For those of you who have purchased one and for those of you who will- initial impressions here, please.
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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.
I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.
The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.
Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.
I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.
Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?
The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.
Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.
Not loving this new fraud based economy.
Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?
Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!
They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.
The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.
It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.
Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.
Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.
A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.
You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.
Let’s not be the monsters we hate.
The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.
Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.
Cancel the cowardly Times and Post and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.
They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.
Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.
Steve
I fear that the fanatics who have already bought it may not have the time to check in at Balloon Juice for a few weeks, or months.
I don’t think I’ve owned a console game since, oh, Intellivision. You wacky kids today.
Mike in SLO
Steve:
I’d forgotten all about Intellevision. You must have been the rich kids on the block. My last video game was Pong! I’m kind of shocked to see John with an XBOX thread. I thought this was where the adults hung out!
(a little jest, people… please no flaming for joking around!)
Steve
My parents were divorced. My dad bought me Intellivision, my mom was cheap and bought me an Atari. There was a third system that was kind of the new, trendy thing back then but I can’t remember what it was; I want to say Nintendo but I think this was well before Nintendo.
John S.
I believe you are referring to the Sega Master System. It was the first 8-bit video game unit, and pre-dated Nintendo by quite a few years.
As far as the XBox 360, I’m not too excited about it. I don’t really care too much for the titles Microsoft has offered thus far, and the hardware capability doesn’t really impress me either.
The only thing about the unit that enthralls me is that they ported Final Fantasy XI onto it, and therefore have created a new expansion pack for the game – which is cool. But in the end, I’m holding out for a PS3.
zzyzx
third == colecovision!
zzyzx
Oh and I work right next door to MS’s XBox HQ. I’m tempted to form a raiding party.
Steve
Was Sega the one with Sonic the Hedgehog? I thought that came after Nintendo.
Aaron
Well, I’ll bring this thread around to the 360 since no one else has. My father won one in that Mountain Dew contest they were running. Which is fantastic for me, since as a grad student there’s no way I could afford a 360, although I do covet it. I haven’t seen it yet, but I have spoken to my parents who tried it out and were pretty blown away by it. It came with “Kameo” from Rare. They say it’s pretty amazing looking — and they don’t even have an HD TV. I’m sure on one of those monsterous 52″ plasma screens (that I also covet) it would be life changing.
Since my parents don’t play videogames, I’m going to trade them my old Xbox for the new 360 when I go home for turkey day — tomorrow, actually. Pretty good deal for me.
Now, I just have to wait for “The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion” in January. Because “Morrowind” was one of my favorite games of all time.
Now, if you folks will excuse me, I need to go work on a twenty-five page paper and proctor an exam.
John S.
That was the 16-bit Sega Genesis system. The Sega Master system was 8-bit and came before the 8-bit Nintendo system.
demimondian
zzyzx — where do you work? The cement factory?
zzyzx
I’m at another high tech company.
People are lined around the building to collect (presumably free) X-Boxes. It would be so easy to build up a stockpile!
Davebo
Lets see here..
Reagan’s National Security Advisor is asking what the fuck we are still doing in Iraq.
http://niemanwatchdog.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=ask_this.view&askthisid=00129
And the Iraqis announce that the insurgents are no big deal provided they are only killing Americans.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5431131,00.html
And John is discussing home gaming devices.
Unfreakinbelievable.
demimondian
Why? You can’t port Linux to it. Heck, I doubt you can even port NetBSD to it.
Jeff B
Was in Circuit City yesterday checking it out. Two kids (about 10-12) walked up and started drooling. One said he was going to tell his father that is the only thing he wants. The graphics are just amazing. Was testing out Call of Duty and it looked awesome. Have a friend who is planning on buying one for the gaming and the entertainment system features. Can wirelessly hook it into a home network and store all photos and music on the 20 GB hard drive.
BlogReeder
Davebo, lighten up! You’re going to give yourself a heart attack. I’m sure John will get around to it. Patience.
Davebo
BlogReeder
John tends to ignore realities that don’t fit into his rather skewed view of our adventure in Iraq.
Lighten up? No thanks. Not getting pissed is what got us into this mess in the first place.
Vladi G
I think you’re wrong on this. It went Atari, Intellivision, Colecovision, then Nintendo (8-bit), the Sega, then Sega Genesis (16-bit), then Super Nintendo.
Nintendo was released in 1985, and the Sega Master System was 1986. I know the order from memory, but for the dates, I used this handy dandy timeline (which seems to ignore Intellivision, which had awesome sports games, including horse racing).
As for me, I’ll wait for the PS3. It makes no sense to buy a system for which I have no games if I can buy one that I have a bunch for.
Another Jeff
That’s right, not to mention the fact that it’s only three days and counting until the Left starts their annual “War On Christmas”.
And John’s talking about an X-Box. AND, Whitey’s on the moon.
KC
I had an Atari when I was little, but my cousin had Intellivision. I always liked it more than the Atari. As I recall, it had better graphics, games, etc.
Walker
Everyone is forgetting the Odyssey and the Odyssey 2. My family owned both. The later was essentially an also-ran to the Intellivision and never had any good games. It was only notable for its built-in keyboard, hence blurring the line between consoles and the C-64 era.
