Sony, in my opinion has the better console system and has since they introduced the Playstation. Sony however, only has a technological edge over Microsoft and Nintendo which is losing out on a lot of capitol. I would argue that it’s unfair to totally blame Sony though; it takes a certain level of laziness on the part of developers and publishers as well.

Let’s go back to the early 1990’s when a 100MB HDD was colossal and a 333Mhz processor was near light speed. Obviously we no longer live in the Middle Ages of computing, but in those times with limited space and hardware resources programmer s and developers had to find ways around technological bottlenecks (and no, I’ve not lost sight of other factors such as cooling technologies and FSB bottlenecks on the MB either…). As time passed and faster, higher capacity items became available more readily, it seemed as though programmer got lazy, creating games that only looked or performed marginally better yet took twice the space and needed twice the resources – they didn’t ‘need’ to have tighter programming or create better textures to amplify the illusion of reality. No, nowadays they look for easier languages to code in because games can be churned out even faster making a faster profit.

The end result is evidenced in the Sonly PlayStation 3 – rather than teams of developers creating a new game that pushes the limits of what a game should be, it’s become a hot bed for brief titles and failing franchises to show off what a console can do. Of course, there are exceptions to this, but they're few and far between.

Now, don’t get me wrong – I love my PS3. I find the few games that are worth keeping, leaps and bounds better than those on the XB360. On the other hand the XB360 pandered to the current taste of gamers – FPS and MMO. Perhaps is Sony and Microsoft teamed up to make a console we’d have a system that would be the best of both worlds and might push Nintendo to stop making a console doomed to cater to fledgling gamers and romantic nostalgia and put on their ‘big boy pants’.

Sony first released the PlayStation Portable in 2004 (2005 for US gamers), and at first it was a decent system. Since then the portable console has undergone 2 revisions and a 'retrofit'. Today, gamers have the choice of the PSP and the PSPGo, with little difference between the two save download only content and a sizable storage space.

We have to ask ourselves, "What is the intended purpose of the PSP?"

Quite frankly it appears the purpose is portable gaming. A majority of the games for the PSP are ported games from either the PlayStation or the PlayStation 2 (with slightly degraded graphics) and very few exceptions in exclusively PSP titles in between.The biggest issue of the PSP is a total lack of standards.

First it was a pixel life, sub-pixel alignment, and color gamut - now it's UMD removal. Sony finds themselves segregating their own user base by forgetting that a gaming device is a game device first, intuitive peripheral second - clearly an unwise oversight. On the other hand, it's fairly easy to see that Sony didn't intend to put their users at such purchasing odds so easily or frequently. If users who do not own a PSP want one, they no longer have to worry about lugging around tiny odd-shaped disks and can carry on with growing standard downloadable content. Sony also cuts their own costs by removing the need to manufacture or pay to have manufactured, those awkward UMDs and get to the point with a simple, easy to track and control - download. Still, the lack of standard over time is as obvious as water on a rainy day.

Nintendo has their portable console, the GameBoy with its recent iteration dubbed the "DS" and "DSi". For the most part, the DS is similar to the Wii in that it is backwards compatible to the GamyBoy SP and some older original GameBoy titles.The DS also has a hybrid gameplay style where players can touch the screen to control elements of the game while retaining the ability to use tactile buttons and pads to control the same or other elements o the game. Nintendo, while not up to par on the graphics front has maintained a standard of 'we play games'. No matter how much you dislike how the games may look, the devices perform as intended and the games are hardly 'not fun". In short, Nintendo DS doesn't try to be something it isn't. It's game first, peripheral second.

One could then argue that the intended audience for the PSP were the same audience that owned a GameBoy. The PSP with their ported titles could play classic games such as Valkyrie Profile with a few extra revisions or Final Fantasy Tactics with new animations and voice overs just as gamers could play a redone version of Final Fantasy IV with similar revisions. In both cases many titles are 'retro', though programmers and developers have also released new original titles for the DS, and in some cases franchise continuations (i.e. Kingdom Hearts).

Enter a third party - Apple. Yes, Apple. iPhone and iPod Touch users have quietly talked about the devices doubling as portable gaming devices. With publishers such as EA and Capcom entering the fray with titles like "Madden 10" and "Resident Evil 4", it's a definite possibility. We won't touch on the quality of the games from major publishers at this point but suffice to say that their presence on the low end gives them nowhere to go but up or off and given the reputation of both, i'd bank on up instead of off.

Where the 'i' devices succeed is that their relatively untested waters rife with life and marketability, so naturally big name publishers and developers do not want to miss the chance to grab their share of that user base. The quality of the games right now however, is a bit subpar due to hardware limitations and interface design and being a true gaming platform has more to do with the interface than it does the developers or the desire to develop. See, while a touch screen is great for picking music, tweeting, or updating a Facebook status there are real estate issues when using two thumbs on a screen where there is action taking place. And, let's face it, the accelorometer isn't the fastest registering thing in context to action based games not to mention that on a small areas such at the 'i' devices, you're tampering with your relatively stable focal point while playing. It's not a design flaw of any kind, it's just not an ideal platform interface for what world of gaming at this particular time. Sony tends to see the 'i' devices as having threatening aspects.

