Xbox 360 and PS3... not powerful enough???

This is a wonderful article I found on insomnia.ac about why the Xbox 360 and PS3 are just not powerful enough and how both Microsoft and Sony have gone down the wrong path... the Marketing path. I would easily compare this to the AMD/Intel/Apple (RISK CPU) days when everyone was in the pissing game of who has the fastest (Mhz rating) CPU because that somehow "automatically" gave them a lead. That is until Intel hit the 3Ghz barrier and then the game changed.

I think Alex Kierkegaard (who wrote the Xbox 360/ PS3 article) has made some excellent points. He IS in fact talking about what few know... and even fewer are able to discuss. It's such a political game now with the game companies that no one can really say what they think afraid of insulting them and hurting any sort of relationship they might have with them. More recently articles have popped up saying that the Xbox 360 is much easier to program for then the PS3... and if you read those its clear how much everyone is holding back, being so very very careful as to what they say. It's sad really...

So I'm very happy that people like Alex are out there, and I hope they continue to spread the truth. I don't mind that Microsoft and Sony have chosen this path (it is their decision to make after all) but notice how much better Nintendo is doing going down a completely different road... interesting isn't it... maybe resolution isn't the goal the big boys should be going after, even if Marketing tells them to. I do hope the next console generation will focus almost entirely on graphic detail since the resolutions will be the same (HD). I guess time will tell.

Forza Motorsport 2

I'll be the first to admit, I'm MUCH more of a motorcycle nut than a car nut MUCH MUCH more. Though, as a guy... I do like my car games as well. I play Ridge Racer 6 and Project Gotham Racing 3 (two completely different types of games) and enjoy them both. I even have Test Drive Unlimited which I've own for 9 months but have played only once (I'll get to it someday).

When I heard about Forza 2 coming out I wasn't sure if they would do it right, if it would become the new king of racing games (well until MotoGP 07 but that's motorcycles and a different level). Well let me tell you... it's THAT good. Forza 2 has in fact become the standard for car racing games moving forward... perhaps you've heard of the last "standard"... you know, the default best racing game from a few years back. I'm talking about Gran Turismo of course, and Forza 2 has completely leap frogged GT in a way I don't think Sony will be able to get back. That's too bad too, though I wasn't a huge fan of GT (probably due to the fact that I'm not a car nut) I could understand how people loved it so much. Well Sony was very good a dropping the car-racing ball so bad that I doubt they will get it back. The continued delays on GT sequels (the PSP version STILL hasn't come out) and the obvious invenstment that Mircrosoft has done with Turn 10 Studios has paid off, and boy has it paid off.

This game has it all, graphics, framerate, control, options, and all the little details that make it legendary. In fact I spent at least 2 hours yesterday just painting my car and making it look the way I want it (2 HOURS!!!!). Oh course the wonderful Xbox Live features don't hurt either as nothing beats racing with real people.

So overall, I would recommend this game to car nuts, and motorcycle nuts, and ANYTHING nuts! Every Xbox360 owner should have this title in their library. The only bad thing about this game is now someone has to come up with some even better and I'm just not sure how they are going to do that. :-)

5/5 Stars

Xbox 360 Elite Hardware Review

Here is a great review of the Xbox 360 that just came out on EuroGamer. It goes through some good comparisons and short comings. Essentially there are no big surprises here. I won't even consider upgrading my Xbox 360 until the the new 65nm revision of the PowerPC CPU is out (and even then, ONLY if it is MUCH quieter and has a MUCH smaller power supply, I wouldn't mind the HDDVD to be built in, and slot loading too).