Playstation Home Literally Has An RPG In It Now

It's a bit of an odd thing whenever Playstation Home actually has something worth-while to bring up because I end up skipping over it for a bit unless I am really just starved for news.  Case in point:  The Playstation Blog post that shows it off was posted August 30th which was....well, some days ago, in which time I'm sure the 'game' itself has released (at least it seems that way from the comments) so I can speak of it as a thing that exists, instead of a thing that will come to be.  Which I think is something equally interesting for Home, as there really isn't a whole lot of spaces or ways nowadays that allow things to go right up until release without it being spoiled or leaked out in some ways, even ill-conceived iOS ports seem to get leaked days prior to them being announced in a formal capacity.  So having a platform, any platform, where you can just develop something and then go "Hey, guess what, here is this thing, it comes out tomorrow, have fun!" is a thing that is pretty interesting at its base.

Of course, when you say "RPG" in a format that is basically an MMO, you sort of get an image in your head before anything else comes out, so really one has to wonder just where Mercia:  Fractured Realms ends up on the scale of things.  It seems more like your Action-RPG fare, where the battles seem real-time, something that is become more and more commonplace it seems.  Though to say that the style of the game, the look of it, is standard for the fare you've got in the genre would be a little bit of a lie.  From what little I've seen, Mercia seems to have its roots far deeper in "God of War-style gladiator fantasy" (though not completely) than "Generic high-fantasy" that is rampant in online settings for reasons that I'm sure none of us could begin to come up with.  This is at least one good sign, one good thing that Mercia has going for it, which makes it a wash when you bring up the name, because Mercia is a dumb name and "Fractured Realms" is.....a really generic subtitle.  Honestly.

What Mercia offers in terms of gameplay is something that is a little up in the air for my comprehension as it's one of those things I suspect I would have to play to understand fully.  Which I'm not going to do, of course, so you'll have to bear with me as I muddle through it all.  Looking at screenshots provided in the PSBlog post, it seems that most of the buttons have all been remapped to things that....well, make sense for them to be mapped to, meaning you're not getting Home's standard fare of controls.  However from what I can tell the game is based, obviously, on Home's own physics engine and simply allows you more 'freeform' movement in the form of attacking and casting spells, though I imagine animations in the game are unique to it.  No shuffle-run to get around the world of Mercia, or at least I should hope not since it would probably wreck the 'immersion' you could have right there on the spot.  Well, as much immersion as you can have when you are literally playing an MMORPG inside of an MMO without breaking space and time in some fashion.

It is certainly a thing, and a thing that is interesting in many ways, much like Blueprint: Home is, which seems to reinforce the statement that Home really is a big, big world that many people are choosing not to explore.  Not that I can particularly blame anyone for that, as I've been choosing that myself, but it's more for lack of time and for worry of the ridicule I'd receive if my PS3 YLOD'd whilst 'playing' Home.  Which once again leaves me sitting here and wondering why they have not dreamed up and showed off some sort of "Home Away From Home" thing for the Vita which is -like- Home, but not Home since obviously the Cross-Play would be absurd.  I really doubt I would have to worry about the integrity of my device while playing something like Home, which would make it all the more enticing.  I could surmise that they are indeed working on something in the planning stages, but in an attempt to not pull the same mistake they did with Home (as in talking about/showing off things that will never be implemented as imagined, ala Trophy Room, Pets, 'real' travel).  Stating it once again - if they were interested in making something Home-like for the PSP, the Vita is that much more tantalizing, and Home itself has likely proven itself to be a proper cash cow (because, surprise, there -are- people playing it, even if it's not us, same as most Mobile games and Free-to-play Asian Grindfest MMOS) which is always good in business.

