The details are here, and apparently AoB “…plays nicely across territories…” so you’ll be able to kick some non-EU region backside as soon as you download it.

Thanks to TheRook21 for the shouts of “News ahoy!”

Criterion announced another of their upcoming DLC packages today. Essentially it’s a hot rod that goes like stink in a straight line. Probably not good at corners then.

Looks pretty cool though and it is just another example of Criterion’s fine after-sales support of this title.

So that leaves one more “coming soon” slot on their website yet to be filled with a formal announcement. ‘Planes anyone?

I only bought Burnout last night and I have to say, its every bit as good as you all told me. I look forward to these packs when they become available in early 2009.

Enjoy!

Update: 21/11/2008 21:42 
The Official Forum has an update about the Home invites.  It’s not great news - no emails today or over the weekend - but at least it is news and they are hopeful of the problem being resolved on Monday.

This reminds me of the time a friend and I crashed an email server.  We each setup a rule to auto-send an email to the other person when receiving an email from that person.  The poor server couldn’t cope once I’d sent the initial email.  Such fun.

According to VG247, a Barrington Harvey rep on the phone this afternoon said “That’s right. We’re trying to manage the review scores at the request of Eidos…  we’re trying to get the Metacritic rating to be high, and the brand manager in the US that’s handling all of Tomb Raider has asked that we just manage the scores before the game is out, really, just to ensure that we don’t put people off buying the game, basically.”

Thankfully, respectful sites have given Barrington Harvey the finger.  Eurogamer’s 7/10 score, the review of which is now live, has apparently caused “problems” over at the PR firm.  The Official Xbox 360 Magazine has also posted a 7.0 score.  This, in our opinion, is ridiculous, and we now won’t be reviewing the game at all out of general principle.

Some pertinent quotes:

We’re good, we’re good. Everything is fine! Yay! Of course, this is one of the designers saying it – there could be a smokey cabal in the execusphere chittering away and cackling about their master plan. As far as we’ve been told, no, we have the same great support we’ve always had.

I’m not supposed to talk about any specific dates right now but I think you’re going to see some stuff at a few of those ’small’ shows next summer, the ones they throw every year. That’ll give you guys a good indication of where we’re at.

So there you go, that’s one rumour comprehensively put to bed. Follow the link for the full interview.

First off, there’s an article on Colin McRae: DiRT 2, which was discussed on the site yesterday, and a feature on how great this Christmas is going to be, which we discussed earlier in the week (basically they get all their ideas from us). There are also articles on Killzone 2, Demon’s Souls, Quantum Theory, Bayonetta, Fear 2: Project Origin, the PlayStation Network, a few on LittleBigPlanet and an interview with Shuhei Yoshida, president of Sony Computer Entertainment’s worldwide studios. There’s also the usual Blu-Ray demo disc, and a pretty cool separate advertisement for Resistance 2.

In terms of reviews, it doesn’t quite match last month’s uber collection of games, but there are a few decent releases. The full review list of PS3 games is as follows:

• 007 Quantum of Solace: 6
• Alone in the Dark Inferno: 6
• Call of Duty World at War: 8
• Fallout 3: 9
• Golden Axe Beast Rider: 4
• GTi Club+: 6
• Guitar Hero World Tour: 9
• Legendary: 6
• Monopoly: 6
• Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe: 7
• Moto GP 08: 7
• NCAA 09: 8
• Need for Speed Undercover: 7
• Prince of Persia: 8
• Rock Band 2: 9
• Rock Revolution: 4
• Shaun White Snowboarding: 6
• Socom Confrontation: 7

Finally, this month also sees the return of the PS3 Essential Collection Top 20 list after its conspicuous absence last month, which must have a record number of new entries, with BioShock, Resistance 2, Mirror’s Edge, PES 09, Far Cry 2, Midnight Club Los Angeles and Dead Space all featuring. Oh, and for anyone who cares, LittleBigPlanet is, of course, at number 1.

Highlights are LittleBigPlanet for £28.99 and Midnight Club: LA for only £24.99!

Looks like the global economic crisis might just mean I can pick up some of those games on the periphery of my “want list”. Hurrah for greedy banks!

What that means is that every new game published will have to support trophies or Sony won’t approve it. This is good news because it means no more trophy patches for games a couple of months after they’re released so no replaying games just for trophies. It also means nofi won’t be run ragged trying to keep the internet’s best PS3 trophy list up to date.

In an act of pure conjecture I’m going to predict that this might give the secondary market (pre-owned) a surge as people are no longer holding onto games for a few months waiting for trophies. Play, earn trophies, trade in. all within a week or two. This seems contrary to all other noises we’re hearing from the gaming world.

You can discuss this (and anything else you want to discuss) in our Forums. In fact, Ghost5 already is.

As ever, this latest Need for Speed-er is a petrolhead’s wet dream.  The introduction throws you right into the driver’s seat of a souped-up 350Z, and from there even the basic cars pack some serious punch, with the upgrade path to a sporty Elise barely 15 minutes into the game via a generous pink-slip arrangement.  The premise is the usual hocum, although this time the cut-scenes are entirely FMV with apparently famous actors, although what they’re doing here, against seedy lighting and smoke-filled offices, is barely acting.

Regardless.  The movie sections are a means to an end, a big HD arrow pointing you, the undercover cop, to your next objective.  It’s closer to the first The Fast and The Furious movie than EA have been before, with similar twists and the same route up through the ranks to the top racers in the city, who are naturally involved with all kinds of nefarious, no-good antics such as car smuggling and dodgy haircuts.  Your GPS points you to the next location, but a tap of the d-pad transports you instantly to the nearest race if you can’t be bothered driving there.

Around the city’s districts are a few hidden shops, both performance-wise and also for visual modifications.  Although you’re free to pause the game at any time (if you’re not currently racing, obviously) and change, boost, swap and mod your car in the garage, if you’ve not found the required shop in the map you can’t make the modification.  That is, unless you pay.  Real money.  Yes, EA have introduced an in-game system whereby if you can’t be bothered to wait until you level up, or find the right location on the map, you can use your real, hard earned cash.  A quick tally suggests there’s £35 worth of upgrades to be had, and you can even leapfrog the difficulty curve and buy the top-end cars.

