Merry Christmas everyone! Well I have had a very nice Christmas - for some reason, today of all days, the crazy guys at Pallika agreed to swap three old games for three new ones for just Rs. 900/- (I swapped out Assassin's Creed, The Darkness and Devil May Cry 4 for Siren: Blood Curses, Dead Space and Ninja Gaiden Sigma)
I am planning to buy an XBox sometime, but with the new Jasper motherboards just out, having 256 MB of onboard storage and a much lower power usage, buying the old 20/40 GB Falcon (or god forbid is it Zephyr?) model XBoxes that Pallika people are selling right now seems like a bad idea. Also, the ones they are selling dont have NXE installed on them. NXE allows XBox games to be fully installed to HDD. Here is a list of the advantages this brings to some games and how much space is required. This does mean I will lose out on M$'s "Buy an XBox Live Gold membership before Jan 1, get a free game" offer... BTW, did you know the 360 can write its own blog?
Square has released a (not) Final Fantasy game for the iPhone - Crystal Defenders, basically a tower defense game with characters from different FF games in place of actual towers. Its ok if you like that kind of game, not for me though (definitely not at 8 USD). Not that there is a dearth of good games on the iPhone.
I stumbled upon an Indian gaming community recently; its really nice to see fellow desis talk about gaming :) Also, Nokia's N-Gage platform seems to have somehow produced a winner - Reset Generation (also playable in-browser for free) Alas - there is no N-Gage on the 5800
My office is shut down till the 5th, so I will probably have a lot of free time on my hands :) I am off to Dharamsala in early Jan, will probably go to some places nearby/in Delhi before that.
Update 12/26/2008 - Kotaku has just released (via MTV. via Metacritic) the 10 best and worst games of 2008. In a strange dichotomy, 7 of the best games are Playstation games (but not exclusives) and 7 of the worst games are Wii exclusives (ya, I know its wrong to club PS2/PS3/PSP and not club Wii and DS, but hey - this is not a ranking :) )
Showing posts with label ps3. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ps3. Show all posts
Friday, December 26, 2008
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Sony Shares Drop - Outlook Bleak
Looks like the fallout from Sony's November sales figures is not yet done. CNN Money out saying that the PS3 and Blu-Ray are a sinking ship. This was followed by Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank lowering Sony's rating, causing a drop in shares. Sony is going to lay off approximately 16000 employees this year, 8000 regular staffers and 8000 contractors and part time. While some news outlets did support Sony, overall outlook looks bleak.
The PS3 has been something of a tragedy for Sony - managing to wipe out its dominance of the gaming console market and severely eroding consumer confidence in the company. A look at the comments here on this same news item is indicative of people's mood towards the company.
I myself am a RPG gamer. Considering the PlayStation brand's traditional strength in RPGs, I bought a PS3 and faced a continous string of disappointments. In the end exclusives sell consoles; the PS3 seems to excel at losing them. What's even more disturbing is that when Sony does release exclusives, even high profile ones, the sales are disappointing. Sony seems to have lost the will to succeed; they need to overcome this hubris and get their act together.
I recently bought a couple of games from retailers outside India and had them shipped in - Valkyria Chronicles from ShopTo.net and Disgaea 3 from Play-Asia.com. Amazingly, it was cheaper to buy them from abroad than to buy them in India. Sellers on EBay sell them for as much as Rs 4000 each while you can get them from UK/Hong Kong for around Rs 2500 each. The experience wasnt very smooth - ShopTo delivered the game in 7 days while Play-Asia lived up to the notoriety it has earned of late and took 21 days for delivery.
When you buy a PS3 the Pallika bazaar people will tell you that you can swap a game for Rs 500. When you go to swap it, they will say your game has fallen in value while the new one costs Rs 4000 and ask for Rs 3000 to swap a game that can be shipped form UK for Rs. 2500
Sony provides lackluster support, refuses to repair imported consoles and doesnt bring most games to India at all. There is no Indian PSN store and due to Sony's agreements with MPAA they continue to make it nearly impossible for people to buy games from other region PSN stores while giving ridiculous excuses such as that internet speed in India is too low.
