Summer of Arcade

This is just a quick rambling AudioBoo about the quality of downloadable games we’ve seen this summer, which only further justifies the medium as a contender in the video game market.  I haven’t purchased a single hard copy of a game since Fight Night Round 4 in June, and in the meantime my attention has been kept by arcade games like Battlefield 1943 and Shadow Complex.  I bet GameStop loves to hear that.

How to improve Xbox Live messaging

It’s generally accepted that Xbox Live’s core user experience is better than that found on the PlayStation Network.  Having one set standard across all games makes communicating with your friends much less of a hassle (most noticeably when grouping up for particular games).  However, I still think there’s plenty of room for improvement.  The following is just a quick list of simple features that I wish Xbox Live had.

1. Message Previews – More often than not, when I receive a text-based message from a friend while playing a game it’s usually a short 1-3 word phrase.  But in order to actually see what the message is saying I have to open up the dashboard, go to the messages tab and that’s where I see the actual preview from the full message.  Why not just include the preview in the new message notification?  Rather than the notification saying “so and so just sent you a message” it could say “‘Invite Please’ – Friend’s Name.”
2. Simpler Voice Messages – Voice messaging is the sort of feature that you use a few times because it’s a cool idea and then realize it’s too much work so you go back to normal text messages.  If you’re playing a game it’s hard to justify opening the dashboard, going to messages, selecting create new message, recording audio, then sending it to your friend.  It just takes too long.  Not only that, but most of my friends hate getting voice messages if they’re in a game because not only do they have to navigate to the messages tab (see #1), but they also have to take the time to listen to whatever the sender is saying.  It sounds trivial but if they could add a sort of hotkey with the xbox jewel for quickly recording messages, and also add a prompt similar to “hit the ‘A’ button to play” for incoming voice message notifications, it might be a much more attractive feature.
3. Access to Sent Messages – This is a quick one.  There’s nothing worse than logging into Xbox Live and seeing a new message from a buddy that simply says ‘okay’ or ‘haha’ or ‘cool.’  What are they talking about?  I have no idea, but if I could see my sent messages I could find out.
4. Seamless Community Integration – It’s kind of annoying that for every game my group of friends decides to adopt we have to first go through that game’s particular clan or team features to become associated.  Why not just work this into Xbox Live itself?  Steam does this quite well.  In Steam you can setup your own groups and invite users to the group without having to mess with individual games.  Steam also provides a handy homepage for each community group to see their latest activity.  Imagine being able to login to Xbox Live and browse a list of clans/guilds, see what games each is playing, and also sign up right from the guide?  Sounds like a good feature to me.

Are game demos good for profitability?

I was listening to the Listen UP podcast earlier today, formerly 1UP Yours, and they brought up a very interesting topic: are demos always good for the success of a game?  Off-hand you’d think absolutely, it’s always better to get your product out there and a game demo is a form of advertisement.  Take movies for example, all movies have trailers right?  That’s the main way most people learn about and get excited for movies nowadays.  If a film studio considered foregoing the circulation of the trailer for their latest hit I’m sure most people would advise against it.

However games and movies are entirely different.  In a movie trailer a director can explicitly pick and choose what the audience sees.  Generally they’ll fill the clip with action, big laughs or scares, or whatever else they want to portray in order to entice the viewer most effectively.  With a game though, it’s much easier to know right off whether it’ll good or bad based on things like controls and gameplay.  If a game has terrible controls there’s really no way a developer can hide them in a demo.

When I think about it there are very few instances where a demo persuaded me to purchase a game, and even fewer examples of demos that attracted me to games I wasn’t already interested in.  For example, most people consider the Bioshock demo to be one of the best of all time – it helped a ton to introduce the game to casual gamers who might not have already known about it.  It was a perfect demo because it had been made specifically to be a demo. Rather than just pulling out a level from the full game and slapping the demo sticker on it, they mixed gameplay from a couple different parts in the game to give a good impression of the scope of the gameplay.  However, when Bioshock’s demo came out on Xbox Live I already had the limited edition of the game preordered, so I can’t really consider that a contributing factor to my purchase.  In fact, after reviewing the subject in my mind, the only instance I can recall where I bought a game based solely on the demo was Fight Night Round 3.

