Mini DS review (mainstream press)

PC-Engine said:
How can it be completey off if the reviewer said he used it during the 7.5hrs? Wasn't he playing MP:H? :LOL:
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Was referring to your 100% or not. ;) Playing wirelessly for 5 minutes is much less impressive than 7 hours wirelessly which he could have very well played for. But we don't know. ;)
 
Ty said:
PC-Engine said:
How can it be completey off if the reviewer said he used it during the 7.5hrs? Wasn't he playing MP:H? :LOL:
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Was referring to your 100% or not. ;) Playing wirelessly for 5 minutes is much less impressive than 7 hours wirelessly which he could have very well played for. But we don't know. ;)
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Why would he play MP:H multiplayer for 5 minutes? That's one of the most fun things to do when you have others to do it with. ;)

As a matter of fact I finished all three short single player training levels in under 3 hours. :LOL:
 
PC-Engine said:
Why would he play MP:H multiplayer for 5 minutes? That's one of the most fun things to do when you have others to do it with. ;)
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Because his friend had to return his because of a broken pixel. ;)
 
PC-Engine said:
Ty said:
PC-Engine said:
whether the LAN was on 100% or not isn't going to change its impressiveness... :LOL:
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Don't be silly. Of course it would. If the lan were completely off, then 7.5 hours isn't necessarily a decent test. ;)
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How can it be completey off if the reviewer said he used it during the 7.5hrs? Wasn't he playing MP:H? :LOL:

It's not like he had to turn down the screen brightness and plug in headphones along with turning off wireless LAN to achieve the superduper 7.5hrs. :LOL:
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um...in the review it says:
I managed 7 1/2 hours of battery life on a single charge, playing graphics-intensive games, blasting the music through the stereo speakers and connecting online with another DS.
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that is, the reviewer wasn't even playing Metroid for the whole 7.5 hours, but playing other games too and connecting to other DS's with Picto Chat. Nowhere does he say he played MP wirelessly?
Does DS have Bluetooth? Did he play it with that enabled?
I don't think PictoChat is that graphically intensive, though the wireless must drain the battery quite a lot.

Elsewhere in the review it says
It has a built-in microphone and Wi-Fi, but no games take advantage of those features yet.
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Is that false? Does MP have that feature?

7,5 hours of average battery time using the DS in different ways, some draining the battery more than other.
That should bee good enough for most gamers, that's about what was expected.

What keeps me from buying the DS (apart from the fact that I don't need two handhelds, and I've already decided on PSP ;) ) could be the ergonomics.
Many reviewers have had some problems with that, and imo ergonomics is the 2nd most important feature in a device that is meant to be handheld and handled for hours. I'm sure it is comfortable enough without the stylus, but with it the reviews have had something negative to say.
That thumbnubwristbandthing would seem to make it more comfortable, but I can imagine it not being as accurate with that. To me that sounds little like something they had to come up with as a last minute patch when they realised the stylus might be too uncomfortable to use together with te buttons or holding the unit with just one hand for a lenghty period.
 
Give pc-engine a break guys. I think what he is trying to point out is, why the nitpicking even though DS have undergone real world testing. Yet the PSP paper 4-6 hours seem readily accepted around.
 
I believe Feel the Magic utilizes the microphone (to blow candles or something). Should be interesting to see how it works.
 
Off topic but since this thread already got polluted...

Marconelly - I played around a bit with the PSP to see this ghosting for myself. It's not a show stopper by any means but apparently it is a step down from some of the other revs. In areas of high contrast/movement it is much more noticeable but otherwise not that bad. The screen now is the one they will ship with in Japan but might change it for the US (this jives with your statement about the TGS screen being the shipping version).
 
I believe the issue--as usual--comes from his taking comments and interpreting them in the way he feels like so he can grin and take an obligatory (compulsive?) knock at Sony. Not surprising, but certainly tiresome. Most people are content to leave it at "hey, that's pretty good."

We are now in the "information gathering" stage for the DS, and I'm perfectly content with waiting for the lot of them to come in--though of course the typical mainstream press won't cover what most on here are interested in on here (which is "just how far can it be pushed? What are minimum and maximum tolerances?") as evidenced by non-specific testing mentions (how long was Game A played over Game B? How long was wireless used?) to phrases like "informal rundown tests." We'll get those later--more useful ones, probably, from the folk on here and other nerd-o-centric sources. You'd think PC Magazine would have done a better one, but things right now are just for getting out "launch news" ahead of the game, rather than any in-depth testing. People will be having their real fun over the next week. ;)

Meanwhile, though, no one here should take ANYONE'S paper numbers at face value, though of course the "fans" on one side or another will continuously laud one and criticize the other. 7 1/2 to 8 1/2 is probably good and expected from Nintendo's released 6 to 10 numbers, and if the PSP can hit five hours, it will still be well in line with their own posted expectations, and similarly expected. And personally, I would probably laugh at those who will continue to state that that game-playing delta will drive all the consumers away. (Will need to start adding in charge times as well at that point, which I hope get tested capably as well. I wouldn't take Nintendo's "4 hours" or Sony's "1-2 hours" comments at face value either, though I would probably expect them to be "close enough.")

