Several months ago, PlayStation sent out some random invites to users to participate in the beta for a program they were trying out called “PlayStation Rewards.” Basically the program would track a user’s forum and blog use, as well as their activity in PlayStation Home, and reward them points for each participating. There were several tiers you could get into, and they netted you unique avatars and the chance to enter into special contests.

For whatever reason, Sony decided that through the beta, PlayStation Rewards was not ready for the general public yet. The beta was canceled and they sent me an e-mail thanking me for participating. Then about a month ago I received an e-mail from Sony saying that to thank me for participating in the Rewards beta I would be receiving a t-shirt in the mail soon.

So today when I went to the mailbox and saw a package from PlayStation inside, I figured it was the shirt, and I was right. Unfortunately, in my opinion, the shirt is pretty lame. It’s a solid black shirt (they shipped size XL and never asked me what size I would like, so I assume everyone received XL) with white and blue lettering in the front, which I’m assuming is Japanese for either “PlayStation”, “Sony”, or “PlayStation Rewards”…something along those lines. The right sleeve has a white PS logo on it.

They also sent a postcard inside further thanking me for my participation:

So for commenting on a few blogs and entering a contest or two (I never went on the forums or into Home) I got a free t-shirt. Now if they REALLY wanted to thank me for participating they could start busting their butts harder to bring PSN back online.

Edit:

A special thanks to Joystiq for picking up this blog and using it as a source for one of their articles, including using the above pic!

So I was kinda watching the VGAs last night, and what I didn’t watch I followed on joystiq’s live blog, and the game announcements for next year were epic. It’s not like there were one or two game announcements to get me excited…there were FOUR! Four games which come from some of my most adored franchises, and they all come out in November. This Fall season didn’t offer too many must-haves for me, aside from Fallout: New Vegas, but next year is a different story indeed.

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception will be released on 11/1/11. I love the Uncharted series, and Uncharted 2 took the franchise to new heights by adding in some awesome co-op and multiplayer modes, which really added to the life and replay value of the game. I’ve got my fingers crossed that there will finally be some campaign co-op, especially since there are almost always two characters on screen at any given time in the games.

Resistance 3 is coming out 11/6/11, and I’m pretty psyched. Resistance: Fall of Man was a great single player game, and while Resistance 2′s campaign couldn’t compare to the first, its co-op mode was what really made the game one of the best on the system. Sadly, Insomniac has confirmed that there will be no off-shoot co-op mode, but there will be a full-on campaign co-op mode, so hopefully that will be just as good.

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim will be released 11/11/11, and that will be another game I will be needing to own. I must have played through Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion at least eight or nine times, and though I only beat the game once, I lost plenty of hours just exploring the land and fooling around. That being said, I know I can expect great things from the Elder Scrolls series, and I’m looking forward to creating some custom character classes and doing battle for the good of the land…and this time for trophies!

The final game isn’t necessarily coming out in November, but the “holiday season 2011″, which could be anywhere from September-December. The game is Mass Effect 3, and I can’t wait to get my grubby hands on it. The good thing about Mass Effect 3 is that, while I love the franchise, I won’t have the need to purchase it…I’ll be content with one play-through of it. That is, unless the game comes with some co-op modes. There may be some competitive multiplayers modes included this time around, but that won’t sell me…only co-op will do that. So I’ll definitely be following the news to see if I’ll be shipping the game back to Gamefly or “keeping it now.”

All I know that is my wallet will be empty and my Christmas list will be full next year.

You read that right folks…the classic 90′s arcade game X-Men is coming to the major consoles via downloadable goodness. I first heard about this in an article  from Joystiq, who are currently covering Comicon, and the game was announced by Marvel today. In case you forgot or don’t know, this was an amazing unit, as most of the arcade cabinets were shaped oddly to allow for two screens, so that six players could squeeze together much easier than if it was a standard cabinet. However, I do remember playing this game once or twice on a normal cabinet that only allowed four players.

That being said, it has been confirmed that the game, which will be available over PSN and XBLA “soon”, will feature up to six players online. The article I read did not mention how many players will be allowed to play locally. This is a day one purchase for me, no questions asked. Well maybe one question…”WHY THE HELL DID IT TAKE SO FREAKING LONG?!” Oh, and make that another question: Do I pick this up on the 360 or the PS3?!

I will definitely be keeping an eye for when the release date and the price are made official.

