Andy Laub

Microsoft blessed the Xbox 360 faithful with a dashboard update this week. But this wasn’t just any old update – this was a complete rethinking of the interface from the ground up. Their moniker for it – New Xbox Experience (NXE) – is certainly apt, and I for one find it to be a welcome change. There was a lot to like about the old dashboard, but as time wore on, it started to suffer from feature creep to the point where the once-logical layout became cluttered and somewhat confusing. A big contributing factor to this was the Xbox Live Marketplace (XBLM), as it added a completely new section to the dashboard, and was never particularly well laid-out to begin with.

But after spending a couple of days with the new dash it’s safe to say that it’s a solid improvement over what was there before, both visually and functionally. They took a page from Sony in terms of an overall metaphor – both the NXE and Sony’s dash, the Xross Media Bar (XMB), use one axis for your main navigation and the other for sub navigation. That’s pretty much where the similarities end, as the PS3’s nav stretches horizontally across the screen while the 360’s scrolls vertically.

They both seem to operate in a reasonably snappy fashion – there was a bit of slowness (mostly in the marketplace) when the NXE launched, but now it performs at a speed that feels faster than the original. Even better, it doesn’t feel like an afterthought anymore. It’s clearly intended as part of the dashboard instead of feeling like an added application on the PS3. It matches everything around it and makes great use of the new interface.

But what about the other content? The NXE presents the information in big bold boxes, so there’s rarely any guesswork to be had as far as what exactly you’re getting into. The information is the hero, and it’s provided in easy-to-read type on a pretty blue gradient. It also just seems to relish the ability to give you that information. Sony opts to use small, monochromatic icons for most functions, which doesn’t really hinder anything, but it doesn’t really make things easier to find either; I sense that most either rely on labels or memorize the icons that they most frequently use. It’s kind of like comparing Web 2.0-style information delivery to that of a 1337 Flash Developer from the early 2000’s.

While that my sound like an insult, I think it’s just very indicative of Sony’s style of doing things. They’re giving you an icon and a title; consider it a bonus if you get more information than that as it would be an aesthetic sacrifice to do so. Microsoft clearly doesn’t think that way, and never has. Their information delivery has always been dictated by space on the 360, and now they’ve given themselves much more flexibility in that regard.

All in all, I think Microsoft hit it out of the park here, and has the best dashboard experience of any console.

I think this will be the last of this series, as I’ve covered everything interesting that I can think of. We played some Little Big Planet for the first time on Saturday, and it was a bit overwhelming. They throw you right into the action and start explaining things as you’re wanting to do other things, which makes it easy to miss some of the tutorial stuff.

The game plays decently well – controls are straightforward as one would expect for a platformer, although the surface that you’re moving along generally has 3 different “tracks”, for lack of a better description, ranging from closer to further away. Obstacles and platforms respect these tracks which makes for some interesting little puzzles (moving things in the foreground and the background and then using them as steps, for example). And while I respect the idea and agree that it adds to the gameplay, sometimes moving between the different lanes can be difficult or impossible for no good reason. And sometimes you’ll find the opposite is true – you’ll have switched lanes unintentionally, causing you to end up somewhere you don’t want to be.

But overall it’s good. Customization and creation are the true driving factors here, and the options abound. I haven’t been overly compelled to create any kind of level yet, but the stuff that you can do is truly epic. I am pretty sure that all the different elements within the actual game levels can be recreated with the level editor, which is impressive. What I’ve been enjoying is the levels that people have already created and shared online – my favorite so far has been a marathon level that starts you in a prison cell and lets you gradually work your way out, ending in a police chase! The only major fault I ran into (and I believe Sony has acknowledged this) is that playing online with other people in the same level is incredibly laggy, to the point of being essentially unplayable.

Unfortunate

One of the few other games I’ve been looking forward to trying was Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. I was happy to find a demo available for download, and in retrospect it saved me a bunch of dollars. The game plays fine – there’s not really anything technically wrong with it – but it just felt off. So for now I’ll continue to chip away at LBP when Abe has free time, and explore the user-created stuff when I’m on my own.

Super Summary

The PS3 is a respectable piece of hardware with some really cool and impressive features and interesting games that I still wouldn’t pay $400 – $500 for. That money would get you much farther if spent on an Xbox 360, which has many of the same games and more attractive exclusives.

Yesterday I watched Prison Break. On Hulu. On the PS3. So there’s that. The browser seems to work well – a bit laggy at times but considering it’s essentially a bonus over all the other capabilities the hardware has, I can’t complain too much. I did also have a minor freak-out yesterday morning when I thought the second controller wasn’t charging, but as it turns out it can only charge when the console is powered on. I’m not sure how I feel about that, but I think Sony is operating under the assumption that PS3 is going to be an always-on sort of console (see below).

