E3 2008: Sony's Press Event

Sony was the last of the big three to show what they have in store for consumers this holiday season and they came out swinging for the fences. They have a three pronged attack with PS2, PSP, and PS3. They showed off Resistance 2 and although it didn't look that good, the people in the crowd really seemed to like it. I liked the first Resistance so I will probably like this one as well. The conference then moved on to sales figures and although they needed their best spin doctors to make the numbers look good, with the help of their other big game Little Big Planet they were able to make the numbers really entertaining. Little Big Planet is basically a game that lets the users created levels and make a game that they envisioned. They built a level where their little mascot, named sackboy, ran through a level activating switches that showed the numbers the presenter was talking about. It was really entertaining to say the least.

They then went on to Playstation Network and announce that they were going to be delivering games and TV shows through their service. You can rent movie for 2.99 up to 5.99 and buy Standard and High Def movies and TV programs from 1.99 to 14.99 The coolest part was that you could hook your PSP to your PS3 and download the movie onto it. That gives you the ability to rent a movie and take it with you (great way to shut the kids up). You can also do this through your PC as well. They have about 6 content providers, but since Sony owns a TON of movie studios we will probably be seeing a lot more later on.

They showed off a trailer to God of War 3 that really left a lot to the imagination and they showed a new game called Mag from the people that created SOCOM: Navy Seals. MAG is an online multiplayer game that will let up to 256 people battle online. That is a lot of damn people! The trailer they showed was not bad, but I would have liked to see more footage.

Another cool little thing they added was through GranTurismo 5: Prologue. Now you can watch a car programs though their GT TV section. I think you have to pay for it so I will not be venturing through it any time soon.

I was a bit disappointed in the fact that Sony could have done something else with the PSP to make it even more kick ass, but I guess that will be next year. I was more excited about the movie download service then most of the games and that is a bad sign. I love the things the PS3 can do, but one thing it has been loosing it's grip on as of late is the amount of kick ass games you could only get on a PS3. They used to have Grand Theft Auto and Final Fantasy and now they have neither to themselves. Not looking good. Riley Rating: 8.0

E3 2008: Microsoft and Nintendo Press Conferences

This year's Electronic Entertainment Expo is to be thought of in rather dire terms. A lot of companies (like Activision Blizzard) are not even showing up so the only reason to pay attention is for the big three to show what they have in store for gamers in the coming months. Yesterday, Microsoft came out and today Nintendo and Sony both get a chance to let gamers know why they should spend money on their stuff.

Microsoft: The Xbox 360 is pretty much at a crossroads. They have been out the longest, but they have had a number of slip ups along the way (limited stock, hardware failing). Microsoft came out Monday and gave the world a glimpse at some of the biggest games to come to the system in the next 8-9 months. They showed a demo of Fallout 3 by Bethesda which looks really good and I personally am excited for. Then they showed one of my favorite franchises Resident Evil 5. This one take place in Africa and has co-op play with a new female character tagging along with Chris Redfield. The demo I was most impressed with was Gears of War 2. This was my favorite game of 2006 and somehow it looks even better.

The surprises with Microsoft don't stop there though. They then showed off a retooling of the Xbox 360 dashboard. Instead of the bladed style that it used to have, it is now going for a more menu like look. They are also coming out with something called avatars where you basically created a Nintendo Wii looking representation of yourself and that will be like you profile picture of the old Xbox 360 dashboard. Personally, I am not to excited about this feature because I like the way the blades are now, but I can see how Microsoft is really trying to make it look more friendly to non gamers.

Along with the new dashboard comes new content providers for their video marketplace. NBC Universal will be provided a crap load of content in the coming months. What really sealed the deal for me though was their partnership with Netflix to provide their streaming movie service through the Xbox 360. If you have a netflix account that lets you watch their instant movie catalogue you will be able to do so from the comfort of you couch. I love netflix and think this was probably the biggest news at the show so far. With the games they showed and the new feature they provide I think they gave a great E3 press conference. Riley Rating: 8.0

Nintendo: A couple years ago everyone was looking at Nintendo like you look at a wounded dog. They were limping around and everyone was waiting for them to die. Now Nintendo is at the top of the mountain and they spent most of their conference stating that fact. They brought out a bunch of numbers showing how they are obtaining an audience who would otherwise not play a video game. They started the show showing Shaun White Snowboarding for the Wii. You can do it on the new Wii balance board and they had Shaun White himself showing just how easy it is.

They then showed a Wii version of Animal Crossing that left me unimpressed. It is more or less the same thing except you will be able to visit other players towns. It will come with a Wii microphone that is placed on your TV like the sensor bar and allow a whole room of people talk to each other. I don't know if I want what is said around me thrown around online into other people's homes, but I haven't tested it yet so I don't know.

