A very well written article on why the Xbox 360 is on the right track to be the most successful next-gen console in North America. A great read whether you have an Xbox 360, plan on getting one or are just curious.

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Sure enough, I got the system on December 12, 2005 I have been playing it since then without a single issue. As you can see from my gamerscoe on the gamercard on this site I have played quite a bit and enjoyed it.

So as I said, the thing has been working flawlessly for months and life was good. Today, I got home and decided to play a little Oblivion before dinner so I started it up and it loaded Oblivion fine. Hit Continue and the game started to load my saved game…then rather than see the graphical goodness of Oblivion I saw a bizzarre graphics corruption that reminded me of my old PC gamer days with video artifacts.

Thinking this was just a minor hiccup, I turned the system off, waited a few seconds and then turned it back on eager to get back to Oblivion.

Then it happened – my worst Xbox 360 nightmare – the dreaded 3 Blinking Lights of Doom. This signal is supposed to indicate that either the system is “overheating” or “hardware failure”. I immediately knew it couldn’t possibly be overheating since it had only been on for like 3 mins before it croaked. Also I had played several long sessions in the past five months when an overheating issue would have presented itself.

That led me to sad belief that my $500 video game console had for no apparent reason committed suicide. Not quite sure what drove it to do this since I had treated it quite well but I guess that’s life.

Called Microsoft at 1-800-4-MYXBOX and the guy took my info down. The process is that they will send an empty box (upto 3 days) to me, I return it (? days), they fix it (2 days) and ship it back (upto 3 days) – so all in all we’re looking at like 2 weeks or so to get it back.

What a pain and very dissapointing that something like this could happen without any type of warning.

The only silver lining in this ordeal is that my warranty was supposed to expire 4 days from today so had this issue happened next week, I’d have to pay money for this nonense.

I’ll report back on the process and how long it takes.

BE WARNED if you have an Xbox 360 – it can happen at any time so enjoy it while you can

The “budget” $499 PS3 system apart from having a smaller HD (20 vs 60GB) than the “premium” $599 PS3 actually has several other features missing including HDMI output! WTF? What happened to true-HD? What good is BluRay without HDMI..apart from HDMI, the $499 system also doesn’t have WiFi or a Memory Card Reader.

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Also as if that wasn’t bad enough, the PS3 new controller (which to me looks identical to the current PS2 Dual Shock) doesn’t have any type of force feedback which although Sony attributes to causing interference with the gyroscopics (motion detection) is more likely due to a copyright issue they recently lost.

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Personally, I would rather have Force Feedback over motion detection and I sure as hell am not paying $599 for a PS3 that probably won’t ship with any games. What do you think?
Also as with the Xbox360 (which I do own) initially the stores will be selling bundles so you’re looking at close to $1000 for a decent starting system. More than likely, I’m guessing Microsoft will drop the price on the Xbox360 before the PS3 launches making the price gap even more.

RPGs have been around for ages, I remember playing Final Fantasy 1 on the original Nintendo (NES) – wow that makes me feel so old. The concept behind most RPGs (role-playing games) is that you take on the role of a character that moves through a certain world and performs certain quests. Along with this, there is the concept of leveling up which can be thought of gaining expertise in certain areas based on your character’s focus,etc. All in all, RPGs tend to be extremely immersive or at least try to be as it is a very important part of delivering the experience that you are in this other world interacting with virtual characters.

While other games including the most popular RPG franchise Final Fantasy do a stand-up job of immersing the player in their worlds, I have to say apart from its other strong points that the ability of Oblivion to completely immerse you in its amazing world is what makes it one of the best games of all time.

I’m not here to make long reviews, there are plenty of dedicated websites that will do a far better job but I’ll touch on some major points and link to some good detailed reviews.

From the moment you take control you are fully immersed in the world of Tamriel and it is VERY difficult to leave – which is why I was up until 4AM playing the first day I got the game.

Graphics - best graphics on Xbox360 by far (better than GRAW). Framerate is fairly consitant although there’s a small amount of slowdown at times but it doesn’t effect the gameplay. You are usually so involved in the game that framerate issues rarely cause you to groan, in a perfect world it would be smooth all the time but, oh well.

Audio – Patrick Stewart cameos as the Emperor and all in all the other voice acting is superb, lots of variety and NPCs sound like you expect them to. Best of all, they have attempted to put some emotion into the characters faces as they talk so as they talk you can see them be serious, jovial, sad, etc. A very important and nice touch.

Value – Literally hours and hours and hours (some report minimum of 60) of gameplay bottled up inside this game, making it possibly one of the best values for the Xbox 360. Lots of side quests and other things (Arena, Guild contracts) you can do. Also for the true hardcore fan there’s always playing over with a different race, class, sign,etc which changes the whole experience. Trust me, this is the best $60 you will ever spend on a video game.

Gameplay – It’s so immersive, anything you want to touch/take/steal you can, including a single apple on a table or a bottle on the floor. I haven’t come across a part yet where I feel I should be able to do something that I haven’t been able to which is truly outstanding. I will most likely replay the game as a thief because it seems there’s a ton of stuff you can steal and then trade on the black market, etc. – right now I’m playing it through as a “good guy” but still.

All in all, I can’t say enough good things about this game – it was definitely worth the wait and I’m glad they took their time with it.

If you’re a RPG/adventure fan this is a MUST – don’t even second guess it. Even if you’re not an RPG/adventure fan, you’d be a fool to let this gaming jewel pass you by.

GameSpot Review (9.6 / 10)

IGN Review (9.3 / 10) – This will open a top bar from GameRankings so you can go to other reviews of the game too.