I played six PSP games for fun in 2008 and finished three of them.

As I did last year, I’ve compiled a list of the games that I played for fun in 2008. One list per major gaming platform.

(Check out the rest of my 2008 Gaming Playlists for other platforms, updated daily until New Year’s.)

Today’s entry is all about the PSP, a powerful system with disturbingly few games released for it in 2008.

What did I play? And which three games did I finish?

Take a look below: Read more…

Sure, all the major console games have come out, but holiday travelers still need something to play. Check out this week’s box art reviews, where we judge games by their covers, featuring newly released portable titles…

“Dungeon Maker II: The Hidden War” (PSP)
What the Box Tells Us: A sword and a pick axe protrude out of a stone. A labyrinth, a castle and some mountains are shown in the background.
Pros: It looks like you’ll be making labyrinth-laden dungeons with that sword and pick axe in hand. And calling it “The Hidden War” makes sense; if there’s a war going on, I don’t see it.
Cons: The box art designers have also hidden the excitement that this game may hold.
Love It or Leave It: Leave it. Read more…

Sony has made it clear that the original development philosophy of the PSP — porting console experiences to a handheld — was a failed one.

The new model, as Sony has described it to MTV Multiplayer several times, is rooted in expanding big franchises with a new experience on PSP.

When I recently spoke with John Koller, head of hardware marketing at Sony Computer Entertainment America, he specifically cited “Transformers” and “Iron Man” as proof that a new PSP development model, one anchored on franchises, was working.

But there’s a problem…

Those games are only half of the “winning” equation he’s talking about. “Transformers” and “Iron Man” are ports of console games. “Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core,” however, is something wholly unique but rooted in a giant franchise. So, can franchise alone carry a game? If it’s big enough, Sony argues.

The NPD Group told MTV Multiplayer that the PSP version of “Transformers” sold 442,000 copies, while “Iron Man” pushed 242,000 copies. In Sony’s eyes, those are both extremely successful PSP games…even if they use a “failed model.”

Koller has told me several times to expect big franchise games to be announced 2009. Those should start being announced soon. But will the inevitable “Transformers 2″ and “Iron Man 2″ follow the same formula?

[Image Credit: Paramount Pictures]

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Sony Online Considering MMOs On PSP

Piracy is a real problem for PSP. It’s not hard for your everyday consumer to simply download games to their handheld.

One of the ways Sony hopes to battle piracy is by offering their first-party PSP games as downloads through the PlayStation Store.

Is that enough?

We’ll have to wait and see, but John Koller, Sony Computer Entertainment America’s head of hardware marketing, told Multiplayer they’ve seen piracy slow down in the last few months.

Why?

Read more…

Are you not sure what game to buy? Perhaps we here at Multiplayer can help.

Since August, I have played through:

• Too Human
• Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
• Spore
• LEGO Batman
• Lock’s Quest
• Bothers In Arms: Hell’s Highway
• Dead Space
• Fable II
• Gears of War 2
• Resistance 2
• Mirror’s Edge
• Call of Duty: World At War

And I have played several hours of:

• Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise
• Wario Land: Shake It
• Wii Music
• Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
• LittleBigPlanet
• Fallout 3
• Left 4 Dead
• Tomb Raider: Underworld
• MotorStorm: Pacific Rift
• de Blob
• Spider-Man: Web of Shadows

Plus, Patrick and Tracey have played a ton of games, even those music ones!

So… what do you need to know to make your shopping decisions easier? We can help.

Photo: Brad Barket/Getty Images

There isn’t much to play on your PSP this holiday season, but that hasn’t stopped people from getting excited over rumors that “LittleBigPlanet” would go portable.

Even though “LittleBigPlanet” has just launched on PlayStation 3, people already want to know what’s next.

While on the phone yesterday with John Koller, head of hardware marketing for Sony Computer Entertainment America, we asked him about the rumors.

“‘LittleBigPlanet’ is so expansionary,” said Koller. “I think the developer’s really concentrating on right now making sure that the launched product is everything it could be and can be. We’re watching the UGC [user generated content] and seeing how that’s playing out. But for the future, I think certainly, we’d look at a wide variety of opportunities. Whether that’s the PSP or not, I can’t really say. We certainly look at ‘LittleBigPlanet’ franchise as a going forward franchise for us, and that speaks to the PlayStation brand overall.”

His last line should provide hope for handheld “LittleBigPlanet.”

But we didn’t stop there. With “Guitar Hero: On Tour” proving so popular on the DS, what is Sony doing to court the makers of “Rock Band” and “Guitar Hero” to PSP? Here’s what Koller told us.

Read more…

The people at PlayStation sent me a PSP carrying case and a press release about how great a year it’s been for Sony’s handheld video game system. That’s nice. But was truly special was that the carrying case contained a carboard PSP. It is slim, light and does not consume electricity. I believe it absorbs spills more effectively than a PSP 2000 or even a PSP 3000, but I haven’t tested it yet.

See the cardboard PSP right below: Read more…

Sony Online Entertainment president John Smedley has revealed to MTV Multiplayer that the company is considering massively multiplayer online games for the PSP.

