Sharing information.

• 28Apr 08

  Admirable Online World

  Hello and long time no see ! I've been so busy with my studies, I haven't payed much atention to games, and I apologise for not posting for about 3 months. So, I will make it up to you. I hope you guys will enjoy this new miniseries of mine. Thanks, and good reading.

  The concept 'Global Village' has long invaded our lives, but only now have we been feeling it's effect in videogames, while we play match of football with our neighbour in the United Kingdom or a shoot 'em up with a mate from Australia. However, there is a life beyond videogames, I ventured out to explore every corner of this admirable online world.

  Playstation Network

  

  Registration - If you have a PSP and you have a registration on the Plasytation Network you will also be able to use it on the PS3. Otherwise, you will have to get in the console's menu and click on the icon 'Register on the Playstation Network', following the process in the screen or, go to the official Playstation site, from a PC.

  Payments - The PSN offers the chance of creating a master account after several sub-accounts, an option that was specially created to the situations in which various people utilize the same console.

  How to pay - Contrary to other online systems, the PSN does not possess pre-pay cards to effect the payment of the shopping in the Playstation Store. That is one option that is available in Japan but that hasn't been completely exercised in other countries, because of the fact that gamers have to pay the fees the traditional way: credit card.

  PSP - To use the online functionalities of the PSP, you don't have to become member of anything, but to acess the PS Store you will have to follow the same steps as you did with the PS3. If you intend to take advantage of the conection between the two systems, you will have to activate the functionality in the PS3 menu. Every time you wish to use this functionality, you will have to login in the PSP, using the same registration you use in the PS3.

  The awaited evolution

  After a half-gas start, Sony appears to be trying to impulse the Playstation Network, having the main objective of massive services. Although it has presented some good tricks up it's sleeve when compared to the competition's online (such as the internet browser and the connection between the PS3 and the PSP), the network that supports the PS3 and the PSP have been registering some instability in the matter of online multiplayer , at the same time it has been accused of failing in the connecting and tool comunication between gamers. For example, if a gamer is recieving a message from a friend in the middle of a game; the player must abandon the game to be able to access the PS3 interface and being able to see that message. In a middle of many other complaints, that is the one most asked to improve, and Sony has already promised news for this yer. On the other hand, you can see the constant delays in the promissed contents, wether in the north-american Store and on the competing content that are supposed to be available when the multiplatform games are out.

  Arguably, the big event of the year 2008 in the matter of online gaming is the coming of Home, the big trick up Sony's sleeve for the Online war. But the company doesn't stop here, and they already confirmed the launch of a video store integrated in the PS Store ( which hasn't yet received a launch date ) and the upgrade of the PS Store itself, meanwhile, the argument of PS2 games being available for downloading in the PS3.

  That idea extends itself also to the connectivity with the PSP, making possible that every gamer ha the possibility of playing PSOne games in the PSP, using the online conection with the PS3, Sony prepares itself to follow that very same path with the Blu Ray, and soon it will be possible to watch a movie that is stored in the PS3 in every corner of the world.

  Good and Bad

  + Good services

  + Flexibility in the account management

  + Internet Browser

  + Good PS3 connectivity

  + Connection between PS3 and PSP

  - Instability in online gaming

  - Bad community

  - Delay in the content availability

  - No pre-pay cards

  - Constant firmware upgrades

  Recomended Games

  Fifa 08 - When speaking of online sports games, there is hardly any better than Fifa 08. At the same time the is new gameplay, EA Sports managed to transport that new better gameplay into the online world, taking advantage of pretty fluid games. The Be a Pro mode is one of the great things, allowing games of five versus five ( starting from the fact that the series shouldn't stay here, when the main objective of EA right now is to create a game with 11 vs 11 ). In adition, the Interactive Leagues, allow gamers to play with their teams and to accompany a calendar of real life ( unfortunately, my country, Portugal is not included ). Recently, Euro 2008 broght a new atraction to the series, Battle of the Nations: allows gamers to play they're countries team and to help their country to be in the top of the online rankings ( I will help my country to do that ).

  

  Gran Turismo 5: Prologue - The long awaited entry of the new Gran Turismo game into the online world is here and, fortunately, with Prologue, the GT series has managed that. Without being itself a God of online functionalities ( we have Halo 3 to thank for that ), Prologue excites just because it gives a great view of the serie's future. Yet, we already have the possibility of participate in 16 player races in simultaneous tracks, with the frame rates and the gameplay perfect just like the saga has shown us by now. This prologue also offers one of the great new things of Gran Turismo to the fifth chapter of the series, the GT TV, an exclusive channel that will be inserted in the next game in the Playstation Network. Here, the players will see the results of many competitions and even Top Gear episodes, one of the reference programs of the United Kingdom - in Prologue, there will be available more the 40 episodes.

  

  Warhawk - Concentrated exclusively in the multiplayer options, Warhawk was one of Sony's big bets for the PS3's online competition, because it possesses a download version that costs about half of the Blu-Ray games. With several kinds of games, Warhawk supports showdowns between a total of 32 players, that can ride in the plains of fly in the skies, much because there are several kinds of vehicles available. Sony intends to strech the lifetime of this game, and to achieve that, they already launched an expansion in the end of last year, that included five new maps and a new plane. For the next few weeks, it's scheduled the launch of a new expansion pack that will bestow a new map and a new land vehicle. Besides that, the prize mechanic of the Warhawk challenges, will probably be integrated in the Playstation Home trophy system.

