Stereophile
Supreme [H]ardness
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- Dec 4, 2003
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- 5,116
whats infrastructure mode ?
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Psp or Ds lite?
- Thread starter ibrgha88
- Start date
Stereophile said:
Online gameplay via a server.
Ad-Hoc mode is the alternative (which DS has as well). This type of multiplayer basically is the ability for PSP/DS to link up to another PSP/DS directly, without an internet connection. The con with this setup is that you must be within a certain distance of the other person's unit.
Infrastructure mode is basically connecting via a server and allowing you to play someone not only within feet of you, but miles, even states across (normal online gameplay).
Yoshiyuki Blade
2[H]4U
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2005
- Messages
- 2,881
Get ready for a wall of text. 
Right now my opinion is a tough call. My brother just borrowed his friend's PSP today and I was tinkering around with the browser. I was even reading this thread through the PSP. I have had a regular DS for a while now, but soon I'll be getting a black Lite if itll be available in the US. Anyway here are my impressions of the PSP after a few hours of usage:
(Notice that this is mostly about the feel of the unit itself, and not about it's games)
Good:
-Nice solid feel to it. Great look especially compared to the normal DS. The Lite would make a worthy contender though.
-Excellent LCD. High resolution and very bright compared to normal DS. Again, the DS
Lite seems to make up for that in terms of quality. I checked one out at a Circuit City, and they looked great.
-Fancy GUI. Makes you feel powerful when navigating through it.
-Built-in browser. Although kind of weird to use, still usable. It can come in handy from time to time.
-Powerful. Much more detailed 3D graphics than the DS, and runs everything very smoothly. With the high capacity UMDs, it makes room for cinematic sequences as well as higher quality sound. It really feels like a portable home console.
-A bunch of other stuff like movies and music that I haven't played with yet.
Bad (I'm playing devil's advocate so I'm trying to nitpick as much as I can here):
-Terrible design, in my opinion. It may look nice on a rotating pedestal, but the awkward narrow shape made my hands cramp up initially. Although I quickly got used to it, I couldn't enjoy using the controls. There's just barely enough room to play with your fingers, but your palms have no place to wrap itself around. Basically it was too wide in one dimension, and not in the other. The DS makes room for more comforatble control at the cost of the screen size, it seems like.
-Heavy. There's a price for that solid feel, and that's the weight. The PSP was a little heavier than I expected, and it made usage a little less enjoyable. Every now and then I'd have to reposition and flex my hands to avoid cramping.
-Buttons too close to the screen. I was playing the remake of Mega Man X (Its called Maverick Hunter X iirc), and I tend to press as much as 3 buttons at once on the right-hand controls. What I noticed that my thumb would stick out and cover a portion of the screen, and trying to play with my thumb out of the way at the same time is damn near impossible. Its a little displeasing having to periodically move my thumb out of my way to see, and breaking the rhythm.
-Poor battery life. For the first half-hour or so, I was playing the unit plugged in, and decided to move to a more comfortable area to continue. After about 2 hours, the PSP caught me by surprise and shut down on me. I'm not sure if it warns you beforehand but after being used to playing a DS for several hours non-stop, it was completely unexpected. I guess, it takes getting-used-to, but it kinda sucks that you have to have it plugged it just so that you dont have to worry about battery life. The DS' LED turns to an orange when its low on batteries, and it won't actually die on you until about 30 mins later.
-It seems inefficient. Sure the GUI looks fancy, but I belive that it uses some sort of hard ware acceleration, which takes up more resources than it needs to. When I simply went around playing with the preferences and trying to get the browser working, the unit was noticably warm in the back. It wasn't long before I saw the notches on the battery icon go down one.
So basically this post mainly outlines my criticisms about the PSP thus far. Don't get me wrong though. I can name quite a few displeasing things about the DS as well, but this is my take on briefly using a $250 system. The PSP is a powerful piece of hardware, but it seemed there were a bunch of important things that were overlooked or disregarded when designing the shell for gaming. Things that a gamer would care about. However, I understand that the PSP is not just a gaming console, but a mutimedia device as well. That's why I'm not to conclude the PSP as a $250 waste of good hardware. Nevertheless, this is coming from the aspect of a gamer, and how it felt to actually play the unit.
