buttonmashing

Mashing buttons since 1984

Sony

LittleBigPlanet Levels Being Moderated

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Media Molecule and Sony seems to be deleting user-created levels that feature or copy intellectual property.

Get over it, whiners. Create something unique and original. I’ve specifically avoided anything to do with other IP and game level copying. 99% of it is crap anyway. If I want to play Super Mario Bros., uh, I’ll play SMB.

I’ll be nice now. Mean mode is off.

Let Me Know When It’s Over

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While Tony will be writing about E3, I’ll be the devil’s advocate. As gamers we gut FUD all year long. For events like E3, it just goes over the top.

Bill Harris says it much better than I can.

In a sense, to me, it’s all epic fail. All I know is that Nintendo prints money and really wants to get into the controller business (for each individual game), Microsoft overprices hard drives (is it up? down? a new size? a phased out kit? wha…?), and Sony still appears to be in denial (everything else is just niche) .

Geesh.

Making the PSP Better

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While checking my daily online gaming news with attitude, I came across an interesting announcement made by Sony at this year’s CES: download movie to your PSP using a PS3 and Blu-ray discs. With the advent of Warner Brothers moving exclusively to Blu-ray (bummer, I just bought an HD-DVD player) and this new download ability, Sony seems to be making some right moves for a change. However, could this mean that Sony is looking at the UMD format as a failure?

Predictions (or what Sony should do):

  1. Redesign the PSP once again and remove the UMD all together, and release games on memory sticks. The memory stick could even be used to save game progress. Sell the PSP at the Nintendo DS price point.
  2. Not charge for this service of copying Blu-ray to PSP (some how I think there’s going to be a money making scheme somewhere).
  3. Release more PSOne games on the PlayStation Network – two a week. (Beats is fun for $5, but it’s pretty much all there is.)

If #1 became a possibility, I’d be all over it like ugly on an ape.

If you want to already copy movies to your PSP (or any device for that matter), check out Handbrake.

Back in the Saddle Again

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I have a confession. Being the resident Sony expert it might be surprising to note that my only Sony experience in the last two years has only been with a PSP. Even that has been sketchy at best. Let me give you some history.

When the PSP came out I was pretty excited. I traded in my PS2 and entire collection of twenty games. I walked out with a PSP, two games, and a case. Looking back, it was a horrible trade. After about six months of Lumines, I traded that back in and received my first Xbox (one of six! – that’s for another story) and a couple of games. I was Sony dry for almost a year.

Enter late Summer of 2006, and I get a call from Visa. I have a Sony credit card, and I need to use my reward points in 24 hours or I lose them. I pick back up a PSP and five games. Nine months later, it’s still a little sketchy with the PSP. However, it appears to be picking up a little in that department.

My dilemma is that I cannot really post much review info about Sony’s bread and butter, the PS2, with any sort of integrity or legitmacy. I could use a PS2. And then came the windfall.

I have to run a video game tournament for teens in October and one of the needs is a PS2. I’ve been graced with a budget of $200. I figure I could get a system and four $20 Greatest Hits games. Here’s where you come in. What games should I get? A couple of caveats:

  • the games need to be $20 or less
  • they can only be released in the last two years
  • no sports (to dated) and no games that require peripherals
  • no games I can get realtively easy on other systems

What four games would you recommend? List them in the comments.

WTS: Used PSP

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I’m not selling one. But I’m starting to see a rather serious trend here (I could go on, but I’ll spare you). Question is: are there any buyers?

Now that movies on UMD are going the way of the Dodo, so goes the PSP? Will the DS Lite be the final nail in the coffin? Where are the good games, Sony?!

I still have gadget envy everytime I see that gorgeous PSP screen but then I play a game of Animal Crossing. Or Metroid Prime Hunters. And I suddenly feel a twinge of superiority.

Mr. Monk and friends

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I know I’m not alone in my enjoyment of the TV show “Monk“. It’s usually a funny show with enough quirkiness to make anyone laugh. I think they cut some corners today in the set department.

In the episode, Monk is trying to find a stolen diamond and claim a big reward. He’s being followed by a group of wanna-be detectives also after the money. One of them, played by DJ Qualls, is a nerdy detective with all sorts of spy gadgetry. Things were going good until he pulls out a PSP and calls it his “stress detector” (or some such thing). Huh? Is that all the prop people can come up with? Did someone say, “we need something high tech looking. Oh, and black!” and a stage hand pulled his PSP out of his backpack and said, “how about this?” Come on, USA! You can do better than that!

And what does this say about the PSP? It’s already been relegated to bad props on a TV show? That can’t be good.