A recent update by Super_Secret about the Playstation 3 feature issue has mentioned the following:

“Some of you people could really do with learning to read. I specifically said it was NOT Activision. I thought I gave enough hints as to who it was without directly stating it, but I guess not, so lets try this again, except we’ll make it interesting. Here lies the answers, lets see who is clever enough to figure it out?

SXQncyBub3QgQWN0aXZpc2lvbi4NCkl0J3Mgbm90IFViaXNvZnQuDQpJdCd
zIG5vdCBDYXBjb20uDQpJdCdzIG5vdCBJbnNvbW5pYWMuDQpJdCdzIG5vdC
BLb25hbWkuDQpJdCdzIG5vdCBUYWtlIDIuDQpJdCdzIG5vdCBNaWR3YXku
DQpJdCdzIG5vdCBTcXVhcmVzb2Z0Lg0KDQphcmUgd0UgQWxsIGdldHRpb
mcgdGhlIHBpY3R1cmUgeWV0Pw0KDQpPbmUgcG9pbnQgSSB3YW50IHRvIH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As for those curious as to why I would call the whistle on this, tell me good sir, what would you do? You have a vested interest in the company you work for and you see this other company constantly getting in the way. Oh sure, on the outside everyone’s all buddy-buddy, but that’s just good business. And that’s what it boils down to – business. Why fix something that doesn’t need to be fixed when you can just **** over everyone else and get away with it? You know Sony isn’t going to make a huge fuss, they can’t afford to alienate publishers and developers (especially HUGE ones), not when Microsoft and Nintendo are happy to welcome them with open arms. Still, all our hard work and it just gets pissed down the drain because one company can’t be bothered doing some support? I ask you again – what would you do?

Oh and I appreciate all of you guys trying to spread this around, I hope that they’ll back track and enable that feature for as many titles as they can eventually, but don’t be surprised if Sony themselves denies this, after all their priority is to maintain good ties with publishers and developers.

Now, you probably wondering what all that coded BS is within that thing. Sounds like gobbily gook, right?

Enter PS3Center.net, who has apparently figured out that the gibberish is actually Base 32 code, and when translated, says something VERY interesting (and where EA comes into this story):

“It’s not Activision. It’s not Ubisoft. It’s not Capcom. It’s not Insomniac. It’s not Konami. It’s not Take 2. It’s not Midway. It’s not Squaresoft. are wE All getting the picture yet? One point I want to reiterate – there’s a difference between the games that didn’t work with in-game XMB and the games that DID work with in-game XMB but DIDN’T work well with custom soundtracks, so stop picking out the ones that simply didn’t do in-game XMB. Also, it wasn’t just ONE game that caused this, either. Although one title does come to mind and it wasn’t even what you or I would call a “Big” game. I’ll give you a hint: HPatOofP.”

What’s “HPatOofP”. Apparently PS3Center had that figured out, too: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. The game is published by EA.

This is why EA is in the center of the controversy, and why you see both our denouncement of what’s going on over on the EA Forums, and why suspicions are rampant. Coupled with the fact that Super_Secret is not just some random N4G poster looking for a laugh. He’s gotten everything about the PS3 Slim and FW 3.0 correct, so he seems to know what is going on over there at Sony.

I have tried e-mailing EA to get an answer (and this time, I think we, or SOMEONE else who’s been all over this story, will, since this one seems to be catching some fire right now). Let’s just hope this is an exaggeration or something that was a misunderstanding or whatever, because if it’s a correct assessment, then all hell will, and SHOULD, break loose (though keep in mind our denouncement about certain tactics).

[SOURCE]

“Super_Secret”, the man that broke the story about 3.0, the Slim, and more, has posted another thread on N4G about why cross game chat is not here yet for the PS3, and all blame is on a certain unnamed publisher being the douchebag about it.

Here is his post ad verbatim:

“I promised you all an update on Cross-Game chat, so here it is.

And you’re not going to like it.

As I told you before, Cross-game voice chat has been in the works for a while now. I mentioned last time that it was on target for 3.0 providing that we didn’t hit any snags. Well guess what, we hit a snag! An all too familiar snag.

