The Year in Review

Wow, I've been pretty lax about updating this the last 6 weeks. Too many games to play. Since all the major releases are out now it seems to be a good enough time to go over the highlights of the year. I won't be doing Game of the Year and what-not, I'll save that for another post. What I really want to do is write about some of the games that have been taking up all my time the last few weeks.

The Simpsons Game (XBox 360): This game is a lot of fun. My wife and I have been playing it co-op and having a blast. As a game, it isn't great but certainly isn't awful, just kind of average. Fortunately the writing and humor save the game in a big way making it an awesome amount of fun for a Simpsons fan.

Fire Pro Wrestling Returns (PS2): This is a port of a Japanese game from like 2 years ago. It is also the most in-depth wrestling game to hit the US. The Create-A-Wrestler mode is so deep it is scary. I mean, I spent a good couple hours configuring my guys in the Smackdown series (not looks, I'm talking moves) so I have genuine and legitimate fear that this game take over my life if I let it. The gameplay is all timing based, so button mashing won't help you at all. All that having been said, it is the most fun you'll have with a wrestling game since No Mercy on the N64.

Orange Box (XBox 360): I've only played Portal on this, but damn was that game awesome. I wish I'd played some Half Life 2 since I've never played it before, but stupid me let a friend borrow it since I was planning on playing some other games first.

Super Mario Galaxy (Wii): To be honest, I'm not drooling over this game like so many other people are. That may be due to the fact I haven't spent a lot of time with it, though. I'm glad to finally have another good game for the Wii, which went through some serious dry spells over the last year. But really, if you love Mario 64 (which I do), then you'll love this game.

Rock Band (XBox 360): I got the stand-alone version of this since I wanted to wait for the Stratocaster to be wireless before I got one. I like the song selection on this better than Guitar Hero 3, though GH3 is also fun. But whereas GH3 seemed kind of "off" to me, Rock Band really delivered. I've only done guitar and singing, but I've had a blast with both. The guitar sections seem easier overall than GH2. I can say this because I've cleared like 4 or 5 tiers on expert in Rock Band and only been able to beat one expert song in GH2. I'm still waiting on my slack friends to come over to try some multiplayer since my wife won't touch this one.

Mass Effect (XBox 360): This game and Rock Band have been fighting it out for control of the XBox on any given night. I'm about 8 hours into it and still haven't even scratched the main story line. The combat is fun, much moreso than a standard RPG. I like the conversation system, even if it isn't as amazing as advertised. Pretty much everything in this game is just spot-on awesome. It felt to me from the beginning like I was playing some kind of 80's sci-fi movie. There's even a filter to add film grain you can turn on and off. The music is even perfect, making full use of synthesizers just like the 80's. It sounds like a movie off MST3K, which is a compliment.

You may have noticed I didn't talk about any PS3 games. I did play Fire Pro on the PS3 but I don't think that really counts. Part of the problem is that if a game is multi-console I'm going to get it on the XBox due to achivements. But have no fear, PS3 fans. My Xmas list is chock full of PS3 goodness, including Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Rachet and Clank, and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, so I'll be reporting on at least one of those after the 25th. I'm also wanting to try Assassin's Creed, but again, that will probably be on the 360. Also, I've got Lair coming, but I've got pretty low expectations for that. Luckily I didn't pay a dime for it, nor did anyone I know.

The PS3 - First Console Designed by Trained Monkeys!

Alright, I've spent some more time with the PS3 and I'm still pretty happy with the purchase. Come to think of it, the PS3 hasn't actually been turned off since I bought it, I've left it running Folding @ Home the whole time. I have to admit I wouldn't have the confidence in my XBox 360 to leave it running like that.

The wife and I have spent a lot of time playing We Heart Katamari this week, getting ready for the release of Beautiful Katamari in a couple weeks. I kind of like the irony in playing a game on the PS3 to get myself geared up for an XBox 360 release.

I spent a bit of time at a PS3 forum yesterday, trying to really get into the role of a new PlayStation 3 owner. I check out 360 Arcadians daily, so I figured I should balance that out with some PS3 love, too. Man alive, nothing could have prepared me for the fanboys at the PS3 site. The Arcadians, while an XBox 360-centric site, still gives plenty of love to other consoles, because at its heart it is a gaming site/forum. Over at the PS3 forum, you'd think Bill Gates and Major Nelson had gangbanged these people's dogs and forced them to watch.