The DS and PSP are both complex, multi-capable machines. Howsabout we sit around and judge the reviews as they come in, and for the lucky ones of us supply our own? (As the results will be much more personal to what others of us on here have in mind than any journalistic review is apt to be.)

...and leave the eye-rolling childishness in middle school where it belongs. We have plenty else to talk about beside battery lifespans too, so you can feel free to keep it in your pants.
 
Is that false? Does MP have that feature?
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MP:H demo has 4-way multiplayer.

I'm sure it is comfortable enough without the stylus, but with it the reviews have had something negative to say.
That thumbnubwristbandthing would seem to make it more comfortable, but I can imagine it not being as accurate with that. To me that sounds little like something they had to come up with as a last minute patch when they realised the stylus might be too uncomfortable to use together with te buttons or holding the unit with just one hand for a lenghty period.
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From what I've experienced so far, using a stylus in one hand and using the other to hold the NDS and use the direction controller at the same time will make your hand tired after a short while. If a game requires such a control scheme, it's better to lay the NDS on your lap. However if it's just plain stylus control then you won't have any problem because then you can hold the NDS from the center ie thumb in front and remainin fingers in back or under the NDS. I don't have huge hands so keep that in mind.

Also the thumb strap works quite well too but you need to get used to it first since it has a little nob that sits between your thumb and the screen so it creates a distance between your thumb and screen which might not feel too natural at first causing you to put more pressure on the screen than necessary. It kinda interferes with the natural feedback that your skin provides. Also the thumb strap nob has to be aligned on your thumb fairly strategically because it only covers a small area of the thumb. Using only your thumb without the strap would be a lot better except for the fact your skin oils don't allow very smooth gliding unless you're barely skimming your thumb across the surface which adds another problem ie sensitivity.

What I've found to be a better solution for myself is to use a finger stocking. :p I had a bunch of soft thin cloth gloves laying around when I used to work with film negatives and found that to be a superior solution. Those familior with these film negative gloves will know what I'm talking about. I just cut the fingers off the gloves and used that instead of the thumb strap. I would expect 3rd parties would come out with this idea eventually because it works really well because your thumb is directly over the surface so it feel much more natural. Also the cloth allows smooth gliding without worries about applying too much pressure on the screen. People tend to press on buttons harder when in the heat of battle etc. so they'll do the same with the thumb nob which probably isn't to healthy for the screen after repeated use.

Also keep in mind that using your thumb in MP:H is only for looking/aiming. The best comparison to this configuration is using a trackball with your thumb while firing with the shoulder button that's opposite of the thumb hand. It works really well and is REALLY fast and accurate for aiming after a little practice.
 
Marconelly - I played around a bit with the PSP to see this ghosting for myself. It's not a show stopper by any means but apparently it is a step down from some of the other revs. In areas of high contrast/movement it is much more noticeable but otherwise not that bad. The screen now is the one they will ship with in Japan but might change it for the US (this jives with your statement about the TGS screen being the shipping version).
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That's weird. You'd think one person would make that observation about ghosting after playing with one on TGS... Fafalada said for instance that the screen in the TGS PSP was only comparable in quality to the latest crop of laptops that use that glassy screen coating, and is much better than screens used on various PDAs (The specced brightness of 180cd/m is better than any PDA I've seen, though)
 
Oh it's bright, sharp, and extremely beautiful alright. The ghosting can be ameliorated somewhat by simply avoiding certain situations so I wouldn't really worry about it till maybe a racing game hits the streets and comments, positive or negative, flow from it.
 
london-boy said:
Well, look at it this way, free Motion Blur!!!
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Heh, that's exactly what I said the other day at lunch. "It's a marketing feature!"
 
Racing game? Well I guess we won't have to wait too long :\
It's encouraging that everyone who has played RR on TGS has loved the way the game looked, though.

*edit* I wonder what kind of screen earlier devkit used if it didn't have any ghosting. Now that I think about it, I can't think of one electronic device with LCD screen that doesn't have any ghotsing, even the currently most expensive LCD monitors have it.
 
LCD response times have a big affect on ghosting, that's why we have 16ms LCDs. That's why gamers demand since a lot of games move at 60fps. For games that only move at 30fps, 25ms is enough. If you say all LCDs have ghosting then you also have to say that all CRTs have ghosting...
 
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