PSGroove, the free open source PSJailbreak alternative, is now available. Days before the offical PSJailbreak has been shipped to the distributors.

This is based off of a dump of an offical PS Jailbreak sample with a couple modifications made. The major modification to the PSJailbreak code was the removal of Blu-Ray emulation which effectively kills Backup Manager, the other modification however is a nice upgrade that allows you to disconnect the USB key from the PS3 after its done booting. You can also edit the code to enable BR emulation however I will not get into that here. Google is your friend.

The work was done by well known hacker/developer Mathieulh and the team of anonymous devs he collaborates with. He had mentioned on Twitter a few days ago that he had successfully cloned the PSJailbreak and that a release would be coming within the next week. It requires the use of a Teensy++ or Atmel AT90USBKEY. These are development boards that most people are not going to use for anything outside of this but they are cheap so its not a big loss and its not a bad piece of hardware to have laying around either. Never know when one will come in handy.

For most end users however I’d recommend holding off. As I type this @brandonwilson is working on a version of PSGroove for the TI-84 series calculator which I’d imagine a few of you may still have laying around. Musclenerd of iPhone jailbreak fame also mentioned on Twitter that a PSGroove app is possible on the iPhone but that it would take some time to develop.

Now that the general public and more important the talented developers around the world have access to run unsigned code on the PS3 things should start heating up quickly. I have an x3Jailbreak coming within the next week so hopefully there is some homebrew other than Backup Manager to test with it. If another solution comes up sooner (iPhone, PSP) I’ll post an update ASAP.

Long is the way, and hard…that from Hell leads up to light.

-John Milton, Paradise Lost

Kratos, the Ghost Of Sparta and former God Of War, has returned to the Playstation community (as promised) to rip your head off and shit down your neck.  You ladies may just want to strap yourselves in, because the big, bald, pasty badass is coming to Olympus to fuck shit up…as well as anyone that’s stupid enough to get in his way.

God Of War III concludes the (initial, anyways) inaccurately described “trilogy” of Kratos and the story of his downfall.  God Of War and God Of War II are considered by most who’ve played them to be among the ten best games of the previous generation, and God Of War: Chains Of Olympus is considered by many to be among the best handheld games ever (and FWIW, the cellphone game Betrayal is a lot better than any other cellphone game I’ve played to date also)…so this “final” chapter has quite a bit to live up to.

Fans of the series will know the formula, but for the uninitiated, God Of War games ALWAYS do it big, and they ALWAYS throw you right into the largeness upfront.  I can’t tell you all the backstory, because I really don’t want to go into the detail at this time, but of course God Of War II ended with Kratos riding on the back of the Titan Gaia as she and the other Titans whom Kratos freed from Tartarus climb up Mount Olympus to find and kill Zeus…and it’s at that exact moment that God Of War III begins.

Combat is pretty much the same as in previous iterations of the series, with a few new elements added for good measure.  The Golden Fleece (pried from Jason the Argonaut’s cold, dead hands in GoWII) returns, instantly giving Kratos the ability to catch and counter enemy attacks.  There is now a mechanic for Kratos to use his chained range weapons to pull himself closer to the next vict…err, enemy, which allows combos to be prolonged and strung together over a wide area.

There are this time four alternate weapons, and they have their own Magic Abilities to go with them, but they are all very well integrated and the weapons are not only useful but they’re in their own right just as ass-whippingly awesome as the Chained Blades (named The Blades Of Exile for God Of War III)…and in one case, better.  It’s kind of a bummer not to have Poseidon’s Rage or really any kind of reasonable facsimile of it, but when you catch the straight up DECIMATION that the Hooks of Hades, Nemean Cestus and Nemesis Whip bring to the table, I assure you that pangs of missing the electro-awesome that was PR will be forgotten.

Now of course n00bs can button try to button mash their way through the game but being that this is the PS3 version, there are now WAY more enemies on screen attacking Kratos than ever before, they don’t wait for the other ones to finish before starting their attacks and quite honestly while you CAN button mash your way to glory…it’d probably be a lot easier, faster, and more fun if you mix and match combos, as jamming on the triangle button alone will only get you so far.  And honestly there’s several areas that I think were specifically designed to slap down this type of playthrough.

