Xbl -1 / psn +1

jwm2 · February 2010

Just thought this topic could use a thread of its own.

So i put in my copy of GoW2 for the 360 this evening wanting to get my horde fix and low and behold its a lag fest. My character is jumping all over the screen, its completely unplayable. So i decided to leave the game and try again, i mean laggy hosts can be a problem sometime. To my suprise once again i was greeted with the same lag, exactly as before. So i figured i'd give it one more try, i mean third times the charm right? Nada, no such luck, it took me about 4 minutes to even get a match made and then once again terrible lag. Now i know its not my internet connection as i'm able to do some speed tests to check out my lag and bandwidth (i'm no rookie to online gaming afterall) and everything checks out just fine. I was just playing a few rounds of horde earlier today with no lag problems and last night it seemed to work just fine, but tonight no dice.

So i pop in battlefield bad company on the ps3. I just picked it up earlier this week in the bargin bin at walmart but liked the single player campain and its multiplayer seemed pretty fun. What do you know, no lag, none what-so-ever. Just multiplayer goodness round after round. I played for about 45 minutes before i got fed up with my teammates, they really weren't doing much besides being target practice, so i got off and decided to try GoW2 once again. Well same as before, lag, lag and more lag. So now i'm waiting for the update to unreal tournament 3 for the ps3 to download. Everyone against everyone just seems like more fun to me. No dealing with teammates just run and gun.

Granted today is the first day in awhile i've encountered a great deal of lag with any online network. Personally i've had great luck with PSN since i bought my ps3 about 2 years ago, and i've run into several snags with the 360. Maybe its just my location, i don't know. But what i do know is PSN has been getting me into the action, while too many times XBL has left me frustrated. Maybe its just me, but overall i've been much more happy with PSN which is a service i have yet to pay for. Even if they do start charging for monthly access, it will be well worth it.

Another rant i have with XBL is the points system. In order to buy arcade games you have to buy points, which come in groups of 200. With PSN i just pay the exact amount for the game and it goes on my credit card with no extra points left over to fuss with. I mean is it that hard to just charge for games by dollar amount? Why hasn't MS changed their system. Theres a couple games i'd like to buy but i don't want them having my CC info after the hassle to get my last card taken off my account as they decided to start automatically charging me for the monthly subscription fees for XBL. Theres times of the year i don't play online much, so i'll wait and just buy an XBL Subscription card from the store or online when i get ready to play in the fall. But for some reason MS decided they knew best and would automatically charge my card if i let my subscription expire. And i'm not the first one to have this happen, it seems to be a policy of theirs that angers alot of people. So all in all i'm really happy with PSN and what they've been able to do.

Demiurge · February 2010

Do you think anyone cares?

tommyboy · February 2010

Wow. The ps3 is not a sex toy

kuntasensei · February 2010

1) Latency is a fact of life. And the risk of it is worse with older games, since there are less games running local to you because people tend to move on to the next big release. Gears 2 certainly isn't dead right now, but a great number of players have switched to playing Modern Warfare 2, Borderlands, Left 4 Dead 2, etc., so the Gears 2 server list isn't as heavily populated as it once was. So it's a combination of your location, the game you're playing, etc. Personally, I've never once had serious lag issues with Gears 2 after the initial patch came out, even a few short weeks ago when I was playing with friends scatter all about the country. You yourself said that you have an average ISP for bandwidth and latency... so maybe it's time to look into other options.

2) Comparing two different games on two different networks is an apples-to-oranges comparison. Even if you could infer some conclusion about each network's performance on its own merits, the network code for those two games are completely different and one might handle lag better than the other.

3) Microsoft uses points to skirt the commerce laws in some of the countries Live exists in that PSN doesn't. This lets them change the local value of a certain number of points based on the individual country's economy, taxation, and standards. It's not the most elegant solution, but it gets them into a wider market. Fortunately, Microsoft has let you use either points or actual dollar amount charges to your credit card for the Games On Demand titles, though only because those are only available to certain regions.

4) As far as the credit card situation goes, that sucks for you. You can get 12 month Live Gold cards for $35-$40 online, and even if your credit card is on file with Microsoft, re-upping with a subscription card prevents the charge from occurring. They also e-mail you at the address you registered with them both 1 month before and just before they auto-renew, giving you every opportunity to prevent it if you want. But seriously... if $3 a month for Xbox Live is a dealbreaker for you, maybe you shouldn't have bought two expensive game consoles in the first place.

In closing, I'm glad you're happy with PSN. Just know that your experience with it compared to Xbox Live is very atypical. But happy gaming!

jwm2 · February 2010

Its not the fact that it costs $3 a month that pisses me off, its the fact that i have a better time online with the other system that offers the same thing for free that does. I have more than enough money to cover the costs of playing online, i don't fret over a few bucks, but what annoys me is the fact a game like gears of war 2, which is being played by thousands of people daily is having these issues. And its not just limited to that game, it also extends to numerous other games that i don't even bother with XBL anymore. I mean why should I? I can play on PSN just fine, no lag problems and games like Unreal Tourney are all kinds of fun. I have been a gamer my whole life. It just suprises me more people don't have the same experience, but oh well. I'm not trying to sell anyone on PSN i just wanted to see if others have had a similar experience. If you have then come forth and support my arguement, otherwise if you don't have both systems then don't chime in on something you don't know about. If you do have both systems and still prefer the 360, thats perfectly fine. This is an open debate and i'm just posting my experience with both networks as i see it.

jwm2 · February 2010

Wait a minute, you think i should get another isp because mine is average? LOL why would i do that, when i can game online with every other system in my home just fine. My pc plays online just fine, my psp, ps3, ipod touch, and wii all operate online just fine. No lag issues with any of them. By stating i have an average isp i'm stating its not subpar. Granted its not t1 but honestly you don't need anything too fancy to game online these days. I get an average latency of under 60ms from chicagos networks and less than 100ms as far as los angeles. Download bandwidth is an average of 150kb/s and thats bytes not bits. With an upload of about 80kb/s. Which is pretty common and average for cable modems across the country. So anyhow its not my isp at fault here, its something else, what that is i don't know, but everything works just fine, just not XBL sometimes.

kuntasensei · February 2010

Well, I would hope like hell that your cable modem is faster than a T1! T1 = 1.5 Mbps. My cable modem gets peaks of 21 Mbps with sustained downstream of 8.8 Mbps. Out of curiosity, go to www.speedtest.net and check your speed to Seattle, WA. That should give you a general idea of your ISP's connection to Microsoft HQ.

I can't explain what your issue is with Xbox Live. What I can say is that in my years of using it, I've had maybe 3 games that had unplayable lag and that includes playing with my friends in the UK (and that was with a lot of fighting games, where lag is most noticeable). And I live in Alabama, which isn't exactly the hub of the internet world. I've played DOA, Street Fighter IV, Soul Calibur IV, Gears 1&2, Rainbow Six Vegas 1&2, CoD2-4, Modern Warfare 2, Perfect Dark Zero, GRAW 1&2, Left 4 Dead 1&2, etc. without issues over Live, and that's while in party chat with my friends from Texas, Florida, Virginia, and Maine. I don't think you're going to find many people who have a similar experience to yours.

And as far as "If you have then come forth and support my arguement (sic), otherwise if you don't have both systems then don't chime in on something you don't know about."... check the attitude. Your meager post count hardly gives you free reign to start dictating whether people can comment in threads on this board. If you have a better experience on PSN, that's fine. If you're looking for self-affirming comments from other people to confirm your preference, then you're bordering on looking like a rambling fanboy. As the common phrase goes, STFUAPG!

Xbl -1 / psn +1

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