Playstation Network might be fully restored at the end of May?

Shigenori Yoshida, a spokesperson for Sony Japan has told Bloomberg today that PlayStation Network may not be fully operational again until 31st May. This is bad, The situation seems to gets worse and worse as the days go by. We expected some features to be online last weekend but because of the intrusion on Sony Online Entertainment, those plans were halted. If this actually happens, 41 days of Playstation Network offline? that's just too much.

Were at day 19 and not only does it affect all our online needs, it is now also affecting future releases. Splash Damage's Brink is to be released on May 10, and PS3 owners planning to get Brink will be stuck with the Single Player until PSN gets online.Playstation Network was shut down on April 20 and gamers are still hoping to give games like Portal 2, Mortal Kombat and SOCOM 4 a try online.

No update yet from their blog and its latest entry only mentions that they are currently taking this time to further secure their systems because of the huge hack in Sony Online Entertainment. Sony needs to bring more answers to the public. That 'welcome back' program they mention to compensate for the outage is starting to look a bit weaker if were looking at a few more weeks of no PSN.

[Source: Eurogamer]

DLC Review - Dragon Age II "All-Class Item Pack"

Yes, I caved in and bought it...

The Item Pack is the first Dragon Age 2 DLC to be released  since the ones that were released along with the game (The Exiled Prince, The Black Emporium, and the Signature Edition Rewards pack). It is available on all three platforms for the individual price of $2.99USD( 240BW or MS pts), or the combo price of $4.99USD( 400BW or MS pts). Each class-specific pack has both weapons and armor sets (no set bonus though) for Hawke, and a piece of jewelry for each your companions that share the same class as the pack you've bought (e.g. Merrill gets a ring with some sweet stats from the Mage Item Pack).

Mage Item Pack:

The MIP Comes with two sets of armor, one set for early game, and another for mid game, as well as a staff that scales with level (good enough till you get the Torch of Falon'Din or better). I'd love to have seen a second staff as opposed to a scaling staff, but I don't really have any gripes about the looks of this set. All "IP" items are good enough to last till you reach "champ level gear" (scaling items can potentially do better as your level rises). 

Warrior Item Pack:

The WIP comes with two sets of armor, two 2h swords , and a 1h axe and shield that scale to level. My only gripe is the fact that the early game helm looks a bit off, and that the shield doesn't match the mid game armor. The early game armor bears a striking resemblance to the "Legion of the Dead" armor.

Rogue Item Pack:

The RIP comes with two sets of armor, scaling dual daggers, and a scaling bow. The bow looks BADASS, and the daggers are okay (sort of look like wings on low res). I'm not exactly happy about the helm choices though.

Notes:

If you've played World of Warcraft, you'd most likely see these items as an offshoot to "Heirloom Items" or "BoA Items"; because they essentially replace gear you get from "drops" as you go on your adventure, only being replaced by the "top tier" equipment that you'll eventually get (although some pieces may be used in stead of the "champ armor" pieces for a slight boost in some stats; if runed properly) . It's basically the candy sprinkles on top of the whipped cream topping of a cupcake; nice cosmetic touch, but not really needed. Was it fun running around in my new digs? Yes. Was it worth my $5? Not really. It's something for die hard DA fans, RP nuts, and people who just have too much spare cash.

Grade: 50/100 

Weekend, what are you playing?

Here we are the at first weekend of May. PSN is still down but that can't keep a good gamer down. So what are you playing this weekend?

Migoy: Dissidia Duodecim is still hogging my PSP but I have been able to touch some other games. Started Cave Story again and I forgot how good that game was so I'll definitely be playing some more of that. I bought a Gun accessory for the Wii and it works suprisingly well, better than I expected at least so that made me revisit some of my older Wii shooting games such as Resident Evil: The Dark Side Chronicles. I also just got Thor: God of Thunder on the Wii and with that, by Odin's might I say thee NAY!

Quash: Saturday i joined a Super Street Fighter 2v2 tournament and had a blast. Won my first 2 matches, hit the winner's bracket and went downhill from there. After my team got eliminated I stayed to watch the Grand Finals and watching the best the Philippines has to offer was a treat. I played Chun Li and my partner played Honda, I didn't know my partner before the tournament since we teamed up in their forums but we both did well.

The tournament was a success so congratulations to pinoy2dfighters for a job well done, will make a post about it soon with pictures from the event. Since that tournament is over, i think ill continue my 4th Mass Effect 2 play through and get it over with.

Modern Warfare 3 Teased in Playstation Magazine

We all knew it was coming right?

When Electronic Arts' CEO is talking tough about Battlefield 3 versus Call of Duty, he doesn't mean Black Ops. Oh it is indeed on. It has been revealed that Modern Warfare 3 will use the Modern Warfare 2 engine. It is rumored that Modern Warfare 3 will be a prequel starring fan favorite character Ghost.

Voice actor Craig Fairbrass had previously hinted that a Modern Warfare 3 announcement was imminent.

“I did Call of Duty: Modern Warfare as Gaz and then I did Ghost in Modern Warfare 2, which has become one of the more iconic figures in the history of computer games, which is great,” Fairbrass said during a radio interview.

“And I’ve just been out in LA doing something that’s going to be announced in May,” he added. “I’ve just been out there doing some bits and pieces, and one is to do with… I can’t say too much.”

Activision has slated it for a November 2011 release date.

Portable GameCubes

To good to be true? Well here it is. In 2009, a person with the username 'Hailrazer' made a portable version of that adorable little cube shaped Nintendo game console which he called the NCube. It was a 90 hour project. It even has a memory card slot for saving your progress in games. The over all design in my opinion resembles a Dreamcast. You can see the specs and details of the build here.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5A76rFWBmug&w=480&h=390]

Fast forward to 2011. A man named Jonathan Shine has made a portable GameCube of his own, it derives power from an external power source which defeats the purpose of portablility but hey, something as awesome as the GameCube in the palm of your hands without slowdown? That is still very impressive.

Called the Ccube (Compact Cube), the case is made out of a cheap answering machine, plastic cement and many coats o paint. It was supposed to be a 2 week project but ended up taking 15 months to complete.

These are in no way practical but seeing bizarre mods by people around the world is one of the reasons why I love the internet.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mZ5O3ifid8&w=640&h=390]