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.)

NGP gets a (possible) name: "Vita"

Take a look above, as it's the first (possible) picture of the NGP (from Joystiq.) that actually isn't a stock photo from what I've seen.  Sure, it's more of a mock-up than anything, but my point stands.  Anyways, that's not explicitly the point, so much as the latest addition to the overall look:  What may possibly be a logo.  When I started suggesting possibilities for alternate names (a whole one and a half of them, I guess) I never would have come up with the name "PS Vita", and when presented with it, I'm sure my reaction was the same as most everyone else:  "W...what?"

Now, while it doesn't exactly roll off the tongue right away, nor does it lend itself to accurately giving you an idea on what it even is, I can kind of understand the thought behind naming it the Vita, if, of course, they do name it that.  Or, at least, I can throw a couple reasons out there and suggest it was on their minds so it doesn't look like five guys sat around a table playing Scrabble until the letters just sort of fell into place.

Now, a quick googling will lead you to the quick revelation that "Vita" means "Life" in a couple of languages.  Given the PSP's lackluster appearance (not actual performance), a good way of shedding that image would likely be to launch a campaign built around that point, claiming to "Breathe new 'life' into portable gaming" or something of the sort.  Really, so long as they manage to keep away from psychic babies and (as much as I didn't personally mind him) Marcus, pretty much any ad campaign for this will be fine, not even necessarily pointing out the Vita part.  Still, taking a cue from Nintendo and incorporating the console name into the message ("Wii would like to play~") would likely be a good idea.

A very slightly less quick googling will also bring up the fact that "Vita" is also a different form of the more common word "Beta", which we all know is the second letter of the Greek Alphabet and is pretty much usually synonymous with "second", with the common example being "Beta" being the second phase of a game's development.  Given that this will be the second Playstation Handheld Device, well, that just sort of works nicely.  Not very many people will know that right off, which is a bit unfortunate, and naming it the "PS Beta" would likely raise more than a few eyebrows, but for what it is, it's not exactly offensively bad or anything, so it'll work.  We all got used to calling the Wii "The Wii", and it obviously hasn't distracted from its success.

For my own opinion, while I'm not exactly impressed right off with it, after looking into it, I think it's a fairly 'smart' name, even if it's a name that will allow all, and you'll have to excuse the meme, the haters to continue to hate.  Which, hey, there will be detractors for everything, and no matter what this was going to be named, there was likely going to be a lot of vocalizations against it.  While this makes it a bit easier, it's not starting something that wasn't going to happen anyway.

Of course, it could be an elaborate hoax, or we could have another "Move" situation, where we all sort of accepted that would be called "Arc" until a Microsoft patent forced "Move" to win by default.  We'll just have to see how E3 goes.  And, for what it's worth, I really hate ending E3 related articles with "We'll just have to wait" because it's such a crap thing to do, really, but, hey, it's not like I'm a psychic or anything, and I don't want to state rumors or unannounced things here as fact.

Update!:  Evidence just keeps a-comin'. In there, there's some source code for a Playstation website where there is clearly a couple instances of the phrase "PS Vita".  So either this thing is going to be called the PS Vita, or something is going to be named the Vita!  (Or it's still just an internal codename.)

Yo Dawg, I heard you liked Storms....

You heard wrong, good sir!

...

Anyways, it's pretty funny how I said I wasn't going to timestamp-alter posts for weather issues and then, well, weather issues happened.  So, true to my word, this will be going up Thursday, which means hey, I missed a day.  Again.  Through no fault of my own.  Sigh.  And I hate to say that I'm not sure how content-heavy this post can really be, as there's just not a whole hell of a lot of news out there that really strikes me.

Chance posted about Marvelous' plans for NGP on Tuesday, which is really good news for me, well, for everyone really, but especially me, as it gives me hopes for a decent Harvest Moon game on a Sony handheld.  ...What?  Don't look at me like that.  I am a man who enjoys his Harvest Moon games!  Boy & Girl is serviceable, since it's just Back to Nature and Back to Nature:  Girl version on one UMD, but Back to Nature is the less-good version of Friends of Mineral Town for GBA, and it looks weird on the PSP.

