EVEN MOAR GAEMS!!
Everyday I thank God (well, not literally) for current gaming situation.... like with what systems I own, what I can do with them and what's on the horizon with them... all of which exist for the sole purpose of keeping me sane and by giving me something to do to help kill time between exciting things. Specifically....
* First off I'm still extremely happy that I got my PS3 when I did. Sure maybe it's only 80gb and games for it are $60... but at least it's still backwards compatible with PS1 and PS2 games. All the new PS3s out now lack at least the PS2-compatibility, a concept that makes me want to do nothing but cringe (you poor unlucky bastards got dicked by Sony). Now I just need to hack my PS3 to be able to play copied PS2 games and I'll be in business! ... You can hack your PS3 to do that, right?
* Speaking of PS2-compatibility... part of the reason why I never got a PS2 was because I knew I would get a PS3 and thus buying a PS2 would be a pointless, $150-$199 expenditure. Unfortunately though, I waited as long as I did to get my PS3, and so I "missed" out on playing PS2 games when they first came out. The upside is that I can still play them all now and not have to pay new game prices for them as well. Therefore... anyone know of any really cool PS2 games that I can add to my collection? :D I already know that I want to get Katamari Damacy and I ♥ Katamari, as well as the GTA trilogy... what else should I get?
* As for other people and their PS3s... I went to a Gamestop in San Bruno and overheard a few people talking about how they sold their PS3s. Wow, really? Am I the only one who feels as happy as I do about my PS3? But then again, I bought my PS3 as a PS2 with a Bluray player (and kept it for its Divx playback ability)... maybe those guys already have all of those individually and so they didn't need the PS3? I guess, maybe. Still, maybe they regretted their purchase, but I sure the hell didn't. :D
* My favorite RPG series by far has to be Phantasy Star, at least the more recent incarnations of the series (not the Genesis versions), and especially ever since playing Phantasy Star Online for GameCube--in fact, PSO is my only source of knowledge pretaining to online RPGs. Now sure, I enjoy Final Fantasy like everyone else does, but... everyone else does too. I'd go as far to say that Final Fantasy is the Michael Jackson to Phantasy Star's Björk... because just like Björk, I feel like I have an exclusive relationship with Phantasy Star, unlike Final Fantasy (and Michael Jackson) in which it feels like it belongs to everyone.
* Now if you combine the first and fourth points, you'll get: Part of the reason why I'm glad my PS3 plays PS2 games is for Phantasy Star Universe for PS2... which I just got right now for $10 (God bless having the internet on my phone as well). I gave it a whirl on my PS3 and discovered that PS2 games can tap into the PS3's wifi capaiblities and thus can play games online. This means I'll be able to play Phantasy Star Universe online again! I might just do that! :D
* Then there's also Phantasy Star Portable for the PSP which I've been putting a lot of hours into, which is a really pretty game. The fact that I was able to download it to my hacked PSP and play it also make me so glad for my current system situation. But the one thing I dislike about PSP on the PSP is that there is no online function. Beh, oh well. It's still a really awesome game, especially for the player customization abilities. :D
* Fortunately though, Phantasy Star Ø (Zero) for the NDS is coming out soon and it'll have online play (albeit Nintendo's brand of "online" "play"). Recently I downloaded the Japanese version of it, complete with anti-anti-R4DS hack, and I haven't been able to put it down. Finally, I can put to good use what Japanese I've learned playing Japanese Pokémon ROMS back in the day (boy howdy, playing the ROM of Pokemon Gold when it first came out some 10 years ago... good times). ANYways... the game is really nifty; it takes place on Earth, as opposed to Ragol or Gurhal, and looks like a cross between the Old West and Japantown. My character looks like a Union soldier from the Civil War. There's also a few new weapons; I spotted a Gunblade and a shield. Interesting get-up there, Sega! Unfortunately some of the limitations of the NDS show through: Creatures don't drop items after you kill them, you have to wait until they're all dead for a "prize box" to appear with all your rewards. Furthermore the areas aren't these large, sprawling worlds but tiny sections on a grid, and the AI is a little stupid (I bust my ass to revive fallen team mates but as soon as I'm KO'd no one saves me! BASTARDS) And I still haven't run into a shotgun, which is my favorite weapon in all of Phantasy Star-dom. Blah. Still though, it's easy enough to play through, especially given that it is still a Phantasy Star game. It REALLY makes me want to get it in English now.
