PixlBit

Ah, Parappa the Rapper.  I remember when it came out, and its glorious sequel, Um Jammer Lammy.  I love those damn games.  They can be difficult though. 

so you moved? I hope your new place is cool.  moving can be a freaking nightmare!

I'm definitely going to put more time into Parappa. I've hardly advanced at all yet and it's almost super zany. And I have Um Jammer Lammy as a PS+ game, so I'm ready to go!

As for moving, the new place is great. It's still an apartment but it's the biggest, nicest, and newest one we've been in yet. Hopefully we can stay here for a couple years. I'm tired of moving lol

I didn't get much finished last month either. Battletoads Double Dragon is still kicking my ass. I'm starting to lose hope. At least you got the move over with though. Moving can really be a pain. I had Blaz Blue on PS3, but I never could get the hang of it. All of the characters control so differently.

I'm not real big into fighting games but I figured hey, one day when I get a Vita I can try it out lol

Nice, you got BlazBlue. I have the PSP port of the first game and once I finish the story modes, i'll get the sequel on the 3DS.

Yeah, I can't actually play it yet because I don't have a Vita lol. I didn't realize there was a 3DS release though.

I was thinking of picking up Fat Princess a few weeks ago. Is there a decent amount of single-player content in that one? I imagine it is a lost cause at this point to find a thriving online community for a niche PSP game.

I'm not sure how much content it has. I haven't started it yet because I decided to play PaRappa first (which turned out to be quite difficult). It's hard to argue with a $5 price tag, though, and if you get it I'd be happy to play with you

June had Animal Crossing: New Leaf.  That's all I needed to know.

There was also Project X-Zone as well.

Are you reviewing Project X Zone? I'm interested in that game but I haven't heard much about it other than the basic premise.

Well I'm going to be writing about Project X Zone, but not really a review, per se.

You did better than me when it comes to games. Sometimes I don't even get to play antying in weeks, let alone beat something during a month. I either have to bing game or set a time that usually get's overtaken by the usual life expectations. I think I need to mow my lawn soon anyhow.

I hate times like that but some things do take precedence over games...sometimes...

Receiving God Eater through PS+ is a ridiculously good deal.  It offers a very different experience than Monster Hunter, thanks in part to its dedicated story mode and less extreme difficulty.  Still, there is plenty of grinding to be had--if you choose to do it.  It's not as painful or as lengthy as it was in Monster Hunter, though (God Eater has far less equipment to forge), so you won't be stuck fighting the same monsters for too long.  Anyway, whenever you start playing it let me know: Perhaps we can work some Ad-hoc Party magic and play through some missions together .

That said, going through a whole month without any progress is a killer (I should know; I have plenty of experience in this department ).  It also doesn't help that you added another bundle to the backlog (which I also did this month).  But, you probably don't need me to tell you that.

I'm looking forward to playing Gods Eater Burst. It has online play? That's cool, though you'd be a much higher level of course lol. I need to download it but thankfully I have plenty of room on my PSP memory stick. I'll let you know!

I have such mixed feelings about buying more games. On the one hand, I really don't need more games but on the other I don't want to miss out on good deals or games I've wanted for a long time just because I have a bunch already. So I try to show some restraint without agonizing over it. I've wanted play Rez for years, for instance, and Qubed was only $5 brand new. That's (I think) a third of the price to download the digital version.

It's not that God Eater has online play, but we can play it online through the PS3's Ad-hoc Party application.  We would need to use keyboards for communication, unfortuantely, because the voice chat is hit-or-miss.  That said, my character's rank wouldn't make the game all that easier for us.  That part of the game is still very much like Monster Hunter (in that your character's strength is solely dependent on your gear and personal skill), so if I get careless I'll be kissing dirt rather quickly.  I can also play a support role and just focus on ranged attacks and healing.  All in all, even if we don't get to play together, at least you can bring in up to three AI partners (which are very smart) to give you a hand.

I know what you mean about grabbing games when a great opportunity is right in front of you.  Even though I'm not interested in buying, say, Mega Man Legends 2 for $100, I'd knock people down if I found it for $15.  Anyway, I wouldn't worry too much about how many games you buy; As long as your finding stuff that interests you, especially at the right price, don't leave it behind.  You never know if that $5 purchase now will be unobtainable in a few months (kind of like Avalon Code's jump from $15 to absurd).

