Tag: Xbox 360

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Technology

Next Generation Gaming Consoles, Sony vs Microsoft

I am going to try to outline in some way here the next gen consoles and why I would choose one over the other. If for no other reason than I can get more than 140 characters here and it is easier to point to a response once when I need to… this might get long..

What I am not going to do? Run down the specs on each side down to the details. Other tech sites have done or are doing that already.

Let’s start with some history…

I have played games on computers/consoles for I dunno, almost 30 years. NES, Apple II, SNES, N64, Sega Genesis, Early DOS, PC, Gamecube, PS One, 2, 3, Xbox, Xbox 360. Wii. Some others in there. Basically have owned or played on all major systems (yeah, Dreamcast, Atari, etc).

Currently I have a PS3 and an Xbox 360. I would say I have completed/played/done more on the Xbox 360 than PS3. I own many more games, accessories, etc.

I think the main reason I have a PS3 is that I had some Gamestop credit and it was the best blu ray player around at the time. I do have some PS3 games that I have played/beat. I used to have like 40 games for PS2. I think we played PS2 through college more than anything (well, N64 was up there in the first two years)..

Looking at the current gen Sony vs Microsoft… gripes on both consoles.. every time I turn them on, most of my time is spent “updating” the main system or apps that are downloaded, or before I can play a game, etc.

Xbox 360 UI “interface” has changed 3+ times since I first had one (this is my second console, my first one from 2006 – I wore out). The PS3 hasn’t changed much to me.

Seems that PS3 has removed features that made it unique (running Linux? – I wrote about this 5 years ago).

Both consoles again, things like Hulu Plus, Netflix – are there – but to me, backup. Apple TV or Roku seem better suited for that. Recently I have been using Chromecast more and more – which works well too.

Friends: I have more friends with Xbox 360 than PS3, or at least on the “networks”. This makes things more enjoyable.

Games: For the most part they have the same games. The titles that are specific are ok but nothing that makes me say I would go with one over the other.

Like I mentioned, PS3 has the blu ray. I think if MSFT would have added blu ray to the 360, I wouldn’t have a PS3.

Now, onto the new consoles. PS4 and Xbox One.

8-10 years ago, I played games. I would get a PS2 game and play it/beat it. I would get a Xbo 360 game and get all the achievements. Time was in abundance. Fast forward to present. Working tons of hours. 2 kids. Family. House. Other engagements. There is no time to play a 150-200 hour game, at least for me. I find myself playing more of the arcade type games quick and out. Fruit Ninja Kinect. Trials HD, etc. Skyrim? I tried, I really did. Time gets in the way. Then coming back to it later is like “a child wandering into a movie”

Back in the mid-2000’s, Apple TV wasn’t really around. Roku/Chromecast, etc – nothing. Xbox 360 or PS3 were the only way (easy way – besides hooking up a computer) to get things on your big screen. Back then they were the only thing hooked up to my composite or HDMI, now, they are fighting for slots.

I think looking at the two options for the next generation leave me at this.. If I do get a console, it will be the Xbox One.

Why?

First off, price comes up. To me they are the same. Xbox 360 comes with new Kinect, Sony doesn’t come with camera, that costs $100 extra, so price is pretty much the same.

Second, if history repeats itself, more of my friends will be on Xbox Live. One thing is that people that are already on Xbox Live would be on Live once they got a Xbox One.

Sidebar: Backwards compatibility. Sad story for both consoles. If either of them had backward compatibility it would totally change the game when it comes to people picking up the new consoles. This one issue and how they handle it is putting me off from getting either of them for a while. My current games and system works, why get a new one? Until there is a game or reason outside of a game to get new console, I probably won’t.

To me, the Xbox One is more of a “media center” system that plays games, whereas the PS4 is a gaming system that lets you do some media functions.

Now, being where I am at in life, mid-30’s, little or no time for gaming, etc etc – the Xbox One appeals. Give me direct integration into my TV. Let me play with Kinect. Let me Skype with family. Oh, and you want to play a game? Sure. And you can watch blu-ray or rent/download movies, it will integrate better with your Microsoft desktop and Windows Phone, etc etc.

What does Sony have? (to me): it is a third party device trying to integrate into ecosystems that are pretty much getting cemented already (Apple, Microsoft, upcomer Google). Nintendo and Sony are on the outside looking in. It doesn’t matter to me that it might play games better, or the nitty gritty details on whatever else someone who is choosing a PS4 will use as their “argument” that it is better. In all honesty, my thought is if you consider yourself a hardcore gamer, you should be getting both consoles anyways.

What don’t I like about the Xbox One from what I see? Size. The thing is huge. While everything else is getting smaller in tech, the Xbox One gets bigger.

Now, based on my current (well I guess now “previous”) generation PS3 and Xbox 360 experiences, I don’t really need another device sitting around that the majority of the time spent on it is just running updates. I would hope either of these new consoles handle this better. Also it makes my choice favor a system I would use more than for just gaming. Based on the current (or soon to be realized) functionality, my head leans to Xbox One.