Making Connections

Today the HDMI cable and adaptor that I previously mentioned arrived, so I could finally see the PS3 in all of its 1080i (that’s the best we can do right now) glory. What a difference! Text is crisp and clear, and everything looks so much more right. Another side note – I had originally ordered the component cables from Walmart using the gift card that came with the PS3 – but when I returned them they gave me cash; I found that odd. Great, but odd.

I also picked up an ethernet hub, as our router is completely used up when it comes to wired ports. Everything worked immediately as it should on both the 360 and PS3, so I was happy not to have to play network troubleshooting.

Customization

I still have not played any games, but I downloaded some themes. Like the 360, you can change the backgrounds and such to better suit your mood, but the PS3 takes it one step further and includes a new icon set with each theme as well as some wallpapers. And like the 360 (again), you can mix and match somewhat, so you can have a certain set of icons tied to a different background image.

Even better, you can download images via the web browser and use those as your backgrounds – there’s a whole Flickr group dedicated to it.

Life With Playstation

There’s one other interesting tidbit, and then I’m off to play some Little Big Planet for the first time – Life With Playstation. Picture the channels that the Wii has – weather, news, etc, and you’ll already have some idea of what this is. There are two sections right now – the Live Channel, which provides a global view of weather and news headlines on a regional basis (served by Google!), and more interestingly, Folding@home, which adds the PS3 to Stanford University’s Distributed Computing Project, intended to “research protein folding and misfolding to gain an understanding of how these are related to disease.”

As weird as that sounds, it’s really quite an amazing feature to include in a video game console. I’m not sure what the project has accomplished thus far or will accomplish in the future, but the fact that Sony has contributed to the effort with the PS3 is really pretty cool.

It’s no secret I was amazingly reticent about Sony’s PS3 when it first launched. There were a lot of things wrong with the picture. Over time, my coldness became more of a lukewarmness – still not completely satisfied but more impressed with particular aspects of the experience. As the price dropped and software/hardware updates became a regularity, ownership became a real possibility and I added it to my list.

So when WalMart in all of their WalMartiness offered a $100 gift card with the purchase of an 80GB PS3, I jumped on it. I opted to order it from their website rather than drive out to the store (which is kind of a lose-lose, really) and it arrived yesterday, in the midst of a million other things I really should be doing instead. So far I’ve only spent about an hour with it, but it’s such a different feel from other consoles I’ve experienced that the initial impressions are probably some of the most interesting.

Packaging and Pack-ins

Since this is just a base-model, 80GB unit there’s nothing really to write home about. It includes a DualShock 3 controller (finally) and… not much else. There’s no power brick as there were with the Wii and 360, which is nice, but seriously, Sony? Composite cables? Those are worthless. I initially decided to get the component video adapter ($20) since our TV doesn’t have HDMI, but I remembered that it does have DVI, and so instead the plan is to use a DVI/HDMI adapter with a standard HDMI cable – it’s about half the price and we can continue to use it when we upgrade to HDMI eventually. The cables are all still in transit, which means that all of my experience thus far has been through the included cables.

Setup

Physical setup: no different than any other piece of hardware, so it’s worth skipping. Except that when you first turn the unit on you have to plug in the wireless controller… okay, whatever. The initial startup process begins with an orchestra tuning their instruments (this is the startup screen?), then guides you through establishing the date and time (can’t this be pulled from the network?), giving your name, and optionally connecting to the internet. Nothing particularly difficult, though it felt more tedious than setting up the 360. Or a computer, for that matter.

Which brings me to an interesting point. The moment you’re launched into the dashboard (Sony calls it the Xross Media Bar, or XMB), you’re bombarded with stuff. Not visually – the layout is very clean, but there are sooooo many features and they’re all much more apparent than on the current 360 dash. It seriously does feel like Sony was out to design some kind of living room computer and decided that they might as well add games to it and call it a PlayStation.

After this, I left, because it needed to download a software update (140MB!) and I had an appointment. An interesting side note here: you have the option of downloading the update on your computer and sticking it on a thumb drive for the PS3, instead of getting it on the machine directly. Anyway, when I came back, it was done, and I only had to spend 5 minutes scrolling through the EULA to get it to install. Then I created a PlayStation Network account (for free, which is great), where I had to do the same thing. I was almost worn out from all the scrolling, but then I got giddy that I could actually use the unit and not have to install anything further (for now).

