Facial hair is a funny thing. A female acquaintance of mine once told me that a man with a wild full beard and a hairy chest was so ugly that it was incredibly sexy. I immediately questioned her sanity; but she did have a point. For a guy, facial hair is the masculine equivalent of make-up without all the extra costs and the trip to the drug store.

To set the record straight, I’m not writing about that Chia Pet you grew on your face in high school to try to sneak into clubs. I’m talking about proper facial hair, the kind that takes maintenance and sets you apart from the crowd, the type of hair that drips of masculinity and differentiates the full grown man from the peach-fuzz addled teenager.

Here are the top five facial hair styles you might want to try and five you should avoid at all costs; unless, of course, your career choices include pro wrestling, piracy, and/or tyranny. Otherwise, when choosing a facial hair style leave room for some tasteful creativity and have fun personalizing your style.

Styles to Try:

A Fresh Face

Notable Examples: Any or all Calvin Klein Male Underwear models

You can’t really go wrong with being clean shaven. It almost always looks good, it lowers your perceived age, and gives you a Zack Morris classy, preppy look.  Your girlfriend will appreciate that she can get close for a kiss without feeling like she’s rubbing up against sandpaper. The only major problem is that this look requires daily maintenance and this style might not appeal to adults who are still carded when trying to buy a 1977 bottle of Merlot.

The After 5:00 Shadow

Notable Examples: George Clooney

Like After Eight chocolate mints, some women find this look to be scrumptious. Done properly, this look will turn heads from dusk ’till dawn. This style casts a mature dark silhouette across the man’s face. It is a look that sends a mature but rebellious message. Like a Honda, this look does not require a lot of maintenance, just a shave every couple of days depending on how quickly your facial hair grows. Just make sure to take the time to keep it maintained to avoid any awkward in-between stages. You want stubble not post-pubescent bushiness.

The Soul Patch

Videogame Representation: Jak from Jak & Daxter

So, you want to be a little wild and a little mischievous while still remaining classy? You want to sit in the park banging out some tunes with your acoustic guitar playing buddy or would you rather be pulling down a large business deal? Either way the soul patch may be for you. The soul patch style is more versatile than most people think. It has the ability to narrow rounder-faced individuals and it can add maturity or youth depending on how it’s styled. Smiles become more mischievous and serious looks can become underscored. It can be shaped in a variety of ways to create a personalized look. On the maintenance side, the soul patch requires regular maintenance to keep it neat and trim as it can lose its effect if one neglects to keep the rest of the face clean shaven.

Goatee

Cartoon Representation: Frylock from Aqua Teen Hunger Force

Here’s a true story about the power of the goatee: I have a friend who was having a hard time at medical school because none of his patients would take him seriously because he looked like Doogie Howser. So, one night he decided to stop clean-shaving and grow a goatee with a mustache. Overnight, he went from a ‘Sonny’ to a ‘Sir.’  While the goatee is a higher maintenance style it is a look that can dramatically increase the perceived age of a man. There are several variations on the style which can make you look like anything from an upcoming young professional to a worn out rock’n'roll roadie.

Full Beard

Cartoon Representation: Jesus from South Park

It’s hard not to imagine a full beard without thinking of a Biblical character or a lumberjack. In the best situations a full beard can add a degree of wisdom and maturity to man’s face; however, you don’t want to imitate Gandalf-the-Grey anytime soon. A proper beard requires a lot of maintenance. It needs to be trimmed frequently and neatened with clippers. You want to avoid looking like Robinson Crusoe on his bad hair day.

Styles to Avoid:

The Tyrant (Toothbrush)

Comic Book  Representation: J Jonah Jameson (Spider-man’s Evil Boss)

You know this look. You’ve seen it worn by dictators on the History Channel and by actor J.K. Simmons in the Spider-man movies. It’s a mustache that is about the size of toothbrush situated right under the nose. Avoid it at all costs unless you’d like to be confused with the latest historical super-villain.

Friendly Mutton Chops

Recent Sightings: Nothing since the late 1800′s

Everything that is old is new again, right? Wrong. This is one style that should just stay dead. This facial hair style has the side burns grow directly into the mustache. This is not to be confused with the variations of the Chin Curtain which can have thin or thick beards connect to the sideburns. Those can be hip and cool. This look only works for wannabe chicken chefs who are after Colonel Sanders’s fried chicken empire.

