Friend Network is Heading to NA Vitas

(Note:  The trailer is from last month at least and is for the Japanese Release)

Remember when I said that people amaze me in that they can make a game out of literally anything?  Like waking up?  Well, that trend continues with the announcement of the latest couple of apps heading to (non-Japan) Vitas, of which I'm specifically talking about Toro's Friend Network tonight.  Now, the premise of Toro's Friend Network is just as simple as Wake-Up Club - the 'game' is about making friends.  As in, sending off friend requests to other people.  That is the game.  It is not the only facet of the game, but it is the main component of it, as the 'goal' is to try and get 100 friends on your friend list so that Toro possibly could achieve his goal of becoming a human.  That...is kind of Toro's thing.  Trying to be a human, I mean.  Oftentimes through crazy schemes.

As I said, on a basic level, it's a fairly simple premise - Toro wants you to make friends and you're given a venue in which you can easily do so, with lobbies that sort of combs what you play and tries to match you up with others that play similar things.  You can exchange 'business cards' which is the actual friend request, and upon doing so, you are then friends!  As I said, it is literally the friend request process turned into a little game.  It's strange, but oddly, it works quite easily and adds a whole new layer to the process beyond the clinical checking of a profile, compiling a message and sending it off.  It manages to make it all quite charming which is something to be touted, I'd say.

Of course, there's more to it than that, thankfully.  The video shows off your personal living space, which I assume is just sort of your friend hub so you have somewhere to be other than the friend lobbies and social networking lobbies.  But it's not just a hub, so much as it is something that you can customize more and more as your friend list grows and grows.  You get increasingly extravagant locations that I presume has progressively more and more area to work with to customize it.  The video shows that you can put your friends to work improving the appearance of the space which I presume does more than just make it more aesthetically pleasing, though what actual statistical value it might have is a bit lost on me without knowing more of the mechanics.

On top of that, there's something referred to as the "Friend Dungeon" which we'll simply ignore so we can peacefully move along without gigglefits.  With this dungeon, you can apparently select two of your friends to explore said dungeon.  From the video, it appears to have an RPG-lite approach to it, in that you and your friends do battle with somebody else who you can, upon defeating, attempt to befriend as well.  I don't know if there's an actual exploration/dungeon-crawling part to it as well, which would certainly be neat, but I'm not going to get -too- hopeful because, well, who knows how big or small this app is actually going to be.  It certainly looks impressively deep from the presentation, and I would hope that it is, so that it can be a proper time-sink.  Since, well, it looks pretty fun.

The post says that it will be out sometime this spring, which is something that you can choose to believe or not.  The last time we were promised apps, the actual timing of them was off...by quite a bit.  Three apps were supposed to release consecutively - Paint Park, Treasure Park and Wake-Up Club - yet Paint Park preceded the two by more than a couple weeks (months, actually), and then I believe there was a gap between Treasure Park and Wake-Up Club as well.  Whenever it hits the store, however, it's assuredly going to be a freemium title as the rest of the apps have been.  I would imagine there will be exclusive items and decorations that you can only obtain via purchase with real money, as well as being able to buy 'points packs' to give yourself a little bank to spend without doing too much work.  Yet, you'll still be able to get a good experience without spending a dime.  And that's what this looks like - a good experience.

Wake-Up Club Finally Detailed....is Actually Interesting

So, whether it's seeing whether you can throw a rock higher or farther than your buddy, challenging yourself to perform a tedious task in the shortest amount of time possible or trying to think of as many comparisons as possible before moving on, we as a people can generally turn anything into a 'game' of sorts.  That is kind of a given and it's a pretty neat thing all told.  However, no matter how creative you are, or how out-there your ideas might be sometimes, there are certain things you just never assume will work as a game.  Like, let's just say for the sake of argument because clearly I am not getting to this in any sort of fashion, waking up.  How in the world could you turn the everyday occurrence of waking up in the morning (or afternoon) into a game?  The answer, it turns out, is challenging yourself to wake up at the same time as 11 other people.

The latest free App for the Playstation Vita, announced waaaaay back last year in April, is called Wake-Up Club and it turns the task of waking up into a thing that you get points for and that is kind of amazing in a silly way.  The app allows you to turn your Vita into an Alarm Clock on top of everything else and that is pretty much where the little meta-game of waking up begins.  You set your alarm, the alarm tone, choose a song to wake up to (the App comes with some and will actually offer more tunes later down the road in the form of DLC) and then go to sleep.  I....I don't have to explain how an alarm clock works, right?  I am pretty sure we all have a pretty firm grasp on this as a concept.  I'm just kind of reaching here, I realize, but that aspect of this whole thing is kind of self-explanatory.

The part -after- the alarm clock bit is the important part as it is where the Wake-Up Club begins.  At some point, I'm not quite sure if it's when you set your alarm, or during the night while you slumber, the App matches you up with 11 other people that have their alarm set for the same time and puts you all into a Wake-Up Club.  (Hence the name!)  When the alarm goes off, your Vita will wake up and I'm not sure if it bypasses the Lock Screen entirely or you still have to deal with that, but regardless, the alarm goes off and then you get back into the Wake-Up Club app somehow to see that your Avatar is bouncing around, taunting you in your newly awakened (or still half-asleep) state to touch it which will confirm to the rest of the club that you are awake.  All 12 avatars will be displayed in a manner much like the one you see above, with a clear indication as to who is a light sleeper and who is a long-term dozer.  The Playstation Blog post that details the app states that you can tap sleeping players Avatars to 'cheer' them into waking up, but I'm not sure what that means - perhaps it means a sound effect will add to the tone and tune, or perhaps it means absolutely nothing.

