via Computer and Video Games


Snap Dragon Games has revealed Kore, a new 3D platform adventure for Wii.

"With three zany, kooky crackpots sharing a cybernetic K.O.R.E suit, insane action is guaranteed," promises the release.

The K.O.R.E suit gives its wearers special abilities. "Pixie becomes a pro at climbing, Madboy gains an iron fist, and the dog Rex develops astonishing senses of hearing and smell.

"Your job is to cleverly utilize their different abilities to free the kooky inventor Dr. Samuelsen from the evil Krank Brothers who are attacking from the center of the Earth."

It'll boast six worlds, as well as three obligatory Wii mini games inevitably featuring some form of Remote-waving action.

Check the shots below and video to the right.


Screenshots
Trailer ...

via IGN


Next Thursday marks the release of Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty, the downloadable romp that extends the story that began in Ratchet & Clank Future (read our review of Quest for Booty right here). It turns out that not only does the game give you a new dose of platforming action, but it teases the next release as well.

After finishing the game, Insomniac tells us simply "The adventure continues Fall 2009". While we now know the date of the next release, we don't actually know what form it will be in, be it either another downloadable episode or a full-blown release, though we expect the latter. Sony representatives wouldn't tell us its form either, so we'll have to wait a bit longer to find out exactly what sort of game we should be expecting.

But at the very least, we know we'll be playing more Ratchet in just over a year. ...

via Computer and Video Games


Here's a new trailer for Artoon's vampire-infested stealth action game, Vampire Rain: Altered Species on PS3.

Set in the suburbs of a west-coast US city, the plot details a battle between humans and the Nightwalkers - your traditional blood-sucking vampire race.

"Gamers take the role of John Lloyd, a member of a US special government unit created to defeat the Nightwalkers, and the only human to ever survive a physical encounter with them," explains the release.

The Xbox 360 version was, to be fair, rubbish. But the PS3 entry's promising 50 hours of story-driven campaign gameplay, and a "robust multiplayer mode", so who knows it could surprise us.


Screenshots ...

via Eurogamer


Nintendo has updated the PAL Wii Shop with the first episode of the Strong Bad point-and-click adventure from Telltale Games, along with Hudson Soft's My Aquarium.

Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People is an adventure inspired by the Homestar Runner web cartoons, with arcade-style mini-games sewn into the lining. The first episode, Homestar Ruiner, costs 1000 Wii Points (GBP 7.00 / EUR 10.00).

The series is also running on the PC, for which the price is much lower, and you can buy it that way on Telltale's website. There are four more episodes to come, starting with Strong Badia the Free in September.

You can also check out our Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People: Episode One - Homestar Ruiner gamepage for videos and screenshots.

The other game, My Aquarium, is a one-player virtual pet effort where you look after fish in, of all things, an aquarium. For some reason it links up with the Wii's weather channel, and mercifully it's only 500 Wii Points (GBP 3.50 / EUR 5 approx).

Look out for reviews of both titles - and a catch-up on last week's Virtual Console update - in the near future. ...

via Eurogamer


Monster Madness: Grave Danger for PS3 will be released on 5th September.

Grave Danger promises to improve significantly on the fairly rubbish Xbox 360 original. There are loads more weapon power-ups, a better camera system, 25 mini-game challenges, and full four-player campaign co-operative play.

Monster Madness is similar to Zombies Ate My Neighbours and games like Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3. The undead invade suburbia and a quartet of unlikely teenage stereotypes pick up all manner of objects and guns to become heroes.

SouthPeak released a PS3 demo for Monster Madness: Grave Danger yesterday, which should give you a better idea of what to expect. ...

via Games Industry


Following the release of NPD's US software and hardware sales data for July, the three platform holders were quick to post reactions on their respective performances - here is a brief summary before a more detailed examination follows:

Nintendo, which had the most to celebrate following more stunning success in the hardware chart plus a number of titles in the software top ten as well, restricted its victory speech to a simple quote from Cammie Dunaway.

Sony, which will undoubtedly be delighted at a platform victory for the PlayStation 3 over the Xbox 360, detailed a variety of statistics on its PS3, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation Network and PlayStation 2 platforms, rounded off with a note from Jack Tretton.

Meanwhile Microsoft focused on its overall market share since launch, a solid software sales percentage and the level of third party sales that the Xbox 360 has provided to other publishers.

Nintendo

• The brief statement mentioned the hardware sales figures for DS and Wii, noting a 49 per cent market share for Wii in terms of living-room consoles, and a 73 per cent market share for the DS for handhelds.
• The statement also noted the five titles that made the NPD software top ten for July: Wii Fit, Guitar Hero: On Tour, Wii Play, Mario Kart Wii and Rock Band.
• "Great hardware goes hand-in-hand with great software," said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive VP of sales and marketing. "Various types of games for the Nintendo systems are represented in the top 10, demonstrating how we continue to break down the barriers between veteran and new players."

