Support NeoGAF

[vatstep]

got mine! (awesomeness)
Also -- I suck at applying screen protectors got so much fuzz under mine - luckily it comes off easy.... but damn I must've washed it and applied it 4 times to try and get it right..
I'm thinking of goin' the non-protection rout - since a screen protector is so ugly on the machine - and just goin au-natural and being pridefull of the personal dings/scratches on it : D

I had a Martin Fields ready to go, but I decided not to leave it on. It didn't affect the visual quality much, but I just didn't like the look of it. And the screen seems more durable than some people made it out to be. I've been wiping it off obsessively with a few different lens cloths I have, and there's no scratching.

As far as dead/stuck/whatever pixels, they're practically invisible when you're actually playing a game, viewing photos, etc. They're easy to spot on the menu screens (which is probably how most people are checking), but otherwise, really not at all.

 

[Miburou]

No it's not that yet... right now it's just a how to download and bring videos to your PSP demos site with some videos on the site for you to download.

Sony connect is just like iTunes, the PSP tutorial is just a sub-section on the site. I got the God of War soundtrack from there yesterday.

 

[Wario64]

PSP IS HOT. But I'm too afraid to bring this outside with me. I'm afraid I might get it scratched or something. Argh

And I got 1 dead pixel in the middle, but I don't notice it during gameplay. Only played Lumines so far and it rocks. My EBgames only had 2 copies of Ridge Racer (what the hell?) so I'm stuck with Metal Gear Acid, Lumines, Twisted Metal and Wipeout Pure, so I'm not complaining.

 

[ManaByte]

As far as dead/stuck/whatever pixels, they're practically invisible when you're actually playing a game, viewing photos, etc. They're easy to spot on the menu screens (which is probably how most people are checking), but otherwise, really not at all.

Yeah when I'm playing Wipeout I never notice them.

 

[evil ways]

Man, I skipped lunch for some alone time with my PSP and I tell ya, this thing is like sex for the hands and a visual orgy for the eyes.

To all those weaksauce lump thumbed hosers that say the controller sucks for Darkstalkers, bull fucking shit. I'm pulling half circle moves, especially Bulleta's super moves easily on command. I guess it might take some getting use to for some but for me I jumped right into it.

Now for my mandatory PSP launch story.

I get a phone call at about 6am, a friend from work telling me that he just got to the mall and there are at least 50 people outside waiting for the mall doors to open. I think, no biggie, that doesn't mean shit as they still have to get inside EB and they open in an hour, so as long as I get there before EB opens, I'll have a good place in the line. I bathe, get dressed, and drink a glass of juice before leaving, then I get there at 7:08am, still a decent time. Yeah right.

I arrive at EB and I'm greeted to about 80+ people already standing in line, so I basically stand at the end which is basically near the door. Luckily the EB folks were dispatching units pretty quickly, and there was an entertaining incident with some skinny guy fainting, and falling over the used Xbox game rack. Apparently he didn't eat anything and got lightheaded. It was pretty funny as some old lady screamed, then gave him some chewing gum to get his sugar up I suppose. Line moved and I was near the PS2 playing God of War for a bit. Minutes later my friend came into the store with a Gamestop bag and a look of "I told you so" in his face, turns out Gamestop was even worst than EB, with at least 120 people, but since he was already there when they opened, he was about 8th in line.

I then finally got my turn and recieved my PSP. I wanted to buy MGA and Lumines right then and there but decided to wait for the CompUSA sale, bad move, as they were totally sold out of everything except Gretzky, NFL Street, THUG2, World Tour Soccer, Twisted Metal and Dynasty Warriors, none of which I wanted. I saw the empty slots for MGA, Ridge Racer, Lumines and Spider-Man 2. No sign of Untold Legends, perhaps it will arrive to them later this week. Will have to return to EB tonight to buy more software.

Now that the morning PSP adrenaline rush is wearing out, I'm hungry as hell, with just some orange juice and an oatmeal cookie from this morning sitting on my belly. Need to eat soon.

 

[seismologist]

Lumines looks pretty hot from the demo vid. I think I might get it.

 

[Jason]

woo, ran over to the mall to grab one from the Sony store. No dead pixels as of yet.

 

[ManaByte]

woo, ran over to the mall to grab one from the Sony store. No dead pixels as of yet.

If you don't have one now, you'll have one in the future. It's not something exclusive to the evil PSP, it's something exclusive to LCD screens.

