I need a little help. I can't decide which copy of Borderlands 2 to pre-order. Ive pondered for a month+ now and I can't do it. I am leaning to the Standard Edition on PS3 at Gamestop for the extra goodies, but should I get a collectors?
What do you think? Did you pre-order it? If you what did you get?
I am going to make a choice and pre-order this weekend, a little help would be nice.
I need a little help. I can't decide which copy of Borderlands 2 to pre-order. Ive pondered for a month+ now and I can't do it. I am leaning to the Standard Edition on PS3 at Gamestop for the extra goodies, but should I get a collectors?
I'm getting the standard edition on PS3, the extra stuff is pretty cool (mainly that chest), but not cool enough to justify the extra cost in my opinion. :)
jdodson Admin Post Author
wrote on 07/07/2012 at 09:46pm
Makes sense, I am leaning that way too.
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The last weekend my wife and I watching the trailers before Pixars latest film Brave when we saw the trailer for "Wreck it Ralph." Wreck it Ralph is a Disney movie where the main character is a bad guy from an old coin-op video game. Looks like Disney licensed a few classic video game villans such as Bowser, Zangief, M. Bison, Dr. Robotnik and a Ghost from Pac-Man. I also thought I saw a nod at Diablo, but ill let you watch the trailer for yourself :)
Wreck it Ralph is voiced by the amazing John C. Reilly and Sarah Silverman and looks fantastic. Not a lot of video game movies come out and less look as good as this do.
Interested in checking this out?
The last weekend my wife and I watching the trailers before Pixars latest film Brave when we saw the trailer for "Wreck it Ralph." Wreck it Ralph is a Disney movie where the main character is a bad guy from an old coin-op video game. Looks like Disney licensed a few classic video game villans such as Bowser, Zangief, M. Bison, Dr. Robotnik and a Ghost from Pac-Man. I also thought I saw a nod at Diablo, but ill let you watch the trailer for yourself :)
Wreck it Ralph is voiced by the amazing John C. Reilly and Sarah Silverman and looks fantastic. Not a lot of video game movies come out and less look as good as this do.
I have been using an Android phone through work for a year now, and when it came time to replace my personal phone last week I got an iPhone. I've been digging in to both, and I wanted to share my experiences.
First: I hate fanboy arguments. Android vs. iPhone is the new PC vs. Mac, Gnome vs. KDE, Playstation vs. XBox, Mario vs. Sonic... I just say, use what's right for you. There are always going to be differing opinions-- I just don't understand the hatred for the other side.
At any rate, lets get down to business. I'm not going in-depth on any of these, just hitting some high points. I hope to generate some discussion where we... Read AlliPhone vs. Android-- My take on the long debate
I have been using an Android phone through work for a year now, and when it came time to replace my personal phone last week I got an iPhone. I've been digging in to both, and I wanted to share my experiences.
First: I hate fanboy arguments. Android vs. iPhone is the new PC vs. Mac, Gnome vs. KDE, Playstation vs. XBox, Mario vs. Sonic... I just say, use what's right for you. There are always going to be differing opinions-- I just don't understand the hatred for the other side.
At any rate, lets get down to business. I'm not going in-depth on any of these, just hitting some high points. I hope to generate some discussion where we can get into the nuts and bolts if desired.
Please note that, while some things have changed significantly in Android with Ice Cream Sandwich, this is based on Gingerbread, the most widely available version. More on that later.
The home screen
Both iOS and Android have major strengths and weaknesses here, but it's all down to which design philosophy you prefer.
The Android home screen is highly customizable, and even replaceable. I've been using LauncherPro for about a year now, and I love it. The biggest draw of the Android home screen is the widgets. There's a widget for many system tasks, and quite a few apps come with widgets as well. If you haven't explicitly placed a shortcut on your home screen, you can get your apps through the App Drawer, which is all your apps in alphabetical order.
