Consumer electronics giant Sony is searching for a new president to help spearhead the company, according to reports. And gamers will be glad to know that the very likeable Kaz Hirai has been earmarked for the job as President of Sony, as well as TV and cameras division leader Hiroshi Yoshioka.
Stir the pot
According to Bloomberg, Sony are looking to shake things up, as well as breed a potential successor for current CEO Sir Howard Stringer. The hope, as with any corporate shakeup, is to bring creativity to a company that has a very hard time changing its ways of old. Furthermore, it will alleviate some of the stress Sir Howard Stringer is no doubt under, considering the enormity of his workload, as well as allow whoever his understudy is the opportunity to prove their worth as a potential leader for the whole company.
Reputation precedes both candidates
Both Kaz Hirai and Hiroshi Yoshioka’s pedigrees are well documented. While Yoshioka played a mission critical role in establishing the globally recognized and revered Sony Bravia line of televisions, Hirai made his name by being a central figure in the Sony Playstation’s storied history.
Hiroshi Yoshioka played a key role in establishing Sony’s beachhead in the then fast-growing high definition, flat panel, television space. Bravia quickly became the name most associated with HDTVs, but due to a good combination of product pricing and quality, Samsung would eclipse Sony as the leader in that space.
Kaz Hirai helped the first Playstation establish itself in America, and followed that up with the launch of one of the most iconic consumer electronic devices of all time (and still the best selling console ever): the Playstation 2. He would later replace Ken Kutaragi, the man who said ‘you will want to work two jobs’ so that you can afford the PS3, as head of Sony Computer Entertainment. He would then struggle for years as the PS3 built slow momentum against a resurgent Nintendo and a strong Xbox 360, but the group came good in the end.
But now it’s the big time
However, being president of Sony is a challenge unlike anything either of these two have faced. Not only will they have significantly more competitors than they’ve had to deal with in each of their divisions in the company, they will also be tasked with a 2011 Sony resurgence that will be anything but easy to take on. Whoever does get the title of President of Sony can no doubt use all the help he gets, and we wish him the world of luck.
Between the Walkman, and the Playstation alone, Sony holds a special place in many gadget fans’ hearts, so to see them come back stronger than ever with fresh, world-changing products would be fantastic.
We’re only two weeks away from what looks to be one of the best video game launches ever, and so that means it’s time for another Black Ops recap. A lot has been happening recently, including multiplayer leaks, possible pirated copies, zombies, new info on the single-player and more.
Pirated version out?
Perhaps the biggest bit of Call of Duty: Black Ops news is the rumours that the game has already been pirated and is currently available on many torrents across the web. Considering Halo: Reach was pirated a full month before its release, and we’ve only got 2 weeks to go until Black Ops breaks cover, a major leak like this shouldn’t be altogether surprising. Fortunately for Activision, however, it turns out the pirated copy on torrent sites was actually a fake.
Stolen copies?
The major publisher isn’t in the clear just yet though, as other pirate rumours are proving to be more genuine. For instance, there are whispers ‘potential pirates’ do have hard copies of the game (rumoured to be stolen) and got them as early as last week. There’ve even been YouTube videos (quickly taken down) of people loading the disc in their Xbox to prove the point. As expected, however, Activision is hunting down anyone who may have their hands on a pre-release unlicenced Black Ops, but less expected, the company is taking a ‘soft hands‘ approach on most of these pirates (perhaps Activision aren’t such bad guys after all?). At any rate, even without Black Ops being bootlegged on every torrent, more and more tantalising tidbits of information are still being leaked at a rapid rate.
Beta videos
Treyarch’s decision not to have an open beta with Black Ops was met with dismay by many, primarily due to the fact it will increase the chances of bugs and glitches come launch. Besides the concern over potential bugs, the other major complaint is of course the fact that we won’t all be able to play it and see Call of Duty Black Ops beforehand. Thankfully, even though the public at large hasn’t been given access to the beta, that hasn’t stopped the closed beta participants from faithfully leaking info, not to mention Treyarch themselves.
