The Shrine

I think this game is gonna have issues.

Madden 06 for the PSP has alot of serious issues. There's lots and lots and lots of load time. In between turn-overs the game just freezes to load if you throw an interception, each quarter easily takes about 20 minutes due to load time, and because of the excess load time the PSP's power gets drained like hella fast.

GTA takes place in huge huge huge cities, I forsee many issues with the game's most enjoyable feature, exploration.

Maybe EA just did a half-assed job with Madden, time will tell.

Seriously, though, that could have everything to do with crappy programming.

Rockstar was one of the first companies to get a PSP development kit and apparently they've been developing the engine used to run the game for over 2 years. They didn't just port the same engine and put it on the PSP, they actually developed it from the ground up. According to Rockstar, they developed a way to process information within the game without load times.

If they deliver what they are promising, they claim the only load times will be at the start of the game and when moving from 1 main island to another.

Of course, they always claim the targeting system is improved and it always seems to suck, so we'll see. But I think Rockstar is aware that load times are their biggest enemy so I would guess they are investing as much time into perfecting those as they can.

This could hurt the PSP's already slipping market share. Nintendo's been holding off on CD-based media for the longest time because of load time woes.

IGN has a hands-on preview of the game now and they are giving it, so far, some very good remarks. They didn't mention any slow-down or excessive load times at all either.

http://psp.ign.com/articles/654/654487p1.html

True, but they likely put in a lot of effort to make sure it didn't have any loading times.

SineSwiper wrote:True, but they likely put in a lot of effort to make sure it didn't have any loading times.

You mean just for the demo or for the full game?

I would agree if you meant the demo and hope if you meant the full game.

I pre-ordered it today. I hope it's as good as it's looking to be!