Sony PSP
Monday, Aug 20, 2007
It’s hard to argue the point
that Sony makes some really nice looking products: their LCD panels, computers,
game systems and practically everything else they produce look great in any
environment and seem to ooze cool from every angle and curve. Sadly, their product engineers haven’t
quite seemed to keep pace with the design staff. Few products make this clearer than the PSP—a sexy little
machine whose true potential has yet to be realized by the company that brought
it to market.
The PSP really is a sexy
piece of hardware. Sporting a
highly reflective gloss-black finish on its front face, it’s hard to
distinguish where the 4.3 inch screen ends and the case begins (while the
system’s turned off, at least).
Turn it on, though, and that screen quickly makes its presence
known—sporting a resolution of 480x272, images pop off the PSP’s display with
more tantalizing detail than I’ve seen on any other portable device (game
system, DVD player, you name it). The
screen’s backlight can be set at one of three intensities to conserve battery
life (an issue we’ll come to later).
Most of the controls you’d
expect in a modern game system surround the screen: there’s the usual quartet
of face buttons to the right of the screen, and a d-pad and single analog thumbstick
to the left. Though one analog
input is a lot better than none, that single joystick means that most modern 3D
games will be somehow handicapped from a control perspective—movement can be
controlled via the joystick, but camera control must be clumsily applied to the
face buttons or the systems two shoulder triggers. Other controls include power and wi-fi slider switches on
either side grip and a bevy of system control buttons below the screen.
Some have argued that the
UMD drive on the PSP is a bit too complex and fragile for its own good, though I
haven’t experienced any problems after two years of use. The only weaknesses I’ve found with the
design (besides the omission of a second analog stick) are the placement of its
speakers and its battery life. The
speakers are located on the bottom of the device, firing downward. To say that they sound like ass is an
understatement, but hey—that’s what headphones are for. Battery life is one of the system’s
biggest demons, though it varies widely depending on the software being used:
if a game or movie requires frequent reads from the UMD, battery life can drop
to just under three hours. Under
normal circumstances, though, I’ve easily seen the battery last six or seven
hours. Lowering the screen brightness
certainly helps. As a rule of
thumb, pick up the standalone battery charger and a spare power brick when you
buy the system.
Though recently support for
the system has slowed to a trickle, there’s actually a pretty solid library of
games available for the PSP. Wipeout:
Pure and Ridge Racer, two of the best racing games in recent memory,
released alongside the system back in March of 2005. Other interesting standouts were the puzzle game Lumines, the card/strategy combo Metal Gear:Acid! and the strategy game Field Commander. Though
the control interface does make designing 3D action and platform games a
challenge, more recent attempts like Daxter and Metal Gear:Portable Ops have raised the bar with functional and intuitive
control schemes.
Of course, as Sony is more
than willing to tell you, the PSP does more than just play games—the UMD format
was designed to distribute full-length films and television shows as well as
game software. Though the video
quality of these releases was superb, it proved nary impossible for Sony to
convince its customers that they needed to invest in yet another media
format. The move seems baffling as
well, considering Sony already included memory stick support. Flash memory meant that tech-savvy
consumers could rip and watch any content they chose, without having to invest
in UMD. Though you’ll still find a
few UMD movie releases on store shelves, the format has mostly gone the way of
the MiniDisc when it comes to media distribution.
The PSP really does cram a
lot of stuff into its small form factor.
Supporting wi-fi (albeit of the slower ‘b’ variety), the system allows
for multiplayer gaming both locally (within the range of it’s transmission
area) and via the internet. A
short while after the PSP’s release, Sony made a free internet browser
available for download as well.
More recently, Sony has been toying with the PSP’s uses as an ad-on for
their PlayStation 3 game console—remote access to media stored on the PS3 is
made possible both via a LAN or internet connection.
It still boggles my mind
that Sony never created it’s own version of the iTunes Music Store focusing on
their vast library of movies and television programs instead of music. The PSP is the very definition of an
“ipod killer” (at least for video playback). The system’s still pretty cutting-edge by today’s
standards—had Sony waited until mid 2006 to release it, and they did so
alongside a rather robust video download service, I’m confident that it would
have been a huge success.
Hindsight’s twenty-twenty, I guess. Still, the PSP is a rather competent game machine. RPG, racer, and strategy fans will find
plenty to love, and things continue to get better for players of 3D shooters
and action games as the months go by (Ace Combat X was brilliant).
It will be interesting to see what Sony’s able to do with the platform,
now that they’ve announced the new PSP Lite. Only time will tell.
Till Next Time—
The Good Ed
