anyone who's looking for a good quality console this generation. Before buying one, it really does have to be considered. Play online, or get a PS3 with an extra game each year?
---
Even today the full potential of the 360 hasn't been brought out, but hell, they never are at the start of a generation. The thing is, it has been about 2 years now, perhaps 3 since it was released and companies are still releasing poorly optimised games, which leave lots of graphical potential. If you've played a 360 game ported to the PC, you'll know what I mean here.
---
The Xbox was the problem of the last generation when it came to controls. After all, it was a controller twice the size of your fist. The 360 pad is easily the best of this generation. It looks good, the buttons are all placed correctly and it's very, very comfortable. It isn't unlike the Gamecube pad, it just had more though put into user comfort.
(+1) First Released
(+1) Reasonable Price
(+1) Great Games Selection
(+/-0) Few Exclusives
(-1) Pay To Play
(-1) Terrible Online Community
Microsoft (+1)
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