Atlus U.S.A., Inc. today announced that Class of Heroes, the upcoming first-person dungeon crawler for PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system, will be delayed until June 9th. The anticipated RPG, an homage to the genre classics, promises to bring expansive character and party customization options and deep, involved dungeon crawling to PSP system owners across North America.

“Just days prior to manufacturing, a show-stopping bug was discovered,” explained Aram Jabbari, manager of PR and Sales. “We will under no circumstance ship a product with foreknowledge of such an issue, and so we must delay the game to resolve the problem and deliver a final product to our fans that lives up to the high standards we aspire to and that they deserve.”

Cloud computing seems to be the new “in” thing, nowadays. First OnLive appears at GDC, which forces David Perry to announce his own similar service — which he was saving for E3 — and now Sony has trademarked something called “PS Cloud.” The trademark was registered “for use with a cloud computing data center management software, communications software, broadcasting services, and a long list of other terms,” according to Siliconera.

There are many ways that Sony could be utilizing a cloud computing system, including offering a similar service to OnLive, allowing users to share downloadable games/demos or improving the PSP’s remote play functionality. Whatever it is, we imagine it’s probably quite a way off and, like many other trademarks or patents, could never even come to fruition at all.

Download PSP Games for Free

There are many gamers going around the Web indicating that 2009 is the year of the PS3 or Xbox 360. However, another platform that many gamers have undermined may be picking up steam to take over 2009. According to reports PSP may have an awesome lineup in store for 2009 with unrevealed titles as well as existing franchises.

The PSP is one platform that many gamers overlook as a contender in the gaming device arena. The PSP truly is a portable multimedia device considering you can play games, watch movies and listen to music all from a single device. However, gamers have been complaining about the lackluster lineup in 2008. The PSP lineup did start spectacularly with titles such as Final Fantasy
VII: Crisis Core and God of War: Chains of Olympus, but quickly died down near the last quarter.

Sony execs have admitted that the game release pacing for the PSP in 2008 was poorly planned and promised that the lineup will be three times better in 2009. According to John Koller, Sony’s director of hardware marketing, 2008 was the best year for the PSP. Apparently the PSP sold 31 percent more year-over-year. However, something tells me Final Fantasy and God of War really deserve the credit for this sales boost.

It seems like the brains at Sony got together 16 months ago to try to resolve the PSP game lineup issue. Koller stated, “We talked with each of our internal developers and looked at all of our franchises and asked: How can you create them for PSP?” The games that resulted from the meeting so far include: Resistance: Retribution, MotorStorm Arctic Edge and a portable LittleBigPlanet.

It seems like third party publishers have jumped on board, taking advantage of the PSP as well. There is a new Assassin’s Creed and Rock Band game planned for the PSP this year. Monster Hunter Portable is slated to hit the US sometime this year as well. The game that I am still waiting for is Elder Scroll Travels: Oblivion for the PSP. It doesn’t seem like the game is canceled but it has been two years since anything has been announced. Metacritic recently updated the release date for the game to November 2009, so it doesn’t look like its completely canceled.

Koller also indicated that the lineup for 2009 could be 50 percent more than that of 2008. He also teased that there are major franchises yet to be announced. I recently talked about a new rumor pointing to a new Grand Theft Auto game for the PSP. It seems like this could become a reality with Sony hinting at a few unannounced big franchises coming this summer. Make sure to keep your ear to the ground for more information on upcoming games.

Super Stardust Portable is an adaptation of the arcade shooter game released on PS3 earlier. On the PSP, this game provides players with a space ship dashing around five planets. You can protect your spaceship with the help three types of weapons. A bomb and a boost is also at your disposal to enable you to protect your delicate vessel from hooligans and space rocks.

Content in the PSP version of the game is similar to PS3. There are five planets, each one being a stage. Each planet throws at you a lot of enemies and asteroids and you have to fight them to cross five phases. The fifth phase sets you up in confrontation with the boss. There are different modes you can choose from including the Arcade and Planet mode. In the Planet mode, you can play just one planet while in the Arcade mode, you go through five planets automatically looped to the higher difficulty levels.

PSP features the analog nub which controls movement of map, the face buttons with which you can choose and the right and left triggers which are for activating and boosting bombs. D Pad up and down controls are used for handling weapons like Ice Splitter, Gold Melter and Rock Crusher.

Super Stardust Portable is a quite smooth flowing. An interesting addition is the Impact mode. Here you substitute shooting with boosting through planets. Your speed picks up as you go around boosting through more things.

