Well this past week I celebrated my 38th birthday and as a treat to myself I purchased a used Sony Playstation Portable game system. It was used because I couldn't justify spending $169 on a new PSP 3000. The $119 I did spend seemed more reasonable for a portable gaming system. When I got it home and connected it up to my wireless network I was very pleased. It connected right away and when I browsed to the Playstation Network I found a bunch of game demos and downloadable content. I was a bit dissappointed a few days later when I purchased my first UMD game only to find out that the UMD drive in PSP #1 didn't work. Fortunately I had purchased my PSP from Gamestop and when I took it back they promptly replaced it with one that worked perfectly.

Since my initial purchase I have spent a fair amount of time reading articles and blog posts relating to the PSP. It would appear that the PSP has been getting far less attention recently that it should. The Nintendo DS seems to be stealing the portable gaming spotlight and I am not exactly sure why. When I considered my purchase I looked at the DS and it's library of games and what I found was that on a whole the games were not of a ****that appealed to me. If I was 12 years old then maybe the DS would be my game system of choice but as a mature gamer the DS just isn't attractive to me. The PSP has more games that appeal to my ****of gaming. These games include the Syphon Filter series of third person shooters as well as some of the best racing titles available on a portable game system. The PSP also includes a much more sophisticated control system for these types of games. While a touch screen and stylus are neat (for a Palm Pilot maybe) they don't do a thing for racing games or shooters. The analog controller along with a d-pad and 6 additional buttons make the PSP far superior for controls and game options.

Don't get me started on the screens... The PSP has a beautiful wide screen display that looks so clear and beautiful that I find myself playing for hours (even at home where my PC and console systems are). The DS's screens, through there are two, are smaller and just don't look that great to me.

I could go on and on as to why I really like the PSP but there is one area that I am a bit dissappointed and is really why I am writing this. When I look at the upcomming games list I don't see very many PSP titles. Sure Resistance is coming next month (and that should be a blockbuster based on the quality of the demo I have already played) but the bulk of the upcoming titles for the portable gamer are for the DS. I want to send out this plea to all the game developers out there to take more time to consider development for the PSP. The potential is out there to build some really fantastic games on this platform. It has the power, the display, the controls, the UMD drive, the WiFi and many other good elements that make this system the one true powerhouse for portable gaming!