Sunday, December 13, 2009

Working Through a Multiple Games


So I'm currently working on 4 games right now.

Assassin's Creed
Battle Field Bad Company 2 Beta
Ghostbusters
Wet

And then I have my other games to work on:
Grand Theft Auto 4
Pain
Pixel Junk Monsters
Super Stardust HD
Valkyria Chronicles
Warhawk
Wipeout HD
Uncharted

And of course my daily use of Wii Fit Plus

Balancing that list with time for my wife, work, TV, and other holiday stuff is a chore let me tell you.

Good thing I have some paid time off coming up.

So here's the question I have, do I play the new games or should I work on finishing up the old ones. And here's the heart of the matter, I've found trophies to be the factor in figuring out which games to play. I know, it's stupid, but true. I've been focusing on Wet and Ghostbusters, leaving Assassin's Creed alone for now. I was playing Battle Field heavily for a while there, but it just doesn't hold my interest (playing the same map over, and over again). Of course Assassin's Creed 2 has a lot of repetition, so that makes it even less appealing. In everything but Battle Field Bad Company 2 Beta, I'm about half way through the game or more.

The implications are clear, if you're making a game, trophy or achievement support is a must. And if you're trying to figure out what game to play, you should be a better player than me and not neglect your old games.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

PS3 Music Player Sucks


Yes, this has taken a few days to get together, I've been busy with life. That said, here's my thoughts on the PS3 Music Player.

For those unaware, Sony is billing the PS3 as the media center for you home. Not an easy task as people want to show videos, pictures, play music, games and TV. And well, yes it does music, just not very well.

When the PS3 added music in game, I was excited. I put about 8 Gigabytes of music on my PS3 to play while gaming.

While only a fraction of my music collection, space on a 60G drive is precious so I had to make some hard choices. The results, not just disappointing, but appalling for a device that wants to be the media center of my house. Just going through the list of songs takes forever.

So let's talk about organization. As with any music player, you have play lists. This is where I hit my first major problem. You can only add 512 items to a play list. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. Are you telling me that the PS3 doesn't have enough processor power to handle more than that? I call BS on this limit.

Second, as with most people I have an iPod. Unlike most people though, my iPod has complex smart play lists, some of which depend on the contents of other play lists. I do this to keep my music fresh and so that I don't neglect songs. The PS3 has static play lists only. Again, WTF!?! Did they not spend more than 1 week working on this and forget about it?

Here's the real kicker for me. Like I said most people have an iPod. How hard would it have been to add an iPod dock? Yes I understand, recently Sony and Apple have been competing for the same space with games. That said, the PS3's implementation of a music player is an embarrassment.

Give me a smart or dynamic play lists. Allow all my music to be on one play list. Oh and remember where I am and continue playback between system restarts if I configure things to work that way. Is that really too much to ask? Right now, instead of music my way, it is music Sony's way. Again, I call BS.
 
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