Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Spiderman 3 Review


I had hoped so much that Spiderman 3 could match up to it's predecessor Spiderman 2. Unfortunately that was not to happen, it was in many ways an updated Spiderman 2 but that won't get it the same grade, there needs to be something new or at least make it enjoyable and Spiderman 3 fails at both. The graphics are worse then some PS2 games, like Kingdom Hearts 2 which because of a missing memory card I ended up playing more often then Spiderman 3 during the time I had the game rented.

Gameplay(37/100): Gameplay, what gameplay? This is the same stuff from Spiderman 2. Swing around, save people from random crimes, play random missions. Nothing changed accept for worse. Now you have to play button mashing segments trying to be similar to God of War's button sequences however these ones are just pure button mashing. Instead of pressing R2 and L2 to swing as you do in the game(well R2 is the main one but if you hold both you can get suspended on 2 webs) instead you're pressing jump(X), quick attack(Square), strong attack(Triangle). and web attack(O). The worst part is that after about 5 hours of pressing face buttons in button sequences suddenly an L1 popped up out of nowhere during one and threw me off completely. The button sequences are poorly timed, poorly coordinated, and just poorly executed in every single way.

Graphics(34/100): The graphics are so bad it's unbelievable at no point did I think I was playing on one the most powerful console on the planet. Hell I didn't even think the graphics would be worthy of contending with the best PS2 games like God of War 2 and Kingdom Hearts II. The window textures are clearly the same ones I saw in Spiderman 2. The models look the same except for decent shading on the bricks but the somewhat frequent missing pieces of the models was both hilarious and disheartening. Often the roof would be missing, which makes me wonder how the poor inhabitants of such building live with rain falling on them and the cold wind of NY blowing on them at night.

Story(46/100): The story is of course somewhat good because it is a movie game however they ruin it by adding scorpion(AGAIN?!), rhino(AGAIN?!), the lizard, and other villains who while being nice distraction didn't really have good plots behind their portions so it just worsened the story as a whole. Not to mention when New Goblin shows up and Peter is still acting relaxed? Doesn't make sense if you ask me if he has already faced some new bad guys. Overall it takes an already iffy movie storyline and makes it worse by adding villains that Spiderman had defeated in the previous games instead of tapping into the vast resource of spiderman villains, just seems like a lazy job by the development crew.

Sound(48/100): The nice fwish, fwish of the webbing is a nice distraction to the awkward voice acting, I mean the voice acting makes it seem like Tobey Macquire has never been in an ADR stage. Hitting each enemy sounds exactly the same and just ruins the immersion in the game if the poor graphics could immerse you in the first place. One of the most annoying things is the 'early James Bondish' fight between Harry and Peter, the random talking every once in a while but that is rare, most of the time there is just the silence while fighting on the board, just the jet running in the background, no music. Kinda bland.

Overall(41/100): Spiderman 3 unfortunately did not live up to my expectations. The poor gameplay, graphics, everything ruined it completely even the AI sucks. After being knocked to within one hit of dying on the board with Harry my friend pulled off an 83 hit combo which still didn't kill Harry but knocked his health down enough. That's another thing, bosses have ridiculously high health and you do almost no visible damage per hit yet they can take like 15% of your health bar away in one hit. The game is unbalanced and just in general a poor game, even if you're a spiderman fan I recommend you do not pick this up.

Monday, August 06, 2007

So I got a PS3...


...although I did not get a game with it. Not only because it isn't the cheapest thing on the market, but mainly because the game I want the most(right now) is coming out on September 4th and after waiting almost a year for the PS3 I feel I can wait another month for the game. In the meantime of course I have to have something to play so I rented Major League Baseball 2K7 and of course downloaded a shit-ton(10x a buttload) of demos. So I am gonna review them.