All this is fine for those who are playing Super Stardust for the first time. For those who are experienced playing this game on the Sony PlayStation 3, the portable version is bound to be a disappointment. Precise and well designed controls in the original version feels much better than the difficulty faced on the portable moving around the analog nub. Shooting with the face buttons is also not as smooth and precise as the player would like it to be.

Another disadvantageous difference from the original version is the gameplay technique where you could move as well as change weapons simultaneously. Doing that is pretty difficult and awkward here. On the whole, this arcade game is enjoyable for those playing Super Stardust for the first time.

Download “Arcade Shooter Game” Free

Vogster Entertainment has announced a brand new game for the PSP Store called Unbound Saga. Although the name doesn’t provide any clues, Unbound Saga is actually a sidescrolling beat-em-up in the tradition of arcade classics like Streets of Rage. The downloadable PSP title is based on an upcoming Dark Horse comic book of the same name.

Players will take control of either Rick Ajax or Lori Machete as they fight their way through a city full of bad dudes. Luckily, environmental objects like garbage cans — and even enemy thugs themselves — can be picked up and hurled as weapons. RPG elements allow players to upgrade their fighter with 35 more unlockable moves and abilities. According to the developers, the game uses a detailed 3D engine to display the action on screen, although movement will be mainly on a 2D plane.

Right now we have no information on pricing for this game, but the publisher states that both the PSP game and the comic book will be coming our way in June 2009.

Download PSP Games for Free

Sega just confirmed it’s completed a deal to publish official games based on the 2010 Winter Olympics, to take place in Vancouver.

According to the announcement, “SEGA will publish a wide variety of games with winter sports and events including skiing, skating, and snowboard bearing the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games emblem.”

“SEGA is extremely excited to once again work with ISM on a series of multi-platform games celebrating the Olympic Games,” says Sega COO, Okitane Usui.

“The Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games offers gamers a collection of exciting sports to master, as well as a stunning location for players to take advantage of. We aim to bring fans around the world an exhilarating experience whenever they play any Olympic title.”

Press release after the break.

THE OFFICIAL VIDEO GAME OF THE VANCOUVER 2010 OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES – SEGA ANNOUNCES PUBLISHING AGREEMENT

TOKYO (February 5, 2009) — SEGA® Corporation today announced a worldwide agreement with International Sports Multimedia (ISM), exclusive licensee of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), to once again become the sole approved video game publisher of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, Canada. After an　extremely successful series of video games from the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, this exclusive license will allow SEGA to once more publish the only official interactive entertainment software titles of the world’s most famous sporting event.
Through this agreement, SEGA secures the sole rights to publish console, PC/Macintosh, handheld, arcade, and mobile games worldwide. Under this exclusive license, SEGA will publish a wide variety of games with winter sports and events including skiing, skating, and snowboard bearing the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games emblem.
“Working with SEGA has resulted in Olympic Entertainment Software achieving unparalleled success and we are delighted to support SEGA once again for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games”, says Raymond Goldsmith, Chairman & CEO of ISM.
“SEGA is extremely excited to once again work with ISM on a series of multi-platform games celebrating the Olympic Games,” says Okitane Usui, Chief Operating Officer, SEGA Corporation. “The Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games offers gamers a collection of exciting sports to master, as well as a stunning location for players to take advantage of. We aim to bring fans around the world an exhilarating experience whenever they play any Olympic title.”

Download latest games for Free

LocoRoco was one of those rare games that didn’t look or play like anything else on the market. Its unique brand of platforming did not come from side-scrolling gameplay in the traditional sense. Instead, the developers built its originality from the ground up, creating an action/adventure with heavy influence from puzzle designs not typically seen in video games. To top it off, they wrapped this bright, colorful package in a control scheme that would have the player manipulating the world instead of the main character.

LocoRoco was pure, unrelenting innovation. Whether you liked or loathed the gameplay, it was impossible not to value what the developers had accomplished. But as we’re all aware, the downside of innovation is that it only happens once; without drastic changes or an entirely new game concept, the gameplay that once blew minds won’t be as impressive the second time around.

The developers of LocoRoco 2 surely knew this and decided to stick with the same format anyway. But while that means you won’t be stunned by what this sequel has to offer, it does contain several impressive moments. The levels are longer, deeper and less forgiving; berries are hidden more cleverly (unlike the first game, you won’t find a cluster of five in the same obvious area); underwater stages have been added; and you now have the ability to smash through barriers using a LocoRoco-protecting shell.

Of course, the question on most gamers’ minds will be: does the new or enhanced content justify a purchase? Fans of the original will be pleased, so a purchase is definitely justified. But given the similarities between the two games, those who didn’t like the original should pass on LocoRoco 2. However, if you haven’t played the series before but enjoy platformers and puzzle games, skip this review, skip the first game and jump ahead to the sequel.

