I've been playing on my Xbox 360 every night I can. It's got some good games for it, and some bad ones, but I'm happy with what I own.
I saw someone post on a forum today about their 360 failing with the RROD, and loads of people piled in moaning about the high mortality rate of 360s, and how appalling it is that a piece of equipment should still routinely fail for so many people.
I had a few thoughts on it, and yes it is really shockingly bad how often these units fail. But worse than that, it's a big part of why I own one, and why I am playing with it so much.
I'm a person who sees no value in buying the newest console just to keep up with trends or keeping up with other players, and for a few years it was impossible to care even slightly about 360/PS3/wii, but I know that if I forget about the 360 now... it's not going to be like any other console where I can just buy the machine 5 years later and all the games cheap and play my little heart out, oh no. Every single 360 is going to be dead in 5 years. It's going to have been superceded by whatever Microsoft want and they always drop their old stuff as soon as possible (because it's poo). It's the same with their operating systems, their applications, everything - they drop all their old stuff and old support because the old stuff is bad, even when the current technology is worse (points at Vista, points at 360 hardware - there are older examples as well). So I have to buy one now and play it to death now if I'm ever going to play with it at all. Not only will the machines be dead but I bet all online stuff will die out too - all the servers will be shut down.
I bet the retro market in 360s is going to be roaring in 20 years - even though there are tons of the machines around now, they will all be dead by then. And everyone who owns one will be scared to play on it, or it'll be like vintage wines - you either sell them for a ton of money or you drink it all down - one hour and it's gone forever. And so is the £££ you spent on buying it.
The whole situation kind of disgusts me as a gamer and a person who loves their old faithful consoles and never stops playing games when they're old.
I'm having fun playing on the 360 right now, but it also saddens me that it's like a child with a terminal disease who doesn't really know it. It's going to be far more dead as a console than any other that I own, in 5 years. In 5 years I will still be able to play on my Atari 2600 but my Xbox 360 will be dead. It's terrible.
There's a cute website which sets up a blog for your Xbox 360, which actually just auto-generates posts based on activity on your gamertag. It also gives your Xbox 360 a bit of a personality based on how much you've been playing and what you've been doing, so it's all quite amusing. Mine is currently happy and randomly quotes dialogue from the game "Portal", and says things that aren't true about me (I'm really not the controller-throwing type!), but it's all in the name of cheap entertainment so I don't mind. If you want to read it, it is here:
tenshi alpha's Xbox 360 Blog
Who knows? Within a few weeks I might be back to normal, playing on my DS and PS2 and Megadrive, and watching anime... or I might still be Xboxing while I still can...
This weekend I'm going to play PS2 ports of "Bubble Symphony" and "Bubble Memories" (Bubble Bobble sequels) with my brother. He says that he looked it up and the last last boss in "Bubble Memories", after to go through the game once then go through on "super" mode, is a Skelmonsta with a Wave Motion Cannon! O_O ooh, wish us luck...! XD
Saturday 30 August 2008
Tuesday 12 August 2008
Thoughts on Xbox Live Arcade
General thoughts about Xbox Live Arcade.
In some ways I really like it, in other ways I really don't.
Things I like
I like that I can download game trailers and demos and trial versions onto my Xbox 360 hard drive for free.
I like that certain games available to buy are old games where buying the original version of the game for whatever platform would now cost far more than what they're asking, due to scarcity of the game (e.g. Triggerheart Exelica for Dreamcast costs about £60 for the Japanese import game on ebay, but is only 800 points = about £6.80 on XBLA... though changes are it doesn't have "story mode", and has HDTV support...)
I like that it queues things up for download, pauses the download when it needs to, and you can set it to carry on downloading while the rest of the console is switched off too (though my guess is that it uses about the same amount of power as being fully switched on).
I like the convenience of loading games from the hard drive, not having to look for discs.
Things I don't like
I don't like the way buying Microsoft points with a credit card leaves your card on the Xbox 360 by default (I mentioned this a few times in earlier posts).
I don't like the way that games are often advertised as the full game, just like the original, but they're often missing crucial parts of the game (e.g. "Story mode" in Soul Calibur and Triggerheart Exelica...)