Super Rub a Dub Demo Review - Super Rub a Dub is certainly an interesting and cute concept. By using the oddly transparent SIXAXIS(How come no one ever mentioned it's transparency?) you rotate the screen to collect rubber duckies and drop them down an exit point, which looks oddly like a drain. Aside from being a way to show off the SIXAXIS to your friends and a way to teach kids how to deal with their rubber duckies this game is not enough fun to be worth the money that Sony wants you to charge for it. Overall I give the demo a 36 out of 100, it would be lower but the demo didn't cost me anything.
Nucleus Demo Review - Nucleus is an interesting idea and is pretty straight forward, you move your cell around the screen with the left analog stick and fire at obstacles and enemies using the right analog stick. You can also use a burst attack using the L2 button and use a traction beam with the R2 one to drag obstacle cells into areas or into an area to protect you from the enemies(bacteria). Overall I give it a 56 out of 100, not worth the money to me as I desire more complete games, but a fun demo to play with none the less.
Blast Factor Demo Review - Blast Factor was definitely the most fun out of all three of the PSN demos I played. It plays very similar to Nucleus in fact the only difference is that their is no L2 or R2 actions. Despite this I think it was better then Nucleus, the graphics and colours look better on Blast Factor and the gameplay has more elements to it, like deflection which you can use to push two enemies together so you can get both with one attack, also there are power ups in Blast Factor unfortunately in the demo they didn't usually show up till the end of the demo. Overall I give Blast Factor a 62 out of 100, still low but if I have money left over I may decide to try the full version.
Tom Clancy's Ghos
t Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 Demo Review - Well that's a mouthful, of course being a demo of a full game this was a lot better then the PSN demos, still this turned into a pretty average shooter game, the AI didn't seem to be taking advantage of the CELL processor and the lack of instruction on how to use the team gameplay left me with no clue how to use my teammates in the latter part of the demo. Maybe it's the lack of instruction or the Poor AI but something keeps me from going back to this demo. Overall I give the demo 78 out of 100.
Motorstorm Demo Review - Motorstorm is an interesting game, the AI is of good intelligence and the crashes are fun to look at. It's a good take on rally racing and it's a demo that's fun to play a few times over. However maybe it's because the only racing game(aside from Mario Kart 64 and Beetle Adventure Racing) in my collection is Gran Turismo, just a rally game doesn't seem worth the $60 for me, of course 1 million people disagree with me but to each his own. The game is a good rally game and looks better than DiRT but personally, I am gonna wait till GT5. Overall I give the Motorstorm Demo a 81 out of 100.
Heavenly Sword Demo Revi
ew - This is the demo I was most excited about playing on my PS3, in a way it satisfied the need but in another way it was disappointing. There are three main reasons why it's disappointing: 1. The Demo is only 5 minutes long! 2. There's no jumping ability. 3. There is no indicator of when to use the circle button to perform special moves so it's basically just button mashing square, triangle, and circle and hoping you get a cool animation along the way. The good thing is the graphics and the cinematics are extremely empressive so that's one thing that keeps this game alive, hopefully they fix the gameplay by release. Overall I give the Heavenly Sword Demo a 85 out of 100.
The Darkness Demo Review - The Darkness plays like any other FPS, you use your weapons to kill other enemies, and that's how the first 1.5 levels of this demo play out, then the game changes completely and becomes a creative new game in the FPS genre, which is refreshing considering how many of the games are repeats of others. The Darkness is one of my favourite demos that I downloaded for the PS3 so far. The usage of the darkness powers is an engaging new way of playing a FPS and my favourite part is splitting off the right head of the darkness and using it as a stealth killing machine and killing a huge portion of the enemies before you even march into the area. The creatures you summon are unfortunately very hard to control which brings down the grade a bit. Overall I give the Darkness Demo a 90 out of 100.
Resistance: Fall of Man Demo Review - Resistance is by far the most fun I've had in all of the demos I have downloaded. It is easy to control and use the graphics are good looking the AI is intelligent and challenging at points to defeat. Not to mention that Resistance has two levels that are not short and are way longer then I expected for a demo. The best thing about this game is it feels nothing like a WWII shooter, you're not fighting Nazis you're fighting Aliens with kick ass weapons that you steal from them and use against them. Overall I give the Resistance demo a 93 out of 100.
Major League Baseball 2k7 Review - Major League Baseball 2k7 does what I expect it to. It gives you a fun MLB experience and that's about it. It doesn't do anything really new and exciting and the SIXAXIS controls are frustrating at best. The SIXAXIS controls frustrate because they don't make sense, instead of swinging the control like a bat you jab up or down to determine where the ball goes and what kind of hit it is. It's something that needs to be improved as well as adding SIXAXIS controls for pitching. Overall I give Major League Baseball 2k7 a 74 out of 100.
Gran Turismo HD Review - The shining crown of Sony's internal studio and the best racing game ever released makes it's way onto the PS3 as a free preview of what Polyphony can whip up on the PS3. The graphics were more impressive then any of the other games I played and the replay value is certainly higher and the best thing is it is not a demo it is in it's own sense a game, you have objectives, 8 cars, and 2 gameplay modes. And from what I've seen of GT5 so far this is but a taste of what Polyphony Digital can do. Overall I give GT HD a 98 out of 100.
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots Gameplay Demonstration Trailer Review - Now isn't that a long name, this trailer was on the Playstation Store and I am grateful for it as gametrailers seems to have trouble keeping the servers up long enough for the video to be downloaded. The demonstration goes through all the gameplay elements of MGS4 and talks about how the battlefield is incorporated into the series. The graphics are amazing and the way you effect the way the war and the battles turn out is exciting as well, instead of being a player in the background as with previous Metal Gear Solid games you now have an effect on the war as a whole and can change the course of it on a day to day basis, if you haven't seen this trailer yet I suggest you watch it by clicking the 'right now' link at the beginning of this post. Overall the trailer impresses way more than I expected it and gets a 100 out of 100 from me.