The Handlebar

Videogame Representation: Mario and Luigi

Sure, Mario Galaxy will be the first game on your Wii list but does that mean you want to look like the round Italian plumber? I hope not. The handlebar mustache is much like a regular mustache, only the tips are waxed upwards. That wax is better used elsewhere. This look only lives on in the Mushroom Kingdom.

The Fu Machu

Network television: Hulk Hogan, Paul Teutul Sr. (American Chopper)

This is another one of those looks that screams pure evil. Surprisingly, the look was popular in the United States during the 1970s. Similar to the Blaxploitation, this style grew out of a genre of films and books that played on an intense Western interest (and a complete utter lack of knowledge) of Eastern culture. It now is a standard style for Harley-riding bikers and Pro Wrestlers.

The Walrus

Prime Time Cartoon: Simpson’s Neighbor Ned Flanders

No, I’m not talking about the Beatles song. The walrus is a mustache style where the lips are eclipsed by a large overhanging mustache. The best real life examples of this facial hair style can be found in the library.  Examine a picture of literary genius Mark Twain or of renowned physicist Albert Einstein to get a clear understanding of this look. I guess it is safe to assume that when you’re that smart you never need to worry about style.

Writing advice for men’s style is often a tricky business. Sure, giving style advice often makes me question my own masculinity in a Jimmy Pop sort-of-way; however, my personal issues aside, the real problem is that there is never a single solution that is perfect for every man. Styling issues have no simple, all-encompassing, fix-it solution. There’s no duct tape styling issues.

Your personal style should speak about your own individuality. It should cater to your strengths and your positive attributes. Hair is a great example. A lot can be perceived from haircut: no one would ever mistake Travis Bickle with Tony Montana or Peter Griffin with Homer Simpson. You’ll never see President Bush in the Oval office with hippie hair and soul patch and you’ll never watch Steve Nash dish out a pass MVP worthy pass without his funny long hair following behind him. Hair matters that much.

That said, I do everything in my power to try and not and sound like Bruno from Da Ali G Show, but sometimes I have to lay down the style law. Eighties revival and nostalgia is cool and chic when it comes to cartoon references, but the rest of the eighties should stay buried in the past. I might not be the voice of the Austrian youth, but here is a list of hair styles that are just criminal.

5. Cock Rock Hair (80′s Big Hair)

Infamous wearer(s): Axl Rose, David Lee Roth

While this style might be worn by some of your favorite late eighties and early nineties metal acts such as Guns ‘N Roses and Van Halen, the only people that wear these haircuts now routinely steal bicycles and buy cigarettes individually. You can listen to the music, mimic their guitar solos in the privacy of your bedroom but just don’t copy their style sense. Big hair looks homely on anyone this side of the Justin Hawkin’s marquee falsetto. For the rest of us, this haircut should only be worn in the darkness.

4.  The Bowl Cut (Mushroom Cut)

Notable Variation: The Beatles

If you remember Moe from the Three Stooges, I can guarantee you it wasn’t due to his bowl haircut. Excluding British rockers that claimed to be bigger than Jesus, this haircut was once a sign of poverty. Also known as the pot or mushroom haircut, it earned its name from its relatively easy to achieve style. Nowadays this hairstyle only screams slapstick. Trust me, there’s a reason why only Curly’s haircut can be worn with any style today. If you are going into vaudeville consider the bowl haircut-but all others need not apply.

3. Jheri Curl

Infamous Wearer(s): Michael Jackson (Thriller Years)

Not everyone who once had Jheri Curls have suffered terrible run of court cases and bankruptcy files. Jamie Foxx won an Academy Award and a Grammy, Charlie Murphy is hilarious on the Chappelle’s show, and Ice Cube’s latest album Laugh Now, Cry Later proves that those potent N.W.A years weren’t dulled by his questionable acting career. All of these stars no longer wear the Jheri Curl. Is that a coincidence? I think not.

