This one is going to be a quickie.
I am a blatant Nintendo fanboy, but even I have to admit there are some things that are done exceptionally wrong. The fact that you can't use a 3DS to work as a stand-in for the gamepad for some games is kind of annoying. The fact that you can't really use two gamepads or more for games... can you imagine how much more accessible NSMBU would have been if two people could have played the game and not been restricted to the same screen?
That's not what I'm going to talk about today. Rather, it is the buttfungled mess that Nintendo has that they're trying to pass off as their eShop, VC, etc.
There is absolutely no reason that we shouldn't be able to play the same game across the board if its available on both systems (with only one purchase!). But further than that, there's also no reason that most of the games that are available on one system shouldn't be available on the other. I understand that there may be some worries that you'd cannibalize your sales, but I have an alternative that would work fine:
If you don't want to allow someone to purchase a game w/o a 3DS or Wii U, you simply link each system to each other. You still have to purchase the game on the system its released for, but once the transaction is made, you can play it on the linked system as well.
Why has this not been done yet? I would be greatly excited to hear about something like this at E3.
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Friday, May 24, 2013
Getting real tired of your crap, Microsoft
I'd like to think that I'm a relatively level-headed person. As a "journalist", I try to remain objective, even though sometimes I show a decided bias (diehard Nintendo fan here). I have a PS3, an XBox 360 and a Wii - I endorsed all the systems last generation. Somehow, even though I prefer Sony's exclusives more, and have a lifelong affiliation with Nintendo, I managed to get the majority of my games on Microsoft's system.
I'm thinking that they must have dumped some kind of hallucinogenic into my hardware, because I cannot fathom why I would be so stupid as to willingly make that move. You see...
Despite the XBox 360 offering a comfortable controller, I cannot remember the last time I had a 360 input device that wasn't wonky as hell. Perhaps the reason they pushed so hard for Kinect is because they knew the quality of their controllers had gone to hell. 50% of the time (and I'm being generous here), when I've stopped using the left analog stick, there's still a level of drift... my character's vision will slowly slide to one side of the screen. This isn't particular to one of my controllers, no. I specifically asked for a new one for my birthday last year, and the same thing happened. That's a controller. Arguably one of the most important devices used for playing a videogame.
But wait! What about the system. There have been shitty systems that have come out in the past, but I don't think anyone could argue that the quality of the hardware itself is worse than the XBox 360. We are talking, of course, about the Red Ring of Death. Despite the fact that meeheeheehillions of the damn system were infected with this ticking time bomb of gaming death, Microsoft still managed to crap out 70 million consoles this generation (and rising). When did we, as a society, decide to just bend over and take it? Is Halo really that good that you're willing to deal with that kind of douchebaggery?
Even if you don't have a RROD, there's still no guarantee you're going to have a perfectly functioning system. I bought a brand new game for my girlfriend for her birthday, and lo and behold, when the game was in the system, it could not be read. Of course, I'm the kind of schmuck that went out and bought a NEW 360 when they came out with the slimmer model. My reasoning was that they couldn't possibly have screwed up twice in a row. Well played, Microsoft. Well played.
That you can have a terrible console for an entire generation is baffling in and of itself. But thinking that you can follow up an actual disaster like the 360 with something as abysmally appealing as the X-Box One (hereby known as the xBone) is ludicrous.
Let me break down for you why anyone who picks up the system (at least at launch) is devoid of a speck of intelligence:
They've got their own little Patriot Act going on.
The Kinect is always on, always listening, always plotting against you. Microsoft even patented the ability to use the Kinect to calculate how many people were in a room so that they could block people from watching a movie or a television show - that's real, not some BS I just pulled out of my butt.
You no longer own your games.