I don't like separately priced "downloadable content" for games - the way that game publishers now charge you for most of a game when it's released, then you can buy more of the game (and avatars and wallpapers to use on XBLA) for Microsoft Points afterwards. "Beautiful Katamari" was especially terrible for this!
I don't like the way that the price is fixed for a game with Microsoft Points under XBLA and the price never comes down.
e.g. A normal game comes out on a console, the RRP is £50. After a week it's £40. After a month it's £30. After a year you'll find 2nd hand copies in the "4 for £20" section in your local high-street video-games shops, and about the same price on ebay.
That's my favourite time to buy games, when they're cheap as chips. When you have a game on XBLA, the price never drops. So you have a situation where supposedly budget releases of little downloadable games are more expensive than popular high-budget games like "Mass Effect" or "Bioshock" or "Blue Dragon" on the high street.
I bought two compilation disks from ebay of XBLA games - the one that comes with the "Arcade" version of the console, and one called "Live Unplugged". Buying them like this on disk, the games work out as about £2 each which is far closer to what they're worth.
Some examples of how contemporary price cuts compare to XBLA prices... You can buy "Doom" on XBLA for 400 points (about £3.40), or you can buy "Doom 3" for Xbox in any high-street videogames store in a "4 for £10" offer, which includes "Ultimate Doom" and "Doom 2" - for £2.50. Doom 3 was originally priced at about 20 times more than it is worth now, but now that game packaged with the original Doom as a bonus is cheaper than just Doom on its own on XBLA.
You need another game to get the most out of your "4 for £10" offer? I suggest "Midway Arcade Classics", which includes "Defender" (400 points), "Gauntlet" (400 points), Joust (400 points), Paperboy (400 points), Robotron: 2084 (400 points), Smash TV (400 points), and Root Beer Tapper (400 points). So... 2800 points, that's, oh... £23.80 for games you can buy on a compilation disk for £2.50 in shops.
The game applies to more XBLA games that are re-releases of old games - there's usually a cheaper compilation out or another remake that ends up being cheaper if you just wait patiently.
See how this all pans out? How it works against the way that high-street videogame pricing typically works, to the player's disadvantage? It feels like another method that a games distributor is using to keep prices artificially high, though I suppose it technically isn't. If XBLA games dropped in price the same way that normal games drop in price, I'd be far more inclined to buy games. I'd feel like it was a bargain, a good deal.
You can "beat" the system a little bit, by buying pre-paid Microsoft Points online from Amazon or whoever, as they sometimes undercut the RRP of those cards by a pound or two, but that's generally the best discount you can hope for.
I also don't like the way licensing works. If a friend is visiting you, and they want to play a game they bought on XBLA, they can download it onto the hard-drive of your Xbox 360, but will only have full game access on their own account - you can't play it with them unless you go to their house and play it on their Xbox 360. Or, you buy a copy. That's not very social.
I've also wanted to play some games multiplayer with a friend in my house, but it turns out that multiplayer is only supported on the game if my friend and I each play on our own Xbox 360s in our own houses, via the Internet through two Xbox Live Arcade Gold Membership accounts. Two people sitting next to each other in front of one console can't have fun playing the same game, oh no! That also makes for very un-social gaming! >_<
In some ways I really like it, in other ways I really don't.
Things I like
I like that I can download game trailers and demos and trial versions onto my Xbox 360 hard drive for free.
I like that certain games available to buy are old games where buying the original version of the game for whatever platform would now cost far more than what they're asking, due to scarcity of the game (e.g. Triggerheart Exelica for Dreamcast costs about £60 for the Japanese import game on ebay, but is only 800 points = about £6.80 on XBLA... though changes are it doesn't have "story mode", and has HDTV support...)
I like that it queues things up for download, pauses the download when it needs to, and you can set it to carry on downloading while the rest of the console is switched off too (though my guess is that it uses about the same amount of power as being fully switched on).
I like the convenience of loading games from the hard drive, not having to look for discs.
