• 13Apr 09

  Gamer Grunt: Xintendox 360 FTW

  In an attempt to steal Nintendo's new found popularity with the "General" population, I did have the belief that both the 360 and PS3 was in the market of going Wii-crazy.

  I was right to suspect some foul play was about to arise and someone going middle child on everything because they felt to be the middle child of it all. Any guesses as to who that may be?

  The Wii-mote, in its core is very simple in design and its simplicity in its structure and if you want to know more about the Wii-mote, go to Wikipedia and read off that. Though, in all honestly, PS3 has done something very similar with it, with the main problem being... the function being under-utilised to even become a serious threat to Nintendo.

  In being the ruler of the universe by becoming really powerful and mass slave over all that ever exist in the comfortable land of the gamers, it starts underperforming, slouches on the couch, bludges around a bit and claiming that it knows all that is known in the world, people has come to be bored of all talk and no substance, ditching the probable Wii-killer, but has... instead, lead the little leaguers market of Wii-dom to become the child which many have come to know and love by all...

  Xbox 360, being the middle child and all, wishes for attention by copying instead of fending on its own and bare its own market by being something which others haven't been... and the Achievements system now being copied by PS3 (not available to all games.... suckers!) and to few Wii titles.

  I do realise that the Xbox is actually the last system to of entered the console race, but in defence of calling it the middle child, there are two main facts...
  1) Sega did work with MS on the Dreamcast project and it did leave the door open for them to pick up the scraps of Sega's former glory and do something with it
  2) Microsoft's Operating System has been available to play lots of games before Sony came into play with the Playstation, which almost does mean that Sony is in fact the youngest of them all...

  It is odd how the middle child in the race does copy ideas but left and right and coming first in lots of races... but where exactly does it sit when it comes to the 8th generation of consoles do actually come into play?

  No doubt Sony will go in the direction of where technology is leading towards and being quite power hungry. As a suggestion for them (chances are they won't get this), stay on that path as it would be beneficial in the long run as I will explain later)
  Nintendo will follow in the success of the Wii by adding on the Wii-mote functionality and adding power plus fun rating into the mix... whilst keeping costs low and making some profit on its console... and I don't care if it actually does make loads of money for not going all out as if it does slap the back of your head just to grab your attention like an attractive opposite sex, then congrats to them and whingers can take a quiet pill and STFU.
  Xbox 360 can go both ways with them having the Wii-mote like device almost ready for the market... big question of the games and the amount of time left before the next generation of systems does actually come onto the market... The balance of time, game titles, functionalities, cost, etc, all comes into play for its venture into copying the Wii-mote.

  In all honestly, I worry about the direction in which Xbox 360 is going as not very many good things come out of being the copy cat in the race and hurting its nearest rival to gain their position. Even though, PS3 did shoot themselves in the foot for being far too cumbersome to become useful, the ability to up the dosage in peripherals and having a garage full of gadgets which one day may be useless, does beg the question of the direction Xbox is going to head into...

  Middle child syndrome can be a massively overhyped exclusive game. This does go in all directions of 360 from here on out, just not in the same spot.

  Do something good, you'll be blasted for it sooner or later. Do something bad, you might get away with it. Proves that the rules to life are usually flawed.

  • Posted Apr 13, 2009 3:59 am GMT
  • Category: Games
  • 0 Comments
  • Tag
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Digg
  • Tweet
• 6Apr 09

  Gamer Grunt: Arhg.... Land ye DRM!

  With the land of the pirates, comes the land of the not so free. It is weird how the land of the supposedly free, comes the land of the hypochondriacs running around like headless chooks if they lose something, even something as small as 5%
  
  Sure, 5% can be a very huge amount, but get the bigger picture... there's tax... in whatever percentage the country actually does... which is 30% here... expenses... more taxes and so on... Costs here and there, it just stacks up...
  
  Some companies on the other hand... take advertising to the extreme... such as... O ... I don't know... EA... yet... they still complain about the sales of their games since they would get a damn profit from sales of games, advertising, downloadable contents and many of the advertising fixtures within the game can be changed if people are connect via the net...
  
  Though, not all companies are of that way. One of the more famous DRMs is Steam. Sure... people find ways around it... though... this system... I actually prefer... oddly... not because of the free updates... not because of its subtlety, but because of the ability to log into your account and play anywhere without having to bring the install disc..., if someone does get into your account.. you're quite stuffed... (please work out a way to prevent it)
  
  I did mention about the DRM problem which isn't really exclusive to the Steam network and other game companies... but it is quite common for people to become pirates... virtual pirates, software pirates... or the people's favourite... the "share and care" community. Either way, they all mean the same thing.
  
