Sinestro Corps Batman is PS3 Only

If you have been keeping up with news concerning the upcoming 'Batman: Arkham City' game, then you have probably seen all of the different character skins available via preordering.  Well, looks like people who buy the Extended Blu-Ray edition of this summer's 'Green Lantern' flick will get a PSN download code to get access to the Sinestro Corps Batman skin.

Yep, a yellow and black take on Batman's character skin.  I'm all about options and love the fact that we will see skins from pretty much every incarnation of Batman's costume from the "Adam West" color scheme to Batman Beyond.  Not to mention the several takes on Robin.  But a reference to a cross -comic story arc that only some will understand...That may be taking it a little far. 

This skin will be exclusive to PS3 owner's (but will probably show up on 360 for purchase at some point later on as most DLC seems to show up on both systems eventually).

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What does the new PSN Terms of Service Agreement Contain?

The other I day powered on my PS3 for the first time in about a week to play a little 'Deus Ex: Human Revolution'.  And I was greeted with a prompt to accept the new PSN TOS before I could login.  Not a big deal since 'Deus Ex' doesn't feature online play.  But I do like to browser the PSN Store on occassion to see what's new.  So I decided to be a good little PS3 owner and do as I was being told by Sony.  Like many user's, I rarely read the entire TOS agreements.  Simply put they are long and drawn out.  And in the case of my situation, I have a smaller television and the small print this agreement is typed up in (and some game text as well) makes it absolute murder to read onscreen.  So, I scroll down and click on 'Accept'.

So what was in it that was so noteworthy I needed to accept it now?  Simply put, a little 'cover-their-butt' strategy by Sony.  In layman terms, the new Terms of Services agreement will prevent customer's from filing class-action lawsuits against Sony.  If you digg around enough there are a few loopholes to the new agreement, but if you want to play on their device you have to accept it.

So what about those involved in lawsuits for this past summer's PSN outage and data leak?  Those people aren't covered under this new TOS for that lawsuit since it occured before the new TOS was issued and put into action.

Here is where the red flag jumps out to me.  After this summer's issues that impacted not only Sony, but game publisher's market wide and customer's alike.  What has Sony discovered (if anything) that would cause them to go out of their way to issue this TOS now?  I would fully expect either something crazy to hit the headlines soon about a new internal issue or a drastic change to existing services that may impact customer's experience with their products?  Time will tell.

I love my PS3, and haven't had any real issues or qualms about Sony (with the exception the events from April/May 2011).  And one reason I jumped ship from the Xbox 360, is Sony doesn't charge for online access.  But with all the controversy flying around the last several months, I have to ask myself: "Is a single, dedicated platform for any service really that good of an idea?"

And my answer is "No".  It only benefits the companies behind the platform.  As demonstrated in April and May, a dedicated platform can be brought down and can greatly impact not only transactions and business conducted via the product, but also completely shut down the online portions of games people just wanted to play.  This is where PC gaming is mostly different.  Most PC games feature hosts for online playing.  Where the game servers are not dependent upon a e-commerce platform to operate.  So you may not be able to by a player skin for your character, but at least you can play.  I completely understand that this is not how Sony or Microsoft has setup either of their platforms, but moving forward maybe it is something that should at least be considered.

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Feeling Jilted over NetFlix? There are other choices out there...

I have no problem letting it be known that I was more than a little torqued off about the 60 percent Netflix price hike.  Personally, I have been a NetFlix subscriber for quite some time now.  We only occasionally would rent a physical DVD, and between my wife and I; I was the primary user for the NetFlix streaming through my Wii and PS3 (occasionally through the iPad).  The previous pricing for their subscriptions was nice.  Basically, streaming account with one DVD rental at a time via snail mail for $2 extra.  Bringing it to a $10 cost each month.

Even though we didn't use it that much, it was nice to have when you do want to waste a Saturday afternoon.  Therefore, for the extra $2 bucks a month it wasn't worth my trouble to change my account to a streaming only setup.  However, now that the price has basically rocketed up from $10 to $16 ($15.98 to be spot on).  I'm re-evaluating our options.  So, I figured I'd make my thoughts public in this post.  This is me 'think out loud' about our current streaming/DVD options.

