I did my first pumpkin carving last night and I decided to do a design for one of my favorite games this year. Here's my attempt at an Arkham Asylum pumpkin. No stencil and all done by free hand drawing. Turned out OK I think.

We have a friend, Andy Thissan, visiting BlizzCon today and he'll be sending minor updates as he visits the convention.

 Day 2

 2:39 PM  Ok i just have to say 2010 is too long to wait for SC2. This game is incredible.

 1:15 PM

 

 Day 1

 2:56 PM -  so we all want to know where is the beta key?

 2:10 PM - Waiting by the main stage for announcements.  the buzz is the wow expansion and that there will be alot of Diablo details

 

 More...

I’m going to do something about E3 I’ve never done before: not talk about any games I saw. Instead, I’m going to talk about my experience this year with the third format change in three years. Now I’ve been through many E3’s since 1994 only missing two in that time so I’ve seen how the show has grown, shrunk, and start to grow again.

This year I asked with most of the people I’ve met what they thought of the format. Those that were showing the past few years talked about how lifeless it was and how “depressing” the show became. Unanimously, every PR person and the fellow journalists I talked to talked about how much they enjoyed this year’s E3. Most said it felt like the energy and excitement was back. All the journalists I asked said it was great in that it wasn’t too big and it wasn’t dead like last year. We all were able to get our work done and not have to fight through large crowds. Sure there were more public attendees this year but at no time did I feel I was burdened by them like previous years.

I made sure to pay attention of many of the faces in the crowd as well as the ones I’ve met in the past who have come back. You could see how much more they enjoyed the show based on the expressions on their faces and their enthusiasm at the booths. I overheard many conversations on how they really liked this year.

Yes, there weren’t that huge swell of people waiting to get into the show floors and the booths weren’t as overpower as previous years but that’s a good thing. You still had some large booths though such as Activision, Sony, Nintendo, and EA but nothing like compared to previous years. It was still a little hard to talk to on the show floor sometimes but for the most part the show did a good job of not overwhelming you with sound.

I really, really liked this year’s E3. I hope that the show doesn’t grow too much. I can see a few more areas being opened up to accommodate some more vendors as a there were a few areas that were closed off in the main halls. But, I liked being able to walk around without having to find alternate paths through large crowds, being able to pick up food without having to wait 30 minutes in line, and to be able to walk up to most things and get to play with it hands on without having to wait another 10 minutes to do so. It was fun and carefree without feeling stressful like in years past.

So this year’s E3 was a return of sorts to the old ways but in a more subtle fashion. With that everyone seemed pretty happy with the result. Now a part of that could be people comparing to last year’s show where not as many enjoyed the format but since I didn’t go last year I don’t have anything to compare that to. For me, it was the perfect balance of sizes in booth and population. Let’s hope they keep it this way for next year as with what I experienced, I’m finally excited about going to the next show.

Here's all our E3 2009 coverage.

 

We did an interview with Felicia Day of The Guild fame a while ago but while watching Discovery Channel, I came across a Sears commercial that had her in it. I thought she looked familiar and sure enough, here's the commericial featuring the Guild actress selling a washer and dryer.

 

 

Sony, your killer game for the PlayStation 3 isn't selling as well as it should. The game should have a higher attach rate and should be in many more households with PlayStation 3s. It's not and that's unfortunate. It's not selling systems and it's not getting into the hands of as many people as it deserves to. So, I propose a bold new option for you. Port the game to a system with a crowd that loves first person shooters. Port it to a system where it can look even better than on the PlayStation 3. How about you guys port the game to the PC?

The March NPD numbers just came out and you sold 296,000 units in the US last month. Combined with 323,000 in February you have in the US 619,000 units. You've said you've sold a little over 1 million world wide and while it may be the fastest SCEA title to reach 500,000 that really doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things. It should be doing gangbusters in the likes of Halo or Gears of War because of the effort put in as well as the hype you tried to generate before the release of the game. It's not and it probably won't be getting any better when the game is released in Japan as well. You have over 21 million consoles in the hands of consumers and only 5% of those that own it own the game. Don't you think that the game you advertised as the premier title of your console and one you say can only be experienced on the PlayStation 3 because of the power of the console should be in a lot more hands? This is where the PC side comes into things.

The PC gaming crowed absolutely love first person shooters. And, the genre succeeds immensely when a good quality product is produced. Valve Software has a FPS lineup that kills on the PC. iD Software's bread and butter is still the PC shooter crowd. The folks at Crytek are selling better with Crysis Warhead and plenty of people talk about the visuals of Crysis. Since Killzone 2 is not doing as well as you thought on the PlayStation 3, there's a nice market to tap where I think gamers would eat it up.

