via joystiq

The High Court of Edinburgh, Scotland, has sentenced Alan Stirling to four years in prison for "culpable homicide" in the murder of a man who potentially broke his "computer" or "PlayStation" depending on who's talking. The BBC headline says PlayStation, the judge says PlayStation, but the reporter calls it a computer. So we're not sure if this is one of those cases where the brand name is tossed around to mean any console, like photocopies are Xerox and tissues are Kleenex.

Anyway, after a night of "drink and drugs" with friends at Stirling's apartment he awoke at 5 AM to the sound of one of his friends having knocked over the television, which apparently had the console on or near it. Stirling then repeatedly "punched and kicked" the man. He found the gentleman later in the lobby and attempted to help him, but it was too late. In this case, the BBC's headline of "Man kills friend over PlayStation" is just a tad misleading. ...

via joystiq

Given the way the Wii is selling, Nintendo can let their gaming drought go on for a good while. Their marketing scheme to diversify the gaming demographic is getting them good press. And from the looks of it, all old people need is Wii Sports to be happy before Death comes aknockin' on their door.

Reuters helps Nintendo along by covering another old folks home where the elderly are just thrilled to death over the Wii Sports. Studies have shown that the elderly aren't into the newfangled complicated games so they're quite content with some chair tennis or bowling. As Flora Dierbach, 72, puts it, "It's a very social thing and it's good exercise ... and you don't have to throw a 16-pound bowling ball to get results."

Like a raptor in the tall grass, Nintendo is patient and knows the prey is easy. They just wait and coast on the good press and strong sales of the Wii. Old people will continue to enjoy their Wii Sports and may end up purchasing a few other titles, giving just a little bit of extra money to Nintendo. Of course, the real coup d'etat is when Grandma buys the grandkids a Wii because they've played it and don't see anything "wrong" with it. ...

via kotaku

When the recent NPD sales figures for February hit last week, there was much doom and gloom cast over Sony's PLAYSTATION 3 performance. Selling a paltry 127,000 PS3s while stores were uncharacteristically rich with supply did not bode well for the console and fostered doubt that gamers were ready for PS3's $500 and $600 price points.

But while the Xbox 360 bested the PS3 at retailers by a solid 100,000 units last month, don't think that Sony's out of the game. 1UP's Luke Smith contends that, in the proper perspective, sales of the PLAYSTATION 3 really aren't that bad. In fact, they're better than Microsoft's numbers during the same time period last year.

Obviously, there are many other facts to consider, such as the limited supply of Xbox 360s during that period and the $200 price difference between the next-gen consoles, but Luke addresses all that. Its a fascinating look at how Sony and the PS3 may not actually be DOOMED! ...

via insert credit

Aksys, a publisher formed by ex Atlus employees which thus far has only brought out Eagle Eye Golf for PS2, has just announced Hoshigami Remix for DS. It's a remake of the original Hoshigami for PS2, a tactics RPG from Max Five, itself formed by ex Tactics Ogre developers. Hoshigami Remix, not even out yet in japan, has three difficulty modes, as opposed to the punishing single mode of the original, a new character, new music, and character art. And naturally since it's for the DS, it'll have a new interface. gail salamanca from Aksys had this to say regarding the new difficulty levels, though it's not finalized, so don't take this as gospel.

"I believe on Easy characters are automatically resurrected after battle. Whereas on Normal you start off with a revive coinfeigm but death is permanent. And Hard is exactly as it was on the PS1. Also, I believe hit % / damage ratio / xp received is increased on easy and normal which means a little less grinding." So there you have it. I need a good tactics game on the DS over here! ...

via engadget

Typically, we don't single out just one aspect of an entire console or gizmo, as it's always a beautiful sight to see a perfectly assembled console do its thang in reverse, but Sony's European PlayStation 3 is a different animal. If you'll recall, the American PS3 features a neatly attached PS2 chipset to make sure that backwards compatibility was all but a minor issue, but even after countless delays and a staggeringly high price point, Europe's unit was hamstringed still. While we'd heard that the late-coming PS3 would sport limited abilities in the PS2 department, it still made us cringe when those whispers were proved true, and now its time to witness just how bare this motherboard looks as it uses emulation to crank up a few (literally) PS2 titles. ...

via PS3 Fanboy


We're going write about this because it's really quite humorous. In a post we slapped up a few days ago, we mentioned how activists are trying to enlist the help of U2 frontman Bono to pull Mercenaries 2 from shelves. Someone in the comments sections said something like this:

"RatBoy: Ohhh, ohhh, I got an Idea... Why don't we boycott GRAW 2 because it's set in Mexico. I know that after playing it I develop an intense urge to write my congressperson and ask them to break sanction millitary action in Mexico City."