This, in our opinion, stinks.  Sure, you’re not forced to do this, but sudden spikes in the AI’s ability suggest that a few quid to jump to a Skyline wouldn’t be money badly spent.  Whether or not you oppose this type of in-game progression is entirely up to you, but we’d imagine that if you’re the sort of person that can happily spend £3.99 on a virtual t-shirt in this time of recession and uncertainty then surely a similar amount to unlock a few high-end cars wouldn’t be an issue.  Again, it’s entirely optional, but the way it’s presented doesn’t sit well with us.

And our problems with the game don’t end there.  Although the vehicles in the game looking absolutely stunning (seriously, better than Gran Turisimo 5 Prologue) with some gorgeous lighting effects and beautiful environments, the game runs like a dog.  It’s roughly 30FPS, but even in the very first intro the game manages to drop to single figure frame rates seemingly at random.  This can occur at any point in any race, and doesn’t seem to be restricted to a specific camera view or even the number of racers on screen, and does indeed ruin the game’s sense of speed and makes handling the cars considerably trickier than it should.

And yeah, there’s also the handling.  Whether it’s the huge understeer, the ridiculous deadzone on the analog sticks or the floaty physics we’re not sure, but bundled altogether even the usually reliable motors like the Lotus drive like shopping trollies.  Granted, we seldom take 90 degree corners at 80MPH in real life, but when you’re resorting to pinging off barriers and other cars because the brakes don’t work and the handbrake acts like a magnet to the nearest wall, races just aren’t really all that fun.  Combine all this with rubberbanding AI like you’ve never seen before, and, well, it’s hard to recommend.

If EA can patch the framerate issues and tweak the handling, Undercover could be a great game.  The map is massive, the range of cars superb and when not in motion the visuals are breathtaking, and the game sports a massive array of online modes in which fans will find much to enjoy.  The game’s problems, however, outweigh anything it has going for it because they’re essentially game-breaking.  Whether the game was rushed at the end to make the usual November release-spot we don’t know, but as it stands this is absolutely only for the hardcore Need for Speed fans prepared to look past the issues.  Everyone else should look for either EA’s own Burnout Paradise or Rockstar’s Midnight Club: LA for their arcade racing action.

Still, news is news.

“I would call out our success in the Mediterranean countries in the last few weeks as a genuine step change from where we’ve been. The investment we’ve made in the right campaigns, the right price point and content that truly appeals to those markets,” said European interactive entertainment boss Chris Lewis. “In Italy, we were double PS3’s sales last week. In France and Germany we are at or better than PS3 consistently now. We dominate in Russia and the Nordic countries and in Spain – a traditional Sony stronghold – we’re now outselling PS3. It bodes incredibly well for our Christmas prospects.”

Via MCV.

We’re not really prepared to test this, but if anyone has had this problem arise, we’d like to hear from you.  One visitor said that LittleBigPlanet wouldn’t let him get any new Trophies until he’d deleted the save game, and we’ve even heard this morning that WipEout HD is refusing to boot at all after a password change.  Here’s hoping this is something that can be fixed with a firmware update because expecting gamers to start their saves all over again is clearly ludicrous.

LittleBigPlanet fever is starting to wear off. We were bursting with excitement to play the beta, dismayed at its delay and then overjoyed at its arrival, but now its here we’ve been discussing whether it will be a mainstream solution for Sony or if it’s actually a bit too hardcore. We’ve also been ranting at the price of its DLC and talking about the problems it’s faced. Don’t worry though, we still love it and we’re going to keep on talking about it as long as you love it because we love you too.

Not in that way, we were never confused!

For those of you who don’t already own LittleBigPlanet (why not?) TSA is going to give you an extra incentive to rush out and get it.

We’re holding a competition to see who can come up with the best LittleBigPlanet level creation. Hopefully this will be an opportunity to learn, discuss and really get to grips with the create mode. CC_Star might even learn how to get his sponges to stick to his string.

Visit TSA’s wonderful forums to find out how to enter.

P.S. Thanks to BioEye who had the brilliant idea in the first place. And Michael for saying we could do it.

Now go create!

As we’ve been hinting at all week,  Home 1.0 is now available for existing beta testers.  We couldn’t get past the “initialising” screen, presumably it’s busy with lots of people trying to get on (great stress test indication) so we’ll check later.  It’s worth mentioning that Home is now a proper part of the XMB, next to the Store, as can be seen in our photograph above.

So, get on, download the client (still about 80MB) and see if you can connect up.  If we ever get as far as the EULA we’ll be able to see if we can finally talk about Home.  If not, well, we’re sure the open beta isn’t far away.

○ Pro Handling Bundle (£1.99)
○ Pro Power Bundle (£2.99)
○ Race Handling Bundle (£1.99)
○ Race Power Bundle (£1.99)
○ Street Handling Bundle (£1.49)
○ Street Power Bundle (£1.99)
○ Aftermarket Body Hit Package (£1.49)
○ Aftermaket Hood, Spoiler and Exhaust Package (£1.49)
○ Aftermarket Wheel Package (£1.49)
○ Collector’s Edition Upgrade (£6.99)
○ Exotic Car Bundle (£3.99)
○ Muscle Car Bundle (£3.49)
○ Paint & Vinyl Package (£1.49)
○ Tuner Car Bundle (£3.49)
○ Ultimate Performance Bundle (£6.99)
○ Ultimate Visual Bundle (£3.49)

There’s also trailers for Pain, Bioshock, Tomb Raider and more Motorstorm 2 videos.  And the soundtrack for Linger In Shadows.

“Colin McRae was all about the speed, the excitement and the entertainment of rally driving. Even when we first worked with him over ten years ago, he captured a freedom and a spirit that enthralled rally fans.” said Gavin Raeburn, senior executive producer at Codemasters Studios. “Later his showmanship shone through in events such as the X-games, the Dakar Rally and the Race of Champions. He could do things with a car that no one else would and that’s where we’re taking the series with new events at the extreme edge of rally and autosport. It will be a great tribute to an incredible champion.”

DiRT 2 will be powered by the third generation of the EGO Engine and will benefit from tuned-up car-handling physics system and new damage engine effects. It will also showcase a new level of visual fidelity, with cars and tracks twice as detailed as those seen in Race Driver: GRID. DiRT 2’s garage will house a best-in-class collection of officially licensed rally cars and off-road vehicles covering seven vehicle classes. The opening drive is the Group N Subaru; essentially making the ultimate car from the original game the starting point in the sequel and the rides just get even more impressive.

