My Gamer Diary – PlayStation® Fansite

A few days ago I wrote a post about some Xbox 360 problems and bugs that would be really nice to have resolved. In part one I discussed some major problems such as the infamous Red Ring of Death and the ridiculously overpriced Xbox hard drives plus some smaller problems including the slow NXE navigation speed, crappy Xbox controller D-Pad and the inability to disable avatars. So today I un-proudly present to you part two where I’ll be addressing some other quirks.

6.) Noisy optical drive

I’m sure every Xbox owner has noticed this already and has also most likely gone the install games on hard drive route but unfortunately not everybody (arcade owners) can do this. I understand that the discs are read at a ridiculously high speed (hence the noise) but why doesn’t this problem affect other game consoles just as badly. Do they have better optical drives? Are there some noise reducing rubbers implemented? Or are the other consoles just better assembled? Either way, the noise is far too loud and I’m sure the tech folks at Microsoft can do something to at least reduce this for people like me with sensitive ears.

7.) Stock Availability

This might sound like a weird problem to list but believe me when I tell you that some countries (such as South Africa) almost never have stock. This is usually caused due to the inability to do repairs locally and therefore using retail stock as replacements. Surely Microsoft can make a plan sending by sending some unit love to the countries that are under stocked. They do want the sales don’t they?

8.) Build-in Wi-Fi

These little adapters cost almost next to nothing these days (excluding the Xbox ones of course). Even these new cheap little notebooks have them now so why not just integrate it and deliver a better all-round package? I’m pretty sure they pocket some extra bucks by selling these adapters as fancy accessories but aren’t they making enough on the ridiculously overpriced hard drives already?

9.) Xbox Play and Charge Kit

Ok wait; I’m starting to see a pattern here. The Play and Charge Kit (something that almost every Xbox owner will definitely buy) is also just another optional accessory. If shafting us on the hard drives and Wi-Fi dongles wasn’t enough already they still went ahead and did it on the main accessory pretty much everyone needs. Nice one.

10.) Improve Resolution Support.

I believe 32” is a nice size for a HDTV and as most people already know, they usually have a native resolution of 1366 x 768, so why is this resolution not supported? Sure I can buy a VGA cable and set it to 720p but when I’ll have scaling taking place or I can set it to 1360 x 768 but then get a small black bar or scaling again. I for one would like to run the Xbox 360 at the native resolution of my monitor so why not just implement it?

I own the console, play the games, buy the merchandise and hell, I’ve even made a blog about it so yeah, I pretty much love my Xbox 360. There is however still quite a few improvements I would really like to see. Some of the problems might be minor or even seem pointless to some people but hey, it’s my list and the following is stuff I would like to see fixed. I’m breaking this article up into a few parts to avoid clutter so look out for the rest over the next couple of days.

Well let’s get started shall we…

1.) RROD (Red Ring of Death)

The RROD requires absolutely zero explanation. If you’ve never heard about it before then consider yourself extremely lucky. Hey! Don’t go Google it now! Anyway this problem has been around for far too long. Seriously, if the new Jasper models don’t resolve the problem then the tech guys at Microsoft should definitely hit the drawing board and figure this thing out once and for all. The console was originally released in 2005 so I honestly can’t see any reason why this issue should still even exist.

2.) Xbox 360 Controller D-Pad.

You know it, I know it and every Xbox fighting game fan knows it. The D-Pad simply sucks. I’ll rather use a Nintendo pad if I could. Yeah fine, they’ve made some improvements to it over the past couple of years but its still far from being the quality product you’ve come to expect. Don’t fix it, just redesign the damn thing.

3.) NXE (New Xbox Experience) Navigation Speed.

In terms of stability and navigation speed, the original Blade dashboard still kicks the crap out of the NXE. Intermittent freezing, sluggish store browsing and menu delays still plagues the New Xbox Experience and keeps it from being a truly great innovation and while we’re on this note, please…

4.) Add the disable Avatars option.

It sucks looking at virtual me the whole time. I’m not saying that the Avatars were a bad idea and yeah, they might even help out with the casual market but not every Xbox gamer wants them. Personally I think avatars ruins the look of the dashboard and I would seriously like the option to disable them.

5.) Xbox 360 Hard Drive Pricing.