Time for a history lesson.

How many of you remember what it was like before FW 2.4? That’s right – no in-game XMB. No custom soundtracks. In-game XMB was the most heavily requested feature at the time and we worked tirelessly in order to get it in (By “we”, I mean Sony Japan – as I said before, FW isn’t my department). It very nearly didn’t happen, you have no idea how difficult it is to backport a feature like that onto a system (the game) that doesn’t even know its there, but somehow we managed it. Well, for most titles. There are still the odd few titles out there that don’t support in-game XMB (”black” titles).
Custom soundtracks was another one we had working in nearly every title. Obviously it was never going to work in black titles, but about 95% of the titles that worked well with the in-game XMB, had custom sountracks working as well.

So what happened? Why is it that titles HAVE to be developed specifically with custom soundtrack support when it was working more or less just fine?

Is it because Microsoft owns the patent on custom soundtracks in games?

This is something that makes me laugh every time I see one of the less educated ones spouting it off. That’s an absolute fabrication. Patents don’t matter, Sony as a while infringes upon thousands of patents through the whole company, both hardware and software. If you infringe a patent, you pay royalties to the owner or find a different way of doing the same thing that doesn’t infringe. That’s it. Microsoft infringes upon all kinds of patents we own but that’s up to legal to sort out.

No, the reason we had to drop Custom soundtrack support like that has nothing to do with Microsoft. It does, however, involve a different company. A rather large company.
You see, one of their games happened to fall into the 5% that didn’t support in-game custom soundtracks. And they did not like this.
When they found out that a new firmware update was going to suddenly make one of their games look inferior to just about every other game released, they protested. A lot.
They threatened everything, from legal action to dropping support for the PS3 all together.

What could we do? There was almost no way of getting it to work correctly due to the way their game was made (i.e. Poorly) and we certainly couldn’t leave a broken implementation in there. That’s when the hard decision was made to remove all support for older titles and instead adopt the “opt-in” approach that, to this day, most developers simply ignore. I have to hand this to Microsoft – they did their system right from the beginning and by completely separating it from the developers, they have universal support. Its very unlikely that you’ll ever see mandatory support for custom soundtracks in games on our system, I’m afraid.
So yeah, lets nail this on the head: The next time someone starts blaming Microsoft for something the PS3 doesn’t have, tell them they’re an idiot, they don’t know what they’re talking about. Are we clear on this? This is a pet peeve of mine because while everyone’s happy to go around blaming Microsoft, the real culprits are getting off scott-free. Of course, I can’t actually name them directly or, should I get caught, I might even get done for slander (you can never be too careful), but you can figure it out – it’s not Activision and they have a poor history with the PS3.

So what has this got to do with Cross-game voice chat?

Guess.

I warned you that we might hit a snag and we did. We’ve found a couple of titles that just don’t like it. Similar to the custom soundtrack fiasco, it can cause lag, crashes, desyncronisation (very very bad when this happens), you name it. It can’t be used in these games and it just so happens that some of these games are owned by the same company I’ve been talking about above.
So we’re in a predicament: Cross-game chat is useless if only certain games support it. It’s not too bad if its just the odd one that doesn’t like it, but at this rate we’d have to drop support for the ENTIRE back catalogue, which would (As I said) make the whole thing useless.
Furthermore, we can’t rely on developers to implement direct support for it. It didn’t work with Custom Soundtracks, so why would it work here?
So right now, we’re trying every little trick in the book to find a solution that works for everyone, but don’t hold your breath on this one, so far it looks like the best you’re going to get is a gimped implementation of it that only works with a handful of new games.

Now as I said, FW isn’t actually my department and even I’m not supposed to know some of this stuff, but this is actually where we are right now. It sucks majorly, but there you have it. Depending on the end result, it could come in FW 3.1 or it could come in FW 4.0, hell it might not even come at all but rest assured they are working very hard on it. And if it doesn’t come, you know who to blame.”

The names of EA, Capcom, and Ubisoft has been thrown around as to who it was.

