Mass Effect 3 Gameplay is up!

I have tried uploading the gameplay video about 3-4 times. It kept on being rejected by the server for no reason. It finally went through when I changed the file name. I guess it was too long or something. Anyways, here is the gameplay video from my youtube channel.

This is my first time going through the missions. I am trying to get used to the controls and such. Going from playing first person shooter frequently then to a TPS/OTS one is a big deal for me. I have to get used to the camera angles as well. Gah, sometimes it gave me headache to play this game.

Enjoy!

Mass Effect 3 - Collector's Edition Unboxing

Hey guys!
Finally, I have obtained a copy of Mass Effect 3. EB offered me the Collector's Edition and I said "Sure, why not." Anyways, I want to share what came in with the box. Good quality by the way :) Smells like fresh ink.

Okay let's start with the main box:

Cover Box

Steel Game Case

Manual to the left. Online Pass to the right

Game Disk

Uhmm...card?

Comics

Art Book

I thought that was all. Then N7 Patch (Velcro) popped out.

Care to watch me play the game? Visit my youtube channel here --->6deux's Channel I will start uploading as soon as I can.

Thanks!

New PS3 7.1 Headset

7.1 Goodness

Few days ago, Sony announced a new headset designed for the PS3. It is wireless and offers 7.1 surround sound. I wish I have waited for this to come out before I bought a PS3 bluetooth headset. The current headset is uncomfortable but it is nice because of it's minimalistic design. I think I will pick this new peripheral and then a surround sound system sometime in the future.

Oh and yes, that is a mic sticking out of that thing :)

PS3: Firmware Update 3.61 is Up For Grabs! SOE and PSN Back Online Today!

That is right! 3.61 firmware upgrade for PS3 is now live. Like I stated in my old post, it is a security update that forces you to change your password. I think we are nearing the end of the dark times. Turn on your PS3 and get your update :) Also, PSN is coming back online now for North America - "state by state" as we speak.

* Not confirmed but just rough estimates/predictions. It could be some of their surrounding states as well. Thanks :)

Update(9): Playstation Network is online for North America 12:00am Pacific May 15, 2011. WOOT! See you guys online!


Canada is also back online. You can request your change of password now using your PS3. It is faster than PC. I highly recommend using the PS3 to change your password. Remember, only the PS3 you always log-on into will work for the password change.


If you are going to try to change it through your PC, you have to wait for an email that could take 24 hours to arrive. The email will provide you a link so that you can verify that it is you and update your password.This is what you would see from your PC if you try to log in:

"To sign in, an update of your account information is required. An e-mail message with instructions has been sent to Your_Email. It may take up to 24 hours to receive this message."

Update(8): West coast and mid-west U.S.A is now back online. Also some Central parts, Alaska and Hawaii as well. Every state in U.S will be back sometime in the morning. Welcome back guys! Now we look forward for our "Welcome Package". 11:00pm PST. Congrats!

Update(7): Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, and Pennsylvania are up and running! (Officially confirmed) 10:30pm PST

Still coming up next few hour or so*:
Washington State (Possibly next)
Texas and surrounding states- Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Oklahoma (Possibly next)
North/South Dakota(2-3 hours or so)
and Oregon (in about 2-3 hours or so)

Update(6): Florida, South/North Carolina,and Georgia are now online 9:00pm PST (officially confirmed) Enjoy guys!

It seems like they confirm states every hour. Please be patient.

Still waiting for Washington state(trying to confirm right now), Louisiana, Dakota, Texas, Michigan/Ohio (trying to confirm as well), possibly Oklahoma as well as Alabama, Illinois and their surrounding states to come up next hour.* One of these should be officially confirmed as well as some of their surrounding states

Germany (Will be back on soon as well).

Update(5): Florida, Louisiana, Washington State, and Dakota coming up next. In addition, Texas and Michigan/Ohio area are coming up too. Alabama will join shortly.

