Oh PSN, Where for art thou PSN?

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It’s been nearly a month since PSN was hacked and taken offline. SOE has stated, that PSN as well as their other MMORPGs, will remain down, until they are confident that this does not happen again, and of course people are complaining about it left and right.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t enjoy the outage anymore than you. I do however understand the need for, and realise that the world doesn’t revolve around me and my gaming needs. I would like to hop on to PSN and play a little Black-Ops, I would like to Download the next chapter of the episodic Back to the Future Game and I would like to play EQ2. However, I also would like my information secured, and I believe that takes priority.

Many people however don’t feel that way. Whiners and cry babies, who are fed up with the online outage are trading their PS3s in for an Xbox 360. Smart move? Not really, I mean the system hasn’t even been down a full month, and while it is frustrating, if it’s a system you enjoy, then just wait it out.

This may come as a shock to some gamers, but there are games that can be played offline. Even the games you play online, probably has a single player campaign mode. So play it to hold you over, get better at the game. If all else fails, pick up a book and have a read. That’s what people used to do once upon a time.

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Foundry goes live!

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The foundry has finally gone live on the holodeck server of Star Trek Online. For those not in the know, the foundry allows its users to creat and play User Created Missions, or more commonly referred to as User Generated Content(UGC). The Foundry has been available for beta testing on the Star Trek Online Tribble server for a while, however it’s now finished and on the main live server, so that everyone can make all their star trek stories and ideas come to life.

Why is this such a big deal? because it increases the content of Star Trek Online, by leaps and bounds. Their will be new missions added, not just weekly but daily! Will the missions be any good though? Well, if you ask any sci-fi geek, he will tell you that star trek fans are one of the most creative groups of people you will find. So, yes! The UGC has high potential for some fantastic missions and stories. In fact, even though The Foundry has been out but for a few days, there are already a few good stories out! Don’t believe me? Check out to Helna and Back, Deep Space 11 and Dissent Part I: Walking in the Air. These are but a few of the already great stories published in just a couple of days.

Granted, at the moment, most of the stories aren’t high quality, however that’s because people are learning the tools and creating basic missions in order to get a feel for things. When they do however, the great missions will come pouring in!

This also means that there will be more missions available for the Klingon faction. As most STO players are aware, the Klingons have been largely ignored in terms of missions, quests and klingon exclusive storylines, because they were intended to be used mainly for PVP, however now the users and players have a chance to change all that, since they themselves can begin making content for the klingon faction.

Basically, the Foundry has some huge potential and I am very excited to see where all this leads.

Back to the Future: The Game

Cover of Back to the Future

When I was a small little tyke, there were several movies I loved. These movies included such classics as Ghostbusters and of course Gremlins, however it also included the greatest time traveling movie ever written: Back to the Future. Not familiar with it? If you haven’t seen Back to the Future, then I really do feel sorry for you, because you are missing out on a major modernish movie classic!

However, the point of this blog post is not to sing the praises of such a glorious film, although it truly does deserve a song of glory! No, the point of this post is to talk about “Back to the Future: The Game“! Obviously, as you can tell by the title, the game is based on the Back to the Future film series. It takes place about 6 months after the events of the third film, and let’s you control Marty McFly in this time traveling jaunt through the chronosphere.

The game is a blast, though in all fairness, may not be appealing to everyone. It’s an inventory based adventure game, meaning if you despised games like Sam & Max or Sierra Games titles like Space Quest, Police Quest or Kings Quest, then chances are you will not appreciate this game. If however, you do like those types of games, then you are definitely in for a treat!

Back to the Future: The Game, is brought to you by TellTale games, and like its previous Sam & Max and Monkey Island titles, it too is episodic, meaning you will get to play once chapter a month, for 5 months. This will allow you to take your time, and not rush through the game. Savor the puzzles and enjoy the unfolding story.

The voice acting in the game is fantastic, especially the guy who does the voice of Marty McFly! He sounds exactly like Michael J. Fox! In fact, he may sound more like Michael J. Fox, than Michael J. Fox!