 

[krypt0nian]

Twisted Metal is being a bitch.

I can get tot he lobbies, but anytime I try to grab a game, it sticks at "connection pending" until it fails. Last night I could get as far as the Game and chat some but then drop out before a game.

Their servers must be gtting hammered - or they suck ass.


Anyone having this issue?

 

[evil ways]

If you don't have one now, you'll have one in the future.

WHAT!!??

 

[ManaByte]

WHAT!!??

It's a damn LCD screen. I've never owned a LCD product that didn't eventually (sometime in its livespan) develop a dead or stuck pixel. If you buy something with a LCD screen you better understand what you're getting into.

 

[Ryck]

Sitting at work nervously.....called the target across the street they have 50 of em sitting there, got the ok from the wifey, I've been on the fence about it since it was announced but freakin launch day always gets the best of me......you guys are seriously making not spending $350.00 incredibly difficult.



I hate you guys.......

 

[dark10x]

If you don't have one now, you'll have one in the future. It's not something exclusive to the evil PSP, it's something exclusive to LCD screens.

Not necessarily true...

It will not develop dead pixels (dark pixels), but pixels could become stuck (bright colors).

 

[robot]

Has anyone figured out how to unlock classic tournament in wipeout pure? Great game so far.

 

[ManaByte]

Not necessarily true...

It will not develop dead pixels (dark pixels), but pixels could become stuck (bright colors).

True, and people are making too much of a deal about it to the point where it's becoming annoying. It's like they are personally threatened by Sony releasing a handheld and they have to find any reason for people to not buy it.

 

[Bristow]

Guys, if you're interested in Untold Legends, ignore the average review scores. If you're a fan of dungeon hack 'n slash games like Dark Alliance, Champs of Norrath, etc - there's absolutely no reason why you wouldn't like UL. Great graphics and control. The intro movie (if that's what you wanna call it) is crap, but the music isn't as bad as the IGN review made it out to be. Really solid game IMO.

MGA, in my limited time of play, is well on it's way of being an all-time favorite for me. It's brutally difficult and I don't really understand it completely yet, but I can tell that once I do - it's gonna be heaven. Must have for strategy fans.

Not much more can be said for Lumines at this point. Best puzzle game of all time? Most likely. INCREDIBLE music.

Wipeout is PURE sex. I can't believe how good this thing looks, sounds, and plays. I'm still 'one with the wall' at times, but it's incredibly fun and I look forward to getting better at it.


I really was a huge doubter of Sony's PSP at times, but holy shit did they deliver with this thing. All the people claiming you had to hold the unit yourself and experience what it offers before making any sort of judgement were right. Once you do, it immediately hits you that you're holding something special. Display units in stores should sell this thing pretty easily.

For me, the PSP has met all the ridiculous hype and then some. I still think the battery life is absolutely awful, but I can now accept that's the price for something that looks this amazing on a handheld. Hopefully they're able to improve it a bit more in the future, but aslong as great titles keep coming out for this thing, I'll be more than happy.

 

[Kung Fu Jedi]

Ok, as promised, back with some very quick impressions:

First up, the PSP itself. What can I say that hasn't already been said. Damn, that screen is nice. It's just so sharp, and clear. Awesome. This is what I wanted out of a handheld gaming system. Very impressive stuff.

Untold Legends: Spent the most time with this game so far. Load times are slow when first getting going, but not bad once you're in the game. When zoomed out, the graphics don't look like anything special, and the game screams out with it's generic nature. But once you zoom in, you can really see the details and the graphics look much better. It takes a bit of practice to get use to the camera, but not bad after you've played with it a bit. The characters are what you would expect, but there is a lot of customization you can do as you bulid up levels. Combat is very simple, hack-n-slash fare. I'm a couple of levels in, and so far the story is run of the mill. However, I did find myself having lots of fun, talking to towns people, exploring around the town, picking up items, and killing weak stuff that you fight at the beginning. The sounds are definetly the week point. Music is very average, and the attacking sounds get very repetitive, but you can customize a lot so turn down the volume! This game should be a blast multi-player and I found it to be a lot of fun once you got use to the controls and figured out what you were doing. Much more time needed on this one.

WipeOut Pure: Oh! My! God! Wow! The graphics are excellent and the music is awesome. This game really shows off the PSP screen and power. Fast and fun. Only ran one race so far, and need to get use to the controls, but it's everything you've heard so far. Didn't notice much slowdown at all. Another great multiplayer game.

