I’ve had my Sony PlayStation 3 for a couple of weeks now. While I cannot say that I wish I had never gotten it, I can say that I am currently disappointed with this system.
It really doesn’t matter what message board or forum you visit, you’ll find people comparing the PS3 and the Xbox 360. And there will always be someone asking which is better. My response was always the same, “it depends on what you want it for.” (more…)
I was pretty excited when I first heard about Mortal Kombat vs DC. The thought of Scorpion vs. Batman was just cool. Yesterday evening my step brother decided to pick up the game for the Xbox 360. While it was a fun game, I’m glad I wasn’t the one that spent $50 on it.
While it has a lot of nice visual details, and the story was decent, the game itself felt like it was missing a lot. For starters, there isn’t a lot of fighters. MK vs. DC only has 22 characters so it’s missing a lot of people from both universes. If you’re expecting to unlock additional characters, you’ll be sadly mistaken… there are two characters that can be unlocked by completing each of the story modes. Two, that’s it.
The only hope is that maybe, we’ll see additional characters added by way of downloadable content. After all, that is the new way of milking money out of the customers, isn’t it??
While fun, right now I couldn’t justify buying the game. Perhaps if the downloadable content adds enough at a fair price (i.e. free) then I might change my tune.
Despite that nice new PS3 that I got for Christmas, I’ve not been able to put down my Xbox 360 remote just yet. I’m in the middle of Prince of Persia, and I’m having a lot of fun with it.
I find it ironic that as New Year’s Eve approaches, I’m stuck in the middle of Prince of Persia. A year ago on New Year’s Eve my home was broken into and most of my video games were stolen including two Prince of Persia games; The Warrior Within and The Two Thrones. I was in the middle of The Warrior Within at the time.
The graphics of the game took me a while to get use to, but they aren’t bad by any means. I was just expecting them to look more like Assassin’s Creed (another awesome game!).
The new Prince of Persia is more of an acrobat story than anything. You spend most of your time jumping, running, and climbing. A few puzzles are mixed in to break things up, but for the most part that is all the game offers.
Combat? Oh sure, you get that on occasion. Usually when you are fighting one of the main bosses, which you’ll do several times. Aside from the bosses, you may run into another enemy here and there, but it’s certainly not the combat game I would have expected.
There is also a good bit of dialogue within the game, part of it offers details to the story, while other parts of the dialogue (usually from the Prince) add some humor and comic relief… some of which has had me rolling on the floor.
Those of you who enjoyed Assassin’s Creed may be happy to know that you can play through Prince of Persia as Altair via an unlockable skin. Both Assassin’s Creed and Prince of Persia are Ubisoft games.
Yesterday afternoon Microsoft released the much discussed Xbox 360 fall update which contained a major overhaul to the Xbox 360 dashboard. Dubbed Xbox Experience (or NXE), the new dashboard operates much faster, but takes some adjusting as it is drastically different.
With the new update users now have the ability to create cartoony “avatars” (very similar to Miis on the Nintendo Mii). Hopefully they’ll be some more customization options added later on (and hopefully they wont cost MS points).
Probably the biggest thing is the addition of Netflix. That’s right, you can now stream movies from Netflix to your Xbox 360, provided of course that you have a Netflix membership. This might just cause me to renew my membership. 
One last thing that I’m happy to see is that you can now “install” Xbox 360 games to the hard drive. I’ve not tried it out yet, but it’ll be nice to not have to swap out disk to play games.
On the downside, since updating to the NXE I’ve had some major problems with my system just freezing up. Granted, I did just get my system back from Microsoft after a RRoD so this may be pure concidence. However, some folks over at Neowin are also reporting freezing during games or while on the dashboard. Anyone else having problems?
Feel free to friend me on Xbox Live. As you’d probably expect, I use the gamertag “d3bruts1d“. 
Early this morning, I received an email from the Microsoft XBox repair shop. Thankfully, the subject of the email made since, or I might have suspected the email from Xbox_ AOC Web EN (XBOX_.HARD.NA.00.EN.000.000.TS.T01.SPT.00.WB@css.one.microsoft.com) to be spam. Seriously, what’s up with the email address?? Was repair-services@microsoft.com already taken??
The email states that my XBox 360 has been received by the service center. Good news indeed, as the UPS tracking number I had showed that the package was delivered on 11/07/08 @ 3:45 pm. Following the link included in the email, I’m taking back to the XBox “repair status” website, which shows that not only has it been received, but repaired and reshipped. I even have a new UPS tracking number that indicates it is on its way back to me.
While I applaud Microsoft with the quick turn around time for fixing my XBox, clearly their notification system needs some tweaking.
So, yesterday afternoon while the wife was sick in bed, I was playing a bit of Fable II (which I’m rather enjoying). I paused for a moment, and when I came back my game was frozen. At first I thought the issue was with the controller, but quickly ruled that out. I shut down the system, and when I turned it back on a minute later, there was nothing.
No video, no audio, and not even a Red Ring of Death. The power light was there, and the drive would eject, but other than that I had nothing.
So this afternoon, I decided to give it another try. Turned it on, and bam! Red Ring of Death. So, I’ll be sending my Xbox 360 back to Microsoft so they can fix it a second time.
I applaud Microsoft for attempting to fix the issues with the Red Rings of Death, but when are they just going to give up on the 360 like they did with Vista and just do stupid commercials? 
I kid, the 360 is nowhere near as bad as Vista (or Office 2007!).
Everyone refers to the Xbox 360, PS3, and to a lesser extent the Nintendo Wii as a “next gen” gaming console. Does that mean the next round of consoles (Xbox 3602, PS4, Wii2) will be third gen, or will they just be the new “next gen”? I know, who cares, right?
