by Matt | Oct 3, 2011 | Aggravation, Featured, Games, Tech
So, if you’ve been following my Google Plus account, you’d know that last week I got the dreaded Red Ring of Death. After 6 years, the ol’Xbox 360 launch console finally decided it had enough and put up the flag or surrender. I called Mircosoft and of course the console was three years out of warranty and they wanted $150 (plus shipping) to fix it. I thought that was about the most retarded thing I had heard in a long time and told them as much. Instead, I opted to buy a RROD repair kit and fix it myself. The only draw back I could foresee was that I would void my totally non-existent warranty. If it didn’t work, oh well, I was out $20.
I did a little digging and settled on the kit from Team Xecuter, the guys that mod consoles just for giggles. I figured if anyone knew a gaming console inside and out, it was probably a modder. I considered the one from iFixit as well, but it was a couple dollars more with slower shipping. I did use their really handy “how to open your Xbox” guide however. It was far more instructional (including photos) than the Xecuter one.
Shipping from XConsoles was crazy fast and I had my kit in two days. So, kit in handy and a free Saturday afternoon, I decided to see if I could resurrect my dead 360. The hardest part of the entire thing was getting the top and bottom of the case apart. One you get the sides and the front off, the back of the console has about 12 itty-bitty latches that need to be popped all at once. You could use a “opening tool” but I didn’t want to spend the extra cash and the instructions all said it wasn’t necessary, which was true, but it did take me about 45 minutes just for that one section of the case without it. Luckily I have about 3 dozen micro screwdrivers and I stuck one in each slot instead.
Once the case is apart, the rest of the fix is really easy and strait forward. If you’ve opened up a computer in the past 10 years, you can fix your Xbox. Essentially, what Microsoft did to save a couple cents per unit, is what’s killing consoles. They used this crazy X shaped bracket to hold the heatsinks to the bottom of the motherboard. It’s very reminiscent of older computer CPU fans, the kind where you needed to bend the bracket/latch down, almost to the breaking point, in order to secure it to the motherboard. Think that, only with four sides instead of one. The 360’s X brackets holds down the heatsinks so poorly, they separate and the thermal paste fails, resulting in a RROD.
So, the “repair” is really just to replace the thermal paste (good ol Arctic Silver!) and then re-secure the heatsink. Instead of using the X brackets, the kit comes with bolts and washers that are the same height as the bracket. A couple minutes later and I was putting the motherboard back in the case.
Then comes the moment of truth. Since the RROD is like a check engine light, it won’t go away until it’s cleared (thanks again MS!), meaning a working console that’s been fixed could still appear to be “broken”. How do you clear it? Give it ANOTHER error. The error in particular? The classic “overheat” error. You might have seen this one if you’ve ever put your 360 in an entertainment console, or had something sitting on top of it. The trick is to use the fan in the console to your advantage. You turn the console on with ZERO cooling. It overheats in about 30 seconds, flashing the two red lights instead of the 3. You immediately connect the fan to vent the heat and power down the console. Give it a few minutes to cool, fire it back up, and bingo, no more RROD!
I was actually pretty astounded. I really didn’t think it was going to work. What’s essentially $2 in screws fixes a console that they want $150 to repair. After seeing what the inside of this thing looks like, it’s very apparent that they tried to cut corners, save a couple pennies per unit and it really bit them in the ass. A normal cooling solution would have completely eliminated the RROD problem and saved them millions in the long run. I hope they’re taking notes for their next console.
Anyway, in total the repair took about 2 hours on Saturday and another 30 minutes (snapping the case back together) on Sunday and I’m completely pleased with the results. If anyone ever has a broken 360 and they’re just going to get a new one, tell them not to. A couple screws and about 2 hours of your time can save you $300 bucks. The bonus upside is that since the case is essentially open now, I can replace all the other parts if need be. I can swap a quieter LG drive for the cheap one that’s in there, or replace the cooling fans with silent ones from Vantec. All sorts of stuff.
Mission accomplished, game on!
by Matt | Sep 20, 2011 | Aggravation, Featured, Games
What’s better than 1 angry post a day? TWO angry posts a day!
