August 18, 2008 – 2:00 pm
I’ve been a Madden fan for years. Even back in the days when the NFL 2K series was around and terrific, I always bought Madden as well. The game has been a staple in my late summer schedule for years. But after the debacle that was Madden 08, I vowed not to purchase this year’s installment of EA’s football series. The bad gameplay and serious lack of innovation finally got to me.
This marks the first time in over 10 years I haven’t bought Madden. But once I saw the terrific reviews pouring in (including our own), I knew I had to give it a shot. So instead of throwing down 60 bones, I dropped $8 at BlockBuster to rent the game for PS3. After intentionally sucking at the Madden IQ test so it would set the difficulty to my real skill level, I got down to starting a franchise with my beloved G-Men.
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August 18, 2008 – 10:00 am
I was looking through the PS3 Video Store over the weekend in hopes to rent a movie instead of driving out to BlockBuster. Specifically, I wanted to rent 21. I knew it was on the store, so it didn’t take long to find it. To my astonishment, it’s not available as a rental. You can only purchase the movie for $14.99. Wait, what?
If a movie is on the store for purchase, there’s no reason whatsoever to exclude a rental option. Having the ability to buy the movie is cool, but every single movie on the Video Store should be available to ren. I’d never seen 21 and wasn’t about to shell out $15 just to watch it once.
I know the Video Store is in its infancy and Sony will be expanding things as time goes on, but this one just seems pretty obvious. If there was a rental option for 21, I would have grabbed it. Since there wasn’t, my money went elsewhere (namely my local BlockBuster for the Blu-Ray rental). Hopefully Sony addresses this sooner than later if they want to make more money from the Video Store.
Since I just got my 10th Xbox 360, I decided I’d use the new DRM fix tool that Microsoft released last month. I fired up the website and went through the steps as outlined, then it was time to re-download everything. I had a whopping 665 items in my download list to reclaim. My jaw dropped a bit.
I sat there for an hour and a half going through my download list and grabbing the licenses for everything. There were a couple hitches along the way, aside from the tunnel vision and boredom. A couple XBLA games re-downloaded completely as if they weren’t there. Now I have 2 copies on my system. I have to delete both (since there’s no way to tell which one has the new license) and download them again. I couple videos (specifically the free South Park episode in HD and the free Code Monkeys episode) couldn’t be re-downloaded for some strange reason. Hopefully I’ll never have the need to watch them when I don’t have a Live connection.
Am I happy Microsoft released this fix and solved the issue? Hell yes. Do I wish they made it much easier? Hell yes. I’m glad I have all my licenses back, but I wish Microsoft would find a way to make this a bit more streamlined. Maybe scan the system and patch all the DRM in one fell swoop? I wouldn’t care if it took the same amount of time, as long as I wouldn’t have to sit there and re-download each one manually.
Have any of you used the DRM fix tool? What are your experiences?
With EA making more and more moves and slowly acquiring everything it can get its grasp on, would the idea of an EA console be out of the question? Would EA ever go down the road of a manufacturer and try their hand at a system during the next generation of consoles?
Sega once was a player in the console war, so was Atari and now they are both reduced to be solely video game software developers. Does this limit them in what they can bring to the table? I say yes. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo all make games that cater specifically for their system and make a lot of money because of this luxury. EA could benefit greatly if they decide to try their hand at a console and make games specifically that cater to their system, such as making Madden and the sports franchises only for their console.
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Many people have been or are currently hooked on the ever popular and growing genre of games we call Massively Multiplayer Online games, MMO for short. Many argue that the charm of an MMO is the ability to have an expansive experience that changes and never really ends, but there are some that argue the opposite and see a lot of satisfaction in a game that has a clear cut ending. Let the debate begin…
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No one can deny the mass appeal of Nintendo’s revolutionary Wii Fit. Adult and child alike are spending hours on the Balance Board trying to shed some pounds. As a male in my mid 20’s, many of the “games” on the Wii Fit just don’t appeal to me. Hula Hooping is fun for a little kid or maybe a mid-aged woman. What about the grown ass man? What will make me want to get on that board time and time again? I have 5 very good reasons.
1. The Flaming Bag of Dog Crap. The premise here is quite simple. You have to carefully walk up to your neighbor’s door while on the Balance Board. If you move too fast or wobble, you will be caught. Carefully lean over, place the bag filled with dog shit, light it, and get the hell out of there. You would run away just like you would in the Wii Fit races. You would run back to the starting point. The man with the best time wins. The closest thing I can think outside of physically lighting a bag of dog crap on fire. You can also avoid those pesky arson charges as well.
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There’s been a recent uproar on the internet with gamers getting increasing angry that older PS3 titles will not be patched for Trophy support. Honestly, what’s the big deal? Is earning a few Trophies and boosting your Level that important to you? Is it really going to make you replay all of your old games?
I don’t see the reason for getting so upset over such a small issue. Sony just introduced this feature, and it’s undoubtably a good one. But people are forgetting that this is not just a new feature for gamers, it’s a new feature for developers. Asking them to drop what they’re doing to implement this into games that they have not touched in a while is just silly. Let’s think about this for a bit, shall we?
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If you haven’t picked up Super Stardust HD yet, it’s a one hell of a good shooter. It flew under the radar and is one of the better PSN games out there. Sony announced that Super Stardust HD will be the first game to receive Trophy support, literally within hours of the firmware v2.4 release. With gamers clamoring to be the first to get their Trophies, will sales of the game spike this week?
I have a feeling this is the case. We don’t know the full sales total, but I’d expect Super Stardust HD to rocket up to the top of the charts on the PSN (as of mid-February, it was #7 on the PSN Top Sellers List). Just like with Achievement Whores on the Xbox 360, I fully expect Trophy Whores to be in full effect in the early morning hours of July 2nd once the firmware hits. Have to get started with building your Level, and why not spend $10 on a good game to get it going?
The real question is, did Sony plan this as a marketing move for the game? Being a critical success but not in the top sellers currently, why not make a big push with Super Stardust HD to garner attention? If this is the case, I think it was pretty smart move on Sony’s part. If not, they stepped into something good. Either way, I have a feeling we’ll be hearing about some high sales data at the end of the week or next week.
With E3 around the corner, everyone can speculate all they want about what’s really coming, but no one knows for sure. Nintendo needs to live up their word of satisfying the “core” gamer. Up until now, they’ve essentially left hardcore gamers on the back burner. Casual is what they’re aiming for, but neglecting those who got you here won’t help.
What bothers me about this is Nintendo’s definition of a “core” gamer. Back in early May, Nintendo Senior Marketing Director in Europe, Laurent Fischer, stated that people who spend ten hours or more on an internet flash game are core gamers. Really? I know a ton of people who play quirky flash games for countless hours a week at work to pass the time, yet none of these people would touch a gaming console. To consider them core gamers make me seriously question what Nintendo will be presenting at E3.
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It’s tough to deny that Xbox Live is a more refined service than the PlayStation Network in its current state. It has been around for almost 6 years, so you’d expect a higher level of service, especially when you’re paying $50 a year. But the PSN has been making strides to recover lost ground through numerous firmware updates.
It’s now been confirmed that firmware v2.4 will be released soon and bring the coveted in-game XMB access to the PS3. Gamers on Sony’s console will now be able to access messages and friends lists in-game as well as send cross-game invites. This has been one of the biggest criticisms of the service since the PS3 was launched. Along with in-game XMB, firmware v2.4 is set to bring Trophy support, which is a service similar to Xbox 360’s Achievements.
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