- Xbox 360 games to the PSP and not to the Wii.

After all the pronouncements from Sony about the "Year of This" and the "Year of That", it looks like 2009 might actually become the Year of the PSP. The PSP's release calendar is being filled with tons of new titles from both Sony and third parties after a horrible year-long drought that saw few new games besides the March 2008 releases of God of War: Chains of Olympus and Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. But with the recent recent announcement of a slew of PS3/Xbox 360 ports for the PSP (including Tekken 6 and a 1-on-1 Soul Calibur fighting game), it makes me wonder why more companies aren't leveraging the similar computing power of the PSP and the Wii and bringing titles to both systems.
In this console generation, game development seems to done on three parallel tracks: the DS track, the PS2/PSP/Wii track and the PC/PS3/Xbox 360 track. The PSP and Wii have shared a similar number of games since the Wii's debut in 2006. From Capcom's Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law to EA's Medal of Honor Heroes 2 to in development games such Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings and F1 2009, the connection has been made in the past and will be made again in the future. But strangely, even after pledging to support the Wii more, the company leading the charge with PSP announcements of formerly PS3/Xbox 360-only games is EA. They have announced multiple games for the PSP and PS2 (such as Army of Two: The 40th Day, NCAA Football 10 and Dante's Inferno) while skipping a Wii release for these games.

The similarities between the PSP and the Wii make the decision not to port games from the former to the latter all the more baffling. The PSP has four face buttons, a control pad, an analog nub and two trigger buttons while the standard Wii controller setup of Remote and Nunchuk has four buttons on the Remote, a control pad, an analog stick and two trigger buttons on the Nunchuk. There's also the Wii ****c Controller, who's control setup mimics the PSP's exactly (and with an extra analog stick and two extra shoulder buttons to boot). So it's not a control issue. And both systems output video in 480p, so it's not due to PSP games containing any intensive HD graphics that the Wii can't handle, which is usually the reason given for why PS3/Xbox 360 games aren't downgraded to run on the Wii. Supposedly it's impossible to recreate the "game experience" of a game designed on the PS3 or Xbox 360 on the Wii (at least that's what some developers and the forum fanboys would have you believe). So it's not a graphical issue either.

Let's face it, there's no way to compare the power of the Wii and the PSP and come to the conclusion that the Wii is the weaker machine.

F1 2009: PSP version (top)/Wii version (bottom)

Having access to some of the PSP's downgraded PS3/Xbox 360 ports (or better yet, original games like Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins) would go a long way towards removing the "casual" stigma from the Wii's game library. While Nintendo can't command a third party publisher to release their hardcore games on the Wii, opening the massive Nintendo war chest and "encouraging" said publishers with stacks of green paper to make Wii versions of hardcore fare like Assassin's Creed or Midnight Club: LA Remix would probably result in even more sales for Nintendo's system.

Yet, the unwillingness of publishers to put PSP games on the Wii is is no less confusing when you consider the fact that there are just as many Wiis in the wild as the number of PS3s and Xbox 360s combined. That means there are plenty of people out there who only own a Wii and if they want games like Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories or Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, they are being ignored.

It would be wrong of me to end this editorial without mentioning that publishers are also missing a golden opportunity when they don't bring PSP games to the PS2 either. My PS2 is currently gathering dust, but if the ability to play Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins without buying a PSP arose, I would jump at it. Making games exclusive to handhelds made sense when the Game Boy or the Game Boy Advance was a generation behind the games being offered on the current consoles. But PSP games are so similar to their PS2 and Wii counterparts, that a PSP-exclusive game makes little sense.

To sum up, don't these companies like money?

- or just a return to a discarded class?

SWG reintroduces the pet class and the whole thing smacks of "bad faith" with those who once played the creature handler profession.

Once upon a time, in a cyber galaxy far, far away, there was a class that was known as the creature handler. It was, in terms of the massively multiplayer online game market, a true pet class. Creature handlers spent hours of their time taming pets, leveling up their proficiency so that they could graduate to tame some of the top pet classes in the game (what game? - will get there in a moment) to use in combat.

The pets would engage the enemy, deal out a lot of damage and essentially save their masters from death. On the plus side, the class could "solo" a little more easily because of their pets. On the downside, it was a class deemed overpowered and was subjected to repeated beatings with the nerf bat.

Star Wars Galaxies was, admittedly, a game trying to find itself. On one hand, it was trying to create an atmosphere of player-versus-player in the rebellion/empire conflict. But the game didn't require players to join that side of the game. And while the CH class with the Rebellion could tame top-flight wild animals, it required a vast number of hours to get to the point where that was possible. On the other side, relatively young Empire players, who pursued the conflict, could get an STS with 1/8 (or less) of the time expenditure and that machine could one-shot some of the top pets.

