G5 Entertainment and Game Interface are running a competition with three prizes of (codes for) the PSP game Mahjongg Artifacts: Chapter 2 on offer.  Two prizes will be given away on their website and one is a twitter comp (ie retweet-to-get-entry style of give away).

To get entry to win by tweeting, all you have to do is tweet the following message:

Want to win a PSP Game by @G5games? Visit http://bit.ly/9YQn8d to win #GIPSP RT & Follow @gameinterface for a chance as well

To win by posting comments on the site is a bit more involved. Details are on the GameInterface site. This may be the best way to win. Because it is a bit more involved, fewer people are going to be bothered to do it. The retweet - if you have a Twitter account is super easy. So many more people are likely to enter to win this way - but maybe not!

As of writing this post only 15 tweets have been posted.  So maybe there is a good chance of winning through retweets, as well. On the other hand, the comp was only announced today! Whichever way you choose - good luck!

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Lets face it, the PSP is a mobile device. That means that it a superior game platform for use on the move. Unlike PS3 gamers, we are not stuck at home base in order to play our games. We can while away boring trips, boring lessons and boring waits at the dentist/doctor/whatever, by playing our games on the move.

But our choices are improved even more if we have access to wifi. And even better if we can use free wifi! So we are happy to share this great resource we just found, with our readers.

This site lists free wifi spots from around the globe. Now while most of our readers are from the USA (and there are hundreds of free wifi spots listed at wififreespot by city)  we also get readers from a lot of other countries. WiFifreespot also has a huge list of sites from other countries (for eg there are hundreds listed for the UK)

Check it out - and add any hot spots you know of that are not already listed! (Just did this myself as I am doing this post on the move using free wifi at a convenient but not-yet-listed hotspot - and it took all of 30 seconds to do)

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 We ocasionaly come across comments in forums like:

are you serious HANNAH MONTANA man i dont even think that there is that many girl psp players i maybe wrong i have like one friend who plays a psp more...

and

Female Psp gamers?? Not in my country. Once my girlfriend saw my Psp , she said “Still playing games???Grow Up”. more…

Views that are somewhat encouraged by sites like Joystiq that has a post listing the top ten girls of PSP. No, not gamers - characters! The image to the left is an example - and all but two sported giant boobs!

But the fact is that most of us see girls in - sexy poses in PSP wallpapers, sexy poses in PSP ads, or as sexy characters in PSP games. We don’t so much see girls actually playing PSPs.

All the same, it certainly looks as if females of all ages are taking to PSPs in UK and Europe (though not necessarily as gamers!) and in Japan (more on this in Part II). For now, just take a look at this recent video on the subject.

Looks like a real push to develop completely new games. Not to replace the type we get now - just pushing for more variety in role types. What do ya reckon? Got any suggestions to put forward?

Put them in the comments section.

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As we understand it - its legal to make a copy of your own game. And it makes sense to get copies made as we can keep our original disc in mint condition. And hey, when we lend to a friend, we don’t have to risk our favorite PSP game getting damaged! 

But, with times being so tough - and PSP sales sliding downwards so hard - this whole copying gig may just be another way that Sony a losing sales.

At least, that’s what we figure might explain the latest experiment Sony are trialing with Patapon 2. Because this game is not being made available with a disc! It can only be got by downloading from the Playstation store (you can buy it from  a store - but you just get a download coupon to take home and then use to download from the online store)

So no disc that can be  copied! And no hard copy to sell, either, when we are done!

So while this might be good for Sony and game developers - it does not look too good for us! After all, the game is not any cheaper (its the same price as Patapon) - but we can’t get any $$ back by reselling.

Is it worth it - well here is a  trailer of the Patapon 2 game for you to check out:

Not sure how smart this is as it also means we have less $$ to buy new games. Hmmm - well, we’ll see how this experiment goes.

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WE have said it before - but we will say it again - lets have more free PSP game demos!

Thats the fastest way to get us to buy them. Most of us have enough experience to be immune to the hype that goes with most games (OK some still get the pulses racing but that’s because they are hot games). But too often a game does not live up to the promos and that just makes us ultra slow to jump in again! If a game is really worthy it will get rave reviews from the demo and be quickly got by everyone.

