My Games of 2012, Part 3

Here is where things start to get a little dicey.  I already sort of prefaced that yesterday, but it definitely bears repeating.  This is about where it becomes less and less about the numbers and more and more about just listing the games because they ended up being important to me for one reason or another.  Around this point, games start to not be 'better than' the ones that rank 'lower' than them, so the numbers part of it starts to become a little unnecessary.  This will only get more and more prevalent as we get closer and closer and I think I'll need to be a little more focused with these as it gets more into that, so from here on out, I'm going to do less at a time so I can put a little more explanation into everything.  This post and the next post will cover three games each, much like last year, and I will try to do them justice that way.

10.  Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale

You're surprised, right?  Because I'm surprised.  I'm really surprised.  I wasn't really excited for the game at all, but I got it because of the Cross-Buy, if solely so I could play the game on my Vita because, well, it's really kind of a value and I wanted to go with that in the hopes that it might come up more.  I expected the game would be a fun pick-up-and-play ordeal that would tide me over for a few days while I cleared the bulk of it and then moved on to something else.  I expected it would be decent, not particularly good and definitely not great.  I basically just expected, as I think most people did, that it was just an attempt at something that was kind of potentially ill-conceived and just a thing that was trying to reach for something that, potentially, they couldn't really get a hold of.

I was very, very wrong.

Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale is honestly really goddamn fun.  It is definitely pick-up-and-play, since your matches will generally last three minutes, at most, and after that, you can go off and do something else if you're not going to jump right back into it.  Every character is fleshed enough that they have their own strengths and weaknesses and the gameplay is deep enough that it's not -solely- about slamming on buttons and ending up the winner, but with the inclusion of the Super Gauge, it's at least got a welcome element of strategy.  A lot of people didn't particularly like that, but I am honestly really confused as to the why of that since, if you think about it, it's honestly not all that different from other games of this sort.  The only difference, really, is that the 'finishing moves' are attached to a single button that you have to charge up for.  What makes that different from fighting games where you have a special meter, and what makes it different from Super Smash Bros. where you need to use a 'big' attack after your foe is softened up enough to send them flying off the screen?

Obviously, the game got a lot of comparisons to Super Smash Bros. and really, that's fair.  They're definitely similar games and it'd probably be safe to assume PASBR was inspired by SSB, and in fact, I think someone said that it was.  Except, people say this as if it's a bad thing.  As if Nintendo owns the entire cross-over fighting game genre which is really silly, since they were mostly definitely not the first ones to step into that ring.  As if Sony has besmirched the honor of Nintendo, of gamers everywhere, by daring to make a game in that vein because 'Nintendo did it first'.  Because, you know, it's totally not cool to use a genre that already exists, so all the first person shooters, the racing games, hell every game now is ripping someone off and we should all be super angry about that you guys and stay purists to the originals.  Because clearly, they're the only ones that are -actually- good and fun.

The thing that kills me, is that in the same breath, people will tell you that it's a Super Smash Bros. clone and that it is also not enough like Super Smash Bros. to be fun.  As mentioned, the Super thing gets trotted out a lot as a shining example of how the game isn't fun, but really, -how- is it different from Super Smash Bros.?  In Super Smash Bros., you have to wail on your enemy til their damage percentile is high and then use a high-impact move to send them flying.  You have to hit them a lot and then use a specific move to finish them off.  I am thrusting my hands out and making wild motions with them now, I assure you for reasons that are probably obvious.  Beyond that, people complained about the token amount of story in the Story modes which is also kind of silly when compared to Super Smash Bros. as, from what I know (unless it got changed in later titles, I've only played the original), there is no story.

I don't really understand the gaming elitism that PASBR inspired and it's really, really unfortunate because it forced a lot of people to miss out on a really fun game.  That probably accounted for layoffs at SuperBot despite a sequel apparently already being green-lit.  And for what?  So people could feel smug that Nintendo did a fun thing first?  So people could have another little laugh at Sony?  If it's just not a game for someone, because, you know, there are things that are not for everyone and they are called everything ever, then I can understand that.  But the bulk of the people that I've ever seen smugly mocking PASBR are people that would never consider buying the game, have never played it and never will, and haven't even paid attention to its development whatsoever.  And I just don't get that because we are supposed to be in this hobby to have fun and PASBR is fun.

9.  Sorcery

As yet another game that I had a ton of fun with without expecting it, Sorcery was a welcome surprise in my late game rush, validating entirely the excitement for the title I had when it was shown off for the first time.  Again, I didn't really expect much out of the title, nor do I expect many others did if only for the Move functionality it requires (which is another can of worms that I -won't- be getting into tonight), but the game is wonderful and charming and provides a lot that we want, that we look for, in a game.  Despite the vocal minority, it's well-documented that there are motion games out there that people actually enjoy and Sorcery should definitely be on those lists for doing a bang-up job of mashing up the Motion gaming experience with traditional controls, thanks to the abundance of buttons and the like that are actually on the Move Wand and Navigation Controller (or DualShock 3 if you're into that, but seriously, the Nav. Controller is good).  It's definitely not the first that has actually merged the two, but it's yet another title that is proof that it is possible, no matter the insistence against the notion.

Each and every one of Sorcery's motion controls feels natural and is fairly intuitive because of that.  Whether it's swirling your wand like a tornado to switch to the Wind Spell, or drawing a line facing down to make a literal wall of fire before your character, or even just flicking the wand to send off an arcane bolt, it's obvious, the intent behind every gesture and it just works because of it.  What says the most for it is that it is not a game that then had gestures, motion controls added to it arbitrarily because they're just so ingrained into the core mechanics and properly at that.  Potentially the true mark of that is that, without the motion controls, you would still have a fun game in Sorcery, but not as fun as it -could- be, because part of the fun of the game is actually being drawn in thanks to the use of the wand.

Sorcery's progression of power is rapid once it really gets going, and because you're physically doing it, because you're making the gestures and flinging off the spells, it's surprisingly empowering.  Launching three Ice shots at an enemy to make them a frozen block of goblin while charging them to slam into them with your spectral shield at the last moment, shattering them into tiny bits just would not -be- the same without your physical input.  Making a whirlwind and launching it at a group of foes and then deciding to launch a fireball at it to make it a firestorm, burning all those trapped in the vortex to ash, it wouldn't -be- so right.  Slamming down a shock trap right in front of you just as several enemies are charging you, weapons drawn and watching them get taken out by the unparalleled voltage of the spell while also picking off foes further back with bolts of lightning just wouldn't make you feel like you've accomplished real, visceral power in the game without the Move wand in your hand.

It's because of that that, by the end of the game, I was practically begging for more.  I wanted challenge rooms, I wanted new areas, I wanted some form of being able to play the game more with all the Spells unlocked so that I could just go wild with the power.  I just wanted more, and if that's not a compelling argument for how fun it gets, then I don't think you'll ever be convinced.  I'm hoping against hope that there will be a Sorcery 2 or something that invokes the types of things that Sorcery itself did, using much the same methods and I don't know whether to be expecting that or not.  Obviously, the game didn't sell very well, but on the other hand, Sony isn't really all about giving up when it comes to Move games, even if they aren't flooding the market with them.  (Which, neither was Nintendo, really.)  I suppose if there's another game announced in the vein of it, or even a sequel, then you know who will be excited as hell, because it will be -this guy-.

