If your a fan of facebook, myspace, etc. But ever thought, man I wish there was a gaming version of this. Now there is, MyGameMug.com. It’s a great place for gamers to get together to play and chat about games.

Profile Page

It can show the game your currently playing. Any games you tag show up as your favorite games in your profile. If your part of any Guilds/Clans it will show in your profile as well. Your reviews & uploaded photos show up here. People can also comment on your profile too.

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Metal Gear Solid 4 & Metal Gear Online (MGO) will be one game. MGO will be integrated into MGS4. Online will support 16 players in the following modes: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, King of the Hill, and Team Sneak. You can customize your character with up to three skills from a large selection. A couple examples are “Marathon” which allows you to run faster or longer (not sure), and “Narc” which reveals the location of the enemy trying to kill you. They’ll be over 100 different weapons you can use online.

The magazine includes a 2008 PlayStation calendar, nice too. There are some tips to creating custom classes in Call of Duty 4 as well.

But the biggest surprise is the photo below!

MetalProxy noticed that my Kanji Theme was in the latest issue of the Official PlayStation Magazine, Jan. 2008 with MSG4 on the front! I’m on page 11 in the bottom right. Here is a scan of it, click on the image for the full version.

Last Friday at work we had our Information Systems department LAN party (the image above is the department Christmas card I made). We had three PS3’s, and one 360, all running on projectors. Sadly they are all 480i projectors, but it was still fun. After I had the PS3’s set up, I tried to get them all connected so we could have a massive Warhawk battle. I was kind of bummed that the Omega Dawn booster pack wasn’t out in time for the LAN party though.

We have a huge Ethernet hub at work. So we connected all the PS3’s up to that, but the weird thing was the PS3’s couldn’t see each other. The PS3 basically said, I need the internet, where is it? Luckily I remembered that in the office next to us, they had wireless. So I tried that and it worked, and we got all the PS3’s to connect to each other that way. But I think it’s pretty stupid that you “need” the internet just to play a LAN game … at least with Warhawk you do.

Anyway, once we had them all connected it went very smoothly. At one point we had all the PS3’s running Warhawk. We only had 7 people playing Warhawk at once, but it was possible to have a total of 12 people on three PS3’s. We had enough controllers, but not enough people. I like how you can jump in and out of Warhawk on the fly. Great feature, wish more games used it.

But the big hit of the night was surprisingly PAIN! I loaded that up on my PS3 and had a few people try the multiplayer on it. There was 3 modes: Horse, Bowling and a mode where you see how many explosive boxes you can hit. They played that for a couple hours, constantly laughing. It was a great party game! A couple people said they would buy a PS3 just for PAIN, lol.

I tried Rainbow Six Vegas & Call of Duty 4 via LAN. And you can only have one person per screen, which got old quick. But we jumped online with CoD4 and invited the other PS3’s into our party, that was fun! After a while I tried out Rock Band on the 360. I’ve never tried those games before, took some getting used to of course, but very fun. I used to play DDR a lot so the concept was similar. So I picked up on it pretty quick. A couple times in the night the 360 had trouble reading the rock band DVD, had to reset the 360 and clean it off to continue. I’ve never had that issue with the Blu-ray discs, which I like

Through out the night people tried various demos and PSN games. We started at 5:30 and went until 11:30. It was a fun night.

PS3 Fanboy is reporting that PLAYSTATION Network Cards are coming to the US (and hopefully Canada) soon enough.

So for all you people all there who’re looking for a gift for my Birthday in February, that’s a good way to go!

PLAYSTATION Network cards coming to the US

Here’s a post over at YourRhythmics that I thought I’d repost here:

First, we get Guitar Hero 1 and 2, which were great. Then we get the obvious cash-grab, Guitar Hero Rocks the 80’s. All on the PS2. And none of them worked on the PS3 with the guitar peripheral (except maybe GH1). Then Activision releases GH3, which also doesn’t work on the PS3. And remember Call of Duty 3? Activision released that game without headset support for the PS3, and the PS3 didn’t get the map pack either.

Next up, Activision’s GH3 guitar peripheral for the PS3 doesn’t work with Harmonix’ Rock Band. Fine, Harmonix says, we’ll issue a patch that allows the guitar to work with Rock Band. Activision says “No, we’re going to be total pricks and disallow this patch. In keeping with our King of Pricks philosophy, we’ll ignore the fact that 360 users can enjoy said compatibility. Because we like 360 gamers and hate PlayStation 3 gamers. Remember what we did did GH1-GH3 on the PS2, and CoD3? Yup, we’re big prick PS3 haters.” [My words, not theirs.]

Here’s the statement from Harmonix:

Hi Everyone,

As we have said in the past, Harmonix and MTV Games believe in an open standard philosophy of hardware and game compatibility. We think that there should be interoperability between music instrument controllers across all music games. This is clearly in the best interest of consumers, game developers and console manufacturers and will only help to grow the music game genre as well as inspire innovation and creativity.