Also, Christopher Lloyd returns, and uses his voice to reprise his role as Doctor Emmet Brown!

The game is available on both PC and PS3 (Through PSN), so pick your platform of choice, and sit back, and play this marvelous game!

A farewell to mygamercard.net

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MyGamercard.net was a webservice that allowed you to create an Xbox 360 Gamercard, to proudly display on your website or blog. I used it, as did many other gaming bloggers. Unfortunately, the website shut it’s doors, and left many without a gamercard badge to show of on their website.

However, after looking around the web, I found a service that fits me perfetly, and it might fit you as well. The website is called ZaamIT, and too, allows you to create a gamercard for your blog! In fact, I am using it now.

True, the styles are limited, but they are unique, and I believe that there is a style that will fit most everyone! So, if you are one of the people who found yourself out in the cold, you should at least check this service out. You might find yourself surprised.

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Television does not = Reality

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You know what cracks me up? People who see something on TV and think, because the boob-tube told them so, it must be fact. Take for instance those television commercials for World of Warcraft, where they have a celebrity, most notably Mr. T and William Shatner, talking about the game. People see these ads, and automatically assume these ACTORS play the game.

Now, personally, I have no idea if they play WoW or not, however I have trouble imagining William Shatnet sitting down at his computer with a bottle of Mountain Dew and gearing up for a weekend raid. I however do know that people in commercials and Movies and TV shows are ACTORS, unless it’s stated otherwise, and an ACTORs job is to ACT a certain way.

For those of you who might be slightly dense, ACTING is basically pretending. ACTORS get paid to pretend, so just because Mr. T and William Shatner are ACTING on a WoW commercial, does not automatically mean they play WoW, or even that they play video games at all!

Keep in mind, Mr. T also acted as a mercenary in the A-Team television series, but I doubt if you paid him a few bucks, that he would travel to some south american country, and rescue your friend or family member from a dictator.

Just sayin’.

Pirates of the Burning Sea

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Recently there has been a whole slew of Pay-to-play MMORPGs turning to the Free-to-play market, One of the more recent titles to adopt this change is an MMORPG called Pirates of the Burning Sea. Since this game turned Free-to-Play, naturally I downloaded it and checked it out.

Right from the get-go, it’s obvious how much work was put into this game, the visuals are stunning and the audio is perfect. The basic controls of the game leave much to be desired however, and the writing is very poor.

All in all, the game just didn’t appeal to me on any basic level. I didn’t feel sucked into my role as pirate captain, and the story arcs all seemed boring and repetitive.

I am not saying the game’s horrible, just that it didn’t work for me. Perhaps it’s due to the fact that I am not, nor have I ever been a huge fan of traditional pirate tales. The only pirate movies I have ever seen are the Sinbad movies, Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy and a few pippy longstocking flicks, and I seriously doubt any of those count as real pirate movies.

As you can tell, most of my pirate knowledge comes from Fantasy type pirate tales, whereas PotBS deals with traditional historic pirates. You won’t find yourself battling skeleton crews or krakens, but what you will find yourself fighting is captains of other ships. Over and over and over again. If you love pirate tales, this might be for you, but it certainly wasn’t for me.

To Console or not to console

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Sony Online Entertainment recently released DC Universe Online. The game was released on both PC and PS3, and though they are on both platforms, they aren’t cross-platform. Meaning, PS3 users will only be playing with PS3 subscribers, and PC players will only be playing with PC subscribers.

Before the game was even released, PC gamers were whining and complaining about it. Mainly they were bitching and moaning about the game being released on the Playstation 3. They believe that MMORPGs don’t belong on consoles. They feel that MMORPGs should remain on computers. Personally, I disagree. I believe that MMORPGs can work very well on consoles if done right. I believe people who whine about MMORPGs being on consoles simply want the game genre they prefer to be on their gaming platform of choice. Basically, they want to hold the MMORPG genre over the head of consoles gamers and brag about what they have that the console gamers don’t. They basically just want to feel superior.

