Sony's senior vice president of marketing, Peter Dille, is confident in the Sony PlayStation 3 for the holiday season. Gamers in need of "the most technologically advanced gaming system" should look no further, he says.

More on Dille and the PS3 lasting 10 years at the full article!

We all love the Harvest Moon franchise. It lets us live the easy life: plow the farm, run errands, and woo the girl (or boy) of our dreams. And when Marvelous Entertainment president Yasuhiro Wada said that the next Harvest Moon game will have online game features, we'll find ourselves loving the game series even more.

In an interview with Game Informer, Wada said that an online Harvest Moon is in the works, but he did not specify for which platform. He did mention that it will not be a MMORPG for the PC platform, however.

Wada revealed that two to eight players will be able to interact in another player's town, and even toyed with the possibility of letting every player have the same NPCs available in your town. Does that mean that there's a possibility of love triangles between two players and a virtual wife? Interesting, that.

Wada didn't mention which console will get this Harvest Moon title, so we'll have to keep our eyes peeled for now. More updates to come!

Sega of America's Sonic Rivals 2 will allegedly be released on November 6 on the PlayStation Portable for US$ 39.99. This game is the sequel to Sonic Rivals which was also released on the said system. The release date and its announcement has been reported by various sources such as Game Informer and Game Trailers but until we get word from Sega themselves, we aren't confirming it.

If this game is anything like the first one, then you can expect it to be a blast to play. Hopefully, they'll fix up the problems that plagued the first such as the rafter iffy level design. In the original Sonic Rivals, Sonic, Knuckles, Shadow, Silver Sonic, and Metal Sonic were playable. This newer iteration will hopefully add in some new characters to the mix rather than just sticking with these five and the four support characters.

As of now, very little is known about the game but hopefully, there'll be more news about it. Be sure to keep checking back here for more information on this game.

Several of us here at QJ have noted this sentiment before. Countless times before actually, so you're probably sick of reading about how the PlayStation Portable isn't a failure (yes, this is captain-obvious-ish already). We do, however, feel that the renewed spread of this sentiment has to be told yet again, since there isn't a shortage of people who love to "hate" on the PSP.

PSP Fanboy reports that the June issue of Game Informer has a feature on whether or not the PSP is a failure. Game Informer's stance? The magazine says: "How does selling 10 million units equate to failure?"

While it is safe to say that the DS is currently dominant, it's far too biased to say that the PSP is a failure just because it isn't on top - it's still selling, it has its own user base, it's got games for it, and it is the DS's only serious competitor.

Perhaps the real problem is that public perception is that the PSP is overpriced and has no games on it. We all know that the said perception isn't actually true. But that's us, and this is a PSP blog and all you readers are probably PSP owners. Will the new "Dude Get your Own" campaign of Sony work? Well, after that Zipatoni "AllIWantForXmasIsaPSP" stint, anything is an improvement.

What about you folks? What's your take on the PSP's reputation? Any ideas on how to better spread the Gospel of the PSP? Let us know.

 

New stuff on Silent Hill Origins have been hard to come by after the previews released around summer last year. For Silent Hill fans eager to get this game on their PSP, rejoice, for the game is alive and kicking (or screaming? this is, after all, Silent Hill). Game Informer has new details and screenshots regarding the game. In fact they even have an exclusive hands on preview of the game Climax was entrusted by Konami to develop.

Details so far? Combat is initiated by holding R. While holding R, pressing X allows you to attack, square lets you block. Holding down X can let you charge attacks with whatever implement you happen to have at the time - fists if you're a poor sad soul. Walking up to twitching half dead bodies of opponents - a crazed Nurse in Game Informers case - and pressing X allows you to finish them off. In their case, via a head stomp courtesy of lead character and unfortunate trucker, Travis O'Grady.

You can cycle through targets and lock on to ones you want to. There are context sensitive moments where controls change depending on the situation you're in - jamming a button to break free from a grab. Also, true to Silent Hill form, there are firearms but as expected, ammo is limited, and yes, there will be puzzles.

Tapping L lets you fix the camera behind your lead character, if in case the new camera set up they've got turns out to be unruly, and you happen to get confused as to where you are.

