SofaRacing’s myPSN app for the iPhone and iPod touch does a seemingly simple thing very well, letting you log into the PSN portable ID interface in an easy to use and intuitive app. Firing up myPSN allows you to see who’s online from your friends list at any given moment, view your statistics including how many trophies you’ve won and see your current PSN level, whilst charting your trophy progression for each trophy enabled game you’ve played. myPSN also allows you to see you friends stats with comparison to your current level and number of trophies, finally enabling you to settle that raging argument about who’s the best right from the comfort of your local pub.

With in the limits of what Sony allows access to from outside of the PSN, myPSN delivers. It’s got a simple intuitive interface that remembers your credentials and syncs up when you load the app. The problem comes when you fire up the app and wish you could message your friends on the go; trash talking from your iPhone would be awesome. Sony however, doesn’t allow that kind of access to the PSN on anything other than a Playstation, so you can’t really blame the app for that missing golden feature.

Over all is myPSN useful? Yes, if you’re a keen Playstation gamer and wield an iPhone, then it’s certainly an app you should have on your pocket pal. Admittedly it has limited usage cases, but it’s worth it for the argument-ending power comparing your trophies on the go has. myPSN is yours for less than a pint, a bargain at £1.19/$1.99 [link].

My Mission = to search for games with local co-op campaigns or entertaining two-player options to interest both you and your significant other so you may have the best of two elements, quality time together and gaming.

I would be cursed if I didn’t mention this game for my first OFFICIAL post because it was the game that started my venture into the next gen. gaming era. It was like love at first sight. All ohhh’s  and ahhh’s and “OMG I’m kicking ass!!!” The game that thou speaks of is:

What guy doesn’t want to play a bad ass game where you’re freed from prison and handed a gun with a freakin’ chain saw? Who doesn’t tire of butt-ugly minions raiding earth’s surface and no one better than you can put a stop to it? Of course this is a game you’ll love but the major question is… “Why would females like this enough to play it?”

1. For beginners, it’s NOT first person! She won’t be over whelmed by quick camera movements and won’t be concerned with blind spots. I remember way back in N64 days, attempting to play Golden Eye… I always felt nauseated when the camera moved abruptly and wanted to throw up because I didn’t know what I was doing or where to go half the time. I felt I was going in constant circles. At least, with third person you have a wider view.
2. The configuration is simple.  Who needs to train first?! Just get her right into the action.
3. You have A.I. team members that will help shoot the enemies and a couple more shots from her and their dead.  Then again, they are constantly doing suicide tactics so maybe she’ll be more encouraged to save them.
4. The aim radius is pretty huge so there’s no way to really miss them (Unless if sometimes you have anxiety like I do and go bonkers and usually shoot before aiming)but you do have to watch for the recoil.
5. The graphics are great. Especially, when you get right up close to the enemy and press “B.” Chainsaw massacre. What else can impress her more?
6. The story is enticing, constantly getting you at the edge of your seat. End boss on Insane?!? Did it with a shot gun = EPIC!!

Playing multiplayer games with my Fiancé, Joey is one of my many favorite things I enjoy doing. No one feels neglected because someone’s tied to one thing all the time. I believe it just brings another common interest and helps to make the relationship stronger. And on that note,  Guys be happy if your woman becomes a good gamer, just think, every other guy envy’s you now because…. WOMEN WHO GAME ARE HOT!!!! =P

SEE WHAT I MEAN?!?!

Here are some stats one these new weapons:

• The Homewrecker – 2x bonus against buildings, 75% power against people
• The Pain Train – 2x capture rate, 1.1x damage from bullets
• The Dalokohs Bar – Max health increase by 50 for 30 seconds – Heavy

[via Team Fortress 2 Blog]
[Images via Reddit]

But seriously, this is no joke. This is Real Talk.

As many of you may have heard, Xbox Live recently granted gamers the right to display a number of details about their personal details online, among them race, gender, and sexual orientation. And while in our culture we are moving in an ever-more accepting direction to different faiths and creeds, beliefs and ways of life, one of the most hostile environments for acceptance and change is in the quite faceless and odds-evening ether of the internet.

Gamers are, by and large, classified as nerds, geeks, dweebs, and generally socially unacceptable social outcasts. And while we’re growing to be more and more socially acceptable almost by the day, as evidenced by the popularity of titles like COD:MW2 and the Halo franchise, Madden and Tiger, we are still a subset of humanity that is commonly made fun of, mocked, and not allowed to sit at the cool table in the lunchroom.

Lisa’s ire at her competitor was eclipsed only by her rage towards the clerk that sold her a joystick for a racing game.

Even the nerds that rule the world (Steve Jobs, Bill Gates) most likely still have an element of social awkwardness, and insecurity, and frequently the less spectacularly successful social outcasts have very little in the way of productive outlets to dispell these sorts of feelings, and will frequently attempt to turn the tables on society from behind their most powerfully faceless seat of power, the computer keyboard.

