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PSP Launch Coverage
Sony's handheld console has launched with great fanfare, and already there are plenty of places to get opinions and reviews. Shacknews has a nice hands on with the player itself, Gamespy has reviews of the launch titles, and Gamespot has coverage of just about everything on its PSP Launch Center page. From the Shacknews hands-on: "Technically speaking, the PSP is a far superior machine to the Game Boy Advance or Nintendo DS. It's a powerhouse device, capable of displaying modern graphics, playing robust sound, and can even replace a portable DVD player. However, many of its launch titles are just watered-down versions of PS2 games and Sony has no experience in portable gaming. Nintendo has been doing it right for a decade and half, why should we think the PSP can just waltz onto the scene and take over? Can it even be done?"
People asked the same things when Sony announced the original Playstation. Give them a shot, it's not like they're totally out of touch with the gaming community.
"Nintendo has been doing it right for a decade and half, why should we think the PSP can just waltz onto the scene and take over?"
Maybe I'm crazy, but it looks to me like Sony already has experience in the whole "beating someone after over a decade of dominance" thing.
I went to Gamestop earlier today. Some poor guy pre ordered a PSP and got the system. When he asked for games, the store guys said "Too bad, every PSP game has been either sold or are on reserve".
I cannot remember the last time a system launched and 100% of a store's inventory is gone.
What I see a problem is perception. Most of my friends enjoy playing games like Minish Cap and old school mario on their GBA's.
In fact, playing these games on the GBA is almost an excuse to return back to the simpler, yet highly addictive, 16-bit era where pixels were the rage and polygons only existed in arcades.
When I think of Sony, I think of Gran Turismo and realistic RPG's, not quirky sprites with catchy music that makes me want to play my GBA.
Maybe if Sony could get something like Bubble Bobble or another old franchise, PSP would have more appeal.
Just my two cents.
IGB: More fun than eating oatmeal!
I picked up a PSP, and I must say I am impressed. The device is great, technically and asthetically.
I also picked up two games, Tony Hawk and Lumines. I've had the chance to play each for about 30 minutes, and I must say, the PSP needs more games like Lumines (which is a puzzle game similar to Tetris, for those unaware.)
The great thing about those types of games, is they are quick to play. You can pick it up and put it down at any time, without having to get into a story or finish some long drawn-out goal or mission. I'm hoping both Sony and the game studios see a benefit in creating more games like this, especially for the PSP, but also stand-alone consoles.
I've posted links to pictures and more info to my blog, if you are interested. More info will be posted as I get a chance.
-- Fighting mediocrity one bad post at a time.
I don't know a single person who's even considering getting a PSP. Sure, we all agree it looks like a great little machine, but it seems that almost all it's selling features are just so... limited. The comment from the post is right on. Do I really need another Wipeout or Ridge Racer game? Wasn't I playing those on the first Playstation, like um, ten years ago?
I can play more music on a dedicated mp3 player, and for less money. A 4 gig iPod Mini costs 199, and this is 249 + another 119 or so for a gig of storage. That's not very good. I can also use an iPod for days before it dies, when a PSP will probably wear out in about five hours, which is shorter by far than your average work day.
Oh, but it can play movies! Yeah, but I'm not going out and buying the same movies I already own just in case I randomly want to watch them on a 4 inch screen (assuming they even come out), or spending the time to convert a movie to the MP4 format, then copy it to a huge memory stick, only to erase it again if I'd rather take something else on the go, well, that just seems like a pain in the ass to me.
So, I'm left with games, pretty much. Games that I played and got sick of ten. years. ago.
I just read about this in the Seattle Times, and wrote a letter to the columnist (the article is: PlayStation Portable: Sony's new handheld does a lot more than play games):
Hi Mark,
Long time Seattle Times reader here....
Liked your article on Sony's new playstation... a few thoughts though...
I too have long considered Sony to be a great innovator but here is what has frustrated me for sooooo long and here is why I probably will NEVER buy a Sony product again unless and until they change some of their practices.... I'll illustrate by example:
Come to think of it... I'm not so surprised, or maybe it's a lucky thing Sony's Beta never became the standard, while I wasn't really there to be part of that decision in my purchasing power... but maybe VHS was the better choice after all (even though it wasn't quite as good technically).
Just my $.02
Anyway, thanks for the article, a good read....
For days until Linux can be put on it?
The Peanut Gallery, Ubergeek, Biblically Sober
NCAAbbs.com: Thousands of fans, Hundreds of teams, Just one place
Hey be fair, Pokémon Taupe was pretty good.
I was thinking the exact same thing, even last night. I didn't even know the thing was coming out until the guy in the next cube said something about it. I asked the price and he says "$250", and I almost spat out my coke. "WTF $250 for a portable? Hello TurboGraphix16!" That is until he brought his to work today. WOW. Seriously, like holding this thing is like being able to hold on of those fake portable electornic devices they always have on shows from the "near future". The screen on this baby is BEAUTIFUL. Try playing Metroid on the DS with its squinty little screen, then bust out Waverunner on the PSP and see which one is better. As for MP3 playing, well, I don't know. I think if you think of it as a game machine first and Mp3 player as an extra, it makes better sense. Movie playing I can see though. Yeah, its a second format, but I usually rent movies anyways. If blockbuster rents these I could easily see taking this on a trip and watching movies here. The picture quality is great, easily beats some dedicated portable DVD players costing as much. Bottom line: don't knock this sexy beast until you've actually used it.
