Leveling Down

Being able to play Final Fantasy VII on my PSP for $10? Sign me up!

I’ve been traveling a lot for both personal and business reasons for this past week or so, and the PSP has been my only source of gaming on my trips. One of the things that I think is really cool about owning a PS3 and a PSP is the PS One Classics line. These are PS1 games that are sold through PSN between $6-$10 in price, and are digital downloads that can be played on both the PS3 and the PSP. Considering the PS1 graphics aren’t too great on our HD TV sets these days, I’m not a big fan of playing the games on the PS3, but on the go with my PSP? Perfect! Hit the jump for a list of PS One Classics currently available that I will probably purchase at some point and a list of remaining PS1 games that I hope come out for download in the future for us here in the States.

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Is the Wii the only answer to getting non-gamers interested in games?

Any gamer who lives with a non-gamer (generally, the Mrs., but I don’t want to assume) knows the inherent tensions that can arise in the household. “Do the dishes!” (Five more minutes…) “It’s time for bed!” (Let me finish this level.) “We’re going to be late!” (I’m fighting a boss.) “I’m going into labor!” (Let me get to a save point!) These tensions exist in my marriage as much as they might in any other and are compounded by the fact that my wife dislikes glowing rectangles in general. Thus any game that Mrs. cmfl3x and I can find a common interest in is like pure gold.

In this two part feature, I’ll be looking for some of the general principles that a gamer can use to try to find a game that can be enjoyed with a non-gamer. Obviously, your mileage may vary, and each individual user knows their significant other the best, but since I have a particularly difficult to please spouse, I figure I’d share some of my experiences. In Part 1, I’ll be looking at some general guiding principles and some general types of games, while in Part 2 I’ll discuss some specific genres that might house these diamonds in the rough. With examples!

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Final Fantasy X’s Tidus & Jecht square off once again in Dissidia: Final Fantasy.

Not owning Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops when I picked up my new PSP with Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, I instead spent my “honeymoon” phase with my new PSP playing Dissidia: Final Fantasy. I’ve spent several hours playing the game on my commute to and from work lately, but I think I’ve played enough at this point that I’m ready to move onto a new PSP game. Read on for my thoughts on what this game is all about and whether it’s good or not.

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Seeing the Peace Walker bundle everywhere in Tokyo definitely didn’t make things any easier.

This past weekend, my wife gave me the permission to buy the PSP Big Boss Bundle! Good thing too, since I had already secretly pre-ordered it last weekend (was worried they would stop the pre-orders too close to release date). Originally I thought I would hide it from her, but that’s no fun – I don’t want to play my PSP in secret…so I made some strong arguments: told her that my commute to and from work every day is basically an hour long on the subway, and I’ll probably be on this commute for the the rest of my working career and I need as much stuff as I can do on the train. Plus, Gamestop is having various trade-in deals (50% bonus trade-in credit on anything through the end of this week) so I was able to trade in some older 360 games I’m no longer playing to minimize the cost of my new PSP. That and she got a new job, so I was able to ride off her happiness by sneaking in a request for this purchase.

Now that I’m going to be a PSP owner tomorrow, I’ve sat down and put together a list of games I plan to pick up for it. And like the DS and its classic franchises: Advance Wars, Phoenix Wright, and Professor Layton, the PSP also some excellent titles. Read on to see what titles I am finding noteworthy enough to start tracking down…

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Final Fantasy XIII’s most notable innovation is its combat system

I started Final Fantasy XIII last week and have played a good 10 hours into it (after eight hours I’m already on disc 2 of 3?). To be honest, I’ve had a tough time trying to get myself to sit down and play through it, as I’ve been on a Modern Warfare 2 frenzy and have actually spent more time playing Modern Warfare 2 than Final Fantasy XIII over this past week. Still, 10 hours is a pretty good amount of time to spend on this game to share some initial impressions. When I think about it, this entry is practically long enough to be more of a review on it, but read on for my lengthy impressions of the game. A review may follow once I’ve completed it (and it’ll most likely be shorter than this entry).
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