VideogameVagabond.com

When Madden NFL 09 is release this week, so will the new metallic blue Sony PSP Slim model. Anyone who missed out on the metallic red version released with God of War earlier this year needs to jump all over this Madden 09 special-edition PSP Slim.

Although I’m happy with my silver PSP, I can honestly say that if the metallic red or metallic blue models had been available at the time I bought mine, I would have jumped all over the red model, my wife would have jumped all over the blue model, and we would have simply swapped the free games that came with them. (My wife went with basic black when we upgraded her to a new PSP recently.)

Custom PSP colors are a lot of fun, and finally they’re seeing release outside of Japan; the stimulus to sales has to be worth it. It’s way more fun than buying a car cover.

Sometimes writing about cartoon sports videogames can be about as fun as taknig a strong dose of herbal acne treatment; it’s not enjoyable and convinces no one. You either like cartoonish sports titles or you’re over the age of six.

The one exception is the Hot Shots Golf franchise, which seems to have found just the right mix of serious golf sim and cartoon antics to remain interesting to older gamers who love real sports, not “kiddie stuff.”

I recently reviewed Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds for PS3 and really enjoyed the game; it’s a keeper. Now, after over two years of playing Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee on PSP to death and back again, the sequel is out: Open Tee 2 has a good mix of old familiar coarses updated since their last appearance, as well as plenty of new courses.

Look for a full review soon.

Before you begin Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, be sure to look into some term life insurance quotes. The PSP game is far more of an action RPG than the traditional turn-based affair that made the Final Fantasy VII universe so universally appealing, to be prepared for the change.

That said, the game is everything one could hope for on a gameplay standpoint, except that it’s a bit short on the main quest. A lot of hours can be added via optional missions, but the main quest is complete in only a handful of hours of gameplay, rather than the 50-plus hours the original Final Fantasy VII game delivered on.

I’ll be doing a full-on review soon, but I’m enjoying what I’ve played thus far.

Although most folks will rejoice when I say that the Wild Arms RPG franchise has finally arrived on PSP, hold on to your yippee-ki-yays for a moment, cowboy. The US Old West-themed fantasy series may now have a title on Sony’s handheld platform, but this PSP title is significantly different from the popular series that has done moderately well on PSone and PS2.

That’s because Wild Arms XF, developed as always by Media.Vision and published by XSeed is not your standard turn-based RPG, but has more in common with Final Fantasy Tactics than any previous Wild Arms installment. Given an all-new storyline and cast, Wild Arms XF is a full-on tactics-style RPG with all the benefits and drawbacks thereof.

One benefit is that the title introduces a job system into the Wild Arms universe for the first time; this allows for greater customization and skill acquisition than previous titles, but the trade-off is that the game has no world for you to wander around in and explore; it boasts only two modes – story sequences and battles.

Like FFT, Wild Arms XF doesn’t take it easy on newcomers; you must learn the game system fast or be crushed by superior opponents, some of whom are designed to be avoided at all costs, so pay attention to your actual mission objectives before entering into each new battle.

Of course, none of this is a problem for me; I love tactics RPGs and that makes this chapter of the Wild Arms saga a welcome change of pace. My wife, however, was not so kindly disposed toward the title, complaining that it was too hard too soon in the game, arguing that a game should offer a few more battles before ramping up the challenge level so quickly. (My wife prefers action-based RPGs.)

The story is one typical of the world of Filgaia. The game centers around a brother and sister, Clarissa and Filius, who start out exploring the world outside their home town, but who are eventually caught up into the political struggled of the day. There are hints dropped early on that Clarissa is either an exiled princess who doesn’t remember her past, or is a dead ringer for the dethroned debutante. Things just kind of snowball from there.

Wild Arms XF isn’t a title that breaks tons of new ground or revolutionizes the genre, but it is a game that’s entertaining, challenging, and possesses few flaws that will bug veterans of the tactics RPG genre. It also fits right into the universe established by previous games, and delivers a Filgaia-based game that you can take with you on the go. The only drawbacks are the steep learning curve for genre newcomers, and the fact that the jobs and skills system are a bit thinner than those found in Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lion. Then again, that’s setting the bar pretty high.

