PSP-3000 sneaks out a bit early, suffers an unboxing

Due to be launched next Tuesday, the PSP-3000 Ratchet & Clank Entertainment Pack has managed to slip into at least one Best Buy a few days early, where it was quickly snatched up by friendly tipster Aaron G. He sent us a few unboxing shots out of the kindness of his heart, and now he's undoubtedly too engrossed in National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets and that ultra-bright screen to pay us much heed. Oh Nicolas Cage, what a charmer you are.

Eternity's Child creator: DS, iPhone can coexist; PSP's days may be numbered

Eternity's Child creator Luc Bernard speaks his mind about the current status of the portable market. See, there's the new PSP-3000 coming out, and then there's the DSi too. The iPhone's also starting to look like a worthy adversary in the portable gaming market, what with its App Store and all - so now, where does the whole industry stand?Satoru Iwata already gave his thoughts on the subject matter - that they're not after iPhone's market share. And who can forget? Even John Koller had a thing to say about the current competition - that the DSi may be successful, but will remain for kiddies under 12.So now, will anyone else give their own two cents? No, duh. Of course someone will pipe in!In an interview with Pocket Gamer, Luc Bernad compares what game development is like for all three platforms. Now I know some of you may or may not agree with some of his points, but just note that these come from his side of things as a developer for the games. These are his opinions from the way he sees things in the portable market.
Pocket Gamer: What tempted you into producing games for the iPhone?
Luc Bernard: When I first picked up the iPhone and played around with it I was struck by just how beautiful a piece of hardware it was. I really love it and I like the fact that you can also carry the games over to the iPod touch, so it's effectively two formats. I don't see it as a rival for the DS so much but I think the PSP's days may be numbered.
What benefits do you see in producing games for the iPhone as opposed to say, the DS or PSP?
To be honest there are no benefits compared to the DS - now the DSi has a 'DS Ware' store on the way it's pretty much the final piece of the puzzle for Nintendo, but the iPhone is without a doubt the best phone to make games for. I believe the DS and iPhone can coexist in the portable market, but like I said I'm not so sure about the PSP's chances.You can read up on the rest of the interview through the Via link below. He talks more about his future games - Eternity's Child (and its sequel), Defend Mechopolis, and an unnamed RPG (supposedly for the iPhone).

Launch and pricing details for PS3 wireless keypad, AC adapter

Sony has sent out an announcement regarding the launch date for their new wireless PS3 keypad and AC adapter. Both peripherals will be launching in Japan on December 18.The wireless keypad supports Bluetooth 2.0 and has a full QWERTY keyboard. It fits on both the SIXAXIS and DualShock 3 controllers and will be usable for chatting in games like LittleBigPlanet, Resistance 2, and SOCOM: Confrontation as well as PlayStation Home.The AC adapter lets you charge your controller without having to attach it to a PS3. It also has two extra USB ports that lets you charge other peripherals like the wireless keypad or a headset. You can even use it to charge your PSP Slim or the new PSP-3000.Suggested retail price for the wireless keypad is JPY 5,500 (US$ 55). The AC adapter, on the other hand, goes for JPY 2,800 (US$ 28).

TGS 2008: News from Square Enix's Closed Mega Theater

So what's happening at TGS? Seems like quite a good deal, actually. Say for example what's up at the Squre Enix Closed Mega Theater.For one, the voice actors for Dissidia: Final Fantasy has been announced, with Norio Wakamoto and Shimamoto Sumi as part of the cast. Then Tina from FFVI joins Cosmos, and her EX Mode transform is shown. A real time video of Cloud versus Sephiroth was also shown.Of course, that's not the only thing that was given media airtime. Here's the rest of the games that's been dealt with so far:

Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep
*Aqua is shown in a battle and event scenes.

Final Fantasy Agito XIII
*Video of 4-player battle.

The 3rd Birthday
*Completely new vieo is shown.
*Aya Brea is seen fighting an enemy.
*A new character, probably Kyle Madigan from Parasite Eve II is shown.

Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G getting localized for release in North America

Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G, the game's that's got Japan going all crazy for the PSP, is going to be released in North America, with spankin new title to boot: Monster Hunter Portable Unite.This piece of news has been expected for some time now, as Capcom has been dropping some heavy hints since last month.You may also have heard how Sony will be introducing a new feature that will let you have online play in formerly ad-hoc-only PSP games. Of course you've heard of it. It's big news. Well, United will be one of the first titles to have this feature.I don't think it needs to be said that this game is big in Japan. But I'll say it anyway. I'll even give you some big numbers. Capcom's let it be made known that they've shipped 2.5 million copies of the game since going on sale last March. Its massive success even gave a strong kick to PSP sales in the region when it was released.No release date for the game as of yet, but you can be sure we'll let you know when a release date's out.

PSP-3000 preview reveals battery life, Firmware 4.20 details, more

The lucky folks at Eurogamer got to lay their hands on a PSP-3000 and shared their thoughts on it with the unlucky ones.Their review talks on the 3000's much-touted bright screen, the everyone-thought-was-shorter-but-isn't battery life, and even some details on Firmware 4.20.Everyone first thought that the new screen took off 20 to 30 minutes in the battery life, but it was later revealed that power consumption was reduced in other components, which evens up the score.Eurogamer confirms this, saying that they got "the same five and a half hours we've come to expect playing games." Speaking of the battery, they also mention that the 3000 has a "smarter AC adapter unit," which exchanges the black box with just a "small, direct cable."Firmware 4.20 holds several major changes for the new unit. First of all, they talked about the new "wide" setting for the "color space," which Sony revealed earlier was an option to fully exploit the 3000's hardware.

