I remember the days when it was just one system to fulfill all of our gaming needs, though there were a couple of alternatives just in case you wanted something different, because it just cost too much to get a PC worth gaming on.

For most of the mid- to late- 90s, we were engaged on the first PlayStation while a few deviated toward the N64 and perhaps the Saturn. Nobody seemed to care that the console looked like a cinderblock. For that and the rest of the decade, our handheld desires (get those thoughts out of your head) were plenty satisfied by the Game Boy. From the turn of the millennium up until a couple years ago, it was the PlayStation 2 - which I'd initially thought looked like an 80s VCR player - and the Game Boy Advance. The Dreamcast didn't fly, neither did things like the N-Gage and the Gizmondo. Through those years I never had a super-PC, so I was a PlayStation loyalist. But I didn't care, and I wasn't offended that others played alternative consoles. Sometimes I even relished the opportunity to go over to my friends' houses and play them too.

Things were great, when you knew that you didn't have to buy more than one console (saving you machine money) and you had all kinds of games to find for it. The advent of the "used" game retailer meant that you never really missed anything, and you could always find some aged gold for the price of tin Of course, it didn't mean that competition was stifled, since not only were there alternative systems, but competition between in-house and out-of-house game makers to make the best games for the system with the biggest audience kept quality up, producing such series as Metal Gear Solid, Grand Theft Auto, Pokémon, and so on.

Sometime around 2002, the XBox arrived on the scene. I figured, not a shaker really, it's really only got Halo. I was one of the many that still had dial-up, so Live was out of the picture and besides which, I could just go to the arcade if I wanted to compete with total strangers. The GameCube was around, but probably just for the few who liked their cute games, though I do miss the opportunity to help garnish my Pokemon game collection. Then the GBA evolved an extra screen. Fine. Before I knew it there were three different consoles that appear to fulfill three different needs, along with two different handhelds! And all this in just a span of nigh three or four years?! Where's the world going without me? The fact that all five are actually doing rather well in this short span of time (regardless of what the fanboys say) means that there's now competition not just for the market, but for the games they play, and drives quality up...though I might not say that for the 360's hardware. But that's another rant.

Unfortunately, while the games may have gotten better in quality, it's come at the expense of the community's behavior.

For the supposedly capital offense of siding with the PS3, I've had to take insults ranging from the generally directed toward the intellect to the racist to the homophobic to combinations of these three. Most of these were veiled by bits about the "technical specifications" or the "aesthetics" or the "game selection." But by outwardly declaring that not only is so-and-so console superior and the others inferior, but that I also deserve obscenities for saying otherwise, they are trying to attack my freedom to make an informed decision and buy one. No...that's not quite it. I also have the freedom to buy more than one system or maybe even all of them. Wait...not quite.

Unless my country turns Communist, the only thing that's really keeping me from living my gaming life the way I want to (loyalist as I am) is my lack of funds, and the lack of shelf and cabinet space. Words can hurt a person too if used properly, as it were.

Not only are these "Console Wars" harmful to the emotional and mental health of gamers, the fallout could also start to affect the young'uns who have probably gotten their first system - regardless of its label - and love it to bits...only to log on to gaming sites and have their minds tainted by the behavior of their "fellow" gamers worse than Jack Thompson says Grand Theft Auto could ever do. That's not counting the pressure they face to have the "in" system from their classmates and offline peers, in this age of high technology.

If this is what competition brings, I'd rather go back to the days of the PlayStation Decade, where it didn't matter what you played it on, as long as you played it and had fun. Of course, we can't turn back time, so me and my bros are chipping in a little bit every week to save up for a PS3, so we can just have fun and bring our friends over and have fun too. We've also got a wireless network at home...so we can jam on free multiplayer and download stuff to our PSPs. Is there anything wrong with that? If you're reading this, I'd love to hear an answer.

I feel like such an old codger writing this - especially at only 20! - but with what I've been through tangling with fanboys (more like fanatics) online, I've really started to feel that youth really is wasted on the young. Just watch the Angry German Kid if you want to know what I mean.

If these console wars continue worsening as they do...I might just go back to reading good novels and playing outside like the kiddies did back when I was younger. Perhaps it would be a refreshing sight to see Ayn Rand and H.G. Wells taking up the shelf space normally occupied by Need For Speed: Most Wanted.

