via modojo

5 Things I Hate About the DS:

1. Quirky titles - I like quirky games and innovation just as much as the next guy. I love digital comic-type graphic adventures. Warioware Touched is genuinely fun for about 45 minutes. It's just that, sometimes, I want to play an adrenaline-fueled racer or a baseball game. Unfortunately, if that's your cup of tea, you may be sorely disappointed. Nintendo's handheld entry offers unparalleled panache - but not as much palpitation.

2. Flimsy D-Pad - You know how when you try to play the PS2 demo kiosk at Wal-Mart, and the directional pad is all sluggish and flattened out because little kids have been pounding on it every day for the last five years? Well that's how my DS Lite's d-pad felt the second I took it out of the box.

3. Friend codes -Friend codes are supposed to be the gaming equivalent of Facebook, only in Nintendo's version, when someone tries to add you to their friends list, the system doesn't bother to tell you. Ditto when you try to add someone to yours. What is the purpose of these pesky codes? Nobody's going to track down and kidnap your kid via an online Mario Kart match unless he willingly gives out his home address to a total stranger, and if he's stupid enough to do that, you're probably already trying to have another kid to replace him anyway.

4. Half-assed touchscreen functions - The touchscreen is an incredibly innovative interface option, but I wish developers would either use it well or feel free to chuck it. I definitely wouldn't mind an otherwise good game that didn't use the touch capability, if the touchscreen would only serve as essentially a fifth button.

5. The boxy shape - The smooth, angular design is a triumph for modernist minimalism and orthopedic surgeons, because contorting my hands to comfortably place all the buttons at my fingertips leaves me with a wicked case of carpal tunnel syndrome.

5 Things I Hate About the PSP:

1. Required firmware updates - Of course, firmware can be a godsend when it fixes a serious problem or adds new and improved functionality. Between these big updates, however, are a LOT of smaller, incremental ones designed solely to keep up with the newest method of hacking the PSP. This means that you have to update the firmware about once every three minutes to play the newest games, which is just plain infuriating. I wish I knew exactly how much total time I've spent from v1.5 watching the little firmware installation progress indicator bar and having a heart attack every time it freezes and I think it has bricked my system. Then again, maybe I don't want to know.

2. Price - While it's true that Sony has added a couple of accompaniments to the $250 PSP package over the last few years, the system still technically has never had a price drop in its lifetime. And no, stripping the accessories out of the Value Pack and "reducing" the price to $199 doesn't count. Does Sony even realize that their portable costs the same amount as Nintendo's next-gen home console?

3. Defective pixels - Maybe I just have a vicious case of obsessive-compulsive disorder, but I simply can't stand dead/stuck pixels. I have unwrapped four brand new PSPs in my life, from different stores at different times, and every single one has had at least four defective pixels. Anyone at Sony who tries to tell you that fewer than five bad pixels is not a defect has never tried to play Metal Gear Solid with a line of three red pixels smack in the middle of the screen. I know it's common, and I know the PSP screen has a relatively high resolution, but if the company that makes my cheapo LCD monitor can make a display with no blemishes, so can Sony.

4. Load times - Life is all about tradeoffs, and this is especially true of the PSP. The UMD format offers vast storage space in a compact size, but the reliance on optical disc technology means waiting and waiting and waiting for data to load. It's hard to fault Sony for bringing impressive technology to the consumer, but that's little consolation when you're waiting four minutes for the drive to load WWE Smackdown and realize during that time you just outgrew your faux-wrestling phase.

5. The analog nub - Is there anything good about this thing? ...

via joystiq

The Great Canadian Video Game Competition has inspired developer Big Blue Bubble to turn playing video games into hard work. The developer is creating a carpentry sim for the Wii, Hobby Shop, that uses both controllers to let players build bird houses, catapults, soap box racers, and more. The team wants the game to be "family friendly" so parents will want to play it with their children. Guess that means no driving nails through your hand or sawing off limbs.

Hobby Shop has passed the first two stages of the competition -- innovation and project development -- and scored the dev team over $200,000 for their work. The winner of the final stage of the competition (to be announced in September) will receive another grant to help in the commercialization of their product. In other words, Hobby Shop could be on store shelves sometime next year. It just might be quirky enough to work. ...

via joystiq

With a mix of puzzle and role playing elements, Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords tries to hook both casual and hardcore players. Does it succeed? The answer is a strong "yes", though the game is not without its issues. The DS version has smooth stylus control but has a cramped screen layout and poor visuals, while Puzzle Quest PSP suffers from awkward loading pauses but has a better screen layout and graphics. Fortunately the drawbacks aren't enough to spoil the highly addictive gameplay.

