Thursday 30 April 2009

year of the PS3 is...


In a rather un-spectacular display of confidence David Reeves, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe's exiting CEO, has said that the PS3 will be top of the console pile... by 2014.

"I don't think it will be next year, but in three to five years it will become dominant on the market", Reeves said.

But wait, there's more. Confusingly, Reeves went on, "The legacy will be that people will see a tortoise and hare situation. In a way, in the end it will be a dead heat. People will say PS3 took a while to get going but it really caught up very quickly and confounded many of the critics from the first year", he said.

So... the PS3 will be dominant, but it will be a dead heat. The PS3 will be dominant in a dead heat? Maybe Reeves is just tired after his 14 years at Sony. Today's his last day, with marketing vet Andrew House to take over tomorrow.

Don't let the door hit your arse on the way out David.

are you inFamous?



aaaand, A quick look at the Killzone.com leaderboards shows that Killzone 2 has just reached the 1 million players online milestone, just 2 months after its release. By that count, approximately 2/3 of the people that have purchased the game have played a match online. For the record, i am 433987th woo! distinctly average -haha-

Guerilla will be further enhancing Killzone 2's multiplayer experience with the Steel and Titanium DLC package, which includes 2 new multiplayer maps and new trophies to collect, later today.

Wednesday 29 April 2009

Command Update


The Official Killzone 2 website, or the Killzone 2 Command Center, has undergone a makeover, adding new functionality to the site linking to the game.

"It's back. Bigger and better than ever. It's clicking into place now and will take a while to reach everywhere," teases KZ2 producer, Seb Downie.

The ability to download and upload battle replays is among the biggest new features added to the site, along with live updates on featured matches, tournaments and news on upcoming tournaments, according to details on the official PS forums.

This comes just ahead of the game's first DLC pack, the Steal & Titanium map pack, launching via PSN tomorrow.

how excited are the TSR at this news?

-------------------------------------

also, coming soon to an internet near you OPM Online! could this coincide with the coming of OPM-HD video magazine to our beloved Store too?

http://www.officialplaystationmagazine.com/

aaaaand This week, Zero Punctuation reviews Siren Blood Curse.

the beta is dead

How much fun are you having in Free Realms? (not that much TBH)

It's about time to get even more excited since Free Realms is officially out of Beta and LIVE! (yay! [/sarcasm] that would explain not being able to log in lately then) Thanks for being there from the beginning. (where's the cheque?)

As a thank you, you will be getting an exclusive Beta reward (yes yes yes) - a virtual military hat for your character to be oh so stylish! *slumps back in chair* It's just like the one that the development team is wearing IRL! (lucky them) Log in to redeem it for your character! (yeah, ok then)

Sony Online Entertainment
www.FreeRealms.com

/// If World of Warcraft is the father of the MMO, Free Realms is the junior, a gateway for 10 to 14 year-olds to get into the genre. The game looks like a cartoon, the art style seems influenced by the Shrek movies, and the gameplay is RuneScape-esque. It's low fantasy, light-hearted, family friendly fun and coming to your PS3 later this year.

New PSP on the way?

1up are reporting that there will be a new PSP announced at E3. The new device will do away with UMD altogether, making a slimmer, lighter handheld and it will apparently come with 8GB or 16GB onboard flash. So what will become of my PSP-phat doorstop version I wonder? Will I be able to afford to replace it with the shiny new model? Actually, one really good thing about this announcement (if true!) is that it will be the final nail in the coffin for the UMD format. That means that sometime in the future I'll be able to pick up loads of PSP games / movies on UMD for next to nothing as big retailers like HMV clear their shelves. :) [reakt]

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3173959

Tuesday 28 April 2009

100% made on PS3


no computers were used in the making of this post, except the megaservers hosting my pics and site that is. am here on my sofa with nothing more than my PS3, cheap digi cam an my aging iMac keyboard.

but first - the Nyko usb/media hub arrived today, that's it above with the memory stick from my PSP hanging out of it, why have 4 usb ports when you can have 6? (five in my case as the intercooler/LCD temp readout uses up one slot) it's a solid unit with a fitting adapter for all ps3s and a complimentary design, the card slot take pro duo and sd cards AND has a little red LED on it, i know it's not blue but you can't have everything. pointless for us early adopters but great for those later cheap ps3s or gadget fiends.

the photo i copied from my cam to the PS3s HD and uploaded to my flickr.com account with no hassle, seems this blogs pic upload option is not ps3 friendy -boo- also the Store was borked today

VC Episode 2


this blog + your PS3 + this video + fullscreen = win!

all i wanna do is...