8.  Uncharted:  Golden Abyss

I am a man who loves Uncharted games, if that was not made abundantly clear over the course of this blog.  All of them.  Yes, even 3, we are not starting that again.  So that means that I loved Golden Abyss which is definitely not a wrong statement to make.  I am definitely not alone in loving Golden Abyss, but I would say that I am definitely in the sub-group of folks who loved it -a lot- versus the people who loved it -kinda sorta-, because at its core, it is still an Uncharted game.  Unfortunately or not, depending on your perspective, it was also a game that included a whole lot of features that the Vita supports, features that were initially sold as optional and then made mandatory at some point in development.  People were not too fond of these and, being as they were made mandatory, I can't fully blame them since, for about 90% of the gesture controls, there was no real reason why they -couldn't- have been optional.  I didn't mind them, clearly, but I am, more often than not, the exception and not the rule.

That's not to say that everything that Golden Abyss did with all the extra functionality was poorly-implemented, because it certainly was not.  Something that I absolutely -adored- in the title was the ability to adjust your aiming through tilting the system, but it was a learning curve, admittedly.  It is something to get used to, but when you do, it adds a whole new layer to your abilities to efficiently take out your foes, of which there are plenty in typical Uncharted fashion.  The trick, clearly, is to use the sticks to get close enough to what you're aiming for and then shift a little to get it right on target since in most cases, it will offer you the absolute level of precision that you seek in a very swift and easy way.  While I initially turned the feature off, I popped it back on at some point to give it a whirl and my performance almost became night-and-day.  It was -the- thing that really allowed me to get into prime form, to make my several playthroughs of the game enjoyable without being too difficult.

That isn't to say the controls are lacking, of course, because they certainly weren't.  Nothing -about- the game, in my opinion, was lacking in any real form without getting a little picky.  The complaint that the whole thing takes place in a jungle and a temple, rather than offering slightly different locales as even the first game did (95% of the game in a jungle, 3% on ships, 2% in a bunker, more or less) is one that I will entertain, but even that wasn't too grating.  Of course, Bend Studios is -not- Naughty Dog, so the game probably could have been better somehow, but I'm not complaining one bit with the way it came out, because it was definitely an Uncharted experience in the palms of your hands, and that's all it said it was on the tin.  With any luck, we'll be seeing another foray into treasure hunting with good ol' Drake on the Vita before 2012 is up, because I could certainly be up for that.

As you can see, opinions are getting a little more and more strong for the games as I get closer to the top and -that- is precisely why it got so difficult towards the end.  We started crossing over from games that I liked well-enough to games that I really, absolutely adored and eventually reached games that I could easily say amazed me in some way or form.  All of these are intense emotions, difficult things to get a grip on, to quantify in a manner that made me consider any of them more or less worthy than others.  Yet, I think I did in -some- form, even though I will obviously inform you that every game on my list is -on- my list for a reason, and not simply because I played it in 2012.  My only hope is that I really sort of get across the -why- for those games, the reasons they made my list and the reasons they made the place they did.  Since my list is nothing if not urging you to play some of these games if you haven't, since goddamn, 2012 was a good year for our hobby.

Let's Chat About the PASBR Roster

So, I still really like PASBR and I'm quite a few characters in now, precisely ten stories down if I'm being direct and having that realization made it quite easy to figure out something else to speak on concerning the game.  One of the biggest bones of contention a lot of people are taking with the game is the roster which is all at once understandable, yet at the same time, I personally think it's fine for a first effort.  You're not going to please everybody, so your main goal is just to please -enough- people and the blend of old and new that Sony managed to pull off with PASBR is very, very good at doing just that since I don't think you can honestly show the roster to somebody who has played a lot of Playstation without them favoring at least one character, much less multiples.  PaRappa the Rapper, Sir Daniel Fortesque and Spike are really there for the old faithful at least, and then you have the new kids on the block like Nathan Drake and Cole to represent the new generation.  It does a really good job of it in my opinion, but a lot of people don't agree with me and I have to sort of wonder at the why, since some of it is more understandable than others.

The bulk of the complaints seem to be directed at Fat Princess who is certainly an outlier in the line-up compared to the rest.  At the same time, however, the game is all about honoring characters that have had a big deal with Playstation one way or another and there's no denying that for any of the other characters.  The thing with Fat Princess however is that the game -was- a big deal....when it came out in 2009 to the entirely too small audience that the PS3 had in the Digital-Onlly Scene in comparison to XBLA.  Basically back then, it was 'the' game to get since it was the new original game for PSN, only for PSN that joined a whole roster of titles that numbered in the teens, probably.  So unless you were 'there' and you got it 'then', then yes, I can understand why it's significance is lost on you, and I am really trying to not sound like a hipster, but I am failing miserably at it so just try and think of that in terms that aren't horribly condescending.  It helps that the game was pretty damn good too.  I'll need to make a mental note to do something with it in the future since I imagine a lot of people haven't experienced it.

The other real outlier here, to me, is Big Daddy since Bioshock....well, it's not a Playstation-exclusive, nor has it been entirely too Playstation-friendly, really.  I mean, yeah, it's improved some with Irrational Games buddying up with Sony for some bare-bones extra Infinite stuff (I think it supports Move?  Maybe?) plus a Bioshock Vita game that we better get, Levine, but the original Bioshock was released for PS3 a year late with a not-perfect port and Bioshock 2 was just lucky to have a simultaneous release.  Still, I guess it was a big deal when Bioshock was announced for PS3, and Big Daddy is by and large the most iconic figure from the series I would assume, even if all three games are in different times/eras or something, I honestly really haven't played a lot of Bioshock because I don't like it.  (Don't hurt me, Chance)  So he works, but he's definitely on the shakiest ice out of everybody in my opinion.  I wouldn't be too surprised if, in the case that there's a sequel (there better be) Big Daddy didn't make the roster for that one.  But that's a year or so in the future at least, so no need to think on it too much now.

So, if you're not complaining about who is on the roster, you're likely complaining about just who isn't and that's entirely fair.  There's some glaring oversights here and I'm sure we can all attribute that directly to the respective IP holders being gigantic assholes.  After all, Sony has no rights over any of the big-name Third-party characters you expect, even if their origins were on the original Playstation and helped bring the system to prominence.  Indeed, the two companies that really hold all the power here are Squeenix and Activision, neither of whom are really....known for playing nice without tons of money being involved or, in Squeenix's case, if they're really really desperate because of poor decisions in the past.  Lara Croft, every Final Fantasy character you love or hate, and possibly even Gex (you remember Gex, right?  No?  err...) are under the umbrella of Squeenix whereas Activision has their claws into Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon and are doing absolute dick with both of them.  Shut up about Skylanders, you don't even main as Spyro, he's just fodder in the game.

A theory that makes a whole hell of a lot of sense that's floating around there is that both companies were waiting for the Paid DLC portion of the post-release, since profits are much more generous for DLC than they would be for an inclusion in the base game.  I don't know if that's actually true, but look at the two companies, look at that reason, and see if you're not tempted to believe that shit at face value.  Because I am.  I am running with that and I am not stopping until someone points out conclusive proof that points to otherwise.  Or....we don't see Cloud/Squall/Lightning/Lara/Crash/Spyro/Someone show up as paid DLC.  But even then, we can just assume talks fell through and the companies just resumed being gigantic assholes.  Because they totally are.  Still, it's clear that there's going to be quite a bit of DLC for the game which I welcome whole-heartedly, and it's going to begin with Free DLC that brings Kat from Gravity Rush and Emmett Graves from Starhawk, who is also known as "That dude from Starhawk", into the fray.  Beyond that, extra costumes, stages, unlockables and the like are all expected and they'll most likely be a blend of free and paid.  I'll have a hard time resisting throwing money at whatever comes for PASBR, because I really do like it that much and I want more of it.  Looking forward to it!

Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale - Long Name, Fun Game

Yes, that's a giant Chop Chop Master Onion kicking a Killzone Robot thing.

Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale has kind of been a thing that's on everybody's radar mostly because it's, well, a big ordeal as a game on a basic level.  Mascot fighting games aren't numerous in number and in fact is sort of a point of contention in what counts for the term, further thinning the numbers.  Regardless, the 'big boy' of the genre has been seen as Super Smash Bros. since it came out and few games have come out in the meanwhile, and fewer still that could hope to challenge for that title in the public eye.  So when PASBR was announced and showed off, there was a lot of eye-rolling and saying "Oh boy, a rip-off of Super Smash Bros., that's going to be pretty bad." and then there wasn't a lot of thought beyond that.  Yet there was some reason, I can't place just what it was, that compelled me to get it even though my time with the Beta was minimal and I walked away thinking it was 'alright'.  Having played it for the bulk of today, however, I am very, very glad that I put down the money for this game because it's certainly worth it.

Utilizing the Cross-Buy feature of the game, I've spent all my time with the Vita version of the game which is a wonderful, wonderful version of the game.  It's clear and good-looking and most importantly, the frame rate seems to be locked in the actual matches.  Maybe it was a trick of my eyes, but it seemed like one of the menus was cutting sub-30 for some reason as I went to customize one of the characters I played with, but it was only a "Blink and you'll miss it" deal and being outside of playing the game, it doesn't matter even one lick.  There are simply not enough positive things I can say about the port job that was done on this game and unless something drastically changes in the meanwhile, I daresay that it is quite nearly perfectly done.

As far as the game goes, the actual gameplay is rather fantastic as it's simple and accessible enough to pick up and understand in the span of a match and 'master' in as little as a few matches depending on the character, yet it's deep enough that there's strategy to it - not just slamming buttons.  That's what I enjoy the most, personally, because yes, slamming buttons does the job sometimes, but if you're not going to employ a little finesse then you're just wasting your time in my opinion.  Catering the the usual tenets of fighting games here, there are various types of fighters and they all rely on their own style to get you through.  Characters like Raiden and Cole (and his Evil version) are Strikers who exist to hit things in rapid succession in ways that are still not just mashing on buttons.  Then you have characters like Sackboy (yes, I've only played four characters so far, don't judge me) who aren't so adept in that and you have to rely more on trappings and the like.  Sackboy has a move that can drop a shock pad down that just waits there for someone to step on it.  He also has a move where he lays down a desk fan which pushes enemies in the opposite direction.  I'm sure you can see where I'm going with this.

(Side note, Sackboy also knows how to German Suplex things with the Grabinator Gloves, no I don't know what the hell)

The way the game seems to work is that every character has an Arcade Mode which is actually a Story Mode which means you have an intro that sort of explains why they're in the Tournament (Think Mortal Kombat, but nobody knows what the hell is going on) and then they have a cutscene all the way at the end with a 'rival' which is a term used loosely.  Some Rivalries are awesome and amazing, like Cole vs. Raiden which is fucking perfect A++ would praise again, and some of them are....Evil Cole versus Fat Princess.  This is a perfect way to show off the light-hearted mood the game carries overall, even with the inclusion of some moodier characters like Raiden or Kratos, and I wholeheartedly support it.  If it tried to be too serious about it, it'd be a wholly different deal, but thankfully they avoided that pitfall deftly.  Following the Rival battle, you're immediately placed into the Boss fight against Polygon Man (which is, again an -awesome- idea) and upon winning, you're treated to a little outro that basically sums up what the character has derived from it.  It's certainly not story-intensive, but it also doesn't need to be, and what little is there is done well enough that I can't fault it.

If you need some examples, I can share a couple from my experiences today.  Cole hears of a gathering of powerful people and thinks they're Conduits, so he goes to investigate to find out their intention and also see if any of them will help him defend 'the city', which could be New Marias or Empire City, I don't know.  After beating a bunch of people, he encounters Raiden who is a little hostile and puts him out, beats Polygon Man and returns to 'the city' with the knowledge that he can protect it all on his own.  Sackboy hears of a world that's devoid of inspiration, of creation, and sets out to right that wrong.  He meets up with a Little Sister who thinks he's adorable and wants to keep him but her Big Daddy is less than impressed.  Sackboy puts him down, beats Polygon Man and returns to LittleBigPlanet with a wealth of new inspiration with which to further create and better LittleBigPlanet.  (Side note:  His intro and outro are narrated by Stephen Fry as per LBP games and it's wonderful.)  As I said, it's by no means story intensive, but I don't need a cutscene after every fight where Kratos ponders why he repeatedly stabbed PaRappa the Rapper in the gut and vows to get revenge on Zeus who is sending playthings after him or I don't even know, you get where I'm going with this.

The most important thing to take away from all this is that Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale is fun.  Incredibly so.  I'm sure nobody really assumed that was going to be a thing that happened, but I am here to tell you that it did.  It did just happen.  Beyond the Story Mode, there's also trials for every character to take which allows you to get a feel for them, as well as versus modes (I assume for local play mostly) and the online fare with ranked matches and the like.  And even beyond that, the game is lousy with unlockables which is to say there's a ton of them.  (That's a proper usage of 'lousy with', btw, I'm sure you knew that, but I wanted to make sure you also knew I wasn't being facetious)  Playing with a character ultimately earns you Rank Points that ranks you up for a win as well as for earning any Goal bonuses or the like (Win 25 Arcade Matches, etc. stuff like that) which increases your rank.  Each character can seemingly go to Rank 200 which I assume you might meet with -one- character that you -really- like if you're heavy into online stuff, but at the same time, it is -there- for you to aspire to with the others if you so desire.  Which means, in short, there's a whole hell of a lot of game there if you're interested.  And while I won't go to that extreme, I know that I'm going to have to actually ponder whether I want to play Persona 4 Golden or PASBR which is a decision I really didn't think I'd have to make last week.

The Week The Wallet And Spare Time Died

The above (admittedly low-quality since I gave zero fucks about making it pretty) image displays the pick-ups I made today which is a lead-in to stating that the $100 I spent right there is me getting off light compared to some this week.  By spending only a meager one hundred dollars, I am getting the precise amount of entertainment I want and I am lucky that my desires, my wants, came that cheap this week.  You see, if you've been living under a rock or something, you will know that this was the week that a fucking metric ton of things came out, including but not limited to:  The above Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale (which is faring a bit better in reviews than one would assume - The bulk of the negatives being that it's 'not enough of a Smash Bros clone' which is absolutely fucking hilarious and god I hate critics) and Persona 4 Golden (a must-have for any Vita owner), as well as Hitman:  Absolution, Disney's Epic Mickey 2, and a little thing known as the Wii U which you might've heard of, I guess, plus a whole slew* of games for it.

*Slew not guaranteed quality

If that weren't enough, some of you will recall that this is also the week of Black Friday, which also means that it is the week where a bunch of people replace their brains with their wallets and their common sense with concrete-solid self-centeredness.  (Not in a wholly negative way, but I'm sure you know what I mean.  The bulk of the people shopping on Black Friday are pushy brutes who will trample you to save three dollars on something they don't even want.)  That all means that if you can truly get through this week without spending a dime on games or such, then I salute you, for you clearly have a will that is more steeled than my own.  I mean, I'm in a dangerous situation as it is - I bought those two games as is, and man was I tempted to look further for something else.  "Oh, I'm sure they have a copy of Zone of the Enders HD Collection - I really do want that Rising demo..."  "Oh, perhaps they have 999?  Or at least Virtue's Last Reward - don't wanna miss out on that."  "No, no, I cannot buy the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection on PS3 or Vita yet still.  God help me, I want to, but I can't."  These and more all circulated through my head in the scant ten minutes or so that I spent within the walls of GameStop as I purchased my items and left; being extra careful to give the Wii U demo console a wide berth lest I feel compelled to play it for 'just a minute'.

