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

PSP-3000 want

There've been a lot of sales on PSP-3000's the last few weeks in Canada & the U.S.... I came *this close* to buying a PSP-3000 a couple weeks back when Future Shop had the core PSP-3000 on for $149.99. That's only $20.00 off though... and I resisted the temptation & held out until my Television de Portable P2 came in. Glad I did.

Right now Roger Video Rogers Plus has all the PSP bundles, the Star Wars/God of War/Madden/etc. PSP-2000 bundles, *and* the Ratchet & Clank PSP-3000 bundle on sale for $129.99. That seems like a really good deal considering they're bundles, not just core PSPs.

I have to admit, I'm very tempted to get the R&C black PSP-3000 bundle. I already have Ratchet & Clank, but at that price it's worth it for the PSP alone.

But... the same arguments against getting the PSP-3000 still apply for me. I already have 3 PSPs (1 PSP-1001, 2 Star Wars PSP-2001s)... I simply don't need a FOURTH PSP. I should get rid of 1 of my PSP-2000's as it is. And with the Television de Portable, I can finally play games on my non-HD tv using my PSP-2000, but it's probably a bit nicer through the PSP-3000..... still, is that really worth it?

The more pressing concern is that all these sales going on in Canada & the U.S. are shaping up to be fairly clear indicators that a NEW PSP is coming. PSP Go! will probably be announced at E3 in about 1½ week.....

Unlike others with their pie-in-the-sky wishlist thinking that PSP Go! will have touchscreen, slideout, camera, kitchen sink, etc. features added on... I don't think it will have any of that, except built-in memory. And maybe a camera... but I suspect PSP Go! will basically be the "PSP-4000", just a minor upgrade by Sony, for the year 2009.

The main point of PSP Go! seems to be download-only game/media content. I would be VERY surprised if Sony offered a way to transfer UMD games we already own to the PSP Go! without having to re-buy them off the PS Store. Rather, Sony probably sees it as a product for those who don't already own a PSP & only want to buy stuff off the PS Store.

But I don't want to buy content off of the PS Store. If that's about all PSP Go! has to offer, then it just wouldn't be all that useful to me. I do like the idea of a really thin PSP though, and with the lack of a UMD drive, it might be very thin.... if they also made the battery built-in.... So maybe getting a PSP-3000 would be better for me. But then comes the point that I don't need a 4th PSP...... sigh.........



later
don

New Star Wars Battlefront titles????

Ok, I must admit.... Star Wars Battlefront (all of them so far) are my ALL-TIME FAVOURITE GAME(S).

So reading this news from Joystiq that a new one is coming, for both the PSP *and* DS.... *gasp*! Nerdgasm.











This product info was listed at the ESRB site:

Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron
Platform: PSP | Rating: Teen
Content descriptors: Fantasy Violence

Rating summary: "This is an action game in which players experience different battles from the Star Wars universe. Presented in a third-person perspective, the game allows players to engage in space, land, and air battles or build troops and upgrade armies in a strategy-based mode. Players can use laser guns (i.e., blasters), explosives, and lightsabers to destroy enemy robots (i.e., droids) and humans who often cry out in pain when attacked. During one dramatic cutscene sequence, an unarmed man is sliced by a lightsaber, while another character is shot in the back with a blaster."

Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron
Platform: Nintendo DS | Rating: Everyone 10+
Content descriptors: Fantasy Violence

Rating summary: " Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron is an action adventure game in which players experience different battles from the Star Wars universe. From a third-person perspective, players engage in space battles, 'speeder bike' chases, and top-down battling. The ground battle includes constant laserfire combined with hand-to-hand combat using 'lightsabers.' A depleting health bar and various "yelps" indicate damage inflicted upon certain characters."

I'm still hoping that Star Wars Battlefront III will come out, for the Wii as is rumoured.... but man, a new PSP Star Wars Battlefront game.... that just makes my day!

It's actually been a fairly good period for Star Wars game news in general, what with the new Clone Wars game announced. Sure, I'd like to see some all-new Star Wars game ideas, but it's better than nothing.

I wonder who's developing these games, probably Rebellion Studios (who developed Star Wars Battlefront Renegade Squadron) ... while I admit it isn't perfect, I was very pleasantly surprised how well they did carrying the torch held by original Star Wars Battlefront developer Pandemic Studios. But too early to tell right now...



New Star Wars Battlefront... yeah.......... *drool*


later
don

ZAGG Memorial Day sale

Wow, this is a pretty good one for those who need an Invisible Shield screen protector for their handheld gadget. 50% off on all Invisible Shields!

