Blog Report

Here is what I have been reading lately:

Uncharted 2’s Sloppy Fiction [Art]
Guess You Could Say She's Popular [Screengrab]
Modder Makes Remote Play On PS3 A Little More Useful [Mods]
What Budget Games Did Japan Flock To In 2009? [Only In Japan]
A Retro Gaming Room I Could Die In [Gallery]
It's The Little Touches That Make A Legend Of Zelda Themed Wedding This Great [Culture]
The Statistically Best Games of the Decade (Or Why Stats Sometimes Lie) [Games Of The Decade]
OnLive Boss Gives Live (And Long) OnLive Presentation [Clips]
Japanese Arcade Themed Like China's Back Streets [Arcade]
South Korea's First Person Shooting In 3D World [South Korea]
What Exactly is Konami's "Piece Walker" Site Getting At? [Teaser]
Can The West Cosplay With The Best Of Them? [Feature]
Something Modern Warfare 2 Got Wrong About Pakistan [Infinity Ward]
Japan Bang
Final Fantasy XIII Impressions: 15 Years Later, 25 Hours In [Impressions]
Create Your Army Of Two: The 40th Day Mask Online Right Now [Clips]
Look At These Otaku Rooms! [Book]
Get The Gran Turismo 5 Demo A Little Early [GT5]
Square Enix Now Taking Final Fantasy XIV Beta Applications [Mmo]

PS3 Hard Drive Swap

I was fortunate enough to receive a new hard drive for my PS3 this christmas and thought it would be a piece of cake. Enough blogs gave me that impression, but few mentioned how difficult the process of backing up the data on your PS3 could be. Here, let me draw up the scenario; I have a 300 GB NTFS external hard drive, should be suitable for backing up a 60 GB PS3, right? Wrong... For some reason the PS3 OS will only recognize external devices formated in the FAT32 format, not NTFS. Oh wait, that is not the only catch, the kicker is Microsofts operating system limits the size of a volume which could be formatted in FAT32 (32 GB). So I had a bit of a dilemma, since my hard drive had about 55 GB of data on it. I tried a couple 3rd party applications, but since they were not Windows 7 compatible and I could not get anything to trick windows into formatting over 60 GB. Rather than suffer any longer by continuing to search the internet for another couple of hours, I broke down and deleted enough off the drive to be able to backup at least 30 GB. From here on out it was really a piece of cake. Step by step:

1. 
   
   Plug in your external Hard Drive, and turn on the PS3
   
   
   
2. 
   
   In the XMB find Settings > System Settings > Backup Utility and run that guy
   
3. Once the back up is complete, power down everything and pull your PS3 out
   
4. Lay the PS3 down Horizontally and remove the small panel from the bottom of the PS3
   
5. There you will see the Hard Drive cage behind the blue screw.
   
6. Unscrew, flip handle and slide right. Now pull out the Hard Drive
   
7. Its a standard SATA laptop Hard Drive mounted in a cage by four screws.
   
8. Remove the four screws CAREFULLY! You can really strip these bad without a small tipped phillips...
   
9. Mount in the new Hard Drive to the cage, push down and slide left. You should feel a click.
   
10. Replace blue screw, cover and reconnect your PS3 to the entertainment center
    
11. The PS3 will need to format the new drive.
    
12. Once that is complete, reconnect the external Hard Drive, In the XMB find Settings > System Settings > Backup Utility and Restore Backup
    
13. Enjoy your beefed up PS3
    

        

   

State of the Industry: The Landscape of 2010 part 2

And the beat goes on as we look at the second half of 2010 and what the future holds. I would of course take any release dates you may have heard with a grain of salt. Many of these triple-A titles will hit a snag before going gold, so these are the top ten titles I would like to tentatively see drop in the later half of the year. 

1. The Last Gaurdian - Fumito Ueda and Team Ico make art as games and their narrative is prolific. Should be a must own PS3 title.

2. Dead Rising 2 - Capcom is bringing back the horde and the ability to create weapons, means all new ways to kill zombies.
3. Fable 3 - Peter Monyluex and Lionhead have a vision for the Fable universe that involves a level of immersion unseen in most games. I felt the last one fell short, but was getting very close.

4. Brink - Interesting theories on traversing the enviroment and combat, with a fresh art style. All good things.

5. Metal Gear Solid Rising - Just watch Raiden fight the Geckos in MGS4 and tell me you don't want to play that scene.

6. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Kojima does Castlevania???!!!

7. Halo Reach - Bungie's swan song?

8. Final Fantasy Versus 13 - I have no idea what to expect...please don't be Dirge of Cerberus, please don't be Dirge of Cerberus...

9. Deadspace 2 - Isaac is back and he has a zero gravity suit that doesn't suck

10. Crackdown 2 - Blow shit up with me!

Check back in for the final post on how "motion control" may try to become a standard of practice in 2010 and on.

*Note: all images are the result of a google image search and amazon.com

Merry Christmas!

Ding, Post 100!

Reaching a milestone here. And when I first started this blog, there was no framework. Maybe my content reflects that... but hitting post one hundred makes me happy to know that I have stuck with it this long. Now the road ahead seems less daunting and hopefully I will reach even more milestones on this journey. Thanks to everyone out there reading this and stick around, there is lots to look forward to in the year ahead.

