Talkman Review

By Ellie Gibson Published 14 June, 2006

Non merci.

Version tested: PSP

The idea behind TalkMan is a great one. Imagine if you could carry a translator around with you on holiday, so you didn't have to spend ages flicking through phrase books, working out correct pronunciations, or SHOUTING VERY SLOWLY AT FOR-EIGN-ERS. Your PSP would always be there to help you order a sandwich, chat up a lady/gentleman, or explain to a doctor that your leg doesn't normally bend that way - whatever the situation, you'd never be at a loss for words.

Unfortunately things haven't quite worked out that way. TalkMan is like having a translator who's partially deaf and has only completed units 1 to 3.4 of his Tricolore book. True, it works as an electronic phrasebook - but only if you're prepared to faff around switching between screens a lot, and if the person you're talking to is prepared to wait patiently while you do so.

Before getting into all that, though, here's how TalkMan works. It comes bundled with a neat little microphone that slots into the top of your PSP, and the European version features more than 3000 phrases in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish and Japanese.

On booting up the UMD you're introduced to Max, a big blue bird with a bendy beak and a stupid cockney accent. He acts as your translator in Talk Mode, first inviting you to select the language of the person you're talking to, and then presenting you with a range of 28 different scenarios to choose from depending on your situation - such as Sightseeing, Shopping, Hotel and Airport.

The idea is that you pick one of these, and speak the phrase you want to say into the microphone. Max then offers you a selection of phrases according to what he thinks you're on about, you choose one, and he'll say it in the other person's language.

Phrase bork

'Talkman' Screenshot 1

As you can see, the mic looks rather neat slotted into the top of your PSP.

Unfortunately, Max isn't very good at picking the right phrases. In the Restaurant scenario, our "Can I have a table for four, please," brought up various useless suggestions including "Can I just have water, please", "Can we have some extra plates for sharing" and "Do you have a Japanese menu?"

It's not just the restaurant where Max has trouble. At the hotel, when you say "What time is breakfast," he suggests "There's no toilet paper." In a taxi, "I want to go to the train station" throws up "I'm taking this airline." And perhaps most worryingly, in the Emergencies section, Max hears "I've been taken hostage" as "The traffic light was green."

You're supposed to be able to hand the PSP over to the person you're talking to so they can respond - but this doesn't work too well, either. A French friend, doing his best waiter's voice, tried "Il n'y a plus de places en ce moment" ("There are no tables at the moment"); Max told us he was asking, "Rouge ou blanc?"

In other words, the vocal translation technology just isn't good enough. Frequently hilarious, yes, but probably not quite so funny if you're standing in an A&E department trying to tell a doctor that your husband is having a heart attack and Max thinks you mean "My wisdom tooth hurts."

Talk time

'Talkman' Screenshot 2

This is Max. He's a chirpy little fellow. And a bit thick.

Still, there is a way around this; there are 'Crib Notes' for each section which can be accessed by pressing the right shoulder button. Then you have a range of topics to choose from - in the restaurant, for example, you can look up common phrases to do with reserving a table, placing an order, dealing with problems and so on.

But the selection of phrases seems a little bizarre. For example, you can ask, "Is there a Vietnamese restaurant around here?" but not "Can I have a cheese sandwich?" In fact, there doesn't appear to be any kind of food vocabulary at all, and there's no dictionary function so you can input a single word and find out what it means.

It might have been better if they'd opted to release different versions of TalkMan instead of bunging six languages onto one disc - true, that might mean you'd end up having to buy more than one copy, but at least you'd have a fully comprehensive selection of words and phrases at your disposal.

Listen and learn

'Talkman' Screenshot 3

Max wearing his funny Spanish outfit. How impossibly fresh.

So, the Talk Mode isn't exactly everything you might have been hoping for - but what of the Game Mode? Well, there are two types of games you can play, each of which has 25 difficulty levels. In the pronunciation game, Max will read out a sentence in whichever foreign language you've chosen (the English translation is also displayed), you repeat it and receive a grade according to how good your accent. It's sort of fun, but it's not exactly thrilling. And the Japanese version of the game doesn't work too well - the words aren't written out in English, only kanji, so if you're not already fairly familiar with the tones it can be hard to guess what you're supposed to say.

The listening game is both dull and irritating. Max reels off five phrases in foreign, and you're forced to wait for the disc to whir round in between each one. He then repeats one of them, and you have to guess the meaning, and then sit through an animation of some birdies holding up cards to find out if you got it right.