These 11 other people who are tenuously linked to you by virtue of wanting to be awake at the same point in time (I assume it adjusts for Time Zones, btw, so East Coast 9 AM would be West Coast 6 AM, allowing for easier matches at the expense of not being the same 'time' but the same 'moment') aren't just nameless, faceless placeholders, of course.  By clicking on anyone's avatar, you'll be able to check out some information on them, perhaps while you're waiting for them to wake up.  Things like their profile, basic stuff like that, but also their individual Wake-Up Club stats, like say, if they actually wake up on time, how long it usually takes to wake up, and the amount of times they've actually woken up relatively on time.  Of course, if you're just so swept up in this inseparable bond that you have forged with someone that you want to send them a Friend Request, you can do that as well, with all of this really going the distance to reaffirm why this is called a 'Social' app.

Wake-Up Club is definitely something of a weird thing as a concept, but weird does not exclude it from also being neat and/or useful.  At the very worst, this might end up as a sort of novelty that nobody keeps up with, but at its best, it could be something that is really helpful to a few people.  I'm a heavy sleeper myself and I know that I've had problems with alarms in the past, but I also sleep with my Vita off to the side of my bed, hooked up to the charging cable which means that I could, by all means, attempt using this.  I'm not convinced it'll work better, but I'm more than willing to give it a shot, because if it'll help me wake up when I actually want to wake up as opposed to an hour or so later, all the better.  As a free app, there's absolutely nothing you stand to lose by picking this up when it comes out next week, so if you're interested at all, go for it.  Who knows who you'll Wake-Up with?

wait, that sounds kind of creepy actually

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

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!

Treasure Park is Like Minesweeper, Only Bad

So....I'm not really going to mince words here.  I normally don't, but I will do so less-so tonight because this is a thing that I just absolutely don't get.  Treasure Park is a thing that came out months late, being announced way back in April to compliment Welcome Park and Paint Park which released on time.  I'm not really sure why it's this late.  Actually, I'm completely sure why, but I'm just trying to convey the point that there is literally nothing to Treasure Park that warrants a month delay.  To say it is bare-bones is being quite generous since there's really nothing of substance here unless you are a very, very lucky person.  Which is tied into the reason why it was delayed.  The reason why it was delayed and the reason why it's.....a thing that I don't care about really are the same reason:  it relies 100% okay, like 95% on Near.

Near, as you may remember, was one of the things updated in the last patch and whether or not it's healed some of the more widespread problems with the app, I'm not sure.  Near simply does not work for me unless I get about forty minutes into civilization because there's simply no SkyHook hotspots out here and I'm not about to create one because I really don't care -that much-.  To its credit, when I am in locations where SkyHook has points, I'm pretty sure it works because it has logged locations and I have gotten distance traveled and game good offers and such through it.  But clearly, it's not a thing I get to use that often which is counter to the point of Near, being something that is encouraged to be used daily as you are out and about.  Because while I am out and about fairly regularly, I am not out and about in the correct places for the app's liking.

Basically, if I was reading the tutorial correctly, with Treasure Park you set up a card, as I have done above, and whenever you use Near, provided Treasure Park is set-up with it correctly and such, you could send your board out to whomever picks you up on it.  And similarly done is how you receive other cards out there.  When you get cards, you can try to solve them which is where the Minesweeper comparison kicks in.  If you'll take another look at the card above, you'll see four different types of icons:  A bomb, a bear trap, coin stack and a diamond.  The former two are things to avoid if possible where the latter two are what you're shooting for with the ultimate goal of getting the Diamond which will end in victory for you.  Hitting coins, I believe, just adds to your score where I imagine bear traps detract and bombs end it outright.  I think, again there was only three cards that I got and the first one, the first box I picked had a diamond.  I didn't have the foresight to screencap those screens because I am a dumb.

There's a rank system involved as you can see from my rank card but as to what it controls, I haven't even anything approaching a clue.  It's probably just a meta-game in the vein of the other things out there since I can't figure out what you could 'get' unless it's other card layouts.  As in, cards that have the colored blocks in different places since that is a static image.  (Perhaps you can rotate the overall thing of it, but I'm not certain.)  I gained medals (which are the coin stacks, I guess) from getting medal stacks as well as diamonds and it's got me there which is about 1,000 medals away from ranking up which means I need, likely, something around 6 more cards worth of success to do that which is....a bit out there.  Likely a task that I will not accomplish for some time which isn't something that fusses me too much as I will probably forget about the app completely until some undetermined time in the future when I see that I have a card to play from a Near trip.

To be honest, I wanted to talk about this purely because I want to put it out there that this is a thing that I don't understand.  The timing of putting this out there is solely because I have something else I do want to talk about, but I'm not quite sure where I want to go with it just yet.  So I'll likely have to clock a bit more time in the game in question to be sure which side of the coin I'm going to fall with it.  Since Treasure Park was pretty much the only thing in reserve and there's nothing news-worthy that I'm going to give any attention to, or that I can formulate enough thoughts about out there, this won by default.  I'm not quite sure if Wake-Up Club will get similar treatment after it comes out (with any luck, this Tuesday) since I similarly have no idea about it, but we'll see.

Vita's Youtube App - A Month Later

This is basically how I regard Youtube.