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Stop the Japanese Dolphin Hunt

From October to April, Japanese fishermen will kill more than 20,000 dolphins and porpoises as part of their annual hunt. Officials claim the slaughter is a form of “pest control” to offset the amount of fish the dolphins eat. But, the reality is, the butchered dolphins are sold off to supermarkets and grocery stores.

Japanese fishermen have admitted that they are worried the government will soon shut them down in light of international outrage over the hunt. Contact the Japanese Embassy today and tell Japan to stop the slaughter.

http://takeaction.oceana.org/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=5322

Monday, July 23, 2007

Home is where the heart is...


Ahh, Playstation Home what a beautiful service you are. Sure you're a bit like Second Life and maybe the Sims but unlike those games you are real. Your graphics aren't silly child stuff they are real and beautifully textured and modeled. Home will have thousands of spaces that look almost better than our own Homes. Such places as this Japanese-style home or perhaps an apartment from the top of a city skyline. But one of the best parts is the potential, Sony has already announced that there will be games like pool and bowling and various arcade games, not to mention various exclusive events like game previews and developer interviews. Although not much has been said on game previews my guess is they will take place in specialized Home Theatres where chat bubbles from the audience will probably be banned as to prevent blocking someones view or to keep the crowd to just emotes. These may be free or pay-for events and will hopefully keep game news constantly flowing instead of being limited to several key conferences. But more importantly that that these services make us the gamer feel like we're part of something because we get this news faster than our buddies who may not have the fortune of owning a PS3. Where I see the Home service going is in an exciting direction where we may have user groups that can have their own sports team and hopefully Sony will add Home Soccer, Baseball, Football, .etc so that we can have fun just in Home if we want and not just use it as a channel to the real games. Then maybe the trophies can become a symbol of Home achievements and not just our outside-Home achievements. That's really all I have to say about Home...at least until I get my hands on the Beta.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

What does the future hold?


I graduate from high school tomorrow and so my question to myself is what does the future holds. Well after this summer break where I will hopefully be able to get a job just for the summer before I head off to UAT in Tempe, Arizona, where I will be for the next 3-4 years(or until I graduate). After that I hope to be out into the field of game design making best sellers in no time at all :). And hopefully sometime during the process I will find a girl who loves me to spend the rest of my life with *crosses fingers*.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Warhammer RvR Video

Go to this link: http://www.gametrailers.com/gamepage.php?id=1026 and watch the Types of RvR video.

Done yet? Ok, to me that is the best system I've ever seen for an MMORPG. Instanced scenarios sound like they will be fun and possibly a platform for guild vs guild combat. I wasn't even aware that the PvE combat would be spilling over victory points to the overall campaign. This means even those that hate PvP and just want to PvE the entire time will still be helping the overall campaign and also means that the kind of massive raids that DAoC is somewhat known for will actually be helping those on the frontier. I was kinda upset that I didn't see any mention of seige combat though...

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Album

Photobucket Album

Monday, April 09, 2007

Planet Earth


Yesterday was the third week of the mini-series Planet Earth by Discovery Channel and BBC. I simply cannot get enough of this show. Anyone who knows me well knows how much I love animals and this show captures the animals in such perfect resolution that it makes me feel like I'm there, and that's on an SDTV with mono audio. I can only imagine how amazing it would be if I had stereo audio and an HDTV. But regardless about how impressive the audio and video is I hope that the American Public recognizes through this program just why Al Gore and others continue to Lobby for the environment. Now I am not saying that everyone should get up this moment and join PETA, but I would just hope that for the sake of the environment that this show would get people to start to care about the world we live and hopefully end not just Global Warming but the constant poor treatment of animals by people everywhere. My one concern is that not enough parents are interested in this program, the kids are but the parents seems uninterested. I just hope it's not too late by the time the kids of today take a hold of the situation...

