Saturday, May 22, 2010
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Weekly auto blog post (weekly)
Rating System - Customer Ratings and Reviews Solution and Q&A software
How I Met Your Motherboard: Tales of Early Computing » Ellie, 1984
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Saturday, May 08, 2010
Weekly auto blog post (weekly)
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Wednesday, May 05, 2010
360 vs PS3 - My take
Hardware:-
Much has been said and argued about which console has the most raw processing power, so I won't dwell on that. What I'll concentrate on are the hardware features that made a difference to me. The PS3 is a lot quieter in operation, especially when accessing a disc. This is most noticeable when watching films (yes I watch films on the 360, fire-sale HD-DVD's were too tempting to turn up). Newer model 360's are quieter, but still not as quiet as the PS3.
The PS3 has Wi-Fi and wired networking built in and includes a Gigabit network adaptor rather than the standard 100mbit one in the 360. While this won't make any difference to gaming it may make a difference on your home network. I think most people would prefer a wired connection for lag free gaming but I guess the Wi-Fi is nice for people who can't get an Ethernet cable down to their TV.
Display wise both consoles support up to 1080p potentially (though most games fall back to the less demanding 720p or lower) The 360's scaling chip is regarded as being better though being limited to a 720p screen I can't really comment. For me the big plus is that the 360 supports VGA, which means I can get 720p on my old Hitachi TV. To get VGA fully working on the PS3 requires a very expensive (£100 or more!) HD Fury adaptor, so a definite win for the 360 on this category.
Storage wise the PS3 wins for value, using a standard hard drive which can be upgraded using any compatible off the shelf drive. Microsoft on the other hand, force you to buy hard drives from them else risk getting banned from Xbox live. Expect to pay extortionate amounts for 360 hard drives (and most Xbox peripherals). One advantage of the 360's hard drive design is portability. You can unclip the 360 hard drive and take it with you easily, not so the PS3's drive. Both consoles let you use USB to store save games and data, though the 360 imposes a 16gb storage cap, presumably to protect the sales of those ultra-expensive hard drives.
Of course, the PS3 has Blu-ray, This allows it to play lovely Blu-ray movies and gives games a lot of storage space. It also keeps the cost of the console high, the PS3 is still around £100 more expensive than the 360.
As for other hardware, the 360 wins for me, though your mileage may vary. I like that the 360 has a built in infra-red receiver, meaning I can add it to my universal remote control. Trying to control the Blu-ray playback with the PS3 pad is frustrating. Sure you can buy a remote, but if it's Bluetooth, forget using it with your universal remote.
The 360 also has a very handy rear USB port, meaning you can attach something like the live vision camera or attach a USB hub without clutter at the front of the console. The PS3 does have Bluetooth, which it uses for its wireless controllers. This means you can use a Bluetooth headset just like you can on a mobile phone. I find my Plantronics Bluetooth headset very comfortable to wear for extended durations, more so than my big old Motorola 360 headset. The 360 uses a proprietary standard that makes it hard for third parties to manufacture controllers/headsets without a special licence, though you do get a headset included with the console when you buy a 360.
Regarding controllers, I really don't prefer the layout of one over the other. I find the 360's D-Pad slips into diagonals too easily, whereas the PS3's is a little too fiddly on diagonals. The PS3's controllers have rechargeable battery packs built in and will charge from any USB port, you'll need to shell out for the same thing on the 360, so that is a win for the PS3.
There's the thorny issue of reliability, PS3's are perhaps a little unreliable, but the 360 is a disaster. The failure rate for launch consoles must be close to 100% now, I do not know of anyone who bought their 360 at or around launch time that is still using the same machine. The 360 does have a 3 year warranty now, but after 3 years if and when your console breaks down, expect to pay a hefty price for a repair that will in all likelihood only be temporary anyway.
Software:-
The 360 has proven to be the console that is easiest to develop for and tends to have the best versions of most of the multi-platform games. The PS3 does have some attractive exclusives such as Little Big Planet, God of War, Heavy Rain and Uncharted 1 and 2. Of course the 360 isn't short of blockbuster titles either, with Halo, Gears of War, Forza and Fable springing to mind. The wonderful Bayonetta might as well be a 360 exclusive too, considering how poor the PS3 version is.
As for the overall experience, the 360 wins hands down. The PS3's interface might be easier to navigate and it does include a web browser, but the whole front end feels a lot less polished than on the 360. Being able to quickly access your friends lists, message box and achievements at any time is a huge plus for the Microsoft console. Go into the PS store on the PS3, for example, and you're completely locked out of your friends list. The only time this really happens on the 360 is when you have to apply a system update, which are far smaller and less frequent than they are on the PS3. It's also bizarre how content has to download, then install on the PS3, again locking you out of the rest of the dashboard/console while it installs. I've also had several failed downloads from the PS store. The files downloaded but would not install, leaving "corrupted data" on the system. Downloading them without doing background download did eventually solve the problem.
Of course, you already know there's no party play, cross game voice chat or Windows Live Messenger support on the PS3. I also found that sometimes the console failed to tell me what game/activity my friends were doing, presumably this happens when an older game is being played. Voice quality could be better on both consoles really, but considering Live is a paid service it really should be better. I've used voice on Skype, Yahoo and Second Life and all three provide vastly better quality than Xbox live does. Almost forgot to mention, the 360 has custom soundtrack support for all games and can even use MP3's and play-lists you have stored on your network in any game. Creating play-lists for your games on your PC then using them instantly is a really neat feature.
