SORRY, NINTENDO...

...but you're about to get served. i got the opportunity to bring a sony psp home from the office for the weekend, and as expected, it's a completely incredible device. the games i've got on-hand -- lumines, ridge racer, and darkstalker's chronicle: the chaos tower -- are all wonderful representations of their respective genres. it has never been possible to play an experience on par with that available on home consoles on a handheld system; but march 24th, that will change.

i hadn't touched the device since the tokyo game show last september. now that i've spent some time with the retail unit and some finished games, it's clear that my decision to align myself with the device -- rather than nintendo's ds -- was wise. the screen is awe-inspiring. it's comfortable to hold. it's as sexy as any piece of consumer electronics i've seen. and, yeah, the games... so far, i've got no complaints about them either.

YOUNG MATT ENJOYS A LITTLE RIDGE RACER.

but what's turning out to be most interesting is the other stuff you can do with it. not only did we get thing thing to recognize our wireless network (and even search for firmware updates online! -- none yet, of course), but with some effort, i was able to get two different videos up and running on the psp last night: the us pilot of "the office" and this interview with shane kim, the general manager of microsoft game studios that i made earlier in the day at my own office. (oh, and if you were wondering just how much better the image quality of canon's xl2 is than the xl1s', download the high-res version of that video... astounding video fidelity, i assure you.) the process was not painless; in fact, i would argue that it was rather painful. i had to format my memory stick every time i wanted to delete a video, for example. and the apps used to compress the movies to a format that the psp could interpret are rather clunky. the image quality of said videos isn't that great, either. and the psp's user interface isn't the most user-friendly, when it comes to file management. yet, i was able to produce videos and get them to run on the psp. when that process gets easier, god... it will be so slick.

so yeah... the psp is hot. it's one of the nicest consoles ever, and definitely the most intriguing handheld. so far the games look amazing and you can bet that every child and adult on the block is gonna want one as soon as that grand theft auto game hits... shouldn't be too far off.

i remember when pokémon was at the height of its popularity here in the states; elementary schools had to ban the use of game boys, as too many children spent all their recess time trading virtual creatures. i wouldn't be surprised if office buildings and other workplaces will be required to take a similar stance when sony's device hits. surely, "carl" will have to be discouraged from killing hookers and catching touchdown passes on company time. i'm already worried about how the ability to join to the fx300 racing league on the go will affect my productivity.

my advice? put aside $250 if you can afford it and you like videogames. if you can't, come on over and play. we welcome the company. Posted by ryan at February 26, 2005 10:24 AM | TrackBack