-Sean

State of the Industry: The Landscape of 2010 part 1

2009 is coming to a close and it seems like 2010, despite any economic woes from the past year, is going to be jam packed with games. Now since everyone loves lists, whether it’s the convenient packaging of all the information or the opportunity to argue about why one thing comes before another, but in an attempt to avoid these scenarios; I am making two top 10 lists (first half of the year / second half of the year) and ranking them based on personal taste. Rather than having my long drawn out recommendations as I am sure you readers are acustomed too, all my reasons will be as consice as possible. Plus, if you have a different view, feel free to let me know in the comments section; that’s why it’s there. Alright, first half of 2010, GO!

1. God of War 3 – I have to know how the story ends and killing gods is oh so much fun.

2. Final Fantasy 13 – It has been far too long…

3. Mass Effect 2 – Bioware is on a roll and interrupting conversations with a blaster fire makes me feel like Han Solo.

4. Splinter Cell Conviction –  It might actually come out!

5. Red Dead Redemption – Rockstar has a knack for creating a game whose setting is a character unto itself.                                                                                                                
6. Alan Wake – Because of Remedy and my love for their games. \

7. Gran Turismo 5 – Again, it might actually come out!!

8. 3D Dot Heroes – It is just a really good idea.

9. Dark Void – I really dug the Rocketeer as a kid and “vertical cover” sounds ambitious / ridiculous.

10. Bioshock 2 – It’s an unnecessary sequel (IMO) to a great game and I hope they prove me wrong.

Now that is basically some of the most important games for the first half of 2010. Look for part 2 of this post to see what the 2nd half of 2010 holds in store for me and possibly you.

*Note: all game covers can be found on Amazon.com

Weekend Warriors

Almost Christmas and we have finally peaked in 2009. With the Sabotuer, we should get a brief break until 2010. While I am racing through Forza and playing some Trine, what will you be playing?

Blog Report: A change in content

With the school semester over, I will no longer be posting the blog reports in the same format. Instead of giving you a synopsis of 2 posts from a specific set of blogs, I think it would be more beneficial (if not more interesting) to post links to some of my favorite posts over the course of a week. This is a trial post, so some of the links below are over a month old, but from here out the Blog Report will be a weekly synopsis of my favorite posts, courtesy of the Internets. Enjoy and let me know what you think!

Harry Potter Gets a Feel Good, Inner City Sequel [Dangerous Wands]


Kotaku's 2009 Gift Guide of Obscene Nicety and Sublime Naughtiness [Gift Guide]

let's talk about jumping [Column]

The Special Guest Star Who Wasn't [Screengrab]

Giant Bomb's MW2 Parody Tee Is Oscar Mike For Child's Play [T-shirts]

Happy 15th Birthday, PlayStation! [Sony]

Seeking A Game That Can Trick Me [Hindsight]

Final Fantasy XIII 360 Twitter Prize Tweets Back At You [Xbox Live]

Nintendo Takes Over Malls Across America [Holiday Shopping]

Make Your Netflix Disc Feel At Home, PS3 Users [PS3]

Spike Video Game Awards Nominees Announced [Awards]

Asking Why

Marketing 101: Nintendo Information Center

Ah Nintendo, your ability to reach the common man and cause them to purchase copious amounts of useless peripherals, mini-game collections and arguably the best kart racer of all time knows no bound. With the Christmas Holiday vastly approaching and consumers pouring into malls, Nintendo has brought its Holiday line-up to consumers. You can read more about the campaign here, but I just wanted to say that this is why Nintendo is winning, because everything about their business model screams "accessibility". Do the hardcore enjoy that? Not so much. Many hardcore gamers play games because they like to feel challenged, but the Wii is all about feeling like you having fun without having to worry about “which of the 15 buttons do I push to make this damn game work”?! Its about interacting with friends and family around a TV (because lets face it, this friend code bullshit has got to go) and having a good time. New Super Mario Brothers Wii is following that, although I am not to sure what Nintendo's definition is of a good time, while my friends continue to grief me. Regardless, here is the information booth at Grapevine Mills - Grapevine, TX where Nintendo had games like Mario Kart, Guitar Hero 5, Wii Fit Plus, Wii Sports resort, Professor Layton, and Zelda: Spirit Tracks. Also, throw in some attractive young ladies to answer all your questions and you have sales. In fact, watch the Wii pull out ahead of the pack this December in hardware sales stateside and I would argue this is the reason. Now can I please have a "real" Zelda for Wii???

Weekend Warriors

And I am glad to be done with Assassin's Creed 2. Not because I felt it was tedious, but it was the first Platinum I have achieved. Yay me... Now I need to plug back into Dragon Age and I am pretty sure its time for some Forza Motorsport 3. What are you playing this weekend?

Blog Report: December 8th

Official U.S. Playstation Blog
Announcing the Gran Turismo 5 Time Trial Challenge
Stephanie Yoshimoto // Senior Product Marketing Manager
December 3rd, 2009
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2009/12/announcing-the-gran-turismo-5-time-trial-challenge/

We spoke a little about how Gran Turismo has an interesting marketing model within the United States and this post re-affirms that notion, but leaves out an interesting fact. With the release of the new Demo for GT5, Sony is offering the US & Canada the opportunity to compete on leader boards in a time trial. The Grand Prize for this is “round trip airfare and hotel accommodations for two (winner and guest) to attend the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race, a.k.a. the Indy 500, on May 30, 2010. It doesn’t end there, because the winner and guest also get a VIP package which includes two (2) all-access passes for Carb Day – which includes the final Indy 500 practice, pit stop competition, special concert festivities, special event car rides in the 2010 Indy 500 event vehicle, as well as all-access passes to the garage, pit area, and Victory Lane for pre- and post-race celebrations for the race and two (2) VIP suite tickets” That being said I looked into what Europe was being offered, as they are more avid racing fans, than the Nascar following in the U.S. and they are getting a much more interesting offer. It is posted across various Blogs, but European gamers on the other hand will have the opportunity to receive a “full racing contract” via a program known as the Gran Turismo Academy. The previous winner is actually starting his professional racing career and recently placed 2nd at the Algarve Circuit in Portugal. Think about it, one weekend at Nascar is fun, but the opportunity to play a videogame and become a professional race car driver is priceless. Wonder why we North Americans are not allowed to compete?

