Yeah, touch it.
So, the PSP2 was announced today but with a new code name, NGP (Next Generation Portable), even though it clearly says PlayStation on the front of it. I do have to admit, it’s so beautiful, also, it’s more than I could’ve ever hoped it would be. Now it’s just up to Sony to keep the price down and the features true.
Sony claims that the graphics of the NGP rival that of PS3. That’s amazing. And I was blown away by Infinity Blade on the iPhone, this can only make my head explode. The power of PS3 in my hands and more!
Before I go any further, I will warn everyone that this will involve a lot of fanboyism and excitement. So if you hate the NGP already, stop reading.
First off, what I like the most about this is that it’s not a phone. It’s a dedicated platform. However, Sony has said that through PlayStation Suite for Android 2.3 (hopefully some iPhone porting in the future?) you can access PlayStation games to play through it. Thankfully, they’re doing something similar to Microsoft and their Windows Phone 7 platform in that it has to meet specific requirements and be certified by Sony to be able to run it. This way their name’s not being tainted.
The more I read about this this morning, the more I loved. The NGP will feature full 3G connectivity (hopefully no subscriber service) that will deliver information to the LiveArea (picture above). As IGN put it:
“Think about how fast you can open and close apps on an iPhone; same speed here when launching games,” – Ryan Clements, IGN
That’s amazing. The LiveArea, if delivered as promised, features a lot of community based features. Such as a Live Message Board, friends list, trophy area, and above all, if your friend is playing a game near by, you can join them seamlessly through the 3G connection, and apparently without having to purchase it either. I really hope this is all true because the original PSP was really horrible for anything online related. The only game (that I owned) that anyone seemed to play or was even simple to get into online play was Rainbow Six: Vegas, which was so bad. Well, not so, but let’s not get side tracked here. But to sum it up, LiveArea is XMB on crack. With multi-touch.
The back of the NGP features a gigantic touch area for multi-touch based actions, so push and pull with finger swipes and multi-fingers for better in-game interaction. Not to mention the screen is also multi-touch, so imagine a lot of iPhone game like gestures incorporated into the game play, with actual physical buttons on the side.
As you can see from the images all over the web, the long demanded second analog nub has been added.
A front and rear facing camera as well as bluetooth connectivity, undoubtedly for both in game and out of game chat. If only they could bring something like that to PS3.
I think that about covers everything I wanted to say, other than the aforementioned I’m so very excited for this. I hope the price isn’t too high or as twitter has mentioned NGP = Not Gonna Purchase. And with the 3DS being launched at $249.99USD, they’ll have to keep it below the $299.99 mark. So please, Sony, as a faithful purchaser of your products, don’t fuck this up. As you’ve been known to do with ridiculous launch pricing in the past *cough* PS2, PS3, PSP *cough*