Tag Archives: microsoft

Meet the Turtle Beach PX21 Headset

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Posted by Rob on December 30, 2011 – 11:13 am
Filed under Video Games
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When I first picked up the PS3 and was in need of a headset, I went with the Official PS3 Bluetooth (since for some bizarre reason Sony refuses to box even the lowest quality headset with consoles like Microsoft does) At the time it was bundled with some SOCOM game, and I immediately traded in the game once I had the Bluetooth in my possession. I’ve been using it for almost three years, and it got the job done. However, over the past year I have begun to find it uncomfortable in my ear. With Christmas over, I decided to use up some cash and treat myself (and my ears) to a new headset. Enter the Turtle Beach PX21 Headset!

Here are the things I like about it:

  • It’s versatile: It works with my PS3, 360 and PC (and a Mac if I was silly enough to blow my money on such an overpriced piece of junk)
  • It’s comfortable: The official PS3 Bluetooth was extremely uncomfortable when I had to jam the bud into my ear hole. The PX21 is a nice comfy set of headphones that fit nicely over my entire head and are made of a much softer material. And while the headset is wired, the wire is long enough (16 feet) where it’s not an issue at all. Read More »

Fried Game Consoles, or The Importance of Having a Good Surge Protector

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Posted by Rob on December 1, 2011 – 6:28 pm
Filed under Video Games
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Only slightly exaggerated

So there I was…Shell was doing some research on the computer last night, which meant it was time for me to play a bit. I turned the PS3 on, booted up the new Jurassic Park game, and was in the options screen getting things situated when all of a sudden my PS3 just died. There were no blinking lights, no beeps and blips, just complete and utter silence and stillness. I pushed and held buttons, plugged and unplugged wires, gave the PS3 a tour of all the outlets in the apartment, but no such luck. I was horrified, and it got even worse as I tried to turn the system back on without success. I was crushed.

This morning I gave Amazon a call to see about getting an exchange. I had purchased this system in September, so the 30 day return policy was long overdue. But I didn’t let Amazon’s policy stop me from getting what I wanted. I spent an hour talking to two customer service reps and one supervisor before I convinced them to give me a refund. It was a battle, but a battle worth fighting, as the alternative was to wait weeks for Sony to “fix” it, and we all know those don’t always go as planned. So I packed the PS3 up and took it off to UPS so that Amazon can do what they want with it. Read More »

XBL Gold vs. PS+

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Posted by Rob on July 8, 2011 – 7:13 am
Filed under Video Games
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I received an e-mail from Microsoft this morning notifying me that my XBL Gold account would be expiring next month, which makes sense since I got a 360 last August. However, now I had to pose myself a question…do I want to spend the $50 to renew my Gold account? Not only do I rarely play 360 games online, but at the same time I’m paying for a PS+ account. Thing is, my PS+ account will be coming due soon too. Seeing how I’m currently unemployed and times are hard, I don’t want to be spending money I don’t have on things I really don’t need right now. So I got to thinking about the perks of both, and whether they were worth the price of admission or not.

What I get with a XBL Gold Account:

  • The ability to play online. This is arguably the best perk to having a Gold account, simply because you cannot play online without it.
  • Superior online experience. The 360 does offer a better online experience than the PS3, from the awesome and comfortable headset that plugs in right to your controller to the ability to have cross-game chat. I do believe there are more 360 players than PS3 players as well, so it’s easier to find a game to play online with the 360
  • Exclusive content. Gold members do get access to exclusive betas and demos before the general public.

What I get with a PS+ Account:

  • Free games. On average, PS+ users get one free game PSN game a week. It’s not just lame shovelware games either; I’ve gotten some pretty great games like Magic the Gathering, Sonic the Hedgehog, Streets of Rage II and others.
  • Discounted games. This is the biggest advantage to PS+, as I can buy games over PSN for less money than it costs on XBLA. Often times, many games are discounted from 33-50% off, particularly in the first week of release. I’ve gotten a ton of games on the cheap from PS+, and it has paid for itself many times over.
  • Exclusive content. I received early access to betas for DC Universe, Uncharted 2, and Uncharted 3, as well as early access to demos and other PS-exclusive content. Read More »

I Hate Sony’s PlayStations Website

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Posted by Rob on February 2, 2011 – 1:11 pm
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The PS3 and 360 each have certain features that give it an edge over the other one. In terms on websites, the 360′s is far superior to the PS3. The 360 site is easy to navigate, and you can purchase games or download free demos right off the site. I find it easier to navigate through the website than through the console.

The PS3, on the other hand, is quite cumbersome. The main complaint, and the reason why I’m complaining about it in this post, is that Sony has this need to advertise their upcoming games on the home page of the site. This is done with several flash movies, and due to this, it takes forever to load up the site, or to navigate to the section you want to go to. Not for nothing, but I know what Sony has coming out for the PS3 in November…I don’t need to be seeing all these stupid ads now. The 360 doesn’t do anything as annoying as this. Sure, it has ads, but they are not as massive, do not take up the whole screen, and no not cause any lag. Read More »

Getting Free MS Points Using Bing

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Posted by Rob on September 29, 2010 – 3:21 pm
Filed under Gadgets/Tech, Video Games
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So I read online a few days ago that Bing was having a special promotion. Basically by downloading the Bing toolbar to your PC and using it for searches, you can earn Bing reward points, which can then be redeemed for stuff. One of the “stuff” you can snag is MS points. Basically, 100 Bing points = 100 MS points, and not to mention the fact that you get 250 points for signing up. You can check it out for yourself here. I’ve been playing with it a for a few days to see what exactly is needed.

