These days, I can freely admit I'm not quite the hardcore gamers I once was. I used to have the ability to juggle many games, across several systems, simultaneously. Currently, I'm lucky if I can fully concentrate on one or two games at the same time. With a house, a real job, and a brand new baby, and not including the responsibilities of this website, it's definitely way more difficult to find time to plop down in front of a TV and enjoy the hobby. This is where handhelds come in handy. The Game Boy Advance SP and Nintendo DS provide excellent gaming experiences, that much is obvious, but to be perfectly honest neither really provide the experience of a "current generation console", in portable form. The PSP, even with only a small batch of 1st generation games, appears to do exactly that and more.

Read on for my thoughts on many aspects of the system and it's capabilities, the PSP Value Pack, the included accessories and more. Game and accessory reviews are on the way, so stay tuned!

PSP Value Pack

The North American PSP Value pack has caused a bit of controversy in that some hardcore gamers are upset that Sony is forcing them to buy a bunch of crap that they may have not spent money on to begin with. For that minority, I can understand where they are coming from. Though for the rest of the population, including some of the basic necessities was a smart move on Sony's part, at least during this initial launch. I'll break them down a bit more below. Chris also covers this in the second installment of his excellent "Falling for the PSP" column.

PSP Soft Case & Wrist Strap: You NEED a case, period. While it doesn't have to be Sony's, the included one does a good enough job at protecting the unit. The PSP surface and screen is super glossy and not something you'd like to get scratched up. It goes right in the case, or at least sits on the case, whenever it's not in use. A wrist strap is strongly recommended, as seeing your shiny new PSP crash onto a hard surface would be absolutely heartbreaking.

The case is lacking in one or two areas. At the end where the charger/AC adapter fits into, an opening in the case would be very helpful. Instead, you have to flip the PSP around and push the wrist strap into the case, or take the PSP out altogether to charge it. I'm not sure about any overheating issues which may occur if it is charged while in the case, but I am more concerned with someone dropping a utensil on the screen than that. A little pouch/pocket for the cleaning cloth or a UMD or two would have been a nice addition.

Screen Cleaning Cloth: Another requirement. You'd be surprised at how quickly the surface picks up smudges and flecks of dust (I swear they come out of nowhere), and a good soft, anti-static chamois style cloth is the best way to clean it. The little one which is included works fine. Moistened LCD wipes work well also.

PSP Headphones with Remote Control: Only really a needed if you plan on playing in a noisy area or where you would not want to distract others. I do have to say that games, movies and music sound absolutely amazing through a set of good headphones. The official iPod-ish Sony ones included in the Value Pack have a built in remote (which is designed to be used only with the PSP), with volume and music control options, and normally retails for about $35. The volume adjustment on the remote is nice and convenient, but when playing a game, it's just as easy hit the volume buttons on the unit's face. The ear buds are comfortable enough for a couple of solid hours. After much longer than that, something about the shape bothered my ears.

Memory Stick Duo (32 megs): If you want to even save a game or any settings, or listen to music, view photo albums, or videos, a Memory Stick is required. 32 megs is good enough to get started, and more than enough for game saving and a storing a number of proper resolution photos and albums. If you want to get crazy with uploading your own music and videos, 32 is not even close to enough. Most casual users won't need a 512 megs or a gigabyte of storage, but those who want to get down and dirty with the true multimedia aspects of the PSP, will indeed upgrade immediately.

UMD sampler: The sampler is an OK collection of upcoming and current movie trailers, music videos and non-interactive game demos. It's useful for showing off the impressive multimedia aspects of the PSP, but it will keep you busy for no more than 10 minutes at most.

Spider-Man 2 UMD movie: For the first million PSP users, this is a pretty cool freebie. The video/audio quality is excellent, and will "appear" to be DVD quality to most people. When showing it off to techies and technophobes alike, they were all extremely impressed with the video clarity and the audio as well. There are no DVD extras, which would normally be OK if most announced UMDs did not retail for the price of a DVD or more. I personally think a price of at least $5 cheaper than the respective DVD release would be fair, though I don't see it happening.

PSP System

The PSP in one hell of a sexy looking system, and I don't think many people would deny that. It's not arguably good looking in the way the PlayStation 2, with it's more chiseled good looks, is. Everything from the ultra glossy finish, to the huge, crisp widescreen screen, to the solid transparent curved shoulder buttons, to the funky stubby knurled analog stick is stylish and exudes a sleek "high tech" vibe. There's not a single person I've showed it to who wasn't impressed with the PSP, and this was before even turning it on.

Let's break it down a bit.

Screen: The 16:9 Wide screen TFT LCD screen is easily the best looking handheld videogame screen yet. It's huge at 4.3 inch, and has a 480 x 272 pixel resolution with 16.77 million colors. Everything so far looks fantastic on it, and I am still shocked at how crisp and clean the display is. There is very minimal blurring, but it exists to an minor extent during very fast moving scenes in movies and segments of games. There are 4 levels of brightness (the highest only available when using the AC adapter), which can by easily adjusted via a face button. I found medium and high to be good during daylight hours or in well lit rooms, and low to work well in the dark. As mentioned earlier, the screen is highly susceptible to smudges and fingerprints, though they are nearly impossible to see when the PSP is on and in use. Clean, non-greasy hands are still a must. I have also not invested in a screen protector for fear that it may dull the display, but that may be on the list if I even get a single scratch on it. The one small issue I'm most concerned with? Dead/stuck pixels. It's pretty much a given in any LCD device, and unfortunately my PSP has two light colored dead pixels off to the side. They can only be seen when on a pure black background, and even then it looks like a minuscule piece of dust. It actually took me at least 3 days to even notice what it was. But still, they ARE there. Nintendo has gone to great lengths to replace Nintendo DS units with dead pixels, but most manufacturers still have a certain threshold on what they deem unacceptable. Hopefully Sony has a decent policy regarding the issue, though I have yet to get the full details.