The big complaint was the Microsoft was paying developers to delay their PS3 releases. Um, yeah. That's called a timed exclusive. There were also many cries about how Microsoft is paying for exclusive games for the 360. I'm still failing to see the problem. Microsoft is doing everything they can to make the 360 the leader of this console generation. There's nothing wrong with that. Of course, some of these folks are so paranoid, they think Sony took money from MS to delay Home. Yes, you read that right. In fact, I'll have to quote the post, because you'll never believe me otherwise.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Insanehead
You think MS also paid Sony to delay HOME?you never know. i
don't think its a case where ms blatantly gave sony money but microsoft probably
knew 360 would be dead along with live as soon as home came out so they probably
made some sort of deal like you delay home for 6 months and afterwards we'll
give up this and this exclusives cause they knew ps3 would kill them anyway. and
by getting sony to delay home for 6 months, it means they could launch halo 3
and other games successfully without sony killing them with home so early, and
sony gets back some of the exclusives in the deal. probably haze was the first
game on the ps3 side from the deal.

That's user Nariko Rulz, who has unforunately been banned since yesterday. That's a shame, because I really enjoyed his paranoid fantasies.

Look, I know it is just plain stupid to suggest that Sony is trying to fail with the PS3, so I'm not going to do that. What I will say is that I have to seriously wonder about whomever is making their decisions. From the beginning, Sony has displayed a level of hubris not seen since Nintendo's heyday back in the 80's. First, the release a console at the $500/$600 price point a full year after the XBox 360 launched, so they knew what MS's price was. Sony just felt that since the PS2 sold so well, people would buy the PS3, too.

There's also the problem of the game library. Right now, there are very few AAA titles for the PS3. That list narrows much further if you try looking for PS3 exclusives. There's Warhawk, Heavenly Sword, Lair, and Resistance. Some people would include Ninja Gaiden Sigma in the list, but that's just the third rehash of a title for the original XBox. I was being nice in adding Lair to the list since it was really supposed to be this awesome game. I figure someone that never reads reviews could be tricked into buying it, so it'll go on the list.

But really, just 4-5 "must have" games after a year? People like to say that the Xbox 360 was in the same boat its first year, but I'm not buying it. In the first year, the 360 had PGR3, Dead Rising, Saint's Row, and DoA (3, 4? I hate fighting games, cause I suck). Plus they had Fight Night: Round 3, Oblivion, and other awesome games that weren't exclusive, but they weren't available on other next-gen consoles at the time. Add in XBox Live Arcade, which is far superior in every way to the PlayStation Store, and the games were looking pretty good in the early days of the 360. You'll also notice I left out Gears of War, since it snuck in just after the console had been out a year.

And now Sony is goofing on rumble. Yes, they've finally settled their lawsuit so they can put the rumble back in their controllers. But they seem to be in no rush to do that. Japan is getting it by the end of the year and then North America gets it sometime next year? You would think Sony would be rushing to get that to the US before the holidays. Rumble doesn't sell systems, but some people will wait to buy a console if they know a new model is coming out soon.

Look at Mike Tyson. Way back when, Tyson (Sony) had a fight against a young up and comer named Buster Douglas (Microsoft). Douglas has pretty much a no name in boxing circles and it seemed like Iron Mike was going to steamroll another opponent. So, Tyson was lazy coming into this fight. He didn't take it seriously and didn't prepare properly. Douglas, on the other hand, made the most of this shot. He trained, studied, and generally prepared to kick some ass. Tyson was caught off guard and next thing you know, there's a new World's champion. I'm not saying Sony is going to try and bite the ears off Nintendo, but they'd certainly do well to try and get in the damn fight.

PS3: First Impressions

This is kind of a supplemental post to the buying the PS3 story.

I've had an XBox 360 since April 2006, so I'm pretty used to it and how it works. During that time, the XBox 360 controller has also become my all-time favorite video game controller, a spot that was previously held by the DualShock controller. Actually, the WaveBird is probably the best controller ever, hampered only by the screwy button placement Nintendo decided on for the GameCube and the lack of rumble. But I digress.

The Good:

• I liked the fact that I was able to use my old PS2 component cables with the PS3. I've got an HDTV, but it is old enough to only have a DVI input, no HDMI.
• Going back to the SIXAXIS is like riding a bike. I haven't actually turned my PS2 on in over a year, but picking up the SIXAXIS was like I never stopped playing it.
• I like the opening music when you turn on the PS3. A minor thing, but I enjoy it.
• Folding @ Home. Its for a good cause and it looks pretty.
• The wireless internet was simple to set up and offered no problems at all.
• I heart the Emotion Engine chip. No software emulation backwards compatibility for me!
• The PS3 is certainly an impressive looking piece of electronics.

