SillyMikey's Blog - 2old2play

Why are you spending so much on a ps3??

So the ps3 is going on sale soon and its obviously already sold out. Is that surprising?? Nope. I'm one of those people that thinks that Sony will not do as well as they did with ps2 and for one very important reason: The price. Although I agree that early adopters will probably pay anything for any console they prefer, I think that the casual consumer (that really doesn't have that kind of money) will not. These "casuals" are most people on the planet by the way. We also can't forget that ps3 is a lot more expensive than ps2 was at launch. About 150 to 200$ more actually give or take. Sure, the Wii is cheaper than all the other guys (not that much cheaper than the 360 core but still..) and that's probably good enough to make some people buy it without thinking twice. But the ps3 is at a severe disadvantage. It's cost is just too high. Even compared to the Xbox360. The 360 will have the same library (or mostly) as ps3 and will always have that price advantage over the ps3 because of its Core system. And in the end, what really sold the ps2 and made Sony millions? Price and software, that's what.

Let's look at the software for a minute. There's a question that I keep asking myself and I always end up with the same answer: Why would an "average consumer" purchase a ps3 and its best selling games (like Grand Theft Auto 4 for example) when he or she could buy those same games on the more affordable 360 and still have money left over for a Wii? Are the casual consumers really that loyal to Sony or are they just misinformed? I've battled with this question over and over and I always end up with the same end result: they're quite simply misinformed.

Just today actually, I was talking to one of my good friends (who's mostly a PC gamer) and having heard about the ps3 launching soon (and knowing I'm a console gamer), he asked me if I was going to buy ps3. I said no. I told him that even if I wanted one, I probably won't find one either way. But I mostly said no cause of the price. In my opinion, those games (or Blu Ray for that matter) isn't worth that kind of money period. It's just not. He came back with the argument "well, your getting a lot of power with ps3" or something in that regard and I just rolled my eyes. Sure, on paper ps3 might be slightly more powerful, I'll admit to that. But that's not the public perception of it is it? Most people (who let's face it, know practically nothing about what powers the next gen consoles) seem to think that the ps3 is something so powerful that nothing (not even the 360) can compete with it. There's so much misinformation out there and people are falling for that Sony hype all over again. Emotion Engine anyone?

Most of the biggest games in videogames are coming out on either the 360 or Wii. Games like GTA4, Most EA games, Resident Evil 5, Zelda, Metriod, and of course Halo are all coming to either the Wii or 360. One of the (arguably) biggest games out there (Halo3) is a 360 exclusive. Now for less money, the average consumer could get the Xbox360; play Halo, Gears of War, GTA4, Resident Evil 5 (sequels to some of the biggest games ever) and a Wii with Zelda, Mario, Metriod, etc.. for the price of A ps3. Not with all those games obviously, but you get the point. Now yes, Sony has it's killer apps but even with games like Final fantasy 13 or Metal Gear Solid 4 (which neither are first party by the way) who says those are 100% exclusive? Some of those (just like GTA that Sony lost exclusivity) might even find their way to the 360 or the Wii. Especially if those devs want to make their money back. If Sony manages to sell 50 million ps3's at that price, thats still considerably lower than the 100+ ps2's out there. Devs will wanna make their money back and they only way to do that is by reasing their games on multiple platforms. Its already hapenning more and more and its not gonna stop anytime soon. Not to sound like a bloody fanboy, but Peter Moore had it right when he said: "why would anyone buy a ps3 (other than a huge Sony first party fan) when you could get the Wii60 combo for the same price?" Why? Misinformation, that's why.

It's that same reason that people who don't even have HDMI or a HDTV feel like they need a Blu Ray player (or HD-DVD, whatever) but ask them why and they can't really give you a good answer as to why they actually want it. For some reason people feel like the ps3 will have the power of a super computer but the 360 will not. Misinformation is the biggest consumer problem. Sony is brilliant at hyping their products and the mass market is falling for it once again. And I say that because we all remember the "Emotion Engine" hype from back in the day don't we. Most people fell for it back then as well, myself included.