Thursday, April 05, 2007

Did we see the future of the Red Sox today?


After watching the latter portion of today's Red Sox game I was quite impressed with the way Daisuke Matsuzaka manhandled the Royals. Granted he got a home run hit off of him but he also struck out 10 of the Royals hitters, an impressive feat for a first-time Major Leaguer. What impressed me the most was not how many strike-outs he got, or even how many outs in general that he got, it was the number of pitches that he has in his arsenal. The big hype around Matsuzaka is that he has the gyro ball, which on it's own is an amazing pitch but what a lot of sports writers fail to mention is just how many off-speed pitches Matsuzaka has, you can prepare for his gyro ball but then you may get his splitter, or his curve ball, or his slider, .etc. Essentially every time someone steps up to the plate against Matsuzaka they are in danger of getting burned by one of his many pitches. Matsuzaka is still a young pitcher and he has many years of service for the Red Sox left in him. Hopefully, many World Series. This is why I ask the question did we see the future of the Red Sox today. Not only because Matsuzaka may very well be the future face of the Red Sox but he represents the willingness that the owners now have to spend money on players. Overall because of this we should see the Red Sox develop into a much better team. Right now though Dice-K fits the Red Sox mold perfectly. That mold being made around the pitching staff in that if you provide them a good defense(Lowell, Crisp, .etc) and the occasional clutch hit(Ortiz) and have excellent pitchers(Matsuzaka, Papelbon, .etc) victory is assured.

Friday, February 16, 2007

Sony's stock, highest it's been in 4 years

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=ajbKoZXI2hOk&refer=japan

Sunday, December 31, 2006

2007 Preview

Top 10 PS3 games of 2007:
T-10. Blacksite: Area 51
T-10. Warhawk
9. Battlefield: Bad Company
8. Army of Two
7. Devil May Cry 4
6. Grand Theft Auto IV
5. Guitar Hero III
4. Mercenaries 2
3. Assassin's Creed
2. Lair
1. Metal Gear Solid IV

Top 10 PSP Games
10. Winning Eleven World Soccer 07
9. 300: March to Glory
8. Prince of Persia: Rival Swords
7. Tomb Raider: Anniversary Edition
6. Elder Scrolls
5. The Warriors
4. Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters
3. Sid Meier's Pirates
2. GT4: Mobile
T-1. FFVII: Crisis Core
T-1. PSOne Downloads

Biggest Surprise of 2007:
Kingdom Hearts for PSP

PSP Games too watch for:
Jeff Corwin Experience(I can see some GPS stuff being added into it that could make it a sleeper hit)
Eye Toy Play Portable
DC Universe

Best of 2006

Game of the Year Awards:

Playstation Portable Game of the Year - Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops
Nintendo DS Game of the Year - Brain Age
X-Box Game of the Year - Splinter Cell: Double Agent
Gamecube Game of the Year - Zelda: Twilight Princess
Playstation 2 Game of the Year - Kingdom Hearts II
X-Box 360 Game of the Year - Gears of War
Wii Game of the Year - Zelda: Twilight Princess
Playstation 3 Game of the Year - Resistance: Fall of Man
PC Game of the Year - Medieval II - Total War
Free Game of the Year - Mount & Blade(www.taleworlds.com)
Game of the Year - Kingdom Hearts II

Genre Awards:

Puzzle - Mercury Meltdown
Innovation - Brain Age/Locoroco(Tie)
Music - Guitar Hero II
Racing - Need for Speed: Carbon
Sports - World Soccer Winning Eleven 9
Extreme Sports - Tony Hawk's Project 8
Fighter - Tekken: Dark Ressurrection
Action/Adventure - Zelda: Twilight Princess
Platformer - Daxter
FPS Singleplayer - Gears of War
FPS Multiplayer - Resistance: Fall of Man
Turn-based Strategy - Civilization IV: Warlords
RTS - Medieval II - Total War
Action RPG - Kingdom Hearts II
Turn-based RPG - Final Fantasy XII

Friday, October 20, 2006

PS3 Network Details

"In addition to a wide array of software titles, SCEA today also unveiled the online and network services provided through PS3, which will offer distinctive benefits to consumers and developers alike. Consumers will be able to enjoy a wide array of PS3 network capabilities, with basic features offered absolutely free from day one.

Developers will benefit from the open platform policy of SCEA, which will allow them more freedom and creativity in the development of their games and online/network services. The end result will be more than just a place to play games, but a rich online environment with strong community aspects as distinctive as the titles themselves.

