So, I Caved and Subscribed to Music Unlimited

For the last few weeks, a fairly tantalizing offer has been sitting in the windows of the Playstation Store - a rather steep discount for Sony's Music Unlimited service.  When I say steep, I mean steep, in that a year usually costs $60, yet under the sale, a year is going for $12.  Twelve dollars.  Without sounding like a shill, that is a dollar a month for music that I would otherwise likely be too lazy to look up and listen to by other means, as well as being music that I can theoretically 'keep' on my Vita for the next year thanks to the Offline Mode, but I'll get to that in a moment.  As you know, I am a sort of person who often talks himself into spending money on 'value' specifically because lookit dat value and it has backfired in the past, but I don't exactly see that happening here.  At least, not from the very limited exposure I've received today since buying it before the store updated.  (Dunno if it's still available, actually, but I was indeed worried about missing out on it from hm-hawing about.)

I am a man who enjoys his music, I think I have well established that.  What's more is that I believe I have established myself as a man who likes what he likes in music, but certainly isn't averse to looking into things that others may find....questionable at best.  In a sense, just having a whole bunch of music that I haven't particularly listened to in any way at my finger tips seems like the perfect thing for me, or at least, that's what I've thought.  I've just been too lazy, really, to look into anything of the sort, but this was the urging that I needed for that it seems as, even now, I'm listening to the album from The Lonely Island that I haven't gotten around to buying yet simply because I came across an Akon song in one of the Top Lists.  While that's not -exactly- the progression they expect to happen, it did and helped prove the worth of the selection for the month, I suppose, since I am certainly getting more than $1 of enjoyment.

Still, the thing you have to wonder about with a Music streaming service is precisely what music is there to be streamed, since, as is the case with all these sorts of things, there will inevitably be something that you want that is unavailable.  As with Netflix all of one search in, I already hit a blank expanse of disappointment, but this is at least a -little- understandable.  I get that the service probably isn't going to jump on offering K-Pop* music and I don't like it, but I understand.  In all actuality, there is a -little- bit, though, as there's an album of Girls' Generation, as well as an album of like eight versions of "The Boys" which is a little much I think, and I saw a few other names, but the selection for them is barely there, so my intentions of using this as a K-Pop machine have gone up in smoke.  Sure, there's feasibly an entire year for them to partner with some studios and bring some music, but I'm just really doubting that's going to be a thing that happens.  It's a shame, but again, I at least understand this.

In terms of the rest of the music, I haven't sought deep below the surface, but there is at least an alarming amount of perceived content here, so I'm sure I'll find it rather difficult to truly be disappointed by the lack of something integral to me.  In fact, in the last ten minutes I have switched to the Rock & Metal Top 100 and have heard Black Sabbath, Journey and quite a few other bands that make me happy inside.  The few things that are 'obscure' that I know of, I checked and found albums for them as well, so I'm really not sure what to think in terms of holes.  I guess it's a sort of situation where you don't know until you start looking and wreck the whole house of cards, but I haven't done that quite yet and don't really intend to.  I'm much more enticed to simply enjoy what's offered as I further try to figure out the finer touches of the system.  It has only been a day, after all.

I wouldn't say that I'm wrestling with understanding how the whole thing works, but I will say that I'm not quite used to these things, so I am a little confused as to how I can do some things.  Like, you would think as a music thing that only streams music, it should be wholly possible to just back out of it to the LiveArea for it to continue playing music as the Music app does.  But that only works if you're in Offline Mode, I think - there were little hints and tips coming up and I kind of glossed over a lot of them which is proving to be not my finest move.  Still, that -is- a rather lovely thing that Music Unlimited offers - any song you listen to can be added to a Playlist that you can set to be "Offline" which basically means you can listen to the songs in that Playlist anytime.  Riding on a bus?  You can listen to it.  Stuck in some place with no wi-fi signal?  You can listen to it.  Your internet shit the bed because you have a goddamn awful ISP that you hate with a passion that burns in such a way that the heavens themselves shrink in abject terror?  You can listen to these songs.  More importantly, you're just doing other shit on your Vita?  Yeah.  Those songs.  You can listen to them.

