PS3 – Page 16 – The Recycle Bin

FIFA 10 (comparing scores)

When the game was first released I mentioned that I was surprised at the metacritic scores; reviewers gave much higher rating than fan votes. After playing the game over the last few weeks, I think it is a real winner, which brings me to the point of this post.

I am surprised to see the metacritic reviewer (91% for 53 critic reviews) vs. user (7.7 user score based on 50 votes) discrepancy remain so high. I really thought they would trend towards each other, but for some reason that is not the case. If only a few of the reviews were high, and they were from mega sites, the cynic in me would say that EA paid off the reviewers. The reviewer sampling is much too high, so the only thing I can assume is that the user scores are full of bunk.

It just seems really strange to me that this game is universally acclaimed by most reviewers, but the users say it is average at best. I have not even begun to explore the depth of FIFA 10; most of my games are really just quick pick up and play games (Team U.S.A. vs. random opponents). I think the gameplay is beyond solid, and the game will have a ton of staying power (i.e. replay value).

PS3 RPG fans get relief from Japan

If you are an RPG fan, it looks like there are plenty of titles on the way, but for now you will have to import these titles since they are being released in Japan first. According to andriasang (via N4G) there plenty of major RPGs being released in Japan.

And you thought your RPG schedule for the next three months was packed when it was just Final Fantasy XIII, End of Eternity, Ar Tonelico 3 and Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope International! Add another major release to that list. Nippon Ichi announced today a January 28 release date for Last Rebellion. Pricing is set at ¥7,140 — pretty low for a big name RPG.

Last Rebellion promises orthodox RPG gameplay with a less-than-orthodox premise. You take control of Nine and Aisha, two main characters who share a single HP and MP. You’ll have to switch off between the two as you work your way through command-based battles.

Once upon a time I would pick up every RPG that game my way, but with work and family (three growing boys) I am much too tired these days to even attempt to play through one! There are just not enough hours in a day.

FIFA 10 – More First Thoughts

One of the things that surprised me about FIFA has nothing to do with the gameplay, but for me is a most welcome addition. After a game (I have only played quick matches) there are actually detailed statistics. Back when I was playing more, and reviewing games, one of my gripes about soccer games in general and in particular FIFA, was the lack any detailed statistics. Most game just had the standard possession percentage, shots on goal, maybe shot accuracy, fouls, cards, and who scored. This was always disappointed because I did not understand why developers could not make deeper statistical games along the lines of what you would see in your typical Madden, NBA Live, and MLB game.

Of course all of this could be old hat to some of you, but this is my first foray into a PS3 soccer game. Hopefully the end game summaries after the quick match mode foretell deeper statistical tracking in the other game modes. Seeing player ratings, man of the match, and a graphical representation of where shots were taken and by which player almost brought tears to my eyes. OK, not really on the tears part, but this type of statistical breakdown is a most welcome addition.

More to come over the next few days. Hopefully. God willing and if the creeks don’t rise.

FIFA 10 – First Game

I got in a quick game of FIFA 10 earlier this evening. I have not played a FIFA game in a while, so I just ran with the default settings. I started a quick match against Mexico and promptly lost 2-0. Unfortunately I have no idea what I am doing yet. Besides probably sucking, I just looked lost on the pitch. I actually controlled time of possession and out shot Mexico 13-2. Of course the CPU landed its two shots, while I was all over the map with my shots.

So far I like what I saw. The graphics are nice, the presentation is top notch, and the commentary was entertaining without being too repetitive (only one match in so keeping my fingers crossed). The gameplay is what matters, but it is way too early for me to offer up any sort of impressions. I just hope with a little luck I will get better, master the controls, learn how to shoot with some accuracy, and actually beat the CPU on a regular basis.

FIFA 2010 scores start off as a mixed bag

I did not get home in time to take FIFA 2010 for a spin last night; hopefully today will be a different story. Checking out the metacritic scores today I noticed some strange extremes between the reviewer scores (91% based on 40 critic reviews) and the user votes (7.2 based on 12 votes).

