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Sony Computer Entertainment PSP Trailer Roundup
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Corporate News, E3, PSP, Trailers,
Sony Computer Entertainment of America has been posting some of the E3 2006 trailers online for some of their upcoming PSP titles, including:
ATV Offroad Fury Pro: The followup to the previous ATV game, will now feature cross-compatibility with ATV Offroad 4 for the PS2, and Infrastructure Wi-Fi connectivity.
Gangs of London: Gangs has a weird look, a kind of a mix of pseudo-realism and cell-shading for the character models and environments.
LocoRoco: A very colorful 2-D platform game; the graphics are super stylized, but very engaging. A demo is available online for PSP users with firmware 2.7.
NBA 07: The series has kind of been floundering on the PSP, and the 2007 release hopes to turn that around. In lieu of an actual franchise mode, they’ve added a “conquest” mode, and some slight graphical improvements.
SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 2: The updated version of last year’s highly rated tactical online FPS. The update will link to the upcoming SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Combined Assault on the PS2 and offers new game modes, including Tug of War and Capture the Flag.
World Tour Soccer ‘06: The 2006 version of last year’s game, re-designed for the PSP. The new version supports four player multiplayer, twice the amount of last year’s version, but still no infrastructure mode.
Read More 
| Playstation.com E3
Gallery: Sony Computer Entertainment PSP Trailer Roundup
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Live From E3: Lemmings For PSP
Posted by Chris Cardinal Categories: E3, PSP, Release Dates, Reviews, Screenshots,
I’ve played Lemmings since it was a DOS game on a single 1.44 MB floppy and absolutely loved its crazy, maniacally difficult levels, with classic MIDI music in the background and only one goal: Get the green-haired somethings out alive. I played it on the SNES and then Lemmings Revolution which attempted to be in 3D. All good times. So without fail, I sat down and played my way (successfully) through a level of Lemmings for the PSP. It’s nice to see such a fun franchise hasn’t died.
The graphics for Lemmings were what you’d expect. They’ve gone back to the 2D platform concept, but the textures and artwork were especially nice. The controls were a bit weird at first, but I figured them out soon enough, and was especially thankful for the fast-forward button—a true innovation that’s been a long time coming for Lemmings. It’ll be available May 23rd, 2006 and includs over 150 levels. They also include a level editor that I didn’t get a chance to play with, but really have no idea how easy it might be to use on the PSP. You can even upload and download new levels and share them with all your Lemmings-loving friends. That’s right. All of them.
Gallery: Live From E3: Lemmings For PSP
The Magic Box has some scans of the recently announced PSP-based sequel to the quirky PS2 game, Gitaroo Man. The original game on the PS2 achieved a kind of cult-status, due to the fact that the game received very positive reviews but was difficult to buy, given the low number of copies produced by KOEI. The PSP version will be called Gitaroo Man Lives and will feature additional game modes that will take advantage of the PSP’s ad-hoc wireless networking mode for competitive and co-operative play. The Japanese release is scheduled for May 25th.
Read More | The Magic Box
Gallery: Gitaroo Man PSP Screenshots
Sony Japan is set to release the 2.7 firmware for the PSP soon, and Maxconsole.net has a (badly) machine translated changelog file. Most interesting are the new features: Macromedia Flash support, and AAC media decoding. Macromedia Flash should allow web content producers for the PSP more flexibility in their page design, and may also offer some simple games tailored for the platform. AAC is the audio codec of choice for Apple’s iTunes player, though users should not expect DRM-encoded, purchased songs from Apple’s store to work. For those users that have ripped their CDs to the AAC format, however, this may be a welcome addition. The updated firmware should hit the US soon.
Read More | Maxconsole.net
Gallery: PSP Japan Firmware 2.7 Set
Madden 2007 Cover To Feature Shaun Alexander
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Corporate News, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Gamecube, PC, PlayStation 2, PSP, Sports, Xbox 360,
EA Sports has just announced that they have selected Shaun Alexander of the NFC Champion Seattle Seahawks to be on the cover of Madden 2007. Responding to the selection, Alexander was reported as saying “To be on the cover of Madden NFL 07 is a big milestone in my career since I have always been a huge fan of this franchise…EA SPORTS is focusing on the running game in this year’s version, so I was honored when I was chosen to be on the cover to represent the improved running game.” Alexander was selected as NFL MVP, and holds the single-season rushing touchdown record (28). Seahawks fans are praying that Alexander manages to avoid the Madden Curse.
