Let me start by saying whomever reads this needs to seriously re-consider purchasing any version of the wonderful, ever failing favorite console in the US, the fabled Xbox 360. I as everyone who wasn't caught by the hype of the next gen, was sceptic towards the 360. Lets face it it wasn't very eye pleasing unless you bought the Pro, and that was only for a 20gig HDD and chrome accents on the disc tray. And the price point was a little more expensive for what you got out of the box. So I waited and when it was time to go with the Next-Gen I chose the Playstation 3. It had the Blu-Ray, which was really nice, and had all the staples of a full multi-media system built in from the word go. But as a avid RPG fan a game forced me to delve into the 360 console. Blue Dragon, the first game for Mistwalker Studio, and one of the creators of the Final Fantasy series.

I was afraid when I got home mainly because of the failure rate of the console right out of the box. And as I carefully connected all the cables, I placed the Blue Dragon Disc in the tray, and whispered a small prayer as the 360 sprung to life. the fans were a little loud, and I could hear the disc read, and everything worked perfectly. So I felt at that time that perhaps I had gotten lucky and my 360 was one of the good ones. Boy, 3 years down the road I was wrong. Red Ring of Death wrong. And now I have to send my console in so they can take my 349.00 360 in for repairs. I feel that Microsoft sees us for what they can squeeze out of you. The 199.99 HD DVD drive, the 99.99 Wifi adapter, and the Xbox Live membership. So why havent they redesigned the 360 to work better? Why does it seem to feel like Microsoft wants your concole to break? Because we don't want to believe it. I later bought an Resident Evil 5 360 only for the optical drive to sound like it grinds. Bad thing is its only 5 months old. But when you pay 399.99 for a nice 360 you don't get a nice 360. Just a kick in the nuts from Microsoft. It is unbelievable that we have all just shut our mouths and just handed our cash over like hypnotized zombies. I mean when is it enough for us as a group to collectively say enough is enough? I paid my money for a quality console and got something that works, but with a milk carton expiration of when you want to play the most. I don't know about everywhere else in the US, but here in my town, people who were once rabid 360 supporters are all converting to the Playstation 3 "Darkside". Not because their traitors in a console war, but because they believe their money is better spent on a better built system.

I dunno if you all are waiting with as much excitement at the impending release of Final Fantasy 13, the newest RPG in the Final Fantasy series. And with that gem coming out, every idea I have had for an RPG just becomes as new as the day I thought about it. And then I think about how the RPG genre is slowly withering and dying. There are some fantastic ones going to handhelds like, Super Robot Taisen, SMT Devil Survivor, and the new Dragon Quest. But the console's are really scarce went it comes to the RPG servings. Why is that? I would love to see a New Dragon Quest, or Rogue Galaxy. But instead, we get Borderlands or crap PC ports like Dragon age. Now Borderlands is fun, but to catagorize it as a RPG is kinda crap. It's more of like a Action/FPS with rpg elements. Where is, like, the awseome RPG's of yesteryear? Alot of our Western RPG's do okay, but Mass Effect or KOTOR, are just not my cup of tea. I want an immersive experience like Star Ocean, or Lost Odessey, or even Eternal Sonata. Blue Dragon was really well done, and so was Tales of Vesperia. Nothing has yet to touch the legendary status of Final Fantasy VIII. I mean we as fan's have been asking for years, the remake of FFVII. That would be so awesome, with the HD graphics, the awesome story, and possibly with some new gameplay tweeks. Hell from what I have seen with FFXIII, use its combat system. That would be awesom to see Cloud actually do what he did in Advent Children. Enough FPS's I wan to see a golden age of great sweeping epics known as RPG's!

Exclusives are awesome, if you have the console that they are exclusive to. Here is my gripe, Final Fantasy 13 which was annouced as a PS3 exclusive is now delayed in North America because Xbox owners REALLY want to play FF 13. Are you kidding me? Xbox was more concerned with Fable and KOTOR before ever considering FF13. Now Star Ocean? Come on they won't even put Only on Xbox on the friggin package! This is ruining alot of console owners selection of games they are familiar with. No one who owns one console is going to buy another for one game. But lets make all the games for PLAYSTATION owners 360 exclusives when we all know 360 is mainly shooter based fans. Hell I play Gears of war on my xbox 99% of the time. I sure the hell wasn't considering buying Star Ocean for friggin 360. But I have to because it will probably 6 months to a year for the PS3 counterpart to release. When does it become necessary for games to finally just ALL come multiplatform. I thing gears would be a helluva lot better on a Blu-Ray disc! It's time we focus on the games rather than the console. Microsoft doesn't know what it wants or what kind of gamer they want, Sony knows that the hardcore fans a clamouring for a FF7 remake, and Nintendo has nothing to worry about because the Wii is a gotta have item even though half the time there system is on someone's entertainment center collecting dust. I have 12 to 25 Xbox and 10-19 PS3 games but 4 Wii games and PS3 and Xbox are getting outsold on a console, that doesn't push any kind of real graphical power? Come on! You guys are the friggin consumer here! I say forget about making money and create a PLAYSTATION 360 that plays both of the consoles games and leave the rest to fate!

