Liviu's blog

Well, enough with all this Survivor and reality stuff,

This month is going to be one of the more boring months in gaming for a long time.

The highlights are:

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep – September 7th – PSP: The 6th iteration of the Kingdom hearts franchise is coming to the PSP.

For those of you not familiar with the series - Square Enix together with Disney created an hybrid Action RPG based on Final Fantasy and Disney universe characters. This series first saw light on the PS2 – with an amazing first title, a very slow starting second title and for me – only went south from there.

When factoring the fact its a PSP game as well – which by now is a kind of a barely legitimate gaming platform for me – I guess I’ll pass this one (ad least until Sony will give me a phone with PSP capabilities – that would be cool )

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light – September 28th – PC & PSN: A lot of Tomb Raider games came and go and since the first one – Most of them have been unremarkable.

While Lara as a character was nice and gave some interesting story parts, the game-play seemed to repeat itself endlessly and the environments - just weren’t good enough and with elaborate enough puzzles. An Uncharted predecessor with same potential of a character and half the success of achieving that level. This Downloadable game however is a major step sideways from the series – giving up on the 3rd person viewpoint towards a top down isometric view and introducing 2 player (online and local) modes – this seems to be hitting the mark. The 360 Version has been out for 2 weeks now getting extremely positive reviews and I’m definitely looking forward to trying it. This time Lara meets an old Mayan warrior named Totec and together they try to get an artifact and fight an evil spirit. Well the story probably wont be Mass effect – but it would do.

Since it’s such a slow month, I decided to bring up 2 games I missed on the launch dates and put my hands on lately:

Darksiders: Out for a few month now – Darksiders tells the tale of War – one of the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse, He is called to duty just to find out he was tricked and be killed. This however does not conclude our story, rather then just begin it. The council ask War to go back and face the Destroyer – both to prove his innocence and restore the balance between heaven and hell. From here on the game begins – In style it moves between God of War (or perhaps Ninja Gaiden?)  to Zelda type puzzles. So far I spent around 12 hours on the game and I highly recommend it. It’s perhaps one of the better Zelda clones of the last few years. Especially at this price point at TheHut.com.

Joe Danger: Released back in June – a PSN game which I think was kind of lost on most people on it’s release. Made by only 4 people – this Excite bikes influenced bike game is tons of fun. The demo (downloadable on the American PSN for 2 weeks or so already) showcases the game better then I can explain – You have to ride through the levels, perform tricks and meet objectives. This is tons of fun and I found myself glued to the game.

Perhaps 15$ is a bit of a steep price point for this – but it’s a must try demo.

One last item on my list today is the Sega version of Shining Force Which hit the iPhone this month.

Shining force is one of the first turn based strategic RPGs, Originally released to the MegaDrive / Genesis platform.

For those of you who love Advance Wars , Final Fantasy Tactics, Disgaea and those kind of tactical RPGs – this is a great chance to see how most of them started. Although a bit primitive by today’s standards – the game still proves to be hell of a lot of fun and gave me a great time this time around as well.

A few words worth mentioning – I’m not currently writing about the current PS3 Jailbreak since I find it kind of pointless to write about something that wasn’t proven or sold yet.

So OK, about 3 videos and a few “Reviews” appeared online (going back to about 2 sources – which sell them), but until more credible news pop up – I wont waste my time on writing about it (learning a bit from past “PS3 is hacked” news).

So let’s wait and see for more news on this end.

Liviu

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Bashevkin,

Yup, not much of a surprise – The “Charming” “Honest” guy won the show.

More of a surprise to me was the fact that Idan Kapon got so many votes.

The show started with the questioning still happening on the island at the final tribal council (If only they would have voted there as well – we might have had a real Survivor series on our hand), continued with “meeting the finalists” in their homes and workplaces. What happened next was the SMS votes were counted and Max was sent to the jury (Not a big surprise – he was the “ultimate villain”) .

At this stage I was expecting the 3 final contenders to give a speech – but that’s probably not needed by our version – so we went on to the voting – Making Bashevkin 1 Million NIS richer (well actually 750,000 NIS which roughly translates to 200,000$) – hope he puts it to good use.

