The PSPgo's launch is a mere two weeks away, but a brand new surprise has just been revealed. Sony's latest attempt to gatecrash the handheld gaming market has a neat little feature called "save state," which allows you to pause and exit a game wherever you are without having to scramble to a save point. By using "save state," players can exit a game, do something else with the PSPgo, and then resume from wherever they were.
A number of DS games sport a similar feature, where a temporary cartridge file allows players to save their progress anywhere (although to prevent cheating that save is wiped when the game's reloaded). However, unlike those games, it's not yet known if the PSPgo's "save state" file will be retained if the PSP is completely powered down.
I really hope that the new save feature works if the system's switched off, since I think emergency saving is quite essential for any portable game. Handheld games that don't allow you to at least temporarily save your progress quickly aren't doing their job, as far as I'm concerned. When I'm playing a game on an airplane, I want to know I can resume my progress once the cabin crew forces me to turn my machine off like the Nazis they are.
Either way though, it's a cool little addition that will make the PSPgo much more user-friendly. As one of the few people actually looking forward to the system's launch, I can only approve.
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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Contest:
10:00 AM on 09.17.2009 | 
It's not about putting the PSPgo asleep. Unlike with the PSP, you can stop a game and then come OUT of the game to do something else with the PSP like listen to music or browse the Internet.
Both the PSP and the DS will pause games when put into sleep mode, but won't allow you access to any other features of the device without quitting the game first.
If the save state feature actually does work when totally powered off, then I damn Sony for actually putting a feature I would value into the PSP, therefore making me want another one.
I was quite happy with the PSPs sleep mode (which uses next to no batter, unlike the DS version), but this sounds like it would eliminate the need for traditional save methods.
If that's how it goes down then it's a great feature.
Now, if they could just replicate twin stick!
It sounds convenient that if you get stuck on a difficult game, you can pause, jump onto the internet and look up a guide (this is assuming you aren't anywhere near a computer).
That'd be cool... if I actually used the PSP for something other than games.
Like I explained earlier in the thread, no this doesn't already exist. It's not just a case of putting the PSP into sleep mode like you can do now. The new feature allows you pause the game, exit the game, then do other things on the PSP like browse the 'net or play music. Then you can return to the game at the point you left off.