Playstation Move & PSP2

To me, if the Wii's controller and the X-Box 360's Kinect had a child together, that child would look something like the Playstation Move.

Playstation Move is Sony's forray into motion controlling for games. It uses a remote that looks very similar to the Wii's remote to capture the player's movements and have them affect the game. From what I've heard, however, the Playstation Move uses cameras to track the movement of the remote, much like the Wii's motion bar.

The thing that gets me the most about Playstation Move and Kinect are the fact that Sony and Microsoft are obviously trying to play catch up in a game that they originally mocked Nintendo for joining. I think it's great that Sony and Microsoft are trying to reach a larger audience with their systems, I just hope they don't focus too much on the new players that they forget the old players who've stuck with them. As awesome as Playstation Move could be, I don't think I want to see Sony start making God of War games that use motion controllers. Some games just need to be played by mashing buttons. Can you imagine trying to play Halo on an X-Box using Kinect? I hope it doesn't come to that.

However, there are several games that I think would be great when played with the Playstation Move. Little Big Planet 2 comes to mind first. For some reason, I can just see that game being even more fun than it already is with motion controls. Another game series that comes to mind is the Gran Turismo games. (Or any racing games, really.) The motion controls worked great on Mario Kart Wii, so why couldn't they work just as well on a Sony racing game? I think it would.

On another Playstation front, Sony recently announced that it felt the PSP would have a 10 year life, much like they're hoping the PS3 will. You know what that means; it will be several more years before we ever see a PSP2 come out. Honestly,I hope Sony doesn't really wait until 2014 to release the PSP2, just to make a point. The PSP is a great system, but we could all do with an upgrade. There are all kinds of rumors and fake pictures cycling around out there of what people think the PSP2 will look like, and I hope that Sony will eventually release pictures of what it will really look like soon. We can only wait so long, Sony.

Here's just a few of the pictures of what people think the PSP2 will look like.

If I had to pick one for what I hope it will look like, it would be this first one, although I don't really see a UMD drive on it, which would turn me off of it. But this first one looks pretty sleek, eh?

This next one looks too much like the child of a PSP and a PS3 controller for me to like it. It's just too big and bulky for my tastes. Although I like the idea that the PSP2 could be a GPS.

This final one looks nice and slim, but it's just too... awkward. I like that there's two thumbsticks, but they're in such a weird place. It looks like it'd be hard to play with them. But that might just be because I'm used to the PS3's controller.

My final thoughts on the matter? I think the Playstation Move could give Sony the bump it needs to get out of 3rd place in sales. It has the potential to make the PS3 even more awesome than it is. As for the PSP2, it's nice and all that it's sticking around for so long so that we don't have to keep buying new systems, but I hope they aren't postponing the release just to make a point.

X-Box 360 "Slim" and Kinect

If you haven't heard already, Microsoft has released a new, slimmer version of the X-Box 360.

The new version has built in Wi-Fi, is Kinect ready, and was supposed to get rid of the RRoD problem that the older systems had. (RRoD: Red Rings of Death. A problem that occured when an X-Box 360 would overheat and crash.) Turns out, though, that the Slim version is already having overheating problems and it's only been around for a short while. Sad to hear, but no real surprise.

I think it's cool that Microsoft has slimmed down their system (the slimmer version does have a rather sleek, sexy quality to it.), and it's definitely about time that they added built in Wi-Fi. (The fact that you had to spend extra money to get Wi-Fi connectivity always seemed like Microsoft money grubbing.) But, you'd think they'd spend a bit more time trying to make the system less likely to crash. It's great and all that they're so good about replacing the systems that crash, but wouldn't it be a better use of their time to make a system that didn't need to be replaced so often? I think so.

In other X-Box news; Kinect has made an even bigger step into the spotlight. Formerly known as "Project Natal", Kinect is supposed to revolutionize the way we play games. Kinect is a type of motion controller that, instead of using a remote and motion sensor like the Wii, uses cameras to capture the player's movements and have the game react accordingly. The demo videos I've seen of it make it look pretty dang awesome. If it performs as well as it does in the videos, it might just succeed at it's goal.

