Archives – the Good, the Bad, and Ugly pre May 31, 2015.
A few weeks back I wrote that I signed up for the upcoming Lord of the Rings Online (LOTR) Siege of Mirkwood beta. Earlier today I received my invite to join the closed beta. Downloading now.
According to the T&Cs I am not allowed to post any commentary on the game, but I suppose I am pleased as punch to be part of the test group.
I decided to subscribe to the new PlayStation Plus service last Tuesday. I opted for a year subscription ($49.99) which includes three “free” bonus months, bringing the final price from $4.17 (12 months) to $3.33 (15 months) per month. One of the very first things I noticed was that the T&Cs committed me to an automatic renewal once my subscription expires – I did not see or notice an easy way to cancel the service.
This PCWorld article describes the new PlayStation Plus service as not worth the cost of entry. At least not yet.
What do you get for $50 a year? At this point, not much. I counted nine total PP options, including a trial version of inFAMOUS, free full versions of Rally Cross ($5.99), Age of Zombies ($4.99), a Warhawk Fallen Star content pack ($1.99), a Fat Princess: Fat Roles expansion pack ($4.99), and Wipeout HD (19.99), a lone sci-fi theme, and–wait for it–two Fat Princess avatars.
Additionally, Midway and TikGames-Creat Studios were offering a handful of specially priced items, including stuff like Midway’s Mortal Kombat II (regularly $4.99, discounted to $2.50) and TiKGames-Create Studios’ Wakeboarding HD (regularly $14.99, discounted to $11.99).
But that’s it. All told, it’s more like a sampler platter of what to expect–trial versions, freebies, and discounts–when the service finally ramps up. I though that’d be now, but alas, we’re left to hypotheticals and unofficial conjecture about a holiday content fulfillment period.
Facebook
The writer also limited the fact that the PlayStation Store has some stupid, undefined, non intuitive errors. In one case, not being able to directly publish PSN purchases directly to his Facebook page. I do not do the Facebook thing; I know … maybe one of these days I will get with it … probably. I digress.
I am trying to think if Facebook integration is a cool feature or downright silly. No idea, but I doubt the vast majority of my friends would care that I just picked up two free premium bonus Plus Fat Princes avatars. Actually, they would probably say I was a wanker.
Free Games
I downloaded Wipeout HD, Rally Cross (PSOne Classic), Age of Zombies (minis), and the free avatars and theme. I am not really sure what to do with the “free” expansion content – over the weekend I am going to download it to see if there is any possibility of “keeping it around” for later in case Warhawk or Fat Princess become “free” Plus content or maybe discounted content.
Was the first month of Plus worth it to me? Probably not, although I did get Wipeout HD, which is a game I would have never purchased. Based on the reviews I can find, the Zombie minis is considered one of the better made minis. Too bad, because I thought it pretty much sucked.
Back in the day I loved Rally Cross, but I doubt it has aged well. I consider this bonus content for my PSP because I doubt I will play it on the PS3. I am going to look to see if I can find a game save on one of my old PSX memory cards, but even if I do, while I can transfer it to my PS3, I doubt there is a way to transfer saves between the PS3 and PSP.
The rest is well, not worth much to me. What am I going to do with a couple of avatars and a theme? I doubt that I will purchase any of the discounted games and content, although I will give them a look over the weekend; maybe I am missing out on a hidden gem.
Finally, inFamous was included in my PS3 Slim bundle purchase. Since I have not opened the game, I may give the free 60 minute trial a go. If do not like the game, maybe I get some eBay value out of an unopened copy of inFamous.
Automatic Downloads
This was one of the features that sold me on the Plus service. I love the concept of my PS3 pulling down patches and firmware updates in the middle of the night, so I can just install the next time I fire up my PS3 or patched game.
Right now I have no clue how this works. When I started Wipeout HD for the first time, I was greeted with a message that I needed to download the latest version. Strange since I downloaded and installed (but did not play) Wipeout HD Tuesday night, and played it for the first time Wednesday night. My PS3 is set to auto download between 4-6AM.
