Man, I'm beginning to lose track here. But anyone who has read my previous blog posts in regards to the hardware issues with the 360 will know that I will not be getting another one at this point.

I'm not even going to rant & rave, I've done that before & I'm pretty much completely over it at this point. My PS3, Wii & HP Blackbird PC pretty much guarantee that my gaming needs will be more than satisfied without having to worry about subpar hardware & horrible customer service with the 360. Good riddance to bad rubbish...

Jheesh. As if having a half dozen 360's crap out on me wasn't bad enough, my 80GB PS3 decided to follow suit. I had a bunch of friends over & we were watching Spiderman 3 on BluRay & halfway through the flick, the PS3 couldn't read the disc anymore & subsequently stopped reading any disc I put in it.

Man, I guess I just have some crap luck with these consoles this generation. I figured the PS3 was the more reliable system but I guess it's prone to failures as well. I'm shipping it off to Sony & should have it back within 3 weeks or so & still have my 360 to keep me company until it gets back, but I'm sure getting sick of all these damned pricey consoles breaking down on me. I understand that systems with lots of hardware in them can be defective, but it's getting a bit ridiculous at this point.

I've posted 8 or 9 personal pics if you want to take a peek at them. They are under the images tab. Nothing too special, pics of myself, a few of my animals & a couple of my snowboard. Gives you a chance to put a face to the name. Late!

A good buddy of mine is moving out of the country & kicked me his Elite for free, (I've helped him out of a few financial jams in the past), so it looks like I'm back in business with the 360. I was just gonna wait & buy a new one when MS released the new 65nm chipset, but who can say no to free??

Now I'm rolling with the PS3 & 360 again, so nice to have choices & if this 360 craps out on me too, then what do I care? I didn't pay for it & I can just send it in for free repairs. Nice!!!

Glad I won't have to miss out on Halo3 & Mass Effect after all. Although I'm not completely rabid over Halo, I would like to see how the story ends & I was really looking forward to Mass Effect as much as anything else coming out this year.

I'm still not happy about the fact that 360's break down like crazy, but maybe this one will break my streak of bad luck with the system. We'll see...

Well, if you read my post below about the reliability of the 360 then you'll know that I picked up an Elite on April 29th & swore that if it died like my 3 Premiums did before it, then I would be done with the 360 for good.

I guess it was inevitable that it would die eventually, (if I knew in April what I know now about the design flaws with the system, I never would have gotten the Elite), but I sure didn't expect it to happen this soon. My Elite died last night from hardware failure, so it didn't even last 3 months. And as I mentioned in my previous blog post, the Elite was the last chance for MS as far as I was concerned.

So I took my Elite back to the store today & got my $516 back & traded in my 360 games & accessories to the tune of around $600 & sunk all the money into PS3 titles & upcoming PS3 titles, (and a few select PC titles as well). It's a shame too, because I really did want to play Halo3 & Mass Effect, (I'll play Bioshock on my PC), but it isn't going to happen now.

You might think I'm crazy, especially considering that MS just recently extended the warranty to 3 years to cover hardware failures, but I simply couldn't continue to play this game. 4 systems dying in less than 2 years due to a design flaw is a kick in the teeth & the only acceptable resolution would be for MS to do a recall on the system & not release another 360 into retail without a complete redesign. But since they have chosen to try & take the easy way out, (yeah, it's costing them a lot to extend the warranties, but nowhere near what it would cost them to do a recall & redesign), then they simply will not get another gaming dollar from me.

I'm totally happy with my PS3, I'm totally happy with the upcoming lineup of games & I have a buff PC to play on as well, so in the end, I feel much better about myself knowing that I'm not throwing any more money at a company who has screwed so many over. Not only did MS prematurely stop supporting the original XBOX, they then, (in their haste to be first to market with a "next-gen" console), make a faulty product & refuse to take the appropriate measures to rectify it.

