Short answer: NO. 

Its a portable gaming console for people who have two thumbs.

A RECAP OF THE PSP

Japanese sales notwithstanding, the PSP just didn’t really strike a chord with consumers in the West in general, and in Australia/New Zealand (ANZ) in particular. Sure, it was portable; you could play games on it, it had a nice screen, good sound, web browser, did the wireless thing etc etc , but … there were just too many ‘Buts’.

Game play wise it was just extremely hampered by not having two control sticks. Sure, configuration options gave you means to play a variety of games using the single control nub with the other buttons to give a passable experience ‘But’ all it really was, was passable. I don’t want get into any kind of debate about the benefits or otherwise of Homebrew ‘But’ in reality many developers baulked at a device that was potentially so exposed – so the PSP was starved of developer support. Sony themselves failed to follow through on many of the features promised before release. Remember when the GPS and Map Packs were promised for ANZ many times? How about the cross-platform game functionality with the PS3 (Bend Studios/Insomniac games did have a crack at it with Resistance: Retribution Infected Mode).

So in the washup, it didn’t quite cut it as a ‘must-have’ device because, well, it just didn’t quite cut it. As a MP3/MP4 player, sure, it worked fine, but other devices did it a lot better. Web browsing worked – barely. Skype functionality was a big plus… ‘But’ not a big enough plus.

Sony were trying though. The launch 1000 model was given a few tweaks and released as the 2000 model. Later, the 3000 model was released, again, it was the preceding model tweaked and given Video Out functionality. This was a boon for the platform, but can be considered ‘too little, too late.’ Sony undertook a major remodel with the PSPGo ‘But’ in the West, this was for the most part treated with apathy or even disdain. “Just another PSP with no good games.” I am led to understand that it was even outsold by the 3000 in Japan.

The upshot of all this was that Hideo Kojima’s masterpiece Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker could easily be considered ‘The Best Ever Portable Game Nobody Played.’

Along Came the VITA

Sony really have decided to get serious about portable gaming with the PSVita.

Hello my old friend.

The device has two sticks instead of a single ‘nub’ controller. This opens up the Vita player to a complete gaming experience in a way that the PSP user could not ever dream of having.

The Vita is somewhat larger than the PSP, yet in the hands, it feels ‘right’. Having had a few extended play sessions with Uncharted Golden Abyss and Everybody’s Golf, I can say that at no point did I ever feel any strain in the hands of wrists. The thing just Works.

As far as input control, the Vita has all the usual systems a gamer is familiar with having used a DualShock 3 Sixaxis Controller (with the exception of only having two shoulder buttons instead of four). The tilt control functionality is solid and, if the game developer has allowed it, has adjustable sensitivity. The only drawback I have found is that the ‘X’ button is a little close to the right thumb stick and (particularly in Wipeout) I found I was accidentally nudging the stick when hitting ‘X’. A little practice and awareness and I don’t feel it that much of an issue. A realisation that I still suck at Wipeout helps.

In this day and age, no self-respecting portable device can expect to be looked at without a touch-screen. Visually, the screen is astounding and its touch control functionality is sharp. To me, touch screens are a hard thing to judge or assess. They either work or they don’t. The screen on the Vita just works.

The rear touch pad is a whole other kettle of fish. It really is an innovation that I feel certain developers will jump at. Even after using it for a couple of days it felt like a feature that most devices could well do with. Humans have ten digits. There is no need to have us limited to four for gaming. The real beauty of the rear touch pad is your vision of the screen is not obscured as you are using the touch controls. I now find myself using the rear pad exclusively for scrolling the Facebook app.

On the down side, there are occasions when a finger can brush the rear pad at the wrong time and upset your aim (eg in Uncharted) or launch a black hole weapon (eg in Super Stardust Delta). As mentioned with respect to the ‘X’ button location, this is only a small issue easily overcome with awareness and practice.

Other input devices include a microphone, and front and rear cameras. The cameras are not ‘state-of-the-art’ so they don’t take first class photos or video but are quite passable for that task. Several games up to now use them effectively as ‘Tech Demos’ such as; Frobisher Says and Uncharted. Personally I am not that interested in Augmented Reality gaming… but they do the job solidly.

I don’t pretend to know a lot about the internals, but the Vita has a lot of cores inside it. The graphics kick some serious posteriors. GPS has also been included and apart from one occasion when the Vita was convinced it was located a couple of thousand kilometres away in Sydney for a few minutes, it has worked a charm. I even used it when house hunting recently. I plugged the addresses in Google Maps and the Vita told me where to go.

Perhaps the biggest revelation I have had with the Vita is the browser. Anyone who has used it on the PS3 knows that its, well, a bit sucky. The browser on the PSP was worse. ‘It had a browser’ is about all the credence I am prepared to give it. In comparison, the browser on the Vita is a ball-tearer. ‘It has a browser that works.’ Its not brilliant, of course, but it works and after giving up on the PSP and PS3 browsers, that in itself is a big leap. If only it had Flash support, or at the very least, Youtube support.

