PSP, is it worth the cash?

phobos

Didn't bother to book one of these things, but on the day was offered one by a mate who's in the business. I played with it, was well impressed but was still a little iffy with regards splashing out €300 for a PSP Value Pack + Game. I mean if it was €200 then yeah fair enough I would have bought one, but here's my gripe over the extra 100 quid...

- Many people (incl. on these boards) are reporting dead pixels on new units
- Not a massive selection of decent games out yet (however some are good)
- What are the chances of a €50+ price drop, this side of Xmas?

The last time (I can't remember what console it was), people were royally buggered when a week or two after release date, the unit was slashed in price. I can't remember what Sony are like with this (buggering the folk quick off the mark).

Many of you have bought one already. Do you feel happy that you got value for money?, or are you still in shock that you're a few hundred quid down and finding that the novelty of a new toy is wearing off? Basically is the PSP impressing the pants off you, and you can with confidence declare that it is the greatest handheld that you've ever used.

The only reason I ask is because I still have the offer open to me to get one of these, and I'm tempted, but still reluctant at the same time. If I was to buy I have my eye on WipeOut Pure or Ridge Racer. Played Ridge Racer and was impressed, but WipeOut has always been a favourite of mine, does it live up to it's predecessors?

Cheers

;-phobos-)

Neuro

I for one tend to avoid products such as the PSP for 6 to 12 months for the following reasons:

Price - The chances of a decrease in price before Christmas is nil; the Christmas market is far to lucrative. But after the Christmas rush I can see the price falling into the more digestible €199 - €219 price range.

Software - The selection and quality of software available upon the release of a new piece of gaming hardware tends to be poor. Developers are more concerned with learning how to code for the new technology than they are with originality.

Quality - Like the software developers, the manufacturers of the PSP are in virgin territory. The production process is not yet fully bedded-in and quality will suffer (see the dead pixel issue). As the manufacturing process evolves, quality control will improve and the PSP will become lighter and more battery-efficient.

I think the price of being an early-adopter tend to exceed the benefits.

Lynibeth

It's fantastic! You can only really judge for yourself. Check it out. Forget what others claim.

dregin

Eh, it's been out for over a year. The software argument isn't an issue. There are probably twice as many games out for the PSP as there are for the DS (games console, *snigger*).

It's worth it alone for the video and MP3 playback. homebrew for emulators,VNC and such is great too.

Placebo

i would get one,. i wouldnt depend on the price going down as you will see max of 30 euro cut in a space of a few months, not worth the wait.
Dead pixels - you will get them even if you buy it a year from now, i distictivley remeber checking mine and had none and i took it out last night, i didnt drop it but theres one now, Not noticable during game play only on white screen, infact its not noticable at all.
I have ridge racer - not a great fan but PLEASE DO get virtua[L?] tennis, its absolutley amazing. If you buy one now it will be 1.52 and hopefully downgraded soon [therefore you will be able to play games of your mem stick and run emulators and other homebrew stuff]

thats all. it is worth it. 300 isnt that much, nothing else u can get with it. IPOD \?

dregin

FS!11 /me "gets" v-tennis.
[Buy in xtra vision if you can. Apparently they're selling 1.5s]

Placebo

no way ? i pwnf myself again, how come its 1.5 batch for xtra v

delly

I would defo get one if possible. I got one on the day although i wasn't planning too, the hype kinda of got the better of me. Took the option of ridge racer for my first game and the first track is the same as the original arcade game which i used to play in the leisureplex in Coolock. Myself and some people in work spent most of Friday afternoon trying to beat each others laptimes. My other half surprised me with a couple of games today, so I now can add Wipeout to the list. Also managed to go online which actually works pretty well.

Funniest thing was being stuck in a traffic jam on the M1 last night for about half an hour, with the PSP stuck under my seat. Managed to break of couple of more lap records while waiting for the traffic to clear.

Cabelo

Xtra visions are 1.52; looks like someone who didn't know the difference got all psyched about it.

Go home folks, nothing to see here.

