Playstation Gamer UK

Sony, Sony, Sony. You have put me in a very difficult position. The word around the interwebs is that the PS3 is so much more reliable than the Xbox 360. While I do agree with this that doesn’t make it feel any better when one’s PS3 bricks… and it really doesn’t help anything the second time it does it. Yes, I finally got my PS3 back on Tuesday only to have it brick on me again on Thursday. I’ll tell you something, it doesn’t matter how reliable something is when it’s broken on you twice. Luckily for me there is a 90-day warranty on repaired consoles so this next set of repairs will be free. But, since I have the strange feeling that these repairs will work about as well as the previous ones did, I’m left in a curious predicament. Do I buy another $400 console and hope it doesn’t break? Or do I buy a cheaper Xbox 360 and hope it doesn’t break? So, the real question is, is the PS3 worth $1000? Because, when you add in the price of the original, price of repairs and price of a replacement system, that’s what you get. And you know what the really sad thing is? For me, it is. I would rather buy another PS3 than an Xbox 360, and you want to know why? Because of the games, the blu-rays and the free PSN. Yes, I’d take MGS4 and Uncharted over Halo III or Gears of War II any day. I love blu-ray movies and I can’t stand paying a subscription fee to play a game I had to pay to buy (a.k.a. the reason why I don’t play MMOs). Right, so that was a little update on my gaming situation and the reason why I haven’t been reviewing any games. Time for some questions.

Do you believe what Todd Howard said about the reason why the PS3 version of the Fallout 3 DLC was delayed?

So the question here really is do I believe that the PS3 version came out later because they had technical difficulties or was there some back room dealing between Bethesda and Microsoft? Well, the answer to the original question is no. Bethesda said near the end of the development of Oblivion that they had figured out the PS3’s hardware structure so using the same excuse again is just a lame cover. There has been no official word on whether or not there was a “marketing deal” between Bethesda and Microsoft but I’ll be shocked if there wasn’t. Also, Howard said that they weren’t sure if they’d release the DLC on PS3 because they weren’t sure it’d sell. Well, Mr. Howard, this isn’t the way to find out. Releasing the DLC this late is a sure way to make sure it doesn’t sell as well.

With the PS3 getting the Fallout 3 DLC do you believe that it will also get the Grand Theft Auto IV DLC? And could it possibly be announced at E3?

Well, since my E3 preview/predictions article has already gone up I have no problem answering the second part of the question now. Well, yes I do expect the PS3 to get the GTA IV DLC. Unlike with the Fallout 3 DLC we know there’s a deal between Microsoft and Rockstar so it’s really just a matter of finding out if that deal is for timed-exclusivity or not, and I suspect it is. I don’t think it’ll be announced at E3 but I predict that the Lost and the Damned will hit the PS3 this winter with the other expansion hitting early next year. I don’t think it’ll be announced at E3 because this seems like one of those things that will be announced in a press release a few days before it launches.

Do you think that Batman Arkham Asylum will finally be a good Batman game?

I hope so. Batman Arkham Asylum is one of my most anticipated games of the year. I’ve been following it closely and I’m quite optimistic about it’s success. While there are always bad license games (Terminator: Salvation) they have been getting better (X-men origins: Wolverine Uncaged Edition). Plus, Arkham Asylum isn’t held to a movie’s release schedule so I’m hoping for a lot from Rocksteady Games.

What is your opinion on GamesRadar.com’s 7 score for inFamous?

Well, it’s kind of hard for me to argue the review score of a game I haven’t played isn’t it? However, I have noticed that it’s considerably lower than most scores. So, I’ll just say this. The proper way to read review scores is not to read them off a site like metacritic, but to find a reviewer who’s tastes are closer to yours and to actually read the review, not just look at the score. Plus, 7 is still a good score.

Do you think Microsoft is going to steal another PS3 exclusive from Sony at E3 this year? and if so, what?

Well, I do think they’ll steal at least one exclusive, but I’m not sure what. The big rumour is that Kojima’s next game will be a multi-console game and not a PS3 exclusive but I doubt that. I think it’ll be a smaller, lesser known game, if anything.

Do you think Heavy Rain will be able to attract a broad gamer audience? Or do you think it’ll be a flop?

This is a really difficult one because I never know what people are going to like or not. Heavy Rain is definitely viewed as one of the more artsy games but it’s hard to tell if people will still pick it up. I think it’ll sell fairly well, along the lines of what Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune did.

That’s the last question for today, I’ve got some assignments to do. I’ll be back next Saturday with some more questions and some more answers. If you have questions for me you can leave them in the comments of any of my articles, just leave a little note telling me that it’s for TRW so I don’t answer it there. Or, you can leave me a tweet on my twitter. I ask for questions every friday.