11/17/2006

In the future, you’ll be able to f*ck your PlayStation!

by Matthew Edward Hawkins

So I didn’t get killed last night. I wasn’t even close to any real danger, which is a bummer to be honest. Sounds shitty to say I know, but I was hoping to find myself in the middle of a huge, flat-out riot.

I arrived at the Sony Style store in midtown Manhattan last night, at around 10, about two hours into their big PS3 launch spectacular, and two hours till the system was on sale. The place was packed with exactly 400 folks all waiting to get their hands on the prize. Plus you had assorted press folks, PR people, security guards, and the such.

The gamers that I spoke with were for the most part pretty chill… just happy to be there. Pretty much everyone told me that they had been waiting in line since Monday or Tuesday. So maybe chill wasn’t the proper word… more like exhausted. Most seemed pleased with what they saw, but no one was at all blown away by the numerous games that were on display. In fact, what was the one game everyone kept talking about? Xbox 360′s Gears of War which came out like a week ago.

The Sony folks on the other-hand were rather agitated, on-edge, standoffish, even surly, at least some of them. But given the scale of it all, and how exhausting the whole production must have been, I can’t be too upset. But it doesn’t hide the fact that the whole event was poorly organized in certain regards, mostly on the press side of things, who were by far some of the most pissed off people in the house. I too found myself getting herded around like cattle with little rhyme or reason. Again, in comparison, the gamers were all totally laid back.

Though apparently I had missed all the action from earlier in the day. One guy I spoke with at length was a guy named Alex who had been waiting in since Tuesday morning, along with two friends. He mentioned that all was calm for the most part, with the line being relatively thin till the night prior. Then all of a sudden it swelled and line cutters began to make trouble, which him and a few others, the ones who were there since the beginning tried their best to keep things in control, since the last thing they wanted were knuckle-heads fucking it up for everyone.

I guess that would explain why the MC for the evening, some DJ from a rap station here in the city… I forget his name, but it was Fat-something (because if you’re in the world of hip-hop, and you’re heavy, then you have to have “Fat” in your name somehow)… warned the crowd what felt like fifty thousand times to “not act thuggish.” At a certain point, Chappelle Show’s Charlie Murphy hit the stage, who did about 15 minutes of stand-up. Only the first four minutes was funny. Though his “In the future, you’ll be able to fuck your PlayStation!” He also kept saying that the system was $700, and you know some Sony PR rep was probably off the to the side, trying to whisper as loudly as possible the correct price. Plus Ludacris showed up, and the funny thing about his appearance was that it was all ultra dramatic, with him parting the crowd, along with his entourage… and about 8 Starbucks baristas all following him rabidly, with total star-lust in their eyes. But he didn’t rap or anything, he just went on stage to introduce his homeboys Howard Stringer, and Kaz Hirai, the CEO of Sony and President of Sony Computer Entertainment of American respectively. When Kaz asked the crowed, in the most strained, try SO hard to be hip manner “Alright, what does everyone want?!?!”, my attempts to start a “RIIIDDDGGGGEEEEE RACER!!!” chant didn’t work. Oh well. BTW, and they had some chick dressed up as Laura Croft as well, posing for pics with various dudes in the crowd.

But back to the games, they had a bunch of stuff on display, including Virtua Fighter 5, which looked simply amazing…

… and it played great as well, even though for whatever reason, I had a hard time pulling off many of the moves I though I knew with Leon. One guy asked while I was playing “Is it like Soul Calibur?” Ummm…. no. Also gave Ridge Racer 7 a spin…

… I’ve always loved the look of the Ridge series, but for the life of me, I can’t play a single fucking one (with the exception of R4). So after watching two guy place first effortlessly, I was the dumb-ass who couldn’t make a single turn. Then I tried out Gran Turismo HD which looked a LOT better in person than in static screenshots. I know you could find better pics elsewhere, but I’m just happy the pictures came out nice…

… I’m still not 1000% sold as HD being the only way to play games, but I ain’t gonna deny that the many of the games last night looked amazing, primarily GT. Though any interest to get the game was pretty much dashed away when I reminded myself of the micropayment hell the game comes with it.

I should also perhaps mention that aside from the games, there was plenty of scrumptious finger to munch on (the mini cheesecake balls dipped in chocolate on a stick were by far the highlight of the entire evening). Sadly, there was no booze, and I was sorta hoping to be both drunk and in the middle of fist flying, but for obvious reasons, it was a pretty good thing to not have alcoholic handy, even though virtually everyone waiting for a system were well over 21.

That’s Annie Marie, one of the girl who they had on hand to keep an eye out on things, mostly to make sure no one stole a PS3 controller, or the Sixaxis to be exact. I asked her what she thought of everything, and she confessed that the smell of being around a bunch of dudes that hadn’t showered in three days was giving her a head ache. She also told me for whatever reason that her favorite game was Duck Hunt.

The one thing I made sure to ask every gamer I spoke with was if they planned on keeping the system or selling it on eBay. Most everyone said they wanted to play it, but were pretty tempted. But then again, it was pretty clear who were there to actually enjoy PlayStation 3 and who was there to grab something that would insure a quick buck. There were at least three guys that were obviously homeless dudes, who were obviously paid to be there (because it ain’t just happening in Japan). Anyway, at around 11:30, they began to form the lines; everyone was given a wristband with a color and number, and had to stand in line in the order which they were called. Soon things began to get a bit tense… primarily where I was at, scrunched between an angry Daily News reporter and a pissed New York Times guy, both of whom wanted to get into the area where the actual sales would be rung up, as did I, but we had to wait for… nothing really, since things were again rather disorganized. It was also at this moment in which I was getting ready (and kinda hoping) for shit to go down. But things went fairly smoothly. Eventually I got inside and was able to see Stringer and Hirai ring him up, plus two other customers. Then they simply let in groups of ten at a time. While inside, I looked back out at the crowd, which at this point were just milling about, waiting for their numbers to be called. It looked like some huge casting call.

So there were 400 “consumers” in total, and they each got a system. But when I asked a Sony rep how many systems they had in total, and what configurations (“what if its spilt between the 20 and 60 gig models, but everyone wants a 60 gig model?”), no one could give me a response. After about half an hour, only 20 or so people had been rung up, so when I realized that I would be there till four in the morning before everyone had gone though, I figured it was time to go home around 1. Plus the place was packed with cops, so I knew that no one would be that stupid to cause problems. But before heading out, I caught up with Alex who was just about to buy his system. The guy was totally pissed; at that point he felt that all the system, as well as all the trouble he had gone through was totally “not with the hassle… I don’t even want it anymore.” Alex was apparently quite miffed how one of the line cutters from earlier in the evening had won a free system, plus all the games. “That asshole was in line for just two hours! My friends and I for three days… that’s messed up… all I got was a free coffee maker” And then I noticed the Starbuck espresso machine which I guess he had won earlier that night. “I’m gonna sell this as soon as I get home. I just don’t want it anymore”

And here’s Here’s a shot from outside of all the people who didn’t manage to get in, and watching the “lucky ones” buying the first round of systems. It was like watching a bunch of homeless folks salivating over rich folks eating fillet mignon some five star restaurant…

… There was about a hundred people on-hand, but I was told at one point there was five hundred of them, but the really shitty weather last night scared most of them off. I sorta expected to run into someone at the event, but that didn’t happen, till I was walking away and I ran into two guys who work at J&L, one of the game shops in Chinatown. They were waiting for their friend who was inside getting a system. I asked if it was for the store and they said no, his friend just wanted one. One of them then said merrily that he didn’t like video games that much, at least to blow $600 on a single system… just enough to hang outside in wind and pouring rain, and smoking cigarettes, to wait for his buddy, and co-worker at a video game store, as he got his.

So yeah, the launch last night was without incident… at least here in NYC, as far as I can tell. Though this morning I woke up to various headlines, such as armed robbers stealing PS3s in California and Ohio, a bunch of linewaiters in Kentucky being the victim of a drive by shooting, though thank goodness it was only a BB gun. And there’s plenty of others, though my fave has to be the dumbass Wal-Mart manager who had the bright idea of having people play musical chairs over the few systems available. Plus, here’s the obligatory YouTube video on the subject, this one of a riot. Okay, so I’m glad I didn’t get caught up in something like this after-all.

As of right now, the system is going for about $2,000 on average. There was actually one that went up to the millions early this morning, but that got pulled since it was probably a scam. Though I’m most curious how much money this guy made.

And it didn’t take long for something like this to pop up.

Meanwhile, over in Japan….

Anyway… even with all this, I’m still not ready to dismiss that the PlayStation3 launch has been an abysmal failure. I know Mike (O’Connor) is totally flabbergasted with people entertaining the notion that Sony would deliver such a low numbers of units on purpose, since it makes no sense to spend a fortune to hype the shit out of something, set it at a price that the actual item is unprofitable (most console manufactures produce their machines at a loss, but the purported $300 for each PS3 is pretty friggin’ insane), and then release a such a paltry amount, to the point that people are fighting tooth and nail over it, or selling it many times the original price on eBay, a profit which Sony sees none of. But the bottom line is any news is good news, and with the PS3 officially the biggest thing ever, its created such an insane degree of urgency that the demand will probably still be there once the hype has died down and more units are finally available. As they say, mindshare is everything.

Though I also am of the belief that Sony is releasing such a low number of system on purpose since the Blu-ray format, primarily their software, is so untested, hence why they need a low user-base, that are more or less guinea pigs, to see how it all works.

Alright, at this point, even I’m sick of talking about the PS3, even though there’s still plenty to discuss and pick apart, such as how backwards compatibility with the PSone/PS2 seems to look shakier than ever. I’ve even heard that even with the upcoming adapter (which someone asked for last night btw, but was denied), third party controllers won’t work with it. But enough for now… time to move onto the Wii. Though now there’s trouble ahead on that front since I have heard that the number of units going to stores are quietly being decreased. I’ve also heard from various places that smaller retail chains have had to cancel their pre-orders. Not good at all. I just spoke with a representative from the Times Square Toys R Us, and he wouldn’t answer my questions regarding the number of units that will be available, though he did say that there should be enough for everyone waiting on line (he also wouldn’t tell me how many people he expected to wait either, but I would have to assume that going by past events, they’ve got to have an estimate or something).

… Okay, enough talk about video games for a minute. Time to get back to real life…

Last night, before the Sony event, I had dinner with Joe, June, and Keith, who’s one half of the team who’ll be creating the costumes for the big rock concert that I’ll be a part of next summer. Unfortunately, the other half, her handiwork combined with Joe’s artwork, and you might have a small idea of what to expect.

Also, the night prior was movie night and, aside from enjoying the Magnificent Seven in the miracle that is high definition (and Charles Bronson has never looked better), I got to watch it alongside a world championship Ti Chi master, who helped to spark an idea I’ve sorta had in my head for a while now; to get back into martial arts. I actually used to do aikido, and wouldn’t mind getting back into it, or some other form of martial arts. Though with everything these days, I have to factor in the time commitment.

Plus, back to yesterday, I struck a business arrangement with one of the Japanese kids that’s a student where I work, one whom I always catch watching some wacky Japanese variety show clip, one that you never see linked elsewhere since you really have to be Japanese to know about them. Anyway, he’s agreed to pass along any and all interesting clips that he comes across for the payment of one pack of smokes a week. So I’ll be passing them along as soon as I get some.

And finally, I’ve recently discovered the wonder that is The Adventures of Phoebe Zeit-Geist, thanks to the IC Forums, and during a Zelda discussion of all things. Its basically a comic featuring a naked white girl that constantly being kidnapped and attacked by Nazis, Eskimos, lesbian assassins, and the like. She’s also kinda dead for the most part. Kinda NSFW.

Alright, gotta get back to my Weekly World News “thing” for later this weekend. Maybe a movie later tonight. And then tomorrow night… back to video games.

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11/16/2006

The Boys In Blue Calls PS3 Linewaiters “Scumbags”!

by Matthew Edward Hawkins

Yesterday my editor at Nick Mag told me how there was a story on NY1 about the line of people waiting in front of the Circuit City at Union Square for PlayStation 3s. The reporter at the scene interviewed several of the folks, and of course, was shocked that anyone would be going through such things for a video game system. The report also mentioned how the management of Circuit City was not at all happy with these folks, and even said something to the effect that they simply didn’t care that they had been waiting in line for days for the system, and would even flat out refuse to acknowledge them come sale time. I believe it was also mentioned that they were going to try and have the line removed or eliminated, but since they’re all waiting outside on the street, both my editor and I wondered if that was at all feasible since the street is public property after-all.

Anyway, on the way to meet up with MK for dinner yesterday evening, I ended up at the Union Square subway station, which is right near the aforementioned Circuit City, so I decided to check out the scene first hand. As expected, there were about a dozen of so folks, mostly sitting in folding chairs, and on the street, right across from the store. I would imagine that at one point, they were probably nested right next to building but were told to move, so they did, at least just enough. There was also a cop keeping an eye on everything, so I decided to ask him a few questions…

I discovered that it was basically going to be his duty, as well as for a few other officers, to keep an eye out on the line as long as needed. I asked if other cops were stationed elsewhere in the city for a similar purpose, and he couldn’t say, though since it was an official command, one would have to assume so. I enquired about Circuit City’s desire to have the line just go away, and he basically said that, so long as everyone in the line remains civil and not act unruly, they can stay where they are. I got the definite sense that this was all a big waste of time and resources, and he’s basically correct. Too bad it?s a unfortunate necessity.

