PS3: Top 10 PS3 F*ckups

Someone posted a pretty accurate list of the Top 10 things that Sony managed to fuck up for the PS3's launch. I probably would have plagiarized this if I'd been stoned, so thank fuck I gave that up years ago. Instead I'll just do a quick cut & paste job to keep you guys coming back, followed by a teeny-weeny Source link at the bottom of the next page. Anyway, its definitely worth a read for all those who are wondering why people are saying the PS3 sucks.

Click below for the Top 10 PS3 fuckups.


10 - The "Spiderman" font. Why choose a font that already stands for something? It only serves to distract the gamer and make him/her think about Spiderman when they should be thinking about the PS3. On another note, I'm very excited about this week's debut of Spider-Man 3. See, I'm already thinking of something that's not the PS3 by just mentioning the font. My spidey senses are tingling...in a bad way.

9 - Lack of force feedback (vibration) in the controller. Much was made about Sony's decision to emulate the Wii's tilt motion controls. Whether or not you think Sony ripped it off is beside the point. The fact that they couldn't figure out how to get vibration and motion control into the controller, and then, as cover, came out and said vibration is overrated and not necessary, really rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.

8 - Lack of HD cables. Yet another poor decision by Sony who ostensibly claimed that the true HD buff would want to purchase their own cables when it seems Sony was just too cheap to throw in the very cables that would make the PS3's highly touted HD visuals come to life. This is an example of how being cheap actually ended up costing Sony money.

7 - Underestimating the Wii. Sony should have been more prepared for a battle for the hearts and minds of gamers, which Nintendo has definitely won. The $250 Wii should have been on Sony's radar as a potential threat, but their hubris allowed them to ignore it and put it down. Sony, therefore, effectively put down the gamers who would buy a Wii, thus making many of us not want to buy a PS3, just out of principle.

6 - The constant putting down of the customer. Number 7 leads into this one. Sony, throughout much of last year, continually put down their customers, saying, and I'm paraphrasing here, that they should shut up about the price and stop complaining. The PS3 is a good value, they constantly reiterated. Then, there are a variety of classic quotes including one referring to US gamers as "cheap". (Click to watch hilarious Youtube PS3 Song)

5 - Coming out with two versions. A good deal of talk prior to the launch dealt with what console had what. Card reader? 20GB or 60GB HDD? Why confuse the buyer? Why distract the buyer? And, to the average person, $500 and $600 are the same thing: both prices are prohibitively expensive. There's a reason why the 20GB version was discontinued.

4 - No plan for online play at launch. Playstation "Home" was announced last month, three months after launch. You know, you can tout your online gaming capabilities all you want, but if you don't have a plan at launch, then one of your key features is really just a lie, isn't it?

3 - No "must have" games at launch. Console launch lineups are notoriously sparse and many bad games can be forgiven, but the Playstation 3's launch lineup was one of the worst to date. "Resistance Fall of Man" was the only semi-hit and most of the remainder of the games were ports of older games. Compare that to the 360's Perfect Dark Zero, Call of Duty 2, Kameo: Elements of Power, and Project Gotham Racing 3 and the Wii's Zelda: Twilight Princess and Wii Sports.

2 - Blu-Ray. Who cares about Blu-Ray? My guess is about 73 people. Okay, okay, I know it's slightly more than that...like 82. My point is that videophiles care about Blu-Ray. That was who bought the launch PS3s, not gamers. This fact escaped Sony and was a fundamental error. Gamers needed to have been the focus, not the living room entertainment crowd. To tell you the truth, I don't care if my game comes on Blu-Ray, HD-DVD, DVD, CD, or cardboard. A good game is a good game and to tie Sony's hopes for the adoption of Blu-Ray to the PS3 was, and is, a disservice to gamers.

1 - Price. $600 for a console? Even if it was gold-plated, dusted with saffron, and served caviar out of its disc tray the average gamer wouldn't pay $600 for a console. Again, gamers are a lot smarter than Sony gives them credit for. We all know that the price will drop between year one and year two, which is about the same time that some decent games will be out for it. In the meantime, gamers will continue to play their PS2s, Wiis, and 360s until there is a compelling game and a price break.

Told you it was good. No way in hell I was gonna top that, although I definitely wouldn't call some of these "missteps". Fuckups is an entirely more appropriate word for a company with Sony's reputation.

Source

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Wii: What Happens When You Get Over The Whole Motion-sensor Thing?

Sure, the Wii remote impresses friends when you invite them round -for maybe 10 minutes. Sure, there are the friends who are continually enthralled by Wii Bowling and Wii Tennis, and sure enough, there are the friends who wonder what all the fuss is about. But what happens for all those "casual gamers" as Miyamoto himself once said, when we move beyond Wii Sports? What happens when we do all become used to High-Definition TV broadcasting and gaming -what then, for the Wii's crappy graphics and Standard-Definition output?

Full story after the jump

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Xbox 360 Exclusive: Splinter Cell Conviction "Not Achievable On PS3" In Current State

A gaming magazine in Finland has managed to score an interview with Ubisoft regarding the upcoming release of the latest Xbox 360-exclusive Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction game. According to the developers, the current state of the PS3 renders it incredibly difficult to enable them to produce a version for the PS3. More after the jump...


- No more sneaking around in the shadows. Apparently you're going to be more like James Bond and infiltrate buildings in plain daylight. You won't have to use force or sneak around as long as you don't act suspiciously.



- According to the article, every single object that is rendered on screen has physical properties and most of them can be used by Sam. For example, Sam can pick up furniture and use it as a weapon, or throw printers at enemies or papers in the face of enemies to gain the upperhand in fights.





-Melee fights are much more than "press this button to hit" this time around. There's different context sensitive attack buttons and as mentioned before lots of environmental interaction.

- Some pretty negative comments about the PS3 made by the devs. They state the fact that they are exclusive to the 360 allows them to do much more than if they were multiplatform, but they also state they doubt they would be able to achieve what they're doing with the game on the 360 on the ps3 even if it was ps3 exclusive.





Source

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Wii: "Actually Not A Great Product" says Microsoft

In an interview with EWeek, president of Microsoft's Entertainment & Devices Division, Robbie Bach, laid into Nintendo, explaining just where he thinks the Wii fits in with the next-gen gaming crowd.

Asked if Nintendo was causing disruption for Microsoft, Bach said that while the product has "gotten more broad-base acclaim" than he would've expected, it has only one specific appeal - the controller - "And the rest of the product is actually not a great product—no disrespect, but … the video graphics on it aren’t very strong; the box itself is kind of underpowered; it doesn’t play DVDs; there are a lot of down-line components [that] aren’t actually that interesting."




Bach's rant continues...

"Nintendo has proven it can produce some decent software offerings which take true advantage of the controller, but the challenge, according to Bach, "is that third parties aren’t going to make much money on this platform because Nintendo is going to make all that money, and their ability to compete with something like a Halo or produce an experience like Madden on their system is going to be tough. They don’t have the graphics horsepower that even Xbox 1 had. So it makes sort of the comparison set a little bit difficult."

Asked whether he feels Nintendo is a fiercer competitor than Sony, Bach continued, "I think Nintendo and Microsoft are clearly in the driver’s seat on what’s happening in this generation. And they’re different driver’s seats. In a way, … our circle and Sony’s circle overlap I would say 90 percent. Nintendo’s circle and Microsoft’s overlap say 20, 25, 30 percent, something like that. We had people laughing and call it the Wii 360 because you already see a lot of dual-household ownership.


"But Sony I think has some real challenges," he said. "They’ve got a pricing problem, they have a cost problem, they have a content problem, and they don’t have an online service. But I’m just talking about the psychology of me doing an interview with you as a reporter coming in and not uttering the word Sony without me bringing it up."



I do love the way he couldn't help but bash Sony a little -yes, the Playstation Store is pretty bare at the moment but I think Bach is forgetting just how much clout Sony has in the film & TV industry, and what effect that might have on the future of content available to Xbox Live. Although Sony has been full of it in the run up to the PS3, I can't see them messing up the opportunity for content delivery that the Playstation Store offers to PS3 owners. Is this a case of the corporate willies? Paranoia for upper level MS management? Once you've sorted out the Xbox 360's notorious failure rate, then come back and bash the other consoles, eh?

Read the full interview here

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PC / PS3 / 360: Grand Theft Auto IV Info & Screenshots

Further info and screenshots released by Rockstar concerning the Q3 release of GTA: IV. Players take on the role of Niko Bellic, an Eastern European immigrant who comes to Liberty City to find his fortune while on the run from a dark past. Unfortunately it doesn't look like you can customize his physique, but you will be able to change his outfits (the gamers who secretly watched Queer Eye are now rejoicing inwardly -not outwardly. That could never be lived down. Ever.) Niko Bellic is in his mid-thirties so don't expect to see him doing wheelies or flying around in a Jetpack either.

Click below for more info & screenshots




• The game is being created collaboratively between Rockstar's New York, San Diego and North (Edinburgh) studios

• Lead character Niko Bellic will be able to explore Roosevelt Island and cross the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Willamsburg bridges. He'll also be able to ride trains

• Forget barren deserts - Rockstar is cramming Liberty City and aiming for a map totally free of pointless spaces

• One of Rockstar's big goals is to eradicate all loading screens once the game is being played, so there will be no action-breaking pauses when entering/exiting buildings etc

• Rockstar's Dan Houser (vice president of creative) says about GTA IV: "It's so much more dense and detailed, not only horizontally but also vertically. It's by far the most ambitious GTA game to date."

