Tetris (PSP)

You can make a pretty decent case that Tetris is the best video game ever made. For those that have somehow missed Teris, it's a puzzle game where you have to arrange falling variously shaped blocks so that they form an unbroken line across the playing field. It's a very simple idea, but something very fun.

Yet the basic formula has been screwed up. Tetris Worlds for instance, for the PS2, kept the gameplay but took away the score. Another recent version turned it into a dancing mascot show.

So I was a little apprehensive buying this version, especially at a fairly stiff price (at least for a PSPMini) of $9.99. Happily though, this version goes back to its roots and is one of the better versions I've played.

First off, it goes back to the traditional gameplay. That is, you keep clearing lines with the blocks dropping faster and faster until finally you can't clear them anymore. It has a plain, somewhat stark playing field, no fancy animations or distractions in the background. Crisp, responsive controls, usually more of a problem in clones, but some official versions have been sluggish.

So the core of what makes Tetris, Tetris, is here and quite well done. That said, it does seem to be a bit harder than the gameboy versions. It's been a few years since I played but I used to be able to hit 100 lines cleared all the time, and my record is well over 200. In this, it took me quite a few attempts to break 100.


Besides the original gameplay, you have about a dozen variants. These need to be unlocked by simply playing the main mode or some of the already unlocked variants.

Most of the variants apply some sort of special condition to the playing board and require you to clear 40 lines, as opposed to going until you lose. There's even one that is inspired by the PSP's flagship puzzle game, Lumines, where the blocks disappear with the sweep of a scanner

Some of the explanations of the variants could be clearer. For instance, I can't really make out heads or tails of how the gravity one works. Didn't seem to be any different than regular Tetris when I played it.

None of them seem to be better than real tetris, but they provide an interesting change of pace. And they are suited for shorter bursts of play, most can be completed in about 5-6 minutes, whereas as full game of Tetris can take ten or more.

Beyond that, it keeps track of various stats and has Xbox like achievements. Which don't do anything for me, but could drive some people to play more.


Anyway, could it be better? Yes. I miss the rocket launching from the original Tetris. A custom soundtrack feature would have been nice. I always have Robert Plant's "Tall Cool One" in my head while playing this, since that's what we called the long, straight piece back in my college days. So it would be nice to actually hear it on my PSP, not just in my head as I play.

But all in all, it's a very nicely done product, even if it is an Iphone port. 9/10

Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights (PSP)

The original Juiced was a flawed racer that was surprisingly innovative in a lot of ways. It was one of my favorite racers. Unfortunately, the sequel goes more mainstream and unfortunately loses what set the game apart.

Gone is the freeform, calendar based gameplay. Now progression though the races is almost entirely linear. And while team racing still exists, it's only for a few events

It also adds a lot of frustration, in the name of drifting. The drifting fad has died down, but it still shows up in games. In the original Juiced, drifting was mostly optional; you only had to do it to increase your rep with one group. In this, you have to do a lot of drifting, and be very good at it to progress in the game.







Gameplay

Instead of having races randomly generated on a calendar, gameplay now consists of a number of preset races you can do at any time. And then there is a checklist of things to do to advance to the next racing class (you start at 8 and work up). Besides winning races, there are things like "spooking" another driver, which is basically means stay behind them for a while. A little bar above their car fills up, then they crash.

The races themselves are all circuit races, doing laps. Gone are the point to point races and drag races of the original. There is a new sort of race in this, one where you get eliminated if you crash into a wall. Those are fun and intense.

There is also more of an emphasis on drifting. In the original Juiced, it was almost optional, in this, you need to win a drift race to advance to the latter half of the game.

The drifting wouldn't be quite so bad, but some are "endurance" races, which are basically where you have to achieve a certain amount of points by doing one non-stop drift. This is quite hard to do.

Drifting is also the one part of the game where which car you use is actually important. Even those pretty much every rear wheel drive car has a "Good for Drifting" logo on it, some cars are much, much better than others. I tried doing a race in one car, and just couldn't do it, then tried another one and almost without trying, won on my first try. Yet they pretty much handled the same. Just one drifted better.

Just going by forum posts here and elsewhere, several people have quit the game in frustration over the drift endurance races, something that is a sign of a poor design. Drifting is tricky in any racing game, but especially on the PSP, which usually features simpler controls. For instance, no analog gas or clutch, which is really a must for proper drifting.

One of the touted features is "Driver DNA", basically the game records how you drive and can make an AI drive like you or anyone else. This could be quite useful if crew racing were handled like in the original Juiced (where an AI team member could race for you), but in this, crews only matter in a handful of races, and you'll be too busy racing yourself to watch how they drive.


Cars, Modding, and Driving

The selection is actually pretty decent. The original Juiced focused more on cars real people could afford, topping out with a Viper and Corvette, but this focuses more on performance cars, going all the way to very expensive exotics, like the almost affordable Saleen S7 to the Messing Hellcat (supposedly the world's fastest production car)

The original Juiced had a weird and very touchy driving model. It was a mix of simulation and arcade, leaning toward simulation, and could be very difficult at times, especially in rear wheel drive cars, you could spin out going around corners easily, or just by hitting a bump in the road.

This has an entirely new driving model, one that is arcade-ish. And no more problems driving rear wheel drive cars, either. It's very easy to drive.

The original Juiced featured relatively realistic performance from cars. That's gone from this, they pretty much all handle and perform alike, except for drift races. There's a little difference, but for the most part, it doesn't matter what car you drive in a given class. This is good because it makes old muscle cars actually useful in races against newer cars, but it detracts from the whole experience, since everything feels almost the same.

Track design was one part of the original Juiced was lacking. The tracks were fairly bland. This has much better track design, with quite a bit of elevation change and offering different routes in some cases (no short cut, but some are better). But many of them feel claustrophobic, there aren't any that really let you go fast - no ovals. There's not a lot of variety, either, 5 different themes based on a country, each with a 2-3 tracks in the region. Most of the tracks are also quite short. (Apparently next gen versions have more tracks, lucky us)

Graphics/Sound

Graphics are one area where they have been improved over the original Juiced. Which had decent graphics, but rather drab looking ones. The graphics in this are much more colorful and vibrant.

On the other hand, there doesn't seem to be any weather, the original occasionally had rain. And there's no damage modeling.

I didn't like the music much in the original Juiced, and don't like the music in this, either, which is just some generic electronic stuff, essentially modern muzak.

