360 vs. PS3: Lets End This Debate

I wrote this on www.TheGamersGarage.com, but wanted to bring it to my blog as well...

Here's a excerpt from Gamespot's article:

"Though they ultimately rule that the Xbox 360 still slightly wins out in the overall, the difference is negligible enough that they're willing to call it a tie. The 360 rocks the boat in high-res textures and texture mapping, but the PS3 conquers in shadowing and anti-aliasing (whatever all that means)."

Isn't all this a bit of a pissing contest? Do we REALLY care if the 360 has slightly better graphics? Does it REALLY matter? I've seen footage of games on the PS3, it looks excellent! If I had the extra ca$h, I would pick up a PS3 faster than Jack Thompson can say lawsuit.

Allow me to stray from the main topic at hand......

The simple fact is, is back in 2005 when it was announced that the Xbox 360 was coming out, I did everything I could to save up for it (I was recently graduated from high school). I had an original Xbox, had a full friends list on Xbox LIVE, and just knew beyond a shadow of doubt that the Xbox 360 was for me. I had a PS2 at the time, but the Xbox's version of online gaming was for me, the gamer. It wasn't convoluted, I didn't need to buy any extra add ons to play LIVE. I paid my $50, and I was sucked in to this amazing online world.

This brings me to something Okatta said on episode 35. The Xbox 360 is what it is now because of LIVE. I really have to agree. Where else has it been so easy to plug in and play online with your friends, send them pics, messages, or talk to them with a few moves on the controller? Microsoft understood what gamers were wanting, and they delivered it in a nice little package.

Now, this brings me back to the PS3. The PS3 and Wii came out at the same time frame. The Wii still out sells both consoles. The 360 had a full year head start. If the PS3 was really worth my money, wouldn't it be outselling the 360 month in and month out? Quite frankly, all of the stupid downloading, installing, bad online execution, lack of ease of use for the gamer and the total lack of good games to play is the reason I do not own a PS3 over the 360. The only reason I would buy a PS3 is for when a big hot game comes out such as MGS4 or GT5, and to play Blu-Ray movies. I can't go back and play older games and still have a plethora of other gamers to play with on the PS3 like I can the 360. I can get on Bomberman LIVE, GRAW 2, or even Perfect Dark Zero and still find gamers to play with.

To be 100% I'm-sorry-if-this-offends-you-honest, I think that people that buy a PS3 instead of a 360 are completely uninformed and have quite a bit of buyers remorse a week after purchase. People that have the 360 and PS3 are probably fine, because they know that they will always have something to play and do because of the multi-functionality of the Xbox 360. I know, I MUST be sounding like a fan boy again right? Well, I don't care. When it comes down to it, the Xbox 360 has ten times more functionality than the Playstation 3, and I don't care who disagrees with me. The PS3's graphics are great, but so are the 360's. Are the graphics that big of a deal to choose one system over the other? Lets look at Call of Duty 4, a game renowned for its graphics. Does the 360 or PS3 look all that much better than the other to choose one version over the other? C'mon..

The online for the PS3 is pish posh; the 360's online is bursting with functionality and maneuverability. The game library for the PS3 is lackluster in comparison to that of the 360's. If you can't find a game for you on the 360, then your hopes of being a gamer are doomed.

Without a doubt, I will hands down give the PS3 its credit on how solid of a machine it is. It runs great, no hardware failures, it's excellent. I just feel it has not been tapped into in the right way. The hardware failure on the 360 is despicable, but it has also given the 360 a lot of credit. Why? When else have you heard of gamers on their 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 13th console? They love their Xbox 360 so much that they are willing to go through whatever it takes to get it fixed and plugged back in to their TV’s.

The PS3 NEEDS games so badly. Its kind of weird, because the PS2 had such a huge library full of amazing titles, why's it taking so long for the PS3 to follow suit? Why does the PS3 barely have 5 solid games? Sure, the PS3 hasn't been out as long, but I'm talking quality of games, not quantity. I just see more potential from the PS3 machine, and its angering as a gamer to see untapped potential.

All in all, we are all gamers. I don't want Sony and the Playstation brand to keel over and die. I'm a gamer, and I like games. But the system I chose to game on is the Xbox 360 because I truly feel that the people behind it understand my wants as a gamer, and they satisfy them in the right way.

In the end, you’re the teller of the tale. You’re the one spending your money on whichever console you want, and that’s great!! But please be informed as to what you are getting yourself into....

