The New PSP Is A Fat Lump
Say what you like about it's OMFGOLED screens, PS3-level graphics, built-in 3GPS WiFi balls, fourteen touchpads and six cameras, I think the fact that it's a giant ugly bastard is absolutely the best thing about it. It is in no way trying to look like some sort of trendy media gadget for people who wear suits in the house.
This thing has been designed to play GAMES on. It's got proper sticky-out fat analogue sticks and great big rubber grippy things on the back. It's totally aware of the fact that it'll never fit in anyone's pocket and it doesn't even give a shit.
The main issue with the original PSP was that it was trying so hard to resemble a trendy media device that it made playing games on it a bit of a nightmare. However well developers fudged the controls around to compensate for the single nasty analogue slider, you never got the console-level experience that they were clearly attempting to deliver. And if the PSP was awkward to use, the PSPgo was cancer for the hands.
I think Sony made a good decision in not trying to compete directly with any of Apple's iStuff; they've finally gone for function over form, which should be a blessing for people who want to play actual games on the thing. And they should be big chunky games, too.
It won't actually be good, of course. Sony haven't had a good product launch since the PS1. There's no way with all the uber-tech-shit on that device that it's going to be remotely affordable; I wouldn't be at all surprised if it lurched on to the shelves at over £300, or one metric fuckton of cash.
Also, this being a Sony product, expect the launch line-up to be devoid of anything remotely good. And expect this to be the case for a good long while, what with developers now having to spend next-gen amounts of cash on making games for the thing.
However, when the good games finally do come out, this time there's a chance that they'll be genuinely good games, rather than simply 'good for the PSP'. There's not a single 'great' game on the PSP that isn't in some way crippled by its nasty control layout. With the PSP NEW ONE, featuring what must be the most inputs ever seen on a device, there's a good chance that the games might actually exceed those on home consoles.
Plus, it's highly likely that this will eventually let me play a new Monster Hunter game with real camera controls, and not on the Wii, which makes it an almost definite future purchase. Whenever it costs less than a small country.
Image courtesy of Kotaku.com
