Gates & Gaming
Before I go on, I have to say that Bill Gates is one of my personal heroes. I don't exaggerate when I say I would love to learn from that man. I have always been a fan of Microsoft and what they do. So by no means is this a personal vengeda against the company or the man. I simply disagree heavily on their current stance with XBox 360.
It is without a doubt that the year of the old (2006) belongs to the 360. Games like Gears of War really took the system to the next level. Other games included Call of Duty, and the not so raved about Blue Dragon (a great game but heavily underrated). So when asked a question of what Microsoft has been doing for the past year (it's NOT so wasted one year as Gates claims). The answer is comprisingly H.G.L or Halo Gears Live.
Gates is seriously underestimating his competion in this console war. The online in 360 is great and fun but what makes you so sure that PS3 and Wii will not adapt the same functionality. The scores, tallies, friends systems, their all nice. But if you've ever played a game like counter strike. How often do you actually utilize the steam friends list. I'm not saying that it's not a good feature, it simply doesn't take priority or add to the gameplay experience.
Microsoft's pillar games like Gears of War and Halo are fun, yes. But in the end their just very good shooters. The system offers nothing else in the IP realm that might come close to games like Final Fantasy, which I might remind you have always carried the Sony machine technically year after year. Games like Tekken which I expect to see sweat drops outside of CG. Grandturismo HD which will put some people as close to driving simulator as one can get. The sheer amount of games comming out in late February, March, April, and the months to follow will all rival Resistance. So difference is, while games like Final Fantasy break ground level, the games to follow regardless of IP always push the envelop further. I'm not going to get into the technical aspects of the Cell, the YES isolated graphics processor (which comes only slightly short of the combined power of the 360's cpu and gpu), and finally the tremendous amount of space that is there to take people's breathe away.
While the Xbox will continue to do well for the next few years to come, we will see it's limitiations in Halo 3. And it will only be on par with games being released less than half a year into the launch of PS3. How about we all wait and see.
2 comments:
The friends feature in Steam is actually used a lot. The problem is that it was initially very buggy and now that Valve is starting to fix it; it's being meet with a luke-warm welcome. :(
I do believe social networking is still the future of gaming in every online genre of gaming.
I don't dispute the validity of the friends system, only emphasize it's lack of importance in grand scheme of gameplay.
Although I agree that social networking in video games is an exciting aspect of video games there are still those who log on to spend the little free time they have to have fun and not be insulted by kids with squeeky voices going through puberty or worse yet thirty year olds trying to fit in with the former.
I simply disagree that this feature alone is exclussive to the 360 and can support the system on that basis alone.
As the price gap narrows, and software expands I don't forsee the 360 holding the crown in the years to come (although it hands down was the winner of 2006).
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