PS3s Suffering From Global Network Lockdown
All around the world, PlayStation 3 consoles simply aren’t working like they’re supposed to, with a PlayStation Network error preventing people from not just going online, but from playing some PS3 games offline as well.
From Europe to the Americas to, well, my house in Australia, users (mostly of older "Fat" consoles, those released before 2009’s "PS3 Slim") are complaining that upon booting their consoles up, they’re unable to sign into their accounts, check their trophies, use dynamic themes or access the PlayStation Network. That’s fine, Sony say there are PSN connection problems, and that they are "looking into it".
Problem is, the error does more than just prevent you from going online. It prevents you from playing certain games offline as well. The screen above is what I was greeted with when attempting to play Heavy Rain, and pressing out of it simply reboots the PS3, returning you to the main menu screen. It’s the same story for other games that feature dynamic trophy support.
Sony say "stay tuned" for updates on the problem. In turn, we’ve emailed Sony for comment and will update if we hear anything more.
While theories abound that this has something to do with the calendar (some users are reporting their date/time settings have been reset), bear in mind Sony has redesigned its PlayStation website over the weekend, so it’s likely the result of some tinkering under the hood for the PlayStation Network.
Whichever it is, though, you have to wonder at the design process that turns a network outage into something stopping you from playing an offline, singleplayer title
Supreme Commander 2 Interview
Recently, I had the chance to speak with Chris Taylor about the upcoming Supreme Commander 2, which is poised to take real-time strategy gaming to a new level. I want to thank Chris for taking the time to answer my questions and for Barandon, at Mav PR, for arranging the interview.
Questions from Gareth Von Kallenbach
Skewed and Reviewed
1. What is the background and setting for the game?
The game takes place thousands of years in the future. The old Earth Empire that has ruled for so long became split into three factions, fought the Infinite War and then joined forces to fight the Seraphim. But this peace didn’t last, the Coalition leader is assassinated, and hostilities are renewed. You take turns playing one of three Commanders, each one, old friends, and how this friendship impacts the decisions they make while fighting on the battlefield.
2. In games of this type, A.I. is often critical for the success of a game. How has the A.I. for the game been setup and what features will it include?
Each game we do, we advance our AI, the way it works, etc. This time we’ve introduced Neural nets, which adds a little extra spice to the game. What we provide is a wide array of AI: Easy, Normal, Hard and an extra hard AI we call Cheating AI. If you beat Easy, you an work your way up to Cheating AI, but then, you can take on multiple opponents, so there’s no limit to how far you can test your l33t skilz.
3. What are some of the units featured?
Oh boy, that’s a gigantic question. We have more than 25 Experimental Units in the game, and they cover a wide array of specialties. We have the Proto Brain Complex, the Space Temple, and the Cybranasaurus Rex, to name a few. Each Experimental unit is very unique and has a very special use.
However, the player’s own ACU is decked out this time around, with upgrades available like the jump jets (teleport if you are Illuminate), anti-air weapons, torpedoes, overcharge gun, and artillery.
4. The scope of the game sounds amazing. What are some of the biggest obstacles you see in creating the game for a console and what are your biggest goals for the game?
Easily the biggest challenge we faced on the console was making the UI really intuitive to use, and making sure we gave the player a fully functional, large scale RTS experience. I am very happy to say we’ve done it, and the game plays beautifully. For Supreme Commander 2 we want to really widen the audience, allowing more people than ever to jump in and enjoy the full glory of RTS gameplay.
5. Are there mega weapons and if so, how do you balance giving players the destructive power they want, yet maintaining a balance in the game?
This is key to the tuning and balancing part of game design. If you want the player to have nukes (which we do), then you have to make sure you balance that by providing a defense (in our case, you build anti-nukes). You also have to tune the units to make sure the cost is in line with the power. If you want to build nukes, you will have to first research them, then you build an expensive structure, and then you build the nuke itself.
6. How is resource gathering handled for the game?
The player must locate special Mass locations or sites that are scattered around the map. The player will also need Energy to combine with Mass to form units. Energy can be produced with special Energy production facilities.
7. What forms of multiplayer will be featured?
Multiplayer can be played in many configurations. You can play against a friend, 1v1, or you and a friend could play two others, 2v2. You can play against AI opponents cooperatively, or in pretty much any configuration you like. On the PC you can have up to 8 players, and on the 360, up to 4. We also support observer mode so that you can study someone while they play. And you can save out the replay file and watch it again to learn new strategies.
8. Do you have a favorite unit and strategy when playing, and if so, what is it?
I love all the factions for all their unique qualities, but for the sake of an example, let’s talk about a strategy I have been enjoying lately with the UEF. Just when my opponent has built up a lot of shields to protect against all my incoming artillery, I switch to the Noah Unit Cannon, and I bombard them with actual units. This strategy usually includes building four at once, and the visuals of these units flying across the map is nothing short of fantastic. you’ve never seen anything like that before. And I always remember to build some nuke defense!!
9. What sort of missions and campaigns will players face?
We include a big SP campaign, which can be broken down into three separate parts, each part tells a chapter of the story. Each chapter has six “operations”. As the player works through the overall campaign and story, new units are revealed and the player has a chance to try them out. By the end of the SP game, most players will have chosen a favorite that they will likely master in Skirmish and MP games.