Gamespot (8.5/10) - "What's most remarkable about Puzzle Quest is how a simple change of context turns some tired genre conventions that have been done to death into something that's suitable for just about anyone, regardless of your interest in the components."
Gamealmighty (8.3/10) - "Like a traditional RPG, your character will earn experience points and levels, allowing you to customize your strengths by the allocation of points. There are over 150 diverse quests to tackle that take place on a large and lush campaign map. Before you know it, you'll find yourself engaged in your first combat, and from that moment forward, you'll be hooked. This is no easy puzzle game and the more you uncover then the more you realize that Puzzle Quest is actually quite deep and strategic."
Gamesradar (7/10) - "The source material Bejeweled is fantastically compelling, so the puzzling is solid even if purists may dislike the addition of spells and powers. But those powers can definitely tip the scales in a match, so they add a whole new nuance and added strategy. And your constantly rising stats, abilities and property deliver a nice feeling of progression." ...

via joystiq

The High Court of Edinburgh, Scotland, has sentenced Alan Stirling to four years in prison for "culpable homicide" in the murder of a man who potentially broke his "computer" or "PlayStation" depending on who's talking. The BBC headline says PlayStation, the judge says PlayStation, but the reporter calls it a computer. So we're not sure if this is one of those cases where the brand name is tossed around to mean any console, like photocopies are Xerox and tissues are Kleenex.

Anyway, after a night of "drink and drugs" with friends at Stirling's apartment he awoke at 5 AM to the sound of one of his friends having knocked over the television, which apparently had the console on or near it. Stirling then repeatedly "punched and kicked" the man. He found the gentleman later in the lobby and attempted to help him, but it was too late. In this case, the BBC's headline of "Man kills friend over PlayStation" is just a tad misleading. ...

via joystiq

Given the way the Wii is selling, Nintendo can let their gaming drought go on for a good while. Their marketing scheme to diversify the gaming demographic is getting them good press. And from the looks of it, all old people need is Wii Sports to be happy before Death comes aknockin' on their door.

Reuters helps Nintendo along by covering another old folks home where the elderly are just thrilled to death over the Wii Sports. Studies have shown that the elderly aren't into the newfangled complicated games so they're quite content with some chair tennis or bowling. As Flora Dierbach, 72, puts it, "It's a very social thing and it's good exercise ... and you don't have to throw a 16-pound bowling ball to get results."

Like a raptor in the tall grass, Nintendo is patient and knows the prey is easy. They just wait and coast on the good press and strong sales of the Wii. Old people will continue to enjoy their Wii Sports and may end up purchasing a few other titles, giving just a little bit of extra money to Nintendo. Of course, the real coup d'etat is when Grandma buys the grandkids a Wii because they've played it and don't see anything "wrong" with it. ...

via kotaku

When the recent NPD sales figures for February hit last week, there was much doom and gloom cast over Sony's PLAYSTATION 3 performance. Selling a paltry 127,000 PS3s while stores were uncharacteristically rich with supply did not bode well for the console and fostered doubt that gamers were ready for PS3's $500 and $600 price points.

But while the Xbox 360 bested the PS3 at retailers by a solid 100,000 units last month, don't think that Sony's out of the game. 1UP's Luke Smith contends that, in the proper perspective, sales of the PLAYSTATION 3 really aren't that bad. In fact, they're better than Microsoft's numbers during the same time period last year.

Obviously, there are many other facts to consider, such as the limited supply of Xbox 360s during that period and the $200 price difference between the next-gen consoles, but Luke addresses all that. Its a fascinating look at how Sony and the PS3 may not actually be DOOMED! ...

via insert credit

Aksys, a publisher formed by ex Atlus employees which thus far has only brought out Eagle Eye Golf for PS2, has just announced Hoshigami Remix for DS. It's a remake of the original Hoshigami for PS2, a tactics RPG from Max Five, itself formed by ex Tactics Ogre developers. Hoshigami Remix, not even out yet in japan, has three difficulty modes, as opposed to the punishing single mode of the original, a new character, new music, and character art. And naturally since it's for the DS, it'll have a new interface. gail salamanca from Aksys had this to say regarding the new difficulty levels, though it's not finalized, so don't take this as gospel.

"I believe on Easy characters are automatically resurrected after battle. Whereas on Normal you start off with a revive coinfeigm but death is permanent. And Hard is exactly as it was on the PS1. Also, I believe hit % / damage ratio / xp received is increased on easy and normal which means a little less grinding." So there you have it. I need a good tactics game on the DS over here! ...

via engadget

Typically, we don't single out just one aspect of an entire console or gizmo, as it's always a beautiful sight to see a perfectly assembled console do its thang in reverse, but Sony's European PlayStation 3 is a different animal. If you'll recall, the American PS3 features a neatly attached PS2 chipset to make sure that backwards compatibility was all but a minor issue, but even after countless delays and a staggeringly high price point, Europe's unit was hamstringed still. While we'd heard that the late-coming PS3 would sport limited abilities in the PS2 department, it still made us cringe when those whispers were proved true, and now its time to witness just how bare this motherboard looks as it uses emulation to crank up a few (literally) PS2 titles. ...

Yesterday came the release of Dragonminded`s DS Organize and the major new addition was the Online Working Internet Browser.

SPREAD THIS NEWS



Heres what was posted to be working:


Thanks to DantheMan we have a screenshot and images of the browser in action, now it works best on sites that have little to no images ie TEXT Only sites but for the first release its great to see.

Heres the screens:







Full details on the excellent Free Internet Browser (and DS Organiser app) at the News Article Here. ...