The PSP 3000 for Gamers on the Go

I am a gamer. If I’m not a gamer, I’m THE gamer! However, like most people today, I’m a gamer on the go! Which means as much as I want to just sit at home and play my video games, there are times when I have to leave the flashing lights and the big sounds behind to do things like, I dunno – work!

If I didn’t have to, and I could sit in my surround sound chair all day, I would, trust me! So I decided to check out the latest portable gaming device from Sony and what I found knocked my socks off!

PSP 3000 Initial Impressions

Being a Sony follower, I’ve always been partial to the Sony PlayStation, the controllers were smaller, it came (to me) in a prettier package-so it wasn’t a hard jump when I decided to pick up the new PSP 3000. The package was clean and looked like it had everything I had already come to know and love inside it!

When my purchase arrived, I found I had come to the right place! Not only did it have the sleek black look of my PS3, but it also had all the features I loved!

A Brighter Screen on the PSP 3000

A quick charge and my PSP 3000 PlayStation Portable was ready to be putty in my hands! The small device is compact and rechargeable so I never have to worry about trying to steal the batteries out of the extra TV remote.

For starters, the PSP 3000 has a large full color display (4.3 inches to be exact) capable of displaying nearly 17,000 colors!! (My Crayola box only ever had 24, psht!) Watch full length high definition movies from the comfort of your pocket!

The brightly lit anti-reflective screen makes it ideal in well lit areas and works better outdoors offering better visibility and increased contrast! That long flight won’t seem so long now with my games, movies and music right under my fingertips.

Talk to Me! The PSP 3000 has a built in Microphone

Interact with games like never before with the PSP 3000s built in microphone! With the mic, you’re able to chat with other gamers in teamwork and in head to head competitions. The possibilities are endless! Whether I want to send a greeting or talk strategy over the opposing team, my PlayStation Portable has made it simple!

Use Your PSP 3000 to Access Files Online

The built in Wi-Fi on the PSP 3000 lets you access the internet from any internet hotspot, so now I am able to stay connected where ever I go! With 64MB of memory built right in, I’m able to download music, movies, videos (and so on) to my heart’s content.

For storage expansion, the PSP 3000 has a Memory Stick Duo slot that I can extra memory to as I need it.

The rechargeable battery is a standard 1200 mAh and with a full charge will last close to 5 hours whether you’re playing games, playing MP3s or watching movies. The battery is a definite improvement over the older PSP models.

You Can Do Lots with the PSP 3000 But Get it for the Games

As with everything Sony puts out, the PSP 3000 simply does everything I need! If I want to take a break from gaming for a bit (hey, it happens) I can check out a movie or listen to some tunes.

The travel ready device is small enough to comfortably carry in my pocket (or better yet bag) yet large enough to take my media with me. What do I like the best? It’s a great machine! Everything about it is smooth and flawless. (Right down to its seamless feeling ‘joystick’)

Playing games with it feels as natural as playing with my PS3 controller! With the large built in memory of the PSP 3000 I’m able to carry music, movies, and more galore! (Really, it’s like having the world in my pocket!) The PSP has become a tech toy no gamer should be without! With all the stuff this Bad Boy does, it’s hard to say ANYONE should be without!

In 2011 Activision released Skylanders, which was set in Spyro the Dragon’s universe. The game was innovative, and the folks at Nintendo probably kicked themselves for not coming up with it first. Basically, you have action figures that you set on this portal device and the toys come to life in an action beat-em-up brawler. It was immediately the most sought after toy for Christmas that year. Activision followed up with a sequel in 2012 and a third installment will come out this year as well.

This year’s iteration is Skylanders: Swap Force. The gimmick innovative gameplay feature of this game is that you can switch the character’s body and lower torso around. Want a powerful robot with octopus legs? You got it. The toys themselves have little magnets in them to make the switch easy and hassle free, though I can totally see kids losing the toys all around the house and making clean up time an all-day event.

