The PSP FPS union hasn't been very active for a while, but I still want to keep it going. Here is a little update on homebrew!

- CSPortable v0.79a: a preview update -

Stealth kill gave us a small preview update of CSPortable, showing us what's in development. He notes that the menu music doesn't work properly yet and there are spawning problems with bots. Check it out/download here

- Team Fortress v1.3 released -

The old-school quake mod Team Fortress has been ported to the PSP by CyberDemon5150. It may take some time to figure out (how do you build sentries?), but for the most part, it works, and you can play as all 9 cl@sses. Get it here. Visit the development forum here.

- Team Fortress 2 PSP in development -

After porting Team Fortress, CyberDemon5150 has gotten an idea to try to make a clone of Team Fortress 2 for the PSP, using the LTE engine. Don't expect a release soon; this will take a long time to make. You can help out by reducing polygons on TF2 models so they will not lag up the PSP. Team Fortress 2 on PSP is a dream, but it may slowly become a reality. Visit the development forum here.

It's finally here from MDave! Kurok v0.4 includes infrastructure multiplayer, PC version, skyboxes (PSP only), colored lighting and effects, new singleplayer boss fight map (finished episode), fully customizable deathmatch options, Kurok music, and more! This is easily one of the best PSP homebrew games.

Don't have custom firmware? You can still play the PC version of Kurok and get almost the same experience as the PSP version. You can even play PSP players in Kurok on your PC. Also download the PC version for hosting dedicated servers. Post servers here so other people know where to join (there is no server browser).

DOWNLOAD KUROK v0.4 for PC or PSP

Check out the Kurok website here for the news, game info, and media. MDave has worked very hard on this game and he would greatly appreciate a donation. Join the forum while you're there.

Stealth Kill has released a new version of CSPortable with tons of new additions, including better looking maps with shadows, headshots, weapon animations, more control options, custom menu with flashlight, drop weapon, reload, and crouch, silencers for M4A1 & USP, and more. There are some bugs you will experience; Stealth Kill will fix them in CSPortable v0.8 (coming soon). Big changelog + more screenshots here.


Download CSPortable v0.79 (for CFW users only)

Visit Stealth Kill's CSPortable forum
Visit QJ development thread

(this newsletter has also been PM'ed)

This is the second PSPFPSU Newsletter covering the latest Union news, PSP FPS news, and homebrew news. Enjoy!

Skeptical about this Duke Nukem game? Here is an interview with the Apogee CEO

IGN interview:

The Trilogy's parts are called Critical Mass, Chain Reaction, and Proving Grounds. Are they shooters?

"Well, no, not exactly," said Nagy. "We're doing something called multi-mode. So we're taking all the great sequences of different types of gaming. You know, first-person and third-person over-the-shoulder, and no Duke game is Duke without a jetpack, so there's going to be a top-down scroller action going on there. We're talking about some isometrics, isometric 3D and on the DS there'll be the side-scroller action as well."

How different are the PSP and DS versions?

"The PSP, more mature, more hardcore of gamer, third-person, first-person, top-down scroller type of stuff. It'll have less play modes than the DS, I just can't see a side-scroller working on the PSP." [read more]

You can find the crappy E3 trailer here. It's pretty much a waste of 4 minutes; no gameplay (it's just a music video type thing). It's so bad and weird that it's funny lol. Let's hope this game will be good; mostly first person and third person.

Yes, Duke Nukem is coming to the PSP + DS! It's time to kick some ass! Duke Nukem Trilogy will include three new episodes: Critical Mass, Chain Reaction, and Proving Grounds. The episodes will being released sequentially, beginning in the summer of 2009. Duke Nukem Trilogy boasts 9 different world locations, 36 action-packed levels, multi-mode play with up to 5 different $tyles of game play action, multiplayer (hopefully infrastructure?), and ass-kicking weapons. Link

Well, this was unexpected but I'm excited! Hopefully we will hear more about this game at E3.

Stealth Kill is currently working on CSPortable v0.8 and he's got a video to show off his progress. HEADSHOT!!!

