Watching all the news roll in from X10 and talking about Xbox's so much recently and the fact that my local superstore is going batshit crazy and throwing the damn things at us for stupidly low prices. I think I might pick up a 360 shortly. Alan Wake, Mass Effect 2, Crackdown 2, Fable III, Halo Reach and many other exclusives are really enticing me. Not to mention the fact it means I can go back and play a lot of the games I missed out on. Mass Effect, Crackdown, Halo 3, Halo ODST, Fable II, Gears 1&2..etc.
I dunno, maybe. The PS3 has so many games coming out over the next few months I doubt i'll give it a second thought when I am knee deep in God of War 3.
Anyway, I sat down to write about Batman: Arkham Asylum. I'm late to the party, I know, but yeah, it isn't a bad game at all. I don't think its an incredible game, its quite good in fact. But I don't think it quite has that special quality that makes me shit myself with enjoyment. We'll have to wait and see. I'm moving through it and im at the point where if it ended in the next few hours I wouldn't be to fussed. In fact I think I would be quite happy with experience if it ended shortly.
Also, I want to play Bioshock 2. But I have a rule. If I have spent money on something, then I damn well get my moneys worth before moving on. Otherwise I end up with a stack of games that never get played.
Anybody else employ this rule....or do you like to play multiple games at a time?
So I fixed my PS3 again and rescued it from the clutches of YLOD for yet another time.
I find it quite disappointing each time I get the thing to bits. To watch this great piece of hardware been taken down to essentially its only necessity, the motherboard that keeps shrugging off the CPU/GPU. Then, the fact that I fix it with the same tool I use to get paint of my walls is quite hilarious to me. This expensive piece of future tech that can be broken so easily, saved by one of the most basic of tools. It almost defines the word irony when I think about it.
Back up and running, but still not played Bioshock 2 yet. Too damn busy.
You spit in my face again, Fate - you fickle son of a bitch.
'Remember when consoles used to live forever?' seemed to sit well with folk. So well in fact that my PS3 thought it would be hilariously ironic to YLOD on me again. I was having a throughly lovely time passing through Arkam on my way to Rapture. Sadly, I didn't get as far as Rapture. Or as far as the top of the elevator shaft I was moving up.
So, my shiny new copy of Bioshock 2 is sitting there. Completely useless. Flacid. Staring up at me and begging to be played. And my console is sat next to it. Blinking. Like a torturous red eye winking at me saying, "This is for daring to actually think about buying an Xbox 360 earlier this week you motherf**ker!"
Well PS3, I am gunna get my heat gun and I will have the last laugh! I'll make you work for me just long enough to back up my system and then I will replace you with a newer, younger, better looking model. So f**k you.
Last night whilst watching the Superbowl (I'm English, so it was an evening event for me), I got nattering to my friend about retro gaming. Last year I went on a mental GBA frenzy and played all the games I couldn't afford whilst growing up; The Minish Cap was a particular highlight. This led off onto another topic that I brought up previously in my last post: remember when consoles used to work forever?
Old consoles: they were analog, they felt cheap...some of them were spring loaded and required additional impliments to help them run*. But you know what, they worked. And they still work. I plugged my N64 a few days ago and it worked. Not only did it work but its didn't drop frames or struggle, it didn't mis-read anything or just crash out at random. And it was bloody good fun too. My GBA still works. My original GameBoy still works. My GameGear still works.
I know systems these days are a lot more complicated, with more components to help them screw up, but is that any excuse for them to conk out after just a few years of ownership? I don't think that it is.
My PS3 YLOD'd a few months ago and I was gutted. So gutted, that I took to it to bits with a screwdriver and a heat gun and fixed the damn thing. It won't stay repaired forever though and sooner or later I will have to replace it. I think thats unacceptable, personally.
But is it now a standard part of modern console ownership?
*I always kept a spoon near my consoles, lost track of how many times I have used one to get my console running in some form or another!
Mega struggling to NOT buy an XBOX 360. My teenage fanboy self (Who is long dead, I might hastily add) would shake his head in shame, but the thought of not getting to play Mass Effect 2 is beginning to really great. It doesn't help with the last few Bombcasts still lingering in my head.
I have nothing against the 360 at all. Great system with its positive (Exclusives, XBOX LIVE, Castle Crashers, Friends) and negative points (RROD, pay-to-play), just like the PS3 has its positive (Exclusives, Playstation Store titles) and negative points (No cross game chat). But I also feel like I need to join that elite group of folk who have seen the RROD for themselves (I recently saw the YLOD...it didn't disappoint)*.
All of my friends are 360 owners and believe it or not, NONE of them are going to be playing ME2. Well, one of them. So even if I bought a console, the game, an account, a wireless adaptor and so on...I would still have no one to talk to about the game. Leaving right back where I am at the moment, being a PS3 owner.
Do I regret buying a PS3, no. Do I regret not owning a 360, no. Do I want to play ME2. Yes. Yes, I do.
*Sidenote: What is it with consoles these days? I am sad for being old enough to remember when you could buy consoles and expect them to work forever? My N64 still works! My PS1 still works! My fucking Commodore 64 still works!
Just finished Bayonetta and in true Japanese style it had about a zillion ending points and kept going. I love and simultaneously hate that about Japanese game makers. It's the same with MGS..."Take that end boss!!! HAHA! Well, that was awes.....oh wait, the damn thing is back up again!"
I think I have finally nailed down what it is though. In the West, when things get high octane and action packed, that generally means that something is reaching its conclusion. But in Japan, when you're riding a horse, on a motor bike, shotgun in one hand, cigar in the other - guns on your heels, one leg behind your head and a bad guy the size of a mountain with fourteen faces that speaks in a young girls voice - that means you have successfully put the disc in the console.
Two different worlds really. Bloody good fun though :)
Started Bayonetta recently (I was delibrately holding out for a patch for the PS3...) and blimey! What a game!
Its absolutley f**ing crazy right from the kick off. I don't remember the last time I actually played a game that I wasn't that exicted about, only to have it grab me right from the get go.
Log in to comment