Due to Charlie not having an industrial backup generator in case of the apocalypse, tonight's podcast has been cancelled. We will be posting shortly on the date for our next one!
Alright so technically they are not at E3, they're in the parking lot across from E3 hosting their own little thing for those who need a breather and want to see what the Ouya can bring you. Well it turns out that a couple of days ago the ESA apparently went out of their way and rented the spots in front of where the Ouya was being shown and blocked it with a bunch of 18 wheelers. Later that day the Ouya group rented the spots in front of those trucks and had signs and whatnot to direct those interested back to where the who thing was set up. Then comes a call to the cops for apparently improper permits or something along those lines. After the cops came out and checked on the validity of the situation they basically saw that everything was in order and left, but why such hate? Could it simply be a case of Ouya not wanting to abid by the ESA guidelines when it comes to E3, or perhaps the Ouya didn't want the competition around so it decided to throw its own event, something many companies do Pre-E3 in theaters close by, but instead of before they did it during trying to grab as much passerbyer's attention as possible.
All I can truly say is that the Ouya needs as much attention as it can get if it really wants to make it in this crazy marketplace, and there's nothing like some good competition to get other companies to kick their shit into gear. Sure the Ouya is a much smaller company, and won't be making anyone truly tremble, as of yet, but this could be a platform that could really help some of the indie studios get their game out to the masses and beyond, so I say lets support it. That and I'd really like to play some kick ass games for the Ouya sometime soon, thank you and GOODNIGHT!!! (Not really good night its the middle of the afternoon, but it sounded more dramatic).
As Charlie talked about earlier, the console war between Microsoft's XBOX One & Sony's PlayStation 4 is officially underway as E3 take place. While Charlie has already enumerated a number of the consoles' similarities & differences regarding Price, Used Game Policy, & Online Play, I come from a different perspective: At this point, my plan is to wait until the consoles are out to see how these potential new policies and features play out- particularly XBOX1's media features, which is something Microsoft is really pushing. It seems like a number of the hot-button issues, such as used games & media features, are still fuzzy on exact details. For me, the main issues that will help influence my decision (plus issues that gamers in general seem to care about) which I plan to update this as time goes:
Price: On the surface, the PS4 may be cheaper. But when you start looking at the price over 5+ years, the difference of $100 doesn't really phase me much if I find the other console that much better.
Used Game Policy: With the exception of Mass Effect 3, I've only ever purchased used games for my 360. With that in mind, if the PS4's used game policy is truly that of previous generation's where you can do whatever you want with your game in reselling & lending to friends, then this could seal the deal. It's not that I couldn't deal with Microsoft's new rules, but no rules is easier to deal with than any.
Motion Contols: I would love to use the Kinect for working out and, hell, use it at all. But I just don't have enough space from my TV to the wall, so the detection isn't very effective and more frustrating than fun. Looks like the new Kinect will be remedy this issue- what about Sony's?
Games: Well, it is a gaming console!!! How are the exclusive titles going to be? Another Heavy Rain to give the PS4 an epic game? A Gears of War or Halo to give Xbox a franchise title? Or will 95% of games just be released on both consoles?
Backwards Compatibility: Oh, wait...
Online marketplace: How good will it be? Maybe this is the place to get backwards compatibility. What if Sony of Xbox were to say, "All previous-gen console games will be available on the marketplace." It hasn't (and probably won't), but damnmmmm. I don't use the online marketplace much on the 360, so I'm not sure how much I care about this.
Online gameplay: Matters not. If I'm going to play online, it's PC or bust.
Online Media: Big question for me is how good will the Xbox's media features be? Microsoft's touting it as the One Media Device To Rule Them All. If it truly is, I'd be interested. But if it doesn't have some kind of DVR feature or really awesome features, then I won't care that much since both consoles have Netflix and I'd ultimately still use my cable box solely because of DVR. All the other fluff doesn't really matter to me. But if I can really, like really, use the One as my media box with watching recordings and all that jazz? That would be awesome.
Always On: News is the PS4 won't require always-on, while the One will need to check in every 24 hours. I get why people are in arms over this, but for me personally, my home hasn't got more than 24 hours without Internet connection since I moved in. So this is kind of "meh" issue; more about idealism than how much it'll affect me gaming.
A potential side-effect of this is what does the One's "checking-in" requirement mean exactly? The big concern on the blogopshere is what happens 10, 15, 20 years from now then the Xbox Nu2 is out and those DRM servers are shut down? Will that effectively render the Xbox One dead?
I think that covers most of the ZOMG issues. Hope to keep this updated and add more as I see them.
Yes, yes I know we already know that Bungie is working on a game called Destiny, their first project after the Halo franchise, but we just got a chance to see some video and some gameplay footage, and now you have to make a choice. Do you want to wait till 2014 and get it on XBOX360 or PlayStation 3, or have you already decided that you'll have one of the next generation consoles by Christmas and it would be stupid not to get this game, which is probably going to blow our minds, for the next generation console that will be the console of choice by 2014?
Alright folks for all of you out there not living under a rock you know that it is time for E3. Sony and Microsoft have been circling and it is time for some punches to be thrown. So lets check in on what has been announced, and what we're likely to see.
PRICE:
Lets start off with the power punch of a price tag. As predicted the PS4 came in at $399, the unfortunate thing was that Microsoft had to reveal their price first and it turns out that their's is going to be $499. I know there's a crazy amount of technology in both of these wonderful consoles, but XBOX ONE's price point is astonishingly too high in my opinion, and it doesn't help the fact that Sony was able to undercut them by $100.
** UPDATE **
Looks like the price point is going to shrink a little as the PlayStation Eye (the camera) will not be included in the $399 price tag. You'll be able to get it for $59. Coincidentally that will also be the price for additional PlayStation 4 controllers.
POINT: Sony (though not by much any more)
USED GAME POLICY:
Alright now for the next round, lets talking about second hand gaming. This one is a bit more difficult to interpret especially since Microsoft has been using some very vague language to be just ambiguous that one can draw all types of interpretations from it. I think it is safe to say that there's a tight rein on how people are going to be able to deal with used games, and the number of times that used game can be used. Now lets see what Sony has to say... ... ... what's that you say? "Sony is fully promising to respect the rights of gamers to sell, trade, and lend games between themselves". Now at first glance this looks like they are keeping the same model that we've seen before, and we can still go into any local GameStop and get our used games at a discount price, but wait the wording is a bit odd, and hopefully you caught it too. You're going to be able able to be your own shop between individuals. So you're going to be e-baying the shit out of games now. I'm still interested to see if there are some fees that you'll be paying to play a used game because that wasn't mention either, but Sony was very cunning with their wording.
POINT: Sony, maybe?
** UPDATE **
I've found this instructional video on how Sony plans on using video game sharing:
Which of course answers NO QUESTIONS whatsoever.
ONLINE PLAY:
Well it would appear that both systems are going to be using their subscription based service to give you the true online experience. Sony has announced that in order to play games online you'll have to be a PS Plus member. This was a feature that kind of crept up on PlayStation 3 owners, and I guess now Sony is going to make it standard. Now of course Microsoft has been toting the Gold Membership for a while and that is here to stay.
POINT: EVEN
I'm sure more will be coming, the game selection and whatnot is really up to the gamer, so I'm not going to reward points, but at least you can finally see that the PS4 looks like a fat Wii (See picture at top of post).
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