Your favorite game system stinks!

If you follow video game news or discussion sites, you know there's a "console war" going on right now, with millions of fanboys flaming owners of competing systems while praising the system they personally own as some kind of machine god. This post is an attempt to show that each of these systems have horrible, horrible flaws.

I own all three of the current generation of console game systems, have played each of them extensively, and I think I'm well qualified to say the following: ALL OF THE GAME SYSTEMS STINK! Here's why.

1. Xbox 360

One of the biggest blunders in console manufacturing history, the 360 has a massive failure rate. The estimated number of 360s that have broken or will break is between 30-50% of ALL the 360s sold. And even when it's not broken, a large number of 360s run at an incredibly loud volume due to a flawed DVD-ROM drive. I have to hide my 360 behind a cabinet in order to keep its noise from distracting me.

Recently, Microsoft announced it would fork over nearly $2 billion dollars (BILLION!) to extend the warranty on the 360 to 3 years. This was after more than a year of deceptive press statements from Microsoft execs saying that the 360's failure rate was marginal and nothing to get worked up about. Fans of the 360 praised Microsoft for extending the warranty and giving out free repairs for broken 360s, but they forget that nothing is "free." Microsoft is a profit-driven corporation, and it's not going to just throw $2 billion out the window. They're going to try and make up for this elsewhere. Microsoft consumers of all kinds will be paying for this $2 billion mistake through higher prices for Microsoft services and software.

2. Playstation 3

The PS3 runs games at lower graphical quality than the 360, and yet the PS3 costs $150 more. One of the reasons the PS3 is so expensive is because Sony decided to use the PS3 as a way to introduce its Blu-Ray disc format to the public. Blu-Ray is a disc format that can store around 50 gigs of data on a disc, which lets people play HD quality movies on their HDTVs. The problem with this is that most people who buy the PS3 would've preferred the PS3 be cheaper, and devoid of Blu-Ray functionality, instead of having the technology forced into the console and its price without any benefit to the PS3's video game playing ability.

The PS3's controller is a step back in most ways from the PS2's controller, and is far inferior to the 360's. It lacks rumble features and instead features a terrible motion sensor gimmick. Unlike the Nintendo Wii's Wiimote, the Sixaxis controller's shape is not suitable for motion sensor gameplay at all. Even on this post here on the official Sony Playstation forums, many owners of the PS3 admit that Sony screwed up when it came to the motion sensor feature of the controller.

3. Wii

The Nintendo Wii is currently the leader of the "console wars," with sales far outnumbering and outpacing its competitors. At $250, the system is far cheaper than the 360 and PS3, and its motion sensor "Wiimote" controller makes games easier to play for the huge casual gamer market. But is it really a good value?

At its core, the Wii is nothing more than a Gamecube with a $200 controller attached to it. Its hardware specs are nearly identical to the Gamecube's, a system that came out 6 years ago and can be bought for $50 on Ebay. The Wii doesn't support HDTV resolutions at all, despite the fact that PC gamers have been in HD resolutions for more than 10 years now. And HDTVs are expected to become the standard TVs of households within the next few years. This poses a problem for the Wii because SDTV quality content looks considerably worse on an HDTV. In other words, as people get HDTVs, the graphics quality of Wii games will actually appear to get worse!

The Wii feels like it was outdated at the time of its release. The motion sensor controls are fun, but paying $250 is just too much.

3 blogs about video games

I like to visit the following 3 blogs about video games.

1. Blue's News

Blue's News is a blog that focuses on PC games. The author of the blog, Blue, updates the site twice a day with dozens of links to computer game related articles, such as game industry press releases, computer game hardware reviews, computer game reviews, and downloadable user-created game content . Much of the blog's links are links found by readers of Blue's News, who e-mail Blue with stuff they think their fellow PC gamers will find interesting, useful, or funny. At the end of each batch of links, Blue writes a small section called "Out of the Blue" where he briefly comments on his personal life or a video game he's been playing, then finishes that off with links that are not necessarily related to gaming, but are interesting and/or funny things to check out.

