Category: Video Games

Nibaq yesterday left his Nintendo DS over at my place.. deliberately. He is trying to get me to like the DS and convince me that its a much better system then the PSP (yeah right). I tried playing wario ware on it yesterday, I found the fact that you could blow on the DS for some of the mini games interesting and original but other then that I wasn’t impressed. I find the second screen useless as it serves really no purpose and the touch screen is so uncreative since I have had it for ages on my PDA and the only good thing its for is clicking links on and not controlling a car. If anything the two screens actually make me a bit dizzy. So since my first experience with the DS, I haven’t gone back to playing with it again, neither has nataly who is busy playing Metroid Zero Mission on the Gameboy SP. Will I crave the DS today? We will see but I doubt. So far, it really sucks.

Sony has the official PSP section of their iTunes-wannabe Connect music store up and running, its full of free video downloads, a tutorial for beginners on how to get content onto your PSP, and a help section to answer any questions you might have on making the most out of your PSP. They even have Speed Racer and its all for free! [Link]

From Engadget: Damn, it’s only been a week since the Sony dropped the PlayStation Portable on us and people already pieced together a ton of different hacks and how-tos for the new game console. We’ve thrown together this list of all the hacks and how-tos we could find, we’ve probably missed a couple, so let us know and we’ll add ‘em to the list:

How to use non-Duo Memory Sticks on your PSP
How to browse the web with your PSP
How to get TiVoToGo shows onto your PSP
How to get e-books on your PSP
How to read web comics on your PSP
How to get manga on your PSP
Creating Sony Thumbnail files
PSP dead pixel checker
How to use your Mac to play PSP games over the web
How to take apart your PSP
Reading RSS feeds on your PSP
How to get videos and DVDs onto your PSP

Subtotal of Items: $419.99
Shipping & Handling: $10.99
Total before tax: $430.98
Estimated Tax: $37.17
——
Total for this Order: $468.15

Shipping estimate for these items: April 4, 2005 – April 4, 2005
Delivery estimate: April 6, 2005 – April 7, 2005

1- “PSP Extreme bundle” Video Game; $419.99

Just found the best PSP bundle so far online, here is what it includes:

– Included in this bundle is the PSP system value pack, Tony Hawk Underground: Remix, WipeOut: Pure, Need for Speed: Underground Rivals and a Starter Kit

– The PSP Value Pak includes all the extras you need – memory stick, soft case, headphones, battery pack, an AC adapter, plus a movie/music/video sampler disc

– The PSP Starter Kit comes complete with an all-in-one case, car charger, USB data cable (for transferring movies and pictures), high quality earbuds, four UMD disc jackets, screen guard, and a system polishing cloth

Here is the [Link]

Wow, just found a game for the Dreamcast based on Kill Bill. It looks really cool. Here is the link to the page I found out about this, and here is the link to the page with screenshots and the download link.

Here is the latest Top 10 list of consoles sold in Japan:

PlayStation Portable: 43,644 (Annual: 580,120)
PlayStation 2: 40,270 (Annual: 602,316)
Nintendo DS: 22,446 (Annual: 429,545)
Game Boy Advance SP: 11,013 (Annual: 197,776)
GameCube: 3,357 (Annual: 70,016)
Game Boy Advance: 477 (Annual: 6,253)
Xbox: 345 (Annual: 4,606)

Just checking on the status of the of the PSP vs DS vote on cnet. Sony is currently winning with 73.5%. [Link]

The PSP got released 2 days ago and already there are 17 games reviewed on Gamespot. On the other hand the Nintendo DS got released last year, and till now there are only 16 games reviewed on Gamespot. Poor DS, its Virtual Boy Redux.

Today my brother did something very cool. He took an Apple iPod Shuffle, plugged it into the USB port on the front of his Sony PS2, copied pictures he took in Grand Turismo 4 onto the shuffle, then plugged the shuffle back into the Mac and copied the images onto his desktop. I think this is the coolest thing I have heard about the PS2. [IMG 1] [IMG 2]

From the Dept. of We Tried to Warn You, Sony user forums are already starting to fill up with laments about PlayStation Portables with dead pixels and other screen defects.

