PSP Impressions

My life, in recent times, has followed something of a rigorous schedule. The day begins at 6:00am when I wake up. I play Metal Gear Ac!d until around 7:45, go to work until 6:00pm, then come home. I then work on my book until around 9:00pm, play some more Metal Gear Ac!d and pass out. Overall, it has been somewhat grueling.

I must say though, that the PSP has been a very welcome friend in these times. I bring it with me everywhere and can fire up a quick couple of moves in Ac!d whenever I have time. Don't get me wrong, my DS will be coming with me as well (especially once Animal Crossing comes out), but for now the PSP is it.

The graphical quality of MGA still astounds me. After finally beating Baten Kaitos, I fired up Xenosaga II last night and was somewhat stunned to find some parts of it not looking as spectacular as MGA...on a handheld!! And Xenosaga II is a stunning game, let me tell you.

My point here is that the graphical quality of handhelds is obviously able to come close to matching a modern day console, something I never really dreamed would happen. Imagine the posibilities; you could have games that could theoretically port between systems. How cool would it be to be able to take Xenosaga II on the road?

Say what you will about the PSP, but I truly think it has upped the bar for the handheld market. I predict that Nintendo's next handheld will have to compete in some way (are the rumors of the portable Gamecube true?), and in order to do that (much as I hate to say it) the graphics and screen have to be upgraded.

All in all, I am quite excited to see where the future will take us. As a gamer who has far more "on the move" time rather than time to fire up my home consoles, I want the most bang for my buck out of handheld consoles. I truly hope to see some serious potential pulled out of the PSP.

Lee Babin | 6.15.2005 [return]

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