So it was just a little over a month ago, June 27th to be precise, when I first talked about the Youtube App in a rather positive light as, at the time, it did exactly what I wanted it to do - offer me the ability to watch the videos I wanted to watch.  It is, honestly, not a difficult task, especially for a service that is solely dedicated to offering videos to watch.  And honestly, it still does this task, although only mostly instead of totally which, no matter how you spin it, is a strike against the app.  A very deep, very broad strike against it.  It is akin to having a programmer on a video game who doesn't know a specific language well enough to write it, or having a TV that just forgets to display a color.  You have one job and you're not good at it, so what good is it?  Well, I still like it, but it's sort of a begrudging like, like a cat who always claws you when you pet it, or a certain food that tastes delicious but always causes digestive problems.

So my problem with the Youtube app is, simply, that it is, again, an app to let you watch videos that are on Youtube.  It is honestly a very, -very- simple process, but one that is assuredly mucked up on Youtube's side as it seems like there are just broad walls where content is blocked from even showing up, much less being watched.  You know those Vevo channels that are just completely annoying and basically spearheaded the whole "Youtube will mute your videos for having music in them" thing?  Yeah, just go ahead and try loading one up.  You cannot.  Which is fine and all, music is generally really friggin' hard to get to nowadays unless you're just throwing dollars at everything and anything  Besides, the Youtube App was always sort of broadcasted to be a 'Video Game-centric' App, right?  For video game videos because it is a video game -device-, you need constant video game exposure on it, thus spoke the power that be.

Where it becomes an issue is when there are video game videos, as in the subset niche that was specifically mentioned as the -thing- that the App catered to, that just don't friggin' show up no matter what.  I follow some Minecraft Let's Plays, as I've mentioned before, and there's one series in particular that I was trying to catch up on, and it was actually easy to do.  Things were numbered, I could just throw in the show name and the episode number that was next (if it wasn't in the Suggested videos, since who needs episode playlist support except Youtube on the computer) load it and watch.  Well there's one video in particular that, no matter what I did, type the name in exactly in the search, favorited it to try and force it into my favorite list, anything, would not show up.  This presents a problem, you see, because now I am missing something like forty friggin' minutes of gameplay between the video I just watched and the one that comes after it.  It's a small example, but it is no less egregious for that fact.

I would bet money that this is either a symptom of, or the cause of, no subscription support for the App (which is compounded by Youtube's need to fucking redesign the site every three months) which takes it down another notch pretty much every time you use it.  Search functions that -only find exactly what you're looking for- (which, let's face it, the Search function in the App barely does that, even) when there is literally a sea of billions of videos in the Youtube collective is not sufficient.  The streamlined system of searching for an author and then looking through their videos should -not- be that goddamn difficult to make happen and it's practically embarrassing that it's not present here.  I suppose the App was only meant to be a supplement, and not a stand-alone thing, but come on.  If you're going to do a thing, don't half-ass it because I don't care if you're only planning on casual use - somebody (like me) is going to want to use it for something more rather than wasting time and RAM and effort watching things on a POS computer in the scant amount of time he can be on it before going off to do any of a billion other things.

It's sufficient enough, I suppose, but I can't help being a little disappointed.  I touched on it a little in Tweets a while back, but I've always meant to get a little more in-depth with it, since I can think of too many reasons why it's a bad thing than I can tweet comfortably.  Like the fact that Youtube is content-driven, focusing on people who make content that a lot of people watch, since that means everybody gets a piece of the action that is generated from it.  Cutting things that make it easier for the basic user to find said content (since most people just use the service casually enough to just rely on whatever shows up in a subscription box) means the people who work hard to get this stuff recorded and encoded and the like just get the shaft since it partitions off who is able to watch it without jumping through hoops IF the content is, indeed, watchable at all, as per the example I gave above.  But I'm not surprised at all since, if Youtube is good at anything it's making all the wrong decisions and not suffering for them at all.  Seems like a running theme elsewhere too.

Vita's Youtube App and My Thoughts

Just because I didn't want to use a stock.  You can screencap the App, if that wasn't obvious.  Also to prove my K-Pop obsession.  Okay that song is actually English but -details-.

So, I've been clamoring for it ever since it was announced officially (and probably before), but yesterday the Youtube App for the Vita was finally released to not really a whole lot of fanfare.  Which I suppose is fair, as it's just an application that lets you view videos that you should, by all rights, already be able to view if the whole Mobile Flash thing had been sorted or, better yet, Flash was already a thing of the past and something else for viewing videos was standard but that's another point entirely.  Regardless, as an app built from the ground-up for the sole purpose of viewing videos, one has to wonder whether or not it is capable of providing this sufficiently in both quality and ease of use.  The former is definitely assured, surprisingly, whereas the latter is a little iffy for now.

Let me talk about the positives first, however, since there actually are positives to be had here.  Despite my ever-long crusade against Youtube for generally being terrible in doing solely what they seek to do in providing a hub for people to load videos to be watched by other people, the App doesn't seem to suffer much in the delivery aspect.  I search for what I want (this is something to pick about later on actually) when I find it, I touch it, it opens and I can let it load up to however much I desire.  Seeing as my internet is no less shoddy over wireless, I like to let a video load up to at least halfway before I start it, and guess what, the App lets me do this.  This is extremely convenient.  Also convenient is that, if you merely have a Wi-Fi model like myself, you can load up a full video (especially a particularly long one) and watch it over the course of a car (or bus) trip.  You'll lose internet connection, of course, but the video is still there for you to watch, provided you don't close the App or something beforehand.  Hitting home to back out and check on something doesn't clear this, from my experience, but, much like a game, you're limited in what you can open whilst having the Youtube App open.

