Quantcast
MobileRJ | RSS TwitterTwitter FacebookFacebook E-mail Alerts
Home manage Las Vegas Review-Journal
  Jobs Cars Homes Shopping Travel Weddings Golf Best of Las Vegas Photo   Search:

RECENT EDITIONS
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

Living
Jan. 04, 2009
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

GAME DORK: Improved PSP gets even cooler new features

DOUG ELFMAN
MORE COLUMNS

NEW IN STORES
This is the deadest time of the year for new games, coming after the holiday season. But there are new titles out there. "Summer Sports 2" gets a jump on summer with this collection of games set on an island.

Among the basic sports you can play, in the modes of solo, cooperative and multiplaying: soccer, archery, target football, basketball, bocce, minigolf and shuffleboard. The game retails for $40 for Wii. It's rated "E."

-- By DOUG ELFMAN


The Sony PlayStation Portable 3000 retails for $200 and plays movies, games, music, and stores photos and videos.

Recently, I showed my Sony PlayStation Portable to my friend, Jeff, who's 38. He never had seen the hand-held game system up close. He gazed in wonder as this 6.7-ounce "toy" played the movie "National Treasure 2" vibrantly on a 4.3-inch screen, then we toured a video game that looks and moves as impressively as any PS 2 game.

I showed him photos of Charisma Carpenter stored on the PSP. We surfed the Web (albeit slowly) using its internal WiFi. But he didn't get a chance to listen to music on it, iPod-style, though it has that capability.

Most Popular Stories
  • MIKE WEATHERFORD: Days of markups coming to end?
  • BARGAIN HUNTERS: Early birds often catch the best buys at garage sales
  • BAZAARS: Consumers, charities benefit from sales at holiday bazaars
  • THE R-J GOES TO A PARTY: UNLV Foundation's dinner honors donors
  • HUMAN MATTERS: Text messaging and love can be a tricky combination
  • LEGENDARY LAS VEGAS HEADLINERS: RUSTY WARREN: Life of the Party
  • GARDENING: Use softball-sized 'brain fruit' to help ward off bugs
  • LIFE ON THE COUCH: 'Married ... With Children' stars break from Bundy personas
  • TRIP OF THE WEEK: Grapevine Canyon great spot for history, recreation
  • NFL FOOTBALL: LINE UP FOR A NEW SEASON




    • All this, I told him, costs $200. And this new version, the PSP 3000 (released in October), comes with a built-in microphone so you can make Skype phone calls on it. Plus, the 3000's new LCD screen features less glare and much more screen detail than before.

    Jeff experienced mild consumer surprise, or what I call PSP Envy. He asked if he could buy my PSP from me. No, of course not.

    If this sounds like my love letter to the PSP, it mostly is. The PSP is kind of like the iPhone, but with far superior gaming and video, and no mobile phone service and no touchscreen.

    Yet, there's scant pop culture buzz for the PSP, which surprises me constantly. Everyone talks about the Wii, "Rock Band" and the Xbox 360, while parents of little kids know all about Nintendo's hand-held DS.

    But the DS -- fun in its own right, offering less detail-illustrative computing power in its touchscreen -- is primarily for kids, while taller game addicts often go for the PSP.

    DS vs. PSP is apples and oranges, two different markets. When you play "Manhunt 2" or "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories" on the PSP, these are cinematic games, and you see the blood. In fact, if you read my best-games-of-the-year list, you saw a PSP game, "God of War: Chains of Olympus," came out on top for all of 2008. (By the way, in my best-of-the-year list, I meant to say that "Frontlines: Fuel of War" was the best online shooter of 2008.)

    Not everything is perfect in PSP 3000 land. If you're a hard-core gamer, the PSP is not powerful enough to serve as your only system, but it's a great secondary system to your PS 3 or Xbox 360. The PSP is ideal as a primary system for casual gamers.

    Also, the sound system still isn't quite loud enough for a loud-a-holic like me, even when you listen to the PSP on excellent Sony or Bose headphones, or through plug-and-play speakers (Logitech is probably the best choice for that).

    And you still can't buy my yet-invented fantasy item: a plug-and-play video projector that beams PSP movies and games onto a wall.