Also, I love mine Wipeout is legendary (mine plays ISOs... SHHHHHH)

shortys94

psp is great, i am so glad i updated to v2.0, and glad i got my jap psp off a uk importer so no tax:)
o yea its been a great six months and will continue to be great, with gta lcs, socom, sw battlefront and many more

call_me_fish

hey am going to get one tomorove. what is the updated to 2.0 thing? are there diffrent versions of this? is the update just software update? oh and silly qustion, how do u go on line with this thing?

dregin

Yeah you can go online. Don't upgrade to 2.0 whatever happens. There's a hack coming out to downgrade the current bios (1.52) to 1.5 so you'll be able to run homebrew code. Some of the games come with a web browser anyway so the one in 2.0 is no real benefit.

call_me_fish

what about the watch movie bit? can i store music vedios on the memories and watch them ?

dregin

Yep. Also for 1.5 there's a region unlocker that will allow you to play the UMD movies from anywhere in the world.

call_me_fish

cool. am defintly gettin one now. but just that the 1 GB mems are too much for me.. i think ill buy it for 250 . and get a game or some thing. hey dose it play WMA or i need to convert them :S

dregin

By default it plays mp3 but a few homebrew apps play other formats. Dont think WMA is supported at all.

call_me_fish

it's only 32 MB ??@#

dregin

Not much. Buy a gig stick.

call_me_fish

they are expansive .. very. over 100 euros what is the cheapest place? can u suggest a good irish website that i can search for?

Retr0gamer

I myself wouldn't get one yet. It definitely does have some decent games. My problem is the price. 300 for the value pack. However add to that the price of 2-3 games and a much bigger memory stick and the price rises to over half a grand. I'm waiting until Novemeber when I go to America to get mine hopefully it will be much cheaper there. I would suggest people to wait until after christmas for a price drop and hopefully an increase in build quality. The DS seems to be better value for money at the moment despite the fact that the best games haven't made it here but that is offset by importing and a vast GBA collection which has an awful lot of quality games and I'd still wait for that to drop in price before you consider.

There are probably twice as many games out for the PSP as there are for the DS (games console, *snigger*).

Maybe so but the DS matches the PSP for decent games that are worth buying. As for the games console comment, don't be such a child.

dregin

hah, anyone I know who owns a DS (i) Hasn't used it in months and (ii) wishes they'd spent the money on a PSP. The DS is dead in the water.

projectmayhem

if you want to know how good it is then get into any game retailer and play it. there's bound to be a display model. then make up your mind. you already know what games are out and the costs involved.

while this topic is active, would anyone do me a favour and log into yourpsp.com (it wont let me in for some stupid reason) and get me those cool wallpapers? thanks.. (you can just PM me rather then wasting space here)

phobos

Right I said bugger it and I went in this afternoon and got a PSP Value Pack + Wipeout Pure. It's absolutely legendary.

So anyway, when I opened the box I was met with this "IMPORTANT!: Insert the Demo disk to get upgraded to v2.0 firmware". So I said Sod That, and checked my firmware to be v1.52, and I just continued to play WipeOut.

I'm happy to leave the firmware at v1.52 if it means I can do more later on. I don't have wireless broadband in my gaff so online gaming is not an option for me. Am I right in thinking that online gaming is the only advantage the v2.0 firmware brings?, and also what can one do right now to play around with the unit, other than visiting yourpsp.com. I signed up to that and gave them my serial/model, etc, does this PSP pack they're sending us out include Spiderman 2 on UMD? or what (is there some sort of cut off point?)

When will they be sending these out does anyone know, or is it pretty much ASAP.

;-phobos-)

call_me_fish

projectmayhem wrote:

if you want to know how good it is then get into any game retailer and play it. there's bound to be a display model. then make up your mind. you already know what games are out and the costs involved.

while this topic is active, would anyone do me a favour and log into yourpsp.com (it wont let me in for some stupid reason) and get me those cool wallpapers? thanks.. (you can just PM me rather then wasting space here)

went to smiths. they were the only ones with display around blanch shoping center, i tried Wipout and fell in love with it, so am gettin one tomorove

shortys94

hey ive got thug and ridge racer at the moment, but want to get another game, might wait for madden, but am tempted by everybodys golf, virtua tennis and mgsa, best one???? im in a bit of a pickle here:p

Retr0gamer

dregin wrote:

hah, anyone I know who owns a DS (i) Hasn't used it in months and (ii) wishes they'd spent the money on a PSP. The DS is dead in the water.

Well it seems to be just about out selling the PSP at the moment worldwide. I'd say the handheld race will be neck and neck for as long as it lasts.

Saying that my comments are probably a bit hypocritical. My DS has been used mostly as a better way to play GBA games since I haven't been able to import some of the excellent games due to no credit card. I'm also fighting the urge everyday to go down to the local xtravision and pick up a PSP despite knowing I'll get it far cheaper when I head off to the states

Necronomicon

I think it's worth the cash for Wipeout alone

glimmerman

dregin wrote:

hah, anyone I know who owns a DS (i) Hasn't used it in months and (ii) wishes they'd spent the money on a PSP. The DS is dead in the water.

errrr... no.
I have had both the DS and PSP for a few months, and I play the DS far more. Games for the PSP have mostly been crap. Wipeout is good, I've not tried ridge racers, but I have tried most of the launch lineup. And they are mostly crap (noteable exceptions are Everybody's Golf, Metal Gear Acid if you like that sort of thing, and apparently Virtua Tennis is pretty good). Other than that, crap.
PSP: nice graphics, nice movie ability, too big for MP3's and very few decent games.