Two weeks ago, Harmonix created a software patch for the Sony PLAYSTATION 3 version of Rock Band that allowed for guitar compatibility and support for third party peripherals, including enabling use of Activision’s Guitar Hero III controller with Rock Band. The compatibility patch was submitted, approved and had been scheduled for release by Sony on Tuesday, December 4. Unfortunately, Activision objected to the compatibility patch’s release. The patch remains with Sony, but we have been told that it will unfortunately not be released due to Activision’s continued objection.

As is the case with the Microsoft Xbox360, we believe that Sony PLAYSTATION 3 users should be able to use the peripheral of their choice with Rock Band. We sincerely hope that Activision will reverse its decision and allow release of the compatibility patch and further, that Activision will allow Guitar Hero III to support Rock Band guitar controllers as well. We welcome all third party developers who wish to support our controllers and will provide any required support in order for them to do so.

We believe that when consumers have choice, everyone wins. Harmonix and MTV Games hope that Activision and others will also adopt this philosophy.

Sincerely,
The Harmonix Team

One person in the comments at PS3Blog.net suggested boycotting Activision. I’ll tell you one thing: I’m not buying any more Guitar Hero games unless this issue is resolved. And it just so conveniently happens that I don’t plan on buying any other Activision games that I know of.

Edit: ways of contacting Activision to complain.

Howard Stringer has been talking lately. He mentioned the great sales the PS3 has been having lately, and he also mentioned … cellphone connectivity?

The world’s second-largest consumer electronics maker will hook up the PS3 with its PlayStation Portable console online before extending the links to products such as mobile phones, Stringer said in Tokyo today.

Now, I have a cellphone (the one pictured here), and I have to wonder what good it would be to connect my cellphone to my PS3. I guess I could swap pictures and music. But really, is there a real use for this?

Sony to Build PlayStation 3 Network to Increase Sales

Bonus Round at GameTrailers.com is reviewing the past year. And part one of episode 17 covers Sony. Michael Pachter, Shane Satterfield, and N’Gai Croal talk with the host about what Sony has done so far, and what they need to do. I enjoyed the video, check it out.

Bonus Round: Episode 17, Part 1

Patrick Steen over at Ripten makes a point. He says that lots of people are asking for in-game XMB, when all they really want is in-game messaging.

Really, do you need to access your settings, photos, videos, the store, etc, while in a game? No, not really. (Though I would like to fiddle with my headset settings.) What you really want is in-game communication. You want to be able to communicate, via headset or messages, with your buddies. If you’re playing Warhawk and get a message from a friend inviting you to play Call of Duty 4, you’d like to be able to read that message and respond. Or if you’re chatting, to be able to talk to someone playing a different game.

That part, I agree with totally.

But then Mr. Steen goes on to say: “Sony is spending so much time making sure that an in-game XMB is perfect — this could take them another year to get everything ‘under the hood’ working to their ridiculously high standards.” I can’t say I agree with that part. As far as I can tell, Sony isn’t working on the full XMB shebang, they’re only working on small parts. How can I tell? If you’re a Sony GAP member (which I am), you can see that a poll Sony recently put up asked about what XMB feature we’d rather see. One of the options was “In-game access to PSN messaging”. Note that it didn’t say “In-game access to the whole XMB shebang”, or even something similar. (And in case you’re curious, the other two options were “Ability to play my own music from the XMB while in-game” and “Larger buddy list and buddy-list features such as categorizing”. Surprisingly, to me, the most popular answer so far is the music feature!) So obviously they see in-game messaging as an atomic feature that they can add to the system, and they seem to be proposing it to us gamers that way.

To sum up, I don’t think Mr. Steen really has anything to worry about. While he complains that maybe Sony is spinning its wheels trying to provide us with stuff we don’t want, I don’t think that’s what’s happening. Do you want to know what I think? I think the problem is memory. Microsoft is a lot better at stuffing features into a small amount of memory than Sony is. The 360’s dashboard takes 32MB of memory while the PS3’s XMB takes more than twice that. So Sony has a memory problem. Since Sony can’t increase the amount of memory being used without pissing off developers, they need to add this feature without increasing the memory footprint. And I think that this is what’s holding Sony up.

Edit: So here’s the list of what we really need from in-game XMB.

1. Access to the PSN messaging system.
2. Voice chat across games.
3. Music access.
4. Ability to see progress of downloads.

People have been asking for this, expecially those Europeans who don’t seem to like credit cards. Unfortunately, “this” is only for Japan right now, and “this” is PlayStation Network Cards. IGN reports:

[Sony] announced today PlayStation Network Cards, prepaid cards that can be used to charge up your Japanese PSN wallet. The cards will be available starting 12/13, the day of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue’s release, in 3,000 yen and 5,000 yen quantities. Sony has gone with a festive color scheme for the cards: red for the 3,000 yeners, and green for the 5,000 yeners.

