Sony PlayStation 3 (PS3) videogame system
For those of you that like this sort of thing, Sony made an alternate Heavy Rain cover available for your downloading and printing pleasure. I think this is based off of the UK release.
I am not sure what it says about me that I am posting this link; I can say that I have never been “hard core” enough to replace a game cover with something I could print off the internet. These days I am thankful for small blessings!
It looks like the kids at Sony have figured a way to eke more ram out of the PS3. According joystiq, PS3 developers now have access to 70MB more RAM.
While 70MB of additional memory is not insignificant, don’t expect drastic changes to future PS3 games. A PS3 developer told us that “any bit of RAM helps. Generally it probably won’t change design, but might allow extra effects resolution or dynamic lights or something. Probably more beneficial from the systems and art side then from design/gameplay.” In tandem with increasingly efficient code, the added RAM will undoubtedly make for even better looking games.
Better looking graphics should scare the piss out of ESRB reviewers near and far.
Last night I put the Heavy Rain Blu-ray into the PS3 and was immediately greeted with a “must install 1.01 version” message. So of course I did the needful.
When I was playing the game I noticed that the character dialog was choppy (call it audio skipping), which brings me to this article by the examiner; apparently the patch causes some gamers some serious issues.
Among the complaints, many are complaining about game crashes, audio skipping, save/loading problems, and some characters getting caught in furniture. Not all are complaining about the game, though. For many, the game is running fine after the patch and they are enjoying the experience the game offers. Whether the problems are widespread or just a minor problem for some can’t be determined, yet. Since the game isn’t an online title, you don’t need to get the patch to play the game, but you will have to deny the patch every time you play the game.
I guess we will see a 1.02 patch fairly quickly; hopefully. If the audio skipping continues tonight, I guess I can play with closed caption turned on, but I may as well wait to progress the game. For a game that is story driven, this type of glitz is a hell of note, exemplifying poor quality control.
I only played the initial opening chapters, which to be honest, were really just not my cup of tea. I understand that farting around in the house for a little while introduces you to the characters, background story, and gaming mechanics. My initial impressions were certainly not favorable; I would have rather spent my time playing something else.
To be fair, I only played an hour or so; when I progress into the meat and potatoes of the game things may be a lot more interesting. At this point I just cannot bring myself to accept that I am going to spend the next 8-12 hours with Heavy Rain holding down the R2 button to move around. To me it just breaks every aspect of being immersed into the game.
It is really difficult to post comments about Heavy Rain without talking about the story, which in effect would be to give out spoilers. As I move on with future Heavy Rain posts, I will attempt to avoid spoiling surprises for those of you that have not played the game yet, of I will make sure there are “spoiler alerts” to warn you before continuing on with the article.
It sucks being up at four o’clock in the morning, but I did get some cheerful news – Amazon has shipped Heavy Rain. It should be landing on my doorsteps later day. I hope to get a crack at it later tonight, but it will be like my WKC:I experience – gaming one hour at a time.
I noticed this article earlier this morning via N4G. Apparently Sony is up to something, but what?
Sand Dollar’s filing today is for the CECH-2101A ‘Computer Entertainment System.’ Label pics for the device (above) confirm that this is indeed the Sony PS3, while label placement pics (below, left) show a device that is the same size and shape as the PS3 Slim. Another device, called the CECH-2101B is also identified in Sand Dollar’s filing. The only difference between these two devices is the hard drive size.
We’re not sure why Sony is passing two new PS3 Slims through the FCC. The wireless specs on the new PS3 Slims include 802.11 b/g and Bluetooth – nothing new there. We’re guessing that maybe Sony found a new manufacturer for some of its wireless components, and was forced to pass the PS3 Slim through the FCC again.
This could be as simple as Sony offering new bundles, or maybe Sony is offering a yummier Slim – bringing back some of the previously removed features such as backwards capability and additional USB slots. My guess is either cheaper internals or game bundles; however it seems too soon to already be changing the innards, so let’s go with new bundles for this fall (or whenever the motion controller thing is due for release). I’ll speculate that one of the Slims will include the new motion controller and the other one will have a motion controller plus a game.
The Heavy Rain hype has reached a crescendo, and the reviews are plenty positive. Now it is just a matter of waiting for Tuesday, and of course waiting for the kids to go to bed. There’s no way I can play this one with the kids watching!
Heavy Rain was really an impulse purchase. While I had read the various comments about the game over the last 12-18 months, I was not really interested. The lack of interest may have been due to my gaming doldrums, but I think it was more a matter of being completely disconnected from the content of the story. It just did not look like a day one purchase.
