New Captain on the block John Terry of England is the cover boy for Pro Evolution Soccer 6. This will the second time (first was last year's Pro Evolution Soccer 5) he'll be gracing the cover.

Why him yeh ask mate? 2004-2005: scored 8 goals; voted Player of the Year by fellow England players; was also chosen as a member of World XI at the FIFPro Awards; and voted best defender of the UEFA Champions League tournament. An obvious choice. No doubt that he is considered as one of the more talented defenders in the world; winning a second consecutive league title and earning the England's Captain armband just recently.

Naturally, he'll be present during the marketing of the game as will be others like Adriano, Brazil's striker extraordinaire. Konami Digital seems serious in getting the right players to get for this game. But does he enjoy playing the game he's promoting? According to Terry, "No other game can touch Pro Evolution Soccer 6 in terms of realism. The way the players move on and off the ball is second to none..." That's coming from England's Team Captain.

In a couple of months, we'll see if it's what he says it is.

And a fine Monday morning to all you avid videogame luvin' guys and gals alike, we've got a neat little treat for you this morning, y'see we managed to score a little Q&A session with Backbone Entertainment, the dudes (and dudettes) behind Death Jr. 2: Root of Evil for the PSP, so without further ado, c'mon in and read the article after the jump!

We've all been swept with the Football Fever some months back at Germany. We all witness soccer sensation Ronaldinho and Brazil fall under the hands (or should I say feet?) of smooth-player Zinedine Zidane and France, and wonderkid Wayne Rooney and England (along with the WAGS) trampled by Portugal. Italy later on bagged the coveted cup (with small thanks from the infamous headbutt of Zidane to trash-talking Marco Materazzi). Italians rejoiced and the rest of the world wept. The cup changed hands and everybody was sold to the idea that it'll be another four more years before such fever grips the whole planet - or not.

Come September 29, fans of the game can relive the glory of football via EA's release of FIFA 07; a game that promises to give gamers "the rollercoaster ride of the football season". This latest installment is packed with new intelligent AI ensuring that your 11 men on the pitch make realistic decisions finding space and passing like professionals. A complete overhaul of the game engine now means that you have to employ real world tactics, make split-second decisions and think like a player in order to win matches.

New features such as Manager Mode allows the player to manage a team based on realistic player values and wages. Some of your decisions have the power to affect performance of your virtual players, so it's always a must to see that all footballers under your team are taken care of and well-compensated. Aiming for more realism, the big-named players will have their signature moves fused to their virtual counterparts; so don't be surprised to see Ronaldinho dazzling everyone with his ball-handling skill, or maybe even Rooney kicking some crotch ad Zidane headbutting chests (oppss, wrong signature moves).

Tired of reading? Feast your eyes on these screens and logo, hot from EA.

For those pioneering souls that have already made the switch to the newest firmware, Sony has released a demo for their upcoming World Tour Soccer release. The first version of this line of soccer titles left something to be desired by some. However, by all accounts (warts and all) the original World Tour Soccer was a playable title and the follow up title should be another step in the right direction.

The challenge of bringing a game like soccer to such a small screen has been met many ways in the past. The main idea is to give the player a wide enough field of view so that he can see where his passes are going without overwhelming him with too much information.
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At least this time you'll get to try before you buy! Most football fans cannot live without a version of their favorite game on their home console and since the PSP offers the opportunity to play on the go, this game should be even more of a must-have for football (soccer) fans.

Download: [World Tour Soccer Demo]

Just about everyone knows that the PSP's latest System Update is coming out tomorrow. Numbered 2.80, it's supposed to be having about two new features. And in case any of you needed a confirmation, we've obtained a couple of pictures from Comic Con during Sony's presentation. Here are the images.

The said update isn't what we can exactly call "awesome", but the RSS Video feeds will be a welcome addition to those who aren't very much into homebrew (is there such a person?) and those who have 2.71 firmwares (and the dreaded TA-82 motherboards). Still, I don't see too many people getting in on the upgrade bandwagon, homebrew enthusiasts (for obvious reasons) and 2.71 FW owners (for optimism on another downgrader) alike.

Here's the official list of updates right from Sony's press release:

• RSS Video
• World Tour Soccer 2 Demo Download

Sony might have seen some glimmer in providing demos to boost sales of PSP games as they have again fused this update with another demo download; well, we'll see how that turns out. Anyways, it was well known that prior to the much hyped FW 3.0, there would be an intermediate release with a bug fixes and a couple of minor additions. Now that we've just about got that intermediate firmware out of the way, I'm practically foaming at the mouth with the thought of playing PS1 games on my PSP within the coming months.

The other picture which we obtained is a slide showing the results of a survey which Sony conducted. Heck, I myself remember answering that survey a few weeks back, and I am looking forward to most of the features in that list. Let's just see how fast the Sony developers can work to get the updates out.

Anyways, with the newest firmware coming out within a few hours now, I suggest you guys keep checking often. Who knows, the great Booster might just be able to Devhook it.

SCEA's newest soccer treat, World Tour Soccer 2006, features a different style of play for soccer videogames. Some of these new features are quick gaming sessions which will alow users to advance and unlock the next challenge, there is also a Medal mode and a World Tour Mode which will be the ultimate test of a player's skills.

If you're into the traditional gameplay of soccer videogames, then you'll probably get a kick out of the games' Exhibition Match Mode which features over 70 International Teams with more than 1,500 world-class players and eight international stadiums. The game will be hitting stores on June 27th, but Mystic 8277 sent us some photos of the demo version of the game which he got from Sony (thank you very much for that)! He also adds that the game requires firmware 2.60 and he haven't got it to work with DevHook 0.41c yet. So for now, here are some pics. 

We've come across the first "Persian" PSP Magazine and we thought maybe you'd want to take a look at it.

The magazine includes information on PSP Devhook 0.41a with Wi-Fi fix, PSP Alarm, PSP calculator and the Ch2 browser. Articles about the Dgen PSP (or Genesis/Megadrive Emulator for the PSP) and the game Fifa Soccer 2006.

You can check out the contents of this PSP mag (it's in Farsi, of course) by downloading it.

Download: [First "Persian" PSP Magazine]

World Tour Soccer '06 is the newest soccer Sim by SCEA for the PSP. The game introduces a new style of play for soccer videogames featuring quick, bite-sized gaming sessions, while allowing users to advance and unlock the next challenge in a ladder type system, World Tour Soccer '06 lets players test their skills in two new central modes of play, Medal Mode and World Tour Mode. Additionally, for hardcore soccer fans, Exhibition Match Mode offers the traditional soccer simulation gameplay, featuring over 70 International Teams with more than 1,500 world-class players and eight international stadiums. The game will be hitting stores on June 27th, but until then go ahead and check out some of the screenshots by clicking on the thumbnails below.