It’s About to Get Ugly

Lately, I’ve been answering questions on Yahoo! Answers in the Xbox section. Many questions are asked that I can answer easily without having to look up a lot of info. But a reoccurring question, that seems to bug me every time. "Which is better? Xbox 360 or PS3?" I’ve read through countless answers debating which one is best and which one is not. And I’ve come to the conclusion that the Xbox 360 is still the best console on the market today. Ok, let’s keep in mind that I’ve NEVER touched a PS3 in my life and I’m a hardcore Xbox 360 fan, but I’m going still going to state what is wrong with the 360 and what is right with the PS3.

The failure rate of the Xbox 360 is probably the biggest and strongest argument that these guys have. Every other person I know is either on their 2nd or 3rd console and getting frustrated more and more every time they have to put their 360 in a coffin and wait nearly a month for the return process. No Red Ring of Death for me as of yet. It’s been rumored that it’s up to nearly 35%, but Microsoft has only mentioned 5% a long time ago. Wow, 35% huh? That’s rather high for such an infamous company known for its great technology. But I wonder, just where are these figures coming from? Retailers. I dug around and found that many of those statements were made by retailers around the world, which is rather high. They are not taking into consideration that many people don’t bother with taking their console back, rather just calling 1-800-4my-Xbox and sending it away to MS. So if one retailer sells 50 consoles and 25 are returned that’s 50% return rate at one store. Let’s say another store sells 500 of the 360 and only 100 are returned that’s only 20%. Some store might have a higher number than that, some might have lower. Heck, they could sell 1 360 console and have it returned making it a 100% return rate. I’m saying that these numbers are not reliable and doe’s not take into consideration the number of people that a.) did not have a problem, and b.) did not take their console back to the store for a return. Can Microsoft be trusted? Well no and yes. Ever since they mentioned that it’s only at 5% return rate, they have been mum about it ever since. Why is that? Because their a business, and dishing out figures like these is less than appealing to any consumer.

I’ll acknowledge that the PS3 hasn’t had any major issues yet and that its return rate is significantly lower than the 360’s. However, they have a $500 console, so I hope that they were able to put a decent cooling unit in there to cool down the insides.

This next issue gets me all the time. When people compare they like to throw in added things such as wireless networking adapters, wireless controllers, HD-DVD players, and so on. In order for the 360 to even compare to the PS3 of course you’d have to add those in there. But here’s the thing. None of these accessories are required to play an Xbox 360. I don’t have a wireless network adapter and play perfectly fine on my 360. Heck, i even have Media Center set-up on it. I might not have a generic six-axis controller that allows me to control movement but I do have a wireless controller that allows me to shoot people in the face, throw a winning touchdown, or score the winning basket. The HD-DVD player is an add on and I’m not courting one of those either, but i still play regular DVD’s perfectly fine. Ok, so the PS3 has the six-axis controller, along with Wi-Fi and a Blue Ray player but again, look at its price. "The PS3 has free online! And HOME is coming!" Are you talking about the online play that ANYONE can hook up too? Including those loners with dial-up? Though, if you can afford a half a 1k console you should be able to afford at least DSL, right? From what i hear the PSN is nothing special. Lag seems to be the biggest issue, and though i haven’t experienced it myself on a PS3, i cant say any other problems. But hey it’s free. Xbox Live has more than 6 million users. the Xbox Live Marketplace has thousands upon thousands of content downloaded everyday with the press of a button. It’s $50 a month, but its worth every freaking penny.

Moving into the graphics category, there is no doubt that the PS3 is a beast. On paper, it’s better than the 360 in almost every division, but on the games you can’t tell. Let’s run a little test here. You go out and buy a game for the PS3 that is known to have great graphics. You think "awesome! This will look good on my 62” HDTV!" Take it home, pop it in and your stunned. Then you start to play. It’s Barbie Horse Adventures, and though it has amazing graphics, your still playing a ridiculously retarded game with horrible game play. The point being made here is that it is not about graphics. It’s about game play. You can only be "wowed" for so long when looking at graphics before you start to think "heh, this game blows. There’s nothing to do here!" If the PS3 wants to get into a fist fight with the Xbox 360 and debate who has the better games, the fight wont get out of the first round. Clearly the 360 has some of the best games out as of right now. Some are multi-platformed games, others are exclusives. Bioshock, Halo 3, Gears of War, and Mass Effect. What does the PS3 have? Kill Zone 2 and Metal Gear Solid and it’s amazing ability to have more CGI pumped into it then a freaking Pixar movie. One day, the PS3 fans will finally realize that their library of games in the future will never stack up to what the Xbox 360 has done and what it is doing now. So, please continue to argue that the Xbox 360 is more expensive in the long run, or that it cant survive an entire year before tanking. But KNOW one thing. It’s about the games, and as of right now, the Xbox 360 has better games now than what the PS3 will ever have.

–BD

DOA4– it makes you want to break stuff

I am frustrated beyond belief. Right now, this game has just gone completely crazy.

 

First off, if you have NEVER, EVER played a single game in the franchise just automatically skip this game if you want to avoid frustration. It was not meant for NEWBS. Im not trying to be mean here, because i am a newb myself when it comes to playing these games.

 

Lets start with the difficulty. 3 settings. Hard, Harder, and Hardest. Actually, its Normal, Hard, Extreme or whatever its called. Right off the bat i can tell you that this is going to suck. Normal difficulty setting is probably more difficult than playing Call of Duty 2 on veteran.

 

The CPU is relentless. Juggling me in the air with 10 hit combos constantly is not my idea of fun. See, I think the developers automatically assumed that every single person in the world has played a DOA game so there is no reason for this game to even be appealing to newbs like myself.

 

Moving on…no "save game" feature when in story mode, or at least i have not found it. I get the 8th stage (boss) and just got so fed up with not being able to do crap against it i wanted to just cool off. Oh wait, no save game option. My lord, so after all that screaming and hollering through 8 stages it leads up to that and no save game option.

 

This option should come with every game. No one likes to leave in the middle of the game to do something, but if they have to, at least give them an option to save at the last checkpoint or something like that.

 

Just right now my biggest complaint, is the difficulty. I know everyone will say "just go into sparring and try out moves". Oh yeah, nothing is more fun than knocking around somebody who doesnt swing back. Then they might say "Go into versus". Ya, and then have the CPU totally destroy me as usual. Sounds like a plan.

 

The bottom line is this, if you want a challenge and a new game to play pick up DOA4. Get your ass handed to you by the CPU about 100 times in less than an hour and see how much you like it. I understand that veterans of the game just absolutely adore this game, but to newbs, its just a straight up beating.

 

Obviously they are successful in selling a game, but to me thats not what its all about. Its suppose to be a form of entertainment. Getting slapped around like a red headed step child is not my idea of fun. At least give me an "easy" difficutly setting so the CPU will actually attack me and i can attempt to block them and counter it with something.

 

One last thing before i go, what in the world is with the blocking? It seems to fail everytime i use it. When i miss the block i just get completely destroyed for one of those 7 hit combos, i get up and do it all over again.

 

And that concludes my rant. I know its a long one, and quite honestly you dont even have to read it. Be looking for the new Gamers Behind the Spaces interview in a couple of days. Till then, i’ll see you all around.

 

 

A very frustrated,

   backdraft123