I know, but to be honest not many of EA's games have received glowing reviews. This isn't due to the availability of the hardware, but with the software. Anyone I've talked to who own PSPs (I own one myself) have considered buying an EA sports game but decided against it due to the reviews of others. Not just gaming site reviews either (Gamespot, IGN, etc), but of players themselves who have bought the software and been unimpressed.
I guess my point is, EA seems to only be publicly pointing the finger in one direction, when in fact the issue isn't limited to just that one direction.
I don't have a 360, but I'm looking to get one at some point when the insanity dies down.
While it may seem like the focus is on Live, it's not a REQUIREMENT. Live (Gold membership) will track your achievements and show associated bling no your gamercard. You also need Gold to play online against other players. Beyond that, it's not going to get you anything for games that you will only be playing the single player content.
In short, they've made it a centerpiece for the console experience as a whole, but it's by no means a requirement if you just want to buy a game and play it yourself.
Personally, I think they're doing enough interesting things with the Live service to merit the subscription. The online play thing is one thing, but they have games for purchase that looked interesting to me. Plus if more games allow co-op play over Live, it might be pretty fun to play through some games with buddies.
EA doesn't see the PSP getting to installed base that the company had previously expected, either in North America or Europe
Of course lack of sales of EA games on the platform would have nothing to do with the fact that most PSP EA games are ports from consoles. And shitty ports at that, with little or no features taking advantage of the handheld form factor at all.
Regarding the rest, well maybe they should be cluing into the fact that they've done nothing innovative for quite some time. Each and every year we get the same games from EA, over and over again, on every platform. What did they think was going to happen?
Aside of the first punch, when they cut back from the crowd reaction he's got her by the collar and is just feeding her punch after punch like he was fighting a guy. Definitely an underrated movie, has some of the best gunfights filmed.
Listening to the commentary on the DVD for that part was interesting. The motivation behind having Philippe do that basically was so the jerk they were going to fight would have to go home and listen to her bitch about how she got owned in the parking lot, regardless of who won the fight itself.:)
Which is kinda funny when you consider the game's 3rd person view had you looking at her ass more than her chest. But as one fellow pointed out in another post for this story, why can't a large breasted girl have any of the positive qualities was talking about?:)
I remember that in theaters, practically every male in the audience had a coronary laughing so hard.
Only other time I've seen that was at the beginning of The Way of the Gun, where a cheeky club chick spews a ton of profane insults at the movie's protagonists while they stare down her boyfriend. Instead of doing the obviouis, they push the guy aside and sucker punch the girl.
Crass, but my god did every guy laugh.
And yet, Lara Croft as a character was a strong, acrobatic and highly educated woman. Women went ballistic over her measurements, glossing over the fact that as a female character in a video game, she overcame extreme odds against environmental dangers, puzzles, male antagonists, etc. to accomplish her goals.
The fact that she doesn't want to wear a respectable pantsuit while doing archeaological gymnastics in tomb located in a stuffy Amazon rainforest only emphasizes her intelligence even more.:)
Or, pair up with an existing manufacturer like Samsung and create a tie-in to their services available in the TV itself. I just picked up a Samsung DLP set the other day, and it's got built in TV Guide support (wasn't expecting that). Imagine if it came with Front Row and access to download and play things from iTMS?
Instant market through integration. More than a slam dunk in this case, they'd shatter the backboard.
Keep in mind, EA has been doing this for years with almost all of their licenses. I'm surprised anyone thought they'd come up with something original for the next generation, instead of just doing incremental upgrades to their existing lineups. I mean, it's the company that releases 200x versions of practially everything they have, adding almost nothing new and even taking away things at the same time.
You're correct that it IS extreme laziness on the part of the developer, but if it's one thing gamers have shown is that they'll eat up the next version of Madden readily. And of course since EA's the only one who can develop NFL-based games, they pretty much don't have to compete with anyone.
Burout Revenge is a prime example of EA fracking up a license. Burnout 2 was probably the best of the series, because since then the games have gone so eXtreme that they're impossible to play. Revenge is an absolute assault on your senses, and there's little skill (more random luck) involved in actually racing. I know it's all about the crashing, but there's nothing new there either.
EA's not the only culprit of this of course. The entire first-person shooter genre is guilty of this, with very few games actually doing something interesting and innovative anymore at all.