LocoRoco 2 doesn’t begin with any drastic changes. You’re still in control of Kulche, the always-smiling yellow LocoRoco. The first batch of levels are almost too familiar with colors, windpipes, long crevices and semi-predictable patterns that closely mirror the original game. That changes when water is introduced. By holding the circle button (which is still used to split or connect your LocoRocos), Kulche will sink below the surface. Now you can control him while submerged just as you do outside of water – by tilting the world around him.

Water isn’t a groundbreaking addition but it does present a few challenges. For starters, jumping is not possible. When holding one of the shoulder buttons and pressing the other, Kulche will float upward. Depending on how the level is tilted, you may actually be floating left or right. Spikes and other enemy traps are used to keep things interesting. Upon reaching the surface, Kulche will float on top of the water’s surface as normal and may jump out to reach land.

Pulling a trick out of the bouncy ball playbook, LocoRoco 2 introduces the use of shells. These rock-hard casings have somewhat of an oval shape (excluding the ice shell, which is completely round). Shells bounce more intensely, they are impervious to spikes (and will destroy them!), and can plow through any designated barrier. You’ll know which barriers by the light color and odd speckles placed all over them.

Water and shells gave Sony something to hype, but the best part of LocoRoco 2 is the level design. The twisting and frequently winding levels were to be expected; just how far the developers were willing to go, however, is what’s surprising. In simple terms, these levels are like giant pinball machines – the most complex of their kind yet are still completely manageable (and easy enough to play through) that you won’t have to pull your hair out.

LocoRocos are constantly being pushed, pulled and bounced off each environment, the variety of which includes ice, grass, dirt, wood and various undefined sticky and rubber-like materials. Some levels will send you gliding through the air while others twist you around like food going through a human’s digestive system. There are half-pipes (that you’ll slide up and down), corkscrew trap doors (that will spin you around), creature cannons (back from the first game), and shape-changing objects that will deform your LocoRocos to conform to each scenario.

Toward the end you’ll encounter a stage that takes place entirely on one platform, which is being pulled up to something big (I’ll keep that spoiler a secret). There is nothing underneath the platform to catch your LocoRoco if it falls. Tilting the world tilts the platform, thus making it much easier to fall. At the same time, enemies fly by and drop large boulders on the platform which tilts sharply in either direction.

This exciting level can be as easy or as difficult as you want. If you’re a perfectionist, chances are you’ll want to capture every berry available, which feels next to impossible. That feeling is a common one while playing LocoRoco 2; if you just want to run through the stages and enjoy them as is, the game is pretty easy. But the moment you crave perfection from yourself, the game is all but a nightmare. As with the original, backtracking is only possible to a point – once you’ve hit a certain part of each stage, there’s no going back. Checkpoints are not a part of the LocoRoco 2 experience. In other words, those who want every collectible must play flawlessly.

Download “LocoRoco 2″ game for Free

It’s dark and mostly gray. And it has a familiar, popular flavor that increased my heart rate for reasons good and bad. This is my kind of, sort of “Killzone 2” campaign review.

“Killzone 2” is a PS3- exclusive first-person shooter from Guerilla Games with a cover mechanic and a great-to-hate sci-fi version of the Nazis. It has graphics that should provoke a debate about whether a game can look too good for its own good.

It has a campaign that took me nine hours, 15 minutes, 45 seconds and an almost-devilish 667 killed enemies to beat.

It’s got multiplayer I have not played, an exciting score, obligatory motion control gimmicks, obligatory vehicle missions, and obligatory supporting character death as a plot device.

You’ve played this game before.

It’s got a train level, a bridge level, a section where you wield an unstoppable weapon, a clipped ending and other elements that make it advisable to not play this game immediately after one plays “Resistance 2,” “Gears of War,” “Gears of War 2,” “Call of Duty IV: Modern Warfare,” “Half-Life 2,” “Halo 2.” And there are other games it reminds me of, but to name them would be to spoil other elements of “Killzone 2″ that you don’t want to know about in advance.

At its best, “Killzone 2″’s campaign has you advancing down that bridge or through a palace courtyard, gaining inches against the Helghast. You fire at them through the smoke, when you see the orange of their eyes. During those best moments, dozens of soldiers advance behind and beside you and — like none of those games mentioned above — you are made to feel as if you control not just a gun but the morale of fighting men.