Sound fair? In this case, "fair" is truly a neighborhood far, far away.

It should be noted that the CH class was not the only profession that was constantly whacked with the infamous nerf bat.

As one former player pointed out: "... beating classes into submission, one after another, then massively increasing the power of new classes in a forlorn hope to create some form of balance after the game was released was a catastrophic decision on the part of the developers. It stole the joy and freedom, and enjoyment, from the game and drove many of its devoted fans away, bitter and angry at being turned from conquering heroes into pathetic lackeys."

But back to the CH class and the reason for this editorial rant ...

Yes, I was a CH, and yes, I devoted hours of my life in working alone in the wild, taming baby after baby to increase my skills. I was there when they assigned points to animal classes and then gave players a limit on the point value, which basically meant that you could only have one really good pet out at a time, rather than run with two. It is with fondness that I remember running the plains of Naboo, in the company of a couple of Corellian panthers, or simply sitting on a small hill, the cats watching over me, as I breathed in a sunset on a distant world.

Star Wars Galaxies was still undergoing a lot of changes, and eventually came that one that just didn't nerf the CH ****again - it eliminated it. It was bad enough when they (the developers) decided that pets could die, but to take away such faithful companions (sure, it's only a game) was heartbreaking on several levels. With the removal of the CH **** an artisan ****- the bio-engineer - was also no longer needed.

Well, guess what? Both are coming back, in a manner, and the decision to introduce the "Beast Master" skill is akin to a total breach of faith with the community and the players/characters whom were nerfed out of existence.

On Friday, April 20, on the official SWG site (http://starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com/players/content.vm?id=66936&resource=features), this news note went up:

"Beast Master Expertise is an exciting new feature coming to Star Wars Galaxies in Chapter 6. These are new creature-centric abilities available to all players, regardless of profession or level, through a third expertise tree.

"Choosing these new expertise abilities will open up brand new game play features that include several phases of creature crafting and several mini-games. Initially, players will have to spend an expertise point on the "Incubation" skill which will give them the ability to set up an Incubator unit in their home or player structure to create creatures.

"After the Incubator unit has been crafted, players can head out into the wild, find a creature, and extract a sample of its DNA core. Once a player has this DNA core material and loads it into their Incubator, they can begin the process of creating their unique pet. By fiddling with the incubator's settings over the course of three sessions, players can customize the color, skills, damage abilities, defensive abilities and the skill attributes of the creature. Once the final session is complete, players can trade, sell or hatch the egg."

"Exciting ...?" "New ...?" This is a compilation of discarded ****s (creature handler and bio-engineer) that now is being given to everyone, and it is a marketing tool to try to gain back players, or entice new ones to try the game. Yes, I am crying "foul!" on this one. The months of work that went into becoming a master creature handler was wiped out when the ****was removed from the game. But to bring back a variation of it like this is a slap in the face.

Part of what makes an MMO work is the faith between the publisher/development team and the end user. They want to offer a game that is enticing and draws the player in to spend a lot of time, and a small stipend every month, to play it. On the player side, we take it on faith that the publisher/dev will not make ill-conceived changes, but will work to better the game as it ages.

This is not the case with SWG. And this latest move leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

SWG has made some hard decisions in the near past. Making the game less of a ****based role-playing outing and turning it into a shooter-based game, with bad targeting mechanics, was another step in the wrong direction. But at least the game still had solid space elements. The recent announcement that unused houses would be removed was a good move - urban sprawl, of abandoned buildings, was way out of control. But the Beast Master "introduction" in the upcoming add-on smacks of a dev team seemingly scrambling for ideas to sustain the game.

Those of us that qualify as hardcore MMO players (and there are millions of us) spend quite a number of hours online each week improving our characters in fellowship with friends from across the nation and around the world. When a vehicle for that fellowship (the MMO itself) starts to disappoint, we move on; and when enough do that, the MMO usually goes dark - a.k.a. closes down.

(It should be noted that even when I was running about "solo" with my pets, I was still connected to my friends and clan through chat. Once you have a circle of friends, or are part of a clan, no one truly ventures alone in an MMO.)

SWG did, at one time, hold my attention. I fly through the space above its planets, and wandered its worlds, adventuring and harvesting and even just sightseeing. I searched out the familiar characters from the movies, to be disappointed in the way they appeared and the brevity of their scripted dialogue. By now, I should be used to the disappointments from the game. This latest Beast Master move, apparently, shows otherwise.