I can't help but shake the thought that there is something....unsaid about Mercia - something that makes it not quite as big a deal as one would imagine and/or hope for.  That it's inside Home itself seems damning enough for some, but I have a hard time wrapping my mind around the actual possibility of there being a fully-functional 'game' within Home that bears the scope that Mercia seems to offer.  It has a world, places to explore, dungeons to conquer and loot, or all of these are things that it is telling me it has, certainly.  Even if it's not as big as it claims to be, as it looks like it can be, this is a big step since it opens the door for further attempts like this.  Granted, I don't see anyone beyond the dedicated Home developers like Lockwood Publishing actually -doing- anything like this in the future, but stranger things have happened.  If the right developer smells the right amount of money, anything is possible, and that will only draw in more and more.  And then maybe we can finally look forward to Home exiting the Beta phase.  (Hey, if Minecraft 'did it', there's hope for anything.)

Home Gets Something Genuinely Interesting in Blueprint: Home

So, I have said it times in the past, and I bear no shame in admitting that I am in the apparent minority of folks out there who sees Playstation Home as something that -isn't- a waste of time or a failure or a waste of resources.  It is a thing that is not for everybody, certainly, and it is never fair to judge something by the lowest common denominator of folks that use it, as some do.  Honestly, if we did, Multi-player as a -thing- would have died out years ago, and don't try to disagree on that point since I'm sure we all know it's likely not a very arguable thing.  Regardless, though I'm likely not going to bother with Home anytime in the near future (talking year or so), I can't help but try and keep up with the news of how it's going, since there's always a chance of something genuinely neat getting into it, like the oft-requested and likely never-happening Trophy room, or things that add a more game-like feel to it that aren't necessarily mini-games and/or AR games or whatever Home has catered in the past.  And that hope, or at least that bet on a chance has certainly been validated in my opinion with the preview of a new thing coming to Home called, appropriately enough, Blueprint: Home.

It is appropriate because it involves Blueprints and Home on two different levels; not only is it for Playstation Home, obviously, but the space allows you to build your own Home (as in your own personal space) by making it up on the Blueprint offered.  While not as advanced as the Sims home creation, it can, nevertheless, be likened to that which is only a good thing in my opinion.  You get a rather large space to work with and are then allowed to draw a series of rooms on the Blueprint offered before deciding their style (basically the carpet, walls and ceiling), putting in as many doors and/or windows as you want and sprucing it up with a few additions.  Then, after it's made, you can obviously furnish it to your own whims as well using Home's own system of picking out items from your collection and plopping them down in 'real' gravity, meaning you can even sort of set a scene if you want to, with toppled chairs and knocked over items and such.  Which is kind of not the point, since the point is that you can make your own damn living space.

There are limitations, of course; judging by the instructional video a lot of content is going to be behind a pay-wall which is no good.  On top of that, it seems like only single-level structures will be possible at first at least, which is a shame considering stairs in Home are fun because of the simulated gravity.  Since you can drop things down stairs and watch them tumble.  Beyond that, while there are somewhat limitless possibilities already if you have even a slight bit of creativity, I imagine building single-level dwellings eventually gets old when they are just boxes, notwithstanding the possibility of putting 'rooms' together and knocking down entire walls to make odd-shaped rooms as is shown in the video for all of about ten seconds.  Without a lot of landscaping options on top of that, it seems like you're just getting fairly flat houses, no matter how intricate the insides can look depending on if you maze things up or get really wild with it.  All things that could likely get rectified, of course, but whether or not it will be free to do so remains to be seen, and I would bet fairly heavily against it.

Still, limited or not, it offers more than it doesn't, I feel, and can probably be used to make some really nice looking Home Spaces.  Certainly the fact that you can make and save up to five designs at a time will pay for it in itself if you have a bit of creativity or those folks with the creativity upload some youtube tutorials or something similar.  If you're so inclined to build a space and decorate it, that is, since not many seem to enjoy just the act of doing that.  My experiences in Home have mostly -been- those types of actions.  When I was not straying out into the different spaces to get free items, I was in one of the several Personal Spaces I had (all free of course) and playing around with different places to put things and different things to put in places.  It's just -fun- for some reason and I understand that I am more the exception than the rule in that aspect.  It is kind of why I long for a similar Home-like Application for the Vita; something that, judging by the assumed success of Home on the PS3, might not be an entirely far-fetched idea.  They did think something similar up for PSP, of course, even if it barely made it to a beta phase.

