Well its been some time since my last blog. As I have a ps4 and have had one for two years now I can say that I understand why there was a drop in game production on the last gen systems (ps3/360) as the developers where busy with the then next gen systems and coding etc. However having said that we have had previous gen games re-released on the current gen systems with quite a bit of updates, tweaks etc.

We have had quite the flood of free to play games on the ps4, not sure about the xboxone as finding anything free in the store you almost need a map and a gps to find your way. The quality of games on both systems is very good and the gap between sony and Microsoft couldn't be closer. Both consoles share very similar performance stats and finally Microsoft has a system that plays Blu-ray. Only took them 10 years to catch up......lol

As we have just turned over another year lets see what comes and what things they pull out of the hat this time.

Well we are at the bottom end of 2014 and we have seen many new things come and go. We have seen sony try something new with the wonder book which is the first time I have ever seen a book come to life on screen. Only issue with it is only one person can use it and the amount of space it uses on the TV is very small. There has also been a slow down in move games released, bit of a shame as sony really had something going there.

Could be in part due to them focusing their efforts on the ps4. What can I say about the xbox one? Well the only thing I can say to Microsoft is.....about bloody time you idiots got it right!!!!! You finally grew up and built a system that has blu ray drive and finally controllers that recharge instead of using batteries.

As far as games go...well I think we had a slow year in regards to new titles. The biggest one of course was destiny which I haven't played however it looks a lot like Mass effect. We had our usual assortment of lego games and some hack and slash type games. There of course has been the Disney infinity game, and recently the marvel one as well. Looks like Disney is trying to out do the skylanders, the big difference being that infinity you can build your own world as well. I also think the slow down in games made this year is due to the ps4 and xbox one taking up the battle for top spot. The interesting thing here is both consoles are exactly the same in regards to performance, RAM and drive speed etc that really it comes down to what the consumer wants. So lets see what the rest of the year brings us, and what the Christmas releases will be.

My beautiful black ps3 went the way of the dodo yesterday.....yes it died.....in the middle of watching the iron lady the ps3 decided to turn itself off and decided it no longer wanted to function......so had to get out the trusty screwdriver and open the thing to get the dvd out of the drive.....in the process ended up destroying the blu ray.....it was unavoidable.

This is something that has come up a few times in the past. Mostly around the fact that most games that come to Australia end up being priced up to twice or sometimes three times the sale amount of those prices in the UK or the USA.

No doubt most of us have seen some comparisons by now in regards to some of these prices. For example a brand new copy of killzone 3, (just the normal edition as apposed to the collector's one) retails anywhere between $110.00 to $100.00 depending on where you go. Mass effect 2 on the ps3 at EB retails for $100.00 and yet at JB it retails at $89 or so. Now for either game price in the USA or UK is much less than here and yet the aussie dollar is trading very well with the USA.

Like me, most of us have asked the same question why is there such a difference in prices when its still the same copy of that game being sold elsewhere in the world? Granted we do have the different region codes.....PAL and NTSC but the ps3 still plays either version without any difference. The xbox prices are roughly the same for games as well.

However at the same time there are some games sold at $50.00 brand new.....tron and some other titles that seem to slide in under the radar (sleeper titles) for some reason are not marked at the full price of the "normal" $100.00 or so.

Sure some may argue the fact of shipping costs etc, however there are game developer's here in australia that develop games and yet us aussies still pay upwards of $90 or more for a new game that may have been made here. Probably the best example I can use for that as a case in point would be the transformers game based on the armada series. That was released on the humble ps2 and that itself retailed brand new at the time of its release at $80.00 or so. The game itself was developed by melbourne house which is based in the southern state of victoria.

Another way of comparing these prices is to look at the prices of dvd's/blu rays now. Most dvd's and with some exceptions blu ray also sell for around $30.00 or less. The box set of "the pacific" retails for $89 on blu ray and around $10 less for the dvd box set.

So until I get a reasonable answer as to why us poor aussies pay such high prices on brand new titles, I will do what I always do.....wait a few months for the games to drop in price not only brand new, but also those that get traded in at EB and like most of us, I certainly do shop around as sometimes kmart, target and JB do often have their sales on with reduced prices. Of course the other option is to wait for EB's sales they seem to have ever quarter. The next one that is coming up is the easter sale's then of course we have the end of financial year sale in june-july.

By now I am sure that most of you have had the chance to either play the kinnect(xbox 360)or the move (ps3). From what I know the move is more or less like the wii's controller but much better. Alot of the new games on both systems are taking advantage of this new feature, which is designed to get people up off the couch which the wii started.