Photo: YouTube
Multiplayer details
Most of the Black Ops beta videos on YouTube are getting removed fairly quickly by Activision, but that hasn’t stopped us and other sites from watching many of them and learning some extra details regarding guns, maps, and game play modes. For instance, we’ve seen various popular maps like Launch, Summit or Cracked in the beta videos. But even better, we’ve also had a full multiplayer map list for Call of Duty Black Ops leak out (see photo above). From our count there are a total of 14 maps at launch, with 3 large maps, 9 medium and two small. Then there are the different gameplay modes, which could be Black Ops’ biggest selling point.
RC Car Race?
Along with the map list, we’ve also gotten a full (unconfirmed) game mode list too. The list is obviously subject to change and only applicable to beta, so some might not make it to the final release. Some ones we really hope do make the cut include the RC car race (RC cars were used to blow up people in the game). Unfortunately an old CoD favourite, War, which was included on the list, has in fact been cancelled. Treyarch also already shed some light on one of the other very interesting online modes: Wager matches.
Wager matches
See the above video for more details, but basically Wager matches include four different modes in which players compete for money and in our opinion these could be a real highlight of any Call of Duty Black Ops experience. With One in the Chamber, players have only one bullet in their pistol, otherwise they have to melee opposing players, although killing someone does let you loot their bullet. Sticks and Stones, meanwhile, features a crossbow, knife and tomahawk, plus the best part: if you kill someone with your tomahawk you bankrupt them and make them lose all their money. Put simply, the wager modes look like a lot of fun, and it’s great to see Treyarch being so innovative here.
No quick-scoping
Oh, and for those of you who love quick-scoping in Modern Warfare 2, Treyarch has confirmed you won’t be able to use your dirty tricks in Black Ops, as quick scoping has been entirely eliminated.
Campaign personality
With the multiplayer looking so incredible, you’d probably wonder why you should ever even bother playing the campaign. Well, in addition to some of the stealth like mission we’ve seen earlier, with extra gory kill scenes (which have sadly been toned down), an actual story and, of course, non stop action, there’s another reason to go for the single-player mode: the main character and protaganist, Alex Mason, will actually have personality. When we say personality, what we mean is that he’ll actually talk, something CoD protagonists have failed to do in the past, and hopefully the dialogue will be a little more exciting than Mason’s generic name.
Zombie trailer
Lastly, new zombie info has leaked out, this time in the form of a teaser trailer. At this point we can essentially conclude that Zombies are confirmed for the game, and not just some mod or prank.
Exceed the hype?
With its very very promising looking multiplayer, wager matches, crossbows, zombies, 3D, story driven single-player, co-op mode, CoD legacy and much more, it looks like Black Ops might actually live up to the enormous hype and perhaps even exceed it.
Two more weeks
The game has a RRP of £54.99 and will go on sale in two weeks, on November 9th, 2010. Since Black Ops is widely expected to have one of the best game launches ever, it’s safe to say retailers will be heavily discounting the game on launch weekend as has happened in the past. Currently, theBlack Ops console price isn’t dipping below £40 (the Black Ops PC version is nearly at £30), but expect that to change in under 2 weeks time as everyone tries to get into the action. Basically, on launch weekend, we predict you’ll easily be able to find an Xbox 360/PS3 copy for at least £30, as long as they’re not sold out that is.
We’re fascinated by the incoming nexus between technology, the Internet and television. Consoles have led the charge as the potential media centres of the future – if they aren’t so already – making Hulu Plus an interesting proposition.
Select Playstation Plus subscribers
The Hulu Plus preview for PS3 has been made available for a select few Playstation Plus subscribers. They’ll be able to download it from the Playstation Store.
As is customary, UK and international subscribers are out in the cold, while our US counterparts get to play with their new toys. There is still hope that a UK provider will come up with an equivalent service, though.
Hulu Plus = Hulu with more
Hulu Plus is the subscription service built on top of Hulu. Subscribers will be charged $10 (about £6.50) per month for access to the entire libraries of past shows between the three member networks, as well as access to the back catalogue of shows currently airing. Think of it as a season pass, almost.
