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The PSP's Comeback Trail
Next Generation has up a feature on the rising fortunes of Sony's PSP. Overlooked for quite some time now as the DS dominates the headlines, the article argues that the handheld console still has a lot to offer ... and people are starting to notice. "Sony has always commanded strong third-party support for its systems since the success of the original PlayStation, and [senior PSP marketing manager John Koller] believes that PSP developers are similarly finding ways to get creative and present fun titles. 'Upcoming launches such as God of War: Chains of Olympus from a first-party perspective, and Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron from LucasArts, are certainly good examples of fantastic franchises made unique on the PSP,' he says. 'It's clear that consumers do not want the same game on their PSP that they play on console.'"
Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
Optical media always has and always will suck. Solid state is the only reasonable media for a handheld device. I think it's short sighted and quite stupid to expect people to carry giant, slow loading UMDs.
I keep 4 DS games in my WALLET at all times, I keep my DS Lite in my pocket and the outside gets scratched to hell, but of course since the clamshell design protects the screens, the device is still as playable as the day I got it. Somehow I doubt the PSP would hold up to the abuse I dish out to the DS Lite daily.
with the ps3 and psp is that the technology they choose is ahead of its time. this translates into slow starts with their systems, as the hardware in the systems is beyond the price range of what people want to pay. /P
the upside of this is that it ensures longevity of a system if and when popularity takes hold.
the psp is a great little gadget that, much like the ps3, got off to a slow start.
FOXTROT UNIFORM CHARLIE KILO
The press continues to miss the story on the PSP. The story is that Sony sold a lot of PSPs. Sony now shares the handheld market with Nintendo, instead of Nintendo more-or-less owning the entire market. That's a success. The PSP is a success with over 25 million sold so far.
Going forward, the PSP still has the technical capabilities and the software development to be a competitive product for 2-3 more years at least.
When I bought my PSP, I originally did so with two purposes in mind: EBook reader (plenty of freeware out there to convert .lit and .pdf files to be viewable on the screen perfectly) and movie player (again, plenty of good quality freeware conversion software out there) Here and there I bought a couple games (Monster Hunter 2, Daxter, etc.), but I primarily bought one for it's uses other than gaming.
A month or so ago, I finally got around to modding mine so as to be able to play roms and utilize the (huge) homebrew scene...best move I ever made. I have since bought a 4 gig memory card, and currently have every NES, SNES, Genesis/game gear, game boy games on it as well as a decent amount of GBA and MAME roms. I use the homebrew scene to help control my home theater, play movies better, and just make the interface look nicer. Unlike many others, I have no plans to actually download any PSP ISO's (except manhunt 2, just to try out the uncensored version...it's just as bad of a game, not really worth the time)
In fact, I like the ability to do all this so much that I recently bought both my fiance AND my best bud a PSP, just so that they could have the same fun I am having. Yes yes eys, I know there is a lot of talk about roms and such, but sitll...doing this has breathed new life into my PSP, and has actually gotten me more interested in buying PSP games than I was before (primarily because I used to simply like the system...now I love it) Add to that the non-shiny outerbody casing I bought, coupled with a very good but very inexpensive screen saver (screws onto the two mounting holes on top, and flips down over the screen when you aren't using it, protecting it from scratches), my PSP is likely one of my favourite gaming objects for the time being.
Despite Sony's efforts to thwart homebrew on it, homebrew is the very reason they got more money out of me and my friends than they would have if it were not possible. If you are into emulation or just plain messing around with your gadgets, the PSP is your best bet as far as portable gaming is concerned...as far as actual games goes, the DS blows the PSP out of the water, but the PSP still has some decent games out there for it...much like a PS3 (for now) however, don't buy it expecting to play a lot of great NEW games on it.
Living With a Nerd
If you like FFT, then pick up a PSP RIGHT NOW. There are incredible games for that system in that genre; it's literally got the best RPGs and strategy games on the market.
Just a sampling:
* Jeanne D'Arc - Take FFT and Fire Emblem. Have them fuck. Take the child, and put it in the Hundred Years War. Add in magic transforming armour and British soldier ZOMBIES. Hit puree. This is probably the best strategy game out for this system that didn't come out years ago.
* Disagea - The same game as the PS2 version, with additions.
* Generations of Chaos 1 + 2 - Decent games from the same people that did Disagea.
In addition to those, there's a host of JRPGs, such as Riviera (which I don't particularly care for), three Legends of Heroes games, and a few others from NiS (Disagea). It's an awesome system.
Let's stop dilly-dallying and just change "-1: Overrated" to "-1: Disagree" or "-1: Doesn't Subscribe to Groupthink".