What the Playstation Store needs...

By now I'm sure you've all noticed that the Playstation Store is receiving an update to make it more "user-friendly", next Thursday. I'm pretty excited about the new features, and in case you forgot, or were just too lazy to look them up, here's a video that explains what it will be like: VIDEO

So, now that the Store is going to be easier to navigate, and have some cool new features, here are a few things that I'd like to see:

-Classic Remakes:
XBL and Nintendo's Wii Shop Channel have a wide variety of classic, arcade/ol' school games for download. While these are all well and good (as are PSN's PS1 Classics) I really believe that updated versions of older games would be best for PSN. No, I'm not talking about ruining a classic game with new gimmicks and attempts to reach the masses of casual players. I'm talking about something similar to what Capcom is doing with "Bionic Commando: ReArmed". Sony should really work towards partnerships with other developers, like Midway, Konami, Sega, etc. in order to take older titles, add some newer features, such as online co-op/vs. and bump the graphics and effects into the HD era.

Let's take a Playstation-centric series for an example. The Metal Gear Solid series (and it's predecessor, Metal Gear) is one of my favorites of all time. I already own the two original Metal Gear games, which I play quite frequently. Now, it doesn't take a genius to know that they are old games, designed for weaker machines. Sony and Konami could team up to bring a revision to the PSN Store. Imagine it: Metal Gear, from the same camera angle, only with next-gen explosions, character models, and environments. Add in a few extra abilities, such as Octo Camo and crouching (this wasn't in the original game) and perhaps some bonus content, like a two-player online/offline co-op mode, and a time trial. For $10-$15, this would be a pretty neat game, even for those of us who have the game layout memorized.

How about another example? "Shinobi III: Return of The Ninja Master" one of my favorite games for the Sega Genesis. Imagine this game with character models on-par with games like Uncharted, only still preserving the 2D stage design. Have Sony and Sega team up to make a game with some pretty crazy improvements. Sword combos, ala Ninja Gaiden for use at close range, next-gen physics for explosions, extra levels to prolong the length of the game, and onlien leaderboards. Pretty crazy, if you ask me.

-Episodic Content:
Valve's done an excellent job with this in their Half Life series, so why has virtually no one else been able to do so? I think this would be great for plenty of already released and soon-to-come PS3 games. Who wouldn't like a few extra levels in Ninja Gaiden: Sigma, Uncharted, Killzone 2, Resistance 2, etc.? This doesn't even need to be limited to full games, Sony could make games that are just episodic.

I don't know what happened to the "game" "Rat Race" that Sony had planned for a December 2007 release, but that was going to provide such an example. And I'm sure you've all heard the rumors of the game "Eight Days" going episodic too. What I'd really love is for Sony to go all-out, and make a game that is updated weekly with new episodes. Perhaps have each "episode" last an average of 30 minutes, and make enough in advance to allow for at least one "season" of weekly releases. Sell them for $1-2 each, and I'm certain that a fair amount of gamers would "gobble them up". Perhaps make a side-scroller which has constantly changing missions, only with the same cast of characters, and task gamers each week with fighting certain bosses and performing certain tasks. Sony could reward those who have every previous episode (obviously later on in the season) by providing better equipment for their character.

That's all for now, check later for updates.

Top 10: Sci-Fi Movies

Now that this tradition has been established, I'm bringing you list #2: My Top 10 sci-fi films. Just make sure to check out List # ! in case you missed it...

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey
2. Blade Runner
3. Back To The Future
4. Planet of The Apes
5. Terminator 2: Judgment Day
6. Star Wars (trilogy)
7. A Clockwork Orange
8. Mad Max
9. Journey To The Center of The Earth
10. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Now, to clarify a few things: I didn't include Monster movies (this, along with B-movies, will have to wait for another list) and I also tried to stay away from sci-fi/horror.

New Updates for 4/10/2008...

Those of you who visited the blog today might have noticed a few changes. In order to benefit you, here's a list of today's new additions:

• Poll: Each week a new poll will be added. You have six days from the launch of each new poll to vote, and the results will remain available for an additional day. This will also help to provide some feedback from readers such as you, which can benefit the overall layout and nature of the blog.

