PS3 | The Recycle Bin

Now Playing (The Week in Review)

Last week I spent my limited game time playing a hodgepodge assortment of games.

Ferrari Challenge
Not a great racing game, but it is fun. After watching some Le Mans Saturday and early Sunday morning, I am reminded that the PS3 would really use an updated version of Le Mans racing. At any rate, I’ll probably tool around with Ferrari Challenge some this week as well to decide if I should keep it and maybe grind a few Trophies, or if I should see if I can flip it for a few bucks on eBay for my future gaming fund.

Marvel Super Hero Squad: The Infinity Gauntlet
Typical beat ‘em up, easy puzzles, and very lame dialogue, but what would you expect from a title targeted at kids? I play this one with my four-year old son; great way for him to learn the ins and outs of gaming. My eight-year old is also helping out with the Story mode. I think we are almost at the end; however there are a ton of other modes to complete, items to unlock, and the Trophy list is 60 or so deep, which should keep us coming back for a while.

Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse – Episode 2 and 3
I have two confessions to make. First, I am not really a fan of this type of game. Second, I just kind of went through the motions, and finally looked to a couple of Trophy walkthroughs to complete each game. Yes, color me a whore. The only reason I had these in the first place was because I received them with my PS+ subscription. At some point down the road I will probably attempt to knock off Episode 4 and 5.

Shatter
Shatter is another ‘free’ PS+ game from last November. One of my many backlog games ‘collecting dust’ … as much dust as a digital PSN distributed title can gather. This one is a typical revamp of breakout, with a fresh coat of paint, interesting physics, and a decent techno soundtrack. Fun game, but one I would probably never buy, so it was nice to get it as part of my PS+ subscription. I pretty much already played this one out. While there are a couple of Trophies left, for the most part I doubt I will put in the time (and may not have the necessary skill) to try to get 100% complete on this one.

FIFA 11
I have written plenty about FIFA 10 and 11; great sports games. FIFA 11 is fantastic, but it is perfect for short bursts of gaming, which is pretty much what my schedule allows right now. I can knock out a couple of games with my virtual pro and feel like I have actually accomplished something in a short gaming session. Not to mention the satisfaction of playing a well rounded sports title.

Eurogamer – Andrew House Interview

Much like any other gamer interested in the Vita, I have been searching high and low for any news or rumors about the Vita. Two important points I would like to see clarified ASAP – 3G data plan (required, options, etc) and battery life.

Eurogamer has a nice interview with Sony’s Andrew House, and while this particular interview did not directly answer the two aforementioned questions, it does give a glimmer of hope to the Vita having decent battery life.

Eurogamer: What battery life are we looking at for Vita?

Andrew House: I haven’t seen specifics on battery life. But I would say the absence of a disc-playing mechanism is very helpful in terms of conserving battery life. And then an OLED screen. Beyond the beauty of the screen itself, one of its prime attractions is it’s extremely energy efficient.

Or maybe I am just reading too much into things, but the damn thing better last more than a handful of hours. I hate the concept of embedded batteries; I hope this sucker has a seriously long lifecycle.

The interview has a few other interesting questions about the Vita’s pricing structure, data security, and the future of the PS3; definitely worth a read.

In other news, the SCEA has posted a fairly worthless Vita FAQ, which really does a piss poor job of answering some important questions.

Sony Continues To Be Ill Prepared For High Home Volume

In a continuing pattern of ‘Sony just cannot do anything right’ I found Sony’s E3 Home experience rather lacking. You would think that Sony would be prepared for high server volume, but it just appears that Sony does not care or Sony has no idea how to resolve volume related issues with Home. I am really not sure which, but either way causes this jaded gamer to be a tad bit grumpy.

Funny enough, I did not really criticize Sony for the PSN hack, their response, and their approach at reconciliation. I am however highly critical of the post launch experience. When tells us to ‘come on down’ and check out E3 in Home, and I cannot, well, that is an entirely different matter.

Start your journey by getting an up-close look at the PlayStation VITA and then proceed throughout the space to view trailers and collect rewards from some of the top PlayStation titles, including Twisted Metal, Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One, Papo + Yo, Resistance 3, and more! Collect all rewards to gain access to the special VIP area play the first level of Scribble Shooter – an upcoming top-down, shoot ‘em up game exclusive to PlayStation Home. As an added bonus, our friends over at Heavy Water have created a package for all VIPs that includes an array of limited edition virtual items.

