PS3

It’s a 2D side-scrolling action RPG about a brave Valkyrie and her overbearing father, Odin.

Snowblind Studios’ swan song might have been the best RPG they ever made.

White Knight Chronicles, a 2009 PS3 RPG exclusive, shut down its servers a decade ago, leaving it with only half a game. But that half a game is deeply customizable and surprisingly fun.

Though it was up and down more than an acrophobic yo-yo last night, I had a few good chances to log into the new Playstation 3 Home, SCEA’s new virtual world for Playstation 3 owners. It would be natural to see this as an answer to Microsoft’s New Xbox Experience, but it really isn’t. NXE is just a reskinning of the old UI, with avatars and groups. Home is a world. ...

Last night was a LittleBigPlanet night. I didn’t know that it was going to be a LBP night, but when I sat down to play, my cat pinned me to the couch and I wasn’t able to leave for hours. Besides, when Stargrace and Sirhyl stopped by the Pod of Love, ready to play, how could I not? Things went pretty well when it was just me and Sirhyl, but when Stargrace popped in, we ALL had problems. I dunno what the deal is, or if this morning’s LBP patch fixed it, but with three, we just weren’t in control. My character would be zipping around, or go in some mystery direction… it was very hard to complete anything. ...

While I sit and stew because I can’t play Rock Band 2 on my PS3 yet, news comes that LittleBig Planet, the multi-player platformer where building your own levels is part of the game, will be out in less than a month. It’s a game that, like Spore, runs on player creativity. Good stuff :) I’ll definitely be checking it out. They have some early adopter rewards – you can see those and get more detail at the writeup on Wired.com. ...

I’m not being snide or dismissive when I say I am still waiting for a reason to buy a PS3 as a game machine, as opposed to a media hub, a job it does admirably but no better so than others you could make. I’m just saying that the Xbox 360, so far, does the business of games, better. I could be changing my mind. While browsing through game trailers on PSN this weekend, I stumbled across one called simply, Valkyrie. At first I didn’t know if I wasn’t watching a new Miyazaki movie, aside from its lack of flying things.* That same sort of attention to detail, the same sort of pastel watercolors style that is Miyazaki himself and is seen all the time in his concept art. This was an anime I wanted to see. I have the trailer below – the version I saw was exactly the same, except with all the Japanese removed (and nothing added). ...

I almost – ALMOST – bought Guitar Hero: Aerosmith this weekend, for the PS3. And I probably would have, if I’d gone there Sunday instead of Saturday. Games for the PS3 are $60, the new price point, and I’d have had to buy a guitar controller for the PS3 as well. I have two guitar controllers for the Xbox 360 and two more for the PS2. My desire to invest in more guitar controllers is precisely zero. ...