It’s been a while since I’ve been excited about a month of Playstation 3 releases. But 2010 is going to be fantastic, especially in the month of love. I mean, take a look around. With Heavy Rain and Bioshock 2 leading it out in adventure thriller types and RPGs coming from Square and Level 5, you just can’t stop the love. In fact, I don’t think there’s anything here that I wouldn’t want to play. Even Dante’s Inferno which is supposedly very similar to God of War looks fantastic in the trailers and oozes excitement.

Maybe it’s just me, but overall, there’s just a level of tingle in the air. Too bad this month is going to be like the summer blockbusters for movies. They all release around the same time, and then the mediocre stuff fills in the voids in-between. Thankfully, GameStop.com has ya covered in that respect. And personally, I have some serious credits going on there so life is good when I need to bust out something else.

When a great month like this one is coming up with games that are being released left and right, just remember… video games actually one of the best bang for buck when it comes to entertainment value. When you think about how much you spend for movie tickets? It’s probably worth going and buying five sixty dollar games and spending hundreds of hours on them versus going to several movies at full price.

I’m going to put in a **SPOILER** alert just in case people get all upset about knowing the ending of ACII. Will try not to give it away, but I have to say that this is at least worth throwing in my two cents since it’s been gnawing at the back of my head ever since finishing the game.

Now, admittedly, the entire historical aspect of the game is fascinating. The sequel to the hit Assassin’s Creed has amazing graphics, and it’s not as dreary as the first one with the right amount of things to do and sub-storylines that allow it to function altogether very well. Even the latest Battle at Forli DLC was worth more than the money you pay since it gives another chapter of the story arc and explains some more things that are going on.

So you’re kind of built up….. then it’s like… poof. Uhh. What?

The end boss is a cake walk. You don’t have to do anything pretty much to beat the historical version of the game which is strange since end of games are usually a lot more difficult. Not a huge deal although for those looking for a challenge, be sorely disappointed. The credits that roll that show you as the character Desmond, is a playable end which leaves the storyline open for another one. Great, ACIII coming soon to your PS3.

But here’s the kicker. The part where it connects Ezio’s life with Desmond’s? After beating the last guy to a pulp? You’re kind of left going, what the hell?!!? Total cheese factor. I mean, there are few games or television shows that can get away with this type of story arc and if you watch Stargate SG-1, you’ll understand what I’m saying if you get to the end, but it just wasn’t executed very well in my opinion. Almost like those movies where the end seems cut short because they ran out of money and had to end it quick. You’re just left hanging with… what’s going on? Why was it like that? And is that part of it going to be developed even further?

Overall, the game play was very smooth and I would have to say that the overall experience saved the game from a kind of bitter-sweet end. It was great to see the end of the game, but on the flip side, you just can’t help thinking back going…. what the hell were they thinking when they wrote that part in. Even the tie into Ubisoft’s new UPlay was pretty interesting since you could unlock more things and expand on a very good game. The entire concept was well thought out… except that one part and I have to say that this year’s going to be tough when it comes to action adventure games. There so far has been a high bar that’s set by last year’s GOTY and and ACII doesn’t quite get there although it was fantastic overall.

Jack doesn’t just jump over the candlestick no more…

Oh no. Not when he can waze.

This game has been out for the iPhone for a while, but it’s just recently hit the Android scene in time for Christmas, and actually is fairly fun. Basically, the idea is that the community drives the mapping of areas and thus creates a user-driven map. Along the ways that you drive, you collect points and perhaps prizes depending on what you run over (not literally).

It integrates with your GPS so the more accurate it is, the better. And I can tell you for sure, that this app will drain your battery like nothing else mainly because you can’t help but collect points like Pac-Man.

What’s great about this is that not only can the community drive and update the maps, but they can report traffic, hazards, police traps, and all sorts of other things. I think the interface is a little clunky for now to actually do it easily while driving, but I can just imagine the possibilities. And as far as future revenue is concerned? I can totally see a GPS maker snap this company up, if not in a partnership… then by acquisition. I mean, what better way to reinforce your mapping division than by using the millions of users already using your device? It would be an entire sweetheart deal.

