This was true before the current console generation, but not now. Thanks to the addition of large storage devices, new consoles like the PS3 and Xbox360 can use updates to fix bugs, among other things. I still prefer my PC for gaming though.
Update is mandatory to use the PSN or the store. Games still work fine, you just can't sign into services.
That still doesn't excuse the fact that their update bricked the hardware... nor is it the first time. I seem to remember a story a few months ago where new updates were bricking the older, PSX/PS2 reverse-compatible models (I have one and avoided it.)
IIRC, MS also extended that 3 year warranty for the E74 (I think that's the error code) problem as well... though I'll give you that all other problems (including the cloudy ring) are still only covered under 1 year.
The problem was two-fold... the heat was first, but there was also a problem with the heatsink. There was a pressure / support crossbar below the motherboard to hold the heatsink, which bent the board. Once the GPU heated up and the solder melted, it would separate from the board. I've always heard that the heatsink support was the main problem, and to me it makes pretty good sense since the solder melting wouldn't really do anything as it would solidify and re-bond with the pads upon cooling.
That would probably depend on where you're located. Here in Dallas I'm sure the grid would be fine, but I know that other US cities have dire problems with their power grids now. I've heard of rolling brownouts in Cali. Can't imagine the extra load of thousands of charging EVs would do much to help the situation.
Disclaimer - I can't speak for European countries or any where else for that matter, though I've not personally heard of them having any power problems.
That used to work, but either with some update that Blizzard did or some update to Windows, the option disappeared. When I started playing again I looked for solutions and that was the first one I tried. Even attempting to add the key manually had no effect.
In it's current incarnation, Battle.net requires you (like most online services faced with connecting through a firewall) to open or forward ports to the machine running the game. Normally this is no problem, for example XBox Live works the same way. Unfortunately, Battle.net wasn't forward-thinking enough to use multiple ports! As only a single port is used for communication between the server and the client, only one client may communicate with the server through the firewall or router.
This should have been fixed back in the day through an update, but alas it's still true. A couple months ago my friends and I decided to pick the old game up and try playing it. I was surprised at how everything worked well after setting up the firewall. Unfortunately the minute I had a few other friends over and we all tried playing over my cable service, a realization quickly dawned. I could host fine, everyone could connect... but there was an inorinate amount of lag once the game started. This lag was only alleviated when the people physically there weren't in the hosted game, or the remote players were sitting it out. Any mix of the two resulted in the game being outright unplayable.
And I'll echo your point. I'm house-sitting for a close friend now and there is no internet at his place. He said having the rest of the guys over for LANs or Rock Band or whatever be it would be fine. If StarCraft 2 were out, it would (have) probably be(en) the game we'd play the most. I don't like this one bit.
Double post, but what the hell... I left out some info about DC++
It also supports download resuming for when the connection drops, and you are required to tell the client what files to hash (and therefore which files on the client machine are shared) so data that shouldn't be shared generally isn't.
IIRC, end-to-end encryption support in BitTorrent depends on the client being used. I've used Azureus before and currently use uTorrent, and I know both of them support transmission encryption. But yes, I'll third BitTorrent. Don't think I've ever had a corrupt file come down the line that wasn't corrupt at the time of the torrent's creation.
Another option might be setting up a DC++ hub and running the client on the rest of the machines. DC++ hashes all files and supports the ability to search any client attached to the Hub for like hashes and aggregate them during download. I've attended many a con that used a DC++ hub to facilitate file sharing, and the only limit I ever hit was the one imposed by my disk write speed and/or bus capacity. Course I'm not sure it supports encryption since I only use it a few times a year.
Seconded. I went PC with Fallout 3 because a mouse felt more natural. Well having a mouse didn't help when GFWL decided not to allow me to download DLC that I had already paid for. I unblocked ports, drowned in forums, and all other manners of searching for a solution to no avail. In the end, TPB delivered a perfectly functional copy - naturally DRM free, the way it should be.