But my personal bet is on Valve. Gabe has not been very shy about how much he hates the PS3 and has been a lazy fuck about trying to learn anything about it. Not to mention that the Orange Box was a shit port that was outsourced by EA with little to no support from either company for it, and would be one of those “black titles” SS is talking about since it was released in 07.

What do you think? Could it be Gabe trying to sabotage (intentionally or unintentionally) the PS3 in this way, or is there someone else you’re thinking about?

Be advised, however, that this is a “rumor” until further notice.

As you are aware by now, Sony announced the Playstation 3 Slim at Gamescon 2009 along with the price cut that has been well needed for a long time. And, as many predicted, a lot of people have been pouncing on it, if you take Amazon’s top sellers list to heart.

However, a big question mark was whether or not we would see the return of backwards compatibility to the PS3. Apparently not, as it wasn’t announced at Gamescon at all (not even brought up), but Sony venomously denied it and said that it wasn’t coming back. However, with the recent spread of something involving the first two God Of War games, there is some speculation as to whether or not Sony is bluffing and trying to stop the rumor from spreading like a wildfire like the Slim did. One site said yes, another said no.

However, we got a tip from the same anonymous source (which the reason it is such will be obvious in a moment) that gave PSInsider their tips. The source gave it to him, and then PSI’s owner decided to tell us this to give another site the limelight on N4G or wherever else it ended up. The tip is this: expect BC soon, as the real reason it’s not here yet is because it’s still being play tested.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m having a big problem with trying to get my head around this Ghostbusters Ps3 vs. 360 issue. Quite frankly because I’m having some issues with how the media is taking this. I’ve read the Ars Technica article, and from what I’ve seen, they were trying so hard to dissolve Terminal Reality (TR) of any blame, making it all about the PS3 hardware (and this had absolutely nothing to do with the hardware until the AT article came up…well, that and TR trying to pass off the blame). We have TR trying to make excuses, and we have fanboys making a battle ground out of a game no one gave a shit about until this all started.

So yeah, I’m left with a few possible reasons why this is going on. Either this is something the “let’s bash the PS3 anyway we can” crowd is using because it has nothing else to use, Terminal Reality didn’t know how to program, or this was a well-crafted way to sabotage the PS3 in the worst way possible.

Read the rest of this entry »

Wow, did THIS thing start something or WHAT?

It’s been a few days since we first heard about the X-Box 360 Japanese catalog in which it mentioned the PS3 more times than Sony’s marketing department does. From saying that the PS3 was inferior in playing multiplatform games to saying that the Arcade SKU was less than the PS3 by a few hundred dollars (you know, until you want to add the propriety hard drive and everything else that comes with the Pro and Elite SKUs, then it a few hundred dollars MORE). Through all of it, we heard one very loud website called PushSquare mention something about how Microsoft is treated in the gaming media as opposed to how Sony has been lately:

“Now we know it’s only marketing, and that’s fine, but here’s our point: the gaming community holds such a double standard towards Sony these days that we’re 101% convinced if Sony had released this pamphlet we’d be sifting through hundreds upon hundreds of: “ZOMG Sony should focus on their own system not the competition, they should shut up, make some games, Sony sucks” comments. You’ve read the ones.

We haven’t come across a single comment suggesting the same about Microsoft’s tactics. Interesting eh?”

Judging from the few articles that have popped up recently alone, coupled with what I’ve seen from the past year or so, there’s so much truth to that statement that it’s scary.

Read the rest of this entry »

Oh, boy, here we go again.

Apparently, Microsoft knows they don’t have too much in the way of games in 2009. Why? Because they’ve gone and shown us why Sony is probably not wasting their money on marketing: MS does a lot of Sony advertising themselves.

