Sony PlayStation Portable [PSP]

Sony PlayStation Portable [PSP]

Introduction

Ever since the Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) was announced at E3 in May 2004, we have been eagerly anticipating the hottest console launch (sorry Nintendo DS) this year, even if it is only for the Japanese market right now. We were fortunate enough to get a unit to test a mere five days after the Japanese release date and have been playing with it all weekend. The Sony PSP features a large 4.3-inch 16:9 widescreen LCD TFT screen with a 480x272 resolution, button layout similar to the PlayStation with a digital control pad, an analog stick, circle, square, triangle, x, and 2 shoulder buttons, USB 2.0 connectivity (via mini-USB), a Memory Stick Duo media slot, and 802.11b WiFi support. It uses Sony's proprietary Universal Media Disc, which stores up to 1.8GB in a format reminiscent of MiniDiscs. The Japanese launch release date was December 12th and the first shipment of PSPs quickly sold out.

The Box

We got the Standard edition PSP, which comes with the PSP itself, a battery, an AC adapter, and a manual, along with Ridge Racers and Minna No Golf Portable. (The Value Pack adds a 32MB Memory Stick Duo, a soft carrying case, and headphones with an in-line remote.) The box does not come with a sticker seal of any sort, which we weren't quite used to considering anything and everything comes with some sort of factory seal here in the US.

When we shook the product box, we could hear some rattling around. We weren't too thrilled about that, since the unit did come a long ways from Japan. Luckily, when we opened the package, the PSP fits snugly into the surrounding cardboard, the rattling we heard was mostly likely the power adapter cables. We noticed a lack of any type of demo disc included with the unit. Some PSP Value Packs apparently do come with a UMD Demo Disc, but we've also heard from a few people that got Value Packs without any demo discs inside as well.

The Unit Itself

When you first lay your hands on the PSP, you immediately notice the screen. The 4.3-inch display dominates the device, it looks like it takes up two-thirds of the real estate on the front fascia. In other words, massive. The unit feels expensive, and exudes sexiness, much like Apple's iPods (and you know how big of a fan we are of iPods). The unit feels perfectly balanced when held with both hands. It does not feel like a $200 console (Japan MSRP for console only) at all. We're sure Sony is losing a few hundred bucks off each unit sold as the PSP easily feels like it's worth $400 of gadgetry (when compared to portable video and audio players and the DS). We feel Sony could have gotten away with a $300 sticker price, but in an effort to destroy Nintendo's firm grasp of the handheld gaming market, they've set the price just $50 more than the Nintendo DS (which was released in both Japan and US markets just last month). It feels like an extreme bargain for two bills. The screen is immersive, drawing you in when playing videos or games and so big that you may not need your glasses to play. The black color fits well and matches the Playstation 2's color. The dimples across the top row of the screen reminded us of carbon fiber, currently the rage in import tuner cars.

When you pay for a new console, you expect it to be perfect. Alas, ours was not. We noticed two lit pixels (always-on pixels), one in the middle of the screen, about one-fourth of the way down, and one near the very right edge of the screen. So out of 130,560 pixels on the LCD screen, we got two defective ones. It's actually not too noticeable unless you look for it and we didn't notice until we played with the PSP in pitch black darkness. We could make a big fuss, but we'll just deal with it, and hope that Sony will be as honorable as Nintendo when fixing units with dead pixels for their customers.

Another complaint of the PSP so far has been the ejecting UMD problem in which the user in the video appears to flex the PSP quite a bit to get it to eject spontaneously. We're happy to report that we didn't have such problems with any self-ejecting discs and that our PSP is built rather solidly, though we didn't dare to twist the unit as hard as we could. We initially had some light squeaking noises when we pressed right on the directional pad, but after a weekend of use, the annoying sound has disappeared.

The PSP, with battery, Memory Stick Pro Duo, and UMD inserted, weighs 10.3 ounces, making it fine to put in a jacket pocket (with case or cover of course), but not exactly friendly in a pants pocket with its long form factor. We've heard of some Japanese folks wearing the PSP like a necklace (there is a strap handle at the bottom left section of the PSP), but as cool as that may make them look, we didn't think our necks could take the strain.

Unfortunately, with the fine glossy screen comes the problem of fingerprints and smudges. While we didn't use latex gloves while handling the unit, we were very careful to try and handle it with the utmost of care. That said, there were smudges around the control buttons within seconds. It's pretty much unavoidable to smudge the smooth front cover, so we recommend a very soft cloth to wipe off smudges and smears, but make sure the cloth doesn't scratch up the LCD. The back of the unit is textured plastic and does not smudge. Within an hour of playing some games on the PSP and constantly wiping off smudges, there were some light scratches on the screen. We're hoping that Sony will sell replacement PSP faceplates at a reasonable price.

The front of the PSP unit has the directional pad on the left side, and the analog thumb stick (looks like speaker mesh) below that. The analog thumb stick is quite a burden to use since it's so far down, as there is no thumb support from the unit when you use it. It was fine to play Ridge Racers with it, but after 15 minutes, we felt as if we were getting thumbitis with a sore thumb joint. To the right of the LCD is the standard circle, square, triangle, and x buttons any Playstation junkie has become accustomed to. The left and right trigger buttons are at the top of the unit and are clear, looking a bit like jewelry. All buttons on our review unit were easy to press and click fast if necessary.

