Psp Hardware/opinions

[CouldBeWorse]

It a sexy bit of kit for sure. But lack of 'must have' titles* has put me off getting one at least until the euro launch.

*Lumines looks cool though.

[PopeSmokesDope]

Battery technology has advanced quite a lot since then.

But it didnt stop the Walkman from becoming an Icon of the 20th century.

People have a habbit of living and dealing with limitations.

[Luke]

It's a shame in a way that they decided to release it in black, rather than any of those really nice stylish colours the had in those old marketing shots.

I wonder if they will be releasing any of them eventually.

[JPickford (retired mod)]

But it didnt stop the Walkman from becoming an Icon of the 20th century.

People have a habbit of living and dealing with limitations.

No. They fixed the battery life issue.

[Kiodi_Y]

Have they announced the U.S. Launch date yet? Anyone like to take a guess if not.

VG+ had the hardware down as Monday 2nd May 2005, doesn't seem to be on the site anymore, the games still have that date though.

[CouldBeWorse]

Sony have an online guide detailing which sticks work with a PSP:

http://www.memorystick.com/psp/

erm..in english?

[stellar12]

It's a shame in a way that they decided to release it in black, rather than any of those really nice stylish colours the had in those old marketing shots.

I wonder if they will be releasing any of them eventually.

I expect they will. I'd love to get me one of those white GT4 badged PSPs...

[Burai]

erm..in english?

It'll work with PSP-branded Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick Duo and Memory Stick Pro Duo.

[Polmon]

Is it just me, or does it look like it might be a bit hard to use the analogue stick? It seems quite low down on the unit, and the rest of your hand wont have much to grip.

Has anyone ever mentioned analogue stick usage?

[dan_tm]

Is it just me, or does it look like it might be a bit hard to use the analogue stick? It seems quite low down on the unit, and the rest of your hand wont have much to grip.

Has anyone ever mentioned analogue stick usage?

Exactly what I thought. Only your thumb and first finger would be holding the unit on the left.

I assume that this would unbalance the unit terribly, especially if its pretty heavy. ( I don't know if it is heavy compared to the DS)

[G-Mart]

I played quite some time on the PSP and the analog stick is sunken into the base unit. Kinda like the Neo Geo Pocket Color. It works perfect

[Alex W.]

I think the lack of screen protection is quite a big issue.

Rumour has it that they're using a crafty screen coating which has been popping up on various portable devices which is fully stab-with-a-knife resistant.

It's rumoured.

How is the analogue stick not "proper", then? I've heard nasty things about the TGS version's springs making it re-seat erratically, but that's about it.

[JPickford (retired mod)]

How is the analogue stick not "proper", then? I've heard nasty things about the TGS version's springs making it re-seat erratically, but that's about it.

I've only heard bad reports about it. It seems to be a slidey thing rather than a stick. Haven't had a chance to try it yet.

[Alex W.]

I've only heard bad reports about it. It seems to be a slidey thing rather than a stick. Haven't had a chance to try it yet.

I've heard good things about it in spite of it being a slidey thing. I'm not sure how else they could've implimented analogue, anyway, without a NGPC-style deep recess for it to go into.

Of course, that'd be easy to impliment if they'd just ditch the d-pad.

[Paulando]

Under 'ideal' conditions.  Game paused, light turned down etc.

Sony released the 5/6 hour thing then back-tracked later.  Word from developers is that its closer to 90-120 minutes.

Hmmm...

Totally unrelated- but I can't see FPSs working well with the controls at all, unless a Metroid Prime-style method of control is adopted.

[connect]

I'm kinda in a panic now after seeing this PSP stuff. It looks great but I have just ordered a DS from Japan. I can't afford both in the same month so am wondering if I made the right choice. I'm thinking though that the PSP will be unavailable for at least a month.

Anyway I think the PSP looks stunning.

[JPickford (retired mod)]

I've heard good things about it in spite of it being a slidey thing. I'm not sure how else they could've implimented analogue, anyway, without a NGPC-style deep recess for it to go into.

They could have gone with a NGPC-style deep recess.

[Alex W.]

Under 'ideal' conditions.  Game paused, light turned down etc.

Sony released the 5/6 hour thing then back-tracked later.  Word from developers is that its closer to 90-120 minutes.

They didn't mention the game being paused; all they mentioned was that the range given corresponds to lowest or highest brightness (i.e. 5 hrs for highest, 6 hours for brightest) with headphones on, 50% volume and the wireless LAN switch set to "off". Kuturagi admitted that it could go either way depending on titles (although tellingly his example for longer battery lifes was "Puzzle Bobble" ).

