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Call of Duty: World At War is available at Amazon as deal of the day for $34.98 on both PS3 and Xbox 360. That’s less than 10 KD. It’s one day offer if you want it. Frankly, I wasn’t thinking about it but the price was so tempting to resist :).

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I had this weird problem yesterday knowing I have not done any video setting changes, nor recall a pending software installation. When I start the PS3, green light comes up and then nothing happens. Insert the Game into the slot, blue light blinks and again nothing happens. No video, no sound, and no, it’s not output setting problem as many others have guessed in forums. Try to assign your wireless controller and you’ll know. It doesn’t. If it was on, output and controller assigning I assume should be two separate things.

Symptoms:

• On start, PS3 Green light comes up but nothing happens. No sound or video
• Insert game or any disc into the slot, blue blinks and again nothing happens
• Try to assign wireless controller, nothing happens.
• Try restart the console, unplug it for a while, or keep it on for long time again does not solve the problem.

I was hoping for some reason it’s replaceable hardware failure rather than software one in a closed box like this. I didn’t know about the system restore feature.

Solution:

1. With the PS3 in Standby mode (Red light on), press and hold the Start button until you hear a single beep, followed by double beeps.
2. Connect the controller using USB cable and press the PS button on the controller.
3. Now, the system restore screen (or whatever they call it) will come up like this
   
   
   
4. You have several options here for restoring the system, some will unfortunately wipe up all your data, others will make you lose the file naming. For me, I tried the option top-bottom and eventually had to do the Restore PS3 System. Luckily, all I had were demos, trailers, and game saves. only game I was really playing now was Prince of Persia. I felt terrible still though, but much better than if I was playing Ninja Gaiden or MGS right? Or let’s say a game Fallout!

Sharing it for others with same misfortune. Guess we’ll need the PS3 included in the backup plan then.

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To be honest I didn’t know about such Blu-Ray 2.0 stuff up till today, and first thing I thought to my self “Ohh God, not again!”. But it turns out, if you have a PS3, you’re already there. As it turns out from this post, the new thing about Blu-Ray 2.0 is that it will require in addition to two secondary decoders for audio and video, a 1 GB of local storage for content and updates (checked), and an internet connection (Ummm… yeah, that’s checked also!). What does that mean?

“The 2.0 profile actually changes the minimum requirements for full compatibility. In other words, there is only one player currently on the market that will be 2.0 compatible: the PlayStation 3, which, with its upgradeable hard drive, Ethernet port, and powerful graphics capabilities, will be able to adapt to any and all future updates. This is quite the slap in the face to consumers who paid several hundred dollars for players that won’t able to be updated to take advantage of the 1.1 profile, much less the upcoming 2.0″

That’s pretty great news for PS3 owners, and new potential buyers. Really really bad one for people who got separate Blu-Ray players. And do you know how much these stand-alone Blu-Ray players cost? I’ve been to Virgin and saw one, I think it was Panasonic. I had to call the seller to double check the “499 KD” price tag. That’s over $1400! I was waiting for long list of features that will blow me away, but he just said “It’s Blu-ray, DVD”. That’s it, I asked again!. “Yeah, he said”. He didn’t argue to the point that PS3 is a much better deal, only that the player is meant for long hours unlike PS3, which doesn’t really convince me at all. A Panasonic Blu-Ray player at Amazon is worth $799, that does not even seem to have a hard disk with it, and is not Blu-Ray 1.1 compatible, let alone Blu-Ray 2.0. This is opposed to the new upcoming bundled PS3 80 GB + MGS 4 + new Dual Shock 3 Controller, all for $499. Only bad thing is the controller for the console. So, you choose :).

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The January NPD data report on console and game sales in the US has been released, and PS3 sales have not only surpassed Xbox 360 with 269,000 units compared to 230,000, but it is also going Wii a real chase up with 6,000 units difference only! It’s true ofcourse, Xbox 360 has been in the market for quite some time, and Wii has been selling like candy all the time. On the other, considering the price difference between a PS3 and a Wii, for me this counts as PS3 is outselling right now.

