GOOD COP / BAD COP Playstation 3

Good Cop


5. Technical Specs.



Whether you can tell or not, it feels good to have the biggest engine on the block. The specs for the PS3 are superior to every other console and that may make some difference down the road.

4. Excellent first party titles.



While few and far between, the exclusive PS3 games are among the highest reviewed games out. there. In a market when new games cost $60 dollars that's big. Uncharted, Metal Gear, Little Big Planet, and the up and coming God of War 3 look to be huge critical successes.

3. Multimedia capabilities.




The PS3 will play many formats of different files. There are few formats it will not accept and linking up multimedia devices is fairly simple. With the 120 gigs of storage you can keep a good deal of entertainment on your hard drive.

2. Slim & Price Cut



When the PS3 came out it was an overpriced grill-looking beast that no one could afford. The slim, while giving up a couple of advantages, came out with a lower price tag, increased hard drive, and a sleeker design. The strategy is all ready paying off for Sony, who is moving more PS3s off shelves than ever before.

1. Blue-ray support

You can pay up to $199 for a Blue-ray player. The PS3s built in Blue-ray capability make it a no brainer for gamers who can only support one system and have an HDTV. Without doubt the best additional selling point of any system.


BAD COP

5. Bungled Release.

You see that little red line? That indicates the PS3's sales since release. Not a very happy little red line. Arriving late and very expensive to the party can have it's detriments. The last to be released and the first to have a remodel, that in itself is an admission to a botched release.

4. Load Nation

There's nothing like being the first to go out and grab a game and take it home and play it right away. Too bad for many titles you'll be sitting on the couch for up to 10 minutes while mystery data is loaded on to your hard drive. Talk about a buzz kill.

3. No PS2 on the Slim

Of all the nerve. Why Sony did this is beyond me. Both other systems allow you to play the previous gen on the current console. Why not on the slim? Did it really take up that much room? No. PS2 games will shortly be available on the Playstation Network and Sony wants your money.

2. Same Old Controller.

The Wii radically changed their idea of what controllers could do and the 360 updated the controller with a sleeker looks and a better ergonomic design. The Ps3 added blue tooth wireless tech. That's it. The controller is unusually light, like it came with a Happy Meal. The button lay out is still the same and feels out of place. The controller while not cheap, feels cheap. Lazy Sony, very lazy.

1. PS3 Fanboys.

You know the type. Look at the screenshot above. See any difference? Neither does anyone that didn't pay $599 on launch day for a PS3. The specs may be greater on a PS3 but there is little to no difference in the actual finished products. Hearing a Playstation argue that their system is better than yours is like hearing a hillbilly try to explain how his mom is hotter than his sister.

GOOD COP/ BAD COP ; XBOX 360

GOOD COP

5. Graphics



Oooh pretty! While the Wii lags behind and the PS3 claims it's hardware give it an advantage, the 360 has a number of games that look beautiful. With rare exception if you put a game in your 360 it will be looking good.

4. Stable Online Services

The 360 has the largest online community of current consoles, so you won't have to wait to find a match in most games. Also the servers are stout and there is little to no lag if you have a decent connection. There are other networking services and friend option to keep track of the players you play with as well.

3. Achievements

Gone are the days when you just "beat" a game. Achievements allow you to track various stats and, well, achievements as you play your favorite games. This feature gives most games hours of playability beyond the basic objectives of the game. Achievements also attribute to your gamer score, abling you to show your friends who's boss.

2. Controller

While the Wii has a remote and the PS3 has the same old controller, the 360 controller is made for a gamer who isn't a 12 year old or a full grown Japanese factory worker. The left stick is where it's supposed to be and the trigger buttons feel like triggers. Perfect.

1. 360 Gives it up

The Wii makes games for kids and your grandmother and the PS3 has a limited number of 3rd party must own titles. The 360 has been out longer and has pretty much every game you would want to play that isn't made by Nintendo or Sony. While new games are cheap, you can find some great older games at low cost because of the market saturation. If you have the money, the 360 has the time sucking games you want.

BAD COP

5. LIVE FEE

Microsoft is the only company that charges a fee to get online. Not to buy games, but to get online. It wouldn't be so noticeable a transgression but both Sony and Nintendo offer free online gameplay if the developers built it into the game. Also the Microsoft points system is skewed. Here's a tip, make 100 points one dollar. If you like to go online and shoot at people you better have an allowance.