I don’t care, personally, because I just use my credit card. But for all of you in NA and Europe who do care, I hope this card makes it way to your territories soon. There’s my Christmas wish for ya!

PlayStation Network Cards Hit Japan

Tosh was kind enough to make a banner for our website. Here it is:

Please don’t link to it directly - download it. My bandwidth will suffer otherwise. I’ll be moving this file to a different location soon, just in case.

The PS3 is heading for it’s first year anniversary early next month, so I’m interested to know exactly what you have bought for your PS3.

This is what I’ve bought specifically for use my PS3:

TV

I bought this 40″1080p HDTV a couple of months after I got my PS3. I’m looking into getting Surround Sound for my TV at some point in the future.

Blu-ray games

For a console that has been criticised for it’s lack of software, I must have imagined all the games I’ve been playing on it.

Resistance: Fall of Man
MotorStorm (no longer have)
Oblivion
Ninja Gaiden Sigma (no longer have)
GRAW 2 (no longer have)
Heavenly Sword
Madden 08
Skate
FIFA 08

Then there’s Ratchet & Clank Future, CoD4, Haze, Assassins Creed and Uncharted all due out by the beginning of December…

PSN Games

Super Stardust HD
Blast Factor
Calling All Cars
flOw
Warhawk

Super Stardust HD is by far the most enjoyable game from the PSN. Excellent fun to play, with great music. Calling All Cars is a lot fun when you play with 2 or 3 friends, although I had a couple of offline games with my girlfriend, which she enjoyed.

I’m looking forward to seeing how Pain, SOCOM and LittleBigPlanet turn out.

Blu-ray Movies

Casino Royale (free with the PS3)
Spider-Man Trilogy

I haven’t bought many BD movies but one definite purchase that’s due out early November in the UK is Planet Earth. I’m planning on inviting some people round to watch it, as I’m sure it will look fantastic on my TV.

Peripherals

SIXAXIS

I’m prone to breaking my pads during particular moments of ‘gaming frustration’ so I made sure I bought a 2nd pad for both offline multi-player fun and as a back up for when I would break my first pad. I’m on my 2nd SIXAXIS pad.

I’ll probably get a DS3 next year when I break my 2nd SIXAXIS pad but until then, I doubt I’ll buy any more peripherals this year for my PS3.

So what have you guys bought for your PS3?

First Sony ships a (60GB) console without rumble controllers and with backwards compatibility (BC) to PS2 and PSOne titles. Then they release a console with less BC (60GB in Europe, 80GB elsewhere). Then they announce rumble controllers, but say that they’ll be sold separately. Then they announce 40GB consoles with no PS2 BC whatsoever. (They still have PSOne BC.) And it won’t include the rumble controllers.

At first you could argue that this mishmash of different consoles is confusing to the consumer, but I would argue that in theory it’s no more confusing than Microsoft’s multi-SKU approach. After all, their 360 Core console has no BC. But it’s the way that Sony is going about things that is confusing. They’re not communicating clearly what they’re doing and why. And it’s really quite frustrating. 60GB North American price drop! Cool! Wait a sec… That’s because they’re phasing it out? Oh now you tell me!

The lack of BC wouldn’t annoy me so much if the current BC in my 60GB NA PS3 worked better. I can’t play the Guitar Hero games, because the guitar doesn’t work with the PS3. I can’t play some very timing-sensitive games like Frequency because my PS3 (or digital HDMI in my TV?) introduces lag that I don’t get on my PS2. Lastly, some games just don’t run on my PS3, like F1 2001. So I still need to keep my PS2 hooked up to play PS2 games, which I do quite often. But it would be nice if my PS3’s BC really worked.

Sony needs to get their messaging clear this holiday season and beyond. Consumers need to understand what they’re getting, and why. Plus they need to clear up this whole DualShock 3 mess. Here’s how to do it:

