Sony - PSN Hacked

Well, this is something I didn't expect to see, and it's rather unfortunate to see... but I can't help but feel a bit of the old schadenfreude just now. PSN (the PlayStation Network) is Sony's proprietary on-line gaming and digital content download system for the PS3... it's been down for the better part of a week, and now it appears that's because Sony shut it down in response to their systems getting hacked. It appears that personal info, including names, addresses, birthdates, usernames and passwords got accessed... and they're not ruling out credit card info being gotten either.

The odd bit in that list above is passwords... basic security practice is to never store passwords in plain-text, but, if they're saying passwords are "in the wild" now, that's exactly what they must have done. If I were still a Sony customer, or had given them my credit card info, or had any other important services that used the same username and password, I would be thoroughly torqued... but I could never justify handing over my credit card info when I could buy cards for the PSN elsewhere, so I certainly wasn't going to reuse a payment-related password there. It will be interesting to see what comes of this as time goes on, and it's unfortunate for all the active PS3 users out there... but it sure sounds like Sony had it coming, never mind their past transgressions.

Portal 2

OK, so, first, if you haven't played the original Portal, which I blogged about earlier, stop right now... play that game first (which is available on even more computer systems than it was back then, thanks to the growth of Steam onto other platforms). You'll get a good idea of the mechanics of the game and the sense of humor involved, and, should it appeal to you, will also be good background for some of the fun to be had in Portal 2... and for under $10 on Steam (and possibly cheaper elsewhere), it's the safer bet to start with.

Now, as far as Portal 2 goes... I wondered, when blogging about the original game, whether a longer game would be any better than the original. In this case, the answer is absolutely, unequivocally yes. The single-player game comes in at about twice as long as the original (in my case, something over 11 hours front-to-back). Much of the added length is due to additional puzzle mechanics based on various substances and technologies researched at Aperture Science, so, while it's still a Portal game, it's not just a rehash of the game play from the first game.

The rest of the added length has to do with the story of the game. While the original story (such as it was) was about you matching wits with the testing facility's governing AI, it was pretty minimal, just providing an outlet for the game's off-beat humor. In Portal 2, something more closely resembling a complete story gets told, thanks to additional characters, along with "time travel" of a sort... I'm not going to go into great detail on that, since it's such great fun to experience as you work your way through the game.

Add in some well-done graphics (especially considering the sheer scale of some of the environments, as compared to the original game) and sound work, and I have to say that Portal 2 is one of the best-made games I've seen in a long while. Yes, it's still short, compared to many titles out there, and doesn't have any real replay potential, but in terms of sheer fun-per-minute played, it's pretty well unmatched. Since I only paid about $35 for my copy, after discounts and deals, I think I got my money's worth out of this game... if I had paid $60, I might not be as well pleased, I suppose.

So, final verdict... if you've played and enjoyed Portal, watch for a deal on this game and get it. If you haven't played the original Portal, spend $10 there first... this game will still be waiting for you once you finish there.

Another Sony update

Earlier this week, Sony settled their lawsuit against on of the PS3 hackers... apparently, the terms are that the hacker won't further distribute the code he already made, won't make any more PS3-breaking code, and won't help anybody else to do so, either. In exchange, both parties avoid trial, which would be financially ruinous for the hacker and more bad PR for Sony. Of course, it's unfortunate that the basic issue of what a hardware owner is allowed to do with their own hardware won't get its day in court, but I can't fault the hacker for taking the bargain, either... after all, that's the very reason I'm not going anywhere near existing hacks until the question is settled.

More random bits

Once again, nothing worthy of its own post has cropped up recently... how much of that is due to the sudden influx of game-scavenging goodness I've had recently, I can't say for certain. Here's what I do know:

• I don't expect much out of either local morning news shows (which are mostly fluff) or local weekend news shows (which are mostly reruns), and local weekend morning news shows are the worst of both worlds. That said, KHQ set the bar to an all-new low over the weekend, with their anchor holding up a copy of the local paper to display the printed headline, then telling viewers to read the paper for details. I'm pretty sure both the station and the paper are owned by the same company, but still... that's just a bit too pathetic.
• If you own an XBox360, Full House Poker is a nice little Texas Hold 'Em game, which you can play online against others. Just be aware that the "Texas Heat" events, in particular... well, the servers are still a bit dodgy, for all they've improved from launch day.
• I think I can officially call myself a "manga addict" now... I've already pretty well filled a small "media storage" shelving unit with books, I'm partway through a couple of different series, including some that I know the release date of the next book in the series, and I even subscribed to Otaku USA, to help me sort through the vast quantities of material out there and weed out the craptastic and excessively pervy. Amazon Prime is going to be very handy for me for the foreseeable future.