I editted my last post with this update, but I'll say it here, too.  Minecraft "Pocket Edition" details were thrown about on Reddit by one of the developers from Mojang, which is actually a pretty common thing.  There's some sort of real weird, close relationship between Reddit and Mojang, from what I can tell, as I've been linked to a few different things of Notch talking personally(?  Is such a thing there really possible?) to the folks there, not to mention the large group of Let's Players of Minecraft there who have a ton of rather large projects.  If you need proof...

Invizimals: Shadow Zone was announced for PSP, which, Invizimals was one of the more obvious (if only for recent exposure) 'Pokemon clones' that I could have talked about when I talked about pokemon clones, and I didn't, specifically because of how little I know about the thing.  It seems obvious enough, walk around your house or other places you don't mind being seen interacting with AR technology at with the game on and try to catch different members of this rather large caste of monsters that have been developed for the series.  Beyond that, I don't really know.  Which is mostly why I abstained from talking on it, as I might take the plunge on it at some point.

So, there's that.  From one day to another, the meterologists don't know what's going to happen, but the general consensus is that the worst of the storm season should be over and maybe we can go a week or two without a storm (aside from one next week) comfortably.  We'll just have to see, though.

E3's Coming, Which Means the NGP is Too!

My goal is to make every picture using this stock photo with obvious photoshops on it.

Since it was announced, and the specs were put out for us to say what we predicted correctly, there actually hasn't been a lot of NGP news.  Partly for the fact that people have a lot more sensational Sony news to report lately, and mostly, from what I can figure, well, the general lack of anything new coming out for it, tech-wise.  Which is a bit interesting, as either Sony is doing a good job at keeping this under wraps, or people are just waiting for E3 to get closer to really put info out there for maximum interest.  And, given that it's just about time, hopefully we'll start seeing some info coming out.

But definitely, definitely what we're going to end up getting from E3 will be a name, a price, and hopefully a release date.  So basically this post would be me saying what I expect as I have been known to predict things NGP-related.  Some launch games to be announced would be nice as well, and while I expect a couple to be tossed out, I don't expect a full list at all.

First off, as far as the name goes, I have a few thoughts on it.  I'm not sure what I expect the full name to be, but I could definitely see them sticking with the NGP, since it's stuck this long.  The name "Next Generation Portable" won't stick, but they could easily swap out the Next Generation part for something that also starts with NG.  The only other thing I can think of is "New Gaming", which is mostly worse than "Next Generation" but you get where I'm coming from.  My lack of being able to think is just not helping my point, is all.

The fact remains that they very likely could go with "PSP2" as the name, given their numeric scheme for names, but many will argue, likely for little reason other than to detract, that associating it with the PSP directly is one way to really kill interest in it.  Since the PSP 'failed' so hard, you see, despite selling somewhere in the neighborhood of 67.8 million units worldwide.  And as much as I disagree with that, I wouldn't mind a name other than "PSP2", though will happily accept PSP2 if that's what they really end up going with.

It's working so far.

The big sticking point on everyone's minds whenever the NGP comes up is what the price will be.  Obviously, Sony hasn't proven themselves to be quite reasonable with past pricing schemes, but we can always hope they'll have learned their multiple lessons on the subject.  Prices anywhere from $200-400 have been thrown around, as well as $999 for people who don't know what a placeholder is, but the general consensus is somewhere in the middle.  For the simple fact that there will be two models, one with wi-fi only and one with 3G as well, an obvious price discrepancy will be in place between the two of them, so you have to think of a high-end and a low-end.  My actual, actual guess at the price is $249.99 for the Wi-Fi model and $299.99 for the 3G model.  As much as I hope both could be lower, that's really looking like what the picture is.

Which, given the 3DS, the thing that everyone expects to completely smash the NGP, is priced at $249.99 as well, would be a very good move, especially if you really push everything that makes the two different.  (The second touch panel, second stick, PSN support, trophy support, etc.)  One would hope upon hope that Sony really resists the urge to add the customary "Ours is better" extra cost, bringing the pricing up to $299.99 and $349.99, if only for the fact that people will harp on the high-end of that.  Only time will tell on that front, though.

I can't wait til we get actual pictures of this thing instead of stock photos.