The E3 demo I had hands on time with was basically the same Skylanders game that’s been on the market for two years now. There was absolutely nothing new or fresh about the game. Obviously, being able to switch in and out the Skylanders that you already own seems cool but that’s to be expected. The only new-ish feature they had was that the new Skylander figures can activate “travel powers” with the B-button (Xbox 360) or the Circle-Button (PlayStation 3). It seemed the characters can jump higher with some of these activated abilities, but they didn’t really add anything as a whole. The Giants from last year’s game have a running charge attack instead of the traveling powers.

One of the good things for previous fans is that the level cap seems to be raised to level 20, instead of 15 from last year’s game. It lengthens the time you’ll spend with the game but it is disappointing when that’s one of the bullet-points for a brand new game. One of the major problems I had with the previous Skylander games is the obvious lack of online co-op. This is inexcusable for a game like this, which at its core is basically a dumbed-down dungeon crawler. This feature has been missing from previous games and it needs to be added. I could see four player co-op play being really fun in a game like this as well.

In terms of the new Skylander figures, I’ll admit that they do look cool- if I were in the targeted age group, I would be all over this. If you look at the game as a serious gamer you won’t find much, but it’s really not for them. Skylanders has always been about having fun with your friends or family; it’s excessively forgiving and designed not to frustrate younger players. I feel like Skylanders could rope in older kids as well if the gameplay would just evolve a little bit. With a game like this, Activision is more interested in selling toys and accessories than in bringing a robust gameplay experience.

This year, Skylanders will face its biggest test with Disney’s new game Infinity. Basically, Disney decided to get into the collectible video-game-action figure hybrid market as well. They’ll be bringing all sorts of recognizable characters and brands to their own game. It’ll be interesting to see if Activision will be able to hold its own against the potential goliath that game could be. Heck, Disney even owns Marvel and the Star Wars brand now so they could dip into even larger universes.

It’s a shame that Activision has chosen not to evolve too much from the core of Skylanders. They’re really sticking with the mantra of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Kids immediately eat this stuff up but at some point they’ll toss it aside if there isn’t anything really new or exciting to enjoy. This game is a younger person’s Call of Duty; every year it’ll come back and every year people will still buy it. Maybe that’s why Activision isn’t concerned with changing too much with either franchise. That’s all I can really say about Skylanders: Swap Force: there just isn’t anything new about it. It’s a fun and mindless action game for kids and until they add more to it, that’s all it will ever be.

Video game demographics generally involves studying the video gaming habits of various kinds of people from different age groups. There are several primary and secondary researching techniques which are used like phone and personal interviews as well as the analysis of market surveys, company literature and trade journals.

The demographics of those video game players and related studies usually reveal that video games and playing them are adult-oriented forms of entertainment. Based on the studies conducted, video games are extensively played by men and women alike and nearly 60% of Americans are playing them.

Studying the demographics of video game players also include the various demographic variables like how many people in the population are actually playing them, what the average age of players is, the gender of video game players, what video games they play and what the effects these video games have on the population. Recent studies have shown that many people consider video games to be a very important entertainment medium.

Based on video game demographics, women make up a significant 39% of those who play video games in the population. Also, a surprising 40% of online gamers are women. 35% are below eighteen years old. And based on studies, the people who regularly play video games are in the 18 to 34 year old age group.

Overall, the video game industries and developers are the ones who make the most out of video game demographics. It is through these that they are able to identify the characteristics and preferences of customers and potential clients. They also use video game demographics so that they can enhance the games they develop and release.

You should seriously think about playing farm games online if you are looking for game genre that is different then the usual beat em up, action or adventure type games that are flooding the internet today. When dealing with farm games, we look at a game where you are to grow crops, plant and raise livestock as a means of income and economic growth. This is very similar to how real farms operate.

In most farm type games, your objective is to create a farm in a virtual world while you compete with other farmers to see if you can build up the biggest farm. Most of these types of games are very addictive and competitive, so gamers will play them regularly. You need to take into consideration is whether or not you are playing this type of game purely for entertainment purposes or if you really are serious about the competitive aspect to the game. If you are serious about the competitive aspect, then you need to focus a fair amount of time on learning as much as you can about the strategy so that you will be in a position to do well and ensure your farm grows and your crops don’t get destroyed.

