SEGA released a Condemned 2 Bloodshot game trailer for Halloween. See the video trailer below. Condemned 2 is coming to the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 in Q1 2008.
Welcome to this week's Games & Toys update, our weekly summary featuring all new product arrivals from the last seven days.
It's been a strong release week, especially with plenty of great new Xbox360™ releases. Popular sellers for Microsoft's system have been Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation (Japanese), Tomb Raider: Anniversary, The Simpsons Game, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (also available as Wireless Guitar Bundle), Conan and SEGA Rally Revo (all Asia releases).
For PlayStation3™ we've got SEGA Rally Revo, Clive Barker's Jericho, Conan and of course Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (Asia / US).
Nintendo's long-awaited Super Mario Galaxy has been released for Nintendo Wii™ today and the most interesting PlayStation2™ release in this week has been Banpresto's Super Robot Taisen: Scramble Commander The 2nd.
Top handheld sellers have been Front Mission for Nintendo DS™, followed by Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles (US) and Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow (Asia) for PSP™.
Last but not least, make sure to check out Gamepark Holding's GP2X F-200 Game System, the successor to the popular Korean handheld console.
As usually, here's a summary of all new releases of this week,
Xbox360™:
Ace Combat 6 Flight Stick EX JPN US$ 149.00
Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation JPN US$ 69.90
Bee Movie Game US US$ 49.90
Blue Dragon (Platinum Collection) JPN US$ 34.90
Chikyuu Boueigun 3 / Earth Defense Forces 3 (Platinum Collection) JPN US$ 34.90
Clive Barker's Jericho US US$ 59.90
Conan ASIA US$ 49.90
Dead Rising + Gears of War (Platinum Double Pack) JPN US$ 49.90
Dead or Alive 4 (Platinum Collection) JPN US$ 34.90
Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 (Platinum Collection) JPN US$ 34.90
Gears of War (Platinum Collection) JPN US$ 34.90
Guitar Hero II (Game Only) US US$ 59.90
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock US US$ 59.90
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock ASIA US$ 49.90
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Bundle ASIA US$ 129.90
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition (Platinum Collection) JPN US$ 39.90
Oneechanbara vorteX (Platinum Collection) JPN US$ 34.90
Project Sylpheed (Platinum Collection) JPN US$ 34.90
SEGA Rally Revo ASIA US$ 44.90
The Idolm@ster (Platinum Collection) JPN US$ 34.90
The Simpsons Game ASIA US$ 44.90
Tomb Raider: Anniversary ASIA US$ 39.90
Tomb Raider: Anniversary US US$ 42.90
Xbox 360 Console Value Pack JPN US$ 399.90
Xbox 360 Rechargeable Battery Pack (Light Blue) JPN US$ 14.90
Xbox 360 Rechargeable Battery Pack (Pink) JPN US$ 14.90
Xbox 360 Wireless Controller (Light Blue) JPN US$ 49.90
Xbox 360 Wireless Controller (Pink) JPN US$ 49.90
PlayStation3™:
Clive Barker's Jericho US US$ 64.90
Conan US US$ 64.90
GI Jockey 4 2007 JPN US$ 69.90
GI Jockey 4 2007 (w/ Winning Post 7 2007 Premium Pack) JPN US$ 109.90
Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights US US$ 64.90
Railfan: Taiwan High Speed Rail JPN US$ 59.90
Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction US US$ 64.90
Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction ASIA US$ 59.90
SEGA Rally Revo (English language Version) ASIA US$ 59.90
The Eye of Judgment Booster Pack US US$ 6.90
The Eye of Judgment: Biolith Scourge Theme Deck US US$ 14.90
The Eye of Judgment: Earth Emperor Theme Deck US US$ 14.90
The Eye of Judgment: Fire Crusader Theme Deck US US$ 14.90
The Eye of Judgment: Water Barrage Theme Deck US US$ 14.90
The Eye of Judgment: Wood Swarm Theme Deck US US$ 14.90
Nintendo Wii™:
Bee Movie Game US US$ 49.90
Dancing with the Stars US US$ 49.90
Namco Museum Remix US US$ 44.90
Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution Revolution US US$ 49.90
Opoona JPN US$ 64.90
Super Mario Galaxy JPN US$ 59.90
The Sims 2: Castaway US US$ 49.90
PlayStation2™:
Bee Movie Game US US$ 44.90
Dancing with the Stars US US$ 44.90
GI Jockey 4 2007 JPN US$ 64.90
GI Jockey 4 2007 (w/ Winning Post 7 2007 Premium Pack) JPN N/A
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock US US$ 59.90
MotoGP 07 JPN US$ 64.90
Super Robot Taisen: Scramble Commander The 2nd JPN US$ 64.90
Gamepark Holding GP2X:
GP2X F-200 Game System US$ 169.90
Nintendo DS™:
Bee Movie Game US US$ 34.90
CSI: Dark Motives ASIA US$ 34.90
Chessmaster: The Art of Learning US US$ 34.90
Chessmaster: The Art of Learning ASIA US$ 34.90
Disney Princess: Magical Jewels US US$ 34.90
Dolphin Island ASIA US$ 34.90
Dragon Tamer: Sound Spirits JPN US$ 48.90
Ed, Edd & Eddy: Scam of the Century US US$ 34.90
Front Mission US US$ 39.90
Hannah Montanna: Music Jam US US$ 34.90
Master Jin Jin's IQ Challenge US US$ 24.90
Naruto: Path of the Ninja US US$ 34.90
Petz Wild Animals Dolphinz US US$ 34.90
Power Rangers: Super Legends US US$ 34.90
Sangokushi DS 2 JPN US$ 48.90
Shrek: Ogres & Dronkeys US US$ 34.90
Solitaire Overload US US$ 34.90
Spanish for Everyone US US$ 34.90
The Aly & AJ Adventure US US$ 34.90
The Sims 2: Castaway US US$ 34.90
Zaidan Houjin Nippon Kanji Nouryoku Kentei Kyoukai Koushiki Soft: 250-Mannin no KanKen JPN US$ 29.90
Sony PSP™:
Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles US US$ 39.90
Gundam Battle Chronicle KOR US$ 49.90
Puzzle Quest: Challenge of WarLords ASIA US$ 29.90
SEGA Rally Revo (English language Version) ASIA US$ 39.90
Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow ASIA US$ 39.90
The Sims 2: Castaway ASIA US$ 42.90
Books & Magazines:
Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation Official Strategy Guide US US$ 16.90
Arcadia Magazine [December 2007] JPN US$ 12.90
Disgaea Afternoon of Darkness - The Official Strategy Guide US US$ 24.90
Famitsu Wave DVD [December 2007] JPN US$ 16.50
Toys & Misc:
Chrono Gate - Mylene Hoffman 009-1 Prepainted PVC Figure JPN US$ 59.90
Conan Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Black Wolf (Limited Edition) US$ 14.90
Creator's Labo #13: Air Gear Simca Prepainted PVC Figure JPN US$ 59.90
Dragon Ball DX - God Dragon Plush Doll JPN N/A
Dragon Quest Smile Slime Bean Bag Plush Doll: Bubble Slime JPN US$ 14.90
Dragon Quest Smile Slime Plush Doll: Angel Slime JPN US$ 14.90
Dragon Quest Smile Slime Plush Doll: King Slime JPN US$ 19.90
Dragon Quest Smile Slime Plush Doll: Slime Knight JPN US$ 17.90
Final Fantasy Miniature Trading Figures Vol. 1 JPN US$ 4.90
Final Fantasy Tactics Trading Arts JPN US$ 6.90
Funny Knights Prepainted PVC Figure Kurimu Kuru Nee (Custard Vers.) JPN US$ 49.90
Funny Knights Prepainted PVC Figure Kurimu Kuru Nee (Strawberry Vers.) JPN US$ 49.90
Halloween Girl 1/6 Scale Pre-painted PVC Figure JPN N/A
Idolm@ster Xenoglossia - Yukihiro Hagiwara 1/8 Scale PVC Figure JPN US$ 39.90
Ikkitousen: 1/7 Scale Painted Story Image Figure - Ryofu Housen (Japanese Limited Edition) US$ 59.90
Interon Depot 4 Bullets: Space Pirates blue version 1/8 Scale PVC Figure JPN US$ 54.90
Interon Depot 4 Bullets: Space Pirates red version 1/8 Scale PVC Figure JPN US$ 54.90
Kamichu - Yurie Hitotsubashi 1/8 Scale Prepainted PVC Figure JPN US$ 59.90
Mai-Hime Z Pre-painted 1/10 Scale PVC Figure - Shizuru Viola (Swimsuit) JPN N/A
Megachu! 1/8 Scale Pre-painted PVC Figure: Reukotea JPN US$ 59.90
Melty Blood Act Cadenza Painted PVC Figure Vol. 3: Hisui JPN US$ 17.90
Melty Blood Act Cadenza Painted PVC Figure Vol. 3: Kohaku JPN N/A
Monster Hunter - Hunter Goods Collection Life Figure Part 2 JPN US$ 4.99
Oh My Goodness - Beachside Collection Trading Figures JPN US$ 8.90
Rozen Maiden Traumend Costuma P Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Souseiseki JPN US$ 64.90
Rozen Maiden Traumend Costuma P Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Suiseiseki JPN N/A
SR Shining Wind Figure Collection Gashapon Part 2 JPN US$ 3.49
Sengoku Basara 2: Sanada Yukimur Prepainted PVC Figure with voice JPN N/A
Shakugan no Shana 1/8 Scale Pre-painted PVC Figure - Shana (Ceremony Vers.)(Re-Run) JPN US$ 49.90
Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu Figure Gashapon Vol.3 JPN US$ 2.99
Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu Painted PVC Figure - Haruhi Suzumiya (High School HR Ver.) JPN US$ 14.90
Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu Painted PVC Figure - Mikuru Asahina (High School HR Ver.) JPN US$ 14.90
Transformers The Movie Pre-Painted Figure: Ironhide MA-09 JPN US$ 44.90
Transformers The Movie Pre-Painted Figure: Optimus Prime MA-01 JPN US$ 64.90
Water Game DS Lite Candy Toy JPN US$ 4.90
beatmania IIDX 1/8 Figure Series Vol.1: Candy Rabbit JPN US$ 69.90
Floor space for gaming exhibitors [at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show] will jump 65 percent on last year's available space, but to date the only companies to have confirmed a presence are Commodore Gaming, Entropia Universe, Red Lion Interactive, Shuttle Computers, War Machine, LumiSource, Red Beard and InterAction Laboratories.
However, Microsoft and Sony will both be in attendance on a wider scale, and gaming features are expected to form part of their respective booths.
Joystiq got their greasy manhooks on some interesting market data from NPD. Savvy Xbox 360 fans know that the Xbox 360 sells quite a few games, but according to this data, the Xbox 360 sells nearly twice as many games per console as the PS3 and Wii.
* Xbox 360: hardware to software ratio: 6.59 (hardware total sold = 6.8 million; software total sold = 44.8 million)
* PlayStation 3: hardware to software ratio: 3.58 (hardware total sold = 1.9 million; software total sold = 6.8 million)
* Wii: hardware to software ratio: 3.44 (hardware total sold = 4.5 million; software total sold = 15.5 million)
Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello suggests that publishers will soon have to "deal with" the $59 price point for next-gen videogames.
With the US videogame industry on track for its biggest year ever at $17-$18 billion in 2007 revenues, it would seem that consumers are just peachy with the current price of next-generation games.
"In the next five years, we're all going to have to deal with [the current pricing model]. In China, they're giving games away for free," he said in a Fortune blog report. "People who benefit from the current model will need to embrace a new revenue model, or wait for others to disrupt."
So. Which of the three distributions [Xubuntu 7.10, Yellow Dog 5.0.1, openSUSE 10.3] above would I recommend? None of them. Not a single distro maintained a consistent, high-quality experience from installation to prolonged use. None of them is usable by your grandmother, or in most cases, by you. For the experienced Linux hacker, it's probably possible to beat some sense into these distributions (with Xubuntu probably closest to useful, when combined with the Petitboot boot loader used by openSUSE). But it's not a good choice - simply the least bad.
Considering the strides being made by desktop Linux on desktop x86 and x86-64 machines, it's immensely disappointing that so little time and effort has been spent on testing PS3 releases, when so much geek street-cred is up for grabs. When I first decided to write this article, I had high hopes for what it might reveal - after all, a lot of time has passed since PS3 Linux first appeared, and it seemed obvious to me that there would be a selection of tuned distributions to pick from, especially considering the high visibility of the PS3. But right now, typing this up on my x86-64 Linux desktop, I find myself preparing to retire PS3 Linux completely for another few months - at least until the next batch of distributions are released. And beyond initial curiosity value, I suggest you do the same.
New York-based importer National Console Support warns customers today that getting their hands on a Japanese version of the DualShock 3 might be tricky. It writes in its semi-daily news updates that offers from one overseas distributor has the following requirement: "In order to obtain 1 Dual Shock 3, we also have to buy 1 PlayStation 3 40GB console." That's a hefty tax.
NCSX urges caution to rumble-hungry games, warning them to wait until stock levels off or distributors offer more sane pricing schemes.
Like all of you, I've been a big fan of our new blog - but until now, I've been staying behind the scenes. I'm excited to share my first post here and thought that our new advertising campaign for the PS3 would be of interest to everyone. In fact, the campaign is scheduled to break this weekend in conjunction with the introduction of the new 40GB PS3 here in North America. But as a reward for being some of our most loyal fans, I wanted to get this out to all of you first.
Last year, we launched the PS3 with a campaign that become known as the "White Room" and we received a strong reaction to those ads for being provocative and demonstrating the PS3's power. With those technology messages now firmly embedded, we wanted to move beyond the "power" message with a more high-energy, entertainment driven focus for the PS3. The games are here, the price point is now $399 and we wanted to make the news loud and clear. But we need to deliver that in a way that befits the PlayStation brand. And so, beyond the brilliant HD games that the PS3 delivers, you'll also see a big focus behind the PS3's Blu-ray movie capability and, for the first time, you'll see a major focus behind the PLAYSTATION Network (did I mention online gaming is free on PS3??) and the exclusive gaming content available on the PLAYSTATION Store, as well as breakthrough services like Home. As Kim noted in her recent post, with so much brewing inside the PS3, the icons and characters of the PS3 world come to life in the vivid black onyx world of the PS3 and nearly burst out of its seams.
A New York Times report suggests Sony might consider selling its animation division to companies interested in expanding their work into the game business -- while SCE and Sony Online Entertainment are not part of any possible deal.
According to the report, Sony Pictures has hired investment bank Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin to assess two of its divisions. One is the Sony Pictures Imageworks, the 15-year-old studio which produces visual effects for movies, while the other would be a "no more than 50 percent stake" of the Sony Pictures Animation, the studio which produced movies such as the recent CGI family film Surf's Up.
The PSone games have fairly slow on the uptake, but Sony will gladly be stepping up the pace with the retro treats this month, with nine classics planned for November. Sweet.
G-Police is the one we're after, although there's plenty of awesome stuff on the way, including Crash 2 and 3, and Colony Wars.
Still no WipEout 2079 though, which is both shocking and disappointing after a series of mix-ups and no-doubt underlying technical issues saw the awesome racer confirmed for the download service back in July, and then delayed on the same day.
Here's the list of the nine PSone games on the way this month, followed by the enormous list of PSN content forecasted for the rest of the year.
PSone titles:
Coolboarders
G-Police
Destruction Derby
Colony Wars
Motor Toon Grand Prix 2
Syphon Filter 2
Bust-A-Groove
Crash Bandicoot 2
Crash Bandicoot 3
November Releases:
Feel Ski
PS Eye Mesmerize Distort
PS Eye Tori Emaki
Uncharted: Meet the Dogs/The Characters & Music: English Only - localised versions to follow
Lair: Call of the Beast trailer
MotorStorm Revenge Weekend Trailer
Folkore - Bottom of the Sea pack
MotorStorm Devil Crossing pack: Track - Devils crossing, 4 new tickets containing 10 races, 2 new vehicles with 3 liveries each. One unlockable vehicle with 3 liveries upon completion of the mini devils crossing festival (as per Coyote revenge pack)
Konami's stock has dropped following news that Metal Gear Solid 4 has been delayed until after the holiday season.
Bloomberg reported that Konami shares fell 200 Yen, or 5.9 per cent, to 3,190 Yen (approximately USD 27.74).
This was the largest decline for the company's stock in nearly four years.
"Investors were active sellers today because of disappointment over the delay," said analyst Hirotoshi Murakami. "It may be the company's strategy to boost earnings next fiscal year with the game software."
MGS4 was originally scheduled for release this winter, but has now been delayed.
Guinness World Records has officially recognised Sony's Folding@home program as the most powerful distributed computing network in the world.
As previously reported, Folding@home surpassed the one petaflop computer milestone in early September, counting both PC and PS3 users. PS3 users alone reached the petaflop mark on September 23.
"To have Folding@home recognized by Guinness World Records as the most powerful distributed computing network ever is a reflection of the extraordinary worldwide participation by gamers and consumers around the world and for that we are very grateful," said Vijay Pande, associate professor of chemistry at Stanford University and Folding@home project lead.
"Without them we would not be able to make the advancements we have made in our studies of several different diseases. But it is clear that none of this would be even remotely possible without the power of PS3, it has increased our research capabilities by leaps and bounds."
The Folding@home program leveraged only the distributed computing power of personal computers from around the world until March 2007, when the PlayStation 3 joined the program.
Currently, more than 670,000 unique PS3 users have registered with the Folding@home network.
SCE has said that it will continue to support distributed computing projects in a wide variety of academic fields such as medical and social sciences and environmental studies through the use of the PS3.
Sony has decided to keep the Gran Turismo 5 Prologue demo on the Japanese PlayStation Store until the end of the month, instead of yanking it down on the 11th.
In hindsight, we should have followed its example and dragged this information out a bit, because there isn't all that much to say besides that and this is only covering four lines so far. Five.
Fortunately there are some new shots to go with the announcement, picked up on by Kotaku after it surfaced on Game Watch. So look at them.
To download the demo, you'll need to make a fake Japanese account, which obviously we have no idea how to do and is very naughty Google Google Google.
GT5 Prologue, which consists of 50 cars and five tracks in 1080p, is due out in Japan on 13th December in Blu-ray and PlayStation Network download format, and should arrive here at some point too. We'll keep you updated.
Sony has released a new patch for PS3 shooter Resistance: Fall of Man.
It's available for download now via the PlayStation Network. Along with fixing numerous bugs, the gives you the option to take in-game screenshots using a USB keyboard and play password-protected custom games.
You can also expect weapon balance changes and round balancing options and support for the new Dual Shock 3 - even though it's not in Europe or the US till spring.
For more information and to download the patch, visit the PlayStation Network.
The latest in the long-running Final Fantasy franchise has topped the Japanese charts according to data from Media Create – selling almost double the amount of units as its closest competitor.
Final Fantasy Tactics A2 for the DS has sold over 142,000 units on the first week of release. Banpresto's PS2 game Ar Tonelico is at number two in the charts, debuting with 72,000 sales.
The top ten best-selling games includes a total of seven new entries, with World Soccer Winning Eleven DS: Goal to Goal at number three (29,00 units sold), Sega's Ghost Squad for Wii at seven (20,000 units sold) and Capcom's God of War II at eight (17,000 units sold).
The full Japanese top ten follows:
1. Final Fantasy Tactics A2 (DS)
2. Ar Tonelico (PS2)
3. World Soccer Winning Eleven DS: Goal to Goal (DS)
4. Imabikisou (PS3)
5. DS Literature Collection (DS)
6. Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion (DS)
7. Ghost Squad (Wii)
8. God of War II (PSP)
9. DS Nishimura Kyotarou Suspense Detective Series: Deadly Intent (DS)
10. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Time Expedition Party (DS)
Metroid Prime 3 Corruption for the Wii has topped the Swedish multiformat charts on its first week of release, according to latest stats from Dataspelsbranschen .
And it's a one-two punch for Nintendo as DS hit The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass takes the number two spot, nudging soccer rivals such as FIFA 08, Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 and Football Manager 2008 down the charts.
But it's a different matter in the single format charts, where Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 is the number one seller on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 2.
The best selling games in Sweden follow:
Multiformat
1. Metroid Prime 3 Corruption (Wii)
2. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS)
3. Football Manager 2008 (PC)
4. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (PS3)
5. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (PS2)
6. Half-Life 2: The Orange Box (PC)
7. Singstar Svenska hits Schlager (PS2)
8. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (360)
9. World of Warcraft (PC)
10. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (PC)
11. FIFA 08 (PS2)
12. Counter-Strike 1: Anthology (PC)
13. Half-Life 2: The Orange Box (360)
14. The Sims 2 Jorden Runt (PC)
15. The Witcher (PC)
16. Halo 3 (360)
17. Battlefield 2 (PC)
18. Warcraft III Frozen Throne (PC)
19. FIFA 08 (PS3)
20. World in Conflict (PC)
PC
1. Football Manager 2008
2. Half-Life 2: The Orange Box
3. World of Warcraft
4. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
5. Counter-Strike 1: Anthology
6. The Sims 2 Jorden Runt
7. The Witcher
8. Battlefield 2
9. Warcraft III Frozen Throne
10. World in Conflict
PlayStation 2
1. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008
2. Singstar Svenska hits Schlager
3. FIFA 08
4. Guitar Hero 2
5. Singstar Svenska hits
6. Final Fantasy XII
7. Need for Speed Carbon
8. Guitar Hero 2 Rock the 80´s
9. Singstar R&B
10. NHL 08
PlayStation 3
1. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008
2. FIFA 08
3. NHL 08
4. Skate
5. Folklore
6. Eye of Judgement
7. Colin McRae Dirt
8. Sega Rally
9. Heavenly Sword
10. Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2
Xbox 360
1. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008
2. Half-Life 2: The Orange Box
3. Halo 3
4. FIFA 08
5. Project Gotham Racing 4
6. NHL 08
7. Need for Speed Carbon
8. Skate
9. Eternal Sonata
10. Guitar Hero 2
Wii
1. Metroid Prime 3 Corruption
2. Table Tennis
3. Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess
4. Rayman Raving Rabbids
5. Mario Party 8
6. Boogie
7. Super Paper Mario
8. FIFA 08
9. Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition
10. Carnival Games
Nintendo DS
1. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
2. New Super Mario Bros
3. Pokémon Pearl
4. Pokémon Diamond
5. Mario Kart DS
6. Bilar
7. Magical Starsign
8. The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer
9. The Sims 2 Pets
10. Nintendogs: Dalmatian & Friends
PSP
1. FIFA 08
2. Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions
3. Need for Speed Underground Rivals
4. Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters
5. Medal of Honor: Heroes
6. NHL 07
7. Tekken Dark Resurrection
8. GTA Vice City Stories
9. Daxter
10. Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron
Flashlinker Europe.com have today added a preorder for a 6GB MicroSDHC Memory card thats compatible with most consoles (via adapters) for the rather cheap price of 59.00EUR
While we reported on the topic (with plenty of juicy details) last week, here's even more confirmation that the PS3 firmware 2.0 is soon on its way. Over on the official semi-official Sony blog Three Speech, when one commenter wondered about a time line for the 2.0 firmware, a Three Speech moderator replied:
News on that is coming tomorrow but it will be within the next two weeks!!
In other words, stay tuned for more info tomorrow (Nov 2) about an update that will probably hit within two weeks.
Sony has said we will get the European demo for Uncharted: Drake's Fortune before the end of November, although when exactly is still not decided.
It follows comments made by game director Amy Hennig on the official PlayStation blog that those of you across the pond will be able to download it next Thursday.
There is no word on what will be in the sampler just yet, but we expect it will be a mission or two from the Indiana Jones and Tomb Raider hybrid that maybe involves thumping some baddies in the face and clambering around some mossy old ruins in a jungle. You may even shoot guns.
A trio of exclusive Uncharted videos have been sprinkled generously across the mighty Eurogamer Empire, capturing our early progress in Naughty Dog's anticipated PS3 adventure.
Introducing Nathan Drake as the new Indiana Jones of gaming (and nothing at all like a male Lara Croft, obviously), Uncharted marks the US developer's PlayStation 3 debut, having enjoyed huge success on PSone and PS2 with slavering, ginger maniac Crash Bandicoot, and platforming partners Jak & Daxter.
Of the three exclusive videos showing today, our very own Eurogamer TV offers a taster of Drake's acrobatic and ballistic skills, with a scramble through the jungle and firefight deep in the bowels of a temple.
Meanwhile, over on Eurogamer.de,having crashlanded in dangeorous territory, take a peek at some of the early-doors action scenes Drake will encounter in his hunt for the lost treasure of El Darado.
Last but not least, say a big "salut!" to our Gallic chums at Eurogamer.fr, who have a more cerebral video vignette, highlighting the Tomb Raider-style puzzles our hero must think his way out of to progress.
Uncharted will be raiding PS3's tomb from December 7th in Europe. Watch out for our full review soon.
The Nintendo Wii is still outselling the PlayStation 3 by 2-to-1 in Japan, although the gap between the rival formats has closed for the fourth consecutive month.
The latest figures released by Enterbrain and reported by Reuters show that Nintendo shifted 110,415 units in the four weeks to October 28, while Sony sold 47,183 PlayStation 3 units.
Microsoft continues to struggle in the region, with sales of the Xbox 360 reaching 18,717 units for the same period.
MCV sister site Develop reports that Rockstar, no stranger to controversy, has once again hit the internet headlines, this time regarding the credits in Manhunt 2.
In a blog post by Jurie Horneman, previously the game’s producer, it has been revealed that the instruction manual of the recently-released US version of the game fails to credit any of the work done by Rockstar’s Vienna studio, which was unexpectedly closed in 2006.
“To the best of my knowledge, apart from the people who briefly went to Rockstar London to assist with development there, nobody from Rockstar Vienna is mentioned in the credits of Manhunt 2,” writes Horneman.
“I do not want to denigrate what Rockstar London did on Manhunt 2, but as far as I can tell (from analyzing screenshots, previews, etc.) the majority of the work we did at Rockstar Vienna is in the released game.
Following Take-Two’s admission that hackers had successfully unlocked Adults Only content supposedly cut from the M-rated version of Manhunt 2, California State Senator Leland Yee has called for the game to be reclassified again, while the National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI) has criticized the game for perpetuating “cruel, inaccurate perceptions that people who live with mental illnesses are violent.”
While multiple edits were made to revise Manhunt 2 so it would be granted a Mature rating (17+), hackers appear to have proven that the sections of the game in question were blocked but not entirely cut, allowing them to create a modified version of the title not meant for release.
“We hope that consumers will not engage in hacking or download illegally modified copies of our games. We encourage them to enjoy our games as they are meant to be played,” said Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick in a statement Thursday. However, as GamePolitics reports, Take-Two’s line of defense hasn’t been able to stop fresh waves of criticism.
“Not only should the AO rating immediately be reinstated on [Manhunt 2], the Federal Trade Commission should investigate Rockstar and the ESRB to determine how this was allowed to happen again,” said Senator Yee.
“Time and time again, the ESRB rating process fails parents. It is unconscionable that the rating board would downgrade Manhunt 2’s rating from AO to M and therefore make the game available to children. The ESRB and Rockstar continuously put profits before children.
“Parents deserve to know what, if any, content was truly removed to receive the downgraded rating. ESRB has refused to publicly disclose whether or not Rockstar divulged that such adult content could still be accessible. As if we needed more evidence, this episode further puts into question the validity of the entire rating system.
“The Manhunt 2 scandal further demonstrates the need for [California’s contested video game] law. I am hopeful that the courts will see that severe penalties are necessary for those who sell horrifically violent games to minors.”
The Gamer Gene also reports that NAMI’s executive director Mike Fitzpatrick issued a statement criticizing the title’s portrayal of the mentally ill.
“Even though some people may consider Manhunt 2 to be only a game, it unfortunately perpetuates and reinforces cruel, inaccurate perceptions that people who live with mental illnesses are violent.
“The U.S. Surgeon General has condemned such stigmatization, identifying fear of stigma as a major barrier to people getting help when they need it. The overall contribution of mental illnesses to violence in society is exceptionally small. In fact, people living with mental illness are far more likely to be victims of violence.
