Journey review

I wrote some stuff about the PS3/PSN game here. It’s good! It’s totally strange and short, but it is good.

I’m mostly playing NBA 2K13, but I have no worthwhile thoughts about that. I really wish we were already on the PS4 generation, so I would have a video file of beating a friend in the NBA Finals with a buzzer beating 3 to play for him over and over and over again.

ModNation Racers

If I’m not writing things here, maybe I can use it to link to long-ish stuff I write elsewhere? Over on the-W, I wrote a post about the PS3 kart game I’ve been playing a lot lately. Game is good, post is eh.

The one thing I forgot, but is true of all almost games which have where you can create your own character, is it’s frustrating not to get all of the character options until you beat the game. After I’ve beat the game, I’m a lot less interested in who I’m using, you know?

My PS3 username is thecubsfan21. Someone has the non-numbered version; I forget I don’t ever six months or so. I may or may not accept friend requests. I used to not be in a hurry to do it, but now that I don’t care that someone beats by best times on Burnout Paradise, I’m much better.

Home condemned

Sony apologizes for “some people” not being able to get on Home.

In this case, some people would be “everyone who didn’t hit X to refresh every 15 seconds for a few hours.” Just like every other case of opening an online service from a few to all, Sony was unable to serve all who wanted in. Since it does happen to everyone, I almost think it’s not worth being critical, but if you’re opening the beta to “stress test the system” previously and it still doesn’t work, that was one lousy test.

On the good side, I don’t expect them to have this problem for much longer. Not just because they’ll get more equipment, or balance the load better, of maybe even include error message that actually are descrpitive to people who aren’t programming the system, but because the vast majority of people are going to mess around with it for 15 minutes, and then never purposely click on the icon again. It’s a waste of your time.

The idea of Home (the public idea, we’ll get the other one in a sec) appears to be A Place To Hang Out With Your Friends. I like hanging out with my friends in places, this sounds wonderful. Except, I like it so much that I actually already have plenty of places to do it, on the internet* or not*. I’m playing my PS3 – playing it alone, if I’m using Home – because I want to be entertained, probably by video game playing. I could do this with any of the PS3 games I have, or I could do this with Home if there was something entertaining there. In the two+ years it took to put Home together, they forget to put all the entertaing parts in, or at least in sufficient numbers.

Would you like to play chess? Prepare to stand and wait around the three chess boards in the Mall. The boards aren’t a representation of infinite games of chess that could be going on at once, nope, Home allows all of six people to play chess at any one time. Maybe you’d like to wait in line to use one of the 14 arcade machines? Or the 8 pool tables? (It looked like there were only 10 bowling lanes, but that one appeared to have a more unlimited of amount of real games going on. And the fountain/spaceship game may allow unlimited players, but there’s no real interaction between those playing.) One of the advantages of having a virtual world is the ability to remove or diminish physical limitations like only having 8 pool tables in an area – you can have as many or as few as you need, if you just focus the players on the game (which they care about) and not where they fit in on the rest of the virual world. Waiting for a spot on your own is patience draining; if you actually had a group of people, I can’t imagine how frustrating it might get.

A friend, who writes a much better blog, has written recently having fun(/odd conversations) playing Uno on XBox Live. It’s not hard and has all the social interaction Home is looking for, except there’s absolutely nothing as easy, quick and painless as just playing Uno on Home. There’s trudging from room to room, waiting for the next room to load, looking for a free space, and trying to do things pointlessly more complicated. It’s a weird mix of being barren – room/building that aren’t yet open and sparse & sterile places that are – and overcrowded. Even with the server issues, there were tons of people wandering around, trying everything, and generally just giving me feelings of claustrophobia.

