Magic 97.7 100.3

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Best of E3

The Electronic Entertainment Expo is a spectacular showcase of all things video game, where developers, publishers and gamers from all over the world gather to see what the future of gaming has to offer.

Here are our E3 2011 award nominations so far.

Best Overall Game

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

E3 2011

Alright guys, lets go ahead and talk about some of the stuff that is coming with E3. Some of the biggest, being the Wii U, PS Vita, and Halo 4.

Now lets go ahead and take a look at the Wii U. There is a lot of confusing with this bad boy. And some are saying that possibly, PS3 + PS Vita - Wii U. Since they can pretty much do the same thing. Confused a little bit? Lets go into more detail.

The Wii U is an entirely new console that is backwards compatible with the Wii. A Wii U game can only be played on a Wii U system, NOT a Wii. The Wii U console will do all the rendering for the controllers and beam the video feed out to each individual controller. That takes an awful lot of bandwidth, way more than bluetooth can handle (note that the Wii U controller is reported to have two different wireless transmitters, bluetooth for the standard controller functions and a much higher bandwidth transmitter for the video and audio). For this to work with the PS3 and Vita it would have to work over the much lower bandwidth Wi-Fi connection and rendered separately by every single connected device, the PS3 console and each connected Vita. Sorry, but I can only imagine the amount of lag this would introduce. Sure, the Vita could possibly do the whole "playing a PS3 game on a handheld," but that is only a very, VERY small part of what the Wii U controller was described to be able to do. That is kinda the dilemma here. Will the PS3 + Vita have lag? Or can it hold up it's own against the Wii U? PS3 + Vita is pretty much the same thing as the Wii U. But which can do it better?

The price of a PS3 and PS Vita combined would presumably be more expensive than a Wii U and its controller, but if you are already one of the 50 million PS3 owners worldwide then $249 for the Wi-Fi PS Vita could be more appealing than shelling out for the Wii U – with the added bonus of gaining a genuine portable entertainment device that you can throw in your bag and play with away from home.

Sony certainly has experience with a setup similar to Nintendo's Wii U with its Remote Play service for PS3, which allows PSP owners to browse and stream content from their PlayStation 3 console. And though largely unheralded, Lair – one of the very earliest titles for the PS3 – allowed the player to stream the game to their PSP screen with no lag. The downside was the sacrifice of control – the PSP only has one thumbstick when the game needed two to perform adequately. But such issues won't arise with the PS Vita, given it practically has every control interface type known to man – from twin sticks to touch screens.

Of course, there are plenty of other factors to consider. No specifications for the Wii U console itself have been revealed, and the final console could well be uber powerful, play Blu-rays, vacuum your carpet – who knows? But the point is: do you want to make space for a new (admittedly tiny) box under your TV, or do you want to make room in your bag for a new handheld?

So like I've been saying, there is a lot of debate going on with this. And we'll have more details on that later.

We'll chat more later

-j-

Friday, June 3, 2011

Mortal Kombat

Well kids, we are still waiting on Panisko to write up a little somethin somethin' about the map pack for CoD: Black Ops. And there has been a lot of talk about Modern Warfare 3 and now the " CoD: Elite" Where you pay a fee to have certain benefits.. And we'll be touching ground on that a little bit later.

But right now, I wanna talk about Mortal Kombat. I've recently been playing it quite a bit, and let me tell you what, it's a nice change of pace from playing first person shooters and such. And it's a blast! Like some of the previous MK's, you unlock items by using the Krypt. And use Kombat Koins as currency. Another thing I like about the new MK is that it went back to its roots. Blood and Gore. Not like MK vs DC. A Mortal Kombat game is suppose to be rated M. Not T. There are suppose to be fatalities that make you say OH ****. And the one that comes to mind for me would be Noob Siabots. If you haven't seen that one yet, well, you are in for a surprise, let me tell you what. I know I was when I first saw it.

Another thing I've enjoyed about MK is the Story mode. It's pretty much a movie that you fight in. No joke. And the story is actually pretty darn good. I haven't completed it yet, but I'd say I'm about 85% done. I won't go into detail about the Story, so you'll have to play it to find out what happens. Lets just say you go kinda go back in time through MK1, 2, and 3 and try to change what happened. Pretty sweet.