On the other hand there have been plenty of times when trying out a demo has killed any interest I had in a particular title.  The example that sticks out in my mind the most would have to be Turning Point: Fall of Liberty.  It’s a first person shooter based in an alternate reality WW2 scenario where Germany invaded the United States.  Admittedly I’m a huge fan of WW2 games so the premise intrigued me, and when the demo dropped I made sure to snap it up as quickly as possible.  When I played the game though, the controls were absolute garbage and so I crossed it off of my list of games to buy.  This is just one example but I can think of many more.

One thing I will say is that a demo of a game is usually a very poor way to judge that game as a whole.  There have also been plenty of times where I played a demo and was so-so on it, but then later I played the full game and liked it quite a lot.  Just a couple of examples that come to mind are games like Resistance: Fall of Man and Heavenly Sword.  I didn’t like either game’s demo, but I enjoyed the full finished product more than I expected.

There’s no doubt that demos are good for consumers because it gives us a chance to sample a product before we spend 60 dollars on it.  Still, if I was a game developer and my game was getting pretty good buzz I’d hesitate when it came time to put out a demo for it.  Maybe the best of both worlds is to just hold the demo until a week or so after the game hits the streets so you can capitalize on that first wave of hype.  If your game has problems then they’ll be widely known after that first week so it won’t matter as much if the demo is out there, and you might inspire some people to buy it despite its flaws.

What do you think?

Just like real life

I love the Call of Duty games, especially the online multiplayer, but I can see why some people hate it.  Anyone who has played for any length of time has had an experience identical to this (some strong language):

I saw this on Kotaku and I have to admit I nearly died laughing.  =)

Original link: http://kotaku.com/5157965/the-whitest-cod-players-u-know

Xbox 360 – the new SNES?

Not too long ago I was reflecting back on this generation of consoles.  Of course to an outsider it’s clearly evident that the “winner” in terms of console hardware sales would have to be the Nintendo Wii, and I don’t question that for a second.  Still, there’s a lot to be said of the Wii’s lack of software – i.e. games worth playing.  When it comes to strictly software I’d have to say that the Xbox 360 wins hands down.  In fact it might just be the most complete lineup of any console I’ve ever owned.

So that brought a very important question to my mind…is the Xbox 360 this generation’s SNES?  If you’ve been involved in the gaming community for any length of time and are roughly my age (or better yet, a bit older) you’ll know that most gamers consider the SNES to be the epitome of game consoles.  It had a ton of great games, ranging from established first party franchise titles to lesser-known newcomers in the form of 3rd party titles.  The SNES was on the cusp of the gaming revolution in the United States, coming just before developers and publishers started pandering to wider audiences in order to cash in and just after the technological advances necessary to take the gaming experience to another level.

The Xbox 360 is also in such a period.  With the 360 we’ve seen the standardization of online gaming services.  Xbox Live on the original Xbox was just a nice addition to the gaming experience, but the 360 (as well as the other consoles, though none have achieved to such a high degree as the 360) has made online services, including multiplayer and community features, a necessity.  I cannot imagine playing games without being able to join up with my friends, play cooperatively online, or download arcade games and add-on content for the games I already own.  This has become the rule rather than the exception.

Of course as I mentioned, it’s all about the games.  On the 360, including first and third party titles, we’ve had a steady flow of quality games since the launch.  Sure there have been dry periods but on the whole I can say I’ve always had a game to look forward to no matter what time of year it was.  Right now for instance I’m looking forward to the GTA4 expansion, FEAR 2, and Resident Evil 5.  That’s a total of three huge releases in the typically slow late winter period.  In the busiest time of the year, the holiday rush, we’ve been buried consistently in great games and each year has been proclaimed the “best year in gaming.”  There are almost too many games to play, and even if there’s nothing worth playing that came out recently you can always visit the back catalog of games you probably missed.  That’s far more than I can say of the PS3 (which I own), a system that seems to get a couple quality exclusive titles a year.  Those games are great but they’re too few and far between…hopefully that’ll change this year.

