9
Mar
2010
Kevin Butler: GoW3 Commercial Being Unveiled Today
The beloved Kevin Butler, VP of Information Teasers, revealed the following via twitter. Source
TheKevinButler: I’m not allowed to tell u to watch the PS blog tomorrow. So don’t. (Meaning do) RT @Dann954: You need to do a GoW3 commercial badd (3/8/2010)
This will coincide nicely with the God of War 3 event going on for GDC (Game Developers Conference) that the PS Blog has scheduled for Wednesday this week. Let’s just recap really quickly all of the momentum that is running up towards the release next week of this third and final installment in the Kratos saga:
- Monday – Media embargo lifted from God of War 3 and the first reviews were allowed to be published.
- Tuesday – The official PS tv commercial for GoW3 is going to unveiled via the PS Blog
- Wednesday – The PS Blog God of War 3 meetup event at GDC
- Thursday – More GDC awesomeness will showcase the scale and depth of this title.
All leading up to… Next week’s release!
1
Mar
2010
Stop Bitching about the PS3 Glitch
This is getting truly out of hand. The PSN has been glitching for less than 24 hours and people are saying that this is comparable to the RROD devastation that afflicted early chipsets of the Xbox 360s. How fickle are people that they can’t remember history and what has happened not even a year and half ago now.
*Flashback to December 31st, 2008.*
All was well as children around the world were preparing to watch the new year’s eve celebration as the clock struck midnight. However, fate had a different sort of new years resolution for little Jimmy and the 12 other people around the planet that bought 30gb Microsoft Zunes. Because as the clock stuck midnight, every single 30gb Zune on the entire planet bricked simultaneously. Consequently the tech community freaked out, dubbing the event as the ‘Red Ring of Zune’. It turned out that this was only an internal clock issue and after 24 hours all of the Zunes (all 13 of them worldwide) returned to normal.
Now back to present day. How is this so dissimilar from what is occurring right now with the ‘fat’ PS3s? We’re lucky that our systems didn’t brick. They’re still playable for non-trophy games: ie Valkyria Chronicles, Metal Gear Solid 4, Resistance: Fall of Man, Heavenly Sword. This is the perfect opportunity to go back and play those games. Or better yet, use your system as a blu-ray player, since it is arguably the best one of those on the market. Moral of the story is that people are overreacting about this entirely situation which will more than likely auto-correct itself within a matter of hours.
What’s your take on this ‘ApocalyPS3’ (it pains me to even type that phrase). Is it just fuel for the trolls to go to town on? That’s my own personal opinion. What’s yours? Comment below.
Sony’s official advice on the situation.
UPDATE!
The PS3 is now working again. There are no patches, just turn on your PS3 and it works!
14
Jan
2010
TPR – Rant 3: Third Party Support for the Wii Waining
Pardon some of the background noise in the podcast. I just recorded my thoughts while I was driving down the road, and it actually turned out to be something interesting. Let me know what you think.
-Will
28
Dec
2009
The Last Guardian’s sales: Destined for Mediocrity
It pains me to write this article, but there is a purpose behind writing it. Hopefully if I can illuminate this issue, then more people can be aware of it and correct it in this third iteration of the “series” by Team ICO.
Let’s start from the beginning. Fumito Ueda and the rest of Team ICO released ICO for the PS2 in 2001. Despite being an incredibly innovative game in the sense of gameplay, musical scores, graphics, and story, the game largely fell under the radar for the mainstream market. The real shame of the situation is that the game is even to this day still hailed as one of the best exclusives for the PS2 system with a Metacritic average score of 90/100, however the overall sales worldwide hover right around ONLY 700,000 for the lifetime of the game.
Fastforward four years to 2005 when Project Nico (“ni” is two in Japanese) is finally renamed and released as Shadow of the Colossus. This is highly regarded as one of the most beautiful and ingenious games ever released, largely due to that fact that it makes you question all of these moral decisions that you’re acting out in the game. But most importantly, all of this is done without a single word of dialogue. No one argues that this game was a vast improvement from ICO, and that is reflected with the review scores, giving it a Metacritic average of 91/100, but 9 of them are perfect scores! Unfortunately the same fate that befell ICO was destined for SotC as well. It flew under the radar for the majority of mainstream audiences and became a cult classic that sold barely over 940,000 worldwide since its release.