Gamasutra – Substitute for Set on Stun
What Gamers Think About Microtransactions
Daniel Kromand
December 3rd, 2009
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4207/what_gamers_think_about_.php?page=3

Microtransactions are the driving force behind the “free to play” genre emerging in the industry of video games. The idea is that, a user is allowed to play a portion of the game if not all the game for free and content can be unlocked by paying a premium. This content usually relates to character development, allowing users to take shortcuts when making progress in the game, by simply paying to get ahead. The problem some companies are running into, is balancing these transactions so it does not inhibit those that choose to work for the content in game or those that receive the content by paying, are getting a fair deal. Looking at a couple of examples, there are a few different ways these things are balanced. Typically, all the content one can purchase with a microtransaction can be found playing the games. That way, it doesn’t allow people who pay to have a competitive advantage over those that don’t. Another model lets you rent the content, say pay for the content based on the number of hours you can use it or number of times. Take a in game weapon, some allow players to rent one for x number of realtime hours, or game hours, or number of times you can battle with it. When any of these constraints are reached, the content disappears, along with your money. Not sure how I feel about this, since I have yet to participate in a game that follows this model, but it seems like the future for some markets in the industry.

Play it NOW!: Assassins Creed 2

A period piece, fictional or not, has always been something I have an affinity towards. Maybe it is the academic in me, but understanding events in world history can bring about a more comprehensive relationship between past, present and future. So goes the plot for Assassins Creed 2 or at least my interpretation of Desmond’s story arch. But unlike the first one, AC2 lets you spend most of your days inside the DNA of Desmond, living out his ancestor’s story. That story is of one Ezio Auditore da Firenze, and it is one of the many accomplishments of AC2 over its predecessor. On a more personal note, I was a big supporter of the first title, despite its short comings. The ability of Ubisoft Montreal to capture the atmosphere  of the crusades

was more than enough to get me on board, but the overwhelming satisfaction of taking a 20 foot drop off the edge of a building and impaling the skull of your target, is why I stayed until the end. It really is quite gratifying after a long day at work, regardless of impressions that I may be a sociopath. Happily, that feeling returns in AC2, with twice as many hidden blades, plus some additional assassination techniques. This variety beautifully applies to almost all the aspects of the game, eliminating the previous complaints some had about the repetition and monotony of the mission structure. Instead of the assassinations happening in a vacuum, many assassinations are paced differently from each other and required fewer side quests to get the mission started. There is also a personal motivation behind the assassinations and without spoilers; Ezio is way more pissed off at these people than Altair was in the original. The dialogue does alot to reinforce this obviously, but the choice of using "Ital-ish" dialoge had me turning on the subtitles so I could get a translation. Not bad for building the atmosphere, but it begs the question of why the full italian dialogue is not as good as the "Ital-ish"?

With more comparisons to the original, lets look to life outside the assassination racket. Certainly Altair had some personality besides that of a cold blooded killer, but we never saw it. With Ezio, you find out in the first few hours (yeah, it is tedious) that he is the typical Italian alpha male in his prime; climbing cathedrals, beating up punks from rival families, and wooing merchant’s daughters. There is character introduction, plot development and even a sick burn from the mouth of Ezio’s mother, before all hell breaks loose and you don the assassin’s robes. After some redemption, Ezio discovers there is an uncle who lives outside of Florence and he agrees to take you in, but does make a request to spruce up the Auditore Estate and the village that surrounds it. Now, on your days off from

assassinating the Templers of Italy, you can actually engage in a meta-game, which involves you developing the economy of the town through monetary investments, in order to attract tourism and gain a substantial return. So much of a return, that by game end you will have more money than there is stuff to buy. But what kind of stuff can you buy one might ask? There is of course investing in the town directly, improving shops, guilds, a bank and various amenities but also art plays a huge part and the more art you collect from each city, the more valuable your estate is. Armor and Weapons also become art, with each piece you unequipped going on display at your estate. Combined that with the collecting challenges like roman statues, codex pages, feathers, assassin seals, etc and the entire process of managing this town becomes a game all unto itself, and is a nice break from the wash/rinse/repeat of assassinations. The blending is also an improvement over Altairs ability, allowing Ezio to blend with any group of people number 3 or more. Also, Ezio can hire prostitutes, mercenaries or thieves to walk along with him to blend or to go distract guards while Ezio searches for treasure. There are other small touches too, like catching thieves or messengers and taking their Florins, and hiding your opponents in haystacks after their grissly demise. All of these things were vital in really fleshing out the open world elements. It is a beautiful excursion through Renaissance Italy with plenty to do and very little to complain about in my opinion. So if your a fan of Assassins, Treasures and "Ita-lish" dialogue. Play it NOW!

*Completed story on PS3, played each type of side quest at least once and earned a Platinum trophy

**All images are a result of Google image search

Weekend Warriors

Must. Stab. Venetians.

What about you?

