Sorry if you guys are tired of my constant up and down and bitching about the 360, but I'm really tired of Microsoft and let me vent just once more.
I was pretty okay with everything until I read Lead Salad's post on the price hike on LIVE and it's just kind of sent me into a spiral.
I know that it's only 10 dollars more a month and that it's not a big deal, but I'm just tired of getting nickel and dimed by M$. I'm well aware that I've spent well over a hundred bucks on useless themes and avatar crap, but this really bothers me. I "deactivated" my auto renewal of Gold Membership and it's up in July of next year so I'll see what happens, but I really feel trapped as a consumer by this machine.
I want to keep my 360, but I think it's fair to say that my 360 WILL break. It's not a matter of "if" as Amateria once said, but a matter of "when." They break. It's what 360's do. It's a shame that as consumers we've allowed ourselves to be okay not with a console that will just not function properly after 8 or 10 years or so, but a machine with such a huge fail in it that it just stops working at any time. It could be broke out of the box or 3 years from now, but it WILL break. I refuse to buy another machine when my goes out again. It blows my mind when M$ brags about sales figures because in my mind the numbers greatly skewed. How many of those sales have been from guys like us that had to purchase another machine because our 1st, 2nd or 3rd broke? I think you'd all agree that this revelation for myself leaves me in an interesting spot. Why put more money into a system that I know will break and that I have no intention of buying again once it does? Why buy more games if I know I can't play them in another year or so?
The other thing that has me trapped in is that my two brothers and my dad all have a 360 and they'd be really upset if I got rid of mine. For those of you that don't know my oldest brother is a missionary in Indonesia and playing Call of Duty 2 (the only shooter that can run decently on his terrible internet) with me is one of his few releases from a very stressfuly lifestyle.
I'd bet that I've had my LIVE subscription for longer than 90% of all LIVE members so I think I've been around long enough to form a solid opinion of M$ and LIVE.
Over the last 2 days I've matched and confirmed shipment on the rest of my 360 games that aren't 360 exclusive so I can pick them up on PS3. I'm left with the HALOs, Crackdown, CoD 2, L4D, Mass Effect 1, Tiger 09, Gears 1, Condemned (the sequel is on PS3 thank goodness) and my back catalog of old XBOX games, but an original XBOX purchase isn't hard to do.
What this post boils down to is HALO Reach. I'm really excited for the game and playing with you guys, but as this post points out I don't want to drop another 60 bucks on a game that I can't play in a year or so. We can hardly all find the time to play together as it is.
I think my frustration is justified and was just wondering if you guys would weigh in on it and tell me if I'm crazy or not.
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Like I said in an earlier post, I wish Microsoft would give us more exclusive stuff for our yearly fee. This ESPN deal is awesome and I'd love to see more stuff like it.
ReplyDeleteI STILL don't understand getting games you've already played on PS3. Trading stuff out is fine, but why not get new things for your trouble (even if it is multi-platform)?
And you say that all 360s WILL break, as if it's written in stone somewhere. Obviously a lot of them do, but I'm pretty sure Carpartz has had his since 2006 and hasn't had a problem with it. I'm curious to see the fail rates on the new model 360s, too.
And just a reminder: PS3s do break, too. Obviously not as much as 360s, but it can happen. My oldest brother's PS3 broke for good, slightly after its 3 year anniversary and after having other trouble with the disc drive. My former roommate had problems with his, too, in his first year of ownership. And I'd even say it's worse with PS3 since there's no warranty and you can't just transfer your hard drive like you can with a busted 360, so you'll lose saved games, etc.
Well, rather than adding any MORE fuel to the flame war, I'll just end by trying to be more amiable with this statement: I like having a 360 AND a PS3.
Obviously, PS3s do break and only time will tell on the fail rate of the new 360s, but that falls into the category of me buying another one. Also, the only reason there was a warranty on the 360 was because there was such a massive problem with them breaking. They were trying to save face. I don't know one person that uses their 360 on a regular basis that hasn't owned more than one.
ReplyDeleteAlso, you can switch out the hardrives on the PS3 it's just not as simple as on the 360. Brjahu or Mazen could tell us how.
As far as rebuying games on PS3 those are games that I really love and getting rid of them altogether isn't an option for me. Also, there aren't any other games I want at the moment or there are and they're still too much in price/points or I'm just going to borrow them from you guys.
I watched a video recently on how easy it was to transfer data between harddrives on the 360. Definitely a plus. And yes, I agree, it is inevitable that they will break. I really believe Sony makes a product with much higher quality.
