The Leipzig Games Convention (a.k.a. the GC) is going fast and furious through the end of the week in Germany, and Sony has started things off with a slew of updates and revelations about their PlayStation line of gaming devices. First, the company finally made the PSP-3000 official, another tweak to their aged but ultimately respectable PSP. It'll be more or less the same as the PSP-2000 (last year's slimmer model), but will feature an included microphone for Skype calling and a screen that is said to be better for outdoor gaming.

The rest of the news surrounds the PlayStation 3, which is getting a clip-on keypad for its controllers, very similar to the Xbox 360 keypad Microsoft released last year. No word on pricing or availability yet, but we have both of those stats for yet another PS3 bundle. This one features a console with a 160-gigabyte hard drive, a copy of 'Uncharted: Drake's Fortune,' and a slew of downloads from Sony's PSN store. That'll be $499 this November, but if you can't wait that long or don't need the extra disk space, the new $399 80-gigabyte model system is now hitting stores near you right this very moment -- unless you live in Europe, in which case you'll have to wait until tomorrow.

While it's not expected that Nintendo will be dropping any bombshells at the show, everyone's sure that a price drop for the Xbox 360 is in the cards in the very near future. Will Microsoft take this opportunity to let loose with the news? We shall see.

Sony has now officially kicked off its assault on this year's minimalist E3 conference in typical non-minimalist style -- with a press conference on Tuesday featuring a bevvy of flat-screen TVs and a dazzling array of video game content (some real-time, some faked computer graphics), all of which will make even a jaded gamer more optimistic about the future of gaming. There was a bit of gloating about the victory of Blu-ray over HD-DVD, and some cool announcements, but no major shockers here. The highlights:

80-gigabyte (GB) PlayStation 3 model slashed to $399.99 - Microsoft chose to up the disk space on its Premium Xbox 360 bundle, going from 20-gigabytes to 60-gigabytes and maintaining the same price point of $349. Sony's following suit by upping the storage on the basic, 40-gigabyte model to 80-gigabytes, but keeping the price at $399. It remains to be seen whether the formerly 40-gigabyte model will get any feature updates, like card readers or the like, but as of now, it's just looking like a little more stage for your fabulous new movie downloads.

Download movies and TV shows to your PlayStation 3 - Sony's system, despite being billed as a bit of an all-inclusive home entertainment system, has been lacking on the content-variety front when compared to Microsoft's Xbox 360. That's changing with the video download store, which actually launched last night. Featuring television and film content from Sony (natch) as well as MGM, Turner, Lionsgate, and Fox, the Sony download store offers plenty to choose from in both standard and high definitions. The ability to transfer movies or TV shows onto a PSP is a nice touch, too -- assuming you have the requisite memory card space there.

'Greatest Hits' games for $29.99 - What do you do when sales of your greatest games are starting to slip? Slap a "Greatest Hits" label on them, lower the price, and watch the sales boost. That's what Sony is doing for 10 hot titles like 'Oblivion' and 'Motorstorm,' dropping their price to a rather reasonable $30.

Episodic, pick-up-and-play version of 'Ratchet and Clank' for just $14.99 - The 'Ratchet & Clank' series has definitely been one of Sony's most profitable over the years, and now it's taking a cue from other episodic games (ones that release content a chapter at a time) and giving the Ratchet franchise the same treatment, resulting in 'Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty,' which is set for release later this summer for the bargain price of $14.99. Sure, it'll only take a few hours to play through, but it should be worth the price of admission.

So, there you have it. As we said, Sony offered no shocking news announcements, no updates on 'Home,' no PSP revisions, and no huge price drop. But the company unveiled a lot of impressive looking games and, as always, a lot of potential.

For a play-by-play account of the Sony press conference, check out the Engadget/Joystiq live blog here.

