PS3: Battlefield Bad Company 2

Done.

Game Gems: Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare (PS3)

Done.

PSP Games: Lost Planet - Extreme Condition

"Wayne, promise you'll come back to me", says the hopeful and confused snow pirate damsel who's also got her heart beating for Dr. Yuri.

Alas, a good thing that our character ends up having amnesia and starts fresh on a planet that finally gets some green after the son of his father's killer does some good.

This game's controls felt a bit like that of GoW, or at least the part where you have to continuously press on "O" and get the waypoints working.

Even at Easy mode its challenging and I have to agree on that setting decision. The boss stages are a fair amount of fun.

Online gameplay isn't as exciting as UT but not as frustrating as Halo and you at least spawn at base with some form of shielding without having to get sniped right away. Looks to be a very popular game in Japan as most game servers and players were hailing from there at midnight with just a handful of players like myself from North America or the UK.

PSP Games: Lost Planet - Extreme Condition

"Wayne, promise you'll come back to me", says the hopeful and confused snow pirate damsel who's also got her heart beating for Dr. Yuri.

Alas, a good thing that our character ends up having amnesia and starts fresh on a planet that finally gets some green after the son of his father's killer does some good.

This game's controls felt a bit like that of GoW, or at least the part where you have to continuously press on "O" and get the waypoints working.

Even at Easy mode its challenging and I have to agree on that setting decision. The boss stages are a fair amount of fun.

Online gameplay isn't as exciting as UT but not as frustrating as Halo and you at least spawn at base with some form of shielding without having to get sniped right away. Looks to be a very popular game in Japan as most game servers and players were hailing from there at midnight with just a handful of players like myself from North America or the UK.

PSP Games: BlackSite - Area 51

Just as the title suggests, this game's ending should fall into a blackhole in space. It took me about a week or so before I went back to finish it but was really disappointed that it was just the final few shots and nothing :-(

The game starts well enough with you being stationed in Iraq as part of a mission. As usual the government doesn't tell you what it really is about. You find an alien base deep within some structures. Your war ends, but some time passes and your team get's called back into active duty. You path crosses with the tight bunned Doctor, and you get double crossed by Summers.

There'll be lots of weird looking aliens and one where the idea of the boss looks like something stolen right out of War of the Worlds.
I take issue in your nemesis being too corny compared to R:FoM

Some furious firefights with pro-E.T. henchmen that look really pale compared to the sleek suits in Haze. Have I told you about the un-cool weapons that are new but less effective that shotguns?

And much more, so much more that I won't even mention.

Good story plot. I think varous levels and getting up the mountains to the base was good. Sniper mode rocks when felling them darn pesky pro-alien morons.

Need something more original here guys.

PSP Games: BlackSite - Area 51

Just as the title suggests, this game's ending should fall into a blackhole in space. It took me about a week or so before I went back to finish it but was really disappointed that it was just the final few shots and nothing :-(

The game starts well enough with you being stationed in Iraq as part of a mission. As usual the government doesn't tell you what it really is about. You find an alien base deep within some structures. Your war ends, but some time passes and your team get's called back into active duty. You path crosses with the tight bunned Doctor, and you get double crossed by Summers.

There'll be lots of weird looking aliens and one where the idea of the boss looks like something stolen right out of War of the Worlds.
I take issue in your nemesis being too corny compared to R:FoM

Some furious firefights with pro-E.T. henchmen that look really pale compared to the sleek suits in Haze. Have I told you about the un-cool weapons that are new but less effective that shotguns?

And much more, so much more that I won't even mention.

Good story plot. I think varous levels and getting up the mountains to the base was good. Sniper mode rocks when felling them darn pesky pro-alien morons.

Need something more original here guys.

Game Gems: Haze (PS3)

Finished.

I must say that the seizure warning is apt for this game, in fact the wife got a bit woozy after watching me kick some butt on "easy mode".

