Ape Escape remake PSP - mega load times

[anephric]

Is it true, if from my laserdisc days I recall correctly, that it's possible to store more information on a CLV disc than a CAV disc?

[Soi]

Yes, CLV can store more (I'm not sure how much more though) as a result of the having spiral grooves as opposed to the circular grooves of CAV. See here for more pretty pictures.

[martTM]

Shall we get back on topic?

Anyway. Ape Escape (the remake) has possibly the worst loading times I've seen on the PSP so far - to put it in perspective, here's a second-by-second breakdown of me loading the game right now as I type this (minutes and seconds, with me skipping past anything that I can as soon as it appears):

00:00 - PSP logo disappears and screen goes black
00:17 - Now Loading screen appears
00:35 - SCEA Presents screen appears
00:38 - Now Loading screen appears
00:50 - Intro Movie (skipped two seconds later, Now Loading appears)
01:02 - Menu screen appears (New Game selected two seconds later, screen goes black)
01:09 - Now Loading screen appears
01:26 - Another Intro Movie (skipped two seconds later, Now Loading appears)
01:33 - Professor explains game Movie (skipped two seconds later, Now Loading appears)
02:02 - Warning! Catch 3 Monkeys screen (skipped one second later, Now Loading appears)
02:14 - First level begins... although there's a five second fly-through of the level before actual control of player starts.

So... that's about 2 minutes and 20 seconds of meaningless stuff before I even start playing - and that's skipping through all the movies and other things that would extend the time even further if I left them running. Considering the bus journey I take to work lasts less than ten minutes, it's hardly worth even booting the game up - especially since there's more loading in between levels. Yay!

I've got WipEout Pure - the loading in that is nowhere near this bad and it's far more graphically intensive. Same goes for Ridge Racers, Everybody's Golf and Metal Gear Acid... what's going on, Sony?

As for the controls, they're okay - the net has been mapped to the Circle button now, meaning you have to swing in the direction you're facing, the right shoulder button is crouch and the left is for the camera (a quick tap for centering it behind you, hold it down for first-person mode). Like I said, it's okay but not perfect - the number of times I've swung the net and missed a monkey right in front of me is growing by the play.

Oh, and if anyone's interested, I read a news story today that Sony was looking to have a 4GB Memory Stick Duo on the market before the end of the year. The price? Just shy of $1000. Nearly enough to buy four iPods, each of which holds 60GB. Nice.

[Ginza]

1GB looks to be the best size for usage because I can compare it to spending the same amount of money on an iPod shuffle. Its ?99 for one of those or about ?80 ish for a 1GB mem card for the PSP. The PSP actually has a screen and a most beautiful one at that and it plays GAMEZ111!!!

[The Boatman]

And it's about 8 times the size... But if you're carrying your PSP around with you everywhere like the 1337 gamers we all are, thst doesn't matter.

[Pootle UK]

I've had the PSP for about a month and a half now. I've also only 2 games at present for it: Ridge Racers and Minna No Golf. I've found the load times for both to be bearable although at some points (more noticable I guess when switched on to find it still paused 'in game') it takes a while to find itself and in some cases, the machine just locks out meaning I have to switch off, eject the disc, switch back on and go through the menu to load it up again.

I've done the firmware update last night and it's improved the machine's functionality as a whole. Played Ridge Racers and it was smooth with no noticeable pause for loading at all.

I guess I don't have much to compare with but for the most part, I still like my PSP enough to play it after this time if only with 2 titles (which will be 3 once I get Wipreout Pure), despite the load times now and then.

[martTM]

I know this might sound patronising, but... well, you are turning the machine off properly every time, right? Because the PSP has two off modes - Standby mode puts the game you're playing on hold until you turn it back on again and Off is... well, off completely. If you only flick the power switch when turning it off rather than holding the switch up until the screen goes black, you'll only be putting it into Standby mode rather than turning it off properly - not only is that bad for your battery, but it's how most of the games **** up (WipEout Pure, for instance, loses its autosave functionality when booted back up from standby and Everybody's Golf seems to like crashing if you come back to a game from standby).

Like I said, no offense... but I'm surprised how many people with PSPs seem to have missed this.

[The Boatman]

Wasn't the firmware update supposed to help with the standby issues? what version of the firmware were you using when you encountered standby problems with WipEout Pure martTM?

[Pootle UK]

Yes I'm aware of that mart.