I went ahead and purchased the other two DLCs as well, still having that problem with GFWL, and still finding that TPB is there for the rescue. Here I note that I'll never buy another GFWL game that is available for a console. It's just too much trouble when you decide to wrap more than one DRM system around it. I haven't had my game locked out yet, but I now dread my attempts to log on and meeting with that friendly message.
I've got one, and it's ALMOST ambidextrous. The side forward/back buttons are actually to the left of the mouse, beside what would traditionally be the left-click. If you don't mind using your middle finger for those, it should fit a lefty fairly well.
Barring that, I'll vouch for the Nano as well. I'm an enthusiast gamer, and have used tons of mice. BT/RF/Corded, trackball/ball/IR/laser... The Nano bests them all for everything I've thrown at it. That includes daily use at work, as I've found I just can't live without it!
Same story here. I worked at Target for almost 2 years before I landed my current job... He speaks truth about the Credit Card quotas, however I knew plenty of people that never met theirs. Nothing was ever done to them, be them a checker, floor grunt, or supervisor. The only stress created over the cards that I remember came from the store-wide meetings, and even that was barely stressed. Far more important was the store's sales quota, which I remember being stressed constantly.
Eidos also carries with it the IP for Deus Ex does it not? It seems to me that I remember ION Storm being absorbed into Eidos when they went defunct. That would include their other IP of course... though only DX is worth anything to me personally.
I'll second the suggestion to pick up Chrono Trigger. I spent countless hours on that game when I was a kid and had my SNES, only to spend countless more when I picked it up for PS1. To add to the horror, they've now re-released it AGAIN on the DS and I'm still pouring hours there.
Chrono Cross, OTOH, I didn't find as good. It was still palatable and I did finish it, but it never saw the same investment as Trigger.
Look up it's problems with Vista. I was unfortunate to buy it the first day it was available, before I knew about that glaring bug. I finished FO3 and clocked about 100 hours... I loved it. But it was FAR from bug free. The game crashed on me every hour on the hour like clockwork. To my knowledge it wasn't fixed, though admittedly I haven't checked since I finished it.
Aside from instability related to running it in Vista, however, I had no other problems. And who the hell cares if it was built on the Oblivion engine? Sure, it's slap-you-in-the-face obvious, but the engine looks good and I think it did the original FO's justice nonetheless. People should just accept it for what it is - not perfect, but it's still far better than most of the common drivel.
My Compaq M700 would disagree with your summation there. It's "business class" as you so put it, and almost a decade old now. Guess what? I've gone through consumer grade laptops fast, some of them don't even last 3 months (given it was a cheapo, but not all of them are...) I don't abuse them, they just seem to wear out with how much I use them. I still use that M700 every day for RDP and the like, and it's kept on trucking. It's all original except for a couple OS formats, and I've had nary a problem with it. The magnesium alloy (IIRC) casing might have something to do with that though.
Also, the dock still works perfectly. Perhaps you meant crappy Dell business class, or newer business class. I've found the older stuff lived up to it's branding quite well. Of course, I can only say that for myself... YMMV etc etc.
You know, now that you mention it, I do remember a 'hack' from a while back where you put foam or something on top or the drive casing's interior side which helped prevent scratching... and I've no grounds to argue the 360 isn't cheaply built, what with it's known thermal problems. I won't try speculating as to why MS would exclude that foam rubber, but that does seem a bit odd as I can't imagine they saved much per unit by doing so. Also, I haven't seen a locking drive in years though admittedly I don't run through them as much now that hard drives are so cheap.
Lastly, I'll say this. I don't have kids myself, but I do have relatives who are quite young and have such sensitive items as this... They've not seemed to have any problems with such sensitive electronics, though that may just add up to how their parents raised them. I know it was drilled into my head at an early age to care for my toys, bike, whatever have you. If only all children were taught the same.
Not sure what you mean about later PS2's not being able to be used sideways... At one time or another I owned every revision released here in the US. All of my consoles - up through even the latest slimline that I have now - are capable of being set vertically.
