PS3 – Page 9 – The Recycle Bin

Cannot wait for F1 2010 to arrive!

I ran across this great F1 2010 commentary [via N4G], which is an excellent developer write-up and depiction of the racing action found in F1 2010 [360 version] complete with bugs and such. Seriously, if you are a fan of F1 videogames, this is worth a read.

I recently sold my F1: Formula One Championship Edition, which looks to be somewhat collectable (well over the original list price on Amazon). I also sold GT5 Prologue, which in my opinion was a very disappointing game; cannot think of the last time I played it. I enjoyed GT4 for the PS2 much better, but alas it will not work on my new Slim; besides, my youngest son broke the game.

I decided that with F1 2010 (September’ish – hopefully) and GT5 Collector’s Edition (November 2) on the way, it was time to dump some racing games. At one point in time I would have kept both games. After all, F1 CE is “collectable” and I own all the other Gran Turismo game, but times are different. I am getting much better at rotating out games instead of sitting on them. Some value for a dust collector is better than … well, dust.

Home? Not Impressed Yet …

I decided to “try” Home yesterday just to see if there was any reason to log in daily, weekly; am I missing out?

Before jumping in [Home and this article] I think it is worth quoting two Home articles from the official’ish blog, which pretty much summed up my prior opinion of Home.

Midway games will be available on a pay-to-play model, but will also have free “timed plays.” And as you master each game (meaning: you pass level 10), you in turn unlock unlimited plays for that game. Add into this the 100 + rewards (one reward for each level of each game that you beat – including a free personal space), and we think you’ll find the Midway a great value. [source: Home blog]

Like a real arcade at a fair or on a midway, right? Micro transactions are a good way to slowly let your cash slip away.

“Andy’s Room” transports players to the world of Buzz Lightyear, Woody, and the other toys owned by Andy Davis. Packed with mini-games and fun interactives, Andy’s Room is a must-have addition to your personal space collection. Pick yours up this Thursday from the Estates store in the PlayStation Home Mall. [source: Home blog]

Ah, another micro transaction.

After jumping into Home, I made a virtual avatar, and decked him out with my minimal choices in my wardrobe. If I do not want a “bland” online presence, it looks like I need to play to play; rather shop to add some personality. Same for my virtual home space, which was virtually empty.

I walked around and explored a little while in the main meeting area, played a fireworks mini game and won a sparkler, and walked around in the midway space (play to play, no thanks) and poked around in the mall.

One thing struck me over and over. In a MMORP such as WoW you are paying a monthly fee, which enables you to upgrade your character’s (avatar) appearance by earning new levels, items, etc. The best I can tell, in the world of Home, you get in for free, but in general you do not earn anything to change your avatar’s appearance. I could be wrong on this one; instead you use micro transactions to do the needful.

Maybe there are free game spaces, and options to earn free items, but I did not stick around long enough to see if I could uncover anything useful. I just cannot see myself paying $0.11 for a “cactus in a pot” decoration for my apartment. Forget about paying $1.99 (and probably a lot lower and much higher) for a new jacket for my avatar.

Good for Sony for striking gold. I could not believe the number of avatars that I saw running around that must have spent a decent amount of money in the mall. Every one of these clowns has given Sony some real money for an upgraded virtual appearance. I wonder how much they have spent decorating their home space?

With all that said, maybe I am being unduly harsh. If you are use to throwing money fees at an online service, this is really the same thing, assuming there is some value to be found in Home over and beyond playing dress up. I have yet to find it, but I admit that I did not look too hard yesterday. I’ll try again later.

Plus – Upon Further Review

Started to call this one “Plusing” – not really a word, but sort of catchy. I wanted to get some additional thoughts on Plus update on this wonderful holiday weekend. This love tribute to Plus from IGN pretty much hits on the mark and mirrors my viewpoint.

