21. January 2008 by Costas Taliadoros.

It’s no secret that Music has been facing a crisis with declining song and album sales in the past few years due to the advent of piracy. As the record companies are continuously searching for a solution to their problems through itunes type of services it seems that the answer lies elsewhere.

The videogames industry has been booming in contrast with the US expanding by 43% in revenues last year alone. MTV has spotted this trend and also that its own viewers are regular gamers. That is why they collaborated with Harmonix and Electronic Arts to develop Rock Band to rival Red Octane’s Guitar Hero which is published by Activision.

The latest figures show that as both Rock Band and Guitar Hero made more songs available to play via download gamers have been actively purchasing them. In two months Rock Band sold 2.5million additional songs via download. What makes this even more remarkable is the fact that the game has only been released in the US so far with a European release in spring. The Metallica three-pack of “Ride the Lightning”, “Blackened” and “And Justice for All” is the best selling “Rock Band” download. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock on the other hand which was a worldwide release has sold 5million songs since it began adding downloadable content in early November.

There is no reason to restrict the music-games link to just Rock Band and Guitar Hero and it is very likely that record companies will try to include downloadable music in games such as FIFA, GTA or Skate.

Games may just be the Hero of music,

Isn’t there a white knight upon a fiery steed?
Late at night I toss and I turn and I dream of what I need

I need a hero
I’m holding out for at hero ’till the end of the night
He’s gotta be strong
And he’s gotta be fast
And he’s gotta be fresh from the fight

I need a hero
I’m holding out for a hero ’till the morning light
He’s gotta be sure
And it’s gotta be soon
And he’s gotta be larger than life
Larger than life

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9. January 2008 by Costas Taliadoros.

 PSP

The PSP might not be the juggernaut of sales that the Nintendo DS is but it still managed to establish itself in the handheld world with a respectable market share and a very solid games lineup. This despite Sony’s blunders with the UMD format and controls design. In fact it is my favourite handheld console and with games like Patapon and God of War coming this year it will only get better.

The PSP community showed Sony that with regards to movie playback no-one was willing to purchase titles on a UMD format, which is slowly becoming obsolete as everyone predicted. Instead they were being downloaded or copied on the console’s memory stick. In the CES 2008 which is taking place since Sunday Sony demoed how Blue-ray discs can be copied first on the PS3 and then on to the PSP for playback on the go (PC World article). This comes just after the announcements regarding the use of Skype by the slim version of PSPs and also a new 16GB memory stick.

Sony is slowly giving consumers useful applications and also appears to be doing it in a logical and a more consumer friendly manner. Not to mention the realisation of the hard fact that the PSP’s future also depends a lot on its interactivity with its big brother the PS3.

Do all these, plus a great game lineup, mean that Sony is finally getting it right with the PSP? I really hope so.

Blu-ray Vs HD DVD

After Warner Bros decision to side with the Sony camp and release movies exclusively on Blu-ray it appears that Paramount may be about to abandon the HD-DVD sinking ship according to the Financial Times:

“Paramount, which is owned by Viacom, is understood to have a clause in its contract with the HD-DVD camp that would allow it to switch sides in the event of Warner backing Blu-ray, according to people familiar with the situation.”

This means that the end of the format war is very near unless HD-DVD has some wild card up its sleeve. Although i don’t think that the blu-ray is the future (downloadable content is) it is good to have this thing over with for the benefit of the consumer.

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31. December 2007 by Costas Taliadoros.

We have always been tresspassing. Cyprus was never an option. Greece? Yes. United Kingdom? Of course. But Cyprus? No, never an option.

Like refugees, Cypriots wanting to get a taste of XBOX Live have always been using false information to get access since the original Xbox. For people using the UK as their country for example a simple, arbitrary choice of a Post Code was fine as long as the remaining credit card information was correct. Because make no mistake we have always been paying our dues even we are outside the service area of Live.

But it appears that Microsoft now is trying to put an end to it. Cypriot 360 gamers trying to subscribe to Live or add MS points using their credit cards are no longer able to. A message informing the gamer that the address details are incorrect appears. It seems that now that arbitrary UK post code is no longer enough. The system verifies all the credit card details.

For the time being there is a way around this. Using redeemable Live cards both for the Live subscription and for adding Microsoft points to one’s account. I have successfully tried the latter. Also a friend of mine yesterday managed to get a 48 hour Live subscription using one of the free card codes found in some games.

But i wonder. Are we facing a ban on all things Live? If Microsoft decides to also start checking gamers IP addresses, much like the video rental service currently does, then i am afraid there will not be a way to get around anything.

Maybe it is time for gamers to start petitioning both Microsoft and internet service providers to formally bring the service to Cyprus to resolve the issue once and for all. But this is a country which has stuck to a 1mbit broadband and high prices compared to the rest of Europe and there is still no action from consurmers. I am not holding my breath. It is more likely that the Xbox Live service will finally be offered for free instead……

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23. December 2007 by Costas Taliadoros.

There has been a lot of discussion lately regarding the credibility of reviews and mostly about the independence of reviewers and games sites, However, there is another issue. I don’t mean someone’s writing skills, gaming skills and experience. I am also curious about how much time a reviewer spends with a game.

I watched over the weekend a lot of reviews on Gametrailers (GT) which although i don’t always agree with i respect and enjoy. But when i watched the Scene it? review on the 360 i was astonished. The reviewer missed something which would only have happened if he played it just once! He claims that one of the faults in this game is that the answers of players (which are multiple choice A,B,X,Y) appear on screen and thus made known to all players. This leads to “jumping the wagon play” especially when one of the players is identified as an expert, just like the reviewer says.

BUT! That happens only in the party mode. You can play (along with three other people) the play mode where answers are not visible!