4. No Blueray

One of the first obvious losses due to the battle of Blueray vs HDDVD, the 360 will not play your Blueray discs. If you want to watch HDDVDs you better go on EBAY for that overpriced add on player and head down to the pawn shop to choose from one of the 14 excellent movies available on HDDVD. Sony's built in player make it the obvious choice for those with HDTVs.

3. Noisy Bugger

What's that you said? I can't hear you over the roaring jet engine on the entertainment center. The 360's fan gets so loud you have to turn your TV up past 11 just to hear the voices during the cut scenes. If the 360 were personified it would be a fat American huffing and puffing as it climbed up stairs. Better give that thing a rest before it explodes.

2. Money Pit

The XBOX arcade sells for $199. What a deal! Yeah, if you want to play Kung Fu Panda and never have the intention of saving your progress. Oh you want to save. Give me $60 and I'll give you that. You want to save as much as a base priced PS3? $120 please. Look at that LAN wire. You need wireless, $100 for this adapter please. What's that you say? Nintendo and Sony have wireless and an internal hard drive built in? Lame. They don't have HALO. $60 every 10 months please.

1. Red Ring of Death

Every person I know that owns a 360 has had the Red Ring happen to them. Hamby's has it happen 3 times. This gaming wonder of the future is a piece of garbage. You go to bed every night with a chance you will wake up and the 360 will be dead. It's nothing you did. You don't drop it or put dirty discs in it, it just doesn't like you. Free repairs still take a month's time and who's to say when it will happen again? Without doubt, the biggest fiasco in the history of product quality in video games.

GOOD COP / BAD COP ; Nintendo Wii

GOOD COP

5. Sleek Design


The Wii is smaller than other game systems and has a nice stand for display. As such it doesn't look out of place on your entertainment center. Also it's fairly quiet compared to other systems.

4.Virtual Console


All systems these days have downloadable services, but when it comes to old games the Wii is where it's at. The best old games are Nintendo and Genesis games and you can find many classics here at reasonable prices. Also you can buy a Classic Controller that is perfect for old school gaming.

3. Party Time



The PS3 and 360 are great if you want to play a shooter by yourself in a dungeon or want to go online and play with a bunch of racist 14 year olds. What if you have four people in the same room that want to play though? That's where great party type games on the Wii come in. Smash Bros, New Super Mario Bros, Mario Party, Boom Blocks, and Mario Kart just to name a few.

2. SD card storage.



There's nothing like knowing you can move your data around. There's also nothing like not having to pay exorbitant amounts of money for additional storage. While the Wii doesn't have the ability to display much of the information you could put on to an SD card, at least the developer put the slot on there so you can try. LAN cords and networking just to play some music is a pain.

1. First Party games.

Was it made by Nintendo? Then it's a good game. The majority of title Nintendo directly produces for the Wii are the most excellent games you can play on the system. The amount of detail and the perfection of the gameplay makes them so. With few exceptions *cough* Wii Music *cough* if it was published by Nintendo it's worth owning.

BAD COP

5. No DVD playback.

It would be something if in order to play DVDs the Wii needed a $50 piece of hardware soldered on. That's not the case. The disc drive of a Wii is a DVD drive. It has the ability built in but Nintendo doesn't want to pay the royalties to enable DVD playback. The point is driven home by a hack that does allow DVD playback.

4. Rubbish online gameplay.

The Wii has an excellent built in ability to connect to the Internet. Having said that, good luck finding a match without grabbing a couple friend codes. With the exception of Mario Kart, nearly all online games suffer from lag unless you register a number of friend codes. Also no talking!! If a child goes online no doubt the only other players online are 38 year old pedophiles, and Nintendo can't risk a lawsuit.

3. No HD support

This one stinks, but is understandable. Having a Wii display in 1080p would be like kissing an ugly chick with the lights on. Allot of people that want HD on Wii don't understand that the reason their PS3 looks so pretty in HD is because the next-gen graphics. The Wii graphically is a glorified Game Cube, so maybe they should stick with progressive scan.