Apparently the crowd was “simply amazed by the clarity of the image displayed on the massive 220 inch screen, and the players who participated in the time trial expressed their excitement of how perfectly in focus the screen is even close up, and at the quality of Gran Turismo.”  I bet no-one asked when the damned thing would be coming to the PSP, though.

Whilst Nat Geo are definitely getting into gaming I can’t find any evidence that this means a US (and hopefully therefore a European) release for the previously Japanese-only “photo-em-up” and the aforementioned sites don’t quote their sources so this is marked as rumour until something solid can be ascertained.

It does sound feasible though and Afrika looks stunning so here’s hoping it does turn out to be true!

Anyway, most of the discounted titles are crap but Pure might be worth a punt.

There are also discounts on other formats but I only linked the PS3 ones because I don’t want you buying anything on the Xbox. Nothing, y’hear?!

Torr has taken the traditional platformer and imbued it with a sense of pervading darkness, not only in the gritty art style, but with the perilous puzzles and characters you meet along the way. Eschewing voice acting for subtitles, he’s been able to accurately portray the text-based communication of the site you are traversing. Cameo appearances by some of the most interesting characters from the real site, with hilarious yet doom-laden dialogue, are so well crafted that replayability is guaranteed. Perhaps the best is that of Michael the Receptionist, a stunningly beautiful realisation of TSA’s most active and well-loved writer. *

Often over-used in games is music, and it’s here that Torr has stuck to the less-is-more philosophy that serves him so well elsewhere. The mostly joyful ditty that accompanies even dark moments is an amazing contrast, and when the music does change you can almost feel the atmosphere growing more tense. Eventually, you’ll encounter the mighty Nofi, towering over the game as he does the site. It’s a brave depiction, but it pays off and gives the game the extra weight it deserves.

There’s more to discover than the main story, with Torr incorporating plenty of general platform foraging and fun in order to collect everything on offer. It often provides a nice distraction from the main story, allowing you to take a breather from the heavy stuff. Torr has said he’ll send a “crappy plastic key” to the first person to ace the level, but unit sales and therefore revenue will ultimately decide that.  There have been many PSN debuts over the course of the PS3’s life, but TSA Towers eclipses them all. This is a masterwork of story-led design coupled with a never-ending mix of satisfying platforming.

We await what comes next from Torr’s twisted mind with barely contained glee.

10 - Unmissable.

As this review went to press we heard that the game may be supported with DLC, including new secret areas and some previously unseen comedy subtitles.  Search for “TSA Towers” from within LittleBigPlanet to find the level.

* - as voted for by Michael.

Regardless, there’s loads to look forward to, and we’re sure you’ve read through the list already, the simple fact is that in just 2 hours Microsoft unleash the New Xbox Experience, something we’ve been testing for just over a week.  The NXE, as it’s dubbed, offers full Avatar support beating Sony to the punch in some respects, although apparently Sony aren’t happy with 360 users seeing certain Sony films…

Sure, there’s no Home Space equivalent, there are no minigames to play and no stupid dances to ‘partake’ in, but the fact is that Microsoft are on the ball with the new dashboard: it’s clean, easy to use and a refreshing change from the previous dull blade system.  Whether it’ll be expanded to offer ’spaces’ in the future we don’t know, but the option to install full games to the hard drive is a real blessing.

So, all eyes now on Home, and what Sony do with the 1.0 release.  We know it’ll stay in closed for a few days, then spread wider quite quickly, but thankfully public release dates still haven’t been leaked.  If anyone’s in the current Home closed beta and fancies a get-together real soon, drop your PSN in the comments and we’ll organise something.

Last week’s free content was designed by the SCEE competition winner and was the pretty cool Sack-Eating Plant costume, this week it’s the turn of the SCEA competition winner with their Sack-In-The-Box costume.

The premium content this week celebrates the release of LocoRoco2 with another bundle of five costumes for $2.99 I can only presume that European pricing will be similar to last weeks value bundle.

Again there is no anouncement of time limited premium content.

Source: US Blog

Rest assured though that the update list is comprehensive and all our issues with earlier versions have been put to rest, and there’s some really exciting new features in there.  A few of which we’ve rumoured here on TSA in the past, but it’s nice to see them in black and white.

Your patience will be rewarded.

The Gamefly email:

“Dear ****,

“We have removed The Agency (cancelled) for PlayStation 3 from your GameQ. There are two possible reasons for this removal:

“(1) For released titles, we no longer carry the game and do not know if or when we will acquire new copies.

“(2) For unreleased titles, the game has been cancelled by its publisher.

“We apologize for any disappointment this may cause. If you have any questions, please contact us.”

Sony Online Entertainment have since confirmed with ps3fanboy the project “is still alive.”

Despite snooping around on the Internet I haven’t been able to find out if this potential misinformation is the work of U.N.I.T.E. or paraGON, or if it was somebody on their first day at work pressing the wrong button.

For some (rather limited) further information about the game, check out The Agency’s website or have a look at TSA’s post about what the implications of MMO’s on consoles may be in theThe MMO’s Are Coming.

Via Joystiq

The rumour about the lack of playing time in Sucker Punch’s great looking game started after an interview published last week, in which Creative Director Nate Fox said, “It seems to me that it’s not about length, but about quality,” which the rumour-mongers took to mean that inFamous wouldn’t be that long a game.

But now in the words of Sony, “inFamous is still in development at Sucker Punch and the game’s length is still to be determined.”

Well, that’s cleared that up then, so it may still be short or long nobody knows, but at least Sucker Punch are focusing on quality, so hopefully when it debuts next spring it plays as good as it looks

More can be found at Sucker Punch.

Wait, there is!

Visit the TSA Forums to hear what our readers (and writers) think about the wonderful world of Playstation 3. Or anything at all really, people discuss all sorts of weird crap there. Not all of it makes sense, most of it is funny and every last word is friendly and entertaining.

Some of my favourite topics at the minute:

Pixl1983 marks the PS3’s birthday.

CaptainMurdo starts an interesting discussion aimed at getting the most lag-free experience online.

Andytorr starts us talking about our alltime favourite games.

Infa-Mouse got a new TV, everyone else shows off their set-up. Mine’s too dusty to photograph…

Then of course you have the details of our LBP create competition and the fantastic Bargains thread.

So, if you like your forums to be friendly, informative, helpful and entertaining and you don’t mind a bit of good-natured insulting and possibly inappropriate joke-making then TSA Forums are the place for you.

