Posts by Steve Barnes

Resistance 2 to hit USA on 4 November

@ Vibration

You can use vibration with Resistance 1 dummy! Just load up the game whilst signed into the PSN and it'll automatically download a patch for it. Do you know anything about the games you're reporting on?

Sony downgrades PS3 PlayTV functionality

are you sure???

are you sure this is true? as i've been reading tonnes of articles over the last few days alone where sony have been confirming that it will be able to decode HD signals in the near future, and will be able to copy recordings to MS / PSP / etc and be freely converted. I don't see why it wouldnt be able to seeing as it's not sony's content it's protecting liek music etc, it's no different from recording tv to vhs / dvd like we've been doing for years!!

Sony details European DualShock 3 launch date

Crazy

how is it not out here yet? got mine for Christmas 07 from Japan, and only cost £34 with P&P!

Still, not all bad, maybe it'll mean stores will start flogging old sixaxis's at a bargain price? :D

PSP going nowhere, gaming exec alleges

Deary me

The PSP's hardly done bad has it really? I mean, come on. It's sold in it's millions and already lasted 3 years, it's got a HUGE homebrew community, some awesome games (God of War, Final Fantasy Crisis Core, Ratchet & Clank, Loco Roco, Patapon, Everybody's Golf, GTA LCS & VCS, not to mention the PS1 games you can have!!) and it's a nice alternative to the DS (I have both, I love both).

Ubisoft do seem to have a tendency to bitch about nothing...

Windows XP given additional resuscitation

@Mark

To be frank, bollocks. Simply bollocks. Ubuntu may be easy for a "NOOB" to use - as in, someone who's half decent with computers and trying Ubuntu for the first time etc, but for your average joe with little computing experience etc, i would bet solid money they wouldn't be able to install apps or configure settings etc. I love my ubuntu set-up. But I'm not in denial that it's not suited for novices!

@Kevin Bailey

Well, that's not all quite true is it.

The fact is that although Ubuntu may be great, customisable, not DRM'ed to the eyeballs, free, etc etc. NO-ONE can deny the fact (well they can and do, but they are tech geeks) that it is ridiculously difficult to use for a novice PC User! - which is where Windows wins!

40 year old builder & father of 3 (eg, like my friend's dad) walks into a PC shop to buy a PC for basic word processing, email, internet, printing, music, dvd's etc, - is he going to choose Windows or Linux? Of course windows! Can you seriously imagine him playing with the terminal and trying to install programs like that?! No way! He's going to go to download.com on his Windows XP machine, download an .exe, double click it and let the install-shield wizard do it for him. obviously.

for the record, i have 2 desktops, one with xp home, the other with ububtu 7 (not gone to 8 yet) - and i hate vista - xp i can live with. i would love to see ubuntu take off, and with openoffice, firefox, etc, it's starting to penetrate the mainstream, but what the diehard linux tech boys dont understand is that it needs to be PISS EASY ti use for the novice users if it wants to dominate.

Wii still king in US

Re: Breaking news: Sony to stop production of PS3

"the top brass at Sony must think they've spooged $Bns on a turkey."

Seeing as PS3 sales were only 900 behind the 360 and it's been out for a year less, how is that the case? it's selling very well now, particularly in Europe, and seeing as MGS4 comes out next month, I'm pretty sure it's hardware sales (and especially it's software sales) are about to go to new strengths...

Sony: world PS3 sales pass 12.8m consoles

:-O

I'm simply amazed that the same comments are posted regarding the PS3 & 360. Just amazed. I remember the MD v SNES & PSX v N64, etc. But this generation just seems to be soooo whiney and annoying. I can't believe how it's the same bitching in every single mention of either console.

GTA IV PS3 fights off resolution woes in the UK

IGN

hmm, got nothing for comparison as only have ps3 version, but it looks great. IGN favoured the ps3 version in their review..

Sony delays PS3 virtual world Home - again

Re: Hehehe

"Not true. Us PS3 owners are all playing CoD4 in 1080p. We don't play anything else... :)"

Wonder why that is, nothing to do with the fact the PS3 has no other game worth playing or anything is it :p ?

