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I must get all my due for being right about the PSP redesign, a lot of people said it would come. It has been in the rumor stage for months and was confirmed earlier this year at E3. The only thing is that the world had to wait until September to get their hands on it. When it comes to Sony gaming products I’ve been a fan of their redesigns and can say that for the PSOne and PS2 found my money well invested. When it comes to portable gaming I’ve never been a huge fan of it. I mean, the last thing I had is the original Game Boy, I had three games for it; Tetris, Donkey Kong and Pokemon Blue.

The reason I conveinced myself to purchase a PlayStation Portable is because of the games. I wanted to play Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops. I want to enjoy God of War: Chains of Olympus and Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core coming out next year. The price was good and the money was there. But after 10 days I can say that I haven’t got a lot of time to play with it (to play at all; remember Bioshock… not done yet).

The PSP still has some nice games coming it’s way and the developers seem to have a nice hold of it’s technology. The package I purchased came with Daxter, a Family Guy UMD and a 1GB Memory Stick. It’s still a bit pricey but I would never trade that for a DS Lite, despite the price difference, I want some serious gaming on my handheld, otherwise I’d rather just play with what’s on my phone.

Just in case you’re still wandering, the new PSP is slimmer and lighter. It has apparently a brighter screen, and thanks to a decision made by Sony, all PSPs will be able to access the whole processing power of the device. This way developers will be able to push the games a little further.

I’m not sure how far I am into the game but I can tell you I enjoy very much. I got into it because a friend of mine was praising the game so much I had to give it a try. As soon as the demo came out on the PC and done trying it, my mind was set to purchase the game. Even if it is classified as a first person shooter (FPS) it is truly “genetically evolved”. Aside the classic melee weapons, shotgun, and pistol you get to use Plasmids. These injections allow you to use powers like fire, electricity, telekinesis and many more. The design of the game is beautiful and the art direction really made it look as if you we’re in the 60s. You get to loot items off enemies but also to buy items with the money you found or took off corpses. The game is set in the city of Rapture we’re every bit of the utopia it was meant to be has gone wild. The abusive use of gene modification drove everyone to madness and you as a sole survivor of your plane crash have to fight your way into safety.

There has been a lot of talk about DRM issues that crippled the game and even anti-virus software that detected it as a virus. Just yesterday AVG locked out my Bioshock and I had to swap to a avast! instead. I feel bad that users are the ones who have to live with all the trouble. People who pirate the game probably has a seamless experience as soon as they crack the games protection. Anyhow I’m still enjoying the game and haven’t felt as much tension in a game before. Those Big Daddies are fierce enemies and those little sisters are really creepy. You have the choice to harvest them to get maximum reward but if your heart is in the right place you will save them and still be rewarded in other ways. I must state that this game is still rated M for mature and even adults should be cautious due to the extreme gore and violence. I strongly suggest you at least try the demo if you PC can run it. You might fall in love with the experience.

Can’t get enough of Kratos action? You’ve already played God of War and God of War II? How about test your skills on the go? The official announcement was given via an ad with GoW II. The game is called God of War: Chains of Olympus and should come to the PlayStation Portable sometime this year. The first teaser trailer has hit the web and can be viewed at the end of the post. The official site is not fully operational yet… but there is a sign up to get a demo disk. I’m not sure if the story line is a sequel. It gave me the impression that it circles around adventures during or before the original God of War. Will have to wait a little more in order to get more information. But the graphics look sick! I mean it’s on a portable device… take that Nintendo DS!

At last, I have finished the game. Overall I enjoyed every single moment of it. I am of those who believe this sequel is even better than the original God of War that was already perfect. I will call God of War II super-perfect in the sense of game play and cinematic value. My expectations were even surpassed when it comes to the improvements they’ve been able to make. They’ve been able to pick up the story get rid of little flaws and add to what people loved about the first installment. They have managed to keep everything that was epic about the first game and port it over to a sequel, it can be considered one of the very last “great” game to come to the PlayStation 2. You start the game with your favorite anti-hero Kratos, now a god.

After defeating Ares you decide to guide your people (the Spartans) to many wars and thanks to your power they are victorious (one would assume). However the other gods in Olympus are not happy with the way you do things (just like they didn’t really like Ares). Once you arrive on the battlefield as a giant you are betrayed and part of your powers are taken away. You are reduced to human size and must fight the Colossus of Rhodes that has been animated by godly powers. From that first act, the story takes many twists and turns to bring you to the ground, back to a mere mortal and force you to re-establish your powers. In order to change your fate, Gaïa the Titan helps you reach the Sisters of Fate that could change your past, thus insuring your future.


Just like the first game you fight your way through mythical enemies and meet others seeking the sisters of fate. The combos that were present in the first game were slightly altered to give it something new, but in the end it’s still a combination of button mashing and blocking at the right time. About half way through the game you find the Golden Fleece that allows you to deflect an energy attack right back at your enemies, the trick is that you need to block at the exact time your about to be hit. You come across new spells to cast upon your enemies and you have a new rage mode that allows you to increase the damage you can make. Finally you have more alternate weapons that you can use (up to three this time). You really feel for your character and even if you don’t agree with all his methods it’s a heart pumping adrenaline rush. The finale is epic and the unlockable bonuses will keep me playing for some time. I will not spoil by saying that I’ll be waiting for God of War III and a PSP title later this year and in 2008. I’ll give God of War 2 a 10 out of 10, being the greatest game to be ever released on the PS2, seeing that game (and how good it looks) makes you forget about all this next generation graphics thing.