Wild Arms XF is one of the sharper-looking entries in this series, benefitting perhaps from the smaller screen the PSP offers. In the end, it all adds up to a niche RPG that will appeal to most fans of the series and fans of tactics RPGs, but likely won’t draw a lot of non-fans into the fold. Definitely a solid entry, though, and a good addition to any PSP-owning RPG lovers library. XSeed is doing all it can to support the title, too; I’m hoping they’ll offer up some logo pens as part of that effort!

Thanks to the trendy popularity of Tactics-style RPGs, a lot of games that offer styles of game play far different from Final Fantasy Tactics or Disgaea, have been trying to fit the “tactics” label into their titles. SOCOM: Tactical Strike for PSP is one such example.

Anyone addicted to SOCOM games that are action based might feel like playing SOCOM: Tactical Strike is like utilizing a squad of soldiers who all have fibromyalgia. Yet the style of combat found here is nothing like Final Fantasy Tactics or Disgaea. More properly, S:TS is more on the order of a real-time military strategy game. Fortunately, as long as that’s what you’re expecting, it’s not a bad example of that genre.

The player controls a squad of four solders but never takes direct control of them. Instead, you get to issue action orders that they follow, such as shoot, snipe, move, throw grenades and so forth. Fortunately, the AI executes these commands rather effectively, so you won’t spend a lot of time wishing that game would just let you take direct control.

The main problem is that the multiplayer mode, whether online or localized, gets extremely laggy. Since snappy multiplayer play is a key strength of the series, this is a huge Achilles heel for this game. While it’s not quite bad enough to ruin the game, it does sap some energy out of the experience.

In terms of general game design, SOCOM: Tactical Strike does offer large area maps that offer flexibility when it comes to accomplishing objectives; the same goals can be reached through multiple approaches. The game plays out at a decent pace, although the storyline is nothing special or particularly interesting.

Graphically, the game offers more eye candy than one might expect, stuffing an impressive amount of detail and atmosphere onto the PSP screen. Whether it is rendering lush jungles, old churches or military bases, the areas are both massive and massively detailed. Certainly, the game measures up to the heritage of the series’ PS2-era titles and delivers an experience that is deeper than one might expect on the PSP portable platform.

SOCOM: Tactical Strike for PSP has flaws, sure; but they are not deal-breakers. The game is a fun design if you enjoy this sort of RTS genre, and graphically it deserves to be part of the series, even with the high standards set by the games that came before it. It would be more enjoyable if not for the lag issue, but all in all, fans of the SOCOM series won’t find too much to gripe about.

I was one of the first people in line to buy the original Final Fantasy Tactics for PSone, back when the first version of this game was released. I was more intrigued by and excited about the title than the game everyone else had been anticipating that had landed a few months earlier, Final Fantasy VII. I think at the time, the steampunk influences of Final Fantasy VII were a bit of a turnoff for me (I eventually came ‘round), but the original FFT simply had a more traditional feel; it was more the sort of traditional sword and sorcery style of game I wanted from an RPG at that time.

Despite a “so awful it’s funny” localization that rendered some plot elements incomprehensible, and an incredibly high difficulty level, Final Fantasy Tactics became a long-standing personal favorite of mine and still ranks as one of my Top 5 PSone games of all time. Simply put, it was a dream-come-true title.

Of course, I was pleased to see a whole subgenre of Tactics-style RPGs emerge from the popularity of that title, and while it’s still somewhat of a niche RPG subgenre, it’s now a well-populated one. About the only complaints I’ve had over the years about Final Fantasy Tactics is that the game was on PSone and took so bloody long to play, I could never finish it.

Finally, after a decade of devotion, SquareEnix as released a “remix done right” version of Final Fantasy Tactics for the PSP system. I call it a remix done right because Final Fantasy Tactics is far more than a straight port of the PSone classic onto PSP. There is a surprising amount of new content.

How much is new? Well, let’s start with the crappy localization. GONE! AT LAST! This time around, the script reads well, as though written by someone to whom English was not a fifth or sixth poorly-studied language. And while the game seems just a bit too fond of certain King Jamesian archaic phrases, for the most part the script is readable, comprehensible and even witty in places.

