Gamer Blorge review of the year – Part One: January – March
2008 has been a big year for gaming and consequently a big year here on Gamer Blorge. As we approach the end of this year and the start of 2009, let’s take a look back at the stories, opinions, and debates that dominated 2008.
Here is Part One of the Gamer Blorge review, covering January to March 2008. The rest of the year will follow in further articles before the New Year.
January
The start of the year saw Microsoft boss Bill Gates claiming that the Xbox 360 was a more reliable console than either the PS3 or Wii. But the dreaded Red Ring of Death was still proving to be a huge problem, with the failure rate reported to be hovering around the 10 percent mark. Better luck next time Bill.
Meanwhile, the Nintendo Wii was starting to flex its sales muscle, with the Nintendo console being the fastest to reach five million sales in Japan since the Super Nintendo. These sales figures also meant the console overtook the Gamecube and Nintendo 64 in lifetime sales in Japan. There were also predictions that the Wii would be in 100 million homes by 2012, a figure that isn’t looking too off the mark at this point in time.
The end of the month saw a nasty crime being related, which shows how addicted some people can become to video gaming. A man allegedly killed his 17-month old daughter over an Xbox 360 console. The obsessed man was then found guilty of the crime by a Pennsylvania jury.
February
The month started with the notorious Home baiting article that saw a record 222 comments posted by readers. It was written by a reader but Jonathan (Schlaffer) posted it under his name meaning he got the flak directed his way. This lead the owner of Blorge, John Pospisil to write an update defending Jonathan’s position at the company.
We also saw two different reports suggesting that the PS3 was set to see an upsurge in sales. iSuppli predicted the Sony console would be on top by 2011 while analysts such as Michael Pachter and Ed Barton suggested that Blu-ray would be a big advantage to the Playstation 3. It may well be but that hasn’t yet correlated with higher sales.
Nintendo then managed to score the best PR ever when the Wii featured in the middle of the 2008 Academy Awards. The month then rounded out with a healthy debate concerning multi-platform releases and whether they were graphically superior on the PS3 or Xbox 360.
March
The month began with rumors of the Xbox 360 getting a Blu-ray drive, rumors that were later shot down by Microsoft. This was all in light of Blu-ray killing off HD DVD in the battle of the high-definition formats. The rumors carried on all year but there’s still no sign of a Blu-ray drive coming to the Xbox 360.
The ever-ongoing debate as to whether video games are harmful to children carried on in vain. First, we had child psychologist Tanya Byron telling the British government that games needed cigarette style health warnings. Then, British TV personality Anne Diamond wrote some scaremongering, sensationalist claptrap claiming games were either “chilling” or “mindless garbage”.
There were also rumblings of a new debate as to whether the success of the Wii proved how gameplay was now more important than graphics. Which may all be unimportant if the predictions of Sandy Duncan come true. He claimed that the PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii would be the last home consoles released, with set-top boxes taking over in the future.
Look out for parts 2-4 between now and the end of the year. And feel free to comment with your favorite moments on Gamer Blorge over the past 12 months.
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25 Responses to “Gamer Blorge review of the year – Part One: January – March”
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December 25th, 2008
Favourite moments eh… well Kev is always a favourite moment, although i think Harry has stolen his crown for 360/microsoft loving…I missed the John Schlaffer incident in February.
December 25th, 2008
I give Cad credit for being the most rabid follower of the console
He’s almost like a Scientologist.
December 25th, 2008
what John Schlaffer incident??
December 25th, 2008
DWH, it was kind of like metal gear solid, the shadow moses incident. John was planning on launching a nuclear missile from a device similar to Metal Gear rex. His partners were Kev and Harry sachz, but Royzy, Dave Parack and others were behind a plot to stop them. Long story, im sure its on wikipedia.
December 25th, 2008
OH MY GAWD!!
another terrorist attack!! HIDE EVERYONE!!!
well at first harry was funny… I can dig that in a fanboy… now he’s just getting more and more intense… looks like kev got to him… :’(
December 25th, 2008
can we PLEASE.. play GTA 4 online… Id like to get those trophies… jaysus…
December 25th, 2008
DWH unless you started the game WITH the trophy patch, you’re going to have to start a new campaign.
December 25th, 2008
I already have 23% of the trophies… I know that already bourne… you smartass…
now pick a date and lets all play gta 4… I wanna kill some coppers…
December 25th, 2008
Dwh you seem like you have multiple personalities. One moment your nice one moment your psycho. I wasn’t being a smartass, i was trying to help you.
