The Save Points!

And now the slow time of the year. July is usually very light on releases, one of the lightest months of the year except maybe for December, and this July is no exception other than for the 3DS.

We’re still getting some stuff. The 3DS has a staggering 4 releases, the Wii has a release, the PSP has a release, PSN and XBLA are getting something (I’m not sure when Jet Set Radio HD is supposed to come so I haven’t included it), and the NES is pretty likely to get something too. And it’s pretty much quality all-around.
Those include either games I’m interested in, or games that may be/become popular… Basically anything I feel bears mentioning, whether I’m personally hyped for it or not. No shovelware here.

Let’s Go!
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jobocan 3DS, Console, Games, games of the month, Handheld, NES, ps3, PSN, psp, wii, XBLA, xbox 360

And here comes the May releases. There’s actually a large enough number of games coming out in May compared to April… But there’s still not a lot of interesting stuff here…

So we have 6 multiplatform releases, 1 Xbox 360 release, 1 PS3 release, 2 3DS releases, 1 Wii release and 2 PC releases.

Read on and see if you’re picking anything up!

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jobocan 3DS, Console, Games, games of the month, Handheld, ps3, psp, wii, xbox 360

Wow, we’re really slow on posts, aren’t we? Well, hopefully we’ll speed back up soon, but for now, let’s look at the games coming out in April 2011. There’s basically not much coming out in the month, so let’s do this fast.

There’s 3 multi-platform games, 2 PS3 games, 1 Wii game and 2 PSP games.
There might be a DS release (that duke nukem game that shows up on every release list for every month but never ends up coming…. and wasn’t it renamed? Whatever), but I’m not holding off for it, so I might as well not list it. Surprisingly, there’s not a single game coming on the 3DS in April… not even shovelware (well some sites have 2 shovelware games in april, but others have the same games in May, so it’s impossible to know/care). Strange.

Read on and see what’s coming!
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jobocan Console, Games, games of the month, Handheld, PC, ps3, psp, Releases, wii, xbox 360

Ah, March. It’s frequently a pretty big month for game releases. This year it’s no exception, but not really because of the actual games coming out. This March sees the release of the next-generation of handheld consoles (note: next-generation will instantly become “current-generation” as soon as the 3DS comes out).

So this month we have: 18 3DS games for its launch, 10 multi-platform titles, 4 interesting DS games, 3 PS3 exclusives, 2 PC exclusives and 3 PSP games. There should be interesting games for everyone in March. And keep in mind those are just the interesting/popular titles, no shovelware in there.

Read on! Read more…

jobocan 3DS, 3DS, Console, ds, Games, games of the month, Handheld, PC, ps3, psp, wii, xbox 360

Let’s Bet!

Let’s Bet is a new feature where we’ll speculate on future events and see who gets as close to the truth as possible in the form of a contest. From time to time, it’ll only be for fun, but other times we’ll put something in play. This is all for fun’s sake and nothing more.

Specific rules are set  for each contest and everyone is welcome to try their shot at it from the comments. And if you beat us to it? I guarantee we’ll have a prize for you!

To participate: Post in the comments or send us a tweet @thesavepoints using the tag #NGPbet.

After years of speculations, Sony revealed yesterday in Japan its official successor to the PSP, the NGP (Next Generation Portable). Now it’s obviously an expensive piece of technology that’s going to cost a fortune to Sony to manufacture. Just the front screen seems to be worth $200+ alone  (5 inch OLED capacitive Touchscreen, 16 million colors, 960 × 544 pixels).

Will we have to leave saving our beloved one for another day to buy it? Will we have to sell our clothes? Will Sony get rich over the NGP?

Will it compete with the Nintendo 3DS or will it aim for the iPad/Iphone/Android market?

So let’s play a variation of price is right on this one.

How much do you think each of the Next Generation Portable SKUs will cost?

Since there’s speculations on two different units, one supporting 3G and the other one without 3G, let’s speculate on both prices.

Important: Missing one of the two prices will be taken as speculating the cheaper one will cost $0.

To determine who is the winner, we’ll add up the difference between the guessed price of both SKUs (w/3G, w/o 3G) and whoever has the smallest number wins.

We’re testing waters with this one, so the prize will be on me. (And if I win, no one gets anything!)

Prize for this contest: $30 certificate at the Amazon Online store of your choice (.com, .ca, .uk, etc.)

Note: Entry will end as soon as we’re aware that Sony will announce the price, or whenever they do announce it.

Tie-breaker:  We’ll find a way to settle tie-breakers shortly.

Edit: Tie-breakers will go to the earlier entry if it’s out of the staff. If it’s in staff, I’ll split it up. If it’s staff and public, I’ll give it to the earliest public entry and give something too to the winning staff member.