I need to address a couple issues that I’ve come to have in the battle of the first person shooter franchises this fall. These issues may very well be worked out and may become non-issues by the time the games ship in Oct/Nov, but by all indications and through public announcements by the games development studios, these are all real problems for a gamer like me. (more…)
by Matt | Aug 16, 2011 | Featured, Games, Reviews
So, after a solid week of trying to put my Playstation through it’s paces, I’ve realized quite a few similar and quite a few contrasting things between the PS3 and the Xbox 360. Having never owned more than a single system since the SNES/Genesis days, “console wars” haven’t really been part of my vocabulary for the past decade or so. I completely skipped over the Xbox vs PS2 era. I can say however, that I understand better where people are coming from. Both systems have blatant strengths and both have some glaring weaknesses. These are just a couple observations from an impartial (ha!) gamer.
Console construction:
Compared to the 360, the PS3 Slim (current gen) is about as heavy as a calculator. It’s ridiculously small and lightweight. Almost to the point of feeling “cheap”. It doesn’t have a “power brick”, it doesn’t weigh 30lbs, and compared to even my regular DVD player, it’s small. That’s both a pro and a con. The upside is that it’s portable, easily fits into an entertainment console, and is easy on the power consumption. The con is that it really does feel “cheaper”, like a $20 toaster oven. There’s not a lot of meat on the bone and you have to wonder what you’re getting for your $300. The 360 on the other hand is so beefy and has so much (probably extraneous) stuff inside the box that it’s too heavy, too bulky and too fragile. It feels like a computer and that you need to treat it as such. Also, since I have a launch console, and since its so incredibly prone to randomly dying, I haven’t moved it in 4 years. Ever. Conversely, I could throw the PS3 into my messenger bag and wouldn’t be concerned about it. Again, pro and con.
Graphics:
I honestly can’t figure out why there’s a “war” about this. Both systems look fantastic, especially in HD. Both games I picked up for the PS3 are gorgeous, especially Uncharted 2 and it’s a good 2-3 years old now. If I had to pick a winner I couldn’t. It’s like the “war” between Nikon and Canon. It’s really a personal preference thing. Canon has a better auto-focus and lens system, Nikon tends to reproduce colors a little better. Both are super strong. Same thing here. I find that the 360 is more fluid (possibly slightly higher frame rate), where as the PS3 has incredible colors and textures. If I was playing something like Call of Duty, I’d probably get it for the 360, but something like Uncharted is right at home (where it is) on the PS3. Draw.
Noise:
In terms of quiet design, the PS3 wins hands down. It should also be noted that in this case, I’m comparing a launch 360 (with a super loud fan) to a PS3 Slim, which has been “redesigned” and trimmed down. I honestly don’t think it even has a fan in it. I’m 97% sure it’s all “passive” cooled. The only sound I can hear is the occasional disk loading…
Loading Times:
Speaking of loading times, here’s something where the 360 comes out on top. I’m not sure if it’s the larger buffer on the Xbox, extra memory or what, but loading times on the 360 are a fraction of the PS3. Every level, every cinematic, even the menus on the PS3 require some sort of loading time. I wanted to checkout the multiplayer in Uncharted 2 and spent 5 minutes “syncing data” to… somewhere… before I got to the mutliplayer menu. And that was before I ever actually played any multiplayer. Saved games load in about 30-45 seconds, give or take. Compare that to 10-15 second loads for any Xbox game I’ve ever noticed, and you’re waiting for what feels like a long time on the PlayStation. 30 seconds isn’t a deal breaker, but overall I feel like I could go make a sandwich while the PS3 loads and with the 360 I barely have time for a pee break. How’s that for a real world example! lol.
Packaging / Setup:
Starting completely from scratch with a PS3 is a bit intimidating. There’s ZERO instructions in the box. Nothing. There’s a “quick start” card that shows you how to plug in the power cable and that’s it. Nothing about PSN, nothing about peripherals, nothing about games, nothing about accounts, nothing. There’s a help item, hidden about half way down one of the menu items, that launches a web browser that accesses an wiki/faq of sorts, but if you didn’t know it was there, you’d be pretty SOL. I actually had to figure out how to charge the controller. No joke. I thought the included USB cable was for transferring data and so I ignored it until I realized what the connector on the Six-Axis was and figured it out. That’s basic stuff that really should be included in a manual.
