My simmering mood over the PS3 infrared debacle has finally boiled over.
These are the facts:
1) Despite marketing the PS3 as a consumer electronics device for watching blu-ray movies, it has no infrared port, and thus cannot be controlled by a regular remote (since blu-ray clearly targets high-end systems, which are more likely to have someone, like me, already working to tame a "too many remotes" problem, this is doubly damning from the outset). Fail.
1 a) IR ports probably cost less than $1 to add to your device, in terms of hardware cost. Fail.
2) Grabbing the normal game controller with your free left hand to pause or play while you stuff handfuls of popcorn into your gob frequently causes you to hit one of the shoulder buttons resulting in either manic fast-forwarding/rewinding or huge chapter jumps forward or backward. This typically happens at about the rate of 3 times per movie viewing. Fail.
3) 3rd parties have USB dongles (for about $10 - $15) that you can attach that allow your regular remote to interact with the PS3. However, the USB ports lose power when the PS3 is off, which means you can't use these tools to actually turn on the PS3 in the first place. Fail.
4) Logitech is now marketing a $60 (!!!) doohickey which registers with your PS3 as a game controller via bluetooth and lets you control it via IR and lets you even turn it on, since it has its own power. However, apparently the 1st gen PS3 units (like mine) have a problem with it and frequently disconnect it, which means in practice it may or may not be worthless, and obviously $60 is too much to pay to logitech for just a chance at fixing a problem that sony should have solved with a $1 item. Fail.
4 a). Logitech's solution is ALSO PROPRIETARY, in that it uses custom IR commands that normal (read, not made by Logitech) remotes apparently cannot reproduce. So for $60, I can trade the Sony bluetooth proprietary system for a Logitech IR proprietary system. Frankly, this makes me want to throw my Harmony remote against the wall and send its broken body to Logitech one piece at a time. And this despite the fact that I'm clearly the target market for this device as I already own both a PS3 and Harmony remote. Fail.
5) Sony wants to sell you a bluetooth remote. Which can only control the PS3. Of course, this will be YAR (Yet Another Remote) in my house, which means... Fail (see 1).
Of course this has been going on for a while, but only recently did I have some disposable cash and decide, hey, I need to solve that remote problem once and for all.
Logitech and Sony both fail spectacularly. Oh well, what else is new?
20090902
20090606
Turn Around, Bright Eyes
So someone should tell the Helghast people from Killzone 2 that their glowing red eyes make them great targets for headshots and generally announce their presence to the entire freaking battlefield. I find it hard to believe that a militant splinter group of humanity would overlook this fact.
This is probably the first FPS on PS3 where I've enjoyed the multiplayer. It is just possible that I'm finally getting used to a gamepad for controlling an FPS. Still wish it had mouse and keyboard control though. It has a good ranking system and upgrades. Reminds me of battlefield 2. In multiplayer if you play the space nazi (helghast) side, the regular humans are suffused with a blue glow, which I guess equalizes the giant target that the helghast make of themselves with their poorly designed head gear. In the end it hampers the effectiveness of sneaking and hiding a bit, which probably skews the tactics towards run-n-gun. I'm not sure this is a bad thing. I give the game two glowing blue thumbs up.
This is probably the first FPS on PS3 where I've enjoyed the multiplayer. It is just possible that I'm finally getting used to a gamepad for controlling an FPS. Still wish it had mouse and keyboard control though. It has a good ranking system and upgrades. Reminds me of battlefield 2. In multiplayer if you play the space nazi (helghast) side, the regular humans are suffused with a blue glow, which I guess equalizes the giant target that the helghast make of themselves with their poorly designed head gear. In the end it hampers the effectiveness of sneaking and hiding a bit, which probably skews the tactics towards run-n-gun. I'm not sure this is a bad thing. I give the game two glowing blue thumbs up.
20090412
Amazon (is) Rank
Mmmm, google bomb. Amazon Rank is the definition of Amazon Rank. See this page to explain... Fanny Hill is bad, but The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is ok? I say, give 'em hell. Amazonfail.
20090304
Is it live or is it quakelive?
As you might guess from the black circles under my eyes, quakelive came out. Quake 3 (which quake live is based on) ate most of my early 2000's. I'm loving ctf, ffa, duel kinda sucks, IMO, but then I'm comparing it in my mind to RA3, which was by far my favorite mod. Unfortunately, the quake live folks say they won't be porting any mods in the near future. Clan Arena is as close as I'm going to get to the RA3 goodness of the past, so I'll have to get used to the slow weapon switch and no decent 1v1 maps.
Here's a short transcript from a recent clan arena session. It's the end of the match, 1 guy is left on each team. They both have low health. Sudden death. I'm one of the guys. I go around the map looking for the other dude.
