Category: Video Games

Engadget somehow got their hands on a picture of the new Xbox 360. I think it looks reaallllyyy cool. Can’t wait to get one..

My brother sent me a link to a girls photoset on Flickr with pictures of her browsing flickr using her PSP. Here is the link.

Here is a list of the top 25 games of 2005 according to Joystiq.
Hmmmm no DS games?

* 96: Resident Evil 4 (GC)
* 95: God of War (PS2)
* 94: Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Chaos Theory (XBX)
* 92: Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Chaos Theory (PC)
* 91: World Soccer Winning Eleven 8 International (PS2)
* 91: Psychonauts (PC)
* 91: Jade Empire (XBX)
* 90: World Soccer Winning Eleven 8 International (XBX)
* 90: Silent Hunter III (PC)
* 89: Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap (GameBoy Advance)
* 89: World Soccer Winning Eleven 8 International (PC)
* 89: NBA Street V3 (PS2)
* 89: Tekken 5 (PS2)
* 89: Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 (XBX)
* 89: Gran Turismo 4 (PS2)
* 89: Doom 3 (XBX)
* 89: NBA Street V3 (XBX)
* 89: WipEout Pure (PSP)

I was just browsing Amazon and I just realized they now are selling PSP’s for only $249. Good deal, check it out.

PSP Magazines is a site that enables you to download magazine snippets and load them on your PSP. You can currently download snippets from the following magazines:

BLENDER Magazine
Car & Driver
FHM Magazine
Gamespot.com
MAXIM Magazine
Mountain Bike Magazine
Road & Track
Rolling Stone Magazine
Snowboard Magazine
STUFF Magazine
Sports Illustrated
SYNC Magazine
WIRED Magazine

All this is for free, here is the link.

Ok, this might be nearly as big as yesterdays Adobe and Macromedia merger, GameStop Corp. and Electronics Boutique Holdings Corp. have announced a merger agreement. The new company will be known as GameStop Corp. and pretty much holds a monopoly on video game retail. Over 3,200 stores. About $3.8 billion in annual revenue. [Link]

Someone managed to create software for the PSP that allows him to have full control (Play, Stop, Pause, Menu) of his DVD player, TIVO, and High Def TV, all wirelessly from his PSP. [Link]

Yesterday I went down to Rihab Complex in Hawalli to my favorite videogames store. When I first walked in I noticed something different but I couldn’t figure out what. So I shook hands with the owner, and I told him I wanted Doom 3. He took out a piece of paper, wrote down Doom 3 on it and gave it to an Indian employee at the store. The Indian guy took the paper and left the shop to get me the game. I was like huh!? Usually I ask for a game and he gets it for me from a box behind the counter. Then it hit me, I looked around the shop and noticed there wasn’t a single pirated game anywhere. Thats what looked different, the shop looked emptier. So I asked the guy what happened, turns out the municipality has been giving them a hard time and are cracking down on them every week. So now they are being extra careful and all the games and stuff are hidden in another shop.

I took my game and left to another shop elsewhere in Hawalli where me and Nat wanted to get some DVDs. So we walk into the shop we usually buy DVDs from and there are no catalogues to be found. The only thing you could find in the shop was computer power cords hanging on one wall. At first glance you would think this store only sold power cords, but I asked the guy what no more DVDs? He is like yes sir one minute. He went outside the shop and came back in with a small box full of catalogues. Turns out the municipality has only been giving them a hard time.

I hope piracy doesn’t end in Kuwait. Some games are worth buying original but other games, games you would only play once or twice are not worth KD18.

I got Doom3 yesterday on the Xbox and it was the first time I had seen it live. All I had seen before were static images on the web and after yesterday, I don’t think I will be playing Doom3 again. Its just so fucking scary. I would be like walking in the dark with my tiny flashlight when suddenly the ugliest creature you could imagine jumps out of no where and starts biting me. Then I panic and start hitting it with my flashlight instead of my shotgun. Spent the whole first level running as fast as I can hoping incase a creature does pop out that my guy is physically fitter and will be able to outrun it.

Its been a week now since I got my Sony PSP so, here is a review of my impressions.

The Screen
When we first got the PSP, both me and nat were completely surprised at how cool the screen was. It was stunning, nothing like anything we had seen before. Now, a week later, the screen still does look as good but of-course the shock and awe period is over. The colors and the contrast are really perfect. When one of us is playing the other one can still see the screen. The viewing angle didn’t seem to matter much, wherever the other person sits next to you, they will be able to see the screen. The 2 dead pixels are totally invisible. They are still there but they are so small you can’t see them, only when the screen is completely black you might be able to spot them, depending on how good your eyesight is. The screen is huge, and I am sure some people will manage to break it, and that makes me wonder, how much will a replacement screen cost and can it be replaced?