As far as launch games, I'm not too sure any of the titles shown off so far will actually make the launch window, instead relying on 3rd-Party Support to carry it, if only to show that 3rd Parties are, in fact interested in developing for the thing.  Although, if anything, I could see the Resistance title being in the launch line-up if just for the fact that it started on the PS3 as a launch, so it would be nice to have that sort of parity.  And despite my love for Uncharted as a series, and my high-opinion of Naughty Dog, I just don't think the Uncharted game will be a launch title.  And for every bit of me that hopes that it will be, I hope that it won't be either, since it will likely be -the game- to be released on it shortly after launch that will start getting people to really get it, since it shatters the perception of "Well, launch titles usually suck, just gonna wait" that people normally have after a new system comes out.

One thing that does have me a little annoyed, re: the games now that the facts have come out, is the fact that there's not going to be any on-board storage for the NGP.  If anything, that's one advantage the PSPGo clearly had over any other PSP, as it meant you didn't really have to splurge on cards to put all your games on and, instead, you had everything right there.  And not only that, if I remember the rumors clearly, then the sticks that the games come on will have the storage needed for the DLC and patches post-release which could likely end up messy unless you can leave a good portion of storage free.  Hopefully that will change in a way that lets your memory sticks be sort of a catch-all for that sort of stuff, but it may be an issue of 'it's gotta be that way'.  Again, one of those wait and see deals.

With any luck, this thing will see a release date that puts it firmly in the the Holiday season everywhere, which would help get it on Christmas lists everywhere.  The flip-flopping of "It will be delayed" and "It won't be delayed" after the Japan crisis has that sort of in a gray area, but I imagine things have been sorted well enough on that.  Regardless, whenever it releases, it will be high on my get-list, provided the price is right.

Why Won't They Make These - Conquering Games/Wargames

Now, I know the question is mostly rhetorical, since the answer is clearly that they are so, so very niche.  But to that niche, of which I am a part, they are incredible things that have the ability to hold attention for weeks at a time.  So the distinct lack of them, especially now, is incredibly disappointing.

'What in the world is a Conquering game?', you might be asking yourself.  A Conquering game, simply put, is just one of those games that takes you and puts you in the role of a Leader (or in some of the more....advanced? games, allow you to take any role) during a war of some sort, or a period of Warring times, and lets you fight to gain control of the land in question.  Given that this is me talking, the obvious first choices here are the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series and the Nobunaga's Ambition series, but you may recognize these types by other game series like Hearts of Iron or, most popularly, the Civilization series.

Wargames seems to be the better term for this, so I'm going to just start using that now.  But the point is, that there are not very many games of this genre, which is in all honesty, a shame, since few games can really replicate the feel you get when you finally topple a neighboring kingdom by hiring his best men out from under him and invading with all the might of a whirlwind, crushing any and all who stand before your troops who have just been waiting for this moment for months that, to you, were mere minutes.  Similarly, there's nothing quite like the feel of seeing one of your top advisors suddenly rebel against you, raise an army and put you to a wall, leaving you scrambling for a way to pull up enough defensive forces and recall enough strategy to stave him off, lest your whole empire falls to him.

A few misconceptions about the genre are fairly inevitable; namely that there's no market for these games anymore and that, if there is, they're only concerned with going against other humans, so clearly, we need to make it more real-time strategy, like Starcraft.  Quite simply, to quote one of those things we all know of:  "If you build it, they will come."  They may not come in droves, or they may, but making these games can't be that expensive, and it's certainly a more interesting way of rounding out your catalog than by making another Team Deathmatch-focused FPS.

While wargames might just be fun to be played with others, that's not their sole duty, and the quicker we throw that out there, the better.  If there's anything that is becoming more and more distressing as games evolve these days, is the notion that a Single-Player-Only Experience is a lacking one, and you'll only get the real money, the real attention, and the real sales by putting out a game with Multi-player.  And since certain genres don't make themselves too welcome to Multi-player, they get phased out, rather than, well, continuing to exist.

Of course, these types of games, specifically if they're turn based (Like most of the RotK games and the NA games are) are fairly multiplayer friendly, which kind of ruins the point, but, well, hush.  What I'm getting at is that these are mainly Single Player experiences since you were never really likely to find a pal to sit down with you and play Romance of the Three Kingdoms VIII by handing off the controller when it was your turn.  And even if you could, you would never actually finish the game, since it just took so long.  Not that that's a bad thing!

Of course, the genre isn't totally dead, which the recent release of the latest installment of the Total War series, Shogun 2 will attest to.  But a yearly release, (As Napoleon:  Total War came out in March or 2010, and Empire:  Total War came in March of 2009 before it) isn't quite enough, and especially so for those of us who don't exactly have the computers necessary to run the Total War series.  (At least, I know that Shogun 2 is a monster of a game.) 