There are very few things as mystically empowering as the magic curtain that is the internet. There, a six-year-old can absolutely destroy a forty-six year-old-man’s will to live with a single bullet, a hundred-pound girl can rush for 400-plus yards against a towering football-scholarship athelete to win the NCAA championship, and I can be whatever and whoever I want to be, for a little while. Behind the h00ge 53ri35 of t00bs, we are all powerful, we are all on the same playing field, we are all equal.

Except we’re not. We should be, but we’re not. I learned a long time ago that internet boards are not for sharing helpful information or opinions, but rather for fanboy flame wars. I learned that if you’re playing on Xbox Live, party chat is the right answer, followed closely in second place by: Mute All, and there isn’t a third place. I learned that if you’re good, bad, in first place, in last, not in voice-chat, talking too much, talking too little, totally silent, or in any way at all present in any multiplayer game EVER, you are gay. Gay. Gay gay gay. Or a fag. Or any of a HUNDRED absolutely disgusting and inexcusably offensive words that have NOTHING to do with anything that anyone really is or is not, because someone, somewhere has a small mind and very likely ANOTHER small body part, and needs to compensate for it by being verbally abusive to someone else who either is too polite, or too scared to respond. Or possibly, too smart (Dude, you’re muted. Seriously. You can shut up now. Sorry I shot you in the face. Only not really actually sorry at all. In fact, i’m pretty excited about it.)

But I digress: Xbox Live has given us the ability to add a number of details about ourselves to our gamer profile, and while that is a victory of sorts for the open-minded gamer, it also may (and probably will) spark more of the idiocy that the internet has become famous for. But, intrepid and brave adventurer that i am (behind the empowering mask of the internet) I have decided to set up a seperate gamertag and identify myself a number of ways over a two-week period, with varying degrees of in-game interaction, and see if Microsoft’s manaeuver is making a positive impact, a negative, or any at all. Feel free to drop a comment with your gamertag if you want to see this experiment in action.

PS, I’ll be funny again next week. I promise. Thanks for coming back to the lovely and festive tea party that is Real Talk.

That is all.

Mutedly Yours,

James.

You can only have 2 drives connected at a time.  Also, no matter how big the USB storage device is, you can only get a maximum 16 GB of space.  (What?!) Yes. Only 16 GB.  So, if you were drooling over the fact you could finally stick in 1 TB into your Xbox 360, too bad.

[via Joystiq]

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Btw, tonight is the start of a new South Park season. Watch it!

Enjoy the 10 minute long video! It’s such a treat. For concept art and sound files, go past the break.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Concept Art

 

Sound files

Fembot Slide Intro –

Click here to view the embedded video.

Comic Jumper Music –

Click here to view the embedded video.

Comic Jumper Voice Over 1 –

Click here to view the embedded video.

Star Voice Over 1 –

Click here to view the embedded video.

It all began with a 12-year ass-whooping.

1. Pre-history of Bob’s gaming (ca. 1986-1993): So my mom and my brother are freakin’ geniuses.  I may have my PhD, but these two shame me when it comes to intelligence and retention of facts and information.  This is why I kind of hated playing games with my family as a kid.  “Hey, Robert, we know you’re only six and all, but we need a third for Trivial Pursuit.”  “Are there Sesame Street questions?”  *putting down the cards about Gorbachev and the Berlin Wall* “Uh… yeah, sure….”  For the longest time, I grew up getting housed at games like Trivial Pursuit, Monopoly, Memory, Sorry!, Scrabble, and the much-dreaded Parcheesi.  In fact, I don’t think it was until four or five years ago when I first beat my mother at Scrabble.  However, these formative years were spent gaining an appreciation for board games and general gaming practices.  But, seriously, eff Parcheesi in the face-hole.

I wanna be a hobbit named Dildo Baggins.

2. The foray into table-top (ca. 1993-1995): As if middle school weren’t awkward enough, I was quite the chubby nerd who excelled in math and science during these years.  To make things even more cool, my computer science teacher corralled my four other math, computer, and science geek friends, and introduced us to table-top gaming with the Lord of the Rings-inspired RPG.  I got laid so much, let me tell ya.  By elves.  In the game.  In my  mind.  My CS teacher was a badass mofo, however, and knew that the lot of us (that spent most of our waking time at school in the computer lab anyway) would jam to some RPG action.  So we gathered our d10s (so much simpler back then) and hopped right into the world of Tolkien’s rings.  I can remember my first RPG character ever was a Sindel Elf wizard named Bigolo Bobbolo (my nickname in middle school was “Big Bob” — see how clever I was?).  One of my most vivid memories was when my friend Mikie rolled three criticals (then, a crit being a ten score on each d10) in a row to eliminate some orc with his crossbow.  If I recall correctly, the orc’s head exploded.  Much revelry was had.  The ball had begun rolling, and the rest of high school saw much playing of fantastic RPGs.  It should be noted here, as well, that in middle school, I played the hell out of Magic: The Gathering.  Yup.  I was a real winner.

Welcome to the Dark Side (i.e. West End Games).

