So, it's pretty much made the news everywhere the last month. People have been typing furiously at their keyboard because of this. You know what I'm talking about. The PSN outage.

A lot of people have shown their support towards Sony. And a whole lot more have shown their utter disgust. Forum posts and comments on news articles are in abundance all over the world wide web. So it's safe to say that many of us are taking this very personal. And in this sea of loud voices, I wanted to voice my own as well. I have been taking a backseat to the entire thing for a long time, but now it's starting to get to me too.

Let me explain about my relationship with Sony. When I was 14 my uncle gave me a Playstation 1. At that time I was just getting done with SNES and Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. Titles like Ridge Racer, Tekken 2 and Resident Evil just blew me away. No one was playing Nintendo anymore around where I lived. Sony tore a hole through Nintendo and grabbed every boy by his throat. A gaming revolution had started. Further cemented by the Playstation 2 which went on to sell well over 150 million consoles. I have 3 by the way.

Now, I didn't buy a Playstation 3 at launch. Why? Because I was still having fun with my Playstation 2, and the entry price of 1100$ in my country for a PS3 just didn't seem worth it. I didn't even have a HD TV at that point. So it wasn't until a couple of years later I picked up a PS3, and as a game collector I have already enmassed 150 games for it. And all was good, until the PSN went down.

At the moment, I am enraged. When it first went down, it didn't really bother me. So how did Sony manage to make me go from shrugging my shoulders to being furious? See, I don't really care for online gaming on PS3. If I want to play a shooter online, I'll do it on my pc. So when the network went down, I didn't care. We were all told it was going to be up in a couple of days anyway. At this point all eyes were on Sony. They could either rise to the occassion or show their true incompetent colors. They chose the latter.

We all know that this was caused by an external intrusion, put in kind words. Or 'hacked' for everyone else. And all the Sony supporter say that this could have happened to anyone. But it doesn't happen to everyone, because most corporations who handle customer information understands the importance of internet security. You see, there were these chat logs that apparently were from hackers. And they were discussing Sony system behaviour and how they had been monitoring them for months. Now, I'm not the sort of person to believe everything I read so I take it with a pinch of salt. But it does make you wonder. If Sony were letting hackers monitor their system for months, it's no wonder that they managed to download a whopping 77 million personal info accounts without being stopped. Because that is what they did. They didn't just download a few accounts before Sony's alarm started flashing red. No, they apparently got everything. And in Sony's words. Credit card information MAY have been "comprimised." Which is a nice word for saying: "Oh boy, we just shat our pants."

Apparently, 12 million accounts had their credit card stored on PSN. I was one of them. And people will tell me that it's my fault. It's my fault that I trust one of the biggest hardware companies in the world to securely handle my information. And me and 12 million others had to cancel our credit cards. You know, better safe than Sony.

I also had to change my password for a couple of sites. Because I don't have the memory capacity to remember 50 different passwords. I do well with 5. But still, one of those 5 were stored on my PS3. And every other place I had used that password, I needed to change. All in all, I guess it's a minor hassle. At the point I was just mildly annoyed. Stuff like that passes with time.

But as time did pass, no info were coming from Sony. No estimated dates for when the system would be up or anything more regarding our accounts. Only when they ordered to meet up in court did they manage to conjure up a single letter. And time did pass. A whole three weeks of nothing until they finally managed to stumble online with a system that crashed in a couple of minutes under the weight of users logging on. Users who couldn't reset their password were forced to do so by e-mail. Activating an e-mail process that was so big it was perceived as spam. Ultimately shutting down the site that handled the e-mail request, and those users were forced to wait even to this day. Tough luck, eh? It seems planning ahead isn't one of Sony's biggest strengths. Luckily, I changed my password on the console.

But as the online portion finally managed to get up on one knee while holding a stick for balance, users were finally managing to play online. And at this time Sony is offering it's "Welcome back programme" where you are offered to download 2 free games out of a selection of 5. Paying customers like myself who already own the games though, are free to enjoy nothing. Did I really expect anything else. No, not really. Since I was already supporting Sony by buying a lot of their games there was already a big chance that I owned what they were offering. Which is basically old old games. Two of which have their sequels released this year. And another, Ratchet & Clank, although not a sequel, has a new game out this year. There's no one pulling behind the curtains on that one, eh?