Blog Report: December 2nd

The Official U.S. Playstation Blog
Walk off your Turkey Dinner with Black Friday Shopping
Tim Bender // Senior Vice President of Sales
November 25th, 2009
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2009/11/walk-off-your-turkey-dinner-with-black-friday-shopping/

It’s that time of season, when consumer becomes predator and goes hunting on black Friday. With door buster deals starting as early as 4 am, retailers are seem eager to get the holiday season started, as soon as possible. One latecomer to the black Friday bandwagon was the PS3. Rarely do I recall the PS3 being sold for any possible bundle under $400 during past black Friday’s, it just wasn’t a good deal. But now that they are $300, and there is a significant number of quality games in their repertoire, Sony strikes with not one quality black Friday bundle, but FIVE, spread across various retailers, each containing 2 free games ($100+ value). For Sony, this is the best possible scenario for closing out 2009. Spending the past 2 months, selling the “new” PS3 and building a successful marketing campaign around it, they now reach the largest consumer holiday of the year, in our culture, and decide to sell 5 bundles. I expect people to eat this up. Sony’s bundles you have the choice of various combinations of games, combined with a 120 GB PS3. Some of the games include; Little Big Planet GOTY Edition, Infamous, Killzone 2 or God of War Collection. NPD numbers pending, bravo Sony.

Set on Stun
Doorbusters and Videogames — Aint Capitalism Grand?
Shawn Deena
November 26th, 2009
http://setonstun.com/2009/11/doorbusters-and-videogames-aint-capitalism-grand/

We already talked a little about black Friday in one of my other posts, but this one takes the opposite stance of the previous. Instead of praising the video game deals on black Friday, Shawn (not me) questions the legitimacy of some of these deals. Best Buy for example was selling a Elite, which came as the holiday bundle plus 4 additional games. That’s six games! Granted some of these are a little dated, and may have sequels available; for the first time gamer I felt this is a stellar deal. Then selling new releases for $20 dollars cheaper, although may not be stellar, it is still cheaper than the usual $60 price tag. Some may not feel the same way though and see people purchasing gift cards over actual products, thus not even guaranteeing that the industry will see a share of those profits, despite the purchasers’ intent for their use. As I also stated before, Sony seemed very prepared for black Friday, offering five bundles, and Nintendo did a good job of utilizing its DSi ware service by bundling the new DSi with 5 pre-downloaded games. Regardless, when the NPD numbers hit, we will have a good idea of how well the big three performed. In the mean time, I remain hopeful.

The Art of Gaming: December

Designed by AshRB @ http://infinitecontinues.wordpress.com/‏

Happy Thanksgiving!

Blog Report: November 24th

Official U.S. Playstation Blog
Digital Comics Reader Now Available for PSP – Get a Free Issue!
Grace Chen - Senior Manager, PlayStation Store
November 20th, 2009
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2009/11/digital-comics-reader-now-available-for-psp-get-a-free-issue

One growing trend of this generation of consoles is the functionality of the device outside the common aspect of playing a game. The PSP has been experimenting with Movies, Music and Internet Phone for some time; so the idea of turning your PSP into a Digital Reader seems like a no brainer. With the latest firmware update, the Digital Reader is now available and although it is limited to comics (addressing the primary audience on the PSP), with success, it will lead to more and more digital publications. This post is to notify people that there is a free digital comic available, but there is a catch, that is pretty much the only combat available. To me this seems like another missed opportunity on Sony’s part around properly building up the community for the release of a product. Why would you go live with a Digital Reader, but the Publishers are not going to put up content (save this one comic) until a month after release. The audience will commit to the update and have it on their PSP, but not have access to any content. Then, when the content goes live, there is a good chance that they will have already forgotten why it mattered.

Set on Stun
XBOX with Facebook and Twitter — Winner of The Dumbest Console Idea Award for 2009
Shawn Deena
November 20th, 2009
http://setonstun.com/2009/11/xbox-with-facebook-and-twitter-winner-of-the-dumbest-console-idea-award-for-2009/

The Xbox 360 has been the benchmark for online interaction in this era of console gaming. Currently you can chat, text, video message, and even watch a movie with your friends, as well as play games. If you ever needed to do another type of social interaction, it seemed like there would be a much better device than my video game console to execute that action. Guess I would be wrong though, since with the latest update of Xbox Live you can now log onto your respective Facebook and Twitter accounts and interact with all your friends. First problem, QWERTY keypads do NOT come standard with the 360 or its controllers. In fact, they will run you an additional 30 dollars and the virtual keyboard will not due; trust me, its pathetic. Second, you would need to be an Xbox Live Gold member (meaning you pay a subscription around $40 annually), and that is just absurd considering both these services are free with an internet connection on any other platform. Lastly, the functionality of both these applications is extremely gimped due to the fact that the Xbox 360 does not support an Internet Browser. That means that no 3rd party apps can be supported, meaning all the Facebook games that people play, cannot be played on a video game console! So, what can you do? Update your status, leave messages for friends and look at pictures; wow, sure wish my iPhone or PC could do that… oh wait, they have been for years.

Weekend Warriors

Just got through with Borderlands as Assassin's Creed 2 slowly begins to devour my soul. Loving every minute of it so far, but what are you all playing this weekend?

Play it NOW!: Borderlands

The wasteland of Pandora is plagued with adversity, but luckily, I have the cure; a bazillion guns! Borderlands, is not your typical FPS. It is one of many games entering what I refer to as a “hybrid-genre” and as Gearbox would describe it, Borderlands is what you would get if an FPS and RPG had a baby; more specifically, if Halo and Diablo had a baby. This should lead you to a couple conclusions, first you will be shooting aliens in the face, second, you will be collecting a ton of loot and last, you will be grinding until that level 50 level cap kicks in. As many of you know that read this blog regularly, I had been going to Gearbox every couple of months for focus testing sessions, and now that the game is out, I can tell you it was to play Borderlands. Since I had spent a lot of single player time (around 15 + hours) playing this game at Gearbox, I wanted to experience the actual game, co-op ONLY. Working out the schedule with my brother, we ended up finishing this game in a little less than 12 hours, and I am still left with some side quests to go back to.

