PSP | The Recycle Bin

Some reasons not to PSP Go.

After finding that forgettable PS2 NCAA Football 10 I was cursing around G4TV looking for something else fun to read. This G4TV Feed editorial laments on the fact that Sony should have skipped the PSP Go and went straight to the PSP2. Never mind alienating the current 50 million or so PSP owners.

While Sony has released a number of new models improving on the screen, battery life, size and weight of the PSP, the company is planning on releasing their most radical PSP design this Fall –PSP go The smallest and lightest version of the PSP, PSP go forgoes the UMD drive for downloadable games but adds 16GB of internal storage, Bluetooth support, and more.

But, does anyone care? I sure as hell don’t.

Like a lot of posts these days, the comments are actually more interesting than the full article content. In the case of the PSP Go, consider it as a sort of PSP-4000 that will hold everyone over for 12-18 months until the PSP2 is ready for launch. If Sony does the needful and launches the PSP2 in 6-9 months, there are going to be some seriously pissed PSP Go owners.

Is there honor in third place?

I ran across this article via N4G and thought it was a bit ridiculous. The author is claiming that the PS3 is really not doing that bad. Huh?

In their lifetimes, the Gamecube sold 21.74 million units, and the original Xbox 24 million. With the PS3 at 23 million, that means that it has sold the same amount as the Gamecube and Xbox in about half the time.

Ooh! Ooh! I know the answer to this one. Dreamcast! I am sure Sony never saw the day coming where their shiny new Blu-ray of wonder would get compared to the Gamecube. Good grief. There are silver linings and then there are dark clouds of mumbo-jumbo.

Lastly, there’s the issue of cost. Sony lose money on every PS3 sold. In 2006 when the PS3 launched, Sony were losing approximately $250 on every PS3 sold. But now with Blu-Ray development costs dropping (as well as Sony taking a few features out of the console), the development costs are (as of January last year) about $450. 80 GB PS3s currently cost about $400, which means that Sony is now only losing $50 per PS3. The development costs of Blu-Ray will continue to drop, which means eventually Sony will start making money off of the PS3. Until then, though, they still have sales from the PS2, PSP, and other electronics (such as TVs and standalone Blu-Ray players) to help recover their losses.

But mom! I am only a little pregnant. Something like that. The author can spin the numbers any which way they darn well please, but the simple fact of the matter is that Sony has had it handed to them the last few years.

How is this current generation going to play out? Will a $50 price cut [you know we all want to see $100, but predictably Sony will do the wrong thing] actually salvage things for Sony? Will Sony attempt to keep the PS3 on a 10 year cycle similar to the PSX and PS2? Will Sony abandon the PS3 in hopes of competing with Microsoft by simultaneously launching the next PlayStation with the next Xbox?

There are lots of questions to ponder, but no real answers right now. Maybe I will start a rumor or two later. Until then, happy Sunday!

NCAA Football 10: Where did all the good sports games reviews go?

This afternoon my wife was shopping, my youngest son was taking a nap, my two older sons were watching some Sponge Bob, and my PS3 was on a UPS truck. I decided to look for some good NCAA Football 10 reviews.

Based on a few tid bits that I have read, I strongly suspect that PS3 version is just a minor upgrade over the NCAA Football 09. What about the PSP version? That could give me some quality football time until Madden gets here in a few short weeks.

First stop was metacritic – the PS3 release only has 7 reviews listed, for an average score of 82%, while no reviews [in case I stuttered, that is zero, zip, nil] were listed for the PSP version. WTF? Don’t bother us; waiting for Madden!

The disturbing trend here is that for the PS3 reviews, none of them are sports gaming centric. This is disappointing. I know reviewers, especially sports game reviewers, are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. If you review too quickly you may miss some obscure flaw that ruins everyone’s fun. If you review too late, no one cares. What is the poor reviewer to do?