Of course, if you follow my Twitter (I apologize for bringing it up so much), you might have noticed that I became less impressed with it by a fair deal when a double-tap of bad news (coupled with something I already knew) put everything to a halt.  I'm not going to speak on it too long here, as I want to do a different post for that, but suffice to say if I had made a checklist of "Ways Nintendo Can Make the Wii U Completely Unappealing To Me", then that was a lot of boxes checked all at the same time on a list that wasn't realistically very long to begin with.  On top of that, there's all sorts of reports of consoles bricking left and right because the reportedly 5 gig or so firmware update you have to download when you first power up the system was being interrupted by users and/or bad luck.  (Turning the machine off because there's no canceling the firmware update in the former, internet cutting out in the latter)  Even if I were geared up and ready to get my Mario ZombiU Warriors Orochi 3 Hyper on on the Wii U, all that would've been enough to give me pause - enough so that I think I can resist its charms even after a hands-on.  But I dare not gamble when it comes to these things because it is a fire that I'm not risking a burn with, not yet.

Regardless of whether you do somehow manage to avoid the temptations of spending this week, or you succumb to throwing green (or whatever color your money is) at a clerk for items bound by plastic shells, your free time is in a deathmatch with all that is offered this week.  Why is that, you ask, even if I don't spend a dime?  Well, that's because Playstation Plus arrived on the Vita this week in all its glory, throwing six full games, at least one of which you're guaranteed to not own on a Vita, into your lap or your hands or wherever your Vita spends the bulk of its time when you're actually playing it.  Uncharted:  Golden Abyss (which is getting a wonderful-looking Card Game Add-on at the start of December), Gravity Rush, Wipeout 2048, Mutant Blobs Attack!!!, Jet Set Radio (!) and Final Fantasy Tactics:  War of the Lions join the stable of games included in the Instant Game Collection, not replacing a single existing one in the PS3's list, meaning you have access to an entire 18 games right off the bat for your price of entry.  These Plus games are yours after you download the Vita's 2.00 Firmware Update that went live Monday Nig-

Wait.  Wait.  Did I just say Vita's 2.00 Firmware Update?  Why yes.  Yes I did.  Let's talk about the 2.00 update for a moment.

Okay, 2.00 is awesome.  When it was announced, it was just like "Oh, it's the Plus update, woo" and as it got closer and closer, little things were being said, things about folders for music and pictures and videos which is nice, and things about the browser that were very noncommittal and it was just like "Oh well, some other tweak-y stuff, that's always cool.".  And indeed, there -are- a lot of tweaks; the PSP and PSOne Emulators saw a bit of an update in terms of letting you know how to get into the Emulator options (touch the screen for a few moments) as well as adding some more control and viewing options which is always nice.  Near has once again been revamped for whatever that's worth, and most instances of "Please Wait..." for various things (the one I noticed being Trophy Synching) seems to have been phased out completely which is alright.  But the thing to take away from this update?  The singular thing that elevates it from cool to holy shit yesssss?  Open a game.  Any game.  Whatever, open your copy of Xenogears (because you should have a copy of Xenogears) or Persona 4 Golden, whatever you want, and start playing it some, then press the PS button, swipe over and find your Internet Browser bubble, open it and look up your website of choice.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That just happened.  

That just happened and it's awesome that it works now without a LiveTweet workaround.

Anyways, as I was saying, your time is being contested by these free games out there, simply waiting for you to give them a good home and a little attention and for someone like myself, that's going to be a goddamn chore.  I'm not done with Ragnarok Odyssey yet in terms of I haven't finished it, but with Persona 4 Golden in my possession, I am done with Ragnarok Odyssey for now.  Then I have a copy of PASBR for my Vita on my PS3 disk just waiting to be transferred over (at least, I believe that's how it works) which I actually intend to play because it looks neat.  The aforementioned Mutants Blobs Attack!!! has been downloaded and I put a little time into it already - it's a neat little game, I'll give it that much, but tilt sections are the worst.  On top of all that, I have Jet Set Radio downloading right this moment (and, well, for the last three hours and the next....three...hours) which you know damn well I am going to put some time into.  I do not have time for all this.  At all.  But goddamnit, I am going to make time for it all because this is prime-time right here and I haven't been this excited at being in the middle of a field of options in....well, quite a while.

Gamescom News Dump - Vita Edition

So, Sony's Gamescom presser was today and many people, especially myself, hoped that it would bring good tidings for Sony's latest handheld, though I imagine most were expecting not.  In a rare moment of catharsis, us expectant people were given quite a bit to hold onto, where the people expecting to be able to gloat were left with precious little ammunition to actually launch, leaving what they said rather sad, instead of something that could be arguably grounded.  Indeed, it was a good showing for Sony all around, as New IP after New IP were announced, including Rain and Until Dawn as hoped, though certainly not in the incarnations expected.  Regardless, they're PS3 games, which I will focus on tomorrow as tonight is the Vita night.  It is a night for me to celebrate for having something fairly unequivocally positive for the overlooked little handheld slice of gaming heaven.  These nights have not been as scant as you would have been lead to believe, but they have been too rare regardless.

Instead of starting with what is arguably the biggest bit of news to come from the conference, I'm instead going to focus on the above pictured game first.  That game is Tearaway.  It is adorable and magical.  No surprise, it is being made by Media Molecule, the folks behind the lovely and charming LittleBigPlanet series that you know I have a particular fondness for.  I had no idea that Media Molecule was actually working with the Vita and the knowledge that they were filled me with all sorts of glee, even before I saw Tearaway and it only amplified thereafter.  Because seriously, watch this trailer and tell me it is not magical because I posit that it is not only magical, but double-magical because not only is it very obviously Media Molecule doing what they do, but they're also doing something rather wonderful with the Vita's controls if you look at the trailer.  While a lot of people whinge about motion controls and the like not being utilized properly, I would posit that Tearaway uses them in all the right ways, screaming at your screen aside.

Tearaway puts you in the shoes of a little papercraft dude called iota, who has a very, very important message to deliver.  Of course being a world of fantasy and a video game, he faces hardships along the way and that is where you, the player, come in, though in more of a role than one would normally think.  Not only do you control iota, but at times your direct interaction with certain things, like the microphone or the touch screens has a very blatant effect on the world.  Touching the rear touch screen thrusts your finger into the world, as if the paper dimension, being as 2D as it is, exists purely between the two screens of the Vita.  You can use that finger to sweep aside enemies, switch switches or perhaps even offer something for iota to jump on for platforming puzzles if I'm not mistaken.  This is just what was shown in the little trailer, of course, so it's possible that there are all sorts of other uses.  Certainly, the front screen gets some love too as, at one point, you're tasked with cutting out a shape on the front screen in the shape of a crown, though it's pretty safe to assume that you do not -have- to conform to a crown.  I'll leave that one up to your imaginations.

There's no real information on Tearaway beyond what's in the trailer, but what is there will suffice for now, I suppose.  I would like if there was some sort of window in 2013 when this comes out (as I seriously doubt it'll make the end of the year), but January, to fill the LittleBigPlanet gap (Since LBP2 came out mid-way through that month) would be exceptionally nice, though I won't hold my breath.  With LittleBigPlanet Vita coming out next month, I can honestly hold off a little more than I could otherwise, since I intend on having that game in my Vita non-stop for a good clip after I get it.  Everything else will likely be put on the backburner after that unless there is something really big that I am completely forgetting, which is entirely possible since my blinders kind of go on when I talk about the Vita and LittleBigPlanet, so doubly so for LBPV.  Regardless, more magic is always appreciated.  For it is always magical.

