TimNC.com
Life – Computers – Games – Cars

Back in 2006 I spent a month in Tokyo working with Sega on a Texas Hold’em game machine. Someone sent me an e-mail saying they saw me on the Impress Watch website, which is a technology news website. I was at a Sega private show where they demo new machines for buyers, and my picture was taken and put in the article. A link to the article can be found here.

Since I got the PS3 I decided I should check out the PlayStation website forums and stuff.  When I tried my old Underground login name and password it worked.  I haven’t logged into this thing in years.  I went to update my profile to change from my old spam filled e-mail address to my new e-mail address, and it told me it was already taken.

 Then it dawned on me…. when I registered the PS3 it created a new account with my new e-mail address.  Ooops!

Well, maybe I can register the serial number on my old account.  After all it’s a member of the Gamer Advisory Panel…. wait a second when I click on G.A.P. it says “BY INVITATION ONLY …. If you feel you received this message in error, please contact Customer Service (800-345-7669) with your first and last name, email address and PSU number (if known).”

 So I decide to call the number and explain how I have two accounts and I need them combined and for some reason I can’t get access to G.A.P. which my uneditable Underground profile clearly says I have been a member of since 2002.  The nice person I spoke to on the phone said that they had nothing to do with the website or the Underground or G.A.P. and that I needed to go to the Contact Us link on the website and send them an e-mail about it.  So…. I did exactly that.  Approximately 36 hours later I got this response:
Hello Tim,Thank you for writing us.Please email the Customer Support Department of the Gamer Advisory Panel directly regarding G.A.P.
account questions. community_support@playstation.sony.com

If you have further questions regarding this message, please refer to your email case
number:4939584.

Byron
Multimedia Specialist
Sony Computer Entertainment America
Consumer Services Department

Additional Support Resources
———————————————
PlayStation.com Knowledge Base: Browse through hundreds of helpful FAQ articles at our Knowledge
Base at PlayStation.com. To begin, please click on http://playstation.custhelp.com

PlayStation.com Support Page: You will find helpful content divided by our PlayStation(R) product
lines. Please visit http://www.us.playstation.com/Support and select the PlayStation product of
your choice to learn more.

Original Message Follows:
————————-

Consumer Name: Tim Whitaker
Consumer Email: xxx

Message from Consumer:
I’m trying to get back involved in the G.A.P. after purchasing a PS3. I realize now though that I
have two PlayStation Underground accounts. My old one is yyy and that was linked to
my G.A.P. access. My new one is xxx and that was through registering through my
PS3. After I realized what I had done, I tried to change the e-mail address on my old account but
it won’t because of the new account. I also cannot gain access to G.A.P., and it told me to call a
1-800 number. I called the number and the person I spoke with said I needed to send an e-mail
through this site.

I want to have one account with my new PS3, my PS2 and my PSPs all together and I still want to be
part of the G.A.P. What do I need to do to fix this?

Okay…. so uhm…. I just forwarded my original e-mail to the new address I was just given. So who wants to make some bets that this will not be resolved and I won’t be a part of the Playstation community?

I’ve been putting this off for too long.  At first it was because I simply didn’t have time to play with the thing.  Then I wanted to make sure I did EVERYTHING so I could be thorough in my review.

I’m too lazy to take pictures this time, and quite frankly if you don’t know what a PS3 looks like by now then you should Google it.

First Impressions
Wow this thing is big.  It’s a lot bigger holding it in your hands than looking at it through a glass cabinet at GameStop.  It feels like I’m holding a major piece of hardware.   Looking at all the sides everything looks pretty straight forward and I shouldn’t even have to bother with the manual for hookups.

Hooking It Up
Using a Monster HDMI cable I plugged it in to my last available HDMI port on my Sony KDF-50E2000 LCD projection HDTV.  For the first time I got this small hopeful thought in my head: “I’m using a Sony product with a Sony product.  Maybe something magical will happen?”.  All I plugged in was the HDMI connector and power.  Pretty simple.

