We're hitting the mall today and find out of there's to be some kind of "Midnight Madness" ala Halo 2 event for the PSP over at our EB. I really do desire the machine, in a way that I wish I desired another new handheld with two screens, but one of these systems has a strong launch lineup and one of them dished up an eight year old port and called it a feast. I believe somewhat the prevailing logic that the systems are designed for utterly disparate demographics, the price and design seems to imply such thing might be true, although I can't tell if PSP games launching at the $50 dollar mark constitutes brand identity or naked, cynical graft.

However, since buying one effectively draws against the pool I would use to buy the other - or, indeed, all games, which have begun to mass on the border - the abstract notion that there are discrete groups each machine is aimed at is pure trivia. Yesterday's excursion to Fry's, and the failure to resist the Irresponsibility Field while there only constricts the resources available for such indiscretions. I choose to maintain against logic and against evidence that the DS will return from Summer Vacation one year and be totally hot. In contrast, by all accounts the PSP started out hot and it's pretty much their game to lose.

I traded in titles as though I was giving up the habit altogether, as though I had suddenly realized that games were a conduit to man's darker self, and I'm going back in today with a stack of DVDs I'll never watch for more PSP games. Of course, a certain amount of this needs to be synchronized with your crew, because if you're over there racing traditional vehicles and your brothermen are rocking futuristic styles, I mean, what is that. So far, it sounds like Lumines - a game that integrates puzzles and music from the creator of Rez - is pretty much a sure bet. As long time fans of Ridge Racer, I'm heartened to hear that it's found a good home on the platform - in fact, the system is already silly with racers and Wipeout looks to be a great return to form as well. THUG2 has also been well received, but idea of being savaged by Robert "Seventeen Million Combo" Khoo in any of eleven multiplayer gametypes doesn't appeal to me. Untold Legends is a hack and slash that looks to be in the vein of the console Baldur's Gate or Champions Of Norrath, complete with four player co-op. Of course, Metal Gear Acid is a tactical game you play with cards, soooo...

The Sims constitutes an amusing array of sandbox toys, but my primary interest in it - heightened by some of its uses in Sims 2 - is the "Simlish" nonsense manner of speaking. Brenna and I would actually position the camera on the couch and watch television with our sims, listen to the radio, and it never failed to please me. Gamespot just dropped an article regarding the production of these odd noises which, if you are crazy in the way that I am crazy, you will enjoy very much.

(CW)TB out.

duchess, duchess