So, with that out of the way, it should be said that the big news is that the next Vita Firmware update, 1.80, finally has a date for you to look for - August 28th.  That post doesn't specifically say the 28th, rather saying late August, but it was apparently stated as such during the conference, so barring delays, look for it then.  The post also does not specify whether a good portion of the back library will be supported from the get-go, or if it will be a gradual process as is the tail-end of the PSP back-log addition.  Many, many people will gripe if it is the latter and perhaps slightly rightly so, but this is not a simple matter of "Put data on Vita, wiggle fingers as it magically works".  It is an emulator, and as we have all discovered at times, emulators are not the most reliable of things and especially when it concerns something rather expensive like a PS3 or a Vita, you want to ensure that the testing it thorough to see that each game will not buckle under the stress of running it as well as some other applications, possibly.  Since that is a main feature of the Vita and all - running several things all at once.  And games tend to take a lot of resources regardless.

While PSOne Compatibility is the main point of 1.80, it's not the only point, of course, though it certainly overshadows the other things.  Possibly the next highest thing on the list is the Cross Controller ability which allows you to use your Vita as a PS3 controller, particularly for things that have specifically announced it like LittleBigPlanet 2 and Guacamelee.  I would assume, however, that it leaves the door open for other games to have some functionality patched in, should developers be so inclined to do so.  It is a brand new field, of course and so long as you can suffer the people whining about 'copying', then you'll likely be golden no matter what, even if it doesn't get supported wholesale.  One would suggest that what it -does- get will be pretty neat regardless, but we'll just have to see when something comes out.  Well...something other than LittleBigPlanet 2's functionality because no way will I be able to be unbiased there.

Also included in the 1.80 update is just some miscellany, nothing too big.  People have been complaining about -having- to use the touch screens to navigate the Vita's LiveArea, so it will include the ability to control the screens with the actual controls.  I'm not sure if this involves a cursor like arrow, highlighting or simply the ability to shift between screens with the controls where you still have to launch with your finger.  Or, you know, something else; it's hard to tell since I haven't thought about it and probably won't be using it.  Aside from that, you'll be able to import playlists from iTunes and other such formats, control the web browser with the back screen as well as the front should you so desire, and have slightly more options when watching videos downloaded onto your Vita.  And finally, Near might finally be fixed in a way that helps people like -me- who are stuck on wi-fi that is not near location data from Skyhook to actually use it.  I'd dig it.

There was all sorts of other Vita announcements worth mentioning today of course, so I'll go ahead and run through those quickly and get off here to go lay down or play on my Vita or something.  Worth mentioning right out is that a new initiative called "Cross-Buy" is officially a thing for all games (that come from Sony, at least) that will be on both the PS3 and Vita.  Say you're interested in picking up the new Sly game or the just announced version of Ratchet and Clank:  Full-Frontal Assault on the Vita, but you also want it on your PS3.  Using some simple math and averages, $60 for the PS3 version and $40 for the Vita means you're spending $100 on, essentially the same game (even though extra copies are always handled separately, etc. etc. blah blah, not getting into that argument tonight).  Well, with the Cross-Buy initiative, if you buy the game on the PS3, you're then entitled to a digital version of it for your Playstation Vita as well, free-of-charge.  It works one-way only, of course, as you can't opt for the cheaper Vita version and get the $100 value like that.  At current, only Playstation All-Stars, Sly Cooper:  Thieves in Time and Ratchet and Clank:  Full Frontal Assault are announced for the Cross-Buy initiative, but more games are on the way that will support it.

Beyond that and the earlier announcements, Call of Duty:  Black Ops Declassified finally got a gameplay trailer that looks strangely familiar.  Though why that is, I'm not sure I can put a finger on it....hmm.  Oh, right, announced today was the fact that the game was handed off to Nihilistic Studios to develop instead of Activision even using one of their own B-teams.  Which is...well, I won't even touch how annoying that is, because I'm sure you understand that it is very annoying and I shouldn't have to accentuate that.  Now, if you're wondering just why Nihilistic Studios and the game have have anything in common that would make it look familiar, let me go ahead and end that wonder right now and state it:  Nihilistic Studios was the developer behind Resistance:  Burning Skies which I said to be decent, but not great and this looks...well, very similar.  If Burning Skies was any metric to go by, then perhaps CODBOD (That's a thing now, I made it a thing) might not be the Call of Duty game that the Vita wants, nor deserves.  Here's hoping NS learns, though, but...well, don't expect it.

Finally, the last of the announcements is another First Person Shooter, but one that is decidedly -not- being developed by Nihilistic Studios, and I daresay that it shows.  Killzone: Mercenary was shown off and looks fairly impressive for assuredly being an early build of the game.  Killzone:  Mercenary seems to take its title a little literally, as apparently in the game you will not be fighting for the ISA or the Helghast forces specifically, at least, not for the whole game.  Yes, as a Mercenary, you'll be able to fight on both sides of the battle, doing whatever you can to earn money and weapons for taking out targets and/or just doing whatever you're asked of.  I'm not quite sure as to what level of control you'll have over your contracts and price tag, but fighting on both sides of the war seems novel enough.  And it doesn't look like ass or anywhere near it which might have something to do with using the engine from Killzone 3.  Certainly, if you're looking for a FPS on the Vita, this is the game you'll want to firmly plant on your radar.

So, that was about it from Gamescom.  I'd say that is a hefty bit of news, especially when you consider that that is literally just half of it, as there was all sorts of PS3 news going on as well.  I'll get into that tomorrow unless something comes up, but with any luck, I'll be able to just keep rolling with things.  But for now, I'm going to put a few extra touches on my Sound Shapes level and post it up on the community, provided it actually works as it did earlier, finally allowing me to play some community levels.  That....weren't exactly worth the wait.  But whatever, blah blah, fun news for the Vita everything is wonderful, magic is everywhere, etc. etc. etc.  Gonna be a busy rest of the year, assuredly, but that's just the way we like it.  Most of the time at least.

So We Kind of Have An Updated PASBR Roster

It was not that long ago when there was a little-reported leak from the Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale Private Beta, in which some code was pulled out that revealed eleven characters (some of which were already revealed) as playable characters, as well as showing off some stages in a very, very basic way.  From what I can tell, some of them might be just concepts, where some are a little more detailed and might be used for the Stage Select images.  At the time, I considered writing about it, but being just a leak (that was likely true, I mean, just look at the images through the links) meant that I wasn't going to give it a whole lot of weight and was instead just looking for other stuff.  On top of that, I just don't know how I feel about the game yet; I mean, I -like- it in concept alone, and I am a giant fan of Sony First Party games, but I feel like I can't get excited about it because the rest of the internet (or at least the places I frequent) just want to prattle on and on about how terrible it looks and circlejerk about Super Smash Brothers instead.  I find myself on the other end of "I like this, but it is apparently terrible if you listen to the people who yell loudest on the internet" deals quite often, and it just gets tiresome which is not something I care to deal with at the moment.