They then showed a lot of stuff coming for the DS. Mainly another Guitar Hero game. There was a rumor stating that Nintendo would be coming out with a DS that didn't have the GBA (Game Boy Advance ) port, but now I seriously doubt that.

They also showed off their new little device called the Wii motion plus. It plugs into the bottom of the Wii remote and will simulate 1:1 motion with your body. They then showed off a new Wii Sports game that will take advantage of the device. Wii Sports Resort will have a beach vib to it. The game that got me the most excited was the sword fighting game.

Miyamoto (the guy that made Mario and Zelda) came out to show off another game called Wii Music. Unlike other music games this one will not have you hitting buttons to on screen stuff. You basically hold the Wii Remote like you would hold that real life instrument and then pretend like you are playing that instrument. They will have 50 songs for the game when it comes out. It looked really simple, but maybe they had a lot of practice with it.

I was really disappointed with Nintendo's conference. They came out, beat their chest for a bit and then showed everyone a bunch of games for people that just want to do something until they go out to drink. I really thought they would show off a new handheld or a storage solution to the Wii, but all they showed was a bunch of numbers and pictures of old people playing DS's. Riley Rating: 6.5

Sony has yet to com out so there are more surprises waiting!

Review: Grand Theft Auto IV PS3

Games have come a long way. I remember playing GTA 2 on a computer in our schools library. The game was a guilty pleasure. Never before could you run over people and deliver drugs in a game (at least I hadn't played it yet). GTA 3 changed the way games were looked at. Instead of being something children played, people finally started to see that grown ups liked to get their game on as well. Now with GTA 4 getting so much hype it is time to get an idea of it from the view point of someone that has nothing to gain from it. My black ass.

GTA 4 is the sequel to one of the most popular games of all time. GTA3 and their sequels gave people an open world in which to do (almost) anything they wanted. That included killing hookers. GTA 4 bumped up the visuals made a world even more believable and gives you one of the better stories ever in a video game.

You play Niko Bellic. An immigrant fresh off the boat looking to make a better life for himself. He does have a cousin in Liberty City (GTA 4's version of N.Y.C) that has been lying to him about how he has been living it up. Niko then begins doing what he does best. Kill people and be a bad ass. You get your missions through lovely, detailed cinematics that show off the detail of each character in the game. You drive around town in a variety of cars (stolen or otherwise) completing missions and causing havoc.

The world of GTA 4 is alive. Day or night there is always something going on and I think this is the biggest improvment in the game. In the middle of the day you will have people walking down the street talking to each other engaging in a number of activities. Even the illegal kind. Once I was walking down the street minding my business when a cop started running towards me. I was about to shoot when I noticed that he was running after another guy. That was cool. Niko also has a cell phone and you can call a variety of numbers. I called 911 just to see what would happened and I got a cop to show up to my location. They also have a bunch of radio stations that play music or even talk shows. I like completing a mission and then getting in a car to hear about my destruction on the newswire.

There are a number of things to do in this game. You can of course complete the game. Or if you are tired of killing people you can play bowling, pool, darts, or just go out on a date with one of the ladies you meet and try to get "lucky". This game will keep you busy for awhile.

Now the problems. People talk about the story as if it is akin to the Godfather or something. It is basically the same story about a bad guy doing bad things for maybe the right reason that you have seen and heard before. What makes it different is that it is well written and that doesn't happen much in a video game.

There is also a problem with the framerate dipping when a lot of stuff is going on on screen at once. It is hard to say this game is a technical acheivement when they could not keep the framerate at at least 30 frames a second.

With that being said it is already being said this is the game of the year. And I don't see why not

Riley score-9.5

Verizon Blackberry Curve 8330 review

When it comes to phone I am a fanatic. When I am out and about I prefer to look at a lady's phone and not her...well you know what I mean. I have gone through many smartphones and all of them seemed to be missing something. That is until I got myself a blackberry.

The first ever blackberry I bought was a used Blackberry pearl 8130. I fell in love with it's ease of use but the keypad and UI needed work in my opinion. Then I got myself a blackberry Curve 8330 from Verizon and although smartphones still need some work this is the best one I have had so far.

Just looking at the phone there is not anything different from the Curves that have been out there for over a year. The biggest difference is that with Verizon (and Sprint) you get 3G which means faster connections when surfing the web. The biggest difference from the Pearl to this phone is the keyboard. Instead of fighting with suretype (which was good but not the best) you can get the accuracy that you need with a full QWERTY keyboard. The buttons are spaced apart enough that you won't find yourself hitting multiple buttons. I text way more then I call so this is a device made just for me.

Another thing that is evident with all blackberries is their ability to bring your email everywhere you go. All you ahve to do is set up your email account through the phone and in no time you are getting your email messages on your phone. It doesn't do HTML email so you get a bunch of stuff with your email, but I heard an update is coming that will fix that. Another problem I have with the email is that if you have several days worth of email on there you have to go to each one and delete them. I would like to be able to delete the ones I want all at one time.