But you don't need to go that intensive to release a game like this.  Especially if you put it where most logical people would; on a portable system.  That my only option for a portable Romance of the Three Kingdoms game is RotK IV:  Wall of Fire as a PSOne Classic blows my mind considering that take on Wargames seems perfect for handhelds.  Of course, looking up Nobunaga's Ambition earlier made it clear that there have been a few DS version of the series; but none of them were localized.  Surprise, surprise.

KOEI, I talk about you a lot more than I should, in more positive lights than I should, especially considering you make games that I really, really want and then never release them over here.  So I'm going to put on my best 'Son, I'm disappoint' face here and then we'll just move on.

Basically, the point I'm trying to establish here is that I want to be able to play a game on my PSP (or even the NGP, when it finally comes out) where I can have the same experiences I had playing Romance of the Three Kingdoms 7, 8 and 10, and Nobunaga's Ambition.  I want to build forces and invade neighboring provinces.  I want to delve in political matters and plan who I'm going to ally with, and who I'm going to inevitably backstab.  I want to focus on where to put my officers to maximize the development of my cities.  Why won't someone make this.

On Themes and Wallpapers

A staple of pretty much every form of technology out there now is the ability to set your own themes or, at the very least, your own wallpaper, to make your device even more yours, to suit your needs, etc.  With the PSP, we've been pretty lucky, as not only have there been -copious- amounts of wallpapers out there since day one (since it's just a simple matter of resizing images), but tools, completely legit ones, are out there for whomever wants to make their own icons to really pull it all together.  Now, it hasn't been acted on in a big way, but still, it's an option.

I really only thought about it the other day when, with the help of a new friend, I went about finding some Holiday themed wallpapers for my PSPs background for me to change every now and again.  Er, when the season requires, rather.  Anyways, thinking on it, after getting a few nice pics, I started thinking ahead, to the NGP, since, well, there is a good chance it will be out this year or early next year.  And that's when I realized something that unsettled me quite a bit more than it should have.

It's going to be quite a bit more difficult with Live Area to do nice wallpapers.  I'm assuming, of course, that you can't hide some of those icons, or at least push them to a lower 'page', which is not only a possibility, but probably the reality.  It's a little disheartening, really; I'm not even sure if we'll be able to customize the background of the NGP, and even if we will, as I said, it will be difficult to get something nice without a little DIY work.  Unless, of course, you don't mind giant circles all over your pictures of kittens, anime scenes, or what have you.  And likely, the buttons are as they always will be, meaning there won't be any real cohesion between the background and icons.  The theme of it all.

It's a bit petty to actually be bothered by, admittedly.  And maybe there will be some way around it, but from where I'm sitting, looking for anything, anything that I may have to watch out for, lest it kill my desire for this lovely piece of machinery, is something that I have to do so that I may compensate for it beforehand.

Still....doing a search for iPhone backgrounds instantly throws one into a sea of them, and we know how many icons those things can have.  Perhaps it won't be such a big deal after all.

Hype On - NGP News Round-Up

So, there's no denying that NGP news is likely something I can't get enough of, and after a few pretty significant pieces, I wanted to kind of bring them together to catch people up in case they haven't been paying quite as much attention as me, which would not be hard.  So lets kick this off!

Number 1.)  Possibly the most recent bit of news, NGP games will be dual-released.  As in, Physical and Digital releases, same-day.  This is a trend that has started with the PSP fairly recently, and hasn't stuck that well, but for those that have gone that extra little mile to do it, we who appreciate the work involved salute you.  Even if I don't really get into the Digital Sales thing, (I only did once, thanks to a sale) having the option is just wonderful for those who prefer it and, most of all, it ensures that everyone can buy your game.  I've covered it before, but the developers that can release a digital version of their game, yet don't, are out of their goddamn minds.

Or, perhaps they're just waiting on

Number 2.)  There have been talks, ideas thrown about, of PSP games getting NGP re-releases.  Which, obviously will face the problems that one could expect; people groaning that some companies might decide to re-release PSP games in lieu of doing a digital version (Which might be negated by number 1), that the games might have little, if no, extra work put into them (I'd certainly be a little annoyed if the games were pure-and-simple ports), and that they might even be at an 'inflated' (read:  Standard with proper NGP) prices.  I'd hope that any developer that decides to take advantage of this idea, if it comes to fruition, plans for it carefully.  Using the example of Peace Walker, I'd certainly hope there would be dual-stick support at the very least not to mention making use of standards other NGP games will, i.e. possibly using the touch screens, coughtrophiescough, perhaps slightly updated graphics/frame rates.  We'll just have to see how that works out.

