Yes, I know, it's absolutely lovely and Sony has been nice enough to bundle said ceramic white PSP with the well received Star Wars Battlefront Renegade Squadron game and some rather useful bits like the much loved AC adapter. See for yourselves
. It's been available for quite a few days, you know.
Oh prepare the street parties, deck the halls, trumpet the funfairs, prepare the fireworks and break out the bubbly!!!! For today dear readers is the most fabulous of days!!! They Tyrant is dead, the Mansion destroyed, foxy Jill Valentine is safely in the chopper with Brad and Barry and for now (at least) the Evil Umbrella corporation is defeated! Yes for those of you unfamiliar with my love/hate relationship with Resident Evil Deadly Silence, read on...
This was the game that made me fall in love with the DS. It made me realise what a powerful and dynamic system it was... It also was a game which I found maddeningly difficult, ball achingly frustrated with it's impossibly stingy weapon and save systems, and a game which I eventually traded for Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. But something made me buy it again and I'm so glad I did...
Now I won't bore you with the story line, I'll asume you know all about it After all it's a 10 year old game ported (some would say cheaply) to the DS. The original video and engagingly awful dialogue from the Saturn/PS1 version included. But the system specific DS features in Rebirth Mode are incredible... For a start there's the knifing... Using the stylus to dispatch zombies is fun. But at various points in the games you can use it to throw darts (honestly!), to reconnect circuitry, turn dials and so on... The microphone is even more cleverly employed... Blow on the screen to repel zombie vomit, to blow out candles, to give mouth to mouth to your injured colleagues... At one point you use your finger to turn a record on an antique gramophone... Highly innovative stuff!
But how pray tell, did I now succeed at a game that had previously defeated me (and frustrated my sage like patron Gnome)... well here's the deal... I discovered an easy mode. Now this is how you do it... Go to the start menu, select Rebirth Mode, then hold the d-pad to the right till the writing turns green, Hey presto! Easy Mode. Now the game already gives you the option of playing a normal game (as Jill) or a hard game (as Chris) but unless I'm missing something obvious, Capcom's definition of 'normal' means rock fucking hard! But Easy Mode gives you more resilience against attack, twice the ammo and twice the save potential. In other words it allows you a fair chance of beating the game.
Now the downside... beating the game in easy mode does not allow you to access the unlockable 'Master Of Knifing' mini-game. Oh well! the main point of me taking this journey again was to give me the background on the Umbrella story for the upcoming Wii release "Umbrella Chronicles".
Oh and I'm loving NFSC: Own the Streets and Fifa 07 for the DS, they're both great for short bursts of handheld game play. Plus I've got Prince Of Persia and Silent Hill on my phone at the moment so I might have another topic of conversation soon. Until then I'll leave you a couple of links if you want to know more about this classic series...
It was bound to happen and you were bound to be left out. Again... Sony, you see, has been sending a select few souls them lovely God of War PSP demos and all you can do is read their hands-on impressions. Bah! It's an unfair world, isn't it? Still, Kratos looks as shiny and brutal as ever.
Kotaku, being able to translate bits of this, has been kind enough to let us know that Nintendo will soon be turning every Wii into a lovely DS Station, meaning we'll be able to download free Nintendo DS game demos via our Wii. Great news, especially for gnomes like me that have never really seen a DS demo and wouldn't mind trying a few games out.
Megazeux, the classic ZZT inspired ASCII-based game creation engine, has been ported to the Nintendo DS and will definitely reach all those ancient gamers currently enjoying two-screened gaming on the go. Find out more @ TIG Source and grab the download here. Now, to get an idea of how things will work on this version, well:By default, the top screen shows a zoomed-in portion of the screen, and the bottom screen shows the entire thing. The stylus can be used to perform mouse clicks and pan around the top screen. Use the right trigger to toggle a software keyboard.
This port is still very rough, and just for testing. Be sure to make backups, as earlier versions have caused filesystem corruption on my CF card.
Controls:
D-PAD = movement (arrow keys)
A + D-PAD = shoot in this direction
B = enter
X = save game
Y = load game
START = start (in title screen)
SELECT = escape
L TRIGGER = tab
R TRIGGER = toggle bottom screen
Ars Technica is a hugely popular mainstream site and for good reason; they just know their stuff, and that's coming from someone who just couldn't pass judgement (or water) on such technically intricate matters. Anyway, said hardware wizards have bothered with reviewing the brand new Sony PSP-2000 (a.k.a. Slim) and you can read what they made of the thing right here.
It's the biggest playable DS-oid thingy I've ever seen (yet definitely not touched), it costs quite a bit and mostly consists of 2 Tablet PC screens. Find out more here. Issa nice.
Amazingly, Nintendo DS owners almost got themselves a pretty decent looking version of Bungie's HALO shooter complete with interesting FPS controls, recognizable graphics and Wi-Fi multiplayer options. Not so amazingly, the game never got to hit the shelves and mankind lost the chance to marvel at another beautifully named product: HALO DS. Pity. Click here for more info, gameplay videos and a definitely more excited write-up.
Well good people, I'm pleased to announce that AT LAST I've managed to score a good game for my DS! Having been extremely frustrated with the console (or at least my software collection...) I managed to grab something tonight which has got my pulse (literally) racing.
Having unsuccessfully tried to buy a Logitech PS 2 LCD 7.2 " attachable screen from the 'pre-owned' section of my local Blockbuster Game store - (in fact I bought it and it didn't work) - I decided to use my credit note to score a game or two.
Having scanned the pre-owned DS section extensively, I was about to give up hope when I came across "Need For Speed Carbon:Own The Streets" (DS). I knew nothing about this game, but I did want a driving game, having just got rid of Ridge Racer DS.
Now with RE:DS, Fifa 07 and NFSC:OTS, I feel that I've got the right variety of software to provide me with a decent variety of game play. Plus I've still got Project Rub for a bit of silliness and X Men DS to complete...
The balance of my karma is restored and all is well with the world for now... Happy days!
