I think that as a user, I would have liked it better if it was an application that I could install and/or delete and could get updates with but I also understand that Netflix probably didn’t want to shell out for the bandwidth that most of the developers have to do when it comes to selling on the Playstation Network. Not sure why it couldn’t have been some sort of installer though.

In any case, the real reason I set it up was to see how it compared to several devices that I had already. The best setup yet would probably be Windows Media Center, which allows searching for movies. The Netflix interface is slick and gives you not only the top 100 movies of each genre type that you’re more likely to watch, but it also loads pretty fast. It allows browsing through the “up to 100″ movies which is nice. I think it would have been more worthwhile if it also added the search toolbar, which would have been somewhat useful.

Outside of that, it is a little more feature rich than the Roku interface, and it seems to play the movies just fine. I did run into a problem at the get-go for my test with “Red Sonja” where the sound wouldn’t play, but that could have been a Netflix side issue, and not the interface passing through. We’ll see if it starts up again. If so, then there might be some QA issues with testing this first version of the disc.

I will say that activation with Netflix was a breeze. It took all of a few seconds for the code activation to sync up. Overall, the feel of this instant streaming client is pretty good and I believe is probably slightly better than the Xbox 360 version. I would still rank it behind the Windows Media Center version due to the lack of search bar, but even without that, I’m glad that it’s now on the PS3.

First off, this patch proves one thing. What the community calls “glitching” with the villager up the side of cliffs and such, was indeed not a “glitch”. Why anyone came up with that term to begin with is beyond me since this patch proves the fact that surfaces were made for different types of jumping abilities and such.

Class changes:
Second, with the new warrior speed improvements, and more health, it’s too bad that if the guy falls into water, he doesn’t drown. I mean, come on. The new class balancing basically made the worst class into the best, and downgraded some classes that didn’t need to be downgraded (specifically, I’d say the Ranger and Worker). Priest is still a great class to play regardless of the range and power drops and Mage wasn’t touched.

Maps:
New map wise, the New Pork map is completely crazy vast. I think this map actually could take on 64 players itself if the P2P servers could handle it. It would be great to have some way to sell or develop new maps by the community.

Bugs:
Voice chat is still bugged. This is where depending on how you join the game, or switch teams, you might be on one team but can hear the entire other team’s conversation. New bug where mining for metal, had the metal disappearing. Couldn’t recreate but I didn’t look too hard at it.

Scoring:
With the new scoring, it’s been basically tweaked down so that you basically suck at scoring. Which probably was an effect of keeping the title, but it does make it sort of… bleh.

Host system:
While the host now cannot kick or ban players, it also becomes an incredible annoyance. Mainly because with the several clans that I usually hang with (Broccoli Crew, Mr. Ts, Rockstars), these individuals usually are pretty fair with kicking the people that try to mess up the game. Namely, tkpanda148888. This guy just goes around and tries to sabotage games entirely which while apparently gives him great pleasure, it creates a terrible gaming environment. There are others, but known throughout the community, this guy is one serious jerk.

Thus, there should be a voting system. Perhaps if you can vote throughout the system and have to register at least a percentage of votes to kick or ban someone. With the new patch, I also found that there are hosts out there that I used to be able to connect to and now cannot. Sounds like some changes on the server side.

Synopsis:
Overall, the feel of the new patch is pretty good. I’m not really enthusiastic with the class changes, but overall it shows that the developers are always watching the scene and taking notes from the community. That makes it all the more worthwhile to support them in any sort of paid endeavors that they release. Outside of that? Get your Cakey ON!

I think I finally figured out why Hulu is blocked on the PS3. There were rumors that it might have been a Microsoft deal, and Hulu was being pretty silent about it, but no one has ever postulated that perhaps Sony was the one behind it.

Now I could be entirely incorrect here, but it’s fascinating that now PSN carries Naruto: Shippuden, as one of the shows that is being distributed. Obviously for $1.99 per episode. Now this is a little bit different than the other version that Hulu had since this one is actually dubbed with American voice actors instead of subtitled, but this could also be the copyright reasoning behind why Hulu isn’t allowing any shows on the PS3.

Very sneaky, if this hypothetical was true. And I have to admit that the more I think about it, the more it seems like that’s the case. Especially with this new evidence of Funimation releasing this.

Hey, I get the fact that we have to pay for content. But if you’re going to release it for free online, then why selectively block browsers? Let us watch the subtitled and buy the dubbed or none at all. It’s super lame if it’s one or the other while those on other consoles don’t have this issue.

It seems like 2DBoy, the makers of World of Goo, have extended their birthday celebration of “pay what you think it’s worth” experiment until October 25. The usual $20USD game is now… on average… $2.03USD. But even more interesting is that they put out a little survey to see why the average was at what it was and they came up with the conclusion that the largest percentage of people could only afford what they had paid.

And with the economy as it is currently, it’s amazing that fifty-seven thousand people put up even a little bit. Inside of a week. I think that goes to show that either gamers are holding out for the big things that roll sixty dollars for your console and not buying extraneous impulse buys, or that impulse buying of third party developers are getting hit hard by this economy. Either way, it sucks royally and I’m glad that 2DBoy provided an opportunity for those that wanted to contribute to do so.

