The shitstorm hits the lovingly-rendered fan.

I have tried to just let it pass, but I can't. I have been wronged, and I need to let it out somewhere. Here is the only place I really have, but it seems wasteful that nobody will see it. Oh well, so be it. It is a long, slow, and hard process to get respected, but it has to start somewhere.

So, Killzone 2 is the 'Great White Hope' for the PS3, and it really is setting new standards. Not for gameplay, or anything remotely good, but instead for rampant fanboyism. Honestly, the Sony Defence Force have been more active than I can ever remember them being. Mostly because of this review from EDGE online, which gave it a 7. Now, EDGE don't rate like everyone else. For them, a 5 is the average, and a 7 is very good. But, the SDF retards are up in arms because it isn't a 10.

SDF retard website extraordinaire PSXExtreme really took umbrage to it, and have posted one of, if not THE single most ridiculous piece of "journalism" it has ever been my displeasure to read. Honestly, this has to be some kind of joke, as no right thinking person could ever actually believe the rubbish that Ben Dutka is spouting there. EDGE is about as marquee name as it gets in games reviewing circles. They have been around for years, and whilst not the behemoths they once were, are still known and respected everywhere. For some upstart PlayStation branded site to accuse EDGE of chasing hits? It beggars belief.

I read the article, and some of the comments, and was staggered at what I saw. So, I registered at the site, and responded to some of the comments. No fanboyism involved, just correcting factual innaccuracies. An example is when notp posts "7 out of ten is A REALLY GOOD SCORE. It is significantly above average (average being FIVE, not SEVEN, sort it out)." Aftab responds with "If you take a true mathetical average on the score of all games, say on metacritic, you will see that a 5 is below average." Naturally, I had to correct him, and put something pretty much word for word like :

"Aftab, you need educating as to what an average is. 0+1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10=55/11=5. In a 10 point scale, the mean average is 5. This is the scale EDGE uses for rating. 7 is above average." I also then went on to post my own comment, in which I called out Mr. Dutka for having no journalistic integrity. I responded to one or two others, but my main post was 'awaiting moderation'.

Which of course means that it never reached the site! Mr. Dutka decided not to let my words out in case ... well, that's for him to say why, really. I know what I wrote, and one or two other people will have seen the other posts that have since been deleted. (Curiously, not all of them.) Interestingly, some of the site members are now suggesting that Mr. Dutka has become a power-crazed moderator, which is hardly a new phenomenom on the internet!

What have we come to here? I KNOW they are just a small and somewhat insignificant corner of the web, and that any reasonable and intelligent person just would not post there again, but I am wired somewhat differently. I take it as an affront that my post has been moderated despite containing absolutely nothing that violates the terms I agreed to when signing up. I want to go back and keep on posting, but they have actually deleted my account there! I kid you not, you couldn't make stuff like this up if you tried.

This is a new level of fanboyism we are seeing. It is a kind of evolution. Not only are the SDF getting louder, they are now actively silencing any dissenting voices. What next? Will they trace our IP addresses and come to break our fingers?

It's comedy of epic proportions, the kind of drama that makes you both loathe and love the internet. They are ripe for piss takes. Suffice it to say that Destructoid nailed it, and every single fibre of my being wishes I had written that!

I hate review scores, which is why review-me-do's don't have them. They lead to exactly this sort of childish behaviour. The simple fact is that you can not convey all that is good or bad about a game with a score. If that were the case, there would never be a difference of opinion on any game. And Shadow of the Colossus would get 10's everywhere!

Sounding the 360 death knell.

MicroSoft launced the XBox 360 a good year earlier than their immediate competitor, Sony's PlayStation 3. During this year, they managed to secure a sales lead that is still untroubled. At the same time, dealings with several developers led to exclusive titles on the MicroSoft console, and exclusive downloadable content for several of the multi-platform games. Finally, MicroSoft have developed XBox Live to be a system for everybody. From the hardcore gaming fraternity, right through to the family groups, there is a game for you to play, and most importantly content for you to buy.

Sadly, all is pretty far from rosy in 360-land.

The console itself is a technical powerhouse. Graphically, there are simply no complaints that can be thrown at it. The ease of programming allows developers to try many clever things, as they are confident with the system. Compared to the PS3, which is known to be tricky.

In terms of software, too, the 360 easily outshines its rival. The vast majority of all multiplatform titles are superior on the MicroSoft machine. This is due to the aforementioned ease of programming, as well as the one year lead. A lot of games found their home on the 360, and were rather under-subscribed by the time they eventually appeared on the PS3.

With all this in mind, what I say next may surprise you :

You should NOT buy an XBox 360!

I know what you are thinking. I know what the statement is going to lead to. I am ready for the attacks. But, I have to say what I believe.

The simple fact is that MicroSoft were in a hurry to release the first next-gen console, and in their haste they made a few mistakes. The most infamous of these is the high failure rate. Some 30% of all XBox 360 consoles in existence have so far greeted their owners with flashing red lights, otherwise known as the 'Red Ring of Death'. This is the consoles way of telling you it no longer works, and that it is time to phone MicroSoft and get them to fix it, or ship you a new one.

One in three consoles break. This is frankly a ridiculous figure, and one that no right-thinking company could be happy with. That MicroSoft have extended the warrantry to three years for this specific failure is a sign that they realise they have gotten things seriously wrong.

