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[Kon Tiki]

Motion blur filtering?

 

[GaimeGuy]

Yes.

But seriously: It looks fine when it's in motion. Keep in mind also that it'll be on a smaller screen, so it'll be more difficult to really notice those things.

 

[lexi]

I think Metroid Prime: Hunters looks great. Considering it's a first generation DS game, I'm impressed.

MP:H's control scheme is awesome, the closest thing to WASD & Mouse gaming consoles have ever had out of the box. FPS's, RTS's, and other point-n-click type games are next to impossible to pull off on the PSP in comparison to the DS.

 

[Robert-GCA]

Metroid Prime: Hunters will be like more classical PDA games though (the other screen includes a basic map which you hardly use that often in FPS games).

Not to mention the controls to switch to morphball and missles...

 

[kaching]

FPS's, RTS's, and other point-n-click type games are next to impossible to pull off on the PSP in comparison to the DS.

y'see, this is where you guys get yourself into trouble - always got to exaggerate the differences, crushing any semblance of a point you may have had.

FPS on PSP - analog stick for camera control, face buttons for forward, back and side-to-side movement. I believe we have the original Turok to thank for this, right?

RTS on PSP - for some examples of how this could be done, see Freedom Fighters and Kingdom under Fire on consoles now.

Point-n-click - Mostly about navigating from room to room and finding objects to interact with, right? See Resident Evil.

 

[mashoutposse]

I think Metroid Prime: Hunters looks great. Considering it's a first generation DS game, I'm impressed.

MP:H's control scheme is awesome, the closest thing to WASD & Mouse gaming consoles have ever had out of the box. FPS's, RTS's, and other point-n-click type games are next to impossible to pull off on the PSP in comparison to the DS.

???

The PSP will have the same control scheme for FPSes as Goldeneye.

 

[kaching]

If touch screen is so great for gaming, then why not one for consoles via a Wacom styled touch pad for your controller?

Consoles have never moved in lockstep with PCs and have often been late in arriving at the same innovations seen earlier on PCs by many years. So, who knows? Maybe next gen we will see something like that...

Touch screen gaming is a fad. As a 8 year PDA user, trust me on this.

As a PDA user for roughly the same amount of time, I'd agree to the extent that touch screen as a sole or primary form of control probably won't dominate, but touchscreen interaction has generally proven to at least be a good complementary control scheme for just about any type of application. Especially on portable devices that minimize the number of key/button-based controls available, it can't hurt to have a versatile control scheme that integrates into the screen itself.

 

[Pellham]

touchscreen is a fad? oh no, I guess we should stop making tablet PCs huh.

 

[mashoutposse]

touchscreen is a fad? oh no, I guess we should stop making tablet PCs huh.

Touchscreen gaming.

 

[Kon Tiki]

RTS on PSP - for some examples of how this could be done, see Freedom Fighters and Kingdom under Fire on consoles now.

I think he was talking about C&C, RON and starcraft type RTS. Possible on any platform sure, the control will be more 'at home', aka PC-like, with a touchscreen.

FPS can be done easily on PSP also, but again, it is just a preference for controls. Is touchscreen the greatest thing ever? no. Is it a welcome means of more precise controls? Yes ( well maybe not on these boards).

As sexy as that Konami FPS on PSP is, I would take mouse like controls over good graphics. I wish PSP had a touchscreen, or Nintendo making the DS with good graphics (LOL).

 

[kaching]

Society, the boy used the phrase "next to impossible". This is about nothing else. You don't have to waste your time validating touchscreen controls to me, because it had nothing to do with that.

 

[LowTecky]

How can touchscreen gaming be a fad, its not even available to us yet. Of course it will loose its wow factor over the years, but people wont begin to dislike touching things. Several companies have already demonstrated things I couldn't have imagined yet. I highly doubt that these ideas will run out any time soon.

 

[lexi]

next to impossible to pull off on the PSP in comparison to the DS

Emphasis Mine.

If I had only stated it would be 'next to impossible' then you could have burnt me at the stake. In comparison to the DS, it WILL be next to impossible to pull of RTS's and FPS's.

 

[kaching]

I read it the first time, lockii. The qualifier is worthless, because it doesn't prevent any of these types of games from being quite possible and fun to play on a setup like the PSP.

