Sony Rolls Out PSP go Offerings
San Francisco plays host to SCEA's official PSP go launch event and we were there to check it out. Everything from Minis to GTA inside...
Published: September 23, 2009
[Games]
-Third-Party-
The showings on hand from Sony's partners weren't quite as prolific as The Big S (which is understandable) but they were nevertheless just as varied and promising. We sampled good from Ubisoft, XSEED and Rockstar, and came away damned impressed by both how PSP-oriented and, at times, hardware-pushing the games really were.
Tucked away in an especially interview-prone area, we spent a few minutes tooling around the island of Cyprus with Bloodlines, the PSP-exclusive Assassin's Creed game meant to bridge the gap between the first and upcoming second games on the PS3. Pressed for time and space, we didn't get a chance to fully complete a mission, which was a shame, but we were able to get a sense of what Ubisoft and Griptonite Games are bringing to PSP, and it was damned impressive. Rather than being a compartmentalized experience, this is, effectively, a real AC game, meaning you're allowed to go just about anywhere, fight anyone with the same fact button system (which also works for the free running bits just as it did on the PS3) and infiltrate areas in an effort to take down a target. We spent our time a bit dazzled by just how smooth the game ran and despite the open setting, and exploration with just a hint of combat (and a swan dive into the odd barrel of hay) took up most of the time. Unfortunately, that was the extent of our play session with things, and we were unable to get any hands-on time with either Petz Saddle Club or Petz Dogz Family, but somehow we get the feeling our visitors will forgive us for that (besides, being a sim, the limited time we would have had with the game wouldn't have been enough to glean the depth of things, we're sure).
While both Beaterator and Chinatown Wars were available to check out, both games were easily the most in-demand of the third-party offerings. We tooled around for just a bit with Beaterator's simple sample-based system for making beats, but the cacophony of the event space made for a less than ideal peek at things. Even headphones couldn't have blocked out everything, but the easy-to-use controls definitely had us intrigued in a way we haven't seen since the Traxxpad experiment a few years back. We'll definitely be hitting up Rockstar for a more in-depth look at things going forward.
Though our time with GTA: Chinatown was almost as brief (we essentially got to hop into a car, drive around and shoot at stuff, which is the core of any GTA), we were actually rather impressed by just how well the isometric camera angle translated over to the PSP. Handled by the experienced hands of Rockstar Leeds, the improvements to the DS version of the game were subtle (the lighting was improved and effects like headlights and muzzle flash from guns looked fantastic). The game ran perfectly, of course, and things like hotwiring a car that were previously handled by motions on the DS' touch screen have simply been moved to the analog nub. Rockstar is promising quite a bit new added content, including more story and side missions alike in addition to completely overhauling the soundtrack (the audio is now higher-fidelity and the intro track has been redone) and the visuals (the textures have been re-worked) over the DS version.
In short, it's an already great game made better, and Rockstar says it's actually a bigger game than any of the previous PSP outings in terms of city size alone.
The final game we checked out was easily the highlight of the event, if only because we were finally able to see the game in all its amazingly creative glory. Half-Minute Hero, which condenses three major game types (RPG, Action/Adventure, Real-Time Strategy and Shooter) into 30 second blocks. As any of those games would be utterly impossible to actually play through in 30 seconds, there's the all-important application of the Goddess of Time, who loves saving the world almost as much as she loves money.
The lucre-obsessed deity will happily rewind time, allowing you to keep your gained levels and equipment so long as you can grease her palms with some cold, hard cash. It's an insane concept, but it absolutely, positively works. There's really nothing like racing into the town, using the clock-stopping bonus of visiting a shopkeep to pick out new equipment and then sallying forth into the overworld map to thump on enemies with breakneck-paced auto-battles in order to level up enough to take on the bad guy. Oh, and did we mention there are Japanese metal guitarists providing the soundtrack and that everything is localized brilliantly and all the graphics are 8- and 16-bit-style? No? Yeah, there's that too. Luckily, most of what we played is up on the PSP's PlayStation Store as demos, so we highly recommend everyone check things out.
Without a doubt, Sony's PSP lineup heading into the next couple months is immensely promising. Coming off something of a drought, it's nice to see our little wonderportables aren't going to be collecting dust any time soon, and rest assured that we'll have plenty more on these games (and lots more) heading into the launch of the PSP go. In the meantime, nearly all of the games we mentioned have gotten updates of new screens, movies or both, so feel free to click on a game name and check out the goods!
