No, not because Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is taking forever to be released. 2007 is the 20 year anniversary of the Metal Gear games, and Konami plans on re-releasing these games from its past:

• Metal Gear Solid (PlayStation, 1500 yen, $12.35)
• Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (PlayStation 2, 1800 yen, $14.82)
• Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, (PlayStation 2, 2800 yen, $23.05)
• Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, (PSP, 2800 yen $23.05)

Konami will also release a Metal Gear Solid Collection bundle package that contains all four of the games above, for the price of 6900 yen ($56.80). Their new release dates will be July 26th, although for now Konami is only offering the re-releases to Japan.

Today Sony is giving PlayStation 3 owners many appreciated features with the new Firmware 1.80 update. Full 1080p HD upscaling of PlayStation and PlayStation 2 games, as well as DVD movies, is now possible for HDMI compatible TV owners. Our wishes have been granted! Version 1.80 also allows us to hook up printers to our PS3 and print out pictures from our hard drives, or use a home network system to stream content back and forth from our PCs and PS3s.

The other big update is that we can now access our PS3s through an Internet connection via Remote Play on our PSPs. That means that if you're at a wireless access point with a version 3.50 updated PSP (new update coming by the end of the month), you can stream all your music and videos that are back at home on your hooked up PS3. Not bad at all, Sony's moving quick and helping out home entertainment systems a lot.

So far we've heard more of Final Fantasy Dissidia than we've seen of it, and now we've finally got gameplay details for the PSP game:

• Each character will have a special skill to inflict damage on his opponent
• Each skill will vary from short range to long range and will be executed as such
• Players are encouraged to destroy the level’s environments
• The "Brave" meter is filled by destroying environments or inflicting damage on your enemies  and allows for new attacks when filled
• Special move gauge, when filled, allows the player to unleash a special move that is "typical" of that character’s Final Fantasy special move (i.e. Zidane = Trance)
• EXP and equipment play a role in the game

Check out the four Famitsu scans below for some early peaks at the effeminate fighters that will return in Dissidia. Which would you like to play as the most?

 

The people who were lucky enough to attend the Square Enix Party were given a sampler CD with the four music tracks that were played for the anticipated upcoming PSP games. And thankfully, PSPFanboy found someone who was nice enough to upload the tunes online for us, you can download the whole thing as one zip file here, or individually below:

• Dissidia
  
• Overture to Dissidia
• (Secret)
• 
  Crisis Core
  
• Theme of Crisis Core
• Last Order -Crisis Mix-

Thanks to NeoStrikeDamon for sharing. All four tracks are composed by Takeharu Ishimoto, although their sounds are greatly varied. "Overture to Dissidia" sounds like the sort of grand Final Fantasy songs we've come to expect from the series, whereas "Last Order" is more rock sounding. My favorite overall song of the four is probably the calm "Theme of Crisis Core" melody, yet it doesn't sound like a Square song at all. And being the techno/midi music lover that I am, the short but sweet second half to "(Secret)" is by far my favorite individual part of any of the new tunes. Final Fantasy: Dissidia definitely has some very cinematic music prepared for PSP owners.

Before this weekend's Square Enix Party kicks off, they got the 2007 conference report out of the way, bringing us many early hints at what's to come soon.

First up is the Star Ocean series, Yoshinori Yamagishi revealed that a full remake of the first Super Famicom Star Ocean game will be coming to PSP as Star Ocean: First Departure, and a remake of the PS1 Star Ocean game will also come to the PSP as Star Ocean: Second Evolution. Damn. These last few months have been treating the PSP nicely, I might finally have to pick one up. Yoshinori also announced that a Star Ocean 4 is being developed by tri-Ace, although it wasn't said which consoles we might get it on. PS3 is the obvious bet, but it's too early to rule out other platforms.

Then Shinji Hashimoto mentioned that a new Chocobo Dungeon game was in development for the Wii, but nobody cared. A chocobo cosplayer fell down on their face, and the next speaker came to the stage. Next up was the Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles series, with Akitoshi Kawazu and Toshiyuki Itahana doing the talking. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates is coming to the DS, and to put fans' worries at ease, it will be more of a traditional RPG as far as gameplay and level progression goes. However, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers for the Wii will have more of an adventure feel to it, bringing thoughts of Skies of Arcadia to the minds of those who got to see the short video clip.