The other idea of Home, the corporate idea, is to find ways to pay little bits for lots of useless stuff. Like I’ve said, there didn’t seem to be a lot of things going on, but the items definitely working were the stores in the mall to buy bits and pieces for your avatar and their apartment. As time goes on, I find myself moving farther away from my belief that the current gen of gaming is about bringing new levels of social interaction, and more towards it opening new sources of revenue via supplementary game features. Which is followed by moving the cut off between standard/add-on to get consumers to pay more for what they’re used to receiving without increasing the initial price. There are four pairs of free pants in Home, four styles of pants for the thousands of people they expect to be using Home. Unlike the chess boards, there are infinite numbers of pants to wear, but four styles are all you need to maintain your individuality in this virtual world…unless you’d like to pay $1 to buy these special pants (and shorts!) Why four pants and not six? They $1 pants don’t appear to have taken more time to create or have any other extra value besides the (market forced) rarity – it’s just a cheap way to make a $1 off people who don’t really value their money.

Maybe there is some special about the $1 pants, besides what I see. It’d be hard to find out on without someone else telling you, and that person won’t be Sony. Part of selling is having something to sell, but the part Home fails at is creating desire to actually buy it. You can buy additional furniture to put in your house, but you’d have to be really interested in having furniture to do so, and Sony doesn’t seem to care enough to extol the benefit of buying this additional furniture. If you click thru the menu, you can create a Club for $5 plus some TBD monthly fee. The description goes on about the amount of members you can have a club, when they’d actually start collecting monthly fees (not yet), how many clubs you can own at once, and on. They never get around to the part where they explain what a Club is and why you’d want to join or start one. And on like this.

This is one of those times where the angry rant inside my head is moving far quicker than I can communicate it to my fingers, but I think I’ve reached a point where more in detail the worthlessness of Home is beyond the point. I don’t need to go in details about the how moving from to a new room means a 5-7 minute download (since there’s only about 7 rooms to start, why aren’t they downloaded to start?) and even a lag after you get going, or how underdeveloped everything seems, or the other problems I found – I might have made my point already.

I had low expectations. They were not nearly low enough. Sony will try to defend by screaming BETA, but they still allowed everyone’s to have a first impression, and I can’t imagine most wasting their time with a second. My streaks of charity, morbid curiosity, and hope that it’s not nearly this bad and I’ve completely misses something, will probably lead me to try it again at some point. But I’ll do it knowing it’s a waste of quite a lot of time, and not in the fun way I hoped.

* – not that I’m hanging out nearly enough. sorry.

10/20 PS3 Releases

PS3 Releases for 10/20, with newer later date than usual.

You know, I’d actually buy Monopoly – if it was a $5-10 PSN download and enough other people got it as well. The board game is $13 at Toys R Us; that must be some great HD graphics to be three times the cost.

I wish I could find some place with a bit more accurate listings. Amazon always has a bunch of stuff that’s out of date, and there’s no easy way to keep track of changes that I’ve found besides looking at each page and seeing if it really did come out. Other sites aren’t much better – at best, I can find out what came out that week, but future dates are unreliable enough to almost be useless.

Played thru LBP a bit last night and relieved to find out I’m not the only one having consistent server issues. You’d think they’d have something like this working before the games get out (especially with the extra time and all), but I guess you really can’t simulate the volume until the game gets out.

Little Big Planet thoughts

I played the demo. It gave me a little bit to write about.

Little Big Planet, originally scheduled to release 10/21 in the US and now pushed back a week until 10/28, is going to be Playstation3’s game of the year. There are other games that have been and will be very positively reviewed, but this platform/puzzle game is both a great game and a great showcase for the PS3 abilities. It’s not just about it being an exclusive, it’s about it full realizing the special capabilities of the system; beautiful HD graphics, integration with the media server (turn photos into game play objects) and the power of a free-for-all always connected community. The gameplay, at least for the opening levels in the demo, was just the right mix of easy to pick up but hard to put down that’ll make it accesibile to everyone, and the ability of users to make and publish their own levels should allow for for replay value many times over what’s actually in the game.