Ready for massively-multiplayer shooters? Apparently, public betas (probably with the usual rounds of key-grabbing off various sites) for MAG and The Agency are due soon!

An anonymous source, who attended the recent Sony event at Seattle, has told us that betas for both MAG and The Agency are due out 'soon' - as in 'E3 soon'.

Both Zipper Interactive and SOE, the Seattle based developers of the respective games, were at the event answering press questions and demoing their games. MAG is due out sometime in Fall 2009, exclusively for the PS3, while The Agency will not see shelves until 2010, for both the PC and PS3. (shame)

Sony confirms 'inFamous' UK release date

Sony has confirmed the UK release date for its open-world action game inFamous, according to MCV.

The game will now be launched as a PS3-exclusive on May 29, despite the fact that it was initially scheduled for a June release.

Developed by Sucker Punch, the sandbox action title involves players taking the role of bike messenger Cole McGrath, who acquires electricity-based superpowers after an explosion in the fictional Empire City.

It was also recently announced that a playable demo for the game will be launched on the PlayStation Network on May 21.

///mobiletone///

four way noby action


Girl may have no hope of ever reaching the Mars thanks to the plumetting number of gamers actually playing this novelty screen saver, but she'd do best to get as far away from Earth as possible. Noby Noby Boy is getting a big update, and one of the upgrades is of particular concern: "Fart Boy." oh yes, you read that right.

Some of the updates were detailed at the Game Developers Conference, but the crazy Nobi Nobi Boy official site lists the following:

* "Offline Multi Boys" mode with play for up to four.
* Onara Boy (Fart Boy)
* Sound powered up, with additional sound effects and the ability to select music
* Added variations for your Boy House hair styles
* Changes to the poses for when birds think
* ... and more and more

Very intriguing... especially that "and more and more part! [Anoop Gantayat]

●2009-04-28: just give us the facts ma'am

★GIRL’s Length: →1,741,042,072 m

★GIRL’s Growth Yesterday: →59,661,042 m

★BOYs Who Helped GIRL Grow Yesterday: →802 BOYs

★Number of BOYs in the world: →66,312 BOYs

Monday 27 April 2009

Bluetooth headphones


Sony has launched a new Bluetooth 2.1 headphone range for cable-free audio. With Sony's echo and noise cancelling tech, "exceptional" sound quality is promised.

There are two new models, the DR-BT100CX and DR-BT101. Both claim to feature simple, easy to use finger-tip controls for volume, play and skip music tracks, and to accept or reject incoming calls.

The DR-BT100CX in-ear headphones get USB charging, three sizes of silicon ear buds and 8 hours of playback time.

For a headband headset the DR-BT101 gets a 30mm neodymium driver and 12 hours of playback.

Both Bluetooth headphone models are said to be available to order now at sonystyle-europe.com, although they do not show up on a product code search yet (typical of SCEE -hehe-)

/// If they are better than my Sony MDR-V150 cans then this should, depending on pricing, be a good set of earmuffs. I do have a set of those 'dog the bounty hunter' bluetooth shades, and to be honest, once the novelty wore off they got thrown in the cupboard.

///mobiletone///

oh and here's the offical press release from Sony about Uncharted 2

Sony Announcement soon?


The Super Secret Seattle Sony Press Event convinced me to buy a PlayStation 3

Earlier this week I attended a two day long super secret Sony press event over in Seattle. After I got back to Kitsap I headed right to the store and purchased an 80-gigglebyte PlayStation 3 and a copy of Little Big Planet. I can't say what I saw yet but it made me want to go buy a PS3.

At the press event I told the Sony guy that I was going to buy my first PS3. He pointed at the Xbox jacket I was wearing at the time and said that I was thinking like an Xbox 360 owner in needing multiple system.. Once you buy a PS3 you will never need to buy a replacement. Oh Snap!

