stop the hate, dhelor

It's a great game... the kind of game that people are always saying the PSP doesn't have (i.e. quirky, original, fun).

This is a great price, but I'm sure it will come to the GREATEST HITS line eventually.

I'll have to check this out.

I'm having an absolute blast with my new PSP. The machine is pretty damn impressive. Here are the games that I've picked up:

Lumines
Lumines II
MLB 06: The Show
MLB 07: The Show
Hot Shots Golf
Wipeout Pure
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance
Puzzle Quest
GTA: Liberty City Stories
Tiger Woods 07
Tony Hawk Project 8
Pirates!
The Warriors
XMen: Legends II
Mercury Meltdown

I think I may have gone overboard, but I haven't regretted one of these purchases.

-Fan

Well, I grabbed 06 because Bill Harris (an authority on the subject) called it "The best baseball game I've ever played." I figured it'd be a shame to pass it up.

I grabbed 07 for the updated rosters, etc.

06 was only 19 bucks used, so it wasn't that hard of a decision.

I'm cetainly glad to have you guys aboard... it's been a lonely two years for me

I've got a PSP and Metal Gear Acid 2 and Pirates.

First of all, Pirates. Most of us know this game, but we haven't played it like this. Pirates is the perfect portable game. I can waste 5 minutes or 3 hours with this thing. The graphics are almost perfect for the PSP, just colorful enough that they look PS2 quality and not the PS1 quality I see with 3D-heavy PSP games. My only complaints are that dancing has become a boring stare-in-one-spot-and-mimic-like-a-monkey affair, and the load times slow down the fun. However, it has so much charm, so much replayablity, and so much of that Sid Meiers addictive quality that I'm playing it in the car during lunch. I'm not bringing my PSP to work tomorrow.

Second, MG Acid 2. This is the most fun I've had with Metal Gear since the first playstation game that put the series on the map. The strategic combat seems perfect for Metal Gear Solid, although the card game's rules are somewhat confusing. Still, it plays exactly like a great Metal Gear game. Nothing is lost in the transition to turn-based, in fact I might prefer this style. The graphics are cell-shaded and work well for the psp. The story is even improved, there is very little of that annoying japanese teenage emo where Snake has a 3 hour conversation about his grandmother while hiding in a locker. There is none of that. Other the other quirkiness is present. I hoping some real depth will open up in this game, because it might turn out to last months. Plus, it was only $12 at Fry's.

Lastly, the PSP itself. It's sleek, sexy, frustratingly obtuse and covered in ports and sh*t I don't need and have no intention of learning how to use. The battery life lasts longer than I expected it would. You can power down the unit in the middle of the game, and when you turn it back on the game comes right back on as if you paused it. I look like a nerd if I'm caught playing this in public, just not as much of a nerd if I'm caught playing a DS. The screen smudges easily but you don't even notice when the unit is on.

I currently have no desire to play action games on it. Like DSGamer, my thumbs hurt inside of 5 minutes if I play this thing in any twitch capacity. The 3D games that attempt to emulate 2-stick console games have been universally panned; I tried Star Wars Galaxies and SOCOM FTB 1 and both sucked. However, I'd like to try out Syphon Filter and I strangely want to play Metal Gear Portable Ops, despite Sinatar's strong warning against it. I'm also interested in the SRPG Jeane d'Arc and FF Tactics, of course. Puzzle quest looks great, too.

You can get GWJ mobile on it, looks great.

Thanks a LOT, SommerMatt, now I look like an ass in my first post

I've been an owner for about a month and a half now. Haven't bought much for it besides Daxter and Lumines since homebrew has taken up a lot of my space and attention.

Still... it's an underrated system. A lot of quality games that get no attention because it's LOL SONY PORTABL-*battery dies*

I think that's definitely part of it. The DS is overrated as much as the PSP is underrated, IMHO. But yeah, when I owned one the only games I could/wanted to play really where Lumines and Every Extend Extra and those I couldn't play too long because it caused thumb pain. That's why I won't become a new owner again until they fix the D-Pad or redesign it to be more ergonomic.

Still, though, for those that aren't caused pain by the system or enjoy games like Pirates, the system has much to offer. And no doubt I'll be thinking of it again whenever Disgaea and FFT get released.

Scaph: Get the hard Logitech PSP case. It snaps right onto the system and stays there perfectly while you play games. Once you are done just flip the lid down and voila. Instant protection. I swear Logitech has yet to make a flawed accessory.

The 2 gig card is fine unless you want to go homebrew. I'd up to 4 gigs if pirating was your method.

Other than that? Eh, you should be good. The PSP can take care of itself. Maybe an extra battery pack if you use it for long amounts of time without charging.

I use my PSP as a portable TV with the Sony Location Free unit... though I'd love to actually play a game on it.. I think the last time I tried playing a game was Xmen 2 and I got frustrated by the load times in about 1 hour and gave up..

Anything good come out recently thats worth another try? I'm sure I'll pick up the Castlevania pack.. thats a given.

I'm enjoying Tiger Woods 07, though putting is extremely frustrating. I've put maybe 3 hours into the game and I still feel like putting is an inconsistent mess. I hated Lumines at first, but I'm starting to come around....I'm just not very good at it yet. Hot Shots Golf is fantastic and much more fun than TW07. The Warriors has a really great vibe, too.

I picked up the Logitech Playgear Pocket, an extra higher capacity battery, and a 4GB Sandisk Memory Stick. I'm not planning on doing much homebrew stuff, so I've upgraded to the latest firmware (may have been a mistake..shrug).

For fingerprints/scratches, I put on a Pelican screen protector. I'm usually horrible with putting these things on, but I managed to do a pretty decent job with this one. Now I'm not worried about scratching the screen every time I wipe a piece of dust away.

Overall, I'm really impressed with the machine. I've played more of it in the last week than any other game/console.

The only two annoyances so far are the browser's capability (or lack thereof). Getting "out of memory" errors when loading large web pages is crazy. I've got a 4GB stick in the machine...how can a browser cache not use that?. Also, I wish their flash plugin were updated to allow video.

Hey there, long time lurker here. I've recently been cleared by my fiance to buy a PSP and was looking for a little advice. I'm really interested in doing homebrew stuff and I'm taking advice of the previous posters and going to get a 4gb card and the logitech case. Can any ol' PSP run homebrew? With new firmware of course. Any sites you are aware of would be helpful to keep me from having to sort through the mounds of google trash. Thanks for the help!

Sivok;
http://pspupdates.qj.net/
and
http://forums.qj.net/f-qjnet-sony-psp-forums-48.html/

is what i use to check for new firmware. It's not the most user-friendly of sites, but between the news feeds and the forums it has what you need.

Check out the guides on the forums, they were pretty useful when I was just exploring firmware options on my PSP, then when you feel informed, head to this guide:
http://tinyurl.com/3xq35f
on the same site to actually see how to change your firmware to enable homebrew.

As long as you don't have the latest 3.30 firmware, you'll be fine, and even if you do, don't worry and check the pspupdates news page for news as to when the homewbrew-enabled version is released.

Get a Hori screen protector it's the only one i've seen that doesn't diminish the screen quality at all.