The Bad:

• It is impressive looking because it is HUGE. Like it dwarves all my other systems. It is currently sitting where my original XBox sat and is way bigger.
• I really like the XBox 360's UI better. I like the blades and the way things are organized, it makes sense to me. The PS3's interface, on the other hand, is functional but ugly.
• When I first turned it on, I had to download a rather large update. It took forever. I've been told that it is faster to use my PC to download the update, then apply it using a flash drive or memory card.
• The PlayStation Store. I understand why they made it like they did. Having it be a webpage means they can quickly and easily change it whenever they want. I mean, a total conversion kind of change, too. But it looks ugly. The icons are ugly. And I hate using the controller to move my "mouse" cursor around. It is slow and very easy to overshoot your target. This was especially annoying when I was trying to buy something on the store and kept missing the scroll down bar for the credit card expiration date.
• To go along with the previous two complaints, when I bought a couple items from the store (flOw and Super Stardust HD), they took forever to download. Same thing with the demos I got. I actually started downloading the Heavenly Sword demo, put in 300 and watched it, and when I was done, the HS demo was only 83% done. There's no excuse for that. I've got 10mbs cable internet, so it isn't a speed issue on my end.

The Unknown:

• I haven't tried out the unit to play non-DVD movies yet, so I'm looking forward to that.
• Same thing for music and pictures.
• I'm also looking forward to trying some multiplayer in Resistance. I've got a couple friends coming over tonight so I'll try that. I'll also try some online play soon.
• Warbirds. That game looks so awesome and I really want to get both it and Ninja Gaiden Sigma, but I know with Halo 3, I won't actually play either of them for a while.

So that's my intial review of the PS3. I know it looked pretty heavy on the critical side, but I'm really pretty happy with my purchase. I'm anxious to get a game that can really show what it can do, though.

Halo 3 and the PS3

As usual, my timing is great. I'm probably the only guy dumb enough to pick up a PS3 four days before Halo 3 hits the shelves. But, I had the money in hand and just had to buy it. That's the good news. The bad news is now that Halo 3 is out, I won't be touching it. I guess I'll have to let Folding @ Home keep it busy for me.

The actual purchasing trip wasn't as uneventful as it should have been. I really wanted to just buy the PS3, some games, a Blu Ray movie and leave. Unfortunately, it couldn't be that easy. Last week, Toys R Us was running a "Buy 2 Get 1 Free" video game sale. I decided to try and price match at the store I was buying the PS3 at to save a trip. The problem started when the customer service person told me they don't price match from Toys R Us. I asked for a manager and things went downhill from there.

Just so I'm clear, if they would have said they don't price match Buy X Get Y deals, I would have accepted it and made the trip to Toys R Us. But the manager's reason for not doing it was that he didn't want to. I pointed to the price matching policy about 3 feet to my left in giant letters on the wall, but he said that he made the policy and wasn't going to be price matching that day. The best part came when he said he wouldn't match it because on the Toys R Us website, it says the sale is for "select" games. I told him that wasn't relevant since the store in question doesn't price match website prices, only actual retail locations. He didn't like that. But the deal in the Toys R Us stores isn't on "select" games, it is on any game. So I asked him to call the Toys R Us to verify, as this store normally would do. He refused. I again asked him and told him that this didn't need to be such a pain in the ass, and that's all she wrote.

Ok, so maybe using the term "pain in the ass" wasn't appropriate, I'm not really sure. Since I wasn't calling the manager a pain in the ass, but rather was talking about this whole situation being a pain in the ass, I don't think I crossed any kind of line. But, whatever. I went to a different store who was more than happy to take my money. Plus, they matched the Toys R Us sale, so I picked up Resistance: Fall of Man, Eternal Sonata, and Overlord along with 300 on Blu Ray and the 60GB PS3. Yeah, yeah, I got two XBox 360 games and only one PlayStation 3 game. But really, the only other game I was interested in at the time for the PS3 was Heavenly Sword and once I heard it only lasts 5-6 hours I decided spending $60 for it wasn't the smartest idea. I'll pick it up on the cheap later.

Once I got home and set everything up, I tried the demo for Ninja Gaiden, which is awesome. I never played the XBox versions for some reason, so I was blown away. Had I known the game was this cool, I would have picked it up instead of Overlord.

But now Halo 3 is out, so it looks like my PS3's days of love are going to be delayed.

This Is The End

It seems like just yesterday I was commenting on how quickly the goal was approaching. Actually, it was two days ago. How time flies.

