psphub

Halo Wars could be a gaming breakthrough

Microsoft's much awaited latest game in the Halo series - Xbox 360's Halo Wars - is out on February 26 - and judging by the demo of the first levels, it's going to be great.

It looks as riveting as the precious Halo series but there's something new. Halo was a great first person shooter. Microsoft Game Studios partnered with Ensemble Studios (Age of Mythology and Empire fame) to now create a real-time strategy.

So does its conversion to an RTS work on a console and so finally persuade some RTS fans to move from a PC to the 360?

Halo Wars covers an earlier period of the Halo story - 20 years prior to the events covered in the first Halo Xbox release - and involves early battles between the UNSC and Covenant. There is no Master Chief, but expect spartans to arrive in the full game.

It follows the basic pattern - you build a base (a single base with building slots that can place structures at specific locations and upgrade them) getting resources based on the number of slots Supply slots. You play as the UNSC and head out on the colony ship Spirit of Fire for a planet to attack the Covenant.

Single player campaign mode is entertaining, with an hour of play in the demo though no multiplayer - eventually this should allow 3-vs-3 online play. But the problem in past attempts to give us a satisfying RTS on a console has been in mastering a control system without a mouse and keyboard.

As a gamer used to dragging and clicking when playing an RTS on a PC, it took me a while to get the hang of the 360 controls here as you use the controller buttons, basically the left analogue and the face buttons.

The developers have gone for gamers having to use fewer controls and without hot key buttons. You scroll through using the thumb stick for the options in the circle menu, which is fast enough and definitely a smooth way to do it. Unit selection is done with single-click, hold with paint-selection for a small group, screen-selection and all-units - actually quite an intuitive way to play.

On the basis of playing the demo levels, the controls seem to be at last nailed - no easy achievement - although final judgment should await the full game when you have to deal with more intricate situations.

This may be an RTS, but Halo fans will be pleased to find a lot of familiarity with their beloved Halo franchise including unit similarities and hero units (like Sergeant Johnson) with those pesky Hunters always causing havoc for the morale of the USNC troops.

The Halo world is looking wonderful with a glowing brightly-coloured plasma look, good on the big screen but 480p is a low resolution for an entire game. The sound effects and music as well as weapons, structures, vehicles and environment are in keeping with the impressive original Halo.

It's as absorbing as any Halo game and fun to have the franchise move in an exciting new direction. I can't wait for the full game.

Are you hanging out for it too?

Are iPhone gaming numbers trouble for Nintendo DS, Sony PSP?

iPhone users are about ten times more likely to download games for their phones than other smartphone users, according to a new ComScore report helpfully summarized by MacRumors: "32.4% of iPhone users have downloaded a game, compared to a market average of only 3.8% amongst other manufacturers. In all, iPhone users were responsible for 14% of all mobile game downloads last year."

Who had the bright idea to make gaming a cornerstone of the iPhone platform? Some credit must be given to Apple's head of iPhone software development, Scott Forstall, who reports directly to Steve Jobs and has an impressive team under him. Last year, Forstall showed the iPhone's game capability with a demo that let the user fly a Star Wars-style spacecraft by using the entire phone as a steering wheel, rather than pressing buttons or handling a joystick. 

6 Ways to Make the PSP Kick-Ass

We're all a bit bored by the PSP at this point, and the PS3 has failed to impress us much lately as well. But with a few minor tweaks, we'd be blown away by both.

Sony just asked its customers what they want in the next PSP. Well here's what we want in our next PSP, and most of it's doable through software alone.

Get Remote Play Working, Standard

Remote Play promised to allow gamers to play PS3 games through the internet on their PSPs. Brilliant! And it was actually implemented in a game PS3 called Lair...and then basically nothing else. You can find Remote Play in a handful of downloadable PS3 titles, but it's far from a standard offering, and basically doesn't exist in the world of AAA releases. But just think—Remote Play would lessen the PSP's need for original titles—something Sony hasn't been able to secure as of late—and promote loyalty to the PS3 since its games would be playable from anywhere.