I was skeptical of the game the last few months, I’m not sure I even understood what it was trying to be until I played it. Once you you play it, it’s not hard to figure. It’s a side scrolling platform (with an iffy 3D), with coin collecting and secret path finding. It’s not the most punishing game; there seemed to be plenty of automatic save points as you went thru the example levels, and even losing a life isn’t that damaging. The stress is more on solving puzzles, interacting with the game environment in ways that aren’t always easy, but more intuitive over time and never seemed cheesy. We only got to play the first ‘world’ on the demo mode, which took me a couple hours, and the whole game is supposed to play around 20 hours – surely a lot more if you want to go back and grab every item and get a perfect on every level.

20 hours is only the iceberg tip. Besides picking up coins, your character also picks up items. You can use some to customize your character, and others to customize your own levels. That’s going to be the real draw, the creative levels players make up on their own, and then publish (easily) for everyone else to try and beat. You can also create your own items for these levels, including grabbing pictures off the system’s hard drive, or play any of these levels with a group of characters at the same time. (I had no idea how much fun/challenging this was going to be until there were four Sackboys trying out race each other to the next coin or reward. I did have a crash doing one of these, but I think it might have been an issue on my side.)

Like I said, I think this is going to be the PS3 game of the year; unless you’re allergic to the briefest hint of cute, or all you want out of your system is to shoot noobs in the face, you ought to try out LBP. The thing is, I can’t help but think about how PS3’s undersized user base affects the ultimate potential of this game. All the levels that won’t be made because those people decided to go elsewhere or are still waiting for the next price cut. A real cool user-created level will end up popular (and probably quite a few of them), but how viral can you be in a smaller community?

LBP is a going to be a great family game, a great introduction into video games, a great game for casual players to pick up and not feel lost. PS3 doesn’t feel like it’s hitting those markets yet, and the game can’t reach those markets unless the system arrives first. If the PS3 was a bit more affordable, better comparatively priced to the other systems, you could bundle it with the LBP and they’d contend for the xmas gift to get/find. This could’ve been a tipping point, if treated right.

Console owners benefit from more people owning their console (this game more directly than others.) I’m hoping there’s a change from previously stated plans and they make the price cut, because I think it’d change the landscape. I don’t expect it to happen, and mourn those who will miss out until Sony gets around to that price cut months after it matters.

(The game being postponed due to passages from the Quran appearing in an included song is something I feel like I could talk for days about yet have the desire to write zero words for the permanent internet record. Disappointing.)

PS3 Releases: week of October 13

I’m not posting these over here any more, because I just don’t have a good reason, but I still can link to the rundown. Highlights: scary game effective scary, thugging game effectively thugging. FIFA ’09 being great may cause the PS3 market share to dramatically increase (by 1 console!) If Sony is only going to release one PSN retro game a month (be it a classic or a revival like MegaMan), couldn’t they exploit genres that are little more lacking; there has to be a good PS RPG worth re-relasing.

I’d love to tell how NHL ’09 plays, particularly multiplayer. I could instead tell you how we went to 3 Family Videos, 1 Blockbuster video and 1 local video store to rent the game. Only 1 of the Family Videos had it at all for PS3 (of course it was out), the Blockbuster is actually no longer in business (Halloween shop) and the local store has moved to a smaller building and has all of 3 PS3 games for rent. So I can tell you how fun it for a couple people to drive around for two hours, listening to preseason basketball, and then ending up with nothing except a urge to justify just buying the game (if I didn’t have LBP coming…), but that’s even boring for this site. Hockey alone is still not so big in Chicago, but combine that with that PS3 and the fall of the video rental store and it’s apparently a niche inside of a niche instead of niche.

(Or we could’ve just called places before driving around, we realized later.)

