Blogcritics Comments for Section: Gaming

Comment by info on starting a record company on Playstation Wii - Sony's Woes

Tue, 13 May 2008 03:33:26 EDT

Wow, maybe he wanted to be the only person on the face of the earth who didn't use One of those how to start a record company programs that you see in magazines and like the one that they nearly giveaway at http://www.TheUltimateRecordLabel.com/bp

Comment by Milla Valkeasuo on Nintendo DS Review: Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword

Sun, 11 May 2008 13:57:29 EDT

I've never played that, but the graphics look good.

Comment by David on PSP Mod Chip Up and Running

Sat, 10 May 2008 05:43:43 EDT

where do you get psp mod chips from? (except for that place u said)

Comment by Paul on Is GTA IV Really That Perfect?

Fri, 9 May 2008 17:42:57 EDT

"Work on finding a mate later" Oh i'm so hurt, here i am sitting in a small room in my mummy and daddies house alone and no girl will ever look at me because i'm so fat and ugly and you had to cut me with your harsh words that were oh so true, what ever will i do now... ;) P.S I've never been any good at stealth games, maybe when MGS 4 comes out i should write a rewiew (sorry opinion) about how flawed and overrated it is because i suck at playing it, worked for you.

Comment by Mark Kalriess on Five Things Xbox Live Needs to Address to Stay Relevant

Fri, 9 May 2008 08:33:26 EDT

Great Article Mike, I totally agree with you with cleaning up Xbox Live experience. When I got my 360 at Christmas I played Call of Duty pretty regularly. But I became so sick of people cursing me out for not knowing the intricate details of the game and "messing" them up. I just wasn't as experienced and the more I encountered this elitism, the less I wanted to invest my time in the game. Oh and all the incredible racism. I'd also like not to have pay 10 dollars for four maps or one extra mission. Of course I'd also like to go the moon....

Comment by Mark Buckingham on Is GTA IV Really That Perfect?

Thu, 8 May 2008 18:37:43 EDT

Hey Ken...I tried zooming the camera out, didn't really help the dip-down issue. My gf used in-the-car view to see the road in front, but that didn't help for knowing what's around you. I dunno...it'll be more tolerable to me when the price drops. $60 for a prettier version of essentially an old game with new problems isn't a good investment IMO. But I imagine the next GTA game will show marked improvement. @Paul...I haven't lived with my parents for several years. You should try it sometime, it's a rush. Work on finding a mate later. Baby steps! If you want to master a flawed game that plays largely like the last one, by all means do so. I never said "Don't play it" or "It's a bad game." I said it's not as refined or revolutionary as all the mainstream press coverage and media hype would have you believe, and "try before you buy" is always sound advice...not that it's stopping anybody given the $500 million in sales already. That's fine. I like Rockstar. I'm glad people are having a good time with their game (and here's hoping its success staves off EA's hostile buyout of T2). I still have to wonder how many of those people are wishing their local retailer didn't have a "no open games" return policy. I have played open world games with cameras better than this, and I don't have anything against realism as long as the entertainment value exceeds the annoyance, but I've got better things to do than try to debate rationally with someone who doesn't want to hear it. You go play GTA4 and I won't. Happy?

Comment by Paul on Is GTA IV Really That Perfect?

Thu, 8 May 2008 18:00:00 EDT

@Mark Ok now you're getting a bit petty now, i read every word of your two page NOT review or OPINION or whatever you want to call it, you actually state that it's not a "FULL" review because you haven't finished the game yet which suggests that it is a review of what you've played so far but the wording you choose is not important since most of your comments we disagree on are to do with the mechanics of the game. "A car won't always turn, even if you let off the gas. Cranking the wheel, I'm still careening straight ahead, and the only alternative is to hit the emergency brake and spin the car out entirely and slide around for a while. I spent hours with this and could not find a happy middle ground" The alternative is to use the brakes then enter the bend at the correct speed for the type of vehicle you are using and use the E-brake for tight hairpin turns, it's not Forza 2 but for an openworld sandbox type of game it's implemented very well. With the new generation of consoles games are getting more realistic if that doesn't suit you i suggest you stick with the Wii or except that these are not game flaws but are your inability or reluctance to adapt. I've never played a sandbox type of game where the 3d camera was perfect it's a difficult thing to pull off when your not on rails but that said GTA 4 is as good as any i've played unless the PS3 version has some problems the the 360 doesn't have. As you stated yourself driving is a big part of GTA that's why being able to take every corner flat out by just hitting the E-brake would get old real quick. "I play games to have fun, not be annoyed. I don't know about you" Ha ha, the reward is in the effort you put in to master the game as is the main principle of most games, if that all seems like too much hard work for you maybe you should stick to watching Blu-Ray movies and calling out for piza as i don't believe this requires any effort at all, providing your parents foot the bill and you don't have to actually go out and earn it.