Did anyone else notice that almost all forum threads descend into madness within about ten posts?

Growing out of the monster of over-priced games, the second-hand market serves a purpose for the consumer.  Pre-owned shelf space matches or surpasses the space for new games in many shops.  Imagine that, you have a choice.

Buy your cellophane wrapped new game or spend less and get your almost-exactly-the-same game sans cellophane.  And once you’ve played, take the game back and trade.  It’s what happens when consumers grow tired of paying more than a product is worth.

And it’s when publishers start to turn on the waterworks, complaining that the second-hand market is killing the industry.  If it is, it’s doing it in the same way that piracy is killing the industry and preventing great games like MGS4, GTAIV, and LBP from being made.

If the industry is dying at the hands of a consumer-led revolt to pay less, you’ve got to understand that the people killing the industry aren’t the consumers.  It’s the same people complaining about the second-hand market that are killing the industry, because they are the ones that created that market.

And that’s why they don’t want you to be free to choose, because it’s too dangerous.  GAME et al are making money they should be making and they don’t like it.  Cue propaganda to persuade you this is bad, cue a step towards a ‘closed market’.

Until they wake up and realise the thorn in their side is from their own shit-smelling rose, take advantage.

The views expressed here are those of therealcelshady and not of TSA.  therealcelshady can be contacted at therealcelshady@thesixthaxis.com

TSA: Hi Geosautus.  So, how was the fact that your level was moderated communicated to you?

GEOSAUTUS: Well, My PS3 is broken so I haven’t really been able to play the retail version of LBP yet. The only info I’ve gotten is through various forums commenting on the sudden absence of my (and other people’s) levels. I feel totally helpless.

TSA: So how do you feel after all your hard work has been denied the audience it deserved?

GEOSAUTUS: It seems as though both God of War and World of Colour has been taken down. God of War was understandable - since it contained copyrighted material and pretty excessive gore it didn’t really come as a shock. Today I read that World of Colour had been moderated too. It contained no copyrighted or offensive material so I don’t understand why it was moderated - and with the current system I doubt that I’ll ever find out. I’m furious.

They need to sort this stuff out. I usually spend about a week or so building and testing each level before publishing it, so if both my levels have indeed been moderated that’s two weeks of work wasted. What makes it all even more frustrating is that when some of my levels were stolen (e.g. copied and republished), they didn’t do anything about it. So stolen levels are okay, great levels are not. Nice. The moderating system is clearly broken.

TSA: Has there been any communication regarding changes that would allow the levels to be reinstated?

GEOSAUTUS: I have just sent emails to members of the team at Mm, but I haven’t recieved a reply yet. If they can’t work this out, I can see a lot of people - myself included - abandoning this game. And that would be a real shame. 

TSA: Do you see LBP level design as a potential way into the industry for you or others like you?

GEOSAUTUS: Sure, why not? I think that great level design is great level design, regardless of the tools you are using. I think that LBP is a great and inexpensive (granted you already own a PS3) way to test your level design skills.

TSA: How do you design your levels? Do you design in a linear fashion from start to finish, or do you design sections one at a time and then link them together at the end?

GEOSAUTUS: I usually build levels in a completely linear fashion. Just designing one bit at a time, rarely knowing what the next section will be like. This changed a bit in Mad Mansion where I had the last section planned out before I started building it. I have also started planning my next level. But right now I’m just not sure if I’ll continue making levels. I’m just really frustrated right now.

TSA: What’s your favourite level of the user created stuff you’ve played?

GEOSAUTUS: I haven’t really played any LBP since the beta. My PS3 broke the day before I got LBP. I did get a chance to play Azure Palace at a friends house, and I really liked it. But appearently it has also been moderated. They need to stop moderating all the good levels!

Thanks for your time.

Everyone interested in this aspect of the game should read and sign this petition.

These days I can play against people across the world, get new content for my games and even new features for my console; sounds great, right? Well, a lot of people can be jerks and new content can cost a pretty penny, but that could just be me being cynical.

Patches are something PC players have long been used to and at face value they’re great, adding new features or fixing bugs. Sometimes I worry though that now developers know they have the ability to patch, games are being forced out the door early knowing they can be fixed at a later date. In Fallout 3 PSN updates cause the game to pause for several seconds, surely that is a basic problem that should never have passed Sony or the internal QA’s testing. Knowing it could be fixed later it makes more sense for them to put the game out day and date with the Xbox360 version. Even our beloved LittleBigPlanet is missing the online create feature that was originally intended for release, with no idea when we will see it added.

Alone in the Dark was a game not fit for release day and date with its 360 counter part and so was pushed back to be fixed. It sounds like we should be getting a much better game because of this, the developers took the time to make the game work and also fix the problems even the original 360 version had. So instead of several months of a broken or unfinished game, we got a better, more complete experience on release day.

Onto downloadable content. Our good friend DLC has been amazing at adding much free content to PS3 games such as Pixel Junk Monsters and Burnout Paradise, but what it gives with one hand it takes with another. LittleBigPlanet costumes that were probably completed before the game was shipped are being charged for, some as much as £4! Soul Calibur 4 came with “console exclusive” characters that they then had the gall to charge for later. In the old days all this content would have been on the disc instead of trying to lynch us later.

I have documented my love hate relationship with online play before. As much as some of these things irk me, when used correctly the online console is a fantastic experience. Games such as LittleBigPlanet would have not been the same without it, I just wish some develepors would stop using it to rip of the consumer and push out incomplete products.

For me, this great season of videogames began with BioShock in mid-October. I’ll admit that I was a little bitter about this being a 360 exclusive, and so I was thrilled when it was announced for PS3, and I bought it on launch day. Far from being another cloned FPS, this game has enough originality to deserve a purchase. Despite being a relatively linear game, it has enough exploration and surprises to keep you going for hours (although I did complete it twice in the first week).

Next came that little-known game, LittleBigPlanet at the beginning of this month, which to be honest has been discussed so much on this site that it hardly needs mentioning here. However, it is important to remember that this is Media Molecule’s first game, and is completely awesome, so just think what they could give us in future games.

Unless I want my next bank statement to be in the red, that’s all the games I can justify getting at the moment, but there’s plenty more I want in the weeks leading up to Christmas, starting with Fallout 3. For a game that has a lot of glitches to still get good reviews is saying something. However, with so many other games, I’ll wait for them to be fixed before I buy this one. The future trophy patch is another reason for me to hold on for now too.

