Published 2013-01-14 16:25 by Abscissa in General
Claiming that nostalgia is the sole appeal of retro and retro-style games is like claiming The Three Stooges are funny purely because of nostalgia.
We grown-ups enjoy retro games because they're fun. And they look good. And they don't let cinematic bullshit get in the way of the real game. And again, they're fun.
Published 2013-01-07 18:42 by Abscissa in Software/Device Development and Design
The software development philosophy that flexible software is too useful to too many people and should therefore be replaced with a proliferation of inferior alternatives, all of which have significant problems or limitations which result in them all being of minimal overall usefulness.
Such non-useful software can be made cheaply and easily by lazy and poorly trained people who don't particularly feel like or know how to write reasonably good code. The result is that software becomes worse, however it is exactly this inferiority which is highly valued by savvy modern developers.
"Worse is Better" is a hip, common and convenient way to rationalize the practice of habitually phoning-in half-assed work.
Published 2013-01-06 14:32 by Abscissa in General
Just want to share a little lesson I learned the hard way:
When you purchase titles from the PlayStation online store, especially PlayStation Plus Free Games (ie, the "Instant Game Collection"), try to keep each game as a separate transaction. That is, don't go to "Continue Shopping" and then get another game. Actually go through the "Checkout" first, and then get whatever else you want. It's less convenient, but it's worthwhile because if you ever unlucky enough to have to deal with Sony's customer support, it will make it harder for them to screw up even more and cause more problems which they will refuse to fix. This can and does happen. You should be protected from it.
Case in point:
The PlayStation Plus subscription includes a seemingly nifty little benefit called an "Instant Game Collection". This is like Netflix for PS3 and Vita games: At any given time, there are a bunch of full, non-demo, non-limited, games available for free download, free to play. Over time, some titles will rotate out of availability, and others will rotate in. However, according to Sony's own statements, as long as you're a PlayStation Plus subscriber (even if your subscription ended and was then reinstated) you are entitled to re-download, for free, at any time, any "Instant Game Collection" game that you've already downloaded and deleted even after it's rotated out of availability.
However, if you don't protect yourself, Sony will screw you over by failing to honor their own obligation to you. They have already done so to me.
What happened:
After subscribing to PlayStation Plus, I downloaded a few of the free Instant Game Collection games, including Bioshock 2, as well as a Timed Trial of Splinter Cell: Double Agent (The Timed Trial games entitle you to 60 minutes of the full game. Naturally, these are games that are not available as part of the Instant Game Collection.) I obtained these as part of the same transaction, by using "Continue Shopping" instead of doing a "Checkout" after every individual game (which, in retrospect, I should have done instead).
Then, the 60 minute Timed Trial expired after only allowing me about five, maybe ten, minutes of running the game (including cutscenes, loading screens, company logos, etc.) So naturally I called Sony support.
Sony's support informed me that that was indeed something that incorrectly went wrong, and they also informed me that the 60 minutes do NOT need to be consecutive. They promised to fix it and email me within a few weeks.
About a week later, I got an email claiming that the problem was fixed. Not only was it NOT fixed, it gets worse: Sony's trained chimps had attempted to fix the problem by canceling the transaction that included the Timed Trial game. They had canceled the ENTIRE transaction - including the free Instant Game Collection games...including Bioshock 2 which, by then, had already rotated out of availability.
This means that Bioshock 2 is no longer in my download list as it is supposed to be, and therefore, if I need to delete it from my hard drive (it takes up a whopping 10 GB), then I will not be able to redownload it as I'm entitled to do.
After another call to Sony's support chimps, a referral a different phone number with a different set of Sony support chimps, and a bunch of hold time with intolerable elevator music (naturally), I was told that they could not fix the issues with either of the games. They provided no remedy other than to say "Sorry".
Fortunately, I'm not a big fan of Bioshock, and the PS3 version of Splinter Cell: Double Agent has been said to run very poorly (not that I would know). But a major multinational corporation failing to honor their own obligations to their own customers is inexcusable.
Naturally, I will continue calling them about the matter, but in the meantime, I'll be damned if I'm going to keep the matter private.
And again, if you download things from the PlayStation store, help protect yourself and keep every game separate.
Published 2013-01-01 12:14 by Abscissa in Reviews
For this past console generation I've been a Wii user; largely because, personally, I find having a proper pointing device (the Wii's IR pointing) to be more compelling than upgrading graphical fidelity beyond the already great looking XBox 1, or even the GameCube. In other words, I'm not a graphics whore, and unlike my teenage days I'm no longer interested in blowing hundreds of dollars just for more pixels and polygons. The graphics on 360/PS3 are a very nice bonus, granted, but it's not a big selling point for me.
