Dh Review: Playstation Portable

***Zardon*** · Aug 10, 2005, 01:25 PM

We have just finished our newest review, just in time for the UK launch of Sony's new portable gaming machine.

"With the European release of Sony’s PSP slowly creeping up, an in-depth analysis of this handheld gaming unit was definitely needed. Gamers are in all probability, filled with questions regarding its worth, how it fares against Nintendo’s DS and how effective is the browser’s special features. In this review, all of your biggest fears regarding the Sony PSP will finally be dismissed!"

read here

Stop It · Aug 10, 2005, 01:41 PM

Well, the PSP will be £180 here, and all the pre-orders put through mean there wont be many PSPs at all at launch (Game has already ran out), well done Sony, its like they dont even care about us Brits :'(

Spookyy · Aug 10, 2005, 02:18 PM

"Nintendo’s offering has pixilated graphics and is hardly capable of displaying viewable 3D graphics, while the PSP has a sharp look that can handle immersive 3D environments."

LOL, true fanboy review there...

Stop It · Aug 10, 2005, 02:48 PM

I have to admit, some games on the DS look rubbish, like that Asphalt Urban GT, but Mario 64DS looked good, as does the upcoming Mario Kart game, I think its unfair to say that the DS cant do 3D, but the PSP does look better, but then looks arent everything, gameplay is, Nintendo are offering some really good unique games thanks to the touch screen, and the PSP is in danger of offering nothing more than a collection of rehashed PS2 games, time will tell though, and I want to have both (I have a DS currently).

***Zardon*** · Aug 10, 2005, 02:51 PM

yeah I agree, nintendo games are hard to beat, I must admit I was personally a little disappointed with the DS graphics myself, and the screens really dont compare to the PSP either. It will of course all fall down to the titles involved, like the GTA title coming on the PSP that should be good.

I will say though that nintendo do tend to rehash titles as well, we have had quite a few versions of mario kart, f-zero etc etc

***Zardon*** · Aug 10, 2005, 03:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spookyy

"Nintendo’s offering has pixilated graphics and is hardly capable of displaying viewable 3D graphics, while the PSP has a sharp look that can handle immersive 3D environments."

LOL, true fanboy review there...

Actuallly now ive read that section thoroughly I have to admit that is inaccurate and not something I feel should remain in the article, ive removed it - while I like my reviewers to have opinions on the hardware they review rather than be robots who are afraid to express an opinion (no matter how passionate) I feel that comment is more than a little unfair towards the DS. I guess I should have read this more thoroughly myself, anyway its removed now. Time to flog alex

germanjulian · Aug 10, 2005, 03:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zardon

Time to flog alex

heheh that is mean... but true I played a few times with the DS and I thought its a pretty decent screen.

Mind you £180 for the PSP is a lot. I think portable game consoles are really only for people who go on business trips constantly and like to play games...

for £180 you get a PS2 and 3 games plus memory card

Sonict · Aug 10, 2005, 07:40 PM

What I like about the PSP is that in order to save battery life, Sony makes the game developers underclock the CPU from 333 mhz to 222 mhz and the graphic card bus from 166 mhz to 111 mhz. That means when batterys are better, there is an extra one third more power that the developers can use.

For Homebrewing and news in general, here is a good site: http://psp-news.dcemu.co.uk/

pr0digal jenius · Aug 10, 2005, 08:23 PM

Anyone take apart a euro-spec PSP to see if the SIM-Card slot is soldered in?

It's rumored to be there in a few runs, and work with nextel SIM chips

Shike · Aug 11, 2005, 03:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zardon

Regarding controls, again, the PSP is superior to Nintendo’s DS. While puzzle games are easy to control with the D-Pad on both systems, the immersive 3D games clearly separate the boys from the men. Using a stylus to travel around a world is difficult and not very user friendly, while PSP owners will have the option to use a D-pad or an analog stick for precision controls.

What? Stylus isn't user friendly? Are you sure you've played Metroid Prime: Hunters or Meteos? Hell, are you sure you're even a PC gamer!? Everyone knows two hands are better than one if you can use it properly (inserts D-pad and buttons is to keyboard, as stylus is to mouse analogy).