Interface:
Here is where we get into the fan-boy stuff. Honestly, I like the “idea” behind the PS3’s menu a lot more than it’s execution. I’m sure at one point it was supposed to be minimalistic, clean and simple… but it’s none of those are the moment. The top-level horizontal menu is nice… until you roll over an item and 50 things pop above and below it. The entire thing is in desperate need of some organization. Surely they could have just left the primary icons alone and created subpages or sub-menus when you selected something and not when you merely scrolled past. Unfortunately, by comparison, the Xbox dashboard isn’t much better. Each primary item has 10 crappy, usually animated, things shoved to the right of it, 9.5 of which I usually don’t care about. The Xbox dash bothers me so much I turned on “auto load CD tray” in the options and only have to look at it when I change games. I’ll probably do the same with the PS3. No winner in this one.
Controller:
Completely nit-picky things, but again, in terms of “heft” and perceived quality, the Six-Axis is actually a step down from the 360 controller. That could also be years of 360 use talking. My main complaint are the “triggers”. The 360 has decidedly obvious triggers. There’s no confusing what they are or any question what’s “left trigger” and what’s “left button”. The Six-Axis however, has L1 & 2, R1 & 2 pretty much on top of each other, with the lower being just a tad bigger but still not “trigger” shaped. It also doesn’t help that L2 and R2 aren’t used as triggers in the first place. Coming from a 360 world, that’s probably the single most confusing thing. Why am I using a “shoulder button” to shoot and aim? Seriously. Also, I do need to mention the charging again. With no replaceable battery (big no-no Sony!), I’m charging the entire controller. That seriously blows goats if I only have one of them. Also, the cord you gave me to do it is about 18″ long. There’s no way I can play and use it at the same time. I either need to purchase a docking station, a longer charging cable, or a second controller. That’s an extra $20-60 dollars, depending on which way you go, because Sony didn’t feel the need to let me use AA batteries. At least with the 360 controller, even if I don’t have a rechargeable battery, a cord, etc, at least I can still play if I find AA’s. If your Six-Axis is dead, it’s dead and you’ve got to wait.
Online Networks:
There’s two separate things I want to mention when we talk XBL vs PSN. Technical aspects (price, connection, servers) and Competition (other players). If you’re evaluating things from a purely monetary perspective, you can’t really go wrong with “free”. PSN is completely free to play against other people. XBL charges $50 a year, just to make your game work. I’ve always felt this is wrong, and continue to try and weasel my way into super cheap XBL. $30 subscription cards from NewEgg are my favorite. I also can’t understand why XBL needs to charge since 99% of the games are PvP and “matchmaking” anyway. If it’s my box and my connection, why am I paying Microsoft to play??? So, the PS3 gets brownie points there. In terms of connection, perhaps there’s something to the fee after all. The XBL connection, server browers and matchmaking systems seem to run smoother and faster. I’m actually going to reserve final judgement on this one until I play a more modern game with current player loads on the PS3, just to compare. My thoughts at this point are only based on trying to find a game lobby with a game no one is playing. That said, there were multiple times I left it searching and walked away to do something else (change a diaper) and came back to discover it hadn’t found a single thing to play. Again, could just be the game.
Competition however, is something I can evaluate. I’m not going to sit here and say that I’m some fantastic uber gamer with all sorts of mad skillz. I know there are honestly a lot better players than me. Most of the guys who compete at tournaments and in leagues could easily crush me. That said, I feel strongly that I’m slightly “above average” and could probably beat most casual players. On XBL I’m probably in the middle of the pack. If I’m in a 1-100 scale, probably somewhere in the 60’s. On PSN however, in my 2nd game, ever, after setting the game to find “any game type, any map”, I got put into a 1-on-1 duel with someone who had an Uncharted 2 rank of 55. I beat them 12-4. This was while I was still learning to use the controller. I then landed in the top 2 in every single game I played the rest of that afternoon. I honestly couldn’t believe it. I really want to try something like Call of Duty now because my hunch is that the “hardcore” players who are really into it, are probably playing on the 360. My hypothesis is that most players on PSN are casual gamers, or gamers of other genres (JRPG?) that are just taking a break from questing. That’s the feeling I get. I also didn’t hear any loud mouthed 12 years olds smack talking. Actually, I didn’t hear anyone. Since a headset also doesn’t come in the box, you have to buy one separately. Anyone who’s not in a group or a game clan just isn’t going to care enough, which probably accounts for most of the silence.
