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| Feature - 10 Working Days |
| Monday, 24 November 2008 |
 It's happened again. I must be the unluckiest person in the world... Okay, I have clean water, fresh food and a roof over my head... Lets just say I'm just really sodding annoyed. My PlayStation 3 has decided to stop reading Blu-rays. This is the second time this has happened. This PlayStation is only two months old.
So I go through the routine. I call up Sony, more annoyed this time, and they arrange to pick up my PS3. Instead of swapping my PS3 on my doorstep like last time, I had a working PS3 four days after my contact with Sony which I was impressed with, they are going to take it away to check what went wrong. Only because this PlayStation 3 is just two months old. Only because Sony sent me a replacement console that lasted just over a quarter of the time as the one I bought seven months ago from Piccadilly Circus. Only because of Sony's denseness, I now have to wait up to 10 working days after they pick it up for them to return it. Obviously before this I'm going to have to back up my HDD, then swap out my 320Gb HDD and go find the original HDD that came with the console - God knows where that is. I then look forward to the prospect of re-downloading all the PSN games I've bought, let me just remind you I already did this once when it broke two months ago, and I've bought a lot of games. Then I'm going to have to call Sony up a one final time, I pray, to get the rights transferred from the old console to the new one so then I can then re-download all my SingStar songs...again.
I'm not really sure what to think. Currently my Xbox 360 is leading the battle for build quality; the PS3 is leading with 2 deaths to my 360's paltry 1. I'm not really sure what to think because every time one of Sony's or Microsoft's machines break I'm left with the arduous task of transferring and reorganising everything which is so frustrating I want to scream at the closest small animal or child. Was this part of the deal when I bought my consoles? It seems like a lot of work that I've paid for. I've fulfilled my part of the deal, handing over precious money for my material goods. I've been a faithful customer, buying a lot of games both disk based and downloadable. I want to have some kind of reward for going through this and remaining a loyal customer. Is it too much to ask for a free PSN game or something? In short, yes; because Sony don't have to. They know now I've bought their bastard console I'm in it for the long run. This is capitalism at its most efficient, I'm not going to be able to put up much resistance.
Of course this is aimed more at the PlayStation since, for once, the 360's detachable drive is a blessing. By the time Microsoft had the console back with me they'd transferred all the rights and registered the new console. All I had to do was slot the HDD back on, put some ear plugs in and I was merrily on my way again. By contrast replacing a PS3 is a nightmare - one I'm going to have to go through again.
By Daft
Labels: Daft, Features
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posted by flameboy @ 15:00  |
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| Impressions - New Xbox Experience |
| Sunday, 23 November 2008 |
 360 on, signed into XBL, prompted with the update. A blink later and the thing had downloaded and installed. I'm a little bit shocked at the speed. It's always good to start on a high, so far so good.
Now to create my Mii, sorry, avatar. It's all pretty standard really. You're Dr. Frankenstein for Generation Z. You can make your creation slim, although as much as I tried not skeletal, or plump them up a bit without actually making them fat. So there you have it, political correctness personified. There are other limitations in that unlike Nintendo's Mii's you can't choose to move facial features around. This pretty much limits you to making everyone look human, so you wont be seeing any Chewbaccas or Hitlers running around any time soon. Ginger people of the world rejoice, you are accepted by Microsoft unlike nasty cruel Nintendo.
 Look at Mii!
One nice little feature that Miis have decided to do away with in their utopian dream is the ability to change clothes. Being the savvy consumers we are, not only can we have a mini version of ourselves but we can have a mini version of our capitalist materialistic habits. It's good to learn this stuff early in life; money equals happiness after all. Needless to say, the clothes selection is relatively limited. I give it a week before the micro transactions start offering themselves on the marketplace.
Once you've impressed yourself onto your profile you'll notice your friends list has mutated into a lively avatar line-up. It looks pretty sleek, a nice touch being the avatars grouping together when they are partied up playing Gears of War 2 and the like. There is also the option to use your avatar as a gamerpic. It is disappointing that Microsoft have basically kicked old gamerpics to the curb, a feature where they were transferred onto the front of a plain white t-shirt for your avatar to wear would have been great. Themes have been jazzed up and suit the sleek new look. Aesthetically NXE is gorgeous. If Tricia Helfer was a user interface, she'd probably look like this.
The next feature, my most anticipated, was the ability to scupper my 360's attempt to either deafen me or escape by launching itself, using its jet engine disk drive, through the closest open window. I decided to install Fable II, largely to see if I could make the painfully slow pause menu any smoother. It took it's sweet time to install but as a one off, and being a PS3 owner, it is an absolutely minuscule inconvenience. I started up the game and there was a noticeable difference. The menus were much quicker. I used to dread going into the menus but now it's silky smooth. Area load times are improved and in general the game moves at a much slicker pace. The guide is similarly as smooth and is a great improvement over the juttering blade system from before.
I'm impressed with the update. It puts Microsoft in a very good light. They have completely overhauled an interface which, even though it had some slight niggles, really didn't scream for change. Sony have made massive strides with their Playstation updates recently and comparatively the XMB was a joy to use due to its speed and ease of use. Although I personally prefer the ad free, slightly more Spartan and much more freely customisable XMB, that is all it is; a personal preference. The New Xbox Experience is a great update and just makes you wonder how we lived with the old blade system.
And the noise is gone. I'm so happy.
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| posted by flameboy @ 22:02 |
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| Another 'Videogame' Comic - Nook's Town - Part Two |
| Sunday, 2 November 2008 |
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| posted by not_so_tiny @ 16:30 |
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