It is 2006. Several years of inconsistent announcements, numerous delays and a growing association with Duke Nukem Forever indicates that an actual release of Team Fortress 2 is extremely unlikely. Then from out of the blue Gabe Newell (managing director of Valve) thrusts a teaser trailer into our faces confirming that TF2 is indeed on its way. Sporting a venturesome art style with what appeared to be innovative game play, the new look TF2 quickly soared to the top of many “most anticipated” lists. Launching in October of 2007, it became an instant favourite among reviewers, achieving a plethora of awards alongside its partner in success The Orange Box.

As an avid PC gamer, the desire for a new class based multiplayer game was immense. I desperately needed to escape the grenade spamming insta-prone aids festivity that was Battlefield 2. To my delight, and many other likeminded gamers, TF2 delivered just that. Besides the attractive stylized graphics and often comical game play, it shipped with a secret weapon, one which would inevitably be the key to TF2’s ongoing success and development.

Steam, the popular content delivery service functions as the core of TF2, supplying speedy updates and flawless content delivery. Gamer profiles and statistic pages are accessible through a simple yet faultless social network. Hell, you can even browse the web in-game using the Steam overlay. It is undoubtable TF2 would not be as popular as it is on PC today, if it was not for Steam. This is clear when we examine the unfortunate situation our console brethren currently face, which I’ll touch on a little later.

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I’ve seen lots of discussion on which is better, the Sony Playstation Portable or the Nintendo DualScreen, so I thought I’d help break it down a bit for people that are confused about which to buy. Let me first start of by saying, they are both amazing systems, and they are both worth owning for different reasons, I’m not here to say “lol ds sucks” or “haha psp eats horseshit”. You could say I’m exploring the best of both worlds.

Let’s get down to content then shall we? Let’s start with what each can do briefly
(Not Included = Purchased Function)

So when someone looks at this they think “gee they seem similar”, well they are and they aren’t. The Nintendo DS is similar to the Wii in terms of games; there are good games there, most of which by Nintendo, but you have a library of kiddy shit. The Nintendo DS does feature some amazing titles such as Professor Layton, Phoenix Wright, Elite Beat Agents, etc, but much like the Wii you’ll find that the games are cartoon-y and sometimes childish, not that it’s a bad thing.

The Sony PSP is a pirate ship. I kid you not, the PSP modding community has grown so widely and done so much that the PSP is now a pirate’s best friend, next to a PC of course. The fact is, while the PSP may have a smaller library of good games, and features some games that are PS2 ports; you can easily obtain games from other consoles to play.

The bottom line is: the PSP is a handheld made more for functionality; the Nintendo DS is a handheld made more for games. So if you’re looking for more a less expensive media center in your pocket, go for a PSP, if you’re looking more for portable gaming, go for a DS.

As a bonus, here’s a list of recommended games for each handheld.

DS Recommended Games

PSP Recommended Games