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).

The Wii, The 360, and the PS3

So I've been reading and reading about the how each of the next gen systems are doing. And I have a few thoughts on this...

Actually what got me thinking was an article in 1up.com about what a Sega VP thinks of the Wii. This guy... well... I used to work for Sega (many years ago) and I have to say that once they lost their will to make their own systems (The Dreamcast being the last system Sega made) they really lost their fighting spirit. Now I'll the first to admit it, Sega has been through some shit over tha past 10 years. This is what happens when you are the under dog in the 80's, make an incredible comeback and defeat Goliath in the 90's (Nintendo)... then lose your edge. Unfortunetly Sega has given up so much, that the people they now employ have no idea what it means to fight, what it means to have a vision of the future, what it means to make a difference.

So this article from 1up.com really shows this well. The VP they talked to made it quite clear how he felt. The Nintendo Wii was going to dry up in a year or two, and PS3 will continue to expland. The thing this VP seems to be missing is... the Nintendo DS is not as powerful as the Sony PSP, yet the DS is dominating. The Wii is not as powerful as the PS3 or Xbox360 yet Nintendo can't make enough Wii's for the demand.

This guy... of course he forgot to mention the games that Sega is bringing out for the Wii. This guy was so bias towards Sony that it wasn't even funny. Thing is... as a VP... he should know better than to burn bridges. I mean who knows, maybe Sega will make its money selling Wii games, since the Wii user base is SO much bigger than the PS3? And maybe Nintendo will bring out a new Wii in a couple of years instead of waiting 10 years because their console is so expensive unless they pull 10 years out of it's life it will be a money pit? (oh wait that's the PS3). Nintendo has staged a come back, it was 3rd in the last generation and now, it's shooting for the No1 spot, and you know what... it's getting there pretty fast. Oh yeah, I have a Wii and an Xbox360, but I'll hold off with the PS3 for a while I think.

Xbox 360 vs PS3... round 2... fight!

Gamespot just did their second Xbox 360 vs PS3 comparision. The first one was about 6 months ago so it wasn't fair to compare Xbox 360 2nd generation titles (ones that have come out a year after the launch) with actual launch titles from PS3 (titles that were obviously rushed to be on the shelves with the system).

So the new comparison is pretty good, it shows how close the systems are. I think what people don't seem to understand overall is that the new generation console wars are not going to be decided on who has better graphics (since both are running impressive HD graphics already) but more about which games will be on the systems and more importantly online play. So if the same game comes out on both systems (like Grand Theft Auto IV for example) and it's great online on Xbox 360 but very poor online play on the PS3... well you will have a clear winner.

Both systems can do great graphics, and because their video cards are so different from each other (Xbox 360 uses ATI while PS3 uses Nvidia) the games will NEVER look the same. I think Sony is really killing themselves by trying to extend the life of their system past the typical 5 year cycle (something that did happen with the PS2) and thinking the PS3 will still be graphically competitive in 10 years!!! No way, very poor plan (but who knows, I might be eating my words in 10 years).

Sony FINALLY joins MS in the Bloggers VR world

First there was Major Nelson from Microsoft's Xbox team, now Sony has started their own blog. I hope to see Nintendo follow soon.

Blogging, and point of presence is the future, Major Nelson is already on Twitter on and it wouldn't surprise me if he joined Jaiku next.

Sony is behind the online ball again... and Nintendo... don't get me started how far they are!

Colin McRae: DIRT review

This game is really something. I don't like Rally games but this one... wow. Yes the game moves as good as it looks!!!

DIRT is another great racing game for the Xbox 360.