I really have to hand it to Gearbox, if there is one thing Borderlands has going for it, it is style. The graphics alone are a blend of realism and cel-shading to create something wholly unique, visually referred to as “concept art” style. A thick black outline permeates the objects in the landscape and clearly defines the character models, buildings and weapons throughout Pandora. These are coupled with a sense of personality allocated to many of the NPCs you encounter; from the mischievous, sometimes hilarious Claptraps, to many of your quest dispensers like Scooter or Crazy Earl. Even your tougher enemies are differentiated by simply throwing the word “Badass” in front of their name. If I had to point to one thing lacking, it is any sort of narrative. The story is really irrelevant, starting with you choosing a class-based silent protagonist (despite the occasional taunt over your enemy’s corpse) and following the orders from a mysterious woman, to find a vault thought to contain a wealth of treasure. When you get to the vault, it will surprise you for about 3 seconds and then you realize the last battle kind of fizzles out. Let us take time to recognize though, that this is not why you play Borderlands! You play Borderlands, because of the loot and does Borderlands sure have some of the coolest weapons I have ever seen. Take for example “The Boiler”, a drum loaded cluster rocket launcher, which not only fires 5 rockets spread across the terrain, but 5 rockets which explode with “nalpamy” goodness, causing massive fire damage on all my enemies. Or my favorite close quarters gun, “The Judicator”, a shotgun of the highest grade (orange class) which will basically turn any opponent to kibble in two pops. Complete this little arsenal off with some Bouncing Bettie Electrical grenades (electric elements drop enemy shields quick) and you can pretty much handle anything the game can throw at you.

To come back the classes mentioned earlier, there are four choices; Soldier, Sniper, Siren and Brick (yeah, his name is the class). Soldiers are more tactical classes who can drop a turret which will buff you and your teammates, master shotties and assault rifles, and has an entire medic skill tree. Snipers try to control the battlefield from a distance, utilizing a pet bird to stun opponents, cause elemental damage and master the headshot. These are the two classes I experienced the most of (me being the soldier, my brother the sniper). The siren is a stealthy magic class, who can “phase walk” through enemies and explode behind them for massive area damage. She is also proficient with small arms. Then there is Brick, a human wrecking ball, whose special ability is to drop his gun and just start pummeling his opponents until they are a smear on the desert landscape. Oh and Brick also is proficient in heavy weapons, which he shoots from the hip! Each class also has a modifier, which will allocate bonus skill points to specific abilities making you more effective or balanced. I spent the majority of the game as either a Support Gunner or Shock Trooper. Lastly, there are the shields, and while most of them are cool and do various counter attacks or have immunities to specific elements, I found that the regenerative health shield was the only way to go. Myself being a medic sub-class, I could heal anyone by shooting them, except myself…which proved to be a problem from time to time, if I did not use the correct shield. The vehicle combat was passable, but did not resonate the Mad Max feeling I was going for, mostly because the vehicles lacked variety and the guns tended to be weaker than my own sidearm.

I think this game will be the Franchise that finally takes Gearbox to new heights. The Brothers in Arms series was always successful but suffered from the industries saturation of World War II shooters. FPS/RPG Hybrids on the other hand are few and far between, generally suffering from issues of being two much of one or the other. Borderlands on the other hand, seems to have found the balance here and with 2 million units sold in the first 45 days, I can hardly wait for the sequel. Luckily, there seems to be a slew of DLC keeping me busy until then. So if you like guns, guns, guns; Play it now!

* Played through the main story and probably 70% of side missions, reached lvl 38 Soldier before credits rolled.

**All images are a result of a Google image search and www.nerfnow.com

Blog Report: November 17th

Set On Stun
Assassin’s Creed Lineage — Now This Is What We Call Marketing
Shawn Deena
November 11th, 2009
http://setonstun.com/2009/11/asassins-creed-lineage-now-this-is-what-we-call-marketing/

Ubisoft has decided that Assassin’s Creed 2 needs to take its marketing campaign to the next level. Simple, press releases and TV commercial are not going to fit the bill for the highly anticipated sequel. Instead, Ubisoft has put their most recent acquisition (FX Studio Hybride Technologies) to good use, by creating a series of short films to explain the origins of Assassin’s Creed 2 new leading man, Ezio Auditore da Firenze. Filmed on a green screen with real actors, Hybride Technologies used CG to build the world of 15th century Italy around them. Since the game will be taking place in similar locales, the short films do a good job of creating an atmosphere for the upcoming game. Taking place during the Renaissance, your character appears to be involved in the political espionage of the Medici family, working as an assassin. It is believed Ezio is an assumed descendant of Altair, the originals leading character. That is how the game is able to make the correlation between the games previous setting in the Holy Land during King Richard’s crusade. I was a big fan of the original and eagerly anticipate this games release. Actually, by the time you are reading this, I will already have my copy, since it begins selling on November 17th. Cheers.