Finally, look at “Project Trico” or The Last Guardian as it has been named as of E3 2009. This is obviously following in the same vein that ICO left off in, mostly as a 3D platformer. (Hopefully it’s not going to be an 8 hour long escort mission again *crosses fingers*) But in the age where titles are selling more than 10 million units on consoles, how can you regard a game that sells under a million units as successful? One of my favorite titles this generation, Valkyria Chronicles has failed to move more than ¾ of a million units, yet I consider it one of the best games of this generation. I fear that The Last Guardian will be a victim of the same fate as its predecessors since they hadn’t sold massively to large audiences. But one thing is important to remember: Sales aren’t a measure of the quality of a game. I can’t reiterate that point enough. Oh wait, I can… I’ll repeat myself. SALES DO NOT MEASURE THE QUALITY OF A GAME! So, do the gaming industry a favor and yourself a favor. Buy this game when it is released so that smaller developers like Team ICO will continue to release games that fall outside of the “conventional norm” of first-person shooters that have flooded (dare I say, polluted) the marketplace.
A last sidenote. The smartest thing that Team ICO could do to not only boost sales of this upcoming game, but also to increase publicity and hype building up to the release would be this: Give the original two games the same treatment that Sony Santa Monica gave God of War. If they re-released ICO and SotC in HD on one blu-ray disc, they would be exposing these games to another generation that otherwise wouldn’t have gotten to experience them because they’ve moved on from the previous cycle of consoles.
*Sales Data taken from VGChartz.com*
Please leave your comments and questions below!
17
Nov
2009
PSN is Down? (11-17-09)
Trying to log into the PSN today I got this strange error message. Maybe the Firmware v.3.10 update that was detailed on the PS Blog yesterday is coming sooner than expected! Who knows, only time will tell.
If that is the case, Sony is trying to combat the Fall Xbox Live update that incorporates Twitter and Facebook by updating their own Firmware on the same day. Looks like the PSN is no longer playing catchup to Xbox Live, but they are rather releasing the same quality updates simultaneously.
19
Oct
2009
God Of War Collection Release Delayed
A mass email was just sent out to everyone who pre-ordered the God Of War Collection via Amazon.com detailing a delay of the product’s release. Here is the text from the email.
Hello from Amazon.com.
We have received new release date information related to your pre-ordered video game in the order you placed on XXX 2009 (Order# XXXX). The release date for the video game listed below has been changed by the publisher, and we want to provide you with a new delivery estimate based on the new release date:
“God of War: Collection”
Release date: November 17 2009
-
Apparently there has been cause to push the titile’s release back another week. Personally it does not bother me, it will simply give me more time to play other titles that I’m backlogged in. But it is a shame, because this is another week longer that I won’t be able to play the God of War 3 demo voucher that is included with the disc! Apparently no one want to release the same week as Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare 2. Can you blame them really?
26
Sep
2009
Retailers Struggle to Keep Up with PS3 Slim Demand
With the Holiday season creeping up ever so frequently, the question on everyone’s mind is who is going to come out on top in sales between the three current generation consoles. All three consoles have implemented price cuts recently to try to jumpstart the industry in a lagging worldwide economy. It seems to have worked, especially for the newly remodeled Playstation 3. This console managed to sell over 1.2 million units in its first 3 weeks of being on the market, more than it managed to sell all of last quarter combined!
As a safeguard measure to protect their own inventory stock from depleting too rapidly as the Holidays approach, Amazon.com has begun to limit customers to only purchasing ONE console per household. They are even reflecting this on their banner adds that can be found around the internet. Here is the text taken directly off the PS3 Slim’s product page.
PlayStation 3 120 GB purchase limit policy
As you may know, the PlayStation 3 120 GB is in great demand. In an effort to provide as many customers as possible with the opportunity to purchase PlayStation 3 120 GB, we are limiting the total number of PlayStation 3 120 GB units that can be purchased. As a result, each household may only purchase one PlayStation 3 120 GB unit. See additional policy details here.