Even more reason to buy a PS3
Photo: Sony
Though the PS3 got off to a very slow start after its launch, Sony’s console has begun to gather some momentum. Recent software releases include the brilliant God of War III and Heavy Rain II, with their E3 press conference being fairly well received. Web-connected services like Hulu Plus will only cement the Sony Playstation 3’s place as the media centre superior to that of the Xbox 360, even if on the gaming front the Xbox 360 may well have the upper hand.
We have readers in the US who are Playstation Plus subscribers who are spending some hands-on times with the Hulu Plus preview and once we get feedback from them about the value of the service, we’ll report here to you.
Would you pay for an equivalent service to, say, a BSkyB?
Call of Duty: Black Ops is inching closer to its finish line release date in November, and more information is slowly pouring in, the latest info to come from E3 and interviews focuses on the game’s single-player aspect.
We know the setting
When Call of Duty: Black Ops was announced on April 30th of this year, we essentially knew nothing about it, other than it would feature ‘covert missions’ in a modern setting. Now, that’s changed a little and we know more, but not really a lot more. For instance, we know CoD: Black Ops will span the era of the Cold War, specifically featuring ‘undisclosed’ secret missions that took place during that time, and giving Treyarch lots of leeway to take us all over the globe. We actually got to see two missions from the single-player at E3, to give us a little idea about what Treyarch is talking about, and the action definitely looks exciting.
Single-player showcased
The two levels showcased at E3 were called WMD and Payback. Both were very cinematic and feature dialogue from the main character, a CoD first. In WMD set in some snowy Russian wilderness, you have to storm a relay station and then escape; some cool things we noticed included using a crossbow and repelling down a cliff covert ops style. The Payback mission, set in some Vietnam looking jungles, featured much of the same action packed shooting and saw the main players capture a helicopter and then pilot their way out. The graphics looked impressive, although admittedly nothing extraordinary or stunning. Still, if you want to know what the game actually looks like, you now have a taste.
Still in the dark on multiplayer
Fortunately, it seems Treyarch isn’t neglecting what CoD fans care most about, namely, the multiplayer. As it turns out, the multiplayer has apparently been in development longer than the single portion and is being worked on by a dedicated team. More good news is that we might have dedicated servers (see video below), at least for the PC version, which is probably the number one thing on everyone’s wishlist. Then there’s co-op, which will have two modes, namely two player splitscreen or four player online multiplayer, that also has it’s own separate levels and team developing it. The signs all look good for any fans of the CoD genre, but we know Treyarch will have to get cracking to meet their somewhat ambitious, and we assume engraved in Stone by Activision, November 9th release date this year. More info on the CoD game coming to the PS3, Xbox 360, Wii and PC when we actually get to see the multiplayer.
Remember cloud computing gaming service OnLive, which aims to replace physical consoles and games with an entirely digital, Internet-based service? They have just signed a deal with BT, making the UK ISP the exclusive distributor of the service in the UK.
Distribution and equity
With this exclusive deal, BT also acquires a 2.6 per cent stake in OnLive. BT will offer the OnLive service to its customers as a part of bundle deals. Outside of that, BT promised to release more details about the service and the partnership later this year.
Entertainment the game
BT Retail CEO, Gavin Patterson, has said that entertainment would be ‘the heart’ of what the company offers its customers in future. Outside of cloud gaming and on-demand video content, it is difficult to assume what these entertainment features will be, but one step at a time, we suppose.
OnLive
Steve Perlman, who is OnLive’s CEO, thinks this partnership is a major boon for OnLive. ‘The UK market is extremely important to OnLive,’ for the service, he said.
Where to next
Photo: Infinity Ward
We’re still undecided about whether OnLive will work or not. The compromise of decent video quality for speed may be too much to give up in an age where many people’s sentiment is ‘HD or nothing’. On the flipside of that, in maintaining decent resolution, what of the inevitable latency the games will experience? The last major concern – and this is a big one – is the pricing. Though the basic service is priced reasonably, one still has to purchase the games – which you will never own outright since they sits on a server – as well as foot the bill for the data service.