Waze represents the first batch of geolocation gaming along with Foursquare and others in the United States. It’s been years since I’ve first seen Japan come out with geolocation gaming and have been pushing for the US to get on board. Certain more old school people didn’t like the idea of geolocation gaming even though I was pushing hard for it in the telecom industry since I saw the trend coming down the pipe. Almost six years later, the small startups are popping up in Silicon Valley and elsewhere to take this role on. Don’t you love hindsight, Jack?

Hideo Kojima does it again.

A teaser called Demo Ops came out and hit the PSP recently from the PSN network. And I have to say that this definitely looks like a hit seeing how it builds on MGS:PO easily although the storyline is before that time. The gameplay is smooth, and controls are easy to deal with especially with the two different types of control mechanisms that allow you to play like MGS4, or PO depending on your comfort level.

I did notice a little bit of difference in the directing as far as the overlays and such, but the cutscenes are just as awesome as the trailer from TGS09. I’m very excited for this to come out since it’ll probably hold any Snake fan over until MGS:Rising comes out.

SNAKE!!!!!!!!!!

I must say that when this came out, I was definitely intrigued from all the hooplah that surrounded the game. So I went out and bought the first Uncharted to see what it was about.

And I was floored. A good adventure game that I didn’t play yet? Wait, what was that? So I had to take a look at the sequel. I mean, if everyone said it was as good as it was, then it had to be better than the first, right?

And boy was it.

Fortunately for me, I already was familiar with the controls since it throws you right into the game. And I can say that the first twenty minutes, you’re sitting on the edge of your seat wondering if you just got shot into an action thriller film. Things flying towards you, you’re not sure if you’re going to fall off, more things flying towards you, things breaking while flying towards you, … I think you get the picture.

Basically it’s death defying, looking down a ravine and thinking… “oh boy” while you’re trying to get a hold of the game itself. And while Nathan Drake is chasing after a lost city that Marco Polo apparently found, you as the player are immersed into the same gravity defying leaps and feats of upper body strength that would make Nagano from Ninja Warrior, proud. There are some differences as far as game play goes where the shooting is more zoomed in and actually blurs the vision some if you move and shoot, while grenade throwing is also a little bit different from the last one.

I haven’t had a chance to look up the voice cast yet, but it seems like this time around, they even got Claudia Black to play a role. Which is pretty interesting considering I don’t get a chance to hear her voice all that much these days on the real television set so finding it in games is pretty nice.

Not quite sure what to make of the entire Twitter thing yet. It’s neat that you can tie in your Twitter account to the game itself so that it’ll broadcast where you are, what trophies you’d got, and what sort of progress you’ve made. Not exactly the state of the art type of interaction, but definitely worthwhile for Naughty Dog as far as tracking their players.

Overall, I can say that I’m thoroughly impressed. Avatar in 3D? Pulease. If films could be done as well as games were, we wouldn’t be oohing and ahhing over a technique and instead going back to the basics of just creating fantastic acting and voices, and making it like a constrainted interactive set. Go figure. Like in Uncharted 2. Now THAT’S revolutionary.

So I was toying around with my Netflix account for my PS3 and then was messing with my Location Free for my PSP to watch a little bit of football… when it hit me…

Why isn’t there any Netflix streaming to portable devices? I mean, let’s be honest, the bandwidth taken up would be a lot less due to the need for smaller resolution sizes. Not only that, but Sony could totally make a strike there where Xbox 360 has had Netflix for a long time but the PS3 version just came out.

Overall, this would also give it an edge on portable gaming since it would be the only device that would do movie streaming directly (somehow I doubt the DSi would be able to handle the processing of live streaming) and it allows Sony to play through their promises on their devices in becoming the next generation of entertainment devices and allowing more than just gaming. This also lets them compete on an even better front with the iPod markets without taking too much risk. Truthfully, this would require a bit more work from Netflix’s side because it would require them to re-encode their movies in a smaller format and be able to serve it via their current technology. The delivery system should remain the same, so it’s really just updating the system some and movie re-compression.

I believe this would be a great move for Sony, and would allow Netflix into a newer market for their streaming which would be extremely interesting.