This of course begs the question, will we see more games like this that really bring the player into the game more, rather than being a spectator simply using a controller to move etc? If that is the case then who know's....lucasarts might have a lightbulb moment and make a star wars game that uses the move to swing the lightsabre.....with multiplay support as well. One would have thought with force unleashed1 and 2 that lucasarts would have put in online multiplay but they didn't.....I think if they did then things may have turned out differently with the sales figure of those games.

Not only that we could end up with rpg's that could really take full advantage of the kinnect and move systems....who knows we may even see a first person shooter for the kinnect that would be a real evolution in first person games.

The move has some first person shooter's that use the move as a gun etc.

As microsoft and sony continue to set the bar for console gaming.....makes me wonder what will happen to nintendo.....if nintendo wishes to stay in the game, they really need to step up and develop a console that can keep up with the other 2. For some reason that I simply cannot fathom....nintendo is still living in "kid" mode with the way they think about the console market. Sure they have some games aimed at adults like the wii fit, but with the move more or less blitzing the way we move with a game etc with more precision and also generally out doing the wii injust about every way, nintendo with either sink or swim very soon. Nintendo's mascot Mario may not be able keep them afloat much more as instead of moving on etc they keep bringing mario brother's to each of their consoles.....um its time to move on nintendo....and not only move with the times, but move on and forward. It's almost like nintendo takes 2 steps forward but then 1 back.

So over the next year or so, it will be interesting to see what happens between the 3. But like always sony and microsoft will be head to head with very even figures....with the nintendo in last place. Some people say that the wii sells well in Japan but yet elsewhere it doesn't do so well. This trend is reinforced by the sales of the xbox 360 and ps3 in countries outside of Japan outdoing the wii sales. It seems as though nintendo only looks at sales in Japan as being more important than overseas which sort of shows the mentality ofsome not so wise executives not looking at the bigger picture. They claim they are and yet seem to ignore country sales outside of Japan, for if they bothered to take notice, they would have given the wii a few much needed support options, the main one being it not being able to play standard dvd's and yet its games are all on dvd format. That alone would have hurt the sales of the wii. Of course sony has a big advantage due to the blu ray drive, but the xbox plays dvd's without a fuss.

Many othersites have been watching the way nintendo does things, and from what I have read and seen, if nintendo doesn't do something soon, they will get hung out to dry.

I say this because we are being treated to some gems from sega very soon. The first being aliens vs predator and later down the track aliens: colonial marines. No doubt most of us have seen the trailer vids on AVP and are looking forward to it. Its also good to see Rebellion make it again as they did do the original pc game back in '99. I do hope that we get another predator game similar in fashion to concrete jungle as that would be awesome in itself.

We have all seen the reboots of other games, most particular mario bros. and sonic and in the case of both of them, its pretty much rinse and repeat nothing new. There are other games that have also followed this route and some have been a flop where as others have done well. BIA:HH is a good example of that, once it went next gen it really pushed the bar to a new level of realism for a ww2 game. Medal of honor has finally moved into the modern era as they did the ww2 theme to death, I suppose though that the same team that did modern warfare 1 and 2 would eventually do MOH.

So to all my fellow gamers.....play on and lets see what comes next.

Ever since the days of resident evil on the ps-one, parasite eve and a few others us gamers have always been looking or hankering for the next installment. We were treated to some good games on the 2nd generation of the consoles. Games like onimusha and res evil code veronica gave us some new games to keep us going. Then the current gen of consoles finally got treated to dead space which is in a whole new league of its own. Completely flawless in almost every-way and it makes res evil 5 look tame in comparison.

There have been some other games which have also set there own niche. Condemned 2 and bio-shock would be the 2 that stand out the most with this. Blood siren which is in the same theme as resident evil but has different mechanics is worth playing. Dead space 2 has been confirmed and I do hope that EA puts in multiplayer for even more dismemberment fun.

Another game that is on pc that I also found rather amusing was Stubbs the zombie, very funny in its depiction of the carnage that goes on, it contained some good ideas and overall the game worked for what it was.

Who knows we may get treated to another evil dead game with Bruce Campbell finally mo-caped properly. Now that would be fun.

I have had the chance to play some real gems of late. Batman Arkham Asylum, ninja gaiden sigma 2, the clone wars republic heroes and operation flashpoint: dragon rising.

I'll start with Batman. Overall a great game, well presented, well detailed and well executed. The only drawback was the length of the game. Ninja gaiden also well presented, however it is marred by a difficulty curve and other elements that make the game hard to play/master. In many ways the game is similar to onimusha with its reliance on orbs/essence to purchase upgrades etc.

