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Dashboard killed my movies

It’s been a long time since I last posted on my blog and I think I should start updating it a bit.

Now on to the topic. This spring, after one year of Xbox 360 bliss, I traded in my Xbox 360 for a newer version since there were some problems that were starting to pop up like the disc wont eject 3RL and so on and since it was still under warranty I decided to trade it in. Anyway I came back home and updated the 360 to the much awaited dashboard update.

I eagerly log in and start playing. Browsing through the dashboard is much easier now but there was one thing I didn’t notice at first. Almost all my HD movie trailers and some of the stuff they offered for free before had their license revoked. Meaning I can’t play the thing. What!!!

Not only that, I can’t download the new HD trailer for the Matrix HD series since it’s not available in my region. It’s just surprising that I can’t download promotions for things they want us to buy. This is ridiculous, I know M$ wants to make the Xbox their media center, but why restrict users from what they can download by region?

This is the reason why piracy thrives in places outside the US. The restrictions and the delays in releasing these media in places where they do not share the same region code for the US drive people to get it elsewhere. Adding restrictions may boost corporate confidence in them but sadly it doesn’t boost consumer confidence other than their fancy menus.

2007: 05/22
POSTED BY: mdelamerced
CATEGORY: movies
videogames
TAGS: fail
HD
rants
xbox
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What would make me get a PS3?

Almost six months have passed since the PS3 was launched and currently struggles against the Wii and the Xbox 360. There have been a lot of reasons from gamers why they haven’t made the jump. Too expensive. No games. And let me think..no games. Yes, that’s it. There wasn’t one launch title I wanted in my room or I was even remotely interested in playing.

It was only good as a Blu-ray disc player. And not that many living rooms in the world have Hi-Def TV sets in their homes. Where was the Metal Gear Solid 4, Final Fantasy 13 (yes they just released 12 last year, I can wish can’t I?), Gran Turismo HD? The only reason why I got the PS2 way back when was the fact that GT3 came out. At the time, that was the most I had spent on a gaming console ever. You got to admit, it’s pretty hard to let go of your $600 cold hard earned cash on something you’re not going to be happy with.

But after GDC 2007 I’ll say only three words. Little Big Planet.

At first it looks like a Nintendo game but it turns out that it’s on the PS3. The music is catchy, I can make my own design levels. Think Pikmin in the real world but with four players and the ability to design levels. Plus the levels that you make can be shared with other PS3 users and you can rate them and download them for FREE without having to PAY for it (can you hear me Micro$oft?).

The same goes for Sony Home, that place (and I do mean a real 3D environment where you can interact with your friends in virtual space and see everything that is available to see and bring back to your home.

Yes Ace Combat 6 will be coming out on the 360. Another big hop from a Playstation exclusive into Xbox territory, and Blue Dragon coming out soon it seems that the Xbox is a better choice at this time. But all the innovative games are with the Wii and now PS3.

It seems that the console wars are just about to begin.

2007: 04/08
POSTED BY: mdelamerced
CATEGORY: videogames
TAGS: PS3
xbox360
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Gears of War and the Xbox

I finally gave in last weekend and bought Gears of War for the Xbox. It seemed like a nice game. But I was a bit hesistant to cough up the $60 to buy the game. I had gotten so used to the usual $50 with previous consoles so the price seemed a little bit steep for me.

Just to give a little perspective, I’m a Japanese console fan. I own both the PS2 and the Gamecube, PSP and the DS I didn’t give the original Xbox my time or my money. Until Final Fantasy XI Online came out for the Xbox.

I had been playing the game for around 2 years now and solely on the PS2. I started to think, “What would I do if my console suddenly broke down?”. That scared me into buying an Xbox.

My search for an Xbox is another story, let’s just say I was playing FFXI the whole time since May until December. I did buy Oblivion and Project Gothan Racing 3 along with it but it didn’t really earn my time on the console other than FFXI. That is until GOW came out.

I had read the reviews and heard my cousin raving about it but I coudn’t really see why. I never liked playing shooters on the console due to it’s lack of control compared to a mouse and keyboard. I played Halo on my Mac and it was satisfying enough. But not enough to convince me to get it on the console.

I checked the reviews again and listened to my cousin and since there was no Wii in stock that I could buy, I finally gave in and flopped the cash for what could be “The Game of the Year.”

I must say it is awesome. Console shooters require a little more help with the controls and GOW does it. It’s quite easy to get into the game and the difficulty is just right for people who aren’t used to console shooters. If anyone had any resistance (no pun intended PS3), buy it now and you wont be disappointed. Just as long as they don’t release it as a greatest hits version in the next year or so. It’s worth the console and it’s worth the game.

Now to see if another Xbox game comes along that will stop me from playing my FFXI and GOW. Until the Wii comes out, I’m out fragging.

