I've heard a lot of stories and read articles about PS4's problems with HDMIs and Graphic Cards and unoperational. And it really disturbed me, especially those who won the Playstation 4 from Taco Bell. This isn't about a rant on how Sony didn't realize the problem with their consoles before the big launch party or a bash on Sony lovers. This is about how launch consoles work and analyzing ways of solve the problem instead of sending angry e-mails or tweets to Sony. The truth about launch consoles is: there will be problems anyway. When the consoles launch to the public, companies like Sony wouldn't have time to check every console or product to see if it works. It takes too much time and money to do that and delay the arrival date. I have to come in terms with it. Look at the PS3 and the 360 launch. Majority of the first launch day for the 360 suffered from the Red Ring of Death. And Microsoft found out that the consoles were played nonstop. They were used day by day and the hardware couldn't withstand the long gameplay and it shut down. So, they had to create a new Xbox 360 that have the endurance to be used nonstop. For the Playstation 3, the problem was the manufacturing. After testing the console's power, they forgot one big thing: the hardware could not fit inside the new case. So, they had to delay the launch for six more days.

In the end, I'm proud as an avid gamer to see Playstation 4 launch was a success albeit the horrific reviews on it, but that was foreseen anyway. They will be more successful because they have consumers to give them feedback on the problems. That's how PS3 had no problems. For those who have a PS4 and had problems with it, all you can do is contact Sony or write on their forums and tell them the issue. It doesn't have to be angry (trust me, I know how it is to spend almost half a thousand dollars on a product that doesn't work). Sony will address it and work on it to ensure the happiness of their customers. They need your feedback to improve the system. And that goes for the Xbox One. When One is launched, it's gonna have problems too and Microsoft needs consumer feedback to help it be a valuable console. I always remember too: not everyone is going to be happy. That's customer service for you.

I'm happy for the PS4 launch and I can't wait to hear the news about the Xbox One launch also. I think this will be an explosive month for the two giants in the gaming industry despite of the initial problems. I know they will be at full force at the beginning of the new year, especially PC and other gaming consoles that I forgot to mention.

I've heard a lot of stories and read articles about PS4's problems with HDMIs and Graphic Cards and unoperational. And it really disturbed me, especially those who won the Playstation 4 from Taco Bell. This isn't about a rant on how Sony didn't realize the problem with their consoles before the big launch party or a bash on Sony lovers. This is about how launch consoles work and analyzing ways of solve the problem instead of sending angry e-mails or tweets to Sony. The truth about launch consoles is: there will be problems anyway. When the consoles launch to the public, companies like Sony wouldn't have time to check every console or product to see if it works. It takes too much time and money to do that and delay the arrival date. I have to come in terms with it. Look at the PS3 and the 360 launch. Majority of the first launch day for the 360 suffered from the Red Ring of Death. And Microsoft found out that the consoles were played nonstop. They were used day by day and the hardware couldn't withstand the long gameplay and it shut down. So, they had to create a new Xbox 360 that have the endurance to be used nonstop. For the Playstation 3, the problem was the manufacturing. After testing the console's power, they forgot one big thing: the hardware could not fit inside the new case. So, they had to delay the launch for six more days.

In the end, I'm proud as an avid gamer to see Playstation 4 launch was a success albeit the horrific reviews on it, but that was foreseen anyway. They will be more successful because they have consumers to give them feedback on the problems. That's how PS3 had no problems. For those who have a PS4 and had problems with it, all you can do is contact Sony or write on their forums and tell them the issue. It doesn't have to be angry (trust me, I know how it is to spend almost half a thousand dollars on a product that doesn't work). Sony will address it and work on it to ensure the happiness of their customers. They need your feedback to improve the system. And that goes for the Xbox One. When One is launched, it's gonna have problems too and Microsoft needs consumer feedback to help it be a valuable console. I always remember too: not everyone is going to be happy. That's customer service for you.

I'm happy for the PS4 launch and I can't wait to hear the news about the Xbox One launch also. I think this will be an explosive month for the two giants in the gaming industry despite of the initial problems. I know they will be at full force at the beginning of the new year, especially PC and other gaming consoles that I forgot to mention.

