They just nickel and dime you to death for every little thing, and it's pretty disgusting. I mean right now I'm pissed off because my girlfriend wanted Banjo Tooie on her account. Well, it's a 1200 point game, and you can only buy 1000 or 2000 points. Who at Microsoft thought that we wouldn't get that this is clearly a fucking way to drag more money out of people than they want? Yeah, I get it. Fuck you Microsoft. On the PSN I can pay exactly how much I need for my content. If it were the same as Microsofts, I can safely say I wouldn't have bought nearly as much DLC as I have so far. In fact, because of this system I try and avoid buying anything on XBLA too, and I'll gladly buy it on PSN instead.
In addition to the points jclast made, you can also buy 500-point intervals direct from the Live Marketplace as well. So you'd have 300 points left over. If you bought 2500 worth of points and then bought two 1200 point games, you'd only have 100 points left. How much have you spent on the PSN?
I understand "THE PRINCIPLE" of the matter has people fuming, but seriously, nerdraging over this will never cease to amuse me. You're upset over a dollar or two left on your account?
It's a touch irritating; I always seem to end up with like, 40 points ($.50) that I can never spend. That's effectively money I can never get back, unless I get lucky in the pricing of things that interest me again. I prefer the real-money scheme of the PSN, yes.
It's a touch irritating; I always seem to end up with like, 40 points ($.50) that I can never spend. That's effectively money I can never get back, unless I get lucky in the pricing of things that interest me again. I prefer the real-money scheme of the PSN, yes.
But, what that has to do with Gold, I'm not sure.
It has to do with Gold, because I was just ranting about Microsoft's whole philosophy this generation when it comes to milking a bit of money from their consumers at every chance they possibly can. They charge for online gaming and getting demos on time, they make you put money in weird increments so you either have to do something not quite so convenient or end up paying them more and buying more, they charge a lot more than they should for HDD add-ons, you have to buy a separate overpriced adaptor if you want to separate your audio from your video source (and they built the freaking default audio/video plugin just too big so you can't plug in both that and the HDMI cord), and if you want wireless internet you have to buy an overpriced add-on there too.
Basically that's their philosophy this gen, and as long as people actually keep buying all this junk at their ridiculous prices, they're going to obviously keep charging for it. Live Gold won't go away, unfortunately because of this.
It's a touch irritating; I always seem to end up with like, 40 points ($.50) that I can never spend. That's effectively money I can never get back, unless I get lucky in the pricing of things that interest me again. I prefer the real-money scheme of the PSN, yes.
But, what that has to do with Gold, I'm not sure.
It has to do with Gold, because I was just ranting about Microsoft's whole philosophy this generation when it comes to milking a bit of money from their consumers at every chance they possibly can. They charge for online gaming and getting demos on time, they make you put money in weird increments so you either have to do something not quite so convenient or end up paying them more and buying more, they charge a lot more than they should for HDD add-ons, you have to buy a separate overpriced adaptor if you want to separate your audio from your video source (and they built the freaking default audio/video plugin just too big so you can't plug in both that and the HDMI cord), and if you want wireless internet you have to buy an overpriced add-on there too.
Basically that's their philosophy this gen, and as long as people actually keep buying all this junk at their ridiculous prices, they're going to obviously keep charging for it. Live Gold won't go away, unfortunately because of this.
What are you talking about with splitting audio and video? The cord that came with mine has them pre-split - red/white for audio and either yellow or red/green/blue for video. Also, if you buy them intelligently Live costs less than $5 per month. I'd say that's worth it for great matchmaking, integrated web interface, party support, and stuff like 1v100.
It's a touch irritating; I always seem to end up with like, 40 points ($.50) that I can never spend. That's effectively money I can never get back, unless I get lucky in the pricing of things that interest me again. I prefer the real-money scheme of the PSN, yes.
But, what that has to do with Gold, I'm not sure.
It has to do with Gold, because I was just ranting about Microsoft's whole philosophy this generation when it comes to milking a bit of money from their consumers at every chance they possibly can. They charge for online gaming and getting demos on time, they make you put money in weird increments so you either have to do something not quite so convenient or end up paying them more and buying more, they charge a lot more than they should for HDD add-ons, you have to buy a separate overpriced adaptor if you want to separate your audio from your video source (and they built the freaking default audio/video plugin just too big so you can't plug in both that and the HDMI cord), and if you want wireless internet you have to buy an overpriced add-on there too.