One strategy that you can use is to set aside some time every single day to play. This might be after school, after work, or after you are done doing other things that need to get done. If you set a schedule and stick to it, you are more likely to be able to play Farm games online in a more consistent and regular manner.

With the recent growth in popularity of Facebook and it’s integrated apps and games we have seen the availability of farm games online grow over several months. Much of this growth is due to the a game titled FarmVille. Most flash games available online today are tailored after this popular game. The concepts are very similar and that is to grow a farm, raise crops and animals by building, purchasing and selling objects. This really does give the gamer a realistic experience. These days, games in this niche are widely available, let them be from Facebook, or from a leading web site that offers them. All you need to play farm games online is a internet connection, and a browser that supports flash.

In the final analysis, people who play farm games online often have a lot of fun. You should certainly consider this type of game yourself if you are somebody who would like the opportunity to play a game that different from a lot of the other games that are out there. You will find this type of Farm games to be really fun.

Nostalgia. The word brings to mind a joyous familiarity felt when engaging in something in the present that we really enjoyed doing in the past. Gaming is no different. Everyone has games that bring back memories from, what we think of now as, better times. Hindsight is a like the snob that points out what you could have done, hindsight tells us our childhood may not have been as bad as we thought. As adults we know how the world works. When we were growing up, we never really had a grip on the world. Hindsight tells us that those times were better, safer, less complicated. Games that bring on nostalgia puts us in the mindset of a kid again. It makes us feel safe, secure, and protected. Humans have a natural tendency to want safety and protection. Especially the adults, because as adults we know just how quickly the world can go from OK one day, to horrible the next. As gamers we seek safety and security in games.

I started gaming when I was very young as most gamers my age did. I grew up playing Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64 with my mom and sister. Super Mario, Kirby, and Mario Cart were a few of the titles that we played. Zelda was perhaps the biggest game we played. My mom has problems with fast-moving games like Call of Duty and other highly graphic games. So we played Super Nintendo and what a time it was! Zelda on the Super Nintendo we beat many times. I say “we” but it was my mom playing not me or my sister. Even thinking about it while writing this I’m getting nostalgia. We kept getting close to the end and then the game wiping our save out so we started over like three times. It was good times. That was when I was around six or seven or eight. Long time ago. Nostalgia gives us hope for the future. It tells us that if good times happened in the past then more good times will happen in the future.

Later I started gaming on my own. It is hard to think about what game came next in chronological order but they all had a theme: single-player strategy. A broad gaming description that can fit a lot of games in it. Games like Pharaoh and Cleopatra, Age of Empires II, and of course Sid Meier’s Civilization III. I was not allowed to play shooters as they had bad language in them and so was restricted to single player games. My parents were very protective and games were not as prevalent twenty years ago as they are now. Pharaoh is a city builder placing you in ancient Egypt. The goal of the game was the build great cities using the resources at your disposal and it was quite a challenge for an eleven year old. Age of Empires II is a real-time strategy game that is completely different from pharaoh. You have to balance resource collection and troop production to take down either AI or other players. Civ III was probably my favorite game growing up. To this day, I still play pharaoh and age of empires II.

Think about what nostalgia is again for just a second. It is a feeling coming from a memory. A memory of “better times” that may or may not be accurate. Games we played a long time ago, that brings back those memories, might not continue to be fun. Civ III I played for hundreds of hours when I was younger is not as fun now that I am older so I do not play it as much now. Sometimes nostalgia lies.

In conclusion, nostalgia in games is a good thing. It allows us to relive parts of our childhood that we otherwise would not have a reason to bring back up from the depths of our minds. Many people say that video games lead to anti-social behavior, violence, and a drop in school grades. Video games teach us how the world is. When you are playing multiplayer of any game you will usually find people who are just toxic. It prepares for dealing with the worst society has to throw at us. Human beings are prone to violence. The first murder happened when Cain killed Abel back in Genesis. I am pretty sure at they did not have video games back then. So this point is always going to be moot. The only point that actually makes sense is the drop in school grades. It takes a great deal of discipline to do school work over video games. It builds character this discipline. So next time you feel nostalgia coming on, take some time to stop and smell the memories. Bask in the thoughts of better times and the hope that good times are still ahead, no matter what the world tells you in the present. This is what video game nostalgia teaches us.