Next I went to gamerankings – they had the same PS3 reviews and of course no PSP reviews. This sucks monkey nuts. No reviews? What is wrong with the kids these days? I figured someone would have slapped up a couple hundred words on their blog and called it a day. Cheese and crackers.

Finally I headed to IGN. I bet they had a review, but maybe the tracking sites just did not get around to listing it? Not so much. At least IGN pointed me to something called gamestats that at least had a couple of worthless reviews. This is is more or less worthless, because the next link is actually for a PS2 game, not a PSP game, but I am desperate at this point, so here goes nothing! At least G4TV is going to try to throw me a bone and give me some fun with a mediocre review.

On the field, the game is a solid football title. Kudos to the dev team for adding some new animations that not only enhance the realism of gameplay, but look cool as well.

Huh? Love me a dash of coolness with my gameplay. How exactly does this improve upon last year’s gameplay?

Receivers and DBs jostle as they run routes, pass protection actually forms a pocket that QBs can step into, and it’s also possible to throw out of sacks — though players are advised to it at their own discretion; it’s embarrassing to get picked off twice in one game by a sure-handed defensive end.

No doubt. Embarrassing. I thought this was heading somewhere important.

It’s a shame that all these new tweaks are just that: tweaks. The gameplay jump from NCAA Football 09 to this year is quite minimal, and the fact that NCAA 10 will be a full price game should make gamers think long and hard about whether or not they can just make do with 09 for another year. NCAA Football 11 will need some additions, most notably some better on-field presentation (no rivalry game trophy celebrations? C’mon, EA) and the development team needs more creativity when they decide to add new modes.

How dare those bastards at EA leave out the all important rivalry game trophy celebrations? My gameplay is just not complete. Screw it. I give up. I guess I need to go back to writing my own reviews because this dribble sucks.

PSP Go Cash Cow for Ports?

So now that Sony is going down the digital download only route with the PSP Go, how does Sony fill up PSN with suitable content? Ports, baby, ports. ThePortableGamer has an great article advising Sony not to throw caution to the wind.

What Sony doesn’t need to do is start pulling existing developers and tell them to port their games to the PSP Go. It would be nice to see a dedicated Sony-brand application store rather than having to go through PSN or the PC to get games on the new system. Given the number of applications on iTunes, Sony could be relatively successful in grabbing the best of the bunch to port their games. But there lies some honest truth, Sony wants quick cash.

There are many gamers, this one included, that would be happy to have a full back catalog of PSX titles available for download, along with a steady stream of original IP, assuming the price per download is reasonable. With that said, I also know that we are going to see a rash of iPod ports; not such a happy situation. Hopefully PSN does not get flooded with a bunch of crap, because the PSP Go should be for real gaming experiences, not some nickel and dime store iPod crap.

Why not Intellivision?

If you are going to go old school, and release games for the PC Engine (or TurboGrafx-16), why not do this retro game thing justice and go for broke? Yes, we have all been there and done that with Intellivision Lives, but why not release a virtual Intellivision, Colecovision, or C-64 console? According to andriasang.com, PSN is now offering some old non Sony content.

Bomberman ’94, New Adventure Island (Takahashi Meijin no Shin Boukenjima), Sengoku Mahjong, and Devil Crush are available starting today, priced at the standard Game Archives going price of ¥600. The games are playable on both PlayStation 3 and PSP.

Not sure where Sony is going with this, but obviously they cannot call on Nintendo’s back library. Maybe they go for Sega next, but I still say go for the good stuff. Give me Seven Cities of Gold and Elite for the C-64 and Treasure of Tarmin for the Intellivision.

Going, going, gone. Or another story on how Sony sucks eggs.

The only reason I am posting a link to this story from the escapist is because their content is always well written, provoking thought, and of course entertaining. But really, do we need another “Sony lost, blah, blah, blah …” story?

Only the Game Boy kept Nintendo in the race, while Sony led two hardware generations. It seemed immovable.