"We do not favor censorship, but we do ask for responsible exercise of creative rights when serious public health concerns are at issue. It is our right to demand a higher standard.”
Something PS3 owners must be getting used to by now is waiting a little longer for games to come to their platform, but in Eternal Sonata's case, the extra wait means you'll get two more characters to play as, which is nice.
As an exclusive treat to PS3 owners, the characters Serenade and Prince Crescendo, who were non-playable characters in the 360 version, will be fully playable. These characters will bring with them new story sequences as well, according to Dengeki Online (via Kotaku).
That should add a little extra incentive to lure in Gamerpoint junkies who usually go for the 360 version, which is out now (and you can check out our review of that right here).
The PS3 version of the game is yet to get an official release date.
Researchers long believed that human perception was limited to tracking four moving objects at one time. But a new study, challenging participants to follow 16 dots moving at a very slow pace on a computer screen, found that participants were able to track up to eight objects at once (or double what we previously thought possible).
The major downfall of our ability to track objects is speed. Because once these dots hit the on-screen speed of 0.15 metres per second, subjects were only able to track one dot at a time.
Subsidies, sponsorships and other forms of public funding for videogames developers is not a good solution to increasing development costs, according to Dr Klemens Kundratitz, managing director of Koch Media.
Speaking exclusively to GamesIndustry.biz he is worried about the uneven playing field that countries such as Canada create, but believes that public funding would lead to games for the sake of culture, rather than for the sake of the customer.
"I don't believe in sponsorship, public funding and subsidies at all, because I think that those systems will lead to games being produced for reasons that are not what the consumer demands, but because people think they should be for cultural reasons."
"It takes the attention away from what the customer wants, and if we create great entertainment then the customer will buy it and I'd rather not have everybody focused on how to get subsidies from various places."
Sony Electronics President Stan Glasgow says Blu-ray player prices will likely not fall under $399 this holiday season.
"(The player will be) in the $399 range...I don't expect it to go much lower than that," Glasgow said today, according to TWICE Magazine.
Glasgow made his comment today following an announcement from Wal-Mart that it will sell the Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD player for $98 as a special pre "Black Friday" sale starting tomorrow.
Capcom blatantly knows we haven't had to deal with 40MB worth of screenshots in a while, so it's slapped a colossal collection of Devil May Cry screens into our inbox big enough to take up most of our afternoon in the uploading process. Thanks, Capcom.
The latest shots - if you haven't skipped our blurb and gone straight to the screenshot viewer already - show off a rather lovely jungle level for Nero to shoot and slash his way through.
It's out in February for both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It should be wicked.
Experience the excitement of true next-gen action as you take on the role of Inspector Tequila from John Woo’s influential action film, Hard Boiled starring Chow Yun-Fat. Ensnared by a crime boss with a gripping secret, Inspector Tequila is forced to cross the line from sworn duty to bloody revenge. Engage your enemies with intense cinematic gun battles and cause massive environmental damage in real-time or revolutionary slow-motion Tequila Time.
features
Become a Legend: Face off against guitar icon Slash and others in insane boss battles featuring original tracks recorded exclusively for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.
Rock Out Online Or Party Offline: Defeat opponents to achieve legendary status in head-to-head competition including the all new guitar battle or share the glory with a friend in the new co-op career mode.
Fully Immersive Concert Experience: Realize a true rock concert experience with all new venues, incredible lighting effects, authentic instruments and sick character moves.
Incredible Soundtrack: Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock features over 70 of the biggest and loudest songs ever compiled in a game! Rock out to songs such as: Welcome to the Jungle, Rock You Like a Hurricane, Sabotage, Suck My Kiss, Cherub Rock and Mississippi Queen.
Guitar Hero WIRELESS Les Paul Guitar Controller: Strap on your Guitar Hero™ WIRELESS Les Paul Guitar Controller, power on, and CRANK IT UP!
description
Crank Up the Volume and prepare to rock around the globe with Guitar Hero™ III: Legends of Rock. Battle against some of the greatest legends to ever shred on a guitar and become one yourself! Take your skills online against other Guitar Hero players from around the world.
The Simpsons™ Game features a hilarious, sprawling, and mind-busting storyline crafted by the TV show’s Emmy Award-winning writers. The action-comedy will also feature the full cast of voice actors from the TV show who will reprise their roles for the game. In The Simpsons Game, Homer, Marge, Bart, and Lisa use exciting, all-new powers to save the world from rising chaos. To help the Simpsons, gamers at home must journey through all of Springfield (as well as vast worlds beyond!), vanquish an amazing array of villains, and fight their way through parodies of popular games.
features
Xbox 360 Achievement tips
pages: 128
Platform: PS3, XBox360, PC
Detailed walkthrough of all levels
Multiple strategies for various scenarios
Occult power combos
Tips to unlock all Extras
description
There's only one way to survive The Box. . .and that's with Prima as your guide.
features
Platform: PlayStation 3
pages: 208
In-depth item and equipment lists.
Expert boss strategies.
Detailed bestiary.
Coverage of all Side Quests, Cloaks and Pages.
description
Two strangers are drawn to the mysterious town of Doolin, where it is said that
the living can speak to the dead. They soon learn the town serves as a gateway
to fantastic worlds that exist beyond their own, realms full of creatures, fairies,
spirits, and monsters. In order to solve the mystery of the town, the pair must
journey through these worlds to discover their secrets. Will they have the
courage to survive the adventure that awaits them?
features
Platform: PlayStation 3
pages: 192
Extensive listing of all weapons, gadgets and devices.
Expert boss strategies.
Detailed Monsterpeidia.
Signature Series guide features bonus poster and more!
description
Get ready for a galactic adventure filled with explosive mayhem as the Ratchet &
Clank series makes its PS3 debut. Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of
Destruction marks the beginning of a brand-new series of next-generation games
for the gadget-building hero, Ratchet, and his brainy robotic sidekick, Clank.
After saving countless planets from dreadful doom and earning intergalactic
celebrity status in the process, Ratchet and Clank have taken some welldeserved
R&R -- again. Yet, Ratchet remains restless. An orphan of the
universe, he has never known anything of his past, his family or his Lombax
origins. And no one can fill that void. Unfortunately for Ratchet, someone else
is equally interested in Ratchet's origins: Emperor Percival Tachyon. In his
thirst for revenge, the vile tyrant of an ancient race of foul insect-like monsters
called Cragmites has festered an age-old grudge and is bent on wiping the lastknown
Lombax off the universe!
Flashlinker Europe.com have today added a preorder for a 8GB MicroSDHC Memory card thats compatible with most consoles (via adapters) for the rather cheap price of 79.00EUR
Gamasutra has up a pair of articles discussing the numbers from this round of the console wars. One focuses on the current frontrunner, Nintendo. Their numerical superiority is highlighted by the number of million selling titles they currently have on tap. Both the DS and Wii are carrying multiple-million sellers, with the current tally for (recently released) Diamond/Pearl sitting at 12,170,000. Meanwhile, in a lengthy article, the site fully explores the impact of console sales in numerous markets and venues, with comparisons between all three consoles (and a focus on Nintendo's sales).
"PlayStation 2 titles make up the bulk of software sales in the U.S. and Europe again in 2007, as they have in previous years. The Wii's 2007 numbers equal the GameCube's in 2006, but its software growth isn't yet matching its hardware's. Microsoft's Xbox 360 has benefited largely from the Xbox's demise and the PlayStation 2 sales' slow decline. Even with the PlayStation 3 hardware's current state in Europe, its software sales in Europe are relatively low."
That will possibly be the only major problem for devs for both consoles in the near future.
1). Lack of memory on the PS3.
2). Lack of storage space on the Xbox 360.
Watch out for that one. It will be here sooner than you think, if not already.
But everyone, just bear this in mind. The Xbox 360, for all the bagging it gets, is really quite a powerfull piece of kit. It has 3 seperate PPC cpus, which basically equates to 6 hardware threads. It has more memory to play with, a superior GPU, and superfast bus rate.
All the BS talked about GOW pushing the 360 is almost toss. Sorry. It was only running on two thread system. And even that engine was very buggy and "heavy" at the time. If not totally overated in its own right as well.
Honestly, if MS decided to put some form of a HD disc in it, Blu Ray or HD-DVD, the damn thing would be almost future proof, with the exception of the over heating, ofcourse.
Because, as it stands, the PS3 only has the storage space over the 360. Its not anymore "advanced" at all, and in many ways, slightly less.
Well, we didn't have to wait for anyone to crack open their PS3 to check, because Sony has squashed all rumors that the new $399 40GB PlayStation 3 SKU is featuring 65nm chips (shrunk from their 90nm standard). While we'll save you the copy and pasted rough auto translation, Sony essentially said that 65nm is not here yet but that they were working on it for the future.
I just spoke to a contact at my local Target store, who informed me of an interesting internal memo. Apparently all Target stores are to stop selling Manhunt 2, going so far as to tell managers to refuse shipments of the title for all systems, with Take 2 agreeing to take back all unopened copies of the game.
Why is this action being taken? The extreme violence in the game is the given reason, but my contact (an employee but not a manager) was told that it was due in greater part to the unfavorable coverage the game got in the national press the last several days. Target stores had been selling the game since it's launch, but it was only today that they were told to pull the product and refuse further shipments.
The listing for Manhunt 2 on the Target website shows that the item is "not available in stores."
I've spoken to employees of several other large retailers (Best Buy, Gamestop and Circuit City) and none of them are, at this time, taking similar actions.
Sega of America released today the first trailer from the highly anticipated game Viking: Battle for Asgard. This stylish new game brings gamers into the rarely-explored and brutal world of the Vikings and their all-powerful Gods.
As Skarin, the powerful yet flawed warrior, take part in epic battles and fight savage magical beasts and barbaric warriors and ultimately face the challenge to stop Ragnarok – the apocalyptic battle that could destroy everything. In this spectacular new trailer, see massive battles and the horrific enemies for the first time and meet the hero who will inspire an army and save the world.
Made by the renowned developer The Creative Assembly, Viking: Battle for Asgard will be in stores for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in Spring 2008.
Game Republic has popped a website up for its new PlayStation Network title Dark Mist.
It is an action shooter title where you play as light warrior Altemis and try to stop a demon king having his wicked way. As you do.
According to a translation of the Japanese website by IGN there will be Sixaxis-shaking sections to clear enemies in close-quarters, but otherwise you will use a standard light arrow attack to do away with baddies or use a big bomb when things get a bit hairy and you want a breather.
Special attacks should also help you out a bit, and come in Split Star, Meteor Flare and Lightning forms.
It is due for release on 8th November in Japan for JPY 800 (GBP 3.40 / EUR 4.80). We are currently waiting to hear back from Sony Europe about plans for the game here.
Pop over to the Dark Mist website for a look at some minuscule screenshots.
Good news tin fans - Capcom sends word that a three-disc Devil May Cry 4 Collector's Edition will be in the shops in time for release for both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
The $79.99 (£38) tined edition comes complete with documentary-packed bonus DVD and the first volume of the Devil May Cry animated series (four episodes, apparently) which we've got an inkling might be a bit rubbish, but who knows.
The bonus DVD includes a making of feature, soundtrack extracts, a digital art book, wallpapers, icons and screen savers for your PC. Lovely.
It's out in North America on February 5. There's currently no word on a European release but we've left a message with Capcom asking about one. Lost Planet's tin made it over here, so we're feeling optimistic.
Sony has officially deployed the 1.1 patch for PeacePigeon aka WarHawk, and this time it actually meant to release it and everything. Game director Dylan Jobe describes it as "a fast download", which will zap its way down your Interpipes when you next fire up WarHawk.
But what does it do, I hear you ask? It addresses "critical issues with stats and connectivity". Specifically, "stat connection, fetch/post fixes; significantly improved client connection stability; quad '????' ping display bug fixed; added support for Player-Ranked Servers; game synchronisation fixes due to fluctuating network conditions (packet-drop); crash fixes for end of game and split screen".
But wait, that sounds boring! Fortunately, Jobe and his Incog pals are also working on a 1.2 patch that introduces new layouts for existing maps, clan and Buddy list options for servers and other interesting tweaks.
For more on WarHawk, check out our WarHawk gamepage. It's available now as a PSN download or in the shops on a disc with a manual and a headset.
Flashlinker Europe.com have today added the 4GB MicroSDHC Memory card thats compatible with most consoles (via adapters) for the very cheap price of 10.00EUR
Homer, Marge, Bart, and Lisa use exciting, all-new powers to save the world from rising chaos. To help the Simpsons, gamers at home must journey through all of Springfield (as well as vast worlds beyond!), vanquish an amazing array of villains, and fight their way through parodies of multiple popular games.
Cars Mater-National features an all-new International group of racers vying for their chance to compete against Lightning McQueen in the First Annual Mater-National Race Festival, hosted by Lightning's best friend, Mater. Explore the new and improved open world of Radiator Springs, play in the all-new Monster Mode, jump into the fast lane with 6 new International racing competitors, burn rubber on new tracks, and twist and turn your way through new mini-games like Ramone's Rhythmic Rumble and Fillmore's Fuel Frenzy. Go head to head with over 10 multiplayer games.
Pages: 208
Detailed walkthroughs for every adventure in all six episodes!
Locations for all LEGO canisters, Challenge canisters, and red power bricks!
Exclusive maps!
Extensive tips for Freeplay mode!
New characters, vehicles, and game features revealed!
All-new quick reference guide with detailed information for every level!
description
Now Witness the Firepower of this Fully Armed and Operational Game Guide!
The Complete Saga takes players to the most beautiful LEGO galaxy ever assembled with high-definition graphics on the PlayStation 3 system and the Xbox 360. And with both consoles' online capabilities, families spread across the world can unite to rebuild a galaxy in pieces with cooperative two-player, drop-in/drop-out gameplay. Meanwhile, the unique Wii and Nintendo DS control schemes result in the most interactive LEGO Star Wars gaming experience yet.
From the Trade Federation's "negotiations" with Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn in The Phantom Menace to the space battle above Endor in Return of the Jedi, The Complete Saga allows players to kick some brick through 36 Story mode levels, including Episode II's newly added high-speed pursuit of bounty hunter Zam Wessell.
features
Platform: PC, PS3, Xbox 360, DS
Pages: 272
BradyGames' Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Official Strategy Guide features a complete walkthrough of the entire game.
Detailed area maps pinpointing critical locations.
In-depth listing of items, equipment and weaponry.
Extensive enemy section.
Expert strategies for each mode of gameplay.
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare , the new action-thriller from the award-winning
team at Infinity Ward, the creators of the Call of Duty series, delivers the most
intense and cinematic action experience ever. Armed with an arsenal of
advanced and powerful modern day firepower, players are transported to
treacherous hotspots around the globe to take on a rogue enemy group
threatening the world. As both a U.S Marine and British S.A.S. soldier fighting
through an unfolding story full of twists and turns, players use sophisticated
technology, superior firepower and coordinated land and air strikes on a
battlefield where speed, accuracy and communication are essential to victory.
The epic title also delivers an added depth of multiplayer action providing
online fans an all-new community of persistence, addictive and customizable
gameplay.
Experience the excitement of true next-gen action as you take on the role of Inspector Tequila from John Woo’s influential action film, Hard Boiled starring Chow Yun-Fat. Ensnared by a crime boss with a gripping secret, Inspector Tequila is forced to cross the line from sworn duty to bloody revenge. Engage your enemies with intense cinematic gun battles and cause massive environmental damage in real-time or revolutionary slow-motion Tequila Time.
Cars Mater-National features an all-new International group of racers vying for their chance to compete against Lightning McQueen in the First Annual Mater-National Race Festival, hosted by Lightning’s best friend, Mater. Explore the new and improved open world of Radiator Springs, play in the all-new Monster Mode, jump into the fast lane with 6 new International racing competitors, burn rubber on new tracks, and twist and turn your way through new mini-games like Ramone’s Rhythmic Rumble and Fillmore’s Fuel Frenzy.
features
Full six - axis motion control
Swappable analog stick and mouse
Playstation™ 1 , 2 and 3 game support
Programable motion feature
description
The fragFX is the perfect controller to help the lifelong mouse-clicking Computer gamer get the same ease of use from a console. It gives you that same PC style gameplay on the PS3 and doubles as an optimized mouse for PS Home and Web navigation. The fragFX was designed for all game styles, but it's optimal for 1st and 3rd person shooter games - fragging will never be the same . No game internal mouse support is needed; fragFX works with all games. Full six-axis motion control Swappable Analog stick and mouse Firmware Upgradeable (via computer) Programmable buttons (via computer) Playstation 1, 2 and 3 game support Adjustable sensitivity (Mouse sensitivity) Sony “PS Home” and "web navigation" support Frag button (Slows down targeting movement for better aim accuracy.) Programmable motion feature (Port a repetitive button function to a motion command, like gun reload)
features
Built-in 4 microphone array.
Chat with up to 6 people at once.
Ultra fast frame rate of 120 frames per second ensures pristine video quality.
Engineered to work well in low light conditions.
Includes free EyeCreate™ Software download.
description
Revolutionize your interactive gaming and online communication experience with the PLAYSTATION®Eye USB camera. The PLAYSTATION®Eye has the ability to reduce background noise and focus on the spoken word for smoother, more accurate speech recognition and transfer. The fast frame rate allows for improved tracking and responsiveness for pristine video quality. The PLAYSTATION®Eye is also engineered to perform well in low-light conditions and includes a dual action lens for close-up and full body options.
We here at DCEmu try to inform you on what may or may not be the latest consoles/gadgets that will be home to a new homebrew community. Recently we have written about the JXD301, Apple iPhone/iTouch and the as yet unamed Console from the GBAx Camp.
Well down to buisness, the Portable Game & Media Player from SuccessHK has been out a few months now but at a price of $109 and boasting NES, SNES & MD/SMC Emulation it sure is very interesting
Heres the ful spec/info:
Portable Game & Media Player integrates such functions as watching Movie, enjoying Music, Playing GAMES , Reading novels, sound Recording, browsing Pictures and Take pictures. Feature : Game Player : Game Emulator support NES, SNES & MD/SMC ( Sega 16bit ), You can run thousands of game which you can download from Internet Movie Player : Support AVI of MPEG-4 format ( DIVX 3.11/4.X/5.X and XVID codec : Sizes : 320*240 @ 30 fps ) Music Player : Support MP3, WMA, FLAC , with Equlizer Camera : Digital Camera Function with 1300K pixel Video Recorder : Record in 320*240 MPEG4 Voice Recorder : Voice Recorde in MP3 format in 128,192 and 256KPS E-Book Reader : Support E-Book in TXT format Picture Viewer : Support JPG, GIF , BMP format Build-in 1G memory, Support Max. 4G external SD card. Build-in Litum Rechargable battery wth 12000mah , Continue Video play for 6 hrs, or Music play for 20 hrs. With Auto Shut down, Firmware upgradable, 3.6" screen size ( 960*240) TFT , Theme Select, Multi Language support ( English, French, Chinese, Italian, Portuguese ) , Wallpaper changable ,
Can this be opened up to homebrew ?, has anyone already done it ? all questions we would like to know the answer of.
Do the consoles above interest you or are you sticking with your PSP/DS/GP2X for your handheld thrills ?
Im sure many of you own multiple consoles or at the least have access to them. How many of you are unhappy that the console you brought isnt as good as you were lead to believe.
Heres a few of my personal nitpicks about each console.
PSP
The PSP is by far the most poweful handheld and should play to its strengths, i want to see games such as Conflict Global Storm and the very best from the PS2 to arrive on the console.
I also wish that battery life was longer, that UMD Drives didnt fail so often and finally that the bloody screen didnt get so greasy and scratched up.
Nintendo DS
Easily the console which has brought more non gamers to the console arena than any other.
Why the likes of Nintendo need to use the stylus to control every game is beyond me, certain games like Starfox was ruined because of the stylus method.
Xbox360
Why cant Microsoft sort out the bloody overheating problem, surely after all this time it would be fixed. Other than that some type of Wiimote clone controller would be great.
PS3
Sony really need to get back to releasing killer games for this console, too many crap games has stopped me using my PS3 and we really need a game that grabs your balls and says buy this system.
Nintendo Wii
The Wii and its unique controller is excellent but some games are much better played in the conventional way, surely a mix of games would please the hardcore and casual gamer.
Thats just my views but if you agree or disagree or have issues i havent mentioned then please post via the comments
Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 has held on to the number one chart position in the UK, selling twice as many units as FIFA 08, despite a 52 per cent drop in sales.
EA's FIFA 08 spends a third week at number two, with the publisher's The Simpsons Game making its debut at number three.
THQ's Ratatouille is proving to be a steady seller, shuffling up the charts to number four following five weeks in the charts, while Microsoft's Halo 3 has seen an increase in sales by 46 per cent, putting it at number five in the All Formats charts.
Sega's Football Manager 2008 slips to number six, while EA's add-on The Sims 2: Castaway breaks into the top 10 at seven.
The rest of the top ten is taken up with DS exclusives. More Brain Training from Dr Kawashima is at eight, Dr Kawashima's Brain Training at nine and Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass is at ten.
There are two other new entries in the top forty this week – VU Games' Timeshift at number 24 and EA's Hellgate: London at 34.
Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 continues to dominate the charts in both Germany and Spain, taking multiple positions in the top ten for each region.
The PlayStation 2 version of the game is the lead format, proving there's plenty of life left in a console entering its eighth year on the market.
Nintendo's DS title The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass is at number five in both charts, with Wii shooter Metroid Prime 3: Corruption at number six.
The top ten best-selling games for Spain and Germany follow:
Spain
1. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (PS2)
2. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (PS3)
3. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (Xbox 360)
4. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (PC)
5. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS)
6. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii)
7. FIFA 08 (PS2)
8. WWE Smackdown! Vs RAW 2007 (PS2)
9. Football Manager 2008 (PC)
10. More Brain Training (DS)
Germany
1. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (PS2)
2. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (PS3)
3. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (PC)
4. The Witcher (PC)
5. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS)
6. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii)
7. Anno 1701 (PC)
8. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (Xbox 360)
9. FIFA 08 (PS2)
10. More Brain Training (DS)
All sales information supplied by Media-Control GfK International
Time Crisis 4 has been in development for a while, yet we know little about it. What we do know is that it'll let you move your character as well as shoot, and these are the first images of the gun that'll make it all work.
Satsukawa explains the intricacies of designing a lightgun shooter of this type. "The Time Crisis team has been eager to implement a solution for moving and shooting to the series for years now - our development tools allow us to do this in early builds of games - but it was too difficult to implement this feature into a full game using only the Guncon 2 controller," he said.
So now he's making a new gun. "With our next title planned for the PS3 system, we began work on our next iteration of the Guncon hardware to bring new functionality to the series and allow us to implement our goals for a free-roaming Time Crisis experience," he added.
Below is a sketch of the initial ideas for a Guncon that could allow for Satsukawa to realise his aim. "We asked our designer to come up with a few illustrations showing a Guncon with one analog stick. After getting the results, we realized that this was going to be a more intimidating project than we had planned."
Protoype software was also made, as Satsukawa explains: "We worked for a month to create a prototype based on the Time Crisis 3 engine in which two players can move freely around a small square environment and try to shoot each other. ... Even though this early prototype only allowed for horizontal aiming, we felt confident enough in the design to move forward with the full game."
He concludes: "As we understood that we would have to implement vertical aiming in our game, we decided to revise our Guncon hardware designs to meet this goal. That was the real jumping-off point for Time Crisis 4, which I will cover in-depth soon in my next entry!"
We're interested to know if the Guncon will overcome the obstacle of working on LCD TVs (which old lightgun techniques won't work with) with a sensor bar like Wii (which doesn't simulate accurate aiming) or another way.
Infinity Ward president Grant Collier has opined that the next console generation wave will hit in around three to four year's time.
Describing the developer's Call of Duty 4 as the first game in the second wave of next-gen titles, Collier told Next-Gen.biz:
"When the games first started coming out I remember thinking, 'oh my gosh, they look so realistic, they can't possibly get more lifelike than this"
"...but then if you look at the games coming out now the photorealistic quality of them is so much higher that I'm kind of amazed."
"I definitely think we have another three or four years left in this cycle, with people making games for the next-gen platforms."
This comes after Nintendo boss Sotoru Iwata declared the typical four-year life cycle for games hardware as "too inflexible" for the Japanese giant - Nintendo won't make a new console until it's needed.
Collier additionally noted that Infinity Ward hasn't experienced any issues developing for PS3, something he puts down to the studio's "development philosophy". .
This year's UK Christmas videogames chart is set to be spearheaded by EA, Microsoft and Konami titles, if the odds on Paddy Power are accurate.
It places the latest Need for Speed title - ProStreet - as the favourite to claim the top spot on evens, with FIFA 08 at 2-1, Halo 3 at 6-1 and Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 at 10-1.
Other prominent titles include The Simpsons Game, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Super Mario Galaxy and Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.
While most people are unlikely to bet against those games hitting the Christmas number one spot, there are a few games that might raise an eyebrow.
Manhunt 2 is listed as 25-1, despite the game being effectively banned by the BBFC in the UK, although an appeal is pending.
Additionally the main contenders are dominated by titles that will appeal to the traditional gaming market, including Super Mario Galaxy, despite many predictions that the Wii will continue to be the market-leading console for some time yet.
At the other end of the betting list, the longest odds available are for Balloon Pop, which weighs in at a hefty 250-1.
Over at Newsweek's Level Up blog, N'Gai Croal is reporting that the NPD will start withholding more info this month from those who aren't paying (read: the media). Most crushingly, the group says it will no longer release monthly console sales numbers and will only release the top five in software, rather than the top 10 we're used to. These numbers will eventually be available on a quarterly and annual basis. Console makers can still release the data themselves (and you can bet they will if it makes them look good) but that's not a guarantee.
It's bad news for both journalists like us who like to pass that information on to you and those who follow the numbers like they were sports scores. Now listen, forum kids and comments flamers, we know we've had a rocky relationship in the past, but we're going to need each other to get through this. Come, let your tears fall on our shoulders.
A push to standardize how game developers are credited in their projects was already underway before the recent brouhaha involving Rockstar Games' snubbed Vienna studio, but the issue has picked up momentum in the story's wake.
In September, the International Game Developers Association posted a public "beta" of their proposed Credit Standards Guide in wiki form on their web site. Today, the organization announced its Credit Standards Committee will host a roundtable discussion during the 2008 Game Developers Conference entitled "The IGDA Credits Movement: The Revolution Is Already Here."
In a statement on its web site, the IGDA said that "the recent controversy around the credits of Manhunt 2 serve as a significant example of why crediting standards are needed in the game industry."
Last week, a former producer at Rockstar Vienna complained on his personal blog that his team worked on Manhunt 2 for more than two years but was not credited on the final product.
We're all for giving game-development credit where it's properly due (after all, we're the nerds who actually read them), so we're all in favor of the IGDA's efforts. We do have one request, though.
All end-game credits should follow the Portal format, for the good of all of us. Except the ones who are dead.
Today the Writer's Guild of America (WGA) went on an anticipated strike over new media residuals. TV programs like The Tonight Show with Jay Leno will begin airing reruns tonight because of the strike. The union does represent some videogame writers and is giving an award for best videogame writing at next year's Writer's Guild Awards. So will the strike affect us here in the game industry?
Not to worry.
A Writer's Guild representative told IGN today that only a handful of game writers are currently represented by the union, and that they fall out of the jurisdiction of the current strike. Part of the impetus for the Videogame Writing Award is to draw more game authors into the WGA fold.
"By recognizing the skill and craft of videogame writing, the Writers Guilds intend to raise the profile of these writers so that they can get WGA contracts and benefits for this work" WGA West President Patric M. Verrone said at the award's announcement back in September.
While the film and television industries will be inconvenienced by the strike, we gamers should be in the clear.
features
Intense action thriller with stunning next-generation graphics and amazing special effects
Play as both a U.S. Marine and British S.A.S. soldier fighting through an unfolding story full of twists and turns
Enter treacherous hotspots around the globe to take on a rogue enemy group threatening the world
Use sophisticated technology, superior firepower, and coordinated land and air strikes on a battlefield where speed, accuracy, and communication are essential to victory
Depth of multiplayer action providing online fans an all-new community of persistence, addictive, and customizable gameplay
description
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, the new action-thriller from the award-winning team at Infinity Ward, the creators of the Call of Duty® series, delivers the most intense and cinematic action experience ever.