OK, so the game is more pleasant to read. But that’s not all. A considerable amount of new story elements have been added in the form of FMV story segments. Pulled off in some gorgeous animation that honors the original character designs but brings some new style to the game – think animation with some cool texturized colors that make it look like it was drawn in colored pencil and pained in watercolors. Add that the story segments fill in some of the blanks in the storyline, humanizing the characters, and what already was considered to be one of Square-Enix’s best stories ever told improves even more.

There are also some new items added to the mix, new characters (including a cameo by Vaan from Final Fantasy XII), new storylines and twists, and just a lot more than I expected in order to make this more than just a replay of the same game from 10 years ago.

Don’t go in thinking it’s all-new, though; this is still Final Fantasy Tactics, the original, even with all the new bells and whistles. The vast majority of the changes are wonderful; but not all the changes work as well. Need an example? OK.

One of the big drawbacks of the game being redesigned to play on the PSP is that the little tavern missions have been redone. In the PSone original, these were missions you could send your lower-level characters off on in order to help them level up more quickly. They’d be gone from your party for a number of days, and then you could pick them up at a guild, to collect a report of their success and also a reward if your party member did succeed at the task.

This time out, those missions are extra battles and you get to play them out rather than having them happen off-screen and receiving a second-hand report of the action. Instead, you must – and I mean MUST – find an online opponent or companion in order to make use of them at all. This is annoying because it’s not easy to always find someone who is online with their PSP, playing Final Fantasy Tactics at the same time you are, and ready and willing to agree to mutual terms. It’s not as simple a matching process as sports games are.

Even so, I could tolerate the online awkwardness if these side missions could also be completed the traditional way. That’s not an option, though. It’s play ‘em out online or don’t get access to those missions at all. This is not wise design.

The bottom line for me, though, is that having Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions released and remixed and available on a portable platform is indeed a wish come true. I’ve always loved FFT and other Tactics-style RPGs that have followed since, and my only complaint has been that they all take 100s of hours to beat, which is just not always practical on a home console system. Now that it’s on my PSP Slim, I can play it in bits and pieces throughout my day and really make progress in the game.

Anyone who doesn’t think Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions isn’t worth owning just doesn’t like RPGs. Along with Jeanne d’Arc and Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness, this year has been OWNED by PSP, especially the second half of 2007. The PSP is hot again, and, at least for me, Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions is a big part of the reason why.

Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions on PSP has been a great way to break in my new PSP Slim so far, and create in me a lot of affection for the system as well as the game.

But I have to say I’m annoyed by one feature: all those side-missions you used to be able to get at the taverns? They’re still there, but you HAVE to find an online player to play them with.

There are tons of items and character-advancing experiences to go through via these tavern missions, and I think requiring them to be completed via cooperative play is a big mistake; I have yet to find a single opponent online in order to complete even one of them

This should be optional for coop or solo play.

With a team like Stephen Spielberg and Michael Bay combining their efforts, Transformers: The Movie was supposed to be the event action movie of the summer. While it did OK at the box office, however, other films from Spider-Man 3 to Live Free or Die Hard to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix all made similar or better impacts. Still, the Transformers franchise would be a lead-pipe cinch to do well on videogame consoles, right? Well, that depends on how the game is carried off.

Not well at all, is the short answer. First, it ought to be said that developer Savage Entertainment was behind the PSP version, and they simply don’t have the resume for quality development that Traveler’s Tales, the PS3 version developer, possesses. This game is an entirely different product from the PS3 version and anyone expecting differently will be disappointed by the quality of … well, virtually every element.

The graphics are right around mid-PSone standard, and show no signs of a creative spark. This is poorly complimented by uninspired level design, funky controls that rarely respond as one would expect, and a battle system that is somehow even shallower than the system employed on the PS3 version of the game. It’s almost painful to play, compounded by frequent, long load times.

Like the movie, the film centers around the battle between good robots and evil robots, which has spilled over to Earth as the two sides search for the AllSpark. The AllSpark is the life force for all Transformers, so naturally they want it back. Of course, the plot is more of a window dressing to this loud, exploding, event-packed action game that keeps a gamer on their toes … for as long as it lasts.