Ladies and gents a new union was established lately! I just want to tell you tat any RE fan should know that a new union is up and running. It's called The Resident Evil Veterans it's a place where you can eat, sleep, and breathe RE. Especially those who love the older games . So if you are ready to shoot some zombies , to find med sprays or t-virus vaccine join us now !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Things haven't been going over too well in the Sony camp since the launch of the PS3. While it sold faster than the PS2 in comparison to its launch, the PS3 has been a financial pain in Sony's side for the past two years. The added state of the rest of the economy have finally culminated in Sony seeing 10% of their market share value drop rapidly. So what does this mean for the PS3?

In a story by rte (among many others) Sony's operating profits are expected to drop by an inexcusable 65%. Competition has been stiff. And even though many reporters blame the Wii, it's actually Microsoft's Xbox 360 that has been eating into Sony's gaming sales. It wasn't the Wii that the PS3 lost Devil May Cry's exclusivity to, nor was it the Wii that gave gamers an alternative for games like BioShock, Eternal Sonata, Unreal Tournament 3 and Fatal Inertia. Said games helped give Microsoft an edge in giving gamers a cheaper console option for the same gaming titles.

It also wasn't the Nintendo Wii that stiffened sales for the PS3 so much as it was the Xbox 360 preventing the PS3 from selling the way it could have. This is not to say that Sony would have gained any ground against Nintendo's ferocious little Wii had the 360 not been around. But it certainly would have afforded Sony far less competition in the hardcore gaming market, which they are fighting for in direct competition with Microsoft.

But at this rate - failing economy, cheaper competitor consoles, lesser third-party exclusivity - Sony could be heading the same route of Sega and simply hanging up the console fighting gloves altogether. Between less than stellar sales figures, extremely costly research and development, and the cost of production, the PS3's only saving grace for Sony, at the moment, is the PS2's strong selling power for the entire PlayStation brand. Besides, ending a console run with such a prestigious piece of equipment as the PS3 certainly isn't a bad way to go out.

It's an extreme long-shot to put one's trust in cutting the price on the PS3 to turn things around, but it could help bring in some dominance in the market value of the Sony brand, once again. But even with a price-cut on the pricey console, it may not be enough to start turning profits in the entertainment [gaming] division for Sony unless manufacturing costs drop again. Software would also have to be used to propel gamers to further purchase the console, otherwise Sony will stay in a deadlock with Microsoft, competing for the undecided gamers.

Eddie Polaski is a true story about one man's couragous fiht to extinquish the criminality. The film's director is Carl Jonson and the cast includes, Antony Hopkins as Eddie Polaski, an alone detective of a family, and Timothy Albert as Clark Kendle, his left hand and later partner.

Set in a small Los Angeles ghetto, the story begins when, after some massive murders becomes the inspector of this case which it takes away his wife and children because of it's classifidence. While he was scanning around the criminal place, he accidentally comes accross some clues which perhaps are the keys to solve the mystery. Sensing that the neighbours or someone there have seen what happened he visits every house around the hood. Noone was talking. But luckily oneof the neighbours named Clark helps him by telling him who was and what was happening there. Soon he discovers that a mafia system called "Dukes" has been selling drugs to the ghetto's people causing many of its inhabidants to develop serious symptoms.

The film is full of emotional moments as Eddie wins the trust of the suspicious but frightened ghetto residents. The actors, especially Hopkins, who won the Oscar award for the best Actor , give moving and inspectoric believable performances, and the directing is perfect.

This film is well worth seeing. It will touch your hearts and make you joyful for ordinary or conservative people. See it!

Here is a list of mymost anticipated games:

- Dirt 2 Sep 1 2009

-Borderlands Sep 1 2009

-Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Oct 1 2009

-Bioshock 2 Oct 5 2009

-Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 Nov 10 2009

-Assassin's Creed 2 Nov 17 2009

-MAG Nov 24 2009

-Dante's Inferno Mar 31 2010

-God of War III Apr 1 2010

Can wait to watch them at E3!

PlaystationLife****have boldly said that they are "ready to "debunk" or "confirm" some of the rumors that are floating around the net." They also stated to readers and anyone else interested in the PSP hardware rumours to wait untill E3 as 'all will be revealed.'According to their article they think that the rumours about no UMD drive will be true. However, they do not think that a touchscreen will be introduced, as many sources have speculated on recently. Also, all signs are looking good towards an introduction of flash memory, but they say Dual analogue sticks are not coming any time soon.

Unfortunatetly this summer like the previous, game studios leave us without entertainment and thats awful! I can say that only three games i found that they will be great unless ofcourse you can suggest me some you think they are good too. Those are Infamous , fueland Prototype. I hope.But what i mean without entertainment ? The best games like Bioshock 2, Modern Warfare 2, Assasins Creed 2 and all the good ones always take a long time and some of them at the end are failures! At least last summer we had MGS4 but this year we dont have the MGS5 and who knows that it will be any MGS anymore or a new series much likeit ? Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy????????