Thursday, January 31, 2008

Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds: Advanced Shot Mode

Sony Computer Entertainment's Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds is on it's way for a March 2008 release. One thing about this franchise is that there is always a new way to draw in the player to the sport.

In this game, there is a new mode called Advanced Shot Mode.In a nutshell, this is a more advanced way to aim your shot, while applying trajectory physics to your shot.

As a finale, we have the official boxart for the game. Expect to see this in stores March 2008.

[Hot Shots Update: Advanced Shot Mode]

Faith and a .45 Debut Trailer


If you like explosions, this is your watch. Deadline Games' upcoming Faith And A .45 for the PLAYSTATION 3 and Xbox 360 sure packs a whole lot of them, whilst using it's Bonnie & Clyde type gameplay. Enjoy the debut trailer!

Grand Theft Auto IV: Niko Acts Human When He Is Arrested

In the latest issue of the Official Xbox Magazine, there is a new (small) screenshot of Niko from Grand Theft Auto IV with two of the Liberty City Police Department cops behind him. Yes, he's getting arrested.

It's good to see Niko acts human and puts his hands up when he is getting arrested, unlike some previous games. Good to see Rockstar is improving on that.

[New screen shot, I think...No I am sure]

EA “Not Quite” Over PLAYSTATION 3 Problems

During a conference today, Electronic Arts' CEO John Riccitiello said that the PLAYSTATION 3 development has not quite caught up with that of the Xbox 360.

Riccitiello stated when asked “Not quite. There’s no doubt that Electronic Arts, along with many other publishers, had some challenges essentially meeting the technical specifications effectively on the PlayStation 3.

“Games where we led development on the PS3 platform, like Burnout, which is doing very well on the market today, we had no issue at all.

“But in circumstances where we either led with the Xbox 360 or ran parallel production, for the most part, we’re still experiencing some delay on the PS3. It’s a little bit more of a challenging development environment for us.

“It’s probably only a third of a problem for us as it was [nine months ago]. But there still remains some catching up to do on the engineering side for the PS3.”

Here is an idea, if using the PLAYSTATION 3 version as lead equals no problem, then do that, kind of stating the obvious here. Let's just hope Madden 09 looks just as good, or possibly better than the Xbox 360 version.

[EA “Not Quite” Over PS3 Hurdles]

The Orange Box DLC Eventually Coming to Consoles

If Valve/EA would ever release a patch for The Orange Box fixing all the issues, then maybe we would have use for this.

Doug Lombardi recently revealed that Valve is going to be bringing new maps to the console versions of Team Fortress 2 and Portal.

Lombardi wants all this new downloadable content to be free, just for us.

Just assuming, the first downloadable content for Team Fortress 2 will probably be the "Badlands" and "Goldrush" maps that are going to be available to PC gamers soon, along with the CTF-update of the "Well" map which was released a few days back.

To end it, Lombardi gave no details on any of the Portal downloadable content. We will just have to wait.

[Team Fortress 2 Maps, Portal DLC Coming Eventually]

Facebreaker: Official Site Opens

The official site for EA Canada's upcoming cartoon-type boxing game, Facebreaker, has officially opened. The site seems to be community based. There is an e-mail address on the page (facebreakercommunity@ea.com) and they would like to know your suggestions for things you'd like to see on the site. There is also a new screenshot, which you can see on the left there. Enjoy!

[EA SPORTS: Facebreaker]

Tekken 6: From the Arcade to PLAYSTATION 3

At the Taipei Game Show 2008, producers of Tekken 6, known as Namco Bandai were present.

Katsuhiro Harada, the series producer was present at the event. There isn't really anything new on Tekken 6, but they are quite deep into porting it onto the PLAYSTATION 3. Harada does mention that Virtua Fighter has been the inspiration for the Tekken series. All the characters from the previous Tekken games are going to make their PLAYSTATION 3 debut as well.

As for the online, the producer also mention possible downloadable content like new characters and data download.

On a final and funnier note, Harada mentions that 15 of the developers working on Tekken 6 lost their girlfriend due to their excessive time working on the game.

