Starting to travel again; need a diversion

[chronic1]

Hello Guys,

My work from home project is going to end in a month or two, and I'll once again be a road warrior. A rooted psp was a godsend, due to the homebrew & emulation options, the last time I was traveling on the reg. However, the landscape has changed & there are a lot of really cool mobile platforms (including tablets).

I tend to play platformers & beat'em ups on handhelds, and I doubt I'd really get into shmups on a tablet (though I must say I've never given them a chance). Pending a trip to the store for a demo, the 3DS might be winning at the moment.... Anyways, I'd love to see what the board thinks.

(mod edit - moved to off-topic. also, polls are still broken afaik)

[CIT]

DS or 3DS. They have really long battery life and a huge game library. PSV is nice too.

I think shoot 'em ups are actually not bad on touchscreens, but I've never experienced a beat 'em up or platformer on a touchscreen where I felt the controls were up to snuff. If your main goal is to game on the go you should get a dedicated gaming device.

[null1024]

If you're not doing the PSP again [which really would be my choice in this scenario, although that's because it's the only game system I've touched in a week, I'm not even sure where I put my 3DS at the moment, been playing nothing but PSP stuff and emulators], if you have enough things you like for the 3DS, I'd go with that.

Shame about the absolutely garbage battery life on the 3DS [four measly hours, really?], one of the things I did pretty early on was to replace the battery with one of those $10 Nyko ones. Mauls the design of the system [it's really big, replaces the whole back cover even], but screw it -- I want to play the thing, not show it off.

A tablet might be a good idea, and it'd certainly be more flexible than a handheld game system when it comes to entertainment, but input on a tablet leaves much to be desired.

I don't own a Vita, so I can't really comment on that. I do want one.

tl;dr:
best three picks, descending order
* PSP
* 3DS
* Tablet
It's actually kind of hard to choose, each has its strengths and weaknesses.

[chronic1]

Wow, I didn't realize the 3DS was only a 4 hour battery life..... Not including any delays, that should be enough to get me to most of my destinations (the batteries have to be rechargeable with that lifespan).

You're definitely spot on with the versatility of a tablet. Sacrifice gaming to have access to other applications. The two biggest draws to the tablet for me would be: video communication apps; video streaming apps. How bandwidth intense are those applications? Most hotel wifi connections are less reliable than pigeon messages in Game of Thrones. Aside from games like angry birds, what are a few marquee games I could use to really judge the quality of gaming on a tablet?

I'll run by GameStop later & get the prices on the used gear. Sadly, that normally drives a lot of my decisions.

[CMoon]

First off, if you already own one of these, I think that's the correct answer.

A tablet is a great solution unless you don't own one and you're just picking it up to play games on. On the other hand, if you have just been craving a tablet all this time, and need an excuse, there you go.

I'm a 3DS owner, have a sizable DS back catalog, so for me the 3DS is an obvious choice. The difference between this and Vita or PSP might come down to what sort of games you want to play.

I think it is also worth pointing out that with the Vita (if not the PSP), all those PSX games on the PSN can be played on your handheld...which could be pretty damn cool.

[ZellSF]

I wouldn't count on free wifi / mobile data traffic for video streaming, ever. If you want to watch movies or TV shows while traveling, downloading them beforehand and copying them to your device is the best plan. Handheld gaming devices are all pretty shitty for media: 3DS (has no video player), PSP (needs to convert videos specially for it, shitty screen), Vita (small expensive as hell storage). If that's something you need and you feel your phone isn't good enough at, I would say get a tablet for those purposes and take your PSP with you for gaming (there's probably been quite a few fantastic game releases since you stopped playing it).

3DS XL has better battery life than regular 3DS. Also, better ergonomics.

If you have a PS3, a Vita and a PS+ subscription is well worth looking into.

[CMPXCHG8B]

Hello Guys,

My work from home project is going to end in a month or two, and I'll once again be a road warrior. A rooted psp was a godsend, due to the homebrew & emulation options, the last time I was traveling on the reg. However, the landscape has changed & there are a lot of really cool mobile platforms (including tablets).

I tend to play platformers & beat'em ups on handhelds, and I doubt I'd really get into shmups on a tablet (though I must say I've never given them a chance). Pending a trip to the store for a demo, the 3DS might be winning at the moment.... Anyways, I'd love to see what the board thinks.

(mod edit - moved to off-topic. also, polls are still broken afaik)

Where did you get this idea from?

IMHO, the mobile platform market is a barren wasteland of fragmented crap. The only platform that has a few decent releases (including some CAVE stuff) is iOS and the iPad, but Apple is about to alienate their entire user base and developer core with that giant turd they're calling iOS 7.

If a rooted PSP was a godsend, then it still is now. I just picked up a PSP for next to nothing, and haven't had that much fun playing titles that actually feel somewhat polished in a very, very long time (and I own nearly every iOS device under the sun for developer testing).

Personally, I'd probably opt for a decent laptop- something that can play most of the retro && semi-modern titles (by that, I mean maybe Borderlands 2 or Portal 2, but nothing as excessive as Crysis 3), plus whatever else you can get an emulator for. Maybe a Thinkpad or something with removable batteries. In any case, I would stay far, far away from the tablets. You're not going to get that much entertainment out of them for what you pay, and in the case of android- the amount of time you'll spend mucking around trying to get things working.

-CMPX