One thing that i have noticed in all my time on the ps3 forums on various sites, and my own personal experiance is that people want the PS3 to have in-game XMB (cross media bar). to clarify what im talking about, turn on your ps3 and hit the "PS" button when your console is started up. here you have a list of options to choose from, the list grows and shrinks depending on what your doing at that time. in game you have more options than if you were just sitting on the cross media bar doing nothing. well people want the PS3s cross media bar to pop up durring gameplay rather than that list of options to choose from.

in their defence they point to the features they want to have access to durring the heat of battle, or rather a lobby room waiting for a game to start up. we have people who want in game messaging, i too want this feature very much, so you can recieve game invites and go to your friends lobby and join up with him/her...or perhaps your so bored you sent a message to your buddy asking him/her how their sick mother is doing in the hospital, and you eagerly await their message. thats a very good reason and would make gaming with friends that much easier. other people point to the icon near the middle of the XMB, thats right the music option. some people want to have access to their relativly large music libraries and be able to play them in-game. not as good a reason as messaging IMO, but a reason none the less.

now i had ideas such as, "wow! i can pause my game bring up the XMB and watch a video on how to do XYZ so i get the secret" but the ps3 just doesnt have enough ram to run the game, and then play my video ontop of that all while running the entire XMB as well...it just doesnt. same thing with the web browser and other features the XMB presents...it also rases the question of how would i turn off my controller or system from here...

as a solution i will suggest what i call XMB lite. its a much smaller version of the XMB that has much less in terms of options.

imagine you hit the "ps" button and it brings up the usual list of options, including powering off your system and controller. but like the XMB if you hit right or left it takes you to a diffrent category of options. if you hit right, it gives you access to your friends list as well as your in and out box for quick game invites before a game...or if your so concerned about your friends sick mother you can read that message as you get shot in the face by your enemy. on the far left could be music options which all you ahve to do is go down to playlist folder select yourplay list and the music starts up. or if you have the time you can work your way though an easy folder system to select a band or even a single song if you wished.

this XMB lite would give people access to the features they want/need, while not giving you the full XMB and all its functions ingame. it also answeres all concerns that i know off, including how would you turn your console off from the XMB if they got rid of the list of options that pop up when you currently hit the "ps" button.

Well today i feel especially ranty and im ammusing myself today more than usual...*giggles about all his jokes from previous wii blog*...right back on topic. i feel like crtiisizing sony for a change, considering ive been called just about every type of fanboy now...the only ones im lacking is ds fanboy and psp fanboy at this point.

Sony seems to expect everyone and their aunt louise to have enough money to throw down 500+ USD on a console that at this point in time, has a very limited library. tho i will put a positive spin on the high price and tell you that the high price has keptall traces of prepubecent gir- i mean boysoff of the online community where im able to actually enjoy my game in my room without tearing out my eardrums from the squeeky voices of little gir- i mean boys from shouting in my ears making them bleed.at the high buy in price also keeps sony and other developers from mistaking the ps3 as a family console and putting out games such as pretty ponies, or even carnival games out for the ps3. but after that positive spin i probably look much more like a fanboy, so back to the negitive. But with no reason to buy into a ps3 right now over the competition i have no idea what sony was thinking.

*throws the rock who has as much character development as mario at the ps3 fanboy who is about to speak up* yes im aware the ps3 price is coming down, but the truth is thats still far too high to gain mass popularity that the ps2 had midway though its life...crap im talking about the ps2 3 years into its life and comparining it to the ps3s first year...well then...

...well thats all im able to really think of that has a valid argument against sony right now...well...i could attack the 3rd party and call the playstation3 the delaystation3 but thats out of sonys hands...

right, another bad thing.

seriously who ever designed the ps3 should be fired. i dont know what possessed them to do it but the ps3 is glossy as hell, not that its a bad thing...i rather like shiny objects such as money and jewels sent from god himself in the form of my weekly paycheck. but that glossy finish gets scratched so easily! i can clearly see millions and milllions of little micro scratches on the system...

