Here is all my Family knows:
We have 8 computers and 1 laptop. Only 3 computers are out, and really only one gets used. The other 5 are upgraded as far as they can go but still useless so they sit in a closet.
I was a hard core PC Gamer, but I can't afford it anymore. Even a High End PC can run you $2000.00 to $5000.00 dollars, and then in 6 months to a year your opening it up and upgrading. That is why PC's have doors on them that swing open and consoles do not. You always need more Ram, a new Video Card, a new power supply, new processor, and then 6 months go by and your out of luck. There is an old saying that a friend of mine who works in the computer industry says is their company motto, "Never make anything that is permanent always make something that has to be replaced." Great for the companies that make computers, ram, video cards, mobo's, power supplies, and processors. This is great for people who have unlimited income, but for the rest of the real world, you can only do this so many times before the bank runs dry.
We are also so tired of compatibility issues with the PC. You install a game and it has issues with Vista, XP, Drivers, Virus Software or any other number of issues. This requires emailing Tech or talking to Tech and getting your PC set up just the right way to run it, but that configuration only works with that one game, the next game will have you re-configuring your PC in whole other way. I have yet to drop a game in my Wii, 360, or PS3 and have any issues.
My family is done with PC Gaming, and the results are very noticeable. The stress in playing a game is gone, just drop and play...no calling Tech support, no spending an hour configuring your system to run that one game. Our wallet is thicker with money, no more going out and buying $500.00 video cards, or ram, or any other myriad of things that a new game may require, now we just drop that new game in and it plays.
Are there draw backs to playing only on consoles, sure. Frame rate, Graphics, and Some Games not available on consoles, especially great games like WOW, and Diablo and a ton of MMORPG's. We are willing to sacrifice though just to have more money to buy more games and no stress in playing those games because we no longer have to Tweak or Upgrade components, and knowing that the console we have will work for about 5 years before needing another one, unlike the PC which you may need to get a new one in less then 6 months if you can't upgrade a component.
Simply put it is quite a bit easier in this economy to shell out $400.00 for a console and have a huge list of games that will already play on it no problems, then to spend $3000.00 on a gaming PC that might not work right out of the box with the latest game.
Working directly in the industry, we have seen a major decline in buying Blu-Ray products. The magic price for Blu-Ray discs right now is anything $19.99 or below. Even Blu-Ray player owners are opting for the cheaper dvd's right now, telling me they will start buying Blu-Ray discs again when the economy gets better. I own a PS3 and had been buying any new release Blu-Ray disc that I could find on sale for $20.00 or less, but now that my portfolio has taken a significant hit, and continues to do so, my family only buys new releases on dvd's, which we can typically find for around $13.99. In an economy where people start counting dollars and trying to make that dollar stretch even further, Blu-Ray players and even Blu-Ray disks all of sudden become a higher end luxury that can wait, and we all know what waiting can do to an industry like this!
Till my family see's the economy take a permanent up swing and stabilize for a significant amount of time, we will no longer be buying Blu-Ray discs at all, instead resorting to either buying the cheaper dvd's with an intention of buying them on Blu-Ray later on down the road or out right renting the movies from Netflix or Redbox. Sad but true!
Have to agree with this Op piece. For me and my wife, we are both trading our DS Lites in. It just isn't for us, as adults. We have about 40 games for it, but have yet to complete one. I think the DS is a GREAT product. My niece loves it and she is 14. We have been saving the games we bought and re-gifting them to her over birthdays and holidays. I am sure there are plenty of adults who do love the DS lite, we just happen to be the adults who don't. The DSi is not a new piece of hardware that we will be buying, though I have a feeling once my niece figures out the new one has a camera she will want to trade up.
My family is what you would call the average consumer. We don't hack anything and pay retail for everything. We bought 25 UMD movies, and still buy UMD movies. The one thing we won't do is pay over $9.99 for any UMD movies. When UMD movies came out they were HUGELY overpriced, for absolutely nothing but the bare bones of a movie. Now places like Gamestop and Circuit City regularly have them for $4.99 and up, or buy one at $9.99 get one free. There was NO way my family was going to pay $29.99 for Spiderman 3 on UMD. We own it now but at the $9.99 price range. We have started downloading movies from the PSN onto our PS3 and then transferring them to our PSP's, but the DRM that Sony has in acted on that will kill that. When you have 4 PSP's but can only transfer twice that is HORRIBLE...we can switch out one UMD on our 4 PSP's at any given time with no DRM...so that HUGE limit on downloads on the PSN will stop us from buying anymore movies for our PSP's.
