Well, I did it, I canceled my $359.96 pre-order of the Sony PlayStation Vita - WiFi, ModNation Racers: Road trip, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, and Hot Shots Golf on Amazon. It's not because it was too much money - it was - but I planned for it. It's not that I don't want it either - I do - but it simply doesn't make sense at this time. I have long gone on record - much to the chagrin of the Nintendo faithful - that I believe this is the last generational hurrah for dedicated gaming handhelds. In short, I believe they will still sell well this generation, just not anywhere near the heights of the last generation when the DS and PSP ruled the roost. I've given many reasons for this line of thinking, but I primarily chalk it up to smartphones and tablets being good enough as game machines and the inclination for most people to carry as few electronic devices as possible. In other words, would you rather have a device that does everything multimedia and Internet effortlessly (and, as a smartphone, makes phone calls and texts), and has inexpensive apps (and a great camera for stills and video, etc.), as well as plays good games, or would you rather have a device that plays really good games (thanks mostly to onboard physical controls), but is mediocre (or incapable) at everything else and has expensive apps? Some of us will have both, but many of us will only choose the most logical of the two. If you look at the issue without the emotion of a dedicated gamer, there really is no good argument for having anything other than a smartphone and maybe a tablet in your portable arsenal, particularly since the former has an excuse to be with you 100% of the time.

After starting off with Microsoft, it's now time to talk about Sony's E3 showing. Here goes:

• Something of a bizarre one-off, but nevertheless, a clever and interesting gamble, particularly if you use it as a PC monitor as well--a PlayStation-branded 1080p LED-lit LCD 3D monitor with two HDMI inputs, stereo speakers, and integrated subwoofer. You get the monitor, a pair of active 3D glasses (additional are $69 each), an HDMI cable, and a copy of Resistance, for $499. The truly unique aspect of the monitor? If you have a second pair of glasses, you can play split screen games where each player has their own full view of the action (with the caveat that games must be programmed to support that feature). That's right, no more split-screen nonsense! It still remains to be seen if the pricing is truly competitive (and gamers are willing to forgo big screen HDTV's in favor of the smaller form factor), but I do appreciate the effort.
• The NGP's name is official, PSVita, or PlayStation Vita. That name was of course leaked last week. The powerful handheld will be very competitively priced at $249 for the wifi-only version, with the addition of 3G through AT&T going for another $50. While the 3DS has received a tepid response overall, Sony is at least going with the right price point this time around to help what will still decidedly be an uphill battle. It's definitely a promising system though if the public is willing to give it a chance in this age of buzz- and gametime-stealing smartphones and tablets. The handheld offers six-axis motion sensors, dual analog controls, front- and rear-facing cameras (for the now seemingly mandatory augmented reality feature-set), an OLED touchscreen, and a touchpad on the back. Several promising and high profile titles were also announced, so early signs are definitely good.
• Though minor, I found Sony's PS3 wireless stereo headset interesting, particularly since it works with a USB dongle (there's nothing I hate more than having to fumble behind these systems). For only $99 to pre-order on Amazon, it's supposed to deliver 7.1 digital surround sound. Too bad it doesn't hit until October.

Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Time (PS3)As you've all no doubt already heard, PSN is 100% back in many parts of the world, including right here in the US. This of course means that the Welcome Back Program is now available to download all the free goodies to your PS3. I'll be getting to that tonight, though I'm not sure what I'll ultimately pick. In any case, I'll report back in the comments what I ultimately chose. In related news, Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls is now available on PSN, marking the return of a series that has received continuous, but sporadic, releases since the Apple II original in 1981, though some of those were only in Japan. Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls looks to be a definite return to the series' roots, albeit with a love-it-or-leave-it anime style. I'm firmly in the "leave it" camp, but being able to play classic-style Wizardry again might trump any misgivings over the visuals.

Introducing the PS4.It's Friday! Let's see what's in the queue.

Not so good news for Sony fans. Apparently, Sony will be slashing budgets for its next-gen PlayStation. Did they really invest that much in the PS3? Hm. So what do you call a half-step between generations? An upgrade? Maybe they're releasing some type of add-on expansion type thing instead of a standalone console? Perhaps this isn't really a headline at all, and it's a very slow news day? Speculation!

Now this is cool: Test chamber music: Valve offers free Portal 2 soundtrack downloads. Go ahead and grab it. I played Portal 2 a few weeks ago, and man, was it awesome! The music is great, too. Hm. What the hell is that orange goo gushing from my speakers???

It's Matt's queue. Hey, all. Everybody settle down now. Geez, quit clapping already...La la la. Okay, thank you, thank you. Now let's get started.

All Age Verification Tests Should Be Like This. This is even less effective than the age verification employed in the Leisure Suit Larry games. Still, at least you gotta give them kudos for at least trying to weed out junior. I'm trying to think of other images of things kids wouldn't recognize--perhaps their parents?

PSN breach and restoration to cost $171M, Sony estimates. New "Welcome Back" program features free subscription to XLA.

Here's my take on the hottest news for Wednesday, May 18th.

PSN logins exploited again, Sony takes pages offline. Sony in consultations with TSA to improve security; new system utilizes The PlayStation Eye and requires taking off shoes and submitting to nude-ray scan.

From the Sony Playstation blog - Sony is offering a choice of 2 PS3 games and 2 PSP games from the following list:

Playstation 3:
Dead Nation
inFAMOUS
LittleBigPlanet
Super Stardust HD
Wipeout HD + Fury

PSP:

LittleBigPlanet (PSP)
ModNation Racers
Pursuit Force
Killzone Liberation

Read more here - http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/05/16/details-for-playstation-networ...

Those of you have most likely been reading about all of this drama with the Playstation Network. Matt just reported some of the drama earlier today. I have some BAD news...

The short of it is that the following information about YOU (If you are a PSN user) has been obtained thanks to a security issue -

* Name
* Shipping address
* Billing address
* Country
* E-mail address
* Birthdate
* PSN/Qriocity ID
* PSN/Qriocity password
* PSN/Qriocity security question and answer
* Purchase history

They have also said that credit card information along with expiration date (but without security code) may have also been compromised.

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/26/sony-provides-psn-update-confirms-a-c...

I was just reading joystiq that the nearly week-long outage of the PlayStation Network might have been caused by "Rebug," a custom firmware mod that lets users add money to their PSN wallets. If I understand this correctly, Rebug tricks the servers into thinking that the user is a developer or debugger. Apparently there's no danger of lost personal information, but I wouldn't bet my life on it.

I hope that this fiasco doesn't lead to a general clampdown from the big three on the homebrew community, but I suspect it will. What do you think?