Sure, you'll by a disc with a nice little box at retail, but all you're paying for is a long-term rental fee. You see, Microsoft is going to allow you to install "your" game to "your" system. Once it's there, though, you're at the whim of a company with historically bad decision-making skills (see RROD, above). If your internet happens to be out for longer than a 24 hour period, too bad, guess you won't be playing. Microsoft requires you to connect to the internet at least once per day.
And what about when Microsoft decides to close down its servers for the xBone? It's not as if it makes sense to keep a server open forever. I can't go back to Battlefield 2 and play online because those servers don't exist anymore. What this means for you is that your disc is nothing but a paperweight. All you're doing is licensing the ability to play a game - and that license expires when they say so.
Say goodbye to secondhand gaming.
Very much in the vein of the previous qualm I have is that these discs that you pick up won't even work for you the way they do today. If I bought a game today, and brought it to your house, we could play it, because it is mine, and I do what I want.
Microsoft would prefer to change the way any business has ever worked, ever. When you buy a used car, you pay the current owner. You don't pay the original manufacturer, because they had nothing to do with your transaction, and that's a stupid idea. You'll go to them (in one form or another) if you need maintenance or repairs.
I digress. For the xBone, if you buy Halo 5, and play it on your system, it is installed directly into your system. You don't even need the disc at this point. But what if Halo 5 sucks, and you decide to trade it in for a much better game (on a system that won't rob you blind)? The next person who picks up the game, for a smaller amount of money than you spent, gets to walk out of the store with a receipt for a game, a disc, and if they are lucky, a box. Then, when they put the game in their system, a message pops up. They're required to pay a fee to play that game in addition to what they just spent at the store. That is not the way used merchandise works, and if we don't put our feet down and tell companies what we think, then we deserve to be robbed.
Of course, used gaming isn't the only form of secondhand gaming. Rental systems still exist out there. And hell, what if you want to lend a game to a friend. Sorry, friend. You can't play that game until you pay that fee, even though you have the disc.
Say goodbye to the last seven years of gaming.
Unless you don't want to trade in your 360, of course.
Since the Playstation 2 came out, we've been used to the idea of backwards compatibility. It's nice to be able to begin a new console generation with the entire catalog of the previous generation's games to bolster it. The xBone will not allow you to play 360 titles. More shockingly, you can't even carry over your Xbox live Arcade purchases.
This is the kind of bone-headed decision that executives should get fired for making. The only saving grace made from this choice is that Microsoft will feel the pain of eliminating their back-catalog. They're not doing to hot with indie developers right now either, so they have to rely on big studios to push content on their system, and, especially recently, those games aren't coming out as quickly as they used to.
The saddest thing is that there are people out there, who don't work for the company, who actively resist seeing all these things as bad things. You have your blind fanboys who will rage up and down the internet at anyone who tries to point out this foolish abomination that is the xBone.
At this point in time, Microsoft is too far along to shift gears. They've just spent $1 Billion on exclusives, and we don't even know the price of this beta-max doppelganger. They've made exclusive deals with various companies, not the least of which is the NFL.
Don Mattrick presented the system to an audience with a smile on his face. That can mean only one of two things. Either he thinks we're a bunch of idiots who will throw our money to the wind for a system that you can watch TV on (where else can I do that? Oh yeah, my TV!), or, Microsoft is an idiot for thinking they can get one over on us.
Let's show them that it's the latter.
Bonus: Everything that happened during the xBone reveal.
I'm thinking that they must have dumped some kind of hallucinogenic into my hardware, because I cannot fathom why I would be so stupid as to willingly make that move. You see...
Despite the XBox 360 offering a comfortable controller, I cannot remember the last time I had a 360 input device that wasn't wonky as hell. Perhaps the reason they pushed so hard for Kinect is because they knew the quality of their controllers had gone to hell. 50% of the time (and I'm being generous here), when I've stopped using the left analog stick, there's still a level of drift... my character's vision will slowly slide to one side of the screen. This isn't particular to one of my controllers, no. I specifically asked for a new one for my birthday last year, and the same thing happened. That's a controller. Arguably one of the most important devices used for playing a videogame.
