Sony's Next Generation Portable IF anyone wants a copy of Dead Space 2, there?s one on the kerb outside my house. It was tossed there on Wednesday night after one stabbing too many from an alien zombie. That game is rather nasty ? I had to watch The Human Centipede straight after just to lighten the mood.
And, like the stars of the fi lm, I was soon ready to eat more muck, which came in the form of the original, available from the App Store for the iPad.
For ?6.99 you can face the Necromorphs in tablet form. It?s good too, with a rather clever touchscreen control system.
If you stick your headphones on, it?s genuinely atmospheric, although not quite as pant-fouling as its console cousin.
It must be the size of the screen. Which brings me on to another display ? a multi-touch five-inch OLED display ? as
will be found on Sony?s forthcoming Next Generation Portable (NGP), better known as the PSP2.
Following Nintendo?s launch event in Amsterdam for the 3DS, Sony rang the bell on the next round of the console war by revealing the details of the NGP in Tokyo last week.
The console isn?t due for release until Christmas which, judging by previous launches, means it will hit the shops some time around 2034.
Still, it?s an impressive piece of kit...by which I mean it looks nice on the internet as that?s about as close as I?ve got to one.
What this does for the rumoured PSP phone ? yes, a phone that?s also a PSP ? is anyone?s guess. We?ll no doubt fi nd out during the Mobile World Congress (I haven?t made that up) halfway through this month.Alongside the fl ashy screen, the NGP has a second analogue control stick, a pair of cameras (one on the front and one on the back) a multi-touch pad (also on the back) and Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity.
Games will come on flash memory-cards, as well as via download, while sensors ? a gyroscope, accelerometer and electronic compass ? will provide six-axis motion controls similar to the iPhone 4.
Now this all sounds fairly impressive and it is. What it will also be is expensive.
No price has yet been set but you would expect it to be over ?200 and it may be even north of ?250. It?s quite possible the Sony execs are waiting to see how the 3DS sells when it hits the high street in March at around ?229.
That?s steep but I?d put my dwindling reputation on the NGP being steeper still. Parents reading this will no
doubt be reaching for the noose...
As with any console, its success depends on the games. Sony exclusives including Killzone, LittleBigPlanet, Uncharted and Resistance are likely to get a miniature makeover, along with multi-platform big-hitters such as Call Of Duty.
But if punters are used to paying a couple of quid for an iPad or Smartphone game, will they be as willing to part with thirty or forty quid for a title on a rival handheld, no matter how powerful?
Come on...forty quid for a handheld game? It?s about as likely as Torres turning out in a Chelsea shirt.
