technabob » playstation portable http://technabob.com/blog gadgets, gizmos, games, cool gadgets, geeky gadgets Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:53:35 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 half minute hero for the psp: the twitter of video games http://technabob.com/blog/2009/09/25/half-minute-hero-psp-video-game/ http://technabob.com/blog/2009/09/25/half-minute-hero-psp-video-game/#comments Fri, 25 Sep 2009 12:04:57 +0000 lambert v. http://technabob.com/blog/?p=20362 RPGs are traditionally long and epic in scale for lots of good reasons, but a lot of RPGs have elements that add unnecessary length to the gameplay, like unskippable walls of text, unnecessarily slow-ass modes of transport and/or huge maps, quests with insane requirements, and of course the grinding. Oh the grinding. Marvelous Entertainment and XSEED games make fun of a lot of the genre’s conventions in their upcoming game Half-Minute Hero, so named because the quests in the game have a default time limit of 30 seconds. Yep, 30 seconds per quest. Destructoid ’s Ben PerLee wrote a detailed preview of the game, and it seems to be a must-buy for jaded gamers.

half-minute-hero-1

The game uses our expectations and past experience with RPGs and throws all of that – the 8-bit graphics, character portraits in dialogues, conventional plots, grinding, item buying, dialogue etc – in fast forward, which makes sense because if you’re not going to see anything new anyway, might as well zip through to the end right? And PerLee mentions repeatedly in his preview that the game is consistently funny and self-aware, and that’s a huge plus for me. Here’s a video of the gameplay from the Japanese release of the game. The video has spoilers (especially if you can read Japanese) towards the end but it also shows the 30 second system at work pretty well so… watch at least the first 3 minutes, then stop if you want.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

As you saw in the video the 30-second time limit can be extended in exchange for money, but the whole thing was still freakin frantic. Half-Minute Hero isn’t just an RPG; The RPG part is just one of the 4 gameplay modes in the game. There’s also a shmup, a survival/king of the hill mode and even an RTS (!) mode, with each mode assigned to a stereotypical character. The hero gets the RPG mode, a princess is in the shoot ‘em up, a knight defends a mage in the king of the hill mode, and an evil boss is the character in the RTS mode. Here’s a shaky and quite awkward interview by Unit of True Game Headz with Jimmy Soga of XSEED.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

This and Persona may just be the ones that will make me use my PSP again. Hopefully the humor is really present throughout the game. You can pre-order Half-Minute Hero at Amazon for $28 (USD). Check out Destructoid for the full article for more info.

]]> http://technabob.com/blog/2009/09/25/half-minute-hero-psp-video-game/feed/ 2 no psp trophies because of absence of 2nd analog nub *kidding* because of piracy. http://technabob.com/blog/2009/06/11/no-psp-trophies/ http://technabob.com/blog/2009/06/11/no-psp-trophies/#comments Thu, 11 Jun 2009 11:30:19 +0000 lambert v. http://technabob.com/blog/?p=14697 Joystiq asked Eric Lempel, Director of PlayStation Network Operations, if Sony would ever bring Trophies – the equivalent of Xbox 360’s Achievements – to the PSP. Upon hearing the question, Lempel fell on his knees and screamed, “Daaaamn youuu Salazaaaaaar!” No. He did not; Lempel only said: “You’re not going to see Trophies on the PSP.” Why? Give me a P! Give me an -iracy!

no-trophy-psp

Sony isn’t treating everyone like pirates in this case. As Loot Ninja explains, the company is just preserving whatever “value” the achievement (it is what it is) system has. Because everyone in the known universe knows that the PSP has been haXX0r’d to death and beyond, Sony is afraid that a Trophy system on the PSP will only be hacked as well, and if so people will be able to unlock all the Trophies without actually fulfilling the requirements. That of course will devalue the poor system. Sad.

What’s even more sad for Sony is that the ChickHEN custom firmware has been polished for end users, and is now on the Internets, officially ending the reign of the homebrew- and pirate-free PSP 3000.

]]> http://technabob.com/blog/2009/06/11/no-psp-trophies/feed/ 0 sony rolls out psp camera accessory in japan http://technabob.com/blog/2006/09/21/sony-rolls-out-psp-camera-accessory-in-japan/ http://technabob.com/blog/2006/09/21/sony-rolls-out-psp-camera-accessory-in-japan/#comments Fri, 22 Sep 2006 03:55:01 +0000 technabob http://technabob.com/blog/2006/09/21/sony-rolls-out-psp-camera-accessory-in-japan/ Everyone’s getting into the digital camera accessory business, what with add-ons available for the Playstation 2, Xbox 360 and Nintendo DS, the PSP was starting to feel left out.

Sony PSPJ-15003 Camera Accessory

That said, Sony’s entry into the fray seems a little anemic at first glance. From what I can tell from this translated page on Sony’s Japanese website, the camera will take 640×480 and 480×272 still pictures as well as 480×272 motion jpeg clips at 30 fps, but only up to 15 seconds of recording. With those specs, I’m not sure where the “effective” 1.3 megapixel resolution that’s also mentioned will come into play.

In addition, it looks like it will ship with an application which allows for slide shows and adding special effects to pictures and for creating animations. No mention is made of support for live video feeds (i.e. ‘webcam’) capability.

The camera should hit the streets in Japan on November 2 for 5,000 yen (appx $44 USD), but there’s no announced date or price for US or European launches.

[via CNet Asia]

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