The PS3 version of Bioshock is yet another example of how 3rd party game developer's policies in regards to the releasing of their games is quickly changing from they used to be in prior generations. Probably the most glaring reason for "permanent" 3rd party exclusivity's becoming rarer is how expensive game development is rapidly becoming. Simply put.. most titles released as of late are far too much of a production to bottleneck availability to gamers. Bottomline, regardless of any given developers feeling towards any given platform.. platform favortism pales in comparison to how much is on the line when that developer needs to recoup the massive costs of developing a major title. Lastly, while some may look at a PS3 port of Bioshock being unimportant.. they may fail to realize the longterm implications of the matter.. more specifically, the fact that future sequels will most likely be multiplatform. So I sincerely hope M$ fanboys enjoyed last fall's release of Bioshock and Mass Effect(specifically those who found joy in the PS3 losing exlcusivity with Assassin's Creed, Devil May Cry 4 and GTA IV).. because between this revelation and EA purchasing Bioware.. Bioshock 2 and Mass Effect 2 appearing simultaneously on both the PS3 and the 360 seems inevitable.

A major example of financially driven multiplatform availability is obviously Rockstar and GTA IV.. in the last generation Rockstar very well could have followed its usual policy and started off with GTA IV being exclusive to a Sony platform.. but GTA IV's immense development costs(the most expensive in history) made such an occurence a bad business decision. M$ fanboys for the most part took GTA IV's multiplatform status as a jab at the PS3.. but in reality it was more of a jab at console exclusivity as a whole than any one system.. even in a reverse situation GTA IV was destined to be multiplatfrom regardless of what console it was initially meant for. In the end like I have been alluding to.. gamers are starting to realize that more than the PS3 is starting to feel the loss of those major exclusives.. and a combination of now "two" higher end game consoles being stable moneymakers on the market teamed with escalating costs.. it seems as if console makers need to rely on more elaborate market strategies to get ahead than those utilized in the past.. for it seems the brief amount of time the XBOX360 enjoyed with major 3rd part titles such as Oblivion, Dead Rising, and Lost Planet soley on it's plaform leading up to and shortly after the PS3 launch was indeed a short lived commodity.

Apparently EA has invested some time into learning Microsoft's PR tactics as of late.. which is apparent in the company making one extremely unpopular decision after another. Whether its gobbling up smaller fan favorite companies such as Bioware.. threatening hostile takeovers over major game publishers such as GTA & Bioshock's publisher 2K games.. starting the "exclusive licensing" wars in sports gaming.. or watering down titles by putting seemingly all there games across every possible system. But.. in my opinion.. regardless of how irrelevant or unpopular it may be.. EA may have finally taken their bullsh*t too far. What I am alluding to is recently retired Green Bay Packer QB Brett Favre on the cover of the upcoming Madden NFL 09.

I have been hearing rumors for a while now about the possibility of such a decision by EA through various sites(click here for GS's related article).. but my doubt soon turned into denial.. and my denial now has turned into a full blown migraine headache as recent revelations has made an EA announcement about a Favre covered Madden basically an inevitability. Why is this such a big deal? As always with me.. it's the principle of the matter. I know Favre has already made appearances on some covers of the defunct NFL Quarterback Club franchise some years back.. but let's face it.. no one ever really gave two sh*ts about those games. Regardless of Madden losing some of it's luster over the years.. I believe the novelty of being on the cover of the most popular American football game(and annualy one of the biggest selling titles in the country) is not something that should be bestowed upon that worthless pill popping overrated dinosaur turd that cannot even spell his last name correctly.

Regardless of wether or not I grew up as a Chicago Bears fan.. I would never have liked that ancient piece of trash.. he was a selfish, big mouthed hillbilly that over stayed his welcome in his attempts to wallow around long enough to get those precious little passing records he wanted his hands on regardless of how much he hurt his team in the process(they now are stuck with playing a QB who has NEVER started a game before the upcoming season). Oh.. he won "one" Super Bowl his supporters say? Well.. last time I checked.. Jim McMahon won just as many as he did.. hell.. "Trent Dilfer" won as many as Favre did when all was said and done. Oh but I forgot.. they didn't wear baby sh*t green and piss yellow uniforms throughout their career while popping enough painkillers to put an elephant in a coma in order to maintain his consecutive games played streak.. and lets not forget him being an attention whore every offseason and threatening retirement.. so I suppose they are not as important.. yeah.. ok. Bottomline.. for every record like "most career TD passes" Favre lingered around long enough to acquire.. he has records such as "most career INT's".. which is funny because as I recall the last pass that douche threw was an "Interception" that cost his team a chance at the Super Bowl.

