This is not a blog its the online version of the Detroit Free Press which is a local Detroit newpaper. The write is not a guy its a women :P

BY HEATHER NEWMAN

FREE PRESS GAME WRITER View

I would argue any hardcore console gamer knows exactly what the PS3 is all about and are simply waiting for games they want to play. On the other hand their are many casual gamers and non tradtional consumers that the PS3 might appeal to because of other things it can due besides playing games and thus why Sony is marketing it that way. See the PSOne and PS2 where basically game systems. Sure the PS2 could play DVD's but it was never considered comperable to a high end DVD player unlike the PS3 which is actually the best and cheapest Blu-ray player on the market.

New game consoles traditionally sell at a loss to the maunfacturer who makes up the difference later on from the software sales revenue. The author seems to suggest that if these casual and non traditonal early adopters buy a PS3 that Sony loses. I guess he failed to forget that Sony would also profit not only from Blu-ray disc sales PS3 owners will buy but also the revenue generated if Blu-ray becomse the new standard for movies. Also I am sure Sony will be getting a revenue for these other services they will be offering as well.

The other issue I take with this article is that only the hardcore are capable of promoting the system by word of mouth. If a nongamer bought a PS3 only as a Blu-ray player and tells all his friends and family about what a great system it is just for that how is that not helping to spread the word and sales of the PS3? Oh and they might even decided to try and buy a game for it! <shock>

Finally at least Sony did not abandon its consumers by pulling the PS2 and forcing them to now buy a PS3 if they want a gaming system. So the moral of the story is you can't just market the PS3 as any one thing you have to market it for all the things it can do and the least marketing you would think the Playstation needs is the fact its a game system, considering they have been the console gaming leader for the last 10 years.

In fact was their not a recent study that showed only 40% of PS3 owners knew the PS3 could play blu-ray movies? I bet you 100% of PS3 owners knew it could play games though :P View

Meus Interpretation - And you'd believe my review over the reviews of the majority of professional sources?

VirtualGamer - Hmm. Where in anything that I have written thus far would indicate that I am suggesting that anything you wrote in giving us a review of your game play experience or this guys experience with LAIR should hold more wieght then reviews from professional sources? That does not mean that me and others would still not be interested in what you or this guy had to say.

Meus Interpretation - Considering your avatar, its more plausible that you're just searching for any potent praise for Lair in any review to justify the purchase to yourself. I have no interest in that game and I respect those who are still interested in regardless of the reviews; but unlike e.g. HS or Warhawk with the mixed reviews and so on, Lair seems to be getting a negative impression conclusively in terms of the gameplay.

VirtualGamer - Ahh I see so because I have a avatar of LAIR that must mean I am desperate for a review that sheads LAIR in a good light. Hate to break it to you I already made the decision to buy this game along time ago. Good or bad reviews. I don't use reviews to justify my purchasing decisions just as I don't use movie reviews to justify going to see a movie. If a movie or game looks to have things I am interested in then chances are I will go see or buy it.

Meus Interpretation - If you want to believe, however, that the game is a 8.5/9.0 in terms of quality as this "review" suggests, then that is your prerogative but don't for a moment try to weigh the value of this on the same scale as the professional reviews which incidentally are longer than 500 characters.

VirtualGamer - Again did I ever say this persons review and impressions should be weighed more then other reviews? And just because it should be less weighted does that mean it has no value? Don't you think alot of times gamers read offical reviews but then ask friends or on forums from those that have the game for their impressions if they are on the fence about the game? So again all this is a lucky guy who got a chance to play the retail version of the game and sharing his opinion. Nothing more, nothing less.

Meus Interpretation - His views are welcome on that board but they cannot be interpreted or defined as relevant or valuable to the gaming community regardless of his score.

VirtualGamer - Really, so gamers don't value the opinion of other fellow gamers they only go with professional gaming reviews to make their decisions? If this guy had just said I like the game and here is my review along with 100's of others who had a retail copy of the game after release then yeah who cares and its not news. However this guy has managed to get a retail copy before the general public and has proven via photos that he has the game and is giving us his thoughts. That's what makes this news worthy. Its not some guy saying he does, its the real deal and since no other regular joe gamers are in the same boat I think people are interested in what he has to say good or bad. Should it be taken as this is the defacto standard of getting the game? Heck no, but I am sure many PS3 owners would like to hear and know about this. Just as I would be if you had a retail copy of Fatal Inertia before everyone else and wanted to share your thoughts on the game. And I don't even have a avatar for Fatal Inertia ..damn! View

Do you have a retail copy of Fatal Inertia that you have been playing before anyone else in the general public then yea sure I would love to hear your impressions of the game especially if you can take pictures to validate that you really do have a copy. View

Its interesting to me that all the people against this being published as news are people who are known to be 360 owners who hate on the PS3 daily. This is a PS3 article for PS3 owners or people with a genuine interested in getting a PS3. Is it a professional magazine or gaming site review? No. What it is a guy lucky enough to get his hand on a copy before retail release and him sharing his thoughts about the game.