Yes, I know thats just so n00by of me to use weaner level but that's not the point of it all anyway when I go through a game. Some are in it for the realism or to test their whatever, I am in it for the story. After all you're supposed to play an immersing game with a complete plot that should be worth a movie (or even several so say hello Resident Evil franchise?).

That being said you start out as a Mantel soldier and brain washed (or should we say drug-washed) with Nectar (you have to love the allusion to bee's here, but nature has some fun color combo's, eh).

Nectar appears to be made out of a plant somewhere they speak Spanish. Its effects in the game include razor sharp targeting and a boost of speed. Now thats an interesting drug right there, more so that in-game calls of being a junkie are apt.

Game play has you start to go after the Rebels and eventually change sides for under the command of "Skin Coat", the Mantel nick name for a guy named Marino. The nick name is of course a lie fed to Mantel soldiers to increase emotional response against a supposedly viscous and inhumane cannibal. Disinformation in the ranks, Sun Tzu, ho hum ....

I think the telling piece here is when your buddy reveals the truth behind Mantel soldier disappearances and dies in the process. Classic. But this is where you get a question of morality between what is right and wrong. Basically, listen to your conscience to tell you what should be. The line references to "chemicals in your brain" said by both sides should be a dead give-away along the story line and lets you know that inevitably you should really be on neither but yourself. To some thats called indecision, to some that could be called integrity. I go for the latter having had too many landmark decisions happen in the course of work myself. At that point of surviving its time to sing "Vindicated" (surprisingly song #1 in the Spider Man soundtrack, how apt in the lines "with great power comes great responsibility").

There isn't much more depth in the story after disabling the "administrator" atop the highest peak in an observatory, then finally making the land carrier run aground and shooting up that drug crazed seargeant who' still ashamed to let mommy know he was a bad boy. Duh. The whole plot ends with Marino telling you he's going to manufacture a derivative of Nectar and make it available for anyone who wants it of his own free will. Thats the spoiler here folks, but that end does make it interesting as fodder for moral reflection -- at least to me.

I digress by saying the earlier TV show on law and crime in New York also puts alot of moral issues on the table. How far would anyone go to protect thousands of people and would you take the blame for it? What defiance of law and order is bad enough for you to be crucified after following your internal moral compass? Is a moral compass to do good built-in or is it taught? Thoughts to ponder. :-)

Overall, a good game to play on campaign. The online as far as I've tested works well, call me Head Shot Jones :-p

Game Gems: Haze (PS3)

Finished.

I must say that the seizure warning is apt for this game, in fact the wife got a bit woozy after watching me kick some butt on "easy mode".

Yes, I know thats just so n00by of me to use weaner level but that's not the point of it all anyway when I go through a game. Some are in it for the realism or to test their whatever, I am in it for the story. After all you're supposed to play an immersing game with a complete plot that should be worth a movie (or even several so say hello Resident Evil franchise?).

That being said you start out as a Mantel soldier and brain washed (or should we say drug-washed) with Nectar (you have to love the allusion to bee's here, but nature has some fun color combo's, eh).

Nectar appears to be made out of a plant somewhere they speak Spanish. Its effects in the game include razor sharp targeting and a boost of speed. Now thats an interesting drug right there, more so that in-game calls of being a junkie are apt.

Game play has you start to go after the Rebels and eventually change sides for under the command of "Skin Coat", the Mantel nick name for a guy named Marino. The nick name is of course a lie fed to Mantel soldiers to increase emotional response against a supposedly viscous and inhumane cannibal. Disinformation in the ranks, Sun Tzu, ho hum ....

I think the telling piece here is when your buddy reveals the truth behind Mantel soldier disappearances and dies in the process. Classic. But this is where you get a question of morality between what is right and wrong. Basically, listen to your conscience to tell you what should be. The line references to "chemicals in your brain" said by both sides should be a dead give-away along the story line and lets you know that inevitably you should really be on neither but yourself. To some thats called indecision, to some that could be called integrity. I go for the latter having had too many landmark decisions happen in the course of work myself. At that point of surviving its time to sing "Vindicated" (surprisingly song #1 in the Spider Man soundtrack, how apt in the lines "with great power comes great responsibility").