Twisted Metal: I have to admit, I mainly bought this one due to the online multiplayer. But now I'm glad I got it. Played through the first level in Story Mode, and once I got use to the controls a bit, the old TM vibe came back. Lots of fun to blow stuff up and all the old characters are there. The opening sequence was very nice, and controls are perfect once you get back into the TM mode. Can't wait to try this one online.

NFL Street 2: So far this game is the most unimpressive of the bunch. I haven't played Street on the consoles, so this is my first go around. The character models look decent, much better close up, and the speed is great. Animation is nice, but the textures on the field are very blah. Seems pretty fun once I get into it though. I'm a huge football fan, so I think this will be a blast in the long run, but my first impression was rather so-so. The field that I played my first game on just didn't look nearly as good as the other games I've got on the PSP. Load times are rather long on this one too. I'll post more impressions once I get a chance to spend more time with it.

I'm thinking about swinging by the store on the way home and grabbing Lumines. I like a nice puzzle game for quick play and I think the GF may like that one too. PSP is so addictive. I'm getting nothing done this afternoon.

 

[Shompola]

Not necessarily true...

It will not develop dead pixels (dark pixels), but pixels could become stuck (bright colors).

Unfortunately stuck pixels is by far worse

 

[Goreomedy]

What.... the... fuck.

I had written off the PSP at launch, not having the money or stomach to get an uber bundle. I was told by more than one specialty shop clerk that the system was being bundled by every retailer until at least this holiday season.

While at my local Wal-mart, shopping for groceries, I figured I'd browse the video game section to see if they had any product left. They had two PSP's. No bundles required. I bought it and grabbed Wipeout Pure.

The clerk rang up the pruchase and gave me my total, including tax: $296.

Excuse me? $296? For some reason, the PSP system was discounted 14 bucks, and Wipeout Pure 2 bucks.

Go to Wal-mart people.

 

[dark10x]

Unfortunately stuck pixels is by far worse

Can't disagree there...

 

[BuckRobotron]

Swung by Best Buy during lunch. No PSP drama at all, they simply have a table set up with a guy manning it and a PSP running Spiderman 2. Plenty to sell.

Looked quite good, surprisingly stout feel to everything (I expected it to feel flimsy). Just poked around, directional buttons sped or slowed movie, jumped into the menu with Home key, looks clear and functional. Fingerprints all over and some small scratches from being passed around probably since early in the morning, but even this beat-up example still looked great. I'd assume careful owners would be able to keep it looking sharp.

There were a couple people at a time swinging by to look at it, passing the demo PSP around. The only person I saw biting was a 30-ish fellow who knew what he wanted and asked to buy one straight up, so I assume he did so after I left.

I'll probably pick one up somewhere down the line, maybe around Christmas time.

 

[Lord Error]

Hmm, none of my LCD devices ever developed stuck pixels though.

I've had problems with two Casio EM500 Pocket PCs that had dead or stuck pixels, but they appeared the day I bought them. I've exchanged them, and that is about all I can remember of my bad experiences with LCDs.

 

[Defensor]

my post in another thread:

Untold Legends is great. There is no voice acting with text and portrait artwork of the character you are talking to for NPCs. Graphics are great and first level stage music gets creepy when you hear it over and over again. You can pretty much save anywhere you want(except when battling a boss). So far I'm a lvl 8 Knight looking for some Gorgein Reaver in Shadowpine after defeating the Goregein defiler. Also, your life bar heals itself slowly like in Halo and Killzone so you don't always have to use potions unless being surrounded by enemies.

 

[ManaByte]

I just transfered a 50MB HD ROTS trailer perfectly and it compressed down to about 15MB:

 

[sonycowboy]

got mine! (awesomeness)

How loud is this thing supposed to be? I'm worried if mine is broke, 'cause my DS is easily twice as loud -- but I thought that that might be because the speakers are so far appart on the DS.

Yeah, I have a slight problem with that as well. It was very hard to hear Spider-Man 2 at full volume , but Ridge Racers volume was just fine. Is there some sort of seperate setting for different content?

 

[DarienA]

Sony connect is just like iTunes, the PSP tutorial is just a sub-section on the site. I got the God of War soundtrack from there yesterday.

Through your PSP you got the God of War soundtrack? I was under the impression the PSP interface portion wasn't up and running yet... The question was about PSP Connect(the subset of Sony Connect).