Blue's News is my favorite game blog and probably the site I visit the most on the Internet. I visit it at least once a day, usually every day, and have been doing so for at least 5 years. I really like the "no nonsense / no frills" approach to the site. The site has very little advertising (at the top, there are only 2 small ads), and the advertising that is there is not obtrusive or distracting like other websites' ads. And besides the 2-3 ads on the site, the blog has no images at all, which gives the site a clean look and an efficient layout.

2. Joystiq

Joystiq is a blog that covers both video and computer games, while adding in a bit of humor in their news posts and/or custom-made images. In many ways, it's the opposite of what Blue's News is. Instead of just throwing out dozens of links at you, Joystiq usually focuses on just a few news stories a day, and each story is often accompanied by a funny picture and a joke or two in the post itself.

I especially like the user comment sections of the site. You can choose from a variety of video game-related Avatars to represent yourself with. And your fellow commentators can then judge your comments with a positive or negative rating. If you comment is rated negatively too often, your avatar and your comment will lose its "health hearts" and become less visible and harder to read. Joystiq also supports del.icio.us and Digg it features.

3. Kotaku

Kotaku is similar to Joystiq, except with much less of the Funny. A lot of the attempts at humor kinda fall flat for me. Another difference is that one or two of the site's authors live in Japan and they sometimes comment on gaming news coming out of Japan faster than most other blogs.

One gripe I have with the site is that to subscribe to the blog's RSS, you have to look at the left-hand side of the site, past a lengthy staff list, to find the RSS buttons. It's much easier to see the RSS feed buttons of Joystiq and Blue's News. Kotaku supports only Digg it features.

Robotech movie in the works. Sweet.

TORONTO -- After slipping on a mask for Spider-Man, Tobey Maguire might be slipping into a giant robot for "Robotech."

After a lengthy negotiation, Warner Bros. Pictures has picked up the rights to bring anime classic "Robotech," which featured giant robots known as mechas, to the big screen. Maguire is producing through his Maguire Entertainment banner and is eyeing the lead role in what the studio plans on being a tentpole sci-fi franchise.

"We are very excited to bring 'Robotech' to the big screen," Maguire said. "There is a rich mythology that will be a great foundation for a sophisticated, smart and entertaining film."

Wasup!

Yooooo!

Got Bioshock on launch day, completed it the next day on Medium difficulty. Great game, cool story, great writing, but terrible endings. Amazing graphics, sounds, and atmosphere.

It's not really an FPS, but an RPG from a first person perspective. Like RPGs, reflex times and hand-eye coordination isn't really what's important. What's important is that you make the right decisions that will equip your character with enough power, or the correct types of power, to take on a challenge. In this way the game feels more like a battle of number crunching, which I'm not really into. I think it's more like Neverwinter Nights than Rainbow Six Vegas. I still really enjoyed the game, but I would've liked a little more Rainbow Six Vegas and a little less Neverwinter, I guess.

Anyway, here's an idea for multiplayer Bioshock that I posted over at the Penny Arcade forums.
------------------------------
I think this game, with a little (or a lot of) work, could be tweaked into a Diablo-esque style hack-and-slash game (or "plasmid and shoot" game). Or even a World of Warcraft style game. Bear with me.

Basically, the current level environments would be maintained exactly as they are. But all the singleplayer quests would be removed from the game. You and, let's say, up to 16 players can join the game and roam around Rapture as you will. Your goal? To collect ADAM (Bioshock's way of "levelling up"), rare and unique items, tonics, weapons, and to get money. Bioshock already has respawning monsters that roam the world, so that's already an online RPG element built into the game. These 16 players would freely explore and grind up the ADAM tree if they wish, or they could meet with each other to form parties. Of course, PVP combat would be an important part of the game. Your party might run into another party, with a Little Sister and a Big Daddy in the middle. So, both parties shoot the crap out of the Daddy, then after he's dead, immediately start shooting each other. The victorious party takes the ADAM and runs off. The moral choice of the game also comes into question here, too. If your party of players is "good", you kill the enemy players because you wish to rescue the Sisters, not harvest them.

