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Even though it’s not the total revolution hoped for, I’m excited about the PSP Go! The design is a big improvement and while the lack of a touch-screen is a disappointment, it should make the PSP platform far more competitive with Apple’s iPod Touch.

The PSP Go, of course, is like taking the original PSP and putting it on diet pills for about a month. It’s lighter and smaller than the original PSP design, and it finally sheds those awkward UMDs in favor of a bunch of flash memory.

Certainly sounds worthwhile, even as we hope for an even more revolutionized and competitive PSP2; though now, that’s not likely to appear until 2010 at the earliest.

After spending a decent amount of time running Out of the Park Baseball 10 through its paces, I must say that I’ve come away from the experience impressed. Although the game’s interface has not undergone any dramatic changes, that’s probably for the better since version 9, finally fixed that issue up. While there are mild refinements to the graphical presentation of the game, no overhaul was needed and so refinements of that previous makeover was the goal of the day.

For those not in the know, Out of the Park Baseball 10 is the latest entry in the well-tenured Out of the Park Baseball franchise, one of the longest-running PC text-based sports management sims on the market that – surprise – is still around. Once you reach ten editions, you’re no longer a game so much as a tradition.

Fortunately, OOTP Baseball 10 is an addictive tradition, though one that might require a steep learning curve for the newbie. Of course, that steep learning curve is there for a reason: Out of the Park Baseball 10 is awash in deep, deep stats screens and tracking, and any possible way you can track players and their performances in real life, anywhere, ever, you will find in OOTP Baseball 10. And the nice thing is that the game is not a resource hog, requiring little in the way of graphical firepower, RAM or hard disc space; in fact, the game could fit on most SD cards quite easily and with room to spare.

With the new game, OOTP Baseball offers a variety of play modes and starting points. The easiest, of course, is to start with the current 2009 baseball season, which they got just right; I appreciate as a Twins fan that they had Mauer on the DL to start the season, rather than forgetting he existed, for example, as some sports games might. And I appreciate that Lirano is rated on recent post-injury performance and not his phenomenal rookie year of three seasons past. I often measure baseball games by their Twins accuracy for two reasons: one, the Twins are my local team and I know them better than any other team; and, two, the Twins are a smaller-market team, so if a developer gets the Twins right, the rest of the league’s probably just as well-looked-after.

Even so, it’s good to see that OOTP Baseball 10 has everything happen when it’s supposed to, rather than compacting it into a “post-season mode” as many console baseball games do. The rookie draft, for example, happens in June rather than after the season. That is as it’s supposed to be. I also appreciate the franchise for being so accurate on such things as each team’s minor-league system.

And roster management can be as controlled as you wish by the gamer, or can be simplified with a couple clicks to a menu that offers an “Ask manager for full rosters and depth charts” option to make things easier.

The game also is the basis of many online and email leagues, and this year’s edition certainly offers as many tools as ever to enable commissioners to do their tasks with relative ease. In fact, about the only complaint I had in the main part of the game, when I played the current season, is that the game seems to allow too many injuries too often, far beyond the rate at which teams get battered and bruised over the course of a real season. In fact, I had one stretch during a Twins season I ran when three of my starting five pitchers, as well as my top three batters, were all out for at least 15-day absences, with one out for the season. While this can happen, the injury rate seemed to remain unusually high throughout successive seasons, and it also seemed to target the biggest stars on each team to a fictional degree of frequency.

I mean, if that many big-name people were injured that often in real life, we’d have Nick Punto and Michael Cuddyer making the All-Star appearance instead of Mauer and Morneau for the Twins, simply because they’d be the only half-decent Twins not injured more than they are playing. Now, I’m sure the Out of the Park folks are already hearing this complaint and massaging the code for a maintenance patch even as I write this, so it’s a minor note in the end, but certainly notable during my time playing the final-release version of the game.

Like most developers of small sports management titles like this, Out of the Park Baseball developers have a fantastic bond with their consumers and respond to feedback on problems that arise with the code, as it arises. So I don’t expect this “all good players get injured half the time” bug to be around much longer; but it was there while I was working on my review, so, there you go.

So far, I haven’t run into any of the more serious bugs that can sometimes pop up in a game like this; however, I have not had a chance to play more than 2-3 seasons, and as we all know, sometimes the code doesn’t break until you get beyond 10 seasons or more. At times like that, sometimes the NPC GMs can get a little wonky in some games, failing to fill out their teams properly. No sign of that here yet, but again, I’m not far enough in to really know.

In the end, Out of the Park Baseball 10 feels more like a refinement than an overhaul; the game is full of information and stats. So full, in fact, that you can tell the game was designed by a group of real baseball geeks – and anyone who knows anything about baseball will recognize that as a compliment, not a slam. This is a game that is definitely a labor of love by folks who deeply appreciate the sport they are honoring.