Read the rest of this entry »

So Jim Sterling over at Destructoid made a very interesting article saying his opinion as to why PS3 Trophies “underachieve” in comparison to Microsoft’s 360 Achievements, citing what he thought was the “clunky” XMB of the PS3, the lack of a true identity on PSN, the “syncing” of trophies, the level system, and the gold, silver, and bronze trophy tiers illustrating how “worthless” some accomplishments are. This is all well and good, and he has every right to this opinion (which is why I’m doing a DP Thought as opposed to a Media Watch on this one. I don’t think this was a fanboyish article, even though I know Destructoid is known to have some 360-fanboyish flamebait articles in the past, and the article in question has a few fanboyish claims in it, as well).

However, I have to respectfully disagree with a lot of his points. In fact, I think that PS3’s trophies are ten times better than Achievements. Want to know why? Read on as I do this by stating my opposition to each of these points.

Read the rest of this entry »

To whoever directed me to the true video and whoever originally posted the video to YouTube, thank you.

It seems that GameTrailers has been busy whipping up another scam comparison video (age verification required to see the video through GT), this time of the upcoming game X-Men Origins: Wolverine, to be released on the Playstation 3 and the XBox 360. This is the same thing as before: GT switches up the video someway or somehow to make the PS3 version seem awfully inferior to the 360 version.

What’s the difference THIS time, though? They got caught. In the first version of the video (more on that in a minute), at around the 47 second mark (once Wolfie gets knocked off the chopper and the player has to maneuver him back onto the hood of it), you will see a slight goof in the video: A control button prompt pops up, but the PS3 side displays a 360 button. It’s the “A” button (where it should’ve displayed the geometric buttons instead). Here is the video to prove it (note that the video is HUGE as it was the HD video that was grabbed through YouTube in its original quality, thus it may take a bit to load. This was necessary as the lower quality videos pixelated the issue I’m bringing up here. By the way, no age verification needed here. Also, this is in MP4 format, so Quicktime or some other MP4 browser plugin is required).

Now, why is this the FIRST version. Because GameTrailers, after learning of the “goof”, went and stealth edited the video to correct this mistake. In the video you see on GT.com NOW, you first see a different way they display that particular scene side by side, and second, you will notice that it’s now the triangle button that pops up in the prompt.

That leads us to this picture:

This is the picture of the point of the video in question. This was dismissed by many fanboys as being photoshopped to provide a PS3 fanboy point of view.

However, this is just the firm proof of something we’ve already known: GameTrailers is a 360 fanboy haven, and it unfairly does the 360 advertising for them by making the PS3 version of multiplatform games look inferior. It’s not just disgusting that they can get away with this (they may not anymore, hopefully), but that some of the lunatic 360 fanboys are doing their damnest to cover this up or apologize for them.

I just don’t know which is worse.

This is mainly about something that we shouldn’t, in the video game industry, talk about at all. However, we are here again, and this time, it’s a lot worse that anyone could’ve possibly imagined.

When we were here before, it was about Rockstar taking fifty million dollars that was offered to them by Microsoft to create two exclusive episodes for Grand Theft Auto 4. Even though Microsoft, as their Blogger Breakfast last year, made a claim, in some way, that they paid to keep any downloadable content from reaching the Playstation 3 version, we do not know the exact details since Microsoft got it wrong before with GTA4’s multiplayer component. Rockstar did correct Microsoft then, and they also made a comment in the Official Playstation Magazine in May of last year of that they wanted the game to last for years. Simply put, they weren’t going to let the PS3 version out in the cold. We still do not know all the details of that deal, and it looks like we may never learn them.

But at least that’s more than what we can say for Bethesda Softworks. For what seems like a few games now, they have shafted all Playstation 3 owners so much that some of the most hardened 360 fanboys—you know, the ones that scream conspiracy anytime they are called out?–have cried foul over such business practices. A new “episode” of their Fallout 3 game, entitled “Broken Steel”, is set to hit the 360 and PC versions soon. This is the third DLC content available for the versions. What does the PS3 version get, however? Not a damn thing. They get, in essence, the core game and that’s it, thanks for coming. This gets worse, still, as Broken Steel is set to emphatically continue the main story of Fallout 3, as Designer Alan Nanes told Gamespot—probably without any fear that he would get a question from those jokers that he or Bethesda didn’t like—about the content.