The quality of the videos is nothing to sniff at as well.  While there's not the extensive list of 240, 360, 480, etc for resolutions, there is an HD toggle for videos that offer 720p.  Otherwise, I believe the video simply plays at the highest resolution available (either 360 or 480) which offers quality that is serviceable, if not quite good, for whatever you could hope to watch.  Be it Let's Play Videos or Music videos of Korean girls dancing around and singing in languages you can't understand (or sometimes you can), I can't really fault what I get, even on the Full-screen mode.  Which, I will say that Full-screen is pretty much the only way to watch something.  I feel like the windowed mode with the extra information is useful for the information as well as getting to the next video you might want to watch, but for actually watching a video, it's entirely too little.  Still, it's clearly not the intended usage for the mode, so that's pretty much all that needs to be said about that.  It's there to look at the info box, like a video perhaps, and, as I said already, to aid you in selecting a video to watch next.  That's all well and good, and it's what we'll have to make do with for the moment as, and here is where the negative part starts.

One of the things that the Youtube App does not add is subscription support.  As in, even though you can attach your account to the app for the purposes of accessing your favorite videos as well as the ability to like/dislike, that's about all the functionality offered.  I imagine this is a result of the rampant troubles Youtube as a whole has with the whole subscription thing, where videos simply won't show up in subscription lists (which is, of course, definitely not a result of the several revisions the entire service has received, no siree) and is just generally not helpful for its one and only purpose.  It tries to make up for this by marking some videos new and throwing them in your Recommended list, which is what the Star icon is for, but if you want something approaching precision in knowing just when your favorite youtuber has uploaded their latest video, this is not something that will facilitate that with ease.  A combination of checking when that person tweets that they have uploaded a video (through LiveTweet) as well as the search function in the youtube app will function, but it's not ideal.  And I doubt there will really be a fix for this in the future, as the subscription thing is just generally not something that works all-around.

In reality, that's kind of the big downfall of the app and it's a pretty big one if you intended to use the Vita as your Youtube 'station' as it were, since you just don't know if you're up-to-date on stuff.  When you have several people you're subscribed to who release several videos daily, this quickly becomes an issue.  But regardless, with the history tab, you can generally keep tabs on what you've seen and use that as a gauge and try to work it that way, but it's really not ideal.  Still, the point is having this way to watch videos and as I said, it does that fantastically.  I think it and Netflix are about on par in terms of visuals (of course, there's a margin for error or what have you with youtube since they have some 240p videos kicking around) and that's really no small claim.  It's a nice world in which we can pretend that the app will get any post-release support at all, but actually believing it is another matter.

News Dump - All This Pre-E3 Info

I know there's a whole lot of stuff swirling about that I haven't covered (I'm literally staring at a post-it note with eight bullet points as I type this) and that's simply because, well, E3 time is an adjustment.  Most of the time, you have to get used to scratching at news sites here and there for something, anything palatable enough to spread out over a few paragraphs to have something that you've written out that you're happy with.  But when E3 rolls around, there's just a smorgasbord of topics that you can pick and choose from and the first instinct is to cover all of them as Chance has been doing.  Unfortunately, I just...can't really do that.  I don't have it in me to cast that wide a net and update that many times, because it would take a lot of time and it would set a bar that I know I can't uphold for 99% of the year.  Regardless, assuming that I can find enough topics that I'm not -super- long-winded about, I can bring them up in a News Dump and hit a lot of points at once.  Which is clearly what the intent is here tonight.

First up is the news that the Vita will see a dedicated Youtube App at the end of June which is friggin' music to my ears.  If you spend the minute reading that post, you'll see about two sentences of information followed by a lot of Vita talking-up which is fine by me, since, as you can figure, there's not a whole lot that needs to be said about it.  It's Youtube.  On your Vita.  One of the bits of information states that it'll be the whole 'Youtube experience' straight through your account right there on the Vita which is fine enough, better even, than I would've wanted.  Just something that would've let me watch videos without any other fluff would've been fine enough, but I understand how there has to be the whole account thing everywhere regardless of anything.  However, it does make things a little bit easier if you're allowed to access your playlists of all sorts.

In fact, this alone can finally validate the entire "Watch Later" Playlist function of YouTube that I've never had occasion to use before now.  I know that I'll primarily use the App to keep up on my Let's Plays without relying on the computer so that I can then use that computer time more productively, so I welcome this eagerly and think it can't really come out fast enough.  On top of that, think of all the K-Pop I can discover through Youtube now.  Just think of it all.  And to think, I was considering checking out that Music Unlimited service for it.  Glad I dodged that bullet, huh?  But no, seriously, I can't wait to bring Youtube into my life in a more convenient way, considering the service itself is pretty convenient, if a bit unreliable in my experience.

Something funny to consider for a moment before the realization and full impact of it all hits you and you become blinded with rage is the fact that, until that post, pretty much every Vita specific post (and some ones that weren't) were basically demanding a specific Youtube App.  Or at least some way to support video play on the Web Browser or -something-.  Finally, it gets announced, and a new little nuance appears:  The fact that the description for the App (in all two sentences it's actually talked about) doesn't mention that you can take/upload video to youtube leaves people wondering if you can do that.  And specifically saying that the App will be terrible if it doesn't do that.  Sigh.  It just goes to show that some people, in fact, are never ever happy.

In other news, an Italian games retail site by the name of 16 Games seems to think that Hitman: Blood Money will be packed with two other games for an HD Collection.  I guess the proper way to say that is just to say that there appears to be three Hitman games getting the HD Upscale Bundle treatment, but I (and I imagine a few others) really only care about the Blood Money portion of the game, where Hitman 2 and Contracts seem....well, not like bonuses, but let's just go with extra.  Yes, 'extra' games along with Hitman:  Blood Money HD (which, well, it kind of already was HD because it came out on 360 but details) for the equivalent of $40, roughly.  (About $37 if you want to be real technical about it)  That's pretty much the standard for three game collections, and I'm pretty sure that I might be more than happy to pay that much money for another chance to play Blood Money, and with trophies to boot.

