Sony Displays New PSP, Polished Games At E3 236
Sony had a lot to prove coming into this event, and kicked off on a high note. The PlayStation 2 is still selling units, and the PSP's numbers are apparently up as well. They followed that with the news of a new version of the PlayStation Portable. It's slimmer, lighter, has a longer battery life, and the ability to connect directly to your television to display video and games. There was a good deal of discussion about upcoming PSP titles, some of which are connected to a PSP bundle. Pushing out the PS3, they show several PlayStation Store titles, included the fascinating-looking Echochrome . Moving onto the Home service they discussed cellphone and website tie-ins to the Home service, as well as the ability to launch games from directly within the Home environment. Referencing the price cut, they reveal sales have already gone up. NCSoft, Epic, and Ubisoft are all referenced as heavy backers of the PlayStation, with a tantalizing statement suggesting that user-created mods for Unreal Tournament will be coming to the console via the Playstation Network. A lengthy Metal Gear Solid 4 trailer and a statement that the game is only for the PS3 (still to be determined), due early in 2008, cap off the third-party section. First-party titles show all of the highlights of Sony's portfolio with the LittleBigPlanet trailer emphasizing creation rather than play, and their Heavenly Sword highlight showcasing the game's story for the first time. A new sandbox title with a morality component was announced, InFamous, as was a new chapter in the Gran Turismo series. The press conference wrapped with a gripping trailer for Killzone 2, completely running in real-time.
Re:WOW (Score:5, Interesting)
Of the 3 presentations it was by far the most interesting.
It's Like The PS3 Is A Whole Gen Ahead (Score:0, Interesting)
Sony's first party stuff is just mindboggling good.
Microsoft looked absolutely pathetic with the same old last gen looking Halo stuff. EARTH TO BUNGIE! NO ONE IS IMPRESSED WITH BRIGHT LIGHTS ON SHINY METAL ANYMORE! Other than a couple of crossplatform titles with Call of Duty 4 and Assasin's Creed, Microsoft is forcing 360 owners to sound like Wii owners with talk about "we don't care about graphics, just gameplay"
Re:My Thoughts from E3 (Score:5, Interesting)
I've watched hundred of hours of movies and TV shows on my PSP.
Air travel + PSP + movies (on a memory stick) = Heaven.
No need for a laptop in your carryon means you can "sail" through security. The instant on/off is wonderful as well. You can use it while actually standing in line. One 4Gig stick will hold an entire season of a television show plus a movie or two.
You get good battery life (a little under three hours) because it's not hitting the UMD, but for longer flights you can get: a USB battery box [thinkgeek.com] and a USB charging cable. It will suck down batteries (but this setup allows the brightest screen mode) but work like a charm. I went through 16 AA's on a 24 hour flight once.
Oh yeah, I also rest it on the treadmill in front of me while running. I've lost 10 pounds when I never had the patience before. No physical media = no skipping.
I just kick myself for waiting a year to get one. It is by far the best video player available and Sony has marketed it INCREDIBLY poorly.
Never played a UMD though. Those are a waste of money IMO.
User generated content (Score:5, Interesting)
In the link that led to talking about user generated content being less certain on the 360, that's because it would have to go through Live and Microsoft still has not worked out what they want to do there. They may yet also allow substantial user content, they just haven't done so to date with the fervor Sony has.
Addendum. The KillZone2 Trailer link... (Score:3, Interesting)
NCsoft? (Score:3, Interesting)
Impressive and unimpressive (Score:3, Interesting)
PS3: Impressive. I'm glad to see they're able to showcase a lot of high class games as well as a number that are reaching out to a broader crowd. Things may take off for this system yet, though I doubt its possible for it to gain enough momentum to dominate this generation. It would at least break previous precidents if it did.
PSP: Unimpressive. I feel like Sony is trying to copy the DS Lite without understanding why the DS Lite did well. The DS Phat's key dimensional problem was its depth. There were a number of pockets incapable of holding one, and to boot it was relatively heavy. The DS Lite improved on all of these, while looking simultaneously much sleeker. The new PSP is hard to distinguish from its predecessor, which was sleek to begin with. I'll be very surprised is this causes any long-term changes in PSP sales.
The real point of the PSP (Score:3, Interesting)
The movie thing is cool too, I guess... but emulating actually good games makes up for the lack of such titles in UMD format.
Re:Can Anyone Explain How PS3 Games Look This Good (Score:5, Interesting)
The first and more important fact is that the hardware is powerful enough on both the 360 and the PS3 that you can get more payback for good artistic direction and heavy technical investment than ever before. The 360 and the PS3 will both respond very nicely to extravagantly expensive development budgets, and the skill of the developers and artists working on the average game will probably make much more difference in the quality of the results than any differences between the hardware will.
That said, and while the 360's graphics chip is probably superior to the PS3's, the PS3 was designed to have the Cell and RSX working together in a very close fashion. Killzone 2 is being developed with a deferred renderer, in which the Cell can overlay lighting calculations on top of the rendered polygons, rather than having all of that be always done with the RSX. Lair is using the Cell to do dynamic winnowing down of the in-game geometry to present only the essential data to RSX, while continuing to animate everything with high fidelity. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is using Cell to do very ambitious dynamic animation blending on the main characters.
