Well Sony has been in the news lately for less than stellar reasons, so how about some good news.  Gamestop has a promotion running right now that goes until the May 14th.  If you trade in your old PS3 (40GB model or above) you can save $200 towards the purchase of a newer system.  This includes bundled deals as well.  This is good news for those of you that still have those fat PS3's, I think it's time for you to get off your lazy butt and get a slim with some serious storage capacity. 

If you are interested in a newer Xbox 360 model there is a promotion as well that runs until the 12th; however it is only $100 off the purchasing of an upgrade.  Still a pretty decent deal nonetheless.  I think I might partake in this deal, would be nice to have one of the new models for the 360... already got a 160GB slim PS3 really no need to upgrade.

Update: Apparently I need to work on my reading comprehension because these promotions are ONLY good in Canada... bastards.

In Non Game Related News

Feeling pretty good about my last final today, my instructor even cleared some of my absences off my record since technically she should have failed me for them.

In game related news the PVP embargo for SWTOR dropped today, lots of interesting things reveled.  If you are interested in it check out one of these links.

Darth Hater, TORwars, Ask A Jedi

The Old Republic

Star Wars has spawned many different types of games from fighting to racing and even a MMORPG(Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game.)  They have had varying degrees of success, not unlike the movies, but at the time when the first Star Wars MMO came out it was quite popular.  This changed with bad decisions by the developer and the entry of World of Warcraft into the MMO scene.  However, Lucasarts wants another shot at that giant piece of pie that WoW has carved out for itself.  This time with Star Wars: The Old Republic.

I've been following this game intently since E3 '09 when BioWare (developer of TOR) released Deceived a cinematic trailer to get people hyped for the game.  It did that in spades, but people wanted to know what set this game apart.  BioWare from an early onset said story, or the "fourth pillar" as they call it, would set TOR apart from all the rest of the MMO's out right now. Fully voiced NPC's and missions with a conversation system similar to Mass Effect's dialog wheel; it sure seems like they have that covered.  There is also a big emphasis has been placed on the fact that you will have companion characters similar to the way you had them in KOTOR(Knights of the Old Republic) and will be romancable or killable.  You may want to think about that decision to kill your helpful companion though, this isn't a single player game you can't just reload your save and everything is all hunky dory.

What about the loot, the raids, and PVP you ask?  Well it's all there so they tell us.  They have said next to nothing about raids so far.  Loot has been talked about quite a bit... it will be a heavily loot based game.  crafting skills will apparently take a back seat only the raid gear.  As far as PVP goes this has been discussed by the fansites lucky enough to go play it for 2 days, as fun and not "bursty," which I assume means you can't just unleash everything you got on someone and turn them into a fine paste, and that it "feels like an upgraded Warhammer" style of PVP.  Warhammer had wildly imbalanced classes back when I played but the PVP was fun.  So this all points to what could be an awesome game.

What do you guys think?  If you've been following it at all how does it compare with perhaps an MMO you play now?  TOR should be out by the end of this year if all goes well.
If you want to know more about the game take a look at these:
Hope trailer, Info known so far about the game, and a developer walkthrough

[Spoiler Free]Reasons to be Excited for Mass Effect 3

The thrilling conclusion to the trilogy set in a near future filled with amazing aliens and unrelenting evils is coming to a close, for Shepard at least.  For those of you blissfully unaware of what Mass Effect is, it is a RPG centered around a character named Shepard.  This Shepard is one of your choosing, male or female, good or evil, a hardened Soldier who relies on his weapons or a powerful Adept that uses mass effect fields to control his/her enemies.  Made by BioWare, it was clear that they wished to capture that RPG essence, but with much more accessible type of game play.  The story basically centers around Shepard's struggle against the Reapers a ancient race of sentient machines who periodically wipe out all life in the galaxy.
Okay so now you're up to speed, lets get on with why this could be the best of both ME1 and ME2 without all the negatives of either of them.

• If you don't import a save game a 'Previously on Mass Effect' comic will allow you to make major decisions.
• Skill trees to be larger. 
• Powers to evolve more times than once.
• Weapon mods to make a return. 5 variants per part. (Modding is back; was terrible the way it was handled in ME2)
• Classes can wield all weapons, but only Soldiers can have all of them at once. The rest of the classes will have limited slots. (Very welcome change)
• Melee attacks will gain more focus
• Shooting specific armor parts can have certain effects, and the AI of the enemies will have them routing Shepard and will coordinate with each other.
• Enemy Weapons can be used.
• NG+ will be a hybrid of ME1's and ME2's. You can go back and finish some stuff in the post-game.
• The cover system has been improved.
• You start out with the basic powers from ME2. (Not going back to square one with no abilities is good for those that   import)
• Shepard can roll and alternate between cover.
• The Engineer can build turrets, which will distract but not 'decimate' the enemy.
• There will be more items to loot.
• Lighting Up is a new charged melee attack, Shepard uses his omni-tool to inflict a burn to the enemy.

This is just a small taste of the changes to expect out of the gameplay, for more in depth look at other facets of the game check out this thread.  ME3 will be out on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 so everyone can now enjoy the series equally or disregard it if it's not their cup of tea.  I should also mention there have been a string of bad decisions about aspects of both ME1 and ME2, but it's all subjective to the person playing it.  Universally however, there is some pretty lazy modeling and additions and subtractions between ME1 and ME2 that are tenuous at best.  BioWare recently dropped the ball pretty hard with Dragon Age 2, so there is some worried fans out their that see a troubling trend from BioWare that perhaps EA is excreting itself to push out unfinished and unpolished products.  I guess we will have to wait until fall to find out if ME3 lives up to everyones expectations.

Sony Executives Bow in Apology

It is a sure sign of guilt when you have an apology as good as this 7 second bow by the big wigs at Sony. The recent breach in security and subsequent shutting down of PSN, as a result of still "unknown hackers," may have allowed the compromising of 10 million credit cards along with the  personal data of upwards of 70 million users.  Worse still, this flaw in the system was apparently already known to their in house security specialists, but apparently not to upper management.

Now I'm not one to be an apologist for Sony, especially after their rootkit fiasco.  However, this was what seemed to be an earnest apology for clear negligence on the companies part.  At the very least in the days where companies such as BP will do anything they can to place blame on someone else, it is refreshing to see a corporation acknowledge that the responsibility lies squarely on their shoulders and not deflecting this at instead the perpetrators of the crime.

No word yet as to when PSN will be back up for all the eager fans in the US there are rumors but no official timeline.  Best Buy  also decided this was a perfect time to put Xbox 360's on sale, and I can't say I blame them.

Update:  It seems another security breach has occurred, this time to Sony Online Entertainment.  

"The information from the outdated database that may have been stolen includes approximately 12,700 non-U.S. credit or debit card numbers and expiration dates (but not credit card security codes), and about 10,700 direct debit records of certain customers in Austria, Germany, Netherlands and Spain."

Sony just can't seem to catch a break.