Your Mamma

I went through the process a few days ago, with the standalone HDD upgrade. It worked like a charm, even if it did take over an hour for a nearly full 20GB HDD. I'm very happy to have the larger HDD because now I can actually keep more content on it and have enough room for some Halo 3 beta next month.

Why shouldn't the marketplace be used to sell content to people who want to buy it? These strategy videos aren't key to the game and they aren't required for anything. If someone wants to download the video and pay 100 points for it let them. If you think it's not worth the price, don't buy it. If people are paying for this type of content, why should they stop? Be angry at the sheep who keep paying high prices for things like this and marked up Guitar Hero songs on marketplace, but you really can't blame the people who run marketplace for catering to a group of people who will in fact pay for this content. This is a business, not a charity; they are supposed to make money off you.

I couldn't agree more with AP. The performance was great, but there were times when the crowd would just start shouting and clapping when their favorite game came on the screen, it drowned out the performance of the orchestra. The Gaming Pianist is an amazing musician and he did a number or solo pieces for the crowd that night. I would highly recommend for everyone to go to one of these shows if they come near you. I would just hope other crowds respect the orchestra more and save their applause for after the song ends.

Microsoft ships most if not all of their games with an extra sticker on the side to show it's a genuine licensed copy. Buying a game without this sticker, and one where the game has been clearly removed yet the product is still marked as new is not something gamers want. Maybe you've heard of the terms "open box" and "floor model". These items are usually sold at a discount in many places.

The bigger concern, is that Gamestop is asking the consumer to trust them. There is absolutely no way a consumer can be sure that the disk that they are buying from an opened game is a genuine licensed copy, or that a store employeed hasn't put it in one of the display systems to try it out, or even brought it home. I don't buy the, "sure we broke the seal but you can trust us" approach to game sales.

Just because they said they wanted it to be free at one point, doesn't make it right for someone else to rip off the game on the PC. With Microsoft's Live service for the PC, I'm guessing they may have other plans for that game anyway, and they have every right to have a problem with having their game stolen.

I see the playstation home being a concept that is used in a few different genres these days. Phantasy Star Universe gives players their own rooms they can decorate and show off. Sports games give players a crib where they can show off trophies, by furniture, and play mini-games. This concept isn't new, but would make a great match if done right as the base for Playstation home.

If Playstation Home uses the term achievements, I'm going to say they are just being stupid. Achievements and gamerscore were clearly made popular by the the Xbox 360, and to use the term achievement instead of coming up with something that at least sounds original would be dissapointing. Someone at Sony should be fired if they can't make this original in more than just presentation style. It needs it's own name. And yes, it would be cool if you could use these Achievements to display in your Playstation home.

And the virtual avatars may be known for being on the wii's in the console business, but they've been on the PC's for a lot longer, Yahoo messenger is a great example of using virtual avatars online.


The Playstation Home thing has some potential, but it wasn't available at the launch of the console, so it probably won't ever reach every game like it did for the xbox 360. Clearly the last minute changes in direction we've seen from Sony in the last few years have been brought on because of their comepetition. Whether it be a unified online account or adding motion controlling and using it as an excuse for not having rumble. I will not pay $500 or more for a Playstation 3 because I do not believe there is any real inovention in this system. It makes a great Blu Ray movie player, but I already have a PC that does linux and I'm very happy with my XBox 360. I am also excited about the future of the Xbox 360 with Live Anywhere, Vista Integration, IPTV, and more Zune interaction.

I like the quality of Microsoft's offering this much more than Sony's Monkey-See, Monkey-Do approach that they've been pushing on consumers. The only thing that really sets the PS3 apart in my mind is HDMI and Blu Ray built-in. But I already have an HD DVD for my 360, and HDMI is probably on the way for that too, so why should I care about Sony this generation?

Mine is in the closet, litterally. I'm really trying to resist some kind of coming out of the closet joke about the PS2, really.

It would be horrible to make a video game console monopoly. I think it's great to have different tiers of video games, from the less expensive but fun Wii, to the powerful and exciting 360, and the Expensive Blu-Ray based system.

Consumers deserve choice. A single console built on compromises for everyeone is a bad thing.

Sony's idea of a reachargable batter that can't be easily changed and comes with a relatively short USB charging cable is far from brilliant. The 360 Play and Charge kit on the other hand is great, because I can play and charge if I want to, or, if my batteries low and I don't want cables running from my console, I can still switch back to good old AA's until I get a chance to charge. I love the way the 360 runs in the power save mode when only charging, and turns itself off completely when it's done, but most of all, I love knowing I can put in a fresh battery to my 360 controller if I ever need to in a pinch, I don't have to keep spare controllers around just to keep a battery always charged.

The wii battery life isn't bad from how I've been using it. And since it doesn't have USB ports in front I wouldn't see much need for a USB charging solution anyway. I like the idea of the wiimote charing stand though, and would love to see that integrated in Wiimote 2.0.

The Wii definitely makes use of the wifi, through Virtual Console downloads, the weather, and Internet channels, sending Mii's to friends, console software updates...

Online playable games will come soon.