Between Cell and RSX, you can do awful lot on PS3, but you have to develop the games for it, and the kind of distributed programming required to harness 8 distributed processing cores (1 PPU, 6 SPU, 1 RSX) takes a lot of time and money to do, and straightforward ports from 360-style DirectX games won't necessarily show what the PS3 can really do to best advantage.
The PS3 has another advantage with the Blu-Ray disc, as it has over 5 times more on-disc storage than the 360 has (though at the cost of a reduced maximum transfer speed). That can help allow for more extravagant level budgets, especially in titles that support streaming audio and graphics loading.
The bottom line is, we've not begun to see the best of what either the 360 or the PS3 will be capable of. The good news is that Sony is making a big enough push that they might get enough purchasers of their console that the budgets will have a chance to continue to be there to make these amazing games.
Re:Impressive and unimpressive (Score:3, Interesting)
-- Wireless (is it still 802.11b?)
-- Memory Stick capacity (are we still stuck at 4GB max?)
-- Built-in GPS or camera. (nothing here..)
-- Bluetooth (so I could connect via mobile phone or use ad2p headphones)
But sadly, I didn't see any of these. I'm left with a moderately useful PSP with no little to carry it around and hence no reason to test the battery life.
Re:My Thoughts from E3 (Score:5, Interesting)
1. 3 hours is enough for flights 1/2 way across the country (you can't have it on every single second.) I gave a very cheap way to extend battery life (because I'm a cheap ass) but for the price of a laptop I could purchase 2 additional proprietary batteries for 9 hours of battery life and still be at a third the price of a laptop.
2. You ignored the fact that I take it on a treadmill everyday. I also take it with me around town when I have to wait at the Doctors and the like. I would personally not want to take a laptop with me to either place.
3. People complain about it being too big as it is. The screen is the size it's at. That doesn't stop people from enjoying the PSP or the DS for hours at a time.
Not all. (Score:2, Interesting)
Unreal Tournement (PS3 timed Exclusive till late 2008)
Haze (PS3 exclusive)
Ratchet And Clank Tools Of Destruction(PS3 exclusive)
Warhawk(PS3 exclusive)
Drakes Fortune(PS3 exclusive)
Lair(PS3 exclusive)
GT5 Prologue(PS3 exclusive)
In addition, you have GTA IV to keep you happy until then..
I'm sure there are plenty more that I forgot, either way, that list is releases between now and Xmas..
Re:heyho (Score:3, Interesting)
While I agree that the PS3 often gets a hard time from anti-fanboys, I fundamentally disagree with your insinuation that MS has somehow been overly monopolizing in pushing the Xbox and the 360. Let's face it, both Sony and MS have been guilty of making huge subsidies to consumers to try and push their console - this is no secret, so if you're going to string up MS for it, you have to do the same to Sony. As for your accusation of oppressive leverage - where has MS exerted this where no other console manufacturer hasn't?
I hate to be a Microsoft apologist, but honestly, I think MS won the 360 battle fair and square, there was nothing underhanded about it, which is surprising, given that this is Microsoft we're talking about. Despite all their aggressive tactics in other divisions, this is one battle that MS won by itself.
Personally, I own a 360, and aside from the obnoxiously loud DVD drive, I can't be happier. I was excited about PS3, but was sorely disappointed after last year's poor E3 showing. I am still disappointed. Despite all the cool technology that the PS3 has packed in that neat little package, there simply aren't any games that make me want the console. MS has already rolled out with GOW, GRAW, Guitar Hero, and a whole slew of must-haves, and will very quickly be following that up with absolutely delicious looking games like BioShock and Mass Effect (not to mention the 500-lb gorilla, Halo). I don't buy a console for the machine or for its CPU, I buy it so I can play games that are released on it. To that end the PS3 has given me no reason to buy it. Besides a very slick looking Killzone and MGS4, there is simply nothing on the PS3 that compels me, and 2 games doesn't cut it to justify a $500 purchase.
Re:My Thoughts from E3 (Score:4, Interesting)
I keep a spare PSP battery for long flights.
Re:My Thoughts from E3 (Score:3, Interesting)
I actually used my PSP as an MP3 and movie player more than a game player and it sounds like you're doing the same. The gym was my main use. I never saw Star Trek DS9 so I ripped the episodes to my PSP and watched an episode while at the gym. That's a good 45min workout.
I did buy "Ghostbusters" and I was given "Without a Paddle" UMD movies. The movies where nice. good quality, lacking in features that the normal DVD's had, but at least they had sub-titles. I wouldn't buy any more UMD's though. Far to expensive.
Anyway, the point is still, the PSP is still lacking in the gaming department, but it's a great mobile video machine. Oh, and I own a 2nd battery as I fly to France from Chicago from time to time (8 hour flight).
Cheers,
Fozzy