 Turning It On
The PS3 has heat sensitive buttons for power and eject.  Pressing your finger against the power icon on the box turns it on.  I really like the startup with the sounds of a symphony warming up for a concert.  I was confronted with choosing a user to log in as (this is a PS3 I bought from a friend, and thus he had stuff on it already).  After logging in as one of the users, I looked around the familiar shell.  It’s just like a PSP.  I went to System to look for a System Restore or a format option.  I want this box to be like it’s brand new.  I found what I was looking for, and will always regret not choosing the “quick” format… it took over 4 hours to format the 60 gig drive.  After the reboot I did the initial setup and it figured out the best quality video for my HDTV.

Networking
Setting up the wireless networking was easy, probably because I’m so use to doing it on the PSP.  I was on my wireless network in less than a minute.

Creating A Playstation Account
Creating a user for the box is easy.  Creating an online account seemed pretty convoluted to me.  I also started squinting a lot.  Why is the text so small?  In fact the icons are small also.  The ratio of icon size to screen size is way different than that on the PSP.  Entering in all the text to create the account also became a hassle.  I grabbed my old Gameshark USB keyboard I got for playing Socom on the PS2 and plugged it in.  It instantly worked and I was typing away through the rest of the screens.

Playing Games and the SixAxis Controller
First game I tried was Resistance: Fall of Man.  It’s really not impressive.  I was spending more time thinking about the new SixAxis controller than playing the game.  It’s so light it feels cheap.  I mean really cheap, like it’s hollow or it’s a demo for a GameStop floor in case someone is going to steal it when they get home they realize there’s nothing inside and it doesn’t work.  It also doesn’t feel sturdy as I can bend it slightly with both hands.  I like the changes to the L2 and R2 buttons, they are more like triggers now. 

 So back to this Resistance game… why isn’t shooting the gun using R2?  It feels more like a trigger, and I feel more inclinded to use it to shoot.  Instead R1 shoots and R2 gives you weapon selection.  Seems backwards to me. 

I just can’t get into Resistance, but I really want to play Tekken 5 Online.  So off to the Playstation Store.

Playstation Store
Welcome to the worst thing that Sony could have possibly done to shoot themselves in the foot.  The Playstation Store is HORRIBLE.  Maybe the 360 XBox Live Marketplace has me spoiled.  Even XBLM gives me trouble finding things from time to time.  But the PS Store is just the worst ever.  If you haven’t seen it, let me explain.

It’s a web page.  It uses the built in web browser for the PS3.  Did I say it’s a web page?  I meant to say it’s a poorly designed web page.  Navigation is horrible, having to follow the little mouse pointer from option to option.  Some of the pages use javascript to “scroll” through titles you can download, and you can’t tell if that’s what happened or if you are on a new page.  So sometimes I hit back, and it takes me back to the main page instead of the previous page I was looking at.  On some of the pages you have a button on the top left to go back to the main page, but it’s missing from a lot of the pages that truely need it.  Also, after making a purchase it dumps you back to the PS3 shell if you choose to “download in the background”.  What if I want to buy more stuff?  Now I have to open the store again.

The only thing that would make the Playstation Store worse is if it didn’t exist at all.  I really hope Sony takes some lessions from Microsoft or even Nintendo for delivering online content because this is just terrible.

Oh yeah, the download speeds are horrid also.  And selection… what selection?  They have 1/10 the content the 360 or the Wii has in terms of downloadable games.  Also, you can demo online downloadable games on the 360, you can’t for PS3.  So do I really want to buy Tekken 2?  OK I do so I can play it on my PSP, but really I’d like to see what it looks like first.

Tekken 5 Online and Warhawk
These are by far the most fun to play on the PS3 for me so far.  The online play is excellent.  So far I haven’t had any strange connection problems in either game, unlike Street Fighter II Turbo on XBox Live Arcade.

Blu-ray
I bought a Blu-ray movie just to see what it’s like.  I got Ghost Rider at GameStop used because it was the cheapest one ($14.95).  I’m impressed with the video quality.  It’s HD.  It’s no different than watching HD from other sources.  I don’t see any obvious difference between Blu-ray and HD-DVD.  It’s clean and crips, it never skipped or pixilated or anything.