Even then the 360 has sold millions more units of CoD4 than the PS3 has, sucks to be Sony or a Sony fanboy right now :p

==========================

Uncharted is one of the best games I've ever played. GT5 Prologue (and of course GT5 next year), Ratchet & Clank, Army of Two, COD4, Warhawk, Resistance, GTAIV (next week yay!), PixelJunk Monsters (What a game - £3.50!!!), Super Stardust HD, and soon enough Haze, FFXIII, Resistance 2, Killzone 2, Mercenaries 2, and of course, the ace of spades: MGS4.

Mocking the PS3 for it's game library simply doesn't work anymore - just makes you look like a pratt. When Haze & MGS 4 are out by June, there will have been much more quality titles for PS3 in it's first 15 MONTHS than the 360 had. I'm not into 360 bashing, as I'll be getting one for my birthday this year, but if you're gonna flame, you're gonna be flamed too!

PS3 owners game iPlayer

Re:

Why would i want to download this pitiful useless file with this awful machinery when i can use my 800bjillion HDD octo-core PC to stream this video wirelessly via gold-coated gas stream straight to my 480inch tv making full use of my 12gig internet connection?! All of this of course compensating for my tiny penis..

Toshiba lost $1bn ditching HD DVD, paper claims

@Levente Szileszky

PS3 has actually started outselling the 360 in some months, and hasn't been out nearly as long, etc etc. It's also been the fastest selling of the PlayStations, and you can hardly call the PSX or PS2 a failure now can you?

Re:

"Sony is a extremly evil company that as no place in the world today."

Erm, look around naive little boy, 99% of companies are "evil" and want your money and will play every dirty trick & tactic they can to get it. So, Sony really aren't that different.

Sony chews the Blu-ray fat with Microsoft

Price

I gotta say, it doesn't bother me as I have my PS3, but we'll need to see Blu-Ray players at $200/£100 before the end of 2009 before they come mainstream. As it's the Asda-esque DVD Players that are most popular these days, and such budget prices that made DVD players a lot more common.

Sony exec confirms arrival of in-game PS3 messaging

Re: 360

"The 360 already does this, and the 360 already does that..."

Yes, and soon my PS3 will be able to do it... For Free :)

White PS3 rumours hot up

bloody hell

"Same hardware, different colour box. Whooptido!"

Bloody hell, choice isn't a bad thing! If someone hasn't bought a PS3 yet, and they want to they may think "Hmm, actually a white one might go better with my set-up than a black one."

Anything PS3 related = an infuriating reason to bitch apparantly

Metal Gear Solid 4 to launch on 12 June

@David S

"Possibly they don't care as much as you do? Just a thought."

Perhaps they should? They are reporters... reporting on the subject... just a thought...

Vibration Support

"No mention has been made as to whether the game will utilise the rumble function of the DualShock controller - something the previous games did, making that one of their trademark attractions to PlayStation gamers. But since Sony's bundling the controller in the US, it's likely that it will be utilised fully in the game."

Erm, that's ridiculously untrue, as at the ORIGINAL ANNOUNCEMENT of the Dual Shock 3, Konami declared that MGS4 would support it and utilise it's vibration function. I must have read about that in at least 10 different articles since then, so how the hell do you guys not know that?

Sony talks up Metal Gear Solid 4 PS3

Re: Well...

"PS3's just a Blu-Ray player... it doesn't have any games.. it's over-priced... it's the devil in disguise... it rapes you in the night and uses your tears as a fuel so that it can soon take over the earth and feed on our souls!.."

When will the BS end?! I remember the MD / SNES wars, and PSX / N64 wars etc, but never remember them being quite so whiny and annoying as the current PS3 / 360 war, it's driving me crazy!

360 - great console. PS3 - great console. Wii - great console. Between my mates, we have them all, and they all rule in different ways.

Just wish we didn't have so many people with the intelligence of a 9 year old commenting on these stories..

Gears of War 2 scheduled for November release

Re: 360 still has the best exclusives list.

Gears of War was great. Definitely.

But lol, that is the most idiotic rant i've seen on PS3/360 in a little while (God knows there's enough..).

How can PS3's graphics capabilities be limtied with that NVIDIA beauty & Cell powering it? Ubisoft, frankly, are the worst publisher out there for crappy ports, and so wouldnt trust them at all in regards to commentign on "what they can / cant do with the PS3." If they can't make games look&play great on the PS3, then they are either lazy or stupid. Seeing as Polyphony are doing fine with GT5, we have FFXIII looking like it's going to be one of the most graphically superb games ever, etc etc etc. And ports cross-platform games dont have to be crap on PS3 either, again, it's just Ubisoft being lazy. Look at Unreal Tournament III. I have the US version, and it's superb on the PS3.