OMG
The spectators are starting to get impatient. I go around the map again.
Come on
zzzzzzzzz
Now I've gotten bored and I've gone to the middle of the map and drawn out my machine gun and I'm shooting it around randomly to create some noise so the other guy can find me.
OMFG just go to the middle!
It's not f*@king hide and go seek!
I spin around and see the other guy just as he comes around the corner and kill him with a single shot of the machine gun.
I knew I was keeping a copy of my old q3 config file around for a reason.
20090115
radiation makes me sleepy
The faithful reader may wonder where I've been lately. I've been playing Fallout 3. And playing it. And playing it. And. Playing. It.
It is quite a good game. The rpg and story elements are pretty addictive. There are flaws for sure (FPS style play is possible but sux, weird physics and graphics glitches), but the sheer breadth of the world is pretty awesome. It is like someone dropped a nuclear bomb on GTA4, and then invited you (and your dog) to romp around in the mutated, radiated, steam punkish remains. Phun!
And yet... and yet... I'm getting so incredibly bored of this game. I need a break. One can only wander the wasteland of DC fragging giant scorpions and collecting their poison glands (what are those for??? I must have 30 of them by now!) for so long. I'm actually considering buying it just so I can go on to something else for a while and come back to it later. This seems like an odd reason to buy a game, and I'm struggling with the concept (especially given the economy and possible impending layoffs at my day job), but gamefly has sweetened the pot with a $10 coupon they sent me recently. Decisions, decisions.
Also, I wish it had vehicles, then it would be perfect.
It is quite a good game. The rpg and story elements are pretty addictive. There are flaws for sure (FPS style play is possible but sux, weird physics and graphics glitches), but the sheer breadth of the world is pretty awesome. It is like someone dropped a nuclear bomb on GTA4, and then invited you (and your dog) to romp around in the mutated, radiated, steam punkish remains. Phun!
And yet... and yet... I'm getting so incredibly bored of this game. I need a break. One can only wander the wasteland of DC fragging giant scorpions and collecting their poison glands (what are those for??? I must have 30 of them by now!) for so long. I'm actually considering buying it just so I can go on to something else for a while and come back to it later. This seems like an odd reason to buy a game, and I'm struggling with the concept (especially given the economy and possible impending layoffs at my day job), but gamefly has sweetened the pot with a $10 coupon they sent me recently. Decisions, decisions.
Also, I wish it had vehicles, then it would be perfect.
20081104
A Bright Hope
As I watch the historic election returns I can't help but wonder what effect the new democratic president will have on video games. I for one would love to see him mandate that all PS3 FPS and RTS games MUST support mouse and keyboard control.
In the bizarre and very personal math that immediately preceeded my PS3 purchase, the availability of M+K support on the platform was responsible for a small but noticable portion of the deciding PS3 percentage. XB360 doesn't even support M+K and I am *so* tired of using a PC for gaming. I have even considered going over to the dark side of gaming, the Macintosh (of course, you'll need a very *special* mouse with *two* buttons, snark). Linux, of course, will be a non-starter in this category for many years to come, despite noble attempts from some quarters.
Unfortunately, the PS3 has let me down. What should have been an historic joining of parties (consoles and FPS and RTS games) has instead turned into just the same old tired party rhetoric. And as a result, we get garbage like this device which turns mouse and keyboard input into a fake PS3 controller. WHAT?!??!!
This lack of M+K support for FPS and RTS titles has DECIMATED my desire for those titles on the PS3. I will not be buying those kinds of games which do not support my favored input method. I'm afraid that Unreal Tournament 3 (which saw the light on M+K support) may be the first and last FPS I purchase for PS3. When will we get to the promised land?
In the bizarre and very personal math that immediately preceeded my PS3 purchase, the availability of M+K support on the platform was responsible for a small but noticable portion of the deciding PS3 percentage. XB360 doesn't even support M+K and I am *so* tired of using a PC for gaming. I have even considered going over to the dark side of gaming, the Macintosh (of course, you'll need a very *special* mouse with *two* buttons, snark). Linux, of course, will be a non-starter in this category for many years to come, despite noble attempts from some quarters.
Unfortunately, the PS3 has let me down. What should have been an historic joining of parties (consoles and FPS and RTS games) has instead turned into just the same old tired party rhetoric. And as a result, we get garbage like this device which turns mouse and keyboard input into a fake PS3 controller. WHAT?!??!!
This lack of M+K support for FPS and RTS titles has DECIMATED my desire for those titles on the PS3. I will not be buying those kinds of games which do not support my favored input method. I'm afraid that Unreal Tournament 3 (which saw the light on M+K support) may be the first and last FPS I purchase for PS3. When will we get to the promised land?