2.  The Mullet

Infamous Wearer(s): Terry & Deaner (Fubar),

Worst Offenders of the 80′s: Billy Ray Cyrus, Bono, The Ultimate Warrior

Infamous variation: A.C. Slater’s Frolet (Afro + Mullet) in Saved by the Bell

Sure, Fubar was a good movie, but that was years ago.  And so what if Billy Ray Cyrus croons about his mullet on his new album? This style was dead soon after it was resurrected. Recently, I had the unfortunate experience witnessing an entire five-person family who all wore mullets. That’s a mother, a father, and three children. I consider this a form of child abuse. Like an oft-abused illegal drug, the Mullet is known by many street names: the short-long, the ape drape, hockey hair, etc. It’s not that it just isn’t cool-it’s a colossal joke that got way out of hand. Please be a part of making this achy-breaky-bad-mistakey die.

1. The Rat Tail

Sported By: Wifebeater wearing Suburban Gangstas, and unfortunate children aged 8-13

The cousin to the Mullet, this aesthetically unpleasant hairstyle can unfortunately be by both the male and female gender. Requiring more effort than the traditional mullet to achieve its undesirable effect suggests that the wearers are even more hardcore than their Mullet cousins. On visual contact of a rat trail, avert eyes, don’t make eye contact with the individual, resist to the urge to forcefully remove the tail with a sharp object, and back away very slowly.

So, you want your hair to be in style with the latest trends? Fashion hair trends are often silly. Just because something is in style on the runways in Milan does not mean it will work well for you. For example, the latest trend right now is inspired by the 1970′s Doors rocker Jim Morrison. What does that mean? Well, it means that these so-called fashion stylists are making men’s hair longer, straighter and darker. Typically with no volume and often parted right down the middle. A lot like Johnny Depp’s hair on the cover of Once Upon a Time in Mexico.

This is fine for only those lucky guys out there with straight hair but what about the rest of us? Should we all be heading out to a hair stylist pointing to a cover of a movie and be demanding chemical straighteners?

If you are happy with your style than the short answer is no. However, if you are unhappy with your hair give these tips some thought:

Classic Cuts:

Aside from working for the government, this is probably the only area that the Canadian Prime Minister, the US President, and James Bond have in common. They all showcase classic straightforward haircuts. These haircuts are clean and neat with a part to the side. Like the classic black suit, they are always in style and almost always look good.

Short/Medium Hair Tips -

Maybe you think the long hair trend is for hippies or maybe don’t like having hair in your face and eyes. No matter what your reasons are, keeping your hair short to medium length is never a bad idea

Try Spiking/Chunking -

A messy, just-rolled-out-of-bed look that is seems to be casual, natural and relaxed. The only problem is that this hairstyle is about as real as reality television. To make the style work properly it requires maintenance and effort in the morning with either a wax or paste.

When leaving the shower don’t bother to comb out your hair, simply apply some wax or paste and then mess up your hair. The goal of this relaxed look is to make your hair look like some lovely lady just played with your hair.

Curly/Coarse Hair Tips:

Curly hair is both a curse and blessing. It’s nice to have a full of head of hair but it gets a bit tiring when all your friends ask you about the state of your Sideshow Bob Afro. In these situations, think about how cool Lenny Kravitz looks with his curly and then come up with a killer comeback. Dealing with frizzy hair can be a challenge but once you get into a routine it can be super easy.

The Proper Products -

The market is now filled with shampoos and conditioners as well as pomades, waxes, creams, and gels all designed specifically for curly hair. There should be a product out there that can help tame your unwieldy hair. This may mean traversing into the hair care section farther than you’re used to going but the risks are worth the rewards. Just be sure to double check the scents of your shampoo and conditioner to avoid anything overtly feminine. Avoid excessively over drying this type of hair with blow dryers-it only increases the frizz.

Cut those curls -

Curly hair can be easily managed by cropping it down to a manageable size. Some people have a lot of success by cutting their hair down to point to where the top of hair just begins to curl. If you like your locks, skip the barber, and try going to a stylist to get your hair properly styled. A good stylist will cut your hair at various angles to diminish the problematic volume of curly hair.

Balding Tips:

You’re young, you’re hip, you’re getting it done and you are suffering hair loss. No worries. For those of us in the process of losing our hair there are some cool tricks for us to use to keep us styling. Don’t try to hide or overcompensate by growing more hair in the back or at the sides-we all know how ridiculous a comb-over looks. Instead go with the flow.

Keep it all Short -

Try to keep all your hair short like Bruce Willis or Kevin Spacey. It can give you a mature, masculine look.