The other option would be to provide a free plastic base to all XBox360 owners that would snap on the bottom of the system and raise it up an inch from the surface.
If I had mod points right now I'd give you a +1. You hit the nail on the head.
There's also the issue of hiring "big name talent" for videogames. Do we really need the likes of Christopher Lee and Heather Graham doing voiceovers for Everquest 2? No. It's extra money that could go towards hiring lesser-known voice actors who are fully able to perform the task well.
If companies like EA insist on creating games with productions on the level of hollywood movies, they should be prepared to eat that cost instead of passing it on to consumers. If $60 games were half that price, more people would buy them. More people would be inclined to get into gaming if they knew they wouldn't have to pay ridiculous prices for games they can finish in a weekend.
As a consumer nestled well within the target demographic for the industry, I have to say I've bought less games this year than ever before.
Admittedly, it's due in part to the glut of games out there. There's a LOT of games coming out weekly, and scant few are worth spending the money on. The last games I've bought myself are Shadow of the Colossus (my god, what a GREAT game), Burnout Legends (basically BO3 on the PSP), Burnout Revenge (mediocre improvements on 3), and that last Incredible Hulk game (lots of destruction, but who's still playing it?). There have been a huge swath of first person shooters out on the PC, action/adventure games on the console, as well as platformers (what are they up to now, Ratchet & Clank XIII?). But most make small improvements (at best) on existing games.
I'm also a fan of MMOs, and as such am more inclined to play ONE game for a much longer period of time than a game I can finish in a weekend.
I've been watching the next gen consoles with great interest, but to be honest none of the launch titles for the 360 really do much for me. I'm not a fan of sports games, which are the very embodiment of what is wrong with the gaming industry, and I can get Call of Duty 2 on the PC for CHEAPER than the 360. Project Gotham Racing 3 looks nice, but I have like three Gran Turismo games kicking around on my PS2. So what's the incentive?
Graphics? Ok things are looking much nicer, but there's no innovative gameplay out there anymore. The last really impressive console game was Colossus, and that's an "old generation" game.
It might be too early to tell. First batches of games for new console generations usually are the suck, until developers start getting ballsy with the hardware. But I'm hoping the industry doesn't bottom out before then.
Amid all the string jokes, there is some good in this to be found for those who dropped the wad of cash on this sucker (early adopters... will they NEVER learn?).
Given that Microsoft used multiple manufacturers for various system components (presumably the PSU as well), it probably means that only one of them produced a bad batch. And at least it's just the PSU, which means it'd be easier and cheaper to replace. That, and be thankful the thing shuts down instead of arcing, melting, and causing fires.
It's not a great situation for gamers, but it could be worse:)
One thing has nothing to do with the other. The prime motivators for restricting supply seem to be:
1. Allowing for weekly deliveries instead of selling out stock in one day and having nothing for months.
2. The obvious one - drumming up demand by limiting supply. Except instead of a one time supply limited demand, they get several weeks worth.
In the case of the hardware, being that it seems to be a powersupply problem, it's probable that having multiple maufacturers for components just led to one manufacturer being inferior than another.
Well, I make no claims that this is surely what's going on, I merely pose it as a possible problem and solution that I found out there.:) It could work, or it could just be a clever ploy by someone to get everyone putting their powerbricks on their 360 boxes. Either way, it's worth at least trying by the folks out there who are having problems, in case it IS the issue. That way maybe they can have a bit more information handy when phoning Microsoft's tech support.
There was a fellow on the XBox360 forums who posted this link to a Gamespot forum post about a guy fixing his problems by getting his powersupply brick off the ground. Could this problem be due to poor cooling of that brick?
Most people probably heeded Microsoft's advice after people scoffed at the size of the thing - put it back behind your sofa or TV. But it could be that the lack of proper ventilation is causing this problem, which doesn't seem to be as "isolated" as Microsoft is saying. From what I've been reading on various forums around the net it's a higher percentage than one would expect.
The problem with the PSP is that right now you're seeing almost nothing but PORTS, not sequels. Lets face it, Burnout Legends, while a fantastic game for the PSP, is basically a port of Burnout 3. Ditto for practically every sports game on the platform.
