Up coming Handheld Gen's gonna ROCK HARD!

[Kyanbu The Legend]

So I was poking around Tvtropes and found this.
http://www.panasonicjungle.org/

Panasonic is throwing it's hat into the console wars ring with Jungle. An Online focused Handheld.

PanaSonic Jungle

A couple of weeks ago, the well known Japanese electronics company, Panasonic, announced the Panasonic Jungle, its upcoming gaming device. You may have even seen Rob’s Jungle Jingle episode of Rob’s Fantasy Factory. Since then, there’ve only been a few updates, mainly which games are going to be playable on the Jungle. Other than that, this new handheld gaming device is still quite a mystery.

Today, an email was sent out to some users. It looks like Panasonic wants testers for its new gaming system. The email describes the system as being “committed to the cloud and web-based content, the free-to-play movement, social and community-based gaming, and new forms of digital entertainment.” Panasonic seems to feel rather confident in their new device as they congratulate supporters for “thinking outside of the box” with them rather than “other companies” and their traditional gaming systems.

So far games confirmed for Jungle are:


Stellar Dawn

Stellar Dawn is the culmination of almost 4 years of work on a browser based sci-fi MMORPG game by Jagex Ltd (who also created RuneScape). According to the company, Stellar Dawn is a “combat-driven MMORPG with a rich sci-fi storyline.”

It was announced in mid October that Stellar Dawn will also be playable on the upcoming portable gaming console, the Panasonic Jungle. The company’s hit MMORPG, Runescape: Dungeons of Daemonheim, will be playable for the Panasonic Jungle.

The original project was developed under the name of MechScape, but in 2009, Jagex decided that MechScape was not up to its standards, so it began reworking on the project, renaming the game, Stellar Dawn. A closed beta release of Stellar Dawn is available now, although a date for the official release was not given.

Stellar dawn for the panasonic jungleIn June, 2010, a Jagex Moderator announced that Stellar Dawn was only several months from being released.

They also called Stellar Dawn the company’s “biggest release to date”. The official Stellar Dawn website was launched a month later, with a closed beta application, FAQ, forum and concept art. The official launch of the game will be in 2011. According to the officials, Stellar Dawn will have different setting and gameplay from RuneScape.


It is still too early to say whether Stellar Dawn is a good match for the Panasonic Jungle. If you don’t know already, the Panasonic Jungle is a soon to be released handheld gaming device, specializing in browser based MMORPGs. Not many details are known about either. Since the official announcement of the Panasonic Jungle, the company hasn’t given many updates besides what games will be featured. So far, the Panasonic Jungle will be able to play Battlestar Galactica Online as well as RuneScape.
Stellar dawn for the panasonic jungle

As with all of the other games developed by Jagex Ltd, Stellar Dawn is browser-based (meaning you play straight from Firefox or Internet Explorer) so you can pretty much play from any computer with an internet connection. The game will cost absolutely nothing to play, although there may be a subscription for additional features.

That’s pretty much everything we know about Stellar Dawn and the Panasonic Jungle. Hang tight and check back soon because there are sure to be updates!

Runescape: Dungeons of Daemonheim

Panasonic recently updated the official website for the Panasonic Jungle with two new MMORPG games, one of them being Runescape: Dungeons of Daemonheim. Dungeons of Daemonheim is the latest expansion to the popular online MMORPG, RuneScape which came out in early 2010.

Runescape is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game in the fantasy genre which was released early 2001 by Jagex. Currently, it has about ten million accounts that are active and over 130 million accounts registered, making it the world’s number 1 free MMORPG. Now it’s going to be available on the Jungle, Panasonic’s soon-to-be-released handheld gaming device.

Why is RuneScape so popular? The number one reason is that it’s free. Like Battlestar Galactica Online, which has yet to be released, it’s browser based and doesn’t require any installation. According to the official RuneScape site, there is over 15,000 hours of game play!

Runescape is set in the Gielinor, a fantasy world in the medieval ages. Gielindor is separated into various kingdoms, regions and cities. Gamers move through the fantasy world either on foot, or using magical spells such as teleportation. There are monsters, missions and resources to make the game fun.

Players can customize their avatars and the storyline is not set, but gamers can choose their own mission and goals. You can fight monsters, complete quests or interact with others by chatting, trading or playing minigames. Dungeons of Daemonheim was the largest and most impressive upgrade to Runescape Jagex has made. Three new underground levels were added, each with customized and randomized rooms. No two rooms or experiences are ever the same. The expansion provided billions of new gaming possibilities and over 60,000 hours of novel gameplay.

It isn’t really a surprise that Pansonic announced that Runescape would be playable on the Panasonic Jungle. The Panasonic Jungle is supposed to specialize in MMORPGs, particularly browser based games. The Panasonic Jungle features a touch pad that allows these types of games to be played.

It would have been shocking if it didn’t support the most popular free MMORPG. In fact one of the few released pictures of the Panasonic Jungle has the King Black Dragon Battle (from Runescape.com) as the background!

Panasonic still hasn’t released any additional information about the Panasonic Jungle since early October. So far, the only new updates is that it will be able to support RuneScape and Steller Dawn. The dilemma is: RuneScape is super popular because it’s free. Will gamer want to spend a couple hundred to buy another device just to play it on the go? We’ll have to wait and see.

