In response to why LucasArts’ upcoming Star Wars title The Force Unleashed won’t hit the PC platform, producer Cameron Suey has revealed that the physics engine in the game is simply too complex, and cannot be downscaled to run smoothly on mainstream PC configurations.

In this case, it just really wasn’t feasible. As much as I really understand everybody’s concerns and I really understand that people want to play the game on their platform of choice, the truth of it is, the way this game is designed, based around these physics, that are simulation based and very procedural, it would take a very powerful PC to pull them off. This is definitely stretching the Xbox and the PS3 really to the farthest they can go.

Excuses, excuses. I personally find this hard to believe, seeing as the game is coming to Wii and PS2. Not to mention the average PC can run physics-heavy titles like Half-Life 2 fine. This all sounds like a huge cop-out.

Force Unleashed dev reacts to PC gamer outcry [Video Gamer]

Homebrew developer and well-known emulation guru Uberjack today released RacePSP v2.0, a continuation of Flavor’s speedy Neo Geo Pocket emulator. Sporting a clean graphical interface, version 2.0 routinely saves flash memory information to Memory Stick. As with the previous release, savestates are currently not supported, though they are planned for inclusion in a future update.

Download RacePSP v2.0

RACE! PSP [Uberjack]

It’s that time again, the NPD Group has released its hardware and software sales figures for the month of August. As expected, Electronic Arts’ Madden dominated the software side of the charts, pushing a whopping 2.3 million units across all platforms it was released on combined.

“Madden NFL ‘09 was the top-selling game of the month, and launched with 2.3 million units out of retail doors in it’s first month, besting last year’s ‘08 title by 2%,” noted NPD analyst Anita Frazier. She added, “Year after year, the industry can count on the Madden release to bring folks into stores during the relatively lazy days of late summer.”

In the hardware sector, sales overall took a rather sizable slump compared to last month. Nintendo still managed to take the top spot, however, with 453,000 Wii and 518,300 DS units sold. Meanwhile, the close battle between the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 continued in August, with the consoles shifting 195,200 and 185,400 units respectively.

All in all, not a surprising month by any means. With the Xbox 360 price cut now in full effect, September figures should be far more interesting. more »

D3Publisher of America today announced plans to bring its entire catalog of PSP UMD titles over to the PlayStation Network. This September, titles such as Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords and Dead Head Fred will be added to Sony’s digital distribution service at reduced prices across the board — ranging from $9.99 to $14.99.

The full list of titles can be found after the jump! more »

Homebrew developer Zx-81 has released a maintenance update to Danzel’s multi-protocol instant messaging client AFKIM, resolving a BitlBee connectivity issue that certain folks were experience due to insufficient timeout values in DNS name resolution. more »

Electronic Arts announced today that the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince video game, originally scheduled for a fall debut, is now slated for a worldwide summer 2009 release to coincide with Warner Brothers’ live-action film.

“We’re excited about the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince video game in development and its high level of authenticity and playability,” said Robert Nashak, Vice President EA Casual Studios. “We are creating an immersive game experience that Potter fans around the world will really enjoy playing as they fly and duel their way through the story of the film. The game will feature new Wii gestures and increased gameplay capabilities across all of the platforms.”

Expected, to say the least. We can only hope that they’ll end up using the extra development time to deliver a more polished game.

Homebrew developer Mediumgauge has released an update to PSP Filer, a powerful yet simplistic file management application designed for the PSP. By using PSP Filer, users can easily edit, copy, delete, and transfer files on the memory stick and flash memory.

In addition to several bug fixes, version 5.5 features an optimized photo viewer which decodes JPEG format image files by up to 40 percent faster than the previous release. As usual, the full changelog can be found after the break. more »

RPG powerhouse Square Enix has released a list of titles that it will showcase at this year’s Tokyo Game Show. Final Fantasy XIII, as expected, won’t be playable at the event, but attendees can look forward to spending hands-on time with other notable titles like Valkyrie Profile DS, Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, and Dissidia: Final Fantasy.

For the complete list of titles, hit the break. We’ve broken up the list into non-playable and playable titles for your convenience. Tokyo Game Show 2008 kicks off on October 9 and runs through the 12th. more »

Homebrew developer Hellcat has released an update to Recovery Flasher, a custom firmware compatible utility that allow users to perform various maintenance tasks on their PSP, from restoring flash-based content (PS Store license data, theme files) to fully re-installing 3.71 or 4.01 M33 firmware without the need of Pandora.

In addition to numerous bug fixes, version 1.32 includes a kernel 1.50 compatible build, meaning it is now possible to access recovery functions and install 4.01 M33 straight from the get-go on PSP units running firmware 1.50. Hit the jump for the complete changelog. more »

Publisher XSEED Games today announced that Marvelous Entertainment’s PSP RPG Valhalla Knights 2 has gone gold and is being sent off to manufacturing in preparation for its October 1 release date.

A direct sequel to the 2007 original, Valhalla Knights 2 features an original storyline written by the scenario writer of Final Fantasy XII, along with two player co-op and wireless versus battles over ad-hoc connection. more »