Sights

I have seen a grand total of one PSP in Japan. Some dude on a train was playing his PSP. He was not all that close to me, so I couldn't really see much. It didn't burst into flames or anything, so he must have got one of the good ones. The one thing I did notice is that the screen looks like it will get it's fair share of thumbprints. The buttons and pads are so close to the screen that it looks like smudging is inevitable. But I haven't actually got my hands on one yet, so who really knows.

Other things I've seen in Japan: almost all demo unit Xboxes have error messages on them. Seriously, I think about 90% of the Xboxes I've seen in action have been out of action. I've seen a fair number of faulty PS2s as well. I don't own Resident Evil 4, but I want to. I've played the demo for that there Nina Williams action fighting game. The name escapes me right now... it might be "Nice Tits, Gameplay is the Shits" or something like that. Pushing an analogue stick in the direction of the enemies to attack is just never going to be fun. It's science. It wasn't fun in Grabbed by the Ghoulies, it wasn't fun in Rise to Honour and it still isn't fun now. The only game that made multi-directional combat actually work was The Mark of Kri and its system was much more involved. If you're thinking about giving this new Nina game a try, just go buy Mark of Kri instead. It's much better. Well, maybe there will be marked improvements to the actual game that gets shipped, but I ain't holding my breath. As it stands now, the only thing this game has going for it is the fact that Nina Williams sometimes looks hot (but not that hot) and the game goes all X-ray-y to show breaking of bones.