So you can use the PS3 to play local multiplayer PSP games online? That is pretty neat, though it does sound a little complicated. I'm not sure I even have a USB keyboard around here I could use  But I'd be interested in trying it out if we could get it to work.

If only there was some way to know what games will be rare, right? I'd have bought a second copy of Xenoblade to sell for two or three times its initial retail price if I had just known lol.

That's right!  Ad-hoc Party acts as tunneling software by capturing the PSP's wireless signal and transmitting it to other connected systems.  Through that software, PSP owners have been able to play games like Monster Hunter, God Eater, Phantasy Star Portable, Kingdom Hearts, Ace Combat, or anything else that features wireless multi-player.  It doesn't even require that much to set it up.  All you do is run the program, create a game room, and start a wireless session on your PSP.  The PS3's green wireless light kicks on and begins capturing signals.  Honestly, the only tricky part is finding Ad-hoc Party on the PS Store.  When you log in, go all the way to the bottom and select the PSP channel.  From there, look through its downloadable game section and you'll find it (it's a green icon with white lettering).  It would be easier to search for it, but the search function on the storefront is broken and will never list it.  Also, don't forget to download the free God Eater DLC while you're there!

As for communicating, it's not that big of a setback.  The game informs me when you're ready to run a mission, so it's easy for me to just tag along.  Anyway, I'll start popping back on the PSN again at my regular time to see if you're there and available for a test run.

Finally, it would be both awesome and profitable if we knew which games were actually rare or simply out of print (while demand is still high).  Seriously, my local Best Buy had a clearance bin full of Avalon Code; if I knew its online demand was going to skyrocket, I could have bought ten copies and sold them for $60 apiece  (and they would have sold, considering a flawless, sealed copy of the game has an undetermined value).  In regards to Xenoblade, you had people going all over to buy up copies the moment they learned that it was out of print.  I actually wish I had the reserves to do something like that, because it's obvious money is no object to some gamers.

I cannot find Ad-hoc Party for the life of me! I looked all through the PSP section, games and add-ons, and it doesn't seem to be there  I've looked online and people have found it as recently as March of this year but that's it. It boggles my mind that Sony would take it down, regardless of the Vita. It sounds so cool! Poop.

By the way, what is your "regular time" to be on?

Trust me, Ad-hoc Party is there.  Another friend of mine downloaded it last month after an agonizing search, so it's still available.  Its location is a bit out of the ordinary, unfortunately, and it took us a few hours to find it.  When I get back on the PSN I'll take a look for it and tell you exactly where it is.

Anyway, I try to log on around 8pm (although it ends up being around 9pm most of the time).  I'm usually on until 11pm unless I'm playing an online game with my brother, at which point I stay on a while longer.

I can't find the damn program.  Every time Sony updates the store and reorganizes the tabs, Ad-hoc Party gets lost.  It's just frustrating because the program still works.  I can log in to it right now and people are online and playing.  I just wish there was a better way to search their store.  It was a pain in the  finding it last time and now they've misplaced it again.  Anyway, I'll keep searching for it, both in the PS Store and through message board topics.

I'll keep looking too. I don't know why Sony won't take better care of it. It's a first-party program, right? Seems like it would be a great selling point for owning a PSP and a PS3. Reminds me that despite all the good will Sony has engendered lately for the next generation, their current online otherings are still subpar

Whew... I found it!  I went searching through the PlayStation community site and found a discussion about Ad-hoc Party.  At the moment, because Sony has once again rearranged the storefront, the easiest way to download the program is through their website.  Here is the direct link to the program.  If you're using NoScript, you'll have to visit the site first and allow some scripts through and then click on the link a second time.  Once there you can log in to your PSN account, "purchase" the program, and it will show up on your purchase list on your PS3.

As for why Sony hasn't taken better care of their program, well, that's because they considered the PSP a failure in the West.  Adding insult to injury, we didn't even get the enhanced version that had added features and other connection tricks (especially for the PSP-to-PS3 ports that retained their multi-player modes).

Excellent! I never would have thought to try getting it on their website. Good thinking. Gods Eater is downloading now, though it tells me there is still 78 minutes left lol, so I doubt I'll be playing it tonight. But I downloaded adhoc party on my PS3 so that's all ready to go now 

Finally!  I can't wait to bust some Aragami with you .

That said, it's so much easier searching for, well, anything by using their website.  At least there we can make use of Google's site search function and find stuff that Sony's search engine ignores.