PSP Go! a go

Finally confirmed...... the first details and pics of PSP Go! have been leaked out from Sony.


It's hard to tell what specs it has exactly, as far as I know right now:

• 16GB built-in memory.
  
  
• memory stick micro compatible.
  
  
• Bluetooth pairing with cellphone.
  
  
• smaller & 42% lighter(?) than PSP-3000.
  
  
• PSP-3000 will still be sold alongside PSP Go!

As I suspected, it doesn't sound like it has a camera, touchscreen, definitely no 2nd analogue nub, and all the rest of the stuff that all the wishful thinkers keep throwing into the rumours about it. It's just a PSP for downloadable content only. Which makes it..... ummm, any PSP that has PS Store access......... but maybe the full specs haven't been announced yet.

EDIT: people have noticed that we can't see a USB port, there's "wireless" written on the side, but does that mean "Wi-Fi" or "Bluetooth"? And I'm wondering where the volume buttons are-- which might lend some credence that it may have a touchscreen.


Is it too late for me to run out & buy that black PSP-3000 Ratchet & Clank bundle from Rogers for $130.00???? Probably....


I hate to be a jerk about it. I certainly was initially skeptical of the PSP-2000 when it was first announced too. I was re-reading my first G.A.P. post about it 2 years back, I was a wet blanket big time. So maybe this new PSP will turn out to be a good thing.

Like I said, this is basically 2009's version of the PSP. I guess we'll see another "hardware refresh" in 2010.....

It seems a bit odd to have the analogue nub inside with the D-pad on the "outside", you know? I would think it'd feel better to have the analogue nub on the outer edge with the D-pad more inner.

While it's nice to have built-in memory, I sure don't like that our current memory stick pro duos won't fit in this new system.

Also looks like the headphone jack is now just a regular headphone jack. Not compatible with the current video out cables or remote for PSP-2000/3000.

Joystiq PSP Go! gallery.


Qore video feature on PSP Go!:





later
don

Wii Motion Plus - new era for Wii?

I just noticed Wii Motion Plus has been listed on Future Shop's website.... available June 10, 2009.

The price is listed at $24.99.... hmmmm, I think that the U.S. MSRP is $20.00, so I suppose that sounds about "right"... but with the rising Canadian dollar-- currently at 0.91¢ U.S.-- we're just about back to par with the U.S. greenback. When our dollar tumbled due to the "economic crisis", games went from $40.00-$50.00 to $60.00+ ... I'm hoping the frustrating trend of Canadian game prices going up will be reversed.... but I know that's mostly wishful thinking.

Oddly enough, it will be 3rd party games (Tiger Woods from EA) that make use of MotionPlus before Nintendo's 1st party game, Wii Sports Resort is released in July(?) Also Wii Sports Resort will come with one MotionPlus dongle. But if you want to do 2 player MotionPlus, you'll need to buy a additional dongle.

What's bad is Future Shop's misinformation spin is going full speed as usual.... if you read their info blurb on MotionPlus, it implies that MotionPlus will improve all Wii games that use motion. Obviously not true-- games have to be specifically created to use MotionPlus, all previous Wii games won't use it at all. So the dongle only has a very small list of compatible games for it (for now)

But MotionPlus is getting some early rave reviews from blog critics; they say that this is what we should've had from the beginning, it really makes a difference, etc. So far the only MotionPlus game I'm really interested in is Wii Sports Resort, that will probably be a day 1 purchase for me because I'm afraid it's gonna sell out.

With all the controversy surrounding new PSP models... the basic argument over adding another analogue nub, giving the PSP 2 analogue nubs.... there's always been a huge concern that by making drastic changes to the console, the PSP audience could be split: those with old controls, and those with new ones. Sony has bent over backwards to keep the audience "united", the PSP-2000 & PSP-3000 have been minimal "hardware refreshes" as they call them.

MotionPlus brings this controversy from the PSP over to the Wii. Will future games split the Wii audience between old controls & new? Should Nintendo just build MotionPlus into their Wii remotes from here on out? Technology changes so quickly sometimes, yet other times it just plateaus, like the current PC trend. Maybe Nintendo was caught in a tech growth spurt when they equipped the Wii remotes with their (inadequate?) motion tech. So far their decision seems to be to make the new tech an add-on, thus putting the choice to Wii owners whether they want to pay extra for the new control. We'll have to see where MotionPlus goes from here.


later
don

Boom Blox

I've been playing Boom Blox for awhile now... this game gets good reviews, but it's not a graphics powerhorse or spectacular looking game... it looks more like a online flash game you'd play on your PC or something.

