PlayStation 3 Software Takes Top Spot on NPDs

Last month was a fantastic month for the PlayStation 3 and its software. The console managed to snag seven spots on the NPD top 20 software list, taking first place with (you guessed it) God of War III, which sold 1.1 million units. Sony also has the abundance of other triple A titles released in recent months, each with strong sales, such as Final Fantasy XIII, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, and Heavy Rain to name a few. With all of the quality software already released so early on in the year, and more to come (which we will be hearing about when E3 comes around), it’s easy to see that the PlayStation 3 is going to have an extraordinary year. I’m sure I speak for everyone when I say I just simply can’t wait to see what Sony has in store for the rest of 2010.

Source: NeoSeeker.com

Available at PS3 Vault view here.

Deal of The Day: Tony Hawk Ride $50

This week Tony Hawk Ride, the latest installment in the Tony Hawk series, has had its price slashed from $120 to $50 by the people over at Toys R Us. The price cut applies to the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii versions of the title. Tony Hawk Ride brings with it a new twist by allowing gamers to play with a motion-sensing skateboard packed with advanced technology, which realistically simulates the experience of skateboarding minus the painful crashes. If you have been wanting to try Tony Hawk Ride but the hefty $120 price-tag has been holding you back, now is the time to open your wallet. However, you’ll have to act fast if you want to take advantage of this deal, as it will only last for a week.

Available at PS3 Vault view here.

Crysis 2 to “perform better” on the PlayStation 3

The first Crysis game was very well known, not just for its great gameplay or compelling story, but because of its beautiful, stunning graphics that were far ahead of its time when it was released. With that in mind, I find it is easy to see why everyone is so hyped that Crysis 2 will bring even more amazing visuals to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

However, developer Crytek  just recently stated that they have been getting “slightly more performance from the PS3 compared to 360.” This news is actually quite unexpected because most cross-platform titles have either run better on the Xbox 360 than the PS3, or there is no noticeable difference in performance. It is great, though, to see third-party developers better utilizing the power the PlayStation 3 has to offer to provide noticeably better graphics than the competition.

I appreciate that Crytek is taking the initiative needed to take control and manipulate the cell processor. Although, I would be surprised if people even noticed the small differences made by the increased performance. Still, the PlayStation 3 may be a little more impressive than the Xbox 360 but it will be completely blown away by the PC version because current PC hardware is much more capable than the tech in both the PS3 and Xbox 360.

Source: CVG

Available at PS3 Vault view here.

PlayStation 3 Sales reach 5 Million in Japan

The fine people over at Famitsu.com have just announced that the PlayStation 3 has reached a huge landmark in its life; it has reached the 5 million mark in sold units in Japan. The actual number (as of the 11th) is 5,001,598 an incredible about that is only going to get larger as time goes on.

Sony has the release of the PlayStation Slim and the abundance of quality software to thank for the recent sales spike that has allowed it to achieve such a high number of sales. The games helping to push the system are Final Fantasy XIII, which has sold 1,883,828, and Yakuza 4, which is sitting at around 526,093.

Here in North America we are still continuing to experience some console shortages, but even with that the sales are still up. And now with the huge amount of new software and the PlayStation Move coming out later this year, it appears that the sales will only improve further, and further extend the console grasp of the world.

Source: GameRant.com

Available at PS3 Vault view here.

New MacBook Pro Line

Today Apple has announced the release of a new MacBook Pro Line, which introduces Intel’s new i5 and i7 processor line, along with the addition of a new faster video cards.

The new MacBook Pros also have a new longer lasting battery, which can last up to 10 hours on the 13 inch and 8-9 hours on the 15 and 17 inch. But that will probably be more like 8 hours. The other changes include the 15 inch model will now be available with an optional 1680×1050 resolution screen, 4gb of ram standard on the 13 inch base model, and 320m and 330 graphics cards.

I will be returning the 13” MacBook Pro that I recently purchased and getting one of the new ones. But I feel that Apple could have done more with the new 13” maybe by putting an i5 or at very least an i3 but the new 2.4ghz and 2.66ghz core 2 duos are still nice, and the new video cards and extended battery life is great.

The new MacBooks will be sold for around the same price as the previous generations, but just with better specs, and can be purchased at Apple.com. Also you can get an additional $100 to $200 off through the Apple education discount program depending on which model you get.

PS3 Owner Received Refund after ‘Other OS’ function was cut

Just recently a PlayStation 3 owner has been given back £84, or approximately $100, after submitting a complaint to the popular online retailer, Amazon.com. Apparently what happened was a moderator over at the Neogaf forums filed a complaint to Amazon saying that his, or her, 60gb PlayStation 3 no longer worked as originally advertised when purchased due to the loss of the ‘Other OS’ functionality being cut from the system.

The moderator cited the law Directive 1999/44/EC, which states that consumers are protected for 2 years, upon the initial purchase of the product, that if any terms are changed that limit the product from its original advertised functionality must be reimburse for the price paid or must replace the consumers good.  But due to Sony being such a large company they are entitled to cover that for a minimum of 6 years. Amazon choose to reimburse them for about 20% of what was original paid for the PS3, but that fee will likely be passed onto Sony for them to pay.

I feel that Sony shouldn’t be required to payback people for functions that they most likely don’t even use or want. Definitely if they do that in an attempt to keep their consul more secure and less prone to piracy, because in that case I don’t see any problem. However, the ripping of the feature appear as a result of Linux using hackers on the PS3 in the first place, so the most easy way to fix the problem was to just simply cut the function from the PlayStation 3.

