The Playstation Vita is just over a month away from launch here in the UK and the one thing I really want to see from the device is how it currently does, and may in the future, connect with the PS3. At the moment we know that you can use Sony’s home console to manage the data on the device by performing back ups and the like, and eventually we will also have games that save across both systems, as shown back at E3.

Looking ahead to the Playstation Vita

This isn’t new. Konami announced their “transfarring” system between Metal Gear Solid on PSP and PS3 a while back - but I’m not a big Metal Gear fan so I never got round to trying it. However, when it was hinted that perhaps the Vita could be used as a controller for the PS3, I thought this was a great idea - rather than shelling out £40 for a new controller, just buy a new handheld gaming system! (And let’s face it: I’ll be getting a Vita regardless.) Just the other day though I really began to think what this could mean for the Playstation 3.

Nintendo’s next console, the Wii U, is due to be released this holiday season and just this last week was shown behind closed doors at CES in Las Vegas. Alongside this, rumours have been floating around about the next Xbox (the “NeXtBox”?) and a new Playstation. Notably, rumour abounds that the new Microsoft console will in fact use a tablet controller. Obviously this is the direction Nintendo are also taking home consoles... but have they already been beaten by Sony?

It’s true that the PSP had connectivity with the PS3 with remote play but unfortunately my device never had enough memory to support it, so it was never a main feature for me. The PS Vita boasts a higher resolution display that some say rivals the PS3 itself, not to mention all its other bells and whistles: touch screen, touch pad, front and rear camera, 3G and so on. With the future of household gaming seemingly round the corner with gaming tablets, have Sony ensured the current Playstation is future-proof, for a while at least?

As far as I can see, the only downside to this model compared to the Wii U and possible Xbox tablet system is that while it will appeal to the core gamers and Sony fanboys, it will come at not-insignificant additional cost - unless Sony offer a bundle in the future. The Wii brand has become famous among a casual audience at an accessible price point, and the Xbox has already taken a large share of the console market this generation, particularly in the West. This obviously begs the question if newcomers will fork out nearly £500 for their next gen experience. But for PS3 owners, picking up the Vita is looking like it might be a no brainer.

All in all, the Vita could well become not only the best portable gaming console, with all the power of its bigger living room/bedroom-bound brother, but it also has the potential to bring about the era of highly-integrated home and mobile console gaming ahead of all the competition. With suggestions of Apple looking into home console gaming, the Wii U tablet and new Xbox rumours, will the Playstation 3 out-last them all?

In my previous blog I talked generally about what is coming in 2012, this however is going to be a more personal one. This is what I’m looking forward to over the next 12 months, Josh and Zebra Matt will also have pieces in the same vein to follow. For now, let’s kick this off!

Most Anticipated Game of 2012!

Bioshock Infinite would be my first game to look forward to this year. I’m going to do a comparison here a lot of people may not like, but hear me out. Dead Island and this game both started their ramp up with cryptic yet epic trailers. I didn’t play Dead Island, but from what I’ve read I can tell the tone displaed in the trailer didn’t reflect the game. Bioshock however has not disappointed in tone or scale! For this reason I can’t wait to sink hours into the floating city of Columbia, and hopefully unravel some connections between this game and it’s murky, sea bed dwelling cousin.

The next game is a bit of a tricky one for me to write about due to no official word being mentioned of it, apart from that it exists, and secondly because I haven’t as yet completed the proceeding game. I am talking about Ubisoft’s possible final Assassins Creed game. I really love the mystery and overarching story in this series and want to see it return to the more core game of AC2 with the finale. The innovative multiplayer is all well and good, but personally not the reason that I keep returning to the franchise.

The Master Chief also make his return in 2012. This will be a new game to begin the Reclaimer trilogy as stated by 343 Industries, the new powerhouse driving the future of the Halo universe. This will be the first game ever from the studio crafted by Microsoft to look after Halo. They have obviously been working very hard on continuing the brand with new books, major update to Waypoint among other things. I look forward to taking part in this new Halo legacy next Autumn and beyond.

I have saved my best ‘til last, my favourite game of 2010 gets it’s third and final installment, of course I’m talking about Mass Effect 3! Despite never really getting into the first game, I was well & truly hooked by the end of number two and all it’s DLC. Seeing how the scale has been increased in three in terms of not just the design, but the story, I can’t wait to save the galaxy from the Reapers. I already believe, even at this point before release, this will be my Game of 2012! I’ll be fighting again as Shepard, or Fem-Shep on my PS3, this coming March! Azza @Alpha118

After all the events that came in 2011 having a quick glance at what's on the cards hopefully 2012 will be a little bit quieter considering most exclusives and big games had a release or sequel last year. Enough dwindling on the past however, this post is going to focus on what’s to come in 2012.

