The random thoughts of a random person
Summer isn’t even officially here and I’m already thinking about winter, not because I want the the snow back (although I would love a wee snow boarding trip about now) but because Modern Warfare 3 will be released in November, I’ll probably buy it in December and then still be playing it this time next year.
The only difference is that since my piece of crap Xbox died (again) I’ll be playing it on the Ps3.
I called to cancel my Xbox live subscription, simply because it’s a broken piece of hardware that just sits there mocking me gathering dust. Having suffered the frustration of the 3 rings of death on 3 separate occasions I still havent bothered to even find out if I can get it fixed.
While on the phone with the Xbox serf I explained to him that I had no working Xbox so I had no need in a subscription, so he then offered it to me at half price. Eh why? IT DOESNT WORK!
3 days past warranty and the Xbox has died again. Don’t think I’ll bother replacing it this time, the world of kinect will be lost on me. Although in fairness I don’t really have time anyway….
When my Xbox broke for the 3rd time I decided that I needed to ramp up my home media set up and add a PS3. This is something I had been looking to do for a while, the lack of a Blu Ray player with the Xbox and the collapse of HD DVD I was missing the ability to watch disk based movies. I do stream most of the movies I watch via Netflix or previously through Xbox marketplace but I still like the ability to buy DVD’s and now Blu Rays.
The other thing is that being that I don’t have cable TV, I either play games, watch movies, or TV box sets, and once the Xbox went there was a void that needed filled. I know what you’re thinking I should get my fat ass outside and get away from the screen but as winter is rolling in walking my dog will keep me outside plenty without thinking about spending more time than that in the negative degrees Celsius. But now I have a PS3 and my Xbox (under warranty) has been fixed and returned to me.
So what to play?
In the red corner for the Xbox is Halo reach, I played the other Halo carnations to death, with the exception of ODST, but to be honest I haven’t really been taken in by Reach as much as I thought I would. It’s a good game, a solid game, but I think having played so much Modern Warfare in between titles I don’t know if I don’t prefer that for the online multiplayer.
In the blue corner for PS3 is Modnation racers, the last racing game I played was Forza 2 on the Xbox which I enjoyed but this is nothing like Forza. Its more like Mario Kart games of previous years, and I loved those games. I think that in some respects MNR is something like what we could have expected this to be the game they would have created if they had the console that could support it. I can’t say that its better than Mario Kart, that would be like trying to compare Star Wars a new hope with revenge of the Sith, different eras different yard stick to measure its worth.
I think the bottom line is that I’m a console whore and will play whatever when ever and have no allegiance to either, but if the Xbox breaks again and isn’t covered by the warranty I won’t be replacing it.
With me announcing my desire to buy a Bluray player I thought I would point out that I have been watching a lot more movies recently via Xbox live market place. It’s a really good set up when your are too lazy or hung-over to get off your arse and rent a movie you can lie on your couch and pick one, download, watch and all legally. The big drawback for me is that I live in Canada and the selection on marketplace is criminally small in comparison to what is available in the US or the UK (or so I’m told I’ve not seen the UK selection).
I’m sure there will be logic and reason behind it, probably something to do with the agreements with studios but it’s really frustrating. Larger selection, improved options, better service, happier customer,.
