PSP Launch Coverage 461
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?"
Got a PSP, need more puzzle games... (Score:5, Informative)
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 [backdrifter.com], if you are interested. More info will be posted as I get a chance.
Re:Because it's never been done is not a reason... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:hmm. (Score:3, Informative)
Don't knock it till you try it (Score:5, Informative)
Too bad if you have a dead pixel(s) (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Because it's never been done is not a reason... (Score:5, Informative)
Movies, however, are region-locked [wikipedia.org]. That won't stop me from eventually getting the PSP, though.
Re:what about battery time on these? (Score:2, Informative)
Don't forget PSPVideo9 (Score:5, Informative)
Re:hmm. (Score:4, Informative)
Re:How portable is portable? (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Not so fast (Score:3, Informative)
Long live the DS.
You're full of shit -- there is SNK on PS2 (Score:4, Informative)
Uh, mods, this is wrong (Score:4, Informative)
Re:How portable is portable? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Gamestop (Score:4, Informative)
Depends on how you use it. (Score:5, Informative)
--
Want a free iPod? [freeipods.com]
Or try a free Nintendo DS, GC, PS2, Xbox. [freegamingsystems.com] (you only need 4 referrals)
Wired article as proof [wired.com]
Flawed logic (Score:3, Informative)
Huh? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Because it's never been done is not a reason... (Score:1, Informative)
Actually the games being currently released are region free but later titles might become region-coded if Sony/the publishers decide to do so. On the other hand, the DS has no such "features" as it his -and will remain- completely region free.
Re:Lag... (Score:5, Informative)
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
Re:Hhhhm... (Score:3, Informative)
In what alternate reality? An iPod mini lasts about 6 hours (if you drain it completely), and my 4G iPod lasts about 10 hours. In IGN's MP3 test, the PSP lasted 10 hours and 39 minutes.
Re:Because it's never been done is not a reason... (Score:3, Informative)
They didn't claim it was that, either. Nintendo has always said the DS is a third platform. They're not only still making GBA games, but they haven't even slowed down making GBA games.
Re:For longer games, there is a nice feature (Score:3, Informative)