Sony seems to be updating the Japanese PlayStation Store more that any other region. This time, Japan get 19 new PS1 titles playable on the PSP and PS3, with the US and Europe lagging behind with only a handful of PS1 titles in total. In fact, the European PSN Store received its first PS1 titles eariler this month. It seems the European PSN Store is the least updated, receiving no updates this week. See below for the list of new titles to hit Japan.

• AI Mah Jong Selection (hamster)
• DEPTH (Sony computer Entertainment)
• Gussun Paradise (IREM software)
• Jet Moto (Sony computer Entertainment)
• Jumping Flash! 2 (Sony computer Entertainment)
• Major Wave Series: Puzzle Mania 2 (hamsters)
• Major Wave Series: Zipangu Jima: Unmei wa Saikoro ga Kimeru!? (Hamsters)
• Metal Slug (SNK Playmore)
• Oasis Road (Idea Factory)
• Panekit (Sony computer Entertainment)
• Samurai Spirits III: Zankuro Musouken (SNK Playmore)
• Samurai Spirits IV: Amakusa Kourin Special (SNK Playmore)
• Spectral Tower 2 (Idea Factory)
• SuperLite 1500 Series Cotton original (Success)
• SuperLite 1500 Series Sanvein (Success)
• The King OF Fighters ’98 (SNK Playmore)
• The King OF Fighters ’99 (SNK Playmore)
• The King OF Fighters Kyo (SNK Playmore)
• XI [sai] (Sony computer Entertainment)

The US store did get an update as well, however, no new PS1 titles.

Firmware 1.82 is now available to download for the PlayStation 3. The update enables the playback of AVC High Profile (H.264/MPEG-4) files, as detailed by PlayStation Network Operations Director Eric Lampel. You can update your console using the Network Update feature via the Network Settings on by using a External Storage Media.

The regional websites have not been updated so far but logging on to your PS3 should inform you of the update, providing you are connected to the Internet.

Insomniac is finally ready to release the much anticipated update to Resistance: Fall of Man. The update has been pushed back multiple times. And for the past few weeks, a release date hasn’t been disclosed, until now that is. Insomniac made an in-game announcement regarding the world wide update, but only to European owners.

The announcement states: “The UK servers will have a downtime period that will begin at 2:30am (UK time) and will last throughout the day on June 29th. Furthermore, the worldwide servers and map packs will then be available when the server is back online.”

Insomniac has yet to announce details of the map pack and worldwide online play update for other territories.

The latest version of PSM magazine has revealed some details on what the expectations of the next big firmware update for the ps3 will consist of. According to the magazine, Firmware 2.00 will include XMB access from in-game, an equalizer for the Music Player, multiple chat sessions and more. So far, Sony have only commented on Firmware 1.82, expected within the next few days, so this could easily fall under the rumors category.

Check out the breakdown of the features of Firmware 2.00 below:

Music:

• Equalizer
• More visualizations

Network:

• RSS

General:

• More screensavers
• XMB access during the play
• Multiple chat sessions
• Password Protected Local login

In this month issue of PSM in France, there have been details in reference to the new PS3 controller. Of course, none of this has been confirmed by Sony so it could easily fall into the rumour catagory. According to the article, the new shock technology is cheaper to build and offers better rumbling. It can easily be integrated into the existing pad design along side the motion sensitivity. In addition to vibration, a new technology known as “Touchsense” will be included.

“Touchsense2 is a mini-revolution, since the vibrations will not emanate solely any more from the handles of the pad (as on Dualshock) but will be perceptible in various places of the controller. It will offer more powerful, more intense shocks and over short periods if the programmers wish it. Thus, the developers will be able to create a multitude of new effects.

According to the Official PlayStation Blog, Firmware 1.82 is in the works and is expected within the next few days. Eric Lempel, Director of PlayStation Network Operations made the announcement in a blog post. The new firmware update enables the playback of AVC High Profile (H.264/MPEG-4) files. Check out the official blog post below.

“Hey everyone, you told us you wanted to hear about updates a few days in advance, so here’s a quick heads up that we have a PS3 firmware update in the works. Scheduled for release in the next few days, firmware 1.82 is an update that enables the playback of AVC High Profile (H.264/MPEG-4) files. As most of you know, these are high quality files that you’ll now be able to play on your PS3. Hopefully this update is moving us closer to the audio playback features many of you commented about in my post the other week. We’re continuing to evaluate and improve things across the board, including PS2 software compatibility. I’ll chime in here quickly with an update once the firmware is live and ready. Thanks for all of your support and feedback, keep it coming!”

