PS, Pea

So Dave Cantrell[1] at work has a PSP. He's had one since launch, but I only found out yesterday, and so had my first look and feel today.

You've probably already heard about the screen, but I'm gonna mention it anyway; it's amazing. Really it is. It's big, widescreen, has what seems like an infinitely small dot pitch and is colourful and vibrant. And Dave had a screen protector on his!

Everything else is as expected - the buttons and pad are adequate, with the analogue stick being more of an 8 way slider than a more conventional rocker switch. It is low, but I think I'd get used to the way it works pretty quickly.

Another point to note (and I imagine this to be the case with the DS, too) is the complexity of the firmware with which the PSP ships. It's slick and functional and provides you with something to do if you don't have any games; the PSP would actually make a nice picture viewer for instance. The little animated preview which appears when checking discs is pretty neat too (if ultimately pointless).

Overall though, I don't think I'll be buying one. The GBA taught me a very important lesson in that I don't actually want to play games on a portable device. Impressive as the PSP is, I doubt it would spend much time out of my drawer. For now though, I've had my PSP fix.

[1] Ring any bells? Well the more game-astute of you will know that Dave used to work for the Bitmap Brothers, and was quite heavily mentioned in the gaming press of the 80s and 90s. I'm honoured, really I am.