I imagine there is also a way that you can listen to music that is actively being streamed maybe, but it's not so much a concern as you can just pre-load a playlist with things that you want to listen to and then...well, listen to those songs while you do whatever it is that would otherwise keep you from being inside the actual Music Unlimited app.  Something to note is that, despite saying "Music", there are other things that are offered on audio CDs, such as Comedy routines (Stand-up acts, I mean, live ones generally) from a few well-known folks such as the late George Carlin, Brian Regan, Chris Rock, (the also late) Mitch Hedberg and etc. etc.  That was a pleasant surprise to say the least and will likely continue to justify the cost of entry for quite a while.  Which, for what it's worth, I believe I've found my $12 worth here, so if you're interested in a music streaming service and want to attempt something like this, I'd certainly recommend it.  Hopefully I am not jinxing myself on it, but it's not really given me problems so far and has, in fact, given me enjoyment instead!

*yes, the first thing I looked for was something K-Pop.

shut up, Haplo

Well, This is Unfortunate

Apparently this has been a -thing- that the net has known about for a little bit, but I personally didn't really start hearing about it until yesterday, or rather this morning when I was laying in bed, unable to sleep despite it being three goddamn thirty in the morning when I needed to be up in mere hours.  I didn't think too much of it because surely, it had to be a silly, incorrect thing, right?  Something that is way beyond oversight as this to the point of being intentionally dumb can't actually be a thing, yes?  Well, it -is- a thing, but skimming under the surface shows that it's not completely 'intentionally dumb' as it is Nintendo being super-duper ultra-over-cautious as only Nintendo can be.  Or....just unfortunate as Nintendo usually is not.  I'm not quite sure about what's actually the case here.

'What's the issue already?', I know you're saying.  Well, the issue is that European Wii U owners can only download M-Rated Games in the middle of the night.  The whole of Europe.  The window is between 11 PM and 3 AM, and those are the -only- hours in a day that you can spend towards downloading an M-Rated (18+ Rated over there) game onto your shiny new Wii U console.  Given that said games are...rather large and that's generally not a feasible amount of time, it's a major, major problem for people who are looking to eschew disks in favor of over-large external hard drives that have to be externally powered or something like that - I don't remember but it's kind of dumb.  So, at face value, what that means is that in the entirety of Europe, you're only allowed to download 18+ games, such as ZombiU and Assassin's Creed 3 at those few wee hours in the dark of night which basically means unless you have patience and a super-duper internet connection, you're pretty much -not- going to get to buy and download those games.

That is, of course, really really bad.  The first instinct is to wonder just what the -hell- Nintendo is thinking with that one, and, well, they're thinking in terms of the law, which I guess is pretty smart.  You see, across the whole of Europe, there's all sorts of various restrictions on entertainment content, be it video games or movies or etc. and king of them all in terms of restrictions is Germany.  For years now, it's been kind of hard, if not impossible, to provide Germany with a lot of things directly, in terms of the digital space, and this is no different.  Still, those restrictions tend to just focus on Germany, since it's Germany's law, so what's the deal?  Well, the deal is that Nintendo of Europe operates out of, you guessed it, Germany.  The unfortunate matter of these types of things is that Law is generally sovereign based on where you operate from, if I'm not mistaken, which is precisely why the whole of Europe is affected.  Since Nintendo of Europe operates from Germany, it, as a whole, has to abide by Germany's laws, insanely restrictive as they might be.

In a sense, this isn't really Nintendo's fault, but at the same time, this is going to do only negative things for them overall.  The bare fact of the matter is that, basically, you cannot buy 18+ games digitally on a Wii U, which, given that this is Nintendo's attempt at appealing to the demographics that felt left out with the Wii, poses a real issue.  The big mainstream titles they're looking to pipe through like the mentioned Assassin's Creed 3 and other things like the various Call of Duty games are thus inaccessible to a percentage of the market which is something you don't want to happen.  Especially on the digital side of things since Nintendo and the various companies involved stand to make a little more off of those copies rather than the physical ones out there.  At the same time as this is just Nintendo adhering to the laws that they have to follow, these aren't new laws by any means, and you would think that at some point during development of the Wii U with its big, bad internet focus, they would...sort of think about this sort of thing at any point.

