PSPFlash-Card v0.3

February 1st, 2007, 16:12 Posted By: HardHat

Here is the long overdue update to my PSP Flash-Card program. It is designed for students to memorize all of the "important" facts that we all need to know to pass tests.

For this version, there are two updates to improve usability.

- First there is a new Definition mode, that allows you to see the definition and guess the terms that they define.
- Second there is a new "batch mode" that shows the cards in groups of 5, so that the hard to remember terms are repeated more often when you get them wrong. This version uses a "replenishing" system, where there is a deck of waiting cards that fills the batch all the time. That way you'll see the trouble cards at least ones every batch size.

The two new functions are controlled with the L and R trigger buttons.

This version is still skinnable, so have fun and go wild.

pspflashcard0_3.zip (845KiB) for eLoader/1.0 users
pspflashcard0_3kx.zip (845KiB) kxploited for PSP firmware 1.5 and friends

The screen shot is similar to 0.2. The screen shot and download via comments.

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PSP:CWCHEAT 0.1.6 REV. H for 3.03OE/ALL

February 1st, 2007, 17:42 Posted By: mikebeaver

Weltall has just released the latest version of CWCHEAT for us all, now at Revision H.

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topsXMBtheme

February 1st, 2007, 18:04 Posted By: tophead420

Well I got bored last night and decided to spice up my XMB.Cuase with the top menu and font I had it was totally boring.So I searched for fonts, icons and the right background. Well heres what I've created with what I found. I liked what I made so I've decided to share it with everyone. Heres a pic of it


Heres how your going to want to install it:
Personally I use psp filer instead of the USB flash0 because I don't trust using USB flash0. But anyways flash these however your used to flashing them doesn't matter how you flash them.Just be cautious when doing this I don't want anyone to brick. Make sure you have atleast 410kb (or enough to flash these) of free space on your flash0 memory as this is the files total size when flashed.

Ok first take the 01-12 bmp and flash it to flash0: vsh/resource

Then take the ltn0.pgf and place it in flash0: font

For the topmenu_plugin.rco take the included icons and make them into a topmenu plugin with the XMB packager and flash it to flash0: vsh/resource

If anyone needs help to install this let me know and I'll help you. I hope you enjoy my new XMB. You can download it from here: http://www.sendspace.com/file/r1exj7

I would like to thank deliriumhappy of QJ.net forums for the background and Chnk for the icon pack I got my icons from. I made the font so I will thank myself
EDIT:
OK I decided to upload it to the forums to make it easier for you guys to download it. I will keep the sendspace link up in case people have problem downloading from the forums.
SMALLER FONT:
Since a few people have ask for the font to be smaller here it is if you want it
http://www.sendspace.com/file/2bpnb1
Green, Red and Purple backgrounds (flashable):

dwonload bacgrounds here:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/17eoaz

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TOCA 3 racing to PSP on February 16

February 1st, 2007, 18:11 Posted By: wraggster

Via CVG

Codemasters' TOCA Race Driver 3 Challenge will be roaring off the PSP start grid in the UK on February 16.

Staying true to the series, numerous challenges and motorsports have been squeezed into TOCA 3 on PSP, multiplayer fans also well-catered for via wireless 12-player racing - and Game Share support allows up to four players to enjoy wireless multiplayer racing from just one UMD.

You'll be able to whip 40-plus cars around 36 world-famous tracks, vehicles drawn from current day and history and of course all featuring unique handling characteristics. Various motors can be seen in new screenshots that have accompanied the announcement on TOCA Race Driver 3 Challenge's release date.

Our sister magazine PSW scored the game 7 out of 10 in its issue #90, just in case you're interested, describing it as "very serious" and "very realistic" and "the closest thing to Gran Turismo on PSP".

Screens Via Comments

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Publishers lock horns over Oblivion expansion

February 1st, 2007, 18:18 Posted By: wraggster

Is there a publisher scrap going on in the corridors of power over The Elder Scrolls IV expansion Shivering Isles?

In the red corner: 2K Games, who published the original game on PC and Xbox 360 and is publishing the expansion for the same platforms.

In the blue corner: Ubisoft, which co-published Oblivion PC retail pack Knights of the Nine with developer Bethesda in Europe and is doing the same with Oblivion on PS3 and PSP outing The Elder Scrolls Travels: Oblivion.

So, with Bethesda recently confirming that Shivering Isles is coming to PS3, which company is going to land publishing - or co-publishing - rights on PS3?

We've heard that 2K Games wasn't too happy that they did the PR for Oblivion and now co-publishing rights for the PS3 and PSP titles have been given to Ubisoft. But with lucrative sales of Shivering Isles virtually a dead cert, 2K surely wouldn't pass up publishing opportunities for the expansion on PS3.

And has Ubisoft been fighting to get publishing rights to Shivering Isles on all three platforms?

Putting on the CVG detectiv hat, we've done a bit of snooping around and, while UK sources close to both publishers couldn't shed any real light on the publishing split over Shivering Isles and know little about publishing plans for Shivering Isles on PS3 at this stage, they did describe the whole Oblivion publishing situation as "slightly complicated". We'd say that's an understatement.

A source told us that the publishing situation with Oblivion is actually "more down to the way Bethesda works", and spoke of a surprise that Ubisoft hasn't had complete publishing rights with Oblivion as it handled The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind.

Big dollar signs will have been twirling around eyeballs where Oblivion publishing is concerned, and boy would we love to have been a fly on the wall when deals were thrashed out and struck.

At the end of the day though, we're just happy that we can sit back and let the big boys fight it out; after all, whatever happens - or has happened already - in the higher echelons of Bethesda, 2K and Ubisoft, Shivering Isles is still going to be awesome.

via cvg

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Sony UK boss "would dearly love" PS3 to be under £400

February 1st, 2007, 18:26 Posted By: wraggster

SCE's UK managing director Ray Maguire has been speaking to The Guardian about the company's reasoning behind the £425 RRP of PlayStation 3.

"There's a compulsion within the media to look at everything as a snapshot, and do a calculation, normally based on just the RRP in somewhere like the US and just do the RRP in the UK. What you should do with the RRP from the US is add sales tax," he said.

Maguire argues that comparing RRPs is too simplistic an approach, due to exchange rate considerations: "When business trade, they hedge. It depends what currency you're buying against. We don't buy anything in dollars, so the dollar can go up and down.

"If it were $1.40 to the pound as it as a while ago, then the PS3 would be a bargain compared to the US; if it's anything more than that, the UK price appears to be comparatively expensive. But we're dealing with Euros and Yen - it's about the relationship between those currencies."

Any plans for a lower price at some point? "Of course, I would dearly love to have the PlayStation 3 RRP under £400, and at such time as we can afford to do so, we will."

Answering the question of why there aren't any 20GB PS3s at the UK launch, Maguire said it was a consumer led decision, "They want to put their own media on it from day one. So a big preference has been shown towards the 60GB model. And when we look at the sales figures from both Japan and the US, that's reflected at retail. You can either have not enough of both in the marketplace for day one, or you can have round about the right amount of one."

via cvg

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Gundam joins PS3 launch line-up

February 1st, 2007, 18:35 Posted By: wraggster

Atari has announced that it will distribute Mobile Suit Gundam: Target in Sight for publisher Namco Bandai in Europe, and it will be a PlayStation 3 launch title.

Target in Sight puts you in the role of Federation or Zeon forces as you stomp your robotic way around battlefields of the future.

It did alright critically in Japan, but took a bit of a hammering in some of the Western press. We sort of liked it in the end, despite its sluggishness and the slightly ham-fisted way it wields the PS3.

Finally, it's worth noting that it's already out in the States under a different name - Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire.

via eurogamer

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PS3 price cut to help Sony break even

February 1st, 2007, 18:41 Posted By: wraggster

via gibiz

Takao Yuhara, senior vice president of Sony Corporation, has hinted that a PS3 price cut could be announced by April next year as the company attempts to reduce its losses.

As reported earlier this week, Sony's games division lost EUR 343 million in the quarter ending December 31.

Speaking to the New York Times, Yuhara said the company plans to ensure that the division is no longer making a loss by the financial year ending March 2008. He went on to add that "such factors, including price cuts to some extent, are factored in" Sony's strategy for breaking even.

However, Yuhara declined to offer any further confirmation or details of when a price drop may occur, simply stating: "We may look at the price as part of our strategy to expand the market when the time is right."

He warned that Sony's operating loss for this financial year could exceed the forecast of YEN 200 billion (EUR 1.23 million), blaming higher than expected costs for advertising and cargo transport after the company was forced to air freight rather than ship stock.

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Two for PS Store out tomorrow

February 1st, 2007, 18:49 Posted By: wraggster

via gamespot

As promised a few weeks ago, Sony is updating its PlayStation Store with a few new offerings. Tomorrow will see one item for the PlayStation 3 and one for the PlayStation Portable.

For the PS3, gamers will be able to turn one of the first downloadable games for the system into a multiplayer experience. The Blast Factor multiplayer pack will be available for $2.99. With the new content, up to four players can take on cooperative and grudge match modes, and the game's speed can be taken up to 150 percent its normal rate.

Classic PlayStation racing action comes to the PSP with Jet Moto. The emulated version of the 1996 racer will be available for $5.99. In the game, players hop on futuristic motorbikes across a variety of backdrops.

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Two for PS Store out tomorrow

February 1st, 2007, 18:49 Posted By: wraggster

via gamespot

As promised a few weeks ago, Sony is updating its PlayStation Store with a few new offerings. Tomorrow will see one item for the PlayStation 3 and one for the PlayStation Portable.

For the PS3, gamers will be able to turn one of the first downloadable games for the system into a multiplayer experience. The Blast Factor multiplayer pack will be available for $2.99. With the new content, up to four players can take on cooperative and grudge match modes, and the game's speed can be taken up to 150 percent its normal rate.

Classic PlayStation racing action comes to the PSP with Jet Moto. The emulated version of the 1996 racer will be available for $5.99. In the game, players hop on futuristic motorbikes across a variety of backdrops.

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.hack//G.U. Vol 2: REMINISCE announced

February 1st, 2007, 18:52 Posted By: wraggster

Namco Bandai has released a new batch of images from .hack//G.U. Vol 2: REMINISCE, the latest in its continuing RPG saga of teens who literally can't bear to disconnect from the world of their favorite online game. Which has, naturally, gone mad bones nutzoid.

If you're looking at the title and thinking that the second game in a new series might be a little early to begin reminiscing, we understand. But this is actually the sixthgame in the .hack universe overall because there were four games in the original series, and anyhow we stopped trying to decipher this franchise's titles long, long ago. You should too. At least, until the game comes out this summer.

via gamesradar

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PS3 Fight Night footage: 123 punches in 150 seconds

February 1st, 2007, 18:54 Posted By: wraggster

We've given motorbike riders mountain-sized headstones in MotorStorm, mangled marvellous machines in Formula One: Championship Edition and caused millions of virtual pounds' worth of crash damage in Burnout Revenge. Now it's time to flatten some faces in Fight Night: Round 3 on PlayStation 3.

Click the movies tab above for 150 seconds of teeth-loosening, jaw-breaking, eye-cutting action. Or click here to watch the YouTube version. Oh, but a word of warning - it's not for the faint-hearted. There's blood. There's sweat. And there would probably be tears if only these boxers were conscious enough to cry 'em. A thug's sport played by gentlemen, you say? Try telling that to this lot.

Movie Here

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Youtube: DJ Max Portable 2 trailer

February 1st, 2007, 18:57 Posted By: wraggster

via insertcredit

The DJ Max Portable 2 (korean beatmania clone for PSP, remember?) trailer is available on youtube now, for the interested. Not as boobtacular as the original, more like an intro to the new modes, which include a five button setup, and wifi play. Incidentally, if anyone knows anything about the final song in the original intro, which is in neither in the PSP game nor the OST (roughly at 1:50 in the video), please drop me a line. That song is the reason I got the original...imagine my disappointment!

Update: Thanks to sqfrk (who mentioned the DJ Max P 2 intro in the first place) and adrian, I now know that the final song is 'Blythe.' As sqfrk says, it's "a DJMax Portable exclusive (along with Hamsin). It's unlockable in the game with 38000MAX points (with an average of around 100MAX per song at a 95%+ score)." Luckily someone sent it to me - I could never achieve that myself.

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LuaChase V1

February 1st, 2007, 18:57 Posted By: scottyboynow

This game is a game made in Lua, LuaChase, where you control a player and make your way without touching the enemy, if you collide the game gets restarted, very simple.
It took me a little while to get this sorted out but here it is, the new features are:

-New Background
-Collision

I hope to add new sprites and a few fixes, like in this version you can go off screen, but that will be fixed in V2.

Download and Give feedback Via Comments

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Armored Core 4 - Regulation 1.20 and US 360 release

February 1st, 2007, 19:00 Posted By: wraggster

via insert credit

As of today, From Software have updated the Regulation file yet again on the PS3 version. Now at Version 1.20, thousands of player requests have been answered (courtesy of an online questionnaire that was hosted on AC.net). A lot of the changes are to do with parts balancing. From Software have also reset the server rankings again (something the top Japanese players are probably shaking their fists at).

Segueing, as if by magic, into the news of an earlier and simultaneous 360 release. Famitsu have reported the 360 version of AC4 going on sale on the 20th March (a whole two days earlier than expected) and that it will be released simultaneously with the American version. The latter, if true, will be interesting in terms of the game's online popularity.

After all, if some Japanese schoolgirl is whaling on your mechanical ass from day one, how long will American players stick with it? At least with Chrome Hounds the Japanese players didn't have a month head start and it was more a game based on strategy rather than raw ninja skills (something that Japanese players are exhibiting daily on the PS3 version of AC4). Anyway, it will be interesting to see what will finally happen when East meets West on the AC battlefield. For many of the more faithful Western AC brethren, such an opportunity to have their gaming heart ripped from their chest (via the sphincter most probably) is something that's been a decade in waiting.

Finally, the aforementioned Regulation file feature may also be unique to the PS3, unless the 360 guidelines are changed. Selectable patches aren't something Microsoft allow, as far as I am aware.

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Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters Impressions

February 1st, 2007, 19:01 Posted By: wraggster

via kotaku

One of the most consistent game franchises around would have to be Insomniac's Ratchet & Clank series. Each progressive title has managed to add new elements while maintaining an excellent balance of humor and solid gameplay that define the series. Many fans were a bit disappointed that Ratchet: Deadlocked focused on shooting without platforming and puzzle elements, but I'm happy to say after spending quite a bit of time with a preview build that the series has returned to its roots with the upcoming Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters for the PSP.

Ratchet and his robot buddy are taking a much needed vacation, having saved the universe now on multiple occasions. They meet a cute little girl named Luna who is writing a report on heroes and wants to see them in action. It isn't long before Luna is kidnapped, a legendary race of inventors gets involved, and once more R&C are pulled into a dangerous plot that sends them on a universe spanning adventure that the two of them really should come to expect right now. These guys get sent on universe spanning adventures if they stop by a convenience store for a slushie.

