The system
The new F200 model of the GP2X is quite attractive, certainly no worse looking than either the DS Lite or the PSP. It is comfortable to hold, the buttons are laid out well and the screen is both a decent size and nice and bright. There is a slot on the top where you insert your SD card (SDHC is also supported up to 32GB), and there are ports for plugging in headphones, a USB cable, an AC adaptor and a TV-Out cable, all of which are covered over by little rubber flaps. My only quibble with the unit itself is that the heaphone port is on the top of the machine, so you need to have headphones with a decent length of cable. The F200 model also has a touch screen that wasn't present in the previous models, but there are very few games that support it right now (with the major exception of ScummVM which plays brilliantly).
The speakers on the GP2X really pack a punch - I'd say they were easily 4 times louder than either the DS or the PSP.
Commercial Games
Now the GP2X isn't exactly drowning in commercially released games (there is a grand total of three so far) and you can't just walk into your local branch of GAME and expect to find them on sale, but what is available is very good. I have played the demos of each of them and they all show off the potential of the system to great effect.
First up is Payback, a GTA clone that has previously been released on both the Amiga and the GBA, but the GP2X version can be considered the definitive version. It's scrolls smoothly, features a full MP3 soundtrack and voice acting. There are 11 different cities featuring 50 missions to get through - very impressive stuff indeed. You can buy the download version for £9.99 or boxed versions for £17.99 here. There is also a 53MB demo for you to download and see what you think first.
Secondly there is Vektar, an old school arcade shoot 'em which looks similar to Geometry Wars but actually plays more like Asteroids. This game really shows off the power of the GP2X, it is extremely impressive. Again you can buy a downloable version priced at £4.99 or a box version for £12.99 here, and there is a demo available.
The final game which is only available as a download for €8 or €12 with a customised player sprite here, is Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles. If you love to get stuck into a decent puzzle game then you will be in heaven playing this game as there are tons of modes and missions available. If you have a GP2X cradle you can use two USB joypads, hook it up to your TV and then enjoy two player games with a friend. This is easily as good as anything on the DS or PSP and I look forward to seeing more games from developers Yuan Works in the future.
Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles looks fantastic - easily as good as anything on the Nintendo DS.
Emulation
Pretty much any pre 8bit, 8bit and 16bit computer or console is emulated on the GP2X, and there are a few 32bit machines as well! The best example by far has got to be PicoDrive, a Megadrive and Mega CD emulator that is virtually flawless. When I saw games brilliant games like Snatcher and Sonic CD running perfectly in the palm of my hand my jaw dropped. There are also very good SNES, Mame and Neo Geo emulators available, although the latter does take a bit of work before you can get it up and running. There are literally thousands of retro games out there that can be played on the GP2X.
Interpreters/Ports
I have already mentioned that ScummVM is available, but for those who haven't heard of it before what can it do? It was originally created to play the classic LucasArts graphic adventures such as The Secret of Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle or Sam & Max, but it has since been expanded to play a much wider range or games including the Broken Sword series, Simon the Sorceror and the Kyrandia games. I loved these games in my youth and I still replay them from time to time. The touch screen is perfect for playing the games on the move.
There is also a huge range of other PC games that people have ported over to the GP2X including Doom, Quake, Duke Nukem 3D, Transport Tycoon Deluxe, Tyrian and Star Control 3, although a lot of these require you to have the original game files in order to play.
Homebrew games
There are also tons of independent developers all slaving away on their own homebrew projects, most of which will be completely free to download and play. Highlights for me so far are Cave Story - a brilliant Castlevania/Metroid style action adventure that has three different endings and over 20 hours of gameplay, and Ruck Man - an extremely glossy update of Pacman. New games are appearing on the scene every week which is just one reason why it's so exciting to be a GP2X owner.
Video
Pretty much any video format (with the exception of .wmv) can be dropped onto an SD card and played back straight away, as long as the resolution is under 720 x 480 pixels. I have watched quite a few episodes of 24 on the bus to work which I converted myself and the colours are very vivid (once I discovered how to adjust the contrast). This is one function that will be getting a hell of a lot of playtime.
Audio/Photos/ebooks
I have lumped these all together because none of them are a major selling point as far as I'm concerned. The GP2X does an adequate job at playing MP3's but the built in player doesn't have a resume function which is a bit useless in this day and age. Chances are you will already own something that can play MP3's and you're better off sticking with that. Photos can be viewed on the GP2X which could be useful if your digital camera doesn't have its own screen. Ebooks is a bit misleading as it is really only a plain text reader and doesn't support proper ebook files or .pdf's. You probably won't use it.
Resources
Where to buy a GP2X:
http://www.gp2x.co.uk/ - they sell the console, most of the accessories and the commercial games
http://www.play-asia.com/ - could be a good deal cheaper importing from Asia
Files
http://archive.gp2x.de/ - all the latest games and applications as they are released.
http://gp2xtorrents.com/ - a really useful site with lots of torrent files to download. You can download various monsterpacks designed to fill up SD card of various sizes, with all of the games/emulators already configured properly to work straight away.
If you still enjoy playing classic games or prefer the unpredictability and accessibility of homebrew, then the GP2X is a must buy. Is it better than the DS or the PSP? Well, they all fill their own niche and to be honest I love them all just as much. I would definitely buy a GP2X over a PS3 right now though, that's for sure (and in fact, I did just that).
No comments:
Post a Comment