I'm a fanboy apparently

I've recently sold my Xbox 360, making me a PS3 only gamer which I am happy about. I had my usual look on N4g and seen a thread showing two direct feed screen shots of infamous 2, to me they looked jaggy. I played infamous one and that game suffered from the same problem. Here's my exact comment

"very jaggy
like the first one"

Too me that is just my observation about the screen shots and infamous one. I'd love too no how I can be a 360 fanboy when I don't even own one. Its unbelievable that you can't have an opinion with out being labeled a fanboy. No wonder Sony fanboys have the worst reputation, even PS3 only gamers get attacked by them. I think you need to lighten up, I'm not going to name names but if you do read this I'm sure you no who you are. One of the reasons they gave me was that my TV wasn't good enough yet I think my Philips 32" LED 1080p TV has a stunning picture and shows all the little details so that can't be right. Or maybe I'm posing as a PS3 gamer, let the conspiracy theories comence. If you feel the need to check up on me my PSN ID is on my profile but if your lazy here it is, hennessey_86.

So how do you escape the fanboy name tag, I don't think its possible on this site. People are far too defensive when it comes to there gaming. The only way is to not have an opinion on anything and just try to please everybody but that won't happen because if you say a Ps3 games good the 360 fanboys will take your bubbles and vice versa. The best thing to do is not comment at all but thats the whole point to this site, gamers discussing there faviroute games and systems. They should split the site four ways, PS3 only, Xbox 360 only, pc only and gamers. I would join the gamers site, I love gaming and I like to game on as many systems as possible. The reason I sold my 360 is simple, Money. I'm a little skint at the minute and my PS3 is getting used alot more lately so it was a simple choice. I will be getting another one for the release of gears 3 and Forza 4 though. Which site would you join, I think its a good idea. There should be strict rules on trolling in the gamers section so we don't get any fanboys in there, just gamers looking to give there honest opinion on the subject at hand. The PS3 site would be PS3 gamers having a love in on how amazing there exclusives are and the same with the 360 site. PC gamers can compare specs, I know the love that kind of thing. I have left the wii out because I have never seen a Nintendo fan trolling anything.

StarHawk Can Resurrect PSN

With the current farce of the hacking situation of Playstation Network hopefully reaching a satisfactory conclusion next week, I think it's time to start looking forward to what gamers can enjoy on the service once the dust has settled.

Whatever your opinion on PSN, I feel sorry for Playstation 3 only owners for the simple fact they currently cannot enjoy online gaming. I'm a multiplatform owner so it doesnt affect me as much but I would not like it to happen me and although I can understand the hatred towards fanboys on this site, you would not like something like this to happen to you and die hard hostlile fanboys are not the majority.

Soon enough PSN will be back up and things will be back to normal, what better way for a company to get people excited again by announcing a multiplayer purposed title exclusive to the Playstation 3? Let's bring in StarHawk.

Being a Warhawk fan (still play the title from time to time up until the hack situation) I've been trying to gather information about this title from various people for the past three months, some I know in person who got into this wonderful industry and some from being polite and getting to know people from various sources such as Facebook and Twitter.

StarHawk will be revealed within the next week or two (via G4TV according to reports) and I think it is a very smart move by Sony to do so even with E3 fast approaching. Why you ask? Well for one reason it will help smooth over the recent hack once the service has been resumed for the sole purpose that the game has a very strong multiplayer element to it. Apart from getting back into the Killzones, Call of Dutys, Warhawks and so forth, showing something for the near future will get PSN users excited, here is a product designed for PSN and will work well with PSN.

Second reason is from the information I've gathered the game is going to be a vast improvement over Warhawk. Whilst Warhawk is an excellent title in it's own right with a faithful community to boot, it can always be improved on and Dylan Jobe alongside his team have done exactly that. Here is a list of things I've heard about the game:

*Heard nothing of single player or co-op, it's very possible it will be included in the game but I have yet to learn of anything of the kind.

*Much better customisation options including the option to use imported images from the Playstation 3 hard drive for clan logos, troop symbols and plane designs.

*Theatre mode with the option to watch with friends. Highlight options include the abilty to send to Youtube via 480p upload or xmb.

*Excellent lighting engine with much improved sun, reflection and explosion effects

*XP points system that will also show career progress updates & trophy unlock progress during gameplay incidents.

*A vehicle that looks a little similar to the tumbler from Batman Begins/The Dark Knight with a fusion cannon

*Player models are much improved especially the texturing of the combat suits.

*A shotgun has been added

*More defined gun sound effects

*32 players per match

*10 maps not 25 as what had been previously rumoured.

*One map is similar to Island Outpost in level design with a much more futuristic look including stunning weather effects

*Another map has a similar look to the Knossos system,Artemis Tau cluster in the original Mass Effect game.

