PS3 Fanboy

An article published by Bloomberg today concludes that the PS3 "is gaining ground" on the Xbox 360. The article cites the PS3's ability as a Blu-ray player and software exclusives such as Metal Gear Solid 4 and LittleBigPlanet as reasons why it will "hold onto its lead" after outselling the 360 in the first five months of 2008. According to the NPD Group, the PS3 sold 1.2 million units while the 360 sold 1.12 million units. Of course, Microsoft isn't about to give up so easily. When asked about the PS3's dominance over the 360 so far this year, Microsoft spokesperson David Dennis claims the race is "far from over and we are confident that we have a winning strategy."

With help of review aggregate site GameRankings.com, website Gamefunk decided to see how many "good" games were on each of the three home consoles ("good" being defined as anything over 80%, "bad" being games below 60%). Of the three, PS3 rose to the top, with the least percentage of "bad" games, and the highest percentage of "good" games. Take a look:

• Xbox 360: 374 games: 26% good, 24% bad
• PS3: 122 games: 33% good, 17% bad
• Wii: 189 games: 11% good, 37% bad

While the software library of the PS3 is rather small, in comparison to the other two, it's more likely that a shopper buying a completely random game from the PS3 shelves will fare better than when shopping for the other consoles. While we have to endure through a bit of shovelware on our system, we feel bad for the uneducated Wii shopper, where "bad" games are seemingly the norm.

[Via Joystiq]

Is Madden's 30 fps performance on PS3 hurting Sony? Two analysts have very differing opinions on how EA's football game might be affecting public view of the PS3. UBS analyst Ben Schachter noted that: "given Madden's popularity and the volume of this debate, we think this is a more meaningful negative for Sony than investors might realize, as it gives gamers just one more reason not to buy a PS3 this year following the slip of GTA IV. It is a positive for MSFT."

However, Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter disagrees. In a statement to GameDaily BIZ, he comments: "There are obviously PS3 games that look fantastic (have you played Resistance, Motorstorm, or seen Call of Duty 4?). It's not an issue with the PS3 ... Eventually (as in next year), EA will figure it out, and nobody will care."

Microsoft has been heavily promoting Madden 2008 for Xbox 360, hoping it becomes the console of choice for what is a yearly bestseller. However, Pachter is frustrated that media that calls attention to the Madden debacle hasn't focused on something he thinks is a far bigger concern: "One would think that stupid analysts would be writing about the 360 warranty issue, and how people will avoid that box until they can be assured that they won't see the 'three red rings of death.'" Those are fighting words!

For those not in the know, parkour is essentially the running around a city and using buildings as stepping stones. The art of movement? Freerunning? Hmm, it's a bit complicated to sum up, so perhaps a video of it would explain it better. Or a fantastic movie. Regardless of our inability to describe the street acrobatics of parkour, know that it's awesome and DICE's upcoming FPS, Mirror's Edge, wants to capture the feeling of the human body doing such stunts. It's essentially moving Prince of Persia into first-person and we can dig that.

The game wants to pay attention to the body like no other FPS, taking note of acceleration and deceleration, head movements whilst running, and motion while you climb or jump. To pull off the parkour-inspired moves, you've got to set in a sequence of button-presses, utilizing some sort of "reaction time" slow motion feature. The game, you can infer, isn't about shooting people so much as it is about knowing your way around the huge levels and being able to pull off these escape stunts. Gunning someone down is the ultimate goal, but in multiplayer at least, chase sequences are going to be the fun part. We're excited to see how this one turns out!

In addition to the nifty trailer we've embedded for you, we've got some more information regarding the Square Enix title Romancing SaGa Tactics The Last Remnant. No, we're not going to blab about the characters or basic plot (other than the kidnapping of your younger sister Irena). What we've learned is that there is only one main playable character, Rush Sykes, not two as previously rumored.

Even so, expect large-scale battles with numerous personalities instead of faceless infantry. If you played any of the old Ogre Battle games (which had subtitles named after many Queen songs -- March of the Black Queen, for example), imagine that. What we mean is a "main" character surrounded by some faceless infantry. With that, you'll imagine a fairly turn-based battle system with some more cinematic "realistic" experiences, such as the morale bar and some actions to take in the middle of something else (during a fight sequence, you may get some button cues to unleash a flurry of extra moves, increasing said morale bar). That's all we're going to say for now. Enjoy the trailer and we'll keep you up to date!

LucasArts is making a game called Fracture. We've covered it once or twice before. We're really excited about it. Taking that into consideration, when we read a new preview of the title, our excitement grew even more because the terrain deformation mechanic is starting to make more sense to us. We'll explain how it works without going into all the back story -- read that if you want. What we will tell you is the visuals look sharper and resolutions higher than 720p are being considered.