For DVD Rentals:
RedBox is a pretty prominent offering here in my area.  It's nice because you can reserve and hold movies for pickup. And their kiosks are everywhere in this area.  So going out of the way to return a DVD isn't a problem, and I have a couple kiosks closer that the post office is (where I'd normally return my NetFlix DVD's).

If RedBox doesn't have what we are looking for, there is a really good video store about 5 minutes from the house.  Their selection is huge, and they are one of 2 or 3 rental stores still left in our county.  They have movies ranging from the newest stuff to really old (and even some VHS for VCR lovers out there).

And the chances of us adapting to this method for DVD/BluRay rentals is a nonexistent problem, because we have been using these two sources all along.  So we'll continue doing this.

For Streaming:
This is where it gets a little messy.  I like to stream video from the web.  It's just simple to do it.  Find a good site with a nice offering of shows to stream and I'll have a blast.  At least until I watch most of their catalog that strikes my interest or until they quite updating it.  Currently, my streaming options include Crackle.com, Hulu.com, and OVG Guide for searching for shows to stream.

These are all nice offerings, but Crackle is very limited.  And Hulu has a good selection, but I'm not sure if it's worth the $8 a month for a Hulu Plus account.  I liked the fact that with NetFlix Streaming I could watch all of the old Doctor Who episodes.  And I've yet to find a different source for those.  But not a deal breaker for me.

My wife has a smartphone, and I have an iPod Touch, access to an iPad, a PS3, and my android tablet.  Which supposedly all have access to Hulu Plus except for my android tablet (as of this writing).  And I know my wife would use it to watch more current shows than she could find on NetFlix streaming.

I know there are other options, but I may ended up rolling through the free week trial of HuluPlus and seeing what they have to offer as far as selection goes.  Watching ads isn't a big deal to me, especially since I won't be living and breathing on their website all the time.  My other options include: video rental on my Xbox 360 and PS3.  I'm not a big fan of how Apple has setup their Apple TV offerings, so I'll be staying away from that option as well.

Other alternatives if you're shopping around too:
Green Cine: a mail order service much like the NetFlix DVD service starting at $9.99 a month.  I don't know much else about this service.  But here you go. http://www.greencine.com/main

Mspot Movies: they work off of a club or credit style service.  And you can rent digital movies starting at $1.99 and going up to about $4 to $5.  Not bad for the occasional rental, but could get pretty costly with prolonged use.  They do have a Rental Club you can join as well. http://www.mspotmovies.com/

And of source Blockbuster has a mail order style service and some On Demand stuff, as well. 1 Disk at a time will cost you $9.99 a month and 2 at a time will set you back $14.99 a month.

And Amazon has an offering now as well that is pretty limited but is likely to grow: http://www.amazon.com/gp/prime which is $79 a year.

So if you know of any other legitimate sites that can act as a NetFlix replacement, drop us a line in the comments section and let us know!

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EA Shutting Down Game Servers

Announced yesterday, EA will be shutting down game servers used for online play for the following titles in two phases.  The first phase in August 2011 and the second in October 2011:

First Phase:
-Army of Two for PS3, Xbox 360 (also includes the Demo for the 360)
-Battlefield 2142 demo for PC
-Battlefield 2: Modern Combat + Demo for Xbox 360
-Medal of Honor Airborne for PSP
-Medal of Honor Heroes 2 for Wii and PSP
-NASCAR '09 for PS3 + Xbox 360 (in North America, you mean other countries like NASCAR too?)
-NCAA Basketball 10 and NCAA Football 10 for PS3 and Xbox 360
-Need for Speed Most Wanted for PC and Xbox 360
-Need for Speed Undercover for PSP
-SKATE for PS3 and Xbox 360
-Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 for PS3, Xbox 360, and PSP
-Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 Demo for the PS3 and Xbox 360

Second Phase:
-Madden NFL 10 for PS3 and Xbox 360
-NHL 10 for PS3 and Xbox 360

So alas to games on the list.  Farewell to online play.

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Progress Update: 'Duke Nukem Forever' for PS3

I just wanted to throw a quick update out there for anybody interested in my take on 'Duke Nukem Forever'.  I have been playing through the single player campaign (and dabbled with the multiplayer modes very little so far). I'm currently located in 'The Shrunk Machine' chapter.  Progress is going good and despite what all of the other reviews were trying to make me believe, I am having fun with the game.

