43 degrees of musings

Hello kind readers,
I hope you all managed to survive the 43 degree heat. I worked all day behind the coffee machine which was pretty insane but what can you do? Life goes on.

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF AN XBOX GAMER

So I've made up my mind about how I feel about my Xbox 360. After playing it a little more, and playing my PS3 and dare I say even the Wii for comparison's sake, I've got to admit I'm satisfied.

I've always been a Playstation man. The very existence of the Xbox always annoyed me because as somewhat of a fanboy, I always wanted others to play the same games on the same consoles as I did. But particularly it was Microsoft that annoyed me. As one of the biggest corporate giants in the world, they never actually needed to enter into the videogame market. For a company who already had money pouring out of its faucets and hundred dollar bills for toilet paper, videogames would surely have been the least of their concerns.

However, one board meeting later when discussing what market they should monopolise next (probably not what really happened), the Xbox came into existence and the race for console supremacy begun. The actual reason I now realise is valid one and goes something like this: Bill Gates was already looking to the future of Microsoft and realised that inter-connectivity was becoming a big thing. With the PC now well established, the next logical step was to create a multimedia device for the television which would allow people to connect and interact with files that had once been exclusive only to their PCs.

It was a clever business move indeed. Introduce some new technology with the already popular Microsoft brand name and it will surely sell. The videogame market however turned out to be a very different market to the one that Microsoft was used to. Videogames was a venerable club with exclusive members who smoked cuban cigars and drank blue label scotch on the rocks. This was Nintendo and Sony territory (Sega had fallen off the radar by this stage) and Microsoft had a lot to prove. It had already stolen away Nintendo's fabled 2nd party developer Rare and Nintendo fans were not happy. I know I wasn't! Luckily, Nintendo had managed to secure its rights to Donkey Kong and Starfox before Rare sold out. Other franchises like Perfect Dark and Banjo-Kazooie weren't so lucky (as seen by the Xbox 360 bastardisations floating around at the moment).

Microsoft's big, black, bulging... box

Microsoft wanted to steal Sony's thunder by focusing Japan's attention from the hit Playstation 2. This resulted in many delays to the Xbox' release in the European PAL region which includes Australia and NZ. The effect of these efforts were largely unseen in Japan with the console failing to pass 1 million units according to NPD figures. Europe actually turned out to be the console's core market, but some gamers were turned away by the year-long delay of the console's release and instead turned to Sony and Nintendo who were already well-established with their respective consoles. However, the Xbox and its successor, the Xbox 360 managed to get their foot in the proverbial door and now have a large fan following.

I wouldn't exactly call myself a fan. I still hold much resentment for the Xbox for stealing away some of my favourite franchises. Still, with its shoddy design and hardware faults, it manages to sell thanks to a favourable price point and ignorant consumer base. Despite my feelings however, I must concede that I enjoy its company. In some ways it is better than my primary console the PS3.

Firstly, the online store is far more accessible and better-organised than Playstation's Store. The ability to search for games based off user ratings is excellent and the ability to preview game footage and access all of that game's extra downloadable content is a definite plus. I feel happy when I turn on the console and I'm greeted with pleasant greens and the smiling, yet somewhat disfigured face of my avatar who always appreciates my company. The interface is slick and easy to navigate and the ability to stream music and movies from my computer with the click of a button is great too.

However, I despise the fact that even after buying the console, you must constantly fork out even more money to sustain your gaming habits. If you want to play wirelessly, you must buy a wireless adapter which will set you back around $150. If you want to play online, there's another $90 per year for that service. Rechargeable control? $35. I'm lucky enough that my router is less than a metre away from my console that I can just plug the console in with a LAN adapter. And because my PS3 out-dates my 360 by over a year, I have a well-established online community of friends who I can play with on that. For a lot of others though, they don't have the same disposable income that I do that lets them own two other consoles or pay a monthly subscription fee to use the company's servers. It would be nice if these came at no extra cost to me.

For what I need it for though, the 360 provides, and that's good enough for me. I'm slowly warming up to its existence, but it still has a lot to prove in my eyes. I need a console that I know is not going to break down in a few months' time. Likewise, I need a console which won't scratch my discs if I leave them in the tray. There are still major problems which haven't been dealt with yet and I can only hope that these issues are addressed in the near future.

Anyway, I read early today an article saying that only 15% of gamers purchase Downloadable Content (DLC). DLC is additional game content which comes at a small cost which provides things like new characters, quests, maps or weapons. This figure doesn't really surprise me. Personally, I tend not to buy DLC because I feel that the price is usually not representative of the quality or quantity of that which I'm buying (they average around $10 but can be anywhere from $2 - $30). I'm also lucky that my debit card doesn't work on the Playstation Network for some unknown reason, so I'm unable to purchase anything from there (just as well because when I see things with a $1.99 price tag, I often buy multiple items with that price and end up spending $30 odd!).