We own around 70 games on the PSP. Once again price point is the sticking issue with us. God of War on the PSP for $39.99 is ridiculous. That is just to close of a price to next gen consoles that we end up spending that money on a game for the PS3 or 360. Even $29.99 is a hard sell, but that will have us coming closer to parting with our money then $39.99 ever will. The release forecast for this year however looks horrible. Go to Gamestop.com and just look at future releases for the rest of the year, you get a measly 3 pages, while the DS goes on forever and ever. The story did not cover if there was more difficulty in programming on the PSP as compared to the DS, or licensing fee's imposed by Sony compared to Nintendo...would like to know the actual comparison of in house cost and fee's of both units, that might explain the high cost of games for the PSP.
Finally on top of that is future releases of hardware for the PSP. When the PSP came out there was a ton of hardware for it. I bought a small portable home theater for my PSP, which recently went out. I went to Gamestop to replace and there was nothing, and the few things they had in the way of speaker systems were for the PSP 2000 and not backwards compatible for my PSP 1000. Went to buy a new PSP 2000 and the thing seems actually flimsier then the original. If the PSP 3000 is even flimsier then the 2000, then it won't hold up to everyday use. I understand that you cut cost and parts get cheaper, but on a hand held you don't want to skimp on external parts that break easier...components inside I understand, but don't make the external weaker . I am anxious to actually purchase a new PSP 3000, but if the external make-up is weak and poor I will yet pass again.
So to break it down for us, Price Points on new releases both movies and games are too high, as the product evolves it seems to be getting weaker externally, and there is a huge lack of third party hardware peripherals, and when there is, it isn't backwards compatible.
So there you have, just from an average consumers view.
I found the Demo to be very enjoyable, except for the Grappling Hook. Using the Stick I found it to be highly inaccurate in terms of where I was trying to launch the hook. I resorted to the actual pad for play and found it to be more accurate, something I think the developers also noticed as they let you play pad or stick.
This is a download to try, with the only complaint on my end being the lack of accuracy with the stick over the pad.
Demo Verdict: 7/10
Network now...
frostquake's Comments
Here is all my Family knows:
We have 8 computers and 1 laptop. Only 3 computers are out, and really only one gets used. The other 5 are upgraded as far as they can go but still useless so they sit in a closet.
I was a hard core PC Gamer, but I can't afford it anymore. Even a High End PC can run you $2000.00 to $5000.00 dollars, and then in 6 months to a year your opening it up and upgrading. That is why PC's have doors on them that swing open and consoles do not. You always need more Ram, a new Video Card, a new power supply, new processor, and then 6 months go by and your out of luck. There is an old saying that a friend of mine who works in the computer industry says is their company motto, "Never make anything that is permanent always make something that has to be replaced." Great for the companies that make computers, ram, video cards, mobo's, power supplies, and processors. This is great for people who have unlimited income, but for the rest of the real world, you can only do this so many times before the bank runs dry.
We are also so tired of compatibility issues with the PC. You install a game and it has issues with Vista, XP, Drivers, Virus Software or any other number of issues. This requires emailing Tech or talking to Tech and getting your PC set up just the right way to run it, but that configuration only works with that one game, the next game will have you re-configuring your PC in whole other way. I have yet to drop a game in my Wii, 360, or PS3 and have any issues.
My family is done with PC Gaming, and the results are very noticeable. The stress in playing a game is gone, just drop and play...no calling Tech support, no spending an hour configuring your system to run that one game. Our wallet is thicker with money, no more going out and buying $500.00 video cards, or ram, or any other myriad of things that a new game may require, now we just drop that new game in and it plays.
Are there draw backs to playing only on consoles, sure. Frame rate, Graphics, and Some Games not available on consoles, especially great games like WOW, and Diablo and a ton of MMORPG's. We are willing to sacrifice though just to have more money to buy more games and no stress in playing those games because we no longer have to Tweak or Upgrade components, and knowing that the console we have will work for about 5 years before needing another one, unlike the PC which you may need to get a new one in less then 6 months if you can't upgrade a component.
Simply put it is quite a bit easier in this economy to shell out $400.00 for a console and have a huge list of games that will already play on it no problems, then to spend $3000.00 on a gaming PC that might not work right out of the box with the latest game.
