Sony has announced plans to start releasing US and Japanese PSone emulations in Europe via the PlayStation Store.

While the firm hasn't confirmed any specific titles or release dates yet, Ross McGrath of the PlayStation Store team said a few are "already in process".

Here's a handy guide explaining what it all means for you guys:

Publishers who own the rights to release PSone titles that were previously only available in the US and/or Japan will now be able to apply to have them released on the SCEE PlayStation Stores (providing they are rated by the appropriate ratings boards for each territory).
All titles will be published 'as is', with either English or Japanese language game content where available.
All titles will run at 60 Hz and you will need a 60 Hz capable display to play them properly.
This also means that if a PAL version of a title has been unable to pass QA in SCEE, but the NTSC version is already available on the PlayStation Store in SCEA or SCEJ, we can look at publishing that version instead. We cannot simply take the US version and publish it immediately, as it has to be reprocessed for SCEE, but at least we know the title should already be relatively bug-free.
Sony added: "With this news in mind, we'd love to hear from you what titles you'd like to see available in Europe for the first time - make yourself heard in the comments and with the most requested titles we will speak to publishers on your behalf."

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...ing-to-europe/

Finally a very smart decision ...

Eight Days, a PlayStation 3 exclusive cancelled in 2008, would have been "jaw-dropping", according to one developer who worked on the game.

Richard Bunn, who left Sony earlier this year to co-found Crazy Horses developer Nice Touch Games, told Eurogamer some of Eight Days' unannounced features "would have definitely impressed" had it made it out the door.

Eight Days was a third-person action game in development at Sony Computer Entertainment's London studio.

It was first shown at E3 in 2006 as one of the hot prospects on PS3 for the future. Its unveiling was handled by a suitably juicy trailer that showed plenty of driving action with exploding gas tanks in a desert-style location.

But in mid-2008 Eight Days, alongside fellow SCE London-developed PS3 exclusive The Getaway, was cancelled.

Some thought it was canned because of a lack of online multiplayer, but Bunn told Eurogamer Eight Days was misunderstood in this regard.

"It was going to have online co-op," Bunn said. "The entire concept behind the game was based around buddy gameplay. Imagine Uncharted, where you have two Nathan Drakes, and you can cover swap between each other and chuck ammo between each other. That was pretty much the game.

"We fully intended to have online co-op support. No multiplayer, but online co-op. We definitely didn't have any plans to do multiplayer modes."

Bunn worked on Eight Days for four months, but Nice Touch Games co-founder David Green built the tools that powered it and the AI that ran it.

"The game was looking spectacular," Bunn continued. "A lot of what was shown off publicly had a bit of a mixed review. But what was going on in-house at the time was looking quite spectacular.

"I designed a new opening level for them. My goal there was to make the opening level every bit as good as something you would see in God of War. We had that fully playable in prototype form and it was jaw dropping. It was exceedingly good. All of the other level designers on the team were doing great work.

"It's just what had been shown publicly was a bit hit and miss. And then the amount of work that needed to go into finishing the game was phenomenal. But it had some great features in there."

Bunn went into some detail on Eight Days' gameplay – destined never to make it to gold master.

"It had directed moments, which were big cinematic scenes similar to God of War," he said. "It had driving sections. It had duck and cover style gameplay. It was pretty spectacular. Some of the stuff that was never shown publicly would definitely have impressed if it had ever made it out into the public."

When Sony ceased production of Eight Days and The Getaway, it said it took the decision because "it was deemed that with the incredibly strong list of exclusive first party titles coming up both this year and in the near future, resource should be reallocated to enhance those projects closer to completion".

"It had been in pre-production for a long time and had soaked up a lot of money," Bunn said. "You have to think back as well, this was when the PS3 was in its infancy and was considered overpriced and it wasn't doing as well as Sony had hoped.

"Eight Days had already cost a fair amount of money. They'd done their maths and said, 'it's going to cost this much to finish the project,' which I'd rather not disclose. It was quite a bit. It was about another year's worth of development, so you can probably work out roughly for a big game how much that might have come to. And then they basically said, projecting forward what the PS3 user base is going to be a year from now, you're going to have to be way above the trend on user tie-in to make a profit.

"At the time tie-in for a very good game was about ten per cent of the user base. They said we needed to be two or three times above that to be able to make a profit. It's not the sort of thing that ever happens.

"And plus, Uncharted had just come out. So, they already had a third-person action game in the stable. At that point they decided they were going to re-purpose the Sony Soho studio as being an EyeToy, motion gaming studio and move away from doing games like The Getaway and Eight Days, at that location.

"It was a crying shame for a lot of people," Bunn recalled. "There were a lot of people who had worked on it a lot longer than I had. So it wasn't a huge blow for me personally. Some people had put several years into it. It was really sad to see those guys have lots of work go."

It seems Eight Days was farther along the development line than The Getaway, which at one point was headed up by L.A. Noire chief Brendan McNamara. "They were just building a tech demo," Bunn revealed.

He also noted that both cancellations occurred shortly after Phil Harrison was replaced as Sony Worldwide Studios boss by Shuhei Yoshida.

