Player One Podcast

This week! E3 from the perspectives of four guys who didn’t attend the show. Listen as we go in order of the press conferences from the big three and give our analysis. Who won? Who lost? Which of these motion control solutions has the best chance?  And oh so much more.

Chris Johnston Episodes e3, episode, kevin butler, kinect, Microsoft, move, nintendo, podcast, project natal, sony

So I just played a game of Phantasy Star Portable (the demo) on the PSP via Sony’s PS3 Adhoc Party tool. And…it was pretty damn great. We pillaged, we plundered, we slayed the dragon (De Ragan). And… now I’m wondering when the hell Sony Computer Entertainment AMERICA is going to throw this thing on the US PSN for English-speaking PS3 owners to take advantage. Or at least allow for English menus since the JPN tool is naturally all in Japanese. True, the number of PSP games that would be worth having access to this system for…kinda small.

But again, here’s an opportunity for Sony to do something DIFFERENT than their competition and offer something that crosslinks PSP with the PS3 in a logical way. Phantasy Star Portable comes out this week and you’ve got Monster Hunter Freedom Unite coming…well, whenever the hell it’s coming (I think the last time Capcom said anything about it was TGS last fall and the “Spring 2009″ release date they mentioned back then doesn’t seem like it’s gonna happen). Even still, you’ve got racing games and SOCOMs and whatnot that could benefit here.

Allow some Japanese youths to demonstrate via video:

This, just like Remote Play, are the kinds of things that make the PS3 a great system. Sony…not quick on the uptake with this. (They should’ve also introduced trophies to PSP games but WHATEVER.) I also have to wonder why this sort of thing isn’t also a function of PlayStation Home.

Chris Johnston Video Games PSP, sony

One of the things we’ve talked about on the podcast a lot is the dwindling state of the PSP software section in many stores. I took a picture a couple weeks ago of a PSP section at a local Best Buy that I thought was pretty appalling. This is IT for the section. The lower shelf is all UMD movies so it’s honestly even more pathetic than it even looks at first glance. Granted, this is a smaller Best Buy than a lot of the other stores I’ve been in, but for a machine that is not (at least yet) dead, it was pretty surprising to see. What do you think, and what’s the PSP section of your local retailer lookin’ like?

Chris Johnston Video Games best buy, PSP, sony