Finally, it's October 1st - Sony is proud to launch the latest addition to the PSP roster, the PSP Go. Accompanying the release is a lineup of titles, content, and offers that all look to turn that "no" into a "Go." Enough of the babbling, let's get right to it.

Here's a cool PSP-2000 mod from Hawk. This particular PSP has been outfitted with a full VU LED display. You might have seen other PSPs with flashing LED displays before, but Hawk says that this one actually uses a VU chip to enable a full VU meter that flashes in sync with sound output. It even has a rumble function. Check out a vid after the jump.

Nick Swardh dropped us a line with another good news, this time in the form of PSP Video Converter v3.70. That's right, the next update for the well-loved PSP homebrew app has arrived, and it brings with it a good number of tweaks and fixes. Details after the jump.

Download: PSPVC v3.70

Wondering when Sony will launch Ad Hoc Party outside Japan? Don't get your hopes up too high. Some guys from Capcom have a couple of reasons to believe that it may not go Westside anytime soon. Since it was their game that first supported the service in Japan, they should have a good idea of what's up.

Details after the link.

Here's an update on the new Daedalus project, or rather, the DaedalusX64 project, which picks up after StrmnNrmn's R13 release. This update comes from Kreationz, and it looks like a pretty good start for R14. Details after the link.

*Update* We finally get a hint on the first public beta version's release date!

It ain't over till it's over. Yes, fanboys and fangirls. The whole brouhaha over the Xbox 360 version of FFXIII is still abuzz, and yet there really seems to be no rest for the wicked (no pun intended). Producers Shinji Hashimoto and Yoshinori Kitase have finally opened up about the Xbox 360 version, as well as a confirmation on the FFVII announcement that's sure to "shock the fans." *Gasp!*

Not a lot of game franchises can take two genres, meld them seamlessly and come up with something that isn't fertilizer. Even fewer can use the same core model repeatedly and come up with stellar success in terms of media and consumer reception. The Ratchet & Clank series combines elements from a platform game and a shooting title to form a respected brand that gamers just eat up each and every time a new installment comes out.

In February of 2007, the Sony PlayStation Portable received its first taste of the Ratchet & Clank series with High Impact Games' Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters. High Impact is a group of expats from Insomniac that still has some of the key members responsible for the success of earlier iterations. The game was scrutinized with excitement and it passed all tests with flying colors.

No rest even if you're not wicked

The lovable tandem's new adventure starts off with Ratchet and Clank getting some time off the battlefield with some rest and relaxation. The heroic lombax and his trusty robot sidekick bask in the sun for a while until a strange girl named Luna approaches them and asks Ratchet for a small favor.

As it turns out, the odd-looking Luna is a huge fan of our robot-busting hero and wants him to pose in his trademark stances for an extemporaneous photo-op. Being the nice guy that he is, Ratchet gives in. A series of events unfold while Ratchet roughs up some robot hide for Luna which leads to the alien girl's abduction. Ratchet and Clank decide that vacation time is over and the two set off to save the girl.

That's not to say that this is a Mario-style plot where you simply have to go through multiple castles to eventually save the hostaged damsel. Fans of the Ratchet & Clank series will not have their expectations dampened as the game features an elaborate succession of plot twists that eventually leads to a huge unfolding that will have you chasing ancient artifacts and encountering a genius race known as the Technomites.

Old and new characters will be present to spice up the game's storytelling sequences. Favorites such as Captain Quark will do cameos with style as they supply excellent humor that nicely complements the script's pop-culture references. Notice that there's no single character who's badly voiced, allowing the comedy to be driven home as well as it should be. Making the dialogue even more immersive is the fact that character expressions are in perfect sync with what they're saying thanks to the dandy visuals that we'll be discussing next.

We're not certain if you've heard about this one already before but a couple of the many projects of homebrew developer kgsws are PSP Doom and PSP Heretic. It's needless to say that these are PlayStation Portable adaptations of the FPS classics Doom and Heretic.

Currently, PSP Doom is at version 0.6 while PSP Heretic is at v0.7. kgsws mentioned , and we agree, that the best feature this has to offer is the multiplayer ad hoc for two players. The coder also added a four player support but that hasn't been tested as of yet. The following changes have occurred since the last versions.

