Today’s Amazon “Countdown to Black Friday” deal
The GH5 bundles for current generation consoles are probably the best deal. They cost $98.99, so with the $40 credit they’re essentially $58.99.
Sony’s Commercials Continue to Rock
After years of stylish but meaningless advertisements, Sony has turned its marketing around with the commercials accompanying the launch of the PlayStation 3 Slim. The latest ad continues the trend. Touting the console’s Blu-ray capabilities, this spot makes fun of old people…which is always funny. Check it out and leave your thoughts!
Square Enix Counting Down to FFXIII Trailer…Really?!?
Continuing the ridiculous Japanese publisher trend of counting down to everything known to man, the official Final Fantasy XIII
Now please excuse me, I have to pee in 5…4…3…
What Are You Playing This Weekend?
I’m almost done with my second round of Dragon Age: Origins
Aside from that, I told my friend at Sony that I’d play some Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2
As always, I want to know what you’re playing this weekend!
Mick Foley on The Daily Show
The artist formerly known as Cactus Jack, Mankind, and Dude Love recently appeared on The Daily Show. I’m talking about best-selling author, former WWE Superstar, and current TNA wrestler Mick Foley, of course. Check out this clip of the hardcore legend busting out his comedic chops with Jon Stewart.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Gaywatch – Peter Vadala & William Phillips | ||||
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Coffee Talk #30: Will You Ever Be a PC Gamer (Again)?
Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, California laying the smack down on electricity-guzzling televisions, sports venues fighting it out for Pacquiao/Mayweather (which hasn’t even been negotiated yet), or Mick Foley’s appearance on The Daily Show, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.
In the mid to late ’90s, I played games on every platform I could. It didn’t matter if it was on a console or on a PC — I played. Somewhere along the line, I totally dropped PC gaming. I’m not even sure when it happened, but I definitely know why it happened. I used to play PC games because they offered a wide variety of experiences that was better than most things on a console. That’s just not the case anymore.
Console have gotten better and better. The original PlayStation started a tremendous wave of mainstream popularity for home systems. As more and more people started gaming in their living rooms, more and more developers followed them. Meanwhile, PC gaming has stagnated and high-end PCs still carry a premium price tag. Sure, there are a handful of games that offer an experience you can’t get on a console, but to me it’s not worth the cost of admission.
I still remember playing all sorts of cool games on a Commodore 64 with my brother. Much later, I graduated to Civilization II, Baldur’s Gate, Doom, Total Annihilation, Age of Empires, and more. Those were fun times and they’ll be remembered fondly, but I just don’t see myself being a hardcore PC gamer ever again.
How about you? If you’re a lapsed PC gamer, can you see yourself getting back into the scene? If you’ve always been a console player, do you see yourself ever getting serious about PC games?
Gas Powered Games’ Chris Taylor on How Gaming Has Changed
You’d never know this from his boyish good looks, but Gas Powered Games founder Chris Taylor has been in game development for more than two decades. Starting way back in 1988, someone thought it would be funny to hire a Canadian guy to work on baseball games. Since then, Taylor has made a huge name for himself with games like Total Annihilation, Dungeon Siege, and Supreme Commander.
Chris and his team are busy working on Supreme Commander 2, but he generously gave me some time to answer a few questions. Talking about the changes he’s seen in 21 years in the business, Taylor said:
Well, our target market has changed. The whole business has opened up to include many new types of players. It used to be 18-35 yr. old males, and now the rest of the world is playing games. This is a very good thing, but it also means that we have to think differently about what gaming is. We also play online now more than ever, but not in a competitive way, it’s actually about playing together, which I think is a great change. We also play on more devices than ever, and are focusing less and less about technology whizbang, and more on the actual gameplay, characters and story. And I guess I would be insane not to mention the increase in computing power, and visuals. I started out on a TRS-80 with 128×48 pixels, that were black and white no less…
My full interview Grandmaster Sexay Chris Taylor will run on Monday. Be sure to come back and check it out!
Five Things You Can Expect From Chrome OS Products
Google is making a bold move in 2010, entering the operating system market with Chrome OS. The product is very different from Windows 7 and Mac OS — it’s much more focused and much more limited. For some users, it will work out great. For others, it might not be what you’re looking for. For consumers that are always connected to the Internet, Chrome will be a fantastic OS that will be available on a variety of inexpensive products. If you still need more info on what Chrome is, be sure to check out this article. Once you’re up to speed, here are five things you can expect from Chrome OS products.
- Chrome OS Products Will Be Cheap — Ever since Asus kicked off the netbook craze with its Eee PC line, consumers have been gobbling up inexpensive laptops. Chrome OS will continue the trend and push prices down further. The most popular netbooks today use Windows XP or Windows 7, which means part of the cost goes to paying Microsoft an OS license. Chrome products will not have that burden. Personally, I rather have a more expensive system that can dual-boot Windows 7 and Chrome OS. Hopefully that will be an option that will complement the flurry of inexpensive Chrome OS products that will hit in 2010.
- Chrome OS Netbooks Will Boot Crazy Fast — Since the operating system is being designed with flash memory in mind, Chrome OS products will not be bogged down by hard drives. At its announcement event on Thursday, Google showed a Chrome OS laptop booting up in seven seconds. Keep in mind this is an incomplete version of the OS on unoptimized hardware. Final products should be even faster, allowing for the “instant on” experience. This is awesome and way overdue. I’m annoyed that my Windows Vista machine takes a minute to boot. It’s 2009 for fricks sake. Continue reading “Five Things You Can Expect From Chrome OS Products”
PSA: Buy a PS3 Slim and Get an EA Sports Game for Free
Yesterday’s Amazon “Countdown to Black Friday” deal wasn’t worth mentioning, but today’s is much better. It’s a PlayStation 3 promotion
Remember, this offer expires at 11:59PM PST tonight (Friday).
PlayStation 3 to Get Firefox?
According to PlayStation Insider, Sony is negotiating with the Mozilla Foundation to build a version of Firefox for the PlayStation 3. The site claimed:
We recently received a tip from a source very close to Sony who says that they have been in talks with Mozilla lately about possibly porting firefox over to the PS3. That said, our source made sure to point out that they were unsure if any deal had actually been reached at this point, but it is great news none the less considering the complaints Sony has been getting about the lack of reliability with their current built in PS3 web browser.
This would be a welcomed addition to the PS3. The current browser isn’t very good — it can’t even render this simple site properly — and Mozilla is the hotness. That said, I’ve never heard of the sourced site or the writer, so I’m taking the rumor with a boulder of salt. Besides, it would make more sense for Sony to build its own browser with open-source code. Whether it’s Mozilla or WebKit, it would be simple for the company.
Btw, do any of you use the PS3’s web browser?