Now that I’m an independent reviewer, I won’t use any artificial rating system, like stars or a 10-point scale, to weigh the buy-ability of this game. Instead, I’ll let my whole review stand on its own, demonstrating the things I liked and didn’t care for, and allow the reader to decide if it’s worth it to them.

I know that when it comes to baseball, there’s not another sports management PC game out there that I like as much. After all, Baseball Mogul is a much simpler game, shooting for a younger audience; and Shaun Sullivan’s PureSim Baseball is old, out-of-date and has not yet re-emerged from the ashes to be reborn as Draft Day Sports: Baseball, over at Wolverine Studios.

Does that make Out of the Park Baseball 10 the champ by default? Certainly not. The game has been a standard-setter for quite a while, so even of Shaun’s new game were out, OOTP Baseball 10 would be giving it a run for its money.

From the days of the Sega Saturn, when Working Designs was still alive, and throughout the first two iterations of the PlayStation, the Grandia series is about to make a return to live in the PS3 era … as an MMO. Hold your moldy tomatoes, dude! It’s not my fault!

While Grandia Online is set in time before the events of the first Grandia title, the new game is expected to be a bit more turn-based than recent MMO-style Final Fantasy titles. Since the battle system in Grandia has always been its main strength and appeal.

If Grandia Online has no monthly fees, I’ll give it a try; but monthly fees could easily kill interest in this one; it doesn’t have the brand power that Final Fantasy does, even if SquareEnix is behind both titles. You may now return to reading your phenphedrine reviews, people. The breaking new bit is now concluded.

I was as shocked and surprised as anyone when Sony’s Jack Tretton took the stage at E3 and announced to the world that SquareEnix’s Final Fantasy XIV was not only in the works, not only arriving in 2010, but would be a PlayStation 3 exclusive title (as long as you don’t count the PC format).

Then details began leaking out and it became a lot less impressive. Here’s why: Final Fantasy XIV will be the next “MMO” from SquareEnix. Yup, the company is ready to move on from Final Fantasy XI, which wasn’t nearly as successful as SquareEnix had hoped.

By launching a new MMO in the Final Fantasy series, SquareEnix hopes to take advantage of several new market realities. First, Sony has a much stronger online community built up than in the PS2 generation. Every PS3 has a hard drive. And the next-gen firepower fill allow SquareEnix to make FFXIV that much more impressive.

On the downside, its unlikely that FFXIV will stay a PS3 exclusive for longer than maybe the first year, and the monthly fees are likely to limit the appeal of the title, just as they did for FFXI. As nice as this announcement may be, it still lacks the punch that would have been delivered if FFXIV had been announced as a single-player, offline RPG that was a PS3 exclusive. Color me, and the acne pills-needing crowd for that matter, disappointed.

While not as practical as a fresh round of bathroom safety products, Sony has set the videogame world a’buzzing with the announcement of its newest iteration of the PlayStation Portable, the PSP Go!

Here’s the upside: The PSP Go will be 43 percent lighter than the first PSP and will abandon the failed UMD experiment, going instead for 16 GB of internal flash memory as well as supporting the Memory Stick Micro format for additional storage. There will be Bluetooth support as well, and the screen will shrink from 4.3-inches to 3.8 inches, though it’ll still be a nice screen.

Here’s the downside: a hefty $249 price tag, which is just above the comparable 16GB Apple iPhone/iPod Touch; no touch-screen; still only one analog stick; no revved-up processor or additional RAM.

So while the PSP Go definitely makes the PSP sexy again, and perhaps having a chance to be more competitive with Apple’s iPhone/iPod Touch initiative, it’s still hardly a reinvention that could be dubbed properly a PSP 2. While that makes backward compatibility a non-issue, it also means the PSP Go isn’t quite the “PSP reinvented” solution many were hoping for.

Yes, I’m about to reveal the super-secret PC sports management sim I’m reviewing as my first review as an independent videogame reviewer. I couldn’t be more excited about this one.

Well, just maybe I could. I imagine if Apple came up to me and said, “Hey, buddy, here’s a free Apple iPod Touch 64GB and you’re the first person we’re giving one to, so long as you write a review of it,” then I could imagine, perhaps, being just a touch more excited. After all, I do love them iPods. Especially the Touch models. (Hint, Apple… hint!)

But seriously, folks, down to bid’ness.

The game I am reviewing will be: Out of the Park Baseball 10!

I’ve reviewed previous editions of OOTP Baseball, back when I was with Dignews, so it’s a franchise I know well. But props to OOTP Developments for taking a chance on this tow-headed reviewer now that he’s independent, and offering up a review copy to my “fair and balanced” reviews.

I’m not an easy review, but all that means in when I offer up a rave, it’s not because of the free software… it’s because the game is really worth it! Where will Out of the Park Baseball 10 rank?

