Look, it's an inevitability. You can bet money on it, given that EA likes money and a Rock Band port is one of those things that will make money. This theory has worked pretty well for me so far, but I'll update the logic on this should the thing fail to pan out.

Rock Band Wii? EA says "no" (for now) [GamePro]

While we don't have official word yet—we're waiting to hear back from SCEA—it certainly wouldn't surprise us to see yet another PSP game ported to the PS2. With one-time exclusive PSP titles such as Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, Twisted Metal: Head On, Tokobot and (allegedly) Silent Hill Origins making the jump, it might just file under fiscally sensible.

Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters [Gamestop via Joystiq]

Fortunately, Lombardi does throw himself a blue portal through which to escape, punctuating his denial to CVG with a "not yet, anyway." Consider your heartstrings toyed with, Wii owners!

No Portal on Wii, says Valve [CVG]

Here's the full list in non-chronological order:

"3D Ultra Minigolf Adventures," from developer Wanako Games and publisher Sierra Online, allows gamers to putt their way through 36 fun-filled holes of manic minigolf action on wild courses that range from the Old West to outer space and feature a bevy of crazy hazards and obstacles.

"Alien Hominid HD" from The Behemoth features side-scrolling, hysterical cartoon action with a quirky twist and exclusive Xbox Live Arcade features.

"Band of Bugs" from NinjaBee is a fast-paced tactical strategy game that offers gameplay deep enough to satisfy tactical genre fans and friendly enough to appeal to casual gamers. Creative gamers can even design their own levels with the built-in level editor, then play them solo or over Xbox Live with friends.*
"Castlevania: Symphony of the Night" from Konami is a faithful version of this legendary classic updated for Xbox Live Arcade and featuring the game's full soundtrack and memorable side-scrolling vampire-hunting action.
"Catan," from developer Big Huge Games Inc. and publisher Microsoft Game Studios, is a faithful remake of the immensely popular strategy board game.
"Eets: Chowdown" from Klei Entertainment Inc. is a completely revamped version of the popular PC title of the same name. It offers new items, 120 new levels and the exclusive debut of Marsho Madness, a high-adrenaline action game in which players must keep the impending evil marshmallows at bay.
"LUXOR 2," from developer MumboJumbo LLC, sets a new standard for action puzzlers as players match and shoot their way through the land of ancient Egypt.
"Paperboy," from developer Digital Eclipse and publisher Midway, is a classic coin-op hit, specially enhanced for Xbox Live Arcade.
"Root Beer Tapper," also from developer Digital Eclipse and publisher Midway, features fast-paced reflex action as players scramble to keep thirsty patrons happy without dropping root beer mugs in the scramble to earn the biggest tips.
"Worms" from developer Team 17 Software Ltd. features armies of adorable weapon-toting worms locked in tactical combat.

Sorta interesting list, at least they are not all retro ports. Brian Crecente

We've been poking around Trusty Bell news the same way we sniffed after Rule of Rose stuff (review on that one is coming up, I promise). I'm pleased to announce that the composer-centric game is coming to the US under the name Eternal Sonata, possibly with some modifications:

The press release for Eternal Sonata, oddly enough, doesn't say anything about Chopin. It just mentions "a famous composer" instead. The "Chopin's Dream" subtitle has also been removed from the US name. One wonders if they'll be changing who the composer is (perhaps to a fictional one) or if they just didn't think it was important to mention for some reason.

Trusty Bell, at least in Japan, is the story of the famous composer Chopin just before his death, as he enters a dream world and meets a magical little girl with a "terrible destiny" yadda yadda yadda. It looks pretty and the music should be great. Eliza Gauger

More Here [Games Are Fun]

It's so odd to think that, before the Nintendo DS, those of us looking for a portable real-time strategy game pretty much had to do with the Pocket PC. But here comes another one: Ubisoft has announced The Settlers is coming soon to a touch-screen near you.

Here's what it'll feature:

• The Settlers on the Nintendo DS will feature two campaigns, the Roman-campaign and the World-campaign. Of course, the game will also feature a free-play mode in which you can take on the CPU using every race available (Romans, Vikings, Nubians and Asians). • 30 different jobs and 6 different types of soldiers will be available in the game. • The game features 7 continents consisting out of different landtypes (forests, lava, ice, swamps) & bull; The game is controlled using the stylus • The top and bottom screens can be swapped in-game. This way you can use your stylus to navigate using the map, or select and give order to your settlers. Using the stylus its also possible to zoom in on your settlers.

Yeah, yeah. What I want to know: what the frick ever happened to the announced Jagged Alliance DS? Florian Eckhardt

The Settlers Announced for DS [4CR]

Square Enix producer Hiromichi Tanaka on porting PS3 games:

The Xbox 360 operating system shares enough similarities with Windows, he said, so that porting the Windows version of FFXI to the 360 was a fairly quick task. A PS3 version of FFXI, on the other hand, would require redeveloping the game almost from scratch, a process that Tanaka estimated would take two or three years.

We're sure keeping PS3 exclusives exclusive is important to Sony, a bulletpoint on their list of justifications for a convoluted and impenetrable development platform. Still, bad news for gamers who don't want to spend 600 bucks on a cybertronic waffle iron Blu-Ray player.

Tanaka also mentions that Square Enix is working on a PS3 and Windows Vista cross platform MMORPG, if you still think they can handle that sort of thing after the execrable Final Fantasy XI. Florian Eckhardt

Report: Square Enix working on PS3, Vista MMORPG [Yahoo! Games]

Quake is the new HELLO WORLD, and leet coder John is rocking a Quake port for the DS:

So what is working? Well it's playable like I said with decent frame rates 20-30fps. No sound and no net code yet. No textures yet either but I did manage to color the triangles appropriately by peeking into the textures and using that for a temporary basis. Also the controls are basically the same as the Metroid Prime Hunters game for the DS.

The project is still a tiny, soft, peeping infant with downy fluff and adorable shiny eyes, and John is looking for more coders to push this thing to the limit. If I posted his e-mail address here, I would doom him to a lifetime of Nigerian scams and mysterious offers of Chinese t-shirt embroidery.

What little humanity I have left makes me direct your eyes and tentacles to his blog, where you can sign up for various Quake-related tasks and rigorous, nigh-daily beatings. Eliza Gauger

DSQuake [via Digg]

E3 '06 is also the debut stage for our latest collaboration with Nintendo: we've possibly hinted at it in the past, but then again we've also hinted at a lot of other things, because we're like that. Yes, Diddy Kong Racing is our first official DS project, and Nintendo are busily promoting it as part of their next wave of big DS offerings for late 2006. Based on the N64 classic but improved and expanded in ways that only the DS allows, you can see the first shot and movie snippet over on NCL's website if you haven't already.

A few tantalising DKR DS info-bites to keep you going: eight-player single-card and multi-card WiFi play, touch-screen and microphone compatibility, some familiar faces in newly playable form, remodelled and retextured tracks, customisable vehicles, new modes, weapons and challenges, a little something called TT's Wish Races where you can create your very own tracks... and it doesn't end there.

Rare did it's best work with Nintendo, so it's good to see them climb back into bed with them. Now let's see what they can do with a Perfect Dark secret on the Wii.

Rare Confirms Diddy Kong Racing Involvement