More coming to the site, for everyone!

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I have been surprisingly not surprised, lately, with all of the news in the gaming industry. Everyone wants to talk about games coming out in ten months, or the most popular games of the year, even though we’re barely in to it. Rather than sit by doing completely nothing, I have been doing even more “back end” work on the website.

The forums have been completely fixed up and should now be easy to use, without appearing cluttered. I have also worked out some plans with my hosting company as well as done some work on the server settings themselves. These changes will allow me to provide you with an even broader selection of downloads and file types, allowing me to expand the type of services I can offer in the future as I grow the site.

Look forward to an interesting article later this week, which will show my promise to expand who I am able to provide services to. I might have a clue in the poll I just posted above. 😉 Not directly, but it should suggest that something ahead might be available for a select audience. Real news coming again, soon, but finally having some time off from work has inspired me to take the time to work on the website!

Learn About Uno Rush Before the Release!

In 2008, the Summer of Arcade was a smashing success for Xbox. They’re getting ready to do it again, by releasing several long anticipated games over a six week period, beginning March 18th, 2009. During this year’s Days of Arcade, seven new Xbox Live Arcade games are going to see their release, including Dishwasher: Dead Samurai, Hasbro Family Game Night, Lode Runner, and Uno Rush.

Uno Rush has been on people’s minds since the announcement of the NXE, and this new Uno title. What would it be like, how would it play, can you finally play multiplayer LOCALLY, and not just over Xbox Live? I have the answers to all of your questions in this rarely seen Fact-Sheet from Microsoft. I happened to have it laying around and I just thought some of you might find it interesting, the things that were considered “final” back on July 3rd, 2008 – when the game was expected to be released along side the NXE, in the fall. Uno Rush_Fact Sheet FINAL.doc. Give it a quick read, and get excited for the upcoming Days of Arcade, and Uno Rush.

Upcoming Downloadable FPS Games: Your pick?

Which game are you more excited for? Or is there a third title I should be looking for?

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I spent a lot of time, recently, reliving some glory days. Thanks to GoG.com I have been reminiscing about the modern-classics, like the original Unreal Tournament from 1999. A new game looks like it might bring back some of the simple but fast paced action that made the first UT such a smash, while none of the sequels have quite lived up to it. CellFactor: Psychokinetic Wars will blend the fast paced gritty action of UT with some of the more popular magic-like features of the megaflop Shadowrun. All this is going to be delivered through a downloadable game (Xbox Live Arcade and the Playstation Store) at an affordable price.

An addition to this game, as far back as 2007, people were spotting “Quake III Arena” being listed as an Xbox 360 title on the ESRB’s website, and was even announced by id Software. It looks like it might finally be a reality, coming before the end of 2009. Coupled, at the time, with the announcement of “Quake Zero” (now renamed “Quake Live”) it seems entirely possible like there may be some form of cross-platform play coming to this title.

I’m very excited to check out both of these games, they each look very cool. Are there any other up and coming titles I’m overlooking?

PSN's 20 mil. vs. Xbox Live's 17? Not Impossible…


The friendly banter that generally goes on between the console giants went strangely awry this week. VideoGamer.com (currently under the microscope for a recent Resident Evil 5 article, where a proclaimed “expert” had no experience in the topic of discussion) has posted an article in which an Xbox UK rep dismisses claims Sony has made that they have topped 20 million members on the Playstation Network, while Xbox Live sits at 17 million. Xbox Live isn’t just tied to the Xbox 360, it goes back to November of 2002 when it launched on the 360. To my knowledge, the account database has never been purged, therefore all accounts from November of 2002 are all still there. And Sony is saying they’re already at the 20 million mark? Perhaps there is an error in their aggregator and it’s an honest mistake, but I agree with Microsoft’s Stephen McGill, it seems little suspicious.

While other sites point out the obvious, like 21 million PS3s sold should not translate to 20 million PSN accounts, or perhaps the fact that the PSN is free could lead to muliple registrations, I have a few other points to bring up. As was addressed on one other website: Xbox Silver is also free, and of the 17 million accounts, Silver members are “accounted for.” Yes, PSP owners may have multiple accounts on each console – one for each friend, several for various region to download items from the various stores, and in some cases, it was simply easier to say “nah, I don’t like that name any more” and switch to a new one. When the Xbox 360 had “Gamerscore” that you wanted to keep, it was cause for a lot of people to change their gamertags less often.

Still, 20 million members in only about 2 years? One reason the higher number could be the 50 million PSP’s that have been sold, now having access to the PSN. This has been overlooked by every article I have read on this topic thus far. It’s quite simple to imagine users flocking to the free service when provided to them wirelessly, anywhere they go.

I’m a little unsure, myself, as to how much I believe the numbers, and how much it is a marketing tactic… but I don’t find it quite as impossible as the majority of other bloggers I’ve read this week. What’s your take? Leave a comment or visit the WinBreak forum.