As a PS3 owner I appreciate his efforts, especially the pictures to show he is not making it up. As Dusty has said on many occasions this is a social news site and this would be considered social news for people interested in the PS3. Its not ment to be the defacto review or standard for what LAIR is rated, so you 360 fanboys can put down your pitch forks and F*ck 0ff! View

Ok to set the record straight.

There is Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures which is a MMORPG and is being created by Funcom.

"1.3 What platforms will the game be released on, and when will it come out?

Age of Conan will first be released for the Windows PC, and the launch date is set to March 2008."

http://community.ageofconan...

Now THQ is also creating a game called Conan. Its an action adventure game where you play as Conan. This is for the PS3 and 360. Release date is October 2007

http://www.conanthevideogam...

I think originally Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures was going to be PS3 and 360 then got scaled back to being PC/360.

MMORPG.com lists it as only PC.
IGN has it listed as PC US: March 2008 and 360 US: Q3 2008
Gamespot lists it as PC Release Date: Mar 25, 2008 and 360 Release Date: Q1 2008

Other then IGN and Gamespot listing the game as PC\360 I can't find any further info regarding the 360 version. I would have thought the PS3 would be more suitable considering it supports mouse and keyboard and the 360 does not.

However if you go to Funcom's company site http://www.funcom.com/wsp/f...

Age of Conan
‘Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures’, winner of multiple E3 awards as the best game in its genre and one of the most anticipated PC games in development, is a Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMO) where a mix of a deep, story-driven single-player experience and a brutal and intense massively multiplayer game brings forth the ultimate representation of the Age of Conan. Now you can enter the brutal domain of the world’s greatest fantasy hero.

Platform: PC

Thus at this point I would go with the game as being PC only. View

Again I could careless about the score. Did you even read what I said? I have a issue with the game being so short. So unless the game is amazingly fun, so you would want to play it over and over again, it really is not worth $60 just to play for 6 hrs.

Another thing to consider is that even if the game is amazingly fun and people enjoy playing it over and over, should one still not expect a longer gameplay experience for $60 or am I just being to demanding? Remember many PS3 fans laughed at Gears of War for being to short and now appear to be very forgiving on HS. My personal opinion is both games should have been longer. View

As a PS3 owner I have been looking forward to games like HS. The demo though short is alot of fun and I have played it at least 20 times since I downloaded it from the PSN.

While it appears some reviews don't like certain aspects of game play such as the range attack I can appreciate that. Since none of us have actually had a chance to play the entire game like the reviewers have, I find it odd that some feel its not a valid point. Its aspects like this that I can say well fine some don't like that part but given all the other postive aspects of the game I am more then willing to pick it up.

The one aspect that gives me serious concern is how short the game actually is to play. I know many people gave Gears of War alot of grief over how short the single player game was but at least it has a online multiplayer aspect to give good replay and entertainment value and people still gave the game grief. So how then can we say its ok for a single player game to only have 6 hrs of gameplay? I find that for $60 we as gamers should expect more. I have no problem with single player only games but please make then longer. 20 hrs of gameplay would be more in line with my expectations. As it is now why not simply rent HS over a weekend and play it and be done with it? That would be better value then actually buying the game.

Look at Warhawk that is going to be a online multiplayer only game. Less then $60 and I can see people getting +100 hrs of fun gameplay out of it. Now compare to HS at $60 for 6 hrs. Where is the value in that? I mean I think games should have great story and such like they are trying to do with HS but at the end of the day its a game and has to deliver on that aspect or why bother? I can pick up a movie and have the ultimate story, graphics and sound.

Of course none of this has to do with the PS3 potential it all has to do with what developers told us they where going to deliver and what they finally did. If we as gamers support single player only games that are 6 hrs long for $60 then all we will see is more and more games like that. Don't you think as a consumer and as a gamer regardless of what system you prefer that we should get more bang for our buck then that? View

Lets see PC gaming regardless of if the title comes with multiple CD's or DVD all get installed on the HDD and the game is run from the hard drive. The only reason most PC games require disk one to be in the drive is to help with piracy. The disk is used to confirm if the game should run on the hard drive and if the disk is not there you can't play the game.