Bluray:
The main reason I bought the PS3 was for movie playback. I received a HD-DVD player a couple years ago as a gift and it simply didn’t win the format war. I had played maybe 2 HD movies in it. The rest of the time we played regular DVDs. Being such animated movie fans as we are, and after buying more Disney Bluray combo sets than I owned HD-DVDs, it just didn’t make any sense to keep using the old player. It was a Toshiba, it took (and I’m not exaggerating) 3-4 minutes to start up, and it was “ok”. When I ordered the PS3, I also picked up the remote for movies. It works as expected and is a completely acceptable player. There’s really not much else to say. It works well as a Bluray player, and I didn’t really expect any less from the company that created the format.
Final thoughts:
I’m really liking the PS3 so far. The loading times are atrocious, the system updates are completely insane, and the controller is crap, but the games are really top notch. PS3 exclusives should be proud they’re on a system that lets their games shine. Cross platform titles I’m still going to pick up for the 360, but I’m not going to be concerned about picking up a PS3 game in the future. Quality vs Quantity I suppose. I can play 150 different shooters on the 360, and 5-10 on the PS3, but they’re a real solid 5-10. In the end, I like it. I give it a solid B. It’s not perfect, it’s got some issues, but if my 360 dies tomorrow and I really really need to get my game on, I’m not going to feel left out.
by Matt | Aug 11, 2011 | Aggravation, Featured, Games
So, ask me how my new PS3 is. Really. Because I’ll tell you. The Dashboard is really neat. It’s also the only part of the system I’ve “played” in the past 3 days. I got it set up, integrated into my monstrosity of an entertainment center, hooked up to the network, PSN identity created… and then it wanted to update. Good heavens, did it ever want to update. It’s STILL updating. It arrived on Monday and spent most of Monday night “updating”. Tuesday I tried Uncharted 2… which needed to update. 12 200mb+ patches. What the hell is IN 12 patches? I bought the Game of the Year Edition. You know, the one that’s already supposed to have the patches and addons that were put out while the game was in general circulation. Yeah. So, that tells me that, routinely, 200mb of content are updated in my game. Surely the game itself, the core engine and experience, has been polished to a bright shine by now. Surely it’s only the multiplayer that’s getting patched. Are there really that many problems/exploits/map glitches that need patching??? It had to be a fluke I thought.
So, I let it update for most of the evening on Monday (for the system) and Tuesday (for Uncharted). Wednesday, I decided, Wednesday would be different. Yes, this time it would work. I turned it on, only to find that Sony had released ANOTHER update while I slept. So, again, I let it do it’s updating. After dinner I came back to it, hoping this time, to actually play a game. I decided to try Little Big Planet, yet another Game of the Year edition. With it’s more casual appeal, I was certain it wouldn’t need to be patched nearly… as… WTF, ANOTHER PATCH! Actually, no, ELEVEN patches. All between 50-200mb.
Now I can see why the system ships with 160gb hard drive. If you have, let’s say, more than 10 games, you’re pretty much out of space because of all the frigging updates this thing needs!
I have never, ever, in my entire existence and vast experience with video games, ever seen anything need the number of patches that this does. I keep repeating the word EVER to drive the point home. This system has, literally, more patches than WINDOWS. There, I said it. Microsoft, I salute you for being frugal with your system updates. I never thought your constant, nagging, endless stream of security patches could be out-matched, but they indeed have. Sony takes first place.
I can only speculate that it’s a reaction to being hacked by LulzSec. If not, and they patch this often, then there’s something seriously wrong. For the love, LBP does not need over 1G in patches, on top of whatever patches already shipped with the GoTY edition. There’s simply can’t be that much to patch, can there?