Colin Moriarty: We shall see. Rumor has it that Zen Pinball is going to be the next free game, and I don’t own that one either. But yes — the discounts have a lot of power with me as well. They already have me considering buying Cuboid (which I will get to keep even if I choose to stop subscribing to PlayStation Plus). But to me, what’s really exciting about PlayStation Plus isn’t what we’ve already seen and what we already know but everything that could potentially come to the service in the future. After all, as Jeff Rubenstein told us on Podcast Beyond last week, PlayStation Plus won’t be a static service. It will evolve.

The only real disadvantage I see to Plus is that some free games that I already own, in this case Zen Pinball, may be offered as the “free” (er, rental) game. That will sort of diminish the overall value of Plus; hopefully there will be enough free DLC and discounted content to make each month worthwhile.

Is Plus worth the money? As I have previously pointed out, as an initial annual subscriber I am getting Plus for $3.33 a month.

So I got a theme and a couple of avatars – not really my cup of tea. Maybe future updates will have something more interesting than my current retro race car avatar.
WipeOut HD. I would have never paid for this without it being seriously discounted. I have always been a casual WipeOut fan of the original PSX and PSP games, but not a card carrying WipeOut junkie. So this version is a rental for 15 months. Kind of hard to say if that is or is not worth it.
inFAMOUS – I recently got this with my 250GB PS3 Slim bundle. I have not opened the game yet, so getting to play for free for 60 minutes should be worth it. If I like the game, I can open my store purchased bundle copy. If not, eBay is calling for a “new in shrinkwrap” game.
Zombie minis – Did not really enjoy this one, but have not tried it on my PSP. Maybe there is some value there. Still nice to try it for “free” … cough, cough $3.33/month.
Rally Cross – Have not played this yet, but I actually enjoyed this one back in the day on the PSX. I downloaded on my PS3 and PSP-1000. Need to see if I can find my old game save. Anything that gives my PSX “free” games is worth it to me.
Warhawk bonus content – I do not have Warhawk and do not intend to buy it. Figured I would save it in case Warhawk comes up as a free Plus title.
Other game and DLC discounts – Not sure yet if I will purchase any of these.

I think five days in is way too soon to say if $50 for Plus is too much, not worth it, etc. I did enough research going in that I knew this was more or less a subscription service – think of a MMORP monthly fee. I do not think $3.33 (12 months at $50 + 3 months free) is too steep a price for the entertainment that I think Plus will provide me each month.

Home Sweet Home?

Over the last few days, several Home articles have popped up discussing the success of Home. According to TheSixthAxis …

Apparently there are over one hundred games now on the service, with fifty virtual spaces and fourteen million client downloads. That’s a pretty big service to provide for free. But hold on, it’s not actually free is it? The service exists, partially, to sell us virtual items (they’ve created over five thousand of them) in micro-transactions. Mr. Buser says “it’s one of the highest-margin businesses in the games industry”. So that’s why Sony representatives keep telling us how great it is!

May the Good Lord help me if I ever decide that I need some “paid for” virtual items for my Home space. If Sony can keep the Home momentum going, you have to admit that it is like printing money. What a great concept. Hire a staff to create “virtual” content that does not require any sort of distribution channel over and beyond the R&D costs associated with the development of the Home environment. Then watch folks fall all over themselves to get the latest, greatest virtual wares as a sort of status symbol in the virtual environment.

I have never logged into Home. I think I will today or tomorrow just to see what all the fuss is about. I am not sure what I expect other than giving Sony one more number to their tally. Maybe as a Plus subscriber, Sony will throw some extra bonus virtual content so I can scream “Look at me, I am a sucker too!”

End of Heavy Rain DLC?

Quantic Dream’s David Cage has indicated that instead of producing more Heavy Rain backdrop Chronicles DLC, the developer has been focusing on PlayStation Move support. According to the article posted at NOWGamer [via N4G], Cage said:

“Unfortunately, Sony preferred to ask us to focus on Move to support the device rather than on creating new content,” added Cage. “On our side, we did not want to spend more time on HR, which would have meant delaying new projects. This is a decision I can understand, and I am certainly happy we had the opportunity to play with this device and to support it, although I am certainly disappointed for fans we could not finish the story of HR the way we intended.”