This morning I checked my accounts and with the marketing sale that went through while I was sleeping, I've reached the goal. Yes, I have now managed to acquire the funds for a PlayStation 3 using only online sources. I'm at $523.14 earned, which is enough to go make the purchase. And it only took 52 days.

I'm still waiting on a couple of checks to come in, but at this point I'm sure I could convince the wife to let me go get the machine and reimburse the checking account as the checks arrive. I'm really not sure what I'll do. The sad truth of the matter is that I'm in a rush to get a PS3 only because I want to be sure to get a 60GB version with the Emotion Engine chip inside. There aren't any PS3 exclusive games I'm dying to play and I don't own any Blu Ray movies (yet).

I am, however, looking forward to playing some of my PS2 games upconverted. I especially am anxious to play some God of War and Kingdom Hearts on it. I'm also wanting to play Stranglehold, but I'm not sure if I want to play it on the XBox 360 or the PS3. I do like the achievements on the 360, but if I can get the limited edition PS3 version, I'll probably grab that one instead.

I'm also thinking seriously about getting the PS3 from Amazon. I've got an affiliate account, so I'll get like 4% back, which is still better than nothing. On top of that, they're running a promotion where I'll get 2 free Blu Ray movies with the PS3, in addition to the 5 movies you get just from buying the system. If I go that route, I'll probably get the first two Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Those should look pretty nice in HD.

But I guess the real question is, where do I go from here. I've got the foundations of my internet marketing business up and running. The revenue is still rolling in from it and I really enjoy tending to the sites to make it all happen. I really think that learning these new skills was way more exciting than getting the PS3.

I'll keep this blog going, because I've had a lot of fun talking about video games. But I will be changing its purpose. Or, at least half of its purpose. With the PS3 purchase imminent, I think I'll shift my sights a bit higher. I've been wanting to get an iMac to do some music recording (GarageBand is pretty damn cool), so I think my next goal will be to get one of those nice 24" screen iMacs. Just like I did with the PS3, I'll keep the running total going to the right.

The End is Near

Wow, this is pretty crazy. Its only been 50 days since I started this and now I'm just $60 away from the goal. I really didn't expect to get that much money that quickly. Of course, when I started I was figuring I'd be doing surveys for money and writing for Associated Content to raise it all.

Of course, since then I discovered that there are far better, more fund and much more efficient ways of making money online. I suppose I've been lax in talking about them, since that is half the stated purpose of this blog. I spent nearly all of my posts talking about video games, because I figured that what people found the most interesting.

So, to explain it very simply, I've got a few sites set up that have some articles about different topics. Kind of like blogs, but not updated nearly so often, if at all. I make sure to write something I think is interesting to the person who found the site and I also make sure that the articles I write have something of value in them. What I don't want is for someone to find my site and think it is there just for selling something, because I hate that when it happens to me. If I'm searching for information and a site claims to have that information, I'm not amused if they'll only give me the info after I pay them.

That having been said, the sites are most certainly set up to sell something. But more in a "Hey, I hope that article helped you out, and if it did then you might want to check out this book, too." kind of way. Like I said, I make sure to address the reason the reader came to my site in the first place.

I've never really been the type to click on a lot of ads or buy things online. I'm more of an instant gratification guy. But it turns out, lots of people do click ads, and a lot of those people buy stuff after they click. So by following the concept of writing informative articles and then directing people to products they're already interested in, you can make pretty decent cash. So far it doesn't look like I'll be retiring on this, but it has paid for more than half of a PS3 in less than a month's time, so that's not too shabby.

Back Up and Running

Note to Self: Don't try to change the template ever again.

The problem started Wednesday night when I (foolishly) figured I could easily change the template to give a look more consistent with the PS3/Video Game theme of the writing. I browsed and searched until I found a pretty spiffy PS3 theme (which you are now enjoying). I made sure to make a backup of the old layout before I altered anything, then proceeded to upload the new template. It informed me I would lose my widgets (the little boxes to the side telling you how much I have left to earn for the PS3 and what-not), but I copied down the information in them and told it to go ahead. The save looked successful, so I clicked the button to view the blog, and nothing came up. Nothing.

Well, not completely nothing. I got a nice page giving me a 404 error saying the site couldn't be found. Hmm, looks like the new template hosed the site. No worries, I made a backup. Upload the backup, click view. Same 404 error. I ran through about an hour of trying anything and everything I could think of, nothing could shake that 404 error. It pursued me as doggedly as the Aztecs in Civ 2. As an aside, I hated the Aztecs in Civ 2, those war-mongering bastards.

