Home Is Where My Wallet Is

At 9PM yesterday, Home went live. By the time I'd downloaded and installed Home, which in all honesty only took 8 minutes, I was literally jumping with excitement. I couldn't wait!

Of course, Sony must have installed an excitement sensor in the SixAxis, because it wouldn't let me log in until half past. So I took my first tentative steps into the world of Home irritated and frustrated. Not a good start.

In all honesty, my experience with Home yesterday wasn't a good one. I couldn't grasp the Avatar creator and my character had a head the size of the fecking moon and a nose like a coat hanger. There also seemed to be a lack of clothes. Again, not a good start.

To sum this all up, last night I was annoyed by the servers that kept timing out, my first apartment and the lack of furniture in it, the lack of decent clothes that are free and the lack of any content this early on. I went to bed annoyed.

So anyway I woke up this morning and booted it up to see if I would have a change of opinion. I did. In fact, my opinion changed so much I even bought the Summer House and a few clothes.

At the moment, Home is nothing more than Habbo Hotel in HD, or a less complicated and more console friendly version of Second Life. A lot of people may be complaining about the fact that Sony "Haven't lived up to their promises" but all I have to say to them is wait. Homes being advertised as an open beta version for a reason. Were looking at a very simple version of what has the potential to become one of the greatest experiment in gaming since the rumble pack.. Ok that was a bit of a shitty comparison but surely you get the idea.

You could say that Mii's were merely a test of what Avatars can do, the Xbox experimented with them in HD with limited community aspects and Home.. Well. Home has taken avatars and made them into something worthwhile. Now if you excuse me, I'm going Home.

A Desperate Attempt.

 

Ok before I start this I want you to know two things. Yes I am a PS3 owner, and I don’t have an Xbox. However, I am VERY fond of the Xbox and am seriously contemplating getting one for myself (For the second time, my first one Red Ringed on me and I raged). I believe Xbox Live to be the best console online gaming experience to date and lets face it, 90% of my friends have one.

 

So yesterday, the New Xbox Experience came out (or as it’s now known, the NXE, not be confused with the Playstations XMB). Basically the NXE is the much anticipated Dashboard update, which every single Xbox owner has been wetting their pants over. Of course, I always like to look at everything from a critics perspective (I’m a moody, arrogant person. What do you expect?) so here’s my personal opinion on Microsoft's latest attempt at securing the market.

 

 

Ok so my first impressions. It’s pretty, very pretty. It’s what the dashboard should have always been. It’s slick, sexy and HD. It’s awesome. The new interface is simple, and very well spaced out (although I dread to think how it looks to people without a HD TV over 19”), I love the whole sliding from behind thing that’s going on and the new achievement list is brilliant.

 

Avatars, although as pointless as they were on the Wii (at the present time that Is, no doubt Microsoft will pull something out of their sleeves on a later date) are pretty and a lot more complex than the god-awful Mii’s and serve a very good point. I love the fact that your friends are represented by their avatar in your friends list, and that their online status is judged by whether their asleep or awake. Nice little touch.

 

Xbox Live marketplace is the same as before, the new feature of being able to install games to reduce loading times is better than the current system on the Ps3 although Sony have nothing to worry about as disc space still hasn’t been increased. What I really want to know is, how is the Xbox HANDLING this? Yea It can do HD gaming but how the hell has it managed an interface this complex? The Dashboard was always rather jumpy I found and never really worked, yet now the Xbox button brings up the old dashboard as the bloody minor interface for when your in game! Insane!

 

So well done Microsoft, I consider this to be one of your strongest achievements since launch. Although, you COULD have done this at first you know, you weren't really being stopped…

 

 

It doesn't change my opinion on the Xbox as a whole, I still personally like the PS3 better but it’s certainly easier on the eye and now the software finally reflects the hardware.

 

But of course, it’s still the Xbox, and my good friend Bucko could not have made my day any other way when he said this:

 

“My new Xbox experience involves a ring of red.”

 

Brilliant.

Hang Ten

Sometimes, a game comes along that just blows your mind. It's always a simple one, almost arcade like in style yet  manages to leave a lasting impression unrivaled by most high budget games. Also, it's normally addictive to the point that it should be a class A drug. Audiosurf, manages to fit into all those categories. 

The premise is so simple and executed so perfectly that it's mind boggling that Audiosurf wasn't made a long time ago. Ride any music file, avéc Guitar Hero. I mean come on. It's insane. Any music file boots up in mere seconds and yet manages to deliver a near religious experience (yea that quotes nicked. So what).

The best way to describe Audiosurf is this: Imagine Guitar Hero, crossed with Burnout mixed with the Winamp visualisations. That sums it up perfectly in my opinion. 

The greatest selling point of this of course, is that this game does not become a new experience when a new update is released, or when a new mod is created. It becomes a new game whenever you play a new album, a new song or an audio book (OK that may seem slightly farfetched but people do it for the achievements)

If you don't at least try this game, then your missing out on one of the most innovate and refreshing PC games to date.