News media has been spiraling out of control when there is a teen who went on a killing spree for some horrible reason or obvious reason (based on human behavior) and it is society job to place the blame on. The video game industry are given a bad rep when a impressible teen decide to go on a bloody rampage and kill innocent people. It's more like the video game reason is being replaced from bad parenting. Like the latest LAX shootout. If the police (or they probably did) search that dude's house and discover GTA 5 and Call of Duty in his room, they will say he was influenced by these games to go out and do this heinous act. And we don't look at the main focus here. The real focus is kids who already have mental problems in the beginning.

I hear most adults who don't understand video game industry saying, "Let's ban video games from country". You wouldn't believe it but I have heard this. And my argument is "if we get rid video games, then we should rid of television show, movies, books, music, and any form of entertainment that talks or demonstrate violence". But, that person is still violent. Why is that? It's because as humans (believe it or not, we are mammals so therefore we are animals), we are violent anyway. We are the most violent organism on the planet. We were violent thousands of years ago and nothing is going to change that. I mean look at how we build houses or shopping malls or whatever things we need to build. In order to build things, there's got to be destruction. We destroy natural habitats for animals for a Wal-Mart. But back to the subject, with morals and law and order, we still have people who violent or have violent tendencies. But, roots down to one solution to that problem, bad or the absence of parenting.

Right now, there is a parent who is letting their ten year old son or daughter play Call of Duty and they are the ones who complain about the violence in video games. They would say video games are too violent for my child. As if it's the developers responsibility to tone down the violence in gaming, but in reality, the only responsible thing that developer or company have is the ESRB rating. The developers aren't your babysitter, that's not their responsibility. That's the parents' job. We have become a country where we want to shield our children from any form of adult content, but our children will find out about these anyway. And parents should know this. One thing that I learned in parenting from the brother is children will tell you what they want or they lie to you about what they're up to. It's the parent's job to find out what they are up to. If the kid is acting weird, investigate it. Yes, it sounds awful, but you need to know what's going because it is a thin line between your life and the lives of many people.

When the (Heaven forbid) Connecticut Elementary school shooting happened last year, they investigated that kid and found out that he was a gamer. So, video games manipulated this poor child to kill his mother and shoot the elementary school and shoot himself. And we blamed video games for this. Nevermind the fact that the kid had access to guns, his mother taught him to shoot guns, and has a low self-esteem because his parents look at his older sibling like a success. Video games did not create his lifestyle, his parents did. And that's for every single person who did the same mass shooting. I watched Fox News about this on Youtube and they showed all the people who did mass shootings throughout the years up to today. The commentators linked the connection that all these kids were gamers. I said BS, all of them have a common denominator, there were no parenting influence and that they had mental issues way before they were exposed to video games.

Can we say video games are scapegoat to hide our incompetency in parenting? We do that a lot in America and not just on video games. We blame things or other people about our problems but we don't look at ourselves. We don't look at ourselves for the problems that befallen us. It's time to look at ourselves and see we are fault with our own problems. For these parents, why my kid is violent because you are not looking at the signs. And most parents don't want to see the fact that their own child would capable of this and I don't blame. But they have to vigilant and face facts, if your kid is doing something out of the ordinary, find out what it is. You might be helping this person shape himself/herself to be a better person. Put morals in their lives. So that way, we can reduce the violence that we have now instead of blaming other things that has nothing to do with situation. Video game industry is a business. Just like alcohol and cigarette business that provided warnings, Video game industry provides rating labels for each game. They are not responsible for us.

NES, Super Nintendo, N64, Gamecube, and Wii were successful consoles and practically had the most successful launch until a year ago. The Wii U has proven to be Nintendo's failure ever since the launch and throughout the months, sales has not improve. In a way, this was Nintendo's fault for letting this happen and having low sales on a next gen console that supposed to be revolutionary. In retrospect, Wii U could been successful. It could have high sales. The only problem is Nintendo didn't see it nor oblivious to the fact that Wii U is really a better console after all. Nintendo has many advantages in the console wars against the 360 and PS3 from exclusives down to functionality.

