Yes... unless/until you hit the game-breaking 'corrupt save file' bug when playing it on PS3.
It happend to me, erasing 27 hours of hard gaming graft. EA/Bioware are aware of the problem, but have not yet devised a solution that enables players to retrieve what they've lost.
As far as I'm concerned an flaw so fundamental and with such punishing consequences means that ME2 cannot be Game of the Year.
That's a very cautiously worded response to a pretty straightforward question.
A more cynical Joystiq reader (than I) might wonder whether EA:LA's spokesperson was trying to head off a lawsuit about image rights. It's pretty clear that the box art image is the '"Cowboy" soldier' (even down to the gloves and rolled up sleeves).
Er... no. The PSP is not pointless if you have a PS2: one is portable; the other isn't.
But I would agree with your fundamental point, which - I think - is that PSP game designers/developers have not, until now, given enough thought to how PSP games should be different to their PS2 siblings. Liberty Cith Stories is a prime example. In that game, main missions were short (and not difficult enough, IMHO, to compensate for their shortness) whilst side mission were full length.
I could never figure out why a major rail shooting mission, occurring halfway through a game, should take less time then the completeing - say - the firefighter missions. (My suggestion, btw, is allowing players to save side missions to avoid having to start from scratch.) It's one of the reaons why, one year after purchase, I still haven't finished LCS.
I suspect VCS has the same problem. The story line appears to be 15 hours, but there's 50 odd of gameplay. To my mind San Andreas got the balance about right: both between the story and side-misson balance, and the importance/usefulness of completing side mission to completing the main quest.
I too am somewhere around 'Code is Law'. I'm enjoy the GTA series, but sometimes the lightbulb of revelation never shines. Without walkthrough advice, I'd - possibly - never have finished 'Demolition Man' in VC and definitely never have completed 'Supply Lines' in SA. Not achieving the former would, basically, have ended my game. Not completing the latter would have spoiled my enjoyment.
May I suggest though that the line between the various levels of 'religious' observance isn't always so clear cut? There are a number of shortcuts in GTA games that I cannot believe were discovered by players without the aid of the judicious leaks by developers. My own view is that developers are fully aware of the limitations of the average gamer, and purposefully make levels/missions that appear insoluable and then proudly reveal the solution.
It doesn't reduce my enjoyment that happens. There's one later mission in VC that springs to mind: the one where you have to obtain a police uniform and there cause mayhem. Very, very hard to do on four wheels; very easy to complete using a heli. I still find it hard to believe that a cabal of lateral thinkers i.d.ed the perfect solution unaided.
I can only offer these comments on single players as I (still) don't play online....
First, let me declare that I'm a PSP owner (and lover, fwiw)...
My problem with this is that the latest 'buzz' is that there'll be a redesigned PSP towards the middle of next year. This looks suspiciously like an attempt to shift existing unsold stock (as a previous poster noted). It reminds me a lot of the PS2 special editins: clear; silver; etc.
In my view, the 80s/90s car market and it's obsession with special editions is the clear inspiration here. Repackage the S.O.S with the an extra, but pointless, feature and then get ready to move on to another iteration.
Beyond that, I don't think it's a sign of anything, for example, a desperation to copy other manufacturers.
For me though, Sony's basic problem continues to be price... It's still too expensive for existing owners to want a second, and still too expensive for non-owners to be swayed on colour options. Perhaps a free 2GB stick might be a better incentive...?
Added to that is the size and fragility issue. It's still not quite a 'chuck-into-a-bag' product.
Once again Joystiq sends a chum-line down (spot the 'Jaws' lovin' 30-something) to ensure the trolls don't miss breakfast.
Yes, the PSP can sometimes be slow, but - as many contributors have noted also - there is always sleep mode (which I never use, btw). Like some of the other semi-regulars here I'm old enough to remember Ninty's 'Game & Watch', and the PSP has never pretended to be an a G&W 'instant-on-instant-play' games system. PSP has always been a portable entertainment d'vice, with the emphasis on entertainment (I think) generally. Video, music and photo light up like a Christmas tree as soon as you switch on.
That said, some of the load times for early games were ludicrous (NFL Street anyone?), but that's pretty much to be expected with early games on any disc-based system. The load times have been dropping with every new iteration since launch.
Normally I'm a 'No Going Back' zealot (really old games rarely pass muster when one returns to them), but I have to make one exception:
Madden '96... The one where you could *ahem* accidently injure opposing players AFTER the whistle. (I know it was unethical but when you were facing Jim Kelly's big arm in the Superbowl - having played a full season and post-season of 15 minute quarters - you just HAD to do whatever it took to win the big one.)
It was the reason I bought my Genesis/Megadrive all those years ago, and I'm both sad and proud to say that I played regular 12 hour sessions of that game.
I'd pay, maybe, £20 to be able to play that on the PSP.
