Hands On: PlayStation Portable

[Teddman]

A crowd of E3 attendees and TV reporters gather around
the first public showing of the PlayStation Portable.

Now see, the way Sony showed off their new Playstation Portable (PSP) at E3 is the right way to get some trade show buzz going about new hardware. The demo area was in a prominent, highly visible area of the Sony booth, and the wait to get inside was rarely longer than 20 to 30 minutes. Even if one didn't want to get in line, it was easy enough to check things out from a short distance away on the showroom floor.

Contrast this with Nintendo's unveiling of their Nintendo DS handheld, where attendees had to queue up for an hour or more to go hands-on with tech demos behind closed doors. The average person in Nintendo's booth might not even have been aware that the DS was being showcased this year. Wouldn't it have been better to have a demo area out in the open to give the hardware a more high-profile push? Hiding a new product doesn't seem like the best way to build hype.

The PSP features a razor-sharp widescreen display screen for movie
playback and games, as well as a familiar PlayStation control scheme.

The differences between the PSP and the DS don't stop there. Sony is positioning the PSP as more of a multimedia device, while Nintendo is focusing (as always) strictly on games at a lower hardware cost. This also means that Sony synergy will be in full effect: the PSP will use Memory Sticks as memory cards for game saves, and naturally, Sony Pictures will be releasing many of the first movies available on the PSP's tiny UMD (Universal Media Disc) format. The video quality was impressive on the small screen, which at a 4.3 inch diagonal, actually looks quite big for a handheld. The image was sharp, strikingly clear, and backlit, quoted as capable of displaying up to 16.77 million colors on a 480x272 pixel screen. Battery life was said to be in the neighborhood of ten hours for gaming ("a pretty hardcore session," according to a Sony rep), and two-and-a-half hours for movie playback, due to the increased power consumption of constant disc-reading.

Here's a snippet of the HellBoy trailer running on PSP:
DOWNLOAD VIDEO (4.2 MB): PSP_Hellboy.AVI

A small sampling of the games and movies that will be
available for the PSP on the new UMD format.

So how does it feel to hold an actual PSP and play games on it? Very comfortable. The conventional PlayStation setup of a cross pad and four face buttons has become second nature for most gamers by now, and the L & R shoulder buttons feel even more naturally positioned than on the GameBoy Advance SP.

The real standout of the control scheme is the new-fangled analog stick, which might more accurately described as an analog thumbpad. The small disc of ridged plastic underneath the D-pad (frequently mistaken for a speaker in early photos) slides along the surface in all directions with the push of a thumb, and snaps back into the center when released--just like a regular analog stick. The feel is very fluid. There's a pleasing degree of resistence, and 360 degree circles around the perimeter of its range are a breeze to execute. This is a new twist on game control, an ingenious solution to designing an analog stick substitute that is both durable and fully functional. The only question left to be answered is how precise it will be in gaming applications, since none of the tech demos on display made use of it.

Click this picture for a larger view of Sony's PSP schematic,
with labels for all control features and functions.

UMD's will come in a variety of pretty colors and label designs, but they're impressive on the inside too... Behind that plastic caddie is a miniature disc capable of storing up to 1.8 Gigs of data.

One of the two games on display was Namco's RPG, Tales of Eternia, which was more of a simple tech demo in practice. The playable portion consisted of a few screens of a village area, with interactive elements limited to conversations with NPC's or simply moving the main character about the screen with the D-pad. The 2D graphics were attractive, with a colorful high-res look to them. Perhaps this early game is a welcome sign that Sony will not discourage developers from making sprite-based games for the PSP alongside 3D polygonal titles. One of the biggest fears among 2D fans was that the PSP would put an end to the GBA's role as the last bastion of sprite-based gaming, and make polygonal prowess the new measuring stick for handheld horsepower. The other game on hand was Metal Gear Acid, proof that the PSP can indeed execute 3D very well, even if all the user could control in the E3 version were the camera angles. The graphics did appear to be near PS2 quality, or at least closer to PS2 than to PSOne.

Check out Tales of Eternia in action on the PSP:
DOWNLOAD VIDEO: (4.1 MB): PSP_ToE.AVI

Keep in mind that none of these movies or games were running off of a UMD inside the actual PSP units themselves; development stations behind the scenes were driving all the handhelds. So in effect, the PSP's were nothing more than display devices at E3... Though Sony reps swore that it was an accurate demonstration of the hardware's ability. For the same reason, there was no way to judge how heavy or natural a PSP would feel if it were truly "handheld," because they were all bolted to the wall. That may have been a good idea for another reason: the PSP looked like such an attractive piece of consumer electronics that carrying one off probably crossed more than a few attendees' minds!

[Shine]

can't get any of the videos to work dude...

[Survival Kid]

The PSP looks so damn good in yellow.

Other than that I have pretty much no interest in the PSP, unless Sony gives us a way to play the games on our Tvs, WITHOUT having to by a PSP. A PSP Player for PS2 or some shit. Knowing Sony though, that's just not going to happen.

I also hear it won't be region free.

[Teddman]

can't get any of the videos to work dude...

I noticed that something has been changed about the way TNL's file downloads work. Try left-clicking instead of right-clicking "save as" to get a save prompt. They're regular avi files.

EDIT: Or try saving directly from the folder url:
http://www.the-nextlevel.com/news/0405/PSP_E3/

[Rocca]

those must be the smallest speakers ever. I'm game.

[ssbomberman]

So will the PSP have an attachment to run it on a TV? If that is the case, it might be viable...much like the GBA player.

[Mzo]

The PSP looks so damn good in yellow.

Agreed.

Other than that I have pretty much no interest in the PSP, unless Sony gives us a way to play the games on our Tvs, WITHOUT having to by a PSP. A PSP Player for PS2 or some shit. Knowing Sony though, that's just not going to happen.

I want a PSP, but only if it wasn't portable at all. I want Sony to release a less powerful PS2 so I can spend $300 on it, put it on top of my existing PS2, and play the games on my TV. That would kick SO MUCH ASS.

[Rocca]

Other than that I have pretty much no interest in the PSP, unless Sony gives us a way to play the games on our Tvs, WITHOUT having to by a PSP. A PSP Player for PS2 or some shit. Knowing Sony though, that's just not going to happen.

Um...wha?

[Survival Kid]

Um...wha?

Exactly what I said. I don't want to spend $300 dollars on a handheld. I'm really not that into handhelds. The only reason I play GBA games is because Nintendo made the GBA Player for GC. The only way I'll play PSP games is if Sony gives us some sort of PSP Player for PS2. Something that does not require owning a PSP. A PSP equivalent of the GBA Player. Though like I said, knowing Sony they won't do that. If anything they'll probably make us buy a PSP and a seperate cable to plug into the PS2.

[Ex Ranza]

"Battery life was said to be in the neighborhood of ten hours for gaming ("a pretty hardcore session," according to a Sony rep)"

I really hope that comes to pass.. if only so all the naysayers who jumped on the DS bandwagon so quickly will have one thing less to whine about.