Games for 2010

Updated the list a bit. As usual some stuff slipped... I'm ignoring stuff like Halo/Call of Duty/Medal of Honor/Gears of War of course.

September
Trackmania Wii
Metroid: Other M
Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep
Valkyria Chronicles 2
Rune Factory 2

October
Vanquish
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm
Dead Rising 2
Sonic Colors
Fable 3

November
Gran Turismo 5
Little Big Planet 2
DC Universe Online
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
God of War: Ghost of Sparta

Time for a look forward to what's coming out

Note: I updated this a bit.

E3 is now dust in the rearviewmirror (putting on Pearl Jam now as I type). So what's coming out this year?

June

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (PSP)

Demon's Souls (PS3)

Transformers: War for Cybertron (PC, PS3, 360)

July

Crackdown 2 (360)

Dragon Quest IX (DS)

Starcraft 2 (PC)

Ace Combat: Joint Assault (PSP)

August

Mafia II (PC, PS3, 360)

Blue Dragon: Awakened Shadow (DS)

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days (PC, PS3, 360)

September

Dead Rising 2 (PC, PS3, 360)

Halo: Reach (360)

Playstation Move (PS3)

Test Drive Unlimited 2 (PC, PS3, 360)

Trackmania Wii (Wii)

Metroid Other M (Wii)

Kirbys Epic Yarn (Wii)

Civilization V (PC)

October

Fable III (PC, 360)

Brink (PC, PS3, 360)

Vanquish (PS3, 360)

November

Gran Turismo 5 (PS3)

Little Big Planet 2 (PS3)

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (PC, PS3, 360)

Crysis 2 (PC, PS3, 360)

Kinect (360)

2010

Zelda: Skyward Sword

Fallout 3: New Vegas

L.A. Noire

2011

Dead Space 2

Killzone 3

Uncharted 3

Forza 4

inFamous 2

PSP Go & PS3 Remote Play

It's not often that I get to do something fairly unique these days, but I seem quite alone in wanting to remote control my PS3 using my new PSP go and its built in Bluetooth functionality.

I'll share the lessons learned.

1. You will need an 'old' phone. Unless you're fortunate to have a smartphone that can create PROPER wifi networks complete with SSID and some kind of real security such as WPA, you're out of luck. The PSP go needs an Infrastructure access point for its 'normal' network connections, or Bluetooth DUN (as opposed to Bluetooth PAN, which was what all these new things only have).
2. You'll need an older phone that is probably a Sony Ericsson, or at least not a Nokia Series 60. My PSP go cannot maintain a connection with the Nokia, I think this is Sony's fault. Unsurprisingly it works really well with the S-E, even down to the ability to query the list of available APNs.
   
3. You'll need an account with Mobile Internet. WAP is no good. We need real Internets here.
4. I haven't had any luck using O2. There seems to be some kind of firewall or NAT issue which prevents the thing from connecting.
5. I have had success with T-Mobile, it's what I'm using now. I can't comment on 3, Orange or Vodafone.
   
6. Anything except 3G is way too painful. And turn off the animated background on the PS3, as that is just going to make it unusable.
7. Ensure your PS3 is set to allow remote play, and also that Internet remote play is enabled. UPnP will clear up all the port stuff if your router supports it, otherwise forward port 9293 to your PS3.
8. That should be all you need. Everything else is pretty straightforward and covered in the manuals

I think there is some room for improvement. The bluetooth modem stuff could certainly be fixed, or at least some guidance as to special strings or whatever. It's not really Sony's style to support stuff that doesn't take off though, so I doubt it ever will.

Gaming market fragmentation

Just think about this for a few minutes.

Handheld:

• DS cartridge games - DS / DS Lite / DSi / DSi XL / 3DS(?)
• DS downloadable games (requires wifi skills) - DSi / DSi XL / 3DS(?)
• PSP UMD games - PSP 1000, 2000, 3000
• PSP downloadable games (requires PC or wifi skills) - PSP 1000, 2000, 3000, Go
• iPod games - iPhone / iPod Touch
• Online iPod games - wifi / iPhone required
• Demanding iPod games - 3GS, newer iPod Touch required

Console:

• Wii - standard
  
• Wii - with motionplus
  
• Wii - with classic controller
  
• 360* with HDD
  
• 360* without HDD
  
• 360* Natal
• PS3* standard
• PS3* with Move

* Note, these systems need both SD and HD versions testing, and achievements/trophies, online considerations

That's 15 or 20 targets that Devs need to consider. Not including the scalable PC and Mac markets. I'm sure I've missed some as well. Surely the market cannot bear this for much longer?