There and Back Again: the PS3 in my Living Room
PostPosted:Thu Feb 09, 2012 1:32 pm
Not sure if you guys remember, but back in 2008, I kept referring to the PS3 as "the Metal Gear adaptor"; Kup, if he ever comes back, can regale you with those stories. Really, up until later in that year or early the next year, the exclusives were nothing to write home about (another Ratchet and Clank and Uncharted were the only decent big ones, the latter was only 10 hours long; after that we had what, Disgaea 3? And no, Resistance and Motorstorm don't count) when compared to the Xbox and it was still significantly more expensive. Not to mention a lot of the cross-platform titles at the time either weren't as good on the PS3 (Burnout Paradise aside) since they were designed for the 360 then ported over or just didn't appear on it at all. Blu ray was an added bonus but certainly nothing I'd pay extra for.
So when I got mine in the fall of 2008, it was like my Wii, a speciality system. I had my few games for it but really, the 360 dominated. Left 4 Dead and Gears 2 came out that year, the PS3 basically collected dust for a while. But early the next year, after having had the system for a few months, I actually grew more fond of the XMB interface than the blade interface (I HATE the Windows 8-style one on the 360 now). Since TVersity worked on both and it was much better looking interface with more options (FF and RW are WAY better on PS3, as is the file display), the PS3 started getting a lot more play time, particularly considering that media streaming was far more useful and common to everyone in my house than gaming. It was at this time that I also had my 3rd brush with the 3RROD and replaced my 360 with a newer model (the Halo 3 model) and the cross-platforms started becoming almost indistinguishable from the 360 games (Bethesda notwithstanding; they still haven't optimized their engine for the PS3...). Add to it the free online play, a sore point with me on the 360, and in early 2009, we had a complete reversal of dominance in my living room.
All of a sudden, the PS3 becomes the dominating system with the 360 reserved for only exclusives (aside from Modern Warfare 2, for some odd reason even I don't know). There was also some great deals on the PSN that I got at the time not to mention the higher re-sale value of the games over their 360 counterparts (it didn't make sense but that's how it was; important if you buy games to play them then trade them in which I often do). XBLA wasn't offerin' much for me, anything that was good was expensive aside from a few deal days a year. This is how it remained for over 2 years......until Sony started really screwing up.
It all started with the PSN going down last May. Unlike most people, I didn't have any ill-will towards Sony for this. I didn't jump on the "lynch them fuckers!" bandwagon. It happened, no big deal. As long as my personal private info didn't get out, I was coo (no repercussions as of yet). What really irked my chain was how they handled it. Yes, they gave us all some free games but really, other than 1 or 2 (like Dead Nation, which was newer), they were games that were dead to them anyways. So they really weren't giving up anything, the games weren't selling anymore anyways. That I can live with, something is better than nothing and I finally got Super Stardust HD which had been awaiting a sale for at least 2 years at that point. It's the PSN Plus stuff that was the backbreaker. Not only was there absolutely shit deals for the entire 2 months following them coming back online (I didn't sign up for my free 30 days until after the initial 30-day signup deadline was almost over 'cause there was SHIT for sale), they actually took away deals that were available to PSN Plus members before they offered it for free, most notably the discounts on the PSN Imports. I was waiting for the Mega Man PSX re-releases for $3, that was one of the reasons I was lookin' forward to getting PSN Plus.
Not only did they gut the Plus exclusives when everyone had it, they actually had the ball-sack to offer MUCH better deals afterwards for those 4 people who actually stayed on with PSN Plus after the free period was over. This has been especially evident in the last few months where they offered the Back to the Future game, Tomb Raider Underworld (the full retail release), Marvel Pinball, and The Simpsons Game (old arcade), Far Cry 2 (full retail), and Final Fantasy V this month, not to mention more stuff (http://blog.us.playstation.com/2012/01/ ... -and-more/). The best thing I could get back in June was Magic: Duel of the Planeswalkers because the 2012 version was coming out a few weeks later and Streets of Rage (the old Genesis game). It was like they had an internal discussion which went "let's try to turn this negative press into money somehow by offering something for free that won't cost us anything but leave the possibility of making money afterwards if we can get some addicted to PSN Plus". This is really a wide-footed, steel-toed boot kick to the nuts. Heck, Nintendo offered much better games (and 20 vs 4) just for over-pricing the 3DS for a few months! And not shit titles, either. At least 4 of the NES games and all of the GBA games are among the best to appear on those systems. And since early November, XBLA has had some excellent deals going. I think I bought more games on XBLA from Nov to Dec than I did in the previous 4 1/2 years of owning the system. Musta been around a dozen or so in those few months. Other than Shadow Complex and Braid (latter I won't pay for), I pretty much have every XBLA game I want.
Add to that the internal coding on many torrents which turns off the sound or the torrent completely if you play it through your PS3 on your TV (using TVersity; since Sony owns all those movie studios) but not the 360 and the fact that I actually have a stable 360 system now (got the MW2 250GB one now) and all of a sudden the 360 has started to dominate again. The PS3 has gone BACK to being the speciality system again, although any game which I wanna play multiplayer I'll get for the PS3 as well (aside from Assassin's Creed and Batman, oddly; can't explain that one either). That really isn't much since I'm not a huge multi guy anyways and, other than CoD's Spec Ops, all the ones I do wanna play multi are 360 exclusives (Gears, L4D).
