Kupowered's 501st Post

There's a little bitty something about Kupowered that I didn't really think about when I started up last night's Review of Resistance:  Burning Skies, and in fact, I didn't really realize it for a little bit afterwards.  That thing is that yesterday's post here was the 500th post made in this blog.  And it's not really since the last number special that I've done one of these and I don't really want to repeat myself, but daaaaamn.  Unfortunately, there is no movie out there titled '500' that I have seen, so this might be a little bit of jibber-jabber, seeing as I want to acknowledge this milestone, yet there's not really a whole lot to talk about in terms of things 'changing' or anything like that.  Since it seems like keeping the course as is is working out quite well if the five-hundred posts prior to this one is any indication.  Just read that to yourself and get a nice big smug grin on your face and you can imagine that's pretty much what I'm like, currently.

I suppose, however, it's worth mentioning that it's a little funny that my 500th post was a review, considering when I started up this blog, I never thought I was actually going to review things here.  And in fact, I sort of had to talk myself into doing it, but since then, it's gotten a little more and more natural.  I only have just over half a dozen reviews at this point (all of which can be easily accessible by slapping in "Review" on the search-bar gadget on the side, or, since I'm feeling a little bit charitable tonight, I can go ahead and just link them since this is sort of a looking back type of post.  Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, Star Ocean: First Departure, Yakuza 4, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Alpha Protocol, Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky, and, of course, Resistance: Burning Skies.  Despite it being literally the post under this one, it's nice to keep all of them handy in case I keep doing reviews and have to (or simply decide to) keep them together in a single post for a quick reference.  Because, as is obvious, Kupowered is just going to keep going well past 500 if it made it well past 100, 200, 300 and 400.

While I wouldn't say my reviews are my most important posts on the board, I will say that they do take a good bit more work than most of the other things I post which are basically sit down, look for something interesting, look up some information, and then try and post that in a form that is interesting for myself, since if I like it, others probably will as well.  At least, that's the plan, but I almost never know if it's the reality or not.  Still, I tend to get positive feedback, so I call it a win regardless.  Of particular note, as in, posts that I always like to point out (and I always think about it) is my Character Spotlight series about Caim from Drakengard, which -might- be my favorite posts, or at least the ones I would like people to read (aside from the spoilers of course).  So maybe those are what I would think of as my 'most important' posts, but then again, I just have a big ol' spot in my heart for Cavia, so I'm totally biased on that.  (But still, it's a big read.)

I'm not going to drag this post out and there's really not a whole lot going on.  In the post-E3 time, we've just got people reflecting on what they saw during E3, people complaining about this year's E3 (mostly deserved), and not a whole hell of a lot else.  Considering Netflix actually works on our terrible internet, I'm celebrating this milestone by gorging upon on-demand TV and other such relaxation means.  Hopefully there'll be something to talk about tomorrow, or that I can at least come up with something!  Because I'll need a post for something that isn't "Hooray, 502nd post!" because that would just be too much, clearly.  I'm still holding out hope that there was a hidden gem in -somebody's- E3 floorshow or something.

What I Did on My Summer Vaca- er, Hiatus

So, if you paid attention to the handy-dandy gadget I put on the sidebar with my twitter feed, you no doubt saw that I implemented that at just the right moment, for directly after, I found a real use for it:  informing you, the readers, that my computer had gone all pear-shaped.  So, I hope you saw that at some point!  Because it's not an intentional outage that I went through, I assure you, merely something out of my control.  The skinny of it is something the internet has, no doubt, told you anyway:  Never buy Norton Anything.  Norton Anti-virus, Internet Security, what have you, just don't shell out the money.  It can, quite possibly, get infected in such a way that it turns into a megalomaniacal super-tyrant who will ruin your computer if not stopped.  And the means of stopping it involve completely wiping the computer.

Thankfully, the guy who fixed our computer has been doing things with computers since I was a kid, so he knows what he's doing, and the important things that were on this computer were saved.  So no worries on that.  He even optimized it (and gave it a half-gig more of RAM, bringing the total up to, uh, 1 gig) for us and it works like a dream now.  A....ten year old, technological hurr-durr of a dream, but a dream nonetheless.  So hopefully, everything will be cool on the computer front.  If only Windows would, uh, stop updating.

