toys are good

On my return, there was a note from FedEx stating they had a package they had tried to deliver, but were unsuccessful in the attempt. I thought it was some crap from work, but it turned out to be the toy I had pre-ordered and had hoped to pick up prior to jumping on an airplane. I was surprised they drop-shipped it to me, but it was a pleasant surprise.

It’s cool, and much smaller than I thought it would be.

Initial impressions:

  • Gorgeous screen
  • Light
  • Decent feel in the hands
  • Analog controller is clunky (I bet we’ll see a redesign inside six months)
  • Case is a little too reflective, and the clear shoulderpad buttons are gonna get dirty
  • Surprising graphics/sound capability, even with everyone saying how kick-ass it was
  • Sleek, stylish form factor
  • WiFi, and a TCP/IP stack that works
  • No chance of it replacing my iPod for music
  • Very good chance of it replacing my laptop as DVD player on flights
  • Decent battery life
  • Ass-tacular pack-ins (I mean really, a 32MB memory card for something that’s supposed to replace your media players? c’mon!!!)
  • Goddamn Sony proprietary memory sticks. Stick to SD or CF, for crying out loud
  • Good game selection
  • Wip3out Pure
  • No included web browser (yet!), and the WIpeout browser hack is not a good alternative

Very pleased with it. The movie playback on UMD was very nice, but I have a hard time picturing paying more than $10 for a movie, since you an’t use it on anything other than a PSP, and I’m betting Sony won’t sell ’em for less than $25. Games are great, but the packin of Gretzky was kinda lame – it’s a pretty shitty game, IMO.

Can’t wait for some of the third party apps to come out, ideally a MAME emulator or some such 🙂

3 thoughts on “toys are good

  1. I have resisted thus far, although it helps that FS didn’t even have it powered on, and it was Gretzky.

    I definitely didn’t see Wipeout running.

  2. wip3out pure is sweet. Of course, I’m biased, because I love the damn series. It looks bootiful, and the framerates surprised me in a good way. Soundtrack isn’t quite up to par from previous versions, and I’m not sure if I’m a fan of the new shield absorb mechanics (instead of going through a tunnel at the start/finish line to boost shields, you can “absorb” weapons). I also prefer the d-pad to the analog controller, but it’s a fun, fun game. 🙂

  3. it’s the damn memory stick that gets me. I think Sony could have said

    OKAY LOOK, WE’RE WRONG. OUR BAD.

    I mean the whole point is to share stuff between other devices, and it’s fucking hubris to think that we have sony digital audio players and sony digital cameras, etc, etc, etc.

    As for the web browser, that’d be pretty sweet, but I wonder how well input would work? I remember the PS2 was supposed to have a web browser.

    I’m still waiting for that. It’s not going to come.

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