That's it, whilst it's understandable that many will read this and be skeptical to say the least I would say that the information has come from people who not only have a interest in the game but have employment in the industry. We shall see soon enough but if the information is true or partly true I can say with confidence it will be an excellent game, one to help put the dreadful hacking situation to rest and one that can help restore faith in Sony

N4G's hypocritical fan base.

I recent submitted a news story from Eurogamer about an interview with Heavy Rain developer Quantic Dream. The co-founder Guillaume de Fondaumiere mentioned how he had lost 1 million sales due to the used market. Some thing caught my eye in the comments. The was a lot of support for the used game market. That is fine but not many brought up the big question. They lost at least 1 million in sales. To put this into perspective on a $60 game (£40 for me) lets say around 15% goes to the developer. So this is around $9 (around £6)per game. So they have lost out by $9,000,000 (£6,000,000).

It seems I have gone on a bit of a tangent. Over the times I have spent going on N4G one thing has struck me. Everyone complains about how there are no new innovative IPs. The users complain how X game is another Call of Duty mould. I ask you do you blame the developers. If Heavy Rain (a new innovative ip) lost $9,000,000 on used game (including piracy, lending) sales why would any other developer take the risk and not go for the easier highly profitable option. At the moment there is always going to be an area where sales are lost (from pirating, used games, giving them to friends). The lack of new ips is a trend that has become more apparent this generation with sequel after sequel and other games using the same formula as the most popular game on the market

Well how do publishers and developers counter this trend. I will tell you. In other stories there seems to be a massive hatred for online pass. To be honest can you blame publishers for introducing online pass.If a developer is loosing $9 million it would be interesting to see how much publishers loose also. I agree some online passes are not implemented well but in an age of used game sales going on the up you must understand they are loosing a lot of money per game. The online pass has become more of a deterrent than a method for increase profits. I was in GAME the other day and I decided to get Medal of Honor. It was £20 new and £15 used. I thought to myself it is only £5. The online pass on top actually make the game more expensive.

I hope you can see why I am getting at when I call the N4G fan base hypocritical. On the one hand they complain about no new innovative IPS and how everyone is copying COD and then on the other the publishers come up with a solution to regain their money so that it can be pumped back into games but there is mass hatred for it. You can't have new ips with a used game market that is taken the money away from these new ips. Those same people who complain about no new ips also strongly disagree with online pass and often proclaim they have bought a game used. There is a reason for the lack of no new ips and it is down to you guys.

Does the N4G users have a better option to keep a used game market and keep sales going to the developer so they can take risks and develop new ideas?. Come on N4G. Stop being a hypocrite.

8 Game Case Mistakes

Whenever people go to buy a new game one of the first things they look at is the back of the game case. Why do we look at it? The pictures and the description can tell us if its going to be a game we'd like or not. But sometimes these descriptions and pictures are wrong. Here's my list of the top 8 mistakes on video game cases. Why 8? Because 5 is to few and 10 is to overused.

8. Description: Metal Gear Solid The Twin Snakes.
The description on the back of the box reads "Two of the greatest games of all time, Metal Gear Solid 1 and Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty are fused together to form the Nintendo gamecube classic Metal Gear Solid The Twin Snakes" From reading that description it would be safe to assume that both MGS1 and MGS2 are in the case but its actually just MGS 1 with MGS 2 graphics and controls. While its directly wrong it is misleading. And that's why it gets spot 8.

7. "...they will find you, and you will die...": Vampire Rain
Very few people have heard of this game, and with good reason. It was terrible. It tried to combine the sneaking action of MGS or Socom with a vampire story. The result was unpleasant. The quote, which appears quite boldly on the cover of the game, was actually part of a larger quote by Adam Sessler (Xplay) bashing the games poor stealth mechanic. In his original quote (which I couldn't find) he said something along the lines of: no matter how stealthy you are they will find you and you will die, its terrible. For taking a negative quote and making it sound positive they get spot 7.

6. Bastilla on Ratakaa: Star wars The Knights of the Old Republic
Anyone who's played this game knows what I'm talking about here. But for those of you who haven't here you go. Bastilla get captured and you lose her for half the game. When you finally get her back (presuming you do it right) you begin the final level of the game. However the picture on the back of the box shows Bastilla standing with you in front of the Temple of Ratakaa (the 2nd to last level). Before you comment, No. There is no time to take Bastilla to the Temple of Ratakaa after you get her back. As soon as you get her a scripted series of events happens taking you into the final level.

5. Krea's right hand: Star Wars The Knights of the Old Republic 2 The Sith Lords.
I don't like reusing the same game multiple times, but when a game messes up like this it's hard not to. In the game (early on) one of your characters (Krea) gets her right hand chopped off. On the back of the box it shows her holding a lightsaber in her right hand. While this could have been an earlier picture she didn't get a lightsaber to later in the game and before the game she had an entirely different wardrobe.