Anyways, you likely don't care about that.  You care about what the title says:  What I did with my, er, 'time off'.  And I'll tell you what, it was a lot.  I'd like to make special mention to my PSP for being awesomer and awesomer every time I want to do something with it.  Thanks in part to the world going all mobile-sites, the browser in the PSP is a little more capable than the days or yore, and while it's still not perfect, it's a fine stand-by while we wait for the real treasure:  The Vita's browser.  Which...I imagine will just be the PS3's browser.  But hey, it works fine, and it streams youtube videos.  Hopefully we'll see that on the Vita as well, since that's the only thing that could have made the hiatus more bearable.

I'm sure it'll surprise no one (especially if you kept up with my twitter) that the bulk of my time away was spent with Sucker Punch's latest gem, inFamous 2, which has me feeling all sorts of things; the majority of them being good.  I will open by berating Sucker Punch for making the same mistake in this game as they did the last:  Holding out on us with the really good mobility powers.  Without spoiling too much for you, at a certain point, you get a power that makes getting up to higher places much, much easier, in a way that I akined to being Electric Spider-Man, but that point is not in the first half of the game, much like the Static Thrusters weren't that soon in the first game.  Which is not a good thing!  Stop holding out, Sucker Punch!

My only other gripe would be, in a surprising twist, too much of a good thing.  Namely, quite a few powers locked to the R2 key.  Two are in my head off-hand (one of them being a good side power, since that's what I beat the game on), and it's just too much of a hassle to switch between them.  They both make mobility really, really excellent, and it's just a shame that you can't swap one of them with a different key to make use of the both of them in a quick, easy, and efficient way.

Aside from that, the rest of the game made me various, various degrees of happy, save one part.  Which, if you've beaten the game on good, you know what part and I'm not saying anything else.  Suffice to say that I had to tell myself repeatedly that it's a comic book game, and comic books do that sort of thing all the time and keep going, so I'm not going to worry too much on it.


I know I focused more on the things I was "Ehhhhhh" about, but you have to look at the facts here:  I spent probably 20-30 hours playing inFamous 2, beat it one and a fourth times, and I have precisely three gripes about it, two of which aren't really even bad.  If that's not enough of an endorsement for you, I could very likely gush here for paragraphs about what I loved about the game, but I can just narrow it down here:  Everything I didn't mention above.  Alright?  It's all just perfect.  Go buy it.

Also on my list of things I did, was delve back into the wonderful world of LittleBigPlanet the Second, which made me wonder why I ever left to begin with.  And then I looked at the stack of games I've yet to even touch still and mouthed a silent "Oh yeah" to myself.  However, LBP2 has likely carved out a niche in my everyday while I watch my nephews at least, since they just love love love watching the movies people have created in LittleBigPlanet 2.  Which makes it easy on me too; I can just load it and enjoy as they do!  Though, I do love playing the game, of course.

And of course, dipping back into LBP2 has also meant a resurgence of my ever-long desire to revamp my single published level, Journey's Fall, that I have come to think of as the half-finished manuscript on my coffee table.  I'm proud of it, but it's not done, and I don't know what to do with it; or rather, I do know, but I can't will myself to do so.  And while I might show it off to people who come around and get positive feedback, it could likely never get finished.  Though I really do intend to finish it.  And I do have a few ideas.  We'll see if LittleBigThings will make a comeback, though.

Also on the rather long list of accomplishments is the fact that I have, indeed, scratched one game off of my "To Finish" list:  Grand Theft Auto:  The Lost and Damned.  Though, that's the only positive note about it, as TLAD is, for a lack of a better term, completely and totally poor.  I wanted to like it.  I really did.  Because I liked GTA IV!  At least, I did.  Coming back to the mechanics after such an extended period of time made them feel archaic by comparison.  It was rough getting back in, especially considering the lovely missions and the absolutely fabulous mid-mission checkpoint system, but after I got them back down...well, I managed to finish the game.  (I will note, that obviously, I hated the missions and checkpoints.)

Note to Rockstar for future reference:  If you have a goddamn shootout with five waves of people and then a bike chase to kill even more people on bikes, maybe you want to put a checkpoint somewhere in there.  I cannot put into words the amount of frustration one feels when you're down to just one guy left to kill and you end up dying.