Speaking as one that has been affected by that cloudy ring on my games, it's not too stupid a thing to expect users not to move it while it's on. I'm not without common sense, I don't need to be told not to move a console with a 12x DVD drive in it... In fact, if a user is being responsible with their electronic gadgets (e.g. put it in the entertainment center or on the desk and leave it) there will probably never be a problem. With the exception of something like an earthquake, that is.
Even further, I don't see how this is even MS's problem - the 360's drive is essentially a COTS DVD drive with a custom firmware... the drives themselves are manufactured by many companies... such as Toshiba, Samsung, Lite-On, etc. If there's a technical problem in the drive, how are they to fix it beyond switching to another drive? And even then, you can't seriously tell me you'd take the DVD drive from your computer and move it around while it reads something.
Until they let me use a mouse and keyboard to move and look FPS's like Halo, or mouse functionality to enable easy inventory management games like Mass Effect/KOTOR or more proper RPGs, there's going to be quite a difference in experience. I can think of games that were completely ruined due to their "console feel"... see Deus Ex Invisible War for a good example. There was nothing wrong with its predecessor, but they catered it's sequel to consoles. The result was a good game and great story with a horribly translated UI, which dumbed down the interface. Bioshock is another example. Play System Shock 2, which it is seen as a spiritual successor to. You can see the influence it had on Bioshock, but just as evident are the concessions made so that Bioshock would be console-friendly. That is not to say certain games wouldn't do good being simplified, but simply that consoles are quite limited because of their interface devices.
As well, what's with this BS of games designed for $5K+ computers? My personal rig cost less than $1K and there's nothing I can't play decently when near maxed... except maybe Crysis, but it's really just a glorified tech demo to me anyways. Fallout 3, Red Alert 3, Prince of Persia, Sins of a Solar Empire. They all run exceptionally well with my 1st gen Core2, 975 chipset board, 2GB or RAM, and my Radeon 4850 and they all look astonishingly good. You don't have to spend a fortune on your rig to find good performance. Unless you want a laptop to do it (those shouldn't even be called laptops, but that's another argument.)
In short - I own 2 360's and love them, but consoles will never replace my beloved PC.
I suppose you have a valid point... When taking into account the amount of revenue it takes to keep a store successful, you can't make it with purely new merchandise being sold right at MSRP. However, I still say I should be given a better incentive for buying something that might be missing part of the package.
A recent example is Gears of War 2 (Saw a story on it earlier.) If you buy it new you get an unlock code for 2 guns and some multiplayer maps. Used, that content is most likely unavailable as the previous owner would have redeemed the code. What does that content translate into monetarily? I'd say about $5 (assuming it was priced as DLC, arbitrary as the number is.) Then, I'm not really saving anything by buying it used at $55 since I'm missing that locked content. Even if I don't care about the content, I know the game is still missing that value.
Further, what about missing manuals or other inserts? Certain RTS games come with full tech-tree layout maps. Space shooters often come with hot key maps which are useful as well. How much are those worth, and the price not compensated for? Don't get me wrong, if it's all there I'd happily pay (assuming the price of it new were significantly higher) but if it's missing shouldn't the price reflect that?
Yeah, I have to admit I've never been sold a scratched disc. My Gamestop has always been courteous enough to let me check it like you say. However, I have a few friends who ended up with bad discs after the 360 cloudy ring thing. They came from GS, of course, but IIRC it was before everyone knew to check for it.
You'd have been glad to have me as a customer, I always end up subbing to GI when I visit. Of course, I actually enjoy it so that might explain my willingness. Trying to push Helios is a little over the top though... kinda like when they used to carry Zunes and NGages (though admittedly at least the NGage was targeted as such.)
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This was true before the current console generation, but not now. Thanks to the addition of large storage devices, new consoles like the PS3 and Xbox360 can use updates to fix bugs, among other things. I still prefer my PC for gaming though.
