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"EXTRA GAD - Online Console Wars"

This is quite a serious Extra Gameaday Competition

The challenge is to write an interesting piece about online gaming as:
XBOX Live Experience - Pro's and Cons
or
PS2 Networking Experience - Pro's and Cons
or
PS2 Networking vs XBOX Live - Comparison

The winner will be the best entry (in the opinion of the judges) submitted before midnight on Sunday November 14th.

Your entry will be judged on the basis of concise, readable, well written information. i.e. it must be written like a review. Try to include your experiences from initial interest and sign up through to full use.

All entries, whether they are the winner or not, may be used elsewhere on our site. The best entries will probably appear on a subsection of the UKconsoles site.

DO NOT COPY ANY WORK. These must be original.

I recommend that you save your work into a word processing document before entering it in case you want to work on it later.

Good Luck Chaps and Chapesses

Nice entry :D I should've waited until the 14th before putting my entry up methinks :P

Edgy wrote:
> Aww...he's so cute when he's miserable ain't he.

omfg wots ur obseshun wiv me!!1

Shut up you ignoramus.

I made a valid point and plenty of people share the same view.
Go to hell.
Oh, wait, you're already in Wales.

*weep*

Network Gaming Experiences

Because of my lack of an XBOX, I can only comment on Playstation2 online play.

Playstation2 Online Play

Initial Interest

I ahve owned a Playstation2 since its launch date, and for the first 2 or so years, I had no interest or anticipation of online play. I was content to sit through Tony Hawks and the constant dribble of First-person Shooters without the thought of online gaming on my agenda.

I read few of the articles on Online Play available, all with no real interest. It always came up, but the answer would always be, "nah, it's not worth it."
The standard of gaming was at a reasonable level so that I didn't need the extra plug of online play. But over the last few months, the quality of games produced just seemed to drop inexplicably, and I found myself yearning for an extension, a way to make gaming great again. Online play came immediately to mind. When I looked with interest once again into the prices and activities available, Network Gaming seemed like a genuinely entertaining idea.

So, I ordered my package from Amazon, and waited patiently.

First Experiences

On my first day of online play, after going through the mind-numbing regestration process, I was ready to play Burnout 3. The first thing that struck me was the amazing size of it. I had expected a huge setup, but as I looked around, I was astounded by the lack of people playing. It took me a good 15 minutes to get into my first race. And I was instantly disappointed. I may as well have been playing against CPU opponents, the only difference were the little names above their cars like "Ice UK" and "Stu72". Don't get me wrong, Burnout 3 is a very enjoyable game, but the online mode doesn't add much at all to the gaming experience.

Games

I am disappointed by the amount of effort put into online play on the vast majority of games. Developers just like to make it that big more broad, and to stand up with pride and see a little blue line on the front of their box. I would gladly pay a higher fee if they put a little more effort in these networking options. These are games like Burnout 3, and are a big disappointment to the console and their genre.

Here is a full list of my online-capable games:

Burnout 3
Tony Hawks 4
Tony Hawks Underground 1&2
SOCOM 1&2
Everquest: Online Adventures

Not very many as you can see, but I have been put off buying games with bitpart online modes, and much prefer the games that concentrate on the online gaming. Tony Hawks games on the other hand are genuinely brilliant online. With a couple of online-only modes on the games, as well as the Face Mapping and Downloadable Features make this a valuable part of anyone's online gaming collection.

Other Online Gamers

Here lies a major problem with online gaming. Many gamers are complete spoil-sports and have no sense of humour whatsoever. (Those who frequent in the Sony forum will have seen my distaste for some of these people.

There are different types of online gamers that I have come across:

Discreet Gamers

These just play for the fun of gaming, and are always game for a game, and rarely comment using the chat option.

Space-wasters

These enjoy filling the chat space with pointless or insulting messages. Boot on sight, and if they're the host of a room you're playing in, run for your life!

Cheaters

I'd like to say these don't exist, but upon viewing the playing of some during these games, I can sadly say they do. You might think I'm just whinging because they're a lot better than me, but I get suspicious when they're flying near my face.

Lonely Gamers

These only play to start a relationship with someone. Stay away from these at all cost, they're not good for your health.

Lag and Poor Connectivity

This is a major factor in Online Gaming. Freezes are common, even as much as the dreaded your connection has timed out. This can be severely frustrating, and can put you off for months. The delays as one person loses their connection can be as large as 10 minutes in some cases.

Tournaments and Ranking

This is where Network Gaming shines. Or at least, where it should shine. After consistently logging into Central Station, I have not come across a touranment in over 3 months, and only on Formula 1 2004 at that. This is not acceptable, and clearly something that should be sorted out by Sony, providing they want online play to be a success.

Ranking on games is great fun, moving up, moving down, laughing at the person with no life and 10th place. At least, it would be, but it simply doesn't exist on some games, other than a high scores list.