Enter code memday09 at checkout. Sale ends May 27, 2009. UPDATE: Sale extended til Friday May, 29 2009!

www.ZAGG.com


later
don

Playing PSP games on TV

The last few days have sorta been a "re-awakening" for my PSP.... it's not like I haven't used it for a long time and just recently started using it-- I've been using my PSP daily for the last several weeks-- but I suppose it's mostly to catch up on taped TV shows, or music... not a lot of gameplay since Resistance: Retribution.

But now that I can play PSP games on my TV through the Television de Portable P2, it's been a great novelty that's a bit of a fresh take on my classic PSP game faves. One of my favourite games is Twisted Metal: Head On, and I think it looks great on a TV screen. I want to go through all my top PSP games.... my PSP is not only my favourite handheld, it's now my fave home console too.... if I could only have 1 console of any kind, it'd be my PSP hands down, since I can play it on my (non-HD) TV and take it with me as well as use its multimedia functions.

One odd thing I've noticed is that I now set my PSP video output to Progressive. But even when I'm using the composite AV cables, it displays just fine with my PSP set to Progressive. I wonder, why do they even have an Interlace setting?

Still, I'm happy I have my other consoles too. Actually, I've been playing a lot of Boom Blox (Wii) lately. Great puzzle game.

I guess we're heading into the "off season" for new game releases? Sure seems like a slow period for games of every console-- or at least Wii, DS & PSP. This is where my "squirreling away"; my stockpiling of games should come in handy.... I have a bunch of games I've bought and haven't even touched.... should tide me over the next few months? Plsu there are games I want that I haven't bought yet, just waiting for good price drops on-- hoping Deadly Creatures (Wii) will drop in price soon.....


later
don

Television de Portable P2

3 weeks ago I saw this at Play-Asia.com: It's called Television de Portable P2, and it claims to allow PSP-2000 to play GAMES on a non-progressive TV! It was discounted from like $80.00 to $19.90 U.S. (+$9.00 shipping) At that price, I had to bite!

It took almost 3 weeks to ship to Canada... which is slower than I'm used to with Play-Asia (they usually take 2 weeks). In fact, I was starting to get worried... I was ready to fire off an email to them just to make sure everything was ok, but then I got the package this morning.

Most of the text is in Japanese, which I neither speak nor read. I can understand "PSP-2000" though :)

It seems fairly straightforward; there's a composite video, S-Video, L & R audio plugs. So you can choose to use either composite (yellow) video or S-video cable.

Inside the package is very minimal, 2 pamphlets in Japanese (instructions). the Television de Portable P2 has a wire that splits into PSP video hookup & power adapter... those go to this rectangular dongle that looks about the size of a Zippo lighter. Then the wire leads from that to the tv hookups.

On the rectangular dongle, there's an adapter port that takes your PSP adapter. It needs to be plugged in for the device to work. What's nice is that it has the pass-through cable so you can hook your PSP up to the adapter while you're playing through the P2.

One concern is that the PSP adapter plugged into the Television de Portable P2, that little retangular dongle gets *HOT*, very quickly. There's a nice blue LED that shows when the PSP adapter is plugged in, but you don't want to leave it plugged in when you're not using it.

So as to how it works.... you plug in the composite cables, plug the PSP adapter into the Television de Portable P2, and set your PSP-2000 to "progressive" video, and it works.

The Television de Portable P2 cable is about 9 ft long. Comparing the signal & picture quality to my official Sony AV (composite) cables, which I extend using some RCA extenders I bought from the dollar store (cost about $4.00 for 2 of them... yay for Dollar Stores!)

I'm using a 27" CRT TV.

NOTE: You will see some moray pattern effects on the tv screen, this is mostly due to the camera/CRT TV, not necessarily visable in real life.

This is the official AV cables:

This is the Television de Portable P2. Picture quality is a bit more faded:

I booted up my favourite game, Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron. The colour doesn't seem bad, but the loading screen text is blurry, and very hard to read.

(I don't believe that moray pattern in that picture was visible in real life. Keep in mind that some blurriness is due to my camera.)

As with the regular component gameplay, there's a black border around the image, making the actual image quite small in comparision. On my 27" TV, I have to sit pretty close to it to really play any games on my PSP.

The picture quality isn't terrible, but it isn't sharp enough for small details, like small text. I'm assuming that it isn't much better for PSP-3000's composite TV gameplay, as any mention of it by forum posters usually goes like, "Yah my PSP-3000 plays games on my regular tv KTHX BYE" . I could be wrong, it may be a bit sharper but I suspect the limitations of an interlaced, non-HD TV can only show so much with a PSP game signal. Still, it is a bit disappointing. I really wanted gameplay on my regular TV, and it's the feature I was most envious about PSP-3000.... I *almost* bought a core PSP-3000 yesterday, and now I'm kinda glad I didn't. It's probably best to wait to upgrade my TV to an HD, LCD that can possibly zoom the PSP gameplay image so it isn't so small with the borders.

