We've had a chance to test out the "Pause Game" function of the PSP Go, which was discovered yesterday by GameSpot UK. In the course of using a Go production unit last night, we tried the feature using two different games -- LocoRoco Midnight Carnival and Motorstorm: Arctic Edge -- and timed the process.
Pressing
the PlayStation button on the Go brings up two options: Pause Game and
Quit Game. We made our LocoRoco jump into the air and pressed it,
selected Pause Game, and within 10 seconds reached the XMB (after a
progress bar appeared to indicate the saving of the game's current
state).
After selecting Pause Game, an icon appears under the
Game section of the XMB -- it looks a bit like an egg and is labeled
"Resume Game." We selected it and, 10 seconds later, were right back
where we'd been, LocoRoco still mid-air. We had similar results with Arctic Edge,
only we decided to use some of the system's functions, including the
web browser, while the game was on hold. Again, a 10 second load and we
were back, this time with a prompt to "press X to resume" the race.
We
asked Sony if this feature will eventually make its way to the standard
PSP and were told by PlayStation Network's Eric Lempel that it's PSP
Go-only. It's a really convenient feature from our testing and has a
nice added benefit: The Go can be completely powered off and still
retain the game state, unlike with the standard PSP's sleep function.
We'll have a full review of the PSP Go soon.
