Damn, this game has me conflicted.

Awesome racing!  But only eight (highly detailed and complex) tracks.  Near-lagless online play that feels balanced and exciting!  But no split screen.  Stunning graphics!  But limited sound options and only viewable in 720p.  Vehicles so detailed they could star in their own individual titles!  Load times that make the baby Jesus cry.

Motorstorm certainly does serve as an excellent example of the visual power of the PS3, no question.  The demos, even the most recent of them, feel like alpha-release compared to the impressive attention to detail of the full game.  Mud doesn’t just kick up from the tires of the vehicle ahead of you, it spatters back down in a gloppy mess over the hood of your truck (saying that the hood hasn’t been torn off in a rear-end collision that left your opponent a rusting hulk at the bottom of an Arizona canyon) and windshield, partially obscuring your view for a few seconds.  And the pretty explosions aren’t just reserved for you, expect to see at least two or three massive wrecks during each race, especially when multiple vehicle classes are in tight spaces.  It's not the prerendered look of the infamous E3 video, but it does perfectly capture the spirit and intensity that the footage promised.

There are about a half-dozen vehicle classes in the game, ranging from massive big rigs and dump trucks to dirt bikes and ATVs, with monster trucks, rally cars, and buggys  adding more variety to the mix.  Given that each track has multiple marked routes and possibly dozens of lines each tailored to particular vehicle classes, good players have a serious chance at winning with most of them, even when the AI catch-up is turned off (I recommend leaving it on in single player, it keeps other cars near you and the action far more intense on-screen).  Heavier vehicles have low acceleration and momentum that carries them through mud pits with ease, lighter vehicles will tear across hardpacked dirt and rock at high speed but generally flounder in the shorter, straighter, muddier sections of the course.  And of course, smaller vehicles are more likely to be torn apart like tissue paper if one of those big rigs hits them with any serious force.

Online play is pretty damn fun, and as one of the most anticipated titles on the system the servers are packed.  But being that the host has to manually restart the game each round, this means that if he suddenly feels nature’s call the rest of the players could be left waiting several minutes until the game starts.  Also, much like Resistance, Motorstorm is a delightfully lag-free experience.  Given the lag problems on some other games, I’d love to see some of these studios offer up whatever code magic they employ here to other developers.

The problems arise in terms of variety:  While there are multiple obvious and hidden routes to each, it doesn’t change the fact that there’s only eight tracks. No split-screen multiplayer, and while looking at the game gives a good argument that doing so could result in framerate and visual quality sacrifices, I want to race against my brothers, or my friend who just got back from college halfway across the state on spring break!  This is tolerable, not acceptable, for a first-gen release.  But future omissions of the most basic form of multiplayer in any racing title will be utterly insufficient.  Finally, load times, especially when choosing a vehicle, tend to be downright bad.  It can be upwards of fifteen seconds between choosing an event to race in and choosing your vehicle, and then another fifteen to twenty seconds on top of that to fully load the map. This really pulls me out of the high-energy experiences of the races themselves, and loading in complex 3D backgrounds highlighting the Motorstorm festival itself during menus means that you’ll spend a lot more time looking at loading screens than you want to.  The payo is great, in the end, but it still seems ather unnecessary.  One small mercy is that the actual initial startup load isn’t long at all, jut the levels and especially the vehicles.  Finally, sound always feels either way too looud or way too quiet, and the odd choices for setting levels mean that it's hard to balance without a lot of needless trial and error.  They really couldn't give me full 0-100 control over the music and engine noise levels?

Motorstorm is a great racing game in a lot of ways, but has some basic flaws that detract from the experience.  If you want some highly entertaining arcade-style racing on the PS3, it could be for you.  But if you want to sit down and play with friends and family, you may want to look elsewhere or give it a rent first.

Virtua Fighter 5 is out, one of the most notable titles in Sony's opening salvo of spring releases.  While the game looks phenomenal, it's hard to reccommend any game on visuals alone.  Does Sega's latest fighter stand up to its previous high standards?  And if so, is it worth buying for the PS3, or even the 360?

It's the end of January, and all across the country (Japan as well) playstation 3's are sitting on store shelves.   What do you think Sony is thinking?   Lets be clear here, Sony is very much guilty of having some of the worst PR on the planet, but ultimately do you think they're even capable of recovering from their current position?    With exclusive deals dropping left and right, a higher price point (that grows even more if you're European) I think its important for we as gamers to ask ourselves what makes a console worth purchasing?

Are the games there?  No.   But even so, Sony has managed to sell a fair number (around 600k).   I have my theories though...

With as eccentric as we gamers are, I suspect the fault lies with this guy ... From what I'm told, he has three ps3's and you don't have any cake.

So if you happen to have a PS3 laying around the house that you might consider throwing up on eBay, you’ll be sorely discouraged by the average bids already posted; $650, $700, $750 even. Michal Birecki from PS3center.net, however, saw the light. Stripping the PS3 of all exterior coverings, then sending the pieces to a body shop to be painted white, made the entire process feel like a bad episode of American Chopper. Be that as it may, once the process was completed, the finished product was a replica of the white prototype PS3 Sony has yet to release.