So what do you think?  Ten years from now will gamers be looking back at 2005 – 20?? and  proclaiming it as the best era in gaming because of the 360?  It’s possible.  It’s also possible that the whole “greatest console” or “greatest era” thing is just generational.  Since I played SNES as a kid that’s my favorite era, but since kids growing up today are playing the Xbox 360 (or Wii, PS3) this will be their favorite era.  With all that having been said, nostalagia be damned: this is one hell of a time to be a gamer.

Call of Duty : World at War Review

The hits just keep on coming.  This should be my last game review for a while since, for the most part, I’m caught up with my backlog.  Call of Duty : World at War has a lot riding on it.  It’s the most anticipated and most promising of Treyarch’s contributions to the Call of Duty franchise, and to be honest I have to say that it truly pays off.  With that said I’ve been a big fan of all of the Treyarch-developed Call of Duty games that I’ve played (I missed 1 or 2 of their original Xbox-era games) and I think that they get an extremely negative rap from a lot of people who don’t even take the time to play the games they negatively critique.

With World at War the Call of Duty franchise takes its first steps into the Pacific theater of World War 2.  This is something I’ve been wanting to see for years because it has never been done right, until now.  The game definitely delivers on the more grimy and ugly part of war, rather than the glory of victory associated with the war in Europe.  This “scary side of war” allows for a lot of unique elements to be added to the gameplay beyond storytelling – things like Japanese banzai charges, new cover mechanics for enemies (soldiers hiding in deep brush, or snipers waiting to pick you off from the top of a tree).  There’s also new weapons to play with, including the flamethrower which is always a crowd-favorite whether you’re playing multiplayer or through the singleplayer campaign.  The best thing about fighting in battles from the Pacific theater though, is just the amazing change of pace visually.  Going from demolished European cities to dense and lush jungle environments is a welcome breath of fresh air.

The game includes everything you’d want from a Call of Duty game.  Epic battles that make your speakers thump and your heart race?  Check.  Realistic locales, weapons and vehicles?  Check.  Nerve-wracking defense missions forcing you to fight to the last man as you pray for backup?  Check.  It almost sounds derivative at this point but it’s what I love about the series.  If you have any interest in World War 2 and the battles that took place all those years ago you should look no further, this is your game.  The story plays out on two fronts – first the Pacific theater, where you play Pvt. Miller of the Marine Raiders.  You go from being rescued on Makin Island to the Battle of Okinawa until you and your squad are left without ammo, aid, or any form of reinforcement as you’re pushed towards the breaking point.  The second part of the game (not the second half, since you play through these two phases round-robin style) takes place in Russia and Germany.  You play Pvt. Dimitri Petrenko of the Red Army as you and your comrades help to drive the German army back to Berlin.

There has been a lot of fuss about this second portion of the game.  A lot of people were upset when they heard that there would, indeed, be some action from the European theater.  I don’t mind it a bit.  Because the Pacific theater levels are so gritty and tense I think it’s important to switch the levels up a bit, and that’s exactly what the European levels do.  They’re both linked in that they tell a similar story (in both cases you’re a soldier that has been rescued by your comrades) and it varies things just enough that you won’t get burned out from one environment or the other.  The European side of the story also approaches the campaign much differently than we’ve seen in previous Call of Duty games, so it’s not as if old content has been rehashed.

The game runs great obviously.  That’s one of the most astonishing things about the Call of Duty franchise – the games always run at 60 frames per second and still have beautiful environments and textures.  The explosions and gunfire interact with the environment very nicely, creating some of the best particle effects I’ve seen in a game.  The Call of Duty control style is also the optimal way of playing a first person shooter with a controller.  Basically, they’ve nailed all of the important stuff, and the game feels, looks and sounds great.  All-in-all it took me about 8 hours to complete the single player campaign by myself, but I always like to go back through and play on Veteran (the hardest difficulty) so you can double that…not to mention the fact that you can play through with a friend, but I’ll get to that next.

So, multiplayer.  In my opinion the Treyarch CoD games have always had better multiplayer components.  After Call of Duty 4 came out I was a little concerned though, because CoD4’s multiplayer, with its leveling system similar to a roleplaying game, was extremely addicting.  Treyarch was able to deliver this same experience with all new maps and perks, not to mention weapons and even vehicles.  They didn’t stop there though, they even added a couple bonuses into the mix.  First, World at War finally brings co-op to Call of Duty.  You can play through the entire singleplayer campaign (minus a couple brief levels which were meant to be played with one player only) with up to 3 other buddies.  It works great and in my experience there’s absolutely no problems with lag.  They’ve also introduced a new multiplayer gametype altogether in the form of “Zombie Nazi” mode.