4. Right Handed Link: Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess
It's a little known fact that Link is in fact left handed. However on the Back of the Twighlight Princess case it shows a right handed Link. The official reasoning for this (and for making Link right handed in the game) is because the majority of players are right handed and it would be easier for them to play the game on Wii that way. However on the Gamecube version Link is left handed again with the case still showing right handed.

3. Magic Bar: Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess
Zelda games have always had magic bars. That is until Twilight princess. The magic bar was an early concept idea that was ultimately taken out of the game. That doesn't stop it from appearing in a picture on the back of the box.

The PS Vita and the 3DS have a common problem.

With the 3DS already released and the Vita on its way, it got me thinking about the place these devices have in my life. One common problem occurred to me. They are not phones.

To bring my point across we must jump back in time when the PSP and the DS were released. I remember think this is quite cool. A console in my hand. They seemed perfect for travelling and great for passing the time. Now we are going to jump a couple of years with the release of the 360 and the PS3. How so much as changed in such a short time. A drive to become a multimedia device has become more apparent. Sony's attempt to get a blu-ray player in every house left a mark on the gaming industry. These console were not just about gaming any more it had to do everything. Just to produce a gaming console is just not enough. To maximise profits the casual and non gamer must be added to the install base. It then became apparent that this multimedia image came a little too soon because the Wii with interesting new technology grasped this casual market with little multimedia functionality. However as this generation progressed this theme of multimedia functionality became more of a main feature than a nice extra.

Now smart phones have been around for some time. Arguable it didn't take off until the RIM brought out their Blackberry line of phones. It instantly become popular with business people who loved the function of sending emails and having a phone in the same device. But this wasn't anything like the surge to come in 2007. Apple's Iphone shot multimedia devices into the masses. It was a small computer in your pocket that was also a phone. Not only could you check your emails and call people but you could do much more. Now ,on N4G, the idea of the Iphone being used for gaming is seen as blaspheme. In the early days it did struggled but as it progressed the gaming part of the phone became more apparent. It was seen to be cool to have one.

Now the background is out of the way I can get to my original point. The 3DS and PS Vita have one common flaw. They are not phones. Times have changed since the release of the PSP and Nintendo DS. Carrying around one all inclusive device has become very popular in recent years and almost a necessity.

To say, on N4G, the Iphone and other android smartphones are a threat to gaming is followed by onslaughts of abuse especially on the topic of how you are not a "real gamer". This type of gaming is having little to no affect on home consoles but it is ,however, having an effect on portable gaming. It is hard to ignore the success the App Store has had on mobile gaming. The 69p games have very low development cost but relativity high return. These games are also small simple games perfect for on the move. There are other types of games (like Modern Combat) who gets the controls spot on but lack the battery life to really play. This however because a mute point in the large scheme of things.

I am finding it harder and harder to justify getting a dedicated portable gaming machine when the times I am on the move (or anyone for that matter) is barley long enough to justify getting into a fully fledged game. The BBC in 2003 said the average commute in the UK was 45 minutes (which was the highest in Europe). There were no collective figures I could find for America but for Washington it was around 25 minutes in 2006. OK these are people who have jobs but school children are no better. Considering in the UK a lot (bare in mind not all) live in there schools catchment area. My commute was no different to the figures produced by the BBC. The only aspect in life I can see buying a PS vita or a 3DS useful is on flights, where you are spending some hours sitting in one place.

No you may be thinking what I haven't really talked about the phone aspect in great detail but I have in directly. The problem the Vita and the 3DS has is they are in direct competition to the Iphone and android devices but without the most essential component. I know a lot of you will be getting it and think I am mad but even if all of you on N4G get it that isn't enough for the companies. We must look at the bigger picture and so must they. Sony tried, sought of, with the Xperia Play. It ended up being half of each. It wasn't a good phone nor was it a good gaming device. I do hope this hasn't scared Sony off. These smart phone devices offer more games (I know some are garbage) for less money so buying a game at 69p doesn't drain on your wallet like PSP and 3DS games do.

The 3DS has hit road blocks right from the get go. The hardcore gamer seemed less interested by the limited number of games and the casual were not as easily impressed by new 3D technology as they were when the Wii came out. The biggest test for both the systems is when the Vita comes out. It should sell in Japan as they love pocket gaming but with the increase popularity of smart phones, that do everything, there seems to be little reason to get the Vita and 3DS with the £20 per game price tag.

Phones are not the same as they use to be, nor are MP3 players. They have evolved with the times like many other devices. The two dedicated gaming machines must evolve or die and at the moment they are in danger of the latter