Basically that's their philosophy this gen, and as long as people actually keep buying all this junk at their ridiculous prices, they're going to obviously keep charging for it. Live Gold won't go away, unfortunately because of this.
What are you talking about with splitting audio and video? The cord that came with mine has them pre-split - red/white for audio and either yellow or red/green/blue for video. Also, if you buy them intelligently Live costs less than $5 per month. I'd say that's worth it for great matchmaking, integrated web interface, party support, and stuff like 1v100.
I wanted to do HDMI video and component (or composite, get them mixed up) to my dvd player/audio system. I couldn't, because of the way they had the fucking plugin built. You can't plug that thing that came with the system and an HDMI cord in at the same time, because it's just a bit too big. Then I learned you have to buy a separate adaptor in order to do this. Yeah, not a big deal and I did get it worked out a bit through my television, but it's just another straw.
It's a touch irritating; I always seem to end up with like, 40 points ($.50) that I can never spend. That's effectively money I can never get back, unless I get lucky in the pricing of things that interest me again. I prefer the real-money scheme of the PSN, yes.
But, what that has to do with Gold, I'm not sure.
You can buy some gamer pics with that 40 points. :P That's what I did when I ended up with that.
Well, they are Microsoft. They've had a lot of practice at finding ways to nickle and dime you. What did you expect?
I'll be honest. I bought the 360 for Dead Rising and Mass Effect. I later came to love Gears, and it gave me the ability to play all the current-gen cross platforms like Assassin's Creed and Street Fighter 4, and I even picked up a few Arcade games with Braid and Geometry Wars. But yes, little things have been annoying me about it:
- Constant Disk Read errors; this is alleviated somewhat by setting the console upright instead of flat, but the only sure way to prevent it is to install the game to disk.
- HDDs are expensive, and I only have the 20G. Add to the Installing bit above, this becomes irritating.
- The NXE loads slow at times, especially the friend list.
- You're constantly dumped to one of MS's Advertisement options in the dash; I don't care what game just went on sale, stop fucking telling me.
Now, I've got that shiny new PS3 sitting next to it. It loads fast, hasn't frozen once, 60g Drive (That I have no need for), no ads unless I go looking for them on the PSN. I find myself favoring it, and I don't see that changing. The only thing the XBox really has on it is Netflix, atm, and any exclusives I might want (like the upcoming XBLA Shadow Complex).
Those're the other things: Advertisements up the asshole that don't go away even when you're subscribing, and making you pay for most themes and things (I realize PSN has some premium themes, but for the most part most themes are completely free, and I'm sure there wouldn't even be premium themes if Sony didn't realize people would actually PAY for it because of the 360...)
I use my Xbox to play multiplayer games on Live, everything else (if its released on all systems) goes on the PS3. It's funny because my Xbox actually streams movies from my PC to it better than the PS3 does. I can never get more than 20-30 seconds into a movie on the PS3 before it starts buffering.
Using TVersity, I've notice no difference in streaming vids to either. I've got both connected to the network via wired for the faster speeds. What are you using for your setup?
I use my Xbox to play multiplayer games on Live, everything else (if its released on all systems) goes on the PS3. It's funny because my Xbox actually streams movies from my PC to it better than the PS3 does. I can never get more than 20-30 seconds into a movie on the PS3 before it starts buffering.
This is a route I take as well. When I got SF4 and RE5, I wanted them on Live. Dead Space went to Ps3, and so forth.
Using TVersity, I've notice no difference in streaming vids to either. I've got both connected to the network via wired for the faster speeds. What are you using for your setup?
Tversity. Same exact movie. I don't know what it is. Ports are open for both of them.
It's not a big deal, really, but everyone says how great of a media center the PS3 is.
That's sort of funny, because if it has multiplayer I definitely get it for PS3, not being a gold subscriber. Actually I get everything on PS3 unless it's a 360 exclusive. I only own Marvel Ultimate Alliance and Forza 2 for it, and Mass Effect which I now play on my PC. Some day I might get Fable 2 on Goozex.
My 360 has actually upset me quite a bit. I can't get Media Center to work on it unless I turn off UAC on my PC, which sucks because the PC doubles as our DVR. My rechargeable battery pack thinks it's always charged, so I have to either use batteries or play with the USB cable plugged in. On top of that, they want me to pay for online, which as far as I can tell the only advantage the 360 offers is online matchmaking.