Another thing that I can't wait to get my hands on is the Tower Challenge. There are a total of 300 challenges. That's right. 300. And that should keep you busy for quite some time. I was to go through them all. It'll take me a while.

Also, you can play online vs people around the world. I played 3 games online yesterday before one of my buddies got on, and I happened to win all 3. Lucky? Maybe so. Sonya is my main character. I remember she was also my main when I played MK: Deception. Sonya has some good moves that are quick, and can cover ground pretty quickly. It's quite handy. Other characters that I play are Smoke, Sub Zero, Kabal, and Scorpion. I can play others, but not as well. And I still need quite a bit of practice. Which hopefully I will get in today.

Well, that's all I have time for today. MK is a very enjoyable game.

I'm on PS3 if you want to play.

PSN: Deadsider07

-j-

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Long Time No Talk!

Well, sorry about the long dry spell there! We had some technical difficulties with our email, and finally got things sorted through. PHEW!

We have lots to talk about. But that will have to wait until tomorrow.

So we'll talk then!

-j-

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

PSN Password Reset Exploited. . .

Well... Sony's latest security measure may have been circumvented. Early reports suggest that Sony's request for PlayStation Network users to reset their passwords could have inadvertently exposed the network to a new set of attacks.

The exploit allows hackers to change user passwords via the PSN password reset page, using just two pieces of information – a PSN account email address and a date of birth – both of which could have been obtained in the original breach.

The exploit was initially reported by Nyleveia, but the story has since been confirmed by Eurogamer, who claim to have seen video evidence corroborating Nyleveia's claims.

As a consequence, the PSN sign-in is currently down on a number of Sony's sites.

Well, this is just wonderful. We finally get the network back up and running, and then another thing has to go wrong. I would recommend that if you have any passwords that are the same as your PSN account, change them. You don't want to risk the possibility of them getting into more then one of your things. That would be bad news. I just don't understand why people would want to keep trying to screw Sony over, and every gamer that plays on the PSN. Just stop! All we want to do is play games online with your friends. So take your hacking to somewhere else!

Anyways, I'll keep you posted on whats going on. Check back later for more.

-j-

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

PSN Customer Appreciation Program Details.

As you all know, with the PSN coming back online, we will be receiving gifts for our patience, support, and continued loyalty during the outage that we had to endure. The package will be made available to ALL existing registered PSN and Qriocity users, and will be made available shortly after we have fully restored the service. More specific details about these offers and eligibility requirements will be posted as the services go live. So my guess is within a week after the Store comes back online. Which is around the end of the month. Now here is the good part.

All PlayStation Network customers can select two PS3 games from the following list. The games will be available for 30 days shortly after PlayStation Store is restored and can be kept forever.

Dead Nation
inFAMOUS
LittleBigPlanet
Super Stardust HD
Wipeout HD + Fury

For PSP owners, you will be eligible to download two PSP games from the following list. The games will be available for 30 days shortly after PlayStation Store is restored and can be kept forever.

LittleBigPlanet (PSP)
ModNation Racers
Pursuit Force
Killzone Liberation

A selection of “On Us” rental movie titles will be available to PlayStation Network customers over one weekend, where Video Service is available. Those titles will be announced soon.
30 days free PlayStation Plus membership for non PlayStation Plus subscribers.
Existing PlayStation Plus subscribers will receive an additional 60 days of free subscription.
Existing Music Unlimited Premium Trial subscription members will receive an additional 30 days of free premium subscription.
Additional 30 days + time lost for existing members of Music Unlimited Premium/Basic subscription free of charge for existing Premium/Basic members.
To welcome users Home, PlayStation Home will be offering 100 free virtual items. Additional free content will be released soon, including the next addition to the Home Mansion personal space, and Ooblag’s Alien Casino, an exclusive game.

Now here are a few things that I would like to touch on. And in previous blogs I think I have mentioned this a couple of times. With the free games that we are receiving, we will not be needing to subscribe continuously in order to play those games. At least not to my knowledge so far. It says that they can be kept forever. So I'm guessing we can play them whenever. Now when you get the free 30 days of Plus, and you download a free game, that's when you will be in trouble when you run outta those 30 days. Because you then will no longer be able to play that specific game that you got, unless you subscribe to PlayStation Plus. Nice marketing decision for Sony. Could bag them quite a bit of new PS Plus users. Because with this trial, if you couldn't decide whether to buy it or not, this could be the stepping stone that you needed. That last little push.

