Should Sony just go into Game Publishing?

Sony's 4/20 debacle is being hailed as the largest cyber breach in history with about a 100 million customer's personal information being compromised. Over the past 24 months Sony has been riding a bullet-train called "momentum" and from the looks of it the "bullet-train" has fucking derailed in a blazing inferno.

So what now for Sony? Will they just "say fuck it" and go away looking as incompetent as a single entity can look? Become a Mega publisher like Sega or Square-Enix?

The longer PSN stays down Sony may have to go for the latter.  Sony cannot afford to have the PSN outage surpass 30 days.  After the thirty days of PSN downtime a 100 million people may loose faith all at once. What do you think; is Sony better off staying in the console business or should they become a mega publisher?

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The Conspiracy Continues: News Corp Purchase's UGO

Here we go again, News Corporation is reportedly on the verge to purchase media network UGO, which is currently owned by Hearst Corporation and including the 1UP Network. News Corp plans to spin off IGN as a separate business.

I believe the main-stream gaming media is in bed with developers and console makers. Not too long ago News Corp bought IGN for $650 million in 2005, acquiring a stable of websites including IGN.com, GameSpy.com and TeamXbox.com..

"News Corp. is hoping a spin-off of IGN will accelerate the company's growth by drawing more investment into the business than it could provide on its own, a person familiar with the matter said. News Corp. wants to retain a stake in the company.

IGN has enjoyed rapid growth as gamers have flocked to online gamesite. Traffic in April was up 80% compared with the same month two years earlier, executives said. IGN is expected to make about $10 million on about $100 million in revenue, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Does tainted videogame reviews help increase revenue? Does enraging fanboy's around the world help increase revenue? Does manipulating the virtual airspace with fanboy's propaganda help drive revenue? I believe that the main-stream gaming media is onto something and it's no ponzai scheme.

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Conspiracy Saturday one day earlier edition: Is Corporate Espionage behind PSN Shutdown?

If you are a PS3 owner you are one of many millions shut off from Sony's online playground "PSN".  Sony's PSN online service has been shutdown coincidently since 4/20/2011.  April 20th(aka:420) is a date synonymous with many evil's, bastardly deeds and of course "Pot" Weed, Mary Jane, and Ganja.  Adolf Hitler was born on 4/20/1889, Columbine High School shooting was 4/20/1999, Serbian army bombs hospital in Goradze Bosnia, 47 killed 4/20/1994, France declares war on Austria, Prussia and Sardinia 4/20/1792 and 4/20/1941 one hundred German bombers attack Athens.


Now 4/20/2011 will be a day etched in stone as the day Sony pulled the plug on it's PSN online services due to "External Intrusion".  According to Patrick Seybold Sr. Director, Corporate Communications &  Social Media: "An external intrusion on our system has affected our PlayStation Network and Qriocity services. In order to conduct a thorough investigation and to verify the smooth and secure operation of our network services going forward, we turned off PlayStation Network & Qriocity services on the evening of Wednesday, April 20th. Providing quality entertainment services to our customers and partners is our utmost priority. We are doing all we can to resolve this situation quickly, and we once again thank you for your patience. We will continue to update you promptly as we have additional information to share.

This has been a very contentious, bitter and extremely costly console war between Sony and Microsoft. Sony's has just announced that they've hit the 50 million mark, trailing just slightly behind Microsoft's Xbox 360. With Microsoft's sales number's heavily tinted because of the RROD fiasco and the slow demise of the core-gaming experience; Sony's momentum needs to be slowed to a grinding halt.

Microsoft has thrown billions of dollars to attract timed exclusives and innovated technology to enhance it's core & motion gaming department.  But no matter how much money Microsoft spends and how many feature they cram unto Xbox LIVE it seems that Sony's PS3 with it's hefty price tag(obvious lack luster online service), is on pace to catch if not surpass Microsoft this year in global console sales.