Bethesda Game Studios has just released a new chapter in its long running series called The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim! This enormous open world/RPG takes place in a visually impressive fictional world, where every new direction or environment entered, has a surprise waiting. No matter if your playing the game for a few hours or a few days, there will still be a quest, item and/or character to uncover, that will lead you to totally new territories and leave you with completely different results.

The many different scenic environments in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, consist of rocky mountains, forests, vast fields and decaying tunnels. The attention to detail breaths life into every environment, while breathtaking visuals compliment each scene, leaving you with the feeling of actually being part of that world. Freedom is a big part of the game, weather it involves the enormity of the world or the way that you choose to live in it. You have option’s which consist of, buying a house and living the simple life, live like a criminal and attack everyone you encounter, follow suggested quests or just wander the world aimlessly. The game leaves these decisions all up to you, guaranteeing that no two players will experience the story exactly the same way.

The gameplay has several steps to follow, which lets you decide exactly how you want to advance in the game. At the beginning, all you get to choose is a race (your player character.) From there you get to try out different skills before you chose the one you want to specialize in. Leveling happens through skill use, meaning the more skills that you use, the more those skill levels will increase. Once enough of these skill categories are leveled, your overall character level increases. This enables you to make decisions at your own pace and at the right time.

Perk points are something else achieved when leveling, which enables you to spend them to learn new skills or save them until your sure how you want to use them. The more perks that you use, the better your overall combat will be. The spell system has been improved, enabling you to cast a different spell from each hand. Another upgrade that can not be left out are Dragon Shouts. Dragon Shouts gives you the ability to breath fire, slow time, blast force waves, shout ice and call in dragons. By searching environments for word walls, you can learn more shouts adding to your abilities. Before you can activate any shouts, you need to fight a dragon and take its soul. Dragons are all over Skyrim, making it fairly easy to find and fight a dragon.

A Review Of The Video Game, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, convinced us that it is a visually impressive game with huge scenic open world environments to explore. The ability to choose and customize your character, brings excitement and strategy to the game. How you customize your character will decide the path that the story will take. The game has plenty to do and will keep you entertained and coming back for more. We enjoyed playing The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and recommend it highly to all gamers. This game can easily be one of the best RPG’s that we have ever played! Enjoy!

People who play computer games learn the type (genre) that interests them. Then, they cull through choices that fit the genre before they purchase. But, a person who wishes to give a computer game to a family member or friend may want to observe the recipient’s game play in order to minimize the risk of giving the wrong type.

Computer game genres include: combat, adventure, fantasy, strategy, sports, simulations, and teaching. While not a complete list of genres, these types list in the top ten. Combat appeals mostly to boys. They often include violence, anger, and realistic carnage. Look for an age rating and parental comments about the game, and especially, get the approval of the parents of a young person before you give such a game as a gift. Realize that repetitive use mimics repetitive teaching.

An adventure game can appeal to boys or girls, and they tend to follow the same lines of adventure found in films about pirates, secret agents, or lost worlds. In game form, experience an adventure rather than simply watch the film. Fantasy does the same thing in a mythical setting that might include wizards, witches, dragons, hobbits, zombies, etc. Experience competition with a sports game. The games align with a particular sport, like football, and sometimes they permit a game player to play the role of a favorite real sports figure.

A simulation game teaches and lets the gamer experience turning on and using equipment. For example, you might play the experience of getting into a Cessna 172 aircraft, turning it on and then you fly it. This simulation realistically shows the gamer how to operate the aircraft and it simulates flight. A strategy game goes farthest to immerse the gamer in a world (or fantasy world) scenario. Usually played online, the strategy pits the gamer against the powerful computer that the game producer uses to apply artificial intelligence to defeat the gamer. This type often takes days, and perhaps months to complete. The player matches wits with the computer in a life-like setting, until he or she decides to stop. The gamer thinks about the strategy after play ends, if the game was challenging and fun. The player might research new techniques and form a plan for his or her next move to defeat the computer when the game resumes.

