Tag Archives: Microsoft

Games Developers Play

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It’s rare I speak about the electronic entertainment industry since retiring from any sort of online game development or online game, I’ve also given up supporting many companies, such as Microsoft who still cannot get the XBox 360 right. In my tenure working on an amateur development team and rubbing elbows with some well known companies like id Software, Activision, Ravensoft and others I have lost some respect I once held for some of these professional development houses.

Since moving on from Urban Terror I have yet to spend any money on another PC game, nor have I built a new computer to support these high end fandango games that only seem to be getting prettier than anything else. I can’t speak for their game play, but after nearly 10 years of development on Urban Terror it became quite apparent that game play would always trump graphics. As we have seen in the past and will continue to see in the future, graphics will continue to sell games, not game play. Even games that should have never made it to retail will end up being found on retail shelves and not long after in the bargain bin.

Unfortunately many game developers continue to recycle their “franchise” products. This in my opinion is not what development is about. I feel that many companies seem to have lost that creative drive that bought us many unique and enjoyable games back in the day, DICE and their Battlefield series is one of the most popular. Another example is Call of Duty from Grey Matter Interactive/Activision. Both of these developers have been taking their series to the next level, but how is the game play? I believe as a franchise ages it can become chocked full of so many features that it actually detract from game play. I still feel Codename: Eagle was a solid game from DICE. Simple, yet enjoyable on a LAN.

Recently with the release Portal 2 by Valve (alleged) fans seem to do nothing but trash talk the game. This is typical of supporters to whine, “while hundreds of negative summaries complaining about unbelievably inane shit (source). This just goes to show even professional designers can’t get things right and fans continue to shell out their money for games and feel they are deserved something in return.

I do agree with what is stated in this article on Destructoid, “Of course, the people whining would still buy <insert game here> and everything else <insert company here> puts out without a second thought. No wonder they whine so hard — it must be difficult being such spineless, dickless chumps.” This was ALWAYS the case with Urban Terror development and all those chumps didn’t have to pay to play. It’s no wonder I got out of gaming.

Development houses will continue to develop games. While the actual retail market is undergoing a change, with boxed software slowly giving way to downloadable software, the quality of games continue to improve. I believe this is a trend that will continue to rise for years to come. Franchises will continue to spin new iterations and gamers will continue to overpay for under-developed software.

What a Racket!

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So I have been in the market for a larger hard drive for my Xbox 360, really the only gaming I do these days, even at that it’s spent playing FIFA. First person shooters have lost luster with the time I spent on Urban Terror. That is not to say there are not good FPS games out there, but something that is revolutionary and new, sorry don’t think so. My son and I stop by GameStop yesterday and I notice they have refurbished 120GB hard drives, so I inquiry about them. Hearing nothing negative I decide to spend $99 as opposed to the retail price of $149.99 for the same product new. Of course there is a kicker. The refurbished hard drive did not come with a transfer kit that includes a USB type cable to transfer your data. The other kicker, no retail stores locally carry the transfer kit. You can always spend $49.99 and let the Geek Squad do it at Best Buy. Talk about a racket!

So I am not sure what I will be doing. I know for a fact I won’t pay someone to do it for me. I thought about buying a new 120GB hard drive, using the software and transfer cable and then returning the hardware to the store. The last option is to buy one off any number of Internet stores. But $20 to get me a cable for something I will only use once. Not sure I like this idea either.

One would figure there would be a way to transfer saved game data to a temporary drive, like a flash drive and manually move it from one hard drive to another. The more I read, the less likely this sounds. But here is a nugget from the transfer kit manual, “Dispose of the cable in accordance with the Disposal of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment guidelines in your Xbox 360 Warranty manual (Volume 2).” So let me get this straight, I am supposed to throw away this cable AFTER I transfer my data. MS also doesn’t consider this an Xbox “accessory.” Whatever!

Hopefully a friend of mine who purchased an ‘Elite’ ordered their free cable/software from MS and transferred their data over from an older, smaller hard drive. If not, I am back to square one on what direction to go. This seems rather ridiculous to go through, especially these days with technology being what it is and the fact that the 360 is USB 2.0 compliant. I guess this is MS being the proprietary little bitch. Not as if this is anything new. I won’t get started in all the other accessory (WiFi, anyone?) that is overpriced for what it does. What about the fact the 360 only came with 1 USB port on the back of the unit? Guess I was supposed to shell out $50 to get their USB hub, so I could add media content on my one 500GB hard drive.

Okay, enough bitching from me. All of this is to be expected because it IS Microsoft we are talking about here. The same company who still can’t fix my damn Xbox 360 from the “red ring of death” from occurring. I give it under 6 months and I will be filling out the paperwork and shipping my Xbox off to Texas again to be fixed. Maybe I should send it COD to Bill Gates and tell him to fix his shit before selling it to the public. Then if that were the case their operating systems would have never gotten off the ground and we would all be hailing Steve Jobs and Apple.