This is most likely the first of many retailers to start to impose these restrictions. But this just comes as a shock because of the timing. It is only September, and the Holidays are still 3 months away. However with exclusive titles that the PS3 is launching such as Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, the sales are being propelled earlier than usual this 2009 Holiday!
Please leave your questions and comments below!
23
Sep
2009
Playstation Reality Show “The Tester” Starts Making Cuts
Just to recap, Playstation announced their own reality show they were going to product called The Tester. In this contest, gamers would be pitted against each other in battles of both skill and knowledge competing for a grand prize of a job testing games for Sony. Applicants were asked to submit a video explaining why they wanted to be on this show.
After all of the entries were submitted and run through, Sony has made their first cuts in an effort to narrow down the pool of talent. Starting today producers of this show have begun to call individuals whose videos caught their eye in order to schedule them for followup interviews. If you submitted a video application, cross your fingers in hopes that you will be receiving a call in the next day or so. Good luck, and may the best gamer win!
21
Sep
2009
The Effect of Next-Gen Re-Releases on the Gaming Industry
Because of the issue of backwards compatibility only being available in select PS3 SKU’s and it being limited among select X-Box games on the 360, a new phenomenon has started to arrive on the scene: Next-Gen Re-Releases. This has been something that has been present for a while in the form of Downloadable Content (DLC), some of the more recent and bigger names of the titles span from Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 which received a graphics update as well as online compatibility, all the way to the recent release of TMNT: Turtles in Time Re-shelled.
The market is obviously there for these past titles to be re-released and consumers are demanding them. But more recently Sony’s Santa Monica offices are trying a new approach by releasing the God of War collection on a Blu-ray disk for the PS3. This package will include the original two titles in the series completely remastered from their PS2 states to run in native 720p HD graphics at 60 frames per second. Not only this, but unlike other classic games that are just offered through the various online marketplaces: PSN, XBLA, and Wii-ware, this God of War bundle will come with full trophy support, adding a new twist to two classic games. But really, the icing on the cake is that despite all of this work in remastering and adding new code to existing games, the release price for this bundle will only be 2/3 of what a standard new game retails at. $40 for next-gen updates to classic titles may just be the sweet spot.
But, why would a company spend all of this time and effort on games that have been out for years? Well, the developers surveyed the fans (Source) and simply asked them what they wanted done. This comes at a great time, because it will lead hype and anticipation for the March 2010 release of the sequel God of War III on the Playstation 3. Obviously it pays to listen to your fans, because as of now, a month and a half before the release of this new collection, it is in the Top 5 sales of all PS3 games on Amazon.com. (Source)
Now the question really is, knowing all of this, what effect will this have on the industry? If developers are focusing all of their resources on remastering classic games, then there will never be any forward progress made in the way of new IPs. There has to be a balance, and I do think that God of War has struck that balance. The way they are handling this timeline, they are allowing 4-5 months of play on the release of their classics collection in order to build the anticipation for the release of the next iteration in the series. In this you have the best of both worlds.
People that never got the chance to experience the original games (because they lived under a rock on in inner Siberia) will be able to play them in their remastered HD glory, but even more important, fans of the series will be able to wet their appetite on 720p Kratos months earlier than they expected to. This God of War collection really is an experiment as to how well the public will receive remastered games in disk form rather than just as Downloadable titles. Depending on the success of this title, we could potentially see lots more “collections” rolling out. Possibly a remastered Team ICO collection (ICO and Shadow of the Colossus)? It’s important to keep in mind that one of the most highly demanded titles is a remastered version of Final Fantasy VII.
In the end, the best part about this scenario is that everyone benefits from it. As long as developers don’t become complacent by ONLY remastering their classic titles, then gamers, developers, and the entire industry will all reap the rewards from seeing the most demanded games resurface in this generation.
Please leave questions or comments at the end!
1
Jul
2009
TPR Podcasts: Rants – Episode 2 : The Problem With MetaCritic
Here’s the second installment of the series of TPR micro-podcasts: Rants. Hope you guys enjoy. Please leave your feedback in the comments section to let me know what you think!
PSN – UNCyrus
Skype – UNCyrus