With the 3DS being unveiled last week, and the PSP2 due to be shown off this week it seems the next wave of handhelds are looking to duplicate the experience you have on your home consoles where ever you go. Better graphics, deeper games, high end technology, it all shapes the genre of portable gaming into a new (and more expensive) future, but is it really needed? That is the topic of this week's weekly discussion.
Nintendo's 3DS is a handheld focused on 3D images, graphics that rival the Wii, and a full on multimedia experience more involved then Ryu shooting Hadokens at your face. It's all revolutionary stuff that makes us all "oooohhhh" and "aaahhh" but it also hits us deeper in the wallets. The system is marked at $249.99 with games around $39.99 (some even at $49.99) and as of right now nothing that jumps out at many people as "I gotta get that day one". The technology poured into the system has hurt the one thing that has always made Nintendo the go to for handhelds, battery life. The system is 3 - 5 hours with 3D on and 5 - 8 with it off? I don't know about you but I remember when I could play my Game Boy Advance for weeks before having to charge it. You will be charging this thing every 1 - 3 days depending on how much you play consecutively. You can make the argument that as the system moves forward each iteration by Nintendo will improve this but I don't want to way til the Nintendo 3DS Life Rainbow Deluxe BBQ edition comes out before I can play that sucker for a week without seeing the light change colors.In all honesty I think the 3DS is the stopping point for me. These are the best that graphics have to be for a handheld, you really don't need more then this sitting in your back pack or playing on the bus. The visuals are very pleasing while not having the worry of the hardware overheating. It's a good stopping point, but that won't be the case.
Enter the PSP2 and it's juggernaut of specs. Now of course no one has seen games for this bad boy since it hasn't officially been shown off but developers have had it for a while now and the leaks of info are just coming out like crazy over recent months. This thing is suppose to feel like you have a PS3 in the palm of your hands and I cannot imagine how the battery life can hold on this monster. The first PSP had an issue of maintaining life and how the hell are you gonna convince me that it's newest sibling is gonna fair any better with all it's new add ons.It's gonna have wireless, 3G, look like a PS3 portable, Have a snazzy screen that is also touch, I predict no more then 2 - 4 hours battery life. If it lasts longer then that I don't expect the battery itself to have a long shelf life. Also if you think $250 is bad for the 3DS man... wait til this sucker comes out. I guarantee they cannot afford to match or beat that price. I could be wrong but I think we are close to seeing this bad boy be $300. Will I get one eventually? If they wow me with titles sure, but as of now while I am impressed with the specs I cannot help but worry about everything else.
Power like this in a handheld means they want focus to be on more indepth titles. Gamers are not looking for a 60 hour RPG to sit in their handheld. Hell the top portable game for most of 2010 was fucking ANGRY BIRDS. Do you really think people have evolved past the kind of games they can just dive into for 15 mins at a time and then put away? I don't care if the RPG has an instant save feature GAMES DONT SIT IN MOST PEOPLE'S SYSTEMS FOR THAT LONG. Maybe I am jumping the gun, maybe both systems will be great and maybe everyone wants deep meaningful games to fill their libraries with I don't know. What do you guys think? let us know in the comments section below.
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