That being said, the PSPGo will likely be another of many Sony failures because rather than taking a lesson from Nintendo and moving in a linear product fashion by making the PSP to be a PSP, it's too busy trying to combat things it isn't,

Trophies, the achievement system for PlayStation, allows gamers to track and log their accomplishments within a given game. For example, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 contains trophies for killing 1000 enemies with each weapon and for completing each chapter of the game as well as completing the game on each difficulty. Many games contain a handful of 'hidden' trophies in which the requirements are not revealed until the gamer achieves it.

Over time, more and more gamers play a game to collect as many if not all of the trophies offered. This however doesn't evidence anything about the game or gamer other than dedication to the game or at the very least determination of the gamer. Killing 1000 enemies with a particular weapon when the weapon is not better or worse than any other weapon isn't an achievement - it's a time consuming activity, thus an unimportant factor of the game in context to the point of the game. This is more true when the point of the game is to play through the story and learn the plot based objectives such as 'make your way to the Hyabusa Village.' One might argue that in games such as Battlefield 1943 in which trophies and badges such as "Capture 5 Flags" or "Capture 25 Flags" lends proof to a players profiency to such tasks adds to overall game-play, especially since they highlight objectives of the game. It could also be added that trophies give indication to the style of playing gamers have; players of Uncharted who obtained a trophy for Brutal Brawler and 50 kills with the 9mm (over a lower kill ratio with other weapons in other styles) may be considered as a player who likes to get into the thick of things vs. a player who has trophies with the Dragon Sniper Rifle and a heap of head shots. Still, the trophies add no value to the game, only the perceived value of the player within a certain game and while perception is context, there's a lot to be said about actual performance in game as opposed to a pretty icon and what it makes other players think. If we then take similar trophies across a spectrum of games, players may establish themselves among a consistent group of gamers as a certain type of gamer among a certain genre - but again, there is no value added to the game through the trophies and there remains proof to be in the pudding as it were.

Now, if we also look at the platinum level trophies we see that those singular trophies are acquired by obtaining 'all other trophies'. As mentioned earlier, some trophies are awarded for going through the plot of the game. This means that the player is earning a trophy and gaining ground on acquisition of the highest award for a task they've set out to do by purchasing the game. Akin to giving someone an 'atta boy' for successfully breathing, the trophies become a reward for doing what the player is supposed to do.. All trophies lose value in context to themselves at this point.

Perhaps value of the trophies in context of game value can be increased or at least expanded upon if developers were to develop more games with multiple endings. Player would earn trophies based on the endings they received. How nice would it have been to get a trophy for getting the 'good' ending within Silent Hill, but also have trophies for the "Alien" ending - or trophies for saving the brother in Advent Rising (I know... that was an XBOX game, but work with me here), and then get a trophy for saving the girlfriend during the second play through. In this case, the trophy would add value to the game because it would better promote replay value.

Just a thought, here... Just a thought.

I traded in my older PSP 1001 on Wednesday, October 15 2008 (which never had a dead pixel from the day it came out to today) and made the plunge to get the just released PSP 3001. For those of you who already have the PSP "Slim" 2001, the differences are not so significant that it warrants an upgrade. For those who have the 1001, it's a lot nicer, but at the expense of a few things you have probably grown to like, such as the fabric PSP case, included headset, lanyard, and cleaning cloth have not come back to users as a bundle.

The 3001 series "Ratchet and Clank, Size Matters" bundle (the only way to get a PSP 3001 until November) did come with a couple of things in an effort to make up for the loss of accessories. The PSP in this bundle is "Mystic Silver". It's a matte version of the "Silver Ice" PSP 2001.

• Ratchet and Clank: SIze Matters UMD
• National Treasure: Book of Secrets UMD
• Echochrome PSN voucher (valued at $9.99)
• 1GB MemoryStick Pro Duo 2 Mark 2 (with MagicGate support) (about $30)
• PSP 3001

All for $199.99. The trade in value of the PSP 1001 at Gamestop was about $50 (with a promotion that was running which added an extra $20 to a system trade in). From a tade perspective, it seems a little top heavy to pay an additional $150. On November 8, 2008 a second bundle will be released containing no UMD games, but a voucher for "Everyday Shooting" and a 4GB memory stick. The PSP will be piano black.

