Time have posted the top 10 games of 2006, lets see if you agree with their findings:

1. WII SPORTS (for Wii)
2. GEARS OF WAR (for Xbox 360)
3. NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. (for Nintendo DS)
4. LEGEND OF ZELDA: TWILIGHT PRINCESS (for Wii)
5. RESISTANCE: FALL OF MAN (for PS3)
6. PREY (for PC, Xbox 360)
7. ROCKSTAR GAMES PRESENTS TABLE TENNIS (for Xbox 360)
8. GUITAR HERO 2 (for PS2)
9. LEGO STAR WARS II: THE ORIGINAL TRILOGY (for Xbox, Xbox 360, Gamecube, PS2)
10.BULLY (for PS2)

Do you agree with their Findings ? ...

via rpgfan

Like every year, Dengeki Online has put together a massive New Years feature. And as every year, the most prominent feature of this special is a collection of comments made by Japan's leading developers.
The director of Koei's online business and producer of Nobunaga's Ambition Online, Kenji Matsuhara, talked at length about the possibilities offered by the PlayStation 3's CELL processor. Using this new powerful hardware, Matsuhara wants to deliver an undisclosed game fans can freely enjoy.

Hiroshi Matsuyama, president of CyberConnect 2, the developers of Bandai Namco's .hack and .hack//GU series, emphasized the different functions offered by each of the three next-generation systems. He also confirmed that his company has begun to work with the new hardware, without going into specifics.

Phantasy Star Universe producer Takao Miyoshi obviously emphasized the online capabilities of the new hardware. In particular, he feels Nintendo's Wii offers enormous potential.

Miyoshi's colleague at Sega, Yuuji Naka, was particularly interested in the new input devices (the Wiimote and the PlayStation 3's SIXAXIS controller). Since games were, unlike movies, interactive, Naka felt these new input schemes will become very important in the future.

Nippon Ichi Software's Souhei Shinkawa offered a less enthusiastic view. He pointed to a shrinking market and declining sales of high profile games. Hence, the key to survival would be the creation of games by making good use of the next generation console's capabilities, focusing on one's idea, while balancing rising development costs. His main ambition for 2007 was the creation of a game fans could truly enjoy. While we was likely talking about Makai Wars, Shinkawa did not mention the title, which was first announced at Electronic Entertainment Expo in May.

Bandai Namco Games' Tales series producer Makoto Yoshidzumi also chose his words carefully. He explained that, traditionally, the Tales series wasn't about the latest technology and CG. Instead, the developers focused on using existing technology and offering players a story they can freely enjoy. However, the producer said he had no idea what the future had in store for the series. He feels the time has come for the entire concept behind Tales to be re-built.

Level 5 president Akihiko Hino, on the other hand, apparently has had no such trouble adapting. His Fukuoka-based company is currently hard at work on its first adventure title, Layton Kyouju to Fushigi na Machi, and Dragon Quest IX Hoshizora no Mamori Hito for DS. Hino did not comment on Shirokishi Monogatari, the PlayStation 3 RPG Level 5 is developing for Sony Computer Entertainment, as it is still early in development.

From Soft's Atsushi Taniguchi promised the announcement of a DS title would be forthcoming. The game is a new installment of an existing franchise and will feature multiplayer support. ...

If you're going to let people play your game before it's released, you may as well get guys and girls who have some reference point as to how a battle rifle actually works. Their feedback at this stage of development would be invaluable.

In what was either the afore-mentioned beta testing idea or a Christmas present to US soldiers in Iraq (admittedly, most probably the latter), Bungie flew some early-build copies of Halo 3 out so American troops not able to get home for the holidays could at least get some kind of Christmas cheer.

And what's best, we now have some screenshots (blurry shots are better than no shots) after the leap.

News and screens at Kotaku ...

via kotaku

Reports have been steadily trickling in since yesterday of stockpiles of Playstation 3s found sitting around in Best Buys untouched, or hardly touched.

Best Buy announced they would be selling a bunch of the consoles starting Sunday and according to several emailers, very few people took them up on their offer. Of course this is all anecdotally, so I'm not sure how widespread it is.

What I can tell you is that the Best Buy near my house had 31 Playstation 3s sitting in a lovely wall o' consoles this morning when I swung by the store. Many, if not all of them, were the 60GB model.

While taking pictures of the stack load of PS3s (and the nearby wall of Xbox 360s, twice the size) someone came buy and plucked one up. He happened to be right next to me when I was paying for my stuff and I heard him saying that the main reason he decided to get it was because it offered up games at 1080p and he wanted to see what it looked like on his plasma. It appeared he was also buying a Blu-ray movie and a copy of Madden for the system.