The iPhone home screen is very different. All your apps are on the home screen, and you can arrange them into groups as you see fit. This is better than the App Drawer since things can be found more quickly, but you can't place them wherever you want on the screen, they auto-arrange. There's a glaring omission here-- no widgets! This seems to be such an obvious feature, and I hope it does show up later on in iOS 6 or beyond. With Android, I just have to unlock my phone to see the weather in 2 different places. Another swipe will let me easily turn on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc. One simple button press lets me Shazam a song. Widgets alone tempt me to jailbreak the phone.
With the exception of widgets and home screen organization, I *do* seem to get around a bit faster on the iPhone. I could emulate the properties of how the iPhone is set up on my Android, I just haven't. The point here is that, out of the box, the iPhone seems to let me get around more easily.
Customization
This is an easy win for Android. The OS was built on being heavily customizable. There are many core system apps that you can (and some that you *should*) change. It's hard to compare the iPhone and Android phone/sms handlers, for example, because there are so many available for Android.
Jailbreaking the iPhone will let you customize far more, obviously, but it would be nice to have more control over your device without voiding the warranty.
The point here is that, with an Android device, you feel like it's *yours* to do with what you will.
Multitasking
The iPhone has a multitasking bar that you can access by double-tapping the home button. This is very convenient for switching between open apps. As far as I'm aware, nothing like this exists for Android. On either device, with or without a multitasking bar, you can tap home and then re-launch the app and be where you left off with no problem, but the multitasking bar makes switching around very fast.
On the iPhone, there isn't an intuitive way to actually exit an app. You have to long press it on the multitasking bar to get a close button. I have yet to see an in-app way to exit. I know that, sitting in the background, they probably aren't taking up many system resources or battery life, but I hate just leaving things open I'm not using. It may be entirely a knee-jerk reaction that is unfounded, but it irks me.
Changing settings
I don't have much to say here. Both phones are very capable, but the iPhone does seem to have things arranged a little more logically than Android. Neither will have you scratching your head, though.
Getting new apps
Both stores are good, but Google Play wins this one. The web interface that you can access from anywhere is the primary reason for this, but Google Play on the phone itself is less cumbersome and better organized than the App Store. When installing new apps on the iPhone, you get kicked out to the home screen with each app install, which won't be a problem soon enough, but when you're first setting up a phone it can be annoying to have to relaunch the App Store every time and lose your place if you were looking at a list.
The apps themselves...
Even though the number of new Android devices sold has passed the number of new iPhones (last I checked), iPhone still seems to dominate the market in terms of available apps, so you can be pretty sure if you want an app you can get it. This is generally the case with Android as well, but there are a few exceptions that you will come across.
Apple is far more restrictive than Google though. I use a Wi-fi Analyzer app on my Android phone that was once available for iPhone, but they removed it from the store for using an unpublished method of accessing information. It's good that Apple checks these things thoroughly, but they may be too heavy-handed in situations like these.
Siri
I know there are some competitors to Siri on Google Play, but none quite as functional. Siri is phenomenal. Organizing a busy day is painless, finding helpful info from Wolfram Alpha is snappy... this is a phone seller.
Apparently Google has a competitor in the works for Jellybean that is apparently better than Siri, but it may be years before many people use it based on Android's update track record (again, more on that later) and Siri is also getting a major overhaul in iOS 6, just around the corner.
Updates
This is the major problem Google has, and they (and their phone manufacturers) *really* need to get their act together. Ice Cream Sandwich was released last October, yet still only 7-10% of new devices are running it. Many smaller providers don't even have them as an option, and the ones that do can't cut the price far enough down on an already quite expensive device to really compete with the iPhone 4S.
Adding insult to injury, many phones that are perfectly capable of running Ice Cream Sandwich will never get the update, because the manufacturer has decided not to release the update. Rooting the phone and upgrading via CyanogenMod is a viable way to get it, but consumers shouldn't be expected to do all of that in order to get updated software.
Jellybean is already the Android talk of the town, but this is going to be arriving on new devices before even 1/4 of the current Android devices support Ice Cream Sandwich.
