[PSP] F1 2009 Game Review

I won’t be posting a lot of screenshots for this review as this will only be a short one. Why? because this game disappointed me in several ways. I’m just going to enumerate some disappointing and good stuff and compare the game to its predecessor made by Sony themselves, the F1-06.

 

I was actually excited to see this game when it was announced because there were a lot of changes made for the 2009 season including the aerodynamics and the KERS. yes, KERSSSSS… For some of you, KERS is the acronym for Kinetic Energy Recover System… Sounds geeky. What it does is it recovers energy from braking, charges the batteries and lets you have additional 80HP i think on a press of a button. It’s like a boost button to be simple and that goes with 2009 season.

 

So, to the game. I will compare this one to the F1 06 game.

CONS

1. GAMEPLAY – Championship mode is what you always like in this kind of game. Pick a driver from a team and race through the whole season. Nothing’s wrong with that. What’s wrong with it is when it goes down to the specifics. In the 2006 game, it takes time before you can fully tune your car with the track and with the considerations of external factors. In fact, the game will actually help you to match your preferred settings and then change smaller stuff afterwards. Not so with 2009 game as the game thinks you are too professional for seeking help and leaves everything in default and let you change them. I mean, for first time players, do you think you’ll have an idea what CAMBER, TOE, DAMPER BOUND & REBOUND would mean? of course not.

2. HANDLING – I’ve been playing F1 games since PSX and so far, this is the F1 game with the worst handling physics. In 2006 game, the turning is actually realistic because it takes time for the driver to make a complete steering wheel turn not like in 2009 where you can turn the wheel fast. And get this: if the driver can turn the wheel as fast as possible, the car, especially at the front, would respond quick as well, very apparent from your camera view. BUT NO. Also, while driving fast, it is apparent that the steering wheel shakes a bit, not like in 2009 where it’s as steady as a monument while driving straight.

3. GRAPHICS – I admit that in terms of game detail, 2009 wins it. However, there are a bit of flaws when it comes to the animations of the details. One is mentioned in #2. and then another is that while driving, the helmet of the driver shakes most of the time, trying to cope with the forces by the downforce, suspension bumps and so on. Not so with 2009, as the helmet is also as steady as a statue and only moves SMOOTHLY, not like a stuggling one, while turning.

4. SFX – the people speaking to you on the radio are boooring, compared to the 2006 game where the person is really talking to you, reminding you of your position in the pack as well as telling you that you’ve cracked the fastest lap time in a race.

 

PROS

1. CONTENT – Since the 2009 season was packed with enormous changes, those changes were also in the game. The KERS for instance is in the game and you can use it a lot. 😀 New teams such as Brawn are also there as well as the changes made for the cars. New tracks as well! you can now drive for the first time in NIGHT in Singapore as well as drive though the newly added Abu Dhabi GP course.

2. REALISM – Only a bit but the game actually replicated the physics for the new aerodynamic features of the 2009 season cars. Once you remove the driving aids, the cars are really hard to control. Unlike in the 2006 season where once you have speed, without the aids, you can drive with stability.

3. MUSIC – I love the music, far better than the 2006.

 

Codemasters could’ve done better. You’ve seen Colin McRae rally 2005 plus for PSP, that is bad-ass with realistic handling and graphics. But in this particular title, it seems that they’ve forgotten how to do it. The game would have become better than 2006 because the data, the representation is already there but they slipped through the game physics and replication of the motions.

 

New Gran Turismo PSP Screenshots, New Gran Turismo PSP Package

More screenshots were released from PSP IGN of Gran Turismo PSP. And they also released the news about the release of the Gran Turismo Package for the US Release:
Here are the details:

-A Mystic Silver PSP-3000 unit

-Gran Turismo UMD

-Gran Turismo Car Voucher – An exclusive car download, White version of the Corvette ZR-1 for GTPSP

-PSN movie voucher

-2GB Memory Stick

-Sony Music Voucher for US residents.

When I saw the image of the package above, I was saddened because it didn’t have the good looks of the GT Package that will be released in Japan:

As you can see, it might be a plain Piano Black 3000 system, but the sides are grey, the PSP Ring at the back is also in grey finish and the L-R Buttons are smoked Grey as well. And at the front, the PSP sports a semi-opaque GT Logo. Just how cool and far better is that compared to the US release? But still, I hope they can still change the unit. Or else, I would really wait for the Japanese version. 😀

here are some of the screenshots:

M33’s CFW 5.00 M33-3 on PSP-2000 series

I’ve been waiting for a stable version 5.00 from team M33 and I think they’ve released one already. There’s this 5.00 M33-3 and because it is the firmware version 5.00, a couple of changes are made but only few made it to the PSP-2000 version.

THE NEW XMB WAVE

One of the noticeablt changes was the XMB wave. Instead of having the common two pair-waves, you now have a single pair of wave. The lower part of the waves are brighter than the part above. What’s more, you have the option to switch back to the classic wave from previous versions.

They also added few more colors since the effect of the new wave is quite spectacular. There’s even a new visualization in MUSIC that has the same wave but goes up as the music goes louder. It also darkens as you play the music so when you play your music with that visualization, you will be able to notice which is the real XMB wave and which one is the visualization.

SLEEP TIMER FOR MUSIC

Another feature offered by this firmware was the sleep timer option for the MUSIC. It is probably for people who always forget to turn off the player everytime they listen to music. I, as an example, always leave my PSP playing Jazz music every night. The thing is, I fall asleep without turning my PSP off so good thing this feature was released. Now I can set the PSP to turn off after 30 minutes or an hour. The sleep timer can be set in 30 minutes interval. 😀

NEW ICONS AND SMALL FEATURES

if you noticed, it’s not the NETWORK icon that is on the right-most part of the X-menu but PLAYSTATION NETWORK instead. This feature lets PSP users to access the network as well as the store of Playstation to download and purchase new and old PSP goodies. I had one attempt before to enter but I still don’t know of it’s my firmware version (m33-3) of it’s just the Wifi that’s rubbish that I cannot connect.

One small feature was also introduced and this is the USB Auto-connect. This prevents you from scrolling to Settings just to connect your PSP on your computer via USB. Now, you can plug your PSP and the system will immediately connect your PSP to your computer. Of course, like most features like this, it can be disabled.

QWERTY…

Yup, this QWERTY keyboard layout is also offered in 5.00. You can now type words on the OSK by pressing Select to change the layout. It’s easier for me to type words now unlike the previous layout but the previous layout is still the default one and you have to press Select to move to this layout. The layout works pretty much like a typical computer keyboard. If you press “SHIFT”, you’ll end up with this one:

Just like when you hold SHIFT in a typical keyboard. Pretty nice, isn’t it?

UNAVAILABLE FEATURES

There are some features that are not offered or not visible in the PSP-2000 series, probably because it will be introduced in the PSP-3000 series. Such features were the TITLE DISPLAY feature which gives you an option to disable the Title screen from showing up when you start your PSP.  The Backlight auto-adjust is probably for the PSP-3000’s new screen. Nevertheless, these features doesn’t seem to give players a big problem. For me, I don’t need those.

VERDICT

I think the new firmware is quite good. There are features that I liked especially the new XMB wave and the sleep timer. At least SONY is making something other people wanted the PSP to have. I wish they continue this habit. Although they are not releasing any new games yet but at least the new firmware made me happy.

PSP-3000’s BIG problem

If you’ve heard the news that the PSP-3000 is coming this year with new features, you might as well heard its new “screen” which features brightness adjustment, bla bla bla so on. Sony said it will be better than the screen in PSP-2000. Although that might sound reasonable considering the fact that PSP-3000 is the latest model, Engadget.com have tested this and it seems that a problem immediately came up.

Please take a look at this picture from Engadget.com:

Notice the interlacing in the screen of PSP-3000? It is clear that PSP-2000’s screen stands better compared to the latest screen. Sony is looking into this problem and an update into the engadget post was placed saying that this “interlacing” was just one of the features of the new screen and there are no plans yet of fixing this problem with a new software..

Visit Engadget : Sony “looking into” PSP-3000 interlacing problems
Man, that was close. My younger brother is planning to get the new model this Christmas as a replacement for his old PSP. Good thing my older brother convinced him not to get it yet, especially the firmware installed in the new PSP-3000 which is the Official Firmware 5.00 is still under DaX’s development. Although DaX has already released CFW 5.00 M33, we still don’t know how it works especially on a PSP-2000 unit. Whew!

Initial D Street Stage [PSP]

I’ve played this game before but this is the only time I took this game seriously. I’ve finished the first difficulty already and I’ve already started on the next difficulty. The game is pretty much the same as Initial D Arcade Stage 3. The reason why I liked it because my goody older brother said my PSP has something that will make things easier… and things became easier. Hehehe.

it’s a nice game. I already had my favorite cars tuned according to my preferences, something I cannot do easily in the arcade version. At least I have something to do in my boring month long sembreak.

Popsloader matter

Oh, some of you might have no idea about Popsloader. It’s somewhat a program for Playstation Portable used under Dark alex’s M33 firmware (I think) to make your PSP play PSX (and PSone, although they’re the same..) games.

I have no idea how the popsloader works or how the dumping stuff works. What I know in general about the popsloader is that you technically use the popsloader when the firmware you install doesn’t support a particular game or when you play a game from PSX, the game hangs at some point. That is what my brother did when I installed 3.90 M33-2 on my PSP. The problem is that the firmware doesn’t support the game “Gran Turismo 2″. I was playing this game with no problems at all when I was still at firmware 3.71 M33-4 which I consider as the most stable firmware. At 3.90, the game ” Taiko no tatsujin 2″ lags after choosing a particular “I don’t know what it means” song.(since it’s japanese)….
Anyway, to the problem encountered with the popsloader, the Gran Turismo 2 game suddenly shows some symptoms of the problem of the past: HANGING. The worst thing was the popsloader menu (the dumped firmware chooser whatever) doesn’t appear and any good and worthy manipulation among the plugins and their corresponding texts aren’t working. I did resort to internet support from those experts in such stuff and frankly, I saw something definitely easy to do: delete all texts except the text for the POPS. IT WORKED~! I don’t know how it worked with those actions and definitely those actions were weird. I wanted to know more about the firmware and all the other stuff. If only I had money now, I would buy an original battery for the phat version PSP and an original 512MB so that I can make a Pandora’s battery and a MMS so that I will not spend 400 bucks every now and then I mess up with the PSP’s internal flash drive. Interesting stuff, indeed. 😀

Gran Turismo 2: Suzuki Escudo clocked 252 mph

I am mad for doing this, to be honest. I kept insisting myself that this rally car can do nearly 250 mph despite the power being below the 1000 Horsepower borderline. To give you an inspiration, the fastest and most expensive production car the world has ever seen, the Bugatti Veyron, has a top speed of 253 mph and has a 1000 HP. That’s quite close for the rally car and what’s amazing is that the rally car achieved it over 2 kilometers only, with 1 whole kilometer for reaching 200 mph and another kilometer for reaching another 52 mph. I cannot recall how long was the track for the Veyron to clock 253 but as far as I can remember, James May of TopGear drove the car flat-out on a 5 mile stretch, part of Volkswagen Test Track in Germany. Happy to do more testing to beat Veyron~!

After 3 major blows…

My PSP is still operational~! Still far from being a brick. Still as good as brand new.