Sony Announces the PlayStation Portable Remaster Series
Sony has announced today a new initiative in which a number of PSP titles will be given the hi-def treatment by being remastered for the Playstation 3 console. They are calling it the Playstation Portable Remaster Series, and will see certain titles given exclusive new content, newly-mapped controls, stereoscopic 3D capabilities, and much more. You'll also be able to share saved games across both platforms, or import them into your PS3 to play online multiplayer using the AdHoc Party feature.
So far, the only game that has been announced is Monster Hunter Portable 3rd, hilariously named Monster Hunter Portable 3rd HD Ver., which will be dropping in Japan later this Summer. No word on when the rest of the world will be receiving this service but we hope to learn more in a couple weeks during E3. I would love for games like Jeanne D'Arc and Valkyria Chronicles 2 to be amongst those remastered. Unfortunately, I am sure that most of the titles will be more focused on their "blockbuster" sellers, so look for plenty of God of War and Killzone, and not Tactics Ogre.
I believe that for Sony to pull a move like this is basically them saying that they've screwed up on the PSP. Considering a big bullet-point for the NGP is the ability to easily port games from that system to the PS3 goes to show that even they are not confident in its ability to sell well globally. Anyway, please enjoy a video of the remastered version of Monster Hunter Portable 3rd in action below, which finally lets you use a second analog stick to control the camera. Now you can't say Sony didn't give you a PS3 Monster Hunter game.
We also have some screenshots below, but don't expect to be blown away - It feels more as if you were simply playing a PlayStation 1 game on your PS3 with the smoothing and shading features on with a slightly higher resolution. Funny enough, it looks worse than Monster Hunter Tri. Certainly can't expect the world out of a non-native game, though, so hopefully we see a proper Monster Hunter game soon.