So I attempted to get the aforementioned goodies, but could not even get into Home due to ‘Z’ server disconnect errors. When I finally did get in, I often could not get media (the trailers) to work, and usually had to guess which E3 virtual booth areas were the right destinations for watching the media in order to get the rewards.

I have been trying to get a little more use out of Home; maybe I have been missing something. Perhaps my timing is bad, coinciding with the return of the PSN post-hack outage and E3, but my patience is wearing thin.

Welcome Home Not So Free?

I have never been a huge Home user, but I have to admit that this deal from Sony to receive 100 free virtual Home items is pretty cool. This morning I managed to download many of the items from the Central Plaza kiosk, including the Dragon’s Lair space, which is pretty neat.

I was not able to get all of the ‘free’ virtual items due to (just a guess) high volume, resulting in frequent server error messages. I also had one of the ‘free’ items (some Egyptian sandals I think) show up for $0.49. Uh, no thanks Sony.

I may be such an infrequent Home user that I do not know WTF I am doing, but I really don’t understand why Sony does not offer a straight up ‘download all this welcome back free stuff’ package. Instead I had to load a few items, often hitting retry due to server errors, wait for a ‘your cart is full’ message, download, and start again. Rather tedious.

With E3 just hours away, I may try to be a frequent Home visitor, just so see if there are any freebies being given away for visiting different places and watching videos in the Theaters. Maybe; it is actually easier to just watch G4 and look for content online.

Weekend Gaming Action

First, let me start with a quick ‘Sony sucks’ statement. Earlier today I wanted to make a quick PSN store purchase. I could not; I guess legions of gamers are still attempting to pull down some ‘welcome back’ package goodness, which has overloaded the store to the point of no return.

Once I did manage to be awarded with a session in the store, I could not actually add funds to my wallet. WTF? I checked my account; credit card is still on file and all info is correct. It’s kind of a bummer not to be able to purchase something when the needful is burning a hole in my pocket. Then again, by Sony f’ing up, I guess I am saving money. Go me!

I have not played much of anything over the last 4-6 weeks, so the last couple of days has seen a variety of ‘go to’ games and a hodgepodge of random distractions. To name a notable few; Sonic the Hedgehog, Space Invaders Infinity Gene, and FIFA 11 have managed grab my attention.

Sonic because it was included a few months ago with PS+, and it is a fun platforming trip down memory lane. I forgot how much I sucked at these types of game; humbling to be an old-ass gamer. Space Invaders because it is a great pick up and play shooter; loads of fun. FIFA 11 because it is just a damn good soccer game, and deserves a spot in the rotation of any discerning sports gamer.

I also spent some time with my four year-old and soon to be nine year old sons, playing Marvel Super Hero Squad: The Infinity Gauntlet. My twelve year-old stays away; he is too ‘grown up’ for this one. Too bad, because he is missing out. Sure the humor is downright preschoolish, while the action is downright button mashing smash ‘em up action, but it is not a horrible game. Decent distraction if you can get past the deformed super heroes, and a fun way to spend time with the boys.

The weekend is not even half over, so (hopefully) more gaming action to come, but date night looms. Happy me!

Sony – Welcome Back Issues

It seems that Sony just cannot catch a break. They were doomed to criticism over the hack attacks, and rightfully so on several levels. Being hacked, poor communication, not being exactly forthcoming, and so on; one nasty little cluster that has probably cost Sony a load of creditability and serious buckets of cash.

In an attempt to make amends, Sony is offering a ‘welcome back’ package that went live early today. Of course Sony, in their ongoing series of blunders, did not anticipate volume and user demand.

UPDATE: Due to high traffic on PlayStation Store, you may encounter error messages or issues. We advise you to check back a little later and try again.

Thanks Sony. Love the errors. Even if I cannot use the ‘welcome back’ games (more on that in thirty seconds), I at least would like to be able to get into the f’ing store. Not so much; really appreciate this ‘welcome back, you cannot enter the PSN store’ at the start of my gaming weekend.

Making matters just silly, the ‘welcome back’ package just could not please everyone. Some consider the free games weak; others already own much of the content. [Raises hand] One would think it would be reasonable for Sony to check previous store purchases and offer a voucher or even a discount for some other produce. That would be too much to ask. Does everyone really have to get their ‘welcome back’ package today? Good grief!