Then Friday saw the release of both Mirror’s Edge and Call of Duty: World at War, two games which I’d be a fool for not looking into. As I’m not normally a fan of FPSs, for the majority of games I’m mentioning here to be from that very genre is something of a turn-around. It’s a testament to developers nowadays, constantly striving to breathe fresh life into this tried and tested genre.

Also, in previous posts, I’ve made it clear I’m a big fan of the Guitar Hero series, and so it will come as no surprise to learn that one of the games I definitely want is Guitar Hero: World Tour. Despite rather mediocre reviews, I just love the series and as a drummer myself, I’m really looking forward to seeing how they’ve incorporated it into the game (because I didn’t get the drums for Rock Band).

Finally, the end of November will see the release of Resistance 2, which I’ll be getting simply because I liked the first one. As aforementioned, I’m not a huge fan of FPSs, so it took me over a year to finally persuade myself to bother completing Resistance: Fall of Man, but when I did, I found myself enjoying it and wanting to know what happens next. I hear the sequel is more of the same on a much bigger scale, so I’m really looking forward to slaughtering a new batch of Chimera.

So now I’ve had my say, what are you spending your money on in the next couple of months? There are far too many games to mention here, with the likes Tomb Raider: Underworld, MotorStorm: Pacific Rift and Quantum of Solace all getting decent reviews, so I just hope Father Christmas has a big enough sleigh.

Hot Topic: LittleBigPlanet:

• First news that levels are getting mass-moderated
• Will LBP be the PS3’s first casual hit?
• Gears 2 stomps all over LBP in the first week of sales
• SCEE man says 0.5% of all LBP levels moderated
• SCEE statement on the moderating issue
• My Naked Sackboy
• LBP is really only for the hardcore
• LittleBigPlanet’s early issues - a discussion

Industry News and Thoughts:

• Next to start selling games
• Epic dude thinks of ways to kill second-hand gaming
• GameStation offer free postage
• Ubisoft release dates list
• The current state of the gaming industry examined
• US sales data isn’t pretty for the PS3
• Insider trading

Rumours:

• Sony Cambridge working on new WipEout HD tracks

Download Content News:

• Dead Space DLC coming
• SingStar Update for 13/11/08
• Mirror’s Edge DLC coming
• This week’s LBP DLC revealed
• Early look at the PSN Store content for this week
• Full PSN Store content list
• The next Burnout Paradise update is: toy cars

TSA Community:

• The keys to Liberty City
• The TSA LBP level

Reviews:

• Mirror’s Edge
• MotorStorm: Pacific Rift

The forum thread starts here, and the level is meant to go live at some point today, entitled TSA Towers.   We’re told the level is almost done, it’s not massive, but there is lots of nice detail. There are stabbings, rain and haircuts, £3.99, the forum (which is a very disturbing place), a receptionist named Michael, tequila, spelling & grammar and lots more.

Sounds like just another day at the TSA office, we can’t wait.  Oh, and if this gets moderated without giving us the chance to fix any issues, TSA will officially be a LittleBIGPlanet-free zone from then on in.  Grief that.

Friday the 14th of November was the UK’s biggest release day for the volume of releases across all platforms.

We saw Call Of Duty: World At War, Mirrors Edge, Shaun White Snowboarding, Guitar Hero World Tour (Complete band set) Football Manager ‘09, Lich King for Warcraft (well Thursday), Wii Music and loads of other Wii & DS games, plus there’s quite a few titles I can’t remember as well.

So who were the winners and losers? How did the PS3 measure up in in the multi-platform stakes?

Well I don’t have all the info, but hopefully just enough to give you a snapshot.

CoD 360 - 94 (+14 Collectors edition)
CoD PS3 - 58

Mirrors Edge 360 - 36
Mirrors Edge PS3 - 23 (despite the advertising being done exclusively on PS3)

Wii Music - 4 !

GHWT Complete Band Wii - 5 (beating Wii music)
GHWT Complete Band 360 - 6
GHWT Complete Band PS3 - 4

WoW WotLK PC - 120 sold out and could have sold more (this was the 2nd day, it sold even more on 1st day)
Football Manager ‘09 PC - 158 !!!

So the consoles have been pissed on by PC with the ever popular Football Manager winning the day overall, but the week belonging to World Of Warcraft’s Lich King expansion.

The PS3 also hasn’t matched the 360 on the multi-platform titles, this is just one stores sales and may or may not be representative of the country as a whole, but as far as I know there are as many PS3’s as 360’s in the UK although I may be wrong on this, so these figures may be disappointing, and may indicate that the stories of the lower important attachment rate on the PS3 than the 360 are true.

If this does turn out to be a snapshot of the UK as a whole though, it’s not great news for Sony because we all know they could do with shifting more PS3’s and this perhaps shows they’re not shifting enough game titles either.

Earlier in the week we saw GoW2 beating LBP in last weeks sales (not sure if the reported figures were sales to stores, or from stores to the public), but I don’t think that paints the whole picture as actual retail sales may not have been as good as expected.

My store was delivered 300 copies of GoW2 for the week. 182 are still left on the shelf, so although day 1 sales were enormous it hasn’t hardly shifted a single copy since then, and there are about 5 already traded in, and I’d expect quite a few more this week, as people realise that there should be more to next gen gaming than just bigger weapons.

Here’re the stats for October.

Hardware Unit Sales

1. Wii 803K
2. DS 491K
3. Xbox 360 371K
4. PSP 193K
5. PlayStation 3 190K
6. PlayStation 2 136K

Top 10 Software

1. 360 - FABLE II 790K
2. WII - WII FIT 487K
3. 360 - FALLOUT 3 375K
4. WII - MARIO KART 290K
5. WII - WII PLAY 282K
6. 360 - SAINTS ROW 2 270K
7. PS3 - SOCOM: U.S. NAVY SEALS CONFRONTATION 231K
8. PS3 - LITTLE BIG PLANET 215K
9. 360 - NBA 2K9 202K
10. 360 - DEAD SPACE 193K

Via Playstation.Blog

I want to be very clear about how great this piece of software is because I really don’t want anybody to be under the false impression that this article is designed to put anyone off buying the game. If you don’t already have the game its worth buying it. In fact, you’re missing out if you don’t own it.

