Geek Rant Topic 15: The Playstation 360

When all else fails, you call Mousa The 14, that one ranting geek

This was a compare and contrast essay I wrote for my writing class. We had to do this based on what we knew with little to know in-depth research so it's about as opinionated and intricate as my usual geek rants

The Playstation 360

In today’s entertainment market, Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony dominate the interactive entertainment medium, with Macintosh’s i-devices rapidly cornering the handheld market. Now, if one was interested in owning a home video game console, they need to weigh the positives and negatives of their options heavily because the current generation of home consoles is frightfully expensive and once you make your choice, you’re virtually stuck with it. The current popular choice is the Nintendo Wii due to its appeal to people who only play games casually on a basis similar to say, reading for fun or movie watching.

I believe common consumer with less gaming finesse would jump on the Nintendo console first, which leaves Nintendo’s competitors in the metaphorical dust. Due to a personal bias towards Nintendo I find it would be too easy to compare its Gaming consoles to its competitors and persuade my reader to purchase a Nintendo Wii. However, Microsoft’s Xbox360 (The 360 for short), and Sony’s Playstation 3 (PS3), are the most similar to one another in the current generation’s console wars and deserve the most analysis. Furthermore, at this point almost everybody and their grandmother literally own a Nintendo Wii, or is friends with someone who does own one. A comparison of the competitors will give those testing the waters for a new console something to think about and will shed some light on why these two seemingly identical video game consoles are no quite the same.

It’s very easy to lump the 360 and the PS3 together that many deeper in the gamer community refer to them affectionately as the PS360. After a majority of the third party game developers abandoned Nintendo In the mid 90’s they were essentially free agents and their games would platform between The Sony consoles and later the Microsoft consoles which means a large number of the Microsoft and Sony’s games libraries are similar. Both consoles also heavily emphasize high definition visuals and purporting superior graphical detail and polish to their games. Sony and Microsoft also have more mature/less family oriented games and attempted to appeal to their core gaming market before they saw how much money Nintendo made off of being more family friendly than before. Also, both consoles had release prices far higher than the Wii with the basic 360 at $400 and the basic PS3 at $500, and these prices went up by another hundred if you wanted more memory to store your games.

With all that they PS3 and the 360 have in common, it’s almost imperative to separate the two properly. One with obsessive and intimate knowledge of the two consoles could probably list every design spec that separates the two, right down to comparing their RAM manufacturers. However, this is about common consumer’s view; therefore the comparisons shall be broken down into three categories: Console exclusives, Design, what more they can do for you besides play games, and all the downsides which shall be sprinkle throughout the former categories.

Because video games are not a universal medium like television or il, looking at what makes a video game console unique is very important. In terms of game exclusives, the PS3 has a lot. As a console from a Japan based company, the PS3 has a large amount of games based off of anime (Japanese cartoons) which can be great for someone who enjoys anime or have children that do. The PS3’s largest number of game exclusives are the Japanese-style role playing games (JRPGs) which are, at the bare minimum, TV shows with gameplay separating the main plot points with a game style that requires more repetition and patience rather than good reflexes and hand-to-eye coordination. This is perfect for anyone who wants to play a game casually or are more interested in a story than they are in game play. The 360 is known as the leading purveyor of the well known and controversial First Person Shooter genre (FPS). The FPS genre consists primarily of games that are community and multi-player oriented but appeal primarily to people who are interested in skill and reflex games, or young males with a of high school to college age with a taste for playing war heroes or action movie heroes with a love for firearms. If any of the above descriptors apply to you then know that buying a 360 means supporting an American company, Microsoft.

Another exclusivity aspect to consider is the 360 and PS3’s motion sensing systems. After the popularity and financial success of the Nintendo Wii, Sony and Microsoft created motion sensing supplements to cash in on the family friendly party game crowd. The PS3 and 360’s motion sensing controller systems are more precise than the Wii’s, but because they are supplements and don’t come with the console, they increase the price for access to a relatively small library of motion control based games. However the market is growing of course and the library shall also grow. Between the PS3 and the 360, the PS3’s motion sensing system is the most expensive. In order for the system to be effective you must by the motion sensing wand and its navigation supplement as well as the camera to read the movements (Some single player games even require you to have two wands.). Traditionally, if one is getting a motion sensing game they are getting party games or family games which require more controllers which increases the price significantly, making the overall package more expensive than the already pricey 360’s motion sensing camera the Kinect. After the price, personal preference is all that matters. The PS3 uses physical controllers which are easy to use to navigate and people more used to having something tangible to hold on to will be more comfortable with that. The Kinect, with its innovative little motion sensing camera reads your entire body perfectly and allows you to flawlessly lay dance games. With a few more years the innovations and immersive games to come out for the 30’s Kinect will be vast and varied and unique.

Speaking of varied and unique, the PS3 and the 360 both look very different and one may want to consider aesthetics when buying one. The two consoles are both large and unwieldy and bear resemblance to a VCR, especially if you get the 360 in black rather than its standard white. The PS3 only comes in one color, which would be black. The design choices are more likely due to a desire to have the consoles look natural right beside your DVD player and television. The 360 has a natural box-like look that looks perfectly natural right beside a home theater; however the PS3, even in its slimmer form, has an odd curved top that can be off-putting to some. And for even more minute details to consider, when on, the 360 has a light green glow and the 360 has a deep blue glow.

