CRank: 5Score: 6400

About 12 down and about 1.5 up - I think Comcast has upgraded its service and has done enough testing to feel safe advertising the new speeds. But the reality is that I can never find anyone that lets me pull down that fast - MS for example gives me about 1 Gb every 20 minutes or so and that isn't even 1 Mbps. Every now and again I get someone that can feed at 1.5 Mbps but it is still pretty rare.

So right now my connection is not the problem, it is the rest of the network. ...

6428d ago 1 agree0 disagreeView comment

There is no doubt that Gears 2 will be big - Gears 1 was sold to a much more limited audience - less consoles sold at the time. I expect Gears 2 will be at least half of what Halo was - maybe 75 percent (but not more than Halo because it is a little more violent).

I personally think MS is fine from a software standpoint - they have 5 exclusives that I plan to buy and that is pretty good for a single year from a single publisher. The real issue is whether all the games that ar...

6428d ago 2 agree0 disagreeView comment

If you have to download the media then you can have a completely closed system that only logs on to MS servers - there is no way to distribute pirated games and the system will be so closed that piracy will be almost impossible.

But we will see - people are pretty resourceful so it is possible that pirates will figure something out.

6428d ago 1 agree0 disagreeView comment

I tried the Wii and thought it sucked but apparently a lot of people like it.

Nice job Nintendo - just a shame you couldn't make a system for the hardcore gamers.

6429d ago 2 agree2 disagreeView comment

You might not like it and it is annoying for people that like to trade in games but it is coming because MS, Sony and Nintendo don't make any money off those traded-in games. If it comes with a flash HDD, it will be a lot faster than optical disks and a lot quieter as well.

Look at Steam - that is one way how it could work out. I wouldn't be surprised to see more of a cloud-based console but we are probably a generation away from that. But digital downloads of retail games -...

6429d ago 0 agree0 disagreeView comment

There are no camera issues - too many games I have played have silly camera issues that should not be there. Not matter what position I am in I should not see the wall or a tree between the screen and the player when look at my player - the crap between my avatar and me should be at least made translucent if you cannot remove it from my view. I have no problem with going for a slight tighter shot but really even that is not neccessary.

6429d ago 1 agree0 disagreeView comment

for the single player (but pretty tough if you ramped up the difficult). But the multiplayer made it a 10 - it was a blast. Of course, if you don't like multiplayer then Halo was a 7. Same with MGS4 - if you don't like cut scenes and losing control, then MGS4 is at most an 8 (you would just play the first part and then walk away).

6429d ago 1 agree2 disagreeView comment

If MS wants to get serious they need to do a minor redesign that ensure the console is quieter (f'n DVD player) and if possible, incorporates the power brick. Not sure if it is possible without both GPU and CPU at 45 nm but that would make the difference IMO.

6429d ago 2 agree1 disagreeView comment

Nice - bubble for you.

6429d ago 1 agree1 disagreeView comment

Newer consoles have been improved - it is just us original early adopters that got screwed. That is standard though so I am not bitter - sometimes you cannot wait.

6429d ago 10 agree5 disagreeView comment

Because I don't much care for JRPGs. These look better though so perhaps I will like them. The main thing is that the Japanese developers should try to make sure you can tell the men from the women. I mean seriously, when I go to Japan I have no trouble telling the difference. Not sure why they cannot figure it out in a video game.

But if you mean RPGs then you are completely wrong. Oblivion and Mass Effect both sold well and are RPGs. In fact, Sony is the one that doesn'...

6429d ago 1 agree1 disagreeView comment

MS's line up is more diverse than Sony's line up (three shooters - what's up with that?!). I am sure Gear 2 will be fun (in a depressing, war is hel! kind of way) and Fable has potential. Banjo looks fun as well. Two Human may be the Diable replacement we have been waiting for. And I need a kiddie game for my kids. So it seems like a pretty good list to me - I may end up getting all of the games on it because of the variety. Just not sure about Halo Wars - I have never cared for RTS gam...

6430d ago 3 agree0 disagreeView comment

1) MS and Sony have some nice games coming but the third party software also looks pretty strong (I think it makes exclusives much less important).

2) Sony and MS have flipped places - MS has a more diverse line-up (IMO) while Sony seems to be promoting shooters - just seems odd to me.

3) Wii support is lame.

6430d ago 1 agree0 disagreeView comment

I am not sure if this is going to be a fun 4X game or not - so I will wait to see what people say when they play it. Still, nice to see reasonable requirements.

6431d ago 0 agree0 disagreeView comment

Was making such a pain in the arse architecture in the first place - DSPs are poorly suited for general cpu type code (which is what games have lots of). Sure you can compensate for it by redoing all your algorithms to take advantage of the SPU - but the fact that you have to do that means you cannot take the time to optimize other aspects of the game.

In the end, there are certain things you can do on both machines that you cannot do on the other but there is no real advantag...

6431d ago 3 agree7 disagreeView comment

I don't see any need to buy a PS3 (at least not for games) as the multiplat games generally look better on the 360 and there are enough exclusives/timed exclusives/console exclusives to make it impossible to play everything I want on the 360.

In general the 360 has a much better RPG landscape and those are my preference (although sandbox games like GTA4 and crackdown are fun too). But if you have a PS3 I don't think you are going to be bored - you just won't be playing as many...

6432d ago 7 agree6 disagreeView comment

Dungeon Siege was decent fun but it was pretty mindless. I couldn't imagine playing Dungeon Siege 2 or 3 - once was enough for me.

But I agree that if you take away the party management I don't see what is left.

6436d ago 0 agree0 disagreeView comment

there is the whole hassle of returning involved and I haven't seen anything that is $2 - so I guess it is not widely available yet. And I don't see how you could make money renting Bluray disks at $2 a pop so you have to wonder how that is going to work out. But still - I could a DVD rent for $1 and would still rather pay $4 for on-demand - I don't like having to deal with the inconvenience.

While I admit that Bluray is superior in PQ and sound quality to on-demand (assuming ...

6440d ago 1 agree0 disagreeView comment

The issue is cost and benefit - right now it is a lot more expensive to have a Bluray player and the movies are about double the cost. That is simply too expensive. Even on my 50" TV DVDs look okay (not great but okay) - on smaller TVs (which are more common) the difference is less. So people are not going to pay that much for a barely perceptible increase.

The other problem Bluray has is that on-demand provide similar benefits at a much lower cost - for the average vie...

6440d ago 5 agree4 disagreeView comment

The game has some great moments but has a lot of flaws that make it less than it could be (when you compare it to other games). The fact that a certain group of people like those flaws doesn't make them better.

For example, I would never buy a game where there are that many cut-scenes. So it depends on your perspective. But the reviewer definitely gave reasons for the score - some people may disagree but there were legitimate reasons - thus the review is valid. Reviews like...

6443d ago 1 agree3 disagreeView comment