THE ONE

Well, it's here...sort of.  Tuesday morning, Microsoft unveiled its next-gen console and successor to the XBox 360, called stupidly simply the "XBox One".  Unless you've been living under a rock (or aren't a gamer), you've probably already heard the criticisms laid against it, and heard the fan outcry.  Yeah, I honestly can't say as I feel a whole lot different.  But as a gaming blogger, I guess I'm kind of obligated to say something about it, right?

X-MEDIA WEDNESDAYS - RATCHET & CLANK COMICS #1-6

It's been a long week here in the Cranky household, with car troubles, job interviews, and games to catch up on.  So for this week's X-Media Wednesday, I needed something light, something fun.  And so I turned to comics.  Specifically, comics based around one of my favorite action platforming series from the PS2 era, Ratchet & Clank.  I have loved almost all of the games (we don't like to talk about All4One around here...), so how did the comics measure up?

BREAKING FREE OF THE CONSOLE WARS

Since the dawn of home console video games, there has always been war.  Bitter rivals competing head to head for your living room space.  There were minor skirmishes early on, with Atari vs Commodore, and the NES stomped the Sega Master System into the ground.  The first real war erupted when the Super Nintendo went head-to-head with the Sega Genesis, and it was bloody.  Lines were drawn.  Friendships destroyed.  Controllers broken.  Blast processing overhyped.  In the end, the Genesis held on and fought the good fight, but the SNES eventually won.  Since then, every generation has had its console wars.  The past few years have mostly seen Sony and Microsoft in an embittered Cold War, with Nintendo ineffectually waggling its sticks around at them, menacingly. 

The problem is that we as gamers and consumers never really had options.  A console is a long term investment, a heavy chunk of change that would last you 5-7 years.  You could pick a side and become a raving fanboy (or girl), you could save up your money and buy multiple consoles, or you could just opt out, build a gaming rig, and become a PC gamer.  Either way, there was nothing in between.  There were very few alternatives to the mainstream, and those we had either flopped pathetically, or just became short-lived beloved oddities (We love you and miss you, Sega Dreamcast).  Even these oddities were an expensive investment.  We never had anything cheaper, smaller, or more convenient. 

Until now.   

NEW FEATURES AND AN ATTEMPT AT A SCHEDULE

So, welcome to the end of February.  So far, the Game-A-Week posts seem to be doing well, but I notice that I've made a habit out of only posting that throughout the week.  I want to post more, offer more content. Frankly, I'm still kinda balancing this blog, the Youtube channel, and the Twitter, and realizing just how much work is involved here.   But I want to keep putting out things for people to read and enjoy, so I'm introducing a few new features and some modicum of a schedule.  

Feedback is not just encouraged, it's practically begged for here.   Let's take a look!  

THE CRANKY OLD GAMER GETS CRANKY

I made a new video.  It's probably going to piss some people off.  I'm okay with that.

Enjoy!

LIVETWEETING THE BIG SONY ANNOUNCEMENT

Hey kids!   Uncle Cranky here.   In case you haven't heard, Sony has been hyping up a BIG press release for Feb 20th.   Well hey what a coincidence!  That's today!  General consensus is that this will be the official reveal of the Playstation 4.  Sony obviously hasn't confirmed this, but they've stayed quiet with a silent, implied wink-and-nod.* 

So if you follow my site, here's what is going to happen.   I'm gonna find me a stream of the video.   I know our friends over at Attack Initiative will be hosting a stream, or you can find a portal of your choice. Once you've found a stream, and I've found a stream, I will be hosting a livetweet of my thoughts as the conference goes on.   So if you HAVEN'T followed me on twitter, now is the time to do so!

https://twitter.com/CrankyOldGamerX

The big conference begins at 6pm EST!   See you there!




*- Of course, this COULD be like the Nintendo press conference a couple of years ago, when people thought they were going to announce the Wii U, and instead they revealed a couple of games no one cared about.   But we don't think so.

THE CRANKY OLD GAMER: NOW WITH VIDEO!

It's official, I now have a youtube channel to complement the blog.  I'm still experimenting with recording, editing, and compressing videos right now, but I have a first video up and running.   It's not the most exciting video on its own, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Check it out, subscribe, and I'll keep working on putting up videos!