Aside from the PSP controls and slightly lower-quality graphics, the game looks and plays almost exactly like its PS2 siblings. Developer High Impact Games has done a great job of capturing the distinctive R&C feel, which isn't really a surprise considering High Impact was spawned from Insomniac. All of the familiar elements are in place here. Upgradeable weapons and gadgets, exciting mini-games, and novelty levels to mix things up a bit. My favorite so far would have to be the space shooter featuring Giant Clank, blasting his way through swarms of enemies to rescue his fuzzy lombax friend.

New to the series is customizeable armor. As you play through the game you'll come across armor pieces. Once you collect a whole set you not only look amazingly cool, you also get to use a special power. Collect the Wildfire set and your wrench attacks set enemies on fire, for instance. While I only managed to collect pieces from three sets and complete one, there sure were a lot of empty armor set slots waiting to be filled. Can't wait to see what they all do!

While some of the levels in the game tread on familiar ground, I've run across a couple that were quite new and different, including one I won't go into too much detail on that completely blew my mind. Flying chainsaws FTW!

The controls are actually pretty tight for a PSP platformer. I miss the second analog stick for camera control, but the shoulder buttons do the job adequately, and there's always a first-person view you can swap to if you want to look around or do some precision shooting. The small screen keeps pretty close to Ratchet as he fights, leading to being shot at off-screen quite a few times, but with the PSP you really are limited with how far away the camera can be in third-person before you start crossing into isometric territory.

Sadly I didn't get to try out the multiplayer options, but honestly I've always enjoyed the series more for the story and the characters than for online skirmishes.

All in all I am pretty excited about Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters. It's shaping up to be one of those titles I can point to in order to justify my purchase of a PSP in the first place. Like Ready at Dawn's Daxter before it, this game looks to bring one of Sony's best franchises to the PSP in a big way.

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Tuesday-tans: PS3-tan

February 1st, 2007, 19:14 Posted By: wraggster



via Dark diamond Network

There’s still about 5 minutes left of Tuesday at the time of writing this so yes its time for yet another Tuesday-tan update. Today we’ll pay a visit to the last of the this-gen console-tans, PS3-tan. I had a good bunch of pictures of PS3-tan but I cant reach most of them so these 3 will have to do, I might do an addendum to this post some time later.

PS3-tan is commonly depicted with the design you see above, with a tight short black dress or as a small gothic lolita girl as seen below. When as a grown-up she’s often bragging about her measurements to the rest of the console-tans, specially to Wii-tan, to whom she has a personal vendetta. The rest of the consoles usually tease her about having a huge bust size (again, as a sign of high specs). PS3-tan is also quite narcissistic and she’s usually seen staring at herself in the mirror (screenshot carnival anyone?) instead of playing with the rest of the console-tans.

More at link above

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Diner Dash Screenshots

February 1st, 2007, 19:30 Posted By: wraggster

Released today are new screenshots for the game Diner Dash on both PSP and Nintendo DS.

Checkout the screenshots Via Comments

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Sony puts its faith in PSP deals

February 1st, 2007, 19:39 Posted By: wraggster

via ft.com

Sony Computer Entertainment is poised to announce deals with software companies and internet service providers to try to reverse the dismal performance of its PlayStation Portable handheld games machines.

SCE is expected to reveal a package of PSP online services in mid-March, with analysts expecting the tie-ups to involve at least one big ISP, such as Yahoo.

The move is part of efforts by Sony to shore up its games division, which is suffering worse-than-expected losses from its PlayStation 3 console.

Nobuyuki Oneda, Sony’s chief financial officer, told the Financial Times that restoring the games division to break-even was crucial to achieving the promise of Sir Howard Stringer, chairman, of group margins of 5 per cent by the end of this financial year.

Analysts expect the PSP business tie-ups to promote the PSP as a more user-friendly device capable of downloading films, television shows and back-catalogue PlayStation and PlayStation 2 games. The changes could allow users to download games and other content anywhere the PSP can be connected to a WiFi network. Although the PSP is already technically capable of downloading and storing online content, such as games, the services have not appealed to mainstream users. A tie-up with a well-known internet brand or television company, said one Nomura analyst, could change that.

Mr Oneda acknowledged that the PSP’s recent performance had been a cause for concern, with software sales a particular disappointment. “It was pretty much a competition issue with the Nintendo so we have to fight back by introducing more attractive applications [for the PSP] by using the network,” he said.

Mr Oneda’s comments come as PSP shipments have fallen far behind those of the Nintendo DS, which was launched in December 2004, the same month as the PSP, and has achieved strong growth among non-traditional gamers. To date, the PSP has shipped 24m units globally, against worldwide DS sales of 35m.

Sony’s new plan is part of its changing approach to consumer electronics. Mr Oneda said that, in future, the company would offer “no single product to lead consumer electronics” but instead would concentrate on developing networked devices and creating networks in the home. “The trend is towards high definition and internet connectivity. Those are what we will shoot for in the future.”

Mr Oneda explained the importance of pulling the games division back into the black. If it could break even and the film and finance businesses retained their present margins, the improving conditions of the electronics business and its 70 per cent contribution to group-wide margin levels would be enough to meet the March 2008 target of 5 per cent margins, he said.

“I have some confidence we can achieve this,” he said.

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Sony loss 'to reach $2bn' by March

February 1st, 2007, 19:41 Posted By: wraggster

via vnunet

Sony's games division losses will be worse than expected and could exceed $2bn for the fiscal year ending in March, vnunet.com can reveal.

Executives told reporters and analysts in Tokyo today that they blamed a shortfall in sales of the costly PlayStation 3 video games console and the PlayStation Portable (PSP).

Sony's net profit fell more than five per cent to $1.3bn in the last three months of 2006. The games division suffered an operating loss of $455m during the quarter, a fall of almost $1bn from the previous quarter, according to Sony.

"This deterioration was primarily the result of the loss arising from the sale of the PS3 at strategic price points, as well as other charges associated with preparation for the launch of the PS3 platform," the company announced.

"In addition, operating income from the PS2 and PSP businesses fell due to sales declines."

Sony has been shocked by the strong sales of Nintendo's much cheaper Wii console, according to analysts, and has had to fight the entrenched strength of Microsoft's Xbox 360, which was launched more than a year ago and now has a wide range of games.

Sony's predicted loss on the first six months of PS3 sales now exceeds the $1.3bn Microsoft is estimated to have lost on Xbox 360 sales over the same period of that console's life-cycle.

Analysts have suggested that Sony will be able to cut PS3 manufacturing costs and retail prices later this year when it revamps the console with smaller ver sions of the Cell CPU and RSX graphics chip.

"How and when the company intends to address the problem of weak demand for PS3 hardware remains unclear. In our view, making the PS3 profitable will not be an easy task," said Eiichi Katayama of Nomura Securities in a briefing to clients.

Sony executives are now saying that the games division loss for the financial year ending in March will exceed earlier predictions of $1.65bn, and might go as high as $2.05bn, according to sources present at a Sony investor briefing in Tokyo today.

Nomura's analysts have stated that they expect the results to be even worse.

Despite the bad news from Sony's games division, better than expected results from its consumer electronics products had helped offset the loss, Katayama said. Sony highlighted TVs as a strong seller during the Christmas season.

Although media attention has focused on the high-profile PS3, older games products are also giving cause for concern at Sony.

"We think that a critical stage is approaching for the PSP, which in our view occupies an ambiguous market position as a game console and a multi-purpose audiovisual machine," said Katayama.

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PrometeusPro 0.10.1 and Demo Released

February 1st, 2007, 19:43 Posted By: wraggster

This only for Mac Owners sees an update to the does everything tool to put files and more on your PSP.

Heres whats new:

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PSP - Scooter Mod

February 1st, 2007, 19:46 Posted By: wraggster

Whilst i like mods for PSP this could be a tad dangerous, one youtube user called Priarmos 2 has attached his PSP to a scooter, it supplys the music to an onboard stereo system.

Check out the video here --> http://www.youtube.com/v/P97Ro6p_oPY

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Sony to compete against Nintendo with PSP's multimedia features

February 1st, 2007, 19:48 Posted By: wraggster

via pspfanboy

After reporting some pretty disappointing losses, Sony is desperately trying to restructure its games division to at least break even. After stating boldly that they will not give up on the PSP, Sony will now seriously push the multimedia capabilities of the system. They've already started developing partnerships with media providers, such as amazon, but it looks like Sony is looking for even larger partnerships.

According to MarketWatch, analysts are predicting Sony will partner up with "at least one big ISP, such as Yahoo." Such tie-ins will promote the PSP's ability to download movies, television shows and PlayStation games. The PSP is technically capable of doing a lot, but the goal is to get the word out to the mainstream.

"It was pretty much a competition issue with the Nintendo so we have to fight back by introducing more attractive applications [for the PSP] by using the network," Nobuyuki Oneda, Sony's CFO, told the Financial Times.

Lets hope they do it right this time

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LocoRoco joins The Best in Japan

February 1st, 2007, 19:51 Posted By: wraggster

via pspfanboy

Sony loves promoting the friendly blobs of LocoRoco. Although the game a lot of critical acclaim, it still hasn't garnered the sales warranted by such quality. Well, Sony's not giving up yet. Sony has announced that the game has entered "The Best" status in Japan, which is similar to America's Greatest Hits program. The game will be reissued as a budget title on February 22nd for the low price of 2800 yen.

LocoRoco joins other recent additions to "The Best" series, such as: Initial D: Street Stage, We Love Katamari, Metal Gear Acid 2, and Bleach: Heat the Soul 2.

All the Best Series games can be brought at Play Asia

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FullScreen Browser For PSP v1.1

February 1st, 2007, 20:41 Posted By: BelmontSlayer

via the nameless

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Paladin v1.2 - Pal to NTSC PSX Games Converter

February 1st, 2007, 21:55 Posted By: wraggster

Coldbird has updated Paladin, heres the release info:

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Blu-ray/HD DVD Disc Sales Numbers Revealed

February 1st, 2007, 22:03 Posted By: wraggster

via /.

The High-Def format wars finally have yardstick against which to measure who's winning with the first public release of VideoScan sales figures for both HD DVD and Blu-ray. The first two weeks worth of data seem to back up what many predicted — that the Blu-ray enabled PS3 is helping Sony quickly close the gap with HD DVD, with almost three Blu-ray discs sold for every one HD DVD during the first week of January. HD DVD still leads in overall discs sold since inception, but that lead looks to be quickly dwindling. While they do show a trend, the results from VideoScan are still fairly vague. Why are consumers being denied the information they need to make a considered choice?

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PSP hardware shipments plummet, software up slightly

February 1st, 2007, 22:18 Posted By: wraggster

When Sony released their fiscal Q3 (Oct. - Dec. '06) financial results recently, most of the focus was on the PS3 and how the costs of its launch contributed to a massive loss for Sony's games unit. But, as the UK's Pocket Gamer points out, a massive slowdown in PSP shipments worldwide is probably just as worrying for the company.

In the three month holiday period, Sony shipped just 1.46 million PSP units worldwide, a nearly 72 percent decrease from the 6.22 million units shipped during the same period a year ago. Broken down territorially, Europe and Japan each got roughly 900,000 systems while North America saw only an anemic 10,000 PSP units shipped in the three month period (no, that isn't a typo). For comparison, Reuters reported in November that Nintendo planned to ship 1.5 million DS units to Japan in December alone.

But not all is doom and gloom in the Sony numbers. NPD data from December showed relatively healthy sales of nearly a million PSPs in North America, suggesting that Sony slowed North American shipments to let retailers sell off some of the 2 million systems shipped during the summer months. And despite the slowing hardware shipments, PSP software shipments actually rose 20 percent to 21.2 million units worldwide for the holiday season. Still, it's easy to look at this massive shipment slowdown and see the tide decisively turning towards Nintendo in the portable market share battle.

via joystiq

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PS3: The Return of the Rumble?

February 1st, 2007, 22:22 Posted By: wraggster

via spong

SPOnG informed you yesterday of the possibility of the ‘return of the rumble’ in the PS3’s Sixaxis controller, if recent claims from third party hardware manufacturer, Splitfish are to be believed.

Splitfish claim to have developed a “low-power consumption” technology called SensorFX which “uses no moving parts to produce meaningful sensory feedback. A broad range of intensity and sensation compliment the ability to derive feedback sensations from isolated areas on the controller, to isolate one side or the other, movement from front to back or all areas at the same time.”

However, 1Up approached Sony’s US office to find out what the latest deal was with SIXAXIS rumble? Could SplitFish provide a way around Sony’s legal issues with Immersion in this area?

Apparently not. A spokesperson told 1Up, “We have had no contact with this company and continue to have no plans to include FF [force feedback] in SIXAXIS.”

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Sony puts its faith in PSP deals

February 1st, 2007, 22:29 Posted By: wraggster

via marketwatch

SCE is expected to reveal a package of PSP online services in mid-March, with analysts expecting the tie-ups to involve at least one big ISP, such as Yahoo.
The move is part of efforts by Sony to shore up its games division, which is suffering worse-than-expected losses from its PlayStation 3 console.
Nobuyuki Oneda, Sony's chief financial officer, told the Financial Times that restoring the games division to break-even was crucial to achieving the promise of Sir Howard Stringer, chairman, of group margins of 5 per cent by the end of this financial year.
Analysts expect the PSP business tie-ups to promote the PSP as a more user-friendly device capable of downloading films, television shows and back-catalogue PlayStation and PlayStation 2 games. The changes could allow users to download games and other content anywhere the PSP can be connected to a WiFi network. Although the PSP is already technically capable of downloading and storing online content, such as games, the services have not appealed to mainstream users. A tie-up with a well-known internet brand or television company, said one Nomura analyst, could change that.
Mr Oneda acknowledged that the PSP's recent performance had been a cause for concern, with software sales a particular disappointment. "It was pretty much a competition issue with the Nintendo so we have to fight back by introducing more attractive applications [for the PSP] by using the network," he said.
Mr Oneda's comments come as PSP shipments have fallen far behind those of the Nintendo DS, which was launched in December 2004, the same month as the PSP, and has achieved strong growth among non-traditional gamers. To date, the PSP has shipped 24m units globally, against worldwide DS sales of 35m.
Sony's new plan is part of its changing approach to consumer electronics. Mr Oneda said that, in future, the company would offer "no single product to lead consumer electronics" but instead would concentrate on developing networked devices and creating networks in the home. "The trend is towards high definition and internet connectivity. Those are what we will shoot for in the future."
Mr Oneda explained the importance of pulling the games division back into the black. If it could break even and the film and finance businesses retained their present margins, the improving conditions of the electronics business and its 70 per cent contribution to group-wide margin levels would be enough to meet the March 2008 target of 5 per cent margins, he said.
"I have some confidence we can achieve this," he said

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PSPUAE needs beta Testers!

February 1st, 2007, 22:55 Posted By: Hungry Horace

from my own post on www.pspuae.com


ok guys, here's the score.