Anyways.. I'm not going to ramble on about this anymore.. for now . Like I said.. the game itself isn't really as important as it used to be.. but as usual it's the prinicpal of the matter that bugs me. In the end.. unless EA does with Madden NFL as it's doing with it's NCAA titles by having multiple covermen being specific to each console platform.. it's safe to say EA will have yet another longtime fan drop off it's faultering wagon.. I personally don't give a sh*t how childish it sounds.

I'm sure many reading this have already noticed the recent "5 things you didn't know about me" list plague making it's rounds among many GS users.. I have jbot to thank for my infection . So.. in an effort to avoid the wrath of the blogging gods, here is a list of five things you may or may not know about me.

5. Proudest videogame related achievement.. getting my fiance to be a Silent Hill/Legend of Zelda fan. Most embarassing videogame related blunder.. getting my a** handed to me in Super Smash Bros. by my five year old sister for whom I have "18" years on..

4. I'm a hardcore Chicago Bears and Cubs fan(please no "100 years since last World Series" jabs ). I grew up a stone's throw away from Wrigley Field and during my 10+ years playing "American" football I played a city championsip game at Soldier's Field, home of the Bears.

3. Due to those aformentioned years of playing football I accumulated quite the coloful array of injuries.. such as a spike of someones shoe being dug an inch deep into the small of my back and me dislocating and tearing so many tissues in my left shoulder that I could basically take it in and out of place as much as I please.. sorta like Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon .

2. Despite the rest of my family an even my German/Irish ancestry.. I don't drink or smoke at all. Hell.. the closest thing to an addiction I have is not being able to sleep a wink without a fan on me at all times(even in the dead of winter). In all honesty though.. I'm considering picking up a vice just for the sake of being better able to deal with the "winds beneath my wings" that are my annoying friends and family..

1. I'm a pretty quiet and reserved person(unless someone's ego/ignorance pisses me off).. I'm not very tall, about average height for males.. but I'll takes my genetic disposition for athleticism and resistance to balding anyways . I like cats(have 2 cats named Princess Zelda and Link).. furthering my education in Computer Information Systems.. enjoy sports, electronics, metal/death metal music and shooting ranges.. and quite possibly the stupidest smart person you'll ever talk to.

Well, I suppose that it for right now.. and being the giving person that I am.. I say screw infecting only "five" additional people for this list.. I officially infect my "ENTIRE" friends list

There's been plenty of buzz amidst various tech sites as of late surrounding statements made by an apparent Microsoft insider that revolve around Microsoft's XBOX360 team knowingly launching faulty hardware in a race to get their system on the market before Sony launched the PS3.

Here's an example of a related article from Dailytech -

"Now, six months later, a supposed Microsoft insider confirms that around 30% of Xbox 360 consoles, most based on the original 'Xenon' design, fail. "It's around 30 percent, and all will probably fail early," the source told 8Bit Joystick. "This quarter they are expecting 1M failures, most of those Xenons. Some of those are repeat failures."

Although Microsoft now covers all Xbox 360 consoles for three years against the Red Ring of Death (RROD) - the sign of a hardware failure - there is no specific time frame for the defect to appear. "Life expectancy is all over the map because the design has very little margin for most of the important parameters," continued the insider. "That means it's not a fault tolerant design. So a good unit may last a couple of years, while a bad unit can fail in hours." "

Here's other interesting tidbits later in the same article.. -

" While the above topic points are generally known by the Xbox 360 user community, what comes more alarmingly from the supposed member of the Xbox 360 project is that Microsoft allegedly launched its console fully aware of a potential issue in quality.

"First, MS has under resourced that product unit in all engineering areas since the very beginning. Especially in engineering support functions like test, quality, manufacturing, and supplier management," the source wrote in an email. "There just weren't enough people to do the job that needed to be done. The leadership in many of those areas was also lopsided in essential skills and experience. But I hear they are really trying to staff up now based on what has happened, and how cheap staff is compared to a couple of billion in cost of quality."

