New Commercial game for the PSP Released, heres the info:



Play as honorable knight Lloyd and embark upon an epic journey to recover the Wand of Kinan, a sacred relic stolen from your protection. As the only knight to survive the ambush, you must summon your strength, your magic, and the skillful aid of wizards, fighters, mages and other powerful allies to find the Wand and reclaim it for your king.

The Korean developed PSP™ RPG game Astonishia Story is shipping today as US release version at US$ 44.90 only.
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Game features:

Immerse yourself in a rich RPG adventure with over fifteen unique characters and brilliantly witty dialogue.
Enlist Wizards, Warriors and other skilled allies in your epic quest to recover your kingdom’s Wand.
Battle against elves, bandits, sorcerers and monsters using powerful weapons and magic.
Maneuver quickly in the heat of battle with intuitive one-button commands.
Get back into the action wherever you left off with save-any-time and an easy-to-navigate interface.

More info here --> http://www.play-asia.com/SOap-23-83-...j-70-1ag6.html ...

Reports are coming in that some DS games might know whether they are being played on a DS Lite as seen in the above video. When starting Mario Kart DS on the original DS, notice Mario's "Yahoo!" as compared with his DS Lite's "Here we go!"

Via Joystick ...

One of the new features introduced by the recent Xbox 360 update which slipped under the radar somewhat has been highlighted by an eagle-eyed forum poster on Neogaf.com.

"Crunker99" writes that you can clear the console's cache by doing the following: "Go to the system blade and then memory. Press Y on either the HDD or a MU and then press X, X, Left Bumper, Right Bumper, X, X.

"Once you do this a blade will pop up saying: This will perform maintenance on your Xbox 360 storage devices. Do you want to continue? Pick yes or no."

You want to be careful, though - speaking to 1up, a Microsoft representative warned: "The HDD cache clearing feature is a part of the Xbox 360 technical support process and is only supported in those instances.

"While the cache clearing operation will not harm or render your inoperable, it should only be used when instructed by the Microsoft customer support staff."

If you're having trouble with your console, MS says, your first port of call should be the Xbox 360 helpline (0800 587 1102 if you live in the UK).

Via Eurogamer ...

Proving once again that it's committed to the feature, Microsoft has got a fresh 360 backwards compatibility update primed for release this week, according to games boss Peter Moore.

Speaking in a Podcast with Microsoft's infamous internet spokesman Major Nelson, Moore - as well as revealing that he's an avid CVG reader - says that "20 titles or more" of the original Xbox games will be made 360-friendly in the next BC update, including Doom 3 and Lego Star Wars. According to Moore the update is undergoing final testing at Microsoft, and should be out sometime this week.

We're going to continue to get as close as we can to our stated target of every Xbox game being backwards compatible with the Xbox 360," states Moore in the Major Nelson Podcast. "There's a very talented team right here in the Redmond campus that are working on [backwards compatibility] and they'll continue to work on that, and more and more games we'll be announced over this calendar year and going forward."

So if Moore's wishes come true we might be able to completely remove the big black Xbox from under the telly; keep your eyes on Xbox Live.

Via CVG. ...

News from CVG

While Sony may have ditched its force feedback DualShock controller for this generation of home consoles with the PS3, it seems the company is hard at work on an invetion which has the potential to offer a whole new kind of feedback while playing games.

According to a patent uncovered by Barry Fox over at the New Scientist website, Sony is researching a way of squeezing bulky electronics device - like portable consoles, phones and handheld computers - into pocket-sized spaces.

Fox summarises Sony's research saying, "The body and screen of folding gadgets would be made from a flexible polymer containing conductive rubber bracing struts filled with a gel of aluminosilicate particles suspended in silicone oil.

.When a current is passed through the struts, the particles clump together and harden the gel, making the gadget solid enough to use. Sony has found that it would take very little power to make such a folding device harden, so the drain on its battery should be low."

Alongside potential uses for handhelds, it seems Sony also envisages the technology may have applications in home console controllers too, by affecting the shape or texture of your input device based on on-screen actions. The patent divulges that, "The electrorheological fluid device can be applied to, for example, part of a controller of a home-use game machine as another example of the electronic apparatus of the present invention. A user touches a control section of the controller by fingers, and the feeling of touch is controlled by the electrorheological fluid device."