Curiously, the site only lists a spot for Playstation 3, which I suppose would make sense given that, as it is, it's a full upscale Collection, whereas on the 360 it would be upscaling two games and then reprinting the third, but that seems easier, even.  But it's not an HD-ifying thing, it'd just be redoing it/repackaging it, so I guess that's the idea is to...not do that.  Maybe.  I don't know.  I'm not really focusing on anything but being able to explore Blood Money again in prettier visuals while getting rewarded for getting Silent Assassin ranks on the levels and such.  Also partially dreading the idea of playing Hitman 2 simply because I have heard through many facets of the internet that it is...er....a less than ideal game.  And considering I own it for the XBox and have absolutely no memory of playing it, I would have to imagine that I did indeed play it and dislike it unfortunately.

I do admit that, as I have sort of made it clear here, I really don't harbor all that much towards Hitman 2 nor Contracts as I only barely remember playing Contracts (though I think I liked it) and what I already said with 2.  Still, Hitman games are Hitman games and I'll be glad to dip into them when I want to scratch that itch.  Since I don't think I'll be dipping into Absolution right when it comes out, even if I do have a real enjoyment for the games.  Mainly because I am kind of bad at them at first, and I'd rather be able to play that at my leisure than feel like I have to pop it in, kick ass and be ready for the next big game that comes out, since Absolution hits in November where I imagine everything else will hit as well.  That kind of tactical thinking will surely help me when I play the games finally, though.  (Mostly kidding, of course.)

Finally, one of the more "Alright, figured that, but cool to know" bits of news is that Soul Sacrifice is going to be in Non-Japan Countries. While that specifically mentions North America, Europe is getting the game as well, which was confirmed on the PAL blog that I'm not linking to because honestly, just believe me okay.  This is two-fold good news because not only do we just not have to worry if it's getting localized for the long long months between now and release, but it is yet another game that Vita owners can point at for the detractors saying that the Vita isn't getting any 'unique experiences' or 'new IPs'.  Because Soul Sacrifice, while it might be using the 'Souls' name as kind of a spring-board (very loosely if so), is definitely going to be a rather unique experience unless you can point out any other game that will let you rip out your spine and use it as a magic sword until you die.

Of course, this means that more thought will have to be given to the game by myself and people expecting to get it that had the nebulous feeling of "Well, whenever it comes out, I'll have known what the Japanese release was like, etc. etc." where that has now possibly been replaced by the idea of a World release, or at least a quick localization process, leaving not too much time in between.  And it is certainly a game that you'll have to give a little thought to before playing it because, for as unique as it's going to be, it's also a little intimidating since it basically works upon your psyche as you play.  "You -can- use these giant awesome attacks", it whispers to you, "for a priccccccccccce." and unless you know the price or just how it can be integrated into the Single-Player portion of the game (as I'm assuming it has one) it's a real head-scratcher.

Sites and sources and material for the game have already said that the cost of some of the attacks is literally your life.  A last resort attack that you spring because you know you're going to die and choose to go out fighting, as per Excalibur.  Or a spell that you use to give the last bit of your life force to your fellow warriors as a buff.  That's been mentioned, but I don't think something specific has been attached to it.  I also initially heard that Salamander was going to be a spell that has you ignite your character to bring fire and brimstone to your foes at the cost of, again, your life, but apparently it will only cause severe burns.  Or maybe there will be some different prices for Single-Player and Multi-Player versions of the spells?  Maybe!  Again, these are all the questions we'll have to answer before the game actually comes out, but at least we know for sure that it will be coming out.

No Surprise - No UMD Passport Program for the West

Near has nothing to do with this, but we have different Vita pics, so I'm using them.

So, with the release of the Vita being counted in days rather than months now, the lack of a UMD Passport system announcement for us in the West was rather telling, but it seems like it's officially not happening.  It's disappointing to be sure, but given that it was mostly a Developer/Publisher-side thing, the fact that they're not willing to bother is not so much of a surprise.  Nor is it a surprise that the general populace of the internet isn't comprehending that it's not really a Sony issue, nor is it something Sony can do themselves.  As I stated in the above-linked post, Sony as an entity cannot give you digital versions of games that are not theirs to give.  Which is roughly 98% of the games on the store if not more because even the first-party games aren't developed by Sony, they're developed by first-party studios who are their own entity.  It's rather absurd to blame this solely on Sony, but the internet is quick to do that regardless, so we shouldn't be too surprised.

The program, as it turns out, hasn't been doing too hot in Japan either, as several big-name devs/pubs who have tokenly signed on with the program still haven't put their money where their mouths are, leaving a lot, if not all, of their games out of the program entirely still.  So the sentiment that 'at least Japan has the option' that you'll see in a lot of comments about this story isn't even all that founded.  If anything here, that's the surprising bit since PSP sales actually did -well- in Japan, though not digitally which could be the rub, I suppose.  Japan might be more keen on keeping their PSPs and playing UMDs than bothering with getting a digital copy, even if it is cheap.  Couple that with the fact that some of the big names aren't putting their games up for cheap in the Passport Program and that is something of a recipe for disaster.