These factors make the concept of a cloud gaming service seem a little too ahead of its time, even though it is where everything will eventually head. Perhaps BT and OnLive will prove us wrong. But we recommend against discarding your trusty PS3 and Xbox 360s too soon.
Blacklight Tango Down is a purely downloadable game, coming to the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC this summer, that looks to offer some high quality online FPS action and co-op missions for cheap.
For download only
People have often spoken of download only games as being the wave of the future, with higher broadband speeds, PC sites like Steam and of course, the PlayStation Store and Xbox Live gaining in popularity. Well, the latest proof of this trend comes from Blacklight Tango Down, the futuristic online shooter currently in development by Zombie Studios and Ignition Entertainment, and slated for a summer release via download only.
Photo: Ignition Entertainment
Plenty of content
Though it’s being released as DLC, Blacklight Tango Down is far more than just an expansion with minimal content and gameplay. In addition to a multitude of different maps, the online FPS includes a special weapon customisation system, character growth, as well as a large variety of online game modes, including deathmatch, team deathmatch, retrieval, detonate (a sort of reverse capture the flag) and the crowd favourite, last man standing. If you fancy a little more controlled action, moreover, there’s also a co-op Black Ops mode with multiple specialised missions.
Photo: Ignition Entertainment
All about multiplayer
For many shooter games, the single-player action comes in a distant second to the multiplayer player where people spend the vast majority of their time. Zombie Studios thankfully have their priorities straight and have therefore concentrated on creating a fun, dynamic and balanced online shooter first. This isn’t to say there’s no backstory, but just that the focus is where it should be. Speaking of the setting, you’ll find yourself 25 years in the future in Eastern Europe, either fighting for the good guys, team Blacklight, or the bad people known as ‘The Order’. Pretty standard online shooter stuff. Unlike many team shooters, however, Blacklight Tango Down has no classes. No medics, soldiers or anything of the kind. Instead, players earn experience points through online combat, which they can then translate into all important weapons upgrades.
Photo: Ignition Entertainment
Major weapon customisation
With over 13 possible sniper scopes, different magazines, barrels, stocks, and 100 different so-called weapon tags (unique looking improvements), you’ll find the weapon customisation aspect of the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 FPS game knows no bounds. There aren’t too many restrictions either, leading to some pretty cool hybrid weapons, like a shotgun with an advanced sniper scope, for example. How you decide to upgrade will determine where your character has their strengths and ultimately determine your team’s strategy. In addition to weapons, which fall into the standard sniper, shotgun, pistol, assault rifle categories, there’s also some support weaponry, like the DigiGrenade, which blinds its enemy. So, in short, despite a lack of classes, the combat is still very dynamic and varied.
Fun co-op mode
We mentioned the co-op mode earlier, which is something Ignition Entertainment are definitely proud of. Essentially, the so-called ‘Black Ops’ cooperative mode will feel like an actual mission single player based game, where up to 4 players trek through the ruined streets of Balik and the Blacklight universe. The story unfolds as you progress, but the focus on team play is just as important as ever. You’ll still gain experience, as well as additional weapons tags when playing through the Black Ops mode. Moreover, after completing a mission, your performance will be scored based on a number of factors, including speed and the difficulty setting. The best players will get ranked on an online leader board, just like the other game modes, apparently.
Photo: Ignition Entertainment
DLC like price
Though Blacklight Tango Down tries hard to distinguish itself as a fully standalone game, there is one advantage that come with its multiplayer focus and DLC status, namely, the price. Priced at a mere €15 ($15 in the US and we expect around £12 here), the online game is cheap, very cheap. With the hours of online fun that it should provide, moreover, if Blacklight Tango Down lives up to the hype then it can definitely be considered one of the cheapest video game deals out there. The game is expected to be available by the summer of 2010, when users can download it to their PC, from Xbox Live for their Xbox 360, or from the PlayStation Store onto their PS3.
