Nerdy Study Aid: Periodic Table of Controllers

With the recent boom of video games and kids wanting to spend money on extra peripherals, like the Wii Fit, the Madcatz SE (read: POS) fightstick and enough Rock Band instruments to fill the GWAR roster, I thought I'd school some kids with a hilarious picture.

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PSP Set For Big Year With Major Franchises

Sony's little engine that could is possibly set to be the must-have handheld this year. After constant complaints about the lack of good games for the system, Sony announced a truckload of major titles at their Destination PlayStation event today. Hot on the heels of Rock Band Unplugged, the official announcement of LittleBigPlanet for the PSP was confirmed to be in development. No real details have been revealed, though the game is set to include similar gameplay and features with its PS3 counterpart. Interactivity between the two games has not been confirmed.

A new game in the Assassin's Creed franchise is also set to debut on the handheld alongside a new PSP bundle. The original game released on the Xbox 360 and PS3, with a sequel confirmed to be in development. A prequel was released on the DS and ported to Symbian Mobile platforms, with a sequel to this series also in development. No details were released about the new PSP game, but it should be similar to previous titles.

Another PSP bundle set to release this year is the Hannah Montana PSP Entertainment Pack. Obviously aimed at young girls, it includes a lilac-colored PSP, the Hannah Montana music/rhythm game, episodes of the TV series on UMD, and stickers. In support of this new demographic, Ubisoft is also releasing games from their Petz line.

MotorStorm is also finally set to debut on both the PS2 and PSP this year with MotorStorm: Arctic Edge. Developed by BigBig Studios, the ones behind the Pursuit Force games, it will take the series in the new icy terrains of Alaska. Add all that up together, and you get a very impressive list of games for the PSP. Add to that anticipated titles like Dissidia Final Fantasy, Resistance: Retribution, and a remake of Shin Megami Tensei: Persona, and there's now a reason to play games on the PSP again. This may be what the PSP needed in order to get past this slump and achieve its untapped potential.

You can check out the trailer for MotorStorm: Arctic Edge past the break.


Sources: PR Newswire and Joystiq

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Activision's Guitar Hero Metallica Features "Lynyrd Skynrd"

This is one of those things where you just have to shake your head in disbelief and disappointment. The cover for Guitar Hero Metallica features the names of great bands featured in the game. Unfortunately, they somehow managed to misspell one of the biggest bands in the list, Lynyrd Skynyrd. Their song, "Tuesday's Gone", is one of twenty-one in the game not by Metallica.

Activision has since fixed the boxart to show the correct spelling, but this is something they will never live down. Guitar Hero Metallica features full-band instrumentation and is set to release on PS3 and Xbox 360 on March 29 and Q2 2009 for PS2 and Wii.

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Rock Band 2 - The New Instruments

Although the original Rock Band game launched less than a year ago, the sequel is going to launch on the Xbox 360 on September 14 with other platforms following before year's end. With Guitar Hero World Tour making their own full band additions to stay in competition, the battle for music/rhythm supremacy is starting to heat up. While both games can boast about their large song lists and new features, perhaps one of the more important improvements to look at are the new instruments. Many prefer the GH guitars over the RB Fender Stratocasters, and GH's new drum set with two elevated stock cymbals are making many gamers turn heads. However, Rock Band's new instruments are more than just a new paint job. With some smart forward-thinking in Harmonix's designs, they may tempt previous RB owners to shy away from the new Guitar Hero instruments and even contemplate getting the new ones.