* In other NDS news... I'm really excited to play Nostalgia, from the makers of the NDS versions of Final Fantasy III and IV, just because. (Side note: HURRY UP AND RELEASE NDS VERSIONS OF FF6 AND FF7!) I'm also dying to play Pokemon Heartgold and Soulsilver (YAY for Japanese version again!), as well as Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (yeah, ok, FINE) and oooh!, what's this? "Logic Island"? You just said da magic woid! Now if they only had a non-BitTorrent-related version of Romulation.net for PSP games, then we'll be in business! :D
* Speaking of Pokemon, I'm kinda upset/disappointed with Nintendo for not making the Korean version compatible with all the other versions of Pokemon. Well, I mean, technically the games ARE compatible, but the text isn't. Like, when I tried to transfer Pokemon between Diamond.kr and Diamond.en, none of the Korean characters appeared in the English game, while obviously the English characters did in the Korean game. Honestly though, I really should be glad that there IS a Korean version of Pokemon to begin with and that I COULD transfer Pokemon between Diamond.kr and Diamond.en. I just would prefer if that compatibility between Pokemon games is pushed one step further and includes Korean characters. :)
* I also got to play GRID for NDS, which is a racing game. I'm not much into racing games but this one caught my eye for two reasons: 1. it has a track editor! Did someone say Mario Kart tracks in GRID?? :D and 2. for an NDS-quality game, it did a really good job of recreating San Francisco! The San Francisco track takes place in downtown SF; I did a side-by-side comparison of the track and Google Maps Street View and saw that quite a few landmarks are recreated considerably faithfully! I'm impressed with the game for that reason alone! :D
* I recently upgraded my PSP's custom firmware from M33 3.90-x to M33 5.00-6. Unfortunately in the process, it corrupted all my games (included my beloved Phantasy Star Portable game save)! Blarg! But fortunately after doing some searching, apparently these corrupt files can be resurrected! There seems to be a Taiwanese site that has a program that fixes PSP gamesaves that are "corrupted" after the firmware upgrade, and according to the link's reviews of it, it seems to work. I can't wait to give it a whirl!
* Speaking of firmware updates, I'm somewhat bummed by the fact that dark_alex hasn't updated m33 past 5.00. Well, I mean more like... I'm getting m33 for free, so I can't be bummed about it at all. Actually I'm more like... anxious for the next upgrade, because a few games I've downloaded, including Neon Genesis Evangelion - Battle Orchestra, won't work below firmware version 5.50 (or so), and I'm dying to play them. :D
* I'm also still anxiously waiting for the PSPgo to be released. I'm dying to see it in my hands... even if I don't buy games for it, I'll still have a use for it. Kinda like my PS3, which despite being mostly game-less, is still really useful for my needs.
* And last of all... note to self: find all the PSP ISOs that you downloaded in the past and add them back into your library of ISOs. Cuz like, I really wanna play Vice City Stories and I don't wanna have to download it again.
.... OK, that's all I got. More next time! (^_^)
* First off I'm still extremely happy that I got my PS3 when I did. Sure maybe it's only 80gb and games for it are $60... but at least it's still backwards compatible with PS1 and PS2 games. All the new PS3s out now lack at least the PS2-compatibility, a concept that makes me want to do nothing but cringe (you poor unlucky bastards got dicked by Sony). Now I just need to hack my PS3 to be able to play copied PS2 games and I'll be in business! ... You can hack your PS3 to do that, right?
* Speaking of PS2-compatibility... part of the reason why I never got a PS2 was because I knew I would get a PS3 and thus buying a PS2 would be a pointless, $150-$199 expenditure. Unfortunately though, I waited as long as I did to get my PS3, and so I "missed" out on playing PS2 games when they first came out. The upside is that I can still play them all now and not have to pay new game prices for them as well. Therefore... anyone know of any really cool PS2 games that I can add to my collection? :D I already know that I want to get Katamari Damacy and I ♥ Katamari, as well as the GTA trilogy... what else should I get?
* As for other people and their PS3s... I went to a Gamestop in San Bruno and overheard a few people talking about how they sold their PS3s. Wow, really? Am I the only one who feels as happy as I do about my PS3? But then again, I bought my PS3 as a PS2 with a Bluray player (and kept it for its Divx playback ability)... maybe those guys already have all of those individually and so they didn't need the PS3? I guess, maybe. Still, maybe they regretted their purchase, but I sure the hell didn't. :D
* My favorite RPG series by far has to be Phantasy Star, at least the more recent incarnations of the series (not the Genesis versions), and especially ever since playing Phantasy Star Online for GameCube--in fact, PSO is my only source of knowledge pretaining to online RPGs. Now sure, I enjoy Final Fantasy like everyone else does, but... everyone else does too. I'd go as far to say that Final Fantasy is the Michael Jackson to Phantasy Star's Björk... because just like Björk, I feel like I have an exclusive relationship with Phantasy Star, unlike Final Fantasy (and Michael Jackson) in which it feels like it belongs to everyone.