Then, a series of events brought Sony crashing down to earth. Microsoft released the Xbox 360 at the end of 2005 and enjoyed a full year as the sole next-gen console. When the PS3 eventually arrived, it did so practically in tandem with the epoch-making, zillion-selling, game-changing Wii.

On the handheld front, Sony’s attempt to remove Nintendo from its portable stronghold was equally disastrous. The PSP went head to head with the DS and came off far worse, hitting 50 million unit sales earlier this year as its rival reached 100 million.

Then the iPhone came along, but we won’t talk about that.

The article then goes on to talk about how news of the PSP Go was leaked prior to E3 and explains that third parties could give a rats ass about Sony. All true? Probably.

I did a write-up on this many moon ago; will have to see if I can dig up the original article. If anyone wants to write about Sony’s struggles, just lament back to the days of 3DO. The hardware was ahead of its time, and the price point was into the stratosphere as far as the average Joe was concerned. Oops, Sony failed to learn from history.

Playing second fiddle to Nintendo’s DS variations probably sucks for Sony, but when you consider the number of PSPs sold is 50+ million, that is a lot of opportunity to make some money. Even if the PS3 stays in third place for the remainder of this hardware generation (however that is defined) at some point I assume that Sony wins the high-def format war. Sony gets a little slice of paradise every time you double dip and purchase a Blu-ray upgrade to your DVD library.

Monday news, notes, and recycling

Other than wanting to get a cold one I do not have a lot of junk to spew about tonight. Actually, before we get started I have to admit that I am a little bit pissed off that there is no update on the Sony site about the status of my PS3 repair. The site says to “please allow 1-2 business days for your unit to be assigned to a Service Agent once received.” Hmmm … I guess there must be some sort of backlog of broken PS3.

Price cuts by October?
This article from VG247 shows that the price cuts are coming, just in time for your holiday shopping pleasure.

Wedbush Morgan super-analyst Michael Pachter has predicted that Sony will cut PS3’s price before October 1 if US hardware sales continue to slide.

“It is likely both manufacturers [Sony and Nintendo] will cut by $50, with Sony making up any lack of increased demand with a software bundle.

The article basically states that hardware sales suck [stagnant is probably a more profession description] and that there will be price cuts all around. Everyone is looking for a $100 PS3 price cut from Sony, but I guess $50 is more reasonable. To be honest, once I saw the $249 price point for the PSP Go I figured Sony was going to go for a deep PS3 price cut and try to recoup PS3 losses on early PSP Go suckers [I mean adapters].

PSP Homebrew Stuffs
If I get a PSP Go, I am going to consider bricking my PSP-1000 into a homebrew system. In anticipation of this event, I have been looking at different homebrew options. QJ.net seems to be a decent news consolidation point for all things PSP homebrew related.

PSP-3000 vs. PSP Go
Click here is an interesting article comparing the PSP-3000 specs to the PSP Go.

NCAA Football 10
I have not budged. Have not started checking for the “I have it posts” or looking to see how much the game “rules or sucks.”

NCAA Football 10 – Prerelease post.

I am trying not to second guess myself about not preordering NCAA Football 10, and more importantly, abstaining for this year’s release. Since my PS3 is off in unknown parts of Texas getting repaired it is a lot easier to show will power. Or is it?

I keep trying to talk myself out of getting the PSP version. That one does not really count, does it? When I made my declaration of “no NCAA Football this year” I was really talking about the big brother version, right?

Oh well, just a day before the pending release, there are several things I am not doing …

I am not looking at the “I got it early” threads.
For that matter, I am not even visiting forums of any sort.
I am not looking for early reviews.
I am not looking for bloggers with hands-on day one type impressions.

When I think about it, I find it rather amazing that I am actually sitting on the sidelines waiting this one out. I almost do not know what to do with all this free time on my hands. With all that said, at the very least I am damn curious about the PSP version, and since my current PSP library is down to exactly zero sports games, I may have to take a couple of sneak peeks later in the week.

