It's kind of funny the mindshare Xbox Live has. When my friends and I were picking up L4D2 I was lobbying for the Steam version because I could play it in Eyefinity, but they wanted Xbox 360 so they could get achievements. I told them Steam has achievements and asked them why 360 achievements were better and there wasn't really answer. There really is no difference, they're just already invested in Xbox Live achievements so that's what they want.
I think the achievement system is kind of fun for games I want to say I mastered but they have Gamefly subscriptions simply to cycle through terrible games to get gamer score from. They even want Windows 7 phones just because the games on it give XBox Live gamer score.. Now their gamer score is like a big "f you, I played way more shitty games than you have"
I don't know what they'd do if Microsoft ever pulls out of the console market.
Here is an example of what console life is like if you love Japanese Consoles and played to follow one game series you like. Here is a list of what I went through. Please bare with me and read it all....because there is a point to all of this.
1) I had to buy a Sega Master System for Phantasy Star I
2) I had to buy a Sega Genesis in order to play Phantasy Star II, III and IV.
3) Wouldn't you know it? Text Adventures and other minigames were part of the Japanese Consoles so I had to buy a Japanese Master System and Japanese Sega Genesis, and buy the original games to get the full story thanks to the mistranslations....
4) I then had to buy a Sega Dreamcast for Phantasy Star Online which had no Monthly fees. After a while a monthly fee was added and to continue playing the game with the updates and junk, I had to pay $50 to buy Phantasy Star Online ver 2.
5) I had to buy a Gamecube in order to buy Phantasy Star Online Episode I and II. They updated a bit
6) I had to buy an Xbox in order to play Phantasy Star Online Episode I and II with the updates they DID NOT put into the Gamecube version..
7) I had to buy Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst, which was Phantasy Star Online Episode I, II and IV.
8) I bought Phantasy Star Online Episode III for gamecube which took place years after the main Phantasy Star Online Story.
9) Unfortunately, Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst was about to close down...so all my time, monthly fees and junk...down the drain...
10) Phantasy Star Universe came out and I was happy. It was no Phantasy Star V, but I liked the initial game.
11) Phantasy Star Universe: AoTI came out and I played it.
12) Using a borrowed PSP I played Phantasy Star Portable.
13) Wouldn't you know it? PSU was about to close down in the US, but WAIT, Japan was 2 years ahead in UPDATES...history repeats.
14) I played PSU in JAPAN directly, with all updates available, In 3 months, I had more items obtained and things on my characters thanks to updates than 2 - 3 years in the Localized Version.
15) I had to use a smartphone to play the extended points to Phantasy Star Portable.
16) Phantasy Star Portable II, not wishing to fall into the same trap.....I had gotten a Japanese Playstation Network Card...and played it for a bit.
17) Phantasy Star Portable II Infinity is announced and after a while....after the no-refund date is passed on pre-orders in Japan, they announce the end of support and Phantasy Star Online 2.
18) Wishing to keep up with the Phantasy Star 2 story, I played Phantasy Star Zero and found it so-so on DS.
19) When Remakes were rereleased called Generations, I had to play them through Japanese console versions...and found the games to have a more updated story.
20) There are other phantasy star related things I wanted to try, but oh wait I am not a Japanese Citizen and those things are only available to Japanese, tough luck.
Now, I am to ask you all....Is any of this fair? To endure all of this for just ONE SERIES OF GAMES? 3 - 4 Japanese versions of consoles, 6 north american consoles as well as PCs, Handhelds, SmartPhones....Lets not forget the cash shops in-games to get accessed to other materials (I refused to take part in that as I saw through what it was), All the lies, all the localized versions closing down and all the rage in Japan at how Foreigners should be burned and purified.....
Below are the prices spent for games....in that series...
Phantasy Star I (40), Phantasy Star II (40), Phantasy Star III (40), Phantasy Star 4 ( 50), Phantasy Star Zero (40), Phantasy Star Online (50), Phantasy Star Online ver 2 (40), Phantasy Star Online Episode I and II (50), Phantasy Star Onlline Episode I and II (Xbox) (40), Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst (Free), Phantasy Star Universe (40), Phantasy Star Universe AoTI (40), Phantasy Star Universe AoTI jpn (10, required that for keylogin), Phantasy Star Portable (40), Phantasy Star Portable II (50), Japanese versions of games I bought (220), Generations I and II (90), Portable II Infinity (50), Phantasy Star Online 2 PreOrder (60)
This is close to $1000 on that series. Lets not forget 4 years of paying monthly fees between games, add in another $400 in there.
How about Consoles?
Borrowed Nintendo DS, Sega Master System (American + Japanese)(400), Sega Genesis (American + Japanese)(400), Sega Dreamcast(300), Gamecube (200), Xbox (300), Borrowed PSP, Japanese PS2 (200)
Around 1800 on consoles. If I was forced into buying PSP and DS, it would have been a lot more.
Lets not forget the peripherals I had to buy for consoles to get them ready and all the waiting....
In the very end of it all....The series for its next game went PC-Only for Phantasy Star Online 2. I abhor the fact I spent close to $1000 on games and most of them rebought simply because I was given a crappy localized versions of games.
