via IGN

First off, before everyone starts freaking out and starting with the PlayStation Portable jokes (darnit Sony, didn't you know!?), these aren't ports. Remember. They're not ports.

Square Enix has announced via the latest issue of Famitsu its plans for celebrating the 20th anniversary of Final Fantasy. This makes sense, since the original Final Fantasy was released on the Famicom on 12/18/1987.

What's surprising is that the PSP fits so heavily into these plans. Famitsu reveals that the PSP will be getting two additional Final Fantasy games this year, Final Fantasy Anniversary Edition and Final Fantasy II Anniversary Edition.

That's right, the first two Final Fantasy games, soon to be available for your PSP, via two seperate releases. In terms of gameplay systems and scenario, both titles feature all the new elements that made their way into the Game Boy Advance and PlayStation p-p-p-ports. That includes the PlayStation's opening movies and the Game Boy Advance's new dungeons, Soul of Chaos for FF1 and Soul of Rebirth for FF2. You'll also find a music player mode and monster gallery.

So why aren't these actually being labeled as ports? Visually, Square Enix has apparently redone everything. While the game is still 2D sprite-based, with the same basic screen layout, Square Enix has remade all the spirtes and backgrounds for the PSP's native resolution, and has even added new effects for the battles. This isn't as big a difference as came about from the 3D visuals that were used in FFIII on the DS, but the difference is clear.

Disappointed that Square Enix's big Final Fantasy 20 year bash resulted in a couple of PSP updates? It turns out that this is just the first of what could be numerous projects. In an interview with Famitsu, Square Enix executive producer Shinji Hashimoto told readers to turn back beyond April for more surprises. ...

via gamedaily

PS3 games like Resistance: Fall of Man and the upcoming Motorstorm already look fantastic. Sony CEO Howard Stringer (right) argues that these games are barely using 25% of the system's "bandwidth." He also thinks Sony can break even on PS3 costs at the end of this year.

In a new interview with CNET, Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer shared his feelings on how the PlayStation 3 has been faring thus far and what he sees for the future of the PlayStation business.

Although there was a lot of negativity surrounding Sony from E3 up until launch last year, and the PS3 was hurt by shortages of blue laser diodes, Stringer believes that everything turned out rather well. "... We're now very comfortable with our research program for PlayStation 3, which one researcher recently described as the Mercedes of games players, for obvious reasons. The million is more than we delivered of PlayStation 2 so, for all the anxiety, I think PlayStation 3 is well on the way to living up to that promise. That's a good sign," he remarked.

Interestingly, Stringer also noted that current software offerings for the PS3 would seem to be using only a quarter or less of the console's total power. "Lost in the shuffle is the fact that the current games that are out there are only using about 20 percent to 25 percent of the [PS3's] bandwidth. Once the publishers' excitement reaches a level of intensity that they start using more of the bandwidth, that will create additional excitement," he said.

It's no secret that the new Blu-ray hi-def format is a key part of Sony's PS3 strategy. Some have argued that just because someone owns a PS3 that doesn't mean that consumer is playing Blu-ray movies on it. Stringer, however, believes that the vast majority of PS3 owners have in fact been converted to Blu-ray users. "I'd say 90 percent of the people who (own) PS3s are playing that Blu-ray disc on it or playing other Blu-ray discs on it. Contrary to some of the reports, it is an effective Blu-ray player. The people who like Blu-ray are the people who play PlayStation 3, just as people who play PS2s were the early proponents of the DVD format. It drove the DVD format," he asserted.

The combination of Blu-ray and a Cell processor is an expensive proposition for the consumer and Sony itself. A recent analysis by iSuppli indicated that Sony is losing somewhere in the range of $300 per unit. That said, Stringer believes that the console can break even at the end of this year.

"I think Kutaragi-san (PlayStation chief Ken Kutaragi) said that it would be break-even by the end of the year, at the end of '07. PS2 was not profitable in the first year. You make it up on the content as the content gathers momentum, the licensees from that and so forth," he explained. ...

Via arsetechnica

So there you go: you can either install game assets on the hard drive or by place redundant game data around the disc. The problem in both of these solutions is that one of the advantages of Blu-ray become less compelling. Why bother with a large Blu-ray disc when you're putting that data on the hard drive before you play anyway? You could have simply put that extra information on a DVD and then moved it onto the hard drive The same can be said about the redundancy approach: why not just use a standard DVD and have it load quickly in the first place instead of doubling or tripling up your data on a slower but larger disc?

The Blu-ray drive is useful for movies, of course, but for gaming, Blu-ray doesn't look like it's the best choice until faster drives are released. There is every possibility of a future PS3 revision with a faster Blu-ray drive, but that won't help current PS3 owners. Blu-ray may be the future for storage that's both large and fast, but right now it seems shoe-horned into gaming applications. It seems like developers may actually do better by shipping some of their PS3 games on DVDs. Games will load faster and manufacturers will save money on the discs. Would Sony allow it? ...

Digital Learning Solutions have released a new game for the Nintendo DS, heres the details:


Download and Give Feedback Via Comments ...

News from Neoflash

...

Angor has updated his game for the Nintendo DS:

Heres the details:


Download and Give Feedback Via Comments ...

via dsfanboy

Now that we've seen what the magazines have to say, it's high time we checked in with the various sites of the world wide webtron. With mostly favorable reviews of the title (natch), we're glad we do not have to enter the tubes ourselves and personally kill any online entities responsible for bad-mouthing our favorite Ace Attorney.

At the time of this post, we don't have all of the online reviews yet (1UP and IGN), but once they've posted them, we'll come back and update this post.

Gamespot (77/100) says it's more of the same and doesn't innovate: "Justice for All is a good, lengthy adventure with great character-driven storylines, but it fails to build upon the promising groundwork laid by the first game."
Games Radar (80/100) is quick to call it a great follow-up to the previous game: "The charm and clever logic puzzles are still here, and the cases deliver the same charge-back-from-the-edge-of-defeat rush that made the first game so cool. Whether you're a fan of the original or a newcomer to Wright's bizarre legal world, you won't be disappointed." ...

via dsfanboy

For those of you looking forward to Hotel Dusk: Room 215 as much as we are, you'll be pleased to know that the Japanese website for the game has updated with a new commercial. The commercial is fairly short, but does a wonderful job of presenting some of the puzzles to be expected, as well as the amazing hand-sketched, noir style that got us interested in the first place. The commercial also presents a large amount of characters that the player is expected to interact with.

More Info ...

Pix Juegos has released a new game for the GP2X, heres the details:

Clone of Super Pang with Crazy and Adventure Mode

Download Here --> http://www.gp2x.de/cgi-bin/cfiles.cgi?0,0,0,0,27,2031 ...