The Controls
The buttons are all laid out like the PS2 controller. The analog controller isn’t what I thought it would be. I was expecting it to be larger and more like the analog controllers on the ps2 and xbox joy-pads, but the one on the psp is smaller and slides in different directions and doesn’t tilt. Its awkward to use but maybe I could get used to it. Until I do though I am have been using the regular directional pad for 95% of the time. One major problem I have is the Power/Sleep button. Its located to the right of the device and sometimes when I get excited and press the R button on top hard, the whole device moves in my hand and that results in me accidently activating the power switch and putting my PSP to sleep. It hasn’t happened a lot but enough for me to mention it as a problem. Luckily they must have thought about this and there is a HOLD button which stops the PSP from accidently getting turned on or off. The start and select buttons are located under the screen next to the mute and brightness buttons. When the room is dark its hard to find the start button and you cant really feel your way to it since it isn’t extruding from the PSP that much. It would have been a lot cooler if the buttons under the screen had backlighting but then I guess it would be annoying when playing games.

The Handling
How does it feel holding the PSP? It’s not perfect but definitely feels better then holding the GameBoy SP. The gameboy SP was squarish and tiny, it never felt comfortable in my hands. The PSP on the other hand is much wider and so allows me to stretch my fingers completely underneath it. I would have preferred it if the PSP had more rounded edges but I am sure it would have made it look a lot uglier.

The Battery Life
When I first got the PSP I was expecting that I would face battery problems but I haven’t yet. The PSP is like a PDA or a phone, you use it through out the day at different intervals, then at night before you sleep you put it on charge. You can save battery life by dimming the screen a bit, it has 3 brightness settings, low, med and high. When the room is dark I have it on low since the high brightness is blinding, this also helps extend the battery life. You can actually keep it on the low setting all the time since really its not low at all and is very usable. Anyway basically I did not have any battery problems. Incase you will be traveling on a long flight, my advice is get an extra battery for $40. Its as easy as replacing the battery on your walkman.

Load Times
I was concerned with load time. I thought the load times would be a real pain. Well they are not. Since most of us own PS2s or Xbox’s then we are used to load times. But the PSP has one advantage over the PS2 and Xbox, sleep mode. With sleep mode you never have to load a game from start which is when most of the loading time goes. Instead, when you want to stop playing, you just hit the power switch and it puts the PSP to sleep. When you want to play again you hit the power switch again and it instantly comes on and you are back to where you left off. You can go to sleep at any point in the game, even in a middle of a race if you want. Its very practical. Load times from menu to game takes around 10 seconds, depending on the game but you don’t really notice it since we are already used to it from our xboxs and ps2s.

Connectivity
You can mount the PSP as an external hard-drive on your PSP by connecting it via USB. Thats if you have a memory-stick installed. Once you connect the PSP to your computer you can do many things. Mainly though you can copy movies, pictures and music onto the PSP. I got a software for my mac called iPSP, this software allows me to sync my PSP with iPhoto, iTunes and even converts any movie I have on my Mac so that it becomes viewable on the PSP. The biggest advantage of this USB connectivity is that you are now able to backup your game-saves AND most importantly, download other peoples saves from the web onto your PSP. Say for example you don’t have the time, skill or patience to open up all the cars in Need For Speed (cough cough like me cough cough) you can just download a 100% Complete save from the web and then copy it onto your PSP and just like that you now have all the cars and money you could ever dream of. Its all very easy. If you have wifi at home you can connect your PSP to the web to play multiplayer games or to download updates. It was very easy to connect the PSP to the local network and once I did it I was able to click the Download Content button in the game WipeOut Pure and the PSP opened up a web browser and took me to the WipeOut site. They didn’t have any content for me to download but when they will I would be able to get it. Once you are connected to the web there is a button in the main menu which checks and sees if your PSP has the latest software installed, if not, then it would download it for you and install it. In the near future you will be able to play games online against other people but at the moment no online multiplayer games exist.

The Games
I have WipeOut Fury, Tony Hawk and Need For Speed.

Tony Hawk – With Tony Hawk I was able to map my face onto a skater! I always wanted to do that. Basically what you do is you take your picture (I used my passport photo), and you save it as a 128×128 pixel jpg and you copy it onto your psp. Then in the game there is an option to download face, you click it, find your picture and press ok. Thats it, then you make minor adjustmants like skin tone and stuff and you are done. In the picture above I was trying to get my nose the right proportion. The game in general is basically exactly like the console versions. If you want a full review check out IGN.

WipeOut Pure – Wipeout is a showoff the system graphics game. Everytime I am showing off the PSP to someone I load Wipeout. Its fast, its 3D and its futuristic.

