The PSP Go – The Future is Here and it’s About Time
The Handheld of Tomorrow... coming significantly after tomorrow, you'll have to be patient.
The PSP Go has been the subject of a good amount of discussion lately, with good reason. That Sony announced it’s next handheld has any number of reasons why it should be surprising. The PSP has had limited success (though you’d be incorrect labeling it a failure), and many thought Sony would simply focus its energies on the console market. On top of this though, it seemed as if these days the PSP was beginning to receive the kind of efforts and support it needed from Sony earlier than just these past few months. Now, Sony is already jumping ship towards its next handheld.
Sony’s a big enough corporation though that it can easily manage a console and handheld market simultaneously (as for their cohesion that has been promised since day 1, I can’t say I see Sony’s wild fantasies as realistic or practical). That, and I doubt that Sony will abandon the PSP classic anytime soon. the PS2 still has games support, so that should stand as fair enough example of how well Sony supports its past consoles. The PSP has a good enough life ahead of it.
The PSP Go has suffered an early foul in its announcement though: a $250 price tag that many says is too high. Considering that for just $50 more (plus monthly charges) one can get an iPhone, it’s a ballsy move that smells of the same kind of position that Sony took when it announced the PS3 and its price tag. From this immediate issue, other problems quickly pop up: many cry foul against the design and layout of the system, and others question the functionality of the downloadable games method that Sony is pushing.
First of all, I can’t disagree with the price tag being a bit high. I’m of the school that’s not happy, but will probably begrudgingly lay out the money for it anyway. I love my PSP and am excited at the prospect of the PSP Go. I think you all should be too. Having had the chance to hold one at E3 (see photo above) and play it for a few supervised minutes, I can safely say that it feels good. The choice of placing the buttons under the slider so the machine isn’t as wide makes it a much more comfortable choice for how it feels in hand and just for the prospect of carrying it places (which is what a handheld is for). I, personally, loved holding the thing and fell in love with it.
Next up is its functionality: downloadable games to the Hard Drive. If anyone doubts the feasibility of this, then they’ve been hiding from all things Mac for the past five or so years. Apple has shown that downloadable support is a completely viable medium in this day and age. So long as Sony is smart and allows support for the Go through a person’s PC, then there’s no limit to their potential success. Having games right on the Go’s sizable 16 GB HD would make the gaming experience smooth and the kind of gaming experience many have been missing since cartridges went out of vogue back in ‘98 with potential for much larger and epic games.
Imagine an downloadable Team ICO game for the Go, no loading screens and with the kind of functionality and scope that only 16 GB of the Go’s HD can provide. I’m excited at the prospects. As I said in my E3 coverage, were the Go also a phone, I’d have fallen out of love with my iPhone on the spot. I think everyone out there hemming and hawing over the price tag and the analog nub (it’s a necessary evil, let’s face it) are really just nitpicking at what we all know will be the future of gaming (not just handhelds): accessible and downloadable functionality as we enter completely into the age of internet connectivity.
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Other E3 Tidbits – Where was Versus?
Square, for its big announcements, managed to shuffle some things under the rug. The Kingdom Hearts PSP game and Final Fantasy XIII Versus were no-shows. I find the latter an odd absence considering that it’s supposedly further along in development than XIII. Even the official XIII Versus site shows it off like a child of neglect next to its multi-platform sister, a status I’m sorry to see since I, personally, am more excited for it than the mainline game.
Rockstar North announced a PS3 exclusive game named Agent, to keep up the nice trend of the PS3 having some games all to itself (be ready for my review of InFamous and sister editorial on the now established genre of sandbox gaming).
Finally, PSP is being revitalized: A Soul Calibur game (with Kratos), the once forgotten Gran Turismo PSP, LittleBigPlanet PSP and the future in the form of the PSP Go. The design of the PSP Go (see attached photos) takes its cues from cell phones more than anything else, and with a 16GB flash memory drive standard, it seems like it’ll be capable of doing what it’s idealized to do. With Square also releasing the original FF VII (still no remake on the horizon), for the PSP and PSN, the PSP Go would be a wonderful machine if Sony had only hit a more ideal price mark than the current $250 tag that the Go is slated to sport.