You can check out pictures of the entire process here, at PS3center.net. You can also check out the auction here, where the current bid as of this posting is $1525.01

Anyone up for making a red one? How about purple?

Contrary to rumors that surfaced over the weekend, Konami has stated that it has "No plans to Bring Metal Gear Solid 4 to the PS3 at this time," in a press release with Computer and Videogames Magazine.

Frankly, I'm suprised this even became an issue. If there's one title that Sony will do just about anything to keep exclusive, it's MGS4. And more importantly, the originators of this rumor --Noos.com - -has the delightful track record of such gems as "Time Crisis 4 to be released exclusively for PS3 at launch." I recognize the potential profit motive behind any future MGS4 port, but it was pretty obvious that this site, if none other, has little in the way of credibility when it comes to this claim.

Don't have a gaming collection? Don't know where to start? Well, markcz5581 is selling his collection at a starting bid of $25,000. Buy it now for $75,000 and you get a Wii with that.

List after jump!

Myresistance.net (registration required) has the official details of the upcoming patch to Resistance: Fall of Man for the PS3.  According to Insomniac dev Ross McIntosh, fixes include tweaks to weapon abilities, new spawn options, and at least one skin removal (the very cool skeleton skin, which is being panned by lots of people, myself included, as being too difficult to see and was never meant to make it into the release version of the game).

This is the first time that hard details have been released regarding the patch, rumors of which have been circulating quietly for a few weeks now.

Ross' full post available after the jump. 

Better late than never, right.

Originally, Sony said that it would open online registration for PS3 accounts in Europe on the day the console released in the United States.

That didn't happen.

Now, some weeks later, according to DigitalBattle.com, Sony has finally announced that the process is open to Europeans who want to get their PS3 accounts up and running before they actually buy them.

Of course, you won't be able to use those accounts until you get your PS3, which will be, oooohh, I'm guessing sometimes in May, given past events. That's just a guess on my part.

No word on when or if such pre-purchase registration will be available for other regions, including the United States.

But if you live on the eastern side of the Atlantic Ocean, you can click here to register your as-yet-to-be-purchased PS3.

[From DigitalBattle.com]

Really now.

It seems more and more like Sony just can't make up its mind about Europe. In the past year, we've seen release dates slip, lawsuits filed to prevent grey-market import, waffling on when the "true" release date is (might not be March now), and now this.

GA's buddy in the UK, Dante of Smeg, sent in this photo of a playable PS3 at Computer Exchange in London.

Anybody out there think that this sort of thing will motivate people to put down their money again? I think I'd go bat-shit crazy in a situation like this if I knew I wasn't ALLOWED to buy it for another five months.

Oh, my.

It's amazing how much attention one YouTube video can garner.

Earlier today Josh included the news about the horrible PS3 upscaling of backwards-compatable PS2 games.

And so did just about every other gaming website in the world.

The issue was really brought to a head by this side-by-side comparison of a PS2 Final Fantasy opening scene played on a PS2 and a PS3. The difference are amazing.

But, according to my brainiac husband, this may not be as big an issue as its being made out.

According to him, Sony should have just done the extra work to make those games look good on all televisions, but as many have pointed out the "looking like crap" syndrome isn't exclusive to Sony. Many have noted the same problem anything written for 480i on a big screen.

Now, this is what Engineer Kevin says (so don't blame me if he's wrong), but this whole "looking like crap" issue can be overcome by playing your PS2 games on your PS3 on an HD television and using S-video cables (despite what the YouTube video says). As long as your television has remotely decent upscaling, it shouldn't look so bad.

Of course, that isn't really much of a solution for non-HDTV owners. Or for those whose televisions don't do upscaling.

But being that his was the first voice that wasn't appauled at what Sony has done, I figured it was worth the effort to post the "other side" of the argument.

You may have been following this little passion play.

A few weeks ago, a Sony PSP "fansite" showed up on the web named AllIWantForChristmasIsAPSP.com. Supposedly it was created by two kids who really loved PSPs and, as the site's URL implied -- all they wanted for under their tree this year was a PSP.

They even included a video of one of the curiously mature-looking "kids" rapping about how much he wanted the handheld gaming device and included lots of oddly enthusiastic comments.

How Joystiq describes it:

...The site only uses lower case letters, always references "two" as "2," embraces hip phrases like "here's the deal," publishes fake user-generated comments like "this is the best site ever" under the alias of True Gamer, and posts homemade rap videos full of stage props and trite "izzies."

The site was so weird, so not right, that gamers who stumbled on it or saw the YouTube video (since removed) started doing some snooping.

It didn't take long until someone figured out that the site's domain was registered to a marketing firm. And that marketing firm (surprise, surprise) works for Sony.

It seemed pretty clear that Sony had hired this firm to create a fake "fan" site and then lie about it being developed by kids rather than adults in suits sitting in a corporate board room.

That's the old news.