New System

Well, I never thought I would be posting something such as this, but......I got a new system.
This system has a LOT of games. A LOT. Its a VERY popular system. In fact, its the MOST popular system on the market right now.








I....Camaroguy579.......bought a Nintendo DS. There, I said it. I bought a Black Nintendo DS. Those who don't know me so well from The Gamer's Garage are probably thinking 'Big deal, everyone has a DS.' You just do not know how much I have hated on all things Nintendo for the past 7 months. I never understood it, all the games I saw were little childish games (Which still holds true in some cases).

The reason:
I was looking to get my girlfriend a DS because I knew it was right up her alley. She loves puzzle games, Mario, etc. She has been playing stupid cell phone games to pass her time on break at her job lately, plus she doesn't do anything but listen to her iPod at home when she has free time.
So, once I saw she has been playing cell phone games, I went into Wal-Mart, and bought her a Cobalt Blue DS along with New Super Mario Bros. The shock and awe on her face was enough to last a lifetime for me.
We get to my buddies house with it, open it up and look at this sleek looking machine. Read some of the instructions, figure stuff out, set it up, and then play the game. I was amazed at this Mario game. It was the same Mario that I grew up playing, but with all new graphics and a few added features. I was simply astounded at this little hand-held device. Once we discovered how easy it would be to Pictochat and play multiplayer games together without us both having to have the game cartridge, I HAD to get one. I knew that this is going to be great for us.

You might be saying that I could have got a PS3 with all that money. Well, your absolutely right. But if I had bought a PS3, that would have been quite selfish, and my girlfriend wouldn't be having such a great gaming experience right now. I'll get a PS3 one day, maybe after their library has been added to a lot more.

For one, this is a gateway to getting her into gaming so that when we are married and live in the same house, she will want to play my 360. Two, I honestly and seriously think its a sweet system. This will really get her wondering more and more about gaming, and will open a new door into my gaming world, so I am not only limited to the 360 wall at GameStop.

Ok, the games we got are:

• New Super Mario Bros.
• Mart Kart DS
• Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (My current game)
• Professor Layton and the Curious Village (Her current game)

All of them have been cool so far, but she LOVES Professor Layton and the Curious Village. She has asked me to help her many times on some of those puzzles. The Wolf and chicken one was quite difficult.

Ok, so there it is. I bought a DS. You will now hear me talking on The Gamer's Garage about the DS, and whatever new games I bought for it. I am no longer a hater!!! I will no longer skip DS game reviews on podcasts!! I am now a more well-rounded gamer (But I will still shoot people in the head in COD4 :)

My One Week off the Xbox 360

If you were on my friends list, you probably got my message about me taking a week off of the Xbox 360.
I did this for a few reasons. One was I became very aware of how much of a hold I allowed videogames to have on my life. I wasn't getting other things done in life that could have been done had I not been gaming. Now this isn't to say I was like a lot of those WoW players that neglect friends and family to game, I was just playing it when I could have been washing my car, or getting ahead on some other work. This week was no minuscule task, I have played that 360 pretty much every day since its release in November of 2005.

I don't like to allow anything in life to grab a hold of me, and have me under its control. All this is not to say its Microsoft's big plan to put a 360 in every household so they can control the world, its videogames in general. If this had been the Wii or PS3, the same thing would have happened (That is if they actually had games to keep a hold of a gamer's attention anyway, but thats for another blog post).

Another reason is my church was having a week long fast, and I chose videogames to fast for a week. I understand a lot in the gaming world doesn't understand things such as this, but 'fasting' is sacrificing something that you would normally be doing, and substituting that time for prayer. A lot of folks do food or something else, but I just felt that videogames was a good choice, since I already knew it controlled me far too much.

I actually had no desire to play the xbox a few days after I started. The first few days I would wake up and think about playing, but then realized I wasn't going to. It really showed me how often I would be playing, and just how much I could get done in real life if I didn't. The car got washed, things got done that needed to be, and it wasn't a big deal really. Its not like I am addicted, because even before this break I rarely thought about videogames when I wasn't actually playing them. I enjoy my life far too much to be controlled by that box.

Don't get me wrong, I love everything that videogames has to offer, it just shouldn't take up the most time in our lives. I mean, I'm 21, going to college, an active youth leader at my church, have a wonderful and beautiful girlfriend, and I'm trying to kick start my life with a new condo and a new truck. Videogames are just something I do for leisure time, which is how its supposed to be.

I took a break from the gaming community during this week as well. I love the community, I just get tired of the complaining and same ole' routine every week.

