Ding Dong the PS3's are dead.

This whole thing would probably piss me off more if I had a PS3. As it is, I figure as long as the afflicted consoles can still connect to the tubes, Sony will eventually upload a fix for it.

On the other hand, I've had two RRODs, which is of course lame, but at least Microsoft was cool about replacing them. (Even if navigating their customer service is akin to an old school dungeon crawler.) Even more fun was the part where my X-Box 360 got stolen along with my hard-drive and all my saved games.

Never had a hardware problem with my Wii. Well, not one caused by Nintendo. The time my brother's friends pulled it off 1.5 meter drop by the Gamecube controller cords while playing Smash Bros made the flap that covers the GC inputs break off.

Whether MS service is nice or not is irrelevant. On a saner world, you shouldn't have to call them ever, because the damn thing would work. Instead, you've been conditioned to accept it as a fact of life.

Seriously, I've had friends replace their machines every year or so and I'm WTF all the way. It's...it's like watching an abused woman return to her husband after he gave her an asswhooping.

I don't care how shiny it is, or that it brings you flowers after a long stint at rehab back at the factory, that shit is NEVER ok.

As for FPS, I can see why you would want online play, but:

a) you can probably do that with a PC; hell, you can probably do that with a laptop, which has the added bonus of portability, and you can take it to school and do homework and whatnot

b) not all games are FPS, nor should they be.

Personally, I'm biased; I don't like them at all. But I get the impression that the only 'true hardcore game' is the FPS type of game, and that's bullshit. Play any game long enough, and its hardcore to you. Heck, I play Sims 2 in a 'hardcore' way, and that's supposed to be the king of casuals.

Chaltab wrote:

Never had a hardware problem with my Wii. Well, not one caused by Nintendo. The time my brother's friends pulled it off 1.5 meter drop by the Gamecube controller cords while playing Smash Bros made the flap that covers the GC inputs break off.

I had a Gamecube to get slammed about 5 feet off of my sister's dresser (someone tripped over the power cord and sent it flying). Damned thing didn't have a scratch on it.

If the Halo series has taught me anything, is that online play with voice capabilities is hilarity in small doses. Otherwise it's a bastion for all things sperging.

Ceres wrote:

Whether MS service is nice or not is irrelevant. On a saner world, you shouldn't have to call them ever, because the damn thing would work. Instead, you've been conditioned to accept it as a fact of life.

Seriously, I've had friends replace their machines every year or so and I'm WTF all the way. It's...it's like watching an abused woman return to her husband after he gave her an asswhooping.

I don't care how shiny it is, or that it brings you flowers after a long stint at rehab back at the factory, that shit is NEVER ok.

And Microsoft could have given the 360 owners a big middle finger, and tell us to buy a new one. Instead, they replaced them for FREE. I seem to recall PS1's having problems with overheating and imploding because of the overheat problem... yet I don't remember Sony replacing them for free. Instead, I remember gaming with the PS1 in a mini-fridge to avoid the problem because they wouldn't replace it.

Quote :

As for FPS, I can see why you would want online play, but:

a) you can probably do that with a PC; hell, you can probably do that with a laptop, which has the added bonus of portability, and you can take it to school and do homework and whatnot

While having a third gen console isn't cheap--I think the least expensive is 150$? 200$? Something like that. It's not cheap... but it's cheaper than buying a laptop which you can actually game on.

Quote :

b) not all games are FPS, nor should they be.

Personally, I'm biased; I don't like them at all. But I get the impression that the only 'true hardcore game' is the FPS type of game, and that's bullshit. Play any game long enough, and its hardcore to you. Heck, I play Sims 2 in a 'hardcore' way, and that's supposed to be the king of casuals.

To me, a "hardcore" game are games that are geared towards the M level, which are generally FPS's because of the violence. Anyone can be a "hardcore" gamer--you just have to game devotedly. I'm not a huge FPS player. I play Left 4 Dead and Fallout 3 and that's it... and Fallout 3 is debatable as a FPS. Yet I consider myself a hardcore gamer, and that's because most of my free time is spent playing games.

Maximilia, ilu.

Mikey Go WOOGA wrote:

That would be great, because right now all I see for the Wii is Metroid Prime 3, Twilight Princess, Mario Galaxy,

No More Heroes, MadWorld, RE: Umbrella Chronicles, Mario Kart Wii, Capcom Vs. Tatsunoku, Smash Bros. Brawl... (And that's setting aside personal faves like Harvest Moon and Murimasa The Demon Blade)

Quote :

Speaking of minigames, has there been a Mario Party for the Wii yet? [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] THAT could be badass, and would benefit tremendously from proper online play (Proper Online Play = Something Nintendo hasn't figured out)

Mario Party 8. (With 9 somewhere in limbo)

I will seriously never understand online play. If I wanted to get called a faggot by a thirteen year old hopped up on soda and Pixie Stix, there's always Gaia Online, or 4chan. I play video games to get away from those types of people. Why should I spend $300 plus a monthly fee to invite them into my living room?

Also? Console FPS's will always be abysmal because dual analog controls are a travesty. It's not "decent", it's not "you just have to get used to it", it is the worst idea in the history of control schemes. It's awkward as hell, you have very little accuracy, you can't turn quickly, and the whole time you're thinking, "I'd be having a lot more fun with a keyboard + mouse". And if you aren't, you fucking should be. And this isn't even touching on the fact that FPS ranks up there with survival horror for "genres that need a swift kick in the ass because they are dated, boring, and unoriginal as shit", nor that it needs to suffer some serious penance for popularizing the "grizzled space marine" archetype.