Can’t Beat It? Go with Flow! -

If all else fails try getting rid of your hair all together like Ving Rhames. Going bald is a truly dangerous and masculine look that gets attention. People will think you’re doing it just for the style. They’ll probably ask to rub your head for good luck. Just make sure you treat the top of your head right. That includes cleansers, lotions and anything else you would typically use on your face.

The following is a “Lost” Soko Article:

We spend all year looking forward to the summer. The days are sunny, the ice cream is cool, and all we want to do is head to beach for a pick-up game of Ultimate Frisbee. However, nothing ruins a good summer day at the beach faster than the stench of our own body odor. Here are some quick tips to avoid stinking up other people’s summer fun:

Shower More Often

Sweat is the body’s natural way to fight against the heat. You should therefore always keep your fluid intake high to let yourself sweat. To stay odour-free, avoid the hottest parts of the day by exercising in the early morning and evening. If you have to get outside, try taking several shorter showers over the course of the day rather than taking one big one at the start or end of the day. This will help to keep you cool and help you smell fresher. Remember to focus on your own personal stinkables such as the groin, the armpits, and feet.

Feet First!

I had a friend in college who would use a roll-on deodorant stick on the soles of his feet before going on long distance runs. He claimed it help to battle to the sweat smell produced by his running. Now, I never bent over to smell his feet to test this theory but he seemed happy with the results. I would suggest using a good foot powder to reduce the chances of athlete’s foot, absorb odor, and mask bad smells.

Make sure to put some foot powder into your shoes, socks, and in between your toes. The space between the toes is a thriving habitat for smelly bacteria. After a shower, take some extra time to dry between your toes properly. The moisture helps the bacteria to thrive. When out on the beach, don’t forget your flip-flops. Airing out your feet can drastically help stop foot stench.

Armpit Hair

The Incredible Hulk is a green 1040 lbs mega-beast that leaps around the New Mexico desert in the scorching sun; yet, amazingly no comic book character ever complains about his body odor. What is the behemoth’s secret? After hours of speculation and after a dissection of several issues of Incredible Hulk, I can safely say I have found the answer. Hulk’s secret lies in the fact he has absolutely no armpit hair!

This may seem surprising, but it turns out that unruly underarm hair retains moisture which creates a nice little environment for bacteria to grow and stink up the place. Furthermore, armpit hair makes it harder for at deodorant to adhere to the body. See, comic books do contain lessons that we can utilize in day-to-day life. Be like Bruce Banner and make sure trim your armpit hair down to a less stinkable size.

Don’t Forget the Deodorant

Now, this may sound like a no-brainer, but why not pack along your deodorant or antiperspirant with your sunscreen, swim suit, Frisbee, and towels? That way you can make sure you don’t smell after taking a dip into the pool and you can reapply some deodorant after re-enacting all of your favorite goals from the World Cup.

Eat Right!

Want to chow down on that summer hotdog with the all onion, garlic, chili-cheese fuelled fixings and then drown it with can of soda? Hold on. This type of eating could be contributing to your B.O. problems. Changing your diet and avoiding caffeine can help to reduce body odors. When eating healthy, the effect is twofold: you’ll smell better and you’ll be helping yourself get towards that perfect beach body.

Game publishers have seemingly gifted us with a slew of unmitigated M-rated titles that feature more tits, ass, and zombies than George A. Romero daydreaming at a strip club. These are games concocted under a seemingly perfect corporate cocktail of girls, guns, and guts; titles like X-blades and Onechanbara Bikini Samurai Squad.

It is fairly obvious that Southpeak lovingly spent more time rendering Ayumi’s butt cleavage than they worked on her face and that catchy melody to Onechanbara’s advertising song “Asian Girl Don’t Be Rude” has been rattling around my head for weeks, much longer than that SNL classic “Dick in Box” sketch. These games are a syrupy mix of pixilated porn and swordplay. A sure sign that video games have matured past basement obscurity right into the VIP room of the strip club; after all, this is the hardcore we’ve all been waiting for, right? Right?

Nope. It’s like we’ve taken a time machine back a generation to play the travesty that was BMX XXX. Even as you read this, the interwebs are alight and flaming over the simple notion of male frontal nudity in the upcoming Xbox 360 Grand Theft Auto DLC. I could care less. My question is: how does it change the game?

It’s titles like these that make me question the hardcore moniker we all love to throw around so much, the one I place behind my name like some sort video game credential. What makes a game hardcore? Narrative aside, is it pushing the boundaries on the forefront of digital gore or is it a focus on truly unique game mechanics?

