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So many games, too little time

I suppose that this post has as much to do about money as it does about there being loads of games out there, but not having enough time to play them! Anyhow, I might as well recount from the beginning. I got my PS3 for Christmas 2007 and played on Assassin’s Creed. A lot. My brother and I then got some extra games as well to be playing through, such as Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, The Orange Box, Resistance: Fall of Man and Colin McRae: DiRT. Quite enough to be getting through, don’t you think?

I think I had finished Assassin’s Creed (or there about) a few weeks after Christmas as I had to go back to Uni for exams in January. Between January and Easter 2008 I got hooked on Uncharted and played it as much as I could each weekend I was back home… every 4 weeks! I then finally completed it at Easter. Over Easter I got stuck into Resistance, DiRT, and the Orange Box. I’ve still yet to complete either DiRT or Resistance! Anyhow, I decided to attack the Orange Box over Easter and over the following months got a fair amount of it completed. I then came to the end of my journey with the last bit of Half-Life 2: Episode 2 to finish and Portal. By mid-May The Orange Box was completed.

Don’t even mention Grand Theft Auto IV; I just haven’t had time to go on it or been particularly bothered with playing it. It’s not going anywhere, so I’ll get back to it at some point. Since being home for the Summer, Race Driver: GRID has been out and I love it. I have still got way over 3/4 of the game left to finish! Other times, I’ve fired up GRID and decided to play online for a good hour or two. Recently released is Metal Gear Solid 4, but there’s no way I can afford it, let alone have time to play it!

Assassin's Creed

I suppose this little story of my PS3 game playing journey might be a bit boring, but I’ve been trying to describe the plight of a gamer more often than not, not being able to play any games! As a student I don’t have that much money to start shelling out on £40 and £50 games, and my PS3 is left at home whilst I’m away at Uni. I can however appreciate people who have full time jobs as both this year and last year during the Summer, I have worked 40 hour weeks and you don’t necessarily feel like gaming after a particularly rough day.

Really, this post has become a kind of message to all those kids with a 40-strong PS3 (or Xbox 360, why not?) games collection who play every night and complete one game a week. Which is ridiculous. So my message is, erm get your homework done(?!) and gaming will have to take a back-seat in your life in future, so enjoy it while it lasts.

If anyone is wondering what on earth has being going on in this post, then you are not alone. I, myself am not really sure either. I’ve kind of gone off-tangent and started to rant a bit, but I’ve covered everything I’ve wanted to say, so I’ll leave it at that. Comments, as always are most welcome.

Qore Announcement: the aftermath

As this latest, and very interesting announcement is quickly spreading out across the internet, it is time to take stock and see what everyone’s reaction is.

The controversy
At the crux of this matter, is that fact that Sony wants you to pay for Qore. However in Sony’s defence is the fact that there is some pretty tasty content on offer:

Qore will feature exclusive news, developer interviews, in-depth game previews and behind-the-scenes looks at PlayStation games and special access to game demos, special beta invitations, game add-ons and other downloadable game-related content.

However I feel that such content should probably be free if the PlayStation Network is to compete effectively against Xbox Live. With Qore charging for content, there is a danger that the PlayStation Network will be a two-tier system.

Reactions
I will now round up a sample of Qore-related news to gauge reaction to Sony’s decision.

The Sixth Axis- Paid PSN Subscriptions Arrive
Attention-grabbing headline, but not strictly true. The majority of content on the PlayStation Network such as trailers and demos are free to access, with the exception of full games which of course, require payment. Let’s not forget that online gaming remains free. It just depends on how exclusive Qore’s content really is, and whether it will choke the rest of the PlayStation Store.

Qore

PS3 Fanboy- Sony reveals Qore – an interactive gaming program for the PSN
The article remains quite neutral throughout this article and doesn’t specifically comment on the cost. However there is some disappointing news in store.

There’s no word on whether this will be released outside of America, but we have contacted Sony Europe to get an answer either way. [UPDATE] Our SCEE rep has sadly informed us that “Qore is an SCEA only initiative at this time”. How disappointing.

That’s quite a blow, especially considering that Qore would probably be ‘almost’ perfect for the UK as well. I’m guessing it has something to do with the UK being part of Europe and the issue of localisation. We speak English too! Such archaic business practices make you want to scream.

Wired- Qore: New PS3 Online Mag Charges You For Game Demos
This article goes into quite a lot of detail about everything! Quite objective, and tells it like it is. Not really much to say apart from it compares the PlayStation Network against Xbox Live, which is interesting. The opinion for pricing is definitely worth a read though.