The browser is the closest thing from the iphone/ipod touch that you are going to get to the real internet in your hand. I love this browser way more than the one on the aging Palm OS. With 3G you can surf around the web in realative quickness and you get an accurate representation of the net on your phone.

It comes with a media player, voice recorder, camera, and video camera. I like the pictures that it take although it will not make you give up your stand alone camera. I really wished that phones would bump up the cameras to 3MPs (megapixels). I also wished phone makers would make a better video camera. I don't need HD worth video but I do want to make out what the hell I was recording. You can put videos and songs on it (better if you have a micro sd card) and watch them in full screen mode. I would get something else to do this if you are one of those people that doesn't like to charge their phones every night (like my wife).

In all I think blackberry has the top smartphones on the planet (I would like to get a sony ericsson but they don't mess with Verizon). I really want blackberry to give the UI a little push to make it look more user friendly then what they have right now. A better camera is also a want but what they have right now is that bad.

Riley score-8.5

60.88

That is how much I paid for a tank of gas. This is fucking ridiculous! I thought this was the reason why we went into Iraq (fucking protesters lieing again!). I would not feel bad if these oil companies were struggling, but they made 40 billion last year. Yes, 40 billion! That is a lot of fucking people over they have done. There has to be a point where the gas gets to a price where everyone just fucking goes crazy and start hijacking fuel trucks. Does Bush think the stimulus package is going to help this at all?
So, Grand Theft Auto IV is hours from release and I am not that excited for it. I have Super Smash Bros on my Wii (stop giggling). I have MLB 08 on my PS3. I have Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core on my PSP. I have no time to play other shit! But strangely for some reason I want to go sit in line for 2 hours and get it early. I think it has something to do with the fact that I can hang out with other geeks and do geeky shit. That is like a crackhead. A crackhead likes to smoke his/her crack in a crackhouse because like minded people are partaking in the same activities. Now, you pull a crack pipe out in the TV section of Best Buy...
I don't know if I am getting the stimulus package. I qualify because I am a Veteran getting compensation (I call it shut up money) so I will get it because of the amount I got last year. 300 bucks is what they say people like me will get. That is just enough to get the new blackberry curve when it comes out for Verizon. That is as far as I have thought it out. Because lets face it 300 bucks is not a lot of money. That is the kind of money you win at a poker game or find on a dead hooker. You are not thinking about life and death type stuff with 300 bucks. Now, if I was getting that 1200 dollars then I would think about paying a bill or two, but for now 300 is enough to get my phone and a BJ from that sprague hooker I have had my eye on for a couple of weeks now.

Palm sickens me!

I have been a palm device user in one shape or form for over 5 years now. I have used the Sony Clies (Palm OS) and I now have a Palm 700p. I have had a Palm phone for over almost 2 years and in that 2 years I have seen Palm go from hot device maker to the Plymouth of the electronics industry. They have done nothing but run the Palm name into the ground and I do not think there is any way for them to turn this around. Maybe they are waiting for someone to swoop in and buy them up. At this rate they either get bought or they will have to shut down.

How do you start off talking about the downfall of Palm? Well, lets talk about the OS first of all. The Palm OS has been heralded in the past for being user friendly. That was in 2000. It is 2008 and ever device OS has tried to make changes except Palm. Palm hasn't released an update to this thing in years and they just seem content on letting it die lonely in a field somewhere.

Now lets just talk about the devices themselves. They released the Centro, but I consider that the little bastard of the Treo family line. There is nothing there that a power user will want to use. The Treo line, which is suppose to be their bread and butter is an ugly piece of equipment compared to other smartphones on the market. The last update was the Treo 755 and it is a brick of a phone that only takes off the antenna. Is that all R&D at Palm has learned is wrong with the phone? That the little nub had to go! Let's go down the list. It is big as all hell. It is heavy. There is no WiFi option on any of their phones and they just don't seem to give a damn.

I know what you may be saying, "Well, if you don't like them so much why do you still have one?" Mainly because I blew my money on a Ipod touch (32Gb) and I have to save up to get my hands on another smartphone just so I can get away from Palm. If Palm wants to regain their market share all they have to do is come out with a slim device that has WiFi and a usuable internet browser and I am good to go. Their next Palm OS update is not coming until next year but I think by then it will be to late.

PSPs and other gadgets

I just bought myself one of these:

I like it a lot I really do. I must tell you before hand that this will be my THIRD PSP since they came out. I remember waiting inside of Wal-Mart for it and I think I bought the soccer game. I sold it about 3 months later because there really wasn't anything for me to play on it. Sony on the other hand has kept adding to it and adding to it and I gave it another try but again it was sold off I think for other games. When the PSP slim was announced last year I felt they could have done so much to make it better. They could have put some more memory in it. They could have put another analog nub on it so you would not have to use the face buttons as a second analog stick. Instead they made it smaller moved some things around and put more RAM in it to help with the loading of games (one of it's many problems). As a gadget it is really nice. You can surf the web with a hotspot or what I like the most is the fact that if you have a PS3 you can then use something called remote play and you can play things that are stored on your PS3 or on a computer that streams to your PS3. This makes it possible to have all of your videos photos and music avaiable to you at any time.

