Article: PSP Recommendations of 2007

By David Rasmussen
29th Jul 07

OK, let’s not mince words. There’s only one game you want to hear about so let’s get to it.

God of War : Chains of Olympus

November seems to be a popular month to get the Christmas gifts of 2007 out.

Must be since God of War (not to mention quite a few interesting titles as well as not so interesting titles) are getting a November 2007 release.

Sadly it looks like July is abit too soon to get even a “Whispers” article about this game going since so little is known about it.

Here.

As you know when God of War (original) started it was about… what… ten years since Kratos made his little deal with Ares to become his hatchetman? Well 10 years happens to be a long long time with lots of wiggle room to base a game about (and totally make sure they justify the familiarity Atlas had with Kratos when they met in God of War II).

That seems to be the order of the day for God of War : Chains of Olympus as the game turns out to be God of War Zero (until the day a game set at the time Kratos made his deal with Ares comes out), with Krato’s pre “God of War I” life set before you as you find yourself (as Kratos) still serving the Gods of Olympus prior to the original God of War (and his hatchetjob he did on Ares).

Rated by PSM as a “must-own” and “the best looking PSP game you’ve ever seen”, already it comes with high praise (and tall boots to fill). God of War : Chains of Olympus. Make sure it’s on your Christmas wish list if you are looking for a merry blood soaked harpy wing ripping Christmas.

Now a few minor things before the big discussions.

Dungeons and Dragons Tactics

Funny. I thought this came out already. Oh. It did.

Sure, I could use one more Untold Legends knockoff for my PSP… hopefully this isn’t one of those.

It looks like it has the capacity for multiplayer fun since I’ve seen screenshots of multiple people in “parties” going on adventures so I hope that pans out and isn‘t just a Astonisha Story slash Legend of Heroes type game allowing you to control multiple characters at once.

Castlevania : The Dracula X Chronicles

What?!? A Castlevania game that ISN’T on the DS?!? No way!

Way. Dracula X Chronicles finally rolls into the PSP, and Konami seems to have decided to use this as the best time to pack together the best Castlevania games of times past ever into one release… yeah, I guess they’re only making new original Castlevania games for the DS these days. Still, if you had to do a PSP release at least it’s the best (sometimes “new to you” if you missed any of these games original releases) of the best of the franchise.

Final Fantasy Tactics

Quick! Take the world of Tactics, combine it with the character Baltheir from FFXII and… I have no idea what happens next. Hopefully it’s fun. Speaking of “fun” whatever happened to the FFXII spin-off for the DS? That ever see the light of day?

Crush

Go nuts, lose your marbles, and smack around the 3D world to “crush” it into 2D so you can expediate your search for all your missing marbles and put your grey matter back together again. Insanity made fun.

Parappa the Rapper

No I don’t know who wanted a Parappa the Rapper port to the PSP, but here it is… hooray?

Now three big games of note. Dead Head Fred, Monster Hunter Freedom 2 & (yes) Silent Hill : Origins.

Dead Head Fred

No, this isn’t a game about Grateful Dead fans or the Religious Right’s leadership.

Detective Fred Newman (no relation to actor Paul Newman) is having a bad day.

Somebody savagely murdered him and then had the gaul to resurrect his without a memory… or the head where his memories once used to sit in. Thus you start your life as the confused undead, who must kill thy enemies and then rip their heads off so their decapitated hat holders can do some thinking for you.

This is so going to do the rounds on the whiney conservative cable news networks!

D3’s August 21st release date game of monsterous proportions is coming, and it’s got lots of head to be had… yes, bad sex pun. Yet another game that milks the horror of the 40’s film noir (and the “Red Scare” sci-fi horror of the 50’s… like we didn’t get enough of that with the “Destroy All Humans” original release), you’ll find yourself lurching your bad undead self through a dozen “uniquely themed” environments… hopefully that isn’t another way of saying “levels you’ve seen before in better games”… looking for some head (like a prostitute only sicker). Each “head” you take gifts you with different abilities and powers, like shrinking or firing stuff out of your head… eeww… head goop. Oh, and (if you’re trying to be different) you can also score some “normal” human heads when you have to wear a “disguise” to deal with them… just, you know, don’t grab a female’s head because you’ll probably be mistaken for a transvestite and hunted down… or stalked by Casa Howhard creator Baldazzini… whatever.

And now for the thing that will make this game the bane of culture haters like FOX News. The violence.

Oh dear god if you didn’t already figure out a game about decapitating everything and borrowing their heads to get “ahead” would be violent then here’s your official notice… the game’s violent.

Kill enemies. Shoot them with poison darts. Slice and dice them Cooking Mama : Cook Off style. Bathe them in icky goo from your head. Burn them. Oh, and don’t forget to detach their heads for your own personal use. That too.

Offering up what suspiciously sounds like Destroy All Humans time spending side-missions, oddly placed “mini-games” and timekillers I thought I’d only find in a game like Madagascar including “Dirty Pool” and “Pinball” you’ll find abit to do in this game… hopefully. Oh, and you’ll use the sewers a lot to travel from locale to locale since, well, nobody in the sewers will mind another headless monstrosity walking by.

Promises. Promises. Promises.

They say it’ll be a “unusual tale of revenge and redemption”, and “set in a novel, nutty landscape”… I’m just hoping it’ll last longer than a dozen or so hours and provide more entertainment than I think it will with only a dozen explorable environs in the game.