Armed with an arsenal of advanced and powerful modern day firepower, players are transported to treacherous hotspots around the globe to take on a rogue enemy group threatening the world. As both a U.S Marine and British S.A.S. soldier fighting through an unfolding story full of twists and turns, players use sophisticated technology, superior firepower and coordinated land and air strikes on a battlefield where speed, accuracy and communication are essential to victory.
Latest PLAYSTATION®3 System Software Update Allows PSP™ to Turn PS3™ On and Off from Internet Connection for Enhanced Remote Play
Ability to customise XMB™ and add personalised playlists for both music and photos also enabled
London, 8 November 2007 – Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) announced today the availability of the latest version of the PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3™) system software. Version 2.00 features the ability to turn a PS3 system on and off remotely, using a PSP™ (PlayStation®Portable) system via the Remote Play function, allowing for a truly mobile partnership between the two systems.
Building on the success and potential of the Remote Play functionality, Version 2.00 will cement the partnership between PS3 and PSP and create a truly global experience. With the ability to turn your PS3 on and off from Wi-fi connection, there is now the opportunity to listen to the music, look at the photos and watch the videos saved on the PS3 Hard Disk Drive, anywhere in the world.
To further enhance the PS3 offering, Version 2.00 allows for the creation of personalised playlists in both the music and photo sections. This simple to use function gives users an opportunity to create unlimited music playlists for all occasions, as well as sharing favourite photos in glorious high definition.
Continuing with the idea of a personalised PS3, Version 2.00 allows for customisation of the XMB™ (XrossMediaBar) menu screen. Change the colour and brightness with the greatest of ease or have something completely different by setting a custom theme. With the potential for new backgrounds to become available on PLAYSTATION®Network in the future, Version 2.00 truly opens up a whole raft of options.
A host of other enhancements includes the addition of an Information Board on XMB to keep people up to date on the latest PlayStation® news, the inclusion of a new PLAYSTATION Network category and logo for easier navigation and Trend Micro Web Security, a free2, state of the art internet security system, designed to give parents peace of mind.
Sony has revealed that its Santa Monica studio is currently working on God of War III for the PlayStation 3.
The company also confirmed that God of War director Cory Barlog is leaving the company to pursue other opportunities.
The God of War franchise has become a fan-favourite since its release on the PlayStation 2 in 2005.
"We can confirm that Cory Barlog, game director for God of War II, is leaving the SCEA SM Studios and we are grateful for his work and creative vision for the critically acclaimed God of War franchise," said a spokesperson for Sony, speaking to consumer site 1UP.
"Moving forward, we are confident in the God of War team, as they are an extremely talented group of people that are passionate about the franchise and dedicated to creating even more epic content with God of War: Chains of Olympus for the PSP and God of War III for PS3."
The next release in the action-adventure franchise will be the PSP game, due for release in March 2008.
Sony Europe has said it will sprinkle Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection Online onto the PlayStation Network tomorrow.
This, you may remember - like falling off a swing - adds an online versus mode, online rankings, a practice mode and a survival mode.
It will cost you GBP 14.99 if you buy it all in one, but if you listen to our Dickensian (as in David, not Charles) advice you could make a saving.
Buy the original Dark Resurrection PSN title for GBP 6.99 and add the Online Component for GBP 3.49 and you keep four-and-a-half quid to spend on an expensive pint of Belgian beer or flowers if you are Pat.
To enjoy this amazing bargain, however, you will need to buy the original Dark Resurrection game right now as in today, because come tomorrow it will be gone.
Reggie Fils-Aime reckons Nintendo's rivals have trapped themselves in a box in this current console generation cycle due to their decision to invest heavily in cutting-edge technology.
Microsoft and Sony have "gone down the path with building expensive machines that they lose money on. They've gone down the path with games that are hard to develop," the Nintendo of America boss said when comparing the approach Nintendo has taken to its competitors.
Reported on CNN, he described the challenge that Sony and Microsoft face in this console cycle as "significant".
"They've put themselves in a box. I don't know how they're going to get out of it", he added.
Strauss Zelnick, chairman of Take 2, has refused to narrow down a release period for Grand Theft Auto IV, saying the publisher won't commit until it's "utterly convinced" the game is ready.
Most recently the publisher has said the title will be released in Q1 of 2008 – between February 1 and April 30 – following a delay that saw the game moved from its initial release of October 2007.
"It's a fair question given that we weren't able to stick to our firm date the last time. We're going to give a firm date when we are utterly convinced that we have it and that isn't right now," said Zelnick during a BMO Capital Markets conference yesterday.
"We know it's highly anticipated. Right now our view is to put out a high quality title and we're not in the business of disappointing investors."
Zelnick said that any concerns that the initial delay had caused it to miss the Christmas sales period have been alleviated, as GTA IV is a "must-have" title, able to take advantage of a bigger installed base of consoles in the New Year.
"I think there was a concern initially when we slipped that we missed the boat in terms of Christmas but I think that concern has been alleviated.
"I think most people see it as okay – hardware penetration is going to grow over Christmas and because this is a must-have title it's probably okay that we're not selling it in the Christmas season," he said.
Zelnick also said that the exclusive downloadable content for Gran Theft Auto IV would not play a very significant role in generating revenue for the company in 2008, but it was a business model the publisher is keen to pursue in the future.
"It actually isn't really significant in terms of its contribution in 2008," he offered.
"It's something we ought to be doing and my guess is that's where the industry is going. If you believe over time that package goods will be supplemented very much with online downloadable content, and you believe as I do that the future of playing interactive entertainment is networked multiplayer, then there's every reason to believe that downloadable content makes all kinds of sense.
"And eventually if you have a packaged good and you sell upgrades it's a pretty terrific business model for everyone. I think it could be really interesting, but to be clear, it's not in our plans and we're not relying on it for our success," he concluded.
A couple of days ago the rumors started popping up: Target was pulling Manhunt 2 from store shelves across the country. Now GameSpot (must not type GameStop) has the official word from the company on the reasoning behind the ban.
"Target strives to provide merchandise that will appeal to a wide variety of guests. We also want guests to be comfortable with the purchasing decisions they make at Target. All video games and computer software sold at Target currently carry ratings by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB)--from early childhood through mature audiences. While Manhunt 2 was given a Mature rating by the ERSB, we received additional information that players can potentially view previously filtered content by altering the game code. As a result, we have decided not to carry the game."
Note that I am no longer finding the game on Target's web site either, but they do still sell the guide in case you suck that badly.
October 31, 2007 was the official end of the "grace period" for Blu-ray manufacturers, after which all players released must comply with the latest standard--Blu-ray Profile 1.1 (also known as Final Standard Profile and BD-Video Profile 1.1). Of course, that doesn't mean Profile 1.0 Blu-ray players still can't be sold, and if you walk into your local electronics store over the next few months, you're likely to see both Profile 1.0 and Profile 1.1 Blu-ray players on the shelf. So what's the big difference between Profile 1.0 and Profile 1.1?
Profile 1.0 vs. 1.1
There are several different hardware requirements, but it basically boils down to picture-in-picture functionality. All Blu-ray players up until this point have been Profile 1.0 and have lacked the secondary video and audio decoders necessary to play a smaller video in the corner while also playing the main high-def movie in the background. With the notable exception of the PlayStation 3, Profile 1.0 players cannot be upgraded via firmware to become Profile 1.1 players.
Originally pegged for a release date of November 9th many were expecting the PlayStation Eye to be in their hands this Friday. But today UK retailer Play.com changed the release date of the product to the 7th December and Amazon changed it to the 14th December.
According to many highly credible sources who have already gotten their hands on both PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of Call of Duty 4, the news is that they are nearly identical.
Many gamers were worried that Call of Duty 4 would not run as well on the PS3 as on the Xbox 360. A lot of this was due to fears learned from the past with EA Sports games having framerate problems, games such as Madden NFL 2008.
PS3 owners have no fear though as yesterday PCN was able to confirm that Call of Duty 4 will run on 1080p on the PS3.
If you were too busy playing Guitar Hero in your underwear on Monday, you may have missed the announcement that tonight's episode of South Park will feature the rhythm game prominently in the storyline. For those of you who just can't wait those last few hours, a Comedy Central press release reveals some more details about the impending rift between Stan and Kyle, and a short video preview shows the pair looking like total goobers while trying to look cool playing the game.
In fact, the false cockiness brought on by Guitar Hero was a major motivation for the production team. On his South Park Studios Production blog, Production Assistant Mike McMahan asks us to imagine "some jerk trying to impress the ladies with his badass skills banging out Coldplay as hard as he can." By playing Guitar Hero, McMahan says, "We're even worse than that loser, because we're pretending to be him, all the while tapping our feet and clicking our fingers with the same proud idiocy that the real-life jerk performs with." On behalf of all those proud idiots, we have just one thing to say to that ... Ouch!
We'll be liveblogging the episode right here on this very site, so come back here around 10 PM EST if you'd like some nerdy game discussion with your animated prime time TV.
Shin Sangoku Musou 5 (aka. Dynasty Warriors 6) is Koei's latest installment in their popular hack and slash series. Shin Sangoku Musou 5 is said to greatly vary from past games in the series as players are now able to make their character swim, climb, control rowboats, destroy walls, and be able to pull off "unlimited combos" with the use of the new "renbu" system.
Dueling from Shin Sangoku Musou 3 is set to return, but this go-around is quite different from the earlier installment. Duels take place on the battlefield and the nearby soldiers will circle around the two fighters, instead of the duel being on a random plain that was not there seconds before. The A.I. has also be enhanced: enemies are now able to adapt to the players actions, i.e. if the player continually attacks enemies from behind, they will adapt to this and attempt to avoid the player's attacks.
Wild animals such as wolves and tigers are also in the game, and can attack the character or on some occasions, become allies. Sneak attacks and ambushes have been implemented, as well as the increased importance of strongholds.
WASHINGTON (Nov. 7) - Millions of Chinese-made toys for children have been pulled from shelves in North America and Australia after scientists found they contain a chemical that converts into a powerful date rape drug when ingested. Two children in the U.S. and three in Australia were hospitalized after swallowing the beads.
With only seven weeks until Christmas, the recall is yet another blow to toy industry - already bruised by a slew of recalls this past summer.
Millions of Aqua Dots art sets were recalled on Nov. 7 after several children in the U.S. and Australia were hospitalized. The toys contain beads coated with a chemical that converts into a powerful date rape drug when ingested.
In the United States, the toy goes by the name Aqua Dots, a highly popular holiday toy distributed by Toronto-based Spin Master Toys. They are called Bindeez in Australia, where they were named toy of the year at an industry function earlier this year.
It could not immediately be learned whether Aqua Dots beads are made in the same factories as the Bindeez product. Both are sold by Australia-based Moose Enterprises.
The toy beads are sold in general merchandise stores and over the Internet for use in arts and crafts projects. They can be arranged into designs and fused together when sprayed with water.
Scientists say a chemical coating on the beads, when ingested, metabolizes into the so-called date rape drug gamma hydroxy butyrate. When eaten, the compound - made from common and easily available ingredients - can induce unconsciousness, seizures, drowsiness, coma and death.
Naren Gunja from Australia's Poisons Information Center said the drug's effect on children was "quite serious ... and potentially life-threatening."
The recall was announced by the Consumer Product Safety Commission on Wednesday several hours after published reports about the recall in Australia.
The two U.S. children who swallowed Aqua Dot beads went into nonresponsive comas, commission spokesman Scott Wolfson said Wednesday afternoon.
In Australia, the toys were ordered off store shelves on Tuesday when officials learned that a 2-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl were hospitalized after swallowing the beads. A 19-month-old toddler also was being treated.
The news jolted the toy industry because Aqua Dots has been one of the few bright stars of the toy selling season, which, along with overall retailing, has gotten off to a sluggish start. The item, which had been heavily advertised, had appeared on many toy experts' list of must-have holiday toys, and toy sellers are now in the midst of canceling advertising and scrambling to figure out how to replace it.
Chris Byrne, a New York-based toy consultant, noted that the incidents could have been isolated, and Spin Master may be erring on the side of caution.
"This is something that they could not have foreseen. This is an extremely hot toy. ... It's a little scary," Byrne said.
In a statement, Toys "R" Us Inc., said that it issued on Tuesday a "stop sale" on the entire Spin Master Aqua Dots product line in its North American stores and on its Web site after it learned of the news. "We understand that Spin Master and U.S. regulatory authorities are investigating this product and we have asked Spin Master to fully explain what it believes happened," said the toy seller in a statement.
Meanwhile, a separate recall was announced for 405,000 children's products made in China, most of them toy cars, because of dangerous levels of lead.
The recall includes about 380,000 Pull-Back Action Toy Cars imported by Dollar General Merchandising Inc. of Goodlettsville, Tenn., and 7,500 Dragster and Funny Car toys imported by International Sourcing Ltd. of Springfield, Mo.
Four of the recalled products were imported by Schylling Associates Inc. of Rowley, Mass., including the items Duck Family Collectable Wind-Up Toy, Dizzy Ducks Music Box, "Robot 2000" collectable tin robot and Winnie-the-Pooh Spinning Top. The company recalled another 66,000 spinning tops Aug. 22.
Representatives from Schylling Associates Inc. were not immediately available for comment.
Wednesday's recalls include about 7,200 "Big Red" Wagons imported by Northern Tool & Equipment Co. of Burnsville, Minn. Totaling about 405,700, the recalled children's products all had excessive levels of lead in their surface paint.
Although no illnesses connected to the toy car recall have been reported, lead is toxic if ingested by young children. Children's products found to have more than 0.06 percent lead accessible to users are subject to a recall.
It is official now, that 65nm Cell and RSX chips are coming to Sony Playstation 3 in the first quarter of the year 2008, and it seems that all the Playstation 3 models will receive this upgrade as well. Also, Sony is currently working with Toshiba and IBM in an attempt to make 32nm chips possible on Playstation 3. http://www.xuecast.com/?p=208
Regardless of what those oh-so-knowledgeable analysts had to say, we all knew this day was coming. Yep, that highly-touted, totally "impenetrable" copy protection technology known as BD+ has officially been brought to its knees, and it's not at all surprising to hear that we have SlySoft to thank.
Speaking to Weekly Famitsu in Japan, Sony Computer Entertainment President and CEO, Kaz Hirai, talked about a number of topics related to Sony's PlayStation business.
Regarding Sony's Home virtual world service for the PlayStation 3, which was officially delayed to Spring 2008 (the service remains in beta), Hirai noted that he's actually not very happy with its current state and he wants to make sure Home makes a big impact when it finally does make its debut.
"...we believe the delay would have a positive effect. I personally am not satisfied with the current version of Home," he said. "This is a very big project for the PS3 and we want to make sure that we deliver to our hearts content. We hope everyone will look forward to its spring release next year."
Highly recomend uninstall old 5.0 version before install this one!
Changes:
5.0 version compatible with 64-bit systems now.
Added 71 symbol limit protection in out path for mp4box.
More MPEG files open without "Don`t know" errors.
Added XviD codec encoding.
Unlocked BlackBerry formats.
LG Prada use XviD 1.2 encoding now.
MP4 PSP 3.30 renamed to MP4 PSP AVC.
Added MP4 PSP ASP (XviD4PSP).
To menu AviSynth added Play in WMP or MPC - you set high volume, limitedsharpen + vivid and enjoy realtime video filtering + loud volume on yout laptop.
Default profiles HQ Turbo now.
Profiles cleaned form useless profiles.
To MP4, MKV, 3GP, AVI, MOV, MP4 PS3, MP4 XBOX 360 added Lossless profiles.
Added for MKV added AC3 encoding (don`t work in AVI).
Fixed 0ch bug in Nero encoding.
Channels don`t up or down mix without high need now. Let create mono and 5.1 files.
Out aspect switch work better now.
XviD4PSP 5.025 beta update
Fixed Microsoft Groove problem.
App don`t crash now if crash OpenDialog.
Added AVI Hardware and AVI Hardware HD formats.
XviD profiles tuned to better quality (for AVI types only).
Added encoding to MP2 and PCM.
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has moved quickly to dismiss a report claiming that the 40GB PlayStation 3 suffers from a 40 per cent failure rate as "totally inaccurate".
The report appeared on Dutch website Gamed.nl but appears to have since been removed.
"We are very proud of the quality and reliability of PlayStation 3 and are disappointed that such extremely sloppy journalism has resulted in this totally inaccurate story," Sony Europe boss David Reeves said in a statement.
"Since launching the 40GB PS3, we have experienced a fantastic jump in sales and the failure rates have remained at the very low level that we not only strive for, but have been achieving since the launch of PS3."
The 40GB PS3 launched in the UK on October 10, priced at GBP 299.
Sony’s latest update to the PS3’s on-board firmware, version 2.0, is now live and available to download, and brings with it a host of new functions – though not the expected ability to access the XMB whilst playing games.
The biggest new feature is the new Remote Start Up, which allows PSP owners to turn on their PS3 from afar and access content stored on the machine’s hard drive. A statement from Sony explains:
"Firmware 2.00 will cement the partnership between PS3 and PSP and create a truly global experience.
“With the ability to turn your PS3 on and off from wi-fi connection, there is now the opportunity to listen to the music, look at the photos and watch the videos saved on the PS3 HDD anywhere in the world."
Other tweaks include the ability to make playlists for both your MP3s and your pictures, enhanced Trend Web Micro Security for parental control and a new Information Board that updates itself with PlayStation-related news.
And whilst the XMB is still not accessible in-game, the XMB screen itself is now more customisable, with the ability to change colour or set a custom theme.
Good old Lair for PS3 has been delayed by at least a couple of weeks according to retailers speaking to Eurogamer, with the game now listed as 23rd November by many.
The swoopy-around Factor 5 dragon-riding game - which for better or worse makes extensive use of the Sixaxis motion sensor - has been out across the pond for some time, but we're still waiting on it over here.
We had expected to finally get our hands on it tomorrow, but apparently it's not to be due to an unspecified manufacturing issue - although Sony hasn't confirmed the reason for the delay at the time of writing.
Super Mario Galaxy for the Nintendo Wii has rocketed into the Japanese software chart at number one, selling over a quarter of a million units in its first week on sale, according to the latest data from Media Create.
That represents a number that's almost equal to the rest of the top ten put together, despite Ace Combat 6 entering the chart at number two, and Final Fantasy Tactics A2 continuing to sell well.
The Xbox 360 flying action game sold 77,000 units, and was one of three titles in the top 30 for Microsoft's platform, otherwise dominated for the most part by DS, which accounted for over half of titles.
The full list is as follows:
1. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
2. Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation (360)
3. Final Fantasy Tactics A2 (DS)
4. Super Robot Wars Scramble Commander the 2nd (PS2)
5. DS Literature Collection (DS)
6. DS Nishimura Kyotarou Suspense Detective Series: Deadly Intent (DS)
7. Wii Sports (Wii)
8. Flash Focus: Vision Training in Minutes a Day (DS)
9. World Soccer Winning Eleven DS: Goal to Goal (DS)
10. Pokemon Mysterious Dungeon: Time Expedition Party (DS)
SouthPeak Games has announced a studio license agreement with Epic Games for use of the Unreal Engine 3 in the development of its upcoming videogame titles worldwide.
The agreement is in effect throughout the life of the UE3 technology application across all major platforms including downloadable content.
"Independent developers need more opportunities to bring their games to market with next-generation technology," said Katie Morgan, executive vice president at SouthPeak Games.
"UE3 provides developers all the tools and resources necessary to build great games and SouthPeak is giving talented developers a chance to focus on creating their games without spending the resources to create an engine to support it."
"We see this as a landmark agreement for Epic and the UE3 technology because of SouthPeak's focus on independent developers," said Epic's Mark Rein. "They are going to bring UE3 to a group of developers that have fantastic games but would typically have to wait a long time to work with our award-winning game engine."
The next SouthPeak release under the new studio license is Monster Madness EX: Battle for Suburbia, currently under development by Psyonix Studios for the PS3.
Welcome to this week's Games & Toys update, our weekly summary featuring all new product arrivals from the last seven days.
As we are heading towards Christmas, one hot release week is following after another. Especially the Xbox360™ seems to be very strong this Winter with plenty of interesting new games released.
Starting with top Xbox360™, Activision's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare has been the biggest mover; the title is currently on backorder, a restock date has not been confirmed. Other hot games have been the Asia release versions of Timeshift, Clive Barker's Jericho, Viva Pinata: Party Animals, NBA 2K8 and an English language version of Eternal Sonata.
PlayStation3™ software supply hasn't been too bad either, with Midway's Stranglehold (Regular / Collector's Edition), Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Bundle and The Simpsons Game.
Not to forget as well, Koei's Shin Sangoku Musou 5 has already hit shelves as Asia versions, available for both HD console platforms.
Top Wii™ sellers have been the US versions of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Bundle and Battalion Wars 2. For PlayStation2™ we've got Rockstargames' Manhunt 2 (also available for PSP™).
Looking at popular handheld releases, Dementium: The Ward, Mario Party DS and Yosumin.have been leading sales for Nintendo DS™, while Silent Hill: Origins (as English Asia version), Akumajou Dracula X Chronicle (Japanese / Asia / Konamistyle Limited Edition) and Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness have been strong PSP™ movers.
Last but not least, with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Hellgate London and Timeshift, three interesting PC game releases have also become available.
As usually, here's a summary of all new releases from this week,
Xbox360™:
Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation US US$ 59.90
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare ASIA US$ 49.90
Clive Barker's Jericho ASIA US$ 49.90
Conan US US$ 59.90
Eternal Sonata (English language Version) ASIA US$ 44.90
F.E.A.R. Files US US$ 49.90
Gears of War (Platinum Collection) ASIA US$ 29.90
Just Cause: Viva Revolution JPN US$ 64.90
Major League Baseball 2K7 JPN US$ 64.90
NBA 2K8 ASIA US$ 49.90
NBA Live 08 JPN US$ 64.90
Naruto: Rise of a Ninja US US$ 59.90
Shin Sangoku Musou 5 JPN US$ 68.90
Shin Sangoku Musou 5 ASIA US$ 64.90
Shin Sangoku Musou 5 [Treasure Box] JPN US$ 129.90
Shin Sangoku Musou 5 [Treasure Box] ASIA US$ 119.90
The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles US US$ 34.90
The Simpsons Game US US$ 64.90
Timeshift ASIA US$ 49.90
Timeshift US US$ 59.90
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 JPN US$ 64.90
Virtua Fighter 5 US US$ 59.90
Viva Pinata: Party Animals US US$ 49.90
Viva Pinata: Party Animals ASIA US$ 44.90
Xbox 360 Rechargeable Battery Pack (Light Blue) ASIA US$ 14.90
Xbox 360 Rechargeable Battery Pack (Pink) ASIA US$ 14.90
Xbox 360 Wireless Controller (Light Blue) ASIA US$ 44.90
Xbox 360 Wireless Controller (Pink) ASIA US$ 44.90 PlayStation3™:
Cars: Mater-National US US$ 49.90
FragFX Controller US US$ 59.90
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Bundle ASIA US$ 129.90
NBA Live 08 JPN US$ 64.90
Playstation 3 Eye Camera US US$ 39.90
Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction JPN US$ 59.90
Shin Sangoku Musou 5 ASIA US$ 64.90
Shin Sangoku Musou 5 JPN US$ 68.90
Shin Sangoku Musou 5 (w/ PlayStation3 Console 40GB Ceramic White) JPN N/A
Shin Sangoku Musou 5 [Treasure Box] ASIA N/A
Shin Sangoku Musou 5 [Treasure Box] JPN US$ 129.90
Stranglehold US US$ 64.90
Stranglehold [Collector's Edition] US US$ 72.90
The Eye of Judgment Booster Pack (Japanese) JPN US$ 4.90
The Simpsons Game ASIA US$ 49.90
The Simpsons Game US US$ 64.90
Nintendo Wii™:
Battalion Wars 2 US US$ 49.90
Ben 10: Protector of Earth US US$ 44.90
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Bundle US US$ 129.90
Hooked! Real Motion Fishing (w/ Controller) US US$ 69.90
The Simpsons Game US US$ 49.90
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 JPN US$ 59.90
PlayStation2™:
Ben 10: Protector of Earth US US$ 34.90
Buzz The Mega Quiz Bundle (w/ Buzzers) US US$ 49.90
Buzz! Junior: Jungle Party US US$ 34.90
Buzz! Junior: Jungle Party Bundle (w/ Buzzers) US US$ 49.90
Buzz! The Mega Quiz US US$ 34.90
Cars: Mater-National US US$ 44.90
Guitar Hero & Guitar Hero II Dual Pack US US$ 59.90
Kuri no Okurimono JPN US$ 64.90
Kuri no Okurimono [First Print Special Edition] JPN US$ 64.90
Manhunt 2 US US$ 49.90
NBA Live 08 JPN US$ 64.90
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent (Ubisoft the Best) JPN US$ 34.90
Nintendo DS™:
Ben 10: Protector of Earth US US$ 34.90
Cars: Mater-National US US$ 34.90
Dementium: The Ward US US$ 34.90
El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera US US$ 34.90
Interactive Storybook DS Series 2 US US$ 24.90
Interactive Storybook DS Series 3 US US$ 24.90
Katei no Igaku: DS de Kitaeru Shokuzai Kenkou Training JPN US$ 39.90
Mario Party DS JPN US$ 48.90
Neves US US$ 34.90
O.M.G. 26 - Our Mini Games US US$ 24.90
Ratatouille Food Frenzy US US$ 34.90
Super Collapse! 3 US US$ 34.90
The Simpsons Game US US$ 34.90
The Suite Life of Zack & Cody: Circle of Spies US US$ 34.90
Yosumin. DS JPN US$ 29.90
Sony PSP™:
Ben 10: Protector of Earth US US$ 34.90
Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles / Akumajou Dracula X Chronicle ASIA US$ 39.90
Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles / Akumajou Dracula X Chronicle JPN US$ 48.90
Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles / Akumajou Dracula X Chronicle [Konamistyle Limited Edition] JPN US$ 99.90
Die Hard JPN US$ 27.90
Die Hard 2 JPN US$ 27.90
Die Hard 3 JPN US$ 27.90
Die Hard 4.0 JPN US$ 27.90
Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness US US$ 39.90
Gremlins JPN US$ 9.90
Manhunt 2 US US$ 39.90
Minna no Golf Ba Vol. 4 JPN US$ 58.90
Minna no Golf Ba Vol. 4 (w/ GPS Receiver) JPN US$ 95.00
NBA Live 08 JPN US$ 48.90
Namco Museum Vol.2 KOR US$ 49.90
Silent Hill: Origins (English language Version) ASIA US$ 39.90
Tales of The World: Radiant Mythology (PSP the Best) JPN US$ 29.90
Under Siege JPN US$ 9.90
Xyanide Resurrection ASIA US$ 34.90
Zodiac JPN US$ 14.90
PC Games:
Bazooka Cafe US US$ 29.90
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (DVD-ROM) ASIA US$ 34.90
Fifa Manager 08 (DVD-ROM) ASIA US$ 39.90
Hellgate: London (DVD-ROM) US US$ 52.90
NBA Live 08 (DVD ROM) ASIA US$ 36.90
Timeshift (DVD-ROM) ASIA US$ 34.90
Books & Guides:
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Official Strategy Guide US US$ 19.90
Clive Barker's Jericho: Prima Official Game Guide US US$ 16.90
Fire Emblem: Prima Official Game Guide US US$ 19.90
Folklore Official Strategy Guide US US$ 17.90
Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga Prima Official Game Guide US US$ 16.90
Manhunt 2 Signature Series Guide US US$ 17.90
Naruto: Rise of a Ninja Prima Official Game Guide US US$ 19.90
Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction Signature Series Guide US US$ 17.90
Resident Evil 2008 Calendar US US$ 16.90
Super Mario Galaxy Collector's Edition: Prima Official Game Guide US US$ 29.90
Tomb Raider Anniversary (360 & PS2): Prima Official Game Guide US US$ 19.90
Virtua Fighter 5 Official Strategy Guide US US$ 16.90
Toys & More:
Animal Crossing DS Stylus JPN US$ 3.99
Assassin's Creed 7" Action Figure: Altair US$ 16.90
Bible Black 1/6 Scale Pre-painted PVC Figure: Kaori Saeki JPN N/A
God of War Action Figure 7'': Kratos Ares Armor (closed mouth vers.) US$ 14.90
God of War Action Figure 7'': Kratos Ares Armor (open mouth vers.) US$ 14.90
Ikkitousen: 1/7 Scale Painted Figure - Ryofu Housen (Gothic Lolita Version) JPN N/A
Jingai Makyo Chaos Gate 1/6 Scale Painted PVC Figure: Ignis The White JPN N/A
Nohohon Nonbiri Island's Leaf Windmill US$ 21.90
Onegai Teacher Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Mizuho Kazami Wedding Dress Limited (Pink Version) JPN US$ 24.90
Revoltech Yamaguchi Series No. 34 Macross Non Scale Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Super Valkyrie VF-1J Ichijo Hikaru Type (TV Version) JPN US$ 19.90
Revoltech Yamaguchi Series No. 36 Macross Non Scale Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Strike Valkyrie VF-1 S Foccer Type (Movie Version) JPN N/A
The Idolm@ster Xenoglossia 1/8 Scale Pre-painted PVC Figure: Haruka Amami (Swimming Suit Version) JPN N/A
World of Warcraft Series 1: Blood Elf Rogue - Valeera Sanguinar Collector Figure N/A
World of Warcraft Series 1: Dwarf Warrior - Thargas Anvilmar Collector Figure N/A
World of Warcraft Series 1: Orc Shaman - Rehgar Earthfury Collector Figure N/A
World of Warcraft Series 1: Undead Warlock - Meryl Felstorm Collector Figure N/A
Video Game related Soundtracks:
Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles / Akumajou Dracula X Chronicle Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 38.90
Que Perfect Vocal Collection JPN US$ 27.90
It is a day of great celebration in the countries of Greece, Poland, Saudi Arabia, and the Czech Republic, as Sony Computer Entertainment Europe launches for new iterations of the PlayStation Store for these poor, underprivileged areas.
