Rundown (9/08-9/14) Those Bygone Summery Days

New Vegas is fun, I watched three anime episodes yesterday so I’m back on track, and school is starting up for me, or at least my other two classes are. Also I finished my second novella’s rough draft, not that anybody will see it in 2013. So everything is peaches for me, especially seeing as how I had my first encounter with a friend after a month of isolation. Yay asocialism, sorry, I meant being asocial. Now for your video game news.

First thing of interest came in on Monday, as they normally do, when Sony decided to have a bit of a Japanese press conference. With an announcement regarding the Playstation Vita getting a new slimmer model hitting Japan later this year, with the older models being bundled with a 32GB memory card. An act akin to throwing more wood on a fire during a rainstorm, it helps but doesn’t quite make the $200 system something people need ASAP. Especially with new consoles on the horizon with the cheaper of the two having access to quite a few Vita games.

So how does one respond to this? By creating an Ouya/Roku Box/Retro Sony entertainment system called the Playstation Vita TV. Or in other words, the Playstation Vita is now $100, is not potable, and can do 1080i, but lacks the touchpad, meaning that playing a game like Tearaway would be pretty darn lame. The workaround for this is by using the L3 and R3 sticks to activate the touch screen, but it honestly sounds like there needs to be some sort of patch for nearly every Vita title so they can better incorporate these features. Hell, fix that, let me use an external hard drive that will be a tenth of the price of your dumb $100 64GB memory cards, and I’d probably not need a new console for 5 years. Well, assuming that your English trailer implied that this will not be a C-K-J thing and not a NA-E-J-A-C-K thing, dawg.

Not that there are a ton of games specifically for the Vita, with the PS2 backlog absence really peeving me, because it could be done oh so easily. Instead, hope you enjoy such titles as Soul Sacrifice Delta, a title that sounds odd, as Sigma would be more fitting if you wanted to keep to alliteration going. Phantasy Star Nova will be set in the same universe as that Phantasy Star MMO still in localized limbo, though the gameplay is very much aiming to stay that way as well, as it will follows the ever popular Vita formula. A customizable hero occasionally teaming up with friends to take down monsters to get better customizable trousers after a short mission. Like Ragnarok Odyssey, God Eater 2, Tokuden, and Gundam Breaker.

Though one of the titles that broke that formula is not going to be an exclusive for very long, as Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation is getting an HD remastering on consoles and PC as part of a spontaneous spurge of announcements from Ubisoft. With others like Rayman Fiesta Run, which looks like that other Rayman iOS game, and will likely follow the same level of quality. With Assassin’s Creed Pirates accompanying it on the mobile marketplace with a more tactical based Pirate simulator, or so I think. Along with a Rabbids mobile game, which I’ll throw my apathy towards because I really don’t care for that franchise.

But there were two very interesting little titles from Ubisoft, proving they are hypocrites, but in a good way. With a JRPG/Platformer about a princess with a sword called Child of Light. Which had a very bleh reveal trailer they pushes the whole drama lever a bit too far, when really it is about a girl’s quest to return home in a strange world that looks very pretty and colorfusical. With the other being Valiant Hearts: The Great War. A sharp looking 2D puzzle adventure game about individuals involved in World War 1 and the horrors that ensue around a cast of men, a woman, and a dog. Which is more than enough to raise an eyebrow for when both of these games launch for everything but handhelds. Who am I kidding? I’m excited as hell for both of these, and will buy them at least sometime in 2014.

I just hope it gets a Steam release,, because Uplay is sorta blah in my experience with the service, and I like to have every game be connected in some manner. Just not by publisher, Ubisoft. So, I’ll just stick with Steam and its family sharing plan! Meaning that your Steam library can be shared with nine other accounts. However, when getting into specifics, I get a bit less excited. Namely the question of, “Can a friend and I share a library and both play at the same time?” being answered with, “No, a shared library may only be accessed by one user at a time.” Which I believe means that if I’m playing some New Vegas, and my friend wants to try out, I dunno, Mark of the Ninja from my account, he can’t. Which is all sorts of pointless. I get not playing the same game, but sharing the library? That’s pretty darn bogus.

What is not bogus is Pokemon, which I am 95% likely to get excited about when there are new monsters thrown in. Of which, there were a couple newly introduced. It’s likely this will be the last of the reveals before leaks come on in from one reviewer who will go unnamed and be blacklisted from Nintendo. And in terms of quality, Ken Sugimori is very good at his job, though they are very clearly designed around looking good in 3D, but I’m more excited for trainer outfits, because I like dressing up female characters.

Which is why GTAV doesn’t interest me, and why I’m skipping out on in despite how it is very likely good. As you and everybody else will have bought it. I mean, crackers. The game’s budget was something like 265 million and the preorders made it back already. Also, this is not a story just some endslate ramblings. Be good to a dog tonight!