As reported by Kotaku and PSPUpdates, this night the newest Sony firmware hit the web. And although I have been impatiently waiting for it for quite some time, I must say that it is yet another disappointment (did you notice how often I recently use this word?...). You can see it in action here :
The feature that we all have been impatiently waiting for, namely the PS1 emulator, is indeed there, but implemented in a crippled and annoying way:
- you have to actually own a PS3 to be able to download games from Sony Online Store (!). You can't use either your PC or download them directly using PSP.
- the official list of emulated titles is very short and the only all-time favourites that are there is Resident Evil (Bio Hazard) Director's Cut and Tekken 2. Yes, no Final Fantasy whatsoever.
- and finally there isn't any game available in the Sony Online Store yet (!). In Polish there exists a nice expression "the last nail to one's coffin" - it fits perfectly this case.
So the emulator is there (or is it, really? I mean how can we be sure, if... nah, just forget it), but we cannot use it. Great. What else?
There are some other things, like music visualisations, but they are not something I would upgrade for - especially since it would deprive me of my homebrew. On top of that there are homebrew visualisers, not much worse in my opinion. You can watch them in this YouTube video :
- you have to actually own a PS3 to be able to download games from Sony Online Store (!). You can't use either your PC or download them directly using PSP.
- the official list of emulated titles is very short and the only all-time favourites that are there is Resident Evil (Bio Hazard) Director's Cut and Tekken 2. Yes, no Final Fantasy whatsoever.
- and finally there isn't any game available in the Sony Online Store yet (!). In Polish there exists a nice expression "the last nail to one's coffin" - it fits perfectly this case.
So the emulator is there (or is it, really? I mean how can we be sure, if... nah, just forget it), but we cannot use it. Great. What else?
There are some other things, like music visualisations, but they are not something I would upgrade for - especially since it would deprive me of my homebrew. On top of that there are homebrew visualisers, not much worse in my opinion. You can watch them in this YouTube video :
Visualisations compared head to head.
There is support for PSP camera (is it even out yet or is this another feature that we cannot test for now?), there is an option to turn off UMD auto-loading (took them some time to add this one, huh?), there are three different speeds for fast forward and fast reverse in MP3 playback (terribly innovative, I know), online instruction manual (why only online?), and some PS3 connectivity gimmicks. Blah.
All in all, another major disappointment. I really am wondering what kind of strategy it takes to do as many bad moves as Sony did recently.
Still, there is a ray of hope. Recently Yoshihiro has released new version of his homebrew PS1 emulator for PSP. See the video below :
Still, there is a ray of hope. Recently Yoshihiro has released new version of his homebrew PS1 emulator for PSP. See the video below :
Yoshihiro's PSXP running Crash Bandicoot
If he manages to get it up to some playable framerate, we might then collectively say "No, thank you" to Sony's new firmwares. And that's about the only positive thing today.
3 comments:
Sony has made it clear SINCE WEEKS that you need a PS3 for the PS1 games in the beginning. The Store will be made available to PSP users directly later. Is that so hard to understand?
"Another disapointment" buuhuuuuu waawaaa
you do realise this is just day 1. Theres going to be a way to download the PSP games via PSP and PC, not just PS3, the PS1 catalogue is going to get bigger and better.. it seems people nowdays want everything instantly, and if they dont get it they throw the toys out of the pram
Yes, I do realise that Sony says it is only temporary solution - yet it does not change the feeling of disappointment this whole firmware thing gives me.
Plus, we will see when Sony allows PSP users to download directly, because so far, they have been good at promising things, but delivering them, well, that's a different story
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