- Lullacry - Unchain
- Pinback - Boo
- The Blow - True Affection
- Cross My Heart - Infinity Doesn't Live Here Anymore
- Nina Gordon - Tonight and the Rest of My Life
- Team Sleep - Blvd Nights
- Systems Officer - Hael
- Ladyhawke - Manipulating Woman
- Outkast - Hey Ya
- Lacuna Coil - Stars
- Phoenix - One Time Too Many
- Placebo - Space Monkey
- The Hillary Step - No Good Reason
- Postal Service - Such Great Heights
- Tarja Turunen - Ciaran's Well
- Other Men - In This Wind
- Reggie and the Full Effect - Smith & 9th
- Jimmy Eat World - Over
- The Kite-Eating Tree - Hollywood Hates You
- Iced Earth - Behold the Wicked Child
Monday, June 20, 2011
Playlist 6/20/11
Here's another playlist, generated from shuffling my MP3s on my PSP. There's some good stuff here.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
PlayStation Vita
A few months ago, I posted an entry to my wishlist about the PSP2, or NGP. Well, yesterday, at Sony's E3 keynote, the NGP got its official name: PlayStation Vita. I know, it's kind of a terrible name (though not as bad as Wii U). Vita means "life" in Latin, so maybe they're taking a stab at gamers, whose lives revolve around things like this.
But, silly name or not, I'm as jazzed as ever for it to come out. This is going to be a powerful little contraption. There will be two versions of the system released. The first, Wi-Fi only model will be $249. The second one, which is Wi-Fi/3G support, will be $299. That may seem steep to a lot of people, but to someone whose life revolves around things like this....ahem....it seems pretty worth it. The only downside is that they announced AT&T as the official service provider for the Vita. I'm not too jazzed about that, but what can I do. I have to own this. It's not optional.
There are plenty of little teasers and trailers about new games for the Vita, but the one that impressed me the most was the video for LittleBigPlanet, so I've included that here. It looks like it will be an amazing experience. While it's unfortunate that the user-generated content won't be ported, at least any costume DLC you have from LBP and LBP2 will be.
Enjoy!
But, silly name or not, I'm as jazzed as ever for it to come out. This is going to be a powerful little contraption. There will be two versions of the system released. The first, Wi-Fi only model will be $249. The second one, which is Wi-Fi/3G support, will be $299. That may seem steep to a lot of people, but to someone whose life revolves around things like this....ahem....it seems pretty worth it. The only downside is that they announced AT&T as the official service provider for the Vita. I'm not too jazzed about that, but what can I do. I have to own this. It's not optional.
There are plenty of little teasers and trailers about new games for the Vita, but the one that impressed me the most was the video for LittleBigPlanet, so I've included that here. It looks like it will be an amazing experience. While it's unfortunate that the user-generated content won't be ported, at least any costume DLC you have from LBP and LBP2 will be.
Enjoy!
Friday, June 3, 2011
PlayStation Store
Well, it's been quite a while since I've updated this blog. A lot has happened. In case you don't follow these sorts of things, Sony's PlayStation Network was attacked by hackers, resulting in one of the largest security breaches in history. Something like 77 million PSN accounts were compromised in the attack. If you have a PSN account, your personal information was stolen.
These attacks left the PSN and other PlayStation related services like Qriocity offline for nearly six weeks. For over six weeks, there were no updates to the PlayStation Store. We couldn't play games online, or even couch co-op games like Sacred 2: Fallen Angel, as it requires that you sign in to the PSN on each profile when you play in co-op mode. The breach cost Sony $171 million. And probably more, in the long run, since many people jumped ship and committed to the 360 in response to the outage.
Now, finally, the last bit of Sony's service is restored, with the PlayStation store coming back online yesterday. There will be updates every Tuesday and Friday until they catch up. A lot of people are criticizing Sony for the whole debacle. Some say they even deserved it for antagonizing the hacking community by suing George Hotz for jailbreaking the PS3 and posting the root keys on his website.
My feeling on the matter is that while Sony mishandled the issue when it came to swift response and communicating with it's customers, at the core, they were victims in this. They didn't deserve to be attacked in this way. They were protecting the security of their hardware, and the health of their assets, as any business would. Why should they be targeted. X-Box 360 fanboys act as if their precious Microsoft wouldn't do the exact same thing if their business was threatened in that way.
What pisses me off the most about this, though, is that the real victims were the 77 million people whose accounts were compromised, and whose enjoyment of their personal property was limited by thoughtless, selfish hackers. If you manage to hack the PS3 to install custom firmware, then great. But don't distribute that information to everybody. Because it's the fans that suffer. We couldn't sync trophies that we earned. We couldn't play games online that we purchased. We couldn't download new games and DLC that we wanted, and that 360 and PC gamers got much earlier. It's not fair. If you don't like the way Sony does business, just don't do business with them. But don't infringe on my right to do business with them.