Things I don't like
I don't like the way buying Microsoft points with a credit card leaves your card on the Xbox 360 by default (I mentioned this a few times in earlier posts).
I don't like the way that games are often advertised as the full game, just like the original, but they're often missing crucial parts of the game (e.g. "Story mode" in Soul Calibur and Triggerheart Exelica...)
I don't like separately priced "downloadable content" for games - the way that game publishers now charge you for most of a game when it's released, then you can buy more of the game (and avatars and wallpapers to use on XBLA) for Microsoft Points afterwards. "Beautiful Katamari" was especially terrible for this!
I don't like the way that the price is fixed for a game with Microsoft Points under XBLA and the price never comes down.
e.g. A normal game comes out on a console, the RRP is £50. After a week it's £40. After a month it's £30. After a year you'll find 2nd hand copies in the "4 for £20" section in your local high-street video-games shops, and about the same price on ebay.
That's my favourite time to buy games, when they're cheap as chips. When you have a game on XBLA, the price never drops. So you have a situation where supposedly budget releases of little downloadable games are more expensive than popular high-budget games like "Mass Effect" or "Bioshock" or "Blue Dragon" on the high street.
I bought two compilation disks from ebay of XBLA games - the one that comes with the "Arcade" version of the console, and one called "Live Unplugged". Buying them like this on disk, the games work out as about £2 each which is far closer to what they're worth.
Some examples of how contemporary price cuts compare to XBLA prices... You can buy "Doom" on XBLA for 400 points (about £3.40), or you can buy "Doom 3" for Xbox in any high-street videogames store in a "4 for £10" offer, which includes "Ultimate Doom" and "Doom 2" - for £2.50. Doom 3 was originally priced at about 20 times more than it is worth now, but now that game packaged with the original Doom as a bonus is cheaper than just Doom on its own on XBLA.
You need another game to get the most out of your "4 for £10" offer? I suggest "Midway Arcade Classics", which includes "Defender" (400 points), "Gauntlet" (400 points), Joust (400 points), Paperboy (400 points), Robotron: 2084 (400 points), Smash TV (400 points), and Root Beer Tapper (400 points). So... 2800 points, that's, oh... £23.80 for games you can buy on a compilation disk for £2.50 in shops.
The game applies to more XBLA games that are re-releases of old games - there's usually a cheaper compilation out or another remake that ends up being cheaper if you just wait patiently.
See how this all pans out? How it works against the way that high-street videogame pricing typically works, to the player's disadvantage? It feels like another method that a games distributor is using to keep prices artificially high, though I suppose it technically isn't. If XBLA games dropped in price the same way that normal games drop in price, I'd be far more inclined to buy games. I'd feel like it was a bargain, a good deal.
You can "beat" the system a little bit, by buying pre-paid Microsoft Points online from Amazon or whoever, as they sometimes undercut the RRP of those cards by a pound or two, but that's generally the best discount you can hope for.
I also don't like the way licensing works. If a friend is visiting you, and they want to play a game they bought on XBLA, they can download it onto the hard-drive of your Xbox 360, but will only have full game access on their own account - you can't play it with them unless you go to their house and play it on their Xbox 360. Or, you buy a copy. That's not very social.
I've also wanted to play some games multiplayer with a friend in my house, but it turns out that multiplayer is only supported on the game if my friend and I each play on our own Xbox 360s in our own houses, via the Internet through two Xbox Live Arcade Gold Membership accounts. Two people sitting next to each other in front of one console can't have fun playing the same game, oh no! That also makes for very un-social gaming! >_<
Monday 11 August 2008
Braid (Xbox Live Arcade game)
I got my Xbox 360 back from repair last Thursday and have put it to use. ^_^
Braid is the new big thing on Xbox Live Arcade, so I downloaded the trial and tried it out. Here are my thoughts.
Braid is a 2D platform / puzzle game with nifty gameplay elements, nice backgrounds, and nice music. I don't want to play any more of it past the trial game.
