Hope you didn't buy Medal of Honor Heroes last week -- because the superior sequel is available on the Store this week. Ouch! Also, a free demo for you guys to try!

• Medal of Honor Heroes 2 (£14.99)
• Pipemania demo (Free)

Visit store.playstation.com to get downloading, or use your PS3 to connect to the PLAYSTATION Store.

Beneath its simple exterior lies a cruel, sadistic gaming beast. N+ is known for its brutally simple, addictive, ninja-inspired platforming. The goal of the game is ridiculously simple: get to the exit. However, each level in this challenging title will test your nerve and will push you to that strange land where frustration and euphoria meet.

There are a number of obstacles that can get in your way -- all of them deadly. Whether it be explosive mines, homing missiles, or heat-seaking lasers, death lurks in almost every inch of N+. The combination of clever level designs and obstacle placements make each level like a puzzle: players must think of interesting ways to get to the goal. Players will be able to perform incredible feats of acrobatics, bouncing off walls, racing past rockets, and jumping past deadly lasers. Players must learn how momentum works, as many of the levels require pixel-perfect jumps.

Analyst Michael Pachter doesn't see a bright future for the PSP. In fact, he believes that we're nearing the end of the syste's run, due to the paltry release lineup for the remainder of the year. The introduction of the PSP Brite is seen as a sign of weakness, suggesting the redesign will confuse and anger more than excite. "Constant tech tweaks and upgrades might work for telephones, but they're not what gamers want ... it creates confusion, and leaves many users with older models feeling inadequate," Pachter told Das Gamer.

Because everyone needs someone to blame, Pachter offers this advice: "Blame Japan," he says. He believes that Sony is being much too ambitious, handling the PS2, PSP and PS3 simultaneously. "[Japan]'s instructing the US to play catch-up with Microsoft on Xbox Live, step up its online game with Home, offer movie downloads and push the Blu-ray home theater initiative just to begin with. Something had to give. The company has been spreading itself too thin."

Ironically, PSP's strongest territory is Japan, where new releases continue to be announced on a regular basis. While we'd disagree that PSP is on a deathbed, it's obvious that drastic work needs to be done to change the current state of the PSP.

[Thanks, Ronnie D.!]

While many argue that the homebrew community offers PSP owners a wealth of content that doesn't hurt games developers, Sony would disagree. The staggering amount of piracy on the system has created a situation where even cheap, high-profile games like Patapon are downloaded illegally far more than actually purchased. In spite of terrific hardware sales, software simply hasn't performed well, especially outside of Japan. With developers and publishers reluctant to create new content on a system that never breaks NPD's software top 10 charts, Sony had to change something ... and fast.

Kris Erickson of PSP World postulates that the speed in which Sony has upgraded its PSP hardware from the popular PSP-2000 series may be indicative of a new plan to combat piracy and homebrew. While the brighter screen is appreciated, it seems like too little to warrant yet another reboot of the hardware -- that is, unless something internal has changed. The new PSP-Brite system may have better hardware measures against piracy -- a direction foretold by SCEE boss David Reeves not too long ago.

However, the incredibly dedicated homebrew community -- whether or not they understand their responsibility in creating the current drought of PSP games -- will undeniably continue to hack the new PSP to find new exploits. Unfortunately for Sony, backwards compatability with old PSP firmware and software will continue to work as a Trojan horse against the company.

Download to PSP

If you didn't know, N+ is launching on PSP this week for a budget price of $20. The addictive ninja-inspired platforming game is known for its terrifying difficulty -- will you be up to the challenge? Check out this trailer, and new screens ... and wait for our full review later this week.

It's undeniable that there's been a serious drought of new PSP software for the past few months. While this may be a deterrent to many publishers and developers, it's actually considered a plus for PM Studios, the publisher behind the upcoming US release of DJ Max Fever. In an interview with Siliconera, Michael Yum of PM Studios noted that "the game should be easy to find. Almost every retailer has made a commitment to the game. The drought of PSP games has really helped us, lol."

That's a great thing to hear, too. We were afraid that this import hit would fall by the wayside. Expect more on the upcoming US release of DJ Max as we get closer to its release.

We don't know much about the upcoming PSP version of Final Fantasy Agito XIII. We know that it'll support Infrastructure in some way, will have a Crisis Core-inspired battle system, and we know that it's based on cards. Other than that, we're just going to have to stare at these screenshots at Famitsu and remark on how Square Enix is able to make such impressive character models on the PSP yet again.

An overenthusiastic tip sent by PSP Fanboy reader David D. shows an athlete carrying his PSP (equipped with Go!Cam) to the Olympic Games in Beijing. Now that's being a real fanboy -- who cares about the giant crowds and heated worldwide competition when you've got PSP with you?