But wait! What about the system. There have been shitty systems that have come out in the past, but I don't think anyone could argue that the quality of the hardware itself is worse than the XBox 360. We are talking, of course, about the Red Ring of Death. Despite the fact that meeheeheehillions of the damn system were infected with this ticking time bomb of gaming death, Microsoft still managed to crap out 70 million consoles this generation (and rising). When did we, as a society, decide to just bend over and take it? Is Halo really that good that you're willing to deal with that kind of douchebaggery?
Even if you don't have a RROD, there's still no guarantee you're going to have a perfectly functioning system. I bought a brand new game for my girlfriend for her birthday, and lo and behold, when the game was in the system, it could not be read. Of course, I'm the kind of schmuck that went out and bought a NEW 360 when they came out with the slimmer model. My reasoning was that they couldn't possibly have screwed up twice in a row. Well played, Microsoft. Well played.
That you can have a terrible console for an entire generation is baffling in and of itself. But thinking that you can follow up an actual disaster like the 360 with something as abysmally appealing as the X-Box One (hereby known as the xBone) is ludicrous.
Let me break down for you why anyone who picks up the system (at least at launch) is devoid of a speck of intelligence:
They've got their own little Patriot Act going on.
The Kinect is always on, always listening, always plotting against you. Microsoft even patented the ability to use the Kinect to calculate how many people were in a room so that they could block people from watching a movie or a television show - that's real, not some BS I just pulled out of my butt.
You no longer own your games.
Sure, you'll by a disc with a nice little box at retail, but all you're paying for is a long-term rental fee. You see, Microsoft is going to allow you to install "your" game to "your" system. Once it's there, though, you're at the whim of a company with historically bad decision-making skills (see RROD, above). If your internet happens to be out for longer than a 24 hour period, too bad, guess you won't be playing. Microsoft requires you to connect to the internet at least once per day.
And what about when Microsoft decides to close down its servers for the xBone? It's not as if it makes sense to keep a server open forever. I can't go back to Battlefield 2 and play online because those servers don't exist anymore. What this means for you is that your disc is nothing but a paperweight. All you're doing is licensing the ability to play a game - and that license expires when they say so.
Say goodbye to secondhand gaming.
Very much in the vein of the previous qualm I have is that these discs that you pick up won't even work for you the way they do today. If I bought a game today, and brought it to your house, we could play it, because it is mine, and I do what I want.
Microsoft would prefer to change the way any business has ever worked, ever. When you buy a used car, you pay the current owner. You don't pay the original manufacturer, because they had nothing to do with your transaction, and that's a stupid idea. You'll go to them (in one form or another) if you need maintenance or repairs.
I digress. For the xBone, if you buy Halo 5, and play it on your system, it is installed directly into your system. You don't even need the disc at this point. But what if Halo 5 sucks, and you decide to trade it in for a much better game (on a system that won't rob you blind)? The next person who picks up the game, for a smaller amount of money than you spent, gets to walk out of the store with a receipt for a game, a disc, and if they are lucky, a box. Then, when they put the game in their system, a message pops up. They're required to pay a fee to play that game in addition to what they just spent at the store. That is not the way used merchandise works, and if we don't put our feet down and tell companies what we think, then we deserve to be robbed.
Of course, used gaming isn't the only form of secondhand gaming. Rental systems still exist out there. And hell, what if you want to lend a game to a friend. Sorry, friend. You can't play that game until you pay that fee, even though you have the disc.
Say goodbye to the last seven years of gaming.
Unless you don't want to trade in your 360, of course.
Since the Playstation 2 came out, we've been used to the idea of backwards compatibility. It's nice to be able to begin a new console generation with the entire catalog of the previous generation's games to bolster it. The xBone will not allow you to play 360 titles. More shockingly, you can't even carry over your Xbox live Arcade purchases.
