I came across DC Universe on my PS3 while looking around for some new stuff and it took forever to download and install (and update etc). You can also download and play this for free on Windows, not 100% sure if they are the same servers. The game is a 3rd person viewpoint and you get to choose Male or Female, Good or bad and various skill types to start the game with.

 The initial starting block

Once you have created a character, you go through a level that eases you into the game and you have to fight you way off a ship using your various powers. As you achieve various tasks, you get points to spend on your skill tree and this gives you some extra powers. Along the way you also get stuff in your inventory which pays to put on as it helps you kill the enemies quicker.

Quests 

You get tasked with various jobs and this in turn allows you to fight enemies of your own level, start to level up and get other items along the way. It felt different from say World of Warcraft type MMO as you can level up just by killing monsters, this seems to be quest based on getting to the next level.

Free to play

While the game is free, it does have the shop and you can buy extra stuff. One is a monthly fee and this can cost £8.99 (if you pay monthly) or £71.88 for a full year membership. This gives you DLC packs, more slots, bigger inventory and so forth. Another option is to buy as required, such as the lightning pack for $9.99. The last method is to add cash to your in-game account to buy thing from the shop in the game, such as better helmets and so forth.

Online games portal Steam has bolstered its selection of free games by adding one of its own-brand titles to the pot: the hectic, caricatured first-person shooter Team Fortress 2. It used to be part of the Orange Pack for example and it features cartoon like graphics plus team play. The way they will make money is to have micro payments in the game itself and you can buy extra guns, costumes and so forth. Head over to Steam to grab this or you can get a complete list of Free steam games HERE.

While I was out and about I went into HMV for some headphones as it goes and while I could not find a decent pair of headphones, I did manage to see a whole range of bargains in the PS3 Section. Some of the prices of the games were about the same I had seen elsewhere but some were so cheap it was almost silly not to buy them. I saw EyePet which included the PS3 Camera for a steal at £10, now I already own the Webcam and have no great need to buy this Eyepet thing, as it is aimed at kids. The other Bargain I saw was at another store with Socom 4 which came in at £15 and this included the Bluetooth Headset.

Dark Sector – £5

I recall watching a video about this game some time back and I remember it said it was kind of like Gears of War type thing. It was first released in March 2008 so this is 3 years old now and probably explains the very cheap price. I found it good graphically and in line with your typical FPS type game, the added weapon you throw is a nice feature. Overall them, for £5, this is worth buying.

Resistance 2 – £10

Released in November 2008, this is once again a few years old and the very odd thing was they had some priced at £14 while one at the back (identical in every way) for £10. I expected to get to the till and be told it was £14 but nope, she rang it through as £10, job done. I had already played a demo of Resistance 1 (fall of man) and it was your stock shooter. £10 and £14 seems to be the normal price when I searched around the internet. I liked this game a lot, it reminded me of KillZone 2.

Lost Planet 2 – £10

I had seen this game for £9 many times and you can buy it online I think for £8, so not an amazing Bargain but I had seen this game so many times (and played a demo on both PS3 and PC) that I thought what the hell, and bought it. Once again this is a typical FPS game but as the things you are fighting are so large, the game starts you off by searching on-line for games to join. Maybe this is the game that finally see’s me talk to people on-line and be more active in on-line play. 

Conclusion

I saw other games such as the GamesAid PS3 Triple Pack which included Fuel, Tomb Raider Underworld and Sega Superstar tennis for £10 but out of all them games, it was only Fuel I like the look of and racing games can get boring quickly I found. Even if the games are cheap, I do not want to buy too many at one time, all them £10 can add up quickly and you can only play one game at a time, having too many means you never get to finish any of them.

Time to rejoice PS3 people because finally Sony have started to flip the switches around the world and they are finally the PSN to live once again. The first part was to download a firmware update (3.61) and then when I got the word, logged onto PSN vis the PS3. It asked me to change my password – which makes sense as the hackers have them all now and once that was complete, I was back online. Nothing showed up yet in the way of a “sorry we had the PSN down so long” bonus that I heard about but I am sure it will come out soon.

It is now the 8th May 2011 and although Sony have been making noises about offering a free Month of PSN+ service, a free game of some sort and other such good things, In the UK nothing has been heard and still no news of getting the service back. I have heard of people selling there PS3 and buying an XBOX360 and saying they will never buy a Sony product ever again and if you do not, then you must be a fan boy or something. I want to set the record straight from my own viewpoint of this whole PS3 debates.