In all actuality, MMORPGs play quite well on consoles. EverQuest Online Adventures proved that 7 years ago. It’s still running with a healthy community even today. Granted, EQOA was a console exclusive MMORPG, so it was designed for Console controls, but it still showed that an MMORPG could work on a console, even a subscription based one.

Granted, Final Fantasy 11 on consoles didn’t turn out that well, but in all fairness, the game wasn’t even that great on the PC! So, it’s not overly surprising tha the console release turned out abysmal. In fact, it pretty much killed MMORPGs on consoles. After that, nobody really had the balls to do it again.

Until recently, with the release of DCUO of course. The end result? Smooth as silk! A perfect console MMORPG. I have bought it on both the PS3 as well as the PC and am pleased completely with both releases, although to be fair, I prefer the console version over the PC release, and spend more time playing it.

Granted, I am not saying EVERY game would work on a console. However some games would play just fine on a consoles! Games like Star Trek Online and Champions online. Even Dungeons and Dragons online with a little fiddling would play well on a console.

in fact Champions online, even allows use of the Xbox 360 PC gamepad, and when I play CO, I rarely ever use the keyboard or mouse. It just plays so much better with a gamepad!

Games like EverQuest or World of Warcraft though? I don’t believe they would play well on a console. However, I have heard of people who play WOW using an XBOX 360 PC controller, and a third-party program called Xpadder that allows you to play any game with a gamepad. In fact, there are some vids on youtube of people doing this. However, it looks complicated to set up, and even more complicated to play.

Games in desperate need of a remake

It’s a new year, and already game companies are hard at work, planning that next epic video game blockbuster. A few will succeed, many will become abysmal failures. Which is why I think game designers should borrow a page from the movie industry, and remake some already loved titles.

A few game companies have already done this. Both Turtles in Time and a Boy and his Blob have been remade, and in both cases, I honestly feel the remakes are superior to the originals. So, why not continue down this path, and introduce classic outdated games, to a new generation of gamers on a new generation of consoles!

Here is my top 10 games that I would love to see remade on the PS3 or the Xbox 360.

1. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City – Grand Theft Auto set in the 80’s! It doesn’t get much cooler than that! When the game came out however, I wasn’t into Grand Theft Auto that much. Sure, the idea was appealing, but the controls were clunky and everything just seemed so awkward. In fact, when GTA IV came out, I almost didn’t try it out. I am glad that I did though, since the controls were much smoother and everything just seemed “Right”. So, I would love to see the Grand Theft Auto III Trilogy, remade for todays consoles with richer graphics and smoother controls.  If not the whole trilogy, definitely Vice City!

2. Final Fantasy 7 – Fans of this game and of Final Fantasy in general have been screaming for a remake of this game for as long as I can remember. To be honest, I haven’t a clue why one hasn’t made it out yet?

3. Y’s Books 1 & 2 – Y’s originally got me into RPGs, so it should come as no surprise that I would love to see a remake of these 2 games. Now, to be fair there is a remake on the Nintendo DS from what I hear, and it’s pretty kick ass. I also heard the remake is making its way to the PSP as well, but that doesn’t really do me any good! Bring it on over as a PS3 title as a PSN  Market purchase, or on the Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade! Do it!

4. Deja Vu – Deja Vu is an inventory based point and click adventure game. The basic premise is that you are a private investigator who wakes up in a bathroom stall with no memory. You need to investigate yourself, and find out what the hell is going on.

Now, point and click adventure titles haven’t been a huge hit on consoles, but recently with titles like Sam & Max and Monkey Island that has started to change. I think in todays market, a remake of Deja Vu would go over quite well.

5. Jazz Jackrabbit – I’m not sure how many of you are familiar with Jazz Jack Rabbit. This wasn’t a game available on console, it was a PC platformer game, and to be honest was much more enjoyable than the sonic and Mario games that were available at the same time.

I would love to play Jazz Jackrabbit again, with newer enhanced graphics and best of all on a console!

6. Knights of the Old Republic – This is the first Star Wars game that I actually enjoyed. More than enjoyed; Loved! This was one of the first free-form RPGs that I ever played as well. To me, choosing if I wanted to be good or evil in an RPG was totally unfamiliar, but highly enjoyable. It increased the replay value, because it could be played with multiple outcomes.

