The NGP Announced - Successor to the PSP

Sony announced today at a press conference for Playstation that their successor to the Playstation Portable, the NGP, will be released in the Holiday Season of 2011. It is unclear if this is a Japanese only date or a worldwide release.

Some features of the NGP include...

• Higher Graphics - Roughly equivalent of early PS3 Graphics
• Front and Rear facing cameras 
• Always-On 3G Data Connection
• A new cartridge style game storage - UMD officially scrapped
• 5" OLED Touch-screen
• Touch Pads on the rear of the system
• Two analog sticks

There will be location based features implemented that will show you other NGP players nearby and the most popular games in your location. It looks as though Sony has partnered heavily with Google in the implementation of Android-like features in the NGP. They have also planned to launch a Playstation service on Android devices including phones and tablets that brings the Playstation experience to the devices. PSP games and possibly Playstation 1 games will be made available for purchase to play on Android phones and tablets. 

Sony's main goal with the NGP and the Playstation launch on Android is to have a fluid gaming experience. To start a game on your PS3, walk out the door and continue that game on your NGP. To check in on your stats from your phone and tablet. 

Sony's main tagline for the NGP and the Android Playstation launch is...

The power is now in your hands

Head past the break for Sony's press shots!

New Game Alert - Dissidia 012 [duodecim] Final Fantasy

Square Enix has recently announced a prequel game to 2009's popular fighter for the PSP. The original game presented a fully 3D Fighter that I have never seen before. The game felt like a combination of an A-RPG and a Fighter. 

The original Dissidia gave us a roster of 22 Characters to choose from. The roster consisted of the following character's from the corresponding Final Fantasy games.

1. Warrior of Light / Garland
2. Firion / The Emperor Mateus
3. Onion Knight / Cloud of Darkness
4. Cecil Harvey / Golbez
5. Bartz Klauser / Exdeath
6. Terra Bradford / Kefka Palazzo 
7. Cloud Strife / Sephiroth
8. Squall Leonheart / Ultimecia
9. Zidane Tribal / Kuja
10. Tidus / Jecht
11. Shantotto 
12. Gabranth

From Final Fantasy 1 - 10 a hero and a villain were chosen. Final Fantasy XI was only given a hero and XII was only given a villain. Each Hero fought for Cosmos, the goddess of Harmony and Light. Each Villain fought for Chaos, the god of Discord and Darkness. 

A little backstory...

Chaos and Cosmos have been fighting for as long as they have existed. Their fight continues on despite apparant victories on either side. Chaos and Cosmos must always fight. The natural order of the world will not allow one favour over the other for long. Rebirth and Death are main themes between Chaos and Cosmos. Eventually Chaos and Cosmos began calling heroes and villains from other worlds to fight for them in hopes of gaining the upper hand. 

Dissidia Final Fantasy told the story of the thirteenth cycle of battles between Chaos and Cosmos and their warriors. In the original Dissidia Chaos and Cosmos each had equal warriors. In Dissidia 012 [duodecim] the tables have turned. 

Dissidia 012 [doudecim] tells the story of the twelfth cycle of battles between Chaos, Cosmos and their warriors. This time around, the heroes seem to have an advantage, with several new characters having been announced already and more to come. 

Head past the break for a break down of the new game! 

Gaming: Highly Anticipated Games

 

So, I've been playing a lot of Metal Gear Solid 4 Lately and It's gotten me to thinking about future games that're coming up. So I decided I would throw together a little list and give my impressions on each one, a couple screen-shots, all that. 

Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy XIII Collection - Square Enix

That was a mouthful. Anyway, I'm looking forward to the three announced, one leaked, and two rumoured titles in this collection. Final Fantasy XII looks gorgeous, it's battle system looks very interesting. It's sort of like... From what I've heard, you see the monsters on the map, but when you approach them in real time and completely seamless, you jump in to a battle with them. So it's like taking Final Fantasy X's battle system and Final Fantasy XII's real-time and smashing them together. 

Jump past the break for screens of Final Fantasy XIII and the other games in The Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy XIII Collection.

Wii DVD Playback

 

Tired of not being able to play DVDs on your Wii? Well, with a simple little hack, you can! It requires a way to get files to an SD Card from your computer, an SD Card (The Wii only supports up to 2GB cards), and a copy of Twilight Princess. (US readers will need to discern which version they have. More on that later.) 

If you wanna watch DVDs on your Wii, follow along after the jump.