I don't really have an end to this blog post but I will say this: People need to stop buying brand names and instead should start inquiring on what they're actually getting and do you really want it or really need it! Do you need a Next gen format? Do you need to buy a ps3 if the games you want are on multiple platforms? (Some much cheaper then others) The general consumer (especially the casual gamers) need to stop listening to this PR bullshit from Sony, Nintendo or MS and start making a wise, monetary decisions. The ps3 is expensive. Overly expensive. If you can find exactly what you want on a more affordable console, why spend that much?

Inform yourselves.

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New Halo 3 info !! (no scans)

I wont link to the article since there are scans there, but heres the lowdown:

Finally, some Halo 3 news. Lots of it, actually. A Swedish magazine got all the information on Bungie’s third game in the Halo series and the guys over at the NeoGAF forums were friendly enough to post them. After the jump is information on new weapons, multiplayer, bots, awesome sounding Legendary Edition.

The collectors edition, which is being called the Legendary Edition, will be a four disc set and is a replica of Master Chief’s helmet. The first disc will obviously be the game, the second will be documentaries and and Bungie guys talking, the third will be stuff like Red vs. Blue and the forth will be cut scenes from Halo 1, 2 and 3 in HD.

Hyoushi from the NeoGAF forums was friendly enough to translate whatever he could read, he’s what he wrote:

On plot twists
“Halo 3 will contain more plot twists than any other game in the series” –Jaime Griesemer

On Gears of War being competition
“We’ve played lots and lots of multiplayer and some singleplayer, and yeah, it’s really good. But it’s also quite a bit different from what we’re doing. I realize that a lot of people are concerned that Halo 3 and GoW are going to compete for the same audience, but I think that when people get to play, they’ll realize how different the games are. Gears is a much slower game where stragegy and cover plays a bigger part.” –Jaime Griesemer

On graphics
“A lot is still missing in this build. Weather- and water effects are missing, and most of our HDR isn’t in there yet. We’re still at alpha stage, but when everything is in place, Halo 3 will be the best X360 has to offer.” –Brian Jarrard

“We definitely have another strategy than Epic Games when it comes to graphics. We’ll never engulf our game environments in lots of details like that. GoW looks absolutely fantastic, but we want to avoid compromising Halo’s unique visual style. That’s why we’re making a clean, sharp game as opposed to one with insane amount of details.” –Brian Jarrard

“There are many ways to convey emotion. Graphics is not the most important one.” –Brian Jarrard

On multiplayer and bots
“Multiplayer has always been important, but it’s developed in a different way which makes it look bigger for every game. We have a base that we always build the MP part on, whereas the SP mode practically has to be built ground-up every time. Xbox Live also made MP in Halo 2 even more important.” –Brian Jarrard

“A lot of people ask us about bots. They think that the AI in Halo was pretty damn good, and would work well in MP as well, but it’s really not that simple. The enemies in Halo are optimized for encountering the player in large numbers. They would be a lot worse at abstract thought AI like ‘I have to defend my flag’ and so forth. In short, to create bots for Halo would be an immense undertaking, and we rather put that time into making new levels, weapons and netcode.” –Jaime Griesemer
——

New Weapons:
*Spiker: the weapon of choice for brutes.
*Spartan Laser: An anti-veichle weapon, fires a red laser that pretty much destroys any veichle that is hit.

New Vehicle:
*Moongoose: The ATV that was supposed to be in Halo 2. It carries 2 people and it doesn’t have any weapons so it’s mainly a means of getting from point A to point B as fast as possible.”

from gamefaqs
Swedish magazine level has had the chance to play halo 3 in multiplayer and there are 3 levels which is revealed,
Valhalla = blood gulch, High Ground = Zanzibar, Snowbound = Frost bite.