I'll save my input for a full review.  But to give the game a fair assessment I wanted to actually play all the way through the single player campaign before doing a definitive review.  So look for that coming soon.

After I complete the single player campaign I will probably play through the multiplayer for a few days to get a handle on how the online portions play. Then do a separate review of the online side of the game.

Happy Surfing!

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PS3 Game Showdown!

The last several weeks have been pretty eventful in our house as far as my PS3 has been involved.  And in a good way.  As part of Sony's "Welcome Back" package I downloaded "Little Big Planet" and "inFamous".  And yesterday I picked up the much anticipated "Duke Nukem Forever".

So what is my take on my recent game selections?  "Little Big Planet" is a neat and addictive game.  But it is obviously targeted more towards the casual game audience.  Which is great for those times you just want to get a few minutes of gameplay squeezed into your busy life.  I like how you can buddy up with other players and follow each other around to other "planets" and continue the game together.  However, it is obvious that the developers of "Little Big Planet" are hoping their audience will shell out their hard earned cash for add-ons.  Some of the most popular add-ons apparently being new skins and costume pieces for Sackboy.  All in all, if you have young gamers in the house, this is the game for them.

"inFamous" was my second free selection once the Playstation Store came back online.  And I must say that I am happy I picked this title.  It's a fun take on the whole sandbox gameplay mechanic.  The easiest way to describe it would be to think of "GTA" or "Saints Row" meets a newfound super human.  You spend a lot of time bouncing around the city fighting the 'Reapers' (basically mutated junkies) and completing missions to discover your characters background and story.  I would have actually paid for this game and I actually look forward to checking out it's sequel once I have completed this one.  Did I mention you also get to control whether you play as an evil character or a good one...So many decisions.

And my most recent purchase is "Duke Nukem Forever".  I'm actually  not going to mention much about "DNF" in this post due to it needing it's own review in and of itself.  In short, the game is awesome as long as you keep in mind the source material.  If you ever played "Duke 3D" back in the day, you should be pleased.  And by the way, if I read one more Twitter post or forum comment that reads: 'this game is nothing like Duke 64 and therefore sucks' or 'Duke's first game which debuted on the n64 was way better, I want my money back' I will probably scream.  And yes, those are some of the actual comments I have found on other sites in response to this game.  For those less cultured in videogame history of legendary characters, Duke goes way back before the Nintendo 64 port and started out as a 2D platformer... Ok, enough of that, subject settled.

Look for my comprehensive review of "Duke Nukem Forever" to post in the next day or so.  In the meantime look for Duke's demo on PC and Xbox 360 which was released this week for everybody.

Happy Surfing!

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PSN Is Back Up...Partially.

Well, Sony has finally pulled through.  Looks like the PSN is back up as far as online play is concerned.  Other features like the Playstation Store are still down.  But I'm sure it'll be following very soon.

So, what now?  Well I'm sure there will be plenty of people ready to flame Sony over when their free games are going to be available.  But as far as I am concerned I can now return to Unreal Tournament 3 and Mortal Kombat's online play.

So what's required to get online now that PSN is back up and running?  Simple, a fairly quick console update is required, and once installed it will require you to change your PSN password.  After that, you're done.

So go forth and play to your hearts content PSN users!

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A little ventilation over the whole PSN Scenario...

Here is my take on the PSN Outage.  Please read the post all the way through before jumping to conclusions.

Last week millions of Sony Playstation 3 gamers became shocked to find out that the beloved online service 'PSN' (Playstation Network) was offline. And not only was the service down, but it was apparently suspended without any time frame for when it would return. As of this writing (4-29-11) the service is still offline.  But don't be fooled into thinking that is as bad as it gets.

The service interruption for PSN seemed to follow awfully close to Sony dropping the lawsuit they brought against Geohot for modding the PS3 console.  It was very apparent that Sony wanted to make a rather large example out of George Hotz (dubbed 'Geohot').  For those who don't know Mr. Hotz is very well known within the modding communities.  Sony agreed to drop their lawsuit if Hotz would quit modding Sony's products.  The whole GeoHot lawsuit took the web by storm.  There was a distinctive line where loyal PS3 owners felt they shouldn't alter the hardware because it promotes piracy, which in turn drives up the price for services, games, and consoles for everybody else.  Meanwhile, the modding communities were sounding off to the tune of our products should work the way we want them too.  Why buy a product if you are restricted to only doing what the manufacturer allows.  Both sides honestly have very valid points. However, neither will be appeased regardless of what Sony does (reference back to Sony removing 'OtherOS' from the PS3 to see what I'm talking about).

