darkside

I'm pretty sure the battery and ac adaptor is standard. I can't imagine the PSP being sold without them.
It is a decent value pack, really good if you got Spider Man 2 like I did, if you need that stuff. My problem was I didn't need the 32mb stick because I ended up buying a new 512mb one for movies, I didn't need the case because I bought the logitech one and I refuse to use that terrible wrist strap.

I would have much preferred to pay $200 for the system and have the $50 to put towards the other accessories I ended up buying anyway. Hopefully Sony will release the standard unit sooner than later for people that also feel that way. The extra stuff also seems to have very little resale value on ebay so its probably not worth paying the fees to try and get rid of it.

I thought the UMDs would go over well initially and that turns out to be true. Those GBA carts sold like half a million at $20 each so there was definitely a market for portable movies. Sony has just improved greatly on it. I agree the UMDs are a bit pricey, but I'm hoping to find them used eventually and build an affordable collection that way. Movies to me (memory stick or UMD) have been by far the biggest bright spot for the PSP. I'm still getting a lot of use out of my PSP even though there are no games I currently play on it.

mrmagoo

Now theres something you don't hear everyday.

darkside

I do want to stress currently. There are several titles I'm looking forward to in the next few months.

fujishig

36 bucks for the headphones and remote! geez...

Sure, when you add things up, the bundle is a deal, but when you figure out how much Sony is making on the markup on accessories...

As I said earlier, the pack-in was a brilliant way of making money on the sales of a system (as opposed to just the games) that surely cost about as much if not more to produce and market than they are selling it for. This way, they still pretty much sell out of their first shipment, and when they decide to debundle it, they'll get the people that are holding out anyway.

Just curious... what games are you guys looking forward to? I'm having a lot of fun with the launch titles (picked up a bunch more because BlockBuster's finally selling used titles... even the flawed NBA game is pretty fun), but most of the new releases don't really excite me all that much. What's on the horizon?

BTW, how's Tiger Woods in relation to Hot Shots? I'm thinking about getting Tiger used, but I might as well wait for Hot Shots (used) if it's vastly superior.

And anyone try the import Bleach game? Local shop finally got some in (they previously only had import mahjong games), but it's like 70 bucks because it's an import.

joshd2012

I'm playing Hot Shots right now and having a blast!

Coming soon to my PSP:

Coded Arms 6/28
Death Jr. 8/16
MediEvil 9/13
GTA: LCS 10/1
Infected 10/27
SOCOM 11/15

And those are just the titles I'm pretty sure I'm getting (depending on reviews). There are still a few, including both SOE titles Gripshift and Frantix, where I will have to wait for more information.

And my PS2 list is going to be pretty long too...

darkside

Tiger is good and has a nice assortment of courses, golfers and gear to buy, but it suffers from some pretty long load start times. Plus you have to load each hole which takes about 15 seconds. The analog swinging on it can be pretty tedious due to that stick on the PSP. The PSP analog stick is not the most responsive and at a bad angle so you will miss some shots, but over time you can adjust to it.

Hot Shots doesn't look as detailed, but it loads very fast and has the easy to use button swing system. Personally I think both are pretty good mobile golf games, but Hot Shots has the slight edge to me. Its $10 cheaper and it really seems designed for the PSP unlike Tiger that feels like a PS2 game shoehorned into a UMD.

On the horizon I'm looking forward to some of the RPGs that are coming. One an old PS1 game that never got released in the US. I'm also interested in seeing how GT4 and GTA will play on the PSP. Death Jr also looks like a blast.

Daryl

Haven't played HS, but Tiger Woods is a great game - my most played on my PSP. The one huge knock is the load times (up to 90 seconds to start a new course, maybe 20-30 seconds between each hole). If those bother you, it WILL annoy you in this game, so stay away. If you can live with it (like me) then I'd have a hard time believing that HS is better than TW. But that's just me

mrmagoo

Yeah.....What he said.



I dont want to but......


Sure the analog nub takes a while to get used to, and yeah the load times are not the most fun to sit through, but in my opinion, that is no reason to miss out on such a GREAT game. Especially because it looks and sounds so darn good for a handheld, its pretty deep, has great replay value, and its just plain FUN.

fujishig

Cool... currently Blockbuster has a deal where you trade in three games, and you can get any preowned game for 5 bucks (plus you get the trade in value). They have a couple used tiger woods that are usually 45 used...

darkside

I didn't know that was the current deal. That is excellent if you want to pick up a $44.99 used game. Not to mention you will probably have a lot of trade in credit left over.