The original Juiced featured other drivers who would talk to you during the race if you had bet on them. Taunts and congratulations. This sort of has that, including little pop-ups of the character speaking, but what they say is somewhat muffled and hard to hear. And none of the characters have much in the way of personalities.

This one also features a really annoying announcer who does a play by play of the race. Thankfully you can turn him off. But he's really quite annoying, particularly some of the phrases and slang he uses.



Final Thoughts

I was looking forward to this title, but very disappointed. Maybe it would have been better if I didn't like the original.

Still, even if you ignore the crew aspect being mostly removed (which had been my favorite part of the original), what's left just isn't that much fun. Too linear, too much drifting, especially how a drifting endurance challenge is mandatory in a game to progress to the second half. There's also not much in the way of track variety.

It's also got no personality. Despite the licensing of "Hot Import Nights" and the constant use of that logo all over the place, it feels quite bland, with generic music and unintelligble opponents ("Car 1", "Car 2", etc, the announcer calls them).

You also see pictures of women everywhere on the logos and loading screens, but they are nothing more than a tease. Street Racing Syndicate for the PS2/Xbox let you get a "girlfriend" who would be the starter for your races and you could unlock videos of her "dancing". That last bit was lame, but at least it was some sort of depth.

Even your photo has no personality, just a blacked headshot. Anything would have been better than that. Just picking from a few stock portraits, if they couldn't bother with an avatar system.

The PSP hasn't had many racing titles lately, so you might be tempted. But it's just not worth $40 unless you are really desperate for a racer.

PSP-2000 (aka PSP Slim )

I am a big fan of the PSP. I like video games, but don't really like sitting in front of a TV to play them. However, my old PSP has some problems. It's literally held together by duct tape.

So when the new PSP model was announced, I decided to save and buy one of those. I finally got one, a "Piano Black" stand alone model (as opposed to the ones in packs).

It's pretty nice. Most of the problems of the original PSP were fixed. The d-pad is great, diagonals are easy to do. The screen seems more visible outside, and ghosting seems a little reduced, though still there. (I also got one with no dead pixels, my old one had 4). It really is light, probably half the weight of the old. The analog nub seems more responsive.

It does feel a bit cheap. Especially the slot where you put the memory stick in. I'm not crazy about the UMD loading port, but not as bad as I feared. Haven't noticed any difference in loading times, but I'm not sure that will be addressed in older titles until it's built into the firmware. The manual was also printed on very cheap paper, almost like toilet tissue, worse than even comic book paper.

Still, I like it quite a bit. Cramps your hand a lot less, too. I had to get grips for my old one, but I'm not sure I'll need those for this one.


*I cracked the faceplate when PuzzleQuest froze on me, requiring me to take the battery out. The battery thing is hard to open. I used to much force. So I replaced the faceplate. But then a bug got in it somehow. I go opened that, and accidently broke that faceplate, getting the bug out. Then I put another faceplate on. Somehow this one borked the analog stick and I lost some screws, too, in the chaos of trying to get the stick to work. So I just taped it on, where it's missing the screws.

The Fast and the Furious (PSP)

The Fast and the Furious was a decent, if rushed, street racing game for the PS2. Now it's shown up on the PSP. It's pretty much identical to the PS2 version, except the addition of upgrading the car's oil. Which unfortunately, makes the game a bit hard to play, as it has a complicated control system, at least for drifting, which doesn't work very well on the PSP's limited inputs.


Gameplay:

Like a lot of these games, you start off doing a race in a borrowed car. If you win the race, you get extra cash to buy a car with. If you lose, well, you'd be hard pressed to lose.

There's a pretty decent selection of cars to begin with at start. Almost 20 cars, I think, ranging from the '86 Truneos and Focuses to one end, to Eclipses and Silvias on the high end, with RX-7s, Integras, 180SXs and more in the middle.

Basically once you have a car, you can free roam around Tokyo's highways. You can either engage in rollup races, where you come across another car, then flash your lights and then race until one car is ahead by 200m, or find a hot spot.

Hot spots are places where teams of racers hang out, and you can race them in fixed races. These races are generally either destination battles (where the winner must cross the finish line first), top speed battles (where the car with the highest speed wins) or drift battles, which are only in mountain hotspots, where the winner is the car with the highest drifting point total. If you win, you get cash.

For the first half of the game, these are really really easy. And in many cases, you can do them again and again. So cash really isn't a problem.

As you win, you unlock more opponents, including bosses, and more cars to buy, and new types of stickers and drift charms in the tuneup shops. And more and more hot spots will open up. There is are 80 different hotspot races to win in all. Each opponent has a bio and car, and many of these are based on real world people from the world of drifting, while some are from the Fast and the Furious movies.

The PS2 version featured terrible load times for the hot spots and then for the races once a hot spot loaded. So it's not surprisingly that this is a problem in the PSP version as well, though honestly, it doesn't seem any worse than the PS2 version. The post race loading is actually a bit quicker, because it saves the results to the memory card automatically, and on the PS2, it was glacially slow.

There is basically no loading while in free roam mode, but it's hampered by the small size of the city, and the small number (and ease) of the opponents. Only about 40 opposing racers, and if the real Tokyo was this small, Godzilla could destroy it just by sitting down. (Okay, not that small, but pretty close).

Race variety is also a bit lacking. It's always just you and one other car, and there's only 3 types of races. I would liked to have seen drag races, and perhaps some circuit races on a racetrack or something. Most race are also fairly short 1-3 minutes, except for one "Grand Tour" race which lasts 10 minutes or so and goes across most of the map (and is a lot of fun, since you can really go fast on some spots).

The driving model is not overly realistic, but is more realistic than arcade-like. You do need to slow down for turns (unless you have mastered drifting), but cars do seem somewhat more agile in the game than real life. There's no damage in the game to the cars. The PS2 version featured somewhat sticky walls, which would keep you from simply riding along the walls. But this seems to have been removed in the PSP version, I guess because the controls of the PSP make it almost impossible not to hit the walls at higher speeds.

That's the real problem with the PSP version. Especially with the drifting aspect of the game, the F&F is a very complicated game to control, because not only do have to steer the car, you need to manage the engine revolutions via the gas and clutch. It was hard to do it properly on the PS2, it's almost impossible on the PSP because you no longer have an analog stick for gas, and the clutch kick button is now one of the face buttons.

