Quality Control

From: http://psinsider.e-mpire.com/index.php?categoryid=4&m_articles_articleid=1015

There have been a number of super hyped PS3 games which by all means should have come storming out of the gates, but instead came out with a whimper. The same can be said for firmware updates that have promised the moon and delivered a broken pebble. Why? The answer is simple, lack of quality control.

Let’s look back at Grand Theft Auto 4. This game STILL to this day will not play at all on my 60GB launch unit. Gladly I tried a friend’s copy, so I didn’t waste $60 on a beer coaster, otherwise I’d be very pissed. It’s still quite annoying for him to have to bring his box over to my house just so I can play the game when he comes over. Who was asleep at the wheel with this one? There have been 2 patches released, one which fixed broken online and another that seems to have done little to nothing as far as stability goes. This game still can’t go more than 5 minutes on my box without freezing.

Then there’s Elefunk, which took me 2 weeks to beat. Not because it was that hard, but because I had to try the same few stages 500 times before I could get through them without the game freezing. For such a powerful all purpose box, the thing can’t even handle a few elephants walking across rope bridges without crashing?

Then there’s the firmware updates that have led to system crashes, one of them leading to the update being pulled offline and replaced later with a working one. Even then, you still can’t do certain things on the web browser without it locking up on you, and the flash update STILL doesn’t play all flash content.

Linger In Shadows, a nice little interactive demoscene I decided to check out, wouldn’t work at all unless I disabled 24hz playback for Blu-Ray movies. Shouldn’t such a thing be coded into the game itself so we don’t have to search knowledge bases in order to find a remedy? C’mon Sony. Wake up.

And last but definitely not least… the Socom debacle. This was the game that took PS2′s online service ahead of all that Live! had to offer, with one game. One game, vs. an entire console’s library, and more people were playing it at one time than Live!’s entire user base (at least until Halo 2 hit). Sony had the chance to cash in on that popularity and really give PSN a nice little boost ahead of 360′s Live!. But what do we get? A buggy, barely working piece of crap that plays identical to the beta with a couple extra levels tacked on. What the hell were these guys even doing during the beta? Did they think of it as a demo, and just ignored the technical glitches that users experienced in the game? One would think so after playing it. Everyone I know who has bought this title regrets buying it. If you’re considering it, don’t even think about it unless it is patched first.

Sure, you can release patches, but the fact is you should never release a product until it’s good and ready. This sort of thing would have been inexcusable last gen when patches were pretty much non-existant. What about those who do not have internet connections? Are they left with buggy piles of $60 crap? I’ve only touched on a few of the numerous games that have required updates to work correctly upon release. Some of those games still do not work right even now. Sony had better pull their heads out of their asses and realize that they can’t keep shoveling half finished shit in our faces, because eventually we’ll just stop buying it.

Dream 4/7/07

I’m not alone.

Hold my hand and understand

the heat of the earth

pulsing beneath our feet

as it revolves around the sun

that shines brightly giving us life

in our breasts when we touch

when we kiss, when we stare deeply

the beat continues.

The sidewalk grows upward

and outward in vines and earth

The stone and mortar breaking from the ground

Ribbons and light wind around

me as you’re far away and near.

Breathing your first and your last words like the day we met

I won’t forget-

Us, embracing until the infinite halves between us

finally meet and we can embrace no further.

Then we embrace some more.

Zenos was wrong there is no paradox in us.

You are old, you are young

You and I, we’re the same.

It’s strange because you’re real

but I’ve never met you in waking hours

The ghost of my dreams as beautiful as you seem

to be. I wonder if I’ll ever see you

before I turn in at days’ ends.

I rise and fall and rise

once and for all to get the day going on its feet.

I’m alone again until with closed eyes we meet.

For Kathryn (guy with a knife, cutting pie)

So Cool

5/100

No, 'Wuv,' with an Earth W.

New Driver Side Mirror

Dad’s are awesome. I just want to make that clear. I’ve been having an issue with my car for the last month or so, namely, someone sideswiped my car one night (while I was absent) and annihilated my side view mirror. This was on the tail end of June, and my state inspection for my car was due in July. You can imagine the frustration and anger this caused. Of course people don’t take responsility for their actions when they think or know they can get away with misdeeds, so I filed a completely worthless police report and called my insurance. Fast forward 4 or 5 weeks later and my dad comes up about 90 minutes/2 hours depending on traffic from Newport News to help me replace the mirror with one he found at a Pick ‘n’ Pull. Basically an auto mobile junk yard where you pay a little bit of money to go in and snag whatever you can carry. The mirror he got was too big to fit where the old one was, but we tried prying out the glass itself from the whole mirror. Bad move. It cracked all to hell, and we were back where we started.

My inspection was due yesterday so you can imagine the frustration I’m feeling at this point as we’re going over our options, and I’ve got to hurry up and get ready for work. My dad also drove 90 miles to help me out only for naught. That burned. So I head to work bummed out about my mirror still being…not there. It’s a busy as shit Saturday at Costco, as you’d expect, when my dad shows up surprisingly (he called but I couldn’t answer on the clock), and tells me he found another mirror and he can replace it. I just have to give him my keys. So I do, come out a little bit later on my break and he’s all done, everything is fixed and good to go. I was incredibly happy and relieved. My other options were finding out how much it’d cost to get an auto shop to replace the mirror (which would take time and money I don’t have) and/or get an inspection just to get a rejection sticker, to buy me some time until I can get a mirror in place. I didn’t like either of these options. But, seeing my depressed/frustrated state, my Dad went the extra mile today and came through for me, just to make me smile was worth it for him he said (in his way). And now I feel better about my damn car and can get it inspected Monday or Thursday when I’m off and not be stressed out about this shit anymore.

Now I just have to get back in the habit of using my driver side mirror.

I love you Dad, thanks. You da man.

One Love.

Joining this wordpress nonsense.

Amaterasu

Hey internet, the name is Kevin/Lalilulelo/Warpoetry/KeMiRo, I’ll be posting here on the regular hopefully. You can also catch me at here posting the art. Maybe this will be a mix of thoughts/news as well as updates on the artwork. We’ll see how it goes. Also check out my boy Brian Visaggio’s blog.  He’s got things to say, and I’ll be contributing as well hopefully.

Peace.  Here’s a drawing.

-KeMiRo out.