Still, I think Television de Portable P2 is worth it, if you only have a PSP-2000 and really want to play games on your non-HDTV. As far as I know, there aren't any other options out there, other than buying a PSP-3000. So it's cool.

UPDATE: I just tried the S-video output, and the picture was noticibly improved! The smallest text was still difficult to read, but most of the other text was much clearer.

Pros:

• +allows PSP-2000 to play games on a non-HD TV!!!!!
  
  
• +PSP AC adapter pass-through that allows PSP to charge/run on external power while playing Television de Portable P2.
  
  
  
  Cons:
  
  
• -picture quality isn't as good as it should be.
  
  
• -Television de Portable P2 needs to be plugged in to the PSP AC adapter to work, and it gets really hot while it is.
  
  
• -hard to find.
  
  

Overall, I'm pretty darn happy right now with it! Gives me that one feature I really wanted with my PSP, the option to play games on my TV.

I got mine from here:

http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-jd-49-en-70-2r0t.html

Thanks for reading! Hope you found this review informative.

later
don

ESRB - the good & the bad

*NOTE: Portions of the text of this post was originally posted in PlayStation G.A.P. 2007-06-25*

I've been digging through my old G.A.P. blog to find some interesting rants musings that I might've posted.... came across this one from 2 years ago, on the eve of the release of Manhunt 2 & all the "controversy" that caused....
-------------------------------------------------------------

Has the ESRB affected you in any way? If so, has it been negative or positive?

I myself like the general idea of a rating system for games. Not so much for myself, but my 6 year old nephew likes to play games, and I like having a rating system that helps me judge whether a game has content appropriate for him to play. I do a lot of research into games before I buy them, and this is just one tool that helps me.

And I think it's a good idea for parents in general, so even if they don't play games themselves, they have some idea of what a game contains.

But the ESRB has some problems.

Awhile back I bought Fable: The Lost Chapters at Futureshop. I'd played & finished Fable, it came with my Xbox, but I wanted that small bit of extra content so I bought the lost chapters.

When I was at the checkout the sales clerk asked for my I.D.! I was like, "err... what?? Why do you need to see my I.D.?"

Turns out that Fable is an M-rated game. I hadn't noticed that at all, and frankly, it stunned me. I was buying this game for myself, my own personal playing, so ratings don't really matter to me in these cases. I'm an adult. But I would have assumed Fable to be a T-rated game. I've played through it & in my opinion, the content in it is not any stronger than what would be in a PG-13 movie.

This is where the ESRB doesn't work. If I was in charge of Lionhead Studios, I would've challenged that rating, it seems inapproriate.

Personally, I would be comfortable letting a 12 year old & up play Fable.

But the back of the box says:

MATURE 17+

blood
strong language
violence
sexual themes

• There is mild "sexual content": you can "have sex" with your wife. What this is, is that you stand near a bed at night with your wife (fully clothed), you compliment him/her over & over, and they might say, "let's go to bed..." the screen goes black, and there's some giggling, and sometimes she might say, "you're naughty!" then it's morning, you're both standing beside the bed (fully clothed). That's it! You don't get in bed, get naked or see/hear any sort of explicit sex.
  
  
• There isn't any blood in the game, you kill monsters & it's all very T-rated, they explode into glowing experience balls that you pick up. Their corpses quickly fade away.
  
  
• There isn't any swearing in the game.
  
  
• You can choose to do good or evil. You can attack people you're supposed to escort & protect; an evil act.

Does this all add up to an M-rating? I don't think so.

I wonder how many other games out there have been given inappropriate ratings?

Obviously all this ratings talk has come up because of the Adult-Only rating given to Manhunt 2 by the ESRB.

Before this, I didn't know that Sony & Nintendo don't allow AO games on their systems. Does Microsoft?

M-rated is for 17+, and AO is for 18+, so the difference between these games is 1 year?? Come on.

Despite the name of the rating, "Adults Only", the AO rating is clearly meant to stop a game from being sold.... to anyone.

The ESRB should just be honest & change the "AO" to something like this:

CB = Cannot Buy

[I even designed the logo for them. Nice of me, eh?]:



Just knock off the hypocrisy already. I doubt that a game like Manhunt 2 is something I'd want to buy, but that should be MY choice whether or not to play it on my PSP, *not* Sony's, in collusion with the ESRB.


later
don