20081028
Git Yer Waaaaagh On!
By way of introduction, for my non-733T readers, "Dawn of War" by C.S.Goto is the first novel of a series based on a video game (itself also a series), which is based on a table-top war game set in a fantasy future, which is based on a table-top war game set in a fantasy past (or vice-versa, not sure). Welcome to the insanity of Warhammer 40,000.
I've only over played the actual table-top game once, and I hated it. I have, however, played a bit of Space Hulk (back in the day, get off my lawn) and I've played the entire "Dawn of War" video game series to date, which is quite good, if getting a little repetitive at this point. (DOW II is coming, and looks awesome so far, but in order to play it, I'm *probably* going to need to upgrade my game PC, so that could be a problem).
This paperback-only piece of fluff with practically no redeeming qualities cost me about twice cover price and I have two copies.
It cost me about twice cover price because it is out of print (it seems like many Black Library publications have fairly short print runs), and owing to the popularity of the game, it actually has sold extremely well, and used copies have been in high demand. I've been waiting, believe it or not, a couple of years to get my hands on a copy, simply because I've been waiting for the price to come down from its high of, I seem to recall, over $50 a copy. Eventually, I found an Amazon affiliated store which was advertising $14 a copy or so, and I placed an order. I had to wait over 6 months for them to get it in stock.
I have two copies because, about a week after my first copy arrived from Amazon, I found another copy at the perennial book sale at my local library, and bought it for about 25 cents, which is probably closer to its real value.
My intention is to sell one of the copies on eBay and recoup my $14 loss. (oh too late, I see they are now going for about a buck on ebay).
"If you catch an adjective, kill it." -Mark Twain.
This author is obviously not a fan of Mark Twain. There is nary a noun in the entire work without an attending adjective. Here is a splendorous, magnificent, awesome example:
"Lord Bale himself was a monster of man – hugely tall and draped with corpse-like flesh that paled into a sickly white in the thin moonlight. Only his bladed teeth seemed to reflect any light at all, and that was vicious beyond the imaginings of men. A terrible stench wafted through the night air, and the Chaos Marine noticed for the last time how Bale's green and burnished gold armour was coated in a thick, ichorous film of ruined flesh."
The author's swollen fingers trembled with an anxious palsy as he typed that turgid passage. The cracked and battle-worn cover of his fell thesaurus creaked ominously as he paused precipitously to seek additional synonyms of "dreadful".
I look forward to finding the second volume of the series at a library book sale or used paperback shop in the near to distant future. I really can't recommend it to anyone though. YMMV.
I've only over played the actual table-top game once, and I hated it. I have, however, played a bit of Space Hulk (back in the day, get off my lawn) and I've played the entire "Dawn of War" video game series to date, which is quite good, if getting a little repetitive at this point. (DOW II is coming, and looks awesome so far, but in order to play it, I'm *probably* going to need to upgrade my game PC, so that could be a problem).
This paperback-only piece of fluff with practically no redeeming qualities cost me about twice cover price and I have two copies.
It cost me about twice cover price because it is out of print (it seems like many Black Library publications have fairly short print runs), and owing to the popularity of the game, it actually has sold extremely well, and used copies have been in high demand. I've been waiting, believe it or not, a couple of years to get my hands on a copy, simply because I've been waiting for the price to come down from its high of, I seem to recall, over $50 a copy. Eventually, I found an Amazon affiliated store which was advertising $14 a copy or so, and I placed an order. I had to wait over 6 months for them to get it in stock.
I have two copies because, about a week after my first copy arrived from Amazon, I found another copy at the perennial book sale at my local library, and bought it for about 25 cents, which is probably closer to its real value.
My intention is to sell one of the copies on eBay and recoup my $14 loss. (oh too late, I see they are now going for about a buck on ebay).
"If you catch an adjective, kill it." -Mark Twain.
This author is obviously not a fan of Mark Twain. There is nary a noun in the entire work without an attending adjective. Here is a splendorous, magnificent, awesome example:
"Lord Bale himself was a monster of man – hugely tall and draped with corpse-like flesh that paled into a sickly white in the thin moonlight. Only his bladed teeth seemed to reflect any light at all, and that was vicious beyond the imaginings of men. A terrible stench wafted through the night air, and the Chaos Marine noticed for the last time how Bale's green and burnished gold armour was coated in a thick, ichorous film of ruined flesh."
The author's swollen fingers trembled with an anxious palsy as he typed that turgid passage. The cracked and battle-worn cover of his fell thesaurus creaked ominously as he paused precipitously to seek additional synonyms of "dreadful".
I look forward to finding the second volume of the series at a library book sale or used paperback shop in the near to distant future. I really can't recommend it to anyone though. YMMV.
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