PSP users!

Shagz

Shagz

New Member
So the "big dawg" portable has finally hit the streets; I wanna hear some reviews, anybody pick one up?
 
I don't have one, but I'll get one when the price goes down and I don't have to buy the "value" pack. Looks awesome, I hope TOJ gets a chapter going eventually since even a couple of the launch titles have online play (awesome!).
 
Just out of curiousity, who is buying the PSP, you, or your relatives?

And aren't you gonna get PS3 or X-Box 2 or (GameCube 2)? Almost thousand dollars down the drain...for a high tech piece of technology...

Kids these days...


PSP is a great thing, its a darn shame though, you gonna throw away your Gameboy SP for that... :(
 
Naw man, I love my SP - who would want to toss it, really?

But the PSP...I was pretty much ready to hate it, but I didn't really realize just how much a multimedia device this thing really is. "You mean I can play (good) video games, listen to mp3s, watch video and carry my photo album around using just one gadget?" Pretty slick.

Obviously they're going after a different market than the DS, but really, when you compare the launch titles for the PSP vs. the launch titles for the DS...I'm pretty impressed with the PSP so far.

As for getting the "next gen" consoles, my approach is to ignore the technology and focus entirely on software. I don't care if the XBox can push more polys than the Gamecube, there's only one place where I'm going to find Super Smash Brothers. (Though the XBox does have the advantage of, like the PSP, being a multimedia device - DVDs, rip your CDs for custom game soundtracks)

Then again, if you start doing that, then you might find yourself owning all three systems pretty soon. :P

Back to the PSP...any one seen any in action yet?
 
I don't really care about the media features. I've already got an iPod. I just want something that plays Metal Gear Ac!d. I covet that game.
 
PSP = $250. $250 > Tek's budget for fun. Tek != PSP owner.

Tek = GBA owner. GBA + Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo = r0x0rz.
 
I was looking into getting a DS but after seeing the games out for both systems and the upcomming games its obvious the PSP has the better lineup. Also keep in mind you can upload music, and video onto the card and view them it seems the better choice. If only the sold the system apart from the dumb kit, why would I want spider man 2 UMD and a 32mb card (useless when I can buy my own 512mb) rather then a game?
 
Just wait a little while, I'm sure they'll release a separate, non-kit system.

@Kraniac re: Metal Gear ACID....yea, I haven't read much on that, but anything that has "turn-based" band "strategy" in the same sentence peaks my interest.

@Tek re: Puzz Fighter....EXCELLENT choice...amazing game, especially cool that you can play two players on one GBA. Puzzle Figher, Pinball of the Dead and Chu Chu Rocket were the three games that made me breakdown and buy a GBA. (well, just Chu Chu Rocket alone was what did it) But I ended up staying for Fire Emblem (again, "turn-based" and "strategy").

Fire Emblem 2 is suppose to come out next month <glee> and a new Fire Emblem for the Game Cube at the end of the year....Looks like I'm going to be picking up myself a GC soon. :)
 
Corpfox said:
Just out of curiousity, who is buying the PSP, you, or your relatives?

And aren't you gonna get PS3 or X-Box 2 or (GameCube 2)? Almost thousand dollars down the drain...for a high tech piece of technology...

Kids these days...


PSP is a great thing, its a darn shame though, you gonna throw away your Gameboy SP for that... :(
Click to expand...

that is why i stick to good ol pc....dont really need to get anything new within a couple of years and enjoy many games
 
I wish they would make a non-mp3 player, non-spiffy version for $100 less that just played the danged games already. That, I could afford, and would enjoy having. The PSP's cool factor is through the roof, but it's just another gadget I don't need. That desire for MGA is really weighing on me, and, knowing myself, I'll probably give in to the pressure eventually and buy one, but I certainly won't be HAPPY about it. Grumblecakes. I guess I could find an emulator on the internet and send Hideo Kojima fifty bucks. But that would probably get me some computer virii. And I'm not too down with those.
 
Man, grandparents are great. Due to some unforseen positive cash flow, I purchased one, and a copy of Metal Gear AC!D. I'll withhold final judgment for a few days but so far it seems very cool and very fragile.
 
re: fragility (is that a word?)....I sorta thought the same thing when I looked at the pics, but I wasn't sure. Perhaps it's because it feels "expensive" and therefore you want to be more careful with it?
 