Yes, the title was meant to be funny/ironic/anything else it falls under.

going back on topic, out of all the next gen systems i felt the wii held the most potential. it wanted to change how we play the game, how the game feels, how we react to the game, not shoving as many pixles and polygons down the throat of fanboys in hopes that they look so amazing 12 year old boys go fapping to them at night, right awkward and moving on. When the wii cameout there were promises of 1:1 combat, lightsabers, amazing controls for shooters, everything and its mom was going to be better using the wiimote...awkward again and this time im running very quickly away from that one.

because of all these promises and my already high expectations of what a game should be, but then again my standards of the gaming world has been lowered by the over hyped behemoth that was promised to be the 3rd coming of jesus considering that halo2 would have been the 2nd coming of jesus if you talked to anyfanboy... right anyway i still have high standards and i dont expect them to fall so low for me to accept a game like wiifit anytime soon.

right, with that out of the way back to my rant in the form of a blog where i dont have to hear all the wiitar....wiifanboys throwing a fit bigger than marios when he found out bowser was banging peach and got her pregnant. The main point i wanted to make, and the reason i named the blog post the way i did is simply because of wiifit. after 17 years of gaming (started when i was 2 and got the original brick GB for my 2nd birthday), and when i say gaming i mean RPGs, FPS, Platformers, RTS, monopoly (it should be its own genre of game consider how many bloody versions of the game there is), and even a little *gasp* MMORPG time i feel i have played enough games out there to have an idea of what i do and do not like.

the only game i know of that i have truely hated on sight would be none other than Nintendos Wiifit. this game is aimed at the little old ladies living god knows where, who have never played a game before (with the acception of wii sports which they should have considering nintendo believes grandma went out and bought a wii because of how awesome it truely is). what ever happened to making a game for the guy who has been buying your stuff for 17 years? why are you marketing to my mum who has no idea what the hell a wiifit even is? i mean the only people who know about wiifit at this point are gamers...and while some gamers support wiifit, i feel those gamers are just saying that because they rtar...i need to stop almost saying that word...gamespot doesnt look lightly apon the use of that word...because they are fanboys who think nintendo can do no wrong. while some might legitly think its a good idea, and may even use it...theres no way i can see wiifit having this much support with such games as...roll the ball in the hole. when is nintendo going to get it together and see your get more game sells...by marketing to the guy who buys 2 games a month aka ei Me.

now some people might stop and say "wait there your raving rabid fanboy of Sony considering all your other blogs are about the 360s failure rate, what about Mario and brawl?!" well chaps, im a gamer who likes a little depth to his games and characters. with Mario being the flag ship icon of nintendo, im say do say a rock in final fantasy has more character development than mario in all of his games. Mario is a plumber who saves princesses, that rock is a hard thing that lays on the ground unless its used in a cut scene to be pushed ontop of something....there you go mario has as much character development as a rock. you could almost say marios character development is...paper thing...or maybe even...marios character development is 2-d...man im killing myself today. as for the topic of brawl...while this game very much is aimed at a gamer like myself, this is too little too late. i also had issues with many things in melee, from being able to attack through solid pillars with marth so i could be a camping hore who every one hated, to the ability to wave dash with fox killing the other player eithout giving him a chance to fight back...so best of luck nintendo at making SSBB what it should be.

This is once again about 360 fans who just dont seem to have the ability to see the light. For all of you who are thinking this is going to be a mindless Sony playslave ranting about the 360, by light i mean seeing the failure rate as unacceptable.

Its not odd to see me in the 360 forums 2 days a week (saturday and sunday) between the hours of 6am-6pm (the hours im at work). as such i get to see some of the heavier traffic on the forums. one of the most popular types of threads (besides the 4th coming of Jesus known as halo3 [halo was the 2nd coming of jesus, and halo2 was his 3rd coming]) would be about the 360s dreaded RED RING OF DEATH! *insert awesome sound effects* in such threads you get two main factions. those who see it as not a big deal, and people like me who see it as totaly outragious. one of the main arguments for those who dont see it as a big deal is Microsofts ability to love its consumer, and give them a 3 year limited warrenty (1 year for all ahrdware, 3 year only applies to RROD). They say the massive failure rate of the 360 is alright, MS will take care of you and replace your 360. you have 3years of MSs protection. dont worry dont worry just spend 50 dollars and get a warrenty from bestbuy!

that is a horrable way to look at this situation, spend extra money because MS built a console with a massive failure rate. thats the last thing i want to spend more money on. Why is it ok for MS to have (projected 33%) huge failure rate, and for it to be over looked because you have a 3 year limited warrenty? something like this shouldnt be over looked simply because MS says to send them the console and wait 6-8 weeks to get one back!

dont settle for bad hardware just because MS offers a warrenty. the warrenty should be a safety net for those who happened to get a console with a bad part...not a policy 1/3 of the 360 fanbase is going to have to deal with.