Battlestar Galactica Online

Battlestar Galactica Online is a new MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game) developed by Bigpoint, a German videogame publisher and developer. The game is based off of the popular cult television series. The game play is based around the continual conflict between the humans and the Cyclons.

Battlestar Galactica Online delves deeper into the Battlestar universe, which also leads into Syfy’s television show, “Caprica”. Similar to Dark Orbit, another game released by Bigpoint, Battlestar Galactica Online is in realtime. Players are allowed to purchase different ships and customize them with a variety of parts.

What makes Battlestar Galactica Online different from previous Bigpoint games is that BGO was designed using the powerful Unity engine. This gives the game gorgeous 3 dimensional graphics that are on the same level as client based games. Players can obtain their ships from the Battlestar Galactica Online world. Also, there is no combat that takes place on land. The level cap is said to be at 20. The game was first introduced at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco in early 2010 and is scheduled to release in the fall of 2010.
Battlestar Galactica Online Official Trailer:

Surprisingly, there has never been a major videogame based on Battlestar Galactica, despite the sci-fi and videogame audience crossover. There was a starship fighting game in 2007 with the title “Battlestar Galactica” which flopped.

Bill Kispert, the VP of digital platforms for partnerships and licensing department of the major movie studio, Universal Pictures says that the online MMORPG will be catered towards fans of the tv series, “We are picking a point in the chronology of the series that fans are familiar with to tell new stories. There will be space combats as well as missions and explorations.”

But Battlestart Galactica Online may also attract gamers who are not fans of the show. Unlike other popular MMORPGs such as WOW, which have a price tag around $50 and then require a monthly subscription fee, Battlestar Galactica can be played in an internet browser for free! The advantages of making a browser-based game is that developers can constant add updates for their gamers.
Battlestar Galactica Online and the Panasonic Jungle

In early October, Panasonic announced that it will be releasing the Panasonic Jungle, a portable handheld gaming device designed exclusively for MMORPGs. While details about the Panasonic Jungle are still sketchy, Panasonic has announced that Battlestar Galactica Online will be playable on the console.

Features of the Panasonic Jungle

The new Panasonic Jungle features the ability to play MMORPGs and first person games. And it’s portable too. Does this make it better than the Nintendo Dsi, PSP or Pandora? We can’t say for sure right now, but this new handheld gaming system looks like it could have potential. Read to find out more about the specific Panasonic Jungle features.
Panasonic Jungle Features

Although Panasonic hasn’t really announced to the public the specific features of its new gaming device, the Jungle, there is a lot of speculation and rumors on what the new handheld gaming device will feature. Panasonic has released a couple of pictures of the console as well as teaser videos, so we can deduce what the portable gaming system will feature. They have also hinted on some features in their press releases and on the official website. Again, these Panasonic Jungle features are guesses and are not yet official.

Panasonic said that the Jungle will feature a “kick a$$ display” and that the high quality resolution will be one of the best features. This means the resolution of the screen is probably HD, perhaps 720p. 720p refers to the HDTV video mode that has a resolution of 1280×720. That would be truly awesome if they allowed HD resolution on a portable screen.

However, producing usable graphics for deep MMO games is difficult enough around, even at normal PC resolution. Shrinking that screen to fit on a portable device makes the challenge even harder.
Panasonic Jungle Features- Games

According to the makers of the new gaming console, the Panasonic Jungle features the ability to allow players to play against other gamers online. They have hinted that the device will create an “online gaming ecosystem” so the device will probably specialize in MMO (massively multiplayer online) games. Potentially, this device can play World of Warcraft or Starcraft 2, which would be awesome. So far, the official game announced is Battlestar Galactica Online, a MMORPG based off of the hit TV series, Battlestar Galactica.

The Panasonic Jungle features a Linux operating system. Although this is unconfirmed it is very likely. This means that it won’t be able to run games such as World of Warcraft, which traditionally run on PCs or Macs. One MMO online developer said that Linux is not a good system to develop games for, or transfer Mac or Windows games to.
Panasonic Jungle Features- Controls

The Panasonic Jungle features a dpad, a full QWERTY keyboard and a touch pad. A lot of people are skeptical about whether the touch pad could fully replace a mouse. There are also two shoulder buttons.

Please leave a comment if you have any more information on the Panasonic Jungle features.
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PSP2

Well so far all I've found that's reliable is that the reason the system wasn't shown or pushed is because it's having heating problems. What we do know is that it supposedly has dual analog sticks, a rear-mounted touch panel, a larger screen, and more processing power (which seems to be the route of the heating problems), That and there aren't really any games announced for it aside from Uncharted PSP2. We'll know SOMETHING about it by the time E32011 comes around.

Oh and much like this gen, PSP2 will have another version of it's self, the PSPhone.

http://kotaku.com/5724514/more-spy-s...k-out/gallery/

Which...

Xperia and PlayStation branding have found their way onto the PlayStation Phone, for one. The device's menu system also seems to indicate that the phone will run Android Gingerbread 2.3 (which Gizmodo recently reviewed).

Will we see an announcement of the device at this week's CES? And will the Xperia Play make a spring release, as previously reported? We may find out by this Wednesday, when Sony holds its CES 2011 press conference.

Oh and while possibly old news, Kotaku is holding a PSP2 design contest for the lolz.
http://kotaku.com/361753/psp2-concepts-a-new-challenge


There are some very sexy designs.

And you guys already know about the 3DS. Which is going to be the first out of the gate.

Man do I get hyped when I hear about new tech!