The truth about this season will be probably forever locked at Abut Reif Meiri (the production company) who seemed to hide from us many of the interesting strategies that went on the Island and leave us with surprises (in the bad meaning) of moves happening in the game. More then a few times I found myself baffled by whats going on in the episode which stood in glaring contrast to the voting at the tribal council.

Hope some lessons will be learned for the next season (which was already filmed as far as I know), but somehow I am pessimistic.

This however does not mean I wont watch it as well , Sad but true.

Liviu

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Just felt like doing a short rundown through the final 4 of this season:

Idan Kapon: A lawyer coming from Haifa. Acted mainly as the villain of this season.

Originally from the first season of Survivor Israel – Idan is mainly remembered due to his “connection” to the chicken and crazy speech at the end of the first season to Dan Mano.

Although he talks about himself in third person and seems a bit on the not so sane side, he managed to play very strategically this season – by avoiding clashes with other contestants and correctly connecting himself to people in the minority a couple of times – he got to the end smoothly.

Natan Bashevkin: A Border Patrol Soldier from a settlement. The biggest physical threat. Although seems to have a heart of gold and jokes that will usually knock me of the ground – In terms of strategy and actions in the game he didn’t do to much.

He managed to get to the finals by not annoying anyone, letting other people make hard choices and gaining immunity necklaces. Although I cant take away from him the fact that his tribe did manage to score a lot of the earlier wins with his help.

Max “Shpex” Levakovski: A 42 years (self proclaimed) Successful businessman (that actually went bankrupt and owes various people around 3 million NIS).  The strongest strategic competitor of the “Fan” tribe. Moving people like pawns on his original tribe and acting in a very disgusting way towards people in or out of his alliance. Although a big failure on the physical part, and being way to hated by a big part of the contenders – at the end of the day he managed to make people do as he wanted. His biggest problem will probably the antagonism he caused in most other contenders.

Sharon Raphaeli: Another lawyer (the most popular Survivor profession so it seems).

A part of the 3 man alliance together with Shpex (and Lidar). Although trying to present herself as a strong woman with strong opinions that actively did strategic moves during the game – the truth could not be further.

The excact definition of flying under the radar.

So these are the top 4.

I honestly have no idea who will win at this stage – together with the SMS votes (narrowing the finals to 3 contenders) the stage is totally open – mainly due to the fact the jury will only vote live at the end of the council on the upcoming Monday – after having a few month to think and see the TV series.

None of the finalists were particularly enjoying to watch or “worthy” in my opinion – but if I had to pick who does not deserve to win – It would be Sharon.

Sharon practically earned her place only due to the fact the last mission was an elimination mission that depended on physical condition, not due to her social game.

(Upcoming in the weekend – Darksiders and Joe Danger – two great cheap games you probably missed)

Liviu

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Once again were less then a week away from the finale episode of the Israeli version of Survivor.

Survivor USA in my opinion is one of the best TV show formats in the past 20 years and about 3 years ago was bought by Channel 10 and brought to Israel.

In short – 16 people are marooned on a tropical island (Plus a few cameras and missions) and are playing a social game in which the tribe chooses who to get rid of. A modern political version of Lord of the Flies with a simple moto – Outwit, Outplay, Outlast.

The American version just doesn’t cease to amaze me – 20 seasons passed and I’m still delighted and looking forward to the next season and to see what was changed in the current iteration.

But enough about how great the original version is – Let’s talk Survivor Israel.

The current season represents the Israeli version of Fans Vs Favorites (although mistakenly called – All Stars) – which includes 2 tribes: The Favorites – strong competitors of season past and a group of “fans” of survivor. Most of the current seasons was rather interesting but a few small issues bothered me a lot – and now – a few days before the final episode – is exactly the time to talk about them:

• The Truth behind the scenes – It seems like a lot of the things happening on the island are not presented to the viewer who has to find them out by half sentences or by the voting itself.
• Final vote happens in Israel – after people had the time to sit and watch all the episodes from home.
• SMSs at the final tribal council – Another bullshit carried from past seasons – to the tribal council – 4 competitors arrive – but only 3 go onwards to the voting – and this is decided by the viewers at home.
• Elimination missions – Yes, You got it right – A mission that if you loose – you go home. Everything you did in the entire game can be thrown out the window in one mission.

These changes make the Israeli Survivor something else – some kind of hybrid reality show that even with a strong cast like this season (which I will talk about a bit later) that just does no justice to the name.