GameFly last sent me PS3 Hot Shots Golf most recently, skipping over the top 3 entries on my Queue. I thought about just sending it back a week ago, but I just did that with a PS3 FF game I forgot I still had on there, and wanted to play something. Hot Shots Golf is fun, and probably a better multiplayer game than EA’s Tiger (though I think most adults would have able to get the cuteness of it all) and I’m glad I tried it, but I was so regretting not sending it back and trying my luck again

My goal is to write about LBP today, more than vague jokes, but we’ll see.

PS3 Releases: week of September 8, 2008

on the shelves

09/08: NHL 2K9 [metacritic]
09/09: NHL 09 [metacrtic]

Let’s make it easy – there’s not a review out there that puts 2K ahead of EA. EA gets copy like “the best hockey videogame ever produced.” (1UP) and “it’s one of the best sports games to be released in the last decade.” (IGN) 2K is slightly more arcade-y, but unless you’re anti-EA, NHL 09 is hockey game you want.

09/09: TNA iMPACT! [metacritic] Not good. It seems rental/”pick up and play”-proof, since you’ve got force your way thru enough of the single player story mode to get the guys you may want to play with in exhibition mode. That seems like a flip from most wrestler games, where the story mode is lesser priority. PS3 is said to be lesser than the 360.

in the store

Downloadable Games
Jeopardy! {$15} – photo realistic 3D set! Because the thing that held you back from buying this before was the backgrounds not looking accurate enough. 2,500 clues sounds like you’ll have enough to play for a couple weeks (expansion pack are promised for 2009) and online multiplayer including voice chat almost makes it worth it. The one catch I note is your responses are multiple choice – you’re not typing in the answers (err, questions).

PS1 Classics (4 weeks – oops)

Add On Content
– PAIN: a new environment (Amusement Park) with new modes for $6, and three new characters are $1 each.

– Rock Band
* “Two Weeks” – All That Remains {$1}
* “This Calling” – All That Remains {$1}
* “Charlene (I’m Right Behind You)” – Stephen and the Colberts (free)

I clearly have not been watching enough Comedy Central lately.

Guitar Hero III: Metallica “Death Magnetic” album {$18}
* “That Was Just Your Life”
* “The End Of The Line”
* “Broken, Beat & Scarred”
* “The Day That Never Comes”
* “All Nightmare Long”
* “Cyanide”
* “The Unforgiven III”
* “The Judas Kiss”
* “Suicide & Redemption J.H.”
* “Suicide & Redemption K.H.” (different versions)
* “My Apocalypse”

Game Demos
– FIFA 09
– Guitar Hero: Aerosmith

Game Videos
– Golden Axe: Best Rider (trailer)
– FIFA 09 (trailer)
– NHL 09 (trailer, 2)
– Blitz: the League II (trailer)
– Saints Row 2 (trailer 2)
– Need for Speed Undercover (trailer)
– Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway (gameplay)
– Legendary (BTS, 2)

Movie/Blue-Ray Trailers

PS3 Wallpaper
– PAIN (3)

PS3 Theme
– Mirror’s Edge
– Need for Speed Undercover
– PAIN (4)

over the horizon (last updated 09/12)

09/16: Armed Core For Answer [metacritic]
09/16: Pure [metacrtiic]
09/16: Star Wars: the Force Unleashed [metacrtiic]
09/16: Madden ’09 En Espanol

09/22: BAJA: Edge of Control [metacritic]
09/23: Lego Batman [metacritic]
09/23: Cabel’s Dangerous Hunts ’09
09/23: Brother’s in Arms: Hell’s Highway and limited edition [metacritic]
09/23: Buzz! Quiz TV Bundle [metacritic]

09/30: Silent Hill: Homecoming [metacritic]
09/30: Shellshock 2

10/07: Motorstorm: Pacific Rift [metacritic]
10/07: NBA Live 09 [metacritic]
10/07: NBA 2K9 [metacritic]
10/07: Fracture [metacritic]
10/07: NBA ’09 [metacritic]
10/06: Monopoly

