What's This AdHoc Party Thing?

I recently just found out about this free download on the PSN that came out November of last year in the US. In Japan, it came out way back in 2008, however, that was just the beta version. I was a bit confused as to what it was at first, but let me say right away that this is probobly the coolest thing I have ever downloaded from PSN, and it was absolutely FREE!

Basically, the AdHoc Party lets you take your PSP, load up a game that supports "AdHoc Multiplayer" (Which is the local kind) and connect to your Internet-enabled PS3. The Adhoc Party Program (which you install on your PS3) then goes on to search for other people playing the same AdHoc Game, and lets you get into a party with them, turning that local multiplayer into completely global online multiplayer, complete with voice chat and everything.

It also allows for private lobbies with a password system, so you can simply invite your friends and don't have to worry about anybody else interrupting your game.

Honestly, the best way to use this program is with friends, or with popular PSP games. Cause it might be slightly hard to find somebody else randomly playing a game of "Lumberjack Challenge" in "WTF: Work Time Fun". In fact, I'd be surprised if anybody was. Find somebody who's playing "Monster Hunter: Freedom Unite" is a much more likely scenario.

Multiplayer in Brütal Legend: More Than Just an Afterthought?

Double Fine Productions has recently shown off the kind of multiplayer we're going to be seeing in their upcoming metal masterpiece, Brütal Legend. The crazy part is, it seems more than just some tacked-on deathmatch and CTF, in fact, it looks like nothing I've seen before!

The online game is played from the same third person perspective as the single player. You can play as a few different factions and depending on which one you choose, that will also determine your character, and which type of creatures you can summon.

Of course you can attack directly, as well... going up and swinging your weapon at the enemy is just one of the strategies you can use against your foe. However, the summoning is probobly the biggest part of the whole thing. You can summon a bunch of different units, and each type has a different play style to them. Of course, you can't simply summon them at any time you like. First you need to gain more fans, which acts as the game's resource. Some units are slow-paced but do a lot of damage, some de-buff your enemy's units, and some are powerhouses. There's all sorts of variety here, and it makes for a very tactical experience... surprisingly tactical, in fact.

The Unit names in Brütal Legend are also one on it's strong points, let me list a few of them for you here. Thunderhog, battle nun, warfather, screamwagon, ratgut, frightwig, and saving the best for last the HATE CAGE. Yes, that's right, the hate cage. Not only are the names great, but all of the units have an excellent design to them as well, complementing the visuals and keeping with the style of METAL!

The online mode looks surprisingly like an RTS, but it seems like it won't require the micromanagement you find in most RTS games. Is this the way a console RTS should be done? Nobody can really tell at this point, but it looks like the good folks at Double Fine have put a lot of hard work into this mode, and at least for me, it's pretty surprising. Tim Schafer has recently said, however, that the game was originally planned to be multiplayer-only, so I suppose since they were working on this the longest, it's not any surprise that it'd come out looking so good.

Brütal Legend is penned to be released Rocktober(yaknow, October) 13th, later this year, so look forward to fighting the epic war of heavy metal against your foes and slaying their demons over your puny internet connection! Ahahhahahaaaa!