Make the PSP the Ultimate Blu-ray Remote

If there's one thing you can't fault the PS3 for, it's the machine's excellent Blu-ray playback. So why not make the PSP the unequivocal best Blu-ray remote ever? Not only could you use the PSP for basic functions, but a little programming savvy could stream entire BD features to your hands. Imagine the use of a Wi-Fi enabled second screen from the PSP with streaming audio support. You could watch a movie with a friend and decide that just you would turn on the audio commentary for a scene (through headphones), while viewing some extra production stills (on your secondary display). Hey, we'd settle for a submenu on the PSP's screen, even.

Give Us a PSOne-to-PSP Ripping Tool

Offer us a tool to rip PSOne games on the PS3 in order to be transferred to the PSP. They can wrap them in DRM and charge us $5 each time we rip a game, and we'd still do it. While we'd say the same for PS2 titles, we realize that PSP processors probably couldn't handle the software emulation load. PSOne games, though? Definitely.

Display Hints and Walkthroughs That Sync with PS3

Easy money for Sony—license out the option to make PS3 walkthroughs for the PSP. The strategy guide company does all the work, creating the text file (already on hand from their publications) and some basic syncing cues from, I dunno, saved game files or scripts. We're sure if enough money was exchanged between all involved parties, something could be figured out that's not so resource intensive that it isn't worth their while.

Our Only Hardware Revision: Add a Second Analog Stick Already

Look Sony, you were wrong, just give in. Screw backwards compatibility and add the second analog stick to make the PSP essentially interchangeable with the Dual Shock 3/SIXAXIS. Just as that second analog stick has held back PSP developers, it's also limited Remote Play functionality and the option to use the PSP as a premium controller. The hardware is holding back the software, but not in a "we just need stronger processors" way. It's a simple fix. PSP loyalists might complain, but trust us, they're complaining more that their controls are gimped. (Oh, and Bluetooth would be a runner up for greater connectivity options.)

Do All of the Above, Then Sell a PS3/PSP Bundle

The PS3 has already lost the game machine war. But it's still a contender as a premium home theater machine. Offer users a deal in which they can pick up a PS3 along with a PSP. Upsell the PSP as a remote, a second screen, and a media streamer (as opposed to a bulky PMP with a crappy game catalog).

How loving the PSP is driving me to hurt it

They say often that we hurt the things we love most, and as I patiently wait for a supremely cheap Memory Card Duo to arrive, I find that a most apt phrase. I love the PSP. As a piece of technology, as a gaming device, I think the PlayStation Portable is wonderful. I love the way it looks, I love the way it feels, and I love the way it makes a little "clang" noise when I open the disc tray.

But the memory card that shipped today is intended to do unto the PSP that which Sony would never approve of. I am going to do the one thing, the only thing, Sony has been concerned about since day one -- I am going to homebrew the everloving buggery out of the PSP. 

But I want you to know, PSP ... I'm only hurting you because I love you.

Let it be known that I have a moral compass that generally tries to have me avoid piracy. I don't particularly have any deep hatred of the practice, and have been known to emulate, but things like the R4 chip that haunts DS systems has always struck me as a little bit unbalanced and unfair. That's not to say I might not ever own one, but it still makes me feel uncomfortable to see a machine's entire library ripped off. 

With the PSP, I had resisted the temptation of custom firmware, homebrew applications and emulated games for years. Why? Because I, like a naive child, felt the PSP could offer more. I have owned two PSPs in my life, and both times they were purchased for the retail library, not for emulation. Crazy I know, but my intentions were honorable and the relationship consensual ... until now. 

I first purchased a PSP when it launched, and was distracted for a while by Sony's boasts of having a "walkman for the 21st century." Putting music, movies AND PlayStation 2 quality games on a system had suitably wowed me, so much so that I was able to overlook the fact that the only game worth owning on the system was Metal Gear Ac!D, and even that was a bit disappointing. 

It wasn't long before I got rid of my PSP and picked up a DS like any sensible gamer should. The store clerk tried to berate my decision, questioned why I would trade in a PSP and get a DS. My response was simple: "I'm a gamer, I don't need to watch Spiderman on the bus." One long-haired chap in the store raised his arms and applauded the class of the move. I took my DS home, I was happy. 

However, even though I had discarded the PSP and gone for something a little more dependable, I must confess that I missed the old girl. Quite why, I didn't know, since my uses for it were few and far between. Fast-forward to 2008, and the PSP's new library was looking interesting, plus Koei had sent me a bunch of UMDs to look at. I took the excuse and picked up the machine. 

For a while, all was well. Gitaroo Man would regularly entertain me on plane rides, Warriors Orochi was an amazing portable achievement, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops was a lot of fun, and there were inventive, promising new titles like Patapon on the horizon. 

Unfortunately, this library was only terrific if you didn't take into account the fact that it took three years to accrue that number of games, and there was barely anything beyond that to bolster what was there. Before long, I found myself back in the same situation I had been in with the first PSP -- scouring store shelves for something, anything to play on my console and coming away with better games on other systems. 

I've been holding out for a long time now, willing to keep away from homebrew in order to play retail games ... but what's the point? As I think of the games I want to buy for my PSP this year, the only one I truly care about is Dissidia, a title that is not scheduled for a Western release until some time this Summer! That's half a year away. A customer does not expect to drop several hundred dollars for a game machine they don't use for upwards of six months. That's pathetic. 

I never wanted to do frowned-upon things with the PSP, but as far as I can see, I've been left with no choice if I want to get my money's worth from the system. As I say, I love my PSP, and I relish any excuse to turn it on. If Sony isn't going to give me any reason to do so, I guess I'll have to make some reasons. 

The ironic thing is, if Sony didn't waste so many resources on coming up with new firmware to fight homebrew, maybe I wouldn't need to install homebrew in the first place. Sony has been so zealous in its fight against piracy that it is driving its customers to pirate. All I, and I am thinking many people wanted, were some new games.

We also needed games that had replayability. The one major problem with the PSP is how it was built to evoke a home console experience on a portable device. Unfortunately, most home console games aren't ones you can keep playing over and over again, and tend to last about ten hours or so. PSP games fell into this trap, with some excellent games like God of War: Chains of Olympus, struggling to last maybe even six hours. With a library as uninteresting as the PSP's, having games that support only a very limited amount of playtime is ridiculous. 

I love the PSP. In some ways, it's my favorite gaming system, although I couldn't give you a single reason why. I want to keep playing with my PSP, and the only way I'm going to be playing it for more than a handful of hours this year is if I use it for things that Sony never intended. I feel almost sad about this, after having resisted the lure of homebrew for so long, but Sony has done nothing to encourage me not to give in. 

This speaks to a larger industry as well. It's high time that publishers stopped looking at ways of discouraging piracy, and more ways of encouraging legal purchases. The games industry has it all the wrong way round. Stop trying to fight pirates, start trying to embrace consumers. Perhaps if people felt like they had a reason to be loyal customers, you'd have some loyal bloody customers. 

As it is, I can expect a shiny 4GB memory card (less than $17.00 on Amazon) in a few days, and I don't feel bad about hurting the console I love anymore. It's simply better this way. Pretty soon, I am going to have endless reasons to turn my PSP on, and I am going to enjoy my console with a big smile on my face once more. 

Just a shame that the games industry proved itself incapable of putting that smile on a customer's face itself.