I have a Wii, though I will freely admit that my PS2 gets more playtime than it does. It certainly doesn't hurt that Atlus is continuing to put out stellar games for it, and they are most likely going to produce games for the Wii next because they are incredibly cheap.

You guys do realize that - unless you're playing a squad shooter, the voice chat is 100% optional, right? The proverbial 12-year old can only call you "fag" for a few seconds, and that's if you forgot chat was turned on.

You realize, the best part of online gaming is harassing those 12 year olds you all whine about?

Also, if you can't manage to work two analog sticks with a marginal amount of competency, you are irredeemably retarded and need to an hero. If you're having problems turning fast enough, there's a sensitivity option you are welcome to play with until you realize it's not the controller, it's you.

Ceres wrote:

Whether MS service is nice or not is irrelevant. On a saner world, you shouldn't have to call them ever, because the damn thing would work. Instead, you've been conditioned to accept it as a fact of life.

Machines break. Deal with it.

Maximilia wrote:

And Microsoft could have given the 360 owners a big middle finger, and tell us to buy a new one. Instead, they replaced them for FREE. I seem to recall PS1's having problems with overheating and imploding because of the overheat problem... yet I don't remember Sony replacing them for free. Instead, I remember gaming with the PS1 in a mini-fridge to avoid the problem because they wouldn't replace it.

Were you out of Warrenty?

My PS1's lazer broke, and two of my PS2's just stopped working one day. All of them were replaced for free, within a week for all. Hell, the PS1 arrived the next day!

Quote :

Machines break. Deal with it.

One machine out of a 100, I can roll with that.

But 54.2% failure rate of all machines out there? Really? REALLY? Roughly about 6 out of 10 machines? You. are. being. scammed.

Then there's this:

Quote :

Microsoft also seized the gold medal for unhelpful customer service,
taking nearly a month to repair or replace a console, while Nintendo
and Sony stuck closer to a week. Only 37.7 percent of Microsoft
customers found the company's customer service was "very helpful,"
compared to 51.1 percent for Sony and 56.1 percent for Nintendo.

The most shocking number from the survey — and frightening from a
consumer perspective — is only 3.8 percent of Xbox 360 owners said
they'd never buy another Xbox because of hardware failure.

The article says that the Xbox is the most used system of them all, which in my head only makes it worse. If you market a console to the hardcore, you damn better build it to meet the hardcore's playing habits.

You're being screwed over and you're loving it. Fine, it's your money and your preferences, but it also gives big companies an incentive to do a half-assed job because fanboys will forgive their sins.

I'd rather buy a glorified Blu-Ray player like a PS3 before an XBox any day of the week.

How are we being scammed? They replace it for free and Microsoft doesn't even make jack on the systems themselves anyway.

Yes, they should have done better product testing and found the problem before they mass produced them, but at this point anyone with an X-Box made before 2008 knows there's a strong chance it will fail. Either that's a turn off, as in your case, or something you learn to deal with.

I get it, I do, but we as consumers of anything mass produced shouldn't give a free ride or a shrug to poor quality, be it cars or game systems because "that's just the way life is, lol".

It just gives big companies the chance to slack off and the market is poorer for it.

At least we actually get a choice in game systems, and we can pick a Wii or a PS3 or an XBox. But what if they read this as a chance to get lazy too?

Choosing between crappy and less crappy is no choice at all.

Well when you've got three deeply flawed choices, what do you do? Not play games?

Chaltab wrote:

Well when you've got three deeply flawed choices, what do you do? Not play games?

PSSSST! It's called a DS. They're the only system that's making games for all types of gamers, so it's really no surprise its outselling absolutely everybody.

I've got one of those already! Just finished Spirit Tracks today.

And I must say given this year's release line up, the Wii's main flaw is being remedied way hard.

Chaltab wrote:

I've got one of those already! Just finished Spirit Tracks today.

And I must say given this year's release line up, the Wii's main flaw is being remedied way hard.

Fingers crossed it work, they've really got nothing to lose seeing as the casual crowd buys about 2 games a year each.

Ceres wrote:

I get it, I do, but we as consumers of anything mass produced shouldn't give a free ride or a shrug to poor quality, be it cars or game systems because "that's just the way life is, lol".

If my X-Box crashes while I'm using it, I am inconvenienced. If my car crashes when I am using it, I could fucking die.

Penguin wrote:

If my car crashes when I am using it, I could fucking die.

Which would also be inconvenient. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Hopefully Red Steel 2 won't suck balls like the first one.

I'm thinking, "Hey, a bunch of people bought PS3s for their Blu-Ray capabilities - it's the best Blu-Ray player around (which isn't saying much when it;'s not supposed to be used for that)."

This isn't going to endear people to PS3s or Blu-Ray much.

If there's a recall, a bunch of people aren't gonna be buying PS3 games or Blu-Ray discs until they get their replacement - which could take some time.

Even if there's no recall, people are gonna be pissed about this.

Jeez but Sony is really wallowing in the shit this time.

Microsoft and Nintendo must be fucking orgasming over this foul-up.

Harley, this happened last week, and problem was resolved in the same day.

And Blu-Ray already won the damn format war. Do you follow the news at all Harley?