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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.
The PS2 did very well for me, but the PSP has left me cold (and thus unpurchased). Looking at Metacritic, not a single game has cracked the 90+ ratings. Considering my time constraints, I don't usually bother with anything below 90 unless it is in a genre I like. That brings me to the genre problem: I loved my GBA because of the strong RPG and Strategy game showing... so far the showing has been especially weak in that regard on the PSP.)
I finally picked up a DS mostly because my GBA games work on it. Neither system has a strong game showing although I give the DS a very slight nod for my taste in portable games, such as Advanced Wars DS, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow. My wife loves Nintendogs (the killer app for the DS if you ask me) and Animal Crossings. Meanwhile, the PSP is lacking in "cute" for her and strategy or RPG games for me. (Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade looked promising but was universally panned).
Sig under construction since 1998.
... the horrible experience of MGS: Acid. Oh Mr. Kojima, what happened to MGS2 being the last game? This series has more side stories and alternate story lines than an episode of 'Days of our Lives'.
I like to kill your couch. HE DIED HARD! MOO.
As opposed to what? Every major camera company has their own memory card type, and frankly, the fact that they use UMD on the PSP is pretty much a necessity. If not UMD, what? Attach a portable DVD drive to the unit?
I like to kill your couch. HE DIED HARD! MOO.
And by "digital interactive comics" they mean "slideshow".
Why is it that when you believe something it's an opinion, but when I believe something it's a manifesto?
Make them writeable. Then UMD's will have my 110% support. Until then, they are just a crappy propritary format.
At least with all other camara cards, you can freely write/delete from them using your home PC.
Granted, the PSP can play games, but who really wants to pay $250 for the one or two good games it has to offer?
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On the other hand, for almost $100 less money you can have this: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=697
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.
I read the script, and I think it would help my character's motivation if he was on fire. -Bender
Uh, you can with MS cards. As for making them writeable, why? That's why they have a thing called a memory stick slot. At the same time, how would that help them? I know how much Sony would like everyone to have easy acccess to pirated games, but somehow I don't think that fits their buisness model.
I like to kill your couch. HE DIED HARD! MOO.
As for making them writeable, why? That's why they have a thing called a memory stick slot.
Cost effective high volume storage. $100 a flash stick isn't exactly cost effective, nor is it high volume (1 or 2g is nothing when you think in movie terms).
I'd love to watch my movies on a PSP, on the go, but having to rebuy any one of my 300 DVDs isn't exactly something I'm willing to do.
Yeah Sony should just make it super easy for people to pirate games and then the game system would do really well! And you could put tons of porn on an UMD! Think of the possibilities!
Oh wait, they already included a MemoryStick slot which can use 2GB cards. I can put my porn on an overpriced MemoryStick, Stick it in my PSP, and then Stick my *ahem* in my hand. In the end, Sony shoves their Stick up my ass and everyone is happy (especially my anus which now has a rootkit installed)
Dragging people kicking and screaming into reality since 1996.
I'm sorry, but I just don't understand this. My DS cartridges are a proprietary format as well. Why would I care? I buy the media for its contents. I never got too bent out of shape about the format I bought my games on. UMD's are a nearly 2GB, relatively cheap, very small medium. I don't seen anything I could reasonably replace them with that offers that same.
Sony were fools to opt for UMD instead of the HI-MD format. http://www.minidisc.org/hi-md_faq.html
.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.
Even though they are
Havoc Video
If not UMD, what? Attach a portable DVD drive to the unit?
Um, yeah. Mini-DVDs(think of the tiny CDs you sometimes see) would have been a great choice. They could have even saved a little space in the console by not using a carrier and making the discs slot loading. It would have saved space for the end-user carrying the discs around as well.
I'm not against UMD. It's certainly no worse than using a proprietery cartridge like Nintendo does. But DVD would have been prefferable.
TW
Nice that they're finally doing something defining with the console.
Forget that, how about affordable games? You don't need to do something "new", just have a baseline of affordability. Jeesh!
I gladly traded away my PSP for a DS + 2 games. I find myself playing Mario Kart(networked or solo) during boring TV shows for a quick race fix. Now I just need to find some good puzzle games.
Actually, Mini DVD's are CD-sized media that are formatted to hold video. It wouldn't be appropriate for a handheld device. You're probably thinking about cDVD's, sometimes called 3-inch DVD's. They hold somewhat less than a UMD (1.4GB vs. 1.8GB) but might have been considered, if piracy weren't an issue.
Personally, I think a slot loading handheld would be a mistake. I can imagine all kinds of gunk getting in the slot. Handhelds have to put up with much more demanding environments (like people's pockets) than your typical slot loading CD or DVD player does. It just seems to be asking for trouble.
Actually, Mini DVD's are CD-sized media that are formatted to hold video. It wouldn't be appropriate for a handheld device. You're probably thinking about cDVD's, sometimes called 3-inch DVD's. They hold somewhat less than a UMD (1.4GB vs. 1.8GB) but might have been considered, if piracy weren't an issue.
I guess it depends on who you ask, but yes, I was thinking of the 3" verion that holds 1.4GB.
1.4GB would have been fine as far as size is concerned, but, then again, SD cards would have been fine as far as flash memory is concerned. Sony like to go it's own way with this stuff. And just many large Memory Sticks and pre-recorded videos would have been sold if everyone could have inexpensively burned their on-the-go music and video's to inexpensive 3" DVDs?
Piracy was probably an issue, but a small one. Making money reselling 512MB Memory Sticks and HellBoy were probably more important. After all, wouldn't you still have piracy on an MS?
Slot loaders: you're probably right. I'd like to add though that the potential to get gunk in your drive is also pretty high when a full third of the back of your device pops open to insert a UMD.
TW
No doubt about it - being able to burn your own stuff to, um, little DVD's would have been sweet. And I myself would have preferred SD cards - way cheaper. (And more internal memory, but that's a different topic.)
But I think you underestimate the piracy issue, at least in Sony's eyes. After all, they've already demonstrated the willingness to be a pariah as far as copy protection is concerned. MS piracy isn't an issue, as they don't put out games or movies on those.
I haven't seen a potential gunk problem with the pop-out back, because I don't open and close them that much. But I'd be really reluctant to do so at the beach, for example - I'd just be asking for sand to get in there.
I don't mind UMD, but why didn't they install a sliding cover over the exposed disc, ala MiniDisc? I think that would've been a much smarter option, and then I wouldn't have to worry about constantly keeping them in their oversized cases.
Sony again fails to pick up the ball on the the games department of the PSP.