This article, however, deals with the problems that some users have had with the game. From the server issues that people have had to the borderline extortion that was the first week DLC and now the furore over “moderated” levels. That’s moderated in inverted comments because Sony seems to think that “moderated” is a synonym for “deleted” or possibly “deleted and prevented from ever being uploaded again”

Firstly I will address the server issues. There is obviously a lot of traffic on the servers and there is obviously a substantial amount of data being transferred when people meet up online to enjoy a user-created level. You have the character and controls from each person and the level data all being transferred so I’m sure that would be quite a load. Unfortunately that just isn’t a good enough excuse (although SCEE and MM have given no excuses, they haven’t even acknowledged that there’s a problem with this). They are selling a product on the principle that it’s fun to do online with other people so they should have the ability to do it online with other people solid before they take your money.  All we can hope for is that SCEE get the servers sorted in time for us to have a few weeks of lag-free fun before they go in to meltdown again on Christmas day.

Now, to the downloadable content. £3.99 for a t-shirt that proves you had the game in its first week seems a lot. Personally I think that asking that much for that item from the people that have supported your project from week one (and in the months leading up to week one) is disrespectful. I think Sony should have given it away as a thank you for those loyal users standing by the project for so long and early-adopting, especially in light of the fact that those early adopters only got half a game because the multiplayer servers are so flaky and the created content so prone to deletion without adequate warning or reason. This brings me to the biggest issue: The “moderated” content.

Tempers are flaring and users are losing patience with the whole moderation process, criticising Sony and Media Molecule everywhere they can find an outlet. SCEE even saw fit to release a statement on Threespeech, which should be noted for two reasons: Firstly Sony don’t respond to their disgruntled users very often and secondly, Threespeech  don’t very often publish anything around the time when it happens, they usually need a three month run-up and a carefully placed trampette to get themselves onto a bandwagon. So this must be an important issue.

Geosautus, the creator of one of the most popular (and really rather good) levels, World of Colour (amongst others) told TheSixthAxis today: “I understand why they need to moderate stuff that is naughty and/or offending, but I don’t understand why they need to moderate levels inspired by other games. It’s no different then fanart. It’s just a tribute to the game. I just don’t see the threat here.

If they aren’t careful with the moderating they might just put a lot of people off making levels, and that’s the last thing they want.”

I agree, Sony have got to handle this carefully for fear of putting people off the game altogether but at the same time they have to be very careful from a legal standpoint too otherwise they risk costly court cases and (more) bad publicity.

Well, I’ve looked into the matter and you’ll all be overjoyed to hear that it’s not as simple as it seems. The primary reason SCEE have given for “moderating” levels is that they either contain offensive material (although that is an impossible term to define as one person’s acceptable is another person’s offensive, where do they draw the line?) or material that is copyrighted. Here’s where it all gets a bit complicated. Some users (myself included) have lost levels that they are sure had nothing offensive and nothing that infringed copyright. The moderating system used in the game gives no feedback as to why your level may have been “moderated” although to their credit SCEE and Media Molecule have admitted that this needs a bit of work and are already looking into ways of improving the feedback they give to “moderated” level creators.

An unfortunate side-effect of having your level deleted is that it removes all evidence that there ever was offensive or copyrighted material in the first place. SCEE can’t prove there was (they don’t have to thanks to their EULA) and the user can’t prove that there wasn’t.  In many ways the question is moot because the process has annoyed people enough that it doesn’t really matter if they were breaching copyright and deserved to be taken down, they are still going to shout about how unfair it is.

In preparation for writing this article I read hundreds of posts on dozens of internet forum pages, I watched numerous videos of levels on YouTube which those forum posters had claimed were deleted unnecessarily. At no point did I find any solid evidence that SCEE or Media Molecule had removed a level that did not breach copyright.

Let me restate that. I can’t find any evidence that LittleBigPlanet levels have been deleted without good reason. That doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened. I myself had a level “moderated” which I believe had no reason to be deleted. Our very own CC_Star had the same thing happen to him and I trust his word, if he says there was no infringement then as far as I’m concerned there was no infringement. My point here is this, the search for evidence was futile because by the very nature of the problem the evidence is deleted. In the very few cases where people had video of their level before it was removed there was always a case of copyright infringement. I believe that levels have been deleted without reason (even though I can’t prove it) and I think Sony should admit this and apologise but I also think that in the vast majority of cases there has been copyright infringement and the level removal was necessary to remove legal liability from Media Molecule and Sony.

All things considered I think there is a bigger problem here which is symptomatic of the world of digital distribution, file-sharing and user-created content. The vast majority of users do not understand what copyright is, means or can be used to protect. For instance, one of the aforementioned disgruntled forum posters simply could not believe that his level may have been removed because it contained an image of a Playstation 3. His logic was that the game was exclusive to that machine, everybody playing on it would have that machine sitting in front of them and therefore know what it looked like and his level was, in a way, a tribute to the console. Legally it doesn’t matter, Sony own the image of the PS3 so we can’t use it. No exceptions, it doesn’t matter what we think is right, the law is clear and Sony/Media Molecule have got to protect themselves against lawsuits or potential misuse of their own intellectual property.

Creators think that because their levels are a “tribute” to other games that they should be ok. According to the law, they’re not (and in UK law neither is the fanart which Geosautus cited as precedent in his comments above). You simply cannot use the likeness of something you didn’t design. Finally, another argument I’ve seen for this copyright infringement to be allowed to pass is the “parody” argument. This is the most interesting. According to the law in the litigious hotbed that is the good ol’ USA you are allowed to use the likeness of a thing in order to parody or mimic it for comedic purposes. So, all those levels that depict 360s with the red ring of death would be fine because they are intended for comedic parody.

The problem with this argument is that UK law does not have an allowance in its copyright legislation for comedic parody. That means that all those 360 levels mentioned above are illegal in the UK.

Now, I was unable to discover where the LittleBigPlanet servers are located (although they seem to be in the UK) so we are using a little conjecture for the sake of a fluid argument here but if they are in the UK then those levels break the law and must be removed. In fact, if those levels are available to the UK then the server, whether located in the UK, US or anywhere in the world, is being used to distribute illegal material in the UK and Sony/Media Molecule must remove the levels to stop themselves being sued in the UK. There really is no choice to be made here, they either remove levels or get sued. Remember the eyes of the gaming world are on LBP, Sony does not need a lawsuit.