The bottom edge of the PSP is raised ever so slightly, with buttons for Home, lowering and raising the volume, brightness, sound settings for various music genres, and Select and Start buttons. While Home, Select, and Start are quite easy to press since the size of the buttons are a good size, the volume and brightness and music buttons take quite a bit of effort to depress as the buttons are half the size of the other ones and further away if you use your thumbs to depress. Since you may use the volume buttons quite a bit, it's a bit of a pain and there seems to be enough room on the left bottom side to put in larger buttons for volume. But at least the volume buttons are not essential for quick pressing during gaming. For brightness, there are three settings, from Dim to Bright to Brightest (our wording), we found Bright to be the adequate enough. Since there's still not much sun in Seattle this time of year, we were unable to test the PSP in direct sunlight.


USB Connectivity

In USB Mode, if you have a Memory Stick Duo or Pro Duo inserted, you can connect a mini-USB cable to the top of the PSP, and it acts like a USB drive, allowing you to access any folders or content on the Memory Stick. Windows XP immediately recognized the device as a Removable Disk after we plugged in the cable. File transfers both ways were incredibly fast thanks to the USB 2.0 support.

Universal Media Discs

The Sony PSP uses a proprietary 1.8GB Universal Media Disc (UMD) format, in part an effort to thwart piracy and so they can control what gets released for their system. They are much like MiniDiscs (the actual disc just slightly smaller), but with one serious drawback, a gaping hole in the back of the plastic case (no doubt for the PSP to read in data). While we know some of you are very meticulous and careful when handling your disc-based media, we also know quite a few people that have scratched up DVDs and games. We just don't get why Sony didn't put a metal faceplate over the hole like they do for MiniDiscs.

UMD games are packaged in a plastic section which the UMD fits snugly into. But there is no small plastic case for UMDs (ala Gameboy carts) and one can not reasonably be expected to carry around the full game box when transporting extra games with the system. We're sure third party UMD plastic cases will be out soon enough, but for now, you'll have to resort to carrying the whole game box, as we don't recommend just putting a UMD in your pocket to carry around.

The UMD drive makes a whirring noise at times when loading games or levels (but not while actually playing). It's not too obnoxious and sort of sounds like a hard drive spinning up, but you do hear it. After living with solid state handheld games (cartridges), we had to get used to load times again. The original Playstation 1 had horrid load times for some games, but it did improve over time as programmers got to know the system. We hope the same will be true for the PSP as it took 19 seconds after selecting UMD to get to the Namco logo on Ridge Racers. During the game, it took 10 seconds to load the course after selecting all the options. For Minna No Golf, it took 25 seconds to get to the intro screen and 16 seconds to start playing from the menu. It's tolerable but an aspect that could use some improvement.


Targeting the Adult Market


While kids will surely be begging their parents for the PSP (my 4 year-old nephew asked his father for one immediately after seeing it), Sony is targeting a more mature audience. We don't see younger kids handling the UMDs with the open area well and we can just picture screen scratches within a day after little Jimmy has their hands on one. As a friend pointed out, this system is perfect for the Japanese audience, a country where they are known for cleanliness, neatness, and taking care of their electronics well. That, sadly, can not be said for the American audience (in general), we are just more rough with our gear. It will be interesting to see if Sony changes the PSP at all for the American audience and we're thinking the USA warranty should be at least a year. This may be one of those times where you will actually want to purchase the extended warranty program.

First Bootup

At first bootup we were greeted with the option to choose between Japanese and English. Next you can give your PSP a nickname (for network play) via cellphone type text entry (press 2 three times for the letter C, etc). Seeing how the PSP has plenty of room for a keyboard layout on the screen, we would have much preferred that. The Japanese are used to the phone keypad text entry system, so I'm sure it's not a big deal to them, but for the US release, we hope they change it. Another annoying interface aspect was when we entered our IP address for the PSP. We had to scroll up and down through 256 numbers (0 to 255), rather than manually entering numerals. It's not very fun to scroll for 16 sets of numbers.

After setting it to English the menus are pretty self-explanatory, the main options are Settings, Photo, Music, Video, and Game. Some of the options may not be available if you don't have a Memory Stick Pro Duo inserted.


Japanese Differences

As was the case with the Japanese versions of the PlayStation 1 and 2, the button you choose to select with is the Circle button not the X button (like in the US versions). The X button thus becomes the back or cancel option. When you're used to using X to select everything, there will be times you forget and accidentally hit the wrong button. The manual is in Japanese, not that we needed it at all for anything. Other than those two things, the PSP itself is very English-speaker friendly.


Battery Life

The PSP is powered by a 100-240V (5A) universal power adapter, which means you can use it anywhere in the world practically. There have been reports of a weak two hours of battery life when playing complex 3D games. We fully charged up our PSP battery and popped in Ridge Racers for non-stop gaming. We set the brightness to the middle level and set the volume to 15 button presses from 0 (the max volume is 30). That level of brightness and volume is adequate for the average gamer during gameplay. With no breaks in between, we played non-stop for 3 hours and 35 minutes. We also tried another Ridge Racers test, playing one game, then letting the system run through the replay in an infinite loop. That test also resulted in a similar playtime of 3 hours and 31 minutes.

