Recent content by msakey

Hilarious article, Susan. I was in college at the time of the 3DO, and working at an EB. That was the Year of the Failed Consoles - Atari Jaguar, Philips... what was it called? CDS? 3DI? My personal 3DO memory is of the day I was minding my business at work an an enraged mother came in to...

Jabberwock, Alice. Took me forever.

I was very disappointed by Oblivion, but I had difficulty saying why; actually it was the hardest review I've ever written. You sum it up very well there - it had no sense of accomplishment. It also had no sense of epic... ness. Morrowind, difficulty imbalances aside, was Epic. Here you are...

You know, it's interesting that Morrowind's been brought up, because it was both too hard and too easy. At the beginning you're broke and defenseless and everyone hates you. Those pterodactyl things will chase you all the way across the map until a friendly town guard helps out. It takes...

Actually, Philios, it holds up surprisingly well (I've been playing it on GameTap). A solid, lengthy action-RPG. The only frustration is the terrible overworld movement interface, though as I recall that irritated me back then, too. Spakkenkhrist, for depth you really can't go wrong with...

There are a variety of theories, and Microsoft won't confirm any of them. The position, frequency and number of flashing lights is how Microsoft set up system diagnosis, similar to a BIOS's beep codes. Officially, three flashing red lights means "General Hardware Failure," which is about as...

And you're absolutely right, it could. But I also think that some pretty simple mechanisms could prevent or minimize incidents of abuse. Getting a credit card number at the time of the support call, for example. Requiring that the broken system be in their possession before another is shipped...

Hi everybody, and thanks for reading the article. I'd like to respond to some of the remarks on this thread. Doubtless; that and the fact that Microsoft simply will not acknowledge how serious the failure problem is. The solution should include fundamental changes to their DRM...

Escalation "Returns have spiked since Microsoft's July warranty extension announcement, and the once super-efficient service center is groaning under the strain, which translates into ever-longer wait times. "'It took about six weeks to get a new 360 back,' says Eduardo Gabrieloff, 'and when...

Innovation by Carrot "The whole by-carrot approach means developers first have to work on something that represents a safe financial bet for the publisher - something like an Incredible Hulk tie-in, something possibly rather dull, something that may put drastic limits on originality and is...