Sony

• A rather longer statement began by trumpeting the "momentum" for the PS3, with 1.8 million units sold in the US in 2008 - a 99 per cent growth year-on-year.
• Additionally PS3 software showed a 206 per cent growth level for the year to-date, and SCEA promised over 140 Blu-ray titles by the end of the fiscal year.
• The PlayStation Network now has over 10 million registered accounts, with over 200 million pieces of content downloaded worldwide.
• The PSP sales were spurred on to 16 per cent growth over the first six months of 2007 by the God of War: Chains of Olympus promotion.
• More than 42.5 million PS2s have now been sold in North America across the console's lifetime.
• The PlayStation brand has now yielded more than USD 3.3 billion in the year to-date; July hardware sales hit USD 609 million in July - 22 per cent growth; July software sale hit USD 184 million - 28 per cent growth.
• "Our year-to-date sales growth of 99 per cent for the PS3 reaffirms that consumers are indeed embracing PS3 as their entertainment hub-of-choice with its feature-rich offerings like Blu-ray and our recently announced video delivery service," said Jack Tretton, president and CEO of SCEA. "With an unmatched software line-up that includes LittleBigPlanet, SOCOM: Confrontation, Resistance 2 and MotorStorm: Pacific Rift, and the anticipated launch of our new 80GB PS3 model, we're confident in a strong second half of the year and look forward to quickly addressing any inventory shortages due to the transition."

Microsoft

• Microsoft's reaction began by hailing a strong E3 showing, and noting a profitable year with USD 2.1 billion "in growth" for the Entertainment and Devices Division.
• Since launch consumers have spent over USD 10.4 billion on the Xbox 360 in the US, giving the platform a 49 per cent market share.
• Xbox 360 titles accounted for USD 129 million - 34 per cent share - in software sales for July.
• Third party revenue generated by the Xbox 360 platform was USD 121 million - 42 per cent of the market.
• Xbox 360 now has an attach rate of 7.9, which Microsoft stated as the highest attach rate in history for any console at this point in its life cycle.
• The statement closed with a look ahead to the rest of the year, including the Netflix deal in the US and a games library of over 1000 titles, including Lips, You're in the Movies, and Gears of War 2.

...

New figures for Japan's weekly console data released each week are in as follows:


Nintendo DS Lite: 60,434
Playstation Portable: 58,501
Nintendo Wii: 38,506
Xbox 360: 24,962
Playstation 3: 9,673
Playstation: 2 8,503

The DS Lite manages to crawl to the top of the list, up roughly by 3,000 while the PSP is down 3,000 going to second place. The Wii still is in 3rd place, taking a 2,600 hit. The Xbox 360 is 4th, increased by 19,000 most likey by the sales of Tales of Vesperia. The PS3 comes next, up 100 and PS2 is last in line, down 500. ...

via Eurogamer


Capcom has identified three key bugs in the beta version of Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix and offered a workaround for people experiencing them.

Following the release of a patch last week, some HD Remix players have had to put up with background "jitter", and throw and fireball animations lagging behind their execution.

However, wrote Capcom in a blog post this week, this is all down to "smoothing" and the company has already figured out ways to fix it. "The character frames are actually playing much better than before, but the background jittering is making is seem like there is lag when there isn't," the Capcom-Unity post explained.

Fortunately there's a way to sort it out right now for those of you playing along. "To turn off smoothing, just hold LT, RT, RB, and LB. While holding them, press start and you should hear a tone indicating it has turned off." So do that.

"There are still other netcode improvements that have been implemented that should improve the gameplay, but for some, it seems the smoothing is making the game feel laggy when it isn't," the blog observed.

So it's not a perfect answer, but it's yet another piece in the feedback puzzle that Capcom's solving ahead of HD Remix's release for Xbox Live and PlayStation Network later this year, which should be pretty flawless if all this good work is anything to go by.

Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix is a sexified 1080p rebuild of Capcom's classic 16-bit 2D beat-'em-up, and the beta test is an Xbox Live promotion designed to iron out all the online-multiplayer kinks before release. To get involved, you have to buy Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3 on Xbox Live Arcade, which opens the door to the HD Remix download. ...

via Computer and Video Games


Capcom's big Street Fighter "surprise" - the arrival of SF: Alpha on PSN this week - was clearly not for UK gamers, as the fighter in a no-show in today's PS Store update.

The announcement made earlier this week appears to have applied only to the US Store. Capcom UK is currently unavailable for comment.

It's a shame, but we did however get TWO other PSone titles to download this week (at last), in the form of Driver and Sheep.

Could this be the end of the PSone game drought? We hope so. Check the full list of updates below:


PS3 store

Games

• Sheep (PS1 Classic), £3.49
• Driver (PS1 Classic), £3.49

Demos

• Facebreaker, FREE
• Monster Madness, FREE
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09, FREE

Packs

• Nascar 09 - Car Skin Pack 1, £1.99
• Nascar 09 - Car Skin Pack 2, £1.99
• Nascar 09 - Car Skin Pack 3, £1.99
• Nascar 09 - Montreal, £2.99

Videos

• E3 - In conversation with Shuhei Yoshida, FREE
• Fatal Inertia Ex Trailer 1, FREE

PC store

Games

• Sheep (PS one Classic), £3.49
• Driver (PS one Classic), £3.49

Videos

• Buzz!: Master Quiz Trailer, FREE

In Game downloads

• Nucleus Updated Full Game file, £4.99
• Nucleus Updated In-game upgrade file, £4.99

...