NOTE: THE FOLLOWING IS MY OPINION ONLY AND YOU ARE FREE TO DISAGREE AND/OR RESPOND IN KIND.

I was reading the thread on the PSPs long load times and it seems like there's a lot of word floating about that the PSP simply isn't living up to people's expectations. I bought one about a year ago and I've loved it ever since, but it is not, and I mean NOT, a portable system to me. For one, it is an extremely fragile system and i'm extra careful even at home when playing/handling it. I like the games that are exclusives (the latest being Gradius Gaiden), and thirst for more PSo translations. But today's purchase has really, really, REALLY thrown me off the system's future. Valkyre Profile: Lenneth is a HORRIBLE translation. The graphics look muddled and old, and there's way too much slowdown. The cinemas are nice looking but they're poorly implemented and rather boring to watch - and they add nothing in the way of gameplay. The game's controls are also very unresponsive for this type of game - although that is more of the fault of the hardware, it should have been addressed. The load times are also frequent and long, and painful in a game like this that is paced rather slowly it can distract you from the game. After only a few hours of playing I became bored between waiting for playing between loading times and between cutscenes and dialogue sequences. The original version on the PSo is actually superior, despite being released 7 years ago for a system designed over a decade ago.

What i'm trying to illustrate is this: it seems that Sony's bragging rights regarding the system have also become it's greatest weaknesses. They claim that they have tons of space on the UMD disk for great quality programming and music, but that comes at a high price in terms of load times. They brag about the system's potential more than they do about it's actual performance[ which is mediocre to say the least. I remember all the pre-release hype that promised PS2 level graphics and tons of games that would usher in a new era of portable gaming that would finally overthrow Nintendo in the massive portable gaming market. But a lack of games, horrible ports that were originally excellent games (not only Valkyre Profile but the PS2 Ys game was horrifically bad.).

Still, you can't fault Sony entirely. Developers have little incentive to pour much time and energy into developing quality games that can adapt to the system's limitations, as many people were quick to point out. however, pouring millions of dollars to design a quality game or to update a remake don't seem justified with the PSP's sales numbers.

It seems like the new era of portable gaming has been ushered in by Nintendo instead.

I think the problem is that because of the system's power, there's very little incentive to pay the development cost to take advantage of the power due to difference in units they could push on the PS2 instead. Why do you think GTA Liberty City Stories ended up on the PS2?

Oh, just to clarify.. are you saying Valkyrie Profile and Ys Ark of Napishtim are bad or just bad ports? Because if it's the former, we're going to have words. I know my former roommate bought the PSP Ys because he saw me playing it (both the PC version in Japanese and eventually the PS2 version) and he told me the load times made the game unplayable.

I owned a PSP for several months. I enjoyed Hot Shots Golf a great deal and Twisted Metal was okay, and I had fun (for a little while) ripping my DVDs and video files to the system. I had emulation software running on it which was fun to mess around with. I also enjoyed the web browser too. At the time we were staying with some friends while waiting to close on our house and I could surf from the living room while my friends used their computers.

But that's the biggest problem with the system: I wasn't using it for many actual PSP games. It was a fun little multimedia device but it just didn't have a lot of games I was interested in. And the nub is HORRIBLE. I had the worst time with Twisted Metal because of that thing. They should have forgotten the analog stick entirely or come up with a crazy new design for something like that.

Anyway, the long and short is that I do feel the system has potential, but the games aren't there. And if it doesn't have good games, what's the point of a portable gaming system?

 

Kick his ass!

Fuck the analog nub, the digital pad is unusable due to the impossibility of doing diagonal movement.

That is quite a common criticism.

And yes, I was remarking that the ports were horrible, not the original games. The PS2 Ys game was excellent, but the PSP version is IMPOSSIBLE to play. There are up to 1 minute long load times just between game screens, and considering it's like the old school Zelda where you reach a whole new screen when you reach the edge of the screen, it's a crippled game. Shame too, since the game itself (when you can play it) is actually pretty fun. Valkyre Profile has nothing on the original. Let's hope the Suikoden double pack is playable.