Zombie Nazi mode is unlocked when you beat the game, and once you unlock it you get to play not only by yourself but with friends as well.  It’s a pretty basic premise, and one that’s completely contrary to the rest of the game.  You’re locked in a house, zombie nazis are trying to break in, you want to keep them out.  There’s only the one level but it’s really fun to play, and the game is structured in successive rounds, with each round bringing more and more zombies for you to fight off.  Much like Left 4 Dead, it’s a blast.  That’s all I really wanted to say about World at War’s multiplayer because I’ve already written a post about it:

http://davekemick.com/blog/call-of-duty-world-at-war-preview/

The game isn’t perfect.  The story is kind of…well, worthless as harsh as that sounds.  It seems like the past few CoD games have tried to shoe-horn in a story.  I find this kind of unnecessary when it comes to World War 2 because the whole conflict in and of itself was a story.  I just like replaying and “reliving” the battles that went on, nevermind some attachment I’m supposed to have to the in-game characters above and beyond what I did already.  The story is serviceable, but not necessary and certainly not perfect.  My other gripe about the game is that the AI is dumb sometimes.  Every now and then you’ll see a Japanese or German soldier just standing and looking at you, not firing his weapon or anything, just watching.  Sometimes you can sneak right by a soldier and they don’t even really pay any attention to you – then all of the sudden you’re getting bonzai’d with a bayonet from behind.  Honestly though, a lot of the times the AI was acting dumb I was kind of happy about it.  They call the difficulty “Hardened” for a reason.  It’s hard. I’m sure I’ll be even more thankful on veteran.

Another problem is that good guys sometimes look like bad guys, and it’s hard to differentiate between the two.  This could be chalked up to the whole fog of war thing, but it can also be frustrating.  One nice thing is that, unlike previous games in the series the penalty for killing teammates doesn’t seem to be as harsh.  A lot of the time in Call of Duty 4 I’d accidentally shoot one of my AI partners in the heat of battle and the level would end, prompting me to restart from a checkpoint because Infinity Ward despises traitors.  That didn’t happen to me a single time during my play-through of World at War, and I know for a fact that I took out a couple of my teammates…always by accident, I swear.

So all in all this is a great addition to the franchise.  Is it better than Call of Duty 4?  I’d say yes, but I’m a sucker for a good WW2 shooter.  CoD4’s singleplayer campaign might have been a bit better but considering the entire package there’s no question in my mind.  World at War basically takes everything CoD4 did, turns back the dial 60 years, adds some sprinkles on top and serves up a nice hot dish of FPS soul food.  There’s no question that the multiplayer portion of the game, both competitive and cooperative, is the best of any game this season.  Gears of War 2 is fun and all but it just doesn’t have the hook that keeps me coming back to it everynight like World at War has.  The leveling system, the perks, the unlockables…not to mention 4 player co-op and nazi zombie slaying.  It’s the perfect package.

Plus the news only gets better!  An article went up on Kotaku today reporting that Treyarch is already working on downloadable content for World at War.  It seems that there’s a possibility that they’ll be “bucking the tradition” of just releasing new multiplayer maps.  Perhaps we’ll see some more zombie scenarios?  Or something entirely different?  Only time will tell.  You can read the article by clicking on this sentence.

So please do yourself a favor and at least try Call of Duty : World at War before you buy into the hype that Treyarch is “teh sux0rz.”  At least play the game for yourself (rentals are cheap these days) before you judge it…chances are good that you’ll get some fun out of the deal.  =)

Now Playing:
Jedi Mind Tricks – Walk With Me (Featuring Percee P)
LittleBigPlanet

The New Xbox Experience

This morning (yesterday morning, by the time you’re reading this) I awoke and one of the first things I did was turn on my Xbox 360 to grab the latest software update from Microsoft.  This update at last brings the New Xbox Experience (NXE) to Xbox 360 consoles the world over, giving the platform a refreshing and perhaps much-needed new look.  Of course software plays into Microsoft’s hand quite handily, so they’ve been able to essentially give us an entirely new console experience without giving us a new console at all.  So, how does it work?