With the announcement this week of the PSP getting a price drop for it’s Core Pack one might wonder what is Sony thinking? Alright, alright, we all know it’s sales figure are no where near the Nintendo DS, we know it’s been pricey from the start and that Sony needs good publicity nowadays. It’s price is now at $169.99 and it’s obviously a move to push more systems to the market, but is this a hint that Sony is clearing the inventory to make room for a redesign? If you remember both the PlayStation (PSOne) and the PlayStation 2 (PS2) got a make over that helped lower their price and increase their appeal to customers. As for myself I bought both these systems as soon as they were redesigned and got the price cut. The only real bonus for those redesign are a smaller form factor and a better profit margin for Sony as their equipment is cheaper to manufacture. If the past is any indication of the future, and if you believe everything is bound to happen again then you have good reasons to believe it will happen again.

However, they probably have a large stock of PSPs and the price drop is a minimal appeal, the lack of A+ games is still missing and they don’t have the market the DS has. The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is advertised as a strong gaming device, movie player and music system. In a day and age were MP3 players and cellphones keep getting smaller and video is increasingly appealing a redesign of the PSP would be a great way to promote the platform and include more inter-connection with the PlayStation 3 (PS3). Remember that the DS got a redesign and is loved in it’s new form factor, Sony is planning to make a new distribution service where you will be able to download movies to play on your PSP. A nice addition to a redesign would be included memory, even if Memory Stick are getting much cheaper…

I’m planning to get both a PSP and PS3 someday, when the price is right. I will give it to the end of the year and see if they manage to come with a redesign, I remember buying my PS2 for $179.99 CDN so all things considered the PSP is now a valid option. I predict a redesigned PSP in time for Christmas 2008.

I don’t know how many people like myself don’t have cable at home, nor satellite TV. I’ve been living off over the air program which gives you a fair selection of shows. None the less it’s not like there are a lot of interesting things on TV and that I wouldn’t have the time to watch it much. A while back I touted the great Open Source program called Democracy, it let’s you subscribe to downloadable shows that are completely free. There is something for every taste but here are a few that I like (as a tech savvy person) it’s mostly technology shows and game shows.

DL.TV, Diggnation, IGN Weekly, The Totally Rad Show, Lab Rats, On the Spot, inDigital, CNet TV, and X-Play. These shows are weekly editions for the most but to get a better idea of their schedule you should follow the links to their website. The best way to enjoy videos on the web is to aggregate them in one place. This way you don’t have to jump from a website to an other. In my case I use these shows RSS feeds that give a link for the download as well as information about the episode. Democracy can be set up to automatically download the shows. This way you have a free TV on Demand on your computer (if you have the right set up you can send the image to a nearby TV, like I do). The shows are usually free but they are sponsored which is a good bargain for free.

One thing I found to be unexpected is how you quickly have those models take over the Internet, just like your huge TV stations like FOX, NBC or Global, many video cast affiliate themselves to a larger brand to create the equivalent of a channel. Big networks like CNet, Revision3 or Ziff Davis are a few owners of several IPTV shows I watch. So any day you’re bored with what you have on the small screen, head over to a smaller one (relative) to get your fix.

I think I’m allowed to say that I love having great expectations over a product, but most of all I love being surprised! Today Phil Harrison presented a demo of an upcoming game for the PS3 called LittleBigPlanet. It’s an other step in the social engineering behind the PlayStation Home; you are these little creatures that can fool around in a completely flexible world. You get to create your own levels and share them over the network. It’s based of physics and the world you involve in can be really creative. This brings user generated content to the front seat and I guess saves developers the time to create levels. It’s a bit unfair, but I’ll have to admit I wasn’t feeling it at all, a bit like a flOw vibe, where you fool around and take it easy. But this games adds extra fun to any party, whether it would be online or if you have a bunch of friends over.

All the players are now in the arena and the battle of the gaming consoles is far from over. It is true that the price tag of the PS3 has been facing serious criticism from the start but I still think that this gaming platform is way cool. I’ve been finding it hard to find a good reason to love the PlayStation 3, but I guess that from time to time their future looks a bit brighter. Today at GDC (Game Developers Conference), Phil Harison announced the PlayStation Home would be the online answer the PlayStation Network would have to Microsoft’s Xbox Live, and Nintendo’s Mii.

The most coherent analogy to PlayStation Home would be the well known Second Life; you get an avatar, character that you design to your likings, to evolve in a virtual space where you can meet friends, show off trophies and do a ton of interactive stuff. The keynote showed the ability to view trailers and movies from within the virtual environment, basically you got your character and a TV in it’s apartment, watching a trailer. Words cannot do full justice to Sony’s latest innovation; watch listen to the nice lady and be amazed, I’m sure impressed by what they pulled out of the hat.