Speaking of things we have to wait and see about with anticipation..

Number 3.)  The Price.  Now, this is by no means confirmation, and, in fact might not even be all that reliable, but even the mere notion that Sony could manage to push out a model of the NGP at $250 is nothing short of a fucking miracle and gives me hope.  The $350 Price-tag on the 3G-Enabled model is less enticing, especially considering who knows how 3G will be handled, but done right, it would certainly be worth that extra money.  (As in, no BS plans and a reasonable cap)  Again, it might not turn out this way, but Ubisoft is pretty big and any reason to imagine that I could shell out the same amount of money for a 3DS and receive, instead, an NGP, is reason enough to speak of.

That's the biggest bits of news concerning the device lately, and certainly there will be more to come.  Hopefully with more pictures.  Because I left this one picture-free on the basis that I've shown the best ones so far already.

Finally, I can write about the NGP without gushing (too much)

It's weird.  Everytime I think about the NGP, I end up being at a complete lack of words.  A few nights since its announcement, I've wanted to actually sit down and type out something coherent about it, I sit here looking at a blank screen for about half an hour before saying, "It's going to rock" does not an article make.  I mean, we know it will, if you're open to actually believe a Sony product can be good (Which a lot of people aren't willing to believe, currently!).

So, I guess I can at least try to pin down why I'm excited for it, even though it might be a little premature.

1.)  The second stick.

Now, I know I'm not alone in this, and I can certainly understand why some people might not have wanted a second nub/stick, since, theoretically, it could just promote developer laziness, which has been a problem for games on Sony consoles lately.  But where one man sees developers saying "Let's put this console game on the NGP with no portabilizing at all", I see developers going, "FINALLY, a second stick, let's make magic happen."  If not third parties, then we can at least (mostly) count on first and second parties to put some neat things on it.  Also Sega.  (Yakuza and VC plz, if you're not intending on putting VC back on PS3)

The fact that we have sticks and not nubs does raise a few questions; how will that affect the portability?  How reliable could they be?  Those are just questions that we'll have to wait for time to answer, really.  Personally, my PSP has always been in a case since I bought it, and cases will be built for the NGP specifically to accommodate it, so I'm none too worried there.  But I can see how it might be an issue for others, so let's hope there's some sort of retractable elements to the sticks or something.

2.)  Physical Media is here to stay.

Sure, I don't think anyone honestly thought the NGP would go with a DD-Only format, thanks to the PSP Go, but it certainly could have, and I would hope policies are put in place going forward to 'encourage', at the very least, Day-One Digital versions of games as well, for anyone who has embraced our Disc-less Overlords, but for the more curmudgeon-y of us who like our games to be something tangible to be felt and held, and for some of us, trade-able, this is welcome news.  Going with carts/cards is a bit of a strange way about it, but likely a good one, as it lacks the battery-draining ability of a spinning disc.

Again, for everyone that didn't believe a DD-Only approach, they thought as well that there would still be no UMDs anymore, and, well, they're right again.  This does leave those of us with UMD copies of games in a bit of a limbo; sure the NGP can play PSP games, but not the ones that are just discs, leaving the thought that a double-dipping might be necessary....for the games that can be double-dipped on, anyways.

There's probably not a lot that can be done about this, honestly; Nobody could have thought, when the PSP was being developed and eventually released, "Say, do you think maybe four years down the road or so, that all the games for this could be bought through the internet?", which means it's hard to blame anyone for the state of the PSP selection on the PSN store.  A lot of the devs could be out of business for all we know.  And some games have a legitimate reason that they're not up; Lumines for example, hit the brick wall of music licensing which could stop just about any game.  And for the ones that could be put up, but the companies just won't for whatever reason (SQUEENIX), well, there's not really a lot that can be done about that, either, considering it costs money to submit your game for PS Store purchasibility, given the QA that it has to undergo.

