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There's No Doubt This Design Is Swish But Please Make The System Playable Outside & Have Parity With The PS3.

Sadly I don’t work at Sony. That means my chances of having an input on any of their decisions is slim to say the least. Alas, I do have a voice, a keyboard and a website that accommodates me — all of which give me room enough to say the odd piece or two about things that I want. In this case, the PSP Go!.

If you’d care to picture the scenario for a moment: your PushSquare opinionator is enjoying a rare moment of English sunshine. I’m waiting for a train home; there’s a 20 minute wait and I’ve read the newspaper. As a saving grace I have my PSP in my bag and a can of Barr’s cherryade. I sit on the ground absorbing the sun’s rays – snug and warm. My can of cherryade bubbles as I pull the catch and greedily glug a first helping. “Ahhh, this is the life,” I conclude – pushing the power lever of my PSP, “I’ll just have a couple of rounds of Outrun before…” — and just like that, my dreams are shattered. “I forgot you can’t play the PSP outside,” I glumly murmur to myself.

For years man has sought light to play his handheld console. I remember being a child in shorts, wishing, hoping, almost-praying the sun would come out so I could play Game & Watch Gallery on my GameBoy. Alas, the sun never came out. Fast-forward 15-years and I’m dodging the suns rays because my PSP won’t function in sunlight. I want to play the PSP outside. I want to play Outrun while drinking Barr’s cherryade waiting for a train. Please don’t deny me this right Sony.

That’s not my main issue with the PSP though. My problem is the lack of PSN integration. Yes they’ve got the Playstation Store on there. Yes they’ve got the message board. But where are trophies? Where’s my friends list? I’d love the PSP to be totally integrated with the PSN.

Many consider achievements far more worthwhile than trophies. Whatever, I still feel that they could become a staple-mark of the Playstation experience if they were available on both the PS3 and PSP. You’d be achieving your digital-wang at home and out-and-about — an experience shouldn’t be undercooked. It would genuinely be a great addition to the PSP’s arsenal.

Furthering that, I should be able to see if my friends are online, regardless of whether they are playing a PSP or a PS3. Whether I’m playing inFamous or Chains Of Olympus, my friends list should be updated accordingly, I should be able to see what my PS3 brethren are playing via the PSP and vice versa. It would just make the parity between Playstation systems that much more unified, that much more invested. That much more fun.

The problem that the PSP Go! faces is how much it’ll divide its user-base. Dropping UMD would already be a big enough split between the ownership — adding dual-sticks and touch-screens could become a logistics nightmare. At the end of the day I don’t believe Sony are looking to create an entirely new system. They’re looking to extend and improve what they have. I think you do that by fixing the known flaws with the current system and providing a much more unified Playstation experience between the handheld and home console.

But hey, that’s what I think. What about you?

“Twiggy” is an anonymous PushSquare columnist who has been spotted in three major cities across the globe. It’s rumoured he’s on the run from the British monarchy who accused him of treason.

Previous entries in the “Twiggy” range:

• Does The Playstation 3 Need Motion-Control & How Will Sony Apply It?
• Why Did Guerilla’s Killzone 2 Force Me To Kill The More Interesting Good Guys? I Hate The ISA!
• Sony’s E3 2009 Press Conference Could Be The Biggest In History & A Turning Point In Software Perception
• A Playstation 3 Pricecut Could Cripple Sony So Stop Asking For It