Warning: System Warrior Rant Incoming

Picking up this blog thing again, I may start doing weekly reviews of tables on The Pinball Arcade and/or Pinball FX 2 if anyone's interested. 

Anyways, I want to vent a little bit on the whole Xbox One/PS4  system wars thing going on. To the guy on twitter going by the alias ManaByte, this is for you. 

I just seem annoyed by a couple of themes from PS4 fanboys. The big one is resolution, and honestly, I don't see the big deal. Yes, 1080p is nice, but you know what? It's early. Developers are still getting the hang of the new hardware. If this is still an issue a year from now, then it may be a concern, but for the love of all that is holy, it's still early in the game, so to speak. I remember ManaByte mocking the Xbox One over the newly announced Alien Isolation game, but Creative Assembly confirmed that the Xbox One version runs at 1080p. It's going to improve over time. And frankly, I prioritize higher frame rate over a higher resolution, but that's another story. 

And the sales? Again, it's early. The consoles launched in November. They have been on the market for a little over a month and a half. Declaring the PS4 the winner because of a 900,000 console sales lead during that time is stupid. Sony will probably get more sales once Japan gets it and constraints are dealth with, but Microsoft will get more sales once they rollout sales to mainland Europe and Asia. Let's see the sales for all of 2014, then we can draw some conclusions. 

I guess I wouldn't be so annoyed if there were some more games that interested me, but I don't see much. Killzone and Knack don't set my hearts on fire. MLB 14 is the only baseball game coming out this year, but I can get that on my PS3. DriveClub is going to live or die by the online community, and I fear that Sony isn't marketing it enough and is sending it out to die. Infamous has what looks like the most unlikeable protagonist in a game this year. Watch Dogs isn't exclusive, most of the indie games Sony is touting can probably be found on Steam, and so on. 

That's just my opinion. I could be wrong. 

And you know what? That's okay. I won't judge anyone if they buy a PS4 over an Xbox One. I just wish that other people would do the same. But asking for civility on the Internet is asking for peace in the Middle East, it's not going to happen. 

Maybe the Xbox One's price will go down. Maybe the PS4 has a breakthrough hit that I need to play. But they both just launched. Can't we have some level headed conversations?

It's been a while, I know (or: Going Fishing)

It's been a year ago last April since I posted here. I had a lot of things go on in the meantime, and I totally forgot about blogging. So, what made me restart my blog? It was some drama over the weekend involving Phil Fish, Montreal native and the creator of the Xbox Live Arcade/Steam platform puzzler Fez.

Long story short, he has a habit of being a jerk on the internet. Someone was an even bigger jerk to him. After a heated back and forth, he decides to cancel a planned sequel to Fez and gives up on game development. Kotaku has the details.

So, this is getting me thinking. I've seen internet meltdowns before. I've been at the center of them on occasion. But I've never seen one explode as badly as it did last Saturday. Marcus got things heated by calling Phil an asshole, and Phil replied that Marcus should go kill himself. He tried to backtrack on the suicide request, saying that it was a Futurama reference, but still, it got out of hand on both sides, and I'm certain that both sides want to take back the things they said.

But this isn't the first time it has happened. Phil has a history of being belligerent on the internet. And he's taken a lot of grief, too. Just take a look at the comments here. Would you blame him, especially after all the snide remarks and whatnot he's taken? (And I'm guilty of throwing a snide remark his way, and I didn't feel good about it, even before all this went down.)

It has me conflicted. Do I feel sorry for Phil, even if he's a jerk? My gut feeling says yes. I mean, he spent five years of his life making Fez, having to go through those trials and tribulations, and I can certainly feel like he reserves the right to defend his work. On the other hand, he doesn't have to be a jerk about it, throw temper tantrums, and burn bridges. Actually, Phil brings to mind a quote from a former ESPN exec about Keith Olbermann: he doesn't just burn bridges, he napalms them.

But my gut feeling is telling me, hey, everyone likes a story of redemption. Much like the ballplayer who has one last run in him, gets his team to the World Series, and goes out on top, or that band who you haven't heard from in 15 years and comes back and makes a great album and surprises everyone. I'm convinced that when things cool down, he'll be back, wiser and more mature, and make peace with the leper colonies of the internet.