Now, fast forward to the current PSN outage.  What do we know?  We know Sony realized their system had been compromised on Tuesday, April 19th.  The next day the service went offline (both PSN and Qriocity services are affected).  Sony still didn't tell their customer's that the services had been compromised. It wasn't until April 22nd  that Sony posted what had actually happened to their system.  I realize that they had to have time to investigate what the intrusion involved.  But seriously, a system that contains not just personal information but also credit card numbers for online transactions; and they didn't disclose this to the public?  That's crazy.  And better yet, the daily updates Sony was giving were about as vague as they could be.

But hold on to your hat, it gets better.  Over the following weekend Sony posted on the PS3 Blog that they were actually having to rebuild their infrastructure.  So let's get this straight, Sony offers a pretty good premium online experience without cost to their customers.  This service allows customer's to purchase games and content directly through the internet.  This service gets attacked from an outside party/parties; this attack causes Sony to realize that their system needs not only a major security maintenance job done, but a complete rebuild?!  What the hell did the hackers do or have access to?

It wasn't until Tuesday, April 26th that Sony posted on the PS3 Blog that customer's information was stolen.  Over the next several days we have seen reports that this information contained credit card information along with names, addressed, and phone numbers for millions of people.  Then reports of a database containing this very information was up for sale to the highest bidder.  Now word is that some of the information contained in the database was encrypted (including credit card information).

Okay, that's a little better.  But seriously Sony; you're dealing with hackers here.  They acquired access to your system to take the data in the first place, what it keeping them from getting around this encryption too?  All the while, if you read through the numerous postings on the PS3 Blog, you'll see people more pissed off that they can't play games.  Or they are trying to guess how Sony will repay all of their loyal customers.  Seriously people, take a breath and look at the bigger picture.  Much more than access to Modern Warfare is at stake here.  Some people were suggesting that Sony "make up" for the outage and data leak by providing credit monitoring for it's customers for a year or two.  Whether that's a valid option or not, Sony is definitely in the hotseat as far as their Public Relations go.

During the whole course of this outage numerous media outlets and websites have been pointing the finger at Anonymous.  Meanwhile, somehow someone from Anonymous has said it wasn't them who authored the attack on Sony.  According to an article at: http://gamrfeed.vgchartz.com/story/85857/hacker-group-anonymous-condemns-psn-attacks/ the person said that the attack was "against the Anonymous principles".  Regardless of who is behind the attack, the attack has not only dealt a huge blow to Sony's online service/e-retail outlet, millions of customers are potentially at risk now as well.  Not to mention all of the customer's of their online MMO (which is subscription based), those guys have every right to be upset at the service's downtime.

My personal opinion, the PSN access is provided free of charge.  If the service is down, ok I won't be playing online until service is restored.  Big deal, I'm not paying anything extra for the service; so who am I to scream and jump up and down when it's unavailable.  I also understand that anytime online security is compromised (whether it be personal or business related), this can be devastating to the entity compromised and/or all of the customers or clients.  It is very unfortunate that Sony has to go through such great lengths to get their service back up and running, but on the same lines.  If you are rebuilding it, make sure it's rock solid second time around.  From a business standpoint, I don't think Sony could get away with their Public Relations if this were sort of outage were to happen again. In the meantime, Sony has made it public knowledge that they are planning on making good on this with their customers.  Somehow, I have a feeling whatever is done won't be quite what everyone is wishing for.  If you read their forum, people are asking for everything from free Playstation + access to cross game chat, and some are even asking for the return of OtherOS (personally I'd opt for either the crossgame chat or OtherOS myself).  But nothing has been confirmed yet from Sony on what they are planning to do.4

My only quarrel is how long it took Sony to publicly acknowledge the problem and to what extent the problem covered.  And I hope Sony realizes that their customer's will not forget this outage.  And before someone tries to flame me for speaking my peace on the matter, yes I have been affected by the outage.  Albeit a minor issue for me, my birthday was the weekend the outage started and my wife bought me 'Mortal Kombat' so I haven't been able to play online.  But for now, big deal.  I've been playing Mortal Kombat offline for years anyways.  So, hopefully Sony is on the upside of this issue and we can all get back to playing online again safely soon.