While I've been mostly disappointed with Nintendo's flagship franchises on the Wii (as compared to the GameCube, which was underrated IMO), there are a lot of fantastic games on the Wii: Such as the best version of Resident Evil 4 and Kirby's Epic Yarn. Yes, the latter is very kid-friendly, but it's also the most solid, original and enjoyable 2D platformer I've seen in years. Highly recommended.
Quite a few years after PS3's initial launch now, it too has a large number of great games and, more importantly, no longer has the price tag of a 3DO. So I've finally gotten one (thanks largely to a particularly good Christmas that made me feel like it was 1988 again). You'll probably now see me commenting on many things that are old, old news in the PS3 world.
Why'd I go with a PS3 instead of 360? Well, even though it was a gift (I don't usually spend my extra money on entertainment for myself), the holiday happiness conspirators knew my tastes: The PS3 definitely has it's problems, as does my beloved Wii and the Wii 2 (I refuse to call it "Weeyuu"). And I may add a 360 to my collection at some point. But these were, for me, the biggest factors:
I don't like the 360's controller. I'm a relatively big guy and no longer have the tiny hands of a kid. As such, the 360's controller is far too small for me (The original "Duke" controller for XBox 1 was the perfect size for me.) Plus, I'm big on 2D and retro-style gaming and for much of that a good D-Pad is essential. Unfortunately, Microsoft has never been able to make a good D-Pad, even as far back as their pre-XBox Sidewinder days. Of course, PlayStaion D-Pads tend to be love-it-or-hate-it, but I'm on the "love it" side.
I've been burned too many times by Microsoft hardware. They make good keyboards and mice, but I've had major technical problems with both the XBox 1 and the Zune (the Zune is a whooole other rant...). And the 360 has a notably worse reputation for reliability than either of those. Even though Microsoft has made big reliability improvements on the 360, I still don't trust it to keep working for more than a few years. Oh yea, and I'm not interested in dealing with a system that scratches my discs.
Plus, to be honest, I did feel rather betrayed by how quickly Microsoft abandoned the XBox 1 (although that's admittedly a lesser issue). On a related note, some of my favorite XBox 1 games never did get full 360-compatibility, such as Chronicles of Riddick and Beyond Good & Evil.
Free online multiplayer. I'm not usually much of a multiplayer gamer, so $50/year just wouldn't be worth it for me, no matter how good the service is. Which means that if I had a 360, I would skip the XBox Live subscription, and have no online multiplayer at all. With the PS3, I can still play online in the rare cases I do feel like it - which is very good considering my brother recently got me hooked on Counter Strike: Global Offensive. That's very strange though, since I never used to like Counter Strike. Of course, the irony here is that I did end up signing up for PlayStation Plus ;). (FWIW, my PSN/CS:GO name is NitrodePants. I use keyboard/mouse, but you'll probably still kick my sorry ass anyway.)
Microsoft can't decide on a fucking dashboard. Seriously, how many more times is Microsoft going to completely redo the 360's system interface? Just pick a damn interface and stick with it! Ok, this isn't really one of the reasons I went with PS3, but it is a 360 annoyance.
Less proprietary bullshit when upgrading the hard drive. It's a hackjob to use a non-Microsoft (read: non-overpriced and large variety to choose from) hard drive on older 360's. On newer ones it's not even possible.
The exclusives. I absolutely detest the fact that platform exclusivity exists at all. Heck, Sony produces movies and music yet those play just fine on non-Sony players - and yet Sony still seems to be getting by just fine. The device used should be the user's choice, not the developer's choice. Nonetheless, exclusivity exists, and the exclusives on PS3 seem to be more to my taste. The 360's notable exclusives seem to be:
But then the PS3 has me completely sold on these exclusives:
And Little Big Planet seems interesting too, although I do wish that chatterbox narrator would shut the hell up.
While I'm overall thrilled with my new PS3, I do have a number of minor gripes with it. But as this has gotten long, I'll save those for a separate post...
Published 2012-12-18 13:22 by Abscissa in Software/Device Development and Design
...that the buzzword "touch" is bandied about by the creators of buttonless touchscreen-only devices which inherently have no tactile sensation at all.
(Yes, I just used the phrase "bandied about". So I've been watching Frasier, ok? ;) )
Published 2012-11-22 11:03 by Abscissa in Reviews
If I didn't know better, I would almost think it was an industry prank. Windows 8 does for UI what Windows ME did for reliability.
Even ignoring the impracticality and intuitiveness, Metro is the ugliest, and downright messiest looking, environment since Windows 1 and 2. The "classic" desktop is botched too, looking as if the GUI failed to finish rendering - and that's coming from someone who keeps both Luna and Aero disabled.