Let's Talk About the Vita

Let's talk about the Vita. Here's a thing, I love handheld gaming. I have a Nintendo DS, fondly remember playing on my Game Gear, and now own a 3DS and a PS Vita. I don't have a smart phone, but I hear you can play games on those too. You can, sometimes, throw birds at pigs. Or something.

But, right now, let's talk about the PS Vita. I currently am playing Duodecim (the Final Fantasy fighting game) on it. Now, I also bought the prologue for the opening story sequences. But, here's an annoying fact. The DLC that comes with the prologue? You can't directly download that on to the Vita. To get it, I had to hook up to my roommate's PS3 and do a data transfer.

Likewise, I had to do the same thing for my copy of Final Fantasy Origins for my November Final Fantasy binge/marathon (mattering on which tone makes you happier.) These are issues I should not face with digital, mobile gaming. I tried to use Media Go, but the file type that Media Go downloads is not the same that the Vita uses.

This is before we get to the fact I get an error when trying to add money to my Playstation Wallet via their online tools. If I want to buy things from the store, I have to go somewhere and purchase a Playstation money card then input the card's code. This is the opposite of convenience. Here's the thing, I love the Vita. It has the potential to open up whole new avenues of gaming.

It cannot do that, however, if poor service continues to plague it, and if it expects users to be able to access a PS3 to access the things they paid for. That's one thing that very rarely happens in a brick and mortar store. If I walk in, pick up a game box and take it to the register, they rarely take my money, then tell me they cannot give me the game I paid for. They even more rarely refuse to take my money when I try and give it to them.

----

P.S.,

Apparently, my soloing guide on The Secret World made it on to Reddit. Does this make me a real blogger? I feel kind of bad having neglected The Secret World for Guild Wars 2 (and non-video game things.) Speaking of neglecting things, I should put some solid time into Guild Wars 2 this weekend...

Also, in my ever more useful advice: "Don't be a sucker," if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is not. What do you mean I'm months behind on complaining about the Vita and days behind on complaining about people not getting that article was a satire? Man, and for a short while there, I was doing so well being topical.

Final Fantasy Marathon: Official

I am here-by making it official. Starting November 1, I will be starting a Final Fantasy Marathon. I don't know what the purpose of that Marathon will be, but it will happen. So, you know, expect a lot more commentary on Final Fantasy and nostalgia. If you want to join me, let me know. We can compare notes and giggle like school girls when we gain a level. Feel free to join up and drop in and out of the Marathon at your leisure (I imagine a lot of drop outs for 1, 2 and 3 -- they're painful to play at times.)

... Yeah, that makes two days of rather light posting. This week is going to be light, but I'll make up for it in October.

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due

It is very rare for journalists to do actual journalism. Recently, though, CNN did it. Here's a link to their site about it. Now, I can see why State does not want their dirty laundry aired, and if CNN were to post personal information about the ambassador, I'd understand being offended. But, this is information that is actually pertinent to the story at hand.

Now, did CNN break the pledge? I guess it matters; if they confirmed the reports with other sources, I would think that they didn't. That is actually what you're supposed to do with anonymous sources or sources you don't trust. You independently verify them, then print what you find out, torpedoes ahead and all that.

What's more important, is if I were part of State, I'd be embarrassed, that's right, that CNN managed to secure and search a scene before government allies were. That just puts the cherry on top for how unprepared we were for what happened in Libya. It's not a pretty picture.

And, so, I want to give CNN kudos for reporting on that not pretty picture. I mean this earnestly; I am not being sarcastic. I beat up on journalists when they screw up, but this time? They did right by the public for independently verifying facts and reporting them.

Kudos to CNN.

RPG Types

Here's something that I've been wondering for awhile. Which type of RPG do I like more? There are games like Mass Effect and Dragon Age, where your hero is a poorly sketched persona that you give meaning and voice to, within certain constraints. Then, there is the Final Fantasy/JRPG type hero, who has a growth arc throughout the story. What I think people like about the Mass Effect/Dragon Age type characters is ownership, so you can play the character how you want, both in the drama of the game and the mechanics of the game. I've been tinkering around, for awhile, with a game to test that. At the outset, you would be given all of your party members as a blank canvass.

You could apply background traits to them, define relationships, set up their class/type and focus, etc. So, the up front part of building your party dynamic is all done at the beginning. Each party member has a defined story arc, but their progression through that story arc changes based on how you answer questions about their background, etc. The only issue, of course, is that you need the decisions to matter and have weight.

Either way, it is always good to get a better feel for "what sort of things do I like?" If, for no other reason, than so you have a better idea what to spend money on.

----

P.S.,

If you haven't played the Phoenix Wright games, you can fix that this Fall. Also: Yes. This got the law tag.

Dissidia Duodecim...

... is the most fan service-y thing I have ever bought. I saw a screenshot of Laguna shooting Kefka... IN THE FACE.

I was sold. Right now, I'm just playing through the prologue, but, you know, I think this will be a great handheld time waster at bus stops. So far, I am gravitating towards the mages (like Terra and Kuja,) but I can be persuaded otherwise.

Free Speech Sidebar

After seeing all the uproar over an idiot who made a bad film, a lot of people seem to be flirting with the idea the government should do something about it. Now, don't get me wrong. I've said it before: The film is probably horrendous. Heinous, even. Offensive? Sure. Whatever. I haven't seen it, and I have no intention of seeing it. (If people have yet to get me to see Pulp Fiction, I'm pretty sure I'm going to be able to resist the allure of Stupid Idea We Had While On Drugs or whatever it is called.)

The point being, some people have been saying that the film maker is an unsympathetic person. This is being used as a reason why the government should be heavy handed with him. Here's the funny thing about rights: We wrote them down specifically to protect unsympathetic people. I had a thought I shared with my brother once; I said that it must suck to be a lawyer and get some really obviously evil guy off on a technicality because of a warrant or some other small nitpicked detail.

I could see it going something like: "Honestly, yes. Jim may have eaten his own son's brains out of his wife's skull. But, the prosecution failed to deliver certain documents during discovery and tampered with the jury pool," blah, blah, blah, Lifetime movie of the year. It is the tough cases where our commitment to free speech is tested the most, or really, any ideal.

The guy may be a complete jerk; I don't know. But, people are allowed to be jackasses in America. I don't like that people are, in fact, jackasses in America. I would rather, like cats, that there be no jackasses in America. That is not in the cards. Polite society can shun jackasses (and should.) The government, though, has no place in flexing muscles to shame and chill speech.

----

P.S.,

Did you know there is a Final Fantasy fighting game? I... I have to add something to my games to play list.

Sunday Gaming Update

As I slowly move through Guild Wars 2 (I'm a Sylvari Elementalist), I realize I have a... gigantic backlog of "games I want to play." Since I can't make decisions about important, let alone unimportant, things, let me make a blog peace offering. What game should Matt play next?

I'm Not Suggesting EVERYONE...

"And I’m not suggesting that all stressed-out fathers should just get baked. ... But for me, at least, the benefits clearly outweigh the risks." I just don't like the reasoning that goes into this sort statement. I'm not suggesting EVERYONE act in this way, but it totally works for me."

Politicians Are Just People

Politicians are people. As people, they have flaws. Because of that, I've been thinking about our relationship to politicians after watching most of the DNC and all of the RNC. Besides the general "vote the bums out" theory and Eastwood's "let them go" line, the general idea is that we need to try and bring politicians back down to earth.

An A.P. Article on Shopping

"If I don't have a coupon or it's not on sale, I just won't buy it," says the Yaphank, N.Y., resident