Summer is a time to escape -- to the beach, to the countryside, to the other side of the world. And for those of us who just love our down time, there's plenty of it (mostly spent on flying on planes, riding in cars, and laying on beach chairs). So we've compiled a list of the best portable games for Sony PSP and Nintendo DS to pack in your bag this summer; whether you're looking to hit the baseball diamond or the bustling streets of Tokyo, we've got just the digital escape. Oh, and here's a little tip: if your PSP is your handheld of choice, you might want to invest in the PSP Extended Life Battery -- especially, for owners of the new model PSP, for whom it will nearly double your battery life (old PSP owners only get a 20% jump).


Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee 2 (PSP)

For years -- since the original PlayStation days, in fact -- Sony's cartoonish 'Hot Shots' series has been one of the best golf games around. Open Tee 2 continues the tradition, with 24 playable characters, 12 courses, and more than 300 different options for clothing, hairstyles, clubs, and more. There's a 16-player online mode, clothing/item boosts, and, most importantly of all, an impressively realistic golf experience. The number of unlockable items is bananas, and the load times are much better than those in the original Open Tee. There's something slightly obsessive about playing a virtual golf game on your way to play golf, but we won't tell anyone if you won't.

If you've got a PSP-2000 and a hankering for some VoIP on the run, Sony has finally brought its Skype-friendly PSP headset to US retail. Unfortunately, it won't work with those original fatty PSPs, and at $30 you've gotta ask yourself how much you'll really be using it for -- the original price was set at $20. That said, it's undoubtedly the easiest way to get up and running with Skype and in-game voice chat on the PSP, since it used to require two separate accessories to pull it off. Oh, and if you're Skype curious, be sure to check out the how-to guide over at PSP Fanboy. [Source: PSP Fanboy]

Are Sony PSPs going the same way as burning cell phones and batteries? According to WebPro News, a Farmington Hills, Mich., middle school boy felt something warm happening in his pants during band class -- and, just as you suspected (dirty monkeys!) -- it turned out that his Sony PSP was heating up to the point of causing second-degree burns.

In an almost cliche-like instance of coincidence, the disc he had in the portable gaming and media device was for a popular driving game called 'Burnout.'

There's no official word on the cause of the flare-up, but the Sony PSP Web site says to use only PSP batteries and charging packs "that meet our quality standards to avoid hazards such as firing or explosion. Using batteries with such protective devices may cause a failure or an accident." No word on if the boy was using a third-party battery or had damaged the device. He did return to school the same day after receiving treatment in the hospital for his injury.

From Engadget

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Sony's latest PSP, the slim and light PSP-2000 series, can do everything its predecessor could. That means spinning games off of UMDs (Sony's PSP disc format), playing music and video from memory sticks, and streaming media over the Internet from your PS3 at home. Now, thanks to the recently released 3.9 firmware update, it can do something the older, fatter PSP can't do: Skype Voice-Over-IP phone calls.

When paired with a headset, PSP owners with access to a Wi-Fi Internet connection can now pull up their Skype friends list and make some calls between gaming sessions. The firmware update is available for free by selecting "Network Update" from your PSP, but the headset you'll need will set you back $20. A small price for free, wireless calling.

From Engadget

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The new generation of the Sony Playstation Portable (PSP-2000) is now being bundled with Skype. For those of you not included in the 246 million users of Skype it is a Voice-Over-Internet-Protocol (VoiP) service that allows users to call one another free of charge or call to land lines worldwide for a nominal fee using your computer (or in this case PSP) and its internet or Wi-Fi connection. This means that not only can users of the PSP play games, watch movies, listen to music, surf the Internet, and view photos, but also receive and place calls free of charge to other Skype users and stay connected to other friends as well via the SkypeOut option.

And for those of you whom have grown fond of your original PSP the Skype service will be able via a firmware update in late January. (Thanks, Sony, for taking care of these folks.)

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Yet another PSP firmware update is coming down the pipe. On December 18, Sony should be making Version 3.8 of the PSP firmware available to Japanese gamers, and soon to us on this side of the Pacific. Expect a number of great new features:

• Streaming Internet Radio player
  
• Video scene search
• RSS now supports OPML (allows easy import and export of multiple feeds) and pictures
• PSP-2000 owners with 1Seg tuners can use an electronic program guide to schedule Japanese mobile television recordings (Japan only, we're guessing)
  
• PlayStation Spot now available at BB Mobile Point (Japan only)

Not a bad gift for the holidays from Sony.