Compare that to Apple, who will release iOS 6 this fall to all iPhones from 3G on. Years-old hardware still getting updates. Maybe the device manufacturers are just hoping for more sales since you can't get the updated OS any other way, but it's inherently bad for the consumer.
One major issue is that Google has all but abandoned Gingerbread with *their own apps*. The new, shiny Google+ app and Chrome for Android aren't available on a brand new Android phone, but are available on a 3-year-old iOS device. How does that make sense?
The devices
And *this* is where Google shines. Allowing Android to be used on countless devices from countless manufacturers means you *can* find a device to suit your needs, generally. The Sony Xperia Play, for example, is a Playstation branded phone, with a full slide-out gamepad. If you aren't going to use it heavily, trimmed-down devices are available, but if you need a lot out of your phone, you can get practically a mini-tablet with enough horsepower to compete with some laptops.
Gaming
Now, for what we're all here for, right? Gaming on either device is a treat. I have played many puzzle games, some pure reflex-based games, a few rail shooters, and even some reworked classic shooters, and the iPhone's touch screen seems to work a little better for hightly-involved gaming, but if you're only interested in simple gaming on the go, either will suffice. The iPhone's screen is very crisp, but so are newer Android devices as well.
However, the exclusives on the iPhone make Apple the clear winner on the gaming front. ID Software has released two rail shooters based on RAGE and Doom 3 that are must-haves, and Square Enix has released some amazing, full-featured RPGs that are worth your time. The re-release of Scribblenauts is better than it was on the Nintendo DS. Infinity Blade is amazing and well worth whatever you have to pay to get it.
Conclusion
So which one wins? I have no idea. I prefer Android, but only slightly at this point. The iPhone has slightly better home screen organization (but lacks widgets), a much better selection of games, a slightly better selection of apps, a much clearer software upgrade path, and Siri. Android has the ever-so-useful widgets, a cleaner store, far better and easier customization, and a wide variety of devices from different manufacturers to suit your needs.
If all you're looking for is gaming, go with the iPhone. Otherwise, it all depends on which one works best for you. Definitely try them before you buy. Either way, they are both amazing-- there is no bad choice.
I don't claim any of my opinions to be the best or most suited to the general population, so please share your own. If you got here from somewhere else, please sign up (link below) and join the conversation.
Multitasking: This isn't documented well, but basically if you exit an iPhone app the OS gives it about 10 minutes to do its thing and quit. If it doesn't quit on its own, the OS kills it to preserve your battery. IF its a service it can request CPU time when the OS give it some, but its every so often to save battery life. Certain kids of apps can be backgrounded and still run, like audio apps to access to sound API etc.
I wish Apple had better web accessibility. Google does win over Apple in this way. Apple is very iTunesy, which is fine but not amazing in all cases.
I agree with you on upgradability, with Apple you know you get a few major revision of iOS on your gear. I have the 4S and know that I have about 3 more iOS versions before they cut me off, maybe more. I really wish my Android kin could get something similar without modding!
I agree that gaming is a bit better on the iPhone due to publishers. I wish that wasn't the case, but I did get the Rage and Doom 3 app for iPhone and they were fun to play. More and more though the apps you cant play on Android are really in the minority. Ive never like device exclusivity though, publishers need to love Android and iOS equally :)
I sort of crack wise with my Android kin but think both devices are fine, I prefer iPhone and don't plan on moving to Android any time soon. I agree id like a few more choices with the iPhone but its so good its not a huge problem.
Pretty much the same as my experience as well, although my only iOS experience is with an iPod touch. Couple of notes:
Ice Cream Sandwich is a GREAT update. It has the multitasking switcher you're wanting. For older versions though, you can usually hold down the 'home' key to see most recent apps, which is more or less the same thing.