Twice.

Only to have to restart the whole goddamn thing over again.

Twice.

Especially if one of those times is, technically, your own fault because you don't remember how to switch weapons on a vehicle.  Gee thanks, game!  What am I going to do with goddamn pipe bombs on a motorcycle against other guys on motorcycles?  The answer?

Accidentally kill myself.

Yeah.  That was just.....I'm sure you can imagine what it was.  And all in all, I can appreciate the scale of the later missions, but that doesn't mean I liked them or thought they were done well.  While the last missions arguably reaches Three-Leaf Clover levels of grandeur, the execution is much less appealing and even becomes a bit sloppy, like the rest of the game.  (I know it's just an expansion, but it's full-featured enough.)

Directly after, I started up The Ballad of Gay Tony, and it's like friggin' night and day.  The Ballad of Gay Tony, I only got through the first mission before I turned it off, but I was happy while playing it.  Because it was fun.  The animation is noticeably better, the voice-work is wonderful, and the direction is just much, much better overall.  I do believe I'm going to have fun with it.  But time will tell, of course.

Rounding out the list of things I did is the all-encompassing term of "Portable Gaming", by which Phantasy Star Portable 2 and Rune Factory 3 were my main games.  Anyone from the school of Phantasy Star Online will appreciate the gravity of the statement, "I got my main character from Level 80 to Level 82" whereas everyone else will likely shrug at the two levels of advancement.  But those of us that know, know, that that is not something to shrug over.  As for Rune Factory 3, I had my second child on my main file and started a new one because why not with the intent on getting all the girls to like my character so he'll have supreme pick when it comes time to get married.

I might even be forgetting a thing or two here, but the short of it is that the computer is back and better than ever, and I had a lot of free time in the meantime.  But now Kupowered is back in business!

inFamous 2 - I've Started It

This is going to be one of those posts where I just talk about a game I've not put a -lot- of time into, but enough that I enjoy it, or that I'm particularly excited enough over it that I can talk about it at some sort of length.  I did the same with Yakuza 4 (which I regrettably have neglected thanks to Dynasty Warriors 7 and just not playing PS3 for a while, but rest assured, I will get back to it.) and there are likely only a couple of games that I'll actually do something like this for.  Suffice to say after my mad dash at trying to get my hands on a Hero Edition of the game and eventually doing so, there's a lot riding on the game.

Thankfully, it hasn't disappointed yet.  While I didn't fall into it as quickly as I would have liked (Just had a little more rust than I thought, I guess) and I had to trick the PS3/game into realizing that I have all the trophies for the first game (putting inFamous in so it can install again, resynching trophies after), and I played the opening about four times because of those issues (plus the fear that my PS3 was overheating towards the end of the early fight), I've enjoyed every single moment I've played.  There's just....something that I can't properly quantify with words that just clicks with me, presses all the right buttons.  And while I understand that's my opinion and not representative of anyone else, that still means something to me.

No matter if I'm doing a story mission, a side mission or just running around looking for Blast Shards, there's not been one moment while playing inFamous 2 where I wished I hadn't been playing the game.  Which happens sometimes!  I'm sure that's not breaking new ground or anything, and it's not like I have a lot of instances where I play a game wanting to play a different game (unless it's in anticipation, see:  Uncharted prior to Uncharted 2's release), but there have been times where I play something and notice something from/about a different game and suddenly want to play that game, though I likely don't change.  Not once has that happened in inFamous 2, is the point I'm making.  If I could, I'd likely be playing it right now.

God help me if this game gets released on Vita.

As for the Hero Edition itself, there's only been one facet of it that I just haven't touched yet, which would be the soundtrack.  Because if I've got the PS3 on, you better believe it is to shoot mans with lightning, not download 140 MB of music, no matter how much I want it/want to hear it.  I'll likely do it at some point in the near future, just to see what it's like in comparison to the original, and while I'm looking forward to it, I can wait.  Everything else in the Hero Edition is rather stellar.  I've got Cole rocking the Samurai Sword because why not, the Statue is rather impressive and looks good on my desk, the mini-comic was enjoyable, and I just love love the bag that came with it.

