To Buy Or Not To Buy...A Psp, That Is The Question

A happy holidays to all!

Christmas has come to pass, and I've been left with a small sum of money from the jolly guy in red. I've seen some good deals recently, and now with boxing day week, and I've been mulling over buying a PSP. Im mostly hyped about GTA and Colin Mcrae, TOCA race driver 2 on the wee little system. and I've been wondering, should i go for it, should i make the big purchase?, are the problems such as dead pixels, systems not reading discs, are they for the better part gone?

also is there the ultimate one stop shop for psp stuff, and could i download and upload psp game saves?

Sincerly

Ryan

 

Honestly i bought a system at launch, and now i regret it. A couple of the launch titles were cool, lumines and ridge racer... but there's been very little since that has me interested. As a matter of fact, the whole unit has been sitting on my coffee table for the last month with a dead battery because i don't care enough to charge it.

The real system killer for me is the price of the games. Portable disk based games shouldn't cost $50, especally considering how easy they are to scratch. I can't even get the games used for less than $30.

So far most of the games have been disapointing too. Even the hyped up "blockbusters" like Death Jr (unplayable mess), liberty city stories (a framerate that'll make your eyes bleed), coded arms (worst control scheme ever), burnout (load times suck), etc...

You shouldn't expect the defect rate to have gone down, as the manufacturing process hasn't change any since launch. Dead pixels are still a big issue, not reading disks was never a big concern.

If you want to buy one, don't let me stop you, this has just been my experiance with the PSP.

 

that's what's troubled me, there are a few "must play" titles, namely Mcrae, and TOCA, but what worries me, is what's coming, really, i havent paid much attention to the psp, but im not seeing any title in 2006, that has "gotta have" on it, games around here, arent that badly priced, im seeing alot of the sports games for under 20 dollars cdn, and sony made titles (ape escape, wipeout) have been reduced to 18 bucks at the local walmart.

Ryan

 

Do you want to pay 250 bucks, plus 50 for each game, just to play a few racing games available on other platforms?

 

I got a PSP months ago, and now I'm regretting I didn't buy a DS. To me, there aren't many good games "worth" paying around $40-$50 for.

And yeah, emulation gets boring after a while...

 

maybe i get get me mom to chip in for a new laptop...seems alot of people have been regreting buying one. How do they hold up?. i mean will they fall apart in your hands, are they dafe to like actually, use as a portable machine

again, i thought about an xbox, with the prices getting cheaper by the day, to play games like shenmue, deus ex, half life 2, doom 3, morrowind, yea i know most of them are pc titles, but its law around here, that a new pc is only bought every 8 years

 

WipEout Pure and the homebrew scene were reasons enough for me to buy a PSP But that's me...

If you are going to buy one, my advice is to be aware of faulty pixels. The Ceramic White units with Sharp LCDs had lots of trouble. Just check out the feedback at i.e. lik-sang. When I bought my PSP, I found a store that was willing to let me boot the unit I was going to get, so that I could check the LCD for faulty pixels (and that the firmware version was homebrew compatible).

A year earlier when I got a DS it had a dead pixel. Green. Very annoying. The store replaced the unit without asking questions, when I told them that the LCD was broken. I guess I was lucky...

CF

 

i heard that the ds had alot of screen problems, though mine been fine, is homebrew still active on firmware like 2.6 i believe, or is it all 1.5 stuff?

I've heard of people buying one psp for comercial games, and another for homebrew, thats crazy

 

Homebrew is active on firmware 1.5, but I've been hearing news lately on emulators running on the 2.0 firmware.

 

Nintendo will replace consoles with faulty pixels - this was made clear at launch. Sony will not replace units for faulty pixels, unless you have a heck of a lot of them.

Get A DS, Xbox or a laptop, You'll enjoy it more than the PSP. So far the only games which I have really enjoyed for the PSP have been Wipeout pure, Ridge Racers and Lumines. The rest I either haven't got into, or played for a bit and got bored. Its a handheld console, not a portable.

 

Bought a JPN one at launch, was happy with it for about a month then got really bored of it and sold it. Ridge Racer and Lumines are ace but as far as i can see that's about it.

At the end of the day if you want it for the latest and greatest games the PSP is the way to go, i f you want something a bit different get a DS and if your interested in emulation get a GP2X.

 

^ Nice avator Jamie, respect is due.

 

Cheers dude, didn't think anyone would get the salsoul thing.

 

same here, but i bought it about 3 months after launch, dont waster your money, get some ds games

 

I bought a used one with 1 game(ATV Offroad's Fury) then I got Ridge Racer and that Spider-Man free UMD Video. All I play is RR thanks to the previous owner, who updated to the 2.01 firmware even though it was 1.5 when he bought :-(.

Somehow DS games are more expensive than PSP games here.

 

Well I love my PSP, I have 10 games for it now, and play it daily. I own:

Mercury - Excellent if hard puzzle game
Ridge Racer - Needs no explanation, awesome game
Wipeout - As above
Namco Museum - Excellent renditions of the old games, plus the originals, 21 games on one disk!
Metal Gear Ac!d - Enjoyable turn based card em up
Ghost in the Shell - Not started yet, just got it for x-mas
Tokobot - Borrows a lot from other games, but a great platformer (for want of a better word)
PoPoloCrois - Excellent RPG, if a little long in the loading times
Legend of Heroes - Still waiting for delivery
Hot Shots Golf - Simply awesome

Who gives a shit if half of them are already on a console? people seem to selectively forget that a good chunk of the "must have" DS titles are ports (or at least re-workings, but certainly not "original") as well. The DS is so cheap, you can buy one for piss all, so there is no reason not to buy both, to say the PSP isn't worth it is just snobbery. There are enough good games out for pretty much anyone to find something to like.

 

it all depends, i bougth one and thought it was ok at first, but really unless you got the money to get the bigger memory sticks, and dont mine spendign $50 on average for ok games, you might be satisfied. Id say wait till the price is cheaper or if you find one cheap. The only game i have for it, which i won in a contest is gta, but to be honest, it was ok at best, and very short, youd probably be dissapointed with it, its like a slight update to gta 3, but with a different character and story, but its realy not worth the $50.

 

well, i was offered this morning, a psp for my b-day, hell, it was'nt as much offered, as i really didnt have a choice, man first time me mom has ever drove to as many shops looking for one (they had a deal on, get a psp and a game of your choice for 250 cdn) hell, i didnt even mention that i was wanting one, brought it home, and first thing i did before charging it, was inserted the battery, and checked for dead pixels, luckly i cant find any, though i've been charging it since 1pm, its now 3 25pm, and the system says the battery is at 100% and that its being charged yet the battery charge light stays on, am i just paranoid, or is something wrong?

as for an xbox or a laptop, im still searching around, instead im gonna focus on getting a good digital camera, and setting up a wireless network around the house

cheers

Ryan

 

the light should go off when its done charging, its normal to do that, id say buy a protective case for it, the one sony gives with you just doesnt cut it.

 

should it take more than 2 hours, right now its been approximatly 2 hours, but ive unplugged it twice to move it

edit* its charged now

i actually took all your comments to heart about the psp, and in actuallity i was going to wait off on buying one, until games actually came out, though after my mom offered today, hell it was a gift, i couldnt resist, I've got ATV fury, which i've enjoyed in its previous encarnations, and ill probably get wipeout and possibly ape escape tommorow, maybe there'll be some more games sooner, and maybe Nascar 07 for that long haul to norht carolina for the yearly nascar trip lol

Thanks for your help

Ryan