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So I took the plunge and bought a Sony PSP for the boring train trips to and from work. What an awesome little machine. It's like literally having a PS2 in the palm of your hand. God of War for PSP is fucking great.

The only problem is I've been looking everywhere for Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops and can't find it. Obviously a very popular game, sold out everywhere and not a single pre-owned copy at either EB or GAME.

The PSP is powerful, granted, but I could never quite get past the poor ergonomics. Its sorta works if you have tiny hands, but I never could quite get a grip on the shoulder buttons and that thumbnub is a joke.

Have you tried online stores? The rarer titles are often easiest to find there.

Don't forget the no second stick = worst camera controls ever.

But I'll be curious to see what Vympel has to say in a few months; I've known several people who own PSPs, and they all lose interest after plaing the two or three games worth shit.

The PSP is powerful, granted, but I could never quite get past the poor ergonomics. Its sorta works if you have tiny hands, but I never could quite get a grip on the shoulder buttons and that thumbnub is a joke.

The ergonomics are fine for me, but my hands are relatively lithe, so the shoulder buttons aren't an issue at all. The thumbnub is also great (what's wrong with it?), though I must admit I didn't originally know what it was for until I realized the digital direction keys weren't working in God of War

Have you tried online stores? The rarer titles are often easiest to find there.

My local GAME is getting it in from another store, or at least they'll try. They have it on the system.

Fucking hell if I didn't get burned on the price though - $299 for the God of War pack (i.e. the PSP and God of War) seemed quite reasonable - until I realised that the fucking thing didn't come with a memory stick, and all the $49.95 1GB models are sold out and they only have the $99.95 4GB models.

Still, more storage is good and it'll be great for watching ripped movies and tv eps on the way to work. Who needs an iPod?

The thumbnub is also great (what's wrong with it?)

It never felt very precise, and when you have to change direction a lot, it chafes like hell. I tried playing some racing game with it - Midnight Dub? the one with the atrocious loading times - and had to go back to the digital pad because I couldn't control the game at all. The digital pad worked fine.

Vympel wrote:So I took the plunge and bought a Sony PSP for the boring train trips to and from work. What an awesome little machine. It's like literally having a PS2 in the palm of your hand. God of War for PSP is fucking great.

The only problem is I've been looking everywhere for Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops and can't find it. Obviously a very popular game, sold out everywhere and not a single pre-owned copy at either EB or GAME.

I'm not sure what stores you have in Australia but I found it at Best Buy, I've also seen it at Future Shop, Wal*Mart and various grocery stores.

If your a fan of turn based strategy try and find Squad Command (WH40K), it's quite good.

I got one primarily to play with the connectivity between it and the PSP. That lasted about a day. If Sony ever lets the PS3 stream movies to it, then I'll probably use it more.

Vympel wrote: The only problem is I've been looking everywhere for Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops and can't find it. Obviously a very popular game, sold out everywhere and not a single pre-owned copy at either EB or GAME.

Ebay is pretty much your only bet for Portable Ops, but even then expect marked up prices due to its popularity.

Vympel wrote:The only problem is I've been looking everywhere for Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops and can't find it.

Whoa, really? IT was the first game I ever got. I just snagged a copy off the shelf in JB. A few eeks later the MGS:PO+ came out, with copies just sitting on the shelves in EB. Hell, there might be some still on the shelves, though we had sales recently. If we do have any left in my area, it would be within my ability to act as your agent* to acquire a copy and mail it to you.

*I've been writing essays on this.

I still love my PSP, though I tend to mainly use it when I'm going to be away from home for prolonged periods.

I play GTA, God of War, Powerstone (a fun little 3D Capcom beat em up game I mainly got so I could let my little bro play it) and Justice League Heroes mainly.

I bought a big memory stick for it in an officeworks store I've been meaning to load stuff onto for miscellanious utility.

Hey is that the Powerstone that was on Dreamcast?

Yes, both 1 & 2 in the same UMD actually.

That game was cool! Wireless multi?

According to the back of the box, yes. I haven't tried it personally.

Whoa, really? IT was the first game I ever got. I just snagged a copy off the shelf in JB. A few eeks later the MGS:PO+ came out, with copies just sitting on the shelves in EB. Hell, there might be some still on the shelves, though we had sales recently. If we do have any left in my area, it would be within my ability to act as your agent* to acquire a copy and mail it to you.

When did MGS:PO+ come out? Because, bizarrely, when I was at EB today at Parramatta (on lunch break), there it was - sitting in the "New Releases" section. The incompetent ninny behind the desk - really young, looked like work experience, couldn't find the disc to put in the damn box, and then checked the system and apologized, saying it wasn't out yet.

I thought - wait, wtf - didn't this game come out last year?

Where are you that copies of it are sitting on the shelves?

Vympel wrote:When did MGS:PO+ come out? Because, bizarrely, when I was at EB today at Parramatta (on lunch break), there it was - sitting in the "New Releases" section. The incompetent ninny behind the desk - really young, looked like work experience, couldn't find the disc to put in the damn box, and then checked the system and apologized, saying it wasn't out yet.

I thought - wait, wtf - didn't this game come out last year?

Now I'm not sure, either. It was 'coming soon' for a while at the beginning of the year, but I could have sworn it was actually on sale. I had a look in town today but had no luck. I'll be going to a different end of town on Friday, so I'll look there.

Where are you that copies of it are sitting on the shelves?

Hobart. Shit, there were two copies when I bought mine in JB Hi-Fi.

I love my PSP, and though I do leave it every now and then, interest pops with some new game: Gundam Battle Universe, Crisis Core. Of course, this may be skewed since I regularly fly 16 hours and having complex, interesting games then is heaven. Sure, my DS could last the whole flight, but there's only so much Trauma Center you could stand. Plus it makes a great video player.

Vympel wrote: When did MGS:PO+ come out? Because, bizarrely, when I was at EB today at Parramatta (on lunch break), there it was - sitting in the "New Releases" section. The incompetent ninny behind the desk - really young, looked like work experience, couldn't find the disc to put in the damn box, and then checked the system and apologized, saying it wasn't out yet.

I thought - wait, wtf - didn't this game come out last year?

Where are you that copies of it are sitting on the shelves?

Portable OPS+ is most definitely not the regular version of Portable Ops. Instead it's more like the VR Virtual Missions game that came out on the original Playstation, with some focus on multiplayer and eliminating the single player story-arc.

Everytime I go commuting to work, I see nothing but people using PSPs to either watch some television show, or some anime based game or the like. Essentially, the bulk of the games aren't really targeted at Western audience but Asian ones.

General Zod wrote:Portable OPS+ is most definitely not the regular version of Portable Ops. Instead it's more like the VR Virtual Missions game that came out on the original Playstation, with some focus on multiplayer and eliminating the single player story-arc.

Huh, I didn't realise that. Nevermind then. Sorry Vymp.

Fingolfin_Noldor wrote:Everytime I go commuting to work, I see nothing but people using PSPs to either watch some television show, or some anime based game or the like. Essentially, the bulk of the games aren't really targeted at Western audience but Asian ones.

You're crazy. The bulk of the games suck (like any platform) and most people end up using it as a media player, not a gaming device. This is how pretty much everyone I know uses it, once they get bored of the 4-5 good games.

This isn't a specific knock on the PSP of course; almost every console has piles of shit on it.

Stark wrote:You're crazy. The bulk of the games suck (like any platform) and most people end up using it as a media player, not a gaming device. This is how pretty much everyone I know uses it, once they get bored of the 4-5 good games.

This isn't a specific knock on the PSP of course; almost every console has piles of shit on it.

I'm not surprised really, especially when this particular console has plenty of anime knock offs targeted at the fan population (which happen to be largely Asian by the way). Quite a lot of people use some third party software to burn videos and play them on the PSP.

Ford Prefect wrote:
Huh, I didn't realise that. Nevermind then. Sorry Vymp.

I don't know what that idiot at EB was doing, because I went to the other EB at a lower level (yes, Parramatta Westfield has two of them ...) and they had it in stock. I didn't buy it though, I want to play through the plot, not some random missions with no progression. Maybe after I finish the original. If GAME can't get their hands on a copy of the original Portable Ops for me, I'll have to source a pre-owned ...

Stark wrote:

Fingolfin_Noldor wrote: This is how pretty much everyone I know uses it, once they get bored of the 4-5 good games.

This isn't a specific knock on the PSP of course; almost every console has piles of shit on it.

Um not to be a Captain Save A Console, but just off the top of my head I can name 20 good games:


God of War: Chains of Olympus
Lumines
Wipeout Pure
Tekken: Dark Resurrection
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories
Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror
Burnout Legends
Patapon
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops
Daxter
Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters
LocoRoco
Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow
Mega Man Powered Up
Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee 2
Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
The Warriors
Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX
Power Stone

You missed Ace Combat X and Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness.