PSP Game News, Previews, and Reviews from 1UP.com

What Makes a Game Worth Buying at Launch?

Chris Pereira — Fri, 04 May 2012 14:43:00 PDT

Gaming can be an expensive hobby, particularly if you're keen on picking up games as they are released. With your typical console game going for $60 at launch and there being no shortage of quality titles to play, those costs can quickly add up, making it difficult to keep up with the latest releases. But there are more factors than merely price which can make gamers hesitant to buy games when they first come out including a perceived lack of value, eventual complete/Game of the Year edition releases, and patches which make games into better experiences for those who opt against rushing out to a midnight launch.

1UP readers on Facebook and our boards responding to a question about purchasing games at launch offered up a wide variety of reasons for why they are not keen on always being early adopters. While there were those who do still buy games as soon as they are made available, a high percentage of answers indicated there are only a limited numbers of exceptions where they are willing to do so.

Gamers Reflect on What They'll Miss Most About the Old Days

Chris Pereira — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 11:00:00 PDT

Gaming is rapidly changing. Whether we're talking about things becoming more digital or new business models or whatever else, the industry already looks a great deal different than it did 10 or 20 years ago and that's only going to continue in the coming decades.

As with anything in entertainment that changes, people are going to yearn for the way things used to be (while also worrying about what the future will bring). For me, one of the things I miss most is the sort of manuals games used to come with. What I looked forward to most when first buying a new game, regardless of what it was, was opening the box up and flipping through the manual before actually trying the game out. And I'm not just talking about spending time devouring the pages of a manual (or whatever other paperwork a PC game would come with -- keyboard shortcut cards, tech trees, etc. -- as it installs); console and handheld game manuals had to be read cover to cover before the game went into the system. This wasn't a matter of preparing for games with no tutorials, as I treated those with in-game instructions no differently. I specifically remember reading the entire manual for Mario Party 2 -- Mario Party 2 -- before I would even stick the cart in my Nintendo 64.

OP-ED: EA Being Named America's Worst Company is Crazy

Chris Pereira — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 16:25:00 PDT

Electronic Arts is the winner (loser?) of The Consumerist's annual Worst Company in America tournament this year. Following a round of nominations and weeks of head-to-head, March Madness-style voting, the Redwood City, California-based videogame publisher was named the top vote-getter in the finals today in which it was squaring off against Bank of America.

Before going any further it's important to note this is an Internet poll, and as such can't be taken as an actual indication of what the population believes is the worst company around. Yet even with that caveat in mind, it's hard to fathom that a company responsible for making games could be loathed so vociferously.

PSP Game Owners Caught in Crossfire of Sony's Vita Piracy Fight

Chris Pereira — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 12:45:00 PDT

One of the biggest problems the PlayStation Portable faced was piracy. It was absolutely rampant on Sony's debut handheld game system resulting in developers and publishers being scared off who might have otherwise supported it. With PlayStation Vita, Sony has gone to great lengths to avoid having history repeat itself, opting to use proprietary memory cards as opposed to SD cards or the Memory Stick Duos used by PSP. Sony's Scott Rohde described the solutions it had implemented as helping to protect the company "from piracy for the long term." But never doubt the ability of the collective hacker/modder community, as Ars Technica reports a way has already been discovered to run software on the system that Sony did not intend -- and Sony has not stood idly by while it happened.

Although it did not provide a way to suddenly run the sort of homebrew content you could on PSP, the Vita Half-Byte Loader is an open-source homebrew loader capable of running, among other things, emulators for NES, SNES, and Game Boy. This is done through a vulnerability discovered in certain PSP games which can be played on Vita (remember, not all digital PSP games are compatible with Vita at the moment). The first game announced to work with the exploit was Motorstorm: Arctic Edge; as demonstrated in the video below, it could be used to load up and play a game like Doom for PC.

You're Not Alone: Gamers Share Their Quirky Playing Habits

Chris Pereira — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 11:41:00 PDT

Everyone has their quirks, and when it comes to playing videogames things are no different, whether it be inconsequential things no one would ever notice or more drastic habits that radically alter your playing experience.

