Playstation Portable

[AlanUK]

I have been meaning to post this for a couple of weeks but everytime I think about it I seem to get distracted I cant think why?

DW has recently purchased one of the above as a present for me (she is lovely )from an internet supplier who is importing them from Hong Kong where they are already on sale. Having used it for a while now I have to say that Sony are going to blow the competition away with this IMO.

The screen is amazing, despite lots of reports of dust particles being left under the glass and dead pixels on the LCD I can see ne flaws with mine at all. Either I am very fortunate or all the reports are vastly exagerrated .

The unit itself is not too large or too heavy and if you are nerdy like me then you would go as far too say that it is quite sexy It comes complete with wireless networking and is capable of playing mp3 music files and mpeg4 video files.

I only have one game at the moment which is a driving game, the graphics and physics within the game are amazing even if the menu's are in Japanese

The PSP will be released in the US on 26th March when there will be a lot more games realeased in english then for the American market so I will be buying some more then on import and then maybe a couple more on our forthcoming trip

The European release is scheduled for 29th April and the price is thought to be about £179 which is about £30 less than we paid although I wouldn't be able to get one here due to being in Florida at the time

It's going to be great having something decent to while away the hours waiting in Gatwick and on the flight

 

[squitty]

Glad you like it Alan

DH & I were just looking at one in a shop across the Metrocentre today..it does look a nice machine. I couldnt believe how much he wanted for a game though £49.99 just for a game...the machine was £300

I will just stick to the Nintendo DS for now

 

[disney13]

Ah Alan, the grey import PSP!! Very envious. I plan to purchase one in August during my trip. The demand should've calmed down by then and hopefully more games will be available.

Can;t wait to get my hands on one!

Have fun,
Andy

 

[SplashMtn]

Alan, whats the battery life like? Ive read around 3-4 hours but then again this could be another one of the review sites exaggerations............

Happy er PSP'ing!

 

[jns]

will there be one game for all the different countrys seeing that it is portable or will it be the same as the ps2 ,Pal etc etc

 

[Miffy2003]

Alan!!!

Sssssssssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhh

I must hide this post from Jon

 

[KayleeUK]

I am just chalking up brownie points for the Louis Vuitton shop in the Mall of Millenia

 

[florida sun]

Shhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!Oh please dont let me daughter read this, I think we have got every game console that have ever come out!!


Glad you are enjoying it though, it sounds great.

Sue

 

[Tron[ADS]]

The PSP will be released in the US on 26th March when there will be a lot more games realeased in english then for the American market so I will be buying some more then on import and then maybe a couple more on our forthcoming trip

Im presuming you have a japanese model, so wouldnt you suffer from the territorial lockouts that $ony have always imposed ?


Having played on a Nintendo DS back in January, I was pretty underwhelmed with it....the $ony does seem to be dramaticaly more powerful.....i'm holding off buying them for a while though, until I see what happens with the pirate market.....Which is looking far more likely to favour the Nintendo.

 

[AlanUK]

Alan, whats the battery life like? Ive read around 3-4 hours but then again this could be another one of the review sites exaggerations............

The battery life without Wi-Fi has so far been between 4 and 6 hours. It varies depending on the intensity of what you are doing and the amount of rest time between playing. It is similar to my iPod in that it continues to drain the battery even though the unit is not in use. I think 4-6 hours is pretty good though and Sony have hinted that they are developing new Lithium Ion battery technology that will extend the times even further

will there be one game for all the different countrys seeing that it is portable or will it be the same as the ps2 ,Pal etc etc

Im presuming you have a japanese model, so wouldnt you suffer from the territorial lockouts that $ony have always imposed ?

The PSP is region encoded but only for movies, Sony have stated that games will remain region free which is sensible considering it is a portable device. There will however be region coding enforced for movies which are planned to be made available on the UMB discs that the PSP uses. This doesn't really bother me as I have a big TV and home cinema system at home which I would far prefer to watch films on instead of a 2inch by 4inch screen on the PSP Japan is also region 2, the same as us, as far as DVD's are concerned. The only difference is that they are on an NTSC format rather than a PAL format. As you have to convert movies to mpeg 4 to play on the PSP this shouldn't pose a problem.

 

[Disney_Jedi_Jon]

The PSP looks really great.I'm waiting to see what happpens.Karen wants to get the the nintendo DS.What games are coming out for the PSP???

Jon.

 

[AlanUK]

There are few games scheduled for the US release date including Tiger Woods Golf and Fifa Soccer 2005 which are the two I am most likely to get.

I am also looking forward to Grabd Theft Auto, although that is scheduled to be released in September.

There is a good list on Play

 

[wicket2005]

The unit itself is not too large or too heavy and if you are nerdy like me then you would go as far too say that it is quite sexy

You don't have to be nerdy to say it is one sexy bit of kit. I love it and desperately want one too. The kids have got one and the graphics simply blew me away, I have not seen anything like it.

The fact that you have a games machine, movie player, music player, internet browser and photo album all in one handy unit is fantastic.

I am hoping if I am a good girl I will get one for Christmas.

 

[mushumadness]

hi

wheres the best place for me to get one for dbfas a suprise for the plane, i just bought an ipod so i thought i would treat him too

 

[Richard Bruvofetc]

You don't have to be nerdy to say it is one sexy bit of kit. I love it and desperately want one too. The kids have got one and the graphics simply blew me away, I have not seen anything like it.

The fact that you have a games machine, movie player, music player, internet browser and photo album all in one handy unit is fantastic.

I am hoping if I am a good girl I will get one for Christmas.