10. What sort of musical score will the game have?
Our in-house composer, Howard Mostrom, has done a fantastic job creating a nice mix for each faction. To quote Howard, “the Cybran are more Avant-garde and the Illuminate are classical, almost renaissance, with some choir in the background. The UEF are more traditional military with orchestral elements and driven by percussion”.
Apple: Underage Workers May Have Built Your iPhone
Underage teens were working for Apple-contracted facilities in 2009, a new report reveals. Some of the factories also underpaid and overworked employees.
Firefox Mobile Browser Fennec Spotted on Android
Facebook photos show the browser running on the Nexus One and Motorola Droid.
TigerText: The App for Spies and Cheaters
Want to ensure all evidence of an affair self-destructs? There’s an app for that.
JooJoo Tablet Release Delayed
Fusion Garage says a manufacturing error has stalled shipment of its iPad rival until March 25.
After 10 Billion Songs, What’s iTunes’ Encore?
Apple’s digital-download service marked a milestone this week, but the iTunes store faces new challenges — and it must evolve to stay competitive.
Lumagen 1080p 72Hz RadianceXE+ & XS+ Processors!!!
Here is the direct quote from Jim Peterson:
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We have decided to do a special 1080p72 and 1080p75 version of the RadianceXS and RadianceXE. We are going to charge a $500 US MSRP adder for this. If you have a Radiance already you can send it in for the mod and we will do it for $500 plus shipping. This includes testing your unit at speed and replacing the board if your particular unit is not fast enough for these higher rates. New units will have our standard 1 year limited warranty. Mods will have a 90 day warranty. We will handle upgrades in the US and Canada. I am contacting Gordon Fraser in the UK to see if he will handle the mods in Europe. Please call us if you are interested (503-574-2211) |
You can also go to Lumagen’s support page at http://www.lumagen.com/testindex.php?module=support to send them an email.
So you can now order a new RadianceXE+ or RadianceXS+ processor with the new features for an additional $500. Or you can send your existing XE or XS processor back to Lumagen. For $500 plus shipping Lumagen will upgrade your existing processor to the PLUS version.
There are both hardware and software upgrades that are required to run 1080p 72Hz. A regular Radiance processor is not capable of running the high clock rates on its own, and it must be upgraded before it can do so. The PLUS edition features will not be active unless you have an actual PLUS unit.
So finally we have full 1080p 72Hz capability out of the best home theater VP on the planet. I have been very excited about this for a long time and now that it is here I am so elated. It’s really something watching your favorite film based content at full 1080p 72Hz. I’ve actually gone back and started watching Battlestar Galactica (re-imagined) over again from the start and the improvement is truly striking 
I am soooo happy.
craigr
Finally, almost done…
This is used for about 70% music 30% movies. I wanted to get better equipment for as cheap as possible, so I have found great deals. The only things i will be doing in the near future are acoustic panels(oc), power conditioner, Dac, and oppo.
The room is about 400 sqft and i have neighbors all around me so being extremely loud was not a concern. But hunting around I have found some good equipment at way below retail and it turned out that this system will completely over power the amount of room i have. I am glad because i wont have to upgrade as soon as i move to a house.
The flagship of my system is a Denon 4802r. Let me tell you this thing is a BEAST. Sound quality is better than any new recievers i looked at….by faarrr.
It has way more than enough power. I did lose the hdmi switching and aud. setups. After hooking this up I could care less about that. My main concern about was calming down the sound from my old pioneer unit. Also the soundstage was lacking big time. With the denon the color and depth were really brought to life. I am overly happy and think this unit will travel with me down the upgrade path. Best part is i paid 300 for it. Not a scratch on it as it was a demo unit at a local store.
Next were the Energy Cf-30 towers. I looked and auditioned the cf 50 and cf 70s. I came to the conclusion all of them sounded the same on the higher end. Of course the 50s and 70s had more bass because of the added/larger woofers. But, on all models the mid and tweeter are the same. In my small area the sub does fine with adding the proper bass once everthing was set up properly. So in the end i got the cf 30s for 430 by talking down the people at electronics expo(i found out from energy they were a reseller). I would compare the cf30s to the b&w 684s. While the cf’s are far less i think they matched up well for a comparison performance wise. Of course the b&w had more bass but the detail and sound were about the same maybe the b&w somewhat ahead. I also listened to towers like the monitor audio br6s and the cfs, in my ears sounder way better.
The first thing i ever purchased which made me go energy were the cb20 rears. Well same tweeter so they sound just as good as the towers with good bass from the 6.5 woofer rather than the 5’s on the towers. Honestly they are overkill for surrounds but i already had them. 350 new and i picked them up for 250 from the same place as i bought the denon.
Center channel right now is a c-c50 from the older c series. Honestly it sounds like complete crap next to the cf series. I am still waiting for my cc-c10 center to come in.
Last was the sub. As I didnt need a monster for my small space and volume limitations, i picked up a velodyne vx 11. I picked this up new for 140. It does more than fine. I actually have the volume almost at the lowest setting on the sub.
So for being WAY under my budget in the end I am happier than i thought i was going to be.
Here are some pics and feel free to ask questions, as I know the cf series has not been reviewed much.
Audessey Dsx question
As you can see I could set up the height speakers on the inside of this foyer on the ceiling. Will this work? If so I need help with the 45 degree set up suggested on the audessey web site. I am not sure I understand this principle. Also I have a pair of small Energy speakers(3”mid and .75tweeter) will these speakers be sufficient for the height set up? Should I go with something else? With these pictures will you experts help with the best speaker placement? Thanks
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