But if you thought that was all, you were wrong. Recently, Atari had secured rights to release Fallout 3 in Australia. The game itself will be made available for the same platforms that it is on in the states. However, here’s where every sane gamer in the world should be calling for riots at Bethesda’s doorstep: A Fallout 3 Quest Pack—read: the DLC in box form, something in which a Microsoft DLC deal would not be able to stop—will also be available, but like the digital distribution method, for the 360 and PC only. Once more, the PS3 version just gets the core game and that’s it.

We do not know if this is unintentional from Bethesda, or if they simply just don’t care. Yes, we do know about their announcement at E3 2008 that they would be releasing “substantial DLC” exclusive to the 360 version, but what they didn’t say was that the Playstation 3 version would get nothing at all to expand their experience, in any way. Not that such an announcement that was televised worldwide via the media whores at G4, who by the way have yet to ask any tough question about anything Microsoft has done to “win” this console war just yet. Just by getting up on that stage and making such an announcement was a slap in the face of every gamer regardless of the platform he or she has chosen for their gaming experience. No one should get up on stage, willing or forced, and say that while they will release the game for both consoles, the right console to get the game on is THIS one. They should be treating both versions equally, and if they are not willing to do that, then they should either release it as an exclusive to a console, or get the hell out of the video game industry.

And then, of course, is the continued slaps in the face by Bethesda. Two times I have tried to contract them to get in touch with Todd Howard. However, both times I was shipped to marketing where I was to leave a “callback” message, none of which were ever returned. I later was told by Bitbag Editor in chief Torrence Davis that Mr. Howard doesn’t grant interviews. This is consistent with what the first person I talked to on my second call to them has said.

Why is this, Mr. Howard? Do you think we wouldn’t notice that all of the interviews about DLC content, save the quick one-liner mention that one of your cronies made to Torrence Davis about this, doesn’t even bring up the issue about any PS3 downloadable content for Fallout 3? Do you have the interviewer sign a NDA stating that they better not ask about any PS3 Fallout 3 DLC or even bring it up or else? Did you find out that I challenged you to an interview with me about this issue, and you never so much as e-mailed me back about it? Hell, that challenge was all over the internets. How could you not see it?

Oh wait, I know the answer to that one. You did see it, but you didn’t care. You ran, just as you and your cronies are continuing to run about this issue. Gamers want answers, and you are ignoring every single one of them. You are failing to show the world that you give a damn about them, and are instead giving all your love to the highest bigger. Mr. Howard, and I say this because I mean it, you are one of the biggest cowards ever in the gaming industry. Yes, Square Enix’s slimeball CEO Yoichi Wada is piece of work, but at least he answers a few tough questions. Valve’s founder, Gabe Newell, a man that should learn to program once in a great while, never knows when to shut up. You, sir, have yet to answer anyone about anything unless it’s a softball question. We have yet to see one syllable out of anyone that even challenges you on anything about DLC for the PS3, or even asks if you are planning anything. And you don’t go answer anyone and go through the back door with me and several other bloggers that you know will tell the truth about how you backstab gamers who support you.

Yes, about those very gamers. We should be outraged over this. Even if the 360 will be the only console you will have in your life, you should still be pissed off about this. Why? Because this is a slap in the face to an industry that we all love and cherish. If anyone thinks that we are taking this too seriously, then they are not gamers themselves, and should never consider themselves to be. These are the people that we are supporting, in an economic recession no less, with at least sixty bucks of our money that we sometimes have to slave for though hell and high water, and this is the thanks we get. We get a company that would rather hide behind their embargoes and then tel everyone not to ask any tough questions to them. We get a company that releases a version that will get nothing extra, while the other versions get everything under the damn sun. We get a company that sends an honest gamer with honest questions to marketing to leave a message and then ignore them.