My only question is whether the value-add over what Sony was already providing for free justifies the minimum $25/year cost for the information. Although wrapping it in the very pretty package of an interactive magazine does make it seem a lot less like Sony is backpedaling on their stance of a largely free online environment, they’d be silly to release any really good demos, trailers, or interviews in the free section of PS3’s network from here on out — not when any halfway decent piece of content is another potential carrot to get users to pay them $3.

To conclude
The price issue is important to many people, with some agreeing to pay the $3 a month, and others who won’t pay it. The fact that only SCEA is running Qore and that SCEE isn’t a part of it is interesting. The US (heavily capitalist) market puts up with a lot more ads and subscriptions than the rest of the world, so maybe the launch of Qore in the US is Sony testing the waters. Who knows? Qore may appear in Europe and elsewhere in a slightly different format. The big question, is what if the European Store gets the demos and trailers that the Americans have to pay for, for free?

Very interesting.

Hands-on with Race Driver: GRID

Regular followers of my humble ramblings will have noticed of late that I am obsessed with Race Driver: GRID. I just thought I’d post some of my initial impressions and experiences of the game, along with my reasoning for getting the game in the first place.

Background
Quite simply, it all started with the demo for Race Driver: GRID. The handling of the cars was a bit tricky, but once I had mastered the controls it was good. Real good. I wanted more. I suppose the GRID demo has been one of the rare few demos that I have hammered. Then the reviews started coming in; 9/10 and 10/10 from most magazines and online publications. I was getting good vibes, and so I swiftly placed my order with Play.com and got a bonus Aston Martin DBR9 as well!

Starting out
Initially you race for other teams in order to scrape a bit of cash together to repair your first ride, and to finance your own racing team. You’ll compete in a mixture of varied racing environments from racing muscle cars in the USA, to drifting high performance cars in Japan. There’s so much to do. The game starts to ‘kick up a gear’ (pardon my pun) when you get your own team together; from choosing your team colours and sponsors, to climbing the ranks of world teams and drivers. What’s very refreshing is that your objective isn’t always to come first. A team or sponsor may only want you to come at least 3rd or 5th, and some only want you to finish the race!

The difficulty is adjustable. Keep coming last in a racing style you’re not comfortable with? Kick it down a notch. Conversely if you’re wiping the floor with all the other drivers in one of your best events, then kick it up a notch to spice things up a bit and give yourself a real challenge. For me, what really distinguishes Race Driver: GRID from Gran Turismo 5 Prologue is your other drivers. Here, they are (depending on the difficulty level) just as likely as you to clip a corner, spin out of control or brake too late. The damage is fully realistic and very satisfying when you scream past another driver who clips the side and totals their car.

Race Driver: GRID

The atmosphere
Whilst the behaviour of your competitors (mentioned above) certainly adds to the atmosphere, your pit crew communicates important information to you, such as the state your car is in and who you need to beat in order to secure the current objective. The most amazing feeling I have ever experienced in a racing game has been compteting in Le Mans 24 Hour on GRID. It’s just epic. Unlike racing for hours on Gran Turismo (boring, tedious) time is speeded up dramatically, allowing you to experience the full day and night cycle.

Conclusions
So what do I think after my initial hands-on with Race Driver: GRID? It’s racing- as it should be. In a way, it’s all I had hoped for and more. Codemasters really deserve credit for a fantastic job. I’ve not mentioned everything, such as licences, reputation, the art of touge etc., but I never intended to (also I’ve not tried out multiplayer yet, but when I do, I might provide an update further down the line). Hopefully this has just given you a brief overview of my thoughts and experiences on this game, and a taster of what awaits you, should you decide to take the wallet for a walk. Highly recommended for both PS3 and Xbox 360 owners.

My driving game of choice: is there a worthy successor?

I’ve been enjoying Collin McRae: DiRT for a while now, but have started looking around for my next driving fix. I’ve totally skipped Burnout Paradise because I don’t like driving games trying to be role-playing games. I don’t want to cruise around a huge city looking for a set of traffic lights which has the event I want. Instead I just want to select the car and the event on a menu and then race. Period. DiRT does this perfectly, as does the entire Gran Turismo series and all previous Burnout games.

Sooo… I have Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. Am I enjoying it? Not particularly. Sure, the graphics are impressive but it’s quite tough and doesn’t ‘feel’ fun. It just doesn’t. Heck- it’s even billed as ‘the real driving simulator’. I want a fun racing game, not a simulator. On the PS2 the World Rally Championship series and the Burnout series satisfied my appetite.