You brag about the visuals of Killzone 2 and how it's just a step ahead of every game out there. The PC can do it as well and in some aspects even better since the system can be expanded with more powerful hardware. The multi-core architecture is there as well so you can do some parallel processing that the Cell CPU handles with your game. With the ability to SLI some very powerful video cards, imagine Killzone 2 running at resolutions up to 2560x1600. You could even market it as a competitor to the visuals of Crysis, arguably the graphical standard for the PC. Physics is starting to be pushed by companies such as NVIDIA but you already have a great physics engine with Killzone 2. The way the enemies fall in different ways is such a beautiful sight and you could market that as well for the PC gaming crowd.

There's also a huge group of online gamers on the PC that would love to take your shooter for a spin against others. Games such as Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike,  Quake Live,  and Battlefield 2 have a huge following still and Killzone 2 has the potential be one of those games that get played for a long time with a large group of online people.

While Killzone 2 might have sold OK at over a million units worldwide , you need some more revenue. Porting Killzone 2 will need some work but it can open up a whole new revenue stream for you. It's your killer game and not only can you garner some income by selling it on the PC but you could also take an approach to license the engine to others as well. Yes, your game might be pirated and heavily at that since it's such a high profile game but set it at a reasonable price ad I think consumers would flock to it. Take some of the profits you have earned by selling the PS3 version and use it to produce a good quality PC version and reap the benefits.

In the end, you'd generate a bigger audience that can experience the game as well as produce some more revenue with PC sales. With that, you can start hyping up Killzone 3 and expect a lot more people interested in the game. You can see what a good name brand can do with sales like Halo Wars selling 693,000 units in a few weeks just because of how popular the name is. The first Killzone wasn't a killer title but the second one is and to help further that you can draw in more of a following with a PC port. Take it to the computer crowd, advertise it a lot better than what you do now with the PlayStation 3 version and I think you'd have a huge hit on your hands in that arena.

Let's face it, Killzone 2 is too good of a game to not sell better and be in the hands of more gamers. There's no way you'd let the game be on a competing console and you have a division that does produce PC games, albeit MMORPGs. But, there's nothing to preclude you from offering one of the best games you have on the table on a platform that is exponentially in more households than your console. Sure, there's some pride you have to swallow and some PlayStation 3 owners might be upset that their baby's going to be on another platform but we're talking about business here and business I think you would do well to see Killzone 2 on the PC.

I was perusing a few movie sites and saw that the action figures for the new GI Joe movie has been shown. Now, here we have two pictures of what the new Cobra figures look like.

 

 

Gee, where have I seen something like this before? I can't put my finger on it... Let me think for a sec.. Maybe...

 

But it is a rather funny shopped image. Nice job Pete359.

 

I used to love, love NVIDIA cards. Lately, AMD is kicking all kinds of major ass with their Radeon HD 4800 series of cards. Here's a nice little video to explain the current situation for everyone. Some of the terms and jokes might go over non-techy heads but it's still cute.

 

 

Media Molecule and Sony, you’ve lost a customer. The game, as we all know, is LittleBigPlanet. It’s a game that Chuck really loves in his review and one that I was going to pick up after spending some time with it over at his house. I’m not a big fan of side scrolling jumping games but LittleBigPlanet has potential and I love games with potential. It lets you let loose with your creativity and design levels for all to play with its ease of sharing capabilities. Well, so I thought.

As reported earlier, some levels were being moderated or removed without having the ability to get it back. While I can understand some things being removed such as for offensive content and infringing on other people’s intellectual properties, there are many instances where the user’s levels were removed without any indication why. Sony has issued a statement saying they are looking to improve communication and also give a reason as to why they are moderating the level. So far their efforts have been just as before with another group of levels being moderated without cause. I’ve seen some of the videos of some of the levels being removed and I really can’t see any reason as to why they would be in line to be moderated.

Worse yet, there hasn’t been any communication as to why the level’s being moderated. There’s a system you guys developed Sony whereby you can leave messages in the person’s inbox on your PlayStation 3. You know that little envelope where messages appear from friends and so forth? You might consider using that online feature to let the person know that 1) the level in question is being reviewed for a specific reason and 2) your level was moderated because it contains the following items.

As good as LittleBigPlanet is, I can’t find myself spending my hard earned money on a game where there’s creativity being stifled and no communication between the creators and users on issues that the company might have with the content generated. I’m not going to spend many hours trying to create a fun level for others to enjoy only to have a chance for it to be moderated without any warning. It would be a very frustrating experience and I feel for the folks that this has happened to. Sony, you guys have perhaps started a new trend with user generated content on your system to increase the value and replay ability of a console game. It’s too bad your handling these issues in such a poor manner and with that you’re losing at least one sale from me and I wouldn’t be surprised if many more were lost from those reading about your actions.