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MOVIE REVIEW: NAPOLEON
Severed Review
We have gone to the point where not many games which were initially made with the PS Vita in mind are still exclusive to the console. Even games which due to how they use the Vita’s unique mechanics such as Gravity Rush or Tearaway have found their homes on PlayStation home consoles with some tweaking. Severed isn’t like those. It was built with the Vita in mind and while you can now play it on other platforms which mirror the Vita’s touchscreen such as tablet and Switch, it will never be on TV. That’s because the titular severing is at the core of the mechanics and Drinkbox made the experience, dare I say it, visceral.
It is very not many games that I start and complete in one sitting and I do not know what it was about Severed that made me do so. Yes the art style is captivating…
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Killzone Mercenary Review
A completely new, fresh style of reviewing in poetic rapper beats.
A reviewer who is also creative?
Not many of them around.
Better watch this lady! Who knows what she may be up to next. 😀
I am Vita. I am Vita. Vita I am.
That PS Vita! That PS Vita! I will not like shooters forever!
Would you like to play Killzone Mercenary?
I do not like guns and flames. I do not like FPS games .
Would you like it here or there?
I would not like it here or there. I would not like it anywhere. I do not like Killzone Mercenary. I do not like it, Mr Sony.
Would you like it with pretty graphics? Would you like it with touchscreen effects?
I do not like it with nice graphics. I do not like touchscreen effects. I do not like it here or there. I do not like it anywhere. I do not like Killzone Mercenary. I do not like it, Mr Sony.
Would you play it in coop? Would you play with sniper shots?
Not with shots. Not in coop. Not…
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(Vita) 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors review
A port of the critically acclaimed DS visual novel that keeps the crazy story and intricate puzzles in tact, but loses something in its reveals from the move to a single screen format (albeit bringing new benefits in the process).
| Developer | Chunsoft |
| Publisher | |
| Franchise | Zero Escape |
| Genre | |
| PSTV | Yes |
| Physical English | Yes – EU/NA |
World-building & Story
Nine strangers awaken in an unfamiliar place, with watches strapped to their wrists. An ominous voice tells them they must work together to open doors and solve puzzles to escape, while any disobeying of the rules will result in a remote detonator contained in the watches exploding a bomb that will instantly kill them.
Part killing game horror, part escape room puzzle, the setup of 999 will be instantly familiar in today’s gaming landscape but was much more of a novelty when it…
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New Capture Card for PS4: Evolve :: Hardware Review
The Cloner Alliance Evolve saved my recording setup
The PlayStation System Update 9.03 broke my two PS4s. OK, not completely – they weren’t bricked – I can still play games. But I can’t transfer recorded footage from the PS4 disk drive to a flash drive (USB). That’s the only way I know of getting photos and videos off the PS4. If you know of some other magic way, please do let me know. I haven’t heard of anyone else encountering this problem, so I’m assuming I’m alone with it, here in New Zealand. What to do?
Since December 1st, I’ve been tearing my hair out, trying to fix this. I bought and trialled every USB flash drive out there I could lay my paws on. The requirements are: USB 3.x (not a problem) and a minimum of 250GB storage space (problem!). The regular 256GB drives, once formatted by the PlayStation, have space left that’s just under 250GB … yep, and the PS4 refuses therefore to accept them. I have looked into 512GB flash drives (insanely difficult and expensive to obtain here in NZ) and the reviews I’ve seen by intrepid souls who tried them have put me off even risking it, due to severe overheating and other issues.
So, I was back to having to hook up a capture card. The convenience of being able to push one button, record the footage on screen as you’re playing, having it stored on the system drive until you’re ready to pull it off via a small flash drive … that convenience is now gone for me. It may not seem a big deal, but I assure you it is to me. Any streamlining of processes is like manna from the heavens for content creators.
Many content creators have tailor-made or custom set-up workspaces, with PCs, storage drives, consoles etc. all hooked up and arranged properly for work purposes. I don’t have that space or setup. I’m a retired old lady, working in a tiny 10m² bedroom, with 8 consoles all cabled up (and more tucked away). Having any external capture cards hanging around is a space luxury for me. I work on a laptop; otherwise, of course, having a PC with an internal capture card is the best solution.