"When we launched PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3™) in March, we promised that we would continue to improve the service throughout the SCEE territories and offer more stores to new regions as quickly as possible," said Chris Stanton-Jones, VP of Distributor Markets for SCEE. "The launch of these four new stores highlights our commitment both to improving our offering and the importance of these increasingly dynamic markets.
I would have thought they'd have gotten to this sooner, seeing as Europe is the most important continent, but you can't complain when four new countries get access to the most awesome rubber duckie game ever created.
The compilation of the data, shown below, is especially timely due to the NPD Group’s recent decision to scale down its release of monthly sales figures. Everyone loves knowing who’s selling how many consoles and games, and Next-Gen is always happy to provide our own monthly statistical breakdown of NPD numbers. To that effect, like many, we’re none-too-pleased with NPD’s recent announcement.
Hopefully these numbers will do for now, and serve to provoke some healthy debate on the likes of the 360’s high installed user-base and software attachment rate, the increasing momentum of the Wii approaching the holiday season, and the continued efforts of Sony’s PS3 to stake more than just a Bronze place on the podium.
Note that the totals shown are lifetime, not yearly sales. Having totted up the yearly sales figures, the Wii is leading the trio of next-gen home consoles during 2007 having shifted 3,439,400 units, followed by 2,222,900 Xbox 360s and 1,172,500 PS3s.
If you're in the PAL or Asian territories, you may have discovered that your 1.2 GB download of the brand new Uncharted: Drake's Fortune demo won't @!#?@!ing play on your PlayStation 3. It's not a bug, despite it's somewhat awkward behavior. It's intentional. Yes, the Uncharted demo is sadly region specific and won't play on anything but a North American PS3. It's the kind of slap in the face that hurts so much worse after a 1200 MB wait in line.
We contacted Sony Computer Entertainment America who confirmed that the US version "does not allow for cross-region play" and that "the Japanese and PAL demo will both be released soon, but we don't have confirmed release dates." Unfortunately, the delay in the non-North American enjoyment of the Naughty Dog adventure can simply be chalked up to Uncharted's release date in its respective territories. Cold comfort, I know.
Switching resolution on the PS3 isn't too complicated, but if you're trying to do it from memory on a TV that's blank because you've got the wrong settings it's nigh impossible. With the XCM E-SETER, you can quickly push one of the labeled buttons and switch quickly and instantly to the desired setting, bypassing all that Sony Cross Media Bar goodness their programmers worked so hard to port from the PSP. $29.99 [£14] is a bit too much if you rarely use this, but if you're taking your PS3 to your friends' houses to show off how great Heavenly Sword and Folklore are, you probably stopped reading and ordered this already.
It hasn't exactly been easy to pin down the exact type of chips used in the new 40GB PlayStation 3s, but Sony's Kaz Hirai now appears to have finally put the matter to rest -- at least for now.
In an interview with the folks at Impress, he said that the new model does in fact use the swanky new 65nm process for the Cell chip after all, but not for the system's RSX graphics chip, which gets stuck with the same power-hungry 90nm chip as before.
Despite that, Hirai says that the new Cell chip alone is enough to "cut the power usage of the system considerably," an amount that had previously been been reported as 120 to 140 watts (down from 200 watts before).
In related news, Hirai also confirmed that neither the 20 or 60GB models (with their increased backwards compatibility) are in production at the moment, but he said that "depending on how the market reacts, it's possible for Sony to produce them again."
By Margot Carmichael Lester
Here are the facts, ladies. Two-thirds of all men in television-owning households between the ages of 18 and 34 have videogame consoles, according to media research company, Nielsen. That means your chances of going with a gaming guy are pretty high.
What can his choice of gaming system tell you about him? We convened a panel of experts to give you the scoop:
* Carl Arinoldo, Long Island, NY-based psychologist
* Ed Magnin, chairman, Game & Simulation Programming, DeVry University’s Dallas Metro campus
* Ted Owen, CEO, GGL, an online gaming network in Santa Monica, CA
* Shane Satterfield, editor-in-chief, Santa Monica-based GameTrailers.com, an online gaming site
Q: What does a PlayStation reveal about a dude?
Arinoldo: The PlayStation 3 may indicate that the user is any “early-adopter,” someone who likes to be the first on the block to have things. Owning the PS3 may also send the message that the person may have deep pockets.
Owen: This is your 21st-century individual who enjoys gaming and demands the best out of his experience—and probably his women. The PS3 guy enjoys life to its fullest. He is sophisticated, intelligent, enjoys competition and is willing to wait for a good thing. He is loyal as well.
Satterfield: This guy is in the know. He knows the right people, goes to the best restaurants and doesn’t wait in line to get into the club. This guy will be difficult to keep up with, as he is always working. When he’s not, he uses videogames as a chance to unwind and relax.
Q. What does a Wii tell a gal about her potential date? Owen: That he is selfish about his passion, but he knows the Wii is acceptable because of its social interaction functionality. He is smart enough to find a way to continue to game and not scare his date away.
Magnin: Wii says he’s a fun guy. The Wii-mote will force him to get up off the couch and actually get a little exercise while he’s playing. Of all of the consoles, the Wii is probably the best date machine, as a lot more of the games appeal to both sexes. Challenge him to a game of tennis or bowling.
Satterfield: This guy is not the typical slack-jawed, bleary-eyed gamer who wants to sit on the couch staring blankly at the screen for hours on end. You can rest assured that this type of guy is smart with his money as the Wii is only $250 compared to $399 for the Xbox 360 and $599 for the PlayStation.
Q. And what does the Xbox divulge about its owner? Arinoldo: There is a wide variety of games available through the Xbox 360... so one may be better able to find games in common with a significant other who may not be an avid gamer. Preferring the Xbox 360 may say that the owner is willing to play cooperatively.
Magnin: Xbox 360 says he’s probably into serious gaming. Take a look at his game stats. Ask him to show you how many hours he spent playing his favorite games. Many guys log 100 to 200 hours on their favorite games.
Satterfield: These guys tend to like extremely violent, visceral games, as well as the social aspect of connecting with friends online. They may be living out an active and social life through games, because they are a bit on the shy side. Xbox 360 fans tend to make good money and like to spend it. These guys are passionate about gaming and that transfers into the bedroom as well.
Of course, these expert opinions won’t apply to all men who own these consoles, so don’t consider them absolutes. But they should help you gain some solid clues about that videogame-playing guy you’re seeing.
This isnt gaming or homebrew related but its one of the funniest things that ive read about for ages and even funnier because both of my children attend the school in question, heres the news posted in the times:
A stripper peeled off her clothes and whipped a 16-year-old student in front of his class, ensuring that the boy’s mother had achieved her aim of providing a birthday surprise he would never forget.
But it was not the surprise gift that she had intended when she booked a man dressed in a gorilla suit.
Arnold Hill School in Nottingham launched an inquiry yesterday into the bizarre sequence of events after the stripper performed a significant chunk of her routine before the shocked teacher intervened.
The teenager’s unsuspecting mother had asked an agency to provide her son with a birthday surprise, even getting his teacher to agree to film it on a phone.
But a stripper dressed as a police-woman turned up instead. A student who witnessed the routine said: “She asked the lad to stand up, which he did, and told him he had been ‘a very naughty boy’ because he hadn’t been doing his homework.
“Then she put on some Britney Spears music and got out a collar and lead from her bag and told him to put them on. No one could believe it. Next she ordered him to get on all fours, led him around the classroom and hit him sixteen times ? one for each year ? on the bottom with her whip.”
The stripper then stripped down to her bra and panties before inviting the student to rub cream on her ? at which point his shocked teacher finally stepped in.“To be fair to the teacher, you could tell she was just stunned and when the cream came out she told the stripper, ‘That’s it. That’s enough.’
“The boy just ran out, and the stripper very calmly put her things back in her bag and walked out of the room. No one has been suspended, but the teachers have just asked us all to keep quiet.”
A spokeswoman for the school said: “There was an incident, we are aware of it, and it is being dealt with.”
Nottinghamshire County Council confirmed that it was investigating the incident but police are not involved.
It is not known whether the stripper, who managed to evade the school’s security measures, was booked through an agency.
As a parent of 2 at the school its a concern that someone got in without being checked but what a lucky lad to have a stripper in his class at school.
I do hope the teacher doesnt get the sack over it but its hilarious
If i can get pics of it ill post a new post at some stage
As you should already know, Tekken 5 online and the Motorstorm content are the big ones in this week's PSN update, but there's are a few other worthwhile treats too.
PSone fans get their nostalgic treat in the form of Cool Boarders (although it's pretty dated, so only grab it for that nostalgic value), and those looking forward to giving EA's new Need for Speed: Pro Street a run now can with the new demo.
There's some Folklore goodies in there for you too. Here's the list with prices:
After plenty of commotion surrounding when on earth it's actually going to be released, SCEE has finally come around a stuck a date on the PS3 version of Singstar - and good news, girls, it'll be out in time for Christmas.
December 7 is the date you'll be able to pick it up in the shops. It of course comes complete with all its fancy new "game 3.0" features like the music store and online community, where you can post videos of yourself getting drunk and singing Westlife.
Apparently, there's also something going on at the 02 Arena where you can try the game out. We're not going anywhere near it without at least three pints of cider in us.
Look for the review shortly before release. It's going to be fun.
Epic Games' Mark Rein says that he hopes Unreal Tournament 3 will be released on PlayStation 3 this year but he doesn't think it will make it to Europe until 2008.
"Right now we're very close to a release candidate, and we should have it finished by the end of this week," he told Eurogamer at an event in Birmingham yesterday. "Then we send it off and it's just a matter of what happens from there."
"We think there's a very solid shot we'll get out this year - I don't know about Europe. Europe's a problem because the certification process in Europe takes longer.
"They're testing all these different languages in all these different countries, so I doubt it'll be released this year in Europe. But I don't know. We'll have to cross our fingers and wait and see."
However, he reckons the PS3 version is "really solid".
"Go play the game!" he ordered. "This build is really solid. On the test we ran on this build there were an amazingly small number of issues. We were surprised at how few issues there were."
Speaking at an interactive entertainment conference, Oberon Media chairman Tal Kerret said that he doesn't think the PlayStation 3 is ready for their casual games.
Oberon Media recently acquired iPlay and PixelPlay, expanding its casual games reach to include mobile, interactive TV, PC and Console Software.
The company has had some success with casual games on the Xbox 360 through Xbox Live Arcade, but has yet to deliver content for the Wii or the PlayStation 3.
"Xbox was a great opportunity that they opened up to get content that can be downloaded, that can be controlled in a more open way for the consumers and for the developers," Kerret said.
"I didn't see a phenomenal success on Wii for allowing people to download games."
With the PS3, Kerret thinks that they are still trying to figure it out.
"We focus on where can we get the fastest reach to consumers, the fastest way to provide them with the content, and the easiest way where we can provide some service to the developers.
"If we can't bring value to the developers, then for us it is just yet another outlet that we take our content and port it to," he explained.
"If it is a porting question, then I would ask my self many other questions. What comes first? We are dealing with so many things, as you've seen."
Even so, Oberon's chairman did say that the company definitely planned to look at gaming consoles other than the Xbox 360.
"So we'll take some of these games, yes, to the Wii, the PS3...the PS3 is not yet ready for it, but when they are ready.
"DS is more appropriate for some of these titles. Hopefully, we'll create some success stories there."
Microsoft's Xbox 360 has seen a massive sales boost in Japan, with the system managing to outsell Sony's PlayStation 3, according to data from Media Create.
The Microsoft console sold 17,673 units compared to only 3718 the previous week, fuelled by the uptake of Namco Bandai's Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation, which debuted in the Japanese charts at number two this week.
Sony's PlayStation 3 sold 17,434 units, a drop in performance compared to last week's 18,785 units. Sales of the PlayStation 2 also dropped, with 10,209 units sold.
However, the latest handhelds are still the best-selling consoles in the region with the DS shifting 78,597 units and the PSP 59,714 units during the same period.
And Nintendo continues to outperform both Sony and Microsoft by racking up another 37,617 sales of the Wii during the past week, helped in part by the release of first-party title Super Mario Galaxy.
Sir Howard Stringer said that Blu-ray is currently in a "stalemate" with HD DVD.
Speaking in Manhattan, Sony's CEO downplayed the importance of the battle, however, saying that it was mostly a matter of prestige whose format wins out in the end.
The HD DVD format is chiefly backed by Toshiba and Microsoft.
"We were trying to win on the merits, which we were doing for a while, until Paramount changed sides," Stringer said, in reference to the movie studio's recent decision to drop Blu-ray in support of HD DVD, for which it received USD 150 million from HD DVD proponents.
"It doesn't mean as much as all that," Stringer said. He believed that there was an opportunity of uniting the two camps under one format before he became CEO of Sony, and wishes he could travel back in time to make that happen.
Stringer was more positive about the PlayStation 3, noting that it has become the best-selling console in Europe after a price cut three weeks ago. The recent US price cut has doubled sales.
"We are coming back up again," Stringer said.
Sony aims to sell 10 million PS3 consoles by March, the end of its fiscal year.
A new free online mode for FIFA 08 on PS3 and Xbox 360 that allows ten players to play in a single match over the 'net has been launched.
"Be A Pro: Online Team Play in FIFA 08 enables up to five friends on five different consoles to select and take control of their own individual players on the same team, supported by AI teammates, to play against up to five rivals playing on five different consoles of another team", EA explains.
It adds that the mode is automatically available when your Xbox 360 or PS3 is connected online.
All three platform holders have told MCV that stock of PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii hardware may not meet demand over the festive period.
Microsoft's regional VP Chris Lewis added: "We're working hard to make sure that shortages don't happen. Inevitably the odd pocket of the EMEA region will have the odd blip, but we've got a lot better at this over the years."
Last week, only two vids in the movies folder on my PC turned up in the PS3's browser (both were mpegs). Now [with FW v2.00]? The Xvid and DivX vids are showing up as well. Course they don't actually play, you'll just get a "corrupted" message if you try, but Sony wouldn't have increased the compatibility in there for shits and giggles. Would they?
There has been no shortage of speculation on a PlayStation 3 release of critical and commercial darling BioShock, but 2K Games, Microsoft and Ken Levine have done their best to smash any rumors about such a port. And while we're growing quite tired of being emotionally torn apart at the seams by a potential PS3 version, the rumor has cropped up one more time. This time the source of the talk is EGM's long running editorial nom de plume Quartermann. "There's a change in the tide, as the world of Rapture may be Cell-enabled in 2008," Quartermann writes.
The Logitech® Vantage™ USB Microphone enhances your favourite PLAYSTATION®3 karaoke games with high-quality audio input.
Sing along with a USB microphone that ensures high-quality audio input.
Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick has clarified that Grand Theft Auto IV will still release in the company's second fiscal quarter - between February and April 2008.
Last week, Zelnick told a BMO Capital Markets conference that the company was not ready to announce a firm date for the highly-anticipated title.
This was taken by some to mean that the previously announced launch window - between the start of February and the end of April 2008 - was not set in stone.
But Zelnick, speaking to Gamespot, has stated that he only meant that Take-Two and developer Rockstar did not want to name an exact date yet.
"I wasn't intending to be newsworthy," Zelnick said. "When asked about the release date, I confirmed the previous release date we'd given, which is our second fiscal quarter. That's to say sometime between the beginning of February and the end of April."
There are early indications that Guitar Hero III has had a significant impact on record sales for bands featured in the game.
The game, subtitled Legends of Rock, was released in the US at the end of October. It will launch in Europe on 23 November.
Hard rock label Roadrunner Records said that sales of DragonForce's album "Inhuman Rampage" increased 126% week-on-week in the wake of Guitar Hero III's release. DragonForce's song "Through the Fire and Flames" is featured as an unlockable bonus track in Guitar Hero III.
Slipknot, another Roadrunner artist featured in the game, also saw its album sales increase.
The news follows comments made by EA's Steve Schnur at Games Convention Asia in September. Schnur asserted that games were now more relevant than radio when it comes to promoting new music.
US sales figures for Guitar Hero III are not yet available, but Activision is expecting the music title to be one of its top sellers this year. Its extensive marketing campaign for the game has included sponsorship of the Sex Pistols' reunion concerts in London last week.
Lazard Capital analyst Colin Sebastian has predicted that THQ will retain its focus on Nintendo platforms and Microsoft's Xbox 360 - and be slow to increase its commitment to PS3.
Sebastian made his prediction after hosting investor meetings with THQ managament. The meetings followed the company's recent announcement of disappointing results for the second quarter of its fiscal 2008.
"We expect THQ to remain more closely aligned with Nintendo and Microsoft platforms over the next couple of years," Sebastian said.
"This reflects THQ’s historical strength on handhelds (GBA and DS), increasing development slate for Nintendo’s Wii, early success with titles on the Xbox 360 (e.g. Saints Row) and a slower ramp on the PS3."
He also said that THQ was optimistic for the success of its next title licensed from a Pixar fim. Wall-E is expected to have "broader consumer appeal" than recent release Ratatouille.
THQ also has high hopes for sequels to its own properties, Saints Row and Red Faction. It expects that 40 per cent of its revenues will come from internal studios in fiscal 2008, up from 30 per cent in fiscal 2006.
I enthusiastically recommend HD DVD because it's a better product and a better proposition for consumers. Signs are showing it is going to trounce Blu-ray, and soon. Surprised? Read on.
For those looking for a single sentence explaining why go with HD DVD: It's a better thought-out, more solid product than Blu-ray, it is half the price, and picture and sound quality are identical. At less than $200 including seven or more movies, HD DVD players are a stunning value. Why pay twice the money when Blu-ray has serious issues and the movies look and sound the same?
I smile when I see people buying HD DVD players based on bargain pricing, because they are unknowingly getting the Ferrari as well! Despite its purported superiority and much higher cost, Blu-ray is the emperor with no clothes. HD DVD has been superior since day one.
On the other hand, at launch Blu-ray's picture quality was horrible, generating barbs such as "needs to go to the scrap heap" and "who in their right mind would ever like this?" Though they have since closed the picture quality gap, almost all Blu-ray player models announced or existing are already obsolete. They conform to an early player profile that does not support upcoming disc features. Profiles should have been finalized before product launch! Blu-ray's record has been spotty at best, and if you say it sounds like they have been fixing it as they go along, I'd say you are right.
According to this weeks Nielsen VideoScan numbers Blu-ray took the lion's share of the HD movie sales again this week with a 71% to 29% split (2.45:1). It appears that the Transformers' effect wasn't enough to hold off Spidey 3, despite the disappointing sales. What's really interesting is that there is only one HD DVD title in the top ten this week, and to add insult to injury, four of the top ten titles are also available on HD DVD, but didn't sell well enough to make the list.
1. Spider-Man 3 BD 100.00
2. Spider-Man: The High Definition Trilogy BD 71.95
3. Transformers HD 31.42
4. Meet the Robinsons BD 8.82
5. 300 BD 6.56
6. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer BD 5.03
7. License to Wed BD 4.24
8. The Shining BD 4.11
9. Mr. Brooks BD 4.03
10. 2001: A Space Odyssey BD 3.88
Ahead of the release of US videogame software sales data for October, Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter is predicting a 50 per cent increase from the same period last year.
He is forecasting sales of USD 555 million, compared to USD 369 million in October of 2006.
Most of the sales growth was driven by Activision's Guitar Hero III, which accounted for USD 100 million in sales. Pachter's estimate reflects USD 425 in sales from new platforms and USD 130 million in sales from current generation software sales.
Once again, in his estimate, the Wii will lead the market in hardware sales. He estimates sell-through of 450,000 Wii consoles, 325,000 Xbox 360 consoles, and 125,000 PlayStation 3 consoles.
Although share prices for the major videogame publishers have pulled back sharply of late, as investors again appear concerned that next generation console cycle strength will be insufficient to overcome a weakening economy, Pachter disagrees and thinks that solid software sales growth will continue well into 2008.
He expects October revenue to be up for Activision, EA, Majesco, and Take-Two, and down for Atari, Midway, THQ, and Ubisoft.
Epic Games' Mark Rein says that he hopes Unreal Tournament 3 will be released on PlayStation 3 this year but he doesn't think it will make it to Europe until 2008.
"We think there's a very solid shot we'll get out this year - I don't know about Europe. Europe's a problem because the certification process in Europe takes longer.
A Sony CSR admitted to reader Ive that dust should not void a Playstation 3's warranty.
"Ive: I'm calling just to pretty much clarify the PS3's warranty, if there's any clause in the warranty that makes it so that if the PS3 is too dusty that the warranty is void.
CSR: No.
Ive: No?
CSR: No. The only way that it, um, voided is if it was neglected, um, abused, dropped or anything like, modificated like if you opened it up, modification, if you didn't have your receipt, um, any power failures like mother nature or anything like that then that actually does void the warranty. Other than that any defective PS3s or anything like that is still, um, still under the warranty."
Last week's decision by the NPD Group to discontinue posting monthly reports on console hardware sales didn't go over too well. The gaming press hated it because the NPD console numbers are an excellent resource. Gamers hated it because console sales numbers are an excellent source of angry, gloating forum posts. NPD PR rep David Riley was caught unawares by the backlash, but now he's back with good news.
The NPD had been waiting to hear back from the console manufacturers, and now Riley has informed GameDaily BIZ that the "Big 3" are in fact on board. Therefore the NPD will continue to provide media with the monthly hardware sales tally...
Ah sweet, sweet console sales numbers are now ours to behold each month indefinitely, and everyone lived happily ever after. The end.
Play your dance game with an arcade feeling with this dancing mat compatible with Playstation 3, Playstation 2 and PC. Made of high quality material, slip proof and durable, it is perfect to enjoy dancing games to the most!
The e-setter is a device that allow the user to easily set up their TV screen to be used with the Playstation 3 gaming console. It solves an annoying problem of black screen when switching your PS3 from one TV to another.
People who have 2 or more TVs at home wanting to move the PS3 to play on another TV, may find that there is no picture display after moving because the output resolution is different on each TV. They would have to set the PS3 back to original setting on their current TV before move to another TV.
Setting the output of PS3 is complicated, and takes up to half hour to do so.
The e-setter is a device for users to set up the output resolution easily, switch a buttons and get set up in a few seconds.
features
Delve even deeper into the adventure and play through 30 years of the Beowulf story not seen in the movie. Experience more of Beowulf's life and mold your own legacy.
Unlock an army of 4-12 thanes as you increase your heroic experience (by saving thanes, killing giant monsters, etc.).
Carnal Power allows you to use stronger attacks and special weapons such as pillars.
Give orders, assign your army's position, and tailor weapons to the situation or enemy.
Use your army to trigger mechanisms (e.g., open doors) and row Drakar.
Carnal upgrades include less daze after use and prolonged use of Carnal Fury.
Combos, parries, and skills increase as you progress.
Grab allows you to hold on to walls or climb, as well as fight in hand-to-hand combat with enemies and giant monsters.
description
Play Beowulf, an epic hero tormented by desire for power and glory. A slayer and a king – torn between the nobility and brutality within him.
You are Beowulf, legendary Norse warrior with the strength of 30 men. Arrogant, self-serving, and lustful for gold and glory, you journey to Denmark to destroy a bloodthirsty beast wreaking havoc on a frigid land. But evil persists, and you succumb to its lure of even greater fame, quietly maneuvering to claim the Danish throne. As King, you must face the consequences of ambition, even as war descends on the realm. Lead your thanes into battle, slay the Titans of a dying age, and crush the enemies that threaten to annihilate both your kingdom and your people.
Only then, when you look Destiny in the eye, will you know what kind of hero you truly are...
In the 14th century a quarrel over English succession to the French throne escalated into what history would call the Hundred Years’ War. This ongoing war had exhausted the standing armies of both sides and there was a growing dependence on mercenary soldiers.
Now, take charge as a mercenary leader and contract your army to the English and French. With arrows raining from above, knights charging on horseback, and cannoniers firing volleys at heavy infantry, armies will collide in unprecedented scale and startling chaos on the battlefield.
features
Platform: Sony PlayStation 3 and X-Box 360
pages: 496
Concept art and commentary: Prima's Assassins Creed Limited Edition will include revealing interviews with Jade Raymond and the team as well as beautiful artwork revealing the dawning of Altaïr.
High-quality Packaging: Hadcover package with stunning artwork from the team on the cover.
Clean box art: Prima's one-sheet will fall away when the shrinkwrap is removed, leaving pristine art, unmarred by logos, barcodes, or taglines.
A $40 value: The Limited Edition will include the exclusive Assassins Creed Art Book, as well as the complete Assassins Creed strategy guide.
Pages: 464
features
Platform: Sony PlayStation 3 and X-Box 360
pages: 336
Tours of each city explore every peak and street, and give you a road map for mastering the Assassin's Creed world.
Labeled maps detail flags, targets, side quests, and templar locations.
Detailed target walkthroughs let you take to the roofs, sneak through the crowd, and rush in for the kill.
description
Nothing is true. Everything is permitted!
Homebrew on the iPhone/iTouch has today joined the mainstream homebrew scenes with the stunning release of a Full Speed GBA Emulator for the iPhone/iTouch by ZodTTD, the release is unique because the iPhone/iTouch are touch screen gadgets.
The popular DivX video codec will soon be supported on the PlayStation 3 via a future firmware update. DivX CEO Kevin Hell also hinted that support is coming to the 360 as well. 'During the SMid Cap conference call with investment firm JP Morgan, Hell was asked if the recent deal that will see DivX codecs shipped with new versions of Microsoft's standalone Media Center Extenders means that such support will also be arriving on the Xbox 360. "Yes!" was his immediate reply, although he quickly qualified that confirmation with a disclaimer that the deal was still in the negotiation process and had not yet been finalized
The wailing and gnashing of teeth from the game-playing media seems to have gotten through to the NPD group. Despite earlier statements to the contrary, it looks like for the time being they plan to continue to release console sales figures to the press at large. Next Generation reports:
"NPD Group's David Riley admitted in an e-mail Monday, 'Honestly, it was terribly naive of me to think that we could simply stop providing these after giving them freely for a year ... Nothing is going to change. All will remain the same ... The 'Big Three' [Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony] are on board, so we'll be providing these figures indefinitely.'"