Improved PSP gets even cooler new features

By Doug Elfman

I recently, I showed my Sony PlayStation Portable to my friend, Jeff, who's 38. He never had seen the hand-held game system up close. He gazed in wonder as this 6.7-ounce "toy" played the movie "National Treasure 2" vibrantly on a 4.3-inch screen, then we toured a video game that looks and moves as impressively as any PS 2 game. I showed him photos of Charisma Carpenter stored on the PSP. We surfed the Web (albeit slowly) using its internal WiFi. But he didn't get a chance to listen to music on it, iPod-style, though it has that capability. Share & Save Newsvine Digg Fark Technorati reddit StumbleUpon del.icio.us Slashdot Propeller Mixx Furl Twitter MySpace Facebook Google Bookmarks Yahoo! Bookmarks Windows Live Favorites Ask MyStuff myAOL Favorites What is this? Most Popular Stories # GAME DORK: Improved PSP gets even cooler new features # 2008 YEAR IN REVIEW: Top 10 Shows # 2008 YEAR IN REVIEW: Top 10 Movies # 2008 YEAR IN REVIEW: Top 10 Concerts # THE R-J GOES TO A PARTY: Chefs showcase their best dishes at Epicurean Affair # LIFE ON THE COUCH: Socialite Kardashian is reality shows' common denominator # Busting Out # 2008 YEAR IN REVIEW: Top 10 Restaurants # TAPPING CASH: Reeling in Players # LOOKING BACK: WACKY, SCARY WORLD OF 2008 All this, I told him, costs $200. And this new version, the PSP 3000 (released in October), comes with a built-in microphone so you can make Skype phone calls on it. Plus, the 3000's new LCD screen features less glare and much more screen detail than before. Jeff experienced mild consumer surprise, or what I call PSP Envy. He asked if he could buy my PSP from me. No, of course not. If this sounds like my love letter to the PSP, it mostly is. The PSP is kind of like the iPhone, but with far superior gaming and video, and no mobile phone service and no touchscreen. Yet, there's scant pop culture buzz for the PSP, which surprises me constantly. Everyone talks about the Wii, "Rock Band" and the Xbox 360, while parents of little kids know all about Nintendo's hand-held DS. But the DS -- fun in its own right, offering less detail-illustrative computing power in its touchscreen -- is primarily for kids, while taller game addicts often go for the PSP. DS vs. PSP is apples and oranges, two different markets. When you play "Manhunt 2" or "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories" on the PSP, these are cinematic games, and you see the blood. In fact, if you read my best-games-of-the-year list, you saw a PSP game, "God of War: Chains of Olympus," came out on top for all of 2008. (By the way, in my best-of-the-year list, I meant to say that "Frontlines: Fuel of War" was the best online shooter of 2008.) Not everything is perfect in PSP 3000 land. If you're a hard-core gamer, the PSP is not powerful enough to serve as your only system, but it's a great secondary system to your PS 3 or Xbox 360. The PSP is ideal as a primary system for casual gamers. Also, the sound system still isn't quite loud enough for a loud-a-holic like me, even when you listen to the PSP on excellent Sony or Bose headphones, or through plug-and-play speakers (Logitech is probably the best choice for that). And you still can't buy my yet-invented fantasy item: a plug-and-play video projector that beams PSP movies and games onto a wall. If you got a PSP for the holidays, or if you're planning to take the PSP plunge, it should not leave you disappointed. (Spend an extra $45 on a Sony 2200 mAh battery, to get more battery life.) As for great games from the past few years that you can delve into, try: "God of War: Chains of Olympus," "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories," "Tiger Woods PGA Tour '08," "Patapon," "Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow," "Spider-Man 2," "Manhunt 2," "Wall-E," "Lumines II," "Tomb Raider: Anniversary," "Midnight Club: LA Remix," "Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII," "The Warriors" and "SOCOM U.S. Navy Seals: Fireteam Bravo." And feel free to show it off in front of your friends. It is almost certain they have no idea what's under its hood. (The PSP 3000 by Sony retails for $200 -- Plays movies, games, music, stores photos and videos, works as a Skype phone and surfs the Web. Games look as good as on the PS 2. Easy to very challenging games. Games rated "E" to "M." Four stars out of four.) Contact Doug Elfman at 702-383-0391 or e-mail him at delfman@reviewjournal. com. He also blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman.

