We told you it was coming some time ago, despite the fact that we didn’t know if it would ever break Japanese borders. But now we’re fully aware, and we once again urge you to pick up this unique gem when it arrives.

It’s the PSP port of the original PS2 game, Shadow of Destiny, which is the very epitome of an adventure title laced with a surprisingly deep - and even philosophically-grounded - storyline. Konami has announced that it will release the game in North America some time next year and for now, that’s plenty good enough for us. You will play as Eike, the young man who must solve
the mystery of his own murder…again and again and again. It’s a little difficult to explain, but essentially, you must find new ways of preventing the mysterious murderer from successfully killing you. Early on, this could be as simple as getting a bunch of people to gather at the park, which makes for too many witnesses and the killer is forced to retreat. But things get far more complicated as time goes on so if you’re not willing to use your noodle, don’t bother with Shadow of Destiny. But if you are indeed intent on playing a game that really embraces an original concept and requires you to be both creative and even ingenious, this is the game for you.  Just trust me on this.

We’ll let you know when Konami nails down a finalized US release date; we’re hoping it won’t be too far off. If you’re a PSP owner and you never played the game on the PS2, you should definitely consider it.

You know, with all these awesome games hitting store shelves in the fourth quarter - so what else is new? - it can be a real pain in the wallet. This is why you need to look for some helpful retail deals…

Well, if this rumor from HotBloodedGaming proves true, you’ll have a chance to get one game completely free at Best Buy, thanks to a promotion that’s supposed to start on October 25. As you
can see by this leaked pic, they should be offering a Buy 2, Get 1 Free deal on all their video games; it seems you’ll also be able to mix and match to your heart’s content, too. Therefore, if you wanted to buy Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Brutal Legend and Borderlands, you’d really only have to pay for two of them, which is a damn good deal. Of course, as is always the case in situations like this, there are outstanding factors: first of all, it’s possible that not all Best Buy stores will be doing this so be sure to check things out ahead of time, and secondly, there’s always a chance that some games simply don’t count towards the promotion. A consumer needs to consider such things, right? And it’s not exactly official, anyway. But if it is, you won’t find it difficult to locate three titles you really want; heck, if you wait until November, you could probably find six games you want and do it twice. Hmm…wonder if they’d let you do that.

Also, be on the lookout for a price drop for the PSP Go. We’re not saying it’s definitely going to happen, but plenty of European retailers have already slashed the price of the new portable.

The PSP edition of NCAA Football 10 was almost as much fun as the console versions and it’s definitely recommended for your next road trip or plane trip. Many parts of the production have had to be stripped down because of the PSP’s lack of power but it still kept me entertained for hours on end.

The Good Parts

NCAA Football 10’s new Road to Glory mode has the same outstanding super-sim feeling you fell in love with and have enjoyed for years. The included progression system in this sports game allows you to live the life of the college freshman as your fledgling star begins his college career and then rises through the ranks to become the a star player. Playing this mode was the best part and allowed me to immerse myself in a life that was actually a lot of fun to play.

The visual appeal of NCAA Football 10 for the PSP will grab your eyes with amazing colors that are bright, clear and engaging for the senses. The stadiums included all look amazingly detailed and if you know the stadiums you should be able to tell them apart using the details included. A definite step forward visually from last year, NCAA Football 10 for the PSP is the best looking sports experience for the PSP I have seen. It compares well to the look of previous PS2 versions of this video game and at times even out performs previous versions.

The Bad Parts

The developers didn’t include the fun and entertaining Team Builder and Season Showdown modes that were included with the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 versions of NCAA Football 10 with the PSP version. The included Road to Glory mode is also a trimmed down version of the one you’ll play in the console versions.

NCAA Football 10 includes lots of activities for a college student to take part in, many play like mini-games but are annoying rather than fun and useful.

The on field action included with the PSP version of NCAA Football 10 needs to be improved. Playing football isn’t a fluid sports experience, it’s too limited because of the lack of processing power with the PSP and the inconsistencies in the game play to be a truly interactive football experience.

Though the fate of “Beyond Good and Evil 2” has yet to be confirmed publicly from an official source, one writer claims to have personal confirmation that game has been put in suspended animation. If a pause button has been hit on the Ubisoft sequel’s development, the game’s conspicuous absence at E3 will turn out to be a canary in the media coal mine ahead of any official acknowledgment.