Images courtesy of GameSpot

The durability of the original drum set was often brought into question, an issue which caused Harmonix and EA to establish a robust customer service program that allowed for fast and easy replacements of defective instruments. The drum pad hit accuracy, low rebound/bounciness, and the sturdiness of the pedal are all problems that have been remedied. Similar to Guitar Hero's new drums, the RB2 set also boasts quieter, bouncier, and velocity-sensitive pads. Not only will the drum sound be less distracting and gameplay be improved, but the game will also detect how hard you are hitting the drum and adjust the sound effects accordingly. This should help for those drummers that would wail on the drums with wreckless abandon. Besides the new color scheme, a cosmetic drum target has been added to each pad to give gamers something to aim at and keep hits in the center. The drum heads use a mix of silicone and plastic to create a drum head that should give more acoustically pleasing feedback and a more satisfying experience. The pedal is also metal-reinforced, which should prevent breaking. It also stays attached and flush with the drum set when lifted up and moved, which should make transportation easier. There are also marked height adjustments on the bars to make it easier for multiple people. The feet also have non-slip pads to prevent shifting while playing. But the most intriguing addition are the new expansion slots that allows up to three cymbals to be remapped from the drum pads. They will also emit an in-game cymbal sound to add to the realism. There will be a premium electric drum set made available from ION, but the new stock set sounds pretty good to me.

Images courtesy of GameSpot

I am one of the few that actually prefer the Rock Band guitars over the original Guitar Hero design, but hopefully these new changes will help convert some of the naysayers. Besides the new sunburst color scheme, the biggest addition is an auto-calibration feature on the guitar. Adjusting lag on HDTVs have been the biggest problem with music/rhythm games, and the Rock Band in-game tool allowed for a lot of human error due to manual adjustments. There is now a photo sensor/mic that can be held up to the TV and automatically calibrate for both audio and visual lag. Besides that, the fret buttons have become much quieter and reportedly make virtually no noise at all. The strum bar has increased response time, less mushiness, and reduced travel distance to detect a strum to combine for a much improved feel. The smaller, elevated fret buttons and metronome-like strum bar on the GH guitar were features that made it hard to go back to after playing the original RB guitar. The tilt sensor has also been improved and allows for a wider freedom of movement. Smaller changes like a stiffer, textured neck, removable headstock, and a screw-less battery door are small touches that make the guitar a more viable option. There will also be high-end third-party guitars made available as well as a larger amount of options.

Perhaps the best news to come from this ridiculous music/rhythm game war is both Sony and Microsoft stepping in to mandate controller/instrument compatibility across rival games. This means that instruments from Konami's Rock Revolution, Activision's Guitar Hero World Tour, and Harmonix's Rock Band 1 and 2 will work without flaw. It is both a surprise and relief that Activision has allowed compatibility in GHWT, but no word yet on patching support for older GH titles. For a more detailed chart, check out Joystiq's Instrument Compatibility Matrix.

With almost universal compatibility across these latest wave of games, frivolous barriers like incompatible controllers are mostly a thing of the past. Add to that additional third-party controller support and offerings, and this allows consumers to pick the instruments that best fit both financially and ergonomically. It's still tough to convince previous Rock Band owners to fork over almost $200 for these new instruments along with the game, but they are really making it tempting. Hopefully we'll see soon how the Guitar Hero bundle will stack up.

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E3 2008: Sony's First-Party Stance

Courtesy of Penny Arcade

After the rough launch of the PS3 and the slow start of the PSP, Sony soon realized that they weren't quite invincible. Boasting the infamous "10 year life cycle" for their consoles and supporting three platforms going into E3 2008, there was much speculation on what Sony could pull out that would beat out Nintendo and Microsoft. As third-party developers are starting to go multi-platform more often or straight out exclusive to the Xbox 360, Sony is starting to focus more on first-party games. Boasting some impressive sales numbers for the PS3, PS2, and PSP, they stuck with familiar territory with very few surprises. While much of their conference was retreaded announcements, they brought out a couple of impressive showings.


