Again not saying the PSP is more powerful, but Gran Turismo looks better to me. The in-game footage on this video: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-gt-psp-60fps-video-blog-entry Really looks better than anything I saw on RR.
Gran Turismo for the PSP does have an in car view but you can't see the dashboard, it's all dark. GT has a HUGE amount of cars in it though. Check out this video, Gran Turismo looks like it's going to fail - It got a 6. Too bad though, I was looking forward to it. Does the number of cars really matter? I guess 8 is about enough, who needs 40 cars? That said, check out the screenshots attached. Soul Calibur on PSP: This looks a LOT better in game, it's just that the picture is too big. Might have some of the best graphics on the PSP. Blades of Fury: Graphics look pretty meh if you compare it to Soul Calibur.
Unfortunately, though, PSP GT can only manage half that. The maximum number of cars in any race - including your own - is four, meaning there are just THREE opponents. I'd say that matters in a racing game, yes. How many real-life car races feature just four competitors?
It's because Namco has ten times the budget that Gameloft had for Blades of Fury. Same with RR and Gran Turisimo. Both games are also designed to support older generation hardware (remember that demo of an RR race with 30 cars on a 3gs?).
For those who are busy comparing GT to RR visually to assess their hardware differences, it would be wise to notice that Gran Turismo is running at 60fps on the PSP. As far as 60fps frame rate goes, the only iPhone games I can think of straight away that make that claim are Pinball Dreams and Pinball Fantasies (yes, 2D games). When it comes to raw polygon fillrate, PSP has a clear performance advantage over the regular iPhone (3GS should be a different matter). Not that it matters much in the larger context of the ongoing conversation.
I just have to say whoopitydo for graphics. Last year brought us MegaMan 9 which is an amazing game that trumps a lot of these newer games and the best part about it is that it has 8-bit graphics and sound effects. It's pure gold So even though one system has better graphics than the other doesn't make that powerful system better in the slightest. Making a realistic pop your eyes out game can also be crap to play if all they did was make it look good.
If someone hasn't pointed it out, I'll do so now: The PSN store is available to "regular" PSP owners (1000 - 3000) and has been for quite some time now. I bought a few games off of there myself. One can just save the games onto memory sticks which Sony allows (naturally) and which all PSP SKUs can put to use.
The PSN store is utter shite IMO. Back when it was first launched, I bought C&C Red Alert (PS1 game) with no indication of how much memory it would take up. It was only after I bought the game, I discovered that it would take up a whole gigabyte and therefore wouldn't fit onto my 1GB memory stick. (which actually cost me quite a lot, at the time). And then there's the crappy 'wallet' payment method which makes you add at least £5 to the 'wallet' everytime you add money. This meant that you would always have money left over that you couldn't use to buy anything else with because you didn't have enough. I haven't visited the PSN store since. Not the way to do it, Sony The App Store is much better.
Because as far as immersion goes, moving a controller like a steering wheel proves more immersive to me than moving a stick left and right with my thumb. After all, I don't drive a car with my thumb but by using a steering wheel. Which gets closer to replicating that? A thumbstick, or motion controls? The latter, IMHO. As stated, however, I do wish Apple would put rumble in every iPhone/touch device as that would alleviate some of the feedback concerns when tilting (rumble would allow one to know just how far is far by feel rather than memorizing alone). As someone who has played the flight sims and any of the flight games on this device, I can state that while the feedback concerns are valid, the idea that tilting a thumbstick is in any way a more immersive experience than motion sensing is laughable, IMHO. If you had brought up a flightstick, which actually mimics the real life control mechanisms for planes completely, then you'd have a point. But a thumbstick? Nope. Sorry. Same deal with thumbsticks while playing a racing game. Steering wheel peripheral beats both thumbsticks and motion sensing, yes, but in terms of the stock controls I'd take motion sensing any day. Using the device like a steering wheel, even sans feedback on the controls proves more immersive in terms of mimicking actually driving a car than does a thumbstick. Not really. The vast majority of games on PSP and DS last for a shorter amount of time and are more pick up and play than their console counterparts. That many of the high ranking games you may have played on those portables last longer does not make it the norm. The DS library is filled with pick up and play games that last for a couple of hours to a few. Are there 40 hour + RPGs? Sure. But to state that they are the average rather than the exception would be wrong. On PSP, as I've pointed out elsewhere, Sony attempted to "bring gaming out of the ghetto" by shoehorning home console style "deep" "epic" "long to get into" games onto a portable, and where met with less success. Over time, however, the impetus has been to get more "pick up and play" offerings on PSP, and they've succeeded in doing so to the point where the norm on PSP now is shorter, less lengthy, and more pick up and play games than can be found on the home consoles. Look to the example in this very topic of GT for PSP. The designers, rather than shoehorning a "full" GT game on the portable, opted to design it around the PSP and the "pick up and play" paradigm that more befits portable gaming. Pointing out a handful of games, GDS, does not make it the norm. The vast majority of titles on portables are more pick up and play than home console games, and typically last for shorter amounts of time in terms of not replay value but "first time 'round" gameplay. That's the portable game system paradigm. That's the model. For every Monster Hunter you bring up (and you bring it up often, big fan that you are), there are more things like Lumines, Every Extend Extra, Crush, Exit, EBA, Line Rider, etc., etc., etc. And even when comparing the home console-esque games, like Daxter or the GTAs, you'll find that the games last for shorter amounts of time in terms of first playthrough than their home console counterparts and/or are more pick up and play (meaning more instantaneous gaming sessions). Yeah, you would say that. Because you're you. Most work better? Adventure games, hidden object, marble rollers, multidirectional shooters, gallery shooters, puzzle games (match 3, etc.), RTS, tower defense, and even turn based strategy games, etc. all work or can work better on iPhone/touch. I could also make an argument for flight and racing games, but we'll get into that whole immersion vs. feedback debate again, where you confuse the two and think that I'm confusing them, so let's just drop that for now. Genres that work better on PSP and DS? games with need for "quicker direct actions" like fighters, beat 'em ups, hack 'n slash, general action games of all sorts including "traditional" platformers, sports games (for the most part), 3PS and FPS, shmups, etc. I'd say it's very much more even than you think.