Posted by [8bitjoystick]

Sunday 26 April 2009

TSR Clan get busy

TSR Clan fixture list for next week:

Monday 27th - 9pm - TSR vs BTH (6vs6)
Monday 27th - 9:45pm - BTH vs TSR (8vs8)
Tuesday 28th - 10:00pm - AVF vs TSR (8vs8)

Let’s hope we have enough members - if you can’t get into the 6vs6 on Monday, make sure you stay around for the 8vs8 game just after it!

it’s the home and away match, we have now played all teams at least once now so it’s time for the opposite fixture to be played.

This week we were due to play AVF at Home and BTH Away to complete the ‘first half’ of fixtures. Next week we were due to start the league in reverse so AVF Away and BTH at Home. However this week we had a Home match from last week to play that got cancelled and the AVF Home match as scheduled, BTH asked for our Away match to be bumped to next week to play along side our scheduled Home match - hence the double header (which I believe is Baseball terminology for a similar scenario).

Let’s hope we perform a bit better next week than this. 0-14 is not a good weekly average lol!

Comment by Apnomis

Friday 24 April 2009

Hadouken!!! a trip into Street Fighter nostalgia.

Street Fighter IV is a beautiful game. Does that sound poncey? Who cares, I have no better way to describe it. I'm a gamer who has grown up on a diet of Street Fighter II, courtesy of my local arcade. Actually I think I remember playing it after swimming lessons as a kid (remember when swimming pools / sports centres were the places to check out the latest arcade games?!?! How times change!). Anyway, it was awesome at the time and I think that's one of the most important gaming titles for me, the one that got me hooked on gaming. By the time it came out on SNES I was even more hooked. Whilst living in a student house in Southampton my mate and I would sometimes sit down to play a few games in between bouts of revision, only to be sat in the same spot hours later having played a couple of hundred matches (no joke!). Perhaps that explains my final exam results (hope you're not reading this, Dad!).

Anyway, sorry, back to Street Fighter IV and why I love it so much. It's beautiful because the graphics have been overhauled and are now presented in glorious 1080p. The animation just flows perfectly. In fact the fighting in general is just so perfectly fluid. The timing and execution of moves feels exactly the way it did when playing Street Fighter II as a kid. It's surprising really, hit the exact combinations that you remember for the hadouken, hurricane kick, etc. and you'll find they're all still there only the animations are rendered a lot smoother and in more detail. It all sounds better too. Sure there are some extra combos and moves thrown in since I last played the series. I've found that mastering these is not essential to completing the game though (at least not on the medium difficulty level, but perhaps they are for the hardest).

A word of caution, playing online is a lot of fun but unless you're extremely good at this game, be prepared to get your arse kicked! In the game, when playing through offline, on arcade mode, you can set your status to allow your game to be interrupted by online challengers (and I believe this is the default setting). What this means is that you could be in the middle of an arcade game and all of a sudden, "Here comes a new challenger!" and pow! you're playing somebody online. I wasn't able to complete one match (best of 3 rounds) in arcade mode without being interrupted. The trouble is that when you return to arcade mode after the online challenge then you have to start your arcade match again. I.e. it was impossible for me to complete the arcade more unless I set my status to whatever setting translated to "bugger off online challengers, I'm busy". Goodness knows why I got challenged so much, perhaps people could see my stats somehow to establish that I was a newbie. This would make me a prime target for online challengers keen to build up their online ranking by winning matches.

I won't spoil the surprises - there are some great new characters in the game and the boss character (Seth - pictured) is harder to beat than Chuck Norris.

All in all this was a good purchase. It's come down in price now. I paid 25 quid for it, which is about my limit in these times of credit-crunch; worst financial situation since the waaaarh and all that. [reakt]

crap interview series

Hi David,

I was just reading your site and we are impressed that you will be bringing your 3D
technology to the Playstation 3 in the near future. For the benefit of our site's readers could you provide more details on the specifications of the screens needed to view the 3D features that will be provided. As you will probably be aware most PS3 owners will already have bought new HD screens shortly after, or before, they got their consoles so would be unwilling i guess to upgrade already at such an early stage of the consoles lifespan (10 years according to Sony). I hope you can answer my request as i would like to run an article on your product in the near future.

All the Best, Tone.

