The GHZ Forum

Sony's reveiled their newest portable, currently codenamed "Next Generation Portable" (NGP).



I'm curious to see how a touch pad on the back of the system will play. The 4 core hardware and second analog stick should insure a lot of PS3/360-style games.

It looks incredible and all that, but software is the only important thing here. That's whats going to be deciding this race and frankly, the original psp's lineup was weak as shit. That's certainly why I never even thought twice about buying one.

Great, now everyone will have to write out Neo Geo Pocket in full to avoid confusion. Not to mention "Next Generation" will become a misnomer the moment it's current gen and later last gen (and so on, so on).

A proposed release of Wipeout for the NGP has swayed me over the 3DS, which has left me fairly uninterested.
I dread to think how much this thing is going to cost..

I'm getting one, no question. PSP at least had interesting titles that I wanted to play in the last few years, unlike everything on the various DS iterations, including the upcoming 3DS. Nintendo's software track record continues to disappoint on a tremendous scale and I see them doing nothing to alter their current course. Sony, on the other hand, easily has the strongest 1st-party developers and games of this generation and their 3rd-party support is phenomenal.

So did Satoru Iwata run over your dog or something? Does the Yamauchi clan owe your family money?

Great, now everyone will have to write out Neo Geo Pocket in full to avoid confusion.

I know, that shit is killing me. Even though "Next Generation Portable" is only a code name, it's the worst code name ever.

My main concern is that they're going to launch like the 3DS with a bunch of recycled old games. And the back touch pad, which is going to be used for one or two gimmicky titles on or near launch and then forgotten and neglected. I mean what can you do with that, exactly?


Incidentally, 3DS reservations started here on the 20th (Thursday). I went down to Geo to reserve on the 22nd (Saturday, the first opportunity I had) and they'd already stopped taking reservations. There's nothing I want to play at launch, but I've turned into a hardware whore.

This seems like bad timing. Can most people really afford to upgrade their already expensive PSPs to the latest model in the middle of a recession? Especially with iPhones on the market? It's not like Sony don't have a reputation for this sort of thing.

Do the Japanese use iPhones or Apple products in general, by the way? I've seen what appear to be iPods in pictures but I gather they've always had their own booming phone market and I dunno what the fuck operating system they use.

I think just the iPod. The iPhone didn't catch on here like it did elsewhere, but I don't think there's any one thing that dominates the mobile market.

Kids here fucking love their PSP's, though. Monster Hunter is a goddamn phenomenon in this country the likes of Pokemon. That's basically all teenagers play here, Monster Hunter, Pokemon, and occasionally Winning Eleven.

Also, that Onion video is the funniest thing I've seen in the past 10 years. I laughed for days after the first time I saw that.

What is it about monster hunter that these people find so alluring? I've been playing Tri for a few months now and find it to be frustratingly dull and pointless. Is it purely the portable and social components that have the japanese population sold?

Probably. That's how they play it, in groups of 4 after school wherever their hangouts are. I've even seen groups of kids at the game center just playing their PSP's.

It is only teenagers, though, not the "Japanese population" at large. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it before, but you don't really have 30-year old men playing games in this country the way you do in the states. It is still very much a child-oriented industry here.

Green Gibbon! wrote:And the back touch pad, which is going to be used for one or two gimmicky titles on or near launch and then forgotten and neglected. I mean what can you do with that, exactly?

I was under the impression that, if properly calibrated, they could use it like a somewhat weird replacement for the L2 and R2 buttons.

I really enjoy huge portable systems that last 3 hours and do everything except focus on games. I never really wanted anything that lasted a decent amount of time or that was actually portable in any regard, and I ESPECIALLY never wanted to have fun. I am just so glad that this generation I have two devices to replace my ageing SEGA Nomad and Virtual Boy.

Kogen wrote:I really enjoy huge portable systems that last 3 hours and do everything except focus on games.

iPod touch, which Apple mistakenly claim is a viable gaming system.

iPod is almost as good as a Tiger Electronics device for gaming.

It's a viable gaming system for casual games, which is who they're marketing to. They're not talking to us, man. They're talking to my mom.

Anyone care to humor me by saying there's any chance this thing will be able to handle PS2 emulation?

MiraiTails wrote:Anyone care to humor me by saying there's any chance this thing will be able to handle PS2 emulation?

Don't quote me on this, but I think I've heard about that somewhere, if you don't mind buying your PS2 library again.

Green Gibbon! wrote:I think just the iPod. The iPhone didn't catch on here like it did elsewhere, but I don't think there's any one thing that dominates the mobile market.

Nah, it's actually really damn popular. It has all the features that Japanese phones had a monopoly on for years and then some, making it a lot more convenient than much of what's on the market now. Plus Tokyo has great coverage, so the only market anyone cares about is sewn up.

Kogen wrote:iPod is almost as good as a Tiger Electronics device for gaming.

You're an idiot. Unless you're trolling, in which case carry on.

Locit wrote:

Kogen wrote:iPod is almost as good as a Tiger Electronics device for gaming.

You're an idiot. Unless you're trolling, in which case carry on.

This is actually one of my favorite things anyone on the GHZ has ever said.

Farmer wrote:

MiraiTails wrote:Anyone care to humor me by saying there's any chance this thing will be able to handle PS2 emulation?

Don't quote me on this, but I think I've heard about that somewhere, if you don't mind buying your PS2 library again.

Even if that turns out to be true, I'm not really interested in buying games I already own (yet again).

Anti-3DS rant follows:
Speaking of re-buying games I already own, I think it's really pathetic that the 3DS title everyone's talking about is the ancient and overly-ported OoT. Sorry Nintendo, I'm going to need more than that. And it won't even be a launch title!

G.Silver wrote:

Locit wrote:

Kogen wrote:iPod is almost as good as a Tiger Electronics device for gaming.

You're an idiot. Unless you're trolling, in which case carry on.

This is actually one of my favorite things anyone on the GHZ has ever said.

Prove me wrong.

Is Ocarina of Time "overly ported"? I mean, there was one for the Gamecube. The virtual console is more of a legal emulator than a port. Besides, it's a game everyone likes, and nobody's forcing you to buy it.

No, for me the biggest problem with Ocarina of Time is that ever since, people seem to expect new Zeldas to be OoT with better graphics, criticising the series when it strays too far from the formula (e.g. sailing) and praising the forgettable entries that want to be OoT 2 (Majora's Mask, Twilight Princess).

Crisis wrote:"overly ported"

On the subject of over-porting, I'm expecting Sega will release a 'Sonic Super Mega Drive Mega-Pak' for both the 3DS and NGP.

Kogen wrote:

G.Silver wrote:

Locit wrote:

Kogen wrote:iPod is almost as good as a Tiger Electronics device for gaming.

You're an idiot. Unless you're trolling, in which case carry on.

This is actually one of my favorite things anyone on the GHZ has ever said.

Prove me wrong.

At the risk of saying something nice about you, what I actually meant by that was that I appreciate your hatred of the device (and possibly your use of hyperbole, I dunno).

Crisis wrote:Is Ocarina of Time "overly ported"? I mean, there was one for the Gamecube. The virtual console is more of a legal emulator than a port. Besides, it's a game everyone likes, and nobody's forcing you to buy it.

I know of two ports for the Gamecube, one with the Master Quest version and the other as part of the Collector's Edition.

Sure nobody's forcing me to buy OoT again, but it's lazy to keep porting the same game over and over again. Look where it's gotten Sega.