Too bad. I guess one of these days I better finish Heavy Rain. After switching to my 250GB Slim, the save file was non transferable, and I just have not felt like playing the initial chapters again.

Finally, and this is pure speculation on my part based on poor recollections of an old man, at one point during the various E3 news stories I read that Move support was being added as a new game or premium content. Hopefully this is not the case and it will be just a downloadable patch. If Move support it is paid for DLC, I hope it is free (or seriously discounted) for Plus subscribers. If current games only support Move via a paid for DLC patch, the Move will be DOA.

PlayStation Plus Me Please – Initial Review and Comments

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.

To Plus?

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?

Codemasters Brings F1 Home

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.

More PSP Woes – DRM Incompatibilities

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).

What is the big fuss over motion control?

Until we see something innovative, I could care less about Sony’s and Microsoft’s efforts to captivate the gaming community with motion capture games.

From a PS3 centric perspective, PlayStation LifeStyle thinks Microsoft just screwed the pooch.

Fans and media alike were present earlier tonight as Microsoft decided to go ahead and present their upcoming motion sensor, essentially EyeToy clone, Kinect. Well, it appears that things got very strange very fast and may have just cemented the PlayStation Move’s victory.

Many of the titles bore an awfully close resemblance to the titles included with Nintendo’s Wii Sports title, accompanied by supposed lag issues and an overall lackluster experience. One new Star Wars title did make it’s debut, although many have stated that the preview was almost definitely pre-rendered.

What does this mean for Sony? It means that Sony has a breakaway with an empty net wide open, all they have to do is tap it home, and by “it” we mean the PlayStation Move. If Sony can manage a solid presentation while making the key component of their presentation quality games, they will most definitely have earned big points in the motion controller (or lack thereof) battle.

I really have not been following the Move and Kinect (formally Natal) too closely, but it will be interesting to see if either publisher can move past the “been there, done that with the Wii” feel. According to kotaku, out of the gate, Microsoft’s entry does not sound too promising. Will we see similar opinions on Sony’s Move?

Madden 11 – Blocking Out Franchise Improvements

I stumbled upon a couple of interesting Madden 11 articles this morning, which will eventually take us into a digression into why EA sucks donkey balls. It’s not as if I do not enjoy Madden, I do, however at some point enough is enough.

First, from joystiq, the Madden 11 developer diary talks mostly about blocking improvements. If they get this one right, and blockers actually block, lead, engage, and play with a little common sense, I think Madden fans everywhere will rejoice. It is just a damn shame that it has taken so long for the developers to decide it is time to overhaul the blocking. Seriously, WTF is wrong with them. The side-by-side video of “old” blocking vs. “new” blocking is amusing. As if there was some revelation on the part of the Madden team? “Boys, we better do something about the blocking before someone notices.”

Second, a user comment in the joystiq article lead me to some commentary bemoaning the lack of Madden 11 franchise improvements, especially considered to NCAA Football 11, which looks like it is innovating it online dynasty mode instead of just tweaking.

Let’s be honest. Without competition, EA will continue to stagnate. It’s clear that the Madden developers should concentrate on gameplay; however at this point in the current generation, the gameplay should already have been fully defined, with only incremental steps necessary in each subsequent version. Ooops. That’s where we are; we are getting an incremental improvement in blocking AI. Thanks EA.

Minor improvements can only take us so far. EA also needs to offer new features, modes of play, and serious updates to the features gamers really expect – pretty graphics and online improvements. You can laugh about the graphics and animation, but I call for a reboot in the look and presentation.

