Hi! It’s been I long time since my last post (I already got both VK and my new faceplate). Starting today, I will post every day my favorite link for the day. It’s a nice way to share my interests as well as making others discover new websites. Here’s today’s link:

http://www.schmap.com/

So, I’m really exited about this one because I’m a world traveler, and this little piece of software really is a big help for me. Schmap lets you virtually visit cities from your computer in order to plan your trip in advance, or avoid being lost once you get there. Hope you like it!

After reading the metareview from PSP Fanboy, I was impressed by how bad grades the game got. However, after reading the comments, I decided to check the user reviews instead to see what other, non-professional players think. In Gamespot, they are in the sevenths. On IGN, the grades are also in the sevenths. After this, I sucked it up, and started searching for the game. In order to prevent a money loss, I was lucky enough to find one on eBay for around 10€, 13€ with shipping. It should arrive in 1-3 days, so expect my review sometime soon.

So, I was getting bored of the stock faceplate because, I see it this way: I have custom firmware, custom wavelines, custom background, custom fonts, custom icons, etc, so why not have a custom faceplate?

I found Hardstore.com, and italian website selling game stuff (kid of like play asia, only european) and it was really cheap, I mean, normally the camy faceplates cost $20, but through that website, I got it tax-free, plus the cheap price it already had, which came to a total of €17. Not bad, eh? I chose the silver twin dragons one (pictured avobe): I don’t like gold, plus, I don’t like the hell skull one (too much drawings)

It should arrive in arround a week or so, so expect a review and an instalation video sometime soon.

I found on PSP Gen (french website) that custom firmware 3.30 for the PSP will in fact have extra functionnality.

Original Post:

“Mathieulh vient donc d’annoncer la bonne nouvelle a MaGiXieN :
Si, comme DarK_Alex l’a annoncé hier il n’y aura pas de grande innovation dans le 3.30 OE il n’en reste pas moins qu’une petite surprise vous attendra dans l’émulateur PS1 integré.
En effet en travaillant sur celui-ci, ils se sont rendu compte qu’une option permettant de régler la vitesse de chargement (Dans le jeu) des ISOs PS1 est présente dans cette nouvelle version.
Précedemment, dans les anciennes versions, la vitesse du chargement se faisait à l’identique par rapport à la PS1. Aujourd’hui, il sera possible, via une option, de choisir entre le mode original et un chargement accéléré !
Nous profitons de l’occasion pour vous dire que le 3.30OE est en bonne voie et que, DarK_Alex n’ayant toujours pas de PSP, il n’y a toujours pas de date précise prévue.”

Which I translated into:

Mathieluh has just announced good news to MaGiXieN:

Even if Dark_Alex announced yesterday that there wouldn’t be a big innovation in 3.30 OE, there will be, however, a little surprise waiting for you in the integrated PS1 Emulator.
While working on it, the found out that there was an option allowing to define the load speed (in the game) of the PS1 ISOs is present in this new version.
In the older versions, the loading speed was made identically to that of the PS1. Today it will be possible, via an option, to choose between normal speed and accelerated speed!
We take this opportunity to say that 3.30 OE is coming along nicely, but, scince Dark_Alex still hasn’t got a new PSP, there is not a defined date for it.

That’s what they said. Although I support custom firmware for its ability to play homebrew, and not for the illegal aspect of itI wish less people stop using it for piracy, but for functionnality.

David Carnoy, Executive Editor from Cnet wrote an article yesterday about how women prefer the DS over the PSP. While he doesn’t have any numbers, or polls, or analysis behind him, he’s relying on testimonies made by fellow co-workers at Cnet and by some arguments I (and many fanboys) think is true.

“Take the case of CNET assistant editor Matthew Moskovciak. This is his first job out of college. He works like a dog and doesn’t make a ton of money. And while he doesn’t like to admit it, his girlfriend keeps a gentle eye on his discretionary spending, particularly when it comes to items like game consoles. He recounts that her interest in the DS was piqued when she saw an ad somewhere online for a Mario Bros. game and “liked the concept of the touch screen,” he says. “She thought it was more interactive than what you had with the PSP.”

He also notes that the number of good titles for the DS is pretty thin, especially if you happen to be over 21 and don’t worship at the altar of Mario or Pokemon. “If you’re looking to play more “adult” games with any sort of backbone, the PSP is a far better choice with a much stronger game library”, he says, “The initial wave of PS2 ports has given way to a meaty list of games across a wide variety of genres: action/shooter titles (Metal Gear Solid,SOCOM, Syphon Filter, Grand Theft Auto, Killzone), platformers (Daxter, Ratchet & Clank), racing (Burnout, Ridge Racer, Need for Speed), fighting (Tekken, Def Jam, The Warriors), and sports (Madden, FIFA, Virtua Tennis, MLB 07). And all of them look and play better than most of what you’ll find on the DS”

He also says that if you’re looking for something a bit more cerebral, “The PSP even has a decent selection of addictive puzzle games (Lumines, Exit) and retro arcade titles, and even a couple of unique offerings that defy genre pigeonholing (LocoRoco, Katamari).”

