Sony announces that it will... announce something.

sony-teases-the-future-of-playstation

... An announcement over an announcement? How arrogant can Sony get?  I'm still pretty sure I won't be getting any of the Next Generation consoles.(See below) I'm also concerned about how fast these systems are coming out, not just because Sony lied when they promised a 10 year life span for the PS3 but because I'm wondering how can they possibly be quality products. In truth, I honestly have no idea how long they have been producing these things or even if they have at all. Still, I get this feeling that both next gen consoles are gonna set records for the most defective units in gaming history. Call it a hunch.

5 things that will (probably) make me say good bye to the game console forever.

1. No more used games.   Both Sony and Microsoft are rumored to be looking into ways to kill the second hand game market. Sony has even went as far as to patent such technology.  This seems very foolish to me. The economy is worse than ever. People aren’t gonna just magically have more money to spend buying every game new simply because you want it so. You know those impulsive kids who buy every brand new game and sell it a week later? I predict they will think twice before buying games if they know they can't get half their money back. Those people are the gaming industry’s bread and butter and killing their ability to sell games will cut that revenue source in half at least. Rumors are they will make the technology available per developer rather than make the systems ban used games console wide. I myself will be getting a lot less games if this is the case. 

2. No more optical disks. I believe this was looked into as a solution for the no used games thing. The good news is that the latest rumors suggest that both the new Xbox and PlayStation will include an optical drive. I wasn’t thrilled about it not having them though. It's not like I own a PS3 for all the wonderfulexclusives they have. The previous generation of consoles at least attempted to establish themselves as all in one home entertainment solutions, and the next generation seems no different. The next Xbox is said to even have a DVR built into it. How can one be an all in one solution without a blu-ray/DVD drive?  People aren’t exactly rushing to replace their entire movie collection with digital copies. Contrary to the late Steve Jobs' flawed opinion, Optical Media is not dead. If you think it is then just walk into a Best Buy.  They have to give away free digital copies of movies just to get us to take them. I think this is mostly because they try to charge just as much for digital content as physical. Part of me is afraid that any movies I own that is purchased digitally can deemed "politically incorrect" and my ability to watch them be stripped away. Maybe that is an unfounded fear but I still prefer something physical. 

3. Ridiculous Pricing.   Again, The economy sucks. I'm not made of money. The next generation of game consoles are actually rumored to be reasonably priced. I certainly hope so but, considering all that is said to be in them, I have my doubts.  Sony shot themselves in the foot with their launch PS3 price of $499.99 for the BASIC system. The Nintendo 3DS launched in the US at $250. That's $250 for a gimmicky pocket sized paper-weight. They very quickly saw the error of their ways and slashed the price to a more reasonable $179.(that's still too much for me.) As cool as the Wii U looks, I think its slightly too expensive, considering it has maybe one game I’m interested in.  It's possible that they learned from their mistakes, but I'm willing to bet they only half learned their lessons. I'm expecting the prices to be somewhere between reasonable and outlandish. Which, in my book, is still too expensive. I'm honestly just guessing because I'm seeing too many conflicting numbers to actually list their rumored prices.  If you find something reliable, let me know.  

4. Motion controls. Don't get me wrong, I'm not gonna pass on a system that also features motion controls, but I won't touch another system that requires motion controls exclusively. My Wii is basically a glorified book end at this point (Or at least it would be if I read books.) It's only saving grace is the virtual console which was pretty much made obsolete by my new tablet. Wii games can be fun but I almost never play them. Why?, because I have to make sure I’m centered in front of the sensor bar and back at least a couple of feet. That may not be a big deal for you but it kinda is for me. What about the Kinect? Once you have finally have your play area lit up enough, your Kinect is finally configured right, and the stars have lined up, Kinect games are good for a half hour of oooooo and aaaahhhh Hey I get to eat storm troopers and droids as a rancor and destroy buildings... then the sun starts to go down or someone else enters the room and messes everything up.  After that I just don't feel like messing with it again. I’m on a low storm trooper diet anyway. (I also hear droids are bad for your teeth)  The only feature on my Kinect I use is voice commands. I liked using voice commands in Mass Effect 3, and I loved controlling my Netflix with them. The next gen Kinect seems to be much more accurate and user friendly, and will feature some pretty cool things such as projecting images on your wall surrounding the TV so I am pretty excited. On the other hand, IF Microsoft released an Xbox featuring ONLY motion controls, I'd have to say good bye to Microsoft. 