Because 1UP.com went on maintenance, this week's Forelli Factor is a GameSpot exclusive. How's THAT for karma being a hooker and you're fresh outta cash?

Impact

OH. MY. GU-OD.

Somehow, someway, we all kinda saw this coming. Maybe the T-Mobile offer was just the start of things, or maybe it was because Sony has their own mobile phone company too. Maybe it's because they're desperate. I don't know. But I'd really like to see the DS one-that-up. Really. It's already got a microphone and speakers, and you can use the touchscreen as a keyboard/pad. Get Motorola to sponsor it (because Nokia needs competition) and you'll sink that Pissp roight propah.

Personal Story

What IS it like to be about the only real person who will defend Sony's honor on this forum? Well, as you can tell by people's reactions toward me, it's not a very...satisfying job. But then again, I really only defend them because I feel that people have to hear both sides of an argument. The fan-aticism on these boards is hair-rippingly aggravating, especially when they want us to switch consoles like we do our shoes. They discount experience, of which I have a lot of.

My first gaming system was the SNES, dating straight back to 1992. My first game was MarioKart. Loved it to deeeeath (and it started my love for racing games as well as fast-moving vehicles on four wheels!), and had many a fun time with Turtles In Time with my bros, though we were too poor to get a multitap then. Then things changed.

I got my first PlayStation on Christmas of 1997, with three games whose names you'll probably read for the first time if I mentioned them, as well as Destruction Derby 1. It was a LOT of fun, and the SNES quickly faded into obscurity. I was introduced to the Gran Turismo, Ace Combat and - of all things - the Grand Theft Auto series. Whod've thought I'd actually enjoy playing that 2D-overhead piece of crap?

PlayStation 2 came in Two Thousand 2. First game? Vice City One. There was also AC4, 5, zero. And GT3 and later 4. Needless to say, we're still using it today.

Finally, and on a side note, PlayStation Portable. Okay, so maybe that one didn't exactly edge Nintendo out of the market, and I still play Fire Red on my GBA (Pokémon *squeeeeeee~*). But Liberty and Vice City Stories along with ACX and a future upcoming Gran Turismo, as well as customizable wallpapers, music playlists...I could go on. I almost feel that if some laboratory was offering human-to-cyborg implants, the PSP would be included.

There's also the matter that the "service," as you would call it for those games, was pretty goshdarn good. CDs and DVDs available in relatively more abundance than cartridges and other proprietary media. Of course, the other systems finally got some sense into them and have started using DVDs too...but that's for another rant involving Blu-Ray.

Now unless you're a Taliban-grade anti-Sony fanboy who failed at basic mathematical operations in school, both times I got the system approximately TWO YEARS! after launch. And either time I was initially adamant on the alternative. I wanted a Dreamcast when it came out. Crazy Taxi was da bomb (then.) When the XBox 360 came out I played that Mountain Dew game enough to win a T-Shirt and a Beanie emblazoned with the 360 logo. I didn't really drink that many, it's more that people around where I lived just didn't throw their trash away properly, so I was also doing that whore we call Mother Earth a little favor along the way.

Do you see the pattern forming yet?

I know the Wii's successful right now, but if the previous two instances are an indicator, I'm going to wait until I can afford that PS3. So what if it (might) lose FF13 "Main" and MGS4 and Home's already up and running for so long everyone will think I'm some kind of PS n00b? It won't really help if the system it's ported isn't exactly the most reliable one on the planet and you still have to pay for full online play. And why are those two - both not exactly in my fancy - particularly so hyped this early on? I'm itching more for GT5 and a game that's so great that I refer to it simply as "The Four."

Oh, and if you were really paying attention to "patterns," then it's possible that I might get one this year...but then that'd only be about one year after release. Maybe it's more coincidence than a sign of things to come...but I'll know when I get one.

But yeah, $599 is a lot to save for, but at least the PS3 costs the same in this part of the world as it does in the States and we actually share the same Blu-Ray region as Japan and America. No importing price-fluxes here.

Back of the Blog

Because I'm still pisdaheloff at YouTube for getting rid of AVGN and the Top Gear files, I've decided to rip a new one out of CollegeHumor.