Watch Video

read more to see what he's working on...

Crytek, the team behind the critically acclaimed Far Cry and Crysis series, is looking for a programmer to work on the PSP. According to their official site, they are looking for someone with "1+ years experience working on PS2, PSP or DS title" and is "willing to relocate and work at Crytek studio Budapest, Hungary."

It appears that Crytek is working an FPS for our handheld! A Crytek PSP exclusive would be guaranteed to be good. If you look on the jobs list, it also appears that Crytek is working on a PS3 game. Maybe a PSP-PS3 exclusive game? I don't know. It could be anything really. We might hear about it at E3. I hope it's an FPS!

MDave has given us some info on what Kurok v0.4 will be like. Below is his message:

Things are going well for the next update. I've been working on the online portion of the game, making a package for servers to host for online servers. It's a bit rough around the edges at the moment, but its getting there . I have also been working on a PC version of Kurok for those that don't have psp's to play it on. However, the game is incredibly easier with the help of a mouse and keyboard, although Insane skill can still get you when you least expect to die. It's going to be based on the FitzQuake variation of the quake engine thanks to its modern feature set, and I'll plug in my own little additions too.

Other then that, I've been fixing a few bugs here and there in the game code, some related to the crosshair and zoom code. I have also reduced the player clip cox from the quake default 32 units wide to 24 units, this hugs the player model more accurately and makes it easier going through some of the tighter hallways in the maps. Because of this change, I've had to make changes to the bsp compiler. However old maps will still work fine, they'll just use the old 32 unit values instead of course.

The Kurok forums have seen a large increase in activity lately, so if you havn't joined already what are you waiting for? Some good info in there for learning how to make maps. Also in the forums, stranno has been kind enough to make videos of Kurok and upload them to youtube, below is videos from version v0.3 on the psp. I have also put them up in the gallery section too. Enjoy!

click here for video

I'm hosting a CAC Team Deathmatch tournament on Saturday, June 7th at 9 PM EST.

It will work like this (if my theory about setting teams is right):
there is a losers bracket and a winner's bracket. We have 2 games going (both games are 2v2 matches), and the winners play the winners. The losers play the losers. The winner of the losers bracket and the winner of the winners bracket will play each other in the championship. The losers will have to beat the winners twice in order to win the championship (because it's double elimination)

Sign up HERE

If you sign up you MUST show up. If you don't show up it will screw up the tournament. So far we only have enough players for 2 teams so don't be shy.

Players:
FOSHlZZL
HIERENSI
HOMIEG
N8NXT

I will be hosting a Medal of Honor Heroes 2 game night on Saturday Apr 19. Let me know if this is a problem for anyone.

The server will be named "PSPFPSU Game Night" and will be held at 8 PM EST/ 7 PM CST/ 6 PM MST/ 5 PM PST. It will go for as long as we want. The password will be PM'ed in a telegram on Gamespot

Post a comment saying if you will play, and your online name. All you have to do is show up

Players:

1. 1. FoSh!zzle73
2. 2. HomieG2007C
3. 3. OlandBenLu
4. 4. Yaeggy
5. 5. SGT4EVA
6. 6. mikejmg9
7. 7. hierensi2

Check out our union review of Medal of Honor Heroes 2. This review is a compilation of reviews by 5 PSP FPSU members: FoSh!zzle17, HomieG_123, Autobon, Nova856, and Shadow_3244.

Score: 8.3

GOOD:

- awesome 32-person online multiplayer
- solid singleplayer campaign with nice, longer missions and fun secondary objectives
- has a story with cutscenes
- decent graphics
- good controls
- short load times
- little or no lag in online games
- in-game quick commands
- great sound effects & presentation

BAD:

- while solid, the singleplayer campaign is short (7 missions)
- bad AI
- no skirmish mode
- no jumping
- only 6 maps
- lots of hackers in online matches

#1 WINNER: FOSHlZZL - 82 total kills, 51 total deaths

#2: CUSTOMH6 - 88 total kills, 71 total deaths

#3: HOMIEG - 48 total kills, 67 total deaths (wasn't in the last match; it was the 1v1 championship)

This was a deathmatch knockout tournament. The player with the least kills at the end of each match was eliminated (except we let TRETT play in the second game for fun). The final 1v1 championship round (10 mins long) decided the winner in the end. 4 people showed up for this tournament.