Playing Media and More Frustrations
So every media icon has an option to “Search for Media Servers” which is pretty nifty.  On a Windows PC with Media Player you can enable sharing of your library, and the PS3 will find the sharing computer.  Problem is that with video I haven’t found an AVI file that works YET.  Even formats that the 360 supports, it doesn’t.  MP3s play fine, but when I tried to play a WMA it told me “WMA playback is not enabled.  Go to [Settings] > [System Settings] and enable WMA playback.”  OK… so the system is capable of playing it, but it won’t unless I go to Settings and tell it to do it.  That makes lots of sense.

Remote Play
So I plugged one of my PSPs into the PS3 and enabled Remote Play.  I can connect to the PS3 now through my wireless network, but only if the PS3 is on the “Remote Play” screen.  While this is nifty, it’s not exactly practical.  The only thing I can do is run through the PS3 menus and have it tell me I can’t do this or I can’t do that.  So far the only thing I have been able to do is play movie trailers I downloaded from the horrid Playstation Store, and submit a friend request.  I would like to experiment with getting to my PS3 through the internet when I’m not at home, but I don’t like the idea of leaving my PS3 on while I’m gone.

Customization
One of the things I like about the 360 so much is I can choose a theme and a gamer pic, free or paid for.  There is a limited selection of gamer pics built in and the only real theme is the background ribbon that is flowing in the background.  You can replace it with a picture, but that’s it.  There are no downloadable themes or gamer pics from the Playstation Store.

Overall Thoughts
I think the PS3 has the potential to do great things, but it sure is doing a lot of things wrong right now.  They need to scrap the Playstation Store and star over.  They need to add some customization options to the shell.  It’s big positive I think is how quiet it is.  If I were to use it as a media center like I do the 360, the annoying sound of fans would be gone.

I’m looking forward to playing Heavenly Sword and GranTurismo 5. 

So I finished the fight and started playing online with my friends.  Overall I’m relatively pleased with Halo 3.  I’m happy with the way the story ended and I am enjoying playing it again on a harder difficulty setting and trying to get all the silver and gold skulls this time.

 The only bad thing I can say about it is why did I buy this freaking Legendary Edition?  I think partially it was because the Collectors Edition of BioShock was unknown to me when I got it and I felt cheated.  I really wanted that sound track and Big Daddy statue.  Those were cool.  But this…. this is a helmet and 2 DVDs full of crap.  I mean look at how big this freaking helmet is.  It looks nice with the rest of the Halo 3 gear I have but did I really need it?  No Sir!  What am I going to do with this thing?  It’s not even that limited as a collectable.  Mine is numbered at 508,249. 

Look at how it was described on Xbox.com

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Legendary Edition: Individually numbered and available while supplies last, the Legendary Edition includes a copy of Halo 3 in a collectible Spartan Mjolnir Mark VI helmet case, as well as an exclusive collection of storyboard art and the same bonus disc included with the Limited Edition. You’ll also get the Legendary Edition disc, including remastered, high-res versions of the Halo and Halo 2 cinematics; an expanded digital “Bestiarum” guide to the creatures and cultures of Halo 3; The Cortana Chronicles; and exclusive machinima episodes.

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The special items that come with the Legendary Edition… they are DVDs.  One DVD has commentary and a audio/video setup which shows you how to set your Xbox 360 up to widescreen mode and a resolution your TV supports.  I felt it rather insulting.  It made me wonder how many people did this and went “Holy crap, I never had the HD option turned on on my console the whole time!” The second DVD has “remastered” video from Halo 1 and 2.  Now while it was a nice watch to remind me of some details of the story before playing 3, I couldn’t tell it was remastered at all.  In fact the whole time I kept thinking “Did my old Xbox look this bad graphicly?”  Didn’t the description say “remastered, high-res”?  Doesn’t that imply that they are going to be high definition?  Man it did in my mind.  Searching on the net it looks like I wasn’t the only one.  Someone from Bungie said that it was always known these were DVDs.  Well if all you know is the description above, do you know it’s a DVD?  Well I sure didn’t.

That “storyboard art” is a DVD insert booklet.  In my World of Warcraft Collector’s Editions I got a nice big hardbound book with art and stuff.  This is like a mini comic book.

And shouldn’t the Legendary Edition come with a nice game case like the Limited Edition did?  Nope, this is what it looks like front and back.
 

The Limited Edition came in a nice metal case like Halo 2 did.

