I'm always interested in the unexpected, and today's blips feature a very surprising -- and touching -- tale of an RPG fan.
News Blips:
Sony plans to re-release many UMD-only PSP games on the NGP's proprietary cards. I had assumed that the NGP's backwards compatibility with the PSP would be limited to the games that have been made available for the PSPgo. Well, Sony is going to expand on that library by transferring some of the UMD-only games to the flash-based cards of the NGP. Meanwhile, Sony continues to negotiate with third-party publishers to get their UMD-only games on to the PlayStation Network, but apparently it makes the lawyers happier if they just reprint them as NGP games. I can't imagine why the PSPgo had problems.
Ubisoft to release Splinter Cell and Prince of Persia HD collections on the PS3 March 2. Like the rest of us, game publishers are often forced to sell their old stuff to help pad their wallets. Ubisoft is no different, so they brought in some people to give the classic Splinter Cell and Prince of Persia a few coats of HD paint to increase their resale value. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Classic Trilogy HD and Prince of Persica Classic Trilogy HD -- or TCSCCTHD and POPCTHD, respectively -- will include all the games that appeared in each series during the previous console generation. Each collection will be $39.99 and will also be available on PSN as a digital bundle.
Call of Duty: Black Ops gets its first double XP weekend just in time for the First Strike DLC. The new Black Ops map pack drops tomorrow, February 1, which means that most fans of the game will already be playing it. But if that isn't enough to convince you to hop back on the war simulator, then how about a double XP weekend to help the medicine go down? (And by "medicine," I mean "my bullets.") The double XP madness starts on February 4.
The elderly fan who lamented 15 years ago that she may never get to play Dragon Quest 6 dies one month before the U.S. version is released. Back then, Nintendo Power reported that Enix -- the developer of the Dragon Quest series -- had collapsed and that the status of the U.S. version of Dragon Quest 6 was unknown. Readers sent in letters to Nintendo Power about Enix's demise, including one note from Edith Jeter: “I’m now 76 years old. I may not live long enough to see Dragon Quest 6 unless someone takes action soon.” Tragically, Mrs. Jeter died on January 3 of this year at the age of 91 -- merely a month before the game's release on the DS February 14. Hopefully, she got to play Dragon Quest 9 and all of the other great games in the series that were successfully localized before her death. Condolences to her family. [Tiny Cartridge]