The recipe to making a true hardcore title can’t be a reliance on soulless digitized dolls with dynamic boob physics. I’m pretty sure that Rumble Roses disproved that theory years ago. It definitely isn’t the blood and spinal rips of Mortal Kombat or Midway wouldn’t be in financial ruin. It’s that coveted fourth “G” in that girls, guns, guts pyramid that is the true ingredient for success: game play. With great game play, the other three become unnecessary; a potential hindrance even. Anyone who has dreamed in multicolored tetrominoes knows this to be true.

Onechanbara Bikini Samurai Squad is by far the industry’s most recent and worst offender. Built around bust lines, it offers little towards a truly engaging experience. Originally an import PS2 title under the “Simple” label released back in 2005, it was a budget affair priced at 2100 yen (approx. $29 dollars). Four years later, outside of a mediocre touch-up of the graphics and a jacked up price point across both the Wii and Xbox 360, all the major problems still remain — the characters still control like boats, the combo system is unintuitive, and the game play is more hack than slash.

After an extended play session, I could feel my imagination being sodomized; a feat only worsened by the wear on my wallet, even as a rental. If that clashing cowboy hat and pink boa weren’t offensive enough, that upped price point launches the expectations of the game into a realm well outside cult fetishism. Worse still, it deals damage to the advancement of the industry when that “M-rating” equates to little more than immature depictions of sexuality, buckets of gore, and broken game play.

Don’t get me wrong, I get that gaming is entertainment and it will always contain an element of escapism like all good fiction. I know that Street Fighter’s Cammy couldn’t possibly fight effectively with that impossible thong flossing. Yet, ten years running, I still proclaim myself to be a huge Street Fighter fan. So what’s the difference? If we stripped away the anime aesthetics of Street Fighter, tore away all the genre conventions and 13 year old fanboy pleasing, we would still be left with a competent fighting game with stellar tournament mechanics. That’s why it’s a game franchise that has been around for more than a decade; it’s the game play that keeps it fun and has the fans routinely coming back for more.

Sex or no sex, violence or no violence, I can always defend good game play.

Playstation 3 has certainly kicked it up to high gear in the graphics department this year. First party titles have torn the eyes out of gamers’ sockets and fed them back to them in high definition glory.

Just as soon as Sony’s Killzone 2 had begun to set a new high water benchmark for console graphics, the gurus over at the official Playstation Magazine announced that Sony’s killer exclusive, God  of War III, will be technically “leaps and bounds beyond anything the PS3 has seen to date.”

If that wasn’t enough to tent the dungarees of Sony Fanboys across the world, we can add this juicy statement to a long line of exclamations extolling the virtues of Kratos’ third and final entry into the award-winning franchise.

Sony Computer Entertainment has previously announced that God of War 3 will use a custom game engine that delivers four times the texture resolution of its predecessor. Industry veteran David Jaffe put his huge walrus balls on the line, exclaiming that God of War III looks 25%-30% better than the HD trailer, stating: “It happened to blow me away and remains the best looking console game I’ve ever seen.”

God of War III, unlike Killzone 2, has a much better lineage than Sony’s FPS. Sony, however, delivered in spades and gave PS3 owners a title that not only lived up to the hype that surrounded it but surpassed it. With a 120-page script, God of War III will run at full 1080p HD resolution, and the game would support Sixaxis tilt and vibration functions. It seems when it comes to the graphics front in the console war, the PS3′s vengeance is everything.

Is the next generation going to be composed of gimmicks or innovation, great game play or mass market mini-games? If the current Wii-volution that is occurring across the Walmarts that scatter the great land of America is a sign of the things to come, I may just have to hang up my gamer badge for good.

Let’s jump into the DeLorean and take a little time travelling trip back to the past: in the dark days of the Gamecube, amidst internet rumblings of Nintendo going third-party, a little white box was being secretly developed in the inner sanctums of Nintendo.

Having already launched the strange yet undeniably appealing DS, this new console had a working codename of Revolution.

Nintendo dropped that moniker for the more market-friendly and more perverse title of the Nintendo Wii. Revolutions were scary they said, revolutions were about bloodshed, terrorist organizations and babies crying. The word “Wii” is inclusive and conjures up images of children playing with their private areas, together in harmony.