I can't help but wonder if this seeming lack of interest in the PS3 at Best Buys is because of a general post-holiday buying drought or something more about the system itself. It certainly doesn't look good, especially when coupled with the details were reported on last week about the PS3's grey market. ...

New version of the Sega Saturn emulator for Windows.

What's new?
CD Block Read Command was updated.
Eiyuu Densetsu now works (Legend of Heroes 1 & 2, I presume)
SCU Timer 1 processing was updated.
Virtual Hydlide now works
VDP1 draw command processing was updated.
VDP1 color operation processing was updated.
The sound test of Dark Savior is now displayed accurately.
VDP1 V-Blank Out timing was updated.
The Pattern Name Assignment mistake of the VDP2 Cycle Pattern was taken into account.
The battle screen in Slayers Royal and the title screen of Virtual On are now displayed accurately.
VDP2 color operation processing was updated.
VDP2 window processing was updated.
SH2 dynamic recompilation processing was updated.
J. League Pro Soccer Club wo Tsukurou! 2 now works.

An option to turn the memory access wieght of the cache through address was added.
If Memory Access Weight is turned on,
the palette of the choices in Daina Airan (aka Dino Island) become normal (depending on Dot Clock)
The sound effects of Virtua Fighter 2 are also reproduced.
An option to use HSynch period as a real clock was added.
If CTRL is pushed while SSF is starting,
the BIOS use/do note use option will be temporarily inverted.
The version of savestate data was changed.
Although older versions are still compatible, they may not load depending on data.
Especially savestates made without BIOS are affected, as the BIOS emulation program was changed. ...

via destructoid

If you've been keeping up on your Podtoids since episode 8, you might be aware that I'm a PSP owner and perhaps one of its more vocal critics. We're coming up on nearly two years since the PSP's advent and I can only now come up with a laundry list of reasons why you might be compelled to own them. That I'm even here, even bothering to say stuff about the PSP, that should mean something. Right? Not many people cruising about espousing the good word on Sony's handheld-what-couldn't. By virtue of my very need to speak on the topic, you ought to be excited for what I'm about to say. You stoked? Good.

Despite the recent public backlash over particularly slimy marketing strategies, I think now is the best time to own a PSP -- almost none of it having to do with Sony's influence. Indeed, the PSP is a unique wunderkind, owing its current streak of successes not to its creator, but to the valiant efforts of a handful of third-party developers and folks like you and me. Well, folks smarter than you and me, anyway. Don't believe me? Hit the jump and I'll do my damndest to sell you on a nigh-useless $200 hunk of plastic and silicon in five simple reasons, and all without almost any mentioning of on-the-go porn!



#1: The games.

It seems as though it took Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops to awaken folks to the idea that good games are finally beginning to find a home on the PSP. Truth is they've been trickling in for months now, but it's all the same, really. Now we're paying attention.

So maybe you've seen the GTAs come and go and you're still not interested. I'm the same way. Truthfully, within the first year-plus of the PSP's shelf life, I purchased three games: Lumines and Metal Gear Solid at launch, Me & My Katamari some time later. When Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth finally came out, I was startled when I noticed how much good stuff had suddenly popped up, all ripe for the picking. Capcom had a slew of good stuff on the shelves -- we'll get to that in a minute -- but there was a sudden strong showing on the part of a number of third parties.

If you haven't been keeping up with the onslaught of quality PSP experiences, let me give you a brief list of games that no PSP owner should be without: Daxter, Virtua Tennis: World Tour, Loco Roco, OutRun 2006: Coast to Coast, Gitaroo Man Lives!, Gradius Collection, Power Stone Collection, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth, Lumines 1 and 2, Every Extend Extra, Gunpey, Ys: Ark of Naphistim, Tales of Eternia, Metal Gear Acid 1 and 2, Wipeout Pure, Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror, Tekken: Dark Resurrection, the Grand Theft Auto games -- the list goes on. Now, I could go on and on about these games in detail, but just look at that -- that's a mighty list. I figured just the scope of such a list would be reason enough to consider getting back into the PSP if you, like me, thought it had died an early death.

And if you're still on the fence, the House that Mega Man Built would like to have a word with you.





#2: The Capcom.