I'm happy for anyone who hasn't had issues with their 360, I hope it continues to run like a champ for you. But knowing what we all know now about the design flaws that are present in every 360 out there, chances are it's really only a matter of time before you feel the sting as well. I'm sure most wouldn't go as far as I am & walk away from the console altogether, but it's the only thing that I can personally do to show how dissatisfied & fed up I am with MS. They lost one hell of a customer today, (I spent over $7000 on videogames/videogame related items last year).

Now, back to my PS3. It might not have the library that the 360 has right now, (but the next few months leading up to holiday are looking awesome),but at least I know it will work when I turn it on. What good are all those great games on the 360 when you don't have a system to play it on?

So I'm sure you're all sick of hearing everyone go on about this by now, but I want to add my thoughts on this because I think this issue is much more important than whether or not Manhunt 2 will ever see the light of day.

To keep it short & to the point, I believe that the AO rating should be done away with permanently. Yes, the ESRB can give a game an AO rating & then sit back & glibly say "Well we didn't ban the game, we just rated it", knowing full well that the AO rating means that the game will never be released on a Sony, MS or Ninty system. This is simply unnaceptable.

The ESRB was established to rate games so that adults could make informed decisions about what their children play & I am totally cool with that. But if a particular rating allows them to effectively "backdoor ban" a game so that no one has the choice as to whether they want to play it, (even responsible adult gamers), then the system is faulty & needs to be reevaluated.

An M rating would be more than sufficient for any game that has questionable content whereas M denotes a game for Mature gamers who are 17 & up. Anything beyond that is simply stepping outside the boundaries of why the rating system was created in the first place. The rating system is there to inform, not dictate morality.

People may feel that Manhunt 2 getting an AO rating is some kind of victory for morale decency, but what it really is is a defeat for adult gamers everywhere to decide what kind of content they want to consume. No one should be able to take that choice away from you just so that they can feel morally secure. If you're old enough to fight in a war & die for your country, then you're damned well old enough to decide which kind of videogames you want to play.

The AO rating is the height of absolute hypocricy in a society that is being trampled on by the "moral" majority & if steps are not taken now to ensure that the AO rating can't be used to "ban" games, then those floodgates will be open for anything & everything. Soon the ESRB will decide that GTAIV & Bioshock should be AO as well & the only way we would ever get to play these games is if the developers spend millions to go back & re-edit their titles into watered-down horsepiss.

Anyone who would sacrifice their freedoms for security will lose both & deserve neither.

I traded my Premium 360 up towards an Elite today.  I have had 3 Premiums break down on me & was on my 4th.  Thankfully I had an extended warranty so I didn't have to pay to get the system fixed 3 times, but it was a pain in the ass to have to go through the process of sending the console into MS & it's really negligent on their part to release a system with so many bugs & hardware issues. 

Do I love the 360?  Oh yes, very much.  I love the games, the power of the system & the whole Live implementation.  But that doesn't mean that I will turn a blind eye to it's issues.  I picked up the Elite today in the hopes that I will have better luck with it than I did with my Premium systems, but if the Elite doesn't last me at least 3 years, I will be done with the 360 altogether & all the money I spend, (and I spend a crapload of money on videogames/systems every year), goes right back into my PC & PS3.  It's not something I would want to do because there are some seriously rocking exclusives coming to the 360 that I'm dying to play, but I absolutely would on the principle alone.

So it's all on you now Microsoft.  You come out with another system not even 2 years after the original 360 launch & expect people to buy it for more money even though the original systems had so many problems.  That's a bit of a bitter pill to swallow, but I still shelled out the extra money to get the Elite in the hopes that it will be a stable system & to try & show a little brand loyalty.    

Don't let me down again Microsoft, I've been too lenient on you in the past with the technical issues of your system, but no more.  Here's hoping the Elite lives up to it's name, because the Premium sure didn't...

 

Seriously, I really have to wonder when devs are going to start harnessing the "power" of the PS3???  All I keep hearing about is how much power the system has, but then I play games on it that were also on the 360 & I just end up being really disappointed.