Thanks for listening and Happy Surfing!

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Sources:
http://bit.ly/jMKXye -Hacker Group Anonymous Condemns PSN Attack
http://bit.ly/lnH9HI    -Sony Considering Make Good for PSN Subscribers, Too
http://blog.us.playstation.com/ -Playstation Blog

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PS3 Demo Review: Mortal Kombat

The Mortal Kombat Demo hit the Playstation Store on PSN for everybody yesterday.  And let me just go on record to say: "THANK YOU!".  Ok, that's out of my system now.  So, if you haven't played it yet; you may be asking, "What's so great about another Mortal Kombat game?".  You're answer is in the question.  It is a Mortal Kombat title!

Mortal Kombat was introduced to the world back in October of 1992, and has spun off numerous subsequent titles, a television series and several movies; and let's not forget the cartoon (ok, the tv series/movies/and cartoons all left a lot to be desired).  But nonetheless, the franchise has been able to retain it's popularity.  Gamer's have been pretty well been catered to throughout the years as well.  When the world cried out for a great fighting game, we were giving Mortal Kombat.  When the world said they wanted more 3 dimensional fighting games, we got a Mortal Kombat set in 3D arenas.   And with the newest incarnation, we are taken back to the basics.  The game is once again back to it's 2D side fighting action that we have come to love from the franchise.  Let's be honest, the 3D arenas weren't really that great.  The real joy of this game is that we get to play as our favorite MK fighters, but with updated costumes, moves, and even the classic stages (The Pit and The Forrest both look stunning in the demo).

In the demo gamer's can select one of four fighters to play as.  We have access to Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Mileena, and Johnny Cage.  Each fighter has their own entrance cutscene before each fight.  There are only two stages playable in the demo: The Pit and The Forest.  Both are rendered in stunning detail.  Likewise, both stages have their own stage fatality.  The Pit's stage fatality is the classic uppercut off the bridge.  You enemy will fly up in the air, off the bridge and be impaled on the spikes below.  The Forest's stage fatality involves throwing your enemy in the mouth of one of the trees in the background.  True to Mortal Kombat form, the violence is as  heavy as ever.  With gallons of blood being shed during each fight.  The controls are pretty much the same as they ever were.  A couple of buttons perform kicks and punches, there is a grab button, and then a series of special moves.

Speaking of special moves, back in the day we had game guides or strategy guides that would outline each of the special moves and fatalities for every fighter in the game.  Now, simply pause the game and go into the 'Moves' menu, find the move you want and see the button combination for that move.  Nice touch.  Most of the classic moves are back, from Scorpion's Spear to Johnny Cage's Nut Punch; there is plenty to enjoy this time around.

New to the series are the X-Ray moves.  These new X-Ray moves will deplete the bar of built up energy at the bottom of the screen (this energy bar allows you to pull of super moves and attacks).  Once you have built up enough energy, simply press the button combination for the X-Ray move (usually L2 + R2) and your fighter will blur a little before the background turns black.  Your fighter will then execute a rather painful looking combo upon the enemy in which the camera shows an X-Ray view of what that attack is doing to their internal organs and bone structure.  Insanely violent, pretty gross looking, but awesome at the same time.

The gameplay in the demo is limited to a single Ladder (which consists of 4 fights and teases a Goro encounter).  The actual gameplay is sharp and responsive and the graphics/character design is absolutely gorgeous.  I am not a big fan of paying full retail for a new game, but I will make an exception for this title when it's released.  And when you complete the ladder in the demo you will be treated to some nice video footage of the final game which shows more X-Ray moves, stages, and fighters (see below the jump for more info on that).

***Spoilers Below***
Do Not Read if you want to complete the demo first to see for yourself.  If you don't care, keep reading.