However, they seem to have made the drifting part even easier to win. You can pretty much just ram your car into the railing and hit the throttle and rack up drift points.


Cars and Car Modding:

Since it's set in Japan, the car list is very Japan-centric. And since it's largely a drifting game, it's also drifting-centric, with most of the cars being rear wheel driven. But there are some AWD and a few front wheel drives (like the Integra).

That said, you do some some good American cars are well. An old Mustang and a new one, plus some Mustang variants from Shelby and Saleen. Also some newer Corvettes, a Viper, and an old Chevelle. You don't find Hondas in most street racing games because they are very protective of their image, but this has a good range of them, including the NSX.

Car modding is pretty good. Basically in terms of performance, there are 5 different stages for various parts like engine, super/turbocharger, intercooler, brakes, etc. Usually a higher number is better, but not always the case, in terms of transmissions, where some are good for acceleration, others are good for top speed. And somewhat disappointingly, there is no tweaking of gear ratios. Also no replacement transmissions with more gears for old muscle cars (most of which only have 4 gears, and so have a low top speed). You also can't do anything like lower a car, or tweak the downforce, or set brake bias.

They added one more modding feature - changing the car's oil. When I first read about it, I thought you had to change the oil every so often, but the oil is actually handled like a part you can upgrade. Which is somewhat true, some oils are better than others, but I think taken to an extreme - the most expensive oils cost $1000s and add 50 or more hp to your car. That's a bit silly.


Visual modding is both good and bad. The good part is that all the parts are pretty much real parts, licensed from real world manufacturers. The bad part is, there aren't all that many of them.

Pretty much all the usual stuff is there. Neons, venting colored gas, etc (no spinners, as far as I can tell, thankfully). Two new additions to the genre are drift charms and valve stem lights. Drift charms are basically little dangly figurines that are attached to the rear bumper. These seem to be pretty much all of Namco properties, like Pacman and from their various fighting games and Katamari. Stem lights are basically just little leds that go in the valve stem of the tire. These are illegal in the US for street use, I dunno about Japan, but they look quite cool in action. Makes it look like the wheel is lighted.

In terms of paint jobs, it's not great. You only get to choose from a selection of premade colors, about 30. You can pick between metallic, matte, and glossy. They look better in the PSP version than the PS2 version, oddly, in the PS2 version they were all badly dithered. Usually that is a problem in PSP games, but I can't notice it as much.

On the other hand, the game comes with a very nice vinyl system. Pretty much like from Forza, but with some improvements. The premade made ones aren't much, but you can do a bunch of layers (I think 32 per area), and there are options for letters and numbers and shapes and you can really re-size them. So if you have patience, you can do some really nice stuff.


Graphics:

This actually looks quite good for a PSP game. While I wouldn't say it's the best looking PSP racer, this is actually one of the few PS2 ports that seems to look better than the PS2 counterpart. The visuals on the PS2 were somewhat blurry and pixelated, with a lot of dithered textures. Here things look quite sharp. There doesn't seem to be as much lighting though, indeed, I think car headlights are actually transparent sprites. They did manage to keep the hood view, which I think is a first for a PSP racer. Even has real time reflections on it. Quite cool.

Car models are also quite detailed. No driver though. It actually has a replay mode, so you can watch how you did in your races. Not many PSP racers have them. You can't save your replays, sadly.




Sound:

There are two important things in a racing game when it comes to sound: Engine noise and music.

The engine noise in this is pretty good, I think. Most importantly, V8s sound like V8s, or at least, big engines. The other engines sound wimpier, but they are supposed to. Turbos also sound right, with the valves going off.


The soundtrack is actually pretty decent. It's a mix of Japanese music (pop and some hip-hop, I think), American hip-hop/rap, MTV/Emo rock, and generic guitar solos. The Japanese stuff works pretty well. I have no idea what they are singing, but it's catchy, even the hip hop, which I don't usually like. The rest I originally found annoying in the PS2 version, but have grown to like. One downside though is that it doesn't tell you what you are listening to, so you have no idea which songs to track down.


Final Thoughts:


It's a fairly enjoyable game. The PS2 has a lot of good racers, so it suffered in comparison, but the PSP does not have as many, so in that regard, it might be worth a look. You do have to be patient with loading times (though that was true of the PS2 version as well) and the controls take much of the fun out of the drifting part of the game. And it's not the longest game in the world, either. C- or 6/10 here

Jewel Summoner (almost final) - PSP

The PSP has a fairly large number of RPGs, but very few ones designed originally for it (at least that have been released in the US). That's not to say that the ones the PSP has had are bad, but they often hark back to a simpler era in terms of gameplay and production values (graphics, cutscenes and speech).

This is one of those few original RPGs. Unfortunately, while it does seem to have better production values than most PSP RPGs, it's still probably a Playstation 1 quality RPG in that regard, just containing 5 hours of speech, and really doesn't take advantage of the PSP's hardware, with the exception of the built in clock.



Gameplay

You play as Vice, a young man whose mother was killed by a creature called an Abomination. He works as a monster hunter, trying to avenge his mother's death. He has this ability to summon forth a pet monster from a jewel to fight for him, which he uses to take on other monsters.

At least, that's what he does until one day he ends up losing his monster while trying to get more information on the monster he seeks while visiting the Academy of Jewel Summoners. In compensation, he is allowed to enter the Academy for training as a proper Jewel Summoner, along with a class of 4 other students.

While there, he picks 2 out of the 4 students to form a team with, and then he gets assigned various missions to do. Which tend to involve going to another town, then going to a dungeon of sorts, battling monsters, until you reach a boss.


Combat is pretty standard turn based, but with a few twists. The first is that it's very heavily dependant on the element the monster belongs to. This is not that new, but this has more elements, 8, than any other game I've seen. And using the right element against an opponent can cause his turn to be pushed back. You can also only use your monster so much - every thing he does in combat costs job points, of which he has a limited number. Once it hits zero, you have to swap him out. So combat actually is pretty fun, and requires some strategy.

Unfortunately, there is a lot of combat. So while it's fun, just having to do it so frequently in a dungeon can get a bit boring.

The dungeons are pretty linear, in that they only have one branch through them, but do have a lot of side passages which are eventually dead ends. There is no mapping in the game, so you basically have to memorize them. Certain parts of the dungeon require special abilities, which you learn as the game progresses, to access. Unfortunately, this is generally used to make you go through a dungeon a 2nd time, this time using that special ability to reach a place you couldn't get to before.


