BAJA Announced for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360

THQ has announced today the development of their upcoming off-road racing title, BAJA. The game is scheduled for an August 2008 release.

Developed by 2XL Games (formed by the founding members of the MX vs. ATV franchise), BAJA will combine real-world racing with arcade fun with players able to race across more than 100 square miles of tough off-road terrain.

"As the long-standing off-road racing leader, THQ is thrilled to bring something completely new to the off-road racing genre," said Richard Browne, vice president of product development, THQ. "With the level of detail in each vehicle, the vast open vistas and the most realistic off-road physics to date, BAJA will provide an unparalleled racing experience."

More than 40 vehicles across eight classes will be available to race, including Trophy Trucks, 4x4s and buggies, all of which will be upgradeable with hundreds of authentic parts.

Race modes will include the near-vertical Hill Climb, head-to-head Open Class races, circuit races and the Baja, the ultimate endurance challenge. So vast is the game's landscape that races can last up to four hours and require the highest level of concentration and player skill to complete.

Multiplayer modes will also be catered for, with four-player split-screen and 12-player online/LAN supported. Those with the kit to make it happen will also be able to enjoy a multiple-screen panoramic view.

BAJA is scheduled for release on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in August.

[BAJA off-road racing heads to Xbox 360 and PS3]

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue for PSN to Weigh in at 1.9GB

Sony's upcoming downloadable Gran Tursimo 5 Prologue is going to weigh in at a hefty 1870mb when it releases on the PlayStation Network. The game is set to release on the PlayStation Network next Thursday, March 27, 2008 (at least for Europe).

[GT5 Prologue PSN download is 1.9GB]

Rumor: New Final Fantasy XIII & Versus XIII at PS Premier

This year's PlayStation Premier Event is said to feature new trailer for Square Enix's upcoming Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Versus XIII. Here is what we know.

· There will be a 3-4 minute video showing a three men party fighting at a plain region.
· The battle scene camera will make you get motion sickness according to the original poster.
· The final design of Final Fantasy Versus XIII's antagonist will finally be revealed, apparently he has a long gold or white hair.

Whether this is going to be shown to the public at first or in private viewing, we do not know. But knowing Square Enix, a private showing is probably the case.

[Rumor: New FFXIII and Versus XIII footage at PS Premiere]

Play.com Live 2008: Far Cry 2 Presentation

At the Play.com Live 2008 event at the Wembely Stadium, Ubisoft's Peter Redding showed off a presentation of Far Cry 2. He tells us that the game will be amazing on [high-end] PCs and fantastic on consoles. Enjoy!

LAIR Now Only $36.99 at Amazon

Amazon has once again done it's thing to prove it is the best retailer on the net. They have dropped the price of Factor 5's LAIR from $59.99 to $36.99, saving you $23.00. If you want to check this game out, and don't mind the bad press it received, visit the link below.

[Amazon: LAIR]

Play.com Live: HAZE to Only Run at 30fps?

The guys over at Atomic Radio were able to attend the Play.com Live 2008 show at Wembley Stadium and got to play Free Radical's upcoming HAZE. The bottom right-hand corner of the screen told how many frames per second the game was running. It was just about 30. Whether it was only for the demo build, or the complete game, we do not know. We do know that either way, the game is still looking great.

[Atomic Radio]

Grand Theft Auto IV: First Look at HUD?

Rockstar may have let part of the HUD slip for Grand Theft Auto IV. In the screenshot to the left, the top right hand corner has something you may have missed, take a look. It's the stars that are in every Grand Theft Auto game (zoom in at left image). Right now, it's not looking so bright (literally), but it will probably change in the final version of the game. Who knows, this might not even be what it will really look like.

[First Look At GTA IV HUD? (Wanted Stars?)]

Upcoming Site: Donations Equal Hosting

If you look to your left (clickie!) you'll see another image of the new site we will be launching as we close this site's doors. As you know from previous posts, the title will be revealed upon the sites opening, but this time we wrote "Title??" so we could show you the style the new logo is written in. Anyway, we've been up since August 2007 and have been updating you daily since with the latest news in gaming. Now, we need your help.

As you know, the new site isn't going to be free like our current Blogger hosted site is. The host we are going to use (known as DreamHost) has a very good plan that includes 5 TB of bandwith and 500 GB of storage that automatically increase each week. Their yearly plan weighs in at about $120.00. We are not all that big on money. As you may or may not know, we are the average person just like you.