From Engadget

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From the ashes of the fallen AIBO comes...another AIBO?

The print edition of Stuff magazine is reporting a rumor item that a resuscitated version of Sony's robotic dog companion, to go by the name of Sony AIBO PS, will be released by Sony's PlayStation division in an attempt to "bolster the PS3's arsenal." The next incarnation of Sony's robotic pet will be compatible with the PlayStation 3 and the PSP -- you'll have full control over the dog with your PSP, via Wi-Fi. The dog's head is supposedly equipped with a camera, with which to send a real-time video feed to the PSP's screen.

AIBO PS will allow for either voice control or remote control, and will be able to e-mail you at work when there's something fishy going on. He'll even appear with its own avatar within PlayStation Home, and react in the real world as he does in the PS3's upcoming service.

Still a rumor, but a good one, right?

From Stuff (via Gamespot UK and Engadget).

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We reported earlier this month that Sony's PS3 was due to be upgraded in the not-too-distant future to act as a digital TV tuner, and now the rumor mill is spinning full-tilt with speculation that Sony will make the official announcement this week at the Leipzig Games Convention, a four-day gaming conference held in Germany that's expected to draw some 200,000 video-game fans.

While details are slim at this point, it's expected that the PS3 will be able to act as a Tivo-like digital video recorder. And, with Sony's handheld PSP able to play content streamed to it from the PS3, the hope is that recorded content will be streamable over the Internet from your home PS3 to your PSP anywhere in the world. Imagine bringing your PSP with you on the road and, when you grow bored of the tackles in 'Madden', being able to watch episodes of 'The Office' that you'd recorded at home. Of course, when the new version of the PSP is released, you'll be able to play that recorded content on a big screen.

This functionality combined with the PS3's built-in Blu-ray player definitely further establish the PS3 as a multimedia powerhouse. But, with some of the most hotly anticipated games for the system, 'Lair' and 'Warhawk', both receiving mediocre reviews recently, it still remains to be seen whether Sony has the chops to compete with Microsoft and Nintendo in the most important category for a gaming console: gaming.

From BBC NEWS

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Where, Oh Where, has Masaya Matsuura, the creator of the original music game, 1998's 'PaRappa the Rapper' for the original PlayStation, been? 'PaRappa the Rapper' just came out for the handheld Sony PSP, but Matsuura himself has been busy working on 'Musika,' a new music game-cum-visualizer for your iPod that launched today on iTunes.

The game is a slight, iPod-optimized twist on typical music game action: Browse through your iPod's music library, choose a song, then start the game, which asks you to press the center button on your device every time a letter that's in the title of the song you're listening to comes up on the screen. The sooner you press that button, the more points you get. Since letters appear in all kinds of visualizer-style, graphically-animated ways (flag-flapping-style, pseudo-pixelated, sideways), the optical-illusion-filled task of identifying the right letter is like the hard part of an eye exam at times.

Of course, you can also just use the game as a visualizer that will do its animated onscreen magic with the letters of the song you're playing, or with custom messages you create (just remember that this is a way to run down you batter faster than if you were just listening to music). You get more sophisticated visualizations as you rack up more points.

We played around with 'Musika' and were pleasantly amused -- we found that playing Pink Floyd 's "Breathe (Speak to Me)" was a cinch on Easy ("Casual") mode, but found the game to be quite a challenge when sped up to Advanced mode (in which the letters come at you a lot faster). It also helps if you know the title of the song.

At $4.99 a pop, 'Musika' is well worth it for music-lovers who need even more reasons to check out of reality. And, if you can't decide whether to play a game or listen to music on your iPod next time you're on a long commute or trip, you might find Musika the perfect way to have your cake and eat it, too.

