Post by staxx on Dec 7, 2004 18:14:03 GMT -5
It has been about 48h now that the first couple of Japanese people (including some lucky ones in Hong Kong) could put their hands on the world’s first Sony PSP consoles. We have taken a bit of time to take some photos, write down our first impressions and compile the latest information surrounding the final PSP hardware. Stay tuned for much more to come during the next couple of days and weeks ahead. Also read this for more info on the PSP release, which is taking place at December 12 officially.
The First Impressions
One thing is for sure, out of the box, the PSP looks very stylish and is a very well-designed concept. Put it next to the NDS and it feels like one of those visions when past meets future. Mostly made of a special plastic with glass effect (you see yourself inside), with great attention to detail and with this beautiful PSP logo surrounded by a metallic circle at the back, the PlayStation Portable is sexy, no arguing about that. The only problem which immediately comes to mind is the fact that every time you touch that special material, you leave fingerprints on your system. For sure, the unit won't look that great after an hour or two, or worse after weeks of playtime, when showing them to your NDS friends and GBA SP buddies. You might have to consider bringing the bad boy to the car wash every week or two. The Lik Sang crew actually wore chirurgical gloves during the whole process of testing the unit and while performing the photo session.
The LCD screen is top-notch, no better way to put it. Large, impressive and with a high resolution, it boasts great 3D animations and graphics with no pixelization whatsoever. The streaming demos of Ridge Racer, Vampire Chronicles and Metal Gear Acid showed off a lot of power and are displayed quite smoothly with fluid moves. I don't feel like I would get a headache from playing 3D too long on that monster (N-Gage users know what I am talking about). What did turn me off though is the rather slow loading time. When waiting for the first video of Ridge Racer to load in the memory, I actually thought the machine went off, so long it was. There were too many excited gamers speaking out their amazement loudly around me so it's only when taking it closer from my ears that I heard the disc spinning and realized what was going on. For sure a inconvenience when compared with the fast media used by Nintendo in all its portable devices. Still, despite my easy critics made above, I must admit the PlayStation Portable left me with a good feeling. Incredibly eye-catching and with strong capabilities, this piece of hardware will for sure leave more than one hardcore gamer either with a smile on his face or tears in his eyes (depending how sensitive you are).
The PSP Menu System (Japanese/English)
As already mentioned yesterday, the PSP menu system comes in Japanese and English, selectable at system startup. When powering up the PSP system, the Sony Computer Entertainment logo first appears, followed by the PSP logo. This takes about five seconds, while any inserted game then starts automatically. When you play a game, pressing HOME shows a screen which allows you to select to quit the game and go back to the menu system.
In the menu system, the so-called XMB interface (Cross Media Bar), the following main menus are available: System, Photo, Music, Video and Game. The following is available through the system menu: Network Update, USB Connection, Video Settings, Photo Settings, Date/Time, Power Save, Sound, Security Settings and Network Settings.
Loading Times
Loading time and battery life seem to be the big factors which decide about the PSPs success or failure in many gamers eyes right now. While we can't comment on the battery life as of yet, latest reports from Japan about loading times on demo units that actually have access to the games are as follows:
Ridge Racers:
• From power off to Namco logo and title: 16 seconds
• From selecting car/track to start the race: 14 seconds
• Exit the game back to car/track selection: 10 seconds
Dokodemo Issho:
• From power off to PSP logo and title: 20 seconds
• Starting game from title screen: 10 seconds
• Going back to title screen: 5 seconds
Mojipittan:
• From power off to title screen: 20 seconds
• No more waiting time
Minna no Golf:
• From power off to PSP logo and title: 24 seconds
• From character selection to start: 19 seconds
• Waiting between courses: few seconds only
The interface/menu of Minna no Golf seems to be very slow reacting, with people even hinting that this could be a problem of the pre-release version only.
MP3/MP4 Playback
MP4 playback combined with the PSPs compatibility for standard Memory Sticks can be a very appealing thing to many of you. The PSP plays MP4 videos off any Memory Stick Duo. Sony will also release conversion software (Image Converter 2) that will allow you to convert your existing videos into the right format, but any MP4 encoder should be able to do that as well. Videos coming from one of Sony's CyberShot camera’s or any other MP4 capable camera should work out fine, if the video is put to the appropriate directory on the Memory Stick.
Sony also reconfirmed that its music file handling will be able to handle ATRAC3 (66kbps-132kbps) and ATRAC3plus (48-256kbps) off of the memory stick, in addition to standard MP3 files.
The Memory Stick
When you format a Memory Stick with the PSP itself, you'll not only find it empty afterwards, there are some interesting directories on it. The existence of a games directory strongly suggests that Sony plans to enable users playing games directly off the Memory Stick. If these games will be trial versions, mini-games containing advertising, or maybe even commercial, is not clear at this point of time. This is not only good news for gamers, but also for friends and members of the homebrew community.
The guys from IGN Japan zipped the content of their Memory Stick and uploaded it to the Internet. Download it right here:
• PSP Memory Stick Content (1.40MB)
PSP (Soon) Working on XLink Kai (Online)
Friends of online play might have heard of Kai before. XLink Kai is a global gaming network - bringing together XBox, Playstation 2 and Gamecube users, in one integrated community. It is software running on your PC or Macintosh that allows you to play system-link enabled games online for free.