So, tonight, I’m hoping to actually try and play a game. I don’t have any more disks to put in that could possible impede my gaming tonight. No system updates, no game updates. We’ll see what this thing actually has under the hood. I’m excited to try it. I just hope I actually get to play something at some point. At the very least, I could make a mini-game out of the loading screens. “See that honey? The green line is inching closer to the finish! Go green line, go!”
UPDATE: PSN scheduled maintenance today in US. Ahahahahahaha. Seriously????
by Matt | Jun 7, 2011 | Culture, Featured, Games, Personal
With E3 still in full swing this week, I’m conflicted about calling it so early, but unless someone unveils something huge in the next 24hrs, I’m going to call this one of the most disappointing E3’s in recent memory.
Since it’s the closest to my wheelhouse, I’m going to start with Microsoft. Right off the bat I was completely floored by the amount of Kinect bullshit being peddled during the keynote. Let me be clear, the keynote speech, at 11:30 on a Monday morning, it not for casual gamers. Your Mom is not sitting at home waiting to hear about the next Dance Revolution game, I promise. No, that keynote is for the media and the hard core fans. The most hard of the core. Every single fucking game, whether it needed it or not, now includes some form of asinine Kinect integration. I will not play Ghost Recon by waving my hands around like a dumbass. I will not play Mass Effect by talking to it. I will not make big giant air circles to cast spells in Fable. There is ZERO desire in my gaming heart to do any of those things. I can’t believe that Microsoft is so completely ignoring it’s base.
Let’s look at it by the numbers, and just to show that I’m not making these up, you can check both the VGCharts and ESA for these. On estimate, worldwide, in this console generation, there have been 190 million units sold. 86 million Wii, 56 million 360’s and 50 million PS3s. That’s a fact. Also a fact is that in an ESA survey, 42% of gamers own 2 or more consoles. Seeing at how the Wii nearly doubles the sales of the other two, it’s a safe bet to assume that most people own either a PS3 OR a 360 AND a Wii. That means that half the “hardcore base” already has a device that does motion. Add to that the fact that Microsoft has sold 10 million Kinect devices (stand alones and bundles) and you get slightly less than 1/5 of the Xbox community embracing the technology. That’s 20%. That leaves 80% of the market filled with people who already own a system AND don’t want to jump around the living room like ADHD sufferers without their meds. As far as I can tell, that 80% just got completely fucking ignored this week.
Also aggravating is that most “Kinect support” fells tacked on and pointless. Why on earth do I need a Kinect to do voice recognition in Mass Effect 3? Doesn’t the console already come with a headset? If there’s no motion being captured, why is Kinect a requirement? Isn’t it just software at that point? Also, why make a menu system for Ghost Recon that takes LONGER to select a gun from than just using the controller. It would give me tennis elbow just to customize my weapons. And adding in the feature to tell the game to “randomize” my gun choice? What the hell? I’m in a menu, SELECTING a gun. If I wanted to randomly select one, I wouldn’t be in a fucking menu in the first place! The worst example is Fable, a series I’ve now completely given up on. I finished the first two, struggled half way through the third and I have no desire to play the fourth. With the nature of that game and the number of enemies that spawn in dungeons (because, according to Lionhead studios, quantity of enemies clearly equals quality), you’d have to endure full-on gymnastic routines just to get to the next village if you played it with the Kinect. Drawing huge circle in the air and “throwing” spells is the fastest way to get me to turn the game off, or to have Tommy John surgery, either one. Lastly, show me ONE hardcore football guy that’s going to sit in his living room, with his guy friends, and take fake snaps of the football while everyone watches. Not. Going. To. Happen.
Thank goodness Call of Duty and Battlefield 3 have stayed true to their roots. If I had to hold my hands in a mock steering wheel position to drive a tank I would have gone mental. A couple other titles did squeak into the corner of my periphery, and not from the MS keynote either. EA released a new game play trailer for SSX which looks ridiculously perfect. Also Overstrike from Insomniac looks promising, although I would have liked to see some gameplay footage. Mass Effect 3 is still in the running for a quality release, despite a poor voice acting bullshit audition on stage. I can’t wait to play the game… with my microphone unplugged.