All in all, this was a purchase that I, theoretically, could have regretted (only from a logistics stand-point, as there was no doubt in my mind that I'd enjoy the game and such) but I don't.  At all.  The upgrade was worth it completely and totally for me, and I'm already thinking about my multiple playthroughs of the game for the simple fact that I will just keep playing it.

Playstation Vita has killed my ability to think coherently.

For the moment, my mind is pretty much stuck at going "Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" and not stopping.  Mostly because of LittleBigPlanet Vita.  (Tentative Title.)  But also mostly because of the Playstation Vita itself.  Two models, as we all knew, Wi-Fi only and 3G/Wi-Fi model, with the 3G one using AT&T as its carrier.  The Press Release makes mention of "pricing" through AT&T, so I'm expecting Data plans, so I'm just going to spring for the Wi-Fi only model unless something comes up to change that.

I'm gonna have to just link you to Chance's recap of the Keynote until I can form more and more proper sentences.  But, yeah, I am pretty much super excited at the moment.

Edit:  Alright.  I'm more composed now.  Did anyone notice that I spelled 'coherently' wrong in the initial posting?  Boy, that's a bit embarrassing.   Anyways...

After what I initially referred to as "cockteasing" by Kaz Hirai, who insisted on bringing up the Vita, subtly, talking about the PSP, referring again, vaguely, to the Vita and then bringing up Playstation Suite, the NGP, then announced, finally and officially as the Playstation Vita.  After bringing it up and doing the usual talking on it's high points, I, as I'm sure everyone watching, was just chomping at the bit to know a price.  And when one wasn't provided by the time he was already handing it off to someone else to talk about the games, I'm sure more than a few people felt a creeping dread.  Knowing Sony, this was their ploy to raise excitement and then crush it finally and completely with some insane pricepoint at the very end of it.  It wouldn't be the first time and, unfortunately,  it likely wouldn't be the last.

But rather than some evil ploy to smash dreams and bring ridicule upon themselves, the entire section of the presser was perfectly engineered to bring about the highest amount of excitement one could get from it.  "Here's what it can do.  Here's what the games look and play like.  Here's some of the cross-console possibilities."  Essentially, "Here's all the shit it can do that makes you think we're not going to compete with Nintendo on price."

And then, Kaz came back out, and brought the excitement, the interest to its apex...to then bring down waves of gratification as they did what no one expected, truly expected them to do:  Priced the base model exactly at the price-point of its direct competitor, the 3DS, at $249.99.  Then, less surprisingly, as this point had been mentioned before in the rumors, its partner price of $299.99 for the 3G/Wi-Fi model was announced, with AT&T being tapped as the exclusive provider of 3G for the system.  Still no real word on what all you'll be able to do with 3G on the thing, but a deal with AT&T likely means a data plan, which means a lot of people will likely not shell out for it unless there's something else in it for them.  Still, being that it's got 3G -and- Wi-Fi, so long as you're not supposed to sign up right there in the store and it comes with a little something extra, a memory stick or something, it might not be a bad thing.

So yeah.  With everything we've seen for the Vita so far (Not only E3, but the stuff from waaaay back, when it was first announced, even) and everything we know now, the Vita is looking like a sweet deal.  It's going to be rough for Nintendo to try and convince everyone that you're getting the same amount of bang for your buck; and touting 3D might not be the only way around it.

Konami's attempt at best E3 Line-up is respectable

Do you see this image?  This image right here, above this line?  Yeah.  You see it.  And you better get used to seeing it, because it is officially a thing that is happening.  Contrary to what the tagline says, the Metal Gear Solid Collection (Featuring, as it shows on the image, MGS2, 3 and Peace Walker) will be a multi-platform release on both the PS3 and 360, so not only will 360 owners (who presumably never owned a PS2) be able to play MGS3 without buying a 3DS, but they'll be able to take a swing at Peace Walker as well.  Of course, PS3 owners have the edge, seeing as Konami stated that the version of Peace Walker is 'Transfarrable'.  No, I'm not making that word up.  Anyways, PS3 owners who also own Peace Walker will be able to treat the game as one of the upcoming "PSP Remasters" in that you'll be able to move your save from one game to the other.  If that means PW will be locked out of Trophies/Achievements, I don't know, but we'll see.