Spot on DBX00! The PSP is an attempt to package a number of entertainment solutions in one device, and that's what I think many of its owner use it for. Sometimes we're in a movie mood. Other times we're in a music mood. And on yet others we fancy a few minutes of a video game.
Granted it doesn't excel at any of those, but:
a) it does them all more than tolerably well; b) it's not bad for a first iteration.
I suspect I'm one of the few regular visitors to this blog to remember the very first Sony Walkman. It was a monster. It was the size of a paperback novel, and rewinding one D-90 (now I'm really showing my age) sucked the life out of the FOUR AA batteries it required in seconds. But - and it's a big but - it paved the way for the cassette players that followed it, and pretty much every portable music device that followed them. I'm beginning to think of the PSP in the same way: flawed, but more than function, and a big step towards the future.
One final thought before Mistress Sleep clutches me to her soft, ample bosom: I never fail to be amused that the PSP - a multimedia device - is forever being slated for being overpriced, whilst the iPOD - a single media (or at a push two-media) device rarely recieves any critism for its pricing.
I know the PSP's lack of memory is one huge issue here (and I still curse Sony to this day for not loading it with at least 1gb of onboard), but surely...?
Aaaargh! Joystiq. Do you do this just to stir up the insomniac fanboys (it's way late over here in the UK).
I've said it before, but I feel I must say it again.
First:
PSP and DS are not interchangeable products (though their capabilities do overlap), and they're not aimed at exactly the same market (though their markets do overlap - hence the number of people on this site at least who own both)... Hence all talk of 1st or 2nd place in some notional battle is almost meaningless.
Second - and most importantly:
Handheld sales are not a zero sum game. A sale for one company or system is not automatically a defeat, and by implication one step closer to commerical death, for another. Both products can happily co-exist (a fact that Nintendo seems to accept by not deep sixing its all of its other handhelds).
*sigh*
But this blog piece about Ninty's sales/shipping figures does raise one question for me: how come I see so few of either system around? When I bought my PSP, I bought it partly in anticipation of taking on complete strangers in ad hoc gaming battles on the train to work. And yet I've never even used my PSP in that way. Why? Because I just don't see many other PSPs around. And before somone says the obvious, the same goes for DSs. It's very rare to see someone playing one out and about, and I've never seen any wireless gaming going on.
So a serious question: why haven't the latest gen handhelds taken off in the way that, say, the iPOD has?
Mass Effect 2 wins GOTY, RPG, storytelling awards at DICE 2011
Feb 11th 2011 1:49PM (Joystiq)Yes... unless/until you hit the game-breaking 'corrupt save file' bug when playing it on PS3.
It happend to me, erasing 27 hours of hard gaming graft. EA/Bioware are aware of the problem, but have not yet devised a solution that enables players to retrieve what they've lost.
As far as I'm concerned an flaw so fundamental and with such punishing consequences means that ME2 cannot be Game of the Year.
iPhone Rise of the Triad getting free add-on
Feb 16th 2010 9:29AM (Joystiq)Ludicrous Gibs!!!
The 'Medal of Honor' Beard Cover Interview
Feb 3rd 2010 7:42AM (Joystiq)A more cynical Joystiq reader (than I) might wonder whether EA:LA's spokesperson was trying to head off a lawsuit about image rights. It's pretty clear that the box art image is the '"Cowboy" soldier' (even down to the gloves and rolled up sleeves).
Pink leads trio of new PSP colors in Japan
Nov 1st 2006 3:26PM (Joystiq)Er... no. The PSP is not pointless if you have a PS2: one is portable; the other isn't.
But I would agree with your fundamental point, which - I think - is that PSP game designers/developers have not, until now, given enough thought to how PSP games should be different to their PS2 siblings. Liberty Cith Stories is a prime example. In that game, main missions were short (and not difficult enough, IMHO, to compensate for their shortness) whilst side mission were full length.
I could never figure out why a major rail shooting mission, occurring halfway through a game, should take less time then the completeing - say - the firefighter missions. (My suggestion, btw, is allowing players to save side missions to avoid having to start from scratch.) It's one of the reaons why, one year after purchase, I still haven't finished LCS.
I suspect VCS has the same problem. The story line appears to be 15 hours, but there's 50 odd of gameplay. To my mind San Andreas got the balance about right: both between the story and side-misson balance, and the importance/usefulness of completing side mission to completing the main quest.
Serious Games Summit: The cheat's the thing
Nov 1st 2006 2:41PM (Joystiq)I too am somewhere around 'Code is Law'. I'm enjoy the GTA series, but sometimes the lightbulb of revelation never shines. Without walkthrough advice, I'd - possibly - never have finished 'Demolition Man' in VC and definitely never have completed 'Supply Lines' in SA. Not achieving the former would, basically, have ended my game. Not completing the latter would have spoiled my enjoyment.
May I suggest though that the line between the various levels of 'religious' observance isn't always so clear cut? There are a number of shortcuts in GTA games that I cannot believe were discovered by players without the aid of the judicious leaks by developers. My own view is that developers are fully aware of the limitations of the average gamer, and purposefully make levels/missions that appear insoluable and then proudly reveal the solution.
