The Newb Review
4Feb/108

iRate: DLC Exclusivity and Me… A Hate/Hate relationship

iRateAh the joy of gaming… You finally sit down with the latest multiplatform release and let the gaming goodness wash over you, fully enjoying everything there is on offer. But hang on a second…There are bits missing aren’t there? It’s seems you can’t enjoy the same game as your rival console owners, not because of shoddy porting issues (we’ll save that for another iRate article), but because the developer has decided to sell off their reputation to the highest bidder and screw over around half of us gamers in the process. Oh well, at least they make a bit of extra cash…

The epic war of the consoles between Sony and Microsoft (the Wii isn’t made for gamers; see ‘iRate: Wii never play it really’) seems to have descended into a tit-for-tat squabble; each company sinking to new lows by securing the exclusivity of relatively minute amounts of individual titles. Sure, the Joker maps from Batman: Arkham Asylum are only available to PS3 customers, but does Sony really think that this pathetic half-step is going to incense XBox owners into purchasing the rival console?

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User Rating
Rating: 4.9/5 (8 votes cast)
24Sep/094

iRate: Wii never play it really!

iRateLet me present you with a little list: a boxing bag, cast iron weights set, abdominal crunch machine and Nintendo Wii with Wii Fit. No, we’re not playing ‘The Generation Game’; I put it to you that this represents a fraction of the kit you have knocking around your house and garage that sits there, month after month, gathering dust. I’m sure it was a great idea to buy it at the time, and I know you had every intention of using it daily “as part of a healthy lifestyle”. But let’s face it: you’d rather crack on the PS3 or 360 for some real gaming, rather than breaking into a sweat in front of your pixelated sprite whilst some obnoxious virtual Wii board berates you about how fat you are.

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User Rating
Rating: 4.7/5 (19 votes cast)
9Sep/095

iRate: Four reasons why online play sucks the joy out of gaming

iRateEveryone loves a good online gaming session don’t they? Shouting “w00t!” at 4am as you pwn some noobs in some epic carnage on whatever shooter / driving simulation / arcade fighter happens to be your online preference at the time.

This is indeed my first reason why online play is a bad thing: the little joy garnered from playing online is stifled by the shit-storm of unintelligible language that is, in most cases, unnecessary (how much harder is it to type pwn than kill / beat / maim!?), combined with a heady mix of xenophobic, toothless buffoons and twelve year olds that populate many online communities. It baffles me that so many prepubescent boys litter online worlds; how is it that I get owned by some snotty-nosed kid in an 18 certificate game?

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User Rating
Rating: 4.9/5 (18 votes cast)