Next Gen story here.

Cited article here.

So, now that Blu-Ray has won the HD war, what's happening? Oh, prices on stand-alone Blu-Ray players are going back up since companies no longer have to compete with HD-DVD? And these players aren't even capable of handling Profile 2.0?

*facepalm*

Yeah, great. For all you guys who wanted the format war to be over with, here you go. Now the companies making Blu-Ray players are charging more for players that are obsolete because of Profile 2.0, and will probably charge even more for the Profile 2.0 players because they can. Why? No competing format. Now they can take their time bringing prices down, with nobody to keep them honest but each other, and lets be honest, that's like asking Congressmen to keep each other accountable when it comes to adding pork to a budget.

April 1st is April Fool's Day, aka "the day you can't trust the internet."

Expect to see tons of stories on game sites ranging from World of Warcraft coming out on the Atari 2600 to a complete remake of (old favorite game of yours) on (insert your favorite console) as a 110% exclusive and more. Today, pretty much all good news might well be "too good to be true."

Its an old joke that started long ago and far away. While I personally feel the gag has run its course, well, obviously most sites haven't.

Today, Sony announced PSN/the Playstation Store had be compromised.

This time last year, Microsoft ran into account fraud for Live.

Naturally, as I've stated before, this is detrimental to how buying things online for consoles is viewed.

In light for this, here are a few good things to do/keep in mind:

1. Before you do anything else, stop to contact your bank and credit card company to see what their policies concerning credit/debit card fraud and identity theft are. Are you liable for purchases made through fraud? How hard is it to cancel the card? Will they warn you if they see suspicious activities?

2. Evaluate your passwords. A simple password is an easily defeated password (and "password" makes a lousy password, I might add). The longer the better, plus you'll really want to have a mixture of letters, numbers and if allowed, special characters (like stuff you'd normally hit shift plus a number for). And never use part of your login as part of your password; makes it easier to guess. There are a number of guides and tips out there for making good passwords; take time to google a few.

3. Get some resources lined up and read through on how to deal with identity theft and fraud. Yes, this is covered a little in #1, but its worth looking more into. Also, you'll be able to help friends and family prepare themselves or (heaven help them) recover from identity theft and fraud. The Federal Trade Commission has websites for Identity Theft and Credit Card Fraud that might make good starting points for you. Checking your credit rating/history isn't a bad idea either - again, the FTC has a site that can help.

4. Receipts and statements. Love them and use them. This goes for ATM/debit cards and credit cards. Its easy enough to ignore, but its important. Most online transactions I've done have given me both a receipt page to print out as well as confirmation emails. Never reconciled reciepts and payments to statements before? Its not too hard, honest.

5. Remember, companies pretty much never ask you for account information. If you're having account trouble or need to pay a bill, go to their website directly and deal with it there. Don't trust a link in an email - it might say one thing but could take you somewhere completely different. If someone calls for you asking for account information, get their information and say "I'll call you back," then call the company's customer service. Scammers won't go for that; if they're legit, there ought not be any problem. Don't be badgered or intimidated!

Sad to say there are people out there who make their living writing viruses, malware and doing other types of nastiness. As console online transactions through PSN, Live and the Wii's Virtual Console/Wiiware grow, they're going to become very attractive targets for these jerks. Don't assume that since you're making purchases from a console that you're immune to them. If you're really unsure or leary, go to a store and buy pre-paid cards for Live Marketplace, Wii Points, and soon PSN. If you can't find them in your area, some online stores may take pre-paid debit cards - ask your bank or credit card company about them, or even see if your local retailers carry them. Just make sure the service you want to use them with accepts them.

Stay safe people!

I love this guy.

Read then discuss how this may relate to the console market. Trust me - there are lessons to be learned here, even on hardware-stable platforms like consoles. I post my thoughts after a few of you get the discussion going ;)

I'm thrilled.

Ditto for Bionic Commando Rearmed!

NOTHING is more empowering to developers and publishers than having options. They used Sony against Microsoft in a positive way, and you know damn sure they'll use Microsoft against Sony as it suits them. Sony and Microsoft? Please get used to this - you're the ones who are supposed to be begging for support of publishers, NOT publishers being under your thumb like last generation because they have no viable options otherwise.

Who am I disgusted at? A lot of the people here at Gamespot. While I perfectly understand the disdain for EA, it seems that Take Two is getting a "free pass" from many people here, or they're simply ignorant as to what's been going on.

Take Two executives decide to hide EA's bid to purchase the company from stockholders so they can get their big, fat contractual bonuses.

As a result, Oppenheimer Funds and FMR LLC (Fidelity Management and Research LLC) have both slashed their ownership in Take Two. Both companies are involved with insurance, retirement services and benefits, etc.; not the type of companies that want to ever see their investments go downhill (and neither should you!).