As Heavy Rain neared (or I should say nears) release day, the articles started to sound increasing interesting. Timing could be everything; my gaming melancholy came to a close about the same time Sony lifted the review embargo. I preordered the game, and played the demo.
I am looking forward to this game just because it is so different; new experiences matter, which is very much in line with my contrarian gaming view. This article from TheSixthAxis sums up why I am interested in Heavy Rain.
Is it because it’s so different, perhaps? It’s true, there’s nothing out there like Heavy Rain and, given the development time (and presumed budged) there won’t be another for some time, but is it really as powerful an experience as the hype over the last couple of years would have you believe? Maybe, but that’s not important.
What is important is the direction David Cage attempted to take console gaming. He may have stumbled with the plot (and clearly had some issues with controls) but Heavy Rain is, for its sins, a tale worth telling. It’s sometimes smart, occasionally sophisticated and frequently adult, unlike 99% of games out there.
I should be playing Heavy Rain 40 or so hours. Needless to say, I am excited, dare I say enthusiastic. In fact I cannot remember the last time I actually counted down the time to getting a game. Hopefully Heavy Rain does not disappoint.
The weather this weekend has been absolutely wonderful – upper 60s and blue skies on Saturday and Sunday. We spent most of our free time outdoors – throwing footballs, practicing soccer, riding bikes, going on long walks, and cleaning up the year. You get the picture. It would have been a perfect weekend for shooting the airguns – the R1, R1 Carbine, R7, and the Marauder – however I never had the chance. Not that I am complaining that there were always kids in my shooting range; maybe next weekend.
Auto Club 500 Fontana
I am watching the closing stages of the race [50 laps left] as I write this entry; rain looms. I only watched the opening laps and this last part of the race. As mentioned above, the weather is too nice to stay inside. Fontana has never been one of my favorite tracks; just wish some of my drivers (Gordon, JPM, Junior, Smoke) where closer to the front. On the occasional look-ins, Gordon has been up front some, but it looks like he has a wounded engine.
Gaming Update
Are you kidding? With this weather? When I was not working on the site upgrade Friday and Saturday night, I was not in front of the TV. I did get in a couple of hours of White Knight Chronicles: International, which I continue to find a lot of fun. From a mechanics point of view, it is actually more interesting as you gain more skill points and build combinations.
Heavy Rain is coming on Tuesday (Feb. 23), followed by MLB 10: The Show (Mar. 2), and Final Fantasy XIII (Mar. 9). Needless to say, I have no idea how I will get in all these games, but I am going to try.
I am considering eBay’ing Madden 10 because I have not played it in a week, football season is over, and I would like to capitalize on something to put towards Madden 11. This is always a challenge – trying to hit the perfect moment to still get something for the game before the upcoming version makes the current version worthless. I am not sure if I am ready to throw Madden 10 away; it’s the best Madden in years and Madden Ultimate Team is a lot of fun. However I have not played it in two weeks, and with a slew of incoming games, my Madden opportunities are probably slim.
I’m actually having the same debate with FIFA 10. Unlike Madden, I have not gotten my money’s worth out of FIFA. The World Cup version will be here in April. I need to do some research to see what sort of gameplay upgrades the new version would offer over FIFA 10. Decisions, decisions, decisions.
More Site Stuffs – Green is Back!
I know I am biased; I love the new theme. I think it is the perfect complement to the original Calvert Games brand, without being overly done. It has taken a long time [calendar and actual weekend work] to get it back to this point. I think it was worth the effort.
As I mentioned yesterday, I still have some maintenance I need to do before I put a ribbon on this puppy and call it clean. I continued to polish the site today, and I have a few other items I would like to touch-up this week. I would also like to add in a few more plugins and widgets; nothing too over the top … just enough to make the site a more dynamic experience.
In the latest sex article to grace a PS3 site, PlayStation LifeStyle details the God of War III “mini sex” game via the ESRB write-up of what is in store for overzealous sex starved gamers.
The game contains a sex mini-game. Players will encounter a goddess and her two hand maidens, all topless, all holding and caressing each other. If players wish to, they may join the goddess (and only the goddess) in bed. Actual sex is never depicted as the camera drifts, then fixes on the two maidens, who watch from a distance. As players respond to the on-screen prompts with button presses, the topless maidens will continue to watch, and sometimes caress. Moaning sounds from the bed can be heard throughout the sequence.
Good times. I guess I am going to have to pre-order now. Probably.
