Yeah, we all booed when Sony decided to take out PS2 backwards compatibility in the later models of the PlayStation 3, but what's this? According to a product description from VideoGameCentral, Sony has a PS2 emulator for the PS3 available online. Buh?

Details after the link.

SCEE's PS3 SingStar title has just been given a patch that lets players swap out discs to access tracks found on other PS3 SingStar titles. Good news for gamers in Europe, but it's kind of useless for U.S. gamers at this point since only one SingStar title is out in the U.S. right now. More details after the jump.

Modding consoles is quite the risky business. After all, whenever you take apart a console by yourself, you're voiding the warranty and it may not work after you put it back together. Ben Heckendorn (or Ben Heck, as he is more commonly known) is not that kind of modder. He is the modder that modders all aspire to be. Check out why and what he just did to a backwards-compatible Sony PS3 in the full article.

We're sending out word that developer Jake has updated the DS Visual Novel Reader to version 1.2.4. This new build will address the speed issues that were prevalent in this homebrew's previous builds. The changelog is available over in the full article.


Download: DS Visual Novel Reader v1.2.4

The new PlayStation 3 models don't have backwards compatibility, which had a lot of gamers groaning. But how much is backwards compatibility worth? Would you buy the old 20 GB or 60 GB model at double the price of the newer, non-BC 40 GB model? It seems that gamers in Japan are willing to pay as much. Details in the full article.

After all the rumors surfacing about the backwards compatible PS3's deaths, it seems like Sony will be resurrecting the 80 GB next-gen console model with the release of the new game bundle containing the highly anticipated Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. For more information about this, read the all details in the full article.

Confused as to what size the 40GB Sony PlayStation 3's Cell processor measures? Never fear, because Sony Computer Entertainment boss Kazuo Hirai is here. He'll tell you the real deal behind the measure of the 40GB PS3's Cell and the RSX graphics engine. Also, Hirai talks about the future of the 60GB and 20GB Sony PS3 models. Will they be placed in production again? Kazuo says that just might happen depending on how much you'll miss backwards compatibility.

See the full article for more details.

Kotaku's Brian Crecente brought up a good point, and thus we ask: how in the Forerunner's name could this have slipped under the radar? He asked Microsoft game development manager Chris Satchell about backwards compatibility, and the reply was that Microsoft's team was still on it, but:

"At some point we're going to focus less on it... When you get to the end of this year there will be a reduced focus on backwards compatibility. There are so many 360 games out there. I don't know if it's important anymore."

Did back-compat drop in Microsoft's priority To-Do list? The justification that there are so many 360 games out there has to sit with another statement Chris made earlier: 50% of 360 owners don't own the original Xbox. From that perspective, it's like saying that as the market composition changes, the original Xbox segment becomes a smaller minority, and sooner or later, it'll probably be more effective to redirect resources on back-compats to other endeavors.

But then that brings up one question legacy Xbox gamers will ask: so, when or how many of our favorite games will be back-compatted before the axe falls (specific games dependent on each gamer's preferences)?

Oh well. Chris also said that XNA Studio Express is getting wide usage - we won't be surprised if, after Microsoft dims the lights on official backwards compatibility, and people still clamor for it, someone starts working on a homebrew Xbox emulator for the rest of the library. Unless that takes an exploit for it to work, or something, which starts raising some very uncomfortable questions... Just wondering.

And if you want to start the countdown now, well, start with January's back-compat update.

Now you can check on what PlayStation and Sony.">PS2 games are fully compatible with the PS3 with Sony's new PS3 backwards compatibility website. Although we have already informed you of the giant backward compatibility status list a few days ago, this site makes it much easier to find out if your games will work with your brand new PS3. After Sony admitted to the problem with PS3 backwards compatibility and released the status list, this website was obviously the next step to helping the otherwise happy PS3 owners out there.

The website allows you to easily search for PSone games, PS2 games, or other games for both, so you get to check which games will work on your PS3. It not only tells you whether it works or not but why it doesn't work, or what elements of the game do work.

For example, as we identified earlier, Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria had some problems on boot up on the PS3. The site tells us that "upon boot-up, the introductory FMV plays accompanied by an intermittent static noise at random points during playback" in the game, which according to out tests is correct. The site should be updated as Sony attempts to resolve these backward compatibility issues.

Stay tuned for more information as it comes in!

A couple of days ago, we were able to update you on some game titles that have been patched up to be backwards compatible for the Xbox Live. Now, if you thought your 360 couldn't get any more, well, "alive" with Xbox Live, Major Nelson has posted Microsoft's August '06 list of game titles which have been made compatible with your 360. The list includes nearly 50 games, some of which were already compatible before, but are now updated.

This new patch brings the entire list of backwards compatible games to around 300 titles. Imagine, 300! Doesn't it make you feel like treating all those 300 games as Pokemon Gotta catch 'em all, kids! So here's the August '06 list. Make sure you click the Full Article link below to see the rest of the games.

• Aggressive Inline
• Aquaman: Battle of Atlantis
• All Star Baseball 2003
• All Star Baseball 2005
• Burnout 3: Takedown
• Catwoman
• Crash Bandicoot: Nitro Kart UPDATED
• Counter Strike
• Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth
• Dead to Rights
• Digimon Rumble Arena 2 UPDATED
• ESPN Major League Baseball
• Fatal Frame 2
• Ford vs. Chevy UPDATED