If you've been looking forward to a game's release, odds are that it's coming out this week. Gamasutra has the full list of titles hitting stores in the next few days, and it's a tsunami of gaming goodness. Assassin's Creed, Mario Galaxy, and Crysis are probably the three headlining titles, but no console is spared the deluge. PC Highlights: EverQuest: Secrets of Faydwer, EverQuest II: Rise of Kunark, Kane and Lynch, SimCity Societies. PS3 Highlights: Assassin's Creed, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Kane and Lynch, Beowulf. 360 Highlights: America's Army: True Soldiers, Assassin's Creed, Beowulf, BlackSite: Area 51, Kane & Lynch. Wii Highlights: Mario Galaxy, Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, Geometry Wars: Galaxies.
features
Official Dual Shock 3 wireless controller
Connects via bluetooth (wireless) or USB (wired)
Lithium Ion rechargeable battery pack built-in
Play & Charge technology: Recharge battery pack when connecting via USB
Compete at the highest level of street racing with Need for Speed™ ProStreet. It's no longer good enough to simply rule your local neighbourhood you need to dominate on a global stage. Build the ultimate battle machine, take it to multi-disciplinary showdowns and pit your skills and reputation against the world's best street racers. This is your chance to prove that you have what it takes to be crowned the next street king.
Columbia Pictures' Spider-Man 3 reunites the cast and filmmakers from the first two blockbuster adventures for a web of secrets, vengeance, love, and forgiveness that will transport worldwide audiences to thrilling new heights on May 4, 2007.
In Spider-Man 3, based on the legendary Marvel Comics series, Peter Parker has finally managed to strike a balance between his devotion to M.J. and his duties as a superhero. But there is a storm brewing on the horizon. When his suit suddenly changes, turning jet-black and enhancing his powers, it transforms Peter as well, bringing out the dark, vengeful side of his personality that he is struggling to control.
Under the influence of the suit, Peter becomes overconfident and starts to neglect the people who care about him most. Forced to choose between the seductive power of the new suit and the compassionate hero he used to be, Peter must overcome his personal demons as two of the most-feared villains yet, Sandman and Venom, gather unparalleled power and a thirst for retribution to threaten Peter and everyone he loves.
Published by Sony Pictures, the Blu-ray movie release edition of Spider Man 3 is now available as Region A encoded Asia edition at US$ 31.90 only. This title features English (DTS HD) and French dub (Dolby Digital 5.1) with selectable Chinese, English, Korean, Thai, Spanish or French subtitles.
In stock at the same time is the Spider Man [The High Definition Trilogy] box set, containing all three movies in high definition quality.
The New York Times has up a piece looking at the ongoing battle between websites and magazines in the world of games journalism. With magazine subscriptions falling every year and a non-stop churn of news online, the article examines the ways that mags try to stay competitive, and the views of the gamers that read them.
"The circulation for PC Gamer, a leading magazine from Future US, shrank to 210,369 this year from 300,271 in 2003, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Magazine publishers say that readers want longer features and in-depth articles as a counterpoint to the short, bloglike pieces they find online. But Kyle Orland, a freelance journalist who writes a media coverage column for Gamedaily.com, wondered if that strategy was working, saying that when a large feature is published, it doesn't get read. 'Attention spans are just getting so small that readers don't know what they want,' Mr. Orland said."
So here's a logical reaction: Parents who don't approve of their children's video game habits, instead of playing with them, simply voice their resentment of games and then look the other way. Makes sense, right? Right?
The results of a poll released by the Associated Press and AOL Games show that 43% of parents never join or even watch their children playing video games. The AP's coverage is peppered with the oh-so-normal parental sound-bytes in response to gaming, calling it a waste of time, and claiming that the violence and obsession are unhealthy for young kids.
What we don't get is if the parents are so concerned over what their kids are playing, then why aren't they paying closer attention? It seems that John Davison's latest venture couldn't come soon enough.
Ubisoft has pencilled in Haze for December 14 in its latest release schedule, meaning the shooter will just manage to squeeze in amongst the Christmas rush.
It also means the game has been pushed back a month - it was originally scheduled to release in November.
Developed by Free Radical, Haze is currently exclusive to PS3, although it's widely thought that PC and Xbox 360 versions will hit next year (but this remains unconfirmed by official channels). So it might not be exclusive to PS3 for very long with the slip to December.
Anyway, it's set in a near-future where the government has outsourced military operations to private multinational corporations. You play Shane Carpenter, a soldier who works for the Mantel Corporation who has access to high-tech vehicles, kick-ass weapons and performance enhancing bio-medical support.
Free Radical director David Doak has said previously that one of the developer's key goals with the game is "to make people think" in addition to "pushing the bar with gameplay and presentation".
There are fresh rumours doing the rounds this morning that a sequel to Insomniac's PS3-launch shooter, Resistance: Fall of Man will, be with us next year.
Ripten.com claims to have received info from a "trusted source" that Sony is preparing to put Resistance 2 through a major stress test in January.
Sony, of course, has yet to confirm the existence of Resistance 2, but you just know it's in the pipeline.
A rumour on the sequel appearing last month suggested that the follow-up is being tentatively prepared for launch next November, and will relocate the alien-bashing action to the States.
It even went as far as to say that the sequel will feature a cliff-hanger ending paving the way for a third game in the series.
Konami says it is working on fixes for a number of issues specific to the PlayStation 3 version of Pro Evolution Soccer 2008.
Online gameplay quality, stuttering graphics and game freezes are all addressed in the latest update to the publisher's online FAQ, which also suggests some short-term solutions while they work on proper fixes.
For example, people experiencing "stuttering" are very likely "not playing the game in high definition", it says here. "The solution to this problem is to play the game on an HDTV with an HDMI or component cable and the PS3 set to output in 720p resolution or above." (Er.) Calm down though, because they are "continuing to work on finding a solution for those people who do not have access to an HDTV".
What about online gameplay? "We have uncovered issues which affect online gameplay quality of PES 2008," the FAQ says. "We are working at full strength to find a solution as quickly as possible. We sincerely apologise for this inconvenience."
Meanwhile, if you're having problems with the game freezing in the Master League or when starting a match, you're advised that these issues mainly present themselves when the game has been installed to the hard disk. In the Master League's case, a combination of auto-saving and hard disk storage causes problems, so turning off auto-save is a short-term workaround, while matches freezing up are apparently down to a mixture of hard-disk install and players with camera-customised appearance - something you can dodge by playing PES 2008 without installing the game to the hard disk.
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare blasted its way to the top of the charts this week thanks in particular to a strong performance on Xbox 360, which accounted for 63 per cent of the multi-platform game's weekend sales according to Chart-Track's latest data.
THQ's WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008 claimed second place, having launched on six formats including next-generation consoles. However, PlayStation 2 owners accounted for 44 per cent of its sales, demonstrating that the console still has plenty of support.
Elsewhere in the top ten, The Simpsons Game held firm at number three thanks in part to the launch of PS3 and PSP SKUs, while last week's top two - Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 and EA Sports' FIFA 08 - sank to four and five respectively as sales slowed.
Nintendo once again bucked that trend, however, as both its Brain Training titles rose up the top ten to take sixth (Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training) and seventh (More Brain Training From Dr. Kawashima) ahead of The Sims 2: Castaway (down one place), Ratatouille (down five places to nine) and Microsoft's Halo 3 (down five to ten).
Other new releases fared less well, with Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga struggling to find purchase in a busy week, managing only 17th place, while Sony will likely be disappointed that the critically acclaimed Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction - described by some as the best PS3 game to date - could only find its way to 19th in the All-Formats Chart. Worse still, it could only make it to third on the PS3's own chart, taking up position behind WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008 at number two and Call of Duty 4 at one.
Activision's multi-format first-person shooter certainly won the week - thanks to releases on PC, PlayStation 3 and DS - and picked up strong review scores in the run up to launch, including a 9/10 from our sister site Eurogamer. The game marks a return to form for the series after original developer Infinity Ward reassumed control for the fourth instalment.
It recorded the 11th biggest weekly sell-through ever, according to Chart-Track, and is second only to Halo 3 in terms of Xbox 360 titles in that regard.
Whether it will hold on for a second week is hard to say though, as Nintendo (Super Mario Galaxy - Wii), Ubisoft (Assassin's Creed - PS3/360) and EA (Crysis - PC) all make extremely strong claims starting this Friday. Nintendo, in particular, will be expecting an upsurge in hardware sales as it introduces Mario to the Nintendo Wii in his most traditional guise yet - and in a game critics are describing as the spiritual successor to Super Mario 64, one of its most acclaimed games ever.
The full top ten is as follows:
1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
2. WWE Smackdown vs RAW 2008
3. The Simpsons Game
4. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008
5. FIFA 08
6. Dr Kawashima's Brain Training
7. More Brain Training from Dr Kawashima
8. The Sims 2: Castaway
9. Ratatouille
10. Halo 3
PES and Metal Gear Solid house Konami has revealed that it believes no one format will dominate the playing field this generation, after the PS2 took the lead in almost every territory last time around.
With sales of over 120 million consoles worldwide, Xbox and Gamecube were left to fight for the PS2's scraps. According to Konami, it'll be a lot fairer split this time around.
"Previously, a single home gaming platform [PS2] was the market leader worldwide, but that pattern has changed," the company said in a statement.
"Whichever platform best caters to users' preferences in a particular country or region, in terms of the games available to be played on it, is now the one that will dominate the local market."
With the Wii's lead looking increasingly smaller over the growing 360 and PS3 userbase, we can see what they're on about. Does this mean we'll get MGS4 on Xbox, though?
The JXD301 a new console with several Homebrew developers already working on it is now available for preorder at a decent store rather than the like of dodgy ebay traders.
The JXD 301 has a LTPS TFT (Low Temperature Polysilicon Thin Film Transistor) screen, which allows for better screen performance than most other players. It can also play a large number of audio and video file types, most importantly RM/RMVB, which is growing in use due to is high compression/hi quality ratio, it also allows for FLV playback allowing users to download off sites like You Tube and watch the videos directly on this player. One of the nicest features is its ability to play NES, SNES, SMD, GBC, GBA and Neo Geo games.
Preorder this new Homebrew Console (with emulators already working) at GP2XStore , price $119
Sony has confirmed to Eurogamer that all PlayStation 2 titles that support rumble and are compatible with PS3 will also rumble if you use the new DualShock 3 pad.
During last week's hands-on with the new controller, we noted that PS2 rumble seemed to be disabled. Since then, PS3 firmware 2.0 has quietly introduced support.
The news from Sony adds to anecdotal evidence from eager importers who reported success getting rumble out of games like Rez and Katamari Damacy.
PlayStation 3 games that already support the pad include MotorStorm, Resistance: Fall of Man and Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction.
So, another reason to put one on your shopping list, although you might have to wait a while if you opt for an import - the demand, not to mention price, seems pretty high. The official European and US release date for DualShock 3 is spring 2008.
Sony Computer Entertainment has unveiled pricing details for SingStar PS3's SingStore, where you, your girlfriend and your nan will be able to buy new tracks for GBP £0.99 each from the December 7 launch date.
At first SingStore will offer 44 new tracks over the vanilla game's 30, including songs from previous PS2 entries and new ones (like The Manic Street Preachers and Depeche Mode - no Snoop though).
Sony promises new content will be added to the SingStore regularly, starting as early as little over a week after release on December 17.
It also boasts that downloading of new tracks will take place entirely in the background, so you can keep making a prat of yourself on the mic while it downloads.
The game itself is being offered for the bargain price of £24.99, or £49.99 with two microphones. That's the missus' Christmas present sorted, then (or for yourself, going by the worrying number of you who seem to be excited in the comments).
It's being reported that the latest major PS3 firmware update, version 2.0, could be at the heart of a problem that's causing a number of PS3s to cease working.
A notably large number of PS3 owners have hit the official site to voice concerns of their PS3 functioning incorrectly since installing the update.
Complains range from a small as slowed menu navigation and slow PS Store download speeds to more critical errors such as games consistently crashing or even the PS3 completely losing the ability to read discs.
Others have also complained on the official forum that their PS3 keeps turning itself on due to the new Remote Start feature in FW 2.0 (which allows you to turn on your PS3 wirelessly via the internet for Remote Play via a PSP).
It's worth noting that the timing of the errors could be completely coincidental. It's not uncommon for users who experience errors soon after an update to point the finger of blame at the new firmware.
We've checked our updated PS3s - everything's working just fine (phew). Voice any issues you may have experienced in the comments below.
Sony was not available for comment at the time of writing but we'll keep trying.
Despite numerous denials, everyone from crazed forum users to industry analysts reckon Bioshock for PS3 is a dead certainty, and 2K has leapt out to crush yet more spiralling internet rumours.
"Please don't tell me you made an account just for this question", said a clearly frustrated representative on the official 2K Games forums as threads regarding the Bioshock PS3 rumour erupted once again.
They went on to bluntly add: "There will be no PS3 version of BioShock. It has been explained time and time again."
So, Bioshock on PS3. Not happening. At least, we think that's the message he was trying to get across.
Media-Control GfK International has released sales data for the week ending November 9, with Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 still strong in both Spain and Germany.
PES 2008, Brain Training, FIFA 2008 and The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass were the only titles to appear on both charts.
Interestingly enough, not a single current-generation title made the Top 10 list in Germany, which instead featured games for the PC, Nintendo DS, and PlayStation 2.
The PC title Fussball Manager 2008 was tops in Germany, followed by Hellgate: London for the PC and the PS2 version of PES 2008.
In Spain, PES took four of the Top 10 spots. The PS2 version was in first place, followed by the PS3 version, with the PC version at number 4 and the Xbox 360 version coming in at number 7.
The complete lists are as follows:
GERMANY:
1. Fussball Manager 2008
2. Hellgate: London
3. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (PS2)
4. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
5. FIFA 2008 (PS2)
6. Anno 1701 - Der Fluch Des Drachen
7. Dr. Kawashima's Gehirn-Jogging
8. Dr. Kawashima: Mehr Gehirn-Jogging
9. The Witcher
10. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (PC)
SPAIN:
1. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (PS2)
2. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (PS3)
3. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
4. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (PC)
5. FIFA 2008 (PS2)
6. WWE Smackdown! vs. RAW 2007 (PS2)
7. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (360)
8. Mas Brain Training
9. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
10. Football Manager 2008
Ahead of the release of NPD's October hardware and software sales results, Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter and simExchange's Jesse Divnich have predicted the Wii will once again emerge on top of the hardware charts, and Activision will dominate software with Guitar Hero and Call of Duty.
Though the September release of Halo 3 saw Xbox 360 sales push just past those of the Wii, the analysts have said that despite hardware shortages, Nintendo's console will regain its top slot. Pachter has predicted 450,000 Wiis sold to simExchange's 467,000, ahead of their Xbox 360 predictions of 325,000 and 412,000.
Both see PS3 in last place with 125,000 and 136,000 units sold respectively, despite the 80GB model's recent price drop to $499.
If you look at the central processor in Microsoft's (MSFT) Xbox 360 you will see something that can trace its ancestry right back to the Intel 8086 of 1978. Over its evolution this has forced endless fudges and compromises. An analogy might be trying to build a working supertanker on the plans of a model rowing boat. And the 360 itself owes its architecture to the IBM PC of 1981 and so carries with it the accommodations that this architecture imposes. These factors, ultimately, must impinge on the working of the console.
Compare that to Sony (SNE), who were able to design the processor and the console it is in with a clean sheet of paper. The Cell processor, designed jointly with IBM and Toshiba at a cost of $400 million is the state of the art in processor dessign. It is scalable, highly flexible and excellent at distributed processing.
Sales of Sony's PS3 video games console surged 300 per cent after the company released a cheaper model in Japan last week, according to leaked survey data.
Sony Japan introduced the new PS3 model with a 40GB hard disk drive on November 11. One day later, local PS3 weekly sales figures had soared from an average of 16,000 to almost 66,000.
The figures are contained in preliminary data from the latest edition of a regular survey by Japan-based video games publisher and market survey firm, Enterbrain
"The main thing about the PlayStation 3 is the Cell processor and more specifically the SPU's. We are only using 30 percent of the power of the SPU's in Uncharted. We've been architecting a lot of our systems around this and we were able to take full advantage of that power. A big part of our systems is running on SPU's: scene bucketing, particles, physics, collision, animation, water simulation, mesh processing, path finding, etc. For our engine, the cool thing about having the SPU's is the fact we can minimize what we send to the RSX (the graphic chip), it allows us to reject unnecessary information and get the RSX to be very efficient."
If price is the battleground where the war between Blu-ray and HD DVD will be fought, then Philips and Lite-On Digital Solutions fired a new salvo on Tuesday, with the announcement of a $199 drive.
Unfortunately, the internal PLDS DH-4O1S drive is not the official answer to the $99 Toshiba HD DVD player that went on sale at Wal-mart last week. The DH-401S is an internal drive for the PC that simply plays back Blu-ray, DVD, and CD discs, although the manufacturers noted that a PC equipped with the drive could be connected via an HDMI cable to a TV.
Amazon.com began a new promotions offering a buy one, get one free deal for select Sony and Disney Blu-ray titles. The promotions are separate. If you buy one title from Sony's selection, the free film must come from Sony as well.
features
Resolution output keys- pre-set for 480i ,480P, 720P, 1080i ,1080P and HDMI Auto
Output selection including: HDMI, YUV, RGB, AV
USB plug and play
Can reset screen picture when no picture is available
Support hardware upgrade, support different versions of consoles
description
The e-setter is a device that allows easy set up of your PS3™ console's screen resolution, suitable for different TV screens. If you connect your PS3™ to more than one TV, with different screen resolutions, then the e-setter is the right item for you. Switch between resolutions within a few seconds.
Sony said that it has sold more than 100,000 PS3 consoles in the week ending November 11, an increase of 250 to 300 per cent from the average weekly sales before the price drop.
"It's the breakthrough we've been anticipating," Sony chairman and CEO Howard Stringer told The Associated Press. "We've been holding our breath."
"Obviously, we've taken so much heat over the year on PS3. Finally, the turning point has been passed," he said.
A few of our readers were scoffing at the idea of a $399 40GB PS3. "What's the big deal," you said. This: according to Sony's CEO, Sir Howard Stringer, they've more than doubled sales in the US in the weeks since its launch. "It's the breakthrough we've been waiting for," said Stringer, "We've been holding our breath. Finally, the turning point has been passed." Prior to the October 18th price cut, Sony was selling just 30k to 40k consoles per week. Sales rose to 75,000 in the week ending October 29 rising to 100,000 the following week. Stringer also credits Wii shortages for helping the boost. Andrew House, Sony's chief marketing officer even takes a jab at HD DVD saying, "It puts us vastly ahead of where the other format is going to be in terms of an installed base in people's homes by the end of this holiday season." Perhaps, but we don't expect the boys at Microsoft, Nintendo, and Toshiba to just roll over and let this progress continue unabated now, do we?
What a difference a year makes. As we move into the one year anniversary of the "console wars," Game Daily takes a quick look at the current state of affairs. No huge revelations, just a standard assessment of what's going on written by our own Mr. Orland. The basics are:
Wii: The Wii blitzed the last year and is selling at a phenomenal pace. The only thing really holding it back at this point is software. Publishers weren't ready for the Wii's success, which has translated into massive quantities of reheated waggle ports. If third-party publishers start putting more effort behind the console, it won't be a "fad" created by Nintendo supporting Nintendo games.
Xbox 360: The console with an extra year under its belt really delivered this past year with BioShock, Halo 3, Gears of War and others. A third-party publisher darling, the Xbox hasn't gotten a hold in Japan and has to continue bringing the solid titles as the Wii and PS3 finish their warm-up year.
PS3: It's gettin' there, it's gettin' there. Hype may have gotten the heir-apparent through the end of last year, but '07 was not kind to the console. Things are slowly turning around now with Ratchet & Clank, along with Drake's Fortune and Heavenly Sword, but Metal Gear Solid 4 and Final Fantasy XIII are expected to get the ball really rolling next year.
A year into the console wars and the answer is that it's still anyone's game. A console is defined by its games, and it's still a little early to figure out the path of the two newest consoles. The Wii may pull out the third party support in '08 and publishers may finally get more comfortable designing games for the PS3. The Xbox 360 will continue to hold its own as long as it keeps having superstar type titles like BioShock and Gears of War. Year two of the console wars should begin showing the future much better.
Welcome to this week's Games & Toys update, our weekly summary featuring all new product arrivals from the last seven days.
Also in this week, further holiday season highlights keep coming, especially for all next-gen consoles. Xbox360™ sellers this week have been Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed (this Asia version on backorder, but the game is expected to arrive as US release next week), Need for Speed: Pro Street, Beowulf and Shin Sangoku Musou 5 (also available as Treasure Box).
Top selling PlayStation3™ games have been Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Need for Speed: Pro Street, Shin Sangoku Musou 5 (Regular / Treasure Box) and the Dual Shock 3 hardware releases (Black / Ceramic White).
Nintendo Wii™ highlights have been Capcom's Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles (aka. Biohazard Umbrella Chronicles in Japan) and the US version releases Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn.
For PlayStation2™ we've got Bandai's anime based Soukou Kihei Votoms and Capcom's budget release edition of Street Fighter Zero - Fighters Generation.
The most popular handheld game releases have been Orcs & Elves, Cooking Mama 2, Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker and Game Center CX: Arino no Chousenjou for Nintendo DS™ as well as Silent Hill: Origins, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus and SOCOM US Navy Seals Tactical Strike for PSP™.
As usually, here's a summary of all new releases from this week
Xbox360™:
Assassin's Creed ASIA US$ 54.90
Beowulf US US$ 59.90
Beowulf ASIA US$ 49.90
Bladestorm: The Hundred Years' War US US$ 59.90
Cabela's Big Game Hunter US US$ 44.90
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare US US$ 64.90
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Collector's Edition US US$ 79.90
Cars: Mater-National US US$ 49.90
LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga US US$ 49.90
Need for Speed: Pro Street ASIA US$ 44.90
Scene It? Lights, Camera, Action US US$ 69.90
Shin Sangoku Musou 5 JPN US$ 68.90
Shin Sangoku Musou 5 [Treasure Box] JPN US$ 129.90
Xbox 360 Faceplate (Assassin's Creed) ASIA N/A
Xbox 360 Rechargeable Battery Pack (Blue) US US$ 19.90
Xbox 360 Rechargeable Battery Pack (Pink) US US$ 19.90
PlayStation3™:
Beowulf US US$ 64.90
Bladestorm: Hundred Years War US US$ 64.90
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare US US$ 64.90
Dual Shock 3 (Black) JPN US$ 69.90
Dual Shock 3 (Ceramic White) JPN US$ 69.90
Heavenly Sword JPN US$ 59.90
Need for Speed: Pro Street ASIA US$ 49.90
PlayStation3 Console (HDD 40GB Model) Clear Black - 110V JPN US$ 399.00
PlayStation3 Console (HDD 40GB Model) Clear White - 110V JPN US$ 399.00
Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction JPN US$ 59.90
Shin Sangoku Musou 5 JPN US$ 68.90
Shin Sangoku Musou 5 (w/ PlayStation3 Console 40GB Ceramic White) JPN US$ 499.90
Shin Sangoku Musou 5 [Treasure Box] JPN US$ 129.90
Nintendo Wii™:
Barbie as The Island Princess US US$ 44.90
Biohazard Umbrella Chronicles JPN US$ 64.90
Biohazard Umbrella Chronicles (w/ Wii Zapper) JPN N/A
Disney Princess: Enchanted Journey US US$ 44.90
Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn US US$ 59.90
Hannah Montana: Spotlight World Tour US US$ 49.90
High School Musical: Sing It US US$ 49.90
LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga US US$ 49.90
Manhunt 2 US US$ 49.90
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games US US$ 49.90
My Word Coach US US$ 49.90
Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles US US$ 49.90
PlayStation2™:
Barbie as The Island Princess US US$ 34.90
Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 US US$ 49.90
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Bundle US US$ 129.90
Hayarikami 2 JPN US$ 64.90
Manea Sugoroku: Kabukuro JPN US$ 59.90
Shin Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams (PlayStation2 the Best Reprint) JPN US$ 19.90
Soukou Kihei Votoms JPN US$ 64.90
Street Fighter Zero - Fighters Generation (Best Price) JPN US$ 19.90
Nintendo DS™:
Arctic Tale US US$ 24.90
Barbie as The Island Princess US US$ 34.90
Betty Boops Double Shift US US$ 24.90
Build-A-Bear Workshop US US$ 34.90
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare US US$ 34.90
Compact Pouch DS Lite (Silver) JPN US$ 8.90
Cooking Mama 2 JPN US$ 48.90
Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker US US$ 44.90
Dungeon Explorer: Jashin no Ryouiki JPN US$ 48.90
Game Center CX: Arino no Chousenjou JPN US$ 48.90
HameKomi Lucky Puzzle DS JPN US$ 39.90
Horse Life US US$ 34.90
Hot Wheels: Beat That US US$ 34.90
Karada Yorokobu Shokuji & Exercise: Kenkou Kentei JPN US$ 39.90
LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga US US$ 39.90
LifeSigns: Surgical Unit US US$ 34.90
Monster Jam US US$ 34.90
My French Coach US US$ 34.90
My Spanish Coach US US$ 34.90
My Word Coach US US$ 34.90
Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots US US$ 34.90
Orcs & Elves US US$ 34.90
Pac-Pix KOR US$ 49.90
Panzer Tactics DS US US$ 34.90
Pro Yakyuu Famista DS JPN US$ 48.90
Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure US US$ 24.90
Snoopy to Issho ni DS Eigo Lesson JPN US$ 48.90
Wine no Hajimekata DS JPN US$ 29.90
World Series of Poker 2008: Battle for the Bracelets US US$ 34.90
Sony PSP™:
Anata o Yurusanai JPN US$ 48.90
Dungeon Explorer: Meiyaku no Tobira JPN US$ 48.90
Dungeon Explorer: Meiyaku no Tobira ASIA US$ 39.90
Inner Ear Earphone Portable (Black) JPN US$ 9.90
Inner Ear Earphone Portable (White) JPN US$ 9.90
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus (English language Version) ASIA US$ 24.90
NBA Live 08 KOR US$ 49.90
Naruto Ultimate Ninja Heroes KOR US$ 49.90
Neckstrap Headphone JPN US$ 12.90
SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Tactical Strike US US$ 39.90
Selection Pack Portable (Black) JPN US$ 24.90
Selection Pack Portable (White) JPN US$ 24.90
Silent Hill: Origins US US$ 39.90
The Simpsons Game ASIA US$ 42.90
World Series of Poker 2008: Battle for the Bracelets US US$ 34.90
Gameboy Advance™:
Barbie as The Island Princess US US$ 34.90
PC Games:
Chessmaster Grandmaster Edition ASIA US$ 36.90
Clive Barker's Jericho (DVD-ROM) ASIA US$ 39.90
Crysis (DVD-ROM) ASIA US$ 39.90
Crysis Collector's Edition (DVD-ROM) ASIA US$ 49.90
Death to Spies (DVD-ROM) ASIA US$ 26.90
Empire Earth 3 (DVD-ROM) ASIA US$ 34.90
F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate (DVD-ROM) ASIA US$ 24.90
F.E.A.R. Platinum Collection: The Complete Collection (DVD-ROM) ASIA US$ 34.90
Legend of Heroes: Sora no Kiseki Second Chapter -Limited Edition ASIA US$ 37.90
Legend of Heroes: Sora no Kiseki Second Chapter -Tranditional Chinese Edition (DVD-ROM) ASIA US$ 29.90
Need for Speed: Pro Street (DVD-ROM) ASIA US$ 39.90
SimCity Societies (DVD-ROM) ASIA US$ 39.90
Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance (DVD-ROM) ASIA US$ 34.90
Guide Books:
Assassin's Creed Limited Edition Bundle [Guide + Artbook] US US$ 34.90
Assassin's Creed: Prima Official Game Guide US US$ 19.90
Battalion Wars 2: Prima's Authorized Field Manual US US$ 12.90
BlackSite: Area 51 Official Strategy Guide US US$ 16.90
Hellgate London Prima Official Game Guide US US$ 19.90
Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles Prima Official Game Guide US US$ 19.90
SOCOM US Navy Seals Tactical Strike Official Strategy Guide US US$ 16.90
Silent Hill: Origins Official Strategy Guide US US$ 16.90
Sims 2 Castaway: Prima Official Game Guide US US$ 16.90
Super Mario Galaxy: Prima Official Game Guide US US$ 19.90
TimeShift: Prima Official Game Guide US US$ 16.90
Toys & More:
Act Cadenza Melty Blood Vol. 4 Non Scale Pre-Painted Figure: Arcueid JPN US$ 14.90
Act Cadenza Melty Blood Vol. 4 Non Scale Pre-Painted Figure: Len JPN US$ 14.90
Aero Flightech R/C Remote Plane - No.01 Blue US$ 31.90
Aero Flightech R/C Remote Plane - No.02 Red US$ 31.90
Aero Flightech R/C Remote Plane - No.03 Green US$ 31.90
Blacklist Crows X Worst The 3rd Collection of the List Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Stylish (Spring & Summer Version) JPN US$ 7.90
Chichinoe+ 2 Young Hip Cover Girl 1/6 Scale Painted PVC Figure JPN N/A
Chobits Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Chi (Pink Version) JPN N/A
Extra !Story Image Figure Trigun Maximum Non Scale Pre-Painted PVC Trading Figure JPN US$ 4.90
Gremlins Gizmo Backpack Plush Doll US$ 24.90
Gremlins Gizmo Pillow Pal Plush Doll US$ 24.90
Mai-Hime 1/7 Scale Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Tokiha Mai (Y-shirt Vers.) JPN N/A
Marvel Legends Series 8 Pre-Painted Action Figure: Classic Captain America N/A
Marvel Legends Series 8 Pre-Painted Action Figure: Ultimate Captain America N/A
Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny DX Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Cagalli Yula Athha JPN US$ 17.90
Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny DX Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Lacus Clyne JPN US$ 17.90
Naruto Shippuden Naruto Mascot Non Scale Pre-Painted PVC Key Chain Gashapon JPN US$ 2.90
Neon Genesis Evangelion Extra Bianco E Colore Rosso Figure: Rei Ayanami JPN US$ 17.90
Neon Genesis Evangelion Extra Bianco E Colore Rosso Figure: Sohryu Asuka Langley JPN US$ 17.90
New Super Mario Bros. Sound Plush Doll Vol.2: Goomba JPN N/A
New Super Mario Bros. Sound Plush Doll Vol.2: Question Block JPN US$ 19.90
New Super Mario Bros. Sound Plush Doll Vol.2: Star JPN N/A
Pia Carrot G.O. Pre-painted 1/8 Scale PVC Figure: Mimori Kugahara (Jogging Vers.) JPN US$ 19.90
Pocket Monsters Pokemon Super Talking Advance Generation Figure: Luke Rio JPN US$ 14.90
Pokemon Diamond & Pearl Digital Wrist Watch with Ramune Candy JPN US$ 4.90
Resinya D.C. Da Capo 1/6 Scale Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Shirakawa Kotori (Cospa Version) JPN US$ 69.90
Revoltech Yamaguchi Series 039 Gaiking LEGEND OF DAIKU-MARYU Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Gaiking (Face Open Version) JPN US$ 19.90
Samurai Spirits Maid 1/8 Scale Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Iroha (Pink Version) JPN N/A
Shijo Saikyo no Deshi Kenichi Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Furinji Miu JPN US$ 59.90
Shijo Saikyo no Deshi Kenichi Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Kosaka Shigure JPN US$ 59.90
Shoku Chichi 2 - Sanae 1/4 Scale Prepainted PVC Figure JPN N/A
Superjambo Plush Doll Pingu (Head-shaking version) JPN US$ 16.90
Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu 1/8 Scale Pre-painted PVC Figure - Ryouko Asakura JPN US$ 47.90
To Heart 2 Another Days 1/8 Scale Pre-Painted Figure: Chie Yoshioka JPN US$ 39.90
Zenmai Zamurai Plush: Mamemaru (head-shaking version) JPN US$ 8.90
Zenmai Zamurai Plush: Mysterious Cupola Helmeted Man (head-shaking version) JPN US$ 8.90
Zenmai Zamurai Plush: Zenmai Zamurai (head-shaking version) JPN US$ 8.90
Zenmai Zamurai Plush: Zukinchan (head-shaking version) JPN US$ 8.90
Play Asia have posted for sale the following new Blueray Film Releases:
Die Hard (~Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, ...) HK US$ 31.90
Die Hard 2 (~Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, ...) HK US$ 31.90
Die Hard 3: With A Vengeance (~Bruce Willis, Jeremy Irons, ...) HK US$ 31.90
Die Hard 4.0 (~Bruce Willis, Justin Long, ...) HK US$ 31.90
Die Hard Quadrilogy [4-Discs Boxset] (~Bruce Willis, Jeremy Irons, ...) HK US$ 99.90
Spider Man 3 (~Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, ...) HK US$ 31.90
Spider Man [The High Definition Trilogy] (~Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, ...) HK US$ 69.90
WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008 lets players develop the WWE Superstars of today into the Legends of tomorrow. The No. 1 wrestling franchise in the world delivers more depth and strategy with prominent new features, key annual enhancements and incredible graphics while making its much-anticipated debut on three new video game systems. It’s time to live the life of a Superstar. How will you play?