    If you got a PSP for the holidays, or if you're planning to take the PSP plunge, it should not leave you disappointed. (Spend an extra $45 on a Sony 2200 mAh battery, to get more battery life.) As for great games from the past few years that you can delve into, try:

    "God of War: Chains of Olympus," "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories," "Tiger Woods PGA Tour '08," "Patapon," "Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow," "Spider-Man 2," "Manhunt 2," "Wall-E," "Lumines II," "Tomb Raider: Anniversary," "Midnight Club: LA Remix," "Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII," "The Warriors" and "SOCOM U.S. Navy Seals: Fireteam Bravo."

    And feel free to show it off in front of your friends. It is almost certain they have no idea what's under its hood.

    (The PSP 3000 by Sony retails for $200 -- Plays movies, games, music, stores photos and videos, works as a Skype phone and surfs the Web. Games look as good as on the PS 2. Easy to very challenging games. Games rated "E" to "M." Four stars out of four.)

    Contact Doug Elfman at 702-383-0391 or e-mail him at delfman@reviewjournal. com. He also blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman.

    Newsvine Digg Fark Technorati reddit StumbleUpon del.icio.us Slashdot Propeller Mixx Furl Twitter MySpace Facebook Google Bookmarks Yahoo! Bookmarks Windows Live Favorites Ask MyStuff myAOL Favorites

    Leave Your Comment 5 Reader Comments
    Terms & Conditions
    The following comments are provided by readers and are the sole responsiblity of the authors. The reviewjournal.com does not review comments before publication nor guarantee their accuracy. By publishing a comment here you agree to abide by the comment policy. If you see a comment that violates the policy, please notify the web editor.

    Some comments may not display immediately due to an automatic filter. These comments will be reviewed within 48 hours. Please do not submit a comment more than once.
    Current Word Count:

    Note: Comments made by reporters and editors of the Las Vegas Review-Journal are presented with a yellow background.

    Shqype wrote on January 04, 2009 11:52 PM: Good article, but to correct you on the price-point, the PSP-3000 itself retails for $169.99. The PSP Bundles (which come with a game, a movie, and a memory stick) retail for $199.99. To the recession consumer, this is a significant point.

    Also, the PSP is a great compliment to the Playstation 3 (nevermind the Xbox 360). It has the ability to access all of your PS3s media content from any internet connection ... even halfway around the world! You can remotely turn on your PS3 from your PSP anywhere in the world you have an internet connection, and stream your music, pictures, and videos. You can also play certain PS3 games on your PSP (like PixelJunk Eden and others).

    They go great together!


    Jim wrote on January 04, 2009 08:22 PM: I wonder how excited Jeff would have been if he saw what the cheaper Nintendo DS lite can do (online, play GBA games, lots of additional goodies, touch screen, TWO screens!, fun games).


    Iraq Milner wrote on January 04, 2009 05:40 PM: "Contact Doug Elfman at 702-383-0391????" Why on earth would we do that? How many of you readers have called?


    AJBaldwin wrote on January 04, 2009 01:28 PM: I originally had a DS on its launch, but traded it in for a PSP on the PSP's launch after trying a friends.

    While at the time lacking an mp3 player it served as a multimedia device as well as for games, and I was very impressed.

    That is, impressed until I used a real mp3 player with much better filtering and song selection for collections over a few albums, and much better battery life (it was a Creative Zen: Vision M by the way).

    I didn't mind - I still had all those games to play like LocoRoco, Patapon, Burnout, Crisis Core, God of War, etc...until they stopped.

    Now the PSP has only 2 games to be excited about - Resistance and LittleBigPlanet PSP. Due to high piracy rates and low game sales the frequency of decent PSP releases is depressingly low. My PSP now gathers dust while a ought a DS after Christmas and am now enjoying a larger number of quality games, despite the graphical and technical restrictions.

    Most people own an mp3 player or mp3-capable phone, making the PSP's features a bit redundant (it's a bit hard to fit in a pocket too), and aniPhone / iPod Touch for large-screen video viewing and WiFi.

    For me, I experienced all those things you've written about back in 2005 when it came out. Now, owning an iPod Touch my PSP is solely for games. And because they've dried up, my PSP is for nothing.


    KOS-MOS wrote on January 04, 2009 08:57 AM: One of the things I also like is being able to stream media (pictures, mp3s, movies) remotely from my PS3.

    That way I can keep things stored on the PS3 then when I'm out and about, all I have to do is be at a wi-fi spot and connect to my PS3 remotely and stream stuff.

    Pretty cool feature that goes overlooked :)