Mercifully, the PSP version of Transformers the Game is a brief affair, and you’ll brief with relief that it’s over if you’re made of strong enough stuff to stick it out. The slowness of the graphics takes any action-oriented excitement out of the mix, and one wonders if the team was simply pressured to release the game far too early in the development process. Something went seriously wrong somewhere, and it would not be surprising if most members of the team involved in this title left this game off their resumes when looking for their next gig.

While a hot 80s-nostalgia license like Transformers should be hard to screw up, somehow Transformers The Game PSP has managed to fall as an all-too-typical victim of movie-licensed games. While the PS3 version by Traveler’s Tales isn’t great, it is playable. Sadly, he PSP version is better left on store shelves, even if it is found in the $10 bargain bin with a bunch of advertising pens.

Sometimes I wonder if the Tales series of RPGs from Namco-Bandai was intended as a bedtime tale or a sleep aid; all I know for sure is, they’re exciting enough to put me to sleep fairly swiftly every time I play them.

Maybe it’s because the titles are such paint-by-numbers affairs, a charge which certainly applies to the company’s latest PSP RPG offering, Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology. Although not as bad as some early PSP RPGs, Tales of the World simply doesn’t inspire a sense of wonder or exploration. Perhaps that’s because there aren’t that many places to explore, and those that are offered must be explored over and over and over again to complete the little mini-missions that push one through the tale and that allow you to advance, ever-so-slowly, in level.

While the level design tends to keep one cautious in the early going, as one can run into monsters capable of wiping you out, the experience is uneven at best, and long after you know a particular area like the back of your hand, you still have to make too many return visits to clear out missions and move on in the storyline.

Sporting an action-based battle system similar to those found in most other Tales titles, there’s simply not much new to be found in Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology that hasn’t been done over and over again in other versions. More than many series far older than it, the Tales series is in need of a deep and abiding reinvention, a complete makeover than turns the series on its ear and makes the games fun and refreshing and new again.

That sort of remix simply is not in evidence in Tales of the World, however. It is a perfunctory, “more of the same old stuff” outing that makes one wonder of anyone’s even at the wheel of the franchise anymore. While once a refreshing change-of-pace series, Tales RPGs are now run-of-the-mill and sleep inducing, and it’s a sad thing to bear witness to.

It’s also a terrible time for a title like this to appear in the PSP platform, as well. With sharp, exciting titles, including RPGs, making their way to PSP in the latter half of 2007, from Jeanne d’Arc to Dungeons and Dragons Tactics to Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions, the PSP is quite possibly this fall’s hot platform for RPG action. An asleep-at-the-wheel title like Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology will simply get passed over without a second thought, just like a book on mortgage life insurance sitting on the shelve next to the latest James Patterson thriller.

It took a while, but Sony finally has it right in the handheld market; a combination of the perfect game and the perfect piece of hardware to play it on. The hardware? The new PSP Slim. The game? Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions.

Much like last winter’s redesign of the previously-bulky Nintendo DS, Sony’s original PlayStation Portable was in dire need of of an attention-grabbing redesign. While the DS Lite went in an standard Nintendo direction, with a trim but boxy design than a wide palette of colors from which to choose, Sony chose a slightly different route.

The PSP Slim is noticably lighter and thinner, but still boasts the spirit of the original PSP design. And instead of making a load of new colors commonplace, Sony celebrated the PSP relaunch with a couple collectible, limited edition designs, while the rest of the forthcoming PSP Slims will remain in standard black. The Daxter version of PSP Slim is a sharp, slick metallic silver, while the Star Wars Edition is pearly white with an image of an adult Darth Vader silkscreened on the back of the unit.

They’re sharp-looking and they won’t be available forever, making them fun to own, and of course, increasing their eBay value in the process for the capitalists among us.

But a redesigned PSP would be nothing without some all-new killer apps to play on ‘em, and one of the big guns just launched: Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions finally makes its way to PSP sporting a complete graphical makeover, new cinematics, new characters, new jobs and lots of other new goodies, while retaining the spirit of the original story that made the PS One classic so damn addictive.

I could go on and on, but I’d rather get back to PSP gaming heaven… you’ll hear more from me later, though. Soon as the PSP Slim has to go on the recharger.

I finally got it!

As a matter of fact, I’ve had it for a week, but have been so in love with it that it’s been hard to tear myself away to blog about it!

