THERES! A! NEW! PSP! COMING! OUT! 8D! AND! ITS! FREAKIN! EPIC! 8D!
*dies*
(random stuff i found)
WARNING: LOTS OF DAMN TEXT
"Announced January 27th in Tokyo at an event tantalizingly dubbed “PlayStation Meeting,” Sony’s new device—currently referred to simply as “NGP” for next-generation portable—will arrive sometime during the fourth quarter of this year.
Sony was fairly forthcoming about what gamers could expect from their new portable gaming platform.
It sports an oblong shape similar to the existing PSP with a 5-inch 960-by-544 pixel OLED. It looks a little bigger than its predecessor but isn’t overly large. And there is good reason for its increased girth. According to analysts and experts, the system apparently has horsepower that is in many ways about on par with a PlayStation 3, making it not only the most powerful handheld gaming system on the planet but also a perfect platform for publishers looking to port their PS3 wares with a minimum of work.
What’s more, it has a pair of analogue joysticks—an innovation in handheld gaming I believe to be at least as important as bench-setting graphical output. Two joysticks means the door has been opened to several popular game types that have proven awkward and challenging on the current PSP—most notably first- and third-person shooters, which require one joystick for movement and another to look around. Indeed, I’ve written that the current PSP’s single nub is its greatest weakness, and that Nintendo really ought to have included not one but two sticks on its upcoming
3DS.
Other interface options include a capacitive touch screen—all but essential, given that just about every handheld gaming device has one these days—as well as a rear touchpad. The rear pad might seem like a quirky and novel interface, but I’ve found them quite useful on mobile phones. They take a little getting used to, but with your finger moving behind the display there’s nothing to get in the way of what’s happening on screen—a significant benefit.
We might have expected some of the NGP’s other innovations, including a pair of cameras (one front, one rear) and an array of motion sensors, but there are a couple that might come as a bit of a surprise: GPS and 3G data connectivity, both of which are standard on phones but new to dedicated gaming devices. It will be interesting to see how Sony and its publishing partners make use of these features. Lag-free 32-player fragfests with competitors’ physical locations marked on a sub-menu map, perhaps?
Games will be delivered either via download or on E-Media flash memory cards—a smart move, given that more graphically intense games demand much more storage than the current PSP’s UMDs can manage and that physical drives with moving parts are hard on batteries. Plus, flash memory is getting less expensive all the time. I suspect these cards will provide a significant cost savings for Sony in the long run.
Given the new touch screen, Sony has wisely decided to ditch its long-in-the-tooth (and awkwardly named) XrossMediaBar in favour of a new graphical interface called LiveArea that seems to employ bubble-like tiles to provide quick, one-touch access to games, the PlayStation Store, trophies (a new addition to PlayStation Portable gaming), social networking services, and photos and movies. I suspect it will feel a little like a phone interface.
As for price, Sony has declined to comment. Game Informer
reported that SCE head of worldwide studios Shu Yoshida would only say that “it’s not going to be $599,” which isn’t particularly helpful. Meanwhile, GamesIndusty.biz managed to get an
estimate from an analyst at Electronic Entertainment Design and Research who thought it would likely be priced between $299 and $349—at least $50 more than Nintendo’s upcoming 3DS, which will beat the NGP to market by nearly a full year when it's released in Japan later this month. That’s a pretty high price tag for handheld gaming, especially given that many people’s smart phones are filling this role nicely at the moment.
That brings us to content. What will we be playing on our NGPs at this time next year?
Sony rolled out a list of developers working on games for its new platform as well as several specific titles. We can expect everything from new entries in popular PlayStation-exclusive series—including original Resistance and Killzone games—to ports of existing PS3 games to brand new IPs designed to take advantage of the NGP’s unique hardware, such as
Little Deviants, a game that has players pressing on the back of the device to create a lump in the game world that pushes characters about. You’ll also be able to play some older and less expensive titles delivered via the PlayStation Store as well as downloadable games originally designed for PSP.
However, the question that’s been flittering about my mind leading up to this announcement is whether expensive dedicated portable gaming platforms like the PSP—and their corresponding pricey software—have a future in the age of super powerful smart phones, which offer huge libraries of decent games at a price of just a buck or two each. I have little doubt that a game like Uncharted running on the NGP will be much more complex, visually compelling, and emotionally satisfying than anything we see on an iPhone, Android, or Windows 7 handset, but will it be worth the hundreds of dollars required to purchase a discrete gaming platform, the bulk of carrying around an extra, none-too-tiny device in your pocket, and the cost of the software itself, which will be many times more expensive than any game you’ve ever purchased for your phone?
