Metal Gear Solid 3D
Generally speaking, the game looked interesting last year when it was merely a technical demo using features from Peace Walker and showing generally higher-polygon models. However, it became clear that this was not sustainable, and we’ve ended up with something akin to MGS3, except on the 3DS with stereoscopy, gyroscope, camera camouflage, and other features unique to the Nintendo 3DS. I don’t know what to say, but it comes off to me that the game has ended up being more of a port to the Nintendo 3DS instead of the ambitious high-polygon sneaking game it initially revealed itself to be, which is disappointing.

MGS Collection
Who didn’t see this coming? MGS2, MGS3, and Peace Walker in HD on the PS3. It was bound to happen sooner or later, the question was a matter of when. I’m eager to see what the Transfarring feature will be in-between my PSP and Peace Walker, however. MGS3 should also look graphically pleasing.

ZOE Collection
Oh my god, they’re actually doing this. Seeing Jehuty in (1080p?) HD is already going to be a day one purchase for me. Though Transfarring with the NGP… well, should be interesting, though I wonder what they’re going to do with the lack of pressure-sensitive buttons. I just wish they made ZOE3 as well.

Transfarring
Kojima has already alluded to this kind of concept, where one can share savedata between the PS3 and portables, being able to play on the go on your PSP or NGP, come back home, and play on your PS3. He did this since last year, which made Sony rather nervous, and then he again alluded to it during the showing of the NGP. Sony again tried something similar with PSP Remaster, but they have yet to announce a concept for sharing savedata between the PS3 and NGP. So Sony got the first dibs on PS3/PSP savedata sharing, but Kojima will likely have the last laugh on PS3/NGP savedata sharing. Ultimately, I suspect Transfarring will use something like a cloud data service where savegames are stored and can be picked up by both the PS3 and NGP. I worry though about whether this will require Playstation Plus, or if it will make the feature free altogether, or be something totally independent of Playstation Plus.

Fox Engine
This was a long time coming, and I thought it really did take Kojima a while before finally coming upon this idea. This is pretty much the same as Capcom’s MT Framework, except Kojima’s take on it. If you’ve read my blog entries before about MT Framework, you already know my take on the Fox Engine. I suspect it won’t be used for the PC, but you never know in this day and age.

Overall
Generally speaking, Kojima’s showing for this E3 was actually rather small in comparison to a lot of the other E3 appearances he’s made. His studio has only been able to announce ports of existing games (ZOE especially, though I am looking forward to that), as well as plans for a streamlined engine to make games on the PS3, NGP, and 360 easier to develop in one shot. This essentially highlights the stress brought about by the generation of high definition console gaming; studios, even Kojima Productions, feel the heat from not being able to produce a game per year like the western studios generally do, and yet at the same time they don’t want to be putting out mindless sequels nor do they want to take the risk with IPs without having to invest a lot. I suspect Fox Engine is the end result of Kojima’s analysis of the situation, but why it didn’t happen sooner is a mystery, since Capcom already fielded their MT Framework.

Overall, a little disappointed that new games weren’t announced by Kojima Productions, but I’m not going to lose any sleep over it. Though, I would really like a ZOE3, not an MGS5, for example. Go risky with the new IPs and go all out; but I suppose it’ll have to wait until they’ve finished the Fox Engine.

By the way, Transfarring is a very strange word, don’t you think?

Addendum
It appears a lot of the news sites have been reporting that MGS2-3, Peace Walker, and ZOE1-2 will be 1080p. So far though, MGS2-3 have been stated to be 720p, and Peace Walker is 1080p. That’s all according to the official website. As far as I know, there’s been no confirmation what ZOE1-2 will be.

Generally though, I find a lot of the details amusing, particularly ones covering why the security was so terrible. The tl;dr version is essentially, there is a pair of public/private keys and both have been made public instead of just the public one. The algorithm behind it was also terrible, so now everything is fair game on the PS3.

If it were up to me, I’d put out a new firmware with the following:

1. Change to a new encryption system, we’ll call this the “NEW” encryption. “OLD” encryption refers to the system used pre-3.60.
2. Create a game database saved locally by the new firmware. Only games that follow the “OLD” encryption and exist in the game database can load.
3. Any new games in 3.60 onward are required to use the “NEW” encryption.

