Microsoft has confirmed what retail suggestions yesterday led us to conclude: that in light of Viva Piñata's having gone gold, the game will appear on European shelves on 1st December. The US version is out on 9th November.

Rare's family-focused effort, which sees players trying to attract piñata animals to a customised garden, will be available for around GBP 44.99, with a special edition version - featuring a preview of the associated TV series now showing in the US, along with demos of Lego Star Wars II, Frogger, Time Pilot and Marble Blast - also lining up at that price in a special curvy box for a limited time. ...

David Jaffe's forthcoming PlayStation 3 downloadable game, Criminal Crackdown, isn't called that any more. Instead, it'll go by "Calling All Cars".

But why? Well, according to his blog, the idea was to give it an identity far removed from existing game names - something that they couldn't guarantee in the rush to get things sorted ahead of the game's unveiling last month.

"We were in a mad rush to reveal the game at GAMER'S DAY a few weeks back and all the legal checks had not yet come down giving us permission to use that name," Jaffe explains.

"Unlike some other companies that seem to have no problem giving their games titles that SOUND pretty darn close to other games, Sony likes to give us as much room as possible between our game names and other game names. Which is nice. But challenging as well because there have been A LOT of video games made over the last 30-35 years so it makes it tough to find a name that is fresh and appropriate and fun, while at the same time being something that will not get you thrown into a court room."

It's happened to him before, it turns out - the name-changing, that is. Apparently Twisted Metal was going to be called Urban Assault, then Cars And Rockets, then High Octane before eventually settling, while "God of War went by the name Dark Odyssey for at least two years".

"So with ALL that said, Criminal Crackdown is dead. I assume it's because MS has a very sweet looking game called CRACKDOWN coming out and the titles were just too close for comfort... but I am just guessing," he adds.

"I wonder if we'll also have to change the title of GOD OF WAR 2 to something else since GOD OF WAR 2 sounds a bit too much like GEARS OF WAR? We'll see," he then says, perhaps explaining what he was on about earlier in the post. Fight! Anyway, "Calling All Cars" is quite good.

And the game, which Jaffe recently billed as "cops and robbers meets basketball", hopefully will be too. It's one of the titles due out through Sony's e-Distribution Initiative (think Xbox Live Arcade on PlayStation 3) - something Jaffe said recently that he's very much enjoying developing for. ...

Apparently, there was a huge war in the 14th century - back when people couldn't go on killing sprees on PS2 so they did it in real life instead - over who would be the successor to the French throne.

And that's the battle that Bladestorm: The Hundred Years War brings to life. The tactical war sim, set in Medieval Europe, will have players command armies in brutal battles in huge open environments.

You control a rogue commander and his army in clashes with the British and French forces with infantry, archers, and cavalry at your disposal. As well as winning battles, you have to build up your reputation as a successful commander in order to attract better troops to your squad.

If it's as epic as Koei promises, this could be one neat strategy game. Our only curiosity is why the in-game screens look like it's running on PS2. Check them out below.

Bladestorm: The Hundred Years War is due to release on PS3 in Q1 2007.

Screens Here ...

Via CVG

New gameplay footage shows four Wii newbies try Zelda for the first time

Four new videos have been posted on Wii.com that show Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess being played on Wii.

These are the latest of a number of videos to appear on the site which, apparently, show people's reactions during their first encounter with the Wii and its motion-sensing awesomeness.

The other videos were boring. But, in these ones, the camera swings round behind the player to show the TV screen, and you can see Link battling in what looks like Hyrule Field. You can hear the music and everything!

Get over to Wii.com NOW, or just click here to go straight to the videos. ...

There's a bit of envy in the office this morning, as Nintendo of Japan revealed its Wii Virtual Console release list and pricing details - and Japanese gamers seem to be getting a much better deal than us.

For a start, Sega's Virtual Console titles will be retailing for 200 Wii Points (about 0.90 GBP) less than in this side of then world, at a much more attractive 600 points a piece (about 2.70 GBP).

More importantly though are the 19 (!) additional titles that will be launching in Japan before the end of the year, including Zelda: Link to the Past, Donkey Kong County and Street Fighter II. In fact, Japan currently has nine extra SNES games planned over us poor Europeans.

The full list of games planned for Japan this year is as follows (better get the tissues):

NES Games (500 Wii Points)
Legend of Kage
Gradius
Go-moku Narabe
Xevious
Ninja Jajamaru-kun

SNES Games (800 Wii Points)
R-Type III
Super Castlevania IV
Contra III
Street Fighter II
Donkey Kong Country
Super Mario World
Zelda: Link to the Past
Fire Emblem
Super Mario Picross

Mega Drive Games (600 Wii Points)
Shadow Dancer

TurboGrafx 16 Games (600 Wii Points)
Necromancer
New Adventure Island
Battle Lode Runner
Bomberman '94 ...

Following rumours that a 100GB HDD was heading for the Xbox 360, images have surfaced from Microsoft's Japanese HQ suggesting that a bumped up HDD is indeed on the way, but not the 100 one.