2. Wonky Controls

When Nintendo announced the Wii and the Wiimote it caused an avalanche of excitement. Finally we could play games without pressing buttons! We could be Link and cut down Gannon with fluid sword strikes and could blast aliens as Samus with pin point accuracy! The actual result however was a little different. While the infrared sensor works decently for aiming and shooting, the amount of waggle involved in motion controlled games detracted from gameplay in most cases. The best motion control games are the ones that use it sparingly. With the release of the Motion Control Plus there is still hope for a more authentic gameplay experience, but few developers have games that use the device.

1. Focus on the "casual" gamer

When the Wii revolution came around fan boys gloated at the sales figures. Look how many Wii's have sold! You can't even find one! You know who were buying those Wiis? Soccer moms and grannies, that's who! Developer have taken notice and are now churning out exercise and bowling games at an alarming rate. If it's not targeting at old people the publishers make games for kids ages 3-10. Where are the good games? Not just for hardcore gamers, but for gamers in general? Nintendo may be making a killing, but they also may be making themselves a fad and alienating the core audience that made them great.

Top 10 Dinosaurs

10. Triceratops

A staple of dinosauria, this herbivore dwelled during the cretaceous period. It is believed the horns of the triceratops were used for defensive positioning against predators. The horns could reach up to 4 feet long.

Fun Fact : "Three Horns" never play with "Longnecks". Evidence that racism is millions of years old.

9. Parasaurolophus

This "near crested lizard" just looks cool. Aerodynamic and built for multiple environments, parasaurolophus was the envy of all duck billed herbivores. Early in the century paleontologists thought the horn served as a snorkel. What fools! While hollow, the horn has no hole at the top. It is now widely excepted as ornate and no doubt use to attract females. Kinda like Elvis' hair.

Fun fact : Like many dinosaurs, a complete skeleton of a parasaur has never been found. If you do find one you won't have to work for a year

8. Allosaurus

This is the first dinosaur on our list to hail from the Jurassic period, or as I like to call it the middle child of the Mesozoic. Allosaurus means different lizard and during the Jurassic it was different in that it was the largest theropod in the region. Large jaws and sharp claws made him a frightening predator.

Fun Fact : An Allosaur's jaw were linked together much like a modern day snake's. This has led some to believe that an allosaur could unhinge it's jaws and swallow animals as large as a pig whole.

7. Pterodactyl

An impressive sight, the pterodactyl is the most well known flying dinosaur. Officially known as a Pterosaur, I prefer pterodactyl which is derived from "Winged Finger" in Greek. Obviously when someone flips "the bird" they are trying to tell you they hope a pterodactyl swoops down and eats your children.

Fun Fact : Zombie Pterodactyls = Box Office Gold. Make the royalty checks out to Crouch.

6. Pachycepholasaurus

A mean looking dinosaur, the only portion of this genus to be discovered is the head and mandible. The generic body is only a hypothesis of what the entire animal looked like. Pachycepholasaurus means "thick headed lizard", and for good reason. The dome could be as thick as 10 inches, or the length of an average humans face.

Fun Fact : Long considered to be the ram of the dinosaur kingdom, recent research has found no evidence that the pachy used it's head for combat of any kind. The complete skulls found indicate no trauma from impact. Perhaps they were just safe bicycle riders of the dinosaur world.

5. Styracosaurus

Size isn't everything. While in the same family of triceratops, styracosaurus was a bit smaller but looked allot meaner. The originally named "spiked lizard" had large nostrils and it's anatomy suggests it could run faster than an elephant. It's front horn could grow to be four feet long. Watch where you sit.

Fun Fact : My first dinosaur model was a Styracosaurus. It was yellow and brown. I stuck the horns up my nose.

4. Brachiosaurus

Ah yes, the arm lizard. Once thought to be the largest of dinosauria, this sauropod is aptly named as it's fore arms are longer than it's hind legs. It was once assumed that the Brachisaur had nostrils atop it's domed head and that it walked under water and went up to air like a whale. This has been proven incorrect as the nostrils are placed much like other sauropods.

Fun Fact : The Ronto in the special edition of Star Wars A New Hope is based on the computer model of the brachiosaurus from Jurassic Park.

3. Stegosaurus

Another of the most distinct dinosaurs, stegosaurus is unique and instantly recognizable. The most distinctive feature of course, being the fins on it's back. The plates have been the subject of much debate as their purpose is not clear. Protection and cooling are the primary hypothesis.