All of these were minor annoyances for me. I could live through this, this is something that will pass with time. But now comes the part were I start to lose my cool. The store. Being a regular user of the store, buying a lot of games, I finally realize that it was more vital than I had ever thought. That new game I bought? It has dlc which I can't access. That becomes a problem when I finish the game and realize that I paid more for content I am not so keen on exploring since I already finished the whole game. And when the store eventually opens, the game will have dropped in price. Meaning I just spent more money on a game out of charity for the developer. Now, I don't play online. But there's been some people a tiny bit peeved off that they can't play online because they can't redeem their online codes. Because publishers like EA think it's a good idea to make the online portion a pure "rental only." At this point I'm starting to feel that I am owed a compensation. Not for the online, but for me not being able to access content on my disc for a lengthy period of time. And I'm not getting any, cause I gave my money to Sony.

It becomes clear to me how ****ed we are in the event of our digital distributor just disappearing of the net. Be it Sony, Microsoft or Steam or anyone else. If you forgot to download it before they go offline, you aren't getting it. End of story.

And the final straw. PS+. I bought that the day it went online. The price wasn't too high and I've gotten some good stuff out of it. Now that the store isn't coming back until the end of May, I lost 40 days of my subscription. What does Sony do about it? I get 60 days in return. Take 60, divide it by 40, I get 20 free days. What does everyone else get? 30 days free. I'm not even going to comment on that one. I think I recall mentioning something about Sony planning ahead. As in, they don't.

If I don't get compensated for lost time, then I'm done. Thats the final nail in the coffin. At that point I will put my 150 multiplatform PS3 games up for sale and be done. And in the event of games like Uncharted 3 and Dark Souls, sony will still be getting a little money from me. But those 50 other games I was planning on buying this year, they will see that revenue go to someone else.

End rant

Cheap Playstation 3 games on www.amazon.co.uk

JUST CAUSE 2 (9.91£)

I had the first game and played it for a couple of hours, I was so underwhelmed that when the second one came out, I didn't bat one eye lid. Then one of my friends brought it over and played it at my house, and I just had to get it. This game is full of stuff to do, and physics to abuse. And best part is it is immensely fun. Even the bugs in the game add up to the fun. Game should also be available for PC and Xbox360 at roughly the same price or lower.

ALPHA PROTOCOL (6.97£)

Obsidian. They always make games seem half finished, and this one is no exception. There's supposedly a stealth element to this game, but seeing as enemies will spot you regardless if you're sneaking or not, you could say this is a pure shooter. Even so, the game is enjoyable and it has a good story with a lot of room to take the story in different directions considering you have to balance the trust of different factions. And for this price, it's a steal. This is actually the cheapest of the versions, seeing as the Xbox360 and PC version is a couple of pounds more expensive.

You'll also find Lost Planet 2 and Assassin's Creed 2 for under 10£ on amazon, plus a variety of other games. Orange Box for example, although I'd suggest getting the PC version of that one.

Here's a little piece of classic gaming gold for people who don't like to spend too much hard earned cash on games.

After being on this site for two years, reading blogs and commenting, I guess I'll start to chip in some myself. And I'll do it with what I know best, hunting for bargains.

THE ODDBOX

- Now currently on sale on Steam for the sum of 12.49€ (most likely cheaper for you americans) this box contains Oddworld: Abe's Odyssey, Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus, Oddworld: Munch's Odyssey and Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath.

A game series that brilliantly balances between action and puzzle, for this price you can't go wrong. With some truly astounding settings, atmosphere and weird humour, these were games that stuck out at the time of release and still holds strong today. Owing much to games like Flashback and Another World, the two first games shared the same 2D side-scrolling view with an emphasis on puzzles and platforming. Oddworld: Munch's Odyssey pushed the game into the new generation with 3D settings and a third person view while still keeping the Oddworld spirit alive. Stranger's Wrath takes it one step further and even introduces the option of switching between third person and first person view, meaning you can either play this as a third person brawler or a first person shooter.

All games can also be purchased individually for a reduced price if you don't want the full package.

MOUNT & BLADE: WARBAND

- This game can be found at Gamersgate.com for the price of 7.98€ (Once again, most likely cheaper for americans)

An overlooked gem and a sleeper hit from 2010. This one never got much attention from the gaming press, which is a real shame because it is a really solid RPG in a day and age where the developers feel they need to hold your hand through the whole process of playing a game. This is very much a player controlled game in which what you do and how you play will alter the game experience accordingly. In order to keep this brief, if I have piqued your interest I suggest you read up on some reviews and decide for yourself. But hurry, sale don't last forever.

If you take a look at Gamersgate.com you will find that they have tons of gems for a good price at the moment. Gothic 1-3 collection, Deus Ex, King's Bounty and more.

So, here's to a start. I'll report back once I find some more good gems out there and I'll happily take suggestions.