Is a new PSP handheld console a good idea?

The Monday letters page pits the Asus ROG Ally against the Steam Deck OLED, as one reader looks forward to Horizon Chase 2 on PS5 and Xbox.

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Portable requirements
With all the bad gaming news at the moment I admit I’m excited about the rumour of a possible new PSP.

What would I like from it?

Well, I like the design of the PlayStation Portal so something similar looking to that would be fine with me.

Power-wise it would be impressive if it can run PlayStation 4 games. I would also like it to have slots on it so it can play all existing PSP and PS Vita games. Maybe also the option of being able to connect it to the PlayStation 5 so it can be used on a big screen.

So, if the rumours are true and it can do all of this then count me in as a day one purchase, if it is reasonably priced.

Hopefully Sony will officially reveal details of it at their next PlayStation Showcase.
Tony- -1975 (PSN ID)/SW-4453-8520-2043 (Switch)

The not-so new order
Hooray! Wolfenstein: The New Order is 10! Yes, 10 years have passed since MachineGames dropped that atomic bomb and wowed everyone, successfully modernising the Wolfenstein franchise for the new generation. It was a story-based single-player first person shooter with tight and gripping gameplay and a plot that enabled it to hold its head up high with and above other story-based first person shooter greats like Half-Life 2. Yes, I said it. Thanks, MachineGames. Like the voice when you finish the original Doom said: ‘You did it.’

One other thing I need to ask… was this game better than the sequel? In retrospect it’s now easy to say.
Henry

GC: It has less flaws than its sequel but we’re not sure we’d necessarily say it was better. We hope they can finish the trilogy off one day, but that’s looking fairly unlikely.

Mass market advertising
The Switch’s rip-roaring hardware sales can in part be attributed to the massive marketing campaign that it had: as long as Nintendo doesn’t overlook that aspect for the next console (as they did for Wii U) I think it’ll do pretty well.

The best-selling consoles tend to cross over into popular culture and become a must-have gadget – there’s a lot of people who have a Switch because it was the in thing and use it for Fortnite and maybe Mario Kart/Smash Bros.

That part of the market isn’t likely to be swayed by a glorious new Zelda or Metroid game, or PlayStation 4 level power in a handheld, but if they see Ant and Dec playing Fortnite on the Switch 2 (with exclusive ‘I’m a Celebrity’ skin) then they’ll no doubt fly off the shelves…
Magnumstache

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Déjà vu gaming
I agree that the leaked Valve game looks extremely generic but what worries me is that that’s going to be a lot of gaming for the foreseeable future. That’s just what online shooters look like when they’re live service games: no identifiable personality, so they don’t scare anyone off with things like originality or new ideas.

Mark my words, we’re going to see a dozen Ubisoft games that look like that in the future, plus every other publisher that wants to keep up with the current trends. Maybe Sony can make theirs look a little different if they make them spin-offs of their big franchises but what little we’ve seen of their attempts so far don’t look any better.

And let’s face it, Helldivers 2 owes its entire concept to a movie, while trying to tread as close to Star Wars and Warhammer style armour without actually copying it. I fear the future is going to look very samey.
Lester

Shadows die twice
Maybe I’ll regret this. Maybe Chained Ogre will grind me into toothpaste and Gyobu Oniwa will pick the leftovers. But like they say, it’s always worth a crack. Maybe I’ll fail horrifically and give up, before I manage to crack the combat. Perhaps, I’ll be too fearful of Guardian Ape and Lady Butterfly.

Or maybe, the cursed Dragonrot will break my sanity and I’ll cry. But if I try and persevere I’ll be a better gamer for it. Worth a shot!
Shahzaib Sadiq

Local solution
For a few months now I’ve noticed that my Xbox controller has not been turning on my Xbox Series X when I hold down the Xbox button on the controller. In the end I’ve had to get up and hold down the power button on the console, which does turn it on, but it goes back to a black screen with an Xbox logo and takes it a few minutes to get going.

There’s times when it doesn’t turn on and I have to unplug it and plug it back in again. This is stopping me from successfully doing remote play and I definitely have it set to sleep mode to make remote play an option.

I’ve been down a Google rabbit hole and have done soft and even a hard reset on my Xbox Series X. I’ve also held down the power button for 10 seconds, unplugged everything, including external storage devices, and plugged everything back in again. This does help for a few days but if I don’t turn my Xbox on for about four or five days I’m back to it going to the black boot up screen. Having exhausted my options online I don’t know what to do as I may, according to someone online, have a faulty power supply.

This most likely means at getting a repair job done, but apart from the fact that this can apparently cost a hundred or two, and involve Microsoft often sending out a refurbished device which I definitely do not want, especially for that kind of price, I’m not sure what option to take next. Especially since I can’t actually get hold of anyone at Microsoft. If I knew of anywhere reliable and preferably local (I live in Derby) I’d consider a third party repair. What would readers advise for my next step?
Chaosphere

Powerful Ally
In response to Ali K, I have recently purchased the ROG Ally Z1 Extreme from Currys and not regretted it one bit. It can be a bit fiddly to set up at first but there are tons of YouTube videos to help. The machine is a beast and feels great to play. With the right settings you can scale games up to 60+ fps which makes it feel like a true next generation handheld compared to the Switch.

The battery is an issue, and at most you will get an hour with AAA games such as Red Dead Redemption 2. Not an issue for me, as I got it to play in bed near a plug and a powerbank can solve the issue.

The ROG Ally complements my Xbox with Game Pass cloud and remote play. I imagine remote play will work with PlayStation 5 just as easily. I looked at the Steam Deck but went with the Ally, as it can do everything and more. I also got a JSAUX dock for £40 and it works great in desktop mode for games like Dota 2 and Counter-Strike.

Hope this helps with making a decision.
Wallace

Video evidence
I’m a YouTuber who covers both the Steam Deck OLED and ROG Ally – in response to Ali K in Friday’s Inbox, this is what I’d recommend:

If you want the best battery life and hate playing while plugged in, want an incredible OLED screen, a more console-like experience (such as sleep/resume functionality), want to use the SD card slot, lots of customisation options, and don’t mind playing newer games at lower resolutions/frame rates (pre 2018 AAA games run great though) then get the Steam Deck OLED.

If you don’t mind playing plugged in or 90 minutes of battery life for AAA games, want a nice crisp 1080p screen, don’t mind putting up with Windows (sleep/resume isn’t a great experience), don’t mind your SD card slot probably not working, want the best comparability for games, want the best Game Pass experience (games can be downloaded natively to the Ally), and want to play AAA games at much higher resolutions and the same frame rates, then get the ROG Ally.

One last thing, Asus just announced the ROG Ally X with double the battery life, SD card fix, and many slight improvements, 14 of which I covered here.

So Ali, it may be worth holding off for this until its released in probably September/October time.

Hope this helps!
Pete Talks Tech

Inbox also-rans
I would love to see a Star Wars game made by the Total War team. Although I hope this is something that is already underway, or otherwise it’s going to be five years or something before we ever get to play it.
Renton

Good news: Horizon Chase 2 is finally coming to the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S on 30th May. I’ve been looking forwards to this one for a while. When they said Spring 2024, I didn’t think they would wait until the penultimate day!
NatorDom

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The small print
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