Sony Execs: How f*#%ing stupid are you? Are you really that arrogant? As they say, Pride Goeth Before the Fall.....At any rate, after watching a few episodes of Mind of Mencia and reviewing Sony decisions of the past year or so, here's what runs through my head:
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We'll gamble on an untried untested new type of processor, the Cell....D D D

We'll force Blu-Ray adoption and it will work even though there isn't a unified format....D D D

Let's promise a Spring 2006 launch just to try and steal the XB360's thunder, then renege....D D D

Let's criticize the MS 360 Dual SKU strategy as too confusing then do it ourselves...D D D

We'll laugh and point fingers at MS for the world launch strategy, then try to emulate but fail to execute...D D D

We'll show CGI trailers and swear up and down they are gameplay because the vidiots won't care...D D D

$599....D D D

Let's steal the XBLive Button and Wiimote functionality, but lose rumble...D D D

Let's run LINUX on the PS3 and have HDD bootable games because no one will pirate our $60-$100 games.....D D D

We'll give Japan and US a minimal # of consoles and say Pha-Q to most of Eurasia-they won't mind....D D D

"Next Gen starts when we say it starts" but don't trust us to actually tell you when it is.....D D D

"HD out of the box, the only real HD experience" but you still have to buy a $100 cable....D D D
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I think that the Sony employee carpool program consists of bringing executive in on the short bus.

I just moved into my own home (no more landlord-yay!) and we have a bunch more space.  I took the opportuinty to get some of my old gaming gear from my Mom's Garage (well, my brother's too, but he's in Oregon).  Wow.  I can't believe that my brother and I had so much stuff!  I just finished going through my old 2600 games (my 2600 still works, with the 2nd player port still broken like I remember) and repacking them for storage here.  I made a list and added them to my collection.

Soon I'm going to go back and get my C64 boxes and my brother's NES/SNES boxes.  Unfortunately I traded in most of my Genesis games, but I'll check those too.

You know, most of these games don't hold up well, but this did stoke my appetite for the Atari Flashback.

I bought my son a DS Lite for his 12th Birthday, with Nintendogs and New SMB.  I made a huge mistake-I should have kept it for me, LOL.  I haven't gotten to play much, but nSMB seems to be very much in line with the original.  Maybe I should save up and get the black edition if/when it comes to the US?  It is between that and saving for a Wii.

Decisions, decisions!

I probably won't get another 360 game before Gears of War, unless I spring for PDZ at the new reduced price.  I want PGR3 and BFMEII as well, but not if I'm looking at $300 and LoZ:TP come November.

First of all, let me say that PREY rocks. If you have not played the demo (and are over the age of 13), go set it to download. Go on, I'll wait.

OK, back to the comparison. I have played them both to the end 2x and what struck me was the utter similarity. With a few minor exceptions enemy placement, passageways, even the timing of the 'vomiting orifices' were exactly the same. Wow, I was expecting some platform localization. I guess not.

While it isn't as much a comment about the PC version as such, I can say that the XB360 looked much better. There was a little stutter as framerates dipped noticeably 1-2 times in the XB360 version, but the graphics were much better. I think that the PC demo autoscaled back some of the graphics options, and this caused the smoother framerate on the PC while 'de-beautifying' the graphics. I noticed that 'Jen' looked more blocky and less realistic if you know what I mean. Grandfather's headdress was also less detailed, as well as most of the textures. For example, on the 360 I could tell that there is a sort of 'human slurry' that was being squeezed through the pipes; on the PC it looked more like red KoolAid. As I said, this is likely as much a comment on my obsolescent cheap gaming PC as it is on the relative merits of the different versions, but it matters to me.

I plunked down 5$ and traded in 2 GBA SPs towards the XB360 Collector's Edition. I can't wait for 11 July! How about you?

OK, ok, the battle lines are drawn and firmed up already. The Crabs have started to come back from the stunning blow that was E3'06. Obviously, as a Lemming/Hermit/Sheep (in that order) I disagree with most of what they say. In fact, I find much of it seriously lacking in logic or rationality.

All the same, I can't help but wonder and how we got here and what it means for gamers overall.

SONY painted themselves into a corner with 2 risky gambles: the Cell and Blu-Ray. These technologies are risky because, quite frankly, no one has tried to go down these routes before. The Cell, although controlled by a PowerPC CPU, is an innovative idea which is more revolutionary than evolutionary. Blu-Ray relies on a new type of laser with a significantly shorter wavelength; although not revolutionary, it is certainly a large evolutionary step. The risk is that the early performance will not be worth the cost, and these might be 'dead-end' technologies.

By choosing to out-tech Microsoft (in reflection a distinction of dubious merit), SONY has made it impossible to compete on price. SONY hardcore fans and rich whiny brats notwithstanding, this is a fundamental error, because gaming consoles are an elastic, not inelastic good. In other words, a small change in price has a relatively large effect on the quantity sold.

