Just Bought a PSP

Mai-Kero

So I just purchased the rock band psp 3000 bundle from Best Buy, ostensibly with the objective of trying it out to see if I like it, and then returning it if I don't/if I find it somewhere cheaper thanks to best buy's relatively lenient return policy on systems.

Does anyone have experience with the multiple varieties of PSPs? I know that there used to be a 1000, a 2000, and now there are the 3000s and Gos. I'm kind of set against the Go because of smaller form factor, lower battery life, higher price, and the inability to purchase used games.

Should I be considering a 1000 or 2000, possibly, if they're cheaper than the 3000?

Are there any accessories I should consider? I went with the Rock Band pack because it came with a 4 GB memory stick, but I'm sure I can find cards cheaper online. I also heard something about an extended battery pack. Any idea of how long it actually extends the battery?

What are the PSPs multimedia capabilities like, if anyone has an opinion? Are there any legal homebrew applications that I can actually add to it, or does the newer firmware block everything?

And finally: Games?

brynstar

Although the 3000 has the brightest screen of the older models, it also has an interlacing effect that many people don't like, thus making the 2000 preferable.

EDIT: I personally think that the color and contrast of the 3000 make it worth it, but I can see why some would be bothered by it.

Dehumanized

That's a lot of questions, uh... I'll try to answer as best I can:

1. The 2000 and 3000 are pretty much identical units. They both have slightly different screens, but neither is perfect. The 2000 screen can have ghosting problems, the 3000 screen can have interlacing problems. The 3000 also has a microphone to use for Skype (which you will probably never do). Later versions of the 2000 and all versions of the 3000 are much harder to use custom firmware on, which you may or may not care about (I'll get to that later). The 1000 is bigger than the later models, and has a lower quality screen.

2. As far as accessories go, you might want to consider the extended life battery if you plan to play often away from a wall-mounted charger. Running a UMD game with wifi active and full screen brightness with the regular battery on my 3000 will give about 3 hours of charge. If you decide to buy the extended life battery (It'd probably get around 4-4.5 hours charge in the same conditions), I suggest spending extra on getting an official one. They're hard to find, but you don't want to get screwed with a shit battery.

I've got 4GB of storage right now, which is working fine, but if you feel you'll need more then by all means, pick up an 8GB stick or something. Beyond that, you might want a carrying case. Since I'm more of a home use guy, I just store mine in a sock when I'm not playing it. If I took it out more often, I'd probably get something a bit more protective.

The multimedia capabilities with official firmware are... well, they're not great. It's a servicable video player and a servicable music player. I wouldn't replace my Ipod with it. There is also a built-in web browser that sucks quite a bit. With Sony's firmware, I don't think any of the media options are really any better than diversions at best.

As far as homebrew goes, with official firmware you can't do fuck all. Sony's got that shit on lockdown. With custom firmware, you can do all kinds of wondrous things that a bunch of people will surely come in this thread and tell you about. I don't use it, so I'm not really the best source for that question. If you decide to go with a custom firmware solution, you'll probably want to hunt down an early PSP-2000 or a PSP-1000. They're much easier to flash with CFW.

Games... I'd recommend scouring the PSN for demos. There's a pretty good amount available. I'd definitely recommend checking out these:
LocoRoco
Crisis Core
Persona

What sort of interests do you have?

Mai-Kero

Dehumanized wrote: »

That's a lot of questions, uh... I'll try to answer as best I can:

1. The 2000 and 3000 are pretty much identical units. They both have slightly different screens, but neither is perfect. The 2000 screen can have ghosting problems, the 3000 screen can have interlacing problems. The 3000 also has a microphone to use for Skype (which you will probably never do). Later versions of the 2000 and all versions of the 3000 are much harder to use custom firmware on, which you may or may not care about (I'll get to that later). The 1000 is bigger than the later models, and has a lower quality screen.

2. As far as accessories go, you might want to consider the extended life battery if you plan to play often away from a wall-mounted charger. Running a UMD game with wifi active and full screen brightness with the regular battery on my 3000 will give about 3 hours of charge. If you decide to buy the extended life battery (It'd probably get around 4-4.5 hours charge in the same conditions), I suggest spending extra on getting an official one. They're hard to find, but you don't want to get screwed with a shit battery.

I've got 4GB of storage right now, which is working fine, but if you feel you'll need more then by all means, pick up an 8GB stick or something. Beyond that, you might want a carrying case. Since I'm more of a home use guy, I just store mine in a sock when I'm not playing it. If I took it out more often, I'd probably get something a bit more protective.