Everything else looks completely bland and uninteresting, including Gears of War 3 which managed, somehow, to make me really not give a crap. Minecraft for the 360 is quite possibly the biggest sell-out I’ve ever seen, the Star Wars demo was so terrible even the 40yr old virgins were unimpressed, Tomb Raider was nothing but heavy breathing and claustrophobia, Fable was incredibly weak and Halo is now officially a cash grab. The entire thing was a weak attempt to either woo a demographic that wasn’t watching or a desperate attempt to win over the hardcore demographic that might have been on the fence about Kinect. It really did neither.
The Nintendo presentation was equally troublesome. After all these years, after all the wonderful childhood memories, the best they can come up with is a controller the size of a iPad and the 134th version of the same Legend of Zelda game. Oh, but wait, now you can play buy MarioKart, again, for the other new console your kids are going to make you buy. Because, let’s face it, as an adult, there’s really only so much Mario one person can play. It’s really just gotten sad at this point. Seriously, all Nintendo is offering and a terribly named (even worse logo’ed) console that they should have made 3 years ago, 12 Zelda titles, Mario, Luigi, MarioKart, Smash Brothers and Star Fox. Their line up hasn’t changed since 1999. Even the games they “teased” were Mario Party, Ninja Gaiden and Kirby. Everything else isn’t a console exclusive. Dirt, Ghost Recon, Tekken, Batman.
I’m glad they actually solidified the release of non-kid games for their console, but the fact that half their current audience already has a system that they prefer to play those games certainly won’t make them just ship. What’s my motivation for playing Batman on the LimpDick Wii:U instead of the Xbox? Or why would I play a weird downgraded Ghost Recon on the Nintendo instead of Xbox Live or PSN, where my friends already are? Also, can we talk about the name. Really? You followed up the console named for a penis with, literally, a logo that looks like a dick. No one in the marketing department thought this was a bad idea? Wow.
I hate to say it gamers, but we’ve got to start demanding better or else they’re going to keep getting away with this. Every time you hear someone say it’s “ground breaking” or “revolutionary” or “the next step/stage of gaming”, you have my full permission to call them on their bullshit. The only things that are revolutionary in gaming are brand new IPs, which we saw very few of, and major console launches which only happen once a decade. Until we get there, it’s the same old crap, just with higher numbers on the boxes.
Matt out
by Matt | May 3, 2011 | Games
Having a baby drastically changes both your free time and your budget. So much so that I’m actively evaluating what games to purchase this year far in advance of their actual arrival. Battlefield 3 for example, is not only an instant purchase, but also something worth upgrading the TV and/or PC for. That’s a given. Other AAA titles are still worthy of a purchase, but it’s hard to justify getting ALL of them. For example, this month sees the release of Brink, which I’ve been waiting patiently for for months, and LA Noire, which is supposed to be quite fantastic and a perfect follow up to Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption, which was my personal “Game of the Year” last year. Rockstar has really grown up as a company. Both of those games hit in less than two weeks. Do I purchase them immediately and expand my “pile of shame” (the pile of games I’ve yet to complete – Fable 3 I’m looking at you!), or do I wait the obligatory 2-3 weeks for them to drop in price (and player base) and miss out on potential multiplayer goodness. Or, is that an illusion? Will people continue to play multiplayer games in a diminishing community after tepid releases, resulting in the “seriously, are there really only 2 servers running for this?” scenario. Or does that really matter if your friends are playing it as well, which they won’t be.
Sadly, I don’t have a group of gamers to play with any more. Obviously I count all of you as friends, and a good number of you have an Xbox, but we don’t really game “together”, and that’s ok, I’m just pointing out that my motivation to play multiplayer games is unfortunately based on playing with strangers (and killing them) and not so much as a “team” sport anymore. It used to be, which is maybe why the transition is so hard. God, I haven’t been to a LAN party in forever.
Regardless, the point of this post wasn’t to lament on past FPS glories, but to emphasize the point that life truly has changed and that video game purchases are now further down on the list of priorities, although still well within the top 10. So, what will it be? To buy or not to buy? Who knows. I guess that really depends on how my diapers I need to buy this weekend, lol.
Recent Comments