Meanwhile, rumors are spreading of next generations of the Wii and Xbox 360 in 2010. With the delay Sony had in releasing PS3, I think the will have their own show in the next release, probably 2012. But then again, they might enjoy knowing their enemy tactics and countering them.

PS3’s main problem remains so far however, and that is lacking killer apps and exclusive games. Wii is fun for family, Xbox 360 has many exclusive games, and with strong internet multi-player support, while in PS3, and coming from Anti-Microsoft guy, still lacks the games that brings people to it. I am personally downloading many playable demos I find, and I hardly find ay worth of spending $60 on. Call of Duty? Well that’s not exclusive. MGS? Fans are still waiting! I know some people might be loving some games there but there isn’t just enough variety, and the lack of multi-player games there makes it less helpful in gatherings.

This Add-on device that will let PS3 users watch digital TV via their consoles might bring more value to it. There is a video demo of the device if you like. But for me, last week I knew I didn’t waste my money on the PS3 after I watch the first Blu Ray version episode of what I think is the best planet documentary ever made.

Watch the trailer and you will know what I mean.

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For quite some time I’ve been thinking about which soccer game I should get on PS3. FIFA 08 from the demo does not seem to add a lot over it’s predecessor, and Winning Eleven is the theme of soccer on Sony. I mean, you could get called insane for just raising that question here in Kuwait. But I’ve been FIFA player for most of the time, since 95 perhaps. This was mostly because I was PC gamer all the time, and PES on PC wasn’t that much fun. The two best FIFA versions were 98, which had lots of skill moves that are extremely easy to master (so easy to be considered a drawback though), and 2007 which brought the game back to life after years of lay down and frustration that I stopped buying it for a while.

I was having doubts today when I played FIFA 08 PC demo one last time as to whether I should consider PES, after all the great press it got. Price of PES 08 reached 40 KD in Kuwait, that’s over $140! Crazy ha! So I tried the PC demo which was so slow, and they didn’t even care to change the User Controller for PC and they are just showing a XBox 360 controller instead. What I was able to figure out is A is Shoot, D is long pass, X is short (stupid) pass, W is through pass, and E is sprint. Try placing your fingers over the keys and you’ll now what I mean. The game it self had some +ve over FIFA in ball reception, and sometimes the quick passing. But something I always hated about PES is the shooting, which at the end is the way to score goals. Shooting seems always a bet easy to anticipate, and there is no such great control over it as there is in FIFA games. I love to have long range shots that could curve anywhere, but I don’t see that a lot in PES.

At the end, I just saw the game reviews on GameSpot to know there is no reason to have a second thought. PES 08 on PS3 is rated 6.0 compared to 8.5 to FIFA 08! This is the first time ever I see FIFA on Sony rated above PES, and it seems big part of the disappointment is from the bugs and lack of game improvements. You can’t be the leader and expect to remain so by releasing the same game over and over can you? FIFA were lost for years with changes but at least now they seem to be getting some where.

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I came by the Google Trends and I was thinking of an interesting competition to make, and I thought “What’s better than console war?”. So I went and compared PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii. and here is the result:

Pretty obvious Wii came out of no where in 2005 Q4 to take over soon. Xbox 360 over does PS3 for most of the season. And only recently PS3 seems to be catching up with XBox 360, as it is becoming more affordable and has more games. That’s not all you can read from the marvelous Google Trend however. If you take your eyes down a bit to the regional break down you will see this:

What can you see? Xbox 360 is red remember. It is the lowest of all in Japan, and we’re not talking about a tiny difference. Not for any other console or region there is such low demand. Pretty interesting ha! Guess Japanese hate this thing to heart. The other interesting thing I noticed is that United States come at # 8 in ranking for PS3 demand, and does not exceed # 6 for the other two consoles. I didn’t think France, Canada and Spain would be topping the US in video game demand.

Now for a detailed look at how the graph looks for console demand in the land of games, Japan:

OUCH! Very very low for XBox 360. Wii is starting to get competition with the yet to prove PS3.

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Following the $100 price drop of PlayStation 3 their sales have topped on Amazon Video Games yesterday, overdoing Wii. Is the $100 all that was separating people from the PS3? Or is it just a temporarily reaction that will fade away? Both ways, I think this is the best time to strike with new games.

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