Why does this game need a console remake? Well, the graphics are highly outdated, plus while you can play the Xbox version of KOTOR on your 360, it is very jerky and damn near unplayable.

7. Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind – Let’s face it Morrowind is about a million times better in story and complexity than the sequel Oblivion. Sure, Oblivion has better graphics, but in the end, I would still prefer playing Morrowind. What would be even better than playing Morrowind though, is Playing Morrowind remade! Imagine, the story and complexity of Morrowind, played on the same engine that Oblivion uses? Pure heaven!

8. Freedom Fighters – The storyline was great although the graphics, while excellent at the time, are highly outdated. This would be an excellent game to be remade into todays gaming market. With titles like S.T.A.L.K.E.R., HomeFront and Metro 2033 making the scene, Freedom Fighters would fit right in.

9. Parasite Eve – When you say SquareSoft, you no doubt think about Final Fantasy. However Final Fantasy isn’t their only epic adventure. In fact, the Parasite Eve series was in my opinion their best game series, though it didn’t pick up as much steam as Final Fantasy.

Basically, Parasite Eve Take place in a modern-day setting, and blends survival Horror game elements with classic RPG elements, and creates something extraordinary. A unique gaming experience, that may very well have been ahead of its time. Re-introduce it to todays horror loving gamers, and you have a surefire hit on your hands.

10. The Realm Online – The only game on this list, that I wouldn’t want to see on a console. Mainly because it’s an MMORPG that wouldn’t port to console play very well. However, it is in desperate need of a make-over. Why? Well, because The Realm Online is special, that’s why! It’s the first Internet-based MMORPG, and it still exists and is still running today! The graphics are severely outdated however, and looks exactly as it did the day it was released.

The game is basically the Grand-daddy of Everquest and Ultima Online, and even World of Warcraft. Many of the elements you find in your favorite MMORPG, began in The Realm! Everything from Trade Windows to PVP.

Wil Wheaton – The Boy Wonder?

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I just discovered that Richard William Wheaton III, or as he is more commonly known as, Wil Wheaton, has a voice appearance in the soon to be released game DC Universe Online, and for those keeping track the release date for the game has been moved up, and is now due out january 11th.

Wil Wheaton, who is better known for his role as Wesley Crusher on the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, is not unfamiliar with voice acting in games. He has lent his voice to many of the grand theft auto games, Fallout: New Vegas and has even voiced characters in EverQuest II. So, it’s not hugely surprising to see him voicing a character in yet another SOE MMORPG.

What I do find amusing is the character that he is voicing. Robin, the annoying kid sidekick of Batman. I find it Ironic, that the actor who portrayed the annoying kid sidekick on ST:TNG is no trading in his pips for a cape, but retaining the annoying kid sidekick role. I had thought him above that!

To be fair, his newer roles are usually anything but annoying kid sidekicks. In fact, he tends to portray a villain these days, and he does it quite well! In the series Leverage, he plays a villainous hacker, and in The Big Bang Theory he plays — Well, he plays himself but an viler version of himself. In The Guild he plays Fawkes which actually reminds me of his same character on Big Bang.

All that considering, I find it surprising he is playing Robin. My first choice for him would have been The Blue Beetle, since that was his role on the Series Batman: The Brave and the Bold. However, my second choice for him would have been The Calculator, villainous and Geeky. Nothing says modern-day Wil Wheaton better than that!

Set Phasers to Stunning!

Cryptic today went live on their holodeck server, with a patch for Star Trek Online. This is the 3rd major free content update, and includes many new graphical changes, as well as sets the stage for the soon to come release of the foundry, which will allow users to create their own missions to play.

In terms of graphical changes, the biggest change would have to be for sector space. It’s been totally revamped, to give it a more realistic and expansive feel! Before this update, space didn’t have that Star Trek feel, and didn’t look real at all. Now though, not only does space take on realistic features, but stars fly past you as you zip through the cosmos at warp speeds.

How much of a difference to graphics are we talking here? Well, a picture is worth a thousand words.