Fine, you’ve forced me to only use your hard drives which is good and all but why make them so ridiculously expensive? I read some reviews about the 120GB HDD on Amazon the other day and basically 99% of the reviewers complained about the same thing being the horrible price. You know you’re ripping people off Microsoft.

Look out for part 2, coming soon.

I’m aware that the casing color scheme allows it to fit in with the theme of the actual console (like the Sony PlayStation 2 blue casings), but why limit it to green? The only other Xbox 360 casings I’ve seen are the grey ones from the Platinum/Classics range.

While repacking my Xbox games today I actually came across this little observation. Titles such as Bionic Commando, Fable and Halo seem to look fine with the green theme but I honestly can’t say the same for titles like Dead Space, Silent Hill, F.E.A.R. or even Mass Effect. Let’s take F.E.A.R. 2 for example. The artwork is dark, scary and creates the atmosphere of a survival horror title but when you add the funky colored green case, all this suddenly fades away. Maybe the title cover would have benefited more from a blood red or even transparent black casing.

I can actually say the same thing about limited edition game titles. Why limit (pun?) them to green? How about chrome, gold or even a metallic silver edition? Or, maybe I’m just being extremely picky as usual.

If you’re a fan of survival horror titles I can only imagine that by this time, you have played this game to death (pun intended) already. It’s simply one of those titles every easily scared gamer should experience but hey, I’m not here to review the title since there’s millions of them out there already.

The question is; what do you want from the sequel? Sure, we all want bigger weapons, more scares and some monster cheese, but what exactly does this new franchise need to push it to the next level? Personally I’m thinking something in the line of earth wars. Now before you jump to conclusions and shout “ohh! lame idea!” hear me out. Even though the anti-gravity levels are cool and the space theme rocks, I still don’t see any reason why the sequel should be limited to space based gameplay only. Just imagine some of those extremely violent creatures made their way to earth and started multiplying. You’ll have the next version of Fallout’s apocalyptic wasteland on your hands (or not).

The Resident Evil zombies have done their fair share over the past couple of years and I believe it’s about time that earth gets some new visitors. Dead Space 2 has the perfect background and head start to do this but maybe, just maybe, my idea sucks and we all end up killing them on Mars.

After doing some researching I’ve learned that by default, my Blog automatically blocks all outgoing links from comments (when I enable them). I personally think this is crappy since I’m not really “thanking” anybody who goes to the trouble of leaving a comment. If you’re wondering what exactly Do/NoFollow is, here’s a quote that will explain it better:

“Do follow” is the opposite of “No-Follow”. WordPress blogs, by default, use the HTML nofollow attribute on links that point away from the blog. This no follow attribute comes into play with the posting of blog comments. The no-follow tag tells the search engines NOT to follow the link to any other web sites.

The logic behind using no follow is, it’s good for the blog since there will be fewer outgoing links and therefore less “link bleed”, leading to better Google page rank. Sounds good!

Using no follow also makes sense because there are blog spammers out there who will, and have, posted blog spam comments solely for the benefit of getting more incoming links to their site, which helps page rank. That makes sense!

Do Follow blogs are going against the norm and turning the No-Follow tag off, enabling do-follow of out going comment links.” – Read More

I’ll probably attract a bit more spammers this way but I’m sure I’ll be able to moderate it. Luckily you can now rest assured that all comments made on my site will provide you with outgoing links to yours.

What makes a gaming site really great? Well the most obvious answer to this question will most likely be top news, detailed previews, in depth reviews and a friendly community. So why not create a website that offers all of the above? Well simply put, there are just too many of them out there already.

For this very reason, I’ve decided to create a website that offers a more personal approach to gaming. My Gamer Diary will feature daily updates about my opinions on the gaming industry and all that surrounds it. Rest assured as I’m not planning on creating the next IGN or Gamespot but simply a place where gamers like me can chat and share experiences. I’m pretty sure that there are similar themed sites out there already but since everybody is unique, I’m sure my site will be too.

Please note that English is my second language, so please excuse any spelling and/or grammar mistakes that may occur.

Thank you for your time and I sincerely hope you enjoy your stay here.

Kindest Regards

This has been boggling my mind all day now but before we get to that, I have a confession to make. I’m pretty much a cheap skate gamer to be honest. I hardly ever buy the latest titles due to their high pricing and you’ll always find me scratching in bargain bins and scouting around for online clearance sales. I don’t play on Xbox Live so I see no real reason why I shouldn’t wait a little while for prices to drop on newly released titles.