For the record if you have a laptop with wireless and a LAN port you don't need to get the wireless adapter for the 360. You can use the laptop as a bridge. Actually it works if you have a PC with a wired and wireless card in it.
Well, they are Microsoft. They've had a lot of practice at finding ways to nickle and dime you. What did you expect?
I'll be honest. I bought the 360 for Dead Rising and Mass Effect. I later came to love Gears, and it gave me the ability to play all the current-gen cross platforms like Assassin's Creed and Street Fighter 4, and I even picked up a few Arcade games with Braid and Geometry Wars. But yes, little things have been annoying me about it:
- Constant Disk Read errors; this is alleviated somewhat by setting the console upright instead of flat, but the only sure way to prevent it is to install the game to disk.
- HDDs are expensive, and I only have the 20G. Add to the Installing bit above, this becomes irritating.
- The NXE loads slow at times, especially the friend list.
- You're constantly dumped to one of MS's Advertisement options in the dash; I don't care what game just went on sale, stop fucking telling me.
Now, I've got that shiny new PS3 sitting next to it. It loads fast, hasn't frozen once, 60g Drive (That I have no need for), no ads unless I go looking for them on the PSN. I find myself favoring it, and I don't see that changing. The only thing the XBox really has on it is Netflix, atm, and any exclusives I might want (like the upcoming XBLA Shadow Complex).
Houn, while I would certainly acknowledge that those are valid complaints, I would add that they are not universal cases (unlike, say, the Gold fee, or having to buy MS points in packs, rather than the individual number).
For me, personally, NXE loads up much faster than the blades did (I have an old Xbox 360, so that might have something to do with it). I don't get disk read errors--strangely enough, the only time I did, mine was sitting upright so I had it sit down flat, and that was the end of it.
PSN is also full of ads (it was the last time I looked at it--though that was just to download the Valkyrie Chronicles demo). One thing about PSN is that I can't imagine using it on a low-def TV like I had when I first bought my Xbox 360 (I would literally have to sit right in front of the TV if I wanted to read any text--i.e. Dead Rising). HDD are expensive--though I guess that's only relevant if you need to buy one (I'm still using the 20GB that came with my launch model--I just delete demos when I'm done with them and stream video/audio).
I have to admit, I've never taken advantage of my PS3's free multiplayer (no game that can do it at the moment). It's mostly a PS2-playing platform at the moment, but I intend to change that. Eventually. When I have the money.
Well, they are Microsoft. They've had a lot of practice at finding ways to nickle and dime you. What did you expect?
I'll be honest. I bought the 360 for Dead Rising and Mass Effect. I later came to love Gears, and it gave me the ability to play all the current-gen cross platforms like Assassin's Creed and Street Fighter 4, and I even picked up a few Arcade games with Braid and Geometry Wars. But yes, little things have been annoying me about it:
- Constant Disk Read errors; this is alleviated somewhat by setting the console upright instead of flat, but the only sure way to prevent it is to install the game to disk.
- HDDs are expensive, and I only have the 20G. Add to the Installing bit above, this becomes irritating.
- The NXE loads slow at times, especially the friend list.
- You're constantly dumped to one of MS's Advertisement options in the dash; I don't care what game just went on sale, stop fucking telling me.
Now, I've got that shiny new PS3 sitting next to it. It loads fast, hasn't frozen once, 60g Drive (That I have no need for), no ads unless I go looking for them on the PSN. I find myself favoring it, and I don't see that changing. The only thing the XBox really has on it is Netflix, atm, and any exclusives I might want (like the upcoming XBLA Shadow Complex).
Houn, while I would certainly acknowledge that those are valid complaints, I would add that they are not universal cases (unlike, say, the Gold fee, or having to buy MS points in packs, rather than the individual number).
For me, personally, NXE loads up much faster than the blades did (I have an old Xbox 360, so that might have something to do with it). I don't get disk read errors--strangely enough, the only time I did, mine was sitting upright so I had it sit down flat, and that was the end of it.
PSN is also full of ads (it was the last time I looked at it--though that was just to download the Valkyrie Chronicles demo). HDD are expensive--though I guess that's only relevant if you need to buy one (I'm still using the 20GB that came with my launch model--I just delete demos when I'm done with them and stream video/audio).
I have to admit, I've never taken advantage of my PS3's free multiplayer (no game that can do it at the moment). It's mostly a PS2-playing platform at the moment, but I intend to change that. Eventually. When I have the money.
