Gamespot updates their Sony PSP impressions
by Ben Zackheim 
{ Dec 18th 2004 at 8:49AM }
Gamespot Hardware has spent a lot more time with their PSP, and have some more to say about it. It's a no-nonsense piece, reserving judgment for a later day, we suppose. The bottom-line is 1.5 hours - 8 hours of battery life, depending on the type of game played, the brightness setting, the speaker use, the volume and whether wireless is on. Sounds like we'll have quite a balancing act with every PSP game. Maybe someone should start a site that offers settings per game. "Get 2 hours from [Game X] with these settings" One other cause for concern is the ghosting they claim is on their unit during movie playback. The GS impression also gets into what's impressive about the PSP, of course, and that includes the screen image, design and easy wireless play. Sony can't announce the North American launch soon enough.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Kamalot @ Dec 18th 2005 8:45PM
1.5 hours of battery is worse that I ever expected.
Image ghosting? So the "awesome" display is only good for still images because it blurs when in motion?
Every article I read about the PSP makes me want it less and less; discs that shoot out, unprotected UMDs, downright rotten battery life and the best feature, the screen, isn't awesome after all.
EazeE @ Dec 18th 2005 8:45PM
Gamespot said:
"Battery life ranges anywhere from one and a half hours to eight hours depending on the application used."
"Using the wireless capabilities will reduce battery life even more."
Whoever wrote the article for Joystiq should state that fact. By reading the Joystiq article, it sounds as if the 1.5 hours is with wireless on. It isn't.
If you play Ridge Racer with your friends, you can expect shorter battery life than the 1.5 hours.
LINEZ @ Dec 18th 2005 8:45PM
You all are fools and tools to believe this. The psp is gods gift to gaming and all nintendo fanbois best be stepin and playin their kiddie crap cause sony is making the great games and the system that is so cool it makes you cry like the baby you is.
You know the psp is for mature gamers and we want the mature games, you know, not the colorflu kiddie stuff, stuff thet makes the games look real and dark and have serious nature like knifes.
you make me so mad that you be hatin the great system. go play your mario while i wait for the besty system of all.
Costas @ Dec 18th 2005 8:45PM
face it kamalot, you don't want it, and you are better off not having it.
But maybe you should be a little more selective about which rumors you buy into and which ones you don't.
The only way a UMD will come flying out of the PSP is if you are upside down so it falls out. if you were sitting upright, the umd door would pop open but the umd would still be in the hatch.
So, do you play games hanging from that trapeze often?
And again, 1.5 hours is the absolute worst i've seen so far, but you make no comment of the 8 hrs that they also mention. By the waym how long does it take to recharge the DS? 4 hrs?
Kamalot @ Dec 18th 2005 8:45PM
Costas: Funny you should mention the Flying UMD trick. It happens to be the top story on Joystiq at the moment, and nobody mentions having to be a trapeze artist to accomplish it.
http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000640024191/
"the disk inside can come catapulting out at tremendous speed"
Which GameSpot confirmed. "Amazingly, with just the right touch, out it popped"
The video is fairly compelling too.
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~cf6y-oot/umd/fly_004.avi
As for the battery life, 1.5 hours is terrible. EazeE makes a good point too that the times listed are without wireless gameplay. I could mention 8 hours, but who is going to really purchase a PSP to play Puyo Pop? You wanna play puzzle games? Chances are you already have a PDA or GBA that will give you your puzzle fix for longer that 8 hours. You wanna play kick-ass 3D PSP games? Welcome to rechargeville where "portable" gaming is now "umbilical power cord" gaming.
I don't know how long the DS takes to charge. I charge mine at night once or twice a week. The charging time does not seem to matter much because it does not determine when one can play, like the PSP's short battery life will.
I can see that charging time will be important to people who need to quickly find an outlet every 90 min.
Overall, Costas, you are right. I don't think I want one. I would feel really bad spending so much on a poorly designed machine.
What "rumors" would you have me listen to? I'm listening to the ones being posted on Joystiq, Engadget and Gamespot. If they tell me that the product has flaws that cause the disc to fly out and a poopy battery, should I ignore those "rumors" and opt instead to listen to the people who feel the need to justify their expensive purchase? If you have a better site for unbiased information about the PSP, I'd be happy to see it.
CelicaGT-S @ Dec 18th 2005 8:45PM
As for reports about the UMD slot popping open at inopportune times, we did notice that we could set off the lid's spring-loaded eject by applying a little pressure to the top right of the unit while holding the left side in place. The miniscule flex was enough to trigger the eject mechanism
Hey everybody! RTFA! Nobody is forcing these disks out of the psp. They shoot out. It is commonplace in all units, even my friends, who is pissed. You have to be gentle with the psp or you loose your game, boing, out is shoots.
Asz @ Dec 18th 2005 8:45PM
Just don't use your PSP in a moving vehicle with open windows and you'll be fine.
Jazon @ Dec 18th 2005 8:45PM
I am really worried about shooting out a disc that will be scratched. Is it true that the discs are exposed? My PS2 has trouble reading any disc with the slightest scratch.
Costas @ Dec 18th 2005 8:45PM
kamalot,
if you look at the video you linked to, the user is facing down. In fact the ONLY 2 videos i have seen of the UMD flying out, have been from the same guy, and both of them clearly showed that he was facing down to get the UMD to fall out of the PSP.
Also, please remember, the articles that are posted up on Joystiq, and Engadget are just links to articles from others. I could put up a website and have the headline of "PSP is behind the Kennedy Assasination" and have a couple of bogus responses of people corroborating the story with "yeah i saw the PSP in the book depository" etc, etc, and suddenly it becomes gospel.