I remember when Carmen Sandiego was one of the few games installed on the Macs throughout my old elementary school, simply for its "educational value." I distinctly remember that I was the only one in school at the time who actually managed to catch Carmen Sandiego (would've caught her across time periods had the school actually had that dictionary for codes handy). Then a few years later the computers got replaced.

So, to celebrate what is probably the crowning achievement of my entire life: Where the F--- is Carmen Sandiego?

If 1UP's not working this weekend, my regular "This Week In Gaming" will be a GameSpot exclusive as well. I can change sites easier than I can change consoles. HAH! Stay tuned.

Gran Turismo. Hands (or should I say hoods?) down, this is easily my personal favorite racing game, even with Forza Motorsport included. What car nut wouldn't savor the opportunity to race their favorite sport compact, or at least lawl whilst watching widdle-yet-they-really-exist! K-Cars squeal about a tiny track?

Now Forza Motorsport 2's coming out, promising even more stuff than GT4 (well duh, it's on a succeeding-generation system!) save for an equally-large car list. This includes lots of customization and online capabilities, something that the NA GT4 strangely omitted. And of course, there's also the damage...but let's be honest, do you really want to see your favorite car get trashed when it comes right down to it?

Of course, FM2 has still managed to retain the Ferrari/Lamborghini/Porsche trio - hereafter referred to as the Felampos - that has seemingly been exclusive to American and European game franchises over the generations. GTHD has the 599 Fiorano...but that's the only current Ferrari not on FM2's list. Coincidence?

So why does GT appeal so much?

Gran Turismo was a smash hit simply because it let people try out the cars they couldn't find elsewhere. The RX-7 and NSX were available in America around that time, but who was really interested in them apart from the niche collectors? Who outside of the then-obscure street racing community had heard of a Skyline in 1998?

Gran Turismo very likely also helped birth America's recent fascination with the Fast and the Furious, even if in a fairly low-key manner. The super-Euro exotics that were pinned up on everyone's walls were replaced by Eclipses, 180/Silvias, and Supras decked out in god-awful paint schemes and body kits. Of course that's not to say the cars themselves weren't nice as stockers or that there were some great tuned models...but most of these "tuners" never had taste.

GT1 featured mainly cars in the size categories that Americans were familiar with. They saw that eventually, that there were kids that still and would go back to wanting their lovely Euro-exotics. But with all the Felampos at EA with only RUF to sooth them...GT decided to continue providing...everything else.

Venturi, Pagani and Spyker among others have been around for a while...but what better way to gain exposure for these obscure brands than through the world's most famous racing franchise? And let's not forget that GT2 brought us a whole slew of adorable-in-a-really-sexual-orientation-questioning-way K-Cars along with some good ol' American Muscle to help the guys return to their senses. Perhaps somewhere in our subconscious, we seemed to gravitate more/back to those adorable little J-compacts when the greenies started taking over.

GT3 was really just a technical demonstration of the PS2, they knew everyone was waiting for the Four. One could easily say that about GTHD compared to GT5. Meanwhile, PGR arrived on a competing system with its own lineup of the most familiar exotics...but they'd been there and done that. What obscure models it did introduce remained in obscurity because the series itself didn't take off as much compared to GT or FM. Then again, it's not as if those limited-edition concept games that were released only to Japan were noticed by most of the rest of the world.
 
So what did Mr. Yamauchi do for GT4? Easy. He and his boys did everything else.

They expanded to cars from pretty much every conceivable automotive era, even futuristic concepts (from shoe companies, among others) and *gasp* TRUCKS. They included a Photo Mode that could save to a USB Flash Disk so you could make your own pin-up posters. And just for extra kicks, they used the same GT4 engine to create a game featuring the Kaffe Boy crotch rockets. No crude American Harleys today (though Buell is Harley's sportbike division.)

That's when Forza Motorsport came out, capitalizing on the customization craze...particularly the exterior. GT4 only had spoilers and rims, and the Racing Modification function was removed in the generational gap. Of course, GT4 still held the upper hand because there were lots more cars, lots more tracks including originals, it was on a more popular system and so on. If you were a severe car nut, you could also tweak the settings as deep as you wanted if you could get the parts.

I suppose then it's little wonder that Kazunori Yamauchi just entered his third consecutive year on Motor Trend magazine's 50 most powerful people in the auto business.