Microsoft itself has finally manned up enough to admit the 360 has a problem, a big one. 10-11million (at the time 100%) of all 360s were manufacured with a design flaw. That very flaw was one of the main reasons 360 units were so often going down for the count suffering from the RRoD. There have been reports that as high as 33% of all 360s are dieing out and having to be replaced by MS.

MS has said their is a problem, but should the users be concerened? man 360 fans (and fanboys) dont think so. they will shrug off the hardware failure and keep moving forward saying things such as "you get a 3 year warrenty, so your 360 will be replaced", or sometimes they will try and argue that the RRoD isnt as wide spread as believed. these fans stick with the 360 to the bitter end, just sending in their console multiple times to MS, wondering if MS would be so kind to send them a new unit with a new heat syc, some are even so bold to hope for the HDMI enabled 360s.

even more astonishing is the fact many owners admit to buying multiple systems because they keep breaking down. they might buy 2 or 3 of these as they look for a working one. i really dont understand this morality at all. the first time my 360 died i returned it to GameStop and got a new one from their inhouse warrenty. once my second one starting acting up a year later, i got rid of it and upgraded to an elite. That to broke, it was the first one in my district to break. so now im on xbox360 #4 elite #2. so far so good (knock on wood). but a few days after i switched out xbox#2 for #3 i began to wonder, Why did i put up with this? Why was i so set on getting a 360 when obviously the 360 didnt want me? MS doesnt want my money, they dont want me to play games on their system. they just wanted me to buy a Xbox360 that i could ship back to them.

How does a system who constantly fails get such a strong backing? why do the Users put up with such hardware? why do they support it?

There comes a time when a gamer must choose his main console. with so many AA+ titles going multi system some times theres no clear winner in terms of game library to choose which system will be your main one. this has been a rather hard decision to make this generation because of the ammount of time i spent on my 360 prior to this forkin the road.

DMC4, Resident evil 5, CoD4, Unreal tournament 3, etc.

we know their names, we know they are bound to be pretty good. having such titles on multiple systems can make it hard to choose which one is your console of choice. for me, the answer became pretty clear in the last few months.

I was a happy 360 owner, excited i was going to beable to play some of the franchises i grew to love on the ps2 on my 360. figured i wouldnt need to get a ps3 at this rate. everything seemed to be going well, halo3, franchises from the playstation, new apps. Everything took a turn for the worse. after taking my halo disk out of my 360, i discovered evidence of scratching on the bottom of my disk. the game still ran, but its not a good feeling knowing your 360 was eating away at my games. MS told me to stop moving my console when it was on, they refused to believe that it scratched disks while stationary. as such i felt pissed, but there was too many games for the 360 i wanted...so i got myself another 360. good investment i thought, so many games for the 360 i wanted, getting a new console will be worth it. boy, was i wrong. the new system ran fine, quie, not as hot, better in every way over the original 360 unit i had. Something was still amiss tho. having a new unit didnt take my worry away. i was still paranoid of the 360 eating my games, asking god to save my console from the RRoD every time i turned it on, i had lost all trust in the xbox name. then MS announced all 360s had a fatal problem at e3 2007, and they were going to include a 3 year warrenty for all units. this onl added to my distrust of my 360 unit.

At this point, i felt a little betrayed by MS. they didnt replace my old 360 cause they wouldnt take my word the unit scratched disks on its own. their hardware was faulty, they have money in reserve to replace 1 in 3 xbox 360s...meaning they expected a 33% RRoD rate for 360 units sold. i didnt want to put in all my games only for them to get ruined, it just seemed like a dumb idea. thats when for the first time buying a ps3 seemed like a really really nice idea. a very similar gaming library to the 360, then countless AA+ exclusive titles that were not going to be on the 360 (mgs4 and FFXIII). PSN was free, the hardware has a reported less than 1% defect rate, and its not like i was getting rid of my 360...so i could still get halo3.

in the end, i would have ended up with a ps3...but because of the hardware issues of the 360 it greatly accelerated when i was going to purchase a ps3. In the end most of the games i wanted were multiconsole games, so i dont feel im missing out on the experiance. ill play halo3 on my 360, but im moving the rest of my gaming needs to the PS3.