 

[lexi]

I agree with you, to an extent. Perhaps I should have placed more emphasis on the comparison qualifier.

Let's assume Starcraft is ported to both the DS and the PSP, which do you think would offer the beter gameplay experience?

 

[jarrod]

The Sony create a new market mantra sounds really interesting.... I wonder why.... oh shit I know why cause that's what people said they couldn't do with the Playstation.... they couldn't create a market where it was normal for adults to purchase consoles and play video games. They couldn't create a market where gaming become more accepted, more mainstream.

They couldn't if Sega hadn't done it 5 years prior, and laid out a nice gameplan for them. Besides, game players have been maturing along with the market, it only makes sense people who grew up gaming would want to keep going it.

Sony's real notable contributions were in terms of developer inclusion and support, changing the structure of 3rd party relations. The idea that Sony somehow brought gaming to the mainstream is a little faulty when their only real gains over the Famicom benchmarks have been in Europe. And if anything, gaming seems to be getting less diverse today, losing and alienating female gamers has been a huge problem for Sony in the move to PS2 in particular.

PlayStation didn't build it's market from the ground up, it inherited Sega's in the west and Nintendo's in Japan. Yes it added to that, but not proportionately more than any previous generational shift did naturally. Want Sony wants to do with PSP, they've never really done before.

 

[border]

And if anything, gaming seems to be getting less diverse today, losing and alienating female gamers has been a huge problem for Sony in the move to PS2 in particular.

Where has this been shown to be true? Are userbase demographics for the systems available?

 

[SolidSnakex]

And if anything, gaming seems to be getting less diverse today, losing and alienating female gamers has been a huge problem for Sony in the move to PS2 in particular.

Hasn't Sony been trying to get female gamers more recently, especially with their Eyetoy games which have a big appeal to female gamers. Stuff like Singstar especially.

 

[kaching]

I agree with you, to an extent. Perhaps I should have placed more emphasis on the comparison qualifier.

Or just left off the last sentence in that post

Let's assume Starcraft is ported to both the DS and the PSP, which do you think would offer the beter gameplay experience?

As a direct conversion with little or no thought given to how to re-map/re-configure controls for the respective handheld, then it would most probably be a better gameplay experience on the DS. However, I don't think that that would be saying much, since it would still be a compromise from the PC version and wouldn't necessarily be putting the DS hardware and its I/O options to optimal use.

Think about it. A "direct" conversion would imply that the touchscreen on the DS gets used as the primary display for showing the battlefield so you can control individual unit movements with the stylus...So what does the non-touch screen get used for? Unit stats? A zoomed out map of the entire battlefield? What about hotkeys from the PC version? If you're using the touchscreen for the zoomed in view of the battlefield, how much space could you really spare for graphic hotkeys?

Because only half of the DS screen real estate is directly interactive (unlike the PC where the mouse gives you direct access to 100% of the screen real estate) and it doesn't have the expansive input options of a keyboard, a "direct" conversion of Starcraft isn't really much more complementary to the DS setup than a direct conversion to the PSP setup.

So, if we get into a discussion about how best to implement Starcraft to optimally complement PSP or DS I/O options, then I think we'll find that there isn't necessarily a significantly better gameplay experience to be had on one or the other, but rather simply a different experience.

 

[jarrod]

Where has this been shown to be true? Are userbase demographics for the systems available?

There were on old GAF, no idea where to find them now. PS1 had close to a 40% female userbase (which is less than 10% female now iirc). Also, PS1 was more distributed across ages, while PS2 is weighted down in the "20s male" dempgraphic iirc. Wierd trends considering PS2's huge penetration gains over PS1, to actually lose diversity while gaining userbase and marketshare. :/

Hasn't Sony been trying to get female gamers more recently, especially with their Eyetoy games which have a big appeal to female gamers. Stuff like Singstar especially.

They have been actively trying, it was their internal mandate for fiscal 2004 iirc (getting the girls back into gaming).

 

[Late Stage Marxist]

Somehow I missed this thread. I guess I've been avoiding the handheld threads as I don't really care all that much. The only thing that strikes me about the initial post is how Kutaragi took the high road and didn't trash talk at all. I have to say I'm impressed.

 

[sprsk]

ugh.