A Salute to PlayStation: Part I: PlayStation Portable

Usually portable games were thought of being for families and children to gamers, rather than an actual console of your favorite video games, rated M by those jerks, the ESRB. :-) But Sony Computer Entertainment did something about it! They made the PlayStation Portable, for gamers rather than families. It takes discs, unlike the Game Boy and DS, and doesn't only play games. It plays special movies made for it, music, and stores your pictures! That's a lot better than a DS, that only plays games! The PSP also has a web browser. Man, what doesn't this thing do?
This thingy also has a lot of awesome games, like Secret Agent Clank, The Simpsons Game, Sonic Rivals, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, and many more! Off of the PlayStation 3's PlayStation Store, you can buy additional games from the original PlayStation! It's kinda like an iPod, Portable DVD player, SD card, and 2 game systems in one! For all you PSP owners out there, here's a hot tip: The PSP is capable of playing back movies from a memory stick. However, if you want to do this you need to make sure that the movie is either in MPEG-4 or AVC format as other file types will not be recognized. Movies downloaded onto the PSP via the memory stick can be watched on a TV screen by connecting the PSP via a playStation 3 or Xbox 360 and streaming it over a USB cable.
Did you know that for advertising once, Sony hired graffiti artist to spray paint PSP promotional material in seven U.S. cities, including New York and San Francisco. The images are children playing with PSPs without the words Sony, PSP, or PlayStation. But this encouraged vandalism and most of the PSP advertisements were covered with regular vandalism. Also, it made graffiti artists feel like the ads were cheapening their underground culture. The campaign was eventually stopped.
Coming tomorrow: A salute to PlayStation: Part II: PlayStation 1!

The ESRB: Your Boss

Parents always want to know if their kid can buy Halo 3 or Dora the Explorer. Halo 3 is rated M, and Dora the Explorer would probably be EC. So of course a group of parent had to rate games, and that's why I can't play anything over teen. Darn. I wanted to play Halo.
The Esrb is the boss of all video game developers and publishers. They say if a game is too violent, or too sexy, or has too much language, they say that it's a big "no-no." They say "you can release it only if you cut back on the______." So that's why Sexy Violent Swear-o-rama couldn't be released. :-) If you look at the back of a game, you see why it's rated E ot E10+ or T.

To me, the Esrb shouldn't exist and every game should be rating pending. But then you'd have a two-year old playing Gears of War and Manhunt 2. So I guess living with a little brother who has a Leapfrog could be potentially dangerous. So at least there's some stuff good that they do.

So when you buy a game, just hope your parents will let you play it. Because in Canada, the ESRB headquarters is getting a copy of those games you know and love and rating them.

Mr. Aerosmith, how many notes does it take to get to the Guitar Hero center of a video game?!

Aerosmith, the band known for songs such as Sweet Emotion, Walk this Way, and Back on the Saddle, finally have their own video game! Guitar Hero: Aerosmith has over 25 Aerosmith songs, along with some bonus songs. Seen below, in the game you are traveling around the world on tour as none other than the band Aerosmith! Play classic Aerosmith songs and songs from bands that were close to Aerosmith.



One of the best parts of playing Guitar Hero: Aerosmith is hitting the notes on the note highway, seen below. On your included guitar, play the Green, Red, Yellow, Blue, and Orange notes to play songs. The rock meter on the bottom right-hand corner shows haw well you are doing, and the blue lights on top of that are your Star Power. When the meter is full, you can flick the guitar up to activate Star Power, doubling, tripling, quadrupling, etc. the points you make in the 30 second time limit of Star Power. On the bottom left-hand corner, you see the points, Star Power multiplier, and the streak of notes that you've hit.





This game is for the Xbox 360, Wii, PlayStation 3, and PS2. I highly recommend it for a fan of Aerosmith or Guitar Hero. Ignore the Teen rating. The ESRB is just a bunch of jerks. :-)
If you have an iPod with Aerosmith songs on it, throw it out and buy this, because you'll get a lot more fun out of this than Apple's MP4 player.

The Simpsons Game

Well, well, well, a show that's been running for 21 years and only has one Wii game? The Wii is pretty new, but why couldn't they have another game in development at least? These are the 16 levels, in the order they are played:

The Land Of Chocolate

Bartman Begins

Around the World in 80 Bites

Lisa the Tree Hugger

Mob Rules

Enter the Cheatrix

The Day of the Dolphin

Shadow of the Colossal Donut

Invasion of the Yokel-Snatchers

Bargain Bin

NeverQuest

Medal of Homer

Grand Theft Scratchy

Big Super Happy Fun Fun Game

Five Characters in Search of an Author

Game Over

Now, we see why the game is rated T for Teen:

Alcohol and Tobacco Reference

Animated Blood

Cartoon Violence

Crude Humor

Language

Suggestive Themes

Can you believe my parents let me play that!? If there's another guy at your house who wants to play, no problemo! 2 player mode is awesome! This game is for the Wii, DS, PSP, PS2, PS3, and Xbox 360, so if you have one of those, it's a good way to spend money. :-)