ReplyDeleteAs a person who deals with stuff like this in retail, let me say that it doesn't make any sense to sell something you have, for something that does the comparable function you were getting, be that a old 360 for a new one, a 360 for a ps3, or a 360 game for the same game on PS3. Strictly from a financial perspective, it doesn't make any sense.
ReplyDeletePersonally though, I'm probably gonna go into the category of "crazy." Not full-blown, but it feels a little bit misguided or something. You've have your xbxo long enough to create an opinion, but your frustrations with Microsoft are clouding sound judgment on what a good idea and a bad idea is. I'm gonna side with Salad on this one - it's great having both systems, and it's impossible to deny that your "social time" spent playing games is overwhelmingly weighted to the 360.
As for Reach, you're ass better get it. Of course it'll have issues, but it's gonna be a blast. Co-op story, firefight, multiplayer, and Salad and I were throwing around the idea of making a more formal CTF team and making custom games with other teams online.
I like owning both systems too. Let me know how that 360-esque controller works out for you... it would definitely get me to play more on my ps3.
I know financially it's retarded and if I had to actually purchase with cash all those games again I wouldn't do it, but because of goozex I can do it for a fraction of the price.
ReplyDeleteYou're right though, my frustrations with M$ are clouding my judgement and I'm not saying I'm dropping 360 altogether yet.
Of course my social time is spent on 360...that's what you guys play. We had a friggin blast on Resistance 2 that one night and we never played again. Still haven't done LBP either. I have played a ton of MW2 on PS3 alone though.
Of course I'll be getting Reach and we'll hardly play that too, but it'll be fun while it lasts. I don't know how you're planning to make a "regular" CTF team with the varying schedules and the fact that Lead Salad is literally out of town for a week at a time regularly. Oh, and the fact that we've tried about 6 other times in the past and it's yet to work.
In closing...Salad should go back to driving a bus. He stayed up a lot later back then.
Everyone: I know that you guys here have all purchased more than one 360. If you take away any warranty or price drop you may get (Amateria) would you buy another 360 at full retail price if the one you have right now broke again?
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about clouded judgement, but I think my logic is sound.
Amateria: The only games that have a monthly subscription fee are MMOs so saying that the 360 keeps you from paying every game a fee is inaccurate. PC players have been playing many of the games we love for free the whole time we've been paying. You're right about it being a great service and it def streamlines gaming, but the price is still too high.
That's true about the MMO stuff. I was thinking of the past rumor that Activision was considering a "pay to play" add on to the Call of Duty series. This has since been squashed. Who would pay for an MMO run through a service their already paying for though? 15 a month plus the 50/60 a year? yikes.
ReplyDeleteAnd I would buy another one, much to my wife's dismay. I get too much out of it, and am far too connected in gaming with it. I would probably see how long I could hold off without it, and probably end up playing all my older stuff, or finishing Zelda on the Wii or something. Gosh... I hope I'm not jinxing myself, (and not taking Halo: Reach into consideration) my 360 breaking would do wonders for my personal gaming life.
It's probably better he doesn't drive a bus any more. We were all staying up way too late, but people's lives weren't in our hands when we showed up tired to work.
As for finding time... it's hard, no doubt, but it's still possible. We tried the whole "same time each week thing" before, but now we actually have a reason to make that work. Prior we were doing that supplementary to our usual gaming gluttony.
Ok I had to make a profile cause I got tired of just reading this and wanted to start participating in the discussions. I def could see why your upset about your xbox but has the last one you got messed up yet? The original appears to be much more flawed and a much higher breakdown rate but no one I know who got the 360 after they fixed the heating problem has had problems (as far as I know). Also microsoft might not have the exclusives but their online interface is much more advanced than the ps3's (to my knowledge).
ReplyDeleteIf I were you I would use the ps3 for exclusives and keep the 360 for online multiplayer considering the fact that I still see you guys on there quit a bit. Plus everyone loves the controllers. It sucks that microsoft is raising the price but if they continue to update xbox live with huge improvements every couple years id say it worth it. Also microsoft fixes some problems with the 360s for free, they took my box in when it broke and I had another one in within two weeks and a free xbox live card to make up for my lost time. At least they're handeling it well.
I have a buddy that has owned his ps3 for 2-3 years now and has had it fixed by sony 3 times and each time it was gone for 4-8 weeks. That's not the case with everyone but it still sucks. In conclusion I think you should stick with the xbox for multiplayer and the ps3 for exclusives. I also can't afford to have a 360 and ps3 and would miss playing with you guys (I plan to be online more for the next cod).