Sony has smothered the PlayStation Store in Thursday, covering it in new content.
Well, we say new, but we're not sure how happy you will be with your solo demo of Stranglehold. A rumour was floating around that Haze was going to join it, but it seems to have been little more than gossip.
Still, those of you with a PlayStation Eye can grab the new Mesmerize visualisation thing. It costs GBP 1.99 and lets you wave your limbs about to effect in-game vistas, like making spring to life or twin neon trails twist about.
MotorStorm has got more new bits and bobs, too - this time a fancy Big I Bunny and Numskull livery pack for GBP 1.49. Dress-up for cars and motorbikes and buggy things, then.
Elsewhere there are videos for the excellent and freshly reviewed Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Everyday Shooter and Blazing Angels 2. Oh, and a TV commercial as well as a trailer for new Pixar film Wall-E.
Blazing Angels 2 and Toy Home are the two demos posted on the US PlayStation 3 Store this week, giving you a chance to finally fix that pesky old World War II's little red wagon, and then drive little red wagons around for a bit.
Blazing Angels: Secret Missions of World War II sees players return to the skies above everyone's favourite Second World War and introduces a new progression system and an in-cockpit view among other tweaks and changes.
These weren't enough to get Eurogamer's Rob Fahey terribly excited during his review of the Xbox 360 version, but with the benefit of the demo you won't have to rely on what that old maniac says to inform your purchase decision ahead of the 23rd November PS3 release date. Providing you've got 1GB of hard disk space free.
Toy Home, meanwhile, is a Game Republic-authored racing game where you traverse eight racetracks spread around a house and filled with obstacles. It's got 8-player multiplay but no giant crabs of which we're aware.
Elsewhere on the US PSN shop this week there are loads of trailers - including some for Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction, PAIN, Time Crisis 4, Burnout Paradise and Uncharted, and some more Uncharted wallpapers.
Sony is happy at the moment. PS3 sales have almost tripled in the US, and new official figures from Japan have revealed that Sony's console has actually outsold the seemingly unstoppable Wii for the first time ever.
For the week ending November 11, Media Create figures put PS3 sales at 55, 924, while Wii only managed 34,546.
This is great news for Sony, whose sales were probably helped along by the recent release of Dydnasty Warriors 4 - the latest in the mundane hack-'em-up that those guys seem to lap up.
The PSP did well, too, with over 58,000 sales - just 20,000 behind the DS with 78,000 sales. Could this be a turning point for Sony? Here's the complete list of hardware sales in Japan for the week ending November 11:
US videogame hardware and software sales increased 73 per cent in October according to NPD sales data.
Total sales were USD 1.1 billion, compared with USD 643 million a year earlier.
Nintendo's Wii returned to lead hardware sales with 519,000 consoles sold, ahead of 366,000 Xbox 360 consoles and 121,000 PlayStation 3 consoles. The Xbox 360 temporarily knocked the Wii out of the top spot in September, thanks to the release of Halo 3.
Total videogame software sales were USD 513.9 million, up 39 per cent from the previous October.
Halo 3 led software sales for the month of October, despite a significant drop from the prior month, with 433,800 units sold.
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, bundled with the guitar controller, held the second, third, and fourth spots on the chart. The Xbox 360 version was the most popular SKU, with 383,200 units sold, followed by 286,300 units of the Wii version and 271,100 units of the PS2 version.
The PS2 version, sans guitar controller, came in at number eight, with 231,700 units sold.
Other titles in the top ten were The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for the DS, at number five with 262,800 units sold, Wii Play at number six with 239,700 units sold, and the Xbox 360 version of The Orange Box at number seven with 238,400 units sold.
Rounding out the top ten were the PS2 version of FIFA Soccer 08, with 129,700 units sold, and the DS game Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day, with 116,900 units sold.
features
pages: 160
Platform: XBox 360, PS3, PC
Making-of art book: Beautiful artwork and renders reveal the dawning of Altaïr.
Interviews: Revealing interviews with Jade Raymond and key members of every team.
Lithograph: A high-quality lithograph of a stunning rendered scene.
High-quality Packaging: Hadcover package with stunning artwork from the team on the cover.
Clean box art: Prima's one-sheet will fall away when the shrinkwrap is removed, leaving pristine art, unmarred by logos, barcodes, or taglines.
description
The Third Crusade is tearing the Holy Land apart. You are an elite Assassin sent to stop the hostilities by suppressing the powers on both the Crusader and Saracen sides. But as you carry out your missions, a conspiracy begins to unfold. You find yourself tangled up in a conflict that threatens not only the Holy Land, but the entire world.
The simExchange October review report, based on information taken from the online prediction market simExchange, believes that the Xbox 360 will outsell the PlayStation 3 in the US by almost 2-to-1 between now and the end of the year.
According to analyst Jesse Divnich the Xbox 360 will sell just over 2 million units, while the PS3 will sell just over 1 million - although the Wii and DS will trump them both handsomely, shifting 3.28 million and 2.86 million units respectively.
The market, which isn't based on actual financial transactions but the predictions of thousands of gamers, developers and industry watchers, does take into account the introduction of the 40GB version of the PS3, but notes that actual software sales for October were lower than market predictions.
Ratchet and Clank Future only sold 74,500 units last month, compared to an estimate of 129,000, although promising reviews of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune - predicted to sell 286,000 units in December - could spell an upturn.
In terms of software predictions, sales estimates for Assassin's Creed have fallen sharply on the back of lower-than-expected review scores globally.
Divnich points to an average score in the 80 - 90 per cent bracket, rather than the previously predicted 95 per cent, and revised sales estimates have fallen from 2.85 million units to 1.84 million for the Xbox 360 and from 1.48 million to 1.38 million for the PS3 edition.
Meanwhile the simExchange market predicts Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare to take the number one spot in the US in November - more Activision success following Guitar Hero III's triumph in October.
Finally the report predicts a bumper year for software sales, with November up 31 percent year on year and selling USD 1.05 billion, and December up 27 per cent to USD 2.19 billion.
October 2007 was a strong month for the PlayStation brand, according to NPD data. Overall the PlayStation brand showed a 39% increase in total retail dollars generated year-over-year in the US with total sales of $353.4 million for the month. Overall, SCEA's console business remains strong with combined sales of PS3 and PS2 for the month of October at $258.5 million in revenue.
The PLAYSTATION 3 sold 121K units at retail for the month of October. SCEA expects a great deal of momentum moving forward this holiday and beyond with the availability of new PS3 hardware and pricing. Based on internal data, the company is already seeing a great spike in sales with a 192% lift for the PS3 over the past two weeks. In fact, as reported by Howard Stringer, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sony Corporation of America, 100,000 units of the PLAYSTATION 3 were sold at retail just last week.
The DS Lite regained the top spot in Japanese hardware sales during October 2007 after PSP claimed the title in September. According to Famitsu, the dual screens moved 318,000 units last month. Sony's handheld wasn't far behind, though, with 279,000 sold. The portable duo left all the home consoles in the dust.
The Wii came in a distant third with 110,415 units sold. The numbers drop off considerably from there: 47,183 for the PlayStation 3, 45,447 for the PS2, and 18,717 for the Xbox 360.
Fun fact: the 360 has now sold more units than the original Xbox in Japan. Cumulative sales of the current-gen system stand at 474,000 -- 1,000 more than the Xbox. The 360 only has two games in the Top 50, though: Beautiful Katamari at #36, and Halo 3 at #47.
The DS moved the most software during October as well, by quite a large margin. Just over a million, to not be exact. Coming in second with around half that amount in sales was the PS2 with 562,800 units. The PSP moved 301,800 UMDs, and the Wii sold 243,800 bits of software. PS3 and 360 sold 73,500 and 32,500 discs, respectively.
The best selling PSP game last month was Gundam Battle Chronicle, which was the second best-selling game overall.
Usually we're accustomed to turning over -- not receiving -- birthday cakes for others' super-special day, but Sony's PR team shipped out an unknown number of butter-cream frosting PS3 birthday cakes (with what appears to be an edible t-shirt iron-on) to press today.
Next month's issue of Game Informer has a big, familiar symbol on its cover. On their website, they tease the announcement of a brand-new Ghostbusters video game. This isn't some knock-off, either:
"Harold Ramis, Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd are getting back together and revisiting their roles to make a sequel to Ghostbusters 1 and 2 - in video-game form, and we've got the first details. Both Aykroyd and Ramis are teaming up for scriptwriting duties and are going far beyond just the typical licensed add-your-voice-to-the-game-you-had-nothing-to-do-with formula"
Mario Party DS for the Nintendo DS has debuted in the Japanese software chart at number one, according to the latest data from Media Create.
The title sold 234,708 copies, and was followed by another new entry - Shin Sangoku Musou 5 for the PlayStation 3 which sold 188,456 copies. The Xbox 360 edition went straight it at number five, but only sold 21,837 units.
Super Mario Galaxy held up well in third for the week of sales ending November 11, with other new entries for Castlevania Chronicle on the PSP in sixth place and Ratchet and Clank Future for the PS3 entering in tenth.
The full top ten is as follows:
1. Mario Party DS (DS)
2. Shin Sangoku Musou 5 (PS3)
3. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
4. Final Fantasy Tactics A2 (DS)
5. Shin Sangoku Musou 5 (360)
6. Castlevania Chronicle (PSP)
7. Wii Sports (Wii)
8. DS Nishimura Kyotarou Suspense Detective Series: Deadly Intent (DS)
9. Flash Focus: Vision Training in Minutes a Day (DS)
10. Ratchet and Clank Future (PS3)
Official Dual Shock 3 wireless controller
Connects via bluetooth (wireless) or USB (wired)
Lithium Ion rechargeable battery pack built-in
Play & Charge technology: Recharge battery pack when connecting via USB
Players will relive all the film's most thrilling and hilarious moments as they assume the role of Remy, a young rat who dreams of becoming a great French chef, despite the obvious problem of being a rat!
Just spotted at SuccessHK that they are now selling WHITE 40GB PS3 Consoles for $430 (£209)
For those importing to the UK it will cost you another £30 with shipping by Airmail (always use airmail and always ask it to be shipped as a toy sample )
Remember all PS3 Games are region free and it doesnt matter where you buy your PS3 the power supply is usuable anywhere in the world without a stepdown converter. Also most Blue Ray films are region free too.
SuccessHK also have today announced they are selling Black 40GB PS3s for a fantastic $424 (£206)
The PlayStation Network has opened up a lot of interesting opportunities for developers, says Naughty Dog's Evan Wells.
In a live text interview with our sister site, Eurogamer.net, the company's co-president said that PSN was definitely something they were interested in.
"I think it could come in handy during some of the transitional roll over periods between games if there hasn't been enough pre-production work done to get started on the next big project," Wells explained.
Although Wells did not elaborate, Naughty Dog could use PSN to provide downloadable content for their latest game, Uncharted, even while working on a sequel. The developer also included medal points in Uncharted, expecting that they could eventually be attached to Home.
He said that it was hard to say whether or not players would be waiting longer between Naughty Dog releases during this hardware generation.
"Even on the PS2 we took two years to develop Jak 1 and 2. It wasn't until later in the generation that we had enough tech built up that we could get the production down to one year.
"I imagine things will be similar this time around."
When asked whether or not the company planned to work on PSP titles, Wells negated the idea. "We want to focus our attention and technological efforts on one platform and one engine," he said, referring to the PS3.
Before the release of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune on the PS3, Naughty Dog's most recent franchise was the Jak & Daxter series on PS2.
"Everybody here would love to do a Jak game on the PS3. However, I'm not sure about the timing. We want to stick with only working on one game at a time to maintain our focus.
"Everybody is taking a much deserved vacation right now and we will decide what we're doing next when people get back," he explained.
Hey everyone. We know you like to hear about updates a few days in advance, so here's a quick heads up that we have a new System Software update in the works.
Firmware v2.01 is a minor update that will improve the stability of PLAYSTATION 3.
We'll provide more specifics as the update is about to go live, but we thought we'd give loyal blog readers advance notice!
Sony's little baby turns one. The PS3 has been crawling along, but can it walk or maybe even run? Sony is still aiming for 11 million units sold this fiscal year with 160 new games.
According to Sony, the PS3 has now sold 5.6 million units worldwide, 2 million of which have been purchased in North America. The company's worldwide sales goal for next March remains 11 million units. Sony also noted that year to date sales of PS3 in Japan and EMEA outsold Xbox 360 by three-to-one.
In terms of software, 28 million PS3 software units have been sold across the globe, seven million of which were sold in North America. A total of 160 new PS3 titles are expected to be released this fiscal year, including 19 exclusives from first and third party. A total of 23 third parties are creating content for the PS3.
Regarding the PS3's PlayStation Network, Sony said there are three million members currently and over 60 million pieces of content have been downloaded. The "average" PS Network user has downloaded 12.3 pieces of content.
Finally, with respect to Blu-ray, Sony made the following points:
# PS3 Blu-ray currently outsells Xbox 360 HD-DVD 9 to 1.
# A recent Blu-ray Disc adoption survey shows that 87% of PS3 users watch Blu-ray movies, 80% of PS3 users have purchased Blu-ray movies and 82% intend to purchase or rent Blu-ray movies.
# Blu-ray titles continue to outsell HD DVD titles by nearly 2 to1 (Home Media Research, a division of Home Media Magazine).
# There will be more than 450 Blu-ray movies available to PS3 owners this holiday season.
On the 2nd January 2008 Sony are releasing Resident Evil: Extinction is the first Blu-ray movie to use profile 1.1. It is promising to be the most technologically advanced blu-ray movie ever as it will feature true picture in picture and 'Blu-Wizard 2' which will allow your player to 'remember' your viewing preferences for the movie, even after you have ejected it.
Sony are going to want to be sure that the biggest market of Blu-ray consumers, PlayStation 3 owners, will be able to take advantage of these features. So expect a firmware update by the end of 2007.
Dragon have released their own Dualshock 3 controller for the PS3 at a fraction of the price of the official Sony Controller
Heres the details:
Product Features
3D vibrator
2.4GHz mode
Vibration function
Analog/Digital mode
Automatic case up function
More Description
A very complete wireless controller that is compatible with Playstation 3, Playstation 2 (adapter included) and PC. It is packed with features such as rumble, wireless DVD remote control, 2.4GHz operating mode and more!
Sony has slashed the price of the PlayStation 3 development kit by almost half, promising to further reduce costs as more studios adopt the console technology.
The PlayStation 3 Reference Tool will now be available for JPY 950,000 in Japan, USD 10,250 in North America and EUR 7500 [£5,370] in Europe.
"As more and more new titles are developed for the PS3 format, SCEI will significantly reduce the price of the Reference Tool in order to contribute to the cost saving measures of the development community," said the company.
The console giant has also begun to integrate new programming tools into the PlayStation 3 Software Development Kit from SN Systems, including ProDG, SN Distributed Build System, SN Linker and SN Compiler.
As well as new tools, Sony has also added programming functions to the PS3 Debugging Station allowing it to be used alongside the Reference Tool, rather than being used as just a quality assurance system for games in development.
Capcom has told us it is mulling over the idea of including a Resident Evil 5 demo on the European Resident Evil: Extinction Blu-ray disc.
The publisher was responding after a Sony Pictures press release seemed to state that the US Extinction disc would include a demo for Resi 5 and Devil May Cry 4.
Not so, said Capcom over here - they are instead trailers of the games, and indeed trailers we have already seen.
However, this is a US-only promotion and nothing has been decided for Europe, and the publisher left it open-ended after suggesting it might include "something" on our version. That "something" would certainly help sales of the film.
Resident Evil 5 is due out on 360 and PS3 next year, but is a title Capcom has hidden from the public eye in favour of more imminent release Devil May Cry 4.
Naughty Dog co-president Evan Wells has just completed a live interview with you about Uncharted: Drake's Fortune and a host of other things - including confirmation that he would like to do a Jak game for PS3 and his views on next-gen console development and the recent Manhunt 2 fiasco.
"Everybody here would love to do a Jak game on the PS3," Wells said in answer to a question from kissthestick. "However, I'm not sure about the timing. We want to stick with only working on one game at a time to maintain our focus. Everybody is taking a much deserved vacation right now and we will decide what we're doing next when people get back."
Wells also addressed Obli's query about whether Uncharted would be possible on Xbox 360. "I won't say that it would be impossible," he answered, "but it would be very difficult and we most certainly would have to make enough concessions that it would start to feel like a different game. One thing that would be particularly difficult would be keeping the game load-free. The HDD really came in handy and allowed us to have pretty big open levels with lots of detail."
There was a lot more to get through during the hour-long head-to-lots-of-heads, but another response that stuck out was his reaction to SeeThroughAll's question about the Manhunt 2 ban and whether the game's violence justified the degree of censorship the game faced. Answering from a US perspective, Wells wrote: "I don't think that video games should be treated differently than other forms of media or entertainment. I think there is a place in this world for titles that should only be played by those over 18.
"Our problem is right now is that we [in America] don't have any retailers who are willing to sell those games, therefore you end up 'banning' the game by giving it such a rating.
"However, I really don't see the appeal of the game and I really do think they are just using the shock factor to try to sell a mediocre (at best) game. I would much prefer to see somebody make something with a little more substance that still pushed the artistic boundaries of our industry."
To read the entire transcript, which also includes some neat insider information about Uncharted - and even its relationship with PlayStation Home - head over to the Evan Wells interview. Thanks again to Evan for all his time, and to you for yours! And look out for more of these features in future.
Sega's director of artists and repertoire agrees with analysts who think that the PS3 is going to catch up to, if not surpass, the Xbox 360.
It isn't just the recent PS3 price cuts which will certainly help bridge the gap, but the availability of big titles, Noah Musler told GamesIndustry.biz.
"Microsoft has done a good job of closing the gap between the platforms. I don't think they are in the situation they were in with the PS2 and Xbox 1, but it is still too soon to say," Musler remarked.
He notes that analysts think the PS2 could remain viable through 2009.
Having a variety of PS3 prices for consumers is certainly not going to hurt the PS3. "I think it has still got a little bit of time to grow," he said.
"Fortunately, there are a lot of videogame consumers out there, and the market continues to grow.
"People want to play games, and the games keep getting better. The development community is really driving that by making great product."
The second part of our interview with Noah Musler can be viewed here.
There is supposedly a fix for PS3 owners that have whipped up the highly anticipated Assassin's Creed this weekend only to find it crashing frequently.
Reported earlier, many of the game's bugs on the PS3 version have been (unofficially) linked to the FW 2.0 update, which is said to have been causing all manner of problems since its release.
But according to bloggers, PS3 users can fix some of the issues temporarily simply by disabling the Information Board on the 2.0 FW front-end menu, and disconnecting their PS3 from the (online) PSN while they play Ubisoft's adventure.
This will apparently cut down the frequency of the crashing.
Let us know if it works for you in the comments below, and sit tight for Sony's 2.01 update soon, which should sort out all the problems so you don't have to fool around with system options.
The PS3 version of the initially Xbox 360-exclusive shooter, Lost Planet, will be out in February 2008, according to reports.
Previously the PS3 version of the game was down for release 'early next year'. Capcom was unavailable for comment on the February '08 date at the time of writing.
As announced back in October, the PS3 edition features all the download content released for the original Xbox 360 version of the game, in addition to bonus multiplayer characters - Frank West (Dead Rising), Mega Man and Jo from Lost Planet - that were released for Lost Planet on PC.
It is also reported to include online multiplayer for up to 16 players, via the free-to-use PlayStation Network.
The latest videogame sales data released for Germany and Spain shows Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare making a strong debut.
In Germany, Activision's first-person shooter captured the top three spots, with the PC version at number one, followed by the Xbox 360 version and the PS3 version in at number three.
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was slightly less popular in Spain, but still managed to capture three of the top ten spots. The PS3 version debuted at number three, followed by the Xbox 360 version at number four and the PC version at number eight.
THQ's WWE Smackdown! vs. RAW 2008 took three spots on the Spanish sales charts; Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 took the top spot (PS2 version) and the number six spot (PS3 version).
The official console and PC software charts for the week ending November 11, courtesy of Media-Control GfK International, were as follows:
Germany:
1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PC)
2. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (360)
3. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PS3)
4. Hellgate: London (PC)
5. WWE Smackdown! vs. Raw 2008 (PS2)
6. Fussball Manager 2008 (PC)
7. Singstar: Apres Ski (PS2)
8. Dr. Kawashima's Gehirn-Jogging (DS)
9. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS)
10. Singstar: Rock Ballads (PS2)
Spain:
1. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (PS2)
2. WWE Smackdown! vs. RAW 2008 (PS2)
3. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PS3)
4. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (360)
5. Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 (PS2)
6. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (PS3)
7. WWE Smackdown! vs. RAW 2008 (PS3)
8. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PC)
9. WWE Smackdown! vs. RAW 2008 (PSP)
10. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS)
An employee of comic publisher Top Cow Comics - which produces The Darkness comic series - has apparently let slip that a sequel to The Darkness game is in the works.
According to reports, developer Starbreeze Studios is currently hard at work on the second moody horror quest, said to be for Xbox 360 and PS3, for a late 2008/early 2009 release.
No further specifics were leaked, although the sequel is said to follow on directly from events in the first bloodbath of a game, which we enjoyed very much.
2K Games dismisses the chatter as "just a rumour", refusing to comment further on the matter.
Gamepolitics and the site Physorg have an in-depth look at a study (pdf) done on the educational nature of violent games. While the implications of the study reinforce the old 'games lead to violent kids' saw, the authors of the research stress that they're more interested in talking up the benefits of games in education.
"When considered in the light of what is known to be the "best practices" of education, violent video games appear to be exemplary teachers of aggression ... It should therefore be no surprise that video games are excellent teachers, both of educational content and of violent content... The fact that learning occurs regardless of whether the effects are intentional or unintentional is irrelevant, and should make us more thoughtful about designing games and choosing games for children and adolescents to play."
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Using maps and ancient artifacts, uncover clues and unravel mysteries to find a forgotten island and a treasure that was thought to have never existed.
Explore exotic locations. Traverse through living jungles and spectacular 400-year-old ruins.
Drake’s companions and allies play an important role in the adventure through cooperative mechanics, gun play and exploration.
Experience fast-paced gunplay: use a variety of environmental elements for cover, shoot enemies off of moving vehicles in high speed chases and more.
Use an array of hand-to-hand fighting moves to put your enemy off balance. Anything from wild haymaker punches to running drop-kicks.
description
A 400-year-old clue in the coffin of Sir Francis Drake sets a modern-day fortune hunter on a exploration for the fabled treasure of El Dorado, leading to the discovery of a forgotten island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
The search turns deadly when Nathan Drake becomes stranded on the island and hunted by mercenaries. Outnumbered and outgunned, Drake and his companions must fight to survive as they begin to unravel the terrible secrets hidden on the Island.
Join operatives Giorgio Bruno and Evan Bernard to investigate and prevent a top secret weapon from falling into the hands of international terrorists!
Now, the most advanced game in the stellar Time Crisis series arrives on the PLAYSTATION®3, delivering totally immersive, intense gameplay. Time Crisis® 4 is reborn, and includes a full FPS game mode, stunning HD quality graphics and a newly designed Guncon® to enhance every aspect of the game. Superior to its arcade counterpart, Time Crisis 4 brings a fresh new look to launch the series into the next generation.
