salivating over the PSPgo

Oh man.... I just got back from Future Shop... I am seriously considering picking up the PSPgo, even though there's NO RATIONAL REASON to do so.

A Sony rep happened to be there, and I cornered him long enough to pick his brain about it. He had a PSPgo with him, it was in the leather traveler's case, which looks really nice. Let me tell you, THE THING IS SMALL. I knew it would look smaller in person, but it is an impressively cute package.

The Sony rep didn't know lots, but he had hands-on experience with the PSPgo. I asked him whether AD-HOC gaming where one person had a PSPgo with a digital copy of a game, and the other had an older PSP with the UMD copy would work. He hadn't tried it, but he was fairly sure it would. I've had problems where I have a North American version of a game, and someone else had an Asian copy of it & they wouldn't connect via AD-HOC, so that's why I was concerned.

I asked him about the PSPgo's video out feature-- do PSP games output to a TV still show up with the black borders? Unfortunately yes.

Future Shop has the PSN game cards, which are redeemable for a digital copy of the game. I asked whether we pay GST/PST when we buy them from Future Shop, or if we have to pay at the PS Store, or what. He didn't know, but I'm betting we pay GST/PST at Future Shop (or whichever store you buy them from) then plug in the code to download it from the PS Store.

I asked about the Bluetooth remote dongle, which he knew nothing about. I suspect it might be a japan-only release.

I asked him about the memory stick micro-- M2-- how that's seen by the PSPgo: is it like my 32GB of dual microSD storage-- it's seen as one big memory stick on my PSP-- or do you have to switch between the onboard 16GB storage & any M2 expansion that's in the PSPgo? He didn't know.

I didn't get to actually hold the PSPgo, but oddly enough I did get to play a bit of Gran Turismo on it using a Dualshock 3 controller. I knew that the PSPgo's Bluetooth supported linking to a DS3, but you can also use the DS3 to control the game on the PSPgo.... it's weird. I asked about the specifics-- you *do* need a PS3 & USB connection to pair up the PSPgo with a Dualshock controller. But he mentioned that you could just bring a DS3 to a display PS3 & do it... not sure how that works, but I guess it is possible if you don't own a PS3 & just buy a DS3?

The PSPgo screen is smaller, but it still seems very usable. But this is all just a brief viewing & the "Wow!" factor is still in effect... I still have stars in my eyes over the thing.

I have to admit, I am *very* close to just buying a PSPgo from Future Shop, just to try it out & see if it's worth keeping. They have a 30 day return policy, so I'd have some time to put it through the motions.


later
don