1. Offer Two Clearly Differentiated PS3’s
   I don’t have a problem with a multi-SKU approach, but I think that Sony should be limited to two. One high-end, tap-dancing machine with full backwards compatibility for those who don’t have the BC issues I do. And one lower-priced machine that is still quite capable, but without BC. I think it is a mistake for Sony to give up on BC so quickly. If it costs more to include BC, then only include it in the higher-end SKU. Makes sense. And when I say “two PS3’s” I mean that we should only have two PS3’s on the shelves, and on our minds, at the same time. And I know that some people might not agree with me on this one, but I say: introduce new SKU’s quickly. If you phase out the 60GB SKU, the 80GB one better be on sale the same day the 60GB one runs out. And only announce it the previous week. You know, like Apple. It’ll require that you hold a secret better than you do now, but it’s worth it in the long run.
2. Don’t Confuse Us
   When you drop an SKU, please tell us why. Be honest and upfront about it, and tell us what’s going to replace it, if anything. Don’t leave us in the lurch, unable to figure out whether or not we should buy a current SKU or wait for a new one. And please don’t say “We have no plans to decrease the price” when in fact you do. It’s better to have a strict policy where you say something like “We cannot comment on future product decisions”. At least that’s honest.
3. One Controller Only
   Dump the current SIXAXIS. Stop making them. Only make the DualShock 3, and include it in all SKU’s. The whole multi-controller approach is simply not fair to the consumer. Forcing the gamer to buy an extra controller to rumble is mean. Just plain mean. Don’t do it. I could go on and on, but I won’t. This one is pretty clear.

Just three things. I think that’s all it takes for Sony to start sending a clear, consistent message that gamers understand and will applaud Sony for.

Other Soapbox Rants

Here’s a conversation Gary and I had this morning via chat. I thought it might be a good starting place for a discussion. We started by talking about Halo 3 at 640p. The conversation below starts where I defend Bungie, noting that this is their first 360 title (I think). I’ve edited it for clarity…

***

Henning said:

I assume this is [Bungie’s] first 360 title.

Shime Waza said:

Heavenly Sword isn’t a great game, it’s good but it’s graphics are astounding for a game released during it’s (the PS3) first year. You’d think Bungie would be given preferential treatment by MS though. Seeing as Halo 3 is their only big franchise. They would do everything in their power to give them as much help as possible in getting the 360’s power into Halo 3

Henning said:

Okay, I’ve found some other sources for the news…

Shime Waza says:

Back to my view that 360 is hitting it’s peak. Halo 3 is their single biggest first party franchise and the game they have touted to kill the PS3 (well so say the xbots). Apart from Mass Effect and PGR4 (which won’t sell a load of 360s), they have no exclusive games to blow people away with. They only have that marketing BS with the GTA IV downloadable content. So what can the 360 offer to would be buyers in the form of exclusive games and content? Not a lot compared to the PS3. They have had an easy year and a half to build a lead, sales wise, but the PS3 IS ALREADY CATCHING UP WITH QUALITY CONTENT, then next year THE big EXCLUSIVE games arrive on PS3 and that is when sales (along with a proper price drop) will take off. Here’s a good read related to the Halo 3 phenomenon.

Henning says:

Bioshock is big. Is Halo 3 at 60FPS ?

Shime Waza says:

It hasn’t sold 360s though.

Henning says:

Killzone 2 will only be 30FPS.

Shime Waza says:

I dunno what fps Halo 3 is.

Henning says:

Hmm. [After a web search on “Halo 3″ and “30fps”.] Looks like it’s 30FPS. That makes the 640p all the worse….

Shime Waza says:

My point is that MS and Xbots believed Halo3 would boost 360 sales and kill off the PS3 (by that I mean give the 360 an unassailable sales lead), but they haven’t got the range of games that the PS3 has. Bioshock is great but it’s on PC as well.

Henning says:

True enuf.

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My favourite racing game of all time has got to be Project Gotham Racing 2. Yup, 2. As in two or II or deuce. The one on the original Xbox. PGR3 on the Xbox 360 was a mess. Starting with a really bad menu system it continued down hill with a tiny tiny selection of tracks and the mistake of choosing only superfast cars to drive. (In theory that sounds cool but in practice, not so much.) So I’m hoping that with the upcoming PGR4, Bizarre will make up for past mistakes and release a game cut from the same factory as PGR2.

The only problem I had with PGR2 was that it was only available for the Xbox. I would have liked to play the game on my PS2, but them’s the brakes. (Groan, I know.)

Do we have hope for the PGR franchise on a PS3 someday? Maybe. Activision announced today that they’ve bought Bizarre Creations, the makers of the PGR games as well as Geometry Wars. Activision may want Bizarre to be a bit more platform agnostic, so we may indeed be queuing up for our copies of PGR5 one day.

I can hope!

Activision acquires Bizarre Creations

Kaz Hirai’s keynote at TGS ‘07 will be at 10:30am local time, September 20th. This is the keynote where we expect to hear word of rumble and/or a new, cheaper PS3 for the holiday season.

For those of us in North America, the keynote will be in the evening, tonight, local time:

9:30PM Eastern
7:30PM Mountain
6:30PM Pacific

I’m guessing that Joystiq will have realtime updates from the keynote. Unfortunately, I’ll be busy tonight (games night) so I won’t be able to check out any news until a couple hours after the event. Hopefully somebody from PS3Blog.net will talk about the keynote before that. (Hint hint!)

Time Zone Converter

[Edit: Eurogamer says that they’ll have the keynote live.]