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Families can commemorate the 30th anniversary of Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope by playing through the events of all six movies in one videogame for the first time ever.
DS version has been built from the ground up by noted developer Traveller's Tales to optimize touch-screen gameplay.
Solve puzzles that encourage creative thinking through the use of teamwork and unique building situations only possible in a LEGO galaxy far, far away.
description
Building on the success of both LEGO Star Wars "block-buster" videogames, LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga enables families to play through the events of all six Star Wars movies in one videogame for the first time ever.
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Rock out your way! Players can beat on drums, sing along, groove as a bassist and shred riffs as guitarists (using a licensed replica of the legendary Fender® Stratocaster®) – either in single player career mode leading a band, in multiplayer as part of the band, or against each other – in person or online!
Unrivaled song library! Major record labels and leading music publishers have signed on to provide unrivaled access to master recordings and legendary rock artists – from punk, metal and alternative to classic and southern rock of the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and 2000s.
Fully customizable! Form your own band, create and customize your own rocker, and then travel on a fast rise to fame around the world in a quest for rock ‘n’ roll glory!
Rock ‘n’ Roll Never Dies! Supports downloadable content for never-ending challenges.
Play together in your living room or across the world! Rock Band offers deep online functionality, allowing players to rock together whether they’re in Rhode Island or Reykjavik.
description
Developed by Harmonix, developers of the blockbuster Guitar Hero franchise, Rock Band is an all-new platform for gamers to experience music, giving players the chance to rock in the shoes of the biggest guitarists, bassists, drummers and singers of all time – as a solo superstar or as part of a hard rocking band. Rock Band delivers the most authentic music game ever – by challenging rockers to master lead guitar, bass guitar, drums and vocals. Built on unprecedented deals with top record labels and music publishers, the music featured in Rock Band spans all genres of rock and includes many master recordings from legendary artists.
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Platform: PS3, Wii, Xbox 360, PS2, Xbox, GC, GBA, Nintendo DS, PSP
Pages: 464
Over 15,000 codes for over 1000 PS3, Wii, Xbox 360, PS2, Xbox, GC, GBA, Nintendo DS, and PSP games.
A great, inexpensive, gift idea for the gamer who has everything.
Adds replayability to any game.
Activate invincibility, gain infinite ammunition, unlock hidden items, characters, and levels!
Best selling code book in history!
All codes verified in house at Prima!
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Be an Assassin: Master the skills, tactics, and weapons of history’s deadliest and most secretive clan of warriors.
Realistic and responsive environments: Crowds react to your moves and will either help or hinder you on your quests.
Action with a new dimension – total freedom: Eliminate your targets wherever, whenever, and however. Stalk your prey through richly detailed, historically accurate, open-ended environments.
Relive the epic times of the Crusades: Assassin’s Creed immerses you in the realistic and historical Holy Land of the 12th century, featuring life-like graphics, ambience, and the subtle, yet detailed nuances of a living world.
Intense action rooted in reality: Experience heavy action blended with fluid and precise animations. Use a wide range of medieval weapons, and face your enemies in realistic swordfight duels.
Next-gen gameplay: The proprietary engine developed from the ground up for the next-gen console allows organic game design featuring open gameplay, intuitive control scheme, realistic interaction with environment, and a fluid, yet sharp, combat mechanic.
description
Assassin’s Creed is the next-gen game developed by Ubisoft Montreal that will redefine the action genre. While other games claim to be next-gen with impressive graphics and physics, Assassin’s Creed merges technology, game design, theme, and emotions into a world where you instigate chaos and become a vulnerable, yet powerful, agent of change.
The setting is 1191 AD. The Third Crusade is tearing the Holy Land apart. You, Altair, intend to stop the hostilities by suppressing both sides of the conflict.
You are an Assassin, a warrior shrouded in secrecy and feared for your ruthlessness. Your actions can throw your immediate environment into chaos, and your existence will shape events during this pivotal moment in history.
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A revolutionary new way to use the PS3 system, based on traditional trading card games and given a new dimension in 3D by next-generation technology.
Developed in collaboration with Hasbro and its Wizards of the Coast subsidiary that produces MAGIC: THE GATHERING.
Four ways to play - player vs. PS3, player vs. player offline, player vs. player online, PS3 vs. PS3 using players own deck.
High Definition 3D animated characters and vehicles come to life seamlessly into the on camera view of your tabletop.
THE EYE OF JUDGMENT will be bundled with PLAYSTATION Eye, 9 Fields mat, stand, a starter deck of 30 cards, and a booster pack of 8 cards. More than 100 different characters and spells will be offered via additional booster packs and pre-constructed decks, available at major retail chains.
THE EYE OF JUDGMENT is a socially engaging title that will appeal to gamers of all ages and abilities.
description
Sony Computer Entertainment introduces a new concept in trading card games with THE EYE OF JUDGMENT™ developed exclusively for PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system. Utilizing Hasbro® and its Wizards of the Coast subsidiary’s trading card expertise, the immense power of the PS3® system, and the PLAYSTATION®Eye, Sony’s groundbreaking next-generation USB camera for PS3, THE EYE OF JUDGMENT provides a visually stunning experience that adds a third dimension to the trading card game genre.
Developed by Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, JAPAN Studio, THE EYE OF JUDGMENT presents a new style of gameplay where collectable trading cards, embedded with a CyberCode, are brought to life in the 3D game through use of the innovative PLAYSTATION Eye. Players compete by selecting a card and placing the coded card in front of the PLAYSTATION Eye for their respective creatures to come to life and battle on screen. Players take turns placing cards as they jostle for control; the winner is the first player to conquer five of the nine squares of the “9 Fields” battle mat. The gamers task is to conquer the board by deploying their cards more skillfully than their opponent.
Players have four ways to play THE EYE OF JUDGMENT, single player against their PS3, against an opponent in two-player mode, against an opponent online, or letting the PS3 play out a round with the cards the player owns. THE EYE OF JUDGMENT comes with a starter deck of 30 character and spell cards manufactured by Hasbro. Pre-constructed decks and booster packs, sold separately in stores, can be purchased to strategically build the perfect deck using the 110 cards unique cards available.
Compete at the highest level of street racing with Need for Speed™ ProStreet. It's no longer good enough to simply rule your local neighbourhood you need to dominate on a global stage. Build the ultimate battle machine, take it to multi-disciplinary showdowns and pit your skills and reputation against the world's best street racers. This is your chance to prove that you have what it takes to be crowned the next street king.
A flawed mercenary and a medicated psychopath forced together on a violent and chaotic path seeking redemption and revenge. No means is too harsh as the volatile partnership is pushed beyond reason in this brutally realistic, character-driven third person action shooter from IO Interactive, the creators of Hitman.
At Square-Enix’s fiscal meeting they candidly mentioned the White Engine development is moving at a sluggish pace. However, they are not abandoning creating their in house engine. Since the engine is the backbone for Final Fantasy XIII it seems likely that the Playstation 3 game will be further delayed. Square-Enix did not mention a date for Final Fantasy XIII (maybe now 2009? edit: this date is just me speculating) or Dragon Quest IX, which was originally slated to come out this year.
It’s not all gloom for Square-Enix. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII sold quite well in Japan with 710,000 copies in the market. Itadaki Street DS was a hit with 410,000 copies sold, just to put that in perspective It’s a Wonderful World only sold 180,000 units.
Acclaimed Fahrenheit developer Quantic Dream has bought the latest motion capture technology from Vicon for its top secret PlayStation 3 exclusive.
The studio has already been installed at Quantic Dream, with the developer hard at work on four month's worth of motion capture for the Sony title.
"Our objective is to make this media a mainstream entertainment form with high creative expectations," commented Guillaume de Fondaumière, Co-CEO at Quantic Dream.
"To do so, we have invented our own format called 'interactive cinema' in which realistic, believable characters play a central role. To us, the only way to reach the level of quality we were targeting for the animation of our characters was to use Vicon motion capture," he said.
Sony announced the PS3 project with Quantic Dream in July this year. The developer is also hiring out the new studio to other development teams.
"Demand has been immediate and we have actually already started to rent the system to high-profile video game and advertising clients. Our new studio is fully installed and is functioning almost every day either for complex full body or facial captures," added Fondaumière.
Alright folks, Sony has released version 2.01 for the PS3. You can download direct via your console in System Update or use your computer and place the update packge on removable media (like a flash drive or burnt to a disk). The changelog from 2.00 is as follows:
New for 2.01: System stability during use of some PLAYSTATION®3 format software has been improved.
New for 2.01: System stability has been improved for some operations, including the use of the Internet browser and the (Information Board).
New for 2.01: System stability during output of upscaled PlayStation®2 format software images has been improved.*1
New for 2.01: Functionality of the [Remote Start] feature has been changed to prevent an unintentional remote start. *2
*1 Applies only to models that support playback of PlayStation®2 format software.
*2 If [Remote Start via the Internet] is enabled, the PS3™ system may turn on unintentionally, depending on the type of router in use. (In this case a remote play connection cannot be established.) To avoid unintentional power-up of the system, [Remote Start via the Internet] may be disabled automatically if a remote play connection is not established within a certain amount of time after the system is turned on.
Today's 2.01 PS3 firmware update was released solely to fix instability issues on the console, but it's suspected it may have done the complete opposite for Activision's best-FPS-on-the-platform shooter, Call of Duty 4.
Dozens of angry gamers have hit the official forums to report that, since updating their PS3s this morning, they have been unable to play the online mode in the game. They obviously blame Sony's new firmware.
Some users, however, say they managed around two hours of play after updating before the errors began to occur. So is the FW update at fault? Or something else? CoD 4 servers have been annoyingly temperamental over the past few days...
We spoke with both Sony and Activision, both seemingly oblivious to the problem, but we hope to update with their feedback soon.
Meanwhile, our office PS3, running the new 2.01 firmware, is playing CoD 4 online as normal. It took around 10 minutes to log on (which is still not good), but it's working just fine now.
[Thanks to the friendly reader (we'll guess your name's Dave) for the tip]
Dynasty Warriors 6, the latest in the brawler series that, for some strange reason, seems to have gamers in the Far East going bananas for it, will be out in British stores from March 7 for 360 and PS3.
DW6 sticks to the same formula of previous games of the series - you run around fields in an ancient China setting and batter the snot out of swarm after swarm of enemy guards.
Koei says that a new graphics engine makes this "by far the most impressive looking Dynasty Warriors yet," not that Dynasty Warriors has ever struck as being particularly pretty.
We've got 12 new screens below anyway, so you can decide for yourself.
In the wake of the Manhunt 2 rating furor, several US Senators have called for a review of the ESRB's ratings process.
According to Game Politics, Senators Hillary Clinton (D-NY), Joe Lieberman (ID-CT), Evan Bayh (D-IN) and Sam Brownback (R-KS) sent the letter to ESRB president Patricia Vance yesterday.
All four Senators have been critics of the videogame industry in the past, with Lieberman generally credited with pressuring the industry to create the ratings system after Congressional hearings in the mid-1990's.
Brownback has legislation pending in the Senate which would mandate that the ESRB play games to their entirety before assigning a rating.
The letter made reference to the BBFC ban on Manhunt 2 in which it found that the game contained "unremitting bleakness and callousness of tone." It also noted that the BBFC refused to rate a revised Manhunt 2 in October 2007.
The Senators expressed concern over the Nintendo’s Wii version of the game, suggesting that the Wii's motion-sensitive controller "permits children to act out each of the many graphic torture scenes and murders."
"In sum, we ask your consideration of whether it is time to review the robustness, reliability and repeatability of your ratings process, particularly for this genre of 'ultra-violent' videogames and advances in game controllers," the letter stated.
Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed has shot to the top of the UK all-formats charts and become the second fastest-selling new IP on an individual format behind 2002's The Getaway.
The Xbox 360 version of the game claims 67 per cent of sales, with the PlayStation 3 version taking the remaining 33 per cent. It also becomes the third fastest-selling Xbox 360 game within a weekly sales period.
Last week's number one, Activision's Call of Duty 4, has been knocked from the top as it suffers a 33 per cent fall in sales.
At number three this week is EA's The Simpsons Game, taking a 9 per cent dip in sales, while THQ's WWE Smackdown Vs Raw 2008 is at number four.
Nintendo's new entry Super Mario Galaxy only manages to debut at number five but becomes the fastest-selling Wii game, with Dr Kawashima's Brain Training staying at number six following a 62 per cent climb in sales.
Electronic Arts' FIFA 08 slips to number seven this week, whle Disney's High School Musical: Sing It! leaps into the top ten at eight with a massive 170 per cent boost in sales following a release on the Nintendo Wii.
Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 is down to number nine and More Brain Training from Dr Kawashima sits at number ten.
The only other new entry in the top forty this week is EA's PC-exclusive Crysis at number 14.
Best Buy has responded to Internet reports that, despite midnight openings across the US, the retailer did not receive its anticipated shipments of EA's Rock Band.
"Best Buy tries to ensure that all customers can get the products they want in our stores. Sometimes situations beyond our control such as shipping and freight issues can make it difficult for a customer to obtain what they are looking for," Best Buy's Emily Schroeder told GamesIndustry.biz.
Schroeder confirmed that many Best Buy locations did not receive the anticipated shipments in time for midnight openings or for Tuesday morning sales.
"We have been working with the vendor and shipping companies to remedy this situation for our customers and expect to receive shipments on Tuesday, November 20 and Wednesday, November 21," she said.
During a conference call to investors earlier this month, EA's CEO John Riccitiello anticipated Rock Band supply problems, noting that EA won't initially be able to produce enough supply to meet the expected demand.
That's right, according to RipTen the Sony PS3 outsold the Nintendo Wii for 2 weeks in a row.
The latest sales are in from Japan for the week starting 12/11 and ending 18/11, and surprisingly the PS3 is holding on in there with its new 40GB model, fighting off Nintendo’s Wii for another week. The Xbox360 also sees a rise, and Super Mario Galaxy and Heavenly Sword also having respectable sales. Find out the numbers after the jump.
Sony CEO Howard Stringer has said that he is confident of the PlayStation 3's current sales performance, comparing the momentum of the new console to that of the early days of the PlayStation 2.
"The momentum shift and the energy behind PS3 in time for Christmas is extremely fortuitous," said Stringer in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
"It was planned by the PlayStation group, but I think this momentum now – particularly the number of games coming out, including our own as well as third-party – is the same as it was with PlayStation 2," he said.
Stringer dismissed the suggestion that the PlayStation 3 is taking longer to establish itself with the development community, saying that creating for a brand new format simply takes time.
"[The PS3 is] not behind the curve compared to PlayStation 2 in terms of momentum.
"The amount of bandwidth and the processing power of Cell gives game manufacturers a lot more work to do to use this system to its full benefit – and it's taken a while to do it. The same was true of the PlayStation 2," he added.
Finally, you should be able to turn on your PS3 today and shoot some faces online in Call of Duty 4 without any friggin' error message ruining the fun, as Infinity Ward has fixed the servers.
The game's online mode has been fraught with problems since release, first with a complete online failure when the servers were apparently "slammed" by legions of players, then further issues again yesterday, coincidentally just after Sony released PS3 firmware 2.01.
But everything should be fine now, as Infinity Ward's community relations manager, Robert Bowling, confirmed today: "You should no longer be receiving this error message or any other issues related to the firmware update in the game."
He added: "Thank you to everyone for giving us the heads up on this so we could start tracking down answers, and getting it resolved and please let us know if you have any additional issues."
Harmonix says that it's not its fault if Guitar Hero controllers don't work with the PS3 version of Rock Band, which they don't.
The game, which is available in the US this week for PS3 and 360, comes as a bundle containing microphone, drums and one guitar, but in order to play four-player you need to source a second axe.
Harmonix has said in the past that Guitar Hero peripherals should be compatible, and while this is true on 360, PS3 owners are discovering it's not the case with the Guitar Hero III wireless Les Paul controller.
"Harmonix develops and bases all of our games, guitars and other peripherals on open standards established by platform manufacturers such as Microsoft and Sony. Rock Band is no exception and supports an open controller standard," the developer said in a statement on IGN.
"If a third party game controller is based on open standards, then it should work with Rock Band as well. If certain controllers do not work with Rock Band, questions about those controllers should be directed to the peripheral manufacturer."
The developer also said that it welcomed third parties to support Rock Band hardware.
At a distance, you might question whether it's naive of Rock Band buyers to assume compatibility with a rival product, but positive responses during development certainly appear now to have been misleadingly confident, and the fact that the game is only available to US consumers as a multi-instrument bundle merely exacerbates things in the eyes of the many people rioting on the official forums.
With the bundle itself in short supply, it could be a while before anyone's placated.
Anyway, look out for our Rock Band review in the near future!
"We had our best programmers on the PS3 [version of Call of Duty] and it shows," Infinity Ward studio head Vince Zampella has bellowed. He's been explaining why Sony's edition has a bigger online capacity (24 max players vs 360's 18) and, according to those with cyborg-eyes, improved visuals.
"We had two separate teams working on both versions from the start," Zampella says, "Most developers only focus on a single platform, then quickly port the game over to another one. You don't get very good results that way".
Zampella was speaking to PSM3 magazine as part of a feature examining PS3 game delays. His words should give Sony fanboys some much-needed ammo. Grab a copy of the Christmas edition of PSM3, issue #95, on sale from tomorrow, for the full exploro-feature.
The US PlayStation 3 Store says hello to a pair of new PlayStation Eye games this week, and what with it being Thanksgiving Sony has also slashed the prices on four other downloadable games.
The two PS Eye games are called Operation Creature Feature (USD 4.99 / 135MB) and Aquatopia (USD 1.99 / 38.9MB). The former sounds like a sort of Lemmings game based on hand movements, while the latter is an interactive fish tank where "you can even feed them by dabbing your hands in the top of the water".
The four games undergoing cheapening, meanwhile, are Calling All Cars, flOw, PixelJunk Racers, Everyday Shooter. All are reduced to USD 4.99 until 29th November to celebrate when some pilgrims did something involving boats and crabs, or whatever nonsense it is that nets them this ludicrous auxiliary Christmas.
Also on the store this week in Americaland are an MX vs. ATV Untamed demo (714MB) to accompany yesterday's Xbox Live version, a downloadable pack for flOw which adds a new campaign and playable creature as well as "added Camera food" (for USD 2.99), a Need For Speed ProStreet Collector's Edition Upgrade (USD 9.99), which adds five exclusive cars and four additional career race-days, and the previously detailed Rock Band content including tracks by Metallica, The Police and Queens of the Stone Age.
For more on those two PlayStation Eye games, check out our Operation: Creature Feature and Aquatopia screenshots, stolen rather pathetically from the US Sony blog post revealing them. In fact, don't even click our links. We're ashamed.
Talk of Sony making a PlayStation Phone has erupted on the internet once again as Sony Computer Entertainment's co-chief operating officer, Jim Ryan, states that such a gadget is "definitely plausible".
Speaking to the Economic Times, Ryan said, "The PlayStation is a proven success and so is Sony Ericsson. Convergence with the two arms working together is definitely plausible. It is hugely intellectually seductive to have a console oriented phone."
He goes on to comment: "What has been done is finding a match between a camera and a mobile phone, and that has been done wherein the mobile phone features are not reasonably inhibited and the camera is also a reasonably competitive product. It is hugely intellectually seductive to have a console-oriented phone".
Ryan later explains that, should such a device work well, the phone functionality would have to be built into a primarily game-playing machine, not the other way around like cameras in phones.
He makes no mention of when a so-called PlayStation Phone device may actually come into fruition.
This follows previous rumours sparked off by a patent filled by Sony Japan's Ericsson Mobile Communications dept. for a PSP-looking, phone-enabled device back in November last year. Check that out here, if you can be arsed to read through lines of repetitive, over-complicated jargon.
Oblivion expansion Shivering Isles is to release as a digital download for PS3.
According to Bethesda, the expansion will be available on PSN as of November 29, although it's not yet confirmed how much it'll cost. It also appears that initially the download will only be available in North American, where Shivering Isles has just shipped on disc.
The expansion features 30-plus hours of new adventuring, new quests, monsters and expanded freeform gameplay.
Presumably Shivering Isles hitting PSN will pave the way for further DLC for Oblivion on PS3.
Elite, the Metroid series, Dungeon Siege, God of War I and II, Half-Life (but not Half-Life 2), Shadow of the Colossus, the Grand Theft Auto series; some of the best games ever (and Dungeon Siege) have done away with the level mechanic and created uninterrupted game spaces devoid of loading screens and artificial breaks between periods of play. Much like cut scenes, level loads are anathema to enjoyment of game play, and a throwback to the era of the Vic-20 and Commodore 64 - when games were stored on cassette tapes, and memory was measured in kilobytes. So in this era of multi-megabyte and gigabyte memory and fast access storage devices why do we continue to have games that are dominated by the level structure, be they commercial (Portal), independent (Darwinia) and amateur (Angband)? Why do games still have levels?
Well, its a little past the 1 year birthday mark for the PlayStation 3 and Wii, as both launched a year ago in the US. The DS just went on 3 years since it launched in the US as well.
With the DS, PlayStation 3 PSP and Xbox360 being found easily in stores, what are your thoughts on the hard to find Wii? Its near impossible to find in the US. What about in other countries, are you feeling the same effect with shortages?
If the Wii is sold out and parents are unable to buy it for their kids, which system do you think parents will get next to fulfill the kids wishlist? (Divineo UK do have Nintendo Wii`s in stock)
Discuss your opinion on shortages and the upcoming holiday shopping. We want to know what you have to say!
Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed has topped the multiformat charts in Sweden, battling stiff competition from Nintendo's Super Mario Galaxy at two and EA's Crysis at four.
Activision's Call of Duty 4 also performs well, with the PC, 360 and PS3 versions sitting at five, six and seven in the charts, respectively.
Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters takes the number one position in the PlayStation Portable charts, while The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass holds on to the top of the DS charts.
The full Swedish charts follow:
Multiformat
1. Assassins Creed (360)
2. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
3. Assassins Creed (PS3)
4. Crysis (PC)
5. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PC)
6. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (360)
7. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PS3)
8. Singstar Svenska hits Schlager (PS2)
9. World of Warcraft (PC)
10. Ratchet & Clank Tools of Destruction (PS3)
11. The Sims 2 Tonårsprylar (PC)
12. High School Musical: Sing It! (PS2)
13. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (PC)
14. Counter-Strike 1: Anthology (PC)
15. Hellgate: London (PC)
16. The Sims 2 Jorden Runt (PC)
17. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS)
18. Football Manager 2008 (PC)
19. En riktig jul - Julkalendern 2007 (PC)
20. FIFA 08 (PS2)
PC
1. Crysis
2. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
3. World of Warcraft
4. The Sims 2 Tonårsprylar
5. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
6. Counter-Strike 1: Anthology
7. Hellgate: London
8. The Sims 2 Jorden Runt
9. Football Manager 2008
10. En riktig jul - Julkalendern 2007
PlayStation 2
1. Singstar Svenska hits Schlager
2. High School Musical: Sing It!
3. FIFA 08
4. The Simpsons
5. Singstar Svenska hits
6. Lego Star Wars: The Video Game
7. Guitar Hero 2 Rock the 80´s
8. GTA San Andreas
9. Buzz: The Mega Quiz
10. Eye Toy Play 3
PlayStation 3
1. Assassins Creed
2. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
3. Ratchet & Clank Tools of Destruction
4. FIFA 08
5. NHL 08
6. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008
7. The Simpsons
8. Lair
9. Lego Star Wars 1 & 2 The Complete Saga
10. Virtua Tennis 3
Xbox 360
1. Assassins Creed
2. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
3. Halo 3
4. FIFA 08
5. Naruto: Rise of a Ninja
6. Lego Star Wars 1 & 2 The Complete Saga
7. Scene it
8. NHL 08
9. Guitar Hero 2
10. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008
Wii
1. Super Mario Galaxy
2. Metroid Prime 3 Corruption
3. Legend of Zelda: The Twillight Princess
4. Rayman Raving Rabbids
5. Table Tennis
6. The Simpsons
7. Lego Star Wars 1 & 2 The Complete Saga
8. Rayman Raving Rabbids 2
9. Super Paper Mario
10. Carnival Games
Nintendo DS
1. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
2. New Super Mario Bros
3. Lego Star Wars 1 & 2 The Complete Saga
4. Pokémon Diamond
5. Pokémon Pearl
6. Bilar
7. Mario Kart DS
8. The Simpsons
9. The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer
10. Nintendogs: Dalmatian & Friends
PSP
1. Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters
2. FIFA 08
3. The Simpsons
4. GTA Vice City Stories
5. Tekken Dark Resurrection
6. Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions
7. Need for Speed Underground Rivals
8. Medal of Honor: Heroes
9. Daxter
10. NHL 07
All chart information supplied by Dataspelsbranschen.
A Sony representative has told GamesIndustry.biz that reports of a PlayStation Phone are wide of the mark.
This comes after a story in the Economic Times of India which claimed that Sony Computer Entertainment might be working with Sony Ericsson on the project - following the launch of a Bravia-branded handset.
SCE's co-chief operating officer, Jim Ryan, had apparently told the publication: "The PlayStation is a proven success and so is Sony Ericsson. Convergence with the two arms working together is definitely plausible."
But now a company spokesperson has denied the two brands are colluding.
"Jim Ryan was in fact misquoted by the Economic Times of India about this issue. We are not currently working together on the creation of a PlayStation Phone."
There was no indication given as to whether such a collaboration was planned at any point in the future.
KOEI has told Eurogamer that futuristic racer Fatal Inertia will be a better game on PS3.
The company is spending more time on it after the 360 version failed to ignite critical fuses when it was released in September. According to a spokesperson for the publisher, they're polishing up technical areas and putting together a more enticing demo than Live customers were treated to.
New content is a possibility, too, although nothing concrete is known at this point.
KOEI US recently offered next spring as an expected date for the title. However, we were told nothing has been decided internally and it is currently "in development for 2008", as it's always been.
Fatal Inertia began life as a PS3 exclusive, but met delays because it was fiddly getting it to work with Unreal Engine 3.
The game lets you zip around interesting courses like canyons and caves in futuristic flying ships, using all sorts of innovative weaponry to hamper the progress of your opponents.
Unfortunately it was let down by a poor frame rate and ill-conceived technical features in the 360 version. KOEI is hoping to iron out those kinks in time for the PS3 release.
Head over to our Fatal Inertia review to find out more.
Epic boss Mark Rein has finally confirmed that the PS3 version of Unreal Tournament III will not make it to UK stores until "January or February" next year.
The Americans, however, will get their deathmatch fix this side of Christmas. As Rein explained: "Unreal Tournament 3 has been approved by SCEA and has been released to North American manufacturing.
"Midway has started talking to retailers to figure out exact timing and they will have a formal announcement early next week when everyone is back from the Thanksgiving holiday.
"My guess is that Midway will start shipping the title to North American retailers on Monday December 10th and it could show up in stores as early as December 11th but more likely toward the middle of that week."
But he goes on to say localisation will slow our release.
"For PAL territories, specifically UK and Europe, we have a few localization-related tasks to complete and then we should be starting the certification process pretty soon. My best guess is early next year (January or February) for the game to ship over there."
Still, the region-freeness of PS3 means you could grab an import copy if you're desperate to shoot people over the holiday.
Bethesda mouth Pete Hines has said Oblivion expansion Shivering Isles will available to download for PS3 soon.
Word came by way of the company blog, where Hines revealed US gamers will be able to get their hands on SI next Thursday.
Us foreign types may have to wait, however, as Hines cannot offer any confirmation on a European or Australian date just yet.
There is also no indication of how much it will cost. You may remember the 360 version asked for a substantial 2400 Points (GBP 20.40 / EUR 27.91) back in March.
You can, of course, get your PS3 mitts on Shivering Isles buy buying the Game of the Year Edition in December, which also contains mini-expansion Knights of the Nine.
Shivering Isles lets you travel to the realm of Daedric Prince Sheogorath, who is as mad as a hatter. Here you will embark on all sorts of wacky quests as you plough through around 30 hours of new content and gather up new spells, items, armour, ingredients and more.
One for those of you who persisted with Oblivion, then; plenty more of the same to do in even more beautiful areas. But it does nothing to soothe those of you who complained about its mechanics, levelling system and often repetitive questing. Perhaps best avoided if you fall into that camp.