5.No Backwards Compatibility.  I'll be pleasantly surprised to see this in the next generation of consoles. I fully expect see no backward compatibility at all in both Sony's and Microsoft's newest game consoles.  Too be honest, I'm not sure if this will stop me from buying the next Xbox. On one hand, its not like I ever touch my original Xbox games. The last time  I tried was when I tried to play the original Knights of the Old Republic on my 360. The resulting bugs made it unplayable and I ended up buying it on Steam. I fully understand not wanting to add to the costs of the next gen console in order to add backward compatibility.   On the other hand, I play my Xbox 360 games quite frequently. I shouldn’t have to suddenly give that up, nor should I have to have two different Xboxs connected to the same TV. Downloading digital versions of games on previous consoles is not a bad idea, but I kinda already own these games. I shouldn’t have to buy them twice.  They talked about trading in your PSP games for a discount on the digital versions but nothing ever happened with that, at least not in the US.  What I’m trying to say is, I have a nice collection of XBox 360 games. I believe the next generation of game consoles should replace the current generation. I don't want both. I want ONE Xbox connected to my TV that truly does everything. 

Conclusion

  As much as I like a dedicated gaming system, I may end up permanently switching to PC. Most of the time you don't have to worry about backward compatibility. You don't have to worry about it not playing blu-rays. You can custom build one for not much more than the price of a premium game console. The reason I've hung on to game consoles for so long as that they are made for gaming, and games are made exactly for them.  I could pop a game in and play it without worrying about compatibility or drivers or graphics settings. I never had to make sure I shut down every piece of background bulk software that Windows seems to love. This is not really the case anymore. I don’t know if console developing is getting too complicated or what, but console games seem to be getting released with more and more bugs lately. Not long ago I actually had a PSVita game that Lagged.(Dungeon Hunter Alliance.) There is no reason for a console game to ever lag. Developers are just getting lazy.

The point is, if the console costs too much, won't play used or old games, or my movies, then I might as well buy my games on steam and sink the money into my computer. (or better yet, a car.)

One of the weirdest dreams I've had in a while.

You know you had a weird dream, when you just have to stop yourself in the middle of writing it all down to laugh out loud and ask yourself "what the heck is wrong with me?"

Warning, the following content may confuse your brain by giving you an unpleasant yet hilarious visual.

----------------------Begin dream--------------------------------------------
My brother Brian and I found a walker in front of the corner Chinese restaurant that was from Walmart.This was your typical old ladies walker, complete with tennis balls on the legs and actually said Walmart on the side. Now, when Walmart started handing out old lady's walkers as if they were shopping carts is beyond me.

   Instead of returning it to Walmart Brian got the idea to  have me put on my roller blades and push me down the icy hills in the streets while I was holding the walker. I'm not sure if holding the walker would make it more or less dangerous but It sounded like fun so I was like "Lets Do It!" So I strapped my roller blades on and we started headin up the hill. There was Ice all over the streets and sidewalks. The street was busy with cars. Just as we got to the top of the hill, about to go down, Brian saw the Dentist office which happened to be right there. Guess he had to get his teeth fixed cause he just went in there and vanished. I actually followed him in to look for him and couldn't find him. Though I seemed to have been causing a disturbance. I guess I was knocking things over with That walker that wasn't mine, still wearing the roller blades.
Not bothered by these people, I gave up lookin for my brother. I simply headed out side and prepared for a fun ride. I pointed myself (walker, roller blades and all)down hill and toward home. I pushed off with the walker as if I were skiing and quickly rolled down that icy hill right up to my front door, miraculously escaping death at the hands of my stupidity.