I'm pretty sure I'm the only person that honestly cares even a little about this.  That doesn't really bother me a whole lot all things considered.  Whether you're a fan of Home or not (most of you are the latter, I realize) it -is- a fairly neat thing on its own merits, considering it is a Building Tool in a semi-MMO type of -thing-.  I'm not quite sure how that works on the technical level, but I'm sure magic is involved on some layer.  Even if it's a little simplistic in design (or seems so) it's still got quite a lot of potential, and I hope that it manages some level of success so that others might try it, or at the very least, they feel the need to continually support it with the obvious upgrades it could receive.  It could just be the next 'thing' for the Home-space and something that might change a couple minds out there which will probably be more of a benefit than not in all reality.  If it's a success, Home makes money for Sony after all, and we all know they sort of need it at the moment.

KinecTV? Buh?

So I was going to do a post here about going back to Playstation Home complete with pictures of my adventures since it's switched to the remodled layout and is thus, different, but in lieu of sitting there and watching every area tick away in downloading, I decided to switch between TV and HDMI settings to have a little fun with Storage Wars all day.  Unfortunately, switching back one time lead to some.....pretty drastic graphic distortions which freaked me right the fuck out and sent me turning off the device.  After a minute of cool-down, I turned it back on to see that the familiar sight of the Sega Room Dynamic Theme behind the Xross Media Bar, completely untouched by aforementioned distortions.  I immediately turned it back off, of course, and would be willing to lay the blame completely on Home itself, rather than my PS3, but I'm not sure.  You'll find out, I can assure you that.

But, regardless, without being able to do that, I've had to scramble to find something else post-worthy and this was just weird enough of a proposition for me to throw in on.  It seems if Joystiq (and, by proxy 'The Daily') are to be trusted, Microsoft is planning on integrating Kinect into Televisions in the near-future which by itself is not all that outlandish.  However, the fact that Sony is brought up as one of the TV Manufacturers is enough to bring it into the realm of mention.  Of course, this wouldn't be Sony as in their rivals in the game market Sony, but Sony the TV makers Sony.  (Sony.)  And it's only mention-worthy because you would think that Sony already has plans to try and integrate Move into their new TVs (or at least whatever the motion capable device that launches with the PS4 will be) and thus this wouldn't happen.

However, if this is true, which it by no means is right at this moment, you have to wonder just what this means for PS4.  It would be ridiculous to suggest that SCE (used as a general term for all of the Entertainment division) would really let this deal go through without a fight and then A.) not use the Kinect Cameras (which would mean dropping move entirely or retooling it, making all the existing wands and such likely obsolete) B.) Launch the PS4 with Move (or the 'next step up') that requires yet another external camera, since I don't see Kinect+ or whatever you want to call it (as there's a chance it'll use the improved Kinect for Windows model or something even more improved than that) being open enough for both Kinect and Move functionality.

Basically, what I'm getting at is that I've never really seen a situation like this, where all the cross-breeding that parent companies do with their child companies rivals has created such a quandary.  Sony computers run Windows which is fine enough and expected even, mostly because Sony doesn't have their own OS made up to try and step into the OS market (which would be a fool's move, honestly.) which is the most common example you'll find when the cross-breeding I mentioned is brought up.  So whatever comes of it will be an interesting case to refer back to after it's done and over with.  I really don't know what the "best case scenario" is here, as, with several improvements, Kinect is likely the motion control device you want, but without those, the Move is still the most precise one out there, s'far as I know.  I think there's a place for both of them, and I doubt there's going to be a world where that place is "Co-existence".

Home To Get Remodeled

Today in the Playstation Blog, another revamp in the ever-shifting entity known as Playstation Home was announced, set to take over somewhere in the timeline of "Fall" of this year.  Before you roll your eyes and move along, I should point out that the things mentioned are actually fairly cool and, if executed properly, might just do a little to raise general opinion of the....game?  App?  Social Networking device?  Which, in the end, could only be a good thing, clearly, since developers seem to think Home is still worth cursory support (given that Sony and everyone involved actually likely makes a good bit of money.  There's a reason MMOs can survive on micro-transactions alone, you know.) and I'm sure at least some of us would like to experience those side efforts first-hand.

