Curmudgeon GamerAnyway, here's the list I compiled:
- ATV Offroad Fury: Blazin' Trails
- Field Commander
- FIFA 06
- FIFA 07
- FIFA World Cup 2006
- Fight Night Round 3
- Gretzky NHL
- Gretzky NHL 06
- Infected
- Madden NFL 06
- Madden NFL 07
- Major League Baseball 2K6
- Metal Gear Acid
- MLB
- MLB 06: The Show
- NBA 06
- NBA 07
- NBA Live 06
- NBA Live 07
- NCAA Football 07
- Need for Speed Most Wanted 5-1-0
- Need for Speed Underground Rivals
- Rengoku: Tower of Purgatory
- SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs: Fireteam Bravo
- Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror
- Tiger Woods PGA 06
- Tiger Woods PGA 07
- Twisted Metal: Head-On
- Untold Legends: The Warrior's Code
- World Championship Poker 2: Featuring Howard Lederer
- World Series of Poker
- World Series of Poker 2: Tournament of Champions
- World Tour Soccer 06
- X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse
Sony's PSP site says that others have infrastructure mode, but I believe this just means they have the ability to trade data outside of a live game. For example, Exit can download a bunch of new levels, but it is listed as an infrastructure mode game on Sony's PSP site. Similarly, you can't play against others online in Tekken Dark Resurrection, but you can download data from another player's matches. I'm going to assume that games like Lemmings and Darkstalkers Chronicle and Mercury are in the same class of online-but-not-multiplayer games.
Which brings me to the text that launched me on this little project (emphasis added):
Deception also includes a thoroughly groovy multiplayer mode. With flight mechanics as tight as those in Ace Combat, specifically in Deception, it'd be a crime not to have competitive dogfighting. Using the PSP's wireless functionality, would-be pilots can battle for air supremacy through a number of maps. Better still, the game offers a number of team-based and cooperative modes in addition to basic dogfighting. There's Base Attack, where players split into teams to defend (or attack, depending) a base. There's also Air Superiority, which has pilots patrol a stretch of sky under strict weapons limitations; the longer a pilot stays alive the more points he scores. Every mode included in multiplayer is a worthy addition to the package. They all make great use of the PSP hardware and they grow increasingly addictive the longer one plays.This is from IGN's review of Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception. From what I can tell, this is not an infrastructure game (see GameBrink's review which says "multiplayer while well created and a lot of fun to play sadly has no infrastructure or internet capabilities"), so none of this is available unless you've got another
In compiling the list above, I was shocked at how poorly reviews (on GameSpot in particular) document the networking capabilities of PSP games. Apparently the online mode of Madden NFL 07 was too difficult for GameSpot to comment upon in their review. I haven't found it mentioned in the IGN review either. This isn't something lesser known like Mercury here, folks, this is frickin' Madden. Even worse, I didn't know about the PS2-to-PSP features of Madden until I read about them in EA's press releases -- one of the last places a consumer is going to look for information about a game.
Ok, I'll stop ranting.
Here's a few missed EA titles for the online list
NCAA Football 07 (Ahem)
FIFA World Cup 06 (enough fifa?)
FIFA 07
Tiger Woods PGA 06
Tiger Woods PGA 07
Fight Night Round 3
By 
, at
24 October, 2006 01:16
Sorry, jmro. Didn't mean to get personal with the omission like that. :^D
I'll add these when I get back later today, and thanks for the corrections (and the help with the original list).
By 
jvm, at
24 October, 2006 07:20
Reviews neglecting accurate reporting of online support is hardly a surprise to me. It might have been last year that I posted a comment here complaining about reviews neglecting adequate details of multi-player in general.
Sites like IGN often wouldn't even bother to mention whether split-screen was 2 or 4 player, wouldn't mention things absent from multiplayer that were present in single player, vaguely described major issues, often "reviewed" multiplayer in only a paragraph at most, and the like. Hardly a surprise that they are lax on the issue of online as well.
By , at
24 October, 2006 18:35
Baines: Couldn't find that comment. Do you recall if it was in reference to a specific game?
By jvm, at
26 October, 2006 00:07
By the way... it seems that only EA is betting for the online.
For a guy like me, that don't like sports game, the list is even smaller.
In Japan, almost all games works with some kind of infrastructure, but out there, we have only a few games, even when a lot of PSP games, like Monster Hunter, only have the real fun in multiplayer modes.
By DonDepre, at
28 November, 2006 16:49
Being of an age where cynicsm smoulders quicker than Blackbeard's tapers, a thought crossed my mind while reading these comments.
It appears that most PSP games readily have a mode whereby *suckers* can play in the ad hoc sharing mode with a nearby buddy. Doesn't this encourage other *suckers* to buy a PSP, and a game, thereby doubling the tune on the Sony cash register?
True infrastucture games via a wireless LAN only require people who have already got the game and the hardware. Mmm... no cash there then.
John Hooton: Nothing wrong with a little cynicism. Sounds like a good enough explanation to me. Then why is EA so solidly behind it? Just laying the groundwork for charging for it later?
By jvm, at
10 December, 2006 18:22
THESE ARE NOT ALL ONLINE MODE GAMES !!!
THIS LIST IS A JOKE !!!
1st : An ONLINE game is playable over the web, and that's what I call an ONLINE game.
2nd : Infrastructure or Ad'Hoc modes are both private or public NETWORK linked games only !
SO STOP TALKING ABOUT WHAT YOU HAVE NO KNOWLEDGE OF, AND TRY LEARN WHAT DOES ONLINE MEANS...
BORED TO SEARCH GOOGLE FOR ONLINE GAMES AND BE REDIRECTED ALL THE TIME ON MONKEYS WEBSITES !!!
By , at
29 April, 2007 17:19
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