It still looks terrible, thanks to the composite cable. Type is blurry, and it’s just not the crisp HD that it wants to be. I’ve played with the XMB with a proper video connection and it’s downright gorgeous. It needs to be that when you first turn it on. But other than that, it’s fine for now. Like I said before, it’s very computer-like, which means there’s a LOT of stuff there. Some of the options in the settings, while nice to have, would benefit from a line or two of explanation.

Surfing the Net on the Information Superhighway

The PS3 includes a web browser. I like this. I was anxious to find out if it would work for the only things I would really use it for – watching videos. So I tested it with a couple of sites, with cautious optimism:

• Adult Swim: Because I never know when I’ll need to watch some Aqua Teen Hungerforce or Superjail. It works!
• Hulu: Because watching Prison Break and Chuck when they’re on TV is too much work. It works! (I think)
• YouTube: Because the world needs kitten videos. It works! (Probably)

Everything seemed to be functioning. I want to go back and play with it some more once I have it on a proper ethernet connection, and then I can give final impressions. But still, I was delighted to see that Hulu apparently works, because we had been debating the purchase of a cheap media center PC for similar purposes.

And that’s all I know. Next time: I don’t know yet. Maybe the PS Store or something.

This morning I opted for some McDonald’s breakfast as we’ve had coupons for free (!) chicken biscuits sitting on the table for a couple weeks now. Anyone who knows me can tell you that I’m all about the sausage patty when it comes to breakfast sandwiches, so we’ll see how this new contender can compare.

7:52 – Biscuit, hash brown, and medium Sprite are in front of me. I spent $2.51 on the group – a good value, considering the normal meal retails for $1 more and the biscuit alone is almost that much.

7:53 – Food has been debagged.

7:54 – First bite. Okay, I guess. Kind of sweet in the same way their chicken breast sandwiches are.

7:54 – No napkins were supplied. Good thing I have a supply at my desk.

7:55 – About halfway through the sandwich. I think the biscuit is the saving grace.

7:55 – Hash brown delicious as always.

7:56 – I would estimate this sandwich has about 3 bites left. But I take big bites.

7:56 – Chicken has toppled off of biscuit. I repeat: chicken has toppled off of biscuit. Why are breakfast sandwiches so delicate?

7:57 – Down to final bite.

7:57 – Sandwich eaten.

I won’t bore you with the rest of the breakfast details, but rest assured, if this sandwich had not been free, there’s no way it could dethrone the sausage (“king of breakfast meats”). But don’t feel bad. Chicken is still a shoe-in for 2/3 of the meals of the day.

For the last 3 weeks I’ve been away to Liberty City with frightening regularity. That’s Grand Theft Auto talk, but I have a feeling that you knew that. I’ve killed pigeons, jumped rivers, fallen out of helicoptors, and ridden motorcycles through the subway. This week I wrapped up the single player game 100% and finished up some miscellaneous achievements that have been eluding me, so I feel compelled to take a break from the gaming and the rest of my distractions and finally sit down and tell you how much I like this game.

One of the factors that has made GTA such a compelling series of games is Rockstar’s persistence in getting the environment just right. Not just in terms of buildings and appearance, but overall feel – sounds, conversations, advertising, and more. The PS2 generation of games were amazing for their time; everything felt so lush and fleshed out. The veneer has since worn a bit, mostly thanks to the huge leaps with this generation of consoles, but you can still pop in any of the games and appreciate the effort that’s gone into them.

But let’s talk about this generation. I’ll admit, I was a little let down when I learned (last year) that Grand Theft Auto IV would be set exclusively in Liberty City (same location as Grand Theft Auto III, but there’s little to no resemblance). I had been spoiled by the vast environment of GTA: San Andreas, spread over three cities and an entire state. But Rockstar had their reasons. Instead of simply making GTA IV larger, they wanted to make it deeper and more detailed. And considering the game was delayed by six months, I’d imagine trying to model another city with the same depth as Liberty would’ve added even more time. And finally, disc space was already at a premium, at least for the Xbox 360 version.

Given all this information, you get a sense that Rockstar really has their priorities straight. And when you play the game, your suspicions are proven correct. I could write pages about all the aspects of this game that I love, but to sum it up, I appreciate that they’ve given you a protagonist with a tangible background, and logical motivations. Then they’ve created a cast of interesting, funny, and sometimes annoying supporting characters and then wrapped that all up in a compelling story with many twists and turns. They’ve given you the opportunity to make some of your own decisions this time around, and while they don’t necessarily affect the story as much as you might expect, they’re still interesting and some will really have you digging deep to determine what decision you’re more comfortable with.

