cup-o-robots

Play-Asia.com got their hands on a PSP from SCE’s aution of 500 pre-release units (the auction’s procedes went to charity for those affected by the Mid-Niigata earthquake). In this article, Play-Asia give a a quick breakdown of the system and its hardware, and what they received in the Value Pack. They mention things like first powering on and customizing the system (similar to the DS and is pretty cool I must say), and setting the time and language (Japanese or English, good sign for importers, if you can get find one on release day ;)). They also give a ton of videos and photos displaying the interface and hardware. Though the quality of videos are iffy (taken with a DV cam I’m sure) there’s a lot of them and gives a nice impression on what it’s like to operate the thing - and the 16:9 screen looks pretty hot, just wished Play-Asia had better quality video, hehe.

I can see why Sony is pushing this in competition with like the iPod in being this generation’s Walkman. While I agree with a lot of people in that you don’t need hardcore graphics and technology for portable gaming - the original Gameboy survived nearly a decade before it went “Color” and even that upgrade wasn’t that big, plus the DS totally exceded my expectations on 3D portable graphics already - Sony’s willing to take that risk, as in losing a lot of money, to give people near-PS2 graphics and multimedia goodness.

This piece of hardware is pretty complicated, with a nice little interface and a whole lot of media functionality - MP3 playback, MPEG4 playback, etc - if you don’t mind breaking more bucks for Media Sticks (doh!) but those are getting cheaper and if you have other Sony stuff like a digicam you’re set (all the reason why you may be more interested in the PSP, Drackett :P). It also occurred to me how much portable gaming is being geared towards a much older crowd - then again children are having so much more tech exposure than when we were young, maybe it’s not that big a deal. But even with the DS, especially with using a stylus, portable video games are hitting for a more mature audience.

Anyways, Play-Asia has a lot of cool media to check out if you’re curious on the PSP. It is pretty friggin’ crazy how big the PSP is - being wider than the DS and just about as thick as the DS.. CLOSED! Dude, that could be a hassle, though again the original Gameboy was like a brick. PSP’s screen is HUGE when next to the DS! Nice movie player if that works outs. It’s also funny how Play-Asia goes through the whole process of unpacking it - kinda reminds me of this Halo 2 video ‘boogi showed me. They even show an the empty PSP box after everything is taken out - weirdos, haha! I do like the shots of the hardware detail though, like the side views showing the analog controller, something I look forward to after playing a lot of Mario 64 DS. Though I got pretty darn good on using the DS touch screen for analog control.