[Producer Talk Tekken 6 At Taipei Gam Show]

KILLZONE 2: Mathijis, The Third Faction

It seems that KILLZONE 2 will feature more than just the ISA and Helghast. In a recent preview for the title in The Official PlayStation Magazine UK, they reveal Mathijis, a third faction present in the game.

We don't know if the Mathijis will be helping the ISA, Helghast, or a side all their own. When we find out more, we will be sure to inform you.

[Revisting the Third Faction Question]

2007: PLAYSTATION 3 Sells 8.83 Million Consoles, Xbox 360 Sells 7.3 Million

Sony Computer Entertainment released the Q3 figures today displaying the sales of 4.90 million PLAYSTATION 3 units sold worldwide (in the third quarter of 2007). Adding that to the rest of the consoles sold in 2007 makes 8.83 million units, taken straight from Sony's numbers.

The PLAYSTATION 3 is starting to rise off it's feet as it did receive negative press in 2007. So you'd think the Xbox 360 would sell more that year, no? Wrong. The Xbox 360 sold 7.3 million last year, with the PLAYSTATION 3 beating it by 1.5 million units.

[2007 - Sony PS3 sells 8.83 million, XBOX 360 sells 7.3 million]

Devil May Cry 4: L'Arc-en-Ciel Trailer


The latest Devil May Cry 4 ad in Japan shows our two heroes Nero and Dante brawling it out. After watching this, all I have to say is: Nero really knows how to beat someone's face in. Enjoy!

US PLAYSTATION Store Update: January 31, 2008

Well, it's Thursday and that means we get our weekly PLAYSTATION Store update.
Demos
  • Conflict: Denied Ops demo (free)
Add-Ons
  • Folklore Add-Ons
    • Folklore Add-on 5 “Nightmares”($3.99)
    • Folklore Add-on 6 “Visions of the Tower” ($3.99)
    • Folklore Add-on Bundle 3 ($5.99)
  • Rock Band Songs
    • “Siva” by Smashing Pumpkins ($1.99)
    • “Working Man” by Rush ($1.99)
    • “Ten Speed (of God’s Blood…)” by Coheed and Cambria ($1.99)
PSP Games
  • Neopets: Petpet Adventures - The Wand of Wishing ($14.99)
Game Videos
  • Battlefield: Bad Company Haggard’s Blog (free)
  • Go! Sports Skydiving Trailer (free)
Theatrical Trailers
  • Prince Caspian Trailer (free)
  • Prom Night Trailer (free)
Blu-Ray Disc Trailers
  • Across the Universe Trailer (free)
  • Daddy Day Camp Trailer (free)
Themes
  • PixelJunk Monsters Theme 2 (free)
Wallpaper
  • (2) PixelJunk Monsters Wallpaper (free)
Yet once again, it's a pretty bad update. So many game videos were released this week, how come there is only two when Live gets videos by the bunch? This is the reason why we need a new PLAYSTATION Store and to ditch the weekly program. Enjoy!

PLAYSTATION Store Worldwide

EU PLAYSTATION Store Update: January 31, 2008

The European PLAYSTATION Store update is in for today, and it comes with two demos and a few PSone Classics. The full list below.

PSone Classics
- Fade to Black (£3.49/€4.99)
- Motorhead (£3.49/€4.99)
- Theme Hospital (£3.49/€4.99)

Demos
- Devil May Cry 4 demo (free)
- MX Vs ATV Untamed
demo (free)

Game Videos
- PixelJunk Monsters trailer
(free)

Sure, there is no excuse for one video, but at least there is a load of games to get. Enjoy!

Sony Game Divisisions Profit Rise, PS3 Sales Target Lowers

Sony Computer Entertainment's game division made some good money during the last quarter, thanks to the cuts of the PLAYSTATION 3 production costs and software sales. They are even revising their target sales for the PSP from 10 million to 13 million. Bad news is they are revising their target sales for the PLAYSTATION 3 downwards, from 11 million to 9.5 million. Yeah, we have no idea why they'd do that either.

[Sony's Games Division Profits Up, PS3 Sales Target Down]