And as for no good exclusives, quantity of exclusives is great, but I prefer the quality, and so, in this instance, I'm just going to go ahead and play the trump-card, even if it has already been played:

Metal Gear Solid 4.

Monster-capacity PS3 in the pipeline?

Re: @Steve Barnes, re: PS3 sans HDD

Erm, I think that's what Sony HAVE done. Most people dont consider 40gb much, so if you want to put loads of music or videos on your HDD, buy a giant 250 / 320GB drive and put it in with ease, if not, stick with the 40gb drive (which is small by almost anyone's standards) and you can save games, install games, wallpapers etc. And Sony would struggle to sell a PS3 that REQUIRED a hard drive to function without a Hard Drive included legally, as it is not fit for the use when it's bought that way.

Re: @Sony

"just drop the price some and offer a PS3 without a HDD"

- Most PS3 games & indeed next-gen games require a small installation to the hdd to operate, so this wouldnt work, plus, you want to be able to store things this gen, download games / downloadable content is the future.

GPS finds its way onto the PSP

It's about time!

Ever since I first heard of the GPS receiver two years ago I remember thinking how awesome it'd be to have a satnav app for it... and here we are :D and seeing as it's been out for ages in Japan, it should be compatable with fat PSP's like mine. Already got my car stand and charger for listening to music in the car, now will have a satnav app too! Hope it's a nice reliable one :-S

Xbox Live account takeovers put users at risk

Xbox Live

I'd be pissed off if this was my PSN account and that isn't even paid for! If it was an online network that required my money, I would be fuming! As it's a paid for service Microsoft are offering, surely Consumer Protection & Trading Standards could help here a little & surely trading laws apply?

Either way, as PS3-person (yes, I know there's going to plenty of abuse and flaming after this post) I do think it's crazy to pay for any kind of online gaming service. Even at half the price MS are charging, it's not really worth it!

Samsung shows very skinny telly

re: video

unfortunately, i have to agree. if you're going to include a video, you could at least include a text write up to go with it, as I'm at work when I read the Reg, and can't watch any video at work due to lack of software.

'Fat PSP' owners won't get Skype

FYI

Dropping the price of something isn't screwing something over. It's a good thing. Tard.

Sony sees red over PSP

Re: The biggest problem........

I have both handhelds, and I have to disagree.

The DS is good fun, and I love Pokémon & bomberman, etc. but in terms of real games, the PSP is great. Ratchet is amazing, Ridge Racer kicks ass, MGS Portable Ops is fantastic, Death Jr, Virtua Tennis, Burnout, etc etc. Plus it's my MP3 player & Car Stereo when hooked up with my FM transmitter too :)

Sony said to have sub-$100 PS2 in the pipeline

Re: Overheating

Seriously dont know what people's bitching is all about regarding the slim PS2 and "overheating." Have had my NTSC US Slim PS2 for 3 years this Christmas, and it's never overheated. It's never failed in any way. No matter how long I've hammered it with MGS 2, Res 4 or Ace Combat 5, it's always been reliable.

Sony: we'll have sold 132m PS2s by 31 March 08

DVD format

Well let's face it, it did in part establish the DVD format. It was mine & many other people's first DVD player. It was affordable and did the job whilst all other standard DVD players were still far too expensive.

And yes, it also brought us some of the best games in history :)

Legal loophole allows Manhunt 2 to be sold in UK

Downloadable

I know the PS2 wouldn't be able to download it, but I thought the Wii had the capability to download games through Wii's online network thingemy? If not, could be a shift to an upscaled PS2 version for 360 / PS3 at a budget price through the PSN & Xbox-Live. Plus, the PSP version could be downloaded through the PSN on your PS3 too.

Digital Switchover: town to lose BBC 2 tomorrow

Re: FreeSat

freesat is poor. very very poor. costs £150, we got given a dish, a skybox and a card from a friend (thank the Lord, as I'd never pay for it!) claims a lot more channels, but you have to sift to find them amongst 800+ sky channels that are locked (there is no quick way to jump to the free channels, just search) and although it says 96 channels, most are poor, and it doesn't even have the few good freeview channels, such as E4 etc.