Now, the reason I bring it up, however, is because the leak has....almost very quietly been acknowledged to the point of "It's basically confirmed", which surprises me, really.  The statement from a Playstation Blog post,

"In addition, there was an unexpected and unintended leak in our beta that allowed fans to be able to see some additional content. We’ve enjoyed reading all of the fan reaction and are thrilled that so many of you are excited to learn more about our character roster and level mash-ups, however we are still in development and the leaked content does not fully represent the final product nor the incredible efforts that were made to make these elements truly spectacular." 

basically cements that what was seen is going to be in the game in -some- fashion (with 90% of the characters, I'm sure, simply being playable characters, but I have a few theories on a couple that comprise the 10% that I'll get into in a moment.)  So, with it being in that realm, I figured it was a good opportunity to point out just what the leak has promised, so I can sort of discuss the 'picks' as it were.  So as to not drag this out too much, I'll just go ahead and post the list from the above Joystiq link to get into it a little more:

• Dante from DmC: Devil May Cry
• Cole McGrath from the inFamous series
• Ratchet from the Ratchet & Clank series
• Raiden from the Metal Gear Solid series
• Sackboy from the LittleBigPlanet games
• Sir Daniel Fortesque from MediEvil
• Heihachi Mishima from the Tekken series
• Toro, PlayStation marketing icon in Japan
• Nariko from Heavenly Sword
• Jak from the Jak & Daxter series
• Spike from the Ape Escape games

The basic conjecture you can draw from this is that these characters are going to be in the game proper, as Colonel Radec, Fat Princess, Nathan Drake, Kratos, Parappa The Rapper, Sweet Tooth, Big Daddy and Sly Cooper are.  Of the list, however, are a few characters that have already been confirmed, like Cole McGrath (Hero version at least, more on that), Heihachi, Toro and Jak (with Daxter).  However, there are a few little special cases that need to be mentioned specifically.  First off is that Cole has only been shown off in the Hero version - all blue-white outfit, pristine, etc. - but the pictures offered a headshot of Evil Cole very clearly, which begs to wonder just how that will work.  Will he be an alternate character with a different moveset, or will it just be a matter of 'Costume' change, where it'll affect the color of the lightning and, obviously, his costume, but not much else?  It almost feels like  waste, I should say, to have two slots dedicated to Cole, no matter how much I like the character.  Still, he's very obviously there, and I can only assume that one version means the other will be in in some capacity.

Similarly of note is that, as stated, the Dante included is the one from the reboot, ala the one seemingly nobody cares for.  Regardless of that or not, it's not....really that Dante that built up the Playstation brand at all, but the original, silver-haired Dante that apparently was born out of talking about making Resident Evil 4.  This begs to wonder if DmC Dante is the only Dante we get or if we'll get to switch to the one we're all a little more accustomed to seeing; the one that more people seem to enjoy if nothing else.  It's not a big deal for me personally, of course, but I'm just looking at the bigger picture.  Which involves doing things that don't give ammo to the jackasses out there who will parrot off how much the game sucks whether or not there's anything resembling a grain of truth to it.  Or, well, it probably doesn't, but it's not quite as -easy- and you know what, I'll just stop there because you know what I mean.

Still, the rest of the list is pretty acceptable, I think.  Some old school representation with Sir Daniel and Spike, a little more new school but not done all the time with Nariko and arguably Sackboy, and then the rest are pretty stable in their own rights and were mostly guarantees.  Maybe not Heihachi, but this wouldn't be the first time he's on Team Playstation for a Fighting game after all, consider he was the Representative in Soul Calibur 2 way way back.  Still nobody from my predictions but that's not exactly surprising, except possibly that Crash hasn't been announced yet.  It's probably not -easy- negotiating with Activision over having him in, sure, but I don't see them keeping him (or Spyro) out of the game entirely.  I have also heard rumors that I can't source whatsoever that Lightning, not Cloud, might be the Final Fantasy representative which....again wouldn't surprise me.  Would disappoint me certainly however, given the, uh....'controversy' around Final Fantasy 13 where being "Playstation Brand" might come up.  Not that Cloud's game was -only- on Playstation, but it was certainly most notably on it.  Still, there's plenty of time before the game is announced, and new characters will officially be revealed at Gamescom, whenever that is.  Hopefully they won't only announced characters that have been leaked.  And hopefully the Gravity Rush stage is an indication that Kat is going to be one of the fighters in the game.  Time will tell!

E3 Rumor: Playstation Plus Vita Support Inbound

A fairly typical Plus month.

It's that magical time of the year just before the other magical time of the year - The E3 leaks.  (Of course, the other magical time being E3, I figured you all knew that and okay, shut up Mogs)  However, thus far, there hasn't been an actual whole lot that's rumored to appear or anything that's...er, super big.  Even what I'm going to talk about tonight is less "big awesome surprising news" and more "Hey, -just- this side of being late-to-the-party", but it's welcomed and appreciated nonetheless.  And while a lot of us preface rumors with a whole lot of "Now, it's a rumor, so don't look into it too much", but just think about it like this:  When was the last time there was a reported rumor that didn't come true?  Even silly things like MercurySteam making a 2(.5)D Castlevania end up being true, so it's hard to -not- believe these things when you hear about them at face value.

Regardless, today's 'rumor' states that Playstation Plus is coming to Vita alongside a sort of revision of the service; an upgrade, really.  The upgrade is set to have 'top-tier titles' for subscribers (I...don't know what this means) as well as, obviously, exclusive updates for people who might just happen to be Vita-only subscribers.  This will likely mean one PS3 and one Vita game free per month, as well as some meted out discounted/free DLC among the two systems, ensuring each individual store gets roughly the same amount of content, so as to not show 'favoritism', considering Plus subscriber will mean just that, regardless of whether you're PS3-only, Vita-only or both.  I'm not too sure if they'll be able to integrate the Auto-Update thing into the Vita proper, but I imagine it'll get access to the Cloud Saves (which would be extra handy for it, considering some data is stored with the actual game data itself and is a hassle to back up by other means) on top of everything else.

Of course, I imagine this functionality will need a firmware update and this is just me speculating and is no way included in the rumor itself, but while they're updating the firmware.....I'm still hoping that PSOne functionality for the Vita is included.  Not even because I'm planning on using it, not even because I'm miffed that it's not in already (I'm not so much, though), and not even because I'm getting tired of seeing it whined about everywhere, but just because that would be a great fuckin' move.  There was a lot of shit-flipping when Nintendo announced that not only was the Wii going to support SD saves or whatever a few years back, but that it was going to support it right now because 'hey we just pushed out the firmware for it while I was speaking about it'.  People really like that sort of "I'm waving my hands and MAGIC happened!" effect, so long as it's not announcing a brand new console that is in stores this very moment, and for something big like that, it would be a big boon.

I've said it a few times, but it would make a lot of sense for their presser, especially with Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale being showed off since I imagine a lot of classic characters will be in the game.  Well, -games- because it's quite obvious that the game will see a Vita version, but that's neither here nor there.  Something like "since we're honoring characters that really built the Playstation brand, it's only fair that we allow everyone to see these Playstation Classics for themselves.  To that end, PSOne games are now available to be played on your Playstation Vita" or something like that.  A little more flowery or whatever, but I'm sure you get the angle that I'm suggesting the take on it.  It's a pretty standard one, really, but always a crowd-pleaser, especially if it would mean that people get to play their Final Fantasies and other RPGs and Tomba! games and whatnot on the go.  I admit, it's technically a little far-fetched to expect, so I'm not exactly expecting it, but if it happens, oh man, will I be bragging about it.  After all, I'm really just suggesting timing since PSOne Support is an inevitability, clearly being worked on in the months since the Vita saw release.

Still, no matter what does or doesn't get added to the Vita at E3, it -is- heavily suggested that you go ahead and dip into Playstation Plus, at least for E3 (which means grabbing a 3-month voucher as I plan to do) since there are some 'surprises' lined up for Plus members apparently.  From the head content manager for SCEE's PS Plus means that it will likely be a -thing-, and hopefully not exclusive to PAL.  (I really doubt it will be, of course)  Granted, they're supposed to hype this stuff up, but I imagine this is genuinely something pretty 'cool', so I'm going to go with it.  At the worst, I'll just open myself up to a few time-sensitive free games and discounts that might push me into grabbing some Playstation cash despite being low on the real thing.  At the best....well, who knows?  And that's part of the fun.  Only a few more days until we find out!

