2006 was arguably the year of the DS. PSP received some great games, most notably Tekken: Dark Resurrection and Monster Hunter Portable, but DS had the far better year.

This year we can expect DS to start to slow down and PSP to dig in and show it' s staying power as the games we were initially promised are starting to arrive. PSP will allow for the closet thing to console gaming on the move yet.

We' ve already had two GTA games that have shown just what Sony' s first handheld is technically capable of. We' ve had a good number of titles spanning every possible genre, and yet we haven' t had games that really reflect their console roots. The two Metal Gear games we' ve had so far have been quirky card battling games and not exactly what we wanted. Sure they had style but we wanted a portable version of the console games and they' re only just about ready to supply it.

UMD movies may be dead in the water but the gaming side of things is about to reach fever pitch. In the first half of the year we will receive fully fledged version of Oblivion, Virtua Tennis 3, Crazy Taxi, Ghost Recon, Ratchet & Clank, Metal Gear, Test Drive, The Warriors, Ace Combat etc.. and sequels to Guilty Gear, Death Jr, Burnout, Prince of Persia, Tony Hawks, Tomb Raider and more.

At some point, the standalone PSone web-based download center will go live whereby a PS3 won' t be required to enable playing PSone games via emulation on PSP. That alone means PSP will have a better year than DS. The ability to go back and play much loved classics or try games you may have missed the first time around is something Sony should be praised for. I mean, i' ll be able to replay Vagrant Story and Resident Evil 2, and i' ll be able to do it on my PSP.

The towards the end of the year we will get our hands on a " proper" Final Fantasy game, an awesome looking Silent Hill, FlatOut, 300: march to Glory and god only knows what else. If they drop the price and accessories like the PSP camera and GPS receiver take off and developers utilize them in games then it' ll be even better. All Sony need to do is set up downloadable movies from the web-based Sony store along with the PSone games and they' ll be unbeatable.

That was beautiful Majik!

Yeah.. I agree with alot of what you said.

However, I don' t think that Sony will release too many PSOne games at once, since the piracy/homebrew-scene likes to crack the DRM on the games available on PS-Store, and Sony can' t release as many new games fro download without new firmwares inbetween. :-(

...i' ve always felt that handheld gaming sucked, but lately the PSP is sorta looking almost viable to serious gamers like myself....

DS will always kick the psps arse, it just common sense...dont see why theres all the fuss over the DS, it gets old fast but unlike the psp it has a lot of new games instead of remakes.

DS will always kick the psps arse, it just common sense...dont see why theres all the fuss over the DS, it gets old fast but unlike the psp it has a lot of new games instead of remakes.

Ummm, I beg to differ. I think what your trying to say is that the DS makes good remakes such as The New Super Mario Bros., Mario 64, and Mariokart.

It seems Test Drive Unlimited is looking great.
IGN PREVIEW

At this stage, we' re surprised and humbled by the fine job Melbourne House has done in bringing a complex game to a handheld without removing the spine or soul of the experience. We can' t wait to take this puppy online and find out if the experience measures up to - or even improves upon - the 360 version. This is shaping up to be the PSP' s single largest and most complex racer to date, and might just be one of the most impressive ports of the year.

I love my PSP, and yes, 2007 its gonna be amazing for it, there are just so much things i want, for 07 i want:

Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters
Final Fantasy Tactics
Jeanne D´Arc
Gran Turismo Mobile
Tales of Phantasia
The DMC game

Wow that bought a tear to my eyes.

I really hope the psp does have a good year, and hopefully Oblivion and Crazy Taxi will help, along with Ace combat (which I thought was already out, but never mind.)

Does anyone know anything about any more GTA' s maybe a San An stories or something along those lines?

Can' t believe TDU is coming though, I just hope that companies don' t try and convert all the decent 360 stuff to the PSP otherwise I will have a very poor 2007 of buying a 360 version and a psp version.

Is there any timeframe for the PSone emu, I know some people are saying that HB will put a stop to many of the games being released, but seriously have you some of the HB conversions, they are not as good as the original and I am sure the official licenced versions would be better.