DO NOT BUY IT!

Rockstar to battle BBFC over Manhunt 2 ban

Hilarious!

"This game isn't going to appeal to anyone with an IQ in three figures is it?"

Then a few comments later, we have evidence in: "GOOD FOR ROCKSTAR" - 230 words and no punctuation in sight! Love it.

Manhunt 1 was poor. Awful, sick, twisted, and poor. Let's face it, British society is going downhill, and whilst I too am against a nanny state, I have to agree that Manhunt-type stuff is a bit too much maybe. I love the Resi series, SIlent Hill's, Haunting Ground, Clock Tower, and San Andreas too, but it's just a bit different really. Anyone saying otherwise is either avoiding that fact, or already a little too warped to tell.

Hint of next PS3 spied on web

last paragraph (again)

Do Reg reporters do ANY research whatsoever before reporting rumours or "stories?"

It really seems like they don't! I know loads of people have already said it, but to confirm, EVERY single PS3 game has been made on Blu-Ray disc, not some, not most, ALL. And Sony have already said that they ALL will be.

So whatever the "upgrade" or alteration(s) may be, that isn't / wont be it!

Wii wins console war, market watcher claims

"Wii is the best, etc etc."

I'm sick of everyone telling eachother what console's best!

For years people have like different consoles for different reasons. Get over it!

Personally, I really dont enjoy the Wii. My sister-in-law has one, and I enjoyed for the first 20mins, but the 'novelty' got old fast for me. But I can completely see why other people like it. It has the mass-appeal, easy & laid back approach & you don't need to be good at games to play it & enjoy it. But it's just not for me.

I'm borrowing my friend's PS3 at the moment while he's away, and I have to say, it's a beautiful bit of kit, but could understand why people don't want to spend the cash on it, Blu-Ray & Hi-Def content isn't important to a lot of people, but I love it, and am loving The Darkness, Go! Puzzle, and Motorstorm too! I'll def be getting a PS3 at some point, and no doubt a 360 some day too.

Different people want different things from their consoles. It's nothing new.

Paramount, Dreamworks go all out for HD DVD

Re: Digital downloads may beat them all

In theory, yes, but in reality no. Definitely not. The idea of PAID FOR movie downloads (coz lets face it, just about anyone can get any movie in the world downloaded for free) is a nice idea, and if somebody had put the time & money into it already to have an itunes like interface the consumers like etc with decent prices, it could have worked.

But it's not gonna work, because..

a) the big movie companies have all taken too long to decide on an agreed format for the downloads, agreed store to licence to, etc etc.

b) they will/would be almost as expensive as the actual discs, and in some cases, most likely old films, more expensive. which is crazy.

c) they will/would be absolutely CRIPPLED with DRM, and I know Blu-Ray and HD-DVD have plenty of anti-copy protection on them, but it is continually being cracked, and you begrudge it less seeing as you have the actual media. But when you look at what i said before about it costing about as much, taking hours and hours to download, and then you can't burn it to disc yourself because of the DRM, and also because...

d) Blu-Ray / HD-DVD burners are expensive. Fair enough they're coming down, and tech-enthusiasts will buy them, but CD burning became rampant when the drives were £60 and less, same with DVD burning. When drives are hundreds of pounds and discs are nearly a tenner (bringing the price of a burnt download, if that'll be even possible with the DRM, to MORE than a retail disc), the average consumer, even who's "into" hi-def, aint gonna bother.

e) UK's broadband. And I'm not primarily talking about speed, although that is an obvious clear issue. I'm talking about "Caps." It is near IMPOSSIBLE to get a UK Internet connection without a cap. Virgin are possibly some of the filthiest rotten liars, especially seeing as they made a press release criticizing other ISPs for enforcing hidden caps, even though they have a 40gb one themselves. If you're lucky, and I mean REALLY lucky (like myself) you'll have a 100gb cap, but it costs a fortune and is still only a few films, leaving you with no bandwidth left for anything else.

Even with the absolute pain in the arse war between HD-DVD & Blu-Ray (which p*sses me off as much as the next man) consumers still aren't going to be convinced by HD downloading with all these limitations, most of which aren't going to go away anytime soon.