Pop over to our Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles review to find out more.
Mario Party DS continued to sell well in Japan last week, with 116,000 units of the Nintendo title flying off shelves to keep it top of the software chart.
Sales information from Media Create for the week ending November 18 put the latest Resident Evil title for the Wii - Umbrella Chronicles - at number two, shifting 83,000 copies in its first week.
Shin Sangoku Musou 5 for the PlayStation 3 was third, while new entries Pro Baseball Family Stadium DS and Game Center CX: Arino's Challenge were fourth and fifth respectively.
One surprise in the chart was that the much-hyped Heavenly Sword, only released in Japan on November 15, sold just 15,000 copies - over 100,000 less that Mario Party DS, and only 2000 more than old-timer Wii Sports.
The full software top ten for Japan is as follows:
1. Mario Party DS (DS)
2. Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles (Wii)
3. Shin Sangoku Musou 5 (PS3)
4. Pro Baseball Family Stadium DS (DS)
5. Game Center CX: Arino's Challenge (DS)
6. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
7. Heavenly Sword (PS3)
8. Final Fantasy Tactics A2 (DS)
9. Wii Sports (Wii)
10. Armored Soldiers: Votoms (PS2)
A survey has found that almost 50 per cent of minors in the US have been able to buy games rated M for Mature from retailers.
The study found that of over 60 stores nationwide, 46 per cent sold M rated games to consumers under the age of 18, reports the San Diego Union-Tribune.
The survey was carried out by the East County Youth Coalition and the National Institute on Media and Family.
The findings back-up a report from the NIMF last year, which also found that half of retailers willingly sold adult games to a young audience.
This week, US senators began to put pressure on ESRB ratings, calling for a review of the system.
Right-oh, here we have three new screenshots (well, one looks a bit 'arty' actually) from Ubisoft's console RTS Tom Clancy's EndWar, which is being directed by ex-Total War man Michael de Plater.
The game's being built from the ground up for PS3 and Xbox 360 and one of its main features is the ability to play it with your voice.
"It's really easy," creative director Michael de Plater has told CVG about the voice control mechanic.
"You hit the right trigger and you say the order. You can read all the currently available orders on the screen while the trigger is held down just like if you were using a two way radio.
"So all you need to know how to do is to press one button and read. And once you know the commands you don't even have to read them any more."
He continued, "The challenging part of the voice command isn't the interface or the voice recognition. It's having AI units who are smart enough to follow your orders like real soldiers.
"When you say 'Red Team attack Alpha' it's not a bunch of mindless drones marching to Alpha. These guys will use cover, combined arms tactics and terrain. You are the general, you don't need to micromanage every footstep of the most elite soldiers on the planet."
Rock band The Romantics have filed a lawsuit against Activision, Harmonix and RedOctane over a cover version of one of the band's songs featured in Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80's.
According to the band, the re-recording of the 1980's hit What I Like About You is "virtually indistinguishable from the authentic version" and confuses consumers into believing that the band actually recorded the music and endorsed the product, reports Billboard.
The suit, filed November 20 in a federal District Court in Detroit, lists California-based Activision, Harmonix Music Systems and RedOctane as defendants. It also names Wavegroup Sound as performers of the music. Plaintiffs The Romantics are seeking compensatory and punitive damages, and are asking that the court enjoin further distribution of the game.
The right of publicity gives an individual protection against others from using his or her identity for commercial purposes without permission, but in most cases this right is only brought into play when well-known voices have been imitated.
The pixel counters strike again! Having already conquered Halo 3 by proving the flagship shooter was 80 pixels below HD (defined here as at least 1280x720), the Beyond 3D forum members are now claiming Call of Duty 4 is only 600p (1024x600 resolution = 614,400 pixels) for both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions - that's 120 pixels that have gone AWOL.
The Beyond 3D posters have proven their dedication to pixel counting before with Halo 3, but since we haven't counted ourselves or seen the visual proof prevalent during Halo-gate, we're welcome to be proven wrong.
Update: The tryptophan is starting to affect our ability to calculate. The difference between 600p and 720p (1280x720 = 921,600) is 307,200 pixels [not 120] - which happens to be the exact number of pixels contained within 640x480 resolution.
Were you aware that Japan's Dengeki magazine group recently gave out awards for the PlayStation brand's all time best of the best?
Neither were we.
Apparently, Final Fantasy VII placed quite highly in these so-called "Den-Play Awards." The game took the award for best story, best RPG, and best overall game. Cloud Strife took the award for best character, followed by the other vertices of his love triangle, Aeris at fifth and Tifa at eighth. Six characters in all placed in the top 50, with Sephiroth at 14th, Reno at 15th and Yuffie at 42nd.
Awards awarded, Dengeki PlayStation took the opportunity to get FFXII director Yoshinori Kitase and character designer Tetsuya Nomura to sit down for a lengthy interview recapping the past ten years with the FFVII offshoot. The two offered a few short insights into upcoming projects.
The magazine asked Nomura if Cloud's role will expand from here on out. To this, Nomura responded with, "I have my hands full with Final Fantasy Versus XIII now, so I can't say anything about the future, but the scenario writer, Nojima (Kazushige), says he doesn't want to part from Cloud yet, so there will surely be something."
Next, the PS3 Final Fantasy games. The two were first asked to comment on the changes the move from the PS2 to the PS3 brings to the series.
"On the hardware side," said Kitase, "thanks to the storage space of Blu-Ray and the inclusion of a hard drive, we're able to deal with load times. Regarding the production side of things, because it's a next generation machine, any and all sections require multiple times more work, so it's difficult. With FFVII, we advanced over previous games in all areas, but aiming for the same thing with the PS3 is difficult. For FFXIII, we're looking at what specific areas we should focus on improving."
As for Nomura, the Versus XIII director said, "Compared to the move to the PS2, the move to the PS3 is more difficult. Planning and so-forth haven't changed much as far as work is concerned, but overall, the amount of graphics work has gone up considerably. You can show tiny details, so you have to make put tiny details in your illustrations."
Getting a bit specific on the Versus project, Nomura continued, "It seems that the Versus team was, from the start, trying to get the full specifications out of the PS3, and that takes time. Just the other day, during a Versus meeting, a programmer asked, 'Is it okay to program with PS3 exclusivity in mind?'." I asked why, and he said, 'If we port it to other hardware, we have to program with that in mind.' I responded, 'Of course, Versus is PS3 exclusive.'"
While Nomura admitted that Versus will still take a bit more time, he let slip a big hint on the final shape of the game: Versus may have airships and a world map.
"The other day," said Nomura, "I saw a test of an airship flying over the world map. I felt that I was seeing a Final Fantasy-like screen for the first time in a long time. However, the fact that things have become realistic made us concerned about what to do about the scale. It's the same scale as past FF games, but even then, it's so wide that you can't make out the first town."
Nomura seems to be confident in his team's ability to deliver with Versus, though. "We still haven't announced the Versus team, but there are some well-known members in there, so it will become a good product. Also, we're getting advice from the team working on FFXIII, which is being developed first, so we're progressing well."
Square Enix usually shows new footage from its major titles at the annual Jump Festa event in Tokyo in late December. We'll be sure and let you know if anything related to FFXIII (or even FFVII) shows up.
Sony CEO Howard Stringer believes the company's next-gen console can be as successful as its predecessor, and says the momentum of the PS3 matches that of the PS2 early in its lifetime.
"The momentum shift and the energy behind PS3 in time for Christmas is extremely fortuitous," he told The Hollywood Reporter.
"It was planned by the PlayStation group, but I think this momentum now - particularly the number of games coming out, including our own as well as third-party - is the same as it was with PlayStation 2. [The PS3 is] not behind the curve compared to PlayStation 2 in terms of momentum."
Welcome to this week's Games & Toys update, our weekly summary featuring all new product arrivals from the last seven days.
As we've been expecting, it's been another tremendous release week, with plenty of new and exciting arrivals for Thanksgiving and of course the ongoing Christmas business.
Popular multi platform sellers this week have been Konami's Winning Eleven 2008, the US editions of Ubisoft's action adventure Assassin's Creed, LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga and WWE Smackdown Vs. RAW 2008.
The hottest Asian Xbox360™ seller this week has been the sci-fi RPG hit Mass Effect, followed by Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation.
For PlayStation3™ we've got Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, the US edition of The Eye of Judgment and Time Crisis 4 with Guncon 3.
The most popular Wii™ arrivals in this week have been the US version of Super Mario Galaxy, followed by Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 (US) and Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Japanese).
There have also been a lot of interesting handheld releases, including Contra 4, Dragon Quest IV: Michibikareshi Monotachi, Rayman Raving Rabbids 2, Ckoking Mama 2: Dinner with Friends and Ultimate Mortal Kombat for Nintendo DS™ as well as Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus, Warhammer 40,000: Squad Command, Alien vs Predator: Requiem and Sonic Rivals 2 for PSP™.
As usually, here's a summary of all new arrivals from this week, followed by coming week's preview, once again including plenty of hot new games.
Xbox360™:
Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation ASIA US$ 49.90
Assassin's Creed US US$ 64.90
BlackSite: Area 51 US US$ 59.90
Final Fantasy XI: Vana'diel Collection JPN US$ 69.90
Final Fantasy XI: Wings of the Goddess JPN US$ 39.90
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix JPN US$ 64.90
Kane & Lynch: Dead Men US US$ 59.90
LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga ASIA US$ 44.90
Mass Effect ASIA US$ 49.90
Medal of Honor: Airborne JPN US$ 64.90
Monster Jam US US$ 49.90
Need for Speed: Pro Street US US$ 59.90
Rock Band US US$ 64.90
Scene It? Lights, Camera, Action ASIA US$ 69.90
Soldier of Fortune: Payback US US$ 64.90
WWE Smackdown Vs. RAW 2008 US US$ 59.90
WWE Smackdown Vs. RAW 2008 ASIA US$ 49.90
Winning Eleven 2008 ASIA US$ 64.90
Winning Eleven 2008 JPN US$ 69.90
PlayStation3™:
Assassin's Creed US US$ 64.90
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix JPN US$ 64.90
Kane & Lynch: Dead Men US US$ 64.90
LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga ASIA US$ 48.90
Need for Speed: Pro Street US US$ 64.90
Remy no Oishii Restaurant / Ratatouille JPN US$ 59.90
Rock Band US US$ 64.90
The Eye of Judgment US US$ 79.90
Time Crisis 4 with Guncon 3 ASIA US$ 99.90
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune US US$ 64.90
WWE Smackdown Vs. RAW 2008 US US$ 64.90
Winning Eleven 2008 ASIA US$ 69.90
Winning Eleven 2008 JPN US$ 69.90
Nintendo Wii™:
Cars: Mater-National US US$ 49.90
Dragon Blade JPN US$ 59.90
Gegege no Kitarou: Youkai Daiundoukai JPN US$ 59.90
High School Musical: Sing It Bundle with Microphone US US$ 64.90
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games JPN US$ 59.90
Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 US US$ 49.90
Need for Speed: Pro Street US US$ 49.90
Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 US US$ 49.90
Smarty Pants US US$ 49.90
Super Mario Galaxy US US$ 59.90
Tomb Raider: Anniversary US US$ 44.90
USB Illumination Stand (Black) JPN US$ 19.90
USB Illumination Stand (White) JPN US$ 19.90
WWE Smackdown Vs. RAW 2008 US US$ 49.90
PlayStation2™:
Dokapon Kingdom JPN US$ 64.90
EX Jinsei Game II (PlayStation2 the Best Reprint) JPN US$ 34.90
Exclusive Placing Stand (Ceramic White) JPN US$ 14.90
Exclusive Placing Stand (Charcoal Black) JPN US$ 14.90
Exclusive Placing Stand (Satin Silver) JPN US$ 14.90
Fatal Frame (PlayStation2 the Best Reprint) JPN US$ 19.90
Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly (PlayStation2 the Best Reprint) JPN US$ 19.90
Fatal Frame III: The Tormented (PlayStation2 the Best Reprint) JPN US$ 19.90
Final Fantasy XI: Vana'diel Collection JPN US$ 79.90
Final Fantasy XI: Wings of the Goddess JPN US$ 39.90
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix JPN US$ 64.90
High School Musical: Sing It Bundle With Microphone US US$ 59.90
High School Musical: Sing it US US$ 44.90
King of Fighters XI US US$ 24.90
Minna no Tennis / Everybody's Tennis (PlayStation2 the Best) JPN US$ 29.90
Monster Jam US US$ 34.90
Pachitte Chonmage Tatsujin 13: Pachinko Hissatsu Shigotojin III JPN US$ 64.90
PlayStation2 Console Ceramic White (SCPH-90000CW) JPN US$ 179.00
PlayStation2 Console Charcoal Black (SCPH-90000CB) JPN US$ 179.00
PlayStation2 Console Satin Silver (SCPH-90000SS) JPN US$ 179.00
Pri-Saga! Princess o Sagase! JPN US$ 64.90
Pri-Saga! Princess o Sagase! [Limited Edition] JPN US$ 89.90
Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords US US$ 24.90
Shiju Hachi JPN US$ 64.90
Swashbucklers: Blue & Grey US US$ 24.90
Umisho JPN US$ 64.90
Umisho [Limited Edition] JPN US$ 95.00
WWE Smackdown Vs. RAW 2008 US US$ 59.90
Winning Eleven 2008 JPN US$ 64.90
Nintendo DS™:
1500 DS Spirits Vol.6 Trump JPN US$ 15.90
1500 DS Spirits Vol.7 Chess JPN US$ 15.90
1500 DS Spirits Vol.8 Darts JPN US$ 15.90
1500 DS Spirits Vol.9 2 Ninuchi Mahjong JPN US$ 15.90
Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? US US$ 34.90
Bratz: 4 Real US US$ 34.90
Catz 2 ASIA US$ 34.90
Chou Kantan Boki Nyuumon DS JPN US$ 39.90
Contra 4 US US$ 34.90
Cooking Mama 2: Dinner with Friends US US$ 34.90
Dragon Quest IV: Michibikareshi Monotachi JPN US$ 49.90
Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends: Imagination Invaders US US$ 34.90
Hamsterz 2 ASIA US$ 34.90
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix JPN US$ 48.90
Hori Wi-Fi USB Adapter JPN US$ 38.90
Jenga World Tour US US$ 34.90
Juushin Enbu DS JPN US$ 48.90
Kodai Ouja: Kyouryuu King - 7-tsu no Kakera JPN US$ 48.90
Kouenji Onago Soccer 2 JPN US$ 48.90
LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga ASIA US$ 34.90
My Best Friends- Cats & Dogs ASIA US$ 34.90
Nazotte Oboeru Otona no Kanji Renshuu Kanzenhan JPN US$ 39.90
Need for Speed: Pro Street US US$ 34.90
Petz Horsez 2 US US$ 34.90
Puzzle de Harvest Moon US US$ 39.90
Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 ASIA US$ 32.90
Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 US US$ 34.90
Ryuusei no RockMan 2: Berserk x Dinosaur JPN US$ 48.90
Ryuusei no RockMan 2: Berserk x Shinobi JPN US$ 48.90
Sankei Sports Kanshuu: Wi-Fi Baken Yosou Ryoku Training: Umania 2007 Nendo-Han JPN US$ 64.90
Ultimate Mortal Kombat US US$ 34.90
Unou Ikusei: IQ Breeder JPN US$ 39.90
WWE Smackdown Vs. RAW 2008 US US$ 34.90
WanSeg TV Tuner DS JPN US$ 89.90
Wantame Music Channel: Doko Demo Style JPN US$ 48.90
Yomesou de Yomenai Kanji DS JPN US$ 39.90
Sony PSP™:
AIR JPN US$ 48.90
Alien vs Predator: Requiem US US$ 39.90
An Idol and a Baseball Fist 2 JPN US$ 37.90
Component AV Cable XL (4 meters / 13.12 ft.) US$ 9.99
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix JPN US$ 14.90
MAX Power Slim US$ 24.90
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus US US$ 24.90
Planetarium Curator Ohira Takayuki Kanshuu: Home Star Portable (Sega the Best) JPN US$ 19.90
Protection Filter Portable JPN US$ 7.99
Sakura Taisen 1&2 (Sega the Best) JPN US$ 28.90
Sarugetchu: Pipo Saru Racer (PSP the Best) JPN US$ 29.90
Sarugetchu: Pipo Saru Racer (PSP the Best) ASIA US$ 24.90
Sonic Rivals 2 US US$ 39.90
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 KOR US$ 49.90
WWE Smackdown Vs. RAW 2008 US US$ 39.90
Warhammer 40,000: Squad Command US US$ 34.90
PC Games:
Avencast: Rise of the Mage (DVD-ROM) ASIA US$ 34.90
BlackSite: Area 51 (DVD-ROM) US US$ 49.90
Final Fantasy XI: Vana'diel Collection JPN US$ 79.90
Final Fantasy XI: Wings of the Goddess JPN US$ 39.90
Book releases:
Assassin's Creed Limited Edition Art Book US US$ 29.90
Codes & Cheats Winter 2008: Prima Games Code Book (Codes & Cheats) US US$ 6.90
Crysis: Prima Official Game Guide US US$ 19.90
Mass Effect Prima Official Game Guide US US$ 19.90
Viva Pinata Ultimate Sticker Book US US$ 6.90
Toys & More:
Armored Core Interior Mirage C04-Atals Foxeye Ver. 1/72 Fine Scale Model Kit JPN US$ 32.90
Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 1/6 Scale Pre-painted PVC Figure: Ayane - Venus on the beach JPN N/A
Dragon Quest 1/1 Scale Soft Vinyl Figure: Slime JPN N/A
Dragon Quest IV - Batoen G Drawing Set JPN US$ 8.90
Dragon Quest IV - Batoen G Pencil Set HD 011 JPN US$ 3.49
Dragon Quest IV - Batoen G Pencil Set HD 012 JPN US$ 3.49
EP3 Star Wars 1/7 Scale Pre-Painted Figure: Darth Vader US$ 29.90
Hanabi Shokunin Damasii Collection Trading Figure JPN US$ 4.90
Ikkitousen: 1/7 Scale Painted Cold Cast Statue - Sonsaku Hakufu (Wet Hair Version) JPN N/A
Kirby Plush Doll (sitting medium size) JPN US$ 19.90
Nakabayashi 1/8 Scale Pre-painted PVC Figure JPN US$ 57.90
Nintendo Wii Collection Keychain Gashapon JPN US$ 2.49
Oh My Goddess - Everyone has Wings: Belldandy JPN N/A
One Piece Feeling Figure Collection: Styling 4 - Grand Holiday JPN US$ 4.90
Princess Crown - Gradriel Pre-painted PVC Figure JPN US$ 49.90
Robosapien V2 HK US$ 229.90
Video Game related Soundtracks:
Ace Combat 6 Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 32.90
Beautiful Katamari Damacy Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 27.90
Bleach B Station Second Season 5 JPN US$ 24.90
Culdcept Second Original Soundtrack Deluxe JPN US$ 29.90
Ef - A Fairy Tale of the Two. SP1 JPN US$ 27.90
Follow The Nightingale (Tales of Innocence Theme Song) JPN US$ 10.90
Hatsunejima Best D.C -Da Capo- Best Selection JPN US$ 28.90
Insanity JPN US$ 11.90
Kira Kira JPN US$ 11.90
Rockman 7 Shukumei No Taiketsu Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 23.90
Rockman 8 Metal Heroes Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 23.90
Sengoku Basara 2 Heroes Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 27.90
Shining Wind Drama CD Vol.1 JPN US$ 27.90
Tantei Jinguji Ssaburo Inishie No Kioku Soundtrack JPN US$ 37.90
Im not sure about the rest of Europe but the UK is one of the worst in the world for being ripped off
The current frenzy to get hold of Nintendo Wii Consoles highlights that you need to pay well over the odds to get one unless your very lucky. Divineo UK have them in stock at £269 which yes is expensive but Amazon prices start at £300 and much higher.
Importing Consoles such as the Nintendo DS and PSP/GP2X will give you no problems whatsoever as they are worldwide region apart from UMD Movies on the PSP.
I myself prefer to import from the likes of Play Asia who have the US Version Nintendo Wii in stock at $399 which is £192 with shipping youll pay say £220 at most and use airmail if possible to avoid nasty customs charges or ask Play Asia to lower the value if you do get charged.
Yes if you buy a US Version Nintendo Wii and live in Europe/UK your stuck with US games but being as US Games are half the price of UK Games thats not a Problem.
The Same Can be said for the PS3 which SuccessHK sell for £206 and slightly more for the White 40GB PS3. Games are worldwide region free and as before with Nintendo Wii games they are much cheaper as US Versions.
Dont be ripped off and dont be afraid to import but always ask questions of seasoned gamers
Sony confirmed yesterday that it's not making a PS Phone, but Korea doesn't care because it's gone ahead and made one anyway.
The pictures below are of the Amycoll PS3 Phone. Clearly, Sony had nothing to do with it, but the unit actually looks pretty nice with its PlayStation buttons, proper D-pad and wide LCD screen. Nice work from the boys in "Koera" as it hilariously says on the unit.
And the funniest thing is that the PS3-branded unit runs on a Microsoft operating system for which, over the years, numerous emulators have been made, most notably full-speed SNES and NES emulators. Not missing the trick, the phone actually comes with said emulators pre-installed, probably breaking every copyright law in existence.
Check out the 'Windows: designed for PS3' logo. Hah! We want one.
Sony has revealed details of its first ever dedicated PS3 Christmas TV campaign in Europe – which will concentrate on the high definition capabilities of the system.
Themed around the tagline ‘Entertainment like you’ve never seen it before’, 60 and 30-second ads will run on UK TV from December 1st. The creative is available to view online now.
Created by agency TBWA/London, the ad is dubbed 'The Entertainers'. Its development was overseen by award-winning director Noam Murro.
According to Sony: ‘The ad takes place in a theatre style scene with a host of flamboyant characters; A magician and his beautiful team of assistants are seen on a show-biz mission to turn a scruffy mongrel into a perfectly coiffed poodle, as a reference to how PS3’s high definition and Blu-ray disc capabilities make everything – from games and movies to photos – look and sound more beautiful and detailed than ever before.
'A funny acrobatic couple perform amazing seamless movements without wires, just like the PS3’s Sixaxis wireless motion-sensitive controller, which understands and translates body movements.
‘PS3’s constantly updated technology is brought to life through a robot that seamlessly turns into a human to illustrate how the console is a future proofed product, able to update and evolve over time, with software and product innovations to meet the changing entertainment demands of consumers.’
The star attraction on the PlayStation Store this week has to be the Uncharted: Drake's Fortune demo, which is now available for people who were too scared to download it from the US Store.
We gave the game itself a whopping 9/10, you see, and even kidnapped Naughty Dog boss Evan Wells for the afternoon so you could ask him your questions. Just a taste of what we can do.
Elsewhere you can get your mitts on a taster for Blazing Angels 2, although it too is the same one the US were playing a couple of weeks ago. The full game is out at the end of the month.
However, you might like more cars for MotorStorm or an Alchemy Pack for RPG Folklore, both priced at GBP 1.49 a piece. Or, for those of you with a PSP, you can grab PSone title G-Police to fiddle with on the train.
But maybe all you're after is a good old trailer, like the one for Ratchet & Clank, or MotorStorm, or PSN showcase, or Bad Company, or Beowulf, or a trio of clips for Uncharted: Drake's Fortune.
Still not content? Well it's a bunch of free Tekken wallpapers for you, then.
Earlier this week Sony released a new PC Store especially for PSP owners to browse and download content. It will replace the PSP Store in January, and already boasts buckets of games.
PS3 owners, you should have seen the warning signs.
First one: that this is a multi-platform release being ported to the PS3. Uh-oh.
Second one: that said PS3 version's been delayed while PC and 360 owners have been blowing up Striders and over-using cake jokes to within an inch of their life.
So it should be little/no surprise that when 1UP got their hands on the EA-ported PS3 version of The Orange Box, they found it...largely awful. So awful, in fact, at times it was "downright unplayable". Chief culprit are the framerates in the three HL2 releases, particularly in outdoor/vehicle sections, which at times slows to a single-digits crawl. Ungh. You'll not kill any Combine at 9FPS, Gordon.
13 Ghosts (~Tony Shalhoub, Embeth Davidtz, ...) JPN US$ 47.90
A Few Good Men (~Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, ...) JPN US$ 47.90
Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire (~Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, ...) JPN US$ 37.90
Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix (~Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, ...) JPN US$ 47.90
Innocent Planet Konchu Tachi No Sekai JPN US$ 37.90
Kokyo Burari Shiki No Michi JPN US$ 37.90
Memories [DVD] (~Kouichi Yamadera, Hideyuki Hori, ...) JPN US$ 97.90
Metropolis [DVD] (~Yuka Imoto, Kei Kobayashi, ...) JPN US$ 97.90
Oze No Shiki JPN US$ 37.90
Pathfinder [Unrated Version] (~Karl Urban, Russell Means, ...) HK US$ 31.90
Sea Forest Monterey Wan No Ikimono Tachi JPN US$ 37.90
Seiko Matsuda Concert Tour 2007 Baby's breath (~Seiko Matsuda) JPN US$ 69.90
Shin Sos Dai Tokyo Tankentai JPN US$ 77.90
Spriggan [DVD] (~Shotaro Morikubo) JPN US$ 97.90
Swordfish JPN US$ 37.90
The Legend Of Zorro (~Antonio Banderas, Catherine Zeta-jones, ...) JPN US$ 47.90
This game is the third installment of the Soldier of Fortune series. A routine escort mission goes wrong that causes players to deal with an enemy that knows no bounds. As mercenary, Thomas Mason, players will need to uncover and terminate an extremist plot aimed at throwing the world into chaos. Experience mercenary combat in the world's dangerous hotspots in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe.
features
Over-The-Top Action – Engage in 18 high-stakes missions where you will bomb bridges, steal secret weapons, destroy Zeppelins and more.
Fly Never Before Seen Aircraft – Pilot over 50 authentic planes and prototypes including the Gotha Go 229, DH Vampire F Mk 1, Me-163 “Komet”, Meteor and many more.
Unusual Experimental Weapons Get the advantage in combat by using experimental WWII weapons including High Velocity Cannons and TV-Guided missiles.
Exotic WWII Setting – Engage in epic battles in some of the world’s most captivating environments such as Cairo, the Himalayas, Moscow’s Red Square, Rome’s San Pietro’s Cathedral, the Swiss Alps and more.
Next-Gen Graphics – Experience improved depth of field, jaw-dropping cinematographic lightening and outstanding sound effects.
Fast Paced Multiplayer Action – Challenge up to 16 players in free-for-all, co-op and squad-based missions, including the all new Epic Battle and Capture the Flag modes.
Epic Boss Battles – For example, go up against a giant German Zeppelin over the pyramids of Cairo. Take out its nine gun turrets while you expose its vulnerable underbelly.
description
In this game, you are the leader of Operation Wildcard, an undercover and elite squad of pilots secretly created by the American government. Your mission is to sabotage and destroy the Third Reich’s evil plans to create a weapon of mass destruction. During this mission you and your team discover that the bad guys also have an elite team of their own. In an attempt to disarm the enemy, you engage in dramatic and movie-like spy missions in some of the world’s most exotic locations using experimental weapons and flying never-before-seen prototype aircraft.
features
6th Man Advantage - Give your home team the advantage on the floor with the energy of the crowd.
All-American Training Challenge - Go head-to-head against former college stars to test and build your key game skills.
Lock-On D - Master your man-to-man defense with complete on-the-ball coverage.
Maximum Passing - One press of a button puts a full slate of pass options at your fingertips.
Halftime Adjustments - Hit the locker-room at the half to assess and adjust your game strategy.
2KU - Completely redesigned arena atmosphere creates the most authentic college basketball experience ever.
PlayVision - Execute offensive plays perfectly with on-floor step-by-step diagrams
Play Designer - Create your own plays to customize your team's playbook.
description
College Hoops 2K8, the #1 selling college basketball game last year and the #1 rated college basketball game five years running returns to the Xbox 360™, PLAYSTATION®3 and PLAYSTATION®2. This year's game gets the deepest feature enhancements in the history of the franchise and is sure to be a contender to repeat as what Operation Sports crowned "Basketball Game of the Year" for 2006.
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