I'm interested by that "Game Sharing" option in the menu. Single-disk multiplayer?

Word from people who've tried out the finished version of Ridge Racers is that there tend to be longish (15 second) load times upon booting the game, followed by short loading periods in game, which is eyebrow-raising.

Edit- more on load times:

The start-up times are a bit on the slow side, but we'll wait until we have the system in our hands later this week before making further comment. We'd like to try starting up a game with a save file already on the Memory Stick to see if that speeds up the process some. Having to wait 20 seconds to start up Minna no Golf (along with the load time that follows as you try to get into a game --check back later for more on that) may be asking a bit too much when you've got just a few minutes to play your game.

Hmm. "The bus is still about five minutes away, I'll play some Ridge Racer... loading.... dum tee dum... aaah, here we... oh, the bus is here"

[Alex W.]

They could have gone with a NGPC-style deep recess.

See: "Which they could've done if they'd ditched the d-pad".

[Alex W.]

Wow, as if "game-sharing" wasn't enough, Sony have gone the whole hog when it comes to copying DS features; there's a sleep mode in there now:

The PSP has a few options to make the game playing experience more portable friendly in case you don't want to go through the whole startup fuss. The power switch, located on the right side of the unit, can be used in a number of ways. It can be pushed down into a "lock" position which makes it so button presses have no effect (this is useful in Sony's MD products when you have the player in a bag). Tapping up on the power switch makes the current game go into sleep mode. We were able to pause the action and go back right where we left off by doing this. Pushing and holding the power switch up makes the system power down. It takes a couple of seconds before the system actually turns off.

Edit 2- there's a setup menu for using it Wi-Fi in Network Mode too, which is interesting. I was wondering how they were going to impliment it.

[rubberducker]

i wonder how many play asia will get in their first batch? i heard sony were releasing 2 batched before christmas.

one batch of 200,000 and then a second larger batch of 300,000 later that week.

i wonder if play asia will be as good as VG+ were....or more like weinberg....(god forbid)

[kamrantaz]

oh man!

The fact that i cant afford any games for my PSP this month, hasnt deflated my excitment!

I cant wait for this sugar! If only if had playable demos, but movies trailers is a cool idea to show off the screen

[JPickford (retired mod)]

Wow, as if "game-sharing" wasn't enough, Sony have gone the whole hog when it comes to copying DS features; there's a sleep mode in there now:

Edit 2- there's a setup menu for using it Wi-Fi in Network Mode too, which is interesting. I was wondering how they were going to impliment it.

The sleep mode is potentially more useful on the PSP than the DS. Constantly re-booting a disk game (which is quite likely with a portable system) is likely to be the biggest reason for battery drain.

[Alex W.]

"Power Saving" turns out to be the option to automatically turn off the backlight when the system's inactive (I would've thought automatic sleep mode, but then it could be for when you're using it with MP3s) as well as a submenu for power saving on the Wi-Fi; probably a similar auto-off.

[Alex W.]

The sleep mode is potentially more useful on the PSP than the DS.  Constantly re-booting a disk game (which is quite likely with a portable system) is likely to be the biggest reason for battery drain.

Exactly. I'm not sure I particularly want to spend 15 seconds at a time waiting to play Puzzle Bobble for 15 seconds either.

The PSP mantra-to-be: tap up, hold down.

[JPickford (retired mod)]

Exactly. I'm not sure I particularly want to spend 15 seconds at a time waiting to play Puzzle Bobble for 15 seconds either.

For some wierd reason Sony seem to like long power-up sequences. All (both) their consoles so far have been like that. Irritating.

[df0notfound]

Exactly. I'm not sure I particularly want to spend 15 seconds at a time waiting to play Puzzle Bobble for 15 seconds either.

The PSP mantra-to-be: tap up, hold down.

prolly be longer than that, sony loves its lengthy logos.

[Unlighty]

I would say that the boot up screen for PS2 is around the same length as the Xbox one to be honest..

[Alex W.]

For some wierd reason Sony seem to like long power-up sequences. All (both) their consoles so far have been like that. Irritating.

Not much longer than the XBox or GC load-up sequences, to be fair, and at least they've got an excuse in the PS2 and PSP's case (loading... yep... still loading... no, this is a CD-ROM, I'm going to go to the Browser/System Configuration screen... now I'm going to load the game... *ten minutes later* TimeSplitters... loading....).

[vamecum]

Oh, and if anyone is waiting for Sticky Balls - it was canned a few weeks ago.

Any chance for it to appear on DS?

Anyways, the PSP looks slick. I have a DS on order, but might get the PSP at a later stage. Time will show.