Very few of our old beta-testers have bothered to submit any kind of bug-reports, expecially during the hectic pre-0.62 release period, where we had over 10 betas overall, and could really have used bug-reports by more than just the one or two of us that were making the effort.

So, we have revoked most of the beta-testing rights given to some of our users, with a few obvious exceptions.

Sorry guys, but if we were happy to not get feedback, we'd make the betas public.... however, we prefer to keep beta's private, to ensure a more quality piece of work for each of our users with each release, and less chances of obvious / repeated feedback.


What we are proposing then, is an open-submission system for beta-tester status. If you could inform us publicly (PM's regarding the matter will be ignored) via www.pspuae.com of why you think you should be in the running for one of the 6 or so beta-tester status rights, we will take your offer into consideration.

Please bare in mind the kind of things which would make you a suitable tester; maybe your level of amiga understanding is particuarly high, perhaps you are running pspuae via HEN and realise that we require testers with as many different homebrew-enabled PSP as possible, or perhaps you have previous experience beta-testing other emulators....

if you think you should be a tester - you must have your reasons. Let us know what they are, and we will take all serious offers into consideration.


Good Luck guys, and i look forward to seeing the lucky few "on the other side!"

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After Burner: Black Falcon Hands-on

February 2nd, 2007, 00:47 Posted By: wraggster

Via IGN

When it comes to high-octane arcade experiences, few franchises deliver like After Burner. Though the series has been on hiatus for some time now, SEGA is bringing back its classic flight combat game this March when it touches down on the PSP with After Burner: Black Falcon. We have a preview build of the game in the office and to make a long story short, it seems like classic After Burner goodness through and through.

The game's storyline (like it really needed one) follows the theft of 13 top-secret fighter jets stolen from a hidden hanger at Broom Lake. Each of these crafts were code-named Assassin 1 - 13 and carried the most deadly payloads a fighter has ever held on agile and fast bodies like nothing before them. It's your job to hunt down the culprits behind the theft and recover (or destroy) the planes before any damage can be inflicted with them.

You begin Black Falcon by choosing one of three pilots, each with their own strengths. Billy "Sonic" Blaze flies his signature F-15E Strike Eagle and is known as the fastest pilot on Earth. Harrison "Bull" Duke brings an F/A-18E Super Hornet to the fight along with his deadly payloads and increased cash take in. Last but not least, Tomiko "Shinsei" Rossellini joins the crew with the most balanced setup, her F-14D Super Tomcat both quick and powerful.

Each of the characters has different secret bonuses for each mission, all revolving around their specialty. Most of Sonic's secret goals involve beating a time record for a mission. Bull's involves collecting a ton of cash, while Shinsei's goal is simply perfection.

While each pilot has his or her own signature plane, you're able to choose from one of 15 different real-world crafts to take flight in. Your pilot's signature plane will be free of course. For each star level you progress (it looks like there are five in the game) you'll earn the right to buy bigger and better improvements to your canon, missiles, rockets, afterburner and more. You can also slap a custom paint job on your plane, though this only seems to be for looks, but at least they're cheap.

Once you're in the game, you'll immediately feel at home again in the After Burner universe. Controls are practically dead-on with what we remember from way back in the day, with lighting-quick maneuvering and barrel rolls aplenty. The game is quite fast and the framerate held steady in every mission we tried, making for a smooth and arcade-esque play experience. To say that After Burner is alive and kicking would be an understatement.

For each mission you're given three lives and a couple stops along the way to refill your armament and health. Netting combo kills will earn you some sort of in-game bonus, like health or even a slow-motion timer that moves the game at a snail's pace for a short time for some easy kills. These combos come to you on parachutes and you actually need to grab them, but most of the time they seemed to fly straight into our windshield without us even paying attention. We did miss a couple here and there, however, so you'll want to be careful when you're getting low on health.

What we've played of After Burner: Black Falcon so far seems great. It's a mostly shallow experience, sure, but it's also fast and furious fun. The game is due to ship on March 20th, so stay tuned for more updates soon.

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Pretending to play your PSP

February 2nd, 2007, 01:01 Posted By: wraggster

via pspfanboy

If you're reading this blog entry, chances are, you're not playing with your PSP. Don't worry! "Virtual PSP," a Flash game, will allow you to pretend like you're playing your PSP on your computer. It's a very clever fan made homage to Sony's system that includes a clever take on the XMB, and a few UMDs as well.

Of course, you might also be reading this article from your PSP. Then, things get really weird. You'll be playing a game about playing the PSP ... on your PSP. Hmm. Be careful! This kind of logic can destroy the universe!

Heres the GAME

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Custom Firmware Extender 1.2

February 2nd, 2007, 01:05 Posted By: wraggster

"Custom Firmware Extender" by Cpasjuste is a set of two plugins for Dark_alex custom's firmware,
that will, like the title say, add some extra options to the SONY PSP.

With "Custom Firmware Extender 1.1" you should be able to :

- Start and stop a ftpd server while under the VSH (PSP Menu) to transfer files via WIFI (WEP,WPA).
- Reset the PSP with a button while under the VSH (PSP Menu) or in-game (UMD/ISO).
- Power off the PSP with a button while under the VSH (PSP Menu) or in-game (UMD/ISO).
- Change the speed of the PSP CPU/FSB while under the VSH (PSP Menu) or in-game (UMD/ISO).
- Start and stop Usb Mass Storage under the VSH (PSP Menu) while browsing.
- Take a screenshot while under the VSH (PSP Menu) or in-game (UMD/ISO) saved in the PHOTO folder.
- Set a default CPU/BUS speed at startup.
- Set Usb Mass Storage at startup.
- Configure your buttons mapping (NOTE button + your selected button).

Heres whats new in this latest version:

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MGS - Portable OPS Japan National Tournament announced

February 2nd, 2007, 09:01 Posted By: happy_mak

The Japanese dont seem to be getting enough of the MGS-Portable Ops and Konami has announced national level tournaments with preliminaries in 5 cities. The final will be conducted on the 25th of February at Roppongi

Team will be formed of 3 players who will fight it out with the other 3 over ADHOC mode (its not online battle) with a round of 5 minutes. Oh yes you cannot use stealth stuff.

The preliminaries are named after the leading game magazines (sponsored by them respectively).
Dengeki PS Cup will be in Fukuoka
Dengeki PSP Cup will be in Osaka
with Famitsu hosting the remainder 3
at nagoya , sapporo and tokyo

The winning teams will converge at Roppongi for the finals.

And yes at some places you would have Kojima himself make a guest appearance.

Participants (Includes viewers) get some special key cards with passwords.. and many other prizes to be won

The details unfortunately only in japanese are at
http://www.konami.jp/gs/game/mpo_sup.../event_01.html

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[RELEASE] Xandu's Media Player

February 2nd, 2007, 10:40 Posted By: -Xandu-

Alright, I've decided to call it Xandu's Media Player .

First of all I'd like to thank Homer for his great help and support , and for being a really nice guy.

Secondly, this is a media player for the PSP, coded from scratch, it currently supports MP3, future versions will include WAV,OGG,etc..
Also future versions will include viewing of lyrics!

Screenshots:




Features:
-Mp3 play
-Title,Artist,Album view (my thanks to Homer)

-Lyric view will be added
-Wav,Ogg,etc.. Will be added
-Visualizer Might be added

Note: This is open-source


Controls:

X Button : Pause current Mp3
O Button : Play Mp3
[] Button : Stop current Mp3
L Button : Access "Now Playing"
R Button : Access "Library"

Known issues:
-Might crash when changing music

3.03 OE users:

-Make sure it is located in PSP/GAME150
-Make sure your music are in PSP/MUSIC


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Feedback and bug report here please.

Hope you enjoy it .

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Portal 117 version 2.6 released

February 2nd, 2007, 16:35 Posted By: TCLCloud

via PSP117

This will work on any PSP firmware 2.00-3.10 and Dark_Alex's custom firmware as well :thumbup:

This version contains-

95 Games
25 Applications
8 Flash Cartoons
All demos directly downloadable
Video Downloads
80+ wallpaper downloads
40 RSS Channels video and audio
25+ Links on Links Page
Portal 117 Live

The Updates to this Version are-
More PSP and Other links added
New demo links added
Added more online flash movies
More wallpaper links
Added more people to credits (See below)

Instructions-

1. After Unziping folder place Portal 117 Folder in D:\PSP\COMMON to make D:\PSP\COMMON\Portal 117

2. On your PSP Browser type file:/psp/common/portal117/portal117.htm

3. The main portal page should load up, from here you can select Portal 117 Live, Games, Apps, Videos,Demos, Wallpapers, RSS and Podcasts
and Links, i would suggest adding the main page to your bookmarks or setting it as your home page

Download it here

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PSP Submenu Icon Injector v1.1

February 2nd, 2007, 16:56 Posted By: wraggster

New release from dark420bishop:

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LucasArts parts ways with Mercenaries

February 2nd, 2007, 17:00 Posted By: wraggster

Pandemic Studios will be partnering with EA Games to publish PS3 action sequel Mercenaries 2: World in Flames.

It had previously been expected that Pandemic would partner with the first games publisher Lucasarts (or Activision in Europe) for the sequel, but obviously it looks like the Star Wars company has other plans.

"We're thrilled to partner with Pandemic Studios and to be working together to make Mercenaries 2: World in Flames a global blockbuster," said EA Partners VP and general manager, David DeMartini. "EA Partners is committed to providing the world's best development studios with access to EA's unrivalled global publishing resources, helping game makers reach the widest possible audience."

Andrew Goldman, Pandemic Studios CEO adds: "Mercenaries 2: World in Flames will set the bar for explosive, open world action games in the next generation, and everyone at Pandemic is excited that fans will be able to get their hands on it later this year."

There's no word on the heavily-rumoured Xbox 360 and PC versions yet, though there seems to be no mention of PS3 exclusivity in this announcement. We'll let you know if Mercenaries 2's new publisher pipes up with anything.

via cvg

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Revealed: What really goes on inside a focus test

February 2nd, 2007, 17:09 Posted By: wraggster

David Jaffe has posted a blog during a focus test for the upcoming PS3 downloadable game Calling All Cars, which documents just what happens during a focus test. And it makes for great reading.

His live blog began at 9:15am LA time with: "Focus tests are starting for the game; prob. the last focus/play tests we will have. I will try to live blog it cause...well why not...maybe it will be interesting...or suck. This will be more stream of consciousness than usual...and the spelling lots worse as I'm gonna be focused on the test but trying to blog too...so here we go..."

It gets better: "9:22- Still waiting for this mother****er to show...that's the thing with focus tests...you pay these companies a good amount of cash to go out and find inbiased people to come play stuff, and they get paid, and you usually have like an 80% show rate...there's always a few who sign up to come but do not...one of these focus companies would do well to charge a bit more and then have back up testers to promise you get the number of people you want even if the first picks have a few no shows....**** tards....and yeah, since I am typing fast, prep for lots more cursing cause I got not time to edit "

It gets better still: "9:27- Ok, we're gonna start without the ****...whatever. Dammit! But yeah, here come the butterflies...will they like it, will they make fun of it, will they LOVE it?!? HATE IT?!?! Shit, here we go...they are all sitting down at the ps3's....here we go..."

via cvg

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Castlevania claims PSP stake

February 2nd, 2007, 17:34 Posted By: wraggster

Konami is planning a Castlevania title for PSP - and they're not mucking about either, packing Symphony of the Night and Rondo of Blood onto the same disc as a full-blown 3D-graphics remake of the latter.

Going by the name Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles, it's due out in the autumn.

"Rondo of Blood?" It's only ever been released properly in Japan, although you may have played a slightly less exciting port of it on the SNES called Dracula X. Don't worry though, they're not going to spoil it with 3D visuals, as the gameplay will still be ostensibly 2D.

What's more, an untouched port of the original code, along with one of the much celebrated PlayStation title Symphony of the Night, will also be stuffed onto the UMD when the game makes its first appearance later this year. There's no 3D remake planned of the latter, sadly.

Even so, it still sounds brilliant. Xbox 360 fans will want to remember that Symphony of the Night is also set to be released via Live Arcade in the near future.

via eurogamer

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WipEout PS3 rumours emerge

February 2nd, 2007, 18:34 Posted By: wraggster

Word that a new WipEout game is in development has come from an interview with Develop magazine with Clemens Wangerin, development director for Sony's Liverpool studio.

Wangerin wouldn't give away much at all (just the above) and there was no one around at Sony when we tried to contact them. All eyes on GDC next month for an announcement? We'll see.

via cvg

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Win! Dungeon Siege: Throne of Agony

February 2nd, 2007, 18:49 Posted By: wraggster

via gamesradar

To celebrate the release of Dungeon Siege: Throne of Agony on PSP, we've teamed up with 2K games to offer ten lucky winners a copy of the game. We love the action-centric hack and slashery of this handheld RPG and gave it a rather glowing review earlier this week. Just hit the review tab up there to see it for yourself.

So what do you have to do to be in with a chance of winning this cool prize? Simply answer the question below and email us with the answer. Ready for it? Here goes:

Where are you most likely to find a dungeon?

a) In a castle

b) In a pirate ship

c) In a school

If you think you know the answer, click here to email us with your answer, name and full address. The closing date for entries is Friday 2 March 2007.

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SanDisk Memory Stick Pro Duo 4GB w/ Adaptor $93 (£46)

February 2nd, 2007, 19:33 Posted By: wraggster



SuccessHK have dropped the price of their SanDisk Memory Stick Pro Duo 4GB w/ Adaptor to $93 (£46)

Good news for those who want legit Memory cards for their PSP at a decent price.

The 2GB card has also dropped to USD 50.00

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Football Manager Handheld 2007 - Hints and Tips

February 2nd, 2007, 19:36 Posted By: wraggster



If your like me and brought the game Football Manager Handheld 2007 you will love the Hints and tips we have for you after the break.

Check them all out via Comments

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Free Running Press Release

February 2nd, 2007, 19:39 Posted By: wraggster

Heres a press release from ubisoft:

Today Ubisoft, one of the world’s largest video game publishers, announced a UK sales and distribution deal with Reef Entertainment to release Free Running, a game based on the new and exciting sport of the same name, on the PlayStation® 2 and PlayStation Portable (PSPTM) consoles on 16th March 2007.

Forget cars, trains, packed pavements and crowded platforms. Free Running means the concrete jungle is your urban playground as you run, vault, jump and climb over obstacles in the most fluid and flowing manner possible.

Rob Cooper, UK managing director at Ubisoft said, “Free Running is the first game of its genre and we are pleased to be working together with Reef Entertainment to bring Free Running to the UK market.”

Peter Rezon, CEO of Reef Entertainment said “An enormous awareness of the sport is developing in the mainstream media and we feel now is the time to release the game. The sport of free running is appearing everywhere from Hollywood films, music videos to advertising and documentaries. Having acquired this exciting game from Rebellion studios and now having Ubisoft on board, one of the world’s largest videogame publishers, provides the perfect platform for Reef to deliver this title to UK gamers.”

