Posts by Steve Barnes

Sony's 80GB PS3 pic points to rumble-ready controller

LOL!

All the people bitching about rumbling makes me laugh, "it hurts my hands!" etc.

Tis funny. Even if you don't like it, it hurts your hands? C'mon. Lock it up!

Official: Sony to bring 80GB PS3 to USA

Re: Whatever it is

"$250 or £500. There's something wrong with that maths but I can't quite put my finger on it..."

I can tell you what's wrong with it, there's no mention of $250 anywhere, it's $500 which equals £250! :-D

Seriously guys, all the PS3 bitch-slapping's gotta stop. Don't own one yet, but will do. I don't take the Wii seriously, but can see why people like it (and yes, I have played on one, several times!) and 360 doesn't do it for me either (same here too!), but £250 for a nice new PS3 is a good price! But, of course that's just in the US, and it needs to be a very similar if not exact same price over here (hahahahahaha!) The only thing that's stopping me getting a US one is the Blu-Ray movie lockout :-/ which is a damn shame.

The games are definitely coming though, which is great, from October 07 we're gonna see some real PS3 games, which is when I will make my move 8-D

Besides, seeing as if you use a few online vouchers and quidco you can get a PS3 over here for £360, when there is a drop, hopefully it should be to a decent price, although I know you shouldn't have to do all that to get a good price. £400 is crazy!

£250 - 300 will do me nicely.

And I can't wait for MGS4 & FFXIII! :-D

UK going to hell on hardware, eco group warns

Re: Morons!

"And as for "set top boxes" who's bloody fault is that? Hands up who said, yes please, please turn of the analogue signal and FORCE me to by a set top box for each TV (and upgrade my F***ing ariel !)."

LOL! Amen to that!

These studies are usually by absolute idiots who don't have a clue. People already know whether or not they're "doing their bit." I recycle all my cans, paper, plastics, etc. I don't keep things on standby, i don't leave things on when they're not needed. But I'll be damned if I'm gonna start going, "Oh man, my phone's dead, better char... oh wait, need to save energy, wont charge it, will just drive 50 miles home to let friends know i'm safe.."

And "Man, this 48 hour week has been a long one, I really need to wind down. I know, I'll get Resi 4 out and have a blas... Oh wait, saving energy, better sell my PS2, and go get a skipping rope instead.."

BBC iPlayer finally hits the streets

Re: Linux for ease of use

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!................ ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaah!

*wipes away tears*

Hilarious. Absolutely hilarious. And before I'm burned by a Linux fanboy, I have a dual-booting PC using Windows XP Home and Ubuntu. I enjoy and use both frequently, but to say that Linux is 'easy to use' is a load of crap. The painful hassle to set it up to use this type of common format, or to open this file, or to have this type of program installed etc, is insane. It's come along way over the years but XP (not Vista scum) will always rule all.

Manhunt 2 banned

Poor Game, but Poor Decision

I find it hard to believe that this game was banned for any other reason than the pressure put on the BBFC by Leicester (my city) MP & the family of the child who was killed a couple of years ago. Of course this was a tragic incident. But the Police themselves said that Manhunt was not the motive.

I've played (and enjoyed) Silent Hill 4, The Suffering, Clock Tower 3, Fahrenheit, San Andreas, etc. etc. All very violent games. Silent Hill 4 with it's people being burnt & murdered, Fahrenheit with it's graphic opening scene of a guy being stabbed, The Suffering is nothing but brutal and graphic all the way through, and can be disturbing with it's realism in relation to prisoner treatment, Clock Tower shocked and upset me tremendously with it's horrific depiction of an elderly lady and and man being put & locked into acid vats by a psychopathic killer, and a young girl having her heard caved in by a sledge-hammer wielding maniac, and of course we all know the cotroversies of San Andreas. And yet theses were all released, with no cuts. Bloody Clock Tower was only rated 15!!! And yet Manhunt 2 is banned... Hmmm, doesn't quite add up to me..

I really don't care about the game itself; Manhunt 1 was utter tosh in my opinion, and have little reason to believe that Manhunt 2 is / will / would be, but I am just very opposed to the BBFC's lack of honesty in banning it. Go on guys. Just say it's coz of the murder last year. If not, you may as well take all the other games that I've mentioned off the shelves too. And while your at it, why not ban Wolf Creek, Hostel, Saw, and 28 Weeks Later (children being eaten alive anyone?).