We've had the Donate button on our sidebar for sometime now and nobody has donated. That is fine, but now we need it more than ever. Please, help us so we can continue being the one of the best PlayStation gaming sites on the net.

An Artistic PlayStation Network Commercial

There is no official commercial for the PlayStation Network that you'll see on the television. Perhaps their will be one as soon as it gets a bit better. Terry Hall and The Love Commercial Production Company have, however, made their own, and it looks pretty good. Enjoy!

Capcom to Unleash More Rocketmen

A new ESRB listing reveals that Capcom is going to be bringing out more Rocketmen games on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live. There is a new listing for Rocketmen: It Came From Uranus with an E10+ rating. I cannot say I'm pleased, considering Axis of Evil was bad enough.

[Entertainment Sofware Rating Board] [Search PlayStation 3]

Rock Band: Earache Thrash Pack Coming Next Thursday

Next Thursday, Rock Band is going to be giving us an earache with the new downloadable content that will be added to it's growing list. Thats right, Rock Band will be receiving the Earache Thrash Pack ($5.49), with the songs below.

- "Blinded By Fear" by At the Gates ($1.99)
- "Thrasher" by Evile ($1.99)
- "D.O.A." by The Haunted ($1.99)

Look forward to seeing these in the store during the next PlayStation Store update.

[DLC Week of 3/18]

New KILLZONE 2 Trailer Was Not Shown at Play.com Live 2008

When Three Speech posted a list of the games at the Play.com Live event at Wembley Stadium, KILLZONE 2 was one of them marked with trailer. Unfortunately, the trailer shown was an the same trailer from before.

A Sony PR spoke on this saying "SCEA very rarely brings software to someone else's event. Typically, we create an event and invite media/consumers to play the various products."

[New Killzone 2 trailer nonexistent at Play.com Live]

Grand Theft Auto IV: "Good Lord, What Are You Doing" Trailer Coming March 27, 2008

The official Grand Theft Auto IV website has updated it's update list with two upcoming updates. The first one, which is arriving March 20, 2008 is going to be an update for the music, screenshots, and downloads section. The second update, coming March 27, 2008 is an a new (and probably last) trailer titled "Good Lord, What Are You Doing?" aka "Everyone's a Rat". This will probably be a multiplayer trailer since that should be their next (official) revelation.

[GRAND THEFT AUTO IV: UPDATES]

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Pre-Orders Reach Over a Million

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe's New Zealand Marketing Manager Dave Hine and Paul Gunn, spoke with GeekPulp about the sales figures for Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. They mentioned that the pre-orders for Gran Turismo 5 Prologue (only in the SCEE regions) have already reached over a million. Thats just Europe people.

[GT Prologue Pre-orders Reach One Million]

Rainbow Six Vegas 2 Will not Receive Demo

According to an interview with Ubisoft's Phil Therien, they will not be releasing a demo for the upcoming Rainbow Six Vegas 2.

“We took the decision to spend our time on polishing the game and the demo option was cut,” he said. “It’s really time-consuming to create a demo and we needed the dev time to finish our game.”

Ubisoft Montreal's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 should be arriving in stores at the end of this month.

[No place for "really hardcore shooters" - R6 Vegas 2 developer]

Dark Sector: Part of You Trailer

A new trailer for D3 & Digital Extremes' upcoming Dark Sector has been released today. The new trailer, titled the "Part of You" trailer, labels the main character as "it" and shows his power to destroy. Enjoy!

Play.com Live: The Sony Booth

Over at the Wembley Stadium, the Play.com Live 2008 event is going on. Sony Computer Entertainment's booth has its main focus as Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. Games like Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds and Echochrome were also playable. Enjoy the shots. [Thanks PSLegion!]

Play.com Live 2008: HAZE Never Releasing on the Xbox 360

Straight from Play.com Live inthe Wembley Stadium comes final confirmation that HAZE will always be a PlayStation 3 exclusive.

The complete game is playable at the event, and Kev Lochun is going to be hosting a preview event this weekend. According to Ripten, the game is looking clean and sharp, and Nectar overdose is a pleasing yet disorientating experience.

Two Ubisoft representatives were present at the game booth. When quizzed about whether the game will come to another console, the rep stated that it will never make its way onto another platform. Way to go Free Radical.

[Haze Never Coming Out on Xbox 360]