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Aug
23
Posted by : | On : August 23, 2007
There are too many books, movies, and games out. There. I said it.
I can’t keep up with it all. I’ve got a stack of books next to the bed, and piles of movies and games in front of the TV. Sure, there are worse problems in the world. But do you ever feel overwhelmed by it all? It’s blasphemy, I know.
My problem? If only I didn’t want to check out everything. There ya go, I admitted it. I’m an entertainment addict.
What about you?
I gave up ages ago and started making cuts.
Pulp sci-fi and fantasy don’t add enough to my world view to make them worth the time, so they had to go. I once would read sci-fan books that came highly recommended, but found that most of those weren’t worth it either and have become even more selective. Even with an entire genre out of the picture, I still have a waist high stack of books in my to-read pile…
Television wastes my time with commercials and inferior programming. After Buffy ended and the Simpson’s quality wained, away it went. If enough buzz gets generated around a show, I’ll watch it on DVD some day.
Movies and games I still get panicky about. I stopped going to movie theaters for a while because it’s not a cost effective viewing experience. But even with a 5-out online rental plan, I can’t keep up. Don’t even get me started on games. I don’t run Windows, so that rules out a wide swath of games. I won’t pay Sony money directly for hardware, so a PS3 is years down the road. I don’t own a 360 yet and that’s driving me right up the wall with Bioshock out and Mass Effect, Assassin’s Creed, etc, on the way.
Great. Now you’ve got me in a full out tailspin. The rest of my day will be spent in anxious awareness that there’s media happening that I will never experience. Thanks a lot.
*kniw*
I’ve set all else aside to play this game called Bioshock. Have you heard of it?
;)
Bio-what now? You’re not helping my situation, Mr. Jones.
I just have to keep repeating, “65n, 65n, 65n,” to myself until next spring sometime…
Corvus, this’ll really get you — I’m simply electing not to play Bioshock right now. I’m going to wait til the hype dies down a little. I’m sick of hearing about it!
And why wait for the 65n chips? 3 year warranty… they’ll fix the thing at no cost to you IF it breaks. I’ve owned two now and not had any problems (a regular and an Elite).
Why wait? Principle. The current models are still flawed heat monsters, whatever heat sink compensation has been added in. Not only will the 65n run cooler, but will use less energy too. I recognize that giving in and buying a 360 at all will invite some to call my ‘principle’ into question, but as a storyteller with a focus on participatory media, there’s only so much resistance I can muster!
Additionally, another price drop or post-holiday sale will be sure to sweeten the pot for me!
Not to mention the mental images I have of landfills full of defective 360s…
Oh, and I grok waiting for the hype to die down. After all, I’m the one stubbornly not buying the console!
I just think it’s funny that the 360 is still preferred over PS3, even with red ring of death.
..and the Wii to the 360 even with the lack of emphasis on photo realistic graphics, eh?
Yeah, the Wii definitely owns the whole Family Budget Kiddie niche now. I’m still waiting til they become a little more available, though I have seen a few in stores.
I just know I’m going to burn out on the novelty of the Wiimote and Wii Sports, though, and aside from Zelda (or my old GameCube games) I don’t imagine there’s much else I’ll want to play.
The 360 just has so much to offer in terms of ‘serious’ games and story… it’s my sweetheart for this generation. Plus the whole Live thing just changes the way I see the future of gaming. It’s like a gaming museum and Web 2.0 social app rolled into one. MS has truly won on that end of things — that could be a decade-long advantage as I’m sure future MS consoles will maintain all player achievements, friends lists, etc. It’s a living network/system that people will not want to abandon, like a console + arcade museum + MySpace. Can’t beat it.
In fact, I feel that the social networking aspects of the 360 are what qualify it as a “next generation” console, not its graphical horsepower. It’s also 90% of the reason I want one.
I think we’ll see more and more compelling titles for the Wii over the next year. The 360 is just now getting titles that I feel are worth buying a console for. The first rush of 360 titles were merely meh-worthy. Worth picking up if you own the console anyway, but not anything that couldn’t have been delivered on the fist MS brick. The Wii has the extra development barrier of the unique control system.
