More insight on the PSP

[Keith_N]

I just had a chance to play the psp at a game show in Hong Kong and give you what I think.

First I like to say, the PSP is light in weight as the GBA SP. I happend to own the SP and this I can verify.

Secondly, the PSP can easily be smudged by fingerprints and it really shows. The demo guys are constantly wiping fingerprints off (much like washing a car) the PSP after people had a crack at playing it.

Thirdly, that analog controller for the PSP feels a bit jerky in motion and its in 4 directions. I played the golf game which allows you to control the view. Maybe it needs to be calibrated.

The UMD switch is right beside that R trigger button. Though when I played Ridge Racer for a couple laps I never noticed any UMD disc fly out.

As for the game Ridge Racer, the graphics are the PS2. (no jaggies, no polygon glitches, lots of texture detail on that polygon face, and a very good 1st/3rd person viewpoint, good frame rate) Sony basically put the PS2 game into the PSP. When those reviewers said the psp Ridge Racer was a step down from the ps2, they are dead wrong. The PSP version of Ridge Racer is a 1 to 1 translation of the PS2 with the added feature of a turbo button when you press the R trigger button. Sorta reminds me of the old Turbo Outrun game with updated graphics. Ridge Racer doesn't use the analogue controller but it does use the 4 directional buttons to steer the car. L triggers 1st/3rd person view. Overall if you played Ridge Racer on the PS2 and you like that version, you'll definitely like the PSP version of Ridge Racer. It really shows off the 3d graphics engine of the PSP.

The only other game I played on the PSP was Bust a Move, its pretty much like the same old SNK port on the PSP. Nothing really special with the game except to show that the PSP can do 2d games.

The sound volume of the PSP is pretty much like quality of the GBA, if you have a headphone, you get the stereo experience. I pretty much said about the screen before and now had a chance to play the PSP. I am impressed with the system. I hear Eye Toy is in development so we'll soon see a USB camera attached to the PSP.

[Shane R. Monroe]

BAHHAHHAHA! A racing game using a digital controller? PRICELESS.

Were the units locked down? Could you hold it?

[Keith_N]

BAHHAHHAHA! A racing game using a digital controller? PRICELESS.

Were the units locked down? Could you hold it?

Some were and others were chained to a belt by a Sony rep. I was able to hold it when I played Ridge Racer. Man there was at least 12-15 around in the exhibition. Talk about shortages heheh. Sounds more like hoarding

[kittendaddy]

BAHHAHHAHA! A racing game using a digital controller? PRICELESS.
Um... both the PSP and DS versions of Ridge Racer have both analog and digital control options. And the DS defaults to digital (D-pad).

[Shane R. Monroe]

Oh, it made it sound to me that the PSP version was digital only - I was going to applaud Sony for "dumbest move of the year". :)

[sci]

You mean Namco

[Bryan 'KidHype' Smith]

no..he means sony...they made it sound like there was no analog control for the PSP.

[Keith_N]

There is analogue control in Ridge Racer, but here's the trick you have spend time weeding through menu in Japanese.

[Darksol]

There is a lot of ****ting on the PSP but here is one thing I like that Sony is doing. They are currently disabling the region lock for games so that I can pick up the latest and greatest from Japan if I have a US unit. Hopefully they will decide not to enable the region locking going forward.

[Shane R. Monroe]

Yeah, neither does the DS... I guess everyone figured it out.

[sci]

Portable units are never region locked, since they're made for travelling

[kinglumby]

Anyone see the latest from GameSpot on the PSP....they were saying that with some games like Ridge Racer you were lucky to get 1 1/2 to 2 hours play and with networking this was even less.

Quoting the article

Q: How long does the PSP's battery last?

A: The short answer is that it depends on what you're doing. The longer answer is that Sony has stated that the battery should last around six hours. With simpler-looking games, like Lumines or Mahjong Fight Club, that definitely seems to be the case. But with more graphically intensive games, like Ridge Racers, the battery doesn't last quite as long. Based on our estimates and a few battery-draining tests, Ridge Racers seems to last somewhere between 90 minutes and three hours. Playing with the wireless networking switch flipped on will also further reduce your battery life. The system has an auto-sleep function that stops the wireless drain, but that switch is there for a reason. Turn it off when you're not using it.

Video and audio will likely drain the battery differently, depending on where the content is coming from. It's less power-intensive to read from the memory stick slot than the universal media disc drive, though without any audio discs and only one demo video disc full of short games and movie trailers available now, it's difficult to actually put a number on this. Considering that the screen will black out if left unattended, it seems reasonable that you should get a good amount of battery power out of the system when listening to audio.


Q: What's the deal with the PSP's control disc? Is it analog or not?

A: We've heard reports from the development side of things that the control disc on the PSP isn't a "true" analog device. After playing a few games that use it, it's difficult to tell the difference. The disc definitely allows for more than eight directions of motion, and works fine for, say, making slight turns in Ridge Racers. That said, the disc seems to have a fairly large dead zone, and it's difficult to get very slight movements out of it. But above all, it seems to work well for driving games at least, and it shouldn't be a problem, regardless of how, exactly, it works under the hood.


MMMMM.....very interesting. No such problems with Nintendo DS.

Let's be honest. Sony hit the jackpot with the WalkMan and even the DiscMan was pretty coold byt since then their portable stuff han't been up to scratch. I think most people would agree that the MD wasn't such a good thing and it's only been the recent upgrade to better Firmware that has improved things.

For sure the playstation is a huge success. But are they flogging a dead horse with the PSP. If only Nintendo and Sony had played nice with the SNES CD drive.......what a different world we have. After all they did make the sound chips for the SNES!!

Imagnine the "Nintendo DSP" how cool would that be?

[Shane R. Monroe]

Time will tell ... time will tell.

We all know people have officially lost their minds ... that means all bets are off - NO MATTER HOW BAD the PSP turns out to really be. Perception of reality is a lot more important than actual reality (see the last presidential election).

[Darksol]

Time will tell ... time will tell.

We all know people have officially lost their minds ... that means all bets are off - NO MATTER HOW BAD the PSP turns out to really be. Perception of reality is a lot more important than actual reality (see the last presidential election).

Yeah I wonder if Kerry was thinking this after he lost ...

"Ironic, isn't it Smithers? This anonymous clan of slack-jawed troglodytes has cost me the election, and yet if I were to have them killed, I would be the one to go to jail. That's democracy for you."

This is what I have to think about for half my day ....

www.irulethisworld.com/audio/reality.wav

[Shane R. Monroe]

Bahahhahahah!