A big bonus I see for those of you who already have PS Plus, is the 60 days of free subscription. 60 days. That's two months. The network was out for not even half that. You guys got the best deal yet. And if you own a PSP, you get double the games. 4 games total. Sony has done a great job giving back to it's customers. And we should all appreciate it. This is a great deal. If you have all the games in the above list already, well, I apologize. Would be nice if they could give you guys some in store credit, but looking into everyone's PS3 to see who has what would be very time consuming. Still, a great deal for everyone non-the-less.

Now one thing that I wish we could get back is that weekend of double XP we lost due to the network being down. I remember that whole weekend I was wishing that the network would be up in time for some gaming, but it never was. Sad yes, but I wish they would "reimburse" us one of them bad boys. Or maybe when we get the new pack packs, they can give us a x3 XP to make up for things. Now that, would be awesome. I know a lot of my friends would enjoy that.

We'll be having details on the new maps and such here in the next couple of days. Mr. Panisko should be writing one here soon. And when the map packs do come out for the PS3, I will be adding more to that. So far, I've heard good things about the maps. But a lot of them can be pretty camp heavy. And some are sniper friendly as well. Which is a good thing. It's about time they have more maps that you can snipe on.

Well, that's all I really have for today guys. Enjoy the network being back up and running, and have a little more patience for the store to be back up. Those rewards are right around the corner!

Contact:
PSN: Deadsider07
Diablo II: Xellioth

-j-

Monday, May 16, 2011

PSN Is Back Up And Running

Yes indeed, you heard me. The PSN is back up and running.. Which means I won't get any more crap from Panisko! Which has lasted.. Well.. Nearly 4 weeks.

According to a press release, the first services users can expect to return are:

Sign-in for PlayStation Network and Qriocity services, including the resetting of passwords
Restoration of online game-play across PS3 and PSP
Playback rental video content, if within rental period, of PlayStation Network Video Delivery Service on PS3, PSP and MediaGo
Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity, for current subscribers, on PS3 and PC
Access to 3rd party services such as Netflix, Hulu, Vudu and MLB.tv
'Friends' category on PS3, including Friends List, Chat Functionality, Trophy Comparison, etc
PlayStation Home

Now as soon as you sign in, you will automatically be prompted to change your password. And please, make sure to change it to something else. And not the same password that you had before. Don't take that chance. For extra security, your password can only be changed on your PS3 or PS3 your account was activated on. If you try to use a system where your account isn't activated, an email will be sent to your registered email account. So hopefully you know which email your account is tied to. And not one you used to use years ago.

Even though the network is back up and running, the store isn't. So if you have add ons that you would like to get, or the latest Rockband DLC, you're just going to have to wait.. About another 2-3 weeks. Sorry guys. I know that's a bummer, but at least multiplayer is up and running. That's what I've been waiting for. Just remember we do get some bonuses here soon now that the network is up and running. I'm assuming once the store kicks on, we will be able to receive our "payments" that we get for the network being down. Now PlayStation Plus will be nice to have, but when you download those free games that you get from it, the ability to play those will be gone once the 1 month trial ends. Might just be enough to get you to subscribe, who knows. I'm pretty sure that I won't be subscribing to it. It has many benefits, yes, but I wouldn't use them to their full potential. But many of you out there could. I would definitely purchase it if I bought several games from the PSN, but I don't.

I was able to play Black Ops for a bit last night. Played for about 1.5 hours, and there was something I noticed.. The people I played with were either very good at the game, or they were just horrible. There really wasn't an in-between kinda guy. It was fun though. While the network was down, I played a couple rounds of bots not too long ago. Just have to make sure I stay fresh. Honestly though, when I started playing, it felt weird. It's been too long since I've really REALLY played the game. The controls just feel weird, and the sticks on the controller, to me, felt really loose. I wasn't used to it. I play on a high sensitivity (9) so, I had to kinda readjust. I didn't change it, but it took a bit for me to get the hang of it.