The new news is that after being bombarded with blog entry after blog entry of commenters who had nothing nice to say about Sony shameless -- and sloppy -- efforts at deception, the site owners posted the following:

Busted. Nailed. Snagged. As many of you have figured out (maybe our speech was a little too funky fresh???), Peter isn't a real hip-hop maven and this site was actually developed by Sony. Guess we were trying to be just a little too clever. From this point forward, we will just stick to making cool products, and use this site to give you nothing but the facts on the PSP.

Sony Computer Entertainment America

Busted? Nailed? Snagged? And, the coup de gras: "funky fresh"?

Actually the words that come to mind are more like "f*cking stupid."

Nice one Sony. And decidedly not clever. Next time you try to dupe consumers into thinking your product is cool, try to put a little effort into it? Try your best not to insult our intelligence.

Because otherwise we're liable to think that you think we're stupid. And of course, you'd never think that, would you?

Last night Sony released firmware update 1.31, which introduces support for PS2 games that utilized the PS2 hard drive (namely, Final Fantasy 11 and Nobunaga's Ambition). 

No doubt, this is a welcome relief for the gamers who bought Square's Final Fantasy MMO and still actually play.

Less appreciated, though, is dramatic evidence that suggests the PS3 is downgrading (or possibly over-upgrading to the point of distortion) the graphics of PS2 games compared to the original, with notable jaggies and artifacts in most games.

Sony has released no word on what it plans to do regarding this issue.

In the red corner, wearing aquamarine and white, the Wii.

In the blue corner, wearing black and.. uh, sometimes silver or occasionally white... and horfing down fistfulls of sour grapes, the PS3.

Actually, the fight is already over. Gaming site Spong noted this afternoon that the Wii has officially become the UK's fastest selling gaming console in history, with 100,000 units finding new homes over launch weekend.

This beats out the previous record holder, Microsoft, which sold 70,000 XBox 360 in its debut last year. And Sony with the amazing, phenominal, earth-shattering, mind-blowing, all-powerful PS3?

(Cue: The sound of crickets)

But why is this fight between Wii and the PS3?

Because despite the fact that the Wii is handing Sony a can of retail whoop-ass by selling nearly two times as many consoles in Europe than Sony, that Wiis are actually increasing in price on EBay, and that some PS3 owners on Craigslist saying they'll gladly trade their unopened PS3s for Wiis, Sony execs say they're not worried about Nintendo.

Why? Because the Wii -- according to Sony spokesman Dave Karraker -- is not a serious gaming console.

"We feel very confident that the PlayStation fan is going to wait until they can get a PlayStation 3...If they do pick up a Wii, it's as more of a novelty."

Wow. Does Sony provide the wheelbarrows necessary for its spokespeople to carry around their massive balls or do they have to buy their own?

Normally, if a huge, multi-national electronics firm offered such a passive-agressive statement about a smaller competing firm, I might consider it a sign of confidence.

But fact is -- Sony's getting its ass handed to them by this "novelty." Which means that isn't confidence that's talking: It's either abject fear or supreme ignorance.

Is Sony trying to act like the fat chick in that Apple spoof video or is it just a weird coincidence?

I'm not sure.

What do you think?

Last week, or maybe it was longer -- one day just runs into another lately -- we told you about an incident in which a suspected PS3 thief was shot and killed by police sent to his apartment to serve warrants.

Peyton Strickland, 18, was killed when he came to the door carrying a Sixaxis controller from one of the PS3s he was suspected of stealing. Police reportedly mistook the controller for a weapon and opened fire, killing Strickland and his dog.

I and many commenters on the orginal post were quite concerned how a controller could be mistaken for a gun.

Well, apparently the district attorney in Wilmington couldn't answer it either. He presented the case to a grand jury earlier this week in hope of securing second-degree murder charges against one of the deputies involved in the shooting, Chris Long.

Unfortunately, the grand jury didn't see cause and decided not to charge him.

Stories written Monday reported that Long, 34, had been charged, but on Tuesday the foreman of the grand jury contacted press to note that he had mistakenly checked the wrong box on the paperwork and that the grand jury had indeed decided not to charge Long.

This is not the first time this deputy has been in hot water for being quick on the trigger. According to the local NBC affiliate, Long been involved in a previous shooting in which two teens were injured. He was cleared of wrongdoing in that case.

On the plus side, Long did lose his job. Now maybe he has time to use those lightning reflexes for something less lethal -- like, oh, a video game?

Sega: Satisfying two, two, TWO needs at once!

Via 1up.com, Sega announced the Japanese launch date of Virtua Fighter 5, perhaps the most anticipated fighter on any platform for 2007, save Smash Bros. Brawl on Wii.  Included with the game launch are details on Sega's new arcade stick to be released alongside the game.

The game will ship with an on-disk copy of the first Virtua Fighter game, similar to the bonus content in Virtual Fighter 4: Evolution.

VF4 was arguably the most balanced and (for my money) fun 3-D fighter from the last generation, and news that the sequel would be PS3-exclusive was a definite determining factor in my original decision to purchase the console.