For your next question, you have to listen to all five phrases again, and wait for them all to load again, and then sit through the animation again - and you must do all this five times to complete the whole test. To "cheer you up", as the on-screen text would have it, Max wears different outfits depending on which language you've selected. Look, he's wearing a beret! Now it's a matador's outfit! Lederhosen! Ho ho ho, we haven't laughed this much since 1974. When this sort of thing was made illegal, surely.

The bottom line is the games aren't much cop - the pronunciation one is all right, and could be useful, but the listening game takes too long to play out, and once again the Japanese version is extremely tricky unless you have a basic grasp of the language since only kanji is displayed. It's a real shame they couldn't have included some kind of basic language course, or at least a better variety of games.

Que?

'Talkman' Screenshot 4

The only phrase any Englishman abroad really needs to know.

That's basically all there is to TalkMan, with the exception of a few extras such as the Voice Memo feature. This allows you to record someone saying a word in the original language, such as the name of a particular food or hotel they recommend, and then play it back in Talk Mode. Nifty. You can also keep track of the people you meet on your travels by recording their voice, customising an avatar and sticking a flag on a map of the globe to remind you where they're from.

There's also a Unit Converter, which can convert measurements of length, weight, temperature and so on as well as currency. And an Alarm, which is just stupid - when it goes off, Max will spew out a foreign phrase, and the alarm won't stop until you've correctly guessed what he's saying. Since when do we want our electronic devices to make us pass tests before we can control them? Imagine if your television demanded an explanation of ox-bow lakes before you could change channels, or if the fridge refused to open until you told it the exact terms of Germany's post-World War I reparations treaty? Nonsense.

Still, no one's going to buy TalkMan for the alarm clock function, so we'll overlook that one. People are more likely to buy TalkMan because they're looking for a way to communicate in other languages more quickly, easily effectively than with a phrasebook - and they're likely to be disappointed.

'Talkman' Screenshot 5

But how do you say, 'Two world wars and one World Cup, doodah, doodah?'

TalkMan, sadly, does not work well as a translator or a learning tool or a game. It just about works as an electronic phrasebook, providing you're prepared to put up with constantly having to switch between the different situations and a lot of loading. In other words, it's not much better than a normal phrasebook in terms of the length of time you have to spend mucking about.

And then there's Max, who will quickly become a figure of hate for anyone over the age of eight. He frequently interrupts the proceedings with some completely pointless "joke" - on one occasion where we selected the Telephone section, for example, he quipped: "Ooh, thanks for reminding me, I need to call my Grandpa and let him know everything's okay." What? Who cares? Go away.

But Max isn't the real problem with TalkMan - it's the fact that this is a great idea which the PSP just isn't equipped to pull off. At one point, when Max had failed to work out what we were saying for the third time, he came out with: "I hate to admit it, but this may be a good time to try a dictionary." Couldn't have put it any better, sir.

5 / 10

Read the Eurogamer.net scoring policy
Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (56) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • SeesThroughAll #1 6 years ago

    If you need to learn another language, buy a "Teach Yourself" book. It's simply much cheaper.

  • York #2 6 years ago

    Was there really any doubt?

  • nickthegun #3 6 years ago

    lol. I remember last year when the interwebs was flooded with gimpy 'Otaku' creaming themselves over how the Talkman was going to teach them Japanese.

    "And this is my Talkman. Unfortunately so far it only translates into an incomprehensible dead language. "

    "Hello! "

    "Bonjour! "

    "Crazy gibberish! "

  • drumbaby #4 6 years ago

    At least with the DS you could poke Johnny Foreigner in the eye with the stylus.

  • Razz #5 6 years ago

    "Tricolore book"

    FTUW :D

    Brought me right back :)

  • mattigan #6 6 years ago

    "it's the fact that this is a great idea which the PSP just isn't equipped to pull off"

    For me this sentence pretty much sums up most of the games for the PSP, in fact come to think of it, it pretty much sums up the device itself.

    /sorry, couldn't help it :)

  • SeesThroughAll #7 6 years ago

    For me this sentence pretty much sums up most of the games for the PSP, in fact come to think of it, it pretty much sums up the device itself.

    Right. Just swap gimmick.

  • dbeamish #8 6 years ago

    Razz - me too - PMSL totally

  • Xerx3s #9 6 years ago

    lol. I remember last year when the interwebs was flooded with gimpy 'Otaku' creaming themselves over how the Talkman was going to teach them Japanese.
    +1

  • York #10 6 years ago

    Going round a foreign country relying on this expensive useless gadget (the PSP and Talkman combined) will make you look like a right twerp, much akin to the guy who insists on using his crappy Soda Stream machine to make sub-par fizzy drinks for guests, simply because it validates his purchase.

