I laughed when I heard that Sony's PlayStation Portable was goingto debut with a $249 price tag, which is as much as you'd pay for anyfull-size game console and more than you'd pay for some. I guess I'dplayed one too many hard-to-see games on other handhelds made bycompetitors.
But after seven days with a PSP unit, I'm not laughing. I'mseriously impressed.
And I'm not that easy to please.
This is not the handheld gaming device you're used to. It's theone you've wished someone would make.
The digital picture quality is as good as anything you'll seeanywhere. It is, frankly, amazing -- the details clear and crisp, thecolor outstanding, the games rendered in 3D. The picture's every bitas good as that of the PS2 hooked up to my television.
The sound quality is truly unexpected -- actual high-fidelitystereo quality. And although I have not yet viewed a movie on it,something that's possible thanks to releases in UMD format, I have nodoubt when I get around to doing so, it will be a pleasure.
The PSP Value Pack went on sale March 24 and is loaded withgoodies. Besides the unit itself, which includes a 32 MB Memory StickDuo, it includes headphones with remote control, battery pack, ACadaptor, case and cleaning cloth, and a movie, game and music videosampler with some non-interactive game demos. The first million unitsalso shipped with a UMD (more about this in a minute) video releaseof the movie Spider-Man 2 from Sony Pictures Entertainment.
There are some features I haven't even gotten around to checkingout, including the fact that it will let you display digital photosand it supports digital music playback in both MP3 and ATRAC formats.All this in a unit that's smaller than a day planner. That means youcan slip the equivalent of a full entertainment center into yourbackpack or purse and take it with you. It weights a mere .62 pounds.
But there's nothing scaled-down about the gaming experience itselfon PSP.
The technical details are listed in the news releases: A 4.3-inch, 16:9 wide screen TFT LCD that displays 16.77 million colors ona 480-by-272 pixel high-resolution screen. It has built-in stereospeakers, exterior headphone connector and input/output connectorsthat include a USB 2.0 and Wi-Fi wireless LAN so users can connect tothe Internet and play online on a wireless network, most likely withsome sort of wireless fee.
As many as 16 of the units can be connected to each other directlyin "ad-hoc mode" for wireless head-to-head competition. And thewireless capability will also allow software and data downloads thatcan be saved on the Memory Stick Duo.
As for UMD, it stands for Universal Media Disc and is a "newlydeveloped proprietary, compact but high-capacity optical disc." It'svery small, only 60 mm in diameter, and can store up to 1.8 gigabytesof digital data, which is three times the capacity of a CD-ROM. Thecopyright protection system uses a combination of a unique Disc ID,128-bit AES encryption keys for the media and an individual ID foreach PSP hardware unit.
The controls are simplicity itself, pretty much identical to whatyou find on the PS2 but smaller. That's not really a problem. Withina few minutes you'll scale down your movements. The only downside isa somewhat tired thumb from moving the analog stick. But you can getthat with the regular-size game unit, too.
PSP launched with 24 games available and a bunch more on the wayfrom an impressive number of game publishers and developers.
I checked out a few of the games and was pleased to find a widevariety, so there's bound to be something to please anyone. Mypersonal favorites from the early releases were Ubisoft's "LuminesPuzzle Fusion," which is a Tetris-like challenge, Sony ComputerEntertainment America's (SCEA) "Twisted Metal: Head On" and "Spider-Man 2" by Activision.
Sports lovers will undoubtedly be tickled to discover there's awide range of sports offerings. For instance, SCEA has published"Gretzky NHL," "MLB," "World Tour Soccer" and "NBA." Electronic Artshas several sports titles, including "MVP Baseball," "NBA StreetShowdown," "NFL Street 2 Unleashed" and "Tiger Woods PGA Tour."Activision's "Tony Hawk's Underground 2 Remix" is fun, too, althoughI haven't had much time to play it yet. The PS2 "Tony Hawk" was afavorite at our house.
For more details, you can check out this delightful new deviceonline at www.us.playstation.com Or you can take a leap of faithand just buy one. You won't be disappointed.
E-mail: lois@desnews.com
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