Review: PSP Go (System)

Do what? A review for the new PSP Go? Yep that's right I purchased the PSP Go on October 2nd deciding that I wanted a PSP and figured since this was just released I would get it and see how it is. Well I've been playing it for a few days and have decided to review it. I'll also finally have my review of Madden NFL 10 up by the weekend. Two reviews in one week from me, it's amazing right? So anyway here is my review for the new PSP Go. Don't forget to leave your comment and what you think of it.

* Pictures retrieved from Google but courtesy of Sony.

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The new PSP Go is a system that is a download-only system. So gone are the old UMD discs that were with the old PSP's. The only way you can get a game with the PSP Go is to purchase the game from the Playstation Store. Although this is a somewhat bold idea to cancel out UMD's for the PSP Go and make it a download-only system, is the PSP Go an all around better system than the PSP-3000?

The new PSP design (picture below) is a definite step up from the PSP-3000 with the new slide up design. It definitely takes some getting used to if you have played or owned the old PSP, but before long you'll get used to it. One of the main design decisions when Sony made this PSP was to make it smaller and lighter, well they certainly did that. The PSP Go is 43% lighter than the old PSP. One of the things people wanted when a new PSP was announced was a second analog stick, well with this design we still only have one. The screen is also smaller on the PSP Go, it's now a 3.8" screen compared to the 4.3" screen on the PSP-3000. Now some would think that would be a bad design choice but in actuality it makes the games and videos played on the PSP Go more crisp and the colors pop out more on the smaller screen.

The PSP Go's battery life last about the same as the PSP-3000, 5-6 hours. Even without the battery draining UMD drive the battery life's are still vastly similar. You would think with the PSP Go not having the UMD drive and with it being smaller, the battery life would last longer than the PSP-3000. The battery in the PSP Go is internal which means you can't replace it if it somehow fails. In past PSP versions you could take the battery out if need be but not on the new PSP Go. Sony has said it is to stop people from pirating games which I guess is a good idea but if the battery fails you'll have to call Sony to replace it. At least that's what is being reported.


A design flaw that really should not have been implemented was the new USB port on the PSP Go. Now instead of being able to use any USB cable like you can with the PSP-3000 you have ot use the cable Sony has provided you with. Essentially this means any cables you purchased while having the PSP-3000 will no longer work. That means you will have to buy all new cables to be for the PSP Go. You can understand the new download-only feature but to make people buy all new cables is a little absurd for Sony to do.

A new feature to the PSP Go is the ability to pause a game mid-game and save it for a future time. If you were playing God of War and you have to go to work, you can simply hit the PS button on the left of the PSP and select "Pause Game". That will save your game exactly where it is and you can come back and play it whenever you feel like it. This is a feature that could come in handy for most people if they are too far away from a checkpoint or auto-save. Another feature that has not been in any previous PSP versions is Bluetooth functionality. You can hook up any bluetooth compatible headset as you can already do on the PS3. This is a feature that should have been in the PSP-3000 but at least Sony finally decided to add it in.

Just like you download premium themes on the PS3, you can now do that on the PSP Go. They don't have very many premium themes at the present time but there's liable to be one you'll like. You can also browse the web on the PSP Go which I'm sure was on past PSP versions as well. You can also add more memory to the PSP Go via Micro Memory Cards. So if 16GB worth of memory is not enough for you feel free to add some more to your PSP.


One of the things Sony could have done to the PSP Go was to make the buttons more durable. For some odd reason they seem to be made out of light plastic and when you first play on the PSP Go it just feels weird. Luckily you did get used to it after awhile but Sony could have used a more hard plastic. The PSP Go's finish is that of the old PS3's, which is a shame if you purchased the black one as all you will see is fingerprints. The pearl white PSP Go has the same finish but you don't see the fingerprints on this one, which personally makes the pearl white one better. Other than the color though they're both the same, it's just a matter of personal opinion.

Of course, as mentioned before you can only buy games for the PSP Go via the Playstation Store. Since the PSP Go just launched there are a over 200 games available but obviously not as many that are available at your local store. You can also download hit movies & T.V. shows directly to your PSP. This could be a complete success for Sony if they actually release games the same day they're released in stores. It could also be a complete failure if they never add any games to the PlayStation Store. One thing Sony has done to reach a broader audience is release voucher cards. They already have these for Playstation Network cards but now they will be for games, it will also benefit them and stores. Some stores will not stock the PSP Go because it serves no purpose for them, because once somebody buys the PSP Go they no longer need to go to that store to buy games since it's a download-only system. The game vouchers wil have the stores taking their words back and selling the PSP Go after all. So far there will be game vouchers for MotorStorm: Arctic Edge, Gran Turismo 5, God of War: Chains of Olympus, NBA 10: The Inside and a select few more.

If you already own a PSP I would have to say there is no real need for you to buy a PSP Go. However, if you are looking to purchase a PSP, then it could be for you. It's not a complete waste of money, but the PSP-3000 is actually a better bet, for a cheaper price you can get a system that plays UMD's and you can download the games from the Playstation Store as well. Sony is trying something new with the download-only system but with you not being able to play any of your UMD's on the PSP Go and with not as many games available compared to the store's, right now the PSP Go is not a great buy. It's a great system and more comfortable than the old PSP but it might take a few months for it to reach it's full potential, if it ever does. Hold off a few months before thinking aobut purchasing it, as then more games will be out and hopefully Sony will have implemented some way to play your old UMD games. Until then keep playing your old PSP because I have a feeling after Christmas the PSP Go will have a price drop. The price can't stay that high for too long when the PS3 is only $50 more.


Design - 80
Playability - 90
Functionality -88

Overall - 86

Month in Review: September

Wow, what a month. I thought September was going to be the month where I post up a good bit of blog posts but I posted up ZERO, yeah that's right zero. I know I should be ashamed to have a blog and never use it. I'm not gonna say what I'm going to post in October because usually whenever I say what I'm going to post I never post it. I will post this month but I'm not saying what it is so you'll have to come back and check my blog to see what it is. Overall GamerScore wise September was a pretty good month. I had my monthly goal at 3,000 but I almost doubled that goal.

Starting Nov. 1 me and Thrawn we'll be in x360a's Subscriber's GSL. So The Hand of Thrawn is returning and this time to win. I'm actually glad it's starting, it should make my goal to get to 150,000 GS by Christmas a whole lot easier to obtain. The only bad thing is this GSL starts 9 days before Modern Warfare 2 comes out so hopefully I don't get to caught up in that Multiplayer and score no points. I wouldn't do that to my team though. Anyway, on to the Month in Review for September.

*Achievement picture courtesy of x360a

GS on September 1: 124,025
GS on October 1: 129,810
GS increase in September: 5,785
Games completed in September: Brave: A Warrior's Tale
Favorite achievement I obtained in September:

	Soul Survivor	50
	Reach round 15 in Nazi Zombies without getting revived. (Map Pack 2 only)

This was my favorite achievement for this month because honestly I did not think I would ever get this achievement. However, with 3 people willing to help you it's really not that hard of an achievement to get.

Well since the GSL doesn't start until Nov. 1 and I'm trying not to play any easy games until then I'll set my October goal low. I'll put it at 2,000 GS. I will be playing SAW, NBA Live 10 and NBA 2K10 on Tuesday so that should get me almost at my monthly goal. Hopefully I don't get the urge to gain a lot of GS in those two NBA games as I would like to save those points for the GSL and only play them for fun. We'll see how long that lasts though.

Month in Review: August

Well August was definitely not my month for GS. I got a little under 3,000 GS but did complete 3 games, well 2 games, finished off another. A week this last month I was without LIVE so I did not play but I won't make any excuses. My goal to get to 150,000 GS by Christmas looks far away now and I'm pretty sure I won't make it but I'm sure going to try. Sorry for my absence on my blog, I just for some reason have felt too tired to post anything. That WILL change this month. I will be posting up reviews for both Madden NFL 10 and Batman: Arkham Asylum. I'm still working on my first special topic that I hope I will be finished with by next week, hopefully.

*Achievement picture courtesy of x360a

GS on August 1: 121,039
GS on September 1: 124,025
GS increase in August: 2,986
Games completed in August: Battlefield 1943, Madden NFL 10 and NBA 2K10 Draft Combine
Favorite achievement I obtained in August:

	Catch!	5
	Catch a Batarang (any play mode)

For September I'll set my mark low and set my goal to 3,000 GS. That should not be that hard to do with the influx of games due to release this month and I plan on trying to finish up some back catalog games to up my completion % a little. I've never been one to care about completion % but mine is currently at 45%, which is just plain awful.

Month in Review: July

July was a pretty good month for me GS-wise. I did not go up a whole lot but over 5,000 GS is good in my eyes. I only completed 2 games which is kind of disappointing. I don't know, I just can't stand collectibles so that's why I did not finish Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. It had way to many collectibles. I did post a review for NCAA Football 10 this last month, still have no comments on it so I don't know if I did good or bad. I still have a special topic coming up this week on why we DON'T need Twitter or Facebook on our 360. Thrawn can agree with me on the Twitter thing. Anyway on to the month in review for July.

*Achievement picture courtesy of x360a

GS on July 1: 115,269
GS on August 1: 121,039
GS increase in July: 5,770
Games completed in July: Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and Infernal: Hell's Revenge
Favorite achievement I obtained in July:

	Locked and Loaded	15
	With Player Lock on, return an interception for a TD (excludes co-op).

I did in fact reach my goal of 5,000 GS in the month of July. Of course playing a few easy games helped me out there a little bit. For the month of August I hope to get an increase of at least 4,000 GS with 2 game completions. Obviously I can do it but Madden 10 comes out in 2 weeks and usually when it comes out I'm pretty occupied with it for awhile.

Review: NCAA Football 10

*Please not that I score my reviews based on how x360a scores there reviews. Also if you read my review please leave a comment about it, whether it be good or bad. Criticism is always welcome. Next I will be working on a review for The Bigs 2 so look for that in the coming days. Now onto the review.

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NCAA Football, like most EA Sports titles, really is just an annual update of rosters with a few added tweaks mixed in. We've all seen the success that was Online Dynasty but we've also seen the failure that was Campus Legend, which let's face it, it's just Madden's Superstar mode but with college players. Well this year EA decided to add in some new game modes to appeal to the hardcore NCAA football fans, but do these game modes get a passing grade or do they flunk out?

First off, when it comes to the gameplay in NCAA 10 it's somewhat the same as '09, which is not all that bad. Anybody who played '09 knows the gameplay from last years game was superb compared to '07 or '08. A new gameplay feature added in this year is the all-new "Family" controls. This control scheme is for the casual football player. Once your in the game to pass, kick, or to almost do anything on the field all you have to do is hit the "A" button. It's good controls for people not too familiar with football games but if you know how to play football games I suggest to not try this control scheme.

Before you even put the game in you probably already know about Team Builder, the all-new create a team feature that EA has added in. This was a feature that the community has wanted ever since the NCAA Football franchise moved over to the 360 a few years ago. With this new feature you can go online and create any team you want, whether that be your old high school team or your very own fantasy team. From your computer you can add any logo you want and you can edit your jersey colors to your liking. Once you put in the game you can go and search for any team you want and play with whether that be via Exhibition or Dynasty mode. With over 100,000 teams I would say you have a lot of teams to choose from.

Season Showdown is another new gamemode/feature implemented this year that is sure to make the hardcore college football fans very happy. You get to pick one team to play as during the season and that is your one and only team during Season Showdown. You then earn credits while playing games online and against the CPU. These credits then get added to your team which in turn helps them get higher on the leaderboard. Once the actual college football season begins you can go in and either play against a human opponent or the CPU against your team's actual opponent for that week. This is definitely a feature that could be a complete success or it could falter and be a complete failure.

Another new game mode, well I would not really say new but rather upgraded is Road to Glory mode. In this mode Erin Andrews will guide you from the High School state playoffs all the way to your senior year. This mode is basically Campus Legend mode 2.0. The way you play the games are the same but there's a new menu interface that is reminiscent of NCAA Football 06 for the original Xbox. It's a definite improvement but what else can possibly be improved in Road to Glory mode to make it any different than it's been for the past three years besides a new name. Erin Andrews does indeed do a good job but not even she can save this dying game mode that just needs to be put to rest. The regular game modes you're all used to seeing are back including Mascot Mashup, Mini-games, and of course you can still save your best photos or videos and upload them to EA Sports World.

Once again along for the ride to do the commentary is Brad Nessler, Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit. Honestly, is it too much too ask to get new commentators or at least give them updated lines. They'll sometimes start talking about plays and players that have nothing to do with the game. Yeah that's right, they have the exact same lines they've had since NCAA Football '07, which is not good for the audio sake. An actual plus on the audio side is the crowd, they respond to your every move. Playing at "The Swamp" in Florida is extremely loud, the crowd during the game gets as loud as an actual college football crowd which is a great realistic experience. Whether you score a TD or kick a field goal the crowd is seemingly involved in someway, shape or form. When you're in the menu or if you're playing a Dynasty expect to be hearing a lot of your school's fight song. It's a good thing to hear when you first start playing the game, but after a while it's gets to be tedious and annoying so expect to be putting the game's sound on mute.