Well there's that too. But I had better luck with the pad than I ever did with the nub.

Hey Sony, when your analog stick gets confused with a speaker, you might want to rethink your design.

Of course, the load times really go against the concept of a portable system. You can't just pick it up and play it for a few minutes without waiting.

Another problem I have with it is that I just don't want to pay $50 for a portable game. I understand they cost a lot of money to make, but it's just too much IMHO. I remember when SSX On Tour came out, I thought it was ridiculous that the console versions were $40 while the PSP version was $50. The console versions soon came down to $30, so it was even more ridiculous then. I guess I feel that way because I have to play it on a small screen. Like with UMD's, having to see it on a small screen just lowers the value for me.

I supported the PSP for awhile, but even I gave in and sold it. Valkrye Profile was one I was definitely considering, but after reading the review there was no way I would bother when I already have the PS1 version.

To be fair I had a lot of fun playing MLB06 and GTA on the PSP and Daxter was really good, but overall not nearly enough games to take my attention away from the DS or from a console.

The system had some much potential, and I guess still does, but it just hasn't panned out.

1. There are very few games that are "must haves" on it. Probably for the reasons Pixy noted. With it being so powerful, the development costs are quite high, so there's no incentive to spend they money developing top notch exclusive games for it rather than the PS2 with it's vastly larger user base. Thus many of the games are half assed, or are just quick ports/spinoffs of PS2 games, which leads to...

2. The games on the PSP are largely just PS2 offshoots, thus the system offers little in the way of a different gaming experience than you can get on the consoles. This is fine for people that game on the go all the time and just want a console to take with them essentially. However, my portables rarely leave the house, so I need them to offer games I can't get on the consoles to give me an incentive to play them instead of my GC/PS2/X-box on my tv and surround sound. The DS does this with a lot of great, quirky pick up and play games, and a lot of great 2D games, that I can't get on the console. There are few titles that fit either bill on the PSP.

3. The load times are killer on a lot of games. This may get better, but as noted in the other thread, it really kills portable gaming.

4. The battery life is too short, compared to DS lite that lasts 2-4 times as long during gaming depending on brightness setting.

5. The controls suck. The analog nub is awful, and the D-pad isn't much better with the diaganol issue already noted earlier in the thread.

6. While the price was lower than expected at launch, $250 for the worthless bundle pack, and $200 for just hte PSP now, is still a bit too much for a portable IMO. Even the DS at $150 at launch was pushing it a bit for me...and the games are even more ridiculous for a portable. I don't like the $35 DS games and tend to wait for bargains on them, much less the $40-50 PSP games.

You know, it's funny in hindsight...

When this little handheld war started, I thought the PSP looked like an amazing little machine and figured I'd inevitably get one when the price came down.

By contrast, I thought the DS looked gimmicky and frankly a bit ugly. I figured there was about a zero percent chance of me owning one.

Now here we are, a year or so later, and the PSP is still looking pretty slick, but is at the end of the day, just an oversized IPOD that happens to play a few games...poorly. Conversely, since the DS Lite launched, I haven't touched another gaming system of any kind AT ALL...and I certainly can't imagine a PSP in my future.

Of course the other irony is that the majority of my DS time is spend playing GBA games...but that's another story.

Is it true about the NCAA glitch where the ball is placed at first contact with the defense not the spot he is tackled at.

My little cousin has one. I played Darkstalkers on it and could barely make the thing work. I personally had major issues with the D-pad and analog control.

Outside of a few of the games, it doesn't seem like the PSP games lend themselves to actual portable play. Meaning quick and short games. Really bad load times only make that worse.

However, I still think the system could be really kick ass in the hands of the right developers.

I'm not sure this thread needs to exist since there seem to be similar discussion threads on this, but since the discussion and posts seem to be going very well I won't touch it.

I spent quite a while comparing it to the DS and thankfully (with the help from this forum) I chose the DS Lite and dont regret it one second. I have 4 games on the DS and play them all constantly. I think if I would have gotten the PSP it would have been gathering dust by now.