Microsoft had to take an over $1 billion USD charge to cover the Red Ring of Death defect warranty, which last year cost the company's Entertainment and Devices Division a $1.89 billion USD loss. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer termed the warranty coverage charge as "painful" to announce. "

During the previous generation, Microsoft attributed much of PlayStation 2's lead over the Xbox to its earlier arrival on the market. Microsoft was determined to beat Sony to the punch for the next generation, as the source explained, "MS was so focused on beating Sony this cycle that the 360 was rushed to market when all indications were that it had serious flaws. The design [quality] testing was insufficient and incomplete when the product was released to production. The manufacturing test equipment had major gaps in test coverage and wasn't reliable or repeatable. Manufacturing processes at [all] levels of suppliers were immature and not in control. Initial end to end yields were in the mid 30%. Low yields always indicate serious design and manufacturing defects.

"Management chose to continue to ship anyways, and keep the lines running while trying to solve problems and bring the yields up. Whenever something failed and there was a question about whether the test result was false, they would remove that test, retest and ship, or see if the unit would boot a game and run briefly and then ship. [The] 360 is too complex of a machine to get away with that." "

Apparently the newer Falcon XBOX360 motherboards are far more reliable than the original Xenon motherboards.. supposedly with sub 10% failure rates thus far. The Falcon mb's feature improved GPU heatsinks as well as 65nm CPU's. Also, future XBOX360 motherboards(codenamed Jasper) which will feature 65nm GPU's(which GPU overheating is speculated to be the main cause of RROD) are due August 2008. As far as the M$ RROD conspiracy theories.. whether this supposed insider is credible or not, most will agree that this entire situation reeks. As far as I see it.. the XBOX360 has indeed accumulated better sales than the PS3.. but that fact also means that the 360 has the most to lose from situations such as these. It seems to me M$ has apparently done the unimaginable and actually figured out a way to send their strong start down a slippery slope in record time.. all the while notoriously pro-XBOX360 game coverage organizations have ignored these rumblings in large part.. but conveniently rumors of major North American electronics retailer "Best Buy" possibly discontinuing the 80GB SKU of the PS3 was disucussed in sites such as Gamespot the day it broke.. hmm.. read into those "coincidences" what you will..

On that point of discussion, if anyone reading this isn't familiar with how the rumors of Best Buy no longer carrying the 80GB SKU of the PS3 after their current stock runs out.. the web site PS3fanboy apparently obtained a memo intended only for the employees of Best Buy that announced that the 80GB SKU was on closeout status. Various expert speculations revolve around this scenario actually being brought about by Sony themselves.. they apparently are gearing for a single SKU presence in the market. Most believe Sony will simply stick with the 40GB PS3 SKU.. with the only variations being in color.. a notion that is supported by the fact that Sony has not only stated on several occasions that the current SKU setup is subject to inevitable rearrangement.. not to mention the ceramic white PS3 being on its way to North America shortly. Sony is apparently ready to push into 2008 supporting its cheapest SKU by itself since the 80GB SKU appears to be joining the 60GB SKU on the phase out list. Is this the wisest move? Only time will tell.. personally, I believe the idea of Sony pushing a single $399 version of the PS3 to coincide a long list of PS3 exclusives set to come out in 2008 will go along way in attempts to wash away the stigmas garned by the intial $599 pricetag and a shortage of quality exclusives. I also imagine planned features for the PS3 such as DVR capabilties, being able to make Blu-Ray disc to viewable PSP conversions via the PS3, expanding online features, and the strong possibilty according to many industry insiders that a console version of the popular PC game Crysis may only hit the PS3 due to the systems horsepower advantage over the X360 won't hurt either.

*Click here for an early screenshot of the Best Buy memo in question.

Many racing game fans will agree with these sentiments.. if you want a realistic technical racer, you go with Gran Turismo.. if you want deep customization options with solid controls, you go with Forza Motorsport.. and if you want a nonstop overwhelming feeling of speed and over the top crashes, you go with Burnout. Burnout 3: Takedown for last gen consoles and Burnout Revenge for X360 were not only my all-time favorite racers.. but ranked highly on my favorite multiplayer list.. so needless to say my anticipation for the recently released Burnout Paradise for the X360 and PS3 were astronomical. Regardless of some changes being brought to the series, more specifically its shift to an open world format, my expectations were not lowered in the slightest.. if anything the thoughts of bringing Burnout's speed and intensity to the open world racing format was a fascinating endeavor. So it shouldn't be surprising that since my initial impressions of Criterion's first attempt with this combination left me well.. underwhelmed.. I have been left quite disappointed to say the least.