Update is mandatory to use the PSN or the store. Games still work fine, you just can't sign into services.
That still doesn't excuse the fact that their update bricked the hardware... nor is it the first time. I seem to remember a story a few months ago where new updates were bricking the older, PSX/PS2 reverse-compatible models (I have one and avoided it.)
IIRC, MS also extended that 3 year warranty for the E74 (I think that's the error code) problem as well... though I'll give you that all other problems (including the cloudy ring) are still only covered under 1 year.
The problem was two-fold... the heat was first, but there was also a problem with the heatsink. There was a pressure / support crossbar below the motherboard to hold the heatsink, which bent the board. Once the GPU heated up and the solder melted, it would separate from the board. I've always heard that the heatsink support was the main problem, and to me it makes pretty good sense since the solder melting wouldn't really do anything as it would solidify and re-bond with the pads upon cooling.
That would probably depend on where you're located. Here in Dallas I'm sure the grid would be fine, but I know that other US cities have dire problems with their power grids now. I've heard of rolling brownouts in Cali. Can't imagine the extra load of thousands of charging EVs would do much to help the situation. Disclaimer - I can't speak for European countries or any where else for that matter, though I've not personally heard of them having any power problems.
Thank you AC! That was what I was trying to explain, but your explanation was much more understandable.
That used to work, but either with some update that Blizzard did or some update to Windows, the option disappeared. When I started playing again I looked for solutions and that was the first one I tried. Even attempting to add the key manually had no effect.
There's not only that.
In it's current incarnation, Battle.net requires you (like most online services faced with connecting through a firewall) to open or forward ports to the machine running the game. Normally this is no problem, for example XBox Live works the same way. Unfortunately, Battle.net wasn't forward-thinking enough to use multiple ports! As only a single port is used for communication between the server and the client, only one client may communicate with the server through the firewall or router.
This should have been fixed back in the day through an update, but alas it's still true. A couple months ago my friends and I decided to pick the old game up and try playing it. I was surprised at how everything worked well after setting up the firewall. Unfortunately the minute I had a few other friends over and we all tried playing over my cable service, a realization quickly dawned. I could host fine, everyone could connect... but there was an inorinate amount of lag once the game started. This lag was only alleviated when the people physically there weren't in the hosted game, or the remote players were sitting it out. Any mix of the two resulted in the game being outright unplayable.
And I'll echo your point. I'm house-sitting for a close friend now and there is no internet at his place. He said having the rest of the guys over for LANs or Rock Band or whatever be it would be fine. If StarCraft 2 were out, it would (have) probably be(en) the game we'd play the most. I don't like this one bit.
Double post, but what the hell... I left out some info about DC++
It also supports download resuming for when the connection drops, and you are required to tell the client what files to hash (and therefore which files on the client machine are shared) so data that shouldn't be shared generally isn't.
IIRC, end-to-end encryption support in BitTorrent depends on the client being used. I've used Azureus before and currently use uTorrent, and I know both of them support transmission encryption. But yes, I'll third BitTorrent. Don't think I've ever had a corrupt file come down the line that wasn't corrupt at the time of the torrent's creation.
Another option might be setting up a DC++ hub and running the client on the rest of the machines. DC++ hashes all files and supports the ability to search any client attached to the Hub for like hashes and aggregate them during download. I've attended many a con that used a DC++ hub to facilitate file sharing, and the only limit I ever hit was the one imposed by my disk write speed and/or bus capacity. Course I'm not sure it supports encryption since I only use it a few times a year.
Seconded. I went PC with Fallout 3 because a mouse felt more natural. Well having a mouse didn't help when GFWL decided not to allow me to download DLC that I had already paid for. I unblocked ports, drowned in forums, and all other manners of searching for a solution to no avail. In the end, TPB delivered a perfectly functional copy - naturally DRM free, the way it should be. I went ahead and purchased the other two DLCs as well, still having that problem with GFWL, and still finding that TPB is there for the rescue. Here I note that I'll never buy another GFWL game that is available for a console. It's just too much trouble when you decide to wrap more than one DRM system around it. I haven't had my game locked out yet, but I now dread my attempts to log on and meeting with that friendly message.
