GTA IV gets Trophy patch

GTA IV gets Trophy patch– I must admit, this news really took me by surprise.  Considering such games as Race Driver: GRID and Resistance: Fall of Man were not going to be patched, I had resigned myself to the fact that GTA IV would also not be patched.  Sooo….. this is great!

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.

Home has great potential

From Kotaku:

Sony is apparently pitching features like these to developers to extend the lives of their titles, using strong first and second party development showcases to prove that Home can effectively market outside of traditional means. We hope they take them up on their offer, because we’re definitely excited about the prospects.

Kotaku has examples of extra Home integration with Warhawk, Resistance: Fall of Man and Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune.  If developers add this extra functionality into their titles then the PS3 could leap ahead of the Xbox 360 for sheer richness in online offerings.  As of yet, the Xbox 360 is quite far ahead.

The Empire Strikes Back

Back when the PS3 launched, I practically screamed at Sony’s stupidity. Why price the damn thing out of the reach of most consumers? It meant that people like me, Joe Consumer, could not get a piece of the next-gen gaming action… at least not on the PS3 anyway. One year later, look how things have changed. I’m going to be bold and just say it- Sony has proved us all wrong. Sure, they may have had early poor performance with sales, but Sony has adapted to the market and fought back.

So, how has the situation improved? Well, Sony have steadily been reducing the price of the PS3 to more acceptable levels, (unfortunately) going so far as to remove PS2 compatibility to get the PS3 to be profitable. However, this cloud might have a silver lining in the form of potential PS2 compatibility via software emulation at some point in the future.

Also many gamers have complained that there just has not been a great selection of games. Having got a PS3 last Christmas, I would have to disagree. I would even go so far as to say that Sony got ‘the must-have game’ fairly early on in the form of Resistance: Fall of Man. I’m sorry, but it’s just amazing. Something bizarre has been happening though; I’ve noticed in discussions on the internet that a lot of Xbox 360 gamers have claimed that they have great games such as The Orange Box, Burnout Paradise and Assassin’s Creed which demonstrates why the Xbox 360 is the best- completely forgetting that such games are also on the PS3.

The PS3 has released notable exclusives such as: MotorStorm, Resistance: Fall of Man, Ratchet and Clank, Heavenly Sword, SingStar, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune etc. PS3 gamers also have a lot to look forward to with regards to exclusives: Gran Turismo 5, LittleBigPlanet, Metal Gear Solid 4, Haze, Killzone 2, Resistance 2 etc etc etc! It’s time to crack open the champagne; 2008 and beyond is set to be an amazing time for PS3 owners.

Darth Vader and PS3

There’s been a notable flurry of welcoming PS3 news indicating that things are getting better. I’ll share a few that I’ve read about on PS3 Fanboy:

So it seems the PS3 is finally hitting its stride and may soon become the console of choice. From news reports and personal experience I know the PS3 is very popular in the UK, and also throughout Europe and Japan. The exception to the rule is in the USA. They sure love their Xbox 360.

Well, that just about wraps it up. I’ve said my piece, now it’s your turn. If you disagree with me- even better! Feel free to comment and I’ll reply as soon as I can.

Resistance 2 Screenshots

The original Resistance: Fall of Man is still kicking my ass, but it’s interesting to see what the future may hold.  Some high-res screenshots have been released courtesy of SCEA.  The graphics look amazing, of course and the Chimera look quite vivid and dare I say it…real?  The Chimera are also packing some new gear- very trendy.  However I will say that they look very creepy, especially in this image:

Resistance 2
Click on image to see full size

The whole screenshot collection can be found here.  I can’t wait to find out more information about this game and of course, to see some more fantastic screenshots.

More PS3 Gaming

More PS3 Gaming- In addition to being captivated by Locoroco Cocoreccho, Super Rub a Dub is a lot of fun as well. Again, excellent value for two small downloadable games. Anyhow, after having played heavy amounts of Assassin’s Creed since I got my PS3, my other new favourites are Resistance: Fall of Man and Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. I like a bit of variety these days and try not to hammer one game to death (like Assassin’s Creed, I must admit). I’ll try to give some thoughts and opinions on these two epics at some point.