Another consequence is Take Two is being sued by their shareholders. Partly because they attempted to hide the purchase offer, but also because the management of Take Two, ZelnickMedia, has had very recent amendments to it that only benefit ZelnickMedia. In the event of a buy-out, ZelnickMedia's pay would go from $3.8 million to $16.5 million. So bought out or not, ZelnickMedia is going to be making out absurdly well. On top of that, they're giving the company's executives an extremely generous severance plan; 1.5 times their salary for 18 months plus bonuses if fired within a year? Compare that with the up to 6-months they're giving non-executives.

All of this is apparently meaningless compared to the fact Electronic Arts is the company desiring to acquire them. We're all familiar with the post-Trip Hawkins EA of recent history. Larry Probst is gone, John Riccitiello is back and is trying to head the company in a new direction. He realizes there's a problem with annual updates, he's restructuring EA internally so studios are more autonomous, and he's even questioning the current revenue model the console game industry has been running on for decades. He's changing things enough that Bioware and Pandemic didn't reject EA's purchasing offer - something Riccitiello himself helped orchestrate. Riccitiello even acknowledged that EA "blew it" when it came to past acquisitions like Bullfrog, Origin and Westwood.

I'm not an EA fan, but looking at things as they are now? I'm far more willing to give EA and John Riccitello a chance than trust Take Two's current management. I realize a lot of you may have more than a few negative feelings about EA, but if you honestly think Take Two is some innocent underdog about to get gobbled up by a big, mean ol' EA, you need to go and read up on what's happening. There here and now is different from "back then"; learn from history, but don't let it blind you.

Read and discuss. I think its a pretty cool story, myself.

I remember my first Japanese RPG - the original NES Final Fantasy. Wow... looking back it was quite a D&D knockoff ;)

I got this in my email today.

Sony Creative Software and Microsoft are having a party?

Again, the lines of competition aren't nearly as clearly drawn as we consumers normally see them. Fanboys ridicule and decry the other side, not realizing (or ignoring) the fact that Sony and Microsoft seem to work together more often than not. Yes, they are competing in one major arena (video games), but for the most? They seem to like being in bed with each other more often than not.

They're doing this. They're collaborating on a cell phone. Blu-Ray has some of Microsoft's DNA in it. Movies owned by Sony subsidiaries are on Live. The list keeps going...

Next generation they just need to forgoe the whole console war and release a system together @_@

I was just gifted with Half Life 2 and HL2: Episode 1 from Steam.

I'll start downloading them tomorrow, I think.

Sweet!

(now to actually find time to play them)

You know, at this rate I might not even bother getting a 360 or PS3 this year. Or next year. I keep getting all this cool PC stuff @_@

As is my habit with such things, here is my experience getting it.

I logged onto my PlayNC account. From there, I went to the PlayNC store, found the mission pack under the Guild Wars stuff, and clicked to buy. It brought up a more detailed description of it, great, click to buy. It had most of my billing info (address and the like), so I put in my credit card information, clicked to continue, went through a nice little bit of authentication, and then finished. It presented me with a reciept type tying and the option to "apply now" which I did. It verified that I wanted to upgrade my account, said yes, and now I'm done! I got two emails; one for payment receipt and one for code application, and I'm all set.

I haven't been onto Guild Wars in a little while, so the game is updating. I'm looking forward to playing these missions, and am hoping I don't need to be an uber player to enjoy them.

Whoah, that was quick. Done updating. There's nothing that I can see that says, "Hi! Bonus mission here!" on the menu or character select screen. I hopped onto Yojimbode Genki ("Healthy by means of Bodyguard") who's at the monestary. I really don't know how to access the content - it would've been nice to have some sort of "Hey, get it here!" type thing. I ask "how do I?" on our Alliance chat channel (yay!), and get told to go to a major city and look for a historian NPC. A quick trip to Kaineng (I love traveling in Guild Wars - teleporting rocks) and I find Durmand, a historian NPC :D

I pick Gwen's story, and there's a nice little book dropped into my inventory. Double click it to open, and it unfolds in your screen; the left page has an illustration, the right narrative. A "enter mission" button is right below the illustration, tempting me, but the thoughts of an incoming pizza stop my from pressing it. Anyhow, I go through, read what's there, and it seems I'm missing pages! Oh! Story to find? I'm up for that. I like the fact your mouse cursor turns into a little hand and you flip the pages - nice touch.

Screenshot here.

I might get to playing this weekend; so far I'm looking forward to it. I'm hoping that at least one of the four sets of missions will have some of that trademark warped humor I so enjoy ;)