IASTE Begins

Welcome! I'm starting this blog called "It's a Secret to Everybody" to express my opinion of the current gaming landscape and give a little insight to my current gaming habits; for anyone that cares. I'll try to keep this updated at LEAST once a week, hopefully about 2-3 times a week. So about me.

I'm a 23-year-old college student attending SIUE majoring in Computer Science. I play hockey in my spare time, as well as play games. (Duh) I enjoy writing, so hence, this blog.

I own 2 Xbox 360's (Elite and a new "slim" 250GB), a Wii, a PSPGo, and I literally just bought a DS Lite today. I owned a DS, but sold it for the Go, but went ahead and bought another one. I'll explain later. I also had a PS3 but sold it about 3 months ago. I MIGHT buy anther one in the near future. We'll see. DISCLAIMER: I will try not to partake in fanboy-ism on this blog. I will keep my opinions honest and I refuse to comment on a product I have never used.

I'm also a member of the Illinois Air National Guard working on c-130 cargo aircraft as an engine mechanic. I deploy fairly often, so I do a lot of portable gaming as well as console gaming.

So that's pretty much me. Now for some substance to this blog.


DS vs. PSPGo…FIGHT!

Like I said before, I owned a DS Lite for about 2 years, until I sold it in March-ish for a PSPGo. Now here was my thought process when buying the Go. The PSP has a larger screen, is a bit less "kiddy", is a much better technology, and NO cartridges.

Since I travel a lot, I thought not carrying games around would be sweet. I grab my PSP, and every game I own is right there. Also, you can pause a game in case a job comes up or something. Very convenient. Well, I thought I’d try it out on this deployment to Afghanistan. (In 2008-09 I had the DS) Now that I’ve had some “real-world” time with the PSPGo, I find I’m missing my DS. Simply put, the PSP has no games for it, at least none that I find myself craving to play. I admit, God of War and Ratchet and Clank are sweet, and very fun, but not I-Want-To-Play-One-More-Level-But-It‘s-5am type of game play.

Another thing, is after about an hour an a half to two hours, my hands cramp and the system is very uncomfortable to hold. Play for an hour or so though, and things are fine. Not good when your on a 6+ hour flight. The system itself is leaps and bounds better than the DS, no question. Memory Stick slot, better graphics, internal storage, MP3 player, Blue Tooth, the list goes on. But what the DS lacks in technology it easily makes up for in games. Two Zelda’s, three Pokemon games, (arguably one, but whatever) Brain Age, New Super Mario Bros., Mario Kart, etc, etc. The PSP just can’t compete with the DS in terms of games.

And the final nail in the coffin? The download only “feature”. It’s more of a hindrance than a feature. Games cost WAY more than retail; which is backwards IMO, no used market, not every game is available, and games release days and possibly weeks after retail on the PSN. If the pricing was more competitive and games released day and date with their retail counterparts, I think it would make things a lot better. But as it is now, it seems like Sony treats the PSPGo as the redheaded stepchild of the PSP 3000; which is not cool considering the Go is the newest system Sony has on the market. You’d think they’d actually WANT people to try it. Well I did, and I (partially) regret it.

The Go could be a great system, and show the true potential of a download-only console, (and a handheld is exactly where to start that revolution) but Sony needs to get it’s act together and get games released at the same time as well as a larger library of games on the PSN, as well as get rid of the pricing parity, then they might be in business. Until then, the PSPGo looks like it may suffer the same, sad fate of the Virtual Boy. I do like the system for what it can do, and some of the games, (Ratchet and Clank, God of War) but overall, I don’t feel the system has enough good games to support it and the way Sony has handled game distribution has failed an otherwise great system.