2020 Console Wars

 Console wars were a thing back in the day that users and companies used to partake in to try and push sales of their own systems. Sega did what Nintendidn't, Atari were doing the math and people would froth at the mouth about the number of "bits" a system had despite that fact that no one knew what a "bit" actually was.  It was a bit of fun back then to argue with your friends on the playground between Mario or Sonic being better and it was sort of funny to see companies do a bit of shit-slinging in their adverts but in the modern day of the PS5 and the Xbox Series X it all feels a little pointless.

Back then systems felt quite different to play and their libraries were pretty drastically different too.  The type of games and the way those games felt to play felt worlds apart back when were were arguing over the SNES and the Megadrive or the Saturn and the PS1.  The Xbox and the PS5 are far too similar for anyone to really give a shit anymore and from both of those systems most games are getting PC releases too so owning one or the other is irrelevant in the face of a user with a beefy rig.

But whenever Sony or Microsoft put out a tweet about their new systems, there go all the twats in the replies arguing about CPU speed or graphical capabilities like anyone REALLY gives a shit.  Just get the thing your friends are getting so that you can all play together and if you have no friends just get the thing that has a game on it that you like the look of.  If you're into Souls, get a PS5, if you're into Halo, get an Xbox, you really don't have to think that deeply about it.

Luckily for me, I've always managed to avoid this tiresome console warring dogshit since I've always managed to maintain a social circle where all my bases have been covered.  When I was very young I was lucky enough to have both a SNES and a Megadrive, a bit further on I had a Saturn and my buddy had a PS1 (which I later bought off him) and then I had a DC, that same guy had a Xbox and another buddy had a PS2.  We weren't so much arguing over who had the better thing but rather just enjoying each others libraries when we hung out, it was cool.  After that point I was old enough where it stopped mattering since I'd buy my own shit anyway.

So quit yelling over poly-counts and FPS values, you're games aren't distinct enough any more for anyone to care.  Just buy a PC because everything will come out for that anyway at this point.

I hate Excel

At time of writing I have so much actual gaming content, YouTube videos and Streams to be doing but I had such a bad experience with this stupid fucking piece of shit software that I have to do a blog post on it to vent.

Excel is such a stupid, hard to use, user unfriendly piece of crap software and I hate the fact that everyone in Japan seems to suck its stupid green dick constantly.  I guess, maybe, if you're doing some simple number crunching then maybe doing it in an Excel spreadsheet is OK but I see it used for all sorts of shit that it just doesn't need to be used for.  

I had to recently translate a list of things from Japanese to English but instead of putting the document in something that made sense like, oh I dunno, WORD, the whole thing was written in excel.  What this did was make everything really small and unreadable and it also made editing the text way more of a pain in the ass than it ever needed to be.  On top of that, because each field was so small and cramped up I ended up missing a load of stuff just because I didn't see it which resulted in a right bollocking from my higher ups when I sent them a "translated document" with blotches of Japanese all over it in small, ant sized cells.

But even if Excel wasn't needlessly used and awkward as shit I just don't understand why anyone would use Microsoft Office at all.  I don't know when they made this change but back in the day, you used to just buy the software, install it and then use it.  Now they have this weird fucking subscription service where you have to pay $100 A YEAR just to be able to use their shit.

Fuck Excel and fuck Microsoft office.  I don't know about their spreadsheet software but there's a completely free package called Libre Office that I've been using at home recently that does everything that the Microsoft software does only it won't cost you $100 a year, instead it'll cost you $0.

I know this post is dumb, incoherent and ranty but I needed something stupid to post while I set up the new donation tracker since BT MyDonate cut its service.  Sit tight for actual content in the next post!

Missing E3 Hype

E3, the biggest gaming event of the year basically, is around the corner and unfortunately I don't give a flying fuck about it, at all.  I'm not making this post to be all controversial and hate on the show but I'm here to lament how what once was a truly exciting time for me has been reduced to nothing more than a slight blip on my radar.

