The Amazon Kindling

Okay so I had this posted up, but then I took it down because I found out my college has rules against "self plagiarism" so ergo I could have gotten in trouble if I posted this somewhere before I turned the paper in. So I waited almost a month and here it is back again. I am particularly proud of this because the teacher let the Dean of Students at the University read it because he was considering buying the Amazon Kindle. I was very proud of this even before, but after I was told that I was ecstatic. Do also note that this has been run through turnitin.com an anti-plagiarism site, so be smart and don't plagiarize this; cite it if you want to get something out of this. So without further ado, my Emerging Technologies report from last semester.

Introduction

Since I can’t seem to shake the hype, created by Amazon’s flagship eBook reader, I’ve decided to do my report on an emerging technology that should be much better. The Amazon Kindling… I’m sorry the Amazon Kindle, has set the wireless eBook market back so far, it could be years before we have a product that does for books what the iPod did for music. As the holiday season approaches, I want to not only urge, but plead that people forgo buying the Kindle at this time. I’m not some anti-Amazon critic, nor am I a supporter of one of its competitors like Sony. Many people will be offended though, and what I’m saying will almost be heresy to Kindle owners, but I say, “Nay, this is not heresy; it is my love of the written word that be the muse to inspire these slanderous words.” So I implore you to take this report with a grain of salt, but please do listen what I have to say. As savvy consumers, it is our duty to help dictate the free market. We must demand better or we will never get it. It kind of reminds me of a fable I heard about an emperor who commissioned a tailor to make him a vibrant colorful garment, but when he got it he couldn’t see it and the tailor said, “Fools will not be able to see the garment” so everyone pretended like they did see it. I don’t remember exactly how it goes but when I get an eBook reader that costs less than most computers, I will be sure to buy it and read it to you all.

Price Tag

The price of Amazon Kindle’s second iteration has only recently dropped below $300 (to $259) despite being on the market since 2007 where it debuted at $399 (Metz, 2009). Keep in mind that you are not paying for books or unlimited book rentals; that is simply the device that allows you to buy and view Amazon’s books. But this is actually the more affordable option; the Kindle also has a DX model that is still closing in on $500 with a tag of $489 (Amazon.com, 2009). Straining to see exactly what made this more expensive, I noticed it has a bigger screen, more storage space (which is still only 4GB, 3.3GB available for downloads, 2GB more than the $259 one), “Rotating Display,” and supports PDF natively instead of after conversion… There isn’t $200 worth of content in those features; of course there really isn’t $259 worth of content in the Kindle to begin with. So why do these devices have such lofty price tags? Well, it isn’t because it costs that much to make them, it’s because it was trying to compete with the iPods. Apple commands high prices as it is, but it is much more understandable given the versatility, support, and overall design of the product. Simply walking in to the Apple store, the clerk was able to get 5 audible “wows” from me showing the features of the iPod touch. Not only that, but if you have a question about your iPod or iPhone you can log into a chat room with an Apple representative to get it resolved. The Kindle got 1 audible wow from me, due to the crisp high resolution on the print. So in no way do I find this product even comparable with the iPhone or iPod touch. Here is a fun fact; I paid less for my car than the debut price of every generation of the Kindle. And it’s not a piece of junk either; since I bought it I’ve put 100,000 miles on it. Just something to think about before you empty out your wallets at Amazon. It’s not just me being cheap either, a much smarter woman than I (a Forrester analyst named Sarah Rotman Epps), suggests its price should be around $99 (Metz, 2009). Believe me, if that were the case it would be a completely different presentation that you are hearing right now.

Kindle’s Effect on eBooks

So why should I care about what other people spend their money on? Well, what you do spend your money on directly affects me, if you keep buying $500 pieces of plastic then I will have to pay $500 to get that same piece of plastic. I really like the idea and I want one but I can’t afford to pay these prices because I’m not a wealthy oil tycoon. Why not just wait for another company to come out with the same thing? Because even competitors like Sony that are throwing themselves into the ring, realize that if the price is already so high, they can keep their costs high and still undercut the Kindle. It’s like how the judicial system works, how the judge rules in a unique case sets a “precedent” in which future similar cases can be sited for judgment in the same way. The same thing here, if a company arbitrarily sets its price too high but successfully sells it at that price then the competitors see they can charge that price and still turn a profit. One of the main reasons that, I believe, competitors are timid to enter the fray, is that Amazon has such a huge library at their disposal, it would be hard to compete with them, at least for a while. It is a shame that they were so greedy with their great potential. I could wait for Amazon to get their act together but it just seems unlikely that will happen. They don’t seem to fix, or care, what criticisms they get as we can see with the progressions through Kindle’s generations. I remember looking through their forums to try to understand why they made the already pretty cumbersome Kindle bigger for the DX model. I remember one snarky poster said that people were idiots for not realizing it was for people who like to read newspapers on their Kindles, before presumably returning to his $500 newspaper. But it is really strange to me that unlike all other electronics, the Kindles get bigger, heavier, and more expensive with every generation. Which leads me to speculate that the lead engineer for the Kindle is none other than… Bizarro Superman.