Regardless of my disappointment, Burnout Paradise is not a bad game per se.. it actually is a quality title, but I suppose it is just a victim of expectation since it has "Burnout" in it's title. I suppose I would have been better suited to suppress my annoyance for the problems the game contains I didn't have those aforementioned expectations heading into playing it. At the end of the day.. I found myself swooning over what Criterion took out of this Burnout experience more often than enjoying the positives that they implemented. Like I mentioned initially.. one thing that fans of the racing genre associate with Burnout is an immense sense of speed.. the satisfaction and thrill of feeling that your driving a wrecking ball at 125+ mph. Sure the franchise's nearly cartoonish approach to arcade racing isn't very "realistic".. but sure is fun as hell nonetheless. Sadly, the spirit of Burnout has seemingly been toned down in the recent iteration in light of it's inevitable and seemingly forced format transition.. which is indeed disheartening. In a lot of ways.. I felt like I was playing a Burnout game after it had its balls cut off. Hell.. apart from the Road Rage races fans can barely tell the title was a "Burnout" let alone distinguish it from EA's fellow open world racer Need for Speed.

Crash events, eliminator's, traffic attacks, & crash breakers were a few notable features among others that apparently were a victim of Paradise's chopping block.. those casualties teamed with sloppier controls, cheaper crashes, and no longer being able to plow through smaller cars from behind really take away from the Burnout experience has grown into.. at least from my point of view anyways. Adding insult to injury.. the one main fear of the "open world" format did indeed rear it's ugly head in the game.. a reliance on looking at a map. I don't know about other racing genre fans, but when I'm playing a game like Burnout and trying to battle furiously through races(especially ones in which you only get any credit for if you finish first.. not to mention not being to "retry" mid race as well as having to backtrack to the starting line to restart) the last thing I want to do is be forced to often look at a damn map at the bottom corner of the screen when going 100+ miles an hour. I appreciate the strategy they were trying to implement in the game by making alternate routes to the finish line possible, but more often than players will find themselves taking wrong turns or even getting lost than actually being aided by the street layout. In the midst of a race, many players should expect to a) get into cheap crashes OFTEN.. and b) find yourself making turns that completely take you off the proper track. I'm pretty sure that these two near inevitabilities will infuriate a good amount of gamers, especially early on.

All complaints aside Burnout Paradise did do a lot of things right. The title has great graphics with minimal loading(which is especially impressive considering how large and multi-faceted the city map is).. great online play.. plenty of collectables(probably moreso "crashables") by way of various billboards, fences etc. that can be crashed through as well as super jumps that can be pulled off. For the first good while playing this game I actually fond myself seeking these side quests more than doing the actually races. A mix of cars automatically being awarded to the player as they progress mixed in with cars that can only be attained by taking them down amidst exploring the city is also a fun twist. The racing and mechanics itself still are good, but like I already alluded to.. they are just a little closer to recent Need for Speed titles than recent Burnout titles.

Anyways, all I can do is get as much out of Burnout Paradise that my disappointment will allow me to attain.. all the while hoping that future iterations will build upon and improve the implementation of the open world format on the franchise. I would still recommend the game to average fans of the genre and many gamers in general.. I believe there are many others who will probably enjoy it more than me personally due to not being so hard on Paradise's chosen direction. Like I have said.. quality game, but would still advise hardcore Burnout fans to either go into it with drastically lower expectations in hopes of getting more enjoyment out of the title for what it did accomplish instead of what it didn't.. or to simply wait for the title to drop in price from it's $60 price tag.

I know it isn't wise to look a gift horse in the mouth(whatever the hell that truly means).. but I've spent the last three years wondering how the game industry could possibly have a better year. 2005 with the release of the X360.. 2006 with the release of the Wii and PS3.. and 2007 with all three platforms having at least a full year in the market and the massive stable of games that have followed.. all have left me wondering what exactly is coming next. Anyways, even though 2007 did have it fair share of rough spots(the summer was BRUTAL).. from early September to early December it more than made up for them by featuring possibly the largest onslaught of quality titles in gaming history.. making the ensuing year end awards the biggest toss up I've ever witnessed with several legitimate contenders in many major categories. For the most part I liked the layout of categories within Gamespot's awards, with my only major disagreement being that I believed each system platform should have had its own voting.. only taking the systems exclusives(i.e. Super Mario Galaxy)into consideration.. with multi-platform titles(i.e. Call of Duty 4)having its own seperate category. Here are my selections for Gamespot's 2007 Readers Choice awards.