The obvious advantage Nintendo has over the two giants were first party games. Nintendo is notorious of exclusive games while Xbox had small exclusive games and Playstation 3 had only a few like Uncharted to name the least. If you want play Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Star Fox, Pokémon, Yoshi Island, or even the cute pink ball, Kirby, you have to have a Nintendo console. It's either that or not play Mario at all. That was the major advantage Nintendo had but didn't utilize it. When Wii U launched, the launch games were games that anybody can get with a 360 or PS3 with just $60 dollars or less. Like I written in the last blog, why spend $350 dollars on a console and $60 dollar game while I can save $400 dollars by buying the same games on a console I already own. How did the Wii made money? It had good launch games. First Party games make launch consoles successful, not the other way around as Nintendo did for the Wii U. Pikmin was supposed to be one of the first party launch, but it was delayed for some odd reason, Nintendo decided to launch it anyway without Pikmin. If Nintendo had a huge Mario title on launch day, people would buy this console for themselves, not just for their kids.

Another meaningful advantage Nintendo has was the exclusive games itself. Have you noticed all Nintendo first party games are for everyone and the highest rating is T. Because Nintendo was known for child friendly. But, the child friendly culture that was 10 or 15 years ago have grown up and playing grown up games on Xbox and PS. Plus, the culture is different in America. Average gamers age are 22 to 35. 15 years ago, I remember eating a bowl of cereal and watch Saturday morning cartoons. Now, these kids are eating a bowl cereal and watching MTV. But all Nintendo did were releasing E rated games and ignoring the people who made them money before. Some of their exclusives can be M rated. I can see that. I can see Metroid to be M rated. Hell, Metroid can be M rated anyway. I can see Star Fox M rated. No joke, Star Fox can be M rated. I can see players play as Fox McCloud while he piloting the Arwings shooting down bogies and on the ground, Fox would shoot with all different type of arsenals like Call of Duty or Battlefield. But Nintendo didn't think outside the box. Always for the children, I think.

Nintendo always has revolutionary technology. The Wii Gamepad was extraordinary. Players can use them tv screens to view the game while using the screen on the pad for different use like getting items, looking at maps, or different functions. But this is also a major downfall because many third party games doesn't understand the technology. They just getting started on the Wii Remote until Wii U was announced. Also, while Nintendo wanted to be unique, they forgot the fact that media player on the console is really what keeps players operating on the Wii U.

With many advantages, Nintendo tend to not to see this or turn a blind eye. Nintendo had months to improve the sales. But they never did anything. Nintendo never bother going through the press conference at E3 this year to show what they can offer. But, reviewers praise them for standing out in E3 by not having a press conference. I say no! At E3, companies have to tell consumers why they should buy the product, what they can offer, and the products (i.e. games) associate with them. And now, the month of the next gen consoles is here and Nintendo is optimistic about their success or failure. They said they were glad Xbox One and Playstation 4 are releasing that Nintendo think they can bounce back. There is a fine line between optimism and stupidity and they are operating on stupidity. When these consoles release, Wii U will lose its relevance. If you're playing Xbox One and a game for Wii U arrive at stores, would you buy a Wii U? No. You will keeping playing the new console while Wii U suffers. I feel bad for Nintendo but I don't feel sorry them. These decision that they made were foolish and now, it's biting them in the ass. The only thing Nintendo has is the DS. They should stop making Wii U's and focus more on handheld. Nintendo has lost the console war and now, there is no reset button. Just jumping off the screen with a "Game Over" caption in the middle of the screen.

The season of next gen console is here and I'm been reading about how the Xbox One and Playstation 4 is going to be the biggest launch next to the Nintendo Entertainment System. Fanboys are grinding their teeth into this thing like a Big Mac and debating which system is the greatest. And this holiday season, the gaming industry will be making a lot of money selling these bad boys like Girl Scout cookies.

To me, I'm not that impress. I felt the next gen release might be "a little off". First, I want to say this: Nintendo was the first next gen to step up the plate. As I seen the launch for the Wii U, I screamed at the top of my lungs, "what are you doing Nintendo? Nintendo Land? Assassin's Creed 3? Batman Arkham City? FIFA? Madden? Mass Effect? Tekken Tag Tournament 2? Are you kidding me?"

Why was Nintendo releasing third-party games that 360 and PS3 already have. I'm not going to spend $300 dollars and add $60 more dollars for games while I can get a same game for my 360 just for $60 dollars or less and save that money to...I don't know...to pay my rent. During the launch they failed big time. The only thing new about it was the Wii Remote but I didn't care about that. Call it a rant, if you want. I'm just disappointed to see a supposed next gen console starting off. For me, when the first company, Nintendo, Sony, or Microsoft, release their new gen console, I expect it to be huge. So, I can get excited enough to save money and purchase these consoles and the unique games that comes with it.