New vehicle - Mongoose, mostly for transport 2 persons.

new weapon- spartan laser, hard to use but extremely powerful vehicle destroyer apparently

- nail grenade, sticks on walls and emits nails into the air.

new weapon - spiker (brute weapon),

your secondary weapon is visible at all times at your back. (THANK GOD!!!)

New transportation system in multilayer- man cannon, launches you into the air through air streams, you can still be fired at and you can fire back.

The X-button will have a special use which Bungie will not reveal.

No bots will come to H3. that will be all.

Bumper buttons can be used to reload both weapons independantly.

The December issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly issue is going to have a whole lot a of Halo 3 coverage too so expect fresh load of info when that hits shelves.

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Halo movie dropped!!!!! Not for long.

Let me actually start off by saying this: Yes, all (or most) video game movies suck. Ive seen most of them too and ill happily admit that 95% of them absolutely suck. Other than Doom, i kinda enjoyed that one. But still compared to a high quility movie like Spiderman, Superman Returns or Batman begins, it sucked. But lets take a step back and see what all these bad video game movies have in common: Low budget, bad story, cheesy effects, unproven (and often unknown) casts. There are maybe more points but overall all these movies have a few of these in common.

Now lets look at what we know so far from the Halo movie. It already has a big Buget (which is supposedly the reason Fox dropped it), the crew so far we know are top quality and it can be resumed by one name, Peter Jackson. His last 5 movies were blockbuster smash hits. Granted 3 of those were Lord of The Rings but still, he could have easily f****d it up like Lucas did with his new Star Wars movies or the Wachowski bros did with Matrix. But he didnt. Now YES, i know that he aint directing the Halo movie. But still, look at a list of bad video game movies. Do any of those have a high caliber movie director on board producing any of those movies?? No, they dont. Some of those people might be very talanted, but none of tham are the caliber of Peter Jackson. None.

Lets look at the special effects departement. Although some of those bad Videogame movies have nice special effects, none of them come even close to the special effects from Lord of the Rings which brings me to my next point, Weta Digital. Weta Digital is an Academy Award winning visual effects facility right up there with Lucas. So we know that Halo the movie will have pretty sick special effects. Something most those crap videogame movies dont have.

Now lets move on to the story. Although the Halo games do not have a deep enough story to make a movie, the books do. Well written or not, they do have the potential of beeing a great action movie. This considering a known writter does it and surprise surprise Alex Garland did. Even if it was only the first draft of it. Halo also has a lot of potential in its characters and universe. Halo`s characters are well known (just like parents and older teens know about spiderman and Mario Bros) and it has a universe thats different enough for it to make it not just another sci-fi movie. Halo will not have light sabers and jedis like SW and it wont consist of a group of marines beeing stuck on a space station beeing chased by Aliens. Halo is different. It isnt just another sci-fi movie.

Now yes, the director of Halo is virtually unknown. But then again, he aint no Uwe Boll. Everyone must start somewhere and lets face it with Peter Jackson behind him, he`ll be just fine.

So there it is. Regardeless of what icon i have when i post in a forum (or which games i perfer) you cant really debate my points. Halo the movie has a lot going for it so far. A LOT MORE than any of those videogame movies made before it. Sure its a big risk. But the only reasons is was dropped was because of 2 reasons:

1- It isnt a proven cash cow like StarWars.
2- Because of all those crap videogame movies made in the past. (most of them directed by Uwe "im a boxer" Boll.)

In case you havent figured it out yet, just beeing a videogame movie isnt enought for failure. Bad movies fail, period. They dont fail because they`re videogames. Those past videogame movies were bad. Badly made, badly directed, and sometimes with very cheesy effets etc... Halo so far has the budget, the talent (Jackson and Weta Digital), the script (written by Alex Garland) and the popularity to be successfull. All the ingredient are there and it will be successfull. Videogame or not.

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