Game Informer notes that while the grim and static-filtered graphics was on a much smaller screen, the version of the game they played was scary enough to get their PSP messy with the sweat and skin-oil from their palms, and their heart beating as if they were running while playing the game.

Need to be convinced about the graphics and stuff? Ogle the screenshots:

   

Judging from the screenshots it seems that even a brutish and slightly more combat capable trucker isn't exempt from the insanity that is Silent Hill. For Game Informer's complete hands on, feel free to head to it via our "read" link below.

March 24 is marked as the official release date of the PSP in the U.S. and the PSP is now two years old. In light of this, Game Informer checked up with Sony's Senior Marketing Manager John Koller to get some retrospective feedback on the PSP, straight from the horse's mouth.

Overall the progress of the PSP has been exactly as Sony had planned it out. The PSP was built with a feature-rich mindset, and so the team behind the handheld focused greatly on how to deliver titles that would show off its abilities in portable gaming.

The result? They've got 250 games available for it, and majority of those titles are first-party developed. While third-party developers and publishers have been optimistic on the handheld's performance, Sony has been busy adding even more features to try to make the handheld an multi-entertainment package.

The PSP now is much like the PlayStation 3, but fits in your pocket. According to Koller, even the UMD side is looking great. While there have been companies thinking twice about pushing out their products to UMD, a great number of them have jumped at the opportunity to distribute their action-packed or comedic movie titles to the PSP proprietary format.

Even music albums are making a debut to the compact "compact disc," which Sony has been eyeing as the top number two use of the PSP, aside from gaming. While majority of the PSP bracket is only the "13 - 17 years old" slice of the age pie, Sony has also been widening their target range for the more mobile adults and even the younger folk.

Expect more marketing pitches aimed at a wider target population this year. But perhaps the one real thing to celebrate about the PSP is that it carved itself a mold to foster a growing market, amidst all the other handheld and mobile gaming platforms already available in the market.

By trying to cover all bases for a new generation of entertainment seekers, the PSP has begun to adapt as a cultural technological status symbol, much like a cellphone and the iPod has been for the other gadget-inclined folk. So here's to the PSP, a year well-spent and another year to go. Koller mentioned that the PSP has a ton of great things coming for it, so probably this toast's for the many more years to come.

 In the last paragraph of our previous report of Jack Thompson's countersuit, we noted that he mentioned GameSpot, Penny-Arcade, and a whole lot of other media outlets and accuses them of conspiring with Take-Two to commit racketeering activities.

Well, thanks to the folks at SPOnG, here's a bit more details on the mention that he made towards the end of that filing, made in the United States District Court for the southern district of Florida in relation to the case numbered 07-20693-civ-altonaga:

34. Take-Two, either directly or through its agents, including but not limited to Blank Rome, has collaborated and conspired with third parties to commit these racketeering activities (sic, including but not limited to the Entertainment Software Association, the Entertainment Software Rating Board, the Entertainment Consumer Association, Gamepolitics, Kotaku, SPOnG, Joystiq, Gamespot, ign, Game Informer, Electronic Gaming Weekly, Penny Arcade, Doug Lowenstein, and others.

35. As a result of this collaboration, individuals have repeatedly threatened the life of Thompson, visited his residential neighborhood to hand out libellous (sic) pamphlets, filed SLAPP Bar complaints against Thompson, having been encouraged to do so by gaming web sites, sent dozens of items to Thompson’s home and office via overnight courier and mail, sent sex aid products to his wife, threatened Thompson’s son, shot at his home, sought to incarcerate Thompson, "bookstormed" his book, Out of Harm’s Way, at Amazon.com, orchestrated and knowingly incited harassing phone calls and letters, and Case 1:07-cv-20693-CMA Document 6 Entered on FLSD Docket 03/21/2007 Page 33 of 37 34 generally engaged in a knowing, purposeful, and illegal "shoot the messenger" strategy against Thompson directly and through surrogates.

Hmm, aren't Kotaku, Joystiq, SPOnG, IGN, and Gamespot all competitors? Are we going to have to take a red pill to be awakened and be free from this Gaming Matrix that we're all jacked into?