 

[Aruarian Reflection]

If you don't have one now, you'll have one in the future. It's not something exclusive to the evil PSP, it's something exclusive to LCD screens.

You can "grow" dead pixels? That's never happened to me before. I think you're set as long as you don't have any dead pixels initially.

 

[Razoric]

Can you play EXEs on your PSP (for example Flash movies?)

 

[robot]

Can you play EXEs on your PSP (for example Flash movies?)

Not sure if you were serious about Flash movies, but you can convert swf to avi with some plugins (AdShareIt but it's not free) - then convert the avi file. I'm actually gonna try that out tonight.

 

[Outdoor Miner]

OMFG!!! I finally tried out my PSP during lunch today. WOW WOW WOW, Wipeout is pure... sex (sorry)! Zone Mode alone is worth $250.

I am DYING to get home to play some more.

My unit is dead-pixel-free, and everything seems to be working perfectly.


I am a happy camper. Can't wait to try out Lumines.

 

[KeithFranklin]

Havent paid attention much over the last several months. What kind of battery life should I expect. I have 5 hours of flying ahead of me tomorrow. How long should the battery life last?

 

[sonycowboy]

Can anyone give some retailer reports? Any Store employees out there?? I need some reports.

1) My local EB had sold 40 out of their 80 preorders as of noon.

2) Most people were buying two or three games, which is very, very strange. Could it be that the high price is making people want to buy more games to justify the purchase? Or is it just hardcore buying patterns? I know that I bought more games with the system purchase than any other time in the past, including the PS2 launch.

3) They only got in 8 copies of Ridge Racers and 4 were for preorders and sold a day ago. They claim to have gotten some memo from the home office telling them that Ridge Racer would be in short supply? Any reason for this?

4) It certainly wasn't a mad-house, but it was all PSP at the store. Selling half of your preorders in 4 hours seems pretty good.

5) The top seller at this store was reportedly... Tony Hawk. Ape Escape hadn't sold a single copy.

 

[dark10x]

Havent paid attention much over the last several months. What kind of battery life should I expect. I have 5 hours of flying ahead of me tomorrow. How long should the battery life last?

Depends on the game...

Ridge Racer with full sound and screen brightness will last you about 4 hours. Lumines, on the other hand, will last about 6 hours. That seems to be the current range...

Turning down the brightness a tad might improve the life, however...

 

[Kung Fu Jedi]

I don't think people are buying more games to justify the high purchase price. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense actually. I'd say it's a testament to the quality of the launch titles. I bought four games, when I was only going to get 3, and now I'm thinking of grabbing Lumines on the way home as well.

Update on the Intec case I bought. I'm really liking it quite a bit. I placed my PSP inside of it, and put several UMD's in the netting, then put the soft cloth that came with the value pack over the PSP. The soft cloth is one of those items I think I'd want to keep with me at all times anyway, and it provides a little more protection from the screen. The headphones will also fit nicely in the case. For $10 it seems like a pretty nice purchase.

 

[Razoric]

Not sure if you were serious about Flash movies, but you can convert swf to avi with some plugins (AdShareIt but it's not free) - then convert the avi file. I'm actually gonna try that out tonight.

yeah i was serious... id love to see my shit on a psp. just to see how it looks :O

 

[seismologist]

Wow UMD movies are actually pretty cool. I started watching Spiderman 2 during lunch and I cant wait to watch the rest of it. This is awesome.

 

[.hacked]

 

[Laguna X]

Just chiming in with my (really) short impressions...

The PSP fucking rocks! The screen is pure sex and battery life doesn't even seem to be an issue as of yet. I watched Spiderman 2 first and then played Lumines for a few hours. If you like puzzle games, you may not want to skip on Lumines. It is pure bliss.

I'd give you a more in-depth impression of the system, but I want to get some more Lumines-time in before heading back out for a couple other titles (MGA and Twisted Metal).

 

[boredJonathan]

2) Most people were buying two or three games, which is very, very strange. Could it be that the high price is making people want to buy more games to justify the purchase? Or is it just hardcore buying patterns? I know that I bought more games with the system purchase than any other time in the past, including the PS2 launch.

I think this speaks more to the quality of the titles than to anything else. I know at my store we were selling games based simply on showing them off. People would walk in with the intent to pick up just Twisted Metal, and then they would see us playing WipeOut and be blown away. I can vouch though that alot of people who picked up their PSPs bought multiple games.