2006: 12/11
POSTED BY: mdelamerced
CATEGORY: videogames
TAGS: ffxi
gears of war
xbox360
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Games Industry is ‘Failing Women’

The videogames industry is continuing to fail women by not producing suitable content, a senior executive at Electronic Arts (EA) has said.

EA meet Nintendo. It seems that Nintendo has the pulse of women when it comes to games. The Nintendo DS has brought more women to gaming than EA. I will admit that I do not have exact scientific figures for it but it brought my sister to gaming. She was a gamer when the games are there. But she never really caught on the Sims or Sim City or any other game for that matter. I’ve had a lot of the modern consoles, PS1, PS2, Gamecube, PSP, Xbox360 and DS but she didn’t play as much as I did until Nintendogs came out. She bought her own DS and games. Now she has her own collection of DS games apart from my own. Who says women are not into gaming?!? They just haven’t made the right game.

Game developers have been too busy with “trends” and the “in” thing and have completely forgotten about being innovative and fun. Which in the first place games are supposed to be. Nintendo has never been afraid to do that even if they did lose out big to Sony in the past. But apparently it’s paying out now. DS sales are higher than PSP sales everywhere. Most of my friends who went out and bought PSPs are switching to the DS. For me, games have to be what they’re meant to be. Fun. As long as it’s fun, you’ll get the sales and women will digg it too.

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2006: 08/22
POSTED BY: mdelamerced
CATEGORY: videogames
TAGS: rants
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The true cost of next gen gaming

People keep looking at the cost of the consoles. $499 for the XBOX 360, $599 for the PS3 and it’s currently unknown for the Wii (although rumors put it at $200-250). No one looks at the cost of the games.

Currently, games for all three consoles cost $50. For someone’s allowance, it’s a considerable price if you want kids to play the game and parents to buy it. But when it reaches a certain point where it’s too expensive, that’s where things get to be a bit iffy.

The most expensive 360 game is currently priced at $60. As a games used to the $50 mark I was shocked. I settled then for the used game so the priuce point would still be at the $50 range.

But as reports come out that games for the PS3 may reach as high as $99 I think Sony is crazy for placing prices that high. As it stands, console makers already lose money per console and the only way they can hope to earn it all back is to sell many games. But putting it at $99 will put the games beyond the reach of the mass market, the very market that they want to reach. If they want these consoles not just in hands of fans and gamers but in the living room, they have to lower the prices.

At this rate the Wii seems to have won the battle without a single console out in the streets. But who knows? Amazon Japan pre-sales are higher for the PS3 than the Wii. Will it be the same for the rest of the world? I guess we have to wait until November to find out. Unless Nintendo releases their console earlier than expected.

2006: 07/21
POSTED BY: mdelamerced
CATEGORY: videogames
TAGS: PS3
Wii
xbox360
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‘Gold farming’ in games means real income in China

“At any given time, as many as half a million Chinese gamers are completing quests and gathering such assets as virtual gold pieces to sell off for real money. They toil in Internet cafes and in makeshift computer labs, sometimes sleeping on cots in nearby dormitories in shifts.”

Gold farming or Gil Farming in World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy Online respectively is big business. As a player of MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games) I hate these farmers. They are the worst of the lot. What they are doing is a clear violation of the service agreement of the game and should be banned for life. They ruin the entire gameplay experience and drive honest players away. Developers should be aware that these gold farmers bring in what I would like to call “counterfeit money” similar to real life fake money that criminal organizations try to infiltrate into our society which leads into over inflation of products. I’d think that it would be relatively simple on how to find these gold sellers. Just go on line buy a few gil here and there. And once the gil has been sent to you, ban the account immediately. One reason I think that the companies, particularly Blizzard and Square-Enix would be hesistant to ban these accounts on a widespread business would be that they countinue to make money off them. They would still need to pay the monthly service fee and that is a constant flow of money in the bank for them. But generally it’s bad for players.

As a lvl 75 white mage in Final Fantasy, it is only now I can finally earn some decent cash. But with gil sellers abound, it’s hard to make decent cash. For example, there is a “Noble’s Tunic” that I would like to purchase for my character that costs 8.5 million gil. It can easily be obtained if I am able to get some notorious monsters that drop some goodies that I could sell for some decent cash. But some reason, there is a character there 24/7 that does nothing but kill the NM when it pops. A total waste of time. Isn’t it obvious enough that the same character never logs out, is always there, always claims the pop 24/7 is not a gil seller?

Sony Entertainment did an experiment with Everquest 2 which they themselves sold the gold instead of these gold sellers. I have idea if their experiment had any sucess. But Real money trade is a direct violation of the user agreement and therefore those accounts should be banned. And the more that they make, the more they should ban.

