Stop right there! Last time I checked there was a power switch on my PS3, PC, Wii and my sources tell me that there happens to be one on the XBox as well. Why can’t parents use that? Are parents so stupid that they need a Big Red Button to turn the thing off? Last time my Mum didn’t like the game my brothers were playing she pulled the plug out the wall and confiscated the disc. No need for even an On/Off switch there and definitely not a Big Red Button.

Also games in the EU have a PEGI rating which is enforced in some stores and if a game has cut-scenes in-game those are given ratings in the same way as videos. What is wrong with that? My PS3 has parental controls on it that is capable of even more fine tuning. What extra help is a Big Red Button actually going to give?

Time for parents to grow up and quit being lazy. Pull the plug out the wall and scratch the disc with the car keys…

[Source] [Source]

1. If you don’t have the medibuntu.org sources ready, add them:
deb http://packages.medibuntu.org/ hardy free non-free
deb-src http://packages.medibuntu.org/ hardy free non-free

As the versions in hardy-proposed are newer than the medibuntu versions, we need to force and then lock the package versions to install.

2. Run synaptic and search for ffmpeg.
3. Select the ffmpeg package, press CTRL+E, select the medibuntu version and then press “Force Version”
4. Select it again and press Package -> Lock Version. This will make sure that you don’t update it to the hardy-proposed version by mistake.
5. Do the previous steps for the libavcodec1d package
6. Install both packages

You can now use the following command to convert all files in the working directory to PS3 format videos:
find . -name "*"  -maxdepth 1  -exec ffmpeg -y -i {} -acodec aac -ac 2 -ab 128k -vcodec mpeg4 -r 24 -b 800k -mbd 2 -aic 2 {}.ps3.mp4 \;

You can change the -ab 128k to the audio bitrate you want and the same for the video bitrate by changing the -b 800k

However this game is pretty good just with the single player campaign. The basic premise is that you’re a group of soldiers gone AWOL trying to chase down a load of trucks containing gold.

Along the way you get to handle trucks, armoured cars, patrol boats, tanks and even the occasional helicopter while you literally blow away the enemy.

Pretty much all of the environment is destructable, you can blow away all four walls off 90% of the buildings. However it doesn’t go all the way as you can’t completely level a building. That isn’t a major problem as you can still throw a grenade into a building and watch as in full HD the ground is ripped away from under the feet of an enemy on the 1st floor.

The maps are huge as well, and although the routes for the first few levels are fairly linear, the possible routes increase as the game goes on.

The campaign plot is simple but fun and the dialog both in game and in cut scenes is good and comical.

The major point that I didn’t like about this game is the AI, you do feel like the other three characters are not helping and just following you around. For instance, in parts of the story you fight without the other characters and it isn’t any harder than with them next to you.

Also, if you move fast they do instant catchup, it can break the flow of the game to see your fellow company members teleporting into view and they sometimes do get stuck.

However overall this is a really enjoyable game.

7/10

The graphics are fantastic, damage is semi-realistic and the number of different racing styles that you can play is huge.

The crashes are pretty good too, not just when you crash but when another AI car makes a mistake and causes a five car pile up which you juuuusst manage to avoid adding to.

In career mode you win money to buy cars and points to unlock new levels to race. You can eventually hire a team mate to race alongside you and get a team win for the race as well as individually.

AI is a strong point for this game, you start to smile as the car that was just in front of you for the last two laps suddenly loses it and does a barrel roll out of a hairpin bend. It’s almost like the driver was getting nervous and made the mistake due to you slip streaming him for the last four minutes.

This really is an awesome game.

9/10

However the way that the game achieves this is to get a group of mini-games and string them together.

For example, you may be running down a corridor, turn a corner and run smack into a security guard… prompt the ‘fight’ mini game which is basically press block, wait for them to attempt to hit you and then mash triangle and square until Bourne does the coup de grace on the opponent.

You’ll then run off, go through a door and enter and ‘press the button on the screen God of War style’ mini game.

This is annoying because you never feel that you’re in charge of where the game is going, it feels like a 3D platformer.

The visual effects are pretty good however they’re not always seamless and the game doesn’t last long enough to really be able to enjoy it. In fact it lasts just long enough for the gameplay to get gratingly annoying and repetitive before it abruptly ends.

The other thing is that the models used in the game look nothing like the characters from the film, this might be a minor problem for some people, but it would have been nice to look more like the actual films.

Overall: 5/10

I’ve never enjoyed a car racing game this much since Need For Speed: Most Wanted.

The whole environment looks fantastic and the motion sensitive driving works a treat. The cars themselves look great and although you can’t customize them as much as you can in the NFS series, there are enough cars and paint options to keep me at least satisfied.

The physics of the car damage and crashes are fantastic and in the slow-mo crash playback you can hit the R1 and L1 buttons to do a mini game where you try to bounce off as many other cars and buses as possible.

There are a lot of different types of races in the game: straight forward races, survival races, beat the stunt score and ‘takedown’ other car races.

Once you’ve got a car that you’re satisfied with you can hit the right D-Pad button and go online in a freeburn mode where you can play ranked races, do group stunts and more. In freeburn if you takedown another player you get a mugshot of them sent to you if they have the PS3 eye attached.

All in all this is a fantastic game!

9/10

I preordered Assassin’s Creed a month before it came out and my expectations of the game were not disappointed.

The detail in the maps are incredible and the ability to climb pretty much everything will have you roaming the cities for hours on end.

However, if you try to get through the storyline fast (it’s very tempting as the plot is fascinating) you will find some of the info gathering missions repetitive. This won’t effect you too much as unless you try to do all of them they won’t take too long.

Overall it’s a well thought through game with amazing attention to detail and the graphics and locations are breathtaking. The rumors of freezes on the PS3 are not as bad as is made out (I had it freeze about 3 times total) and Ubisoft have released a patch for it which seems to have fixed the problem.

9/10

It was very cold and very, very wet. A lot of the equipment freezed up and wouldn’t work and setting up the site took a long time. However we got a lot of paintball in once we got going.

Last night following a couple of guides (including this one) I installed Ubuntu Gutsy on my PS3.  It’s working fine and loads ok, but the graphics mode and the wifi aren’t correct yet.

Finished Bladestorm last week.

It starts off well (a particularly amazing opening movie) and the rpg element is ok but it drags on and is reeeaaallly repetitive. The ending scene is disappointing as well.

6.5/10