Transformers

Damn! I was looking forward to getting Transformers on Blu-Ray :( Oh well, guess I'll have to wait until a winner emerges, if it's Blu-Ray they'll obviously release it for it later, if it's HD-DVD, I'll have to buy an HD-DVD player eventually anyway.

iPod Nano revamp to see widescreen display?

Reliability

This is all well and good, BUT what I want to know is will it now finally have a decent battery that doesn't become unusable right around the 12month mark (happened to me with 3 nanos) and doesn't crash on a very regular basis, like both the previous editions of Nanos?!

Sony threatens to evict naughty gamers from Home

Re: Good Luck!

"I despise Sony, and I want to see them fail in this and every other venture, until the company is finally dissolved due to insolvency. Hey, a man can dream! They richly deserve failure for their malicious and just plain evil distribution of rootkit Trojans on their Sony-BMG audio CDs.

However, in the short term I would like to see their online service working as advertised - I hope their net.police succeed. Why? Because then Microsoft's Xbox Live service will have something that threatens them; I quit Xbox Live and sold both my Xbox consoles and all 75 of my Xbox games shortly after the Xbox 360 was released, because the Xbox Live service was overrun with "griefers" during the 3 weeks' runup to the 360 release, and it became obvious that Microsoft had no intention of doing anything about it.

So, good luck to Sony in this one venture - until Microsoft starts feeling the pain of competition and improves their own online service.

After that, Sony can rot in Hell."

LOL! Coz Microsoft are such a plesant, kind and honest company?! Sony's stealth crap on their CD's sucked but Microsoft ARE DRM, and ARE SPYWARE! Bloody Windows Genuine Advantage?! Biggest spyware I've EVER had on my machine, and I'm saying this as a genuine Windows user, I paid for mine! Ousting people off of XP and onto Vista anyway they can (Direct X), charging for online service (no online service, no matter how good, is worth paying for), the list goes on! Sony can really suck, and often do, and really rip off consumers, but so does EVERY other company! Don't go praising Nintendo for their cheap Wii too much until you checkout the price of accessories!!

I personally am happy with my current PS2, GC and original Xbox lineup for now, coz i've got too many games to complete for them still. When the prices are down on PS3, I'll be getting that, and no doubt a 360 around the same time. I very much doubt I'll be getting a Wii.

Also, for people bitching about the banning if people get out of hand, where's the shock? That's a pretty much standard policy around the net for these similar kinds of environments. And my guess is you'd have to do something pretty badass to get booted. And, don't forget, it's free!

US price cut for Xbox 360 HD DVD player

Re: Price difference

man that was poor typing! sorry, pretty tired today!

Re: Price difference

"It's because you Brits and Europeans are making so damned much money."

Erm, as you refer to "us" as "Brits and Europeans," I'm assuming you're American?

Just so you know: America is the richest country in the world.

So don't give me b0ll0cks about us Brits/Europeans being so wealthy, as I and many other person my age in the UK has to drive in a vsmall car and live in a terraced house. When I was in the US last year, I lost count how many teenagers who had just passed their test has a brand new dodge bought for them!

Only 'major' EU countries to be in second iPhone rollout

Re: Bah

Could be quite possible that Ireland's on the list surely? Coz Apple UK is based there..

Sony preps fix-filled PS3 firmware update

Re:

"most popular video encoding in the world?"

well, for pirated and bootleg video maybe.

**

Lol, which the majority of videos encoded are!

"Sony are so cutting edge, they even managed to get a software Eject option stuck into their £300+ console by firmware version 1.9.... ? *claps hands*

After knowing this, I will never bitch about my 360 crashing once every other week EVER again"

LOL! You know what? You're right! Having an eject feature added to the menu months after creation IS a lot worse than having your console break down every other week! *shakes head in disbelief*

El Reg lobs iPhone at Genius Bar

Fanboys

Man I hate them!

And it seems like Apple ones are the worst of all! Grumpier & more defensive than Linux, MS, Sony, Nintendo, etc. Apple could release a piece of turd with a clickwheel on the front of it and sell it as "the new revolutionary 21st century kettle" and Apple fanboys would defend it! Crazy.