It is worth watching to see how this feature plays out, and what sort of message or info is provided when I turn on my PS3. It would be lovely if I was informed that a new firmware update, game patch, or demo was downloaded for my gaming pleasure. Or maybe that is too much to ask.
Qore?
At one point I read that Qore would be part of the service. I was an initial subscriber, however I did not think it was worth the money and did not renew my subscription. The only reason I would like to see it is included is for more Plus content. Seems like it would be a nice perk for Plus subscribers, but no real loss if it remains a “paid for” download; I just will not pay for it again.
PSN Future Purchases?
This is where things could get interesting for Sony. Will the Plus service cannibalize other potential sales? Now that I have paid $50 for Plus, I am not sure that I will purchase minis and other PSN titles. At least not right away because sooner or later they could (hopefully will) end up as part of the Plus service, which in turn would devalue my subscription. Of course we are only talking $3.33/month, but in general I am cheap.
Let’s see what happens next month.
After spending some time with the PSP Digital Comics reader app, and downloading a handful of few and a couple of paid for books, I decided to take an expensive plunge back into my wistful days of my misspent youth. [Not really wistful or misspent, but it sounded good on “paper.”]
I have always been a fan of Green Lantern (especially the Green Lantern Corps – love the concept), Captain America, Spiderman, and Batman. After searching on Amazon for some graphic novels, and after downloading a Green Lantern: Secret Origin title, I decided that DC’s Blackest Night collection would be a good, if not expensive, jumping on point.
- Blackest Night (collects Blackest Night #0–8, 304 pages, hardcover, July 2010, ISBN 1401226930)
- Blackest Night: Green Lantern (collects Green Lantern vol. 4 #43–52, 272 pages, hardcover, July 2010, ISBN 1401227864)
- Blackest Night: Green Lantern Corps (collects Green Lantern Corps vol. 2 #39–46, 264 pages, hardcover, July 2010, ISBN 1401227880)
- Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps (collects Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps #1–3, “Green Lantern” #49 and “Adventures Comics” #4-5, 172 pages, hardcover, July 2010, ISBN 1401227902)
- Blackest Night: Black Lantern Corps:
- Volume 1 (collects Blackest Night: Batman #1–3, Blackest Night: Superman #1–3 and Blackest Night: Titans #1–3, 240 pages, hardcover, July 2010, ISBN 1401227848)
- Volume 2 (collects Blackest Night: Wonder Woman #1–3, Blackest Night: JSA #1–3 and Blackest Night: Flash #1–3, 240 pages, hardcover, July 2010, ISBN 1401227856)
- Blackest Night: Rise of the Black Lanterns (collects Power of Shazam! #48, Catwoman #83, Suicide Squad #67, Question #37, Phantom Stranger #42, Weird Western Tales #71, Atom & Hawkman #46 and Starman #81, 208 pages, hardcover, July 2010, ISBN 1401227899)
That pre-order of 7 graphic novels should give me plenty of reading pleasure for my comic jones. If not, then hopefully, hopefully down the road these books will fetch something in return on eBay.
So PlayStation Plus is now available and the $50 question is should I Plus? There was a point in time when I would have said hell no to a subscription service. There was also a point in time where I would have picked it up right away just to be part of the experience (and write a review).
I am leaning towards throwing $50 to the service for several reasons. I really only game on the PS3 (and occasionally on the PSP) so it is not as if I having competing gaming interests. I like the idea of discounts. I also like the concept of automatic download of firmware and software updates; no idea why this would not be offered as a standard service instead of a premium.
“Automatic Download: Subscribers will be able to set their PS3 to wake up from standby at any time of the day or night, download and install any game updates for the games you have been playing so you don’t have to think about it. Also, select demos and videos will be pushed to your PS3 ready to go. System software updates will also download automatically (manual install still required) and then the PS3 will turn itself off again.”
Finally, any additional PSP content is a bonus.
“PlayStation Plus is for PS3 owners as subscribership can only be purchased on the PSN Store. However, some of the content – minis and PS One Classics – available each month will also be playable on your PSP if you have one. Download them on the PS3 and transfer to your PSP, or download directly from the PSP Store or Media Go for PSP.”
So should I Plus? PlayStation LifeStyle posted an article that you will come out ahead with Plus. With that type of value, how can I afford not to buy Plus?
