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The Games we play...

And... Introducing the NGP - Next Generation Portable from Sony
ngp-top-front-bottom-530w.jpg


I'm not entirely sure where Sony are heading here. Games can be ported from the PS3 into the the NGP (PSP2 :p ) so it's pretty powerful.

It runs on Android too, and Sony are producing an integration between the Playstation Network and Android phones/tablets/etc (including the Playstation Phone due to be revealed never, but everyone has seen anyway).

Essentially "bollocks, Apple have cornered the portable gaming market along with Nintendo and we'd best try to copy them somehow and mimic their success".

So the NGP has a touch screen (and a touch "pad" on the back) and everything a modern day smart phone has, except the ability to dial over the phone network (though it does have 3G connectivity). It's a kind of SonyPod Touch :lol:

Obviously the PS3 ports will only run on the NGP, but Sony are still flogging the dead horse of PS1 games on modern systems and that will be their major offering to Android users.

Bit of a mixed bag, but I like the idea of having a portable PS3 (including PSN support with trophies and everything). Games can be bought physically (I don't know what kind of media though) or through the PSN.

If they announce it will run PSP games and the PSN PS3 games I've already downloaded, I'll get one. Otherwise, I'll put it on hold.

Gubbins:
Sony Specs said:
the new hardware features dual analog sticks; a 5-inch OLED display (960x544 resolution -- 4x the PSP's); 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS; front touchscreen and rear touchpad (woah!); and, for good measure, the same six-axis motion system that propels the Move, plus a three-axis compass -- oh, and we can't forget the front and rear cameras (those come standard these days). Of course, it plays games, too, which will be offered on new flash memory-based cards (so long UMD!).

The "NGP" is coming this holiday season.

Update: Complete hardware specs, provided by Sony, are posted after the break.

"Next Generation Portable Entertainment System" Hardware Specs

CPU: ARM Cortex-A9 core (4 core)

GPU: SGX543MP4+

External Dimensions: Approx. 182.0 x 18.6 x 83.5mm (width x height x depth) (tentative, excludes largest projection)

Screen: 5 inches (16:9), 960 x 544, Approx. 16 million colors, OLED

Touchscreen: Multi-touch screen (capacitive type)

Rear touchpad: Multi-touch pad (capacitive type)

Cameras: Front camera; rear camera

Sound: Built-in stereo speakers; built-in microphone

Sensors: Six-axis motion sensing system (three-axis gyroscope, three-axis accelerometer); three-axis electronic compass

Location: Built-in GPS; Wi-Fi location service support

Keys/Switches: PS button; power button; directional buttons (Up/Down/Right/Left); action buttons (Triangle, Circle, Cross, Square); shoulder buttons (Right/Left); right and left sticks; Start button; Select button; volume buttons (+/-)

Wireless communications: Mobile network connectivity (3G); IEEE 802.11b/g/n (n = 1x1) (Wi-Fi) (Infrastructure mode/Ad-hoc mode); Bluetooth 2.1+EDR (A2DP/AVRCP/HSP)

In other news, played the Bulletstorm demo. It's interesting and fun, but very shallow. It's got a very Unreal Tournament feel about it, which isn't a bad thing, mixed with God of War or something. It was fun enough for a little while, but I think that the full game would quickly become repetitive.
 
Good to see Sony realized the PSP Go's design was horrendous :) Although from afar, this does look virtually the same as the original PSP. Eh, don't really care as long as they actually use decent material for the analog sticks this time.

I'm not really so fussed about the PS3 ports to be honest, it's not like the screen will do the graphics much justice either. I guess it could be fun for long trips though.

I will probably end up buying this, but I'm more excited for the 3DS - strange, since I usually stick by Sony and defend them to the death. BUT 3D ZELDA!!!11!!
 
The PSP Go is delicious, shush! :p

The Playstation Phone is based on the Go design, but it's an Android on steroids rather than a PSP or anything like it.