  • TripSkyway #11 6 years ago

    I have bought the Japanese/Korean/Chinese/English version last year, thinking it might be handy as I'm not too good at Japanese. The review sums up all the problems of the game, but the version I boughts lack of pronounciation guidance is even more of a hinderance as none of the other languages use characters I can read.

    Load times are appalling, the segmentation of the languages means it's quicker to select the word than speak it. It is mildly fun for 10 mins in the pronounciation test but no pronounciation guide breaks this mode for any purpose other than a quick laugh.

    5/10 is generous indead, though the version I played has different languages, and there may have been improvements. I wouldn't recomend it to anyone.

  • SeesThroughAll #12 6 years ago

    Going round a foreign country relying on this expensive useless gadget (the PSP and Talkman combined) will make you look like a right twerp
    +1

    Only nerds will actually try to use this Talkman crap. It's a guaranteed girls repellent :).
    Edited by 2 at 14/06/06 @ 15:08

  • ProfessorLesser #13 6 years ago

    "Right. Just swap gimmick."

    Don't be ridiculous. Kaz Hirai, for one, is certainly not interested in gimmicks.

  • York #14 6 years ago

    It doesn't stop there, though.

    "Planet PSP" - a stunning series of multimedia, interactive city guides.


    You can't blame them for trying...

  • MrGrumpy.au #15 6 years ago

    A poor joke. :-D

    "Talkman Dude" is looking for the nearest railway station and asks a nearby female police officer where it would be. [In typical Japanese RPG conversation style]

    Talkman dude: [to PSP] How close is the nearest train station.
    PSP: ...?
    Talkman dude: [to PSP, and getting aggitated] How close is the nearest train station!!!
    PSP: [Still confused] ...? Was kostet das fǕr eine Nacht?

    [Talkman dude walks over to the female officer and asks the question]

    Talkman dude: Was kostet das fǕr eine Nacht?
    Officer: ...
    Talkman dude: ...?!?
    Officer: [Procedes to beat the stuffing out of "talkman dude" and arrests him]
    Talkman dude: [To PSP] Talkman you are great, did I just score?

    /runs

    Fixed: Bolding
    Edit: See front page graphic for translation.
    Edited by 2 at 14/06/06 @ 15:36

  • El_MUERkO #16 6 years ago

    "For you £25, I dont do couples"

  • Drakron #17 6 years ago

    The PSP seens to have one use ... p0rn.

  • SeesThroughAll #18 6 years ago

    Not only the PSP, heh?

    "Touching is good"

  • Sko #19 6 years ago

    An average score for an item that essentially fails to perform it's basic function? Very generous score if you ask me.

    *warbles something about directions into the PSP and hands it to Mr. Shifty Stranger*
    *Mr. Stranger promptly legs it*

    The 'holiday camera incident' anecdote finally passes the torch.

  • rinoaMW #20 6 years ago

    "And this is my Talkman. Unfortunately so far it only translates into an incomprehensible dead language. "

    "Hello! "

    "Bonjour! "

    "Crazy gibberish! "



    -Ahh futurama, i really miss that show..... ;)

  • PearOfAnguish #21 6 years ago

    "At the hotel, when you say "What time is breakfast," he suggests "There's no toilet paper."

    This sounds hilarious. PSP killer app.

  • GrandTheftApu #22 6 years ago

    Vietnamese food > cheese sandwhiches

  • JetSetWilly #23 6 years ago

    You're supposed to be able to hand the PSP over to the person you're talking to so they can respond

    That's a bit risky isn't it? What if they leggit?

  • Drakron #24 6 years ago

    Its a PSP, not a DS.

  • Scientist #25 6 years ago

    Just to remind everyone, here's how Tom finished his Talkman preview last year:

    "That said, the current version's limitations are surprisingly few, and its voice recognition is quite excellent. It didn't get confused at all during our presentation, even when Yamamoto-san plucked a reluctant hack out of the audience to join him and Max on the podium; and apparently with the mic level lowered it'll even work in loud rooms, even pachinko halls. The particularly low-voiced or softly spoken might confuse Max from time to time, but on the whole he's a bird with an ear for everything. And if TalkMan does what it ought to do, he'll be a feather in Sony's cap."

    What the hell went wrong? Or does Ellie have a particularly low voice?