3) They only got in 8 copies of Ridge Racers and 4 were for preorders and sold a day ago. They claim to have gotten some memo from the home office telling them that Ridge Racer would be in short supply? Any reason for this

No idea what the reason is, but my store only got in 3 copies of Ridge Racers with two of them having been pre-ordered. Where as with Lumines we got 24 copies. (Suprisingly though, or maybe because we have been talking it up so much, we have moved a large number of those.)

 

[ypo]

Forget about the graphics and the screen. I didn't realize the sound output is this good. Hot damn!!!

 

[Agent X]

I don't think people are buying more games to justify the high purchase price. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense actually. I'd say it's a testament to the quality of the launch titles. I bought four games, when I was only going to get 3, and now I'm thinking of grabbing Lumines on the way home as well.

I'd have to agree with that--there are a lot of very appealing games right now. I myself almost bought four games for it, but due to monetary concerns decided to hold off on Darkstalkers Chronicle for now. I left the store with Wipeout Pure, Lumines, and Tony Hawk's Underground 2 Remix.

I got home about an hour and a half ago, and have been charging the PSP since. Charge time for a depleted battery is 2 hours 20 minutes according to the manual. I'm patiently waiting for the little orange light to turn off now.

 

[Laguna X]

Morph! You are hardcore dude!

 

[acklame]

OH MY FUCKING GOD!!!!!!

I've seen the pictures. I've watched the videos. But it seems nothing can prepare me for the real thing

 

[Lord Error]

yeah i was serious... id love to see my shit on a psp. just to see how it looks :O

You can do it by exporting a flash file into a video (uncompressed AVI) then converting that to MP4. I've done it, it works fine.

 

[Argyle]

Can anyone give some retailer reports? Any Store employees out there?? I need some reports.

1) My local EB had sold 40 out of their 80 preorders as of noon.

2) Most people were buying two or three games, which is very, very strange. Could it be that the high price is making people want to buy more games to justify the purchase? Or is it just hardcore buying patterns? I know that I bought more games with the system purchase than any other time in the past, including the PS2 launch.

3) They only got in 8 copies of Ridge Racers and 4 were for preorders and sold a day ago. They claim to have gotten some memo from the home office telling them that Ridge Racer would be in short supply? Any reason for this?

4) It certainly wasn't a mad-house, but it was all PSP at the store. Selling half of your preorders in 4 hours seems pretty good.

5) The top seller at this store was reportedly... Tony Hawk. Ape Escape hadn't sold a single copy.

Not much more info, but here's what I saw...(SoCal)

~200 people in line at Gamestop last night. Some games sold out or very limited if you didn't preorder (Ridge Racers, Lumines)

I tried to exchange mine this morning (dead pixels) but was told they were still trying to fill preorders and to call back tomorrow.

Best Buy was next door, they opened at 8am this morning, I walked in around 11:30am and they still had ~100 units in stock. Looked like they were selling fairly briskly, though, I saw 3-4 walk out the door while I was in there. Stacks of THUG2 there, not selling at all, also saw lots of copies of Wipeout and Spiderman 2 (less so NFSU Rivals) - Ridge Racers, MG Acid, Lumines, all sold out by the time I got there. The sales guy said they didn't get Twisted Metal at all for some reason.

 

[Ignatz Mouse]

From anecdotal evidence, looks like Lumines might sell better than the prediction thread thinks.

 

[Mrbob]

Ba ba ba ba ba, I'm loving Metal Gear Ac!d.

The strategic take on the game is amazing. I'm still only a couple hours in, but I'm surprised at how well I've handled the card aspect of the game. The game really forces your hand to think ahead and priortize! A game like this would have never been made on a console so I thank the PSP for forcing developers to think outside the box!

 

[robot]

You can do it by exporting a flash file into a video (uncompressed AVI) then converting that to MP4. I've done it, it works fine.

Didnt even realize you can export to uncompressed avi straight from flash - awesome stuff.

 

[LinesInTheSand]

For those of you who bought from Walmart, they only offer extended warranties from the website but it applies to instore purchases... do you think this one: http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=2349402
will work for the psp? looks like it should... good price too.

 

[tralfazz]

Wow UMD movies are actually pretty cool. I started watching Spiderman 2 during lunch and I cant wait to watch the rest of it. This is awesome.

I was reall amazed at the quality of the movie and the movie demos. When are the Kill Bills coming as these are my favorite movies?