Of course, he’s right abaout akk of this, however, I have to agree with the fact that “For some reason, the PSP just hasn’t found that warm spot in the female heart. I’m generalizing, of course–there are women out there who enjoy the PSP–but you just get the sense that women see the DS as a cute, fun toy, and not an evil game console that’s a mindless time suck. And then there’s the whole pick-up-and-play factor that people keep talking about, which also applies to the Wii in a big way.”

After making clear these points, he continues with ways Sony could improve the handheld, such as to increase the console’s pick-up-and-play quotient, and to move away from UMD when it comes to music and movies, scince “it’s become clear that few people want to pay $15 to 20 for a pocket-sized DVD [...] The sooner Sony gets to providing downloadable movie and TV episode rentals, the sooner it’s going to get the hoard of mobile professionals, men and women, to buy into the system. Imagine being at an airport and wirelessly downloading (via the PSP’s internal Wi-Fi connection) a movie or two and a maybe an old Seinfeld episode before boarding your flight. Ideally, of course, frequent travelers could opt for a monthly subscription service a la Netflix. If that includes a nice selection of downloadable games, so much the better.”

These solutions have already been discovered by the fanbase of the system a long time ago, and even if it doesn’t look like it, Sony knows what their clients want, they’re just slow at it. Take the Beats project, isn’t that the next step to getting movies and music over the air? I think so. Feel free to comment on this, I’d like to hear what other people think.

Read the full article.

TigerDirect.com has the PSP Value Pack for $149.99 without rebates. This seriously beats the $169.99 pricetag the Base Pack now has. I think that if TigerDirect can put the price that low, sony definetly can. That would mean the Giga Pack could cost $199.99, the Value Pack $149.99 and the Base Pack $99.99! Now that’s cheap, $30 cheaper than the Nintendo DS Lite! I don’t see why they couldn’t do that…

via TigerDirect.com

IGN has put on their website 3 of the songs that the highly anticipated Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter will feature. The songs are The Tragedy of War, A Bridge Too Far, Juarez Under Fire by Tom Salta. You can hear them by clicking here.

Via: IGN

I finally got my hands on Exit 2, the European release. I didn’t get the import version I tipped PSP Fanboy about some time ago because I prefer the english version of the game. I’ve only played it for some minutes, maybe an hour, taking the tutorial to see what’s new and to refresh my memory (I had forgotten some things).

If you wish to read my first look on the game, click on the “more” link below.

First things first: you might be wondering what has changed. Well, the biggest change, or at least the most noticeable is the color. The first Exit’s main color was yellow, remember? Well, this time is some mix of violet, purple and rose you can clearly see every where: from the UMD box, to the skyes in the game, but not in the interiors: they remained the same color, which is better. In other words, everything that used to be yellow is now replaced by that color (whose exact name I don’t know), but, as expected, the game’s stylish art remains the same.

That’s the new color.

Other cosmetic changes include Mr. Esc’s outfit. He’s changed from the conventional clothes to some kind of coat, or cape, or whatever that is. Personnaly, I like it better this way. Don’t ask me why, because I don’t know.

Before (above) and after (below).

Away from the cosmetic changes, let’s see the actual game changes, those who affect gameplay. Let’s break that by parts:

Controls: They are pretty much the same: you move with the d-pad, control the cursor with the analog nub, jump with the x button, etc. One little detail though (and I don’t know if it’s a change, I don’t really remember) is that you can exchange items with fellow escapees by pressing the square button. Leaving that aside, they are the same simple to use controls from the first Exit game.

Companions: In the first Exit, there were 3 types of companions, each one with different abilities and disabilities: the kids, the young adults, and the adults. However, in Exit 2, there are both those from the original Exit plus two more: the “Macho”, who is as strong as the adults and nearly as flexible as Mr. Esc, but with limited horizontal jumping and a big body (due to his muscles) which prevents him from crawling, and the “Dog”, the only animal in the game. The dog can perform huge horizontal jumps, swim (but not dive), crawl like the kids, and take objects. Even if he cannot use them, he can take them back to you.

Theres the macho(above) and the dog (below)

Mr. Esc’s best friend. He’s obidient and loyal too!

Items and accessories: As of now, I have not seen any new accesories, exept for new metal boxes, and a barrel that can role until it fills a hole., which can be seen below.

Other changes: Two other changes have been made to the game: the online interface for downloading games, and the “Options” menu.

• Downloading levels: The interface is still nice, clean and easy to use, but I think they put too much of the new color in it. It bothers me sometimes.