The enemies are about as varied as before, with a few new additions…a few really nasty ones, if you’re like me and hate crawly multilegged arachnid/bug type things…and a host of new bosses.  By now most of you have probably seen footage of the Poseidon/Leviathan bossfight in the beginning…oops, spoiler I guess…and I’m here to tell you it’s big, it’s crazy, it’s intensely brutal and it sets the table nicely for the rest of the game.

^^That’s a realtime render…zoomed in, no less.

God Of War III amped up just about everything.  The scale of the previous games always seemed incredible, and with the power of the PS3, the game is able to do away with the “tricks” that Santa Monica had (admittedly) used in GoW and GoWII to give it it’s sense of scale.  This time, the scale is right in your face and it’s MASSIVE.  Yes…even the stingiest of gamers will be slack jawed at least once or twice.  Want to see??

The graphics are amazing…and it’s all realtime renders, even the “cut scenes.”  Kind of makes you wonder what they could’ve done had they decided to use all out CG for the cuts…but GoW director Stig Assmussen (yes, that’s really his name…and he’s bald, taboot) wanted the game to have the same feel all the way around.  Despite the fact that everything is rendered with the in game engine, GoWIII manages to deliver some of the best graphics I’ve seen.

There are places where they skimped here or  there, but they’re really few and far between.

The characters are awesome, as is typical of the God Of War franchise.  Of course the characters begin with Kratos, and my man is as angry as ever.  The first game saw Kratos trying to hack and slash his way to redemption, which we find out at the end was never going to happen.  And really…who didn’t see it coming?

You can’t “redeem” yourself for murdering your wife and young daughter in a blood crazed rage, regardless of if you were “tricked into it” (which Kratos really wasn’t) or not…and even if you could, killing everyone and everything in your way isn’t the way to go about redemption, so I guess we should’ve recognized.  In GoWIII, Kratos cares about neither redemption or really anyone else.  All he cares about is killing Zeus.  Even if it calls for him killing the rest of the Gods on Olympus…which…by the way…it does.

GoW is famous for some pretty campy dialogue, but honestly we’re talking about events that take place around three thousand years ago, and the principals involved are almost all either Gods or the direct descendants of Gods, so the campiness is forgivable and in many spots enjoyable.  In particular I was quite entertained by Hera, Zeus’s wife.  In Greek Mythology, Hera is a tempestuous and insanely jealous wife, and when you figure that Mythological Zeus is portrayed as more promiscuous than an NBA All Star, it makes for some of the meatiest events in that mythos.

Hera has a couple of small scenes, in which she’s pretty much a cantankerous, foul mouthed, cuckolded wife who hates everything around her.  In another life, she and Kratos could’ve been buddies.  Nevertheless she steals the show despite the fact that she’s really only got a cameo and her legs were rendered half assed.  There are lots of bosses, and they pose about the same kind of difficulty as the bosses of God Of War II did.  Some are big, some are GI-FUCKING-NORMOUS, and some you really don’t even need to do anything to beat.

There’s the sex minigame…and it even repeats itself for you if you would like, but it’s a direct obstacle, as opposed to the sex games from GoWII and CoO, which were able to be skipped or missed if you weren’t paying attention.  No, this is not something that can be avoided, and it even provides it’s own PSA about letting children view the content or play the game.

There are also puzzles.  As each game has come and gone, the puzzles have evolved and changed, incorporating new elements…such as how a few puzzles from GoWII involved Kratos stopping time.  These puzzles are varied, involving elements of other games you might have played like echochrome and of course, the much maligned “rhythm puzzle.”

Yes, there’s a rhythm puzzle that involves a giant Greek Lyre and almost every review I’ve read bemoans its very existence as if it were an unsightly run in a pretty little princess’ stocking just minutes before the Cotillion Ball.  Come on, Nancy.  Give.  Me.  A.  Break.  Honestly, I’m not exactly sure what those people’s problems are, although I can imagine a casual or complete lack of familiarity with Greek Mythology and oral traditions (NOT a joke) probably play a part.