Substandard Engineering

I was reading a tech blog by a man named Robert Scoble and he brings up an interesting point, “UI sucks. Menus? Did they hire some out-of-work Microsoft employees?” (Scoble, 2007). For those of you unfamiliar, UI is user interface, the industry standard for most post-2007 devices like this should be a touch-screen especially at an upper-end price point. Scoble make another good point, the ergonomics of it lead people to grab it right where the page flip screen is. In fact there really aren’t many good places to hold it, the thing about books is that you have to hold them for hours, if there is no good way to do that, you might as well just have a paperback. There is also no back light for the screen, probably to conserve battery power, but that limits the usability of the device. If you can only read it where you have direct light, how is it any better than any printed book? The display is not in color, though I don’t really see that it needs to be, but they should take that into pricing considerations. It also uses a very cheap plastic casing, kind of like what you’d find on a very cheap children’s toy. And the warranty is bogus, it says 2-year but it’s really just an extension onto the 1-year manufacturer warranty. It covers only one claim for accidental drop or damage and doesn’t cover the replacement of the battery (leaving me to wonder what else could really happen to it). And as for firmware and software, you aren’t able to do anything unless Amazon says you can. Whereas if I want to get Tetris for my iPhone I can go on iTunes and pay $5 or whatever and get it. If I want a game that my friend made for the iPhone, I can get that too; if I’m savvy enough I can make a program for myself and even sell it on iTunes. For the Kindle, you can only have what Amazon says you can, there aren’t any programs or even expansion slots for 3rd party developers. But with the vast number of file formats it supports… it will definitely spurn the sales of Windows ’95. Take that Windows ’95!

Bezos the Businessman

I realize it’s not the prudent thing to do, calling the founder of the internet giant Amazon.com a bad business man, but really he’s not as good as most people say he is. Firstly he got into hot water when he engineered what would be called a “bricks-and-clicks partnership (a brick and mortar coupling with an online store)” (Wolk, 2006) with the toy store Toys “R” Us. In the agreement Toys “R” Us would use Amazon as the, “exclusive online retail outlet for Toys “R” Us toys, games and baby products” (Wolk, 2006). In the lawsuit Toys “R” Us thought that according to the agreement the reverse was true, that Amazon couldn’t sign on competitors like Target or zShops that sold the toys that Toys “R” Us sold, but they did anyway. The lawsuit ruled in favor of Toys “R” Us and people say it was better for Amazon because they could make more money hiring competing stores, but that’s not really the problem. The problem is that if you sign a contract that says you won’t take on other toy stores and you do it anyway, that’s just unethical. You may ask, “So what? He doesn’t like to honor contracts, what’s the big deal?” The big deal is that he has already done something like this with the Kindle. Amazon went on to people’s Kindles and removed people’s copies of George Orwell’s 1984 (among others) presumably in case for some reason they needed to remove the definition of irony from people’s dictionaries. Amazon’s communications director Drew Herdener said, “These books were added to our catalog using our self-service platform by a third-party who did not have the rights to the books. When we were notified of this by the rights holder, we removed the illegal copies from our systems and from customers' devices, and refunded customers,” (Megna, 2009). In case you were wondering, this goes against the Kindle’s Terms of Service: “Upon your payment of the applicable fees set by Amazon, Amazon grants you the non-exclusive right to keep a permanent copy of the applicable Digital Content and to view, use, and display such Digital Content an unlimited number of times, solely on the Device or as authorized by Amazon as part of the Service and solely for your personal, non-commercial use. Digital Content will be deemed licensed to you by Amazon under this Agreement unless otherwise expressly provided by Amazon” (Fisher, 2009). But apart from being a blatant breach of the Terms of Service, this raises a whole bunch of questions. Firstly it doesn’t seem that the books are really yours, it seems like you are just renting them if they can take them away whenever they want. Or who is to say they don’t spy on your book purchases and turn them over to “Big Brother?” It’s something to consider when they don’t follow their contracts, or even their own rules that they made themselves.