When you complete the demo you get to see a kind of fuzzy shot of Shao Kahn's throne with the words "Kombat Kontinues" infront of it.  Then sit back and enjoy the video.  The video shows several more fighters than what we know have been released.  It shows Sonya, Stryker, Sindel, Cyrax, Sektor, Nightwolf, Shang Tsung, Reptile, Kitana, Jade, Lui Kang, Kung Lao, Ermac, and yes; Kratos!  It also shows a selection of stages that look very familiar from Ultimate MK3 all rendered in gorgeous 3D.  We get to see what appears to be some stage fatalites which include, a scene from the street stage where Cyrax is standing in the background as a car speeds toward an injured Lui Kang.  It proceeds to run him over, and we get an X-Ray view of his skull cracking and his headless body falling down to the street.  The second noticeable stage fatality shown I can only assume is in Scorpion's Lair, where Scorpion can be scene holding Sub-Zero's head into a puddle of lava, and when Sub-Zero's head comes up out of the puddle his face has been burned off showing his skull with lava dripping from the eye sockets.

Also showing off all new "Test Your Might" levels, minigames and unlockables.  I also believe I overheard some chatter about online play as well.  I absolutely can't wait for this to hit the streets.

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PS3 Demo Weekend: Bulletstorm

This weekend I spent some time trying out some demo's from the Playstation Network.  Figuring the a hot topic as of late within the gaming world is Bulletstorm.  Our pals over at Epic have rolled out yet another game featuring over the top violence and overly beefed up characters that have become a trademark characteristic of an Epic character.

With that said, Bulletstorm does deliver.  I was a huge fan of the Gears of War franchise on the 360.  So when I saw the initial trailers for Bulletstorm I was pretty excited.  So, what do we get to experience in the demo?  Only a single level of the 'Echoes' game mode...Kind of disappointing, right?

Absolutely not!  Sure, it's only a single level.  But it is so jam packed of crap to do, it's still fun to play through the dozen or so times I have played through it this weekend.  The graphics are exactly what we have come to expect from the Unreal 3 engine.  It's gorgeous, simple as that.  The audio is great with plenty of gunshots and explosions going on in the background.  Epic has taken some liberties in the voiceover department allowing quite a funny assortment of rather colorful phrases for the characters to say during the game.  A lot of which isn't necessary, but drives the point home that Bulletstorm was intended to be way over the top anyways.

Where this demo shines, is it's gameplay.  Have you ever played a game where you use an electric 'leash' to snatch a baddie from across the room and launch him into the air, where the game then slides into a slow-motion, Matrix style action sequence where you can pick apart this baddie with whatever weapon you like...And still make it feel awesome?  Nope, neither have I.  But that's exactly what you get.  Whether you want to use a charged projectile to launch into a nest of enemies.  Or whether you want to snatch one up and shoot him to pieces only to kick his remains back across the room into a live electrical cable or impale him on shrapnel sticking out of the wall, it's all about options.  And the controls are extremely accessible if you have played any other first person shooter on the PS3.  So no worries about complicated controls to pull of awesome feats.

Of course, you are rewarded for creative ways of dispatching enemies by building up points.  It is immensely fun to snatch up a guy with the leash, shoot him to pieces and kick his remains back to the bad guys.  A little sadistic, sure.  But fun nonetheless.  The demo is single player only, and limits you to the 'Echoes' game mode, where your performance is timed and you build up points for the leaderboards.



In conclusion, Bulletstorm is outlandish, extremely violent and gory, and contains all manners of foul language. Yes, it is that fun.  As always, use common sense.  This game isn't for kids.  But is a blast for the older gamers who hang around your place.  Bulletstorm should hold us over for quite a while (or at least until Duke Nukem Forever is released).  Happy gaming!

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Game Fan Films

I have recently adopted a Playstation 3.  It is awesome.  Since I'm coming into the whole PS3 thing pretty late into the game, I've been playing a bunch of the early PS3 games since they are fairly inexpensive now.  The first two I picked up were 'Metal Gear Solid 4' and 'Resistance: Fall of Man'.  Both of which have turned out to be great games.  I completed my first play through of Metal Gear 4 last night.  Still working through Resistance though.

Metal Gear 4 was an outstanding game.  I haven't played a Metal Gear title since Metal Gear Solid 2 came out on the PS2 years ago.  I have completely missed out on the Metal Gear for PSP titles, and Snake Eater.  Metal Gear has always been about story.  It's plot is heavy with conspiracy and twists and turns.  I remember back with Metal Gear Solid 2 people where complaining about the cut-scenes.  It seemed almost like you were playing a little and watching a lot.  This is no different with Metal Gear Solid 4.  However, I knew this would be the case going into the game.  If you like story and narrative, this is a must play.