I think the levels of complaints are mostly due to the fact that most people don’t understand copyright law. There is a notion that certain things are public domain or that because we’re not making money from them it must be OK to use other people’s intellectual property. I remember about ten years ago I produced an interactive CD-Rom that could be distributed to thousands for a client that was managed by committee. They were a non-profit organisation so the whole project was done on the cheap for them and the final bill was £1,600. When it came time to hand over the master copy and sign off on payment one committee member questioned the payment saying that £1,600 for one CD was unreasonable as she could go to HMV and buy a CD for £15. It took us about an hour to explain that she couldn’t then copy that CD and give it to thousands of other people as that was illegal; she was paying for the right to use our intellectual copyright. This was an intelligent woman who had a hand in running a large organisation. I thought my business partner might throw her out the window at one point.

So, there is really no question, if we stray from copyright law we have got to be moderated (although as mentioned previously the process could be managed more satisfactorily). So why then are there still so many levels, including the most popular ones, still online when they clearly and deliberately break copyright? Is it because those are the best levels so Sony will let them slide for as long as they think they can get away with it so the user experience remains as good as possible? Is it because the sheer number of levels being uploaded means that it takes many man hours to keep the whole thing regulated and respond to all the user grief reports? Is it because in the hundreds of thousands of times these levels have been played nobody has grief reported them and Sony simply don’t know of their existence?

I will let you make your own decision as to which scenario is most plausible but I do have one more thing to add. As an experiment, call it investigative journalism, I grief reported three levels. Each one had been played tens of thousands of times. Each one was on the first three pages of the “cool levels” section. Each one clearly and deliberately broke copyright law and was also clearly unable to use the “Comedic Parody” clause that we’ve already discussed and, I think, proven useless anyway. Each level broke intellectual copyright in a different field, one was gaming, one was movies and one was music. 24 hours later and how many had been moderated? None.
Sources and further reading:

Sony Statement. Posted on ThreeSpeech about the moderation issues.

Kotaku Story. About the moderation issues.

Littlebigworkshop Moderated Levels Thread. An example of the comments floating around cyberspace.

U.S. Copyright Law. So you can see where I got my facts from.

U.K. Copyright Law. So you can see the difference between U.K. and U.S. law.

PS3 Exclusives:

Resistance 2 - 6
Socom Confrontation - 5
Valkyria Chronicles - 7

PS3 / Multi-format:

Fallout 3 - 7
Call of Duty: World at War - 6
Mirror’s Edge - 5
007: Quantum of Solace - 5
Tomb Raider: Underworld - 8
Guitar Hero: World Tour - 7
Silent Hill: Homecoming - 6
Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip - 7
Tom Clancy’s Endwar - 8
Need for Speed Undercover - 3

Other formats (not on PS3):

Left 4 Dead - 9
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts - 7
Gears of War 2 - 9
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning - 7
Animal Crossing City Folk - 7
Ninjatown - 6
Command & Comnquer: Red Alert 3 - 7
Manhunt 2 - 4

Source: GAF.

“Don’t look back” it said.  Obviously I did, and nearly crashed into the car in front as I failed to notice the brake lights, so engaged was I with checking out the, er, release date.

Here’s the thing: I’ve now seen more adverts for Mirror’s Edge than I have for LittleBIGPlanet.  I think that’s bonkers.

Still, at least the trip to TSA Towers to open up for His Majesty was more eventful than usual.

Following Glennpfc’s excellent feature on whether LittleBigPlanet can be the PS3s first mainstream game, I’ve decided to put forward an alternative view point:

LittleBigPlanet is almost exclusively for hardcore gamers!

Glennpfc’s feature talks about Sackboy as a potential system shifter, something capable of reaching out beyond the traditional PS3 user demographic and appealing to the mass market strongly enough to entice people to buy the PS3 over its rivals, and whilst I agree the potential is there for Sackboy to just that I don’t believe it will be in this edition of LBP that will see people ditching their Wiis, 360s (& PS2s) to come and buy a PS3.  Why?  I’ll tell you.

Play.

Playing through the story mode is great, the imagination and creativity of the content is amazing, the way the game gently eases you in is very well done. The slightly spongy controls don’t matter as there is nothing too dangerous around, and the occasional slip up with the z-axis isn’t ever fatal, at first. In fact I believe the (very slight) lack of precision on the jump controls actually help first time gamers, as Sackboy hangs in the air that bit longer than maybe experienced gamers are used to.

So far so good for the mass market? Yes, but (and its a big but) once the early levels are are out of the way and you progress to the different curators and the difficulty level is ramped up, there aren’t many children or girlfriends that will be able to get through the 3rd zone and beyond, or even the 2nd zone for that matter. There are hazards and dangers everywhere, and Sackboy’s floating jumps cause a few more problems than they did in the early levels as most jumps require a bit of precision.

I don’t mean to place to much emphasis on the controls because they aren’t really that much of an issue, it’s just that for complete gaming beginners beyond The Gardens, is I believe way too hard.  Once the novelty of Sackboy’s cuteness has worn off and you’ve heard all the amazing Stephen Fry has to say, I think that most casual gamers will be finished with LBP in play mode, not with Sackboy, but with LBP.

Create.

Now we all know that LBP isn’t really for playing, but for creating, and playing other’s creations.  This is where the game really isn’t open to beginners. First off creating a masterpiece takes time and a lot of planning, so going down the masterpiece route is only going to appeal to those who are willing to commit to the game, in terms of ability as well as dedication to think out a level (that has nothing even remotely to do with anyone else’s IP).

But more than that, think what you know as a gamer think of the knowledge you have built up over years of playing video games, for example when I see a platform moving up and down which my character has landed on and another platform moving away from it horizontally I know to jump on the platform as quickly as possible or to stand and wait for it’s return before jumping on it.  Think of a time when there are a couple of enemies on the screen in any game, in a platform game I know that most enemies follow a predetermined path and repeat them selves, so I wait and see what pattern it follows before attacking it, but in a 3rd or 1st person game if you see an enemy I know it’s best to take the MoFo’s out as quickly as possible.