Phil, if you're reading this, do us all a favor and breathe. Inhale, exhale. Go take some time off from the internet. Recharge your creative batteries. Go see the world. And realize that not everything's worth taking offense to. Don't give up on your dreams because of all the jerks on the internet.

And you might want to apologize to Marcus for your comments. He probably feels sorry for instigating this whole thing. But that's just my Monday morning (or early Wednesday morning) quarterbacking talking. Sometimes, being a man means knowing that you're wrong, and this is probably one of those times. Make peace with Marcus, and realize that the world isn't out to get you. The world wants a reason to love and respect you and your game.

Now I'm just being all mushy, but that's the truth. And that's my two cents on the whole matter. Thanks for reading.

Viva la Vita

Hey there. It's been a while, but I wanted some more hands on time for my PlayStation Vita. There's a lot to like, and a little to loathe.

First, the stuff that I like. I didn't like the size of the buttons at first since I have big fingers, but, pardon the pun, they grew on me. I think I figured out how to do a two-finger tap on it, so a Tekken title shouldn't be an issue. Th D-Pad is great, and so are the dual analog sticks. Everything just falls into place and feels great. I don't feel like my hands are cramped and I can concentrate on the OLED screen pumping out good graphics.

The thing that annoys me, though, is the interface. Why Sony went with something other than than the XMB interface that I'm familiar with is a mystery. I would like to, at least, organize things in folders, like my iPhone. One folder for Vita games, one for PSP and mini titles, one for apps, and one for settings.

The other thing that annoys me is the charging. Is it me, or do I need the official power adapter to charge this thing? I can't charge from USB. Do I need to change a setting or something? I need to find out.

Otherwise, I can't complain about my Vita purchase. I'm very happy with it, and I'll keep it for the long run.

Long time, no speak!

I've been real busy over the past two months. I'm sorry for not keeping a regular post schedule.

Anyways, I got sucked into the Hunger games hype. I finished the book last week and I'm going to see the movie tomorrow. I also started on the second book. I'm already through the first four chapters. Boy, this is an easy read.

Aside from that, I got a PlayStation Vita. I have a few thoughts on it, that'll come in a future blog. Hopefully I can bang one out this week.

Stay tuned...

Things I'm looking forward to this year

Hey guys, me again. I guess we're all settled into the new year now. Things have been crazy for me over the past few months, and so I really haven't had the time to post stuff here. Now that things have died down a bit, I do plan on posting a little more regularly again.

Now, there are a few things I'm looking forward to in this new year on the video game front. In particular, there are three games I have my eyes on.

Xenoblade Chronicles- I've been following the Operation Rainfall campaign with great interest, if only to see if they were going to be successful. They were partially successful and this game is going to come out in April. I've never gotten into a JRPG before, but I might as well try this one out and see if it's worth the hype.

Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown- With Namco fumbling the ball on their fighting franchises (Soulcalibur V does nothing for me, and Tekken Tag Tournament 2 is a late 2012 release), Sega looks to get the upper hand in the 3D fighting game competition this year with their latest Virtua Fighter title. This game has had two years in Japanese arcades to be fine-tuned for good balance and great competition, and with online play, it could be pretty much the only fighter I need this year.

The next Need for Speed title- All I know about this one is that Criterion Games is doing this one, and if Hot Pursuit is any indication, this one should be awesome. The Run was pretty decent, but I think that everyone's anticipating what Criterion does next.

There's probably a bazillion other games that I'm looking forward to, and I'll probably get to those in a future post. Stay tuned...

I've been slacking off, I know.

I have just been real busy over the past two and a half months. I started a second holiday job at Best Buy, played some more video games, got an iPhone 4S on order, got another A in my paralegal studies, and ended the year on a high note.

I promise to get back to posting stuff once a week in 2012. I'll have a few more thoughts on what's going on in the next few days.

Things are looking great...

I'm still here, I'm just busy at the moment with other things. I've got a second job at Best Buy, my car's running great, and I have no complaints whatsoever.

I'll post something later in the week, promise!