tomorrow I may be getting a PSP, because I am really fucking bored. This topic is to convince me to either buy one or not, argue the best you can. Also don't say "get a DS instead" because I've had a DS since they came out in (*-*||^_^||*-*)J.a.P.a.N(*-*||^_^||*-*) and it's a piece of shit with really dull gimmicky games and lazy-ass snes ports.
Games I'm interested in are the GTA stories ones (duh), Star Wars Battlefront renegade thingy, the armoured core game and whatnot. Also eventually Dynasty Warriors strikeforce (DW games are my guilty pleasure)
how easy(without getting into any details that could hurt GW) is it to pirate games for?

But seriously why should I get one? wht's so great about it? or why does it suck?

yeah definitely get Renegade Squadron, the Battlefront format is really fun handheld. also the handheld Football Manager games are supposed to be pretty good, if you want anything strategy this is the way to go!

It's very easy to pirate if you know how to read. It might seem complicated at first... but after you do it once you will pretty much get the idea of how psp h4x work and you will eventually be able to hack/ pirate any way you want to within minutes.

don't buy a psp dude. i thought it would be such a good idea to get a psp and i ended up never playing it. same with my xbox 360. i bought one when gta 4 came out, played it 3 times, and haven't touched it since. but yeah, nothing on the psp looks appealing at all. i guess it's good for EMULATING NES GAMES ON THE GO if that's your thing, but i've played all the old games i want to play. i sold mine to panda.

if you do get one though, i found some metal gear solid game that came with mine and i'll send it to you if you want it.

If you can get a fat PSP or Slim it's easier to hack them but like someone else said you can't hack the PSP3000 just yet(The newest model) but yeah it's pretty easy, just follow the instructions from a tutorial you find over the net.

As for games I would recommend..

God of War Chains of Olympus
Daxter
Upcoming Resistance Retribution
Tekken Dark Resurrection
Apparently the Syphon Filter games are pretty good as well.
Patapon

I cant actually think of much more off the top of my head right now sadly.

Yeah the PSP is a media device as well as a console that can play games from 15 other gaming consoles.

So I'd say it's worth that but only if you get custom firmware. The PSP really is bad if you don't do that. I know I would not have played Mother 3 sitting in front of my computer screen because I don't get the appeal of emulating games (especially GBA ones) on your computer. It's so much better when you can basically take it anywhere with you and not have to sit in your computer chair with a keyboard or gamepad.

Once you get set up and everything, you will probably use your PSP for years. Sure it might be once a month or whatever to try out some games you never played before, but the lifespan of the handheld really can't be beaten once you have custom firmware. I think that alone is worth the purchase, as long as you've got some money to spare and have been looking into it. It's one of the cheapest gaming consoles and you get a library of thousands of games that are free and portable.

it is sounding enticing, mainly for n64, gba and psx support. But would I be able to well, do I have to buy anything extra from shady ebay dealers to play psx games, or is it just like plop a few with emulator program(avaliable for donwload on questionable websites) on a microsd and plug-in?
I can basically afford a psp and one/two gams, depending on price of them. I don't want to be spending money on the extra stuffs as this is mainly for me to play around with when bored at uni/whatever.

- You MAY need the pandora battery to mod your psp. I didn't and neither did most of the people I know. It depends on the psp you get and the firmware it has installed.

- PSX support is virtually flawless (the exceptions being a few game specific bugs) and it is infinitely better than emulation on the PC. Swapping disks requires a third party program to copy memory cards so you can transfer it to the pc (to swap and save) and back. If you consider this or formatting the iso to work on the psp as "hard to get working" then you shouldn't be modding/ hacking in the first place. IF I CAN DO IT ANYONE CAN. No ui/graphic/sound/etc tweaking required.

-  I suggest 'UO gpSP kai 3.3 test 1' as your GBA emulator of choice. Of all the version this one seems the most manageable when it comes to syncing sound and frame rate issues.

- Snes emulation still has a few game specific bugs afaik (mostly slowdowns). If anyone can refer me to an emulator that can play games like Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG that'd be swell.

Ok, I will be completely honest with you and I will say that I DO NOT REGRET BUYING A PSP, it is a great media medium, watching movies, listening to music and what not.

As far as gaming goes, it is entertaining for a while, this is because most games that have multiplayer are only ad-hoc or the infrastructure sucks oh and incase you didn't know infrastructure is ONLINE PLAY where you can play against people around the world, AD-HOC is multiplayer but you can only play against someone who has a PSP and that game. In short INFRASTRUCTURE rules, there are only a few good infrastructure games I recommend:

- SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo, quite good, if you have played the previous games it's just like that but on the PSP.

- Syphon Filter, both games have alright multiplayer

- Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops and Portable Ops Plus, this game is alright on multiplayer but it even better if you got trained soldiers and know how to QUICK HEAD SHOT, which is vital in owning everyone online, which I haven't been able to do...

- Medal of Honor Heroes 1 & 2, are GOOD I like the multiplayer on there, it is what you would expect, Medal of Honor ONLINE.

- Twisted Metal Head-On, this game was GREAT ONLINE but they fucking shutdown the servers so YOU CAN'T PLAY ONLINE ANYMORE.

OH YEAH, just because a PSP game is MULTIPLAYER does not mean it has ONLINE PLAY, you have to check if it says Infrastructure and even then it's not always true, example: On the Sony website it says TEKKEN Dark Resurrection is Infrastructure but it's not, you can download data and basically it's world rankings and shit, YOU CAN'T PLAY ONLINE AGAINST OTHER PEOPLE, which would of been fucking great.

There are many games which have alright singleplayer:

- Star Wars Force Unleashed, you can push a clone trooper off a cliff and choke and stuff, pretty cool.

- Disgaea Afternoon of Darkness, I liked this game quite a lot actually, I was dissapointed when I found out it had not ONLINE PLAY.

- Final Fantasy Tactics War of The Lions, This game would of rocked if it had ONLINE PLAY seriously why couldn't SQUARE ENIX put in ONLINE PLAY MAN, it's just a port of the PS1 game with a few new classes and cartoon drawn cutscenes, I don't think it was that spiffy to be honest.

- God of War, GREAT GAME, SERIOUSLY, one of the best games out on the PSP, Imagine the God of War games that are on the PS2 on the PSP, because that is exactly waht it is like, the controls are great, "Ready at Dawn" done a really good job with this game.
 
- Final Fantasy Crisis Core, I played it but I got bored but I usually get bored of RPGs anyway, If you have a thing for Final Fantasy RPGs you will like this one.

- GTA Liberty City Stories & Vice City Stories, these games are great but only till you complete it again I mean GTA is a sand box game so you might have a lot more fun with it than I did.

- Dead Head Fred, I think this game is quite good, you steal enemies heads and each head has a special power or move.

- Daxter, This game is a really good platform game I would recommend you get this.

There are a few more games which I have forgotten about right now, but yeah check out sites like GAMESPOT they usually have the good games in their top ten or whatever rankings.

So I got it today, with Tekken(the first tekken game I can say I actually like) and the two GTA games because I love GTA, but I can't really play them as ggay I am waiting for a memory card to arrive. When I get that I'm probubly going to get a few emulators/roms and see how things go from there. I'm checking out preowned shops for sw:battlefront renegade squadren because I have heard nothing but good things.
I would ask you guys about how the DW/SW games match up to their bigger brother counterparts, but I think I'm the only GW'er who plays them.
what kinda obscure/suprisingly good games are there on it?