Somehow Master Chief brandishing a walkie-talkie instead of his weapon just won't be the same... (ET Spielberg remake reference by the way)
I agree, to keep buying replacements is just rewarding bad behavior. I'm on my 5th 360 but I sent it back 4 times under warranty. Once this latest refurbished dies and if they tell me the warranty doesn't apply anymore, it will be the end of the line for that console for me.
If I get bad service at a restaurant or a store, I take my business elsewhere. If I buy a car or an appliance with poor reliability, I go and buy from another brand next time. It's just common sense.
I agree with you guys, for these downloads to be the same or higher price makes it not worth it. Convenience? I don't consider long download times and risking hitting a bandwidth cap (ISP) convenient at all.
I think Soda that you have the best solution, buy the game on disk (cheaper, permanent, resale value) and install it to the HDD to get faster load time and no drive noise. Once you are done playing it, uninstall it (free up space) and if you want to play it later for short...
Thanks Kushan, my last refurbished has the new motherboard so it has been running very well, so I probably won't need it but it's good to now it can all be transferred.
Are they going to do that with Arcade games too? Arcade games used to be annoyingly tied to the 360 S/N and if you got a refurbished after a warranty repair, early on you were hosed and later on you still had to do an official transfer (max of once a year).
If Arcade games were tied to gamertags only it would solve all that.
Makes even more sense if you factor in rumors of Natal models later on, they don't want too many SKUs at once so they have to discontinue something.
The demo will be more telling.
I find reviews are only somewhat reliable once the game has been out for a while and there has been enough reviews for aggregator sites to have statistical significance. Too often the very first reviews are either too positive (to get early embargo lifted) or too negative (to get site hits).
Not that console sales matter to real gamers but I don't see it happening. The truth is that the 360 will be relaunching itself with Natal and aiming at the huge casual market that made the Wii number 1 in sales. The market size aimed for combined with Microsoft's advertising power, is sure to give them a boost next year so that even if the PS3 were to have a price cut there is no way they could close the one year headstart. Without Natal it would have a been a slim possibility, with Natal...
I agree but not because it is MS, it is like that whenever a desperate deal like that is made. Basically Yahoo is admitting that they lost their edge and have no idea or motivation to recover on their own. They are done for, the only thing left to guess is when. 2 years would be my guess but 5 as you mentioned is possible if it is a slow death.
What if the 360+ actually allowed standard HDD and the 1TB going around was just the maximum initially supported, not what it would ship with.
@6.2 Your actually right. It's ironic that Nintendo contracted Sony to do hardware for their gaming console and after cancelling the contract that Sony decided not to let their work go to waste and entered the gaming console market.
It's also ironic that Sega (and Peter Moore) had Microsoft do the OS on the Dreamcast only for the Dreamcast to fold and Microsoft (and Peter Moore) to launch the Xbox.
I didn't disagree with you and I didn't say the things above but I think what they mean is that if Bungie is shopping around to get the most money out of it, it may not make sense for Sony because they are better off investing their time and money on some other new IP, one that doesn't come at an already higher cost.
I couldn't agree more. I don't have a problem with them trying new control options and even making them the default. However if it is a traditional-styled game they better still have the option to play with a classical controller.
Choice is good and only serves to increase your audience's size and helps more people enjoy your game.
I agree with every single point you made even though some of these thoughts are almost taboo to say aloud around here, but it's true. Bubble up.
I think a true win-win for the industry is to offer a choice of both traditional and motion-control gaming. However there is a risk, as it happened with the Wii, that traditional games that controlled fine with dual thumbstick controllers for years will only be offered in motion control form. Once traditional games become motion control only on the 360\PS3, that is when some of us will loose.
I understand that some new types of games may be only suited to motion control. How...
@4.1, I agree, with a little bit of patience. But they couldn't advertise it as "soon to be multiplatform!" considering the motives to delay one version over another...
The developers and publishers themselves used the term 'timed-exclusive' to denote that it is released on one platform only for a limited time, often in the case of 360\PS3 first and PC later. So even they are acknowledging that once it is on the PC also it is no longer exclusive.
I have nothing against trying to incorporate new controls in existing game genre and even make it the default... just as long as they offer an option to map to just a regular controller. Choice is good.
Also agree with most of the list and your comment.
I think the latest Prince of Persia should have made the list. The ending alone almost made me regret having played the game.
Agreed, there are a few developers that have such a good track record for quality and innovation that I order their games without hesitation. Tim Schaefer is one of them. I played Psychonauts several times and enjoyed every second of it. Looking forward to Brutal Legends.