At a conference to highlight the latest dashboard update, an image of an Xbox 360 clearly displaying 59.5 GB of free memory has surfaced, which while not exactly an unofficial conformation suggests that a bumped up HDD is indeed on the way for Microsoft's console.

Further more, considering that the current 20GB HDD allocates almost 7GB of space for system use, could this image confirm a HDD closer to 70GB?

With bumped-up 1080p content now possible on the Xbox 360 a larger hard disk would certainly be welcome, and would also help bridge the gap further between Microsoft's console and the PS3.

Either way, we'll let you know when Microsoft sends us official word. ...

News via CVG

...

THQ and Volition have released a patch for their Xbox 360 crime-'em-up Saints Row, that sorts out a number of multiplayer issues as well as general glitches.

Additionally, the auto update apparently sorts out lag problems that have been affecting the online mode and there's also some slight graphical improvements, including increased anti-aliasing in 480i and 480p resolutions.

The full list of fixes is as follows:

General
-Enabled 4xAA (anti-aliasing) for 480i standard-def and 480p resolutions (was 2xAA).

-Enabled 4x anti-aliasing during initial player creation screen.

-Added player options to enable v-sync during cut-scenes and/or gameplay, with warning that it will affect framerate.

-Fixed widescreen formatting issues in certain resolutions.

-Fixed issue where button icons would sometimes not appear during tagging activity.

-Fixed problem where camera could rapidly rotate around player when exiting vehicle.

-Added dialog reminding player to save before final mission in the game.

-Fixed rare crash bugs due to variants and fast shader constants.

-DLC - Car dealership now skips paint selection for car if the car has no color data.

-Fixed issue when signing out of a gamer profile on The Wheel Woman unlock screen.

-Added missing audio tracks to music stores, including "Pickin' Boogers."

-Added long sideburns and four other missing hairstyles to Shear Intensity salons.

Multiplayer
-Improvements to the way the game handles packet loss and bandwidth management between players. This addresses issues commonly cited as "lag", and general synchronization problems between the players' clients (vehicles/players warping around, etc).

-Various bandwidth optimizations.

-Fixed connection issues with gang servers (done server-side, update not required).

-The system for rating a player's quality-of-service has been improved, and made less conservative. This means you'll see many more matches with 10-12 player limits.

-Fixed "clothes stealing" exploit. Stolen clothes will be deleted, legit clothes will be unharmed.

-Various changes to Matchmaking phase, to get players in the game faster.

-Team-based, non-Gang games are now required to have even teams. Gang matches still allowed to be off-by-one to allow easier matchmaking, since single people cannot be matched-in.

-Fixed issue that could cause the Blinged Out Ride vehicle to get stuck inside the garage when the driver disconnects.

-Fixed crash that could happen during server migration.

-Fixed rank reporting errors in Leaderboards for Team Gang Brawl and Team Big Ass Chains.

-Fixed problem where end of games stats display could be improperly sorted.

-Fixed issue in server migration where statistics would not be properly updated for the newly selected server.

-Fixed issue where incorrect server was elected for game size.

-Fixed issue where car could get stuck in a chop shop or get pushed out of the level and destroyed. Added caching to pimp hat and multiplayer chains to reduce delay when they are loaded.

-Fixed problem where PC could become bald after importing from single-player savegame.

-Fixed problem where multiplayer garages had problems with client vehicles colliding at the entrance with an invisible mesh mover.

-Item sync improvements.

-Fixed problem that could prevent twelve people from getting into a match due to not having enough security associations.

-Points stored in Big Ass Chains are now being reset between games.

-Fixed issue where gang stats retrieval could fail and not be retried.

-Addressed "standby" hack where a player would temporarily disconnect their network connection to move around without others seeing them.

-The proper number of custom vehicle choices now appears for the Hustlin multiplayer level.

-Gang sizes limited to 100 members.

-Fixed cases where gangs match but not all players get into the game.

-Only servers with sufficient bandwidth are selected to host a match.

-Fixed bug where multiplayer garages had problems with client vehicles colliding against unseen geometry.

-Big Ass Chains points scored stats are now reset between games.

-Fixed bug where player would have pipebombs in inventory but would not be able to throw them.

-Fixed problem in Protect Tha Pimp where a player would respawn at the beginning of a round in observer mode.

-DLC - Always display name of level server has selected, even if client does not have that level downloaded. ...

The pick of the PS3 launch line-up is Namco's Ridge Racer 7, after receiving four nine ratings in highly influential Japanese mag, Famitsu.

As you'll know if you've ever skimmed over the mag, Famitsu puts games to a panel of four reviewers and in this case they all gave the PS3 Ridge Racer a nine rating, resulting in an overall score of 36 out of 40.

RR7 topped the PS3 titles reviewed in the latest issue, apparently receiving praise for its online modes and refined drifting mechanic.

Meanwhile, Resistance: Fall of Man got one nine and three eights, and giant-crab game Genji: Days of the Blade bartered three sevens and an eight.

Slightly lower down the rating scale, Famitsu gave Sega Golf Club four sevens but Gundam: Target In Sight conjured up four eights - but we know how the Japanese love their mechs.

Frighteningly, there's only ten days left until the console reaches Japanese stores on November 11, and a few more until the November 17 launch in the US. ...