Overall, I think this is just telling of Nintendo's whole state with the entirety of the Wii U's launch.  You really get the feeling that they just weren't ready for this, and I worry that they actually rushed it out of the gate to ensure they got a head start on Sony and Microsoft.  The move will pay off a little simply for the fact that it's Nintendo, but it certainly is proving with each passing day that it might not have been the wisest move and will likely cost them a bit more than it could've gained them in the long run.  It's just been a rocky launch for the Wii U and it's all-but eaten away at Nintendo's perceived console durability since the Wii U is certainly not made of 'Nintendium' as it were.  There are more than a few flaws with the device, and more than a few instances of failures, both small and on the large scale (hardlocks/freezes to absolutely bricking in noticeably large quantities) and one can only hope that if they'd perhaps waited a little longer, it would've been a better machine overall for the short term and long term both.  I guess we'll never really know, and I just hope that Nintendo will be able to fix the issues that exist before it's too little, too late.

The Last Of Us Has Confirmed Multi-Player

When you're announcing something, there's generally three ways it comes out:  1.)  You just say "Hey, this is happening" with some sort of aplomb or spectacle, 2.)  You -try- to say "Hey, this is happening" with some sort of aplomb or spectacle but some sort of promo material or leak steals your thunder or 3.)  You just sort of mention it casually, presumably with a little grin on your lips as you do so.  The third method is not often employed, and when it is, it's actually really kind of effective at disseminating a bit of information more than actually making a spectacle of it would be, since, with an off-hand mention, you're ensuring people are going to pick up on it more intently as if they've discovered a really obscure little fact or something.  I say all this because this is what happened with The Last of Us - multi-player was announced in the Playstation Blog Post that offers a new trailer, a re-affirmation of the release date which is May 6th, 2013 and the reveal of both pre-order bonuses.

The first pre-order bonus pack, the Sights and Sounds Pack as it's called, is going to be available everywhere, it seems, and simply includes the Official Soundtrack (presumably as a download), a dynamic theme and two avatars, one each of our main characters Joel and Ellie.  The other pack, the Survival Pack you see above, is set to be a GameStop exclusive as a bonus to the Sights and Sounds Pack (so pre-ordering at GameStop nets you both) and focuses primarily on the not-yet-mentioned Multiplayer modes that...continue to be not mentioned.  From the items in the pre-order flyer, we can assume it's likely going to be something like the Uncharted MP, but possibly with less Deathmatch (or maybe the same amount of Deathmatch because squads of survivors are out there as trailers have shown) and because if it isn't broke, you don't fix it.  Uncharted's MP is certainly not broke and, if I had more time, I would likely spend quite a bit of time with it, but I just do not as I've lamented here several times.  But if you don't believe me about the MP just being mentioned off-handedly and don't care to click the link, then hey, here's a quote for you:

Multiplayer, wha? We’re not quite ready to talk about it yet, but stay tuned as we’ll be revealing more details on multiplayer before The Last of Us is released on May 7th, 2013.

That, of course, suggests that there just might be a little more to the whole MP onion than we know of, which is a really intriguing thing.  I could sit here and ponder of all the different things that could really be possible, but I'm not...not really going to do that.  Since there will either be cooperative MP against Platforming/Puzzles, Cooperative MP against waves of AI, or various modes of Deathmatch or some combination thereof.  We've really more or less exhausted the well of just -how- you keep people who are playing a video game on the internet interested in continuing to play a game on the internet, and those three options are pretty much the stand-outs.  Mostly because they are in every single game that has multiplayer in its own way, from Assassin's Creed which sort of re-invented the wheel to fit its own mold to Call of Duty which has turned it into a refined, near-game all its own, to Mass Effect which was sort of the last series you would expect to get MP within its casing.  What with being a Shooter-RPG with a single-player focus and everything.

If anything, it's just what 'twist' on the existing formulas the game offers that makes it something stand-out.  As stated, Assassin's Creed took it and ran with it in its own direction - giving you the single-player focused character feel and turning it on its head as everyone had that as well, in game modes that actively tried to get you to not act as you do when you play Single-Player.  You're still killing mans for points at the end of the day, but the line between Point A and Point B bends and swerves in all the different places than most others attempt, and that's what made it stand out.  Call of Duty's twist is that there really -is- no twist - it's simply meant to be a very polished, very refined experience and generally lives up to that with the odd exception here or there.  The line for it from Point A to Point B is very straight, but lined with all the best, so to speak, which makes it its own beast.  So, much as most things in life, it more or less boils down to what is essentially semantics - not what you say, but how you say it.

