I find it weird and coincidental that when thinking up a series of blogs to do, that I shall receive an achievement for doing so. Reward for writing = Win in my opinion and hopefully I will endeavour to write just that little bit more, much to your displeasure ha!

“Love Game, Not Console” is a journey into the hey day, the youth and innocence of my gaming glory long for gone. Long before a time where Scientists and Lawyers were linking gaming to violence... then unlinking... then linking again... then unlinking and... well you get the picture. Long before the absences of an R18+ rating was an issue between Australian gamers and one said former South Australian Attorney General (highlighting the former there). I was me, a boy aged 6 or something close to. A normal 6ish boy I was, always getting in to trouble, doing stuff I wasn't meant to do. You know like waking up at 5 in the morning, blasting you father's record collection all through the house and subsequently getting spanked for doing so.

So said father had a idea. A stroke of genius you may say when he thought of renting (yeah family wasn't rich at this time) out a Sega Mega Drive for me to play at 5 morning instead of Sweet Child O' Mine. And so started my decent into all things gaming!

“Love Game, Not Console” will be a focus on the games I remember choosing to own first when I first pulled that mighty Mega Drive or X360 out of their respective boxes of freshness. Believe you me when I say this is definitely not going to be a “Best Of”. But naivety is bliss... especially when you are young and the evil that is Metacritic doesn't exist as yet.

It's only fitting that the Genesis piece for this series starts with the Genesis (Sega that is) Console. In the mean time I will allow you in the time being to guess what cartridge I first inser.... Sorry I was mean't to say, first blew into, then inserted into the Genesis. You could win a prize... but you won't... but you could... but you won't.

Also feel free if the creative juices are flowing to let me know what your first experience with the Genesis was as I prepare the next iteration of this series.

As I leave I will say this. The following two words should not be said together.

Moist Ointment.

Although I have probably some grey hairs since last I blog... This one won't be the whole oh dust the cobwebs off type thing.   
 
Darksiders and Batman have been 2 games of late that have made me feel like a kid once more.  Where I have actually enjoyed the backtracking and secret finding aspects of those particular games more so than the games themselves.  Since the implication of achievements and trophies and me once being a whore for such things, I was a gamer who tried to finish games for as many points as possible in as short amount of time so I could move onto the next victim.  But with age (I have added a 1 to my age since last blog) comes wisdom and the need for points and trophies have diminished some what.  And the previous mentioned titles have fed the little tucker inside me.  I remember the days where games like Zelda OoT and Majora's Mask were games that whilst there were no trophies I could show off, I completed, literally completed as in found every heart piece, every mask, every bottle and you get the idea.  
 
I initially purchased Batman Arkham Asylum mainly because well I heard it was good... which is correct.  Secondly it was $59AUS which was half price... double check. Little did I know that It would reform the way I play games at current.  Sure there are games I still purchase that I may just want to try and speed run through, But I was seriously surprised when I found myself finding every riddle and completing every challenge past completing the main story.  Darksiders is a game at the moment that is filling the Zelda gap quite well, with an atmosphere that appeals to the "mature" me whilst still allowing a sense of nostalgia. It may not have as many hidden items as a traditional Zelda title, but I find myself playing it in that frame of mind where I am wanting to find every item that is going to help me progress through the game.  I actually didn't play Twilight Princess this way as I did just run through that from start to finish, if a secret was found than lucky me! 
 
Anyway in short.  Batman is awesome.  Darksiders is fun and Mass Effect 2 comes out next week.  It's been a win for me... SQUIRREL. 

When I see a lion eating a steak covered baby. 
When I see God with a chainsaw on a motorbike with sunglasses battling the demons of hell. 
When I see you Snipe a little kitty. 
 
Again.. What were you thinking? 
 
P.S.  Please keep thinking that way :D
 
Kind Regards.

Im not sure who else this has affected but this is how it is in the land down under.

Recently it was announced that Activision had announced a partnership with Logitech to develop some "premium instruments" for the Guitar Hero franchise.  I recently received some info from work detailing release, price and platform.

Mergers (or take overs) should be the word on peoples lips coming into E3 in a couple of weeks, With Apple already digging it's claws into EA, Namco Bandai want a piece of the pie as well.  That pie seems to taste like Atari's European publishing and marketing division which includes none other than this man.  So when it was announced that Ghostbusters would be exclusive to PS3, PS2 and PSP in PAL territories, we all thought it was fishy for numerous reasns.  Why is Sony  throwing money at a game at all? And why are they throwing it at Ghostbusters in particular, it is not going to be a system seller.  We all thought Sony were just being mean.

Duke Nukem will be the first collectors game without a collectors edition released, it will be successful and then a sequel will be announced and ready just in time for you childrens granchildrens 21st B'day.

The Sensationalist #1: “But Mum, it’s 10 years old... I want a new one!”

Introduction:

Well first of all my name is Aaron, big surprise, I currently work at a giant brown goods retailer in Australia called JB Hi-Fi, very similar to the USA store Best Buy (I think...).  I am the Games Manager there, so am in charge of sales, performance and merchandising.  Would have been a cool gig a few years ago when games were for the gamers, but then the Wii happened and everyone saw fit to get in on the action.  So for the most part I, what I like to call, Boganise Consoles.  In other words try to sell them to the redneck community that I am a part of. Yes I do believe I like in the sticks especially when I get ask, “Where are you Playstation games?” and yes that is exactly what they are asking for (and if that didn’t that, yes they’re asking for PSone games).

Now onto the Sensationalist, I keep it no secret that I announced that this feature would be written over a year ago on this blog, but I never met the expectations.  This was mainly because the issue I was first tackling was the Sony’s 10 year life cycle. I believed that at the time it was a relevant issue due the poor sales performance of the PS3, but then a month later that wasn’t the case.  But now during this poor economic climate we are living in and the financial situation that Sony has been in the last couple of months the issue I believe is relevant once more and with more dimensions than my previous thought line. (I would have also written this a couple of months ago but have had massive internet troubles as previously mentioned).