• Video Cinema: Thanks to Google/Youtube, I am able to post videos on the sidebar for your enjoyment. You can view these without ever leaving the blog. Every once and a while, I'll change what videos are available so as to provide some fresh content for more frequent visitors.

• News Links: I've added a few more websites to the list of links on the sidebar. Many of these are relevant to what I enjoy, and I suggest that you check them all out at some point.

• Open Commenting: Now, anyone, whether or not they have a Google Account, can post a comment about each individual topic. Hopefully, this will help to garner more responses on each new post that is made, and some of you could potentially offer some advice in a form outside of mere polls. However, don't abuse this feature, if comments get too out of hand, I'll have to start moderating them, and if they get too bad, I'll be forced to turn off the feature.
  

Top 10: Power Metal Bands

I'm starting a new feature to get some quick posts up here on the blog, entitled "Top 10" which, as you probably guessed, will include my Top 10 favorites within the specific category. Obviously, these are opinions, so you might not feel the same way, and I'd appreciate hearing what you think. So, here's list #1, my Top 10 Power Metal bands:

1. Gamma Ray
2. ManOwaR
3. Hammerfall
4. Helloween
5. Blind Guardian
6. Sonata Arctica
7. Rhapsody of Fire
8. Iced Earth
9. Iron Savior
10. Demons & Wizards

Films that MUST be brought to Blu-Ray

Well, now that the most recent format war has been over for just about two months, and we have one solid format backed by all the studios, I think it's time to start bringing some more classics to the format. We've seen many excellent films over the past two years, ranging from "2001: A Space Odyssey" to "Blade Runner" (two of my favorite sci-fi films) but there is much more that I'd love to see. As far as I know, none of the films on this list have been announced for release on Blu-Ray. I'll try to keep the list filled with stuff that hasn't been announced. Here are just a few:

-The Lord of The Rings Trilogy
-Star Wars: The Original Trilogy
-The Ten Commandments
-The Godfather Trilogy
-Spartacus
-Jaws
-King Kong (original AND remake)
-E.T.
-The Wizard of Oz
-Gone With The Wind
-The Indiana Jones Trilogy
-The Entire James Bond series
-Ghostbusters
-Toy Story
-Nightmare on Elm Street
-Gojira/Godzilla (original)
-Tremors
-Gremlins
-Alien

There are significantly more, but to keep things tame, I'll limit the list for now.

Check back for updates.

I sense another surge of anti-gaming and anti-gun reports *sigh*

This news may be a bit old, but it is sure to lead to further biased reports calling for the banning of guns and videogames.

As you would have figured out by reading the provided link, and 18 year-old shot and killed a 15 year-old when he refused to hand over the controller in order to play a videogame.

So, how long before someone claims that it was the videogame and the fact that the gun exists which caused this shooting, and not mental instability coupled with a lack of good parenting within a bad neighborhood?

Too soon, as we've already seen.

Seems as if, one again, fellow Americans are unable to accept the fact that they themselves are to blame, and want to shift this towards the media and the Second Amendment, which are always under fire (pun not intended) despite never actually having committed any murders.

Temporary internet fame AND infamy FTW

Every year since 2004, I've had a tradition of posting a fake news "announcement" somewhere on the web, hoping to take advantage of the fact that plenty of people know me across several web communities, and my general well-intentioned posting nature in order to get a few cheap laughs at an idea that I'd love to see.

This year I "announced" "Killzone: Wrath of Hakha" for the PSN. The game, at least in my mind, would be a spin-off of Killzone: Liberation and would use the advantages of the PS3 to provide for the best downloadable game to date. You can read all the details over at Killzoneunit.com.

I generally get a couple dozen people to fall for the trick, but after someone takes the time to read into the article, and realize that the news is too good to be true, and that the information is generally filled with obscure references to forum discussions and fan wishes, everyone remembers the date and gets slightly angry at me for raising their hopes.

I guess this year was different. The news actually made it onto a good number of websites and forums, and actually had to be "busted" in order to really die down.

As a matter of fact, VideoGamer.com was actually contacted by a representative of SCEE and told that this, in fact, was an April Fool's joke.

So, if SCEE knows about the rumor and the hopes that it generated, hopefully we'll actually see Hakha's Wrath in the near future.