Key Game Features

You will join an elite group of athletes known as Tracers (or Free Runners) and will compete against Sebastien Foucan, the creator of Free Running, seen recently in ‘Casino Royale’ as well as members of the organisation known as Urban Freeflow. The aim is to become the greatest free runner of all time.

More than 60 challenges spread over 10 different levels in 3 distinct time zones, each with its own style of gameplay.

9 different single and multiplayer modes, including freestyle, time attack and ground zero.

Unlockable characters, clothes, tricks, videos and music.

Website: www.freerunning.com

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Firmware 3.10 Was Just a Knee Jerk Reaction to Latest PSP Hacks

February 2nd, 2007, 19:48 Posted By: wraggster

IGN have posted something that we all know, that Sony only update when the PSP Scene over rides all their firmware updates to stop homebrew:

Nice to see IGN posting about homebrew

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PS3-eSATA: free the SATA port on your PS3

February 2nd, 2007, 21:14 Posted By: wraggster

via akihabaranews.com:

If, like me, you’re the owner of a PS3, you’ve probably realized by now its potential for games and video, and also the fact that there is not a single great game on the market yet! Well, except for MotorSport (I’m totally hooked), but where’s the online mode?? Anyway, let's say we’ll have games on the PS3 at some point, or maybe we’ll have a console emulator (for NEC PC Engine, Super Famicon, Neo Geo, etc.), even a nice DivX player… You’ll also realize that 60GB is good, but hardly enough after a while… Kurouto Shikou is coming to the rescue with their PS3-eSATA, a SATA and eSATA slot for PS3 that allows you to plug any kind of hard disk, and even install the OS of the PS3 on them. You can even unplug the hard disk from your PS3 and plug it on a PC to backup your data, Great!

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PS3 and Xbox 360 prep migrating chief components to 65nm

February 2nd, 2007, 21:16 Posted By: wraggster

via digitimes

With Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3 (PS3) new-generation game consoles priced below their component costs, the game console vendors are aggressively preparing to migrate chief components to 65nm production in order to help shrink the gap between retail prices and costs.

During a recent Sony investor conference, the company said it has already started production of various sized chipsets on 65nm node and noted that die-size could be shrunk by 40% in comparison to 90nm process, indicating that corresponding costs could be reduced along with the reduction in die-size. In addition to the prepared migration to more advanced node production, Sony said it also plans to reduce the number of parts in the PS3 in attempt to see "drastic" cost reductions.

iSuppli's research shows that, at present, manufacturing costs of the two PS3 models – 20GB and 60GB-hard disk drive (HDD)– are US$306.85 and US$241.35 higher than the current retail prices.

Another component teardown report from iSuppli reveals that Microsoft is also facing a similar situation. According to the research firm's estimation, the Xbox 360 Premium package which is priced at US$399, actually houses a bill-of-material (BOM) cost of US$525. A spokesperson at Microsoft previously told Business Week that profits from Xbox 360 should only start being realized in 2007.

Microsoft and its foundry partner, Chartered Semiconductor announced last April that it would start producing Xbox 360 CPUs on 65nm silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) technology in the first quarter of 2007. However, later rumors have suggested that the migration might be delayed to mid-year.

A Chinese-language Commercial Times report February 2, 2007 cited industry makers commenting that Microsoft could shrink the cost of three key Xbox 360 components – CPU, northbridge and graphics chip – to below US$150, or 30-40% lower, if it introduces 65nm manufacturing.

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PS3™ system software version 1.51 Released

February 2nd, 2007, 21:19 Posted By: wraggster

New firmware/software update for the PS3, heres whats new:

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Howto Guide for 3.0x oe With LUAPlayer

February 2nd, 2007, 21:24 Posted By: wraggster

via romero126

I have noticed a large amount of complaints about not being able to run LUAPlayer on your PSP using the firmware 3.03oe-b.

So here is a quick Guide to doing so.
There are two guides so read carefully.

Guide 1
This is the easy way to install 1.50 homebrew but only works if there is an eboot in the /PSP/GAME folder.

Put your 1.50 homebrew in the folder
/PSP/GAME150

Either put your 3.03 homebrew in the folder or Create a folder named "__SCE__"
/PSP/GAME

Guide 2
Quickly power off your PSP
So that your PSP completly reboots. It will show the "Sony Entertainment" logo.Quote:
Note if you are having problems completly turning of your PSP unplug the PSP and remove the battery.

Quickly hold down the RTrigger.
This will bring up the built in recovery console in 3.0x oe

Select Configuration and press (X)
This will bring you to a submenu. It will allow you to adjust your 3.0xOE to suit your own needs.

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V8 Supercars 3 Dated

February 2nd, 2007, 21:26 Posted By: wraggster

It's been a long time coming, and IGN AU reviewed this stellar portable racer a while back, but Atari have finally announced the release date for V8 Supercars 3: Shootout Challenge.

The PSP edition of the PS2 racer will launch on February 16th. V8 Supercars 3: Shootout, delivers an incredibly diverse range of insanely fast championships and skill-based challenges in short bursts of play, making it perfect for PSP gaming on the go. There's also incredible wireless multiplayer racing for up to a staggering 12 players simultaneously and Game Share enables up to four players to enjoy wireless multiplayer racing from just one UMD.

Presenting the world's most powerful cars in tightly fought pack racing action, V8 Supercars 3: Shootout, comes loaded with an all-new championship structure - the World Challenge.

The game also features 36 world-famous tracks, each with multiple variations of routes and over 40 of the world's most exciting real competition cars, both modern and historic and each with their own handling characteristics.

Just some of the cars featured include the Holden Commodore VX and VY V8 Super, Ford Falcon AU and BA, Nissan 350Z Nismo, Subaru Impreza 22 Track, Audi A4 DTM, AMG-Mercedes C-Klasse DTM, WilliamsF1 Team FW 27, Gemballa GTR 750 EVO, Koening GT-D and 360 GT, and N10 Track, TVR T400 R and the coolest motors from the British GT championship.

Keep an eye out for V8 Supercars 3: Shootout Challenge and get your engines roaring when it launches on February 16th.

via ign

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The Warriors Co-op Aussie Hands-on

February 2nd, 2007, 21:31 Posted By: wraggster

via IGN

When Rockstar announced that they had acquired the rights to develop a game based around 70s cult-cinema classic, The Warriors, gamers and fans of the film were filled with questions. How would it work? Could it be done? Heck - would it even be worthwhile? Eventually the answers rang clearly when a low-key, slightly tarnished masterpiece was released on the PS2 back in 2005. Now, a year-and-a-half later, a PSP version has emerged, and at first glance, it's impressively and near-precisely akin to the bigger-screened version. However, one aspect that has been announced but discussed very little is the wireless co-op mode.

For those not versed in the ways and means of The Warriors, essentially the film is a tale of warring street gangs in campy themed costumes going toe-to-toe for control of the city's underworld. Caught in the middle of a murder they didn't commit, members of The Warriors gang go on a roaring rampage of revenge, Tarantino-style - only, minus the Tarantino.

We played through a number of the single-player storyline missions, as well as some multiplayer fisticuff battles. Initially, you start off in The Warriors' gangland warehouse, as in the PS2 version. This acts as an hub for selecting the next chapter in the plot, or for accessing a host of extra modes and unlockables. One of the first significant points of difference is that the 'secret' unlockable Double Dragon knock-off, mimicked exactly, is immediately accessible from the outset. Clearly, this decision has been made to emphasize the importance of cooperative experiences on Sony's handheld.

Every mission in the game now works flawlessly in co-op mode. Even the initial New Blood opening mission allows two players to grapple against bums and, occasionally, each other. Certainly a two-player mode was included in the original release; however, a separate, personal screen is infinitely superior to split screen gaming and breathes new life into the game.

It it's called 'co-op' for nothing, after all, and there are many opportunities for cooperation throughout the levels. Even down to the ways in which the characters grapple, two players can creatively bash the snot out of any foolish mug willing to stand his ground.

The controls from the PS2 version have been adapted and simplified to suit the PSP's restructured control scheme. The face buttons still grapple, throw, punch and kick, while the D-pad's directional buttons block and heal. L and R adjust the camera angle and target lock-on respectively.

While on the surface The Warriors is a beat-em-up par excellence, the game also diverges into moments and sequences of old-school platforming skills, racing and even puzzle-solving. The there's the included graffiti tagging, car stereo theft and other black-market microgames to tackle along the way - all of which can be attempted with two players.

In a latter mission entitled Writer's Block, the gang is being pursued by the Hi-Hats - crazy, top-hat donning gang-bangers. While being chased across town, you and your multiplayer partner are simultaneously racing over rooftops, jumping ledges, scaling chain link fences and trying desperately not to fall off. The cooperative nature of the level means that even if one player plummets, the other has the chance to succeed by reaching relative safety at the end of the stage.

Other levels see you tackling the Baseball Furies' fictitious leader, a double-bat carrying behemoth. A bit of teamwork can take the heat off of one player long enough for the other to dive in and pummel the ringleader's cranium. Still others challenge you to a tag-off; spray paint as many key areas in the area as possible, while competing against a rival gang. This requires a bit of strategy, since the location cycles from one spot to the next, and we found the most effective approach was if one player marked one half of the area, while the other took on the other half.

We're not sure how they've managed to crank out the textural detail that they have, but somehow The Warriors looks almost as good as the PS2 version. Facial textures are noticeably lower in resolution, granted, but the environmental detail is astounding. At times, it's easy to forget that this is a portable version. When you factor in that all of the content of the PS2 version is included, soundtracks, voices and otherwise, it makes for an impressive package.

All of this graphical showboating comes at a price, as there is definitely noticeable slowdown during instances where there are more than half a dozen characters on-screen. It never gets so severe that it affects the gameplay, but we'd love to see this get ironed out in time for release.

While we still question whether or not The Warriors really needed to be ported across to the PSP, there is no question over Rockstar's commitment to the handheld, or their ability to excel at just about every title they choose to bring across. Due for release in just under a month, we're confident that, alongside Liberty City and Vice City Stories, you may have a third, if admittedly rehashed, reason to keep your portable out of the hock shop.

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Chili Con Carnage Multiplayer Impressions

February 2nd, 2007, 21:32 Posted By: wraggster

via IGN

As satisfying videogame experiences go, diving through the air and putting a bullet in the head of a moustachioed Mexican from a hundred meters away may not rank alongside finishing Gears of War on Insane, but it's still pretty rewarding. Pulling off the same sniper shot while flipping off a wall and wearing a hat shaped like chicken egg, however, is damn cool. What's more, moments like this happen all the time in Chili Con Carnage, both in the single-player game but more so in the multiplayer modes the game has to offer, as we realised when we took on all-comers around the IGN UK offices.

There are two multiplayer games to choose from: Hangman can be played by up to four people using a single PSP while Fiesta allows gun-toting gringos to scrap it out via wi-fi. Well, scrap it out probably isn't the best way to describe how the game plays, because neither multiplayer mode is a classic deathmatch. Instead players take turns to wrack up the highest score possible, by executing stylish kills and pulling off stupidly over-the-top moves.

In Fiesta mode, up to four players first choose their character from a hotchpotch bunch of scruffs, before selecting one of five areas - Rancho Vireillo, Peurto Indsutrial, Arena Del Tora, The Hacienda and the Jungle - to battle in. It's then a case of hitting the points limit before your opponent. However, while you all fight on the same level at the same time, it's not actually in the same arena - the number of bad guys you fight is the same but you never come face-to-face with the other players.

Here's where it gets interesting though. If you pull off a spectacular kill or a string of impressive shots, you send a load of enemies over to the other players' screens. On the flipside, if you're playing like a chump then your screen will get cluttered with death-dealing Mexicans. Executing a stylish kill really is important then, to boost your score and also make life for your opponents very hard.

As with the single-player game, the best way to earn big points is by stringing combos together. When you kill an enemy a time bar on the right fills, then starts emptying slowly as the game goes on. Pop a cap in another bad guy and the bar refills and your combo extends, and continues to do so if you keep on gunning down thugs and keep the meter filled with juice. Let it drain, however, and you lose your combo. Although it's by no means a disaster because the points you accumulated are banked, it means you've got to start building your bonus multiplyer from scratch once again, which is a right pain in the backside.

There's more to Chili Con Carnage's multiplayer than extravagant kills and fat combos too. The game is packed with power-ups and collectibles that can turn around the outcome of a game in an instant. Dropped by enemies after a classy kill, basic bonuses include weapon and combo steals, which bump up your arsenal or score depending on the one you pick up. Earthquake isn't quite as vicious as it sounds, causing everyone to fall flat on their backsides for a few seconds - meaning your combo meter drains because it's impossible to rattle off a shot. Enemy Confetti can be a combo-crippling power-up to use on your opponents if timed correctly, because it shreds all of the enemies in their arena so there's literally nothing to shoot at.


Dual Wield and Camera Twist are the two most potent pick-ups in the game, the first tooling you with a pair of pistols, shotguns, AK-47s - whatever you can lay your hands on - so you can make light work of anyone stupid enough to get in your way. Camera Twist flips the screen of your opponents, totally disorientating them for 10 seconds. And finally there's Rewind, which turns back time, meaning you can give death the slip if you're quick on your feet.

Power-ups don't play a big part in Hangman mode, which is a much more straightforward concept. Players take turns to notch up the highest score with the loser awarded a piece of gallows. When the hangman puzzle is complete it's game over.

Both multiplayer modes are pretty simple, which is true for Chili Con Carnage overall really. Senselessly killing Mexicans dressed as chickens is pretty shallow stuff, but there is something quite addictive about trying to pull off a more spectacular kill than your mate, especially if they're constantly raising the bar. Simple close-up kills soon make way for wall-climbing bulls-eyes, but even they're not a patch on multiple headshots while diving through the air - and wearing a giant sombrero, of course.

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F.E.A.R. Hands-on

February 2nd, 2007, 21:35 Posted By: wraggster

via ign

One of the scariest games to come along in some time, F.E.A.R. (short for First Encounter Assault Recon) hit the PC back in late 2005 to critical acclaim, and then again late last year on the Xbox 360. This March, Sierra Entertainment, Monolith Productions and Day 1 Studios will unleash the frightening shooter on PlayStation 3 owners everywhere.

If you haven't played either of the existing versions, F.E.A.R. follows the exploits of you and your tactical assault team sent in to take out a crazed killer. You begin seeing visions of a little girl dressed in red eviscerating others (including your men) amongst other eerie sightings, like blood-filled hallways and decomposing corpses. This setting surrounds a shooter filled to the brim with chaos, shootouts against armies of soldiers and just pure adrenaline-pumping scenarios.

Introduced in the Xbox 360 version of the game, F.E.A.R. on the PlayStation 3 will include the Instant Action mode. You begin each round with 15 minutes on the clock, a number of weapons, a health pack or two and some grenades at your ready. The goal is to clear out the area as quickly and skillfully as possible. At the end of the round, be it after clearing the level, running out of time or dying, you'll be given a score based on how quickly you finished the section, how many enemies you killed, how you killed them, your accuracy and more. Your stats will then be uploaded to an online leaderboard where you'll be able to compare your efforts with other gamers from around the world. It's a difficult mode that's meant to kill you, so you'll want to hone your skills before even thinking about giving Instant Action a go.