10/14: FIFA Soccer 09
10/14: Rise of the Argonauts
10/14: Disney Sing It Bundle w/Microphone
10/14: Rock Revolution
10/14: Golden Axe: Beast Rider [metacritic]
10/14: SOCOM US Navy Seals: Confrontation Stand Alone and with headset [metacritic]
10/14: Saints Row 2 and Collector’s Edition [metacritic]
10/14: Dead Space
10/15: Naruto Ultimate Ninja : Storm

10/19: Rock Band 2, guitar and track pack
10/21: Midnight Club: Los Angeles
10/21: Spider-Man: Web of Shadows
10/21: Bioshock
10/21: Legandary [metacritic]
10/21: Little Big Planet [metacritic]
10/21: Hei$t [metacritic]
10/21: Far Cry 2

10/27: Guitar Hero World Tour, with guitar and with full band kit
10/28: SingStar Vol. 2 and with microhpone
10/28: MotoGP 08
10/28: Highlander
10/28: PES 2009 Pro-Evolution Soccer
10/28: Fallout 3, Collectors Edition and Amazon.com Exclusive Survival Edition
10/28: Blitz: The League II [metacritic]

11/03: Tomb Raider Underworld
11/04: Tom Clancy’s EndWar and headset bundle [metacritic]
11/04: Lord of the Rings: Conquest
11/04: James Bond 007: Quantum of Solace and collector’s edition (oddly listed as coming out a week early)
11/04: Resistance 2 and collectors edition

11/09: WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2009 and collectors edition
11/11: Valkyria Chronicles
11/11: Mirror’s Edge
11/11: Call of Duty: World at War

11/14: Alone in the Dark [metacritic]
11/16: Shaun White Snowboarding
11/17: Need for Speed: Undercover
11/18: Sonic Unleashed
11/18: Karaoke Revolution: Presents American Idol Encore 2 w/Microphone
11/18: Prince of Persia

11/30: Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe and collector’s edition

Off the schedule entirely:
Ghostbusters – listed as “June 30, 2009”
Just Cause 2 – listed as “March 31, 2009”

PS3 Releases: week of August 25, 2008

on the shelves

08/26: Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 [metacrtic] – a tinkering update rather than any new big features. The big emphasis is on helping you improve by giving more feedback about your swing and post-round advice from Tiger’s swing coach.

08/26: Disgaea 3 Absence of Justice [metacrtic] – strategy RPG game that’s made the jump to PS3 discs, but is still essentially a PS2 game. The RPG game sties are much more positive than the general ones, and every agrees it appeals a lot stronger to hardcore fans of the series and the genre than anyone new.

08/26: Ferrari Challenge – yes, another driving game on PS3. It’s Ferraris, all Ferraris (ever, thru downloadable content), and nothing but Ferraris. It reads like a solid game, but the only reason you’re getting this over the other half dozen racing options you have is because you want this car.

08/26: Vampire Rain: Altered Species [metacrtic] – no one’s reviewed it. This one got pushed back at least once, maybe twice, so maybe it got pushed back again and I missed it?

in the store

Downloadable Games
The Last Guy [metacritic] {$10} – more of a puzzle game than anything, you attempt to lead human survivors of a worldwide zombification thru the streets of real cities (hello, Google Earth) to safe zones. There’s only two reviews of this, and it seems to depend on if figuring the puzzle out gets addictive (like every puzzle game) and the two reviews differ on that point. There’s a free demo out last week, which sounds like the best way to figure it out.

PS1 Classics (2 weeks)

Add on Content

Warhawk Fallen Star {$8} – new rocket pack and new map. Get all three booster packs for $16.

Rock Band
“She Does”, “Don’t Make Me Wait” and “All Over Again” by Locksley are each $1, or all three for $3.