I should probably note that #1-3 above is probably possible, but if the core firmware update system uses the “OLD” encryption system being read from a read-only ROM chip, then it is screwed for life. Reason I say this is because it means CFW can be loaded at any time regardless of the current OFW; judging from the hacking team that claims anything can load now regardless of firmware, it’s more than likely this scenario was already considered.

Furthermore, this doesn’t solve the fact that all games using the “OLD” encryption are compromised. Essentially they are screwed, and I can’t see any way out of it. Publishers are going to be super-mad that this sort of thing was allowed to happen. The factors involved are a sight to behold:

1. Pressure to remove OtherOS encouraged hackers to break the system
2. Encryption algorithm was rather ridiculous; what was supposed to be a random number generator used constant numbers instead
3. PSP master key (!!) was left on the PS3

The PSP has also been compromised in this endeavor, but at this point I probably would not do a thing about it anymore. It’s time to move into a new system, perhaps the PSP2? It’s already late into its lifecycle and should be written off soon. The same can’t be said for the PS3, which has been compromised halfway through the lifecycle it was supposed to have. Anyone who had a hand in the decisions leading to the #1-3 here are most certainly going to be getting the pink slip.

Incoming
HG 1/144 00 Qan[T]
HG 1/144 Avalanche Exia Dash
HG 1/144 Astraea Gundam (actual)
HG 1/144 00 Gundam Seven Sword/G

2010
November – MG 1/100 00 Qan[T]
November 2 – Gran Turismo 5
November 25 – Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu 1.5
December 1 – Monster Hunter Portable 3rd (I do hope there’s a download version!)
December 22 – Virtual On Force

2011
February 24 – Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity
??? – Phantasy Star Online 2

Will update if anything more comes to mind.

Graphics: nVidia Tegra2

This one is posted about a lot. If you Google around, you’ll find a lot of news entries indicating that Sony is planning on the nVidia Tegra2. Other rumors out there indicate that the PSP2 was supposed to show at E3, but because it was a little over-budget for power it had been delayed until CES 2011 for an announcement.

CPU: Cell?

Rumor mills are spreading this information as well. Seeing that Sony’s already invested quite a bit in this technology, it would be a waste not to use it in a portable system. It’d likely be weaker than the PS3′s.

Format: MiniDVD or MiniBD?

This one is a bit of a jump, but allow me to explain. It’s already pretty obvious that the UMD format has failed in general. The movie industry didn’t really take off with the UMD Video format, what with the proprietary nature of it all.

What I imagine is that the PSP2 will have a disc slot for MiniDVD or MiniBD formats instead of the original UMD format. The UMD format itself is also playable, but to do so you’d have to remove the white casing. Retail chains would likely be trained to help customers remove the white casing, and seeing that some are familiar with replacing the UMD case, this is probably not a hard thing to tackle.

UMD offers 900 MB for single-layer, 1.8 GB for dual-layer. MiniDVD offers 1.4 GB in its current form, but could offer 2.8GB in dual-layer. MiniBD is not a very ready technology yet, but builds on the existing BD discs out there. Capacity for it is around 7.5 GB for a single-layer disc, and learning that Kojima was not too happy with the disc format’s limitations, I’m sure he’d be more than happy to use a full 7.5 GB. Perhaps with dual-layer, it can be boosted to 16 GB.

My biggest concern though is random access times, not throughput. You can get throughput to be really high if you wish, but I feel it’s not worth it if you can’t access data randomly in short periods of time on average. MiniDVD format might allow for better random access times, but MiniBD might not right now due to BD still being an evolving technology.

Storage: More Flash

PSP Go already offers 16 GB, and we’ve seen 16 and 32 GB Memory Stick formats out there on the market. Sony’s been also working closely with SanDisk to offer better storage solutions as well.

I predict the PSP2 will support the Memory Stick, but not the same way it used to. Instead, it’ll be a multiple-flash solution, similar to the SD/MMC/MS slots that we’ve been seeing on laptops. They’ve been around for years now, often coming as standard on the machines. It would be a mistake not to have this support on the PSP2, as people would like to store large amounts of data but not have to spend a lot to get the storage capacity.

