God this topic AGAIN. There are so many PAGES of DS vs. PSP banter to read on here... really... you'd do better to just read up than start a new thread about it.
I am one of the few here who DOES actually own both. Yes I like the DS, but I hate that the games are coming very slowly for it and there haven't been too many real 'must have' titles in my oppinion. The touch screen is a gimmick that really has yet to be put to really good use IMO. I desperately await Metroid, Mario Kart, and Castlevania. Since finishing Mario 64, I have not TOUCHED my DS in at least a good two or three months now. But I'm keeping it because I do feel that at some point there WILL be some REALLY GREAT exclusive games for the thing. But just as has been the case with the Gamecube and N64, I don't think it will ever reach the pure saturation of third party titles that the PSP will... lately it seems you really only buy a Nintendo system for the Nintendo exclusives, which, while few and far between, do usually make owning the system worthwhile all on their own.
I love my PSP, far more than I love my DS, it's very impressive to me still even after 5 months of ownership, with those wonderful graphics and huge screen. BUT, I am also disenchanted with it... it's a fragile machine, easy to scratch, and having had THREE of them now (one I bought and then sold, one I bought that my wife now keeps with her, and a third for myself) I find that the quality control on them is HORRIBLE. They tend to come out of the box new covered with hairline scratches, dust stuck inside the screen, dead pixels, sticking buttons, UMD trays that wont close properly, dents/bubbles in the screen... the list goes on. Plus the fact that 75% of the games I've played up until now are not bright enough and are almost impossible to play outside on a sunny day... I keep bringing it along on car trips and find I've wasted my time as there are only maybe 2 games I can see decently to play... what I DO see in the sunlight is all those beautiful hairline scratches... ugh. And of course the reaction time of the LCD... darker games tend to blur a LOT which also hurts the enjoyment of what are otherwise some very good games. It's a very flawed system, I think Sony should have delayed launching it for at least another 6 mos or something... enough time to adress all these 'bugs'. New game releases for the PSP have also slowed to a trickle since the initial launch batch of 25 or so... which is dissapointing. Hopefully there is some big stuff in the works coming soon. Notice I'm NOT mentioning battery life though as to this day this factor has NOT been a problem for me.
honestly, right now, I play my GP32 FAR more than either my DS or PSP. I'm a huge fan of older games and DrMD and GP Engine have been bringing me MUCH joy as of late. Plus having 100's of games to choose from all crammed on one SMC, to me that is the ultimate in true portability... just bring the system, a spare set of rechargeables in my back pocket, and I am guaranteed that I've got TONS to play on even the longest of road trips! Without having to drag along a bag/case full of games and such. I agree with the sentiment that the GP32 more than justifies it's price of $200 for the amount of joy you can wring out of it.... until a good homebrew/emu scene develops for the DS/PSP or some more really must have games show up I think the GP will continue to be the one that gets played the most.
EDIT: and uh... sorry but I didnt' like FF8 much either
I didn't HATE it, but I personally prefer FF 7 and 9. I did like a lot of the new play mechanics in FF8 as well as the sweet card battle minigame, but the story just didn't appeal to me much. I got about halfway thru and got bored and started in on 9 instead.
I had the same problem with Xenogears, which I desperately tried to love after having a few friends convince me it was the best RPG EVAR!!!! but after 50 hours of play and not even haflway thru the game I just gave up. Plus I HATED the combat system in that game.