When Microsoft released Window Phone 7 back in November 8th 2010 to a silent whimper.  News started to swirl a month or so later that Windows Phone 7 had been hacked, thereby enabling homebrew programs to be run on the platform and circumventing the Marketplace. 


So the guys who made it possible to run homebrew apps on the Marketplace-centric Windows Phone 7 platform got a nice piping hot cup of coffee and a fun little t-shirt to their wardrobe? But is that all?

While giving away t-shirts to people that hack your code isn’t the way  Apple or Sony would roll, it certainly seems to be the future for Microsoft who seem to be engaging with their computer savvy users in a whole new slightly disturbing way since the release of Windows Phone 7.

Now, this new yet strange and twisted relationship with the Hacking community may have benefited Microsoft in a huge and unexpected ways.  


Could these new found friends Microsoft has embraced be behind the current PSN outage?   Could this have been sanction by Microsoft to help slow the momentum Sony is currently high on? Is the outage an act by the shady for the "people" group" called "anonymous".  Or was it a single splinter from that group?  Only time and Sony of Japan engineers will shed some light on what will be Sony's 4/20 debacle.

Share your thoughts; could it be Corporate Espionage or some lone wolf with a sick twisted vendetta against Sony?

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Conspiracy Sunday's: Is the Main-Stream Gaming Media Tainted?

The current virtual guerrilla warfare being waged on the Internet has the Main-Stream Gaming media to blame.

The battle between console owners has been a fierce battle of the words with some trolling with elegant grace. In my many years in gaming I've  never seen the gaming community so fractured and segmented before. Many may ask "why has gaming become a rabid angry war of words?".  I believe the answer lies in the way the "Main-Stream Gaming Media" goes about doing it's business.

Today we will look into the a  popular gaming website and I will provide my opinion on why, I believe there is a hidden or tainted agenda when it comes to Main-Stream Gaming Media. Please be advised that my views are based on the all mighty dollar aka: "Cha Ching".

IGN.com

"New York, NY, September 8, 2005 - News Corporation announced today that it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire IGN Entertainment, Inc, a leading community-based Internet media and services company for video games and other forms of digital entertainment, for approximately $650 million in cash"  Coincidentally the Xbox 360 was released on November 22nd, 2005, in the United States and Canada; December 2nd, 2005, in Europe and December 10th, 2005, in Japan. The PlayStation 3 was later launched in Japan on November 11th 2006 at 07:00 and in United States on  November 17th 2006.

Oh and let us not forget "Jan. 6, 2011— GameStop (NYSE: GME), the world's largest video game and multi-channel entertainment software retailer, and IGN Entertainment, the leading online media network for video game enthusiasts, have announced an exclusive, large-scale partnership that combines content from IGN with expert review content from Game Informer Magazine to make GameStop.com a single destination for gamers who want to maximize their game experience."

Now you may be asking how the fuck does all this ties into the main-stream gaming media being tainted.  Well, for one News Corp and Microsoft have a very special relationship.  Back in 2009 Wired.com wrote an article about NewsCorp threatening to pull the company’s news articles from Google and putting them on Microsoft search engines instead, in return for an undisclosed payment. In April 2008 Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation was in talks with Microsoft about joining in its contested bid for Yahoo, according to people involved in the discussions.

Conspiracy Theory:  NewsCorp purchases IGN in September for $650 million dollars the following month Microsoft's Xbox 360 debut's 364 days before the PS3.  During this time period and beyond IGN has had a love feast with all thing Xbox related. Back in August 2007 it was revealed by Metafuture a new game review watchdog blog that inflates or deflates a review score based upon the reviewers history of awarding that score multiple times. The analysis of both IGN and Gamespot reviews revealed a large rightward shift of the good 'ole bell curve, possibly confirming what many have believed for years (cough, cough; "get'n pay'd to review games").

IGN's average review score was a whopping 8.0, and the site heavily favors evenly rounded scores. Gamespot, while a little more balanced and even in their curve, has an average review of 7.0. So either there are a butt load of great games we're overlooking, or something fishy is going on.