As the game gets circulated I am sure that the numbers will converge a little, but if the user votes remain 20 percentage points lower than the critic reviews something is amiss.

FIFA 2010 ships

I love Amazon’s Prime Release Day shipping service. FIFA 2010 will be here today for a grand total of $56.99. If you do the math, this comes out to $56.99 for the game + $0 shipping + $0 sales tax. Not a bad deal!

Demon’s Souls is not your average cup of tea

I thought this article from Punch Jump hit the nail on the head. Demon’s Souls breaks the normal chains of gaming convention.

The most important part of Demon’s Souls is that the game’s no-save policy, clever enemies, and traps all coincide in a masterful design that allows the player to learn with each level attempt. Much like a classic 2D side-scroller, users will learn to defeat known enemies quicker, avoid traps, and become accustomed to the no-save policy.

I haven’t gotten to log much time with the game yet; hopefully have some time over the weekend. The user views on the game are starting to roll into Metacritic. Demon’s Souls is still rated at 90% (based 33 critic reviews), but perhaps most important is the 9.4 user score (based on 87 votes).

Demon’s Souls ships and arrives from Amazon.

I wrote the following this morning, but for some reason forgot to post it. Now the game is here … so there you go!

I got a notice last night from Amazon that my Deluxe Edition of Demon’s Souls shipped last night. Have to love that Prime Release Day free shipping service! On Metacritc, Demon’s Souls is still rated highly – 89% based on 25 reviews. Will be interesting to see how actual gamers rate this one.

I did not SHIFT; continuing evolution of videogaming patterns.

Last week I wrote that I was considering purchasing Need for Speed: SHIFT, which was on sale at Best Buy for the low, low price of $39.99. I knew I would not have time to play the game, and while the price could not be beaten, and my guess is that it will not be that low again anytime soon, I just could not justify the purchase.

The funny thing is that a few years ago I would have made the purchase. After all, how could I not afford to get a game that was $20 off?

I decided to leave well enough alone. Besides, I have plenty of other games that are begging to be played. I still have a ton of reply in Ferrari Challenge, and while I do not play Formula One Championship Edition a whole heck of a lot, it is still a blast for running hot laps. Of course there is also Gran Turismo Prologue; except for the pretty graphics, I enjoyed the PS2 Gran Turismo 4 more, but alas, that one got broken by my youngest son.

Continuing on with the game that I do not get enough time to play, Madden 10 is wonderful. When I do get in a game, I really enjoy the experience. This year’s release has to be the most fun I have had playing videogame football in years. Probably back to my NCAA Chronicles days with North Texas; to me, that says something.

I also have Demon’s Souls on the way this week, and of course FIFA 10 later this month. As it stands there just was not enough room for SHIFT even with the $20 discount.

These days I realize that free time, much less videogame time, is at a premium. I spent Sunday afternoon shooting my adult airguns. I had a good time, I got to enjoy the great outdoors (well, at least my backyard), and the kids had a good time playing safely away from my modest shooting range.

PS3 and PSPgo news and notes from IGN.

Over the last couple of days, IGN has run a couple of interesting articles. First, a general how does everyone on the IGN stuff feel about the PSPgo article. Second, an entertaining op-ed on the PS3.

PSPgo
The overall impressions for the PSPgo were heavily weighted on the negative side. Not that anyone said the new system sucked, but almost everyone questioned its price point.

Ergonomically it feels a bit wonky, but I’m sure I could get used to it. The nub feels smoother than my 2000, but I don’t know that I can get behind the d-pad—don’t think it’d work well for fighters. The go feels a ton more portable than the other PSP models, and that’s awesome. Just not $250 awesome.