While color is important, one is going to be playing games with a controller, which is traditionally a rectangular block of plastic with two handles and generally a multitude of buttons exclusive to each console. The 360 attempted to break out of this mold with a more wedge shaped and smooth controller that many have complained were not designed for human hands. It can also be difficult to figure out, for the 360 controller’s shoulder buttons are called the left and right “Button” and “Trigger” which can be confusing to figure out. The PS3’s system is easier; naming their shoulder button left 1 and 2 and right 1 and 2. However, the PS3’s analog sticks which are usually used to move characters around tragically are buttons of their own (Left and Right 3) which is very easy to forget and sometimes they can be pressed by accident, leading to unintentional in-game actions. Nevertheless, with its traditionally prominent two handles, the PS3 is easy to handle and has not changed since the PS1 meaning if you owned the original Playstation or the PS2, you’ll have familiarity on your side.

The Playstation 3 and he Xbox 360 are known for being more than just game consoles though. Both have the honor of being DVD players, Netflix streamers, Facebook updaters, twitter feeds, video chat systems, and internet browsers, though the PS3 is also Blue Ray player as well if you are interested in that format over standard DVD. While both have internet access, the 360 is at a disadvantage because you have a pay a subscription in order to use their internet access while the PS3 does this all for free. Additionally, the PS3 and 360 have online stores filled with cheap and easy games made primarily by small individual developers that are harmless to buy, similar to the app store for the iPhone. To be honest, in this argument the PS3 is the better choice and I believe in the end, the ultimate decision will be based on personal preference and what one wants out of their gaming console. The Platstation 3 has a lot more going for it in terms of features and games, but with the release of the Kinect the Xbox 360 has the most potential but is also the most costly.

-Good Bye, Good Luck, and Imagination is Your Greatest Power
Mousa the 14

Geek Rant Topic 08: The Water Level

When All Else Fails, you call Mousa the 14, that one ranting geek.

I told myself I would do less video games but someone brought the topic up in the TvTropes.org Video Games forum and I was out of things to rant about. Don't worry, next post will be about M. Night Sham-ylan's (No, that was not a typo) The Last Airbender (shudders).

Now, Video games, especially ones that aren't for the faux hardcore gamers, tend to have a huge variety of worlds characters explore. There are forest levels, desert levels, lava levels, food levels, music levels, mountain levels, cloud levels, tornado levels, the list goes on and on and on and on and on and on. So with all these colorful and delicious flavors we inevitably have the water level.

The most infamous of them all is the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time's Water Temple which has been known as that one level that makes you quit, cry, or resort to GameFAQs, Gamespot , and 3 brands of strategy guides. While it doesn't seem so bad nowadays to some, many gamers still dread it's existence and recount memories of it's difficulty, it's tediousness, it's ability to make you backtrack five times over so you can do everything necessary to face the boss. This probably wouldn't get such special mention if Nintendo didn't make a frikkin' tradition of it! That's right, in a majority of the Legend of Zelda games you are most likely to be faced an absurdly difficult underwater level that will drive you bonkers! The ones I've personally played in Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons were my first experience with the Zelda brand water levels and I've hated them ever since.

But that's not just it. That one level didn't scar me for life, I've always had an irrational fear and loathing of water in video games. Or is it irrational? Let's see the reasons why water levels should, by all means, scare the living daylights out of people....

1) Back in the good old days, before swimming mechanisms were implemented, and sometimes today, hopping into a body of water had the same effect as falling down a bottomless pit. Fun!

2) When you are swimming, you are a moving target, a slow moving one. In my first video game ever, Banjo-Kazooie for the Nintendo 64, the very second level was a Treasure Island and I thought swimming around looking for plot devices would be fun. Then the music plays and Cruncher the Shark makes food puns as he tries to catch up and eat you! I was 6. Never wanted to touch water in a video game again....

3)Just the very idea that your movements are now limited. You can't walk normally, your controls are now equal to that of a person floating around in space, only water is not frictionless which means you move slower, assuming you are allowed to do anything besides swim. Your aim is off, you can't move as fast as you want....

4)In quite a few games, you really can't fight, or fight efficiently because you're too busy using your arms are legs to SWIM and half your items wouldn't work under water like bombs or arrows. So we're back to numero 2 and 3.

5) You have TWO LIFE METERS. You know, instead of one, and the second one is more dangerous. Your "second life mater" is how long you can hold your breath before dying. Sometimes if you get injured it goes down quicker. And once you run out of air, you lost a life, and it's horrifying envisioning yourself drowning!. Which means you have to come up for air periodically or find bubbles, which means you're wasting time whilst trying to complete an objective, or if you go straight for the objective you're as good as dead.

So to people who like water levels, How in the good lord's name is this not scary? Oh whatever, like it matters, I'm not advocating their disappearance, just a thought on those dreaded water levels.