I am sure I am missing this or that in comparisons and there are going to be fanboys on either side saything this or that, but I just haven’t gotten any “feeling” that is telling me I should get or consider a PS4. Microsoft has been good with the Xbox, 360 and Xbox Live, the are just going to get better. I like where they are heading. Sony just seems like an outside system to me. So no matter what your choice, have fun. I am not trying to convince anyone either way. When it all boils down, I will probably just end up playing more games on my phone anyways 🙂

So in the end: Xbox One. But guessing if I do get it, it will be after the price drops for both consoles, as they always do.

Categories
Geeky/Programming Product Reviews

How 20$ Saved Me 100$ + A Month – HDTV Antenna

I really hate TV. I don’t even watch it. It is something that you should be able to pay for what you use, not pay for everything and use a little bit of it, so here is what I did.

I went to Best Buy and picked up and HDTV Antenna.

It rocks. I just plug it in to the coax, do a search and it finds the local channels. ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, WB, PBS, and Weather Plus. Picks up the regular versions and HD versions. Since that is all that Emily wants, to see weather alerts and crap, it’s good enough for me.

I have PlayOn setup on my Vista box so I can get Hulu, YouTube and Netflix streaming to my PS3. I can rent movies, buy movies and TV shows on the PS3, Xbox 360, and AppleTV, and I can get podcasts and YoutTube on the AppleTV. What else do I need? And if I really want something, I can get it using rapidshare or whatever, or stream it on my laptop.

So, yeah, “Hello, Charter? Cancel my cable, I don’t need you anymore, kthxbye”

It’s liberating, and adds more $$ to my bottom line every month.

Categories
Geeky/Programming

The Apple Fandom.. Continues

Woah, well it has been a while since I talked about my “Media Center” experience I am trying go for, but I will get into that later.

First, yes, I have the iPhone 3G. I was off Friday for other stuff and decided to “camp out” since I had the time, hoping I would get out early. I went to AT&T on the East Side at 4:30 AM with a chair and my laptop and waited until 8:00. I was 6th in line. It was a good time, Einstein Bagels opened at 5:30 so we had coffee and bagels, and just had fun talking with fellow iPhone geeks. I already had the 2.0 Firmware beta loaded because I am in the dev program, and I was running iTunes 7.7 Confidential Beta as well.

Anyways, getting the iPhone, they let the first 9 in, and out of the 9, 2 people got activated and went home. Mine wasn’t working so they just let me go, and since they upgraded my SIM, I left with 2 bricked iPhones. Ugh. Once home I connected it and let it sit and it finally went through. Cool! I like the GPS and the 3G, Exchange Sync, MobileMe sync, the apps, it is all good. Battery life could be better, and there are always ways to improve, but my biggest gripe with the iPhone (no SDK, etc) is now gone. I find myself using my computer less and less, since I can do most “personal computing” stuff on the iPhone (read feeds, facebook, etc)

In between getting my Mac Book Pro, and the new iPhone, I picked up two other things on my Apple wishlist. First, the Time Capsule. 1 TB and AirPort Express N – this thing is sweet. The best part is my MBP is backed up every hour on the hour to the Time Capsule. I feel way more “secure”

The other item is AppleTV. I used to be a HUGE fan of Netflix and would watch 10-12 movies a month. But once you get through all the ones you want to watch, it gets stale. Also, not being able to get all of them in Blu-Ray, it is kind of a downer. I still have Netflix, but I reduced my plan down to like 1 at a time, I might re-look at Netflix now that Xbox has native streaming, and also the plugins for using MCE as an extender, but for now I am good there. The PS3 announcing downloadable movies TONIGHT!!! and with the Xbox 360 streaming, and Netflix discs and streaming, PLUS the AppleTV, I am pretty much set.

What does AppleTV bring? Well first, the HD movies , downloaded direct, and other movies, which is nice. TV shows, Music, Photos and YouTube. I have found myself watching YouTube on the couch now for like an hour straight, crazy. I really like being able to get Flickr pix or MobileMe pix as a slideshow, and also syncing with my MBP iTunes, and even better, the iPhone 2.0 firmware has the iTunes Remote which rocks, and controls iTunes on your laptop or Apple TV.

My guess is I will be cutting back my Charter lineup (I wish I could just get the HD channels, that is all I watch anyways!)

So, finally , some iPhone apps that rock.

Midomi – I use this to tag songs and buy on iTunes

GuitarToolkit – must have for any guitarist

iTunes Remote – I already talked about this, it rocks

Tuner, VisuaRadio, AOL Radio, Pandora, Last.FM – all your music needs, taken care of (check out Tuner… they have a Beatles Radio station – lovely!!!)

Loopt, Whrrl, iFob – pretty cool LBS based social networking

Others? Pownce (ok), Twitterifc (I am not impressed)

Facebook, Myspace – meh iphone.facebook.com is better than the Facebook app!