More PSP Go dribble.

It is a slow gaming news day, so I went hunting for PSP Go news. I am still very much on the fence about getting one of these systems, but I am getting ahead of myself.

Last week RPGamer posted some E3 hands-on impressions of the Go. Not a lot of new nuggets here, but the article is worth a read if you are pressed for PSP Go news.

The battery life on the Go is a bit of a disappointment. Many people, including myself, thought that with the exclusion of the UMD drive, the battery life on the Go would be much longer than the current PSP’s 3-6 hours for games and 3-5 hours for video playback. Unfortunately, the PSP Go has nearly the exact same battery life as previous PSP models. This is a concession to the Go’s smaller form factor. It uses a smaller battery at 960mAH while the previous PSP-3000 used a 1200mAH battery. Technically, the PSP Go is far more energy efficient because even though it has a smaller battery it can achieve the same battery life as previous models. To be honest, that is a very small concession since functionally, nothing has changed.

I still do not understand how Sony failed to address battery life; 10 hours should be the minimum that engineers should strive for with a portable gaming system. At least with my current PSP-1000 brick, I do have two batteries, so I can always keep one changed. If the PSP Go has an internal battery, we are all F’ed if we expect to take this thing on a long flight.

Still not convinced that you need to spend your hard earned duckets on a PSP Go? Neither is TheSixthAxis, but they tried to come up with some reason to go with a PSP Go.

Let’s face it, many people who buy a PSPgo will likely be buying it simply because it is new. With the technology and gadget loving crowd if they are not considering buying it because they themselves always like to have the newest gadget they may be considering it just for the cachet that comes from showing their peers that they have bought the latest technological bling.

So this is what happens on a slow news day. You have to read me droning on and on “will he or won’t he” style about the PSP Go. Part of me wants one – my PSP 1000 is a brick and if I get a PSP Go, I can turn my PSP 1000 into a homebrew system.

I keep saying, “screw it, I am heading to Amazon to preorder” then at the last minute I cannot justify $250 for this minor PSP upgrade. Besides, I cannot make up my mind on the Black or White decision. If I can find $175 worth of crap to throw up on eBay this afternoon, I think I will take the plunge. Stay tuned.

Myst baby! Myst!

My second “Holy Toledo Batman!” moment of the morning, and in my dotage, it is much too early (dare I even say exiting!) for me to take this sort of news. What to do? What to do? According to GamersDailyNews at long last … wait for it … sit down and take a deep breath … Myst is coming to the PSP! You know you need to get you some of that!

As part of a publishing agreement with Cyan Worlds, Myst will be released on Thursday July 16th through the Playstation Network.

The game takes advantage of the PSP system’s glorious 16-million color 16:9 screen as it catapults the player into a universe of mystery, discovery, and mind-bending puzzles.

Utterly alone and without encountering another single living soul on a mysterious island, the player sets out to explore its grandeur and unlock its secrets. A chilling tale of injustice unfolds, expanding beyond all boundaries of space and time. Quickly, though, it becomes clear every action can somehow help unfortunate individuals trapped somewhere in a parallel dimension. The Myst adventure is like no other, tantalizing with its unique combination of lavish environments, puzzles, mazes, and a sizzling underlying drama which steadily reveals itself to the player

Just you wait and see. This sum bitch is going straight to the top of the PSN download charts.

IndustryGamers interviews PSN’s Eric Lepel

IndustryGamers posted a very interesting interview with Sony’s Eric Lempel (Director, PlayStation Network). Most sites that are linking to this are focusing on Mr. Lempel’s comments comparing PSN to XBL – “I don’t think there’s a lot of “catch up” [with XBL] anymore.” but I thought the article (found via N4G) contained more interesting nuggets of information.