Now with the network being back up and running, what is the first game that you are going to play online? And what are you looking forward to? Leave a comment below and tell me what you think.

And with that token, let's take a look at something else again really quickly. Modern Warfare 3. Yes, we did talk about. And it's almost certain the game is coming out November 8th. There is a poster now with the dates confirming it. w00t! Which means you better get to 15th prestige quickly on Black Ops before it's too late. Now there are also a couple little trailers out on IGN. They aren't much though, which is disappointing. I thought maybe there would be a little bit of game play. Another thing I am kinda bummed about in MW3 is that they are keeping the same engine. I'm hoping for the NEXT CoD, after MW3, they make a new engine to run the game. I guess we'll have to wait and find out about that one.

One more thing before I take a break, with the network being down.. I've been going back and playing old games that I thought I wouldn't really play again. And one of those would be Diablo II. I remember first playing this game back in the day when I was in 6th-7th grade. That's like 9-10 years ago or so. And it was a BLAST back then, and right now I'm having a lot of fun playing too. And to make things a challenge this time around, I'm playing Hardcore. And if you've played Diablo II, you know what I'm talking about. Hardcore means that if your character dies at all in game, then that char is dead. You are unable to play him ever again. Which means.. DONT DIE! It's tough, yes, but a lot of fun as well. Just make sure that you are careful. I'll teach you a little trick. If you are on the verge of dying.. Save and Exit. As quickly as you can. That has saved me many times, and it will save you as well. Stuck in a corner or anything? Just save and exit. And be quick about it.

Don't forget you are always welcome to send me a message and game it up.Don't be shy, my friends and I always have a blast when playing. And if you are new, we'll help ya out, not a problem. And if you are a seasoned veteran, well, lets kick some butt!

PSN: Deadsider07
Diablo II: Xellioth

That's all for today folks, leave a comment below and tell me what you think about everything. Til next time.

-j-

Friday, May 13, 2011

Leaked Info: Modern Warfare 3

First details of Activision's next blockbuster. The next Call of Duty game will be called Modern Warfare 3 and jointly developed by Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer Games and Raven Software. The release date will be November 8, 2011.

The single-player story will start directly after the events of Modern Warfare 2. The villain Vladimir Makarov and heroes "Soap" MacTavish and John Price return in 15 stages set across the world, including New York City, Dubai and Paris.

The Spec Ops co-operative mode from Modern Warfare 2 will return, as well as survival maps that sound similar to Gears of War's horde mode or Call of Duty: World at War's zombie mode. The competitive multiplayer mode will feature around 20 maps.

I'm glad to see that Spec Ops will be back. And now there will also be survival maps? That will add another thing to keep everyone addicted to the serious. Besides from the multiplayer and Spec Ops, I'm very intrigued with what the survival maps will consist of exactly. If they do it right, it could be the one of the biggest selling points of the game, no doubt about that. Kinda like an arena type thing. I don't know about you guys, but this gets me pretty excited.

Spec Ops are fun too. As I mentioned earlier in a post, I went back and did some of the old Spec Ops missions. Still very fun, and tough on Veteran. Hoping that maybe we can get more missions.

Now for the Multiplayer online. There are a couple things that I want to hit on, whether it be they take something out, or put something in.

For one, I hope they get rid of Last Stand. When you get shot and are suppose to be at 0 hp, you should be dead. Not at 1 hp on the "brink" of death, pulling out your pistol, and being invincible on the way to the ground. Total bs. Also, you shouldn't be able to knife while you are down. And another thing, what bugs me the most, is it seems like when you are falling, you can get a few extra shots off sometimes with your main weapon. That is very, VERY annoying.

Another thing I hope they implement, is when you shoot a weapon, you shouldn't come up on the radar. The only way you should show up I think, is if they have a UAV online. Why would I show in the first place when shooting a weapon? I don't think you should, but that's my personal thought. Silencers will still have their effect so people don't know where you are getting shot from. Helps keep quiet, ya know?