Graphics/Sound:


The graphics are pretty decent. The backgrounds are probably Playstation 2 level, but your characters and the monsters are closer to Playstation 2 level - fair amount of detail and things like hair and clothes move a little.

There really aren't 3D cutscenes, basically you get 2 pictures of characters talking, one on each side of the screen. The pictures are animated though, that is, their lips move and they blink. So the net result is pretty neat. Usually they talk in front of a static 2d backdrop, but sometimes 3d objects are put to good use.

I found the voice acting to be fairly good. Some of it is annoying, but it suited those characters (which were annoying).


Final Thoughts:


The trouble with this game is essentially twofold. First, the characters. Part of what defines an RPG like this is the story and the characters which make up a story. Unfortunately, out of your 4 team mates, only 1 is really truly a pleasant person, Lynn. The rest are annoying at best, horrible at worst. Two are basically mirror images - whiny brats. The only difference is really that one is female and talks about herself in the 3rd person. The fourth one is an old looking guy who is sleepy. And when he does actually talk, he'll put you to sleep.

So while the actual story is interesting, and the voice acting is decent, many times you'll be hitting the X button to move the dialogue because you just want them to shut up already.

Secondly, the game doesn't have a lot of depth. Sure, there are 110 monsters you can have, but really, only maybe 30 really different ones - most are simply variations. Like a Lion can become a Fire Lion, Blue Lion, Wind Lion, Ashen Lion, or Sacred Lion. While there aren't nearly as many dungeons as that, they too are reused a lot. You'll do one dungeon, then come back and do it again, only the 2nd time around you can access a few more areas of the dungeon.

The net result is a fairly short game. Maybe not as short as Astonishia Story, but you should be able to beat this in about 20 hours or so. There's some stuff to do after you win, and you can duel players via ad hoc wireless mode, but there's not a huge amount of gameplay here.

Not surprisingly...

Never heard back from Tri-Synergy about UFO:ET.

People (who run famous blogs, really) like to talk about how powerful blogs are, but still, 99.999% of them just get ignored, only a few have any sort of media power.

So anyway, since it's not out this month, I instead bought Valhalla Knights for the PSP. Pretty impressive technically, almost no loading times, but as RPGs go, it's strictly a dungeon crawler, with a new fangled combat system.

Puzzle Quest (PSP)

I first spotted Puzzle Quest several months ago in the upcoming releases on Gamestop's website. The name intrigued me, especially the subtitle "Challenge of the Warlords". I thought "Heh, they might have legal trouble with the "Warlords" people (a long running PC game series). Only later was I to discover this game actually was from the Warlords people, Infinite Interactive (formerly SSG), published by D3, and co-developed by Vicious Cycle (who also did the PSP version).


Gameplay

It's nothing like the Warlords games though, except using the same setting. Instead it's a fairly straight forward RPG, except that combat (and just about everything else) is handled through a "match three" puzzle game, akin to Bejeweled or Zoo Keeper. Basically you have an 8 x 8 grid, and have to match jewels by fliping the position of two pieces. When you make a match, the jewels vanish and the top ones drop down. Just what you match has various effects. If it's a colored jewel, you earn mana of that color type. If it's a skull, you do damage to the enemies hit points. There are also gold and experience points. In most cases, you take turns with an opponent, and whoever is reduced to zero hit points first is the loser. There's no real penalty to losing, other than having to try again.

You play as a new member of the Agarian Knights, a small-ish kingdom in the middle of Etheria. You can be one of 4 classes, and each class has it's own special abilities or spells, and thus plays somewhat different. There are also several skills, and these can be improved by skill points which you get when you level up (how many skill points a level in a skill costs depends on the class), or by spending enough gold.

First you have to pass certain tests given to you by your Queen. These are pretty easy, and once knighted, you are ordered to investigate and stop an ongoing series of attacks by undead creatures. That's the main quest, and it's quite long and involved. There are also a large number of smaller side quests you can do. Most of these quests are not really complicated, usually just go someplace and fight something.

The story isn't super compelling, but what really makes it enjoyable is the dialogue, especially with your companions. Over the course of the game, you meet a lot of people, and some can join your party. Some of the conversations are very very funny. In theory the companions are supposed to provide a small bonus or effect in puzzle combat, but thanks to a bug in the PSP, it doesn't work. They still provide extra quests, though.

If you skip the side quests, you can probably finish the game in 20-25 hours. With the side quests, it's probably at least double that, maybe more. And because there are 4 different classes, the game has a lot of replay value, since each class plays somewhat different. There are also some instant action modes, which lets you fight any monster you want, so if you just want to play a quick game, that option is there, too.

Beyond that, you can also forge items, conquer other cities, capture monsters, and build up your citadel. There's really no shortage of things to do in this game.

That said, the game isn't perfect. It's incredibly addictive at first, but after playing a while, you start to see some cracks. First off, it can be a bit repetitive. There's actually a decent variety of monsters/opponents in the game, but they tend to come in clumps. So you get a bit sick of fighting the same monsters over and over. Similarly, your class will generally use the same tactics over and over. Sometimes you will have to vary them a bit, but usually not too much.

Secondly, the difficulty of the game is uneven. Early on, the game is somewhat difficult because your character is weak, and has no equipment. A lot of times, winning depends more on luck than anything else. But then, later in the game, it gets to be very easy. Some spells are very powerful, and it's possible to build your character to have very high stats, which mean you can cast those spells right away. And if you know what you are doing, there are some combinations of spells that let you win any battle without any real effort, simply because you won't let your opponent have a turn. But even avoiding those, you'll likely win most of the time later on in the game, while early on you'll probably be closer to 50/50.


Graphics/Sound

The art in this is completely 2d. It's pretty simple, but very nice looking. They used some nice artists for the character portraits. On the PSP screen, it looks nice and sharp.

The sound is good enough, no speech or anything except the narration between chapters. The music is really quite nice, but suffers from there only being 3-4 songs. While excellent, you'll probably get sick of them eventually and turn the music off.


