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Everything You Need to Know About Sony’s Next Handheld, the NGP
At Sony’s recent press conference in Japan all the rumors and speculation on their next handheld were brutally squashed by confirmations and whatever it sounds like when legions of nerds gets excited at once. The PSP 2 has been unveiled, though it’s going under the codename of NGP right now, and it’s rather fantastic.
There’s been plenty of theories as to what the console would be able to do and what it would look like but the image you see above is the final product and I think it’s safe to say the NGP is looking rather snazzy. Continue after the jump to get all the info on the handheld including some damn exciting games that will be releasing on the platform, its features and when we can expect it on store shelves. As you can see from the picture above the NGP will finally give us the dual analog sticks we’ve all been asking for since the original console’s launch. On top of that the NGP will have a stunning 5″ OLED display with a 960 x 544 resolution (that’s four times the resolution of the current PSP) and looks great from multiple angles. That screen also happens to be a touch screen and on the back of the console is a touch pad that also measures in at 5″. The most impressive thing about this thing is how amazing the games look on it, which are close to PS3 quality visuals.
That’s all fine and dandy, what about playing with friends? Well, the NGP will have both 3G and Wifi functionality that will let you communicate with friends, play games online and use the PlayStation Store. This also means the handheld is the first of its kind to be able to connect to mobile networks.
So does it use UMDs like the PSP or is it all digital like the PSP Go? No UMDs here, the NGP is flash memory based and will utilized a yet to be revealed “new media.”
Do you like to put yourself in the game, maybe you enjoy shaking your handheld like a nanny with a baby? That’s great because it will also have a Gyrosensor that will be able to read and recognize those movements for the games that take advantage of it. Plus, if you get lost you can always use the ultra handy electronic compass. I usually don’t stray too far from the comfort of my beanbag chair so that feature’s wasted on me, but I’m sure there are some active gamers out there that will make good use of it.
There’s also front and rear cameras, so you can take naughty pictures of yourself and when you get sick of the console and decide to trade it in some poor child can buy it pre-owned and bear witness to said raunchy pics. There’s good fun to be had there. Oh, and did I mention it’s out this year? Well, it will be, sometime around the holidays, so start saving up now. No price has been unveiled yet but it’ll undoubtedly cost you a good chunk of that hard earned drug money.
Then there’s Near, an application that has leaderboards for your area, including the most popular game in a certain location. With Near you can also find information on the games you’re interested in (or potentially interested in) as well as a slew of other social gaming features like seeing what your friends have been playing and things of that nature.
But a console is only as good as the games you can play on it, and from the handful of titles that are planned so far, this thing is excelling in that department. you can expect a few new titles like Hot Shots Golf, Gravity Daze, Hustle Kings, Reality Fighters and Broken, but those aren’t the most exciting announcements, oh no sir. Add to that the confirmation that Killzone, Call of Duty, Resistance and Uncharted will be making their way to the platform and you have yourself a definite contender against Nintendo’s 3DS.
Only one episode remains in Season 3 of “Chucky,” and what a bloody road it’s been so far, especially for actor Devon Sawa. The actor has now officially died twice on screen this season, pulling double duty as President James Collins and body double Randall Jenkins.
If you thought Chucky’s ruthless eye-gouging of the President was bloody, this week’s Episode 7 traps Randall Jenkins in an elevator that feels straight out of an iconic horror classic.
Bloody Disgusting spoke with series creator Don Mancini and actor Devon Sawa about that ultra-bloody death sequence and how the actor inspires Mancini’s writing on the series.
Mancini explains, “Devon’s a bit of a muse. Idle Hands and Final Destination is where my Devon Sawa fandom started, like a lot of people; although yours may have started with Casper. I was a bit too old for that. But it’s really just about how I love writing for actors that I respect and then know. So, it’s like having worked with Devon for three years now, I’m just always thinking, ‘Oh, what would be a fun thing to throw his way that would be unexpected and different that he hasn’t done?’ That’s really what motivates me.”
For Sawa, “Chucky“ is an actor’s dream in that the series gives him not one but multiple roles to sink his teeth into, often within the same season. But the actor is also a huge horror fan, and Season 3: Part 2 gives him the opportunity to pay homage to a classic: Kubrick’s The Shining.
CHUCKY — “There Will Be Blood” Episode 307 — Pictured in this screengrab: (l-r) Devon Sawa as President James Collins, K.C. Collins as Coop — (Photo by: SYFY)
“Collectively, it’s just amazing to put on the different outfits, to do the hair differently, to get different types of dialogue,“ Sawa says of working on the series. “The elevator scene, it’s like being a kid again. I was up to my eyeballs in blood, and it felt very Kubrick. Everybody there was having such a good time, and we were all doing this cool horror stuff, and it felt amazing. It really was a good day.”
Sawa elaborates on being submerged in so much blood, “It was uncomfortable, cold, and sticky, and it got in my ears and my nose. But it was well worth it. I didn’t complain once. I was like, ‘This is why I do what I do, to do scenes like this,‘ the scenes that I grew up watching on VHS cassette, and now we’re doing it in HD, and it’s all so cool.“
It’s always the characters and the actors behind them that matter most to Mancini, even when he delights in coming up with inventive kills and incorporating horror references. And he’s killed Devon Sawa’s characters often. Could future seasons top the record of on-screen Sawa deaths?
“Well, I guess we did it twice in season one and once in season two,“ Mancini counts. “So yeah, I guess I would have to up the ante next season. I’ll really be juggling a lot of falls. But I think it’s hopefully as much about quality as quantity. I want to give him a good role that he’s going to enjoy sinking his teeth into as an actor. It’s not just about the deaths.”
Sawa adds, “Don’s never really talked about how many times could we kill you. He’s always talking about, ‘How can I make this death better,’ and that’s what I think excites him is how he can top each death. The electricity, to me blowing up to, obviously in this season, the eyes and with the elevator, which was my favorite one to shoot. So if it goes on, we’ll see if he could top the deaths.”
CHUCKY — “Death Becomes Her” Episode 305 — Pictured in this screengrab: Devon Sawa as James Collins — (Photo by: SYFY)
The actor has played a handful of distinctly different characters since the series launch, each one meeting a grisly end thanks to Chucky. And Season 3 gave Sawa his favorite characters yet.
“I would say the second one was a lot of fun to shoot,“ the actor says of Randall Jenkins. “The President was great. I liked playing the President. He was the most grounded, I hope, of all the characters. I did like playing him a lot.” Mancini adds, “He’s grounded, but he’s also really traumatized, and I thought you did that really well, too.”
The series creator also reveals a surprise correlation between President James Collins’ character arc and a ’90s horror favorite.
“I saw Devon’s role as the president in Season 3; he’s very Kennedy-esque,“ Mancini explains. “But then given the supernatural plot turns that happen, to me, the analogy is Michelle Pfeiffer in What Lies Beneath, the character that is seeing these weird little things happening around the house that is starting to screw with his sanity and he starts to insist, ‘I’m seeing a ghost,‘ and his spouse thinks he’s nuts. So I always like that. That’s Michelle Pfeiffer in What Lies Beneath, which is a movie I love.”
The finale of “Chucky” Season 3: Part 2 airs Wednesday, May 1 on USA & SYFY.
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