That makes it all the more worthwhile.

In other news, there’s also a few chain letters going around saying how Sony is going to give away $50USD worth of PSN credit if you forward that letter to see which PSN-IDs were active. Amusingly, they said that they’re tracking it through the database. Whomever wrote this chain letter forgot one crucial bit. If you can track messages through a database, then you can also track active PSN-IDs. At the very least, the last sign-in is definitely logged in a database form or else you wouldn’t be able to see when your friends last logged in. Totally child’s play when it comes to these types of scams.

Really, why people buy into this stuff is beyond me. There’s no such thing as “free” via the simplistic PSN messaging system. If they (Sony) were going to grant you anything free, they would send it to your registered email that’s linked to your account. And on top of that, the same thing would happen to both closed and open beta invites. They DO NOT come through the messaging system as much as you’d love it to be that way.

Don’t hate the messenger if you bought into the above: hook, line, and sinker.

If you do a break-down of the cost by percentages in a rough scale, you would image that:

Development Studio: 50%
Publisher: 25%
Operations: 10%
Retailer: 5-15% (including discount)
Discount: 10%

Here is where it’s strange. In both Operations and Retailer, Sony basically absorbs most of the cost here since bandwidth is cheaper than creating packaging and distribution. Not to mention that you basically cut out the retailer altogether which means there’s at least a 5% savings. So why is it that downloadables never see this particular savings being passed on? Let’s be frank here, if you look at music CDs that you buy through iTunes, generally they’re about ten or eleven dollars compared to the retail thirteen or fourteen when they come out. That markup is what is being cut out.

With Sony’s PSN, it doesn’t seem to be the case until after the item is out for a long time, which means not only do they shoot themselves in the foot for adoption rate, but the actual break down shows that they’re basically taking out the retailer and taking that chunk too. Nice. Doesn’t make you want to go buy anything online, now does it. For me? If you’re going to make me buy it for the same price, I’ll take the pretty box and booklet any day of the week.

First, I heard this rumor first as of last night while playing a game of Fat Princess. In it, the rumor was that PSN was going to go to a subscription model like Xbox Live. This is actually further from the truth. Here’s the actual timeline:

• Sept. 2007 – Playstation forum members pose question of whether or not PSN should charge for services.
  
• Jan. 2008 – Asia gets a Sony questionnaire on whether or not a subscription model would be good for an all-access download model. Something like a check out X number of games at a time type of service for a monthly fee.
  
• May 2009 – Either the survey is still out, or this rumor is still floating.

Which brings us to today. Two years down the road, this thing is still going on. But let’s get something straight. Sony is not looking to charge for the access of PSN, but actually thinking about (or maybe they aren’t anymore since it has been a long while since they have acted on this questionnaire) providing a subscription model for monthly downloads. This actually is a pretty interesting idea, especially now that the PSP-Go is a reality and future PSP games will be download only. Either way, as a Sony supporter I have to say that they really would be providing a great option for their gamers by furthering choice. If they do however play the access game, then they’ll alienate their user base in a great way. I mean who really ever lived paying for Xbox Live anyways?

A quick look at what Titan Studios is going to be releasing soon for their hit, Fat Princess.

• New Pork (large map base with multiple levels of tactical play and entries and defense)
• New ranking system instead of the average of last ten games.
• Tweaking of classes so that warrior was a little more powerful
• No word on the hint of new classes.
• No price or date set yet.

Knowing that the type of humor that Titan has is very much along the same lines as myself, I’m surprised they don’t have some Jester class yet or something where it kicks people between the legs and makes them double over or something. In any case, those cake loving players seem to not have long to wait.

After seven weeks of work, this is the not-quite-finished result. Of which, they showed off at Dragoncon.

What’s great about this is that ever since the game came out for Xbox360 and then PS3, it has truly rocked the gaming world with its fascinating twist on FPS. It was more of a story-driven FPS that at every turn had something new. The Big Daddy character was one of those obviously which is why it’s so cool to see people create replicas of it.

This particular build actually has moving parts such as an animatronic hand, and an actual spinning drill. What can you say, the attention to detail always gets you places. Now if only they would make a movie out of this game…

Photo Credit: (scenemissingmag)

What’s scary is that I could actually seeing someone buying into that line. Unfortunately, PSN-ID messages don’t come with headers and such so I had to rely on instinct on calling this as a phishing message versus a legit beta invite. I seriously doubt that this person is a representative to Infinity Ward, and have sent word to Infinity Ward to confirm, since no one in their right mind would ask for logins from anyone’s account from any sort of legitimate game company or any other business. I am looking for confirmation first before posting this account name and reporting it to Sony, but would offer the advice to players out there to be careful of beta invitations to any game you’re actually looking forward to playing.

Not one company out there will ever ask you for your login to your PSN account. Ever. If you ever had to provide them that information, it would be the username only of which they could gather and send emails to and from anyways. Don’t get me wrong, as a member of the Playstation community and an avid PS3 gamer and writer, I would love a beta or preview to anything before it comes out. But practice a bit of safety before blindly doling out your information that could compromise yourself and your gaming.

PS3 beta invites or previews? Send me the information to darius -[ at ]- vtoreality.com and I’ll be happy to take a look.