If you go to buy a Blu Ray movie, you will soon realise that Blu Ray movies are region coded and the PS3 is also region locked for movies. Meaning if you buy a Blu Ray movie in India, it will not play on your imported console. Of course, with the Blu Ray of the Dark Knight costing thrice as much as the DVD, I am not sure why I would buy it in the first place. DVDs look good enough on my 32 inch LCD; I am sure many other people feel the same - ergo Blu Ray's lackluster sales.
I strongly advise people to stay away from PS3 if you live in India. Meanwhile I have been told that I can sell the PS3 back in Pallika for 12k. I am tempted to do that, lets see... I am defnintely buying an Xbox soon...
The PS3 has been something of a tragedy for Sony - managing to wipe out its dominance of the gaming console market and severely eroding consumer confidence in the company. A look at the comments here on this same news item is indicative of people's mood towards the company.
I myself am a RPG gamer. Considering the PlayStation brand's traditional strength in RPGs, I bought a PS3 and faced a continous string of disappointments. In the end exclusives sell consoles; the PS3 seems to excel at losing them. What's even more disturbing is that when Sony does release exclusives, even high profile ones, the sales are disappointing. Sony seems to have lost the will to succeed; they need to overcome this hubris and get their act together.
I recently bought a couple of games from retailers outside India and had them shipped in - Valkyria Chronicles from ShopTo.net and Disgaea 3 from Play-Asia.com. Amazingly, it was cheaper to buy them from abroad than to buy them in India. Sellers on EBay sell them for as much as Rs 4000 each while you can get them from UK/Hong Kong for around Rs 2500 each. The experience wasnt very smooth - ShopTo delivered the game in 7 days while Play-Asia lived up to the notoriety it has earned of late and took 21 days for delivery.
When you buy a PS3 the Pallika bazaar people will tell you that you can swap a game for Rs 500. When you go to swap it, they will say your game has fallen in value while the new one costs Rs 4000 and ask for Rs 3000 to swap a game that can be shipped form UK for Rs. 2500
Sony provides lackluster support, refuses to repair imported consoles and doesnt bring most games to India at all. There is no Indian PSN store and due to Sony's agreements with MPAA they continue to make it nearly impossible for people to buy games from other region PSN stores while giving ridiculous excuses such as that internet speed in India is too low.
If you go to buy a Blu Ray movie, you will soon realise that Blu Ray movies are region coded and the PS3 is also region locked for movies. Meaning if you buy a Blu Ray movie in India, it will not play on your imported console. Of course, with the Blu Ray of the Dark Knight costing thrice as much as the DVD, I am not sure why I would buy it in the first place. DVDs look good enough on my 32 inch LCD; I am sure many other people feel the same - ergo Blu Ray's lackluster sales.
I strongly advise people to stay away from PS3 if you live in India. Meanwhile I have been told that I can sell the PS3 back in Pallika for 12k. I am tempted to do that, lets see... I am defnintely buying an Xbox soon...
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Configuring port forwarding for your PS3
I have a WRT54g v7 and using it with a PS3 is a pain - the router restarts every time you show the XMB, exit a game or for just about any other reason. The only solution is to disable UPnP; since the PS3 needs incoming connections on certain ports, this seems to cause some probems for it. Until recently, I used a horrible ISP that had a transparent proxy in front of my internet connection - meaning I couldnt get any incoming connections in the first place. Also, I use the excellent Ps3 Proxy Server to download games/demos to my computer and then install them on the PS3 via the LAN; till date I have yet to run into any problems with the PS3's network connection
Now however, I have switched to Airtel Broadband, which means, port forwarding is actually useful. So I made my Wireless Router a DMZ machine in the ADSL modem. Then I decided to find out the ports that PS3 needs.
The list is massive and seemingly publisher dependent.
These should work, either that or I put the PS3 in a DMZ on my Wireless router.
BTW, do you know those Airtel ADSL modems are running Linux and you can telnet into them? Also, its surprisingly easy to spoof your MAC address on Windows, meaning you shouldnt rely on MAC filtering for security. The registry hack BTW, (HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}) works even on devices which seeming dont expose the MAC spoofing option...
Now however, I have switched to Airtel Broadband, which means, port forwarding is actually useful. So I made my Wireless Router a DMZ machine in the ADSL modem. Then I decided to find out the ports that PS3 needs.
The list is massive and seemingly publisher dependent.
All games published by Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA)may use the following ports for communication with the game servers:
• TCP Ports: 80, 443, 5223, and 10070 - 10080
• UDP Ports: 3478, 3479, 3658, and 10070
For the PLAYSTATION®Network:
• TCP Ports: 80, 443, 5223
• UDP Ports: 3478, 3479, 3658
PLAYSTATION®3 Remote Play (via the Internet) requires:
• If the router in use supports UPnP, enable the router’s UPnP function.
• If the router does not support UPnP, you must set the router’s port forwarding to allow communications to the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system from the Internet.
• The port number that is used by remote play is TCP Port: 9293
For headset operation, such as USB or BluetoothTM headsets:
SOCOM and SOCOM II U.S. Navy SEALs, along with some other 1st party online sports titles require the following ports for voice chat:
• UDP Ports: 6000 - 6999, 10070
SOCOM 3: U.S. Navy SEALs requires the following ports:
• TCP Port: 80
• UDP Ports: 6000 - 7000, 50000
Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain uses the following port to connect to the game server:
• TCP Port: 3658
PlayOnline and Final Fantasy XI uses the following ports for various functions:
• TCP Ports: 25, 80, 110, 443, and 50000 - 65535
• UDP Ports: 50000 - 65535
Note: Please make sure to enable these TCP/UDP ports in BOTH directions.
Jeez! Port 80 AND 443 incoming? What are you guys doing? One guy on the internet recommended his internet settings• TCP Ports: 80, 443, 5223, and 10070 - 10080
• UDP Ports: 3478, 3479, 3658, and 10070
For the PLAYSTATION®Network:
• TCP Ports: 80, 443, 5223
• UDP Ports: 3478, 3479, 3658
PLAYSTATION®3 Remote Play (via the Internet) requires:
• If the router in use supports UPnP, enable the router’s UPnP function.
• If the router does not support UPnP, you must set the router’s port forwarding to allow communications to the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system from the Internet.
• The port number that is used by remote play is TCP Port: 9293
For headset operation, such as USB or BluetoothTM headsets:
SOCOM and SOCOM II U.S. Navy SEALs, along with some other 1st party online sports titles require the following ports for voice chat:
• UDP Ports: 6000 - 6999, 10070
SOCOM 3: U.S. Navy SEALs requires the following ports:
• TCP Port: 80
• UDP Ports: 6000 - 7000, 50000
Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain uses the following port to connect to the game server:
• TCP Port: 3658
PlayOnline and Final Fantasy XI uses the following ports for various functions:
• TCP Ports: 25, 80, 110, 443, and 50000 - 65535
• UDP Ports: 50000 - 65535
Note: Please make sure to enable these TCP/UDP ports in BOTH directions.
These should work, either that or I put the PS3 in a DMZ on my Wireless router.
BTW, do you know those Airtel ADSL modems are running Linux and you can telnet into them? Also, its surprisingly easy to spoof your MAC address on Windows, meaning you shouldnt rely on MAC filtering for security. The registry hack BTW, (HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}) works even on devices which seeming dont expose the MAC spoofing option...
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Sony on PS3 - We have to think of shareholders not customers
Wow... Just wow... I am left speechless with this one...
Why No PS3 Holiday Price Cut? Sony Running A Business, Thinking of Shareholders
"Well the pressure comes from the consumers obviously and so therefore there's always pressure on price, but you know we have a business to run, and we have to make sure we're doing the right thing for the shareholders as well... At the moment there's a marketplace for PS3 and I think for this particular Christmas, with the kind of quality of games we're seeing coming out this Christmas, I don't think the price of the console is going to be an issue at all."
Well... I always thought normal business sense says you should think of customers, but of course, Sony is special. (This started my ranting, BTW) With the economy in the state it is, I doubt Sony will be beating even the Xbox this christmas... They seem to have totally given up now...
In other news, I just updated my PS3 to firmware 2.50. I also got my first trophy and if you see my portable ID, you can ... oh wait you cant... forget it.
Why No PS3 Holiday Price Cut? Sony Running A Business, Thinking of Shareholders
"Well the pressure comes from the consumers obviously and so therefore there's always pressure on price, but you know we have a business to run, and we have to make sure we're doing the right thing for the shareholders as well... At the moment there's a marketplace for PS3 and I think for this particular Christmas, with the kind of quality of games we're seeing coming out this Christmas, I don't think the price of the console is going to be an issue at all."
Well... I always thought normal business sense says you should think of customers, but of course, Sony is special. (This started my ranting, BTW) With the economy in the state it is, I doubt Sony will be beating even the Xbox this christmas... They seem to have totally given up now...
In other news, I just updated my PS3 to firmware 2.50. I also got my first trophy and if you see my portable ID, you can ... oh wait you cant... forget it.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Xbox India Buying Guide
The Rs. 14990/- Xbox offer is finally on. For this, you get a Xbox 360 Core and 2 free games - Viva Pinata and Forza Motorsport. Since the import duty on consoles in India is 33% - 50%, it seems M$ is getting rid of the old backlog stock and setting the stage for introducing the Arcade version in India ($200 + 50% ~ Rs. 14,500/- at current rates) to replace Core which has been discontinued all over the rest of the world.
I went out this weekend to buy an Xbox and came back empty handed. The deal breaker was the hard disk. The cheaper version (Core - Rs. 15k) doesn't have it and I was not mentally prepared to buy the more expensive version (Premium - Rs. 24k) considering its price. So why exactly do we need a Xbox hard disk?
Firstly, the upcoming New Xbox Experience will require at least 128 MB of storage space, meaning the 64 MB memory cards currently being sold will not be enough to even support the update. On the other hand, the price of a 256 MB memory card (which is not even sold in India) is I am sure going to be quite high enough that it would better if you bought the hard disk model, considering the other free stuff that comes with it. (64 MB sells for Rs. 2k+ and 20 GB HDD for 6k+)
Secondly, Microsoft themselves have a list put up which (indirectly) shows the advantages of a hard disk. In a nutshell, you need storage for:
Additionally, right now there is a hilarious situation with several retailers where they have Core consoles but no memory cards - meaning if you take the console home, you cant save games on it! I asked one dealer (EZone at Hometown in Great India Place, Noida) about this and he says, "yes sir, you cannot turn off the power"...
In fact, even the Pro versions currently being sold in India do not have an HDMI port, so they are still selling the older motherboards here - not surprising considering the pathetic sales here :) If you see try to call the official Xbox dealer list (for India), half of them have stopped selling Xbox anymore...
Yet if you go to Palika Bazaar, you can see Xboxes (and games) being sold left and right. I dont know what %age of them are modchipped, but considering that the modchipped version is cheaper and does have the HDMI port, I imagine its quite high. Its an interesting quandary where the console grey market is concerned for Xbox and PS3. PS3 has no modchip, so there is little other than immediate gain in buying a grey market piece. Xbox does have a modchip but the thingie fails so frequently that you would be insance to get one without a warranty. Although, grey market dealers do claim they can repair both PS3 and Xbox :)
Overall, my advice, if you are willing to take a bit of risk, the grey market one is a good option. Buy it soon before the Rupee falls against the Dollar any more. If you want an original one, wait a while till the Arcade version and the Pro ones with the new motherboards (with HDMI ports) are launched. The value for money is much more with that...
On the PS3 front, here's something interesting - Sony which was earlier claiming that PS3 will have a 10 year life span, is now seemingly getting prepared to throw in the towel for this generation and launch the PS4 in 2011. Also, another website has published an analysis of the RPG situation for PS3 vis-a-vis Xbox so I am definitely not the only one facing this issue :)
I went out this weekend to buy an Xbox and came back empty handed. The deal breaker was the hard disk. The cheaper version (Core - Rs. 15k) doesn't have it and I was not mentally prepared to buy the more expensive version (Premium - Rs. 24k) considering its price. So why exactly do we need a Xbox hard disk?
Firstly, the upcoming New Xbox Experience will require at least 128 MB of storage space, meaning the 64 MB memory cards currently being sold will not be enough to even support the update. On the other hand, the price of a 256 MB memory card (which is not even sold in India) is I am sure going to be quite high enough that it would better if you bought the hard disk model, considering the other free stuff that comes with it. (64 MB sells for Rs. 2k+ and 20 GB HDD for 6k+)
Secondly, Microsoft themselves have a list put up which (indirectly) shows the advantages of a hard disk. In a nutshell, you need storage for:
- Saving games :)
- Play original Xbox games (needs HDD - not Memory Card)
- Saving media, music, downloaded games etc to the console
- Play online with Xbox Live - Gold or Silver
- Voice chat etc
Additionally, right now there is a hilarious situation with several retailers where they have Core consoles but no memory cards - meaning if you take the console home, you cant save games on it! I asked one dealer (EZone at Hometown in Great India Place, Noida) about this and he says, "yes sir, you cannot turn off the power"...
In fact, even the Pro versions currently being sold in India do not have an HDMI port, so they are still selling the older motherboards here - not surprising considering the pathetic sales here :) If you see try to call the official Xbox dealer list (for India), half of them have stopped selling Xbox anymore...
Yet if you go to Palika Bazaar, you can see Xboxes (and games) being sold left and right. I dont know what %age of them are modchipped, but considering that the modchipped version is cheaper and does have the HDMI port, I imagine its quite high. Its an interesting quandary where the console grey market is concerned for Xbox and PS3. PS3 has no modchip, so there is little other than immediate gain in buying a grey market piece. Xbox does have a modchip but the thingie fails so frequently that you would be insance to get one without a warranty. Although, grey market dealers do claim they can repair both PS3 and Xbox :)
Overall, my advice, if you are willing to take a bit of risk, the grey market one is a good option. Buy it soon before the Rupee falls against the Dollar any more. If you want an original one, wait a while till the Arcade version and the Pro ones with the new motherboards (with HDMI ports) are launched. The value for money is much more with that...
On the PS3 front, here's something interesting - Sony which was earlier claiming that PS3 will have a 10 year life span, is now seemingly getting prepared to throw in the towel for this generation and launch the PS4 in 2011. Also, another website has published an analysis of the RPG situation for PS3 vis-a-vis Xbox so I am definitely not the only one facing this issue :)
Sunday, September 28, 2008
PS3 vs Xbox 360 - The RPG Shootout
Wow... Its been a month since my last post. I have had a busy month at work, and went to Jim Corbett National Park over one weekend (pix up soon, you can see some here)
In the meantime, Diwali is coming up and I am awaiting M$'s offers if any on the XBox 360. Meanwhile I have finished DMC 4 on my PS3 and having gotten a little annoyed with the all the action games which seem to be the only thing available for the system, decided to look a bit into the state of RPGs on the PS3
The result of this research is the table below. Sorted by release date, the table below shows both released and announced (i.e. yet to be released) RPG games color coded by console (information courtesy GameSpot - take the review scores with a pinch of salt accordingly). Green - PS3 exclusive. Red - XBox 360 Exclusive. Black - Both
The results are shocking - well maybe not so much.
PS3 Exclusives - 13 (14 - 1 : Cancelled)
XBox 360 Exclusives - 22
Non-Exclusive Games - 18 (20 - 2 : Oblivion Editions)
However, lets remove the list of TBA/Q? 200? games and CrossEdge, which is JP only. Now the results are even more telling. This means games with a definite release date by end of this year.
PS3 Exclusives - 2
XBox 360 Exclusives - 12
Non-Exclusive Games - 8 (10 - 2 : Oblivion Editions)
BTW, of the Non-Exclusive Games, Oblivion is listed thrice so I have reduced the number by 2. FF13 VS is currently a PS3 exclusive. How many people want to bet that the big news at E3 next year will be that FF13 VS is coming to XBox 360? Also worth noting is that many of the Non-Exclusive games were released much later on the PS3, some as long as a year later.
No wonder XBox 360 is outselling the PS3 even in Japan... Japan is traditionally an RPG market and even has its own genre - JRPG :) From an RPG gamer perspective, its perfectly clear which console you should be buying :) (Wow I feel good having bought the wrong one!)
p.s. Yes, I know the layout is too narrow. I am using rounders3, but I have customized it - a LOT. I will switch to rounders2 when I get some time!
In the meantime, Diwali is coming up and I am awaiting M$'s offers if any on the XBox 360. Meanwhile I have finished DMC 4 on my PS3 and having gotten a little annoyed with the all the action games which seem to be the only thing available for the system, decided to look a bit into the state of RPGs on the PS3
The result of this research is the table below. Sorted by release date, the table below shows both released and announced (i.e. yet to be released) RPG games color coded by console (information courtesy GameSpot - take the review scores with a pinch of salt accordingly). Green - PS3 exclusive. Red - XBox 360 Exclusive. Black - Both
| Title | Release Date | Score |
| The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion | 20-Mar-06 | 9.6 |
| Enchanted Arms | 29-Aug-06 | 7.1 |
| Marvel: Ultimate Alliance | 24-Oct-06 | 8.3 |
| Phantasy Star Universe | 25-Oct-06 | 6.8 |
| Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom | 13-Nov-06 | 6 |
| Diario: Rebirth Moon Legend | 8-Feb-07 | |
| The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles | 26-Mar-07 | 8.6 |
| Absolute: Blazing Infinity | 29-Mar-07 | |
| Two Worlds | 23-Aug-07 | 7 |
| Blue Dragon | 28-Aug-07 | 6 |
| The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - Game of the Year Edition | 10-Sep-07 | |
| Eternal Sonata | 17-Sep-07 | 8.5 |
| Mass Effect | 20-Nov-07 | 8.5 |
| Phantasy Star Universe: Ambition of the Illuminus | 20-Nov-07 | |
| Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom | 8-Jan-08 | 6 |
| Alpha Protocol | 9-Feb-08 | |
| Lost Odyssey | 12-Feb-08 | 7.5 |
| Tales of Vesperia | 26-Aug-08 | 8.5 |
| Infinite Undiscovery | 2-Sep-08 | 6.5 |
| Cross Edge | 25-Sep-08 | |
| Fable II | 21-Oct-08 | |
| Fallout 3 | 28-Oct-08 | |
| Sacred 2: Fallen Angel | 8-Nov | |
| Valkyria Chronicles | 11-Nov-08 | |
| The Last Remnant | 20-Nov-08 | |
| Monster Hunter 3 | Canceled | |
| Dragon Age: Origins | Q1 2009 | |
| Dungeon Hero | Q1 2009 | |
| Rise of the Argonauts | Q1 2009 | |
| Divinity 2 - Ego Draconis | Q2 2009 | |
| Two Worlds: The Temptation | Q2 2009 | |
| Dungeon Lords 2 (working title) | Q3 2009 | |
| Aliens RPG (working title) | TBA | |
| Angel Rings (working title) | TBA | |
| Big Huge Games RPG (working title) | TBA | |
| Bumpy Trot 2 | TBA | |
| Cry On | TBA | |
| Dark RPG (working title) | TBA | |
| Dungeon Explorer | TBA | |
| Elveon | TBA | |
| Far East of Eden Ziria | TBA | |
| Final Fantasy Versus XIII | TBA | |
| Magna Carta 2 | TBA | |
| Makai Wars (working title) | TBA | |
| Marvel Ultimate Alliance II: Fusion | TBA | |
| Mass Effect 2 (working title) | TBA | |
| Master Project (working title) | TBA | |
| Omikron 2 (working title) | TBA | |
| Project D | TBA | |
| Shin Megami Tensei (working title) | TBA | |
| The Lord of the Rings, The White Council | TBA | |
| Untitled Obsidian/Sega RPG | TBA | |
| White Knight Story | TBA 2008 | |
| Final Fantasy XIII | TBA 2009 | |
| Star Ocean: The Last Hope | TBA 2009 | |
| Venetica | TBA 2009 |
The results are shocking - well maybe not so much.