But the gameplay is pretty fun, and the Wii remote makes this a game that could only be as fun as it is on the Wii.

It's a puzzler sort of like Jenga, but with explosives! You use the Wii remote to target areas, and then flick it to throw the bomb & blow up the blocks strategically.

What really hurts this game from being GREAT is... the menu & user interface. Whaa??? How can something as minor as a games MENU affect how good it is?? Well.... it can. It may seem like nitpicking, but when you go to select levels, as soon as you "mouse-over" one of them, this big solid window pops up that COMPLETELY COVERS the rest of the menu. Sure, there's a preview image of the level you're "mouse-overed", but really... did it occur to NO ONE at EA that you could have had that NOT COVER the ENTIRE menu???? At least make the window transparent. Like I said, it seems minor, but it really hampers what should be a dead-simple process of accessing the levels you want to try. This is something the player shouldn't be thinking about at all.

And then there are levels where you have to place bomb blocks at certain areas, to try to make the puzzle fall down. You use the Wii remote as a pointer, click the A button to grab a bomb block, and move it around. Holding the B button while moving the Wii remote will adjust the camera. The major problem is that the DONE button is put in the middle of the bottom of the screen... so that it gets EXACTLY IN THE WAY of your work area. Like exactly. It's so easy to accidentally press DONE when you're simply trying to pick up/move a bomb block.... they couldn't have placed it in a WORSE spot than where they did. They could easily have put it at the top of the screen, where you never need to use to place a bomb. Seriously, EA paid someone to make this interface-- and they couldn't even see how it hobbled the game before shipping it out???

And then there's the Wii remote. At this point I'm convinced that EA has no understanding of the Wii remote at all. I was playing this morning and I held my Wii remote perfectly still, my hand resting on my knee while sitting, and watched the cursor jitter all over the screen.

All these little issues take what's a great idea, and keep it from being a great game. I'm so sick of lazy game devs. How do you screw up a MENU????

There's some enjoyment to be had from Boom Blox but it could have been so much more.



later
don

Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron confirmed

Aww yeah..... Joystiq has posted confirmation that Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron will be coming to PSP & DS "this fall"!

This is such awesome news.... seriously, makes my gaming year.





Joystiq's blog post states:

The press release suggests that the DS and PSP are getting subtly different games, with the DS version promising a "class-based gameplay experience" with different weapons for each class, and the PSP version allowing players to "personalize and build their character with more weapons and items than ever before." The PSP game has 16-player multiplayer with "in-depth stat tracking," and the DS release has "intense 4-player skirmishes" in different multiplayer modes.

Check out the gallery for the PSP & DS versions-- the DS version is obviously not as graphically polished as the PSP of course-- but the most notable thing is that it looks more of a top-down kind of player view, like X-Men: Legends or Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, those types of games. I wonder how that's going to affect gameplay.


Joystiq Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron PSP gallery

Joystiq Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron DS gallery

To be honest, to say that Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron PSP will be a DAY 1 purchase for me is a given. As soon as they announced the game, I'm going, "so where do you want my cash?" But I have to admit, I will probably also buy the DS version too, unless I start hearing a lot of bad things about it. I might wait for reviews on that one.... there's never been a Battlefront game for DS, so this is pretty exciting.

Unlike Renegade Squadron, which was the first NEW Star Wars Battlefront game for the PSP, I feel a lot more reassured that the franchise won't get mucked up. There are no guarantees, but I suspect that they won't stray too far from the formula. The PSP port of Star Wars Battlefront II, which was handled by Savage Entertainment, was pretty weak, even for a port. In some ways it was very faithful to the game, but there are some system-freezing bugs, and the controls just didn't feel tweaked enough for the PSP. I still play it every once in a while, but Renegade Squadron is the definitive Star Wars Battlefront PSP experience.

We still need some hard details: "coming this fall".... when exactly? October? November? I wouldn't be surprised if they scheduled it for September, but then push it back to those months like they did with Renegade Squadron.

Who's developing it? Rebellion? (Hopefully not Savage Entertainment, hehe)

UPDATE: Gamespot has said that Rebellion is doing the PSP version, and n-Space is developing the DS version.

Oh boy. This is hands-down my most anticipated game of the year.



later
don

Zune HD coming

This is interesting... the rumoured Zune HD has been confirmed.




