Yeah, I've got an older 20G 360 as well. NXE has always been far slower than the blades; sometimes loading the friends list can take up to 5 minutes. And sure, PSN has Ads, but you have to go to the PSN to see them. The 360 Dash (both old and new) has ads in your main navigation.
I'm not trying to be a fanboy of either; merely listing what I've seen of the positives and negatives of the 360, since I've had it longer than the PS3. Yeah, this is drifting away from the discussion of Gold, though, but it's hard to talk about Gold without comparing it to the competition, which in turn leads to comparisons between the platforms themselves.
I would prefer Gold be free, sure, but I recognize that's not happening. People are willing to pay for it for one reason or another, myself included. Of course, if I could get Netflix on my PS3, I'd probably think long and hard about whether Gold was still worth it.
There are so many ways to get Live at reduced prices / free that the price has never bothered me, as you can stack it all up when you see a bargain. I've got Live until 2011 sorted now, 2010 has cost me basically nothing. The RRoD saw to that, blessing in disguise.
However, I have always been happy to pay, the service seems worth the cost to me, I don't care if it is free elsewhere, for the use I get out of it, and how well it works, it is worth way MORE than the <£3 per month.
All these additional services Microsoft are adding certainly make it more attractive though, that Avatar Kart racer looks great, I'll certainly buy a pile of pointless additions for it, as that is a business model I can get behind.
I dunno, it's like going into a Wal-Mart to buy a new game, but you can only pay them 100 dollars for it, even though it costs 60 bucks. It's okay, though, because you can buy another great 40 dollar game from them! Most people would tell Wal-Mart to fuck off and go buy it at Gamestop or something.
I don't want to buy another fucking 800 point game right now. Forcing people to pay way too much and then justifying it with "well, there are other great things you can put that towards" is just kind of silly.
Except fairly often Wal-mart would charge you $30 for that $60 game, and give you rain checks that allow you to buy any future $60 title at $30 as well.
I don't think I've paid full price for XBLM stuff since Geometry Wars 1. Points cards go on sale all the time, and even when they don't tons of different stores take coupons, or websites with rebate programs. This sale at Target last year
basically made every single piece of XBLM content 25% off. Earlier this year Amazon had points cards 10% off, Dell had them 20% off. Last year Circuit City had them 50% off (buy 1 get 1) = every single XBLA game for half price.
Sony has started selling PSN cards too, also in predetermined amounts (usually $20).
That Circuit City buy-1-get-1 sale was epic. I bought six 1600 cards that lasted me for about eight months. There hasn't been a really good sale on points cards lately, though, which is also why my Rock Band library hasn't expanded much in the past few months.
Posts
In addition to the points jclast made, you can also buy 500-point intervals direct from the Live Marketplace as well. So you'd have 300 points left over. If you bought 2500 worth of points and then bought two 1200 point games, you'd only have 100 points left. How much have you spent on the PSN?
I understand "THE PRINCIPLE" of the matter has people fuming, but seriously, nerdraging over this will never cease to amuse me. You're upset over a dollar or two left on your account?
But, what that has to do with Gold, I'm not sure.
It has to do with Gold, because I was just ranting about Microsoft's whole philosophy this generation when it comes to milking a bit of money from their consumers at every chance they possibly can. They charge for online gaming and getting demos on time, they make you put money in weird increments so you either have to do something not quite so convenient or end up paying them more and buying more, they charge a lot more than they should for HDD add-ons, you have to buy a separate overpriced adaptor if you want to separate your audio from your video source (and they built the freaking default audio/video plugin just too big so you can't plug in both that and the HDMI cord), and if you want wireless internet you have to buy an overpriced add-on there too.
Basically that's their philosophy this gen, and as long as people actually keep buying all this junk at their ridiculous prices, they're going to obviously keep charging for it. Live Gold won't go away, unfortunately because of this.
I wanted to do HDMI video and component (or composite, get them mixed up) to my dvd player/audio system. I couldn't, because of the way they had the fucking plugin built. You can't plug that thing that came with the system and an HDMI cord in at the same time, because it's just a bit too big. Then I learned you have to buy a separate adaptor in order to do this. Yeah, not a big deal and I did get it worked out a bit through my television, but it's just another straw.
You can buy some gamer pics with that 40 points. :P That's what I did when I ended up with that.