The game is at its worst at its ends, dull in the beginning hour and infuriating during a final battle that punishes the player for employing the combat strategies taught in the rest of the campaign. The developer that rewards a trophy for beating that final boss in under 20 minutes is the developer who must admit something went wrong.

A year from now few will discuss how this game played: smoothly, heavily, with lumbering guns and uncommonly helpful allies. A year from now people will still discuss the graphics: how good they do look.

Let a friend play and enjoy the show. There are so many characters on the screen, such detailed ruins of the Helghan planet. The rubble, the tanks, the explosions, the electrical storms and the wind — oh, the wind. You can see it. Red dust blows. Gray smoke billows. Light tries to rip through. Bullets do. Shadows stretch, as enemies bark from somewhere that a stereo sound system will not specify. If you play and your friend watches, he will see Hollywood. You will feel confusion, oppression. You’ll wonder if that wind makes for a better game or if all that dust - and the many Guerilla Games engineers and artists who labored to make it — did your friend a favor, but you the gamer a pain.

Unless you like the panic.

Then you’ll cheer and bellow at the intensity amplified by the orchestral strings as showdown after showdown feels thrilling and desperate enough to be a big budget finale.

The enemies are smart, the script less so. This game tells you nothing that video games haven’t already suggested about war. Your squadmates make no fresh jokes and curse in only the old ways. There is one bold writing decision. An armed ally makes a bad choice, one that would normally get him written out of the game: killed or turned evil. Instead, he sticks to our side, an annoyance so unusual for a game character that it’s welcome. We fight with someone we hate. That’s new. But the real stars of the game aren’t your hero or his allies. It’s those smart space-Nazi enemies. They are ferocious, thick with armor and cloaks. They all but goosestep to battle beneath the broadcasted battlecries of their wicked leader. The game makes icons of them, the chief visual fetish rendered on screen.

“Killzone 2″ is a linear war to be fought from cover at four difficulty levels, or contested in multiplayer skirmishes of up to 32 players, different classes and custom classes activated and crafted by earning experience in various match types. I can assess little more about the multiplayer until I play it, with access to it limited until the game’s release on February 27.

I can say little more about this PS3 exclusive’s relevance to system owners than what I’ve described above. Lacking co-op, it technically has less content than “Resistance 2,” offering a package more of the scale of the modern classic “Call of Duty IV.” Its middle will excite; its ending will enrage.

“Killzone 2″ is first at nothing but among the best in its stab at many familiar setpieces and technical achievements. Its bridge level is better. Its train level is better. Its graphics are better. Its enemies are better. It’s a good game in a crowded genre.

Unlike, say “Flower,” it’s the kind of game hardcore gamers ask for. You’ll enjoy it if your appetite for such flavors hasn’t been exhausted over the years or even over the last few months.

“Killzone 2″ will be out in North America on February 27. A demo of the game should be available on the PS3’s PlayStation Network the day before.

Download Unlimited Games for Free

A quick story resulting in a quick hack job… LordLeXaT’s PSP
battery broke, and with no money to buy a new one, he turned to his MacGyver box set to determine the best possible route… And the result:

What you see above is a standard Nokia battery (BL-5C) pack used with the original PSP battery control board. So now that all is said and done, LordLeXaT has a longer lasting battery than most of you, or so he says…

“The battery is lighter and has nearly 150% lifetime of the original 1800mAh PSP battery, and by the way, the text of the Nokia battery reads 1020mAh.”

We don’t have a tutorial for you, but for the most part, it seems straightforward. And please, exercise caution should you attempt this battery mod yourself.

Click here to download PSP Games for Free

As Level-5’s PS3 exclusive White Knight Chronicles makes a sturdy, if inconsequential effect on the Japanese software charts, I started wondering about what happened to Level-5’s PSP tactical RPG, Jeanne D’Arc, in the UK. I picked it up at an import shop but didn’t realise, at  the time, that it never found its way to these shores.

This is rather unfortunate. The game generated a positive reception from critics and is visually among the best on the console, but Sony Europe opted out of releasing it in the UK. In all fairness, it would’ve made little to no difference on the UK charts, but still, on a console that is genuinely starved for decent software, even having on the shelves would do something to boost its reputation.

Still, Movietyme is stocking it for £15.99, so it’s not like it’s impossible to get hold of. I hope that Level-5’s next PSP title, the beautiful Ushiro, receives better treatment from Sony.

By the way, Diner Dash, Ape Escape P and Marvel Trading Card Game are available in the UK. Only one of these is from Sony, but still, when this trio of atrocities are available in Game and Jeanne D’Arc is not, the decisions made behind the scenes deserve some level of scrutiny.

Click here to download PSP Games for Free