My own personal hope is that the game sort of takes a page from another popular game that I won't really mention because I am being cryptic or something, and focuses more on survival in its MP.  Not survival from enemies, be they AI or Player primarily, but simply survival from the environment I suppose.  The game has already shown off a crafting system to create a few things like molotov cocktails and the like made from random supplies and I imagine that could be extended to other things.  Things like torches and fires to keep warm, meals to eat and the like.  A multiplayer mode in which you simply try to out-live another individual with or without direct contact with them seems intriguing enough, really, and it would likely involve the trappings of enemies whether they're just scavengers or those strange mutants from the first trailer.  Regardless, I doubt I'll be disappointed by the MP because I'm not looking forward to it as much as I am the single player campaign.  That's what we know of and that's what's exciting and, for all intents and purposes, that's all I really care about.  May simply cannot come fast enough.

Technical Difficulties

If only this said Technical Difficulties instead of Art Director.  Would be perfect.  Is that bad?

So, I have been playing Persona 4:  The Golden lately.  I have been enjoying it a lot.  I tried to convey that in words tonight and it didn't work out at all.  In fact, I've tried to convey a lot of things in words here lately and just haven't been able to manage it.  I have no less than three blog posts in my head that refuse to siphon themselves through my fingertips and it's the height of frustration.  I'm trying to work through it, but it's not working perfectly just yet.  So with that, I'll just have to ask that you bear with me while I try to work through this latest funk in the series of funks this year has provided.  I'll figure out something here eventually and then everything will be hunky-doory.  In the meantime, friggin' buy Persona 4:  The Golden if you haven't already.  Seriously.  Believe the hype in this one, because it does not disappoint.

Early Persona 4: The Golden Impressions

I haven't played a lot of Persona 4:  The Golden, but that's mostly because the start of the game, moreso than Persona 3, I believe, is a lot of talking and cutscenes and making sure you go this way and that way.  The actual 'game' part, where you can go around and do whatever you want to do unrestrained, is something that I've finally gotten to a handful of hours in (admittedly some of it is idle time) and it's fresh and new, but familiar all the same.  Familiar even though I have not once played Persona 4 prior to The Golden, despite having bought Persona 4....like when it came out.  I believe back then I told myself I would only play it after I beat Persona 3 which I was going to play after I played something else, and well, you all know how that kind of thing goes.  It was only with Persona 3 Portable and my Vita that I was able to fell the JRPG beast that is Persona 3, and it's only fitting that I similarly tackle the new behemoth on the very same platform - especially with the enhancements The Golden has to offer.

Of course, having never -played- Persona 4, said enhancements are often fairly hard to spot and it's only with very careful counsel skimmed from the internet that I have a rough idea of what is new.  Aside from what is very blatantly new, of course, such as the SOS system.  It is blatantly new because, well, even though the PS2 had internet capabilities of a sort, I'm sure Persona 4 didn't make use of them.  I find myself wondering about the SOS system as well - it's neat in concept and theory and I'm willing to say execution as well, but there's still something off about it.  Basically what it is, if you haven't already experienced it or read up on it yourself, is whenever you're in a dungeon, you can hit the SOS button in the upper left corner of the screen.  Doing so sends a broadcast over the network that will, in turn, bring up help requests on the screens of other dungeon dwellers.  Those people can choose to tap the "Send aid" button (which is just there, doesn't pause the game or anything like that) and if they do that before you enter your next battle, you will receive a nominal HP/SP refill before it gets underway.  And I mean nominal like 10 HP, 8 SP total for a few people aiding you.  So don't -rely- on it for your HP and SP needs, but hope that it'll be a nice little bonus to help you out.