It doesn't reduce my enjoyment that happens. There's one later mission in VC that springs to mind: the one where you have to obtain a police uniform and there cause mayhem. Very, very hard to do on four wheels; very easy to complete using a heli. I still find it hard to believe that a cabal of lateral thinkers i.d.ed the perfect solution unaided.
I can only offer these comments on single players as I (still) don't play online....
Pink leads trio of new PSP colors in Japan
Nov 1st 2006 2:19PM (Joystiq)My problem with this is that the latest 'buzz' is that there'll be a redesigned PSP towards the middle of next year. This looks suspiciously like an attempt to shift existing unsold stock (as a previous poster noted). It reminds me a lot of the PS2 special editins: clear; silver; etc.
In my view, the 80s/90s car market and it's obsession with special editions is the clear inspiration here. Repackage the S.O.S with the an extra, but pointless, feature and then get ready to move on to another iteration.
Beyond that, I don't think it's a sign of anything, for example, a desperation to copy other manufacturers.
For me though, Sony's basic problem continues to be price... It's still too expensive for existing owners to want a second, and still too expensive for non-owners to be swayed on colour options. Perhaps a free 2GB stick might be a better incentive...?
Added to that is the size and fragility issue. It's still not quite a 'chuck-into-a-bag' product.
That said, the blue looks quite nice.
PSP load times analyzed
Oct 19th 2006 5:25PM (Joystiq)Yes, the PSP can sometimes be slow, but - as many contributors have noted also - there is always sleep mode (which I never use, btw). Like some of the other semi-regulars here I'm old enough to remember Ninty's 'Game & Watch', and the PSP has never pretended to be an a G&W 'instant-on-instant-play' games system. PSP has always been a portable entertainment d'vice, with the emphasis on entertainment (I think) generally. Video, music and photo light up like a Christmas tree as soon as you switch on.
That said, some of the load times for early games were ludicrous (NFL Street anyone?), but that's pretty much to be expected with early games on any disc-based system. The load times have been dropping with every new iteration since launch.
Surprise! Sega Genesis Collection coming
Aug 11th 2006 5:00AM (Joystiq)Madden '96... The one where you could *ahem* accidently injure opposing players AFTER the whistle. (I know it was unethical but when you were facing Jim Kelly's big arm in the Superbowl - having played a full season and post-season of 15 minute quarters - you just HAD to do whatever it took to win the big one.)
It was the reason I bought my Genesis/Megadrive all those years ago, and I'm both sad and proud to say that I played regular 12 hour sessions of that game.
I'd pay, maybe, £20 to be able to play that on the PSP.
Nintendo sells 21 million DS systems worldwide
Jul 24th 2006 6:54PM (Joystiq)Granted it doesn't excel at any of those, but:
a) it does them all more than tolerably well;
b) it's not bad for a first iteration.
I suspect I'm one of the few regular visitors to this blog to remember the very first Sony Walkman. It was a monster. It was the size of a paperback novel, and rewinding one D-90 (now I'm really showing my age) sucked the life out of the FOUR AA batteries it required in seconds. But - and it's a big but - it paved the way for the cassette players that followed it, and pretty much every portable music device that followed them. I'm beginning to think of the PSP in the same way: flawed, but more than function, and a big step towards the future.
One final thought before Mistress Sleep clutches me to her soft, ample bosom: I never fail to be amused that the PSP - a multimedia device - is forever being slated for being overpriced, whilst the iPOD - a single media (or at a push two-media) device rarely recieves any critism for its pricing.
I know the PSP's lack of memory is one huge issue here (and I still curse Sony to this day for not loading it with at least 1gb of onboard), but surely...?
Nintendo sells 21 million DS systems worldwide
Jul 24th 2006 6:10PM (Joystiq)I've said it before, but I feel I must say it again.
First:
PSP and DS are not interchangeable products (though their capabilities do overlap), and they're not aimed at exactly the same market (though their markets do overlap - hence the number of people on this site at least who own both)... Hence all talk of 1st or 2nd place in some notional battle is almost meaningless.
Second - and most importantly:
Handheld sales are not a zero sum game. A sale for one company or system is not automatically a defeat, and by implication one step closer to commerical death, for another. Both products can happily co-exist (a fact that Nintendo seems to accept by not deep sixing its all of its other handhelds).
*sigh*
But this blog piece about Ninty's sales/shipping figures does raise one question for me: how come I see so few of either system around? When I bought my PSP, I bought it partly in anticipation of taking on complete strangers in ad hoc gaming battles on the train to work. And yet I've never even used my PSP in that way. Why? Because I just don't see many other PSPs around. And before somone says the obvious, the same goes for DSs. It's very rare to see someone playing one out and about, and I've never seen any wireless gaming going on.
So a serious question: why haven't the latest gen handhelds taken off in the way that, say, the iPOD has?