The PSP in MS Paint

This is a pretty amazing video given the limitations that a simple art program like MS Paint has. This guy either really loves the PSP or simply has too much time on his hands and loves a good challenge. Either way, it's pretty impressive example what you can do if you put your mind to it:

PS3: Mii + Achievements?

I normally wouldn't mention a rumor story posted up at Kotaku.com, but this one is somewhat connected to some of my more-recent blog entries. This rumor has appeared before, but there definitely seems to be a bit of momentum behind it this time. We'll, hopefully, discover the truth next week when Phil Harrison dazzles us with his verbosity. Until then, though, enjoy this story about what Sony may be planning in order to expand the PS3's sense of community.

http://kotaku.com/gaming/sony/...

And my prediction for Sony's new marketing slogan: Come Home to PS3.

UPDATE: Apparently, after running the above story about the PS3, Kotaku was cut off from all future Sony support. That means no more interviews, products or hardware coming to them from Sony. While I have to frown upon Kotaku for running a story that has hurt their relationship with Sony (especially on such a minor topic), I do feel that it adds a bit more to the validity of it.

UPDATE #2: Apparently, Sony trademarked the following logo very recently:



It's interesting that the PS3 reserves 96MB for its OS (operating system), as well as one SPU. The XBox 360? A mere 32MB. Why does Sony need THREE TIMES the resources? Maybe the answer to that will be revealed next week at GDC.

Sony: Moving Beyond Third Place

A pretty good blog entry that I stumbled upon:

The date is set. The launch games are confirmed. We even know how much an official HDMI cable will cost (if not precisely what HDMI stands for). But what does March 23rd mean for the PlayStation brand, and most importantly, for gamers?

How can Sony ensure the only Third Place in their corporate history is the enigmatic, ethereal gaming world created in PlayStation 2 marketing and not also where PlayStation 3 ended up at the end of its proposed ten year lifespan, behind its two previously-trounced competitors?

For Sony, the road to Europe has been a long and pretty hostile one. From copious amounts of Fear Uncertainty and Doubt being thrown from all sides, the ‘premium’ price point-induced gasps and the forum-igniting Blu-ray situation – it hasn’t been easy. But now, Sony are finally ready to let Europe in on their high gloss, high power, high definition secret.

PlayStation’s past, present and future

Sony has dominated the last two hardware generations through a combination of technical superiority, culturally-synergised marketing (PlayStation pods running Wipeout in the Ministry of Sound’s chill out room, who’d have thought?) and extraordinarily broad third party support that is more potent today than ever before. The Guitar Hero and Buzz franchises delivering mass-market success before other companies even considered courting the casual, non-typical gamer.

To win the hearts and minds of gamers this time around and to ensure PlayStation 3 outsells its generational peers, Sony need to not only get all the basic stuff right but must also tap into the gaming consciousness like never before, as well as spread the PlayStation 3 message beyond the traditional user base.

The power of PlayStation

What are PlayStation 3’s Unique Selling Propositions for this generation, and how can Sony ensure its latest home console usurps its increasingly bold and accomplished competitors?

Hardware - seeing the PlayStation 3 for the first time is an overwhelming experience. It’s the largest home console in recent memory, but remains refined and desirable. It will dominate your living room but you will likely be happy to green light its imposition. It maintains and builds upon the industrial and obilisque-inspired design cues from PS2 and combined with its imposing footprint, ensures it is the most intriguing and dominant example of this generation’s hardware.

The reliability and safety issues that have plagued Sony’s competitors this generation also seem to be thankfully absent from the new hardware. But for £425, that is to be expected.

Software - today’s software publishers are becoming increasingly platform-agnostic. Great for gamers who are limited to one machine and for journalists to draw comparisons between platforms, but not so great for hardware manufacturers looking to differentiate their product within a confusing and crowded market.

As broad and compelling at the PlayStation 3’s software line-up is, Sony have only a few platform-exclusive titles at launch. Resistance: Fall of Man, Motorstorm and Virtua Fighter 5 look set to appease the hardcore though and the PlayStation Store is full of potential to begin competing with the rest, who sometimes struggle to offer robust, relevant and value-for-money experiences.

Functionality - the cost of the PlayStation 3 is a whole other blog post, but the most expensive console ever is in fact great value for money, just not so much if you don’t have a broadband connection, an HDTV or a desire to build a Blu-ray collection or store 60GBs of your digital media.

