OK so I dunno if this belongs here but, PSP or Nintendo DS?

I'm not much of a gamer but I figured I could try to get back into the groove. Which portable console would entertain me better? Or would be good for tinkering/modding, or just has good games overall? What genres are better for which console? Your opinion is appreciated~

 

I'd go DS for battery life reasons. the PSP has significantly less battery life.
Also sony is a big fan of DRM and let's just say I'm not.
Sony also doesn;t support macintosh computers. not this may seem a small thing, but that also means sony doesn't support choice. Just my views, but sony's not a very nice companny, and then.. battery life.

 

By the sounds of it, you'd probably be happier with the PSP. The DS has an abundance of good games, wheras the PSP hasn't got as many, but it certainly feels as if those ones are more rewarding and long lasting. Genre-wise, the PSP is good for RPGs/Driving games.. I think it'll take a while for a genre to settle, there have been a few good FPSs and puzzlers too. I don't own the DS but my guess it's probably more suited to mini-game type games, although the touch screen is a big advantage in terms of unique genres. Not forgetting though that the PSP homebrew scene is pretty huge, which means there is alot more support for independent game-developers.

Tinkering-wise, the PSP is way ahead of the DS. There's an abundance of homebrew games/emulators.. doom, quake, genesis and snes emulators to name a few. Also if you're feeling inspired there are is support for a few programming languages like LUA, which means even if you have no experience programming for the PSP is pretty easy to get into. The only thing is, past firmware 2.00, most of these won't run (although there are steps towards it).. meaning it's probably better to get a second hand one, the ones in the shops are loaded with firmwares above 2.00. From my knowledge the DS homebrew scene is practically non-existant, which is a shame because it has much potential.

Apart from games, which is the DS's strong point, the PSP can be used as an MP3 player, a portable DVD/UMD player (which look excellent too), and has a web-browser on firmware 2.00 and above if you have access to a wireless network (there are some browsers in development for 1.5). Sound is probably the weak point of the PSP in terms of components. Although it's fairly sharp, in a fairly noisy room it's going to be hard to hear, and the bass is barely audible. You can get speaker attatchments, though.

Battery life was mentioned before, but considering the power of the PSP, it's not suprising that the life is lower than the DS's. There are higher capacity batterys available though, which brings the life from 4<>6 hours up to 8<>12 hours.

For me, the PSP wins hands down, although I haven't had a good play with the DS, so I'm slightly biased

 

I thought that sony was doing their best to thwart attempts of homebrew software for the PSP? Like, whenever someone cracks their firmware, they release another? I dunno...

 

Oops, I edited my post in the hopes no-one would see that

Yeah, they do try and stop homebrew, and imo that's sonys biggest mistake in terms of keeping the trust of their fans. The cracks for 2.01 and above aren't really anything for sony to worry about atm, but it's a shame, they've asked some game companies to make their games require firmwares above 2.00. Nothing that can't be got around with some decent homebrew, but still.. it's the fact they're trying to stop people doing with their PSP that many people bought it for. The only argument in their favour is that they're losing money with every PSP they sell and gain it back with games, that can be downloaded and played on lower firmwares.. guess it's a case of profit over personalisation..

 

DS is one to go for if you value innovation and qurkiness, PSP games seem stay within the safe confines of genre. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, it just depends on what you like.

 

Older post, but meh!

PSP is great for movies and music. If you get one, absolutely buy a bigger memory stick. At least 256 mb, but a gig is real nice. You can just get a USB mini-B cable, and download a program called "PSPvideo 9" for free, then just convert avi or other digital video files to mp4 format, and the program sticks them on the memory stick for you in the correct folder. You can fit about 2 hours of very low quality video on a 256 stick (which is fine for all the anime I watch, it still looks great). Live action movies would probably require a larger stick, though, if you wanted good quality.

You can put a lot of other things on a large memory stick too, just look around the various homebrew forums.

 

I would say that one very important requirement would be to use emulators for SNES, NES etc. I still find myself revisiting old games!

 

DS:
-mostly new original games
-touch-screen
-online support
-comes in a varitity of colors
-plays GBA
-Pretty good graphics
-$130

PSP:
-most games are the same on the console
-Has a nice look to it
-plays movies,music and photos
-surf the web
-comes in black(go online for differnt colors)
-graphics are pretty good
-$250

you decide?