[Via: PlayStation.Blog]

The Illuminati Exploit was revealed only a few days ago and since then Lumines sales have sky rocketed in the hopes that a downgrader will soon come out. Well it is here. All PSP owners now have the ability to downgrade their PSP and updgrade to Dark_AleX’s Custome Firmware to enjoy homebrew heaven. The downgrader only works for Firmware 3.50, to those who want to downgrade must upgrade to 3.50 first.

The downgrader includes a port of Homebrew ENabler (HEN) for firmware 3.50 which will automatically detect existing PSP motherboards, and will take the proper steps for the downgrade. As a recap, the Noobz team advises users to have the following ready:

1. A PSP, upgraded to the official Sony v3.50 firmware. You should also set your language settings to “English”.
2. A legal Lumines UMD, either the EU (ULES00043) or US (ULUS10002) version. The original, Platinum, or Greatest Hits versions are all fine. Support for the Japanese version will come soon.
3. Sufficient intelligence and english language skills to be able to carefully and thoroughly read the instructions.
4. It would also help if you’ve previously run the Illuminati Hello World, so that you’re familiar with how to run the Illuminati exploit.

There is always a risk of downgrading so it is important that you read the following warning messages, issued by Fanjita and the Noobz team, before attempting to downgrade:

• Any downgrader carries some risk of permanently damaging your PSP. We’ve done everything we can to remove as much danger as possible, but if you choose to use this downgrader, you are accepting all of the risk involved. Nobody else will be held responsible for any damage to your PSP, howsoever caused.
• Recent Sony official firmwares (3.30 onwards) have included checks that block upgrade from previously-downgraded PSPs with TA-082 or later motherboards. If you use this downgrader on such a PSP, you will lock yourself out of official firmware updates – although you will still be able to use new OE firmwares when they are released. We intend to release a tool to allow a return to official firmwares in the future.
• This software is provided free of charge, so that you can use legitimate homebrew on your PSP. You are explicitly prohibited from selling it, or using it to pirate commercial games or applications. If you want to play a commercial game, do the decent thing and support the developers by buying it. If you don’t, then YOU are contributing to the death of the PSP software industry.

Full installation and usage instructions should be available in the package. It is strongly recommended that you take a look at the “read me” before doing anything else.

[Download 3.50 Downgrader and HEN]

Here is another update for Tekken fans: Tekken 6 will reportedly have the biggest character lineup in any Tekken game to date. It will also feature the debut of two more never-before seen characters. Currently, the game’s about 50 per cent complete, so more updates should surface in the near future. According to SDTekken, Tekken 6 will have a new feature called the “Rage System”. This new feature will give players a boost to their attack damage depending on how low their life bar is. The lower the life bar, the stronger the attack.

Here are more details about the game from SDTekken:

• Live Monitor panel now has touch screen functionality. You can view either the live match or view other matches recorded throughout Japan.
• In T5DR, to be broadcasted on TEKKEN-NET live monitors you had to be Fujin ranked or above. For Tekken 6 it allows lower ranked matches to be broadcasted on the live network.
• Ranking starts at Beginner.
• Rankings will now be international.
• Tekken Teams/Clans can use an original common item.
• Teams/Clans will now be assigned a rank/level.
• You can achieve medals by completing certain tasks. Much like Virtua Fighter 5. For example, get a 15 win streak, receive a 15 win streak medal/reward.
• There are 12 total stages. Some stages are connected to each other. Not all stages will have a linked stage.
• There will still be infinite stages.
• For breakable stages, there are unique combos/juggles you can perform on those stages only.
• Namco does not intend to do minor patches/tweaks to the game(like VF5 does), instead they plan on launching the game and having it as balanced as possible in November.
• The new Tekken 6 arcade board has faster read/load times than Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection.

[Via: SDTekken]

Believe it or not but technology on your Playstation is being used to help develop new national security devices. Researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are using the same technology used in the new Playstation 3 to develop new video tools for national security. The research is being done on this small supercomputer [the PlayStation 3], which has about one-quarter the computing power of the lab’s 8,000 square foot supercomputer.

Researchers hope to develop new ways to manage things like security video and facial recognition technology without a human administrator.

“It places a tremendous burden on the operator of those control environments that are looking at all those video feeds coming in and not knowing how to process all that information and this is an opportunity to bring machine based processing into the video analysis environment,” said lab researcher Mark Goodwin.

PNNL is working on the research with Massachusetts based Mercury Computer Systems.

[Via: KNDO/KNDU]