I'll be honest. I bought the 360 for Dead Rising and Mass Effect. I later came to love Gears, and it gave me the ability to play all the current-gen cross platforms like Assassin's Creed and Street Fighter 4, and I even picked up a few Arcade games with Braid and Geometry Wars. But yes, little things have been annoying me about it:
- Constant Disk Read errors; this is alleviated somewhat by setting the console upright instead of flat, but the only sure way to prevent it is to install the game to disk.
- HDDs are expensive, and I only have the 20G. Add to the Installing bit above, this becomes irritating.
- The NXE loads slow at times, especially the friend list.
- You're constantly dumped to one of MS's Advertisement options in the dash; I don't care what game just went on sale, stop fucking telling me.
Now, I've got that shiny new PS3 sitting next to it. It loads fast, hasn't frozen once, 60g Drive (That I have no need for), no ads unless I go looking for them on the PSN. I find myself favoring it, and I don't see that changing. The only thing the XBox really has on it is Netflix, atm, and any exclusives I might want (like the upcoming XBLA Shadow Complex).
This is a route I take as well. When I got SF4 and RE5, I wanted them on Live. Dead Space went to Ps3, and so forth.
Tversity. Same exact movie. I don't know what it is. Ports are open for both of them.
It's not a big deal, really, but everyone says how great of a media center the PS3 is.
My 360 has actually upset me quite a bit. I can't get Media Center to work on it unless I turn off UAC on my PC, which sucks because the PC doubles as our DVR. My rechargeable battery pack thinks it's always charged, so I have to either use batteries or play with the USB cable plugged in. On top of that, they want me to pay for online, which as far as I can tell the only advantage the 360 offers is online matchmaking.
For the record if you have a laptop with wireless and a LAN port you don't need to get the wireless adapter for the 360. You can use the laptop as a bridge. Actually it works if you have a PC with a wired and wireless card in it.
Houn, while I would certainly acknowledge that those are valid complaints, I would add that they are not universal cases (unlike, say, the Gold fee, or having to buy MS points in packs, rather than the individual number).
For me, personally, NXE loads up much faster than the blades did (I have an old Xbox 360, so that might have something to do with it). I don't get disk read errors--strangely enough, the only time I did, mine was sitting upright so I had it sit down flat, and that was the end of it.
PSN is also full of ads (it was the last time I looked at it--though that was just to download the Valkyrie Chronicles demo). One thing about PSN is that I can't imagine using it on a low-def TV like I had when I first bought my Xbox 360 (I would literally have to sit right in front of the TV if I wanted to read any text--i.e. Dead Rising). HDD are expensive--though I guess that's only relevant if you need to buy one (I'm still using the 20GB that came with my launch model--I just delete demos when I'm done with them and stream video/audio).
I have to admit, I've never taken advantage of my PS3's free multiplayer (no game that can do it at the moment). It's mostly a PS2-playing platform at the moment, but I intend to change that. Eventually. When I have the money.
Yeah, I've got an older 20G 360 as well. NXE has always been far slower than the blades; sometimes loading the friends list can take up to 5 minutes. And sure, PSN has Ads, but you have to go to the PSN to see them. The 360 Dash (both old and new) has ads in your main navigation.
I'm not trying to be a fanboy of either; merely listing what I've seen of the positives and negatives of the 360, since I've had it longer than the PS3. Yeah, this is drifting away from the discussion of Gold, though, but it's hard to talk about Gold without comparing it to the competition, which in turn leads to comparisons between the platforms themselves.
I would prefer Gold be free, sure, but I recognize that's not happening. People are willing to pay for it for one reason or another, myself included. Of course, if I could get Netflix on my PS3, I'd probably think long and hard about whether Gold was still worth it.
However, I have always been happy to pay, the service seems worth the cost to me, I don't care if it is free elsewhere, for the use I get out of it, and how well it works, it is worth way MORE than the <£3 per month.
All these additional services Microsoft are adding certainly make it more attractive though, that Avatar Kart racer looks great, I'll certainly buy a pile of pointless additions for it, as that is a business model I can get behind.
And I cut my online teeth PC gaming too.
Except fairly often Wal-mart would charge you $30 for that $60 game, and give you rain checks that allow you to buy any future $60 title at $30 as well.
I don't think I've paid full price for XBLM stuff since Geometry Wars 1. Points cards go on sale all the time, and even when they don't tons of different stores take coupons, or websites with rebate programs. This sale at Target last year
Sony has started selling PSN cards too, also in predetermined amounts (usually $20).
Meanwhile, real money never goes on sale.