I wanted to give the next gen one more chance because I didn't know which I wanted. I wanted to get something new, so I decided the PS4, but I heard about backward capability on the One. I was torn between the two like two girlfriends squabble. When the graphics comparison was showed on IGN for Call of Duty: Ghost, I checked it out. As they compared One and PS4 graphics against each other, I can't do anything, but scratch my head. They look exactly the same. Albeit, the One is brighter, but anything else, they were the same. It was as if both One and PS4 are complete identical with the exception of the logo. Visually, I think the next gen just makes graphics brighter. Nothing enhances my "eye candy" needs.

The One did showed how impressive the system can be with Dead Rising 3. I'm actually impress that Capcom showed the power of it with a massive amount of zombies without a loading screen or frame rate discrepancies with the exception to reducing to 720p. But, it showed great power that the system has. And it has a popular exclusive like DR3 and Killer Instinct. A revamp of Killer Instinct? Oh crap, did you all see how Sabrewulf looks? He looks awesome. But I digress.

There's got to be a distinction between the two system and I feel they're the same to me. I feel like Sony and Microsoft are telling me to join their side and I don't know yet. I'm not ready to buy a next gen console yet until I know for sure which I feel comfortable with. They will blow Wii U out of the water and I know it, but they had to show and tell me which side I should go with. And to me, they haven't yet. Until in a few months down the line, I would be able to choose. But not now. Soon, I'll make my decision. And Nintendo...that will be the next discussion.

Since Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag have recently released to the public, it was given good reviews about the gameplay, the settings, the characters, and the use of historical events. The AC franchise has went from the Third Crusade era, to the Renaissance, to the American Revolution, and now to the Piracy Era. Ubisoft had made the game unique by using their fictional characters to relive historical events and have the player revisit these places like a history class they enjoyed or hated in the past. It was engaging to me when I play the series.

But there was one thing that I pondered on ever since Ubisoft announce Black Flag, how are they going to use Desmond after he died at the end of AC 3. To understand where I stand with this, we have to think back from the beginning. The reason players can play as Altair, Ezio, or even Conner was Desmond. In the storyline, Desmond has a connection with his ancestors. He was the main link to the assassins in the past including Edward Kenway. My mouth dropped when Black Flag was announced. And when I learned that Abstergo used Desmond's DNA to produce the new time period, It killed me in the inside.

When you play the first AC, the first thing you wonder was who the hell was Desmond Miles and the game introduce him very well. We learn more about Desmond in the game's present time. Throughout the series, we start to learn more about him. What was his previous occupation, where he came from, how was his parents, his quirks, his likes, his dislikes, his motivation, and the list goes on. When I get further down the series, I felt that I know him and we tackled the Animus together. I felt a closeness to him like a friend. My friends didn't like Desmond because they felt that he was an useless character and that players should focus more on the ancestors. But when he died, they felt depress as if they lost a good friend or ally. And that was how I felt. I felt a lost a friend that I learned about and venture through the present day Templar conspiracy.

What I am saying is AC 4: Black Flag lacked something that all the AC series had was a closeness to the central character. It was that closeness that brings the story together. That feeling of a character that you been through the series that you wondered what will happen next. A character that the player feel related to because both of them were trying to find answers to the mighty question: who am I. AC4 doesn't have that. In the present day, you just play the role of a Abstergo research analyst. A lifeless character who the player feels no connection towards nor care about. He or she is just some lifeless person experiencing the events. The player feel nothing and ask why should I care about this guy beside just progressing into Edward's story.

Don't get me wrong. I think the game is awesome. AC4 did its job to introducing the Pirate lifestyle and showed more action than the previous did in the past. And the truth be told, I never played the game myself. Maybe in a few months, I would get it and try it out without playing the role of Desmond. It is hard for me to pick it up and say "let's get on an adventure, Edward" and forget what the game lacked in the first place. Yes, it brought back all the traits that made AC great, but I feel we would never experience a central character that we experience from introduction to death like Desmond Miles.