Coming Spring 2009 this portable version of Resistance being developed by the same team that brought us last year’s PSP Game of the Year, Syphon Filter, looks great. Check out the following trailer and screenshots of Resistance Retribution.

Check out this trailer that demonstrates Hot Shots Golf Open Tee 2 online play for the PlayStation Portable.

Here is a list of recent games released for the PlayStation Portable presented in order from best to worst reviewed. Data compiled from MetaCritic.

91 God of War: Chains of Olympus
86 Patapon
83 Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
83 MLB 08: The Show
82 WipEout Pulse
82 Echochrome
80 Pro Evolution Soccer 2008
77 Downstream Panic!
75 FlatOut: Head On
73 Pursuit Force: Extreme Justice
73 UEFA Euro 2008
71 flOw
71 R-Type Command
65 Puzzle Guzzle
64 Wild ARMs XF
64 Fading Shadows
63 Major League Baseball 2K8
61 Warriors Orochi
57 Need for Speed ProStreet
57 Dungeon Explorer: Warriors of Ancient Arts
56 Bomberman Land
55 Blokus Portable: Steambot Championship
46 Ford Racing Off Road
44 Iron Man
40 King of Clubs

From Gamespot:

While Lego Batman is being released on a multitude of platforms, Traveller’s Tales claims that this is the first Lego game that they’ve built specifically for next-gen platforms such as Xbox 360 and PS3. The environments are more detailed than those of Lego Star Wars, and they feature nice incidental effects, such as rats running around, and smoke rising from the grates. The game can also be played in two-player co-op across Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network, while both versions will support 720p and 1080p resolution output. It’s also still hitting PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable with all the same content, while they’re currently experimenting with motion-sensitive batarang controls for the Wii.

With Lego Batman, Traveller’s Tales look set to replicate the same sly humour and solid co-op play that they pioneered with the Lego Star Wars series. It’s clear that the game isn’t trying to break major new ground, but rather take the fundamentals of the previous games and transport them to an entirely different comic book universe. With this and Lego Indiana Jones in the pipeline, it will be a busy year for the British developer, but we hold hope that the game will still make its planned Q4 2008 release date. With plenty of time before now and then, expect to see more on Lego Batman in the coming months.

[source]

Last week, X-Play reviewed Crisis Core for the PSP and, well, apparently the review generated a little controversy amongst fans of the show and the Final Fantasy franchise. In this week’s Sessler’s Soapbox, Adam takes on his critics and explains why he gets so worked up about being accused of “not being in line with other reviewers.” 

Read the rest of this page »

Curious how much abuse Sony’s PlayStation Portable can take before it completely breaks?

Well, BrokenReview posted the following video showing a PSP get dropped/smashed/driven over, pausing between demonstrations of torture to note what still functions on the unit.  In my opinion the PSP fairs as well as could be expected - since it seems their goal was to ultimately destroy it.

Oh well, I guess if you’re going to be destructive - you might as well videotape it then post it to the web so we can watch.

Conclusion 

The downfalls of the PSP are the screen and the UMD drive, both of these failed in the final tests, however, the rest of the hardware seemed to be working as we could still click through the menu and display it on a TV. Games wouldn’t play, the drive didn’t even try to spin them. We took it apart with precision screw drivers and couldn’t see anything obvious to fix as far as the UMD drive was concerned, the screen seemed to have been crushed, causing it problems. We figured this was beyond repair. At the end when we ripped it to pieces, we not only found it far easier than the Nintendo DS Lite to rip apart but found that the screen and pretty much everything else had far less protection than the Nintendo which was packed full of protective layers and little bits of foam and squidgy plastic/rubber. 

We got the feeling from the PSP that it wouldn’t get through the first couple of tests, let alone get onto extreme testing. It felt very flimsy and light, but it proved us wrong and stood up very well, if the screen and UMD drive had held in there, we’d be giving it a much higher score. 

If you’re thinking about buying a PSP, get a case and a screen protector for it, the screen scratches very easily and a good quality case will keep it extra safe. It’s not as flimsy as people think, and under normal conditions we can’t see it having any problems. 

Scratch test - 5/10 The PSP suffered a surprising amount of scratches both on the screen and casing.

Low level drop - 6/10 The PSP powered off on every drop, on one drop the UMD cover popped out of one of its “hinges”, along with the disk flying out, the battery cover came off on another.