Right now my opinion is a tough call. My brother just borrowed his friend's PSP today and I was tinkering around with the browser. I was even reading this thread through the PSP. I have had a regular DS for a while now, but soon I'll be getting a black Lite if itll be available in the US. Anyway here are my impressions of the PSP after a few hours of usage:
(Notice that this is mostly about the feel of the unit itself, and not about it's games)
Good:
-Nice solid feel to it. Great look especially compared to the normal DS. The Lite would make a worthy contender though.
-Excellent LCD. High resolution and very bright compared to normal DS. Again, the DS
Lite seems to make up for that in terms of quality. I checked one out at a Circuit City, and they looked great.
-Fancy GUI. Makes you feel powerful when navigating through it.
-Built-in browser. Although kind of weird to use, still usable. It can come in handy from time to time.
-Powerful. Much more detailed 3D graphics than the DS, and runs everything very smoothly. With the high capacity UMDs, it makes room for cinematic sequences as well as higher quality sound. It really feels like a portable home console.
-A bunch of other stuff like movies and music that I haven't played with yet.
Bad (I'm playing devil's advocate so I'm trying to nitpick as much as I can here
):-Terrible design, in my opinion. It may look nice on a rotating pedestal, but the awkward narrow shape made my hands cramp up initially. Although I quickly got used to it, I couldn't enjoy using the controls. There's just barely enough room to play with your fingers, but your palms have no place to wrap itself around. Basically it was too wide in one dimension, and not in the other. The DS makes room for more comforatble control at the cost of the screen size, it seems like.
-Heavy. There's a price for that solid feel, and that's the weight. The PSP was a little heavier than I expected, and it made usage a little less enjoyable. Every now and then I'd have to reposition and flex my hands to avoid cramping.
-Buttons too close to the screen. I was playing the remake of Mega Man X (Its called Maverick Hunter X iirc), and I tend to press as much as 3 buttons at once on the right-hand controls. What I noticed that my thumb would stick out and cover a portion of the screen, and trying to play with my thumb out of the way at the same time is damn near impossible. Its a little displeasing having to periodically move my thumb out of my way to see, and breaking the rhythm.
-Poor battery life. For the first half-hour or so, I was playing the unit plugged in, and decided to move to a more comfortable area to continue. After about 2 hours, the PSP caught me by surprise and shut down on me. I'm not sure if it warns you beforehand but after being used to playing a DS for several hours non-stop, it was completely unexpected. I guess, it takes getting-used-to, but it kinda sucks that you have to have it plugged it just so that you dont have to worry about battery life. The DS' LED turns to an orange when its low on batteries, and it won't actually die on you until about 30 mins later.
-It seems inefficient. Sure the GUI looks fancy, but I belive that it uses some sort of hard ware acceleration, which takes up more resources than it needs to. When I simply went around playing with the preferences and trying to get the browser working, the unit was noticably warm in the back. It wasn't long before I saw the notches on the battery icon go down one.
So basically this post mainly outlines my criticisms about the PSP thus far. Don't get me wrong though. I can name quite a few displeasing things about the DS as well, but this is my take on briefly using a $250 system. The PSP is a powerful piece of hardware, but it seemed there were a bunch of important things that were overlooked or disregarded when designing the shell for gaming. Things that a gamer would care about. However, I understand that the PSP is not just a gaming console, but a mutimedia device as well. That's why I'm not to conclude the PSP as a $250 waste of good hardware. Nevertheless, this is coming from the aspect of a gamer, and how it felt to actually play the unit.
