Step into 'Welcome Park,' the PS Vita's tutorial minigame collection

The PlayStation Vita comes pre-loaded with a suite of minigames, under the delightfully Japanese heading of "Welcome Park." Each of the five games is designed to give users practice with one of the Vita's interface methods: the touchscreen (and touch panel), the mic, the camera, and the gyroscope/accelerometer.

I get the feeling they were designed not only to enable practice, but to familiarize users with the fact that these interfaces exist. They're even suggested to you in a particular order. Something about tapping numbers in sequence as my first Vita experience made me feel that just maybe Sony doesn't have the most confidence in its users. Gallery: Welcome Park (Vita)
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How to fix Final Fantasy

This is a column by Jason Schreier dedicated to the analysis (and occasional mocking) of his favorite genre, the Japanese role-playing game. Whether it's because they're too antiquated or just too niche, he believes JRPGs don't get enough attention in the gaming industry today. It's time to change that.

Let's be real: Final Fantasy is broken.


Sure, Square Enix's influential JRPG series might still be popular, its most recent single-player entry shipping 6.2 million units worldwide. And it might still be spawning more sequels, spin-offs and remakes than a Hollywood producer.

But it can do so much better. I mean, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 moved 6.5 million copies in twenty-four hours.

How do we get that much milk out of the... (Continue Reading...)


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