I've heard tell that Kinect is going to need a pretty large room to operate in, which might be bad news for people like me. I live in a typical bachelor pad apartment and my front room isn't as big as it might need to be for Kinect to work. But, who knows?

All in all, I'm excited to see if Kinect can live up to the hype. It definitely has the potential to be very awesome. As far as the new, slimmer 360; I really wish we could get to the point that we can play our X-Box anywhere without worrying about overheating and the RRoD.

Nintendo 3DS

I'm sure most of you have heard of Nintendo's plan to release a new version of their supremely popular handheld gaming system, the DS. The new system, the 3DS, is supposed to destroy the PSP. (the DS's only real competition.)

The 3DS is going to have a screen that allows for 3D gaming without the need for special glasses. Honestly? I think it's a cool idea and I'm excited to eventually play with one. My only worry is that the 3DS is going to be just like the DSi. Don't get me wrong, the DSi is an awesome system, it just could have been so much better. As much as Nintendo wanted people to play with the cameras and the sound apps, they just weren't as popular, in my opinion. I think most people were more excited for the DSi Ware Store that was released with the DSi, the only problem with that is that Nintendo hasn't done a whole lot with the DSi Ware Store to make it stand out from things like Apple's App Store. There are so many great things that Nintendo could be releasing on the DSi Ware Store that they haven't yet. Things like a Virtual Game Boy console, or downloadable NES & SNES games. They could still do that, they just haven't yet.

But, that's not what I wanted to talk about here. I wanted to talk about things I hope will either be in the 3DS, or in Nintendo's next portable gaming system. My first hope is that the 3DS will have some sort of built in memory that can hold more than the DSi does. Sony released the PSP Go, which had a hard drive, but they removed the UMD drive, which made quite a few people angry and caused the system to not be as popular as Sony hoped. Nintendo could totally take that idea and make it infinitely better. Have a hard drive in the 3DS, but keep the ability to play DS cartriges. I've heard that the 3DS is going to be able to play video, so I can only hope that means there will be a hard drive, otherwise we'll all have to rely on SD cards to watch our videos, which could be a pain.

One other thing I'd like to see on the 3DS is, as I've mentioned, a better DSi Ware Store. The Store has so much potential on a system made by Nintendo. They have a whole catalog of Retro games they could release in the DSi Store that would make the DS sell even better than it already is. I mentioned my want for a Virtual Game Boy console. There are so many ways that could be awesome. Imagine downloading one of the Game Boy Advance versions of a Pokemon game, playing it, then being able to transfer Pokemon from there to one of your DS Pokemon Games. It could be pretty epic.

Back on the topic of the 3DS being able to play video, I'd like to see the DS system (any incarnation of it) be able to do the things my PSP does. With my PSP, I can watch videos, look at pictures, listen to music, browse the web and the Playstation Store, and play games. My PSP can be more of a portable media device rather than just a game system. Now, the DSi can do some of the things the PSP can do, it just doesn't do them as well, or as smoothly. I'd like to see the 3DS become more of an all-in-one system. It has the potential to be, it just hasn't yet.

My final thought on the matter? Nintendo has an almost flawless track record with their portable gaming systems. I think that, even if the 3DS doesn't do any of the things I've mentioned, it's going to be successful. I can still hope for some of my ideas to be used though, right?

Phantasy Star Portable 2

As I said in my intro post, I'm a huge fan of the Phantasy Star series. I remember playing the original games on the old school systems, and I've loved the recent games that have come out in the series, such as: Phantasy Star Online, Phantasy Star Universe, Phantasy Star 0 (Zero), and Phantasy Star Portable.

