I never knew Playstation had an online community, I really didn’t. Call me ignorant, but I thought the only rabid and active online world was located on the Xbox 360. I never saw myself writing this kind of article. So what if the PSN is down for a few days? Aren’t the only games worth playing on that console single-player games?

Well, it was only when I saw the hundreds of comments online and the complaints from all those PSN users that my view on this changed. My allegiance, as you all know, is with Microsoft, but this past month I have enjoyed the extra media features PSN has to offer. Features that the 360 doesn’t have. So yes, I have also been hurling expletives at my PS3.

“Error code 8002A203” was the dreaded message that PS3 users saw over the Easter weekend. No matter how many times we tried to sign in, we were faced with this error code. At first, it was thought this was a temporary maintenance issue that would last a day. Then that day turned into days, and those days turned into uncertainty. Sony released their statement blaming the Anonymous group, they denied it, and the hours with no PSN continued to flow. Apart from the obvious frustration of the service going down, I want to look at the real effects this problem will have. These come two-fold, one being security, and the other, competition.

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Kameo was one of the launch titles for the 360 back when the machine was first finding its stride. It had the the more cartoony approach to its presentation and prided itself more on its ideas and gameplay than realistic graphics. Your protagonist had the ability to morph into different creatures that ranged from a boxing plant to a spiky ball that could leap across ledges, each suitable to different situations. Think Crash Bandicoot surrounded by lush, colourful surroundings with constant shape-shifting, and you get Kameo. It was a decent enough game that deserved a sequel, but unfortunately Microsoft did not greenlight one.

While Microsoft saw something different in the people at Rare, they decided to cut costs by letting a lot of regular staff go and brought in some temps to work on the avatars for the Marketplace, and later Kinect Sports. Sergey Rahmanov was one of those that fell victim to Microsoft’s heavy hand. He was part of Rare for a healthy part of a decade and was Kameo‘s graphic designer. He has now released some images of the character models for the sequel that you can see below. At first glance, it looks like the sequel would have taken a more realistic approach. The leap in graphics is notable, when compared to what the protagonist in the original game looked like.

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It all sounds too familiar. Big talk, ads that have little to do with the final game, and the buildup of overwhelming hype and anticipation. It all sounds too familiar.

I don’t believe any ad campaign for any video game has come close to that of Halo 3. Anywhere you looked, touched, walked or bumped into was something telling you to buy the third and “final” instalment of Bungie’s franchise. It was the first time the gaming world had seen such marketing and promotion, which had normally been saved for the latest overblown Michael Bay blockbuster. There was huge promise, and the expectations were sky high. Everything, apart from the actual game, couldn’t be described in any other way but spectacular (I still have and watch those TV spots on my Xbox 360). But in the end, the final product really didn’t meet the hype that preceded it.

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