If data security is an issue, the PSP2 will likely not require MagicGate anymore, instead opting for RSA signature checks to make sure that data and whatnot is secure. Internal flash storage within the PSP2 is also a given, but Sony may opt not to put in too much to keep the price down.

PSN: 3G?

This one is an interesting development. It’s not just the Nintendo 3DS that’s looking to do this, but Sony has also taken some interest in the Kindle idea; make access to the PlayStation Store free via 3G, instead gathering revenue through digital downloads. With 3G access in the system though, it means that the system could be connected indefinitely to PSN much like the PS3. Will this mean proper online support for games, rather than just via ad-hoc?

Though I imagine that to play games on 3G, you still have to pay some kind of access fee. 802.11 Wi-Fi support is still a given, but I wonder if they’ll push it to 802.11n? Perhaps only 802.11g.

Accessories

Looking at the PSP Go, we’re likely looking at Bluetooth connectivity to allow usage with a PS3 gamepad. The same connector for component and audio is likely to stick around, but I wonder if they’ll try with mini-HDMI this time around. With a Cell CPU and nVidia GPU in the machine, I reckon Sony will try pushing the system more as a portable multimedia system with features not unlike the PS3.

Even if they do offer mini-HDMI, I do hope that Sony does something like disable HDCP for anyone who wishes to record game footage from the PSP2 via mini-HDMI. Maybe they should do the same for the PS3 too…

Region Locking

This should be a non-issue, but I’d like to see Japan/US PSN stuff not being region locked either, including movies, comics, etc. It’d also be nice if they made it possible to activate a US and Japan PSN account on a single PSP2 at the same time (even better if they retroactively did it for PSP1).

Piracy

With the development of the PSP-3000 and PSP Go, you basically have an environment where only signed code will work so as long as the firmware currently running is not exploitable. I don’t claim to be an expert on the topic, but it should be obvious by now that modchips or other more tricky methods are not plausible. I imagine it’s set up more like the newest line of Wii consoles, where there’s an initial boot that does an RSA signature check before checking the firmware, and so on. However, said initial boot is likely placed on ROM, making it impossible to rewrite to a different signature check (or removing the check altogether). And even if modchips were placed on other chips in the system, it’d be easily patched. The only real method I’d imagine, is to replace the boot ROM altogether but even that is a daunting task.

Also, proprietary formats don’t stop piracy. If people want to pirate on a PSP, they’ll go through other means, such as breaking the firmware, and so on. If you have to protect your software on the format, you have to go through other means, such as obfuscating the filesystem or going with a completely proprietary filesystem, RSA checks and whatnot. The PS3 appears to have done this successfully, so what is to stop Sony from doing the same thing on a PSP2?

Seriously, this reviewer needs to start looking for a different career. Problems he has with the game:

• “Poor level design”, without justification as to why
• Complaining about the B button being context-sensitive; look at MGS4 and Peace Walker!
• 2:13, he stands there and shoots at a giant Akrid, just asking to get swiped
• Controls being “clunky”, but they’re the same as Lost Planet 1! (BTW, IGN gave that 8.0+)

If this is the level of reviews that are out there right now, then I’m not interested in reading them anymore. I’ll play my games, **** you guys.

1. Sign up for Capcom-Unity
2. Get your code at Lost Planet Community

Simple, right? Too bad site is slow, lol…

P.S. Codes are not valid until March 31.

The feature of “Install Other OS” was removed from the new “Slim” PS3 model to focus on delivering games and other entertainment content.

Please be assured that SCE is committed to continue the support for previously sold models that have the
“Install Other OS” feature and that this feature will not be disabled in future firmware releases.

Now, we have this:

The next system software update for the PlayStation 3 (PS3) system will be released on April 1, 2010 (JST), and will disable the “Install Other OS” feature that was available on the PS3 systems prior to the current slimmer models, launched in September 2009. This feature enabled users to install an operating system, but due to security concerns, Sony Computer Entertainment will remove the functionality through the 3.21 system software update.

This has got to be the stupidest move Sony has decided to pull. So we either lose Linux support, or we lose the ability to access to PSN. Sounds like bait and switch to me, doesn’t it? I notice that a bunch of the guys are looking into class action lawsuits, so all the best to you guys, and good luck.

Just a FYI.

Also, Gears of War in Lost Planet? LOL!

http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/27577
http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/27580
http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/27581
http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/27583