Review - Midnight Club: LA Remix

You know, I wish for a minute that Rockstar had taken the driving mechanics from the Midnight Club series and put them in GTA IV because then I might have made fewer trips through my car's windshield and been able to whip around the city like the true baller I am. While that wasn't meant to be, Rockstar did deem the PSP worthy for inclusion in its most recent round of street racing games, launching Midnight Club: L.A. Remix for Sony's struggling handheld. Thankfully, rather than rushing together a sloppy port job, you can tell that Rockstar took its time with this one, and the result is yet another terrific racing game on the PSP.

Remix is not a port of the console versions of Midnight Club Los Angeles, but rather an entirely different entity with its own story line and a few new characters. True, the two games obviously take place in the same city, and the cast list is largely shared across both iterations, but the similarities end there, as Remix is truly an experience all its own. The basic premise is that you play as an East Coast transplant trying to make it big in the L.A. street-racing scene. As you take on challenges, victory earns you money and rep, which are the keys to advancement. Money is used for the obvious things — tricking out your car, buying accessories and even unlocking brand new rides — while rep basically acts like your experience meter. As you win more races, you advance in rank and are then offered tougher challenges. The upside to this is that you can control how quickly or slowly you advance through the ranks by picking your challenges, but the downside is that with what is essentially an experience bar comes a bit of old-fashioned RPG level-grinding.

The game is completely free-roaming, dropping you in the middle of the city and pointing out challenges via markers on your mini-map and colored smoke flares in the road. You simply cruise the city until you find the challenge you want to tackle, and then flash your headlights when you're in range and get ready to rock. There are three different levels of challenges, denoted by green, yellow and red smoke, and you almost always have a choice when it comes to deciding where to go next. Even though certain races are required in order to advance, Remix keeps the map stocked with plenty of simple checkpoint races in case you want to juice up your car before taking on the big boys or would simply rather ride around and take things at your own pace.

Gamers would be well-served to take some time to learn the streets before getting too caught up in the racing, both for practical and entertainment reasons. First off, L.A. is a big place even on the tiny PSP, so racers will need to learn all of the shortcuts and special tricks that will be necessary for keeping AI players off their back. Also, while the game is in no way totally accurate when it comes to portraying the City of Angels, several landmarks are included, and it's much easier to check them out when you aren't zooming by at 150mph. The Hollywood sign, LAX and the Staples Center are all depicted in the title, as well as many other L.A. tourist traps. Later on in the game, players are transported from L.A. to Tokyo, and while I can't speak to the actual authenticity of the streets and locales, it sure feels like you're racing through Japan's most bustling city.

When you're ready to stop sightseeing and start racing, then you'll find that this isn't the same old boring racer we've all seen a million times over. The challenges are nice and varied, though early on you will likely be overwhelmed by simple one-off checkpoint races. As you advance, though, you'll unlock circuits, time trials, delivery (frantic affairs where you have to get a car to a certain location in a certain amount of time and with minimal damage) and many others. Granted, the game does lull from time to time, forcing you through a series of checkpoint races in order to get to anything good, but the wait is worth it because when you do finally see a different style of challenge unlock, you'll likely go racing straight for it so you can get a dose of variety, which is much-needed for games in this genre.

Unfortunately, some challenges can be exceptionally frustrating, as the combination of traffic and super-aggressive AI opponents will make your life miserable for a long stretch of time. I remember one occasion where I was lined up for one of the green (easy) races, but due to the combination of weather (it was raining), my car (I was in a stripped-down luxury car with awful handling), and the course design (lots of sharp turns, very few long straightaways), I had to restart roughly a dozen times before I found the route, speed and lucky breaks I needed in order to triumph. Frustrations like these are rare at first, but as you climb your way through the ranks, you may find your patience wearing thin as a few tiny mistakes add up into either an outright loss or a race so tight that you'll wonder if your opponents ever so much as slightly oversteer, let alone crash outright.