The games developed for the platform specifically seem to be getting the best reviews - Lumines is a prime example, and is an excellent game.
Some commentary I've read tends to blame this on the push for the next gen consoles. Developers might be more likely to push for original title development for the new consoles rather than handhelds, because the big money this Christmas will be there.
I'm still enjoying my PSP, though. Am I playing it as much now, months after it launched? Probably not. But it's not gathering dust.
What we should be reporting on, what is MORE newsworthy than just the instability, is Microsoft's reaction to it. If and when they find the problem, will they replace defective units? It's usually at times like these that a company shows its true committment to its customers and product.
As an example, when the iMac flat panel line first came out there were lots of customers complaining of fan noise, and Apple was quick to figure out what was causing it and send out replacement parts to affected users. My first Mac was an iMac with such a problem, and their reaction to the problem was entirely reassuring to someone who bought in on a 1.0 version of a product.
I'm definitely going to be keeping an eye on the news of these issues to see what kind of support is there for people.
Who knows, this could be a result of Microsoft rushing the hardware to make it in time for the holiday season.
In the case of PDZ, I'd question the stability of the game from the fact they were stamping the damn thing before running it through Microsoft's test regime. The problem is with both parties frankly, because if you're stamping it before final testing, the you probably didn't do your OWN testing to make sure things were working properly. Or, I bet Rare was biting its fingernails hoping Microsoft didn't find known issues.
Admittedly, this is version 1 of the 360. You can never find all the problems until a product is put out to market and widespread use finds all sorts of issues you never thought of. For all we know, some people having issues maybe have their 360 plugged into a dizzying array of power bars hooked up behind their home theaters. Power issue, maybe? Inadequate cooling? Time will tell.
In any case, I'm pretty glad I'm not an early adopter this go-around. I'm still considering picking one up, but I think I'll wait until the game library's a little less sports-heavy, and maybe for the 65nm chipped versions to hit the shelves.
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I know, but to be honest not many of EA's games have received glowing reviews. This isn't due to the availability of the hardware, but with the software. Anyone I've talked to who own PSPs (I own one myself) have considered buying an EA sports game but decided against it due to the reviews of others. Not just gaming site reviews either (Gamespot, IGN, etc), but of players themselves who have bought the software and been unimpressed. I guess my point is, EA seems to only be publicly pointing the finger in one direction, when in fact the issue isn't limited to just that one direction.
I don't have a 360, but I'm looking to get one at some point when the insanity dies down.
While it may seem like the focus is on Live, it's not a REQUIREMENT. Live (Gold membership) will track your achievements and show associated bling no your gamercard. You also need Gold to play online against other players. Beyond that, it's not going to get you anything for games that you will only be playing the single player content.
In short, they've made it a centerpiece for the console experience as a whole, but it's by no means a requirement if you just want to buy a game and play it yourself.
Personally, I think they're doing enough interesting things with the Live service to merit the subscription. The online play thing is one thing, but they have games for purchase that looked interesting to me. Plus if more games allow co-op play over Live, it might be pretty fun to play through some games with buddies.
EA doesn't see the PSP getting to installed base that the company had previously expected, either in North America or Europe
Of course lack of sales of EA games on the platform would have nothing to do with the fact that most PSP EA games are ports from consoles. And shitty ports at that, with little or no features taking advantage of the handheld form factor at all.
Regarding the rest, well maybe they should be cluing into the fact that they've done nothing innovative for quite some time. Each and every year we get the same games from EA, over and over again, on every platform. What did they think was going to happen?
Aside of the first punch, when they cut back from the crowd reaction he's got her by the collar and is just feeding her punch after punch like he was fighting a guy. Definitely an underrated movie, has some of the best gunfights filmed.
:)
Listening to the commentary on the DVD for that part was interesting. The motivation behind having Philippe do that basically was so the jerk they were going to fight would have to go home and listen to her bitch about how she got owned in the parking lot, regardless of who won the fight itself.
Which is kinda funny when you consider the game's 3rd person view had you looking at her ass more than her chest. But as one fellow pointed out in another post for this story, why can't a large breasted girl have any of the positive qualities was talking about? :)
I remember that in theaters, practically every male in the audience had a coronary laughing so hard. Only other time I've seen that was at the beginning of The Way of the Gun, where a cheeky club chick spews a ton of profane insults at the movie's protagonists while they stare down her boyfriend. Instead of doing the obviouis, they push the guy aside and sucker punch the girl. Crass, but my god did every guy laugh.
