Posts filed under ‘PS3’

In the true spirit of what I used to do for my own blog, here is a code from Subway to play the multiplayer for Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception on the PS3. This is only good until 10/31 and then the early access will close up as the game revs up for retail sales.

D9JJ-KAN2-47??

Oh yes, I’ve left two of the letters hidden to make this somewhat fair for those that come across it a later than others, unless of course someone is just really smart.

Hint: LEAF the vowels behind.

The TV cartoon Ugly Americans tends to be one of my secret pleasures. If I spot it on, I’ll generally flip to it and watch the crazy antics of a guy trying to be a monster social worker. Not to mention the fact that it is kinda cool that his girlfriend is a demon. His co-worker is a wizard who more often than naught acts like a drunken stage magician (probably because more often than naught he IS drunk). Of course, I hadn’t realized just exactly I would be in for by picking up my PS3′s controller and firing up Ugly Americans: Apocalypsegeddon.

A small intro plays that basically tells me that the world is doomed and I have to save it. Standard everyday crisis, right? Anyways, you’re given a weapon that fires anything you put into it and that means ANYTHING. Baseballs, paint-cans, tennis balls, and wrenches will all become your weapons of monster fighting destruction. My first case I took on, playing as Mark the social worker, was to stop the man birds. I made the mistake of playing this while in the company of my fiancee, who was promptly disgusted by the man birds. The man birds walk around flinging filth, dropping shit bombs and  curse the daylight out of anyone in their presence. Such vulgarities as “suckmacoch”  and others forced her to flee the room. Mission successful.

The graphics and auditory enhancements stay true to the series, as well it should. These are the same voice actors as the show has and I would be curious to know if the developer, 345 games, hired any of the animators to help. I question that simply because they nailed the animation style. The story line takes the same trepidations and offensiveness that the show puts out. Quite frankly, it is apparent that this is one of the secret pleasures that should stay secret in my household. I like that I don’t have to keep it secret if I have like minded friends, as the game allows for 4-players.

If you’re a fan of the show, this game is a must for you to get. Enjoy your zombie, demon, and man bird fighting either on PSN or XBLA for only $9.99. Simply put, if you don’t buy it I well send you a man bird to raise as your own and wreck havoc on your social life.*

*This offer is not valid as man birds do not exist, but you get the point!

Just this summer I sold off my old Tippman Custom 98 paintball marker. Even though it had an expandable stock, an expansion chamber with a drop down for the tank,and a response trigger and a cyclone feed system to properly push through balls; I still ended up selling it for $30. You see, I hadn’t been to a paintball course in years. I’ve forgotten what it is like to feel the sting of defeat while trying to doge and mark others. I just figured I was getting too old and fat to be crouching through the woods. Never in a million years have I ever considered giving a speed ball course a try. It seemed too fast paced for me, whereas I like to stalk my prey through the heavy brush. I would likely never have that experience again, if it wasn’t for Greg Hastings Paintball 2.

I find it interesting that before this game came, I spotted my former roommate playing a Greg Hasting’s game on his PS2. Interesting enough is the fact that Greg Hasting’s Paintball 2 is completely downloadable on PSN. I mean it shouldn’t surprise me so much as full games are downloadable, but what did surprise me is how small the game actually is. I wonder if the PS2 disc was actually full or not. I am unsure how big the sport is these days, it seems to be a pain junkie’s version of volleyball in regards to how far outside of mainstream sports it is, but how devoted the players and fans are. As the player progresses through the game, changes can be made to the roster which involves choosing actual professional paintball to add to your team. Heck, even if I was playing in a sport that wasn’t on prime time television, I would still clamor to get my face and stats into a video game. Also, I feel unsure if the average player would really care about the managerial side of things, such as buying a new roster or equipment, other than trying to buy a better marker with which to shoot. I myself rarely made any changes as I could not see the point. Though I did opt to purchase a different marker that had a slower fire rate, but a better accuracy and range. Even then, you’ll be making shots that have to be lobbed at an angle.

The matches themselves are fairly fun, even if the controls are non-standard for an fps. This is because there is quite a range of motion that is provided. Running and ducking throws you into a full dive and aiming while hiding will cause you to peak out from your cover. The option is available to switch which side of the marker your view is on in case you are on the other side of the inflatable cover you’ve hidden behind. While I did say the controls are non-standard, they are quite accurate. To me it seems you can perform most maneuvers a real professional would make. The only thing missing would be to lay on your back, but I don’t see other video games doing that either. I finally bought myself a move and tried a few matches out with it. The movement and aiming with the Move is excellent. I had to use a controller in my left hand as a replacement for the navigation controller, but I made due. I actually think I shot a little better using the Move, though it could be my imagination.

I certainly enjoyed this game, I tend to hit it up when I am sick of blood and gore in other games. The graphics are decent and I am glad that I could not spot a bit of cartoon appearances anywhere, as it would have spoiled the game for me. The management of the team certainly might appeal to some players, regardless of weather they follow the sport or not. I suppose if I go back and look into it, having better players on my team might increase my odds of winning matches, but I tend to be a lone wolf trying to take everyone out by myself. Of course, I myself rather enjoyed the woodsball. It seems this will be the only way to get me back on a field with a marker in hand. If you miss the nostalgic days of being beaten up by paint and would rather not remember the pain, why not give Greg Hastings Paintball 2 a try. It’s only $19.99 on the PlayStation Network and you can find it for the Wii or Xbox 360 for the same price if you look hard enough.

I am simply posting these up because I have one friend who lives and dies for anything Silent Hill related. You know who you are!