That was Counter-Strike. The stand-alone was a spin-off named "Condition Zero" that, IIRC, attempted to give the game a storyline of sorts.
I've got one, and it's ALMOST ambidextrous. The side forward/back buttons are actually to the left of the mouse, beside what would traditionally be the left-click. If you don't mind using your middle finger for those, it should fit a lefty fairly well.
Barring that, I'll vouch for the Nano as well. I'm an enthusiast gamer, and have used tons of mice. BT/RF/Corded, trackball/ball/IR/laser... The Nano bests them all for everything I've thrown at it. That includes daily use at work, as I've found I just can't live without it!
Same story here. I worked at Target for almost 2 years before I landed my current job... He speaks truth about the Credit Card quotas, however I knew plenty of people that never met theirs. Nothing was ever done to them, be them a checker, floor grunt, or supervisor. The only stress created over the cards that I remember came from the store-wide meetings, and even that was barely stressed. Far more important was the store's sales quota, which I remember being stressed constantly.
An interesting claim indeed. Surely the GP never played No More Heroes... gratuitous blood and violence, and only available on the Wii.
Eidos also carries with it the IP for Deus Ex does it not? It seems to me that I remember ION Storm being absorbed into Eidos when they went defunct. That would include their other IP of course... though only DX is worth anything to me personally.
I'll second the suggestion to pick up Chrono Trigger. I spent countless hours on that game when I was a kid and had my SNES, only to spend countless more when I picked it up for PS1. To add to the horror, they've now re-released it AGAIN on the DS and I'm still pouring hours there. Chrono Cross, OTOH, I didn't find as good. It was still palatable and I did finish it, but it never saw the same investment as Trigger.
Look up it's problems with Vista. I was unfortunate to buy it the first day it was available, before I knew about that glaring bug. I finished FO3 and clocked about 100 hours... I loved it. But it was FAR from bug free. The game crashed on me every hour on the hour like clockwork. To my knowledge it wasn't fixed, though admittedly I haven't checked since I finished it.
Aside from instability related to running it in Vista, however, I had no other problems. And who the hell cares if it was built on the Oblivion engine? Sure, it's slap-you-in-the-face obvious, but the engine looks good and I think it did the original FO's justice nonetheless. People should just accept it for what it is - not perfect, but it's still far better than most of the common drivel.
My Compaq M700 would disagree with your summation there. It's "business class" as you so put it, and almost a decade old now. Guess what? I've gone through consumer grade laptops fast, some of them don't even last 3 months (given it was a cheapo, but not all of them are...) I don't abuse them, they just seem to wear out with how much I use them. I still use that M700 every day for RDP and the like, and it's kept on trucking. It's all original except for a couple OS formats, and I've had nary a problem with it. The magnesium alloy (IIRC) casing might have something to do with that though.
Also, the dock still works perfectly. Perhaps you meant crappy Dell business class, or newer business class. I've found the older stuff lived up to it's branding quite well. Of course, I can only say that for myself... YMMV etc etc.
You know, now that you mention it, I do remember a 'hack' from a while back where you put foam or something on top or the drive casing's interior side which helped prevent scratching... and I've no grounds to argue the 360 isn't cheaply built, what with it's known thermal problems. I won't try speculating as to why MS would exclude that foam rubber, but that does seem a bit odd as I can't imagine they saved much per unit by doing so. Also, I haven't seen a locking drive in years though admittedly I don't run through them as much now that hard drives are so cheap.
Lastly, I'll say this. I don't have kids myself, but I do have relatives who are quite young and have such sensitive items as this... They've not seemed to have any problems with such sensitive electronics, though that may just add up to how their parents raised them. I know it was drilled into my head at an early age to care for my toys, bike, whatever have you. If only all children were taught the same.