Gamespots 2007 Game of the Year - Super Mario Galaxy (Wii), My 2006 Game of the Year - Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion (X360)

Category - Game that received my vote

Game of the Year - Bioshock(multi) *In the end.. VERY tough to settle on one. There are more than a few games any reading this would not be wrong for picking.. CoD 4, Mario Galaxy, Mass Effect, The Orange Box, etc. In the end.. I went with my heart on what was the most enjoyable experience for me personally.

Best PC Game - Crysis

Best PS3 Game - Ratchet & Clank Future Tools of Destruction

Best XBOX360 Game - Bioshock (I know it's on the PC as well, but I'm going with console exclusivity)

Best Wii Game - Super Mario Galaxy

Best Multi-Platform Game - Call of Duty 4 (Category wasn't an actual option in the voting, but this is more appropriate in my opinion)

Best PS2 Game - God of War II

Best PSP Game - Ratchet & Clank Size Matters

Best DS Game - Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

Best Strategy Game - World in Conflict(PC)

Best Sports Game - Madden NFL 08 (multi)

Best RPG - Mass Effect(X360)

Best Rythm/Music Game - Rock Band(multi)

Best Puzzle Game - The Orange Box *Portal* (multi)

Best Driving Game - Forza Motorsport 2(X360)

Best Platformer - Super Mario Galaxy(Wii)

Best Fighting Game - Virtua Fighter 5 Online(X360)

Best Shooter - Call of Duty 4(multi)

Best Adventure Game - Zack and Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure(Wii)

Best Action Adventure Game - God of War II(PS2) *It took a game of GoW's magnitude for Uncharted: Drake's Fortune not to take this award. I agree with many who say the Uncharted did not get the pub it deserves.

Best Atmosphere - Bioshock(multi)

Best Use of Control Scheme - Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass(DS)

Best Downloadable Content - Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion(multi)

Most Innovative Game - Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass(DS)

Best New Gaming Hardware - nVidia Geforce 8800GT video card *A no brainer in my opinion..

Most Improved Sequel - Call of Duty 4(multi)

Best Downloadable Console Game - Pac-Man Championship Edition(X360)

Best Original Game Mechanic- The Orange Box *Portal* (multi)

Best Expansion Pack - Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles(multi)

Best Multiplayer - Call of Duty 4(multi) *Sorry Halo fanboys.. this was Halo 3's one opportunity to get an award(it still was a close second).. but the fact is that CoD's multiplayer is currently best in the biz.

Biggest News - $2.63 Billion in November Sales for Game Industry *I truly believe many modern gamers completely take numbers like these for granted.. it's amazing to see how far the industry has come.

Funniest Game - The Orange Box(multi)

Best New Characters - Bioshock(multi) *Mass Effect was a close second

Best Use of a Creative License - The Darkness(multi)

Best Graphics, Artistic - Assassin's Creed(multi) *Toss up between this and Super Mario Galaxy

Best Graphics, Technical - Crysis(PC)

Best Voice Acting - Heavenly Sword(PS3) *Why wasn't God of War II an option??

Best Sound Design - Bioshock(multi)

Best Story - Bioshock(multi)

Best Original Music - Bioshock(multi)

Best Licensed Music - Guitar Hero III(multi) *How could a soundtrack with Slayer's "Raining Blood" not win this?

Most Suprisingly Good Game - S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl(PC)

Most Disappointing Delay - Grand Theft Auto IV(multi) *Smash Brothers was a close second

Best Game No One Played - Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords(PSP/DS)

Worst Game Everybody Played - Spiderman 3(multi) *"nearly" as disappointing as Topher Grace being casted as Venom..

Flat-Out Worst Game - Deal or No Deal(DS) *How the hell could they have f*cked that up?

Most Disappointing Game - Lair(PS3) *I had very high hopes for this game, it's heartbreaking to see controls destroy it.

Worst Trend - Lousy Wii ports *Wow.. who could have possibly have forseen this? Watch out Nintendo.. the weight of outside game developers not being able to make quality Wii titles could suffocate your system quicker than you think.

Most Despicable Use of In-Game Advertising - Guitar Hero III(multi)

On a side not related to my previous post, Warner Bros. finally made their Blu-Ray exclusivity official, click here for a related article. Details of their press release state they will gradually phase out HD-DVD support by May 2008. The fallout of this announcment has already forced the HD-DVD group to cancel various news conferences at CES.. click here to read about that announcement by Toshiba.