Comment by dRailer on Five Things Xbox Live Needs to Address to Stay Relevant

Thu, 8 May 2008 17:24:16 EDT

Good article... one more to add to the mix: Something I'm dying to see is a way to categorize the people on your friends list by priority. My best friends get a high rating and I want to hear whenever they sign on, invite me, or really anything. Others maybe I only hear from them if they directly address me by sending me an invite to a chat or game... but I don't need to know if they signed on. Yet others in the lowest tier... these people don't even need to know if I'm on until I address them.

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Thu, 8 May 2008 17:24:16 EDT

Comment by Brad Schader on Is GTA IV Really That Perfect?

Thu, 8 May 2008 10:55:39 EDT

I had freezing issues at first, but I turned off auto-save and disabled my internet and it has been fine.

Comment by SaraH. on The Angry Video Game Nerd Speaks!

Thu, 8 May 2008 10:10:52 EDT

AVGN is fuckin' awesome! :D I hope he keeps 'em coming. <3

Comment by Master1718 on Five Things Xbox Live Needs to Address to Stay Relevant

Thu, 8 May 2008 09:47:22 EDT

Matt Paprocki, Please understand what I am trying to say about Xbox Live... I am saying that in Xbox live, you can't download multiple things at a time. As in downloading 2 games at the same time, not one after the other. I am also suggesting that Microsoft should allow this function because they would have enough bandwidth to support multiple downloads from their server. They also have enough bandwidth, and also the functionality to have the ability to download a game from their servers, and also play a game in Xbox live. Think of it as your computer. I'm sure you can access the internet when you have MSN, Limewire, and Firefox running at the same time. These are all current PC functions that Xbox Live is missing. I'm sure you would agree that it would be better if you can do all of these things I listed, here, and what I wrote above.

Comment by Michael Prince on Five Things Xbox Live Needs to Address to Stay Relevant

Thu, 8 May 2008 07:43:06 EDT

I think I did as well Ken =-), but the comment from Ikaruga is absolutely correct, I have yet to brick my 360 (hoping it happens by november) ;P So I haven't experienced the pain of changing 360's, but by the sounds of it the drm should have been at the top of the list.

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Thu, 8 May 2008 07:43:06 EDT

Comment by Ken Edwards on Is GTA IV Really That Perfect?

Thu, 8 May 2008 02:03:41 EDT

Mark, we are playing two entirely different versions of GTA IV... I am playing the 360 version, and have logged over 20 hrs. in single and MP combined. What the heck is with the controls on the PS3? I do not have said issues or annoyances with the 360 default controls. Driving, you nailed it It does not work. Every vehicle corners like a tank, and the only way to really take a corner is use the e-break and hope for the best - hardly the best way to handle it. Makes the races online and off an utter joke. I am also not annoyed by the camera. Every game's camera has issues, but I do not have nagging ones here. You can always zoom the camera out a notch, I assume that is Select on the PS3 as it is Back on the 360. OIn thre freezing side of things, I am having major 360 freezing issues with GTA IV. I am not entirely sure if this is a sign that my SECOND 360 is about to fail, or if is just the game. FWIW, it is the only game recently that crashes my 360.

Comment by Ken Edwards on Five Things Xbox Live Needs to Address to Stay Relevant

Wed, 7 May 2008 23:16:24 EDT

I will have to read through all the comments. But Mike I think you missed a big point of contention with XBL: The DRM is not good for the paying customer, period.

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Wed, 7 May 2008 23:16:24 EDT

Comment by Matt Paprocki on Five Things Xbox Live Needs to Address to Stay Relevant

Wed, 7 May 2008 21:33:46 EDT

Master: "why can't I download multiple things AT THE SAME TIME?! give me a break, I'm sure there's enough bandwidth there for me to download 2 games at the same time. And why can't I play my game when something is downloading??!?!" You can do both of those. You can have six items in a download cue. You can play any offline game while those downloads happen, but if you hop into any multi-player modes, the bandwith is then used for the game like it should be.

