PSP

The PlayStation Network has been out of action for over three hours and there is currently no indication when it will be back online. More >

This action-RPG is based on Square Enix's Lord Of Vermillion franchise, and with realtime battles and QTEs, it's a world apart from the collectible card game on which it's based. It's in development for PSP and Vita, and is due for release in December.

One of PSP's unsung heroes, the DJMax series, is headed to PlayStation Vita, according to Siliconera. Korean developer Pentavision is to bring its turntablism game DJMax Technika - first released in Korean arcades in 2008 - to Vita, using both front and rear touch controls.

Corpse Party was originally an amateur project developed in RPG Maker, but it was picked up by 5pb and subsequently remade for PSP. Its 16-bit, anime-styled visuals conceal what appears to be a thoroughly unsettling adventure game, set in "a haunted elementary school filled with the decaying corpses and tormented souls of countless children who'd mysteriously vanished from the Japanese countryside years, months or sometimes only days prior." The below trailer is mostly text, but still manages to shock, and be warned: there's the occasional disturbing image that might not be especially suitable for the workplace. Xseed will release Corpse Party through PSN this autumn.

Toshihiro Nagoshi's announcement of Yakuza 5 comes with news that Sega has set up a dedicated Yakuza Studio, the first product of which will be Binary Domain, the thirdperson shooter that is due next February. Sega has only just approved Yakuza 5, Nagoshi told Famitsu, and the team has found a way to continue the series despite the devastation wrought on Kamurocho by the zombie infestation depicted in Yakuza Of The End. Also announced was Yakuza Black Panther 2 for PSP, which will feature four extra characters in addition to Tatsuya, the original's protagonist, as well as a return to the fictional Osaka district of Sotenbori, which featured in Yakuza 2.

The Capcom legend has worked with Idea Factory before, lending his likeness to its subsidiary Compile Heart for Neptune MkII. As you'll see from the below screenshots, it was a rather leftfield project, and so is his apparent collaboration with Idea Factory on its new PSP love sim, Bakudan Handan. Revealed in the latest Famitsu and translated by Andriasang, the game is set in a theme park which has been taken over by someone in a bear suit and who is threatening to blow it up. Inafune's name is mentioned twice: as designer of the theme park, which is based on videogames; and as the protagonist's uncle, who pops up throughout the game to impart sage wisdom. Andriasang is unsure whether either of those will be the real Keiji Inafune; either way we're offering pretty long odds on Bakudan Handan getting localised for the west.

Innocent Sin, the first game in the two-part series that makes up Persona 2, was never released outside Japan when it launched in 2007, though Atlus has since confirmed it will release the game in the US this year. Ghostlight has today announced that it will be releasing Innocent Sin in Europe for PSP before the end of the year, and the publisher's Ross Brierley touted the title's "dark, compelling storyline and typically stylish visuals." A collector's edition is also planned.

The PlayStation Store is now back online in Japan, with its Welcome Back programme now live, albeit under the distinctly less catchy moniker of the Thanks And Apologies Package. PS3 owners with a Japanese PSN account can choose two from The Last Guy, LocoRoco Cocoreccho, Echochrome, WipeOut HD and Hustle Kings; PSP owners can take two of Hot Shots Shorties, Patapon 2, LittleBigPlanet, What Did I Do to Deserve This, My Lord 2 and LocoRoco Midnight Carnival. Andriasang has a screengrab of the store showing where non-native speakers need to head to claim their games.

Sony’s Kentaro Suzuki took to the stage at Tokyo’s Game Tools and Middleware Forum 2011 to introduce the PSP Engine, which Sony has created to streamline the process of porting PlayStation Portable games to PlayStation 3 under the PSP Remaster banner. Features include high resolution rendering, dual analogue controls, stereoscopic 3D, shared save data, and memory and graphical expansion – all of which are to be used in the first release in the PSP Remaster series, Monster Hunter Portable HD.