Similarly, the function that I believe is just referred to as "Voice" is an ability to get a little tip about where others who are playing the game have gone when faced with the same situation as yourself outside of a dungeon.  So, on April 21st, if you want to have an idea of some things you can do in the evening, you hit the voice button (where the SOS button is in a dungeon) and it'll bring up a mess of bubbles stating different actions.  Some people read a book, some people studied, and others just went straight to bed.  This is particularly helpful for someone who hasn't played the game before since, well, at times I've been informed of things I can do already in the limited experience I've put in the game.  "Oh, someone talked to Marie?  Yeah, I suppose I -can- do that, hadn't even thought of it."  "Someone studied?  Hrm....why?" and then I walked to the library, talked to the girl outside of it who informed me that studying on rainy days meant you could receive a higher bonus from increased concentration.  Seeing as I'd already read the "increase Knowledge gain from studying" book, that was a no-brainer (huuuurrrrr) and three Knowledge bonuses later, that little edging in a direction proved to be a good one.

Newness aside, The Golden feels familiar because it takes a lot from Persona 3 and refines it, not drastically changing a lot of it.  As Persona 3, you spend quite a bit of time -outside- of dungeons and what you do there matters almost as much as what you do in dungeons, if not matters equally so.  Social links are the name of the game, and you'll want to do whatever you can to build them up unless you're more interested in bettering yourself so you can, in turn, get -more- Social Links.  There's no wrong answer here - just whatever works for you since you'll inevitably have to do your heavy lifting on a New Game + unless you want to meticulously follow a guide to a T.  That's never much fun, so it's really not recommended of course.  I do see how experience with Persona 3 has affected my experience with 4 already, however as, even though a lot of 4's improvements saw their way into Persona 3 Portable, there's many more that didn't and I can appreciate those for what they are.  Beyond that, I'm familiar with how the game works, so I don't need to stress out over Social Links and such as I did with 3 - I can simply relax and enjoy the game as it comes.

At the moment, I'm simply interested in actually getting into the meat of the game as I'm still entirely too early on in it.  I've started unlocking some Social Links and exploring them and I have a renewed reason to dungeon crawl again after the initial on, but it's still all introductory.  The time where I find myself overwhelmed with choice still hasn't dawned and that's the point where I'm looking forward to it most, since it'll ensure that I don't have to worry about figuring out something to do, more that I'll simply have to decide what I need to do of everything available.  I want to find out what my protagonist (named Masamune Noboru btw, Last/First) is like after answering enough of the (sometimes silly, as you see above) social link responses and otherwise, and after enough of day-to-day activities.  Not to mention the learning of the finer points of the rest of the cast along the way since I'm assuming that's going to be 4's strength as it was one of 3's.  To that end, I think it's time to hop back into the Castle and slay some more shadows, as money for weapons and armor is not just appearing in my pockets any faster by not doing that.

Oh, the Youtube App for Vita is Good Now

So, waaaaaaay back at the end of June, the Vita saw the release of a Youtube App that I was initially hopeful for.  It was released in a sorry state, with no subscription support (or Channels, but those came into the prominence they're in currently later on), a shoddy Search function and overall, it just wasn't a way to enjoy Youtube unless you had access to a computer to double-check your favorite Youtubers.  Still, I hoped, but never suspected some update that would add in those features.  Then, a (little over a) month later I kind of went over the Apps downfalls again now that they had become ingrained and it seemed fairly obvious that the App was in the state that it would remain in.  I was a little bitter about that since, well, it was a half-done app and it seemed it would remain that way, meaning it was not a true way to enjoy what Youtube has to offer off of a computer which is very important to me.  Because my computer sucks - I don't think I've really hammered on that point lately.  Still, I've been using it since, well, I can at least keep up with a few Youtubers using the "Recommended" (which was basically your Sub Feed, but not as good) list and the search (if I knew exactly what was out there already) and I'd more or less become complacent with its short-comings.

Imagine my immense surprise, then, when I opened the Youtube app today and the little orange "Update" icon appeared next to the usual three and, upon touching said button, it prominently displayed "Subscription and Channel support" as one of the many Bullet Points on its little changelog.  I was ecstatic yet also cautious, as Youtube usually never takes a step forward without two backwards.  It's unfortunately not a thing that is done, and, much like the App, I've more or less become used to that as well.  So I updated.  I waited anxiously in the quite short update, installed it and launched it to the brand new state it was in.  And I am happy to say that it's like a brand new world.  The image above was the one to greet me (well, not -exactly- that one as it was earlier today, but still) and it's as goddamn intuitive as it looks.  Touch one of the channels on the left side to open their feed which actually can filter by playlists too which blows my damn mind and everything is there.  (At least, I haven't dug too deep, but it looks like it at least.  I mean, there's playlists.  And Uploaded videos as a category.)