"He [Harrison] left and Shuhei Yoshida came on board as head of worldwide development," Bunn said.

"He did the rounds basically doing a big shake-up. He saw where the successes had been at the ...

Classic Pac-Man headlines this Thursday's set of fresh eShop offerings.

The version on offer, released under the system's Virtual Console banner, is the monochrome Game Boy edition, originally launched in Europe in 1991.

Do you really need Pac-Man on your 3DS? This week? If so, the €4 (about £3.70) asking price might tempt you to take a nibble.

Wait a few more weeks though and you can get meaty full release Pac-Man & Galaga Dimensions. It's coming as a retail release for 3DS at the end of the month and features spruced-up versions of Pac-Man and Pac-Man Championship Edition (the DX version of which scored a rare 10/10 last year).

Also this week - arcade action in feline puzzler Go! Go! Kokopolo and dark survival fighting in The Lost Town: The Dust.

And finally, the Wii gets a look in with budget Nordcurrent racer Monochrome Racing.

Pac-Man (GB Virtual Console) - €4
Go! Go! Kokopolo (DSiWare) - €8, 800 Points
The Lost Town: The Dust (DSiWare) - €5, 500 DSi Points
My Australian Farm (DSiWare) - €2, 200 DSi Points
Monochrome Racing (WiiWare) - 500 Wii Points

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...pdate-04-08-11 ...

There is a new Street Fighter world champion: Japanese player Fuudo.

At the Evo fighting game tournament in Las Vegas, Fuudo, using Fei Long, defeated US player Latif, using Crimson Viper, 3-0 in the grand final.

Tournament favourite and 2010 world champion Daigo "the Beast" Umehara finished fourth. Poongko, using Seth, defeated Daigo in a top eight bracket match.

Daigo recently switched main character, from Ryu to Yun, following the release of Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition.

Elsewhere, the Marvel vs. Capcom 3 tournament saw an upset as tournament favourite Justin Wong managed only third.

PR Balrog sent US player Wong home, using Dante, Wolverine and Tron Bonne to defeat Wong's Wolverine/Akuma teams.

But it was Viscant, using Wesker, Haggar and Phoenix, who went all the way, defeating PR Balrog 3-0 in the final.

Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition results:

Winner: Fuudo (Fei Long)
2. Latif (C.Viper)
3. Poongko (Seth)
4. Daigo Umheara (Yun)
5. Kindevu (Yun)
5. Tokido (Akuma)
7. Wolfkrone (C.Viper)
7. Flash Metroid (Zangief, C.Viper)
Marvel vs. Capcom 3 results:

Winner: Viscant (Wesker/Haggar/Phoenix)
2. PR Balrog (Wolverine/Dante/Tron/Amaterasu)
3. Justin Wong (She Hulk/Wolverine/Akuma/Storm/Wesker)
4. Combofiend (She Hulk/Taskmaster/Spencer)
5. Noel Brown (Wolverine/Wesker/Akuma/Phoenix)
5. Filipino Champ (Magneto/Sentinel/Phoenix/Dormammu)
7. X-Ray (Dante/Amaterasu/Magneto)
7. Mine (Wesker/Taskmaster/Phoenix)

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...east-is-beaten ...

Among the dozen or so games strewn about New York City's Museum of Modern Art (during last week's Kill Screen-curated "Arcade" event) two titles had their playable debuts: Eric Zimmerman and Nathalie Pozzi's "Starry Heavens" ("a physical game of power and betrayal"), as well as Matt Boch and Ryan Challinor's "Pxl Pushr" ("something akin to a full-bodied theremin blended with a puzzle game"). Considering what the two freshman entries were up against -- critically acclaimed games like Limbo, Canabalt, and Echochrome -- it was impressive that both games had lengthy lines throughout the evening.

I mean no offense when I say this, but Pxl Pusher looks like what would've happened if Kinect technology had existed in the Coleco Vision days. In the same way that your Dad's sweet 1973 Lacoste track jacket still looks totally rad, so does Pxl Pushr. The bizarre look is both a measure of the dev duo's style -- their day jobs are as designers at Harmonix -- and of the short-term development cycle. "Over the past four weeks-ish we've been messing around building this game," Boch explained.

In Pxl Pushr, one player places dots on an iPad, while another player attempts to catch as many dots as possible by using the contortions of their body (via Kinect). The player contorting their body is scored on how many pixels he/she is able to "push" versus the ones they miss. It's a simple concept for sure, but one that had many attendees smiling while making very silly poses. Not that the crowd's reaction was foreign to Boch and Challinor, two gentlemen who spend their working hours with Dance Central 2.

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/08/01/px...ive-multicolo/ ...

There's very little activity on the majority of this week's UK PC sales chart, with The Sims 3: Generations, Football Manager 2011, The Sims 3: Medieval and The Sims 3: Late Night all non-movers at the top of the rankings.

Ineligible for the full price PC chart, The Sims 3: Town Life Stuff enters at No.1 on the budget price PC chart and at No.12 on the UK all formats chart.