Need For Speed – This is currently the most game I play. Its extremely fast, and the graphics are also cool. Its my pick up and play anywhere game.

Conclusion
The PSP is definitely the coolest portable game system out there. The only competition is the Nintendo DS which pales in comparison. The PSP is not cheap but its not meant for kids either. The PSP is also not just a game system, its a portable entertainment center. Its a movie player, music player, picture viewer, videogame system and maybe in the future an internet browser. The system has a lot of potential and I am person waiting for MAME to be ported to the PSP, that would kick ass. Final score 4.5 out of 5.

The PSP sold 620,000 handheld units and 1.1 million software units in March while the Nintendo DS has sales of only 420,000 to date since the begining of the year. The PSP launched on March 24th that means that Sony sold nearly one PSP per second in the first 8 days of the handheld’s launch. [via]

Just saw this cool thing on engadget. Its a rechargable handle pad for the Sony PSP. Basically it will add 4-5 hours over the regular battery life of the PSP for only $25. I haven’t had any battery issues myself but maybe if I was going to New York, the extra 5 hours of juice would come in handy. [Link]

Yesterday I was reading how the director of Sin City left the Directors Guild because they wouldn’t let Frank Miller (the guy behind Sin City) co-direct the movie and today I just read how Paramount went ahead and allowed EA to make The Godfather videogame and they didn’t even bother to ask Coppola’s view on it. And now Coppola is really pissed.

Luckily with Sin City, the director Robert Rodriguez was able to take a stand on the issue and make a statement. If he hadn’t left the Guild and allowed Frank Miller to co-direct, the movie would definetly have come out a lot different. With EA, well, why didn’t anyone even to think to include Frank Coppola? Didn’t anyone at EA or Paramount think the game might actually turn out better if Coppola had a say in it? Is it the bigger the company the dumber they are?

But Coppola, who says he has managed to get a preview of the game, believes the characters have been mishandled. “They use the characters everyone knows, and they hire those actors to be there, and only to introduce minor characters. And then for the next hour they shoot and kill each other,” he said.

“I had absolutely nothing to do with the game and I disapprove. I think it’s a misuse of film.”

sucks!

After I left the office yesterday I went home and picked up Nat. I told her we are going to Aramex to pick up the PSP. She was like didn’t they say 8AM tomorrow? I was like whatever, they get the packages tonight, we camp at Aramex till they get them. I was like worse case we have a bunch of magazines that arrived at Aramex last week, we pick those up and read them while we wait. So we get to Aramex at 7PM and right as I am about to open the door of the car, Aramex call me. They tell me my package arrived and I can pick it up. I was like thanks, I am right outside! We pick up the PSP, park on the side of the road and we start tearing up the boxes. Luckily our PSP came with a starter kit which included a car power adapter.

We switch on the PSP, and first thing I start looking for are dead pixels (dots on the screen which don’t change color). There was a speckle of dust on the screen I tried to remove with my finger when I realized that the tiny speckle was a dead pixel. I was like this is it? For some reason I expected it to be bigger, but because the PSP screens pixels are very fine, a dead pixel is barely noticeable even when the whole screen is black. I ended up finding 2 dead pixels, one on the first row and one in the middle right of the screen. Both not noticeable even when looking for them.

We got the Spider Man 2 movie with the PSP so that was the first thing we played. I was totally blown away, the image was extremely clear, sharp and the colors very accurate. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I am no stranger to technology but the screen was like nothing I had seen before. I then put the game WipeOut Pure and let Nataly play till we got home. Once home we were able to try out the other games and get a better feel of the PSP.

My only disappointment is in the sound department. The built in PSP speakers are not good enough. I don’t know what I was expecting but I know I wasnt expecting speakers you would find on a gameboy. With the earphones on though you get totally immersed in the game.

The good things about the PSP? The screen definetly is the coolest thing, when lying in bed at night watching SpiderMan 2, for a brief moment with all the lights off you would think you lived in the future. Its like having a plasma screen that fit into your hand. The load times of the games were unnoticeable. On paper 10 seconds feels a lot but in reality its hardly noticeable, except for the game Tony Hawk were load times were longer then 10 seconds. The battery life was high, I spent 2 hours atleast playing with the PSP and then put the system on standby and today morning I checked and it was still at 90% charge. Also incase you have a spare battery swapping them is very easy.

In conclusion, as I mentioned on Miskan, there is no PSP vs DS war. The war is over. There really wasn’t a war to begin with. While the Nintendo DS is catering for under 18s the PSP is catering for people aged over 18. They are two different machines for two different groups. I will probably definitely get a DS but like my gamecube it will probably gather dust in the cupboard. Click here for a picture of my PSP with my PDA and phone.

OK, this is like my dream room, this guy has it all!!! [Link]