Also announced by Konami today was a Silent Hill Collection, which bundles Silent Hill 2 and 3 together.  That's about all that's known about it.  Do you need to know much else, though?  It's Silent Hill 2.  And it's Silent Hill 3.  They are together.  On one disk.  The consoles it'll release on are technically unspecified at the moment, but PS3/360 is expected.

And finally, the third Collection announced was....wait for it...

HELL.

YES.

The Zone of the Enders HD Collection will, obviously, feature Zone of the Enders 1 and 2 (Sorry, no Fist of Mars for the GBA.  Let's all shed a solitary tear.) up-ported in the usual Collection style, etc. etc.  It will be amazing.  Because the games?  They are amazing.  And they will be even more amazing when they're in the Haitch Dees.  The collection also touts another "Transfarring" feature, but just for what, it's hard to say, as it's tied to a "Future announcement".  Say...the Sony E3 conference is in the future...

(I am really, really, really hoping this means a Zone of the Enders game in PSV.  I will buy seven. 

....not really.  I will buy one though.)

PSN's On the Way Back

So, the latest firmware for PSN, which will allow you to change your password (And likely that's about all it does) is up now, sorta kinda.  You see, the PSN is being restored incrementally, or mostly as a state-by-state basis, which is being displayed on a map here.  Dunno how often it's going to be updated, nor do I know if that map will cover Canada as well (Sorry Chance!) but I mean, it's on the map, so hopefully it will be!  As of this writing, it's California (which is a given) and the north-east states.

So, what does this mean?  Well, it means we'll get to have online access again!  Not store access just yet, as that's a later phase, and they're first concerned with getting you set up to, y'know, play games online that you've bought rather than selling you games you, in fact, cannot play online with.  (A move many would have accused Sony of doing, assuredly.)  The full-list of services is hopefully going to be back to full capacity by the end of May.  If you go by the list Joystiq gives,

• Sign-in for PlayStation®Network and Qriocity services, including the resetting of passwords
• Restoration of online game-play across PS3 and PSP
• Playback rental video content, if within rental period, of PlayStation Network Video Delivery Service on PS3, PSP and MediaGo
• Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity, for current subscribers, on PS3 and PC
• Access to 3rd party services such as Netflix, Hulu, Vudu and MLB.tv
• 'Friends' category on PS3, including Friends List, Chat Functionality, Trophy Comparison, etc
• PlayStation Home

Pretty much looks like priorities are straight.  I'm not sure where the store fits in, but I would hope it would be directly after online game-play, and not but a couple bullets later.  But hey, we'll see how it works out.  Me?  I'm just happy that in a few days, hopefully, I'll be able to sign in, sync my trophies, and sign out, assured that I'll never have to get Quizmaster again.  Unless I buy the game again on another system in the future.  Which....I'm that hardcore of a fan.  But we'll just have to wait and see!

Tribute.

So, some of you may know from my posts on the PA Forums, or because I've told you, but up until the other day, all my Playstation 3 gaming had been done with the Sixaxis Controller that came with the PS3 I bought waaaay back in January of 2008.  It's been with me through a lot of good times, and a lot of bad, and it's not like it's...y'know, going anywhere, but it'll definitely see a lot less use.

This is my controller, named Sechs.  (Get it?)  Sechs has seen better days.

...as you can see.  He has a lot more, aherm, Battle Scars, but they wouldn't really turn out well in pictures, so you'll just have to picture it with a little help from me.

Now, the primary issue I had with Sechs, was that, and you can even see it in the second picture there, that the left stick floats.  That is to say, it's not really anchored to anything, so it doesn't move correctly.  Not to say that sticks are supposed to be, well, stiff, but they're supposed to center themselves, if that makes sense.  And the sticks on Sechs do not.  They also squeaked a bit from their excessive use, which when I was playing online could actually be heard over my headset, apparently!

And the obvious second issue is a rather recent one, thanks to Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus.  Well, it had been cracked long before when Sechs received the biggest portion of his 'definition' thanks to the Challenges of the Gods in God of War 1 (also the collection.  Somehow I get the impression that I don't need to play PS2 games anymore), but the piece had stayed firm until a section in Sly that I don't even remember.  Probably the last chapter of the game, since that was by far the worst section.

