I bought "Ocean Blue" last August when I arrived in Japan. I used it when I had the chance to pick up some Japanese releases and it served me well. Soon it will be in Sissie's hands - its new owner.
Farewell, trusty console...
I opted for a combo bento of sorts today rather than my usual run of 1,000 yen sushi.
Here is the successor to Ocean Blue. Meet MB or Midnight Blue. It's a Playstation 2 with a network adapter and hard disk drive already bundled.
PlayStation 2 broadband (BB) has started to get a push here. The 3 releases currently advertised include "Minna no Golf Online" ("Everyone's Golf" or "Hot Shots Golf" as it's known in the states), "Final Fantasy XI Online" and "Nobunaga Online".
"Minna no Golf Online" (or MINGOL as it's called for short) is enjoyable for those who can't devote a lot of time towards online RPGs. I've already had a few sessions that were a lot of fun. Online play is free until July, when Sony will start charging a 500 yen a month subscription fee (roughly $4.00 US).
Included with the PS2 BB Pack is the latest version of its "BB Navigator" software, which is still in its infancy (version "0.20") but shows what Sony has been planning to do all along, especially with their upcoming "PSX" media center.
The interface for the navi software is beautiful and, in my opinion, surpasses that of the XBox's.
Without a game in the console, the system starts up and allows you to jump into the "channel" menu which offers the following channels:
Game
Movie
Music
Photo
Game is self explanatory - you can load up games that have been installed into the hard drive (in my case, "Minna no Golf Online"), manage save data, and so on.
I haven't experimented with the Movie options that much other than play a DVD movie (which the PS2 has been able to do since its initial release).
Music. Just like the XBox, you can load up CDs and copy them to the hard drive via the music menu. In addition, if you have a NetMD minidisc player, you can hook it up directly to the PS2 via USB and dump the tracks straight to the MD - it's available right from the menu.
Photo is where you can upload photos to your PS2 - I haven't tried this but the option is there. Supposedly it supports most Sony digital still cameras off the bat.
While not a full fledged, net-surfing computer (*yet*) it's easy to see where consoles are headed. Similar to the XBox, it's not a bad package considering you have a solid video game system that can get online, take photos from a digital camera and send & receive e-mail. Maybe that's all some consumers need until the next iteration of consoles.
What other kinds of features should we expect from consoles in the coming years?
