It’s really too bad that there aren’t more online-enabled games for the PSP. I still feel like a right fool for not realizing that the Monster Hunter games, while they do enable wireless play, only allow for ad-hoc connectivity (i.e. local multiplayer) and not infrastructure (i.e. going wireless around the world).
A few weeks ago, Sony released a program called adhocParty, which is meant to bridge the gap and allow players to play local wireless games over the Internet. It’s sort of like the short-lived Warp Pipe project a few gamers tried with the Gamecube (which was mainly meant for Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, since the ‘Cube had all of four online-enabled games in its roster…such wasted potential…) It’s a free program, easily downloadable from the PlayStation Store. Your PS3 is then set up as a server, allowing you to look for other players who are playing games like yours.
There is a catch, though…and a big one. The adhocParty software will only work if your PS3 is using a wired broadband connection. For wireless users (like me), you’re pretty much out of luck. A good idea in theory, but it’s too bad that idea leaves out a significant portion of the PS3 user base. Let’s hope this oversight means that in the future, there’ll be more PSP games that make better use of its infrastructure feature.
A couple of nights ago, I played Phantasy Star 0 online for the first time, because I was curious to see how this game handled it differently from its predecessors. After a few tries, I got set up with a random party of three (there were originally four, but one disconnected before our quest began), and we all took to the Snowfield together. For some reason, it was easy for us to use healing techniques on one another, but whenever we would get into combat, they would be dealing damage to the same enemy that I’m fighting, but they would be standing all the way on another side of the field, swing at the air. My guess is that there are some very strange lag problems that Sega didn’t address while testing this game, or each player has his/her own version of the game constantly streamed to them, or something. On the bright side, at least I know it works. Now, to find some actual friends to play with…
The King of Fighters XIIstill leaves a bitter taste in my mouth, after having “stripped down” a lot of its gameplay elements in favor of a sleek new graphic engine. When I first bought the game, the online play was horribly broken. At the very least, that feature appears to have been fixed with the game’s version 1.02 update. There still doesn’t appear to be anything KOF XII related in the PlayStation store. I wonder if that’s going to include secret characters are new backgrounds…if so, they’d better come cheap, or else.
It’s taken a while for it to get through to my skull that me and competitive gaming don’t mix very well. My rather pathetic Street Fighter IV (20% win percentage as of today, through 50 matches) and Soul Calibur IV (9% through 24 matches) records state. Eventually I’ll have to do some more serious training if I ever hope to get more mileage out of some of these games beyond the single-player campaigns. I may have a chance with Street Fighter, as I’ve been able to get a few victory-related trophies. Not so much with Soul Calibur, where I’m currently on a six-game losing streak without winning a single round (perhaps I should name my next custom fighter Glass Joe?)
I think I’ve spent the last month or so binging on online games. As of this moment, I’m still looking for the right one (or two, or four) for me. As of yesterday, I’ve started purging some of these games from my computer to free up hard disk space, as I know I probably won’t play/get any better at the longer I play. For starters, first- and third-person shooters and similar games are out. No more Gunz, and no more Exteel. I feel especially bad about the latter one, since I didn’t even make it out of the tutorial level.
This weekend, I’m likely going to work toward weeding out some of the less-traditional online RPGs that I have sitting on my system. By the end of the month, I’ll probably have about three or four choices. I’m not guaranteeing that I’ll play all of them every night, but they’ll get more exposure than normal.
Category: Video Games
Author: WillyFourEyes
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Tags: adhocparty, online, playstation 3, psp, wireless 