One righteous man against a cruel evil world, or a kid with a water pistol and bucket full of water? Well?

Game Informer Magazine has three images of the Video Games Live (VGL) concert that closed the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2007 at San Fransisco. VGL is a concert tour that features music from video games, and each concert is a treat: the music is combined with video presentations, light and laser effects, and other special effects.

Having a VGL concert at the GDC made perfect sense, and the GDC concert was a star-studded one (we earlier published a list of all the composers and artists at the GDC VGL).

VGL: a multimedia concert. Like any Video Games Live concert, the music was amazing. There was an orchestra and a 16-member choir conducted by game composer Jack Wall (Myst, Splinter Cell, Jade Empire). There was a screen that showed synchronized video footage. Audience members were brought up to play Space Invaders and Frogger on the big screen - the orchestra provided live music (complete with tempo changes!).

As usual, during the Metal Gear Solid portion of the program, an actor dressed as a guard walked onto the stage - and the infamous alert exclamation mark (!) appeared over his head - much to the amusement of the audience (the poor guard didn't notice a large box sneaking past him). (An earlier QJ.NET article on VGL concert dates has a video of a similar scene from another concert.)

Other musical highlights included "Baba Yetu" from Civilization IV, the explosive "Liberi Fatali" from Final Fantasy VIII, and the World of Warcraft suite - all three masterpieces got huge reactions from the audience.

A night of video game music artists. As reported earlier, there were also performances by LucasArts composers Peter McConnell, Michael Land, and Clint Bajakian. "VertexGuy" powered the stirring electric guitar anthems of Contra and the Halo 3 grand finale. The "Video Game Pianist" was also there to play Dig Dug and Pac-Man music on the piano.

Super Mario and Zelda composer Koji Kondo (who received a lifetime achievement award at the GDC earlier in the week) played a piano solo of music from Super Mario Bros. (the audience went wild, taking out their Nintendo DS units and mobile phones to wave them in the air as lights).

Let the world know: video games are a legitimate art form. Having the VGL grace the GDC with its presence is a statement to the industry and to industry-watchers and critics. "I think what tonight helps prove is how legitimate video games have become as an art form," said Tommy Tallarico, a game composer and the co-creator of VGL.

  

Jay of TheForce.Net gives us the lowdown on the details revealed in a Game Informer feature regarding details surrounding LucasArts' upcoming Star Wars: Force Unleashed.

First off, the various platforms the game is made for and who will be responsible for each version. You guys already probably know a lot about the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game, so we'll skip to the rest.

Krome Studios will be responsible for the PSP and PS2 version of the game, while n-Space will be handling the DS version. As for the Wii, well, a version for Nty's console is not likely. And if there will be a Wii version, it won't be what fans expect. A LucasArts representative says, "Even if that version does happen, it probably wouldn't be "the lightsaber game" that gamers have eagerly been awaiting."

Get the rest of the article after the Jump!

Now that word of Dracula X Chronicles for the PSP is spreading like wildfire, we'll take a few minutes (fifteen actually) to hear some words from Koji "Iga" Igarashi - producer of this famed series. In this three-part interview via Game Informer, Iga discusses various points on his upcoming title, particularly about Rondo of Blood.

Part One: Iga discusses the company's reasons for the decision to port Dracula X Chronicles, most notably on their decision to revamp the original RoB into a "3D game with a 2D feel."

Part Two: Iga will be talking about some of the new features made available in Rondo of Blood's PSP port,  such as the PSP-exclusive stage being introduced. And for the guys who were beginning to miss the old art style, Ayami Kojima  has also been called in for the RoB remake - Bishies galore!

Part Three: In the last segment of the interview, Iga shares his thoughts on the Wii and the Virtual Console. For the guy hoping for a VC release of the other Castlevania classics,  Iga notes Nintendo may have to wait a while. And of the Wii? Iga does say while he sees great potential for Nintendo's game machine, the Wiimote does pose a very big challenge for gameplay.

Download:[Iga Interview 1]
Download:[Iga Interview 2]
Download:[Iga Interview 3]