Game Demos
– NHL ’09
– Soulcalibur IV

Game Videos
– SOCOM (trailer)
– LittleBigPlanet (Leipzig Trailer)
– Motorstorm Pacific Rift (Leipzig Trailer)
– PAIN (Trauma Mode trailer – sounds like HORSE for Pain)
– GT5 Prologue (play with the pros)
– Brothers In Arms: Hell’s Highway (2, gameplay)
– Facebreaker (3, characters)
– Madden NFL 09 (3, trailer)
– Top Spin 3 Player Creator

the amazing return of Movie/Blue-Ray Trailer
– Quantum Of Solace
– Prom Night

PS3 Theme

PS3 Wallpaper
– the Last Guy (2)

over the horizon (last updated 08/24)

08/31: Mercenaries 2: World in Flames [metacrtic]

09/02: Rapala Fishing Frenzy
09/02: World in Conflict: Soviet Assault
09/03: FaceBreaker [metacritic]
09/03: NFL Head Coach ’09 [metacritic]

09/08: NHL 2K9
09/09: NHL 09
09/09: TNA iMPACT!

09/15: BAJA: Edge of Control
09/16: Armed Core: For Answer
09/16: Pure
09/16: Star Wars: the Force Unleashed
09/16: Madden ’09 En Espanol
09/16: Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust

09/23: Lego Batman
09/23: Cabel’s Dangerous Hunts ’09
09/23: Brother’s in Arms: Hell’s Highway
09/23: Buzz! Quiz TV Bundle
09/23: Just Cause 2

09/30 (maybe): Hei$t (metacritic)
09/30: Shellshock 2
09/30: Silent Hill: Homecoming
09/30: Legandary
09/30: Rise of the Argonauts
10/01: Far Cry 2
10/01: MotoGP 08

10/06: Monopoly Here & Now Worldwide Edition
10/07: Fallout 3, Collectors Edition and Amazon.com Exclusive Survival Edition
10/07: Midnight Club: Los Angeles
10/07: Fracture

10/07: Motorstorm: Pacific Rift
10/07: NBA ’09
10/07: Disney Sing It Bundle w/Microphone
10/07: NBA 2K9

10/14: Saints Row 2 and Collector’s Edition
10/14: SOCOM US Navy Seals: Confrontation Stand Alone and with headset
10/14: Golden Axe: Beast Rider
10/15: Shaun White Snowboarding
10/15: Tom Clancy’s EndWar [metacritic]
10/15: Naruto Ultimate Ninja : Storm

10/20: Dead Space
10/21: Little Big Planet [metacritic]
10/21: Spider-Man: Web of Shadows
10/21: Ghostbusters – perhaps

10/27: Guitar Hero World Tour

At some point: WipeoutHD – they’re promoting it again, so it’s coming out at some point

PS3 Releases: week of August 18, 2008

on the shelves

nothing!

in the store

Downloadable Games
Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty [metacritic] {$15} – They missed on either the price or the length; it feels like a bonus level for Tools of Destruction, but maybe not enough to justify the price. (I’m only about 45 minutes, maybe I’ll change my mind.) It’s still a good game, but lack a little. As such a direct follow up to Tools of Destruction, you’d think they could’ve provided some benefit here for playing the last game.

EA SPORTS Live Score Tracker {$1} – for those so into fantasy football, they rather hang out on the Madden ’09 menu screen then watch the games as they’re happening…

PS1 Classics

Add on Content

Hot Shots Golf Out of Bonds: Krator {$2} – play golf as the character from God of War. A fantastic way to make money for something that should be free.

Haze: Domination Pack {free} – 4 multiplayer maps, 1 new team mode

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Dragonforce Pack – {$6.25}
* “Heroes of Our Time”
* “Revolution Deathsquad”
* “Operation Ground and Pound”, all by Dragonforce.