Visually the game is everything you’d expect. The surroundings are beautiful in that gritty sort of way; perfect in their lack of perfection. The vehicles this time around are especially nice. There were lots of oddly-proportioned cars in the previous games, but at the very least these cars are good-looking, if not downright sexy. The audio is up there as well, with the perfect amount of ambient noise, interesting pedestrian voices, and radio with humorous dialogue and well-chosen music. I especially enjoyed the cameos from Bill Hader, Jason Sudeikis, and Fred Armisen from Saturday Night Live.

The only thing that I had issues with at first was the updated control scheme. GTA IV introduced a new cover system and slightly different shooting mechanics. They also tweaked the handling of the cars to be slightly more realistic. I’m still getting used to the new controls, even after having spent nearly 100 hours in the game, but I do like them significantly more than I did when I started. Ars Technica’s Ben Kuchera summed the game up perfectly in his review:

This is not a game that instantly impresses, and the more time you spend seeing what surprises the game holds for you, the more you will be drawn in. By hour five you’ll be happy, by hour ten you’ll be impressed, and by hour thirty you’ll be blown away.

Plus, it’s the highest-rated game on Metacritic and holds the title for the biggest video game launch ever.

The other day I had a brief phone conversation about video games:

X: “So yeah, my friend is really into video games.”
Me: “Cool.”
X: “He thinks Mario Galaxy is the best game ever!”
Me: sighs

Over and over I hear about how amazing Super Mario Galaxy is. Seriously.

But I wonder if those people have played the same game that I’ve played; my copy is definitely lacking in the “super” territory. Graphics and sound are good, but not mind-blowing; am I supposed to lower my standards because this is a Wii game? Story is… well, it’s the same basic story that we’ve seen in Mario games since the 80’s. Except that was never really a story. Controls get some points for being better than Super Paper Mario, but I could’ve had just as much fun with a more conventional controller.

But I feel like I’ll be chastised if I say that Mario Galaxy isn’t all that. I was really excited about Mario Sunshine when that came out, and it turned out to be pretty average. Galaxy is not some amazing revolution in storytelling or graphics or sound, and the controls are gimmickry at their finest. Yet Metacritic shows an average score of 97/100.

I’m coming to terms with the fact that I’m no longer a subscriber to the Nintendo school of gaming. I’ve certainly enjoyed my share, and maybe I’ll pick up the new Mario Kart at some point, but I can’t think of a recent game of theirs that I want to play and keep playing. Perhaps I will plod through the rest of Galaxy, but at the same time I’ve been thinking about just ditching the Wii altogether.

It’s hard to really qualify Driv3r at this point. I like the additional vehicles and the detail in the cities seems to be adequate. The problem – well, the main problem and the biggest difference between the Driver series and Grand Theft Auto is that Driver’s environments are very stark and artificial while GTA’s make you feel much more at home. Simple things are missing, most notably interaction with others. There’s not a lot of this in GTA but it makes you feel like part of the world. I also prefer the radio stations of GTA to the ambient music of Driver (and The Getaway), especially with the commercials.

I have yet to play the missions at this point, since I spent most of the night getting acclimated to the new surroundings, but Driv3r will shape up to be a decent time waster if nothing else.

Despite the advice of Gamespot.com, I went ahead and bought the Getaway anyway. My main intention was driving around london instead of Miami or somewhere else, and it had some added appeal in that it used licensed cars (ie Lexus, Rover) instead of making them up. But I have to say that after completing the game over the weekend (it loses some points for shortness), I am looking forward to the next installment. The driving is average, and the cutscenes are sometimes ridiculously long, but it remains fun to play, and less frustrating than others when it comes to the combat side of things. And I think that combat is where this game really shines over its peers, the sole reason being Stealth Mode. More things should have stealth mode. Anyway, stealth mode is a neat little series of actions that allows you to (easily) strafe along walls, and crouch behind boxes. It is this feature alone that makes me really relish the combat in the game instead of dreading it. Things are straightforward instead of being overly complicated, which seems to be a theme. It doesn’t have you doing side missions and have big plot twists, and I think it works without them. I also really enjoyed the detail and accuracy of the game. Abe and I were actually able to find the dorm he stayed in when he lived in London for school, which is pretty neat. The only thing I could really ask for is more length to the game, and also more interior environments, which will hopefully be remedied by Black Monday.

So yeah, on to the part that sucks. The weather here has been absolutely terrible for about 90% of this month, so far. According to the forecast for the rest of the week, it’s either going to be cloudy or raining. I guess that’d be fine if I lived in Seattle, but then again I wouldn’t have to deal with excessive cold so it’d be a nice trade. Here I get both. Yay.

