I should have some thoughts on it later tonight.

What do you think of it? Downloading shortly.

- Sony did some great things yesterday, but stories such as this make me wonder if EA could decide to really lock down used sales (and now with the removal of Season Pass, why wouldn't they?)

- I do love that region free gaming continues on the PS4.  If I want to continue to play PYS in the future, that makes me a very happy fan (who lives in a tiny subset of all fans, but still...)

- The Last Guardian is "on hiatus."

Sad, but not unexpected.

- More later.

The PS4 is $100 less than the Xbox One, region free, supports used games, and appears to have DDR5 RAM. It will require PS Plus for multiplayer but not a big sacrifice because if you don't have PS Plus you are really missing out already. The games they showed on the PS4 looked marginally different than the Xbox One. Here's hoping you like shooting/killing things.

The Xbox One lets you control TV.So there's that. Also, you can watch a Halo TV show.

However, with that said, my son still wants an Xbox over a PS4. I don't know how that is....

Sony killed it in their press conference last night with their video showing how you can share games on the PS4.

Also, pricing it at $399 was a big help for them as well.

- $499, plus all of the DRM requirements on the Xbox One?  No sale.

- Here's what Nintendo needs to do today.

A new ambassador program for the WiiU (like they did on the 3DS.)  Drop the price by $50 or $100 effective immediately.

Those two things will go a long way, but they're going to struggle regardless.  Doesn't matter to me though, I keep buying their system so I can keep playing the new Mario, Metroid, and Zelda adventures.  Can't see that will ever stop for me.

- Oh, even with all of the E3 console news... I'm still planning on building a new gaming PC in the next few months.

Any suggestions that people have for that are, as always, appreciated.

- P.S. Did you miss me?  (It's been a long few weeks.  I'll get caught up on the details soon.)

Basically, as is often the case with Microsoft, there are more questions than answers.

Either they have no idea what they are doing or they have the worst PR people ever, because the drabs that we are getting are awful. Oh goody a game publisher can decide whether or not they can have their game sold as used. Is that the same way Kindle publishers can make their books lendable (hint: they don't).

Now my son really wants this system. Part of me wants to give him my old wisdom, that this could be a WiiU (also collecting dust) or a 32X. And you can already watch TV. And Microsoft says they are still supporting the Xbox 360 for years.

Of course I want the console, but have zero time to play and besides, most of my time is now taken up playing Candy Crush Saga.

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/productID.275706600

- I'll be running in my 2nd half marathon on Sunday, so um, I'll be tired for most of the weekend, I guess.   My goal is only to set a personal best, so I hope I can pull that off.  Lately I've been fighting stitches in my side every time I run, so I might need to adjust my stride a bit for the race.  We'll see how it all shakes out.

- Other than that, I've just been watching a fair bit of hockey (Rangers suck, and I hate the way that the Red Wings are playing hockey right now.)

- In gaming, I've been playing with Sleeping Dogs on the PS3, Pushmo on the 3DS (which is an awesome puzzle game,) and Fire Emblem on the 3DS (just an amazing strategy title.)

- Back with more after my race on Sunday.

- Issue number one has to do with the price of the console and the related Xbox Live services.

Both Sony and Microsoft take the cake for talking tech, tech, tech, but never mentioning a price for the console.  Microsoft takes this to another level when they talk about so many features and integrations, but never talking about the elephant in the room, that being Xbox Live.  Nearly everything that you can do on an Xbox console, as far as integration with the internet (outside of game patching,) requires an Xbox Live Gold subscription.  It would be foolish to think that you won't need to have that subscription for almost everything that they mentioned in the press conference on Tuesday.   I will be pretty surprised if they don't require a Live subscription for everything from the fantasy sports updates, to the ability to use the TV integration in the system.   Considering the fact that they make you have a Gold Subscription to use Netflix (a service that you already pay for,) I don't think it's a stretch to think that you will be looking at spending extra money every month for the new features of the system.   I would project that Xbox Live will move from their $5 a month pricing at the moment to $6.99 or $7.99 a month, and maybe $69.99 a year.

Also, when you see the details of what Microsoft paid to the NFL for their exclusive deal, you have to know that someone is going to be paying that price tag.

(Side note: The subsidized systems that they already have in place for the Xbox 360 consoles are probably a very good indication of where they might go with this.  Sure, they might sell you the system for $299, but you'll pay $15 a month for Xbox Live, for the next few years, to subsidize it.)

- Issue Two has to come from the fact that the system will not work without the Kinect.  At this point, I can pretty much see that my theater will never be a room for an Xbox One because of that requirement.

Personally, I have been nothing but annoyed by the Kinect.  I thought it would be an awesome system addition for motion control, but I found it to be frustrating to use over time and it sits under my living room TV completely unused.

I have seen the videos and I know that they have greatly improved the capabilities of the Kinect and it looks like it does a much better job of recognition, but the fact that it can detect my heartbeat through some of their software creeps me the hell out.  I don't want a box that can recognize me the second I walk into the room (oh, and never mind the privacy concerns along with that considering the system has a persistent ethernet connection to Microsoft.)

I loved the movie Minority Report, but it's clear that the engineers at Microsoft LOVVVVEED it.  Everything that we saw was some sort of connection to the visual interfaces from that movie.  None of which are things that I want to do while sitting on my couch watching a show or playing a video game.   I yell at my TV when I am annoyed at a sporting event or the game I'm playing, not when I want it to change a channel.... I have a remote that can do that just fine, thank you very much.

- Issue Three has to do with used games or game sharing.

The issues with this have been covered on a great deal of sites over the past few days, but when you talk about the fact that I can't lend a game that I bought to a friend without them having to pay something additional to play it, that's just an awful situation.  Never mind the fact that the used game market will go in the crapper when Microsoft will make you pay a fee to play a game that you didn't purchase first.  If you think that Gamestop gives you crappy trade-in value for games now, think about how much they'll give you for a $60 game when Microsoft charges anywhere from $5 to $20 just to play it on another persons system.

I honestly have no idea what the marketing people were thinking with this event.  Because of their approach and apparent lack of interest to give direct answers to the easiest of questions, they have alienated the largest group of initial buyers of the console (hardcore gamers.)   Time has shown that their model for the Xbox 360 has become a very profitable one, but they were able to create that strategy over time utilizing games as the carrot to bring so many people to their platform.  This time, they're going almost exclusively with video and multimedia as the method to bring consumers to the device, but how many average home users will want to spend $500 to put a box in their house so that they can have an enhanced TV experience.

- Issue four is about the games.

Were there games at the conference? It was hard to find them because of the extreme focus on being able to watch The Price is Right on my Xbox.

One of the games that was mentioned was Forza 5.  Which is a very well beloved franchise, no doubt about that.  But one thing that was brought to our attention after the conference is the fact that none of the previous peripherals will work with the console.  So, you announce a racing game that can only be played with a gamepad, because no one will have a steering wheel controller that will work with it?  Huzzah!

EA Sports announces a new engine for their sports games and shows it off by using a pre-rendered CGI trailer.  The entire time I was watching it, I was thinking about Madden Next Gen trailer from 2006.   Seven years ago people might have bought that trailer was going to be anything like the games that we would be playing on the new systems (but not many people,) but who in the hell would believe it now?   Seriously, it took seven years to get new camera angles in NCAA Football, are we to expect that this new EA Sports engine will actually not cause more issues than it will address?

Oh, and don't even start talking about the fact that a good portion of the Call of Duty: Ghosts information had to do with the concept of having a dog in a video game.

This press event really made me think of this story from The Onion from 16 1/2 years ago.

To paraphrase, "...what are people going to do?  Not buy an Xbox?  I think not."

It seemed to exude arrogance of what device they thought everyone would want, because it does everything, but neglecting the fact that the early adopters of a console device just want one thing, games.

The device may succeed or it may fail, but I think that there are far too many questions at this point that make people like myself debate the value of having such a device in their home.

My thoughts:
1. My DirecTV already allows me to change channels on my remote. I really don't need voice commands.
2. Nothing on how you'll get TV into your Xbox. Looks like you'll pass through the HDMi from your cable/direcTV converter as there's no cable card slot. So how does that work? Does it have a built in IR blaster without wires like the Slingbox 500? Will it work with DirecTV or cable only? Will it suck as much as the Wii U's TV mode that has yet to really be developed?
3. My that's a good looking dog.
4. So much for taking your Xbox One with you on trips since it requires internet. Can you use your mobile phone as a Wifi hotspot to connect your Xbox?

What bothers me so much as that all of these console developers think they control the press in the same way a Cold War country did in the 60s. I don't understand why they don't put out the date, the price, how it works with backwards compatibility or any of that stuff. Putting it out six months later must be a "good marketing strategy" but I think it's stupid. In my focus group of 12 year olds that live at my house; they thought the dog was awesome but wanted to know how much it was to start saving for it. They wanted to know when it will be out. They wanted to know if they could bring the game over to a friends house to play it. I had no answers.

Why even bother with an event if basic questions can't be answered. At least with this presser, we saw what the console looked like.

..and people wonder why the industry is crashing...

- I stopped into Starbucks this morning to get a free birthday smoothie (quite nice of them, really) and saw that they had free iTunes codes for a TV show.  This weeks code was for the ESPN Films presentation of Catching Hell, a great documentary about Steve Bartman.

Here's the code that I picked up for any of you iTunes users.  First come, first served.

EN3T4KAWH79E

Please post a comment if you use it.

- The Islanders played a hell of a series against the Penguins, losing 2 of the 6 games in overtime, including the series clincher on Saturday night.  That team really does look like it's got things heading in the right direction for the first time in a few decades.... hell, they haven't won a series since 1993, so I think they're due.   With a bit more experience, I think they could be a tough Eastern Conference team for years to come.

- As far as gaming is concerned, I've been playing around with Sleeping Dogs on the PS3 thanks to its addition on Playstation Plus.  The fighting engine really has a similar feel to the Batman Arkham Asylum/City games, and that is a great compliment.   One other thing that I really enjoyed is that after you spend some time with certain characters in the game, it adds specific bonus items to your map so that you don't have to search the city blindly looking for them (health shrines, surveillance cameras, and jade statues being the ones that I've got added to this point.)

I know that I've sung the praises of the Playstation Plus before, but I really don't think about buying many games lately due to the fact that there are so damn many good games on the service right now.  Best $50 I spend in gaming each year.

- Have a great Tuesday.

The coolest thing has to be the 3D channels. As you know I have a couple of those Playstation 3D TVs...the Sony brand didn't really sell them very well and it's too bad because Simulview is great technology and when I bought mine for $99, it was a steal. So since DTV has 3D sports channels, I turned on a World Cup Qualifier....wow. 3D is cool. I mean I'm not sure it's much more than a novelty but it's a very cool novelty nonetheless.

As I continue to upgrade my technology, my old slingbox (hd pro) is gone for the 500 and the Roku 3 replaces the Roku 2. And the Tivos are replaced by the Genie...so I have to hit eBay sometime.

Finding the endless cables for these things is driving me crazy. I have these plugs that I have no idea what they originally plugged into. It's so frustrating. Why would I just leave a plug out without it being next to the applicance it's plugged into. And it's not a "usual" plug. That's why USB is pretty awesome. It's more like find the AC Adapter tip that fits into this. Ugh.  Stupid.