VF5 introduces several new characters and with the entire cast of VF 4.  No word on whether characters like the Sumo wrestler from VF3 will return, but the new characters will reporteldy represent different fighting styles like "lucha libre" and "monkey-style kung fu" to compliment the detailed real-world martial-arts styles of characters like Goh (judo and jujitsu), the Bryant twins (Bruce Lee's world-famous martial arts hybrid, jeet kun do), and Vanesa (vale tudo).

Featuring craftsmanship of Sega's arcade-quality components, the stick will reportedly release a week after the game.  A picture of the stick (which looks quite sturdy, if a bit garish) can be seen at the official Japanese VF5 website.

What was the last amount of money you spent on shoes? £50? £60? £100? Depending on taste, prices might even go up to £1000 -- somewhat extortionate for an item of clothing just strewn about in Soviet Russia.

What if I were to tell you that the Most Awesomest Shoes of All Time(TM) just sold for $4,530.

Say it with me. Sweet. Zombie. Jesus

Ah well. At least it went to a good cause.

Playing Rainbow Six: Vegas? Think you're good.

Well, if you are, you could nab your four-man team some serious bank just in time for the holidays.

Ubisoft's sponsored T and A gimmick all-girl gaming guild, Frag Dolls, has challenged Rainbow Six: Vegas players to a competition: If you beat them in a 4-on-4 matchup, you win $2,000.

Of course, you'd think that given the nature of the competition and the hefty amount of prize money this would be hard to do.

Apparently not. According to Kotaku, the Frag Dolls squad has lost 10 out of 21 games at the time of its report. That's a 52 percent win average. If they were baseball managers, they'd be looking for a new job.

On the upside, that means if you are as good as those they've played in the past, you have about a 48 percent chance to pay for your holiday gifts and then some.

Thinking you're up to snuff to beat a 52-percent winning team?

Instructions on how to get into a cash-match with Frag Dolls after the jump...

Fortunately, this update doesn't particularly affect me (yet), but apparently it is a rather big deal for those with slightly older HDTVs.

Readers may already be aware that HDTVs that supported 720p but not 1080i would downscale 1080p and 1080i images to a measly 480p.  The new update fixes this by allowing users to select a preferred higher resolution from the main menu.  The games now play back at the highest possible resolution supported by the TV.

Problems arrive, apparently, for games that display in 1080i or 1080p if the user would prefer to use his or her native 720p picture (Personal question: FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, WHY?) because you can't select the lower resolution without causing the same problems again.

Of course, they (the complainers) don't bother to mention that on most TVs 1080i looks significantly better than 720p.  For most users once suffering from the downscaling problem, this update will be a great (if rare) example of Sony promptly fixing a launch bug.  Now we only need to wait for a movie upscaler so I can watch upscaled DVDs without having to rely on a separate device.

This is a head scratcher. Someone stole 180 Japanese PS3s from a warehouse -- in broad daylight! How anybody can manage that is beyond me.

According to the report, the PS3s were noticed to be missing at about 1:30 p.m. local time, having been "confirmed" at 9 a.m. (we figure that means that someone noted on some official paperwork that they were at the location).

Some time between 9 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., the thieves managed to move the PS3s out of the warehouse to lord knows where. The value of the take? Officials put it at about 9.5 million Yen (about $85,000 USD). Of course, that's retail. Double or triple that for actual street value.

The police suggest that the amount of movement around the warehouse provided a way for the thieves to go unnoticed. It's still amazing that that amount of consoles that were stolen from a working warehouse.

[via 1UP]

I figured the first next-gen console to cause death would be a Wii.

But news came across the wires today that a man suspected in the theft of two PS3s was shot by police as they attempted to serve a warrant for his arrest.

Peyton Strickland, 18, a student at Cape Fear Community College and at University of North Carolina-Wilmington, was shot and killed on Friday by police who had been dispatched to his home in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Details are scarce, but according to Associated Press, police knocked on the door of the apartment Strickland shared with two roommates on Friday. According to reports, upon hearing someone at the door, Strickland, who was playing one of the consoles in question, paused his game of Tiger Woods Golf.

Unfortunately Strickland didn't hit pause fast enough and didn't put down the controller when he went to the door.

Police, who had been told that the situation was "high-risk," bashed through the door just as Wilmington got there and reportedly mistook the controller for a gun.

The unarmed Strickland was fatally shot, as was his German shepherd, who was also apparently involved in the altercation.

Strickland was suspected of being involved in the theft of two PS3 on November 17. The victim of that case said he was beaten and robbed of the consoles as he unloaded from his car after he'd stood in line for three days at a local Wal-Mart.

Two other men who are suspects in the case were taken into custody for the theft and were later released on bail.

This is a sad situation all around. I'm sure when Strickland decided to curl up on the couch to shoot a few holes on his potentially stolen PS3 he didn't figure that it would be one of the last acts he'd perform on this earth.

But it serves as a warning to all who get involved with criminal acts (assuming that his PS3 was indeed one of those that had been stolen). Crime -- even comparatively petty crime -- does not pay. It could potentially start you down a series of circumstances that may lead to situations like this.

An investigation by authorities has been promised, and it will be interesting to know how a Sixaxis controller could be mistaken for a weapon and whether Strickland was indeed the guy who beat up a fellow college student for a couple consoles.