To the horror of 360 “fanboys” and the cheers of PS3 users, it was officially announced yesterday at Gamescom that Mass Effect 2 would be released on the PS3 next January. To add on to my anti-fanboy argument, when I looked at the post on Joystiq (see above embedded link) for this news, I saw several comments where people were either saying “nooooooo” or “this sucks now all we have is halo and fable”. That is just stupid talk, and I hate it. I would be pleased as punch if God of War went to the 360, and I think it should!While this is a major victory for gamers who only own a PS3, it also has some problems.

The Pros

First and foremost, the biggest pro is that more people will be able to enjoy the wonder world of Mass Effect. If I didn’t have a 360 I would be just as happy, and being a 360 owner I’m not crying over this…I hate console-exclusive games. The fact that before I had a 360 I never got to touch the likes of Left 4 Dead, Mass Effect, and Castle Crashers, and that I know that there are people out there in the world who have never played Uncharted, God of War, or Resistance, just makes me so angry. There is absolutely no way any gamers win from console-exclusive games…unless they count “bragging rights” as a pro. Personally, I don’t, and I think the only people who benefit from exclusive games are the system owners (Sony of Microsoft), since a person like me has to own both systems to enjoy all the greatest games. Not even the game developers win, because they would sell a hell of a lot more units of a game if it appeared on both systems.

So that all being said, gamers will win because more people will be able to enjoy the story of Mass Effect, and Bioware will win because more copies of the game will sell. It can also be assumed that, with this happening, that Mass Effect 3, due out next year, will also be a cross-platform game, which is great.

Note: It is important to understand that, for the sake of this post, I will only consider the 360 and PS3 systems. Yes, I do acknowledge the Wii…I have a Wii and love my Wii…but due to it’s unique controllers and limited hardware capabilities, it cannot be placed into this argument about cross-platform games, because most games that went to the Wii would be completely inferior to their PS3 and 360 counterparts.

The Cons

Yes, believe it or not, there are downsides to this happening, and I’m not referring to the 360 fanboy nightmare that is losing an exclusive title. The biggest problem I see is that the PS3 users, while being able to play through Mass Effect 2, will be in the dark as far as the first Mass Effect goes, since that is not being released on the PS3. Now some may say that is not a big deal, and Bioware claims that there will be an introductory video or something similar on the PS3 release that will give someone who never played Mass Effect the gist of what happened to bring them up to speed, but that doesn’t even come close to comparing with playing through and experiencing the full story for yourself. I’m big on the stories that occur in games…I’m not one to skip over cut scenes or zone out during extended periods of dialogue. To me, games are more like interactive movies, and you control how the story proceeds. That being said, not being able to personally play through the first Mass Effect puts PS3 owners jumping right into Mass Effect 2 somewhat in the dark, and they won’t be able to enjoy it to the same effect as a 360 owner did. I guess I would just have been a lot happier if they had released the first Mass Effect first, and then Mass Effect 2 months or a year later…that would have been better.

Another problem is that PS3 users will not be able to get the same gaming experience. Why? Simply because some content of Mass Effect rolls over to Mass Effect 2, meaning if you load up your Mass Effect save file when popping in Mass Effect 2, your personal story continues. Shepard’s character bio you created crosses over, along with his relationships with his allies, and the ramifications to some of the actions he took in the first game. I can’t fully vouch for this, since I am still rolling through Mass Effect and haven’t touched the second one yet, but I have seen this done before, primarily in the Suikoden series. Throughout Suikoden, one of it’s draws was that there were 108 total characters to find in each game, and your relationship with them in previous games affected how they appeared in later games. For example, in the first game your best friend dies part way though the story, but if you find all 108 characters, he will miraculously come back in the end for the final battles. Then if you use this save file when you load up Suikoden II, he will eventually join up with you. However, if you did not find him in the first game, or you did not have a save file, then he would not be accessable in Suikoden II. I know I digress a bit, but I’m just trying to explain how important the continuity of a story is to me, and how PS3 users are going to get a cheapened experience with Mass Effect 2.

I am 100% happy that Mass Effect 2 (and presumably 3) is making its way to the PS3, and I wish more console-exclusive titles would follow suit. However, when a exclusive game breaks through the wall and comes to the other side, I just wish it was done with total effort, and started from the very beginning, so that everyone could enjoy the same great story and gaming experiences.

There was quite a lot to do at PAX East, and since I got a lot of the specifics out of the way in other posts, I will be able to give a general overview of the weekend here.

We first stepped into the Hynes Convention Center around 3:30ish on Friday afternoon and started checking things out. The first floor of the convention center was dedicated to basic stuff such as checking in, the PAX merchandise stand, and other stuff. There were a lot of internet notarities selling their wares, as well as a lot of table top game providers. There were two rooms set aside on the first floor for free-play table top, meaning you and your friends could go in there, pick out a board game (and there were a lot to choose from), and kick back and play. After checking out the first floor, we made our way upstairs to the second floor, where the main exhibition room was.