Remix also features some pretty creative multiplayer modes, moving beyond traditional races into more kooky fare. Paint mode sees you and an opponent trying to hit as many checkpoints as possible before the time limit expires, thereby "painting" them your color. Of course you can steal from one another, so things quickly come down to playing both offense and defense as you try and pick off his gates while making sure your own don't end up surrendered. Tag is also entertaining, forcing all of the racers to stay within a certain proximity of the "It" car without getting touched. This mode is a lesson in close-quarters mayhem, with smashing and dashing appearing front and center. There's plenty more where that came from, so those who prefer to race against friends don't have to worry at all about Remix being a lonely affair.

Obviously, every good racing game needs a solid complement of cars, and Remix comes through in that department by delivering dozens of vehicles in several different varieties. All cars are broken down first by class (A-D) and then by type (exotics/tuners, muscle cars and luxury vehicles). The main differences between the classes are defined by top-end stats and the number of available nitro boosts, while the type of car you drive will provide players with the most notable differences. For example, tuners are quick and nimble, but can't take much damage before they total out, costing you time and usually race position. They also have a special ability called "zone," where if you drive a clean race for a little while, you'll be able to tap Circle and bring the world around you into slow motion. This is obviously meant for precision driving, allowing players to squeeze through gaps in traffic or whip around tight turns with minimal lost momentum. Luxury cars, on the other hand, are big, brutish and don't mind dishing out the pain. These cars tend to be slower and handle more sloppily, but you can bang them off pretty much anything in the environment, and they'll keep right on rolling. The special ability for these cars is "aggro," charged by grinding and smashing into other cars until the meter fills. Once engaged, aggro allows players to crash and smash through any car in their way without losing a bit of speed or causing any more damage. The game also features muscle cars and even a few motorcycles, both of which have their own unique advantages and disadvantages.

Even though every gamer will likely have a preference for what vehicle he drives, Remix will put you through the paces with all of them, forcing racers to constantly adapt their driving styles in order to play to each car's strength. It's a testament to Rockstar that every time you switch from one vehicle type to another, there's a definite adjustment period as you once again come to terms with steering sensitivity, acceleration capabilities and braking capacity. You aren't just racing the same basic model with different skins; every car and bike feel different, and it's completely awesome.

Remix is also one of the best-looking PSP games, complete with slick car models and level construction that really convey a sense of speed. There are still some faults, and it's mainly the visual department that keeps Remix from reaching a higher plane of gaming existence. First off, nearly all of the races go down at night, meaning that you have to keep an eye out for traffic when you can't really see the cars. This is an issue even for console games meant to be played on the big screen, so imagine how it goes on a handheld when the visual space is so much more constricted. Cars are sometimes near impossible to see, as are certain streets or shortcuts. The problem isn't helped by the vague checkpoint markers, which just give you a general sense of where the next gate is and then leave you to go on your way. I can't count how many times I missed a turn or ended up on the completely wrong street because I was forced to try and guess my route based on a vague arrow and a mini-map that really lives up to its name. It isn't a huge, huge deal, but there will be several times when you slam into something you didn't even know was there or end up way behind because you had to guess which way to go at one intersection and chose poorly.

The bigger problem comes with loading and frame rate drops, both of which are a bane throughout. Every time you enter or leave a race, head to the garage or do anything else other than simply drive around, you are forced to sit through a very long load screen. Now, I'm not saying this is the sort of issue that could be completely removed from a handheld game on a UMD disc, but the wait does border on ridiculous a few times. I'd look the other way if the game featured buttery smooth frame rates, but sadly, it does not. The start of nearly every race is plagued by tremendous slowdown, as is just about any other point in the game when all of the racers are bunched in the same area. If you can get far enough ahead of (or behind) the pack, the problem is alleviated, but it really hurts when you miss a turn because you accurately anticipated the angle and speed but didn't account for the fact that the game as a whole was about to come to a screeching halt. At least you have something to think about in your final moments of life before kissing the concrete wall face-first at subsonic speeds.