MonkeyBall – hard, but fun

I am sure there will be more, but right now I am surrounded by Apple, never would have thought (although I am writing this post on Vista on my Dell Laptop, which I fixed the Hard Drive on :))

Categories
Geeky/Programming Life Ramblings Random

More Boring Tech..Atari, Brats, iPhones, Rock Band (fake and real!)

Well, new job is going OK. Not much to report really, as you can see from the lack of posting. No new tech or anything interesting leads to… well, boring posts like this. Basically I am knee deep in an older ERP system, and doing report mods and small .NET applications to automate some things, but nothing really exciting. A couple of weeks ago though I went through some online MSFT trainings for .NET 3.5 and SQL 2008 (free clinics on microsoftlearning.com) and that was some good info, now only if I could use it. 🙂

In other news, I picked up an SNES and TWO Atario 2600’s for like 55 bucks, with like 30 games, which is pretty cool. Went to “Bratfest 2008” and helped set the new world record for brat’s consumed.

Picked up Rock Band, so have been hitting that a little bit, but even better news is that I have been playing keyboards more now, and if everything goes right, will be playing with a local band here in Madison in a little while. I am learning the songs now and have some down and ready to go already.. fun stuff.

The iPhone 2.0 Firmware is going ok. Kind of slow at times. I am kind of mad, I lost all my pix of BratFest and other things from Memorial Day weekend, when the new Beta6 firmware came out, I updated, but dummy me forgot to download my pics to my computer first. I tried the Paraben Device Seizure tool that has been used to forensically get data off refurbed iPhones, but it didn’t work, didn’t find anything. oh well, I won’t forget to get the pics from now on 🙂

There is a lot of hoop jumping to get the new firmware loading. Creating certs, importing their certs, creating appid, provisioning profiles, blah blah blah. I do really like the exchange push email, and with my fetch Google Apps email, its like everything right there. That coupled with Google Reader and the Facebook iPhone site, I don’t even need a laptop to browse around anymore…

Also waiting for this Democratic Primary to be over, so things can move on to the General Election. This year needs to be different, if the last 8 years are any indication of what could be, things just need to change.

Last year on this day, my first day in PDX. Time flies.

Categories
Random

Free Xbox 360 Live Game – Undertow

If you are a XBOX Live 360 Subscriber and you had issues over xmas break, get on the marketplace and download Undertow – its free, the full game. That is the gift you get for dealing with issues.. get on it!

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Categories
Life

Oblivion: My First 1000 Point Achievement Game!

So, finally, after like 7 months of playing on and off, I finally have at least one game on Xbox360 with 1000 achievement points completed. Oblivion! Im only on level 25 – and there are some quests I havent completed yet, but still feels good. After I got 1000, I went and bought all the add-ons as well, there are like 3-4 add ons that give you some new quests. I think I was at about 101 hours into the game, dang. I’d have to say, it is a very addicting game. Also started Star Wars Legos II last night a little bit – which is another good game. I see myself at least getting my moneys worth out of my 360, so that is good 🙂

Categories
Life

Oblivion – Beat the Main Quest

Well, last night I beat the main quest on Oblivion – The Elder Scrolls. I’m a dark elf, level 21. Im about 80 hours dumped into the game, and I am sure there is a ton more I can do, I still have to finish off the fighters and theives guilds, and some other quests. I would have to say, it is one of the best games I have ever played, if not the best. It is like a suped up LORD – that I used to play like 15 years ago on my 2400 baud modem on BBS’s. The thing is, I could beat all the quests, and start over as a different player, and choose a totally different route, which kind of reminds me of the “Choose Your Own Adventure” books I used to read as kid (Indiana Jones mostly). I can’t wait for the next incarnation of the game to come out (if it even is, I am not sure). Where is everyone else who plays it? Seems that everyone I talk to either hates it, doesn’t play it, or is totally in love with it.

Categories
Life

Xbox 360

So who else plays Xbox 360? What are you gamer tags? What games do you play? I play Call of Duty 2 and King Kong right now. I just picked up Oblivion too, can’t wait to start that. I also picked up some used games, original Xbox games – Ford Mustang Racing, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, and Cabelas Deer Hunting. EB Games – seriously they need to post what original Xbox games work with the 360. I pulled xbox.com up on my pocket pc at the store, but come on. I used it, this other guy there also asked me about a game. The employees were like “dood, it changes too often” – whatever – print it out once a week.

Categories
Life

Xbox 360

I bought an Xbox 360 today. ScaleOvenStove is my gamer tag for Xbox Live – I put the card up on the sidebar of my blog. I got Call of Duty 2 and King Kong, I am liking it so far, also the Media Center Extender capabilities. Pretty Sweet – I am already happy with the purchase

Categories
Life

Xbox 360

Well, I was at Circuit City on Sunday, and they had an Xbox 360 set up to play with. I played a little bit of “King Kong”. I have to say that the graphics during gameplay are starting to blur the lines of quality with the cut scene movies. I didn’t play much more with all the features, but I really like it.

Xbox Site