Zune DRM stripped

zune

I have to say, I initially quite liked the idea of the Zune when it was first spoken about. The idea of wi-fi-ing songs was quite nice, something the PSP's been missing for a while. After 4 different ipods died on me within warranty, i'd sold the fifth one and needed to replace it, and the zune was looking promising, but then i found out about the 3 play limit?! CRAZY! they crippled such a nice little idea. oh well. I bought a 4gb card for my PSP instead, not as portable, but nicer in the car.

Sony says no to Euro PS3 price cut

RE: RE: Re: RE: Re: "PS3 doesn't need Blu-Ray" (crazy amount of re's)

"Well, I'm not saying MGS4 could be on DVD any more than I'm saying it could be on 3.5" floppies. It could theoretically still fit on 2x HD DVDs though and one more disk would hardly ruin the experience."

True, but don't you think implementing HD-DVD would be almost as pricey as Blu-Ray?

And Tim, I agree about the 45gb being Cut-scenes etc, but that's why we love MGS isn't it?! :-S

Re: RE: Re: "PS3 doesn't need Blu-Ray"

By AlexPosted Friday 13th July 2007 15:39 GMT "Yes, the PS3 does need Blu-Ray. All this crap about "drop blu-ray" etc is so annoying. I know I've commented on it on here before. MGS4 - PS3's exclusive groundbreaking title that took the E3 by storm yesterday, can only fit on a Blu-Ray disc"

**

Because God forbid that a game is released on 2 disks. That's why Final Fantasy VII on PS1 was such a dismal failure worldwide, right?

**

Lol, very good, but technology moves on mate, get over it. All this b*llocks about Blu-Ray being expensive and needless space etc etc is exactly what the DVD Bashers said back in 2000, and these are the same people that are now defending DVD. Let's say MGS4 took up a full 50gb, it's 8.5gb per dual layer dvd, so that's gonna be 6 discs. Even if it isn't a full 50gb, it'd still more than likely take up 4 or so, and that's the first MGS. It's just the way technology works! Every single PS2 game on CD wouldn't have worked and neither would every single PS3 game being on DVD!

Once again, having said that, the PS3 is still over-priced. Oh well, still got a few more PS2 & Xbox games to tick me over for now.

Re: "PS3 doesn't need Blu-Ray"

Yes, the PS3 does need Blu-Ray. All this crap about "drop blu-ray" etc is so annoying. I know I've commented on it on here before. MGS4 - PS3's exclusive groundbreaking title that took the E3 by storm yesterday, can only fit on a Blu-Ray disc. Kojima has already confirmed this. It wont appear on 360 coz it requires Blu-Ray. That's the FIRST big game for the PS3 (excluding GTA IV, because I still feel Rockstar will be using it as a tester for the real PS3's GTA's) and it cannot possibly be squeezed down to a DVD disc, Kojima says. So, if Sony were to drop it, games would be stuck at their current state, for the console's life-span, 6/7 years. Which is why I'm not getting a 360, I feel there's not enough room for evolution (and I'm not paying for online).

I completely agree that Sony not offering the EU a price drop is rediculous, and after a very impressive E3 performence, a price drop in the US, a new remodelled PSP at a very cheap US price and an 80gb (pointless but kool) being announced, Sony seemed like they were finally starting to put out 'good vibes' through the industry this week and win over some flamers, and a confirmed EU price drop to £300-350 would've sealed this, and so I find this defiance very dissapointing. Really felt like they had an open goal to shoot at, and have just skied it.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, NO console is worth £425.

Nintendo to let Wii gamers go for their guns

Re: Work with Plasma/LCD?

b166er, unfortunately the PS099L doesn't work with LCD or Plasma. One of the more 'reputable' 3rd party light guns that I've heard of that DOES work with LCD, Plasma, etc, is the "TopGun" lightgun, works on PS2 & XBox. I've never used it personally, but heard good things about it.

Check it out:

http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-3z-49-en-70-16s7.html

And you can an additional stand for it too if your screens over 60":

http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-1i-49-en-70-1c3h.html

Have fun! :-D

Best Looking Light Gun?!

Definitely not mate! Logic 3 PS099L Laser Blaster for PS2 :-D class gun, I've got 2.

Second-generation Sony PSP unveiled

:-D

'Sales of ipods have dropped like a stone since the Zune was launched.'

LOL! That is the response I've EVER seen! :-D