Also an issue is that, well, you know how you have the 1 2 3 4 area on top to show you what 'port' your controller is 'plugged' into?  And how there's little bits of clear plastic to light up from the lights beneath?  Yeah....those came out long ago when I nearly twisted Sechs in half from the Challenges.  And the 2 light just plain doesn't work.  Before that piece broke off of the bottom, it was also kind of off-center and not really connected properly.

This is my shiny new Dualshock 3.  I'm not sure what to name it, and I realize naming inanimate objects is more than a little silly, but it's something I tend to do, and I probably won't stop anytime soon.  I love the extra weight of it, the color, and that, hey, Rumble is back.  How I ever missed it.  I swear, when I started playing around with Tumble (the demo) using my Move Wand, and it rumbled, I nearly dropped it.  Since, I mean, it has been quite some time since I had a rumble controller!  (Well, the Wiimote, but I've barely messed about with that)

It feels -right- to finally have a DS3.  I mean, I put it off as long as possible since the controller's $50 or so, but it was getting a little closer to the area where it was a necessity and not just an upgrade.  Sechs made more than one game a little more difficult than it needed to be to play (Dead Space being the prime example), but I admit I'm a bit sentimental (which is also more than a little silly) so I didn't want to look at it as a replacement process; just picking up an extra controller, which, well, I did!  I have two controllers now, which works out pretty nicely.  I don't usually have company, but now if I do, I'll be able to share!

Anyways, that's about enough rambling.  I just wanted to make a post about Sechs, my loyal, uh, controller, who has served me faithfully for three years.  Rock on, Sechs.  Even though you can't rumble.

UPDATE:  My Dualshock's name is now "Char".  That is all.

This is my birthday post.

It was a pretty good birthday.  I got to sleep in pretty late and then went off to the wonderful world of GameStop to get a little free (read:  paid for by someone else) birthday present.  On top of putting my $5 down on Yakuza 4 and Dynasty Warriors 7 (I know it's a bit late for me to be doing this -just now- considering how badly I want to get my hands on these games, but, well, I haven't been to GameStop since LBP2.  Or around GameStop.), I managed to find this beauty that begins with B and ends with Storm after a long while of searching.

...

...

Ha!

Now, see, I actually had no idea what I wanted to get for my B-day.  Really, all the games that I want have either A) Just come out and are thus pretty expensive yet (Which I was only concerned about since it was not my money), B) Games that I am waiting for special/Game of the Year editions on, C) Games that I'm just like "Man, for about $20, okay."  (FFXIII), and D) Games that just aren't out yet.  So you can see the problem here of getting a game in that limited circumstances.  And since I wasn't really in a thinking mood earlier, I didn't go into the store knowing what I was going to get.  (Except three Celebiis, which, by the way, GameFreak, it's time to step your download game up, alright?  No, that's not a PSP reference, I'm just telling you that this place-and-time-specific DLC sucks dick.)

But this game.  I've wanted this game for, like, two years or so now, partially because it's KOEI, and partially because it is a war that I've pretty much not touched yet with my studying.  Which is weird, right?  Considering it has batshit crazy Joan of Arc in it, and that's kind of my thing.  (Batshit crazy things.)  And when I saw the spine of it, I had that gut reaction that you only get when you see something and go, "YES.  THIS IS WHAT I WANTED."

Sort of like this.

And then I went to a steakhouse and got, like, the best steak I've ever had.  Have you ever had a meal that you really just wanted to find the person who made it and say, "Dude.  Dude.  YES.  Keep doing what you do."?  Because that's the feeling I got.  Also a free birthday sundae which was really really neat, as well.  And after that I got to come home and play some vidya games, which I will talk about in the Weekly Wrap-up, probably in extreme detail, because one of the games is what really inspired my whole "Old game vs. New game" design philosophy thing the other day, so I have put a lot of thought into it.

And then other stuff happened.  But pretty much everything else was great and it was a great birthday for like 70% of it or so.  This is some statistical gain over most days.  This is, as we (I don't know who 'we' is) say, a triumph.

(Oh wait, now I know.

Nerds.)

(Because I am a pretty big nerd, you see.)

Oh, hey, that was my 50th Blog Post!

Cake for everyone!

(There are some really impressive cake pictures out there.)