Now also consider IGN's one year honeymoon with the only next generation video game console on  the market.  Ad dollars and hits enables a large site to survive.  With many developers debuting their games on Xbox 360 during it's launch, they had to let millions of gamers around the world know their game existed.   The best way to accomplish this besides television ads,will be a large main-stream gaming website with 28 million unique users(IGN).  So in theory developers paid IGN to have their games get favorable review scores to help cement the early success of the Xbox 360.

There is something strange going on this generation in gaming, there is no denying it.  The proof is out there in the open, the way the gaming community is so segmented.  And not let's forget the total imbalance of review scoring that we see across the board between PS3 and Xbox 360 games. You may call me crazy or delusional, but there are unscrupulous and shady back door dealings going on in the main-stream gaming media, money is being exchanged in indirect ways and direct ways-to ensure a "Console King" is crowned.

[Sources: Wiki, IGN,WSJ,Metefuture,Wired]

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If you are a Sony PS3 Owner Please do not purchase Fallout: New Vegas

Fallout 3 for PS3 was a good time I'll have to admit.  Bethesda's Fallout 3 had it's occasional bugs and glitches but it was a playable and manageable game, it still had an acceptable flow to it.  Fallout: New Vegas for Sony PS3 has to be one really bad joke(and yes the shit is that bad from a technical stand point).  What I cannot comprehend is Fallout: New Vegas seems to use to same game engine as it's predecessor but this time around it is severely broken.

The framerate drops to painstaking speeds, my best guess 15-20 fps or maybe worst at times. When I first visited Crismon Caravan I played the first 2 minutes in slow motion(no seriously).  The most irritating part was the fact the the level took at least 5 minutes to load.  If you ask me that is unacceptable.

They are many times when I enter a newly discovered area(+10XP) and I enter a new room; the game takes 3-7mins to load, this severely hampers the game flow.  But, what makes me want to file a class action lawsuit against Bethesda Studios/Obsidian and all parties involved, are the constant game freezes.  The game will freeze for 2 mins to indefinitely.  This is utterly unacceptable. To say there where 300 games testers looking for bugs in Fallout: New Vegas is either a pure lie or they need to get new testers.

New Vegas senior designer Chris Avellone claims: "I think when you create a game as large as Fallout 3 or New Vegas you are going to run into issues that even a testing team of 300 won't spot, so we're just trying to address those as quickly as possible and so is Bethesda.

It's kind of like the bugs of the real world - the sheer expanse of what you're dealing with causes problems", he stated jokily

There is no fucking way there where 300 testers anywhere close to a PS3 copy of Fallout: New Vegas. I will agree they where probably 300 tester 298 for Xbox and the reminding two for PS3. It is unacceptable for a premiere game to be shipped with so many obvious technical flaws.

My issue is not really the extreme pop-ups, the weak AI, terrible textures and random enemies being stuck in walls, stones, tress, and floating mid-air.  It's the frame rate issues, the sudden freezes and extended load times that deems Fallout: New Vegas for the Sony PS3 a "Recalled"

Topic Notes:
Total time spent playing FO:NV: 43 hours Level 21
I rent Fallout: New Vegas from one of the few Blockbuster's reminding in  the DC metro area.

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Nuclear Fallout, Bugs, Thugs and Glithes: 24hrs with Fallout: New Vegas

24hrs later, Fallout: New Vegas"America's first choice in Nuclear Simulation" for PS3 has made some positive strives over it's predecessor Fallout 3. But, and this is a strong "but" Fallout: New Vegas is still one ugly ass glitch filled mess at times. Fallout 3 for PS3 suffered from pop-ups, terrible textures, piss poor sound and the game freezes more than hobos in Alaska. I had to reset my game at "least 10 times" and that's no bull and not to mention totally unacceptable. (Finished Fallout 3 for Sony PS3 videogame console 3 weeks ago)

So far I've only had to reset my game in Fallout: NV once, which is still unacceptable in this day and age. There is one thing I have to get off my chest. It pisses me off that making a strong multiplatform game on PS3 and Xbox 360 seems to be the holy-grail of gaming.