Here's a full changelog from the Playstation Blog post about the update:

• Subscriptions and channels: Now you can view and manage your subscriptions (including your subscription to the PlayStation YouTube channel), browse all videos on a specific channel and check out detailed information in the “About this channel” menu option.
• Improved controls: We’ve added new functions on controls including Next/Previous buttons, a loop video option and the ability to browse videos while another is playing, making it easy to select preferred videos without interrupting playback.
• Playlist settings: You can now create playlists and add videos to your playlists, including your Favorites or Watch Later lists.
• Closed captions: Captions help deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers enjoy YouTube videos, and they’re also useful if you forgot your headphones and want to watch videos in a loud (or quiet) setting while on-the-go. Now you can display closed captions when playing videos. Look for the captions icon on the video thumbnail. You can even change the language of captions in the options menu.
• Continuous playback: In the settings menu, you can now enable continuous playback, so your next video selection will start to play automatically.
• PS Vita buttons: You now have the option to use the PS Vita buttons to control playback and menus, which can be enabled in the Settings > System menu.
• Share: Show that you’re tuned in—Tweet, Email or group message your friends the name and URL to the latest video. You can also invite people to check out any channel on YouTube — like the the PlayStation YouTube channel — via group message, so they don’t miss a beat.
• Improved search: You can now use search filters — sorting by upload date or duration, for example — making it easier than ever to find your favorite videos.

Look at that.  Look at that.  Bask in that shit, for that is something worth basking in.  Because, quite simply, that is Youtube when it works and that's a rare sight indeed.

There's now five sections of the App (previously four) with the first being the Subscription section, which is fairly obvious from the screenshot above.  Suggestions, the next one, now functions as it -would-, taking what you've watched and generating a list of things that you might also be interested in for whatever reason.  The Search function has indeed been improved with a wealth of filtering options more than the two stated in the changelog - it's actually useful now.  History is the same and the last section, previously your Favorites list is now your Playlists sections which, for me just has favorites and Watch Later as you can see.  (Don't judge me.)  The Windowed Mode of watching videos is much the same as well, however the Like and Dislike buttons are in a different place and you'll notice the Uploader's little button thing is there.  This is so that you can go to their channel and subscribe to them if you so desire or unsubscribe if that's what you wanna do too.  Or if you just want to watch their other videos.  Which, well, this is kind of a Youtube necessity.  Full screen mode is largely the same with the addition of a Repeat button and a new button on the title row that, when pressed, shows you the playlist you accessed the video from while the video continues to play.  So, if you're marathoning something, well, there you go, it is that much easier now.

The good thing about all of it is, obviously, that it's a full-featured App now and, from my limited exposure to it, it's stable.  Knock on wood for that, however since, again it's -Youtube-, but it's been working fine for me so far.  The bad thing about it is that it took five extra months to get to this point when, by all means, it should have been like this when it first came out.  Honestly, there was no excuse for the state it was in when it came out originally.  Still, I can't be too mad anymore as I have what appears to be Youtube in its near-entirety (the part I care about at least) and I don't have to worry about juggling my Recommended list from "Subscriptions" to "the point in which it's actually Recommended videos which means I have to search now".  If I want to keep up with AvidyaZen's three different Feed the Beast series, hey, I can do that from his channel.  It's almost like this, as a concept, is very obvious to understand and has been at work elsewhere for months upon months.  Sarcastic italics.  Still - even though there's no more urgency, I am quite invested in these videos as well as my usual LPers like the oft-mentioned Helloween4545, my buddy Kaseius and everybody's favorite German, Klyka1.  The neat thing is now you can just look them up on the App and check out their stuff without any hassle!