Read More | Press Release
Gallery: Madden 2007 Cover To Feature Shaun Alexander
PSP Portable TV Review
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Internet, Portable/Mobile, PSP, Reviews,
PSP users in Japan have been able to download videos via Sony’s Portable TV Service (P-TV) for the past year. The service provides downloadable, DRM-encoded videos for viewing on the PSP. An availability date for the service has not been made available to the US so far, but it would seem likely that a US-based version of P-TV would be coming. Japanchronicles.com has a review of the service. From the review, the biggest issues to date seem to be availability of videos, and the cost. There are some movie trailers and previews available for free, but a majority of the videos cost money. Costs range between 100 and about 300 yen for individual videos, and the video itself can only be played within a certain window before they expire. Expiration time varies from 5 to 7 days. For some of the episodic content, users can buy subscriptions that allow unlimited video downloads within a category, but these average 6300 yen per month. Overall, Japanchronicles.com gives the service thumbs up for easy of use, but there aren’t a lot of videos available for fans of shows other than dramas and anime.
Read More | Japanchronicles.com
Gallery: PSP Portable TV Review
Power Stone Collection Preview
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Action, Fighting, PSP, Retro, Screenshots,
Capcom showed off some video of Power Stone Collection for the PSP in February, showing off the classic gameplay of the Dreamcast game in portable form. IGN recently got some hands-on time with a playable preview of the game, and post some impressions.
The game does seem to capture the essence of the Power Stone series, albeit with some scale down for the PSP and its smaller screen. “Collection” means that both the original Power Stone and its sequel are included. Part of the most addicting part of the series was multiplayer; the four-player madness of Power Stone 2 made the game an exceptional party game, and it looks like gamers will be able to play with up to four players via the ad-hoc wireless connection. Capcom also thought to include game sharing, so not everyone will need their own copy of the game to play.
Read More | IGN PSP
Gallery: Power Stone Collection Preview
Bit-tech.net has put together a small roundup of the more popular PSP video conversion applications available. They compare PSP Video 9, 3GP, and the ATI Avivo Video Converter. PSP Video 9 was given high marks for conversion format support, and relative ease of use. 3GP was dinged for being relatively obtuse in it’s usage, and the fact that it had a hard time producing video files in the correct aspect ratio. ATI’s Avivo had probably the best user interface, but is restricted to people with the ATI X1000 video card series. Of course, you can just head on over to the site yourself to check out the full results.
Read More | Bit-tech.net
Gallery: PSP Video Converter Showdown
More Super Monkey Ball Adventures Screenshots
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Action, Adventure, Nintendo Gamecube, PlayStation 2, PSP, Strategy,
4 Color Rebellion has scored some exclusive screenshots from the upcoming Super Monkey Ball Adventure. This game will be a departure from the previous games in the series, leaving behind the strict level structure and moving to more of a platform adventure design. Hopefully Traveller’s Tales can keep true to the feel of the older games in the series. Monkey Ball Adventure will be appearing on PSP, PS2, and Gamecube this summer.
Read More | 4 Color Rebellion
Gallery: More Super Monkey Ball Adventures Screenshots
UMD Movies Near Death
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Corporate News, Portable/Mobile, PSP,
A report from Reuters/Hollywood Reporter suggests that Sony’s UMD format, at least for movies, is nearly extinct. The article says that Wal-Mart is close to pulling UMD movies from its shelves, and other retailers are significantly cutting back on UMD purchases.
Even more damning are the quotes from movie executives. A Universal Studios Home Entertainment executive reportedly said, “It’s awful. Sales are near zilch. It’s another Sony bomb—like Blu-ray.” A failure pushing the UMD format for movies could reflect badly on Sony’s ability to execute in the Blu-ray arena; it was initially thought that by attaching the UMD format to the PSP could help drive the sales of UMD movies. Failure of this objective casts serious doubt on Sony’s plan to bootstrap Blu-ray’s success on the coattails of the PS3.
Even Sony Pictures Home Entertainment executives are scaling back their plans for UMD, and admit that there are drawbacks to the format: the inability to play UMD movies on the end-user’s television sets, and the ability to playback video content from the memory stick, saying ““I think a lot of people are ripping content and sticking it onto the device rather than purchasing.” Of course, the higher price points for UMD movies versus DVD media doesn’t help at all.
Read More | Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
Gallery: UMD Movies Near Death
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