SCEA has launched a Summer Sale for our PS3 and PSP-owning American and Canadian friends, slashing prices off a number of games for early August.

A fairly decent selection of PS3 and PSP titles (including Minis) are now going for half price from now until Monday, August 9.

Before that time you'll be able to grab games like GTA: Chinatown Wars on PSP for $14.99, PixelJunk Shooter on PS3 for $4.99 and Fat Princess PS3 for $7.49 - all worth a look.

Here's the full list:

PS3

Fat Princess - $7.49 sale; $14.99 reg.
PixelJunk Shooter - $4.99 sale; $9.99 reg.
Groovin' Blocks - $4.99 sale; $9.99 reg.
Madden NFL Arcade - $7.49 sale; $14.99 reg.
Wakeboarding HD - $7.49 sale; $14.99 reg.

PSP

The Eye of Judgment Legends - $14.99 sale; $29.99 reg.
echoshift - $7.49 sale; $14.99 reg.
Patchwork Heroes - $4.99 sale; $9.99 reg.
Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars - $14.99 sale; $29.99 reg.
Lunar Silver Star Harmony - $14.99 sale; $29.99 reg.

Minis

Tetris - $4.99 sale; $9.99 reg.
Dracula Undead Awakenings - $2.49 sale; $4.99 reg.
Monsters Probably Stole My Princess - $2.49 sale; $4.99 reg.
Zombie Tycoon - $2.49 sale; $4.99 reg.
Bloons - $1.49 sale; $2.99 reg.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...VG-General-RSS ...

We'd actually already hacked up a 3G FaceTime video call using an iPhone 4 and a MiFi, but now that Apple's latest handset has been jailbroken, you can toss the extra hardware -- you just need a little Cydia app called My3G, which lets you run WiFi apps over 3G. FaceTime video quality appears to be unaffected, but from what we've seen the framerates suffer depending on your connection -- pretty much what you'd expect to get when running a video stream optimized for high-bandwidth connections on a smaller pipe. Still, it's instantly the best reason to jailbreak your phone -- check a video after the break.

P.S.- If you're averse to jailbreaking, remember that Fring lets you make video calls over 3G without any shenanigans -- and unlike FaceTime, you can also video call non-iPhone users. Just sayin'!

http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/02/i...lling-over-3g/ ...

Well, it was only a matter of time before CTA started churning out accessories for the PS Move. Not unlike a similar offering for the Wii, the Ultimate Boxing Gloves are meant to add "realism and excitement to boxing and street-fighting games" by providing "fist-clenching ability" and compatibility "with all PS Move boxing game launches, including The Fight: Lights Out." Also on tap for the company are the Triple Port Charging Station (for simultaneously charging your PS Move Controller, Navigation Controller and Sixaxis controller), Dual Port (charging one PS Move Controller / Navigation Controller set) and Quadruple Port Charging Stations (for two sets of controllers). Sounds great, guys -- but we're still holding out for something incorporating wings or a rowing machine. Charging Stations due out in September, while the gloves should be available October 1 for $20.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/02/c...s-for-ps-move/ ...

Sonic Team's Takashi Iizuka has told of the difficulty SEGA's experienced trying to please veteran Sonic fans with new Sonic games.

The producer of upcoming Sonic titles Sonic Colours and Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 told Eurogamer making both old and new fans happy with a single game is virtually impossible.

So, SEGA's decided to split Sonic in two this year. Sonic 4, a download-only title due out later this year, is intended to rekindle the classic 2D gameplay fans fondly remember from the blue hedgehog's glory years on the Mega Drive.

And Sonic Colours, a Wii and DS title that plays like the daytime stages from 2008's panned Sonic Unleashed, is designed for fans of Sonic's 3D outings.

"The fundamentals of both games, the 3D Sonic or the 2D side-scrolling games, are the same," Iizuka said.

"Sonic is all about the speed and the platforming. It just comes down to how the gameplay differs when you're playing in 3D and 2D side-scrolling.

"I understand there are differences in the ways users interpret the 3D side than the fans who particularly like the 2D classic side of the game.

"This is why we're releasing two different types of Sonic games this year – to please the 2D classic fans who have been playing from the Genesis [Mega Drive]. Sonic 4 is more for those fans.

"There are also fans who like the 3D Sonic games, which have been released in the past couple of years. Sonic Colours is probably more for the users who appreciate the 3D side of Sonic."