For example, if a game player is defeated in a fighting game, the electrorheological fluid device is controlled to become soft in order to improve the realistic sensations in the game."

Folding consoles? Whatever will they think of next? Let us know what you desire in the way of electrorheological goodness in the comments field below. ...

The graphically-stunning fifth instalment in the Virtua Fighter series has finally been confirmed for PS3, and these new Arcade gameplay videos offer a glimpse of what we should probably expect to see running on Sony's next-gen hardware.

The arcade cabinet on display at this year's E3 had queues sprawling across Sega's E3 booth, where gamers braved the great unwashed for a chance to try out the two new characters, El Blaze and Eileen. Along with these fresh additions to the roster, 15 classic fighters will return in VF5, each customisable with four unique costumes and a selection of attachable items obtained through the in-game shop. We hope they've got the lucha libre wrestling mask in stock.

Virtua Fighter 5 is currently penned for release on PS3 early next year. For now though, you'll have to hunt out a fully-stocked arcade to get your Virtua Fighter fix.

Movies HERE ...

News from CVG

You may have noticed that Justin Lee's new movie The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift is not long to debut, and with EA heading up a plush new PS2 racer to complement the film, first screens have just roared onto the grid to give you a first taste of the action

The movie sees hero Sean Boswell dodging a jail sentence to head to Tokyo and join his uncle, but naturally he soon gets embroiled in the underground world of drift racing and pink slip action. Expect the game to follow suit.

The screens certainly look to evoke FAF: Tokyo Drift's dark neon lit-street raceways and, with a pronounced emphasis on drift mechanics and gameplay, you'll be power sliding around those neon bends with abandon. Of course there'll be a huge number of customisation options for your favoured racer, 1-2 player split-screen play and 1-4 player online play for PS2, but we have to hope the 'Advanced Rubber Band AI' system doesn't refer to the way you power your car.

.The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift is set to debut on PS2 and PSP imminently and, with old racing hands Eutechnyx behind the wheel, it should do the movie's racing action extreme justice.

Screenshots at link above ...

With Nintendo managing to impress the knickers off pretty much everyone who ventured into its Wii booth at this year's E3, it's no surprise that more and more publishers are starting to jump on the wavy-remote bandwagon. Latest in line now, is Take-Two Interactive - of Grand Theft Auto fame.

Speaking as part of a post-earnings conference call to analysts and investors, the publishers CFO Karl Winters revealed that, "The reception this platform received at the E3 show, you know, is one that makes us take a real strong look at it".

It seems that games like Nintendo's own Wii Sports has convinced Take-Two that the Wii has potential as a platform for the publishers 2K Games sports range: "As we grow our sports business, there are opportunities with our sports games to extend them to the Wii system, particularly if you look at baseball where we have exclusive arrangement, as well as, you know, some of the other sports games, which would play extremely well on the Wii product, the nonlicensed league ones."

While it's unlikely we'll be seeing a GTA on Nintendo's next console any time soon, it's still good to see more support for the diminuitive little bugger. Take-Two's Wii sports offerings are expected to release in late 2007/2008.

Via CVG ...

Halo 3 aside, the undoubted star of Microsoft's conference at this year's E3 was the bombshell GTA IV announcement, in which the Redmond giant boldly proclaimed that the next GTA will not only be on 360 from day one, but that it would feature ongoing episodic content delivered over Xbox Live.

It was not only a great coup, but gave Peter Moore a chance to add to his impressive tattoo collection, but of course such an announcement could only leave us panting for more and the shutters came down swiftly as they'd risen.

Well first solid details have trickled through this morning via an IMDBlisting for the game, with Rockstar President Dan Houser and GTA and Manhunt vet James Worrall being named as the principle writers.

Also rather strangely listed on IMDB as 'crew' are Lazlow Jones, who wrote for GTA III and Vice City and starred as voice talent for Liberty City Stories and San Andreas. The final entry is writer Navid Khonsari who starred as the Porn Host in Max Payne 2 and has voice credits on all the GTA series as well as Manhunt.

Although the details are a little scant, it seems like Rockstar is getting on board some of its finest and most experienced writing and voice talent for GTA IV, which can only be a good thing. That's your lot for now, but more details will no doubt dribble through as the game progresses.

Via CVG ...