having been accustomed to the original ds, im surprised the weight of the psp affected you at all... since it is slightly lighter than the original ds, although i definitely agree that the placement of the analog stick was a bit of a pain, maybe woulda been nicer if they had moved the directional pad and the right side buttons up a little and moved the analog button a bit up and added another analog stick on the right side, that may have been a more convenient design... with more room for the thumb to use the analog button
the psp is actually a lot more user friendly with the logitech playgear pocket case... it adds a bit of width and thickness to the overall feel...makes it much easier to use vs the standalone psp... however, the case adds a considerable amount of weight... if you think the psp feels like a brick alone... with the playgear pocket, it becomes a true brick... hehe... although you quickly get used to the weight and it goes a long way when it comes to protecting that screen
also, tell your friend to pick up a 2200 mAH battery... sounds like the one you were using is getting kinda old... shutting down after 2 hrs is pretty bad... =D
the power led will blink green when the battery is low, but another interesting thing is... when the system shuts down due to low battery, the system goes on standby, and when you plug it in and turn it back on, you will be able to continue playing, so as not to lose ne precious advancement in the game... =)
the psp is actually a lot more user friendly with the logitech playgear pocket case... it adds a bit of width and thickness to the overall feel...makes it much easier to use vs the standalone psp... however, the case adds a considerable amount of weight... if you think the psp feels like a brick alone... with the playgear pocket, it becomes a true brick... hehe... although you quickly get used to the weight and it goes a long way when it comes to protecting that screen
also, tell your friend to pick up a 2200 mAH battery... sounds like the one you were using is getting kinda old... shutting down after 2 hrs is pretty bad... =D
the power led will blink green when the battery is low, but another interesting thing is... when the system shuts down due to low battery, the system goes on standby, and when you plug it in and turn it back on, you will be able to continue playing, so as not to lose ne precious advancement in the game... =)
http://jwhdavison.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=7176384&publicUserId=5345401
1up writer eating his kid's shoe... why? PSP = wasted potential.
1up writer eating his kid's shoe... why? PSP = wasted potential.
Take a look at these, they sum up my thoughts very well.
http://console.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTA4NCwxLCxoY29uc29sZQ==
http://console.hardocp.com/article.html?art=OTAzLCwsaGNvbnNvbGU=
If it were me, I'd say go with the DS because I'm into N games and I buy handhelds for dedicated gaming purposes.
http://console.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTA4NCwxLCxoY29uc29sZQ==
http://console.hardocp.com/article.html?art=OTAzLCwsaGNvbnNvbGU=
If it were me, I'd say go with the DS because I'm into N games and I buy handhelds for dedicated gaming purposes.
UnlimitedMP
[H]ard|Gawd
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2004
- Messages
- 1,946
I thought that the PSP dropped to 200$? No?
I'm loving my DS Lite. A few nights ago, I played my friend, who also has one, some Mario Kart & some mini-games from NSMB.
I'm loving my DS Lite. A few nights ago, I played my friend, who also has one, some Mario Kart & some mini-games from NSMB.
MrWizard6600
Supreme [H]ardness
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2006
- Messages
- 5,791
Personally i prefer the PSP, this being said as an owner of none of the hand held consoles (just borrow them from chinese friends once in a while, Burnout. best time killer ever)
But the DS is cool too, and as you said its cheaper. it has a couple of interesting games, and it has developers making 18+ (ESRB "teen") games too. dual screen, sorta nice.
graphical horsepower, i noticed the poor dot-pitch on PSP, meaning it couldnt fit that many pixels on the screen, looking at the horizon in any game on one of those things, forget about it. only played DS once, and i wasnt nit-picking through it to fnd out how kick-ass it was, but it seemed ok. in terms of polygon horsepower the PSP definatly pulls ahead. dont know any hard numbers tho.
and asthetics, take it or leave it. both can fit in a deep pocket, a backpack, a purse w/e. personally i dont care much for them (this coming from the man who wants the "Tsunami" case from TT, no plain sh!t for me).
hope i helped.
But the DS is cool too, and as you said its cheaper. it has a couple of interesting games, and it has developers making 18+ (ESRB "teen") games too. dual screen, sorta nice.
graphical horsepower, i noticed the poor dot-pitch on PSP, meaning it couldnt fit that many pixels on the screen, looking at the horizon in any game on one of those things, forget about it. only played DS once, and i wasnt nit-picking through it to fnd out how kick-ass it was, but it seemed ok. in terms of polygon horsepower the PSP definatly pulls ahead. dont know any hard numbers tho.
and asthetics, take it or leave it. both can fit in a deep pocket, a backpack, a purse w/e. personally i dont care much for them (this coming from the man who wants the "Tsunami" case from TT, no plain sh!t for me).
hope i helped.