Another thing that Bezos hasn’t quite figured out is “Razor Marketing” it’s what nearly every electronic media provider does to offset the costs of their devices. Cell phones, iPods, X-Box, Playstation, even your color printers all use this. The idea is, you give the main device away at a lower price than what it costs to make it, and you make the profit up on the backend with the add-ons. It’s called Razor Marketing because there were manufacturers of men’s shaving razors that realized it was a better idea to give the hand razor away for free, and make the money up when they buy the replacement blades. Your printer costs way more to make then you bought it for, but you buy the printer cartridges at a higher price and the company makes money; X-Box 360 and Playstation 3’s lose several hundreds of dollars on every machine they make, but when you buy the games at $60 a piece they eventually will turn a profit. Just think if 3 million people were able to afford a Kindle at $100 a pop and increased the cost of their books from $9.99 to $14.99; I think they would even make more money. They are the ideal candidate for Razor marketing, they have access to a monstrous library, eBooks don’t require printing, paper, bindings, or even shipping; you only have to encode them, which can’t be too hard because some 3rd party publishers are doing it for free. You just pay the authors and publishers their fee (they probably are already selling their print books on Amazon anyway) and the rest is profit! Even though I’m panning the Kindle, this is far and away the most successful Amazon flagship endeavor to date. They at one time had their own MP3 player and purchasing service like iTunes; also they had a streaming video player with a company called “Roku.” The fate of these products was that they were too expensive on the front end, for their performance, and so they weren’t successful. You may not have even heard of these products because they effectively get buried like a dead goldfish; soon they stop adding content, then they cut back on the support, and then eventually you are left holding the bag with the device that time forgot. In 2 or 3 years when some other company creates an industry standard eBook reader, will Bezos remember you dropped $500 on his overhyped piece of plastic, or will he be trying to sell books in his competitor’s format?

Kindle’s Good Points

I have been really hard on the Kindle, but it has some really good points. One of the things I really like is that you have 3G coverage for free, so no contracts no matter how long you stay connected. Although, there isn’t much besides shop for books that you can do with Kindle, it’s still a monthly hassle I think we can all do without. I heard you can get to Wikipedia and Google, but I’m pretty sure at this day and age even my coffee maker can get to Wikipedia and Google. As I said before when I first saw the Kindle I said, “wow” when I saw the extremely crisp 167 ppi (pixels per inch), honestly you don’t even have to be a techie to be impressed with that, you can see how crisp and clear it is at a glance. The first time I saw it, I thought it was a portable microfiche display. Another feature is that all books on the NY Times bestseller list are $9.99; but the high priced ones seem to be around $30 so with a savings of $20 you would still need to purchase 10-25 eBooks to offset the cost of the device. I don’t know many people who would be able to do this within the shelf life of the Kindle. Another feature I really like is the “Read-to-Me” feature so that you can listen to it like a book tape when you’re in the car and then when you get out you can start reading again from the same point that the device left off. I, unfortunately, was not able to see this feature in action, so I don’t know if it’s a human voice or a computer voice (I would be really bummed if it’s a computer voice). Another great feature is the annotation feature, which I’ve heard is the best; I again was not able to do this on some other person’s Kindle for obvious reasons. But I did hear that when they spirit your copy of 1984 away they leave your annotations in a folder, out of context like a pile of post-it notes that fell off your file cabinets. Can you imagine highlighting and putting notes from the text book for this class and then without warning, poof, they are all gone? In conclusion, while the Kindle is an interesting gadget, it’s nowhere near where it should be. And if we continue to buy it, Amazon will not ever see the need to lower the price or fix nagging problems. Amazon knows online stores, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they know how to make electronics. Any questions?