Another thing to consider is the Nexus series. While it feels like you can just compare Android and iOS, what you're really forced to do is compare Android and iOS-on-the-iPhone/iPod/iPad devices. There's no other way to use it, which is why Apple is so readily updatable. (that, and the fact that they pretty much have the carriers by the balls and can make any demand they want) It's true that Android devices are painful to update, if you get to at all, EXCEPT for the Google-sanctioned devices. Then it's more like the Apple experience. Not as nice, still, but much closer.
Another negative I would have to give Apple is the app ecosystem. There is WAY too many its-free-but-not-really freemium style applications. My daughter gets hooked on an app, only to be told that she has to pay to continue to play it. Or use real money to buy tokens for a game. It feels like a scam almost. I can't trust anything that says 'free' in the app store. Android app experience feels ... maybe 'cleaner' is the word. I like to browse Google Play for new apps, and go in expecting to find something fun for free. In the App Store, I don't touch it unless I'm looking for something specific because it feels dirty.
Travis Admin Post Author
wrote on 07/07/2012 at 04:25am
Playing around with random games in Google Play, I've run into the same kind of free-but-not-really stuff. That's actually the one thing I do prefer about Apple's App Store-- if it says "Top in-app purchases" you know that you are getting led down the path of microtransactions, and you can check those out to see how crucial they are.
I do agree though that it feels quite scammy at times. There's a free Adobe photo editing product on the App store that looks fantastic until you realize that it's crippled until you buy at least $10 worth of add-ons.
Freemium games are mostly annoying. Occasionally a good one comes by, like Tiny Tower, but yeah the majority are un-awesome.
I recently played a game called Tiny Tower. Its a fun puzzle game and only give you a certain amount of turns per day. I wanted to buy it but I had to do some kind of in app transaction for like $4 to unlock unlimited turns. Yeah no. They could have just released a demo version and I would have happily paid $2 or something for the full game. Something about in app transactions I really don't like. Feel like someday I won't be able to get my stuff back or something.
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Bashiok, Blizzard community manager recently posted this on battle.net to address some peoples thoughts on the Diablo 3 endgame:
"We recognize that the item hunt is just not enough for a long-term sustainable end-game. There are still tons of people playing every day and week, and playing a lot, but eventually they're going to run out of stuff to do (if they haven't already). Killing enemies and finding items is a lot of fun, and we think we have a lot of the systems surrounding that right, or at least on the right path with a few corrections and tweaks. But honestly Diablo III is not World of Warcraft. We aren't going to be able to pump out tons of new systems and... Read All
Bashiok, Blizzard community manager recently posted this on battle.net to address some peoples thoughts on the Diablo 3 endgame:
"We recognize that the item hunt is just not enough for a long-term sustainable end-game. There are still tons of people playing every day and week, and playing a lot, but eventually they're going to run out of stuff to do (if they haven't already). Killing enemies and finding items is a lot of fun, and we think we have a lot of the systems surrounding that right, or at least on the right path with a few corrections and tweaks. But honestly Diablo III is not World of Warcraft. We aren't going to be able to pump out tons of new systems and content every couple months. There needs to be something else that keeps people engaged, and we know it's not there right now.
We're working toward 1.0.4, which we're really trying to pack with as many fixes and changes we can to help you guys out (and we'll have a bunch of articles posted with all the details as we get closer), and we're of course working on 1.1 with PvP arenas. I think both those patches will do a lot to give people things to do, and get them excited about playing, but they're not going to be a real end-game solution, at least not what we would expect out of a proper end-game. We have some ideas for progression systems, but honestly it's a huge feature if we want to try to do it right, and not something we could envision being possible until well after 1.1 which it itself still a ways out."
Few things.
1. We are a "ways out" from PvP. Dang. I was hoping that would come soon. Oh well, hopefully when it drops its really awesome. Kind of wonder if Blizzard bit off more than it should have releasing Diablo 3 when it did? Oh well the game is great and hope PvP adds quite a bit.
2. 1.0.4 Wonder what this will entail? More drops? Eagerly anticipating.