-Third-Party-
The showings on hand from Sony's partners weren't quite as prolific as The Big S (which is understandable) but they were nevertheless just as varied and promising. We sampled good from Ubisoft, XSEED and Rockstar, and came away damned impressed by both how PSP-oriented and, at times, hardware-pushing the games really were.
Tucked away in an especially interview-prone area, we spent a few minutes tooling around the island of Cyprus with Bloodlines, the PSP-exclusive Assassin's Creed game meant to bridge the gap between the first and upcoming second games on the PS3. Pressed for time and space, we didn't get a chance to fully complete a mission, which was a shame, but we were able to get a sense of what Ubisoft and Griptonite Games are bringing to PSP, and it was damned impressive. Rather than being a compartmentalized experience, this is, effectively, a real AC game, meaning you're allowed to go just about anywhere, fight anyone with the same fact button system (which also works for the free running bits just as it did on the PS3) and infiltrate areas in an effort to take down a target. We spent our time a bit dazzled by just how smooth the game ran and despite the open setting, and exploration with just a hint of combat (and a swan dive into the odd barrel of hay) took up most of the time. Unfortunately, that was the extent of our play session with things, and we were unable to get any hands-on time with either Petz Saddle Club or Petz Dogz Family, but somehow we get the feeling our visitors will forgive us for that (besides, being a sim, the limited time we would have had with the game wouldn't have been enough to glean the depth of things, we're sure).
While both Beaterator and Chinatown Wars were available to check out, both games were easily the most in-demand of the third-party offerings. We tooled around for just a bit with Beaterator's simple sample-based system for making beats, but the cacophony of the event space made for a less than ideal peek at things. Even headphones couldn't have blocked out everything, but the easy-to-use controls definitely had us intrigued in a way we haven't seen since the Traxxpad experiment a few years back. We'll definitely be hitting up Rockstar for a more in-depth look at things going forward.
Though our time with GTA: Chinatown was almost as brief (we essentially got to hop into a car, drive around and shoot at stuff, which is the core of any GTA), we were actually rather impressed by just how well the isometric camera angle translated over to the PSP. Handled by the experienced hands of Rockstar Leeds, the improvements to the DS version of the game were subtle (the lighting was improved and effects like headlights and muzzle flash from guns looked fantastic). The game ran perfectly, of course, and things like hotwiring a car that were previously handled by motions on the DS' touch screen have simply been moved to the analog nub. Rockstar is promising quite a bit new added content, including more story and side missions alike in addition to completely overhauling the soundtrack (the audio is now higher-fidelity and the intro track has been redone) and the visuals (the textures have been re-worked) over the DS version.
In short, it's an already great game made better, and Rockstar says it's actually a bigger game than any of the previous PSP outings in terms of city size alone.
The final game we checked out was easily the highlight of the event, if only because we were finally able to see the game in all its amazingly creative glory. Half-Minute Hero, which condenses three major game types (RPG, Action/Adventure, Real-Time Strategy and Shooter) into 30 second blocks. As any of those games would be utterly impossible to actually play through in 30 seconds, there's the all-important application of the Goddess of Time, who loves saving the world almost as much as she loves money.
The lucre-obsessed deity will happily rewind time, allowing you to keep your gained levels and equipment so long as you can grease her palms with some cold, hard cash. It's an insane concept, but it absolutely, positively works. There's really nothing like racing into the town, using the clock-stopping bonus of visiting a shopkeep to pick out new equipment and then sallying forth into the overworld map to thump on enemies with breakneck-paced auto-battles in order to level up enough to take on the bad guy. Oh, and did we mention there are Japanese metal guitarists providing the soundtrack and that everything is localized brilliantly and all the graphics are 8- and 16-bit-style? No? Yeah, there's that too. Luckily, most of what we played is up on the PSP's PlayStation Store as demos, so we highly recommend everyone check things out.
Without a doubt, Sony's PSP lineup heading into the next couple months is immensely promising. Coming off something of a drought, it's nice to see our little wonderportables aren't going to be collecting dust any time soon, and rest assured that we'll have plenty more on these games (and lots more) heading into the launch of the PSP go. In the meantime, nearly all of the games we mentioned have gotten updates of new screens, movies or both, so feel free to click on a game name and check out the goods!