Bibliography
Amazon.com. (2009). Kindle DX Wireless Reading Device (9.7" Display, U.S. Wireless, Latest Generation). Retrieved November 10, 2009, from Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Wireless-Reading-Display-Generation/dp/B0015TCML0/ref=kinww_ddp
Fisher, K. (2009, July 17). Why Amazon went Big Brother on some Kindle e-books. Retrieved November 14, 2009, from Ars Technica: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/07/amazon-sold-pirated-books-raided-some-kindles.ars
Megna, M. (2009, July 20). Amazon's Irony: Orwellian Recall of Kindle Books. Retrieved November 11, 2009, from internetnews.com: http://www.internetnews.com/security/article.php/3830861/Amazons+Irony+Orwellian+Recall+of+Kindle+Books.htm
Metz, R. (2009, October 7). Amazon cuts Kindle price, adds global version. Retrieved November 10, 2009, from MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33208339/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets
Scoble, R. (2007, November 25). Dear Jeff Bezos (one-week Kindle review). Retrieved November 11, 2009, from Scobleizer: http://scobleizer.com/2007/11/25/dear-jeff-bezos-one-week-kindle-review/
Wolk, M. (2006, March 2). Toys 'R' Us wins suit against Amazon.com. Retrieved November 11, 2009, from MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11641703/

What Gaming Console Should I Buy My Kid?

Even though there aren't any new systems coming out this year, I still have heard of people thinking of which gaming console they should buy. I'm pretty well versed in all of the different systems and have owned all of them at one point or another. So since a couple people asked here is my unbiased recommendations as I think each person has their own opinion of what they like.

Nintendo Wii

Nintendo almost had to throw in the towel after border-line failed consoles, they actually were the ones to save gaming in the early '80s as the original Famicom (or Nintendo Entertainment System as it was called here) saved the entire video game medium from going under. But after the success of the second console release the SNES, Nintendo gradually fell out of the favor of the public as the sales of the N64 and later the Gamecube were progressively failing. This wasn't surprising as their early competitors like Sega were facing the same problems. The only thing keeping Nintendo afloat was cornering the market for handheld gaming with the Gameboy Advance. But Nintendo didn't go down without a fight, they decided to think outside of the box rather than try to battle the Sony and Microsoft mega-corporations. Interestingly enough Nintendo's name (loosely translated) is "Heaven bless the hard worker" and it seems to have done just that with the success of their latest console. I probably get asked about this more than any other sort of gaming device so I'll get down to the pros and cons and try to also dispel any myths therein.

Pros:

• You can lose wight with this thing. But leeeettt'sss not go crazy, technically you could lose weight playing charades, if you get into it and do it like Dane Cook. Point is that you will get out of it what you put in, the guy on the commercials losing weight playing it, he's playing the tennis like he's actually playing tennis. This isn't a problem, but one of the things I've noticed is that people who give them to kids/family/friends expecting them to get their exercise with it have been disappointed. You can put as much or as little effort into the game as you can with outdoor activities; also, you can buy regular controllers thus bypassing the calisthenics. So if you are specifically getting it to get a lazy vidiot off the couch, keep in mind that they have to sort of want to get their exercise this way.
• Nintendo tends to be more family friendly than some of it's competitors. Not to say you can't get adult games or that you don't need to pay attention to the game your kid is playing; but the Nintendo games are for the most part family friendly.
• A good console for the casual gamer. If you played Sega Genesis when you were a kid but haven't touched a game since, this is the console for you. You may get frustrated trying to play Halo or Call of Duty online, because let's face it, some of these guys playing video games is practically their job. But with the Wii there are many games in the library where you do what you do in real life, like tennis, baseball, etc. You don't need to dive in too deep for a good gaming experience.
• Probably one of the cheapest gaming start up costs (if you don't count the PlayStation 2 which are still in production). You get the console, a controller, a nunchuck, and one of the best games in the library Wii Sports for $200 (hey, for videogames that's a steal). But there is an asterisk...

Cons:

• The asterisk from before goes to this point; the add-ons will KILL YOU! Price wise, but maybe if you threw the Wiimote hard enough... just kidding! Seriously though, all the families you see on the commercials that all have their own Wiimotes and nunchucks... well to set up the rest of the family like that, may cost you as much as the damn system.
• Game "ports" (games developed for other systems like XBox 360 and then released on another system) are usually not available or very bad. So if you like shooting games, they either won't come out for the Wii or they will make a Wii version with major alterations. This isn't a "hardcore gamer" console. Most people who are hardcore gamers get this in addition to either the PS3 or XBox 360. This is a completely different animal for the most part.
• Limited online ability. Most games don't have the ability to chat (some can't even go online) you simply race people (or whatever) and you see their Mii (the Nintendo avatar). Some parents might see this as a pro because then there is less risk of being contacted by internet creepers. I for one mute everyone I don't know on the 360 anyway, I have yet to say, "I am glad I didn't put that guy on mute, he had such interesting things to say." Most of it is "Noob... Fag... you suck..." and that's when you have a behaved person.

