finally got psp

[wrxh8r]

Yay got one.No problems dead pixels or anything that ive noticed.Havnt had much time for it yet as friends are visiting plus working so ive only had about 1 and a half hours of ridge racer.Its very cool and its super import friendly(ridgeracers im talking about) with all voices being english and most of the menu system, anything else is easily worked out by the images next to it.lumines arrives next week, i cant wait.Ive been watching some anime on it so ill be cranking away at some of the many boxsets i bought as a christmas present to myself while on my lunch breaks.
Got some anime on there already.A couple of argentosoma eps and a fruba ep.The way in at about 90 megs each including start and credits with decent enough quality.Thats a bad pic that for some reason went funny colours.

[Andromeda18_]

I'm so envious of you! I want the psp soooo bad!
As soon as it comes out in Europe in March I'm buying it. I haven't bought it yet because right now the price is inflated due to the low quantity available for launch. By the time it gets to Europe and the USA the PSP should be much cheaper, as originally intended.
Anyway, is it really as good as expected. Do you have any idea when an RPG for the PSP will be available?

[morgorath]

Andromeda18_... you know me. I don't recommend a lot of products, but stay away from the PSP untill they work out all of the bugs. What do I mean by bug watch this video of a game "POPPING OUT OF THE PSP" while it is playing the game... Sorry don't want my game popping out ever unless I am ejecting it to switch it out...

http://www.gamesarefun.com/consoles/psp/pspdefect3.mov

you need quicktime to play the clip.

[Elcoholic]

It seems that that guy is putting alot of stress on the psp to make it do that (or so I read on another forum). You practically have to bend the whole thing a few degrees to make it do that. It was filmed on purpose.

Still a cool vid.

[Ryujin]

but stay away from the PSP untill they work out all of the bugs.

I'd say the same about the DS, dead pixels and whatnot

[wrxh8r]

Yeah that vids petty darn funny.The unit is pretty sturdy and you wont catch me doing that to mine incase you cracked the case or screen or something.Imagine trying to twist your cellphone.The vid is also a trick of angles.The disk doesnt actually pop out(to be sent a distance) if it opens.The person has the camera tilted right over so the psp is angled down giving the impresion it flys out but its actually just falling.
Id definitly wait for release if i were you.Memory sticks are droping in price and there is a 1 gig due the end of jan for about $120.Plus with the money you save on the unit you can get some games.I couldnt wait plus i got given money for one from all my family for christmas.The difference in the US unit i think will be minimal if any but by then the new firmware should also be available.My guess would be that the newer units will mearly have a lesser rate of problems due to ironing out process at factories but i highly doubt they would change the unit much.some things like initial squeeky buttons may be removed.Some people have had a few problems but mainly with dead pixels.But that goes for any lcd.Mine has no problems whatsoever.Umd playback is region locked so you wouldnt be able to play movies as well.Im only interested in mp4 off memory stick myself.I also needed an mp3 player.
rumour has it maybe a all region chip in development.At the moment unless you speak jpnese there are only a few import friendly titles.
Now that ive got that out of the way.
Im really really loving this thing.Its like a bright shiney new cresta.Im extremely glad ive got it now even at the raised price.Which probably isnt far off nz price anyway.
Ridge racers is a very cool game.Its quite strange seeing something so small run such a nice looking game smoothly.The startup of ridge racers was made for showing off the screen.They used some very bright colours like a yellow car that look absolutly beautifull on the screen.If i had to rate what its like watching stuff on the lcd id say its not far off the new vaio screens where they have a default black colour to them which gives them an awsome contrast.Ive been following the psp very closly and am happy to say that even though ive downloaded heaps of clips of it and read plenty of impressions i was still exited and impressed when i first started it up and saw the ridge racer movie clip.

[wrxh8r]

Oh yeah and untold legends is a baldurs gate style rpg that is coming out at launch for the psp.Its looking pretty good.Ive been kinda over these sort of games with the 2 nasty releases of bg2 and fallout.But a whole new story on the portable is sounding interesting.Now if only they would make a diablo remake in that style.Tales of eternia is due out around launch as well i think.
Gta is due soon after launch,its a new game set in liberty city.The US launch line up is very impressive.Unless nintendo start releasing games for the ds quick smart the psp on launch will have more games and they are all pretty good and reasonably well ranged.
gt4 is due out soon as well and im thinking of importing that from japan.
Untolt legends at ign
http://psp.ign.com/objects/722/722765.html

[vegeta76]

does this thing play dvds and ps2/ps1 games? or does it just play psp games? :confused:

[Last Exile]

how much is it going to be ?
or how much was it ?

-LE

[wrxh8r]

I paid 350 with ridge racers and a screen protecter.Its supposed to retail for around 200 so the equivelent at launch would probably set you back no more than 240.I just couldnt wait and had some money to spare.I know i shouldnt but i cant help myself although im very happy i got it.
Vegeta It only plays psp games.They are on umd which are alot like better minidiscs.The movies it plays are either mpeg4 off of memory stick duos or movies released by sony on umd.Sony are trying to market the umd versions of movies as having extras and have shown examples of how well interactivity can be done on them(like a flasher version of dvd bonus features games etc) Its also rumoured that they are going to try and market music video disks for it instead of just music on umd.It also supports mp3.
Now all ineed is for nintendo to start releasing some games and ill pick up a ds as well.Get the best of both worlds.