I remember back in high school I had a group of friends that I'd play games like Counterstrike with.  When E3 rolled around we'd all jump on a Ventrilo server and watch the live coverage and discuss the games that were announced.   I also remember in my second year of university, a friend coming down to my apartment and we stocked up on large amounts of pizza and soda and then watched the event while we played other games, tons of fun.  Even a few years ago, when I had a short stint of living in Sweden, I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning to watch the conferences live and then spending the best part of the next day talking about the event with friends.  

Even before all this live streaming stuff was popular, back when I was just a wee child, I remember seeing footage on TV from E3 and getting incredibly exciting about the idea of something like that even existing.  I'm sure I gave my parents an earful about how badly I wanted to go to LA to see the show for myself but unfortunately it never came to pass.  

E3 now however is a sad shell of what it once was.  Nintendo have pulled out of the show and this year Sony did the same.  That alone is enough for me to stop caring because I live in Japan and no one gives a fuck about Xbox over here so I have no interest on need to watch a conference from Microsoft.  Sony and Nintendo are doing their own thing at the same time as the show.  I'll just go and watch their shit directly rather than waking up early to catch some bullshit talk from EA or Bethesda.  The last few years have also seen the event marred by various controversy over things like gender, race or identity politics.  I'm trying DESPERATELY hard to avoid any of that bullshit but if the last few years are anything to go by, it means that following the news closely will guarantee that I walk face first into a wall of clickbait bullshit.  If we get through the entire event and there isn't some claim that "X game is racist" or "Y company is sexist" or something like that, I'll eat a shoe

That's not to say I'll be ignoring it completely, once the show is over, the Nintendo Direct done and the Sony thing aired, I'll be sure to at the very least look at a list of games and follow up on things that interest me.  Personally I'm hoping to see some Shin Megami Tensei 5 news during this whole period but to be brutally honest I probably have a better chance of finding a chicken that lays golden eggs.

Microsoft Hitting An All Time Low

So, the story that's been flying around the internet recently, is that Microsoft have been paying off popular YouTubers to say very nice things about the Xbox One in their videos.  As far as I understand how it works, you have to be partnered with Machinima (one of the biggest gaming channels on YouTube), you have to have at least 30 seconds of game and you can't say anything bad about the game or the system, it all has to be smiles and happiness.

Now this isn't uncommon in advertising for companies to use big name people to push their products.  For example I remember those Gillette shaving adverts where they were using famous sports people to tell us what a good shave they were having, and no one said anything then.  But there is a difference between that and what Microsoft are doing.

When those adverts appear on TV, you know and are told that these people have been paid by the company to do endorsements for their products so you take what they say with a pinch of salt.  But YouTubers on the other hand are a different story, they aren't big name celebs, they are just people and the reason we watch those videos is because we want another persons honest opinion.

If you watch a video of someone taking part in this deal (there's a tag you can search for), they don't tell you that they are being paid to endorse the Xbox One, they just talk about it like it's a great piece of kit and pass it off as their own honest opinion, which I can bet for at least a certain percentage of those videos, it's total crap.  If you are one of those people who said nice things about the XBone JUST for the money, then I hope all your game systems break at the same time because you don't really have any place critiquing games like that when you have absolutely no integrity.

People wouldn't even be as upset about it if they just came out and said "yeah, we are paying people to say nice things" because at least then we know we would have to think very hard before we took anything in any Xbox One video seriously.  The fact that they are so underhanded about it is what makes the whole thing really pathetic.

But then this makes me think 2 things.  The first being that if they are willing to pay YouTubers to say nice things about the Xbone, how much are they paying big news sites for good write ups of games?  When things like Bioshock Infinite get 10/10s I've always said that it's because someone being paid for that score rather than the game being any good because that game is about as stupid as it gets.

The other thing is, how do we know that Microsoft aren't paying off people to say nasty things about the PS4?  Now I'm going to be rather wary of any Machinima partners slagging off Sony because maybe they got paid to say that shit as well.