Match the computer game genre to the gamer before you give the gift of a game to a family member or friend. You might become someone’s hero. #Tag1writer

Every day, thousands of gamers log onto League of Legends to play Riot Games’ free DOTA-style video game, unfortunately most of them get crushed by the elite few that know all the tricks of the trade. The most popular tricks often involve one of the lesser used summoner spells in public games; the incredibly useful but oft-ignored teleport spell, and while these tricks can take weeks to master, it only takes a few moments to read on and learn them.

1. Fiddlesticks’ Surprise — If there is one sound that strikes fear into the heart of every experienced League of Legends player, it’s the horrifying “Caw! Caw! Caw!” of Fiddlestick’s monstrous ultimate, which is nothing less than an area of effect spell of doom for everyone caught in its wake. The problem with this spell, of course, is its two-second channel time that requires you to be smart about when you’re ready to attack. Surprisingly, few players realize the power of this ultimate when combined with the utility of the teleport summoner spell.

An awesome way to get the drop on your opponents with Fiddlesticks, is to lay a ward down in the farthest bushes on the top or bottom lane of the map. When done correctly, you can teleport in behind your opponent and out of sight, waiting for the right time to launch from the bushes and strike. This is particularly effective if for some reason you are playing Fiddlesticks in the lane, as you can recall base before quickly teleport behind them to create mass confusion.

2. Nunu’s Trap — Nunu is well-known in League of Legends to have one of the strongest ultimates in the game, capable of swallowing entire teams in its large radius and exploding them into a million bits. Unfortunately, this is perhaps the most difficult ultimate to land in the game as it has a long stationary channel that is easily interrupted and even more easily stepped out of…. that is, of course, unless you have the teleport summoner spell.

With the teleport spell at your disposal, Nunu can quickly become a frightful player for the opposing team. Try sneaking a ward right into the middle of the middle lane to teleport to later, and wait until your opponent’s solo mid steps by it. When he does, teleport in and quickly ice-blast him for the slow effect, pop your ultimate and watch as he explodes with the help of a teammate already in that lane. This is an awesome technique because you will actually give yourself an additional second or so for your ultimate to go unnoticed, as your opponent will be extremely confused as to how you appeared next to him out of the middle of nowhere.

This is also an effective technique at grouping hot-spots, like Baron, Dragon, or a short distance in front of your middle tower. Placing a ward a bit in front of your middle tower is particularly rewarding, as once you teleport in and cast your ultimate while your opponents are attacking your tower, they will be pinched in and be forced to move into the tower where all your teammates await, or back toward you for an icy surprise of ultimate death.

There are many ways to kill opponents in Namco Bandai’s new Splatterhouse, but the one the game continually returns to time and time again is forced sodomy. I’m not sure if one of the game’s designers is haunted by a stint in prison, or if they’re just sick in the head, but I’m sure an animator or two really had to question why their boss insists on animating another death via anal fisting.

Splatterhouse picks up with protagonist Rick lying in his own blood and guts. Just as he is about to die, a mask calls out to him promising revenge if he wears it. When I heard the voice of the mask, I knew it was familiar, but I just couldn’t place it. A little investigating revealed that actor Jim Cummings is the one deftly cursing insults and calling for blood. You may know Jim from his previous offerings as Tigger, Winnie the Pooh, and his work on Darkwing Duck. Good luck watching those with your kids after playing Splatterhouse.

When I began my trek through Splatterhouse’s first few levels, I was a bit put off by the gameplay mechanics; an unforgiving checkpoint system, and the game’s insistence on using quick time events in every encounter. Quick time events are absolutely central to the gameplay in Splatterhouse. Every opponent faced can be killed with a special quick time death that grants additional blood and necro power, and almost every boss must be killed in a lengthy quick time animation. Blood can be used to purchase upgrades for Rick and the Terror Mask at any time during play, and each upgrade vastly increases Rick’s effectiveness when it comes to slaughtering. Necro power is used to perform various ultra moves that deal massive damage to groups of opponents, or it can be saved to unleash Rick’s berserker mode, sprouting blades of bone to cut down enemies for a limited duration.