The inclusion of optional 3G with the Vita opens the possibilities of the device up. Sony have released apps for Facebook, Twitter and Skype, as well as small number of others. These are light-weight apps – cut down versions that get the job done. For example, Facebook just has Friend Messaging, News Feed and a few other basic functions. It works admirably for a quick in-and-out session.

Skype is one thing that was done right on the PSP. With the inclusion of a camera allowing video calls, it works even better on the Vita. As a result there are those who are trying to compare it with smart phones. I don’t think that is entirely justified. I smart phone is a telephone you can maybe play some limited games on. The Vita is portable gaming console that has the functionality that people have been conditioned to associate with phones.

There are only a limited number of apps available at the moment, but this is set to change very soon. Sony are in the process of opening up the development environment for a range of devices including phones, tablets and the Vita. The ‘PlayStation Suite’ or ‘PSS’ project is currently in open beta and a large number of developers are chomping at the bit to get stuck into a device with two sticks, using C# language. The actual release of apps and games that come out of the PSS project will have a level of control, so it wont be an open-slather spam-fest as it could well be described on some other platforms.

Where Now For The Vita?

* Games Games Games

Two sticks and processing power means developers are free to do whatever they want. They don’t have to weave around the limitations the PSP and other portable consoles have. A-List game experiences with functionality as good or better than home consoles can now be had. The door is open for developers. The Vita will sink or swim based on whether they walk through.

* PlayStation Suite

This project opens the Vita up to all the benefits of Homebrew without the drawbacks. It also allows a range of paid and freemium apps and games to become accessible on the Vita – again, with the added functionality of two sticks and a rear touch pad.

* Connectivity

Read – ‘online gaming with a portable fully functioned console’. Imagine the possibilities for sports games like FIFA, or Gran Turismo B Spec. For me its shooters. I have played the hell out of Uncharted Golden Abyss and am salivating at the opportunity to give a 1st Person Shooter a thrashing – and more importantly, to do so online. Unfortunately time constraints means I haven’t been able to try out the release 3rd Person Shooter Unit 13 to see how it performs. So we will all just have to wait and see how Resistance Burning Skies goes… and CoD later in the year.

[If you have read this article on Sixaxisgaming's forum, then you may have noticed that two videos are missing. Due to problems with embedding them into WordPress, they were left out - PUMPsix.]

We thought last year was huge for gaming, with the release of games such as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Battlefield 3 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 all within a short time frame. It was certainly an early Christmas for the square-eyed. But it has become apparent that developers and publishers like to slip into the jolly fat man’s boots, and are releasing another line-up of huge titles that are set to blow away fans, no pun intended. While it may be on different levels of the jizz-o-meter, they have already started to surprise even the most up-to-date hipster gamers on the block. So cook up a batch of balsamic chickpeas, grab an indie coffee, and we’ll take a quick geeze into what is heading our way this coming festive season.

Call of Duty: Black Ops II

Publisher: Activision, Square Enix (Japan)
Developer: Treyarch
Platform: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows
Release Date: November 13, 2012

Judgement Day? That was my first reaction to this game. Robots, weird-ass looking tanks, the lack of control from those piloting what appeared to be star fighters – the trailer had a make-up of total anarchy. But when I realised that the old fart narrating the trailer was Frank Woods, it was clear to me that Treyarch had decided to jump a thousand years into the future with this game, in an attempt to give it to a modern, techy feel. China and America are apparently bumping heads over rare earth elements (rice?) and have decided they want to kill each. Enough said, really.

So, let’s get some of the basics out of the way. Alex Mason will be making a return, through 1980’s flashbacks. His son, David Mason, will be the main character of the 2025 setting. Viktor Reznov is also said to feature in this game. Treyarch has confirmed that the Zombies mode will return for Black Ops II with its own campaign, and is also running in the multiplayer engine for the first time… whatever that means. The engine is said to be a modified version of the IW engine used in nearly every other Call of Duty title. No other major details have been released yet, but judging on what has been seen so far, things like weapons and killstreaks are going to be completely different from previous games. It looks as though they are going to pack a shit load into this game, which could be a good thing, it could also be a bad thing – but at least we are in for a change of scenery.

Only a year after the last Call of Duty was released, Black Ops II will stack the shelves in November. Despite its rather mixed and mashed looked, it’s still set for a good time in the charts. Who knows, it could end up being the best thing since sliced bread. Personally, I secretly enjoyed Black Ops and will be buying Black Ops II. It may not look a treat for some, but we are yet to see what Treyarch really have in store for us.