Some good games to get with the Wii: Wii Sports (comes with the system), MarioKart, Wii Fit, Wii Sports Resort, and for KIDS Mario Party 8 (adults within earshot may want to play Wii Russian Roulette).

XBox 360

Microsoft's second gaming console, practically a staple in American gaming households due to it's online appeal. XBox Live is a subscription service ($60 a year or so, not too expensive) is the best online gaming option barring a gaming computer. Despite my last blog, where I criticized Halo developer Bungie, I can't deny that it is the best online shooter to date (and only available on the 360). In fact of my top 10 online games only 3 of them aren't on the 360. Plus I know dozens of people on the XBox Live but only a few here and there on other online subscriptions. And I know I'm sending sort of mixed messages about the Live subscription when I said Halo development was stingy, but the rest of XBox Live is NOT. There are online events like playing 1 vs. 100 online (it's even narrated by a person), if you have Netflix you can download movies and have them stream through the console (I recently learned that PS3 can do this too but through a 3rd party source, it would be nice if my PS3 would tell me that).

Pros:

• As I said, bar none best online gaming without a gaming computer. Even if I'm sick of the games, like I said they have all kinds of things going on all the time. Sometimes when I'm bored I just go through and grab promotional avatar things and just poke around new things on the "dashboard" (like the online boot screen).
• Most games are backward compatible with the original XBox. Plus the controllers are almost the same with the progression so no need to re-learn how to use the controller like you have with Nintento systems in the past.
• XBox has exclusive games and content on lock down (perticularly for American developers). Microsoft doesn't have a huge presence in Japan, but it's getting to be to the point that Sony doesn't have a big foothold in the US anymore. Microsoft has been beating Sony to the punch at every turn with exclusive games and exclusive downloadable content. This leads people with both consoles in the household to say, "well this game isn't even on PS3" or "I heard they are going to have a XBox only expansion pack, that's why I'm getting it on the XBox." Even before Microsoft did this I was saying, "I want to play this online and all my friends have XBox."

Cons:

• It's the little things that the XBox doesn't have out of the box; no rechargable batteries, no wireless internet.
• Peripherals are EXPENSIVE! This makes the Wii equipment look good, I dropped $100 for a wireless NIC card for this. And whereas the PS3 has a BluRay player equipped, Microsoft has a external HD DVD player that plugged in to the XBox for about the cost of another XBox. Fuck that! That was a very very bad move and I think it gave BluRay the edge.
• I did the HD Pepsi challenge on my friend's TV, PS3 still looks better. I'm not going to rattle off tech specs because they don't even use the same method to display, XBox uses a "piping" graphical engine and I forget what PS3 uses. All I can say is the proof is in the pudding, the PS3 looks better.

Some good XBox 360 games: Halo 3, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Rock Band/Guitar Hero/DJ Hero, Orange Box.

PlayStation 3

Last year there was very little reason I would have recommended the PS3, except for the fact it has a BluRay player built in, which pays for itself pretty much. But Sony has lowered the price and gotten their head in the game a little more. With emerging PS3 exclusive content finally it's starting to be an emerging contender. The library for the PS3 has also bulked up, finally, when I first got the PS3 I had only 3 games, it wasn't like I didn't want more, they just didn't have more than 3 I liked. But this is changing, PS3 may not be able to compete with XBox's online play, but as far as single player "cinematic" games; it's practically a movie that you can play. One example of these is Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, and the recently released sequel Among Theives. I remember when I reviewed it a few years ago, I said it was like a playable movie. The ads for the sequel feature a couple getting ready to watch a movie, when the boyfriend takes the camera aside and explains that his girlfriend thinks it's a movie. If online play isn't your thing and you like stories, the PS3 may be what you are looking for.

Pros:

• BluRay player built in, that pays for itself. And though they lose a lot of money, BluRay seems to have emerged victorious in the high capacity DVD market. I think that this was a great decision by Sony and the PS3 in perticular I think majorly contributed to this.
• This thing is ready to rock when you open the box. Wireless internet, charger for your controller, HDMI output. These things alone will run you a couple hundred on the 360.
• Many games are free to play online. I'm going to go ahead and put an asterix here... you see if you want to play online it's up to the company that made the game to host it, instead of Microsoft who does it themselves. This isn't a problem on popular titles like Call of Duty and Resistance: Fall of Man, but if you want to play less popular games like Team Fortress Classic 2 (part of the Orange Box bundle) you have to just kind of hope Activision wants to do the server maintenece or you can expect a lot of "lag" (latency issues).
• The $300 price point now makes the PS3 a better contender in the gaming industry.
  

Cons:

• Library and overall volume of people online are a lot smaller than XBox Live.
• Memory problems, firstly it really hogs memory, secondly you can't upgrade the memory, and thirdly games with bigger save files (the number many people quote is 8MB) bring many loading problems for ports designed for PC games especially.
• Online community things are really lacking, instead of games like 1 vs. 100 they have Playstation Home which is not quite so fun. On the plus side you can customize your avatar to look like you more than the XBox Live but overall it's sort of like the Sims and gets old pretty quick. Insult to injury, instead of being told about promotional brick-a-brak like you do on Live, PSN only likes to inform you of more stuff to buy.
• No backward compatibility at all. They seem to want you to buy a PS2 to play those games, they used to have backward compatibility but then they got rid of it... I'm sure if you are like me, you had a pretty impressive PS2 library going, sadly you can't just get rid of the PS2 and play the PS3.

Some good titles for PS3: Resistance (1 and 2), Uncharted (1 and 2), Batman Arkham Asylum (PS3 only content available), SingStar (karaoke that plays sort of like Guitar Hero).

Some Reviews on Games for the Holidays...

I haven't posted for a while, and this actually may be partly to blame for that. I've been using my free time to do finals, and then now to play VIDEO GAMES! So I was at the store cashing in some games I found while cleaning and also to get my little brother his present for Christmas when I realized I get much more credit than I actually was expecting. Since I need to be fair with the siblings, and also since I haven't gotten a game since Ghostbusters which came out in the Triassic era I believe, I decided to get two used games with my store credit. There will also be a 3rd review for a game my brother bought and I've been playing.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

I would say this is a pretty sure-fire bet for a gift for an online FPS (First Person Shooter... games where you run around and shoot people) because everyone has it and plays it. But it is for this reason, you might not buy it for someone, because they might already have it. This is sort of a minorly retooled version of Modern Warfare 1 which was a huge hit filling the void that Bungie left after Soup-Naziing the next Halo installment for a few years (NO GAME FOR YOU).

**EDITORIAL ON BUNGIE: I have asterisked this out because Bungie isn't the developer of the game I'm rating, I just wanted to slam these bags of douche while I have the time. Now, Bungie almost fucking owns Microsoft by now, so why the fuck can't they get a fucking Halo game out every year? Granted their last installment Halo 3 was amazing and ground breaking. They are one of the only FPS's that let you play with up to 4 guests to one account; hell, you can make VIDEOS of ass beatings and show them to your friends. Amazing, amazing stuff... Here is where the buck stops, once they make the game they stop all of the development for it... almost. They make a new map pack by the time you are already sick of the game. You drop money sight-unseen on a pack of maps but since the shock is worn off of Halo to begin with, you will lose interest in these new maps very quickly. And then as soon as Bungie is done they toss the maps out for free like a used up hooker saying, "Who would want you now?" But look at Blizzard, they develop MMORPG's (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games... mouthful... keyboard full :P) for the PC. They are constantly in development of new dungeons and new items all the time. They only charge extra money when they do a massive expansion for the game (whole new continents to explore). But on the other hand Bungie did end up giving cool looking flaming armor to all of their loyal fans that waited outside stores all night just to get the game on it's release date (almost single-handily saving the X-Box Live online network). OH WAIT, NO THEY DIDN'T they gave it to the true unsung heroes of the gaming... themselves and said, "No you can't (have it)" to all their loyal fans.**

So there is the back story, Call of Duty took the FPS throne from Halo due to their arrogance. Call of Duty makes a game almost every year, there aren't crazy bells and whistles that Halo had, but hey it was NEW. You get sick of a game no matter how good it is after several months unless they have new stuff going all the time. And so enter CODMW2, has the shooting action online you come to expect (but also the "it's over already" 5 hour campaign I've come to expect). They have added some cool things, in addition to the 4 letter clan tag, you can now have a little logo and a banner that comes up when you shoot someone. The logos are small little pictures, some animated and some strange like little Luchador wrestlers. And the banners have all sorts of things on them like nods to gaming culture like one that says "All Your Base Are Belong To Us" and also ones that show little pot leaves and say "Blunt Trauma" and "Joint Ops" (surprisingly popular, who would have thought marijuana enthusiasts would enjoy playing videogames all day?). They don't tell you how to get them, you just see them on other people's name tag, and it tells you that you got them. There have been several times where I was like, "how the hell did I get that?" I suppose you could go on the internet but there are so many you probably wouldn't want to look at how you got all of them. Those familiar with the game will remember from the first one the upgrading system you get guns based on level and you start to unlock additions for it by killing, etc. You also have the upgrades with some cool ones like "Bling" where you can have extra accessories for your gun, so like a scope and hear sensor.