I quickly grew tired of the quick time heavy gameplay after having to restart a level from scratch 40 times, apparently due to my lack of timeliness in executing events while drunk. I re-approached the game the next day, sober, and found it to be much more enjoyable. Thankfully the checkpoint system and my skill at felling the hordes sent my way improved as the game progressed. Splatterhouse should be commended on it’s difficulty. What at first appears to be mindless smash and grab gameplay develops into a complex and rewarding system. Players will need to carefully manage Rick’s available resources; health, necro, and weaponry.

Splatterhouse put’s the player into many situations where they must choose between healing, strategic damage dealing, or an all or nothing burst of damage and health from berserker mode. In many cases berserking can leave Rick high and dry on necro power, so doing so at the wrong time against the wrong foes could lead to trouble. Often it’s best to use the necro meter piece by piece, designating a bar to healing here, or a bar to damage there, rather than blowing Rick’s load all at once.

Weapons are a large part of the gameplay, but their usefulness deteriorates as the game progresses. Many foes become all but immune to their damage at the later stages of the game. Available weapons include nail boards, butcher knives, shotguns, and various dismembered body parts. Blood is everywhere at all times, both Rick and any room he occupies will be soaked in it after an encounter, and this is especially true during the death sequences. Graphically, Splatterhouse reminds me of Borderlands, but during death sequences the game tends to over light the action. This and some questionable textures are my biggest complaints presentation-wise. The voice acting is phenomenal, thanks almost entirely to Jim Cummings as the Terror Mask, though Rick, Jen, and antagonist Dr. West give fine performances as well.

H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe fans will be delighted with all the references included in Splatterhouse. Dr. West himself worships Lovecraft’s old gods, calling to Cthulu more than once before the game’s end. References like this were a treat, and horror fans will get more from Splatterhouse than the average gamer in this regard. Splatterhouse may seem like a chore initially, but players who see the game through are in for a unique and interesting experience. So long as they don’t have a problem opening the occasional door by forcibly sodomizing a few demons.

Video gameplay generally falls into two categories: single-player gaming and MMOGs (Massive Multiplayer Online Games.) Single player gaming is the most traditional form of gaming and what most people remember during their childhood. Single player games are simply that; a game in which a single person can play through levels to completion. MMOGs, on the other hand, are video games that rely on a massive multiplayer experience that is facilitated through internet connections. Multiplayer games have multiple levels, ranking systems, and obstacles for players to navigate through either on their own or in a team. There are pros and cons to MMOGs, but it is safe to say it is currently the leading form of gameplay and revered by millions upon millions of gamers across the globe.

MMOGs Pros And Cons!

The online gaming community is constantly and continuously growing. With more internet connections being established every day the gaming community is only growing stronger. Online gaming provides players with an arena in which to prove their skills, improve their gaming capabilities and it also provides an outlet for social activity. The online community works, in some ways, like a circle of friends, with connections between people across the globe being made every day. MMOGs gameplay also allows players to spend less to garner entertainment. For a flat fee of about $50 per game, and the cost of an established internet connection players are given countless hours of gameplay. Unlike traditional, single-player games multiplayer games can be accessed over and over again.

As the online community and technology grows stronger games are becoming more and more advanced and lengthening the amount of gameplay that is available. Single-player games, on the other hand, have a point of completion. The lack of replay value on a single player game makes the experience much more expensive than one would find on a MMOGs platform.

The online gaming community is tightly knit, but that also means there is a lot of talking that goes on during online gaming sessions. MMOGs are notorious for having issues with “smack” talk and players getting a bit too riled up. There is also a very competitive nature in multiplayer online games that just don’t exist within single player games. The competitiveness of online games also can lead to video game addictions that can quickly take control of a person’s life. Traditional games tend to have a lower instance of addiction as they don’t feed into the need to be competitive and they do not fulfill the social aspect that multiplayer games do.

Our Conclusion On MMOGs VS Single-Player Games!

Both traditional single-player games and massive MMOGs have pros and cons attributed to them. Both gaming platforms afford players an outlet for their boredom and a sense of fulfillment as they work through levels and create a presence for themselves in game. The differences truly come down to a players preferred method of playing. The MMOGs forum, however, allows players to truly connect with other, like-minded people, and gives players a much larger platform on which to explore their gaming style and preferences.