A Little Miracle
If I were still poor and could afford to buy only one video game machine, I might go with Sony’s hand-held PSP. It’s an extraordinary little miracle on par with the PS 2, and now there’s an even slimmer, lighter PSP on the market.
Sony just started selling a redesigned PSP. It doesn’t weigh much more than my Blackberry. The excellent screen is still a 4.3-inch LCD, which beams movies and games with a crispness that beats iPod and other techy devices.
It’s $170, though $200 bundles come with the fairly fun cartoon adventure “Daxter” and “Family Guy: The Freakin’ Sweet Collection.” Another new bundle comes with “Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron.”
The pros: For this PSP, you can buy an AV cable that hooks up to TVs, so you can put PSP images on a big screen. Games load a little faster. And the system comes with a nice, 1 gig memory stick.
The cons: If you already own peripherals for your old PSP, they probably won’t work. My amazing, 15-hour Blue Raven battery booster ($80) doesn’t fit my redesigned PSP. Neither does my Griffin iFM radio adapter ($30; to receive radio signals), nor my Griffin iTrip ($25; to send PSP audio to my car radio).
Plenty of gamers complain the PSP doesn’t offer as many great titles as do the PS 2 and Xbox 360. This is true. But there are enough games, such as “Tiger Woods PGA Tour ’08,” to keep you busy for months
And a handful of new and recent games spin spectacularly.
“NBA ’08” is just as fun as the slate of basketball games on Xbox 360 and PS 3.
This summer’s “Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas” lets you zip through a huge and showy action-adventure, both as a solo mission and as an online shooter.
And perhaps the best of a new bunch is “Syphon Filter: Logan’s Shadow,” a sequel shooting game that looks better than most PS 2 games. It allows you to shoot and stab bad guys with aplomb. You even scald a guy’s face against a stove top. The online shooting is fairly fun, too, though it’s nothing like a great Xbox 360 experience.
The hand-held system may get a boost next spring with the release of “God of War: Chains of Olympus.” I haven’t been able to play all of “Olympus,” but Sony sent me a demo so I could flip through several completed levels. And “Chains of Olympus” looks like it may be the greatest PSP game of all time.
It’s a filmlike beast of an action-adventure that moves, feels and plays every bit as exciting as previous PS 2 “God of Wars.”
Once again, you play as antihero Kratos, the strongest, most vicious warrior in history. He’s a Spartan who swings blades of fire attached at the arms, slaying soldiers, dragons, giant mythical beasts, and even bigger mythical beasts (the size of airliners) that go around eating the merely giant beasts in their way.
In essence, “Chains of Olympus” could do for the PSP what “Halo” titles did for the Xbox 360: give gamers a massive reason to invest a lot of money in a system just to play one title. Or you could jump onto the PSP now, and get ready for its serious gamesmanship.
(Redesigned Sony PSP retails for $170 — Plays fun. Looks great. Easy to very challenging games. Four stars.)
(“NBA ’08” retails for $40 for PSP — Plays very fun. Looks great. Challenging. Rated “E.” Four stars out of four.)
(“Syphon Filter: Logan’s Shadow” retails for $40 for PSP — Plays addictively fun. Looks great. Challenging. Rated “T” for language, violence. Four stars.)
(“Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas” retails for $40 for PSP — Plays fun. Looks great. Challenging. Rated “T” for blood, mild language, violence. Three and one-half stars.)
DOUG ELFMANMORE COLUMNSNEW IN STORES
“Conan” is an action-adventure game where you kill and graze through a fantasy world of evil axe wielders. The Tuesday release retails for $60 for PS 3 and Xbox 360. It’s rated “M” for blood, gore, intense violence, nudity.
“Clive Barker’s Jericho” is another evil-fighting action-adventure where you run a team of super powered people who use telekinesis and other supernatural elements to save the world. The Tuesday release retails for $60 for PS 3 and Xbox 360. It’s rated “M” for blood, gore, intense violence, sexual themes, strong language.
“Bee Movie Game” is an action-adventure based on the Jerry Seinfeld cartoon. You fly through the air and avoid cars. The Tuesday release retails for $50 for Xbox 360; $40 for Wii and PS 2; $30 for DS. It’s rated “E” for mild cartoon violence.
“Sims 2: Castaway” brings the “Sims” world to a deserted island, where you and others decide to either stay and make the best of things by turning monkeys into butlers, or to flee by raft. The Tuesday release retails for $50 for Wii; $40 for PSP and PS 2; $30 for DS. It’s rated “T” for crude humor, mild violence, suggestive themes.
— By DOUG ELFMAN
