And Another Thing...

I also sold my PS2 Slim. Had it for years, but honestly, didn't use it much. I think I bought it in remorse after the passing of my Dear Modded XBox. You see, the PS2 is also moddable (if that is a word), though not nearly to the extent that the original XBox can be. While the XBox can be rigged to function as a full fledged media server via "hard" or "soft" mods and the likes of XBMC, the PS2 could really only be tricked into playing game copies via a combination of hard and soft modification.

What was necessary was something called a Magic Switch.

You opened up the PS2 and installed the components of the Switch, which basically makes the PS2 think that the cover is closed when it is open. Then you insert the Swap Magic disk which loads whatever necessary boot items for the PS2 the system needs, as well as Magical DRM Fairy Dust. You would then remove this disk and insert a properly made copy of a PS2 game, which would now play. It was all very clunky, due in part to the absence of a hard drive in the Slim to keep all this crap loaded.

It worked OK. I think I got started on the God of War series in this manner, but I bought the PS2 pretty late in the game, just before the XBox360. Ultimately, there really wasn't  a need for it, as my limited time playing games had me forward-facing to newer console titles rather than enjoying the retro love of the the PS2 ouvre.

But there is a bit of a sadness to let go of the moddable console. I've sort of followed a few desperate hacks for the 360, and it's kind of cool that you can run Linux on a PS3. You can force homebrew on the PSP. But to what end?The newer consoles pretty much do out of the box much of what you might mod them for, except for that playing that game copy thing. Which is kind of sad, since that's about the last time I went to Blockbuster. You'd think they would have a stake in all this.

Buh Bye PSP

I finally had enough of the PSP. It did get a brief reprieve due to Tekken 6, but the luster came off that apple soon enough.


I liked the PSP, at least conceptually. It had half-baked aims at device convergence. It sort of had a browser (painful to type on); it sort of had internet connectivity (wireless b); it could play music and movies (in a somewhat restricted manner); it had rudimentary value as a communication device (Skype-able).


But it basically did none of these things very well. Including the gaming.


For a portable device, I think the quality of the games was quite decent. I was very pleased with Tekken, and the God of War for PSP was terrific: I actually enjoyed it more than God of War 2 for PS2. But games for the PSP are creeping up into console territory, with more an more titles around the $40 range. Despite the PSP's larger screen, my Gen 1 iPod Touch has better quality and portability, and I only have to do video or audio transmogrification once, if at all.


I think this platform has wilted, and PSPGo aside, I don't see Sony much backing its future. And this continues to be my problem with Sony. Nicely designed products without a clear vision, and without clear evolution in many ways. 


Next on the chopping block may be my PS3. I feel saddened by this, and try to convince myself that it is still a nifty connected Blu-ray player. Except I haven't watched a single Blu-ray disc on it. I hear vague rumblings of future progress with the PS3, but other than form factor, there hasn't been sufficient progress in either the utility of the box and software (or in PS3-only titles) that commands a niche in a household where the XBox meets all our needs.

I Just Don't Get It

I'm fairly stuck playing Modern Warfare 2 online. I feel like I can hold my own most of the time. Yea for me. Generally I find the folks online fairly quiet, occasionally helpful, but sometimes offensive, and this I don't get.


It isn't terribly unusual for some thug to badmouth other players, and sadly it's often racial epithets.


I can certainly understand trying to gain "hand" by smack talking an opponent. There are a few guys who just keep up a constant mumble of bizarre word salad that creeps me out. But when some yahoo starts in on someone's suspected racial origins, maybe it's time to leave the room, pack it up, watch something harmless on TV, and try to forget the foolish idiocy that permeates even the most pointless of pasttimes: the video game.


Can't we all just shoot zombies together, or wage a war, or banish a wizard? Why in the anonymous world of onlinearity do we have to recognize or ignorance and foulness?

Infographics!

Another cool visualization of gaming info. I think what surprises me is:
1) how many folks there are over 50 gaming
2) how long we've been doing so
3) how much the Wii dominates


The other thing I don't get is the difference between console and PC gaming. For me it was a real financial issue - the cost of keeping the PC hardware up to snuff was just sort of silly after a while, whereas the designers will accommodate the consoles for far longer. Oh well.





Source: Online Education

I Am in the Wrong Business

Cool chart from Business Management:

Here's the Original Article

What? I Can't Hear You!

My consoles are in the basement, in sort of a low-tech mancave, and it would take a bit of volume to bother anyone else in the house. Since I am Aged, and there are others in the home, often I can't really use my surround sound system to full effect. In my mind at least,  it makes a difference if, in the midst of a game,  I think I can hear someone sneaking up behind me. 

I liked the spacial awareness I got from my very first surround sound headphones. Though they didn't have a microphone, I wasn't playing online at that point.

But then two things happened: I got a new LCD TV without a headphone jack, and I started playing XBox Online. Now here's where the Aged Gamer get old-sounding. Using the stock XBox Live headphones, I couldn't really hear what anyone was saying. Now, it turns out that a lot of y'all either mumble, scream, or both into the boom mike, and no amount of audio fidelity is really going to help that much, but I didn't know that yet.

So on a whim, I tried these:

I know, the thought of a 50 year-old man wearing these either makes you groan or giggle. But there turned out to be a couple of fatal (for me) flaws. The rigging of these things to the Xbox was a pain, using a patch cord that required that I dig up the adapter that allows an analog audio output from the XBox (I use HDMI to connect). That was just irritating. More confounding was the absence of a volume control on the unit. Well that just didn't make any sense. So I got rid of those and got these after considerably more research:

Turtle Beach makes a well-reviewed X41 which has Dolby 7.1 Surround. Boy that sounds really neat. It also sounds like about $180 on Amazon, a bit too rich for my wallet and my needs. The X31 (around $80) also has a wireless transmitter which connects to the audio-out of the XBox via a piggyback adapter, which just seems cleaner than the wired Skullcandy phones. The transmitter box is powered by one of the USB ports on the XBox. The headphones fit me well, are comfortable, and sound seems pretty decent. There is a button for special effects such as increased bass and spacial separation, but I like my sound flat.

It's hard to tell if the boom mike is helping much. No one ever answers me, even if I think I have something to say. But at least the little soundy icons on the XBox screen move when I speak.

I haven't appreciated much the purported benefit of headphones in online playing. I don't know if there is not enough spacial separation in the online signal, or whether these headphones don't convey stereo separation well. But they do seem to facilitate communications online, and they do seem to allow me to crank the volume a bit, which I'm sure my family appreciates.

For now, I'm happy with my purchase. I believe there were a few new gaming headphones to come out of CES this year like these:

http://www.psykoaudio.com/

but for now, I'm content to hear what I've been missing. Perhaps as we gamers age, there will be nifty XBox branded Dolby stereo hearing aids.

Fun. Fun. Fun.

This time,  I really was about to sell my PSP. After I ran through Tekken 5, I just couldn't find anything else that made me happy. I think the PSP is an atrocious convergence device - the wireless is "b," and though the screen is fine video conversion is annoying. Anyone wanting more of an iTunes experience with their PSP should look at Doubletwist (doubletwist.com) which does allow a sort of (slow) syncing between your media library and the PSP. Even so, I have an iPod Touch which does all that stuff better, and fits nicely in my pocket.

But then Tekken 6 for PSP came out. I was curious to see if it held a candle to Tekken 5, which in my mind was worth the price of the PSP. But $40 for a PSP title?

I'm not a huge fighter game guy. I get the combo thing, loved the entire Ninja Gaiden series, but I never had played the Mortal Combat/Street Fighter ilk. I got Tekken 5 based on ratings, and enjoyed it enormously. Truth is, it is more fun on the PSP than it is on the PS3. The PSP is the perfect console for Tekken, since you really only need the D-pad and face buttons to play. It was painful trying to micro-move on Resistance:Retribution for PSP, and while I appreciated the effort the developer put in to accommodating the restraints of the hardware, it just wasn't any fun for me. In my opinion the PS3 version of Tekken 5, while fun, was not as well situated as the PSP version for the game. Some moves benefit from the extreme closeness of the PSP's buttons. It's just easier on the PSP.

I don't know why this isn't a more lauded release - I suppose I don't see Sony doing much to hype anything for the PSP

Tekken 6 has put off for the time being, any thoughts of selliing the PSP. This game is a work of handheld art. Visually, it is stunningly rendered, taking full advantage of the 4.3" screen without overwhelming these aged eyes or crowding the screen. The animation is stellar, almost as good as the cutscenes themselves. The gameplay appears to have been improved considerably. It seems to me that chaining together moves that result in "juggling" is easier and the flow between moves seems more fluid. There seem to be considerably more moves to choose from, which should please the compulsive among us. And I can't get over some of the new characters. I've started with "Bob" who uses his weight to his advantage (and yes, I have heard that Bob is a resurrected character from an earlier Tekken. Whatever).

There are some changes to the layout of the gameplay. Gone is the Dojo mode, which was my preferred way of playing Tekken 5. Looking on the boards, there seem to be some that really miss this ranking area. Instead, you can still play the arcade, ghost, and challenge modes, but I don't appreciate the same sense of ascension that I did iwth the Dojo. Ghost mode seems the most entertaining, offering a constant variety of modded characters that will keep one interested.

For me, the PSP is the best of the portable gaming devices, and though I could have used the extra money from selling mine, I'm awfully glad for the reprieve offered by Tekken 6.