Yesterday I decided to go do some shopping mall bargain hunting. After about an hour of store browsing I came across the almighty Mass Effect. I’ve seen the trailers, read the reviews and drooled over the screenshots but never really made any effort to obtain this little gem. I checked the price, giggled a little and then stormed my way to the sales counter. There I stood waiting patiently for the sales lady to return from the back with the latest addition to my little collection. After about ten extremely long minutes she pops out with an old dirty CD wallet. Wait what?! Why is my brand new game stored in a busted CD wallet? She quickly flips through the wallet pages and locates two copies of Mass Effect. The first copy had some real bad scratches and the second copy was painted with finger prints. Needless to say, I took my money and left the store.

I kind of understand why they have to break the seals and remove the discs (security, etc.) but that’s no reason to treat the games like crap. I can just as well buy a second-hand copy of the game then. Luckily another store in the mall had a sealed copy of Mass Effect behind a class windowed cupboard so at least I didn’t go home empty handed.

In the end I honestly don’t like the idea of buying non sealed titles and will most likely do all my future game shopping online.

Yep, it’s me with another one of my odd observations. The weird residue I’m referring to in the title is the plastic transfer that gets stuck on the stem (the part under the place where your thumb rests) of the analog stick. You’ll most likely notice this residue after hours and hours of gaming. I’m however not sure know if this applies on the original Xbox controller as well.

The way I figure it, the residue comes from the sprayed controller casing. When you’re playing, the stem of the analog stick scrapes against the plastic outer surface and over time the paint gets stuck on the stick itself. This is obviously not as noticeable on non white controllers.

The little problem is however easily resolved with some alcohol and a cotton swab/Q-tip. Simply wet the tip of the swab with a drop of alcohol and gentry wipe it over the affected part of the stem. You might have to do this couple of times but after a few minutes the controller should look as good as new. Also, if you want to get rid of the dirt between the grooves of the controller and buttons I’ll suggest using an old toothbrush as this works wonders.

s you’ve probably gathered from my website, I’m an Xbox gamer, but that doesn’t mean I’m blinded by the negative aspects affecting my purchase. Believe me when I tell you that owning an Xbox in South Africa is more of a ridiculously expensive luxury and pain than anything else. It’s actually really disappointing since SA has quite a decent, active and interested gaming community. Well let’s get on with it.

I hereby un-proudly present to you the 5 reasons why owning one is SA sucks.

1.) Pricing

How much do you spend on the latest and greatest title when it gets released? $50? $60? Well here in sunny South Africa we have the luxury of paying between R700 and R900 ($90 – $110) for the latest games. So basically buying two new titles is as good as saying goodbye to almost half your salary. Even the hardware is beyond expensive with the Xbox 360 Arcade version retailing at a stunning $310+.

2.) Support

Support? What support? The company who resolved all SA Xbox related faults (MI Digital) closed a few weeks ago due to some financial crisis. Microsoft South Africa is however in the process of announcing a new distributor (good luck with that). See the problem is that SA doesn’t have any local Xbox repair agents resulting in all the broken consoles being exported for warranty replacement. Fear the day you RROD or E74 as your console will take approximately 60 to 90 days to be replaced (with another problematic or even banned console).

3.) Xbox Live

South Africa is unfortunately one of those countries not included on the Xbox Live supported list resulting in us poor folk not having any form of online gaming whatsoever. Most SA gamers work around this problem by creating fake UK and US accounts although due to our wonderful broadband pricing and restrictions, this trick is usually short lived.

4.) Magazines

I’ve been a South Africa citizen for 25 years now and I’ve never seen any Xbox or video game advertisements on the television at all. We don’t even get half the gear, limited editions and accessories other countries do and if we try and import them, customs kills us with holdups and fees. The magazines however take the cake. Since SA doesn’t have any Xbox publishers all our magazines have to be imported. Want the latest Xbox mag? Well for $25 it’s yours!

5.) Piracy

What automatically happens when gamers can’t afford games, don’t get local support and are cut off from the rest of the world in terms of online gaming? They pirate! Obviously there’s no excuse for piracy but this won’t really stop most people from doing it anyway. The scary part is that the best place to buy the latest games from is actually the flea market.

As I’ve mentioned previously, South Africa has a really decent gaming community so It’s simply a shame seeing go to waste like this.