Konami has announced that its forthcoming European versions of Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops title for PSP will benefit from a wealth exciting additions exclusive to European users.

Scheduled for release April, 2007, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops is an all-new installment in Hideo Kojima’s legendary Metal Gear Solid series. Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops features a full stealth-action single player story mode and key wireless features allowing players to recruit and play as a unique squadron of battle-hardened mercenaries. The European versions of the game will also include a series of exclusive elements, including new game maps, characters and missions.

Set in 1970, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops follows directly on from the events of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, with the player assuming the role of series hero Snake (aka Big Boss), as he puts together the elite FOXHOUND unit made famous in earlier Metal Gear titles, and is instigating a bloody revolt with his treacherous FOX unit. Heralding the return of many notable characters from the Metal Gear series, Portable Ops acts as the climax to a major portion of the ongoing Metal Gear timeline, as players participate in the events that directly lead into later games in the series, including the great tragedy that determines Big Boss’ future path.

European users will enjoy 12 more characters than existing Japanese and US users, while the careers of the available characters have been expanded to highlight their key attributes – athleticism or physical strength, for instance.

The recruiting element is unique to Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, with various possibilities to increase your number of team-mates. Making superb use of the wireless functionality of the PSP, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops lets players scan access points (AP) by using the game’s AP SCAN function. Depending on the unique MAC address provided by the access point, players can access a specific wireless AP character and recruit them as a new team-mate. Certain rare and unique characters will be available only via access point scanning, giving users further incentives to play in different locations and add new members to their squads.

Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops also features support for online battles in ten areas specifically designed for multiplayer encounters – two more than the US and Japanese version of the game – letting up to six players take their custom squads online and battle in stealthy encounters across several different modes of play. Using a unique White Flag mechanic, players can choose to surrender and fight again or risk permanently losing one of their valuable comrades. Players can also wirelessly trade characters with others, building a squadron that is best suited to dominate the online competition. ...

Snowmydog (interesting name) has released the final version of his game Treasure of Pharaoh.

For anybody that didn't download the previous version, Treasure of Pharaoh is supposed to be a more updated clone of Lode Runner. What is interesting here is that he has included a cool map editor for you to design your own levels, along with 50 brand new levels and he even went as far to include an animated ending.

Here's the changelog:

* An easy to use map editor, now you can design your very own special map for fun.
* Auto merge custom map pack. This function is for sharing custom maps between friends. First, get the custom maps(CUSTOM.MAP) from your friends. Then rename it to (UPDATE.MAP). Copy to your memory stick. Start the game. The game will automatically read the UPDATE.MAP and merge to your custom map pack. It's permanent, you only need to do it once. After the merging, the system will delete the UPDATE.MAP. All operations are automatic and easy to use, you don't even need to press a key!
* 50 new levels.
* The original 150 levels compiled as "Tuktankhamun" map pack. Additional 50 levels compiled as "Khufu" map pack. "Darius" is reserved for custom maps.
* Each game pack has an individual game save slot. Don't worry, the old game save is compatible with this version.
* Some maps have been adjusted to make them more fun.
* Serveral bugs fixed.
* AI has a minor adjustment.
* New animated ending

Download and Give Feedback Via Comments
via snowymydog ...

Some good news if you have a few quid to throw about and you're a big homebrew enthusiast, Music Lover, or someone who hates the thought of changing their PS1 games around in their memory stick every other day. Sony are releasing 8gb models of their Pro Duo Memory Stick next month.

Aside from coming in with an adapter for devices with a standard-size memory stick media slot, it is also armed with MagicGate copy protection technology.

