Hatrack River Forum: Play Station Portable

This is topic Play Station Portable - Wow, I mean... WOW! in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.

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Posted by beatnix19 (Member # 5836) on :

Just got one the other day and this thing is freaking amazing. The game play alone is sweet. Great detail, largest portable screen out there, comfortable button layout, amazing graphics(this thing is seriously as clear as my television and as detailed as a ps2)But the gaming is only scratching the surface. The MP3 player is fantastic. It has amazing sound through the head phones. You can play movies on the stupid thing. The bundle currently comes with spiderman 2 and it looks as good as the DVD. Add to that the fact that you can use it to view digital pictures. This thing is seriously as good as sony claims it is. Anyone else out there have one yet?

Posted by Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged (Member # 7476) on :

I never get a first generation sony product. It seems everytime I buy a sony product in it's first generation it breaks after about a year. I also hate proprietary hardware. UMD? They couldn't just use minidvd? And Sony Memory Stick Duo, you can't even use Sony's old memor stick. So the long and short of it is I'll wait and see.

Posted by Altáriël of Dorthonion (Member # 6473) on :

I must say the design is SEXY, but I'm not really attracted to it.
I even slapped my couisin when he sold everything he had, his SP, DS, GC, X-Box, and PS2, just to get that thing.
Oh! The little bastard took away the RE4 game he lent me without even asking if I had finished it. Luckily I had.
EDIT: he sold it too.

[ April 04, 2005, 12:55 PM: Message edited by: Altáriël of Dorthonion ]

Posted by urbanX (Member # 1450) on :

That sucks!!!

Posted by Erik Slaine (Member # 5583) on :

Oh. I thought it could play DVDs. Oh well.

*waits some more*

Posted by Altáriël of Dorthonion (Member # 6473) on :

Oh, now you have to wait for the ps3 or something. Sony is planning something big on that, and so is MS for the Box2

Posted by beatnix19 (Member # 5836) on :

I know I should have waited. I know I should be happy with my GC, PS2, XBOX, NES, SNES, PC and GBA SP. I know I have a sickness and should seek proffesional help, but I just had to have it. And seriously, this thing is really worth the money. I, at least, think it is. Yes, they packaged it in such a way that you need to buy sony made additions, like the memory stick duo and the UMD games and movies, but I believe that this is a unit that will be able to handle all that critisism because it is reallly well designed and it performs.

Posted by Tater (Member # 7035) on :

I'm happy with my PS2, but havin' that little fella couldn't hurt, could it?
*wants one* [Cry]

Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :

I was all set to buy one, it would have been my first new system since N64 (I've fallen out of gaming in the last several years).

I figured it chouldn't be as expensive as a Playstation, thinking it would be more in the price range of a DS or slightly higher.

I felt like I got kicked in the gut when I saw the price. No way I'm paying that much for that little thing. I'll wait for it to come down in price.

Posted by Altáriël of Dorthonion (Member # 6473) on :

damn straight

Posted by beatnix19 (Member # 5836) on :

no!!!! Why is everyone much more intelegent and responsible than I am. Be stupid and go blow the money. I need to feel like I'm not the only dummy out there.

Actually to be very honest, I wish I would have waited. I have a very angry wife and I have kicked myself about it a dozen times or so already. It's not that I'm unhappy with the system, as I've mentioned, it's freakin' awesome, It's just that I really can't afford it right now. I just bought it anyways when I could have spent the money more wisely. I seriously think I have some weird habit or compulsion when it comes to new gizmos. I get it in my head that I want one and then it's all I can do to keep myself from running out and buying whatever is the new hot toy. It's amazing the excuses I come up with to validate all my purchases. [Wall Bash]

Posted by Avadaru (Member # 3026) on :

Don't worry, I can't afford one either, which is why I only paid for 1/5 of mine. *grin* My best friend and I share it. I freaking love the thing. I've gotten pretty good at Wipeout Pure and I'm level 7 Alchemist on Untold Legends (which is pretty low, but not bad considering I've only played that game about 4 times). Which games did you get for it?