The thing that gets me most is that I don't wanna see fantastic future titles like Silent Hill 5, Res 5 and GTA 4 come to the same fate.

Manhunt 2 rated 18+ in US

Er... no it wont...

Manhunt 2 most certainly wont be released in the US on 10 July as it currently stands, as both Sony AND Nintendo do not grant licences for games to be released on their system if they have an "AO" rating.

Which is why for a period of time San Andreas was withdrawn from stores, because when the "Hot Coffee" controversy was going on, the ESRB re-rated it AO and as such it wasn't allowed to be sold. So Rockstar had to completly remove any traces of the Hot Coffee code for it to be re-rated M and allowed to be back on shelves.

So although there's only a years difference between M (17+) and AO (18+), because Sony & Nintendo wont grant licences to AO games and retailers wont stock them, it's essentialy the difference between a game being released or not.

Sony ponders PS3 price cut

'Drop Blu-Ray'

I wish people would stop being so daft and going on how Sony's biggest mistake was Blu-Ray! That's stupid! Yes, NO games are using the storage it offers right now, and 360's DVD capacity is ample, but in 2years time, just about all PS3 games will be using it. Look at PS2 games now, God of War is Dual Layer! Res 4, MGS 2 & 3, Gran Turismo 3 & 4, FFX & XII, etc. all of PS2's fantastic games couldn't have fit on the CD format that people said the PS2 should have used, because 'DVD is too expensive' and 'will never catch on' etc etc. And yet in reality, if Sony hadn't chosen the DVD format, the PS2 wouldn't have lasted the 7years it has and Sony would've had to have released a new console / solution a lot sooner.

It makes me laugh even more when the very same people saying this also say "And bring out MGS4!" - which Kojima has already said makes full use of Blu-Ray, and wont be released on 360 because of the lack of storage - his exact words were that it'd have to be "majorly stripped down."

I will get a PS3. Eventually. I can't justify spending anything more than £300 on a console. So what I'm gonna do is wait 'till it drops to $500 in the states, and import one, which should come to £300 with postage. That's what I did for PS2 :) American games are so much cheaper!

If Sony want to even get market-share they'll HAVE to drop the European price. £425 RRP? That's insane. Absoultely insane. 3DO anyone?

Five things Sony needs to do save the PS3

Re: PS3, no thanks

"The PS1 had major problems (fixed in the slim version) and the PS2 has major problems (again, fixed with the slim version)."

Both the PS1 & PS2's 'major' problems were fixed well before they had their slim remodelings. The slim PSOne only came out a few months before the PS2 - and buy that time millions of people had happily enjoyed MGS, Gran Turismo, Resident Evil, Tomb Raider and FFVII without these 'major problems.' Same with PS2. I have 3 of them. First is a launch PAL one, which DID have laser problems, the next one was bought a year later and has no such problems, the third is a NTSC slim model.

Also, as long as FFXIII is PS3 exclusive, it WILL be a killer app, regardless of whether you think the series is getting worse. I'll agree that whilst I loved X & XII, they're not a scratch on VII, but that hasn't stopped gamers buying them in their masses. The main FF Series will always sell well. Period. It is the 4th best selling video game series of all time.

However I must say, I'd pay any amount of money for a PS3 version of FFVII! :-D

The main articles points stand true here, a HUGE price slash is needed (when I buy my PS3 it'll be in October, from the US where it will have, according to reports, dropped to $499 - £250, just over half the UK RRP) and it needs GAMES GAMES GAMES!! No-one will spend £200, £300, or £400 on a console that has no more than 1 or 2 good games, and the upcoming good ones aren't going to be around for quite a while. This needs sorting!!!

Oh yeah, and one more thing, I bloody hope that Ace Combat 6 makes an apperance on PS3!

Sony cuts price of Blu-ray player

Re: Format Wars...

"at the moment, standard DVD looks fine for my needs, rather than shelling out on what I would assume would be the wrong choice, no matter which format I chose (it's the kind of luck I have, which is why I don't gamble...)"