So, in closing, I urge you to check yourself as to how much of a hold videogames has on your life, and see if your life would be much more productive with limiting them more so than you currently do.

I appreciate you checking out my blog. You can also find me on The Gamer's Garage podcast every week, found at www.TheGamersGarage.com

Boycotting on the Battlefield

I just would like to direct you folks HERE, in helping with the boycott of EA's Battlefield: Bad Company.

We cannot let EA abuse its consumers like this. Its utter stupidity.

Great job to Sarcastic Gamer for taking a stand on this.

Trade-ins at GameStop

Firstly, I want to thank all of you folks that have been giving me the kind words on my blog and digg.com. It really helps me out a lot. And to all of those ridiculously negative people on Digg.com, keep your negativity away from my blog.

Okay, ALL of us at one time or another has traded in a game to a game store for store credit. I have traded in old systems, games, attachments, etc. But once I got old enough to where buying gaming stuff came from my own pocket years ago, I have COMPLETELY stopped trading in games.

The fact that you can buy a $60 game on its release day, go back and trade it in THAT SAME DAY, and only get about $40 for it, when they are going to sell it for $55 is RIDICULOUS. I understand that they are a business, and they are trying to make a buck like everyone else, but I am not forced to help them make that buck in that way, so I won't. When I am in a Gamestop and see a guy bring in 5 games that aren't that old and he only gets maybe $20 for them, makes me want to puke.

Ebay is the way to go. When I am done with a game, I sell it on ebay and usually get $15-$20 more than I would at GameStop. Let's all face it, $15-$20 is a big difference on a $60 game. I know, I know, you gotta put it up for auction, wait for it to be sold, then ship it out, blah blah.
But to me, THATS WORTH IT!! Because in the end, I have about $20 more towards a new game than I would if I would have been lazy and went to GameStop.

So that's my little rant on GameStop and how we aren't forced to get ripped off there, although most gamers do.
I would also like to recommend some websites for you to do game trades or donations:
www.TradeinsForTroops.org.
www.Playswitch.com
www.Goozex.com

Negativity in the Gaming Community

I am getting quite tired of all of the complaining that happens within the gaming community. This may be a post that is complaining about complaining, but I don't care. Something needs to change.

So many gamers sit at their homes, looking for something to get pissed about. Whether its someone over LIVE, or a gaming company, they seem to need something to complain about. Have you folks forgotten that we live in the greatest countries that have ever been?

We should have nothing to complain about. Just be thankful for what you have, and know that it could be worse. We are also living in the greatest time on Earth to be a gamer. Xbox 360, Wii, PS3, all great systems in their own rights. We should feel privileged to have the freedom to sit at our air conditioned homes, with our cars in the drive way, a Starbucks down the road, and controllers in our hands. Just sit there and game, and be thankful that you can. Life is good my friends. Enjoy it. I enjoy everyday of my life. Sure, you may have heard me complain in a podcast or a forum, but I had forgotten about how great we have it as gamers of today.

Games are getting better narratively, graphically, and gameplay is ramping up with the newer games coming out. So just enjoy what you have folks, and be thankful.

Lets all start talking about the positive more than the negative. I will try my darndest to stay positive (Especially with Sony and Nintendo news :). Its good to have goals, and thats one of mine.

Remember, talking negative only brings the negative. Speaking growth and positivity is how change takes place.

Rainbow Six Vegas 2

As if I wasn't excited for Vegas 2 enough, they just released two developer diaries on the Xbox Live Marketplace. Within these two diaries, I learned:

• You can now be a female character
• Ranking up (Persistent Elite Creation, P.E.C.) can be accomplished in single player, co-op, and multiplayer. All are universally the same and tied together.
  
• The graphics and framerate has been upgraded (Could tell just by looking)
• There will be seemless, jump in jump out Co-Op, which allows you to complete the single player campaign which allows friends to jump in and out, whenever you want. Just like Gears of War. If you are the host, you control the 2 AI characters.
• They added 11 new weapons
• 13 new Maps, 2 New Game Modes
  
• They added maps from the previous juggernaut RainbowSix: RavenShield
• Terrorist Hunt is back, and better
• There is a map with a MLG LAN room
• New mode called 'Demolition' is just like Search and Destroy on COD4, 2 targets, one team has bomb, other team must defend.
• New mode 'Team Leader,' each team has 1 leader which has a star above his head. You must eliminate the enemy leader, while defending your own. As long as the leader is alive, you can respawn unlimited amount. When leader is dead, that team has no more respawns. You can also win by escorting your leader to an extraction point
  
• 'Total Conquest' is back. Hold the three satellites for 30 seconds to win.
  