This is the kind of bone-headed decision that executives should get fired for making. The only saving grace made from this choice is that Microsoft will feel the pain of eliminating their back-catalog. They're not doing to hot with indie developers right now either, so they have to rely on big studios to push content on their system, and, especially recently, those games aren't coming out as quickly as they used to.
The saddest thing is that there are people out there, who don't work for the company, who actively resist seeing all these things as bad things. You have your blind fanboys who will rage up and down the internet at anyone who tries to point out this foolish abomination that is the xBone.
At this point in time, Microsoft is too far along to shift gears. They've just spent $1 Billion on exclusives, and we don't even know the price of this beta-max doppelganger. They've made exclusive deals with various companies, not the least of which is the NFL.
Don Mattrick presented the system to an audience with a smile on his face. That can mean only one of two things. Either he thinks we're a bunch of idiots who will throw our money to the wind for a system that you can watch TV on (where else can I do that? Oh yeah, my TV!), or, Microsoft is an idiot for thinking they can get one over on us.
Let's show them that it's the latter.
Bonus: Everything that happened during the xBone reveal.
Thursday, May 16, 2013
EA Can Lick My Taint
That might be a little bit of an overly exaggerated feeling that I have regarding the game company - no, wait, I can assure you it is not.
I don't usually make posts from home, but I've been so enraged by EA's business practices, that I just had to get something off my chest.
Around E3 2011, EA came out and said that they were going to be offering up an "unprecedented partnership" with Nintendo. They touted the shit out of the Wii U, specifically remarking on the online structure, the graphics and the platform.
In 2013, the relationship doesn't seem all that great. There have been plenty of excuses thus far. We know that the install base for the Wii U isn't spectacular right now (partially because they have no games, thanks to companies like EA). There's speculation that the graphics are limiting - some have even said that the system can't run certain engines. This is a bullshit claim, by the way. If you can build your engine for the PS3 or 360, it can run just fine on the Wii U. You just have to tweak some things to work with the system's architecture.
But I digress. Despite any speculation, there's clearly a more venemous umbrage between at least one of these two companies. You don't sever all ties to one of the big three unless you're incredibly butt-hurt, and we've seen very little support from EA since that E3 2011 announcement. Sure, we got their big title, Mass Effect 3 - but we got it without any real shot. The game was delivered without its prequels, and without a fair chance. While other systems got the whole trilogy, Nintendo was left in the dark. And why was this? Because already at this point, EA wanted a scapegoat. The company wanted to be able to condemn Nintendo for low sales and interest.
Why, though, is EA in such a bad way with the company? Electronic Arts is one of the biggest game companies out there. It's been around since at least the early 90's - you'll have to forgive me if I don't care to look up the actual date. I'm being Mike the blogger, tonight, not Mike the faux-journalist. But, even in the 90's, the company has acted like a spoiled, entitled brat that hasn't got its way. EA always wants preferential treatment, usually at the detriment to any other company out there. They've tried to make deals with Sega, and when that company declined, EA took steps to try and get their way to spite them. That should have been when someone cut the head off the beast.
You see, during the days of the Genesis (Sega's, not the Bible's), EA decided they were going to produce their own Sega carts. This is why the EA packaging differed so much from Sega's typical games. The house that Sonic built eventually let Electronic Arts know that they had the capability to block any and all EA games. Rather than make due on that threat, Sega bowed, and came to an agreement with EA that was still better than the other developers of them time.
Twenty years later (damn, I'm old), they had the "unprecedented partnership" with Nintendo - an ultimatum that is currently affecting both companies. You see, EA has a service, called Origin, that was once rumored to be coming to Nintendo. However, this would have put a nigh-unthinkable access to a third party on a console. Eventually, Nintendo came to its senses (same thing happened post SNES with another company, if you recall). But EA, so close to getting in bed with one of the most prolific console designers and game developers, became, in essence, a jilted lover. It took its ball and went home.
