Sony PSP: succumbing to temptation

I returned from Nashville to discover that my roof has sprung a leak. In spite of several impending repair costs (roof, car, cameras), I succumbed to temptation and bought a Sony Portable Playstation (PSP).

Initially I had no interest in Sony’s latest gadget, after all I hardly have time for games anymore, and there are very few games that hold my interest for more than an hour or two. Unfortunately, being stuck in the office/hotel room in Nashville meant that I had time to discover the “killer app” for the PSP (at least as far as I’m concerned). One of the launch titles for Sony’s new system is Wipeout: Pure — the latest in a line futuristic racing titles. My roommates and I spent the majority of our college careers killing time playing games from the Wipeout series.

Online reviews indicated that unlike recent incarnations of the Wipeout series, Wipeout: Pure was a return to the game-play and mechanics of the original title and exceptional sequel. So in spite of my many financial obligations (tax time is around the corner), I bought into the hype and nostalgic temptation and dropped too much money on the game and the required system to play it. The verdict — awesome!

The PSP itself is really impressive: large, bright screen, built-in wireless, movie/photo/audio playback capabilities. Like so many others I’m completely wowed by the screen. I watched in the included Spider-man 2 movie last night, and the quality was impeccable. The only complaint is that the sony-proprietary media formats: Universal Media Disc (UMD) and MemoryStick Pro Duo are more expensive and less available than the competition. Also since there is no way to create your own UMDs, we’re stuck with a 1GB maximum storage on MemoryStick.

Some people are calling this an iPod killer (boy, is that phrase over used), but since it is almost twice the size of a 60GB iPod, only holds as much as the 1GB iPod Shuffle, and has a 4-hour battery life (rated) — it’s not really targeting the same uses. In any event, I probably won’t find myself taking the PSP very far from the house, but it is a cool toy.