About a week ago, I finally traded in some older games I wasn’t playing anymore and bridged the gap to affordability and bought the brand new, sleeker, slimmer, cooler PSP Slim. I gave my wife the older PSP, which works perfectly fine, so that I could justify the purchase, as well as give her the gift of on-the-go gaming. And since I’ve been using it, I’ve been happier than a mother with set of brand new baby slings.

I decided on the Daxter version because it’s silver and goes well with my old DS. (My wife has matching black - her new DS Lite and old PSP share the same color, too.) Besides, it had a 1GB memory card and the Star Wars one didn’t. The Star Wars one, also, is white, which does little for me. Star Wars was cool 30 years ago, but the more recent sequel sucked raw eggs, so it’s not that big a deal. And my wife enjoys the Daxter game.

Me? I’m whiling away my time with Dungeons and Dragons Tactics until the real plum of the PSP RPG season arrives at my doorstep. This week, I’m expecting to receive Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions. Put that alongside Silent Hill Origins, Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness and the long-promised Elder Scrolls: Oblivion PSP, and this holiday season the sweetest Sony platform to be on isn’t PS2 or PS3, it’s PSP!

Sports games have had a hard time adapting to the handheld market, even the wide-screen Sony PSP. While a game on PS3 or Xbox 360 can come across like the Cartier of sports games, put the same thing on a handheld and suddenly it’s not just the graphics that suffer, but the AI, the feature set and more.

Of course, this year’s version of Sony’s NBA title, NBA 08 for PSP, is hardly a great example of depth and versatility. Even on PS3, the game lacks depth, still neglecting to add a much-needed franchise mode, and this time around axing the “popular for the last couple years” storytelling mode, The Life.

Apparently, Sony’s sports game folks think gamers on the go actually WANT their sports games to lack depth. Why else would they also deny users the ability to increase quarter-length in season mode from four minutes to something a bit beefier, like eight minutes? In fact, most of the user options are well hidden in the game’s interface, and even when you can track it down and set your user file to preferring 8-minute quarters, often when you save that and start a new season mode, you’ll find yourself playing 4-minute quarters anyway, with no way to even change that up.

It’s disappointing in the extreme, especially since Sony’s finally found a way to make their controls for the game on PSP a bit more accessible. Not that you’ll be facing CPU opponents who are all that crafty; the AI in the game is a funky, unpredictable beast that at times will play rock-stupid, letting you go up 20-8 in a half, but then often goes into unstoppable mode in the second half, outscoring you 38-10. There’s just no consistency to it.

Online play is built into the game naturally and looks like it might work well, but like its PS3 cousin, I could not find any opponents online - at all - to play against to more fairly evaluate the online mode.

The graphics in the game are acceptable by PSP sports game standards, but not by any other unit of measurement, and it makes one wish 2K Sports would get off their butts and bring both NBA 2K8 and College Hoops 2K8 onto the PSP. So far, though, no luck on that score.

Another area where the game falls apart is in roster accuracy; I put the PSP version of the game to the same “Minnesota Timberwolves roster accuracy” test that I used on its PS3 big brother. Again, NBA 06 for PSP is an utter failure on roster accuray.

Amazingly enough, the game is even worse than the PS3 version containing all-different roster errors, though the most eggregious is, once again, the complete MIA status of draft pick Corey Brewer. I mean, I can understand missing second-round pick Chris Richard. But Brewer was the seventh overall pick in this year’s NBA draft. How the hell do you screw that up? (And yes, they have the draft accounted for, because Kevin Durant and Greg Oden are in the game.)

Once again, that’s unforgivable.

About the only thing NBA 08 for PSP has going for it is a feature called Block Party, in which you get a ton of mini-games you can play online against human opponents. The company also claims it will offer weekly roster update files, but I already downloaded the first one and it still didn’t correct any of the terrible roster inaccuracies with the Wolves. It just looks like Sony would rather pretend Brewer doesn’t exist that patch him into the game. Whatever.

Also, there may be more mini-games available via download, perhaps as many as one a week, so the novelty of those might help maintain interest over the course of the season.

But I’ll take accurate rosters, deep features and a kickass franchise mode over Block Party any day of the week and twice on Sundays. After making strides the past couple seasons, Sony’s NBA franchise is strictly NBA D-League material.