Last up was The Last Remnant. They showed a few short clips to go along with the pictures we've already seen, and then Hiroshi Takai gave a few early details. No target release date was mentioned, although it was confirmed as a title for both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Combat involves large scale battles and the ability to shout out orders combined with simple button combos to control the crowds fighting with you. Some of the scenes and graphics reminded people of Final Fantasy XII, although the timing aspect of gameplay is more along the lines of Shenmue.

It's still too early to tell exactly what kind of combat style The Last Remnant gameplay is shooting for, but it's high on the list of titles I'm looking forward to hearing about this weekend. No new news on Final Fantasy Dissidia yet, although this should be a great week of news for PSP owners. Expect some sporadic posts this weekend as the Party details trickle in from overseas.

This weekend is the Square Enix party we've been waiting months for, and Squeenix is revealing little pieces of their puzzle a few days early. Final Fantasy Dissidia is now officially being planned, which is no surprise to us, but it's now known that it will be for the PSP. As usual, Tetsuya Nomura will be the lead character designer, and the only listed descriptions of what to expect are "Fantasy is endless" and "Fantasy has no limited form" as well as the genre being labeled "Dramatic Progressive Action." "Dissidia" in Latin means "to disagree" so Tetsuya should have lots of freedom in his designs, characters we've always seen in one shape with one set of feelings might be stretched to new extremes.

Ever since Final Fantasy X where the one summon was the enemy's dead mother, I always wanted a Final Fantasy game where you collect summons, and then go around reviving them back to life, so they turn into a dead relative who can join your party and tell you where to find the next family member set of summons. I think a reverse process to that aspect of RPG gameplay would make things more interesting. To tide you over for the next week, keep checking this fancy flash animation teaser site for future updates.

Yesterday we discussed why a mobile phone Call Of Duty game wouldn't be as fun to play as a console Call Of Duty game. It didn't take much discussing before the decision was unanimous, and we must have given Sony false confidence, because they still think we want a camera for our handhelds. If it were built into the device when we bought it, and didn't add much to the price, then I wouldn't mind. But how hard is it to understand that phones are good for cameras and not games, and that handheld game consoles are good for games and not cameras?

The PSP camera has already been out in Japan for a while now, and there's finally news on its arrival in Europe. On May 16th, "Go! Cam" will be available for 39.99 Euro (about $70 USD). On top of just photo and video capturing, Go! Cam will also include a microphone and editing software for photo manipulation, as well as Wi-Fi access that enables you to upload your pictures online. I wouldn't buy it even if I did own a PSP and lived in Europe in the future, although Microsoft has been successfully shoving shitty microtransactions on innocent games for a while now, it's good to see Sony finally catching up.

Years before Dance Dance Revolution was around to make people consider paying extra amounts of money to play music games, there was PaRappa The Rapper busting out beats on the PlayStation. The original had previously been released for the PlayStation Portable in Japan, and once July gets here, America will have it available on PSP as well. No guitar, no dance pad, just you and the music. Plus, the extra features include the ability for up to four PSPs to play against each other, wirelessly share a demo level, and eight additional playable remixes for players to download. It's good to see a decade pass and still have the classics be appreciated.

Footage for the God of War prequel PSP game is finally here. And if you visit the official site for God of War: Chains of Olympus quickly, you might even get to grab a free UMD demo. Good luck! The next issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly should have more pictures for us, as well as interview details with the game's developer Ready at Dawn.

This PSP port of the original PlayStation game has been enhanced to include two new classes, multiplayer gameplay, and new cinematics as you can see above. On May 10th, Final Fantasy Tactics: The Lion War will finally be released in Japan for 4,800 yen, and then we hope that Square Enix decides to bring it over to the states. The video above shows new artsy cinematic sequences and more gameplay and interface screens. If you want to slow it down and see what it all looks like up close, check out this picture gallery from the past.