For those of you wondering if Resident Evil 5 will be ported to the Wii like Resident Evil 4 was then you may be sadly disappointed. In an interview with Kotaku Resident Evil 5 producer Jun Takeuchi said that that “With the difference between hardware specs for the Wii and the PS3, porting might be hard”. He went on to say that they currently have “no plans” to release a Wii port of the game. However, Takeuchi did express a desire to bring the Resident Evil games to a larger franchise

“I think, while Resident Evil 4 is a great game, its appeal was limited somewhat to maniac players,” Takeuchi said. “With RE5, I wanted to bring the series to a larger audience. I think its important to do the same for the next RE.” - Source

The Wii Resident Evil titles – such as The Darkside Chronicles – are part of this plan, making games that are fit for the Wii’s technical capabilities and not creating a game that is a bad port from a technically superior console. I’ve always thought that porting games to the Wii from Xbox 360 or PS3 is a bad idea, and games like Dead Rising proves my point. It can work though, the recent Ghosbusters game being a good example, but it’s usually better if it doesn’t try to emulate something that the Wii just can’t do.

Capcom is yet to decide on a producer for Resident Evil 6.

Goldeneye may have a special place in the hearts of millions of gamers, and it may also consistently place high in ‘Top X Games of All Time’ lists, but it’s looking increasingly unlikely that a port to Xbox Live Arcade or Wii’s Virtual Arcade will ever happen. This isn’t the first time we’ve heard such rumours, but Rare – developer of the classic FPS – has seemingly given up on the port ever seeing the light of day.

In response to a readers question in a recent Rare Scribes update the developer all but signed the execution warrant on a port of the game;

“That was some time ago, my friend. Fate was against us that day. Destiny conspired to raise the hurdles even as we attempted to clear them, resulting in unpleasant groinal injury. I suspect we’re long past the stage where an agreement was on the cards, but you never know. Stranger things have happened… somewhere… probably.” - Source

The blame lies at the feet of Microsoft and Nintendo, who are apparently unable to reach an agreement on the financial terms of such a release. It all comes down to licensing laws, with Microsoft now owning Rare but Activision ultimately owning the rights to produce games in the James Bond franchise. However, Activision places the blame in Nintendo’s court, which published the game on its original N64 release. Whatever the case it seems that gamers won’t get a port until the money side of things is sorted out and it doesn’t look like that will be happening anytime soon.

I never actually owned an N64 myself, but a friend use to bring his round to my house and we used to have hours of fun playing four player split-screen. Most of the time we got trounced by my friend, but he pretty much always played as Odd Job so I still, to this day, say he had the advantage. The graphics may not be anywhere near today’s standards, but I’d still relish the opportunity to play the game through my Xbox 360; largely because there are so few split-screen games out there today and nothing can beat having three friends playing in the same room as you.

Fear not though, as Perfect Dark – which in some ways had a more enjoyable multiplayer than Goldeneye – will be coming to Xbox Live Arcade this winter, which is at least some consolation.

Forget about Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars being exclusive to the Nintendo DS because Rockstar have now confirmed that they’re porting it to the PSP in time for autumn.

The PSP will reportedly take advantage of the PSP’s more powerful hardware, meaning a graphical update and new story missions. Rockstar will also offer a downloadable version for the PSP Go!, alongside the regular UMD release.

“Rockstar’s work with the GTA series has been an enormous part of the success of PlayStation platforms,” said Jack Tretton, President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America. “We’re excited to welcome the critically acclaimed Chinatown Wars to the outstanding line-up of great games headed to the PSP platform this fall”- Kotaku

I think Chinatown Wars is an amazing game, and it’s probably the best game available on the DS, but maybe the DS wasn’t the right platform when it comes to mature games as the sales seem to reflect that. These poor sales have obviously prompted Rockstar to look to other platforms to make a profit, or maybe they were planning this all along - who knows? Whatever the case it’s good news for those that only have a PSP, but I’m curious about whether or not the touch screen mini-games will lose their appeal with you obviously not being able to use a touch screen.

It’s not a Final Fantasy VII remake but it’s a start. Kotaku notes that the Electronic Software Ratings Board has posted a listing for Final Fantasy VII for the Playstation 3 and PSP, which suggests that a PSN release is on the way.

The ports have already seen a PSN release in Japan, so it wasn’t that surprising that it would eventually make its way out of the ‘Land of the Rising Sun’. ESRB is an American organisation, so this only refers to a North American release, but Square Enix would have to be more than a little mad to ignore Europe and the rest of the world. I’m sure they don’t want hordes of European Final Fantasy VII fans knocking down their office doors.

While a PS3 release doesn’t interest me all that much - as I can play my original copy on my PS2 - the PSP release has literally foaming at the mouth. The ability to play one of my favourite games of all time on the bus is something I would give my right arm for; well, that’s if I hadn’t already given in the hope that we will one day see a remake.

There’s no news on when this will actually hit the PSN store, but hopefully Square Enix will announce a release date at E3.