LOL! I know that feeling!

*Stares at minidisc player sitting gathering dust*

Metal Gear Solid 4 delayed until 2008?

can't wait

MGS 1-3 were fantastic (i've got portable ops, but haven't started it yet) - and from what I've seen of 4, it looks like it'll be worth the wait. At the end of the day, anyone's who's a fan of the MGS series is going to buy, whatever the release date.

MS stops hacked hardware accessing Xbox Live

Re: "Why buy one then?"

Unfortunately, that's not true. It is illegal to modify a microsoft or sony console - lik-sang got stung for this. A few years ago (2002 I think?!) a London High Court ruled that you cannot modify a console to circumvent any kind of copy protection / other protection that Sony / MS put's in place, so I'm assuming it'd cover this too. That's How Lik-Sang nearly went down (before they did actually go down) as they were selling Sony & MS mods, which led to the big two to take the case to court, producing said verdict.

That said, it still sucks! :-P

Kutaragi to pilot PlayStation development?

errm... no

I don't believe that my comment on Warhawk was my only point of merit. The lack of decent PS3 games has been widely documented and whilst I am certainly not jumping to point the PS3 as a failure (I'll be getting one in October) I am simply pointing out what many other already have - extras and bonuses are wonderful; thoroughly enjoyable, but they are useless if you don't have the games to go with them. Who cares about a beautiful cell processor if you have to choose between remodelled 360 & PS2 games?

My only point of similarity for the PSP was that it has loads of great extra functions (which I make use of) but in terms of games, my DS Lite (I own both, and generally do have every console each generation) gets a LOT more playing time.

There is of course a lot to still look forward to, such as FFXIII and MGS4 (honestly can't wait). But Sony could do with focusing more on their software department for a little while. PSX outlived the 64-bit N64 and even the 128-bit Dreamcast not because of it's technical capabilities but because of it's wonderful game library. That's what's always mattered when it comes to games consoles.

Bigger and better yes, but..

It's annoying because: "As before, but bigger and better" wouldn't and SHOULDN'T be a problem - I have no desire for a motion-sensing wii controller etc (although I can see why others like it) - the main problem with the PS3 is, for all it's power, all it's multi-functioning beefed-up capabilities, it STILL has almost no games! I love PlayStation, I still own my original launch PSX, a PSOne, and 2 PS2's (one original UK and one US Slimline) AND even a PSP, and really want to find a reason to get a PS3, but I can't!

Resistence: Fall of Man looks good, definitely, but it looks like of the few games confirmed for PS3, a lot are FPS. Virtua Tennis had it's online capabilities stripped (why?! - ah yes, we all love Xbox live, heaven forbid any other console have a thriving online community), MotorStorm has no split-screen 2 player, Warhawk has been in development for yonks and has now been announced as an online only game; what the hell Sony? Come on!

If / when I get my PS3, yes, I will have Linux installed, yes, I will check my email on it, yes I will put videos and music on it, but will it matter if I can't play any decent games on it? NO!

It's the same thing with the PSP...

Virgin Media chucks rocks in 'unlimited' debate

Virgin lies - CHOOSE F2S! :-D

I have looked in the past at Virgin Media for broadband as a cheaper option, and was impressed by their "unlimited" downloads claim (I use a minimum of 50gb p/month, usually closer to 80/90) but felt it would be too good to be true. So, I did a little researching around all of their terms and conditions and other small print thingemies (which isn't easy with Virgin trying to appear all laid back and casual!) and eventually found the 40gb fair usage rule. How is that unlimited? How would a LIMIT, of any size, be it 40 or 1000gb, be considered UNlimited? I'm writing to Ofcom about this as I consider this to be false advertising. And now the fact that they're trying to draw shame to other companies for doing the same as them is unbelievable!

My ISP is Freedom2surf ( www.f2s.com ) and have been for a few years now, and they're great. You pay more, but you get more. No ports blocked, all file-sharing welcome, static IP address, 20 email addresses and 200mb webspace ALL included, and it's £23.99 for 50gb limit or £29.99 for 100gb limit with 8mb download speeds (assuming your connection can handle this, mine can only handle 2) and have NEVER had downtime with them! Highly recommended! (I don't work for them btw, just a very very happy customer)