Official U.S. Playstation blog
adhocParty for PSP Available Soon
Kristin Neirinckx Marketing Manager, PSP
November 13th, 2009
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2009/11/adhocparty-for-psp-available-soon/

Portables have existed for a long time now and as time has gone by, innovation has driven every new game over the past few years. The newest revelation to hit portables is multiplayer and thanks to broadband everywhere and Wi-Fi, it is becoming easier. The PSP, which required Wi-Fi and being within a Local Area Network to play multiplayer is about to get a little help from its younger brother, the PS3. What your PSP can do is connect remotely into your PS3 and use the internet connection the PS3 has to make the PSP available for online play. Now, many would ask, why not just play your PS3 if you’re going to sit down in front of it. In many cases they would be right, but with games like Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, N+, or the upcoming Star Wars Battlefront 3 only being sold on PSP, there are some unique games experiences people are missing out on. While in ad hoc party mode, the PS3 will also open a channel for video chat (if you have the Playstation Eye and Bluetooth Headset), which can greatly increase the online gaming experience. Just one more way Sony is trying to give the customer a greater gaming experience.

Weekend Warriors

Lets see. Still playing Dragon Age, Borderlands and MUA2. Then my girlfriend went and through Modern Warefare 2 into the mix. Its amazing I even have time to update this. What is everyone else playing?

-posted from iPhone

Blog Report: November 11th

The Official U.S. Playstation Blog
70’s Mustang Joins the Gran Turismo 5 Lineup at the Gran Turismo Awards
Alex Armour // Manager, Public Relations
November 6th, 2009
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2009/11/70s-mustang-joins-the-gran-turismo-5-lineup-at-the-gran-turismo-awards/

A love for cars, trucks and SUVs is the motivating force behind the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA). About 7 years ago, Polyphony Digital and their hit game Gran Turismo teamed up with SEMA to hold a secondary awards ceremony tied into the SEMA auto show, called the Gran Turismo Awards. To understand why this is at least an expert's judge of performance, Gran Turismo’s pedigree lies in the facts that they are the benchmark against which all other racing games are currently judged. Back to the real cars, the contestants are from five different categories and will be judged by Kazunori Yamauchi, creator of Gran Turismo and resident car nerd. He will judge each vehicles appearance and history. Then, once each winner is evaluated, the best in show is chosen, who will have the privilege of their car being featured in game. Due to the long development process, the past two winners will also feature their car in game. So, currently leading into the release of Gran Turismo 5, there are going to be 3 award winners featured from the past 3 SEMA shows; an Audi TT, Infiniti G37 and 70’s Ford Mustang Transcammer. It is good for these two communities to share promotion of each other's efforts. SEMA puts emphasis and supports the auto tuning community and of course the majority of gamers who purchase GT 5 support that community. Using a cross promotional event such as this can only benefit both companies. Congrats to the most recent winner Phil Koenan, I can’t wait to take that Mustang out on the track.

Set on stun
Flashback — The Atari Mindlink
Shawn Deena
09/08/09
http://setonstun.com/2009/11/flashback-the-atari-mindlink/

Technology is continuing to evolve at an ever present rate, but our imagination tends to cause humans to get ahead of the current applications in technology. Take for instance the Atari Mindlink, a monumental failure adverted by Atari, the Mindlink was meant to eliminate the need of a controller. Instead, it seemed to just bring upon headaches as users tried to move their eyebrows across infrared sensors to control games such as; Pong, Bionic Breakthrough and Mind Maze. Although the product was never released, it’s interesting to see what people thought was the solution to the problem 25 years ago and where we have come to find this solution now. If you look at the Wii it is one step towards no longer having buttons to control a game. Microsoft hopes to take this even further by eliminating any sort of controller at all. Instead of using your mind (or rather your brow), the device codenamed NATAL uses a stereoscopic 3D camera to capture the movement of the user. This translates into a form of hands off approach to gaming. Based on the recent test runs, it looks to be a success in waiting, but only time will tell since it will inevitably be released. Hopefully when they release the mock up for the device, they won’t mention how it “increases computer and game system intent to purchase”. I think something like this should be designed around the intention for increasing immersion, sales will come

Marketing 101: Sin to Win

9 Circles of Hell and the Campaigns behind them

It's November 9th and another Circle of Hell has opened over at Electronic Arts. Since the anouncement of new IP Dante's Inferno, EA has been all over the industry building hype through some ridiculous marketing stunts. I will not debate the responsibilities of using a profound piece of literature, to build the narrative for an action game. Let's just look at how these marketing stunts are being executed and whether or not it has had an affect on the audience. I believe their original campaign is developed around the 7 deadly sins, but the 9 circles are the levels in the game. Either way, most of the circles are the same are similiar to the sins committed, so we will just apply the camapaign stunts across the circles. The game also has a "normal" marketing campaign as well, and if after this you are interested, you can go to EA's site for more information here.

Limbo - During this year's E3, Electronic Arts staged a fake Christian protest against the game, complete with signs that read "EA = Electronic Anti-Christ." The idea of religious protest against a video game is sure to make headlines, even if this isn't the first time. Lest we for the Hindus community's outrage over “Hanuman: Boy Warrior” a PS2 game. The protest eventually spurred actual Christian activists to denounce the silly stunt. The funny thing is, becuase the initial impression was the demonstration was real, EA was able to get twice as much converage for one activity, since every post was followed up with a clarification. Well played EA.


Lust – At Comic Con this year, Electronic Arts was running a contest that promises " dinner and a sinful night with two hot girls, a limo service, paparazzi and a chest full of booty " as a reward for snagging multiple pictures with any booth babes, committing "acts of lust." First off, booth babes probably have a hard enough time just being an entire convention filled with nerds, objects of affection. Now, you are basically antagonizing these gamers to go out and get a booth babe, from any company, not exclusively EA, to take a demeaning picture. Obviously this could not end well. Not only did some "winners" refuse their prize to make a point, but essentially EA is alienating their fan base. For it being one of the easiest sin's to campaign over, it seemed like EA had really messed this one up for all intents an purpose.