[From Associated Press]

It was bound to happen eventually, but I doubt anyone predicted it would be so fast. Users at eHomeUpgrade.com has reported success in copying and burning Blu-Ray movies and playing them back with Linux media-player applications.

Apparently due to a lack of Linux-specific securtity measures, programmers successfully loaded the game into the PS3 hard drive as an ISO and then played it back through Linux. There is no known occasion of playing back movies or games through the actual PS3 system from boot so far.

As with any mass produced media, piracy is almost inevitable. It will be interesting to see what Sony's response to this will be and what that will mean for PS3 users.

Yeah, pretty much either the advertising copywriter for Circuit City who wrote this ad was a moron and deserves to be fired or is the king of ironic comedy and deserves a big carboard crown with little glitter sprinkles on it!



You can say the PS3 is a lot of things:

Ready to play (Blu-Ray disks)? Yes.

Ready to rotate (the Sixaxis controller)? Most certainly.

Ready to show (the 1080i HD graphics)? Absofreakinglutely.

But "ready to rumble"?

As the only next-gen console that doesn't have a rumble feature, maybe Circuit City should have employed a different phrase. Perhaps any phrase but "Ready to Rumble." Might I suggest "Ready to be shipped by sometime mid-January."

Maybe not. That's why I'm not an advertising copywriter, I guess.

[From 360 Fanboy]

Game-trailer video website GameTrailers.com has posted a very interesting video of side-by-side comparisson of Motorstorm, the PlayStation 3 title that enjoyed front-and-center placement at Sony's keynote presentation at E3.

GameTrailers suggests that there may have been just a liiiiiitle bit of truth-stretching at E3 and backs up that assertion by showing the E3 rendered gameplay simulation presented at the conference with actual Motorstorm gameplay.

I had forgotten exactly what I saw at E3, but placed directly beside what you actually are offered in Motorstorm, it's pretty clear to see that we were baited and switched, as it were.

The E3 video, though the resolution of this clip is far shabbier than the gameplay's video, seems to suggest that Motorstorm was submersive, active, and exciting, with a lot of great first-person driving that put you in the center of the race.

The actual gameplay video shows that what we'll get once Motorstorm is boxed up and shipped out is just another racing game with higher resolution but little imagination and certainly not much unique gameplay. Yawn.

Check it out.

Yesterday Sony announced a delay of the Japanese launch of expected PS3 mega-hit, Motorstorm, by one week, in order to release (in Japan only) alongside Armored Core 4 on December 14.

Apparently to fix minor production issues, the short delay will not affect the anticipated American launch in March.

While the initial 2006 Japanese release of Motorstorm will not contain an online mode, the 2007 American launch (and theoretically newer releases of the Japanese Motorstorm, if they don't just add it in later via download) will support online multiplayer.

EA’s Need For Speed franchise once again does the multiplatform dance on all the major consoles old and new.

Adding a smattering of new race modes, tons of customization options, and lots of thematic style, EA hopes to cash in on the racing desires of gamers everywhere.

So how does it hold up?

Let’s find out, using the PS3 version of the game.

Details after the jump ...

As some of you may recall, we posted some recently released (TUESDAY!) images of the, at the time, forthcoming Gran Turismo: HD. It is then, with great surprise and a bit of a chuckle from me, that we learn today of the game's (un)fortunate demise. The news came out today by way of SCEI's new BMOC (not official title) Kaz Hirai, who states, "For the genuine implementation of 'Online Car Life Simulation', please wait for Gran Turismo 5."

Apparently Kaz, or someone with some decision making skills, decided the game was taking too long to finish and that the staff's time would be better spent working on the game's true sequel -- a sentiment this gamer can whole heartedly endorse. While I'm not a big fan of the GT series (or any overly realistic racer for that matter,) I am a fan of plenty of games that have been stalled and pushed off and eventually ruined by money-grubbing lazy updates. So I'm glad to see this sort of decision being made, for the fans' sake.

In the meantime all is not lost for the five of you with PS3s. Sony announced it will be releasing the game "as-is" for free on its download service as "Gran Turismo HD Concept." As of now it's slated for December 24 in the land of the rising sun, with no date yet set for anywhere else. If Sony's newfound decision-making skills hold up, I imagine further release dates will follow shortly, but you never know. Also of note is the exclusion of any microtransactions or online play. Once you've got the game (if you ever get it), you've got it. We'll be sure to keep you posted on any further developments or release dates as we get 'em.

-Lupos

Japanese Source

This is more of a consumer-warning-slash-reminder to use common sense when dealing with your PS3.

Even your broken one.

This comes from Engadget, who reported hearing from a reader named Jesse Southard. Jesse purchased a PS3 only to find that the Blu-Ray drive wasn't working.

Eh. Nothing special. It happens. But what happened afterwards stands as a lesson to all of you who also have PS3s and are asked to let it out of your sight for a second. Even by Sony.

Sony told Jesse that he needed to send them his PS3 via mail. They overnighted a box and a pre-paid shipping label.