Channel 10 – Please – Give us an original format Survivor.

Once again I started the watching the season hoping past lessons were learned – and instead – New changes were made – and not for the better. We just want the social game Survivor is supposed to be.

Later this weekend – The Finalists rundown.

Liviu

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A bit late and short entry this month.

Seems like this summer is kind of slow on new games (great time to check out some of the titles you might have missed in my previous article regarding cheap games and places to get them).

Still 2 major titles are due  this month:

Mafia 2 – PC, PS3 ,XBOX – Aug 24: A sequel to Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven is going to be a new Sandbox game.  The first Mafia was kind of a pleasant surprise and gave GTA 3 at the time a good run for it’s money, so this time around I’ll definitely be prepared to take a look at the current evolution of this franchise. Set in the 40s and 50s in fictional version of a big American influenced city (10 Square miles, based on NY, SF, Chicago and Detroit) it will tell the tale of Vito – an immigrant making his life between the big crime families. I’m definitely looking forward to this one – as it seems to have a lot of potential to be a sleeper hit.

Metroid: Other M – WII – Aug 31: Coming from Team Ninja (Ninja Gaiden series and Dead or Alive series creators). Telling another part of the story of Samus (between Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion). This title is suppose to bring up some original control schemes for the classic Metroid abilities (Like for turning into the morph ball and moving between third and first person modes using the wiimote pointing abilities). If your a fan of Meteroid – be sure to check it out.

‘Till Next month,

Liviu

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Well, Lately I’m seeing more and more used games sold for more then they would actually cost new with shipment. And I’m hearing friends buying new games at ridicules prices.

This is for me kind of annoying, So I decided to make a list of all the places to get games from at decent prices in Israel to share the knowledge and experience I gathered in these manners.

This is kind of a work in progress so it might be updated from time to time or maybe even make a followup article.

International Internet Shops:

Shopto.net – UK based Store – has really great game prices and shipment cost is 2.5 GBP. Usually arrives in a week. Each game is separately packaged in a very good method. Currently in my opinion – the best game shop.

TheHut.com – Another great UK based shop. Has great sales and a very wide selection of Blu ray movies.

VideoGamesPlus.ca – Canadian store – Prices are not as good as the previous two stores usually but games are region 1. So if you are looking specifically for an American game – this is the place.

Israeli Internet Stores:

ZolGames.co.il – Mainly deals with older titles but with great prices and good Customer service.

PcGames.co.il – A great store with a very big collection of games. Only choose from what’s in stock. Also has some nice deals on used games from time to time.

Real Stores In Israel:

Freak – Herzlia: Located at Star (Currently Cinematek) Complex in Herzlia City – this is in my opinion the best Israeli games store. Phone – 099589077. Always has the most current games – most of the time at launch date. If you want the games immediately and the best treatment – this is the way to go.

Media Game - Givataim: Another Great store with great games – worth a check. Great place for repairs.

VGS.co.il – Tel Aviv: A good store at the north of Tel Aviv. Brings lots of consoles very fast and have great repair service.

Steam and PSN Cards:

Two more stores that deal with a more specific niche are:

Steam – An online game service for the PC and Mac (Which will in the future go on the PS3 as well). Some pretty good deals for older games and a great online infrastructure.

Maximus Cards – An online shop for all kinds of PSN Codes and Xbox Live Codes. If you don’t have an international credit card to buy stuff from the PSN network (Due to their new checks – almost no cards work anymore) – this is the place to buy American cards. It may not be the cheapest way – But it’s the most reliable (and works with pay-pal) and the fastest (You get the code by mail immediately rather then a bit later or worse – by regular mail).

Well, I think that covers all the basic scenarios.

So before you take your wallet out and pay too much for the games you want – just remember to check this list and see that you are indeed paying a fair price.

Liviu

P.S. This was written in עברית As well and can be found in one of the following 2 places:

http://www.carsforum.co.il/vb/showthread.php?p=2635982#post2635982

http://hwzone.co.il/community/index.php?topic=468744.0

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Since I kind of neglected the blog for a while – decided to do a short post combining all kind of stuff.