  • some1 #26 6 years ago

    actually Planet PSP seems great, its a collection of lonely planet guides. Good guides and even if theyre direct scans it could validate the planet psp's purchase if you were going to buy more than 2 guides anyway. Also with updateable content they could possibly be kept up to date with newer editions but most likely not.

    talkman however, is pap

  • York #27 6 years ago

    Oł est la boulangerie?

    S'all you need.

  • Whizzo #28 6 years ago

    "Would you like to come back to my place, bouncy-bouncy?"

  • Jontacular #29 6 years ago

    "Oł est la boulangerie?

    S'all you need. "

    C'est vrai.

  • Scientist #30 6 years ago

    "its a collection of lonely planet guides. Good guides"

    I've always found the Lonely Planet guides to be worse than the equivalent Time Out and Rough Guides. Nice one Sony.
    Edited by 1 at 14/06/06 @ 16:34

  • Azazel #31 6 years ago

    Tricolore!

    Always featuring men from 'La Rochelle' who are invariably called 'Jean Paul'

  • Xerx3s #32 6 years ago

    "Talkman Dude" is looking for the nearest railway station and asks a nearby female police officer where it would be. [In typical Japanese RPG conversation style]

    Talkman dude: [to PSP] How close is the nearest train station.
    PSP: ...?
    Talkman dude: [to PSP, and getting aggitated] How close is the nearest train station!!!
    PSP: [Still confused] ...? Was kostet das fǕr eine Nacht?

    [Talkman dude walks over to the female officer and asks the question]

    Talkman dude: Was kostet das fǕr eine Nacht?
    Officer: ...
    Talkman dude: ...?!?
    Officer: [Procedes to beat the stuffing out of "talkman dude" and arrests him]
    Talkman dude: [To PSP] Talkman you are great, did I just score?


    ROFL! ;)

  • PearOfAnguish #33 6 years ago

    "Would you like to come back to my place, bouncy-bouncy?"

    My hovercraft is full of eels.

  • trevd72 #34 6 years ago

    this thing has the makings of a modern Monty Python Sketch. I would much rather have a keyboard for the browser than a translation gadget.

  • Durandle #35 6 years ago

    I'd like to see the DS phrase book software come out in English to other languages, as at the moment they are all based on Japanese for the base language. Having a touch screen would make that kind of thing work so much better, instead of shifting around with buttons.

  • SeesThroughAll #36 6 years ago

    I'd like to see the DS phrase book software come out in English to other languages, as at the moment they are all based on Japanese for the base language. Having a touch screen would make that kind of thing work so much better, instead of shifting around with buttons.

    PDAs have been doing this thing for years already.

  • geek-chic #37 6 years ago

    I agree with mattigan. PSP is just an awkward limbo between console gaming and exciting DS gaming. BTW: Sony, as if any one will pay €300 for a glorified phrasebook that dosn't even work. If you're going to copy Nintendo, by attracting non-gamers, at least try to do it right.....

  • Dizzy #38 6 years ago

    "it's the fact that this is a great idea which the PSP just isn't equipped to pull off."

    I would say that no technology is ready to pull this off at all. In speech and/or translation applications you need 99.9% accuracy not just 95%. I have stated this before here so I know I am repeating myself... so I guess that 5/10 is not unexpected.

    Remember that this came from Japan. Strangly Japanese are totally shit at any foreign language and they have this weird trust in technology to assist their fear of going abroad. They sell lots of these electronic thingies in Japan... my girlfriend used to carry one all the time :) She came up with some weird Inglish from time to time :)

  • chupachups #39 6 years ago

    If a PSP UMD has two gigabytes of storage space on it, why the heck didn't they include dictionaries for all the languages? Text takes up almost no space at all compared to graphics, video or sound.

    I just looked around on the internet and you can download a freeware PC english dictionary program with 140,000 words in it which only takes up 6 megabytes in total when zipped. At that rate they could have fitted over 300 such dictionaries on the UMD.
    Edited by 1 at 14/06/06 @ 19:46

  • SeesThroughAll #40 6 years ago

    Text takes up almost no space at all compared to graphics, video or sound.

    But both the sound and the voice recognition for those words would have taken a lot more space.
    Edited by 1 at 14/06/06 @ 20:11

  • ses #41 6 years ago

    "For me this sentence pretty much sums up most of the games for the PSP, in fact come to think of it, it pretty much sums up the device itself."

    Yeah, let's have another boring "PSP is a failure" flamefest. You forgot to mention that Talkman would have been better on the DS, though, but thankfully another poster took care of that.


    "Just to remind everyone, here's how Tom finished his Talkman preview last year"

    It's not exactly the first time EG has been overly positive about a game in a preview.