On the other hand I have quite a few imported DS games that are excellent. Elekroplankton is totally different to anything I've ever tried, Advance Wars DS is fantastic and worth the price of the console all by itself, Yoshi's Touch and Go is great craic, Kirby is apparently brilliant but I haven't gotten it yet. Mario 64 is fantastic, control is a little weird, but the game is great.
Nintendogs is taking Japan and the US by storm right now, selling systems as fast as its selling games by all accounts.
Many games in the offing look fantastic too.

And of course the vast GBA collection keeps me going when I get bored.


I'm not a nintendo or sony fanboy, however, on the basis of value and time spent on both consoles, I'd choose the DS first.

And tell your friends who havn't touched their DS to import. Until Nintendo Europe sort themselves out, its the only way to go.

dregin

glimmerman wrote:

errrr... no.

That's class. You're able to tell me what the people I know, who own it, think of the DS? Without me giving out names? You should look into making your superhuman powers a carreer.

glimmerman

I was referring to your "DS is dead in the water" comment.

Nailz

Got mine up North, it only cost me £250 for a value-pack, an accessory-pack, two games(Toca 2 & Wipeout pure, both very good).
And also a movie(Alien, hehehe!). I don't know what that is in €uro's exactly,
but I thought it was a good price.

Laguna

Lynibeth wrote:

It's fantastic! You can only really judge for yourself. Check it out. Forget what others claim.

I don't think my experience with dead pixels on 2 new PSP's from xtravision is a claim, it's more rooted in fact to be honest. 10 dead pixels on both!. The PSP is class, don't get me wrong, but it's sickening how Sony approved the rush job that allowed the production of so many faulty screens

call_me_fish

i got mine. no dead pixcell good game. worth every penny loving it

parsi

Nailz wrote:

Got mine up North, it only cost me £250 for a value-pack, an accessory-pack, two games(Toca 2 & Wipeout pure, both very good).
And also a movie(Alien, hehehe!). I don't know what that is in €uro's exactly,
but I thought it was a good price.

according to xe.com that's eur367 which is eur7 less than what Game charges for the psp + 3 games...

kaisersose77

call_me_fish wrote:

i got mine. no dead pixcell good game. worth every penny loving it

You'll be cursed now and will have full membership to the dead pixel club soon enough

If the price does go down in a few months then it will only go down 50 euros max i'd say and I dont think thats worth waiting for as your losing 4/5 months of playing the psp aswell

There's a lot of crap games out but i'd say it'll only get better from now on. Im not bothered about GTA at all and if its any good well thats an added bonus. But Pro evo 5, burnout, tiger woods 2006 etc are coming out soon and from looking at the gameplay videos they look great. Then theres champo aka football manager 2006 on top of that. There the sort of games i like and from what I have read about the DS or heard about it, those sort of games will never be comparable on it. If there the sort of games you only play then i think its well worth the money. Tiger woods on the psp is feckin brilliant (well from the memory card anyways ) . You can just have a quick round of 18 whenever you have some freetime. Theres a course on the pro legends tour set in the amazon and its the best course i've seen in any tiger woods game yet. Plus the game is very hard ( well i think so! ) so i'll get loads of play out of it until i get to 100%.

skyhighflyer

I don't know what the problem is with bitching about 2.0 and dead pixels. I've owned a US PSP for a couple of months now and not a dead pixel in sight *touches wood*, also the benefits 2.0 gives (web browser , wallpapers etc) are to my mind better than being able to play emu's.... which i can do on my PC anyway.

Also, games do not come with a web browser anyway, there's a hack fro wipeout pure that you can use to go online but it's not very functional....

Laguna

skyhighflyer wrote:

I don't know what the problem is with bitching about 2.0 and dead pixels. I've owned a US PSP for a couple of months now and not a dead pixel in sight *touches wood*, also the benefits 2.0 gives (web browser , wallpapers etc) are to my mind better than being able to play emu's.... which i can do on my PC anyway.

Also, games do not come with a web browser anyway, there's a hack fro wipeout pure that you can use to go online but it's not very functional....

I think it's okay to bitch about dead pixels if something costs €255. I however do not bitch about 2.0.

Cabelo

Mine ain't got no deda pixels and it gets thrown around like the little bitch it so truly is

I think the underlying current of anti 2.0 ism can be summarised with a coughed word that would be synonymous with theft on the high sees, if ye catch my drift lad...

