noam's blog.a.lish

Well this came as a surprise to me, turns out an internal Best Buy memo was "leaked" out to the press. The memo basically states that "the 80GB version of the PS3 is going closeout and won't be replaced at this time." This basically means that backwards compatibility for PS2 games will no longer be available. According to this article on pcworld.com both Japan and the U.K. have dropped former models to support a single, and cheaper 40GB model that lacks backward compatibility.

Since there is no mention on Sony's website and according to the pcworld article "Sony was not immediately available for comment" I am left to question the reliability of pcworld's sources. You can still find the 80GB PS3 in Gamestops, Amazon, and of course eBay. So why would Best Buy move to a closeout? If there are still 80GB consoles with backward compatibility out there wouldn't Sony have to continue supporting those anyway? I simply don't get it.

In other PS3 news I ordered NBA Live 08, I've been playing it a lot at work lately and figured this would be a nice addition to my slowly growing game collection.

Got this email from Amazon and thought it was pretty cool. My PS3 broke down a couple of weeks ago and I don't have it right now... believe it or not it broke down one day AFTER my warranty expired. After calling Sony a few times (probably like 5) I managed to get them to give me a "good will" gesture and fix the machine up for me. That's kind of lame don't you think? Well at least they fixed it and it's on it's way back now and I didn't have to pay a single dollar for all of this (again lame, why should I even be happy that I didn't have to pay? shouldn't a PS3 last for more than 12 months?). Anyway if you ever run into this problem you now know that the Sony guy has the authority to grant you a "one time" good will gesture.... so demand it. Oh and I was also able to call GameStop and have them fax the proof of purchase over to Sony since I lost the receipt. The only problem now is that I am no longer covered... I should probably get some coverage ;)

The Top 10 PS3 Games of 2008
	"Little Big Planet" Learn more "Fallout 3" Learn more "Prince of Persia" Learn more "Resistance 2" Learn more "Valkyria Chronicles" Learn more "Call of Duty: World at War" Learn more "Mirror's Edge" Learn more "Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe" Learn more "Motorstorm Pacific Rift" Learn more "Shaun White Snowboarding" Learn more

p.s. Looks like I only have one game out of the top 10 (call of duty 4)... I'm surprised GTA didn't make it in.

So Guitar Hero is now rock bandish in that they have added the microphone and drums, I think I should order it. Now if that's not enough to get you all excited about a video game then check out how they took the PR campaign to the next level bringing in the likes of none other than Kobe Bryant!

Hat tip Kurt.

Somewhere inside my hectic schedule I have managed to find the time to defeat Guitar Hero III (in medium mode). It took a while, and I had to defeat Slash and the Devil... but I did it!!! Hooray for me. If you aren't hooked on GH3 yet, get it immediately (click on the image below to go to Amazon).

I guess I should move up to hard now, I mean it's about time... don't you think?

I've been searching for a new game to buy for my Playstation 3 for the past two weeks. During this period I have been downloading demo's (which is pretty cool in and of itself) of a couple of games. The whole concept of being able to play the demo at home and not at a GameStop (where you would have to fight over the controller with a 12 year old) is as close to perfect as can be. The big problem with demo's are that they are not the complete game (duh). So after finishing a demo of a game that you're enjoying you end up running to a GameStop and buying the game.

Prices for new PS3 games are in the $50-$59.99 range (for the good games at least) while the used games run a mere $5 dollars behind (at GameStop that is). One might wonder the internet convinced that they could find a better deal. This is where my gripe with the all mighty eBay comes in. I'm sure all of you have complaints about eBay but I'd like to list my top 5 problems with this god forsaken service:

• Even with their new design eBay still looks and feels like crap. With all their money you'd think they could come up with a better design and get some damn usability people to figure out what's wrong with eBay.
• So much stuff to buy but still isn't organized in a completely intuitive way. I think that Amazon is much more organized than eBay, so why doesn't eBay use the Amazon model?
• Scams suck and it's quite easy to get a friend to bid on your item to drive up its sale price, that's really annoying and in many times I have been offered a second chance when it was obvious that a friend of the seller was trying to drive up the price... are there no consequences for such behavior?
• Spam! Why can people see my email address and spam me? isn't this some sort of privacy issue? I have received many fake second chance emails for items I've searched for and never bid for... so someone must be sniffing! While that seems like a pretty interesting idea I am quite pissed that it happened.
• Feedback. This whole system seems to be wrong to me. While it is supposed to enforce some sort of trust system I feel like it does exactly the opposite. As a buyer you are on the short end of the stick when it comes to feedback. If you have something bad to say about a seller they will (and have) respond that you're a newbie (even if your account exists from 2000) and that you are a disgrace to eBay... really?? That's all you got?

So while I have problems with eBay I still end up buying there because I can't find any service that can really compete with the variety and prices of eBay. Amazon provides a different model in which used games are simply more expensive than eBay, craigslist is ok but kind of difficult to manage (can't they put some effort into it... come on! same shit for so many years), and now even facebook has a market for buying and selling stuff but it is nowhere near what eBay, Amazon, or Craigslist have to offer.

I'm not sure what I'm trying to say here except to point out the fact that eBay sucks but there really aren't many options out there for replacing what we get from eBay (both as buyers and as sellers) and that sucks even more. Anyway the games I decided to get are:

Can you see a pattern?

UPDATE: I've been outbid on all of my offers on eBay and actually found out that Amazon had *all* games for cheaper!!

This weekend just vanished. I can't figure out exactly where all my time went but I'm sure Call of Duty 4 had something to do with it. This game is awesome. The online feature is great, even though I got my ass handed to me by 12 year old kids all day (and night). If you own any console I highly recommend this game. Here is the trailer for your enjoyment.

My favorite tactic is choosing the M21 Sniper Rifle picking some high ground and just taking people out... one at a time... oh yeah.

Came home today only to find one of the most sought after gaming consoles known to man.
It has: Bluetooth wireless controllers, Built in Wifi & browser, BlueRay DVD, 40GB of HDD, and a sexy UI.

The PS3 features IBM's "Cell" processor and a co-developed Nvidia graphics processor that makes the system able to perform two trillion calculations per second. That's approximately 320 times more calculations per second than the PS2. Along with the traditional AV and composite connections, it also boasts an HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) port, which delivers uncompressed, unconverted digital picture and sound to compatible high-definition TV and projectors. The system is capable of 128-bit pixel precision and 1080p resolution for a full HD experience.

Say hello to my new friend:

Bring it.