It's not my birthday until march but thanks to some shrewd negotiating on my part I managed to pry my present from my girlfriends grasp with the promise of beauty products. It's a general rule of mine to be as disinterested and apathetic as possible with regards to new gaming technology at least until it is affordable. On the whole these things become affordable when they are succeeded by newer tech. So, it was with the announcement of the PSP2 (or NGP) that I suddenly became filled with an all encompassing desire to own a PSP.
I've always been a big fan of the Playstation brand getting, as I did, literally years of enjoyment out of the PS1 and 2. So how could a handheld PS2 go wrong? Well, in some ways it does. I got the PSP Go and the lack of UMD slot means I can only look longingly at the boxes in Gamestation, restricted, as I am, to purchasing overpriced game data from the Playstation Network store (more about how the lack of UMD slot doesn't matter in the slightest further down). Some games are not even available on said store. Kingdom Hearts being a particularly painful omission meaning I am already looking into nefarious ways to download UMD data onto my hard drive without paying Mr Sony or Mr Gamestation a penny. Also the size is a small issue. Japanese consumer electronics manufacturers obsession with miniaturisation means that when the screen slides up, the familiar Playstation button layout is crammed into a tiny space resulting in 'claw hand' after extended (40+ minutes) play. Sony, I have large, western hands. However the size aspect is already something I am becoming accustomed to.
Other than those two small niggles, the PSP Go is bloody fantastic. It looks beautiful for starters. Easily the best looking handheld games console on the market. Piano black, like its predecessors, and prone to getting covered in fingerprints but the pride involved in owning it means I never get bored of giving it the occasional t-shirt buff. The old PSP always reminded me of the bastard child of the ugly and bloated Sega Game Gear and the Atari Lynx II, not a great look.
The Go, on the other hand, is tidy enough to sit comfortably next to an iphone without getting shown up.
I took full and unashamed advantage of the ten free games PSP Go offer that sony rolled out in order to, presumably, clear warehouses of unsold stock. So far I'm thoroughly enjoying at least 6 of the titles on offer and, in time, plan to enjoy the others just as much. The offer goes a long way towards forgiving Sony for omitting a UMD slot on the Go and I can see myself getting months of fun out of these games. It would have been very easy to offer 10 free games from the PSN store that weren't triple A titles and still have sold PSP Go's on the back of such an offer. But these games really are some of the best the format has to offer. And one or two really show off what the machine is capable of graphically.
Games such as Assassins Creed and LittleBigPlanet are so close to their PS3 brethren as for the differences to be barely noticeable. Special mention must also go to Wipeout Pure for being the game to resurrect my faith in futuristic driving games. I haven't been this enthusiastic about a racer since the original Wipeout on the PS1 how long ago...? Jesus, 16 years ago. Frequently, in my 20's, I would convince myself that 3 hours sleep per night was enough if I could just play Wipeout for a little while longer. If I didn't have my girlfriend and my son with me to keep me tethered to reality I could see myself getting just as sucked into this one. It's a life sink and should come with a warning.
My usual playtime is while I'm putting my son to bed. Sitting in the dark twiddling my thumbs waiting for him to nod off is no fun. So the PSP Go is a godsend in this respect. I also have to play with the sound muted but last night I played Wipeout Pure with headphones in and the game improved immeasurably. The... thickness and richness that the sound added to the experience was... well, I'm going to play it a lot more, form better opinions and I think I will post a review of it.
I have not even touched some of the free games. Gran Turismo, Pursuit Force, and FIFA 10 will, I'm certain, offer months and months of play. So much so that the lack of UMD slot is not even an issue worth mentioning. I think the PSP Go will be my number one games machine for quite some time.
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