At long last, here it is!!!!

I know many of you are probably excited with the upcoming official release of the Playstation Vita and like myself, probably jumped all over that sweet new deal with the 3G/Wifi Launch Bundle that came with free 8 gb memory card and a free code for Super Stardust Delta with some free 3G service.

Well, that deal isn't so sweet when you I tell you that not only that you have to sign up with AT&T to get the free 250 mb with their DataConnect pass to get Super Stardust Delta, you also have to wait a whole 30 days to be able to get your free game after activating that DataConnect pass.

Now this is an absolutely ridiculous move one someone's part, to make people wait on one of the launch killer apps on the PS Vita for about a month after spending so much on this new hotness. Now, I'm not whining about FREE STUFF but come on, this is just stupid. This is probably one of those things that are locked within contract between Sony and AT&T, which in the end just makes the consumer suffer even more.

[From US.Playstation.com - Vita]

A current trend these days in marketing products is using the creative minds behind the product as a spokesperson to sell their products. In a stroke of marketing genius, French retailer FNAC, is using the mug of the master of the Japanese RPG himself, Hironobu Sakaguchi to advertise the upcoming release of The Last Story in one of their branches in Paris, France.


That's not all they're doing, they're also celebrating the upcoming release of The Last Story on the 24th of February with an autograph session with Sakaguchi himself. This is really how you need to market to your audience these days, using a a recognizable and respectable figure like Sakaguchi to advertise your product instead of some actor who has no clue about that the hell they're selling.

[Via GoNintedo and Hironobu Sakaguchi's Facebook]

Final Fantasy XIII-2 came out today in USA and as one of those people who liked FFXIII, I thought I might want to check it out. I would've bought it but I am saving up for the PS Vita next month so I went to a Redbox instead to rent it a couple of bucks to see if good old Square Enix actually listened to their fans. They pretty much did.

So I fire the game up, see all the pretty action-y stuff in the beginning that made no sense at all and then get to the part where they actually show Serah and I hear a tune that sounds very familiar:

Now listen to the background music for a bit and skip to the 4:00 mark and listen a bit more.
HERE. I totally forgot how to embed videos on the C-blogs. Apologies.

If you're a Doctor Who fan like myself, that might sound a bit familiar and to me, it sounds a lot like this song "Onwards" from the 5th season of the new Doctor Who series:

Doctor Who - Onwards

Now I'm not versed in music but these songs have similarities to them and I can't really articulate as to which parts are the same. Could it be a possible reference since Doctor Who and FFXIII-2 have time travel elements? Will there be Daleks in Final Fantasy XIII-2? Gosh, I hope so. If you'll excuse me, I'm off to play some more FFXIII-2.

Yes, that Battlefield 3 Beta was bad. For some, very bad. I know a lot of you were skeptical about the finished product because of that terrible (but still pretty) beta that had a load of issues. DICE and EA really messed up when they forgot to slap some really obvious disclaimers on the beta telling people that this was A BETA AND NOT REPRESENTATIVE OF FINAL PRODUCT.

A lot of people on the internet got pissed at how this BETA was terrible and thought it was a demo. So here am I to give an informed view on the game and so this is what this quick and short blog post is all about. I got the PS3 version on launch and played a few hours of BF3 multiplayer and some singleplayer.

These are my observations:

-Install doesn’t take very long. Its like 7-10 minutes on my 5200 rpm HDD. Nothing like the longass MGS4 install but at least that had DAT MUSTACHE.

-They fixed the Squad system. Yes, you can now manage squads efficiently. You can invite people to your squad, join squads, form squads, see other squads on a list, and select to join other squads.

-Battlelog is COMPLETELY OPTIONAL for the consoles. It’s a supplement to BF3 multiplayer experience. It’s a multiplatform online stat tracking social network site that you can connect to with your EA/Origin account.

-DAT GRAPHICS ENGINE.

-The PS3 version has a server browser BUT YOU CANNOT MAKE YOUR OWN ROOMS OR PRIVATE GAMES.

-Kit/Loadout menu works really well, once you get used to it. This is one feature that was kind of weird for me after playing dozens of hours of Bad Company 2. You can really get in-depth customization while in the game, which is rather important for these FPS multiplayer games.

-You can switch your VOIP voice chat between Squad and team. It defaults to squad chat but you can toggle it when you hit the start button.

-Default faction specific weaponry is still kind of confusing. If you’re on the Russian side (or any OpFor faction), you start with the iconic AK-74; while on the US side, you start off with the M16 variant which I forgot. You unlock sights and other add-on as you use these weapons.

It’ll be a while until you unlock some since you switch sides every game which switches your starting weapons between the US and OpFor. They don’t spell it out for you and it is irritating not being able to use that sight or foregrip you just unlocked because its on another gun that you won’t be ableto use until the next game.

-Servers are holding up. I didn’t experience lag save for a couple of times. Servers were full a few hours after launch midnight but I had almost no problem in finding a game.

So this’ll be my go-to multiplayer shooter for a while. At least until Starhawk hits.

Elsa and Mongoose, my favorite people from the great white internet north, sent me a package of some random swag from PAX Prime 2010. I play a lot of MAG on the PS3 with them, which you should totally join us for almost every night.

I have a thing for random nerd swag and even I didn't make it to PAX this year, this is the next best thing to being there. Thank you so much guys!