Nintendo just wanted everyone to play. Controllers are scary, like the cockpit of a flaming 747. People just want to throw around their television remotes and Nintendo happily provided. In an Apple fuelled haze, Nintendo went on a marketing blitz and began to do something they haven’t done since the era of Super Nintendo: they ran commercials that targeted everyone including your dear old Grand Pappy.

Gimmicky as the Wiimote may seem in retrospect, Nintendo grabbed the attention of the media and consumer wallets with its technology and Wii Sports. Not since the SNES has a system been so ready to play out of the box. It’s that type of mass market acceptance that the other game companies would love to have.

On the outside to the hardcore set, it seems like Nintendo served up an underpowered console with a unique input device; however, Nintendo did more than that: they inverted the typical market scheme for video games. Nintendo made money on the console from the first day it launched. Gone was the razor blade marketing, loss-leading tactics that Microsoft and Sony and most previous consoles used to make money. Get the player to buy the hardware and make your money back on licensing and games sales.

With over 48 million consoles sold, maybe the Wii is the unheralded revolution in gaming. If it isn’t, it is, at the very least, a huge financial success. Maybe it is too early to speculate about the next generation of gaming but you have to wonder if the Wii has started a trend that Microsoft and the Sony brands might try to follow in the years to come. It has already been widely speculated that both Microsoft has Wii-like controllers in the works. MTV news reported that Microsoft has teamed with mouse maker Gyration to produce a motion controller code-named “Newton.”

We have already seen Microsoft compete with the Wii head on with Live Avatars and You’re in the Movies. Thankfully, Microsoft has tempered these efforts with a steady stream of hardcore titles for gamers that make up their high console-to-game attach rate.

The PS3 six axis controllers already come equipped with Wii-like capabilities. If a third-party game garners a critical and fan success on the Wii, could we see a wii-make port move to the high definition consoles with prettier graphics? I know I would love to play a 1080p version of Mad World or No More Heroes.

However, the issue extends far beyond waggle controllers. What if Sony and Microsoft decide to produce a new generation of consoles that have little or no graphical improvement than the current generations? What if they opt rather to explore new input devices? Perhaps the next big thing won’t be a major jump in movie realism and 7.1 Dolby Digital sound but rather it’ll be what type of 3D glasses the major companies are packing in with their game consoles.

Baseball is known as America’s pastime but Football is truly the game of American dreams. It would seem asinine to suggest that the Super Bowl is anything but a national phenomenon. That fervor for the sport has translated well to the spectrum of video games. Ever since the early days of the Sega Genesis, digital football has been a mainstay in the console gaming scene. Even though he has a face for radio, any gamer worth their salt would instantly recognize John Madden’s characteristic double chin and Children of the Damned-like white hair.

The Madden franchise has been a hallmark of profitability for Electronic Arts and has earned tons of acclaim for the publisher’s internal developer: EA Tiburon. The yearly updates of this famous football franchise amassed sales that surpassed the 51 million unit mark. It’s so popular that the idea of the Madden curse has populated the minds of the masses. If that wasn’t inspiring enough, this simulation franchise is regularly used to predict the winner of the Super Bowl by several mainstream video game sites.

However, Electronic Arts was not quite content with these McDonalds-like hamburger sales numbers and snapped up the sole exclusivity rights to the NFL license, its stadiums, and the NFLPA back in late 2004. This five-year deal effectively killed EA’s competition in the market. Gamers everywhere fretted that Electronic Art’s monopoly would transform the legendary sports simulation into little more than a series of lackluster roster updates. EA in actuality bought exclusive access to gamers’ wallets, after all. Nobody wants a football game that doesn’t have the support of the league.

At the time of the signing, this infamous move was steeped in media controversy. Developer Visual Concepts and Take Two’s 2K sports brand franchises were routinely receiving higher reviews than their EA cousins and were gunning for EA’s throne. However, once the NFL deal was signed, the NFL 2K series was effectively killed. Take Two appealed to media stating that the deal was a “tremendous disservice to consumers” and in turn responded by signing a third-party exclusivity deal with America’s other favourite game, locking up the MLB and the MLBPA from all publishers except first party companies like Sony and Microsoft.

