Code of Princess coming to the Nintendo 3DS on Oct. 9

Atlus has announced Code of Princess, a beat 'em up action RPG, will be released Oct. 9 on the Nintendo 3DS. The game takes place in a world where monsters have began their uprising on man. It features a wide variety of characters and supports up to four players.

After playing Heroes of Ruin, I've got a craving for more RPGs on the 3DS. I'll be having my eye on this one in the future.

Get even tinier random thoughts at www.twitter.com/JeffHoard921.

Waste time at work by playing basketball on the Google logo

Google is known for their crazy, interactive logos, and lately they've gotten into the Olympic spirit. Now you can shoot some hoops in their latest creation. Simply hold the space bar and let go to get as many basketballs through the hoop in a limited amount of time. Holding it builds up strength and timing is key. After so many shots, your character will move back, requiring minor recalculations.

My best score is 42. Can you top that? (Please don't. I feel proud of myself) You can play this game any time in Google's doodles section. There's also a hurdles mini-game, too.

Get even tinier random thoughts at www.twitter.com/JeffHoard921.

Ada Wong will have playable campaign in Resident Evil 6; details on game's Agent Hunt mode

It has been confirmed by Capcom that popular Resident Evil character Ada Wong will have her own playable campaign in Resident Evil 6. Her story will be unlocked after completion of the Leon, Jake and Chris campaigns. This is great news as far as I'm concerned. Unlockable gameplay that's free is a rare thing these days.

Capcom also released more details on the online mode Agent Hunt, which is reminiscent of the popular Valve zombie franchise Left 4 Dead. In this mode, a player can join another player's game session as an enemy and try to take down the humans. Luckily, players can choose whether or not to allow Agent Hunt to be activated. The hunters can search for a game to join, and up to two separate hunters can join a session. When the hunter dies, he/she is respawned as another enemy in the area. Hunters eliminating agents will be taken to a results screen, and the dying agent will have their game end just like playing against AI enemies. A hunter can quit their game anytime without it affecting the agent's game. Only certain stages are available in each campaign, and are unlocked when their respective campaign is completed.

Resident Evil 6 is shaping up to be quite a package. It will release on the Xbox 360 and PS3 on Oct. 2. A PC version will be available sometime afterward.

Get even tinier random thoughts at www.twitter.com/JeffHoard921.

Sony's depressing PS Vita sales numbers show bleak future for the handheld

Sony's financial troubles continued as the company reported a first-quarter loss of $312 million. From a gaming standpoint, there was troubling news for their struggling PS Vita handheld, which was lumped into total sales data with the PSP. Anytime a company starts combining total sales of different devices to make the numbers look higher, it's a troubling sign.

Only 1.4 million PSP and PS Vita gaming devices were sold worldwide during the first quarter. The PS Vita has been selling around 10,000-15,000 a week in Japan, according to Media Create, but Sony has been shy about reporting sales elsewhere around the world, which can be viewed as another troubling sign. Here's another one: Sony adjusted their sales forecast from 16 million PS Vita and PSP units to 12 million through the fiscal year ending March 31, 2013. Prior to this, Sony's goal was to sell 10 million PS Vita units by March 2013, a very, very radical goal at the time.

I'm sorry, Sony, but this is not going to happen unless drastic measures are taken. The PSP is dead everywhere besides Japan, the Disney Land for dedicated gaming handhelds, and the PS Vita is nowhere near putting up the numbers needed to reach the adjusted goal. Of the 1.4 million handheld total, I would guess about half came from PS Vita.

The big way to get hardware numbers up is a price cut. At $250, or $300 for the 3G version, it's too expensive compared to other competition out there. Nintendo learned this lesson the hard way and quickly slashed the 3DS price from $250 to $170. But cutting the cost comes at a price: Putting Sony in the red even more, just like it happened to Nintendo for the first time in decades.

But cutting the price is only a short-term solution. Games sell systems, and the PS Vita is struggling to find that system seller. Uncharted was hyped for a long time, but didn't move systems. In Japan where Monster Hunter is king and was the key factor in the PSP's success, Nintendo nabbed it away from Sony for the 3DS, and they're seeing the effects of it. There will be spinoff titles of Assassin's Creed and Call of Duty released for the PS Vita, but it's unknown if these will succeed like the console versions.