Sony is still carrying along the previous generation PS2, now in it's ninth year. With PS2 backwards-compatibility constantly in question with the various PS3 SKUs, they're making sure consumers hold on to their old hardware. Trying to appeal to families, they've created another PS2 bundle that includes LEGO Batman and Justice League: A New Frontier DVD for $149. And despite the low attach rate to the great sales of PSP hardware, Sony is hoping to lure more people in with another $199 Entertainment Pack that includes a silver slim PSP, Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters, a voucher for the downloadable title, Echochrome, 1GB Memory Stick, and the film, National Treasures 2: Book of Secrets on UMD. And to make sure that the PS3 doesn't feel left out, they have increased the hard drive space on the 40GB PS3 to 80GB while keeping the same $399 pricetag and same features(No PS2 BC, two USB slots, no memory card slots). They have yet to announce plans for the original 80GB PS3 that includes all those missing features. You can tell they're trying to combat the casual appeal of the Wii, the widespread popularity of the DS, and the core gamer audience of the 360, but none of these new bundles were really that impressive. They definitely have value, but not enough to take much away from the competition.

Resistance: Retribution is shaping up to be one of the bigger titles for the PSP.

The PSP's gaming forecast was looking slim, but Sony hoped to remedy that with sequels to LocoRoco, Patapon, Madden, and others. One of the biggest surprises for the handheld was the unveiling of a third-person action game called Resistance: Retribution. With the first Resistance game on the PS3 still one of the better FPS titles on the system and the sequel on the way, a PSP game was not expected. Microsoft made a very surprising steal with Final Fantasy XIII coming out on both the Xbox 360 and PC alongside the PS3 version in the US and Europe. With only a handful of third-party games exclusive to PS3, they shifted focus to internally developed titles and their new PSN downloadable games. Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty is a new PSN title that will be much shorter than the previous R&C but at a lower price of $14.99. That goes along with anticipated titles like PixelJunk Eden, Flower, and the impressive debut of the team-based multiplayer mayhem of Fat Princess. The official launch of their video rental/download service and of previous features such as in-game XMB menus and an achievement-like Trophy system shows that they're finally catching up to the feature set of the 360. You can even take video rentals and downloads on the road with the PSP, although you still can't directly access the store on the handheld. There still isn't a timeline on the often-delayed Home service, but it's starting to shape up into a useful community tool. And with a US line of ten Greatest Hits titles priced at $29.99, the PS3 is continuing to improve.

The upcoming PS3/PC MMO, DC Universe Online allows you to create a hero or villain and team up with the likes of Batman or the Joker.

The re-showings of exclusive titles, Resistance 2, Infamous, and the officially announced God of War III were nice, but the new details on the quirky, community title LittleBigPlanet and the epic MMO DC Universe Online were one of the higher points. While LBP isn't exactly a new title, it keeps on getting better with each showing. They constantly add new features and show how customizable and easy it is to create content and share it. The DC Universe MMO is coming on both PS3 and PC and is spearheaded by legendary comic creator Jim Lee. A longtime MMO player himself, DC Universe Online looks to discard the grinding and stereotypes of other games and feature more action-oriented gameplay and some unique premises. Almost like a mix of City of Heroes and City of Villains, Lee takes the best features of both games and makes them better with a DC coat of paint. And the ambitious title, MAG: Massive Action Game looks to set some unprecedented standards. Citing 256 human players at one time, squad-based gameplay, and a unique ranking system, MAG could be an impressive title if it can be pulled off. Sony seems to have most of their bases covered with some exclusive titles in each genre. And with a constantly improving PSN service and feature set, we'll see if it's enough to compete with the 360.

Overall, it really felt like Sony was just trying to catch up with Nintendo and Microsoft and what they already have to offer. Their conference wasn't bad, but there just wasn't much new or awe-inspiring. They're positioning all three of their platforms appropriately, and there should be something to look forward to for each one. LittleBigPlanet and DC Universe Online look to be some of the more interesting exclusive titles, and Massive Action Game could be fun if it doesn't get too hectic. Sony did a good job of boasting their first-party games, but they're going to need some real support from third-parties if they want to stay competitive.

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