And yet, Lara Croft as a character was a strong, acrobatic and highly educated woman. Women went ballistic over her measurements, glossing over the fact that as a female character in a video game, she overcame extreme odds against environmental dangers, puzzles, male antagonists, etc. to accomplish her goals.
:)
The fact that she doesn't want to wear a respectable pantsuit while doing archeaological gymnastics in tomb located in a stuffy Amazon rainforest only emphasizes her intelligence even more.
Well gee, I wonder how they're working on games like Metal Gear Solid 4? Yeah, real worthless tools ... :/
Or, pair up with an existing manufacturer like Samsung and create a tie-in to their services available in the TV itself. I just picked up a Samsung DLP set the other day, and it's got built in TV Guide support (wasn't expecting that). Imagine if it came with Front Row and access to download and play things from iTMS?
Instant market through integration. More than a slam dunk in this case, they'd shatter the backboard.
Keep in mind, EA has been doing this for years with almost all of their licenses. I'm surprised anyone thought they'd come up with something original for the next generation, instead of just doing incremental upgrades to their existing lineups. I mean, it's the company that releases 200x versions of practially everything they have, adding almost nothing new and even taking away things at the same time.
You're correct that it IS extreme laziness on the part of the developer, but if it's one thing gamers have shown is that they'll eat up the next version of Madden readily. And of course since EA's the only one who can develop NFL-based games, they pretty much don't have to compete with anyone.
Burout Revenge is a prime example of EA fracking up a license. Burnout 2 was probably the best of the series, because since then the games have gone so eXtreme that they're impossible to play. Revenge is an absolute assault on your senses, and there's little skill (more random luck) involved in actually racing. I know it's all about the crashing, but there's nothing new there either.
EA's not the only culprit of this of course. The entire first-person shooter genre is guilty of this, with very few games actually doing something interesting and innovative anymore at all.
The other option would be to provide a free plastic base to all XBox360 owners that would snap on the bottom of the system and raise it up an inch from the surface.
Quick, patent the idea!
You don't know where he had situated his power supply, any more than he knows any actual real numbers on the number of defective units.
If I had mod points right now I'd give you a +1. You hit the nail on the head.
There's also the issue of hiring "big name talent" for videogames. Do we really need the likes of Christopher Lee and Heather Graham doing voiceovers for Everquest 2? No. It's extra money that could go towards hiring lesser-known voice actors who are fully able to perform the task well.
If companies like EA insist on creating games with productions on the level of hollywood movies, they should be prepared to eat that cost instead of passing it on to consumers. If $60 games were half that price, more people would buy them. More people would be inclined to get into gaming if they knew they wouldn't have to pay ridiculous prices for games they can finish in a weekend.
As a consumer nestled well within the target demographic for the industry, I have to say I've bought less games this year than ever before.
Admittedly, it's due in part to the glut of games out there. There's a LOT of games coming out weekly, and scant few are worth spending the money on. The last games I've bought myself are Shadow of the Colossus (my god, what a GREAT game), Burnout Legends (basically BO3 on the PSP), Burnout Revenge (mediocre improvements on 3), and that last Incredible Hulk game (lots of destruction, but who's still playing it?). There have been a huge swath of first person shooters out on the PC, action/adventure games on the console, as well as platformers (what are they up to now, Ratchet & Clank XIII?). But most make small improvements (at best) on existing games.
I'm also a fan of MMOs, and as such am more inclined to play ONE game for a much longer period of time than a game I can finish in a weekend.
I've been watching the next gen consoles with great interest, but to be honest none of the launch titles for the 360 really do much for me. I'm not a fan of sports games, which are the very embodiment of what is wrong with the gaming industry, and I can get Call of Duty 2 on the PC for CHEAPER than the 360. Project Gotham Racing 3 looks nice, but I have like three Gran Turismo games kicking around on my PS2. So what's the incentive?
Graphics? Ok things are looking much nicer, but there's no innovative gameplay out there anymore. The last really impressive console game was Colossus, and that's an "old generation" game.
