Dissidia: Final Fantasy joins the ranks of upcoming titles like Patapon 2 and LocoRoco 2 as all three will be released on both UMD and the PlayStation Store.

The fantasy Final Fantasy PlayStation Portable brawler is listed as both a UMD and download release on the official Tokyo Game Show Web page. My new buddy Jean Snow of Wired's Game|Life points out that importing this title has become even easier for those with access to a Japanese PlayStation Network account. 

We don't know anything about the pricing difference between the UMD and PSN versions yet, but I'd guess that people would opt to nab the UMD version if they were the same price, so the PSN version will probably be cheaper.

Jim said that Dissidia was pretty kick "arse" when he played it last week at the Tokyo Game Show. As for me, I missed it. I was not about to stand in that line. I can wait until December 18th!

Would you be interested in a Dissidia download? Or would you rather buy a hard copy?

Brainy magazine Mental Floss has named legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto as one of their "new Einteins" -- geniuses who have proven themselves capable of amazing mental feats.

For his huge influence on the games industry and popular culture, Miyamoto has earned a place amongst such intellectual powerhouses as black hole expert Professor Bill Unruh, psychology professor Dr. Elizabeth Gould, and Dr. Anthony Atala, who is working on methods to regrow human organs. 

"This gentle Japanese artist may have a stronger hold on our culture than any other person alive," states Mental Floss writer Erik Vance. 

Much respect to the impish Mario creator. When you consider the caliber of scientists and researchers that made the list, for a game designer to be recognized alongside them is not only a huge achievement for Miyamoto, but a sign of the growing importance and respect that games have. Good show all round.

It seems like just yesterday that we were telling you about the PSP-3000, Sony's latest upgrade to their PlayStation Portable. It's built-in microphone and shiny new brighter anti-glare screen don't sound that sexy on paper, but seeing them in person gets you kind of hot.

After eyeballing them on the TGS show floor, I really wanted one. A few days later, I was shopping in one of Japan's mega-electronics stores, and I came across a huge display of PSP-3000 boxes. I stood there for a long time wondering if I could pull one from the display. My poor Japanese reading ability eventually told me that these were empty boxes. But they were sexy empty boxes!

Back home here in the good ol' U.S. of A., the Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters PSP (PlayStation Portable) Entertainment Pack hits store shelves this week for $199. 

Here's what comes in this pack:

• a Mystic Silver PSP-3000
• Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters
• National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets UMD
• a voucher for echocrome, downloadable on the PlayStation Network
• a 1GB Memory Stick PRO Duo

If you already have the PSP-2000, maybe this isn't as attractive to you. But when you see the screen in person, technolust will take over. It did for me. I'll say that the silver finish on this new PSP-3000 looks nicer than it did on the PSP-2000. Maybe that helps? 

One of the coolest features of Atlus' RPG Persona 3 was the Social Link system. Through this, you were able to hang out with friends or flirt with girls to build your strength and abilities. In fact, the only way to max out your abilities and get special Personas was to use this system to its fullest. Social Links are back with Persona 4, but several new features have been added.

Let's just be friends: Gone are the days where you would be stuck with the girl you maxxed out your Social Links with. Now you have the option of being "friends" or "lovers" with each of the lovely ladies in Persona 4. Your choices will trigger different events or conversations later in the game.

They got your back: The stronger your relationship are with other characters, the more that will happen in Persona 4. When you're in good with a friend, they might jump in front of you to defend you when you're low on health. They also may perform a support attack to finish off an enemy you were just short of taking down. You'll find that even during dungeon crawls you'll be chatting with friends about the last time you hung out together.

Dreams and Lunch: In Persona 4, there are new ways in which you can level up your Social Links. If you opt to sleep early, you'll actually have dreams about your friends, making you closer to them. On certain days you'll be able to bring your lunch to school and dine with those you have relationships with. You can even share food with a friend to become closer. 

All of this sounds much better than going to the same old ramen shop all of the time. Or going to lame band practice. 

Persona 4 is still set to launch on December 9th. I can't wait to mack on girls that don't really exist again!

B1 Games, makers of many fine board games, sent out a press release to remind us that the Halo board game would be available in stores soon. Thanks guys, I had tried really hard to forget that. Now you've ruined months of expensive therapy!

Videogames based on board games are often pretty good, in my opinion. That is not a two-way street, however. Almost every game that tries to go in the other direction winds up being either a modified version of another game (like RISK) or being so obvious a cash-grab that burning is too good for it. In fact, the only game I can think of that successfully made the transition to cardboard and plastic is the one based on Doom.

Lightning could strike twice, of course, but there's another factor working against Halo here: It's a DVD-based game. Now, unlike many others of its type, the DVD appears to be optional and used in lieu of dice to resolve random events. So, you could conceiveably play the game without it but the whole notion of playing a game that uses a DVD (and isn't Atmosfear, which is awesome) just makes me bristle.

Amazon is currently listing the Halo Interactive Strategy Game for $49.99 with a release date of October 28th. A press release from B1 Games follows the jump. 

I'm probably asking a question to which I already know the answer here, but are any of you actually interested in this?

Voted on by attendees of this year's Tokyo Game Show, the "best in show" -- CESA's "Future Awards" -- have been announced. Drum roll ...

Idolm@ster (PSP, Namco Bandai)
Gyakuten Kenji (DS, Capcom)
White Knight Story (PS3, Sony)
Star Ocean 4 (Xbox 360, Square Enix)
Final Fantasy: Dissidia (PSP, Square Enix)
Dragon Quest IX (DS, Square Enix)
Resident Evil 5 (Xbox 360/PS3, Capcom)
Monster Hunter 3 Tri (Wii, Capcom)
428 (Wii, Sega)
LittleBigPlanet (PS3, Sony)
Yakuza 3 (PS3, Sega)
Let's Tap (Wii, Sega)

It looks like, according to the Japanese people, that Capcom, Square Enix, and Sega dominated the show, each with three nods. The selections aren't surprising, either -- the Japanese people flipping out over anything called Monster Hunter is par for the course. 

The lack of Destructoid's game of TGS, Saint's Row 2, is a bit disturbing, but certainly not shocking.

Splash Damage, the developers of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, has recently teamed up with Bethesda to make the new and yet-to-be-named hotness. Now they're also bulking up their workforce with a handful of new hires from the dev teams of other recent high-profile games.

• Dean Calver (Heavenly Sword, Silent Hill 2), lead programmer
• Oliver Jauncey (Mass Effect, Timesplitters 2), senior programmer
• Fabio Bonvicini (Black, Harry Potter), animation technical director
• Mattias Engström (World in Conflict), senior technical director
• Mark Lack (Heavenly Sword), senior environment artist

It looks like Splash Damage is building a serious team over there. What the hell are they working on?

[Via Edge]