As we draw ever closer to the March 2nd release of MLB 10: The Show, I read every new article with anticipation and excitement. Yesterday, pastapadre revealed the MLB 10 team rankings. I was happy to see my beloved Braves garnered an overall ranking of sixth (22nd Defense; 4th Pitching; 9th Batting). I’ll be tickled pink if the Braves can carry that over into real life; back in the playoffs again?
As I have written on several occasions, when I actually have time to play, I am enjoying this JRPG, which features hybrid turn-based/pseudo real-time gameplay elements. It is certainly not for everyone, but I think it is a real gem.
Over the weekend I ordered the strategy guide, which is something I only rarely do for games that I really enjoy. I think the last guide I purchased was maybe FFX. Of course I will never be able to defend my position, much less convince non-JRPG fans that I only order guides to enhance my gaming experience.
I’ll comment on the guide later this week. My only initial comment is that I have already noticed some errors where the map/grid references are actually incorrect.
I other WKC news, according to PlayStationUniversity, Japan is getting some new DLC on Feb. 25. Hopefully new content works its way to the U.S. PSN servers.
The “official” PlayStation Blog has an article from the good folks at Capcom announcing five weeks of PSN Capcom games at the low, low price of 50% off. The schedule includes …
* February 18, 2010 – Marvel vs. Capcom 2 for only $7.49!
* February 25, 2010 – Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix for only $7.49!
* March 4, 2010 – Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix for only $4.99!
* March 11, 2010 – Age of Booty for only $4.99!
* March 18, 2010 – 1942: Joint Strike for only $4.99!
I already have 1942, which may not be worth the full price, but is a pretty good deal at less than $5. Lord knows when I would have time to play Age of Booty, but I have wanted to give this one a spin for a while. $4.99 is a pretty decent price point. As much as I love the Street Fighter, especially the Alpha renditions, I just don’t see putting these in the shopping cart – I have too many new games as it is and my best gaming days for dexterity intensive fighters are far behind me.
While looking for more news, notes, and whatnots of the upcoming Final Fantasy XIII (FFXIII), I came across this great article on the DigitalFoundry blog (EuroGamer) that takes us inside the math, art, and science of FFXIII. I don’t think I have every come across an article that goes to this length, with this much detail, comparing the PS3 demo of FFXIII against the actual Japanese release of FFXIII. If you are interested in this type of technical details, this article is definitely worth a read.
For me two things stood out, neither of which are part of the detailed technical feature analysis.
Overall, the leaps made by Final Fantasy XIII over its predecessors are mostly visual in nature and that’s clearly been the focus of this tech analysis. However, bearing in mind the four-year gestation period Final Fantasy XIII has had, it’s disappointing that all the key improvements have been in the audio-visuals.
Of course, these are hugely important factors in FFXIII’s make-up, but gameplay-wise this feels like it could’ve been done on PS2. Clearly, there’s much to enjoy in the nature of sumptuous visuals and what is clearly the best-quality CG we’ve seen on a Square-Enix videogame, but early importers of the Japanese version of the game are divided about the merits of the actual game underneath.
To be completely fair, I think this can be said about many of the games in this generation. They are just visual upgrades over their PS2 and Xbox predecessors.
The other item of note fills the entirety of the last page of the three page article, covering speculation on the potential compromises made to port the PS3 originated title to the 360.
However, porting the game across to the 360 must have been a daunting proposition. Taking a look at the structure of the Blu-ray disc, we see an absolutely colossal 32.6GB of what looks to be pre-rendered movies, while the actual gameplay content itself is a more reasonable 6.8GB. Co-incidentally, 6.8GB is also the maximum usable space developers have on the dual-layer DVD (yes, Xbox 360 games theoretically have less storage available than PS2 and Wii titles).
The article mentions that 360 users will only have to switch games at two points in the game, so that does not seem to be much of a burden. I also doubt that 360 owners will care (maybe not even notice) if the movies are not pre-rendered, if they are compressed, or if the sound is compressed. I also think that dual system owners will pick up FFXIII for the PS3 over the 360. In the U.S., due to its larger install base, 360 numbers will slightly surpass the PS3, but elsewhere FFXIII will lead the charge on the PS3.
After skipping a year [really seems like I skipped the last 2-3 years of gaming entirely] I am really excited about this year’s game, which is set to arrive while I am out of country for work!
The “official” PlayStation Blog site, like any good official mouth-piece runs some great articles pimping their first party offerings. MLB 10 is not an exception.