In fact, I can source something that says you are very very wrong, saying the stylus is a perfect control method for even puzzle games: linky

Quote:

Originally Posted by GameSpot

It's possible to manage your planetary defenses using the D pad and buttons, but it's much faster, easier, and more natural to drag meteos up and down using the stylus. In fact, Meteos controls great this way--the meteos seem like they're just the right size to make it easy to grab hold of individual ones within a stack. You won't blame the controls, only your reflexes, should the meteos stack too high.

Heck, here's another one that refers even closer to what I said in the beginning. Obviously this isn't a problem for all of us like you seem to imply.

Sorry if I'm being anal about this, but I don't think it's Nintendo's fault if you can't control your hand properly. It really comes to the ability of the person using it, and would probably be best left out of this review.

After all:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spooky

LOL, true fanboy review there...

Is sounding to close to the truth...

And if I sound like a complete asshole, I admit I am but:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zardon

while I like my reviewers to have opinions on the hardware they review rather than be robots who are afraid to express an opinion

I'm only trying to be fair, in the end everybody's a critic ^_^

EDIT:

I decided to look over your review a little bit more...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zardon

If you’re in the market for a handheld device, then you should definitely purchase Sony’s PSP. It has so many uses not only for gaming, but for all areas of entertainment as well. Simply put, the Sony PSP is the best handheld device and a must buy for anyone looking for a sensational multimedia experience.

I whole heartedly disagree with this statement. The audio quality of PSP doesn't come close to stand alone DAPs offered by such comapanies as iriver, iAudio, and of course Creative. "Best" handheld device is an extremely biased term and shows even to the most blind and ignorrant of people...well, that's excluding Sony fanboys who are both blind, deaf, and lack the skills to comprehend anything they refuse to hear.

I mean, how could you even say such a thing? Aren't Cell Phones handheld devices and how would this even be judged in such a criteria? Very simply it can't be, it's just "a" handheld device with a feature set you tend to enjoy. I myself am looking forward to the next generation of portable media player that will very well knock the PSP on it's ass (sorry to be the bubble burster as usual).

Lastly, who thinks the UMD has any true extended use after two years? Time usually repeats itself, and as it shows proprietary mediums tend to fail *cough*Beta*cough*

I rest my case...I think....

***Zardon*** · Aug 11, 2005, 03:43 AM

Of course you are aware after all that ranting, that I wasnt even the reviewer right? - Andy reviewed the product.

Secondly the next post you decide to place on this site had better be a little less aggressive or you will lose posting rights, this isnt the flame zone. While you say Andy (well you said I did, but as I didnt review it, thats not applicable) came across as a sony fanboy, to the neutrals like me, you appear to be overly protective of Nintendo, so the reverse logic could be applied.

Tipstaff · Aug 11, 2005, 04:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shike

What? Stylus isn't user friendly? Are you sure you've played Metroid Prime: Hunters or Meteos? Hell, are you sure you're even a PC gamer!? Everyone knows two hands are better than one if you can use it properly (inserts D-pad and buttons is to keyboard, as stylus is to mouse analogy).

In fact, I can source something that says you are very very wrong, saying the stylus is a perfect control method for even puzzle games: linky

Sorry, but playing Metroid Prime: Hunters is a bitch to play on the DS. For one thing you have to prop the DS in one hand while using the other to touch the screen. It becomes a juggling act.. an unfriendly one. I'm a huge Metroid fan, but this will be the first Metroid that I'm not overly excited about, and it's all due to the controls. I personally can't stand them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shike

Lastly, who thinks the UMD has any true extended use after two years? Time usually repeats itself, and as it shows proprietary mediums tend to fail *cough*Beta*cough*

Sorry to burst your bubble on this one, but Beta.. it's still alive and kicking. Beta only stalled in the home consumer market, but everywhere else it is widely used. The entertainment industry, as well as television, and most professional video cameras use some form of Beta (Beta Max, Beta SP, and others) for years. It's still the most widely used format in those industries. Only now are they changing over to Digital media. However, I still find the quality that comes out of a good Beta Cam can outdo a lot of digital video cameras (not including the high end DV cams.. I love the Canon XL2, and Sonys HD cams.. gorgeous stuff to work with). If you figure that Beta has been around since '78/'79 (? give or take), 25+ years later.... to me that doesn't sound like a failure. Maybe home consumer wise, yes, but not professionally.