“We are bringing disruptive innovation to the franchise and we are doing it on several fronts. We’re pushing the boundaries technologically, graphically, and from a narrative and gameplay perspective.” ~ Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing

Halo 4

Publisher: Microsoft Studios
Developer: 343 Industries
Platform: Xbox 360
Release Date: November 6, 2012

You always knew deep down that Halo 3 wasn’t the end of Master Chief’s story. I mean, they kind of made it blatantly obvious when the Forward Unto Dawn kinda just drifts into the path of what looks like a giant eye-ball. The cinematic trailer didn’t show much, apart from some slight character design changes and a grenade firing pistol. But the latest gameplay screenshots and 5 second clips have shed some light on what we can expect. The Covenant has reformed, and they are pissed again. An ancient evil has awoken, most likely being the Forerunners. A main topic of discussion though is that you won’t have to fight a hoard of zombie bogey men, the Flood.

Being that it’s the start of a new trilogy, they have the opportunity to explore different paths. The relationship of John-117 and Cortana will feature heavily in this new beginning, and we’ll go deeper into the mind of the Chief, kinky. Weapon designs have been overhauled dramatically, and naturally, new weapons will be added to the game (such as a Railgun). Neil Davidge is the lead composer, yes, the NEIL DAVIDGE! Haven’t heard of him? Neither… We’ll see some big features and changes to the multiplayer over all, including a new game mode called Spartan Ops. Basically, every detail that has been released is making this game more mouth watering by the day.

November is when it hits the stores, about a week before Call of Duty: Black Ops II in fact. So the Halo-killers younger brother, twice removed is set to go head-to-head with the first triplet of a reinvigorated franchise. It will be interesting to see, and may lay the path for new directions and innovations for both titles in the coming future.

“The visual style of Halo 4 is more ingrained in the expanded universe fiction, and more “mature” than before.” ~ Kenneth Scott, Art Director for Halo 4

Assassin’s Creed III

Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Platform: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii U, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X
Release Date: NA October 30, 2012, PAL October 31, 2012

Okay, so I was kinda hoping for another Assassin’s Creed: Revelations trailer, because it was just Epic (yes, with a capital ‘E’). But the Assassin’s Creed III trailer was a bitter disappointment. Probably because it was lacking the song “Iron” by Woodkid, or maybe because a literal trailer by Toby Turner hasn’t been done yet. Either way, I’m still a bit pissed with Ubisoft.

The game is set between 1753 and 1783, and the war between the Assassins and the Templars has moved to Colonial America. The new main character is a young man named Connor Kenway (Ratohnhaké:ton… ?) who is some sort of English-Mohawk half breed. His home is attacked by colonists and I’m guessing he kills them, cause that’s what assassin’s do. Historical figures including George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson will feature in the game, hopefully you can kill them too. Other than that, details are spread thin. Ubisoft have gone to some pretty major lengths to keep everything on the down-low.

An October release will give it the jump on other titles, but whether that will actually help sales is the primary question. The concerning thing is, the hype only appears to be coming from the developers themselves, even though pre-order sales are apparently better than previous games. I’m probably missing a beat, but unless they throw out some big news soon, they won’t pull any money from my pocket.

“The true next generation of both the Assassin’s Creed brand and interactive entertainment/storytelling in general. We will push the title a lot because it’s a fantastic product that the team has been working on for three years. What we have seen is just fabulous.” ~ Yves Guillemot, Ubisoft CEO

Grand Theft Auto V

Publisher: Rockstar Games
Developer: Rockstar North
Platform: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows
Release Date: Late 2012?

Sex.

While a release date hasn’t been confirmed, speculation has it that this game may come out before Call of Duty: Black Ops II and Halo 4. Whether this is true or not, we’ll just have to wait and see. Either way, a 2012 release is likely.

“A radical reinvention of the Grand Theft Auto universe”. ~ Sam Houser, co-founder and president of Rockstar Games

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

Publisher: Konami
Developer: Platinum Games
Platform: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Release Date: Q4 2012

I think the guys at Konami have been getting on the piss a bit too much. From going to a new game featuring The Boss and her comrades, the Cobra Unit, to an “interquel that would chronicle the series of events that resulted in the transformation of Raiden”, to what we have now, set several years after the events of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. This was only due to Konami palming the job off to Platinum Games, otherwise we wouldn’t have seen this title come to ground at all.

The story will focus on Raiden, who is encountered by cyborg enemies while aiding in the rebuilding of an unknown country. Delving into the characters mind and past seems to be the thing to do now, and that is the plan with Raiden as well. We’ll see what it was like for him in a Kony style child soldier camp, and explore his emotional side (I find it quite appropriate that this game is all about knives). Unlike previous titles in the Metal Gear series, you won’t have an arsenal of invisible weapons to call upon by tapping the R2 button anymore. This is solely a hack and slash action game, which is said to be highly sophisticated by design. You will be able to wield other weapons, just no guns. Daggers, pocket-knives, battle-axes, light sabers, who really knows what these guys plan on doing.