IG: I know Sony has said the PSP Go is not intended to replace the traditional PSP model, but it does sort of seem that with this digital push that is going to eventually happen. Don’t you think this will phase out UMD permanently?

EL: I think it really depends on the consumer and what they want. As Kaz [Hirai] mentioned it was really about going out there, talking to people and seeing what they wanted.

Kind of like everyone really wanted a second analog stick?

IG: And the pricing on the digital games will be identical to the UMD counterparts?

EL: Well, we don’t actually control pricing, so we can sell to retail at a wholesale price and then they set the resale price. On the PlayStation Store we do set the pricing for first-party titles, but on third-party they give us a wholesale price. On games where we do control pricing, what we’ll steer towards is having it cost the same; it won’t cost more [at retail or digitally] for the launch of a new title.

What? That was like a punch in the guts. At a minimum I expected the digital content to be $5-10 less to make up for no UMD, no case, manual, shelf space, etc. If this is correct … or rather if I understand this statement correctly, it looks like PSP Go owners are about to get screwed.

IG: With PSP Go being all digital and the fact that you can access the store on the PSP itself, do you feel it’s one step closer to competing with the iPhone?

EL: What’s a little bit different with us is that PSP is a game-centric device; it was built for gaming. A lot of this other stuff you see on other devices – lots of smaller games, not that deep – might not provide the best experience. The PSP Go has a lot more horsepower and there’s a lot more you can get out of this. I think the Go will open [the door] for more unique stuff that you probably wouldn’t find on another platform because they can’t run it or they just don’t have the controls.

I just wrote about this fascination with comparing the PSP Go to the iPhone (or iPod Touch). I really do not understand why this continues to come up, but now the hot rumors are that a PSP Phone is forthcoming. Oh well, gives me some more fodder for the blog.

And last, but not least …

IG: Some people may be worried about filling up the internal memory of the PSP Go, so what would you say the average size of a game file is going to be? How many games could a user fit onto the device?

EL: If you’re strictly talking games, and not movies or other stuff, with the average game being perhaps 800 MB you could probably get about 20 games onto the PSP Go.

I cannot even imagine trying to lug around 20 UMDs. At this point I think I am quoted out. Check out the article; it is a solid read.

Random PSP News.

No PS3 – Day 1. Over the weekend there was a flurry of activity about the PSP Go having a significantly faster CPU than the current models. Not so fast (literally and figuratively) according to engadget.

Looks like all that excitement over PSPgo’s faster (but likely to be underused) 480MHz processor is all for naught. Our friends at Engadget Japan have gotten in contact with Sony Computer Entertainment and been informed that the Maximum clock frequency mentioned here is for the USB device, not the CPU.

Damn. I knew it was too good to be true. Like a lot of other sites (present company included), the user comments are also more entertaining than the actual article. Same for the comments from the same article at joystiq. The reactions crack me up. I talked myself out of and into a PSP Go several times reading the various user diatribes. Good stuff.

PSP destined to outsell the Game Boy
I found this one via N4G. Read it closely or you are liable to make an ass out of yourself very quickly.

The PSP managed to sell 50 million units with sporadic software support. However, Sony and other companies are beefing up support for the handheld system with several blockbuster titles from blockbuster franchises. It will be hard to ignore the PSP with games like Dissidia: Final Fantasy, Gran Turismo, LittleBigPlanet, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and Resident Evil.

I am surprised that Sony has managed to push 50 million PSP units. That is pretty damn impressive. I have to go out on a limb and guess that the adoption rate is fairly high among PS2 and PS3 owners. In other words, brand loyalty matters.

PSP should be been UMD free?
And how about this gem from gossipgamers – the PSP was always intended to be UMD free.

“We’d planned to release a PSP model without a UMD drive since the very beginning,” said Matsui. He continues to say that if they had done it from the get-go, “there wouldn’t have been much for everyone to enjoy. We needed to prepare the right environment for it first – things like the transferral of content with the PS3 and PSN, and PC software to manage content like music and movies such as Media Go.