Gluttony – What better way to say your sorry than with cake. Of course, EA didn't want to waste another opportunity to market Dante's, so instead of a normal cake, EA went with an arm cake.
Gamespot was the lucky media outlet to receive it and from an epic cake point of view, this one is spot on. Though it didn't get as much coverage across the various media outlets, in the basic application to the game it seems pretty accurate. Sadly, execution was lacking.

Greed – EA then sent out checks for $200 to various journalists and media outlets which read; “By cashing this check you succumb to avarice by hoarding filthy lucre but by not cashing it, you waste it, and thereby surrender to prodigality.” Some chose to destroy the check (Brian Crecente @Kotaku) or donate it to charity (Chris Grant @Joystiq), but either way it got Dante’s Inferno back into headlines. Cheapy D of CAG.com actually calculated the value of doing something like this. Here, he looked at the cost of advertising on Kotaku, as compared to pulling a stunt like this:
“Kotaku charges an $8 CPM (cost per 1,000 banner impressions) for their standard advertising banners. Their news post about this PR stunt will likely surpass 40,000 views.  Look Into To err on the safe side, let's say the total cost of the check and fancy box is $300. Since Crecente burned the check, EA basically spent the equivalent of a $2.50 CPM for a front page news post on Kotaku.” Now, that’s a pretty good deal when you’re trying to utilize the advertising budget effectively.

Anger (Wrath) - A 17 pound package crate appeared on the doorstep of numerous journalists. Once the twine was removed from the outside, a series of moody overtones began playing, which were quickly silenced by the horrific noise of Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up blaring from inside the box. The catch, the box was basically sealed shut, with no way to turn it off! It would not stop until you cracked open the crate and disconnected that power source. Nothing like the sweet melodies of Rick Astley to bring out the anger in someone.

With Heresy opening to the public, I wonder what EA has planned next? Will we get a video montage of the "Buddy" Jesus holding a Popes Gone Wild video, or is the Catholic Church planning on releasing a new line of Dante's Inferno propylatics? Let us not forget that there are still the cirlces of Violence,
Fraud, and Treachery; left to inspire the audience to pay attention to EA's new franchise. It will stay on my radar until its release, if only for the LOLs. 

*Note: All photos were found using Google Image Search

Weekend Warriors

DRAGON AGE ORIGINS. I have chosen the origin of a Dwarven Noble and am pretty much hooked. Anybody else out there playing?

-posted from iPhone

Blog Report: November 4th

Official U.S. Playstation Blog
UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves Celebrates Halloween with a Title Update and a Double Cash Weekend
Arne Meyer // Senior Manager of Marketing Communications, Naughty Dog
October 30th, 2009
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2009/10/uncharted-2-among-thieves-celebrates-halloween-with-a-title-update-and-a-double-cash-weekend/

Uncharted 2 has been on-sale since the 13th of October and with its positive reception, the community is currently thriving. Games are not always shipped to perfection and one good thing about the level of connectivity our consoles feature is that updates are relatively simple. Naughty Dog, the developer of Uncharted 2, has recently released an update to fix a few issues in the game. But, to take advantage of the upcoming Holiday, Developers are offering a bonus with this update. If you play the uncharted 2 multiplayer between October 30th and November 2nd, players will earn double the cash they normally would in multiplayer events. Also, cash is a determinate of Level, so more cash goes to increase your level, as well as provide funds to purchase the numerous things in the store. Also, the multiplayer battles will be infected with skeleton heroes and zombie villains all through Halloween. It is a great idea and excellent PR for their company. They are essentially providing early adopters extra content for free, as well as creating an incentive, to participate in the community. Naughty Dog employees will also be roaming around the game online, so users should watch out for the “red paws” next to gamertags. You may have the pleasure of dying at the hands of one of Uncharted 2’s creators. It is good to see active communities holding events and celebrating something the all enjoy.

Set on Stun
Rise of the Peripherals — Gaming Gadgets Galore for Serious Niche Marketing
Shawn Deena
October 29th, 2009
http://setonstun.com/2009/10/rise-of-the-perpherials-gaming-gadgets-galore-for-serious-niche-marketing/

Through the many generations of video game hardware, peripherals have been a major part of the market. Initially, peripherals were designed out of necessity for an input device, but have since changed to find unique ways to immerse users in the games. Let’s face facts though, not every peripheral was designed to immerse gamers and not every peripheral was a success. Our generation is no different since the fruition of the rhythm game had taken place. Now, living rooms across the world are full of plastic guitars, fake drum kits and microphones. But with the success of these, Activision would only find ways to increase this niche markets profitability. Starting this month and heading into next year Activision, Nintendo and Ubisoft are all planning on releases new peripherals. First, an expansion of the Rhythm genre with DJ Hero, a turntable based rhythm game. After that, a new way of skate boarding through your living room with Tony Hawk Ride. Nintendo, finally decides to release more software for the Wii Balance Board, but they too see more in the niche market of fitness gaming and plan to release a new peripheral with the Wii Vitality Sensor. What it does, well no one really knows, but it is certainly a unique venture into the market. It may be a dangerous gamble on some of these peripherals, since the economy is still down, how many $100+ games are people going to be able to buy. This doesn’t even account for the new James Cameron production Avatar, whose game, like the movie, will be playable in 3D. Of course to support that, you will need to buy a HD TV (and I think it needs to run at 120 hz.) which will most likely cost you an excess of $1,000.