I wonder how many people who got the DS are now considering the Wii who wouldnt have before. I for one am

I owned a PSP from about May of last year to May of this year. Lumines was a blast, Ridge Racer was okay, Untold Legends was fun for a little bit, Darkstalkers was infuriating without the diagonal. I took it on a business trip last fall and watched some movies on it, but I also had my laptop which of course has a much bigger screen, so it was kinda redundant. I agree it's not a "bad" system per se (no taco-talking ), but it just wasn't a "fun" system.

I play my wife's DS all the time, we picked up New SMB recently and that is just incredible with all the new ideas they put into an old style game. All the games on the PSP were just PS1 and PS2 games scaled down. I suppose that would be my biggest criticism.

I was one of those that thought the PSP was going to be the ultimate hand held gaming machine and that it would over take Nintendo in the portable market. It had a great design and a kick ass screen plus with the Sony's huge library of games for the PS1 & PS2 the last thing you worried about was the number of quality games it would have. This system was going to eat Nintendo alive.................boy was I wrong.

Reasons I no longer own a PSP:

Battery Life
Details started coming in on the system specs and battery life and I was a little concerned especially with the battery life being only 3-4 hours, it reminded me of my Turbo Express I owned back in 1991. The beast took 6AA batteries and I got maybe 3 hours out of it. It had been 15 yrs since we last had a decent portable with a backlit screen and the PSP comes along and we're still dealing with the battery life issue. WTH? I guess the plus side is it uses a rechargeable battery so no running out to the store to buy AA's or looking for an outlet to plug the a/c into.

Load times
This absolutely killed it for me. Not only do we have a system that has a short battery life but to make matters worse we have games that have up to 5min load times. This is ridiculous. I thought maybe to wait a year for developers to get familiarized with the system and load times would diminish. Doesn't seem like that's happening. After getting Hot Shots Golf and Ridge Racers the next 2 games I owned were Untold Legends and Madden. The nasty load times on both of those games were enough for me to sell my system.

Game selection
Honestly, this is the last thing I expected to be an issue with the PSP. Given the number of quality games I played on the PS1 & 2 I had no worries about the game selection on the PSP. Now, it's been about a year since I owned mine and there have been quite a few games to come out since that time but the reviews I've read on a majority of those games have not been all that great. I look at the system now and if I were to go buy one today, I'd probably pick up Ridge Racers and Hot Shots Golf, the same 2 games I bought at launch. Sony should have never gone with the UMD movie thing -- the focus should have been the games because it is afterall a portable gaming device.

Controls
I'm with you all on this one. The analog nub is a poor design and it did not work well in games where you're moving you character 360 degrees(i.e. Untold Legends), it does seem to work "ok" with racing games since you're basicially just steering right or left. The "D" Pad is awful because like Pixy said, it makes diagonal movement impossible.

I've thought would I ever own this system again? Probably not. The Valkyrie Profile port caught my interest and then after reading SuperBoy's comments it seems my worst fears about any ports they do with older games have found there way into VP. The PSP had alot of potential but design issues and poor decision making on Sony's part have been it's downfall. I think Sony needs to take a page out of Nintendo's book and do a redesign. Fix load time issues, increase battery life and implement a better "D" pad and Analog stick then start focusing on games and drop the price to $149. Who knows.

The battery life isn't because of the screen - it's because of the processor power and the disk reader. Putting moving parts in such a small space eats up batteries like crazy.

OK, I'm tired of being the voice of support for this system, but I still really love it. The fact that I can go on a trip and bring it along, watch a movie, listen to some of my albums, play a few games on the plane, then delete the movie off the stick and put it in my camera when I get there, take lots of pictures and then view it on the PSP on the way home is very cool, IMO. I don't discount the criticisms, but still think it's a fine system with lots of potential.
I'd like to address some of those issues, if I may.