Working directly in the industry, we have seen a major decline in buying Blu-Ray products. The magic price for Blu-Ray discs right now is anything $19.99 or below. Even Blu-Ray player owners are opting for the cheaper dvd's right now, telling me they will start buying Blu-Ray discs again when the economy gets better. I own a PS3 and had been buying any new release Blu-Ray disc that I could find on sale for $20.00 or less, but now that my portfolio has taken a significant hit, and continues to do so, my family only buys new releases on dvd's, which we can typically find for around $13.99. In an economy where people start counting dollars and trying to make that dollar stretch even further, Blu-Ray players and even Blu-Ray disks all of sudden become a higher end luxury that can wait, and we all know what waiting can do to an industry like this!
Till my family see's the economy take a permanent up swing and stabilize for a significant amount of time, we will no longer be buying Blu-Ray discs at all, instead resorting to either buying the cheaper dvd's with an intention of buying them on Blu-Ray later on down the road or out right renting the movies from Netflix or Redbox. Sad but true!
Have to agree with this Op piece. For me and my wife, we are both trading our DS Lites in. It just isn't for us, as adults. We have about 40 games for it, but have yet to complete one. I think the DS is a GREAT product. My niece loves it and she is 14. We have been saving the games we bought and re-gifting them to her over birthdays and holidays. I am sure there are plenty of adults who do love the DS lite, we just happen to be the adults who don't. The DSi is not a new piece of hardware that we will be buying, though I have a feeling once my niece figures out the new one has a camera she will want to trade up.
My family is what you would call the average consumer. We don't hack anything and pay retail for everything. We bought 25 UMD movies, and still buy UMD movies. The one thing we won't do is pay over $9.99 for any UMD movies. When UMD movies came out they were HUGELY overpriced, for absolutely nothing but the bare bones of a movie. Now places like Gamestop and Circuit City regularly have them for $4.99 and up, or buy one at $9.99 get one free. There was NO way my family was going to pay $29.99 for Spiderman 3 on UMD. We own it now but at the $9.99 price range. We have started downloading movies from the PSN onto our PS3 and then transferring them to our PSP's, but the DRM that Sony has in acted on that will kill that. When you have 4 PSP's but can only transfer twice that is HORRIBLE...we can switch out one UMD on our 4 PSP's at any given time with no DRM...so that HUGE limit on downloads on the PSN will stop us from buying anymore movies for our PSP's.
We own around 70 games on the PSP. Once again price point is the sticking issue with us. God of War on the PSP for $39.99 is ridiculous. That is just to close of a price to next gen consoles that we end up spending that money on a game for the PS3 or 360. Even $29.99 is a hard sell, but that will have us coming closer to parting with our money then $39.99 ever will. The release forecast for this year however looks horrible. Go to Gamestop.com and just look at future releases for the rest of the year, you get a measly 3 pages, while the DS goes on forever and ever. The story did not cover if there was more difficulty in programming on the PSP as compared to the DS, or licensing fee's imposed by Sony compared to Nintendo...would like to know the actual comparison of in house cost and fee's of both units, that might explain the high cost of games for the PSP.
Finally on top of that is future releases of hardware for the PSP. When the PSP came out there was a ton of hardware for it. I bought a small portable home theater for my PSP, which recently went out. I went to Gamestop to replace and there was nothing, and the few things they had in the way of speaker systems were for the PSP 2000 and not backwards compatible for my PSP 1000. Went to buy a new PSP 2000 and the thing seems actually flimsier then the original. If the PSP 3000 is even flimsier then the 2000, then it won't hold up to everyday use. I understand that you cut cost and parts get cheaper, but on a hand held you don't want to skimp on external parts that break easier...components inside I understand, but don't make the external weaker . I am anxious to actually purchase a new PSP 3000, but if the external make-up is weak and poor I will yet pass again.
So to break it down for us, Price Points on new releases both movies and games are too high, as the product evolves it seems to be getting weaker externally, and there is a huge lack of third party hardware peripherals, and when there is, it isn't backwards compatible.
So there you have, just from an average consumers view.
I found the Demo to be very enjoyable, except for the Grappling Hook. Using the Stick I found it to be highly inaccurate in terms of where I was trying to launch the hook. I resorted to the actual pad for play and found it to be more accurate, something I think the developers also noticed as they let you play pad or stick.
This is a download to try, with the only complaint on my end being the lack of accuracy with the stick over the pad.
Demo Verdict: 7/10
All frostquake's Comments