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We have just limped back from E3, the video game "Media & Business Summit". This conference, held in Santa Monica, CA, was an intense four days of seeing and playing all the video games that will come out for the next year. Sounds horrible, right?

We took some time to digest what the major players -- Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft -- had to say, and our verdicts are in. Some of the results are surprising.


Tim Stevens: Nintendo Wii
Each year the "big three," Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft, try to out-do one another with major announcements that make the E3 crowds go "ooh" and "aah." Each year someone is crowned a winner. When compared to years previous it's hard to pick a winner, with nobody really clearly out-doing the others. However, of the three, Nintendo's Wii had the best showing, with a selection of great games due out before the end of the year like 'Super Mario Galaxy,' 'Metroid Prime: Corruption,' and 'Super Smash Bros. Brawl.' Sony's PS3 and Microsoft 's Xbox 360 dazzled with visually amazing games, but Nintendo's got the gameplay squared away.

Sure, the Zapper isn't too enticing and the Balance Board is perhaps a bit niche (Yoga gamers??), but if nothing else these are signs that Nintendo is still taking risks, even if they're still relying on their core franchises like Mario and Zelda. With any luck, some third-party producers will get in on the party by next year's show.

Crave is showing off a game that's been a long, long time coming. Napoleon Dynamite is finally making an appearance in a video game and it's a suitably bizarre one to compliment the generally bizarre film. The game, due out for Sony's PSP and Nintendo's DS handhelds, is basically a collection of silly little mini games that are, on their own, fun but not really all that captivating. However, as in games like 'Wario Ware' and 'Rayman: Raving Rabbids,' when you combine enough of these little diversions together and you can create a fairly addictive experience.

The DS version will ship with 24 games while the PSP will have 30, making it the one to get. The games are all connected to the movie in some way, like one that has you flinging lasagna at Tina the llama (while she tries to spit it back at you). Another pits you against Uncle Rico in a football tossing contest. And, of course, you'll also make Napoleon dance -- 'Dance Dance Revolution'-style naturally. The games are simple but fun and all share the same big headed cutout visual style that's equally cool.

'Napoleon Dynamite' doesn't have a firm release date yet, but fans of the film will definitely want to check this totally sweet game out whenever it shows up on store shelves.

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Apple may have its iPhone, but Sony is doing its best to make the PlayStation Portable (PSP) a more compelling buy for lovers of all things portable entertainment. Yesterday, the company unveiled an updated version of its handheld gaming device, which is about 19 percent slimmer and a third lighter than the current model (about 3/4-inch thick and almost 1/2 pounds heavy).

Besides size and weight, the main improvements are longer battery life, more onboard memory, and the ability to play games, pictures, and movies on your TV (thanks to a video out slot).

Sure, pretty much every portable media player from the versatile Archos 704 to the user-friendly iPod already offer video out capabilities, but we still applaud Sony for adding these improvements to the new PSP. It's another bone thrown to the numerous folks who bought into the Sony eco-system (and its proprietary UMD discs for movies) when they bought the PSP years ago (and let's not forget that the PlayStation 2 is still the world's best-selling game console.)

The new device's lesser size and weight also help make it seem more like a fun portable, rather than a delicate, expensive toy. Add to that a raft of cool new games announced yesterday, including 'Wipeout Pulse' (the popular futuristic hovercraft racer returns!), 'echochrome' (an intriguing 3-D scroller featuring stick figures and minimal graphics), and 'SOCOM: Tactical Strike,' and the PSP might just have a chance at keeping up with Nintendo's more successful DS handheld.

For the hardcore fans, Sony will also release the Star Wars Battlefront PSP, a limited edition ceramic white PSP emblazoned with a Darth Vader silk screen, as well as a silver-colored Daxter PSP.


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But don't get too excited: The yellow DS is being produced in a limited run and will only be available from the Japanese Pokemon Center in Tokyo -- and only to those lucky enough to enter and win a forthcoming raffle.

It looks like you'll have to settle for tricking out your DS Lite with a bright yellow highlighter pen and some Pokemon stickers.

From TechDigest