Source: ItProPortal.com

Available at PS3 Vault view here.

Crysis 2 New Trailer and New Possibilities

Just recently the guys over at Crytek took a trip to New York City in hopes to show off Crysis 2. They choose New York primarily because the new Crysis has made the switch from tropical jungle to the more urban jungle, which just happens to be New York City. While there they introduced a new Crysis 2 trailer which gives gamers a better idea of what to expect for a story and atmosphere, but also shows that they haven forgotten about the aliens.

Not much is yet known about the story, but what we do know is that it will be taking place much later after the events that unfolded in the first Crysis game, so the aliens have had time to assemble and invade many other areas, and the hopes to quarantine them to the island to where they were originated had failed. Also the aliens found in this game are a bit different than the ones found in the first, which will make for some new gameplay experiences.

The trailer also demonstrated the amazing visuals that the Cry Engine 3 will be bring to the table, and is said to be going to set the bar graphically for any video game in the future. And if its anything like the first one, it won’t be matched until years to come.

I for one, though, was sort of bummed to see that they where bring back the aliens to the sequel, because I found the game got considerably worse when faced with the task of fighting the wretched creatures. Also when watching the other gameplay videos that showed the soldiers in the nano-suits fighting humans, which appeared to be American infantry, and I found that slightly confusing why an American super soldier would be fighting and killing other Americans.

Crytek is bringing many new features to the sequel and we will just have to wait to see how they all unfold, but one thing is for certain that Crysis 2 will have some stunning visuals unmatched by many and will be a joy to watch and play.

Source: IGN.com

Available at PS3 Vault view here.

Review: Just Cause 2

Just Cause 2, made by the developers over at Avalanche Games, is one of the craziest, most over-the-top games I have ever played, featuring more huge explosions than any other game on the market today. Much like its predecessor the sequel boasts a huge open world environment, third-person action gameplay, and of course a grapple.

Modern Warfare 2 DLC out for PS3 and PC in May

Robert Bowling, the community manager over at Infinity Ward, has just announced, via twitter, that the developer will be releasing DLC for their latest first-person shooter, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The DLC pack will release for the PlayStation 3 and PC on May 4th.

The Package will feature five ‘new’ maps that players can play-through in multiplayer. Many of you may recognize some of the maps because they are rehashes of the most popular maps from the first Modern Warfare, including Crash and OverGrown. But the pack will also bring three new maps to the game, such as Storm (an industrial park) and Bailout (an apartment building). These maps were released last month for the Xbox 360, but was criticized for its $15 price tag that was ironically named ‘The Stimulus Package’. However, it seems that no one cared about the high price because it sold more that 2.5 million times just last week.

Also along with the release of the new maps, Infinity Ward will be hosting a double XP event, giving players a chance to earn double experience points while playing multilayer.

Available at PS3 Vault view here.

What I’ve been up to: 3/7/2010

It’s been a while since I have posted an update so I figured it was about time I do so. Well, just last week it was my birthday so I did acquire a nice amount of cash, which initially I put towards a Samson C01U Microphone that I intended to use for the purpose of podcasting. However, upon the arrival I noticed that it was damaged, having the mesh over the microphone completely bent and scratched up, so I figured I might as well just plug it in, install the drivers, and test it out before I must return it and get a not damaged version. But soon after hooking it up via USB and just using the universal audio drivers found on my MacBook Pro then recording a few short clips through GarageBand, a program that is popular among many amateur and professional podcasters, and soon noticed an annoying buzzing noise. So what I did was tried to install the drivers that came in the package with the mic, but then I ran into another problem, the disk provided with the Mac compatible microphone didn’t include Mac compatible drivers. So then what? Go the website for driver of course right (just like the manual detailed)? Well I guess not because there where no drivers to be found, so I surfed the web for awhile but could only manage to find Windows compatible drivers. So I said “F*** it,” threw it back into the box, rapped it in duct tape, and sent it back and should soon get my money back. Problem solved.

But even with that bad experience I was able to salvage the situation and take the money spent on the mic and put it towards my one-year subscription of GameFly that my parents gave me as a gift for my birthday and increased it from one game out at a time to two games out at a time. So far I have loved GameFly, it has super fast shipping, great game catalog, and relatively good pricing. The amount of money that I will save using GameFly should be substantial because I think I should be able to play three to five games a month, which at the low price of $23.00 a month is a great deal. Even though I have only had GameFly for a little more than a week I couldn’t help but recommend it to anyone.

In other news I did receive my new MacBook Pro about a month ago and I have to say I believe it is the best investment I have ever made on any electronic devise. I was planning to hold off for a the next generation of MacBook Pros but it appeared to me that it was going to be a longer wait than I was willing to wait for. So I just bit the bullet and purchased the existing models and I don’t feel I made the wrong choice is it seems to have been a great buy, and once again would recommend to anyone.

And since this is primarily a gaming blog you may be wondering, “What games have you been playing?” Well just today I finished my first game I received from GameFly, Just Cause 2, which I will be posting a review of soon. Now I will be moving onto a game that I never had time to finish back when it came out, F.E.A.R. 2 Project Origin, a First Person Action Thriller game.

Have any question? Want to know anything about game, computers, or me? Well just post a comment and I will get back to you as soon as possible.