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This week was interresting. There are at least two things, perhaps three that I want to talk about.

First, the next xbox was revealed a few days ago. I watched an hour and three minutes of it. Saw people saying that it was two hours long, but the video I watched only showed an hour and three minutes of it. I think the name is stupid and the consol is ugly as hell, but I thought the same thing about the first xbox and the 360, so, meh. The main thing I am concerned about is if it can play games and can it do that with little to zero big brother problems. And it can't. It has to connect to the internet once every 24 hours or the person who bought a game can't play something they spent their hard earned cash on. Why? So microsoft can spy on the person and make sure they aren't playing used games without permission and to force people to pay tribute to big brother (microsoft). That is conjecture of course, but its what it seemed like to me. Forced usage of the kinect is also a problem. I know someone out there will say "but you don't have to use it!" which is only partially true. The next xbox won't function without the kinect, so yes, it has to be set up and connected to the xbox or the whole thing won't work. So its always there listening and watching. That is f*cking creepy. Could also be an invasion of privacy if used in the wrong way. "It wont!" says Mister or Miss Doeumbass, but didn't some things happen with web cams being used the wrong way before? Isn't this just a fancy webcam? In the words of Big Macintosh from My Little Pony: "eeeeeyup". But lets move on: What else can this thing do? It can stream television through the machine! Super. My DVR does that now and it doesn't cost hundreds of dollars plus a fee to use it. What else? It can bring up a guide for television! My DVR does that with a single button press on the remote. Next! It can switch between internet and television with a voice command. Interresting feature, however I have a computer that doesn't spy on me or listen to me talking in my house and we already pay to get internet already. This box would be a large expense for something I can already get. Sure, it isn't instant switching, but my switching between tv and internet just takes a minute or two and I don't have to waste extra money or risk waking up my room mate if I'm up and he's sleeping. People with sleeping kids or partners might consider the same reasoning. Next! You can skype using it with a voice comand. I don't use skype now, but if I started using it I have a computer already so I don't need that thing and I already went over voice comands previously. Also, i have a phone. If I need to speak to someone I would call them. On my phone. Next! Steven Spielberg is making a Halo live action series exclusively for xbox live! Super. Doesn't have anything to do with what the hardware can do and I don't care about Halo. Next! You can bring up fantasy sports teams while watching sports. I don't like watching sports personally, though if I had a fantasy sports team of some sort I assume I would already have a way to track that sh*t. Doesn't justify plopping hundreds on this machine. Next! EA and Microsoft have established some sort of partnership. What does that partnership entail exactly? No details? Next! A new Call of Duty will come out for this console. I don't like Call of Duty so this doesn't interrest me in the slightest. "But look at the remarkable detail they showed for the game!" Yeah, it is impressive. However, how often will anyone get to see that detail? I saw facial details, arm hair, helmets and scars on the dog's snout. If the character is wearing a helmet the details in the face don't matter anymore and neither does the inside of the helmet (which was shown). If someoen is far off in the distance shooting at you, you aren't going to run up to admire how they look, you shoot them and continue on your merry way. Arm hair is arm hair: doesn't do anything to enhance the game and if a character is wearing sleeves it just doesn't matter. The scars on the dog will also be pretty much invisible most of the time seeing how you won't be spending so much time up close to the damn thing. "You forgot about the envionments! those are much better!" I have seen beautiful environments in Final Fantasy 13, 13-2, trailers for 13-3, Zelda the wind waker, Harvest Moon animal parade, Mass effect 2, Enslaved, the list can go on forever. Just because they managed to pull it off in a call of duty game doesn't impress me. "What about the fish and interactive smoke?" Its interresting but interresting doesn't make a game good. Lets move on to the other games they showed: EA sports games and a racing game I've forgotten the name of. I'm not particulairly interrested in either, but all of it was trailers and nothing more. It does nothing to show how a game looks while being played. So, meh, again. Not much else left to mention from the reveal. They said they had many more servers to be used for xbox live, and thats great they think contributing to global warming is a good thing (sarcasim), but what use will those be if the machine they are revealing doesn't look all that apealing to potential buyers? Thats right! They spend a ton of money on sh*t hardly anyone wants to use. They sound like idiots to me.