They've fixed that since then. Tells you how much space it'll take on the game description. They don't spell this out to you, but if you don't add anything to your wallet at all when you check out you can pay for the items and be charged the exact amount of the purchase price. This way you don't have any money left over in your wallet. But, yeah...Sony really hasn't gotten a grip on it yet.
Speaking of 60fps, the first and only Game who comes in my mind who runs at that speed continuously on my 3GS is Inkvaders Sometime MC also seems like working with 60 but not very often...
The PSN store is definitely improving a lot. From the launch of the PSP Go, all future PSP games will be available for digital download, as well as a large number of old titles. That's a pretty big step forward for Sony. So far the PSN store has little to offer PSP users, just the odd crappy game and a few PSOne titles (Sony have also promised to up the rate of PSOne titles being released and to focus heavily on the big name games people have requested). Sure a lot of the games might be around 1GB... but memory is cheap now. The Go comes with 16GB built in and has a slot for memory sticks, it won't cost much to upgrade and soon you'll be carrying 40 games around in your pocket. As for the "at least £5", yeah it could be more ideal, but it's not terrible. If you want a £5.99 game, it'll take £5.99, which is still a huge advantage over Microsoft's dreadful MS points scheme. If you're spending under £5 then sure, you'll have some pennies left over, but if you own a PSP Go and buy all your games from there it'll just mean money towards your next purchase.
What are thumbsticks but smaller flightsticks? You just sound picky to me, I'm surprised any control scheme meets your standards.
Um, a completely different thing, which are interacted with in a totally different way? Unless you're telling us you control thumbstick games by wrapping your hand around the shaft, of course.
You can say that thumbsticks are "smaller" flightsticks in that both are analog joysticks, but what I'm getting at is the level of immersion created by each. Using a flightstick, I get a greater sense of immersion in flight games. If the gameplay captures me, the flightstick adds to that by mimicking more completely the type of controls one would find in an actual plane. A thumbstick may have the same sort of analog tech behind it, and is similar in terms of feedback, but there's less sense of immersion. Using a thumbstick isn't like holding a flightstick, in the same way that, say, using the Wiimote for light gun games without the "gun shell" peripheral doesn't feel exactly like a light gun, despite the fact that the control technology itself is similar and/or the same. There's a difference in "feel" when holding a Wiimote sans "gun shell" and holding one with that peripheral while playing a game of House of the Dead: Overkill. With the former, I'm using a remote to fire at zombies whereas with the latter I'm using a gun. That they're both the same tech doesn't matter much as how it feels to hold each in my hand. So too I get a feeling of more immersion when controlling a racer via motion sensing than I do with an analog thumbstick, even sans feedback (and, again, I really do wish Apple would implement rumble/vibration into all the iDevices). If the racer is really good, as was RR, then the motion sensing can add to that sense of "I'm in a race" more than a thumbstick can, IMHO. Why? Because I'm rotating the device or controller in a similar manner I'd use to steer a car. Even sans direct feedback it still more closely mimics steering a wheel than a thumbstick does.
Completely different? No. Both of them emulate a flight control stick, one is just much smaller. You pull back on the sticks to ascend, push forward to descend. Sure one needs to be used for other games, so you can only use your thumb on it (it's a game controller after all), but I'd still consider it closer to the real thing than tilting an iPhone.
To be honest, immersion is mostly in your head anyway. I don't play something like Resident Evil and suddenly think "this sucks... I'm holding a controller, not a gun!". If a game is good you'll lose all sense of what you're holding and the image/sounds will draw you in enough so that you feel as though you're inside the game.
Er, yes. Yes it is, actually. If you actually sample the games available for the platform you will see a wide variety of titles for all-sorts of ages. But besides that, when was the iPhone suddenly a host to a multitude of non-childish games? But nevermind that, even. What exactly makes a game childish to begin with? The use of colours? Because it has no blood? I really hope that's not your barometer. All in all, it seems like you're just bleating for the sake of bleating. You misunderstood my comment. When running a game, the PSP can use all its specs just for running that game. Not so with the iphone, because like a PC it is also using those specs to run the OS and many other functions in addition to running the game. It's like comparing the specs of a PC to a 360/PS3. It doesn't really say anything.
