I know, Peevery (Pee-Verr-EEE) probably isn't a word, but it's the best way to describe this blog. I'm just going to complain about some stuff because I'm in a bad mood here. I'll talk about the video game politics crap, but also my opinions on XLA, as well as Virtual Console, crappy games, and the new consoles. So let's get going.

K I'm gonna kick this off with Virtual Console and Xbox Live Arcade, which I personally feel is a big ripoff. Why? Well, first of all, they're charging 5-10 dollars for 10-20 year old games. Now sure, in their original, native format, these games would probably sell for more than that due to the cartridges no longer being made, but as a download, no way. But a lot of people complain about that, so I'll steer clear and make another complaint pertaining to these downloads, and that's this. A lot of these games that they're selling on Virtual Console and Xbox Live Arcade were sold in Compilations just a few years ago. You can buy this compilations at Gamestop for very good prices, and they're mostly backward compatible on the new systems. Take for example, Sonic on the Wii's Virtual Console. Charging 8 dollars for one 15+ year old game is bad enough, but this game was just released on a comp a few years ago called Sonic Mega Collection on the Gamecube, which is backward compatible on the Wii. Off the top of my head, I think Sonic Mega Collection costs 18 dollars used, the games on it? Well,

I don't know all of them, but I know that it does have Sonic The Hedgehog 1, 2, and 3, Sonic & Knuckles, Sonic Spinball, Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, as well as the piggybacked games of Knuckles, which would be Blue Spheres, Knuckles in Sonic 2, and Sonic 3 & Knuckles. And finally, Sonic 3D Blast which sucks but whatever. In addition to a few bonus games on top of that. But, disregarding the bonus games, and the Knuckles piggyback games, there's 7 games there. So if you were to buy them all seperately on Virtual Console, 8 x 7 = $56. Compare that to Sonic Mega Collection, which is $18, and includes more games, all on one convienent disk. I think Virtual Console is one big ripoff, but you be the judge. The only draw to getting the Virtual Console games is being able to play Sonic with the Wiimote, but still, unless I won the lottery, I'd rather pay less and get more games.

However, Virtual Console is worth it for a few games. Like Mario. I so wish they made a Mario comp on Gamecube, that would've rocked. But instead, you have to pay more on Virtual Console. But oh well, the games are worth it. Also Toejam & Earl, which I still don't know why they didn't put it on Sega Genesis Collection on PS2. Same with Streets of Rage, another great game not available on Comps. And the TurboGrafx 16 games as well. But whatever you do, if you want a game on Virtual Console or Xbox Live Arcade, try to check and see if it's on a Comp first, it could save you money and get you more games for that less money.

Okay, next, the new consoles. I'm not going to deny that the hardware is impressive, but there's one big issue I have. And that's backward compatibility. Nintendo was the only one that did it right, making the Wii 100% backward compatible out of the box. And Sony got their act together too, as about 98% of PS1 and PS2 games are compatible, again out of the box.

But my main issue is with Microsoft. The Xbox had a lot of great games that people really want to play. Problem is, Microsoft not only discontinued the Xbox after 4 YEARS, one of the best consoles hardware-wise in history, gone after 4 years, which is rediculous in and of itself, but they didn't bother making the 360 as backward compatible as it should've been either. I mean they did make an effort, but they should've made it fully backward compatible out of the box. Instead, what they did is made random games compatible, including the worst games ever made for the system, while leaving out a few awesome games. Including my personal favorite Xbox game of all time, Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. As well as the three main bundle packs, Tetris Worlds/Star Wars Clone Wars, Top Spin/NCAA Football 05 and Sega GT 2002/JSRF. While the former one is just okay, the latter two are great. In addition to Freedom Fighters, the best third-person shooter on Xbox. Also Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, another great shooter. The original Mech Assault, another awesome game. Voodoo Vince, my personal favorite 3D Platformer on Xbox apart from Psyconauts. Prince of Persia: Warrior Within and Two Thrones. Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance. Dead to Rights 2: Hell to pay. 007: Everything or Nothing, True Crime: New York City. There's more, but now they're talked about stopping updating, which is just bullcrap. I think they should re-release the original Xbox with a low price and maybe a new design, I think there's enough demand for it to make it a worthwhile sell. That's just me personally.

I don't have much to say about politics, except, well obviously politicians are full of crap. If violent games were outlawed, I'd bet anything that we would see a rise in crime, a large rise, not a fall. You don't agree? Prove me wrong. That's it.

Anyway, next and finally, I hate when people hype games so heavily and then release total crap. I mean, I'm perfectly fine with people not hyping or advertising a game at all and then releasing crap, because they spent just as much work and money on advertising their game than they did actually making it. But, when a game is heavily hyped and turns out to be crap, that's what pisses me off. Especially when it's in a proven franchise that has produced great games in the past. Take Driver for instance. Driver 3 was heavily hyped and people were really looking forward to it. Which is no surprise considering the first Driver was an awesome game and Driver 2 was all but revolutionary. But once it was released, Driver 3 was garbage. Horrible, way to ruin a franchise we all know and love(d). Then there's WWE Wrestlemania 21 on the Xbox. People saw the screenshots and said "HOLY CRAPPP, DA GRAFICKS R AWSOME SO THA GAME WIL RULL!!!!1111". Yeah I admit, the graphics were impressive, but then I looked at who was actually producing the game, which would be Studio Gigante.

Studio Gigante, despite being owned by the co-creater of Mortal Kombat, has never, NEVER produced a decent game before. You show me a good game with Studio Gigante on the box and I'll show you an orange flying pig. And Wrestlemania 21, as I expected, turned out to be crap. No, worse than crap. Diarrea, garbage. Angry Video Game Nerd would be much better at summing up Wrestlemania 21 than I am. But anyway, it was worse than I thought it would be, and I thought it would be garbage. Nuff said. 

There's more but I'm done with this entry. I'll finish up later on. Bye now.