Loading

Loading times are decent enough for a PSP game, though not perfect. Basically, you have a small pause in the game the first time something happens. Either in combat or on the main screen. Like the first time you enter puzzle combat, you will have a pause on the first match, to load the animations, a pause every time you or your opponent use a spell for the first time, each time it uses some speech (Just two phrases in combat). Once it's loaded though, it won't have to load again until you turn it off or exit the game. The same with the world map, the first time you play the game, it has to load the map when you scroll around, or when it adds a wandering monster. The only recurring loading is when you have a cutscene shown. That's pretty quick, only 3-4 seconds.


Final Thoughts

This is one of those games that is really quite original, despite being based squarely on two conventional genres (RPGs & Puzzle games). And for that, it deserves a lot of credit. And it's addictive gameplay should appeal to just about anyone, from casual gamers to the hard core.

Still, it really needed some more playtesting, firstly, to iron out some obvious bugs, but also to fix the play balance of the game. That marrs an otherwise almost perfect game. But perhaps those problems are only obvious because the game itself is just so good. A-

Test Drive Unlimited (PSP) - First Draft

Test Drive is one of the oldest racing game series, first appearing 20 years ago in 1987 on home computers. It was meant to be a relatively realistic driving game, giving ordinary people the chance to "test drive" exotic supercars, while evading the police. Somwhere along the way, it strayed from its roots, becoming very arcadelike (Test Drive 5-6) to destruction derby like (Even of Destruction), but this is a return to its roots.


Gameplay

It's set on the isle of Oahu, Hawaii. You start out with a bunch of money, and must purchase a starting car and a home to store your cars. You do various races and challenges to earn more money to buy more cars and homes. Sounds pretty typical for a racing game, right? It is, but what makes this different is the sheer scope of the game. When I said it's set on the isle of Oahu, I mean, you can drive around the whole island, which is 30 miles across from south to north, and about 45 from west to east. It actually feels bigger than that in game, you can spend almost an hour driving from one end of the island to the other.

And I don't mean just the roads, either. You can go off-road if you like, indeed, it's handy to evade police. As near as I can tell, police are really only a problem while you are free-roaming, and you are caught speeding (usually you need to be doing 120 mph+) or hit another car. In many cases they are easily evaded. If you don't, you get arrested and must pay a fine.

The driving model is realistic, but on the forgiving side. You can turn a lot easier than real life, but not nearly like in an arcade racer (say, Burnout or Midnight Club). There are 3 levels of traction control, the lower the set it, the more control you have, but the more likely it is to spin out as well. The sense of speed is also pretty realistic, which means that people used to arcade racers will find it somewhat slow.

There really seem to be 3 types of races. Races where you race other cars, races where you beat the clock, and speedtrap races, where you have to have a speed higher than a certain amount at a certain spot on the track (in some cases, several spots, which then get averaged).

Since the game is free roam, track courses are largely defined by gates that magically pop-up, along with your GPS unit (which tells you when to turn). Some races have a penalty bar which increases when you go off road. When it's full, you lose.

There's no damage to your car in the game, but collisions are elastic, depending on what you hit. If you hit another car, they go flying (similar mass, you have more momentum due to your high speed), but if you hit a semi-truck, you go flying (since their mass is much bigger). The AI is decent, although once in a while (just like real life) an AI car will do something stupid like cut you off or suddenly stop. The racing AI seems okay, but can be overly aggressive (knocking you out of the way), though not as bad as some (like Ford Street Racing, where it's downright homicidal)


Graphics

How good the graphics are really depends on how close you look, and how forgiving you are. If you look at a screen, it will likely look gorgeous, among the best on the PSP. On the other hand, because it's on the PSP, it does some from some aliasing (ie, jaggies), dithering (you have to look close for that), texture warping, and sometimes you can see seems when the terrain is raised. One of the things that really isn't a problem is draw-in or pop-up (that is, where objects suddenly appear on screen, Vice City Stories on the PSP really suffers from that with trees). While there is some, the distance for it is way, way in the back.

Indeed, the graphics really remind me a lot of Oblivion on the PC, if you turned the grass off and ran it in a lower resolution. Things tend to look like a golf course, but looks really nice.

The car models are pretty detailed as well. There are maybe only 7-8 different generic cars that appear as traffic, but for the most part, there is little "clumping", that is, you don't always get all the cars of the same model all the time. It does happen sometimes, but that seems to be based on the area of the island (places like ports tend to have more heavy trucks).

The one real downside is the variety. Because it's set on Oahu, it all pretty much looks like the same. You have some beaches, and the interior is sort of just rolling hills and farmland. There aren't many notable buildings, in general, the place has sort of a run down look, it reminds me a lot of driving through Mississippi or Arkansas. There are mountains, though, but they, being volcanic, are grey masses. I guess that's realistic (well, I haven't been to Oahu, but I have seen Hawaii 5-0 and Magnum), but it's a little dull. But I guess that couldn't be helped.


Cars

The car list is heavily dominated by, though is not exclusively, supercars. That is, extremely expensive high performance cars that most "real" people can't even dream of buying. There are a few normal performance cars (Mustang, Camaro, GTO/Monaro, Skyline, 350Z), but these make up the lower end. There's also a selection of classic cars, including the Shelby GT-500 and AC 289/427, the 70s Firebird with the big bird on the hood, some older corvettes and a couple others. But mostly it's about supercars.

Unfortunately, this is where the game suffers a bit. The two big names in supercars, Porsche and Ferrari, are absent. Probably the biggest name manufacturer in it is Lamborghini. There are some other companies you've heard of, like Lotus, Aston Martin, Pagani and McLaren. But a lot that are sort of on the fringes - companies like Spyker, Saleen, Koenigsegg. Sure, they are nice cars (indeed, some of the best), and you might have heard of them, even seen a car of these in some games. But not the big names when you think supercar. Then there are some you've probably never heard of (I hadn't), like Ascari and Noble. And there are supercars from "normal" companies, like Ford, VW, Chrysler and Jaguar. And few others that are mostly forgettable.

You can modify the cars a little, but not much. Basically, you can simply get them performance upgrades - 3 levels. You can pick the color of your car, but only from the list of manufacturer colors (which can stink in a lot of cases, like the new Mustangs which come in 11 shades, 10 of which are ugly, and the other is red). In some cars, you can pick different wheels, but only a very few.

Cars are divided into 5 categories: E,D,C,B,A, based apparently on overall performance, with E being the worst and A the best. Many races are restricted to cars of certain categories, but sometimes, like in Club races, it's the car manufacturer or something other trait that determines the eligibility.

