My efforts to find a cheap and affordable Sony Playstation Portable Gigapack have been thwarted repeatedly. Today - with good-minded intentions - I travelled to work in the hopes of procuring one such portable console. To my dismay, the cupboard was bare. In desperation, I contemplated purchasing a substandard non-giga pack, only to realize that such an idea was ludicrous.

Dismayed by my loss, I’ve been searching everywhere for the Sony PSP Giga Pack. It was my intent to phone other Zellers stores in the near vicinity of my town asking about the system, unfortunately, I was caught up in boredom and a phone that restricts calls to OUR OWN STORES.

Since arriving home, I’ve compared prices at Amazon.ca, EBGames, and Futureshop. I’ve also contemplated purchasing a non-giga pack, as well as a seperate 1GB Memory Stick Duo. Unfortunately, the cost-benefit is not present in such an instance.

After seeing Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, I was greatly terrified by the blur effects present throughout. The transition between third-person shooting to vehicle usage gave the main character a “matrix dodge” appearance, akin with that of the mightiest of agents. Smith would be proud. Or disgusted. The graphics in Liberty City Stories are decent, but the game feels like a step in the wrong direction after playing San Andreas for so long. Exploring an entire state makes it difficult to transverse the gap to lesser experiences.

Even still, the allure to get the game is unavoidable. Strangely, I am drawn in by the power of the tiny beast. The ability to house the entirety of the music of my beloved Dire Straights, a personalized desktop showcasing Loo-jiggy, and heaps of ROMs is certainly a power worthy of reckoning. Also, even though Liberty City looks murky on the system, the fact that something of such scale has been forced onto a portable console is dumbfounding.

The multiplayer with up to sixteen people also looks pretty awesome. Even still, I may wait before getting a PSP, or refrain from it entirely. There is one thing that speaks against its purchase.

Simply put, I have the Dire Straights on my computer. My desktop already features Loo-jiggy, and I’m neck deep in ROBs. On my PC, I can run GTA3, Vice City, or San Andreas if I desired. Even a Socom game is not entirely out of reach. This begs the question: What can the PSP do that the computer can’t? What selling point will entice me to throw gobs of money away on this machine?

No. I see I have not been thwarted, but saved from making a big mistake.