It seems exciting times lie ahead for GPS gaming and mobile devices; forget the all-too-simple games that have been made available so far. Recently a PSP GPS receiver was released as an add-on for the popular Sony device (pictured below) and many video game companies appear keen to utilize this in their products.
One of the first proper major commercial titles to take advantage of this new add-on is Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops. According to the PSP Vault website (http://www.psp-vault.com/) this is how the GPS comes into play in the game.
"The game allows you to use the GPS to recruit new soldiers. The concept is pretty simple. Your PSP, when using the GPS receiver, acts as a sort of "radar" that you use to find new soldiers in your area. Here's a short video (YouTube Link) of what you normally see:
The little circles are soldiers that can be recruited. It's your job to find them! The large circle in the middle, at my best guess, has a radius of about half a mile. So while using the feature may be faster with a car, you *should* do it on foot for safety reasons. In fact, doing it on foot may actually be easier in big cities or in really small cities without a lot of roads (because your soldier may be out in the middle of a field or something).
As you move around, the PSP GPS receiver gets signals from satellites so your PSP can tell where it is in the world. Thus, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops can tell you when you're getting close to your soldier. It helps to know if you're heading north, south, east, or west, so you might want to figure that out before you set out to find your soldier. Otherwise you'll find yourself guessing it east is a right turn or a left turn, and so on...
Here's me driving around to find one of my soldiers (YouTube Link). As you get closer, you can zoom in to get better detail about exactly where your soldier is. The video is in two parts because I had to edit out the part where I turned into a dead end. Also, you'll probably want to turn your sound off for the second video (YouTube Link) since there was some sort of error during editing with the sound. Unless, of course, you like that sort of thing.
When you get within "range" of your soldier (I suspect the "range" is about 100 square feet), you can recruit him. I got this guy... (YouTube Link)
Overall, I have to say that it's a very interesting feature. This sort of stuff is exactly what Sony has in mind for the PSP GPS accessory. I look forward to more games taking advantage of it!"
The little circles are soldiers that can be recruited. It's your job to find them! The large circle in the middle, at my best guess, has a radius of about half a mile. So while using the feature may be faster with a car, you *should* do it on foot for safety reasons. In fact, doing it on foot may actually be easier in big cities or in really small cities without a lot of roads (because your soldier may be out in the middle of a field or something).
As you move around, the PSP GPS receiver gets signals from satellites so your PSP can tell where it is in the world. Thus, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops can tell you when you're getting close to your soldier. It helps to know if you're heading north, south, east, or west, so you might want to figure that out before you set out to find your soldier. Otherwise you'll find yourself guessing it east is a right turn or a left turn, and so on...
Here's me driving around to find one of my soldiers (YouTube Link). As you get closer, you can zoom in to get better detail about exactly where your soldier is. The video is in two parts because I had to edit out the part where I turned into a dead end. Also, you'll probably want to turn your sound off for the second video (YouTube Link) since there was some sort of error during editing with the sound. Unless, of course, you like that sort of thing.
When you get within "range" of your soldier (I suspect the "range" is about 100 square feet), you can recruit him. I got this guy... (YouTube Link)
Overall, I have to say that it's a very interesting feature. This sort of stuff is exactly what Sony has in mind for the PSP GPS accessory. I look forward to more games taking advantage of it!"
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