My Thoughts: Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale Line-Up

Now that we know that the game is officially a thing, but it lacks a roster to look at just yet (likely an E3 reveal), it gives us all an opportunity to have mini-arguments about who should be in the game and why.  And there's obvious characters out there that will be in the game, even if it's just a rumor at this point (Cole, Drake and Snake, looking at you three) which we don't even need to talk about.  But without knowing just how big the official roster (minus DLC) will be, that gives us quite the bit of space to work with in terms of just who and how many people will make it in.  Clearly, I like to make baseless, terrible predictions about things, so you know I'm going to get in on this, and I hope I don't whiff too many of the ideas here, though I admit openly that some of them are going to be more "Wouldn't it be cool" versus "What I actually think".

Who:  Crash Bandicoot

Why:  He's friggin' Crash Bandicoot.  Many a person's first experience with a Playstation console, and, for a time, one of the 'Unofficial' Playstation Mascots.

 

Now, I know I just said I didn't want to go with the obvious characters but, unfortunately, Crash might not be as obvious (or possible) a choice as you might think.  As many of us remember, Crash started out as a game brought to us all by Naughty Dog (who remains as a second-party studio to Sony to this day) and saw four titles released under their guidance (the three main Crash entries and Crash Team Racing) before the series went off to other companies and eventually other platforms such as the original XBox and GameBoy Advance and the DS.  Despite that, I imagine that Crash is a character that is still solidly associated with Sony Consoles, which would make him a good choice.  To that end, I would like to remind everyone of the commercials that featured Crash in that sort of Playstation Vs. Nintendo spot at the very least, which I'm sure a lot of us remember, if we haven't been pointed in that direction before.  As an added bonus, looking over the summary on Wikipedia leads me to think that Activision might have the IP rights who, as we all know, also have another series that could do to see an inclusion in the All-Stars.

As for his fighting style, being that my knowledge of Crash is...er...rather limited and vague, I'm not too sure on just what he'd be like.  Punches and kicks as standards, maybe a fruit-throwing move to give him some range, and a headstomp as an aerial attack.  Of course, I think that the movesets will be more focused towards what finishers and/or specials they have than anything else.  To that end, a callback to Crash Team Racing is a must, where he hops into a rally car and, well, drives around, taking out anyone in his way.  Everything else could be something of a wash, so long as he has that friggin' car to drive over some people, especially since I do believe that Crash Team Racing is quite highly regarded by racing and Crash fans alike.  Even going so far as to be the better Kart Racing game even when put up against Mario Kart, though I'm not sure just how much actual competition is there.

Who:  Cloud Strife

Why:  Because Squeenix sells, especially anything with a connection to Final Fantasy VII.  On top of that, you'll find a lot of people who got into RPGs out there specifically because of the game, which likely makes it one of Squeenix's most popular commodities.

Taking advantage of the fact that Third-Party characters have been confirmed to be in the game, this is the one I'm throwing down as a 'should' if not necessarily one that I think will be in.  There's no real two ways about it:  Final Fantasy VII and the Playstation 1 as a result of that was a massive success, and despite there being a PC port of the game (Yeah, you might not have known that.  I have a copy....somewhere.) many still think of it as a Playstation-exclusive game.  It helps that, from Seven to Twelve, the Final Fantasy series was pretty much Playstation-exclusive and even still leans more towards the Playstation brand while throwing ports here and there at the DS and GBA.  Cloud, I think, would be a big boon for the roster of the game, which is my primary reason for the suggestion, as I know his inclusion alone would put the game on a lot of radars.  Though, even if not specifically Cloud, I'll be surprised if there's not a presence from Squeenix at all; that being said, my second guess here would be Tidus from Final Fantasy X which was, as we know, the first FF game to come on the PS2, insanely popular (sales-wise), and is the only Final Fantasy game that is getting a PS3/Vita Port.

Cloud's (or Tidus', depending on who they go with) movelist would be, likely, the easiest one to make out of many of the possible entries, considering that fighting is kinda what he does.  As well as the whole Dissidia thing, which, while they wouldn't directly take that move-list, there's a good chance you'll see a lot of influence from it.  The Special Attacks are similarly easy as they could just be Limit Breaks corresponding to the levels that exist.  Omnislash (or the upgraded version) would be the Level 3, whereas Level 1 one could be Braver and Level 2 could be any of the Level 2 or 3 Limit Breaks like Blade Beam or Finishing Touch.  I mean, it pretty much writes itself here, so if nothing else, it would be incredibly easy.  Also flashy, which helps the game's overall look as well, being that they're really going for the flashy aspect.

Who:  Alucard

Why:  Because of a little game called Castlevania:  Symphony of the Night that saw a whole lot of success on the PSOne.

This one......okay, this one is a bit of a reach, admittedly.  Maybe even a -lot- of a reach, but, like Cloud, I imagine Alucard's inclusion in the game would be a big boon to it, even if he's not the most noted character.  That my only real reasoning is because of Symphony of the Night on PSOne (later on, having been redone in the Dracula X Chronicles for PSP, also known as "The game where you have to play that other Castlevania game to get SotN") and its cult-hit popularity is a bit telling, and while I'm not an uber-fan of the game, a lot of people -are-.  Which means that you cannot tell me that you don't know anybody whose ears wouldn't perk up at the mention of Alucard being included in Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale.  He even fits the general bill of inclusion, what with being an "All-Star" that happened to be featured in a "Playstation" game that was, as a bonus, incredibly popular.  Stranger things have happened, after all!

Similar to Cloud, I imagine Alucard's moveset wouldn't be all that difficult to imagine and implement, though it might end up a little 'strange' if it goes as I imagine.  Considering the wealth of weapons that appear in Symphony of the Night that Alucard wields, different attacks could simply be attached to the more-known ones there, as well as some of his latent son-of-Dracula powers, like the whole Fireball thing.  Then again, those powers might be better served for the specials, depending on just which ones they're anticipating on using.  Being that I don't think Alucard got to make use of Item Crashes, that leaves that out technically, but who knows.  Even outside of that, the special moves don't necessarily need to be actually from the game in which the character is possible, so long as it's something the character would obviously be able to use in certain situations where a lot of power is needed.  Regardless, I don't think there's a lot of "Gee, what can he do" when it comes to Alucard, were he to be in the game.

Obviously, these are just my predictions, and I admit that I did try and go for the more "Hmm" choices (Crash aside) rather than the obvious.  I might do another post about the more obvious choices (as in, things that use First or Second Party Characters), but for now, this is good.  Seeing as we're this close to E3 without some good leaks, it might be a slow news week anyways, and whether I get Resistance:  Burning Skies tomorrow or not is not a guarantee.  Though I will be getting the Gravity Rush demo and will have likely played it at least twice over by the time I sit down for a post.  Hmm.  I guess we'll see!

Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale Officially Announced

So it was rumored long ago, and more recently resurfaced as something of a near-confirmation of said rumor, but now, finally, it is official:  Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale is a thing that exists and what a thing it is.  Thankfully, the Playstation Blog has provided a video that isn't an entire episode of GTTV that I had to watch at 3 AM last night just to find out about this, and because I'm nice, I've provided it above.  Just...go ahead and take a look at that, let it sink in for a moment and then we can continue.

...