I made a post on the Blogger help forum, but after 24 hours there was still no resolution. That leads me to this morning. Being frustrated, I kept plugging away, and since you're reading this now, you can safely assume I fixed the problem. How did I do it? As you may have noticed, I have a custom domain name here, http://www.myps3quest.com/. I rolled the name back to http://myPS3Quest.blogspot.com and the site loaded. After that, I had to switch back to the custom name, go to my domain host's site, redirect the information (again, since I did it once already) and now the site is here for all and sundry to see.

So that's the story of the mystery disappearance, in case anyone even noticed. I'll try to make it up with something exciting tomorrow.

Associated Content

My second stop on the way to the PS3 was Associated Content. (Full disclosure: That's a referral link. After extensive searching on the AC web site, it appears their referral program has been discontinued, but I'll leave the link in case they decide to bring it back.)

Associated Content is a large community of writers that pays for articles. The articles can be on any topic of your choice, but it has to be at least 400 words long. However, just because you submitted an article doesn't necessarily mean they're going to pay you for it. They do require proper spelling and grammar. The pay ranges from $3-20 per article, though I've heard they also have a special $50 bonus for certain Content Producers (what AC calls their writers) if the article is especially good.

My first (and so far only) published article on Associated Content got a whopping $4.03. Obviously this isn't an outstanding offer, but I was pleased for my first attempt. After reading the forums, I found that the offers tend to go up if you get a lot of page views and/or subscribers.

That leads me to the Associated Content Performance Bonus. You get $0.0015 cents per page view, payable once the total reaches $1.50. That's 1000 page views for those of you suffering from arithmophobia.

Everyone and their mother has ideas for increasing page views over at Associated Content, but the most common topic is keywords. Basically, when you're planning your article you want to try and think about what someone would search on Google to get to your article. Then, you need to word the headline to include that phrase as well as include as often as possible in the article. Actually, as often as possible is a bit too much. What you want, is a keyword density of between 2%-5%.

This means that you want that word or phrase to show up about 20 times per 400 words article at most. It seems to me that can lead to some awkwardly written articles, but I suppose practice makes perfect.

The other key is to write about both things that get searched for a lot and things that there aren't a lot of articles on Associated Content about. I would also suggest articles that aren't either too narrow or too broad in scope. Something about insects of the world would be too general, while an article on the Mexican Staring Frog of southern Sri Lanka probably wouldn't get a lot of searches, either. Also you should aim for articles that won't get dated too quickly. For example, an article on this week's Senate debate will be interested for about a week (if you're lucky), an article on immigration will be relevant for quite a while.

I also need to mention that I've read exclusive stories get higher offers than non-exclusive. The difference is that with exclusive you're giving the copyright to Associated Content. My story was submitted as exclusive because I have no plan to ever do anything with it ever again.

But enough of that, I know you didn't come here looking for a course on how to write for Associated Content. You want to know about making money. Obviously the first step is writing and submitting the story. Approval can take up to two weeks, though for the one story I've submitted thus far, I got an offer the next day. Once that's done, they send you the money via PayPal. The payments are sent on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. So, I'm expecting my payment tomorrow, hopefully. Once it goes up, I'll post a picture of it here.

Finally, if anyone just can't get enough of my writing here, you can check out my Content Producer page.

Start at the beginning

I suppose the first question many people will have about this is what is the point exactly? That's a fair question to be sure, but to answer it, I need to go back to before the beginning, which just made the title of the post a complete lie.

The simple answer is that I'm a consumer whore. I love new gadgets, though I've been known to quickly get bored of them and move on to something new. But if that were the sole reason, I'd just go out and buy the damn thing already.

So, another part of the answer is that I already own an XBox 360 and a Wii, so if I just went out and bought the PS3, my wife would, in all probability, kill me. And most likely she'd do it slowly.

But, I reasoned, if I bought it with money that otherwise wouldn't exist she wouldn't care. As it turns out, that line of thought was right on the money. I'll leave it up to you to decide if the pun was intended. In fact, when I mentioned the idea to my wife, she laughed in my face. I was not phased, being used to this sort of reaction.

I've got a lot of free time, most of which is spent aimlessly surfing the internet. Pretty often, I'll see websites offering money for various things. Surely, these sites aren't for real? But maybe they are, and it could be fun finding out what's real and what's not. And don't call me Shirley.

So that's how I started my quest. I will purchase a PS3 using only money earned online. Ebay doesn't count. I'll document the sites and methods I'm using and let you know what works and what doesn't. More importantly, I'll let you know who pays and who doesn't. Most importantly, I'll let you know how much they pay. And maybe I'll get some time to talk about video games, too.