Have to admit that this one is a head scratcher. Makes you wonder WTF is wrong with the Sony marketing and PR folks. They need some handlers or something.

And more of the same from something called electricpig:

The end result? Sony appear to have made three mistakes. They’ve saddled consumers with a device that crosses two formats (UMD and digital downloads), have waited too long, with the Apple iPhone the digital download device of choice among most consumers now, and have still priced the PSP Go “too much” for most commentators. Will the Sony PSP Go thrive despite its format issues, high price and iPhone rival, though?

I can see folks being upset with the price; $249 is not exactly what you would consider cheap and it is certainly not on par with the current PSP ($169). I still do not get all the PSP go vs. iPhone comparisons. They both have digital downloads, and they both play games. One system plays quick and dirty types, while the other is an actual portable gaming system.

Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction

Earlier this week I picked up Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction for $29.99 from the local Best Buy. I had been waiting for this one to hit Greatest Hits status for a long time, and it is finally here. I actually scored the only copy in the store, sans the Greatest Hits label. Over the weekend I noticed that the local big box had several copies, also without the Greatest Hits label, but Toys R Us did not have any copies on the shelf. I guess that the Greatest Hits shipments have not started flowing in the Columbus market yet.

I had a blast with the R&C ToD demo; played it many times, but there is only so much you can do with a demo. I always knew that I would enjoy the game, but the discriminating gamer in me has turned into more or less a tight ass in my elder gaming years. These days I rarely throw down $60 on the table for a brand spanking new game. In the case of R&C ToD, I figured I could wait.

I looked at several stores for a discounted version of FIFA 2009 for the PS3, or maybe even the PSP, but the best I could find was $49.99 (PS3) and $29.99 (PSP). I want a soccer game, but unless I can find one discounted (maybe on eBay) I am just going to hold out for the October release of FIFA 10. I can see myself ending up with the PS3 version and maybe the digital version for the PSP Go (assuming I have a Go), but that brings me back to the “digital downloads will not allow me to sell on eBay” issue, so I need to consider this a littler further.

I found a surprise deal at Toys R Us – LEGO Batman (PS3) for $19.99, but I showed some restraint and did not pull the trigger on a purchase because I just picked up R&C ToD. Of course I keep thinking that I should get it for that price, and my wife agrees (have to love that lady!). I am going to spend some time checking out the reviews and then decide if I need to make a Sunday afternoon trip back to Toys R Us. The metacritic scores average 75%, which puts it squarely in that realm of “it is probably just Ok” so not really worth $20 unless I have nothing else to play, although it support PSP Remote Play, which may put it over the top. Toys R Us also had the PSP version for $19.99, but I will pass on that one for now.

PSP Go Decision Time.

The other night my wife asked me what was that $249 dollar thing in my Amazon shopping cart? I told her I was considering a PSP Go and she asked me “What is wrong with the one you are playing now? I thought it was some sort of programming thing. Like that PlayStation one you had for making games.”

I responded that my PSP was 4 years old, and this one was new and improved, will have longer battery life, and I do not have to drag around UMDs. She said “Oh, Ok, that makes sense. You should get one if you want one.” My wife is a saint!

I started thinking about just what was new and improved. I have a handful of games, but if I cannot play them on my PSP Go, what is the point? Will Sony offer some sort of trade in deal to convert UMDs to digital downloads? Highly doubtful, but that would be nice. What about battery life? Lately I have noticed that my two batteries get around 3-5 hours of life playing Pangya, watching videos downloaded from PSN, and surfing the web.

This article from shacknews confirms that battery life is not really improved, but there some sort of goodwill UMD trade in program may be in the works.

“The battery life is equivalent with the current models meaning approximately 3 to 6 hours for gameplays and approximately 3 to 5 hours for playing back videos.”