I am amazed that the reviewer did not notice that. It happened to me and my friends the first 2 times we played it. We played the party mode and experienced the jumping in the wagon thing. But then we tried the first mode and voila! Multiplayer Scene it? with non-visible answers!

Which brings up the obvious question. How long did he play this game? 5mins? 1hour? By himself or with colleagues? Did he take it home to try it with other people? How could he miss such a thing and then post a drawback that is not there? That is simply poor reviewing.

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29. November 2007 by Costas Taliadoros.

Ever since Microsoft announced that it would be bringing the Live video service to Europe (US only so far) i was both happy and sad.

Happy because i believed (and still do) that this is one of the most important features this generation’s consoles will have i.e. downloadable movies and series.

Sad because i knew that the service would definitely be restricted to certain countries due to licensing issues. According to Joystiq the new MS Points Cards state that the service willo only be available to Xbox Live members in the UK, Germany and France.

The service is thought to be included in next week’s (4th of December) dasboard update. I doubt that “phoney” accounts will do the trick. Most probably they will be checking the console’s IP address thus locking out other countries including countries where even the Live service is still not available like Cyprus.

I wonder if the whole Live service will ever be officially released here. If the service providers working with MS in other countries are making profits on this i don’t understand why CYTA or some other provider can’t do the same here.

Of course we are talking about a country where you are charged more than Euros50/month for a 1mbit/128kbs connection….

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28. November 2007 by Costas Taliadoros.

Dear Microsoft,

Although i will never, ever forgive you for completely abandoning the original XBOX once the 360 was launched i want to say thank you for this latest update of the backwards compatibility.

I don’t say that often but when a company, two years after launching its console, is still updating the backwards compatibility i do find it commendable.

You announced yesterday that a further 80 titles of the original XBOX are now playable. In this updated backwards compatibility list i found Freedom Fighters. I have been wanting to play this game for some time now but was put off by the fact that i had to bring back the original XBOX to the living room. Although this is still US only i believe and hope that real soon i will be able to play my PAL version too.

At a time when one of your competitors asks gamers to pay a premium to have backwards compatibility i applaud your commitment to letting gamers have a taste of the old.

Thank you again. I am a happy customer.

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15. November 2007 by Costas Taliadoros.

I have been taking the easy way lately with some of my gametime selection. I have been choosing games that are longer than average but are not particularly hard. You see i get easily frustrated. And then i mean frustrated, i mean really pissed off. My neighbours may be under the impression that i am insane with all the yelling and screaming.

That’s why i have taken the easy way out. Long and easy games. Until i read SVGL’s blog on the feeling she gets when she is playing a particularly difficult game.

Here’s an excerpt from her article “Difficult Games: The New Brain Training”

I began to memorize levels, to arrange myself precisely on the same pixel time and time again to coordinate an attack. I accepted that I would fall, repeatedly, into the same gap, be slain again and again by the same boss. I realized that, yesterday, when I’d died so many times (where was my graceful leaping, my effortless succubus-spanking?) I’d presumed something was wrong, either with the game or with me. Now, I’ve got my memory back — this is the way it’s supposed to be.

Games can be challenging even when they are far more intuitive. But this kind of gameplay that engages every fiber of your concentration stirs old reflexes, wakes wrinkles in my brain that have been slumbering for years. Screw Brain Age, man. I’m gonna beat Rondo.

I read this at the time i was having the Metroid Dilemma. A game which i found frustrating and tedius at the time. That’s when i said, “Screw my peace of mind, I want to feel alive! I am going to beat Metroid Prime. ”

And you know what? As i get more into the game the less frustrated i get. In fact I am at 72%, and am loving every bit of it. A sense achievement can go a long way.

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14. November 2007 by Costas Taliadoros.

Microsoft released a list of known issues with regards to the games (e.g. Halo, Fable etc) which will be available for downloand after the fall dashboad update. I had this experience with SW:KOTR which i played on the 360 emulator and had audio issues and more importantly severe slowdown/frame rate issues which made the game almost unplayable at the later stages of the game.

It is disgraceful for MS to make available to consumers products which are known to have such issues. Especially since at the 14Euros price you can find most xbox original games in mint condition on Ebay which gives you the option to play the game either on the 360 or on the original Xbox which will have no issues.

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9. November 2007 by Costas Taliadoros.

Have you ever played a Zelda game? If yes, then you have basically played the rest of the series’ iterations as the story is always the same, the theme and setting is always the same and the weapons are almost always the same with a couple of new ones added each time.

Check out this “review” of Zelda Phantom Hourglass on the DS. So funny and true. Brilliant!

“This week on Zero Punctuation, Yahtzee travels to Hyrule to save a princess, etc.”

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1. November 2007 by Costas Taliadoros.

I have not been able to find time to buy the game (plus the fact that the game has serious online issues) but i was directed by a Destructoid blog entry to Gamespot’s review of the game. It appears that once each PS3 copy of the game locks on to a particular online account. Therefore if the game is taken to be played on another PS3 the online mode is not accessible via the other user’s account.

Gamespot Review

It’s also worth noting the online registration process, which locks your copy of the game to your Konami account for online play. This means that if you ever want to sell your copy of the game, the next person will be unable to play online unless he or she has your registration details. To our knowledge this is the first time this has happened in a PS3 title, and Konami’s UK office declined to respond to enquiries over why the system was implemented.

The industry has long been moaning about used games being a huge problem and it appears that this is one of the ways they may be starting to tackle it. For me this is a non issue. Since i have bought the product, and probably at the steep price of CYP40 as well, i am entitled to use it however i want for as long as i want. If for some reason i want to sell it then i should not be penalised nor should the second hand buyer much like second hand market for cars, cds, books etc. Only time will tell whether more developers and publishers will follow this route.

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