Only, it is not the sole problem the console has. Even if you have a console that somehow avoids this "general hardware failure", your DVD drive is not guaranteed to be a good one. Some of them have been known to destroy the discs inserted in the drive. Others simply fail to recognise that a disc is in it at all. Many people have attempted to play a game only to see a screen bearing the legend "To play this disc, please insert it into an XBox 360 console." Are you kidding me? Clearly, this is meant for DVD players. How is it possible that the 360 forgets that it is a games console?

These reasons would be enough on their own, but there is one further reason to avoid the 360. And that is XBox Live itself.

A recent update to the operating system of the console itself made the marketplace more visible, but has impacted negatively on the actual accessibility of the games. Upon loading the console, the user is greeted with adverts for content to buy. Sometimes, this content consists of content that you have already bought! If it were possible to customise the layout so that this 'spotlight' channel did not appear, then this would not be an issue. However, it is not possible. The user is forced to endure these adverts every single time they switch the console on. Considering that often the user will switch the console off and on multiple times in an attempt to actually read the disc in the drive, and you start to see the annoyance.

Naturally, making marketplace more visible has led to increased sales of content. However, whilst sales are going from strength to strength, something rather curious is occurring. Rules of supply and demand appear to be working in reverse, causing MicroSoft to raise the prices as more people buy things from them. Whereas themes once cost 150 MS points, (MS points being the fictional online currency used to buy marketplace content with), they now cost 250. And whereas games on Live Arcade were once priced at 400 points for retro re-releases, or 800 points for original titles. Since the launch of the New XBox Experience, however, 400 point titles are a thing of the past. 800 appears to be the new minimum, and 1200 is the new norm. This week, the Arcade title was R Type Dimensions, a compilation of the first two games in the series. Were they released seperately last year, one would have expected to pay 400 for each title. However, MS have decided in their wisdom that the cost should be 1200 MS points. Despite there never being an announcement that the pricing policy has changed, the official line now seems to be to charge as much as they believe they can get away with.

When developers post in their own blogs that they are being forced to charge for content despite not wanting to do so, or when they complain about not being able to develop their own games without going through an unreasonably long certification process, then something is going wrong. MicroSoft are taking the power away from the creators, and instead putting it into the hands of the accountants. In doing so, they have disregarded the gamers themselves. A developer must be free to set their own price for games. If they choose to give content away, then they should simply be allowed to. That MS is dictating the policies is to no gamers benefit.

It saddens me that this has happened. For, the XBox 360 has every potential to be the best console of all time. But, when the competitors offer online gaming for free and MS insist on charging for it, when developers find their hands are tied, when your console can not be guaranteed to work from one day to the next, then the question simply must be asked by gamers : Why am I still going along with this?

Escape from Castle Gamerscore.

I have an achievment that almost nobody else has!

Sadly, it does not appear on my gamercard. There is no direct evidence that I have done it, anywhere. There is only indirect evidence, and even then you need to know what you're looking for before the connection can possibly be made.

So, what is this mystical achievment, I hear ... er, me ... ask? Well, I shall tell ... um ... myself! It is this :

For the last couple of years, I have willingly subjected myself to the torture of this overly annoying system. I have actively chosen to spend more money on a game purely because it has achievments! (Lego Star Wars II for 360 rather than the cheaper PS2 version.) I have also denied myself the opportunity to play some other games because they don't have trophies. I realised how stupid this was in the case of Ratchet & Clank : Tools of Destruction, which I am yet to play. I decided to wait for the trophy patch, and now that I have discovered that there won't be one I suddenly feel somewhat stupid.

Why have I done this to myself? Why has an arbitrary and even random reward system become one of the dominant factors in my gaming life? Why do I CARE that I have 910 on Halo 3 compared to the 760 that Mrobjob has? (User chosen because his total gamerscore is the next one I could pass if I were still playing that particular game.) Why do I allow that missing 15 on Braid to even bother me at all?

Having a higher gamerscore does not make me a better gamer than somebody else. I know this, and yet I still trawl through the gamercards of people to see if I can justifiably make the claim. "Ha, you may have 50,000+, but you don't have a million in Geometry Wars! You don't deserve your score..."

But, recently, I just stopped caring. It helps that the 360 can no longer be relied upon to ever actually read the disc that we put inside it. Eventually, you just tire of restarting, opening and closing the tray repeatedly, and instead switch to a console that works! Further to that, even if playing a Live Arcade game, and therefore not using the DVD drive at all, it still takes 1 minute and 13 seconds from switch on to moving your ship in Geometry Wars Evolved 2. Compare this to the 25 seconds from switch-on to Secret of Mana on the Wii, and you see why the 360 has taken the back seat recently.

Going a month without any noticeable change in gamerscore was cathartic! It freed me, allowing me to once more not care about what anyone else sees, just what I do. It has allowed me to dust off the PS2 once more, and play God Hand, which shall be getting a review-me-do soon enough.

I do still wish that the rest of the world could see what I am playing. I would also love for there to be a "Beat Fat Elvis without using Roulette" achievable, or "Spank 50 women". For now, though, I will content myself with the knowledge that I have done both, until some smart arse invents an all-format 'Achievment Aggregator' that tells the world everything in every game!