The problem here: The box and shipping label both had PS3 logos all over them. In other words, they said, "Hey everyone! Check it out! There's a PS3 inside this flimisy cardbord box!!"

So Jesse boxed up his PS3 and paperwork, as Sony requested, pasted the pre-paid Sony label on the box and walked it to UPS.

And it was never seen again. After many days of silence going on to weeks, Sony says it never recieved the PS3, only the box and the paperwork.

Now Jesse has to file a claim with UPS for a refund, which is cold comfort since having the retail price of a PS3 isn't the same thing as actually having your hands on a PS3 these days.

The moral of this story is if you have a broken PS3 that need to be shipped back to Sonyville for repairs, do two things:

- Put that Sony box inside another box that says something other than PS3. Might I suggest "Grandma's underpants;"

- For the love of God, INSURE THAT PACKAGE FOR $1,200! Sure, it won't stop a sticky-fingered UPS worker from nabbing it, but it will ensure that you get enough money to buy another one off EBay.

Tips from Auntie Edie.

[From Engadget]

Bloomberg is reporting of some new developments within the house that Sony built.

Kaz Hirai, head of the U.S. game division, will take over as president of Sony Computer Entertainment, the Tokyo-based company said in a statement today. Kutaragi, 56, will become chairman of the unit. Jack Tretton, now co-chief operating officer of the U.S. division, will replace Hirai.

Source (Bloomberg)

I would question promoting Jack Tretton (everybody remember his explanation of the creepy-crying-baby-doll-PS3-ad?) to anything beyond marketing lackey. However, if this means that we'll hear either less arrogant bullshit out of Sony -- or less in general (and therefore less bullshit) -- I'm all for it.

I'm not really sure if you can kill that which has no life, but if I were to try, here's a guy who might be a good person to experiment on.

According to XBox community blog XBox Domain, StripClubDJ has officially hit a gamer score of 100,000 points, becoming the first XBox 360 gamer to do so.

So, I guess congratulations are in order. I'm actually surprised it took a year for it to happen.

For all the doubters of the PS3's raw power (there are many of us -- we are innumerable), along comes some nice looking screens from the Playstation's most widely loved car franchise, Gran Turismo.
They do look pretty, although the screaming GameBrink headline stating that it's running 1080p at 60 frames per second (a feat so impressive people have exploded simply contemplating it) does sound suspiciously good. In fact, you physically won't know the full extent of the frame speed until we get some real videos -- the E3 vids hardly do it justice. The photos may be 1920x1080 (you can't have "p" unless the picture is in motion), and I hardly doubt the author's resolution claim, but I don't believe for a second that the finished game will look remotely like it. Why? No environments. One car. Nothing for the much vaunted Cell to work on. But I'll let the PS3 Fanbois (who, too, are innumerable) drool over the hope.

via GameBrink.com.

The idea of being a "hacker" has always appealed to me. The time/devotion/brainpower, not so much. That said, I'm sure some of you readers out there have the technical knowhow AND the elbow grease to hack into this lil' ol PS3 and earn yourself a $600 ($1,000 on EBay!) console.

From the site:

Own this Playstation 3 and earn it!

• The PS3 with all its default accessories
  (note: the hard disk was replaced with a 160 GB hard disk!);


• an HDMI cable;


• Linux (Fedora core 5 PPC + PS3 add-on) preinstalled, of course;


• The game "Resistance - The Fall of Man".

For the record, this is not console bashing.

This is just informative discussion of the to-be-expected reject consoles that unfortuntely made it out of the factory and into a consumer's home.

Look, poop happens. Man has been making underwear for several hundred years, and, even so, Inspector 9 occasionally lets a bad pair through.

So, this is no condemnation of either Sony or Nintendo for the broken-out-of-the-box consoles that are starting to pop up.

First, a great video of a fresh-from-the-wrapping PS3 with a nonfuctional disk drive. Pretty funny for the sound.

Next, something less flashy to present but maybe a hair more troubling: Apparently a batch of Wiis made it out of the shop with some bad mojo. Users of these consoles who attempt to download a firmware update are greeted to a fatal error message -- specifically Error Code 110213. All other non-online functions work fine, but anytime you attempt to connect to Wii's network -- pow! -- error.

Nintendo is aware of the situation and says that to fix the problem, those consoles must be returned and replaced.

Read the offical Nintendo forum thread here.

So if you have either of those problems, you know you are not alone.

Any of you GamerAndy readers had any problems with your new consoles fresh out of the box? Horror stories, anyone?

Ahhh, Sacramento, California.

Not to say it's a bad place. It has a lot going for it. It's the capital of the state. It's got Ahhnold at least for four more years. It's the hometown of Molly Ringwald.

Mmmmm... Moooolly Riiiingwald.

But as for GameStop employees, the greater Sacremento Area leaves a bit to be desired if Tauryn Robert Hodge and Gerald Anthony Keys are any example.

Hodge and Keys, both 19, masterminded a fieeeendishly clever plan (cue: wringing of hands) to score four PS3s using a five-finger discount.

But they didn't just want to steal them. That would be too easy for criminal geniuses like them.

