It's almost three months since we first spotted the PS Cloud trademark and some fake details have been "leaked out." Allegedly, PlayStation Cloud is like MobileMe for the PSN. A cloud-based system which will hold all your contacts, save files, stats and in-game videos and screenshots online, so they can be accessed from any PS3.

Not only that, but these leaked details -- along with the screenshot above -- imply that the service would substantially improve the PSN's community features, showing peoples activity in realtime. As welcome as these features would be (very!), we've received feedback from the PlayStation Blog's Jeff Rubenstein. "This 'mockup' is pure conjecture. This is 100% fake."

We're glad to see Sony quashing rumors before they get out of hand. As for the fact this PlayStation Cloud info is fake? We could be happier.

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/06/22/ru...-we-wish-they/ ...

No official portable Xbox is on the horizon, but that can't stop people from dreaming. The latest mock-up comes from a reader in Vancouver who has some creative ideas for advanced portable gaming.

Vancouver-based Video game artist David Delisle is building his portfolio and looking for feedback. He writes to Kotaku that he's not a fan of the PSPgo, as he's hoping for more hardware innovation for a device launching at $250 U.S.

So he dreamed up the following for a portable and branded it to the Xbox for kicks.

Some of the features in his design include a detachable faceplate, the ability for the d-pad wheel to be unlocked and pivoted like a steering wheel and – as seen in the animations here – some interesting ways to work analog triggers and a collapsible analog stick into the design.

How much would you pay?

http://kotaku.com/5297355/the-fake-h...-portable-xbox ...

It's Sonic the Hedgehog's 18th birthday today, and in order to celebrate, Sega Europe has been giving away Sonic swag all day via Twitter and Facebook.

Our favorite blue hedgehog is already 18-years-old? It seems like only yesterday he was being placed in mediocre game after mediocre game, making millions of dollars per title on name recognition alone. Ah, how far we've come since that fateful day back in June of 1991, when something fresh and new stormed the video game store shelves, promising innovative game play for decades to come. I'm almost getting misty here.

While I dry my eyes, Sega Europe has been busy handing out Sonic-themed swag all morning via both Facebook and Twitter. They've got soundtrack samplers, stationary packs, and all kinds of Sonic junk, or at least they did when they started. Pickings are probably a bit thin now, considering they've been doing this since 11am UK time, but there is always hope.

Hit up the link below to find out what you need to do to possibly get your hands on celebratory goodness. Happy birthday, Sonic the Hedgehog!

http://kotaku.com/5301110/celebrate-...with-sega-swag ...

It was E3 in New York last night as Nintendo re-booked the highest floor we've ever played games in, to showcase a fall line-up headlined by New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Some observations from a four-player session.

Crecente has already previewed Nintendo's holiday-slated return of side-scrolling Mario to the Wii. He played it at E3 where he discovered its "competitive cooperative" design.

I played that same E3 build last night, high above my old work neighborhood in Times Square. I played as the blue Toad three Nintendo reps controlled Mario, Luigi and the Yellow Toad. You hold the Wii remote sideways and control things like you're back playing the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Over the course of three levels, I got a healthy helping of competitive cooperative. I had victorious moments and failures, all involving the game's goal to reach the end of a level with the most points. Victoriously, I put my Toad in a propeller suit and had him flutter to the top of the screen to grab coins my fellow players failed to reach. Furiously, I watched my Toad get hoisted above the head of another player's character and ferried right into a piranha plant poking its toothy blossom out of an upside-down pipe.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii is similar to the GameCube's Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures in that it seems to reverse technological innovation in its franchise in order to present a multiplayer game with simpler level design and more complex player-driven interaction. Most previous Mario games have been player vs. Nintendo-level-designer. This one's essentially player-vs.-player with the level as, well, a stage. As in one where drama occurs.

Another victorious moment (for someone else): They got all the penguin suits and sledded away while I fell down an icy crevasse.

Another victorious moment (for me): I discovered that New Super Mario Bros. Wii has a wall-jump that makes the beginning of a plummet down a bottomless pit a recoverable drop. I bounced Toad up and out of that crevasse.

There are risks with allowing the chaos of sometimes-cooperative friends to try to traverse a Mario level together. Not all of them are due to human nature. Some are design decisions that aren't yet convincing. Character death, for example, makes the game hiccup a pause. That effectively signals that someone has bought it. But it also disrupts the momentum and timing of he or she who is bounding through the same level. There's an inspired invisible countdown that requires all players reach the end-of-level flag within a few seconds of the first one reaching it. There's a more questionable design element that warps players all in or out of a green transit pipe within a few seconds of the first player going through it. So imagine we're playing and you go through the pipe to get us to the coin-filled underground. We both go there. And you run toward the coins. But I just back out through the pipe. The result: we warp back out. You get no coins. That spells trouble.

http://kotaku.com/5300987/fifty+seve...mario-bros-wii ...