3DS doesn't interest me. Fuzzy screen and the same old games we've played a million times before over the last 20 years... Sony a pants for keeping pushing PS1 games, but at least they don't try and disguise them as new games ;)
 
Furie, surely by now you've realized that Nintendo are pretty much rubbish when it comes to games (except Zelda, Mario and a few others...even if most those games do the same thing every time) and the majority of their audience will buy ANYTHING they make...see; Cooking Mama for example. Yes, these are shameless rehashes but I'm not complaining since it means I can play Zelda: Ocarina of Time without the awful blocky N64 graphics. I'm not so fussed about the 3D element since it's just a gimmick...and 3D never works for me anyway.

Mario Kart 3DS looks promising too. But I'm willing to bet the 3DS will lose it's touch eventually (ie fast) and will die a horrible, pixellated death.

Anyway, back to Sony. I still think the PSP Go is ugly and less portable than the original :p And I do agree with you that at least Sony aren't forcing the PS1 games down your throat as new games. I don't really see the need to buy PS1 games again since I still have all my trusty PS1 discs and even still have the bulky original Playstation...but I did download Crash Bandicoot 3 just to see how it handled on the PSP. It felt a bit pointless, but it's nice to have such a classic game from my childhood to play anywhere.

Anyway, I bet you'd buy the PSP2 if they remastered Ico :lol:
 
jokerman said:
^Maybe you've played them over the last 20 years, you old man, but some of us weren't even born back then. :wink:

Well, with the 3DS Zelda game, 13 years ago... and again 8 years ago... and again 4 years ago... Sorry, am I making a point yet? :p

Mario Kart is another good example. The actual game is exactly the same as it was when released. There really is no massive difference from 1994 to 2011.

I know what you mean Fraser about the "upgrade" of the Zelda graphics, but they're not really much of an upgrade. It's like a PSP game :p
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The game is surely the important thing? ;)

The 3Ds will however sell bucketloads because, well it's something I don't understand, but they will :lol: I think Nintendo just have a way of making people step back to their childhood and rekindle the feeling they had when they were 8 and I'm just too old and crusty to be taken in by tight wearing imps and moustachioed plumbers in dungarees.

Oh, and PSP Go is obviously considerably more portable. It's not as wide, not as tall and not as thick as the PSP Slim. Plus you don't need to carry around and disks with games. You can get a PSP Go and 30 games in tight jeans pockets, not something you can do with with the traditional PSP. Then there are all the other benefits like brighter screen, blu-tooth headset compatibility and the ability to use a Dual Shock 3 with it :)

And it's a thing of beauty too :p It really is :)

I wouldn't get an NGP to play games I have bought disk based versions of for the PS3 already, but I would buy it to play downloaded versions. So I'd only get it for remastered Ico if I had that as a download copy on the PS3. Otherwise I'd have to buy the game twice, which I wont do ;)
 
The only games that look good on the 3DS are Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor Overclock and thats about it since SMT 1 isn't confirmed... If it is I'm buying the **** out of it. I also need a new psp for Persona 2 Innocent Sin...

Does this Rvsffgbdhtbdgst psp2 have a umd slot?
 
Ah well... Then is there a way to get the games you bought on umd on to said flash thingymajig? or did i waste £40 getting Dissidia limited edit...
 
PMSL! Fail on my part (I did just cut and paste that bit though, didn't read it) :lol:

Anyway, it'll be 12 months before this is out and I'm sure you'll either:

a) have completed Dissidia by then and be bored with it.
b) still keep your old PSP to play it on anyway.

:p
 
I broke my old psp so I havent been playing on it and the whole conversion thing was for like the psp go or what ever.
 
Sony have said they'll never do a converter for UMD to download of any kind due to piracy issues. Poop.