Sometimes though, your opponents in supposedly restricted races won't be. In one race, I was using a Lotus Espirit, a C class car, and my opponents included an Ascari, a class A car. I still easily won, so I redid the race on "Hard". This time around though, my opponents were class C (and I won the race even easier).


Sound/Music:

The sound itself is pretty good. The larger engines sound pretty good, although the PSP speakers do tend to take away some of the bass. There is also a sound which increases as you go faster, I guess it's supposed to be the wind. But you usually don't hear that unless you have the window open. So it's a little annoying.


The music in the game, well, it's a large selection, but most of it is pretty bad. A lot of it seems to be generic "electronica", divided up into "Maximum Beats", "Phat Grooves" and "Chill Vibes" (the music is presented in radio station format). I can't imagine it would have been that expensive to get some real electronic dance music in real genres.

Beyond that, there are some songs that are considered "good", but probably aren't to the taste of most players. Notably, a classical music channel featuring such songs like Swan Lake, the Magic Flute, 4 Seasons, Ride of Valkyries, William Tell Overture, etc, which is almost like a greatest hits of classical artists; and "Sweet Radio", basically a collection of "funk"/old R&B songs. Like Big Bird, Funky Chicken, I'm a Road Runner. Also the classic rock staple, the James Gang's Funk 49.

There are rock and rap stations as well, but also it seems to be full of generic stuff that is basically the equivalent of muzak.

Given the setting of the game (Hawaii) and even the premise (car racing), I think they really missed the boat by not having a Surf Rock station.


Loading Times:

As any honest PSP owner knows, PSP games can suffer from some bad loading times. Amazingly enough, the loading times in this are minimal, even by PS2 standards, much less PSP standards. It takes about 3-4 seconds to go from the free roam mode to your "home" or other location, and the same to go back. Opening up the map of the island takes about 5-6 seconds, and is a little jerky, but that's about the worst. While free roaming you can occasionally have a slight pause or stutter, but that's fairly rare, even at high speeds, and usually is tiny when it happens.


Final Thoughts:

This is by far the best driving game on the PSP. Yes, it's lacking features found in the Xbox 360 version, which is disappointing (especially since it's the same price as the 360 version), but try playing a 360 on the go, even if you have one (which I don't). Judged by its own merits, it's extremely impressive and a lot of fun.

That said, it's mostly a driving game. If you are someone that likes car modding, this is not for you. If you like varied types of racing, then this is probably not for you.

And Jeanne d'Arc, too

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/03-21-2007/0004550297&EDATE=

FOSTER CITY, Calif., March 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Sony Computer
Entertainment America Inc. announced today the August 2007 North American
release of Jeanne d'Arc, available exclusively for the PSP(R)
(PlayStation(R)Portable) system. Developed by Level-5, creators of the
renowned Dark Cloud series and the critically acclaimed RPG Rogue
Galaxy(TM), Jeanne d'Arc delivers a new tactical role-playing adventure set
across vast lands with detailed environments, unique characters, and a
diverse combat and gameplay system. In Jeanne d'Arc, players will step into
a colorful world that brings together history and fantasy, taking part in a
magical tale inspired by the life and times of the legendary Joan of Arc.
Combining an intricate tactical combat system, a heroic story with more
than 40 hours of gameplay, and a stunning visual style that truly dazzles
on the PSP system, Jeanne d'Arc is ready to deliver hours of strategic RPG
action to players anytime, anywhere.

Good day for PSP RPGs...

Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords just came out, which rocks, and XSEED just announced they are bringing to the US, Brave Story and Chronicle of Dungeon Maker (re-titled DUNGEON MAKER:
HUNTING GROUND). Both RPGs that got very good reviews in Japan, but I really thought weren't going to make it over here.


------------------

Dear Jeremy,

It is with great pleasure to announce that
XSEED Games has obtained exclusive
publishing rights for DUNGEON MAKER:
HUNTING GROUND, BRAVE STORY: NEW
TRAVELER and WILD ARMS®
5 for the North American market!

DUNGEON MAKER:
HUNTING GROUND and BRAVE STORY: NEW
TRAVELER, both for the PSP®
(PlayStation®Portable) system, are scheduled
for release in July 2007 and Q3 2007,
respectively. WILD ARMS 5 for the
PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system
is scheduled for release in Q3 2007.

These exciting new titles are in addition to
the already announced VALHALLA
KNIGHTS,
which will be released on April 17, 2007 for the
PSP system.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Build. Battle. Destroy.

An original title developed
specifically for
the PSP system, DUNGEON MAKER: HUNTING
GROUND offers addictive game play
with a simulation dungeon creation element
and real-time battles hunting for monsters to
collect items, gold, and to fulfill
requirements to complete the various quests
given by townspeople.

The Story


An ambitious but novice dungeon maker arrives
in a small town known to suffer periodic
attacks from violent monsters. He buys a vast
plot of land at the outskirts of the town to
create a grand dungeon in hopes of luring in
various enemy monsters which to hunt to
collect gold and items. He envisions his
complete dungeon to be one so appealing as to
lure the legendary Wandering Demon. Defeating
this menacing monster would free the
townspeople from the fear he casts upon them,
while winning acclaim as a true dungeon maker
for the "Architect."

Key Features


* Design and modify a customizable dungeon,
floor-by-floor, using simple controls to
quickly develop a deep and detailed dungeon.

* Strategically layout and improve your
dungeon to maximize its attractiveness and
lure in the most sought-after enemies to take
their loot.

* Fight real-time battles wielding various
melee and ranged weapons, casting magic
spells, rendering special attacks, and
summoning creatures to defeat the wide
variety of monsters including undead
creatures, orcs, and dragons.

* Enjoy the vast selection of building
materials to customize your dungeon and
complete quests to access the rarer items
from the wide array of weapons, armors, and
accessories to upgrade your warrior.

* Trade dungeons - Utilize network
connectivity to trade dungeons with a friend.
Show off your dungeon creation skills and
explore a friend's dungeon to see what kind
of monsters and treasures lie inside.




DUNGEON MAKER: HUNTING GROUND is
scheduled for release in July 2007.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Beyond the door you can change your destiny"

An original title created specifically for
the PSP system and developed by Game Republic
(Genji series), BRAVE STORY: NEW
TRAVELER features beautifully
rendered 3D graphics, an epic tale with a
host of colorful supporting characters, and a
traditional turn-based battle system easy for
beginners to pickup and play but with enough
depth and innovative features for seasoned
gamers.

