Not so bright nights, Vice City: PSP's key 2006 release is menacingly near

By this time next week, we'll be into November, the time of year when you reluctantly stop trying to convince yourself it's still the end of summer.

Then again, by this time next week you'll be beating the notion of long summer evenings senseless with a golf club, slicing it open with a machete and finishing it off with a coating of flamethrower juice before walking away without a single red blood cell on your pristine pastel suit.

Granted, that's assuming GTA: Vice City proves as accomplished as it threatens to be.

But it's not as if you haven't got other options on PSP worthy of your consideration. Pilot Academy should certainly help make the hours fly by until next week's major release touches down.

And if you thought other PSP publishers would run inside, shut their windows and bolt their doors just because the GTA franchise never misses when it walks into town, think again.

GUN: Showdown, for one, seems more than happy to live up to its name and stand, poised, at the other end of the retail aisle, waiting for its opponent to make the first move.

Hoping not to get caught in the crossfire will be Need for Speed Carbon: Own the City, which EA clearly believes has a brand image tough enough to see it screech into PSP and DS slots after the briefest of pit stops at the shops. (Some will no doubt be hoping it runs over Crazy Frog Racer on its way out.)

But an annoyingly noisy amphibian isn't the only thing that's doing far little to brighten up the DS' release schedule in terms of quality over the next week. We suppose you could argue the gloom is appropriately seasonal.

Besides, at least they're willing to brave it out – Every Extend Extra has slipped its release date. It seemingly took one look at the decreasing daylight time and danced its way on to the first plane out of town. It's probably in Miami right now, sat in a beach bar sipping on a Bloody Mary with its sleeves rolled up. Don't expect to see it back until Febuary next year.