Video Games: September 2008 Archives

What was the first thing I did after pledging allegiance to the PS3?  I went to the PSN store and downloaded Wipeout HD.  The metacritic score on this game is pretty high, 1UP gave it 100 and IGN gave it 90.  I've been salivating for months over Wipeout's arrival, so the minute it appeared on PSN, I was playing it within an hour.

My immediate impression after looking at the first track was: Wow, my HDTV has never looked this good before!  I don't even have a 1080p TV and this game looks better than any other game I've played to date on either the PS3 or the XBox 360.  The screens are crystal sharp and the tracks pulsate with vibrant color.  At the end of the race, you can go into Photo mode (which is how I took the screenshot above) and explore every little facet of the track.

I'm a big Wipeout fan, having played Wipeout Fusion for the PS2 and Wipeout Pure on the PSP.  A lot of the tracks in Wipeout HD are taken from the PSP editions, but they look so fresh with the updated graphics, I didn't mind at all.  The vehicles in HD have the same mechanics as they did in the past, with one exception: you have to hold down the circle button when you fly over a weapon icon to grab the weapon.  I did not do that at all in Pure, whether you had to or not in Fusion, I don't recall.  It makes things a bit more difficult, as I don't want to take my finger off the X (speed) button for a second, so I sort of mash X-O together at the same time. The AI in Wipeout HD is much more formidable on HD (versus Pure), even at the lowest Novice setting.  The AI vehicles really use their weapons to slow you down, and their driving skill around the track is awesome.  There's a Pilot Assist feature in the options which you can turn on to avoid crashing into walls.  I resisted this at first, thinking that I was expert enough, but then I realized to compete against the AI, I really did need it.  Yeah, I'm a wimp!

The tough AI in Wipeout HD is more of a plus, as it really challenges you to learn the nuances of each track and pick the right vehicle for the race event (time trial, speed lap, race, circuit, etc).  It certainly makes the game more addicting and adds replay value.

If you're into futuristic racing and you have a Playstation 3, this game is a must-buy.  Nuff said.

I've been the biggest Microsoft/XBox booster for the past five years, but I've just let my XBox Live Gold membership lapse and I have no plans to renew it any time soon.  For the multi-platform title releases, I'll buy them for the Playstation 3 from now on.  If a new Halo title comes out in the future, I'll probably buy it, but I'm pretty much done with the XBox 360.

Why?  It's become clear through recent articles just how badly Microsoft has ripped off the public with both the original XBox and the XBox 360.

When Microsoft started selling the XBox 360 in December 2005, I wasn't going to buy it on the launch day.  I was really happy and satisfied with the original XBox.  I figured with so many of those consoles around, there would be some quality games available for it over the next two years.  After all, Sony supported their consoles for many years after a new product was launched.  That was a bad assumption on my part.  The games for the original XBox dried up faster than a prune.  The Guardian UK exposes the real reason for this in their multi-part interview with former XBox honcho Peter Moore.  It's a fascinating interview just for Moore's insight into his experiences with Dreamcast, the XBox, and his new job at EA Sports.

Moore reveals that the hard drive was the reason Microsoft abandoned the original XBox:  "The hard drive in every Xbox killed us; we we're still selling it at $199 and the hard drive was like $70. That's why we prematurely left the original Xbox, because the more we were selling - there was still great demand - it was killing us, and there was no way to bring the price down. So in the end we determined at around the 25 million unit mark that we just needed to slow this thing down and just not sell any more, and move to the 360 as quickly as we possibly could. And to this day people still believe we left the Xbox too early but it was purely for financial purposes."

Wow, that is a stunning admission!  I always wondered why the original XBox was dropped like a hot potato.  Here's why Sony deserves more trust than Microsoft.  When Sony says PS3 is going to have a 10-year cycle, their past behavior supporting the PS One and PS2 consoles seems to back this up.  The PS2 is still being sold (and sales are good) two years after the launch of the PS3 in 2006.  God of War 2 was a SCEA produced title that was released for the PS2 in 2007.  With the powerful capabilities of the PS3 hardware, which software developers are starting to tap into with this next wave of game releases, I believe the PS3 has long-lasting potential.

What really infuriated me was Moore's admission combined with the Microsoft manufacturing scandal that Dean Takahashi exposed on VentureBeat.  Takahashi's article exposes the factors that led into the Red Ring of Death.  Microsoft knew of internal defects produced by the assembly line for the XBox 360, but did nothing to stop it.  They were entirely focused on beating Sony to the market with their console and did not want to halt production to find and fix the defects.  The results of that poor decision led to more than $1 billion in losses for Microsoft.  I've gotten off easy with just one RRoD incident, other consumers have suffered through the RRoD multiple times.  Some of these people remain die-hard XBox boosters!  Sorry, I'm out, I just don't want to support this bad behavior with any more money.

Sony has had its own share of problems, mostly in the software arena.  They didn't understand how to do online, they didn't have anything to match XBox achievements, and their initial release of exclusive games weren't very desirable.  Now with a revamped game store and PS3 trophies, things are changing.  Today marks the release of Wipeout HD, a really good exclusive game for only $20.  Later in 2009 we'll have Resistance 2 and Little Big Planet.  Playstation Home looks to be pretty cool.  Next year, KillZone 2, Infamous, and (most of all) DC Universe Online look very promising.  I won't have to look at those stupid new XBox avatars all the time, what a relief.  Nuff said.

Link: Peter Moore Interview [Guardian UK Games Blog]

Link: Xbox 360 defects: an inside history of Microsoft's video game console woes

This video from IGN showcases the incredible designs that Jim Lee has produced for the upcoming DC Universe Online game.  You'll see an Egyptian tomb featuring Black Adam, Star Labs, the Batcave, Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Flash, Huntress, and Lex Luthor.  Lee's design work, which I've seen plastered on the walls of the company making this game, points out one great advantage DC has over Marvel.  Fictional cities like Gotham, Metropolis, and Central City allow for very unique architecture to be created for each one.

This game is already on my must-buy list.  I am sure I will lose days/weeks/months of my life when it comes out in 2009.  The first hero I am going to create will have Super-Speed powers, natch.  Nuff said.