Regardless, I won’t be buying a PS3 until I can buy one used for cheap on Craig’s List.
You would probably like Oblivion and Condemned. Saints Row, though at this point you might as well just wait for GTA4.
There are an insane amount of interesting titles coming out in the next few months.
John Woo’s Stranglehold comes out next week. October should feature: Blacksite, Half Life Orange Box (HL2, Ep. 1, 2, Portal, and Team Fortress 2 all in one box!), Assassin’s Creed, Army of Two (supposedly ultimate co-op game). Halo 3 is coming as well, although I’ve always felt the series was overrated. Mass Effect – Bioware’s epic new sci-fi RPG. That was supposed to be out soon, but it may have been bumped. That one is MIA.
2008 should bring GTA4 and Fallout. It’s going to be absolutely sick.
I played a bit of Saints Row and was underwhelmed. HL Orange box will run under WINE so I’ll Steam it. Halo 3 I don’t care about.
Stranglehold has me curious. Mass Effect and Assassin’s Creed (along with Bioshock) are must buy/play games. Fallout… well… I’d play it if I owned the console, but I’d damn sure rent it first.
Hey there…
Bioshock has been waaaay cool, but far too scary for me! Boyfriend is playing it right now, and I think he’s kind of getting freaked out too (but he’s trying to hide it like a man.)
He’s got a huge backlog of games, so I think he knows how you feel. He just bought a PS3 (very cool) but there are no games for it! We had a Wii (impulse purchase) but we returned it unopened after realizing we would probably get tired of it after a month. :-|
I’m going to get my own 360 if Halo 3 is any good, just so we can play online co-op. In the meantime, geez, it’s a good thing we don’t have any kids… they’d probably be unbathed and starving right now. Worried about the red ring of death, sure, but we make all console purchases thru Costco which has the most awesome return policy ever…
Sara,
Either way MS will repair it for free, up to 3 years. They even pay shipping. All you do is call them and they send you a box. People are giving them a really hard time about the failures, and they did take some time owning up to it but I think they deserve credit for doing the right thing.
My wife’s car broke down just after the 3 year warranty and there was nothing that could be done, and the dealer wouldn’t honor anything. So MS is officially less of a weasel than car salesmen. :)
Eric–yeah, a lot of people tend to have an immediate reaction when it comes to MS products. I guess I never felt really intensely either way about MS, other than the fact the 360 is really kicking ass in terms of their lineup. Personally, I’m salivating over:
Rock Band
Guitar Hero III
Mass Effect (I get chills when I think about this one!)
Halo 3
I’ve never been excited about so many games at once.
And as for books and movies? :-| I don’t even know what’s out anymore…(blame it on my Guitar Hero addiction).
TV Shows: Journeyman and Bionic Woman are two sci-fi shows on NBC this fall. When did NBC get so cool? I’m impressed that standard channels are making an attempt to compete with sci-fi channel, and do innovative things.
Books: Catching up on some Richard Stark, Lawrence Block, and Larry Niven. And there are always books on the craft.
Oh, Corv… I recently found out that people who have been sending in their busted 360s have been getting back ones with the same case but entirely new guts.
This means that there’s a very good chance that repairs done after the 65n chips are in production will just replace the flawed architecture with the new. At least, that’s how I read it.
They’d be absolutely stupid to repair the faulty systems with just new versions of the faulty boards after 65n comes out anyway. It goes against the profit motive, so I expect them to completely correct all problems once that happens. Unless they just want to keep spending money to repair 360s indefinitely. I don’t think that’s their goal. ;)
I heard similar things about Bioshock – watched a friend play and wasn’t so impressed. Last good game I played was Gears of War…so I’m not much of a judge :)
Also, I don’t have TV – and I only catch shows on DVD if I really feel like it. Jericho, Heroes are the only ones I watch online religiously. Otherwise, I found too much slush on TV – same goes for books and movies and music. I know that sounds horribly elitist, but I am incredibly picky about what I’ll spend my time on.
Best of luck wading through it all :D