First off, I had to install the Bing toolbar onto my PC. The site said that I had to install the toolbar onto IE, but I was able to pop it on FF, and have been using it and receiving points, so I guess that works. So that nabbed me 250 points, which I quickly redeemed. Then you get one Bing point for every two searches you make using Bing, for a maximum of ten per day. So each morning I get up and spend a minute or two doing twenty random searches, just to get my quota filled for the day. Also, on the first day I started this, there were some “offers” located on the Bing rewards toolbar. Basically it said “click this link to learn more about the Beatles and earn three points”, and sure enough it took me to some article about the Beatles. Same for another similar offer that taught me the wonders of Charlie Brown comics. These offers were available the first day I started this, and there were five of them. Once you do them they remain on your list of offers, but are marked off as being used. Sadly, no other offers have become available like that over the last three days. So basically within the past four days I earned over 50 points, and was able to snag a third 100 MS point offer and redeemed it this morning. However, the big catch is that the “ten points a day in searches” offer seems to only be good until October 2. After that date, I’ll be curious to see what is necessary to continue this offer.

My biggest concern is how to finally receive these MS points. I redeemed them the day I started, which was four days ago on Sunday. Since then I have received three emails telling me that I had three orders for 100 MS points each that was “under review”, and have not heard about how to redeem them finally. I don’t know if they will be postal mailing me a code for each order, or if they will e-mail me a code for each order, or if they wait a certain amount of time and then send everything out in one lump sum…these details are scarce as of right now. Still, it’s not costing me anything to do it, and while I miss the ol’ google searches, putting up with Bing will be worth it if it eventually leads to a few free XBLA games a year.

Pros and Cons of Mass Effect 2 Going Cross-Platform

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Posted by Rob on August 19, 2010 – 8:11 am
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To the horror of 360 “fanboys” and the cheers of PS3 users, it was officially announced yesterday at Gamescom that Mass Effect 2 would be released on the PS3 next January. To add on to my anti-fanboy argument, when I looked at the post on Joystiq (see above embedded link) for this news, I saw several comments where people were either saying “nooooooo” or “this sucks now all we have is halo and fable”. That is just stupid talk, and I hate it. I would be pleased as punch if God of War went to the 360, and I think it should!While this is a major victory for gamers who only own a PS3, it also has some problems.

The Pros

First and foremost, the biggest pro is that more people will be able to enjoy the wonder world of Mass Effect. If I didn’t have a 360 I would be just as happy, and being a 360 owner I’m not crying over this…I hate console-exclusive games. The fact that before I had a 360 I never got to touch the likes of Left 4 Dead, Mass Effect, and Castle Crashers, and that I know that there are people out there in the world who have never played Uncharted, God of War, or Resistance, just makes me so angry. There is absolutely no way any gamers win from console-exclusive games…unless they count “bragging rights” as a pro. Personally, I don’t, and I think the only people who benefit from exclusive games are the system owners (Sony of Microsoft), since a person like me has to own both systems to enjoy all the greatest games. Not even the game developers win, because they would sell a hell of a lot more units of a game if it appeared on both systems.

So that all being said, gamers will win because more people will be able to enjoy the story of Mass Effect, and Bioware will win because more copies of the game will sell. It can also be assumed that, with this happening, that Mass Effect 3, due out next year, will also be a cross-platform game, which is great. Read More »

My First 24 Hours of 360 Goodness: The Technical Stuff

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Posted by Rob on August 6, 2010 – 5:06 pm
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I’ve had the system for a full 24 hours, and I wanted to lay down my first impressions of the system and the games I’ve checked out so far. Firstly, I would like to address the controller. It’s nice, and is very comfortable in my hand. I like how the left analog stick is slightly higher than the right one, giving you a more natural feel. I was also glad to see that there was a sync button, like the PS3 controller has, to get to the main menu, and to turn the system on. Good stuff! However, there were two things I’m not as big a fan of. First, I don’t like the directional pad. It feels kind of wobbly, as it is on a raised, circular platform of sorts. The PS3 controller has the directional just as four separate buttons, while the 360 has it as one big button. It works fine and all, but just feels a little odd. Secondly, I was disappointed in the controller power situation. I like how the PS3 controller has a battery installed right inside the controller, and to charge it you just plug it into either the system or a computer…wherever you can find a nearby USB drive. The 360 controller CAN do that, but only if you purchase a separate device that hooks it up to do that. Otherwise, your two options are to use two AA batteries per controller or to purchase a battery charging station, which is the path I chose to go. Don’t get me wrong, this is not going to kill me or anything, but I just liked the convenience of being able to use my PS3 controller out of the box and never have to worry about changing batteries. The 360 controller is still pretty awesome.