• Matchmaking has been improved, giving you balanced gaming.
• Character customization is just huge
• Single player story comes to a big, explosive, conclusion
• Every action and victory will earn you a reward.
• ACES (Advanced Combat Enhancement Specialization)
• Close quarters, Assault, Marksmanship is your three areas to excel in. Using flash and smoke, getting headshots, etc.

Thats enough to put me over the edge! I have been a Rainbow Six fan since RB63 on the original xbox. This game WILL rival COD4 and Halo 3, mark my words. It looks as though Ubisoft took a page from Infinity Ward, giving you tons of challenges to complete throughout your gameplay.

So, go pre-order this game now, because you will not be disappointed.

Bad Blood with Me and Sarcastic Gamer?

If you don't know, or don't listen to the Sarcastic Gamer.com Podcast, then you should.
But recently I have joined a 4 man team with one of the hosts from SG, Lono, for a Gamercast Network Tournament. I figured it would be great fun, which so far, it has.

The other hosts of the SG show got a bit...unrested....with the fact that Lono didn't ask either of them to be on the team, but asked me, someone who doesn't work on SG website or podcast. After two shows in a row of their complaining, I had to post in their forums and handle bitnezz.

Check it out HERE

Finished All the Challenges on COD4!!

Well, this post may be only for my own self-gloating, but I am pretty proud of getting all the challenges in Call of Duty 4 done. It was for sure a hard thing to do. If only I could get an achievement for it........ I still don't think I will do prestige.......or do the rest of the gun challenges.......Oh, I promise, I will make this my LAST COD4 blog post for a while. Thanks again for stopping by.

Gamerscore: Explained

Well, not to have a misleading blog post title, but this will be MY gamerscore explained. I feel that other gamers will share some of my views here.

As you can see below my picture on the right side, I have a rather high gamerscore compared to the majority of LIVE users. When I first got my 360 on launch day back in 05', I NEVER would have thought I would have become so addicted to gamerscore. The thought of actually having a 'paper trail' for my videogame career on the 360 was quite amazing to me, and actually getting points for doing stuff in games just blew my mind.

Now, the year of 2006 was a slow one for me. I was freshly out of high school, had an amazing new job that was paying for college (Still is!), and had all of these amazing games to play on my fresh new high-def capable Xbox 360. We're talking Call of Duty 2, Oblivion, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, etc. Those games were a PLEASURE to suck gamerscore out of. Of course, there was the Madden, NBA, and college games, BORING but still gave easy gamerscore.
As I continued to gain gamerscore for playing these amazing titles, I liked it more and more. Especially when I could get achievements for beating COD2 on Veteran, which most didn't have. I hooked up with a buddy that I kinda knew in real life (Thats the life without a controller, you know?), found out he got a 360, and found out that he was loving the gamerscore as well. So we started trading tricks and tips on how to increase our gscore. It grew from there, and BAM, I was playing everyday trying to reach 20,000, 30,000, and then 40,000. I have been in the 40k's for I am guessing a year or so now. Life happened, responsibility in life happened, and gamerscore didn't have the same draw as it previously did. Don't misunderstand, I still get all happy inside when that little blip shows up on the screen. But I don't go out of my way and rent crappy games just to increase my gscore anymore like I did in 2006 and part of 2007.

So now, as I play on LIVE, I still get the, "Hey, look at that Camerogoui's gamerscore! What a loser! He must have no life!!" There isn't really a way to explain to the foul mouthed punks that can't pronounce my gamertag that I got the majority of that years ago, so I stay quiet knowing that they are only speaking because they wish theirs was there as well.

So that's my story, what's yours?

26 Wins Away....

I know it seems to be a trend here on the blog to talk about COD4 lately, but trust me, this blog won't be all COD4 stuff.

I am currently 26 wins away in the game mode 'Sabotage' from completing every online challenge in Call of Duty 4. This is not including the gun challenges because, lets face it, who wants to attempt to get 150 kills with the flippin' MP44?

This is not to boast myself, but I think it is pretty cool that I have come so far in my gaming career as of late. In 2006, if a game didn't give me an achievement every hour, I wouldn't let it see my 360. But there is just something about those darned challenges in Call of Duty 4 that keeps me coming back.

I haven't, and probably will not, do prestige mode. Why? Mainly because everyone else already has, and its actually rare to see someone not do it. I spent many many hours getting those challenges completed, why would I throw them all away so I can try and do it again?