Long live the PSP

I really hope the psp does have a good year, and hopefully Oblivion and Crazy Taxi will help, along with Ace combat (which I thought was already out, but never mind.)

lmfao, i hope you are kidding about oblivion on psp. Oblivion can barely run 78% correctly on the 360 much less the psp

Does anyone know anything about any more GTA' s maybe a San An stories or something along those lines?

most likely, because thats basically the only game thats sold

The psp is also getting Burnout Dominator if it wasn' t already said, a title exclusive to psp and ps2. Its meant to play like burnout 3 + the old burnouts from the second game return.

if PSP is DEAD today, it will still be a much greater machine than the DS considering psone emulation alone!

as for the psp games, i' m not really excisted about anything, developers still didn' t learn that when people buy a handheld they expect games for the go...

games for 2007? ratchet and silent hill do look good, but i' m very skeptical about final fantasy... other than those games, what else would you expect, oblivion? that game is huge, require a lot of hourse to finish and graphics will look crap on the psp.

i hope they will break the 222mhz limit they impose on the psp , although this might come to the expense of the battery life , which is already not that good. i don' t use UMD' s and i' m little bit complaining, i' m wondering about the others.


the 480*272 for movies is also a welcome, i was eager for that to happen and the homebrew scene realized it before sony (this special feature was on IGN' s wishlist)
finaly movies look almost as good as on UMD ( i didn' t try higher bitrates , so it should match the exact quality).

PSP without the homebrew scene would be a dead console , not a single doubt about it and DS is a better choice.

but if your PSP is using ALEX' s firmware (3.03 OE-B), that handheld is GOLD.

if PSP is DEAD today, it will still be a much greater machine than the DS considering psone emulation alone!

The DS does play GBA games which happen to be one of the greatest collections of games ever.
Why are you sceptical about FFVIICC? IGN seemed to like it in their preview.
I' m not using homebrew but I still love the PSP.

Yeah.. I agree with alot of what you said.

However, I don' t think that Sony will release too many PSOne games at once, since the piracy/homebrew-scene likes to crack the DRM on the games available on PS-Store, and Sony can' t release as many new games fro download without new firmwares inbetween. :-(

It won' t be that big of a deal. Smart people can already get/run that stuff anyway.

The DS does play GBA games which happen to be one of the greatest collections of games ever.

you' e kidding ginjirou, first of all , since you can use psone emulation library today, it means u can use GBA emulation that is 90% to 100% perfect emulation.

regardless of this, Psone is a million times better than GBA, it' s even a shame to compare, for those who haven' t owned a psone back in the day, it' s heaven, i run final fantasy 7 on my PSPwith a very very minor glitches in combat (that i' m mentioning only because i feel i have to) other games are just perfect (xenogears, alundra, castlevania)

GBA is an awesome handheld but it is no match with psone.

GBA is an awesome handheld but it is no match with psone.

I don' t know about that since I never owned a GBA but some time ago when I looked at some lists of PS1 and GBA games, the GBA actually had lots more high scoring games than the PS1. I was very surprpised but the GBA like... killed everything else.

if PSP is DEAD today, it will still be a much greater machine than the DS considering psone emulation alone!

Yes, psone emulation so... other than bloody roar that leaves what exactly?

Masta have a read on this and let us know what you think, I couldn' t believe it either but it looks true.

http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/703/703228p1.aspx

bloady roar ?? lool

man i' m not gonna answer an idiot like you, unless of course you are not serious , in this case i' m sorry i didn' t get your stupid joke.

I don' t know about that since I never owned a GBA but some time ago when I looked at some lists of PS1 and GBA games, the GBA actually had lots more high scoring games than the PS1

i don' t know about that either but a 96% on psone worth much more than 96% GBA obviously.

have u owned a psone, if so di play many games on that system? and what is your kind of games? rpg' s , racing, platform ??

THE IGN article is dated US, April 25, 2006 ....