How do I know about platforms, pits, firetraps, patterns, enemies etc.? It’s down to years and years of gaming, I just know these things, I know what to expect and therefore what I must do to get between the 2 platforms or tackle the enemy. Does my Mum or Dad know these things, or my 5 year old or even my Grandad? No they don’t, and without this knowledge they are never going to create a masterpiece level in LBP

What about creating a simple level?  Well I don’t think the game is that accessible on a simple level either.  Lets take creating a very simple level, from the start you have to jump over a smallish obstacle, run up a slope, jump and grab a bit of sponge and swing over a fire to the finish line. How many people’s Mums, Dad, kids or Grandparents could do that? The techniques involved are simple, well to the games designers, myself and most probably everyone who reads TSA.

But to a non gamer they are practically impossible. What do I have to do? The Popit menu? Which button is that again… Now which option do I press? Tools? Which one is that? And then they quit the Popit menu and everything they’ve just done falls on to the floor (which occasionally still happens to me) and this carries on an on until you rip the controller out of their hands and beat them to death with it.

Share.

After unsuccessfully trying to get a family member to Create anything, you show them that you can download any level someone else has created. With apparently 84,000 levels so far, something for everyone? Unfortunately not, with the levels being split 50:50 both utter crap & gaming genius.

Personally, as a gamer I can see merit in them all, there is an amazing amount of fun to be had in collecting a million points (for a Trophy) or being catapulted into oblivion on a flying skateboard, and some of the levels are so cunning, devious and twisted they have been created by gaming gods who know all about levers, switches, moving platforms, enemies and other things that make a game great, but for a first time gamer there is less to see here than in the main game.  And most of those won’t care about the majority of the first page’s levels being all about Trophies.

So LittleBigPlanet has been put on a pedestal for us all to worship, the second coming which will save us all and help the PS3 see off the 360 and gain business from the Wii?  I don’t think so, as far as the Wii is concerned anyway.  Look at Mario Kart fWii, it contains fun characters, elements of competition, a wireless controller slotted into a plastic steering wheel, This truly is a game for 5 year olds, grandparents and the whole family, why? Well what gaming skills are needed? None really you just turn the wheel the direction you want to go in.

One of the most ground-breaking advancements in gaming technology has appeared in some of EA’s sports game on the Wii, take Fifa ‘09 All Play.  Basically if you are playing a two player game between yourself (experienced gamer) and your five year old daughter, you set the game so that you control all the normal football stuff with your team, but the other players team you can set it to a more limited level of control for example all the players are computer controlled and the novice player just has to press pass or shoot occasionally, and everything is handled for them.

This means, you the gamer with years of gaming experience can play a competitive match with a first time player and even though you are a thousand times better than them, the gaming experience brings you together in a competitive tight game. This is accessible gaming, and thats why they call it All Play.

This little feature of mine isn’t meant to be negative about LBP at all, in fact I whole heartedly believe TSA’s 10/10 unmissable score is correct and I urge every PS3 owner to go out and buy it. It is great, and really is unmissable the potential is huge and it’s great fun doing it, well done MM & Sony. I believe Sackboy’s likeability transcends the game, he could make an appearance anywhere and it would draw a smile. Sackboy is hopefully here to stay (exclusively) and I’d love to see him in as many places as possible, even different types of game.

But as far as LBP’s appeal to reach out to a whole new demographic for the PS3, I can’t see it because once the first week is out of the way, LBP is an unmissable game for gamers, but offers very little to the absolute beginner, other than a smile on their face at Sackboy’s antics.

Add-on Expansions

• Civilization Revolution Pack - Elemental (Game Pack) - Free
• Civilization Revolution Map Pack - Terrestrial (Game Pack) - £0.79
• Dead Space - 14 add ons - £0.79 - £3.19
• Everybody’s Golf - Policewoman Plus Four Costume Pack - £3.19
• Guitar Hero WT - Hendrix Pack/Oasis Pack/R.E.M Pack - £3.99 each or £1.49 per track
• Guitar Hero WT - Another Way to Die - Alicia Key/Jack White - £1.49
• LittleBigPlanet - Animal Costumes Pack - £2.39
• LittleBigPlanet - Frost-E Costume - £0.79
• LittleBigPlanet - Great Blue Costume - £0.79
• LittleBigPlanet - Hugo Pack
• LittleBigPlanet - Lily Pad Costume - £0.79
• LittleBigPlanet - Plant Eater costume - Free
• Pain - David Hasselholf Pack - £1.19
• Pain - Movie Studio Pack - £3.99
• Rock Band - The Colour and Magic - Foo Fighters - £9.99 or £0.99 per track
• Soul Calibur IV - Equipment Pack 1-5 - £0.79 each
• Star Wars Force Unleashed Character Pack - £6.29

PS3 / PSP Games

• Cube - £15.99
• FIFA 09 - £29.99

PS3 Themes/Wallpapers

• Far Cry 2 Wallpapers x 4 - Free
• Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Theme - Free
• PS3 Videos/Trailers
• Bioshock 2 Teaser Trailer - Free
• Motorstorm 2 - Air Zone Trailer - Free
• Rank Promotions Briefing Trailer - Free
• Shaun White Trailer - Free
• Shoot - 6 Short Movies - Free
• Soul Calibur IV Trailer - Guest Characters - Free
• Soul Calibur IV Trailer - Combo Play - Free
• Tomb Raider - Beneath the Surface Trailer - Free

Via the wonderful Wonderwallweb

Soon after, SCEE will invite a large number of additional testers into the closed Beta, ramping up the invites over a period of time, and the invites will include non-English speaking testers for the first time.  Languages covered will be English, French, Italian, German and Spanish, and the lists have already been chosen, so changing your language now won’t have any effect.

The date of the open Beta will be announced in advance, at which point Home 1.0 will be available to all, although this doesn’t imply the end of the road.  Ted says that the first iteration of Home will grow from that foundation over the coming months and years, so there’s plenty of development still to come.  Let’s hope that mythical 1.0 is soon, then…

Via the EU Forums

But, really you’re deluded.  You’re deluded like those people who clothe their pets, justifying the abuse by saying the pet likes it.  Roll up your sleeves and show us the fresh claw marks that tell the real story.

If SackBoy wasn’t sack and was made of claw, he’d smash through the glass of your pristine HD-TV - the TV you’ve been conditioned to want - enraged at the mere suggestion of clothing him in that t-shirt.  He’d slice your capitalist fingers clean off to prevent adding funds to your wallet.  And if you weren’t such a self-abuser, he’d probably sew them back on before blood loss took you.  But you are a self-abuser, and a loser too.

You can try to justify your purchase, your freedom to choose, and you can also get a real t-shirt, dre