The exhibition room was packed with gaming companies showing off their latest and soon to be released games. Rockstar was showing off Red Dead Redemption, Behemoth was previewing Castle Crashers on PSN, APB, Crackdown 2, Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands, Red Steel 2, Skate 3, and others were on display as well. There were also vendors showing off the latest trends to supplement your gaming experience. One company was showing off a harness that fit over your head and rested on your chest and back, and it would vibrate when your character was hit in game. It was nifty and interesting, but not something that I would ever want to own. 3D gaming was also prevalent at PAX, and there were a couple of vendors showing off the magic of playing games in 3D. I’m not a fan of that…it was only a few minutes before I began to feel nauseous from it.

Of course there were plenty of vendors giving away stuff. Many were handing out promotional swag just for walking by or saying hi to them. On the other hand, some vendors made you work for your swag, whether it meant filling out a questionaire, “friending” them on Facebook, signing up for a mailing list, or taking part in a scavenger hunt.

I enjoyed wandering around and taking in all the sights. There was a lot going on, and everytime we walked around the room, something new and wonderful caught my eye. Friday was definitely the busiest day, and we got to see very little. Saturday and Sunday were a little less congested, and I never felt overwhelmed by people or anything. Some of the games had long lines, such as Crackdown 2, Red Dead Redemption, and Mafia II, but it wasn’t all that bad. I think waiting in line is just something that comes with the convention…everyone wants to check something out, and the developers want each person to have some time with the product.

The third floor was where the majority of the gaming was going on. Along the entire hallway there were at least two hundred Sumo sacks, which are very comfortable bean bag chairs. Many people plopped down on a sack and whipped out either their DS or PSP. In fact, I would say that the vast majority of the people there had brought their own DS with them, as they were far from being an uncommon sight. There was also a free-play console room set up. Basically, you went in there and grabbed a ticket (like at a deli.) When your name was called, you were able to select a console and game, were given controllers, and you had thirty minutes to play. I took advantage of this and was able to check out Left 4 Dead for the first time, which was a great game. Thirty minutes was not a lot of time, but for the amount of people going in there wanting to play, it’s what had to be done to make sure everyone got a turn.

There was also a free-play PC room set up, and we spent a good chunk of time in here. The wait for the PC room was rarely very long, and since it was not as busy, we had a lot more time in there to play. We played for almost an two hours on both Friday and Saturday night. I enjoyed trying something new, as I do not play PC games, especially PC FPS. Getting used to the controls was tough, and I was definitely sucking. However, I still enjoyed trying something new.

Throughout all three floors, there were constantly panels and special talks going on in different rooms. We went to a showcase on the Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands game, and it looks pretty much like pure awesomeness. We were also able to get into a podcast recording for Joystiq and a tv recording for X-Play. There was a lot more cool stuff going on, but we weren’t able to make it to the other things.

In general, I was very pleased with PAX East. I had never been to a gaming convention before, and for my first one, it’s pretty much love at first sight…as long as I’m within driving distance I will definitely be coming back for future PAX Easts’. While I thought it was going to be overcrowded and annoying, it wasn’t that bad, and I was not upset at all (which says a lot, since I am a very particular person when it comes to crowds and personal space.) Boston itself proved to be a wonderful town with plenty to do and friendly people, and all the people at the convention were likewise pleasant and friendly. They say that next years show will be at a bigger convention center in Boston, and I can’t wait to see what they do with the increased space.

I believe that Pax East was a huge success, and I’m glad that a gaming convention of this magnitude finally made it over here to the east coast. I hope that the guys at Penny Arcade continue to support it to make each year bigger and better than the last.

So last night, it was around 10:00pm, and I was ready to get my game on. Before I hopped on, I checked my e-mail and checked out joystiq, and I saw a notice that the PS3 was busted, and warned against turning the PS3 on. While it wasn’t entirely clear what the issue was, I didn’t want to risk anything, so I didn’t go on.

It has now been about 22 hours, and the PSN is still messed up. Reports have been flying around that you can’t play most games, and that you will run the risk of losing trophies and save files. While I did not experience any of this personally, Steve happened to be on his PS3 last night.

Steve was playing Fallout 3, and he had no problem actually playing the game. He did realize two things though. First, his save files were getting the wrong date imprinted on them. Secondly, he was unable to see his Fallout 3 trophies. What will become of his saves and trophies?! We will not know, until it is safe to turn the system back on and to look over the damage.

The worst part is that I received Dynasty Warriors: Strike Force in from Gamefly, and I can’t play it!!!