While we haven't been able to run two versions side-by-side as of yet, the content of the single-player portion seems to mimic those of the PC and Xbox 360 games. The game is broken up into a series of chapters, and after completing a section you're able to return to them for prosperity's sake.

Day 1 has done a pretty fine job at porting the original game's keyboard and mouse control scheme to consoles. Playing F.E.A.R. on the SIXAXIS feels great, with a really nice balance between weight and ease of aim given to the player. Dialing in headshots is rather easy, even without any aiming assist in place. The game's relatively complex input system (for a shooter, that is) has been mapped really well, with oft-used things like Slow-Mo attached to the shoulder buttons while less combat-intensive items like the flashlight have been moved to the D-Pad. You have a handful of customization options, though you're unable to entirely remap the controls or use a southpaw setup.

While Day 1 has done a great job with the feel of the game, it unfortunately hasn't done so well with the visuals. All of the effects from the PC and Xbox 360 releases are here, like blurring when you enter slow-mo, particle effects aplenty, chips in the scenery from bullet holes and such, but it just doesn't look very sharp. To put it simply, the whole game is quite blurry. We're not just talking texture detail, which is indeed not very good, but the video looks like it's been rendered at a low resolution and then upscaled to HD. The framerate mostly holds steady, though there are a few blips or loading pauses here and there, but the main problem really is a lack of sharpness.

We're told that the final version of the game features enhanced visuals and a better framerate, and we believe it will, but we're very skeptical at just how much of a difference there will be. At this point, F.E.A.R. is a far cry from what the PlayStation 3 is truly capable of. We'll see how the final release goes...

Another somewhat disappointing aspect in our PlayStation 3 build of F.E.A.R. is that its AI tends to be spotty. Its first instinct always seems to be to simply duck, regardless of what's going on. On more than one occasion we tossed a grenade into a group of enemies and simply watched them duck to the ground for a few seconds before they were blown to bits. Fortunately, more often than not the AI does show some semblance of the intelligence that we saw in the PC game, with soldiers backing up while shooting and attempting to use cover, or ducking under or jumping over objects in the environment to get to you. Hopefully the AI will be ironed out before release as it's mostly pretty good.

So far F.E.A.R. on the PlayStation 3 seems to match the intensity and involving gameplay of its PC and Xbox 360 counterparts, but the AI still needs a slight bit of tweaking and the visuals need a lot of work. Here's hoping for a last minute visual boost to bring this version up to speed.

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Final Fantasy remakes blip on Gamestop's website

February 2nd, 2007, 21:44 Posted By: wraggster

via pspfanboy

If we're to believe 1UP, Square is heads-over-heels in love with the PSP. A deluge of titles is supposed to head to our favorite handheld, including remakes of Final Fantasy I & II. Although SCEA usually has a no-ports policy, it appears that this high-profile re-release may get greenlit for US release. Gamestop's website briefly showed a listing for the two ports for June and July, each retailing for $39.99.

While Gamestop doesn't have the most reliable release date information, they can be very good at accidentally revealing new games before they're officially announced. Remember Oblivion? This is probably a positive indicator that the games will receive an English release, but I hope that price is completely fabricated: there's no justification at all for a $40 price tag on an NES game remake.

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Galaxy's End: help make this RTS a reality

February 2nd, 2007, 21:56 Posted By: wraggster

via pspfanboy



An avid PSP Fanboy reader, Joe, sent us in a great tip about this upcoming PSP RTS. It's called Galaxy's End, and will support not only Ad-Hoc multiplayer, but Infrastructure as well. The graphics look to impress, and the gameplay looks fast and fun. So what's the problem?

There's no publisher for this game. It comes from a new dev team called Tiki Games, and it seems publishers are wary of supporting an original IP from an untested team. However, this game looks like it has some awesome potential.

More info and Screens

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Medal of Honor: Heroes downloadable demo

February 2nd, 2007, 22:18 Posted By: wraggster



via pspfanboy

Time for a new demo for PSP Owners to play with, todays demo is Medal of Honour for the PSP.

Heres the instructions to get it on your PSP:

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RCO Swapper

February 2nd, 2007, 22:27 Posted By: wraggster

New release from Daveychan:

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PMP Mod AVC v1.02M-I subtitle mod (fw1.5/OE)

February 2nd, 2007, 22:42 Posted By: wraggster

New release from Madruscoe:

Hello everybody
There were some annoying things for me in PMP Mod AVC. Through my poor PSP programming experiences, I did some changes. The most important imo was the time and battery display in PMP (have no wrist watch and dont use irShell :-) ) and some subtitle stuff. Feel free to use if you like it. Never mind if you dont. :-)

Analogue stick in filelist:
- up/down = up/down
- left = exit
- right = play

Headphones/remote control in filelist:
- forward = down
- back = up
- play/pause = play

Thumbnails are .png files with resolution 96x54 px. They can be created on pc and correctly named (movie.pmp, movie.png...) but when .pos file are generated, png will be overwritten by new screenshot.

to-do/plans/ideas:
- better interface (gui), graphics (I have no much time )
- analogue pad/remote control support during video play (?)
- directory support in filelist (important!)
- standby support (?)
- playlist



Verison 1.02M-I (02.02.07) tuned by madruscoe:

- fixed displaying long filenames in deleting dialog window
- added ability to set any brightness you want (included 4th brightness

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HMV refuses PS3 pre-orders unless you buy a PSP too

February 3rd, 2007, 10:22 Posted By: wraggster

via eurogamer

HMV's online store is now taking pre-orders for PlayStation 3 - providing consumers are also willing to purchase a 4GB PSP pack for a total price of GBP 675.

An email sent out to customers today says the deal will enable them to become one of the "lucky few" who will be able to pick up a PS3 at launch. It reads: "At HMV.co.uk, we've been working with Sony to offer up to 5000 customers an incredible deal when you buy the new Sony 4GB PSP.

"Anyone who takes advantage of this offer will get priority over other HMV.co.uk customers for the PlayStation 3." The deal also includes two PSP games - Killzone Liberation and Gangs of London - and the price for the bundle is listed as GBP 674.99.

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HMV refuses PS3 pre-orders unless you buy a PSP too

February 3rd, 2007, 10:22 Posted By: wraggster

via eurogamer

HMV's online store is now taking pre-orders for PlayStation 3 - providing consumers are also willing to purchase a 4GB PSP pack for a total price of GBP 675.

An email sent out to customers today says the deal will enable them to become one of the "lucky few" who will be able to pick up a PS3 at launch. It reads: "At HMV.co.uk, we've been working with Sony to offer up to 5000 customers an incredible deal when you buy the new Sony 4GB PSP.

"Anyone who takes advantage of this offer will get priority over other HMV.co.uk customers for the PlayStation 3." The deal also includes two PSP games - Killzone Liberation and Gangs of London - and the price for the bundle is listed as GBP 674.99.

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PS2, DS Real Console War Winners

February 3rd, 2007, 10:32 Posted By: wraggster

via /.

Paradox writes in with a link to an MSNBC article that shouldn't be too surprising for anyone: the real winners of the console war are the DS and the PS2. Boasting numbers unmatchable by the johnny-come-lately next-gen consoles, the PS2 and Nintendo DS each sold about 1.5 Million units last December. Article author Kristin Kalning points out the reality: given the high quality of gaming in general nowadays, the low prices and rich libraries of these 'venerable' systems will see them in circulation for some time to come. Given the success of last-gen consoles, what are your plans regarding gaming systems? Are you holding out for price drops, or considering buying one of the older systems now that they're considerably less expensive?

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THQ dodging Halo 3, GTA 4

February 3rd, 2007, 10:49 Posted By: wraggster

THQ released financial results for its fiscal third quarter (October through December) today, and afterward, company executives jumped on a conference call for a grilling from industry analysts.

When asked about how the company was planning to compete with the expected release of heavyweights like Halo 3 and Grand Theft Auto IV later this year, a THQ executive said the company would do what it could to avoid a head-to-head fight with either game. While it isn't shy about releasing licensed fare like Nickelodeon-based titles or WWE games in the same time frame as industry-wide blockbusters, the publisher has "strategically placed" original offerings like Destroy All Humans!, Juiced, and Saints Row around the bigger releases rather than be overshadowed by them.

Also on the topic of Saints Row, one analyst asked how much the publisher was spending to port the open-world Xbox 360 gangbanger to the PlayStation 3. While THQ execs wouldn't put a dollar figure on the answer, one of them called the price to get the game to the PS3 "a fraction" of the original development cost, saying 15 percent was "not a bad guesstimate" on the cost of porting an Xbox 360 game to the PS3, or vice versa.

A couple things THQ has planned for both systems are in-game advertising and microtransactions. Specifically, THQ plans to put both into at least four games in its fiscal year 2008 (April 2007 through March 2008). So far, three games are confirmed to have them: the freshly named Stuntman Ignition, a new Juiced, and the next MX game. All told, the publisher expects to collect about $5 million from downloadable content and in-game advertising in the next fiscal year.

via gamespot

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Japanese Retailers: Used 360s > Used PS3s

February 3rd, 2007, 11:04 Posted By: wraggster

via kotaku

You might think that no one in Japan wants an Xbox 360. But you know what they want less? The 20 GB model of the PLAYSTATION 3. Mega retailer Sofmap is only giving 27,000 yen cash to folks trading in a used 20GB PS3....and 27,500 yen for a used Xbox 360. This is what you might call a raw deal for resellers, as the 20 GB model of the PS3 retails for 49,980 yen, while the 360 goes for a much cheaper 38,980.

Mock Sony's choice to limit European PLAYSTATION 3 sales to the 60 GB model, but maybe they're right.

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WipEout sequels on PS3, PSP inspiring PlayStation Network growth

February 3rd, 2007, 11:12 Posted By: wraggster

via joystiq

Speaking with SCE Liverpool, Develop magazine has seemingly uncovered news of a pair of WipEout installments bound for PlayStation 3 and PSP. The unsurprising revelation has been tied to Sony's downloadable content strategy. Liverpool's WipEout Pure showed promise, registering more than 800,000 downloads of add-on content, but subsequent Sony efforts have failed to follow suit.

Liverpool plans to pick up the slack with upcoming versions of WipEout. "Downloadable content helped keep [WipEout Pure] on the shelf and encouraged people to not trade the game in," explained development director Clemens Wangerin, adding, "Being able to cater to a much finer resolution of gamers' tastes and maybe create more byte-sized or customizable gaming is a massive advantage." Sounds like Sony's starting to understand the importance of PlayStation Network.

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PSP 3xAAA Battery Mod Tutorial

February 3rd, 2007, 11:27 Posted By: wraggster

Acidmods have posted a tutorial on how to make a battery mod for your PSP with AAA batteries



Check it out Here

Personally i prefer the 2600mah battery (nearly 50% more powerful than the original Sony effort.

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‘Give us the 20Gb PS3’

February 3rd, 2007, 11:29 Posted By: wraggster

via mcvuk

Leading games retailers have told MCV that they do want to see the ‘basic’ PS3 hardware launched in the UK – while consumers have already begun petitioning Sony to make the lower-priced unit available.
In its European PS3 launchplan (MCV Newsflash 24/01), Sony revealed that the decision to only launch with a 60Gb model only was down to “retail and consumer demand”.

But retailers have told MCV that they would welcome the 20Gb SKU, whilst conceding that rolling out a single version at launch may prove a wise move.

Senior product manager at Gamestation Anna Downing told MCV: “When you take into consideration the high price point of PS3, along with software and technology to support its full potential, there is definitely room for the 20Gb SKU in the UK market. However, early adopters will choose the 60Gb model, as was evident with the 360 launch.”

Senior buying manager of games at Tesco Dan Cook agreed. “The split we have seen on Xbox 360 suggests that a later launch of a ‘core’ product is not a bad idea,” he told MCV. “But launching with one SKU makes things easier for retailers like us.”

Console and video games manager at Amazon James Schall added that he would have liked to be able to give customers the option from launch: “I like the concept of allowing the consumer to choose his entry level into next-gen gaming.”

And it’s not just retail – consumer forums discussing the 20Gb PAL no-show are full of disgruntled fans.

A 20Gb-themed thread on ‘semi-official’ PS3 blog Three Speech includes comments such as: “Yet another time that the UK gets ripped off”, “20Gb, I’m waiting for you” and “Pre-order cancelled”.

Eurogamer’s forum even encourages members to sign a petition for Sony to launch the system.

One user posted an email he sent to Sony on the site, which reads: “I see you plan to release the less expensive 20GB based on ‘demand’. Well, I demand that you release it.”

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Wrestling Returns to PSP

February 3rd, 2007, 15:08 Posted By: wraggster

via ign

In a call to investors, THQ announced it would release WWE titles for Nintendo DS, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii and Xbox 360. Last year wrestling did not come to DS and was absent from the launch of PS3 and Wii.

Previously the title "WWE Superstar Aggression" for DS was found on retail lists. THQ has not given an official name to its DS wrestling title.

No further details were offered about the titles. It's unknown if the DS and Wii versions will be unique to those platforms or if they will be variations on the WWE SmackDown Vs. Raw series.

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Back to Brooktown

February 3rd, 2007, 15:10 Posted By: wraggster

via ign

Dating simulators have been the bee's knees in Japan for some time now, but as of yet publishers have been rather hesitant to test the waters outside of the country with titles from the genre. Konami is set to change all that with its 90210-esque release of Brooktown High: Senior Year in a few month's time.

The point of the game is to simply date as many of the other students as you can while managing your time. Aside from cheesing it up with the other upper-classmen, you'll have to study if you want better grades, get a job if you want some extra cash, get to class on time and, of course, catch some Zs now and then. It's sort of like the time management issues that you find in The Sims, except that instead of raising a family your goal is to raise something else.


When you first begin your senor year, you need to create your character. You start by taking a personality test that determines how much of a jock, nerd, goth or prep that you are. After your personality is determined, you then get to decide how you want your character to look from a small number of choices. You start with the basics, but you can expand your wardrobe and such by picking up some new threads later on.

Clothing is an important part of the game and will determine how some people will interact with you. If you wear the wrong clothes, you'll alienate some of the people at Brooktown. When the seasons change, you'll need to update your wardrobe or be mocked for wearing a t-shirt in winter or a heavy coat in the spring. You could also just go to class in your underwear, but we're not sure anyone would appreciate that.

Though you choose what you say to people in conversations, the game is not a simple "Choose Your Own Adventure" type of game. Your personality and clothing will directly reflect how others view you, and combined with your comments will determine how they react to you. You won't be able to score with the head cheerleader if you wear a pencil protector no matter how much you're able to sweet talk her.


