Well according to the WordPress stats, the interwebz went crazy for our blog during August. It seems to be all down to Spawns post about the PS3 Slim. Traffic was averaging about 300 hits per month since the blog started but spiked up to over 10,000 in August, that’s a big jump! It is dipping down again now. Kudos to SpawnSeekSlay for igniting some traffic….you were probably lucky with the timing, lets see if you can do it again? lol
Spike in traffic during August on FNG
Heard an interesting article on one of my podcasts – apparently the makers of Ghostbusters have released a patch for the PS3 that ups the resolution to match the 360 version?! Weird! What an admission of crappiness that is! “Oh, sorry guys, here’s a patch that makes it look like it should’ve when we released it” Duh! I can’t say I’ve ever heard of this before. The interesting discussion this brings up is that the consensus on the podcast was that no-one seems to be playing this game any more, it’s off the radar already. It seems to me that the lifespan for games is just getting shorter and shorter, there are more hardcore gamers out there who complete games in days instead of months, and there’s more and more games actually coming out.
Your thoughts on games lifespans these day?
What I want is an App that keeps an up-to-date list of all of the games that have Trophies. I don’t need any of the other stuff, just the List. The List would be accessible OFFLINE and that’s the key.
I want to be able to walk into a games store and be able to look up ON THE SPOT on my Touch whether or not a game has Trophies (or Achievements too for that matter), without having to be online. There are a lit of games out there which seem right on the cusp of having or not having Trophies and it would be handy to know.
Not an issue for iPhone owners though.
There is quite a bit of genre blending going on in third person action games these days. The trend is toward large open world games that try to do everything. Games that combine shooting and melee combat, RPG, and stealth elements, all in the same game, are becoming the norm. These innovations have produced some awesome games, but I also enjoy third person action games that are more linear and focus on melee combat (otherwise known as hack ‘n’ slash). Luckily there are a number of these due for release at the end of the year. Here is a list:
Bayonetta
From the maker of Devil May Cry and Okami, Bayonetta’s combat revolves around the use of combos delivered by both melee and long ranged attacks. Game play looks super fast and smooth.
Darksiders
Exploration and puzzles feature as much as combat in this one. Quite a cool art style, with big over sized badass characters.
Dante’s Inferno
Tame huge beasts and ride them to fight enemies. The tortured environments of hell are set to be the star of the show.
God of War 3
The God of War series reigns supreme in the hack ‘n’ slash genre and the level of hype for GOW3 is off the scale!
Nier
This is Square Enix’s crack at the genre. The competition is formidable, it will be interesting to see if they can measure up!?
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
Patrick Stewart and Robert Carlyle’s voice acting alone should make this game worthwhile and Hideo Kojima’s involvement will mean it has amazing production values. It could be the best of the lot!?
The Last Guardian
There’s still a lot of mystery surrounding this one, but the pedigree of Team Ico is all that’s needed to create anticipation.
Worth a mention:
Brutal Legend
An open world hack ‘n’ slasher by Tim Schafer who has the dubious honour of making the highest rated game to sell the least number of copies (Psychonauts). Jack Black voices the main character and Ozzy Osbourne also features in this Heavy Metalfest.
Assassins Creed 2
Doesn’t really need any explanation and more an open world action adventure than hack ‘n’ slash? but I’m really looking forward to it.
Although all the games are looking like they will be extremely high quality, I won’t be able to get them all. At the moment my picks are Dante’s Inferno and Darksiders mainly because I’m attracted to the art styles of both the games. Dante’s is really gritty, dark, and twisted, and it looks like they’ve nailed the fire and brimstone atmosphere of hell perfectly. Darksiders is a lot more colourful and just looks like an epic apocalyptic world to explore. I’m sure GOW3 will be fantastic and will no doubt be a day one purchase when/if I get a PS3.
A little boy waits… I mean what’s wrong with me? I’ve got a cool apartment. Excellent fashion style with my new MotorStorm jeans, awesome Diesel hoody and wicked cool spiked hair so I should have friends constantly over? It’s always sunny here too and I have an awesome harbour view! If people don’t like the sun I could always buy the Visari Throne Room for something a little more sombre?
I know things are still in beta around here but hell, if this is beta it’s pretty damn rock solid for a beta. Sure my couch has occasionally flown out across the harbour but only after a lot of effort to do so. Mostly things are very stable.
I wonder if the PS3 dropping in price will help at all? Maybe after Xmas there might be a few more bums on seats? Gotta have someone to show my ninja costume off to. If nothing else it’s an excellent environment to voice chat in where multiple people can get together and geek out on all the latest gaming news and indulge in a little virtual cosplay while they’re at it. It’s also free and although a lot of the content costs a few bob a lot of it is also free. Everything you can see in my apartment including the apartment itself and what I’m wearing was free. Where else do you get free Diesel clothing?! My ninja costumes were also free. When you buy Batman: Arkham Asylum you even get the Bat Cave free! How cool is that? Some stuff you have to pay for, like the Killzone 2 content but there’s definitely enough free stuff to keep any tight arse more than happy and I’m sure one day the seats of my apartment will be filled with visitors.
Here’s a run down of the videogame related apps I have on my Touch.
PS3 Trophy guide
Features:
Lists most games available trophies
Displays info on how trophy is achieved
Displays games cover art
Publisher & Developer details
Overview of the game, link to its official website and trys to search YouTube for the trailer.
Pros:
Simple and direct, mostly works, the overview page is a nice addition and best of all it’s free.