Lord Nassirbannipal
[H]ard|Gawd
- Joined
- Apr 1, 2005
- Messages
- 1,155
I have a PSP and will be picking up a DS Lite in either a few weeks or next month.
The only thing I use my PSP for is running emulators of other handhelds(Game Boy/Game Boy Color/ Game Gear/ Neo Geo Pocket/Neo Geo Pocket Color), and I've never upgraded the firmware.
It's multimedia features are okay, but they're really redundant for me because I already have a 40GB MP3 player that also has video playback.
The DS Lite pretty much kills the PSP when it comes to games, which is where it counts. I own one game(SFA3: Max) for my PSP, whereas there are 13 games for the DS Lite that I plan to buy when I get one.
There's also the issue of battery life, where the DS Lite is far superior.
The only thing I use my PSP for is running emulators of other handhelds(Game Boy/Game Boy Color/ Game Gear/ Neo Geo Pocket/Neo Geo Pocket Color), and I've never upgraded the firmware.
It's multimedia features are okay, but they're really redundant for me because I already have a 40GB MP3 player that also has video playback.
The DS Lite pretty much kills the PSP when it comes to games, which is where it counts. I own one game(SFA3: Max) for my PSP, whereas there are 13 games for the DS Lite that I plan to buy when I get one.
There's also the issue of battery life, where the DS Lite is far superior.
I am going to get a PSP soon. You can get it pre-owned from an EB/Gamestop for $180 and if you ask the guy a the counter he can usually find you one in mint or near mint condition.
There are a lot of great games out for it, lots of good RPG ports, the tactical war game with three stars (I forgot the name), etc. Plus, lots more multimedia functionality.
Then again, if you are a junkie for Nintendo games, the DS is for you. Mariokart is fun, but that is about the only one I care for,
EDIT:
Plus, the PSP has much better graphics than the DS lite.
There are a lot of great games out for it, lots of good RPG ports, the tactical war game with three stars (I forgot the name), etc. Plus, lots more multimedia functionality.
Then again, if you are a junkie for Nintendo games, the DS is for you. Mariokart is fun, but that is about the only one I care for,
EDIT:
Plus, the PSP has much better graphics than the DS lite.
ray4389 said:
I will agree the graphics are secondary, but I do happen to love Madden, then again, I am a football fanatic. I buy the new Madden and NCAA football every year, and I always enjoy them. The Sega efforts were good too, if given a couple years to grow I think they could have beaten what EA had to offer if they hadn't gotten the exclusive license.
The PSP does have more RPG ports though, which is mainly what I am interested it, and buying one plus a big memory stick means I don't have to get an iPod video.
D
Deleted member 23757
Guest
I've been playing Metroid Prime: Hunters online on the DS lite and it's tons of fun! PSP has no games.
Like I said previously I own a PSP and DS lite...and if you need ONLY a portable game system then get the DS lite, but if you want a combo of media stuff without having to have the ds currently with games get the psp...
I have a friend who doesn't even play games on his psp like me because it is as user friendly in the "I'm bored....I'm going to play a game"
The DS works well for that....there are a series of games for non gamers http://us.touchgenerations.com/
The ds will give you all the great platformers with inovation, puzzle games, and just be loads of fun, but the graphics won't be up to par of the PSP, but they aren't lacking either...
I had the PSP and the best fun I had with it was watching downloaded movies at school...
I have a friend who doesn't even play games on his psp like me because it is as user friendly in the "I'm bored....I'm going to play a game"
The DS works well for that....there are a series of games for non gamers http://us.touchgenerations.com/
The ds will give you all the great platformers with inovation, puzzle games, and just be loads of fun, but the graphics won't be up to par of the PSP, but they aren't lacking either...
I had the PSP and the best fun I had with it was watching downloaded movies at school...