---------------------------------------------------------------

5 days later i got this reply:-

Tony:

We support all of the displays listed here: http://www.3dmovielist.com/3dhdtvs.html

The list includes XPOL line interlaced TVs and DLP checkerboarding TVs - which are the most common.

Regards,

David Cole

---------------------------------------------------------------

yeah, thanks Dave. well, i'm sure that answers all of our questions about 3D gaming on the PS3, http://next3d.com/ is the future *coffs*

casual gamers!

Thursday 23 April 2009

it's Thursday so..

The dark days of pre-order exclusivity have passed, and the demo for Red Faction: Guerrilla is now available to all that would venture onto the PlayStation Network to find it.
In a show of supreme confidence in their game, THQ releases the single player demo for the next game in the Red Faction series into the wild, letting PlayStation 3 owners sink their teeth into the experience far ahead of the title's June release

there's probably other stuff on the Store too.

ch-ch-ch-changes

well, i left the sun scorched and desolate brown landscape where i shot everyone i met in the face of Fallout 3 behind and entered.. the world of FarCry2, which is pretty similar but has more foliage, lots more foliage in places, and vehicles! but, you wander around a sun baked desolate environment and still get to shoot everyone you meet in the face. i haven't seen any super mutants yet though, but lurking around at night does put you on edge, with the rustling leaves and odd sounds.
to be fair the only similarity it has with FO3 is that it's a sandbox game and the colour brown is big in the scheme of things. i have only dipped my toe in the water so to speak so don't think it's fair to judge the game just yet. the tutorial was 1 1/2hrs long, but i did wander off to meet some of the locals during that time, and i spent a further few hours doing a couple of small missions. i have turned the cross hair sights off and what with the HUD sliding out of view, only coming up when a health prompt or reload is called i found i could really detach and let the game grab me.
i found myself thinking the controls are what Resi Evil 5 should have used, but each to their own. the thing i really do like is it never takes you out of the game, you want to read a map, you read a map and can still peek over the top of it and look around, drive a car maybe? you get in and look through the window, health injections the same, open doors etc. it's a nice touch and it works. think of how Mirrors Edge (without the falling 20 floors to your death though John managed it last night when he fell off a rocky outcrop, noob! -haha-) made you feel, you instinctively knew where you were in relation to the game world, more of this in future games please.
the enviroment is very well crafted, trees sway in the breeze, insects buzz around the place, the sun rises and set's and the shadows are the bestest i have seen in any game. vehicles handle well and old guns jam, i didn't actually think the game would look so good as with most sandboxers they tend to have to trade detail for size but this dosn't seem to be the case here. well done Ubisoft. 5hrs in and i like it. will look at the level editor (another big draw for me) over the weekend sometime i think. £14 well spent, check out BlockBusters as they are having a 50% off/ex-rental sale right now.

Wednesday 22 April 2009

retrotasic is green

TANK tops, everyday racial abuse and Larry Grayson could all help tackle climate change, according to a report urging a return to 1970s lifestyles.

New research by the Institute for Studies shows the adoption of low aspirations and cheap foreign stereotypes could give Britain a carbon footprint not seen since 1976.

Professor Henry Brubaker said: "A PS3 consumes enough fossil fuel in one hour to keep a game of Simon going for 15 days, by which point we think it would sound like Rick Wakeman having a stroke.

more?

/// i dont know about you but my first hand held amusement.. well, the other handheld i had as a kid was at the uber cutting edge of technology and was the Merlin, the Binatone TV Master MK 6 console never got a look in after that. i could weep thinking what Mk1 through Mk5 were like!

in other news, i finally got round to picking up a copy of Far Cry 2 today, ex-rental it may have been but at £14 it was at the right price, i am more interested in the game engine and level designer if i am totally honest, but i'm sure the game itself is pretty cool too. if that's not recession busting shopping i don't know what is. i did ask about FUEL too while i was in there and the computer says 15th May! so i put a fiver down as a deposit and crossed my fingers, not that they'd ever change the release date, nooo, never happens in gaming that.

/zero-punctuation/510-Far-Cry-2

Happy Earth Day

later i shall be saving the planet by powering up my PS3, my big arse HDTV, 5.1 surround amp and sucking more juice from the grid than Jodrell Bank.

what are you doing that's 'green' today?