Microsoft is fucking pathetic, instead of paying people off to say nice things about their system, why don't they just use that money to make some GOOD FUCKING GAMES....idiots.

More Xbox One Disappointment

Remember a while back I said next gen didn't work properly and it was a big disappointment?  Well yeah, time for more of that!

Although this time it's not really about things that work, we're going to be talking DRM again.  So today I came across an article (which I will link at the bottom) which describes an occurrence that happened during a Killer Instinct tournament.  Basically, during the matches, the Xbox One check in DRM kicked in and just ended the match then and there to make sure that they owned the game that they were playing.  It didn't warn anyone that this was going to take place, it just booted them right out of the game with no regard for what they were doing.

I thought that Microsoft had done away with the check in DRM thing, but it turns out I was wrong.  The way I now understand it is, if you have a disc and it is inserted into the Xbox, then this doesn't happen.  However if you are playing a game that does not have a disc (So anything off the marketplace then), then the Xbox will just boot you out of the game so you can do the little check-in procedure.

If you go click the link at the bottom of this thing and check out the YouTube video in the article, it LOOKS like they were between matches or something, I'm not sure I've not played the new KI, so it looks more inconvenient than anything else, but this might seriously have an impact on Killer Instinct making an appearance at something like EVO, because I'm sure both tournament organisers and players won't be happy if the Xbox decides that it wants to do it's little DRM check during a battle.  I'm sure someone would be pissed if they were winning a match that's stopped due to DRM, then they lose their mojo and get trounced in the re-match; that shit ain't fair.

But even if your not into fighting games or the competitive gaming scene, it's STILL a problem.  Imagine if a little way down the line something like an RPG comes out on the marketplace.  Imagine if this RPG doesn't have checkpoints or something bullshit like that, it just has good old fashioned save spots.  Then imagine if you're doing a dungeon, a long dungeon, maybe the final one, you're near the end and you're having a hard time making it through but just before you can go fight the final boss BAM! DRM check kicks in an you lose all that progress for fucking nothing.  I wouldn't be too happy about that if it was me.

This is even going to have an impact on people who enjoy speed running because during a good run you don't want to have all that effort killed because of something you can't control.  If there are multi platform digital distribution games that look good for a speed runner, they will more than likely go buy it on a system that doesn't threaten to kick you out if you don't confirm you own it every 24 hours or whatever it is.

So yeah, more next generation disappointment.  Microsoft need to sort their shit out, I thought this DRM check in stuff was done with, but now it's here just ruining fighting game tournaments and being a bit of a bastard.

Here's the link to the original article I heard this on.

http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Xbox-One-24-Hour-Check-DRM-Returns-During-Killer-Instinct-Tournament-61114.html

Next Gen is Really Grinding My Gears

OK, this is fucking stupid. 

Not too long ago we saw the release of the PS4 and Xbox One, something that should be an exciting time with all these new games and fancy hardware to play it on.  But no, it's not an exciting time, it's a time filled with loud obnoxious noises, sighing and eye rolling.  Let me show you what I mean.

That's a montage of the Xbox One making horrible grinding noises when you put the disc in, and there is a PS4 version as well.  Not to mention that since the release of these systems, a great deal of my twitter feed is "oh, my PS4 broke" or people asking questions like "just how many people have faulty systems?" and then getting a ton of replies.

This is fucking unacceptable!  When I bought my fat PS3 when MGS4 came out, I had absolutely no issues, and until it got stolen there were no problems.  Same with my slim PS3, which is preowned as well, zero problems there.  I had no problems when I was gifted my first Mega Drive, no problems when the N64 came out, nothing for the Dreamcast and then in 2013 suddenly the cutting edge systems have stupid high failure rates.