It's important to remember though that Polyphony Digital can only do so much before it's backed into a corner. GT5, the "Driving Life Simulator," will have to really put the throttle down when it comes to doing what it does, because once you can do everything, there won't be an "everything else." Then again, if they can do everything...why would there be anyone else doing anything else?

But we'll leave circular logic for another day. For now, if you have a PS2, get GT4 or its motorcycle cousin Tourist Trophy if you haven't. If Al Gore ever has his way and outlaws anything that burns gasoline, we'll at least have these games to remember our beloved horseless carriages by.

On the home front, lots of different driving experiences. GTA: LCS, GT4, Test Drive: Unlimited, and finally, NFS: MW. The first three on PS2, the first one also on PSP (for guide-writing purposes) and the last one on the PC.

Test Drive: Unlimited actually proved the strangest. The disturbingly dashboard view - from my Saturn Sky at least - is a bit hard to get used to when most of the car is on your right. That and you can use aggressive tactics to get ahead...though dirt shortcuts slow you down. During certain races, taking dirt detours for too long will end the race on an "off-road penalty." As this is on a system for commoners, there are no Ferraris/Lambos/Porsches, and no bikes as far as I've gone. The cop AI is also inexplicably...messed up. They can actually arrest you if you're reversing full-speed away from one, so no Driver-****Reverse 180 getaways.

Speaking of PSP, I got firmware 3.40 this week. Funny how they actually "removed" (read broken up and moved) an option this time around. The big mover is with the music though.

I never figured iTunes would have this much value. Especially when I tuned into radioIO's 80s-pop channel. I might have to clear out a couple of folders to make way for a third 80s selection...or maybe my Vice City One (late 80s) and Vice City Stories (early 80s) playlists. I seriously miss that decade, even if I only spent the first three years of my life in it. All this greenie conscience über-political drivel of the 21st century is actually getting on my nerves...but I'm digressing.

At least 80s rock ballads make for great running music during this 5K fun run I had Sunday Morning. Eye of the Tiger, lawl!

Went price-shopping at Virra Mall (it's no longer officially called that since it was renovated beyond recognition a year or so back, it's more the "popular" name) after church. Quick update - I'm expected to get my PSP repaired sometime this week. And my Wii bro* - who wants a DS - doesn't seem to want it much anymore after learning it doesn't come with a free browser.

I have made another convert. ;.=.; That and my 360 bro* said he'd really only get the 360 for "Halo 3," which he said he'd "play every day."

Hmmm....

Also seem to have an interest in Tokyo Xtreme Racer Drift 2 . Tested it out (yes, you can in this country...just not in as many stores as there used to be), didn't get to the cool Initial D FRs but it's interesting how the AWDs and FWDs handle when you jam on the brakes like a GT/FM player. Funniest quirks ever too - like the countdown is actually understandably 2-1-0-go! and when you finish a race, the game displays "Conclude!"

No really. Not "Finish," not "You Win/Lose," actually "Conclude." Wth. XD

Biggest find this time around though was the Game Boy Micro. Not just any GBM though...it was a Japanese version of the notorious 20th anniversary "Famicom" Micro.



The storekeeper lady showed me what was inside the box - the Famicro felt like cold metal contrary to the more "plastic" ones I've seen before. Apart from the shine and the color scheme (grooved front metal *drool*), there was also promotional stuff from the Japanese "Club Nintendo", which unlike American "official" system-makers' clubs actually appears to reward gamers based on systems and games they register with them through a sort of "frequent buyers" points system.

The system cost P4000 (just over $80), and was advertised at EXACTLY the same price as the black GBMs sold there. I was hankering to get one as I left the mall today...though the lack of pricing data in the States is sending some rather unclear signals. Pretty sure JP GBs can play US games though. Remember that I also do not have a GBA SP (360 bro has one though but he's very territorial about that) so this would be the first one with a backlight should I decide to get one.

So...should I get one?

And yes, the DS is still on my future-purchase list, so don't worry.

*My two bros are named Vince and Matt, both younger than me but only just under a year apart. I sometimes think of them as "Gulf Brothers" because Vince was born a few months before it began and Matt about a month after it ended. Interestingly, my dad has a complete set of Gulf War "trading cards." Seriously! Card Number One = George H.W. Bush.

Lawl.