The PS3 Directional Pad:

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The 36o Directional Pad:

360-018-small Read More »

The 360 is Here!!!

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Posted by Rob on August 5, 2010 – 7:21 pm
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I received the 360 in from UPS today, and I’m pretty pleased. I’m taking a quick break from set-up to put up some pics and whatnot.

The package:

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The package opened:

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The package contained more than just the 360, as the dudes over at co-optimus.com also sent over a t-shirt and stickers.

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Also included was a brand-spanking new copy of Crackdown 2:

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The system looks pretty sweet with the black finish. It’s like a matching pair for my PS3. Now all I need is to trade my white Wii in for the black one…

360-013-small1 360-014-small

Also came with matching black controller and headset. It’s kind of sad that the headset is wired, but I’m not complaining, since the price was right!

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So there you have it: my 360! I’m pretty excited to get playing. As of right now I have Crackdown 2, Castle Crashers, and TMNT Arcade (the awesome 1989 one!!!) By tomorrow I should have Left 4 Dead (from amazon) and Mass Effect (from Gamefly), and in a few days, once I get some credit in from amazon, I’ll be ordering Gears of War 2. I think these games are going to be a great start to my 360 experience.

I’m Finally Getting a 360!!!

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Posted by Rob on August 4, 2010 – 10:24 am
Filed under Video Games
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Last week, the good folks at co-optimus.com had a contest to celebrate the fact that their database now contains over 1,000 co-op games. As I was getting ready to eat breakfast Sunday morning, I received a PM from the owner of the site, with the subject being “Grand Prize Winner.” I got excited and started cursing, and Shell was confused. I ran into the computer room and went online to read the PM, and sure enough, I had been selected as the grand prize winner. The prize is a 250gb 360 slim, as well as a copy of Crackdown 2. I gave my info to the site owner, and I should have the 360 in my possession by the weekend.

xbob360

I never talked much smack about the 360, and I was actually on the verge of buying one when I was ready to purchase a current gen system back in 2008. However, in the end I was diswayed from the 360 due to the RROD problems, as well as the high start-up cost (having to buy a system, a $90 wireless device for it, and having to purchase a Gold account just to play online.) These issues, coupled with the fact that I got a PS3 for $100 off, caused me to go with Sony over Microsoft. However, I always wanted to get a 360 as well, especially within the past year as I have made friends with people online who only have 360s, and not PS3s. Read More »

Wii Review: Wii Sports Resort

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Posted by Rob on June 14, 2010 – 11:22 pm
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wii_sports_resort_boxart

While on my honeymoon, I stumbled across a $50 Best Buy gift card in my wallet, and was itching to head to the mall and buy something neat. In the end, I decided to finally pick up the Wii Motion Plus, which came packaged with Wii Sports Resort. I enjoyed the casual games of Wii Sports, so I figured I would equally enjoy Wii Sports Resort.

Wii Sports Resort is kind of a mixed bag, with some great games, as well as some lame ones. There are twelve total, though two (golf and bowling) are basically clones from Wii Sports, but with the Motion Plus controls. Before I get into the game, let me talk about Wii Motion Plus. It’s a small device that attaches to the bottom of the Wii Remote, but the problem is that the Motion Plus is encased in a silicon sleeve, so you have to go through some effort to attach it each time. The Nunchuck then connects to the bottom of the Motion Plus. This makes the controller bulky…what was initially a nice light controller in your hand is now getting weighed down with the Motion Plus and the casing. However, it’s only a minor annoyance, and if anything I hate it more for the effort to hook it up than the weight it adds (which is actually minor, but I just want to complain about it.)

wii-motion-plus Read More »

PS3 Finally Gets Trophy Cards…Called Portable ID’s

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Posted by Rob on August 19, 2009 – 8:08 pm
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Get your Portable ID!

So as you can see above me, this is the new PS3 “trophy card”, which is being referred to as a Portable ID. Its available directly through the official PS3 website, and is a great feature they finally got around to doing. I was using Playfire for awhile to show off my trophies, but the problem was that to stay accurate you had to manually update and add trophies you acquired. This was not cool because not only was it a pain in the ass to constantly go on there whenever you received a trophy before you forgot about it, but anybody could claim they got any trophy and be a deuche about it.

So it took me awhile to figure out how to pop it on forum site like co-optimus but with the help of some forum members I was able to pop it on. The problem was that the Portable ID only comes with a html code, which is fine for my blog, but doesnt cut the mustard on forum sites, so I needed help creating a new code.

Anywho, its done, and its about time. It took Sony waaay too long to figure this out. There were a couple of independent sites offering this service, and Microsoft has been giving 360ers Achievement Cards (not sure what the official name is) for awhile now. So with this, Sony takes one more step towards competing with Microsoft. The price cut was a good thing, and this is also. Its silly to not offer the same services that the 360 does, even if 360ers have to pay. I’ll glady pay an annual price for online support if its as good as Microsofts. The only thing missing now is the damn voice chat. Is it so much to ask to be able to have a voice chat room running in the background while you play a single player game?!