PSP Doom v 0.6 and PSP Heretic v0.7:

• Sound Volume: its value is controlled by distance of its source.
• Puff Bug (engine bug): puff does not appear when projectile (bullet, not rocket etc) hits two-sided wall under sky.
• Weapon selecting: old weapons selecting was making multiplayer out of sync (and heretic does not have any switcher)
• Sky colormap (engine bug?): when in GOD mode (no cheat) everything except sky was in different color

PSP Heretic v0.7:

• Added weapon switching
• Fixed sound bug of imp (that red fling monster)
• Added cheat menu in singleplayer
• Added CPU settings in options

Download: PSP Doom v0.6
Download: PSP Heretic v0.7

There's this application called PSPVC (PlayStation Portable Video Converter) created by homebrew developer fif1973. Now, we found another program of the same nature and even has a somewhat similar name over at Italian PSP-dedicated site PSP-Ita.

The homebrew is called PSP Video Converter and was developed by Nick Swardh. Currently in version 1.2, PSP Video Converter is a transcoder that lets users convert various types of videos to a format the PSP supports. The current features of this version include:

• Adding the possibility to use of the "Presets" and eventually to create itself some of own.
• Adding the option in order to make an esteem of the scenes filmato in order to increase the accuracy of codifies end.
• Qualified the option for settare the algorithm of codifies "Trellis" (optimization of the request)
• Qualified the option for settare the algorithm of codifies "Macroblocks" (Improves the jam and the quality video)
• Qualified the option for settare the amount of the B-frames (Improves the jam)
• Added the filter for the correction of the colors for rows MPEG.
• Agginta the function of "Crop Car" for ritaglio automatic rifle of the black areas of the video.
• Added a filter of "Deblock" for miglirare the visual yield of a video much blocchettoso
• Added the filter for the removal of it disturbs video "Noise Removal".
• Adding the function "Random Screenshot" in order to carry out one diapositiva to use like preview of the video.
• Improved the function of Delay/Sync Audio.

Nick Swardh also noted that PSP video Converter is only compatible with PSP units running on custom firmware 3.30 or higher and that Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 is also required.

Download: PSP Video Converter v1.2
Download: Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0

Homebrew developer for the PSP, winnydows, has released an updated version of his video converter application XviD4PSP. Let's say that you just got a PSP and this app intrigues you but you don't know what in the world it does, we'll hook you up with some info.

Basically, this is a program that converts videos for your PSP, iPod and PC. For you to maximize this app, you should have Windows Vista or Windows XP SP2 intalled, and Microsoft Framework 3.0 ffdshow build by clsid. To avoid redundancy, you could always refer to our earlier coverage of this app or to winnydows' website which you can access via the link below. With all that said, here is the lengthy changelog for version 4.046.

Changelog:

• For compatibility with non standard windows themes all text dialogs forced set to black an white.
• In help menu changed links to home page and support, added links to Donate and Check updates.
• In Corrector form added more input framrates - 15.000, 24.000, 30.000.
• Decoder selection now sticky.
• Files for formats MP4 PSP 2.80 and iPod with framerate 23.976 now converted to 24.000 - it fix sync lost on PSP and iPod.
• Files for iPod with framerate 23.976 now converted to 24.000, not to 29.970.
• Now if framerate changed not very much used more fast and quality convertion mode - Assume. Else used ConvertFPS.
• Fixed manual D2V import on systems with Windows Vista.
• Added check for InputPath = OutputPath.
• To menu settings added links for ffdshow settings - Video decoder configuration, Audio decoder configuration, VFW configuration.
• Added AVS script checker. No more messages "Unsupported format: [DIB]". Now script error will be added to log.
• Now if you don`t have selected codec installed, problem will be found in log and will recomend solution.
• In main installer added Framwork installation check.
• In main installer added few AviSynth versions.
• Now XviD not used for decoding YV12 any more and may be removed from system. For decoding YV12 now used Helux YUV.
• XviD removed from main installer.
• Helux YUV added to main installer.
• Mencoder updated to 21682.
• Updated patches for Athlon and Pentium III.
• Now for AVI and DIVX files AVISource default decoder. It fix gray flicks.
• Now for all files anilized Delay information. It fix lost sync after encoding files with internal Delay set.
• Now files decoded over directshow without framerate information. May fix sync lost on exotic files.
• To Settings form added option "Fix gray flicks" - let fix gray flicks with DirectShow decoding. Option trim 20 first frames.
• Maximum bitrate for PMP formats enhanced to 256.
• x264 updated to 614.

Download: [XviD4PSP version 4.046]