While not superb, 3.5 hours is acceptable and you can always buy a spare battery (~$45) if you need it. Cheaper third party batteries will show up sooner or later as well. We had really hoped the PSP could be charged via mini-USB, but unfortunately Sony did not include that support. But to be fair, our mini-USB cable was not able to charge our Motorola RAZR V3 cellphone either, though the phone is supposedly capable of doing so. So it may be that we have a bunk USB cable. If anyone has gotten their PSP to charge via USB, let us know. We'd also like to see a cigarette lighter power adapter for long road trips.

After 3.5 hours of nonstop gaming, the unit is just barely warm to the touch. I ejected the UMD and the disc felt just the tiniest bit warm too. So hopefully that's a sign of no overheating problems (which plagued the first-generation Sony Playstations, anyone remember turning it upside down to alleviate the problem?).

Memory Stick Duo

The Sony is hoping that the PSP will help make the Memory Stick Pro Duo a viable memory card format, especially since the PSP does not take any of the older Memory Stick formats like the Memory Stick Pro. It only takes the tiny Duo flash memory card, which is about 85% of the size of a Secure Digital (SD) card. We believe the highest current available size is 512MB, retailing for $130 at stores (or about $85 shipped on eBay), and we have not seen the 1GB version in stock anywhere. You will need a Memory Stick to save your games or if you want to play MP3s or videos on it. The Ridge Racers save game takes up about 700K and Minna No Golf Portable needs about 769K.

After formatting your Memory Stick Duo or Pro Duo in the PSP, you get a PSP directory, and GAME, MUSIC, PHOTO, SAVEDATA folders within that. The game folder will eventually house downloadable games or demos from the Internet, music is for your MP3s, photo for your JPGs, and save data for your saved games. Video files need to go in a different folder which we will get into later this week.

Photos

For photo viewing, GIF, BMP, and PNG files aren't supported by the PSP, but standard JPG ones are. When you have a full-sized 4 or 5 megapixel JPG file, the PSP takes a bit of time for it to load, about 3 seconds for a 1.8MB JPG file. It automatically crops the photo (most photos are in the 4:3 format), leaving white space on the sides of the picture when it is displayed (see above).

Playing Music

The biggest knock on Sony in the past has been their insistence of using the ATRAC format, forcing you to convert your beloved MP3s to their proprietary format before their players could play it. They have finally listened to their users and done away with ATRAC only with native MP3 support in the PSP. Just drop files into your PSP/Music folder and your PSP can play them directly. The speakers are at the bottom of the unit, and the two little holes on the bottom produce good sound. We played a variety of MP3s just fine, including some variable bit rate ones, but we're sorry to report that we didn't have any ATRAC files to test out.

Playing Videos

Videos look amazing on the widescreen. The picture is sharp and detailed, and colors are vibrant. While it's fine to hold the PSP in your hands when playing games or watching short clips, it gets a bit tiresome if you're watching something an hour or more in length (rest assured that Sony will be putting out a stand for the PSP).

WiFi Setup

Setting up the 802.11b WiFi is easy. Just name your connection (Home, Work, etc), put in the SSID access point name, a WEP key if any, and then setup IP and DNS addresses (or choose automatic if using DHCP). There's a network test when you are done, telling you your current signal strength and whether your Internet connection succeeded or not. Taking a page from Microsoft, you can also update the PSP OS via a Network Update. Our tech geekiness led us to try to update the system (it's less than a week old) before even playing games. Our system already had the latest version, as there were no updates from Sony.


The PSP in Public

Not that we expected anyone to, but no one noticed when we whipped out the PSP to wait in line at the post office (for a lousy 30 minutes!) to mail a package. But we were surprised when we started playing while standing in line at Best Buy (to get a Sandisk 512MB Memory Stick Pro Duo for a whopping $130) and got no attention, either (though we were only in line for about 10 minutes). The checkout droids didn't say anything either.

But when we took the PSP to the mall for a little tour (just outside a game shop), it was a different story. Within a few minutes a bunch of kids who looked to be aged 10 to 12 were asking questions about it, mainly where we got ours from and how much. (Kids these days must be on a different allowance scale than when we were kids, because when we said it would be just $200 come March or so, they were all over it and said they were sure that they'd get one.) Within 10 minutes we had gathered a small crowd of ten, all drooling over the gorgeous screen. With the Nintendo DS anyone looking over your shoulder may have a hard time to see what's going on, while the PSP is also a watch-while-I-play kind of system, and the people that were looking over our shoulders at the mall didn't have any problem seeing what was going on. We didn't stay too long, fearing a mob scene as people started calling their friends over.

Conclusion

The Sony PSP is a great handheld gaming console, one that could prove to be as revolutionary as the original Nintendo Gameboy was, not only because it's basically a handheld PlayStation 2 with powerful graphics, but because of all the other value-added features it comes with, namely the photo viewer, the audio player, and video player. The most amazing thing, hands-down about the PSP is the large 4.3-inch widescreen LCD, which is simply amazing to see in person, and at two hundred bucks retail, it's definitely a good value. There is no handheld gaming competitor that comes close to it right now in terms of gaming power, and if weren't for the low storage capacity and high price of the Memory Stick Pro Duo, it might even hold its own as a portable audio and video player. The photo viewer is superb and sharp and the sound quality of the audio player is at least on par with the iPod mini. The videos when played back from Memory Sticks are superb, there's no doubt that movies on UMD will look just as great on the widescreen.

Now maybe the time to put in your pre-orders for the February or March 2005 US PSP launch, that is if you can resist importing a system (around $500+ right now, check our PSP price watch). We really hope Sony holds to their word of no region coding on PSP games (we don't mind so much if UMD movies are region encoded), because we'd rather not have to rip apart our PSP to install a region-free modchip (which will surely come if there is region coding for games). You will pay a bit of a premium for a PSP now, unless you know someone in Japan that can get you one. The question of worth is of course dependant on what your income level is and how much you value having the latest system.

Sony PlayStation Portable Price Watch

Dead or lit pixels will continue to be an issue for any PSP buyer (as it is for any sort of LCD screen) and it's the only main gripe of our system. We're more forgiving than most for the slow load times, as it is the first generation of software, so this should get better over time. The battery life isn't amazing, so another battery is a necessity if you plan on playing the PSP more than four hours a day away from an AC outlet, and we do wish that it could be charged via USB. Other issues: it'd be nice if Sony made text input in the menus a little easier, and we would have loved to have found an Internet browser within the OS, seeing how easy the WiFi was to setup and get working. Greater Memory Stick Pro Duo storage sizes at more affordable rates should come as the system matures, as the PSP would an amazing powerhouse with a cheap 4GB of storage.

A special thanks goes out to Siu-Wai Ho of Kicks Hobby in Seattle, WA for providing the Sony Playstation Portable unit to us a mere 5 days after it's Japanese release. Thanks!

Dragoneer's Aria

Dragoneer's Aria

It's not been a good year for dragons in games. Case in point: Dragoneer's Aria. There are lumbering lizards in it, but the game itself is as dull as a bread knife. And don't expect to find out what arias have to do with anything, either. This turn-based role-playing game tells a nondescript story, features unbearably slow battles, and misses the mark in almost every facet that makes RPGs fun to play. In fact, Dragoneer's Aria is the opposite of fun, and it's a game you'll do best to avoid.

You play as Valen, an academy student whose graduation is cut short by the attack of a mean black dragon. Seems the same dragon once hurled the world into chaos centuries before, and now he's back to destroy the friendly dragons that keep the world in balance. So Valen and his ultrafeminine braided pigtail depart from the city of Granadis to save the good dragons, though as is standard for this type of game, he gathers a few friends along the way. The naïve healer Euphe is so sweet she might as well have been dipped in sugar, while Ruslan's sarcastic attitude gives him the typical bad-boy-with-a-heart-of-gold role. The most interesting character is Mary, a pirate who breathes occasional life into the mundane dialogue but still can't save the plot from mediocrity. Even the twists don't make things interesting, since you can see them coming from a mile away.

Almost every aspect of Dragoneer's Aria, including its title, is pulled from the Standard Book of Japanese RPG Clichés, and then saddled with elements that slow it down to the speed of an adamantoise on downers. Even spell names sound as if developer Hit Maker fed a bunch of violent-sounding nouns and adjectives into a slot machine. Cutting Tornado? Song of Confusion? It doesn't get more generic than this. Then, throw in multiple enemies that share the same ugly character model--except maybe one has green feet and the other has yellow. What else makes them different? Well, in battle, one's called a raven, and one's called an eagle. How does the Granadis Endangered Species Committee tell them apart?

Perhaps they simply take the poor birds into battle. The raven is a weakling compared to the eagle, yet for some reason, the creatures live two feet from each other. As you wander through one drab dungeon after another, you'll bump into enemies that are a cakewalk to beat--one step away from another encounter that will destroy you in no time flat. You can try to escape from battle, but it rarely works. When you are able to escape, the winged eye that represents the encounter will still be floating there, and may very well fly right back into you, forcing you back into the battle you wanted to escape from in the first place. It's insanely imbalanced and forces you to grind, grind, grind until you are sure you can move on without fear of having your foes wipe the floor with you. But as if the standard grind isn't enough, each area features creatures called avatars, and if you earn 10 of them, you can summon the avatar's soul in battle. But avatars only show up every 15 battles or so, so if you want to earn a soul, expect to spend a very, very long time in a single dungeon. The ridiculously low item-drop rate just makes matters worse.

And be sure to grab a book. Battles take forever, because you have to sit through one long, unskippable animation after another. Even the menus take their time, so a single battle might take 10 to 15 minutes, yet requires precious little input. Eventually, you'll be pounding on the X button, wishing you could skip through every plodding animation. But don't bother--trying is as futile as trying to skip past any of the pokey cutscenes. All told, the excruciatingly creeping pace turns what would probably have been a mildly boring 35-hour game into 50 hours of mind-numbing monotony.

There are some decent ideas behind the combat, though even they end up contributing to the imbalanced battles. If you're familiar with Final Fantasy VII's materia system, you'll find it easy to understand Dragoneer's Aria's lusces, which represent spells. Characters can freely switch out lusces, and you can equip as many of them as there are slots in your accessories. Lusces level up separately from characters, so as you use them, you level up the spells associated with them. Then you have the energy bar, which is not a protein-filled snack, but rather a mana gauge that slowly fills as you perform standard attacks. Each spell level uses the equivalent amount of mana, so a level-three spell uses three mana points, which translates to 300 energy. There are also superpowered spells called dragon skills attached to the dragon orbs you collect from the elemental dragons.

These things are fine on their own, but they're not balanced properly, and eventually you'll find that your standard attacks get the job done better than casting spells. If you have a choice between using your sword and doing 1000 damage, and casting a fire spell that does 500 damage and spends a mana point, why would you cast the spell? Furthermore, if a more powerful dragon skill does more damage and costs less mana, why would you use a standard spell? All you can do is level the spell up so that it becomes more effective, which just means more grinding. If you want to balance things out a bit more, you can also earn energy by guarding. Guarding brings up a minigame where you match a spinning icon to blue crystals arranged in a circle. But considering the ridiculous length of the battles, why would you stretch things out even more by guarding, when you can speed things along by attacking? You can try the game's simple crafting system when the battles take their toll on you, but it doesn't help ease the tedium.

It also doesn't help that Dragoneer's Aria looks as poor as it plays. The towering cityscapes look impressive, but most of the game simply looks bland, and in some cases, downright ugly. Polygons have noticeable seams between them, textures are flat and unsightly, and the second-rate art direction doesn't help matters. The soundtrack isn't memorable, but it's nice, and the voice acting is uneven, ranging from bad to good, depending on which character is speaking.

The PSP features a number of good RPGs from which to choose, so there's absolutely no reason to waste money on this dud. It certainly can't be saved by its lame ad hoc multiplayer, which earns you some goodies you can't get in the single-player game, but can't make playing it any more enjoyable. In short, save your pennies and spend them on something that you'll get actual pleasure from.

Harvest Moon: Boy & Girl

Harvest Moon: Boy & Girl

Harvest Moon: Boy & Girl is a bundle of two games--Harvest Moon: Back to Nature and the previously unreleased-in-the-US Harvest Moon for Girls, both badly ported from the PS1. Except for minor differences, most notably the protagonist's gender, they're actually the same game. Though this is a direct port of a pair of games that are roughly seven years old, the series has gone out of its way to evolve as little as possible over time, and as a result the simple yet surprisingly deep gameplay is functionally the same as in nearlyevery other entry in the series. This, of course, will be comforting to the stalwart fan community hooked on its quirky combination of farm RPG and dating sim, but it'll appeal little to virtually everyone else.

Harvest Moon puts you completely in charge of planning and maintaining all aspects of a farm, from the fields to the livestock, while trying to remain fiscally sound. The four seasons, each of which is composed of 30 in-game days, are punctuated with various local events for you to participate in so as to take your mind off your daily chores, but neglecting them for too long can prove detrimental. Your field needs to be weeded and plowed so you can plant crops, which must be watered and harvested, and your animals need to be fed and shown that you love them through regular care; but be sure not to go overboard and forget about your own health, as you can only work so long before collapsing from exhaustion. Once your tasks are done, the day is yours to spend as you please, though most likely your pursuit of a suitable partner and, ultimately, your marriage, will generally take up your free time.
 

Upon loading the game, you are presented with a cheerful prompt that asks you to make a simple selection between boy and girl, after which the appropriate game's title screen is loaded and you're ready to begin. But make no mistake, this decision is entirely superficial, as no matter which you pick, the village, farm, and people you encounter are identical save for the backstory and goals. The boy, who is the grandson of a deceased local farmer, has come to claim the land he once cherished as a child, and hopefully find the girl he befriended during that summer so long ago. However, things aren't quite so simple, as the mayor of nearby Mineral Town hangs a metaphorical Sword of Damocles above your head, explaining that the now-dilapidated farm is yours so long as you can return it to working order and gain the acceptance of your fellow villagers within three years.

The girl, on the other hand, has a much more melancholy story, contrary to the rose-colored life the boy seemed to lead: She was a runaway aboard a passenger ship that wrecked during a storm, and at the beginning of the game she washes up on the beach of Mineral Town, where she is discovered by one of its inhabitants. When she awakens, the mayor hears her tale and, moved by her misfortune, offers to give her an uninhabited farm so she can start over and hopefully find love and happiness.

Despite your selection, the game that begins is essentially about effective management of the limited amount of time in each day. Whenever you're not indoors, the clock ticks by in increments of 10 minutes that roughly translate to five seconds of real-world time, forcing you to keep on your toes to figure out how best to cram in everything you need to do and still have time to explore the forest and forage, woo potential mates, and participate in local events as they occur. Though this sounds like a daunting task, once a routine is settled on, it becomes surprisingly easy to do as long as your schedule is followed consistently. Unfortunately, though, once you get to this stage, the mindless, almost mechanical repetition of the same actions again and again without fail becomes incredibly tedious.

This is not to say that there isn't anything for you to do besides manage your farm, as there are a surprising number of other ways to spend your precious time and temporarily break up the monotony of your otherwise mundane life. The aforementioned town events include everything from swimming competitions and dances to chicken sumo wrestling and horse races. The library is stocked with books to read, mines can be explored for precious ores, your television picks up a different serial show each day, and you can even fish. But these are brief moments of solace, as your chores will always be waiting for you when you return.

By and large, the dating sim aspects of the two games are identical. In both, you have five potential mates among the villagers and, throughout the course of the game, must discover their various likes and dislikes so you can woo them by giving them appropriate gifts and inviting them to accompany you to various town events. The only real deviation is in how marriage is handled; in both cases the boy proposes to the girl by bringing her a blue feather as tradition dictates. Marriage effectively wins the game in both scenarios, and though it signifies the end of the girl's game, the boy's story will only end once three years have passed.

Technically speaking, Harvest Moon: Boy & Girl suffers from several severe issues that put a damper on what fun is present in the game: terrible load times, an intermittently choppy frame rate, and a skewed aspect ratio. A number of actions routinely performed, such as opening menus and even picking up your dog for a hug, are delayed for up to several seconds by the horrendous loading issue that has somehow crept into this title, which when coupled with the already slow-paced gameplay and even slower dialogue is frustrating at best. To make matters worse, certain areas, most noticeably in the town itself, suffer from a very distinctly slideshow-esque frame rate, and the graphics, originally presented in 4:3, are stretched to widescreen. There is an option to change the aspect ratio, but the alternative to a stretched game is to crop the edges (all of them) and frame the window with grass. Needless to say, this solution is not a very good one.

Overall, Harvest Moon: Boy & Girl is more of the same that fans have come to expect from the series. The shoddy porting job and completely unaltered nature of the titles screams of cash-in attempt, but this won't matter in the least to those dedicated to playing every last game associated with the franchise. For the rest of the world, however, this is a chore better left postponed indefinitely.

Coded Arms: Contagion

Coded Arms: Contagion

The original Coded Arms was nothing special, but it did garner a fair share of attention because it was the first first-person shooter for the PSP and people were curious about how the game would handle the system's lack of a second analog stick. It wasn't really much of a game, but apparently someone thought a sequel was necessary. Enter Coded Arms: Contagion. It improves on its predecessor in a few ways and does have online play, but those improvements aren't enough to make it good. Combat is still dull, the story is unoriginal, and the level design is average. There's nothing truly interesting about the game--it's just sort of there.

Contagion's story is a mishmash of a bunch of generic sci-fi themes. Cliché one: You're an elite special forces agent. Cliché two: You've got futuristic armor and a fancy heads-up display. Cliché three: During a routine training mission, things go awry when (cliché four) the virtual reality simulation goes haywire. Cliché five: It's up to you to figure out what's going on, (cliché six) save your squad, and (cliché seven) stop the terrorist group hell-bent on yadda, yadda, yadda...

Like other PSP FPSs, Contagion's control scheme is hardly ideal but does the best it can with the handheld's single analog stick. There are several different control schemes to choose from, but the default layout will probably work best. You move with the analog stick, look around with the face buttons, fire with the right shoulder button, and jump with the left shoulder button. You also lock-on, reload, change weapons, and zoom with the D pad.

A basic level has you taking on buglike creatures, flying drones, enemy soldiers, tanks, and so on. Because the controls limit your ability to aim and maneuver, the enemy artificial intelligence is scaled way back. Thus, your foes do little more than stand and shoot halfheartedly in your direction. This makes it possible to hit targets by using the face buttons to manually aim, but you're better served to tap down on the D pad to lock on to your targets. Mission objectives are dull and mostly consist of unlocking doors. Lots and lots of doors. Sometimes you'll have to find a terminal to unlock a door, but most of the time, you simply walk up to the door and hack it. This is by far the game's worst aspect. When you go to hack something, whether it is a door, terminal, or security system, you're shown a horizontal row of numbers on the left side of the screen and another on the right. One number is on both sides, and you've got a limited amount of time to find it. As you progress further into the game, you're given multiple rows and must find more numbers. It's dreadfully boring, not very challenging, and incredibly tedious by the time you're hacking your one hundredth door.

The game's coolest feature is its upgrade system. You've got a number of weapons at your disposal, and you're allowed to swap out your hardware at any of the game's numerous save points (another nice feature). You can also upgrade your weapons and armor by spending upgrade points that are hidden throughout the levels. This lets you enhance the weapons you use the most and also forces you to decide between upgrading your armor or your guns. But even this isn't well executed because the game caps your levels, only opening up new slots at predetermined intervals, which means you're often left with a bunch of upgrade points but no way to spend them.

New this time around is online play. It's a nice idea, but it's not very good. There aren't a whole lot of people playing, but you should at least be able to find a match. The problem is that when you do, you'll spend your time running around not hitting anything because of lag and the fact that you can't lock on to anyone. Our time with the online portion of the game was spent charging straight at guys who in turn were running straight at us in a mad dash to be the first to actually hit someone.

Contagion's visuals are technically sound, but like the rest of the game, they're uninteresting. Despite the 3D map in the top-right corner and the mostly linear levels, you'll still find yourself getting lost because the rooms all look the same. They're the same drab colors and filled with the same uninteresting objects. There are crates and trailers in some rooms, as well as trailers and crates in other rooms. Enemy design is actually pretty good, particularly some of the bigger, badder foes. But the standard soldiers and buglike creatures are typical sci-fi fare. Audio isn't bad, while the voice acting is competent and the sound effects are pretty good.

It's not that Coded Arms: Contagion is terrible--it's just uninteresting. If you found yourself enjoying the original game, you'll probably appreciate the improvements that have been made with the sequel. But if you're in the market for a good PSP FPS, you'll want to pass on Contagion.

Worms: Open Warfare 2

Worms: Open Warfare 2

After spending a few years trying to transition the Worms franchise into 3D, it would seem that Team 17 has come to terms with the fact that its good-humored strategy series is simply more appealing in 2D. Worms: Open Warfare 2 for the DS and PSP does little to tinker with the established formula, but what it does hold over the original Open Warfare is more content.

Worms: Open Warfare 2 seems totally comfortable playing to the audience that's already got a taste for its particular brand of turn-based strategy. This is most apparent in the gameplay, which plays almost identically to any of the 2D Worms games released over the past five years. With a four-pack of worms at your command, you take on up to three other teams of worms, inching your way across a craggy landscape and hurling both conventional and unconventional weapons at one another. Open Warfare 2 raises the number of weapon types to just over 30, bringing back classic munitions like the concrete donkey while introducing a number of new, ridiculous pieces of weaponry like the explosive buffalo of lies. While the worms themselves are the source of much of the game's charm, it's the weapons that make Worms fun, and the arsenal in Open Warfare 2 is solid.

There are a few different single-player options to choose from. Most significant is the campaign, which sees you guiding a team of worms through a series of increasingly challenging scenarios. The idea here is that you're taking on enemies from throughout history, which in practice means you'll get to see a number of differently themed backdrops over the course of the campaign. The one interesting kink is the introduction of what are effectively boss battles, which end up flexing a different set of muscles than your usual Worms game. This is also true for the puzzle mode, where the challenge is to not only kill all the worms, but to do it with a very limited arsenal. The puzzle levels are often designed in such a way that there's a right way to do it, which is almost in direct opposition to the usually improv-heavy Worms gameplay. Setting the PSP and DS versions apart, each gets its own side game. The PSP gets a simple time attack mode where your goal is to reach an exit point on a level as quickly as you can. On the DS you get the laboratory, a collection of three minigames that make some rudimentary use of the DS touch screen and microphone. While there are hours of fun to be had in the campaign and puzzle modes, neither the time attack nor the laboratory amount to much more than brief distractions.

A game against computer-controlled opponents is never as unpredictable and exciting as when you're playing against a live opponent, which makes the inclusion of online play to Worms: Open Warfare 2 such a significant addition. In addition to regular matches, you can play a simple variant called forts, where the landscape consists of two giant forts on opposite sides of the screen, and rope race, a fun little event where you have to show your prowess with the ninja rope by swinging your way across a level faster than your opponents. Interaction with other players on the DS is limited to simple buddy list and leaderboard options, while the PSP version features voice chat support, clan support, and a messaging system.

What might be Open Warfare 2's biggest strength is its customization options. As is standard for the series, when you first start the game, you'll be asked to create your own custom team of worms. In addition to choosing the team name, individual worm names, voice samples, and gravestones, you'll choose a team fort, color, victory dance, and flag. While there are a number of preset options for each of these, there's a simple graphical editor that lets you create your own custom flag. While that's all superficial, there's also plenty of customization that affects the gameplay. You can create custom schemes, which let you tweak the game settings in a ridiculous number of ways, from the types of weapons you'll start off with to the severity of fall damage. Longtime Worms fans will likely be most thrilled to learn that Open Warfare 2 marks the return of a proper level editor to the series, which is simple and effective. On top of all that, there's an in-game shop where you can use points earned in the single-player game to unlock additional weapons, background themes, headwear for your worms, and more.

Both versions of Open Warfare 2 trade in the familiar kind of crisp, cheery cartoon look that has been with the series for years now, though like the original Open Warfare, the PSP version wins by virtue of a bigger screen, whose horizontal orientation is simply a better fit for your usual Worms level layout. The controls feel fine on both versions, which means that if you can overlook the somewhat confining screen size on the DS, you'll still have some fun.

Across the board, Worms: Open Warfare 2 is an improvement over the original Open Warfare. There are lots of weapons, plenty of single- and multiplayer content to dig into, and enough customization options to really hook established fans. At the same time, efforts to diversify the Worms experience aren't mind-blowing, and the game doesn't go out of its way to reel in new players.

Syphon Filter PSP

Syphon Filter PSP
        

           Without a shadow of a doubt, Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror was one of the most impressive sleeper hits of 2006. It combined a decent single-player campaign with robust online multiplayer and rejuvenated an aging PlayStation series all while scoring a headshot for the struggling PSP. So its recently released sequel, Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow, has a heck of an act to follow, which is exactly what it does. From the structure of the single-player campaign and the enemies to the puzzles and the online multiplayer, Logan's Shadow follows in its predecessor's footsteps like a sneaking spy. While it isn't likely to catch you unawares, you'll still be happy to act surprised.

Just don't expect anything resembling great spy fiction here. Oh, Gabe and company have been asked by a creepy spook to take on a dubious mission with no intel? You don't say! This time the "pencil neck" from the government is a Lex Luthor look-alike named Cordell. He wants Gabe to extract precious cargo from a besieged ship but refuses to say what's on board. At first, Gabe refuses, but then Cordell says the magic words: "You're the only option I've got!" Gabe responds the only way a superspy can: "I'll do it, but on my terms!" And so begins your globe-trotting mission to discover the boat's contents, thwart terror, and strike a blow for freedom all while saving multiple damsels in distress. Throughout your travels and travails, a badly tangled plot unfolds that fiddles with themes of trust, as well as identity, but mostly just fumbles around in the dark like a novice burglar.