Holy god, Capcom pulled out all the stops for the PSP this last year, and it doesn't seem like they have any intentions of letting up. You might be saying to me "But Aaron, most if not all of Capcom's PSP games are ports from other systems!", and you'd be right. But you'd also be bleeding from the eyes, because nobody disagrees with me in front of my children, understand? Nobody.

Anyway, they're ports, to be sure -- but they're ports that operate exceptionally well as portable experiences, every last one of them. A wide spectrum of gameplay experiences ranging from classic arcade (Capcom Classics Collection), platforming, and a slew of fighters (Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX). It's likely that you'll find at least two or three games fitting with your gaming preferences within Capcom's burgeoning PSP library.

Some of these games even constitute full-fledged remakes, like the excellent Mega Man: Powered Up, Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X and Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins which, no matter what some people say, is an amazing title an worth your cash. And don't forget about Power Stone Collection, which -- huh? Never heard of Power Stone? It's only the greatest four-player fighting game this side of Smash Bros, and the very reason that God granted you the gift of fingers!

Enough hyperbole. Let's move on to what you've no doubt heard whispered in the darkest corners of the internet...



#3: The homebrew.


Yep, this is the part I mentioned about us doing the work that made the PSP worth it, despite Sony's best efforts to keep us out. Why the hate, Sony?

It's the user-created software that really brings out the best in the PSP. For those of you unaware of the homebrew community's latest developments, the PSP is now capable of emulating almost everything up to 4th-gen, in some cases perfectly, in others almost perfectly. Not that I would ever advocate piracy and rommin' it up or anything in any sort of public forum -- but, you know. I own an unholy lot of games, and I have no qualms running them in various other forms on my other ...

Another new release from Neoflash for Neo 2 users:

Neo2 Manager V1.6
1. Fix one save lib bug,support Golden Sun serial multi-point save,thanks bruceg
2. Add the background upgrade checking function, can check the new version automatica.
3. Start to support NEO3-SD/MiniSD/TF serial,can use this driver to burn the NEO2/3 menu.


download: http://www.neoflash.com/forum/index....ic,3603.0.html ...

Those of you have a Neo2 Flashcart will love this, a new software update from Neoflash:

Merry X'mas and happy new year! Here is a small gift from NEOTEAM
before 2007! Hope you like it.


NEO2 Menu v1.3 [12-31-2006]

New in this version:
* Supports NDS homebrew
* "X Button to Backup ROM" message
* Many small crash fixes (Magical Vacation 5, Monster House, etc.)
* Corrupt graphics fixes (Harry Potter, Monster Bomber, etc.)
* Many non-booting games fixed (Shrek, Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi, etc.)
* Many saves fixed (Final Fantasy III, etc.)
* Many "exit game" bugs fixed (Star Fox, Bust-A-Move, etc.)
* New Super Mario mini games fixed
* Supports the official *.SRL file format
* Added FAT warning function, it'll report an error if it detects
file system fragmentation, then please re-format your SD/TF


About homebrew:
Homebrew ROMs can only read files and directories from SD if they are
designed for it. That's why you see some with different builds for
"SC CF" and "SC SD", for example. There's nothing restricting homebrew
from using the SD file system. Chishm's NDS FAT lib should support
Neo2 SD well enough.


About file system fragmentation:
Also keep in mind that fragmented file systems are still not supported.
A fragmented ROM WILL have problems running. You can check for file
fragmentation using the "analyze" button in Windows XP's defrag tool.
If it warns of fragmentation, do not defragment. It is much faster to
erase all files or format the card, then copy everything you want back to it.
Rule of thumb: if you have to delete a file, you should delete them all.


About random crash:
The reason is because some MK4-mini burn with a wrong code during produce,
please check your MK4-mini version mark above the golden finger, if you
can see your MK4-mini is "MAGICKEY4-Mini VE1" or "MAGICKEY4-Mini VL2"
version and with PURPLE PCB color, then mean your MK4-mini MAYBE have
problem, and notice please:
[1] Except these 2 version, all other version working fine without any
random crash matter;
[2] Not all of these 2 version will crash, just SOME of them;
[3] If your MK4-mini have random crash matter and it's in these 2 version,
you can send back to the shop and ask for replacement.

download: http://www.neoflash.com/forum/index....ic,3600.0.html ...

Divineo China are the second retailer to sell Firmware 2.71 (Now the preferred firmware for PSP Homebrew) PSP Consoles (Brand New), they are selling Both the Original Black and the White PSP Consoles in the Regular Pack and also Value Packs for $218.95 (£110)

Buy White v2.71 PSP

Buy Black v2.71 PSP ...