For a system that has been out 4 years though I have to say that the selection of games if very slim. I like strategy rpgs and that is mainly why I like portable gaming systems. The games do look better than they did when the system first game out but I am used to PS3 and 360 graphics and I am still in awe at what this little thing can do.

I am playing Jeanne D' Arc which is a strategy rpg and a pretty damn good one at that. I really like the mix of history and fatasy. Although I do feel like they were not as deep with the rpg aspects like using terrain as a way of dealing more damage. I can not believe that they have anime style cutscenes and great effects on 1.8gigs of UMD(that is the little disk things that are used to play games and even movies)

I am thinking of getting something else and that should hold me off until the school year starts again. I want to get either an ipod touch:

Or a Verizon xv6800 smartphone:

I have an ipod but I really like the video capabilities that are possible with the touch. I also feel like I need a new phone though. I have had my Treo 700p for over a year now and it has been buggy since I got it. It locks up for no reason. The internet function is useless because Palm's browser is not good enough for modern websites. And frankly I want to get away from Palm because they haven't really done anything worth while since early 2007. This phone is packed with features like Wi-Fi (!) EV-DO (High speed cellular service) and it has a bigger keyboard so when I am writing jokes into my phone I can do it in a faster fashion.

A New age in Gaming

Wow! Isn't it a great time to be a gamer! I am one of the rare people that have all 3 systems which means I can indulge in all of the great games that are coming out on all systems. The biggest problem is sitting here wondering what game to get for what system.

I have been playing my PS3 a lot mainly because it is the newest of the 3 I have. I think the PS3 has a lot of potential to be a hub for all of your entertainment needs:

Pros:
High Def (Blu-Ray) built right in.
Multiple ways to get content in and out.

Cons:
Not many must have games
Price

I was able to get my PS3 for a steal so the price is only a bad thing to people who really don't want to spend that much for a system.

My Xbox 360 got a lot of play time during the winter break so it only seems fair to give it a rest for awhile. I still have Call Of Duty 4 for it whenever I feel like getting shot in the face by a 13 year old I can fire it up.

Pros:
Great online capabilities with Xbox 360
Great controller
Lots of great games

Cons:
Hardware failures
Price of Xbox Live

I still love my 360 I just love the tech behind the PS3 right now. It almost seems as though the year head start that the 360 had over the PS3 means nothing when you consider that the PS3 is better in a lot of areas than the 360.

The system I play the least, but hold very dear to my heart is my Wii. I waited in a line in front of Best Buy for almost 10 hours to get it and when people stop throwing crap games at it it will be a great system.

Pros:
Price
Innovation potential

Cons:
Crap games
Weird Controller

But no matter what I am glad I have the ability to play any of the new generation games.

Tech Holiday tips

Here are some tips to help you with your gadgets this Holiday season.

-Rechargeable batteries will save you a lot of money in the long run. Make sure you tell your little one that instead of throwing them away to put them in the charger and leave you alone while your watching the game.

-If you are buying an HDTV and want to get extra spice out of those old dvds you may need to get an up converting dvd player. These dvd players will convert your video into lovely high definition video. You may also need an HDMI cable. Instead of spending 60 bucks on a cable go to a website like monoprice.com and get the same cable for WAY cheaper. Fuck you overpriced accessories!

-If you are buying a game off of your kids wish list, make sure you get the right game for the right system. Nothing stings more then waiting 6 months for that game only to have your mom buy you the PS3 version instead of the Xbox 360 version. Damn you mom!

-Another tip for those that want to go HD, you don't have to get cable or satellite to get that nice clear picture. All you need is an antennae to get over the air HD programming. Sure you won't get the spice channel in 720p, but you will be able to watch the fine programming that is on PBS (PBS shows porn at 4 in the morning).

-If you are going to buy a computer for your grandma then at least show her how to turn it on and install an anti-virus program onto the thing. Nothings worse then having your grandma calling you up because she is being bombarded with interracial porn sites and websites asking her if she wants to refinance her house.

-I think out of all the little tips this is the biggest one. If you have a "tech" person that you are shopping for and you don't know what to get them, then your best bet is a gift card. A gift card is the best way to make sure you will not get their gift wrong because they will get it themselves. It save your time as well. Instead of going into best buy and being confused with all the blinking lights and scantly clad women. Just run in there put some money on a card and then hand it to them and tell them to have a merry fucking Christmas.