Playstation portable is Coming to Europe

magintz · Wed 31/08/2005 22:02:03

Well tomorrow is the 1st of September and I know many people are anxious to get hold of them. I myself am not, but do appreciate the technology. I'm just about to get ready to head down for the midnight launch at my shop for all the die hard fans who can't let me sleep and must have it now. So I must put on my smiley face and sell to the few who need to get it now.

Just posting to really see if anyone is waiting to get one, I know our store alone took about 180 deposits for day one alone.

Also any Japanese or American AGSers, what do you think of the machines?

And if you read this post tomorrow after buying one yourself, what do you European's think of them. Anyway, must go make some coffee. Will post back tomorrow about 7pm after I finish working.

Cheerio.

Mr Flibble · Wed 31/08/2005 22:32:03

You know they had trouble getting the PSP copyright in Europe. Someone else owned it or something.

Anyway, despite inferior graphics and processor power, I'm going for a DS.
Whilst the PSP has web capabilities, music, movies and all that jazz, the DS has some nifty games.

Infact, thats what put me right off the PSP. The fact that there are no (at time of writing) good games for it.

Privateer Puddin' · Wed 31/08/2005 22:35:42

Played my friends import one. Not great but OK, prefer DS.

GTA still makes me want one though :O but only that, so far.

Chicky · Wed 31/08/2005 23:09:41

I had mine four months ago, so did Mr Clarke. The novelty wears off after a few days and the graphics really arnt anything special. Oh and the reason i no longer have it is that it broke, yes yet ANOTHER sony product brakes as soon as you lay your hands on it.

Vince Twelve · Thu 01/09/2005 01:09:24

Living in Japan, I see videogame ads on TV all the time. Sony has been promoting the PSP heavily here. Every morning, while watching the morning news and getting dressed for work, I see a PSP ad. I've seen like five or six different variations of PSP ads. All of them show someone going "Whoah, look at me, I'm watching KUNG FU HUSTLE on my PSP!!!" (only in Japanese, obviously), or "Holy crap, I just downloaded the latest ORANGE RANGE MUSIC VIDEO (super popular J-Pop group) onto my PSP!!!", or "Dude, I totally can listen to MP3s on my PSP!!!" But none, and I mean absolutely none, mention that the thing plays games.

It's just a demonstration of the selling points of the system. It's a media handheld, not a gaming system. But, if I want a portable movie player, I can get a decent handheld DVD player for a lot cheaper that doesn't rely on a poorly-supported media format like UMD. I already have an iPod that does the MP3 job a lot better than the PSP does. And only one or two of the few games (49 to be exact, only 8 of which are not ports or continuations of an existing franchise) that have been released to this day for the PSP appeal to me.

Europe has the advantage over the rest of us. You can look at the reports and realize that the PSP is probably not worth running out and buying. At least not yet. Not until the systems game library has some time to really flesh out.

Until then, the only thing that really interests me about the PSP is that there's the possibility for some homebrew applications and games. But since Sony is aggressively shutting that down...

Las Naranjas · Thu 01/09/2005 01:46:26

Better video game ads would be more like "Holy shit, SEGATA SANSHIRO just came out of my gamind device and kicked my arse to the point of EXPLOSION! HARDCORE!"

magintz · Thu 01/09/2005 02:14:07

Well just got back from the midnight opening with huge success. We had maybe 30 or 40 people come in for it. Very very busy rushing around getting everything for everyone.

For the midninght sales we had people queueing since 10:30.

Real sell shokers - Ridge Racer (lots of orders hardly any takers, perhaps during the day) and Snooker suprisingly.

Any way I must sleep I have to be in up 5 hours for work AGAIN.

Will post more as I know.

Kinoko · Thu 01/09/2005 02:31:49

Vince: Yes, all those ads get on my nerves. I always used to admire Japanese game ads because they, unlike the west, focussed on showing the GAME and the gameplay, whereas western ads often just showed some craziness and then 5 seconds of the actual game.

These days, I think Japan is getting too `western` with its ads and trying to make them too abstract. Just show the game and advertise when its coming out. To me, it shows a total lack of confidence in the quality of the game itself.

I`m not interested in the PSP or the DS. As soon as I heard about them both, there was absolutely no interest in either and usually I jump all over new consoles/hardware. I feel like both of these are too gimmicky and Id rather wait for the next quality console to come out. Im happy with my GBA SP for now

DCillusion · Thu 01/09/2005 03:17:06

Don't buy one the first day. Fully, 2/3rd's of all launch PSP's were defective in America. When the buttons fell off in people's hands, Sony claimed people were "using them wrong"

PsychicHeart · Thu 01/09/2005 09:09:13

a mate got a PSP today, he also had a DS. He had the Ridge Racer game for DS, as well as the PSP RR. all i can say is, DS has gotten a slap in the face. RRDS is more or less a port of the 64 version, and PSP has a 'nitro' mechanism, this system is void in the DS Version. I tell ya' i enjoyed playing PSP RR a hell of a lot more than RRDS.
Don't get me wrong, the DS version rocks, but when compared to RRPSP, it sucks.
Anyhoo, after about another 4 months of saving (birthday, christmas, mooching off my brother etc.) a PSP will in my fanboy hands.
Cheers,
Fb.

Privateer Puddin' · Thu 01/09/2005 09:29:58

Silly comparison, if you ask me. PSP is much more suited for RR than DS (well, DS can have it, but i can't see the dual screen in DS adds anything useful, probably a silly map). The DS works much better with things such as Another Code which atleast try to use the potential of the DS.

I kept hearing on the radio while i was in a newsagent how greats the launch games were for PSP. They're not, they're really not and there are few things that would make me want one (unlike Sony has had in the past with its PS2 for meÃ,Â

)

PaulSC · Thu 01/09/2005 09:44:35

Am I the only person who thinks watching movies on a tiny little screen like that would be a bit... shit, frankly? Just because you can doesn't mean you should!

Anyway I don't much care about the PSP, but I can say that, clunky as it is, the DS is a really entertaining thing to use, with it's touchscreen and everything. It's not just a gimmick - it really does make a lot of the games more enjoyable (not Mario 64 though, that's hell to control with the touchscreen).

PsychicHeart · Thu 01/09/2005 09:45:08

Quote from: Privateer Puddin' on Thu 01/09/2005 09:29:58
i can't see the dual screen in DS adds anything useful, probably a silly map

a touchscreen steering wheel.

Privateer Puddin' · Thu 01/09/2005 11:09:03

Quote from: Flukeblake on Thu 01/09/2005 09:45:08
Quote from: Privateer Puddin' on Thu 01/09/2005 09:29:58
i can't see the dual screen in DS adds anything useful, probably a silly map
a touchscreen steering wheel.

ooh ah.. how.. useful? unless that's the primary way of controlling it.. then ack

Mr Flibble · Thu 01/09/2005 16:16:40

The Ridge Racer argument is a little old, clichÃ©d if you will.
The DS's 3D may not be as good as the PSP's, but who cares?

All you're gonna use that PSP for is movies and you know it.

Problem is that movies get boring after a while if you've seen them before.
But who could get bored with titles like xXx 2 and Spiderman 2 available?

edmundito · Thu 01/09/2005 17:42:28

At least you Euros will finally get these jokes.

(Firefox users, use IE if you can't hear any sound)

Elianto · Thu 01/09/2005 19:25:41

In the day of the psp lauch here i just got my brand new DS

The psp is really a tecnobeauty ( a bit too fragile ) but i love handhelds console and the ds games are more in this fashion (psp is too like a minips2). And the touch screen games (not ridge racer) are really cool.

Mr Flibble · Thu 01/09/2005 19:40:37

You the man now dog!

I love those crazy things.

magintz · Thu 01/09/2005 20:00:39

yay finally home and food and sleep await me

Sold out of medieval which was quite a shock.

Never remember ever feeling so tired in my life.

got a free t-shirt.

Darth Mandarb · Thu 01/09/2005 20:03:35

Quote from: Kinoko on Thu 01/09/2005 02:31:49I feel like both of these are too gimmicky and Id rather wait for the next quality console to come out. Im happy with my GBA SP for now

Couldn't have said it better myself!!

I love my GBA! Of course, the only thing I ever play on it is Tetris ...

I have sort of (since the late, great TechTV was shit on by G4) fallen out of the know in the video game world. So I don't know too much about the PSP ... other than I would probably get a copy of Tetris and it'd be the only thing I used the PSP for.