Enjoy!

Silent Hill: HD Collection and Silent Hill: Downpour (hover to see which game the screen is from)

What timing could be better to create and release a Captain America pinball table other than when a Captain America movie is on the verge of release? It’s a trick question, so don’t answer it. Behold unto PSN and XBL, the wonders of ZEN Studios on their Marvel Pinball platform, the Captain America Pinball table. Complete with everything a young Nazi hunter would need to get their jollies. I say “young” Nazi hunter because as a child I grew up with movies based on the era of World War II. Ok so mainly just Indiana Jones. However, the theme is not lost on me. My recollection of Captain America, though, is not quite as old. Mainly I remember him as a walking cameo, appearing in cartoons across the 90′s. Needless to say I was pleasantly surprised when this new table reminded me of Cap’s true origins.

Continue reading “Marvel Pinball: Captain America Table – Review And Giveaway” »

This newest addition to the Marvel Pinball series was released at the beginning of the month and with the PlayStation Store finally back up I was finally able to review it. I’m always excited to see the newest Marvel tables as it always seems to relive a certain part of my childhood. Those wondrous moments spent on Saturday morning watching cartoons were a highlight of the week. Even though Spiderman is spectacular, a certain group of heroes has always held a special place in my heart. That group, of course, is the Fantastic 4. Now when you see this name put out for this table, it seems to be written Fantastic Four, but for me that word must always, ALWAYS, be written as an actual number 4.

Continue reading “Marvel Pinball: Fantastic 4 Table – Review” »

If you’re reading this then it means that the PSN Store FINALLY came back up.  Consumers can bitch and moan all they want about their information possibly being stolen.  Regardless, I feel that Sony doesn’t owe you a thing save the offer of 1 year of identity protection. What about a poor (in the loosest sense of the word) company like ZEN Studios? Here they are with a new table for ZEN Pinball and the PSN service, with which they use to earn a living, drops out from under their feet. Now that it is back up both you, the consumer, and I can take a closer look at Sorcerer’s Lair.  Once due to be release on April 26th, now available simply due to services being restored. This means I was finally able to get my grimy hands on a controller and play this new table.

Continue reading “ZEN Pinball – Sorcerer’s Lair Table Review” »

Gaming Claw, a term which I am only able to find references of it on Urban Dictionary and spattering of it in reference to XtendPlay, is foretold to us as a bane to the gamer’s existence.  Perhaps you’ve heard of it and maybe even experienced it?  It’s “The sensation one feels in their hand or hands after extensive play on video games. The hand feels cramped and strained and jokingly takes on the appearance of a claw.”  As with any item our hands use, our hands will eventually become fatigued.  However, Xwerx has created a new accessory to help gamers combat this form of repetitive stress during your extended gaming sessions.  Their invention is a molded foam holder for both the Xbox 360 and PS3 controllers.

Continue reading “XtendPlay Review” »

ZEN Studios amazingly gained access to the intellectual property of Marvel Studios.  They’ve drawn a few super heroes out and have transformed them into some high speed pinball tables.  Available both as DLC for Pinball FX 2 on Xbox 360 and as a standalone game for the PS3 (They didn’t want you to have to buy Pinball FX 2 to play these on the PS3), this title features four prominent comic book creations in a wonderful metal and electronic game.  You’ll have to use your mastery of pinball in order to help these heroes save the world for the evil villains.  Whether playing as Spiderman, Iron Man, Wolverine or even Blade, it’ll take every ounce of skill, focus and determination to rise above and succeed.

Of course, the stakes aren’t as high for you as simply restarting the game takes care of any mistakes.  However, the thrill is still through the roof when you finally set ball on this playable artwork.  Why if I didn’t know better, I’d say that ZEN managed to sneak some artists out with them.

Continue reading “Pinball FX 2 Marvel Tables Review” »

If you’re like me you’ve been keeping abreast of the recent developments regarding the fail0verflow team’s reverse engineering of Sony’s root signature key. This feat allows the generation of signed homebrew code which can run natively on the PS3 without the need for an existing jailbreak which bypasses the signature check. However, beyond the implications of this feat how did the fail0verflow team accomplish the impossible task of reverse engineering a private key from publicly available data? The answer lies in Sony’s botched implementation of Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA).

All code which executes on the PS3 requires a valid signature in order for the hardware to allow its execution. In the case of SELF (Signed Executable and Linkable Format) executable files Sony requires a signature within the file to be present which is an ECDSA signature of the file’s header utilizing Sony’s root signing key as one of the private variables. Sony’s crucial mistake comes in their implementation of the ECDSA algorithm which requires that all signatures be calculated with some unique random number k. Instead Sony used a fixed value for k across all of their application signatures which in turn has rendered the ECDSA algorithm effectively useless.

In the case of ECDSA when the random seed k is constant across more than one signature ECDSA hashing function can be solved for the private key d in the form d = (s*k – z) / r where s, z, and r are either publicly known values or are calculated as part of the ECDSA algorithm from publicly known values.

With the private key d now known SELFs may be generated which pass the security validation on the PS3 hardware and may run as native code without restriction. Furthermore, with this method duplicated across all levels of the PS3′s security layer less scrupulous members of the community may use the same method to trivially generate the private signing keys for game encryption, firmware validation, and even the system’s bootloader.

So with PS3 custom firmwares and native homebrew already starting to show up where does Sony go from here? Only time will tell. However, looking back you can say that you fully understand how it all began.

Now you know!


[Thanks to Armin Tamzarian]