Can you smell that? Sniff. It’s the weekend, and after another busy week at El33t Towers we’re all looking forward to kicking off our shoes, settling into the couch and playing some awesome games. How about you?

Find out what the El33tonline Team will be up to over the next two days to relax as we get ready to bring you more awesome news, reviews and competitions next week.

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The 3rd Birthday is a one-of-a-kind PSP game in the sense that it’s the most cinematic experience I’ve seen on Sony’s handheld so far. This title’s cutscenes are so well-directed and visually stunning that they wouldn’t look out of place on a home console. There’s around forty in total, and these add up to about one hour of glorious cinematic magic – simply unheard of for a PSP game. The 3rd Birthday’s music and story are also worthy of a top-tier release on any platform. However, where the game falls short of being an instant classic is in its lackluster gameplay and failure to conform to the standards set by its two predecessors in the Parasite Eve series. By trying to reinvent the wheel, as it were, it loses its identity somewhere along the way and becomes just another PSP third-person shooter with iffy controls and the tendency to cramp your hands.

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of The 3rd Birthday.

It’s been a bit of a quiet week for videogame releases but different territories have been treated to some real gems, with South Africa getting a host of Square Enix published titles (including The 3rd Birthday) and Europe getting a diminutive Duke Nukem release on DS in the form of Duke Nukem: Critical Mass.

What else is available today in Europe, the UK and South Africa?

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This edition of the El33tonline Podcast is a little different.

This week we’ve split the podcast for the week of March 28th into two parts, with two distinctive points of interest. Unfortunately, we didn’t record with this split in mind so the cleave is a little rough this time – in the future, everything will be much smoother.

What can you find in part one and part two of this week’s El33tonline Podcast?

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If you were a dedicated gamer during the PS2 era you’ll remember that there was only one handheld to speak of during this period – the Game Boy Advance. We never had to worry about our favourite console games migrating to a portable platform because the GBA was primarily home to Nintendo spin-off titles like Mario Kart: Super Circuit and The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap. Granted, Square Enix took advantage of the GBA’s success and brought a new Final Fantasy Tactics game to the handheld, as well as a re-release of Final Fantasy VI.

But these were small fry compared to the big-name games which would grace the next generation of portables.

Continue reading El33tonline’s editorial: When Console Greats Go Portable.

Square Enix’s upcoming PSP third-person action game based in the Parasite Eve universe, The 3rd Birthday, is shaping up impressively indeed, with what looks to be a unique ‘body-swapping’ mechanic.

This will allow players to get out of sticky combat situations in a flash by taking control of other characters in the world, simply by aiming at the target and triggering the change - a second later, you’re in another position, ready to attack your enemies from a different vantage point.

For a PSP game, it’s visually impressive too, and contains Square Enix’s signature CG cutscenes to further the story in the most spectacular way.

Run your eyeballs over a huge batch of newly released screenshots and CG stills from The 3rd Birthday below, and if you haven’t seen it yet, you can also watch the E3 2010 trailer once you’re done:

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