* Now if you combine the first and fourth points, you'll get: Part of the reason why I'm glad my PS3 plays PS2 games is for Phantasy Star Universe for PS2... which I just got right now for $10 (God bless having the internet on my phone as well). I gave it a whirl on my PS3 and discovered that PS2 games can tap into the PS3's wifi capaiblities and thus can play games online. This means I'll be able to play Phantasy Star Universe online again! I might just do that! :D
* Then there's also Phantasy Star Portable for the PSP which I've been putting a lot of hours into, which is a really pretty game. The fact that I was able to download it to my hacked PSP and play it also make me so glad for my current system situation. But the one thing I dislike about PSP on the PSP is that there is no online function. Beh, oh well. It's still a really awesome game, especially for the player customization abilities. :D
* Fortunately though, Phantasy Star Ø (Zero) for the NDS is coming out soon and it'll have online play (albeit Nintendo's brand of "online" "play"). Recently I downloaded the Japanese version of it, complete with anti-anti-R4DS hack, and I haven't been able to put it down. Finally, I can put to good use what Japanese I've learned playing Japanese Pokémon ROMS back in the day (boy howdy, playing the ROM of Pokemon Gold when it first came out some 10 years ago... good times). ANYways... the game is really nifty; it takes place on Earth, as opposed to Ragol or Gurhal, and looks like a cross between the Old West and Japantown. My character looks like a Union soldier from the Civil War. There's also a few new weapons; I spotted a Gunblade and a shield. Interesting get-up there, Sega! Unfortunately some of the limitations of the NDS show through: Creatures don't drop items after you kill them, you have to wait until they're all dead for a "prize box" to appear with all your rewards. Furthermore the areas aren't these large, sprawling worlds but tiny sections on a grid, and the AI is a little stupid (I bust my ass to revive fallen team mates but as soon as I'm KO'd no one saves me! BASTARDS) And I still haven't run into a shotgun, which is my favorite weapon in all of Phantasy Star-dom. Blah. Still though, it's easy enough to play through, especially given that it is still a Phantasy Star game. It REALLY makes me want to get it in English now.
* In other NDS news... I'm really excited to play Nostalgia, from the makers of the NDS versions of Final Fantasy III and IV, just because. (Side note: HURRY UP AND RELEASE NDS VERSIONS OF FF6 AND FF7!) I'm also dying to play Pokemon Heartgold and Soulsilver (YAY for Japanese version again!), as well as Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (yeah, ok, FINE) and oooh!, what's this? "Logic Island"? You just said da magic woid! Now if they only had a non-BitTorrent-related version of Romulation.net for PSP games, then we'll be in business! :D
* Speaking of Pokemon, I'm kinda upset/disappointed with Nintendo for not making the Korean version compatible with all the other versions of Pokemon. Well, I mean, technically the games ARE compatible, but the text isn't. Like, when I tried to transfer Pokemon between Diamond.kr and Diamond.en, none of the Korean characters appeared in the English game, while obviously the English characters did in the Korean game. Honestly though, I really should be glad that there IS a Korean version of Pokemon to begin with and that I COULD transfer Pokemon between Diamond.kr and Diamond.en. I just would prefer if that compatibility between Pokemon games is pushed one step further and includes Korean characters. :)
* I also got to play GRID for NDS, which is a racing game. I'm not much into racing games but this one caught my eye for two reasons: 1. it has a track editor! Did someone say Mario Kart tracks in GRID?? :D and 2. for an NDS-quality game, it did a really good job of recreating San Francisco! The San Francisco track takes place in downtown SF; I did a side-by-side comparison of the track and Google Maps Street View and saw that quite a few landmarks are recreated considerably faithfully! I'm impressed with the game for that reason alone! :D
* I recently upgraded my PSP's custom firmware from M33 3.90-x to M33 5.00-6. Unfortunately in the process, it corrupted all my games (included my beloved Phantasy Star Portable game save)! Blarg! But fortunately after doing some searching, apparently these corrupt files can be resurrected! There seems to be a Taiwanese site that has a program that fixes PSP gamesaves that are "corrupted" after the firmware upgrade, and according to the link's reviews of it, it seems to work. I can't wait to give it a whirl!
* Speaking of firmware updates, I'm somewhat bummed by the fact that dark_alex hasn't updated m33 past 5.00. Well, I mean more like... I'm getting m33 for free, so I can't be bummed about it at all. Actually I'm more like... anxious for the next upgrade, because a few games I've downloaded, including Neon Genesis Evangelion - Battle Orchestra, won't work below firmware version 5.50 (or so), and I'm dying to play them. :D
* I'm also still anxiously waiting for the PSPgo to be released. I'm dying to see it in my hands... even if I don't buy games for it, I'll still have a use for it. Kinda like my PS3, which despite being mostly game-less, is still really useful for my needs.
* And last of all... note to self: find all the PSP ISOs that you downloaded in the past and add them back into your library of ISOs. Cuz like, I really wanna play Vice City Stories and I don't wanna have to download it again.
.... OK, that's all I got. More next time! (^_^)