“I think PSP is something that we’re definitely looking at; 34 million [sold] worldwide really opens your eyes, and they’re all connected,” Smedley told me in an interview following his keynote and panel appearance about the future of MMOGs at the New York Games Conference on Friday.

“We started to get very interested in [the PSP] when we switched over from Sony Pictures to Sony Computer Entertainment back in April,” he explained. “And as we’ve kind of got our heads up looking around the world within Sony Computer Entertainment, we’re really starting to see a big push for PSP. We think it’s a world-class device… In the future, we see full MMOs that are designed for the PSP.”

However, before full-fledged MMOs, Smedley sees integration of existing online games with the handheld device, though the company hasn’t finalized any decisions. “Maybe one way to do it: In ‘Free Realms,’ you could have a pet-training system that literally connects to our online gaming where you can mess around with your pet,” he said of SOE’s younger-skewing MMO due out next year.

“Another way to do it might be to give them mini-games that they can do [on the PSP] when sitting at a bus stop,” he offered. “You’re sitting there leveling up your character, you log in at home when you’re on wi-fi, and all of sudden your character has leveled up. We think those kinds of experiences are very possible.”

Readers, do you want to see MMOs on the PSP?

Related Posts:
New PSP Model Hits U.S. October 14 [Images Included]
Sony Plans PSP Comeback In America, Recovering From System’s Low Point

If you’ve played the downloadable Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 demo of “Star Wars: The Force Unleashed” you haven’t experienced what the game is really like to play. Consider this a head’s up from MTV Multiplayer, where we’ve played the full game, that the “SW:TFU” demo is a bit misleading.

The demo takes place in the game’s second level, a Tie Fighter factory, and would have you think that you’ll spend most of the game picking up crates and soldiers and throwing them a) into walls, b) at each other, or c) through windows into the vacuum of space.

That’s not how you’ll be playing the game a few levels later. At least, I highly doubt it. Read more…

Apple called out Nintendo and Sony during their press conference this morning.

While showing a new line of iPods, Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled a commercial for the iPod Touch touting it’s “the best portable device for playing games,” reports Engadget.

It’s worth noting that Apple did not demonstrate today’s games on the iPhone (which the games also work on) or say it’s the best mobile device for games. Jobs and co. are throwing the iPhone and iPod Touch into the same arena as the DS and PSP.

We already asked both Nintendo and Sony what they think of Apple’s new gaming platform, but neither acknowledged the company as a direct competitor. But with over 3,000 applications available on iTunes — 718 of which are games, and increasing every day — that might be changing.

What do you make of Apple’s statement?

Related Posts
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I spent a lot of time last night playing the PC game that is failing to wow German reporters, but I can’t write what I thought of “Spore” until… the first minute of Thursday (Pacific Time). Regular Diary readers will note that EA’s moved the date up, so I’ll be able to share my take on the game earlier than expected, right after midnight tonight.

But what can I give you my take on now?

Yesterday, a member of the gaming industry who I don’t think would want to be named asked me what I thought of the newly revised PSP, model #3000. The October iteration of the system, model #3000, has a brighter screen and a built-in microphone than the current, slim model #2000. I haven’t tried the new machine yet, but I have a good sense of what it offers. My industry contact wanted to know what I thought of it and how it might affect the PSP’s competition with the DS.

Could this revised PSP potentially threaten the DS, he asked?

This is what I e-mailed back, a bit of armchair analysis that helped me frame my view of the current handheld system wars:

“The revised PSP (model 3000) is a good little tweak to the slim PSP revision (model 2000) introduced last year. I don’t think the new one stands to make a much bigger impact than the 2000 did, but it doesn’t need to. The 2000 doesn’t ‘potentially’ pose a threat to the DS. It’s already soundly beating the DS in Japan and has done so for almost a year in that country.

“What changed the PSP’s fortunes in Japan was a combination of the introduction of the 2000 and the introduction of a new ‘Monster Hunter‘ game. The DS has had neither the hardware refresh nor the transcendent software in Japan to fire back, and it’s clear to me that in that country a DS revision or DS2 is needed to swing momentum back Nintendo’s way.

“In America, however, ‘Monster Hunter’ is [commercially] irrelevant. So on hardware alone, no, the 3000, like the 2000 before it, can’t turn the tables on the DS in America. But combine the 3000 with a brilliant piece of software and there’s a chance it can. Far easier said than done and not something I expect to happen any time soon given Sony’s announced line-up for the PSP in America.”

Hey, if I can share that kind of thinking with someone in the gaming industry, surely I can share it readers of the diary?

Next: Tonight, I hope I’ll finally beat “Spore.” I’m so close!

At one point, it wasn’t looking good for “N+” on the PSP and DS. Not in the eyes of the Metanet Software, developers of the original game, anyway.

“Currently it’s not working – it’s not the game we wanted to make,” said Metanet’s Mare Sheppard to Edge in May. “There are a lot of changes we haven’t been so happy with.”

Those changes appear to have been made. “N+” arrives on PSP and DS next week, and Metanet told MTV Multiplayer the handheld versions from Atari have come a long way.

“We’re definitely happy they were delayed (to add polish) as long as they were,” said Sheppard. “The release versions are about a million times better than they were at the beginning of the year.”

Read more…