WHITE PSP ARRIVED TODAY!

Cost me a pretty penny but gosh, is it gorgeous. Look at it!

And now for the punchline: I don't have ANY games to play with!

Gripes: The battery hatch is a bit cacat, doesn't lock properly and when it IS in, doesn't FEEL as though it's secure. Also, when connecting your USB cable, becareful - you MUST get your USB on before plugging the cable in, or the whole damn thing hangs. It did on me.

Sweet: The browser, the screen, the prisine white buttons. The fact that I OWN this baby!

Now if only I had some games. That's it. Gonna go get Metal Gear Acid tomorrow if possible!

UPDATE 170905: Went to One U, old wing, and bought myself a second-hand MGA for RM100. What luck! Excellent turn-based tactics game.

I also found out from one of the shops (Wizard, I think) that the crack for the 2.0 firmware is coming out, and you can soon buy a 1GB Mem Stick to load THREE games. One 1GB Mem Stick is about RM400+.

Original PSP games are selling at RM239 in One U, so you can see where this is going.

I'm going to stick to my second-hand UMD games for now. Anyone know where to get Namco Museum, Lumines or Puzzle Bobble, second-hand?

NINTENDO UNVEILS FREE FORM GAMING

There are revolutions, and there's THE Revolution. Nintendo unveiled its, urm, revolutionary Revolution controller this morning at the Tokyo Game Show, which looks like - you guessed it - a remote control (how many mentions of Revolution can you find?).

First thoughts - using that controller for over 15 minutes is going to be tricky. Normal controllers you can rest on your lap or at least an elbow, but with this one? Also, now you have to get your wrist action on SERIOUS alongside the usual thumbing. Some pallid Nintendo nerds are gonna be building some serious wrist and arm muscles, let me tell you that much.

Here, check it out:

...and tell me it's not Revolutionary.

Not very practical, but Revolutionary indeed.

Marauderz managed, as he always does, to find the ad/trailer that was shown at TGS. You can see now how the remote is intended to function. Play the conductor, the drummer, the fly-fisher, the mosquito-catcher (?), the sushi maker, the swordsman, the Silent Hill-er - the possibilities just come flying from the ad. One thing's for sure - this is not one console/controller for people intending to get some R&R while gaming.

Marauderz said he's sold. For me? Very tempting. I was set on the PS3 just because of the keyboard/mouse/PSP plugins. Now I'm not so sure.

Damn.

Update 170905: Wired's Chris Kohler - the lucky bastard - got to try out the remote at TGS. Check it out.

ZOMG, CHRIS AVELLONE IS COMING

Thought I'd do a shameless plug here for a game developers conference I'm helping (or rather, Gameaxis is helping) to organise.

Check it out (a press release we sent out last month):

MALAYSIA HOSTS INAUGURAL REGIONAL GAME DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE
Speakers from Valve, Obsidian headline the Asian Game Developers Summit

The Multimedia Development Corporation (MDC) and GameAxis Unwired Malaysia, announced that the inaugural Asian Game Development Summit (AGDS), a grassroots game development event brand, will be hosted in Kuala Lumpur.

Held on 11-12 October 2005 at the Cititel Hotel in Mid Valley City, the AGDS is the first regional game development conference to be held in Malaysia that is endorsed by the International Game Developers Association and the Malaysian government, and is aimed at promoting game development in the Southeast Asian region.

"This collaboration is a significant milestone for the game development industry in this region," says Terence Tan, the Event Producer of the AGDS.

"This is the first time the government, corporate entities such as ATI and Alias, and game developers from Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines as well as even from the US, are coming together to network and create business opportunities that will no doubt kickstart a very valuable industry," adds Tan.

The AGDS features speakers from some of the biggest names in the international games business, such as Valve (the creators of Half Life) and Obsidian Entertainment (developers of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II and Neverwinter Nights 2), and will feature 'Tier One' topics, comprising novice to intermediate level technical and business for a fairly new industry.

Some of the topics include Finetuning the Development Pipeline, Developing Cross-platform Games for Mobile Devices, Programming Stickiness in Games, Game development outsourcing to Asia and more.

"The Malaysian government recognises and appreciates the significance of the games business, and hopefully through the AGDS, we can stimulate interest and seed some commitment to this industry that will no doubt help us achieve our vision of a knowledge-based economy," says Kamil Othman, Vice President of Creative Multimedia Department, Industry Development Division, MDC.

The AGDS is open to game developers and those interested in the computer games business in the region. Registration for the conference is priced at US$60. There is a special early-bird 10 per cent discount (to US54) for those who register before September 30th 2005.

More details can be found at the AGDS website, at www.agdsummit.com.

ALSO, just in is news that Tak Ogawa, the sound guy behind Metal Gear Solid, is also coming, plus IBM has also just agreed to sponsor the event. Hey, this is a non-profit event so we need every cent we can get! I mean, cmon, just check out our speakers' list.

For USD60, not bad ok!?

Anyway, let me know what y'all think so far!