People say the third time's a charm, but what do they say about the fourth? Hopefully it's something good, because part four of our 25 bargain video game titles for your PlayStation Portable takes some interesting games from the East and West. Better yet, they're offered at a price point with as big a discount as the depth of your soon-to-be-floored jaw. But do these deserve some play time with you on Sony's portable console? Find out at the full story.

The GTA series of games is among those highly acclaimed titles that came out on the Sony PSP. Those who are just beginning to discover the fun of this franchise can have GTA: Liberty City Stories and GTA: Vice City Stories for a low price at Amazon.com. More on this after the jump!

If you've been keeping up with the Take-Two buyout malarkey from Electronic Arts, then you'd know that EA is now targeting the shareholders after Take-Two gave them the cold shoulder. Now, we get the look at just what's driving this offer, with the word straight from EA Chief Executive John Riccitiello himself. All the details after the jump.

The contract between Take-Two Interactive and Rockstar North expires in 14 months. Because of this, Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter is saying that the developers of the Grand Theft Auto series might actually consider following Bungie's footsteps and set up their own camp.

More information on why Rockstar North might decide to go independent can be found in the full article.

Worried about the possibility of video game violence tainting the minds of children, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy came up with a "do not buy" list of violent video games.

Contrary to what most might expect, Rockstar Games' controversial Manhunt 2 (Wii, Sony PlayStation Portable) isn't the number one violent video game, but Grand Theft Auto is. Check out the Top Ten list in the full article.

Homebrew developer Edison Carter rolled out a new build for the much-loved application LCS CheatDevice, bringing it up to version 1.0g. This particular program is to be used with Rockstar North's Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories and allows gamers to use certain cheats.

Given the previous version of LCS CheatDevice, the most important feature of this build is that the cheat application's PRX is now compatible with DevHook and custom firmwares SE, OE and M33. Edison Carter provided as well the following reminders:

Works with the original or patched U.S. disk and the unpatched UK/EU disk. Sorry, the patched UK/EU disk is not currently supported. Some features are not implemented in the PRX version. Version 1.0g PRX adds support for 3.10OE-A and up. You must use lcscheatdevice371.prx for 3.71 M33 or higher.

LCS CheatDevice v1.0g comes with a Readme.txt file that should provide you with all necessary information regarding installation and usage. Browse through that first before doing anything to avoid problems.

Download: LCS CheatDevice v1.0g

While all of us are dying to see the new Grand Theft Auto IV trailer which is slated for a June 28 release, we'd like to show you a little video we dug up in GameTrailers. It's the history of GTA and we must say, it's pulled off nicely. See what we mean by watching this:

Nice touch with the contrast using classical music to drape this bad boy, eh? Those of you who missed some details on this famous, or should we say infamous, series will appreciate what the video has to show.

Speaking of history, it's interesting to know that the developers whom we know and love as Rockstar North today were once known as DMA Design. Incidentally, GTA wasn't always called that name. Prior to its release on the first PlayStation, it was called Race N Chase. Good thing they scrapped that one.

Buy: [Grand Theft Auto 4 (Xbox 360)]

PlayStation Portable owners usually complain that Japan almost always gets the good stuff first before the rest of the world. While it might generally be true, consider this next tidbit an exception and something that will leave you smiling for the rest of the day.

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, if we are not mistaken, has been out in North American shores for almost two years now. Japan, on the other hand, will have its first taste of GTA-on-the-move this July 26. The game will be published there by Capcom.

The game hasn't been rated yet but previous knowledge gives us the feeling that it will be given a Z rating. In Japan, this is equivalent to the "Most Mature" rating.

For the benefit of our Japanese friends, GTA: LCS takes place in 1998, around three years before the events in GTA III transpired. It follows the story of Toni Cipriani in Liberty City after laying low for several years.

The news is saying that someone took their video game fantasies into the real world, and is now paying for it with a hefty prison sentence. While we don't necessarily agree with that connection, SF Gate's article about it does bear some mention. The founder of the Nut Cases street gang was recently sentenced to a minimum of 75 years in prison for killing an acquaintance of his.

Gregory Colbert, 27, was convicted in Alameda County Superior Court in December for the June 7, 2004 killing of 20-year-old Glen Phaso. Deputy District Attorney Michael Nieto said Colbert, already a convicted felon, killed Phaso either because he raped Colbert's good friend the day before the murder, or because Phaso refused to commit a murder that Colbert ordered.

According to the rest of the SF Gate report, the Nut Cases were a gang who were known for getting high while playing Rockstar's supposed "murder simulator" and then resorted to acting out what they played in the game. While the coverage manages to be fair with most of it, we certainly don't agree with how games are portrayed here.

For one thing, there seems to be a history of violence within the family. The report also notes that his half-brother, Demarcus Ralls, was also found guilty of a set of murders of his own. That would seem to indicate more of a predilection towards violence than a love of acting out game violence.

Still, to paraphrase the old adage, there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophies.

 

Looks like PSP fans can get their tanks for free on some of the more recent firmwares. Freeplay gave us word of his unofficial upgrade for for the Liberty City Stories Cheat Device. This version should allow you to use the cheat device on different firmwares, from 2.00 to 3.03.

Here's what he told us:

I hacked version 1.0d of the LCS cheat device so that it uses save slot #9, which makes the exploit work on firmwares 2.71 through 3.03. This should make it possible to run the cheat device on all firmwares from 2.00 through 3.03. I've tested it on 2.00, 2.71, and 3.03, and it works on all of those. For some reason, 2.70 didn't work.

It works just like Edison Carter's original cheat device, so there shouldn't be any troubles with implementing the different cheats, much less installing it. Still, make sure you check the documentation so you can avoid any problems, alright?

Download: GTA LCS Cheat Device for FW2.00-3.03