You would think intentionally screwing people over by not allowing them to buy your game would cast a negative light on the developers, but more often than not, anyone complaining will say that it's Sony's fault, because, well, I guess Sony has the right to do whatever it wants with other people's games?  That's the reasoning that I can figure out, I guess.  Really, people, It's not Sony's fault.  "But they should make developers put PSP games on the PS Store along with Phsyical copies!"  Yeah, because forcing people to take any extra steps/costs with a PSP game at this point would be a good idea, right?

3.)  The Touch Pads.

I admit, I was a skeptic at first when all the talk of touch pads, track pads, and the like were being tossed about.  I really had no idea what a rear touch pad could be used for, and honestly, I still don't have much more of an idea aside from possibly being used in an L2/R2 function for games that might require it.  (Which will no likely be constrewn as Watered down console ports, but bleh.  Bleh, I say!  Games are games)  There have been a few usages for it shown off, all sort of, for lack of better term, "gimmick-y" (at least, what I heard, the Uncharted game having it used for rope-climbing of all things.  Optional, even.) but if anyone has learned anything this generation, it's that some developers can take any gimmick and make something really neat of it that makes you think "Yeah, this could be rather vital going forward."

That's pretty much what I'm telling myself; at least with the front touch-screen, we have a fairly good idea on how it will be used, but the back ones are fairly untouched territory.  Hopefully it's utilized early and not allowed to fall to the wayside undeservedly.  A little hard to predict, obviously, but everyone's always so easy to take Nintendo's "innovations" at face-value, so why couldn't it apply here?

The obvious 4.) here is the Games, but we all know some of what to expect; the rest will simply be a welcome surprise and icing on the cake.

Quick Note - Getting in the Swing of Things

So, I'm getting back into everything now that I've got everything more or less back to normal.  Everything that isn't basic sentence structure, apparently.  The main problem with getting my schedule all messed up, it seems, is that even though I still get ideas on what to write about, I lost that outlet and, as such, everything I was considering.  Aside from the "What Went Wrong" article I posted, and another of the series that I still have to watch a movie for to be able to write it, my mind is kind of a clean slate.  As in, I can't write anything if there's nothing going on.

This is a problem, of course!  I figured tonight, I can air out a few things at least to help get me back to where I was before, mindset wise, and then it'll get easy again.  So what's on the agenda?  Well, a few things.

Thanks to the generosity of a bro, I've been playing some Dynasty Warriors:  Strikeforce, and even though it hasn't clicked with me just yet, I am enjoying it.  I think the key will leave me saying, "How I learned to stop worrying and start loving the triangle button", since it seems to be the combo chainer button.  Your normal attacks go, but don't carry the Renbu system as it was in Dynasty Warriors 6, which I actually consider a detriment, but Triangle carries more use, not only in charge attacks (though they're unchanged from DW6) but in dash attacks that really serve as a good bridge between slamming down on square.  I still have to experiment, as it's not DW6 and it's not DW: Gundam, but I imagine I can learn to love it.

It's not quite what I expected; I didn't really think they would try to tell the same story of the RotK period, except everyone just came off the set of Dragon Ball Z, but that seems to be the game plan.  I finished off the Yellow Turban Rebellion earlier, and went right into the Anti-Dong Zhou Coalition.  (For the uninformed, don't worry, I intend on doing a series covering the Romance of the Three Kingdoms; it just takes a while to put together, I'm sure you can imagine.)  So it seems like standard procedure, but the inclusion of all the wacky other stuff will assuredly breathe a little more life into the whole story.

As I touched on a few times, I've finally conquered one of my gaming White Whales:  Star Ocean 2.  In a sense, I mean.  I only beat the game, but I've also only scratched the surface.  All the items uncrafted, all the bonus bosses unchallenged, all the Private Actions undone, and a whole other story mode remain for me to attempt at any time.  So I guess it's not unreasonable to state that there's still things I can do with the game, but I have seen the ending, er, one ending, and I've beat the easy form of the final boss, so it counts.  It honestly wasn't that difficult, either; the hardest part was getting through the double boss before the penultimate boss.  And while the last boss gave me some difficulty, it was nothing that a quick leveling session couldn't solve.

There's not a lot I can say about the NGP, when it comes down to it, really.  I want it.  I want it badly.  But it's quite far off, and there's so much we don't know about it.  But suffice to say, I will have it, regardless of anything, because it already promises things that I know it can deliver on, things that I want, and it will be glorious.