Confusing plot and awkward dialogue aside, Logan's Shadow is full of the same solid combat you probably enjoyed so much in Dark Mirror. There are three control schemes, including a good one, a decent one, and a horrible one. The worst setup treats the face buttons like a second analog stick, which feels too imprecise. The middle one is a reversal of the first scheme, except that the face buttons act as a left analog stick (movement) and the nub acts as the right (free look). This can work, though it's hard to rewire your brain that way. The best sets lock-on, manual aim and strafe buttons, attributes basic movement to the thumb nub, and mostly gets out of your way. For easy mobility and straightforward sniping from behind boxes or around corners, this scheme is the most elegant. Oddly, the entire tutorial is geared toward the worst one, so it's kind of hard to figure out how the best one, called "classic," works. Once you do, though, you'll have no problem hiding behind walls or boxes, blasting bad guys, and working your way through sticky situations with the help of your pretty sidekicks, as well as your infrared goggles.

Most of the action is identical to what you saw in Dark Mirror. You hide behind boxes or walls and pop out to shoot bad guys. You'll do this with a variety of weapons, including pistols, submachine guns, shotguns, and assault rifles that become gradually more powerful toward the end of the game. Shoot-outs usually see you facing off against a corridor full of baddies who hide behind boxes and periodically peek at you. When they do, you shoot them in the head then move on. The bad guys never get smart, but they do get the next best thing: helmets.

You'll also encounter enemies in electromagnetic suits who are impervious to bullets. These guys were also in Dark Mirror and have been greatly improved. Before, killing them was a horrible process involving EMP grenades, frantic shooting, and frustrated tears (not always in that order). But in Logan's Shadow, you just shoot them in the knees and shoot their exposed air tanks. It makes less sense (why are their knees exposed?) but is definitely more fun. There is one little catch, though. If you're manually aiming when you shoot their knees--and you probably will be--the game takes you out of aiming mode. You can compensate for this when you know it's going to happen, but there's no reason you should have to, and it will definitely cost you a life here or there.

The sequences where you cooperate with a non-player character by sending signals return in Logan's Shadow and are mostly well done. Most of these rely on infrared vision, but a few are pretty original, such as a fight against a chopper. Here, you and a rocket launcher-wielding vixen are pinned behind a wall. You must pop out and draw the chopper's fire, then tell her to shoot when the gunship is focused on you.

There are also a couple new gameplay tweaks, but these are minor. Logan can now blind fire over obstacles, so if enemies seems to be right on the other side of something, you can take them out without engaging in headshot whack-a-mole. You can also grab enemies and use them as shields. Then again, if you can grab enemies, you can also shoot them, which will probably be your preference in nearly every case. The other noticeable gameplay tweak was taken from God of War's scripture. Now, whenever Gabe has to do something tricky or adroit, you'll be prompted to hit a sequence of buttons. It's never difficult or overwrought, although it won't blow you away with originality either.

Gabe can swim this time around, although these sequences are some of the weakest in the game. In fact, the most frustrating moment of all comes underwater, when your comrade tells you he needs a valve to fix a submarine. So, you search a huge underwater sea base for the darn thing while the guy yells "Where are you going?" every five seconds into your speakers. Yes, that means you're going the wrong direction, but he shouts it no matter which way you go if you aren't right near the discrete brown mass on the sea floor that magically holds the valve. It doesn't help that swimming is a clunky, awkward process involving multiple button presses at all times.

For the most part, though, the single-player campaign is entertaining. After beating it once, you can also replay any episode to unlock new bonus levels, guns, and abilities. Additionally, you unlock a demo for Syphon Filter: Combat Ops, an upcoming multiplayer PSP game that includes a rudimentary map editor, one customizable stage, and five playable levels for up to 10 ad hoc players. As far as bonus content goes, Logan's Shadow contains some great stuff.

And that's not including the actual multiplayer, which can be enjoyed ad hoc or online. There are seven maps, and they're all compatible with the five match types, two of which are new. The match types include deathmatch, team deathmatch, rogue agent, sabotage (where teams search for launch codes then try to detonate their opponent's nuke), and retrieval (capture the flag). You can set up clans, known as cells, compete in cell-only matches, and communicate with your cellmates via voice over IP. There are also robust filtering options, so you should be able to find matches with good latencies. That is, if you can access the lobby server, which was by no means guaranteed during our tests of the game.

Regardless of where or how you play, the graphics are solid in Logan's Shadow. It looks good all the way through, with several well-rendered bright spots and some absolutely amazing-looking cutscenes. The production values are simply excellent. The score by Azam Ali matches the feminine-mystique angle that plays a role in the plot, but it doesn't always match the general gameplay. That aside, this game looks and sounds very good.

The story won't win any awards, but Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow may, with its decent campaign, high replay value, robust online content, and Combat Ops demo. No, this game doesn't do anything radically different, and no one piece is staggeringly brilliant or inspired. But taken altogether, Logan's Shadow envelopes dozens and dozens of hours of solid play time, making it one of the best buys for your buck. On top of all that, the graphics are solid and the load times are relatively short. While it may not be your only option this holiday season, it's still a mission you should gladly accept.