While the PSP has struggled to find massive success like the DS, the system has built up a rather impressive collection of racing titles, and Midnight Club: L.A. Remix should be proud to earn a spot alongside them. The game is occasionally frustrating and is prone to a few bugs, but it's also easily one of the deepest, most immersive titles to come out on the system for quite some time. We've come to expect a lot from the Rockstar pedigree, no matter what the game is, and I'm happy to say that they've come through even on what is arguably the least popular mainstream device of this generation. If you've got a PSP and a need for speed, then go ahead and pop in Remix; just promise that you aren't going to try this at home afterwards.

Score: 8.7/10

'Smash Bros.' a hit; 'God of War' made for PSP

The Xbox 360 had "Halo 3." The PlayStation 3 has its upcoming "Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots." Now it's the Wii's turn for some hype.

"Super Smash Bros. Brawl" arguably is the most anticipated game for the system, rivaled perhaps by only "The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess" when that came out in 2006.

So does it live up to expectations? I believe it packs a punch, literally and figuratively.

The "Smash Bros." series of fighting games always has been about fan service, cramming in as many characters and references as it can. "Brawl" takes this to the next level, with a whopping 20 playable characters, including two from third parties: Snake from Konami's "Metal Gear Solid" series and Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog from, well, "Sonic."

It's the little touches that make "Brawl" great. Playing as beloved characters is awesome - my personal favorite is Pit from the NES's "Kid Icarus" - but the nods to Nintendo history don't end there. The music, power-up items and levels all point to a game in Nintendo's past.

What makes "Brawl" even better is its level of customization. For starters, players can choose from four methods of control: Wii remote, remote and nunchuk, Wii classic controller or GameCube controller. Then, once you pick the controller, you can set each button to do what you want.

Once you're in the game, there are tons of options for setting it up. You can select how many rounds, what rules you want, which items you want to appear and how frequently. Just about anything you'd want to change, you can do it.

But wait, there's even more. "Brawl" also lets you create your own stages and send them to friends.

There's a single-player (or two-player co-op) story mode that I enjoyed, but the real draw to "Brawl" is its multiplayer.

As many as four people at a time can go at it on a level, where the goal is to knock the other players out of the arena. It's not as easy as it sounds, as jumps and abilities can help players land back in bounds.

The four people don't all have to be with you, either. "Brawl" supports online play, either with friends or total strangers.

"Brawl" truly is for the fanboys (or girls) in all of us. Everything in the game is a nod to another game. And, honestly, who wouldn't want to see a battle between Mario and Sonic or Link and Snake?

Best of all, it's a great way to get friends of all ages together and just have a lot of fun.

The "God of War" series has been one of the best on the PlayStation 2, but it's never had a portable iteration.

Enter "God of War: Chains of Olympus" for the PSP. This isn't just a port of the other two "God of War" games; it's new, built from ground up for the PSP.

And it shows: "Chains of Olympus" shines with quality, from the stellar visuals (which must work the PSP to the max) to the great voice acting (all returning actors) to the solid control scheme.

It looks and feels just like a PS2 game but on the PSP. And that's impressive.

This time around, Kratos, the angry, revenge-hungry slave to the Greek gods, must save the world from eternal darkness, brought about when the chariot-pulled sun plummets from the sky.

"Chains of Olympus" plays just like the other games, with Kratos wielding swords tied to his arms with chains and learning magic and other moves along the way. There's still a fixed camera, and you'll be collecting the same red orbs.

Obviously, the button commands are a little different from the PS2 versions, given that the PSP doesn't have as many buttons and only one thumbstick. The two shoulder buttons do double duty: Each button by itself is used for magic or a special melee attack, while holding in the left button and hitting the right button makes Kratos dodge-roll.

The controls work well, though my hands started cramping from gripping the thin PSP. I also at times had trouble seeing things on the screen, as many of the levels are dark, and the PSP screen sometimes isn't that bright.

Overall, "Chains of Olympus" is an impressive feat, successfully transferring a fantastically epic series to a handheld system.