In February of 2008, the notorious EA football licensing deal quietly came back into the spotlight as the company extended their deal with NFL until 2013. However, an interesting lawsuit between clothing company American Needle and NFL has reached the level of the Supreme Court and has recently brought the whole issue back into contention again. This case has the potential to place EA’s exclusive deal with NFL in violation of federal antitrust statutes. The giant publisher has been following the case closely as they have been embroiled in their own class-action lawsuit, Pecover vs. Electronic Arts; which argues that the exclusivity deal between the EA-NFL-NFLPA creates an unfair market situation that results in unfair pricing for the consumer. The class-action suit is to go to court on September 14, 2009.

The potential ramifications of this lawsuit are profound. If EA is found to be in violation of antitrust statutes then suddenly every publisher has free reign to once again create marketable football games. As underdogs, these football games have been far more innovative and daring than EA’s current stable of sports titles to gain traction in the marketplace. Sports games sell consistently year-to-year and every publisher would love to get their grubby hands on that proverbial fertile field. Just imagine what SCE San Diego could do with the football license. They’ve already shown they are more than capable at handling the baseball license with MLB 09: Big Show, the current best on the market. It’s not hard to imagine that all of the major publishers from Microsoft to Sony covet EA’s exclusive access to the NFL license: it’s a one-way entry fee into the pocketbooks of gamers everywhere.

The more superstitious fanboy might even call it a PS3 curse. Let’s run down the list: Lair became an industry whipping boy filling up Youtube with spastics that flailed SIXAXIS controllers with reckless abandon.

Ninja Theory’s gorgeous Heavenly Sword wasn’t measured on its own merits, but was held up against the standard that should be reserved for God of War. Sega’s stellar Valkyria Chronicles is seemingly invisible to the majority of mainstream gamers.

Resistance 2 hasn’t seen the sales a title of its caliber deserves.

It’s almost as if we’ve collectively banded together to repeatedly punish Ken Kutargi for his oft-echoed and ill-advised comments of “People will get a second job to buy the PS3.” No, Ken. We didn’t.

Then Killzone 2 dropped. If the PS3 has ever seen a game changer this is it. Strangely, the PS3 has been having a couple of great weeks. The launch of Yakuza 3 during the first week of March sparked a fury of PS3 console sales across the sea in Japan. The PS3 outsold all other consoles including the dominant Nintendo handhelds in its home market. Over here, Killzone 2 moved 750,000 units in its opening weekend alone. It instantly became the third highest selling PS3 game ever. This situates the title amongst the chosen few, trailing only behind Metal Gear Solid 4 and Grand Theft Auto IV. Not bad for a title that was steeped in nothing but controversy, hype, and an underwhelming prequel.

Has the curse finally been lifted? Is Killzone 2 the Halo killer Sony has oft dreamed of? So far, Killzone 2 has managed to do the impossible. It has not only met the insatiable expectation of fanboys but it has been regularly exceeding them. Graphically, the game is being hailed as one of the most stunning of this console generation; no small feat considering the lofty expectations placed on the title due to its E3 2005 trailer. The online play is robust with a squad-based leveling system. The single player campaign is epic; the voice acting is striking; and the trophy support stellar. At last, Sony via Guerilla Games has delivered an exclusive title that has been both critically well received and has avoided strange fan outcry. Well, almost. There’s that lingering issue with the realistic, heavier controls; silly really, I mean it’s readily changeable in the option menus. If you are too lazy to scroll down to the menu to modify your own controls — throw out your controller, forget about logging onto that gaming internet forum, just go outside and rediscover sunshine. You need it. You’ve got issues.

Killzone 2 represents the future of the PS3. The success of this title virtually guarantees that we will see a sequel or a large offering of downloadable content before too long. Sony now has a very bankable and marketable franchise. From a marketing perspective, Killzone 2 has a unique art design and a grandiose action movie vibe that’s got legs in a crowded FPS market. Guerilla games has truly outdone themselves and refashioned their profile into one of a premier developer. The experience that this team has gained in utilizing the cell processor will hopefully be traded amongst all of the internal development studios at Sony.

In fact, Guerilla games have set the bar for quality amongst all game companies pursing the PS3 audience. Other developers and publishers can no longer satisfy the expectations of PS3 gamers with subpar ports built upon the Xbox 360 infrastructure. More importantly, far from being cursed, Killzone 2 has become the game to beat this generation.

Microsoft has a plan.