PS3 Exclusives - 13 (14 - 1 : Cancelled)
XBox 360 Exclusives - 22
Non-Exclusive Games - 18 (20 - 2 : Oblivion Editions)
However, lets remove the list of TBA/Q? 200? games and CrossEdge, which is JP only. Now the results are even more telling. This means games with a definite release date by end of this year.
PS3 Exclusives - 2
XBox 360 Exclusives - 12
Non-Exclusive Games - 8 (10 - 2 : Oblivion Editions)
BTW, of the Non-Exclusive Games, Oblivion is listed thrice so I have reduced the number by 2. FF13 VS is currently a PS3 exclusive. How many people want to bet that the big news at E3 next year will be that FF13 VS is coming to XBox 360? Also worth noting is that many of the Non-Exclusive games were released much later on the PS3, some as long as a year later.
No wonder XBox 360 is outselling the PS3 even in Japan... Japan is traditionally an RPG market and even has its own genre - JRPG :) From an RPG gamer perspective, its perfectly clear which console you should be buying :) (Wow I feel good having bought the wrong one!)
p.s. Yes, I know the layout is too narrow. I am using rounders3, but I have customized it - a LOT. I will switch to rounders2 when I get some time!
Friday, August 22, 2008
On a more Positive note
I have been accused of being very cynical lately, especially where the PS3 is concerned. So I am going to fill this post will all the GOOD stuff I know about the PS3.
First off - Ps3 gets an absolutely weird keyboard addon... (What IS that thing?)
Sony launches iTunes competitor for PS3 - er... region locked... Damn... try harder...
Here's how you can get into the Home beta - wait - US only... aaagh
Ok... generic stuff - 24 best PS3 games, 8 scariest games soming out this fall (most are ALSO on Ps3) - By the way, there is a really cool Flash version of The Last Guy that you can try out here
Here's something good...
Heavy Rain - Read Joystiq's breathless review and see a trailer here. This is the game that might redeem my decision to buy a PS3 - and I am not being cynical here. This game is by Quantic Dream - the same guys who gave us Indigo Prophecy (and if you havent played that, you have really missed something). And if you think I am kidding, see this video of The Casting tech demo
Well! That wasnt so bad :) Till the next rant then...
First off - Ps3 gets an absolutely weird keyboard addon... (What IS that thing?)
Sony launches iTunes competitor for PS3 - er... region locked... Damn... try harder...
Here's how you can get into the Home beta - wait - US only... aaagh
Ok... generic stuff - 24 best PS3 games, 8 scariest games soming out this fall (most are ALSO on Ps3) - By the way, there is a really cool Flash version of The Last Guy that you can try out here
Here's something good...
Heavy Rain - Read Joystiq's breathless review and see a trailer here. This is the game that might redeem my decision to buy a PS3 - and I am not being cynical here. This game is by Quantic Dream - the same guys who gave us Indigo Prophecy (and if you havent played that, you have really missed something). And if you think I am kidding, see this video of The Casting tech demo
Well! That wasnt so bad :) Till the next rant then...
Sunday, August 17, 2008
PS3 Home Access to be Region Locked
News is trickling in that access to PS3's Home service will be region locked to the console region and not the the PSN ID or IP address. The purported reason behind this decision is advertising: Home will be ad supported and Sony doesn't want say people in India seeing ads targeted towards people in UK. In the meantime, if you have friends in the US and want to hang out with them, you can wish those plans goodbye. Of course, this could also have been achieved by locking onto the user's IP address rather than the console region, but that hilights Sony's other fascination - the destruction of import hardware sales market. No one knows as yet why Sony is so obsessed with blocking the sale of imported hardware - after all, more hardware sales are better right? But no - Sony refuses to repair imported consoles, even if you are willing to pay for it, and is prepared to go to unusual lengths to use legal means to shut down import shops. No other video game company does this - filing suits against importers, although, even M$ will refuse to repair imported consoles. Of course, M$'s console is region locked, thus giving them a pseudo-valid reason to deny repairs. Plus, we have the notorious RROD and the associated lifetime warranty - I could see how M$ India would go nuts having to replace consoles bought in Europe that they didn't get a paisa for. None of these are however, issues we can ascribe to Sony's system.
Right now, considering the fact that Sony makes it easy to install Linux on their system and has no region coding, makes it easy to think of them as consumer-friendly. However, back in 2005, Sony caused a massive furor when it was realised they had a Patent (#6,816,972) on a technology to prevent people from reselling or even sharing games with their friends. The technology essentially involves writing information onto a game disc the first time it is inserted into a console, thus tying that disc to that console. Even the LA Times picked up the article, albeit two months late. Sony also planned to introduce a licensing model for games - wherein ownership of the disc itself would NOT give you the right to actually play the game.
What changed all that? The XBox 360 and the runaway success of the Nintendo Wii, thus relegating Sony to a miserable 3rd place in the console race. Considering the fact that Sony was launching its expensive ($600) system a year later than M$'s one and that the Wii with its revolutionary gameplay cost only $250, Sony was forced to put a halt to these plans, thus proving once again that competition is good for the consumer. But at heart, Sony remains the same litigitous organization that is part of MPAA and RIAA. Some of that shows with their fascination with hardware imports.
The upshot - well there is no upshot, just that my mood with regards to the PS3 stays just as somber...
In other news, PS3 fanboy is maintaining an updated list of trophy status of PS3 games here. And (the big one) a hacker claims that he is able to run backups from a PS3 hard disk. (But you need a 60GB HDD, possibly to store the blu-ray data). Update - more on that (including a video) here.
Right now, considering the fact that Sony makes it easy to install Linux on their system and has no region coding, makes it easy to think of them as consumer-friendly. However, back in 2005, Sony caused a massive furor when it was realised they had a Patent (#6,816,972) on a technology to prevent people from reselling or even sharing games with their friends. The technology essentially involves writing information onto a game disc the first time it is inserted into a console, thus tying that disc to that console. Even the LA Times picked up the article, albeit two months late. Sony also planned to introduce a licensing model for games - wherein ownership of the disc itself would NOT give you the right to actually play the game.
What changed all that? The XBox 360 and the runaway success of the Nintendo Wii, thus relegating Sony to a miserable 3rd place in the console race. Considering the fact that Sony was launching its expensive ($600) system a year later than M$'s one and that the Wii with its revolutionary gameplay cost only $250, Sony was forced to put a halt to these plans, thus proving once again that competition is good for the consumer. But at heart, Sony remains the same litigitous organization that is part of MPAA and RIAA. Some of that shows with their fascination with hardware imports.
The upshot - well there is no upshot, just that my mood with regards to the PS3 stays just as somber...
In other news, PS3 fanboy is maintaining an updated list of trophy status of PS3 games here. And (the big one) a hacker claims that he is able to run backups from a PS3 hard disk. (But you need a 60GB HDD, possibly to store the blu-ray data). Update - more on that (including a video) here.
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