What is PSN

This free service allows you to play on-line with others, send and receive messages (rather like email then) and voice and/or video chat with them if you have the right gear. In the world of PC’s – on-line games each have there own server and you end of with various names across the board. Sony by placing a central service means you may well have one name but once this middle man goes down – you are left high and dry.

The only game which I used On-line to be honest was LittleBigPlanet which allows others to jump in and help you complete the levels. I suck as First person Shooters on a console, so 99% of the time I am playing single player anyhow. As I have other means to chat to people instead of PSN, this feature never gets used and I have yet to speak to a single person on-line even though I have all the gear.

Are you Selling your PS3?

I bought the PS3 unit itself, this costs me £200 for the 160GIG unit. We then bought the Bluetooth microphone – £23, we add to this the Move Starter kit, another £40 and we have 11 games ranging from £10 to £20. This means I have easily spent Over £400 on that lot. If I were to sell this at some store, I would be lucky to get half of that – what sane person would chuck away half of there money just because the PSN part is currently off-line?

The PS3 still serves it purpose in that it plays games I enjoy playing, the games are cheap to come by and there is still a lot of life in the thing. I can browse the web (with flash) and I can play movies no problems.

Items I wish I had never bought

The Bluetooth headset I should only have bought once I got speaking to people, these days my online chat sessions are limited even on the PC never mind the PS3. I can use it with the PC though and it charges via a cradle so it was not 100% waste of my money and it was only £23. The other item I have not used much (due to lack of games) is the Move, I did get the camera (which I was going to buy anyhow) and it is fun but I could have lived without it.

For some time now the Sony Playstation Network which is the backbone of playing online and getting software was down with little word from Sony other than “We are fixing it”. I had already told my friend at work who had bought many songs via his credit card to seek to replace that card as soon as possible as the data may have been compromised. Upon checking yesterday from the Playstation Blog, they released a statement:

Valued PlayStation Network/Qriocity Customer,

We have discovered that between April 17 and April 19, 2011, certain PlayStation Network and Qriocity service user account information was compromised in connection with an illegal and unauthorized intrusion into our network. In response to this intrusion, we have:

1) Temporarily turned off PlayStation Network and Qriocity services;

2) Engaged an outside, recognized security firm to conduct a full and complete investigation into what happened; and

3) Quickly taken steps to enhance security and strengthen our network infrastructure by re-building our system to provide you with greater protection of your personal information.

We greatly appreciate your patience, understanding and goodwill as we do whatever it takes to resolve these issues as quickly and efficiently as practicable.

Although we are still investigating the details of this incident, we believe that an unauthorized person has obtained the following information that you provided: name, address (city, state/province, zip or postal code), country, email address, birthdate, PlayStation Network/Qriocity passwords and login, and handle/PSN online ID. It is also possible that your profile data, including purchase history and billing address (city, state, zip), and your PlayStation Network/Qriocity password security answers may have been obtained. If you have authorized a sub-account for your dependent, the same data with respect to your dependent may have been obtained. While there is no evidence that credit card data was taken at this time, we cannot rule out the possibility. If you have provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, to be on the safe side we are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may also have been obtained.

For your security, we encourage you to be especially aware of email, telephone, and postal mail scams that ask for personal or sensitive information. Sony will not contact you in any way, including by email, asking for your credit card number, social security, tax identification or similar number or other personally identifiable information. If you are asked for this information, you can be confident Sony is not the entity asking. When the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services are fully restored, we strongly recommend that you log on and change your password. Additionally, if you use your PlayStation Network or Qriocity user name or password for other unrelated services or accounts, we strongly recommend that you change them, as well.

To protect against possible identity theft or other financial loss, we encourage you to remain vigilant to review your account statements and to monitor your credit or similar types of reports.

We thank you for your patience as we complete our investigation of this incident, and we regret any inconvenience. Our teams are working around the clock on this, and services will be restored as soon as possible. Sony takes information protection very seriously and will continue to work to ensure that additional measures are taken to protect personally identifiable information. Providing quality and secure entertainment services to our customers is our utmost priority. Please check www.eu.playstation.com/psnoutage should you have any additional questions.

Sincerely,

Sony Network Entertainment and Sony Computer Entertainment Teams
Sony Network Entertainment Europe Limited (formerly known as PlayStation Network Europe Limited) is a subsidiary of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Limited the data controller for PlayStation Network/Qriocity personal data.