Tuesday 21 April 2009

LBP = Deviants

Blaggers Unite

now, i don't know if it's just me but in the last couple of weeks i have noticed a trend, a trend of random PS3 users asking for access to my Store account to 'game share' some of them are pretty persistent, sending me messages via youtube, requesting to be friends on my PS3 then once i've added them asking if they can have whatever title.
now i don't know about you but not even my poor long suffering mother would get access to my Store account, even if i didn't have my debit card linked to it, why would you let anyone do that? ok, if you're mates in real-life(tm)(c) then i can see that as being fine because if they screw with your account you can go and slash the tyres on their cat for example.
but the PS3, unlike the 'other console' doesn't lock your username to any solid details, there is nothing to stop a user getting into your account (if you're stupid enough to let them) stealing all your shit then changing their (and your) account details.
you know i'll share info for demos etc. but my account is my account is my account.

Monday 20 April 2009

Killzoned Out

A 57MB patch rolls out on Wednesday. Of course its major purpose is to prepare the game for the release of the Steel and Titanium DLC package, which is due out April 30. Another, even larger patch is said to be in the works already.

Here's the full list:

AI - Bots now skipping disabled/destroyed MGs in warzone when requesting mounted guns.
AI - Do not claim waypoints for the previous character when it's dead.
AI - Fixes bots getting stuck trying to arm/disarm S&D object when mission is already over.
Campaign - Fix for potential progression bug in Salamun Bridge.
Clan - User name, not users clan displayed in rankings
Clan - Winning 10 Clan Challenges causes the user to become stuck on the medal awards screen.
Controls - Lean & Peak - Zoom hold on and out of ammo it switches between regular/scope view rapidly.
Cosmetic - Blue screen tint which indicates scout cloak is occasionally enabled and will remain indefinitely.
Cosmetic - White squares on the grenade counter merge together when displayed in 1080p
Create Game - "Badge Combination" option does not work properly
Create Game - Online - "clan only" presets apply even after a player leaves a clan
DLC - DLC pack 1 - 'Steel & Titanium' support DLC - New Loading screens advertising the first DLC pack.
Exploit - Helghan Industries - Player getting out of map fix.
Exploit - Radec Academy - User is able to gain access to the roof when revived in a specific location.
Exploit - Reviving player stuck in wall collision can result in him spawning outside level
Exploit - Salamun Market - One sided wall allows people to be seen and shot from outside where they cant see or fire out
Exploit - Tharsis Depot - Player can get out of the "normal" play area and can get into some sniper/camp spots
Feature - Invite player from friendslist Feature - Join Clan Member list added.
Feature - Join Game - 17-24 players filter.
Feature - MP - Moving while seeing scores after pressing SELECT
Feature - The radar/map now has a larger radius
Feature - Three additional 'Harcore' Ranks added to the top limits.
Front-end - Add support to display more than 8 maps when creating a game /challenge/tournament
Front-end - Sorting ascending and decending ranks working better in 'Rankings'
Front-end - When in a squad, the Valor Trophy is visible in the Squad Tab, however the users rank is not being displayed on top of it.
Mods - Official tournament to be displayed first followed by custom created tournaments
Mods - Additional functionality made avalable to the in-game moderators.
Network - Server side fix for full games being displayed incorrectly.
Network - User is unable to use the 'Join Clan Member' tab due to Network Error Code 20002.
Online - File-synching with the Japanese release of Killzone 2 on the 23rd of April.
Sound - Turret placing sound continues when killed.
Stability - Crash when synching gamestate after a full mapcycle
Stability - Hang on a screen with a blank message window just before a message appears.
Stability - Reducing the load on the server related to syncing the buddylist
Stats - If a clan wins 24 Clan Challenges and goes to the result screen, the medal acquisition screen, which normally displays when you win 25 games, will display.
Stats - Number of air-support grenades used by tacticians does not add to the stats of joined user correctly.
Stats - Number of spawn-grenades used by tacticians does not add to the stats of joined user correctly.
Stats - User sometimes does not receive 1000 valor award when winning 10 Clan Challenges.
Text - % character not displayed correctly on the creating game dialogue box after selecting to create game.
Text - If a client receives an invite from a clan which has a '$' character in the clan name, the recipient will get kicked
Text - Minor Italian localization fix.
Text - Minor Japanese localization fix.
Tournament - Game decides winner if one of the two teams doesn't spawn in
Trophies - Fix for Wargod trophy unlocking pre-maturely

Official Patch 1.24 Inbound [PlayStation Forums, thanks Rick P.]