Phantasy Star Portable is easily my favorite game to come out on the Playstation Portable. I've played that game more than any other RPG I can think of. (World of Warcraft not included.) The game played a lot like Phantasy Star Universe (PSU) and took place in the same universe. You had the same races and classes to choose from and could visit the same planets. But, where PSU was an MMORPG, Phantasy Star Portable was more of a single player game. The game did have a multi player option, but it was only an Ad-Hoc multiplayer. (Ad-Hoc means that you could only play with people in the same room as you. There was no online play available for it.) But, for me, that was enough. I loved the game when it came out and still do to this day.

So, you can imagine my excitement a couple years ago when I heard they were making a sequel. But, that excitement quickly turned to dismay when I found out that there wasn't a US release date for the sequel. It was released in Japan quite a while ago, and I've been watching for a US release date ever since. But, it wasn't until a couple weeks ago that my dreams came true. SEGA has announced a US release date for Phantasy Star Portable 2! Game Stop has the release down as sometime in September of this year (2010). I've got my copy reserved already and I can't wait for it to get here.

My expectations are pretty high for this game. I can only hope that they make it better than the first. (Which, in my mind, is going to be hard to do.) I can hardly find anything I don't like about the first game, so I'm hoping SEGA doesn't screw up the second. There's just a few things that I'm really hoping are in the second game that weren't in the first.

First; in PSU, you had a storage box in each of your character's rooms that allowed you to transfer items between the characters. It was great because I was able to send fancy items from characters that couldn't use them to a character that could. Phantasy Star Portable got rid of that option, much to my dismay. I'm really hoping they find a way to bring that back in the sequel.

Second; I'd really like to be able to play online with people all over the world instead of just with the people in the room with me. Mostly because I'm not sure how many people I know will be buying the game. I've heard rumors that there will be an Online Multiplayer mode, and I'm really hoping they turn out to be true.

The third thing I'd like to see isn't really a change, it's more of an addition; I'd love it if they added a new race or a couple new classes. If they don't, maybe they could make it possible to level each class higher than level 10. And I wouldn't complain if they added a few new weapon types in there. Again, if they don't, they could always make it possible to level your Photon Art higher than 30. It may be a long shot, but maybe they could add a fourth planet to the roster as well. Just sayin'.

The final thing I'd like to see added to the game is the ability to create your own items. In PSU you were able to collect ingredients that were used for creating different weapons and armors. Phantasy Star Portable got rid of this as well, and I really hope they bring it back.

But, even if they don't take any of my suggestions, I'm sure I'm going to like the game just as much as I have the others, unless they decide to change everything and mess it up. (I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they won't.) I honestly can't think of any game coming out this year that I'm more excited for than this one. I've been waiting for a long time for it, and I have high hopes that SEGA will deliver another winner. They have such a good track record with this series, it'd be a shame if they botched it up now.

My final thoughts on the game? I highly doubt that SEGA would betray their fans and make the sequel a stinker. I think they know that the series has a pretty big following and that there would be mass rioting if they messed it up. So, I'm just going to sit back and hope that September will get here as soon as possible.

Introduction

Welcome to my blog about video games!

First off, thank you for checking it out. I hope you'll like what you read here.

Just a little bit of background on me; I've been playing video games for almost my entire life. I started on my Dad's old Atari with good old "Space Invaders" and "Preppie" and have tried to keep up with video games ever since. I love portable gaming systems and have collected quite a few of them over the years. I worked in a video game store for just over a year a few years back and loved it. I know that every gamer has one or two games that they consider their "video crack" and I'm no exception; I play World of Warcraft somewhat regularly, but the games that suck me in more than any others are the Phantasy Star games. I just can't get enough of them.

I'm planning to do reviews of games on this blog, but I don't want that to be all there is here. I'm going to have my first impressions, my hopes for new releases of games and systems, my thoughts on video game related news, reminiscing on old systems and games, and funny video game related stories that happened to me when I worked at the video game store. (Trust me, there's quite a few of them.)

Well, that's enough of an intro. Enjoy!