Next I asked what he personally thought about the people waiting in line, and the whole idea of sitting out in cold, for days, all just for a video game system, and he said it was pretty silly, but also mentioned that if he was younger and was into video games, maybe he might be excited enough to do such a thing. But when I mentioned that pretty much everyone in the line were going to simply sell the systems on eBay as soon as they go it, his response was: “Oh, so they’re scumbags!”

On a side note, when I told MK during dinner that I’ll be attending Sony’s official PS3 launch event, which is later tonight, she simply replied with “Please don’t get killed.” But yeah… tonight’s the night, the damn thing finally comes out at the stroke of midnight. And I’m eager to find out, first hand, if chaos will indeed unsue.

Though its not just the PS3 that’s making folks go rabid with anticipation; people are also gearing for the Wii as well. 1UP has been running special features all week, and some have been… not so hot to be honest, but his one is pretty decent, if a bit a stupid. It’s by Scott Sharkey whom I’ve been a fan of for years, plus this picture is kinda funny, in a retarded sort of way:

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11/15/2006

It’s Broken… Naturally

by Matthew Edward Hawkins

- So while on my way to work yesterday morning, I noticed about five folding chairs in front of Best Buy, each occupied by a tired, cold, and surly looking individual (actually, only four… maybe the fifth was on a coffee/pee break?) and I wondered what that might be about. Then it dawned on me… they were all waiting for PlayStation 3s.

Naturally, the launch that’s already happened in Japan, and the one that’s about to hit America, is still making all the game related headlines at the moment (as well as the European launch that isn’t going to happen anytime soon… Euro gamers were dicked over once again with news that they won’t be seeing the system till March 2007… which of course is further compounded by the fact that Sony has made it almost impossible for them to import, thanks in part of them going after Lik-Sang, which sent shock waves of possible legal action to all the other online game retailers like Play-Asia).

Reports regarding the success of the Japanese launch seems to be mixed. We’ve all seen pictures of the long lines of Chinese and homeless people waiting in to nab the system, all paid by hungry online sellers (primarily Yahoo Auctions Japan). Well here’s a Japanese new report showing that even soccer moms are getting in on the action, as well as the near riot that took place when the thing went on sale at the stroke of midnight. And someone at NeoGAF pointed out one dude who managed to grab a 100 systems.

But meanwhile, I’ve also read that, while the system did very well business-wise, it isn’t actually sold out across the board, and a few are still available at major electronic stories in Tokyo.

Though the best/worst/funniest/saddest part of all this is how virtually no games for the system were sold.

- Anyway, after work yesterday, I had some time to kill, so I went down to Brooklyn, the Fulton Street Mall area to be exact, to pick up Everblue 2. I guess the most obvious, and annoying thing about that area is that not a single game store is discernible. Also not helping is how every single store also sells pawned jewelry and cell phones, and that’s what usually takes place in the display window; you absolutely have to keep inside every store to see if there’s any video games, which is always deep inside, or to the back, and again, practically every store has the same layout. Another thing is how, even though its awesome that most have a huge selection of older, often harder to find titles. they’re all displayed in a way that its impossible to see what’s available. One place literally has 20 rows of games, and each is stacked in front of each other, so only about 10% of the front and the side is visible, so imagine a row of that, fifteen feet away from you, with also the glare of the store’s lights getting in the way. Plus I was already tired and dealing with a shitty day thus far, so my mind was all over the place, hence why I had a bitch of a time finding it. But I did! Though I forgot to get extra memory cards, so I can’t really play it at the moment…

Next I went back to the city, and with some extra time to spare, I decided to see if the store manager and/or press representative was there so I could introduce myself (since I’m going to be there all Saturday night, I figured it would be best if they knew who the hell I was). But it was past business hours, so I got the appropriate info and went to the game section. They had about six PS3 on display, and surprise, half of them were not working properly or were flat out dead. I tried playing that off road dirt racing game, which for the life of me I can’t remember the name of, perhaps because its so damn generic sounding (is it MotorStorm or Motor Heat?), and it played very slowly. At first, I was all “WTF?!?!?!” since it was 30 fps at first, then it would get less and less, plus I couldn’t do shit, but I believe the system had overheated or something, plus my controller was definitely busted. Two other systems were frozen with the same game, though one guy was playing the game with problems, so I was able to see firsthand that it doesn’t really run that slow.