 Things that has changes for the Good in Fallout: New Vegas

-There is actual environmental music that raise as the tension do.  This tends to help with the overall immersion. On the other hand, in Fallout 3, if you where not listening to GNR or any other station, the only thing you heard where footsteps in the dark. 

-Most of the side quest so far has something to do with the main story and do not just feel like tack on quest to help extend game play snd give you mundane shit to do..

-Fallout new universe is larger than the previous.  With about twice as much to find and explore.  The previous Fallout had a total of 100 location to find without any DLC.  Fallout: NV has a total of 150 new places to discover.

-Fallout : NV story seems better so far, there happens to be a little more intrigue.  You start Fallout: NV as a courier who was shot in the head and left in a hollow grave to die.  But guess what? You did not die and now it's time to find the nasty son of a bitch that did you dirty.

-The voice acting is slightly better not saying that the voice acting in Fallout 3 was any good.  There seems to be more of an Shakespearean effort this time around. 

-They are ton's of side-quest to complete and it will take you far longer to level up to the max this time around.. The previous Fallout, I maxed out my XP about 85% into the game and that somewhat slighted my experience towards the end(not to mention the ending of Fallout 3 was the worst). 


Thing that makes me say WTF?!? in Fallout: New Vegas



please note: there is no sex with scorpions in Fallout: NV

-The Geck engine that Bethesda/Obsidian  is a very dated engine and that shit needs to be retired.  It's 2010 and I know many publishers want to save money and use old tech to maximize their profits. But this game suffers bad on PS3. 

So bad at times I almost want to recommend not to buy it.

-The frame rate fucking suffers from the most painstaking shutter that makes you want to scream.  Not only does the game at time literally "Hiccup;s" it's slows down to almost a dead halt. The best way to explain it; is when you're walking "everywhere" the screen feels like it's loading the next section or level in real time with a slight delay. My first time at Crismon Cravan was the worst.  The game took about 8 mins to load the level.  Once the level was loaded the frame rate dropped to about 15FPS.  This was the fist place I had to reset my game. 

-Fallout 3 for PS3, for some strange reason love's to have your foes stuck in walls, stones, bridges pillars and sometimes in mid-air. Making them easy pickings.  Now believe it or not the same shit happens in "New Vegas" . This time around it is not as bad in Fallout: New Vegas, only counted three NPC glitches so far.  I was stuck in a wall(Vault 22) and behind a door without the ability to move. Again unacceptable, this is something I expect in 1999 on PS2 or Gamecube.  Come on people we are in the "future"

-I am not sure which game has the more retarded or highly uneducated enemies Bullet Witch or Fallout: New Vegas.  Enemy AI is completely absent-I guess Bethesda/Obsidian did not want to use any unnecessary processing power.  Enemy AI only knows to attack you head on.  There are no tactics, no sense of self preservation no challenge.

24hrs later, 9 total quest in and a level 10 Observer Fallout: New Vegas has made positive strides over it's predecessor.  But in my opinion this is a tough choice to say if you should buy this game. One of the main reason are the technical failures of Fallout: NV using the Geck game engine.  It is so bad on the PS3 it's fucking sad almost comical. 

"A PATCH!!!!!!"Fuck a patch(unless you are trying to quit smoking).  There should not be a patch for a game( less than two weeks later) that has received this much hype and attention from an established developer. Xbox 360 owners have seen a patch on the behalf of PS3 owners we have not "this game still feels broken almost in worst shape".  

Last Word: What kills me my PS3 can run Uncharted 2, Killzone 3 in 3D and Infamous just to name a few.  But for some because of the "the financial bottom line" my PS3 cannot run Fallout: New Vegas in a technical sound manner.  Fallout: New Vegas chugs slower than a one legged fat lady, racing a marathon with a barrel of molasses. If you own a Xbox 360 buy it, it has to be better than the PS3 version.  If you own a PS3 please wait until all the "TechFails" are worked out.

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