This has been the case for along time and since all PC games all run from the hard drive should not even be brought into the equation. No one with the PC version of this or any other game will be required to change a disk :P

Now for consoles that is not the case. Games run directly from the disk. When the PS3 was announced MS and all the 360 fanboy proclaimed and yelled from the mountian tops that more space was not needed for this new generation of gaming.

Since that time we have seen developer after developer state that Blu-ray is very much needed now. More and more games using more space then what is available on DVD.

At first it was only 1st party developers like Insomniac and Factor 5 saying this, so the fanboys cried.."Sony paid them to say that." Now we are seeing 3rd party developers saying it and even releasing the PS3 version of the game on one Blu-ray and PC and 360 game on multi DVD. So obviously all the claims that Blu-ray was not needed and that a single DVD and compression was more then enough for this generation of gaming has been proven to be wrong. This not even a year after the PS3 released.

Of course now the claim is "I don't mind changing disks." Sorry but that was never the point. The point was that Sony saw the need for more space on a single disc and MS did not. 360 fanboys screamed from the roof tops that this was true as well and that Sony was only doing this to win the format war for movies and that Blu-ray was completely useless and not needed for gaming.

WRONG! View

You guys kill me.

I can agree that some might not have any interest in using their gaming system as a HD movie player. However I disagree when you claim most are like you. How do you know this? Consumers do have a choice if you want a gaming system and only a gaming system you can buy a Xbox 360 or a Wii. If you want a gaming system as well as a HD movie player you can buy a PS3 or a 360 and add on a HD -DVD player.

I am sure that you would then agrue that what about the gamers that want to play PS3 only games who have no desire to watch HD movies? They most certainly don;t have a choice. Your right if you want to play PS3 exclusive games then you don't have a choice and must also spend an amazing $100 more for which you get built in wifi, HDMI 1.3 and a 60GB HDD instead of a 20GB. In addition, as we are already starting to see, PS3 exclusive games are taking advantage of the extra room on the Blu-ray disk. This trend will continue and as a PS3 owner I am very excited about the future potential of PS3 exclusive games. I think developers see that as well as we are seeing 3rd party developers announcing PS3 exclusive games.

If you don't agree then stick with the 360 or the Wii but you know for only $100 more I think even as a pure gaming system the PS3 offers the better deal. View

You do know the PS3 supports keyboard and mouse right?

Its also not a competition between PC and PS3 since the developers gains from having the game on both platforms rather then just one. View

This is Conan which is by THQ for the PS3 and 360 and is an action game.

There is also Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures which is PC (Funcom), 360 (Eidos) and is a MMORPG. View

I believe the rumour is that Sony will be announcing a mew Wii like controller for the PS2. View

However that I am sorry to say is not gameplay. The game should be amazing all the same and one I am really looking forward to. Its coming to PC and 360 but not to the PS3, which I was a bit disappointed since the PS3 supports mouse and keyboard. If this game gets good reviews I might just get a 360 to play it since thats far cheaper then getting a new PC just to play it. View

This is not MS saying this, its a PS3 review for the UK by Dave Carnoy for CNet.co.uk and edited by John P. Falcone

Here is a CNet review of a HD-DVD player by John P. Falcone and edited by Dave Carnoy.

http://reviews.cnet.com/vid...

So again this is not MS as a company saying wow the PS3 is great, its a CNet tech review guy named Dave Carnoy saying this and its old news people. View

Not sure if you have seen them so will repost here.

http://www.n4g.com/M/8/Imag...

http://www.n4g.com/M/8/Imag... View

I found the interview amazingly refreshing. Been so much hating towards the PS3 its nice to see someone give Sony the props they deserve. What Sony needs out of this E3 is the same level of excitement it had after E3 2005. This time around though instead of CGI it will be actual hands on game play. View

This is actually for Xbox 360 and PC not PS3 so not sure why its listed as PS3 PC..which is really unfortunate for us PS3 fans. This game is amazing and one I am really looking forward to as it truly is redefining MMO's of this genre. View

You can get these in different sizes at the offical LAIR website here.

http://www.us.playstation.c... View

I was actually hoping to see some Xbox 360 fans who have been haunting this site talking crap about the PS3 for the last year eat some well deserved crow. View