Its power is being hinted at by titles such as Motorstorm which some say is like ‘looking through a window onto the desert’ and as developers begin to grasp it’s potential, it will almost certainly deliver ground-breaking graphical and gameplay experiences – we just don’t have specific dates yet.

With the daring and controversial specification of the PlayStation 3, Sony have taken a risk that has to pay off. A bold statement of intent that they hope will future-proof their third home console for the next ten years and allow them to rapidly move beyond The Third Place in the European next-gen console race.

Conclusion

The UK launch of the PlayStation 3 is under a month away - Sony need to build their relationship with previously-snubbed European potential early adopters, to display just how powerful the PlayStation 3 is and also successfully differentiate it within the most competitive, varied and thriving videogame market there has ever been.

Gamers have never had it so good, and Sony have never had so much to offer, but also, so much to prove. Oh, and HDMI stands for High Definition Multimedia Interface if you were still wondering – the cable is yours for £17.99.

- Stuart X Pearce (Editor of www.thedigitalgamer.com)

Why PS3 > 360... IMHO

Every so often somebody will ask my why I prefer the PlayStation 3 when the gaming experience on the Xbox 360 is clearly more polished and designed with the gamer in mind. Well, to tell you the truth, there are a few reasons why I am looking forward to the years ahead with my PS3 than I am with my 360, but the main one simply boils down to the games. I know it's awesome to be able to chat with other players in the middle of a gaming session or send them messages or invite them to play another game, but all those can be considered a distant second to the actual game that I am playing and the experience of that.

I’ve been a huge fan of the PlayStation brand for the simple reason that I love the sheer variety of the games that are on it and the fact that a large number of those titles come from Japan. I largely favor the quirkiness of Japanese games over the types that are generally developed in the U.S. Give me an ICO or Shadow of the Colossus or Bust A Move or Tomba! or anything else like that any day of the week over the ability to compare Achievements or have cross-game invites. Hell, give me practically any Sony 1st or 2nd party title (Sly, Ratchet, Jak, WipEout) and I would prefer to have that on the system rather than some features that are supposed to somehow bring a sense of community to my gaming.

Now, don’t get me wrong. The obvious choice would be to have all these games and the community-building aspects, but that is certainly not the case with the PS3 right now. Most of the stuff should come to fruition within this year, but some of the 360 features will probably never show up on the Sony monolith. I think that’s just the price you pay for having a free online component when compared to Xbox Live. Do I feel that Sony will deliver most of the things that Microsoft is doing? Yes, but it’s going to be a slow process due to the fact that Sony is a few years behind in putting these features into practice. There’s no doubt that Microsoft is a better network-capable company. The people there have the experience and the know-how to do some incredible things for online gaming. The Vista/360 connectivity, alone, is a major step forward (though, we have already seen console/PC gaming with FFXI already) and there are bound to be plenty of additional surprises in the years to come.

In the end, though, I just love the PlayStation for its games. The brand has provided me with over a decade of amazing gaming memories and has earned a special place in my heart. I honestly couldn’t care less that the PS3 is missing some features that some hardcore gamers are complaining about it. Give me a generic, black box with a wired controller and no online and I will still be there on Day One if you tell me that games like God of War III and Final Fantasy XIII and Metal Gear will be on it.

Obviously, not everyone feels like that but this is my opinion. Sony has proven that they are in these generational competitions for the long haul and are attempting to extend each console race that much longer. I greatly appreciate that. Just imagine if Sony had cut off the PS2 or PS just like MS and Nintendo did with their consoles. We wouldn’t be seeing great games like a new God of War or a new Tomb Raider or Rogue Galaxy, etc. so soon... or at all. We’d be probably waiting another year or two at least for them to make it to the PS3. This willingness to keep support for legacy consoles going as long as possible not only makes publishers and gamers happy, it also often allows for highly innovative titles to appear due to the considerably lower cost of development. It makes me happy because I know that my $600 investment in the PS3 is going to last me for another six years or more while support for the Wii and 360 will probably be start to dry up considerably quicker.

So, there you have it. The reason I love my PS3 and the reason I love the PlayStation brand is the games, plain and simple, and the fact that these games will be released on the system for far longer than they would be on others. And with Sony studios working on at least 150 PS3 titles and PlayStation Store downloads, there is going to be plenty to play that the other guys won’t have. I don’t know about you, but that (especially when compared to something like the ability to download demos in the background) is something that I can actually be excited about. It’s a shame, really. I used to remember when it was all just about the games.