Microsoft and Sony...why fucking bother?  I don't want to have to worry about my potential purchase of a PS4 or Xbox One maybe failing because YOU can't fucking quality control.  One or two faulty systems is just tough luck, that shit happens, but THIS much faulty hardware being sold to people is a fucking joke and you should be ashamed.

Just go look at twitter for a while or do some searching on YouTube and there are tons of people with videos or tweets about how their shit isn't working as intended or just flat out not working at all.  Hell, the systems are less than a month old and already the term "Blue Light of Death" has been made up for the PS4.

So until this shit gets fixed, fuck next gen.  Right now there aren't any games I even want to play and even if they were I wouldn't want to spend the money because my system probably won't work.  So yeah, get fucked Sony and Microsoft, how about making something that works before taking peoples money?  Bunch of arseholes need to go drown in a lake of dicks.

Stop Cheating!!!

OK, I don't know the ins and outs of this story but the sentiment of this post remains the same.

So according to the website Cinema Blend, Microsoft have been gaming the numbers in an online twitter poll in order to make the Xbox One seem more popular that it actual is in America.  You can read the article right here.

http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Xbox-One-Caught-Cheating-Twitter-Poll-Gains-60-Votes-With-Bots-58927.html

You can see in that article there is a bunch of dummy accounts spamming votes for the Xbox One to make it look more popular than it really is.  Now it's not really a big deal, it's just a an online poll, but that's exactly the point.  Instead of focusing on fixing the massive fuckup that is the Xbox One, they are spending resources on having people set up a bunch of bots to spam hash tags on twitter.  If they spent more time on actually making a good system and less time trying to damage control their shitty piece of hardware then the votes would come naturally anyway.

Xbox isn't the only one potentially doing shit like this though.  There is a number of rumours flying around the internet that Riot Games are padding out their Twitch TV viewer numbers with bots sitting around various channels just so that the numbers look higher than that of their competitors.

Rather than trying to cheat people and game numbers, why not just make a quality product that people would enjoy?  Hell, in the case of Riot games they don't NEED to game numbers on twitch because there are already shit tons of people who love the game, who cares if there are more people viewing on twitch compared to DotA or whatever?

Just stop it! Twitch viewer counts don't matter! Twitch polls don't matter! Stop it and focus on making things good!

The Xbox One (Eighty)

We finally have our first blog post that comes with a theme song

Well, maybe only the chorus.

ANYWAY!  News is that Microsoft have pulled the biggest backpedalling 180 degree turn and basically removed their DRM plans from the Xbox One.

So from what I can figure out by looking at various news sites, they have got rid of the 24 hour internet connection things and the limitations on game sharing and used games.

What they have said about the 24 hour connecting thing is that when you first set the console up, you will have to do a online set up thing and after that you can play it on or offline as much as you like.  The first time set up thing still sounds like a pain in the arse for me because those things never go smoothly, but it'll probably be fine for most people.

They have also said that games will work the same way that they do today.  There won't be any of this install the game to the system and then never need a disc again bullshit.  You throw the disc in the tray and play the goddamn game.  When you are done playing the goddamn game, you can trade it in or lend it to a friend or do whatever the fuck you want with it, and that's great.  Also games that you download will be playable offline but you will not be able to share them, but we weren't able to do that with the 360 so it's not so bad.

Finally they got rid of that stupid fucking region lock thing.  Originally they were planning to only allow the console to work in something like 21 countries, but now that they got rid of that 24 hour connecting thing they don't have to do that, so now the Xbox One will work wherever the fuck you are.  However I don't think it means that imported games will work, I think region locking on games is still the same.

So well done game fans, you did a good thing!  All the rage that came from E3 caused Microsoft to take a step back and realise that they can't just abuse consumers like this.  Maybe this outcry will also send a message to publishers that we won't stand for bullshit season pass stuff too!

Of course, the Xbox One is far from perfect and there are still plenty of questions to be answered, but at least this news is a step in the right direction.  Within the space of a couple of news articles I think Microsoft got a lot of people to at least consider buying the thing now.