*The new PSP's battery-powered third brightness level outshines the mains-powered fourth on its predecessor. If you flick the "Color space" option back to Normal, meanwhile, the colouring reverts to something closer to, though still brighter than, the PSP-2000.

Last month Sony also revealed the 3000's Automatic USB connection, which switches the unit to USB mode automatically when you hook it up. Eurogamer confirms that this feature will not interrupt gameplay.Finally for FW4.20, the 3000 now allows you to play games on a TV with a special adapter and composite cable, whereas TV output for gaming on the Slim can only be achieved with component video and D-Terminal cables.

Learn how to properly pwn your enemy in Dissidia: Final Fantasy

Alright, armchair brawlers! It's time for a quick lesson on how to properly dispatch your enemies in Square Enix's Dissidia: Final Fantasy. Face it, sometimes it's hard to go by textual descriptions and explanations of gameplay elements alone, so now, we see it in action.While you can probably pummel your opponents silly by mashing buttons (which is my all-time favorite tactic when I start panicking, mind you), the more strategic combatants would want to make use of the Brave Points and Break mode system. Besides, if you're already beating the lifestream out of someone, you might as well do it in style...See those numbers flashing on screen every time an attack connects? Those are what we call Brave Points. The higher it goes, the more damage you deal. Now here's where a bit of strategy comes in: see, some attacks can deal damage to your opponent's Brave Points (in typical FF speak, think of this as, say, casting Osmose on your enemy to drain their MP).And with that, we move to the second video: once your opponent's Brave Points get reduced to zero (haha, what a noob), they go into Break mode. Basically, they're stunned for a couple of seconds, in which case you can pummel them even more, this time with unabashed impunity (aww, poor Garland).

Patapon 2: story, multiplayer modes, new game plus, eggs, heroes, and Pata-screens galore

Sweet mother of pearl! Patapon 2 screens are marching in, with an accompanying army of details to tide you over. SCEJ is totally upping the ante with this sequel. Just to give you a sampling, Patapon 2 will be getting twice the amount of levels, units, and items, as well as a couple of new features to make every Pata-fan squirm in anticipation.Asking for numbers? Then numbers we shall have! Check out the 411 for Patapon 2: 60 levels, 384 items, 22 characters, 7 minigames, and an average playtime of 20 hours. In the first game, we only had 37 levels, 187 items, 11 characters, 5 minigames, and an average of 10 hours of playtime.On with the details!


*Over land, over sea...Patapon 2's story begins almost immediately where the first game left off. After the Zigaton threat was dealt with, the tribe built a ship to cross the sea. However, judging from the screens (screen on top, first row below), it looks like everything isn't smooth sailing for the pata-tribe.

*Putting all your eggs in a basket. A new feature in Patapon 2 is Egg collecting. There are 30 types of eggs that you can obtain through the single-player campaigns, with varying levels of rarity. These can be used in the multiplayer mode...

*Using your eggs. In the multiplayer arena, there are two modes: Mission and Carnival (third/fourth row of pics below). Mission takes you and your buddies for some co-op play, and your goal is to move the egg to a specific spot. This in turn brings you to Carnival mode, where everyone gets to jam to some pata-beats that show up on the screen.

*The cast gets bigger. New units introduced in this sequel come in different flavors: in the fifth row of pics, we see the Flier unit, the Mage, and the Robot. Another new unit in Patapon 2 is the hero - this little powerhouse can unleash a special attack (a la Limit Break) when you enter Hero Mode. See first pic, third row.

*From Zero to Hero. So what is Hero Mode, you ask? This is triggered right after Fever Mode (which is easier to enter this time around, btw). Heroes can also be customized with different armors, abilities, and jobs (demonstrated in last pic).

*New game plus!...ish. Don't go deleting your save file from Patapon 1 just yet! That same save file can be used in Patapon 2. Doing so allows you to carry over certain special items, medals, and gold.

DJ Max Portable Clazziquai Edition: trailer and screenshot spree

North America will be getting DJ Max Portable come November 11. However, to Koreans (and importers of Korean games), DJMP was so last year.Over at Korea, they're already past the second installment in the rhythm series and are already gearing up for the next two installments, DJ Max Portable Clazziquai Edition and Black Square Edition.Here are more screens for the Clazziquai Edition, showing some of the game modes, rhythm gameplay, and menu screens, as well as a trailer straight from Pentavision.

12th UVERworld single "Hakanaku mo Towa no Kanashi" 19/11

UVERworld will be releasing their twelfth single, Hakanaku mo Towa no Kanashi, November 19. The main song will be used as the opening theme to the second season of the anime Mobile Suit Gundam 00. It'll begin airing in October. The single will come in three different versions: one limited edition CD+DVD version and two CD-only versions. The CD+DVD edition will include footage of three songs from the band's PROGLUTION TOUR 2008 on the DVD and a Gundman sticker. The Gundam 00 Edition will only be available until the end of 2008 and will include a TV size version of Hakanaku mo Towa no Kanashi as well as come housed in a deluxe digipack and include an illustration of Mobile Suit Gundam. The regular edition will come with a first-press extra of a Gundman sticker. The sticker differs from the one include with the CD+DVD version.