411mania gives a rundown on this week's game releases. Highlights include Phantasy Star Portable, The King of Fighters '98: Ultimate Match, and Sukashishipanman DS: Shokotak Koto Nakagawa Shouko Produce!

-- -- -- -- --

Phantasy Star Portable (PSP)
With Phantasy Star Portable, Sega basically took Phantasy Star Universe, fixed a lot of the problems people had with it, tweaked it to be more single-player friendly, and added more story elements. Some of those who hated PSU are actually saying that they like this version of the game. I find that hard to believe, but it's possible. If anything, this will at least give us something to do while waiting for Phantasy Star Zero.

Here is what you can expect from PSP:

- New story missions that take place between the original Phantasy Star Universe and Phantasy Star Universe: Ambition of the Illuminus
In Phantasy Star Portable you will team up with a Cast named Vivienne as she investigates recent terrorist attacks on the colony as well as animal outbreaks on the surface of some of the planets. Space adventure and mayhem follow. I thought that PSU's story was ok; it wasn't groundbreaking or very memorable but it was still decent. So, if Sega was able to craft a story that is at least on par with the first game's, these missions could be worth plaything through at least once.

- Local as well as online play (with the help of a PS3 or your PC)
As expected, you can play with three other friends locally using the PSP's ad hoc mode. Those wishing to play over the Internet have two options - one that requires a PS3 and another that requires a computer. To use your PS3 you have to download the Ad-Hoc Party application from the Japanese PSN store and do a little tinkering. You can find instructions on how to do this at the PSO-World forums here. If you want to use your PC there's XLink Kai. Note that these two options work for the Japanese and English dem...
» Read More 

On July 31, gamers based in Japan will be getting Phantasy Star Portable for Sony's PSP. Now any fan of the game knows that waiting for approximately one month can be hell. Thankfully, gamers in the aforementioned region won't have to wait that long.

Apparently, Sega has announced plans of releasing a demo for the game on July 14. According to the reports, the demo will probably be available via the Japan PSP Browser page and will allow players to try out both Story (single player)and Multi Mode (co-op with up to four players) .

So it looks like we're going to have to wait for around two weeks before we can try out the demo. while waiting, why don't you check out some screenshots courtesy of Gpara, by following the full story link.
» Read More 

In affiliation with Amazon.com, TripleChat is happy to bring you the new releases each week for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation Portable.

Along with new game releases they will also highlight the top five bluray releases each week that they feel will best suite movie and TV show fans alike. This is region specific to North America.

This week TripleChat notices there is a slight drought this week in quality titles, perhaps from the release of a particular game...rhymes with J-Lo. Nonetheless the selection is decent depending on what you want to buy. Namco is releasing (they hope) the new Katamari game this week, after pushing it up a week last week and now setting it back to its original release date. Rock Band has a new track pack and Persona comes to the PSP!

On the bluray side of things, it's a good week to be a Trekkie as the second season and "The Next Generation" make their blu debut at some excellent pricepoints. Other releases include a couple of Simon Pegg hits, as well as the latest (and final) season of Terminator.
» Read More 

PlayStation LifeStyle writes, "In just over a week, PlayStation LifeStyle will be reporting live from the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). We've been trying to get a handle on the plethora of PlayStation games that will be on display from June 2 through June 4, and it's quite astounding. If you weren't excited about the prospect of new announcements for the PlayStation brand, what if we told you there will be over 75 unique PlayStation games on display - that we know about?! While many are multiplatform titles (though the best still appear to be Sony-exclusive), it is a large increase from last year's showing."
» Read More 

Thursday 29 June 2006 With the Pirates of the Caribbean sequel in cinema's from next week, we thought it timely to show you the trailer (see the movies tab above) for the forthcoming game based on the adventures of the swashbuckling hero, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow, which will be released for PS2 and PC in July. The game is a hack 'n' slash actioner that allows you to play as Captain Jack Sparrow, Will Turner or Elizabeth Swann and is said to capture the spirit of the ...
» Read More

Would you like to attend this Friday's Golden Joystick Awards? Of course you would. And there's a chance that you could be there, if you've got some spare cash. The very last pair of tickets are being auctioned to raise money for GamesAid. If you're interested, get yourself to the charity auction page on eBay and place a bid. Starting bid is set at £200 and the auction closes at 9.30am Thursday 29 October. Which is ...

» Read More

The 27th annual Golden Joystick Awards are well underway, with the 'long list' just one week away from being finalised. That means there's still time to make sure your favourite game is included. The total number of votes so far flew past 150,000 earlier today, making this the biggest long list vote in the awards' 27-year history ...

» Read More

OPM UK is taking it online ...
» Read More

Several months ago we launched our very first site-wide community features and we couldn’t be happier with the results. To all of the lovely people who have been commenting on our articles, building profiles, and getting involved in the forums: thanks for making the site better.

But just saying thanks isn’t enough, which is why our stupidly smart team of Interwebs Wizardologists has baked us up a delicious holiday featurecake, packed with new ways for you to interact with the site and each other. Without further ado, this is GamesRadar 4.1: ...

» Read More

There are two reasons you should all be excited about Official PlayStation Magazine’s 2008 Game Of The Year awards. Firstly, because they’re almost certainly the most prestigious awards in the world. That’s what the magazine tells us, anyway, and they’re basing that on the fact that the only winner to date has been Call Of Duty 4. Difficult act to follow, right? Maybe – but then again with the likes of Metal ...

» Read More