The NGP is Sony’s new handheld gaming console. It was unveiled at Sony’s Playstation Meeting 2011. It is also commonly referred to among the masses as the PSP2. The NGP boasts a quad core processor, built-in gps and wifi, 3G, front and rear touch screens, built-in microphone, built-in speakers, and front/rear cameras. This is a quite impressive hardware lineup and due to this there has been much speculation of a very high price. The NGP plans on releasing with quite a few heavy hitting titles such as Uncharted, Killzone, LittleBigPlanet, Hot Shots Golf, WipeOut, Resistance, Monster Hunter, Call of Duty and Dynasty Warriors.

Of this announcement there have become two camps of people. Those that think the NGP will be a huge success and those that think it is going to fail miserably. The latter often supporting the opposing handheld – the 3DS.

Samit Sarkar is one such individual. He believes that the NGP will fail due to the emphasis on reproducing the graphical horsepower of a console on a mobile platform.  He says that mobile gaming is entirely different from console gaming and people do not want the same experience as on a console. He says many gamers currently play their mobile games on their phones. The games such as Angry Birds are short and can be played a few minutes at a time, while waiting in line at a coffee shop, waiting for your train etc. Your average console game takes quite a bit more time and the levels are generally much longer.

Josh Tolentino, however believes quite the opposite. Despite the incredible hardware present in the NGP he thinks Sony will not put the price point so high that it will not sell. He also says that the console experience and small games based on an interesting concept that has pushed the phone market so far will not be absent on the NGP. The fact that those small quick titles will be there and if you have a little extra time you can play an AAA more involved game is exactly what will push the NGP to succeed.

Samit Sarkar makes good points however I don’t think his arguments have substance. The fact that he thinks the NGP will be boasting AAA titles while mobile doesn’t mean that there won’t be small games that can be played in “bit-sized chunks”. In fact they already exist in the current gen. On the PSN they are referred to as minis.  Josh Tolentino I however agree with a bit more I don’t see much that I disagree with in his article.

After reading both articles I think Samit Sarkar is a bit bias and doesn’t realize that people like different things. He lumps everyone into a single boat and says “this is what we like”. However I disagree with much of what he says. There is a whole hardcore vs casual mindset that goes into gaming. Casual players generally like easy games that are little time wasters. However hardcore gamers have an entirely different mindset. They like fast paced action like games where a half a second makes a big difference. They also usually like their games to be hard and challenging. I would put myself in the hardcore boat since my favorite game of all time is Demon’s Souls many people actually quit and raged about this game because they died on the first level a thousand times. However it’s a learning process the game doesn’t baby you or cater to you. It’s just like here… go and whatever happens, happens. A lot of games implement systems that show enemies and players levels so that you know if you’re safe to fight that enemy or not. Demon’s Souls did not do this to find out if you could take on someone you went up to them and fought them. If you thought it was a losing fight you could run. In quite a few games you would not even have went up to attack that enemy since you saw that he was 5 levels above you. That is what I believe to be the different mindset between hardcore and casual gamers. Casual gamers tend not to like these things, while hardcore gamers look at them as a challenge to be overcome.

In the end I don’t believe the NGP will be a booming success at first but I don’t think it’s going to be a failure of any sorts. I believe the price for the handheld will be around $249 – $299 which is still quite high. The competition is also releasing before the NGP which gives them a head start. The NGP however is releasing during the holiday season of 2011 which should help it’s sales. As for the small games that can be played a few minutes at a time, I see quite a lot of ports coming with Sony’s Playstation Suite, which is the Playstation Network for mobile phones, that however allows you to download the same games and play them on your NGP.

Ethical decisions are quite important and I believe Sony is trying to please everyone. However I believe they are leaning towards pleasing those that I defined as hardcore gamers. Hardcore gamers are generally the minority though. There are many more casual gamers out there. It doesn’t seem that they just want to please the hardcore gamers though since things like Playstation Suite and minis are ways to get the casual involved as well. From the beginning I see that many hardcore gamers will be the early adopters of the system while the more casual will get pulled in by things like Playstation Suite. Whether or not this is a good decision for Sony is yet to be determined I however hope the NGP is a success and am looking forward to it.

I recently played the Dragon Age 2 demo. And all I can say is amazing. It started off with a group of guards dragging a man into a room. They threw him into a chair and left. Upon which they left and a woman who identified herself as Cassandra Pentaghast Seeker of the Chantry entered the room and began interrogating the man about someone who she referred to as “the champion”. The man gave her a smug grin and began telling her a tale. Of how the champion slew a few dozen enemies, the enemies came in waves. They began to become overrun and a dragon showed up roasting the remaining enemies. Upon which the story ends with Cassandra saying “Bullshit that’s not what really happened.”

“Does that not match the story you’ve heard, Seeker?”
“I’m not interested in legends, I came to hear the truth.”
“What makes you think I know the truth?”
“Don’t lie to me! You knew her(him) before she(he) became the Champion!”
“Even if I did, I don’t know where she(he) is now, I told you that.”
“Do you have and idea what’s at stake here?”
“Let me guess: your precious Chantry’s fallen to pieces and put the entire world on the brink of war? And you need the one person who can help you put it back together.”
“The Champion was at the heart of it when it all began. If you can’t point me to her(him), tell me everything you know.”
“You aren’t worried I’ll just make it up as I go?”
“Will you?”
“Then let me tell you what really happened.”

He then begins to tell a less engaging story of a family attempting to flee from the what are now identified as darkspawn. They have no clue where they are going, the mother comes to the conclusion that they should go to Kirkwall. They travel for a short while longer upon which they end up in the same location as the original story. However this time the fight goes much less favorably. The dragon does eventually show up and save them. This time however the dragon comes down and turns into a human. She offers you a deal, you deliver something for her on your way to Kirkwall and she’ll keep the bulk of the darkspawn army off of your back.

In the end I really liked the demo however I couldn’t help but have trouble with the camera controls. It is a really good game but the fact that you can’t target and attack at the same time was a bit displeasing. It would have been nice to have some sort of auto-targeting system where if I aimed at an enemy it automatically targeted them. The story was amazing but it was expected from Bioware.