I'm not allowed an Xbox One says Microsoft

Yet another post regarding the Xbox One blunder train.  It's like Microsoft really hate money

The story is that Microsoft have released a list of countries that Xbox Live is supported in upon the launch of the Xbox One and that list isn't exactly very big.  In fact, part of the reason that the list is so small is because Microsoft have said that Xbox One won't work in Asia AT ALL at launch.

However, they have said that the Xbox One will be getting supported in Asia some time in late 2014, but Japan hasn't been mentioned at all for a release.  So that one billion lifetime unit sales seems like a bit of an insane pipe dream now that you just cut half the world out of buying your console.

But this affects me personally, allow me to explain.

Right now I'm in Sweden, and I'm getting married to a Japanese person in a few months time.  Then, if everything goes to plan, I'll be in the UK for two years before moving back to Japan with my wife and settling down there.

So, if I buy an Xbox One (which I won't now but hypothetically speaking) I would be locked out of my game collection upon my move to Japan because Xbox Live isn't supported there and I wouldn't be able to verify my games.

What the actual fuck Microsoft, what the fuck is your goddamn problem.  I get why they are doing it, it's not like the Xbox 360 did very well in Japan but to just deny the entire country access to it AT ALL is just dumb when your shooting for such massive lifetime sales figures.  What's even worse is that if you are like me, and you live in a supported country but then move to a non supported one for some reason, Microsoft will not let you play the games that you fucking paid for.

The worst thing about this whole situation is that it could have been completely avoided if you just didn't have that fucking stupid 24 hour verification thing.  Sure, I might have not been able to play online in a region not supported by XBL but at least I would have been able to PLAY MY FUCKING GAMES.

I hadn't cut the possibility of getting an Xbox One completely out of my life because I wanted Crimson Dragon and Dead Rising 3, but after hearing this, Xbox One can officially go fuck itself.  Evidently Microsoft don't want my money, fucking morons. 

BONUS KICK TO THE DICK! Here is what Don Mattrick thinks about people who can't get stable connections

Oh and by the way, PS4 is region free

E3 Microsoft Conference "Rape Joke" (Podcasty Thing)

I feel like I'm offering myself up for gruesome sacrifice with this one, but it annoys me so much it felt good to get it off my chest.  It's all in a video this time, I was upset and it was 2am when I filmed it, so I might write something more coherent on the same topic later, but for now, enjoy!

E3 2013 Microsoft Conference Thoughts!

Microsoft gave it their all on that stage out there today, and to be honest I think they did a good job!  Check out the video to hear my thoughts on what went down

I'm on a Boat!....and E3

Tomorrow is the start of the E3 press conferences!

Tomorrow Sony, Microsoft, EA and Ubisoft are going to hit the stage and deliver some press conferences before the main event kicks off officially on the 11th.

It's going to be an extremely interesting show as Microsoft have to clean up the mess they made with the Xbox One reveal and Sony still have to prove that they are not quite as stupid as Microsoft when it comes to design decisions for their system.

EA and Ubisoft I don't really care all that much about, in the past I've never been hyped for their conferences and I've always been a little bored and disappointed when I end up watching them, but that won't stop me from watching them this year and hopefully we'll get some good games out of them.

So you can expect to see little podcasty vlog type things like I did with the One reveal for each conference and I'll do them as soon as I can once I've watched them.  The problem is that I do have a chance of missing the start of the Microsoft one since I'm getting on a cruise ship today and I don't know if I'll be back for the start, but so far everything seems good for me catching the whole thing.  If I do miss it, I'll make sure to get myself up to speed by finding a recording before I go commenting on it.

So let's all get hype and break out the coffee and energy drinks because I know I'm going to be up until 5am to watch all the conferences tomorrow.

Microsoft...What are you doing?

So we have heard about everything we could want to hear about the upcoming Xbox One, and everything we have heard so far has been fucking awful.