The games has been put on hold for now, according to Gamersyde staff writer Colin Solal Cardo, who made the claim on his Twitter account. His reported confirmation from GamesCom last week in Cologne leaves the project’s long-term fate open, but like other fans of the original “Beyond Good and Evil,” he’s hoping for the best.

Ever since the announcement of “Beyond Good and Evil 2” last year, the sequel has been a hot topic among those who understood the brilliance of its precursor too late to make the game a blockbuster success, but enough to give it the critical accolades it needed to earn cult status with its fans.

If Ubisoft can eventually emulate their first installment’s innovative gameplay with enough of a push to get it sailing with that audience and beyond, a brief stay in production limbo may be worth the wait. If the project has found its coffin, however, there will be a lot of disappointed gamers out there when Ubisoft makes the word official.

Are you holding out hope for “Beyond Good and Evil 2″? Have you played its predecessor? Let us know what you think in the comment section below.

Some of my fondest gaming memories are playing Phantasy Star 2 on the Sega Genesis in controller-swap co-op.  Over the years the traditional Phantasy Star series has died out, and since been reborn as an online pseudo-MMO similar to Guild Wars.  While I’d love to see a new strong story based Phantasy Star, there’s still fun to be had for the series in its current form.  The latest iteration of this is Phantasy Star Portable for the PSP; a game that closely resembles Phantasy Star Universe on the
Xbox 360.  The one key difference is lack of online play, and therefore no fees.  What we have instead is local AD-HOC co-op play for four players.

Phantasy Star Portable is divided into two separate game modes.  The single player story mode has players creating a character from four races and three classes, and customizing the look of the character with an incredibly in depth character editor.  The developers went as far as to allow you change your characters eyelashes, good luck trying to see them on the PSP’s 3.5″ screen.  After you are done with character customization, you’ll be off through various missions intertwined with comic book style cut scenes.  Honestly, the story didn’t interest me much, and after finding the skip all cut scenes button I rarely paid attention to what was going on.  Any progress you make with your character in this mode is transferable to the game’s Multi-mode, and this is where you’ll have the most fun. 
 

I don’t even see eyelashes.

 This four player co-op mode has players joining up via the PSP’s Wi-Fi connection to hack and slash their way through various missions.  I always enjoy seeing RPGs where players can fall into roles.  The ranged player in Phantasy Star Portable may fight the game’s lock on system a bit, but using dual blasters with an ice upgrade is something not to be missed.  The melee combat is equally as satisfying with a combo system that’s less about button mashing and more about timing.  At times it looked like we were in some sort of kung-fu action movie as we defeated the strange creatures of Phantasy Star; what’s up with all the chick-like things anyway?  Phantasy Star Portable even offers co-op specific missions, designated in the mission hub, that forces players to do various co-op actions.  Basically this means - “I stand on this pad while you go through that door.”

It’s all about level grinding, item collecting, and finding those oh so rare weapons that give you just a little bit of an edge in battle with your buddies.  The items and weapons truly are the focus of the game, with tons of options available at your finger tips thanks to a quick pallete for switching between them.  As you complete missions you’ll earn points, discs and grinders that let you upgrade and customize weapons further.  Depending on your character class you may find it difficult to use a weapon or piece of armor, so obviously you’ll want to trade it.  No such luck here as my partner and I couldn’t find this option buried in the myriad of menus.  It seems like an odd feature to leave out, so instead you’ll just be selling your stuff at the in-game shops.  Thankfully all the rare items are given to each player in the game when one player picks them up, so this helps balance it out.
 

Laser swords make everything cooler.

So even though you can’t trade the weapons and armor, there’s still the RPG fashion show aspect of the game.  Picking up that big halberd with the blue laser thingy always yields “ooohs” and “aaaahs” from the crowd.  If each player uses a different race or class you can see a great variety of the available items in the game.  Although we couldn’t test it directly, we heard some players were having slowdown issues when playing with more than three players, so you might want to keep that fashion show limited to two or three.

Fans of the recent Phantasy Star games will be right at home on the PSP with Phantasy Star Portable.  It’s pretty amazing what this little system can do, and my buddy and I easily blew through three hours of a Friday night.  If you can get passed the game’s quirks, there’s a lot of fun to be had in co-op here.

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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.

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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.

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.

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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.”

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