There isn't much more depth in the story after disabling the "administrator" atop the highest peak in an observatory, then finally making the land carrier run aground and shooting up that drug crazed seargeant who' still ashamed to let mommy know he was a bad boy. Duh. The whole plot ends with Marino telling you he's going to manufacture a derivative of Nectar and make it available for anyone who wants it of his own free will. Thats the spoiler here folks, but that end does make it interesting as fodder for moral reflection -- at least to me.

I digress by saying the earlier TV show on law and crime in New York also puts alot of moral issues on the table. How far would anyone go to protect thousands of people and would you take the blame for it? What defiance of law and order is bad enough for you to be crucified after following your internal moral compass? Is a moral compass to do good built-in or is it taught? Thoughts to ponder. :-)

Overall, a good game to play on campaign. The online as far as I've tested works well, call me Head Shot Jones :-p

Update: Sony PS3 Firmware 2.35

Last Wednesday, I updated my 60GB PS3 using the latest firmware download from the official Playstation site. Little did I realized that doing so would temporarily put a halt to my hi-def video appreciation due in fact to the HDMI output not working ^$%#$#%^%!

I was doing alot of other things during the day and I did a few basic cable checks to see if anything was loose ... nope. So next thing I did was pore though various forums if anybody had experience the same and a few apparently said it was a bug for a bug fix to fix GTA4 issues running on 60GB PS3's (that being it affected me as well). There and then I started looking for solutions to possibly downgrade the firmware and apparently the only way to do so would entail sending the unit back to Sony or getting an Infectus mod-chip -- a $50 commitment of sorts not including installation and shipping costs. No way was I gonna mod my PS3 which Sony has so nicely already opened up for 3rd-party installation of alternative OS (yes, I've got Yellow Dog Linux 6 running!), so I decided to leave it at that and wait for a fix probably coming out in a month for v2.4?

On Friday I made half-way attempts to swap back the original internal drive I'd upgraded from to 320GB but paused when I realized that the firmware wasn't installed on the disk but in the PS3's flash memory. Oh crap! Scratch that.

This morning though, just before leaving for Home Depot at lunch to get a grill I made one last ditch effort. What if I reset to factory settings? One forum post which talked about trouble shooting no component video output issues (with the same update) mentioned this in passing. Could it be......?

YES! I reset everything to defaults sans formatting the whole drive and loosing my save games and it WORKED! Whew.

Thats it folks, it appears that similar to firmware updates on mobile phones (like my N95) you'll need to go back to the general profile. In this case, reset to factory defaults every time you do a firmware upgrade in the off chance that some settings don't get migrated or get messed up during the update. :-)

Now I'm set for a kick-ass audio-video display for Memorial Day guests in a few hours to keep guests entertained.

Game Gems: Call of Duty (PS3)

Done.

Game Gems: Clive Barker's Jericho (PS3)

Yes, yes, just finished on "Easy" but that wasn't the point in playing it. In fact the game story line was quite good and immersive. Since I had it running through the HDMI it was nicely rendered 1080i HD.

Its all difficult running until you reach the temple of 7 priests whereupon banishing the First Born isn't as difficult as expected. In fact, at that point I'd say it was corny. Although the small tid-bits of the story did unfold throughout don't we all expect a rather long-ish story at the end?

Hold on, thats only for movies isn't it? Well now, that just goes to show how movie-like the play is and I would recommend this game if you aren't squeamish on the rather rough language used (but hey, if you've ever been in war with dozens of bad guys and what not surrounding you at all sides wouldn't you say "F* me!" is a fair expression to say? :-).

Anyway, game done, yay! Now to go through the whole thing one more time on "Hard" and unlock all the game extras.

Oh one more thing, Yna played through this with me as my navigator and keeper of the emergency walk-through. Heh!