What games are you playing / looking forward to?

[Shryke]

Unfortunately BlueRay means dropping the price on the PS3 is VERY difficult. Them components aren't cheap. Hell, at one point in the last few months, they had a press release basically saying that it was a good thing they didn't sell that many PS3s, because that way they lost less money.

And HD is simply not being adopted my most people the way DVD was. The majority of people don't even know what it is, and don't have a TV to support it anyway.

[Nobelpoke]

in the last year pretty much everyone in my family has bought an HD TV, including me.

They're getting down into the 'everyman's' pricerange.

And you can buy a PS3 for 400 bucks, which isn't that much more expensive than the 360, and you get quite a bit for your money.

Its just that it has no flagship games out yet, like someone else in the thread stated.

[Shryke]

Unfortunately, the stats fly in the face of your anecdote.

Only 30% of Xbox 360 owners were aware of the HD graphics capabilities of the machine, whereas that number rises to 50% with PS3.

There's another one I can't find right now that showed that most people didn't even know what HD was. It's really not taking off that fast. Probably because most people either can't tell or don't care.

[Flayed Man]

Well, I'll be. Ya learn something new every day. Thanks for the correction

It's amusing to me that most of the same arguments that people are using against the PS3 today are the same ones that were being thrown around regarding the 360 shortly after its release. It basically took "Gears of War" before anyone could give an actual flagship game for the console.

The PS3 will get its games. Its success or failure will ultimately be determined by its price relative to its competitors and the survivability of blu-ray movies, at least in my opinion.

Yeah, it could still take off - I just haven't seen any evidence of that killer game yet that will make people buy PS3s. Whereas with Gears, Halo, a few other great exclusives, and now Mass Effect, it seems like 360 may have reached *ahem* critical mass. If this fall/winter lineup isn't enough to make the 360 a bona fide hit, MS should probably give up the console ghost.

[Inigima]

Well, I'll be. Ya learn something new every day. Thanks for the correction

It's amusing to me that most of the same arguments that people are using against the PS3 today are the same ones that were being thrown around regarding the 360 shortly after its release. It basically took "Gears of War" before anyone could give an actual flagship game for the console.

The PS3 will get its games. Its success or failure will ultimately be determined by its price relative to its competitors and the survivability of blu-ray movies, at least in my opinion.

I didn't say otherwise. I think at some point the PS3 will probably get enough good games and the price will probably come down enough to make it a reasonable choice. I just don't think it's there yet, and the bad taste that SCEA leaves in my mouth causes me to revel in schadenfreude.

With this new price drop and some upcoming games, maybe the PS3 will start to make some inroads. I think the 360 is hands-down the better buy at this point, though.

Unfortunately BlueRay means dropping the price on the PS3 is VERY difficult. Them components aren't cheap. Hell, at one point in the last few months, they had a press release basically saying that it was a good thing they didn't sell that many PS3s, because that way they lost less money.

And HD is simply not being adopted my most people the way DVD was. The majority of people don't even know what it is, and don't have a TV to support it anyway.

I have an HDTV and I absolutely love the way HD works -- and I still haven't bought a player or any movies for either the HD-DVD or Blu-Ray formats. I admit I'm tempted by the new $100 HD-DVD player price, but the fact is that the public, including myself, is way too invested in DVDs to be ready for a new format. I have almost 300 DVDs, and that's small compared to some people's collections. I'm not ready for those to become obsolete.

If one of these formats has to win, I want it to be HD-DVD, but really I want both to flop. So far, I'm getting my wish.

EDIT: oh yeah, more stuff on games. I almost never trade in games -- it's not generally a good deal and I like having my collection, so if I liked the game (and I rarely buy total lemons) I'm unlikely to trade in. But yesterday I traded in Metroid Prime 3, Kororinpa and Wii Play.

Wii Play is a complete piece of shit. I was happy to get $10 for it, which makes it as if I had just bought a controller in the first place. The other two games make me downright angry. I finally decided that I am sick and tired of trying to make myself like terrible Wii games that everyone says are good and that I think are awful. I bought MP3 because everyone told me how amazing it was and how good the controls are. These are damnable lies. That game is awful and nothing can make it otherwise.