While conversations play perhaps the biggest and most important role in the game, Brooktown High also includes a number of mini-games that make up events. For example, you can partake in a game of strip blackjack or get down with a little tongue wrestling. In the tongue wrestling game, you're in control of a bottle of breath spray and must navigate around the screen while collecting hearts and avoiding other objects, all while spraying back bad breath. No, it's not exciting as making out with a cheerleader behind the football field after the big game, but it is reasonably entertaining and challenging.

After you complete the school year, the game will fast-forward 20 years in the future and show you what became of yourself, whether or not you ended up marrying anyone from the game and generally how you wind up doing in your late 30s. Of course, before you get to this point you'll have to pass a boss fight with the school bully at the prom...

Brooktown High: Senor Year certainly won't be for everyone, but it actually seems like a decent bit of fun. We're still scratching our heads over the comment from some goth chick about her wanting to spank us with her spatula, but we'll have to wait until the game's release later this year to find out how well she handles her kitchenware.

Screens Via Comments

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Coded Arms Contagion Update

February 3rd, 2007, 15:12 Posted By: wraggster

via ign

Yesterday at Konami's annual Gamer's Day we had a chance to play the latest build of Coded Arms Contagion. The game is the follow-up to the original PSP release of Coded Arms, and in some way is connected to the forthcoming PlayStation 3 title Coded Arms Assault. We started the game from scratch, creating our own profile and running through the opening moments of the game.

Contagion opens with a nicely-rendered cutscene where you see your character, Grant, entering the VR chamber to jack into the virtual world of Coded Arms. The only other person in the area is the general, standing behind the controls for the machine, puffing away on cigars. Once inside, he talks to you via a com link and issues commands.


The first thing you'll have to do is run through a short tutorial that introduces you to the play mechanics. There's no way to skip this, but it does provide some rather useful instructions on how to hack and upgrade your plug-ins. We're unsure of whether you'll be able to skip this if you have a save from the original game on your Memory Stick, but it would be nice as it's reasonably basic stuff and the game gives you reminders during the first mission anyway.

The first true scenario in the game takes place in what looks like a factory of some sort. It's a boxy environment, with sharps turns at every corner. There are a number of complicated battle zones however, with machinery impeding direct access of your bullets into your enemies.

The game's control system works on the now-standard setup for first-person shooters on the PSP. The left analog stick handles movement while the four face buttons are used for aiming. The problem with this setup though is that you only have two buttons left for other actions, and with three main commands in the game (fire, jump and lock-on), the lock-on button ending up being mapped to the down button on the D-Pad. It's sort of an awkward setup that can be gotten used to, but it's not as slick as it could be.


The lock-on mechanics are a little wonky anyway though. The game will attempt to aim at the person closest to the center of the screen, regardless of how far away they are. If there's an enemy 10 feet away and just a tad to your left, who happens to be lighting you up with gunfire, and another guy dead-center but on the other side of the level, you'll aim at the farther guy. You then need to press down again to remove the lock-on, then adjust your aim and try it again, or simply aim by hand.

Coded Arms Contagion looks really good at this point, sporting visuals that rival those of some PlayStation 2 shooters in our eyes. Particle effects and explosions look nice, and texture detail is quite sharp. It doesn't run perfectly smooth, but it's certainly playable and the sharp visuals make it worth it.

So far, Coded Arms Contagion looks like a very solid shooter wrapped in some nice ideas. The game is currently slated to ship on March 13th, so stay on the lookout for this one.

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Hellboy Hands-on

February 3rd, 2007, 15:14 Posted By: wraggster

via ign

Although the PSP has enjoyed many ports from PS2 and Xbox games, more powerful systems are now the being used as the lead SKU. With Xbox 360 and PS3 pushing new graphical boundaries, quickly pumping out a handheld version of the same game won't be quite as easy, if possible at all. Such is the case with Hellboy which looks to be a vastly different beast than its console cousins. Still under the helm of Krome Studios and following a action brawler formula, Hellboy for PSP should provide a totally different experience for fans of the pleasant spawn of hell.

The demo build we played started out with a comic book themed paneled introduction. Hellboy is wandering the desert in search of a hidden oasis, an idea that he readily agrees isn't the best. The playable section begins in an ancient Middle Eastern themed village with dusty streets and heavy use of the tan to brown color range. Hellboy is controlled using the analog nub only and we found his movements to be responsive. The attack buttons are mapped similarly to the console versions, with light and heavy attacks as well as being given the option to pick up the enemies and toss them around.


As we fought through the demo stage, the layout for how small battles would be presented became apparent. Large stone tablets blocked access to other roads and side streets that would only move down after clearing the area of enemies and then waiting for the next bit of the world to stream into the memory. It worked well and gave us no loading screens, even as we entered an inner cavern where we faced a giant boss bug.

The first major fight was introduced through an in-engine cutscene where the bug burst out from a hole in the center of the room. As the camera panned around it, several light emitting stones were spotlit. Ah, the keys to an easy victory…sort of. The bug had enough arms that he could knock you around, pick up smaller enemies and toss them your way, or start bumping into the walls to reshape the layout of the cavern. After climbing two stone staircases and turning on some stones that emit damaging light, the boss started flailing about until it hit the wall and revealed a new path up the side of the cave. We climbed our way up and grabbed the final stone to put into place and complete the fight, though it wasn't much of a fight as the battle was essentially a puzzle without any real combat necessary


The graphics in Hellboy have quite a ways to go if they want to compete with some of the heavier hitters on the PSP. Perhaps it was just the level we were allowed to play, but the color scheme that focuses heavily on the brown side of things looked fairly bland and caused the game to feel a bit empty. Things perked up a bit once we got inside of the cave for the boss fight, leaving hope that the still-early build of the game we played will not be fully representative of the final game. To get a better idea on the game's appearance, be sure to check out our new direct-feed movies in the media gallery.

The handheld version of Hellboy is looking like it will wind up as a standard brawler, which isn't a bad direction to take at all given the intellectual property it is based on. Look for more Hellboy impressions and media as the game gets closer to release.

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Release: L3D 3d modeler beta 1 (PSP)

February 3rd, 2007, 19:55 Posted By: TacticalPenguin

[spoiler=Readme]L3D 3d modeler Beta 1 by TacticalPenguin
Concept by OwlHuntr

What it does:
This program can draw, save, and load 3d models. It can be used to create 3d models for use in lua gamesor for converting to other formats.

Features:
-Draws 3d models in full 3d out of triangles
-Can undo triangles
-Can save models with the name model#.ext with # being a number and ext being an extension of either lua, txt, or xyz
-Can load models previously drawn with L3D 3d modeler
-Camera can move around
-Grid for point reference
-Color of triangles can be changed
-Lines from points are shown while drawing a triangle for reference to where other points have been placed
-Well thought-out control scheme

Controls:
-Pause menu:
--Up/down: Change selection
--X: Make selection
---Save option:
----Square/circle: Cycle through extensions
----Left/right on dpad: Change number
---Load option:
----Left/right on dpad: Cycle through saved models

-Camera movement mode:
--Left/right on analog or dpad: Rotate camera
--Up/down on analog or dpad: Move forward/backward
--L/R: Lower/raise camera

-Cursor movement mode:
--Left/right on dpad: Precisely decrease/increase cursor's x position
--Up/down on dpad: Precisely decrease/increase cursor's z position
--Left/right on analog: Decrease/increase cursor's x position
--Up/down on dpad: Decrease/increase cursor's z position
--L/R tap: Precisely raise/lower cursor
--L/R hold: raise/lower cursor

-All modes:
--Start: Pause
--Select: Change modes
--Cross: Select a point of the triangle you are drawing
--Triangle: Change selected color value
--Square/circle: Decrease/increase selected color value's value

To install: Copy both __SCE__L3DB1 and %__SCE__L3DB1 into PSP/GAME for kxploit version, copy L3DB1 into PSP/GAME for 1.0/2.0+/OE

Notes:
-This must use the luaplayer it is packaged with, for it uses a function which is modded into the luaplayer
-Trying to load a file which is not a model may crash the program
-Depending on the order in which you draw the points of a triangle, it may face away from the camera; if so it will not appear. Draw the points in backwards order to make it face the other way.

Thanks to:
TheMarioKarters-Found two bugs, one which crashed the program. Both were fixed
Youresam-Showed me how to save a table with non-string/number elements in it and answered many questions related to program[/spoiler]

Screenshots:











Download links:

For 1.0/2.0+/OE: http://1337noobs.com/dl/releases/l3d/b1/L3DB1OE.rar
For 1.5 kxploit: http://1337noobs.com/dl/releases/l3d/b1/L3DB1KX.rar

Hey guys I finally finished making my 3d model drawer today. Basically, it can draw 3d models which can then be used in games. It's like mini-gmax in a way. It can save and load models, undo triangles of a model, use any of the 16.7 million colors the PSP screen can show, it has a grid for refrence, camera movement, lots of stuff. Have fun!

Heck we could even have "Draw this 3d model on your PSP" contests!

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Lua-Pac-Man v0.1 - beta

February 3rd, 2007, 22:40 Posted By: Yashamaru

Lua-Pac-Man v0.1 beta is now at an open release state. This release adds the requested (Thanks to: mr_nick666) skin mod menu. The Skin mod menu makes changing sprites easy just make a folder with your mods name and add some images also skin mods change everything from the intro loop, intermissions, and of course the game. I have added four skin mods to show how easy it is.



There is also a test in this release of the next mod menu item, Gametype mods. Gametype mods change how a game is played. One Gametype mod is in this release Space Invader. This simple game shows the idea but still has a long way to go. The ghost AI received a simple update. This update will help the ghosts find Pac-Man and if eaten get back much faster.

–Added
*Add Mod (Skin) Menu - [Requested by: mr_nick666]
*Add Mod (Game type) Menu
*Add Mod (Skin) - PacMean
*Add Mod (Skin) - Space Invader
*Add Mod (Skin) - Frogger
*Add Mod (Skin) - Ghost
*Add Mod (Skin) - Classic
*Add Mod (Gametype) - Space Invader

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FullScreen Browser: Better surfing with the PSP Browser v1.2

February 4th, 2007, 00:28 Posted By: wraggster

New release from the Nameless

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Todo Espanol Ver. 0.01

February 4th, 2007, 00:34 Posted By: wraggster

News/release from andyauff:

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Pasky's CWcheat Database Editor v1.30

February 4th, 2007, 00:40 Posted By: wraggster

News/release from Pasky:

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Block Dude v.1

February 4th, 2007, 01:28 Posted By: wraggster

Cools posted this news/release:

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PSP: AutoDowngrade Generator v1.0

February 4th, 2007, 11:02 Posted By: froggie22

News/release from theaceoffire:

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PSP: 1.5 & 3.0x Custom PSP theme pack. easy and detailed installation guide included.

February 4th, 2007, 11:41 Posted By: froggie22

Well this is my first release. This is simply just a few things packed with an installation guide on how to install them onto your psp. The guide will help new people alot..

Please read the readme for all instructions. VERY IMPORTANT!

It includes custom:
background - plain black
gameboot - sega
topmenu_plugin - 3D red folders (1.5 version and 3.0X version included)
font - some cool looking font (not sure of the name)
opening_plugin - external sound (windows)
wall paper - mario

This will work on v1.5 and v3.0X OE (dont use on 3.10 OE it has had problems. If you like you can try it and give feedback on if it worked)
Has only been tested on 3.03 OE-C but should work perfect on the others.
I have included topmenu_plugins for v1.5 psp's and v3.0X OE psp's.

You will need Filer or Flash Agent to do this.

Filer download: http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=51181

Flash Agent Download: http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=51001

Hallo007, Mediumguage, kgsws and I are not responsible for any bricks! this has been tested many times to make sure that it wont brick!
all you need to do if follow the instructions carefully!!! and make sure that you read them and not rush through it!!

Big thanks to Hallo007, Mediumguage and kgsws for the apps
tophead420 for the amazing font!

screenies
15281
15282

DOWNLOAD:
15283

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[RELEASE] Xandu's Media Player v1.2

February 4th, 2007, 11:54 Posted By: -Xandu-

Here's version 1.2 of XMP.

Changelog:
-No more crashing.
-Album Artwork support (thanks to Homer for the help).
-More bug fixes.
-Wav,Ogg,Mod,S3m,IT support added.
-All music now appear correctly (PSP/MUSIC)

Screens:





Controls:

X Button : Pause current Mp3
O Button : Play/Resume Mp3
[] Button : Stop current Mp3
L Button : Access "Now Playing"
R Button : Access "Library"

3.03 OE users:

-Make sure it is located in PSP/GAME150
-Make sure your music are in PSP/MUSIC


Album Artwork info :
-Having a corrupt image or a huge one will refuse to play Mp3


Special thanks to:
Homer - For his great support
D0N - Official BETA tester

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XviD4PSP 4.049 Released

February 4th, 2007, 14:21 Posted By: wraggster

Winnydows has released a new version of his rather excellent Video Converter for the PSP, heres the info and whats new:

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Epic considers "spectacular" console-exclusive content for UT3

February 4th, 2007, 14:22 Posted By: wraggster

Epic games hasn't ruled out exclusive patch content for the console versions of Unreal Tournament 3, producer Jeff Morris has revealed in an interview with CVG.

Morris told CVG that while UT3 will have the same content and likely be "the same sort of size" on PC and consoles, exclusive content could come in patches.

"While we want all of the versions to be the same that's not to say we won't do exclusive patches for each platform and that would enable us to do some pretty spectacular exclusive content," he said.

"We don't know the exact number of maps we'll ship with but we want it to be between 30 and 40 - that's substantially more than other games in the genre."

via cvg

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PS3 Loader is Real

February 4th, 2007, 15:02 Posted By: wraggster

A lot of sites are posting news that the PS3 Iso Loader is real and to be released soon, now first off we are against any piracy but this loader could be the way in for full on homebrew on the PS3. Lets hope that the hackers crack it for homebrew asap

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PSP Fanboy Theatre: Volume 5

February 4th, 2007, 15:56 Posted By: wraggster

Via pspfanboy

PSP Fanboy offers the latest and greatest movie and game trailers, formatted for the PSP in this new weekly feature. Check it out every Saturday. PSP owners can download files wirelessly via m.pspfanboy.com.

Instructions: Save all movie and thumbnail files to MP_ROOT/101ANV01/. Requires firmware 2.00 or above. Do NOT place in "VIDEO" folder. Firmware 2.80 or above do not need to download thumbnails.

Grindhouse
Black Snake Moan
Sunshine
Reign Over Me
After Burner: Black Falcon (PSP)

Check em out via link above.

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Rezel Cross - RPG for PSP

February 4th, 2007, 15:59 Posted By: wraggster

Via MagicBox

Sony will release an original RPG in Asia called Rezel Cross for PSP, the game features character design by Eiji Kaneda (Aquarion) and scripts by the team who produced Arc the Lad III and IV.

The story circles around the 5 protagonists who obtained super natural power Rezel due to a mysterious comet that returns every thousand year. At the same time numerous wild animals also turned into berserk beasts. The 5 protagonists were in a mission to stop the beasts, and discovered a dark force who attempts to use the Rezel power to take over the empire.

