Things don’t look pretty for you, Sony

Look out for the PSN intruder! He’s climbing in your windows, snatching your information up, try’na rape ‘um …

I kid, I kid. I’m hilarious. Honestly, though, 2011 has been a terrible year for Sony’s online network. Sony has been hit with a tsunami of bad press and has probably permanently damaged the trust of many of their PSN subscribers.

I’ll even admit that I’ve been battling a PS3 vs Steam battle in my head, but ultimately I think the PS3 will win, because it’s hooked up to my bigger TV and when I try to hook up my PC, the text is all jarbled (any assistance about this in the comments would be greatly appreciated.) Plus, I’ve invested years in it with trophies, purchases and games, so completely abandoning it sounds like a stupid choice.  However, the fact that the PSN has been down for half a month and we got information that our personal data may have been compromised a week after the attack makes me wonder exactly how smart Sony is with their online network.

Of course, both Sony and [in my opinion] the hacker, Geohot are to blame for this. Sony’s crybaby fest about how all PS3’s shouldn’t be modded sparked this. In my opinion, once you buy the hardware, what you do with it is up to you – if you break the ToS, then so be it. You did it on your own accord. However, the elitist hacker Geohot opened the floodgates for Sony. On top of a massive fight between the two, Anonymous attacked Sony’s sites with DDoS attacks, pulling down most of the sites but not the PSN. And in my opinion, this attack is at the hands of some of the remaining Anonymous users who didn’t want to back down once they realized they were ultimately hurting the people they were “supporting.” And we have news reports that say that Anonymous was and was not part of this attack. And the thing about Anonymous is that there is no figurehead, no leader. It’s a band of … you got it … anonymous people all working together. So while it’s very possible that when Anonymous backed off like they said they would; it’s also possible that a band of people from that attack stuck around and plotted to do something even more drastic.

In the end though, this whole debacle would have been avoided if Geohot kept his discoveries personal AND Sony didn’t have a crybaby fest over the whole OtherOS thing.

But is Sony really to blame? Sure, and no.

And are the hackers really to blame? Sure, and no.

Welcome to the world, PS3 Slim …

… we knew about you for months. But despite the fact that Sony can’t seem to hold big secrets to save their lives, Sony threw out a bunch of info that fans really wanted to hear – ultimately making Sony that much more of a competition to Nintendo and Microsoft. And considering this is a blog that is 95% geared towards PS3, I feel the need to comment on them and mention why I think Sony has just made themselves that much more of a formidable opponent.

• Price Cut to $300. It’s what people have been asking for for a long time – damn near a year I’d say at least. At first, I could understand why they stuck to the $400 price tag, but when they announced that production costs were down by around 60-70% that’s when I finally jumped ship and said that they need to do a price cut. And, they did. And they did it for both systems … so it looks like $300 is the common price for a PS3. This should silence everyone saying that they’re holding out on a PS3 because it was too expensive, considering they dropped the price by about 25%.
• PS3 Slim. The PlayStation 3 finally has it’s makeover. Personally, I prefer the bulkier original but lucky for me, I don’t have to buy this one. I am a bit envious of the less power consumption … but no matter, I’m not sure how much it would reduce my electric bill if I bought a Slim. But, people who complained that it was too ugly or bulky can’t complain anymore.
• Rumored 250GB PS3 Slim. Not even a day after it was announced, places like Joystiq PS3 and PlayStation Lifestyle caught glimpse of another PS3 Slim model that was submitted to the FCC(?) which mentioned that it would have a 250GB model. Now, while this will give people another reason to hold off on a PS3, it shows that Sony is slowly catching up to what Microsoft is already offering.
• Firmware 3.0. On top of the PS3 Slim, and price cut, we’re also getting an update to the XMB. The PlayStaton Store is now under the game and videos tab and will link directly to the appropriate sections. The background of the OS gets a little update and we get a new information board, trophy sorting, and a small update to our friends list. We also get a new little mini-bar on the top-right which will let us know how many friends are online (numberwise), the date, time, our avatar and a little blurb of news, like a ticker. Something that I’m looking forward to are Dynamic Themes. Where now you’d have a standard wallpaper – a dynamic theme will have an animated background. A neat update overall, but will probably leave people still complaining about no cross-game voice chat.

