Mario + Portal

So I am sure that there is some actual news at there that I could report on.  I could mock the PSN some more, maybe further speculation on Project Cafe, or even randomly speculate on Microsoft's next console.  But that is not what I am going to do on todays post.  I have not gotten around to posting (or writing) my Portal 2 review, but I did find these portal related videos.  Do they give me some leway on the review until I can play the co-op portion?

PORTAL KOMBAT

Mario Meets Portal 2

Mortal Kombat Review - PS3

Well, it's back, but is it good?  Click Here to read my review of Mortal Kombat for the PS3.  Finish Him!!!

PSN Breached

So it has been made officially official that any PII that the PSN may have been keeping for you has been breached.  Ok, that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but seeing how it has been down since what, Wednesday of last week, can you blame me?  And now they have come out to say how big the breach actually was.  Sony has engaged a private security firm to examine what they might have been taken in the attack and it was a decent amount of information:

• Name
• Address (City, State and ZIP)
• Country
• Email Address
• Birth Date
• Playstation / Qriocity Login
• Playstation / Qriocity Password
• PSN Handle / Online ID

On top of that profile data such as purchase history, billing address, and security answers could have been taken as well.  And while they have no proof that credit card numbers and expiration dates have been collected they are still advising people to check their credit reports if they kept that information on their PSN account.

So what does this mean for PSN? It is getting a strip down and rebuild.  Sony has decided instead of just patching the hole and risking something of this magnitude happening again that they are going to rebuild the system to have stronger security from the ground up.  Unfortunately this means that we are going to be out of the PSN and Qriocity services a bit longer (read: a long time).

Nintendo Announces an Announcement

So you have heard words that Nintendo is getting ready to BLOW OUR MINDS (or at least make the attempt) with a new console.  You have heard whispers on the wind that it is supposed to come in 2012. Nintendo, not one to disappoint, has sent out a press release stating that very thing.  This year at E3 we will being seeing not only the new console, but it is supposed to be playable! I am looking forward to seeing this awesome (so my inner child wants to believe) system in all it's glory this June, but in the mean time, SPECULATION!

Is this the basis of the new system? I really have no clue.

We have seen rumors that it may have HDMI output (it better).  Other gossip says that mixed in with the expected motion controls (you know they are going to be there) is a controller with a touch screen.  Can you imagine that means the controllers may then cost somewhere between $75.00 - $100.00 (pure speculation).  Thats means that if the system costs us $300.00 (again a guess) we can expect to be dropping $570.00 (plus tax) for a console, 3 extra controllers and 1 game.  And we will do so happily, and then ask for more from Microsoft and Sony. So here is to giving up my pocket book next year so that I may continue to have the world's newest gaming consoles.

PSP Go No More

Ah PSP Go, I don't own you and now I will never own you. Sony has completed their last production run of the shrunken hand held. Released on October 1, 2009 the system did not even get a full 2 years to try and impress us. Can you blame them either? The system had a quick price drop and if you had a collection of PSP games before hand you were not guaranteed to be able to play them, making you buy them all again. Now don't go fretting that you have to wait until the NGP to get your PSP one (which if you don't have one by now I see no purpose in not waiting).  The PSP 3000 is going to continue getting support at least until the NGP comes out, whenever that may be.

Guitar Hero = Zombie?

So a while back it was reported that Activision was done with the Guitar Hero franchise. That it had stopped being the money maker they wanted it to be, blah blah blah, yadda yadda yadda. Well goes to show that some times people jump the gun. What they really meant to say, or at least what Activision's Dan Winters told GameIndustry.biz, is that they are just placing the series on hiatus for a bit. That they are not planning a game for this year due to an over saturation in a fickle console market. This means we may not see a Guitar Hero game this year or next year, but maybe the year after. Good news is though they have a vault of content to release and will use this to support their loyal fans. So rock on you plastic guitar rock gods.

Portal 2 for PS3 Details

So Valve has been kind enough to give a few more details on how Portal 2 is going to work for those that purchase it for the PS3. Portal 2 is going to be the first of what might be many Steam Play games on the PS3. But what is this Steam Play you may ask? Well when a player starts up Portal 2 they will be asked to link their Steam account to their PSN account. This will allow their Portal 2 games to be saved to the Steam Cloud allowing access to the files from any PS3 (but not other consoles for a PC/Macintosh). They will also be able to access both PSN friends and Steam friends from the provided interface (hopefully free of megelomaniac AIs). You can even play cross platform in the co-op mode of the game. But what to do if you don't have a Steam account?  First I need to ask why you don't have a Steam account? Then you can just click a button in Portal 2 to get registered. They are making this real easy. Now you not only have a Steam account but you get to earn both PSN Trophies and Steam Achievements (if that is your thing). Lastly, and this is the part I think I like the best, once you attach your Steam account to your PSN account you can enter a code included in the box to play Portal on your PC or Macintosh. If this works as they hope this could be what starts breaking down the barriers of console and PC gamers.

World of Goo - Continuing to consume free time

So you remember World of Goo right? The addictive tower building game that came out waaaayyy back in October 2008. It was one of the most pirated games of its day and did not get near the amount of money per unit that it should have, due to a pay what you think it is worth pricing model (cheap bastards that spent a $0.01). Still not ringing any bells? Ok it was about a bunch of goo balls (didn't figure that one out huh?) that you used to build a tower to a pipe to collect said goo. Well it is coming to iOS for an astounding $2.99.  So now you can build your goo based towers anywhere! But it gets better, if you are attentive and manage to purchase it on release day you will save $2.00 as it will be $0.99. The catch on this is, sadly, I don't know the relase date yet. So keep an eye out and save that $2.00.

Now don't go and get bent out of shape iPad owners that have World of Goo HD. Your copy is being made universal so if you have already purchased it for your iPad then you already have it for your iPhone/iPod. You just have to wait for it to come out.

Dragon Age II – XBOX 360

Meet the EnemyWe once again return to the world of Thedas in Bioware’s next installment of the Dragon Age series.  For those not familiar with the Dragon Age series, it takes place in the world of Thedas where, due to the misuse of magic, the “Maker” has turned his back on the world.  Those that caused this were turned into “Darkspawn”, evil creatures without souls that destroy everything in their path and live mostly underground.  Once every few hundred or thousand years, the Darkspawn gather together into a large horde and assault the surface under the command of an “Arch Demon”, an ancient and powerful “Old God” that has been corrupted by the Darkspawn.

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Navi's Song (Hey, Listen!), Trust me on this one K

So this video is by the same chick (read Meekakitty) that did the Star Trek Girl music video.  I do think this one is the better of the two videos and gives quite a different spin on the relationship with Link and Navi. And yes, it is a 5 Min 34 Seconds long, but the actual song ends after 3:12.  The rest is Meekakitty doing what made her famous (at least as famous as the internet makes you) in the first place.