  • Grom #42 6 years ago

    No, they're clean, they just need ironing

    IR
    ON
    ING

  • squaylor #43 6 years ago

    Heh, Tricolore books. Madame Duval was always off to the marche in La Rochelle.

  • Xerx3s #44 6 years ago

    I would say that no technology is ready to pull this off at all. In speech and/or translation applications you need 99.9% accuracy not just 95%. I have stated this before here so I know I am repeating myself... so I guess that 5/10 is not unexpected.

    When i said this with their first news release, some ppl here told me that i was talking bs and that it was perfectly possible. After all, it was something 'quite easy'. And what would a technology student know about stuff like that.

    /taps foot

    I know who you are! ;)

  • pantherboy #45 6 years ago

    Very ambitous indeed. I suspect that a lot of people would pay for a device that did that if it worked properly - even if it thats all it did.

  • ChrisOTR #46 6 years ago

    "Tricolore! Onzieme partie. Numero Un"

    "Bonjour Jean-Claude!" etc.

  • chupachups #47 6 years ago

    >But both the sound and the voice recognition for those words would have taken a lot more space.

    They couldn't have included 140,000 words with voice recognition, that's true, but they could at least have included pure text dictionaries. The game even suggests looking at a dictionary if it can't help, so wouldn't it have made sense to include one?

  • dk_rare #48 6 years ago

    Maybe they were trying to do a Brain Training, except it didn't sell millions and wasn't heralded a brilliant title.

    Oh well

  • ProtoformX #49 6 years ago

    The problem is that Sony are trying to sell the PSP is a complete portable media centre. Pretty much like a PDA. But the thing is it doesn't come with most standard PDA features like a calendar/organiser or touch screen. If Sony wanted the PSP to appear as more than a console they should've released more non-gaming applications sooner. As it is, this is the first one I can think of and if I've heard correctly, movie companies are withdrawing support for the UMD movie format too. Unless Sony can sort something out soon, the PSP may still find support amongst those who just want it 'coz it's the new powerful thing on the market, but as one of the truly defining consoles it may not be remembered as much as Sony would like. Nintendo are still the kings at handheld gaming and the DS is going from strength to strength.

  • ssuellid #50 6 years ago

    Pretty obvious this was not going to be as good as first hyped - shame tho.

  • Mr_Whacker #51 6 years ago

    Sounds like a disc with translations for all JRPGs would have been more use.

  • dk_rare #52 6 years ago

    Poos of the World!

    New on UMD, see the poos of the world! The UMD contains over a thousand photos of poos from over 50 different countries. 16 full rotational videos of poos are also included so you DON'T have to wonder what is behind that poo. Can you find the hidden poo grunting wav files on the UMD? Submit your grunting noises with the microphone and even submit your own poo to the Poos of the World database!

    Well, that is my general opinion of this game... and the PSP in general.

  • Kafeen #53 6 years ago

    You're supposed to be able to hand the PSP over to the person you're talking to so they can respond

    and hope they don't do a runner with it.
    Edited by 1 at 15/06/06 @ 10:11

  • SeesThroughAll #54 6 years ago

    The problem is that Sony are trying to sell the PSP is a complete portable media centre. Pretty much like a PDA. But the thing is it doesn't come with most standard PDA features like a calendar/organiser or touch screen.

    Now, now, if I wanted a PDA, I would have just bought a PDA. Not a PSP nor a DS.

    I believe Sony are keeping in mind organizer applications for the PSP as additions to future firmware versions, but this is only to be used eventually as a counter-measure against hackers, just like the web-browser before.
    It doesn't matter to me, I bought the PSP because I recently thought of buying the PS2 and the PSP looked like a viable replacement for a PS2 to me. Hence I also don't mind if they port PS2 games I would like to play on my PSP, for instance.
    I have also been using it for homebrew and emulators, but got a bit fed up of it by now, so I'll upgrade to 2.71 soon. The GP2X does a much better job at emulation, and is an open platform for hobbyists, so I'm definitely thinking of getting one of those as well.

  • bloke #55 6 years ago


    "Oł est la boulangerie? "


    "Oł est la meilleure boulangerie", surely? :-)

  • Frogger #56 6 years ago

    I think that the french waiter proposing you red or white wine whatever the question you asked is rather realistic.

  • dk_rare #57 6 years ago

    Dude, we all know that if a french waiter is serving you and you do not know french that they say things like "Your arse is nice and tight, I would love to stick a french stick up it" while smiling and pointing to the wine list.

    Or even "Can I take your wife home and screw her, doggy style?". If we can't understand them, then they can say what they like ^_^