PSP Love [Archive] - MacRumors Forums

Dagless

Jul 28, 2006, 06:04 PM

I didn't find the features solid at all.

Pictures- Somehow one button (related to zooming, IIRC) changed depending on an unseen item. It's very hard to describe as I only played with it for 5 minutes but I found it temperamental.
Video- Right. So I can't just drop a video file in there? I understand if it has to be a certain codec. but file name?
Web Browser- Never going to work on such a mini screen. best left to Pocket PC's with VGA resolutions.
Music- Very limited options, felt like using a first gen MP3 player. No playlist support?

Though to be honest I did only use FW versions 1.5 and 2.0. I resold it on eBay with a minor financial loss, bought myself a 400gb HDD, a DS Lite, Castlevania DS and a DVD-RW with external USB case (slap my face I only have a Combo Drive).
Don't know why I went for a PSP when I have a Pocket PC that doesn't limit homebrew. Moment of madness :) I mean why the ****** would Sony chose not to have an SD card slot in there? Don't they know how many people have cameras that use SD cards?

ddrueckhammer

Jul 28, 2006, 11:55 PM

If the PSP actually had some games that I wanted to play then I would be all over it. I am pretty frustrated with Nintendo of America refusing to offer some of the great things that Japanese DS users get in this country.

The PSP has web and mp3/mpeg4 playback out of the box. The DS could have the media playback features if Nintendo would offer the Play-Yan Micro (especially a DS version) in this country. Also, there hasn't been a US release date for the Opera browser and there may never be if what I have been reading on the Opera DS forums is any indication. Finally, there still is no DS Lite rumble-pak on the shelves WTF? I understand offering some of the features that the PSP has as add-ons instead of built-in to keep costs down but I don't understand not having these accesories on the shelf right next to the DS so that buyers can decide if they want them or not. At least offer them as a special order item from Nintendo of America's site...

Finally, Nintendo has a great games library but there are some gaps like in fighting games. This one could easily be filled with Bleach which is a huge hit in Japan but I will never know because there isn't an American version. It is frustrating sometimes being an Apple fan too as I don't always know what the company is going to do product-wise but Nintendo is 10 times worse! When they get classic PS1 games like FFVII and MGS it might be worth my attention but the games on the DS are the main reason why I have it rather than a PSP whether I'm disappointed or not...The PSP is a gaming device but Sony focuses more on its mulitimedia capabilities...

DarkNetworks

Jul 29, 2006, 03:44 AM

I thought this is supposed to be a true PSP lover thread? :rolleyes:

tominated

Jul 29, 2006, 03:52 AM

I hav both a psp and ds, i prefer the ds, it is more fun

ddrueckhammer

Jul 29, 2006, 03:52 AM

Well I kinda am a fan...I would love to have one...there is just one problem...games...

risc

Jul 29, 2006, 03:56 AM

Any others out there who feel the same?

Haven't you heard if you use a Mac you have to hate everything Sony? :rolleyes:

I've owned both consoles and they are both great at what they do. Now that memory cards for the PSP are cheap it's even better for multimedia, personally I sold mine though since I wasn't using it at all. I still have a DS but I'll be honest I don't use it anymore either. In Australia there really isn't any good software for the DS, call me crazy but the whole idea of "brain training" seems pretty lame to me. At the moment though I'd say we have better games on the PSP than the DS.

Dagless

Jul 29, 2006, 07:23 AM

Haven't you heard if you use a Mac you have to hate everything Sony? :rolleyes:

Yea that works. Just as the best headphones I use are Sony along with one of favourite consoles of yesteryear. LOGIC FTW.

risc

Jul 29, 2006, 08:35 AM

You aren't seriously saying this forum isn't full of Sony haters raggedjimmi?

Dagless

Jul 29, 2006, 08:41 AM

You aren't seriously saying this forum isn't full of Sony haters raggedjimmi?

I'm saying people have their reasons. Every other piece of Sony kit I've owned has failed on me, though our old PS1 did need a new laser 2 years after purchase. If people make faulty electronics then it's their fault and the public shouldn't be blamed for backlash. bad experiences mean bad comments. simple as.

MacRumorUser

Jul 29, 2006, 08:44 AM

Its A LOVE/HATE relationship for me.

LOVE that the screen is bright and love the size and ratio.. BUT HATE the refresh rate and blurring that results really iritates me and makes it uncomfortable, undoing the good mentioned prior.