I'd say the PSP is a _much_ better mp3 player than the iPod is a game machine. Sony isn't saying it's an iPod-killer, so get over it, already. It's a gaming machine that does other things, and that's cool.
Sony won't replace the unit (they already lose money on every unit) http://portable.joystiq.com/entry/1234000037037383 /
2D games like Guilty Gear X (and sequels)? Alien Hominid? DDRMAX? Contra: Shattered Soldier? Gradius?
(OK, at least with the last 2 they're rendered with 3D, but they're still 2D sidescrollers.)
Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage
PSPVideo9 converts any kind of video file to PSP format, making it a great dual purpose device.
Ah yes. Who can forget the Sony Playstation's handy defeating of the Atari Jaguar, the 3D0, the CD-I, and the Saturn? If Sony can outlast this guantlet, surely they can defeat anyone.
Wait, no, that isn't it at all. The only reason Sony got anywhere with the original Playstation was everything else at the time fucking sucked. The Jaguar and Saturn were jokes, the N64 wasn't what consumers wanted and only had like three good games max (all by Nintendo), and Nintendo was such a jackass in the mid 90s under the old CEO that nobody wanted to work with them.
Sony's takeover of the video game industry in the mid 90s and their capable defending since of the ground they took shows an enormous degree of business saavy. What it doesn't show is skill. Sony grabbed the market in the startling way they did less because of what they did right than because of what everyone else did wrong; all their competitors were either incompetent or, in Nintendo's case, incompetent and repulsive.
Well, the handheld and media player markets that Sony is trying to slip somewhere indeterminately between right now are a good bit different from the video game industry when the Playstation was released. The media player market is extremely rich right now, and on the video game side the PSP (unlike the Playstation) actually has a viable competitor; Nintendo is no longer particularly repulsive to developers, and they're even doing things lately that you could almost call competent, sometimes. Meanwhile, frankly, looking at the Playstation, the Playstation 2, and the PSP, the first two of these are just plain good products. The third... how shall I put this... seems to me rather lacking, and doesn't really seem to serve any utility at all unless you really want a Video iPod and don't mind spending lots of money on memory sticks. This seems likely to be a bit of a hard sell given alternative systems with a fair degree of quality really do exist.
I'll agree the person you quote is being silly; I don't think there's any reason to think that Nintendo can magically and eternally defend itself from all challenges to the Game Boy. But if you look at the products on the market right now... meh, I think it's pretty safe to say they can defend themselves against the PSP.
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
but for some reason, Nintendo's ugly green-and-black just won out.
The Gamegear had (compared to the Gameboy) horrible battery life, small game selection, a screen that tended to blur/look washed-out, a propensity for overheating, and so on.
Its death isn't quite as suprising if you actually used one for an extended period. Not that the Gameboy didn't have its own flaws, but I think it was just more balanced with good vs. bad.
It's not nearly as big as the Lynx. Here are some pictures to put things in perspective.
MP3s will last longer than games. A good rundown of the different times: http://psp.ign.com/articles/572/572563p1.html
--
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Wired article as proof
It's the physics engine. Multiple collisions is a really hard problem for a physics engine to solve.
There are different ways of approaching this.
- Check your collisions once a frame and bounce or something when you collide.
DOWNSIDE: If you have a car running at really high speed you could actually run through a wall or another car, totally unacceptable.
So you have to do a time-sweep. In other words trace the entire movement of the object from time when the movement started until the end, ie do the calculation between 2 consecutive frames.
Now all collisions are detected, but how do you handle the collision?
- Stop the object at location it had in the previous frame.
DOWNSIDE: if you are chasing another car and bump into the rear your car would loose all speed. totally unacceptable in a racing game but could work in a platform game. Another illustration is a box sliding down a slope, it would never get down the slope because it would be stopped from "falling" each frame without sliding.
- Create bounces to be calculated next frame and forward the time.
DOWNSIDE: if your car rams into a wall at high speed it could possibly be stuck, the problem would manifest itself as an erratic bouncing. You can sometimes notice this problem when throwing grenades in various games for example.
- Stop the time when the first collision occurs, recalculate trajectories and do a new collision test to see when the next collision occurs. Do this over and over until you've reached the target time.
DOWNSIDE: Every iteration of the collision tests has to be run several times for each frame. This will take ALOT of time and could cause bad stalls if you don't have plenty of CPU.
The last solution shown above could possibly be the one they selected for the game, that the problem occurs when all the cars collide is almost the type case for the problems. However the method works in a stable way and they probably couldn't get any tweaked way to work in a reliable way so this was the least horror.
/ Jonas Lund