This year, we have added “calling pitch selection” and “calling pitch location” to your RttS catcher’s responsibilities. When you are in the game defensively as a catcher, you will be responsible to select the pitch that you want thrown. The system works just like it does for selecting pitches as the pitcher does. The pitcher might shake you off, or he might accept that pitch. If he does shake you off, you choose a pitch again. If you choose the same pitch, he will figure it’s really what you want and will accept it, at this point. Once you have selected the pitch, you will be responsible to select where you want the ball thrown. You can choose any of the nine zones within the strike zone, or you can choose eight areas outside of the zone if you want the ball off the plate (four outside edges and four outside corners). Now just like in real life, this doesn’t mean the pitcher will hit his spot. It just means this is where he is aiming. The better the pitcher you have throwing to you, the more effective your location calling will be.
MLB 10: The Show is going to be the real deal and will be a system seller for console baseball fans. I cannot wait to get my hands on this one!
This morning I was looking for some new information on FFXIII and came across some interesting articles via N4G. The console wars are far from over, and FFXIII is at the center of the latest rounds of internet fodder. Meanwhile, as a self respecting Final Fantasy fan and Sony loyalists [I don’t own a 360], I am just fanning the flames.
This op-ed from Ironstar discusses Microsoft’s willingness to throw a ton of cash at the 360 release of FFXIII.
Those who look at FFXIII from Sony’s perspective shouldn’t care one bit about Microsoft’s desperate marketing. For one, God of War 3 releases no less than a week after that title; if Sony were to market that game as much Microsoft probably will they would be competing with themselves. Pretty much every enthusiastic Final Fantasy fan will purchase XIII on the PlayStation 3 regardless of it appearing on other platforms. The capacity of Blu-Ray relieves the hassle of having to deal with the tedious disc swapping of 360’s FFXIII. Its 2010 nobody wants to get out of their seat to switch a DVD because the game can’t fit on 1 disc, we dealt with disc swapping 10 years ago via Final Fantasy 7.
The fanboys are all aglow that Microsoft is attempting to “trick” consumers into thinking that FFXIII is a Microsoft exclusive. I did not really think this was the case until I saw this article from the Unofficial Final Fantasy Site that furthers this claim.
Sony should somehow market the FFXIII as the true home of FF titles with references back to all the previous releases, especially bestsellers such as FFVII and FFX. Unless Sony cannot advertise FFXIII for the PS3 due to an exclusive marketing window wrapped up by Microsoft, which would be a new one on me.
After the poor reception of White Knight Chronicles: International I have to wonder if PS3 owners even care about JRPGs. Who I am kidding? FFXIII will sell like hotcakes.
In this article from ConnectedConsoles FFXIII producer Yoshinori Kitase claims that there are no differences in the PS3 and 360 version of the game beyond the number of discs.
“The development team created the PS3 version first, of course, but they didn’t alter the content at all in order to bring it to the 360.” said Kitase in an interview with GamingTarget. “It’s the exact same experience and the same gaming experience that they had set out to create is present on both the PS3 and 360 versions.”
He then added: “Graphics wise as well, they’re comparable there. There’s no difference there in the experience. And, I guess the only minor difference would be the fact that for the 360 version, you have to switch out the discs every once in a while.”
Does anyone actually believe this statement? While on the surface that may be a true statement, PS3 fans are buzzing that making FFXIII available on the 360 compromised the game. Development to the lowest common dominator does that to a multiplatform game.
It will be interesting to see which console wins out – the one with the strongest advertisement and installed base, or the recognized home of FF titles from the last two console generations.
Today is another minimalist gaming update. Not a lot to report, but I do need to get a couple of thoughts on “paper” before today comes to a close.
TheSixthAxis Does Heavy Rain
In general the metacritic scores of Heavy Rain have been fantastic, so it was interesting to see that TheSixthAxis is one of three sites (out of 43) to give the uber title a 7 out of 10.
But it’s not a game, is it? It certainly doesn’t play like one. Split firmly down the middle, half of the time you’ll be steering your character around various locales (left stick to look, R2 to walk) and the other half you’ll be performing some of the trickiest Quick Time Events since Dragon’s Lair. Heavy Rain doesn’t just want you to tap – you’ll be holding, twisting, pushing and bashing that controller before the story is done, and often doing several of those at the same time.
I agree that the controls distract from the game. Funny comment – while I enjoy reading a good review, and this one from TheSixthAxis is fantastic, I seldom make a purchase decision on the actual reviews. I use reviews as a starting point; to see if I may be interested in a game. After reading this review I was thinking about punting on the game; almost. Then I regained my senses. Funny how even this jaded gamer came close to being disappointed in a 70% review. OMG – I have crossed over to the Dark Side.