The entry way into PlayStation Network is XMB (Xross Media Bar), which is the navigation system that enables a complete suite of entertainment experiences in three key areas: gaming; network and web connectivity; and other entertainment contents such as movies and music.

The intuitive XMB interface, which is already featured on more than 20 million PSPs shipped worldwide, allows PS3 users to experience multiplayer games across the network; communicate with other players via chat, voice or video; browse the web; download gaming content; store/view pictures and video; download and listen to music; and shop online.

Through the online PlayStation Store, consumers can find such items as game demos, game-related content and downloadable casual games, including titles developed by Sony Computer Entertainment World Wide Studios exclusively for download and play only on PS3, such as Blast Factor.

Multiple users can share a PS3, and each user has his or her own login, which is represented by a unique icon of your choosing. You'll be able to have a friends list, much like in Xbox Live. Another similar feature to Xbox Live is the ability to text message your buddies. You can either choose to enter words using a number pad just like what you have on your cell phone, or via a USB keyboard. If you use the number pad, predictive text is enabled to speed things up.

Once users create a unique, secure PlayStation profile, they cannot only communicate with other PS3 users, they can also utilize an electronic wallet to purchase content in the PlayStation Store. Downloadable first party games will cost less than $15 at launch. More content will be added on a regular basis." - Gamespy

Friday, October 06, 2006

Assassin's Creed Gameplay Video

My first video edit. Footage from X06 Assassin's Creed Demo. Music by The Dust Brothers
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=136431572416410909

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Mercury Preview

"

PlayStation.com
6/27/2006 12:00:00 AM - Archer MacLean's Mercury was one of those unique puzzlers that tested both your manual dexterity and your mental problem solving skills. While the concept of moving a blob of mercury from a starting point to a goal might seem simple, controlling multiple orbs at the same time while not falling from a large table or getting eaten by a malevolent little creature does complicate the game significantly. The first title, while fun, had some issues with respect to its multiplayer, its level design and its lack of autosaving. Fortunately, Mercury Meltdown appears to address every single problem the original title had while expanding the scope of the game itself. For the most part, the concept of getting as much mercury as possible to a goal remains in Mercury Meltdown. However, the artistic style of the game, which is much more artistically animated and cartoonish features prominently within the game design, particularly with some of the gauges, which themselves have a new focus on point distribution. Your Mercury gauge remains to let you know how much of your initial bubble of mercury exists, with a line that indicates how much mercury you'll need to keep "alive" to be able to trigger pressure plates or other switches. The countdown timer returns as well, giving you an indication as to what the par time for navigating around and through the course is. By reaching the finish line in time, you'll receive a happy face in the countdown timer; by contrast, you get a sad face for missing the par time and an angry face for losing all of your mercury altogether.


Once a level has been completed, you receive an updated point tally based on how you did: each percentage point of mercury nets you 500 points, while every second on the countdown clock under the par time is worth 1000 points. Collecting scattered bonus icons around each stage is worth 2000 points each. However, you'll need to do some fancy maneuvering around a number of obstacles and level features to reach your goal. New to this game are status gates: Heaters will speed up your blob, making the bubble move faster and split apart easier. Coolers, on the other hand, slow down the mercury, making it harder to break. There are also solid ball gates that turn the mercury into a solid orb which can be easily launched off ramps or roll around rails on a stage. Players will also have a couple of new objects to interact with on each level. One such object is a friendly blob suspended in a gelatin square known as Stan, who rolls around in an arbitrary fashion. By maneuvering in front of him, you can direct his movement towards switches or other objects. There is also the Huebrick, which is a colored block that you'll need to collide with to push around. You'll also discover that the kind of surfaces that you travel over will affect the movement of the mercury, such as sticky floors that slow down blobs or slippery floors that speed it up. Even the paint system has been redone, with a new color wheel to help you figure out what colors you'll need to mix to get through colored gates and three-way paint dispensers to cover bubbles.


The single player demo that we received focused on a certain number of laboratories that your mercurial blob will explore, such as Chem or Bio labs. While the number of labs appeared to be locked down, there should be more than 160 levels in the final game, which is easily twice the amount found in the original game. That isn't including a number of additional multiplayer and wireless modes that will be included in the final game as well. Mercury Meltdown will also feature game sharing and downloadable content (most likely in the form of skins for your blob), as well as unlockable party games like races, paintable levels and more. We're looking forward to playing more of the game, as well as exploring the multiplayer and party games before it ships in late August, but what we've seen so far looks like a great adjustment on the original puzzle game.
"
Sweet finally the first game I found extremely entertaining on the PSP gets a sequel, can't wait.