Update(4): State of California is now on as of 8:11pm PST. Europe servers are still down but has updated their blog post. PlayStation Network Restoration Begins - Sony UK


Update(3): Seems like the official site is having trouble loading. Probably the server is being overwhelmed. Nothing has changed so far from the map. 7:51 PST

Update (2): New York are and entire far North East of U.S is now officially back on. Still no word for Canada. You can now access your PSN and online multiplayer if you live in NY, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, and New Jersey area.

Update(1): People are reporting that they are having trouble downloading the new update probably due to the amount of people downloading it. So just keep trying and you will download the update successfully. The PSN is still down in my region as we speak.

"An error occurred during the download operation. A connection to the server cannot be established. (80710101)"

____________________________

PSN is going back on today state by state. Maybe by tomorrow, the whole North America will be back online.

"Please note that these services will take a bit of time to be turned on and rolled out to the whole country. The process has begun and some states are being turned on now, so please be patient as we reach your city and state."

They kindly put up a map on which state is currently on. To see the official blog. Click :

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/05/14/play-on-%E2%80%93-psn-restoration-begins-now/

"We strongly recommend that all PSN account holders with PS3s update their systems to prepare for when PlayStation Network is back online. The release of this update is a critical step as we work to make PlayStation Network significantly more secure. Thank you for your continued support and patience."

 -  Eric Lempel - VP, Sony Network Entertainment

It is quite a big update. I am pretty sure there is more behind this update other than just forcing you to change passwords of course. There was no noticeable changes made but we will find out once the PSN gets back on.


However, PSN is still down but I think it will come back soon. I expect another firmware update once before the whole service is back up since PS Store will be disabled up until the end of the month.


For full official blog post:
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/05/14/ps3-system-software-update/

Also, a welcome message from Kaz.
Kaz Hirai - PSN Relaunch Announcement


SONY ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT

In addition, GOOD news for SOE PC gamers! Your service is coming back on today! Still no words for PSN though. Happy hunting!

"Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE) announced today that restoration of its game services will begin today. The phased restoration will include the return of nearly all of SOE's portfolio of online games, the reinstatement of SOE's game forums and websites, and added functionality to require players to reset their passwords."

 For the official announcement :

http://www.soe.com/securityupdate/restorationannouncement.vm

PSN : Sign of life? SOCOM4 Leaderboard Active

I am not sure what exactly going on here but for some reason, some people can access the games online. Playtesting perhaps. Who knows. SOCOM's online leaderboard for May is a little busy during the past few days even if the PSN is still offline.Could this be dev accounts? Playtesters? Or a sign that the PSN will go back on soon? Maybe a server glitch or whatever. Thanks to someone who started a thread about this on SOCOM 4 forums that got me interested - bayport kudos! :)

Here is a guide that I just made on how to access the SOCOM4 leaderboard without logging in:

SOCOM 4 Leaderboard for May

You can check the leaderboard without logging in by simply copy and pasting this URL in to your web browser and replace the insert_name_here to any of those names listed on that photo above or even yours (if you were able to log in before PSN was taken offline).

URL:
http://www.socom.com/en-us/SOCOM4/Leaderboards?handle=insert_name_here

Once you are looking at someone's stats, look for leaderboards in between co-op and compare stats tab.

The tab

So, you now have an access to the leaderboards without having to log-in. You can change the time range to see who is playing during this week or this month. You can check their stats too and look at when they started playing. I hope this helps :)

Update (1): Dunham tweeted :
"We have some internal tools available to us this week. Since I'm out, though, I can't elaborate"


He is currently on vacation. When he gets back, I think more questions will be answered :)

Portal 2(PS3) - Fun and Challenging

Finally, I found a copy of Portal 2 for PS3 in my local electronic store. It has been sold out everywhere. I was so excited to play it. I have played Portal 1 on my laptop but my laptop is crappy so I had to give up. Still, I got Portal 2 for the PS3 because you can have cross-platform gameplay and steam cloud. Don't forget the initiative bonus code so you can download a free copy of Portal 2 for PC/Mac.

PS3 Portal box art

Seriously, I have never played a game with two sarcastic characters that will make you laugh throughout the game. It is like watching a stand-up comedy while playing the game which never gets boring as you go along each levels in Portal 2. Each dialogue will make you think and smile. I think this is one of the things that makes this game interesting and original. The first person view also immerses you the "maze".

