Connectivity:
- DS: The Nintendo DS comes wirelessly enabled, meaning that DS games with a multiplayer feature are capable of linking together without cables for some co-operative or competitive fun. Many DS titles allow multiple DS systems to play together with only one physical copy of the game. The disadvantage of the DS wireless is that while it is technically able to connect to an 802.11b network, there isn’t any software available that allows you to do it. While the DS will be able to connect to wireless hotspots somewhere down the road, it doesn’t do it out of the box, making any future over-the-internet style gaming an accessory or game dependent option.
- PSP: The PSP uses Wi-Fi 802.11b communication protocol to enable wireless gaming for it as well. This serves the same function as the wireless in the DS. The PSP is also capable of connecting to existing Wi-Fi hotspots, and may be able to download firmware upgrades over the Internet when they're released sometime in the future. While the Japanese units are not capable of surfing the Internet at the moment, there is a possibility such features will be included with updates or additional software that comes down the road.
- Comments: Online gaming for the DS and PSP are both equally possible, and just a matter of time. How they are implemented is pure speculation until it happens. What is concrete is that the DS is built to allow at least some wireless gaming with a single cartridge; you don’t need four friends with the same game in order to enjoy the experience, just four friends with one DS each. The DS’s touch pad and stylus also allow users to send text and graphic messages back and forth wirelessly, which the PSP can’t do for lack of an easy way to input messages. Based on what the systems are capable of doing at this moment, the DS is better designed to let the user do more with the system’s capabilities.
Controls:
The only significant difference between the controls, besides the DS’s ability to use the touch screen, which opens all sorts of possibilities, is that the PSP has an analog stick as well as a traditional directional pad. Since most games on the home consoles use analog sticks for control now days, it’s a good bet the PSP’s will see a great deal of use. However, it’s a specially designed analog control that doesn’t extend far from the front of the unit, and it may or may not be really useful. We’ll see when the PSP launches how this feature works.
Game Media:
The PSP and DS utilize different types of media for storing games. Games for the PSP come on what’s called Universal Media Discs, basically miniature DVDs created with a certain type of laser, and can store up to 1.8 gigabytes worth of data. This is substantially more than the Nintendo DS, which clocks in at a maximum of about 128 megabytes per card. In short, the media capacity for the PSP is an order of magnitude greater than the DS. To give you a comparative idea of how much memory 1.8 gigs is, keep in mind that the Xbox version of Morrowind IV: Elder Scrolls, one of the most complex games ever made, is roughly only 900 megabytes (less than one gigabyte), less than the 1.8 gigabytes of the UMD. In fact, so is Beyond Good and Evil, GTAIII, GTA: VC, Soul Calibur 2, Time Splitters 2, The Sims: Bustin’ Out, and The Urbz. At that size, the PSP discs are fully capable of holding pretty much anything the PSP is capable of playing.
Battery Life:
The disadvantages of having a DVD-style media device is that accessing it is more power consuming than the card-based media of the DS. As a consequence, the battery life of the DS is substantially greater than that of the PSP. According to reports on the actual Japanese version of the PSP, the system runs for roughly 3.5 hours per charge, depending on what you’re doing with the system. The DS, on the other hand, lays claim to between 6 to 8 hours worth of gaming life on a single charge.
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