Kororinpa is another one. "Oh, the controls work so well!" No they don't! The control is terrible! It never does what I want, and the controller being level never makes the board level. It's also no fun. Fuck that game.

Trading in those three games and throwing down another $20 got me Resident Evil 4: Wii and a preorder on Mario Galaxy, either of which will be more fun than those other three combined.

[Shryke]

Yeah, when I first played my buddies Wii I was like "OMG, I've GOT to buy this!!!". But the more and more I've tried it out, and played the games for it and such, the less and less I want it. It just doesn't have almost any games I want to play. The selection of games is piddly right now, imo, and almost all of it is stuff I don't really want.

I may not ever get one at this rate, but hopefully it's unbelievable hardware numbers are convincing developers to put more interesting shit on it. Till then I'll stick with my PC and pick up a 360 in a year or 2.

[Altherion]

I'm playing Neverwinter Nights 2 with its expansion (Mask of the Betrayer). Buggiest game I've played in years and the support for it is basically whatever you can get from fellow players, but other than that it's very good. Probably my favorite RPG since BG2.

[Flayed Man]

There hasn't been one thing that seemed interesting in that game. I even sat through a 15 minute gameplay trailer, and none of it looked innovative. The characters looked plain stupid; again, if you have ti differentiate between bad guys and good guys by the masks on their spacesuits, you're doing everything wrong. The environments looked uninspired and bleak, and the graphics aren't that good.

Wow, I wonder if we were following the same game. Honestly, I'm not sure what you're talking about with the masks thing - there are at least 5 different races featured, all of which are very different in appearance. By the looks of it 4 of the 5 will have a mix of bad- & good-guys, and it actually seems like Bioware has made an effort to make things a little less *ahem* black and white than that.

Maybe you saw an early trailer? Here, check out this one. No enemies with odd masks, an environment I wouldn't describe as bland, & pretty good-looking graphics.

Or check out some screenshots.

Maybe it's not everyone's bag. Flayed Woman is already dreading Nov 20th, though.

I mean, that's embarassing, isn't it? At least when the 360 came out, people wern't releasing games for xbox a year after its release. That's pathetic.

In all fairness, the XBox was kind of a flop, but the PS2 was a blockbuster. They'll keep making games for it so long as there's money to be made (obviously).

[DJDonegal]

Finally killed General RAAM on Hardcore on Gears of War. Disappointed because I thought I had played the whole game as Dom, but I must have missed some Chapters somewhere in Act 1 or 2.

[Inigima]

Maybe it's not everyone's bag. Flayed Woman is already dreading Nov 20th, though.

In all fairness, the XBox was kind of a flop, but the PS2 was a blockbuster. They'll keep making games for it so long as there's money to be made (obviously).

I think his point was that the PS3 isn't good enough -- or at least not good enough and well-priced enough -- to drive widespread adoption. The PS2 is still such a powerhouse because the PS3 isn't pulling its weight.

[Mackaxx]

In regard to games that im fiddlign about with of late. Condemned so far has been an ok experience, definitely not one i would have wanted to pay full price for (its a little repetitive), but plenty of ok scares so far. Hopefully the story isnt going to go too spastic aka Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy).

I also picked up prey for 20 bucks, a bit of fun too but once more nothing spectacular.

Still not in the least bit interested in Halo 3, or the half life orange box release for that matter. At least not on 360. I will probably get episode 2 over steam.

Lots of stupid achievements in both but I cant see myself playing through again to pick them all up.

[Shryke]

Microsoft also wanted to drop the XBox FAST. The damn thing was a pain in their ass. As I understand it, due to the deal they struck with Nvidia (who developed the graphics chip for the Xbox), they always had to pay the same price for that chip. Which meant they had real problems dropping the price of the Xbox, since console prices drop over their lifetimes because they get cheaper to make. Ms couldn't do that, so they wanted the hell outta that deal as fast as they could, hence the XBoxs short life span.

[Daedalus V2.0]

Microsoft also wanted to drop the XBox FAST. The damn thing was a pain in their ass. As I understand it, due to the deal they struck with Nvidia (who developed the graphics chip for the Xbox), they always had to pay the same price for that chip. Which meant they had real problems dropping the price of the Xbox, since console prices drop over their lifetimes because they get cheaper to make. Ms couldn't do that, so they wanted the hell outta that deal as fast as they could, hence the XBoxs short life span.