Now I mean free demos (not like the recent offer for Patapon 2 where you get the demo only if you pre-buy the game) - and from the Sony store or the PSN - why not? And add all the promo suck-ins you want. Just give us the demos. Now I am not gonna complain if the demo is short either - as I have seen some guys do. In fact it just makes sense to keep us wanting more. I wanna be there - don’t you?

Having said all that, I’m still gonna include a trailer for Patapon 2 (above) and a link to a site that has free PSP game demos on it. Now, they are either older games (most before 2008) or they are Japanese games that are not available elsewhere. So these demos aren’t like the ones I was talking about above - that give us a good sense of what a new game is like. But they can pass away the time and be a bit of fun. So go to free-psp-demos and check out what he’s got.

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Currently slated to be released at the same time as the movie (August 7th, 2009) G. I. Joe is set to be a big financial success. The game has been developed for most game platforms, is being released with the movie and has been designed in association with toys that will also be on the shelves for this big double duo event. PLUS, both game and movie are aimed at Dads who grew up with the G.I Joe heros of the comic world and at todays kids (whos Dads grew up with ….)

Lets see what they are revealing at this stage. The official movie site is up and offering the usual free wallpaper downloads along with this brief movie teaser:

Disappointingly, the game developers (EA) are not revealing much at this stage - just some broad hints about how the game will play - as revealed at Toy Fair 2009:

But toy producers - EA Hasbro - had a bit more to offer at the ASM Toy Fair last week when they unveiled their toy G.I. Joe characters:

Looks like the G.I. Joe heroes are set to make their presence felt at another Christmas!

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The team at Bitfood have become fascinated by the whole underground culture of PSP “homebrews”. We plan on doing interviews with some of the more prominent homebrew characters, exploring the products that these creative underworld game-geeks develop and attempting to bridge the “concept” gap that exists between them and “average” PSP gamers.

Take this following snippet of a recent conversation by famous underground homebrewer Dark-Alex:

“and I gave him a kernel exploit of C+D, which was found by joek … as it is being used to decrypt 3k modules”

See what we mean? And yet this is probably better than most chats we see on homebrew forums!

In other words, we will be aiming to turn their mysterious doings into something we average guys and gals can understand! This will also hopefully mean that the average PSP user will feel confident in using homebrew PSP games.

Rorschach, for example, is a free homebrew game. Rorschach is a detective-adventure RPG for PSP. (The chief doctor at an asylum has been brutally murdered. Player must make friends, manipulate and confront people to find their dark secrets to be able to find out who the murderer is and why the he did it - Screen shot below)

In order to download this game, however, you must have a “Homebrew enabled PSP”

In fact, there is a whole range of issues that need to be understood before the average PSP user can even think of taking advantage of the free games that homebrewers design. Some of these questions we will answer over the coming weeks:

*How do we get out PSP “homebrew enabled”

*Is that the same thing as getting our PSP Modded?

*What are the risks associated with getting our PSP “homebrew enabled” and can we do this ourselves, buy software to do it, or buy a PSP already enabled?

Now, there are sites that specialize in PSP homebrew issues. Go check them out and you will discover very quickly that they speak another language! We aim to make all this make sense to the non-technical PSP game-playing public.

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The fact that the PSP is the best mobile platform for all media has been proven yet again by the release, yesterday, of Ultimate Team Play. No - don’t go hunting for reviews or trailers. This is actually a private label management training game developed for the hotel chain Hilton Gardens.

Interestingly, at the recent Macworld Expo, Apple held a variety of educational seminars to show off what they reckon are iPhone’s and iPod’s usefulness in the classroom. And as our last post revealed - there is now wifi on school buses in the UK .

The graphics used in Ultimate Team Play(above and below), are like those in the oo7 games, we reckon . And its not a big stretch to see how the RPG games we already enjoy could be modified to be used as a training tool.

Can all this possibly mean that the education sector has recognized the benefits of fun in learning? And could that mean that we will soon see PSP’s toted into classrooms at schools and universities? Well, we can but hope!