So, I urge you, try and finish those challenges and say NO THANKS when the prestige option is available to you again.

Call of Duty 4 Sniping

Finally, the COD4:MW patch is out. If you listen to The Gamer's Garage, you know how much I love to snipe, no matter the game. Call of Duty 4 had some issues with sniping immediately after its title launch. Sometimes when you would shoot a guy, crosshairs dead center mass, it wouldn't actually do any damage to the opponent. They fixed it with this long, long, long awaited title update.

Sniping in COD4 is by far the best sniping experience in any first person shooter. That sentence includes the Rainbow Six series, Ghost Recon series (Number 2 for sniping in my opinion, mainly GR2: Summit Strike), and an original Xbox title called 'Sniper Elite'. Sniper Elite was a third person shooter that had some innovative qualities. There was actually trajectory on the bullets, so you had to aim higher at longer distances.
The movement is so fluid, precise, amazing in Call of Duty 4. The feeling of head shotting a fully-sprinted enemy is one that cannot be explained. Even the distance at which you must lead your enemy before firing is dead on realistic. The closer they are to you, the less you have to lead the shot, the further the more you have to lead. Sometimes I lead a shot about a foot and a half in front of a perpendicular running enemy to make the kill.

If you do not snipe in COD4, I encourage you to give it a try. Especially now that it is fixed. The sneaking, the pistoling, the accuracy needed to be a true sniper is truly a great experience in the number 1 selling game of 2007.

Remember, don't run, you'll only die tired.

This is 'How to Ruin Xbox LIVE'

This video pretty much sums it up as to how 90%+ of the people on Xbox LIVE act. This is the kind of people I am talking about in my previous blog post.
This video is that of VideoJug.

How To Ruin Xbox Live For Everyone Else

Gamers Making ALL Gamers Look Bad

This is my first post here on my blog. I wanted it to be something that has been pressing on my heart lately, so here goes:

I wanted to talk about the blatant disrespect that the majority of gamers over Xbox Live dish out on a game by game basis. I am hard pressed to find a game in Call of Duty 4 where I am surrounded by decent people that don't have to disrespect me or any other in the room. It seems that no matter what style of play you do, you are called a fa**** or some other expletive. Whether you use the M16, .50 cal, M4, camp in a building, whatever, you are going to tick someone off and they will oh most certainly let you know their feelings.

Granted, I understand that you are in 'the heat of battle,' and the competitive juices are flowing, I am there too (Which I am usually upset when I have the sniper cross hairs on the guy, shoot him, and it doesn't hit him, WHERES THAT PATCH IW!!?) but is it necessary to call someone whom is completely undeserving a completely ignorant and vile name? It is people like this that have an 'I don't care attitude' and are running around on Xbox Live being as prideful as can be that are ruining this community that I have watched grow since the beta testing days of October 2002.

I have worked too hard for too long in helping grow Xbox live to sit back and watch these mongrels come on and play 2 times a week only to make it a point to ruin someones day.

I say we start making it an absolute top-of-the-list point to report these jerks immediately. File a complaint, submit a player review, and then send Major Nelson an email at Major@Xbox.com because he forwards those emails to the correct place. Then send the gamertag 'Stepto' a TEXT message over Live with the bad guy's gamertag. 'Stepto' is Stephen Toulouse, the Xbox Live Policy Manager. He is the guy that is over the team of Xbox enforcers that read all of the complaints filed on Xbox Live. Folks, this is the way we gain our community back. We cannot just sit back and hope they go away. You have to MAKE change, not hope it happens on its or hope others will do it.

You must think about the new members joining Xbox Live as well. If they get on a game of Halo 3, Gears of War, or Call of Duty 4 only to hear the most vile, putrid, and disgusting language, why would they want to continue playing? If I were new and hadn't been on Xbox Live since before its launch, and didn't know that there are alternatives to playing with people like that, I wouldn't continue my yearly subscription.
This stuff also makes gamers look bad to the mainstream public. When they hear things on the news, it is never the good stuff. Only the bad. I have never heard on the news, 'Well, today Microsoft has reported over 10 million subscribers to their online Xbox LIVE service.' You only hear about when a stalking, bullying, or murder happens and a video game was somehow involved.

I hope this all registers in your cranium my friends. I don't want the community I love so much to go down the drain due to a bunch of ignorant, comfortable-in-their-anonymous-state-with-controller-in-hands idiots.

Think before you act when playing on LIVE or even on the playstation network. Gamers are gamers, no matter the platform.