LOVE the d-pad and buttons, but HATE! analog nub (sucks ass)

LOVE! The original games, Lumines & Mercury & LocoRocco all are amazing. HATE!! the Ps2 ports iritate me and the controls dont work well on the psp / handheld device. period.

However I do find DS titles better, and the brightness, dual screen and VERY GOOD refresh rate on the new DS Lite is much better than the PSP and even though psp has WiFi, there are less games to play online compared to the DS. Most of the DS titles are original too rather than just poor ports with bad loading times and poor controls.....

:)

ictiosapiens

Jul 29, 2006, 09:03 AM

For me it was the neverending loading times that made me sell my psp after a month... On a portable, they are just unacceptable. You are on the Tube, you turn the psp on, and by the time you are actually playing, you are near your stop and have to turn it off again... None of that with solid memory like the DS. Owning a propietary solid memory format, that can hold up to 4 GB, I just can't understand why Sony had to push that ridiculous format UMD which is not going anywhere...

They could even start some sort of Itunes system to sell the games over the internet, straight into your memory sticks pro high speed and reduce those loading times to a tolerable level...

Just my experience...

drummerbooker14

Jul 29, 2006, 09:50 AM

my Psp is fine. the only reason i didn't get the ds was graphics. and there is one amazing game death Jr. which actually has a decent aiming system. but alas i need money and i am trying to sell it, but i don't have enough posts for marketplace.

AppleinJapan

Jul 29, 2006, 10:14 AM

I have to admit that with my 1gb mem stick - I use my psp more than I do my ipod. When I go into tokyo - I browse the web, listen to music on the train, play a game, show my mates some photos and watch a movie coming back home....its fantastic......

zap2

Jul 29, 2006, 12:44 PM

You aren't seriously saying this forum isn't full of Sony haters raggedjimmi?

i was reading the old threads about the last gen console war, and PS2 was the winner, with GameCube and then xBox(mostly because it was made by MS) Either the forums have changed a lot, or the forum user changed their minds(i think its a little of both)

2nyRiggz

Jul 29, 2006, 01:14 PM

I love the PSP...its a great machine. I have the DS as well but its getting boring to me just like a couple of months when I first got my Lite and the PSP as collecting dust. I'm showing support for both handhelds because they are both good.

Bless

takao

Jul 29, 2006, 04:44 PM

well i just think sony tried to do simply to much with it...

+the screen is high class .. so are the buttons on the right
-on the other side the analog thingy is nearly impossible to use comfortable and the shoulder buttons are more design feature than comfortable ... and of course the separated d-pad is still not as good as it could be

+it plays movies
-for which sony sacrificed short loading times which is handheld requirement

+it plays music
-but for a mp3 player it's quite a brick to carry around

+it displays photos
i can't really find a negative thing for that except that perhaps most people wanting to display photos can do so on their digital camera as well
if the psp had a camera it would make more sense to me to have this feature

+browser
-no keyboard or mouse ... without trying it doesn't sound like a lot of fun

personally i think it's an ok machine especially from power and screen and features but the whole thing ends up doing everthing ok instead of doing 2-3 really great

at least sony didn't fell for putting a phone into it as Nokia did (actually the NGAGE had quite a lot of features too)

bobber205

Jul 29, 2006, 05:19 PM

There's a video on YouTube about a match of WWF some game that takes nearly SEVEN MINUTES to load! OMG! WTF?

That's way too long. My goodness.

DarkNetworks

Jul 29, 2006, 09:42 PM

I love the PSP...its a great machine.

Finally...some love...:D

MacsomJRR

Jul 29, 2006, 11:15 PM

I've owned the PSP for awhile now and played probably 30+ games on it (thanks to gamefly.com) but it never really grew on me the same way that my new DS has managed to. Two days ago I broke down and bought a DS from my local Toys'r'Us along with Mariokart DS and Tetris DS. I haven't been able to put the darn thing down since I got it home. The touch screen makes the games so much more fun to interact with and is surprisingly accurate (seems like a decent quality touch screen).

I don't think I would have enjoyed it as much if it hadn't been the newer lite version with all it's added improvements. Perhaps this is just the honeymoon period but the DS so far has absolutely blown my PSP away in terms of playability and fun. Count me in on the DS bandwagon baby!

NINTENDO RULEZ!

edit: Just picked up Brain Age for something a little different and I think it's great. Not really a "game" in the traditional sense but still a great lil' brain exercise game.

MacRumorUser

Jul 30, 2006, 12:33 PM

Heres the big difference.