Firmware 5.50

Hi everyone, the next system software update (v5.50) for PSP (PlayStation Portable) will be available soon, and I wanted to provide you all with a preview of some of the key features.

The firmware update will introduce an Information Board on the PSP system’s XMB (XrossMediaBar) interface. Those of you who have a PLAYSTATION 3 (PS3) may be familiar with this feature, which displays news and updates from the world of PlayStation in a scrolling ticker in the upper right-hand corner of your TV screen. Now you’ll be able to read up-to-date information about upcoming games, new content available on PlayStation Store, and other news right on your PSP whenever you’re at a wireless Internet hotspot.

/// i don't know about you but the #Information Bar# on my PS3 has to be the least used feature it has, even behind #Life with Playstation# which seems to have been totally ignored by Sony, what happened to all the promises of that project? now, if the info' bar let us add RSS feeds from sites we actually like and not just some randomly updated Sony posts i would use the thing everyday to check out what's going on in the blogosphere and that would lead to needing a PC even less. why NOT let us do it Sony?

ps: rewired the apartment this weekend with much new red Ethernet cable. great fun. i wish they'd hurry up and wire in the new big sat' dish though, it's been repositioned three times now and the coax cable is just hangin there.. taunting me with is downlink potential.

Sunday 19 April 2009

NDA? yeah OK

Congratulations!

You have been accepted into the beta for SOE's upcoming game, Free RealmsTM!.

When you create your character you will be asked to agree to the End User License Agreement. As part of this agreement, you are agreeing to remain quiet about your experience in Free Realms, at least for now! Thank you for your consideration.

(BETA TESTING OF A PRE-RELEASE GAME)


Sony Online Entertainment LLC ("SOE") has designed, developed and intends to publish and offer services related to an online game and software product entitled Free Realms (the "Game"). SOE has established a beta test program (the "Beta Program") to, among other things, allow a limited number of people to test the features, capabilities and performance of one or more pre-release version(s) of the Game, including, without limitation, any and all associated media, graphics, printed or electronic materials and documentation (collectively, the "Beta Software") and provide feedback and comments to SOE.

/// well, i'm guessing it HAS to be a better experience than HOME yeah ;) *downloads beta*

Saturday 18 April 2009

the king is dead


long live the king. friday was threespeech.com's last day of being the semiofficial mouth-piece of SCEE and in true Sony style we have no hard date on when the new EU uber-blog will be up and running. i seriously hope they do a good job, i mean SCEA's blog is pretty sweet if a little over run by dribbling sycophants who will not hear a bad word against the company (or maybe i don't really 'get' americans) but at least the posters actually interact with the commenters on the site there.
i wonder if we are going to get the same from SCEE? i mean they are not exactly renouned for their wonderful communications are they.. i can't think of the last time i actually got something from their press center.. it was a while back anyway.
things move on though, TS was a great blog and i met some pretty cool gamers on there, i hope they all find good loving homes to go to now we have to stop scratching at Sonys door for scraps for a while. i guess that's why i built this unoffical playstation blog, a stop gap filler, somewhere that felt familier and friendly with no dress code or moderation. if anyone fancies becoming a poster on here feel free to drop me a note.

Thursday 16 April 2009

E-ROLE's Ace Cake

Open The Box

well, seeing as the PS3 was 2yrs old a few weeks back, and it's been a year since i got that tattoo (still love it btw) i figured i'd drag the boxes off the shelf and have a look at just exactly what i own. i have 30 games in the box, that's not to say that's all the games i have owned, some were truly horrible, Baja: Edge of Reason springs to mind, and that awful horse racing/rpg thing G1 Jockey by Koei has been wiped from my memory. so, bad games get traded back in, might as well make a few quid. other games i've rented then bought, or decided against, more games i have grabbed from the Store (about 12 i guess), but they don't have boxes so don't count really. so here is the definitive list of what collects dust in my front room. (in no particular order)