Again, a date hasn’t been confirmed. Even though a 4th quarter release will bring this fragile game into a heavy market, Konami and Platinum Games shouldn’t delay any longer than what they have. Or at least that’s how I feel, I’m sick of waiting.

“The game remains significantly different to existing Metal Gear games, although I have retained an element of control over it and will not let it stray too far from the series’ roots” ~ Hideo Kojima, a God

Here is a rundown on the prize you could win,

ASTRO A*STAR™ In-Ear Headset features an in-line medallion with mic, volume dial and answer/hang up button, flat tangle-resistant cables, a PC splitter, three sizes of ear gels and a handy carrycase. Inspired by the light-weight materials and aggressive forms of high performance headgear, the A*STAR’s will cut through the noise, fully extending your audio arsenal to play your favorite mobile games, music, videos and voice on the go.

•ASTRO AUDIO – Featuring 9mm drivers and 20 – 20,000 Hz frequency response range, the A*STAR’s have been engineered to deliver clean, clear sound at every frequency, optimized for handheld gaming devices, mobile phones and media players.
•Medallion – The A*STAR’s control center includes a high performance mic and easily accessible controls for call answer/hang up, play/pause, mic mute and volume control.
•Flat Cables – Durable, highly-conductive, with the added benefit of resisting tangles.
•Windshield for Mic – Have a crystal clear conversation while braving the blistering winds.
•Carry Case – Multi-function pocket-size soft case to comfortably hold your A*STAR’s along with a portable audio or mobile phone device.
•Optional Upgrade – The A*STAR headsets work perfectly on portable gaming systems or mobile devices, but need to be teamed with a MixAmp or MixAmp 5.8 for use on a console. (The A*STAR mic is designed for mobile use so for use on XBL/PSN voice chat, you will need to move the medallion closer to your mouth.)

Specs • Drivers:9mm • Transducer Principle : Dynamic, Closed • Frequency Response:20 – 20,000 Hz • Nominal Impedance :32ohm
• Characteristic SPL:100+/-3dB @ 1kHz • Distortion:Less than 1% @ 1kHz • Connector:3.5MM jack with PC splitter

http://www.astrogaming.com/headsets/…in-ear-headset

Favourite game: Gotta love call of duty 4! never one has she hurt my feelings like mw2/3/blops did. What’s your most anticipated game for 2012? Diablo III !!!

15 minutes of fame?

15 seconds…. when my dad picked my right up in the air when I was a youngin at the Australia vs Ireland rugby game in 03 and I was on TV

What’s your favourite movie?

Black Hawk down…..

What’s your favourite artist/song?

Don’t have a favourite, I’m a big fan of old school rap and trance though.

Who is your idol?

Evan Centopani, IFBB Pro bodybuilder

What’s your philosophy on gaming?

I’m gonna get deep and meaningful here, gaming is like a getaway, I can get home, chuck in GTA San Andreas and spend hours on free roam trying to get a samurai sword then gettin with a hooker to soon kill her with the sword for my money back. All games have a similar vibe to them, they all have something pointless I can waste hours and hours on for no reward whatsoever. I can’t see my self as an avid gamer in the future because I only really jump on the PS3 now to finish new games offline or play an old old game. But don’t get me wrong I’d love to get home, ignore the missus, use my child as a foot rest and crank some playstation!

So if you are a new player who is looking for some ways to improve your skills, or a veteran who wants that one thing to launch them into greatness, take a read of our tips from the community and take in what works on the Battlefield!

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P2P Details can be found here.
P2P Ruleset can be found here.

We’re more than happy to announce that registration for our own exclusive Modern Warfare 2: 5v5 Search and Destroy Tournament is now OPEN!

Pop over to this thread located here to join our competitive Pay to Play tournament.

SIXAXISGAMING partnered with CLANZ would like to announce that we will be holding our own exclusive Battlefield 3 League which will take part shortly after registration.

Well here it is, register your teams interested via this thread located below;

http://sixaxisgaming.com.au/forums/s…r-BF3-leagues!

SIXAXISGAMING has purchased several private lobbies which players will be able to get prepared on before the competition and finally play our official wars on.

• Are you the best pilot in the sky?
• Best soldier on ground?
• Does your team have the best communication that will bring you over the line?

If you answered “yes” or contemplating towards the answer “yes”, you know the drill.

REGISTER NOW!

We’ll see you on the Battlefield…..watch your six Comrade.

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There is also a new release date revealed for the game, October 2, 2012.

I am very excited for this game, I have been a fan of Resident Evil since I was a boy and to finally have Leon and Chris together in one game, in what seems to be a half return to the series roots, I couldn’t be happier.

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