Cons:
It doesn’t sync with tour PSN account so it doesn’t know which trophies you have, it simply lists all of those available.
You have to scroll down the entire list of games to get to the one you want. Hope your not looking up X-men or Warhawk [scroll scroll scroll scroll]
Also it’s free, which means the odd add pops up.
iTrophies
Features:
Basically a portal to your PSN details including list of games you’ve played and the trophies you’ve achieved.
Displays your friends list, shows their online status and total trophies.
Trophy leaderboard showing trophy totals for all friends in a reorderable list.
Trys to search YouTube for help on achieving a particular trophy.
Pros:
Very nicely designed app and does what it does very well.
Syncs with your PSN account giving the most up to date trophy data and friend status.
Only $2.59
Cons:
Takes a while to open while it syncs to your PSN account.
Doesn’t list trophies for games you don’t own.
Doesn’t do a full game by game trophy comparison with friends.
It costs $2.59.
CM Guide
Basically a portal to ConsoleMonster.com’s news and reviews but it also has achievement and trophy lists.
Pros:
It’s the only app I have that lists both achievements and trophies.
Great interface that lets you quickly drill down to the game you want without excessive scrolling.
Includes up to date news and over 500 games have reviews.
Only $1.29
Cons:
It doesn’t sync with your PSN accounts friend and trophy lists etc.
It costs $1.29 which is a bit rich since it’s basically one big add for ConsoleMonsters.com
IGN
A portal to IGN’s reviews and game guides.
Pros:
It’s free but add supported.
It has full written reviews as well as some video reviews
The guides are frigging excellent, include plenty of images and as well as complete play throughs and secrets. These guides really are amazing. Ross, check out the highly detaled blast shard location maps and descriptions if you get really stuck!
Cons:
It’s free but add supported?! Come on, it’s one giant ad for IGN already?! Why MORE ads?! Not all the ads are to follow IGN on twitter either. Some are for other sites.
So that’s it for now. There are no doubt Xbox equivalent apps for the Playstation specifics apps above that will function just the same, cost the sane etc. There are also some other apps I haven’t tried out such as the one that views GameFAQs.com but with these apps combined I can do everything I need to. Let me know of any others you may have come across.
UPDATE: Here’s a screen of the excellent iNXES that lets you load your Xbox live buddies and keep up with what they’re doing while you’re out and about…
Here’s an iPod Touch App that us quite game-related. (yes Nick, it is interesting for you too, soon you will be part of the brethren). It contains a bit of everything, news, reviews and also both the Achievements and trophies. Very handy, check it out!
Well ive been following this topic over the past month and as time goes on the information, pics, vids just keep coming.
Its easy to speculate but its all adding up to only one thing really, the Slim is coming!!
This things more leaky than the leaky homes debarcle:
-Days ago Sony announce their plan to stop the production of their 80GB PS3. Sony will announce the PS3 Slim and its Gamescom press conference in Cologne on 18 August. That’s just 9 days after the 80GB PS3 stops selling in Japan (News Here)
-Video leaked to YouTube of a possible?probable PS3 (Video here)
-PS3 slim on the German Amazon site.. I actually saw this site myself and now i notice its been removed ? suspicious lol (Site/Pic Here)
Heres a few other Bulletins in case you still dont beleive…
GameSpot
Kotaku
Ars Technica
The twittering has started in full force. It’s many things from micro blog to multi way chat and it’s a form of txting including 1 to 1 and 1 to many texting. Just like when tweeting from the website there’s many codes you can use when tweeting from your cell but first a little overview on setting up your cell.
You activate a cell or “device” in Twitter parlance in the settings tab at http://www.twitter.com/devices. This will then send a txt to your cell for you to reply to to verify yourself. You will get a four digit phone number to send your tweets to. Add this to your phone book.
The next thing I did was set it up so that your tweets got forwarded to my phone. You do this on a per person basis and the default is off so you’re not going to get spammed (to much) 🙂 You do this in the list of of people you are following at http://www.twitter.com/username/Following. Click the little cell phone icon under the settings column for anyone you want to get spammed by 😉
A quick word on what this all costs. Basically it’s free for any tweets you receive?! HOW?! How do they make enough money to pay for the millions (billions?) of tweets going out to cells?? How do they make ANY money?? As for the replies, they cost whatever your normal fee per text is. In my case I have 600 txts to use in a month! That’s a LOT of tweeting!! 🙂
Now onto the codes you’re most likey to use from your phone. The usual ones such as @reply, @mentions and RT work just the same from your cell but there are others that are useful too. Here’s the ones I use…
Start a new text with “d username” to send a message that only that person will see. If a person has set you up to receive your tweets to their cell this will act like a 1 to 1 txt.
Send “off” to the Twitter txt number and you will stop receiving any tweets to your phone but you will still get direct messages. This is very useful when you’re having a massive multi way conversation on Twitter at your computer so you don’t need your phone going nuts right beside you. Send “off” again and you will stop getting direct messages too.
The opposite also works of course. Send “on” once to start receiving direct messages again and send “on” again to start receiving all tweets (from those that you have activated).
So that’s about it. There’s more codes than that but these are the most common ones I use. Other tips include adding peoples user names into your predictive txt dictionary for quicker typing if them. Also remember that tweets can only be 140 characters long whereas txt’s are 160 characters long. My phone helpfully starts counting down the remaining characters once I hit 20 remaining characters so that helps me keep inside that limit.
Know anything else? See you in the comments 🙂
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