Kid Leaves After Xbox is Taken Away

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Computer gaming has become prevalent in society these days with gamers taking on an entirely different online persona. Prior to becoming involved in PC gaming with Quake 2 back in 1997 and game development in 1999 I knew nothing of this “digital world.” Knock some of this off to the fact I was raised on an intelligent machine, the Apple Computer, unfortunately when it came to gaming, Apple’s selections were very slim.

As kids of my generation enter their late 30s and early 40s, their lives included computer gaming (and console) as part of growing up. I am sure some never partook in this sort of entertainment, but it is truly a mainstream form of entertainment now than it was 25+ years ago.

Today, out of Canada comes the story of a 15 year old kid who ran away from home because his father took his Xbox away. Microsoft offers reward for missing Xbox gamer the headline reads on Yahoo. What I find most ridiculous from this story, outside of irresponsible parents is the fact that MS has put up a portion of the reward. *sniff* *sniff* Smells like they are trying to avoid a lawsuit if you ask me.

Parenting is not easy and I am only speaking from 2 years worth of experience. “I just took away his identity, so I can understand why he got so mad and took off. Before, I couldn’t understand why he was taking off for taking his game away,” said this kid’s father. LOL. Funny how he only realizes this AFTER his kid runs away from home. I guess if parents took more of an interest in what their kids are doing we would see kids less dependent on video games as a form of socializing.

I had an online alias and I was a very different person than I was if you walked up and had a beer with me in real life. Unfortunately irresponsible parents don’t seem to understand that, “I didn’t realize how in-depth this was until I took his Xbox away,” Steve Crisp told the Globe and Mail. “That’s like cutting his legs off.” LOL. No it’s not! Yet, go ahead and believe you did the wrong thing. I bet the moment this kid returns daddy gives him his Xbox back. Never mind the fact there were changes in the kid’s behavior.

Take it from DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince, “parents just don’t understand.”

MicrofuXored Again!

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It was bitter sweet coming home last night, knowing I my XBox360 had arrived via UPS from being repaired a second time. This on top of having to return three consoles when I bought the damn thing because they did not work. So I get home, and read the paperwork that I pulled from the box telling me this is a brand new console with new identification number, but not to worry all the warranty and paperwork would be done without my intervention.

I connected the hard drive, the wireless network card (which is a POS!) and the video and power cables. I start the machine and get three flashing red lights. Needless to say this nearly sent me over the edge. I shut down the console and restarted, twice and after setting a few options my LIVE! profile comes up and I am good to go…or so I thought.

I load up FIFA 2008 and things are going well until I select a game and it loads. Upon starting the actual game, I notice the sound is not as it is supposed to be. The volume is low and the commentators voices are intermittent, as well as the game sounds. I knocked it off to the game, so I shut down and loaded up The Orange Box.

Initially when the game loads, the sounds work in the menu. I started TF2 and all be damned if the game plays fine, but the sound is just like FIFA was. I can already hear the barrage of questions when I call XBox support, including, “Well maybe it is your TV or sound system.” Eh, sorry champ, it’s not my TV, nor any component of my audio/video system. It is a bad XBox. AGAIN!

Seriously, I cannot be the only consumer having this sort of luck with a bad MS product, can I? Okay, Vista aside, since we know they release beta operating systems. But this is getting ridiculous, I will phone them tomorrow and demand (because the consumer is ALWAYS right) a new XBox. I don’t want this supposed new one they sent me fix, I want a new one.

Oh yeah and for my trouble, I received another 1 month free LIVE card. LOL. You jackholes!

That Damn XBox 360!

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While not down to the last straw, I am getting pretty damn close. This past week I got the “Red Ring of Death” on my XBox 360. AGAIN! For f*ck sake, can’t Microsoft or whoever they hell they contract out to get this right?

This is the second of such instances, after returning 3 brand new XBox 360’s to the retail shops I bought them at a few years back. I had hoped all my DVD-Rom issues were resolved when I received my 360 back last year, with a…WOW…1 month FREE to XBox Live.

I guess they did not take into consideration it took nearly 8 weeks for them to get their shit together, send me a box in order to send in my defective product back. This after numerous phone calls that seemed to go in one ear and out the other. Guess that is what large monopolies can do.

So *sigh* I seat here at work wondering how long and what sort of hassle I will have to endure this time around in order to get my XBox 360 fixed. If it’s 8 weeks again, I am sending Microsoft my XBox 360, C.O.D. with a nasty letter. I am tired of their average product that is either unfinished or unreliable.