In my younger gaming days, I spent massive amounts of time in dynasty and franchise modes. These days, with work, kids, and a whole host of other non gaming commitments, I no longer have the time to invest. That does not mean that I do not want to see improvements in the way the AI helps handle off-season matters and online league play. Something akin to OOTP management style gaming via online franchise or dynasty modes would be completely captivating.

The crux of the matter is that there is no one to push the Madden and NCAA Football teams, so why bother putting in a serious influx of cash for R&D efforts? After all these years, NCAA Football is finally getting back the mass substitution feature? You have to be shitting me that the EA is even bringing this up as a new addition to the game.

Last year was the first year that I skipped NCAA Football; I just do not see improvements from the PS2 games, and for that matter the PSX games – NCAA Football was glorious 7 years ago. Now the NCAA Football team is working on dynasty mode improvements, which is great; WTF is the Madden team doing with their franchise improvements? Not a damn thing. Why? They do not have to spend a single red cent because there is no competition, which means no incentive.

I have already preordered Madden 11, and am strongly considering returning to NCAA Football this year because of the announced dynasty mode improvements in this year’s game. So I am part of the problem; like a damn drone I keep putting dollars in EA’s pockets. Why? Because I love football; like so many other gamers I have loved Madden and the NCAA Football series for years. I want to see improvements. I want the games to be fun. Mostly I want to see real innovation.

PSN PSX Classic Titles – FFIX

Final Fantasy fans everywhere are rejoicing that Final Fantasy IX (FFIX – of the original PlayStation fame) will be released next week for $9.99. This got me to thinking that it would be awfully nice if there was some way for those of use with FFIX and some of the other PSN PSX titles to convert our PSX discs to digital format.

I doubt it would be that difficult, and Sony could probably setup a digital copy system that would burn your PS3 SN into the digital copy to prevent piracy. Of course that would cut out a revenue stream for Sony, so it will never happen.

Slimming Down PS3 Style

Yesterday my 250GB PS3 Slim arrived safely from Walmart.com via FedEx. Compared to Amazon, I did have to pay more for shipping and sales tax, but Amazon did not have a 250GB Slim in stock, so this was something I decided to absorb. Besides the two game bundle will allow me to dump something on eBay to make up for this modest amount that I would not have paid via Amazon.

Before setting up the new Slim, I used my USB HDD to back up my save data files and media. While I could have setup up both systems and tried to do a system transfer, the USB backup process was a fairly quick and not too painless of a process. Besides, I have been backing up regularly because I figure my original PS3 will die sooner or later. I have the process down; as I said, quick and painless.

My HVB and Heavy Rain save data were locked, and would not copy. I am not sure why these games are setup this way. In the case of HVB it sucks because I have to spend several hours re-unlocking content that I had previously unlocked. I like the game, but I am going to have to decide if I like it enough to unlock some of the decent content again. I am not as concerned about Heavy Rain because I did not get too far into the game before getting distracted with something else (and my PS3 suffering YLoD). With that said, I really do not want to play the opening chapters again; tedious and as a father, not something that I consider very fun.

I also decided to take a few minutes to write down some of my settings. It took me a long time to get wireless working correctly for Remote Play, so I figured it was worth a few extra minutes of effort. Probably wasted effort; I bet the Slim does not have any of the Remote Play issues (PS3 randomly turning on) I ran into with my original system.

Setup of the new Slim was straight forward, as was to be expected. I was quickly in the PlayStation Store looking at my previous downloads to re-download all my paid content and games. I am not sure why, but downloads are noticeably quicker with the Slim. While I was watching Game 4 of the Celtics/Lakers Finals, I quickly downloaded a slew of games and add-on content.

I did not see an option to re-download my MLB 10: The Show classic stadiums content, which was a pre-order bonus. I was surprised to see that this DLC sells for $9.99. Ouch! Talk about price gouging. For that price I would expect to see a whole slew of extras, not just classic stadiums, but I digress. I figured I was out of luck because the Heavy Rain Taxidermist preorder bonus chapter did show up in my cart as being previous downloaded. Since they were both entered via DLC codes, I am not sure why these are considered different.

