I'll have a side of PSP with that, plz!
YO.
So I broke down and bought a Sony PSP this week. I got it on Friday and I think it can be summed up in one sentence spoken by Brad at work: "Nintendo must be shitting their pants right now!"
This thing is god-damned sexy. It looks like a legitimate piece of consumer electronics, not like a toy. It feels great in the hands (although the little analog stick / nub under the d-pad is kinda hard for my paws to reach without some discomfort after awhile) and the screen.... JESUS CHRIST the screen! I wish I could exaggerate the screen's quality but I can't. It's huge and hot! Overall nothing about the PSP itself has disappointed me yet. Not even the battery life. So far I have charged it until it reported in the bios that the battery was 100% charged. I then played Ridge Racer for about 5 hours and then the battery pooped out. That's not the 12 I get with the NintendoDS, but the QUALITY of the gaming time was much higher.
By the way yes, I did drop some bones on this bad-boy to import it, but I am glad I did. It's awesome and the games are supposed to be region-free (US games are supposed to work on JP systems). I suppose that may not be the case, but if that turns out to be true I'll just buy a US one as well :)
Things I like about the PSP:
- THE SCREEN
- Feels great in your hands. Solid controls, size, etc.
- The bios interface is sexy, functional, and fun to play in itself. Games have a "preview" screen you see here when you put in the UMD ("universal media disc", the name of the mini-discs that the PSP uses) kinda like a DVD main menu. Neat!
- Games feel PS2 quality
- Memory is on a Magic Gate Memory Stick. You can put MP3's, Movies, and Pictures on the stick and watch / listen / view them on the PSP.
- RIDGE RACER!!!!
- Vampire Chronicles (Darkstalkers in US) is cool too.
- Dynasty Warriors is also very cool.
Things I would comment on:
- Armored Core is lame. You WATCH your robot fight.
- Loading times are a tad long. Maybe they will get shorter as people learn how to use the system better during dev.
So in closing I think that the PSP is going to do to portable gaming what the PS1 did to console gaming. Dominate and force a well-known hardware manufacturer to become a software-only company. PS1 zapped Sega, PSP will zap Nintendo. I could be wrong, but things look like that is the way of the future. Besides, playing Metroid or Zelda on a PSP sounds very appealing to me! :)
So I broke down and bought a Sony PSP this week. I got it on Friday and I think it can be summed up in one sentence spoken by Brad at work: "Nintendo must be shitting their pants right now!"
This thing is god-damned sexy. It looks like a legitimate piece of consumer electronics, not like a toy. It feels great in the hands (although the little analog stick / nub under the d-pad is kinda hard for my paws to reach without some discomfort after awhile) and the screen.... JESUS CHRIST the screen! I wish I could exaggerate the screen's quality but I can't. It's huge and hot! Overall nothing about the PSP itself has disappointed me yet. Not even the battery life. So far I have charged it until it reported in the bios that the battery was 100% charged. I then played Ridge Racer for about 5 hours and then the battery pooped out. That's not the 12 I get with the NintendoDS, but the QUALITY of the gaming time was much higher.
By the way yes, I did drop some bones on this bad-boy to import it, but I am glad I did. It's awesome and the games are supposed to be region-free (US games are supposed to work on JP systems). I suppose that may not be the case, but if that turns out to be true I'll just buy a US one as well :)
Things I like about the PSP:
- THE SCREEN
- Feels great in your hands. Solid controls, size, etc.
- The bios interface is sexy, functional, and fun to play in itself. Games have a "preview" screen you see here when you put in the UMD ("universal media disc", the name of the mini-discs that the PSP uses) kinda like a DVD main menu. Neat!
- Games feel PS2 quality
- Memory is on a Magic Gate Memory Stick. You can put MP3's, Movies, and Pictures on the stick and watch / listen / view them on the PSP.
- RIDGE RACER!!!!
- Vampire Chronicles (Darkstalkers in US) is cool too.
- Dynasty Warriors is also very cool.
Things I would comment on:
- Armored Core is lame. You WATCH your robot fight.
- Loading times are a tad long. Maybe they will get shorter as people learn how to use the system better during dev.
So in closing I think that the PSP is going to do to portable gaming what the PS1 did to console gaming. Dominate and force a well-known hardware manufacturer to become a software-only company. PS1 zapped Sega, PSP will zap Nintendo. I could be wrong, but things look like that is the way of the future. Besides, playing Metroid or Zelda on a PSP sounds very appealing to me! :)
3 Comments:
I disagree that the PSP will push Nintendo into software-only business. Sega, as you have repeatedly pointed out, has a skill for "snatching defeat from the jaws of victory." It would be great if Sammy's near-unlimited cash resources could be applied to Sega's game creation skills, and then apply that to a competitive platform, ensuring that competition remain in the console wars.
Buying a PSP is great for you, and it's soopah that you're enjoying it. I would be hard pressed to indulge in an import purchase of first generation Sony hardware, just in case. Even with reasonable access to all this stuff, I'm probably not going to buy a PSP unless it comes with seamless PSX interface that enables schlepping PSX recorded TV content onto a MemoryStick, and then into the the PSP for portable viewing. There is iPSP, which lets a Mac OS X machine do that with the PSP.
But most of the games for PSP are portable versions of PS2 games. That's hella impressive technologically, but the DS actually brings a new interface model to gaming, which hasn't changed in years. Add to that Nintendo's general tendency to create new forms of gameplay, as well as this new UI, and the fact that Nintendo has continuously turned a profit, even with reduced marketshare, says to me that things will not turn out badly for them.
I've also seen a MESS of DSs around, which tells me that Nintendo managed to not screw up this launch, and put lots of consoles in the hands of consumers.
Timmeh sez:
Bwana writes ". . . but the DS actually brings a new interface model to gaming . . . "
That's true - the PSP looks like it follows the GBA line of being actually comfortable to hold and use for more than 10 minutes. The DS is pioneering discomfort technology - last seen in the awkwardly angled grips of Dreamcast controllers :-)
Seriously - I have YET to play Metroid for more than about 10 minutes without being in pain. And I have yet to meet anybody who feels otherwise (who actually owns a DS I should say)
I actually agree that the PSP is not going to make Nintendo a software company - I think that's crazy talk. But I've realized I enjoy the DS much more as a wider GBA than I do any of the DS games I've played to date. It may be a *new* interface, but I'm hard pressed to agree it's a good interface. There's just NO good way to hold the thing and use the stylus.
Quit making that face at me!
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