New Media Experience Coming to PSP

The Guardian Gamesblog discusses the announcement that a Metal Gear Solid digital comic is in the works for the PSP. There's also going to be a title called 'The Silent Hill Experience', which will be a sort of guide to the series. From the post: "Designed to offer a comprehensive guide to all things Silent Hill, The Silent Hill Experience combines a number of media formats to give a compelling overview of the horror series. Using an intuitive 3D interface, users can view all-new Silent Hill digital interactive comics, listen to music from the four games in the series, and watch exclusive video content. The Silent Hill Experience also features an interview with Christophe Gans, the Director of the highly anticipated Silent Hill movie, starring Radha Mitchell and Sean Bean." Nice that they're finally doing something defining with the console.

Comments

PSP vs. Portable DVD Player

[cybereal]

Granted, the PSP can play games, but who really wants to pay $250 for the one or two good games it has to offer?

On the other hand, for almost $100 less money you can have this: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=6970 469&type=product&productCategoryId=pcmcat139000500 18&id=1099386329954

That gives you access to your EXISTING dvd collection, rather than paying more money for lower quality versions of movies you may very well already have, that will not play on ANY other device besides the PSP. Furthermore, get yourself a DVD burner and burn 4.7GB (or 8.5gb if you shell the cash for DL) worth of MP3's to listen to on the go.

Granted, the PSP is smaller and looks "sexier" but it also only has a, what, 4.5" screen? The dvd player I cite (and there are others, especially in the car-only segment, you can get a dual screen setup for $250) has a 7" tft.

Battery time is also directly comparable, not due to portable dvd players having good battery life, but instead due to the PSP having terrible battery life.

Clearly there are pros and cons to both, but, this post claiming "Nice that they're finally doing something defining with the console" makes me realize just how sad the PSP's showing really is.

Nothing in the post today can't be done on a DVD. I guess if you really want to shell out $249.99 msrp for vendor media lockin on movies, a smaller screen, and access to *WOW* digital comics *laugh*, then by all means, buy a PSP.

p.s. I didn't even bother comparing digital media players due to price, but, the price vs. feature set, with emphasis on size comparison with the PSP, also makes these devices a much better deal if you're looking at the PSP with movie watching in mind.

HI-MD

[JohnnyLocust]

Sony were fools to opt for UMD instead of the HI-MD format. http://www.minidisc.org/hi-md_faq.html

Even though they are .8 GB smaller than the UMD, their rewriteability would have made the PSP a truly revolutionary media device. HI-MD audio players have incredibly long battery life for a non-solid state player. Using the h.264 video format, they could still have released very high quality movies. If they thought the UMD was going to prevent piracy, well, we all know how well that turned out.

Re:When are they planning on a game experince?

[oGMo]

Looking at Metacritic, not a single game has cracked the 90+ ratings.

If you're looking at numeric ratings to determine what games you get, you're missing out on a lot of great games on every platform.

Contrary to popular opinion, the PSP has a very solid lineup, especially given this is it's first year and it's a first-gen platform. PoPoLoCrois is both cute and RPG. Lord of the Rings Tactics is, well, tactical. Metal Gear: Acid is basically Metal Gear Tactics. Both Legend of Heroes (stupid localized name for "The Garghav") and Kingdom of Paradise are solid RPGs, far better than Untold Legends. Not AAA titles, but solid B or A titles, the likes of which you've probably enjoyed many of on the SNES or GBA.

For upcoming tactics games, check out Generation of Chaos and Field Commander. For puzzle/strategy games, definitely check out Exit, which is very well done (I imported it). For RPGs, there is at very least the Square FF7 spinoff, probably others I've forgotten. For cute, there's the weird Loco Roco, Katamari, and Megaman. Granted, Nintendo will have more in the latter category if past consoles are anything to judge by.

Now the DS definitely has a few games I want (Animal Crossing mostly, Castlevania would be nice. Maybe the new Super Mario Bros.). But that doesn't mean I have to stop liking my PSP just because I got a DS... and for those of you with a DS, the reverse applies. I like my PS2 despite spending hours on Metroid Prime, Mario Sunshine, and Zelda.

But especially, don't let numbers and idiotic reviewers put you off. This applies to anything. There are some great PS2 and Cube games that got low ratings and didn't deserve them. Same with DS and PSP.