Sony is trying to make good on their promises to compensate it's customers. I for one think they've made some good choices, for the most part. First of all, they are offering one full year of free identity theft protection. They've also announced (and begun rolling out) a "Welcome Back" deal. This deal consists of an additional 60 days of PlayStation Plus membership to subcribers, and various free content. I have read that PlayStation Home users will get around 100 free virtual items for their Home spaces and avatars, though I haven't been on that service yet since it was restored.
The free content that I'm sure about (for North America, anyway) is for the most part pretty good stuff. First of all, you get to choose any two from the following list of PS3 games:
You also get your choice of two from a list of four PSP games. Here's the list:
The Video section of the PS Store has three movies available for free rental, in Standard or High Definition. I'm not sure if these are the only free rentals forthcoming, or if they're going to do more on the following weekends. This is the only part of the Welcome Back package that was disappointing. Here are the three movies:
I feel bad for the people that actually already own all the games available for compensation. I know there are more than a few people in this situation. That's the danger of them offering some of the more popular titles. Maybe Sony should have just given everybody a sizeable credit on their PSN account, available for them to spend any way they see fit. But they didn't. At any rate, I think Sony is at least trying to do the right thing for their fans and supporters, and I applaud them for it.
These attacks left the PSN and other PlayStation related services like Qriocity offline for nearly six weeks. For over six weeks, there were no updates to the PlayStation Store. We couldn't play games online, or even couch co-op games like Sacred 2: Fallen Angel, as it requires that you sign in to the PSN on each profile when you play in co-op mode. The breach cost Sony $171 million. And probably more, in the long run, since many people jumped ship and committed to the 360 in response to the outage.
Now, finally, the last bit of Sony's service is restored, with the PlayStation store coming back online yesterday. There will be updates every Tuesday and Friday until they catch up. A lot of people are criticizing Sony for the whole debacle. Some say they even deserved it for antagonizing the hacking community by suing George Hotz for jailbreaking the PS3 and posting the root keys on his website.
My feeling on the matter is that while Sony mishandled the issue when it came to swift response and communicating with it's customers, at the core, they were victims in this. They didn't deserve to be attacked in this way. They were protecting the security of their hardware, and the health of their assets, as any business would. Why should they be targeted. X-Box 360 fanboys act as if their precious Microsoft wouldn't do the exact same thing if their business was threatened in that way.
What pisses me off the most about this, though, is that the real victims were the 77 million people whose accounts were compromised, and whose enjoyment of their personal property was limited by thoughtless, selfish hackers. If you manage to hack the PS3 to install custom firmware, then great. But don't distribute that information to everybody. Because it's the fans that suffer. We couldn't sync trophies that we earned. We couldn't play games online that we purchased. We couldn't download new games and DLC that we wanted, and that 360 and PC gamers got much earlier. It's not fair. If you don't like the way Sony does business, just don't do business with them. But don't infringe on my right to do business with them.
Sony is trying to make good on their promises to compensate it's customers. I for one think they've made some good choices, for the most part. First of all, they are offering one full year of free identity theft protection. They've also announced (and begun rolling out) a "Welcome Back" deal. This deal consists of an additional 60 days of PlayStation Plus membership to subcribers, and various free content. I have read that PlayStation Home users will get around 100 free virtual items for their Home spaces and avatars, though I haven't been on that service yet since it was restored.
The free content that I'm sure about (for North America, anyway) is for the most part pretty good stuff. First of all, you get to choose any two from the following list of PS3 games:
- Wipeout HD/Fury
- Little Big Planet
- InFamous
- Dead Nation
- Super Stardust HD
You also get your choice of two from a list of four PSP games. Here's the list:
- Little Big Planet PSP
- ModNation Racers PSP
- Pursuit Force
- Killzone: Liberation
The Video section of the PS Store has three movies available for free rental, in Standard or High Definition. I'm not sure if these are the only free rentals forthcoming, or if they're going to do more on the following weekends. This is the only part of the Welcome Back package that was disappointing. Here are the three movies:
- Ghostbusters - This is the only one that I bothered downloading. Sure it's sort of a modern classic, but it's a movie that nearly everybody has already seen. Sure, it was pretty good, but it seems a bit weak as a compensation for six weeks of having no PSN or PS Store at all.
- Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within - Another movie I've already seen. It was graphically quite impressive, but completely weak in every other way. Still, I can kind of understand it being picked. It is sort of tailored for gamers. But if they were going to cater to gamers, they could have at least chosen Advent Children.
- Bad Boys - Yet another movie I've already seen, and I wish I could have the time back. I mean, I like Will Smith as much as the next guy, but Martin Lawrence? Really? That guy's a tool. I'd rather make sweet love to a live electrical socket than see this movie again.
I feel bad for the people that actually already own all the games available for compensation. I know there are more than a few people in this situation. That's the danger of them offering some of the more popular titles. Maybe Sony should have just given everybody a sizeable credit on their PSN account, available for them to spend any way they see fit. But they didn't. At any rate, I think Sony is at least trying to do the right thing for their fans and supporters, and I applaud them for it.
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