[Andromeda18_]

I paid 350 with ridge racers and a screen protecter.Its supposed to retail for around 200 so the equivelent at launch would probably set you back no more than 240.I just couldnt wait and had some money to spare.I know i shouldnt but i cant help myself although im very happy i got it.

You actually didn't pay much for it. I've seen it on sale on the internet for $500 and $600 (American dollars). That's why I haven't bought it yet, but 350 is a nice price especially considering you also bought a game and a screen protector.

[morgorath]

Ryujin: Well the Big N has already said they replace any and all DS that have dead pixel problems. So far I have read of one case for the DS. I have read of 13 cases for the PSP. Second Sony can't replace any PSP units because they don't have any to replace them with. It is my understanding that they are offering a turn in and wait policy because Japan has a very short "Return to store" policy.

Wrxh8r: Well yes they are putting some stress on the PSP but let me give you a secinaro. You set your PSP down to grab a drink from the kitchen and your little brother gets a hold of it and bamb your UDM is no longer in the PSP. It can happen if you have little children in your home or in Friends home. The truth of the matter is that it should not happen at all. The UDM should never pop out in such a manner. I tried the same twist on my DS and neither the DS cart or the GBA cart came flying out. It is something that Sony should have never let be an issue.

Oh if you go to here http://www.gamesarefun.com they also discuss the battery life and loading issues.
Wrxh8r: Since you own the PSP and Ridge Racer tell me what you feel about the loading times. I have heard some pretty nasty words about it being 15 to 20 seconds for the race to load and then another 15secs to exit a race and get back to the menu. Also the word on the street is that the most the battery life will run is 1 hour and 45 minutes for Ridge Racer. That is pretty short battery life.

Also on that URL the show how the [] button is off by a lot. That has been the number one mistake in my book. if I press the [] button it should work I shouldn't have to press it at an angle. Wrxh8r have you noticed this.

I am intrested in PSP badly but if they don't up the battery life and fix the button issue. I will have to pass on it untill they do. Kind of how I passed on the GBA until the GBA:SP came out.

[wrxh8r]

Firstly batery life.I havent just sat down and played through ridge racers only so i cant confirm yet however i have played for 3 hours plus i watched about an hour of anime off of the memory stick.Thats at full brightness and speakers at 3/4 volume.I had it running in the main menu for quite a while as well putting stuff onto the memory stick.I can only asume that the 1hour 45 is while playing multiplayer with wireless lan.but even that is a little low. psp.ign.com have some really good battery life tests that show worst case scenerios.I think the average user is going to get at least 3h 20 min to 4 hours out of ridge racers.
Loading times are quite long though i have never timed them myself.While playing for me they are absolutly no problem i dont see how its that much of a problem.But ive never owned a portable before so im not used to carts.Also when powering down there are 2 modes.A tap of the power switch goes to standby and holding it down shuts down the system completly.You can go to standby at any time and then power up to where you left.The time it takes to start up is only a few seconds.This is a very cool feature and if i run out of time to do something where i cant save it like halfway through a race then you know you can always just goto standby.The standby mode only uses a very tiny amount of power so there is no need to worry about it running out.
The button are you talking about square or shoulder because ive had no problems with the square at all.The only problem is the squeekyness of the 2 buttons closest the screen(square being one) but that goes away after a little use.Most people are saying after a week it stopped.
The shoulder buttons have to be pressed down further than i would have liked.You cant just give them a slight tap.There is a deadzone for a bit before it works.I asume its so you dont bump them but compared to the xy buttons you have to press further.
There is a charger pack coming out which is a little hardcover case that can recharge the psp 3 times http://psp.ign.com/articles/578/578449p1.html
There are also the rumours of bigger batteries being released.With the nyko case it isnt a problem for me because im never going to play in one sitting for longer than 3 1/2 hour away from a plug.
Hopefully a few things will be ironed out by launch.I highly recomend psp and cant express how much i really reallyenjoy this thing.

[Last Exile]

memory card question.

what was the size of the card : how much space?
Did it come with the PSP or did you buy it seperately?
also how many episodes can you fit on one stick?


-LE

[wrxh8r]

I got my memory stick seperatly.In japan there are curently 2 options.Just the psp or the value pack.The value pack is a little more expensive but has headphones+remote a 32meg memory card and a soft case for psp.There is a pic attached.I got the normal pack and a 512meg produo memory stick.The psp supports duo which is the smaller memory sticks.Mine cost $70 US which is a little on the high side as you can find them for 60shipped in the US but i wanted one quick.Prices on these sticks are droping fast and by release you should be able to get a good deal.The 1 gig card (which ill get come march) is priced at $120 and will be out at the end of the month.
My anime converted to 90 megs for 25mins.With argentosoma thats the entire episode inclueding credits so i couldve cut it down a little.The quality is more than reasonable as you can see in the pic of fruba.So i can fit about 5 episodes on the stick when formated.Save games dont take up much room.
The software used for encoding the vids is slowly getting better but with the japanese release only at the moment the pickings are slim.I imagine better quality encoders will appear shortly after launch allthough im more than happy enough with how 3gp is doing.
As far as watching anime on the go i couldnt imagine needing more then that for one day anyway but i want the 1 gig for music.Im just getting a new car and it doesnt have a very good stereo so i was thinking of buying something cheap which will go good enough for my cheapo sub and amp then hook the psp up to it.Ill either buy a cradle (there are some 3rd party ones coming) or ill just have to work something out.
For saving a 32 meg is more than enough and is priced at less than a ps2 card.