Once again, I kind of have to point the blame at Steam/Valve for setting up a digital distribution hub that seems to work outside of reality, though at the same time, I imagine licensing and such for a PC game is much less stringent than for a console/handheld game.  It's hard to point at a PC game that isn't offered on Steam, at least a well-known one, so it's hard to even draw a direct correlation, but it's the same theory.  We'll use Star Wars:  The Old Rebublic, I guess, since it's Origin-exclusive (technically) and it's about all I can think of.  Is anyone blaming Valve for TOR not being available through Steam?  No, the blame is on EA.  Oh, here's one, is anyone blaming Valve for Minecraft not being available through Steam?  No, that's on Mojang.  Or, if we're showing off the general internet mindset, it's all Notch's fault.  (It's not all Notch's fault)

It's the same theory here; Valve cannot sell you a game that the Developer/Publisher isn't letting Valve sell you.  Sony cannot sell you a game or a digital version of a game you already own that the Developer/Publisher isn't letting them sell through the Playstation store.  And, I have to reiterate, sometimes it's not even the fault of the Developer/Publisher in so much as they're not willing.  If anything, it'd be their fault for not including clauses that account for future digital distribution, but such foresight wasn't common to have even a few years ago, so it's hard to point the finger there.  Bottom line, it is a rather unfortunate situation that everyone's involved in, and while a Passport System would have been nice, it just isn't going to happen for a multitude of reasons.  Very few of them are actually Sony's direct fault.  If we want our PSP games on the store and/or for a discount, throw it on the Pub/Dev to do so.

Playstation Suite Getting Closer

Joystiq has announced that Sony has announced that the Beta for the Playstation Suite program will be beginning later on in November.  Of course, this is only for Japan, and only for 'Playstation-Suite certified' devices which will eventually include the Vita and Sony's Tablets, but for now seems kinda....er, s'far as I can tell, it looks like it'll just be available on the Xperia Play and other Android devices.  Maybe.  I'm not really sure as I haven't followed it much and can only really go by what that article says and what I can kind of figure on.  Plus, I kind of remember a few things from the keynotes about it a while back when it was first announced alongside the Xperia Play.

When I was doing a little look through of the news to pick out something to write about tonight, I almost skipped this entirely as, assuredly anything made with the Playstation Suite program, or at least 99% of it will be strictly 'Cell Phone' games in that they are made much in the style of the existing cell phone games that are meant to be played in bursts no longer than 3 minutes.  While that's fine and well, and those 3 minutes are usually quite enjoyable, I...can't help but really want something more.  After taking a dip into some of the Playstation Minis, I unfortunately have the same thing to say there from my experience.  There's just nothing...deep about them and if I'm paying cash money for something, I want a little depth in 99% of the cases.

Now while this isn't universally true, of course, the outliers are just that; outliers and exceptions, and not shining examples of the viability of Cell Phone gaming.  In the future, I'm sure that it'll evolve as a platform, much as everything has, especially as more and more 'serious' game devs start taking an interest in the mobile/non-handheld system market, but I'm not expecting leaps and bounds anytime soon.  Still, that Playstation Suite is really more or less the first opportunity for real indie support, I can't help but feel a little excited for it.  It only takes a few copies like "The Dishwasher" or the Zeboyd Games games to really implant something as viable in the minds of others and something of similar quality would likely push me into looking more into it.

That said, the bar is low and as long as we can keep the ESRB from getting involved and hiking the prices by $1-3 dollars, I'll be more than happy to take a look around at the first wave of iPhone ports and such since, well, I'm sure some of the games are popular for a reason and so long as I can find that reason I'll be content to give them a shot.  Then I'll be more than happy to sit back and enjoy the rest of the content available to the Vita until something really outstanding comes out as it assuredly will.  The amount of time it'll take might outweigh the advent of it, but only time will tell on that.  S'long as someone can make something of a less-shallow experience, I'm all for it.

UMD Passport System Announced

Since the announcement that the Vita would, unsurprisingly, not have a UMD slot, people have been wondering, as they wondered back when the PSPGo came out, "What about our UMDs?"  These are games that have been purchased by us for the same platform and format that is going to be supported by the Vita via Backwards Compatibility and, seeing as how the Go went, many feared the answer would be simply to re-purchase your games as digital versions all over again.  This is, understandably, a grim proposition that people have been waiting with baited breath for a confirmation on one way or another to either sigh in a moment of relief or a moment of disappointment.  Well, now we know and my reaction is the former, personally.

The UMD Passport program (which will be launched as a free application for the PSP sometime in Japan) assumes some very basic things that, well, are not hard to satisfy.  You have to A) Have a PSP and UMDs, B) A Vita and C) Access to the Playstation Network.  According to the post, if I'm reading it right, what you'll need to do is, access the Playstation Store on your PSP and go to the section that has the UMD Registration Programs (Or, as I'm thinking of it thanks to the name, the Passports) and purchase the one for the game you want to 'transfer'.  Put in that UMD and run the passport, which will register said UMD and then add a digital version of your game to your Playstation Network account that you can then access on your Vita and download said game.

Now, people will take this, that you're buying the license for a digital version of a game you own physically, and say that you are, in fact, re-buying the game.  And this is not a difficult statement to make, especially because the pricing for every license is going to vary based on several factors; chief of which is the greediness sense of value its developer has for the game.  The example given is that, to buy a license for Persona 3 Portable will cost 1,500 Yen, whereas Disgaea 2 will only be 500.  However, since the price is, of course, assuredly less than you paid for your UMD copy (unless you found a good deal somewhere), I would suggest that this is more along the lines of those "DVD/Blu-Ray/Digital Copy" bundles you see for the latest movies.  They, quite simply, cost more because you get more.  You are buying a Digital Copy of your movie alongside the other two copies of it for a reduced price than if you bought all three individually.