Info :

* 8GB MSX-M8GS Memory Stick model
* Weighing in at just two grams
* 0.79-inches wide and 1.22-inches long
* Sporting the ten-pin Serial Memory Stick interface
* 1,500 images in 10-megapixel, fine mode
* More than 18 hours of video at 768Kb per seconds in MPEG4 compression
* Can hold a collection about 2,000 songs in the MP3 format at 128 kbps with an average of four minutes per song

8GB Memory Stick PRO Duo will become available beginning February for US$ 300 (yes, you just read that correctly, $300) . It can be purchased from Sony Style (both online and retail stores) as well as authorized dealers in all states. UK release isn't confirmed but I doubt it would be longer than 2 weeks after US release.

It would be awesome to own a 8gb memory stick, especially with the release of Popstation, its just a shame about the price tag.

Edit : More information will become clear after tonights Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas. ...

gracz54 has released a little app to change the MAC address of your PSP.

If you download this, there's only one Eboot around. For the newbies, this means that if you're firmware requires two folders of the application, then you'll have to use PSP brew.

Another thing to be cautious about is that its only been tested on 3.02 OE-A. For some run-through on the installation, Just paste into psp/game150 (or psp/game). And then, run the app and press X to dump the MAC ID. Once you've grabbed a hex editor, you should be able to see your MAC in hexes at the beginning of the file.

You may actually change the MAC to whatever it is you'd want to be, but DO NOT TYPE IN NEW CHARACTERS or change anything else EXCEPT THE MAC. Why? Because it could brick if you do not heed this warning. ...

new release via Quake

Quake's Extreme Link for Windows allows you to easily manage your PSP's media content -- music, photos, videos, etc... Also manage your homebrew, game saves, and keep track of your high scores. v1.3.0 includes support for PSX POPSTATION conversion and CWCheat db management.

v1.3.0 changes:

Main - Images:

1. Added EBOOT Icon
2. Added PBP Extension

Menu:

1. Added Easy GAME150 Folder Creator
2. Added Easy GAME302 Folder Creator

Options:

1. Added Compression Value Save
2. Added Version Info Viewer

Game/Homebrew:

1. Added Folder change. - 3.02 OE-A Compatible
2. Added Folder Maker. - For PSX games
3. Added More Menu’s

About:

1. Proper props to the coders.

POPstation: - NEW

1. Select POPstation.exe Directory
2. Select Game IMG. - Inside the POPstation directory

SAVEDATA:

1. ADDED MENU’s

CW Cheat: - NEW -

1. Added Cheat Insert
2. Added Cheat DB

download and give feedback via comment ...

messaging board via Sony

Interesting news, as Sony's official boards actually have homebrew users and they are giving tutorials on how to set up 3.02OE-B.

http://boardsus.playstation.com/play...ead.id=2717632

It clearly depicts a step by step tutorial of how to set up 3.02OE-B.

Your thoughts via comments ...

Tomaz has updated his homebrew puzzle game Tiled.



Tiled v2 has the following changelog:

* Added option to choose between 4x4, 6x6 and 8x8 puzzles
* Added a timer and a store the best time for each puzzle.
* Made some nicer fading effects
* Added a background image.
* Added a penguin puzzle as requested

So far it has only been tested on FW 1.5

Download and Give Feedback Via Comments ...

weltall has released the final version of CWCheat for DevHook v0.51+ with 3.XX emulation.

Cheat any PSP game through raw-relative hex codes much like Action Replay or Game Shark. Various installation methods are detailed inside README.txt.

Changes from beta to final include:

* included a new installer for windows (.net) which installs automatically cwcheat and if required the database
* re-added the menu opening delay
* re-hooked clock functions to devhook
* added cpu clock 300mhz, bus clock 150mhz
* now devhook version is showed again

Download and Give Feedback Via Comments ...

Looks like Sony just won't give this concept up. Heres the new dustball ad which aired last night in UK

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqSY_FfD-9I

This one is based around music downloads. I couldn't help but imagine a homebrew dustball ad while watching this... seeing the PC connected to PSP made me think instantly of homebrew for some reason.

Anyway . . . yet another crazy advert from your good friends at $ony. ...