Well the first thing that happened after I installed the NXE update was I was prompted to create an avatar.  This is a feature that’s becoming more and more popular these days on gaming consoles, and I’ve blogged about it before.  Basically your avatar is a cartoony representation of yourself.  You get to pick your body type, skin color, facial features, what kind of hairstyle you’d like and so on so that your friends can see and interact with you online.  The hope down the road is that more games will integrate NXE avatars into the gameplay by pulling in a gamer’s avatar rather than relying on their gamertag or gamerpic for identification.  There are two games right now that do just that – firstly is the new title called Kingdom of Keflings, a sort of RTS in-which a giant version of your avatar manages and builds infrastructure.  I haven’t played this game but one of my friends assures me it’s fun.  Secondly is the old standby Xbox Live Arcade classic Uno.  Uno however just lets you project your avatar’s likeness into the game for identification without adding any true gameplay value (after all, what can you add to Uno?).

The new guide system is really pretty, if a initially somewhat confusing.  Everything is much more graphically designed, and artwork has been placed where once there were only lists of text.  There are also many more “blades” on the new dashboard, including sections such as My Xbox for all of your personal info, the Friends section to see and interact with your friends’ avatars, Video and Game Marketplaces, and the Events sections just to name a few.  Basically it’s a lot of content that was already on Xbox Live, but now it has been organized in a much prettier and easier-to-interact with way.

Another of NXE’s cool features is the new party system.  You’ve always been able to get in parties when you’re playing a game, but this functionality has been applied to the dashboard experience as well.  Basically parties let you get a group of your friends in one voice chat instance, and then the party leader can move everyone in the party from one activity to the next.  I tried playing around with the party system a bit today and I have to say it works pretty well once you figure it out.  From the dashboard I was able to get together with a couple of my friends on Xbox Live, and then from there we moved into a few games seemlessly without having to worry about sending or re-sending invites.  The parties also finally add private voice chat for more than 2 players, which is a huge feature that I’ve been waiting for since voice chat was first revealed.

With NXE you can now control a lot of your Xbox 360 from the guide as well, not just the home screen dashboard.  If you’re playing a game or watching a movie and you don’t want to exit, you can do pretty much anything you’d want to do aside from playing with system settings from the guide.  The new guide lets you form parties, listen to music, play whatever is in the disc tray, send messages and view game information.  Top it off with the same fit and finish as you’ll find in the rest of the NXE and you have a winning piece of functional software.

The last feature I want to talk about is Netflix integration.  Netflix has moved into the video streaming space, and more and more players are starting to take advantage of that.  The most popular Netflix set-top box is the Roku which costs $99, but if you take into account the Apple TV these gadgets can cost as much as $300.  In the Apple TV’s case you even have to do some firmware updates just to get the thing to work with Netflix.  Netflix on the Xbox 360 with NXE is extremely simple.  So simple and convenient that I had to fire up my Netflix subscription again just to take advantage of it.

With the launch of NXE, Microsoft has also unveiled their Netflix “Watch Instantly” application which – you guessed it – lets you watch streaming Netflix content.  The application is only about 3 megabytes and installs in seconds, and once you get everything setup you’re presented with all of the Watch Instantly Netflix titles that are on your queue.  That means you get to watch HD content on your TV instead of from behind your computer.  The quality is typical streaming quality, that is to say it’s not the best, but I never ran into any buffering hiccups and the interface is easy to use and very slick.  My only gripe about the whole thing is that originally you were supposed to have the ability to bring parties in to watch Netflix movies.  Unfortunately that feature didn’t make it into the initial release of the NXE, but hopefully they’ll hit us with a patch down the road which takes care of that.

Overall for a free update you can’t really go wrong with the NXE.  It brings the Xbox 360 out of the playskool bright-primary-colors era of 2005 and gives us something much easier on the eyes.  It also adds a lot of functionality, some of which is shallow and aesthetic but there are also plenty of features that make you wonder how you ever lived without them.  Bravo Microsoft.  I also have to give them a tip of the cap for having a relatively painless upgrade process.  For me I never experienced any network issues or errors, everything worked as it should.  That’s a huge contrast with Sony’s recent Playstation updates which have been pretty hit-or-miss, and have needed patches a lot of the time.