I was getting pretty pumped about d3 reading your posts and the comments so then I decided to see how it'd run under Wine and found this: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5978861022?page=1 - Bummer. I guess I'm sticking with the first 2 =)
jdodson Admin Post Author
wrote on 07/11/2012 at 05:43am
Yeah really. It seems they made have had some false positives they are not quite admitting yet. Happened before with WoW so... Yeah waiting it out is good.
Horrible to be banned for nothing, if it indeed is nothing.
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Adam Ellis, a Portland blogger recently wrote about his early and some recent experiences with video games. Its a well written post about Final Fantasy 6, 7 Earthbound, Fallout 3 and Skyrim. Fun read and the art helps give it personality.
http://www.booksofadam.com/2012/07/i-want-to-play-game.html
Adam Ellis, a Portland blogger recently wrote about his early and some recent experiences with video games. Its a well written post about Final Fantasy 6, 7 Earthbound, Fallout 3 and Skyrim. Fun read and the art helps give it personality.
As I was considering what I wanted to talk about for todays Retro Tuesday I decided to talk about one of my favorite video game movies. When I was a wee lad I dreamed of competing in a video game tournament*. To be crowned the best in all the lands on Nintendo would have been one of the coolest things to happen to me. Video game companies like Nintendo understood this and released a few video game TV shows and movies to capture this, one such movie was The Wizard.
The Wizard was filmed in 1989 and stars Fred Savage, Christian Slater, Beau Bridges, Luke Edwards and Jenny Lewis. A bit of movie trivia, Jenny Lewis who played the love interest of Fred Savage in the Wizard... Read All
As I was considering what I wanted to talk about for todays Retro Tuesday I decided to talk about one of my favorite video game movies. When I was a wee lad I dreamed of competing in a video game tournament*. To be crowned the best in all the lands on Nintendo would have been one of the coolest things to happen to me. Video game companies like Nintendo understood this and released a few video game TV shows and movies to capture this, one such movie was The Wizard.
The Wizard was filmed in 1989 and stars Fred Savage, Christian Slater, Beau Bridges, Luke Edwards and Jenny Lewis. A bit of movie trivia, Jenny Lewis who played the love interest of Fred Savage in the Wizard grew up to front the indie rock band Rio Kiley. As a young lad, I rather enjoyed watching the kid from the wonder years in this film. The actors in the movie do a pretty good job and after watching it recently the film holds up for me still.
The film is a pretty large ad for Nintendo but it doesn't forget its characters or story and is essentially a road trip/family falls on hard times film. The premise is Corey's(Fred Savage) little brother Jimmy has a learning disability as well as a fascination with running away. He is put in a home and after Corey experiences one too many arguments between his Dad and Father he decides to run away to California with his brother Jimmy. After realizing Jimmy is a video game prodigy Corey and his brother meet Jenny. They realize Jimmy's talent and Jenny suggests he enter a video game tournament in California to win the reward money.
The movie contains ample scenes of coin-op & NES greats like Double Dragon, Rad Racer, Ninja Gaiden, Super Mario Brothers, Mega Man 2, The Adventures of Link and the world premiere of Super Mario Brothers 3. The game is essentially one large Nintendo commercial and focused on the final game of the tournament, Super Mario Brothers 3. Its odd because in the final game of Super Mario Brothers 3 Jimmy somehow figures out where a warp whistle is and warps way beyond the other players. That's not the only oddity in the film though. When I was a kid I noticed a scene where Christian Slater is playing his Nintendo and unplugs it from the TV in haste and misses collecting the cable connecting the NES to the TV. A few scenes later Christian Slater plugs the Nintendo into a new TV and magically has the cable. I guess its a case of the magical appearing Hollywood continuity cable.
The Wizard also features a scene where a rival video game player Lucas shows off the power glove. After watching this I totally wanted a power glove but I never could quite get my parents get us one. After finally getting my hands on a power glove later on in life it seems the power Lucas had was in his mind. The Power Glove isn't easy to use and doesn't help you play games any better. That said, it was a bit ahead of its time and Nintendo later refined it to the Wii remotes. But, its fun to put it on and say one of Lucas classic lines, "The power glove it makes me feel bad." Me too Lucas, every time I put it on!