Good news is... When this is released, you'll be able to get a standard PSP for buttons :)
 
I know what you mean Fraser about the "upgrade" of the Zelda graphics, but they're not really much of an upgrade. It's like a PSP game

The upgrade looks fantastic I thought. Maybe not so much in screens (although all the new textures look great) but the fluidity of movement is incredible. Also, that picture doesn't look anything like the quality I've seen from an actual 3ds (on youtube, I've yet to witness the 3d-age =(..)

It may have been re-released hundreds of times, but this time they're actually adding to it!
 
^This, basically. Surprisingly, the YouTube videos do it much more justice somehow.
Still no word on whether they'll remaster all of the music though. I'm kind of hoping they don't...I don't want them messing with the 64-bit Forest Temple and Gerudo Desert tunes!
 
Nintendo better hope the 3DS really takes off. Today they announced that their profits in the last 9 months dropped 74.3 percent compared to the same time period in 2009.
 
I doubt they're worrying too much Jerry. While it's a massive drop in sales, it's from an enormous number anyway :lol:

I think price point is the biggest hurdle though for the 3DS. It's what? £230 over here? Double the cost of a standard DS. In fact, it's as much as a PS3 or high end 360. Nintendo always seem to have priced things right before. If the Wii had been maybe even £30 more expensive, it wouldn't have sold as well. Same with the DS. It's the lower price that makes it mass appealing. I don't know if they've missed the boat here? Nintendo always surprise me though...

bob_3_ said:
I know what you mean Fraser about the "upgrade" of the Zelda graphics, but they're not really much of an upgrade. It's like a PSP game

The upgrade looks fantastic I thought. Maybe not so much in screens (although all the new textures look great) but the fluidity of movement is incredible. Also, that picture doesn't look anything like the quality I've seen from an actual 3ds (on youtube, I've yet to witness the 3d-age =(..)

It may have been re-released hundreds of times, but this time they're actually adding to it!

Just to add to this kind of. I looked at the videos, and you're right, moving images always do a game more justice, but it still looks like a PSP/PS2/Gamecube title. Compared to the DS, that's a hell of an improvement, but it's kind of the point of what frustrates me with Nintendo and the popularity they get. It's what I don't understand :lol: (Please note, I know it's my lack of understanding of the entire thing that's the issue here :) ).

Nintendo release a game that's been re-released on a regular cycle over the last 13 years. They make it look like it was produced on a system that's 10 years old. Everyone is wetting themselves at the opportunity to play a remake that looks ten years dated.

Nobody bats an eyelid at a system that will be released in less than a year which gives Ps3/360 quality gaming in a handheld format. Let's all get excited about things that are over ten years old instead?

I suspect it may be because I'm an old fart in this respect. I don't do "retro" because I was there at the moment. I loved gaming right from Pong to LBP2. I played games extensively on all kinds of computers, consoles and arcades right through life. I was constantly waiting for the next big improvement which would lift games to the next level. I've scrolled sideways and killed aliens in a ship for five years, I want to do it in a different fashion. I've jumped platforms and dropped down pipes for 8 years, I need something else.

I've moved on the crest of the gaming wave and don't need to look back, I'm always looking on the next thing (it doesn't mean I don't appreciate what I have here and now mind ;) ). So yeah, the whole Nintendo thing confuses me. It's just an exercise in selling retro in an industry that isn't 50 years old yet. :lol:

The NGP:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3EloCX9hy8[/youtube]
 
^ It's the "cloud of nostalgia" shall we say. It's the people who have a depressing outlook on the future and lomg for the ypungerdays where everything was awesome. They then rant a rave how x game was so good "back in the day" and spread it to the generation that are in the everything is awesome stage. Nintendo them selves have become mr depressing and are advertising that way.

New Super Mario Bros. It's like "Holy sheet! Mario! remember him? here he is again!"

repete ad nauseum...(Also lurn 2 spell)

I think cause I didn't have nintendo games all that much of a kid is the reason I generaly dislike the save for the few breakout games and series...

Like Shin Megami Tensei... It better not be jp only D:<
 
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