Grant also reaffirmed that Sony is indeed planning a goodwill program for those that own physical UMD-based games, which aren’t compatible with the PSP Go

The battery life is horrible, and if the battery is embedded, then long transcontinental trips are out. At least I have two batteries with my current PSP, so I can usually make it through one of those long plane trips. I was really holding out hope that the PSP Go would average 10 hours on one charge. I always assumed that the UMD was what drained my PSP.

I recently picked up a 4GB Memory Stick Duo (love how Sony makes proprietary crap like this), which I thought I could also use with my PSP Go. Not so much. According to the article quoted in the above article …

PSPgo uses M2 memory sticks which are smaller and take up less room on the device. This meant that we saved space and could make the PSPgo pocket-sized. However, you will be able to transfer the data from your Memory Stick Duo to your PC via Media Go and then transfer it to the PSPgo or M2.

At least these Memory Stick Micro (M2) cards are cheaper then Memory Sticks Duos, but life would be simpler if Sony opted to use a standard digital camera digital card. Of course that would be too much to ask.

Will PSP Go offer better gameplay? My first thought would be no, after all this is a PSP, but then I came across this SonyInsider article.

According to recently filed FCC documents, the PSP Go (PSP-N1001) might be faster than we originally expected. While the official specs stated the clock frequency of the processor at 333MHz, FCC documents have pegged this tiny UMD-less, flash based dynamo to actually max out at 480MHz. While the PSP Go will most likely be locked in at 333Mhz, it is possible that the software within will allow scaling for intensive applications or the full speed will be enabled in a future firmware update. Many of you may remember that the original PSP was always locked to 222MHz, but since firmware 3.50, developers had access to the full 333MHz. The difference in increased processor speed was night and day for many gamers, who noticed better lighting, more particles, and a few minor differences.

I am still sitting on the fence about a PSP Go, but there is one in my shopping cart, and my wife has given a green light to the purchase. Decision time.

Negative review, the right way.

Yesterday I was looking for some info on Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade (PSP). Why look for info on such an old game? Untold Legends was one of my first PSP purchases, but like so many other games, I never finished it. I picked it back up a couple of nights ago and could not remember exactly where I left off, or how to play. The how to play part quickly came back, but not so much on the what am I suppose to do next. At any rate, one thing led to another and then I came across this Eurogamer review.

But our hopes had always been dashed before, and now we didn’t care any more. We couldn’t be bothered to track through the Tornwood Forest yet again. We doubted very much that Shattercove East would be much different from Shattercove West, nor from the Dreadwind Moor nor the Waning Wastes nor the Whispering Chasm, for that matter.

As for the boss, we make it a general policy to avoid anyone with the words “The Hateful” after their name. And whatever the Containment Shard might be, whatever magical powers it might have or glorious salvation it might offer, we realised we couldn’t give a flying Fine Wrapped Baculus.

As you might have guessed by now, there are some the fundamental problems with Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade, Sony Online Entertainment’s first game for the PSP. You might think, what with its EverQuest heritage and all, that SOE could come up with something that’s at least somewhat engrossing and entertaining – but instead, it has turned out a generic hack-and-slasher with RPG elements that have been so stripped down that you might as well just buy a pencil, a set of dice and a fighting fantasy gamebook.

The reviewer obviously dislikes everything about the game, giving it a 3/10, but it is done in such an elegant way that I was really impressed with the review. The reviewer explains why the story is lacking, why the game mechanics are boring, and the lack of risk/reward in just about every element of gameplay.

I will have to read some of the reviewer’s other reviews to see if there is just a general dislike for this sort of game. In the future I will certainly enjoy reading more materials from Eurogamer, if everything is put together with this level of quality.

At least now I remember why I gave up on the game, and why I have no clue what to do next. It is all more or less the same sorry stuff, but I cannot help myself when it comes to hack ‘n slash fantasy type titles. I may give this one another go before I pimp it on eBay.