Of course, the program isn't perfect, even if it's actually a pretty good middle-ground between the two extremes of "Buy everything!  Again!" and "GIVE US EVERYTHING FOR FREE".  For starters, games have to be implemented into the program for you to be able to purchase a passport for it, obviously.  This puts yet another limit on the already (slightly) limited library of Digital games available on the Playstation Store, since, quite simply, not all games on the store will be in this program.  Whether it's because the developers don't want to fuss with it, there's some sort of legal issues involved, or something else, there is a very real possibility of the games involved in the Passport system to be dwarfed by the amount of games on the store proper.  (Squeenix, Capcom, I'm worried about you two being the biggest dicks here)

Not only that but, as I mentioned above in not-so-many-words, the game has to actually be on the Playstation Store first for there to be a possibility here.  For instance, unless something can be done to smooth over the issues Lumines has had with getting on the Store, simply having the UMD will not be enough to be able to play it on the Vita, unfortunately.  Seeing as the Store pretty much has the bulk of the necessities (some outliers notwithstanding) this shouldn't be too much of an issue, but it is still an issue which some will take and clutch onto in fervent denial that this is the best attempt that can be made.

For what it's worth, as I've stated a couple times, I believe this is the best effort that can be made here, really.  Sony can't give you digital versions/the right to digital versions of a game no matter what, and they can't give you a tool that would do a similar thing (the UMD reader/converter thing that was spoken of long, long ago), but the developers can decide to reward its customers with a chance to have a second, future-ready version of their game at a lower cost than just buying it once more.  As with everything else, for better or worse, Sony is leaving this one up to the developers; it's their games after all.  So it's just up to them as to how consumer friendly they want to be.  Of course, this will stop nobody from whinging and blaming Sony because Squeenix won't put Crisis Core on the Store, but, well, that's the internet for you.

Catching Up on Vita News

If you haven't seen it yet, the above is the, er....box that the PS Vita will ship in in Europe.  It was shown off in this European PS Blog post a while back and, no matter how much I like the box (and I do), I can't write just about that.  True enough, the blog also lists the features the Vita will come pre-loaded with (Possibly not all of them) but it's not really anything that we've not seen yet, though some things are explained a little more which is quite welcome.  Let's take a look at some of these:

Welcome Park – We invite you to the Welcome Park to explore and discover all of the brilliant features packed into PS Vita through a series of mini-games.

This would be the one thing that I haven't heard of yet, and would be the reason the box has a PEGI (PAL equivalent to the ESRB) Rating on it assuredly.  Yes, I know you noticed it, and I noticed it too, but didn't care to really look into why.  I simply assumed it would come pre-loaded with a demo or something, which admittedly was a little folly of me since the Vita is not coming with any extra storage media.  Yes, we all sad-face about it a little, but I'm not too fussed; I have about three or four memory sticks for my PSP floating around, all gotten fairly cheap and the minimal cost to experience as I have has never brought down my overall experience.  Regardless, Mini-Games to show off the Vita...is quite a neat little idea.  I can only wonder just how 'mini' they will be.

Party – Fancy a chat while you’re gaming? Speak with your friends anytime you like with Party. The voice and text chat application allows you to talk to up to eight party members, no matter what you’re doing. Party also allows you to set up and jump in multiplayer games and chat with Friends while you play different games, bringing cross-game chat to PS Vita.

Party's been, possibly, the most controversial aspect of the Vita so far (the other big ones being Price of all the damn things and  battery life) in my opinion, since its reveal re-ignited the torch of the Cross-Game Chat crowd, believing with fervent hope, bordering on the dangerous sort, that despite the machine lacking Cross-Game Chat for 4 years, this meant it was coming to the PS3 without a doubt.  And when we were all informed that it's just not possible, they reacted....poorly.  That it's on the handlheld, but not the PS3 is perceived as a slap in the face, rather than an evolutionary step and they have in turn, took to panning the device.

It's a bit silly, to say the least, but they'll come around or stop vocalizing about it so loudly eventually and we'll all have a little bit more peace because of it.  The app is honestly something desirable, which is clearly why there's such a hubbub about it, and I'm honestly curious to see if that "No Matter what you're doing" holds up when it comes to playing PSP games on the device, as it would assuredly make the Monster Hunter-type games quite a bit easier to to play and quite a lot more enjoyable.

Group Messaging – Another great way to contact your PlayStation Network friends is with a PSN Message. Send them an update or even a picture you’ve taken with your PS Vita to let them know what’s going on. You can message your friends on PSP and PS3, and you can have conversations with multiple people at once.

This is...this, I'm not  really sure about, in all honesty.  I mean, it's a fine thing and all, I'm confused as to how it will work.  Obviously, with a PS3 user, it'll just send a message to your PS3 Inbox, possibly with a picture attachment (as is possible currently), but what about the PSP?  To my knowledge, such a thing does not exist on the PSP in its current state, and I wonder at the ability to actually add an inbox in as a feature.  The only other option I can perceive would be to add a specific App ability to the PSP (ala the Comic Reader and Qirocity) that you have to be in to participate in such a chat.  Which wouldn't be quite bad, since that's more or less what you have to do on the Vita as well, but it still seems a bit unwieldy since it would be the only way to know if you have a message or not.  I guess, as with everything else, we'll see, and I can't wait to find out the details.

Near – An exclusive location based gaming network for PS Vita. With near you can stay connected to all of your PlayStation Network friends and make new ones by sharing information about yourself, based on your location. Press the Update button and find new people based on where you are, challenge them to games or play cooperatively and enjoy a completely unique gaming experience on PS Vita. You can even send and receive new levels, unlocks and in-game items to enhance the way you play – everywhere you go will hold new surprises. You can view your friends’ game preferences, see how many trophies they’ve earned and compare your stats to see who the better player is.