Why can't every developer be Infinity Ward? When asked by Videogamer.com why Modern Warfare 2's co-op was limited to two players, spokesman Robert Bowling said, "Two player seemed to be the magic number for co-op. That's when it stayed really fun and intense without becoming a clusterf**k of things."

Bowling also said that the whole game won't be playable in co-op because the developer is "crafting a very specific experience" and doesn't want to "ruin that by cramming co-op into it." While it's nice to see a company stick to its guns like that, we figure developers who sell a hojillion copies of a game can pretty much write their own menus

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/06/23/in...-warfare-co-o/ ...

Square Enix's Final Fantasy VII has become the "fastest selling PS one title on PlayStation Network since the game launched" accumulating over 100,000 downloads for the PlayStation 3 and PSP following its addition to the North American PlayStation Store.

Final Fantasy VII, originally released on the PlayStation in 1997, hit the PlayStation Store on June 2nd. Over 100,000 downloads in a fortnight is a nice haul for Square Enix and Sony Computer Entertainment, considering the classic Japanese role-playing game was released at the premium PS one Classics price of $9.99 USD.

Sony announced today it will continue its plans for more PS one releases, confirming Wild Arms 2, Mobile Light Force (aka Psikyo's shooting game Gunbird) and Spec Ops: Stealth Patrol as upcoming, undated releases.

http://kotaku.com/5301316/final-fant...w-aeris-deaths ...

Square Enix's Final Fantasy VII has become the "fastest selling PS one title on PlayStation Network since the game launched" accumulating over 100,000 downloads for the PlayStation 3 and PSP following its addition to the North American PlayStation Store.

Final Fantasy VII, originally released on the PlayStation in 1997, hit the PlayStation Store on June 2nd. Over 100,000 downloads in a fortnight is a nice haul for Square Enix and Sony Computer Entertainment, considering the classic Japanese role-playing game was released at the premium PS one Classics price of $9.99 USD.

Sony announced today it will continue its plans for more PS one releases, confirming Wild Arms 2, Mobile Light Force (aka Psikyo's shooting game Gunbird) and Spec Ops: Stealth Patrol as upcoming, undated releases.

http://kotaku.com/5301316/final-fant...w-aeris-deaths ...

LittleBigPlanet-developer Media Molecule is "expanding." Stop looking surprised! After winning more gee oh tee why awards for their maiden voyage than they probably had room for in their small Guildford-based studio, they're expanding! But, if a "job listing" is to be believed, this expansion isn't limited to an awards wing – they're also hiring a "Gameplay Programmer."

This code wizard is expected to not only have 2+ years industry experience, but also to have "shipped a console game with an online component," an unsurprising requirement considering the studio's (admittedly singular) pedigree. The job listing states that MM is "working on a ground-breaking, AAA, PS3 title for Sony Computer Entertainment" – as much as we'd like to announce "LittleBigPlanet 2 totally confirmed" we're not convinced this description necessarily means a followup game. After all, with DLC still in production on LittleBigPlanet – which is a ground-breaking, AAA PS3 title for Sony Computer Entertainment – this could be related to maintaining LBP as a platform.

But, of course, they're working on other games – expanding the PS3 development team to maintain the already shipped LBP doesn't make sense ... and the job listing does say the applicant "will be expected to maintain and improve the existing code and data structures." Existing code? Data structures? Oh emm gee! LittleBigPlanet 2 totally confirmed!

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/06/23/me...aaa-ps3-title/ ...

The Game Critics Awards has crowned Uncharted 2: Among Thieves as the best game of E3 2009.

The panel, made up of editors from 28 American videogame websites and magazines, voted in 15 separate categories.

Notable winners are Project Natal, which snagged Best Hardware/Peripheral, Split/Second as Best Racing Game - despite tough competition - and DJ Hero as Best Social/Casual/Puzzle, as Rock Band: The Beatles must have been hard to beat.

The full list of winners is below.

Eurogamer, incidentally, disagrees. We thought the best game of E3 was New Super Mario Bros. for Wii, although Milo & Kate - the Lionhead game for Project Natal - was our pick of the technology on show.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves got an honourable mention, and publisher Sony, we thought, had the most impressive wares of the show.

The Game Critics Awards

Best of Show

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3)
Best Action/Adventure Game

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3)
Best Console Game

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3)
Best Hardware/Peripheral

Project Natal (Xbox 360)
Best Role Playing Game

Mass Effect 2 (Xbox 360)
Best PC Game

Star Wars: The Old Republic (PC)
Best Action Game

Modern Warfare 2 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
Best Original Game

Scribblenauts (DS)
Best Handheld Game

Scribblenauts (DS)
Best Racing Game

Split/Second (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
Best Sports Game

Fight Night Round 4 (PS3, Xbox 360
Best Fighting Game

Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars (Wii)
Best Strategy Game

Supreme Commander 2 (PC, Xbox 360)
Best Social/Casual/Puzzle

DJ Hero (PS3, Wii, Xbox 360)
Best Online Multiplayer

Left 4 Dead 2 (PC, Xbox 360)

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/un...-e3-us-critics ...