State of the Industry: “Snack-Sized” Gaming

Listening to a recent episode of Rebel FM podcast, a listener posed the question regarding a saturation in game development and whether or not it is hindering innovation. While the debate for whether or not the video games industry is beginning to reach a point of saturation is just starting to brew, I think it is important to see how the landscape of game development is expanding. Due to this generation’s hardware becoming more externalized thanks to the internet, video games have truly become a part of main stream culture more than ever (much of this is also do to the Nintendo Wii). Moms are becoming the target of many publishers, your grandparents may soon be proud owners of the latest Nintendo portable and our pets can even have their own gamertag. While that last one may be a myopic point, game development is becoming more and more competitive, because there are so many markets to produce for. Publishers and Studios have undergone a lot of changes over the past year, due mostly to the state of the economy and frankly some bad decisions, changing the landscape indefinitely. Looking into how games are being published and developed today, as compared to say 5 years ago and we are starting to see a few emerging trends.


Small Developers, Big Ideas 

Indie Games have seen their share of failure over the past couple of years, but some have found great success on the platforms available to them. If you look at the metrics provided by Simon Carless at this years Independent Games Festival, PSN and Xbox Live have allotted 20% of independent games published the critical acclaim they deserved. Some examples of these include Castle Crashers, Shatter, Flow, Braid, Splosion Man, and Noby Noby Boy. The other 80% leaves a 50/50 chance to either succeed or fall flat. The Wii does not carry as much strength in this scene and once you carry over into the iPhone and PC market, it becomes highly competitive due to the developer base.

Looking at the studio behind the hit Castle Crashers, The Behemoth, it started out as two guys (Tom Fulp and Dan Paladin) making a flash game, Alien Hominid. Less than a year after the games stellar reception on PC, they were approached with an offer to port Alien Hominid to consoles. This would create the studio, bring in 2 more people and lead to the creation of Castle Crashers, one of the highest downloaded Xbox Live titles of all time. Braid is another fantastic example of a small studio, with big ideas. A brain child of Programmer Jonathan Blow, who without any art design, won the "Innovation in Game Design" award at the 2006 Independent Games Festival based on mechanics alone. Then he would contact David Hellman to bring a sense of style to Braid, where it would go on to find critical success on Xbox Live, PC and very soon the PS3. All of this might have been possible on PC 5 years ago, but for consoles, getting games like these pressed onto disc would have been a very expensive process. Some of the hallmarks of this genre are deserving of such a thing, but before their grand reception, it would have been a much more difficult process without digital distribution. This cannot always be a good thing, because with freedom from publishing costs, with each good idea there is comparable number of bad idea, but with respect to opportunity, it is ultimately good for the industry in my opinion.

“Snack-Sized” Gaming

As an adult gamer (I use this term loosely when describing myself), time is scarce to game. Work, school, and personal responsibility; all eat into my free time for gaming and sometimes I can't find enough time in the day to play a Dragon Age or Final Fantasy. Developers recognize this and with platforms like the iPhone, DSi and PSP, they are trying to develop games that are less immersive. A game where you could pick it up for 15 minutes, kill a few bad guys and go back to reality, doing whatever it is you do. John Davison, back on an old episode of the 1up podcasts referred to this style of games as "Snack-Sized", implying that it keeps that hunger we have to game at bay, while we are too busy for a 3 hour grind. It is a small snack for our insatiable appetite to game. The genius behind this is the way portable gaming is pushing the industry in new directions. The iPhone especially has started to affect the common price point of a downloadable title. At first, $10 doesn't seem like alot of money for a few hours of content. Going to a movie costs the same amount of money and 9 times out of 10 the most you will get is 120 minutes, including the commercials. (WTF is up with movie theaters and all the commercials now? Nevermind, not going to rant on that). With so much competition, price is being driven lower and lower. Some games will even hold specials on the iTunes store, dropping the price to $.99 for a limited time. You better believe people flock to that. Steam on PC does the same thing and has also found results.

Now, PSP has begun selling "Minis", "Snack-Sized" games which are targeting the exact same market as the iPhone. In fact, some of the games are direct ports of iPhone games and Sony has received some harsh feedback for selling them at prices much higher than a person can currently get on the iPhone. Casual gamers tend to be the main audience, since immersion is not the reason many of these people game. Instead, it is more of a time suck, a way to make the space between personal events or activities seem shorter. With the iPhone, Apple has the advantage. Most people will already have the phone on them for various reasons and whether your hoping on a quick flight or riding the train to work, "Snack-Sized" gaming will be there to help the time fly. But, as time goes on, the PSPgo is a much better piece of hardware for developing games, so in the right hands, Sony should be able to find a place with that audience. They just have to drop the price of the hardware.

Digital Distribution for Every Console

I have talked about this many times in previous posts, but I think that digital distribution is finally getting full support across all platforms. PSPgo is the latest piece of hardware to utilize it and Sony has decided that this platform will be exclusively digital distribution. Truly, for gaming this is a first for our generation. iPhone may have been the catalyst, but lets face it, that piece of hardware is a phone first and everything else second. But the PSPgo is all about the games. Although its launch was floundered by a poor price point and other issues, it will pioneer a future where digital distribution may become the primary method of delivering video games. I would go into how the Internet and Flash started the entire idea of video gaming in snack size, but my primary concentration was on consoles and how they have changed. Certainly, all games have roots in the personal computer.

*all pictures are a result of Google Image Search