The Story


On a day that starts out like any other, an
11-year-old boy's life is changed forever. As
the main character and his friend Miki pass a
leisurely afternoon, Miki suddenly collapses
from an unknown illness. When the girl shows
no sign of waking, the main character grows
distraught over not being a better friend and
not having the means to save her.
Suddenly, a strange voice offers him a
second chance: "Beyond the door you can
change your destiny!" He soon leaves the real
world and journeys to the world of Vision,
where, as a novice "Traveler," he will
surmount myriad ordeals in hopes of
ultimately meeting with the Goddess of
Fortune to have a single wish granted.
Valuable friendships, unbounded courage, and
his own personal growth will all prove
indispensable as he seeks out his destiny: a
life-changing adventure and the discovery of
a hero inside an ordinary kid.

Key Features


* A role-playing game with an epic tale,
introducing unique characters with distinct
personalities and leading the player through
the imaginative world of Vision as he learns
to become a hero.

* Traditional turn-based battle system
enhanced by innovative features based on the
story's themes of friendship, courage, and
growth:

Friendship - Form bonds
with party
members to create new, cooperative
skills.

Courage - Use "brave power"
(BP) to unleash powerful special abilities,
continually refilling the gauge as you
devastate the enemy.

Growth - The hero's main
weapon will evolve as he collects the
gemstones needed to meet with the Goddess of
Fortune. New
accessories can be forged by collecting and
combining the right materials. Each character
can also unlock a one-of-a-kind innate
ability.



* Beautifully rendered 3D graphics with
vibrant colors and a distinct visual style,
highlighted by polished character and enemy
movement, graphical representations of sound
effects, and a unique animation for each
special ability - all exceptionally well
drawn and intricately textured.

* Collect special birds which you can use
in mini-games or trade in for rare and
precious weapons, armor, and items.

* Network with friends to trade your
birds, or game-share a mini-game to have
friends assist in capturing rare birds.




BRAVE STORY: NEW TRAVELER is scheduled for
release in Q3 2007.

The Legend of Heroes II: Prophecy of the Moonlight Witch

Prophecy of the Moonlight Witch is the 2nd game in the Legend of Heroes series. At least in the US. In Japan, it's part of a long running PC game series from Falcom. These were remade by Bandai for the PSP, and brought over here.

This game, "A Tear of Vermillion" and "Song of the Ocean" (or "Cagesong of the Ocean") form the Gagharv Trilogy, which are set in the same world, but in 3 different regions divided by natural boundries (Gagharv basically being like the Grand Canyon, but impassable).

Although they are loosely connected, their stories really are not, so you really don't have to play one to enjoy the others. It can be fun to spot the connections between them, though. But it's really more of a bonus.


In any case, the series is from the Golden Age of RPGs, the SNES era. And so pretty much play exactly like those sort of RPGs, but have had a graphics overhaul.




Gameplay


Gameplay is pretty simple, like most old school console RPGs. Basically you simply wander around talking to people. Then generally go to another town or dungeon, fight things, then go back to town and talk to more people. It's pretty much entirely linear, if you try to go where you shouldn't you get a message with directions on where you should go. And important people or objects have a red exclamation point to indicate you should talk to them or go to that area.

You can have up to 4 characters in your party at a time, but that changes according to where you are in the story - characters come and go a lot. There's no class system per se, but some characters are combat orientated, others are magic users. And some melee types use swords, others use something else.

There is a "pet" system, but it's very very minor. Basically a little critter follows you around, and finds potions for you. Occasionally you have to pet it for feed it to keep it happy, but not all that often.

One really nice thing is as you walk around in a place with monsters, you only fight if you run into them. Depending on their strength, they will seek you out or avoid you.

Combat in the US version is turn based. There is some small strategy involved because characters can only move so much a turn, and spells and attacks have limited ranges. But even so, most combats are pretty easy and quick. Perhaps a bit too easy, generally all you have to do to win is have Jurio cast an elemental spell which attacks all enemies. Usually him just doing it once is enough to win most random battles.

The game's interface is slick and polished. For instance, when you use magic to heal your party after a battle, once everyone is healed, the menu will close itself. And it's very easy to get through menus and such. There is also almost no loading whatsoever while you play.



Story

Since the gameplay of these old school RPGs is pretty much all the same, what makes them memorable is the story and characters. This is where I think the game isn't as good as "A Tear of Vermillion".

You play as Jurio (and Chris), two youngsters from the small village of Ragpick. As part of their coming of age ceremony, all Ragpickians have to go on a pilgrimage to 5 different shrines. And it's time for Jurio and Chris to go on their pilgramage, having just hit young adulthood.

There's something of a backstory to this. Basically 20 years ago, there was a young witch who also went from town to town, giving prophecies as she went. So in a way, you follow her path and learn more about her story. Really quite unusual in an RPG plotline.

There is something behind this, something somewhat more traditional (ie, big bad villain is going to destroy the world, Mwhahahahahahaha and all that), but this really doesn't became a major plot point until the very end.

So I liked the story. Definitely not like any other RPG I've played. Very much pretty low key until the end. I especially enjoyed one section that took place on a passenger ship, Jurio and Chris have to work for their passage.

What I didn't really like was the characters. While not cliches, most of the people who Chris and Jurio meet are not very interesting. Some of the characters who join your party I found to be downright annoying - particularly Alf and Lodi. Most the others you just don't know for very long, either. Chris and Jurio are very likeable though. Jurio is a bit of a dork, and Chris is , well, crazy is the only way to describe her, I think.

Also not really much in the way of romance, unlike "A Tear of Vermilion", in which the 2nd half of the game was basically a growing romance between Avin and Rutice.

The translation of this is not very good, either. It's nowhere near as bad as say, Astonishia Story, which is just wacky and incomprehensible in areas. But it's often rather awkward and stilted, far more than "Vermillion" was, I thought.

On the plus side, unlike "Vermillion", there really isn't any backtracking through old areas. You pretty much do a circular lap around the continent, eventually reaching home, but not really going over any old ground. And the length seems about the same. Easily 40+ hours for me, although the game doesn't keep track, it's just a guess.


Graphics/Sound

The graphics are wonderful. Although it emulates the feel of the 16 bit SNES rpgs, everything (but the characters themselves) is in 3D (albeit with a fixed camera). Textures are bright and colorful (where appropriate, anyway) and there are some really nice lighting effects. The water is also very snazzy looking. It really looks like an SNES game on steroids.