  

  • Posted Apr 28, 2008 9:45 am PT
  • Category: Technology
  • 5 Comments
  • Tag
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Digg
• 6Jan 08

  Japan: An Empire

  After years of declining, the Videogame Japanese market resurrected from the ashes into the hands of Nintendo's videogame consoles. The DS and the Wii put the innovation and the gameplay in the centre of the stage, making the technological race a second plan. The rest, everybody knows, its history.

  Fighting and racing games always have been one of the main made in Japan products. However, the public grew weary of this formula and the market sank in a sea of hardcore gamers that, even if lucrative, its to small for a market that intends to compete with music and cinema for the entertainment of many. Nintendo DS's Touch Generations games (Brain Training, Nintendogs, Electroplankton) opened the doors of Videogames to thousands of people searching for newways of entertainment. Traditionally male, the videogame audience inclined itself, to the opposite sex, not only because of the accessibility of the new consoles, but, fundamentally, because the videogame developers started to create games with a more casual standpoint.

  In 2007, Japan lived theportable console fever (the DS and the PSP, combined, already sold about 30 million systems all over the country) and the studios have the white-cards to be as imaginative as they possibly can. Obviously, companies like Sega, Square-Enix or Konami stay faithful to the sequels of popular franchises, which gives them the financial support of creating new franchises. Because of this, the Nintendo DS promises to be fertile terrain for sequels and remakes of famous series like Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Ninja Gaiden, Kingdom Hearts, between others.

  But I don't intend to talk about those games everybody already heard of. I don't intend to explain the path that men like Kojima, Sakaguchi or Myamoto, legends of Japanese game design, went through. What matters here is that new winds are blowing in the East. And there is a whole new generation of new creators that are waiting for an opportunity to show that they are worthy of their masters.

  Between the independent companies, there is one that clearly stands out from the crowd: Level-5. In little more than 10 years, the company founded by Akihiro Hino grew from an idea from a small group of programmers, having already started to create a series of adventures called Professor Layton for the Nintendo DS. An artistic way that impresses the player (under the supervision of Yasuhiro Akasaka, the right arm of Hino-san) and incredible talent to create sets andcharacters that live on in the players memory, make Level-5 the most obvious contendant for the throne of Square-Enix.

  If Level-5 wants to be the new Square-Enix, Grasshopper's studio lieder, Gouichi Suda (better known as Suda 51), dreams to be the new Hideo Kojima. Suda is some kind of alien in the videogame world, a game designer which main influences are not centred in his country'sculture, but in music and cinema of the Asian world. Killer 7, his first work release in Europe and the United States, is one of those games whetheryou love it, your you hate it. The sales failure in his home country costed him the pulling back of the big companies, but there are still people who believe that Suda 51 is one of those rare creators that are capable of creating a bridge between videogames and cinema. Kojima, creator of Metal Gear Solid, already invited him in a project, planned to start in early 2008.

  The new Japanese creators inspire themselves in several artistic ways, but no one expresses their influences so brazenly than Keita Takahashi. The creator of Katamary Damacy is passionate about painting and arquitecture and he tries to put some of those concepts into the world of digital entertainment. The result, of course, leads to such games. His next project - Nobi Nobi Boy - is a PS3 exclusive and it promises to leave the players, yet again, with their heads twirling. The game plays with elasticity, but no one, except probably Takahashi, really knows the final version of this game.

  This new way of producing games stretches itself into the Nintendo DS. Between language translators and museum guides, the Nintendo DS is an authentic Swiss pocket-knife disguised as a gaming machine. In 2008, this tendency promises to grow with a game that teaches good behaviour (Common Sence Training), a yoga simulator (Let's Yoga) or even cooking guides (Talking Cooking Navigator).

  Let's face it, it's the "edutainment" for the gamers, a nice try for the conquest of people's pockets.

  • Posted Jan 6, 2008 1:21 pm PT
  • Category: Editorial
  • 9 Comments
  • Tag
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Digg
• 18Dec 07

  New Year... Nothing New

  Hello my friends, I am back from the Holidays and how good were they. I want to notify all of you that on the closure of this year, I made a decision. I'm going to delete all my blog posts and get a fresh start. I hope you all continue to enjoy my blogs ! Now, let's got to serious business, shall we ?

  We close 2007 with the golden key, plenty of great games, testifying that this was a dream year for any gamer. Not all of them were good, but many were memorable. Many of these memorable games were reviewed right here on Gamespot, it is impossible to miss them.

  But what seems more important to highlight here is that people never invested or talked about this area as much as now, in Portugal. The console offer is the best ever and the specialized stores are already a normal matter in big shopping centers, a bit all over the country. However, something is missing.

  Portuguese players were, always, adepts to the PlayStation brand, merit of the Sony Corporation, that always puts much effort in the communication of their products and the localization of their games. The will of changing mentalities and opening the market of games in SCE Portugal is more than demonstrated, as well as the energy with what it faces in the portuguese market. However, it is odd to say that Sony doesn't live up to its contenders.

  The 360 lived a phenomenal year, and mostly everybody agrees with me (this was said too many times, some might say). The Wii has the potential of seducing every single person that never looked to video games as a form of entertainment, ignoring the fact that it already has some titles with that "Nintendo Magic". However, non of these machines were able to conquer space in our market, nor in our players.

  The truth is that this panorama is not a reason of happiness, not to the market, not to the players and not to specialized press. And worse is that many opportunities seem to have been wasted in the attempt to make this scenario change.

  Either ways, I don't want to finish this blog in the negative way, I just wanted to point out some facts. I hope this scenario changes.

  • Posted Dec 18, 2007 11:23 am PT
  • Category: Rant
  • 2 Comments
  • Tag
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Digg

See Previous Blog Posts