Over time the UMD will change. So yes, in 2 years it won't be the same. Sony will have to expand on it, increase sizes, and what not in order to make it usefull. As soon as they start putting out other devices that use this format, well, that's when we'll see if it sticks around.

BTW: With Sonys release of the 2.0 firmware a lot of the audio and video aspects of the PSP have taken a step up. The quality of audio, for instance, Sony did a great job in increasing the formats it supports, as well as the playback quality. With Atrac3Plus, WAV (LPCM), and AAC support the unit looks a little more pleasing. The only gripe I have is the memory card. It is still too damn expensive for Memory Sticks. The day TeamXbox releases their unit that allows you to use any type of memory media, including a USB drive, I'll be all over it. Then I'll have another use for my 8Gig compact flash card.

Vesper · Aug 11, 2005, 11:36 AM

My name is Andy Levine, and I am the one responsible for the PSP review. First of all, I would like to thank all of you for reading my review and leaving me feedback.

Apparently, my comparison of the PSP to DS has caused a lot of trouble, so I would like to explain what I meant by those paragraphs. All I wanted to get across was the fact that the PSP is a more powerful system than the DS. This isn't arguable, the PSP simply has better hardware. The PSP also costs $100 USD more than a DS though, so keep that in mind.

Lastly, I would just like to say that the paragraphs regarding the controls and graphics are always a matter of user preference, but I was talking about the overall mainstream of gaming. More gamers will easily be able to use the PSP, but the DS might take some time getting used to. Controls are simply a matter of preference, so I agree in saying that the PSP has better controls than the DS isn't justifable

Thanks for taking the time to read both my review and this post, and feel free to ask me any more questions about the PSP, I will be glad to address any of your concerns

Shike · Aug 11, 2005, 12:05 PM

Sorry if I came off a little aggressive Zardon, and sorry for mistaking you to be the reviewer. Maybe I should consider contacts?

Thanks to Vesper for taking critisim constructively, I'm not trying to turn this into a PSP vs. DS, but express what I felt didn't belong.

***Zardon*** · Aug 11, 2005, 12:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shike

Sorry if I came off a little aggressive Zardon, and sorry for mistaking you to be the reviewer. Maybe I should consider contacts?

Its ok, I understand you getting a little worked up about it, hardware is a passionate area, thats the way it should be. I just dont really think there is any need for personal insults when debating. anyway lets move on. Andy is here to answer questions, so everyone feel free to get some debate going.

Incidentally for ease of use at the bottom of all our latest reviews we are adding contact links for the people responsible for specific aspects of each.

Stop It · Aug 11, 2005, 01:16 PM

And I thought I jumped upon that control section (Thanks Allan for making me see sense), and thanks Andy for the clarification about the controls too,

SFOSOK · Aug 11, 2005, 08:18 PM

This is just to inform you guys on the full capabilities of a PSP before you buy

Pspupdates

This site will allow you to emulate the psp system and actually play roms for the older systems b4 playstation 1. There is a current emulator in the works for PSO though

. They also have a ton of fun mini games that are also absolutely free. But I do stress that as of right now they do not have any working programs for the psp with 2.00 firmware or 1.51 I think. Its a great site and completely legit. They also have some of the most current news and the admin updates very frequently. The best SNES emulator that is out is the TYL version which lets you run pretty much every single rom, tells you the current time in the menu and even has the temp of your psp core. It also alows overclocking your psp to run thigns smoother and there has not been a single person who has come forward to say it harms it in any way. but for the TYL snes emu wait until they release the new one because it will just be in a couple days and will fix pretty much all the problems from b4. K guys? Get the most out of you psp. If you have any questions about anything just PM or post on here and I'll try to get back to it.

Alcofiel · Aug 12, 2005, 03:29 AM

when this baby comes out, i'm gonna get. it simply looks incredible. damn this europe waiting game.

SFOSOK · Aug 13, 2005, 03:09 AM

If you are interested in getting a full type deal go to this post I made, like it says make me an offer I can't refuse.

http://www.driverheaven.net/showthre...030#post660030