Not sure what you mean about later PS2's not being able to be used sideways... At one time or another I owned every revision released here in the US. All of my consoles - up through even the latest slimline that I have now - are capable of being set vertically.
Speaking as one that has been affected by that cloudy ring on my games, it's not too stupid a thing to expect users not to move it while it's on. I'm not without common sense, I don't need to be told not to move a console with a 12x DVD drive in it... In fact, if a user is being responsible with their electronic gadgets (e.g. put it in the entertainment center or on the desk and leave it) there will probably never be a problem. With the exception of something like an earthquake, that is.
Even further, I don't see how this is even MS's problem - the 360's drive is essentially a COTS DVD drive with a custom firmware... the drives themselves are manufactured by many companies... such as Toshiba, Samsung, Lite-On, etc. If there's a technical problem in the drive, how are they to fix it beyond switching to another drive? And even then, you can't seriously tell me you'd take the DVD drive from your computer and move it around while it reads something.
Until they let me use a mouse and keyboard to move and look FPS's like Halo, or mouse functionality to enable easy inventory management games like Mass Effect/KOTOR or more proper RPGs, there's going to be quite a difference in experience. I can think of games that were completely ruined due to their "console feel"... see Deus Ex Invisible War for a good example. There was nothing wrong with its predecessor, but they catered it's sequel to consoles. The result was a good game and great story with a horribly translated UI, which dumbed down the interface. Bioshock is another example. Play System Shock 2, which it is seen as a spiritual successor to. You can see the influence it had on Bioshock, but just as evident are the concessions made so that Bioshock would be console-friendly. That is not to say certain games wouldn't do good being simplified, but simply that consoles are quite limited because of their interface devices.
As well, what's with this BS of games designed for $5K+ computers? My personal rig cost less than $1K and there's nothing I can't play decently when near maxed... except maybe Crysis, but it's really just a glorified tech demo to me anyways. Fallout 3, Red Alert 3, Prince of Persia, Sins of a Solar Empire. They all run exceptionally well with my 1st gen Core2, 975 chipset board, 2GB or RAM, and my Radeon 4850 and they all look astonishingly good. You don't have to spend a fortune on your rig to find good performance. Unless you want a laptop to do it (those shouldn't even be called laptops, but that's another argument.)
In short - I own 2 360's and love them, but consoles will never replace my beloved PC.
I suppose you have a valid point... When taking into account the amount of revenue it takes to keep a store successful, you can't make it with purely new merchandise being sold right at MSRP. However, I still say I should be given a better incentive for buying something that might be missing part of the package.
A recent example is Gears of War 2 (Saw a story on it earlier.) If you buy it new you get an unlock code for 2 guns and some multiplayer maps. Used, that content is most likely unavailable as the previous owner would have redeemed the code. What does that content translate into monetarily? I'd say about $5 (assuming it was priced as DLC, arbitrary as the number is.) Then, I'm not really saving anything by buying it used at $55 since I'm missing that locked content. Even if I don't care about the content, I know the game is still missing that value.
Further, what about missing manuals or other inserts? Certain RTS games come with full tech-tree layout maps. Space shooters often come with hot key maps which are useful as well. How much are those worth, and the price not compensated for? Don't get me wrong, if it's all there I'd happily pay (assuming the price of it new were significantly higher) but if it's missing shouldn't the price reflect that?
Nice, good pick. Anyone who wonders, the quote is from the into to Bioshock.
Yeah, I have to admit I've never been sold a scratched disc. My Gamestop has always been courteous enough to let me check it like you say. However, I have a few friends who ended up with bad discs after the 360 cloudy ring thing. They came from GS, of course, but IIRC it was before everyone knew to check for it.
You'd have been glad to have me as a customer, I always end up subbing to GI when I visit. Of course, I actually enjoy it so that might explain my willingness. Trying to push Helios is a little over the top though... kinda like when they used to carry Zunes and NGages (though admittedly at least the NGage was targeted as such.)