Rock Band
* “Through Being Cool” by Devo {$2}
* “Girl U Want” by Devo {$2}
* “Rio” by Duran Duran {$2}
* “Girls on Film” – Duran Duran {no price listed?, probably $2}
* “Get Your Rock On” – the Janitor {$1}

Game Demos
– the Last Guy
– Star Wars: the Force Unleashed
– NFL Head Coach ’09

Game Videos
– SCEE Leipzig Software (Compilation)
– Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest For Booty Launch (Leipzig trailer)
– inFamous (Leipzig Trailer)
– Warhawk: Fallen Star (Leipzig video)
– the Last Guy (cities Trailer)
– PAIN (2 trailers)
– Vampire Rain (2 trailers)
– BiA Hell’s Highway (2 Making of)
– Madden NFL (3)

PS3 Theme
– Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest For Booty
– inFamous

PS3 Wallpaper
– Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest For Booty
– Motorstorm Pacific Rift
– TNA iMPACT! (3)

over the horizon (last updated 08/01)

08/26: Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 [metacrtic]
08/26: Disgaea 3 Absence of Justice [metacrtic]
08/26: Vampire Rain: Altered Species [metacrtic]
08/26: Ferrari Challenge

08/28: The Last Guy

08/31: Mercenaries 2: World in Flames [metacrtic]

09/02: Rapala Fishing Frenzy
09/02: World in Conflict: Soviet Assault
09/03: FaceBreaker [metacritic]
09/03: NFL Head Coach ’09 [metacritic]

09/08: NHL 2K9
09/09: NHL 09
09/09: TNA iMPACT!

09/15: BAJA: Edge of Control
09/16: Armed Core: For Answer
09/16: Pure
09/16: Star Wars: the Force Unleashed
09/16: Madden ’09 En Espanol
09/16: Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust

09/23: Lego Batman
09/23: Cabel’s Dangerous Hunts ’09
09/23: Brother’s in Arms: Hell’s Highway
09/23: Buzz! Quiz TV Bundle
09/23: Just Cause 2

09/30 (maybe): Hei$t (metacritic)
09/30: Shellshock 2
09/30: Silent Hill: Homecoming
09/30: Legandary
09/30: Rise of the Argonauts
10/01: Far Cry 2
10/01: MotoGP 08

10/06: Monopoly Here & Now Worldwide Edition
10/07: Fallout 3, Collectors Edition and Amazon.com Exclusive Survival Edition
10/07: Midnight Club: Los Angeles
10/07: Fracture

10/07: Motorstorm: Pacific Rift
10/07: NBA ’09
10/07: Disney Sing It Bundle w/Microphone
10/07: NBA 2K9

10/14: Saints Row 2 and Collector’s Edition
10/14: SOCOM US Navy Seals: Confrontation Stand Alone and with headset
10/14: Golden Axe: Beast Rider
10/15: Shaun White Snowboarding
10/15: Tom Clancy’s EndWar [metacritic]
10/15: Naruto Ultimate Ninja : Storm

10/20: Dead Space
10/21: Little Big Planet [metacritic]
10/21: Spider-Man: Web of Shadows
10/21: Ghostbusters – perhaps

10/27: Guitar Hero World Tour

At some point: WipeoutHD – they’re promoting it again, so it’s coming out at some point

PS3 Releases: week of August 11, 2008

on the shelves

08/12: Madden NFL 09 and (20th Anniversary Edition) [metacritic] – I swear, it’s an actual improvement on the game. It’s definitely a step above the previous PS3 versions, especially in game presentation. There’s online leagues, though they’ don’t yet fulfill the promise of taking franchise mode online. It’s amusing multiple reviews note the same thing – the Rewind option (cancel the last play) isn’t something you want for head to head games, but it’s a great fix for the improbable CPU interceptions that always creep in Madden. (It also seems to me this is not a New feature, and they tried this for a few years back in the SNES days. And then, as now and as with stuff like the Madden Card abilities, no one used it because it feels like a cheap unearned advantage.) Not a big fan of the adaptive difficulty and wish the autosave worked a little better so I would stop losing progress, but I’m glad I picked it up.

