Weekly Column - 11/23/08

November 28th, 2008

Whenever I have 86 unread messages in my inbox, I know the latest column has gone up.  Unsurprisingly, the RROD has drawn considerable commiseration.

Posted in Business, Column, Geoff |



      

8 Responses to “Weekly Column - 11/23/08”

  1. Used Cisco Says:
    November 30th, 2008 at 3:24 pm

    Good column. I feel for you. My 360 recently ringed on me…..again.

    The experience has changed the way I do things. Obviously, I’ll buy the good exclusives for each system. But in the past, given a good multiplatform release, I generally bought it for the 360, usually because it tended to be a better version from a graphics/bugs perspective and for achievements, which often times make a game more interesting.

    Not anymore. I’ve slowly but surely lost interest in achievements as they’ve morphed from being a number that denotes actual achievement in your games library (a la completed game on insane difficulty) to a number that denotes how many absurd things you’ve done that the developers decided to give points for (a la 100 head shots in multiplayer, etc).

    Anyway, now, given a good multiplatform game, i’ll buy it for the PS3. In my experience, the PS3 porting difficulties are largely over and reliability is not an issue with the PS3. Ad to that the inclusion of free online play and the PS3 starts to look a lot more appealing. Sure, I’ll miss using the superior 360 controller and the occasional achivement, but I consider that a small price to pay.

    Basically, I’m trying to diversify my gaming portfolio to rely on the 360 less. That way when it inevitably dies again, I’ll stand to lose less in the way of gaming while it’s gone. My most recent execution in this regard was the purchase of Dead Space. I had planned on getting it for 360 but will be buying it for PS3 instead.

  2. Jeff Says:
    December 4th, 2008 at 6:03 am

    I’m not sure why, but my 360 still seems to be going. I was actually kind of hoping it would die before my 3 years is up so I could get a new one, but it’s getting pretty close to that mark and so far it’s holding up (knock on wood now… too much stuff to play for it to die at this point).

    In any case, I’m still primarily buying 3rd party games for the 360… mostly because I prefer the controller, and frankly, the entire interface. Turning on the PS3 is just incredibly lonely… At this point, that’s probably mostly because most of my friends have 360s instead, but in general I just find the 360 interface a lot more appealing and rewarding.

    Whenever I’ve played a multiplayer game on the PS3 it’s been depressing. Talking is very very rare… I guess this could be a plus, but I think, overall, it really detracts from the experience. Left 4 Dead on the PS3, I’m convinced, would be a completely difference experience than what’s on the 360. Wireless bluetooth is sort of a mixed blessing… yeah, it’s wireless, but you have to keep it charged all the time to use it. This is why I never use the one I have with my phone either. So, even the people that have the bluetooth capability, even if they’ve set it up on their PS3s, I’m guessing quite a few just don’t bother turning it on.

    I’ve never been that into achievements or my gamerscore, though I will sometimes go for them if I think they’re interesting (Geometry Wars 2 has a few fun ones). Most of the time they just pop up on my screen and I’m sort of curious what they are, but typically don’t care all that much. Trophies on the PS3 are poorly organized, and I’m not sure if you can compare with friends or not (I don’t remember), but that’s one of the only fun aspects of achievements.

    I do like the fact that the PSN store charges in real dollars and you can add exactly the amount you need in order to purchase things, and it’s a hell of a lot better than it used to be… but it does still feel oddly disconnected in a way that the 360 marketplace doesn’t. Having to install downloads is also kind of annoying, as is the mandatory install requirements for many games. I’ve been using the optional installs on the 360 now for a few games, which I’m actually loving, but only because I don’t feel like my DVD drive (always the weak point of my 360) is going to destroy my disc or blow up any more.

    One other thing I’ve noticed… As hot and loud as the 360 is, I think the PS3 is even hotter… and maybe even louder. My entire basement actually gets noticeably warmer when my PS3 is on (moreso, I think, than my 360). I suppose this is a nice feature in the winter… but it’s kind of annoying to start sweating just because you want to watch a blu-ray (still, imo, the PS3s best feature).

    With all that said, I did get Mirror’s Edge for the PS3 because it was the lead platform for that game… and I also just picked up Eden and Echochrome during the holiday sale and am still planning to play some more LBP. I’m also using it pretty frequently for blu-rays, so it’s getting some use out of me. =)

  3. Used Cisco Says:
    December 6th, 2008 at 8:53 am

    “I think the PS3 is even hotter… and maybe even louder.”

    Wow. My PS3 puts out decent heat, but it’s nearly silent. On the other hand my 360 is too loud to use to watch a DVD.

    When I got my 360 and very first turned it on (no disc), I remember thinking, “Gee, it’s sorta loud, but it’s not THAT bad” because that was a big complaint from the start.

    Then I put a disc in and it sounded like an airplane took off.

  4. Jeff Says:
    December 8th, 2008 at 2:21 pm

    “Then I put a disc in and it sounded like an airplane took off.”

    Which is exactly why I’ve been happy that the 360 finally allows optional installs of all of its games. I feel much better about playing games that heavily access the disc than I used to (Entering and exiting places quickly in Fallout 3 seemed like a recipe for disaster before). It also keeps the 360 much much quieter.

    I honestly don’t know what it is about the PS3, but it just seems to run hot. I guess it’s not too loud to start, but I think after a while, maybe after it’s really heated up, it really cranks the fan up.

  5. Used Cisco Says:
    December 9th, 2008 at 9:12 pm

    Yeah, that’s probably a good idea. I only have the 20gig HDD though so installs are not a good option for me. I wish you could upgrade the dang 360 drive yourself. :( Newegg has 320gig 2.5 inch HDDs for like $70.

  6. Geoff Says:
    December 10th, 2008 at 2:27 am

    Nothing irritated me more than discovering that Microsoft wanted to charge me $100 for a wireless adapter. It’ll be a cold day in hell before I forego my laptop bridge connection to pay for something that should have been a built-in feature instead of an absurdly marked-up add-on.

  7. Used Cisco Says:
    December 10th, 2008 at 9:12 am

    Yeah, I thought they were pretty bold to price it that high. Absurd is certainly the right word. I’ve actually found an explanation of how to upgrade the 360 harddrive yourself. It’s a bit technical but doesn’t look bad. I wonder if LIVE can detect if you’ve self-upgraded the HDD. I would hate to get banned for upgrading my HDD.

  8. Jeff Says:
    December 10th, 2008 at 4:26 pm

    Cisco-

    I ended up buying a 120GB HD in anticipation of the new install-to-disc function and the massive quantities of Rock Band downloads that I’ve been purchasing. I ended up getting a new one for $150 off of Ebay (before they dropped in price to that), plus I was supposed to get another 20% off of it from Microsoft’s Live Search Cash-back program, but something messed up and I didn’t get it, which, of course, really annoyed me. Basically losing $30 isn’t the end of the world, but I still would’ve felt better at least paying the $1/GB, which is already basically 4 times more than it should be.

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