Now Playing:
Joystiq Podcast
Gears of War 2, Call of Duty: World at War, Left 4 Dead

Gears of War 2 Limited Edition Unboxing

I switched it up a bit this week and decided to do an unboxing rather than a screencast for a couple reasons.  First and foremost is the fact that I couldn’t think of anything else to talk about, and second I figured it would be a good way to switch up the content.  When I originally started doing videos I didn’t plan for them all to be Mac-related screencasts, that just happened to be how it turned out.  As always thanks for watching!

5 reasons why Xbox Live is better than PSN

This is my follow-up post to the “5 reasons why PSN is better than Xbox Live” post.  I guess the point of these posts is that each service has its merits, but neither is perfect.  I guess that’s the point of competition, isn’t it?  I’ve used both over the past few years (although I must admit I’ve had less time with my Playstation 3 and therefore PSN) and I enjoy using both for various reasons.  So then, without any further delay let’s go ahead and jump into the list!
 

1. Community Integration
   Unlike PSN, all of the features you get with Xbox Live are available in each Xbox Live game.  Basically, Xbox Live’s friend system was designed, from the beginning, to work with every game on the Xbox 360 unlike PSN where it’s up to each developer to integrate their own system.  What that means is there’s a global friends list that I can interact with (including sending/receiving voice and text messages, game invites, picture messages etc.) not only from the Xbox 360 dashboard, but in-game as well.  It doesn’t sound like much but it makes playing with friends a lot easier.  Of course, it should be mentioned that these features come at an expense since, unlike PSN, Xbox Live is not free.       

    

2. Amount of Content
   There’s no question about it – Xbox Live has an almost overwhelming amount of content.  Whether you’re looking for games, video, expansion content, demos or gamerpics you’ll have a lot to choose from.  From the beginning Microsoft has been serious about making Xbox Live Arcade a place to find those experiences, whether classic or not, that give you a taste of that “pop in and play” style of gameplay perfect for short sessions.  Since those initial plans though, games have varied to include full-length experiences as well.  Whether you’re looking for classics like Rez HD or brand new games like Braid, there’s a good chance you’ll find something to suit your style.       

   Of course the Xbox Live Marketplace doesn’t stop there – you can also purchase or rent movies, check out trailers, and sample music videos from the Video Marketplace.  The amount of content still dwarfs what’s available on PSN (videos alone) so, much with Xbox Live Arcade, chances are good that you’ll find a movie you like.

3. Features and Peripherals
   Part of the over-arching Xbox Live experience is utilizing features that are sewn into the system.  It’s the seemingly simple things like being able to listen to music, either on your Xbox 360’s hard drive or streaming over your home network, while playing a game.  I have to tell you the first time you setup Windows Media Center or the Windows Media Extender for the Xbox 360 you won’t help but have a huge smile on your face.  Instantly you’ll be able to use all of the music on your computer in games – so whether you’re killing aliens or flying down a racing track you get that personalized experience that only one’s personal music collection can provide.       

   Aside from features that came with the Xbox 360 out of the box, there’s also a lot of other cool peripherals that Microsoft provides to expand on the experience.  One big selling point to the PS3 was that it used bluetooth, and so any ordinary bluetooth headset would work for voice communication.  That’s cool, but sometimes using such a solution feels like a cheap experience.  The Xbox 360 however, which comes with Microsoft’s own headset made specifically for voice communication on Xbox Live just feels right.  Of course there are also a lot of other peripherals that will cost you money – products like the chatpad for text messaging (I understand that Sony is working on their own version, but it looks a little wonky to me) and the wireless headset to free up some clutter.  I use both, and both work great while making interacting with friends that much easier. 

    

4. Software Updates
   All along Microsoft has been great about adding features to the software of their console.  Sony is a bit slower at this, introducing somewhat out-dated functionality that has existed on other consoles for a while.  Meanwhile, Microsoft is dedicated to delivering two feature-packed updates a year (one in the Spring, one in the Fall).   Some of the features they’ve added in the past updates are the Video Marketplace, MSN messenger integration and even user interface updates.  There’s no better way to keep the experience fresh than by changing things up a bit.       