CW:RH also well done in it presentation but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. The game does add some fresh perspectives with you able to play as clones and jedi alike. The game's background and overall color pallette is also done like the tv series. However the game itself is very short so it's length is another issue.

OF : DR is well done on all fronts and to a degree blasts COD modern warfare out of the water with its open world sandbox play on an entire island with over 220 square kms to traverse on foot, or vehicle. By far the most realistic depiction of battle I have ever seen in a game.

If the current trend of these games continues then we are in for some real treats. OF : DR will probably be a sleeper title though, unless codemaster's really pushes some good marketing on it online.

This is a question that always seems to come up towards the end of the year. What will we be treated to next year?

Well if this year is anything to go by then we should be in for some real gems/treats. Final fantasy has been abuzz for a while now and yet no release date has been confirmed....I am leaning towards to a release some time next year. I could be wrong and they manage to get it out this year, but I doubt it as there has been no word on a release date at all.

God of war 3 is another game that is all abuzz and sony is playing it close to the chest and have only given up some trailers on the game. Also due to midway's fall I doubt we will see a mortal kombat game anymore which is a real let down. It also means namco and capcom no longer have to worry about the best fighting game war anymore. Tekken and street fighter have never really tried to compete against each other simply because street fighter relies on the special moves where as tekken is more about technique. However it does put tekken above the mortal kombat franchise now.

What of any new FPS and RTS and even RPG's coming? Well who knows? We do know that there is a bioshock 2 coming and even the collector's edition of fallout 3 which will probably come out next year. Of course there is call of duty modern warfare 2 coming and its slated to be one of the big releases, mostly due to good marketing.

We are also due to get treated to one of sony's other faithful mascots soon, ratchet and clank a crack in time. It's a real shame we haven't seen a new jak and daxter yet or even crash bandicoot......could be naughty dog is putting all their efforts into Uncharted 2.

I got my new 300 gig hard disk yesterday and thought I would share with you all the steps on how to go about installing the system onto it.

For those of you who are not sure on how to update your hard disk for your ps3 there are steps on how to do so on here.

http://ie.playstation.com/help-support/ps3/system-software/download/

However it should be noted that they do not tell you on what you need to do in regards to the hard disk itself.

Make sure that you have copied all your saved game data onto a usb flash drive or memory stick.Do not copy your game data which is when the game installs onto your hard disk.(Only copy your saved game data.)You don't need it and it just takes up unecessary room on your memory card/stick etc as when you do have it all running again just by starting up the game again it will reinstall anyway. Also any songs, pics or psone game saves should also be copied onto the device as well.

Before you do start to take the hard disk out, turn off the power at the back of the unit first. Most important.

On the base of the ps3 is a little cover that is easy to lift off with a small screwdriver. Inside this is the hard disk caddy bay. You undo the blue screw and it will come out.

On the outside of the steel cage are 4 screws which you take off. Once all this is done and you have gone to the above link and copied the ps3 system software onto your hard disk, you need to create 2 folders. Now the instructions are a bit vague on some minor but important details. With the 2 folders that you create you need to make sure one is "ps3" in lower case and the other "UPDATE" in uppercase. Now as the steps do outline you make the second folder inside the "ps3" folder.

Make sure you have a usb to sata converter, plug it into a usb port on your pc and do a full format from your pc of the new hard drive. The ps3 will recognise this and it will help when it detects it. Be ready for a long wait as the conversion from usb 2.0 to sata is slow and it will take about 3 hours to format the hard disk.

Copy/move the folder from your pc's hard disk onto the memory stick/flash drive.

Put your new hard disk into the steel cage and put the screws in. Yes I do know that it's obvious you do this, but some people think it will just clip back onto it. Then slide it back into the base of the ps3, it only goes in one way as you will notice. Put the blue screw back in and place the black cover back on.

Hook it all up again and power it up. It will ask you to make sure you have the usb cable connected to your controller and to the system. Plug in your memory stick into the usb port. Press select and start when prompted and follow the directions from there.

It does take some time by the way so don't sit there watching it. Once its all done, it will be just like the first time you ever got your ps3. However it will already be updated and won't need to download the system update. Create your user name(s) again. With the memory stick still plug in you can now transfer all the data back to the correct spots.

Reset up your internet connection details/prefs and also tweak the other bits and pieces in regards to video playback and sound etc. Go across to the playstation network and go to sign in. Follow the steps on how to log back into your profile. If you do forget your password you can reset it here.

Now for those of you who may be worried about your downloaded purchased content, you don't need to pay for it again, as you have logged back into the network with your old details. Just go to your account management screen and go to your download list and get your stuff back.