Anyhoo, Vince wants a Wii, Matt wants the 360, and I (still) want the PS3. Somehow, we all get along nicely. That oughta spite all those console warmongers.

So, kid shoots up school, video games and America's plentiful and easy-to-acquire firearms are quickly lined up in the crosshairs of the blame gun. People want to blame parents for the negligence. But would it really be the games or even the parents that made this guy who he was? He was 23 years old. A 23-year-old college bound man with a sibling in Princeton should already be able to tell the difference between right and wrong, and he would have to be pretty messed up even to be affected by video games in the first place. Who do I think is to blame for this tragedy? I have a simple answer:

YOU ARE.

You, of course, are divided into three different groups.

First group are those in Mr. Cho's vicinity of "help." You didn't need to remember Columbine to know that Mr. Cho was a ticking time bomb. He was a loner. Wrote and thought violent things, even more so than I used to. Stalked people. Lucinda Roy read the signs and she tried to warn people, bless her soul. Hell, the guy had two roommates who could have read him like a book, not counting EVERYONE ELSE IN THAT COLLEGE. He was referred to counseling, but apparently if they tried to help him more they'd probably be subjecting him to the Clockwork Orange. Even if this guy was abused or neglected by his now-deathly-silent parents, it wasn't as if there wasn't anything you people could do about it.

Now you whine that there wasn't a good enough support system in place? Obviously not, you just never got out of their seats to help.

Second group is America in general. You had 8 years since Columbine to try to stop this. Only months since the violence hit Amish America. Instead you just went for the guns and video games instead of trying to save the sinner. Anybody up for Bowling? Now look what happened. It's like Vietnam. Instead of taking losing like men, you just decided to be "men" and drown your losery in in the material excesses of the disco-late-'70s and the 80s to help you forget. (Granted, the 1980s were the greatest decade EVER! but still.) You were lucky that Soviet Russia collapsed under American economic might and a botched yet now somewhat familiar invasion of Afghanistan.

Third group, of course, is the world. And no, I'm not going to stoop so low as to point at South Korea for birthing the man who would perpetrate this atrocity, that's racist and I don't discriminate when I hate on people except during the console wars. But you're probably going to stand there and say "that sort of thing was bound to happen in gun-crazed savage America" and probably think (Canadians and Europeans in particular) that it couldn't possibly happen elsewhere where there are far fewer guns and no death penalty. Except for maybe in Russia, but that's already east of the Iron Curtain.

Well guess what, it did in Germany in 2002. And as a testament to Europeans' belief that everybody should be free to live their lives, Brigitte Monhaupt, a remorseless and unapologetic member of the Red Army Faction (notorious commie terror group from the 70s) was recently released because apparently people like her deserve a second chance at life as they are. The key words, of course, are remorseless and unapologetic.

Now you're probably going to do what you do again, because the demagogues will play off your emotions to do whatever they want with you. Take away the guns and the violent media, you solve the problem by denying the poor victim his tools for destruction, right? You'll epitomize the "heroes," build a memorial, but in a few years it'll be another fad in the line of pop-tragedy epitomized by all the bad news taking precedence over hope on TV channels and conspiracy theory networks (mine included.)

I mean, I'm reading gamers' very emotional reactions to Thumpson's statements on FNC and the things they want to do to him are plenty savage enough to vindicate him. I'll bet he reads gamer reactions against him just to give him his morning confidence. Works better than Starbucks.

I hope that I wake up tomorrow morning to find that the increasing fanaticism stirred by emotion was but a bad 20-year-long nightmare and that I have just come out of a persistent vegetative state into a world where intelligence and console balances reign supreme.

Otherwise, may whatever deities or scientific minds we worship help us all.

First off, a quick brief on what the Forelli Factor is:

For Gamespotters who don't know me from 1UP (as if there are any who do) the Forelli Factor (the title anyway) came as a result of my defense of Sony systems stirring much hatred against me and my person. I have been called all kinds of disgusting names simply because I tried to provide a proper defense for the PS3 as is required in proper courts of law. Of course, being the kind of guy that enjoys spiting people, I decided to provide my enlightened (fanbigot translation: blind, biased, retarded, lies, any combination etc.) views on the state of gaming to the world.