Things I liked:

• Addictive online play, and as I said, you probably know a dozen people already that have this, whether you know it or not. So playing with them is always a good time.
• Cool customizations like the little banner over your name and a little logo, and there are many funny ones so if you are like me you will change it up many times.
• Great upgrades like "Bling" and even advantages you can get with "death streaks" so if you are getting your but kicked, you can earn martyrdom or final stand to help you get back in the game.
• Almost ridiculous amounts of kill streak items, there is even a tactical nuclear strike; it's like things I thought they should have on the last one got put in there... crazy.

Things I didn't like:

• Weird server interpretation, you can see on the kill cam as you could before but the thing I hate is when I shoot the shit out of someone and I look on the kill cam and I didn't even fire, I just scream like a girl and die a humiliating death leaving the person on the other screen to think that they are some kind of Kirosawa film badass. Sometimes when I overhear people telling a story I told they will say, "this is what JKon said happened, so I don't know how much of it is true, he exaggerates sometimes." Well I'm Honest Abe compared to this game. If that isn't bad enough, you can look like a little bitch for everyone in the game if you are featured on the "Game Winning Kill" cam. I think this weird server interpretation has something to do with the next thing I didn't like.
• NO SPLIT SCREEN YET? WTF? I think the shaky server interpretation has something to do with this, I think that they use it as a way to disguise lag times. But like previously how I said the server makes up stories, well you can't make up a story and tell it to someone if one of the other witnesses is there. So I think it can't rapidly correct two different perspectives if I'm even on the right track with the conspiracy theory. I also believe it is the same for the single player because they would have to reset the enemy "aggro tables" which says who to shoot if a player is detected. I probably don't know what the fuck I'm talking about but I just have this theory.
• Single player is a little thin... It's an improvement but I am pretty sure they just said, "this is an online game" so no point to making it very long. If you don't play online, I'd say rent don't buy, but still worth checking out. It's just a shame, you know what I hate about playing with people online? Playing with people online.
• The victors get the spoils... always. It's probably worse than in the previous game, if you are getting your ass kicked, you're going to get your ass kicked even worse. They tried to fix it, having death streaks, care packages (that could have anything), and hardline which starts you off on a 1 kill or death streak right away so you only need to get 1 less of them to get what you need. But that doesn't help people like me who can't get even a 3 kill streak. But there is nothing quite like getting killed by a guy 10 times and then getting killed by the helicopter he just called in.

Batman: Arkham Asylum

I liked this game, in fact it sort of rekindled the old days of reading Batman comics. But when I read a little thing about how many villains it has, I was a little mislead. It looked to be over 30 but there are really only are about a little more than a half dozen you fight. There are also physical cameos by another 1/2 dozen and then a huge cast of baddies who have left their mark in some way on the asylum, for instance there is a cell that's covered in calendar pages and finding it unlocks the profile for Calendar Man. While a little disappointed that they didn't have the entire "Rogue Gallery" available to be fought, but I am okay, it would be a little silly to go fisticuffs with The Ratcatcher or something. Most of the ones that I like were there so I'm content.

Things I liked

• Instead of a waypoint system, you go into "detective mode" and track the person you are looking for.
• Additional play time fits into the story, it's not just some random Easter Egg hunt. There are also maps so you can find out which room it's in, there are several of these secrets, a couple hundred maybe?
• Main story has challenging parts but is pretty easy all in all; it has very challenging "challenges" if you want to test your Batmaning; but if you are just eager to see how the story unfolds it has just the right amount of difficulty.
• Guns really do freaking kill you! You can shrug off maybe one or two bullets but you definitely don't want to get shot so you can't really just muscle your way through parts that require stealth like you can in some games.