Soon it was time, so I made my way to EA’s big holiday press event. Upon arriving there, I immediately made my way towards the Need For Speed Carbon set-up, since both the PS3 and Wii versions, not side by side, but behind each other, which meant you couldn’t see them running right next to each other, which was a good thing, because…

The PS3 version was similar to what I had experienced with the Xbox 360 version a few weeks back at DigitalLife. The Wii version on the other-hand… and I’ve long held to the “its not about the graphics, stupid, but the controls” philosophy behind the Wii, but man… it looked horrible. Maybe seeing the PS3 version immediately beforehand didn’t help, but yikes… And the thing is, and I’m not here to make any dumb Wii is GameCube 1.5 jokes, but I recall one guy at DL going on and on about how the Cube version this year is top-notch, “heads and tails above Most Wanted” which I guess was poor looking (I didn’t know, and if a EA rep was willing to bash it, it must have been pretty bad), so I really wanted to see what Carbon for that system, but now… not so much. As for how it played… not very well. Again, I’m giving every Wii game some leeway in the controls department, but then again, I recall Excite Truck having a similar set-up, and while I was no ace racer with that, I at least had some fun with it. I just couldn’t control shit; I could go in a straight line, but that’s about it. Every turn was damn near impossible, unless I slowed down dramatically, which meant not keeping up with the race. Hence why I grew pretty bored quickly, though my attention was immediately turned towards the bus ads that I kept running into; I thought they were for a PSP! But it turned out, it was only a SideKick.

Also played the new Tiger Woods game for the PS3, as well as its version of Fight Night Round 3. The rep who I played against was a really nice guy, but, like that one Sega rep from a few weeks back at DigitalLife, got on my nerves real quick with his trash talking. I don’t know… I can handle shit talking from a friend, that’s cool, but a PR rep going “Dude, what was that? I’m so gonna beat you!” is just irritating, I’m sorry.

I also brought up with another rep that, with the re-release of Mutant League Football for their classics compilation pack for the PSP, a next-gen update is LONG overdue, and the woman I spoke with totally agreed with me, and said that she’s been long asking for it, since the demand is definitely out there. And when I replied with “Really? It’s not just journalists in their late 20s asking for this?” she admitted that it only came up once in a focus test, but she’s really pushing for it. So at least that’s someone.

Next I went to the Upper East Side to have dinner with Mike (Simses) and talk Weekly World News business. Long story shot, I guess I’m going to be more involved with them in the coming weeks! Later this weekend I’m going to help shoot a vid based on a idea I came up with, and all I can say is that folks who know what I love to hate are gonna LOVE it (especially O’Connor). Stay tuned for details.

Shit, its already Wednesday and I’m already exhausted. Later this week, aside from the official Wii launch event, as well as the official PS3 launch event which I’m gonna check out as well (for the chance to rub shoulders with celebrities, such as TV’s Charlie Murphy… though its really to see if a riot breaks out at the Sony Store), and do some filming for the WWN, plus stuff for GameSetWatch and Nickelodeon Magazine, I’m also meeting up with the costume designer for my big “thing” in Japan next summer, which I’ll try and see if I can talk about next time. Also, movie night’s tonight, and I couldn’t possibly miss The Magnificent Seven in HD.

- Oh, and I may as well mention this now… so apparently all this week is “gamer’s week” on MTV. I haven’t had a chance to check it out since I don’t have cable these days, but apparently Stephen Totilo is featured prominently, which is a good thing! He’s definitely one of the best dudes in the business, and I’m not just saying that because I’m friends with the guy. Though I also heard that Empire Arcadia, which I gotta check out, if only for the sake of morbid curiosity. I wonder if the arcade scene’s equivalent of the trench-coat mafia will be indeed represented on national television, in particular their Power Gloved wearing leader. And if he is, I certainly hope he’ll enlighten the masses with his pontifications, such as his reasoning as to what’s wrong with the video industry today, which for him boiled down to how Sony and Microsoft are “playing dirty… they don’t act like true samuri warriors like Nintendo and Sega back in the day” (actual quote). God I fucking love gamers sometimes.

And on a related note, Major League Gaming’s television show premiered last weekend. Since I haven’t seen it, I really hope they don’t try and make the “pro gamers” look like real athletes and all, since… they are not. Once more, I don’t like baseball, but I have a helluva lot more respect for a pro-base baller who has to train properly, meaning exercise and eating properly among other things, to stay on top his game as opposed to some fat fuck who happens to be very good with the keyboard. But in all seriousness, I still can’t understand how watching people play video games, as well as watching video games being played on television, could be entertaining. Again, I may not like baseball, but its so easy to grasp and view… its so accessible to millions of people out there, even all the nuances. Not so with your average FPS to the average person, I’m sorry.

- Lastly, two random things, courtesy of IC: first, another nifty Game Over screen. And second, some cute slices of Silent Hill fan art:

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