Now, it's coming to Gamespot. Liberals* beware. (Previous "webisodes" can be found on my 1UP webpage. And because the liberals* on 1UP think my posts are just too long, the second part of this editorial will be released on Friday.)

*Oh, and unlike Papa Bear, I use the term "liberals" very liberally to almost anybody of any political ideology. My general definition is anybody who disagrees with me, and it is more intensely applied to whiners and opposing-console fanatics. I'm more of a Colbert Report kinda guy.

Impact
Because there is an outside world whose news affects us gamers too.

Yesterday, a crazed maniac decided to take a couple of weapons and shoot up (the people at) Virginia Tech. Being the heartless, insensitive cynic I am, I'm going to be in a groaning state becuase I can imagine how much vultures like Jack Thompson will capitalize on the opportunities afforded by this tragedy, even before the crying's done.

Really, the VTech shooting was a tragedy and my condolences go out to all those affected, but what vultures like JT (let alone the gun-control hippies) can do with it will make anybody angry.

(Note: Shortly after I wrote this, I googled "jack thompson virginia tech," and I quickly proved that I am an oracle, and/or that Jacko is just too predictable.)

One factor that might discourage Wacko Jacko would be the fact that this all took place in a college, and very likely by a college-age person, and thus the shooter would be much more culpable (at least in legal terms regarding his age) than the Columbine Doom kids. Then again, it might push Thumpson to have ALL M-deserving video games banned from sale outright...though I'm hoping that decent, non-gaming Americans will still have the common decency not to follow along with his dogma.

For now, you heard my view, and I hope the gaming community will share it too. You can also write in and give your opinion on potential political developments. Once again, my condolences go out to the victims of this senseless tragedy. And to be honest...I kinda feel sorry for the shooter. Often the most heinous crimes are committed by the most oppressed/neglected people.

Demo Points
I've downloaded a number of demos for my PSP covering a wide variety of genres. I review a number of these on each special...though I'm trying to keep that number down before I run out of demos to download.

TOCA Race Driver 3 Challenge - Three different cars (from three different decades!?), three different "challenges." No exhibition races here, these are all GT-license-****challenges Of course, just like everything in the Race Driver series, you'll be expected to handle these like a pro racer. This one's not for beginners or intermediates...and I'm an intermediate.

Of course, I could bear with the difficulty for quite a while (I remember being obsessed with the Pro Race Driver on the PS2!) and the sounds and damage effects are pretty detailed for a racer on a portable system, too. But the graphics...I'm not so sure. The cars actually look LESS detailed than Ridge Racers, damage models included. You know they could at least come out with more high-res textures...

Would I get the full game? Meh, probably. See the parentheses above. Of course, I'll definitely decide if and when the GT Portable data comes out.

MotoGP - This tiny demo puts you in control of Valentino Rossi's #46 bike on a few laps around the track at Valencia (familiar to Tourist Trophy racers.) The graphics are astounding for a motorcycle game...if only the control was more friendly. The switch from four to two wheels apparently is much harder than in L/VCS, lawl.

Now, being a fan of racing games, I don't always automatically assume that these games are as bad as I say the demos are. The problem is with these demos you really have to be good (and by good I mean better-than-me-and-I'm-pretty-good!) at the genre already to properly race the demos alone. Eerily enough, this has been my demo experience with racing games as far back as Formula 1 for the PS One. Others would provide easy or tutorial levels.

Not that there are exceptions. Go! Sudoku and Ridge Racers 2, for instance. The first provided very easy Sudoku puzzles while the second put you in an average car on a fairly short track whose drifting curves you could easily figure out. Others such as Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror and MOH Heroes gave you the control schemes so at least you knew what to press, and their respective genres are far more familiar.

I say if you're going to make demos, make them of levels that people of other genres can get interested in. I'd include "people of other systems," but you'd obviously have to own that system in order to get the demos for it, no?

(Source: PSPImages - http://www.pspimages.net/pspdemos.php )

Part 2 coming soon. Maybe if people bother to read this then maybe I'll run another one next week. Stay tuned!

Holy crap, I'm here. I've been a lot more active on 1UP even though this account is waaaaaaaaaaaay older. Still, maybe I'll be given incentive to post more around here. I don't know. Maybe I'll start running my notoriously Sony-biased weeklies here. Or something.

Stay tuned. (: