Man down, man down

Ah, the first battle is barely over and the war continues, but what have we learnt in the past week of hand-to-hand combat (gettit?) between Sony and Nintendo?

	Sony PSP	Nintendo DS
1. Free fairy lights feature	Y	Y
2. Achy, flaky controllers	Y	N
3. Pop-tart toasters	Y	n/a
4. Slow-mo mo motors	Y	n/a
5. Melting hand warmer	Y	N
6. Hack-o-matic carts	N	Y
7. Corrupt users video nation	Y	N
8. Death by firing squad	Y	Y

Hmmm ... I would say the score is Sony seven, Nintendo three. Not a bad or unsurprising victory, we all expected this based on how things were rushed to the Christmas market. So let's break it down:

1) Dead-pixel rumors abound after TFT shortages
The DS and PSP seem to have a few issues. Nintendo (apparently) attempted to buy up the world stock of panels suitable for the PSP to slow down shipments; or so Sony sources claim. This apparently is the reason for some poor importees getting integrated fairy light effects on their new toy. Thing is, if this rumor had any credibility why are DS owners also griping about this seasonal addition?

Me thinks TFT production is always a lottery, and limited production with high demand forces a few quality-control compromises.

What quantity are we talking about? Up to three (count them, three) dead pixels per screen out of an undetermined quantity of units; don't you love hype? Everyone who's posting the story however seems to have NONE personally; meaning you can't beat a good blog.

2) Sticky Joy Pads
Little to say here, buttons and analogue controllers seem to have a little problem with their plastic technology. Most noteworthy being on the PSP; nothing a good slap couldn't fix ... by that I mean the designers who (for reasons only known to plastic engineers) laid out some buttons such that they interfered with the screen ... doh!

3) Eject, eject!
Slight technical problem, the UMD bay on the PSP apparently likes being open more than it's closed. A gentle game playing shake and it springs right out. My advice? Calm down guys, it's only a game.

4) Loading, loading, load
Game developers haven't quite mastered the art of UMD caching. It appears the first generation UMD drives aren't that alert, choosing to sleep rather than spin. The result, very long load times.

5) Going going gone
Battery life scores are in; guess what, I was right (one to me?). The PSP lasts from a whopping 4.5hrs down to a hilarious 90 minutes, depending on whether you're just watching the loading hourglass or actually managed to get the game to play.

6) Protection? What protection?
Rumors are beginning to pop-up that the DS cart protection isn't that hot. One particular evangelist believes he's nearly achieved a complete rip, implying he's already succeeded in some partial form. The same person reckons he also knows how to run his own software on the unit, meaning you can't beat the internet for a good boast.

7) Lights, camera, err hello?
Why people want to play videos on a handheld the size of a side-order is beyond me, but play they must. Nintendo winged out a cart player for the GBA/SP this week (ships in Feb) while Sony banged out a rather boring MP4 transcoder for its baby.

Yet in PSP land things got worse as the transcoded videos wouldn't actually play until you rearranged the memory stick's folder layout (as formatted by the PSP); oops, why not crank up a copy of HL2 while you're on your PC waiting for your broken video to transcode?

Or better yet, just play the PC and leave your sticky buttoned console bereft of battery where it died?

8) The final insult
Ah, but they who laughs last ... the icing on this handmade cake (sorry I'll stop) comes from our Squeenix friends.

The Japanese game charts this week paint a sorry picture. So who did make it to the number one slot? Sony, Nintendo? Nope, you guess it: Dragon Quest bludgeoned the immature grandchildren leaving them barley getting anything into the top-five.

Sorry guys, better luck next year huh?

[EotM]

I'mafeelin: elated (last work day before Christmas)
I'malistinto: the ringing in my ears