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By The Gamer, February 28, 2010 11:48 pm

First, I’m biased. I own a PS3. I don’t own a 360. It will likely stay that way. I’m a story-driven, RPG player who couldn’t care less about Madden. Games on the PS3 draw me more than games made for the 360. There, now that that’s out of the way…

I’ve been reading this all over Twitter tonight while keeping up on the calendar bug that hit most of the older PS3s (affectionately called the PS3 Fat). Seems as though the PS3 has one problem and the Xbox fanboys are all over it. How many Xboxes RROD’d? How often is Xbox Live down (something you have to pay for, I might add)? PS3s have an almost zero failure rate. Xbox 360s? Failure, in one form or another, comes in at over 50%.

Anyway, Kotaku and Joystiq are kind of on top of it, though their post titles are a bit inflamatory: PS3s Suffering from Global Network Lockdown and PSN is down, some titles experiencing game-crashing errors. This is very unlikely that it has anything to do with the PSN. This is happening to PS3s that haven’t been connected to the PSN or don’t even have an internet connection.

It. Is. A. Bug. A nasty one, at that. Let’s hope it’s easily resolved with a firmware update.

Still, the public’s reaction is enlightening. It’s an interesting look into the dynamics of group-think and the spread of misinformation. Here’s an example of what I mean in the post’s title:

skatter Well, guess my PS3 is just a bluray player right now. #psn #fail #pissedoff #considering360

Really? Really? Then you’ve got this:

@ingramm Yay! #PSN is back up!!

@ingramm Hehe. Just playing #PSN

(Funny.) And this:

@mucho_comida This #psn #hacker attack -errrr, outage is just the beginning of the most widespread infiltration the world has ever seen. #conspiracy #

(Just silly.) And then you’ve got pure nerd rage:

@psnjj9394 GOD DAMN YOU #PSN YOU SUCK FOR HAVING YOUR SERVERS DOWN

@topekomsi #PSN fuggin sucks

@cagmanthing: #PSN sucks! #PSN sucks! #PSN sucks! #PSN sucks! #PSN sucks! #PSN sucks! #PSN sucks! #PSN sucks! #PSN sucks! #PSN sucks! #PSN sucks!

With the occasional bright ray of thoughtfulness:

@JadeMason If my guess is right, the #PS3 / #PSN issue will resolve itself in 24-hours, just like the Zune date error did.

And finally, hours after it started…

@SonyPlayStation PSN status update: We’re narrowing down the issue and continue to work to restore service to all. Updates as soon as we have them.

I was a very early PS3 buyer and I’ve yet to have an issue with it. The one thing I could complain about is the lack of codec support, but TVersity made that problem go away. This honestly makes me think of the Democrats versus the Republicans. I’ll explain.

The Democrats are the PS3s. The Republicans, obviously, the 360s. The 360s (Republicans) break down all the time (cheat/lie/etc., take your pick) and the PS3 crowd (Democrats) never really take them to task over it. When the PS3 (Democrats) goes down (do something questionable) the 360 crowd (Republicans) are screaming bloody murder. It lost its entertainment value long ago.

This will turn out to be just another front on the battle between Sony and Microsoft fanboys, while the rest of us just want to play our games and be left alone. Protip: your console choice says nothing about you except what types of games you may like, generally.

At least the God of War 3 and Darksiders demos I downloaded last night are working just fine.

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By The Gamer, February 8, 2010 1:18 pm

Got my greedy little hands on a copy of the Heavy Rain demo a couple days ago and I must say, I’m impressed (the demo is available for everyone to download on February 11). Even my wife who is decidedly uninterested in video games that aren’t Bejeweled-style puzzle games or something with the word Katamari in the title was enthralled with the experience. I take that to be a very good sign. And, judging by the amount of conversation happening on the GameFAQs.com Heavy Rain board, it’s already pretty popular with over 14,000 posts and the game is still two weeks away.

As with most of the posts regarding individual games, here there be BIG spoilers as far as the demo is concerned. Screenshots, clips and more after the jump. Continue reading 'Heavy Rain: The Demo'»

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By The Gamer, January 20, 2010 1:24 pm

When Quantic Dream’s Heavy Rain comes out in February I’m (hopefully) going to be doing a lot with it: journey analysis, journal, academic papers, oh my! There will be spoilers, and lots of them. I will be speaking frankly and (hopefully) intriguingly about the game, the experience I have playing it, and I will be discussing the more questionable content in terms of violence, adult themes, and whatever else I may come across.

I’m really, really looking forward to this. Keep watching.

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By The Gamer, September 8, 2009 11:32 am

Some of you remember Omikron. Some of you played Indigo Prophecy (otherwise known as Fahrenheit). Anyone who did knows that Quantic Dream makes really good games. Really good. Heavy Rain, their upcoming PS3 title, is shaping up to be no slouch, either. Check out this “audition” (in HD, though it’s important to note that this was produced a while ago and the graphic quality has likely improved greatly since).

It got me to thinking: could this be used in a Film Studies class? Maybe the trailer will give you more ideas:

Intense, right? Indigo Prophecy was like that, too. I’m really looking forward to this game, but not just because it looks like a lot of fun. Quantic Dream’s games tend to be like interactive movies with sharp focus on interpersonal relationships. They called it “cinematic gameplay.” Can’t blame them. It really is gorgeous.

So, how would one use this in a classroom? Well, anyone studying acting could examine the monologue and critique it. That’s fairly obvious. You could look at the trailer (the second video) and discuss how effective it is at sparking the interest of the consumer. I’m not a film studies person, so I don’t want to get too into it; just throwing out ideas. Lighting, composition, editing, any aspect of study you can apply to a film clip you can apply to these.

Not into film? How about using either the woman in the monologue or the father in the trailer as a case study for a psychology class? Or interpersonal communication? Relationship studies? The applications seem endless. This is the beauty of the direction games are going: they become more than just games.

Look at Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Some gamers complained that the hours of cut scenes were just too much, that they impeded gameplay. I completely disagree. If I pay upwards of $60 for a game, I want as much as I can get for my money. Part of the fun of the MSG games is the storyline (which Kojima himself admits he sometimes gets lost in; I love that fact). Obviously, to gamers who only play Madden and Rockband, this is a turn-off. Also, obviously, I’m not referring to them. The discussion of different types of gamers will have to wait for another post.

I think the word I’m looking for is immersive.

In a future post I’m going to delve deep into two games from the mind of Ragnar Tornquist (The Longest Journey and Dreamfall: The Longest Journey) and see just how far down the rabbit hole we can go.