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I had absolutely no interest in this game until I read this particular review and comments like this. When I was a kid, if you "finished" pac-man, you were a god. Now any joker can finish just about any game they can buy. How did we get to the point where too hard to beat was a bad thing?

One of my all time favorite gaming experiences is "N". No way in heck I even came close to beating all the levels on that thing. But I had a completely awesome time trying.

Sony just cant win. I saw so many posts over the PSP's lifetime saying Sony should ditch the UMD and do download only. Now that they've done it, I'm seeing all kinds of posts saying they're out to screw the customer. But the funniest thing about it all is that they're offering BOTH options concurrently and instead of people saying, "look, they're giving us a choice," people are saying they're wrong for both options.

If you can buy the PSP 3000 and play the exact same games, Sony is not screwing you with downloads. Period. If you can buy the PSP Go, then sony is not screwing you by forcing you to use UMDs. Period. This is a good thing. Choice is good.

Just goes to show that all the DS Fanboys are both totally right and totally wrong.

Wrong: The PSP is not inferior. The ability to play videos on UMD and the "lack" of a second analog stick and touch screen are not "problems" that represent "failure" by the designers. It's an awesome system, always was, and the technology has kicked the DS's ass since day 1.

Right: It's about the games. If you have games that people want to buy, they're gonna buy your handheld game console. Although I've enjoyed the heck out the the PSP games I've bought, it's pretty clear that they weren't compelling enough for the average Japanese consumer. I guess they like Final Fantasy much better.

Beautiful Irony: That UMD thingy that all the DS Fanboys love to hate? Picture trying to squash a modern final fantasy into that DS cartridge instead of the 1.8GB you get on a UMD. This FF just wouldn't have worked very well on DS equipment.

I'm happy they'll allow me to turn my system on via remote-play, but what about getting into the system when something else is running?

I'm thinking Folding@Homer here. I almost always leave my PS3 folding when I'm not there. I'd like to have my system folding, remote-play in, then leave it folding when I'm done. It's the least I can do for Alzheimer sufferers :-)

I should have asked this a while back on the Q&A, but I didn't think of it 'til now.

Let's say you have a 1080p set and you play a DVD. The DVD is 720x480, but he TV scales it to fit the screen.

So why is this not possible with the PSP? Can it not scale because the PSP is actually sending out black pixels to fill the space? If it's not sending extra pixels, is there any other technical (note I didn't say "marketing") reason your HDTV couldn't scale the image?

BTW, Jonathan, I didn't exactly see them highlighting the fact that it has two shoulder buttons and one analog stick. It just looked like the kid was having fun. As much as I'd like to see an extra analog stick, it should be noted that the competition sells quite well without even one of 'em. The PSP is the only handheld in history to ever be roundly criticized for offering MORE than the competition. I'm getting a little tired of it.

The thing that can make this kick ass over the N-Gauge and iPhone if very simple: They can give it the same internals as a PSP or PSP2 (you know it's coming), so it'll play the same kick-ass library. You'll get to play GTA, Madden, Need for Speed, and LocoRoco. while the iPhone and N-Gauge crowd are stuck with Solitaire and Bejeweled.

But the cool thing is, you'll get to play them everywhere. I often don't have my PSP with me, but I always have my cell phone. More availability = more use = more visibility = more sales = more developer interest. A whole lot of DS owners are going to be mighty jealous when their friends pull one of these out at lunch and, whoops, their DS is in the office/car/back home.

But they can't gimp it. They've already said they need it to be a good phone (thank god), but they haven't said yet that you'll get a PSP on your phone. They need full PSP/PSP2 software compatibility to really get people's attention. If it's just another phone with stunted games, why bother?

Too many connections? The author is totally off base here. The single cable solution is an octopus monster. If you're in your hotel or at your desk transferring files, you'll have 3 to 5 extra cable ends (the AV connections) hanging off your desk. This is not sleek, slick, or cool. It's unwieldy. You could go for multiple cables, but then it would be just like the PSP, wouldn’t it?

So let's look at the PSP. A single USB cable with a power adapter handles everything but the AV. Ironically, you can buy the iPod USB power adapter, plug a regular USB cable into it and it works great. Then you just need the separate AV cable. Two cables. That's it. Only one proprietary part.

But you really want slick? If you’re going traveling with your laptop and you don’t need TV-out, you need only a single, thin USB. The iPod requires a dock connector and earphones at a minimum. Apple should be taking cues from Sony on this one, not the other way around.

It's about time with the fully destructible buildings. I've gotten pretty tired of seeing wooden doorways handle a grenade as if they were solid stone. In Resistance, where you're constantly running through burnt out wreckage, that same wreckage has no problem deflecting rocket blasts and heavy artillery. What kind of force was necessary to tear them down in the first place?

Yes, I know it's hard to pull this off, but in this type of game it should make a huge difference. Once people get it and use it, they'll never settle for indestructible drywall again.

To Ithilis

I disagree about the controller. This was actually one of the most satisfying uses of Sixaxis to date. The thing I liked about it was that the action you do with the controller very much resembles the action on the screen. You yank the controller and out pops the id, like you had it on a fishing line. It was good fun. Also, unlike some dragon-oriented titles that shall remain nameless , you don't need precision, just a good yank to get on the sixaxis so the sloppiness of the controller doesn't really hurt you.

I liked using the creatures you captured, but I agree that more variety of how you use them would be nice. That's why I liked the girl's world better than the guys world. You had the creature that can drop sticky stuff on the enemy. A nice change of pace from the shooting of the guy's world.

One more thing. I got level ups or something like that, but I didn't notice any difference in the game as a result. I hope this is more useful in the full version. If it is, it'll be a nice challenge to go for the big bonuses you get when you reel in multiple ids.

Sony is purposely drying up supply because they're stopping the assembly lines for the old PSP. They're stopping the assembly lines because the PSP-2000 is completely replacing the old PSP so there’s no longer a need to run them.

Consumers don't purchase old gear when it's placed right next to new gear when they both have the same price. Why would they? This leaves no choice but to heavily discount the old stuff to move it off the shelves. The answer to this problem is to let people buy the last few old units at full price and only then stock the shelves with the new ones.

Apple does this all the time. They're so regular about it that Mac news outlets will actually predict the availability of an updated iPod or iMac by the fact that the old SKU is drying up in retail. This almost always happens just before a big Mac conference and the predictors are almost always right.

I'd love to say this is super demand, but demand is only up modestly. Demand never skyrockets just before a unit with nice new features comes out for the same price. The problem is supply, it's on purpose, and it will fix itself as soon as the PSP-2000 hits the shelves.