Simple question which is the better games consul why? Are either likely to be obsolete in the near future and any pros and cons of either (other than the obvious ones that all video game machines share)

DS of because you can can run "Backups", ahem, of loads of games on it.

have to admit I love my DS; one of the cool things is re-living my childhood and playing tetris and Mario etc

DS for the ability to use backed-up *ahem* games

PSP to use it to play videos etc if you travel alot.

We have both in our house & the DS is by far the more popular with the kids.

If I/we had to chose just one it would be the DS, we don't use the psp for playing movies or mp3 tbh, some of the DS games are very clever.

Both our DS & PSP play "backups" (if you want more info on that drop me an email) 😉

Thanks for the info, looks like it will be the DS. Good as that is what my boy has asked for just wanted to make sure we weren't missing a trick.

ski – I will message you for more info on backups

as i understand it, PSP plays "proper" games, with swishy rendering.
but the gameplay is toss.

DS is great, not for games oyu would "get in to" like you would on a proper console, but for having in your pocket, and playing a level at a time, in 10 min slots its great.

the "backups" feature certainly helps too.

DS = a portable games machine for playing portable games.

PSP = a handheld thing to play games that are sort of like PS2 games.

The DS has loads of great games designed for it, designed to be played anywhere, and designed for a quick go, whereas the PSP games seem more like console games stuck onto a portable machine, they haven't really thought about how people use portables, or done anything innovative with the interface.

Also, the newest PSP has made the stupidest ever design decision of only allowing games to be bought as downloads – meaning no second hand games, whereas DS games you can almost always get for a tenner 2nd hand.

For children it's a no brainer – almost all the kid targeted games are DS only nowadays (like the dog / cat / sims style ones they spend hours on). To be honest, if you're a busyish adult, it's a no brainer too – full sized console games are just too big of a time sink compared to a quick hit of DS.

I was in Smiths last year just after Christmas – saw people returning PSPs that they'd bought for their children who wanted a DS, they'd thought it was more expensive and made by Sony, so it must be better.

Joe

did you see click on the bbc last week? see iplayer. iphone or itouch?