The sound is generally good, especially the ambient sounds like water, though it's not a whole lot of sound in the game. There's a lot of nice sounding music as well, which there is a lot of.


Final Thoughts


I really enjoyed the "A Tear of Vermillion", so perhaps I was doomed to think anything else would be a bit of a let down. But I didn't like this as much, and certain things I overlooked in that now started to bother me. For instance, there really needs to be a memo or note area that keeps track of your objectives. It's very easy to forget what you need to do, although the game never really lets you go too far astray. Combat also seemed a lot more repetitive, with the same creatures over and over, and tactics being very simple.

Still, I did enjoy myself, and unlike the majority of the RPGs I start, I actually finished it, despite it being fairly long. So still a good game. B or 8/10 here.

Pirates! (PSP)

The original "Pirates!" was a 1987 game for the Commodore 64. It was quite popular, and I remember playing it a lot at the time. It was later ported to various other platforms. Then, in the early 90s, it got something of a makeover, and released as "Pirates! Gold" for the PC and I think the Sega Genesis. That was pretty much just a face lift in graphics. Then just a couple years ago, a whole new remake was released for the PC, "Sid Meier's Pirates! Live the Life", which basically brought the game into 3D and added a few more action segments. This was later ported to the Xbox, and now finally in 2007, appears on the PSP.

Since it's basically an old school C-64 game at heart, it's somewhat hard to describe in today's modern genres and terminology. Action-Strategy? A collection of minigames? Something along those lines.

Essentially you control a tiny ship on the screen, and sail around the Carribean, attack other ships, visiting ports (and possibly attacking them), searching for lost cities and buried treasure. The goal in the original game was to just make money and marry a beautiful lady, but revenge has been added to those goals, giving the game a bit more linear and streamlined feel to appeal to modern games.

As you move your little ship around the map, what you do will often launch a little mini-game or action scene. There are ones if you attack a ship, one if you attack a town, another if you search for treasure. Visiting ports is generally easy, but there is sort of a pac-man like game if you want to sneak into an unfriendly town, or a dancing game if you want to court the daughter of the local governor.


Attacking other ships is pretty simple. You control one ship, the computer controls the enemy ship. You move around trying to fire your cannons at the enemy, and they do the same. You have 3 different types of shot you can use, one general purpose shot (which has the longest range), one which knocks out sails, and one that kills the crew. If you simply want to plunder, it's generally best to knock the enemy ship down to 1 crew member, so they surrender as you get close. On the other hand, if you want to capture the ship, you might want to close as quickly as possible, where you will enter a swordfight with the enemy captain. If you win, you can capture the ship in good condition and possibly win over some of his crew members.

The swordfighting is both complex and easy. It's complicated in that there are a number of different moves you can do, but generally speaking, all you need to do is block and attack. In fact, you really generally need to just wait for your opponent to begin to attack, then hit him with a quick thrust (some attacks are slower or faster than others).


Attacking an unfriendly town is a very simple turn based game. It takes place on a medium sized map divided up into squares, not unlike a chess board, only with terrain (trees, rocks, hills, etc) on it in some places. You generally control about 3-4 units, which seems to be your crew total divided up somewhat randomly into Officers (good at melee combat), Buccaneers (guys with guns) and Pirates (who are okay at melee). The more men in the unit, obviously the stronger they are. The defenders of the town basically get the same treatment, only they have a couple more unit types, including Cavalry in some towns.

You get a turn to move your units (you get 2 moves per unit, which can be either move or attack), then the enemy goes. Usually you start fairly close to each other, so the whole combat only lasts about 3-5 turns at most. It's not really hard, the key is to really take advantage of the terrain by putting your guys with guns on a hill, and to have your other guys hide in the woods to attack from a flank when the enemy passes by.

Friendly towns are just navigated by a menu. You can visit a tavern, visit a shipwright, visit a merchant, and visit the governor. In the tavern, you can recruit more sailors (sadly, not by singing a Village People song), talk to a waitress, the bartender, or a mysterious stranger. The former just generally give you information, while the latter will usually try to sell you something that can improve your abilities (either do something better, or live longer). Visiting the governor is how you get promoted, and if you have a high enough rank, you can get invited to the dance by his daughter. Which is another mini game.

Basically you do a ballroom dance which requires you to press the correct button when she gives a hand signal. In the PC version, I found this to be almost impossible, because her signal is hard to notice, but the developers of this made it easier by telling you what button to press. You still don't have much time to do so, but it's definitely doable, unlike the PC version.


You pretty much keep sailing around, doing the same things over, until your character's health deteriorates and you have to retire. This can be somewhat repetitive, but the game generally only lasts maybe 10-15 hours. It's not something you are supposed to play over and over, but something you come back and play whenever you want. There is also a shift in how you play as you career progresses - first off, as you get better, you'll probably start attacking towns rather than ships, which is much more profitable. And secondly, you have a quest of sorts that you have to follow, which has you doing various different tasks





The developers (Full Fat) really did a great job porting it to the PSP from the PC. Not only does it play pretty much exactly the same, with no slowdown, the graphics are quite good. Maybe a little sparse at times, but it runs really well and the loading times are minimal (really only when you visit the governor or go into a swordfight, and even then, it's only about 5-6 seconds).

Still, I think the game suffers from some problems that were intrinsic to the PC version. For instance, you really should have been able to customize your pirate in terms of appearance. Since it apparently uses an in-game engine for the cutscenes and the like, it would only have taken minimal effort to have different faces or skin tones.

Woohoo! Got my Vrock bumper stickers...

Pretty small thing, but when Vice City Stories for the PSP came out, I bought it right away because Vice City is a great place. Florida in the 80s, basically. Anyway, in the game, there are billboards for a bumper sticker for one of the radio stations in the game - Vrock - Home of the Vulture (a D&D reference) if you send them a SASE.

I send it way back in early Nov, I think. And finally got them today. I was only expecting one - they sent me 3, and 3 Rock Star Games stickers. Not the greatest sticker in the world, but pretty cool. And something you don't see a lot of these days - video games where the company will send you stuff in the mail. Activision used to do it in the 2600 days

Woohoo! Legend of Heroes III announced for US release...

I think. There's a press release @ Gamebrink, and Gamestop now shows it in their database....only $30, too.