I love the feature that you can upload photos directly from your Nintendo DSi, to Facebook. In fact, it would be great if other services could be managed such as Flickr and you could set it up to upload to multiple sources.

One of the things that I dislike though after finally getting a limited edition DSi, is that you have to punch in your password all the time. I’m unsure why it can’t save the password somewhere. It would also be nice to actually be able to label the photos and select multiple photos to upload. I think the interface is a little bit lacking, but you can’t complain about a free application I suppose.

Still, one has to say that there is a lot of improvement that can be done with that little bit. So far, I noticed that my DSi is somewhat larger than my original DS. Guess I have to buy some new accessories, eh? Outside of that, fairly pleased with the thing. Strange how it’s always lacking software features with hardware manufacturers, isn’t it?

I’ll be getting back to my Mini Marios now.

So I finally got a chance to sit down with the New Super Mario Bros. Wii with my wife last night.

And boy, I have to say that the entire experience is amazing. Nintendo really outdid themselves here.

For the most part, the entire game play is smooth just like its predecessors. But there are a few things that make this game worth every penny. The only one that you absolutely have to go into mentioning is the one about multiplayer through the game mode.

Most games try to scroll you through the game and drag along all of the players. New Super Mario Bros. Wii however, uses the player that runs to the farthest edge of the screen as the one that drags the game. This means that you technically could kill your teammate if you move too far and they haven’t caught up. You can also screw them up by jumping on top of them and so on, which makes it absolutely frantic when you’re playing on an ice level with ledges.

But in the same instance, it makes the entire game fantastic. You can bust through a level with multiple people trying to achieve the same goal. Before, this was only reserved for FPS shooter types or capture the flag. Not even close for scroller games. But now, it’s a seamless play where gamers are immersed in the same screen (no splitting) and are looking for the same things like coins and such. Team effort at its finest, which is actually a whole new level of game play.

I have to say that I haven’t had a chance to touch the Super Guide mode yet, but this definitely has a lot of replay value. Even my wife, whom usually just watches me play the review titles had to pick up a controller and couldn’t put it down.

The game itself does come with a pretty thick manual, and if you’ve never played any of the Marios before, I would probably suggest you familiarize yourself with at least the concept. I personally prefer to play it with a controller instead of the nunchuks being of the old school Mario play. Would be interesting to see it actually work with the classic controller too, but obviously that wouldn’t work with some of the movements you need for this game. Either way? I’m looking forward to waking my wife up bright and early this weekend to finish beating this sucker. And I’m sure that anyone that has that old Mario nostalgia would entirely understand.

Since I’m not going to be using this bad boy, If anyone wants to use the one-time codes, just comment below after redeeming it and support VTOR authors by going through the Play-Asia link.

Code: PC-MAC-PDV
Get US$8 off a purchase of US$50 or more

Code: AK-NZU-GBD
Get US$12 off a purchase of US$100 or more

These codes expire at the end of 2009 and are available for one-time use only (meaning, first come, first serve). I don’t believe you can combine them with other codes, and it doesn’t work for other promotional items. In any case, a little pre-holiday savings from yours truly.

The 3.10 firmware was supposed to be sweet Facebook integration. While it does have Facebook integration, it’s neat but hasn’t been some crazy thing. Basically you’re able to broadcast your trophy collections, some one-liners with games that have Facebook integration, and purchases that you make on the PSN network.

The whole one-way thing is okay, but it makes it a huge marketing thing for Sony and instead of really harnessing the power of social networks. Somehow, I think tying the statuses together would be interesting.

In this update, the Photo Gallery has also changed somewhat in the browsing, and the background colors for friend statuses now are customizable. Makes it interesting, but I think that if they’re starting to go down the path of user interfacing, then there has to be more feature changes than color codes. The 3.10 firmware was pretty interesting but I have to say that the upgrade process was sort of blech.

This is what I mean by it. The website for PC update wasn’t updated by the time the one from PSN was up. The PSN updating showed the versioning before the download server was up so you could see that there was a new firmware but couldn’t update it. The entire thing was actually not very smooth until it kicked off.

Definitely would like to see more improvement in the future.