QFT. This, along with MS's initial policies of subsidizing systems and game development is why the MS game division has yet to end a year in the black.

[Mackaxx]

Ms couldn't do that, so they wanted the hell outta that deal as fast as they could, hence the XBoxs short life span.

As opposed to the Xbox 360's long lifespan.....

[Daedalus V2.0]

Are you dissing the 360's three to six weeks of sustainable operation?

[Paddy]

I must've been one of the lucky guys.

I got my 360 on launch day in the US (two weeks before it was released here), so it's almost two years old now and I haven't had a single issue with it.

I don't know any of my mates that have had problems with theirs either, but going by the responses I've seen on this board, it must be pretty common?

As regards games coming out for the PS2. New games were coming out for the PS1 a looong time after the release of the PS2. According to Wikipedia, the last game released for the XBox was Madden 08 in August 2007.

Also, I don't think that many people regard the XBox as that much of a flop. For one thing, it popularised a couple of important innovations like online play (yes, i know about Dreamcast) and the built-in Hard Drive.

It's just that... well, the simple fact of the matter is that the PS2 is the best selling console of all time (and that despite being technically inferior to its competition) of course games companies are still going to be targeting it. They'd be stupid to do otherwise. And the XBox only looks like a flop in comparison to that.

[Inigima]

I got my 360 on launch day in the US (two weeks before it was released here), so it's almost two years old now and I haven't had a single issue with it.

I don't know any of my mates that have had problems with theirs either, but going by the responses I've seen on this board, it must be pretty common?

Well, it's more common than it ought to be, certainly. But everyone whose 360 breaks feels compelled to post on the Internet about it, so I imagine it's overreported compared to the instances of 360s working fine since most of their owners don't say anything about it. I'm one of them, so far... knock on wood.

[Young Wolf]

Well, it's more common than it ought to be, certainly. But everyone whose 360 breaks feels compelled to post on the Internet about it, so I imagine it's overreported compared to the instances of 360s working fine since most of their owners don't say anything about it. I'm one of them, so far... knock on wood.

Plus people like saying Red Ring of Death and its been the cool thing to do to bash Gates for Windows and now the 360.

Im not attempting to make excuses for the crappy product, just even with that system failure bug, I still enjoy the 360 gaming experience far more than the PS3. It is pretty funny to get the total loyal Sony fanboy in the store and have him tell you that Warhawk is far superior to Halo 3 and Gears of War, because well and Im sure Switch remembers, I was one of those fanboys not too long ago.

Regarding games being made for systems and what not:

The Wii is by far the least demanding system to make a game for. Its going to see a lot of unknown publishers/developers attempting to get their 1st hit.

The PS3 will eventually get games for it, absolutely, but Im sure that developers arent happy about the switch to blu-ray, because I dont think there's a 3rd party exclusive yet on the PS3. (Though I could be wrong on Folklore, I dont remember if that's a Sony title or not). You figure on average most developers make 10 bucks profit per game IF they sell 500,000 copies or so. The majority of the money you spend on a 60 dollar game goes to R&D and then manufacturing. Places like Gamestop only make about 10-15 bucks on any new title. With all the new time having to be spent to develop for blu-ray...well its cutting into their profit.

What Sony needs is a 3rd party to just say "fuck it" and go balls out on developing a game for its system. Hopefully it will happen sometime soon to save the 500 dollar paperweight.

YW

[Ser Aardvark]

Just finished FF XII and Bioshock. Been playing a lot of Madden and Disciples II (on Gametap). I WAS waiting for Army of Two eagerly but since they've pushed it back to 1st Quarter 2008, I'm waiting for Mass Effect instead.

[Flayed Man]

The bad guy has the same suit as you, except that he has a scary mask. That is stupid.

I stand corrected. AFAIK, the main villain is a guy is a scary mask. In fact, the picture you posted of him is who I'm talking about.

The bad guy (Saren) is a rogue from the same elite military force as your character - so similarity in the armor makes sense. And if you look at his full character model, he is obviously quite different; he's not wearing a funny mask he's an alien. :lol

Seems to me you're just looking for things to dislike - why you gotta be a hater?