Speakers/Audio: The speakers are right on the face of the unit, one on each side, and consist of two tiny ovals. Audio piped through the PSP speakers for music, games and movies seems impressive enough at first, that is until you use the headphones. The difference is rather huge. Afterwards, the speakers in contrast sound much less full and more tinny. They are more than adequate for everyday use but headphones are the way to go if obtaining the absolute best quality audio is a major concern.

Buttons: Picture the DualShock, minus the L2 and R2 shoulder buttons, with no right analog stick, and with a stubby, textured left analog stick. The digital pad and buttons are full sized, placed perfectly, and feel great. The start and select buttons are also in good positions, and adjustments for the screens brightness, audio mode, along with a "home" button are all very reachable right on the face of the PSP. The short analog stick is a bit touchy and has a short throw, but it works well in the right situation in the right game. The clear shoulder buttons are nice and big, well placed, and responsive. I have noticed that the left one has begun to occasionally stick when it's smashed rapidly for long periods of time (so far, only in Twisted Metal). I'm hoping it doesn't get worse and am keeping an eye on it.

Interface/Multimedia: The PSP GUI is simple and very minimalist. Neat little icons represent everything from games to network settings. The interface background is a simple solid color which changes depending on the month, and there's some repeating random wavy line effects overlaying it. The photo and video viewers and the music player have a number of standard options. With photos you can play slideshows, zoom, rotate, pan and scan the photos, show picture information, and cycle through albums and individual pictures. The movie player provides the ability to set the zoom/stretch options (to fit the widescreen), along with the repeat mode, frame advance and slow motion options, among the other obvious player controls. The same could be said for the music player, which additionally allows you to set up and control music groups, A-B repeat and play mode. They are all pretty full featured and provide enough control to satisfy most users. The system software is upgradeable, via a WiFi network, so it's possible that more options and modes will be available in the future. An interesting screensaver or music visualization application to go along with the music player would have been a fun addition.

My one gripe with the GUI is that there is no real way to arrange the photos/video/music via the PSP itself. For someone used to working with a computer, it's trivial to attach a mini-USB cable (which is NOT included), plug it into your PC or Mac, and arrange everything manually by creating folder and dragging your media around. Not everyone knows how to do that. The PSP is marketed as an entertainment device which can be used to view photos and listen to music, etc. But Sony also includes no PC software to allow non-tech savvy users to actually manage all the media from your PC/Mac. Sony of Japan has an application available to purchase, and many 3rd parties are tossing together programs as we speak, but the responsibilities should have been taken on by Sony itself. I can deal with the manual method, but there are plenty of other casual users who may have a bit of a difficult time.

For those ready to take the leap into the more advanced DVD ripping, video encoding and transferring, check out Engadget's detailed feature.

Another gripe is the PSP software keyboard. Why the heck do we only have a cellphone text messaging-style keyboard for typing? It's so slow, especially when first getting used to it. Alternatively, there are actually mini-USB keyboards made for use with various PDAs which do work, but why is there no QWERTY software keyboard option? I believe I would have much preferred that to the current method.

WiFi/Online: I've covered this somewhat in a previous article, Going Online with the PSP. I've yet to actually test the Ad-Hoc local WiFi mode, but I've played a ton of online game via WiFi Infrastructure mode. This is one aspect that I'm shocked would even be available at launch, but it is, and it works. Playing one-on-one with NBA and Gretzky NHL over the internet is awesome, but kicking ass (and getting it kicked) with 5 other players in Twisted Metal: Head-On online, is unbelievable. I've still only dropped a connection two times, though I've seen other get disconnected and locked up on occasion. It's been a mostly smooth experience, and it's certainly just way too addictive when it's working well for everyone. High-speed wireless online connections, via a router or hotspot, can be volatile in general, so the fact that it works most of the time is a huge accomplishment in my book.

Battery Life: With the exception of one particular instance, I've had no issues or complaints with the PSP's battery life. Sony quotes up to 6 hours when playing movies or music from the memory card, and 3 to 5 while playing games or watching UMD movies. Your brightness settings, sound settings, along with the amount of disc accesses or processor intensity a particular game requires, can greatly affect this. Using the WiFi mode (which has a switch on the lest side of the PSP, while playing against others or sharing content online or locally, really saps the battery quickly. I've had the PSP once literally shut off while playing at full volume, with full brightness, online in Twisted Metal. I should have paid closer attention to batter indicator and the situation and plugged the AC adapter before it went out. I've found that for casual play, charging the battery once a day (which takes about 2 hours), seems sufficient. If you plan on going especially multimedia or WiFi crazy or have time for day long gaming sesions with the PSP, you'll need to use the AC adapter.

I believe I've touched on many of the important aspects and features of the PSP and the North American Value Package. There are an number of additional less interesting things in relation to the various PSP system settings, preferences, modes, options and multimedia aspects, but most of those you'll find out on your own in due time. If anyone has any questions/corrects, feel free to contact me.

Make sure to check out all our previous PSP news articles, previews and reviews here, and stay tuned for a flood of impressions and reviews over the next couple of weeks.

Lastly, make sure to vote in our current poll "Sony PSP - getting it or not?". Results are definitely close and it ends in a few days.