I don’t know yet; I just got the “gold code” release edition and so I haves some diggin’ in and playing to do. But you can bet that whatever I have to say about it will be the straight scoop on the game… at least in my eyes. Stay tuned.

Now that I’m only reviewing stuff I want to review here on VideogameVagabond, I am happy to say that I was fortunate and blessed enough to be invited to review a game in my favorite genre, or at least one of my favorite genres: a PC sports management sim.

The game’s still being tested and refined, so it’s pre-release and I can’t say a lot just yet, but rest assured that we’ll have a nifty, deep review of it shortly after the code is finalized and the game is released.

Now go ahead and browse for greeting cards online… I’ll let you know which game it is soon enough, but rest assured, it’s a game that’s out of… this world! And if you are browsing those cards, don’t hesitate to send one my way… I’m jus’ a po’ boy now, reviewing whatever comes my way, which isn’t a lot, so those online greetings and such are quite welcome, like electronic hugs.

I know young gamers love it, but as far as I’m concerned, the Nintendo DS is a desert when it comes to great games that I want to play. Sure, I love the Phoenix Wright series. And nothing beats a good Trauma Center game for taking advantage of the touch-screen.

But the hits, I’m afraid, are too few and too far between.

I know it goes against conventional thinking and industry bias, but I’d trade all the ephedrine I’ve ever owned (not a lot, BTW) for a PSP over a DSi any day of the week.

And twice on Sundays.

After so thoroughly enjoying the PS3 edition of Prince of Persia, my wife and I finally decided to pop for the PS2 games from the same series. After all, we reasoned, the same folks made them so they can’t be that bad, can they?

Well, no. And maybe.

Here’s what I mean. While I’m sure it’s the most archaic of the trilogy, I felt obligated to start the PS2 trilogy at the beginning, with Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. The controls are clunkier and less responsive, the graphics are simpler and that is all to be expected, right? True… even with the best wrinkle creams, this is still an old game. Ancient, in gamer years.

But my main pet peeve thus far is the difficulty with which one must wrestle to do a simple move: jumping wall-to-wall to make the prince climb an otherwise-unscaleable wall. It’s a key move and ought to be easy… R1 to run up the wall initially, then hit X to jump wall-to-wall until you reach the top.

Except it’s not that simple and there’s no good FAQ to tell you the trick to it. And since the first area where this skill is needed comes within the first hour of gameplay… yeah, that sucks. I hope Warrior Within and The Two Thrones are better-designed… if I ever get past Sands of Time, that is…

After nearly a decade of being a professional videogame reviewer and/or Web site editor, beginning with SonyWeb.com (now defunct) and extending to Dignews.com, I am now a bit of a free agent in the videogame journalism field. My tenure at Dignews.com ended earlier this month.

What that means is this: my blog, VideogameVagabond.com, is now the best and only place to locate my journalistic ramblings on the videogame world. I’ll get to review only what I want to review, and perhaps I can refuel my passion for videogames due to this new focus.

Now, the parting of the ways was professional if not exactly a dance through a fantasy wonderland, but contrary to fictional reports, it had nothing to do with drug rehab on anyone’s part; I’ve always lived a straight-edged life. In fact, as a newspaper journalist, I’ve covered several anti-meth presentations. The strongest thing I’ve ever imbibed is a glass of champagne… and that, only a handful of times in my entire life.

No, the truth is, after over 800 reviews over the past 9-10 years, I was just burned out by the pace I had to keep up with. Dignews is in great hands, even without my involvement. And hopefully I’ll recapture that early enthusiasm by restricting my effort to my personal blog, here.

I’m saving up for a new PSP; it’s for me wife, whose previous one bit the dust a while back. This will be the second PSP she’s owned and it will likely be a third-gen PSP.

Of course, the danger is that Sony may soon release a proper PSP2 shortly after buying this one. That’s OK, I suppose; the PSP needs an update within the next year or so anyway. It’s trailing the iPod Touch, for heaven’s sake!

But really, let’s be honest: even the best diet pills in the world are not enough to make the current PSP compete with the iPod Touch while maintaining the current button configuration.

I can’t imagine a PSP2 without touch-screen technology. Can Sony?

As I was playing my way into Fear 2 on the Xbox 360 recently, I noticed that the game was filled with profanity and it got me to thinking about how times have changed. A mere forty-some years ago, Alfred Hitckcock could scare the manure out of everyone without a single coarse word ever being uttered.

These days, profanity is everywhere. And it works as a real appetite suppressant against any types of games that use it, personally. I like scary games, for example, and love to be creeped out; but I don’t need to hear, or want to hear, some character hollering G——n every couple minutes.

The problem is, this profusion of profanity is not popping up as a suspense-builder these days, so much as a crutch for developers who can’t seem to scare anyone without the coarse language. What I wouldn’t give to see an Alfred Hitchcock of videogames come along and scare people without relying on the “easy intensity” of rough language.