Oveview

Network Gaming has massive potential, but Sony need to put more effort in if I am to declare it a success. The amount of faults is truly astounding, and although Network Gaming has its pros, it can't beat a game with friends. I don't regret taking my PS2 online, as it has given me a truly valuable opinion and experience, but there will have to be serious changes for me to seriously consider taking it up as a more regular form of enertainment.

Gavirolax

I don't particularly mind, if I want a game I borrow it, or find it second hand somewhere. But I thought that generally people who come to the SR forums join SR to buy their games. Also the thought of GAD's and EGAD's and FAD's brought me to this site and the company. A competition that's accesible to everyone brings more customers, surely? Nicht war?

EDIT: This was in reply to Edgy's post a while back.

People use different things for different reasons. Some people use the Yellow Pages to look up the telephone number and/or address of a company; others use the Yellow Pages to gain enough extra height to kiss someone. Some people use a 7-Iron to play golf; other people use a 7-Iron to play golf… with someone’s head. Games are the same. And depending on how you like to play games, XBOX LIVE may, or may not be for you.

I play games casually. I rarely finish adventure games. I only play Assault On The Control Room on HALO Campaign, because I like the level. I play Evo 4, but only a Match, never the Master League. Why? Because games for me are more of a casual pass-time. I don’t take them seriously. I don’t need to escape in to the world of Planet Celsius VIII, and forget the worries of the day.

I have XBOX LIVE and it is AWESOME. You can’t really fault the thing. The servers are always up; it’s clean, quick, easily set up and looks great. They’re continually improving on it, adding more features. LIVE 3.0 means you can send Voice and Text messages to other players playing a LIVE 3.0 compatible game completely free, any time you want. You’re out of date friend playing Black Arrow, when the rest of your gang are on blasting each other in HALO 2? Send him a message, and get him on HALO 2!

This isn’t a comparison, but what I do like about LIVE, compared to Sony’s Central Station, is that it’s all inter-woven. Everything links. You have familiar options and setting on all the games. The template of options in LIVE games is much more clear. Quick Match – Just getting in any kind of game as quick as you can, Opti-Match - A refined selection of available games that suit your requirements; and Create Match – Where you create your own type of match, are in every LIVE game. It’s a compliancy issue from Microsoft, and thank God for it! It makes everything familiar, and XBOX LIVE incredibly easy to use! You also have a Friends List, so you can make ‘friends’ with your favourite gamers, and play with them time and again!

The world we live in is filled with some strange folk. They swear, become abusive, act cool, and some of the time, are just ugly in their attitude to everything. If you join a game and get landed with some of these Boneheads, you’ll experience the rougher side of XBOX LIVE. They might kick you out straight away, because your connection isn’t quite as good, due to an IP status or Trans-Atlantic delay, if they’re from the US. You might miss a shot on Black Arrow, having genuinely not seen the opponent, and been killed as a result; Only to have abuse hurled at you, by people who think they’re ‘gangsta’.

Having foreseen this, Microsoft have a reporting system knitted into LIVE games, that lets you report gamers using abusive foul language, a bad attitude or similar ‘crimes’. I’m not sure of the intricacies of the service, or how it works, but I imagine it beings investigations into the behaviour of the perpetrators!

If gaming is something you hold ever-so-close to your heart, and you’re moved and relaxed by Final Fantasy games, Zelda games or KOTOR type games and want nothing but you, the TV, the XBOX and a game, then XBOX LIVE may not be for you. If you love getting in the mix of things, having a great time on-line, playing against players from ALL OVER THE WORLD, and seeing how you stack up, then XBOX LIVE is PERFECT! More and more companies are implementing LIVE features into their games, even if it’s just ‘LIVE AWARE’ meaning you just have a Friends List available; so while you’re in Fable, for example, you can see your Friends List and who’s playing what! LIVE is sheer genius. And opens up games like never before! You’ll need Broadband, An XBOX, and a Credit Card to get going. Not to mention your Starter Kit, which gives you 12 Months of UNLIMITED XBOX LIVE for only £40!

If you dig on-line gaming, love XBOX and wonder why all your friends are ‘never in’ when you call for them, here’s your answer:

[URL] http://www.srdn.com/q_GG5321_official_microsoft.html [/URL]

Sorry for the ;*&%/$ stuff, I don't know why it does it. I replaced all the apostrophe's in the document with Special Reserve forum ones.


Game

Sorry, the '&28288;' stuff was because I typed the piece in a non-IE internet browser (Opera). I've edited the post purely to re-post it in IE, so it has no &2345;; stuff and so it's easier to read.

Thanks


Game

My Internet is better than yours.

There was some semi-fit girl working there last time I went there. I think. Or maybe that was a dream.

Don't employ fit girls Tony, it makes you feel even geekier when you're buying games and they're serving you.

can someone help me create a network on my pc using mains network adaptors