The 3001, like it's predecessor the 2001, retained the drop in loading system which was a modification that helped significantly reduce the weight of the original PSP. Some users claimed that the weight reduction and the move from piano black made the PSP feel 'cheap' and 'breakable'. In a way this is true. The 2001 and 3001 series PSPs initially feel pretty cheap, but after a couple of hours of it in your hands it goes back to feeling pretty solid. The matte finish on the shell keeps the PSP from looking as marked up as the fingerprint magnet, PSP 1001. The screen however, still shows every mark.

All 3 PSPs share that same screen size, but the 3001 has something a little new that some users are sure to like. The 3001 has a wider color gamut giving games and movies a more vivid appearance. I had not anticipated a huge difference, but with games such as Final Fantasy Tactics, where the colors are relatively muted or God of War with it's muddy palette, the wider gamut provided a higher degree of detail that wasn't so apparent before. Of course if the user isn't happy with the brighter colors the gamut can be switched back to 'normal' in the system settings.

In the PSP 3001 Sony changed the subpixels which have a good side and a bad side. Some users complain that there is an interlacing effect that happens when playing (it's not very noticeable), but the images appear much sharper than on the previous PSP models. Games such as Disgea and FFT would have portions of text that looked messy because of the subpixel layout, but the new horizontal subpixel direction clean much of that up. Previously, the 2001 and 1001 PSPs had vertical subpixel directions and it caused the image to look funky at times. Along with a new subpixel direction, the PSP 3001 has brighter contrast and becomes much easier to see and play in well lit areas (there seems to be slightly less screen glare as well).

The addition of the PlayStation Network is more than welcome to PSP owners. It is now possible to buy and download retro PSone games (like Castlevania: SOTN, or WipeOut ) . A big letdown to PSP owners was that Sony still has not decided to include hard storage. With the implementation of hte PSN (PlayStations Network), users still have to collect various memory sticks or shell out money to buy a really large capacity stick (It's rumored that there will be a 32GB MSDP), to collect various games they've paid to own. On the PSN users can also buy and download selected UMD games, PSone games, and professional "homebrew" style of games only available to download. and not previously released on any other system.

Overall the 3001 is not so big a jump that the PSP "Slim" owners would feel compelled to upgrade, but it is something the original PSP "Fat" owners might want to contemplate - especially since the GPS hardware is nearing release in the US and allegedly won't be ideal (or possible compatible) on the non cacheing, less video RAM having, heavier 1001.

TIPS:

Since the Sony PSP 3001 doesn't come with a lanyard, using the WiiMote lanyard as one is perfect. If you have not taken advantage of the lanyard replacements Nintendo offered, make sure they still offer it and order one lanyard more than you need. Then use that as the PSP lanyard.

When transferring data from one PSP memory stick to another, EVERYTHING transfers... even games you bought. This means that you could 'borrow' a game like Echochrome

PlayStation creator Ken Kutaragi will leave Sony at the end of June, the company revealed Thursday. This is only the latest in a string of developments which show the company is serious about turning around its business.

...well theres always PlayStation 4...

You're probably getting pretty sick of toting around all those cables, adapters, and antennae required by the GPSP mod to get sat nav functionality on your PSP, so you'll be happy to know that Sony's official GPS add-on for its portable console has just been spotted in the wild. We've already seen pics (albeit crappy ones) of the wayfinding peripheral, but now we've got proof that it exists somewhere besides on a PowerPoint slide. Unfortunately there's really not much to see here (it's a little gadget sticking out of another gadget -- wow), and we've got no new info regarding functionality, pricing, or release dates. Still, when we come across something that we think you'd be interested in, we write a post about it -- that's how we do things around here. Sharing is caring, right?

The PlayStation Portable was born a thing of entertainment convergence, a portable gaming device that would let people play games, watch movies, listen to music and surf the net.

But somewhere on the way from announcement to the hands of gamers, the PSP dropped the multimedia ball.

Now, a year and a half and 4.6 million in sales since the PSP's launch, Sony is striving to revive the non-gaming functions of its svelte player, heeding the cry of PSP owners who say they want more from their portable.

Sony has renewed its push to make music and movies available on its system while adding new elements for the PSP such as an add-on Global Positioning System and camera.

In September, Sony expects to ship a Linux- and Qtopia-based handheld device featuring WiFi connectivity, an Opera web browser, and a variety of text- and voice-messaging clients and media players. The Mylo -- short for "My Life Online" -- will be available in black or white, priced at $350.

Despite its relatively high price, the Mylo will not include cell phone capabilities. Nor will it apparently offer compatibility with marketshare-leading instant message services from AOL and Microsoft.

On the upside, the device is expected to support VoIP and instant message services available from Google Talk, Skype, and Yahoo! Additionally, the Mylo will include nearly a gig of user file storage, expandable via Memory Stick, along with players for MP3s, ATRAC, WMA, and MP4 video.

Mylo's keyboard
(Click to enlarge)
Given the Mylo's physical resemblance to Sony's PSP (PlayStation Portable), it may also include some games -- if only Java-based games.

Hmm.... given this article, I give this zero chance of total success...