Well, you've got a gift, my friend. The governer of Mexican state Chihuahua (we wonder if it's very small and frail, shakes a lot?) has ordered the seizure of all copies of GRAW2. The mayor calls the game "a crime against the intellectual capacity of Juarez residents" and offered a similar condemnation of video games as a whole: "Violent video games instill values which are upside down, and these actions are despicable because they attempt to divide the good will of the residents of American and Mexican cities."

Hmm, well RatBoy, do you think England is going to boycott the alternate timeline in Resistance next? You seem to be on top of these things! ...

via PS3 Fanboy


Well, this can really apply to all of us, but Sony isn't the best at getting everyone the same content at the same time. So we're just going to list what's coming for Europe and assume that it's either already here in North America and/or Japan, or it's on its way. Let's go!


- Demos for: Resistance: Fall of Man, MotorStorm, Ridge Racer 7, Genji: Days of the Blade, Formula One Championship Edition, Lemmings and Blast Factor
- Added content for: Ridge Racer 7, Genji: Days of the Blade
- More content soon for: Resistance: Fall of Man, Motorstorm

There's supposed to be a lot of extra crap coming out for Ridge Racer 7, actually. There are supposed to be over 25 race events added as well as a plethora of decal sets (tailored to specific games like Pac-Man or Katamari Damacy). Along with this extra content is the lack of mention of prices. We're going to say that demos are free, but the extra stuff shouldn't extend beyond anything reasonable. ...

Hi all , :thumbup:
I have update my homebrew pspsokoban who is in 0.5 . :thumbup:
I am a 13 french boy o sorry for my very bad english
The release its an edition Special ps3

History of the Changelog :thumbup:

0.5 :
_a map edit
_A mode simulation to test your map
_Add 9 more level
_There is Donkey Kong Now
_The best score is now correctly saved ( thx to zx81 who help me for the functions atoi ... XD)
_We can displayed the best score in options
_There is more informations in the stats
_Savedata system when you press Start inside the game , and you can continue in the options.

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
0.4
_Speed up the game
_PSP Clock speed is set to 111mhz during the game, but set to 333Mhz in the menu (for faster loading)
_Add 9 more levels
_EBOOT is now smaller
_Presss CIRCLE to display game statictics (number moves, score, levels & characters)
_Press R to save the latest score in data/score/dernier_score.data.
Be aware, it doesn't save the best score, but only the last score.
_Home button works now properly
_Add a new menu (by Cloos)
_Speed up level loading
_Joypad is now fully supported
_In the option menu, the last score is displayed

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
0.3:
_Add 3 new characters where one of them is a random character (reid de tales of eternia and pacman ).
_Adventure mode (very short, and unfinished yet);
_3 more levels
_Rewrite all the game interface (thanks to albandu51) !!!!!
_Add sound in menu (using oslib)
_There are now characters in ocean, and all backgrounds have changed in all levels.
_Bug fix
_Add a menu to change settings
_Add a "Credit" menu in the settings
_Add transform with character from dragonball z
_Bug fix : PSP doesn't freeze anymore at the end of the game

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
0.2
_3 more levels
_4 more characters
_Add teleport feature
_Bug fix
_Loading screen between levels
_Change sprites for each levels

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
_MAJ :
0.1 :
_first release !

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

CONTROL OF THE EDIT MAP :
O to put a way
X to put a wall
[] to put a case
^ to put an target
L to put a mario
Start for save the map
Select to return in edit mode

WARNING , VERSION 0.5 HAS A LOT OF BUG BECAUSE I HAVE (without making purposely) DELETE THE GAME RESSOURCE , IN THE DEV TIME OF MY GAME , SO IT'S POSSIBLE TO SEE SOME BLACK SCREEN , IF THERE ARE SERIOUS BUG SEND ME AN EMAIL !
KNOWN BUG :
Sometimes when you go on "continue game" you can have a ugly black screen
Sleep mode doesn't work
There are a little chance to have a black screen when you go on the edit map

Sources is in the pack

Download : http://www.megaupload.com/?d=JN5DDF7G

++ ...

New version of the Saturn emulator for PC.

A new version was put up, although it has not been checked much.
SSF Ver0.08 alpha R8
LFO processing of the SCSP was updated.
Dynamic Recompilation processing of the SCU DSP was implemented.
The Sleep command/instruction of the SH2 was updated.
Dynamic Recompilation processing of the SH2 was updated.

Since the SCU-DSP was greatly accelerable, the DSP Thread option was deleted.
Also, the synchronous processing of the main threads had to be removed...

Save State data version was updated.
Sound recording was enabled.
Key assignment is F9 for Sound Recording.

Since the sound recording is performed by a low piority conservation thread,
it may not work in case it lacks a surplus of machine power.
When recording sound, please do not enable Scanline Base Timing and the Always Running options.
Furthermore, sine resampling processing of PCM is due to be changed in the near future,
sound quality may change delicately soon. ...