Come on baby, play my Lyre.

Music was an integral part of Ancient Greek culture and the Lyre is absolutely central to Ancient Greek music; quite honestly it’s one of the most unique sounding instruments ever made.  I think the instrument’s place in the game is absolutely wonderful, and it is even foreshadowed that you will have to make music with the Ancient Greek Muses.  It’s implemented well, and provides a smirky, slight nod to the PS3 controller buttons (square, circle, triangle and figure ‘x’) that almost breaks the fourth wall.

I dunno…I like it.  With the market being oversaturated to the Nth degree with Guitar Hero/Rock Band games, sequels, expansions and DLC, I can understand people who have played those games being less patient with it, but I still don’t have a problem with it.  Being a person who intentionally avoids getting involved in fads (I just last year got a my first cell phone), I’ve played maybe three songs worth of those fake guitar games over the years, so I guess I’m kind of immune to any overexposure-borne hatred of them.

But it seems to me that when similar rhythm games popped up all over the place in the immortal Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, nobody voiced any concern or any type of problem it.  So yeah…people have whined about it but honestly I think it’s either from playing too much GH/RB or maybe…just maybe…they were looking out for something to be whiney about.

‘Cause from where I’m sitting, it’s a perfectly implemented, wonderfully designed and culturally significant addition to the game, and I don’t know what the fuckz they be talkin’ bout.

Of course once you finish the game, you unlock God Of War’s vaunted Arena Challenge Modes, as well as the Titan difficulty for the game itself.  The Arena Challenges (as always) will test just how good you really are playing as Kratos (button mashers beware…you will not do well at these), and the Titan difficulty ramps up the game to absolutely insane levels.  For those of you who like to beat everything a game has to offer, and then use the bonus unlockables that equip only after the first playthrough, the extra modes lend hours of replay value above and beyond the main game itself.

Everything about this game is just insanely epic.  Back when I first got my PS3, I picked up Heavenly Sword to kinda help me through my wait for GoWIII.  HS was a great game, beautiful, unique in many ways and a very, very good game in its own right…but Kratos and his quest for revenge completely craps on Nariko and her quest for salvation…and not by a small margin at all.

There are also other games in the genre to be sure…Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden, Dante’s Inferno and Bayonetta, to name a few…but they really don’t touch the sound and the fury of God Of War III.  The scale of this game is simply peerless, the graphics are incredible, the characters are great, the brutality is so much more insane than anything else I’ve ever seen and it’s all wrapped up in a fun, viscerally satisfying game that will at times blow you off your couch and out of your living room.

Understanding that I have yet to play an absolutely perfect game, I’m giving God Of War III a 10/10.  For my money, God Of War III gives me everything I wanted it to, and then some.  To be honest, the only thing the game is missing is online play, but let’s be honest with ourselves for a moment and admit that to date there’s no way to implement online multiplayer into a hack and slash.

Okay, maybe something similar to Horde Mode could work, but honestly I don’t think that alone is worth all the time and resources that such an inclusion would demand.

For the main game and the side games that come after the campaign is finished, God Of War III is just about flawless.  There are small issues here and there, but they really don’t take away from the overall awesomeness that the game delivers.  The PS3 allowed Santa Monica to show off the scale of Kratos’ Universe in ways they were only able to hint at in previous iterations, and at the end of the game, Kratos puts an end to Greek Mythology and also does a couple of things that would make Dr. Phil proud.

Again…God Of War III gets a 10 out of 10.  The game’s not absolutely perfect, but it’s good enough to get top marks in my book, as I haven’t played many games that can legitimately boast to be as good and really none that I’d definitively call “better,” to date.  This is a game that every gamer owes it to themselves to play.

It’s a reason to buy the PS3 (if MGS4, MotorStorm, Killzone 2, LittleBIG Planet, Uncharted 2 and Blu-Ray somehow wasn’t enough to convince you in the first place) if you don’t have one, and it’s also a game that deserves a place in every PS3 owner’s collection.  Again, it’s not “perfect” per se, but you can really only exclaim “Holy fucking shit!” in game so many times before you concede that it’s earned the highest score possible.