It will for some. Indeed, Nintendo has proven that dedicated portable gaming platforms and pricey software can still sell well. But keep in mind that Nintendo’s primary market is elementary school kids, most of whom haven’t a phone or at least not one powerful enough to run engaging games. In contrast, based on the actors featured in the NGP concept video (not to mention the mature-sounding titles named at PlayStation Meeting), it looks like Sony will be aiming the device at teens and twenty-somethings, many of whom presumably have game-capable handsets. Will they be interested in shelling out for a second, task-specific device that runs much more expensive content? "
Via:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/video-games/controller-freak/whats-new-with-psp-2/article1889063/page1/AND~! A NEW FF DISSIDIA 8D
"
Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy* is the prequel to
Dissidia Final Fantasy. It is currently in development for the
PlayStation Portable and it will be released in Japan on March 3rd 2011, in North America on March 22nd 2011
[5] , Europe on March 25th 2011, and sometime later in Spring 2011 for the rest of the world.
Dissidia Duodecim's gameplay will be very similar to the original's, featuring all of the original gameplay elements, characters and arenas. Fighters will attack to steal
Bravery from opponents, which increases their own, as a character lands Bravery attacks. By completely depleting an opponent's Bravery to zero, they become inflicted with Break status, preventing the opponent from inflicting Bravery or HP damage until their Bravery regenerates to a base amount, while the one who inflicted break gets a large boost in Bravery from the Map. When an HP attack connects with the opponent, they take damage equal to the attacking player's Bravery. By collecting EX Force characters can enter
EX Mode, boosting their strength, adding exclusive abilities and letting them execute EX Bursts similar to
Limit Breaks. New summons, arenas, music tracks and characters will be included.
One of the main new gameplay features is the
Assist system, which allows characters to call an ally into battle to attack, allowing new combos to be created by chaining the moves of two characters in different fashions. The Assist system acts as a counterbalance mechanic to the EX Mode system, as landing Assist attack can deplete the opponent's EX gauge. The EX gauge can also be utilized to execute a new technique titled "EX Revenge" which will slows down the opponent's movement for several seconds at the cost of consuming the EX gauge without entering EX Mode. Several characters have gained new attacks since the original
Dissidia, and several returning moves have had their properties changed.
Firion,
Kefka, and
Shantotto in particular have been stated to be heavily rebalanced. Several other small tweaks will be implemented as well. A character's HP can now exceed the normal limit of 9999, but the new maximum is unknown. The extra damage dealt by
Wall Rush has been reduced to 25% of the base damage from 50%.
Chase Sequences are much faster and reward a small amount of EX Force for landing a blow.
Critical hits now do 2x times the normal damage instead of 5x times.
Another major new addition is the "RPG Mode" for battle.
[6] Switching to this from the traditional "Action Mode" aims to turn combat into something more accessible to players of traditional RPGs by taking over movement and providing a persistent lock-on. Players are thus allowed to focus on attacking and defending, allowing newcomers to learn the game's mechanics in stages. The feature will also feature on-screen suggestions to help players learn the nuances of combat. The game will also have a tournament mode where multiple players can battle, and a
Watch Mode will be added to allow players who are not participating in current battles to watch them on their PSP.
[7] A new battle mode called "Party Battle" allows a sequence of five battles to be fought between two parties of five characters. The characters can be assigned profiles based on the
Job System to help them in battle, such as Black Mages receiving a boost to the power of magic attacks.
Dissidia 012 will feature a story structure similar to the Destiny Odysseys of the original game, and will include the ability to play as the warriors of Chaos as well.
[8] The story mode utilizes a different method of storyline gameplay than the original
Dissidia: a world map is used rather than tiled boards, and players are able to form parties and wander the world freely. The map shown in scans appears to be based on the map for the original
Final Fantasy. Depending on the story mode being played, players can either form their own parties or have their parties pre-determined - other mechanics of the party system are currently unknown. The "
Skills" command returns. Treasure chests, enemies, shops and other features can be encountered on the map. The enemy system is similar to
Final Fantasy XII or
Final Fantasy XIII, where enemies are visible on the map and approaching one initiates battle.
[9]. However it seems that the enemy will be able to attack and damage the player while on the world map, as shown in the Jumps Festa Trailer. Other in-battle mechanics, such as Quickmove, will be included on the World Map gameplay. Tetsuya Nomura has stated that it will take around 60 hours to beat the game.
[10] Save data from the original
Dissidia will be able to be transferred to
Dissidia 012, such as character levels and as a bonus, you will receive a special accessory. The storyline of the original
Dissidia, adapted to the new story gameplay mechanics, will be playable after the new storyline of
Dissidia 012 has been completed.
Save data from the original
Dissidia will be able to be transferred to
Dissidia 012, such as character levels and as a bonus, you will receive a special accessory. The storyline of the original
Dissidia, adapted to the new story gameplay mechanics, will be playable after the new storyline of
Dissidia 012 has been completed.
All twenty-two playable characters in the original
Dissidia will return. In addition to the original roster, eight new characters have been announced:
Kain from
IV,
Lightning from
XIII,
Tifa from
VII,
Vaan from
XII,
Laguna from
VIII,
Yuna from
X,
Prishe from
XI, and
Gilgamesh from
V.
Aerith from
VII is to be included as an Assist character for people who buy the demo,
Dissidia Duodecim Prologus. It has been reported that there will be more than a handful of new characters, but not necessarily an equal number of heroes and villains, as in the first game, and there will not be an equal amount of characters per game or per faction.