The breakdown of the update is that there's a huge overhaul in progress so that the areas you've come to know and...k...know (or not, should you have never ventured into Home) will likely be gone (the first-party areas, that is; Central Hub, the mall, etc.) and will be replaced by areas bigger and shinier and newer, where the existing games and game spaces will be moved to different parts of what I'm calling "Home Island" because, well, look at it.  Sure, you kinda see the picture branching off into land at the back, so it's probably not an island, but Home Island sounds better than Home Peninsula.

The above appears the be the revamped Mall section of the "Hub" area which....compared to the (semi) current mall is pretty much a stark improvement in every way.  (For the record, yes, I did, at one point, just run around in Home and take pictures with the in-game(?) camera you got to show them off.  Sorta did a mini-Let's Play (Explore?) of Home for a friend a while back.  That's why I have some pictures to share.)  Admittedly, I don't quite remember how the Mall had changed from that picture to the last time I was there, but it wasn't too much of a change, which it certainly needed.  Still had eight storefronts (Or ten.  Man, I am abusing parentheses) some posters here and there, the video board and the four lonely chess boards at the top that were either always occupied or never occupied.  There was never any only one game going on, they were either full or a ghost town.

I know with this whole map set up above, that I'm hoping for areas that actually....well, link to each other.  The old/current Home did/does a fairly good job of it with the first-party things, as your apartment links to the Central Hub, and the Central Hub links to the Mall, Movie Theater and Bowling Alley.  But there were other areas that were just designed to be Home hang-out areas that just never were connected, despite the possibility of it and the actual design of the areas.  (Doors off on the borders of the areas that could have lead somewhere, etc.)  Basically, the map has never really felt cohesive, since to get most places, you had to whip out your PSP Tablet Computer thing and pick a spot from the XMB-themed menu to teleport there.

Not a lot of information has been shown off besides the pictures linked here (and a few more in the article proper) describing, in only the barest of bare details, the surrounding areas of the Hub where most of the games will be located come Fall.  In the comments of the article, the Director of Home did his best to assure everyone that the spaces paid for/downloaded and etc. will all still be available past the update, so I would imagine the game spaces that exist currently (inFamous' Empire City area, Uncharted 2's giant mini-game extravaganza, etc. etc.) will all still be around, just shuffled about.  How they'll be 'blended' into the environment is beyond me, of course, so we'll just have to see how that works out.

On top of that, another little detail was slipped out ever-so-slightly, that a "questing system" will be implemented into Home itself, allowing for a more game-like feel to Home itself, for those who need incentive to actually do something in Home after starting it.  If there's anything to be excited for, or at least look forward to from this upcoming update, it would be this, as, if there was anything Home needed, it was clearly direction, which hopefully the questing system will put in.  And not in a "Go play some mini-games" way, but in a way that truly bids you to go out and check it out, see what it has to offer and, perhaps even appreciate it for what it is.

Behold!  My decoration skills!  (Kind of.)

If you haven't guessed it already, I've always had something of a shaky relationship with Home as, in all honesty, Home has the stigma of "having little to do in it" for a reason, though admittedly an exaggerated one at this point.  There are, of course, mini-games to do, reward items to earn, and places to visit, if just to see how it all looks, but there's no real incentive to do it unless there's an item involved, and then the only incentive would be if you want that item to decorate with.  Unsurprisingly, I enjoy having options while decorating, and we know I enjoy some decoration, so I did find myself going through the motions, doing this and that to get the virtual items, even if I was never going to use them.  Because, hey, who knows!  I could have used them.  I still can, all things considered.

This is why I may, admittedly, be looking at this upcoming update to Home with a little more optimism than most.  Then again, with the way the 'gamer crowd' has panned Home (as we have panned so many things in the past, like Cell Phone games and achievements), it could be that others are just looking forward to this with entirely too much blind pessimism and aren't even looking to attempt it after it's changed; simply falling back on prodding at it because Home manages to be one of the things you can still make fun of and not really face much opposition.  We won't really know how to make heads or tails of it until it's out, of course, so until then!