Today's blog is dedicated to the lungs of the gaming industry: handhelds (except the DS). First let me clarify, though, that I'm a hardcore Sony fanboy. Judge me if you must, but Sony will still be king. Gamepark Holdings is yet still making a push with their GP2X, a homebrew/PMP crazy machine. Read below for all the shiny tidbits.

For a while, the PSP (at least mine) was in a rut. Games were scarce, new features were scams, and the firmware scandal was getting ridiculous, with about 6 consecutive updates doing nothing outside of security beefing. Then the best thing I could've imagined happened to me: my PSP broke. My brother slept on it, and it wen bye-bye. Big dilemma, right? No. I took time away from the PSP's travesties, got a job, and things settled down. I saved up and got a new one, and it was FW 2.71. Hallelujah! Before the night was done, I'd downgraded that machine to 1.5 and back up to Dark Aelx's 3.40 OE-A custom firmware. Euphoria. Homebrew. Freedom. Get yours.

 

One day at Gamepark Holdings, execs sat down for discussion on how to make some money. Well, there was the DS vs. PSP war already, but Gamepark didn't want to compete, they wanted to pass by inadvertently. They wanted people who already had DS's and PSP's to buy their handheld for its price ($190), for its freedom (open-source), and for its overall features (music, video, emulators, external devices). The list of features is jaw-dropping. As previously mentioned, it plays mp3, wma, avi, mp4, wav, mpg; nearly any format you could imagine due to the fact that there are many media players available for download. It even runs on AA batteries (no typo)! Yes, there is a reason you've never heard of it before. It has one major flaw. No commercial games = no commercial appeal. Those who happen upon it do their best to spread the good news, but it's not enough. The GP2X basically has a cult, and can't seem to become anything more than that; otherwise we might be seeing the GP2X up on console sales charts.

- Why the heck did Coded Arms Contagion (see previous blog post) get delayed another three months to September 3? Patches to fix shortcomings? *cough* Bologna...

- Though the PSP is soon to receive its FW 3.5 update (notice it's obviously another security update, as it's going from 3.4 to 3.5), people with hacked PSP's like me are really just waiting for Dark Alex to crack it (heh, heh...)

- If you wish to purchase a GP2X, they're available on Play-Asia (you know you want one...)

ZOMG, THAT IS A BLOG!!1

proud supporter of:

Coded Arms Contagion. Yes, it does really look that good. I had originally planned to make to buy this at its original release date in early February, but it got a minor pushback to March 13. Acceptable. Then, it gets another delay to April 4. Tolerable. Then, things get ugly. It gets knocked away to May 28, and I get pissed, and quick. My PSP was broken before we ever got to the original release date, but now, after 25% of the year has been wasted in delays, I've made the investment of a brand new PSP, and it still hasn't come out. And Sony wonders why they don't outsell the DS.

ON A HAPPIER NOTE...

There is a bright side, and the bulb is brand new. As stated in my previous blog, I now have a "steady" job. This means games, accessories, and "splurge food". All the fricking time. Coded Arms Contagion (above) is a drop in the bucket, the looming Killzone update is sounding sweet, and SOCOM Fireteam Bravo 2 is till in fair play. Though seemingly unrelated, all three games are (or will soon be) Infrastructure-capable (online). All three support mics. Which brings us to:

WATCHA' GON' BUY?

Headset. Headphones. Sexy as hell. Sounds like a plan to me; couldn't afford it on this paycheck, but boy will it be in my hands two weeks from now...

Gotta catch up on all the PSP titles I missed while on my "cracked screen" hiatus, so Killzone: Liberation, Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters, and Street Fighter Alpha 3: MAX (oldie) are all on the ole wishlist.

OLD SCHOOL REMIX!

One of my previous blog posts on this particular site weighed heavily on homebrew. My PSP firmware left no room for downgrading, and at one point I nearly resorted to pruchasing a GP2X for my old school needs (no rehab was necessary). I've since ruined my PSP, and purchased a new, shiny, 2.71 firmware PSP that allows for friendly arrival to low firmware(s). But there is one issue: it's TA-082. Am I doomed?

Is that a blog?

proud supporter of:

Please get off my back,

because my legs are beginning to give;

Don't punish me for the way I choose to live.

No, you're not cool for wearin a fake grill.

No sir, you aren't tight for your overrated basketball skillz.

No way, I'll give you props for starting a fight over a chicken sandwich.

No chance, my car will stop for your blinging wristband which,

for some reason you call a watch,

when you can't read time and instead you grab your crotch,

and ramble random rap songs,

by a foolish poet long gone to the other side;

the bottom of a downhill slide.

Filled with stories that no one told.

Tracks that never sold.

Ideas that to soon grew old.

Will never smoke a joint,

Never start a beef,

and never ever for your sake turn over a new leaf.

So, please get off my back, my legs can take no more,

my body refuses to be this sore.

I'll always ignore you, because I aim for something more.