With E3 round the corner you think this would be a good chance for Microsoft to clear the air, justify their decisions, talk to the fans and sort this mess out.  So what do they decide to do?  Cancel their post-press conference meeting with gaming media at E3.

Now I'm no PR expert and I'm more than willing to admit I'm wrong about this if I am, but to me this seems like a fucking TERRIBLE idea.  Part of the problem with this big shit storm is that people aren't really getting solid facts, just this sort of vague stream of information that we don't like. 

Recently I've been hearing stuff like you can share your game library with your Xbox "Family" which can only include 10 people or some such nonsense and it's not like that makes the whole thing any better.

So everyone is getting upset about the vague, crap information that we currently have, and the post-show round table seems like a great time to talk to the gaming press and get some good hard facts out there to maybe make your system not seem like a complete waste of time.  So WHY THE FUCK would you just run away from that?  What the hell is wrong with you?

My guess is that they realised how bad they fucked up on this one and facing the press must look like suicide at this point.  I've been hearing all sorts of rumours about rushed production and games not being ready but sources for that are unreliable at best, but if it IS true then it makes sense why they don't want to talk to anybody, it'll just make them look even worse.

Also there are a number of people on the internet saying stuff like "Well the PS4 has been pretty tight lipped about similar issues" and while you may be right, that is the key difference here.  PS4 has been talking about games while Xbox has just had TV and sports with a little bit of doom and gloom.

Maybe I'll be just as outraged about the PS4 after E3, maybe some miracle will happen and the Xbox One will look great after E3, but right now, the Xbox looks like shit and Microsoft look like idiots.

E3 is coming! Press conference feelings

Almost every year I get hype for E3 but this year I'm finding it hard to find the enthusiasm.

The new consoles have been revealed and there is so much bullshit surrounding them and so many arguing fanboys on the internet that it's kind of killed my excitement.  Don't get me wrong, I'm going to watch it and get just as excited or angry as everyone else, but right now my hype levels are fairly minimal.

That said, I thought I'd just give my current feelings about the major players there (Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony) and sort of what I'm expecting from their press conferences.

NINTENDO!

As far as I know, Nintendo aren't doing a major press conference this year.  This is sort of a good thing because maybe that will allow them to focus on making some actual fucking games for the WiiU that I want to buy so I have an excuse to drop money on one.

SONY!

They sort of got it right with their reveal, at least more right than Microsoft did.  I'm fully expecting that we'll here more social networking bullshit and all that crap but I'm also expecting to see some games and hopefully they'll reveal something that will make me bounce up and down and squeal.  Sony is the company I'm sort of putting all my hopes into this year so if these guys fuck up this conference I'll be rather disappointed.  Also I'm hoping the Vita gets some love at E3 too this year as  Japan has quite a good selection of games on the shelves now but I'm hearing that things are a little bland still in the UK. Hopefully some of those fancy Japanese games get a localisation

MICROSOFT!

Fuck em', quite frankly.  The reveal was such a massive flop that unless they have some of the greatest games I have ever seen in my entire life, I don't care.  We can hope they show some of those exclusives they brushed over but at this point I'm more interested in hearing them justify the post-reveal mess they made with all the news of used game fees and always online.  Right now, I couldn't really give any less fucks about Microsoft or the Xbox One, but there is still a chance the conference may bring me round, although I really doubt it.

The Shit Thickens

I'm sorry, I should not be doing three posts on the same fucking topic, but this shit, THIS FUCKING SHIT, is getting stupid.

Before I left for work today I made a post about how stupid the whole used games fee thing was.  Well disregarding that for a moment, one thing people were happy to hear was that the Xbox One did not require a constant internet connection to function.

Well, for you people with not so great internet who were happy about this, Microsoft have given you the middle finger because while it doesn't need a constant internet connection, it needs to connect at least once every 24 hours or you are locked out of you're fucking games.

Here is the gizmodo article I was linked
http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2013/05/xbox-one-will-work-offline-for-a-day-at-a-time/

Oh my god, it's like Microsoft are just asking people to hate them.