Comment by ThisIsAName on Five Things Xbox Live Needs to Address to Stay Relevant

Wed, 7 May 2008 18:50:03 EDT

Before I begin, I'd like to point out that I don't have a PS3 (or PS2, or PS1), and that I have owned my 360 for about 2 years now. Anyway, good article, though I would have liked to have seen a comment on the absurd DRM system that the Xbox 360 uses. Your console breaks? Goodbye content, unless you want to jump through an insane amount of hoops, and deal with useless tech support who mostly appear to speak broken English. A process so difficult, time-consuming, and infuriating that it's easier not to bother, and you just put up with the DRM, resenting Microsoft every single time you can't use the content you paid good money for due to Live going down, or the Internet not working. To be honest, Microsoft does need to step it up. At the moment I pay an annual fee TO USE MY OWN BANDWIDTH to host games (almost all games use star based networks instead of servers). When you think about it, how unbelievable is that? You are actually paying Microsoft to allow you to pay out of your pocket for your own bandwidth to use to host their games! Where is this fee going? There are updates twice a year. There are no Microsoft-owned dedicated servers, tech support is mostly based in Asia (and is an extremely poor service). Not to mention that the service is so biased towards those in the US. I haven't got any experience with the PS network I will admit, but I don't recall any massive content imbalances between certain regions and the rest of the world. Unless Microsoft makes drastic changes, not only am I not going to renew my gold account when it expires, but I will not buy a Microsoft console ever again. Overpriced content and accessories, buggy hardware, online play filled with all kinds of networking issues due to a lack of regional selection/servers (for the most part), and massive contempt for those who don't happen to live in the US, in the form of arbitrary delays and markups on prices. Don't get me wrong, Sony have made their share of mistakes too (PS2 lasers anyone?), and have their share of PR howlers, but the thing is that they seem to be learning from them. I don't remember them insulting their userbase by trying to claim a ~3% failure rate when the actual rate was 10 times higher anyway.

Comment by Kronusdark on Five Things Xbox Live Needs to Address to Stay Relevant

Wed, 7 May 2008 15:22:41 EDT

i have to say i agree with the points made i have to say the only things i would like to add are 1. the UI needs to be faster, i would like to (in the middle of a game) be able to quickly send a message to a friend without it taking 5 minutes the sliding animations are too slow too 2. they need a system so you can page someone without inviting them to a chat so you could do something like ping someone when your ready to be invited 3. multiple people in chat rooms sometimes when im playing COD 4 i just want to talk to my friends i would rather not bother everyone in the game when talking about what happened at work that day or something like that

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Wed, 7 May 2008 15:22:41 EDT

Comment by Master1718 on Five Things Xbox Live Needs to Address to Stay Relevant

Wed, 7 May 2008 14:53:26 EDT

First off, Mike, let me congratulate you on an excellent article. I agree with most of your points, but I would also like to add to the article by sharing some of my thoughts regarding Xbox Live. I think one of the biggest wastes on the Xbox console is that your achievement points mean nothing whatsoever. There are no rewards by attaining these "achievement unlocked". Microsoft should look at giving incentives for unlocking achievements by incorporating these points with their Microsoft live points, and rewarding the gamer who have spent countless hours trying to unlock as much points as possible within the games they are playing. Second item that I feel is missing from this list is the inability to find out what happens to the complaints you've sent in about another player. It is rare to see when a player is clearly cheating online, but when it happens, and you submit a player review to Microsoft, that you never hear anything back from Microsoft about the player. Do these complaints about cheating actually do anything? What's the point then if it doesn't? Just let me know Microsoft...Damn you! Last but not least on my list is...tat tatata... Please please please do something about the fact that I have to leave my game anytime I need to get a DLC(Downloadable Content), and hop onto the Xbox Dashboard, also, why can't I download multiple things AT THE SAME TIME?! give me a break, I'm sure there's enough bandwidth there for me to download 2 games at the same time. And why can't I play my game when something is downloading??!?! gawd... Anyway, thanks for the article again Mike. Rock on.

