That’s right, it says why Sony should charge for the PSN, and it’s not a type-o. And no, I’m not rich, crazy, nor do I work for Sony. I really don’t want to pay to use the Playstation Network, or Xbox Live. In fact, I don’t really want to pay for video games at all, but there is a big difference between what I want and what is practical. So, here are a couple of reasons why Sony should to charge for the PSN, and neither one of them is why Microsoft charges for Xbox Live.
Xbox Live Activity is a little misleading this week where Fable II is in the top 3, though not a traditional multiplayer game. World at War beta is also on the list making both Call of Duty games in the top 10. I have a feeling that next week, we might see Gears 2 in the top 2, if not THE most played game.
Xbox 360 Top Live Titles (based on UU’s)
1 Call of Duty 4
2 Halo 3
3 Fable II
4 Gears of War
5 FIFA 09
6 World at War Beta
7 Saints Row 2
8 GTA IV
9 Madden NFL 09
10 Fallout 3
With the NXE Preview Program finally underway, I guess it was inevitable that someone was going to leak the install files, but be careful what you wish for. It seems that after installing the update on your machine that your Xbox becomes unable to connect to Xbox Live as long as you are not a member of the program. Not only that, but Major Nelson himself has issued a warning, scary! The question still remains, how long will you be unable to access Xbox Live? Quite possibly just until the update on November 19th.
If you are feeling lucky and have no intention of playing Gears of War 2 online this coming week, feel free to give it a shot but don’t say we didn’t warn you. It actually is extremely easy to apply the update, just follow the link below for the file and a brief explanation.
[Via Platform Nation]
Do you like Battlefield Bad Company? Do you like free? Do you like free stuff for Bad Company? If you said no then stop reading, if you said yes then you are in luck because there are some free maps and if you have the PS3 version some new shiny trophies coming your way. Read on my fellow free content chasers.
Official Press Release:
Battlefield: Bad Company players can download the ‘Community Choice Map Pack’ via PlayStation Update starting today and via Xbox LIVE™ Marketplace starting tomorrow. Included in this pack are four brand new conquest multiplayer maps, gameplay enhancements and PlayStation 3 Trophy support – all for free!
I understand this is a bit of a late notice but over at the XNA Creators Club you can sign up for the Xbox Live Community Games launch event which is taking place in San Fransisco tomorrow October 29th, between 7 and 10 P.M. Pacific Time. You must R.S.V.P. and be 21 years of age or older along with a valid photo I.D.
The event will showcase some of the never-before-seen community games and interviews with the fine folks that made XNA possible plus free food and beverages. What is not to like here? If I lived anywhere near the west coast I would so be there, stupid Minnesota.
Directions and the sign up sheet can be found here.
Over at Gamerscoreblog there are some new photos of how the Netflix section of the New Xbox Experience will look. All Xbox live gold members that reside in the U.S.A. with a Netflix unlimited subscription of any kind will be able to watch over 12,000 movies from their instant queue for free in NXE. Nothing we really haven’t heard before but it does pose a simple question, will we be able to add movies to our instant queue from our Xbox or do we need to run to the computer to do this? Hopefully everything is streamlined and we are able to do this simple task from the Xbox itself but from the looks of things it just doesn’t seem like that is likely.
We would appreciate more information than this but at least we have photos, right guys?
Recently it has been announced that Microsoft has been granted a patent, not a patent for some fancy peripheral or new console design, but a patent to help them censor what you hear on Xbox Live.
Back in 2004 Microsoft applied for a patent for real-time censoring of audio streams, and now the USPTO has granted that patent.
The patent involves real-time (or batch) analysis of an audio stream that can recognize inappropriate language based on phonemes, and then overwrite objectionable words with bleeps, other noises, or silence.
This sounds great for anyone who may have small children playing online or anyone that is just plain tired of hearing racial slurs being yelled into their headsets. If this is an option you could turn on for players under a certain age or just during games where you do not want to deal with obscenities it could be very useful.
On the other hand I do have a bit of a fundamental problem with censorship of any kind and this is a pretty big censorship of free speech. Although I rather abhor hearing the ranting’s of the village idiot over Xbox Live, it is unfortunately his right. If I do not agree with what he is saying or just do not want to deal with it, I can always mute that player and continue to play on with whatever game it is.
This new technology and patent opens up a window of possibilities that could infringe on our freedoms and I hope Microsoft is thinking about this in great detail. Perhaps I do not use obscenities in my speech via Xbox Live (although I do regularly) but instead would like to discuss the presidential race or religion and that is deemed inappropriate? We could be setting ourselves up for a regime of censorship that could even limit discussions of other consoles or games. What if someone deemed that discussion of PS3 titles was inappropriate via Xbox Live?
Although the patent at first glance sounds like a great way to clean up Xbox Live, where do we draw the line and give up our freedom of speech?
This video from Major Nelson is for all of you out there who were wondering how the hell you are going to play XNA games on the New Xbox Experience. I am personally very excited to see what is in store for us come November 19th when all of these games that have been in development can finally be unleashed to the general public. Let me try to explain this in the simplest way possible what the Community Games Channel is and how it is going to work.
The Xbox Live Community Games Channel is a seperate area within the NXE. In here you will be able to download and play the games that were created with XNA Game Studio by all of the small developers out there. XNA Game Studio is a way to help small developers streamline all of the tasks that are normally a burden for even large developing teams. Once the game is finished it is submitted for peer review by XNA Creator’s Club community where it is hopefully deemed ready to play. The submission process from start to finish should take no more than 48 hours for the game to be up and ready for download unlike the weeks it takes XBLA games to be certified. The creator of said game can set a price point of 200, 400 or 800 Microsoft Points for their game which is a far cry from the enormous amounts we have been seeing for XBLA games.
That’s the gist of it. When the NXE is released and the Community Channel is up and running I sincerely hope it is a big hit because there are definitely some extremely talented people working on these projects and they deserve to have their games played.
The very anticipated demo for EndWar is now finally out on Xbox Live. The game is supposed to be the RTS to end them all, no pun intended, and promises to allow a new level of worldwide co-op play. Most console gamers are not big on RTS because a mouse and keyboard and by far the best way to play it, but this could be a lot of fun.
We had brought you news that rapper Soulja Boy was reviewing Braid and that was a classic moment, but watch as he punks one of his fans to be on his friend list. He openly gives out his Xbox 360 Gamertag (Souljaboytellem)and then shouts out the other guy that is trying to play with him, but he won’t let him be his friend unless he says that “Soulja Boy is the best rapper alive”. Man if you are a fan of this punk I would re-think that situation, he might be a bit nicer if he wanted to keep fans, nothing says I am a tool like forcing a fan to clown himself and then call him names.