Perhaps we will see Sony set up a “continual learning” institute to rival its Sony Pictures company. Because, as John Cleese (Q in the latest 007 movie) discovered back in the 80s, there is big bucks to be made in the management training market (Meetings Bloody Meetings - one of his more famous training videos - for example, sells for around $1000 a video, even today!) and his company is still producing training videos.

John Cleese in meetings bloody meetings (left) and as Q in Die Another Day video game character.

(The old way and the new?)

Perhaps Sony are beginning to see there is great potential in the PSP as a novel way to help them move into this profitable market?

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A UK news item posted today in UK caught our attention. It seems that aUK school bus company has recently installed WiFi for its travelers:

Young’uns equipped with iPhones, PSPs and netbooks with 3G dongles will get download speeds in excess of 2Mb/s, the company claimed.

“Well”, we thought. “Lucky blighters”!

But a quick surf around the net revealed that this revolution in thinking has in fact being going on for some time. AND that some quick witted transit companies around Europe installed WiFi into their buses and trains years ago! And these WiFi services are on transport that is not just for schoolies, but for business travelers and tourists as well.

Passenger Internet access on public transit is the fastest growing venue type for Wi-Fi hotspots worldwide, with 238% growth in the number of online sessions between H2 2006 and H2 2007. Europe was the fastest growing market with 142% growth during the same period (source: iPass, March 2008). Read More

In Europe, where PSP consoles are popular with adults and teens as well as younger people, and where the Go! network has been so widely established, these WiFi services stand to benefit a lot of PSP owners.

WiFi is hitting transit in Asia as well. Passengers on Japan’s super-fast bullet trains will be able to surf the Web while traveling at 270 kilometers per hour thanks to a new service that will start in March, 2009.

But, it would seem that US PSP owners are not so lucky!

Consider the surprise expressed by Woody Leonhard (windowssecrets) when he finds WiFi on a bus trip to Seattle recently! Does this show that WiFi on transport is not so common in the US? - or just not so commonly known?

Our team went searching to find the answer, however, and tracked down some of the bus and train services that offer WiFi to travelers in the US:

And yes, we found that Sound Transit of Seattle (horrid pun) has WiFi on its buses and Trains as do other bus companies in the area !

Greyhound also seemed like a good place to start. But, WIFI barely rates a mention on their US website. Our team sleuths, however, were not put off - and tracked down one Greyhound bus route that does offer WiFi. Greyhound has started a new “luxury” service called BoltBus which runs between Boston’s South Station and New York’s Penn Station - that offers more legroom, and AC adapters as well as WiFi.

Then there is the Connected Bus is San Fransisco, the Riverside Transit Agency in Southern California, the StarMetro in Tallahassee….

Lets get all these hotspots on the grid! If you know of a transport operator who offers WiFi drop us a note in the comments section to the post!

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According to Piracy watchdog blog, Torrent freak, PSP game downloading is on the rise - despite Sony’s claims to the contrary.

Of course Sony would claim that piracy is trending downward because they are a hardware manufacturer - not a software company invested in stopping piracy. That is not to suggest that what they claim is false, but simply to point out that they probably have a vested interest in reporting downward piracy trends and reassuring software producers that they have a safe hardware platform to develop games for.

The last three months in 2008 saw a huge increase in pirated downloading activity - which is probably a reflection of the growing popularity of pirate downloading sites. In fact, as Torrentfreak makes clear:

Since September, the number of peers tracked by The Pirate Bay has nearly doubled from 14 million in early September, to 25 million now. Other BitTorrent sites such as Mininova, Torrentz and BTjunkie report an increase in downloads, searches and web traffic, ranging from 25 to 50 percent over the same time frame.

The two PSP Games which were downloaded the most (illegally) in 2008 were Final Fantasy VII

and GTA Vice City Stories - with about half a million illegal downloads each - which is an enormous amount when you consider that the average PSP game sells about 130,000 copies in total. And when you consider that Final Fantasy VII is priced at $29.99 and GTA Vice City Stories has a price tag of $19.99 - thats over 25 MILL bucks that the game developers have lost!!

If you are at all curious about the other 8 most illegally downloaded games in 2008, then you can see the results here.

Whatever the reason for the increase - what many gamers don’t realize is that if they don’t pay for games, the software companies who make them will not make them any more - because they will be out of business!!

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