Bungie and it’s megaselling Halo franchise is to the point where their name is almost synonymous with Microsoft and Xbox.  However, once Halo: Reach is released, Bungie is free from any obligation to Microsoft and the Xbox 360 platform; they will be able to develop games for any plat they like.

In an interview with CVG online, Bungie’s Brian Jarrard was restrained about the company’s future, pretty much refusing to say yay or nay to potential development on the PS3 platform:

“I mean, I think our whole future’s kind of undefined right now and it’s definitely not something we’re going to be comfortable getting into too much detail about.

“We’ve had another team internally [other than those making Reach] for quite a while now – they’ve been working on the genesis of what will become our next big thing.

“It’s a little premature to get into specifics, but you know I think we have a really good mix of old blood and new blood in the studio.”

Now, I know he didn’t say “PS3″ in that blurb, but he didn’t say “PSP, Wii, DSi” or “PC,” either.  He just said that he was uncomfortable talking about their next project and/or what/how many console(s) it’s headed to.

So naturally, there’s a bunch of articles and blogs online speculating that they’re going Sony in the relatively near future.  It’s actually kinda funny to read the comments below said articles of speculation…I’ve seen very little in the way of PS3 fanboys saying anything…however there are quite a few 360 fanboys out there reassuring themselves and each other that Bungie will continue to give M$ the right of first refusal on all upcoming games…

…which if you look at it, is a completely stupid thing to do.  Anyone who thinks M$ didn’t pay Bungie bookoo dollas to NOT release anything multiplat or PS3 exclusive is an idiot, fanboy or both.  Bungie would be a bunch of chumps if they refused to at least look at multiplat releases without being paid for it.

However, that would require another long term deal with M$.  Now, even though Bungie has been independent of M$ since 2007, the release of Halo: Reach frees them from all obligation to M$.  One would think that if they weren’t interested in entertaining a multiplat release in the future, they’d have signed on for another 6 years and 4 Halo games with M$ exclusively.

…after all, they might as well get that fat cash M$ hands out at the drop of a hat, right??

So common sense says that Bungie will at least entertain the thought of developing a multiplat release (if they haven’t already) when Reach drops, and again, it’s not a fanboy thing;  they’d simply be stupid not to.

Here’s the thing, tho.  I don’t really care.  Shocker, I know…right?

Listen…I’ve played Halo 2 and Halo 3: ODST.  Now, because I’m not going to give a review of either game, I’ll keep my exact opinion of the two to myself.  I will say that while I don’t think they’re garbage, they haven’t given me any additional motivation to buy a 360.

But really, I just fail to see why the dust is being stirred over this.  Again, it makes no sense for Bungie to not explore all of their options.  Hell, they may re-up with M$ for another 6 like I said before.  After all, the Halo franchise has done pretty well for them as a M$ exclusive over the last 2 generations.

But the fanboys just need to leave them alone.  They’re trying to finish Reach, they’ve got a secondary team working on their “next big thing,” and the last thing they need right now is a bunch of no life nerds asking “Are you going to dev for PS3?  Are you going to dev for PS3?  Are you?  Are you?  Huh?  Huh??”

Seriously…back away.  Let them finish Reach, and if they haven’t already explored all of their options for the future, allow them to do that without cornering them into a “yes” or “no” answer to multiplat development.

The last thing Bungie needs is to become the half assed piece of shit dev that Valve is, and it seems to me that harassing them about “if” they’re going to dev games for the PS3 in the future would be a good way of pushing them in that direction.

Just let them be, give them room to breathe, and honestly…don’t read into it.  Bungie does a hell of a job, but if they don’t make a PS3 game it’s not going to be the end of the world.  Honestly it wouldn’t even affect my day one way or the other.

Please…stop being fanboys…stop instigating the fanboys…just let Bungie be.  They’re clearly uncomfortable speaking about it before Reach’s launch;  let them do their thing.  We’ll all find out soon enough.