Writing about the way I tend to play open-ended games like Mass Effect recently prompted me to take a more critical look at the way I play games to see what else I do that might be considered... unusual. Wrong would not be the correct word to use, as I'm not sure that you can play a game the wrong way. You can certainly play them in a less than ideal way, as demonstrated by my propensity for playing Mass Effect or Heavy Rain in such a way that important decisions are rendered insignificant. Other eccentricities are less harmful, which is certainly good news for me as I seem to be in never-ending supply of them.

OP-ED: Netflix's Failures Highlight Steam's Strength

Ryan Winterhalter — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 16:00:00 PST

Netflix subscribers will find their movie selection gutted tomorrow, as the service removes thousands of movies and TV shows due to the end of its contract with the premium cable movie network Starz, which, while providing only around 5% of the overall Netflix library, just happens to offer some of the more popular content.

The same thing happens to online game providers, from Netflix-like streaming services like OnLive, to more traditional digital distribution platforms like Xbox Live or Steam. With all this uncertainty one might be tempted to simply stick with physical media, but despite what its ardent defenders will tell you, the physical media sold by normal retail channels comes with a finite lifespan. Regardless of whether you stream, download, or buy optical discs, no game you purchase will last forever, and any streaming service will face periodic mass delistings like Netflix as contracts change every few years. Meaning downloadable game services may offer you the best chance of playing your favorite game thirty years from now.

Lack of Demand Blamed For No UMD Conversion Program

Chris Pereira — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 12:55:00 PST

Two weeks after revealing that Vita owners outside of Japan will not be able to convert their PSP UMD game collection into digital versions playable on Sony's new handheld, the company has provided an explanation for why it made that decision. It isn't particularly unreasonable, though it probably won't be of much consolation to those with extensive UMD collections who want access to those games on their shiny new Vita.

Sony's head of Worldwide Studios, Shuhei Yoshida, said he was sorry the United States would not see the program in an interview with Wired. Noting he is not the one who could make the decision one way or the other, he outlined two reasons why Sony is keeping the UMD Passport program Japan-only: demand and price.

The Vita's Challenge: A History of Portable Competition

Jeremy Parish — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 17:33:00 PST

Feature

The Vita's Challenge: A History of Portable Competition

To succeed, Sony's new handheld must escape the long shadow cast by two decades of Nintendo's domination.

By: Jeremy Parish February 21, 2012

Today marks the official U.S. launch of PlayStation Vita. It's a great system, but it has its work cut out for it. Nintendo's 3DS is making serious inroads after a soft launch, and Sony runs the very real risk of seeing history repeat itself. To date, Nintendo has triumphed against every handheld competitor to challenge it since the Game Boy launched 23 years ago. We can't predict how the Vita/3DS battle will turn out just yet, but we can certainly look to history to see how Nintendo has consistently triumphed over its impressive competitors.

The Game Boy Era

Why We Love Video Games: The Movie

Ryan Winterhalter — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 17:10:00 PST

For Valentine's Day we examined 35 reasons why we love games, but we're not done expressing our affection yet. Prose alone couldn't handle out boundless adoration; we had to make a video. Watch as we discuss our personal favorite reason to love.

OP-ED: Activision Has a Point When Defending Itself Against Claims It Doesn't Innovate

Chris Pereira — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 18:47:00 PST

Between DICE taking place last week and Tim Schafer successfully turning to Kickstarter to fund a Double Fine-developed graphic adventure, there has been a lot of talk recently about the role publishers serve in the videogame industry. There is the belief among many people that publishers do little more than stifle innovation, a suggestion Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg takes issue with.

During a panel at DICE, Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter made the case that today's publishing model isn't good for for the industry. Publishers are opposed to risks and many shy away from bringing out games unlikely to sell millions of units, he said, also adding, "We are getting fewer choices as consumers because financial guys are taking over. Financial guys are making the decisions."