The multimedia capabilities with official firmware are... well, they're not great. It's a servicable video player and a servicable music player. I wouldn't replace my Ipod with it. There is also a built-in web browser that sucks quite a bit. With Sony's firmware, I don't think any of the media options are really any better than diversions at best.

As far as homebrew goes, with official firmware you can't do fuck all. Sony's got that shit on lockdown. With custom firmware, you can do all kinds of wondrous things that a bunch of people will surely come in this thread and tell you about. I don't use it, so I'm not really the best source for that question.

Games... I'd recommend scouring the PSN for demos. There's a pretty good amount available. I'd definitely recommend checking out these:
LocoRoco
Crisis Core
Persona

What sort of interests do you have?

Hmm, with interests as far as games go, I'm thinking I'd use it mostly for RPGs and puzzle games. With Applications, I was wondering if there was anything that allow it to function as an eBook reader.

brynstar

Well, Dehumanized, that's about as thorough an answer as can be expected! In addition to that list of games, I'd also recommend God of War if you're interested in that series, and Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops (not plus).

If you're into rhythm games you also can't go wrong with Gitaroo Man.

Hahnsoo1

It's not true interlacing. It's more appropriately called "scan lines". Single pixel lines don't "vibrate" on a 3000's screen, for one thing, and the refresh rate is not halved. It's an optical illusion produced by the way the pixels are arranged on the screen:
http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/31/psp-3000-put-under-microscope-interlacing-issue-exposed/

True interlacing would be horrendous, as any person who has played a high-res Amiga game can attest to. Or anyone who tried to play HD games on a crappy CRT.

In truth, the colors are fairly rich and vibrant that it's really difficult to see the so-called "interlacing" or "scan lines" unless your eyes are trained to see it and you are playing a game that heavily relies on pixels (for example, Disgaea 2). The best way to tell the difference is to get a PSP-2000 and -3000 together and look at them side by side in the sunlight. In a darker room, it's not so different, though. The 3000 is far more playable in sunlight than the 2000 (and both are more playable than the 1000).

The last PSP thread was here:
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=98495

Also, I heartily recommend Monster Hunter Freedom Unite. At least try it out. It has hundreds of hours of gameplay, and may very well replace any other games you are currently playing, especially if you are playing with friends. Even though I've topped out over 1000 hours on it, I still play every day during lunch at work with my buddies.

Dehumanized

eBook reader... there's probably some sort of homebrew application to do that.

As far as RPGs go, I'd say all these merit some interest:
Disgaea
Jeanne d'Arc
Star Ocean: Second Evolution
Persona
Crisis Core
FFT
(There's lots more. Many ports exist, as well as a decent smattering of new offerings...)

As for puzzle games, I hear Lumines is amazing.


Oh, and you should give Patapon 2 a shot. The game can be balls hard, but combines RPG elements with a rhythm game and some really fun art style. I'd recommend skipping the first one, the second improves in almost every way and allows for a less cliff-like difficulty curve.

Mai-Kero

brynstar wrote: »

Well, Dehumanized, that's about as thorough an answer as can be expected! In addition to that list of games, I'd also recommend God of War if you're interested in that series, and Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops (not plus).

If you're into rhythm games you also can't go wrong with Gitaroo Man.

What's the difference between Portable Ops and Plus?

Hahnsoo1

Mai-Kero wrote: »

brynstar wrote: »

Well, Dehumanized, that's about as thorough an answer as can be expected! In addition to that list of games, I'd also recommend God of War if you're interested in that series, and Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops (not plus).

If you're into rhythm games you also can't go wrong with Gitaroo Man.

What's the difference between Portable Ops and Plus?

AFAIK, Plus is a multiplayer expansion to Portable Ops. You need Portable Ops to play Plus, I think. I could be wrong, though. You should get the original Portable Ops, or wait for the next PSP Metal Gear which looks to have better gameplay than Portable Ops (not that Portable Ops was bad... quite the opposite, actually, it's Metal Gear Solid in the palm of your hand).

Dehumanized

Portable Ops has a full single player campaign which is considered to be canon, Portable Ops Plus does not.

Both are standalone products.

Mai-Kero

I'll probably end up getting Portable Ops then, and probably the AC!Ds too, as card gameplay doesn't really bother me that much.

Also, RPG list:

Disgaea 1/2
Persona
FF: Tactics

Any others?

And I think my main concern with which model right now is if I can even put custom firmware on the 3000 at all. Possible?

Dehumanized

It's possible, just don't update your official firmware. The current exploit that works to get CFW onto the 3000s requires firmware 5.03. If you've updated past that, you're screwed.

Hahnsoo1

Mai-Kero wrote: »

I'll probably end up getting Portable Ops then, and probably the AC!Ds too, as card gameplay doesn't really bother me that much.

Also, RPG list:

Disgaea 1/2
Persona
FF: Tactics

Any others?

And I think my main concern with which model right now is if I can even put custom firmware on the 3000 at all. Possible?

I feel that FF7: Crisis Core is a must-play RPG, if only because the reveals are done so well by the end. It has a lot of content, as well, and it's not ALL fanservice (although there's quite a bit of that in the game).

You'd do well with Disgaea 1 and 2 and FF: Tactics, though. Those will keep you busy for a very long time. Persona, not so much.

RainbowDespair

Hahnsoo1 wrote: »

You'd do well with Disgaea 1 and 2 and FF: Tactics, though. Those will keep you busy for a very long time. Persona, not so much.

Eh, Persona was a good RPG on the PS1 and the PSP version is noticeably better and longer than the original version. If you like complex traditional RPGs, it's a good bet.

Mai-Kero

Dehumanized wrote: »

It's possible, just don't update your official firmware. The current exploit that works to get CFW onto the 3000s requires firmware 5.03. If you've updated past that, you're screwed.

Are there any games that auto-update firmware past that? Alt question: will sony cut off access to their online store if I don't update?

ps question: Is there a link to a custom firmware guide, or does that edge too close to a rule-breaking thing? I mainly want it for applications, not even homebrew games, let alone anything truly bad.

Mechanical

FF: Tactics is pretty hard to go wrong with. It's also the only PSP game I own.

Alfred J. Kwak

Patapon is hands down the best game on the PSP. Not so sure about 2, I still haven't gotten around to play it.

Mai-Kero wrote: »

Also, RPG list:

Disgaea 1/2
Persona
FF: Tactics

Any others?

Just got me Tales of Eternia today - maybe that game is something for you too, but I haven't tried it myself yet.

Voro

Mai-Kero wrote: »

Dehumanized wrote: »

It's possible, just don't update your official firmware. The current exploit that works to get CFW onto the 3000s requires firmware 5.03. If you've updated past that, you're screwed.

Are there any games that auto-update firmware past that?

I don't know if they'll auto-update, but there are games that require an update to play. Disgaea 2, Gran Turismo, SMT Persona...lots of the new ones require an update to 5.55 or higher. At best you can get them to run on 5.50 CFW, but I don't believe that's an option for the 3000 or 2000 v3.

BigDes

Bookr is a brilliant ebook reader. You need homebrew for it though.

Princepeach

Mai-Kero wrote: »

I'll probably end up getting Portable Ops then, and probably the AC!Ds too, as card gameplay doesn't really bother me that much.

Also, RPG list:

Disgaea 1/2
Persona
FF: Tactics

Any others?

And I think my main concern with which model right now is if I can even put custom firmware on the 3000 at all. Possible?

If you're at all familiar with the Shin Megami Tensei series, Monster Kingdom: Jewel Summoner is worth a look. It's directed by the father of SMT, Cozy Okada, after he left Atlus to form a new dev company.

It's not without it's problems (too much jabber, uninspired art direction) but it does some pretty interesting things with the typical moster capturing/fusing etc found in the SMT series. I've put almost 40 hours into it myself, and I'm still not finished.

Crimson Gem Saga has gotten a lot of high praise for doing the traditional JRPG "thing" extremely well.

cj iwakura

Wild Arms XF and Yggdra Union are certainly unique as SRPGs go.


Also, if you're interested in using the PSP as a multimedia app, look into a program called PSP Video 9. It converts MPEGs and what not into PSP format, then all you need is a USB cord to transfer them.

SkyEye

First of all, buy this. You don't know you need it yet, but just get one.

NIS is currently having a sale that I'm pretty sure lasts until the seventh. Disgaea 1, Prinny, and Holy Invasion of Privacy Badman PSN prices have been halved.

Your mileage will vary depending on your tastes in genre, but Wipeout Pure, FF: Tactics, Disgaea, God of War, and Ace Combat X are all highly recommended. Though I haven't bought them yet, I also have heard nothing but good about Motorstorm: Arctic Edge and Prinny.

Kyougu

Sega Genesis Collection is on the download store for 16 bucks. That seems like a ridicolous good price for all the quality games included.

Stronginthearm

The following are games I know I've enjoyed on the PSP.

Star Ocean First Departure
Star Ocean Second Evolution
Tales of Eternia
LocoRoco
LocoRoco 2
Patapon
Valkyrie Profile Lenneth
Lumines
Lumines 2
Daxter
Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters
Final Fantasy 7
Crisis Core Final Fantasy 7
Wipeout Pulse
Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops
Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy Tactics War Of The Lions
Monster Hunter Freedom 2
Breath of Fire 3

Lunker

The whole custom firm scene is in a bit of a holding pattern right now; the release of the Go combined with updates to the PSN store and a new official firmware mean some shifty workarounds are required to play more recent games (anything after Soul Calibur, IIRC). It's doable on a CFW machine, but not very straightforward. I'm pretty sure we can't link any guides to this kind of thing due to rules here, but the NeoGAF forums should have some answers for the curious. I haven't bought anything recently, even though Motorstorm Arctic Edge looks boss, because I'm waiting to see if the scene catches up soon.

Beyond all that, definitely look into an official first-party stamina battery (and beware of fakes), and the RBU bundle is pretty decent. I like RBU a lot, and 4GB is enough to last you a while, but when you want a bigger memory stick I recommend SanDisks for the best balance of price and functionality.

greeble

Yeah I haven't bought any psp games recently either due to CFW issues with newer games. I'm going to try a few of the work arounds and see how far it gets me. (I'll probably buy the digital version of Disagea to test it on since its cheap.)

Also has anyone been able to confirm if you are able to download your PSN games to multiple psps?

brynstar

greeble wrote: »

Yeah I haven't bought any psp games recently either due to CFW issues with newer games. I'm going to try a few of the work arounds and see how far it gets me. (I'll probably buy the digital version of Disagea to test it on since its cheap.)

Also has anyone been able to confirm if you are able to download your PSN games to multiple psps?

You can attach five unique PSPs to each PSN account, so that's a yes!

Delzhand

Jeanne d'Arc is a fucking phenomenal strategy RPG that is on par with FFT in terms of presentation and mechanics. It's more heavily anime-ized than FFT:Lion War, but it still doesn't get nearly the recognition it deserves.

Edit: You also might even learn some history - obviously La Hire is not a giant lion man and Duke of Bedford was not a demon possessed madman, but the underlying plot is surprisingly well connected to reality, in terms of the places Joan of Arc went and what happened to her.

Loki

A few games that I had a lot of fun with, though I'm not a huge RPG player, so there won't be many on my list:

Syphon Filter Dark Mirror
Syphon Filter Logans Shadow
Resistance Retribution
Killzone Liberation
Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (this game will suck away your life. play with caution)
Motorstorm Arctic Edge (this is a pretty awesome racer by all standards, not just as a PSP game)
Burnout Legends
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
God of War: Chains of Olympus
Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters
Secret Agent Clank
Daxter

Bullio

I'm seriously looking into getting a PSP soon, specifically a 3000. Does CFW for the 3000 allow the dumping of your UMDs onto memory sticks like it did with the 1000 (and I'm assuming 2000)? Can you also do the Pandora Battery trick with the 3000?

Also, what's a good place for cheap memory cards for the PSP? I see Amazon has a lot of them with slashed prices, but is there any place that has them cheaper?

Lunker

Custom firmwares on 3000s are spotty; pandora batteries don't work and even when you get the CFW running, it only lasts until the system powers down. If you leave it in permanent sleep mode and just charge as needed, it doesn't seem too bad, though.

Loki

Lunker wrote: »

Custom firmwares on 3000s are spotty; pandora batteries don't work and even when you get the CFW running, it only lasts until the system powers down. If you leave it in permanent sleep mode and just charge as needed, it doesn't seem too bad, though.

Not anymore, apparently.

Lightor216

-Loki- wrote: »

Lunker wrote: »

Custom firmwares on 3000s are spotty; pandora batteries don't work and even when you get the CFW running, it only lasts until the system powers down. If you leave it in permanent sleep mode and just charge as needed, it doesn't seem too bad, though.

Not anymore, apparently.

Indeed. PSP 3000s are just as hackable as any other normal model.

freakish light

greeble wrote: »

Yeah I haven't bought any psp games recently either due to CFW issues with newer games. I'm going to try a few of the work arounds and see how far it gets me. (I'll probably buy the digital version of Disagea to test it on since its cheap.)

Also has anyone been able to confirm if you are able to download your PSN games to multiple psps?

Regular Disgaea works fine with previous CFW; it's Disgaea 2 that makes you upgrade to 5.55. Just to confirm.