I know that this statement might conjure up images of Steve Ballmer and Robbie Bach sitting in a darkened office plotting new ways to steal more PS3 exclusives, but if you look at Microsoft as a game company, they’ve come a long way in just two short generations of consoles.

The original Xbox cautiously tested the market; it built a fan base and turned Halo into an industry buzzword. Microsoft learned the ropes from the old king of the hill — the PlayStation Brand.

Those lessons for success were simple: Get to the market first; aid developers and programmers; and finally, the most important of all — give gamers games. With the Xbox 360, Microsoft did this in a big way, promoting new franchises like Gears of War and Left 4 Dead.

No, these lessons weren’t learnt from that hype beast that was the PS2. They were gleaned from the console that started modern 3D console gaming as we know it: the PSone. The PSone embraced the relatively new (at the time) CD format. It had an extensive coding library to aid developers. Sony strived to make connections with publishers to bring games to the marketplace. Sony was aggressive with price cuts and with advertising campaigns. They were a force to be reckoned with and it made Nintendo and Sega almost pedestrian in comparison. That hunger and drive from Sony as they first faced off against Nintendo and the now-defunct Sega birthed a classic gaming system whose effects are still ringing in the ears of gamers today. Just go to a gaming convention and say: “Final Fantasy 7 remake” and you’ll drown in drool.

Sony used their brand recognition to build anticipation and tantalize gamers with the PS2. The PS2 was in many ways the opposite of the PSone. No longer a pure gaming system, it was far more difficult to program for and doubled as a DVD player. As consumers snatched up this product, developers were forced to follow the market in masses. The later launching GameCube and Xbox could do little to cut into the gigantic lead that Sony had amassed. This is why the original Xbox was quickly and quietly killed and replaced by its younger sibling. Microsoft wanted to upset the balance of power in the console war. They had learned firsthand that having more horsepower does not necessarily lead to more sales.

Sure, the Xbox 360 launch was tarnished by red rings and disc scratching, but early PSones and PS2s were plagued with numerous problems as well. Microsoft was quick to court the hardcore, and helped developers so much that industry players like Gabe Newell and John Carmack have publicly stated how much easier it is to program for the Xbox 360. For better or worse, the Xbox 360 is a dumb PC. A dumb PC that is easy to build great games on.

What went wrong with the PS3? No console manufacturer has been able to hold a lead across three consecutive generations. Over confident, Sony tried to build upon brand confidence like the PS2 and failed. They did manage to build one of the best future-proof Blu-ray players money could buy but the market wasn’t ready for high definition players and gamers wanted games. The Xbox 360 delivered where the PS3 could not.

Even Japanese developers like Capcom know that the growth of the console gaming industry is a North American phenomenon. Microsoft has delivered a product that caters to the tastes of a North American palate. We’ve been given first person shooters in bucketfuls, addictive sport games, and droves of platforms to live out our rock’n'roll fantasies. Microsoft and the Wii have proven that Sony can no longer rely on brand recognition alone. This generation may still have a longer life span than most; but make no mistake, the plans and strategies are already plotted and in motion.

Hold on though, the console war is still in full effect. I believe that this E3 could be a turning point in the war; either solidifying Xbox 360 as a hardcore champion or rocketing the PS3 back to its crown. The PS3 owes a lot to the competition. Sony would not be nearly as innovative without the Xbox 360. For example, with the loud public outcry over the red rings, it did not surprise me when the PS3 launched problem-free. The relatively quick growth of PSN and PlayStation Store into a viable alternative to Xbox Live show that Sony is not simply resting on its laurels. Inadvertently, the Xbox 360 could be leading the Sony brand back to its former glory.

Competition breeds innovation and arguably Sony is already leading in the artistic innovation category with titles like Flower, Pixel Junk Eden, and Everyday Shooter. The PS3 is home to some epic and new headlining franchises like Resistance, Uncharted, and LittleBigPlanet. There is a wealth of franchises on the PS2 that haven’t transitioned over to the PS3 yet — where’s my Team ICO game? Where’s my new Twisted Metal? My full-fledged Gran Turismo? This year is looking like a great year to be a Sony fan. Killzone 2 is already rocking consoles and God of War is making media waves almost every day. Nathan Drake is coming back to consoles and I can’t wait to try out Zipper Interactive’s MAG. Maybe it’s just me, but Sony is starting to look hungry again.