Comment by Ikaruga on Five Things Xbox Live Needs to Address to Stay Relevant

Wed, 7 May 2008 13:55:37 EDT

Since there's no mention of Microsofts wonderfully consumer-friendly DRM implementation, I take it you're still on your first 360 ? Have fun paying for all your DLC all over again when you upgrade to an Elite. Another fun thing you can try is to pay for a Gold membership with a credit card, then try to revert back to Silver without getting your membership/gamertag *permanently* suspended/cancelled in the process. The simple truth is Xbox Live is the best reason there is to buy a Playstation 3. The difference in consumer friendliness between the two services is staggering. And yes I learned the hard way.

Comment by Michael Prince on Five Things Xbox Live Needs to Address to Stay Relevant

Wed, 7 May 2008 12:45:30 EDT

@mnemo I am surprised you only commented on the minimum purchase amount and didn't comment on how expensive DLC is in Europe! I actually was not aware there was a minimum amount on the PSN because I have only bought games, but at least it is a minimum and past that you can add exactly what you want. Thanks fro your comments!

Comment by Michael Prince on Five Things Xbox Live Needs to Address to Stay Relevant

Wed, 7 May 2008 12:41:36 EDT

MeMyselfAndI I didn't mention the video store because it is neutered in Canada containing very little content, but I am right there with you. With the blockbusters/netflixes of the world offering no late fees with attractive pricing Microsoft needs to address their time sensitive rental model and be more aware of their pricing...now add 20% to the price and you will see why many canadians don't use the movie store!! =-)

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Wed, 7 May 2008 12:41:36 EDT

Comment by Michael Prince on Five Things Xbox Live Needs to Address to Stay Relevant

Wed, 7 May 2008 12:18:48 EDT

@Thegreatcerebral I really appreciate your comments and I agree with you on many points. My overall point to this article is to say that Microsoft has a GREAT service that works well but there is now competition and they have to further evolve. This was a fantastically written comment (longer then my article?) But I have to question why you started it with 'you are an idiot'? Doesn't that almost prove my point #4? Disagreeing with me is one thing, but calling someone an idiot because you mostly have a differing opinion? Also if you read through your comment again you agreed with me on #3 and mostly on #2 and #1, #5 you simply told me how big games are released (I am aware of that) but then acknowledged there is a lot of crap.

Comment by MeMyselfAndI on Five Things Xbox Live Needs to Address to Stay Relevant

Wed, 7 May 2008 09:43:37 EDT

Playing online needs to be free or darn near it. I've been playing games "online" since before there was an ONLINE to be playing games! Circa Doom3D, Circa Duke Nukem 3d: Both via direct dialup into another persons computer. It worked great. I play on Live when I have time, but between work, side job, family, and other obligations I can't put in much time on live. I'm lucky to just be able to finish story mode in a new game that I pick up. They ought to include a to-be-determined amount of Live online play for free each month. I would rarely exceed it. Every time I have to go on ebay to buy a new 12month Live card I resent the whole experience. At least on ebay I save some money on the price, however I resent the fact that I am paying to be able to play online. If a user doesn't play online in a given week or a given month then they should not be charged for that week or month. Some ISPs will let you suspend your account so that you don't pay for service when you are on vacation or away for extended periods of time. The price of xbox live content is out of line with reality. Average mini games (for the masses) should cost around $5. Since I buy my points cards on ebay, I usually get them for around $6 or $6.50...however $5 should be the norm. Bullshit content like themes, pictures, and other crapola should be free. There is no reason that a gamer picture should cost points. When ever I see someone with a paid-for gamer pic online I think "sucker" immediately. When I first bought the gold membership I expected a lot more than what I got. Discounts on games, music, and movies would be a great place to start! I would rent movies online through Live if they didn't cost more than my local rental companies. They need to fix their pricing on movie rentals, they are way out of line. If Microshaft offered a Netflix style plan each month for movies with unlimited "rentals" or something like maximum of 2 rentals per day... I would jump on it. Until they bring the price down of single rentals or until they develop some sort of cheap rental plan then I won't be using their service. My local rental stores and netflix are both a lot cheaper.