We’re expecting a price announced during the Sony E3 conference (man I wish I could be there again this year, it was pretty cool being there last year), so entries will be taken until June 4 11:59 PM. If that’s not the case, we’ll review the date.

See what  bets have been made  so far after the jump. Read more…

David A. Handheld, Let's Bet, psp

Well our Games of the Year awards for 2010 are done. We have lots of great winners and a lot of variety in our winners too. All great games, unless it’s in the Disappointments  category of course.

So this is just a quick look back at the awards as a whole, with a list of all the posts.

Best PSP Games
Best DS Games
Best Downloadable Games
Best Multi-Platform Games
Best Wii Exclusives
Best PS3 Exclusives
Best Xbox 360 Exclusives
Biggest Surprises
Biggest Disappointments
Games of the Year

jobocan Console, ds, Game of the Year, Games, Games of the Year, Handheld, NES, ps3, PSN, psp, wii, WiiWare, XBLA, xbox 360

Well it’s time to start up this year’s Games of the Year awards! We have, I think, 3 less categories than last year (that were honestly pointless anyways), so it’s going to be a bit quicker.

We’re gonna start our awards this year with what is basically the underdog every year. The support of the PSP is fairly low, so finding enough winners for it is never really that hard… unless less than 4 good games came out for it in the year, but thankfully that was not the case here, there were actually a few other possible winners.

Keep in mind we can only play/buy a limited amount of games every year (since we don’t make money off this site), so we haven’t played EVERY new PSP game. And a few games, some that might have been your favorites, were omitted from the list for various reasons. If you wonder about a certain game, just ask about why it’s not there, we’ll be happy to reply (no trolling).

So without further ado, let’s go at it and start this thing! Here are our winners for best PSP games of the year!
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jobocan Games, Games of the Year, Handheld, PSN, psp

Well the end of year is coming, so obviously, like any respectable video gaming website, we’ll post our favorite games of the year, seperated into multiple categories. We’re a bit different here though, and we’ll choose winners that are very different from… probably every other gaming website (other than one category where everyone will have the same winners). And our format is a slight bit different.

Here are the categories (fairly straightforward):

Best PSP Games
Best DS Games
Best Downloadable Games
Best Multi-Platform Games
Best Wii Exclusives
Best Xbox 360 Exclusives
Best PS3 Exclusives
Biggest Surprises of the year
Biggest Disappointments of the year
Games of the Year

Each category will have 4 winners (I wanted to do 5 winners per category, like we did last year, but turns out that very few of the categories had enough worthy nominees, so we went with 4 instead). The final post will be the Games of the Year post, which will have 3 winners instead of 4.

People might wonder why we don’t only go with one winner… And that’s fairly simple: it adds more variety and gives a good view of a lot of the really good games in all the categories. It’s not like there’s actually a “best game” in any of the categories, so showcasing a lot of the good ones seems like a fine alternative.

Oh, and, when I say “Exclusives”, that’s exactly what I mean: games that ONLY came out for that system. Therefore, games that came out for PC in addition to the 360 are NOT 360 exclusives (I shouldn’t have to explain this…  but I might as well since people apparently don’t grasp the concept of exclusivity).

So yeah, look forward to our 2010 Games of the Year winners in the following few days, with a post every day or two until we’re done with all the categories. Cheers!

jobocan Announcements, ds, Games, Games of the Year, ps3, psp, wii, xbox 360

Nippon Ichi Software in Japan and NIS America have been pretty active on the PSP this year, with 2 “What Did I Do To Deserve This?” games, Cladun, Disgaea Infinite, and, in Japan, Prinny 2, Criminal Girls, a PSP port of the awesome Phantom Brave, and I’m probably forgetting something. But the most interesting release by NIS and NIS America this year is, without a doubt, “Z.H.P. Unlosing Ranger vs. Darkdeath Evilman”.

The moment I saw the trailer for this game (well, the japanese version of the trailer really, but the english one really hyped me up), I knew I had to pick it up. Not only is the title one of the most awesome I’ve ever seen, the actual gameplay and potential depth of the game made it really interesting.

Read on and see if it’s as awesome as the trailer makes it look!

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jobocan Games, Handheld, psp, Review

When this was announced earlier this year, it was kinda overshadowed by the announcement of the upcoming ZHP game by NIS, since both games were announced at the same time and the trailer for ZHP was just so much more awesome. But it still looked fairly interesting, with its semi-8-bit/16-bit graphics and 8-bit music.

The game was called Classic Dungeon in japan, which I think is a better name… At least the title tells you it’s an RPG.

So let’s go right away and see if NIS has made another masterpiece!
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jobocan Games, Handheld, PSN, psp, Review