And we also have a company that still somehow has its apologists. There are still those select few that think that we have no right to be angry. Anything they can use in order to justify their position has been used. The Playstation 3 got an exclusive Mirror’s Edge level, even when the PS3 was the lead console for the game and pales in comparison to the type of exclusive DLC that Microsoft had paid for (Sony never asked for the ME DLC). They say that Bethesda made the point at E3, even though they never said that the PS3 would be left out in the cold there, either. They say that Bethesda’s not obligated to give anything to the PS3 version, even when that is half their fan base, and in a way, they wouldn’t feel obligated to give the PS3 version trophy support via a patch a week or so after its release.

See, this is the same exact things that they use to justify and defend Bethesda. However, there is no more excuse for this. Microsoft’s strings do not extend past digital distribution, and we know Bethesda has given the PS3 DLC in disc form before, see the Shimmering Isles. So why isn’t this stuff on disc form that people can install on their PS3s and expand the game that way? What is Bethesda’s strategy? Simply put: Money! Either Microsoft thought of something new, or Bethesda wants more checks from the money tree itself. There is no excuse for such treachery in the industry, and those that give any to try to justify it are not gamers, but accessories. They might as well sign the damn checks or fill out the NDA contracts. Bethesda should be ashamed of this.

Hopefully now we see where this exclusive DLC as a weapon tactic is leading Microsoft. While they continue to pay top dollar to the companies that do not need the money in order to keep things off the competition or make the competition one of their own, they close down first party studios and put people out of work. They give us no real exclusive games for 2009. They give us no real reason why we should be paying 50 bucks a year for Xbox Live Gold when we can get the same core functionality of it, minus a few bells and whistles that will most likely come sooner than you think anyway, out of the PSN. They continue to shove Halo down our throats because it’s all they are currently offering. Microsoft, you are running a dangerous game with your system. Do you really want to beat Sony? Do you really want to extract revenge? If so, then you are not going to do so by running this fine line. You are emphatically cutting out the safety net from below you while performing stunts you never trained for on a trapeze up five hundred feet high from pure concrete. First parties are what show off your systems, and third parties should just be what the first parties see. You really need to learn this practice and at the next E3, forget about Sony’s franchises and worry about yourselves. You have gold mines in Killer Instinct and Perfect Dark just waiting to be plucked that you’re sitting on. Please, no more DLC, because you do see what kind of monster you end up creating. You may be enjoying this now, as if you should enjoy killing the game industry with this kind of BS to begin with, but what if tomorrow, Square Enix makes a huge announcement that they changed their minds about Final Fantasy 13 DLC and they want to give the PS3 version substantial content time and time again while you get none? Hell, Bethesda is getting away with ignoring half of their fan base in favor of the highest bidder, so why shouldn’t anyone else employ the same business practices.

I am also hopeful, though I am not holding my breath for this to happen as there is always at least one, that people don’t take this as a fanboy rant. I do not like this move on the part of Bethesda, and I would be equally applaud if this was Microsoft left out of the cold. Again, to those that dare to bring up Mirror’s Edge, save your breath. You were already told the reason why you shouldn’t.

This is a call to the media: Do your damn job! To hell with the embargoes! Bring the situation up anyway, because you’re our checks and balances.

And to Bethesda, it’s time for you to put up or shut up. Either support all versions of Fallout 3 equally, or get your asses out of the gaming industry, because we don’t have to spend our time or money on you. Unlike the media, you can’t force us to spend our money on you, and there are other more deserving people we can give our money to. Those that give more of a damn about this industry than you apparently do.

Good night, and good luck.

This is why I emulate this guy on this site and in other places. He knows what he’s talking about.

On Countdown with Keith Olbermann on MSNBC last night, “KO” laid the smack down on FOX News’ Glenny (or, as he called him, Harold Hill)  concerning Beck’s assertion about a Pittsburgh, PA shooting. Keith does a better job than I can with explaining it, since I don’t know all the details about the crime.

But Beck is “Worst”, and just listen to what Keith brings up in order to slam Beck.

NOTE: The video may play an ad first before going to the actual video, and this is the entire Worst Person’s segment from last night.

Bliss, isn’t it.

UPDATE: For those interested, here’s the story (from Pittsburgh’s CBS affiliate KDKA 2’s website) that led to the Beck quote.