My gripe with DLC is that developers have become lazy and purposely leave content out in games which are already very expensive, and force you to buy the DLC to finish off the story. It's a shifty deal! They expect gamers to fork out $100 for a game, then charge another $10 or $20 so you can play the complete package. I don't know who started this trend but nowadays we see many games like Assassin's Creed II and Little Big Planet which charge for additional quests or levels for absurd price tags. Not to mention that the cost of DLC is totally inflated in Australia compared to that of the US.

Not at all does this statistic surprise me! The one way to stop this is for the people who do buy it to stop, but this will never happen. This is far too profitable a business to stop now, and I believe even if the masses stopped buying it, there will always be the casual crowd who continue to buy songs for Band Hero or costumes for Pain!.


GAMES I'M PLAYING THIS WEEK

In this section, I briefly describe the games I'm playing this week (hence the title) and rate them using a fairly basic scale which looks like the following:

Highly Recommend: This game is awesome. I love it and you should too
Recommend: It's a pretty good game but nowhere near perfect and will only appeal to certain people
Hardly Recommend: It's hard to find things to like about this game. Certain aspects are good but the game as a whole doesn't play very well
Don't Recommend: I wouldn't go near this game with a ten-foot stick. Nothing about this game is good

It's a shallow system, but I'll always note who each game will appeal to. I will not use the arbitrary system of number rating. Ever.


1. Dragon Age: Origins (PS3)

Got back into it this week. I've finally finished the introductory part of the game and it has become much harder. Battles are beginning to require thoughtful strategy, many times making me rethink how I attack and sometimes even restarting multiple times. I didn't expect combat to get as deep as it has and I'm even more impressed with the game than I was last time I played it.

Still Highly Recommend!


2. The Saboteur (PS3)

There are countless WWII games these days. Most, if not all focus on one champion soldier from the US army who single-handedly qualm the German's efforts to take over Europe. The Saboteur, based also in WWII has a very different take - a refreshing one at that - casting you as an Irishman whose hobbies include racing, drinking and swearing. After starting a feud with a high-ranking German officer, Sean finds himself caught up in the French Resistance, trying to liberate Paris from German clutches.

Taking an open-world style of gameplay, you participate in missions for the Resistance, the likes of which have you running and gunning to racing and destroying key buildings and structures.

Unfortunately, this game tries to be like so many others and doesn't quite specialise in any single area. It feels like a GTA/Assassin's Creed/Red Faction hybrid, taking specific elements from each of these games. It's not a bad thing by any means; they are all great games, but a lack of polish in some areas prevents this game from being the next amazing hit.

Recommend to fans of any/all of the games mentioned above.


3. DJ Hero (PS3)



DJ show me what you got!

I know you all totally snickered and laughed at my masculinity (or lack thereof) and reasoning, but don't judge this game before giving it a try first! A refreshing take on the music genre, DJ Hero brings in an all-new style of music gameplay with another crazy, plastic peripheral! This game has an amazing soundtrack from so many genres and mashes them together to create some brilliant sounding blends that will have your toes tapping and your head bobbing as you master a new control scheme.

This game is brighter, more upbeat and features better graphics than the Guitar Hero franchise which to a lot of people has become stale and outdated.

Highly Recommend to lovers of mash-ups and rhythm games.

OTHER THINGS OF NOTE

I haven't played Darksiders yet but I am looking forward to buying it this week or next and telling you my thoughts about it.

I'm very excited for Megaman 10 which comes out 1st/2nd quarter of this year. If it's anything like Magaman 9 then we have much to be excited for!

If you're playing Borderlands, the new DLC Mad Moxxi is out Tuesday 12th. This one is worth its weight in gold! You should also check out The Zombie Island of Dr Ned.

Is anyone excited for Pokemon Heart Gold and Soul Silver? I know I am. They should hopefully be out first quarter 2010. Gold/Silver were my favourite iterations of the Pokemon franchise so I can hardly wait for these remakes!!


If you've got any questions, feedback, or just want to say hi, please feel free to comment or email me:
jonosasson@hotmail.com
and I will gladly reply. You may even find these comments in the next post in some sort of FAQ or Mailbag section.

I just discovered I can fit pictures anywhere I like in the blog so expect some more pretty pictures and updated links later on this week when I update this post!

Until then, I hope you all enjoy your week and make the most of this beautiful weather!

Jono