Hats off to Sony, as they’re finally starting to get this stuff right.  Recently, PlayStation.com has enabled viewing your Playstation 3 trophies online. Sony’s European PlayStation site has already implemented this further, allowing player cards to be generated for use in forums or otherwise.  North American players can also use this site as well. Playfire.com is already leveraging the data, and I can assume it’ll only get better from here.

Now maybe someone will actually care that I got the platinum trophy for Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune and the play trophy for LittleBigPlanet…

[Update 7/14/09] It appears that Sony’s North American site is supporting the Portable IDs as well now, but they’re still leveraging the data from Sony’s European Playstation site based on the generated HTML.  Not sure why, but at least it’s a little more convenient now.

Figure 1 - One of the best games on the PlayStation 3 right now.

I’ve never been good at shooters, at least on a console. Back in college, I could hold my own in a frag fest in the dorms, but that was on a PC, with a mouse and keyboard, and I was rarely the top scorer.  That being said, I never would have thought that my first platinum trophy on PlayStation 3 would come via a shooter.  For those not aware, a platinum trophy is attained when all other trophies for a game have been achieved. This holds true mostly for retail games only, as games available on the PlayStation Network for download are usually too small in scope to warrant one.

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is not only a great game and a great buy, but it might be the best game available for the PlayStation 3. Developer Naughty Dog has come a long way from Crash Bandicoot.  The reason why I usually find myself failing at shooters is that I don’t find myself immersed in the story, characters, or game play. These qualities aren’t typically the strong suit of shooters, and thus I’m typically not the target audience.  Uncharted is more of an adventure game in my opinion, with the mechanics of a third person shooter used as a mechanism to tell the story.

Another reason I find shooters difficult is that they require precise control and reaction time, rather than skillful decision making.  Uncharted employs a cover system, much like that seen in the Gears of War series, forcing a hybrid of these traits from the player in order for the player to be successful. The game also features likable characters, an entertaining story, and stunning graphics.  The game play is seamless and immersive, containing platforming elements and a linear environment that never quite seems so.  The game doesn’t even display a static HUD on the screen, which is almost enough to make you forget you’re playing a game.  These are the reasons I not only gave the game a try, but completed it many times over.

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Figure 1 - Adorable little collection of polygons, isn't he?

When I first picked up LittleBigPlanet for PlayStation 3, I had an idea of what I could expect. I had watched the videos from all of the video game conferences, and read the articles, tracking the progress of this incredibly unique game.  I expected the revival of the 2D platformer with flavors of the third dimension. I expected a robust level editor with intuitive controls–originally thought unlikely on a console–making the game seemingly endless with potentially infinite amounts of user-created content.  I expected a fun multiplayer game that would appeal to many different types of gamers of all ages.

I got all of those things.

What I also ended up getting with LittleBigPlanet was a more challenging experience than I had planned on. Granted, completing all of the story levels wasn’t a huge challenge, but with the introduction of trophies on the PlayStation Network, completing a game no longer means simply reaching the end.  After playing through the story mode, a new challenge was found: the “Play” trophy.

In LittleBigPlanet, when you beat a level without using any of your lives, you have “aced” the level.  The “Play” trophy requires that you ace every level in the story mode. Acing most levels requires understanding their puzzles and having the patience to time your jumps wisely, just like any platformer.  The biggest challenge came on the levels with bosses, as well as some of the levels later in the game. The genius in design of these levels is that the challenge is not born out of the obstacles or bosses themselves, but their place in the levels.  There are few things more frustrating than navigating your Sackboy through one deathtrap after another only to die during a boss fight or an end of level obstacle.

I never thought a game so cute would cause me to swear so much. Yes, I just said “cute”.  It’s a word I usually avoid, but have you seen a Sackboy (Figure 1)?  There were many stages difficult to ace, but if I could only talk about one, the decision isn’t hard.  I’m speaking of course of…

…The Bunker.

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Why haven’t I updated my blog as much as usual?  It’s the tryptophan, I swear.

Figure 1 - I found the turkey had an enlarged prostate and wasn't long for this world, so we were right to kill and eat it out of mercy. Tasty mercy.

It’s that time of the year. You barely see some family members the whole year, then you see them all, a lot, in the span of two months.  Kind of like that rash I’ve been ignoring, except less itchy, and with presents.  It’s a busy time of year for a lot of people, including me. I made a choice to let my blog suffer to spend time with my family, get some shopping done, and play video games.  The opportunity cost between that and my approximately $0.12 a month in ad revenue made it an easy choice.  I don’t do this blog for money, though, I do it for my own enjoyment. I just enjoy my family, turkey, and PlayStation 3 more than blogging.

So they won out.

Thanksgiving was relatively uneventful, and that we made it the whole meal without any burping contests or audible flatulence. I also got to carve the turkey with my brother (Figure 1).  Nothing whets the appetite like being elbow deep in a turkey’s ass.  The food was awesome, the football games sucked, and nobody reading this blog probably gives a crap.

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Figure 1 - Progress, but weeks from portable nostalgia. (Click to enlarge)

I’ve decided to update the site with a couple of things that have been occupying my time, leading to less frequent posts. I became interested awhile back in homemade portable video game systems thanks to the very talented Ben Heckendorn. For my birthday back in August, I received quite possibly one of the greatest gifts ever: a Dremel.

So I broke out the soldering iron and began working on a portable, handheld, Nintendo Entertainment System that would accept NES cartridges. For the portable community, yes, this is a NOAC (NES-On-A-Chip) build. I haven’t yet named my portable, but work is coming along nicely. When completed, I will post a full build log with pictures and descriptions, and most likely a demo video. For now, here is a picture of the front of the portable (paint finished) with the controls and screen loosely set in for mock-up purposes. Pay no attention to the fact that the controls aren’t seated properly as there’s nothing holding them in.  They’re just set in there for the picture.  Enjoy!

The case is a frankencase combination of Polycase’s AG-85 enclosure, the plastic from an NES controller, and the screen bezel from a PSOne screen.  It took about 7,283 coats of Bondo and sanding, plus some precision painting to get what you see here, but this is indeed handmade.  Check back for more updates as I provide them!