3. The Spread: Learning New Games and Systems (ca. 1995-1999): Believe it or not, gentle readers, there was a time when Wizards of the Coast didn’t own absolutely everything paper and pencil under the sun.  Even before the days of White Wolf’s challenge to the mighty WotC, there existed multiple companies like West End and I.C.E. that provided more and more excuses for people to not develop socially.  One of my favorite quotations from “Friends” goes a little something like this — Joey: “Gandalf?  What’s that mean?”  Ross: “Uh, like Gandalf, the Grey Wizard… from Lord of the Rings… didn’t you read in high school?!  Joey: “No, I had sex in high school.”  I’d like to say that I played a veritable cornucopia of RPGs and explored my sexual self in high school.  No, there’s no ending to that sentence.  I’d just like to say that.  Anyway, during my high school years, I experimented with a bunch of different RPGs, as all of my former-MERP friends branched out into other systems.  We started off freshman year continuing the Middle Earth tradition but soon delved deeper into the world of table-top gaming.  The next bit of time was dominated by three systems that we favored:

Bob (Star Wars RPG 2nd edition): You can see the cover art above.  The system was straight d6 and was, as I later learned, an incredibly pared down mechanic from D&D and other games that had become more detailed and math-oriented.  The world was already set before you and, before long, a slew of sourcebooks and campaign guides flooded the comic book and gaming stores.  I spent many a collected allowance on these books.

Your skilled… in errrrrvrything.

Hank (Earthdawn): My buddy introduced us to Earthdawn, which was a primarily skill-based RPG that forced you to keep track of any and all skills you would ever want to use.  In fact, the majority of the mechanic’s maintenance was an upkeep in skill dice and the mods that went along with them.  It was d8/d10/d12 mostly… it would be quite some time, still, before I felt the might of the d20.

We killed fifty trees to make your character sheet.  Literally.

Jared (Rolemaster): GOOD GOD, I have never witnessed a more convoluted game in my RPG experience.  The story that my buddy came up with was pretty phenomenal, but the system and mechanical maintenance was tedious on a good day.  First, your character sheet was nine pages long (there is no hyperbole in the previous statement).  Second, the dice system was fairly flaky, as it seemed one of the game’s core conceits was that every die should have its day.  Granted, this is the same in D&D, but that system seems to keep the dice fairly segregated when you’re rolling attacks, skill checks, and damage.  If I recall correctly, Rolemaster had you roll a racially-charged mix of dice, and your brain melted from having to count all different sorts of numbers and shapes.  It kinda made you hate polyhedrons.

These literally were the glory days of my formative RPG training.  We would always play during lunch and we would each have a different day of the week assigned to our specific game.  If I’m right, I think Monday was Earthdawn, Wednesday was Middle-Earth, Thursday was Star Wars, and Tuesday/Friday was Rolemaster (Tuesday games were always shorter because we had upper school assemblies/chapel every Tuesday that cut into lunch).  Every once in a while, we’d all get together on a Saturday and play a mega-game that lasted hours upon hours.  Toward the end of high school, we found the upkeep of all the games a bit tedious and shifted to playing board games such as Axis & Allies, which, you guessed it, is now owned by Wizards of the Coast.

4. The Depressing Desert: A Staggering Absence of Gaming in my Life (ca. 1999-2007): I attended college at Furman University in upstate South Carolina and unfortunately didn’t find many outlets or opportunities to further my gaming chops.  It wasn’t until my junior year that some of my equally nerdy friends (side note: isn’t it amazing how, in college, people discover that nerds, geeks, and dorks alike are the new cool/popular folks?) approached me about running a game or two set in the Star Wars universe.  Over a break, I blew the dust off my SW RPG books and took them back to campus.  I started a new game with some great friends and was wowed by the level of roleplaying to which these guys committed (some of them had gamed before, especially with the D&D and White Wolf systems).  After college, I traveled to the UK to pursue my Master’s Degree and then came back to North Carolina to begin work on my PhD.  School kind of took over, and once again my gaming persona tucked back away in his burrow.

It’s in the future?!  Yeah, I wanna play.

5. The Resurgence and Exponential Play (ca. 2007-present): As if my life isn’t overextended enough, I also perform at the Idiot Box Comedy Club in downtown Greensboro, NC.  I’ve been performing improv and sketch comedy there since fall of 2004 when I arrived in Greensboro to start work on my PhD.  There I met my intrepid friend AJ who is one of the biggest gamers I’ve ever met.  He’s been playing D&D since he was 8 years old and jammed to some sweet AD&D action.  I was invited to fill in for someone in a d20 modern game that his brother was DMing, and that is where my affinity for D&D began.  Since then, I have played d20 modern, D&D 3.5, and 4th-edition D&D almost exclusively.  I have traipsed into the wonderful world of White Wolf with Vampire: The Requiem, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, and a Vampire LARP.  I DM’d my first adventure in the spring/summer of 2008 and discovered what I really missed.  And that brings me to where I am today, talking to you all about gaming and how freakin’ cool it is… to all of us… in game… in our minds.