For the first time in my life since the days of the lowly NES, I have no game system to play. My PSP's screen is cracked (due to my stupidity), rendering it a simple mp3 player; I'm as broke as a bad joke. I really don't wish to repurchase a PSP (firmwares cracked in a day...amateurs), and I really want a GP2X. No, you don't know what a GP2X is, and I'm not telling you (google it, damnit!).

My largest regret at this time is due to Coded Arms Contagion. New screenshots and vids make it "officially" my most anticipated game ever. Too f*ing bad my PSP is broken, and I have nothing to play it on, hence the title of this blog.

Right now, in Nate's life, money is a problem. He has none, and his job prospects are thinning like K-Fed's hair. Grades are lackluster, friends seem to be on opposite magnetic poles, and haterz are on the prowl like vultures. GP2X still rox! And that is a blog...

Wishlist

Systems - GP2X

Games - anything for Gp2X, Coded Arms Contagion

Life - a job...

My PSP is beginning to crust. I mean, really, it's beginning to become a hassle to keep happy while in the same room with it. Sony is to blame. Their "upgrade or else..." firmware campaign is borderline blackmail, and the games are either being delayed or cut short on release. SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo 2 is honestly the only game keeping me beyond melancholy with the PSP.  What it really needs is....... an MMO.

An MMO-anything. please. The PSP, now that the PS3 and it's online service are released, is far too capable of an MMO to still not even have one announced beyond the pre-launch, no-name, tentative-detailed, piece of **** that is the PSP's shortcoming.

Games like Monster Hunter Freedom, and the yet-to-be-released Valhalla Knights are multiplayer RPG's; no online support in either, for a reason beyond me, only explainable by Capcom's apparent lack of capability to give fans what they really want, and Valhalla Knights being another Japanese-made PSP RPG that is bland, content-less, and soon-to-be 6.5-ed by online reviewers. Damn.

In Case you do have ADD and read all the way to here first w/o taking in anything else, you can go ahead and disregard everything previously noted and read this: GP2X > PSP

And that is a blog.

HOLIDAYSSSS!!!!!
My birthdate of October who-cares-when has past, and as we approach mid-October, I believe it is time to pre-order your holiday-released video games, as I have, and to start watching the NBA season, go see Saw 3, and have a damn good time doing it......

Sony creeps it's PS3 launch ever closer, and that means, U guessed it: PSP firmware 3.00 (or 3.0, for short), and that means PS1 on my PSP, streaming videos, and whatever crazy things Sony decides to morph the PSP into. Innocent owners are forced, or in my and many others' cases, pushed voluntarily, into a download that may be beneficial, but nonetheless a requirement to play newly released games. Ain't Sony just the bee's knees?

The PSP desperately needs that, um, we'll say Halo type game that takes it the way Nintendogs pushed the DS to the top, and it's a arguable fact that we may just have to wait until 2007 to get it, and that suxors; my personal choices for what that game may be:

-Metal Slug Anthology (2006)
-Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters (2007)
-Capcom Puzzle World (2006)
(and my #1 pick)-Coded Arms: Contagion (2007)

And now, my personal blurbs:

-Metal Slug Anthology is the only game worth buying this holiday season, on any system, particularly PSP.

-Killzone 2 has been officially been announced to be the most hyped-up lump of fan-based stupidity ever.

-Super Puzzle Fighter II: Turbo is the best game of all time, kidz.....

-And finally, PSP firmware 3.00 is the best thing to happen to mankind since the birth of Jesus. thank you

my PSP is longing for the 3.0 update. but isn't everybody's? But mine is substantially different. It longs for sacred homebrew too....... but goddamnit, Sony's firmware updates R so damn appealing! But subsequentially, they destroy my homebrew dreams also. I quit. I won't update to 2.75, 2.876534, or anything! I'll stick it out for the damn downgrader! Is it really hurting Sony anyways?? Am I draining their money by simply enjoying my PSP 2 the fullest??! The hell with illegality! I want my homebrew! Even if I have to trade my 2.71 for a 2.6, knowing that Downdater file is being hosted somewhere..............somewhere. And that is a blog.

I saw a vid leaked on May 6th about Capcom Fighting Evolution II, that will break the cult record of most characters in a legal (sorry, Mugen!) fighting game, previously held by Marvel vs. Capcom 2 w/ 56, now by CFE:II with a monster # of 62 playable characters, spanning from SF II, Darkstalkers, SF Alpha, Rival Schools (Kyosuke, baby!!!), SF III, and Red Earth. WOW; in arcades '06; check it out soon......and hope 4 a port. that is a very important blog post.

I've realized PSP update 2.7 was solely to eliminate homebrew. the Flash Player is version 6, useless to PSP, and needing portals and/or outer programs in order 2 play any decent games........what a drag. now, I must wait 'till Winter for a legal PS1 emulator, and a PSP firmware update that's worth my download; and that is a blog.

no, not in general, but this is the name of the new 3D game in the series, and now that the official site has been updated (though in Japanese), I'm psyched about seeing how it will turn out. Out of the various vids and pics released over the span of this highly anticipated, and delayed game, few have been of the same environment, if U've noticed, and the newly released ones on the site R not repeats, and R all in-game; DAMN< I CAN'T WAIT!!!!