And yeah, watching Spiderman 2 on it was nice as well...the graphics are perfect.

Did you have any dead/lit pixels on yours? We could only find one lit half-pixel, and it only shows up on black loading screens.

Posted by narrativium (Member # 3230) on :

Ah, but how far have you gotten on Heaven and Hell? [Wink]

Posted by Altáriël of Dorthonion (Member # 6473) on :

Are any of these on other systems?

Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :

[ROFL]

I would stop at level 59, just to be safe....

[ April 04, 2005, 05:06 PM: Message edited by: Kwea ]

Posted by Lime (Member # 1707) on :

I'm planning on getting one. I should have the requisite $$ saved in about 6-8 months. I'm hoping by then that Memory stick prices will have dropped.

It would be nice, of course, if Sony would be able to keep the rights to sell Playstation products in the US.

Posted by urbanX (Member # 1450) on :

A brilliant move by Microsoft. Settle with Immersion, thus creating a legal precedence. Then buy a an equity stake and cut a sub license deal. The upshoot is Microsoft will get at least $15 Million dollars from Sony. More if Sony decides to license the tech. from Microsotf. Microsoft could get money from the sale of every PS2 OR Sony will not have rumble tech. on it's new PS3.

Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :

Out of court settlements don't create precedents.

Posted by beatnix19 (Member # 5836) on :

I bought Untold Legends. I'm a level 11 knight.

Posted by NinjaBirdman (Member # 7114) on :

I love my psp. Twisted Metal: Head On is fantastic. The only complaint I could possibly have with the psp is the headphones. They don't fit my ears right or something, and they end up falling out a lot, and after awhile my ears start to hurt. That's really not a big problem though because you can use your own set. It's great! [Smile]

Posted by rav (Member # 7595) on :

At the gamestop I got mine at, I ended up opening 4-5 finding dead pixels on every one that I opened. I got a replacement plan, and I'm going back sometime this week to get a different one from a new shipment.

PSP Unit -
A stylish, sleek, widescreen portable playstation. This is the first Sony console that I have purchased. It comes with a 32 megabyte Duo Pro memory card for save games, and other media. Hooks up to your PC / Mac via USB2.0. Plays UMD (Blu-Ray format mini-discs). The screen 480x270 pixels (16:9) is stunning just to look at, let alone be immersed into the game or movie you are experiencing.

Movies -
UMD: From what I have gathered about UMD Movies: 1.8 Gigabyte h.264 Mpeg4 movies. Standard DVD has almost double resolution of the screen, but uses Mpeg2 which takes many more bits per pixel area to get the same quality. This turns out to be very good quality.
Copied Movies: As some of you may know, you can recompress any movies you have on your computer and copy them over to your PSP memory card to play them back while on the road. I know of 2 software applications that aid you in this task. PSP Video 9 is the one I recommend, because it was the only one I could get the proper aspect ratio (16:9) on the Starwars Episode 3 trailer I was compressing. I wasn't able to use H.264 this early in the game. Hopefully there will be better tools later, and more documentation by Sony.

Music -
I have only copied a few songs over to play on my PSP. I haven't explored much of the use of MP3 playback. I will write more on this at a later date.

Communication -
802.11b: Right now you can't do much with the wireless without Wipeout Pure. But if you have Wipeout Pure, you can surf the web, and even chat in IRC. (http://psphacks.net)

USB2: Your PSP acts as a USB filesystem drive, this means you can plug it into any PC / Mac, and it will show up as a new drive for you. This was the only way for me to really be happy with it. I am so glad they chose a standard, rather than some new proprietary way of storage.

Ape Escape -
A fun, cute, seemingly kids game, that still appeals to me. Quite like how Spyro appealed to me, but not having a playstation, I never got into it. Spike (your character) is trying to stop the changes in history started by his arch nemesis Zak that took back in time with him several hundred apes to change time permanently. While playing the game it will load short sequences with voice, play those and then load the level you are going to play. Each time it loads it takes 10-15 seconds, and once you have seen several levels the repetitive loading sequence is a little grinding.