It's been awhile but lets see if I can still do this. What is with fee's for Xbox Live? Honestly, Playstation's PSN is free and as good as Xbox Live. How do I know this? Because I own all 3 Next-Gen consoles. I get the arguement that Xbox Live's customer service is steller, blah, blah blah. But now Sony has caught up. A free service, similar and equal to Live is now available. When is it enough? Except for Exclusives, I buy most Collectors or Special Editions on my PS3. Why? Because the online is FREE! Gears of War 2 is the ONLY reason I pay for Xbox Live. I bought the Limited Edition, but that honestly hurt my Xbox budget mainly because I have to allot for Live. Where do we as gamers cross the line? When Live becomes 12 insead of 8 dollars a month? Where do we say "Enough Microsoft!". When we find out that MS knew about the RROD before release? Or maybe that they knew that some consoles ripped up 60 dollar games? Where are our collective nuts when it comes to MS compensating the consumer? I dont like being looked at like a dollar sign, rather than a valued consumer, who chose to buy MS products. Where do we draw the line? Sony is not entirely innocent either. Although the price may cause some serious loss, the PS3 needs to come down. Period. Yes you get free online but Sony is expensive too. How are younger gamers gonna talk their parents into buying a PS3 for X-mas or B-days at 399 and 499? Lets show some concern for your customers guys!

What the hell is wrong with some gamers critizing a game that hasn't been released yet? For example the Burst Limit forum was abuzz on Atari.com and I figured it was all good, everyone being excited about he game as they should be. Then some people started spitting out crap like" I'm gonna wait until BL2" or other thing's basically downing a game they haven't played. It is an insult to the fans and developers for uneducated people to say" If it's not online..." or " if it doesn't have this ability, I don't want it." it's friggin ridiculous. Where do you all get off saying this or that sucks when you have not played it? Who makes you the authority on what's good with out touching a controller? I think we all need to give these games a chance before we make judgements. Hell when are a gamer, a real gamer, you give games a honest shot. Hell I didn't think Disgaea was going to be good, but it ended up being one of my favorite games. Please all of you, reserve your judgements after you play not before.

The new game hype phenom is coming again, usually after e3 and you know what? Prepare to be dissapointed. Look not to say that the developers aren't tryin there hardest to release their future games of the year, but with the holiday season being flooded with first person shooters and half-assed attempts to re-invent a genre (Too Human I am talking to you!) hardcore gamers are getting left out. Sure we are getting Gears 2 and hopefully a good sequel to Resistance, but when titles like Madden and Smackdown VS Raw start looking good there is a problem. Where is Final Fantasy, where is Heavenly Sword 2, Where is Uncharted 2? Where are the games that people wanna play? For example, Chrono Trigger is being re-released for the DS and that's great but for who? I would have loved for Square-Enix to have redone this game with an Xbox 360, or a PS3? The effort would have been well worth the 59.99 price! Sure we get Tales of Vesperia and Tales of Symphonia 2, but what else? Ninja Gaiden 2 was good but short as hell! There are maybe a total of 5 games on my list this holiday season: Gears 2, Ultimate Ninja Storm, Force Unleashed, Tales of Vesperia, and Infinite Undiscovery. Maybe Resistance and Disgaea 3 I haven't decided. Oh and Tales of Symphonia 2, if I don't smash Nintendo for not making real gamer titles for Wii. Where are these games that everyone is wanting? Here's a biggie, Final Fantasy 7, the most requested remake for the PS3. Where is it? It's like the fans are handing them their money for free....Come on! Some of the best games for PS2 came towards the ass end of the life of the console....I want to enjoy my systems now! I dunno, guys maybe I am asking too much, it's not like I spent an Ungodly amount of money on consoles, the tv to go with it, or games. My opinion doesn't matter right? Even though Square got a list of over 500,000 names to make FF7 only to get a polite no. Then send us crap like Too Human, and expect us to be happy. Where are the beta testers for that? My point is that maybe we all need to be more active with our opinions so that we as a gaming community can avoid constant dissapointment with crap games.

Hey everyone this will be my first blog, so please bear with me. I decided to take on the console war between, Microsoft, and Sony. The view is not about graphic's or Blu-Ray, or even about exclusive titles. This is about what fits and works. I am fortunate enough to be able to own all three console's and really only two of them have the ability to plug in a go. Fact is that Sony's late to the party Playstation 3, and Nintendo's Wii console are ready to go out of the box. I can only assume that with Wifi, and decent online is the one of the selling points that Sony and Nintendo used in pitching their console. However I think that people don't look at these type of built in features anymore. Now we come to Microsoft. Xbox Live has really been the driving force behind this console, and even with continuing problems with malfunctioning, mainly the Red Ring of Death, Cooling fan issues, ETC, people still purchase this console. On top of that we have to pay ungodly amount's of money for a 10 dollar piece of plastic that allows Wifi. Now mostly all the US household's have internet connectons, and a wireless router. Now would'nt it be a smart for a console company to include a simple thing as a reciever for Wifi? How is charging 99 dollar's for a Wifi adapter gamer friendly? Or 50 dollars a year for the privelege of playing online? Do they not realize we pay 59.99 for these games now? Where is the pro's for the gamer? Not to mention the absurdly long wait for repairs on your Xbox if it does take a dump. An Intercooler is nesscesary because Microsoft can't put a decent fan in their console. Crap up another 20 bucks for that. I remember the day's when you had to buy everything for your console, controllers, cables, light guns, the works. This is supposed to be a new age! All I want is a game system that I don't have to buy crap for. Sony has the right idea, build everthing in, little more in price, but free online. It has a 10 year life span, so what's 10 years multiplied by fifty? 500 bucks, and after the parts and such to make the system complete you pay almost a thousand dollars to Microsoft. And there are plenty Xbox Fanboy's to go around so Microsoft is going to be sitting very pretty in the years to come. While others who work their jobs and scrape together another 59.99 to buy their games and have to choose if the game or the accessory is worth it. Now I say to you, screw the console war. Look at the picture with facts and not loyality to a brand. I want these companies to look and see and realize that gamers as a group are tired of everyone left unheard, and looked at as dollar sign's. We play games to be challenged, to enjoy a compelling story, or to stop a world war. Not to be drained out of every last dime. So I think it's time we all asked for some leaway. Come on Microsoft, give back to the gamers!