Some stats, as posted by Engadget:

• 3.3-inch, 480 x 272 OLED capacitive touchscreen display
  
  
• built-in HD Radio receiver
  
  

• HD video output (utilizing a new dock -- not on-board)

Supposed to come out this Fall.

I've read that it will have an IE-based web browser, obviously Wi-fi connectivity.
The video out sounds like it uses a "sold seperately" HDMI dock, so I suspect (dread) that it's for HDTV only. I really need a composite video out.

The Zune has always interested me because it plays a bit more video codecs than iPods, WMV and .MP4. I'm not sure if it will play PSP-formatted .MP4.

OLED screen sounds very appealing, they are supposed to be brighter & very vibrant. I've also read that the Zune HD will have an accelerometer ala iPod Touch. It sounds very much like an iPod Touch clone, but it does have a radio, which is nice.

As far as I can tell, there's only 1 tactile button... I sure hope it has tactile, dedicated VOLUME controls.

I'm always looking for a media player that will match the features/versatility of my PSP, in a smaller more compact form.







It does look pretty. Not a lot of info about it right now. Hopefully we'll find out more about it next week at E3.




later
don

Die Videogame Industry, Die! Part 5 - "Tradition"

Part 5 of a 10 part series about why I want the video game industry to implode, causing massive layoffs & putting most devs out of business so that the industry can come back much better than it currently is.

Today my nephew was playing Super Mario Galaxy on my Wii, reading through the "Story Book" chapters.... and my sister asks, "Why isn't this part voice-over??"

My response was: "Ummm... because it's Nintendo. They don't do voice-overs."

The entire game has only onscreen text, you can probably count on one hand how many voiced lines there are in the entire 20+ hour game.

I wasn't really a hardcore gamer back when the NES & Super NES were out, but I've realized that a lot of Nintendo games don't have voice work in them. Maybe back in the 80's-90's, it made sense not to include that because of cartridge space?

But as far as I can tell, Nintendo first-party GameCube games don't have much voice work in them either. Especially first-party Mario games. And now, with Wii's full-sized disc-- more than capable of holding lots of voice work-- but the "tradition" continues.

So-called "hardcore gamers" have come to accept that Nintendo just don't do that.... and there are so many conventions like that, where a company like Square Enix will keep outdated & tired gameplay mechanics or production values... or Capcom's Resident Evil series control scheme: Let's face it; you're NEVER going to be able to move & shoot at the same time. They will always use the same control scheme from 15 years ago. All this is done in the name of "TRADITION".

It has always been this way. It will always be this way. AND YOU WILL LOVE IT.

How STUPID is that??? We're talking video games, which can be programmed & improved with each iteration of a series. I know that games sometimes DO improve on previous versions, that's why [HOT GAME] 2 can be better than [HOT GAME] 1... sometimes they'll fix what was wrong in the first game & keep what was good about it, making an improved package.

Nintendo, Square Enix, Capcom, etc.... all those big companies, they make improvements to their games. But paradoxically, they are also fixated on keeping OBVIOUSLY BROKEN aspects of a series just because... hell, I don't even know why! "Tradition" is the only "reason" I can think of...

"It has always been this way. It will always be this way. AND YOU WILL LOVE IT."

We reward their laziness by buying their products by the truckload, which in their mind says, "see we didn't have to fix what was broken 'cause they're buying it anyway!"

Now, maybe... just maybe... that huge audience, that are mistakenly called "casual gamers"... maybe they aren't already brainwashed into accepting that these things aren't "just the way it's always been". So maybe they're TURNED OFF by some of these lazy production shortcuts.... and the industry wonders why titles aren't selling better......

Come on.


later
don

Joystiq/Kotaku sucks

What the hell is wrong with Joystiq?!? A lot of the times I try to check out their PSP feed (formerly PSP Fanboy) and it completely freezes Firefox. Something on their page just crashes it.

Kotaku is even worse-- whatever freezes/crashes Firefox on their site, it's there most of the time.

I'm guessing it's some stupid flash ad that's incompetently scripted to suck up all the memory it can or something.

Okay, banner ads make the Web go around-- they're not going away, and sites like Joystiq & Kotaku have done nothing but restructure so that they can have MORE advertising... I don't like it, but I've learned to live with it.

But how about having some STANDARDS with what ads you allow on your site? Like maybe ads that CRASH BLOODY BROWSERS... oh, I dunno..... maybe you could possibly NOT cram those in all over your sites? Sheesh.

I keep thinking some day the video game industry will actually get some "journalism"... but it hasn't happened yet in all the decades it's been around.....

Up yours, Joystiq & Kotaku.



later
don