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Media Entertainment Games

New Media Experience Coming to PSP 49

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.
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New Media Experience Coming to PSP

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  • by Godeke ( 32895 ) * on Thursday January 26, 2006 @01:34PM (#14570358)
    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).
    • The PSP does still have some killer apps. SOCOM is an amazing game given the limitations in the control scheme, but games like Wipeout Pure, and for the first time console quality sports games o the system make it very good as well.

      Honestly, the best way I can think of it is to say that the PSP and DS are very similar to the Genesis/SNES era. Both systems were good, but both did certain types of games better than the others. No one can tell me playing sports games on the DS is as fun as the PSP, or tell m

      • I have heard Wipeout referred to as the "one night stand" because of length. Meanwhile, I am not a sports gamer (that's why they invented outside: for sports). Neither system has really impressed me, but the DS edged out with backwards compatibility and some innovative games that at least were interesting from interface standpoint.
        • How can a game with a huge amount of downloadable content and online gameplay be a one-night stand? Regardless, even if you dislike sports games, you have to admit they are a selling point of the PSP that the DS cannot match, at least yet. They are a huge part of the games market, and the PSP essentially has a stranglehold given how in depth and beautiful most of the sports games on the system have been compared to their DS counterparts.
        • you cant believe everything you hear. wipeout pure has tons of downloadable content. thats been coming at a steady rate for almost a year after launch. the game has a reasonable amount of length natively, but the downloadable content, and the multiplayer aspect make for an excellent launch title. try it for yourself.
    • Unfortunately this system is taking longer than expected to bring content up to par, but at least they didn't leave it in the wind, and we can expect some more coming. The real problem is the developers, not the system, which sans a few problems is a great piece of hardware. The real problem is the price of the system, it needs to come down a good $100 USD before its a viable mainstream platform for handheld gaming. Not to mention the vast edge that Nintendo has because of the exact reason that you explaine
    • The PS2 did very well for me, but the PSP has left me cold (and thus unpurchased).

      I'm seriously disapointed to see every PSP-related article start with a post similar to this.

      This article is about a new type of media that hasn't previously been tried. I'd love to see more people comment on this new thing and leave their overall opinion of the PSP for a more appropriate place.

      Thanks,
      TW
    • Looking at Metacritic, not a single game has cracked the 90+ ratings.

      If you're looking at numeric ratings to determine what games you get, you're missing out on a lot of great games on every platform.

      Contrary to popular opinion, the PSP has a very solid lineup, especially given this is it's first year and it's a first-gen platform. PoPoLoCrois is both cute and RPG. Lord of the Rings Tactics is, well, tactical. Metal Gear: Acid is basically Metal Gear Tactics. Both Legend of Heroes (stupid locali

      • wish i could mod you up, but i already posted.

        ive discussed this elsewhere, but PSP titles in particular are usually not judged on their own merits. because the handheld is so similar to the ps2, people tend to judge PSP games by ps2 standards. games in the gameboy line have been notoriously short and comparatively easier than their console counterparts. no one cared. psp games have to be short and playable [read: enjoyable] for short bursts of time, but you read reviews of psp games, you will find marks ta
  • ... 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'.
  • And by "digital interactive comics" they mean "slideshow".
    • by Anonymous Coward
      Oh, so it will contain more animation than the actual games then.

      The games just have two pictures of heads talking back and forth for hours on end...

      I think occasionally you get a brief interactive sequence between radio conversations, but they're trying to reduce that since players found it too distracting.

      The concept of a MGS game with absolutely no interaction (beyond the camera) just seems to fit so well with the existing games - they're already mostly cutscenes already, simplifying the game to pure cut
  • by cybereal ( 621599 ) on Thursday January 26, 2006 @01:47PM (#14570545) Homepage
    Granted, the PSP can play games, but who really wants to pay $250 for the one or two good games it has to offer?

    On the other hand, for almost $100 less money you can have this: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=6970 469&type=product&productCategoryId=pcmcat139000500 18&id=1099386329954 [bestbuy.com]

    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.
    • Oh yeah, that will work REALLY well, me lugging a portable DVD player on a transit bus.

      If the PSP was so crappy, why have they sold millions of units? Besides, some of us like having everything they need in one device. I'd rather carry around ONE psp than a DS, an mp3 player, and a portable DVD player. Sure, each of them might do each better than th PSP, but I can't afford the space or the cost of all three when I want all three.

    • While watching a movie. Average DVD player playtime: 2hrs. Average PSP playtime: 8hrs.

      Small difference. ;)
      • wow! How do you get 8 hours out of your PSP battery? I get like 4 on mine on a good day.. usually enough for 2-3 Lumines games before it goes dark. Bought an extra battery now since I'll be going to Japan and there's no way the thing will last any significant portion of a 13 hour plane trip.

        Now the standby mode on the PSP is very good. You can have a game running but the whole system in standby for days and the game will snap right back up instantly when you flip the switch and barely any battery will b
      • I take it you haven't actually owned or used a PSP for watching movies as these times are terribly inaccurate. The PSP will last 3 hours, maybe, while regularly reading from the UMD media. On the other hand, if you are referring to watching movies off of a memory stick then, fine, 8 hours is feasible (though, as a PSP owner, I've never had the PSP last 8 hours doing ANYTHING, let alone watching video or playing games).

        Given that you are referring to memory stick videos, and you want to watch a full length
        • My experience is different from yours. I have Jurassic Park on my 1 GB Memory Stick Duo right now, taking up a little less than half the stick. I got a Gigapack, so the MS cost me $50 over the value pack. I get 25-30 fps, 368x208 (16:9), no artifacts. I love the way it looks and sounds, and it's uncertain that better resolution would be noticable to me given the screen size.

          Once you're set up to do it, converting movies is not appreciably different than ripping CD's, something people do all the time wit
    • I guess I'd rather bring my PSP with me to play games, watch movies, and listen to music than bring a portable DVD player, my MP3 player AND my DS - the footprint is somewhat smaller. Come to think of it, it's cheaper than buying all three as well.

      But I admit, digital comics leave me cold. Please, Kojima-san, tell me that this isn't the all-new Metal Gear experience you were talking about a while back! Talk about a letdown...
    • Yeah, who wants to pay $100 more for a smaller device, with only 1 or 2 good games to offer? Let's totally ignore the fact that the PSP can run emulators and play 1000s of classic games, and even homebrew games. Let's also ignore the fact that with a $50 upgrade for a decent sized memory stick duo, you can load your own movies on and not worry about having to carry around big dvds.

      But who on earth would spend $300 on a gadget that plays music, videos, a pretty big array of games, and allows you to br
      • Okay, so if I were to go out right now and buy a new PSP, how would I go about making that run emulators?
        • Well, most retail store PSPs at this time come with 2.0 firmware, which they have a downgrader for. Even if you get a PSP with the 2.5 firmware they now have a downgrader for that which uses a sound glitch. So, all you really need to do is buy a PSP almost anywhere and run some software on it. The hardest part is getting it to 1.5 firmware, but once you have 1.5 you can very easily run homebrew apps on it. I had 1.5 for a while, but then decided the web browser was more important to me and upgraded. So
  • So... uh... when are they going to make some fun games for it?

  • 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.

  • Sony again fails to pick up the ball on the the games department of the PSP.

Put your Nose to the Grindstone! -- Amalgamated Plastic Surgeons and Toolmakers, Ltd.

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