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2006: 07/20
POSTED BY: mdelamerced
CATEGORY: videogames
TAGS: MMO
MMORPG
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Sony finally is killing the UMD

And the UMD ladies and gentelmen is history…

Having owned a PSP for almost a year now, I was pretty much satisfied with the releases Sony had on the UMD format. I actually started having more movies on UMD than games since the games of the PSP are downright not good. But consumers wanted to do something more with the UMD and Sony did not deliver. Maybe if they created a video camera the recorded on the UMD disc, or albums available on UMD much like the mini disc format. There’s also the option of having made home brew movies or music since the recording capacity of their current line of memory stick is just too low for the sizes of today’s media. Or create a separate UMD movie player for the home so the discs would have some other purpose than just tagging along with the PSP.

What happened is that Sony put too many limitations on their format and it died. The movies on UMD are considerably more expensive than their DVD counterparts and you could watch that on your 37 inch LCD HDTV. But not that $25 UMD movie on such a tiny screen on your PSP that you could not output the video to an external monitor. It’s understandable and forseeable that consumers didn’t want to spend that much on something they could get at probably a cheaper price and do a lot more with it.

Add to the fact that the UMD is a fragile medium. If they constructed the discs like the way they did with the XDCAM blu-ray discs and the mini-discs then fingerprints, dust and so on wouldn’t get on the disc. It’s just a sad slow death for the UMD. What happens now to the PSP?

If PSP games are the only ones that will be on the UMD format they’d better start releasing some quality games. Nintendo has a huge edge in the handheld market easily outselling the PSP both in Japan and in the United States. This is a clear sign to Sony. They’d better do something more about their PSP if they want to take the battle to Nintendo. And maybe save the UMD.

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2006: 07/14
POSTED BY: mdelamerced
CATEGORY: videogames
TAGS: psp
Sony
umd
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Microsoft admits to Faulty XBOX360 Hardware but will not fix!

XBOX support will not fix broken hardware that is less then 6 months old, and has already been replaced once due to DEFECTIVE hardware. Phone Audio included.

Having purchased an Xbox just a few months ago this seriously bothered me. Within less than a month I am already getting the E71 error. This is very disturbing. I already spent a ton of money just to buy the console, expecting that it should last me for quite a while. I am thankful that I got the one year warranty. Much cheaper than the one being offered by Microsoft. I get the error when I want to boot into the dashboard and not on the disc. I get the error when I want change discs. Hence I’m just playing one game right now and I don’t boot directly to the hard drive anymore.

But consumer groups should be up in arms like the short iPod battery, we should take them to court! Especially if they knew of the problem already and are not doing anything about it. They should go to their component suppliers and manufacturers and demand better components. It they truly want to be the center of the living room, it should be built to survive in the living room.

I was ready to cast away my doubts on Microsoft’s gaming machine and praise the Xbox. But with defects such as this. It may seem minor to them but it is downright annoying for me. I may stick with the Japanese when it comes to consoles.

BTW, it took five years for my PS2 to have any problems which by then I bought a new one.

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2006: 07/06
POSTED BY: mdelamerced
CATEGORY: videogames
TAGS: fail
xbox
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A friend comes back to Vana’diel

As some of you may know, I’ve been playing Square-Enix’s Massively Multi-player Online RPG for the past two years now and I’ve made quite a number of friends and hopefully fewer enemies than I would like to think.

Up until yesterday I thought one of my friends had already quit playing and I he would never play again. But lo and behold, I get a message from him saying he’s back. To my delight I welcomed him back! He’s the first person on the game who helped get around and learn the basics and tricks of the game and now I’m double his level. It’s interesting to note that we’ve never met in person nor do I know what he looks like. But it’s nice that people do remember you when you play. Now’s a chance for me to return the favor.

2006: 06/03
POSTED BY: mdelamerced
CATEGORY: videogames
TAGS: ffxi
MMO
MMORPG
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Sony: PS3 is ‘Too Cheap’

Following Monday’s pre-E3 press event, SCE head Ken Kutaragi spoke with Japan’s IT Media and made a surprising statement regarding the PS3’s price: “It’s probably too cheap.” Kutaragi said.

In relation to what? In relation to a brand new car or to gas prices today, maybe?

Having just purchased an Xbox 360 Platinum edition a few weeks ago, which I thought was already expensive and now this comes by.

We all know that Sony is going to lose a lot of money on the consoles alone due to the Blu-Ray drive inside but who really needs blu-ray at this point? Or HD-DVD for that matter?

If the consoles already cost this much, how much more for the games?
Xbox 360 games alone already cost $10 more than any brand new game on the other consoles around.

It may be an uphill battle for Sony this time around instead with Nintendo with the games and the 360 with the price point. They just show themselves in the foot with this price announcement. Unless PS3 fans are just as avid as Mac users, I don’t see this selling well until the price drops. Much like the gamecube price drop to $99 which was the time I purchased my GC.

Sony may be able to suceed if they are able to get the game out the door at launch time or at least near the launch time. The main reason I got the 360 or the original PS2 for that matter was because of the games. But without the games this may just gather dust on the shelves then that would be the time to buy the console when the price drops.

If they are able to keep the games at $50, they may still make some money off this.

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