• Options Menu: Audio settings: In the audio settings menu, there is the typical BGM volume, Sound Effects volume, the restore default settings button, but, there is now a music player! Apparently you can unlock songs by completing levels, which seams to be a total of 16 songs for the 16 non-downloadable tracks. If you click play you will listen to the playlist and control the playback mode, foward, backwards, etc. When I saw it I got really exited thinking it was like the custom tracks in the GTA games, but it’s OK, it’s still cool.

The first song is called “Trouble Maker”. It’s not bad.

Up to now, those are all the changes I have seen. To make it short, the big changes are:

1. Cosmetic changes (the color, clothing, etc.)
2. Two new companions: the “Macho” and the “Dog”.
3. The music player.
4. The online interface.
5. Of course, the levels.

Up to now I like the game, and I look foward to play it more so that I can completely review it. If you want to see other screenshots, visit my Flickr stream by clicking here.

Exit 2 Screenshots taken with a 3.xx OE custom firmware plugin. Exit 1 screenshots taken from the IGN (I don’t have it anymore…) You can use my images, but please inform me first.

I’m really exited about this one because I really enjoyed the first one and the Japanese demo of the second one that came out. Unfortunately, it’s sunday and everything’s closed, so I’ll drop by the store tomorrow. Maybe I’ll write my first impressions.

PS: Dates throughout Europe are different. In France it will come out wednesday 11th, in the UK the 16th, and in here (Belgium) tomorrow.

Picture from the Exit 2 demo, via PSP Fanboy.  Click it to download (from them)

This saturday I had the chance (again) to go to Paris. Scince I’d been there before, I thought that not taking a “real” camera wouldn’t matter, so I decided to put Chotto Shot (PSP cam) to the test by using it as if it was a main camera.

The results of this “experiments” can be found by clicking the “more” link. There are sample pictures taken, as well as comments and something interesting I found apparently which I don’t know what happened. Hopefully somebody will read this and give some feedback.

A PSP Fanboy reader commented one possoble explanation for the blackout: “I’d suspect that much like the PS2 eyetoy camera, the PSP camera adjusts its aperture artificially. This means it makes sure your photographs aren’t too bright or too dark using software instead of a mechanical method that most standalone cameras use (which physically limit the amount of light that hits the sensor/film.)

Therefore, because the sun was so bright on the CCD sensor of the PSP camera, the software tried to adjust for the amount of light hitting it but instead just hit a wall where anything less bright than that would appear completely black. Possibly a small software glitch. Which would be why resetting the PSP solved your problems.”

To me, this seems like a very logical explanation, so I think this is what happened. Plus, I’m using 3.10 OE-A, which can be quite unstable sometimes. This morning I tried pointing a the sun, and nothing happened, so…it could be a one-time-only thing, but what’s important is that it’s still working just fine.

Of course, all the pictures had to be taken with a 4:3, 1280*960 resolution instead of 16/9, 480*272 scince it’s supposed to be a full camera, and it should be viewable on PC. Therefore the pictures don’t look very well on the PSP’s screen unless you zoom at least 50%.

When I arrived the weather was horrible. There wasn’t any rain, but it was very foggy and ugly. However, the chotto shot took the pictures just like a normal camera would do. It wasn’t the cameras fault if the weather was so bad.

A few hours later, the sun came out slowly, and the camera did an amazing job considering it’s only 1.3 mp. One thing I didn’t like about the camera is that after the shooting sound, the picture is actually taken one or two seconds later, which can be very upsetting when moving in a car.

The other pics look just as good, so let’s get indoors. Once indoors, if the lighting is good, you can get really, good pictures, like the Venus statue on the Louvre museum on the picture below.

These are examples of the pictures indoors, and outdoors. All the others look just as good , under the same circumstances. So instead of posting 50 pictures that look the, just look at the examples and if you want to see the rest visit my flickr stream (link below).

Now to the discovery. We all know Chotto Shot is not an expensive camera. Therefore, even if it’s lens take good quality pictures, the camera is made with the cheapest materials possible to keep its 50$ pricepoint. Well, before I left Paris, on my way to the train station, I wanted to tak a pic of the et (eiffel tower) with the sunset. And guess what happened: for one little second, the sun was SO bright my eyes hurt and I had to close them, and the camera went completely black. The sun killed the lens for some time. I watching and taking pictures, all black, until I turned off the PSP completely, and rebooted it, and it was working again. My hypothesis is that the Sun might kill the lenses for a little time if it’s too bright. I would like to recive some feedback on that.

Well, overall, the camera did GREAT. Now you know it works like a main camera. It’s not the greatest camera in the world, and you should not use it in the dark because it won’t work. I’d like to see a flash mod for it from acidmods or somethin’. I shall give it an 8/10: -1 for no flash, and -1 because for the size it could have been 2mp. That’s all! Oh, and by the way, you can check out my Filckr stream by clicking here. (all th epictures aren’t up yet, and I willl take as much pictures and videos as possible)