It's true that Nintendo's latest console does not have a large install base just yet. 4 million consoles (again, I'm guessing) doesn't look like anything compared to the nearly 80 million each that the PS3 and 360 offer. Even so, you've got to think that your company can only benefit from the inclusion of software on a system. It may be a fledgling now, but some day, it'll be in the same shape as the 3DS, selling hundreds of thousands per month.
And what about the 360 and the PS3 successors? What will EA do regarding them when they don't utilize Origin, and start off with the same slow ascent? It's likely that the other two systems won't inflict as much ire, because discussions never proceeded as far. They've already had their online system in place for some time, and both are fairly robust. Even if they sold more poorly than the Wii U, EA will support them, just to spite Nintendo.
My only hope is that Nintendo responds in kind. There will be a day when EA recognizes that there is money to be made on a Nintendo system. There will be a time when they decide to bury the hatchet, and go back to this so-called "unprecedented partnership".
I can only dream of EA being put in their place. I want to read, at some point in 2014, that Nintendo is ceasing to allow EA published games on its systems. If there was any such thing as karma for a company, that would be it.
I know that there are real people, with necessary jobs at EA, and I wish them all the luck in the world. Still, I wish you that luck at another place of business. One that doesn't employ shady tactics to undermine the industry and its consumers. One that doesn't try to act like a schoolyard bully to get back at a company. Business is business, as they say, and being that you're the worst company in America (2 years running!), I long for the day that your business crashes and burns, and you get what you deserve.
I don't usually make posts from home, but I've been so enraged by EA's business practices, that I just had to get something off my chest.
Around E3 2011, EA came out and said that they were going to be offering up an "unprecedented partnership" with Nintendo. They touted the shit out of the Wii U, specifically remarking on the online structure, the graphics and the platform.
In 2013, the relationship doesn't seem all that great. There have been plenty of excuses thus far. We know that the install base for the Wii U isn't spectacular right now (partially because they have no games, thanks to companies like EA). There's speculation that the graphics are limiting - some have even said that the system can't run certain engines. This is a bullshit claim, by the way. If you can build your engine for the PS3 or 360, it can run just fine on the Wii U. You just have to tweak some things to work with the system's architecture.
But I digress. Despite any speculation, there's clearly a more venemous umbrage between at least one of these two companies. You don't sever all ties to one of the big three unless you're incredibly butt-hurt, and we've seen very little support from EA since that E3 2011 announcement. Sure, we got their big title, Mass Effect 3 - but we got it without any real shot. The game was delivered without its prequels, and without a fair chance. While other systems got the whole trilogy, Nintendo was left in the dark. And why was this? Because already at this point, EA wanted a scapegoat. The company wanted to be able to condemn Nintendo for low sales and interest.
Why, though, is EA in such a bad way with the company? Electronic Arts is one of the biggest game companies out there. It's been around since at least the early 90's - you'll have to forgive me if I don't care to look up the actual date. I'm being Mike the blogger, tonight, not Mike the faux-journalist. But, even in the 90's, the company has acted like a spoiled, entitled brat that hasn't got its way. EA always wants preferential treatment, usually at the detriment to any other company out there. They've tried to make deals with Sega, and when that company declined, EA took steps to try and get their way to spite them. That should have been when someone cut the head off the beast.
You see, during the days of the Genesis (Sega's, not the Bible's), EA decided they were going to produce their own Sega carts. This is why the EA packaging differed so much from Sega's typical games. The house that Sonic built eventually let Electronic Arts know that they had the capability to block any and all EA games. Rather than make due on that threat, Sega bowed, and came to an agreement with EA that was still better than the other developers of them time.
Twenty years later (damn, I'm old), they had the "unprecedented partnership" with Nintendo - an ultimatum that is currently affecting both companies. You see, EA has a service, called Origin, that was once rumored to be coming to Nintendo. However, this would have put a nigh-unthinkable access to a third party on a console. Eventually, Nintendo came to its senses (same thing happened post SNES with another company, if you recall). But EA, so close to getting in bed with one of the most prolific console designers and game developers, became, in essence, a jilted lover. It took its ball and went home.
It's true that Nintendo's latest console does not have a large install base just yet. 4 million consoles (again, I'm guessing) doesn't look like anything compared to the nearly 80 million each that the PS3 and 360 offer. Even so, you've got to think that your company can only benefit from the inclusion of software on a system. It may be a fledgling now, but some day, it'll be in the same shape as the 3DS, selling hundreds of thousands per month.
And what about the 360 and the PS3 successors? What will EA do regarding them when they don't utilize Origin, and start off with the same slow ascent? It's likely that the other two systems won't inflict as much ire, because discussions never proceeded as far. They've already had their online system in place for some time, and both are fairly robust. Even if they sold more poorly than the Wii U, EA will support them, just to spite Nintendo.
My only hope is that Nintendo responds in kind. There will be a day when EA recognizes that there is money to be made on a Nintendo system. There will be a time when they decide to bury the hatchet, and go back to this so-called "unprecedented partnership".
I can only dream of EA being put in their place. I want to read, at some point in 2014, that Nintendo is ceasing to allow EA published games on its systems. If there was any such thing as karma for a company, that would be it.
I know that there are real people, with necessary jobs at EA, and I wish them all the luck in the world. Still, I wish you that luck at another place of business. One that doesn't employ shady tactics to undermine the industry and its consumers. One that doesn't try to act like a schoolyard bully to get back at a company. Business is business, as they say, and being that you're the worst company in America (2 years running!), I long for the day that your business crashes and burns, and you get what you deserve.
Thursday, May 9, 2013
This is not another retirement!
So, if you're here, it's likely because you've noticed that I've not been very attentive to the YouTube reviews. This is because I had to push them to the side for now.
As some of you may know, I recently attempted to run a kickstarter campaign to help me fund the editing for my latest novel. That fell through, which means that I've had to incur that cost on my own - this isn't a huge problem though. I have a job, and I make decent money, but most of that money goes toward bills.
The Enemy Within, my latest novel, is a huge friggin book. It's about twice the size of my other works, which means twice the cost for editing.
The big reason that I can't do any new videogame reviews is that my computer can't handle the new software I needed. Getting a new computer is going to, unfortunately, have to wait until the book is released. We're most likely looking at an August return on that front.
Now, in July, I should be able to get my book ready for release. Once that's done, I'll immediately step back into recording for the retro games. The only thing holding me back from that is time, which is mostly going toward working overtime and providing follow-up and prequel material for my series.
In the meantime, we're still doing the weekly radio show, so if you're interested, head over to tezone.net. I'll also do my best to try and report on E3 this year, and offer my own opinions of what is happening on that front.
Until then, stay cool, and don't be angry at me!
As some of you may know, I recently attempted to run a kickstarter campaign to help me fund the editing for my latest novel. That fell through, which means that I've had to incur that cost on my own - this isn't a huge problem though. I have a job, and I make decent money, but most of that money goes toward bills.
The Enemy Within, my latest novel, is a huge friggin book. It's about twice the size of my other works, which means twice the cost for editing.
The big reason that I can't do any new videogame reviews is that my computer can't handle the new software I needed. Getting a new computer is going to, unfortunately, have to wait until the book is released. We're most likely looking at an August return on that front.
Now, in July, I should be able to get my book ready for release. Once that's done, I'll immediately step back into recording for the retro games. The only thing holding me back from that is time, which is mostly going toward working overtime and providing follow-up and prequel material for my series.
In the meantime, we're still doing the weekly radio show, so if you're interested, head over to tezone.net. I'll also do my best to try and report on E3 this year, and offer my own opinions of what is happening on that front.
Until then, stay cool, and don't be angry at me!
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