SEGA's 3D Sonic games have come in for stinging criticism from veteran Sonic fans in recent years.

Sonic Unleashed disappointed many upon its 2008 release. The Xbox 360 and PS3 versions managed a paltry 4/10 in Eurogamer's review. The Wii version was better, though.

The 3D woe continued last year with Wii-exclusive Sonic and the Black Knight, which suffered the same fate as Unleashed.

Iizuka said it was impossible to ignore the negative reaction to Sonic's recent outings.

"Those fans are not positive towards the recent 3D Sonic games because we've been releasing only 3D Sonic games in the past couple of years.

"It's hard to please both 2D and 3D fans at the same time, in the same title for instance.

"This is why the team decided to release two different types of Sonic games. It's always hard to dodge every negative perception or make everybody happy with just one title. So we're giving two options to the users.

"So, either way, you'll be pleased."

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/se...3d-sonic-games ...

Bayonetta game director Yusuke Hashimoto has promised to share "new information" related to the acclaimed beat-'em-up this week.

Could this be a sequel?

"Good morning," tweeted Hashimoto, cheerily (via andriasang). "It looks like we'll be able to share new information related to Bayonetta this week. Look forward to it."

SEGA offered a flat "no comment" to Eurogamer when approached earlier.

Supporting the sequel argument are comments made by SEGA West boss Mike Hayes in March this year, who said the publisher could "sequel-ise" Bayonetta.

The andriasang report added that Hashimoto has apparently expressed interest in developing a spin-off game set in the Bayonetta world.

Bayonetta was released in October 2009 in Japan, and in January in the West. Eurogamer bloody loved it.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/ba...veal-next-week ...

EA's work-in-progress boxing game Fight Night Champion will not support Move or Kinect motion controls, gameplay producer Brian Hayes has told Eurogamer.

Hayes said playing the upcoming PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 game with Sony and Microsoft's new motion sensing toys would be too tiring for "most gamers".

"It's a little bit too twitch-based, not to mention the fact that standing on your feet for three minutes and throwing punches is something that, believe it or not, might be beyond the fitness level of most gamers!" Hayes told Eurogamer.

"Even Microsoft hasn't said they're expecting to see games like Fight Night usable with the Kinect control system.

"The motion-based control systems, since they are very new and aren't on the market yet... Fight Night Champion has not been developed and is not currently being developed to utilise those.

Nevertheless, Hayes said exploring Move and Kinect in a future EA Sports boxing game is "on the table".

"Somewhere down the road, if a Fight Night game or an EA Sports boxing game was going to be using motion controls, you'd want to see a more tailored experience as opposed to a side-profile camera perspective that you're used to seeing in a Fight Night game.

"It's definitely something that's on the table in terms of exploration for us, but Fight Night Champion is not being developed for Move or for Microsoft Kinect."

Hayes went on to say that the likelihood of Move controls being patched in to Fight Night Champion was "slim". However, this could change should EA find Move controls "tremendously easy and not risky" to retroactively fit.

"It comes down to the fact that the games that are going to do best on those motion controls are designed from the ground-up to work with those systems," offered Hayes.

"That's certainly the approach I would want to take if we were going to explore something like that."

Fight Night Champion is due out next year on PS3 and Xbox 360.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/no...night-champion ...

Insomniac Games has teased fans with the possibility of a Resistance 3 reveal at German gameshow gamescom this month.

"It's been a long road since we launched Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time to your rave reviews last Fall. While we haven't had any new game content to show you since then, that's about to change in a big way," an Insomniac newlsetter read (posted by GamesOnSmash). "And yes, we realize we're announcing an announcement, and that we announced this newsletter announcement via a Twitter/Facebook announcement earlier this week. We feel a little bad about announcing the announcement of an announcement – but on the other hand, you're excited and so are we.

"With that, we're happy to reveal that we'll be announcing our newest game sometime between now and the Penny-Arcade Expo over Labour Day weekend. We're really excited to finally reveal this project, and we couldn't resist being the first to share the news with you. Even bigger news is that newsletter subscribers will be the first folks to see the trailer: the instant we announce the game – we'll be blasting a newsletter with the trailer for you to view at home."

"Couldn't resist", eh? How appropriate.