I may pick up a PSPgo when the price drops or my PSP-1000 dies, but then again I may just pick up a PSP-3000 (or once it is released PSP-4000), which would be a better value for my money.

PS3
While I do not necessarily agree with all the points in the PS3 article, I think this clip sums it up pretty well:

Look, if Sony hammered out $300 Slims back in 2006, they would’ve taken a bite out of the Wii’s market share, never mind the 360. But in the cold light of 2009, all they can look forward to is a long, painful war of attrition against the Xbox. The “Everything Box” can’t even count on Blu-ray money anymore, since brand-name Blu-ray players retail under $200 nowadays. They might chip at Microsoft’s 7-8 million install lead, but eroding it completely could eat up the PS3’s entire 10-year life cycle at best.

Unless something major changes. Such as Sony breaking their ten-year plan to release the PlayStation 4. Or, at the risk of repeating myself, they actually meet the potential of the technology already in place. In the meantime, Sony’s going to stumble a bit more and, so sorry, some of that will be at the expense of You, The Gamer.

Sony cannot really wait a long time for the PS4. At the same time they cannot rush out a new system for fear of alienating their current fan base and all those new PS3 Slim owners. Kind of a piss poor position to be in, but in the end they brought this on themselves.

Forza Motorsport 3 vs. Gran Turismo 5. Battle of the demos.

The battle between these two titles is heating up with plenty of trash talking between fans in each camp. Can’t we just all get along? I thought this was an interesting article at Destructoid that compared the demo setups on display at the Tokyo Game Show.

Sony’s big comeback

It looks like Sony fans are starting to show some spunk, writing about how the PS3 is finally set to dominate the console market. For example, take Games Thirst (via N4G) which writes more or less writes that Microsoft will do everything it can to stay in front of Sony and the recent success of the PS3 Slim.

Microsoft is not happy with the recent hardware sales data that shows the PS3 leaving the Xbox 360 in its dust. The weekly hardware charts from September 12th – 19th showed PS3 sales was double that of its main rival, with Sony selling 306,794 consoles, compared to Microsoft shipping 146,914 units. So what’s Microsoft’s response? Slash the price of the Xbox 360 Elite by offering a $50 mail in rebate till October 5th. You may take this lightly, but what they’re really doing is, testing the waters to see if $249 would be the deal that’d sway back consumers in their console’s direction.

Meanwhile, Gorilla Jumpers (no idea; another N4G find) writes that Sony has all the momentum and will overtake Microsoft in 2010.

If Sony managed to stay on track through 2010 without a price cut they would have closed the gap with Microsoft considerably. With the price cut it’s a whole new ball game. The PS3 price drop pushed PS3 sales up 71% percent in August according to the NPD group. The 360 also had a price cut but it only increased the console sales from 202,000 to 215,000 for the month of August, once again according to the NPD group. These cuts came rather late in the month so the true indicator will be September’s numbers.

I do not think Sony has done anything amazing. I have written many times before about my reasons for purchasing a PS3, and why Sony went into such a deep hole. The one year head start of the 360 was only a slight contributing factor; it was all about the price point. The 3DO Syndrome.

Now that the PS3 Slim offers that magical $299 price point, Sony’s fortunes are starting to change. Couple the price reduction with some super high quality first party games, which is a page taken directly out of the Nintendo success manual, and it all smells like roses for Sony.

Sony may win (at least compared to the 360) in the end, but years from now when we all look back on the history of this console gaming era, it will be written that Microsoft stole Sony’s thunder. Or maybe better put, Sony sat on it laurels.

Demon’s Souls – The solid reviews continue to pour in.

What am I getting myself into? I preordered the Deluxe Edition of Demon’s Souls, but I have damn near zero chance of advancing very far into the game. According to GamingExcellence (9.5 out of 10), I am about to get totally screwed. Or owned. Or frustrated. Whatever.

