GTI Club Supermini Festa! has over 15 courses in five different stages from across the globe including Japan, France, the United Kingdom, Italy and the United States. Each stage takes racers through open cities and rough terrain and challenges them to tackle oncoming traffic and uncover new routes and secret courses. Gamers can drive over massive jumps, around hair-pin turns and through secret shortcuts in 16 customizable Supermini cars based on the original arcade game, and a few all-new additions. In the garage, gamers can also design their own Supermini from the ground up, or tune their engine’s performance to perfection. Players can race to the finish against friends in multiplayer modes via ad-hoc party for the PSP with up to four players.

GTI Club Supermini Festa! is rated E for everyone by the ESRB and is now available for PSP and PSPgo download for $29.99. GTI Club Supermini Festa! will also be available on Wii this Spring

For a while now, the rumor has been that a slimmed-down version of the PS3 will hit stores this summer, accompanied by a price drop of anywhere from $50 to $100. But with E3 come and gone, and Sony staying steadfast in its position that the feature-rich PS3 remains a value proposition at the current price, is it all just wishful thinking?

Considering the $250 price point for the new PSP Go, it might be.

Ask yourself this: Does it make any sense for Sony to sell a Blu-ray enabled, hi-def gaming console for $50 more than a refresh of their handheld system? If the PSP Go is priced more in line with an iPod than a Nintendo DSi, why would they dilute the perceived value of the Go by selling what they believe is a premium product for anything less than a premium price. Look at Microsoft’s other big rival, Apple. They certainly don’t mind complaints that their devices are more expensive than the competition. People still buy them. Sony may be in a different situation without the legions of rabid Apple fans, but everything they’ve ever said about the PS3 suggests that they see it the same way Apple does its $2000+ laptops: as a top-of-the-line product. In that context, the $250 Go price tag makes a whole lot more sense.

Of course, the bigger reason for Sony to not drop the price on the PS3 is that it still costs more than $399 to make each unit. Retooling the process and hardware for a “slim” version might alleviate the financial pain enough for a price drop, but it might also just be a step to help Sony break even. There’s also a chance that a slim model would also be stripped of certain features—wireless, perhaps, or hard drive space (though both are relatively cheap compared to necessary innards like the Blu-ray player)—and that the new model would exist as a “budget” option alongside its beefier, more tech-forward, expensive older brother. Sound ridiculous? Keep in mind the PSP-3000 will continue to be sold alongside the Go, with no indication from Sony that the dual SKUs are just a stopgap to satisfy existing PSP owners who have large UMD collections, and retailers who can’t be happy about the prospect of a digital download future for games.

This is, of course, all speculation. Sony could be readying a price drop for this summer, and the PSP Go could just be a pricey experiment in taking mobile mindshare away from Apple. On the other hand, Sony might really believe enough in their 10-plus year PS3 plan that they’re willing to trade price cuts for pack-in games, and lose sales (for years, if necessary) until they can actually turn a profit. They just better hope their customers will be as patient.

With E3 officially underway, Tim, Steve, Jon, and Erich tackle the near-opposite Nintendo and Sony press conferences. On the one hand, brand new Mario games, a mind-blowing Metroid announcement, and the head-scratching introduction of a so-called “vitality sensor.” On the other, two hours of blockbuster high-def gaming mixed with an awkward me too motion control demo and the unveiling of the not-so-secret PSP Go. It’s Blu-ray vs. Blue Ocean and the boys have plenty to discuss. Plus, Steve, Tim, and Jon weigh in on Microsoft’s showing with surprisingly mixed opinions.

The big press conferences may be over, but the dissection has just begin. Add your thoughts in the comments below, in the Jury Room forums, or by emailing us at feedback@pixelverdict.com.

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Well, here it is, folks. After months of speculation and rumor, prior to E3, we’ve got leaked photos of the newest incarnation of Sony’s PSP system, dubbed the PSP Go! And surprise surprise, it flips, just like we all imagined it would. Engadget has the skinny on the leak, as well as a photo gallery and some video. Read on after the break for first impressions.

Honestly? I’m a bit underwhelmed. It looks like an overgrown mylo, without the keyboard. There’s nothing in it that says to me I must replace my old PSP with it. It’s still got the same terrible analog nub, same amount of buttons. And the placement of the analog nub horrifies my hands already–I can already feel the cramping and the accidental dropping of the device. It’s lighter and has Bluetooth, and they’ve abandoned the UMD drive… but I’ve still got a sizable collection of UMD games for my old PSP.

It’s great they’re announcing an online store to sell games electronically, but these days, everyone I know has memory cards in excess of 4GB. Did we really need a new piece of hardware to facilitate this particular consumer need? What was the problem with continuing to integrate the PSP into PS3 functionality? Wouldn’t it be cheaper for people just to buy a new Memory Stick and stick with the old PSP than shell out for a new console?

Sony seems to want to run the Go! in tandem with the PSP, as if one device somehow won’t compete with the other, because of how revolutionary and different each is from the other. Frankly, I don’t see it.

(via Engadget)