E3 2009
Where to begin? Ever since I first read about it in the pages of PSM, going to the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) has been a dream of mine. This summer, I finally managed to get in, and it was just about everything I’d dreamt it was. Booth babes smiled brightly at most (if not every) booth and setup, there were hundreds of game demos to play on site, swag galore and announcements that actually stopped my breath.
First off the big names: Microsoft & Sony. Both unveiled their own adaptations of the juggernaut, Nintendo’s Wii motion controls, to varying effects and intents. Microsoft’s “Project Natal” is purely camera based, and reads player motions to control the onscreen Microsoft Avatar. As of right now, it can make you XBOX Live avatar dance. It would seem that Microsoft aims to tackle and sup from Nintendo’s casual market with their similar colored (at least on the low end models) box.
Sony, on the other hand, did it right. The developers demoed their own motion control, a wii-mote like prototype that works in conjunction with the PS Eye. While this technology does not read one’s entire body, it does offer truly 1:1 motion reading. From basic hokey ideas, like “throwing spells” in an RPG, the developers moved onto showing the more extensive capabilities of the device’s precision. The best example was the use of a sword in a virtual arena against a dummy avatar. The developer using the controller was able to be so precise as to call specific parts of the enemy to hit, even going so far as to poke the enemy in the eye.
Some other highlights?
The incredibly snug feeling PSP Go. If you ever hold the PSP and wonder why it’s as wide as it is (which I do), the PSP Go solves that. I am throughly inclined to imagine that the lack of a disc drive (the thing boasts a 16GB flash memory standard), will only help the battery life. if the Go functioned as a phone, I may have fallen out of love with my iPhone on the spot.
Final Fantasy XIII unveiled a new and much more robust trailer than any yet seen. I’ll be devoting a full article to just that video alone, but the big news came when everyone’s jaw was still on the floor from the FFXIII video: an announcement video of FF XIV Online (14 for those of you unfamiliar with roman numerals). Yes, it is going to be another Online iteration of the series (possibly in the same world/universe as XI since the video had the world “friends must once again join hands”). The biggest bit of this surprise? PS3 Exclusive. In a world where the trend has begun to look like what Sony has, Microsoft has (but not vice versa), Sony unveiled this news in the same week it released its mega hit, Infamous (expect a forthcoming, glowing review of the game from yours truly as well).
The last news I’ll address in this article is Beatles Rock Band. I first heard the news of Beatles Rock Band back when it was a rumbling rumor and I immediately thought it was a cash cow whoreson of a piece of crap that would make me rue having paid Harmonix for even the original Rock Band. I eat those words today. The Harmonix developers presented their latest game with such reverence of their source material and aplomb that I can’t help but humble myself and admire them. They’ve recreated historic venues of Beatles performances (Shea Stadium, the Ed Sullivan Show, the rooftop performance, etc) to stunning accuracy. They’ve filled the game with an incredible showing of the Beatles’ most beloved hits and some other tracks you probably forgot you loved (they demoed Get Back, Tax Man and I Am the Walrus), and presented some of the more unique aspects of the game that made me love it even more.
In a proper application of “casual gaming inclusion” the Easy difficulty now has an automatic no-fail characteristic so that “noobs” don’t ruin play sessions. In a further effort to bring casual gamers to the fold who may be in it just for their love of the Beatles, Quickplay has every song unlocked from the get go. The coolest thing, that really got to me in terms of Video Game artistry, was based on the Beatles’ later career. While the Beatles started off as a major touring band, the later part of their career was spent in the studio crafting some of their most important tracks. While the Harmonix people recognized that those tracks, and the studios are important settings to recreate, they took the opportunity for something grander. So the studios become “dreamscapes.” As you play through, say, I am the Walrus, the setting warps and becomes a fantastical visual journey representing the song’s tone and message (even sober the visuals were a lot to cope with). Needless to say, I’m excited and psyched.
I have two more days of this to go through, so more will come, but for now, Be very excited for what all platforms have to offer in the coming months. To the people of High Voltage games, I’ll devote a more full bodied preview of your games (which I was impressed by) in a focused preview/impression article. The Nintendo people, although absent from this article, also had their own games that caught my eye, but today was just shy of too much for me to handle and I need to rest up for the next two days of this extravaganza. Stay cool, keep gaming.
For continued E3 coverage, check back here each night of the event. For more up to the minute tidbits, follow me on twitter: abuballoo