I do have several capture cards already permanently set up for various consoles (like PS3 and Vita, which require special cabling and/or arrangements). The Switch is thankfully uncomplaining and easy to accommodate. The XBox is a dream – no fuss, no muss – as the PS4 once was.
I had to bite the bullet and rummaged around for what capture card I might still have stashed away. (Note: external capture cards have now virtually disappeared from NZ retail) Oh yes … there’s the old Elgato HD60S. State of the art only a few years ago … and already so over the hill that the company themselves haven’t provided any technical support or update in some time. Plus, I was rudely reminded as I plugged it in and connected it up, that it is incapable of recognising a USB 3.0 drive as such. Error!❗❌❗
This is a well-known error which afflicts many owners of the Elgato capture card. The internet is littered with advice and “tips” for “quick fixes” to solve this issue. I spent long hours going through everything and trying every “tip” and by-passing the more startling “Start by flashing your BIOS …” advice. If you, too, are on a laptop, you’ll know what I mean. 😬 So that was it – RIP Elgato.
Enter the ClonerBox
Finally, I remembered that I bought another capture card (not for gaming, but rather for general video capture from TV and players) some months ago; but hadn’t actually used it yet. Worth a try? Oh yes – this turned out the little gadget that saved my sanity. After all, I have over 500 PS4 games in my library and rely on this console for much of the gaming coverage on my channel.
Why had I decided to purchase such hardware from a Chinese manufacturer? Simple answer: I had bought a Cloner capture card a few years previously (a Flint 4K Plus) for recording from the PSTV and was satisfied with it. I liked the look of this new product and bought it at the introductory price. So now was the time to put it to the test! Would it be able to persuade a reluctant PS4 to cooperate?
In short: it did. Setup is simple and I’ll show you the two modes that are available. The first one is the standard recording setup connected to a PC (2 photos above), where you operate the software to adjust settings and record and store on your hard drive. I was already familiar with the Cloner video capture software (it works just fine and doesn’t produce the voluminous extra data the Elgato always insisted on storing), so all I had to do was cable up the Evolve via the provided Micro USB-B connection cable.
The problem with the PC connected setup is that .. yep, you need your PC or laptop reasonably close to your TV and console, as the cables are just regular length. In a small room – and with the laptop my general working PC – having it ‘tied up’ in an awkward spot next to the PS4 for recording is (from my point of view) not ideal. It works; but I can’t just decide at a moment’s notice “Oh, nice scene or gameplay coming up, I’ll just quickly record that!” I have to spend time fiddling with a table, cables etc. to get it set up.
This is where the Cloner scores (just like the Avermedia LiveGamer portable capture card by the way, which I also use and like): you have a PC-free mode available. 😎 It simply requires a flash drive to be inserted (the Evolve obviously shouldn’t be connected to a PC) and you press the Record button on the remote control. Voilà. Easy video recording. No fuss, no muss – just how I like it.
And that’s it – a happy outcome! I just wish there were more of these small, flexible external capture cards with the record to storage option available at regular electronics retail level. The only aspect I’m not quite sure about is durability. The Evolve is extremely lightweight and I wonder what its working lifespan may be. 🤔
I’ll show you all the ports available on the Evolve:
The one issue to be aware of with the Evolve is that it comes with a power plug that’s the common one for Asia (?). Depending on your location, you may need an adapter for your own country/region. The power input is specified as 100-240V so that should cover most eventualities.
If you’ve read this far, I hope you found something useful in my report. 😊
Please keep well. 🙏
Britta – Food4Dogs
P.S.: It should be obvious, but I’ll say it anyway: This is not an advert for Cloner Alliance products!
A game for each of the Vita’s ten years – Part 3
Great series on the PS Vita, showcasing the extensive and often brilliant library.
So we are now entering the final few years of the Vita’s life and I know a lot of people think that the quality of games drops off the later into a console’s cycle. Well it is true that this final year there were significantly less titles released for the Vita than in previous years, even all the way to end there is a fair number of downright bangers released for our handheld baby.