If I were into things like saying ‘fail’ then this one would be rather epic.

Welcome back to the PlayStation Store?

So the PlayStation Store is back online, but strangely enough, the ‘welcome back’ package is still MIA. I understand that the package is in the works, but it seems like this would have been a slam dunk for the Store’s triumphant return. I would hazard a guess that a ton of PS3 owners expected to get some free treats once the store was fully restored.

Today’s push is fairly large, with a lot of decent content, and demos. Existing PS+ subscribers can look forward to a continued stream of “free” stuff and discounts, but give me a break on offering Lilo & Stitch.

As far as the new stuff goes, this weekend I will probably take a look at this potential nostalgic gem:

Wizardry: Labyrinth Of Lost Souls ($14.99)
The popular Wizardry franchise is reborn on the PlayStation 3 system as a downloadable online title! This classic 3D dungeon-crawler remains true to its roots, with all the deep gameplay fans have come to know and love. These beloved dungeons and monsters have all been reborn in glorious high-definition, and new stories for each of the 10 main characters, breathing new life and hitherto unseen replay value into one of the old-school RPG greats.

Then again, I have such a huge backlog of games that I am not sure I will pull the strings on anything else right now. Right … probably. At least there is a demo on offer.

I doubt Sony will do the needful, but it would be really entertaining if Sony decided to post some statistics – number of Store visits, number of downloads, and number of purchased items (I know Sony would never publish money spent). Anything to show consumer confidence (or lack thereof). I can dream. It would be entertaining.

Bring on Friday!

Madden 12: Hall of Fame – $30 Premium

What makes the ‘limited’ edition of Madden 12 (AKA ‘Hall of Fame Edition’) so gosh darn special, with a going rate of $89.99 vs. $59.99 over the standard edition? EA is only going to produce 125K copies (presumable per platform – 360 and PS3), so it is ‘limited’ and therefore collectable. PlayStation LifeStyle has the scoop …

Premium bronze, foil embossed cover featuring Marshall Faulk

Full version of Madden NFL 12 video game [Seriously. Is the feature list so short, and so embarrassing, that EA has to actually call out that the ‘limited’ edition will feature the actual game? And a full version of the game to boot! Joy …]

Autographed Panini Card – “Madden NFL and Panini, the world leader in published collectables, have teamed up to create the ultimate Madden NFL trading card featuring 2011 Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee, Marshall Faulk. Each copy of the Hall of Fame Edition will include one of four exclusive Marshall Faulk trading cards, each hand-signed by Faulk. One solid, 18k gold autographed card will be randomly inserted into one Xbox 360® and one PlayStation®3 copy of the Hall of Fame Edition. The lucky recipients of these two cards will have one of the most valuable cards in Panini history.”

Exclusive Madden Ultimate Team Platinum Pack – “The perfect combination of Madden NFL, fantasy football, and trading cards comes to life in Madden NFL Ultimate Team. The Hall of Fame Edition provides a Madden Ultimate Team experience like never before with the most prestigious Platinum Pack yet, featuring a combination of 13 NFL Hall of Famers and former Madden NFL cover athletes, including: Marshall Faulk, Barry Sanders, Jerry Rice, Rod Woodson, Eddie George, Michael Vick, Donovan McNabb, Ray Lewis, Shaun Alexander, Vince Young, Larry Fitzgerald, Troy Polamalu and Drew Brees. All cards feature ratings from each player’s most productive season in the NFL and are fully renewable with contract extensions, which is sure to make them some of the most sought after cards in Ultimate Team history.”

I wonder how well this thing well sells; Madden Ultimate Team fans may pick this up, but is it worth a $30 premium? I do not see what is so special about this version to warrant a purchase. More goodies please …

Watch me purchase it; just because I can. Pot, kettle, black.

PSN Return Imminent

Sony has announced that all PSN services will be fully restored by the end of this week. Of course it would have been nice to see the services, including the store, fully functional before the three-day Memorial Day weekend, but I digress.