20 MPH Drop - 8/10 A few minor scratches, powered off, battery and cover came off. Grazing of plastic around the screen.

Kick down stairs - 8/10 Only a few dents and scratches. The UMD drive hinge came out again and the screen played up a little afterwards but was working perfectly again after 10 minutes or so.

Stomp/kick - 7.5/10Quite a few pretty deep new scratches and scuffs on the casing.

Tea spill - 9/10 The sound temporarily went out, other than that a perfect test!

First floor drop - 3/10 PSP screen was not working, but not cracked, the sound seemed to be broken, however on the 50mph drop it came back. The menu did not work, the UMD drive was broken and it suffered denting. Parts flying everywhere.

Run over - 4.5/10 Destroyed the screen, with major cracks coming through, sound continued to work and it functioned when hooked up to a TV. (UMD was broken from previous test) 

50 MPH drop - 7/10 Sound working perfectly, screen didn’t suffer any further damage, minor scuffs and scratching to the casing. Battery and cover came off.

Second floor drop - 3/10 Totally destroyed, no power light, no sound, no charging light. Battery split.

Thrown against wall - 2/10 We split the case throwing it against the wall, also metal casing from around the PSP was deformed and snapped out. The screen was further cracked and inked, and buttons got stuck and impossible to press, part flew all over the place!

Toughness - 3/10 It was far too easy to rip up, no knifes involved, no smacking it against tables, just softly pulling at parts. 

+ 10 because the PSP Slim and Lite wasn’t designed, and isn’t advertised as being tough

Overall - 65/100 

[source]

This past week I was busy writing a series of posts for my blog on the history of videogaming. I really hadn’t planned on writing a history, but it kind of evolved out of my original story idea. The thought that kicked off that series was about innovation in the current generation, specifically talking about the firmware updates that the PlayStation 3 and the PlayStation Portable have been getting. But, in talking about the present it’s always good to have a working knowledge of the past, and that’s what I ended up doing. For this article though, I’m going to talk specifically about the seventh generation consoles, namely the PS3 and PSP.

With the recent release of update 2.20, we are seeing a few unique additions to the PS3’s capabilities. Now we have the ability, with the audio output device function, to use our PSPs as a remote control for music played through the PS3. Plus we can now export our playlists on the PS3 to the PSP. Those were not the only significant improvements for the PS3 though. The new resume play feature for Blu-ray movies is handy, improving the web browser is welcome, and adding the ability to have DivX videos over 2 gigs in size is nice. But, the big one has to be the addition of BD-Live and Profile 2.0 support on the PS3. Inclusion of this much anticipated feature is definitely going to help the PS3 in the long run, namely with sales.

The PSP also had significant upgrades with it’s last couple of updates. The addition of Skype and internet radio with the 3.90 update is very interesting indeed. Now (with the remote control headset accessory) we can make phone calls with our PSPs. Can any other handheld (no, I’m not going to talk about the N-Gage) do that? With update 3.93 we see an increase in the number of stations we can listen to. Now that is cool stuff. One of the older features that I’ve been playing with lately is the remote play function. Playing movies, music, and (of course) games from my PS3 to my PSP is fantastic, but remote play is not perfect. It works great with music and movies, but the gaming side is where it’s lacking. I don’t understand why the classic arcade games that I have on my PS3 can’t be played on my PSP. There is definitely enough power under the PSPs hood to handle those 20 year old arcade games. I would love to play Gauntlet or Joust on the go. So, why can’t the PSP do that? Just curious. Maybe a future update will allow that to be possible.

Since the PS3 is one of the first players to support Profile 2.0 I really feel good about my decision to pick the PS3 over the 360. I really don’t have a problem with the Xbox (and plan to pick one of next month), but the inclusion of the extra features (numerous at this point and growing) just made the PS3 seem like a better investment to me. Also, the added functionality between the little portable that maybe can and it’s big brother just make it even more worth it to pick up both. Now, where is that damn portable copy feature that was rumored to be with update 3.93?

From developer Eden Games the following two tech demonstrations - the first shows the inventory system and how items and environmental objects can be manipulated, as well as how items may be used together. The second tech demo shows the realistic use of fire with various objects in the game. It also shows how objects are affected when shot.

God of War: Chains of Olympus, the hack and slash, action-adventure game developed by Ready At Dawn exclusively for the Sony PlayStation Portable is scheduled for release March 4th. Check out the official trailer.