While I have tried to show off something from each of the genres the Vita is known for and does an amazing job at showcasing, but unfortunately there isn’t space for them all. Hopefully reading the list of others which didn’t quite make the feature you can see not only my passion, but the sheer number of quality titles the Vita has to offer. After all, the Vita will never die…
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The best Vita exclusive games
A nicely balanced selection of still exclusive Vita titles.
Exclusive games have always played a big part in defining a console’s identity – the PS2 is remembered as much for the likes of Final Fantasy X, God of War and Gran Turismo 4 as its competitors were shaped by Halo, Mario and Sonic. Yet gaming is moving increasingly towards a multi-platform environment where single platform-only releases are fewer and farther between and nearly every title targets multiple consoles to maximise their potential audience. This is amplified when a machine fails to make an impact in the market, meaning publishers look elsewhere to turn a profit.
PlayStation Vita is no stranger to this with a number of system-defining titles like Gravity Rush, Persona 4 Golden and Tearaway being ported elsewhere (luckily it never seemed to suffer quite as harsh a fate as Nintendo’s Wii-U and its anaemic selection of remaining exclusives after the likes of Bayonetta, Mario
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(Vita) Phantasy Star Nova import review
This really is a lovely game – and it’s Phantasy Star! I had very few problems as a non-JP speaker.
A blockbuster hunting game from tri-Ace and SEGA that delivers the expected thrills for the genre with some gigantic new beasts and fantastic base customisation elements, elevating it above the competition despite the language barrier and making it an essential Vita purchase.
| Developer | tri-Ace |
| Publisher | SEGA |
| Franchise | Phantasy Star |
| Genre | |
| PSTV | Yes |
| Physical English | No – JP only |
World-building & Story
When the planetary exploration ship Delta Variant is drawn into the atmosphere of an uncharted planet called Machina and crash lands on its surface, the crew (part of the Arks group “Alter”) have to savage for parts on its unforgiving terrain in order to help them rebuild their craft and escape.
Unfortunately, most of the ship’s passengers are suspended in cold sleep and worse still is the fact that the members of Alter discover their weapons, powered by Photon energy, no longer work on the planet’s surface which makes it nigh…
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April 2020 Round Up – A Month of Meh
The state of Vita in 2018 and thoughts on the future in 2019
Top 10 Vita localizations that should have happened
An article after my own heart.
At times I find myself thinking Vita has been far better supported than it should’ve been based on sales – there are some localized games I still can’t believe we got in the west at all. The latter part of Vita’s lifespan has been given a strong pulse thanks to incredible efforts by a number of different publishers to bring titles across, yet there are still a number of games which have slipped through the cracks for various reasons. And in many cases it’s a real shame, because most of these games look absolutely stunning.
In this article, I’ll be looking at a number of these titles – examining what they are; why I think they should’ve come west and various suggestions for why they didn’t. I’m going to cheat slightly and include multiple games under one heading when there’s a group of games with an obvious connection that we haven’t gotten in…
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Bravely Default: How to get good gear fast
I am finally playing Bravely Default. The looming release of Bravely Second kicked me into ‘Why haven’t I played this yet?’ mode and from the moment I started my journey in Luxendarc it just clicked with me. I am now looking for any excuse to sneak back to playing this amazing RPG.
I finished the Prologue last night. Like any classic JRPG prologue worth its salt, it’s looong. Not quite as long as Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky FC prologue … but it’s up there with the best.
The prologue introduces you – via well-timed mini tutorials – to the various game features, and by the end you should be well-versed in the essential skills and options. One option that is IMO really crucial (but may possibly be missed or under-valued) is the re-building of the village Norende. It *may* look at first like a tedious sim module tacked on … but it is in fact nothing short of crucial to how you fare in levelling and gearing up.
You need ‘workers’ to re-build. And workers are hard to come by in the beginning. You start out with just one poor soul. For those of us living in regions where Streetpasses are a rarity, you may be discouraged and therefore not pursue this task. But fear not – the game fortunately recognises this problem and you need not miss out! I have only ever had 1 streetpass in 3 years (!). And now, after just a few days of playing, I have 15 workers. How is that possible? Continue reading “Bravely Default: How to get good gear fast”
Britta = Food4Dogs 