I'm hoping for decent storage at a none rip-off price before I would consider one. Unfortunately, if you put in a harddrive the battery life will drop to about 2 hours, so you'd then need to upgrade the battery (££££). The price of games are also looking a bit steep. I can't see me using one to watch films, I have a portable dvd player for that and don't want to fork out on another video format, and as for web browsing, well there's the desktop and laptop.

However, as you say, great graphics.

 

[wicket2005]

I'm hoping for decent storage at a none rip-off price before I would consider one. Unfortunately, if you put in a harddrive the battery life will drop to about 2 hours, so you'd then need to upgrade the battery (££££). The price of games are also looking a bit steep. I can't see me using one to watch films, I have a portable dvd player for that and don't want to fork out on another video format, and as for web browsing, well there's the desktop and laptop.

However, as you say, great graphics.

Each to their own. I adore new technology, it is such a fascinating subject. New gadgets are always on the horizon.

The whole idea of the PSP is it being a portable multimedia machine that can fit into your pocket. Yes I have a laptop and a desktop but they won't fit into my pocket and neither would a portable dvd player. You can convert movies to play via a memory stick which is an added expense to buy a 1 GB memory duo stick but in the long run this would be cheaper than buying UMD movies.

The prices for games are comparable with those for the XBox, PS2, Gameboy Advance so I don't think they are that expensive.

You don't like it, well fine that is entirely up to you. However, my experience of it is that I have not seen one person who is not seriously impressed by it when they see it.

However, it is on the expensive side for a handheld but that is the price early adopters pay. We all know in about 6 months time the price will have dropped to pull in more. Personally I have no problems paying £180 for it (other than desperately saving for Orlando again so I cannot get one at the moment) because I have seen what it can do. There is nothing like it on the market today and according to Stuff magazine could blew the IPod out of the market.

mush, I bought one from Gameplay for my son's birthday. The other son bought one for himself from Chips. Everywhere is selling them at the same price it is just a case of finding them in stock.

I know Comet were doing a good deal for about £200 which included two games. You could always sell the games on EBay if they were not what your hubbie liked.

Play were offering a free copy of the Donnie Darko UMD movie. No idea what this film is about but I suppose it is a plus if you like the film, though again with it being free you could always try selling it on.

 

[AlanUK]

I've seen a few places offering the Donnie Darko deal recently Most places I pass in town seem to have stock (or at least they are advertising that they do) and the price is pretty much the same everywhere you look.

I do remember reading about someone offering a £10 discount voucher which would drop the price to £169.99 but I am sorry to say my old brain can't remember where that was now

The only thing that has disappointed me about the release so far is the lack of games that are available. It really hasn't moved on since the US launch and the UK market is even lacking some of the titles I would buy such as the EA sports titles as the 2006 versions of the games are due out in october. (Fortunately I managed to purchase the 2005 versions in April in the US so I haven't had to wait )

Still looking forward to Grand Theft Auto next month though, oh and I think someone might have a Birthday soon if DW is reading

 

[wicket2005]

I do remember reading about someone offering a £10 discount voucher which would drop the price to £169.99 but I am sorry to say my old brain can't remember where that was now

QUOTE]

I think I remember someone saying they had got a discount using a catalogue. Though usually home catalogues tend to be more expensive.

The kids like Tony Hawks and Wipeout. The oldest is getting Burnout tomorrow. I am more into platform and puzzle games. The only puzzle one available at the moment is Lumines. I would like to see a good old platform game like Crash or Jak and Dexter appear on the PSP. Preferably one like Jak 1, I am still stuck on Jak 2 and even the kids cannot help me out on it.

 

[Richard Bruvofetc]

Each to their own. I adore new technology, it is such a fascinating subject. New gadgets are always on the horizon.

The whole idea of the PSP is it being a portable multimedia machine that can fit into your pocket. Yes I have a laptop and a desktop but they won't fit into my pocket and neither would a portable dvd player. You can convert movies to play via a memory stick which is an added expense to buy a 1 GB memory duo stick but in the long run this would be cheaper than buying UMD movies.

The prices for games are comparable with those for the XBox, PS2, Gameboy Advance so I don't think they are that expensive.

You don't like it, well fine that is entirely up to you. However, my experience of it is that I have not seen one person who is not seriously impressed by it when they see it.

However, it is on the expensive side for a handheld but that is the price early adopters pay. We all know in about 6 months time the price will have dropped to pull in more. Personally I have no problems paying £180 for it (other than desperately saving for Orlando again so I cannot get one at the moment) because I have seen what it can do. There is nothing like it on the market today and according to Stuff magazine could blew the IPod out of the market.

mush, I bought one from Gameplay for my son's birthday. The other son bought one for himself from Chips. Everywhere is selling them at the same price it is just a case of finding them in stock.

I know Comet were doing a good deal for about £200 which included two games. You could always sell the games on EBay if they were not what your hubbie liked.

Play were offering a free copy of the Donnie Darko UMD movie. No idea what this film is about but I suppose it is a plus if you like the film, though again with it being free you could always try selling it on.

Nowt wrong with the technology, its just the storage space. As a multimedia player once you've saved a couple of gameplay positions it doesn't leave much room for it to be a decent mp3 player, or photo viewer etc. Hence without decent storage, from my point of view, it falls a long way short of a viable multimedia piece of kit. I love my technology and am always looking at buying new "toys". In 6 months to 1 year when the storage "add-ons" become standard I could well be interested, but at the moment, for me, its just a portable games console with limited added extras.

By the way, Donnie Darko - great film, you'll never look a rabbit in the face again.

 

[wicket2005]

I love my technology and am always looking at buying new "toys".

I really pleased to see that, I love getting new toys too. Glad you have not totally dismissed the PSP.