Comment by Thegreatcerebral on Five Things Xbox Live Needs to Address to Stay Relevant

Wed, 7 May 2008 08:57:45 EDT

You are an idiot. Your points are being made by someone who obviously doesn't understand either game marketing or WHY Microsoft has done what they have with XBL. Let's start with number 5: If you don't know/understand how Microsoft staggers their releases for both the 360 and XBLA then you will never understand. For BIG games they do dictate WHEN they will be released and they like to space them out so that hopefully everyone purchases every game, every game gets a good amount of play before the next big game; rinse and repeat. What is released between is supposed to be nothing but filler. Not only that but remember distribution is almost FREE so they will never stop releasing crap titles. 4) I cannot believe you took a stab at Microsoft for the mute function in HALO when they are TWO DIFFERENT THINGS! There are lots of options to muting people that are non-game specific. You can individually mute people, you can mute anyone who is not your friend, so on and so forth. All of those settings will apply for EVERY GAME and even NON-GAMING things. Or you can just do like I do on occasion and plug in your mic and set it on your lap with the volume turned down and the mic mute turned on... works for everything as well and also gives you the opportunity to chime in every now and then if you feel like participating in the game. 3) I'm ALMOST with you on the MSPoints system. You have to realize WHY they did it which you almost got into... globalization. MS realizes that they want to have a global market and it's easier for them to have a game that is 800 points everywhere than it is to have the same game be 800, 900, 950 etc. for different parts of the world. So they developed the point system which allows them to change the price of points to counteract exchange rates etc. So just because the game is 800 points doesn't mean we all paid $10US for it. Also I think it is dumb that they don't offer incentives to purchase more points. Why not give you 100 free points for purchasing 1200? They do this with the 12+1 Gold Membership cards in the store so why not do something with the points. I used to complain about having to purchase 1200 points so I can get the 800 point game and then having 400 left over when I didn't want anything but with games like Rock Band that are pumping out new songs each week I can always find an excuse to use up points so I'm fine with having 50-60 points hanging around between refills. 2) XBL doesn't need a face lift, it's fine. If you want a face lift download a new theme. What I can say is I don't like the new games management type style. I don't want to navigate 4 menus to get to my XBLA games. Why have they not come up with a way for us to just see games we have purchased ONLY or demos ONLY (XBLA). I used to have auto-download turned on and I have almost every game but own about 10. Also can't the 360 keep a cache of the titles that are installed on the HDD so they don't have to load every single time I go into my games library and then back from the game I was just playing? I'd love to have them fix this instead. 1) Gold Membership does mean something... playing online. There are other things that it does give you but you don't really know that they are only for GOLD members because Microsoft doesn't let you know in the GUI. Usually if you visit major nelson's page then you will see that some stuff is only for gold members. Not only that but they have had quite a few free gamer pictures/themes for people but I don't know if they were only for GOLD or not (madden stuff was the newest and COD4 before that). I agree though that for GOLD members there should be some incentive OTHER than just playing online. The Old Spice challenge was fun and they should do more things like that in the future. I think that there are more issues that plague the XBL experience (some I mentioned) than the 5 you mentioned here that need to be addressed. I can say that MS needs to crack down more on cheaters (glitchers and lag switchers) than they do to discourage the practice in PUBLIC games (do what the hell you want in private games). How about working on getting dedicated servers for online gaming. I mean what the hell is our $50/yr. paying for? I know I can get a dedicated server for games cheaper than that for the PC; and we're talking 15-30 man slots not 8-12. Other than that XBL is a great service and if it ain't broke don't fix it. Just because there are some things I think could be tweaked/changed does not mean that it is broke. As far as the PSN goes... you can't make any assumptions about a network that is not fully matured yet. Not only that but you are also making assumptions that companies will not charge for their DLC just because they want to give it away free on XBL. You cannot make that assumption. The one iffy thing with the PSN is that companies hold the right to charge you for what they want to be it online play or DLC. Not only that but cannot say that those companies (EPIC and Infinity Ward in this example) didn't want to give content away to XBL users because they sold over double the units on that console as opposed to the PS3 and wanted to say thank you. Not only that but you never know what deals they may have with Microsoft as far as maybe they get $$ for being the #1 played game that week or whatnot because remember in the end it keeps people buying Gold memberships which makes people end up wanting to purchase DLC which in turn makes the 360 a more popular console etc. You never know.

Comment by Shonk on Five Things Xbox Live Needs to Address to Stay Relevant

Wed, 7 May 2008 03:51:35 EDT

where's Fix the faulty drm on that list ey

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Wed, 7 May 2008 03:51:35 EDT