I also vastly prefer the 360's marketplace. Every game has a demo version, unlike on the PS3 where scant few seem to offer this option. After a rocky start, the 360 Indy channel is really coming along too, offering the kind of unique niche gaming that traditionally was only on the PC.
I don't use my consoles as media centres because they are not flexible or powerful enough for my needs. A PC running Boxee will always be better for this purpose but of course not everyone has the time, money or patience to build and troubleshoot one. The PS3 is supposedly the better media centre (again lack of infra red rears its head in this equation). I pointed both consoles at a media directory on my network storage box and they both came back with a big list and were only able to play a fraction of the files. If you do want a cheap media centre/extender, it's worth remembering that the PS3 has both iPlayer and Bluray playback of course.
So there you have it, if you want the best gaming experience the 360 is still the console to get in my opinion. Yes you have to pay for Xbox live and yes the reliability of the console is still questionable, but using the two machines it's clear the PS3 is still playing catch up to a console that was designed around social multi-player gaming from the start.
Xbox RROD number 3 and console reliability in general
Needless to say I didn't exactly jump at this less than stellar offer and now I have a new Xbox 360 arcade, complete with HDMI socket. The new console is quieter, time will tell if it is more reliable.
In other news, I also modded my original Xbox with a bigger hard drive now that Xbox Live for the original Xbox has been turned off. It's very handy having access to all the best Xbox games just from the hard drive.
It's interesting how consoles have become less and less reliable. I always considered the PS2 to be poorly made. I've been using my PS2 a lot recently for playing Final Fantasy 12. FF13 doesn't sound worth the effort from the reviews, but 12 is really superb. I'm around 80 hours in and there's still lots left to do. I noticed that my PS2's controller input seems to be wearing out however. Sometimes the console fails to recognise the pad first time and a restart is necessary. I do take the controllers in and out rather a lot because I also use them on my PC with an adaptor. Weird thing is that they don't always work well connected to the PC now either. Wonder if there's some sort of design fault on the connectors?
I'm on my 2nd PS2, the first one died and stopped reading disks altogether, this one struggles to read disks but most of my games I run from the hard drive. Moving parts are always likely to wear out, I noticed my Saturn isn't as good at reading disks as it once was and amusingly my Super CD-ROM2 (PC Engine) only reads some games when it is upside down. On the bright side my Mega CD seems to be fine.
Out of the really old consoles, the most notoriously unreliable was the NES, with its design fault on the cartridge slot that resulted in the red blinking LED problem. I'm on my 2nd NES and I only bought my first around mid 2005.
Nothing lasts forever I suppose. DVD players seem particularly prone to failure, the cheaper ones only lasting a couple of years. Strangely, I remember most VHS recorders lasting much longer than this. Anyway, this post has turned into a bit of a ramble so I'll wrap it up for now, may your games consoles forever stay functional!
Saturday, May 01, 2010
Weekly auto blog post (weekly)
AmigaSYS official page - Amiga Computers, WinUAE, E-UAE, Amithlon, PocketPC, XBOX.
"A White Russian drink is a very popular cocktail. It has become even more popular after it was featured in the cult classic movie, "The Big Lebowski"."
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Underexposed shooters - Episode 1 - Apidya
Now, I've played a lot of games in my life and there's one or two shooters that never seem to get the credit they deserve. These types of game have always been more popular in Japan, which is perhaps why the pseudo Japanese yet German developed Apidya, released on the Amiga, never seems to get the respect or attention it deserves. It's not like there aren't lots of good shooters on the Amiga, but people tend to think of games like Blood Money, Agony or Project X when they think of classic Amiga shooters. Weirdly, Apidya seems to be often forgotten, even amongst people who were hardcore Amiga players back in the day.
Well, I am here today to tell you that if you love shooters, particularly horizontally scrolling shooters in the vein of Gradius, then you really must not miss Apidya. The games lead character is turned into a Bee (though the sprite always looked more like a wasp to me) in order to obtain an antidote for his girlfriend who's been attacked by the evil Hexaae's poisonous insects. Starting off in meadows edge, you'll be fighting your way past hordes of all kinds of creepy crawlies, as well as angry moles, a praying mantis, a huge screen filling fish (who's insides you can explore after killing him) as well as the more gruesome maggots who spring from the corpse of a dead rat.
The game is not only imaginative, it's also beautifully drawn and presented. Like most 2D shooters, visually it hasn't aged as badly as many of the early 3D shooters. Game-play wise there's little to fault, the theme of Bee vs other insect and animal life keeps the game feeling fresh, though only the most skilled players will make it past level 4 and through the boss-rush that follows. There's also some neat bonus levels to find too.
What most players remember from this game however is the soundtrack. Playing Apidya will certainly remind you just how completely ear shatteringly awesome the Amiga's sound chip was, especially compared to most other systems (Sega Megadrive, Atari ST) from around that era. Chris Hülsbeck's music is beautiful and lively throughout and fits in perfectly to the game.
This is one shooter you really must track down, it works just fine on UAE. Use your scaler of choice and set Cycle Exact mode to ON and sound emulated 100% accurate for best results. Set NTSC mode too for slightly faster game-play. Easily one of the best shooters on the Amiga, if you've not played it, buzz off and find a copy pronto.
The good - Presentation is fantastic, graphics are great, game-play is challenging and exciting, soundtrack is phenomenal
The bad - Death steals lots your weapons, if you're not some sort of shoot-em-up genius then on later levels you might find that dying once makes the odds of getting past the level just too high.
Check out this Apidya fan site if you want to find out more about the game - http://www.avians.net/~hawthorn/apidya/
