So, I know during the last podcast that I threatened to write up a long list of improvements for the next E3. I lied. No, not really, but to be honest, between writing the extensive GTA IV preview that I just banged out and replaying the demo of Ratchet & Clank Future over and over again, I got distracted. Plus, you guys don't really care about my tirades surrounding Barker Hangar, do you? I'm thinking not. So, since the last State of the Station was basically a bona fide State of the Station from Sony, let's recap:
New PSP redesign = Good
Patrick can hate on it all he wants on the podcast; I like the new machine. Truth is, I dragged Gabe into the Sony booth during E3 and put a slim PSP in his hand. I didn't even have to get my PSP out of my bag for a side-by-side; it's really lighter than the other one. Granted, I'm not uber-enthused about having just-okay battery life with the new battery, or having to make the new model lopsided with an old battery, either. I expect two things to happen here: some third party accessory maker, like Nyko or Blaze, will come out with a smaller battery that promises more juice. And Sony will frown on this. Inevitably, months later, Sony will release a more efficient battery that keeps your system slim.
Otherwise, the TV output was a very welcome surprise, and one that some of you had mentioned that you'd have liked to have seen in the PSP. I was cynical, since I wanted a loftier feature, but I'm sure not going to complain about getting to play preview code on a TV instead of sitting in my cube hunched over a handheld. I like the improved analog nub, d-pad, and face buttons, and I'm much happier with the new placement of the WLAN switch at the top of the system. I still wish we'd gotten built-in memory, but so be it. Check out the gallery for a few more screens, as well.
No, seriously, my hands are huge. It's that thin.
I also found it interesting that SCEA really started pushing the idea of chaining up your PC to the PSP through some pretty expensive means. It doesn't seem like a feature that it would have pimped out so hard a year ago, but it's true. Thanks to Remote Play and DLNA upgrades to the PS3, you can theoretically use that system to connect your PC's media database with the PSP. Too bad I can't use that when I'd want it the most: on the bus or the subway.
Also, while it was a weak E3 for handhelds, there's indisputably at least one game that every person in the GameSpy North office is jazzed to play on PSP. For Patrick, it's Jeanne d'Arc. For Gabe, it's Wipeout Pulse. For me, it's God of War: Chains of Olympus. That brings me to my next topic: digital distribution.
During my Chains of Olympus demo, I asked the Ready at Dawn team why they (or SCEA, really) are planning to distribute the demo disc on UMD, instead of utilizing digital distribution. Maybe it's nearly a year of living in hyper green-conscious San Francisco again, but I find it a little unnerving that a demo that could be distributed online to anyone with a PSP should be pressed onto plastic and inevitably tossed into landfills everywhere after the game's out. I think the question did catch people off-guard, though.
The answer from Sony PR was that it's a re-affirmation of the commitment to UMD. The answer from Ready at Dawn was that there's code on the UMD disc that really can't load from flash memory. What do you think? Would you rather download the game from your PC to your PSP or try to score a demo disc? Or do you live in a rural area where Internet speeds suck, and you're better off surfing the web than downloading anything? Do you think that in this age of digital distribution, the concept of physical demo discs is wasteful, or even environmentally irresponsible, compared to downloading them? I want to know!