The PSP’s Japanese launch was accompanied by scattered reports of glitchy screens and Sony indifference to the defects. U.S. consumers can pretty much intuit the same from reading Page 13 of the instruction manual:

“Red, blue or green spots (bright spots) or black spots (dark spots) may appear in certain locations of the LCD screen. The appearance of such spots is a normal occurrence associated with LCD screens and is not a sign of a malfunction.”

Translated, that means Sony and its retail friends get to decide when a PSP screen is defective enough to merit replacement. Clerks at Sony’s PlayStation store in San Francisco, for example, appeared to be fairly generous with replacement requests Thursday, but results may vary with other retailers and Sony’s customer support phone line. [via]

You can now get the PSP Value Pack from Amazon.com for $399 [Link]

Everything you need to know about the PlayStation Portable.

I was just checking some Sony PSP game reviews on IGN and Gamespot and was happy to see that most of the launch games scored pretty decent and high scores. When the Nintendo DS and Ngage released the first batch of games, most of the games scored terribly low. Actually, if you take the average score of the PSP launch games which is 7.7 on IGN (7.8 on Gamespot) and compare it to the DS which has an average score of 6.4 on IGN, you will see Nintendo isn’t doing that well at all. The DS has even been out for awhile now and very little games have been released. Even the upcoming games for the DS aren’t that exciting at all. With the PSP on the other hand they have a pretty decent launch lineup with RidgeRacer, Wipeout, Tony Hawk, Need for Speed Underground: Rivals and Lumines. Plus there are some cool upcoming games coming up like Metal Gear Acid, Colin McRae Rally 2005, Grand Theft Auto and Grand Turismo. I am glad Sony decided to release a handheld system. I hate monopolies and Nintendo hasn’t been very innovative recently. It took them what, more then 10 years to come up with a backlit screen for the gameboy? Come on..

I am pro Sony PSP. I definetly think its a way cooler machine then the GameBoy DS which is big and clunky. The Sony PSP games are way cooler and the connectivity features of the PSP are also a lot cooler. In a recent comparison in WIRED magazine between the PSP and DS, the PSP ofcourse came out on top. But today I read an argument about the PSP that I found interesting. The PSP is better then the DS, we know that, but how much better it could have been is the issue here.

Here is the rant I read taken from Joystiq:

The PSP’s battery is a topic of huge debate. Depending on use, a single charge can last anywhere between 6 hours all the way down to 1.5, depending on which features the handheld utilizes. Why is this?

I seriously ask, should you as a consumer and gamer, have to juggle volume and brightness to eke out a bit more play time? Should game developers be asked to manage the battery consumption or should that be an issue for the developer of the system? Basically, shouldn’t the system, when used at maximum capacity, have a reasonable battery life?

If Sony hadn’t tried to force an optical drive in the PSP, there would be much more room in the system for a larger capacity battery. Load times would be nonexistent. The system would be less fragile and prone to breaking due to mechanical failure. The system wouldn’t have the shuriken UMD ‘feature’. Overall, it would be a much better system. Sony’s reliance on the optical disc has resulted in a worse product than could have otherwise been built.

Why? Why did Sony insist on putting an optical drive in the PSP when it had to compromise on so many other issues? Simple, Sony wants to sell you movies and music on the UMD. They want you to buy a UMD movie for $20. That UMD movie has 1/3 the resolution of a similar priced DVD. That UMD movie can’t be played back on a TV. That UMD movie does not have additional DVD features, menus, subtitles or other cool things you may find on a DVD. Sony makes nearly 100% profit on movies and music.

Sony sacrificed the PSP in order to make money off of movies.

Now, before you start calling names, I’m not laying hate on the PSP. Nice screen. Sleek, shiny case. Good graphics. Nice.

I look at the decisions made by Sony and I see decisions that are absolute trash for gamers but great for lining Sony’s pockets with money. I feel frustrated knowing the PSP could have been so much more if they would simply step up to the plate and decide to knock a home run out of the park instead of walking to first base on the back of movies and music. The missed potential for a system with an 8 hour battery, fully loaded with wi-fi on, makes me weep.

4 hours isn’t enough. 2 hours is a downright embarrassment. As gamers, we should demand more.