I meant to post this yesterday, but sort of, kind of, forgot. Oh well, on with the T&A …
Everyone knows that sex is where it is at, especially with the horny teenage gaming contingent. Not to mention dirty old men with blogs.
So according to N4G, this T&A article was a blazing 1100 degrees yesterday; not sure where it sits today. How popular is the article? Apparently enough folks have clicked on the link to burn up the bandwidth.
Mmmm. Tasty little pocket monsters.
I was over at PlayStation LifeStyle checking out the latest news, and catching up on some older stuff after being out of pocket for a week, and noticed this F1 2010 article.
Are you kidding me? F1 is finally returning to the big boy consoles? In September? With Codemasters behind the development effort of F1 2010? Color me happy!
I’ll preorder this one as soon as it goes up on Amazon, but for now I will hold on to the 2007 release of F1: Formula One Championship Edition for three reasons. First, it is still a fantastic F1 hybrid racing game; fabulous fun running fast laps in the Time Trail mode. Second, it has the US Grand Prix at Indy. Third, the Codemasters’ F1 2010 is an unknown commodity, however their previous hybrid racing track record is solid.
The final chapter on US F1 came to an official close late last week as the FIA gave US F1 a firm hand, ending the dream once and for all.
The FIA has fined US F1 309,000 euros ($379,500) – the equivalent of the championship entry fee – and ordered it to pay the costs of the FIA disciplinary process. It also disqualified the team, “which definitively deprives US F1 of the right to take part, in any way whatsoever, in any competition.”
The remaining assets of US F1 were recently sold off at auction, where its sole tub netted less than $8,000.
Maybe a new US F1 hopeful will rise with the upcoming US Grand Prix in Austin in 2012. It would be nice to see a US based F1 team, or at the least a US driver. Wishful thinking.
How disappointing. Yes, as the announcers said, this US team should not hang its head in shame; hold ‘em high boys. Still. What could have been?
Once again the US went down early; this time inside of the 5 minute mark. I just do not get how we can have such poor defensive lapses, which is what happened again on the winner in the first few minutes of extra time as Ghana easily split the last two US defenders.
Making matters worse is that the US just does not have a top notch striker; a finisher who can consistently find the net. We had some chances, but there comes a time and a place where the chances have to find the back of the net. The US just does not have that quality up front that you know given the chance will win the day.
I am not sure where to from here. I’ll have to reflect on the bitter sting of this one for a while, as I am sure Team USA will be doing the same, with the realization that they squandered a golden opportunity.
So this is it. Semifinals or bust. Ah, but first Ghana, a team that ruined the US in the 2006 World Cup.
In the 2006 World Cup, after finishing top of the CONCACAF qualification tournament, the U.S. was drawn into Group E along with the Czech Republic, Italy, and Ghana. Since three of the teams were ranked in the top 10 of the FIFA World Rankings at the time, it was considered a Group of Death.
The United States opened its tournament with a 3–0 loss to the Czech Republic. The team then drew 1–1 against Italy (ending up being the only opponent the Italian side failed to defeat in the tournament). The United States was then knocked out of the tournament when beaten 2–1 by Ghana in its final group match.
This time things are different, right? The US is playing well as a team, which was really the talk most often while I was in England and Scotland earlier this week. Of course, for the most part the US and our chances were dismissed, however to a man almost everyone I spoke “football” with was complimentary of the way the US plays as a team.
But more important, what’s truly caught the soccer world’s attention here, is how the Americans have played: not necessarily the results of their play, but the character of it. Their mistakes have been large, but they’ve recovered from them. When they might have given up — down against England, down against Slovenia, all but down and out against Algeria — they persevered. While other teams have suffered personality rifts or even outright mutiny, there hasn’t been a whisper of discontent out of the U.S. camp. They’ve become the embodiment of optimism here, of the power of hope and belief.
So there is hope, because a true breakout win today against Ghana means the US can actually make a run as the US are on the “easy” side of the bracket. The winner of US/Ghana will play the winner of Uruguay/South Korea, both of which are winnable games for this US squad. A win in the quarterfinals would take the US to the semifinals to most likely pair up with Brazil or the Netherlands. And then? Well, I am getting ahead of myself. First Ghana.