Ape Escape Multiplayer -
This is the only game I've been able to play multiplayer, and the interface seems a bit lacking. Once you get into the multiplayer menu it asks you to load your profile, and choose the game you're going to play with a friend. Once you play the game, it asks you to save your profile, and takes you back to the main menu, and you have to wait through the semi-long process of starting a multiplayer game again. The mulitiplayer modes are Boxing, Snowboarding, Ping-Pong, and Zak's Attack (racing on foot).
I like it quite a bit. I haven't completed the game yet, when I do I'll report back.

Scores: 9/10 Gameplay, 5/10 Loading, 8/10 Multiplayer, 9/10 Overall.

Wipeout Pure -
This game is very addicting to me. I first played wipeout on PC ages ago. This game is a futuristic racer, where you compete in races, time trials, and tournaments to get gold medals. There are 4-6 series of races each one getting respectively faster. It speeds up how fast you turn, how fast you go, and leaves the tracks how they were. I have 40 of probably 200 gold medals. I'll get back to you on this one. My only gripe is that I have to go to the progress in another menu, instead of seeing it when I'm choosing what level to play next. I Have not been able to play multiplayer yet, but there are options to transmit all of your racing records to the surrounding PSPs, and to recieve thier records as well.

Scores: 9/10 Gameplay, 8/10 Loading, N/A Multiplayer, 9/10 Overall.

Lumines -
Puzzle game! I'm all about puzzle games, and this one is quite a bit like tetris with a twist. This game is about taking 4 peice blocks that usually have 2 colors, and making squares, and rectangles per color with the peices.

I really have enjoyed playing the puzzle mode. Puzzle mode has a blue-print of a design you are supposed to make out of the peices, you have to make it exactly as designed, and cannot have any trailing peices of the same color attached to it. Some puzzles are very challenging, and others are quite simple. The main game is to get higher and higher scores to unlock new music, and new skins. With each skin the colors of the pieces change to match.

Whenever you place a square set it will clear when the timeline crosses over it. They have managed to make the game seem musically interactive so when you place a block, it will play a sound usually based on where the timeline is at the moment. When the timeline crosses it will play another sound that goes with the current music. The Player VS Computer mode splits half of the play area and the more combos you make you 'fight' over space between the computer. I assume this is how 2 Player works. I haven't been able to play this multiplayer with anyone yet. I will report back when I do.
Something to note: This has the same drive as tetris to me, where I will come back to it after a long time of not playing it, and try to get a higher score. Other than this drive there isn't much else driving me to play it. I will probably play it more when I have completed the other games I am playing on the PSP.

Scores: 9/10 Gameplay, 10/10 Loading, N/A Multiplayer, 9/10 Overall.

I will write up something on Twisted Metal: Head on, and Metal Gear Ac!d in the next day or so.

Posted by narrativium (Member # 3230) on :

rav, have you tried mencoder? The OS X version, at least, can encode h.264.

Posted by rav (Member # 7595) on :

I've tried Nero Recode. I think the problem is that it has to be a special container as well as h.264. I'll check it out though.

Posted by rav (Member # 7595) on :

This is all the options I have with mencoder on windows.

code:

 
vcodec=<value>
Employ the specified codec (default: mpeg4).
mjpeg Motion JPEG
ljpeg Lossless JPEG
h263 H.263
h263p H.263+
mpeg4 MPEG-4 (DivX 4/5)
msmpeg4 DivX 3
msmpeg4v2 MS MPEG4v2
wmv1 Windows Media Video, version 1 (AKA WMV7)
wmv2 Windows Media Video, version 2 (AKA WMV8)
rv10 an old RealVideo codec
mpeg1video MPEG-1 video
mpeg2video MPEG-2 video
huffyuv HuffYUV
asv1 ASUS Video v1
asv2 ASUS Video v2
ffv1 FFmpeg’s lossless video codec

Posted by rav (Member # 7595) on :

That was all that was listed, but I see other options there for h.264. I'll encode some stuff tonight, but i'm leaving now to go see Sin City.