Now, before I move on to another topic there are a few more things I need to adress about the next xbox: it will be more difficult for independent developers to produce games for it and it will block used games. FIrst, the independant developers can do nothing but help a console. Making it harder for helpful stuff to actually help is moronic in almost every situation. I will not say all situations because then I'll think of a situation where it isn't good and I'll end up contradicting myself. Anyway, I simply cannot understand the reasoning behind such an action. If there is one of coarse. Haven't heard any reason as of yet. Second, blocking used games. I hear that some game companies (I don't know specifically which ones) say that used game sales bring down their profits. This is confusing because a used game isn't a used game until someone uses it. Meaning someone had to buy a new game, which means they got their money, then sell the same game as used. Once someone buys something it should be theirs. No if, ands, or buts about it. "But this is digital media! Its not the same thing as a lamp or car or anything like that." Said someone on the forum. My reaction: stare xd rofl rofl Yeah..... They never heard of movies or music I suppose. And plenty of DVDs, Blue Ray discs and CDs are resold all the damn time. "The companies own rights to the material. You don't." The same person said. Its true, but I own the disc or ipod or mp3 player that has the media on it. In a sense both the company and the consumer own it. For example: someone writes a book, and publishes it and lots of people buy it. The book doesn't stop being the author's, but when someone buys the book that particulair copy of the book is theirs and they can do whatever they want with it. It is both the author's and the buyer's in a sense. Same goes for digital media wether it be movies, music, or video games. Digital down loads of these types of media is another thing that I am not going to get into here. "The Playstation 4 might also block used games!" And should that be confirmed I would have the same problem with it as I do with the xbox. Attempting to point the finger at something else doesn't detract from the issue currently being looked at. "It hasn't been confirmed yet! Wait 'til E3!" rofl When they admit it in an interveiw then it is confirmed. If they want to reveal something about the console they should do it at the console reveal, so no, I will not wait until E3 to judge it. "You haven't judged the PS4 like this!" I have actually, I just haven't written about it. I'll think about doing it in the future though. Maybe.

Now, onto the other stuff I wanted to write about. I finished The Walking Dead video game earlier today. Well, a bit before I started writing this, I finished it. I was close to the end and I wanted to write about it in this journal entry. It was fantastic. A great break from the usual games I play. Usually, games that I play have tons of enemies between point A and point B and then a boss just before point B. It is a rinsed and recycled formula that is predictable and boring (probably because I've done it so many times). In the walking dead they have more purpose. They are there but it isn't like "mow them down and keep moving" like in a majority of other games I play. Because they weren't like that I found myself wondering if or when they will show up again and it was a great way to go. I didn't get desensitized to their appearance in the game and each encounter wasn't exactly the same so each was important and I had to stay on my toes (so to speak) because I didn't know when they would show up next. I loved how it was done. Sometimes the camera angle would annoy me and i was a bit sad that i couldn't pick up things and have them throughout the game, but it was still well done. The story was great, though I still had some questions at the end. There were happy moments and sad moments and moments that were somehow happy and yet sad at the same time (the end in particulair). It isn't very common for a game to give me a feeling of satisfaction at the end, but this one did even though a lot of it made me want to cry. I heard some referances to how this game is basicly nothing but quick time events, and yeah, its true, but that doesn't make it less great or fun. How it was used was good in the game and it functioned quite well, so, yeah this game is still good.

The other thing I wanted to say was that I am getting my room mate to play the Walking Dead video game. I figured it was mostly quick time events and dialog so he wouldn't have too much trouble. He's not a gamer and he has trouble with the controler so something that is mostly dialog should let him get used to the controls while not being too difficult. Or so I thought. A lot of the controls are time sensitive and he has to be fast, but since he's not used to it, he isn't fast, which results in frustration on his part. I'm around to help if he needs it and since i finished the game before him I can also help him out on figuring out what to do if he gets stuck on something. I'm hoping he gets used to the controls before the harder parts come up, but we'll see. Starting to think I should have gotten him to play Mass Effect 1 instead since it has no timers and its just the same old formula as other games. confused I can always suggest he take a break and play a different game if he is having trouble, I suppose. We'll see how it goes.