So I've Been Thinking About That MoveShock

Of course, I mean the split controller idea I mentioned yesterday and before you ask, that is my word.  Mine.  I've been looking around and unsurprisingly people are coming out of the woodwork to ridicule this thing that might not ever see the light of day for reasons that....well, are certainly internet reasons.  Perhaps I've over-thought this a bit as I tend to do, but I feel like people would be a lot more welcoming of this idea if it were an idea presented as anything -more- than an idea, if that makes sense.  As I tried to do, introduce it with some functionality, something to give a little taste of it, to push people beyond the initial difference of it.  Of course, that would require actually naming it as a thing that exists which is something that is likely a year off or so, if ever (basically my thinking is that it's going to be the PS4 controller or nothing at all), so for now it honestly really just has to stay a patent and a concept.  And it will unfortunately be judged a little prematurely and a little immaturely, but I really hope people remember that nobody thought the Wii was going to be a thing, and if the Nintendo apologists out there have been saying anything in terms of 'teh hardcorez gaming' as it were, Motion Controls are a thing that can work.

What's important to remember, to reiterate over and over again is that this generation's concept of Motion Controllers have been a game of sacrifice.  We actively lost input methods in the form of buttons, in the form of movement, and in the form of 'choice' for the sake of a new input that, for the reasons mentioned, wasn't implemented properly.  The Wiimote's actual motion sensing wasn't up to par to be used extensively, so much so that it required Motion+ to upgrade it, and then Nintendo never capitalized because they won't 'force' consumers to have a better product.  (Except for, well, Skyward Sword)  The Move's piecemeal sale method did the exact same thing, as most games would only 'require' that you have the wand, and not a Nav Wand (or a Dualshock 3, despite being stated as a method for input for moving around and such, basically only Sorcery capitalized if I'm remembering right) and the overall negative opinion of the thing, despite it being something seen as a positive for Nintendo, precluded it from a lot of use.  Basically, in every case save a few, it was 'assumed' that you don't have the full range of input, thus nothing used everything, leaving it all to be seen as a sort of after-thought.

So imagine motion gaming if it weren't like that, if it were directly in your hands by standard, so it could be treated as a full suite out of the box.  Imagine that you can have motion as an input without losing any other input because it's all right there in your hands anyway.  You have to imagine it because it's a first, because to this point we have not had the full range of buttons and motion controls at the same time - we just haven't.  Despite Sony's efforts, despite Nintendo's efforts, we've lost things along the way regardless, and that is the differentiating point between what we've had and what this idea can offer and that is what I am trying to hammer in because it's clear that it's something that has completely and totally gone over the heads of just about everyone that comments on a website that features this.  Which is not to say that I'm some genius who sees the potential or anything, I'm just somebody who has given it a modicum of thought without knee-jerking which is, frankly, something the internet could stand to see a whole lot more of.  You can't disagree with that, I'm sure.

Anyways, take the above Gladiator example from Sports Champions into mind for a moment, if you would.  This is sort of something that leverages the Skyrim idea I had in the last post since, if you use two Move Wands while playing that game, you're allowed input of both hands, and it's something that works quite well, according to seemingly everyone who's attempted it.  You have that much more control over where your sword goes, over where your shield goes and it opens the door for more precision in what you're actually playing.  I dare not use the dreaded 'immersion' word, but I'm sure you'll agree there's a difference between hitting square and swinging a sword that just happens to hurt a dude and swinging an object that directly damages a dude's arm.  There's a difference between pressing L1 to block and pressing a stick to stagger your foe and raising your left hand to move your shield in the path of an attack, adding a little flick that pushes your enemy off-balance.  I don't think anyone can say with a straight face after the Wii, that motion controls cannot add something to an experience that you wouldn't have otherwise, but at the same time, it's hard to imagine a scenario where it's effectively been done that way in the myriad of games where your sole motion input is aiming.

The limitation of the above example with Gladiator is that, if you're using two Move Wands, you have absolutely no movement input beyond your arms.  The Move Wands have the Move Button, Triangle, Circle, Cross and Square, and Start and Select buttons, but no D-Pad, no Analog stick.  Your movement comes in with the Nav wand which, as stated, nobody 'assumed' you had (nor were willing to use a Dualshock 3 to emulate this effect) and if you were using two Move Wands, you can't use anyway.  This is precisely the case of losing a lot to gain a little, but the important fact is that there is something gained.  Even with the Wiimote, all you have is a D-Pad and not a very good one at that, so two of those aren't exactly viable either.  But if you have everything that a DualShock has to offer between two Move Wands, you have the full suite of what you need and -that- is what makes it a forward step.  That's what pulls it out of the relative stagnation it went through with Wii and Move games, since it basically went from Wii Sports functions to cutting stuff ala Red Steel, to First Person Shooter to being a flashlight in Silent Hill:  Shattered Memories and your wand in Sorcery.  There was not a whole lot of progress, if we're being honest.