Well the whole front surface is glossy plastic that shows scratches, fingerprints, and dust, like crazy. A weird design decision analogous to iPod's chrome back-- if it gets ugly so fast why choose something so beautiful?

Fragility is a word.
 
Do they make protective overlay things? Like a little strip of plastic that goes over the screen or something? I've heard about the whole fingerprint thing.
 
Wow, that's really disappointing industrial design, sorta how the SP's plastic was so scratch prone. For a portable device that you hold in your sticky, greasy gamer hands, you'd figure they would have use a more durable.

As for covers, I mean really, if it's enough of a problem that a third party is cashing in on Sony's short-sightedness, somebody would have noticed before it got released to the public, ya? So either they didn't notice and let it go, or they sided with "asthetic value" over "function". To me, when you're dealing with a portable device, the latter should always come before the former.
 
I think they have silicone covers that you can buy, but I'm looking for something that will keep it functioning properly when (not if) I drop it. All I've seen so far is a foam-lined metal briefcase that looks like it came from Get Smart. I ought to walk around with it handcuffed to my wrist.
 
I remember when I paid $299 for the original grayscale Gameboy. I just became the owner of a GBA SP not more than five months ago. No I will not sacrifice any more money to the god of gadgets right now.

However, I have heard many people complaining that it is still far too bulky to be a viable option for someone who already carries other portable devices, and having seen it, I agree with that.

The movie features are nice, but not practicle unless you are on a long trip. It's not really useful if you just want something to do while waiting for a table at a restaurant or the like; "Gee, 20 minute wait for a table, I think I'll watch Spiderman 2". :rolleyes:

The problem with these devices that try to do everything is that they end up simply mediocre. I'd rather have one device that does one thing exceptionally, instead of a device that does everything poorly. Leave my cellphone for calls, my mp3 player for music and my SP for games... I never carry all three with me anyway, because really, who can do all three during a workday?

That's my assessment.
 
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The PSP, as you said, does one thing exceptionally. It just also happens to do many other things with mediocrity. It's a ho-hum MP3 player, an impractical movie player (because they have to be UMD format-- the only movie worth getting that's released on UMD format at this time that I know of is House of Flying Daggers), and a good picture viewer. The double-edged sword of the picture viewer function is this: it reads Memory Stick Duo, so you can take pictures with a digital camera and display them straight from there to the PSP with no preparation, but why would you want to do that since nearly every digital camera released these days has a viewing screen? Sure, it might be larger, but that's no reason to buy a completely new device for a 1 in.² improvement in screen real estate.

The one exceptionally wonderful thing the PSP does is the games. Metal Gear Ac!d, Lumines, and Wipeout Pure are all outstanding games. Ac!d is the type of game one should play on a road trip-- it can take multiple tries at a level to beat it, it takes about 30-45 minutes per try until you beat it, and (to my knowledge) you can only save between levels. Wipeout Pure is a good game for the 20 minute restaurant waits. A race is about 5 minutes long, and it's got some seriously groovin' tunes to enjoy by the likes of Elite Force, Paul Hartnoll (1/2 of the now-extinct electronica legends Orbital), and Aphex Twin. Lumines is a game to play either with the sound down in small increments, like Tetris, or with the lights down low and a good set of professional-quality circumaural headphones, enjoying the music's reaction to your playing in what can be a very synaesthetic experience, akin to the oft-overlooked PS2 gem Rez.

Is it bulky? Well, it doesn't have to be, but with such a muck-up-able screen surface, you'll need a case, so yeah, it is, especially if you opt for the spy-case option. Nintendo, despite thinking the average gamer has three hands (evidence: N64's controller, DS's two-handed layout plus touchscreen with stylus), has definitely got one thing right: A portable game system should be foldable, with a durable, scratch-resistant coating on the outside.

And the Game Boy wasn't greyscale-- it had four shades of cabbage green!
 
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kraniac said:
akin to the oft-overlooked PS2 gem Rez.
Click to expand...
Off-topic: Rez is one of the most innovative console gamers ever. It, like many console classics of that era, first appeared on the Dreamcast and was later ported to a next-generation console. Rez was an underappreciated title. The Dreamcast was an underappreciated console. 'Tis a pity, too, since Rez rocks. Especially if you play it in the dark, with the sound turned up, and while sitting on a beanbag.
 
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