   Microsoft realizes this and that’s why, 3 years into the consoles life-cycle, they’ve decided to completely revamp the way the dashboard looks.  This fall we’ll see an update that changes the user interface into one that’s a little more modern, and a little less Fisher-Price.  The update will also add new functionality such as Netflix integration and avatars (not to mention live game shows) that will continue to make using the dashboard fun.  The fact that Microsoft is a software company primarily leaves me pretty confident that they can add to their product via incremental software updates without having to worry about pushing out new generations of consoles as often.

    

5. Community
   This is easily the biggest advantage Xbox Live has over PSN.  Live’s community is absolutely huge, and Microsoft is dedicated to keeping them interested.  The last dashboard update included streaming video features like “Major’s Minute” (Larry Hryb’s overview of some of the lastest features the 360 has to offer) and “Community Confidential” (Trixie’s rundown of all of the latest events going on in the Xbox Live community).  That’s only a couple of examples but it’s easy to tell that Microsoft wants to keep their customers happy.       

   The other less glamorous side-effect of having a huge community is that you’ll never have to worry about finding someone to game with online.  Most big games have their own dedicated communities (Halo 3, Call of Duty 4) but even older games retain a presence online.  I remember not too long ago I went back and played Project Gotham Racing 4, and was pleased to find that there were still a ton of people playing.

5 reasons why PSN is better than Xbox Live

This is a series (that’s right, I’ll also do the opposite in favor of Xbox Live) of posts for a while.  After having used both online components for the individual consoles, obviously the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 in this case, I’ve found good and bad things about both.  So then, without wasting much time let’s dive in and start the countdown!

1. User Interface
   I have been a fan of the Playstation 3’s cross-media blade interface since I first saw it on the PSP.  It’s simple, pretty, and intuitive.  Fortunately, not too long ago this approach was also taken when revamping the Playstation Store.  Before the store was overhauled what you saw when you tried to browse or purchase content was what amounted to a pretty, if cluttered, website.  That’s right.  You interacted with the Playstation Store via the PS3’s web browser.  After a lot of complaining from gamers Sony finally realized that perhaps that wasn’t the best route to go (especially for a store that has a lot of potential to make money for them) and so they transformed the store into more of a software-based solution.           

   The new store is absolutely awesome.  Not only is it pretty to look at (I find myself going in there even when I know there’s nothing I want, just to make sure I haven’t missed anything) but it is, at least in my opinion, much easier to use than the Xbox Live Marketplace.  With the Playstation Store you won’t find lists of text denoting what you want to try out.  You get image-based icons in various categories that you can drill down into to find what you want.  You can also search through the content alphabetically so, unlike the Xbox Live Marketplace, you won’t have to scroll through a giant list past the A’s and B’s to finally get to the first letter of your download.  Add to that the simple touches like placing a shopping bag icon next to any content you’ve already downloaded (saving you the time you may have lost redownloading something you didn’t know you already had) and the experience is just plain better.  I’m happy to say that the same system was carried over to their Video Store as well.

    

2. Trophies
   When I first heard that Sony was taking a crack at the beloved achievements system I assumed the worst.  How can an idea so simple be elaborated on?  You do things in games, you’re rewarded with points.  Can’t go very far past that, right?  As it turns out, I was wrong.  Getting trophies is way more fun than getting achievements, for a couple reasons.  One problem with achievements is they can be easily gamed.  For instance, I can go out and rent a game that has a bunch of extremely easy achievements and pad my score by 1,000 points in a weekend.  Sony, by breaking up their trophies into 3 separate difficulty levels, have found a way around that problem.             

   Throughout a game with trophies in it you’ll be presented with opportunities to win Bronze, Silver and Gold trophies plus a Platinum trophy for earning all other trophies available for that game.  Your trophy count for each of these separate levels (Bronze being the easiest to obtain, Platinum being the most difficult) is displayed on your PSN card which is easily accessible from the XMB’s friends list so, if someone has been padding their trophy count with easy-to-get bronze trophies you’ll be able to tell right off the bat.  Another cool feature of the trophy system is that, in order to progress your gamer level you need a certain number of trophies, including certain types of trophies.  So, for instance, say I have a thousand bronze trophies but I need at least 3 gold trophies to progress to the next gamer level rank – I’ll be stuck at my current level until I go out and grab those golds.  Pretty cool stuff.

