After starting off with Microsoft, it's now time to talk about Sony's E3 showing. Here goes:

• Something of a bizarre one-off, but nevertheless, a clever and interesting gamble, particularly if you use it as a PC monitor as well--a PlayStation-branded 1080p LED-lit LCD 3D monitor with two HDMI inputs, stereo speakers, and integrated subwoofer. You get the monitor, a pair of active 3D glasses (additional are $69 each), an HDMI cable, and a copy of Resistance, for $499. The truly unique aspect of the monitor? If you have a second pair of glasses, you can play split screen games where each player has their own full view of the action (with the caveat that games must be programmed to support that feature). That's right, no more split-screen nonsense! It still remains to be seen if the pricing is truly competitive (and gamers are willing to forgo big screen HDTV's in favor of the smaller form factor), but I do appreciate the effort.
• The NGP's name is official, PSVita, or PlayStation Vita. That name was of course leaked last week. The powerful handheld will be very competitively priced at $249 for the wifi-only version, with the addition of 3G through AT&T going for another $50. While the 3DS has received a tepid response overall, Sony is at least going with the right price point this time around to help what will still decidedly be an uphill battle. It's definitely a promising system though if the public is willing to give it a chance in this age of buzz- and gametime-stealing smartphones and tablets. The handheld offers six-axis motion sensors, dual analog controls, front- and rear-facing cameras (for the now seemingly mandatory augmented reality feature-set), an OLED touchscreen, and a touchpad on the back. Several promising and high profile titles were also announced, so early signs are definitely good.
• Though minor, I found Sony's PS3 wireless stereo headset interesting, particularly since it works with a USB dongle (there's nothing I hate more than having to fumble behind these systems). For only $99 to pre-order on Amazon, it's supposed to deliver 7.1 digital surround sound. Too bad it doesn't hit until October.

Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Time (PS3)As you've all no doubt already heard, PSN is 100% back in many parts of the world, including right here in the US. This of course means that the Welcome Back Program is now available to download all the free goodies to your PS3. I'll be getting to that tonight, though I'm not sure what I'll ultimately pick. In any case, I'll report back in the comments what I ultimately chose. In related news, Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls is now available on PSN, marking the return of a series that has received continuous, but sporadic, releases since the Apple II original in 1981, though some of those were only in Japan. Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls looks to be a definite return to the series' roots, albeit with a love-it-or-leave-it anime style. I'm firmly in the "leave it" camp, but being able to play classic-style Wizardry again might trump any misgivings over the visuals.

Those of you have most likely been reading about all of this drama with the Playstation Network. Matt just reported some of the drama earlier today. I have some BAD news...

The short of it is that the following information about YOU (If you are a PSN user) has been obtained thanks to a security issue -

* Name
* Shipping address
* Billing address
* Country
* E-mail address
* Birthdate
* PSN/Qriocity ID
* PSN/Qriocity password
* PSN/Qriocity security question and answer
* Purchase history

They have also said that credit card information along with expiration date (but without security code) may have also been compromised.

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/26/sony-provides-psn-update-confirms-a-c...

I was just reading joystiq that the nearly week-long outage of the PlayStation Network might have been caused by "Rebug," a custom firmware mod that lets users add money to their PSN wallets. If I understand this correctly, Rebug tricks the servers into thinking that the user is a developer or debugger. Apparently there's no danger of lost personal information, but I wouldn't bet my life on it.

I hope that this fiasco doesn't lead to a general clampdown from the big three on the homebrew community, but I suspect it will. What do you think?