In a world where rising housing costs are eclipsed only by the stratospheric price of gasoline, I'm willing to bet that many families who would be in the market for a PS3 will make other arrangments. I see the XB360 in the top slot with the Wii following in 2nd place, with respect to sales.

Why is this bad news for an admitted SONY anti-fan? In a word, CHOICE. If SONY flops as I expect, it is conceivable that they might pull out of the marketspace altogether. I hope they try a retrenching redesign with optional Blu-Ray, or something similar first, but the costs would be outrageous at this point. If Microsoft is left as the sole player in the high-end console market, I expect that innovation will suffer its usual fate in a monopoly.

If SONY is out of it, when can we expect the XBox 720 (or whatever), and why is Microsoft worried about giving us our money's worth? A lean and hungry company trying to prove itself will give we, the gaming population, what we want and deserve for our hard-earned cash. I think the lesson of the PS3 is that when a company gets old, fat, lazy and complacent, product will suffer.

I hope I am wrong about what might happen in the next year or so.

*knocks on wood & crosses fingers*

I thought that nothing could tear me away from Oblivion, but GW: Factions has done the trick.  I am falling in love with Guild Wars all over again.  The quests are good and the cooperative missions are truly chalenging.

True, there are some noobs out there, but for the most part I find PUG gaming is OK.  I generally solo with Henchies on the quests, though, and go on missions with live players.

Although some people claim the gameplay changes are for the worse, I do enjoy the more rapid pace of leveling up.  It opens up the world much more quickly, which is great for veterans who don't need their hands held all the way across the street.

If you want, feel free to add me as a freind.  My name is Anyang Vell ingame.  Whisper me and let me know you are from GS and maybe we could run some quests if I am on.

What can I say? Well, let me start by saying I CALLED IT! Check my last blog before this one and I was mostly on the money. SONY is shooting themselves in the foot with the pricing of the PS3. Of course, it was inevitable due to the risky gambles on the Cell, Blu-Ray, and all of the irrelevant features (some of which were dropped).

I was expecting the Halo 3 teaser, but was still blown away. I am also even more impressed with Gears of War (assuming such a thing was possible in advance of actually playing it). The real kicker was the GTA IV announcement-available for XB360 on day one with exclusive downloadable content? Sayonara, Sony!

FYI: Out of 150 students I shared the PS3 pricing with, only one planned to buy it, and he is a fairly hardcore Japanophile (anime + JRPGs) with enough $$$ to burn, I guess.

If pressed, I must admit that I can see the ominous dark shadows of the future in what has occurred in the past two days: a virtual MS monoploy with Nintendo as a sizeable minority player may strangle competition in the long run. As satisfied as I am that I outguessed Merril-Lynch and the other paid analysts, I do feel a bit of aprehension when I wonder what gaming will be like in 3 years or so.

As we gear up for E3 '06 I thought I'd put my money where my mouth is and share my PS3 predictions.

1.  PS3 will be late.  I don't think that Sony will release worldwide before Thanksgiving.  I see a pre-Turkeyday launch in Japan.  The NA and Europe launch will be Spring and Summer '07 respectively.  There may be a token # of consoles outside of Japan, but it will be less than 100,000 total outside of Japan.

2.  PS3 will not ship according to Sony's schedule.  Sony claims that they will ship 7 million by May '07, with roughly 1 million/month.  I see maybe 1 million total by May of '07 world wide, and that is stretching it.

3.  PS3 will either have a faster BR drive or an HDD, but not both.  If Sony keeps the 60GB HDD as standard it will be to make up for an obscenely slow 1x BR drive.  It will also be a mistake if they use LINUX as the OS (piracy, but that is a different post).

4.  PS3 'Hub' will not be like XBL.  It will not have the functionality of XBL AND it will not be free.

5.  PS3 Price Point? $599.

6.  PS3 will lose functionality before launch.  Remember when the PS3 was going to be your home router?  You'll soon be saying that about dual HDMI outputs as well.

Your thoughts?

I just got a 360 and I am loving it.  I wanted a Premium but couldn't find one in my town, so I swettled for a core and a HDD.  Yeah, I'll pay a bit more, but I wanted to play Oblivion over Spring Break (starts today).  It was so awesome...my wife surprised me after work Tuesday then put up with me driving all over town to buy it.

I had no idea she was saving up to let me got one....I was planning maybe by the end of summer.  This is another bonus of quitting smoking-the money came from that part of the household budget!

Well, I'm off to play some more Oblivion.  Later, all!

I admit it: I got owned.  My team came in 3rd out of 7 in the 4x4x4x4 Halo Tournament at my school last Friday.  We missed second by 1 point, and were 6 out of first place in Team Slayer.

Oh well, the winning team has to deal with my suddenly harsher grading policies!  J/K, congrats to the winning team.  If you see this Joe, you are indeed my daddy, Halo-wise.