Ready?  Yeah?  Okay.  I know what you're thinking, and yes, it does look like Super Smash Bros. which we all kind of expected months ago when it was hinted.  Hell, there's probably not a person among us who -hasn't- thought of this idea at one point or time.  This speaks to the merit of Super Smash Bros. being a good idea, but also not broad enough to cover scenarios that we, as gaming people, would like it to cover, thus necessitating other games like it.  Like this.  So yes, it -does- look like Super Smash Bros., but you know what?  Awesome.  I honestly don't see any semblance of a problem with this whatsoever, nor do I logically see any reason why anyone should.

People are quick to cry 'rip-off' and put a real negative slant on the word, but why is it a bad thing?  Super Smash Bros. is (apparently) a highly successful and entertaining franchise with a neat, quirky concept that has been done many times before and will be done many times after this.  (the last SSB game I've played, for reference, was the original on the 64)  It's not like Nintendo has been the paragon of innovation itself, lately, so maybe let's calm down a little, yeah?  It gets a little tiresome hearing how Nintendo does no wrong and is the best at everything and such whenever someone dares to take a concept they popularized and put their own spin on it.

What really matters here is how much fun the game is and initial reports point to "Very".  Which is unsurprising, since that's just kind of how these games are, provided the mechanics are tight.  Games in the same vein that have come out in recent years seem to have overlooked that part, which I imagine is where the whole disconnect and low opinion of the game's chances might come from.  But the fact of the matter is, no matter how much people want to pretend that the Sony line-up can't be great, it's likely going to, so with the character line-up solid, we just have to look to the developer for the mechanics.  Given that it's basically a First-Party studio (I said basically) and the fact that they're likely going to be working close with other first, second and third party studios to ensure that their characters are used properly, they'll likely get a lot of additional help.  I'm really not concerned about that part.

Now, I've brought up characters several times here in previous posts, so I'll try not to re-tread my previous thoughts too much.  Clearly, Kiryu Kazuma is one of my picks for a possible third-party member, as well as Solid Snake or even Ezio, and knowing that there will definitely be third-party characters in the game is quite uplifting.  I mean sure, like I said, I expected it, but the verification is quite nice and gives me room to speculate further.  Problem is, with this open a net of possibilities, it's hard to really narrow any of then down, but I do have a few ideas.  Being a fighting game and, since the series has been particularly friendly to Sony in the last iteration(s), a cross-over fighter from Mortal Kombat (most likely Scorpion) wouldn't surprise me at all.  Between the Cross-over of Kratos in the PS3 version of Mortal Kombat [9] and the fact that they're doing a Vita-specific version of the game speaks highly to their buddy-buddy nature which suggests they just might be willing to help out.

Of course, there are quite a few people clamoring for characters from the PSOne era and there's absolutely no problem with that at all.  And with his recent resurgence to public knowledge thanks to Skylanders, Spyro the Dragon seems like another pretty easy choice.  Spyro got his start on the PSOne all the way back in 1998 and, even though it's a third-party game and series, there's still quite a bit of association there with the Playstation brand.  Similarly so would be the inclusion of Crash Bandicoot who, for a little while back then, was almost the de facto Playstation Mascot.  The series is third party now as well, but with its Naughty Dog roots, and its start on the PSOne as one of -the- titles to have, it's certainly not inconceivable and in fact, I would say it's quite likely to happen.  Or rather, I'm sure more than a few people would start grumbling if he wasn't in, despite it being completely up to another company entirely.

It's a strange position to consider and I don't think I've managed to have it fully sink in just yet.  I just sit here, trying to think of big third-party studios and the games they've had prominently on Playstation systems and all I can think about is the first-and-second-party characters, with the possibilities therein.  Playstation has been around for a long time now and while some of us might remember growing up with Sega and Nintendo going at it through the Genesis and Super Nintendo, we're in a time period now where there are people who have literally grown up playing Playstation games when we were playing NES ones.  Where we might've had our first experience with games through Super Mario Bros. or Duck Hunt or Crystalis, their first times were through Tomb Raider (Lara Croft is a totally viable character, by the way), Spyro, or Parappa the Rapper.  I think we would all do well to not underestimate the actual weight the characters in Battle Royale can have.

Is "Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale" "Title Fight"?

Forgive the, uh....terrible image.

So, it's certainly been a while since we've heard word of it, but the rumored 'Title Fight' has made a resurgence and how.  For a quick recap in case you forgot (and don't want to read the provided post), 'Title Fight' is a proposed fighting game that features the 'stars' of the Playstation First-Party Line-up, which is quite extensive actually.  When it was initially rumored, there wasn't a whole lot of info beyond "Trust us, this is totes legit, here's a model screen of Sweet Tooth" as well as a list of five characters that were 'definitely' in the game so far when it was, assumedly, early on in development.  Those characters being the above mentioned Sweet Tooth, Nathan Drake, Kratos, Parappa the Rapper, Sly Cooper, Fat Princess, and Colonel Mael Radec.  Aside from that, the only real information on it was that it was being worked on by a studio called SuperBot Entertainment which, as you might notice, still does not have a Wiki-Page, presumably because they haven't released a game yet, which is a thing that is said on their own web page. 

SuperBot is hard at work on our first title, being developed for the PS3. As soon as more information is available, this is where you’ll be able to find it. Screens, videos, interviews, if it’s out there, it’ll be here.

If rumors that I can't source at the moment that are directly in this Joystiq Article that I am too blind to see are to be believed, then perhaps that site will update this coming Thursday with information for this game.  Because apparently there will be another reveal of a PS3-exclusive title that day, which makes planning for my Thursday very easy (or maybe Friday, depending on when it goes up).  Aside from that, the only bit of information is that the domain "playstationallstarsbattleroyal.com" is a thing that was just registered by Sony Computer Entertainment America which would put Title Fight's official name as, uh, "Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale".  Which is...just awful.  I mean, I really don't like to poke fun at names, and I honestly don't care, but come on.  While it is clearly on-point, something a little less long-winded (coming from me, that's a laugh) would have been perfectly acceptable.  'Title Fight' might not have been quite enough, but Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale (PASBR) is just too much.  This is "On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness" levels of too much wordage verbosity territory here.

Really though, as I said, the name doesn't matter and with any luck, that won't be the release name.  What really matters here is what the game is going to be like which, well, is completely friggin' nebulous at this point.  All we can figure on is that it's going to be a 'fighting game' which is about as realistically concise as a newspaper that's been soaking in bleach.  There are quite a lot of sub-genres and 'styles' that have been defined in the Fighting Game genre, so knowing that it's a Fighting Game is just as helpful as knowing it's a PS3 game - which is not very.  I -imagine- we can kind of guess that, being a fighting game in the same vein as Super Smash Bros. that it might take the same approach (I'd hope not a literal copy-paste), which narrows it down a little, but it's really hard to tell.  I'd rather it not be, like a super-hardcore fighter like MvC, SF, etc. because that just ain't my scene and I'd like to grab this if at all possible.

Really, there's not a whole lot else to state here other than this is kind of what the situation is.  The character list is potentially huge (though I imagine it will be small-ish in scope for this first bout(heh)) so the ones in the above image technically aren't that off (some of them are practically guaranteed gets, even), but I can't help but hope that we'll get some cross-overs from characters that aren't first or second party, if even just as a 'cameo' character (thus assuming they might not be available for a potential sequel).  The example I gave last time was Kiryu Kazuma and obviously I'm sticking with that (because of the Exclusivity), but even Ezio, since he's making the fighting game rounds (and Ubisoft is kind of in good with Sony) or like Solid Snake (Since he has also been in a fighting game before) would work.  There is a literal wealth of characters that could be in this thing if it is, indeed, a real thing, and I can only hope that Sony picks some good ones.