Anyway, point on the PSP over the DS... wip3out pure kids

It's beautiful and if you look around you can pick up Wifi games so easily against people you never even need see. It's where gaming is heading imo.

honru

I wont be getting a PSP for the time being.

While €300 or so isn't that unreasonable for the Value Pack, the price of €50 per game and the need of a larger memory stick puts me off.

The oh-so delicate nature of the PSP would make me scared to bring it outside the front door. Stuff like this scratches in my pocket all the time.

While the game lineup is actually very good, I am definetly more interested in what the DS has to offer (although it has had to overcome a huge drought of games over the last nine months or so; the future is definetly brighter now). The original ways of playing games is just fantastic.

In saying that, the evolving emulation scene on the PSP and the ability to play movies and music is what's swaying me towards buying one. But it wont be until Christmas when I make my decision (may get a Game Boy Micro instead...).

wayne040576

I have my PSP about 2 months now and overall I am quite unimpressed. The machine itself is very good (if a little expensive), but the choice of games is rubbish. So far it's just the same old genres on a portable format. It's been out for nearly a year in Japan now. I was hoping that with a portable, I would see a little more innovation in the games but so far nothing really interests me. They really need to start getting some new types of games on the format quickly to separate it from the standard consoles, because with the release of the new consoles in the next year, its sales could start drying up.
I suspect this is the direction they will eventually take, with more games taking advantage of the machine's portable capabiltites rather than just putting new versions of ps2 games on it.

Mossy Monk

kaisersose77 wrote:

football manager 2006 on top of that

and this will be released when?
i am a big fan of the 2005 edition

4Xcut

is there even the slightes chance that sony willl release blank UMDs and if they were to does anyone know if the psp is capeable of writing to them

kaisersose77

I think late November

http://www.sigames.com/softography.php?type=view&id=21

http://community.sigames.com/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/521102691/m/8832077821/p/1

"We're hoping to enable some sort of download feature using the PSP connectivity, but its not concrete yet .."

Hopefully that means player database updates

steviec

4Xcut wrote:

is there even the slightes chance that sony willl release blank UMDs and if they were to does anyone know if the psp is capeable of writing to them

No plans and I think I remember reading that there never will be. You never know though.

RE*AC*TOR

one question.... i have football manger 2005 on my 2800+, 1 gig of ram, 9700pro pc. it runs like a one legged donkey. Surely on the psp with its (32mb?) pittance of ram and mediocre cpu - its going to be a bit of a struggle?

dregin

Obviously they'll have it stripped down. My PC hadnt the best of times running NFSU but it runs perfectly on the PSP.

RE*AC*TOR

i don't see how they can strip it down without losing the essence of the game. i can see how the could graphically strip down a game, lower resolutions etc. but football manger is all about stats and calculations etc not graphics. Its the gaming equivalent of excel. Take away that level of immersion and the game is lost.

kaisersose77

Well i'd say sigames would have scrapped it if they felt it was going to be crap. They seem to be happy with it going by the posts in the forum. And you'll probably be only able to do one league max at a time. We'll see in a few months anyways. Maybe its a port of championship manager 2

"The PSP has around 8 times more memory than a PS-2 which is why its possible to implement upon a PSP.

The PSP game isn't a 'full' FM and is aimed at being a realistic and playable sim in the Vein of the third series of games which we created ...

This makes it emminently suitable to the PSP as you can blast through a season fairly quickly and pick up and play in smaller amounts of time than you use on FM on the PC."

RE*AC*TOR

well, they're wrong about the 8 time more memory....

anyway, i'll wait and see, I have my reservations, but if they pull it off, this and ProEvo5 could be a reson to buy one of these....


CPU: 128-bit CPU
System Clock Frequency: 294.912 MHz
Cache Memory: Instruction: 16KB, Data: 8KB + 16 K(ScrP)
Main Memory: Direct Rambus (Direct RDRAM)
Memory Size: 32MB
Memory Bus Bandwidth: 3.2GB per second

PSP CPU Core

PSP CPU (System clock frequency 1~333MHz)
32MB Main Memory
4MD Embedded DRAM

Laguna

RE*AC*TOR wrote:

one question.... i have football manger 2005 on my 2800+, 1 gig of ram, 9700pro pc. it runs like a one legged donkey. Surely on the psp with its (32mb?) pittance of ram and mediocre cpu - its going to be a bit of a struggle?

I'd say it'll be a stripped down version. Think a slightly more stat heavy LMA manager, I mean c'mon, PSP with 32mb RAM!