NCAA 10's visuals are what you expect from a football game, they're not fantastic to look at but they get the job done. It does have a few new tackle animations and new animations all together, but nothing that will really wow you. Even though the visuals are similar to last year that's not necessarily a bad thing. Last years visuals were a definite step up from the '08 version and showed us what next-gen graphics can look like in sport games. There are, however, some bugs visual-wise where the players will run through other players and once again the crowds sound great but look horrible. Granted that's not the focus when they're making this game but when trying to make a realistic sports game crowds have to factor in. The cheerleaders are more of a factor visual-wise this year, which is both good and bad. It's good because it matches the football atmosphere, it's bad because when they appear the play call screen will sometimes freeze for a few seconds.

Online you can only really expect the same 'ole same 'ole. You have the lobbies and the Quick Match. Returning this year though is the popular Online Dynasty which was implemented last year. If your one of those people who plays football games year around until the next one comes out or you just like playing games with friends Online Dynasty is definitely for you. You and up to 11 other players can compete against each other both on the field and off the field whether that be via recruiting or just showing your friends how to play football.

The achievements are a somewhat mixed bunch. On one hand you have some achievements that were on all previous NCAA Football games but then you have a few that are incredibly innovative and creative such as winning all 34 bowl games or scoring a touchdown while player locked. Getting all the achievements however might take longer than past NCAA Football games due to the Season Showdown achievements. You have to actually play games to earn credits on your way to reaching Level 10 in Skills, Strategy and Sportsmanship. Other than a few achievements this game is an easy 700-800 points within a few hours for all the achievement hunters out there.

When it comes down to it NCAA Football 10 does not have much change to separate it from NCAA Football 09 but I'm not saying that's a bad thing. With Teambuilder, the new game modes such as Season Showdown, and with Online Dynasty returning, this game is a definite buy for any hardcore NCAA football fans. It's worth at least a rental for all the achievement lovers. The commentary team is in dire need of an upgrade and the gameplay engine could use a tune-up, but NCAA 10 is a step in the right direction for what this franchise can actually do on the Xbox 360.


Score Breakdown:

Audio -76
Visuals -85
Playability -95
Delivery -87
Achievements -73

Overall -84

Month in Review: June

Well my goal of getting 6,000 GS in June was not a success but I did go up almost 4.5k, which is not completely bad. I only completed one game which is not bad seeing as how I'm not a completionist. I did get 900GS in Velvet Assassin and 850 in Fight Night Round 4 so I got a good bit of GS in other games.

*Once again all the stats below are according to trueachievements.com (Achievement picture courtesy of x360a.org)

GS on June 1: 110,789
GS on July 1: 115,269
GS increase in June: 4,480
Games completed in June: Disney-Pixar's UP
Favorite achievement I obtained in June:

	My Style Is Impetuous	60
	Beat CPU Mike Tyson on G.O.A.T. using a created boxer in Fight Now

Why is that my favorite achievement you may ask? Well if you know Mike Tyson, that was his favorite word and he has trouble saying it so it's always funny listening to him try and say it. So that is definitely a great achievement. July I expect a fantastic month. NCAA Football 10 is coming out and I will meet my goal after July is over. My goal is to get 5,000 GS in the next 31 days. I for one know I can do it.

Upcoming blog topics

In the coming months I'll be posting up some topics on my blog that are similar to Thrawn's blog posts but not too similar that it mimic's his. I figured I have a blog I might as well use it to my full advantage. In my attempt to get added to x360a's Review Team I will be posting up reviews for new releases that I play in order to try and get better at writing reviews. I have gotten better in the last few months but you can always improve on things. I'll also try to post up special topics about achievements and games in general.

Here are some future blog topics I'll be posting up:

Reviews:

• Black College Football Xperience: The Doug Williams Edition (July)
• Harry Potter: The Half-Blood Prince (By next week)
• Infernal: Hell's Revenge (By next week)
  
• Madden 10 (August)
• NCAA Football 10 (July)
• The Bigs 2 (July)
  

Special Topics:

• The future of online & easy achievements (in my opinion)
• The upcoming Avatar awards and Avatar Marketplace
• Twitter and Facebook on 360 and why we really don't need it
• On-Demand movies and games and why Microsoft needs to bring out a bigger Hard Drive
• The future of games with NATAL

.....and a few more here and there! Hope you read them and enjoy them once they get posted up. I'm trying to give my readers something to actually read. Let me know if there is anything you want me to post about that is achievement or game related and I might just talk about it.