Friday Apple decided to address the iPhone 4G reception issue. To those of you not up to date on the issue – basically – due to the exterior antenna design – when you hold the iPhone a certain way – it’s reception drops and it might even disconnect – due to short circuiting between the cellular and Wifi antennas. Steve Jobs talked at a press conference Friday regarding this issue saying they are not perfect and so are their phones. Emphasizing on the fact the return rate is low, the complaints are relatively numbered and it’s not as big of an issue as it is presented to be. Just to be “fair” – Apple decided to give Bumper cases free (and return the money for previously bought ones as far as i understood) – which are practically fixing the problem.

Second story – is Lego Harry Potter. I don’t know how I missed talking about it but don’t miss it. It’s the current Lego universe iteration following the first 4 books of Harry Potter. This is done in a very comic and nicely and originally presented. I got it as a birthday present and it’s definitely a fun one for whoever liked previous Lego games.

Last but not least – Birthdays, Me and my wife recently had our Birthdays – So Happy Birthday to us – and may we have many more – Sivan – I love you.

And my parents celebrated their 29th anniversary (occurs same day as my birthday – only a year before) – So happy anniversary and may you have many more years of love and joy.

Liviu

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Since it’s a rather weak month – I decided to add the PSN+ details in the same post.

So this month two interesting titles are coming to us.

The first one for the PC is Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: Le’chucks Revenge, Released July 7th.

Carrying on the heritage like the last Monkey Island special edition – this is the original game again with some great graphical and sound enhancements. The story continues Guybrush’s tale from the last game – still a pirate, still trying to get the gouverner in perhaps one of the best quest games ever. For me this is very nostalgic since I played MI2 before 1 and it is the game that really got me hooked on quests (yes – I’m a Lucas arts guy – not a Sierra). The port looks really great and is going to be released through Steam for only 10$ – a steal for whoever loved the original as much as I did.

The second title coming out this month is Dragon Quest IX for the DS – on July 11th.

This is the 9th installment of the series (at least with main titles and not derived titles like Joke, Swords etc.) which was Final Fantasy’s biggest rival in japan. A bit of history – Square Enix was created by the merge of 2 companies (3 including Taito) – Square Soft & Enix Soft. Each one of them had a hit RPG series in Japan at the time – Square had Final Fantasy, Enix had Dragon Quest (Or Dragon Warrior in the states up to a point). This is the first major title in the series to be introduced to a handheld console and without random battles. It was already released in Japan last year and was a great success (and even got a 40/40 score from Fumitsu). The last title was for the PS2 – and perhaps one of the better RPGs for that platform so I definitely will be looking forward to it.

Now that were done with the games – Onward to PSN Plus.

Playstation Plus is the new PSN service Playstation introduced at E3 – Subscription based – 50$ a year. Unlike the XBOX Gold Live member – It’s benefits are not in the online infrastructure (which will continue to be free) but rather on the content end.

Each month a user will get the following (First month offering in the brackets):

• 1 PSN Games (Wipeout HD)
• 2 PSN Minis (for PS3 and PSP, I remember Zombie Apocalypse and another one)
• 1 PS1 game (Rally Cross)
• Free avatars (Fat Princess)
• Free Playstation Dynamic themes
• Free DLC
• Full game 60 minutes demo (Infamous – available for 30$)
• Automatic patch and update management.
• Automatic Demo Downloads
• Qore magazine
• Store discounts (there are a couple this month – I remember 50% on Midway titles – Someone said 2.5$ on Mortal Kombat 2?)

And more stuff coming as it progresses.

Also for the first month – If you join you get 3 month free.

For me it sounds like a great deal and I’m happy to get more content (rather then online play options) which is way more important for me.

More updates will come later as I will enroll for it.

Liviu

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Last but not least from the big 3 is Sony.

Except talking a bit about GT5 (a title I’ll believe is coming only when I see it on the shelves at this stage) their major announcements were in the Motion controls and PSN subjects.

Move – That’s Sony’s name for the new motion control system for the PS3.

Comprised from a Playstation Eye camera, Motion Controller and a navigation controller. Current pricing point stands at 50$ for the Motion Controller, 30 for the navigation controller and 30 for the Playstation Eye. Or a 100$ bundle of the Controller, Eye and a game (not exactly sure if it includes the navigation controller or not, which is kind of wired).

The motion controller itself includes a LED lighted orb which has a known size and shape – so when the Eye is detecting it – it can actually “understand” its position in 3d. Also bundled in it is a six-axis equivalent accelerometer, 3 axis rate sensor and magnetometer (earth directionality for orientation). Button-wise it includes the four buttons (OX[]<|) and an analog trigger.

The navigation controller includes XO buttons, D-pad, analog stick and 2 triggers.

Processing the image is done on the Cell CPU (unlike the Kinect who seems to do it on a different CPU).

The system itself looks interesting – but like the Kinect – it will depend on the applications.

Currently I find it a bit hard to get that excited about it without killer apps and at this pricing point. I think it still is a bit stiff (especially for 2 players for example), and the fact that the navigation controller isn’t included in the bundle just baffles me.

The second major announcement coming from Sony this week is the launch of PSN’s paid service program the PSN Plus.

PSN plus is suppose to be a premium online service that will rival the Xbox Live Gold subscription. Since most of the major features are currently free in the PSN – those features will remain free and new functionality will be added to the PSN Plus subscribers.

Pricing will be 50$ for US subscription (similar to Xbox Live) and paid users will get:

• Automatic download of Demos, game patches and updates.
• Early access to Betas, demos and DLC.
• Free content such as PSN games, 2 Minis a month, PS1 titles Themes and avatars (for the subscription time).
• Full Game Trails – Play the full feature game for a limited time.
• Qore episodes.

Sounds pretty interesting – I think the amount if free content will be what matters and what might make or brake this service. It is however a bit disappointing not seeing them integrate new network features, better servers etc. to further enhance the multi player experience.

The good part is that all the regular online, Demo, updates and services we use today – will continue being free.

So that was the update on the Big 3 hardware companies from E3.

A lot of game companies also released some interesting stuff but I’d rather go over it as it comes closer to release then get hyped about screenshots and 15 second trailers.

That being said – today is only the middle of the second day of the show floors in the expo so I have a feeling more news will come this week.

Liviu

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After yesterday’s all Microsoft show – comes the turn of the two other big players: Nintendo and Sony (which will be covered in a  later article).

Nintendo definitely managed to surprise us with some titles and reveal a very interesting new hardware.

The 3DS - Nintendo’s next handheld effort was revealed. While sticking pretty close to the proven DS Lite/DSI design – there are some major innovation in this device:

• Lower screen is a touch screen – Upper screen is a 3D screen with no need of glasses which is bigger then the lower screen. The resolution will be 800X240 (400X240 for each eye).
• 3D Depth slider
• Analog Stick called slide pad.
• BC for DS titles
• Motion sensor and gyroscope
• 2 Frontal cameras for 3d pictures (640X480 resolution)

There are still a lot of unknown details (Pricing, Release date, Processing power – which was claimed to be very high, battery and more) but the product itself looks not bad at all. Hopefully it will be strong enough to run proper modern games.

The Second big announcement made at E3 is one which I’m highly excited about.

A new Zelda title is coming up for the Nintendo WII during 2011. Twilight princess (the previous WII Zelda title) was one of the best games I ever played and the new Zelda is one of the main reasons I didn’t sell the WII console which otherwise is barley use at my house.

The new game’s title is The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. It will require Nintendo’s Motion plus add on for more exact controls of the Sword, Bow, Grapple and all the gadgets we love. Hopefully this title will continue to provide the high level gameplay and story we love to get from Miyamoto (Responsible for Zelda and Super Mario titles throughout the years – and perhaps one of Nintendo’s biggest assets when it comes to game design).

Another bit of news is regarding a very loved Nintendo 64 game – GoldenEye 007 – an enchanced remake of the 64bit 4 player split screen shooter. I think this was the first title who really showcased consoles to me. Playing on a big TV – 4 players at once really amazed me the first time I saw it and I fondly remember evening we sat and played.

This version is supposed to be a remake with enhanced graphics, controls destructible environments and online modes.

Perhaps the last title which is worth mentioning is the upcoming Dragon Quest 9. Although a DS title (The previous was PS2 and there was hope perhaps it will be a NextGen or at least a WII title) – It is one of the most important RPG franchises (second biggest to Final Fantasy in the JRPG section). It will be released and available in July 11th. Definitely something to look for next month.

Sony’s news are yet to come sometime later today or tomorrow.

Liviu

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