|
|
GAME CONSOLE
Forget Go Big Time, the PS2's little brother is super-sized gaming on the go!
Before we begin, a confession is in order: this review almost didn't get written on time and partly to blame is Sony's new gaming widget. Now that's out of the way, we commence with the review proper.
Sony's PlayStation Portable (PSP) made its splashy pre-production debut at last year's Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3), the video game industry's largest annual gathering. Even back then, a lot of eyes glazed at what could be Sony's biggest gamble since launching the PlayStation. The PS2 may be the undisputed home game console with worldwide sales in excess of 74 million units, but Sony's experience was nowhere near that of Nintendo with its 15-year grasp of the handheld market.
After almost a year, the PSP has arrived on local shores. It couldn't have come at a very good time not just for anyone with an interest in handheld gaming, but for the company which makes it as well. The very vocal spats between Sony's gaming and electronics division and its recent corporate shakeup have shown visible chinks in the Tokyo giant's armor. Recently, the visionary Ken Kutaragi, well-known as the father of the PlayStation, got bypassed as the corporation's next CEO. With its share prices going lower than expected, Sony's good fortunes now heavily rest on the PSP.
The rise of handheld game machines have been well documented in the annals of video game history. The original Nintendo Game Boy, Atari Lynx, Sega Game Gear, Sega Nomad, WonderSwan, Neo Geo Pocket, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance-this is just a partial list of handhelds from 1989 to the present. Nintendo is still the overall handheld champ since it was also one of the first to arrive at the scene. The PSP is Sony's boldest entry in the handheld wars which erupted late last year when it went up against the Nintendo DS.
The PSP may be a first for Sony, but it's definitely a showcase of a decade's worth of experience in making home game consoles. What strikes you the most the first time you hold it in your hands is how familiar yet unique-looking it is. The standout design is without a doubt, the pinnacle of handheld gaming. It feels solid and weighty as you your palms wrap around both ends. The familiar triangle, circle, cross and cross face buttons and the D-pad are straight out of a DualShock 2 PS2 gamepad, but instead of textured gray plastic, the buttons are made of clear plastic. There's only a pair of shoulder buttons on the entire unit which rest on the left and right top edges. Directly below the D-pad, there's an analog 8-way thumbstick. The flat thumbstick head slides in all directions along a 2D plane but since it's not mounted on a shaft, it doesn't protrude above the unit. A row of discretely raised buttons runs along the bottom of the screen. There's the semi-standard Select and Start buttons but there's also front mounted volume control buttons, a Home button, a sound mode button (for equalization presets while playing music) and a screen aspect ratio button (for viewing movies). The stereo speakers may be just two holes at the bottom but it they can sound pretty louder than most built-in speakers.
The heart and soul of modern video games are the graphics, and the PSP is more than eager to flaunt the PlayStation zeitgeist. The PSP has the largest and brightest high resolution screen available on a dedicated handheld game machine. Even at the default brightness setting, images are immensely crisp and sharp, easily beating it's nearest rival, the Nintendo DS in a pixel per pixel duel. It's also impressively long for a reason. The screen displays games in a widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio. Imagine if you could shrink a widescreen plasma or LCD TV and fit it in the palm of your hand. A technological miracle? You bet. Not even the screens of dedicated portable video players from Archos or Creative look as good as the PSP's.
With the growing security and piracy concerns of content publishers, trust Sony to ingeniously come up with proprietary media for this next generation handheld. Of all the console manufacturers, Sony is in a unique position of being a hardware manufacturer and content publisher. With this in mind, it has to protect its interest on both sides of its business.
PSP games and movies come in what is known as the Universal Media Disc (UMD) format. The discs can store up to 1.8GB of data. Music will also be released in UMD cartridges. The back of the PSP opens up and takes the UMD inside. The PSP's UMD loading mechanism is quite similar to that of an MD player. This is perhaps our only complaint with the unit: the UMD slot door closes with a vaguely cheap click. For a portable, the UMD's capacity is presently sufficient enough, but the downside is its hit on the unit's battery life since there's a motor inside the PSP that spins the UMD. There's a noticeable pause when games are loading, but it's not that long to cause any real inconvenience. With games, the PSP's battery life last around five hours and it takes about 3 hours to recharge the standard battery. Don't expect even cellphone-strength rumble on the unit since it's been left out to prolong battery life.
 |
|
PSP CPU with 1-333 MHZ clock. 4.3 inch, 16:9 widescreen TFT with 480 x 272 pixel and 16.7 million colors LCD screen. Built-in stereo speakers. WiFi connectivity. USB 2.0 (mini-B). Memory Stick Pro Duo slot. IRDA. Buttons: Cross, Square, Triangle, Circle, L, R, D-pad and analog thumb nub. MP4 (PSP format) video support. ATRAC3plus, MP3 support. Dimensions: 170mm x 23mm x 74mm. Weight: 280g
|
|
Everything that you love the about PS2 and a widescreen TV, in the palm of your hands
|
|
When it comes to games, we're practically speechless. The PSP flogs the hell out of its contemporaries like the DS when it comes to sheer graphical muscle. Everything that a PS2 can do, a PSP can. This includes the ability to render current generation console-quality graphics which is staggering to see on a handheld. We took the PSP version of Ridge Racers for a spin at the office and we practically had to wipe drool off the screen and pick up jaws on the floor. The setting sun filtering on the clouds and throwing its tangerine rays on the windshield, the jets of blue flames leaving your exhaust, the relentless barrage of detailed scenery as you drive by-we almost had a seizure because of sensory overload. So small, yet so like playing at home. Hot damn! They've shrunk a widescreen LCD TV and a PS2!
The fun doesn't stop there, through some software trickery, you can load photos, movie files, and MP3s onto the Memory Stick, the PSP's storage medium. You need a high capacity Memory Stick (256MB and above) to be able to load movies of considerable length. The Memory Stick also stores game saves and other data such as video and music files. Some PSP enthusiasts have even discovered that you can surf the 'Net via WiFi using the browser found in the Wipeout Pure game. Just google it to find out how.
For a handheld games machine with multimedia capability thrown in, the PSP has no equal. Mind you, the current batch of games only hint at the PSP's capabilities.
It boggles the mind what games we'll get to see once developers fully unleash the hardware's potential as the product matures. With currently more than 2 million units sold, we're more than happy to buy one for ourselves and join the PSP-carrying crowd.
- Ed Geronia
 Post your opinion or own review!
T3 Magazine Philippines - May 2005 Issue
|
|
|
Advertisement
|
|
|
|