Gamescom takes place from 19th to 22nd August, and provides Insomniac with an ideal platform to show the world a trailer for a new game.

The Insomniac newsletter goes on to mention that Insomniac will actually demonstrate a new PlayStation 3 game at the Penny Arcade Expo. Whether these two games are the same is unknown. Could there be a Resistance 3 and a new Ratchet & Clank game?

Sony offered Eurogamer "no comment" this morning.

However, the whistle may have been blown on Resistance 3 already. Back in October 2009, a billboard advertising Resistance 3 was spotted on a Battle: Los Angeles film set. That movie belongs to Sony Pictures' and is due next year: perfect timing for a Resistance 3 advertising campaign.

Insomniac captured headlines by signing a multi-platform publishing deal with EA Partners earlier this year. It's the first time Insomniac and Sony haven't worked together in years. Having said that, Sony owns the rights to Resistance and Ratchet & Clank, which means any new instalments in those series' will be for PlayStation platforms.

Could Insomniac be big enough to handle three games at once?

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/re...al-at-gamescom ...

Outspoken Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter has made a number of brave predictions about multiplayer gaming, claiming that he expects premium paid features to be added to a slew of major releases.

Pachter's latest round of projections follows Activision's firm rebuttal of suggestions that it might attach pay-to-play fees to current or in-development Call Of Duty titles.

His latest proclamation also maintains that, although he does not know exactly what form this new breed of monetisation will take, he expects it to bifurcate the online arena, with half of current players paying for premium versions and the rest sticking to limited free multiplayer.

"We expect somewhere around half of the current 15 million online game players to pay something for premium content, and expect the other half to play fewer hours online if the free experience is slightly less robust in the future," he said.

"Should the 7.5 million people who choose to pay generate only $5.00 per month (around 11.5¢ per hour), publisher revenues and operating profits would increase by $450 million," Pachter went on to appromixate.

"We think that premium online multiplayer content will be the event that turns the negative tide of industry sales around," he said, additionally claiming that those players who feel disenfranchised by charges would be likely to buy more games to make up the lost hours.

He cites multiplayer as primarily responsible for Modern Warfare 2's sales, claiming "Activision laments the missed opportunity to somehow monetise the incremental gameplay" and calculating that charging players the equivalent of $0.06 per hour would have raised an additional $120 million profit within six months.

Although Rockstar has yet to even announce its next game, Pachter has declared that the Red Dead Redemption developer/publisher's next title will include a new payment model - as would other impending big-hitters.

"We think that scheduled releases like Call of Duty Black Ops, Medal of Honor and Halo Reach, and unscheduled releases like Grand Theft Auto 5 all will contain the opportunity for gamers to pay more to the publishers," he surmised.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...or-multiplayer ...

Activision-Blizzard's hugely anticipated strategy sequel StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty has gone straight in at number one in the UK all-formats chart, becoming the first PC exclusive to occupy the top spot this year.

In terms of UK boxed copies, the game sold more in the week of its release than the original did during its entire lifetime. The original StarCraft only managed the 24th spot in the week of its release in 1998, failing to even become the best-selling PC title at the time.

It's the only new entry to the chart in a week of few releases, as Toy Story 3 (Disney), Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar), Dance On Broadway (Ubisoft) and LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 (Warner Interactive) all slide down a place to accommodate the RTS monster, filling spots two, three, four and five, respectively. Naughty Bear disappears from the top twenty all together, slipping to 25th place.

Ubisoft's Just Dance climbed two places from last week, with the rest of the chart made up from Dragon Quest IX, Modern Warfare 2, Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Battlefield: Bad Company 2.

Just Dance and Dragon Quest have seen sales bumped by 26 per cent and 27 per cent respectively, with Modern Warfare clocking a 37 per cent rise, and Bad Company 2 33 per cent.

The full top 20 reads as follows:

01 StarCraft II: Wings Of Liberty
02 Toy Story 3
03 Red Dead Redemption
04 Dance on Broadway
05 LEGO Harry Potter
06 Just Dance
07 Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies
08 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
09 Super Mario Galaxy 2
10 Battlefield: Bad Company 2
11 Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11
12 FIFA 10
13 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa
14 Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
15 BioShock 2
16 Wii Sports Resort
17 Wii Fit Plus
18 Crackdown 2
19 Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction
20 Sniper: Ghost Warrior

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...tops-uk-charts ...