[11] It has also been stated that all new characters will be from the
SNES era forward.
[12] (OMFG YUNA AND TIFA 8D)
All arenas present in the original
Dissidia are set to reappear, with four new additions confirmed:
Orphan's Cradle,
Sky Fortress Bahamut, the
Crystal Tower[9], and the
Prima Vista. An area resembling the last floor of Pandaemonium has been seen in TGS 2010 trailer. Additionally, the Jump Festa trailer showed two new arenas which appeared to be the
Phantom Train and the
Empyreal Paradox. It has been stated there will be as many new stages as there are new characters, but there won't necessarily exist a connection between the new stages and the new characters.
It has been announced that Square Enix will include nearly twice as many music tracks and more of them will be original/retro, compared to the original. The game's soundtrack will be composed/arranged by
Takeharu Ishimoto, who was also responsible for the first
Dissidia's music.
[13] Dissidia 012 features these 37 new tracks:
- Final Fantasy's "Chaos Shrine", "Matoya's Cave", "Gurgu Volcano"
- Final Fantasy II's "Castle Pandaemonium", "Imperial Army Theme", "Dungeon"
- Final Fantasy III's "Battle 1", "Crystal Cave", "Let Me Know The Truth"
- Final Fantasy IV's "Battle 1", "Theme of Love", "Suspicion", "Into The Darkness"
- Final Fantasy V's "Neo Exdeath", "My Home, Sweet Home", "Dungeon"
- Final Fantasy VI's "Battle 1", "Phantom Forest", "Searching for Friends"
- Final Fantasy VII's "J-E-N-O-V-A", "Tifa's Theme", "Those Who Fight", "Forested Temple"
- Final Fantasy VIII's "Force Your Way", "Find Your Way", "Julia", "Premonition"
- Final Fantasy IX's "Grand Cross", "You're Not Alone", "The Place I'll Return To Someday"
- Final Fantasy X's "Summoned Beast Battle", "Yuna's Theme", "Via Purifico", "A Fleeting Dream"
- Final Fantasy XII's "Esper Battle"
- Final Fantasy XIII's "Blinded By Light" and "Saber's Edge"
Aside of those,
Dissidia 012 features all default tracks from
Dissidia Final Fantasy. The soundtrack is scheduled to be released in Japan on March 2, 2011.
[14] Furthermore, it appears that additional summons will be added to Duodecim as well.
Brynhildr from
Final Fantasy XIII, which can double Map Bravery, has been seen in the Jump Festa 2011 trailer with her concept art. It is however as of yet unknown how many other summons will be added as well.
Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy was announced in the Japanese magazine
Shonen Jump in early September 2010. It had previously been hinted at by the
Dissidia development team, who stated that they would love to make a sequel and that the decision would depend on the success of the first installment; and JD Cullum, Kuja's English voice actor, who offhandedly stated he had recorded his lines for
Dissidia 012 in the Summer 2010. Judging from statements by the other voice actors, it appears that the whole English script of
Dissidia 012 was recorded at the start of Summer 2010.
According to an interview between Takashi Arakawa and
Yoshinori Kitase (director, writer, and producer of
Dissidia) with a German gaming site, Kitase stated that a sequel would be "very interesting", and might even include
Kingdom Hearts characters, although it would still have to be discussed with Disney.
Tetsuya Nomura has stated that for a potential sequel, he would like to include
Kain Highwind,
Gilgamesh, and
Sazh Katzroy, but would not include
Kingdom Hearts characters. Nomura had previously expressed a desire to have Kain and Lightning in the first
Dissidia, but they were left out.
On January 18, 2011, Square Enix released
Dissidia 012 Prologus over the PlayStation Network, available in Japan for 300 Yen. The demo of the game features an 8-character arcade mode and a single story scenario following Lightning and the Warrior of Light.
It has been said that several games and demos will contain codes and such, which will allow full experience of game. These are:
Square-Enix also plans to make more downloadable content for the game in the future, and more battle themes and outfits will be purchasable this way.
[16] Duodecim, which is normally pronounced with a hard "c," is instead pronounced with a hard "s" for purposes of the game's title. Duodecim is Latin for "twelve," which gives the title relevance to the game's story as it revolves around the battles waged during
Dissidia's twelfth cycle.
- Prior to the official announcement, two separate hoaxes had "revealed" that Kain and Lightning would appear in Dissidia Final Fantasy: Universal Tuning. The hoaxes involved elaborate fake magazine pages created in Photoshop and complete with fake Kain artwork and fake Lightning 3D models.
- Kain, Lightning, Vaan, Yuna, and Prishe were all considered to be included in the original Dissidia but were excluded for various reasons.
Via:
http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Dissidia_012_Final_FantasyNOW... IM GUNNA DIE IF I DONT GET THESE >: |
Subject: IWANTIWANTIWANTIWANT D:< 
Mon Feb 07, 2011 1:22 pm