So I’ve learned my lessons this time. 
1) Don’t listen to the folks at GameStop, do your own research. 
2) Not all Collector’s Editions are the same.

MattamusX said something the other night during multiplayer that was a good comment.  You can earn different looking armor unlocks from playing the game for use during multiplayer.  They should have given Legendary owners exclusive armor, that would have been a nice bonus.  All the armor is only for customized looks and doesn’t affect gameplay at all.  It’s just like getting a special pet with WoW CEs.

Overall though I love the game, and the new features they added for multiplayer are awesome.  Not having to wait on friend invites and just automatically joining in is the greatest thing ever!

Now what am I going to do with this gigantic head?

Yeah I know it’s strange, but sometimes that’s just how timing works.  A friend of mine was selling his 60 gig Playstation 3.  I wanted a 60 gig Playstation 3.  He gave me a good deal, and he brought it over a few hours before the midnight Halo 3 release.  After I get some time (this silly “work” thing keeps getting in the way) I will post a full review of my thoughts on it.

 The Halo 3 Legendary Edition is pretty sweet… but ultimately not practical.  Where am I going to keep this helmet?  Why didn’t the game come in the cool metal case that the cheaper version came in?  When will I have time to actually play the game?

I love Fatal Fury.  I hate the Xbox 36o controller.  I’ve gotten good at it though with a couple of characters.  But how come when I get on to play ranked matches, a couple of people dominate me while I lag?  How can I lag if I’m hosting the match?  The lag is so bad that any kind of move that requires me to charge down then up and hit a button will make me jump instead of execute the move.  Against some players this never happens, and with others it happens constantly.  Then the people that this happens with, I notice that their win record is astounding.  Something like 80 wins to 1 loss.  Could they be cheating with lag some how?  Am I just so old that I suck at fighting games now?  There are so few people playing Fatal Fury Special on XBLA it’s hard to tell.

So some time back I preordered the XBOX 360 Halo 3 Special Edition.  I’m still struggling with the reason why I did it.  I’m not a huge Halo fan.  I didn’t need a third 360.  I did like the design and the fact it came with an HDMI port.  I liked the fact that my XBOX would stand out from other XBOXs.  Whatever the reason is, I got it.  Several sites have touted this version as a poor mans Elite, with the HDMI port but without the 120 gig hard drive.  Others have blasted it for being ugly.  I decided to take a lot of pictures and document my experience with it. (more…)

So Wal-Mart is doing extra stuff for the Halo 3 launch, and one of the things they are doing is giving away Halo 3 dogtags.  DOGTAGS!  Full Story

I could care less about getting it at midnight, I care about the DOG TAGS! GameStop has already convinced me to buy a Halo 3 wireless headset, Halo 3 XBOX and Halo 3 Legendary package….. and I’m not getting DOG TAGS!

Not that I would wear them, mind you…. but still I feel cheated.

Or Am I Too Old, or Is It The Joystick? Part 2

So late last night I was talking to my buddy Greg about my joystick problem, and he said he remembered seeing an arcade style joystick for the 360 in a pawn shop downtown Shelby.  I only knew of one joystick like that and it was made for Dead or Alive 4.  Greg couldn’t remember what it was like, he just remembered seeing it.So today I went to the pawn shop and there it was, a Dead or Alive 4 arcade style joystick with the game and a $79.99 price tag on it.  I offered them $40 for the stick without the game and they accepted, and now I’m the proud owner of this used stick.The only negative about it is the ball-style stick itself.  I really don’t like those.  It’s short and feels loose in my hand.  I prefer the old Street Fighter 2 sticks like these: So I may modify this DoA4 stick with one of these ultimate sticks from Happ Controls.  We’ll see…..

I love old fighting games.  Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat, Fatal Fury, Tekken, Art of Fighting and Killer Instinct.  Those were my games back in the day.  I was very competitive and I knew all the characters well.  I competed in arcade tournaments and actually won a couple.

So why is it that when I play Fatal Fury Special or Street Fighter II Turbo on Xbox Live Arcade I am getting beaten by kids left and right?  At 30 years old am I just to old to keep up with the youngn’s or is it this blasted controller where I can’t pull the moves off?

Only one way to find out.  I have to find a real arcade style joystick for the 360.