Valkyria Chronicles / Fallout 3 / grand theft auto / Motorstorm: Pacific Rift / Killzone 2 / SEGA MDUC / Mirrors Edge / The Elder Scrolls IV / Ridge Racer 7 / MotorStorm / Blazing Angels / Colin McRae: DiRT / Midnight Club: LA / Gran Turismo Prologue / Skate / Assassins Creed / Guitar Hero III / Quake Wars / Call of Duty 4 / Heavenly Sword / Battlefield Bad Company GE / Saints Row 2 / Stranglehold / Little Big Planet / Army of TWO / Unreal Tournament III / PURE / GRiD / Resistance: Fall of Man / Mercenaries 2: World in Flames

not sure what that says about me as a gamer, but i tend not to think about that too much.
what's in your collection?

no Fallout MMO

According to a 10-K financial report filed earlier today, it appears that Interplay - who were supposed to have been developing a Fallout MMO - might instead lose the Fallout rights for the game.

The looming action (which has not yet been made official, but is still likely enough to warrant Interplay filing about it) stems not from the game's rights - which Interplay picked up fair and square - but from the game's progress. Or lack thereof.

Fallout IP owners Bethesda allege that, as part of the deal in which they bought the rights to Fallout (but left the MMO rights for Interplay), Interplay were supposed to have commenced "full-scale" work on the title by April 4, 2009.

Interplay were also supposed to have secured funding for the development of the game. Bethesda claim that neither of these conditions have been met.

As a result, Bethesda are seriously considering "[terminating] the trademark license agreement" currently in place between the two companies.

If Bethesda choose to go ahead with all this, and win, Interplay would lose their rights to produce a Fallout MMO, which may explain why an Interplay MMO is sticking with a "Project V13" code name instead of officially coming out with Fallout MMO branding.

Wednesday 15 April 2009

a classic returns?

Publisher Square Enix may be giving the Front Mission strategy series another go in North America, registering trademarks for Front Mission Evolved with the US Patent and Trademark Office.

While Front Mission Evolved could be an all-new game in the long-running mech strategy series, it could also be an older, localized take on slowly moving Wanzers around a grid. There are plenty of Japanese releases in the series that never saw the light of day in the West.

/// i for one hope they stick to the tried and tested moving around the grid turn based action that made the other FM games in the series such a good blast. being from SE it should have a killer story to back up the action, then again, we never got FM4 here in Urpland. [sad smiley face]

Tuesday 14 April 2009

lost in the wastes

i love Fallout 3. from the moment i first stepped out of the vault to the keying in of 216 into the purification system, every step, every hour has been a true adventure and i have spent many hours playing it, around 150 i guess so far, i daren't check after this holiday weekends massive 15 hour monster boost and toast fueled session.
is there a reason i play so much? many play games to complete all the game modes, veteran being highly prized, some trophy whore and just have to get every one the game has to offer, but me, i play this so much because to date, there is nothing on the PS3 that gives you so much freedom. ok, so the freedom is spent wandering a sun bleached radioactive wasteland but to me that is heaven.
lucky for me i saved the game just before my final deviant act in which everyone eventually dies and the enclave facists take over the wastelands, yay, go team enclave! so after i tested a few possible endings and got boreed of listening to ron perlman going on about what a total bastard i had been through out my life i turned around and walked right back out into the wastes to go on living my dream.
you can never be to sure just what the game is going to expect of you next, at the moment i am doing the nuka-cola challenge and cursing drinking so much of it with carefree abandon earlier in the game - d'oh! but i am only 2 or 3 bottles from completing the quest and a long trudge back to the westside of the map. in between hunting for bottles i have happily slaughtered a community of tree huggers, blown up an aliens corpse and fought running battles with slavers and bounty hunters after my arse for a few caps.
the thing is, no one persons experience of fallout is going to be the same as another gamers as the route and choices you have are vastly variable, this is the true sandbox game, the king of the pile of mininukes.

Steel be with You.

back it up

just wondering how you back-up your save games, if you do that is. think of all those hours, days and weeks worth of your time just sitting there waiting to be nuked if you haven't saved your saves. i for one made that mistake once, and only once and since then have backed up my saves after every major session.

i think the original problem was the standard harddrive (60Gb) that came with my launch Ps3, as the console had crashed very very badly at least 3 times during it's first 6 months in my care, yet since i upgraded it to a 250Gb unit the console hasn't done it once but the old drive continues to play-up every now and again in its external external caddy. i have a 250Gb external linked permanently to the console..

i digress.

back to the saves, i did copy my saves to a 4Gb usb drive for a long time then i got a hold of a few SD cards (work surplus) and jacked one into the appropriate slot, i have found they work much faster and are hidden nicely out of the way, in all i have saved two years worth of gaming onto one 2Gb SD card with plently of space to spare..

Friday 10 April 2009

Geo-Mod 2.0 rawks

Eat My Red Dust

RFGD

Red Faction: Guerrilla is coming to Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION®3 this summer - but you can get your hands on the single player demo today and experience the most realistic destruction engine ever seen - Geo-Mod 2.0 - for yourself.

The Red Faction: Guerrilla Single Player Demo is not open to the general public, but we're offering myTHQ members exclusive access right now – there are a limited number of places available, so sign up today.

Please note, these keys are region-locked to European Xbox LIVE and PSN accounts - they are not valid in North America or any other country outside the EU.

Rollin Rollin Rollin

Rockstar keeps Midnight Club: Los Angeles rolling this month, with two vehicle packs bringing seven new rides to the mean streets of L.A.

The first of the two new vehicle packs drops on April 16th, so players won't be waiting long to cruise the streets of the recently released South Central map expansion in style. South Central Vehicle Pack 1 contains two luxury cars -Audi S5 and the Mercedes CL 65 - along with the 2009 Eclipse GT tuner. The following week sees the release of South Central Vehicle Pack 2, which includes the Cadillac XLR V, Lancer Evolution X , and Aston Martin DB9, with a Ducati 1098 R motorcycle thrown in for good measure.

Both packs will sell for 240 Microsoft points on the Xbox 360, while the PlayStation 3 versions will set you back $2.99 in real money points. The South Central map expansion is required to use the new cars, but seeing as it's free that shouldn't be a problem.

Thursday 9 April 2009

Watch VC Now



The anime based on SEGA's PS3 title Valkyria Chronicles has debuted in Japan. Here's the entire first episode — with English subtitles, too!

god save (help) us all

WHY can’t SONY make their crappy Eu blog (In 37 languages and multiple Store updates on a Thursday) to keep all the fanboys on the awful eu.forums happy and still keep TS alive, i for one don’t recall being asked what i thought, and i doubt any other TSR member was either, SCEE has sneaked up behind us in the dark and royally f–ked us over, yeah, thanks Sony, and thanks all you cretins from the EU blogs for killing us off.

i hope you’re all bl–dy d-mn well happy with yourselves.

you only have to look at the US Blog to see how pointless commenting on any article is, and if you really think SCEEs lackies are going to comment like SCEA do, than i suggest you stop dreaming.

TS was special (mrSketch was very special :P) and had a mature/different feeling to it that i have not found on any other PS3 forum, i liked it here, i don’t want to go and hang out with a bunch of Eurobrat fanboys who have no grasp of grammar or proper syntax.

the UK has always had pride that we were different to the rest of Europe, TS was such a place.. i shall miss TS very much, truly a one of a kind.

ALL TOGETHER NOW LADS


thanks for all the good times TS + fellow commentators/posters

*sobs into t-shirt.. goes to get drunk*

Hello to the nEU blog!

As of April the 17th Three Speech will be bowing out to make way for a brand new and shiny EU PlayStation blog.

It’s your feedback, comments and suggestions that have made this possible, so you should all be very proud! Obviously both Three Speech and SCE UK are very grateful to everyone who has made this site so busy and lively over the past two and half years. Your input has really helped PlayStation to grow, and the new blog will be a further way for you to contribute ideas. It’s been good fun meeting all of you and we’re looking forward to seeing you on the EU blog!

We’ll have more info on this over the next few days…

any dispossessed ThreeSpeechRegulars feel free to add this blog to your book marks, i'll try to carry on the spirit of TS here in posting delayed news, odd content and generally ramble about my gaming on the PS3.

or something. we can't let TS die like that at the murderous hands of SCEE.


will work more on the blog layout/content later but setting up a website over breakfast is a bit much y'know ;)