Zune HD Review

I owned a third gen 20gb iPod. It has since been sold on eBay. Then I got a first gen iPod Shuffle with some store credit that I had for the Apple Store. I somehow lost that while mowing the lawn. I was in the market for a new MP3 player. I could just get an iPhone and kill two birds with one stone by having a cell phone and MP3 player, but I'm not rich enough for AT&T's plans. So it came down to the iPod Touch and the Zune HD. Two devices that can do a lot more than just play music. I went with the Zune HD.

It arrived to day with release day delivery from Amazon. First impression was it's thin. The OLED screen is nice, with three brightness settings. Looks great, but no better than LCD screens in bright sunlight. You have to sync it with your computer before doing anything. The 4.0 software is pretty much he same, but it now has a quickplay screen and something similar to Genius from iTunes. I tried out the browser and it worked fine. No flash support, but neither do the other similar devices out there. Played some music and liked the navigation. Checked out some video podcasts and they looked nice. Checked out the apps and there wasn't much available. Some lame games, calculator, and a weather app. Disappointed. I should just give it time, right? Surely, they'll release an SDK and let people have a hand at making apps. Then I read this Seattle Times article and lost all hope. Doesn't Microsoft want to win? Zune HD would be a better product than the iPod Touch if you they would let third parties make apps.

I got hyped by the Zune HD. They were really secretive on any info about apps before the launch and now I know why. If I read that article before, I would have canceled my preorder. I'm returning the Zune HD and getting the latest version of the 32gb iPod Touch. It won't have an OLED screen. It won't have HD radio. It won't have a subscription service that Microsoft is trying so hard to push. But it will have a ton support from app and game developers. I do know a good amount of those apps are crap, such as iFart. Anyway, Microsoft has let me down again.

Sony E3 2009

Today was Sony's turn to announce their big surprises at E3. The biggest surprise, for me, was the announcement of Final Fantasy XIV Online and that it's exclusive to PS3 console wise. It may not be big news to others, but I'm a hardcore Final Fantasy XI player and the engine is seriously outdated. It looks like Nobuo Uematsu is on board doing the soundtrack. Square Enix's conference is tomorrow, so hopefully there will be more details released. Can't wait to see Mithra in hi-def!

Sony also revealed a much more cleaned up trailer for The Last Guardian (Trico). Games from Fumito Ueda are special. He knows how to tell a story with little or no dialogue. His games have a reoccurring theme of companionship. In Ico it was the princess, in Shadow of the Colossus it was your horse and in The Last Guardian it's the griffin creature and you just have the feeling, even without playing the game, that it's going to die. I cannot wait to experience this game.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker has me thinking about getting a PSP Go. Kojima really emphasized that he's heavily involved in the development, unlike with Metal Gear Solid: Rising. It looks like it'll play just as good as the console versions and it's a true sequal to the series. I'm glad it's not another AC!D or portable ops. I don't know what was up with the four Snakes on screen, but the two Snakes one box thing was funny. Oh, and Snake no longer runs funny.

Also, Jack Tretton did a great job presenting and seems like a funny guy. All the cheering for the Hannah Montana game was funny. Good showing by Sony. I won't blog about Nintendo, since I don't care for the Wii.

Microsoft E3 2009

The biggest news out of the press conference is the Metal Gear series coming to the 360 (not exclusively). A megaton as huge as the Final Fantasy XIII announcement last year. A wise business decision for Konami, but a lot of hearts broken to see the once PlayStation exclusive series coming to the 360. Sony has lost their last huge third party franchise. I'm really interested to hear more information about the game. All we know is that it's called Metal Gear Solid: Rising, with the subtitle, lightning bolt action and that Raiden is the main character. I don't feel that Raiden is about sneaking, so it could possibly drop the stealth aspect and be more action oriented.

There are still two unexplained teasers on the Kojima teaser site. One is the Big Boss face and the other is the mask. The Big Boss face is expected to be for a PSP game called Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. I hope it's a real Metal Gear game and not another AC!D or Portable Ops. Internet speculation says that the mask teaser is for a new Castlevania game with Kojima involved in some way. I have not played a Castlevania game since Symphony of the Night and have read that all games in the series afterwards have been crap. I hope Kojima does the series justice.

Another thing I want to talk about is Last.fm coming to Xbox Live. This awesome service, that is free to use everywhere else, requires a gold account to use, which I think is bullshit. People are already paying for their Netflix membership, but they also have to pay for a gold subscription on top of that? What are we really paying for if PSN is free? I just think these services should be available for silver subscribers. Funny that they never allowed the Last.fm plugin for their Zune player, but now they're adding it to Live. They also announced that Twitter and Facebook are coming to Live, but I'm not positive if they require a gold membership or not.

Another annoyance is the price increase of Halo 3: ODST. They said it was an expansion and that it would not be the price of a full game, but now they say that there is so much content that it warrants the price of a full game. Okay.

I'm in the process of selling off all my 360 stuff. When I started working again and had money, I bought a 360, instead of a PS3 and I really enjoyed it. I came into this generation of gaming kinda late. But then I got a PS3 fairly cheap thanks to a last gen game sale at Hollywood Video, and a trade in bonus promotion at Gamestop. Now I'm mainly a PS3 user. I don't know what happened, but I rarely turn on my 360, except to play the poorly ported Final Fantasy XI. I still haven't finished The Lost and Damned and have a huge backlog of unfinished games, but I'm not having a hard time letting go.