Here, you have your cake and you can eat it too.  You can use two inputs for both arms of your Gladiator while still being able to move him around as you want.  Walk him back and use the shield arm to deflect while your opponent is on the offensive and surge forward, swinging when you see an opening.  That's not where it stops, either.  Take a game where dual pistols is not uncommon like Max Payne 3.  You enter a room and crouch in front of the first thing you can, sizing up the room.  Then you vault and kick in the slow motion as you would normally.  But now that you have two inputs for aiming, a left and a right for a left and right gun, you take aim at a thug on the left side of the room and one at the right side.  You fire and they both go down and as Max is flying in slow-motion you slowly bring your hands back together, firing as you do to clear the room.  You land, turn Max towards the remainders and unload on them two at a time.  You're not limited by where you can aim and where you can move because you have the reticule trained with your sights, you have movement with your left stick and you have camera control with your right.

Take Metal Gear Rising:  REVENGEANCE and imagine you've built up your Zan-Datsu meter or however they're going to handle that and it's time to use it on some poor fodder.  You activate it by pulling your controller apart which prompts Raiden to pull out another blade (because you know dude's got more than just the one sword) and you're free to slice freely because, well, that's the point.  Instead of using analog sticks to determine the angle you cut how you want.  With left hand and right hand you make two parallel slices under his shoulders and above his waist.  You bring them back around and cut in an 'X' to impress yourself if nobody else with your precision and then you swing wildly to reduce what's left to itty-bitty bits before Zan-Datsu is finally finished.  Or imagine that you're in a fight where you specifically need to cut off an arm because it holds a rocket launcher or something.  If Zan-Datsu can be entered and left freely, then bam, hop in, pull it apart and slice off the arm with speed and ease, then exit the mode and fight like normally because, well, you still have all the normal controls.

Take Star Wars:  The Force Unleashed 2 and pretend it doesn't suck.  I know, that's asking for a lot, but just do it for me, alright?  Imagine it doesn't suck and that it actually matters where your lightsabers go.  Imagine that you can cut off parts of scenery or otherwise destroy it with your lightsabers (because I'm pretty sure you can), so you use your left stick (in the left controller half in your left hand) to move, jump with X as usual (with the right half, etc. etc.) and slice off a tank at the top with a motion, and then fall and slice it off at the bottom.  Imagine then that you can press one of your buttons while aiming at it to Force Grab it and flick it in a direction while letting go to use it as a projectile instead of flicking the analog sticks.  Imagine that you can grab a platform that somebody is standing on with the force and rend it apart, dropping them to their doom.  Hell, just imagine that you can grab two soldiers at the same time and use them to clean house by throwing them both at a group at the same time.

The important thing is that, with a split controller design that is literally a split controller, I can see this being a reality.  Or rather, I can't see why it -can't- be a reality, since I'm assuming the theory behind it takes in account the technical aspect of it.  If nothing else, I see this concept as the next evolution, the progression, of what we were offered in Motion Gaming this generation.  I mean, that's the point of leaping generations, right?  To refine the latter generation and update it with more ideas.  It's how we went from a controller with four buttons to controllers with eight or more without making them cumbersome.  Each generation is supposed to let you do things that you just couldn't do in the previous one.  This certainly counts as that, and as a prospect, it's exciting to me at the very least.  Nintendo has already cast their die and it rolled away from what they brought to the table, and being that this is Sony's patent, I'm hoping they actually step to the plate with it, provided it is what the tech states it will be.  Putting an analog stick on a Move Wand to let you use two probably won't be enough, it has to be standard, and that's what I fear the most, that this is just going to be an alternative that, by virtue of that, will never get used.  Done properly, it's just going to compliment what we're used to and integrate itself in comfortably, and for the sake of how much I've gone and worked myself up with ideas, I'm pulling for it.