Future Obsession

Okay, I know quite a few of my friends will not believe this, but I believe that I have gotten past my Phone Whore fever. Really. I mean, I have the best phone that I could ever want, so there really isn't anywhere to go from here. Heheh.

Anyway... I am saying this because by next year I may be entering a new era of gadget lust. The gadget is the Playstation Portable or PSP. It's Sony's first handheld gaming console and it has just surfaced to the world in the recently-concluded Entertainment Expo (E3) 2004. It's not yet on sale, of course- but at least the real thing has finally been seen and there are a lot more details revealed.

The PSP itself is flat and roughly the size of a man's outstretched hand- which makes it light and handy enough to carry on neckstraps or to fit in large pockets or small pouchbags. There's a gamepad on the left and buttons on the right and shoulder buttons on the front corners- making the whole thing look like a large funky controller. But then, no controller has a lovely, lovely screen in the middle of the thing.
The screen is huge at 4.3 inches, with image quality good enough for crystal clear games and movies. Yes, movies- aside from playing specially-made PSP games, the console can play dvd-quality movies recorded on the proprietary UMDs- Universal Media Discs- produced by Sony. The discs are small and hold about 1.8 Gigabytes of data, and go in at the back of the PSP.
In terms of games, the PSP has the usual Sony lineup of ports, sequels and spinoffs- nothing that particularly jerks my chain, but a PSP Tekken or maybe even a Dead or Alive title may not be far off. Final Fantasy on the go? Bet on it. Wow, just thinking of playing an RPG or fighting game I love wherever, whenever is just soooo cool.
The PSP supports Sony's Memory Card Duo, and will probably have onboard memory as well. The thing will also have WiFi capability, and you'll be able to use the PSP with accessories like special PSP cameras, USB ports, keyboards and other peripherals. This pretty much makes the PSP not just a gaming console, but an-all around media device. The only thing missing is... well, telephony.

How much for this wondrous device? Some say as low as $150. Some say as high as $300. Which means it will probably be as expensive as a full-sized PS2 or Xbox when it comes out here eventually in, oh, mid-2005. That's a lot of time to save up the moolah. And on lustful thoughts. Hoho...