Battery Life
True, it gets me about 3-4 hrs (though watching a movie off the memory stick drains power much slower, in my experience). I carry a spare I got at BB for $8. I usually don't use the spare. That's enough for me since even on longer plane rides, I won't play the PSP the whole time (my wife would yell at me if I did). At home, I charge it at night when the battery gets low. I bring an I.go with me on the road so I'm able to charge the PSP, camera and cell phone whenever. Really, it's not a big deal to me, though I can see others having a problem with it.

Load times
This is an annoyance a lot of the time, but not always. I think things are getting better. Daxter has no load times at all to speak of. GTA has only one biggie at the beginning. I find ports of consoles are worse and the developers are getting the hang of it. Apparently Tekken has only 10 sec times. I think this is more a development problem than a hardware one -- a game-killer, not a system-killer

Game selection
When I got my system almost a year ago, this was a problem for me as well. Until Christmas last year, the only games I liked on the PSP were Lumines and Burnout. Now there are several very good games for it including Daxter, Syphon Filter (which sort of shocked me how good it was), Exit and GTA (though that game is a little hit-or-miss). Apparently, next week's Tekken Dark Resurrection is spectacular, getting a 9.2 from IGN and GameSpot. Though I have Tekken 5 for home and don't have anyone to play the PSP version with, it sounds like there's enough extras to convince me to pick this one up. I downloaded the demo fro LocoRoco and I friggin' LOVE it. That will be a wonderful game, and has a chance to be a Katamari-type surprise hit. Though that game Lumines and Exit could have been made for the DS, the others I mentioned most likely could not have, so I do think there's a place for a portable with more processing power.

Controls
This one is a legit complaint. It's not an insurmountable problem, but it is one that developers have to accommodate for. The lack of the second analog nub has made console ports harder to control. The analog stick is fine for exploratory gameplay (Daxter works like a dream, even for platforming, but it's not responsive enough for Burnout so I use the D pad instead). I think the issue is magnified in the PSP since there are so many 3D games that would benefit from a separate camera control. I have no problems controlling my 2D games like Exit, Lumines or LocoRoco. Frankly, I think control is a problem for the DS as well (though my gameplay on that system is limited, the 3D games Metroid Prime Hunters and Mario 64 I tried didn't control well for me). I'm sure diagonal D-pad movement is difficult on the PSP; it hasn't been an issue for me yet as I don't have any fighting games. The reviews of Tekken say there's a leaning curve, but it's do-able.

Again, these are my opinions. I enjoy the system for what it is. Maybe if I didn't use all the ancillary things, I wouldn't like it as much. It sure took a hell of a long time to figure how to rip movies correctly. Another thing I'm interested in is how it integrates with the PS3. If it can stream TV shows off the PS3's HD, that's another big plus for me. In any case, I seem to be the confused minority here. I'll never say a bad word about the DS; I'd have one already if I didn't think it'd precipitate a fight with the Mrs. But I'm happy with the PSP and will be picking up Tekken next week.

I'm pretty sure the screen doesn't help things as you can get longer battery life depending on the brightness setting.

anyone know the battery life comparing a game on umd vs memory stick?

Video life is about double on the memory stick. Never paid attention with game demos.

When the PSP came out, I was about 5 seconds away from owning one. I was going to pick one up as a present for myself (from my wife) and at the last minute grabbed a DS. At the time, I wanted both, but was very hesitant about both. The deciding factor was not games at the time, but what I knew was coming out. The DS ended up winning.

I have not regretted it once.

For me, still not owning a PSP has had nothing to do with battery life, load times, etc., although those might certainly annoy me. It has everything to do with games. Beyond a handful of games, nothing has interested me. Most of what I see that looks OK is something I'd rather play on a console. I want more original, portable-style games. But, beyond a couple titles, I'm not seeing that. That may just be my perception though.

I am not discounting the idea of owning a PSP down the road. But at this point, any desire I had is gone completely.

To me it's a great system to use for homebrew but even that part isn't perfect and quite frankly a PITA to use. I hate the UMD system for games. I don't like the mirror-esque screen, and the single analogue stinks. The games didn't convert very well either and it doesn't seem to be getting very good game support period.