Team XLink announced yesterday that they have successful managed to integrate the PSP into their latest kaiEngine, which can be downloaded on their web site.
The First Impressions
One thing is for sure, out of the box, the PSP looks very stylish and is a very well-designed concept. Put it next to the NDS and it feels like one of those visions when past meets future. Mostly made of a special plastic with glass effect (you see yourself inside), with great attention to detail and with this beautiful PSP logo surrounded by a metallic circle at the back, the PlayStation Portable is sexy, no arguing about that. The only problem which immediately comes to mind is the fact that every time you touch that special material, you leave fingerprints on your system. For sure, the unit won't look that great after an hour or two, or worse after weeks of playtime, when showing them to your NDS friends and GBA SP buddies. You might have to consider bringing the bad boy to the car wash every week or two. The Lik Sang crew actually wore chirurgical gloves during the whole process of testing the unit and while performing the photo session.
The LCD screen is top-notch, no better way to put it. Large, impressive and with a high resolution, it boasts great 3D animations and graphics with no pixelization whatsoever. The streaming demos of Ridge Racer, Vampire Chronicles and Metal Gear Acid showed off a lot of power and are displayed quite smoothly with fluid moves. I don't feel like I would get a headache from playing 3D too long on that monster (N-Gage users know what I am talking about). What did turn me off though is the rather slow loading time. When waiting for the first video of Ridge Racer to load in the memory, I actually thought the machine went off, so long it was. There were too many excited gamers speaking out their amazement loudly around me so it's only when taking it closer from my ears that I heard the disc spinning and realized what was going on. For sure a inconvenience when compared with the fast media used by Nintendo in all its portable devices. Still, despite my easy critics made above, I must admit the PlayStation Portable left me with a good feeling. Incredibly eye-catching and with strong capabilities, this piece of hardware will for sure leave more than one hardcore gamer either with a smile on his face or tears in his eyes (depending how sensitive you are).
The PSP Menu System (Japanese/English)
As already mentioned yesterday, the PSP menu system comes in Japanese and English, selectable at system startup. When powering up the PSP system, the Sony Computer Entertainment logo first appears, followed by the PSP logo. This takes about five seconds, while any inserted game then starts automatically. When you play a game, pressing HOME shows a screen which allows you to select to quit the game and go back to the menu system.
In the menu system, the so-called XMB interface (Cross Media Bar), the following main menus are available: System, Photo, Music, Video and Game. The following is available through the system menu: Network Update, USB Connection, Video Settings, Photo Settings, Date/Time, Power Save, Sound, Security Settings and Network Settings.
Loading Times
Loading time and battery life seem to be the big factors which decide about the PSPs success or failure in many gamers eyes right now. While we can't comment on the battery life as of yet, latest reports from Japan about loading times on demo units that actually have access to the games are as follows:
Ridge Racers:
• From power off to Namco logo and title: 16 seconds
• From selecting car/track to start the race: 14 seconds
• Exit the game back to car/track selection: 10 seconds
Dokodemo Issho:
• From power off to PSP logo and title: 20 seconds
• Starting game from title screen: 10 seconds
• Going back to title screen: 5 seconds
Mojipittan:
• From power off to title screen: 20 seconds
• No more waiting time
Minna no Golf:
• From power off to PSP logo and title: 24 seconds
• From character selection to start: 19 seconds
• Waiting between courses: few seconds only
The interface/menu of Minna no Golf seems to be very slow reacting, with people even hinting that this could be a problem of the pre-release version only.
MP3/MP4 Playback
MP4 playback combined with the PSPs compatibility for standard Memory Sticks can be a very appealing thing to many of you. The PSP plays MP4 videos off any Memory Stick Duo. Sony will also release conversion software (Image Converter 2) that will allow you to convert your existing videos into the right format, but any MP4 encoder should be able to do that as well. Videos coming from one of Sony's CyberShot camera’s or any other MP4 capable camera should work out fine, if the video is put to the appropriate directory on the Memory Stick.
Sony also reconfirmed that its music file handling will be able to handle ATRAC3 (66kbps-132kbps) and ATRAC3plus (48-256kbps) off of the memory stick, in addition to standard MP3 files.
The Memory Stick
When you format a Memory Stick with the PSP itself, you'll not only find it empty afterwards, there are some interesting directories on it. The existence of a games directory strongly suggests that Sony plans to enable users playing games directly off the Memory Stick. If these games will be trial versions, mini-games containing advertising, or maybe even commercial, is not clear at this point of time. This is not only good news for gamers, but also for friends and members of the homebrew community.
The guys from IGN Japan zipped the content of their Memory Stick and uploaded it to the Internet. Download it right here:
• PSP Memory Stick Content (1.40MB)
PSP (Soon) Working on XLink Kai (Online)
Friends of online play might have heard of Kai before. XLink Kai is a global gaming network - bringing together XBox, Playstation 2 and Gamecube users, in one integrated community. It is software running on your PC or Macintosh that allows you to play system-link enabled games online for free.
Team XLink announced yesterday that they have successful managed to integrate the PSP into their latest kaiEngine, which can be downloaded on their web site.