The future looks very bleak for the Sony handheld. I'm not going to call it a failure yet, but I'm getting closer to that conclusion. To me, it all comes down to this holiday. If the PS Vita fails to gain any ground or just keep up with the 3DS and smartphone craze, then I don't see it surviving to the 2013 holiday.

Get even tinier random thoughts at www.twitter.com/JeffHoard921.

Quick thoughts on Heroes of Ruin for the Nintendo 3DS

Square Enix's latest Nintendo 3DS release, Heroes of Ruin, has occupied my time lately. Here are my thoughts on the game so far.

Hack-and-slash dungeon crawlers like Heroes of Ruin are all about the loot, and this game has plenty of it. There are hundreds of items available, although a fair share aren't usable depending on which character you choose in the beginning. There are four available and I chose the Vindicator, which relies on big sword types to unleash destruction upon enemies.

Controls are responsive and easy to use. The circle pad moves your character, and the in-game menus use the D-pad or touchscreen. Your regular attack is the B button, and three separate skills unlocked through leveling up can be mapped to the X, Y and A buttons. The character moves slower than I want it to, but rolling around speeds things up a little.

My biggest complaint about this game is the difficulty. It's just too easy. In most cases, enemies can be annihilated in no time. Plus, the game hands out health and energy potions like candy, so little skill is needed since you can pretty much go into a crowd of enemies and whack away at them without a fear of dying.

Watch out for my full review at www.theoaklandpress.com.

Get even tinier random thoughts at www.twitter.com/JeffHoard921.

Michael Phelps loves playing Call of Duty, but is he addicted to the game?

Associated Press photos

As U.S. Olympian swimmer Michael Phelps prepares to go for the gold again in the Summer Olympics in London, he sat down for an interview with ThePostGame a while back to give some insight on his life. While he talked about training and swimming, the subject of video games popped up since he has a Kinect game entitled Michael Phelps: Push the Limit.

Phelps said his game of choice lately is Call of Duty on the Xbox 360. "I find myself playing like 30 hours a week," he said in the interview. Apparently he's not to hot at the game. "I just get crushed. I always find myself getting heated, trash talking. And you know it's a 10-year-old kid on the other line that just demolished me. It's so frustrating. But it is fun, and I'm very competitive in everything I do," Phelps continued.

Yep, your American hero and role model for children all across the U.S. does a little trash talking online. Obviously, we don't know his Xbox Live gamertag, but since he apparently plays so much, some Call of Duty players may have gotten yelled at by the swimming guru.

Of course, the topic of video game addiction was brought up by none other than Liz Woolley, the founder of Online Gamers Anonymous, who warned that Phelps should put the controller down. Video game addiction isn't as deadly as drugs or alcohol, but it still can be a serious thing.

Are the warning signs there for Phelps? No way. He's probably exaggerating the 30-hour comment, and even if he wasn't, that's no where near addiction levels. An addict would be playing for more than 10 hours a day, and despite whatever amounts of free time Phelps has, he's got a long ways and a lot more trash talking to go. Unless he misses his scheduled time at the pool because he's playing some Xbox at the hotel - then we got a problem.

Get even tinier random thoughts at www.twitter.com/JeffHoard921.

Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition coming in September for PC, Mac, iPad and Android at a cheap price

The wildly popular Baldur's Gate PC game that took the world by storm in the late 1990s will be releasing again with hundreds of new improvements for the PC, Mac, iPad and Android devices, titled Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition, which comes with the Tales of the Sword Coast expansion.

The PC/Mac version will cost $19.99 and feature a new adventure called The Black Pits, where you take your party and tackle 15 battles, facing unique challenges and characters. There are three new characters available along with a collection of player character voice sets, more than 400 improvements from the original game, and improved multiplayer support.

This game will only cost $9.99 for the iPad and Android devices, but a couple new characters cost extra as in-app purchases as well as the voice sets and player portraits. Players can keep track their friends and invite them to play through Gamecenter Support.

The Windows version is scheduled for Sept. 18, with the iPad and Mac versions expected in September. The release on Android is to be determined. I played a lot of Baldur's Gate back in the day, so $20 is a great price to relive some memories, and playing on the iPad sounds even better.

Get even tinier random thoughts at www.twitter.com/JeffHoard921.