As we know, I'm fairly interested in Near and have been for a while since I first really heard of it, and this new explanation of it does nothing to quell that interest but rather raise it.  That they're still saying "send and receive....in-game items" makes me hope, hope, hope that, at the very least, the next Phantasy Star Portable (Possibly named Phantasy Star Victory or PSV for short, get it?) makes heavy use of this as I would love to be able to go full-on altruism and drop rare weapons that I don't want for other folks to pick up where I go.  Of course, the reverse scenario would be lovely as well.

Something mysteriously absent in the line-up of features is a Video button, which, of course, has stirred up quite a few people in the comments section of the blog post.  I'm pretty sure we've seen video of the Vita playing, er, video, and I imagine this is a tactical omission to announce something more 'customizable' in its place.  Where we have TV Services and Video sections on the PS3, I figure apps similar to those will appear on the PS Store Day One or shortly after to offer we, the consumers to pick where we get our videos from mainly.  Perhaps a general video player for things downloaded off the PS Store as we have now, and a dedicated Netflix app (If 3DS can do it, so can this) among others.

Also worth a mention, especially considering we're going over a list of features of the device, is that 3G downloads are limited to 20 MB at launch, meaning your big downloads will have to be through Wi-Fi which every model of the Vita will have right out of the box.  I, like many others, thought this would be a big to-do among people, but apparently this is pretty standard with 3G devices so the outrage simply wasn't there so much; people have already conformed to this and are silently compliant with this pact.  I was more than surprised at this, but in a pleasant fashion, as I figured anything to throw at the Vita in a negative light would be pounced upon.  Still, the 20 MB limit might be raised in the future, to which I understand would be a big talking point if that were the case.  I'm not so concerned since I have no use for 3G; even though my internet is terrible, Wi-Fi is free and is, thus, good.

The final bit of news would be the several different game 'semi-announcements' as of late, coming from Marvelous AQL, Squeenix, and Falcon among others.  I call them semi-announcements as they're not giving us a whole lot, really.  Army Corps of Hell, the Demonic Pikmin-esque Squeenix entity being made by apparent former Pikmin developers has a release window of "2012" because, remember, it's Squeenix.  Falcon has announced an updated version of the second Legend of Heroes game for the Vita which, at this point, only touts more voice acting, but will surely add more bullet points soon enough.  And Marvelous AQL apparently has three 'new' Vita games in the works, of the "RPG", "Action RPG", and "Action Adventure" variety, where one of those may or may not be the new Little King's Story game.

Still, that we're getting all these announcements of new games yet is a positive sign assuredly.  Developers seem to really be taking to the Vita as they have the PSP and we can only hope their willingness extends to this side of the pond, as it were, for those of us who don't know Japanese and the like.  For my money, I'm saying there's already more support for the Vita over here than there ever really was for the PSP, and I feel confident that it'll do much better than it's predecessor.  At least, I'm hoping for it with every bit of my being.

Pokedex App coming to 3DS, impresses no one

Siliconera reported today that an app for the 3DS (a free app, no less) will hit the 3DS storefront when it opens up, joining the ranks of Excitebike and....Anyway.  The app effectively turns your 3DS into some sort of a pokedex, unsurprisingly, as you'll be able to unlock new entries beyond the 16 you start with, for all the pokemon.  In, er, Black and White.  Not, y'know, all of them.  It'll function as pictured above:  A 3D (in more than one way) rendering of a pokemon that you can rotate with the information showing up on the bottom screen.  Using Spotpass, scanning some sort of codes and trading, you'll start opening up all the entries of the Unova dex for yourself whenever you want to know which is heavier:  the giant trash bag pokemon, or the big rock thing.  You know which rock thing.

It is...a thing.  I guess.  Having only one region of pokemon really kills a lot of any sort of desire I'd have for this, personally, though it's feasible that other regions will be added eventually.  Of course, Siliconera says "just the ones from Black/White" which could mean the non-region ones when you beat the game as well, though I highly doubt it, and think it was just an easier to understand way of seeing "Pokemon native to the Unova region".  But being able to put pokemon in pictures you take is....well, that is also a thing.  And it's free.  That's always a plus point.

I'm sure this is just screaming "Filler!" and I hate that, if it is doing that, because while I'm not exactly attached to this thing, it is Pokemon-related, which is why it even caught my eye to begin with.  Still, if I were telling the truth, this is not exactly the article I'd wanted to write tonight; I have a couple in mind, but both still need a bit of research/tweaking before I can properly write them.  They will be nice, however, I assure you, and at least one of them has the potential to be rather long.  (Hopefully not long-winded).  One of them will be the "Look Back" for Rune Factory, wherein the obvious hurdle in that is that I haven't actually completed the 'story' of it, which I would like to do before talking on it and especially before comparing it to what little of Innocent Life's story I witnessed.  Hopefully I can do one of said articles tomorrow, or, if not, hopefully I will have something I can talk more at-length about, in a more positive light than saying "It's....a thing.  That is free."

Update!:  Siliconera has another article about the AR technology used through the Pokedex App.

The article mentions that you'll be able to print the AR cards necessary for the effect (In fact, it suggests this is the only way so far) and that pokemon will be fully animated in this state, even allowing to show off different actions through usage of special items.  That's pretty neat, at least!  Still looking forward to the hope that all the rest of the pokemon will be added or another app will be made for that function.