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Blogs Sony's other handheld gaming effort

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by brumgrunt, 28 Aug 2012.

  1. brumgrunt

    brumgrunt What's a Dremel?

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  2. sandys

    sandys Multimodder

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    Took a punt on a play and its been quite good, course I bought it cheap when they slashed prices I guess to clear stock, having used it though it really is the best mobile gaming device, in that because its your phone you always carry it, no need for other devices, and buttons, of course they make all the difference, you can also store a lot of content on it but the OS holds it back due to its division of storage, Application storage area is too small, preinstalled apps can't be removed, I was able to clear some but I still struggle even though I have a huge SD card.

    A good first device though, they also didn't mess around with Android too much so it mostly just works as you expect with out 3rd party app interference.

    I would jump on a new one in a heatbeat particularly if they manage to get Vita hardware in there and would have no qualms about paying full price whereas I was a bit reluctant with the Play due to mixed reviews.
     
  3. runadumb

    runadumb What's a Dremel?

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    ^^This. I've long bored the internet with my rants about the play but Sandy saved me from repeating myself here. Spot on.

    Unfortunately mine has died on me. I have replaced it with a GS3 which pisses on the play from a great height in every single way, except gaming. The Play is a champ at that and I was planning on holding onto it for quite some time just as my primary handheld gaming device. Shame.

    I use the Icontrolpad and have ordered a gameklip (expecting it any day) to take its place but nothing will compare to the convenience of sliding out that gamepad and firing up an emulator.

    I would love to see a company try again with modern hardware.
     
  4. gosh

    gosh Minimodder

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    just bought one of these recently as they are going for a little over £100 at phones4u and frankly i'm a little disappointed - the phone is a brilliant
    (if a little heavy/bulky) android phone that has enough grunt to play any game/emulator i've thrown at it but the actual playstation software is godawful and clunky - very few psx games available and juggles several different stores to get games designed to use the play's controls. really do get the feeling if they just got the software right, maybe by linking to to the vita/ps3's playstation store that lets you buy a wide range of psx games (and share between platforms) or a lot slicker and less confusing storefront it would have done so so much better - as you mentioned it seems like it was more an experiment than a new range of phones and a new play doesn't seem to be forthcoming.

    luckily it's an android phone - not bothered messing with root/unofficial android roms yet (though it apparently does have stable android ICS 4.0 out there) but it was a quick and simple matter to install GBA/snes/PSX emulators and run roms that play great, having a physical pad gives you a sense of feedback as well as not covering half the screen with your thumbs.

    really a shame there isn't something akin to a vita/psp with a touchscreen, android/market and optionally phone functionality (3g/wifi and android apps/internet browser would do) that still lets you use physical controls and the power of a handheld to play proper games - i really can't see it being that hard, psp has a 333mhz processor and can't be emulated by smartphones yet, surely they could cram the bits for a phone in there too ?
     
  5. Madness_3d

    Madness_3d Bit-Tech/Asus OC Winner

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    I really want a modern phone, vita like specs with proper gaming buttons (I just can't cope with gaming on touchscreen displays) which I can play Monster Hunter on, would be amazing. I love devices which carve a niece in the memories of their owners, My HP Mini 311 would be an example, it was a netbook, but was based on the Nvidia ION chipset so could play some classic games, said chipset also made it overclockable so I had a stable Atom at 2.23Ghz which was awesome

    Edit: Maybe something like this but a bit smaller :) http://www.reghardware.com/2012/08/31/archos_gamepad_pushes_play_with_physical_controls/
     
  6. oliverr97

    oliverr97 What's a Dremel?

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    Having a xperia play myself, i found that the phone in itself wasn't bad, but the playstation controls weren't great and the selection of games for it is pretty abysmal. I love the idea of this phone, but it just isn't very good. If it had much better games and it had a better control set i may reconsider, but it has a long way to go to be a good gaming system.
     
  7. oliverr97

    oliverr97 What's a Dremel?

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    Having an xperia play myself i can say that the phone is not a great phone and not a great gaming device in general. Poor controls and a bad game selection just let it down. Its just best to get a dedicated smartphone and a dedicated handheld
     
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