After playing through last night, I'm looking forward to going back to the Playstation Store and buying the original Metal Gear Solid for PSX.  Yes, the graphics are very dated...But c'mon, it's classic gaming at it's best.  Since I've been down memory lane a little with Metal Gear.  I stumbled upon a fan film the other day.  It's entitled: 'Metal Gear Solid Philanthropy'.  I know a lot of fan films get the stigma that they suck because they are a fan film.  But often, fan films showcase a lot of talent that isn't able to be backed up by big funding.

It is free for streaming or downloading (admittedly I haven't watched it yet due to time constraints).  But it has a great looking trailer.  I'm trying to make time this weekend to view it.  If you watch it, why not drop by and leave a comment on how you liked it.  Their site is:
http://www.mgs-philanthropy.net/

And one of the trailers:



Enjoy!

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Tech In The News: Pac-Man Eats Time, Microsoft's Team Lineup Change, PS3 Only?

This week in the news we have several notable stories.  The did you know that Pac-Man is the eater of time.  A couple big guys leave Microsoft, Insomniac Games brings games to Xbox 360 as well as PS3, and Facebook to Modify it's Privacy Settings Again?!

First up is Pac-Man.  Pac-Man has been around for a long time.  But thanks to his resurgence in Google's logo last week, he has proven that he is going to be around for quite a while.  For those not in the know, Google created a Pac-Man logo for Pac-Man's anniversary last week.  During that time period, countless millions played the interactive doodle.  Google had such a great response they have brought the doodle back permanently.  You too can give Pac-Man a spin by visiting: http://www.google.com/pacman/ and clicking the 'Insert A Coin' button to play.  And according to an article posted on PCMag.com the short duration in which the doodle was on Google's homepage killed a little less than 5 million hours of time.  Think about that, that's roughly 200,000 days worth of time.  Gone, never to be seen again.  This tells me Pac-Man still has it!  Rock on!

Secondly in the news, Microsoft has had some change in it's internal batting order as of late.  First was the 'sabbatical' of J Allard and now Robbie Bach.  J Allard had a huge hand in the workings of the Xbox division at Microsoft.  Meanwhile, Robbie Bach was president of Entertainment & Devices Division (which handles Zune and Windows Phone projects to name a few).  J Allard was onboard at Microsoft for about 19 years; while Bach was onboard for 22 years.  It will be interesting to see what direction Microsoft takes and the further development of these respective product areas take.  Best of luck to J Allard and Robbie Bach.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/26/technology/26soft.html

Thirdly, Insomniac Games has inked a deal with Microsoft which will allow them to bring a new unnamed game project to the Xbox 360; as well as, the PS3.  Insomniac Games are the guys who bought the world the 'Resistance' games for the PS3; and who were formerly a PS3 exclusive developer.  This will be interesting to keep an eye on as well.  http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/05/insomniac-signs-multi-platform-deal-with-ea-partners.ars

Last up in the news this week: Facebook changes Privacy Settings Again?!  Go ahead and cringe.  I know I did.  Anyone who has ever used Facebook knows about their privacy settings fiasco.  Their privacy settings have been pretty confusing for most people for a while now.  For example, I post a picture.  I can edit the privacy settings for that picture to determine who can see it.  This is great at it's most basic form.  However, the settings go on to allow you to control how friends of friends see it, and how people viewing friends pages see your content, etc.  Whatever happened to: 'Keep This Picture Private' (Only Friends See it) or 'Make the Public' (for anybody to see it).  This is pure crap from a development stand point.  It's obvious that Facebook has trumped MySpace, there are other Social Sites out there.  But none that are so widely used as Facebook.  The population of Facebook isn't college kids anymore.  Now people of all ages use it.  From children to grandparents.  For this reason, Facebook is going to have to keep it simple in regards to permissions and privacy settings.  The current system is something that a webmaster using a Content Management System might see (individual privacy/security settings for individual components).  Security is very important, especially with the sheer amount of everyday user's who access Facebook.  So yes, it needs to be safe to protect everybody.  But at the same time, Facebook is taking our information and selling it to other sites.  Which in my opinion is wrong.  I understand they are in business to make money.  But they already do that by ad placement on their site pages; which are viewed billions of times a day.