Basically, it would be "World of Rapture." And I think it would fit perfectly with the ideology of Rapture.
-----------------------------------------

Ymm... I love video games ^_^
Finished Ninja Gaiden Sigma. Simply awesome. I feel ashamed that I didn't play Ninja Gaiden to completion until now. Shoulda picked up Ninja Gaiden Black when it came out! I don't know if Heavenly Sword will impress me thanks to Sigma. I tried the Heavenly Sword demo and the character models have that "clay face" look to them, which I dislike. Ninja Gaiden Sigma, meanwhile, is just smooth goodness everywhere.

Pre-ordered Halo 3 and Bioshock. Ymmm.... video games.

I posted this over at the official Chromehounds forum.

--------------------------------------------------

I've logged about 85 hours in Chromehounds and enjoy it a lot. But, a lot of the game design choices seem odd to me, and I'm not all that surprised that the game isn't well known or very popular. So here are some of my ideas on what I think would make Chromehounds better. Please post your ideas, too

I've tried to keep my ideas fairly modest. I understand that programming a video game isn't simple work (I've been a QA tester at EA games for 5 different projects), so simple game changes are much more easy to adopt than massive ones.

1. Let players join Neroimus War missions regardless of squad affiliation.

When creating a mission in the Neroimus War, players should be able to toggle whether or not they want the mission to be "Squad-only" or "Open" to all pilots of the nation. In my opinion, forcing the War into a "squad-only" system was a critical mistake of this game, and really sank the game's multiplayer appeal.

Just let players open up a mission to all players in the nation, and you'll see a lot more 6 v 6 matches.


2. Text communication through USB keyboards and the upcoming 360 "chatpad" accessory.

For those not aware, you can hook up a USB keyboard to your 360 and can type messages on it. And soon Microsoft will release a "chatpad" accessory for the 360's controller. It's basically a keyboard you peck on with your thumbs.

Text chat is simply a "good thing" and the game will benefit from it's addition.

Plus, it would be GREAT if we could at least text chat with the enemy team during the Briefing Room portion of the Neroimus War. Find out what's taking so freaking long for them to launch, for example I understand that this game is a "simulation" and is trying to simulate real war, but I think some liberties can be taken and people wouldn't mind.

3. Fix or remove the monetary system of the game.

Money has no value whatsoever in this game, and the Sell button in the Shop has no purpose, either. The money system is extremely broken, and what's worse, this has severe consequences on the combat balance of the game, too. Either fix the money, or get rid of it entirely and balance the game appropriately.

It appears the game designers intended money to be something that discouraged you and encouraged you to use certain Hound builds, certain weapons, certain ammo, and even attack certain areas of the map. But even below average players like me have insane amounts of money. I can always buy the most expensive parts and ammo, and mission rewards and costs are totally irrelevant.

So, please give me a reason to care about money, what I do with it. Give me a reason to use that Sell option in the Shop.

4. Get rid of those "_____ has made a Massive Donation" messages. 'Nuff said.

5. Add Weapon Restriction options for the Free Battles.

It is very common to see people request that people not use certain weapons, and I think the game should give these people a real way to enforce these desires. Rainbow Six Vegas, a very popular Xbox Live game, has this option.

6. When a player is destroyed in a War battle, let them observe the game through the viewpoints of their teammates's Hounds.

It's boring walking around as an infantry man, waiting for the game to end. Give us something to watch, at least!

7. Take away ALL my stuff at the end of each war.

I saved this idea for last as it's my most extreme one. At the end of each war, I think every player's inventory should be stripped. Let the players keep their Assembly Data, but take away all their parts.

Why do this? To give players a reason to fight, to make money, and a desire to buy goodies again. A reason to use that Trade option. In the real world, people make money so they can buy more stuff, to trade with people, and so forth. But in Chromehounds, you have everything in the game. There's nothing to buy, because you have everything already.

And if the money system is fixed (idea #3), this would also force players to make their buying and selling decisions wisely. And with the addition of a text chatroom (idea #2), players could easily buy/sell things to other players within their nation if they prefer that over the Shop's deals.

Give players one Hound of each roletype at the beginning of each War, though. Or at least enough parts that they can play different roles right from the start. Don't want to punish people too severely..

I think this idea also works well in the context of the game's story. If the war has restarted because we've gone back in time, we shouldn't keep all our stuff.