I thought this would be longer...

-Good Bye, Good Luck, and Imagination Is Your Greatest Power

Mousa the 14

Geek Rant Topic 03: Hardcore Gamers or "No True Gamer"

When all else fails, you call Mousa the 14, that one ranting geek.

I have a passing interest of gamers. And by that I mean I watch these guys on a regular basis. Danny Floyd and The Overthinker have helped refined my view of gamers, Same with this guy. He is awesome.

With my influences out of the way, time to talk about the core gamers. You see, Hardcore Gamer is a term that has lost it's meaning nowadays. I remember once upon a time, in a more innocent time, I had friends who considered themselves to be hardcore gamers and I was labeled casual. This was appropriate, I didn't play as much as them. They played a lot. They got 100% completions, they knew how to "wave dash", they knew how to combo, all that stuff. They were real hardcore gamers. They kept up with releases, knew the rumors, knew what was fake, cared about graphics and all that stuff. They cared about all that stuff. Me? I could barely keep up.

However that golden age of true hardcore gamer has gone and the name has been passed on to a different sort of gamers,a vocal minority who make it into the news, who get all the coverage. The ones Sony and Microsoft are pandering to. These new "Hardcore" gamers were of a different breed. They took hardcore for something completely different. They were immature, some young, some middle aged, but they were all insecure and masculinity obsessed guys. They took hardcore to be "Masculine", "Virile", "EPIC", all that jazz. They wanted these things and these things only:

1) First Person Shooters or anything similar. Sometimes Third person actions will do so long as it's dark and edgy.
2) Military Games
3) Games to be Darker and Edgier and Grim and Gritty.
4) The Women needed to be Hotter and Sexier
5) Their protagonist needed to be a personality deficient musclebound white guy with a perma-stubble and an attitude.
5a) Or the Protagonist was the first guy's personality deficient armored and faceless cousin who presumably looks like the first guy.
6) Everything needs to be Brown and Gray, no Primary colors because that's gay!
7) The setting? Only Battle torn or post-apocalyptic will do.
8) REALISM! REALISM! REALISM! Stylization is GAY!

I described more games than I care to count and while games that fit this mold aren't necessarily bad, I mean, Prototype is pretty good, I have no real qualms with the Call of Duty games besides the fact they're not my thing, and apparently Everyone Loves Metal Gear Solid. My problem is that the industry seems to be bending over backwards for this immature crowd's standard because... I don't know. They're the most vocal? They're older and therefore have more disposable income maybe? The point is that Sony and Microsoft seem to be bending over backwards against innovation, original characters, and using the entire color spectrum in order to make similar stuff that, on occasion, isn't all that interesting or catering to a group too small. These guys aren't the real Hardcore gamers, they think they are but they aren't.

These faux Hardcore gamers are an insecure bunch, most of who grew up with gaming and now they refuse to believe their favorite media isn't growing up with them. They refuse to believe that their game systems are toys and when they game they play with toys! It's not an insult, it's a fact, but they take it as an insult to their maturity, their age, and their intellect. And ironically, they regress by going over the top with high school varsity football homophobic macho testosterone fueled machismo in a rage and immaturity so great they make Chuck Norris look like a little girl. It's sad really that these are the guys we stick the modern day "hardcore" label to.

My annoyance grows more only because you can just tell these are the hardcore gamers Sony and Microsoft are pandering to. Have you seen a Playstation3/Portable ad lately? Those things are an insult to our intelligence as geeks and as true hardcore gamers. You haven't yet? Go look one up, YouTube is readily available and all, go on, I dare you. Adding "Sassy black boy" in the search descriptor might help too.

You back? Seen them? Now you see where I'm getting at here. Th tough guy attitude, the "hip" lingo, it's like they're not even trying. They think gamers are the Faux Hardcores and ergo treating us like we're idiots.

If I sound like I'm ragging a lot on Sony and Microsoft, it's because I'm really not seeing this issue with Nintendo. Sure they have their problems, what with all the shovelware, the excess in mindless kiddie games, all that stuff but it still dishes out a lot of good games with a palette that is wider than what Sony and Microsoft tend to make themselves out to be. Yeah they have their kiddie stuff, their moderate stuff, their stuff that uses the entire color spectrum, But you cannot deny what their claim to fame is and that's trying to pander to the Faux Hardcore gamers.

Why is it those faux hardcores and portions of the gaming industry don't realize that being a "hardcore" or "casual" gamer, (or, shall I say "Skill Players" and "tourists" to be more accurate) has nothing to do with the type of games you play but how you play them. The guy who does the gamer taxonomy I linked above already talks about that. It's about either you play games because you want to develop a useless skill because you derive fun form being an expert or because you just want to have fun

Anyhow, that's my thoughts on the Faux Hardcore gamers, how they have destroyed the definition of a true Hardcore gamer, and why they matter. Now if you will excuse me, I must rustle up some cash, I need to find me a backwards compatible PS3.

-Good Bye, Good Luck, and Imagination Is Your Greatest Power.
Mousa The 14