Race Driver: GRID

So what game will be the worthy successor to my current driving game of choice- DiRT? I feel that it just HAS to be Race Driver: GRID. I’ve played on a demo and it is amazing- I’ll be buying it as soon as it is released. Ok, so why am I hyping this game up? The demo I played borrowed certain menu effects from DiRT (which is no bad thing), and seems to have bags of personality (ala Burnout) that seemed sorely lacking in TOCA. The visual style and handling seems to be the result of putting Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, Burnout Paradise and DiRT into a smoothie maker and achieving the perfect blend. What’s surprising is it’s actually the successor to the competent TOCA Touring Car series; a series which I’ve played occasionally on demos, but not actually bothered to buy.

When I get Race Driver: GRID soon, I’m sure I’ll post some more thoughts up here. This game should be on the radar of both PS3 and Xbox 360 owners. Better still, try the demo!

Lost in a Haze?

Yes, perhaps ‘Haze‘ is an apt name for such a game. Wikipedia defines haze as:

…traditionally an atmospheric phenomenon where dust, smoke and other dry particles obscure the clarity of the sky.

Did the developers have a clear idea about what they were aiming for then? I like my first person shooters (FPS) to feel solid. Haze is instantly confusing and the demo left me feeling quite removed from the action and not at all in control, unlike sublime FPS games such as the Halo series, Killzone, Red Faction, the Half Life series, Resistance: Fall of Man– I could go on. What do these games share in common? Generally great story lines aside, the gameplay is solid. Everything from movement to firing weapons just feels right.

Haze

I can’t really offer a rational explanation of why I don’t like Haze so much, but as soon as I picked up the pad and played the Haze demo I knew within the first few minutes that it was a bad egg. What adds insult to injury is the fact that even after months of delays, the graphics aren’t anything special either. Unfortunately this is not a PS3 exclusive to be proud about. My gut feeling? Disappointed- I had been looking forward to this game. Looks like I’ll give this one a miss then.

Hands-on with the new PLAYSTATION Store

This is just going to be a quick and short ‘hands-on’ with the Store; much more succinct than my ‘in-depth’ articles on City In The Clouds (I hope). I’ve been waiting for the opportunity to get to grips with the new Store for quite some time now. Now that I’m back home for a couple of days I can test the Store for myself and ask: was the update worth it? Well, yea; it looks visually impressive, it’s lightning fast and it just works, really. Just the way you’d expect.

The new style of the Store is visually gorgeous; great colour scheme, clear and simplified layout and new artwork for all of the content. Due to the Store now being an application built into the PS3‘s operating system, rather than being a website, the speed improvement is phenomenal. Also the whole structure looks a lot cleaner; everything is laid out exactly where you’d expect it, making what you want easy to find. There’s also a red PLAYSTATION Store bag showing you any purchases you’ve already made.

New-look PLAYSTATION Store

The big question though- any faults or failings with the new Store? Not really, jut minor niggles you could say. The first thing I noticed (after being impressed by the new visual design) was that the Store was a bit small on the screen. I have a 32 inch HD widescreen TV and the Store only used about two thirds of it, and so the Store felt a bit squashed and could do with taking up a bit more screen real estate in my opinion. As I say- minor niggle.

Onto a couple of other things; some of the text is a bit small, like the instructions on the PSP downloads page of how to transfer games to your PSP, however the text size problem is an issue on the PS3 in general. Lastly, each game/video/piece of content has a little square icon, but whilst navigating about for what I wanted and then waiting for quite some time, most would not load. Now I don’t know if this is a problem on the Store’s part, or whether it is my internet connection (though at 8Mbps I’d be surprised).

Overall conclusions? The new-look PLAYSTATION Store is a fantastic update over the original Store, but possibly there’s a few minor niggles that need ironing out. Does this detract from the user experience? Possibly, but if everything works as intended it’ll make getting games, updates and videos etc a lightning fast, seamless, and painless experience.

NB: The PLAYSTATION Store (PC) for PSP also got a similar visual refresh, and of course, remains in website form.

PS3 Fan Noise Controversy

Updated December 2008

I’ve been reading an interesting article in PS3 Fanboy entitled ‘Clean your PS3 fan with quick-n-easy test‘ which is for 40Gb PS3s and works by running a fan test, which speeds up the fan and also supposedly ‘blows out the dust…essentially cleaning it up’. Fair enough.

What is interesting though is the controversy and misinformation about PS3 fan noise in the comments section at the end of the article. To be honest, it looks like it has turned into a bit of a flame war so let’s try and rationalise things a little bit.