So, due to Sony's idiocy, I actually buy far less games for my PS3 now than I did 6 or 7 months ago. There really was no reason for it other than Sony's bullshit business decisions.
So when I got mine in the fall of 2008, it was like my Wii, a speciality system. I had my few games for it but really, the 360 dominated. Left 4 Dead and Gears 2 came out that year, the PS3 basically collected dust for a while. But early the next year, after having had the system for a few months, I actually grew more fond of the XMB interface than the blade interface (I HATE the Windows 8-style one on the 360 now). Since TVersity worked on both and it was much better looking interface with more options (FF and RW are WAY better on PS3, as is the file display), the PS3 started getting a lot more play time, particularly considering that media streaming was far more useful and common to everyone in my house than gaming. It was at this time that I also had my 3rd brush with the 3RROD and replaced my 360 with a newer model (the Halo 3 model) and the cross-platforms started becoming almost indistinguishable from the 360 games (Bethesda notwithstanding; they still haven't optimized their engine for the PS3...). Add to it the free online play, a sore point with me on the 360, and in early 2009, we had a complete reversal of dominance in my living room.
All of a sudden, the PS3 becomes the dominating system with the 360 reserved for only exclusives (aside from Modern Warfare 2, for some odd reason even I don't know). There was also some great deals on the PSN that I got at the time not to mention the higher re-sale value of the games over their 360 counterparts (it didn't make sense but that's how it was; important if you buy games to play them then trade them in which I often do). XBLA wasn't offerin' much for me, anything that was good was expensive aside from a few deal days a year. This is how it remained for over 2 years......until Sony started really screwing up.
It all started with the PSN going down last May. Unlike most people, I didn't have any ill-will towards Sony for this. I didn't jump on the "lynch them fuckers!" bandwagon. It happened, no big deal. As long as my personal private info didn't get out, I was coo (no repercussions as of yet). What really irked my chain was how they handled it. Yes, they gave us all some free games but really, other than 1 or 2 (like Dead Nation, which was newer), they were games that were dead to them anyways. So they really weren't giving up anything, the games weren't selling anymore anyways. That I can live with, something is better than nothing and I finally got Super Stardust HD which had been awaiting a sale for at least 2 years at that point. It's the PSN Plus stuff that was the backbreaker. Not only was there absolutely shit deals for the entire 2 months following them coming back online (I didn't sign up for my free 30 days until after the initial 30-day signup deadline was almost over 'cause there was SHIT for sale), they actually took away deals that were available to PSN Plus members before they offered it for free, most notably the discounts on the PSN Imports. I was waiting for the Mega Man PSX re-releases for $3, that was one of the reasons I was lookin' forward to getting PSN Plus.
Not only did they gut the Plus exclusives when everyone had it, they actually had the ball-sack to offer MUCH better deals afterwards for those 4 people who actually stayed on with PSN Plus after the free period was over. This has been especially evident in the last few months where they offered the Back to the Future game, Tomb Raider Underworld (the full retail release), Marvel Pinball, and The Simpsons Game (old arcade), Far Cry 2 (full retail), and Final Fantasy V this month, not to mention more stuff (http://blog.us.playstation.com/2012/01/ ... -and-more/). The best thing I could get back in June was Magic: Duel of the Planeswalkers because the 2012 version was coming out a few weeks later and Streets of Rage (the old Genesis game). It was like they had an internal discussion which went "let's try to turn this negative press into money somehow by offering something for free that won't cost us anything but leave the possibility of making money afterwards if we can get some addicted to PSN Plus". This is really a wide-footed, steel-toed boot kick to the nuts. Heck, Nintendo offered much better games (and 20 vs 4) just for over-pricing the 3DS for a few months! And not shit titles, either. At least 4 of the NES games and all of the GBA games are among the best to appear on those systems. And since early November, XBLA has had some excellent deals going. I think I bought more games on XBLA from Nov to Dec than I did in the previous 4 1/2 years of owning the system. Musta been around a dozen or so in those few months. Other than Shadow Complex and Braid (latter I won't pay for), I pretty much have every XBLA game I want.
Add to that the internal coding on many torrents which turns off the sound or the torrent completely if you play it through your PS3 on your TV (using TVersity; since Sony owns all those movie studios) but not the 360 and the fact that I actually have a stable 360 system now (got the MW2 250GB one now) and all of a sudden the 360 has started to dominate again. The PS3 has gone BACK to being the speciality system again, although any game which I wanna play multiplayer I'll get for the PS3 as well (aside from Assassin's Creed and Batman, oddly; can't explain that one either). That really isn't much since I'm not a huge multi guy anyways and, other than CoD's Spec Ops, all the ones I do wanna play multi are 360 exclusives (Gears, L4D).
So, due to Sony's idiocy, I actually buy far less games for my PS3 now than I did 6 or 7 months ago. There really was no reason for it other than Sony's bullshit business decisions.