Halo 3 and other disappointments

Really, what’s the meaning of it?

I’m still uncertain if Master Chief escaped to freedom or simply died.

Another game that made me meh lately was Phantasy Star Portable. Yeah, nice story and such, but a bit too much more of the same, if compared to Illuminus.

BTW due to massive requests, my english blog (.brain) will continue here after some months of suspension. I greatly understimated the need of exposition in a more international context…

Pinballs and the lack of recognition

Being a old-school pinball buff (and dreaming to expand my game collection up to pinball tables, aside for videogames and arcade boards), I was very interested by the Gottlieb Pinball Classics compilation for PSP. Looking around for reviews, I stumbled upon a lot like this one, that failed in the most basic of the review requirements: tell us what’s inside the box.

It seems like if, to new videogame reviewers, Pinballs are something not even worth mentioning, a dark age of gaming. Most of the revews don’t even list the table names, and prefer to use generic paraphrases to describe them, which is more than sad.

I guess that’s what you get when you live out of your sponsor’s expectations instead out of your writers’ competence.

Play J2ME games on your PSP

If you’re in the PSP homebrew community and have an unlocke PSP, a new version of the KVM J2ME virtual machine has been released.

This little software allows you to play J2ME games on the PSP, extending the core MIDP 2.0 API of J2ME with some vendor-specific libraries, like the Nokia API.

The mobile games scenario has its moments, so this little software will probably find a permanent place in my own PSP.

Old school beating

Today, while commuting, I started again Might & Magic: Secrets of The Inner Sanctum, with the idea to finish it. Since I deeply hate old-school western RPGs that don’t feature automapping, I opted for the NES version, using my faithful PSP with NesterJ.
What I found was old school beating! God, the NES version is insanely difficult with lots of new and powerful monsters and slightly different maps…

I’m not pretty sure if a steeper difficulty trades off with much better graphics and a streamlined interface (full of submenus, though).

Tales of Phantasia, at last!

After years of waiting, the fan translation of Tales of Phantasia PS1 is ready! I tested it for good and can assure you that the patch not only works but it is completely compatible with the PSP, so look for a Japanese version of the game (I suppose it won’t come out cheap for a while, but several store owners are still selling it for its real value that is pretty low since there are tons of copies still around), grab your favourite PSX converter and start playing on the go!

The project took an insane amount of time and a huge hacking effort but in the end the quality is simply unmatched by anything else in the realm of fan translations.

Let it be just another monument against years of region locks and stupid product placement policies that deprived (and still ocasionally deprive) lots of gamers of their favourite titles.

New details on further PSP edition surface

Well that Sony was thinking about a brand new edition of the PSP hardware is a widely known fact. In the usual PSP marketing survey Sony is about to send to all the registered PSP users, there’s a section where users are asked to state their interest in a series of improvements. Here’s the list of the relevant ones:

• Mobile phone integration (there’s a Sony patent that is widely known by now talking about the exact same thing).
• Digital delivery of books (nice) and comics (are you kidding? on such a low res screen?)
• Touch screen (Riiiiidge Raceeeeer!)
• Built-in storage (flash memory or built-in HD)
• PDA functions
• New overall design (clamshell or slider)
• Bigger screen (bigger? I also suggest to change the name in PSP Vaio!)
• Longer battery Life (it’s still the Achille’s heel of the whole product)
• Slimmer, lighter design (Since the PSP Lite, this section should be: “shorter design so you can place it in a pocket”)

The list hints that Sony’s going to radically change the PSP (PSP 2?) in the future.

I really hope for a clamshell design or any other way to protect the screen and I’d really like to see the UMD ditched (a possibility, since there are no new suggested features about that technology) in favor of a flash based solution and digitally delivered games.

My first month with a PSP

Well, after receiving a free PSP (with a 4GB MS) and looking around its services and software library it is safe to say that I like it for all the wrong reasons.

Let me rationalize: the PSP is a great hardware (aside several usability issues and LCD problems) but it is wrapped inside some of the most stupid DRM-centric market strategy the man can conceive. You can tell that Sony expected their customers to like the DRM additions, since the manual actually spend more time explaining how they can lock you off the internet and stop you using DRM protected medias that violates regional restrictions than trying to explain how you can actually use the console. This is just sad. The only good point of the Sony’s choices is that their games are region free, while other features of the console (like UMD Video and Audio) are completely locked. Guess what media type is still sold in retail? Corporations will never learn their lessons.