You can carry two weapons at a time, along with four types of grenades. Each weapon has a primary (shooting) feature and a secondary. The secondary features primarily (get it?) deal with terrain deformation -- the machine gun will chip away at the ground, making a staircase on a steep cliff. The shotgun bullets bounce off walls and the rocket launcher creates a subterranean torpedo. Another weapon serves as a type of vacuum, sucking up dirt and debris into a gigantic ball, then rolling it into enemies for an eventual explosion. The grenades serve different purposes as well, mostly for terrain deformation. They're really cool sounding, but that's for you to read up on. Look for the game in early 2008 as well as more coverage over E3!

It's nice to see Turok come back from the horrible spiral it started to take after the first games. IGN got to test ride the dino-hunter title recently and their verdict is what we wanted to hear: "beyond sweet." Let's explain. The jungle you're stuck in on some foreign world is alive with options. Two soldiers approach your hiding place. Shoot them? They'll sound the alarm and waves of enemies will come, not to mention dinosaurs who grow hungry and like loud noises. Bow and arrow them? Yeah, but that's boring. Sneak around and knife 'em? Nah! How about you stick a silencer on your gun, aim carefully and shoot the nearby dinosaur egg nest, and watch the mother run out and feast on the intruders walking by? Now that sounds fun!

Much like plenty of other FPS titles out there, every weapon comes with a secondary fire option and each of these can be used appropriately in a multitude of situations. We hope Tek Arrows come back. Those were nifty. In addition to secondary fire on your weaponry, you'll have context-sensitive commands if you want to, er, "stealth kill" a dino, or if a dino is trying to eat your face. Sounds good, but might be a bit time consuming in those 16-player online matches complete with dinosaurs to kill everyone.

We're cautiously optimistic. The game sounds glorious, looks fantastic and from the hands-on, we get the idea the game has a lot going for it. What could ruin it? Not poor A.I., as it's being touted as something to be reckoned with. Length of the game? Nope, the online mode sounds unique and fun, too. We're not sure, but we think that this new Turok game will indeed bring the series to a new beginning and it will rock.

You know that feeling you get when your gut just tells you something is going to be good? It's usually wrong in the end, but until you know for sure it's just a great means to power the hype train? We've got that feeling about Alone in the Dark. Because they scrapped using a subtitle or a numerical indicator, it tells us they've re-imagined the franchise and will take the game down a new, hopefully scary, path. An interview with producer Noir Polloni explains more, after the jump.

The inquisitive folks over at Ripten decided to do a little research on the failure rate of current next-gen consoles. Their conclusions should come as no surprise, with the PS3 resulting in a low failure rate. What is surprising however, is the failure rate for one console in particular appears to be higher than previously anticipated. An EB Games associate singled out the Xbox 360 console by advising "failure rates for all other consoles were not high enough for EB to consider revising their policies" further claiming the failure rate of the Sony PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii to be "less than one percent." An EB Games manager reiterated the low failure rates of the Nintendo Wii by exclaiming that "zero [consoles] have come back defective." A Best Buy manager then went on record saying "a quarter to a third" Xbox 360 consoles sold, come back defective, confirming the 33% failure rate percentage. The methods used to determine failure rates for these consoles appear to be too elementary to really prove anything concrete. Nevertheless, this story allows us to breathe a little bit easier, as it continues to prove our console of choice can still fold like a champ and have a longer lifespan than that of its direct competition.

[Via digg]

Shooters! They're everywhere, like a hail of bullets aimed straight for your wallet. Most of them suffer from the "well, we're best on PC" virus, so getting word of a new shooter that has its crosshairs exclusively locked onto consoles is always fantastic news. Developers of the Battlefield titles, Digital Illusions, revealed a console-only (PS3 and 360) FPS titled Mirror's Edge that is supposedly going to shake up the genre.

Supposedly, it's going to have a cyberpunk design to it. In anime terms, think Lain except replace all philosophical and existential mumbo jumbo with explosions. If that doesn't do it for you, then maybe the anime Texhnolyze would be a better comparison. There aren't many cyberpunk movies out there besides the Matrix. So, from Digital Illusions, we'll have Battlefield: Bad Company and the futuristic Mirror's Edge to choose from. Pick your poison, or bullet.