Website CVG is reporting that Crytek boss Cevat Yerli has claimed that developers' focus on PS3 and 360 is holding back game quality on PC--a format he believes is already "a generation ahead" of modern day consoles. I say, "too bad, Yerli, it's good for us gamers!". I've been pining for a reasonably stable PC spec to stop the technological arms race since the days of the 486 PC, but it's never happened. Ever since more recent times when the PC has had to take a back seat in software sales to consoles, it's been the console hardware that's been dictating what kind of big budget software has appeared on PC's (outside of a few high profile exceptions from the likes of companies like Blizzard). Why do I consider such a scenario a win? Simply because we NEED periods of 5+ years or so of stability in order for software developers to catch up to the hardware and start to butt up against the limits of what is possible. If the hardware remains a moving target, then there's less chance for normal coding challenges to be minimized, which leads to more opportunities for innovation since more focus can be placed on design rather than wrestling with the technology. With budgets already in the millions of dollars and team sizes in the hundreds, access to more power is obviously not the answer to the call for better games. Despite what some would like us to believe, there is no noticeable (i.e., real world, not benchmarks) technological divide between high end PC's and the PS3 or Xbox 360 outputting 1080p. Modest platforms like the iPhone and Nintendo DS have already long since proven that it's not necessarily power that succeeds, it's clever design. With that said, no matter what side of the debate you're on, I'd think it's hard to argue with how pleasant the idea is that the hardware we have in our possession now should be able to play the latest games for at least a few more years before requiring an upgrade, right?

Since other media outlets have had to fulfill their apparent obligation this holiday season like every holiday season to recommend what to buy and why, I thought I would join in on the fun, with the big difference with my guide being that I actually own and use all of the systems in question, so I'm not just talking out of a hypothetical butt like some others do. Allegedly. Now here's a bad cell phone photo of my three consoles as evidence (you're welcome in advance for the bikini snow angel):

Since I've had a chance to actually play some games on platforms like the PC, Xbox 360, Wii, iPhone, and PS3 lately, I thought I would share some quick thoughts. After reading, why don't you share some of your own thoughts on those games or some of what you're playing?

Well, chalk me up as surprised, but my first impression of Microsoft's new Kinect is that it's a rousing success for what it's intended for, much moreso than Sony's PlayStation Move or Nintendo's Wii Motion+. I had preordered the standard Kinect bundle, which comes with "Kinect Adventures", from Amazon, along with "Dance Central", as part of a special promotion. It arrived yesterday, which was the official street date when retailers were authorized to actually sell the thing (there were only a few cases of a broken street date). As is usual for a Microsoft product, it's a rather convoluted and bulky setup, but since it actually works, I can't be too critical of that aspect of the device. By the way, as a point of full disclosure up front, as luck would have it, we probably have the ideal family room setup for motion games, with a generous amount of space between the TV and any other obstacles, like our sofas, so, unless you want to move furniture to make the necessary 6 - 10 feet or so of clear space (you want a generous rectangle), know that your mileage will definitely vary from mine in terms of hassle-free play (you'll generally need a less space for Move and Motion+).

I have the old style white Xbox 360, and, as such, I was required to plug the Kinect into the rear USB port and then plug in yet another (albeit small) wall wart (this is necessary, because, among other things, the camera can turn on its own). If I had the new style Xbox 360 slim, it has an accessory port that the Kinect can draw power from directly. Anyway, for those of us with the old style Xbox 360's (which is probably most of us), they also give a small USB extension cable so the wireless networking card dongle can plug into the front USB port, since the rear USB port is a requirement for Kinect. Ugly. However, in my particular setup, both my 360's still have HD-DVD drives attached to them (yeah, I admitted it), which is where I have my wireless dongle attached to, so in fact I didn't need the extender as I could just plug the USB cord from my HD-DVD drive to the front USB port. Needless to say, with the old style white Xbox 360, a USB plug sticking out of one of the two front USB ports and the HD-DVD drive next to it (along with an old style memory card that keeps my sign-ins portable), it's hardly a sleek looking setup, though my launch ("fat") PS3 hardly looks much better since I have the PlayStation Eye camera always plugged into one of the front four USB ports. Looks aside, plugging it all in was logical and went smoothly.

Here's a standard unboxing video that I put a small bit of polish on and placed under the "Armchair Arcade TV" banner. I have another unboxing video that I'll be posting tomorrow, as well as the next actual formal episode not too long thereafter, so keep checking back here on Armchair Arcade.

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