    

3. PSP integration
   One huge advantage that the PS3 has over the Xbox 360 is that it already has the PSP, a handheld multimedia powerhouse, ready to be integrated with your PS3 experience.  Through remote play you can interact with your PS3 from your PSP (remember how I mentioned they both had the same interface?) and do things like watch videos, listen to music, access the Playstation Store, and even play games.  This gives me a whole bunch of opportunities to interact with PSN from my PSP.  Say, for instance, I just heard that a new game has been added to the Playstation Store.  Unfortunately, I’m not going to be able to get to my PS3 anytime soon but I do have my PSP with me.  As long as I have a wifi connection (built into the PSP) I can use remote play to turn on my PS3 and start the download so it will be waiting for me when I get home.           

   As another example of how cool remote play is, imagine you’re totally addicted to PixelJunk Eden on the PS3.  As with before, you’re away from your PS3 but you want to get your fix and even earn some trophies, so you use remote play to play PixelJunk Eden on your PSP (despite it being a PS3 game) and, since trophies are available even over remote play, you get to add to your trophy count!  Pretty cool stuff.  Just the idea of the established functionality plus potential further integration in the future has been enough for me to add the PSP to my must-own gadgets list.

    

4. Real Currency
   One of my biggest complaints about the Xbox Live Marketplace (and most online gaming-related stores these days) is that they shy away from using actual monetary values for things you purchase.  For example, why say a certain game costs $10.00 when you can instead say it costs 800 Microsoft points?  To avoid confusion, that’s why – and Sony understands this.  Of course equating the money your users spend to funny money does have its financial benefits (users will be much quicker to spend “fake” points instead of actual dollar amounts) but it still seems a little deceitful, doesn’t it?  That also adds another step in the content-purchasing process.  On Xbox Live if I want to purchase something I must first purchase points, then use those points to buy whatever game I’m interested in.  Fortunately, the same is not true for PSN, and as long as I have my account information tied to a credit/debit card, I can quickly make purchases just like on iTunes and guess what!  On the Playstation Store if something costs $10.00, it says $10.00.  Not 800 Space Bucks.           

    

5. PSN IS FREE
   This is a huge feature.  Microsoft charges $50 a year for their Xbox Live service while PSN is 100% free.  You can play your games online without spending a single cent.  This is my biggest response to anyone who gets down on PSN because it doesn’t have a particular feature that is available on Xbox Live – PSN is free.  They’re allowed to lag a little behind despite making a ton of progress of late, just because they aren’t billing me yearly.  I accept that.  With PSN there’s absolutely no barrier to entry because they’re banking on your liking the content that’s available and maybe purchasing a game or two.  I have to say, spending $20 on the PSN store for a couple games is much easier when you know you aren’t being billed to use the service.  Just sayin’.           

   Runners Up: 
   These are just a couple features I like about PSN over Xbox Live, but didn’t get their own specific bullet points.  First off, content.  Sony has made an effort to bring original and unique content to PSN over the same old arcade game rehashes that we see all-to-often on Xbox Live.  Games like Fl0w, PixelJunk Monsters, PixelJunk Eden, Super Stardust HD as well as future titles such as Fat Princess and Flower prove that Sony is committed to bringing the goods.

   Another huge feature of PSN is the ability to download full games, not just arcade games.  I’ve already spoken highly about the power of releasing Siren, a somewhat-niche title, as a download but this has worked for other titles too.  Games like Warhawk and Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty have offered full-game experiences without having to go to the store and purchase a physical copy.  The main reason this is only possible on PSN is the Playstation 3’s hard drive capacity.  It generally doubles the Xbox 360’s in most cases, plus you can upgrade your own hard drive rather than spending ridiculous amounts of money for a proprietary solution as Microsoft has done.  Being able to deliver full content experiences via digital distribution is the next big thing in gaming and I’m happy Sony is on-board.