PixyJunket

What RPGs are coming out?

fujishig

Yup! Already picked up God of War and Devil May Cry 3 for pretty much 6 games I would never play again. . The other promotions are buy 2 used games, get 1 free (used it to get Ridge Racer PSP, since it was only 35, but it was too scratched up, so I got NBA PSP instead), and trade in two games, get any new game or preorder for 30. Which is why I was asking about what games are coming out, as PSP games tend not to go on sale on release (though fry's has NBA Street for 35 now).

Setzer

Only ones I've heard about are...

Ys: The Ark of Napishtim
Crisis Core- Final Fantasy VII

Y's should be out later this summer and Crisis Core probably won't see a release until 2006. I'm sure there are other RPG's in the works though besides these 2.

darkside

PoPoLoCrois was the other one besides Ys that I was thinking of getting. PoPoLoCrois is suppose to be a classic 2D Playstation title that never got released in the US. Seems perfect for a handheld.

Ys: The Ark of Napishtim will hopefully improve on some of the things people disliked about the recent version.

Gromit

How long does it take to play 9 or 18 holes in Tiger Woods? With Hot Shots, you can play 9 in around 10 minutes or so. Just curious.

Setzer

If I remember correctly it took me about 20min to play through 9 holes on Tiger Woods. The load times suck. I definitely prefer Hot Shots over Tiger Woods, its just a more fun Golf game to play, imo.

DJ_Longfellow

Yep, the Blockbuster/GameRush deal is GREAT. I've picked up a lot of GREAT games from them for $5 (Midnight Club 3, Unreal 2...and I just picked up WipeOut Pure for PSP (even thought I don't own one yet....I think I will get one soon)

PixyJunket

Never heard of PoPoLoCrois. But don't count on Ys being any different, they already made improvements to the PC version for the PS2 one, this one will probably just be a port of that. Since I've already bought the game on PC and PS2.. I can do without a third version.

milo bloom

Well, my PSP vs DS decision got made for me last night, for my upcoming birthday the wife got me a PSP with Metal Gear, Ridge Racer, Once Upon a Time in Mexico and Pirates of the Caribbean. This thing is even cooler than I ever imagined. Ridge Racer is astoundingly pretty and a great race game to boot, and Metal Gear is just so damn bizarre.

Sampled the movies, both look great (and POTC has the Hitchhikers "Wonderful World" teaser on it), though POTC is modified to 1.78

Still an incredible system, though it seriously needs a screen cover.

Michael T Hudson

Get the logitech PSP case. It works well.

joshd2012

Everytime I walk into my local EB, they are always sold out. They say that they get a few in, and they sell out the same day - can't keep them on the shelves. I really want to see one in person before I purchase it, but that seems like an impossible task around where I live.

TheMadMonk

The following things bug me about the PSP:

Unimpressed with Battery Life.
Long Load Times.
Expensive, Proprietary Memory Stick Duo/Pro Format.
Proprietary UMD Format.
Dead Pixels Issue.
Not many games I'm interested in (yet).
UMD Movies priced way too high for what you get, and are often cropped/modified.
Built-in speakers are not very good, or very loud.
Poor design issue with the square button.
I don't really like how the analog stick feels.

So, why do I still kind of want one?

darkside

Love the Logitech case. Very durable, cut outs so you can use it and charge it in the case and the ability to toss custom art in the lid.

darkside

I'd like to argue with you, but I can't. Well actually I have no problems with the square button.

I will add dust under the screen to my list of irritations as a PSP owner. There is some good software on the way though and the analog is usable once you adjust to it. Not to mention this thing is amazing at video playback.

Its a good handheld, but like most things its far from perfect. I think for the price though Sony gave consumers as much as you could ask for except for the pixel issue which they need to deal with at some point. PDAs with similar power are double the cost of a PSP and they still can't equal the video playback ability not to mention game quality.

My only real major gripe with the system is the adjustments with playing console games on a handheld. Many of them are close to the console experience, but so much so you notice all the things missing. I've ended up passing on sports games because so far most have come up very short of the console versions. Too much so to pay $40-$50 for. I'm really hoping to see more developers make exclusive games meant for the PSP (Death Jr for instance) and fewer ports of PS2 games. One this is for sure, developers need to put a lot of effort into cutting down the load times. That is not as easy to tolerate on a handheld.

Gallant Pig

I used to want a PSP but I don't really use my DS so it would collect dust also. I might just be happy enuff with my DS for this portable generation unless there's a killer game for PSP that I have to get. I'm not sure what that would be at this point.