Once the PSN Store returns, Sony will offer a ‘welcome back’ package. While this is a nice concession on the part of Sony, it kind of sucks for me that I already own the PS3 games on offer:

All PlayStation Network customers can select two PS3 games from the following list. The games will be available for 30 days shortly after PlayStation Store is restored and can be kept forever.
*Dead Nation [day one purchase]
*inFAMOUS [own, but have never played; yes, I suck]
*LittleBigPlanet [own the Game of the Year Edition]
*Super Stardust HD [long time ago purchase for me]
*Wipeout HD + Fury [via PlayStation Plus (PS+) service, so technically I don’t “own” this one]

My PSP situation is much better, as I do not own any of the games being offered:

For PSP owners, you will be eligible to download two PSP games from the following list. The games will be available for 30 days shortly after PlayStation Store is restored and can be kept forever.
*LittleBigPlanet (PSP)
*ModNation Racers
*Pursuit Force
*Killzone Liberation

Of course it will suck if you have to download these straight away, because I will have to pick up another memory card. Hopefully this will work like other PSN items; ‘purchase’ and download later.

Other ‘welcome back’ items of note:

A selection of “On Us” rental movie titles will be available to PlayStation Network customers over one weekend, where Video Service is available. Those titles will be announced soon.

I have never ‘rented’ a movie from the PSN store. I think Sony should offer a couple of vouchers vs. limiting this offer to one specific weekend.

Existing PlayStation Plus subscribers will receive an additional 60 days of free subscription.

This is a good deal. For my money, PS+ has been a good value; Sony should offer time lost plus an addition month.

To welcome users Home, PlayStation Home will be offering 100 free virtual items. Additional free content will be released soon, including the next addition to the Home Mansion personal space, and Ooblag’s Alien Casino, an exclusive game.

I am not really a big Home user or fan; I guess I do not have enough ‘virtual’ friends, and at my age, many of my friends and colleagues do not game. I know, I need to run in different circles. I will have fun letting my kids help me decide which free items to consume for my avatar, home space, etc.

Catherine – Sex and Stuff

In the annuals of “hey, I was wrong” comes another classic tale of sex, money, and wired Japanese games. I thought Catherine was going to crash and burn, and after reading some initial feedback about the game – difficulty level off the charts; puzzle game not a RPG – I didn’t think this puppy would ever hit US shores.

I wonder how well Catherine will do in America. It probably comes done to keeping gameplay footage to a minimum (I mean seriously, who wants to move blocks), show as much innuendo as possible, and off course including the glory of animated T&A.

Catherine – No US Release

When we last met, I predicted that Atlus would not localize Catherine. PlayStation LifeStyle has a post confirming this prediction. Some games are just too weird to let loose on unsuspecting US gamers.

Prediction: Atlus Will Not Localize Catherine

I just ran across this interesting article at Sankaku Complex [CONTENT WARNING]. The overall summary is a bit disappointing. Apparently Atlus made Catherine so damn difficult that many gamers are struggling to progress the game even on the easiest difficulty setting.

Making matters worse, many of the gamers watching Catherine were expecting an RPG, not a puzzle block pulling experience. I remember seeing so of the puzzle video footage, and assuming that block levels were an exercise in completing some sort of mini-game. Apparently, not so much, which once again proves that point that it is never safe to assume.

I am going to go out on a limb and predict that sales, reviews, and gamer feedback will be disappointing, and Atlus will opt not to localize Catherine for a US release.

PSN 11 for 2011 Sale – Update

A mentioned in my comments yesterday about the 11 for 2011 Sale, I did pick up Tumble, but was on the fence with several other potential purchases. Final decisions?

Costume Quest looks like a lot of fun, but everything I have read said that it is only about 6 hours of fun. It is tempting to go after some cheap and easy Trophies, but I think I will pass for now. I bet the game is on sale again (maybe even cheaper) this October.

I also decided to hold off on Hoard for now. While the price seems to be a good deal, after doing a little research I am not sure that the game has an active online community base (probably just a dedicated few gamers). This is a classic chicken and egg situation; even if the game on sale, if no one picks it up due to a dead online community, the online community will never grow. For now I am going to take my chances that the price will drop again or Sony will offer it up as part of a Plus free game (or heavily discounted), which would in turn build up the online community (at least for a little while).

I almost held off on Space Invaders Infinity Gene; almost. The under $5 price point was too good to pass up. I missed out on the predecessor to this Space Invaders next generation reboot, so I am kind of going into this one blind, but from all the positive feedback Infinity Gene has received, I have a feeling that this one was a good buy. Besides, one can never have too many shooters!