I have a feeling of hope and optimism that the US will actually put together a full game today, and not get behind early on a defensive lapse. If the US can continue to attack and actually land something in the net I think we will advance 1-nil, nay, maybe 2-1.
This is it! Go USA! USA! Let’s cheer for our boys and the Red, White, and Blue!
I am going to write another post focusing on the games that helped me pass the time during my recent trip to Scotland. Yes, PSP and gaming have been a long time coming. Before I get to that article, I thought I would post a quick update about the PSP Digital Comics Store (and reader).
Prior to my trip, I downloaded a handful of free comics – nothing really special, and no big name super hero comics. I would rather read Spiderman, Captain America, Batman, and Green Lantern instead of free copies of what was being offered in the store. There were no DC titles on offer, and I thought the Marvel collection was really limited. No current titles, very little of any series runs from my youth, and pretty much nothing that I wanted to throw money at before I determined the usefulness of the PSP Digital Comics reader. So I went with the 20 or so free titles on offer.
Archie and Donald Duck and a handful of other titles were not too exciting. I suppose these were on offer to have something available for everyone.
I was impressed with The Ghoul, which while not great, was at least entertaining. I am undecided if I want to pick up the rest of the story; probably will look towards some reviews first. Atomic Robo was also a title that I enjoyed, maybe even enough to complete a run if the title ever goes on sale. Cages, NeoZoic, and Snake Woman were decent, entertaining reads, but I doubt that I will move past the initial free titles unless I just have money to burn, which is not likely to happen any time soon.
Being a Star Trek fan, I really enjoyed Mirror Images; I think it was my favorite of the free titles. I never got into Star Trek titles even when my comic reading and collecting was at a fevered pitch. I’ll pick up the rest of the series at some point down the road.
The actual PSP Digital Comics Reader is a surprisingly good tool for reading comics. It is simple to use, the auto navigate tool is well done, and at any point you can zoom in and out as necessary. Sony just released a new version, with some minor features and enhancements. If you have not tried this feature out, it is worth your time (assuming you are a comics fan or have been one at someone point in the past), and the free comics mean that you are not really committed.
Yesterday Sony had an exciting announcement for the PSP Comics Store – DC titles have landed. I say finally, and thank you! Before my trip I wrote that it was just a matter of time with DC Universe in the works. Thankfully a nice initial offering has been provided, along with a free preview of Superman #700.
I have not done a lot of research on the PSP digital comic format; I assume is proprietary, which may be the only thing that holds me back from really throwing some money towards some titles. That and the lack of some of the titles and issues that I would actually like to buy/read. I wonder how long Sony is going to be in the PSP market. There is a lot of talk about the PSP2, but who wants to throw money at digital comics on a dead platform? Not that the PSP is going anywhere, but if the digital comic format is not portable to a current (thinking iTouch) or future (obviously PSP2) device, it would be hard for me to invest any significant money into PSP digital comics.
The summary is that I am pleased with the PSP Digital Comics reader, but uncertain of the longevity of the format. I think caution is the watch word; I’ll proceed carefully with a few purchases and some more research.
I am going to be off line much of the week, working in Edinburgh. Been there before; hope to have some good ale along the way in the fine drinking establishments.
This is the second time I have been in the UK during the World Cup. Last time I was in London; I guess the Scottish crowd will not give much thought to England’s hopes and dreams. I am bummed that I will miss the U.S. / Algeria game, which will probably be ending about the time we are wrapping up work for the day on Wednesday.
Like a bad drug, or an otherwise undesirable habit, each year I insist I will swear off throwing $$$ after the yearly crop of annuals. It never works. I am hopelessly addicted.
For my upcoming Scotland trip (16+ hrs travel time counting wasted hrs trying to go from here to there) I picked up …
The funny thing about all these annuals is that I never save them; not really a collector of annuals. If I was a collector (or was a collector in the past) I bet I would have a crap load of money on my hands for people that enjoy buying old annuals.