So they claimed that a masked, armed gunman came into their GameStop store in Elk Grove, robbed them, and took off with the four PS3s.

After the reported robbery, many retailers in the area hired private security firms to man their gaming stores for fear that more rampaging masked gunmen would swoop down on their stockpiles of the console.

Authorities in Elk Grove arrested the two after their perfect plan turned out to be... uhhh... no so perfect. Police won't say what tipped them off other than to state that elements of the crime were inconsistent with a robbery. None of the missing PS3s have been recovered, yet.

Hodge and Keys face charges of suspected embezzlement, burglary and conspiracy, and Hodge is looking down the business end of a "filing false police report" charge, since he was the one who called the robbery in to police.

So, remember kids, if your buddy at the local gaming store comes up with a fiendishly clever plot to pull in "meeelions," best to remind yourself that cops are generally more clever than a criminal mastermind working at GameStop.

[From the Sacramento Bee]

Hey all. I just got an email from my buddy Jay in the UK, who dropped me the following note:

I have just completed a BrainJuicer server for Sony. One of the questions asked you to read the folowing statement and comment of how giddy it made you (paraphrase):

Imagine you own a PlayStation 3 console system that connects to an online gaming service. This service has a store where you can buy downloadable content such as short games and additional content (new maps, cars, characters. Some of this content is free and some of it you have to pay for with a credit card or game-cards purchased in retail stores (Game, HMV, Gamestation etc). Imagine that you could buy and download some of your favorite PlayStation 1 games. You would be able to choose from a wide variety of these games. You would purchase these games via the online store on the PlayStation 3 online gaming service and have them whenever you wanted. You could play these games on both your PlayStation 3 gaming system and your PSP.

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but this sounds a lot like Xbox Marketplace! They then asked if you would be prepared to pay £7.99, £4.99 and finally £2.99 for classic PS1 games. ($15.25, $9.50 and $5.70 in round American dollars).

As the flagship download for Sony's new Playstation Store, Motorstorm is a great showcase for the PS3 and the future of PS3 games.

Along side Killzone 2, Motorstorm was one of the debut trailers at E3 '05, and while the footage was prerendered, the concept was fantastic: The PS3's exceptional physics processing coupled with fluid dynamics and exceptionally detailed off-road vehicles to create a mud-flinging, parts-ejecting racer. It's sort of like an off-road Burnout, but with even greater levels of destruction.

Also, the demo is one of the first titles to show off the Sixaxis tilt functionality as a primary control mechanism.

More after the jump ...

Mario did it, Halo did it, and now Resistance has done it: They were the must-buy games at launch that totally defined the best features of the console. Sony has a surprise must-buy game out for the PS3 at launch in the form of Resistance: Fall of Man.

Like a massive iceburg, it only a small amount of what makes this game interesting is visible at first glance.

More after the jump ...

Yeppers. It's real and courtesy of our silly friends at Gizmodo.

Those silly Canadians. They're so sweet. They're so funny. They're so literal.

This is, supposedly, a true EBay Canada auction, wherein a sly seller is trying to cash in on the PlayStation 3 hysteria (or at least make a good joke) by duct-taping together a PSone and a PS2.

Technically that would make it a Playstation 3, right? RIGHT??

Look at that line. Look at that angle. See the grey of the duct tape glimering in the midday sun!

Look on this might PlayStation OnePlusTwoDoesNotEqualThree, ye mighty, and despair!

You gotta give mad props to the guy for creativity, and hats off the Canadian schools system, which apparently managed to successfully drill into the noggin of at least one Canuck that "one plus two equals three."

[Read Gizmodo story here, and thanks for the tip, Kev!]

Word of this comes from M3mnoch over at Addicting Entertainment, (a great place to find unconventional news and commentary).

He spotted an interesting trend on the official PS3 forums that was then backed up by the (I assume) EULA. Essentially it goes like this

While on the PlayStation3 forum, please keep all content related to the Playstation 3, its games and accessories, thanks.

Comparison threads about other consoles and their contents vs. PS3 aren't permitted on this board.

What's the old rule: If you got it, use it?

I kid you not, this is real. Taco Bell -- which has a virtually unlimited supply of, well, tacos -- is offering $12,500 in Taco Bell Bucks to anyone who donates a PlayStation 3 to its parent company, Yum! Brands.

The consoles will be donated to its Taco Bell Foundation, which will supply them to the Stanton, CA, teen center of the Boys & Girls Club.

The Taco Bell Bucks are redeemable at participating Taco Bell locations for food.

Just think: A lifetime supply of Nachos Bell Grande and Burrito Supremes (depending on how much you eat, I guess).

So, if your reaaaallly can't get top dollar for your PS3 on EBay, you can get "top taco."

Only one consideration, here: If you eat that much Taco Bell, you may as well have a PS3 because I'm not sure anyone will want to hang with you! Pee-yew!!

But seriously, if you're interested in exchanging your PS3 for some Mexican food -- a LOT of Mexican food -- send your personal details (name, address, phone number) to tacobellnews@tacobell.com.

[FromMacWorld via Kevin. Thanks, dude!]