Back in the days of the Great Giana Sisters, Nintendo would've sued the pants off of the makers of this game for making a profit out of blatant copyright infringement. There are a ton of allusions to Super Mario Bros all over the place. You go through levels jumping on the heads of your enemies, on a quest for your princess, meeting a dinosaur (presumably to be like Yoshi but it looks more like Barney The Dinosaur) at the castle in each level. I guess these days you call it "a tribute" rather than "theft" though.
The effect of using these Super Mario Bros elements is mainly that I pine for the simple cheerfulness and happiness of the Mushroom Kingdom, as I read through the annoyingly self-serving story laid out in various diaries you get to read before starting each world. It seems to detail a romantic relationship that went horribly wrong. Worse than just that, from the way it's written I can picture a guy using this game to try to get back together with a girl who's dumped him. And, well, as it's all of a personal nature, the end result is that it just makes me think "the author of this game must be a real jerk. If this story applies to his real life, it's wrong to use a game as the platform for your lamentation, and I can tell he still can't quite see how unattractive he is (and was). Even when he thinks he's been a loser, you can tell he still feels something else - it's disgenuine on a level that even the writer doesn't see. He deserves to be dumped by the princess. Well and truly. She's better off with Bowser. Even if he's all spiky and breathes fire.".
The game's story is its main downfall, for me. If the game has all the text in some language I don't understand, it would have been a great game. I'd be raving about it. I would probably have bought it.
The main character looks like a chibi Jonathan Ross, there is a nice rewind button which is really quite cool. No need for extra lives, and it forms part of the gameplay as well. The music is quite nice. The backgrounds are quite nice. 2D platform / puzzle games are good.
But I really hate the main character from those bits of text, so I don't want to help him, I would actually rather keep him away from the "princess" (that's by far the happiest ending I can picture for the story), and I don't want to put my money in the hands of the person who made the game to make him think like he did the right thing. I really really really dislike him.
I can take all sorts of bad storylines in games, or no real storyline at all, but... not this. This is just horrible and I feel bad playing it because of that. He should not be allowed to rewind himself back into that girl's life. He made his mistakes, that's it. Final. Done. No going back. That's how it should be. He should learn from it and move forwards, a better person. I don't want to be the person this game wants me to role-play as.
I also think Jade Empire for the same price on Xbox Live Arcade is better value. There's no way this game is worth three Space Giraffes.
Since playing the demo, I've found that the game gets all sorts of critical acclaim, first an award from innvations in game design, then good reviews for the game. The maker, however, does seem to be as much of a jerk as his script would imply. It's not just that he's using his game (which would otherwise be great) as a soapbox for his old relationship problems, but also... I get the impression that he's really proud of what he's done, thinks he's great, and that his work is higher art than, say, Super Mario Bros because of his tackling of adult relationship issues, but in reality, it's worse than reading a 14 year old's whining on social networking site.
Braid is the new big thing on Xbox Live Arcade, so I downloaded the trial and tried it out. Here are my thoughts.
Braid is a 2D platform / puzzle game with nifty gameplay elements, nice backgrounds, and nice music. I don't want to play any more of it past the trial game.
Back in the days of the Great Giana Sisters, Nintendo would've sued the pants off of the makers of this game for making a profit out of blatant copyright infringement. There are a ton of allusions to Super Mario Bros all over the place. You go through levels jumping on the heads of your enemies, on a quest for your princess, meeting a dinosaur (presumably to be like Yoshi but it looks more like Barney The Dinosaur) at the castle in each level. I guess these days you call it "a tribute" rather than "theft" though.
The effect of using these Super Mario Bros elements is mainly that I pine for the simple cheerfulness and happiness of the Mushroom Kingdom, as I read through the annoyingly self-serving story laid out in various diaries you get to read before starting each world. It seems to detail a romantic relationship that went horribly wrong. Worse than just that, from the way it's written I can picture a guy using this game to try to get back together with a girl who's dumped him. And, well, as it's all of a personal nature, the end result is that it just makes me think "the author of this game must be a real jerk. If this story applies to his real life, it's wrong to use a game as the platform for your lamentation, and I can tell he still can't quite see how unattractive he is (and was). Even when he thinks he's been a loser, you can tell he still feels something else - it's disgenuine on a level that even the writer doesn't see. He deserves to be dumped by the princess. Well and truly. She's better off with Bowser. Even if he's all spiky and breathes fire.".