First case in point, Call of Duty3.  Great game on the 360, (I didn't own it, played a friend's copy for a while after he beat it).  Good graphics & solid frames on the 360 version.  Then I pick up the PS3 version & what do I get?  Much more muddy graphics & framerates that are all over the place most of the time.  Was it bad enough to effect the gameplay?  No, but after having played the 360 version, it just really kinda hurt to play what felt like a downgraded version.

Second case in point, Splinter Cell Double Agent.  Now I adored this game on the 360.  Fantastic graphics, (although all the v-sync issues really pissed me off), & rock-solid framerates.  So I pick up the PS3 version this weekend, (total impulse buy since I just saw it in the store & didn't even realize it was out on the PS3 yet), and it can't even compare to the 360 version.  The graphics are almost as good as the 360 version & the v-sync issues have been all but eliminated, but the framerates are really all over the place in this game & sometimes get down to around 10-15fps which almost makes the game unplayable in spots.  This is completely unnaceptable!!!

Now I know most of you will just say I"m trolling or that I shouldn't use multi-plat titles to gauge the power of the PS3, so let's look at a game like Motorstorm then.  Yes, this game throws around a lot of effects, (transforming terrain, crash physics etc), & looks gorgeous graphically, but there are times when the framerate dips & there are times, (when a lot of cars are bunched up together or multiple crashes are going down), where the framerate really drops out of the bottom.  Again, this is simply unacceptable.

At this point, I don't believe that the PS3 is incapable of running any of these games smoothly, but at the same time, what good is really powerful hardware if none of the game developers seem to be able to take advantage of it???  Yes, there are some games that run silky-smooth on the PS3 & look damned good doing it, (R:FOM & VF5 for example), but that doesn't change the fact that if the PS3 can't step up the technical quality of it's games, then I will be forced to pick up all multiplat titles on my 360 only.   Maybe the devs will have a better grasp on the PS3's architecture in the future & this will become a non-issue, but for now, it's very annoying to find that the "power" in my PS3 isn't actually making the games any better, it only seems to be making it more difficult for the devs to deal with.  And that's just a bad deal no matter how you slice it. 

I'm sure some of you will have differing opinions & I'm more than willing to listen to your thoughts on this, but please keep the fanboy comments and/or trolling to a minimum if you want to have a discussion about it.  Thanks! 

Well, that's the bad news I guess.  I got the 360 when it first launched in Nov of 05 & it died after 1 week.  I was lucky enough to get a brand new one in December of 05 & that one was running strong until today.  The dreaded E74 hardware failure yet again!!!

The good news is, I'm not gonna run to the 360 forums & create a thread about it.  Everyone seems to think that everyone else needs to hear all about it in the forums when their 360 craps out on them, but I don't.  I'll just keep it here where few if any will see it, but I can still feel like I vented about it.

Oh well, at least now I can get more quality time with my PS3 what with Motorstorm coming out this week.  Here's hoping MS doesn't leave me hanging on a replacement unit for too long though, because my patience is wearing a bit thin with the system quality at this point & I was really looking forward to playing Ghost Recon 2 & Def Jam Icon on my 360 this week, (I'll just pick up DJ:Icon for my PS3 instead since it actually works).

So glad I got the 2 year extended warranty with my 360.  Here's hoping that all your 360's live LONG & healthy lives because the defective issues are a buzzkill to be sure.

I'll keep this short & sweet.  Forget Gamespot's review, forget the fact that the game is not online & you will see that VF5 is the reason to own a PS3 right now.  Yeah, R:FOM rocked, but the single player got old for me after 4 runthroughs.

VF5 is deep, gorgeous, runs smooth as silk & has endless replayability & depth.  Yes, I know it's going to hit the 360 in 6 months, but I can play it on my PS3 right now & it's everything a fighting fan could ask for & more. 

If you were on the fence about buying a PS3 until the good games started coming out, then it's time to pony up, because VF5 is brilliant & a must-own title for PS3/fighting fans.  I'll make sure to post a full review after I have lost several days sleep over the game.