  How people do it... It is not for me to say as it is almost to the point of common knowledge and then again... there are Operating System which does block it... though guess what... it was so unpopular that most that ever took up on it, complained like hell about it and didn't ever want to ever use it again... now, it is the butt of all jokes in terms of most nerds...
  
  Piracy may be a big issue and those in the know will try to get around it and most of those honest people wouldn't think about it unless it creates problems... for say... O... I dunno... with very destructive anti-DRM programs... and in all honest... I'm one of those who rather not take that chance for the system to start screwing up to only find out that it as the Copy Protection software doing it... like StarForce and so on...
  
  Some argue otherwise, stating that it is safe... but it comes down to which side of the Berlin wall you are really with... The East... or The West?
  The East - There are freedoms, just that supply we the thought process
  The West - There are freedoms, just that we question about the process
  The same old, same old. Until the divide is taken down and freedoms restored, this wall will remain standing...
  
  Those sad enough to stand on the wall, diluting the problem can take the entire wall and shove it up their A## !!!
  
  
  
  Winning is a battle, Losing is an experience... Vista... take note!

  • Posted Apr 6, 2009 12:08 am GMT
  • Category: Games
  • 0 Comments
  • Tag
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Digg
  • Tweet
• 29Mar 09

  Gamer Grunt: R4-Aus

  This is a major stand off in Australia, especially about the gaming censorship being as it is and how games become blocked from being allowed to be sold within the country, making companies actually lose revenue because of it.

  In one of the latest news articles, the Office of Film and Literature has been hacked with messages being changed to reflect the mood of the hackers as a parody of the site and the conditions many gamers are feeling in regards to how the country is positioned in the developed world.

  Links
  http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/032609-oflc-web-site.html
  http://au.gamespot.com/news/6206902.html?tag=latestheadlines;title;6

  This is a gravely contentious topic and has really been raging on for a long while now and times do change, but sometimes, the things may do require filtering to provide as a warning block rather than as a military blockade.

  There are so many things in the world which has been changed or modified to suit societal realms of safety living safety standards. Some of them rightly justified some, over the top. The R rating is one of those which is due for a review and be up for consideration greatly due to the aging population of gamers and the wider spread of audiences now.

  At any given time, I can bring up a totally innocent game that's rated as a safe game and then replace the safe intention with a really wrong view.

  I know! Space Invaders! You are to shoot down aliens with that weird weapon to stop an alien invasion. Yep, there's honestly nothing wrong with the view of using strange objects, either being flung or shoot towards things which you have no idea about or what they are due to the conceptualisation of it being bad. Wait... isn't that the same thing that's being done by China about Capitalisation? Actually... that isn't about right... Oh! I know.... Germany... and I'll just stop it right there.

  In honour of games as a legit entertainment medium and getting my point through, I'll just get on with it.

  The rule about no R rated game was mainly cause by Mortal Kombat since it had an extreme amount of blood and gore along with the player models based of real images of people, but greatly pixelatted and I can understand why right now, but back then, it hasn't an issue.

  Back when games didn't have ratings, stores even refused to stock games. It did happen in the acknowledgement of looking after their customers. What's to stop shops from doing the same now? Even there are some games which do have an adult rating, mainly in USA, which does refuse to stock a certain title due to content. It is all apart of natural Selection, Survival of the Fittest.
  Some games are really great and some games are just too ill-conceived to be given the right to exist.

  Businesses exist for a reason. To make money and lots of it! If a game is too risky, they would be afraid of their image being tainted and will resorting to not selling it at all.

  I know I have written a blog about the inverse, people who actually buys them... but the main cover topic was, there are too many stupid people in the world complaining for the wrong reasons when it is their fault to start off with.
  If you want to stop games from falling into the wrong hands; use a plain DVD case, put an R rating game warning on it and write the game's name on it. Before annoying the purchase of title, the sales assistant or cashier must check ID of proof of age (same with MA15+ game titles you non-checking idiots) and provide verbal warning about the game's contents.

  If the people still complaining after being given the warning, then I'm afraid that they really should get their brains checked and learn to accept their mistakes and take it off of whoever they gave the game to and play it themselves... The games do exist and sell for a reason...

  Australia is due for a revamp in the game rules and require a full review and update just like how the Exorcist has been rated from an adult rating to a Mature rating. We don't want to become like China do we?

  People always complain. Most of the time, for the wrong reasons!

  • Posted Mar 29, 2009 8:51 pm GMT
  • Category: Games
  • 0 Comments
  • Tag
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Digg
  • Tweet

See Previous Blog Posts »