I want the whole money system outta the game. I want challenges to award you things, such as emblems and backgrounds, and weapon attachments! Just like in Modern Warfare 2. Black ops didn't have anything like that, and it was fun to have stuff unlock-able like that. Gives you more things to get done. And it doesn't let you have access to all the attachments possible right off the bat. I think that was kinda a bad thing to do. As soon as you can make a class, you could have any equipment and attachments you wanted, if you have the money.

Now there are pros and cons about something else that I would like to bring up. Stacking kill streaks, or not stacking kill streaks. Also, would you want the nuke back? There is a lot of debate over whether people would want it back or not. What do you think? Personally, I think it would be fun to have it back. Except that it could possibly lead to camping. Which would be a bad thing for sure. What kind of kill streaks would you want in the game? Would you want to get rid of the Spy Plane altogether because you think it's cheap? Or maybe just have kill streaks that are controlled by AI, and not yourself? Give me your thoughts on that one.

One more thing that I would to add here really quick. I WANT DEDICATED SERVERS. That is a must must. A lot of other FPS's have dedicated servers. And with the most popular and lucrative franchise of them all, I'm sure they can afford it. That would settle the problem with everything that we like to call lag. And maybe even the solution for the hit detection. Please for the love of god!

Well kids, that'll be all for today. Til next time.

Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

-j-

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Just In: Sony said...

The PSN won't be up and running for a few more days.

/sigh

More days to wait to play online

That's all for today

-j-

Monday, May 9, 2011

Sony Dates PSN Return

Well, ladies and gentlemen.. Sony has said that all PSN services should be up and running May 31st. And this can be misinterpreted very easily. Now, first, lets set things straight. The store is the last thing that will be available too all of us. So by May 31st, the store will be working. And even before that, multiplayer functionality will be ready to go before that. According to the PlayStation Blog, that is the first thing that they are working on to be ready to go. So that's always a bonus. On Friday I believe, Sony said they were in the final stages of testing that system. So my hopes are that multiplayer will be available this week. Now that's not a promise or anything, but I think they are wrapping things up with multiplayer very soon. And we will be able to play once again with our friends in different states and yadda yadda here soon.

On the other hand of things, if you have friends in the town/city that you live in, you can still play with them, if they come over and you LAN the game. Which has it's bonuses and such. I went to my brothers house a couple days a week to play. We've been playing Borderlands for a bit, and well we both are maxed out now. And have been farming the "super secret boss", trying to get pearlescent weapons to drop. Have we had any at all? NO WE HAVE NOT. And it's very frustrating. I've killed this dude, not even kidding, at least 40 times. No joke on that one. And I have yet to see one drop. Now there is the bug where you can get him to stay in once place and such, and we did that in the beginning. But now that we are both maxed, we can take him out legit. Funny story though, because I play a Siren and he plays the sniper class (Can't think of the name right now). And I have an "escape route" I guess, with my ability. Him on the other hand... Well. He dies because he can't run very quickly. And I can run pretty darn fast. If I kill a crab, well, I get a 50% run increase. I think he does too, but he died quite a bit. But in the end, we killed the guy, and it's actually a lot easier then I thought it would be. Now here are tips on killing his little minions if you don't know already.

Green Crabs = Fire Damage
Purple Crabs = Corrosive Damage
Worms = Shock Damage

So use weapons with a high elemental chance and they will go down in no time. I can crit the green crabs for 99,999 with the sniper I have. So they go down pretty quickly.

Once my brother and I got bored with that, for some odd reason, we popped in Modern Warfare 2. And started doing Spec Ops. Which was pretty fun actually. He got a new ps3 so he didn't have anything done on there. No stars. ( On his old ps3 he plat'd the game ) so we got as many missions done on Veteran as we could. Didn't do too bad either! And was fun.

Even though the PSN is still down, there are other games and other things that you can do. We even went shooting. And that was a lot of fun. First time shooting a gun in about 7 years or even more.

But lets just hope the multiplayer aspect of the PSN will be up and running soon. I don't need the store right off the bat. Just mostly the multiplayer. plzkthx.

Now when the network and such comes up.. What's the first thing you are going to do? Do you trust Sony with all of your personal information? Are you going to take off your credit card info and start buying PSN cards to buy things off the store? What game are you going to be playing first? With the updates that are happening you are required to change your password as soon as you sign on. Which is a good thing.

I believe that is all for today.

Til next time!

-j-