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I've posted the information I've collected so far on asynchronous gaming, including posts and profiles I've written on a handful of titles, to a new Asynchronous Gaming site.

My goal is to continue growing the wiki, eventually with additional authors, to flesh out the many ways gaming is becoming more asynchronous and how games specifically implement these features. Let me know if you have anything you'd like to add.

It may be just shy of eight months old, but the PlayStation Vita needs to grow up fast to compete in a highly connected, mobile-dominated portable gaming world. Here's what I think needs to improve in the firmware and app selection in order for it to be a stronger competitor. Some of these sound minor, but taken together they could be just the right amount of polish and functionality to make it stand out.

Updates:
2012-12-03 added Firmware 2.00 and YouTube 2 app update information.
2012-11-07 added Save Data Separation. How did I forget this?

The hardest part of earning the Platinum Trophy on Zipper Interactive's Unit 13 third-person shooter for the PlayStation Vita was earning five stars on every last mission. I was able to focus on it and complete it quickly enough that the following tactics stick in my mind from my play sessions. Here's my take on how to five-star the four different mission types in the game.

Covert:

Note: this article has been moved and is now outdated. Please see the Asynchronous Gaming Wiki for the latest version.

Media Molecule's LittleBigPlanet franchise has had two installments on the PlayStation 3 to date, and both LittleBigPlanet and LittleBigPlanet 2 have significant asynchronous gameplay features. Sony has coined the "Play, Create, Share" motto for LittleBigPlanet and other games featuring user generated content which followed it.

At its heart the game in it's "Play" mode is a puzzle platformer. You complete various puzzles or challenges to rack up points by collecting score bubbles and you can also optionally collect prize bubbles containing materials, items, stickers, costume parts, or even sound effects for use in the Create mode of the game. The level building toolset in the Create mode -- especially in LittleBigPlanet 2 -- can be quite involved, letting the player devise many different types of levels and challenges for their friends locally and online to take part in.

The player can also "Share" one or more of their level creations online to be played by their friends or found by any other LittleBigPlanet players using built-in search and tagging features of the online system. Sharing is at the heart of the asynchronous game modes in LittleBigPlanet and LittleBigPlanet 2. This is because a player can go into the Community area of the Pod, seek out levels that have been published to the online servers for the game, and download a copy of the level to be played on the spot. The player can then rate and write reviews for the levels in question, as well as tag them with terms to help others searching for levels in the future to find it.

Note: this article has been moved and is now outdated. Please see the Asynchronous Gaming Wiki for the latest version.

The new Hitman game from IO Interactive will be packing in multiplayer for the first time in the series when it comes out this fall. The developer quickly bypassed straightforward shooter ideas and instead settled on an asynchronous mode called Contracts. A recent Shacknews preview of the game at PAX had some details:

"In the Contracts creation mode, the player can mark targets as they go, and set the perimeters of the kill by performing it themselves. Do you want your mission to result in zero non-marked casualties? You have to do it first. This assures the creation itself is challenging, and keeps players from setting goals that are impossible to perform. If a Contract shows up, you know that someone, somewhere, has pulled it off."

By allowing the player to interactively create target elimination and mission completion objectives from within levels and requiring the authors to complete it first, the developers serve two major needs. First, it gives the author bragging rights, a literal "look what I can do!" challenge to others. It also gives those taking a shot at the same scenario the knowledge that it is indeed possible to complete it. This could possibly reduce negative comments from players that might otherwise stack up on extremely difficult levels that were not guaranteed to even be able to be finished.