And finally, it looks like the PS3 Slim brands a new logo, in what looks like to be a rebranding of the product. Personally, I’m not the biggest fan of this because it’s inconsistent with the model I have, but it’s nice to see them actively working to improve their product in all senses.

Ultimately, this puts Microsoft in a bit of a bind. With the rumored 250 PS3 Slim and the price cut, the PS3 now has almost everything that the 360 offers but also has a BluRay drive on top of that. As for Nintendo, they will have to look into a price cut because, like my friend has said, you can buy a much more powerful system for $100 more.

I have to say, I’m pretty impressed with what Sony pulled off yesterday. Almost everything announced was stuff that people were asking for for a long time – Price Cut, PS3 Slim, Firmware 3.0 – and it really makes it look like Sony actively listens to the input.

Hopefully it works out in the end for them – although I guess we’ll have to wait until the reports come in to see if it did or not.

Review: Fat Princess

I bought this game off as an impulse buy – but I also bought it because it looked like it had comedy, a medieval theme, as well as a RTS/Upgrade System. Plus, the concept of stuffing a princess with cake to make it harder for your opponents to “steal the flag” just seemed funny to me. So, I bought it hoping that I’d find it to be an addicting multiplayer game. And so I bring up an obvious question: “Does it?”

• Graphic style of the game is very cartoonish, but the blood that is spewed lets us know that this isn’t a kiddy game. And I’m a fan of games that stray from the common “realistic” themes that games churn out these days.
  
• The game is based 95% on mulitplayer gameplay – which is great for those looking for a good multiplayer game.
• The class system allows you to choose whichever class you want to be at any time. There’s no in-depth work on creating your character. You rely on grunts to upgrade various classes and castle items but other than that, you can pick as you choose by picking up the appropriate hats.
• The game developers didn’t take the game too seriously. The creators had fun with this game – and that’s something I really like seeing in games. That’s why when you play the story mode, you don’t play “Story Mode” you “Play with yourself.” And did I mention (if I recall correctly) you can kill the developers during the credits? They’re portrayed as normal in-game characters, but you get the idea. Oh, and it goes along with Sir Mix-A-Lot’s song ‘Baby Got Back.’
• Titan Studios has plans to update the game with new levels and classes. I’m happy to see them continue to expand on the game. No word on whether it will be a free patch or paid DLC.
• The Story mode was entirely too short – could be cleared in an hour if you want to. Granted, this game focuses mainly on multiplayer, but really? One hour?
• Online play has been plagued with connection issues. To their credit, they patched this – but the weird ranking system and lack of a guild/clan system really hurts the idea of teamwork in the game – and you need teamwork to win in this game.
• Classes don’t seem very balanced. I find one class in particular is better than all the others.
• Trophy requirements seem a bit excessive. Winning 100 multiplayer matches will take awhile, as well as over 2,000 kills. Seems a bit extreme for bronze trophies. (although I know they did it so that they could offer future trophies, since PSN games are restricted with trophies to an extent)
  

Positive Points: 5 | Negative Points: 3 | Final Score: +2

Demo Review: Mirror’s Edge

Mirror’s Edge was a game I’ve kind of had my eye on since buying the PlayStation 3. It was also a game that I was really iffy about. A lot of people may swarm out to buy this game, but I will quietly rent it. And the reason is because this, to me, looks like a hit-or-miss kind of game. What it does I haven’t really seen in any video game before but on the downside, what I see looks like it’s all that I’m getting.

New trailers don’t do it for me because it’s still the same thing. you’re running around jumping from building to building, building to element, element to building. Now, when I saw the first trailer I was impressed but all the new trailers don’t do it for me because it’s showcasing the same thing off.

But, I was thrilled at the idea that a demo was coming to the PSN. I think demos are a great way to rope in people. A lot of times it’ll give you just enough to think, “Hm, maybe I should give it a shot,” where others, like Lego Batman for the PSP gives me enough of an experience to realize that I probably wouldn’t like it. So, when Thursday came around I kept checking the PSN to see the demo and finally saw it near the end of the day. I went to download it, told the PS3 to shut itself off after it downloads and installs and went to bed.

Following a really rough day, I sat down and played the demo.