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Saturday, September 16, 2006

My week 2 NFL pics

Sunday, Sep. 17

Buffalo at Miami* 1:00 p.m.
Carolina at Minnesota* 1:00 p.m.
Cleveland at Cincinnati* 1:00 p.m.
Detroit at Chicago* 1:00 p.m.
Houston at Indianapolis* 1:00 p.m.
New Orleans* at Green Bay 1:00 p.m.
N.Y. Giants at Philadelphia* 1:00 p.m.
Oakland at Baltimore* 1:00 p.m.
Tampa Bay at Atlanta* 1:00 p.m.
Arizona* at Seattle 4:05 p.m.
St. Louis* at San Francisco 4:05 p.m.
Kansas City* at Denver 4:15 p.m.
New England at N.Y. Jets* 4:15 p.m.
Tennessee at San Diego* 4:15 p.m.
Washington at Dallas* 8:15 p.m.

Monday, Sep. 18

Pittsburgh at Jacksonville* 8:30 p.m.

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Sunday, September 10, 2006

My week 1 NFL pics

Week 1 Picks:
Atlanta vs Carolina*
Baltimore vs Tampa Bay*
Buffalo vs New England*
Cincinatti* vs Kansas City
Denver* vs St. Louis
New Orleans* vs Cleveland
New York vs Tennesse*
Philadelphia* vs Houston
Seattle* vs Detroit
Chicago* vs Green Bay
Dallas* vs Jacksonville
San Fransico vs Arizona*
Indianapolis* vs New York
Minnesotta* vs Washington
San Diego* vs Oakland
* is who I think is going to win

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Friday, July 21, 2006

'Zune'scape

http://www.smh.com.au/news/breaking-news/new-microsoft-mp3-player-targets-ipod/2006/07/22/1153166619002.html
Microsoft is ready to release their new Zune brand and spread the joy and goodness to the world, or so Microsoft executives would say. Now I am not exactly sure what is detailed in the Zune brand. All I know for sure is that it will include a new mp3 player from Microsoft that they will attempt to use to kill the iPod or at least take some of the marketshare(may I be the first to say if the mp3 player is cheaper then the iPod with the same amount of storage put me in line for it) and some sort of iTunes rivaling store. I don't know if WMP 11 is included in the Zune brand, tip of the hat to Microsoft for it regardless, but it is definitely going to be co-operating with it. Also there are plenty of rumours of a Portable gaming device coming from microsoft to compete with the PSP and in their dreams, the DS(also Sony's dreams as well). I think that this entire Zune thing may just be an attempt by Microsoft to take market share away from their two biggest competitors, Apple and Sony.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

EA not pure evil?

Normally I am just as anti-EA as every other gamer. But I am beginning to ask myself why am I so anti-EA what did they do to deserve to be the Evil corporation in gaming. Now of course some people might be like "Well duh because they have a monopoly on gaming." True EA does have a monopoly on gaming, but who gave EA the money to make such a monopoly. The gamers, quite simply EA has been making good games since they started. They decided to take the money from these games and turn it into a massive gaming empire with good games coming out in every genre. And so far they've been fairly successful, not only in the games they make but the companies they decide to add to their gaming empire. They've acquired recently, Mythic Entertainment probaly one of the best MMO Developers in the industry, Valve the creators of Half Life 2, and Criterion the creators of Renderware. Now with the exception of Criterion these are top-notch developers and the best at what they do. If you don't believe me then try to put Half Life 2 or Dark Age of Camelot away after one hour. It's nearly impossible to do it. Even before then EA had excellent developer firms and developers under their wing. Think of games like The Sims 2, Spore, Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, Madden, MVP, SSX, All the street games, Need for Speed, Battlefield 1942, Command and Conquerer, I could go on and on and on. The point I am trying to make is that EA is not as evil as everyone thinks they are, they are just smart business men with a good eye for developers. Note this does not make me now a EA fanboy, just purely stating facts.

Sunday, June 25, 2006

Superconsole?

I was talking to my friend at EB Games and apparently Sony wants to make the PS3 upgradeable. I know for a fact that Sony wants to make the PS3 have a 10 year lifespan and that could be possible if it can be upgraded however when coupled with the Linux pre-built on the HDD it raises the question is Sony trying to create a console or some sort of value based Supercomputer?