I decided to put in MLB 10 to see if there was some sort of in-game option to reapply the coded. After the long update and install process, I jumped into an exhibition game and saw the classic stadiums listed as unlocked. Not sure how the game knew, but I am thankful it did realize that I had previously applied this DLC code. Now that the Braves are rolling, I hope the new roster updates have the “improved” first place in the NL East Braves, and not the sorry start of the season Braves. Sorry; another digression.

My kids seemed somewhat concerned that the Slim does not play PS2 games, however these days PS2 games rarely if ever get played. The PS2 has a great library, and I own plenty of classics, but there are just not enough hours in the day. When I am PS3 gaming, it is almost always with a PSN or PS3 title. I have been dumping a few PS2 titles on eBay in anticipation of getting a Slim, so I think I am “over” this major difference in the new Slim, which obviously does not “do everything” as the ads would imply. My personality may drive me to really miss PS2 compatibility (“want what I cannot have”), but in a pinch, I do still have my original PS3; if it comes to that extreme.

I’ll also probably miss the front loading memory slots; plugging in a camera memory card or PSP memory stick was a nice convenience on the original PS3. I can see why Sony removed these to save money; the Slim has two USB slots (original system has four) and of course the Slim can connect to a media server.

I will not miss the extra noise, heat, and constant worry about when my original PS3 is going to blow up. The PS3 is mouse fart quiet, and after several hours of being on, there was very little noticeable heat. My original PS3 would have been blazing hot and annoyingly loud. So that is a worthwhile improvement.

As they say, Slim is in. It’s Friday! Happy Gaming!

Going 3D

Not really. Just thought I would mess with everyone to start off the day.

It seems like everyone is doing it these days, and now Sony is officially in on the act with their Bravio 3D TVs and the long awaited (not really; just f’ing with everyone again) 3D upgrades to a few PSN games and demos.

So no, I am not going 3D anytime soon. The concept may be cool. Can you imagine stereoscopic 3D boobies? I just cannot envision myself sitting around in special glasses over my regular “blind as a bat” glasses.

Then again, we will be in the market for a new TV and audio system over the next six months or so. Why not go 3D? It just seems like a fad, which will quickly fade away like a bad memory.

Incoming. Slim.

After much ado about nothing, I decided to pick up a PS3 Slim system. I was kicking myself for missing out on the Amazon “Father’s Day” bundle, which included Little Big Planet: Game of the Year Edition (henceforth LBP:GOTYE) and an HDMI cable. Of the different bundles I found, this Amazon bundle had the best bang my gaming / entertainment dollar.

On a sudden impulse I decided to check out Walmart.com, which has several different PS3 250GB Slim system bundles ranging in price from $339 to $399. Each bundle is slightly different with different game choices, Blu-ray movies, and accessories.

I selected the $349 option which included a choice of two Greatest Hits titles. I decided on InFamous and LBP:GOTYE. I have been interested in both games, but have held back on a purchase due to, in no particular order: (A) not having the time or energy to invest in a new game (B) trying to save a little money (C) have plenty of other games in front of these two (D) knowing I would not get my money’s worth from either title.

I decide to go with a new PS3 because I know my original system will not last. All the research I did points towards another system failure, perhaps as soon four months. While the YLoD repair can be fairly easily accomplished, I do not have the fortitude to do the fix on a moment’s notice; as in the system failing right when we are ready for a Family Movie Night). During most gaming sessions the fan is whirling at 1000s of RPMs per second; sometimes at extremely loud and disconcerting speeds.

At least that is my excuse. I told Tonya that this would be my Father’s Day present – lucky me.

I have never ordered from Walmart.com; I had to pay a little more than I do for Amazon Prime shipping, and I have to pay for sales tax. Sucks. Things I do when I get a burr in my butt.