Downloadable Games
– Bionic Comando: Rearmed {$10} [metacritic] – in for ’08: doing remakes of 8 bit games in the style of 8 bit games. Essentially a port of the original game for the NES released 20 years, with HD graphics and a new final level. There are some control issues, more on 360, but reviews say it’s a faithful recreation with some adjustment to modern gameplaying (unlimited continues, boss battles changed to center around smart use of the weapons rather than lots of attrition) and the addition of offline multiplayer modes.

PS1 Classics
– Street Fighter Alpha

Add on Content
– Rock Band
* “Constant Motion” by Dream Theater ($1)
* “Aesthetics of Hate” by Machine Head ($1)
* “My Curse” by Killswitch Engage ($1)
* “Clouds Over California” by DevilDriver ($1)
* “Runnin’ Wild” by Airbourne ($1)
* “Sleepwalker” by Megadeth ($1)
or all six for, uh, $6. What a deal. All songs jump to $2 on 08/21, and the pack will go up to $10 (which is actually a deal)

Game Demos
– Bionic Commando: Rearmed
– 1942: Joint Strike
– NHL 2K9
– TIger Woods PGA Tour 2009

Game Videos
– The Last Guy (Gameplay)
– Bionic Commando: Rearmed (making of, launch)
– Saints Row 2
– Vampire Rain (2)
– Legendary (BTS)
– Madden NFL (3)
– Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2: Fusion (trailer)
– Mirror’s Edge Story (trailer)
– AST Dew Tour (4)

PS3 Theme
– BioShock
– Bionic Commando: Rearmed (2)

PS3 Wallpaper
– Bionic Commando: Rearmed (2)

over the horizon (last updated 08/01)

08/21: Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest For Booty (download, $15)

08/26: Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 [metacrtic]
08/26: Disgaea 3 Absence of Justice [metacrtic]
08/26: Vampire Rain: Altered Species [metacrtic]
08/26: Ferrari Challenge

08/31: Mercenaries 2: World in Flames [metacrtic]

09/02: Rapala Fishing Frenzy
09/02: TNA iMPACT!
09/02: World in Conflict: Soviet Assault
09/03: FaceBreaker [metacritic]
09/03: NFL Head Coach ’09 [metacritic]

09/08: NHL 2K9
09/09: NHL 09
09/09: Legendary: The Box

09/15: BAJA: Edge of Control
09/16: Pure
09/16: Star Wars: the Force Unleashed
09/16: Madden ’09 En Espanol
09/16: Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust

09/23: Lego Batman
09/23: Cabel’s Dangerous Hunts ’09
09/23: Brother’s in Arms: Hell’s Highway
09/23: Buzz! Quiz TV Bundle
09/23: Just Cause 2

09/30 (maybe): Hei$t (metacritic)
09/30: Shellshock 2
09/30: Silent Hill: Homecoming
09/30: Legandary
09/30: Rise of the Argonauts
10/01: Far Cry 2
10/01: MotoGP 08

10/06: Monopoly Here & Now Worldwide Edition
10/07: Fallout 3, Collectors Edition and Amazon.com Exclusive Survival Edition
10/07: Midnight Club: Los Angeles
10/07: Fracture

10/07: Motorstorm: Pacific Rift
10/07: NBA ’09
10/07: Disney Sing It Bundle w/Microphone
10/07: NBA 2K9

10/14: Saints Row 2 and Collector’s Edition
10/14: SOCOM US Navy Seals: Confrontation Stand Alone and with headset
10/14: Golden Axe: Beast Rider
10/15: Shaun White Snowboarding
10/15: Tom Clancy’s EndWar [metacritic]
10/15: Naruto Ultimate Ninja : Storm

10/20: Dead Space
10/21: Little Big Planet [metacritic]
10/21: Spider-Man: Web of Shadows
10/21: Ghostbusters – perhaps

10/27: Guitar Hero World Tour

At some point: WipeoutHD