At Gamefaqs I' ve noticed a very strange belief among some of the folks there that handhelds could never compare in power to consoles.
I take it that those same people don' t remember or weren' t around during the 16-bit era when Atari released the Atari Lynx, a handheld that was at least in some ways technically more advanced than the Sega Genesis and Turbografx-16. Advanced enough to where it had a seemingly close to perfect port of the arcade version of Ninja Gaiden, something neither the Genesis nor Turbografx-16 were capable of.. Other advanced portable gaming hardware also gave us the Genesis Nomad and the Turbo Express, which basically gave you Genesis and Turbografx-16 gaming on the go, utilizing the same cartridges and HuCards as their console counterparts...
And now with the PSP, there are still those holding on with dear life to the belief that handhelds can never be anywhere near as powerful as consoles, when in fact we' ve had three portables prior to the PSP that compared to the consoles of their generation, and in some ways even surpassed them..
I went through my Sony hating phase back during the 32-bit era when I skipped out on the original PlayStation and focussed solely on the Saturn and just pretended that the PlayStation didn' t exist..
But despite my dislike for Sony, I' ve always given them credit for advancing console gaming technology the way they did with the PS1. Sega sure as hell wasn' t ready to embrace 3D technology in their console until they saw what Sony was doing with theirs. The Saturn they were originally planning to manufacture and sell to us wasn' t as powerful as the final system design they sloppily through together after getting a peek at the PlayStation hardware... Whether you like Sony or not, they' ve actually helped to advance console gaming technologies with the PlayStation and PlayStation 2, and now with the PSP they' ve managed to do so with handheld gaming.
Believing that PSP has power of PS2 (or near it) is really naive - that' s what mainstream thinks cause they don' t know shit about consoles and they still believe that companies like Sony don' t lie.
Like I told the folks at GameFaqs, I' ll sooner believe Sony and their 3rd party developers about the PSP' s power over anyone I chat with on a messageboard
The PSP has twin 333 mhz processors, Nurbs support along with other HARDWARE functions that allow for better polygonal management than the PS2.. The stuff the PSP can do in hardware the PS2 would have to try and emulate via Software..
Like I said, Sony isn' t the only one that said the PSP was more powerful in some ways. One third-party developer even went as far as to say that " polygon for polygon the PSP is more powerful than the PS2" .. In additon the PSP utilizes S3 texture compression for its textures - Nintendo licensed the same for the GameCube. The PS2 doesn' t use that.
You also have to keep in mind the age of the PS2 compared to the PSP, the PSP is newer so it' s not far fetched at all that it would be able to outperform the PS2 in some ways. And let' s not forget that this is Sony comparing their handheld to their own console, not that of one of their competitors.
As for a game the DS couldn' t do, that' s easy: MONSTER HUNTER PORTABLE. The game looks gorgeous and sounds gorgeous.
The PSP' s D-pad sucks ass though, SF3 is gonna be good but i had to pre-order the limited edition version with the D-pad cover.
I absolutely DESPISE Sony' s D-pad design for the PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PSP, and from the looks of it, the PlayStation 3 as well. I' m grateful when developers include analog nub support for stuff like 2D shooters, and basically any kind of game that requires quick maneuvering..
< Message edited by Terry Bogard -- 16 Jan 06 15:40:01 >