December 25th, 2008
oh no… dont talk like that… HE will know… then we will all be in big trouble…
its was a pain in the ass to start again in GTA 4 for the trophies… I thought I was half way in… but I had only gotten to the second safe house…
ohh how I miss you GTA
December 25th, 2008
Man, some people are still playing GTA?
Mad…
December 25th, 2008
ah geez… they left out my articles. Wait a second, you can’t even find them in the archive. Interesting.
December 25th, 2008
Whoops, forgot this was only up to March.
Well, to preview (though I doubt I will earn any honors) and for those who are interested, this is what we were saying around the April/May timeframe on my articles, and they were some pretty fun debates (btw, I was MSgt B/Carl Borrowman/MSgt Borrowman back then):
darkwhitehair, kevin, CAD, Ivan, Triston, winner, spideydog, and Arvis all weigh in with their take on being Anti-American, the state and future of Blu-Ray and the PS3, obesity in America, and other issue in the following articles. Who turned out to be “right” so far?:
http://gamer.blorge.com/2008/05/08/xbox-360-clear-winner-over-ps3-wii-in-terms-of-quality-games/
http://gamer.blorge.com/2008/05/06/the-lucifer-effect-in-gta-iv-simulating-how-good-people-turn-evil/
http://gamer.blorge.com/2008/04/30/gta-iv-will-not-sell-more-ps3s-than-xbox-360s-or-vice-versa/
http://gamer.blorge.com/2008/04/29/demonize-the-hype-not-video-games/
http://gamer.blorge.com/2008/04/27/nintendo-wii-success-neither-an-accident-or-gimmick/
December 25th, 2008
@CarlB
You weren’t looking hard enough:
http://gamer.blorge.com/2008/04/29/demonize-the-hype-not-video-games/
December 25th, 2008
@CarlB
And there are more:
http://gamer.blorge.com/author/guest-writer/
December 25th, 2008
ahh… the good old days… thanks for digging those up mystery man (John)… will you join us regularly is our quest to battle evil?? I mean kevin…
how many months has it been??? and how many conversations have we had about games??
sigh… nothing has changed…
December 25th, 2008
I’m chuffed to be put in the same sentence as DAVE PARRACK. I think the Jonathan Schlaffer Incident should be made into a movie.
I like the community here at Blorge, though I can’t remember how I got here or why I got sucked into leaving comments. I think it was probably that urge to respond to one of Kev’s outrageous claims.
December 25th, 2008
remember when the trailer of Grid had the 360 version shown to be ps3 in gametrailers??? yeah how weird was that??
and to think all those “conspiracies”… WE SHOULD ALL BE MADE INTO A movie… itll be as awesome as The Max Payne or dead or alive movie…. ohhh yeah…
December 25th, 2008
Sorry dwh, for some reason the technology and it’s possibilities usually seems much more interesting to write about than the games, but playing is obviously a different story. That said, I am playing Shining in the Darkness again for the first time in over two decades.
I have never used emulators much, but DGen seems brilliant. 947 games within a gigabyte does save a lot of space (I also got the super nintendo one). I kept on giving away my systems over the years, buying back more than a few, then giving them away again, so this gives me some hope, and I don’t feel too guilty. Plus I can download this particular one if I ever get a Wii… not sure if I will though. This came off our community server over here btw, which has a lot of stuff on it (the Marine Corps is communism within a democracy in many ways).
Maybe when we start getting THE games, like in Ender’s Game or something, it will pique my interest to write more about them.
December 25th, 2008
Thanks John! You’re the man!
December 26th, 2008
wait… which emulator?? gimme a link please… I played Mario 64 on my PC… if I had the money… Id buy a 64 right now…
http://kotaku.com/5118092/yamauchi-hasnt-given-a-lot-of-thought-to-gt5-wont-be-out-until-at-least-2010
nothing to see here folks… nothing to see here… looks like they think GT Prologue is more than a demo… stupid assholes…
December 26th, 2008
Royzy thats funny, that was one of the only reason to why i actually started commenting on blorge, Kevs fanboyism was quite frankly startling.
December 26th, 2008
Usually under 10 main guys commenting, and the fact that you can find your comments later kept me coming back. The small size (which doesn’t help Blorge much) actually makes it a little more meaningful.
December 26th, 2008
Yeah CarlB I agree with that. Your opinion can be shared here without it getting too crowded and drowned out. Poor blorge writers, their captive audience seems to be like 15 of us.
December 26th, 2008
One off commentators are a lot less likely now with the compulsory Log In too.
You would of thought since we are almost like family to Dave and Mike, they would offer up their PSN IDs.