As I headed inside I had just realized that I had been butt naked this whole time, and that Mom had just got home with dinner.
Mom and dad didn't say a thing about me being butt naked in my roller blades in icy weather outside. Instead Mom says, "You need return that walker to Walmart" and dad said "why?"
    I headed to my desk, which was in the living room and not my bedroom. At this point either I was suddenly wearing clothes, or I simply just stopped caring that I was still naked. At my desk I encountered our little dog Madeline sitting on a wooden chair eating slabs of raw steak that where in fact about twice her size. "MOM your dog is eating my food!" As Mom came into the room I noticed there was a stack of about 4 pizzas there as well. She didn't seem to care that the dog was eating twice her weight in raw cow. Just as I started to head toward those pizzas, I woke up.

To Open Stab Repeatedly.

 So either its just me, or "TO OPEN PUSH HERE" is the biggest practical  joke a food company has ever pulled on man kind.   Seriously, can anyone else get this to work right without some sort of stabbing weapon?

Underworld 4

Today I just got finished watching the first two Underworld movies. In a minute I shall watch me some Rise of the Lycans, but first I was curious if the franchise still had a future. I pulled up my web browser and looked it up.
I found the following synopsis for a fourth Underworld movie set after Underworld: Evolution.

After being held in a coma-like state for fifteen years, vampire Selene (Kate Beckinsale) learns that she has a fourteen-year-old vampire/Lycan hybrid daughter, Nissa, and when she finds her they must stop BioCom from creating super Lycans that will kill them all »

... Seriously? woke up after a 15 year coma to find out she had a 14 year old daughter? Aside from the slight time-line issue (exactly how long was she in a coma when the daughter was conceived?)  doesn't that sound a lot like a soap opera plot? Color me skeptical but I have a feeling this one won't be as good as the last Underworld movie. Oh well, I suppose its too early too jump to that conclusion. I still would much rather see this than that completely unneeded Spider Man Reboot.

Sources:IMDB

Update: It turns out I was right about Underworld: Awakening and wrong about The Amazing Spiderman.

Tolerance

"Without intolerance we have anarchy. I take great pride in my "narrow-minded" nature. There are some truly unacceptable things in this world that should never be tolerated."

I said the above statement after being called "narrow-minded and intolerant" for defriending someone on facebook who supported extremely raciest statements. By extremely racist statements I mean statements like "The browning of America will doom us all."  They said all non whites should be kicked out of our country, and I'm the intolerant one for standing up against them.

This all got me to thinking. We can definitely take tolerance too far. I obviously believe in racial and religious tolerance, otherwise I woulda never got into that mess. Tolerating racial and cultural differences is one thing, However, we can't take it so far as to tolerate racism.

God is in Control?

At risk of sounding blasphemous, I believe people take "God is in Control" wayyy too far.

In the proper context, "God is in control" can bring us comfort when it seems the world around us is falling apart despite our honest efforts to serve Him.  All I can say to that is do not worry. God is in control and your faith and obedience will be rewarded. I believe He does control the ultimate outcome at both a worldly level and a personal level.  I believe God knows if and when we will obey him or not and plans accordingly.

On the other hand, If God is in control of every little aspect of our entire life for everyone on the planet than how is it that we still have free will to sin? We still have free will right? God isn't making us sin is He? I believe God knows when I am going to sin but if he is in control of every last thing we do than that includes sin doesn't it? I truly do believe that God is in fact perfect therefore He does not sin.  The bottom line is We Sin. God did not choose for us to sin. God did not make us sin. God does not want us to sin, and yet we sin anyway.  Lately I have seen people actually use the statement "God is in control" as a way of shifting blame.  As if it is God's fault that you screwed up. We need to take responsibility for our own sins. You are responsible for you and no one else.