All of these annuals may be somewhat of a letdown in light of the recent realignment activities and discussions. If I have some time, and anyone is interested, I will post some impressions.
I have been trying to collect my thoughts on this one for the past couple of hours, and other than saying we were completely screwed by the ref, I am not sure what else to post.
The funny thing about such a poor call was all the other poor calls. We actually drew a yellow card after a ball hits Findley in the face?
Robbie Findley got a yellow card in the 40th minute for a hand ball in Slovenia’s penalty area, an automatic suspension for the Algeria match because he also was cautioned against England.
I would love to see the replay again because I saw a face-plant, not a handball. I don’t think it is a horrible thing that Findley will not be around for the next match because he just does not have the experience to know WTF to do with a quality ball.
There were other poor calls, but ultimately the U.S. put itself in a poor position going down 2-nil at the half. The first goal was completely unmarked; nice riffle shot which froze Howard. The second was typical of a U.S. defensive lapse on a counter attack.
As poor as Team U.S.A. played in the first half, they were great in the second half. Loved the emotion and the attacking style of play. Hope they come out for more of that against Algeria next Wednesday, a game I am sure to miss due to a work assignment in Scotland. Oh well.
So it goes. The U.S. is still in the hunt, but has to hope for some sort of miracle. I think the U.S. can advance with a U.S. win over Algeria and two England wins (Algeria and Slovenia).
Go U.S.A. !!!
I started playing around with the PSP Digital Comics store recently. Mostly because I was curious, partly because I am getting ready for a long flight, so I figured what the hell, may as well see if there is anything worth checking out to make my trip go by that much quicker.
I have to admit that in my younger days (lasting into college) I did a fair amount of comic reading and collecting. These days not so much. Not sure when I last purchased a comic; maybe as an attempt to get one of my boys interested in comics. They will not touch the things, which is funny to me because comics were such a big part of my youth.
Impressions? Where are the new comics? How come the comics cost so damn much? Where are the DC titles?
I figured I would download the latest Spiderman, Captain America, Avengers, Batman, and Green Lantern, which were some of my favorites, but not necessarily in that order. I found some Spiderman, Captain America, and Avengers titles, but these were mostly older runs. Great if you are a collector, just curious about the older days, or looking for some interesting reading. The store has 25 titles from Amazing Spiderman (1963), and 46 from 2003. The problem here is that the 2003 run ends in 2008. Similar story for Captain America and Avengers. Where are the new books?
Where are all the DC titles? Green Lantern, Flash, Batman, Superman, etc. With DC Universe coming to the PS3, you would think the comic store would get its DC game on. I could not find any DC titles in the story; if they are there, they are well hidden.
Now we come to the price. I am sure that $1.99 is probably a much better deal than buying physical books, but I expected these to be substantially less. Maybe $.50 to $.99 to represent that digital media was cheaper, and significantly easier to recover costs once the actually digital copies were produced. Silly me.
The good news is that the story has a few free comics (21 as I write this article); mostly an interesting variety from different publishers. Of course it would have been too much to ask for Marvel to throw up a free comic. As I said the variety is interesting. I downloaded a Burke & Hare research based graphic novel. Picked this one up since I am going to be in Edinburgh, Scotland; doubt it will make for aside comments and small talk … you never know!
The reader itself is actually nice and makes good use of the PSP screen. I am just a little disappointed in the actual digital comics library that is available.
Over the weekend I started transferring some of my digital movies included with my Blu-ray library to my PC. Lord of the Rings trilogy, X-Men trilogy, and a handful of others. Something to help pass the time while traveling.
For the most part I have been selecting iTunes; I swear one of these days I should get a Mac. At any rate, one of my movies (the Lord of the Ring animated movie from 1978) was WMV format, which does not really matter except that I do not use Windows Media Player and it would be nice to have all my movies under iTunes.
Imagine my surprise when I realized that none of my digital movies would work on my PSP! Actually, I should not be surprised, because of DRM incompatibilities with the PSP, but seriously, this is disappointing. None of my music or movies will play on my PSP.
On the bright side, Remote Play with the Slim seems to work well, and my Slim has not accidentally powered on one single time (knocking on wood, crossing fingers, and other types of voodoo).