Speaking of games with promise…

Monster Hunter Freedom 2

Coming October 2007 is Monster Hunter Freedom 2.

Yes, I totally missed the original so this is about as good a chance for me to jump into it now.

Japan’s best selling PSP title (over a million units sold) until God of War comes (then I’m sure it’ll be overshadowed by “mini-Kratos”), Monster Hunter Freedom 2 comes to our side of the world this fall, which means you’ll (according to PSM) finally be able to understand why this game is so “popular”… really?

Monster Hunter Freedom 2 brings most of the fun of MH2 from the PS2 to the PSP… wait, there was already a 2 and it was on the PS2? Really? Anyway you’ll find the addition of character customization, hundreds of weapons, and armor choices to keep you occupied on this one for awhile. Also don’t forget your fully customizable skills sets, ad hoc multiplayer, as well as (this should be the seller of the game) online content downloads, you should find an engrossing addictive game served up raw here.

October 2007. Don’t forget now.

Well, that was short, how about a longer talk about the latest Silent Hill to hit the shelves?

Silent Hill : Origins

Has the fog rolled in to set the mood (or cover the lack of background animation) again?

Are the nurses undead zombie corpses again (please dear god no more misusing the chocolate frog eating sound effect from the Harry Potter games as the sound effect of hitting creepy amazonian nurses with a blunt instrument as was done in Silent Hill 4 : The Room… it sounds like you’re burping them to death!!)

Does it look like the world needs a coating of WD40 and occasionally turns into a blood drenched “paradise” beloved by certain crazy people?

No, it’s not a so-so (depending on your opinion of the original) attempt to make Silent Hill 2 the live action theatrical movie (though I heard someone is trying to do that), it’s a new Silent Hill (the first for the PSP) delving into the dark “origins” of the Silent Hill problem with Silent Hill : Origins.

Now I totally missed out on the so-called “Silent Hill Experience”… really? There was such a thing as the “Silent Hill Experience” that supposedly was a collection of DVD bonus features? Must have came with Silent Hill : The Movie (which I totally didn’t watch).

Yes, as the title suggest we have finally turned a corner on the evolution of the franchise, and as (in the past) Resident Evil went back to it’s roots in Resident Evil Zero so too now has Silent Hill with Silent Hill Origins… though technically it’s far too late to flip the franchise on it’s head and make a totally kicking third person shooter entitled Silent Hill 4.

We’re returning to Silent Hill, and bringing back some old friends that you may or may not remember if you ever played the previous titles. Dr. Kaufman, Dahlia… “Pyramid Head”? What that? Oh, maybe Silent Hill : Origins will feature the creature from Silent Hill 3 (it who spins the wheels of destiny causing the transition of worlds between the “normal” world and the blood soaked paradise of the crazies of Silent Hill). I (for one) can hope.

The story of Origins is simple enough.

You play Travis O’Grady, a trucker who doesn’t have enough common sense to not travel the road less traveled. Somehow his rig breaks down while he’s trying to… dummy… drive THROUGH Silent Hill (WHY?!?). Of course, being the dummy he is, he compounds his own problems by deciding to get out of his rig and INVESTIGATE! D’OH!! Apparently he saw a little girl run into the creepy undead town, and like the concerned man he was he had to chase after her… I don’t know about you but isn’t it illegal for 18-wheel truckers to chase little girls into undead evil infested villages of the damned? Isn’t there a spot for O’Grady on the next “Predators” special on Dateline NBC if he… you know… survives the “Hill”?

Once he gets into deadville he finds a burning building, where he hears the girl screaming… and like the sucker he rushes in to “save” her and finds her badly burned only to escape with her (hmm… could this be little miss drugged out from Silent Hill 3?). Anyway he falls asleep only to wake up to find out he shouldn’t have fallen alseep in a cursed horror infested hellhole like Silent Hill. Next time crash at Pat Robertson’s place, slightly less terrorizing then though just as terrifying in it‘s own special way.

Developers promise to focus on making the experience as similar to the first three games as possible.

What they really should have promised was to make the game controllers workable (what with one missing analog stick on the PSP and all).

Still with a promise to make the game like Silent Hill 1 to 3, along with breakable weapons from Silent Hill 4 thrown in to add “strategy” (actually I never used “strategy” as much as I just ran around scrounging for breakable weapon after breakable weapon to run back and pick up where I left off with my “enemeis”… didn’t work so well as I remember it yet I somehow got through most of the game) and you have a game that should hopefully be well rounded without being nothing but a rehash of previous Silent Hills. Maybe.

But again to me the promises of the developers are all well and good, just as long as the game is actually PLAYABLE on the PSP’s control layout! That is, right now, my only concern about the game. I mean if you’ve been to G4OnDemand and saw the trailer for the game then visually the game looks creepy… I just don’t want the controls for the game to be just as creepy (for all the wrong reasons).

It’s coming this August so be on the lookout for it.

Some of these will be reviewed in full.

Some will even get first looks and “Whispers” to announce their coming.

Me? I’m hoping the games I have on my wishlist really turn out to be as fun as they sound.

Stay tuned, when I have more info on these I’ll be back to give you more (which should be shortly now that E3 has come and gone (depending on when this premieres).

-- David Rasmussen 29th Jul 07