Last night I was having a dinner party (ooh lah di dah) and during the conversation afterwards we were talking about Soduko and puzzles.

I gave a group of people in their late 50's a go on my DS Lite with BrainAge and by the end of the night every single one of them was addicted.

When I brought out the psp, they just looked at it, and passed a quick comment and when they tried soduko psp they didnt enjoy it and it was soon relegated, turned off and put back on the shelf.

The DS really does have somthing, graphics aren't everything, ease of use and accessabilty are. The DS has redefined handheld gaming and Nintendo have managed to create somthing that has appeal outside the 'teen boy toy' bracket.. Somthing the psp has not.

If Nintendo can do the same with Wii - they will really have somthing next gen. A machine to revolutionise what 'gaming' is.....

Dagless

Jul 30, 2006, 02:22 PM

I can relate to that in a lesser extent. A friends mum is hugely addicted to Brain Training, she had a play in some shop (don't know which, though it wasn't a game shop) bought it and has pretty much stolen her sons DS. Everyone under that roof has become addicted to Brain Training now and they're all planning on buying pink and blue DS Lites soon as they're out here. From what I've gathered they're also pining for that "42 all time classics".

I don't know how much PSP exposure the family have had. It's either not that good a device to them or Sony aren't advertising it like Nintendo are doing.

ddrueckhammer

Jul 30, 2006, 02:33 PM

Ok back to PSP love...

The PSP is a nice device because:

1. It has built-in web browsing
2. It has built-in mp3/mpeg4 viewing
3. It can be used as a mobile picture viewer
4. It has a super nice screen
5. Homebrew is easy to install with only a memory stick
6. It has better graphics
7. It has downloadable content
8. It will have classic PS1 games for download in the future
9. It will have GPS in the future. (I'm pretty sure I read this somewhere)
10. It does support online play

Obviously, as I stated earlier, I don't have one for reasons listed. With a few improvements hardware and especially software wise, I could see myself wanting one.

Dagless

Jul 30, 2006, 02:37 PM

About the screen - I honestly found the screen disgusting. It was like looking at an Aston Martin but realising the steering wheel was covered in barbed wire. I'm just wondering if folk here take into consideration the horrible ghost-like refresh rate when commenting about the bright and vibrant screen?

ddrueckhammer

Jul 30, 2006, 02:43 PM

You do have a point about ghosting but overall it is a pretty nice screen...

crjackson

Jul 30, 2006, 04:11 PM

I have both.

Love the PSP for quite a few of their titles, the fact that it can hold music, photos, etc
Love the DS for some of the fun quirky games.

If I had to choose, I would still go with the PSP.

huck500

Jul 30, 2006, 05:59 PM

The PSP is a really great-looking machine, but that's about all it has going for it. The screen refresh made Liberty City Stories unplayable, IMO. I'm sensitive to the blurring, I know not everyone is.

I sold it for much more than I payed for it, since it was a 1.5 machine, and bought 2 DSs and four games. Now I have a somewhat toy-like machine I actually play, instead of a beautiful paperweight.

I loved it for a while, though...:)

MacRumorUser

Jul 30, 2006, 06:18 PM

The PSP is a really great-looking machine, but that's about all it has going for it. The screen refresh made Liberty City Stories unplayable, IMO. I'm sensitive to the blurring, I know not everyone is.

Yeah it really iritates me too. Even a simple game like loco rocco has a ***** load of bluring when the screen moves, especially with a strong dark color....

2nyRiggz

Jul 30, 2006, 09:02 PM

^You know I've never seen the blurr when I play games on it...except dark stalkers and that spiderman UMD....but I really don't see it. I love playing SOCOM and SP: DM online....I think its a strong point for the PSP...I havent gotten into the DS online play as yet...I can't find anyone to play and when I do find someone..cheating:(.

Bless

ddrueckhammer

Jul 31, 2006, 12:31 AM

Bobdude161

Jul 31, 2006, 12:52 AM

Me and 3 people I know bought ourselves the PSP and a few months later we all sold ours. We all seemed to have a resonding voice in why we got bored of it:

Slow loading times
Not really "on the go". Why have the PSP when you got the PS2 at home?
Afraid of breaking it and losing value.
Already had enough distractions in life (work, school)

I spent about $500 dollars on everything and sold it all for half the price. Worst buying decision I ever made.

When I bought the PSP I had high expectations and it just seemed to of lost it's glimmer about 2 months into my purchase.

Buy the DS.