Two solid games for under $10; color me pleased!

PSN 11 for 2011 Sale

Sony is offering a number of 50% off games on PSN this week. This is old news since it was published last Monday, but as we are heading into the last few hours of the sale, I thought I would get in a few closing comments.

Comet Crash – Sale (PS3) (now $4.99, original price $9.99)
Costume Quest – Sale (PS3)(now $7.49, original price $14.99)
Deathspank: Thongs of Virtue – Sale (PS3) (now $7.49, original price $14.99)
Hoard – Sale (PS3) (now $7.49, original price $14.99)
Motorstorm 3D Rfit – Sale (PS3) (now $4.99, original price $9.99)
Peggle – Sale (PS3) (now $4.99, original price $9.99)
Shatter – Sale (PS3) (now $3.99, original price $7.99)
Soldner-X-2: The Final Prototype – Sale (PS3) (now $6.49, original price $12.99)
Space Invaders Infinity Gene – Sale (PS3) (now $4.99, original price $9.99)
Swords and Soldiers – Sale (PS3) (now $4.99, original price $9.99)
Tumble – Sale (PS3) (now $4.99, original price $9.99)

Because Sony does not do a good job of offering up a quarterly upcoming PlayStation Plus publishing schedule, it is impossible to know if any of these 11 for 2011 games are going to show up as discounted or free items for Plus subscribers in the immediate future. I already have Shatter as part of my Plus subscription, and I picked up Soldner-X-2 as part of a Plus bundle discount. What about the others? Only time will tell …

Tumble
Overall this is a good sale, from a variety offered and discounted dollars standpoint. The only confirmed pickup for me is Tumble; I played the demo a while back and while I liked the game, I figured I would wait until the inevitable sale. I think Tumble at 50% off makes for a great pickup; it is interesting to see the wide range of metacritic scores.

No go …
While I may have had some interests in Deathspank: Thongs of Virtue in the future, for now I’ll pass until this one is further discounted. I am on the fence with Costume Quest, which looks like a really fun game, but once again, the price is not that appealing. “A little bit lower please …”

Right now my gaming Jones is not moving me in the direction of RTS or tower defense type games, which rules out Swords and Solders and Comet Crash respectively. Probably my loss since the price is right on each at under $5, and they both received positive feedback.

Conundrum
As mentioned earlier, I am on the fence with Costume Quest, but only because I may wait until it is under $5. The only other games on this list that I am uncertain about are Hoard, which looks like a fun concept, and the Space Invaders, but I do not really need another shooter.

Final Results
Before the weekend is out, I may end up with four games (Tumble, Costume Quest, Hoard, and Space Invaders) for $25, which is not bad for about $6 a pop. Most likely I will just end up with Tumble, but I always like a good sale, and the Trophy whore in me could use a few new diversions.

Remote Play – Great Idea, Poor Execution

PlayStation LifeStyle has a PixelJunk Shooter 2 interview with Q-Games founder, Dylan Cuthbert. Nice little interview, which is surprisingly lacking in PixelJunk Shooter 2.

First, this Remote Play quote below caught my attention.

Equally, has remote play proven popular, and what difficulties does the feature bring?

We have decided to drop remote play in Shooter 2 because of difficulties combining that with the online versus play. I’m not sure really that people use this feature much anymore but in the past it has been relatively popular.

It’s too bad that Sony never found a way to make Remote Play more acceptable with their publishing partners. Sony is equally culpable for Remote Play being discarded like a can of beans. As this post’s title suggests, Remote Play is a wonderful idea, but Sony fucked up in the delivery of the goods. Sony could have, and should have, made some of their IP such as Qore support Remote Play.

The second item in this article that caught my eye was the reference to the next PixelJunk game, Lifelike.

Was there ever any consideration for using PlayStation Move?

Not for Shooter 2 no, because it would have distanced the game-play too far away from the original game. However, PixelJunk Lifelike, a game we are developing, will be utilizing the Move!

I took a look at the video, which really did nothing to help me understand WTF the developer wanted to do with this teaser trailer. I suck at rhythm and music type games; hope that is not where this is headed. Regardless, the PixelJunk line has some interesting games, so I cannot wait to see what Q-Games come up with next.

Funny. I read the article for Pixel Junk Shooter 2 info, and referenced two other items.

Good gaming! Happy Sunday!