PSN Welcome Back

I've been making very good use of my PS3 lately, much more so then I have been in the past 6 months or so. Aside from inFamous 2, I've collected a few things from the "Welcome Back" program that Sony has out there. I've played Dead Nation, Super Stardust HD and even the original inFamous (using my own account as well as my girlfriend's). I actually like Dead Nation and Super Stardust HD, maybe more so because they were free. But in all seriousness, Dead Nation is like a Smash TV type of game, just loaded up with a lot of zombies. Super Stardust HD is a fun starship shooter and the action does get pretty crazy, pretty often. So really, I actually did have fun playing through what little I've seen of both of those games.

As for inFamous, well that I've played before and I got back into that game a little bit. But with the release of it's sequel, the original will just have to take a backseat.

Last thing I'll write about that is the free trial of the PS Plus program. It seems okay to me and there are some interesting freebies involved, but I kind of don't like the idea that once you stop being a member, all that stuff goes dead. I'm guessing that involves everything you take from that, so the background theme that I downloaded off of that will certainly be dead very soon then.

So would I sign up for this program after the 30 day trial ends? Honestly? Despite having some cool stuff, I just don't see a whole lot there that makes me want to sign up. And the fact that I won't get to keep anything should I stop being a member doesn't make for a great selling point for me either.

PSN Down

I think it has to be next to impossible for any gamer to have passed through the internet without having seen something about Sony's troubles with PSN and all of these attacks that their systems have been taking lately. I could write about that I suppose, but that topic is practically beaten to death at this point and so I won't really go down that route.

The thing that is really getting me about this whole mess is the fact that Sony didn't even realize how badly they were hit. Worse yet, they don't even seem to know what information was taken from their data bases! It blows my mind because this is Sony we're talking about here! Don't they have a room full (or maybe a small country) of tech guys and the like that are just experts at this crap?

I just would have believed these guys would have been much more "on it" then they've apparently been amid this entire mess. Perhaps that was a little too giving? And surprising yet, I haven't seen anyone reporting anybody taking credit for this crippling attack. Maybe too soon?

Either way, if this is how Sony responds to situations like this... all I can say is they've got their work cut out for them. Hopefully they actually learn something from all of this and maybe they won't get caught with their pants down the next time something like this happens.

Back In The Mix

I've been kind of operating on auto-pilot this month and the writings from me have few and further between. I guess I have just been focusing on other things lately, more so just trying to not take everything so goddamn personally all the time. I guess that mostly goes towards my job, which was the source of a lot of headaches these past month or two. But I came to the conclusion (again) that there are just certain things in life that just aren't worth stressing over.

Besides, all of this unnecessary stress is producing a couple of white hairs on my head already. I'm too young for that crap!

Aside from that though, I guess being a long time wrestling fan, I am still in shock with the sudden retirement of Edge. Ever since his announcement on Raw a few weeks back, I kept watching and hoping that this was somehow all some sort of bad storyline. This couldn't be for real, right? I mean wrestlers "retire" all of the time, this had to be another one of those times right?

Now that the days have turned into weeks and more and more details have surfaced, it is apparent that this is absolutely real. It is a terrible thing in some ways, I mean I think Edge had only really hit his stride in the past few years. Okay, I suppose that isn't all too true since the man is an 11 time world champion. Most guys are lucky to even get to hold that belt a time or two.

On the flip side onto the gaming side of things, there are a couple of games that have caught my attention over the course of this past few weeks. The top of that is the game Brink, as well as reboot of Mortal Kombat.

Now Brink I am liking because it seems like an updated, fleshed out version of Borderlands. I suppose the thing that draws me a bit more to this is the promise of co-op game play as well as a ton of character customizations, the latter of which Borderlands lacked. I am keeping an eye out on this one, hopefully there will be a demo released for this some time before the game's launch.

As for Mortal Kombat, well... I've never been really that great or even good at fighting games. I don't really know why I want to play this, but I'd like to at least give the game a shot. Maybe I can pick it up and actually get better then I ever did before. Or, as I learned after playing both Street Fighter IV and Super Street Fighter IV, I could just get smashed over and over and over again.

One last little bit here, I just got Final Fantasy IV Complete Collection in the mail (gotta love GameFly) and playing that game, again, somehow is still awesome to me. I kind of dig the updated graphics and I like the little details added into the game. It makes the story feel more fleshed out, more detailed I suppose. Hell on top of that, I like the option of picking between the original OST or the arranged version. I know these are all nothing much to be excited about, but having played the game as many times as I have already, the little changes and what not do make a difference.

And before I quit this, I can't believe the announcement that both Final Fantasy VI AND Chrono Trigger are headed to PSN. Well in Japan... Still! Those games better make their way over to the U.S.! Square-Enix wouldn't leave us in the dark on these games would they? Would they?

Going Home

After waiting for the right opportunity for well over two years now, I think I may finally be taking that huge step at long last. Granted I am late the party, but still... it feels kind of good to finally be able to say that I am all but certain that I will be picking up a PS3 in the very near future.

Despite some issues I've had in the past, GameStop has a deal going on right now that I am finding almost impossible to resist. All I need to do is trade in my aged PS2 and three games and just like that, they take off $100 from a 80 Gig PS3. Considering the price of that particular system is normally $399, it makes a considerable difference.

I'd like to hit up a few of the old PS1 games (Suikoden and Wild Arms immediately come to mind) and I'd also like to try and pick up into some of the new stuff too (LittleBigPlanet, Disgaea 3, Resistance, KillZone to name a few).

Probably the biggest reason for this push towards getting this system also ties into the fact that I'd like to play Final Fantasy XIII (whenever that gets released) and especially Final Fantasy Versus XIII. Yes, I know FFXIII will be hitting the Xbox 360 as well, but really... from everything I've read, it sounds to me like the game will hit the PS3 much sooner then on the Xbox.

On top of that, I'd love to watch the extended version of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children on Blu-ray...