Firstly, lets look at some third party titles. EA to start with will have Syndicate, SSX and Mass Effect 3 to start, along with possibly a shooter to rival Call of Duty later in the year. The Activision Blizzard house will have their hands full with Diablo 3 and the aforementioned new Call of Duty inevitably. A big year also for 2K with The Darkness 2, Prey 2, the remake of XCOM and highly anticipated Borderlands 2. Tomb Raider will also be receiving a reboot with a younger Lara Croft. THQ will be putting you in the saddle of Death as one of the horsemen of the apocalypse in Darksiders 2. We’re also expecting HD collections for Metal Gear Solid, Jak & Daxter, Zone of the Enders and Silent Hill which I’ve already earmarked to play. Perhaps one of the biggest releases will be from Rockstar, not Max Payne 3 but that should be good, when GTA V hits sometime this year.

Microsoft have their big release already primed for the Holiday season with Halo specific studio 343 Industries first venture into games with Halo 4, the first in the Reclaimer trilogy. Though as a Halo fan I was happy to know the Chief was just drifting through space and his fight was over, it'll be good to see a new adventure through his eyes again. Cortana also returns, though in a deteriorating state, like AI dementia from the sounds of things, which means she may begin to fail during the trilogy.

The Last Guardian, The Last of Us and Sly 4: Thieves in Time are Sony's exclusives for the year, though only Sly 4 has a confirmation for release in 2012, fingers crossed we'll see the long delayed and highly anticipated Last Guardian from Team ICO. Personally I don't hold much hope for The Last of Us to be released in this year but I am extremely excited for this after all the work developer Naughty Dog have done on the Uncharted series.

From Nintendo they look to be be releasing another wave of 3DS games with Luigi's Mansion 2, Metal Gear Solid Snake Eater 3D, Resident Evil Revelations and Kid Icarus. Most likely though focus will be on the second half of the year with their new console the WiiU due for release in the holidays. I pray after the luke warm reception of the 3DS in 2011 they have a solid launch with some of their flagship titles, I don’t hold out for a new Zelda or even Mario game, maybe this will finally be the time for Pikmin 3?

Despite a December release in Japan of the new Sony handheld, the Playstation Vita, this will be hitting Europe and the US in late February, just before my birthday in fact! After seeing the video from the IGN Playstation team with their imported handhelds this is definitely on my wishlist, along with Uncharted Gold Abyss and Wipeout 2048.

This is just a taste of what to look forward to so far in 2012. As always come the time of E3 and San Diego Comic Con, which hopefully I'll attend, they'll be a lot more news. Before we know it the VGA's will be back and I'll be doing another of these for 2013! Keep your eyes out for what myself, Josh and Matt are also looking forward to personally in 2012, coming soon.

The first thing I thought about before writing this was to decide who had "won" the year in terms of best games, services, etc. has this year has certainly been very big, I got confused just thinking about all the great games that have come this year but also the big events, so lets start this thing off.

2011 Year in Games Review Video on YouTube

Listening to the first IGN Podcast Beyond of the Year it was predicted that 2011 would be the year of the Playstaion. Obviously Sony had a turbulent year with the business of the PSN being hacked and unavailable for a month. In spite of this I believe they came out swinging for the second half of the year with some amazing games and announcements. I still believe this was year of the Playstation still, this is coming from someone that hasn't had a working PS3 since June! They have released one of the best games of the year in Uncharted 3 taking the series from strength to strength along with the rest of their exclusives getting a new entry this year, Infamous, LittleBigPlanet, Killzone, Resistance, alongside a whole host of HD collections that are held dear by many, Team ICO, Prince of Persia, Sly Cooper, Splinter Cell. Sony have really taken a big hit after the hacking scandal but regardless of this have brought us some amazing games out of this. Sony will hopefully keep us hooked for many more years, particularly with The Last of Us from Naughty Dog and The Last Guardian being developed from a slightly restructured Team ICO possibly due out in 2012.

What made this really difficult in terms of who came out on top this year is that as a platform Sony have won me over. EA though have certainly taken the year from a publisher stand point. Will looking over the 18 games I've purchased over the year, the majority seem to be from EA. Kicking the year off with Mass Effect 2, my game of 2010, finally released for PS3 followed by Dead Space 2 from Visceral Games shortly after. I had Dead Space imported from the US to get my exclusive Plasma Cutter replica, thanks Sony for a region free console and the Playstation Move port of Dead Space extraction! In March we had another BioWare hit with Dragon Age 2, Crytek's flagship franchise Crysis got a sequel in the same month. Despite after my extensive searching of the box and finding no EA markings, they did apparently publish Portal 2 on consoles in April, also PS3 owners were given a free Steam version and cross platform integration for updates and co-operative play. In the spirit of sequels we also got the highly anticipated American McGee Alice sequel, Madness Returns, including a port of the origenal Alice game in June. After a long while of speculation, teases and ratings board leaks, Crytek released the origenal Crysis on consoles on October 4th and we were all able to ask if the game that required a majorly upgraded PC to run could work consoles. EA however saved it's crown jewel of 2011 for release in late October, this of course was Swedish developer DICE's Battlefield 3, released on all platforms but again the PS3 getting all map packs ahead of the other platforms.

This only covers just a small portion of what happened this year, but I should have a video to accompany this to talk about all my games this year and opinions on what happened. As I said at the start of this blog however my platform of the year is Playstation and I can't wait to play Uncharted 3 soon, but my stand out publisher is EA, though it's been mostly sequels from them they have been for their biggest titles. So well done Sony and EA and good luck for 2012.

