I have seen the future...

[Harmonixer]

And it truly is the PSP.

5:00 AM this morning. What am I doing? Standing outside, cleaning off my car and shoveling my driveway. But I'm not going to class. No, I'm going to the Warwick Mall to camp outside Electronics Boutique for my long awaited PSP.

It was worth it.

Upon mine and Brandon (BrutalBrandon)'s acquisition, we made haste to the food court where we unwrapped our new toys with glee, set up our new systems, and proceeded to pop in Untold Legends. It is portable Diablo II in nearly every way. But it only gets better upon watching Spider-Man 2. Even if you have seen it, it is like new seeing it on a hi-definition plasma screen.

Now, some of you may be wondering how the video and MP3 quality is playing off of a memory stick? I'm currently in class, and I've been experimenting with it the whole time. The MP3, depending on the quality of the file, is amazing, and will easily replace any walkman. The video is also awesome, and quite convenient considering that MPEG4 type files are only about 1/3 the size of the original video file. (Thanks Brandon.)

And that's really all I can say about it. It truly is too good for words, and sets a whole new precedent for handheld entertainment. (Note, I didn't restrict the genre to gaming.)

If you didn't get one, I HIGHLY suggest you pick one up from the second shipment in June.

-Tom DeFelice, OUT

Oh, yea, and discuss the PSP =P

[Junior G-Man]

I tried a friends at work today, its pretty cool. I think Im going to wait off though. As we all know 1st generation Sony hardware isnt exactly the most reliable (DRE's on 1st and 2nd gen PS2s for example)

[Yao]

no WAY that thing is getting in my pocket until it's cheaper then $149.99. It is IMPOSSIBLE for me to justify spending the same amount of money that i could get an x box, one year of x box live, and a brand new game, for a handheld.

[Juggatard]

I tried a friends at work today, its pretty cool. I think Im going to wait off though. As we all know 1st generation Sony hardware isnt exactly the most reliable (DRE's on 1st and 2nd gen PS2s for example)

Exactly. More importantly, has sony ever even had a hand held system? I dont think so, which means, 95% chance that there will be disk read errors up the ass before the second shipment has been shipped out.

[Junior Asparagus]

The MP3, depending on the quality of the file, is amazing, and will easily replace any walkman.

Not with a 32 MB memory card it won't.

No thanks. Plus all the games are rehashes. :(

[kappaiidx]

As are half of the games for the DS.

Mine still hasn't come in the mail yet... UPS sucks, but I will have one on the 28th.

I don't know why people still think EVERYTHING is a rehash for it. Lumines, Metal Gear Acid, Rengoku, Death Jr., etc. are all new. And MGA is NOT a rehash it has a new story and is a tactical card game. Sure, there are a few games coming out that are ports or rehashes from older games, but no is forcing anyone to buy them. The only games I am evenly remotely interested in purchasing for the DS right now are Yoshi's Touch and Go and WarioWare Touched!. I wish I didn't waste my money on SM64DS because that game was a big rehash, and I thought they were going to change it around alot. Feel the Magic is decent but WAY too short. Eh... time will tell which company will "lead" the market, but I don't think that Sony is trying to directly compete against Nintendo, because they each have different ideas on what their systems are geared towards.

[Juggatard]

Not with a 32 MB memory card it won't.

No thanks. Plus all the games are rehashes. :(

Really, for the price of a PSP I'd rather just buy an iPod

[Junior G-Man]

Not with a 32 MB memory card it won't.

No thanks. Plus all the games are rehashes. :(

Oh come on, Chris. You know you want to play a scaled down version of "Dynasty Warriors"
:D

[KiN]

Has anyone seen the graphics on Ridge Racer for PSP? They're friggin nuts. I actually think they're better than ps2 because it's smoother, like when you put AA on a pc game. The price point for psp is too high for me. I would just wait until it gets to 150$ because you know they'll drop it for the christmas season.

[LL Cool L]

What's all this talk about rehashes? Really, has anyone seen Nintendo's handheld habbits at all? Nearly 50% of their games for handheld systems are almost direct ports. Also, we all knew the first generation (and possibly many 2nd generation) games were going to be ports and remakes. We also know that Sony's 3rd party developer support is vastly larger than Nintendo's, so the remakes will shrink in number quite steadily.

The main difference between the DS and the PSP is that the PSP's power trounces that of a DS. I mean c'mon, its specs are about equal to the PS2's. Never before had we seen a handheld system that was EQUAL in power to that of a current home console. Battery life? So what. 99% of owners won't (or will rarely) spend more than an hour away from a power socket anyways, so what's the big deal?

The PSP will no doubt get plenty of great games thanks to Sony's vast 3rd party developer support and superior media format. DREs won't happen because UMDs are something Sony developed - they'll get it right the first time. Although I still don't like Sony's tactics of purposely having 1st and 2nd shipments litterally months apart, just to build hype. They know millions of people will buy them, so get with the production already.

[kappaiidx]

*clap*

That's pretty much exactly how I feel. I'm glad mine will be at my doorstep Monday. :FD

[Dj. dp]

Really, for the price of a PSP I'd rather just buy an iPod

Yea you got a point there, i would rather get an ipod myself

[Rico X]

And your not in it.

[Hi-C]

Yea you got a point there, i would rather get an ipod myself
I disagree because with the PSP u can put videos, music, and of course games for the same price as an Ipod. I dont know but for some reason Ipods dont appeal to me at all. Once the prices get down on the PSPs a bit im surely getting one.

[Junior Asparagus]

Yeah, but the default memory stick is only 32 MB. That's like....8 songs, give or take. Videos have to be encoded in a specific format, blah blah. I dunno, there just isn't any appeal to me right now. There aren't any games I really wanna play either. I'd definitely get an iPod over a PSP right now.

[KiN]

Yea but what about when PSP gets wireless online play? That's gonna be friggin nuts. Plus, i saw online from a 3rd party, a 512mb memory stick for PSP. So i wouldn't doubt that in the future it will be into gigs or writeable to UMD's.

[Junior Asparagus]

There's a 1 GB memory thing, but it's like $200 or something. So I have to pay twice the MSRP for the unit to access the other functionality? :/

Wireless online is cool I guess, but honestly most of the gaming I do is social anyway. And that'll probably cost money too, right? At least Nintendo's is free. Not that I'm getting a DS any time soon either. ::shrugs:: I still have my GBA SP and that's probably good for a while.