You can get PSP games from a variety of sources. What are the costs? Are there risks to any of the options available to you? With all of the choices available, it can be a little bit confusing about which sources to trust. This FAQ clears up the confusion.
FAQ #1: What are my options for acquiring PSP games?
A: There are two main options for acquiring PSP games. The first is by getting your hands on a Universal Media Disc (UMD), an approximately 2.5 inch disc which can hold up to 1.8 GB of games, movies, and music data. The second option is to download the games directly from the Internet to your Memory Stick Duo that fits into your PSP unit.
FAQ #2: What are the advantages to each option?
A: Some people claim better video quality when using the more traditional UMD disc, although purveyors of the downloadable game option claim equal quality to that of the UMD discs. The obvious advantage of the downloadable type is that you can gain access to them immediately. Also, the downloadable option is much cheaper: lifetime rights to unlimited PSP downloads can be bought for a one-time membership fee approximately equal to a 1 or 2 month subscription to a UMD rental Web site (see FAQ #3).
FAQ #3: Where do I go to gain access to games?
A: You can find out about the latest available games by going to Sony’s official Playstation Web site. This site is worth visiting as it is beautifully done, with great graphics and informative previews of soon-to-be-released games. You can also rent UMDs directly from rental Web sites that will allow you to rent as many games as you like, but they do limit the number you can have checked out at any one time. For downloadable games, you just sign up at a vendor site and pay a one-time membership fee, after which point you can download as many games as you like, forever.
FAQ #4: What else can I download to my PSP?
A: As you probably know, your PSP can also handle music and videos. The top downloadable PSP game sites also make available to members thousands of music and video titles that are ready for download anytime.
The Sony PSP is an exciting device that offers a great mix of portability and the power of being able to play multiple media such as games, movies, and music. Accessing downloadable games can be a way to get unlimited variety much more cheaply than when renting or buying UMDs.
Have you ever wondered if there was more to your game than met the eye? Perhaps you long to beat the game in record time, have unlimited lives, unlock secret characters without having to make your way through the entire game to do so? Or maybe you just want a little help to get you through that new 120 hour RPG? PSP cheats and walkthroughs can help give you the gaming experience that you want, with ease.
Cheats – PSP cheats come in a variety of different flavors. For instance, you can find cheats to fighting games that give you unlimited ammunition, that give you unlimited lives, make you invulnerable or even let you play as a different character altogether. Usually, these types of PSP cheats are codes that you enter at a specific screen in the game, or a specific point before the game loads completely.
Walkthroughs – More helpful than PSP cheats, walkthroughs tell you what you need to do, how to do it and how to get there. These can be as comprehensive or as minimal as you wish. For instance, if you’re having problems beating that first boss, a walkthrough will tell you exactly what weapons or techniques you’ll need to get past him or her. If you choose to make your way through the rest of the game on your own, so much the better. However, a good walkthrough can help you make short work out of some of the confusing games currently on the market.
One of the best examples is that of the RPG. Traditionally, these are story-based games that require a large amount of leveling, beating specific bosses to advance to the next part of the story or to gain specific items and more. Walkthroughs have become almost ubiquitous with RPGs, as well as many other types of PSP games.
Helpful Tips – These fall more under the “Walkthrough” category than they do under PSP cheats, but tips can make the difference between enjoying the game and being frustrated. For instance, to unlock bonus cars in Need for Speed Undercover, you must complete certain tracks under a specific mode (Career mode, for instance). Tips will help you make the most of your gaming experience, without giving away the entire game, the way a walkthrough does.
Combined, PSP cheats, walkthroughs and tips constitute an enormous body of knowledge. You’ll find that being able to access these tools when needed is incredibly beneficial. Whether you’re slicing your way through Prince of Persia, battling in God of War or setting the streets ablaze in Midnight Club: LA Remix, you’ll find these tools give you the means to take your gaming to an entirely new level.
No, that’s not a typo. Metal Gear Solid: Piece Walker is Kojima Productions’ promotional, web-based Flash game for the upcoming release of Peace Walker. It even has competitive multiplayer.
If you just can’t wait for the impending release of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, you can kill some time right now with Kojima Productions’ decidedly clever web-based, online Flash jigsaw game, cutely titled Piece Walker. The game has you matching tiles by placing them on top of the franchise’s iconic boxes, and then walking them to the appropriate place on a board to construct an image from the upcoming game. It’s a decidedly fun game, and you don’t even have to register in order to play. There’s even a competitive multiplayer mode to try.
They’re calling it P3P — as in Persona 3 Portable.
Atlus announced today that the PlayStation Portable port of Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 would make its way Stateside this summer.
Apparently, the developer is skipping over Persona 2: Eternal Punishment and Personal 2: Innocent Sin (which never got a US release anyway) in their PSP port series of the super-popular role-playing games.
Persona 3 PSP (or P3P) came out in Japan in November 2009. It’s an “enhanced” version of the PlayStation 2 original with the option to play through the game as a female character with altered story elements as a result. Also, the battle system is tweaked to more closely resemble Persona 4 for PS2.
An ambitious re-imagining of Konami’s spine-tingling masterpiece, Shattered Memories proves itself an innovative, if flawed take on one of the forefathers of the survival horror genre.
My first exposure to Konami’s Silent Hill series of scare-fests was back in 1999, fresh off of a week-long bender of Resident Evil 2. Ready for even more malformed monsters and mutant crocodile menaces, I was somewhat surprised when I powered my Playstation on to find an incredibly different environment than RE2’s Raccoon City. Instead of facing a horde of genetically altered flesh-eaters, I was met with twisting camera angles, hauntingly melodic background music, and faceless creepy crawlies straight out of Jacob’s Ladder. Silent Hill’s titular fog-infested locale was frightening in a much more psychological sense, creating a general sense of uneasiness and anxiousness that offered a nice change of pace from RE’s conventional Romero-esque scare tactics.
The franchise hit a high point with the scarring Silent Hill 2, a journey through the psyche of a tortured widower that garnered both critical and commercial acclaim; after a relatively successful direct sequel to the original with Silent Hill 3, the franchise slowly headed back to obscurity with the remarkably dissimilar Silent Hill 4 (originally not even a Silent Hill title), then ran safely back towards the horror conventions it tried so hard to stray from with the American developed Silent Hill: Homecoming. Despite its masterfully frightening origins, the Silent Hill series fell victim to contrived and confusing plot twists, as well as several inherent gameplay issues such as unwieldy cameras and a slow, cerebral pace that proved too taxing for survival horror fans accustomed to Resident Evil’s gut-wrenching pace.
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