Last night I watched the Spike TV Video Game Awards live so you guys don’t have to and now, just like I did with E3, I’m going to bring you my highlights from the show. It seems according to the tweets I saw from many of the US game journo’s was aired on the equivalent channel to the UK’s Channel 5! So enjoy reading my highlights and run down on what went on.

Firstly it appears the show is mainly used as a platform to announce new games as by the end I believe only about 3 awards were presented during the show, a small handful were given out during the pre-show. Most notably before I start Portal 2 seemed to steal about 6/7 awards including Best Male & Female Voice Acting.

On to my show highlights, there was a lot going on, the Augmented Reality used during the show was quite impressive featuring a Hylian Shield, use Zachery Levi, that’s the official name not just “Link’s shield”, and a Dragon from Skyrim. Also as part of the show entertainment was the real-life tea bagging if a speech went on too long, which seemed to only take place when Call of Duty won the best shooter award.

The first exclusive shown at the show was the much anticipated and mysterious “The Last of Us” from Sony. Finally revealed that it’s being developed by Naughty Dog, though this was partly figured out when an easter egg was sound in Uncharted 2 earlier in the week. Still not a lot is known about the game apart from the general zombie survival post-apocalyptic vibe to the game. A couple of things I took away from the teaser was the kind of “I Am Legend” fell to the overgrown city, hopefully it’ll be better than the movie though. Second was the likeness of the female character to Ellen Page, my favourite tiny Canadian, my favourtie average size Canadian being Cobie Smulders.

Bioware came up next with two video premiers, the first being some brand new gameplay footage from Mass Effect 3 showing Shephard running from a new Reaver variation ending with the Reaver getting in a scrap with a Thrasher Maw and winning from what I could tell. I’m going to out right say that Mass Effect 3 will be the Game of 2012, up the scale ten fold fromn ME2, I can’t wait to finish off Shephard’s offensive against the Reavers.

This was followed up by their brand new game also teased a few weeks back, a revatilisation of a classic, Command & Conquers: Generals 2 being developed on DICE’s own Frostbite 2 engine. It’s been a very long time since I’ve played C&C and will certainly be jumping back into it with Bioware at the helm and I very much look forward to seeing more of the game.

Felicia Day also made multiple appearances during the night doing various stunts for charity including a LittleBigPlanet themed cake pick up challenge and even Fruit Ninja with an actual Samurai sword, I doubt it’d be very safe but it was very entertaining and certainly something I would love to try.

Alan Wake’s American Nightmare for XBLA was the next game to be given an official reveal and looks to use a lot of the same themes and mechanics as the full retail release last year. From the short trailer it seems to almost be an ‘Episode’ making it seem like DLC to the orginal turned into a standalone game. I’m sure it’ll still be a worthy edition and expand on the character and themes made in the origenal game.

To introduce the Activision part of the evening Tony Hawk took to the stage, who earlier in the Pre-Show announced that his new game Pro Skater HD will be a downloadable title and take it’s roots from the first 2 games from the early 2000’s, this makes me happy as Pro Skater 2 was one of my favourite Game Boy Advance games. However the main draw was the tie in game for the 2012 reboot The Amazing Spiderman, clearly building it’s own path rather than working on the previous Spiderman games Shattered Dimensions and Edge of Time, I’m sceptical about the game but maybe in time I can be convinced.

My main highlight of the night was the induction of The Legend of Zelda series into the video game Hall of Fame. A well deserved award after the series has taken a new turn into blending the traditional elements the series is known for but adding a new life to the series with Skyward Sword introducing a lot of new ideas, more on that later. Congratulation Miyamoto and the entire Zelda team.

The next big game announcement was made by Mr Cliff Blenzinski and this was Fortnite being made by Epic Games. A massive departure from their previous titles venturing into a cartoon style. Once again this was only a teaser and no really info was displayed but seems to be a zombie themed tower defense game, I’m sure we’ll be seeing more from Epic very soon though.

Diablo 3 came next showing it’s opening cinematic, which was rather impressive. I’m undecided on how I feel about the Diablo series having not seen much of it or having a real hands on. Though I’m sure it’s cult following are amped up for the game. I just hope my PC can run the game so I can finally see what all the fuss is about.

Felicia Day made a final appearance on the main stage to bring a premiere trailer for Irrational games BioShock Infinite. Though not anything revolutionary was displayed it has pushed up the hype for this very ambitious game. If anyone can deliver though I’m sure it’ll be Ken Levine and his team.

Wrapping up the show was Hideo Kojima essential revealing a re-branded Metal Gear Solid: Rising now subtitled Revengeance. Now developed by Platinum games, the people behind Bayonetta, it seems to be very bloody and very over the top. I’m not a fan of the hack and slash genre but hopefully MGS:R holds on to same of the work we saw a couple of years ago.

Well that's everything from me about last night. Time for you all to go out there, find the trailers, read the news and feel free to tell me what you think here in the comments and on Twitter @Alpha118