PCs are backwards compatible, I still play games from 1993 - 1996 today in 2010 on Windows 7 (and on Linux too)
Wonder what happened with all of those consoles? Those consoles all BROKE ON ME and stopped functioning. The way I am able to play any of those games is either playing them in Japan or playing CONSOLE EMULATORS ON Windows 7 and LINUX. Thats right....I can't plug in all those consoles at once, so I simply have CONSOLE EMULATORS and their ROMS along with full regional bios and I can play them JUST FINE with save stats, which solved my Phantasy Star Problem.
In the very end it was not fair to be treated like that....to be forced into buying more copies and the same game multiple times across different consoles to get the UPDATES, later for people to be forced into spending REAL MONEY for in-game items in the jpn version of PSU that are free in the handheld version (thank god I didnt waste my money on that and I knew better, some have spent $1000s on it, just to have the servers close later in a few years).
Now lets take another Example.....
HALO! Notice, you can buy all the Halo Games on Xbox and Xbox 360 and you don't miss anything since the PC versions are ports. Notice how this is.....You dont have to buy handhelds or smartphones to play Halo...Now why is that?
Answer: Halo and Xbox are AMERICAN and NOT JAPANESE. You can buy a series on one Platform series, and end it on the same platform series (xbox, xbox 360).....
To DEFEND consoles is to Defend the Japanese Way of Thinking. The belief that people should be ripped off and controlled at every single level their gaming experience. While Microsoft makes Xbox360 and Xbox, the philosophy is the same in the sense you still have a CORPORATE middleman who owns the console and can say what is accepted and what is not.
I can program anything for Linux or Windows and no one legally has a right to tell me I can't release it for that platform while many people can say one thing and shut me out completely on console development.
Please don't deceive people by telling them that Consoles really are that cheaper, because they are not and you will find almost every major game serious that is a Japanese Game series that has any shred of popularity forces you to buy multiple consoles and cellphone/handhelds at least (along with PCs at times) to play every game in the series....
To DEFEND consoles is to Defend the Japanese Way of Thinking. The belief that people should be ripped off and controlled at every single level their gaming experience.
In Japan (during the boom times at least) buying new gadgets was encouraged, to me learning about this practice I always thought that was such a waste. That always put me off consoles.
CCP’s chief technical officer has directly compared PC technology to its console equivalents.
Talking to PC Gamer, Halldor Fannar said: “We’re in a great position on PCs. The hardware just keeps getting better. The consoles, the computers inside them, are getting a little long in the tooth. The basic graphics chip in PlayStation 3 is equivalent to a 7 series card from Nvidia. Meanwhile we’re many, many generations beyond that with PC hardware.”
Comments
It's kind of funny the mindshare Xbox Live has. When my friends and I were picking up L4D2 I was lobbying for the Steam version because I could play it in Eyefinity, but they wanted Xbox 360 so they could get achievements. I told them Steam has achievements and asked them why 360 achievements were better and there wasn't really answer. There really is no difference, they're just already invested in Xbox Live achievements so that's what they want.
I think the achievement system is kind of fun for games I want to say I mastered but they have Gamefly subscriptions simply to cycle through terrible games to get gamer score from. They even want Windows 7 phones just because the games on it give XBox Live gamer score.. Now their gamer score is like a big "f you, I played way more shitty games than you have"
I don't know what they'd do if Microsoft ever pulls out of the console market.
Yeah, Stream achievements are not nearly that serious. Half of them are usually tongue-in-cheek.
Here is an example of what console life is like if you love Japanese Consoles and played to follow one game series you like. Here is a list of what I went through. Please bare with me and read it all....because there is a point to all of this.
1) I had to buy a Sega Master System for Phantasy Star I
2) I had to buy a Sega Genesis in order to play Phantasy Star II, III and IV.
3) Wouldn't you know it? Text Adventures and other minigames were part of the Japanese Consoles so I had to buy a Japanese Master System and Japanese Sega Genesis, and buy the original games to get the full story thanks to the mistranslations....
4) I then had to buy a Sega Dreamcast for Phantasy Star Online which had no Monthly fees. After a while a monthly fee was added and to continue playing the game with the updates and junk, I had to pay $50 to buy Phantasy Star Online ver 2.
5) I had to buy a Gamecube in order to buy Phantasy Star Online Episode I and II. They updated a bit
6) I had to buy an Xbox in order to play Phantasy Star Online Episode I and II with the updates they DID NOT put into the Gamecube version..
7) I had to buy Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst, which was Phantasy Star Online Episode I, II and IV.
8) I bought Phantasy Star Online Episode III for gamecube which took place years after the main Phantasy Star Online Story.
9) Unfortunately, Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst was about to close down...so all my time, monthly fees and junk...down the drain...
10) Phantasy Star Universe came out and I was happy. It was no Phantasy Star V, but I liked the initial game.
11) Phantasy Star Universe: AoTI came out and I played it.
12) Using a borrowed PSP I played Phantasy Star Portable.
13) Wouldn't you know it? PSU was about to close down in the US, but WAIT, Japan was 2 years ahead in UPDATES...history repeats.
14) I played PSU in JAPAN directly, with all updates available, In 3 months, I had more items obtained and things on my characters thanks to updates than 2 - 3 years in the Localized Version.
15) I had to use a smartphone to play the extended points to Phantasy Star Portable.
16) Phantasy Star Portable II, not wishing to fall into the same trap.....I had gotten a Japanese Playstation Network Card...and played it for a bit.
17) Phantasy Star Portable II Infinity is announced and after a while....after the no-refund date is passed on pre-orders in Japan, they announce the end of support and Phantasy Star Online 2.
18) Wishing to keep up with the Phantasy Star 2 story, I played Phantasy Star Zero and found it so-so on DS.
19) When Remakes were rereleased called Generations, I had to play them through Japanese console versions...and found the games to have a more updated story.
20) There are other phantasy star related things I wanted to try, but oh wait I am not a Japanese Citizen and those things are only available to Japanese, tough luck.
Now, I am to ask you all....Is any of this fair? To endure all of this for just ONE SERIES OF GAMES? 3 - 4 Japanese versions of consoles, 6 north american consoles as well as PCs, Handhelds, SmartPhones....Lets not forget the cash shops in-games to get accessed to other materials (I refused to take part in that as I saw through what it was), All the lies, all the localized versions closing down and all the rage in Japan at how Foreigners should be burned and purified.....
Below are the prices spent for games....in that series...
Phantasy Star I (40), Phantasy Star II (40), Phantasy Star III (40), Phantasy Star 4 ( 50), Phantasy Star Zero (40), Phantasy Star Online (50), Phantasy Star Online ver 2 (40), Phantasy Star Online Episode I and II (50), Phantasy Star Onlline Episode I and II (Xbox) (40), Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst (Free), Phantasy Star Universe (40), Phantasy Star Universe AoTI (40), Phantasy Star Universe AoTI jpn (10, required that for keylogin), Phantasy Star Portable (40), Phantasy Star Portable II (50), Japanese versions of games I bought (220), Generations I and II (90), Portable II Infinity (50), Phantasy Star Online 2 PreOrder (60)
This is close to $1000 on that series. Lets not forget 4 years of paying monthly fees between games, add in another $400 in there.
How about Consoles?
Borrowed Nintendo DS, Sega Master System (American + Japanese)(400), Sega Genesis (American + Japanese)(400), Sega Dreamcast(300), Gamecube (200), Xbox (300), Borrowed PSP, Japanese PS2 (200)
Around 1800 on consoles. If I was forced into buying PSP and DS, it would have been a lot more.
Lets not forget the peripherals I had to buy for consoles to get them ready and all the waiting....
In the very end of it all....The series for its next game went PC-Only for Phantasy Star Online 2. I abhor the fact I spent close to $1000 on games and most of them rebought simply because I was given a crappy localized versions of games.
PCs are backwards compatible, I still play games from 1993 - 1996 today in 2010 on Windows 7 (and on Linux too)
Wonder what happened with all of those consoles? Those consoles all BROKE ON ME and stopped functioning. The way I am able to play any of those games is either playing them in Japan or playing CONSOLE EMULATORS ON Windows 7 and LINUX. Thats right....I can't plug in all those consoles at once, so I simply have CONSOLE EMULATORS and their ROMS along with full regional bios and I can play them JUST FINE with save stats, which solved my Phantasy Star Problem.
In the very end it was not fair to be treated like that....to be forced into buying more copies and the same game multiple times across different consoles to get the UPDATES, later for people to be forced into spending REAL MONEY for in-game items in the jpn version of PSU that are free in the handheld version (thank god I didnt waste my money on that and I knew better, some have spent $1000s on it, just to have the servers close later in a few years).
Now lets take another Example.....
HALO! Notice, you can buy all the Halo Games on Xbox and Xbox 360 and you don't miss anything since the PC versions are ports. Notice how this is.....You dont have to buy handhelds or smartphones to play Halo...Now why is that?
Answer: Halo and Xbox are AMERICAN and NOT JAPANESE. You can buy a series on one Platform series, and end it on the same platform series (xbox, xbox 360).....
To DEFEND consoles is to Defend the Japanese Way of Thinking. The belief that people should be ripped off and controlled at every single level their gaming experience. While Microsoft makes Xbox360 and Xbox, the philosophy is the same in the sense you still have a CORPORATE middleman who owns the console and can say what is accepted and what is not.
I can program anything for Linux or Windows and no one legally has a right to tell me I can't release it for that platform while many people can say one thing and shut me out completely on console development.
Please don't deceive people by telling them that Consoles really are that cheaper, because they are not and you will find almost every major game serious that is a Japanese Game series that has any shred of popularity forces you to buy multiple consoles and cellphone/handhelds at least (along with PCs at times) to play every game in the series....
In Japan (during the boom times at least) buying new gadgets was encouraged, to me learning about this practice I always thought that was such a waste. That always put me off consoles.
Here's CCP on PC's and graphics cards:
http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/12/23/ccp-say-pc-hardware-is-many-many-generations-beyond-consoles/
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014633/Classic-Game-Postmortem