Video Gaming Blog

Submitted by videogame2play

Hello, how’s everyone doing out there? For those of you that have been here recently may have seen my name around. I’m GlossGreen, one of the contributors (the newest one that is) in these here parts. Big thanks to aDub for letting me join this community. Anyway, to the point. Last night I finally took the plunge and bought a PSP, bigger thanks to my wife for that one. I’ve had a bit of time to check it out and I can say…I’m impressed.

I’ve had a couple of hand-held systems in my time. From my first GameBoy, to the impressive GameGear, to the next generation of GameBoy, the GameBoy Advance. I’ve enjoyed quite a few games on each of those systems, but playing games was just about all they did, and not really that well. The small games worked for the smaller systems (like Tetris), but trying to get a game on a system like the GameBoy to look and play good was just tough to do. For every good game you’d see 5 games that were garbage. With the advent of the DS and the PSP we are now seeing a change. Hand-held systems have gone beyond the simple gaming machines to much more.

I’ve seen a lot of PSPs around for quite a while. Sure, I tried one out once a couple of years ago, but it really never struck me as all that great. The games seemed OK, but nothing that I really had to have. Over the past few months I’ve been seeing a big change from Sony in it’s focus on the PSP. More big name titles are coming out, a new slimmer model is available, and some very interesting bundle packages have been released lately. The limited edition PSPs with the silk screening and different colors have really helped with sales. For me though, I decided to get the standard black model to match my PS3 (plus, it was the only one at the store).

Getting it home I, of course, immediately unboxed it, and set it up. The size and weight are nice. The shape feels pretty good in the hand, too. I’m not really sure about the analog stick placement, but I haven’t had a lot of time with it yet. The gloss black color looks real sharp, the clear shoulder buttons are a nice touch. The face buttons are responsive and feel solid to the touch. The addition of Wi-Fi is a great touch. When I turned on the PSP I was surprised to see an XMB like what is on the PS3. Seeing the exterior design, the home screen, and all the new features recently added, I can’t help but think that the PS3 and PSP were definitely made with each other in mind. Set-up was a pretty easy affair. 5 minutes was all I needed to get the basic system information updated (ie…clock, date), after 10 minutes I had updated the firmware and set-up the remote play feature. I had a pretty good time playing Castlevania on my PSP through my PS3. Having the ability to access the my PS3 over the internet was very cool, and seeing the full PS3 XMB on my little portable console is fantastic.

Seeing what this little thing is capable of really has me excited about the future of hand-held gaming, something I haven’t been excited about for a long time. I really like the integration that the PSP and the PS3 has. Both machines really compliment each other, I can’t wait to see what comes next. I know. I still need to get a headset and sign up for Skype.

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