G-pinions

While I didn't end up dropping the funds on a PSP, I've still gotten plenty of playtime thanks to my generous coworkers. Yesterday I received a good helping of Untold Legends, and I must say it's a pretty odd bird. On the one hand, it's like a very poor man's Norrath - the so-so graphics chug along painfully slowly, there are even less ways to customize your character, the story and dialogue is somehow even more terrible (and believe me, the Everquest universe was LAME), it seems like you almost exclusively fight spiders, and music is typical fantasy MIDI, and using the analog nub to control your character in such a manner makes your thumb bones splinter. In short, it was a bit rushed.

On the other hand, there are a few new features that, while small, all but eliminate the most annoying problems of it's console brethren. The biggest one being the ability to directly compare an item you're shopping for with what you currently have equipped with the touch of a button. Considering how much time you spend collecting, buying and organizing your items, this is an incredibly nice feature to have. The other big fix is harder to explain, but basically makes it so you don't accidentally enter new areas too soon by pressing the pickup item button, which I beat Tom about the head for many a time.

It's weird, but I actually see this becoming a trend in PSP games that are more or less ports of console games - the graphics, sound and control will obviously all be a bit worse, but they'll fix numerous little problems with the time in-between the releases. I guess I'd rather have those things fixed than further tweaked graphics, but it's a weird trade-off, especially if it becomes a trend.

And, because this wouldn't be a proper post without at least some bit of news, it appears that Mitch Hedburg is dead. I really hope to hell not, as he's easily the funniest man in the last decade. My intuition tells me that this is a slightly early April Fools joke; let's hope I'm right.