Earlier today we posted the latest episode of Inside PS Vita that shows some of the ways that PS Vita and PS3 interact. Such breakthroughs as playing the exact same game on a home console and portable, and enabling players to compete in the same arena whether they’re in their bedrooms or in the park, are closing the gaps between what we traditionally expect in a home game experience and a portable one. Maybe you disagree with me entirely – that’s where the Weekend Debate comes in.

Whenever I’m in an interview about PlayStation Vita I find myself asking the subject the same question: what’s the difference between a perfect home console game and a perfect portable one? None has given a gold-plated answer yet so I thought I’d open it up to the community. This week’s debate is:

Is there any difference between a game best suited to a home console and one best fitting a portable, or is the whole gaming world too diverse to try and make a distinction?

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For a bit of a change, this week’s debate is a caption-off. Rather than discuss a topic, I’d like you come up with a funny caption for the image below. Seeing as the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection is out this week, here’s a picture of Snake chilling with a monkey. Get captioning!

I don’t have any spare voucher codes to give away this week so this is just for kicks and the chance for you razor wit to be admired by the PS community. Enjoy!

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Earlier today we learned that the PS3 and PlayStation Vita versions of Street Fighter X Tekken will include five exclusive characters: Mega Man, Pac-Man, Cole McGrath and Japanese PlayStation mascots Toro and Kuro.

It got me thinking about cameos and guest appearances in games – an increasingly frequent occurrence, it seems, particularly in beat ‘em ups. And it’s not just other game characters popping up in other pixels’ playgrounds: the NBA Jam series has a long tradition of including Presidential ‘ballers and the mighty Phil Collins popped up in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories.

This week’s Weekend Debate poser is:

What would be your dream gaming crossovers or cameos and why?

The 15 most original and entertaining ideas as decided by our independent judge will bag their authors a voucher code for the LittleBigPlanet 2 Move Pack to help you make your dream mash-ups for yourselves. Do bear in mind that you will need a copy of LittleBigPlanet 2 (not included) to use this DLC.

Can’t wait to read what you come up with!

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If you’re a fan of sports then the irony is that the summer of 2012 will most likely be among your most inactive, with the European Football Championships soon followed by the 2012 Olympic Games in my home town of London, England all over your TV sets.

Earlier this week I read the first details of the inevitable official game of the 2012 Olympics, and I admit I always look forward to them. They take me back to the days of playing International Track and Field as a schoolboy and pioneering new ways to break world records (such as wearing a sock over your hand and using one finger to rapidly alternate between the X and Circle buttons in the sprint events. We called it the ‘getting biro off the back of your hand’ technique.)

I have no idea which events will be covered in the 2012 edition, nor which control schemes the development team is dreaming up. So, this week’s question is:

Which Olympic events would you include in your game of the 2012 Olympic Games and what would be the control mechanic?

Bonus points for the weird and wonderful, of course. The best 15 answers as selected by an independent judge will get a voucher code for PixelJunk Sidescroller. These will be sent via private message at http://community.eu.playstation.com.

Marks, set… comment!

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I’m neither superstitious nor a keen diarist, so it took me a few minutes to figure out what was going on when my local coffee shop was offering free lattes to anyone called Jason (ID Required) wearing a hockey mask this morning. It is indeed Friday the 13th, a day renowned for bringing an excess in bad luck.

This week’s debate (and the first one of 2012) is around luck and how it influences the games that we play and how we play them.

Games of chance are decided by one or more random elements (that’s random in the mathematical sense) whereas skill games are largely decided by the competence of the player. These concepts are often displayed as a continuum as most activities would sit somewhere in between.

The two extreme examples that spring to my mind are Gran Turismo (skill) and Peggle (chance), but you might have better ones.

This week’s debate is:

How do varying degrees of luck (or ‘chance’) influence the games that we play and their effects on us?

As always, our independent judge will pick the 15 most interesting comments and their authors will receive a voucher code for Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath, courtesy of Stewart Gilray and the team at Just Add Water. The codes will be sent via private message at http://community.eu.playstation.com on Monday.

Break a leg!

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