Facebook better straighten up, because I can certainly live without Farmville.
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9177321/Facebook_to_simplify_privacy_settings_Wednesday

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Software of The Week: TVersity free media streaming!

Recently, I was in need of a solution for accessing my media via streaming from my computer. First, I figured out exactly what my needs were.  Simple, I needed away to access media from my desktop computer via my local wireless network.  I would be accessing the files mainly from my iPod Touch and possibly from a laptop or two later down the road.  After a few minutes searching the web, I landed on TVersity.  The download was only 13.5 MB's for the free edition.  TVersity is rather versatile as well; you can easily stream to iPod Touch/iPhones, Nintendo Wii's, PSP, Xbox 360 and PS3 systems.  As well as various other wifi enabled devices.

The setup was pretty easy, pretty much double click the setup icon and roll through the wizard.  Once up, I was able to use my iPod Touch's Safari web browser to navigate to my hosts computer's local IP address and I was able to stream a video clip in just a few minutes.  When the program initially accesses a video is transcodes it on the fly, this eliminates the need for having to convert a video file from it's native format to an iPod/Apple ready format.  It does take a few minutes to do the on-the-fly conversion, but it worked very well when it finished.  Likewise, I was able to access the same video file from my laptop as well.

Think of this little gem as setting up your own Video On Demand service within your local network.  The host interface is very well laid out and makes it easy to stream your media files; as well as, subscribe to web content as well.  During setup, the wizard does ask you to enter your YouTube login if you desire to aggregate your favorite YouTube clips too.  The free version looks like it will handle all of my needs for the time being, but should you need to access premium content on sites like Hulu, Sling, and several others; there is a Pro version which costs $39.99 per license.  However, the free version will serve your local content and access some web stuff.  Overall, this is an excellent solution for streaming media.  There are ways you can stream via the internet, but for local streaming setup was a snap.  Likewise, there are other methods of streaming your content, some of which are available for a price from Apple's App Store.  Personally, I like free.  And with the free TVersity and the web browsers I already use, I can achieve my goal.

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Dark Void Demo Review

After playing through the 'Dark Void' PC Demo.  I've come to a few conclusions.  First, let me say that this review is purely for the PC Demo of this game.  Not the console versions.  I have an Xbox 360, but to be honest I have been too lazy to try it out on the 360.  From what I have read, it plays very well on the console.  But personally, I cannot attest to that fact.

The basic plot of the game is that your character got lost in the Bermuda Triangle and was pulled through a void which dumps him into another dimension, where his plan proceeds to break down.  He stumbles across some refugees who want to get back home to our dimension.  But these creepy robot creatures called 'Watchers' stand in the way. And somewhere in the mix Nikola Tesla makes an appearance.  (Unfortunately, most of this isn't seen in the demo).

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Dark Void Demo is Live

Hey everybody,
Just a quick note to let everyone know that the DarkVoid demo is now live. So go and download it. It is available for the PC, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3!

http://www.darkvoidgame.com/demo/

Look for my first impression in a day or so, after I've had several chances to play through the demo.

Enjoy!

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Minutes to Midnight..And the Wii

This morning at 10:00a EST (3:00p GMT) there will be a live streaming event from the New York Academy of Sciences, looks as though the hands on the Doomsday clock are being moved again. Which way will they go? Tune in to find out. The streaming event can be found at: http://www.turnbacktheclock.org/

When the Doomsclock was first setup it was set as as icon upcoming world catastrophe by nuclear threat. That was in 1947. And since the clock has been moved less than 20 times. Now the clock is more a symbol of threats such as nuclear, global warming, and other such threats. For more information on the history of the clock, check out this really good article which was featured on Google News this morning. ABCNews: Doomsday Clock to Be Moved


And on a lighter note, all you fans of the Nintendo Wii and Netflix. Rest assured, you have not been forgotten. Now that the 360 and PS3 both have Netflix streaming features, so do you. Looks like this spring, Netflix members will be able to stream to the Wii console. Article

Ok, great. But one request Nintendo. Before the end of the world, could you please release a firmware update that unlocks the Wii's dvd player without having to do a softmod? It just makes sense.

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