I watched Kill Bill again yesterday, and it was still awesome.

At some point earlier in the year I started to go through motor vehicle withdrawal (I abandoned my poor car when we moved, since I live just across the river from my job). Abe has been obsessing on and off about scooters since a couple of years ago. He’s been anticipating the purchase of one in June of 2005, when he finishes his master’s. I’ve always just gone along with it, but I’ve been longing for a vehicle with an engine more and more. A scooter seems to be the solution, since I know I couldn’t trust myself with an actual motorcycle (and I couldn’t afford one anyway). So then the question was: which one?
There were a few formidable options. I really liked the Aprilia Mojito and SR50, but we don’t have a dealership around here, and I didn’t want to deal with getting one home. The SR50 was just too pricey, anyway, albeit really, really handsome. With locality factored in, the competitors were narrowed down to just two: the Honda Ruckus, and the Yamaha Zuma. It was a tough decision. Here’s what I figured out.

Advantage : Ruckus

Well, it’s a Honda, and you know how I feel about those. As a matter of fact, the whole spur of this scooter craze was the Honda Metropolitan. The Ruckus has a great look to it. The finish is great, and it’s a downright cool vehicle. The sheer utilitarianism makes it really fun. The gage finish is also strongly utilitarian, similar to that of an old tire pump. It was comfortable, too, and very quiet.

Advantage : Zuma

Well, the Zuma has pretty much every other advantage. What it lacks in appearance (which is subjective), it makes up for with performance. Acceleration and top speed are noticeably better than the ruckus, and the exhaust note is a little more aggressive. It has a nicer cockpit, despite a cheaper gage finish, in that it has a separate gas gauge. There’s an extra storage pocket in front of the left knee (nice for a cell or sunglasses), and the under seat area is enclosed and lockable. Stopping is also faster thanks to a front disk brake, and the wheels are alloy as opposed to steel. The body panels seem to be easily unbolted which would make for a seemingly easy repaint, since the available colors are somewhat cheapened by the ultra-glossy plastic.

The Decision

I wanted the Ruckus. I really did. But I needed/wanted a scooter that wouldn’t struggle to maintain the speed limit. As a result, we now own two red Zumas. I’d really like to refinish mine, ideally in a neutral color. It might be fun to do a flat color with a clear coat, and perhaps get some decals before clear coating it as well. We’ll see where it goes from here.

So I finally got a chance to sit down and get in some quality time with Gran Turismo 3. Problem is, it doesn’t seem to be an improvement over the plain ol’ GT2. Granted, the graphics and sound are both much improved, but the game play really isn’t. To begin with, it has less camera angles than the previous game. Whereas before you had two third-person views, there is now only one, plus the requisite first-person, in-car view. Problem is, this view is completely inadequate. The camera sits too low and too close behind the car – to the point where the road ahead is sometimes obstructed by your vehicle, usually when a turn is immediately ahead.

Another feature that this game is noticeably lacking is some kind of brightness adjustment. Shaded areas of the track tend to wash out to the point where, again, you can barely tell what’s happening, if at all. I am very pleased with the current settings of our WEGA, and I don’t think it should be necessary to adjust the brightness just for this game. The game I’m comparing this to which shall remain nameless does have brightness options. Thankfully, GT3 does at least have an aspect ratio option.

Game play is up to par with the others in the series, not noticeably different (which is a good thing). What GT has yet to nail down is their segues between races. GT2 had the unavoidable automatic replay. So far in GT3, all I’ve done is the licensing tests, but that’s enough to drive me insane. If you fail one of these, the most awful music ever begins playing, and the game just sits for 5 or 10 seconds before relinquishing control to you. This means that you’ll probably want to pause and restart instead, which is instantaneous. I’d like to see Gran Turismo take note of the not-quite-so-popular Vanishing Point.

See, Vanishing Point has similar tests, but if you run into something that would cause you to fail, the action immediately stops. Two or three options pop up (I think quit, retry, and replay) and the camera begins to pan around the car, so you can see what hit where. You can watch this if you want or you can immediately try again. There’s a bit of ambient music and noise, but it doesn’t sound as though the game is celebrating your defeat.

Overall, GT3 is still a fantastic game, marred by little things that may really irritate some people (ie: me). I may be writing this out of bitterness out of the licensing tests, but the truth is, I really do like the game. I will probably pull out of this mood after those are completed, but these are still issues that shouldn’t show up in a game with these production values. I look forward to seeing how GT4 compares.