Things I didn't like

• Not actually being Batman puts you at a supreme disadvantage. There are almost too many gadgets and things you can do so adding another element to Batman. He must be excellent at tool belt inventory. Where as I am in a boss fight clumsily fumbling through the 8 different gadgets he has.
• For a Cloak and Dagger game, you have way too much Cloak and not nearly enough Dagger. When the purpose of the game is stealth, most games have an engine in place that measure shadows and other elements. This one is basically, if you do anything they can see you. So it's very unforgiving, also there are very limited things you can do to hide. In the gun rooms you can hop from gargoyle to gargoyle but they can still see you until by some huge feat you go fast enough that they literally can't keep up with you. Then the do nutty shit like upping the anty making the gargoyles explode if you touch them. There is even a thing called an "inverted takedown" which you can unlock. In the rare instance that someone is directly (I mean DIRECTLY) underneath you but haven't detected you, you can drop down and take them out. But they start screaming and give you away. So it's totally useless.
• They are pretty generous with add-ons but you have to meet a criteria, like preorder from Gamestop or have a PS3 and you still have to download them storing them on your console instead of them being on the disk. And they are mostly just the challenges, and you really have to be good at the game to do those. They aren't extra levels as I was led to believe.

Borderlands

I really liked this one, it's a combination of a FPS and RPG (definitions above). Some people said that this was already done in Fallout 3 but I've never played it, that one was called "Oblivion with guns" I would say that this one is Diablo with guns. This plays to my fondness for shooting games and for color-coded loot tables. It says "87 Gazillion guns" on the advertisements, some people say it's false advertisement, I say that isn't a real number so obviously a joke. What it does have, is a computer generated gun system, it names them but they have different specs, level requirements, appearances. So really limitless, after killing a named character he dropped a certain gun. Killing him again netted me a gun that was named and looked the same but had some numbers changed around (pretty much comparable either way, a flip of the coin really). They even have the ability to do class based combat (which I'm not sure if Fallout 3 had or not). Each character has 3 specs and basically with a level 50 cap, you can go down two different trees so dual specing, there is also even a "class mod" which can boost a class or give you a helping of talents from a tree you didn't even touch.

Characters:

Siren - This is I guess a rogue class, apparently there was a patch to make her more effective, but I still think she's busted (her spec not her "girl parts" as the game calls them). She can go invisible for a certain amount of time, but that's not much and even then it's basically getting the drop on one guy (not even a guaranteed kill) making soloing pretty impossible.

Soldier - This is the Paladin of this game has an amazing soloing spec called "Infantry" and also has a support class which is focused on ammo regeneration and even a healing spec. As you might expect you shoot people to heal them once you have the "cauterize" talent, you also gain health regens for the rest of the group. I haven't gone online with it, so I don't know how a heal spec works 100%.

Brick - This guy can be a tank or explosives expert. Unfortunately he lacks any great long range skills and by default you can only have 3 grenades. For soloing you probably want to be a "Berzerker" which focuses on beating enemies up with your fist... yeah still the long range problem and the fact you get SHOT when you punch people. Probably would make a really good tank online though.

Hunter - This has a spec focusing on snipers and one focusing on pistols and one focusing on a pet. The A.I. for the pet isn't close to where it needs to be. It gets hung up on walls (why even make it be able to clip walls is beyond me) it's way underpowered and it's ideally for getting guys behind cover but if they are behind cover it doesn't always see them so you are left killing it and saying, "thanks anyways." But this guy is more like the mage of the group, huge DPS but if he is getting shot at you'd be better just giving him a Nerf bat.

Things I liked:

• Combined being a nerd with being a nerd... seriously though, I like the spec and loot systems, and even the party idea (though haven't tried it out yet... need friends...).
• Huge environment... unfortunately most is literally a garbage dump, but still fun.
• Semi long story, and once you are finished you play through again with enemies that are a higher level to gear up, bueno!
• Funny sense of humor!

Things I didn't like:

• Broken or unsoloable specs, some of these are atrociously hard to solo. I'm sure in a team dynamic it goes away but some of these have such a huge cooldown on actions with such little effect, it makes me think it will be drawing straws for the Soldier/Sniper position.
• Cars are made out of paper mache. First game where I've said, this guy looks pretty hard, better get out of the car to fight him. It is nice to get a "mount" early in the game though, something RPG's could learn a lesson from.
• A little vulgar when it didn't need to be, making it unnecessarily go for an older demographic.
• Pet A.I. is hoooooooorible! Only the Hunter and Soldier even have them, but sometimes it makes me cringe!
• I don't know anyone that has it... sadness!