It might be too early to tell. First batches of games for new console generations usually are the suck, until developers start getting ballsy with the hardware. But I'm hoping the industry doesn't bottom out before then.
Just my opinion.
Amid all the string jokes, there is some good in this to be found for those who dropped the wad of cash on this sucker (early adopters... will they NEVER learn?).
:)
Given that Microsoft used multiple manufacturers for various system components (presumably the PSU as well), it probably means that only one of them produced a bad batch. And at least it's just the PSU, which means it'd be easier and cheaper to replace. That, and be thankful the thing shuts down instead of arcing, melting, and causing fires.
It's not a great situation for gamers, but it could be worse
One thing has nothing to do with the other. The prime motivators for restricting supply seem to be: 1. Allowing for weekly deliveries instead of selling out stock in one day and having nothing for months. 2. The obvious one - drumming up demand by limiting supply. Except instead of a one time supply limited demand, they get several weeks worth. In the case of the hardware, being that it seems to be a powersupply problem, it's probable that having multiple maufacturers for components just led to one manufacturer being inferior than another.
Happy now? :)
Well, I make no claims that this is surely what's going on, I merely pose it as a possible problem and solution that I found out there. :) It could work, or it could just be a clever ploy by someone to get everyone putting their powerbricks on their 360 boxes. Either way, it's worth at least trying by the folks out there who are having problems, in case it IS the issue. That way maybe they can have a bit more information handy when phoning Microsoft's tech support.
There was a fellow on the XBox360 forums who posted this link to a Gamespot forum post about a guy fixing his problems by getting his powersupply brick off the ground. Could this problem be due to poor cooling of that brick?
Most people probably heeded Microsoft's advice after people scoffed at the size of the thing - put it back behind your sofa or TV. But it could be that the lack of proper ventilation is causing this problem, which doesn't seem to be as "isolated" as Microsoft is saying. From what I've been reading on various forums around the net it's a higher percentage than one would expect.
Portability, of course.
The problem with the PSP is that right now you're seeing almost nothing but PORTS, not sequels. Lets face it, Burnout Legends, while a fantastic game for the PSP, is basically a port of Burnout 3. Ditto for practically every sports game on the platform.
The games developed for the platform specifically seem to be getting the best reviews - Lumines is a prime example, and is an excellent game.
Some commentary I've read tends to blame this on the push for the next gen consoles. Developers might be more likely to push for original title development for the new consoles rather than handhelds, because the big money this Christmas will be there.
I'm still enjoying my PSP, though. Am I playing it as much now, months after it launched? Probably not. But it's not gathering dust.
What we should be reporting on, what is MORE newsworthy than just the instability, is Microsoft's reaction to it. If and when they find the problem, will they replace defective units? It's usually at times like these that a company shows its true committment to its customers and product. As an example, when the iMac flat panel line first came out there were lots of customers complaining of fan noise, and Apple was quick to figure out what was causing it and send out replacement parts to affected users. My first Mac was an iMac with such a problem, and their reaction to the problem was entirely reassuring to someone who bought in on a 1.0 version of a product. I'm definitely going to be keeping an eye on the news of these issues to see what kind of support is there for people.
Who knows, this could be a result of Microsoft rushing the hardware to make it in time for the holiday season.
In the case of PDZ, I'd question the stability of the game from the fact they were stamping the damn thing before running it through Microsoft's test regime. The problem is with both parties frankly, because if you're stamping it before final testing, the you probably didn't do your OWN testing to make sure things were working properly. Or, I bet Rare was biting its fingernails hoping Microsoft didn't find known issues.
Admittedly, this is version 1 of the 360. You can never find all the problems until a product is put out to market and widespread use finds all sorts of issues you never thought of. For all we know, some people having issues maybe have their 360 plugged into a dizzying array of power bars hooked up behind their home theaters. Power issue, maybe? Inadequate cooling? Time will tell.
In any case, I'm pretty glad I'm not an early adopter this go-around. I'm still considering picking one up, but I think I'll wait until the game library's a little less sports-heavy, and maybe for the 65nm chipped versions to hit the shelves.
Ah. Geeze... that's what I get for cutting back on coffee. Let that be a lesson to you all. :)
And thereby say yes to Microsoft that their actions are? Wheee! That makes sense. Tomorrow, maybe we'll blow SCO.