This shows that they lost the data and that somebody could have a field day with all these credit card numbers. What is annoying for me is that I started to play one of my games and it informed me that all play will not count as I am not signed in the PSN. It is starting to make me wish I had bought something else to be honest.

I thought I would buy some games for the PC for a change and whist out and about yesterday, I spotted a few games which might tickle my fancy, these been Burnout Paradise Ultimate Box, Kane & Lynch 2 Dog Days and finally Brothers in Arms Hell’s Highway. I installed Burnout Paradise which installed also the EA Download Manager and finally when I ran the game, it told me there was an update. Once I got into the game, it asked me a EA Login to allow me to play on-line, once logged in it told me that the Serial key was Invalid and close the program down back to the desktop. After much searching on Google – I finally worked out why this was happening there si a story with this.

Finding the cause of the problem

It seems that when you apply the 1100 Patch – this is when your CD Key becomes invalid and you can if you wish cancel the login and play single player Only. I removed and re-added the game and tried grabbing the patch from this other location as read about on my searches – none of this worked.

I was informed to email support and await an answer, well I wanted to play this game today, after all I had paid real money for this and EA Need a better way to sort out piracy – it seems all they have done so far is Ban all keys issued for the game, bought or otherwise.

On-line chat sessions

More searching and I found a method to chat on-line with EA, this put me on ‘hold’ if you like for at least 30 minutes, eventually I got to talk to simon. After giving him my email and serial – he informed me I had come through to the wrong dept?? I waited another 10 minutes or so and was placed into another person, having to go through again what I just told the first one. He told me to wait 2 minutes while he did something then asked me to go into the game – this now worked. My Guess is he added my serial number back into the ‘good’ pool and we were working.

Thoughts

I asked myself this – why do I need to jump through hoops to get a game which I bought, working on-line? I agree this is an old game now. Would other people be aware of what to do when this happens or would they be taking it back to the shop to get a refund?

I bought all three games for £10 – a special deal ‘Game’ have on with older titles. For such low amoutn of money, it is not a mega important thing and there would be no way to get my money but on one title but rather swap it for another. I am glad I stuck it out though as it’s a good game.

Head to the EA Site to grab the PC Crysis 2 Multiplayer Demo.

Today I shall do a review of a Playstation 3 title called Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days – I bought this for a very cheap price of £9 at Game and this was the Limited Edition title which includes extra on-line maps and items. By Sheer chance I saw the PC version also on sale for £5 but I left this as I really only need it on one format. It is billed as a Shooter but it steers away from the normal FPS type games in that going in all guns blazing will not get you very far. I would like to describe this as a “Hide and shoot” type game as you fight from cover to cover to complete each part of the game.

Plot

The game begins with the originals criminal anti-hero, Kane, arriving in Shanghai to do one last job with his psychotic ex-colleague, Lynch. Both men are deeply dislikeable in their own way, but each has some shred of humanity to keep your interest. Strangely, the game makes the curious choice of having you play as the crazy Lynch instead of the more sympathetic Kane, though our protagonist has calmed down considerably for the sequel). The tale that follows isn’t a whole lot more than an excuse for a long series of shoot-outs, but it’s a reasonably well-written excuse with a couple of genuinely shocking moments.

Game-play

At no pont in the game did I feel i was really part of a story, it consisted of getting to an area and then shooting out various gangs be in the police or the other gangsters. I tried standing up and running forward but soon got gunned down. To aim you have to press the left shoulder button and the right shoulder button shoots. Due to the fact you are using a Game controller, this is not as fast and accurate as say using a Keyboard and mouse.

Multi-player

I tired this for a while and my apparent lack of controlling a FPS using the PS3 game-pad become apparent very fast indeed and I never last very long at all. Maybe if I played long enough, it would become easier but for now, I have not loaded up the multi-player part very often.

Conclusion

If you are looking for the normal type of first person type shooter, then this game is not the one for you, at times you will get frustrated at the puzzles parts were shoot one bullet too many at the wrong time can lead to running out of rounds before the mission ends and thus failing. You are going to be looking for new weapons all the time as the number of rounds is not a lot but there is enough about if you look. Other times in the game you will not be 100% sure were to go and there is the option to pick up gas bottles, throw them and blow them up. My Suggestion is to try the demo if you can or buy it only if the game is very cheap (as I did).