Let us begin.

Work Situation:

I am currently talking to a customer about the PS3, obviously highlighting our current deals and features, listening to him attentively and answering any of their concerns.  I sense that the customer thinks that the PS3 is still a little pricey considering that I am throwing a couple of games and a HDMI cable for price that the console normally is by itself.  The customer naively speaks under his breath it still plays the old PS2 games, only for me to rudely interrupt that it doesn’t no more.  Despite my pointing out the range of games available on the PS3 and proposing to them that they are unlikely to pick up a PS2 game again, the mere fact that the console is no longer backwards compatible, looses me the sale.  (And readers go “awwwwwh”).

This is not just a one off situation, I can’t count the amount times this happens weekly on my two hands alone. The customer is there; they can see the dotted line and are ready to sign, only for them to rip up the contract at the loss of this tiny feature.  It’s just plain annoying.

The Analysis:

Now once upon a time the PS3 used to come with this feature.  In the USA the Initial batch of PS3 were fully backwards compatible with the Emotion chip and graphics processor of the PS2 imbed in the PS3.  Australia’s initial batch replaced the Emotion Chip with software emulation but still retained the graphics processor allowing play of most PS2 games in the market with no issue.  Then close to a year after the launch of the PS3 (and poor initial sales) Sony decided that to be more competitive they need to reduce the cost.  (At this point I am basically going to using Australia’s situation out of ease and laziness.) Now the original 60GB sku retailed for around $1000.  When the 40GB sku released it retailed for $700.  The difference being: no backwards compatibility, smaller HDD, less USB ports and no multi-card reader. Now I am sceptical because I still do not believe that by removing these features Sony managed to pass on a saving of $300 to the customer, especially when it comes to the backwards compatibility feature.  Now for the sake of trying to keep this shortish and concise I am going to the leave the analysis here and continue on (please feel free to comment if you think differently, again the sensationalist is open to flaming).

Sensationalising: (This part is open to massive flaming)

This is reason as to why I believe that the backwards compatibility feature was pulled out.  I don’t believe it was pulled out save money on cost of manufacturing. I believe it was pulled out because it threaten the 10 year life cycle of the PS2 given that while PS2 sales were still strong with initial launch of the PS3. However, they did start to decline come closer to PS3 first Christmas period in Australia (remembering that PS3 didn’t launch till I think March or May, can’t remember, in Australia the year after USA). It was when the 40GB sku was released that when we saw greater interest in PS2, this showed in sales in where some months PS2 would perform much better than its big brother.  Funny that you take out the PS2 in the PS3 and PS2 sells better hmmmmm...

This move, I believe, gave the PS2 the breath of life it need to survive to the grand young age of 10 before Sony would announce sometime next year its move to halt production.  Whilst we as gamers knew that the PSone was dead well before Sony announced it, we still know that the PS2 is still alive and probably won’t think of its death until Sony does. However, would we have thought differently if the PS2 had remained in the PS3?

Have your say!!!

Next time on The Sensationalist: Digital Distribution = Job Losses.

Last Time on Dovey's Blog:

So a storm came and wiped out many of things, power, housing stability so on and so forth.  It also claimed the modem as well... Joy!  And my housemate/Internet account holder managed to not find to fix it.  Still found time to do a lot of other stuff (She is not a gamer, should be safe ranting here... I hope, unless you bastards tell her).

Now:
 
2ish months later and we have arived at the crescendo of harmony and bliss where the internet is fixed and I'm back listening to the bomb tick away once more.  Lots to catch up on.  First of all did manage to finish a few games in my time without the internet. Quickly listed as follows: Saints Row 2, 50cent BOS, Resident Evil 5, Killzone 2, Tomb Raider: Underworld, Banjo Kazooie (XBLA), Fallout 3 (story, still got to do side stuff and get dlc).  So in light of reducing much of my back catalogue I felt in neccessary to bulk it back up again. So I got FEAR 2, Uncharted: Drakes Fortune and also borrowed a copy of Banjo Kazooie Nuts & Bolts. 

With Online Back as well I've been playing some online games namely Halo 3 with the new mythic content and getting right back into Street Fighter 4, What's been disappointing about SF4 is that everyone has gotten really good and I am now really bad.  I nearly bought I wow time card on the weekend but my mate pushed into playing Dawn of War II (which I had recieved a while ago) again, which I am enjoying at present.

Also recently got an iPhone, very fun these things are, and just learnt the GB are planning to release an app, so I'm happy with my purchase.

Anyway I'm still catching up on a lot of the news but it is good to be back.

Alright it's as the title said.   A storm has just passed by where I live and quite and live one at that.

As a result the house I live in lost power and one of the fuses whilst it is fine, due to water flooding some of the actual electric circuits (Namingly the lights outside), Said fuse trips all power to house.  Now Water has managed to drip down the the wall, where (yeap you guessed it) my 42' Hitachi Full HD TV as well As my pair of jensen speakers, pioneer amp, X360 and Wii are all placed (Luckily my PS3 was disconnected and is sitting on the floor in room, safe and sound).  Now I do have them connected to a Belkin Surge Board but that is not the problem as the Surge Board itself is damp, However I had switched it off prior to the storm, but  I'll probably buy another one at work tomorrow to be safe.  Anyways I'm obviously nervous that said equipment may have shorted and well MONEY MONEY...... MONEY (The Surge Warranty nor Warranty on equipment will probably cover this if all or some equipment is stuffed).  Anyway I'll update tomorrow on the outcome,  It's just a nervous wait till then :S