MondayNgt

Jul 31, 2006, 10:15 AM

I love the PSP, it has a drought of games for a while but it has started to pump out some really good stuff in the past few months. Typically takes about a year for any system to get good things in, in comparison the DS selection was absolutely horrid until nearly a year after it's original release. As for the PSP, right around Feb-April brought on the Mega Man games (couldn't put them down), Syphon Filter, Daxter, etc.

I like both, but I feel the PSP unfairly gets a bad rep. All depends on what games you like to play. It's a no-brainer if you're a Sony gamer and enjoy it's franchises, the DS doesn't do Socom, Syphon Filter, Tekken, GTA, Twisted Metal, etc.

Loading times depends on game optimization. Some game developers are absolutely ridiculous about it (Smackdown vs. Raw, Untold Legends). Others do it very well...Tekken load times are surprisingly quick. (You'll never see those online YouTube anti-PSP videos showing/loading those.) In the case of other games like Grand Theft Auto, it's no more loading time than the console counterparts.

The DS is definitely better for twitch gaming for the mainstream, but I can see the PSP being more valuable for the older gamer. Not only for the longer games, but it makes a great portable movie player for the traveling businessperson. (UMDs are a bad value, but it's not hard to rip DVDs to PSP with the right software.)

AlmightyG5

Jul 31, 2006, 10:33 AM

I didn't find the features solid at all.

Music- Very limited options, felt like using a first gen MP3 player. No playlist support?
Are you serious? You can create as many playlists as you want. It is called File>New Folder.

AndyR

Jul 31, 2006, 11:44 AM

i just bought a PSP from eBay which should be here in a couple of days. Gigapack, 1gb card, extra life battery, etc, 3x games (GTA, Tony Hawk, Daxter) for £130 delivered.

Going on a long haul flight next month so thought it would be a good thing to occupy me :)

mattthemutt

Jul 31, 2006, 11:58 AM

I have a PSP, but it sits on the shelf and collects dust; I haven't found a game that really makes me want to play my PSP, and it's too much of a hassle to download movies to it.

AlmightyG5

Jul 31, 2006, 12:53 PM

I have a PSP, but it sits on the shelf and collects dust; I haven't found a game that really makes me want to play my PSP, and it's too much of a hassle to download movies to it.

Download PSPWare. Drag pretty much any video format including .vob into the movies section and it converts it for the PSP and then will automatically sync your Movies, iPhoto Playlists, iTunes playlists, Safari bookmarks, and Backup game saves in a matter of 2 min. It can't get any easier.

2nyRiggz

Jul 31, 2006, 02:54 PM

Really? I haven't had any problems finding people to play against. Just set it to worldwide and play against the asian players....If you are refering to snaking in Mario Kart...That isn't cheating...It's in the manual and I don't really see how you can cheat in Metroid...I mean, if you unlock the characters then you can use them and sniping while lame isn't really cheating either...

When I play MP:H.....they don't seem to die when you shoot them like ALOT!..lol..They use this type of ghost hack to walk through walls and be invincible....it's annoying...I've seen idiots do it in MP and in SOCOM...it sucks!

Bless

ddrueckhammer

Jul 31, 2006, 03:41 PM

Wow, I didn't know that. Now, I'll keep an eye out. I guess this is what friend codes are for...If they are doing it on MPH they must be using something like a program on the M3 to hack it. Nintendo could put out an update over Wifi to stop it but I guess not enough people have complained.

patseguin

Jul 31, 2006, 04:06 PM

ddrueckhammer

Jul 31, 2006, 04:14 PM

The DS is capable of games equivalant to N64/PSX era graphics. It has Mario 64 which was a release title for the N64. There are some games like New Super Mario Brothers intended to have a retro look and feel. Go look at the graphics from games back in 1999. They weren't all that great. The PSP in contrast has PS2 equivalant graphics. The graphics still don't change the fact that it has extremely fun games.

yellow

Jul 31, 2006, 04:18 PM

Sony kicked Ragged in the nuts, ignore him.

My PSP was quite useful this weekend for playing movies on, and listening to it through the car stereo.

plinkoman

Jul 31, 2006, 04:20 PM

I've looked at screenshots for DS games and they look like games from the 80's. Are the graphics on the PSP that superior? I had a PSP and sold it because it wasn't that fun. I like the idea of the DS but the games look so dated.

which games have you looked at? DS graphics are on par with n64, and when viewed on a smaller screen like the DS, it really doesn't look too bad (metroid for example).