Some people are saying that the 40Gb PS3 sounds really loud, and the 60Gb version doesn’t (who knows about the 80Gb version, whatever) and they use examples such as this on YouTube. Now, I have a 40Gb PS3 and let me tell you it doesn’t sound like that at all; in fact, I can barely hear it. So I’m thinking that with the YouTube example given, and what such people are saying, I can infer two conclusions: either a faulty PS3, or a PS3 being run with the fan test. It’s as simple as that.

Other people have been saying that the 60Gb is louder than the 40Gb, although I couldn’t possibly comment on that. However I’ve been gaming with a mate who has a 60Gb PS3 and it sounds comparable to mine; I believe any difference will be negligible.

So what on earth is the point I am trying to make? Once they’ve started up PS3s are very quiet, I mean sometimes it doesn’t even sound like they’re turned on (although the lights are lit up of course). In general, PS3s are made to a very high quality; they keep very cool and the sound is kept to a minimum so if you have a particularly loud PS3 then there is a good possibility that there might be something wrong with it.

December 2008 update: I now find myself in possession of an 80GB PS3. As to why this is the case, I direct you here for more information. It is my observation that the fan noise on this model is slightly louder than my old 40GB model. Why is this the case? I honestly don’t know, and can only speculate. Still though, the noise is not really that noticable and nothing for concern.

If your PS3 sounds very loud, then my advice above still stands. There might be something wrong with your PS3, so get it checked out. The people to call are the Sony care line. In addition, you may want to check out the comprehensive PS3 fan guide.

Gorgeous new PLAYSTATION Store

I would have posted this as an aside, but I wanted to include the a picture of the new visual style of the store:

(Click the above image for high-res goodness)

The update to the PLAYSTATION Store will be around mid-April, during which there will be a firmware upgrade required for the PS3 in order to use the new store. This is because the store will be software-based, and not a website, as is currently the case. There will be no content updates due to the store between now and the update.

Visually the store redesign seems to have taken a page off the SingStar Store, which is no bad thing. Seriously though, this is great news. Whilst the old store could have said to have fallen out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down, the new design doesn’t seem to have any critics (so far).

Who benefits from the update? Only PS3 users at the moment, although the PC version of the store will probably be updated sometime in the future. The new store should be very fast, compared to the old store, due to its software-based nature. I have to admit, whilst browsing the store, it has felt like wading through treacle.

Anyhow- here’s to more good stuff coming from Sony! (And to some extra content for the store after the redesign). Yet what I’ve noticed on the official forums, has been an ever-increasing demand for the release of Home and the long awaited in-game XMB.

Great Zeus!

The upcoming God of War Entertainment Pack gives bloodthirsty players a brand new red PSP, a copy of Chains of Olympus, Syphon Filter: Combat Ops and the UMD movie Superbad — all for $199.

Sayeth PSP Fanboy

I’d like to know if there’s any details on this gorgeous piece of kit heading anywhere near Europe, at all? Meanwhile, you can check out the box art below (click on image for high-res screenshot):

See also: back of red PSP

Nothing is true, everything is permitted

: Image via Wikipedia

I’ve finally completed the story of Assassin’s Creed, even though I’ve had the game since Christmas. However, I can tell you that it is not easy trying to complete a game when you only return home about once a month, and have studies to attend to. I only completed Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune itself about a week ago.

Yet what I want to explore is the issue of using walkthroughs, and to what degree. In recent memory, I have only used walkthroughs very rarely. Generally I’ll only turn to a walkthrough to get past a bit in a game which has actually stopped me progressing any further. After I get past a tricky bit, I’ll then discard the walkthrough and continue to enjoy the game at my own pace, and deal with the challenges ahead myself. I’m sure that most people would agree with me in this respect.

However, a much more controversial use of the walkthrough in my opinion is finding all certain extras in order to complete the game “100%”. In Uncharted, there’s 60 treasures to find and I admit that I have used a walkthrough to find a few after completing the main game the first time round. The way I view Uncharted is that the levels are linear, and that entails being able to enjoy the story and gameplay once more, whilst being able to grab the extra treasures. If you’ve missed a treasure in Uncharted you’ll have to start that particular chapter again. However Assassin’s Creed is more of an open, free-roaming world in which you can go back to any city and look around for flags or Templars for as long as you want. I am therefore more reluctant to use a walkthrough in this case. I find a particular thrill in finding a Templar, hidden in a remote place and adding him to my tally.

That brings me to the case in point, as I see it: such items, be they flags, treasures, coins etc- are put there by the developers for the skilled or explorative gamer. Not for a lazy gamer to simply collect by reading a walkthrough, else why bother? I’m intrigued to hear any other voices or viewpoints on this matter.