With the recent (but heavily delayed) release of the PSP's v3.0 firmware, it finally looks as though you'll be able to play PS1 games on the move. Sony has stated that, starting tommorow, you will be able to download some, err, classic PS1 games.

Hi folks, Cooper Hawkes here, when the New York Times slammed the PS3 my first response was:

Who cares?

Seriously, it's the New York Times, they can talk politics and all that shit all they want. What the hell do they know about video games and consoles for that matter?  They wouldn't even HAVE a video-game desk if "Grand Theft Auto" hadn't suddenly become a political hot button.

So its review meant nothing to me.

ArsTechnica however, is a bit more in my league. It's are usually fair, severally harsh where necessary, and always on top of the game when it comes to technology.

So color me shocked when they gave the PlayStation 3 a 6 out of 10.

Snippets and commentary after the jump.

As many of you may already know, version 3 of the PSP's crippling (you can't play Doom on 2.8!) firmware has been awaiting release for quite a while now. PSP fanboys all over the world have been crying out for support of the (unreleased) camera and (just released, but PS3 necessary) PS1 games, as well as the (unreleased) GPS system.
It does, however, offer a much needed link up between the PSP and PS3, so now they can play nicely together just as Sony promised.
Joystiq has the full list of improvements, and I'll repeat it after the break.

Oh the humanity. We knew this was coming. All the jokes about the PS3 looking like a George Forman grill has finally resulted in some actual PS3 harm.

This gutted out and retrofitted PS3 now, instead of cooking up a few games, cooks up a few meat pieces -- and not with its processor either. The guys over at The Real PS3 Grill gutted out a fresh PS3 and installed an electric griddle... and cooked a few dogs and pieces of chicken to prove it worked.

[Via Engadget]

It was bound to happen.

Every highly anticipated gaming release eventually has its detractors. GamerAndy.com was the first to say that Gears of War's multiplayer sucks, even as gamers were piddling themselves with excitement on Emergence Day.

And we took heat for it... That is until everyone realized that we were right.

Now, amid all the EBay flurry and the long lines and the muggings and stabbings to get a PlayStation 3, we have our first declaration that the Sony emperor has no clothes.

New York Times writer Seth Schiesel offered up his overall impressions of the PS3. According to his piece, he "spent more than 30 hours using the PlayStation 3 over the last week or so and may have played more different games on the system -- 13 -- than probably anyone outside of Sony itself."

Isn't it great to get paid to play 30 hours on the PS3!!

After his marathon thumb workout, he soundly declares that the PS3 isn't just uninspiring but an all-out flop! From the lack of HD cables, to the "wireless" Sixaxis controller that must be intermittently plugged in, to the inability to play music within a game, to the lack of background downloading.

He writes:

"And so it is a bit of a shock to realize that on the video game front Microsoft and Sony are moving in exactly the opposite directions one might expect given their roots. Microsoft, the prototypical PC company, has made the Xbox 360 into a powerful but intuitive, welcoming, people-friendly system. Sony's PlayStation 3, on the other hand, often feels like a brawny but somewhat recalcitrant specialized computer. (Sony is even telling users to wait for future software patches to fix some of the PS3's deficiencies.) The thing is, if people want to use a computer, they'll use a computer.

It's a well-written and scathing review by someone who not only seems to know his stuff but also hoped the PS3 would be better than it turned out to be.

Considering that this is coming not from a blog or a gaming rag but from the most mainstream venue of the mainstream press, this really bodes very ill for the PS3 this holiday season.

I'm looking forward to what Schiesel thinks of the Wii.

Read the whole review here

Another YouTube video this morning. This one comes to us via SlashDot Games. Here we have a rather soothing narrator walking us through the startup of Fedora (linux) on the Playstation 3. It looks like it goes pretty smoothly, though I'm a bit curious about what appears to be a pretty low resolution for the desktop. I'd be curious to know how long the install itself takes, but that's not addressed in this video.

If you're any kind of a gamer at all, then you know the trouble with fanboys: unreal expectations and a refusal to accept any reality other than their preferred reality.

You know, I could have predicted this one.

Sony jacking with numbers may have come back to bite them in the pocketbook.

According to a local news station, Boston's mayor, Thomas Menino, says he plans to send an invoice to the Sony Style store in Copley Place Mall for city costs incurred during the PlayStation 3 launch day.

Reports note that Menino says the city is not in the mood to pay for the 12 police officers that had to be dispatched to the Sony Style store at Copley Place. Rather than pay for the officers' pay out of the city's General Fund, Menino says he will be sending a bill to the Sony Style store.

Why is it Sony Style's fault? According to other reports, the store refused to take preorders and then witheld information about how many units it would have available to line-waiters.

Some reportedly were told that there would be 50 consoles available. At 6 a.m., when the store opened, they announced that -- whups! -- only 20 were to be sold.

This prompted hundreds of people who had spent the night camping in a tremendous rain and cold to storm the store, trampling others and generally causing a riot.

Thus, the 12 officers -- and thus, the desire to recover costs.

Normally, I would suggest that Mayor Menino might want to take a break from the bong because no one could, normally, predict a riot. Surely no