However, the first one was brilliant. It was essentially nothing more than a pong machine. It could only draw squares on the screen as its graphics, and they all were of the same color. When you bought a game, you got two things: a cartridge and a plastic overlay. You put the plastic overlay on your TV and that was the custom graphics for the game! We had this cat-and-mouse game where the maze was in the plastic overlay, but the cartridge restricted movement according to the “boundaries” of the maze. Quite funny if you did not put on the overlay correctly.
BlogReeder
Davebo, I think what got us in this mess in the first place is not taking terrorists threats seriously enough. But that’s not the fault of one administration, is it?
John Cole
Sorry Davebo. Didn’t get your email list of pre-approved topics today.
Dick.
jaime
Intellivision had the best sports games, especially the boxing and baseball, although the atari had the football game where you could throw the “ball” off one edge of the screen and it would pop up on the other side.
Jay
And John is discussing home gaming devices.
Unfreakinbelievable.
It’s his blog moron. If you want to talk about Iraq all day, get your own blog. Cripes.
John, I’m not ready to plunk down $300 on this yet. What I am doing however, is seeing amazing deals on Ebay for people with the original Xbox. Systems with 4-8 games, the DVD kit and multiple controllers are going anywhere from $115-$150.
KC
Not video game related, I know, but this piece on Murtha and his “immediate pullout” plan by Fred Kaplan is great.
jg
You a programmer?
Horshu
I had an Oddysey 2. That was my favorite system. I’ve also had an Atari, Nintendo, TurboGrafx 16, Genesis, and an N64. Plus I used my C64 as practically a console for a while.
In that time, a few rich kids I knew had 3DOs and/or NeoGeos (which were unreal in cost and had something like $200 games)
Dave Ruddell
I can’t believe y’all aren’t mentioning the Vectrex. Now there was a game system ahead of its time.
demimondian
Hmm. I thought that backwards compatibility for the PS3 was not a given. Certainly, when the press has asked about it, Sony has been…evasive.
(ObDisc. I work for the company which makes the XBox and the XBox 360, so I’m perhaps not reliable on this.)
John S.
Vladi G-
Thanks for the refresher! I’ve had so many game consoles growing up that a lot of them get mixed in together.
Oh, and the 1990 Neo-Geo system was the shit.
Pb
Dave Ruddell,
Yeah, my girlfriend still has a Vectrex–cool little system, that.
(“Eek! Help! Spike!” “Oh, no! Molly!”)
Steve S
KC – Yeah. When are the Republicans going to have a plan?
sean
you mean this isn’t a thread about those vicious thugs at CNN putting an X over Cheney’s face? i’m so confused.
Davebo
Sorry John.
It’s just that reading that got me really pissed.
Vladi G
The thing I read today said it would. The FAQ on this site says it will, FWIW.
Patrick Lightbody
Davebo,
You’re a moron. The fact that I couldn’t get an xbox 360 at FIVE THIRTY AM because they were already sold out should be the top story nation wide. The War on Terror is so yesterday. Today, I start my War on Bill.
John Redworth
Now is buying the XBox 360 a liberal or conservative stance?
jg
Microsoft is an american company that discriminates agianst gays so its a conservative purchase. Cheese eating surrender monkeys play Plastation.
John S.
And we also like things that are Japanese, because we hate America!
The Disenfranchised Voter
When it comes to choosing consoles I have one question. What console will Squaresoft be making games for. Whichever console that is, I go with that one.
In this case it would be the PS3. Anyone know the release date on that puppy?
John S.
Ah, you mean Square-Enix.
Anyway, I’m with you man. Final Fantasy is my crack.
The Disenfranchised Voter
Yea, I know they are Square-Enix now but the FF series was just so much better when they were Squaresoft. Don’t get me wrong, I still love the series. I just think they have been putting too much of an emphasis on graphics rather than the characters/storyline for the past few games.
By far, my favorite is FF3 (6 in Japan), though FF2 definately comes in second.
Villians just don’t come much more wicked than Kefka.
John S.
Sephiroth would have given Kefka a good run for his money, though.
bago
The 360 is getting FFXI, and details about FFXIII and whatever the next dragon quest is will be revealed at E3.
Ian
I am buying one off of eBay to resell :)
The Disenfranchised Voter
But isn’t FFXI the MMORPG that is already available on the computer?
I want good old fashion RPGs not MMO’s..
Kirby
I managed to get my hands on a core system today and played a few rounds of Tiger Woods 06. The graphics are simply stunning. But I did see a few lines break into the screen while I was playing.
I don’t expect much from the first generation of games with the newer consoles. Most of the time they barely scratch the surface of what a machine is capable of doing. But if this a sign of things to come I will be a happy geek for a long time.
bago
Lets just say that sony has always been someone content addicted. Too bad the future is moving away from that. Blu-Ray, DRM spyware… just trying to hold on to an outdated content model.
PurpleChimp
I’ve owned every console since the NES/MasterSystem era including the handhelds. I’m not biased and won’t limit myself to one console. Each will have games the other does not so just get them all…except with the Sony DRM debacle I don’t think I’ll buy the PS3. Not sure if anybody has heard, but Sony has in the works a DRM tool that will lock a game to its hardware so selling your used games or using them at a friends house is going to be a think of the past with them. The media tools on the 360 are certainly handy. With a Windows XP machine you can install MediaConnect and your 360 can read the music, photos, and video over your network and display/play them over the tv it is connected to. This is certainly cool if you have some sort of home theater for those holiday/entertainment days.