The game's story is its main downfall, for me. If the game has all the text in some language I don't understand, it would have been a great game. I'd be raving about it. I would probably have bought it.
The main character looks like a chibi Jonathan Ross, there is a nice rewind button which is really quite cool. No need for extra lives, and it forms part of the gameplay as well. The music is quite nice. The backgrounds are quite nice. 2D platform / puzzle games are good.
But I really hate the main character from those bits of text, so I don't want to help him, I would actually rather keep him away from the "princess" (that's by far the happiest ending I can picture for the story), and I don't want to put my money in the hands of the person who made the game to make him think like he did the right thing. I really really really dislike him.
I can take all sorts of bad storylines in games, or no real storyline at all, but... not this. This is just horrible and I feel bad playing it because of that. He should not be allowed to rewind himself back into that girl's life. He made his mistakes, that's it. Final. Done. No going back. That's how it should be. He should learn from it and move forwards, a better person. I don't want to be the person this game wants me to role-play as.
I also think Jade Empire for the same price on Xbox Live Arcade is better value. There's no way this game is worth three Space Giraffes.
Since playing the demo, I've found that the game gets all sorts of critical acclaim, first an award from innvations in game design, then good reviews for the game. The maker, however, does seem to be as much of a jerk as his script would imply. It's not just that he's using his game (which would otherwise be great) as a soapbox for his old relationship problems, but also... I get the impression that he's really proud of what he's done, thinks he's great, and that his work is higher art than, say, Super Mario Bros because of his tackling of adult relationship issues, but in reality, it's worse than reading a 14 year old's whining on social networking site.
Tuesday 5 August 2008
CD Japan Magazine Subscription special offer
CD Japan have a special offer on at the moment - a 500 yen coupon towards any of their magazine subscriptions!
Follow this link for details and to get your coupon!
They're valid until the 31st of August 2008. It's an overall discount, not off each magazine, but a money-off coupon is still money-off! ^_^ I'm taking out a subscription to Voice Newtype, as I haven't seen that magazine for sale anywhere for several years now. (I used to buy individual issues from Anime Jungle) ^_^
NOTE: On the page advertising Voice Newtype, the table of shipping costs shown on the site appears to conflict with the figures that come out of the shipping calculator during the checkout process. Despite what the page says SAL is much cheaper - there's a bit of a wait on each magazine, but otherwise you'll end up paying more than the cost of the magazine in shipping for each issue!
Follow this link for details and to get your coupon!
They're valid until the 31st of August 2008. It's an overall discount, not off each magazine, but a money-off coupon is still money-off! ^_^ I'm taking out a subscription to Voice Newtype, as I haven't seen that magazine for sale anywhere for several years now. (I used to buy individual issues from Anime Jungle) ^_^
NOTE: On the page advertising Voice Newtype, the table of shipping costs shown on the site appears to conflict with the figures that come out of the shipping calculator during the checkout process. Despite what the page says SAL is much cheaper - there's a bit of a wait on each magazine, but otherwise you'll end up paying more than the cost of the magazine in shipping for each issue!
Friday 1 August 2008
Infinite Undiscovery preorders
A small price war seems to have broken out for the European release of the upcoming tri-Ace RPG for Xbox 360 (which will be published by Square Enix). It's listed at about £15 below RRP - that's a few pennies under £30 with free shipping - on both Play.com and Amazon UK. It's misspelled on Amazon, which probably won't help them lure customers!
Play
Amazon
There's something about RPGs on this generation of home consoles, though... they seem to drop in price a lot faster than in previous generations, and a lot faster than on handheld consoles. So it might be worth waiting it out and seeing how much it goes for about a month after release - it might be even less than this preorder price!
Play
Amazon
There's something about RPGs on this generation of home consoles, though... they seem to drop in price a lot faster than in previous generations, and a lot faster than on handheld consoles. So it might be worth waiting it out and seeing how much it goes for about a month after release - it might be even less than this preorder price!
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