Until very recently, only a handful of people outside of PlayStation had ever laid their hands on an NGP unit. People would ask me what I thought about the upcoming handheld, and I’d have to reply with: “It looks really good.” I hadn’t had the chance to play it either.

That’s why we invited the cream of the gaming press crop onto a Sony Pictures soundstage in LA, where they (and we) could finally spend hours experiencing some of the titles that will comprise the NGP’s diverse launch lineup. Straight off, Shuhei Yoshida, President of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, made it clear what the day was all about:

“We’ll talk more about social connectivity features down the line – today is about showing off the core games and getting you hands-on time. I’m sure you have burning questions on launch date, pricing, 3G data plans, and we’ll be very happy to share all those with you moving forward.”

We first spoke with John Garvin and Chris Reese of Sony Bend Studio, who are developing the highest profile launch title, UNCHARTED: Golden Abyss. Their team was responsible for the PSP’s best shooters, Resistance Retribution and a pair of Syphon Filter titles, so I wondered what they make of the new hardware.

Then we toured around sampling the rest of the titles. Today, you’ll see posts for:

• Hot Shots Golf (working title)
• Hustle Kings
• Soundshapes
• Super Stardust Delta
• Wipeout (working title)

A note about the videos you’ll see: Every NGP you’ll see is a dev unit; they’re the right size, but they don’t possess that final PlayStation-quality fit and finish. What you’ll eventually be able to pick up in a store will look a heck of a lot better.

The titles you won’t see today, you’ll see demoed live at E3 on our stream. Look for much, much more on NGP at next week’s E3 Expo.