Fun Fact : The stegosaurus has a cavity on it's back near it's hind quarters. It was long thought that cavity was an area for a second brain that was needed to regulate such a large animal. That theory has been disproven, although it still remains unclear as to what was held in that area of the animal.

2. Tyrannosaurus Rex

Aww Yeah! You can call him daddy if you like, but the tyrannosaur is one of the most awe inspiring carnivores to ever walk the planet. A head the size of an SUV and jaws more powerful than a hydraulic press this apex predator was built to weed out the week. The most complete tyrannosaur skeleton was discovered by Sue Hendrickson, and named Sue, was sold for a staggering 7.6 million dollars and is on display at the Field Museum of National History in Chicago. I want to go there.

Fun Fact : Scientists that argue that Tyrannosaurus Rex was a scavenger need to be slapped in the mouth.

1. Deinonychus

Dromeosaurids were built for speed not for comfort. Fossil impressions have lead to the idea that these dinosaurs with "terrible claws" were completely feathered. Whatever the case these dinosaurs may have been among the most intelligent predators of the cretaceous. The brain cavity of deinonychus is similar to that of a dolphins. Believed to be pack hunters, these animals were about the size of a horse.

Fun Fact : The animals you see as velociraptors in the Jurassic Park more closely resemble deinonychus. An average velociraptor would have only come up to the actor's waist. Perhaps there were some steroids involved in the cloning process.

Survival Guide - 10 Things You Need To Take On Any Boss

10. Proton Torpedoes.

No system is perfect. Even a space station the size of a moon will have a weakness of some kind. Chances are there will be a big machination between you and victory so you better bring these along for the journey. Targeting computer optional.



9. Sword of Destiny



You can't kill a boss with just any sword. You know the sword just outside of town that is lodged in an unnaturally sculpted stone? Why don't you go over and try to grab it. If it doesn't come out go home. You aren't going to beat the boss with out it, and you obviously haven't been chosen.

8. Shoes


You can't go bare foot into danger and hope to survive. You need to be quick on your feet, and you need to be able to jump very high. Hopefully you can also find a pair that let you jump on spiked enemies.

7. Claws

What are those? Fingers? No friend. You need claws. Preferably indestructible very sharp claws. No doubt the boss is made of a alloy that is made of a substance that is indestructible to everything except your claws. Confused? Don't be. Just look mean and scratch around.

6. Jet Pack

Not everything is on the bottom shelf. In fact many challenges in life are on what you might call the top shelf. Don't bother with ladders or pesky FAA certified aircraft. A jet pack is what you need. Only a jet pack leaves your hands free to blast or otherwise harm the enemy.

5. Elemental Weapon

You're going up against the Ice Dragon. Don't throw snowballs at him it will just make him angry. Grab a FIRE SWORD and hit him for extra elemental damage! Lava King? Grab the Ice Blasting Rocket Launcher and give him a couple rounds. Word to the wise; Don't try to kill Dynamite Man with your Fire Gun. Try a water cannon.

4. Barrel Roll

Not so much as an item as it is a skill, however the barrel roll is a necessity for survival. Being shot at? Spin around! They can't hit you! Plus spinning causes your hull to become reflective! Why not have a hull that reflects lasers at all times? Don't be stupid. That's impossible.

3. "A" button

God help you if you're walking along and a flashing "A" button flashes across the screen. You better have your finger on that button or else a cut scene where you die will be the next thing you see. Ever since God of War every boss in existence has a sweet move that can only be defeated by pressing a button in sequence. Some games *cough* FABLE 2 *cough* even have pressing A as the only solution to defeating the enemy. Press A one time. You win. Dumb.

2. Big Red Area Detecting Goggles

I don't know what type of skin irritation causes it, but nearly all enemies will have a huge rash on the only vulnerable section of their body. Strap these goggles on to be able to view the huge red area and take aim. The belly, the posterior, eye socket, and knee caps are common areas to find the discoloration.

1. Mystery Blocks

Bring some of these along and you can't go wrong. Only the most veteran warriors can hope to attain victory with out the help of mystery blocks. The bestow grand power ups at opportune moments and can save you in a pinch. They can give you things ranging from Raccon suits, money, invincibility, or even an extra life!