Demon’s Souls is a dungeon-crawler, which immediately brings forth thoughts of loot, upgrading abilities, and facing progressively tougher and tougher opponents as you progress through the game. This is true of this title, but there are actually five dungeons to progress through, and you will be forced to do them in parallel, because, and this is key, the enemies become stronger faster than you do. The game does not let up, and it does not care that you have died six or seven times in a row, because eventually you will have to learn how to dodge that large sword, or figure out where to go to avoid the massive attack that dwarfs your entire body.

I like a good RPG as much as the next guy, but I have never been a joystick jockey; I lack the dexterity necessary to really be proficient at action RPGs. With that said, I figured Demon’s Souls sounded too good to pass up.

Why do 360 numbers matter in Japan?

I decided to head back to Sankaku Complex [Content warning – some readers may be offended by the anime links contained throughout the site.] for the second time in a week. They recently posted an article asking if the 360 was finished in Japan. The brief article shows the top selling 360 games in Japan, and which ones are going (or have already gone) multiplatform.

The only thing I can offer is that the numbers suck. I am not sure why Microsoft even bothers with the platform in Japan, unless as one of the readers hints, it is a way to subsidies subpar ports to the PS3. In this farfetched scenario, Microsoft would not care for more games going to the PS3, but if the 360 version of the games looks better, it is still a feather in Microsoft’s cap.

Has Sony abandoned backwards compatibility?

I have always been an advocate of Sony supporting backwards compatibility for their gaming platforms. As an owner of a large PSX library, I was happy that my PS2 supported my original PSX games. Not only did this save my space in my entertainment center (only one console needed), it also saved me money because I could maintain my library going forward. Same for the PS3 – it was nice to keep playing the oldies from my collection.

Has the age of backwards compatibility come to a close? According to PS3Informer, it indeed has ended.

After looking at the features list for the new PS3 Slim and PSP Go, just about everybody would agree that backwards compatibility is low on Sony’s list of priorities. With no software emulation equivalent, and no UMD trade-in program yet announced, why has Sony decided to abandon those of us with older games?

I for one love Back Catalogue games – I mean I have a horde of PS1 and PS2 games in mint condition with booklets etc and I love playing them. The main culprit of a title which is in there is Metal Gear Solid as I love them. Now I have been keeping a very tight grip on my LAUNCH PS3 as I love not having to rearrange my entertainment centre to switch from PS3 to PS2 when I would like a trip down memory lane. There must be loads of you out there lucky enough to own Subsistence and Substance, Devil May Cry 1 and 3, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Gran Turismo – I mean we could go on for ages.

It has become apparent that Sony is now looking to cash in on their massive back catalog of games for the PSX (and PS2). How can you fault Sony? They are in business of making money, and putting the older titles up on the PSN Store in digital format for the PS3 and PSP (and PSPGo) systems gives Sony access to a new revenue stream for a very small capital investment.

With no UMD trade-in policy in sight, Sony is expecting PSPGo adaptors to abandon their PSP UMDs in favor of “upgrades” to digital format. Sony is also probably starting to suspect that at some point longtime PlayStation fans are willing to sell their older collections for digital formats. Over the years I have sold some games, but most are not really worth the money.

The PS3 Slim is the main banner carrier of the PlayStation banner, and it does not include PS2 and PSX hardware backwards compatibility. When these features were originally removed from the post launch PS3 systems, I assumed that it was for cost savings reasons, and at the time that probably was the case. Now that Sony has seen the digital light, there is also another incentive: cold hard cash.

Sony’s new strategy allows for a digital revenue stream and a more tangible “game on the shelf PS2 remake with updated graphics” revenue stream. Long term this is probably good news for Sony, and in some respects PlayStation owners. Not only do their games get to live on in digital format (no more discs scratches), but graphics whores get to experience updated versions of fan favorites.

No, I do not begrudge Sony. At least not right now, but what happens when the inevitable PS4 is released and your digital game collection is not forward compatible on the newest Sony system?