The 1st map was was Moebius, the 2nd map was Twin Depots, and the 3rd/final map was Arena. Here are the scores for each match (Trett left before the first one ended):

Photo by: HomieG_123

as you can see, the championship was very close.

(this newsletter has also been PM'ed)

I've decided to start doing some PSP FPS Newsletters. The newsletters will come every 2 months or so. Here's the first PSP FPSU newsletter; enjoy!

Newsletter

Here is customh6's message about the tournament:

Well here we are again people. Anyway this tournament will be a little different. It is going to be a (Deathmatch Knockout. For those that don't know what it is, it's simple. If 8 players show up, then the top 4 players with the kill score will advance to another battle, and so on untill it's 1vs.1... That match will be only 10 minutes. The first match is going to be 30-20 minutes (Depends on how many people show up). The next match after that will be 10-5 minutes shorter (Again, it depends on how many people show up) All of the scores will be recorded and posted after the tournament. (DON'T BOTHER SIGNING UP IF YOU ARE NOT GOING TO SHOW UP... YOU WILL WASTE MY TIME AND THE REST OF THE MEMBERS THAT WILL PARTICIPATE)

Players:
1. CUSTOMH6
2. HOMIEG
3. FOSHlZZL
4. PACMAN3
5. TRETT
6.
7.
8.

- The tournament will start at 9 PM EST
- The tournament will take place this FRIDAY, March 14th ==Come sign up!!==

Visit the official thread on the Coded Arms Contagion Forum to sign up

#1 WINNER: CUSTOMH6 - 99 total kills

#2: FOSHlZZL - 67 total kills

#3: HOMIEG - 36 total kills (he missed the last match)

Well, the tournament didn't go that well. Only 3 people showed up. 6 people were supposed to play in the tournament. But we still had fun. Here are the scores for each match:

Match #1 - Moebius:

1. 1. CUSTOMH6 - 28 kills
2. 2. FOSHlZZL - 18 kills
3. 3. HOMIEG - 12 kills

Match #2 - Twin Depots:

1. 1. CUSTOMH6 - 43 kills
2. 2. FOSHlZZL - 33 kills (the picture says 12 but that's because I lost connection to the server and had to join again, I actually had 33 total kills)
3. 3. HOMIEG - 24 kills

Match #3 - Arena:

1. 1. CUSTOMH6 - 28 kills
2. 2. FOSHlZZL - 16 kills
3. HomieG didn't play in this match. Customh6 and FoSh!zzle played 1 v 1 for most of the match.

Our first tournament for Coded Arms Contagion is being hosted by customh5 on his Coded Arms Contagion Forum. It will be on Friday, Feb. 15. As of now it will be at 9 PM EST/ 8 PM CST/ 7 PM MST/ 6 PM PST.

The tournament will be a set of three 30-minute deathmatch games on Arena, Moebius, and Twin Depots. The weapon loadout will be shotgun, grenade launcher, and sniper rifle. The player with the most kills at the end of the tournament wins. The scores will be recorded with camera photos. Visit the official thread here and sign up if you are going to play in the tournament. So far we have 6 people signed up:

1. CUSTOMH6
2. FOSHlZZL
3. N8NXT
4. NOVA856
5. REGUS246
6. HOMIEG

Join customh6's Coded Arms Contagion forum if you play the game or are interested in it. It's a nice place to talk about the game with other people who like it. We need more members so we can organize good tournaments; we currently only have 4 active members (8 registered). So please join if you play Coded Arms Contagion.

There are some PSP FPS's that never materialized - they either have been canceled, rumored to be cancelled, or have no release date. Some may still be released. Check it out.

I made some tags (signatures) for the union. Go check them out in the tag thread. Or just hit the "tags" link above and you should be directed there. Instructions are in the thread