Read the title again, then think about Blu-ray. The small fraction of people taking advantage of a console's video playback function? We're almost certain most of that market is centered on the PS3 crowd. We're driving the Blu-ray format home. The Diffusion Group, however, isn't looking at the PS3 alone, but the three next-gen consoles together. How much do people use video playback on those? Apparently, "80 percent of console owners have the option, only 30 percent realized it was part of its feature set, and only 13 percent actually utilize it." Chances are we are the bulk of that 13 percent.

We know that many parents who may buy game systems for their children are largely uneducated to the video game industry and all the functions available not only to their kids, but to themselves as well. Thus why people still have parts of their homes dubbed "dens" or "game rooms". The PS3 deserves front-and-center attention to a family's media center and these results reflect that many are not even aware of the awesomeness of Blu-ray movies. Or nobody watches DVDs on the 360 or the Wii ... well, the 360. Wii owners don't exactly have a choice.

If you're unfamiliar with TimeShift's development life, you should know it was originally slated as an Xbox and PC title. Original, fatty black n' green Xbox, we mean. It got stuck in development hell for reasons only the developers truly knew, but we now realize what was wrong. Saber Interactive was waiting. Waiting for the next-gen consoles, because what they wanted to do wasn't possible on old hardware. Forget about the full visual makeover it received, we're going to tell you some more detailed information about the game itself.

The old story, recorded dialogue with Dennis Quaid and Michael Ironside included, has been scrapped. Gone is the tragic war veteran who lost his daughter and replacing him is you, the player. Taking on a classic RPG style of unnamed protagonist, you're just a player in the war game, so to speak. If you were a silent protagonist, that'd be awesome, but unlikely. Regardless, you travel to an alternate timeline and take on an army of warriors protecting the man who changed the flow of time to make himself leader of all things gritty, dark, and somber.

A new time-control scheme lies in your suit, dubbed S.S.A.M. and given a female persona. One button controls the ability to stop, slow, or rewind time, depending on which would be most beneficial in a given situation. Using these in the levels would be nice, but the first four completed levels were completely scrapped, replaced by gigantic new ones, each with a specific purpose to advance the story. There's plenty more to discuss, like the enhanced AI, puzzle-solving opportunities and other gameplay gimmicks, but we'll stop here and let you check the rest out on your own. Shooters have to try harder to differentiate themselves from one another and this game is trying harder than most.

When you first read any hands-on material, you generally groan in disappointment because all you hear is fluffy statements about this or that. People who are given hands-on time typically won't say anything negative about a game, as that would be rude. However, sometimes you can pick out choice phrases or words that connote whether or not a game, to put it bluntly, blows. So when Games Radar posted their hands-on, we were surprised to see none of that in their hands-on of Dark Sector, recently rescheduled for next year due to a busy Fall lineup (but Summer is still completely empty).

The game is a melting pot of ideas. If we were to blurt out the influences, we'd probably scream a list similar to this: Rygar, Resident Evil 4, Gears of War, Zelda, and Metroid. You've got your spinning disc thingy that cuts people up, your third person shooting style from RE4 and the cover system from GoW and you learn new skills and solve puzzles with said skills/items like in Zelda and Metroid.

What Games Radar said about the game graphically is pleasing -- it used to be fairly ugly, but they've complimented how it has turned out. Sure, it doesn't look the killer app for the PS3 and 360, but if your level of fun slows down after the holidays, this might just give you the shot of excitement you need.

We have a love-hate relationship with these kind of articles, lest they deter into all-too-familiar fanboy territory (wink wink). Regardless, they still are fascinating reads on technology and where our beloved full-time job hobby is headed. Gamepro recently questioned a developer tasked with high-profile PS3 ports from Xbox 360 code and the response was unsurprisingly, "nobody wants to touch that issue right now." Can't say we blame them. It's becoming increasingly complex a situation, with console exclusives falling by the wayside as publishers strive to get the most out of their investment. Professing love for one platform over another just doesn't seem like it would make things easier for anyone.

An article by Dr. Dobbs Portal that ran in March, delivers an in-depth dissection about how much longer the learning curve is when it comes to developing for the Cell and how much more fruit the Cell can bear once established and competent developers get through the crux of utilizing its potential.

Thank goodness! You may be wondering why we've got our arms raised high in elation as we praise the heavens at the news of the anticipated Dark Sector getting pushed back to early 2008. It isn't that the game has hit a roadblock during production. It isn't that they don't feel the game is ready for people to play. The real reason is fairly obvious: every game known to man is trying to get pushed out the door during the holiday season of 2007. Dark Sector doesn't want to be yet another hit in your wallet or something that simply gets forgotten about. D3 wants their title to get noticed and so do we. Thanks for taking one for the consumer team, Dark Sector, and we'll see you in 2008.