Today marks the release of the Sony PSP Go, the smaller, UMD-less version of the classic PlayStation Portable. The controversial handheld is supposed to usher in the media-less era of handheld gaming, forgoing the expensive and inelegantly mechanical UMD drive and physical discs for the magic of digital content delivery.

While this is a good system for PC games, and even certain console titles, does it really make sense for handhelds? More specifically, does it make sense for a PSP?

The reviews are out, and it’s not looking good. It’s rare that we can report a device as being “universally panned”, but this one looks like it’s heading that way.

Engadget says, “The debut of the Go has been marred by some pretty downtrodden decisions on Sony’s part, most notably the $250 price tag, an utter lack of compatibility with any previous PSP accessories, and no UMD conversion program.”

ArsTechnica’s Ben Kuchera was brutally honest. He states, “The entire point of the PSP Go hinges on the wireless, digital aspect of the hardware, so why is that hardware so outdated? Why is downloading a game made to be as annoying as possible?” regarding a variety of issues with downloading games, including their awkward decision to stick with 802.11b wireless hardware (in a $250 device? really?). He goes on to say, “Ultimately, this is the rare case where an old product gives you more freedom, more features, and at a better price. Of course, an older PSP won’t have Bluetooth, and the screen won’t slide to hide the controls, but existing customers can cry themselves to sleep on piles of cheaper games if they become upset.” (more…)

Sony has done it again with one of their international ad campaigns.  Two controversial Sony advertisements were released in Chile recently, one depicting a gamer giving a blood transfusion to a Nazi, and another showing a gamer giving his heart for transplant to Joan of Arc.  According to the press release, the Nazi depicted is Germany’s WWII Afrikakorps general Erwin Rommel.

This ad comes on the tails of other highly controversial Sony campaigns like the openly racist “White is Coming” and aggressive “Jump Here”, which was recalled for suggesting suicide in train stations.

[via engadget via  Copyranter]

Images NSFW or the faint of heart… Get it? Heart? Heart transplant. (ed. note: K was never known for his comedy skills)

We all know that the SEGA empire that so many of us knew and loved crumbled in front of our very eyes when the Dreamcast couldn’t sustain their market and laid their last console to rest to focus on the software.  Since then, SEGA become a third party developer for a number of the very same consoles they had previously competed against. After all, who would have thought we’d ever see Mario and Sonic in the same game?

On August 6th SEGA had a private and clearly confidential meeting with Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) about Sony’s plans for the second half of the year and the spring of next year.

As you can imagine, SEGA was taking notes at the meeting and they made just a tiny little mistake by putting those meeting notes in their official, publicly accessible FTP site.  Today someone found the notes and the story has spread quickly through the gaming community.   (more…)

New PS3 slim

Today at Gamescom, Sony announced the new PS3 Slim. The Slim will retail for $299 starting September 1st in North America and Europe. Besides being much smaller, it uses less power and runs cooler, in addition to sporting a 120gb hard drive, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and the standard Blu-Ray player and 1080p HDMI support.

At $299 the PS3 Slim is poised to finally take its place as the heart of a very viable entertainment system. With support for the ever-expanding PlayStation Network as well as being arguable the best Blu-Ray player on the market, this was a smart move on Sony’s part.

With E3 just beginning to unfold, every gamer wonders what the future will bring. I would classify 2009 as a fairly slow year thus far. The three major consoles and two major handhelds are starting to age and, despite some renewed interest in PC gaming, we have yet to see a truly groundbreaking exclusive PC title. I fear that video gaming may have reached its peak popularity in the past couple of years.

The two major gaming stories in 2009 have been the industry’s resilience in a bad economy, and iPhone’s growth in the gaming sector. These are nice stories, but with the exception of the iPhone, all major gaming platforms seem to have reached their peak, and are starting to head slowly downhill. I think this trend all started with a disappointing E3 2008. We saw some interesting titles, but it was not exactly a year that gamers will look back on with wild fondness.
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Valve announced that Sony Online Entertainment has chosen the Steam content distribution platform to engage a new generation of gamers with some of their venerable MMO lineup. SoE’s Everquest, EverQuest II, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, and Pirates of the Burning Sea are now available via Steam.

More and more major game publishers are using Valve’s system to distribute their software. In many ways, Steam is a great platform for re-introducing games that may have fallen out of retail favor. While boxes get old and relegating to the discount bin in traditional brick-and-mortar environments, digital content distribution is a very easy way to encourage people to make impulse purchases. I’m sure some of you have been browsing the Steam catalog before and found something that caught your eye, and perhaps that even led to a purchase of something you may never have tried in a more traditional setting.

The games, as well as expansion packs, are available immediately.

Since Icrontic’s Team 93 has started a renewed Folding@Home push, I decided to start up folding on the IcronticHQ Playstation 3 again. Last night after I was done playing a game, I switched over to Folding, and it told me it needed an update.

After the 150mb update, I had something new on my PS3: “Life with Playstation“. Apparently this came out in September but if you don’t manually run F@H you won’t get the update. I had been running F@H in screensaver mode, so it never got updated.

Life with Playstation looks like a knockoff of the Wii news channel and weather channel. It begs the question: Do people really go to their game consoles for this information? Honestly? I mean, it looks nice on screen, with the nice spinning globe and hi-def display, but… sigh.. Google news and weather? I rather preferred the nice folding “protein” display in screensaver mode. I’m going to chalk Life with PS up to ’something I will never, ever use”

If you fold on your PS3, I guess you should get the update anyway, just to make sure you’re running the latest core / F@H client.

Sony is about to release their fifth expansion for Everquest II, entitled “The Shadow Odyssey”. The new expansion brings 5 new heritage quests, 20 new zones, an achievement point level cap increase, and more new content. In fact, Gnome Queen tells me there’s going to be airships. 

Seriously? Airships. Arrrgggh give me a game where this cap’n kin wear a trenchcoat, have a squirrel on his shoulder, pilot an airship, and be a helium pirate, and this cap’n'll sign up. No word on whether these rumored airships are pilotable.

Oh right – back to the point: GamingAngels has a copy to give away – head over there and leave a comment on their blog to qualify.

In other giveaway news, ClassyMommy is giving away a Nintendo Wii just in time for the 2008 holiday rush. This is in the form of a popularity contest though. Get people to vote for you and you can win it. Go go go!

  

 

 

I want the pink one!

Since we upgraded to a PS3 here at ICHQ, the sturdy old PS2 has been relegated to a box in the basement. We spent many happy hours with our PS2 though – games like Final Fantasy X, Shadow of the Colossus, God of War, and Grandia 3 gave us a lot of great gaming memories.

I think back – those games are still totally viable. They still look great, they still play great, and there are tons more. The Playstation 2 library is gigantic – over 2400 games by some estimates. New games are being released today. Now, Sony is pushing the PS2 as a “budget” gaming platform for the 2008 holiday season.

This is great move on Sony’s part – here they have a platform with zero R&D cost, that can be built very cheaply, and publishers are still releasing new games for it. Gamasutra quotes SCEA sales and marketing VP Ian Jackson as saying “In a tight economy, (it) is a great value proposition for the consumer.”

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