I look at several video game movies as classic and The Wizard is one of those movies. Its not one of the greatest films of all time, but it is awesome. I found a YouTube link where you can watch The Wizard in its entirety as well as a few clips from the film:
* - I actually competed in a Capcom video game skirmish/tournament at my local mall as a kid. I played a few rounds of Ducktales, Chip and Dales Rescue Rangers and Talespin. I did fairly well but the winner of the even was some adult. He was sent to California for a larger tournament and thats all I knew about it. Makes sense that an adult would win a Nintendo game tournament as eSports now don't feature kids because they are not good enough to compete. All in all it made sense but in my childlike mind an adult beating me at a video game was a pretty unknown to me, most adults I knew didn't play video games.
This weekend I played a cool strategy board game called Kingsburg. In Kingsburg you are in charged with the protection of your city each year from Orcs, Goblins and other fantastical creatures. You collect resources from allocating your dice roll to certain advisors that grant you resources. For instance, if you allocate 1 to the Joker you can obtain a victory point. If you allocate a 2 to an advisor you can collect a gold resource. These resources can be spent building things that grant you abilities that can help you defend your city or grant you other bonuses. The game lasts 6 "years" and the person that collects the most victory points wins. and our game lasted... Read All
This weekend I played a cool strategy board game called Kingsburg. In Kingsburg you are in charged with the protection of your city each year from Orcs, Goblins and other fantastical creatures. You collect resources from allocating your dice roll to certain advisors that grant you resources. For instance, if you allocate 1 to the Joker you can obtain a victory point. If you allocate a 2 to an advisor you can collect a gold resource. These resources can be spent building things that grant you abilities that can help you defend your city or grant you other bonuses. The game lasts 6 "years" and the person that collects the most victory points wins. and our game lasted about 2 hours. Its a very strategic game and as such I had to adjust a few times to eek out second place. Yay for not losing! Or is second place the first loser?
My strategy focused on buildings that netted me a high defense score so I could survive the invaders. I then netted a few more soldiers by purchase or a dice roll placement so I could beat the invaders to gain a few bonus resources. I didn't lose a battle as if you do the penalty is the destruction of one of your buildings or a loss of resources. If you have the same soldiers/defense as the invaders have attack power its a "push" and you don't win or lose anything.
There are a lot of buildings to chose from and each one gives you special abilities and bonuses, again I went with defense and as such was never defeated by enemies. You could lose the battle a few times and still win the game though. One thing I lacked was having a handy amount of resources. The winning player built buildings to increase his economy and spent the latter half of the game on defense. This proved to be a great strategy because he out built me by nearly double and won the game by an impressive lead.
Kingsburg is a solid game and I recommend you give a try. Its a bit daunting to try it but after a few rounds its not too bad. That said, rolling the dice and allocating your roll to the correct advisor is more strategic than it sounds. Many times I made the wrong choice but it wasn't too bad as you roll for resources often.
Has anyone ever tried OCTGN3? It seems to be a great graphical card game emulator. That is you can play a lot of different cards games with it online (e.g. Magic: The Gathering and a bunch more
It looks great and seems to be an awesome way to build decks and test them out (or mess about with that latest rare before buying a case to get it :)
Has anyone ever tried OCTGN3? It seems to be a great graphical card game emulator. That is you can play a lot of different cards games with it online (e.g. Magic: The Gathering and a bunch more
It looks great and seems to be an awesome way to build decks and test them out (or mess about with that latest rare before buying a case to get it :)
hardeyez Post Author
wrote on 06/30/2012 at 06:08am
I'm getting the standard edition on PS3, the extra stuff is pretty cool (mainly that chest), but not cool enough to justify the extra cost in my opinion. :)
Makes sense, I am leaning that way too.