So you may be thinking "who in this day and age doesn't have a constant internet connection?" right? Well it's a lot more than you might think.  There are also a great deal of people with really shaky connections as well, way more than you would expect.

But let's make this personal for a second, how does this affect me?  Well I travel a lot, and constantly moving in and out of new places in new bits of the world means that I don't always have access to the internet right away. 

When I moved to Japan in May of last year, I didn't have an internet connection for about 2 or 3 weeks.  So if I was an Xbox One user, that would be 2 or 3 weeks that I couldn't play my games because the damn thing couldn't call its mum for 5 seconds.

That.  Is some fucking bullshit!  If I shell out top price for a fucking video game, or no fuck that, if I shell out any money at all for a fucking video game, I expect to be able to play the fucking thing.  Why am I not allowed access to games that I fucking paid for just because my I don't have the internet for a while?!  Why is Microsoft staffed almost entirely by complete fucking MORONS?! 

Even Steam doesn't pull this shit and people moan about that all the fucking time.  But at least then if I install a single player game I can fucking play it when I take my laptop to places with no connection.

Fuck you Microsoft, I hope your shitty TV box crashes and burns and the people who made these decisions get forever imprisoned at the bottom of the fucking ocean.

Xbox One Used Game Fee

When there were all these rumours flying around about how the next gen systems will blocked used games I was laughing at people.  I was like "There is no way you can possibly believe that right, that would be the dumbest shit!"

But I have been thoroughly told to shut the fuck up and had my chops slapped about by a news story on IGN with the headline "Microsoft Details Used Game Fees, Installation Requirements"  You can read the thing for yourself just here

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/05/21/xbox-one-may-have-mandatory-game-installs

ARE. YOU. FUCKING. KIDDING. ME?!

What planet doe these people live on?!  At what point in time did anyone think this was a good idea?!

Now, I know what people are going to say when people moan about this.  They are going to be saying stuff like "yeah, but you use Steam and that's basically the same thing!" or "You've not been able to do that with PC gaming for fucking years" etc. etc.

Well guess what shit biscuit, I've NEVER been able to do that with PC games, even before I started using steam.  In the UK, GAME wouldn't take used PC games, and my experience of buying used PC titles from other stores like Gamestation has pretty much ALWAYS ended up in tragedy.

I remember buying fucking Half Life 1, used and the damn thing not having a CD key, then me having to ask my friends dad to give me HIS fucking CD key so I could play the damn thing.  Plus the thing about Steam is that while there are games on there for full price, the vast majority of my steam library has been purchased on the cheap.  Steam make up for the whole 1 account thing by offering shit like Game X + All DLC for like £2.50.

Hell, after selling some items on the Steam Marketplace I picked up Dragon Age: Origins + all the DLC and expansions and what have you FOR NOTHING. £0, $0!  It was paid for totally with TF2 items that I obtained FOR FREE ANYWAY.  Thank you Steam!  I could have bought some other stuff too if I didn't get curious about DotA keys....bad move....

But you know what? I'm not even all that mad.  PS4 seems to be focusing on games and isn't doing it.  Wii U, once it picks up some steam will probably end up pretty strong and THAT doesn't do it.  3DS and Vita don't do it.  So you know what Xbox One? Go and fuck yourself, if you want to implement your little money grubbing used game fee, go ahead, but all you're doing is shooting yourself in the foot and basically handing this entire generation over to Sony and Nintendo.

You have seriously, dun goofed

Identity Gaming Podcast #1: Xbox One

So I thought I'd start something new.

Every month I'll do a podcast type of thingy where I use my voice to give my opinion rather than text.  Today I was talking about the new Xbox One announcement and how I thought the whole thing was fucking terrible.  Everything  else you need is in the video, so here it is!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MM9fXIVDVGk

I'm having to post the link since Blogger won't let me embed the video right now, I'll change that tomorrow morning.