Famitsu posted some comparison shots of the new PSP-3000 and the older PSP-2000 series, and this is easily the most interesting one to note. Here, you see how much better images off the new screen hold up in comparison to the old one. Looks like we're going to have to change our PSP nicknaming system:

• PSP-1000: PSP Phat
• PSP-2000: PSP Lite PSP Dim
• PSP-3000: PSP Brite?

Help us brainstorm here, folks.

[Thanks, Zach M.!]

Europe's PSP Store has been pretty fantastic, we must admit. There are two full PSP games and a PS1 classic for you to enjoy this week.

• Medal of Honor Heroes (£14.99)
• Sid Meier's Pirates! (£14.99)
• International Track & Field - PS1 (£3.49)

So what exactly are the improvements made to the PSP-3000's newly upgraded LCD screen? According to a report by Engadget Japan, the screen is more colorful, has a stronger contrast ratio, and to the praise of gamers everywhere, has a faster response time. The official stats? Color gamut is twice as wide. The contrast ratio is improved 5 times. The response time has doubled. For gamers that have complained about the PSP-1000 and 2000's slow response time (which creates a ghosting effect in certain games), this is certainly good news.

European games just can't get enough Buzz! A brand new Buzz! trivia game is coming to PSP later this year in Europe, entitled Buzz! Brain Bender. There are sixteen mini-games to find in this latest iteration of the popular trivia franchise. Eight have been revealed so far:

• Analysis Games:
  Path Finder: A maze game where players have to quickly decide what path leads to the centre.
  Power Struggle: A decision game based on who can win "tugs of wars" battles between different vehicles

• Observation Games:
  Match Up: Can you tell how many pairs of contestants there are in a puzzle?
  Pattern Match: A puzzle style game where players need to identify the correct shapes to fit into a missing grid.

• Memory Games:
  Take Away: A card game where players need to identify the missing cards from a series.
  Sound Bites: A game based on sounds made by animals or objects. Players have to correctly recall the order they were played out.

• Calculation Games:
  Blot Swot: Can you still solve maths puzzles when they're full of missing numbers?
  Sliced Up: A game where the player must decide what portion of the food on display hasn't been eaten.

In a Brain Age twist, the upcoming game will also add a Test mode, which will track your progress and determine your brain power. Stay tuned for more.

Sony just announced at their Leipzig press conference the PSP-3000 series. It will look exactly the same as the current PSP-2000 (Slim & Light) model, but will add a built-in microphone and enhanced screen. Apparently, the screen will work better outdoors, being able to resist glare. The built-in microphone will be a huge plus for regular Skype users, and those that take their PSP online via Infrastructure.

Video-Out has also been enhanced, with the system now able to interlace for televisions that don't support a progressive output (that means non-HDTVs).

The PSP-3000 series will be available on October 15th in Europe and will retail for €199. There will be 8 bundles, each adding one game to the package.

Whoops, looks like our weekly release calendar for this week was wrong. Fading Shadows, a PSP-exclusive puzzle game, is sneaking into retail stores this week. The surprise announcement doesn't bode well for those that want to actually find and purchase the game -- expect this to be quite the niche title. Also, Gamestop's listing for the game calls it an "exclusive" for the chain, meaning you'll most likely be unable to find it anywhere other than Gamestop. Good luck trying to find it -- it's a charming game, but we wonder if you'll even be able to get your hands on it.

Also read: Fading Shadows hands-on impressions

Wow, Yggdra Union is tough. That's probably the first thing you'll say after getting through a few matches of Atlus' upcoming PSP SRPG. It'll take a few battles to wrap your head around the unique mechanics of the card game, and although the game does an excellent job of holding your hand, don't expect an easy romp, even in the second battle in the game.

Yggdra Union is a tactical card RPG that will test your tactical capabilities through and through -- there's no grinding here to be found. Battles are typically multi-tiered: just when you think you're done with a level, a new set of increasingly difficult reinforcements appear. However, because your character's morale (essentially, their HP) carries over from battle to battle, across every level, each battle is decisive. If you make too many mistakes with one character, you'll notice that they'll be at a serious disadvantage in upcoming battles. And don't think about grinding to level up your characters: you can't. The story moves at such a brisk pace that your success depends solely on your ability to choose the right cards, and decide exactly how to move your characters through the map.

The basics of battle are easy to explain, but the full ramifications won't truly make sense until you get the game in your hands. Before each conflict, players can choose a certain number of cards. Cards will grant players special abilities, but also have important stats like number of spaces players can move, card strength and weapon affinity. Quite possibly the most important thing to pay attention to is the weapon affinity: certain weapons are stronger than others, and these will be one of the primary factors of a battle's success. For example, swords are stronger than axes, but axes are stronger than spears. Spears, on the other hand, are stronger than swords. This circle gets more complicated with the introduction of magic users and archers.