The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings and Portal 2 re-enter the full price PC top ten, moving up five places to No.6 and nine spots to No.8 respectively. Sandwiched between them is StarCraft 2, while World of Warcraft: Cataclysm and Shogun 2: Total War round off the top ten.

GfK/Chart-Track PC Top 10 (week ending July 30):
01. The Sims 3: Generations (EA)
02. Football Manager 2011 (Sega)
03. The Sims 3 (EA)
04. The Sims: Medieval (EA)
05. The Sims 3: Late Night (EA)
06. The Witcher 2 (Namco Bandai)
07. StarCraft 2 (Activision Blizzard)
08. Portal 2 (Valve)
09. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm (Blizzard)
10. Shogun 2: Total War (Sega)

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...ntinues-reign/ ...

Echoing its performance on the PlayStation 3 chart, Call of Juarez: The Cartel holds the No.1 spot on the official UK Xbox 360 sales chart.

Dirt 3 and LA Noire are also non-movers, at No.2 and No.3 respectively, while FIFA 11 and UFC Personal Trainer round off the top five.

Cars 2 and Zumba Fitness take the next two places, followed by Call of Duty: Black Ops, Harry Potter: The Deathly Hallows Part 2 and Brink.

GfK/Chart-Track Xbox 360 Top 10 (week ending July 30):

01. Call of Juarez: The Cartel (Ubisoft)
02. Dirt 3 (Codemasters)
03. LA Noire (Take 2)
04. FIFA 11 (EA)
05. UFC Fitness Trainer (EA)
06. Cars 2 (Disney)
07. Zumba Fitness (505 Games)
08. Call of Duty: Black Ops (Activision)
09. Harry Potter: The Deathly Hallows Part 2 (EA)
10. Brink (Bethesda)

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...cartel-is-no1/ ...

Voting for the GamesMaster 2011 Golden Joystick Awards is underway - and you can go and support your favourite online right now.

Games in the nomination list for the event's 14 categories include Portal 2, Call Of Duty: Black Ops, Dead Space 2, Bulletstorm, L.A Noire, The Witcher 2 and many more.

The most hotly contest prize, the Ultimate Game Of The Year, is this year fought out by 20 huge titles.

Voters who participate in all 14 public categories are in with a chance of winning the GamesMaster Ultimate Gaming Prize - including consoles and copies of many award-nominated games.

Robin Alway, Editor-in-Chief of GamesMaster says: "The combination of 1.5 million votes last year and an outstanding 12 months for games meant the pressure was really on when it came to picking the shortlist for the Golden Joysticks. But while that was difficult, voting is easier than ever and we want every gamer to have their say.

"The shortlist features huge sequels living up to the hype, new IP establishing itself, and incredible innovation and creativity wherever you look. There could be some major upsets when the winners are announced."

New categories, including dedicated gongs for downloadable, mobile and free-to-play games, allow for a wider breadth of games than ever before, including success stories like Minecraft and Angry Birds.

Winners are announced at the awards ceremony, taking place at the Westminster Bridge Park Plaza on Friday 21st October. Among the surprises on the night will be a number of exclusives and reveals from all across the games industry.

Simon Maxwell, Group Publisher of Future's Entertainment portfolio, says: "We're drawing on 29 years of heritage to make this year's Golden Joysticks the biggest and best ever. Table sales are moving at speed, so don't delay if you want to be in the room for the gaming event of the year.

"We can't wait to crown the very best gaming has to offer - get voting and make sure your favourite gets the recognition it deserves."

The full list of categories reads:

Ultimate Game of the Year
One To Watch
Best Shooter
Best Action/Adventure
Best RPG [Role-Playing Game]
Best MMO [Massively Multiplayer Online game]
Best Fighting Game
Best Racing Game
Best Sports Game
Best Strategy Game
Best Music-based Game
Best Free-to-play Game
Best Mobile Game
Best Downloadable Game

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...ce-2-and-more/ ...

Street Fighter IV producer and Capcom veteran Yoshinori Ono, a key driving force behind the recent resurgence in fighting games, has said he doesn't expect the genre to crash again through over saturation like it did in the 90s.

Using the first person shooter genre as an example of a crowded yet continually successful marketplace, Ono said the fighting genre is capable of sustaining its recent momentum.

"For first person shooters, you have Call of Duty, Battlefield, Medal of Honor, and other games," he told Siliconera. "It would be awesome to get fighting games that big. I don't think it will ever get quite that far, but I think it is possible for fighting games to thrive, you can see how long the FPS genre sustained itself without collapsing, and I think we can do the same this time.

"The key is not just attracting new fans, but keeping current fans satisfied, keeping them plugged in, and interacting with the community," the Street Fighter x Tekken producer added.

"We need to make sure the player's voices are heard and they feel cared for. As long as we treat the fans right and cater to them, I think they will stick with us for the long haul. I don't think we will see the bubble burst like the way did in the '90s."

These days, the idea of fighting games reaching Call of Duty levels of success seems far-fetched, but in 1991 few games could match the popularity of Street Fighter 2. At its height, the arcade game is rumoured to have caused a 100 yen coin shortage in Japan.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...pse-again-ono/ ...