Back to hell with you, foul console!

Ruckus raised an important issue the other day: Why so much hate toward the Playstation 3?

The true disappointment here, I believe, is in our own expectations. We had good reason to love the original Playstation and Playstation 2 to pieces. Still hot from our previous love affairs with Sony, we gladly took Ken Kutaragi’s promises to be gospel, the promises of “so much more than a gaming console”, promises that, in any other case, we would have written off as bloated hype. We allowed ourselves to believe Playstation 3 would vanquish world hunger and global warming.

But no. After all the talk, all the (puzzling) advertising, and all the build-up, the Playstation 3 is merely a video game console making its debut. And as with all console premieres, developers haven’t had enough time with the hardware to put together the gotta-have-it titles that the public wants. Resistance: Fall of Man is nice…ok let’s face it, it’s a so-so shooter at best. But Gears of War straight up kicked its ass. The PS3 is a very capable and feature-rich console, but somehow it’s not what we want it to be, at least not yet.

Mind you, our attitudes were not much different at the release of the Xbox 360. Microsoft under-supplied retailers, shipped some consoles that were DOA, and the initial releases were, to say the least, underwhelming. But after a year, look who’s laughing. Chances are that at this time next year, the Playstation 3 will be doing just fine and we’ll forget all about this initial disappointment that we feel. But again, why are we disappointed? Because we had hopes and expectations for the company that once launched us into a new generation of console gaming to do it yet again. And sadly, I believe that the hard truth is finally setting in: despite multi-core CPU’s, dedicated physics processors, higher poly-counts and advanced lighting, next generation gaming is not what we expected it to be. Oh and if you have the urge to play the “It costs $600″ card, save it. If the titles were there to back up the PS3’s release, you wouldn’t see the console selling under MSRP on eBay nor would you see them on store shelves. Just watch how badly the $600 hurts iPhone sales come June.

It’s your turn, leave a comment.

Back in 2005, I signed up for Xbox Live on my original Xbox using the name, you guessed it, Brixtone. I wasn’t using it much back then and I also managed to get my console banned for modding, so I opted to discontinue my subscription. Now that I have an Xbox 360, I’ve decided to give Live another shot. The Xbox dashboard even has a handy option to ‘Recover Gamertag from Xbox Live’. But it didn’t work.

After spending an hour on the phone with India-based Xbox Live support, satiating their prepared scripts by power-cycling my console and reentering my information ad infinitum, I was transferred to a supervisor. The supervisor had a slightly different script and it read like this: If you ever cancel your Xbox Live subscription, neither you nor anyone else can use that gamertag again. When I asked why, the supervisor answered “for security purposes”. I would like to personally thank Microsoft for keeping my gamertag secure from me as I surely would have used it to do evil unto myself.

Today’s lesson: If you find a gamertag that you like, remain subscribed to Xbox Live for the rest of your life to keep that gamertag secure. Otherwise, the world’s largest computing corporation won’t be able to get it back for you. Fucking idiots.

Hello there, TV viewers

Last night, in the World of Warcraft, the Eat My Bomb crew rallied in the town of Goldshire. Our mission: Conquer the Goldshire Inn. Our ranks were summoned to the town and upon arrival uttered, “We’re doing what?” Just a few simple steps of hopping on a mailbox, getting stuck on a wall, hopping on the roof, and then climbing the chimney. When I say simple steps, I mean it took about an hour to get everyone up there. While the task was frustrating at times, I think all of us were quite pleased once we took the summit.

I can’t explain to myself why this sort of thing is entertaining. Is it because the developers at Blizzard never intended for us to be up there? Is it a mental throwback to finding secret ledges and exploiting bugs in 8-bit Nintendo games? Either way, I got my 50 cents worth of joy out of scaling the building, and I look forward to our next conquest.

I’ve conquered the moun….oh crap

Old Man Winter is upon us again and you know what that means. Time to blow the dust off your unfinished games and take them to completion. Devil’s Advocate was the clear winner in last year’s competition, but I have a feeling that this year will be different. If you don’t know the rules, it’s like this: Send in a list of 5 titles to be completed and your name will be added to the roster. Please do not submit MMO’s this time around. Should you finish those 5, send another batch of 5. Whoever finishes the most titles (with screenshots as proof please) by the first day of spring is the winner. The prize for finishing first is still TBD, but I assure you it will be breathtaking.

Now let’s go, send your list of 5 games to be completed and let’s get this party started.

I’m ready to LOL. Whaddya got?

You’ve asked for it. Now here it is. Our collection (a very small sample) of outtakes from recording the Gamers Hell podcast in 2006. Hope you enjoy it!

Laugh at us, not with us.

Chavez, look out!! There’s an old-timey hammer-wielding Tango coming up on your six!

Happy Holidays from the Gamers Hell Podcast! We have reviews of Rainbow Six: Vegas and The Ship as well as our 2006 holiday gift guide. The demo roundup and gaming headlines make this podcast the perfect gift for the gamer in your life. Well the podcast and a PS3.

Grab it

Don’t stare at him, Wii. He’ll stick ya.

So long Xbox! This week we bid farewell to the original Microsoft gaming console. We also have a review of Guild Wars: Nightfall and some hands-on with the Nintendo Wii. Our demo roundup, new releases and reader mail complete this flavorful jambalaya of a podcast with a garnish of gaming headlines.

Listen