Also sorry about the boring backdrop, I wanted to do this quick while all the info was fresh.

Rabid Fanboyism is Dumb

With the PS4 and the Nextbox (because 720 is a dumb name) on the horizon, I've started to notice more and more fan boys popping up to defend their favourite system, and this is annoying and it should stop.

Above is an old advert for the Megadrive (Genesis if you're American and WRONG) basically slagging off Nintendo in order to try and drum up sales for the system.  Now I owned a Mega Drive back in the day, I thought that shit was the bees knees, but I never slagged off a Nintendo system.

Sure, I would have arguments with my Super Nintendo owning school yard friends over which shit was better, but that wouldn't deter me from heading to their house after school sometimes and playing some of the old SNES greats.  In the same way, when they would come to my house they would be really hyped to hop on a bit of Sonic 2 or Golden Axe or whatever.

The debates and the sharing of systems continued for years and years, when all of a sudden the debates around which system was better changed.  No longer would people argue the pros and cons of a system, it all just devolved into "MY SYSTEM IS BETTER AND YOU'RE DUMB!", but the language was much harsher.  It's basically been the same since that switch, where trying to debate systems on most forums will just land you a load of personal attacks rather than any decent discussion.  It died down for a while but the whole Microsoft Vs Nintendo Vs Sony thing is starting to rear its ugly head again.

So why did this shit even start? When did people get so defensive about their system of choice?  Well I'm going to make an uneducated guess and say it was when Halo came out.

As fun as Halo was, it was released on a system that basically had nothing else going for it.  There weren't all that many great games on the Xbox, at least not compared to the PS2 or whatever, but it had a few.  This is where I think it all started though.  People would buy an Xbox for Halo, then realise that there were maybe, 2 or 3 other games worth playing and then feel that they had to justify the big money splurge.

In trying so desperately hard to justify their purchase, they brainwashed themselves into having a sense of brand loyalty and that is how the "rabid" fan boy was born.  Then again, I'm probably talking out of my ass but fuck Halo it wrecked FPS (I just want my Doom-esque shooters to be popular again)

Still, it's not like fan boys are going to stop me from buying all 3 systems in the end and enjoying everything the next generation has to offer, but I wish I could have a decent discussion without having my sexuality brought into question just because I think the WiiU looks promising.  Your loss morons

Now That's Some Bullshit #6: Region Locking

Time for some more ranting and raving as I pick out one of the things that annoys me the most, region locking on hardware.

Now before I start hearing about the "pros" of region locking, I'm going to tell you right now to fuck right off.  With that out of the way let us talk about how region locking is a load of ass.  So as you may or may not have figured out I am currently living in Japan and if you have been following my story of all my games being stolen, you may also know that my family now live in Sweden after moving from the UK.

So after spending so much time living in the UK and then suddenly moving about everywhere, I have a lot of PAL video games.  Now in terms of games I own, everything Sony related I have no problem with.  The PS3, PSP and the Vita (which I don't own yet) are all region free, so all the moving around basically had no effect on that, same for the DS.  But my Xbox and Wii games, I just flat out cannot play anymore because I've moved country, and THAT is bullshit.  However, those games appear to have been stolen, so even if I was still in Europe I couldn't play them right now anyway.

That said, I own a 3DS, one that I bought in the UK, and this fucking thing is region locked too so I can't buy any games for this fucking thing because I'm living in Japan.  I don't want to hear any crap about how region locking a system is good for business or some shit.  Your average everyday gamer doesn't give two fucks about importing for cheaper prices (or knows how for that matter) and on top of that, companies are probably losing money by not allowing people like me to pay for games that aren't available to them in the country that they live in.  Disregarding that point for a second, the DS was fucking region free so why did Nintendo suddenly feel the need to lock me out of their library of games just because I moved house? Assholes

Long story short, stop fucking region locking, the companies that don't region lock their stuff aren't exactly suffering for it, so you basically have no reason to fucking do it as far as I know.