Source: videogamesblogger.com

The graphics chip for the PlayStation Portable 2 (PSP2) may have been uncovered via a press release from British company Imagination Technologies Groups.

The company announced that they have signed a license agreement with a new partner. Although not mentioned by name, they state that it is a “major consumer electronics company.”

Industry sources believe that it is almost certainly Sony, and that the chip is the SGX55x graphics chip, which would be used in Sony’s successor to the PSP, their current handheld gaming system. Although speculation, it would make sense that Imagine wouldn’t reveal who exactly they are working for due to the fact that Sony wouldn’t want to reveal that kind of information on their next system just yet.

Imagination Technologies has already put itself on the map with the chip for Apple’s iPhone, the PowerVR MBX chip, so Sony has made a wise choice to go with them, if it indeed turns out to be the case.

The SGX55x chip promises to be much more powerful than what is currently found in the PSP. At the moment, the PSP uses a proprietary GPU designed by Sony that is very similar to the older graphics processor in the PS2.

Via PSP World

Source: videogamesblogger.com

Factor 5 has all but confirmed that they are working on an all-new Superman game, seeking to take the Man of Steel into a place of glory that he has yet to see in the videogame medium, where his Superman 64 title is considered one of the worst games of all time.

The game was reportedly being worked on with Brash Entertainment, who’s studio was recently closed. This left people curious as to whether the game would still continue on, even though Factor 5 had a deal with them on the game.

MTV talked with Factor 5 President Julian Eggebrecht (who’s last game was the poorly reviewed PS3 dragon game Lair), who had this to say:

“One of our large-scale multi-platform projects was started with Brash because it is a dream property for us, hasn’t been given its dues in gaming since the Atari 2600, and has a huge universe to draw from,” teased Eggebrecht, who added that “things are obviously in flux and we hope that the game proves to be as indestructible as our hero…”

So it seems pretty obvious that Superman is, indeed, the game that they are working on. Now let’s hope that the Man of Tomorrow can turn out an awesome game. I myself am a huge Superman fan, and while I loved both Superman Returns (the movie) and the Smallville TV series, it saddens me that Superman has yet to have a great video game entry. So let’s hope they get this right!

And don’t forget to check out The Angry Video Game Nerd’s review of Superman for NES!

Source: videogamesblogger.com

Blizzard has discussed their follow-up to World of Warcraft, which will be a new, entirely different next-gen MMO.

“We want to create a great game,” he said. “Something that’s cool, and new, and different, and kind of next generation in terms of look and feel and gameplay. That’s a challenging endeavor.”

The game is already in the early stages of development. It’ll be interesting to see if it will be an entirely new leap forward for the genre of if it will mostly stick to genre conventions.

“For us, we want to make sure that the gameplay and the experience that the players are going to have is fleshed out quite a bit. The last thing we want to do is say, ‘Hey we’re doing this,’ and everyone says, ‘Oh cool,’ and then we change things completely. We want to have a level of confidence that the direction we’re going in the right one, and that it’s polished enough to be able to show something, also. And we’re not in either of those places yet.”

Blizzard says they expect the process of getting the new MMO into the public domain to be a challenging one, but growing WoW has taught the company a huge amount.

“I think we’re going to get a lot of bumps and bruises along the way,” he said. “The good news is that we’re been able to do this with World of Warcraft, and so we have a lot of experience, so hopefully we’ve learned a tremendous amount. Not to mention that before WoW launching we were the world leader in online gaming with Battle.net. We have a lot of experience, and so hopefully that’s going to benefit us as [we bring the game to market].”

Via Videogaming 24/7

Source: videogamesblogger.com

Castlevania “next-gen” has finally been confirmed for Xbox 360 and PS3! Finally the game will hit next-gen consoles, instead of staying handheld as it has with the last few Castlevania games including the upcoming Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia and the previous DS exclusives Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin and Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow.

And like those games, this new Castlevania will be a main game in the series and not a side-title like the retro PSP update Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles (includes Demon Castle Dracula X Rondo of Blood and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night) and the upcoming Wii fighter Castlevania Judgment.

Unfortunately there is absolutely no information yet released for the game, all we know is that it is coming. The real question is whether it will be a 2D title, or a 3D one like the last-gen 3D Castlevania games: Castlevania: Lament of Innocence and Castlevania: Curse of Darkness. Although it’s unlikely that we’ll see a 2D console Castlevania, but we can always hope . . .