Playstation Gamer UK

So, I’ve changed the name of this from Scruffy Q&A because, I hated that name, to The Real Word. It may be changed again in the future, I don’t know, but I’m sticking with this for the time being. So for my opening blurb I’m going to talk about the enthusiast press. From the time I started really following video games two years ago to now things have changed. Sites like IGN, 1UP, and Gamespot are no longer being referred to as news sites, they have instead been named the “enthusiast press”. So I’m wondering where this superiority complex that the mainstream media has came from. Really, the biggest example of this was the rant panel at GDC last week. It was a group of the more well known industry journalists N’Gai Croal, Adam Sessler, Heather Chaplin and others. While I agree with the things some of them were complaining about Heather Chaplin’s comments didn’t go over so well with me or anyone else really. She basically said that the video game industry wasn’t as accepted by the main stream as other industries because it’s run by men for men and because men are immature pigs. Now this comes off to me as a bunch of feminist bullshit. Why do many women (not all) feel the need to come out and say “I’m a woman working in a male dominated industry, I’m making a statement” No, you’re not. If you do it without stating that you’re making a statement, when you say that you’re grandstanding and I hate that (if you don’t believe me, ask PETA). That’s actually got very little to do with my original point but it doesn’t matter, on to the questions.

Will the PS2 Price Drop Help Sony?

This is the obvious question following Sony’s “big” announcement on Tuesday. If you don’t know Sony announced that the PS2’s price will be dropped to $99. To be honest, I don’t really see how it’ll help. Sony saturated the PS2 market a long time ago. I really don’t see who is going to buy one now. I think this is really more of an admission that the PS2 is at the end of it’s rope. The system is 9 years old and it’s rather obvious that Sony wants to make it to that tenth year of existence so maybe that’s what this is about but I don’t expect to see any serious sales spike. As far as whether or not it’ll help Sony, I don’t know. The PS2 isn’t really the must have gaming item anymore, that’s the Wii (or the Xbox 360 in North America, even though I still don’t have one).

Is Firmware update 2.70 a disappointment?

Well, this sort of depends on what you were expecting. If you were expecting an Xbox Live functionality match update then yes, it’s disappointing. But if you were more on the realistic side then it shouldn’t be disappointing at all. It adds a good, solid amount of functionality to the area that the PS3 is lacking in the most: the online social aspects. Now don’t jump all over me fanboys, I’m not saying the PSN is a bad system, so don’t go putting words in my mouth. Believe it or not, you can love something and still criticize it. Back to the update, it adds text chat, allows you to attach larger files to messages, up to 3mbs now. As well as some video service connectivity which is irrelevant for this site since it is not available in the UK or Canada (where I live). So the answer is no, 2.70 is not a disappointment if you were realistic in your expectations.

Will the newly trademarked PS Cloud replace the PS4?

Following the announcement of OnLive at GDC Sony quickly trademarked PS Cloud so people are wondering, will this replace the PS4? Before I get to that, I’m sort of wondering, why hasn’t Microsoft trademarked a cloud gaming system yet? I mean Microsoft are the major pushers of the digital download (which I’m sure has nothing to do with HD DVD losing the format war) so it would make sense that they’d be one of the first companies to jump on this bandwagon but I guess they’re playing it safe this time. Anyway, back to the question. The short answer is no, if anything, the PS Cloud will accompany the PS4. As it stands the internet infrastructure just isn’t there to support a cloud gaming system. I see the PS Cloud as more of a side system, that would be run by Sony along side the PS4. They can’t replace it when most of the world doesn’t have the capability to use what they’re replacing it with.

When will Guitar Hero die?

With Guitar Hero Metallica being released last week a friend of mine asked me this. My sarcastic answer was that they should’ve died a long time ago but my serious answer is sooner than expected unless things change. It’s apparent that Activision’s plan is to flood the market with as much of this crap as they possibly can and there’s no doubt that that will backfire. Take your cue from Dance Dance Revolution and Tony Hawk, flooding the market is a bad idea. Personally I really dislike music games, not because I hate music and not because I suck at them, I just really don’t like them, can’t really explain why.

Is Killzone 2 a success?

This was a question another website tackled in an article in an attempt to anger fanboys and generate hits. So I figured I’ll take a look at it and give you my answer. So far Killzone 2 has sold 1.32 million units after five weeks. So is it a success? Sure, despite the fact it’s dropped off at an alarming rate it has sold over 1 million copies which is usually what I use to tell if something’s a success.

Is Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 a PS3 exclusive or just a port of Ninja Gaiden 2?

Well, it’s both. While the core game is a port of Ninja Gaiden 2 it is getting some big updates and some big additions. So it’s a port with exclusive content, can’t really answer it any better than that.

So that’s all for the questions this week. If you have questions for next week leave a comment or I’ll be asking for questions on Twitter every friday so give me a tweet. I’m available at twitter.com/scruffyk