The game will divide into 20 chapters, the 5 protagonists possess the power of teleport, time pause, psycho kinesis, transformation and see-through.

The game will have 2D backgrounds and 3D characters. The battles are in full 3D, with an interface similar to PSP's XMB (Cross Media Bar). During the battles, you can obtain skill points to unlock ability boosts, Rezel Arts (special attacks) and Hyper Rezels (super attacks).

Rezel Cross (Chinese version) will be released in Taiwan on February 15, 2007, and the Japanese version will be available in other areas this spring.

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Firmware 3.11 to come on/before February 9th, I guess

February 4th, 2007, 16:05 Posted By: wraggster

via pspvault

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LuaChase V2

February 4th, 2007, 16:34 Posted By: scottyboynow

This is the second release for LuaChase, I have only been working on this version for 3/4 days, since V1. For those of you that did not see the first release this is a chasing game (name gives that away) where you control a player around the screen and get well chased until he gets you, when he does the game will restart.
New features include:
-Main Menu
-Map Menu
-Difficulty Menu
-New Map
I have added other features like credits,screenshot and exit back to menu and XMB, and in the next version I will make it so you cannot go off screen, so download and thanks for palying.

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3.10 Open Edition Rev A ! - Supports Latest Firmware

February 4th, 2007, 16:45 Posted By: gunntims0103

New Release of the Custom Firmware from Dark ALex which supports the Latest Sony 3.10 Firmware, Region Free UMD Movie Playback, Most Homebrew and also the Full Speed Playstation Emulator (Compatibility List)

Originally Posted by Dark_AleX
This is custom firmware 3.10 OE-A

Since it is the first release, it can only be installed as a full installation.

Instructions are as always, oeupdmaker to create the dxar from 150.PBP and 310.PBP, and 310oeflasher
to install the firmware from the dxar previously generated.

Although, it is obvious, i'll say it in capital letters: DO NOT USE ANY DXAR FROM 3.03 OE, USE THE ONE
GENERATED WITH THE INCLUDED OEUPDMAKER AND SONY 1.50 AND 3.10 FIRMWARES UPDATES.

Checksums of the generated dxar:

CRC32: 58D45EDF
MD5: BF1862F73FDF4B7458279ACFF4F6DAA2
SHA1: 683AD0ABA48A7968F3172A5AB2E41CF95A476801
SHA256: 2107EC67CE7434E250FF71AF302430B3586AA4519F3405D435 94414B3C940B74

Note 1: the installer will disable all plugins to avoid incompatibilities when booting. You can
enable them again in the recovery menu.

Note 2: the plugin to load 3.02 pops won't work anymore in 3.10 OE, due to some changes in pops
modules structure (meaudio fused with popsman, idcanager/idmanager behaviour slightly changed).
A new plugin for 3.10 could be written next week.

Changes in 3.10 OE-A:

- Change from 3.03 firmware to 3.10

- 4th level of brightness (aka battery eater) can now be selected also without ac adaptor.

- Changes in hen core:

* Static user elf's can now be executed in the 3.10 kernel. (this includes snes user version
between other programs)

* Tyranid's patch (added in 3.03 OE-C) consequences was not explained very well in the changelog of 3.03 OE-C:

- For programmers: it allows kernel modules to have user imports, making kernel programming
in 3.03/3.10 less strict.

- For users: plugins and applications that worked in 2.71 SE, but not in OE, *may* now work in 3.03OE-C
and 3.10 OE-A.

DIGG THIS NEWS

Download and give feedback via comment
via dark alex

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PSP v2 - One Mans Request

February 4th, 2007, 18:35 Posted By: wraggster

Sony got a lot of things right with the PSP but in certain areas they could have done much better or maybe even steal ideas from the likes of Nintendo etc.

First off i would like to have a TV Out on a PSP Mk 2, the ability to play on TV or watch your UMD films on a big screen is a major plus for any console.

Secondly to cut down on load times via the UMD, it would be great if you could copy the majority of files to a Hard Drive/Memory Card so that Load times become a thing of the past but also having the checks to stop piracy.

Thirdly in the Memory Card slot maybe have the ability to use up to 16GB Cards or even a plugin hard drive ?

fourth on the list a much improved battery, we know a 3rd party battery can operate at 2600MAH why not say up to a 3400MAH battery, that way many more hours of fun.

fifth on the list would be the ability to snap on new faceplates easily and without undoing screws etc, that way you appease the modders.

sixth on the list, bring out a touchscreen for the PSP either in the DS clamshell design or a press a button and it drops design. With a touchscreen you could easily use it as a keyboard and it would be awesome for all those types of games that make the DS so damn popular but with the PSPs added power the scope for better games should be awesome.

seventh on my list would be with the inclusion of the touchscreen the ability to use it as a Phone which would in some ways mimic the Iphone by Apple but with the vast amount of games for the PSP could mean it a much bigger audience.

Lastly i would like to see some type of Homebrew support similiar to Microsofts XNA where we can legally create new Brew software for the PSP.



So do you agree or disagree with my article above or better still have ideas of your own, id love to hear them.

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[Release] Legend Of Zelda - Quest Of Link

February 4th, 2007, 19:13 Posted By: Zion

Via ZionMax.com

Legend Of Zelda - Quest Of Link alpha 1

Seen as my psp is briked i can no longer work on this until its unbricked so i have decided to show you all how it is so far.

I wanted way more than this in the first demo release but cant now my only psp is briked.
Im gutted about having to release it at this earlier than expected stage

Anyway what this game contains :

Coded Movie Intro
Menu
Sword Attacks
Blocking (shield)
Character Ineraction
a lot of effects and animations.
+ More

Not a lot in there but its past the standard of my previous zelda game (linkens quest)

and everything works great and is very pro.

Please download and enjoy

Also please do me the curtosy of not copying my ideas in your game. it took me ages to do this and think of all these ideas and i will be pissed if i see my ideas ripped off.



All sprites were hand made by paiku, backgrounds are nintendos from minish cap

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Every Extend Extra fan pack

February 4th, 2007, 23:07 Posted By: wraggster

via pspfanboy

While America has been able to enjoy Every Extend Extra for months now, Europe will be getting Mizuguchi's latest PSP-exclusive effort this Friday. This unique game fuses an interesting shooter-like concept with Q? Entertainment's trademark music synestesia.

In preparation for the game's European release, Buena Vista has prepared a new trailer and a few new wallpapers for you to download to your PSP. You'll learn how to play this puzzling game, and find some sweet designs for you to plaster your system with. Expect our full review of the game in next few days.

Download at link above

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Biohazard2 v2.0 FINAL

February 4th, 2007, 23:17 Posted By: wraggster

New release from Eskema:

Biohazard2 its a minigame to enjoy killing zombies.
Your goal its find the exit in each level, kill as many zombies as you want and try to avoid
the survivors.

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[RELEASE] VSH Analog

February 5th, 2007, 07:01 Posted By: Insomniac197

VSH Analog 0.1

This plugin allows use of the analog stick for movement in the VSH.
It is for OE firmwares.

To install:

Place in the SEPLUGINS folder on your memory stick
Add the path to vsh.txt
Enable the plugin through the recovery menu

Known bugs:

If you view any photos, the analog will stop working in the VSH.
I plan to fix this.

Thanks:

MaTiAz - For the idea while we were chatting on IRC
TyRaNiD - The code for hooking functions is from psplink

Might make this into a full key remapper for the VSH if I get bored enough again.

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Chotto Shot Night Vision! Mod

February 5th, 2007, 07:42 Posted By: wraggster

The guys over at Acidmods have released a new mod for the PSP called Chotto Shot Night Vision!.

Check out the video here -->

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PSP Submenu Icon Injector v2.0

February 5th, 2007, 07:44 Posted By: wraggster

New release from Dark420bishop:

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IceTea 1.3

February 5th, 2007, 11:26 Posted By: tommydanger

IceTea 1.3 is now up for grabs

-I hopefully fixed the auto id bug once for all (had only problems with .bin files)

-You can also now change the manual game id without recompiling the whole manual
go to manual->patch game id

-and I implemented proper toc handling.
In previous versions it would only implement the toc informations from a ccd file, now it also looks for a .toc file in the same directory as the iso (make sure it has the same suffix as the iso)

-reorganized menu bar

You can download it here:
http://downloads.sourceforge.net/ice...se_mirror=osdn

For what this tool is used for head over to the sourceforge site:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/icetea/

Tommy

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XMB Wave editor

February 5th, 2007, 11:46 Posted By: -Xandu-

This program lets you edit the wave on your XMB of your PSP.

Read the readme before you do anything.



Examples of hex editing shown below

After hex editing it.
Just mix up the letters and numbers and stuff!
Don't go too crazy or the waves will disappear!

Stuff you can post: screenshots, tips, etc.

Happy wave hacking!

from DarkStone and vb_master(Vulpix)

Post your examples here!

Download, view screen, and give feedback via comment

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First screens of Castlevania PSP

February 5th, 2007, 16:57 Posted By: wraggster

via cvg

Konami has released the first screenshots and details on the PSP Castlevania instalment, which is an update of the classic PC Engine title, Castlevania: Rondo of Blood.

The Dracula X Chronicles, as it's called, sports new 3D side-scrolling visuals with character designs by renowned series artist Ayumi Kojima, as well as introducing a new sound collection feature that will let players unlock music to listen to, and assign as they wish.

It's currently pencilled in for release in Q4 2007 - look out for our first hands-on impressions very soon.

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PS3 expectations are "unrealistic" says Sony

February 5th, 2007, 17:00 Posted By: wraggster

SCEA president Jack Tretton says that the phenomenal success of the PS2 has given gamers "unrealistic" expectations for its next-gen console, in an interview with EGM.

"Because we're in that leadership position, there are a lot of expectations thrust upon us and some of them are a little unrealistic," Tretton says in the interview.

"If we were a distant third in the platform race, people would have a warm spot in their hearts for the good old days of PlayStation and they'd actually root for us to get back on top," he continues. "But I don't know if we want to pay the price to get that kind of [love]"

But regardless of the pressure pilled on by Microsoft's head-start to the market, Tretton is confident that Sony will remain the market leader in the forthcoming console battle. "I think we've got a better machine," he says. "I think we've got a better business model, and I think we're going to win in the long term."

PlayStation 3 is out in Europe on March 23.

via cvg

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More spicy action from Chili Con Carnage

February 5th, 2007, 17:04 Posted By: wraggster

via cvg

PSP shooter Chili Con Carnage is back this afternoon in new screenshots.

The Mexico-based blaster is being developed by Total Overdose chaps Deadline Games and serves up a platter of over-the-top-action. You play Ramiro Cruz, who is taking on a drug cartel to avenge his dad's murder.

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World Championship Poker 2 Screenshots

February 5th, 2007, 17:13 Posted By: wraggster

Newly released for today are screenshots of the game World Championship Poker 2: Featuring Howard Lederer

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D3Publisher unveils new budget range

February 5th, 2007, 19:55 Posted By: wraggster

via gibiz

D3Publisher of Europe has announced plans to launch a new range of budget software for the PlayStation 2, with games priced at GBP 9.99 (EUR 15) each.

The first six titles in the new Essential Games range are due out on March 23 and will include fighting titles All Star Fighters and Dragon Sisters.

Then there's Zombie Hunters and Zombie Virus, plus mini-game collection Party Carnival and action adventure Darwin. A second batch of six games will follow later in 2007.

"With the PlayStation 2 now at its most affordable level, the budget sector will continue to grow with new adopters eager for good yet affordable titles," said D3PE's Liam Taylor.

"The Essential Games label will offer first-time releases for leading formats and will be perfectly targeted at the younger end of the gaming scale."

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Virtua Fighter 5 Released

February 5th, 2007, 20:17 Posted By: wraggster



This new installment in the critically-acclaimed Virtua Fighter series packs a serious punch fueled by the power of the PLAYSTATION®3. Virtua Fighter 5 will have an all-star cast of 17 fighters, including characters from the previous iterations along with two new characters named El Blaze and Eileen.

El Blaze is a Mexican fighting champion that defeats unsuspecting opponents with his lightning-quick Lucha Libre fighting style and Eileen uses a Monkey Kung Fu fighting style which she learned from her grandfather, a former Kung Fu master. Choose from an array of costumes and attachable items and then step into the ring and prove that you're the best.



Sega's highly anticipated PlayStation3™ fighting game Virtua Fighter 5 is in stock today, available as Asia Version (US$ 59.90) and Japanese Version (US$ 69.90).

Every copy of the Asia release version ships with a Virtua Fighter 10th Anniversary bonus disc (encoded to play on NTSC/J PS2™/PS3™ consoles only) as long as supplies last. We also received around 50% of this bonus disc with our Japanese version game preorders, which will be included with all early preorders that are shipping today.

The Virtua Fighter series is enjoyed best with a fighting stick. Hori's Fighting Stick 3 (US$ 49.90) and Real Arcade Pro Stick 3 (US$ 89.90) are in stock already. The Virtua Stick High Grade is expected to arrive later this week. Due to the high demand, we estimate to fill only around 60-70% of all Virtua Stick High Grade preorders within this week, more supply is scheduled to arrive next week.




Game features:

Two New Characters, El Blaze and Eileen, round out the cast of 17 dynamic characters. El Blaze is a Mexican wrestling champion that uses the Lucha Libre fighting style, and Eileen, originally from China, uses a “Kou Ken” (Monkey style Kung Fu fighting style).
Stunning, Highly-Detailed 3-D Fighting Environments inspired by locales around the world where players can challenge their opponents in unique types of arenas.
Offensive Move lets players to easily move around their opponent from the side and back allowing players to be more strategic with their battles.
Customize your character with the enhanced attachment system and customization engine giving players more flexibility than ever before when creating their characters.
Next Gen Presentation includes HD resolution widescreen and 5.1-channel Dolby Digital surround.

Buy at Play Asia

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Rogue Galaxy Released

February 5th, 2007, 20:20 Posted By: wraggster



Jaster is a young man who dreams of exploring the galaxy. In a sudden turn of fate, he is mistaken for a renowned bounty hunter and recruited into a band of space pirates in a race to find a legendary planet that holds the key to the greatest treasures and eternal life. Clues to ‘Eden’ are scattered round the Galaxy - Jaster will go onto to explore many different worlds and face countless battles in search for these clues – but some treasures are best left undiscovered.

Sony's PlayStation2™ RPG game Rogue Galaxy is in stock today, shipping as US release version at US$ 49.90 only. Prima Games' Rogue Galaxy Prima Official Game Guide is available at US$ 22.90, the Rogue Galaxy Original Soundtrack and Rogue Galaxy Premium Arrange soundtrack albums are available at US$ 29.90 each.

The original Japanese release version of this game is currently discounted at US$ 34.90 only. A Rogue Galaxy Director's Cut release is on preorder to ship March 21st.