A while back Apple announced to investors that there would be a “product transition”. No one is really sure what this is, or when it would be. Some think it was the new iPod Nano, the change to the iPod Touch, or even the new MacBooks. Others think it may be some kind of NetBook or Apple Tablet. Still others think it could be a new networked type TV. And some people think we have yet to se it.
Well, what if Apple were to venture into the realm of console gaming systems… better yet, what if they already had, and you didn’t know it. Perhaps you already have an Apple console in your living room, office, or bedroom. It may not be as big of a stretch as you think. (more…)
The other day I posted some of my thoughts concerning what I considered flaws in Too Human. I wanted to follow up on that now that I’ve played a bit more, and explored some of the other classes.
First off, apparently my first choice for a character, the berserker, wasn’t exactly the most noob friendly. I started another character as a defender and the first level was much different. My berserker died a good two dozen times during the first level, whereas my defender made it through without a single death and earned me the Xbox Live achievement.
Granted, this time through I had a much better understanding of the game. Even my 2nd time through as a berserker (now level 30-something) I only died a couple of times. So maybe not every class needs healing help, but the berserker sure needs some love in that area.
And, I still by my original statement concerning death. While it’s not a bad implementation in this game, sitting around for 25+ seconds watching the entire scene over and over again sucks. Right now my berserker is sitting at over 100 deaths, and I read a post on the Xbox 360 forums where someone else had reached the 200 death mark. That’s insane.
I really do like this game. This is the first game to really make you feel like a bad ass. You’ll be swarmed by 40 creatures at a time, and you’ll obliterate them… unless you end up getting stuck in a “knock back” hell. When that happens, you’ll just have to wait for death’s embrace and start back over.
Another part of my problem the first time around was I really didn’t understand the spider or the sentient weapons, and really didn’t make much use of them. It’s amazing how much easier things get once you use your full arsenal of weapons.
I’ve played through the game completely once, and have a second character already on “stage” two. Playing it through over and over again is fun, as you’re always getting new and better equipment. Hopefully when Too Human II comes out, you’ll be able to take your characters across directly.
For those of you considering Too Human. It is a game that is very cool, but has some annoying issues right now. There isn’t anything I’ve found yet that cannot be fixed via a patch. Just remember, the game is brand new, and it’ll take some time before a patch can be released.
Too Human might best be summed up as a beautiful disaster.
So far, it has been an extremely fun game with some major flaws. Flaws that for the most part have really aggravated me. It leaves me wondering how any developer who played through this game while testing could have found it to be fun or enjoyable.
Flaw #1: Death – Death in Too Human is inevitable. Sure, there are achievements available for completing a level without dying, but if you aren’t playing in co-op with a healer, I do not see how this would be possible. Thankfully, when you die the monsters do not regain health. They are, as they were at the moment of your death.
So then, what is the problem you ask? My problem with death in the game is the 25+ second “animation” that you are forced to watch each and every time you die. While it is a beautiful animation the first time around, after that it is simply annoying, and by the time you finish the game you’ll have spent a good hour or more doing nothing more than waiting for this sequence to finish.
Flaw #2: Lack of Healing – Flaw #1 is greatly brought on by Flaw #2. There is only one class withe the ability to heal himself, so if you are any other class you have two ways of recovering health. Leveling up, which you should not rely on as your healing method, and picking up health orbs. The bad news about health orbs is they are few and far between. And when the monster’s swarm at you, you’ll need them a lot fast than you’ll get ‘em.
Flaw #3: Control – Too Human is one of the few games I’ve ever seen where the developers for some reason decided not to allow you to edit your controls. Personally, I think the game would have been much easier had the attack been based off of the left control stick rather than the right stick. Alas I cannot test my theory.
Flaw #4: Into The Great Wide Open – Too Human has some amazing areas. Most of which are grand, and empty. Take Cyberspace for example. You’ll spend a ton of time in here. Never once fighting an enemy, but rather running back and forth waiting for areas to become open to you. Sadly, the greatness of these areas don’t really make much since. It’d be like playing GTA with no people or vehicles around. Just a power up every 20 miles or so.
Thankfully, done of Too Human’s flaws are anything major and pretty much can be fixed with the release of a patch. And, as this game is first in a planned trilogy, I’d like to see some fixes before the next game is released.
In all, Too Human can be a fun game. Though my recommendation is to wait and see if a patch is released. Without a patch, I can see a number of people throwing their 360 controller through their TV.
Yesterday evening while at Target I picked up Guitar Hero III. This is the first video game I’ve purchased since well before Christmas. Ever since our New Year’s Eve robbery, I’ve just really not had the urge to play video games… that, and as I said earlier, I’ve been making an effort to get back into shape, which doesn’t exactly mix well with video games. :p
I loved Guitar Hero II, and have missed playing the game (it was stolen). Well, the game and the music actually. So, I finally after months of delay picked up the sequel.
This morning, I connected up the wireless Les Paul controller and popped the game in. The system said there was an update, so I downloaded it. After that, the game restarted and froze. I rebooted my Xbox 360 only to get the dreaded ‘Red Ring of Death’. With all the reports and complaints I had seen over the years, I was hoping mine would be one of those very few that would never have a problem. Sadly, that turned out not to be the case.
Good news is, the system is still under warranty, and I’ve already contacted Microsoft. With any luck, I’ll have a replacement in… about 2 months. Does anyone know what the turn around time is for 360 repairs?
This sucks… but it gives me more time to exercise.