To make things short, I hacked the console. It’s not that I’m a pirate or anything else, it’s just that some of the restrictions and the technological premises of the console are huge flaws, for me. The UMD is very very slow. I borrowed Metal Slug Anthology from a friend to try it up and it has loading times between levels with plenty of stuttering! Insane for such old games on such powerful hardware. In Tekken Dark Resurrection (a game any PSP user should own) loading times between levels can last more than the actual fighting, ruining the pace of the whole experience. Being able to load games from Memory Stick makes the issues much more bearable: games loads faster and you can even scrape another hour from the insufficient three hours long battery life. Now that 4GB Memory Sticks are common, I wonder why Sony don’t equip the firmware with a function to install UMD games right on the stick.

Another aspect of the PSP that is beareable only hacking it is the built-in PS1 emulator. Yes, I know that many big names like Square said openly that remakes or ports on new platforms of older games are a viable business options. Not for me though: I’ve already paid for Xenogears, Grandia and the other PS1 games I own and for years corporations made clear that we don’t own multimedia products, just a license that grants the use. Well, it’s time to use plenty of that license on my PSP: instead of waiting for Sony to put decent PS1 titles in their Playstation Network Store and drop the insane PS3 requirement to just download them, I’m happy ripping my own legitimate PS1 CDs and stuffing them on my Memory Stick. Sincerely, I will be happy to spend current PSN prices on a PS1 game I still don’t own (for example a digital edition of Persona that doesn’t require a mortage), but re-buying games? No thanks, I’m not stupid. I’d rather pay for an official tool that install original PS1 games on the PSP.

The same is true for emulation in general. The PSP is a killer emulation machine, just like the GP2X. Once again, I’m not willing to pay money for ports of games I already own and can emulate unless there is a significant value added. Sega and Capcom Collections are an example of what I mean: lots of games for less than €1 a game, everything is emulated, but with lots of added features (like different screen arrangements, in-game saves, unlocks, online ladders, etc). Anyone should happily pay for countless hours of classic fun if it’s made for a richer and happier portable experience. The Sega Collection, in addition, has the whole Phantasy Star series (bar the first one, I guess because of the need of hand-made maps). The play value of just these 3 games is far more the €20 you can pay for the compilation. Way to go, publishers!

Speaking of real PSP titles, at the moment my attention is on WipEout Pure, Tekken Dark Resurrection, Armored Core Formula Front and I’m still waiting for Popolocrois to get back home from Hong Kong. I tried the Monster Hunters and I don’t see the appeal, really, I guess the online mode is fun if you never played any other online RPG. The real problem with the PSP is that it has several decent titles, but they are swamped between pointless PS2 ports that don’t translate so well for the mobile. However, if the new games announced live up to the expectations this one will be a good year for PSP owners.

In the end: the PSP is an OK system with a few killer applications but still very little value on first party titles, considering how long it was around. If you can work past the DRM and make the thing actually useful it is a solid buy, if you plan to play the corporate game, well, I can’t really recommend it right now: too much issues detracts from the fun, maybe it’s better to wait for the enhanced version coming out soon, according to Sony.

R-Type Tactics first details

Well, now I’m engaged. Irem opened the official R-Type Tactics website and released a first batch of screenshots. The game seems to be an hex-based strategy game with gameplay very similar to Advance Wars and Robot Taisen. Many tradition R-Type bosses are here and some of the maps look like shumps levels.

[[Image:PSP/R-Type Tactics/ss_02.jpg|center|400|This demonstrates that R-Type Final was not final at all…]]

The mix is interesting but the point is: how it will play? It’s a turn based shmup or a full fledged space strategy game? There are RPG elements or not? Only time (and an Irem PR) will tell, I just asked.

R-Type Tactics!!!

Well, since the D&D Tactics rumor spread out and SquareEnix announced the Final Fantasy Tactics remake, it was clear that Sony was trying to find a solid niche of hardocore gamers for the PSP. The idea is not too strange: SRPGs are a quite neglected genre these days but they have a solid plethora of fans out there that are literally hungering for more good Strategy RPG games.

At first, the idea of an R-Type Tactics game seems like something really odd but after thinking about the Robot Taisen and the Gundam SRPG series, it makes a lot more sense sense.

The only problem I’m seeing here it’s still the old SRPG problem: will the game be localized for non Japanese countries? In the past many promising SRPG franchises were left thriving only on the eastern side of the world because of language limitations, others were ported lately or simply badly, receiving a very limited welcome because of quality issues.

Castlevania: the Dracula X Chronicles screens!

[[Image:PSP/Castlevania – The Dracula X Chronicles/ss_0007.jpg|center|400|The bigger they are…]]
Castlevania, fans, rejoice, Konami has just blessed me with several great screenshots of the upcoming PSP game Castlevania: the Dracula X Chronicles. Look at the whole gallery here.