When I say you are very selective about which rumors you buy into, I mean that you are so deadset against the PSP having any sort of success that you immediately discount any positive review.
You mentioned Gamespot, but you never mentioned their 30 minute "OnTheSpot" video reviewing the PSP and all of the positives that they mention about it.
Here's the link in case you didn't catch it:
http://www.gamespot.com/onthespot/index.html?q=1&tag=gs_hp_topslot_click
They even went as far as putting a thumbprint on the disc, and played it, and guess what? The world didn't end.
It seems like every possible little flaw is getting picked up by the Nintendo faithful and beaten to death.
kamalot @ Dec 18th 2005 8:45PM
Costas:
Thanks for the video link. I'll check it out!
Asz @ Dec 18th 2005 8:45PM
Jazon, only a small portion on the underside of the UMD discs are exposed, allowed a neat little hole for dust/dirt to fly into. You can see the small notch on the left of the UMD in this picture: http://img140.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img140&image=ga0000800413ri.jpg
bob @ Dec 18th 2005 8:45PM
wat are you guys talking about????
many reports say that the psp are getting so many problems!!!you guys like going to the only site that are false!reports say that analogs have been broken!dics arent reading!and the ejecter wont open!!also LONG LONG LOADS!!!
LOTS LOTS OF DEAD PIXELS!AND OTHER MISTAKES
Bollocks Mate @ Dec 18th 2005 8:45PM
Problems, Shroblems -
I've already been playing with the PSP for the last 5 days now, right here in Los Angeles, making my friends and co-workers DROOL, and they follow me around like possessed Zombies out for another fix, but I won't let them touch it......
I've almost completed MIN-NA NO GOLF (Everybody's Golf), I am on the last set of stars to get to the highest rank -
LUMINES is astoundingly beautiful and the music is just so perfectly RAVE-TECHNO to keep my eyes glued to the game, this game is glorious, glorious, glorious, I can't seem to get beyond Level 21, my eyes hurt and I keep losing -
VAMPIRE CHRONICLES is the usual arcade style crap that makes my thumb ache and ache -
ARMORED CORE FORMULA FRONT is impossibly complicated, all the Japanese words are even hard for me to follow, there's so much detail in the game, this one will take some serious patience -
about the only game that my friends could follow without having to have to read the Japanese, without having me sit there and explain everything to them every screen, is RIDGE RACERS, of course! I do have to set it up and bring it to the Race Screem before I hand it over to my friend to enjoy -
Everyone says the Screen is amazing, and it is, this small High Definition screen is a marvel, and the refresh rate is tremendous, crystal clear, unlike any hand-helds out there - so if anyone talks trash about it, they're crazy -
In fact, I know they're nuts because they would go and spend $250 for a stupid CELLPHONE with a Camera!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What idiot out there goes around TWISTING this unit in their hand? Would you do that with your Cellphone?
Would you do that with your digital camera?
Would you do that with your Laptop?
Would you do that with your PDAs?
What makes you want to twist the unit so much that the Disk pops out? All I can guess is that you're really CRAP at the games and can't play for shit.
Stop jerking off with it! You might find you don't need to whack the buttons so hard to make the thing work.
This is a great machine. I'm certainly going to enjoy it for a good year until it breaks (probably), and then I'll buy another one. A whole year's use is pretty darn good considering, I'll be using it every day, just like my Computer -
I don't even shoot with my DSLR every day, and I expect that to last me 5 years or so with steady use before something goes wrong with it -
I think there are people out there who expect these machines to be indestructible, when all they have to realize is that their own comments about how everything is obsolete in 6 months means they'll want a new thing anyways -
Think about how old your PS1 is now, eh? Yeah, it's only been that long.
Bollocks Mate @ Dec 18th 2005 8:45PM
OK, so this is it -
the be all and end all of the PSP Battery Life DEBATE.
It ends right here, right now:
http://psp.ign.com/articles/574/574557p1.html
Tim @ Dec 18th 2005 8:45PM
The PSP is really awesome, mainly for the huge screen and, more power (which, despite my short comment on it, is certainly a major feature!). The DS, on the other hand, has two screens that are very well used in the games I've played, not to mention the touch screen can double as a joystick like control.
All in all, the DS may not look as cool, but does seem far more practical. The simple sleep mode and flip style makes it quite a bit more rugged and lets you fold it up and go at any time in no time at all. In this sense, nintendo does have the the best portable, or at least the most portable. But again, PSP, has more power and, so far at least, better games. I feel the two are equally matched in their own ways, and are really too different to argue over. To me, the main difference is quality. I know there are a lot of people who would buy the PSP as it is now, but if Sony doesn't fix all the major problems, and some minor ones that have been reported I really wouldn't buy it. This is only the first few weeks and it’s had some obvious flaws pointed out.
As for the short battery life, despite the hassle, it's not a big deal since you can swap batteries pretty quickly, you can't do that with the DS. Even with the longer battery, it's not made to be swapped. So again, too different to compare!
Arguing is pointless, as is this post (haha) we’re all going to decide which one to get based on articles if we’re smart, or, if you’re like me, based on which company you support. I’m not so neurotic that I think the PSP sucks, I try to be rational about comparing them and think that DS is better now only because of some of the major issues with the PSP. Those will almost definitely be fixed before the next release and make them both fairly equal. This will leave the decision up to who gets the best games (as it often is anyway), and we know that both companies can really provide some quality games and constantly surprise us all.