Buy at Play Asia

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NBA 2K7 U.S. Version

February 5th, 2007, 21:12 Posted By: wraggster

New from SuccessHK



Create your own player and guide him through an elite NBA career - Train him, improve his skills, and outshine your competition to land endorsement deals and your own shoe contract
VIP System lets you save friends profiles to compete when they're not available - Learn their tendencies, moves, and tactics
Show off your in-game accomplishments -- earn Crib Credits with every game you play to deck out your crib, buy music, or play mini-games
Hire your own coaching staff and scouts, all with their own individual personalities and expectations
Track top draft picks with year-round scouting and Communication controls -- and tie everything together by receiving feedback from players, agents, coaching staff, press, and even the fans

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NBA 07 US version

February 5th, 2007, 21:14 Posted By: wraggster

New from SuccessHK



* Experience a new era of NBA action in 1080p, and a blistering 60 frames per second
* Take advantage of jukes, crossovers and spin moves as well as low-post moves using the PS3 motion sensor controller
* Reenact all of the past year's great performances by current NBA All-Stars - Score 81 points as Kobe Bryant, nab 21 rebounds with Ben Wallace or dish out 22 assists as Steve Nash
* Download 5 scenarios each week involving recent NBA games that are current and relevant in the NBA and try to relive those moments
*Crash the boards on a missed shot -- the new Power Boarding System lets players see the best position to grab the rebound

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Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom US Version

February 5th, 2007, 21:16 Posted By: wraggster

New from SuccessHK



* Experience next-gen graphics in true high-definition formats - Watch as the fantasy unfolds through vibrant environments, beautifully rendered characters, highly-detailed creatures, and intense battles
* Unique physics-based game mechanics let you tear through environments and defeat enemies in exciting ways - Knock enemies against walls and watch them tumble to the ground
* Smash through crates, pillars and rocks to clear a way through the environment -- or grab creatures and use them as living, unwilling weapons
* Immerse yourself in an intriguing storyline, as you seek to end an evil king's reign of oppression that he has forced upon your fellow citizens
* Choose from three unique heroes and enjoy their in-depth character progression - Unlock new spells and abilities, collect and equip unique armor & weapons, and more

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Psp: Dual Injection Psp Faceplate Launch (camy Pro Gear)

February 5th, 2007, 21:44 Posted By: CAMYPRO

We are very proud to launch the official website for "CAMY PRO GEAR"(www.camyprogear.com the home of dual injection PSP faceplates. Though there is other after market PSP faceplates in the market today, their quality and build are far inferior to the “original” build, turning users away from replacing their scratched/worn out PSP faceplate. CAMY PRO GEAR is here to change that. With our “dual injection” process we are able to mimic the original build of the PSP faceplate. In addition, we have included custom designs on these high quality plates such as “Twin Dragons” and “Hell Skull”.

We hope that all of you out there love “CAMY PRO GEAR” as much as we do!

If you are an online PSP news site or webshop that would like to obtain samples to review "CAMY PRO GEAR" dual injection PSP faceplate, please contact us at sales@camyinternational.com

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PS3 WipEout screenshots invade France!

February 6th, 2007, 01:11 Posted By: wraggster

via ps3fanboy

Jeux-France, that is. Hotter than fire on the heels of Hades, screenshots for the upcoming WipEout game for the PS3 (and another PSP title) have emerged on the interweb (which is a series of tubes and not like a dump truck). See, we just learned there was going to be a new console-oriented WipEout title and already there are fairly polished screenshots being tossed out. How long has this game been in the works? We have to wonder if the Sony machine was actually able to keep a lid on this game, letting the rumors from month's back fade away into the black.

There may only be a few images (and we're fairly sure the one on the left is for the upcoming PSP WipEout title), but it's enough to turn the rumors into fact, maybe factoid. It's probably the closest thing we'll get to a next-gen F-Zero title and that's just peachy. We'll keep our eyes open for more on this game.

Screens Here

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The Cell/B.E. Challenge 07: Beyond Gaming!

February 6th, 2007, 01:15 Posted By: wraggster

via ps2dev

If you live in Europe or America and have some interest in the Cell architecture IBM is running a competition. First prize is $10,000 USD so it's probably worth a look. Before you get too excited, you must be a full-time or part-time student at a University to enter. Here's what they have to say:
IBM is pleased to announce an excellent opportunity for you to put your skills to the test and allow innovation to take the lead!

You can participate in this contest whether you have little or no Cell/B.E. Processor experience, some understanding of the techology, or have mastered this subject for some time now.

What you really need is the drive and competitive spirit to expand your mind, learn about this cutting edge technology, and show off your coding prowess. With some hard work and dedication, you could win some great cash prizes!

You can get more details at www-304.ibm.com/jct09002c/university/students/contests/cell

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Is Silent Hill canceled?

February 6th, 2007, 01:20 Posted By: wraggster

via pspfanboy

Konami's Gamers' Day has come and gone. While PSP gamers are certainly happy by the surprise announcement of an exclusive Castlevania, there is one game that was suspiciously missing: Silent Hill: Origins. The game had a very impressive debut, but ever since rumors of troubled development came about, the game has mysteriously disappeared from public eye.

Hotly anticipated games like Metal Gear Solid 4 were also absent from the show.Is Silent Hill: Origins canceled? Has the release slipped out of this year? There are tons of unanswered questions right now. Konami's website notes that "major announcements" are coming tomorrow. Hopefully, we'll know for sure soon enough.

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NIS America continues Generation of Chaos

February 6th, 2007, 01:22 Posted By: wraggster

via Siliconera

NIS America is continuing the Generation of Chaos series even though the first game had mixed reviews. In April we’re going to see Aedis Eclipse: Generation of Chaos, which looks like it is Shin Tenmakai Generation of Chaos V (Generation of Chaos was actually Shin Tenmakai Generation of Chaos 4: Another side). It’s another SRPG for the PSP with lots of customization options and three different stories to play. Aedis Eclipse has three different worlds each with a different main character to play as. In the lower world you’re a regular student who gets caught up in the middle of battle instead of fleeing with the rest of your class. The upper world lets you play as a knight who wants to rescue his comrades. In the divine world you step into a battle between angels and demons after the demon king is assassinated by a group of angels. One of the problems with Generation of Chaos and Spectral Souls (especially for Spectral Souls) was loading times, which made playing the games frustrating. NIS America has put in extra work into Aedis Eclipse: Generation of Chaos to reduce the load times, which can only be a good thing.

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The Trials and Tribulations of Tiki Games, part 1

February 6th, 2007, 01:23 Posted By: wraggster

Via pspfanboy

Tiki Games is currently developing a PSP-exclusive RTS game called "Galaxy's End." Read more about the trials and tribulations of being an upstart developer in this three-part series by Tiki Games President Kevin J. McCann.
I've been working in the game industry for a little over ten years, always in lead designer capacity, and also wearing the dual-hat of producer for half that time as well. It's not uncommon for game industry developers in various game studios to want to do their own thing so they "can do it right."

When you work in a large game development studio you can start with the best of intentions and a design you feel really rocks, but along the way various levels of interference – from fellow team members all the way up through various levels of management – can and generally will alter your original game vision. And virtually never in a way you feel is favorable.

I've worked on large projects and they tend to be over budget and fairly disorganized. It's also hard to establish a good team dynamic on a large team – you get various factions, unnecessary politics, and so forth. Basically things that get in the way of putting together a great game.

I've been trying to start my own company for several years now. And I wanted to avoid having an unnecessarily large team, and do something I've never had the opportunity to do on prior projects – a real preproduction cycle. So in November and December of 2005 I wrote game designs and assembled a preliminary milestone schedule for Galaxy's End. Another thing I wanted to avoid was bloated budgets – being a self-funded start-up, the best approach was to target a smaller platform (the PSP) where a small but talented team can create an extremely high-quality game with solid production values for a reasonable budget.

In January 2006 I hired my team (folks I had worked with in the past, so I knew they could get the job done) and we began working on our first major milestone – a proof-of-concept playable build of Galaxy's End. We also designed our tools and engine to be scalable to different genres and platforms (so that if we later wanted to make a shooter or RPG it wouldn't be starting from scratch).

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PSPRadio 1.1.1258 (2007-02-05)

February 6th, 2007, 01:28 Posted By: wraggster

Raf has released a new version of the Streaming Music app called PSP Radio.

Heres the release info:

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XviD4PSP 4.101

February 6th, 2007, 01:31 Posted By: wraggster

Winnydows has released 2 new quickfire updates to his Video Converter for the PSP.

Heres the info and changelog:

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PSP Hacking 101 Episode 23- Convert PSone Games to PSP

February 6th, 2007, 01:36 Posted By: wraggster

The PSPHacking team have released a new video with the headline Convert PSone Games to PSP:

Download Video

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Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children limited edition out this week

February 6th, 2007, 01:38 Posted By: wraggster

via siliconera

Usually early adopters get all the good pre order bonuses, but not in the case of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. The movie was finally released in the USA last year and now Sony Pictures is re-releasing it in a “limited edition” box set on February 6 for the price of $49.99. The box set comes with the two disc DVD release that has the feature film, a copy of the English movie script, a biographical character booklet, ten postcards and a new feature with interviews with the English voice actors. What really makes the limited edition worth buying is Last Order –Final Fantasy VII-, a twenty-five minute anime clip with Zack and Cloud. The OVA clears up the events after Cloud’s visit to his hometown Nibelheim and acts as a tie in to Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core. After seeing the limited edition box set the “special” two disc edition that was released in North America doesn’t seem too special any more…

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Biographies of U.S. Presidents BETA

February 6th, 2007, 01:45 Posted By: wraggster

New release from superbatxs:

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Girls Gone Wild gets into gaming

February 6th, 2007, 02:08 Posted By: wraggster

Pocket Pool, the upcoming PlayStation Portable billiards game in which players can play against comely models in order to unlock video clips and image galleries, already had a suggestive name. But just in case anyone didn't understand what the game was offering, publisher Conspiracy Entertainment confirmed for GameSpot today that it has tagged on the license of the nudity-laden video series Girls Gone Wild.

It's unclear how deeply the Girls Gone Wild license will be integrated into the gameplay. Conspiracy's official Web page contains box art and screenshots for the game, none of which make reference to the adult video series. While a representative with the publisher confirmed that the game will carry the Girls Gone Wild license, he couldn't comment on whether the publisher had plans for other games carrying the brand.

Set for release in April, Girls Gone Wild Pocket Pool features more than a dozen styles of pool from 9-ball to Snooker. The game has been rated M for Mature, with content descriptors for partial nudity and sexual themes.

via gamespot

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Blu-ray & HD-DVD Sales Running Even

February 6th, 2007, 02:46 Posted By: Elven6

Washington, D.C. (February 5, 2007) -- Who's winning the Blu-ray-HD-DVD war?

Well, according to the NPD Group, no one. The research group says sales of the two HDTV DVD players were almost even from April to December of last year.

NPD says 52 percent of HDTV DVD players sold during that time period were HD-DVD players while 48 percent were Blu-ray.

However, Blu-ray enthusiasts might count the numbers as a victory because they did not include sales of the PlayStation 3, which has a Blu-ray player inside. (The totals also did not include sales of Microsoft's XBox 360 HD-DVD attachment, but they are estimated to be far less than the PS3.)

Additionally, Blu-ray standalone players cost roughly $1,000, about twice as much as HD-DVD players.

In related news, Nielsen said last week that Blu-ray movie titles outsold HD-DVDs by more than two to one in the first two weeks of January.

From: http://www.tvpredictions.com/bluhddvd020507.htm

Things seem good!

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flash agent E2

February 6th, 2007, 07:34 Posted By: wraggster

New release from Hallo007:

as you see , the third release of flash agent in three days
Zevlar asked me to add custom xmb wave effect support , well here it is

Remember USe at own risk
Only USE AT 3.10OE-A

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Yet Another PSP Toolkit v1.0 released!

February 6th, 2007, 16:56 Posted By: Virus.exe

Hi there!

I have worked on this application for a while, and I think it's time to finally show you people my work

The application I mentioned above (YAPT) is an all-in-one toolkit for the PC, with almost all features the PC ever could do for the PSP.

Oh well, just install it and see what it can do

(Yes, the Vista GUI works on all windows versions, including win95 )

Some features:

• PSX compressing with full XMB preview
• XMB customization (e.g. custom icons and stuff)
• Custom plugins (PRX) manager
• Some cool windows tweaks (eg right click convert)
• USBhost redirection with keypad
• NEThost redirection with keypad
• Registry backup/restore tool
• And some more, but just check it out!

You can download it here

I hope you like and, and if so, please leave a comment! (You don't wanna know how much times it takes to discover a new language :P )

Enjoy!
~Virus.exe (Yes, i'm weejewel too.. look at the 'About' page )

P.S: I don't have any ideas for this application anymore, but i guess you have. Feel free to post, and i'll try to implent it in the newest version

Screenshot Via Comments

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Xorbing action in Ghostlight's latest Sony PSP title 'Spinout'

February 6th, 2007, 18:29 Posted By: wraggster

Heres the press release:

Feel the adrenaline pumping as players hurtle through the galaxy in Ghostlight’s exhilarating new platform racer, ‘Spinout’. Play as an elite galaxy Xorber, competing in the equivalent of a futuristic F1 race car, otherwise known as a Xorb. Spin through 50 challenging courses across 9 stunning environments, avoiding deadly obstacles and negotiating hazardous tracks through ancient ruins, space stations and the fiery pits of hell!

Race against the clock in the action packed arcade mode, 1 of 5 game modes, exploiting the games advanced spheroid physics to control the Xorb at death defying speeds. Collect power ups along the course to upgrade the Xorb’s braking and air control system and limit ‘real time’ damage inflicted to the spheres metallic skin.

Win medals in career mode to progress through the 4 race classes, starting as a novice in the ‘Explorer’ class and stepping up to the gravity defying ‘Angel Class’. The Xorb’s are fully customisable, with over 2 million bodywork profile combinations and performance upgrades. Earn cash to unlock hidden tracks and bonus features, by winning races, finding hidden cash tokens, and gaining more air time than Tony Hawk on a half pipe.

Share track times and compete head to head with friends in the superb wi-fi multiplayer mode. Up to 4 players can battle it out in XorbRace mode, armed to the teeth with missiles and rockets, competing against each other for the prestigious title of fastest and deadliest Xorber in the galaxy.

Developed by Icon and UK publisher Ghoslight, Spinout will be released on the 30th March and will retail at a competitive £24.99.

Sam Collins, Sales Manager at Ghostlight comments “Spinout is a unique title custom designed for handheld gaming with puzzle/platform elements keeping players gasping for more”. Sam continues “Spinout has received rave reviews from specialist game press, liking it to the spills and thrills of ‘Marble Madness’ and ‘Super Monkey Ball’….. Spinout boasts fantastic game play and is clearly a must have title for 2007.”

GoPlay magazine “With sprawling cities at your peril and clear-as-day visuals, the thrill factor is intense.” - Preview

Play Magazine “Beautiful simplicity and supreme ease with which it inspires the highest and most addictive level of ‘one-more-go’ you’re ever likely to feel in a videogame” - 81%”