So, anyone picked up this sweet little piece of gaming history? I did (no thanks to Dran). And, oh man, is this thing great. It's great enough to make me forget about playing Vampire: bloodlines, CounterStrike, Xenosaga II, and Tenchu 4. Why the hell would I? I have a PSP!

I can't seem to get enough of it. It's such a wonderful gizmo. It plays music, it plays games, it plays video files, it can show slideshows of pictures, it can even play full length movies on it's HD widescreen display! Is that not cool!?! You can use it exactly like a flash drive and backup stuff on your computer on it, if you wanted.

Lately, I've been playing Lumines (pronounced loo-min-ezz). It's a game like tetris, except you only have the square pieces. These pieces are composed of four blocks that are one of two different colors. the pieces look a little something like this:
____
|_|_|
|_|_|

Now, with these blocks, you try to make other 2x2 blocks of the same color. It's a very simple game. Here's a cool part. while you are moving the pieces around, the game plays music. This music is usually a techno beat of sorts (some are like Tetris Worlds music if you've ever played it). Pretty normal for a block puzzle game. The really cool part is that every time you move or rotate the block, it adds a sound that goes witht he music. Every time you make a 2x2 block, it makes a sound that goes with the music. Every time a 2x2 block is cleared, it makes a sound that goes witht he music.

By playing the game, you are making the music. Granted, that's nothing monumental, by it's really sweet. It makes it so easy to get into the game. You're playin' the game, you're puttin' your pieces in the right places, you're groovin' with the music, when all of a sudden, you notice that it's 6 hours later! OMGWTFOMFG! Where'd the time go?! I love this game possibly more than I love the original tetris. And Tetris has been my absolutely favorite game ever since I first played it in elementary school.

It totally slipped my mind that it was due out and I forgot to reserve one. I only realized it was out when I saw one being put away when I was in line somewhere, spending way too much cash on other things. So, I may not be getting a PSP very soon (then again, you never know right?).

Sounds like a fun game too. I'm not huge on puzzle games, though I do have a soft spot for Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo.

Darkstalkers and Ridge Racer are also incredibly fun. Metal Gear Ac!d is really slow, but possibly the thoughest tactics game I've ever played. Not because the combat is hard, but because you actually have to think about not being seen. It's tough to do a tactics game that revolves around evading combat, rather than embracing combat. Interesting, but takes a lot of patiance.