Josh Hayes Says: I Don’t Like Menus
[Ed - Welcome to Josh's Friday column. The man has opinions and, according to himself, is right about everything. He's developed games, written comic books and has an ability retain strange information.]
Of all the worthless features new consoles have, the worst of the worst is that each of them has a start up menu. Assuming I only have about ten to twenty minutes to play video games, that quick burst before sleep or before I have to leave the house, just a few wasted minutes dealing with menus is annoying. I hate it and wish whoever came up with it gets severe constipation!
I managed to get the Xbox not to, but the PlayStation 3 and Wii remain awful. The Wii is especially stupid because when I put a game in the system, unlike with the other two, the game doesn’t start. My Wii gaming lately has been with GameCube games. I pick up the GameCube controller and get ready to play, only to shout profanity as I realize I can’t start the game with this controller. I’m forced to get up, go pick up the Wii remote, select the game by aiming at the TV and only then do I get to play. Assuming the batteries in the Wii remote haven’t run out again.
The PlayStation 3 had a really wonderful thing it was doing. Every time I turned it on it asked me which profile I wanted to use. I have two profiles; mine, which I use every time I play the behemoth, and my girlfriend’s profile she used once. She’s only ever played once, yet every time I turn the console on it asked if I want to load her account. Buried deep within system menu after system menu was an option to set my profile to automatically login. Only I still have to waste time with a menu to get to the actual game!
Why can’t, when I turn the game system on, it just play the game I have in it? The 360 manages to do this. Again, buried deep within menus I found how, but what about the other two? I can’t seem to find it and I don’t want to look. I don’t want to spend time, more time, searching for something that should be the default! However I will happily spend time shouting about this in internet columns.
When I want to play the Genesis, whenever I turn it on it doesn’t ask me to look at new downloadable content for games I don’t have. It doesn’t try to sell me things I don’t want. I never had to point the controller at the TV to tell it I wanted to play Toe Jam and Earl. It somehow figured out that I wanted to play videogames. Surprisingly, the game I had in the system. Even with all their “features” my PlayStation 3 and Wii can’t seem to figure this out.
So my question is, why does my videogame console not automatically assume I wanted to play videogames?
I am quite sure that I have seen a “Auto load game if inserted” option (or alike) in the settings section of the PS3.
You can also change the settings for the PS3 accounts so that you by default login with a selected account.
pportunity to show off when booting. All of the splash screens are ugly, most of the dashboards are fugly, and all are far too slow. I love xbla so I don’t have mine set to autorun the game disc, but I do wish it would hurry the fuck up. Or at least be half as interesting to watch as a demoscene loader.
One step flowchart: Does this problem (menus) solve more problems than it creates? If yes (Xbox 360, PS3), then videogames. If no (Wii), then internet rage.
Consoles do more things than play games. Das ist gute. Getting the 360 was a revelation for me, for all the cool new stuff my console could do that it couldn’t one generation ago. Loading the menu should be default with the option to change. That’s how it is, and that’s super.
@UglyDuck: Learn your German.
My first comment on a site makes me look stupid.
Still got it.
PS3 can auto-load games.
I doubt many people would want to just auto-load though. I know I like to see if there’s any demos worth downloading or check out who’s online before I select a game to play.
I totally agree. Can’t see it changing though since there’s a lot of potential for ads in all these menus.
Also, can the PS3 really auto-load? Booting the disc on startup I mean?