Portal 2 is set few years (or more) after Portal 1. Glados is back and will be with you again throughout the story. It starts with you trapped in a room and a voice asking you to perform actions. After that, your environment starts shaking and collapsing because your room is being moved by Wheatley - a blue eyed core. Thus, your journey inside Aperture lab begins.


Anyways, the first levels are basically training levels. They can get very challenging as you go along each one; requiring you to think and perform tasks based on timing and problem solving. I did have some trouble figuring out one or two level. Maybe it is because midnight and I could not think properly. I was scratching my head too much while trying to figure out the logic behind the lasers and portals and gels ...oh man there were so many things to handle. Sometimes that I just want to drop the controller.


I have only played the beginning of co-op since the PSN is down. I played it offline with my sibling. So I can't say anything much about it other than...yes it requires a great deal of co-ordination and teamwork. It still deal with the same basic principle of using portals and your brain.


The graphics in single player is excellent. No framerate problems and everything sails smoothly even if there are many things going around the environment. I believe they have used anti-alias in this game as everything looks smooth and not jagged. After going through the developer commentary level, I found out that the main goal of the engine is to reduce the amount of CPU power needed to render the environment. The design of the characters and levels are minimalistic but at the same time has this sense of high technology/futuristic and  a modern feeling. Character designs are well thought too. The developers explained how they came up with the characters in the game.


Just like the graphical style of being minimalistic, controls are the same and easy to get used to. The only button you will be pressing most of the time are R1 and L1 since they are for making portals. Other than that, O makes you crouch and R2 for zoom in. I got used to the controls within the first 5 minutes of playing. I wish this game has supported the move motion controller because that would be so perfect.


The voice acting, sounds of environment crashing, gel flowing is very crisp and realistic. The voice acting is well done! It gives and shows the personality of each robots and emphasize it. The sound of footsteps and landing on metal after making a leap of faith is very satisfying. They did a great job also making the ambience realistic. The background music was alright. Sometimes it gets emotional depending on what chapter you are in. Sometimes, I do not even notice there is music playing at all.

Voucher for PC/Mac

The best part of having a PS3 copy is the cross-platform co-op and the free copy that comes along for PC/Mac. Also, Steam cloud is available for the PS3 platform. It is different from the PS cloud. I am excited to log-in with my Steam account on the PS3 to link it with my PSN. I have some couple of PC player friends that play Portal 2. For now, I can't since the PSN is still down due to a recent tragic event. I can't wait to see more titles that support cross-platform gaming.

Overall, I think I am very extremely super satisfied with this game. I wish there are more levels to beat on the campaign mode. The graphics is nice as well as the sound. It is easy to get used to the control settings but I wish it supported the Move. Voice acting is fantastic. The biggest bonus why I purchased the game, the cross-platform capability. I think that will be part of the future of gaming for both consoles and PC version. I have no gripes about this game as it stayed true to the story. Kudos to Valve for making such a great game. I  would rate the game 9.5/10. I just wish there are more testing done. 


SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACCEEEE!


Update (1): Valve has announced that there will be an upcoming DLC for Portal 2. I am looking forward to it. They might bring port Steam/Valve games if they see that Portal is a success.


Oh and to clear it up, you can only play on one platform at the same time after you redeem your code for PC/Mac download since that code is attached to your PSN name.


I definitely think that Portal 2 is very successful. Portal 2 was sold out everywhere I went on the release day. Also, I finished the game. Perfect ending :)


Update(2): PC to PS3 Co-op is fun! Works the same way as PS3 to PS3. PC players can communicate via text chat or mic. Since steam is on the PS3 version also, you can chat with your friend in steam that are PC players. You can also log in at your PC and PS3 at the same time on steam (not the game though). You will be able to see the same messages on your PC and through the TV at the same time. I love it. PC players can type in-game text but I have not figured out if it is possible with the PS3 too. Anyways, it is pretty sweet to have a cross-platform gameplay. I wish there are more games like this.