• The Mafia will put in an appearance around Liberty City, but they won't be assigned leading roles

• With regards to appearances from familiar GTA faces, Rockstar say that there will be "virtually none"

• Soundtrack is still not confirmed, although what was heard is described as 'modern and suits the mood perfectly'

• Concerned about the lack of planes? Don't be - helicopters will definitely feature

• There won't be any option for San Andreas style character customisation of main man Niko

• Niko can use his mobile phone to call contacts, as opposed to being limited to receiving incoming calls only

• There will be an element of 'romantic involvement' in the story

• There will definitely be online multiplayer

• Niko won't be able to access all buildings



Source


Click on this to see answers to GTA:IV by the only journalist to have seen the game

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PS3: Grand Turismo HD - Real Life vs. Screenshots

Gameswank (teehee) has posted a side by side comparison of screenshots from the forthcoming Grand Turismo HD Ps3 game alongside some real shots of er, big, brutish cars. Click on the image for a closeup -unbelievable.



Why, if it weren't for the crappy unfinished backgrounds and tags on each photo I don't think I could have spotted the difference. Now if only this game could actually have some balls to it, it might be worth playing.

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WTF: Blockbuster Thief Settles For Xbox 360 After Demanding A PS3

Someone quick - tell would-be PS3 thieves that its actually the Xbox 360 they want. Unless they plan on playing all of two games for the next six months, that is.

Click Read More! to take you over to the full article


An armed robber who demanded a Playstation 3 at gunpoint agreed to settle for an XBox 360 when staff told him they didn't stock the computer game console. Imagine being the thief and getting home, the internal monologue would probably go something like this:

"Dammit. I forgot to ask for a TV."

"The hooded robber swiped more than £500 of goods - including the XBox, a handful of games and £60 from the till - when he raided the Blockbuster DVD and game rental shop in High Street, Thornton Heath.

Two female members of staff were on duty when the man walked into the shop at 7pm on April 14, pulled a black handgun from his waistband and demanded money from the till.

After they handed over the cash he then demanded a Playstation 3 console - worth £400. When he was told they didn't have one he asked for an XBox 360 instead. He then grabbed a handful of Xbox 360 games before walking out of the store.

Neither victim was injured but it has been claimed that police did not arrive for 20 minutes because they were sent to the wrong Blockbuster store.

Police have described the suspect as a 6ft black man, aged around 25 years, of medium build who wore black, baggy trousers, a black hooded top - with the hood over a baseball cap - and a jacket which had dark blue sleeves and a green body.

Anyone with information should contact the flying squad at Tower Bridge on 020 7232 6530 or Crimestoppers, free and anonymously, on 0800 555 111.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: "I can confirm that, due to a mix-up with the address, there was a 20-minute delay in officers arriving at the premises."

Source

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TECH: Microsoft in talks with Yahoo over US$50b takeover

Start worrying now.

Click Read More! to read more about Microsoft and a possible takeover of Yahoo worth US$50b


Microsoft has entered in talks with Yahoo regarding a possible takeover worth close to US$50 billion, the New York Times reported on Friday. Perhaps miffed by losing out to Google's acquisition of online-ad giant Doubleclick last week for a reported US$3.1 billion, the software juggernaut is reputedly looking to Yahoo in a bid to fight back against Google's left-right-and-centre purchases of numerous online sites and services. Myspace, Blogspot, and Youtube are just some of the many online sites Google have snapped up recently.

Having already launched an online competitor to Microsoft's Office suite, how long before Google launches an operating system of their own, a mobile phone, proprietary notebooks and PCs -is anyone's guess. I guess competition is good for MS, but we could all end up losers if this turns out to become a Google/MS duopoly with nary an independent developer/programmer in sight. With tens of billions in the bank, what's next? Buying out AMD (cos they've been treading on shaky ground ever since buying out ATI), Nvidia, or sleeping hardware giant IBM?

I'd hate to see the day where everything I own that has anything to do with electronics has a little Google or MS icon in the bottom corner.

Start praying right about...now.

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Xbox 360: New "Spring Update" Coming For Xbox 360

Monday sees the US release on Xbox Live of a spring update that promises to bring a whole host of tweaks and addons for the 360. I have to admit that, while preferring the style and layout of the Playstation Store to that of Xbox Live, XBL does kick the hoolahs out of Sony in terms of content. Not to mention cool things like being able to see what games your friends and then joining them instantly.

Perhaps the funniest update is the ability(?) to chat with your friends, get this -online with Live Messenger using a QWERTY style keyboard addon pack for the 360 controller.






Source

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Xbox 360/ PS3: Alan Wake Screenshots

I know these are old but for most of you, these will be new.

Alan Wake is a psychological thriller-blah-blah. To cut out all the crap, this is gonna be one of those games that makes everyone sit up and notice -unless they somehow screw this one up in the last 6 months of development. Imagine a FPS game with a story gripping enough for a Palm D'Or at Cannes and you've got something close to how this game should pan out. Think deep, psychological horror movie crossed with something like Max Payne or Half Life. And to satiate the desire for beauty, here are some old-but-new screenshots of Alan Wake.













Okay, so it looks pretty -but where are the gameplay shots?

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