via Eurogamer


Eidos has unveiled what it believes to be "THE new phenomenon on the Nintendo DS".

Dubbed Soul Bubbles, it sees you playing as a young shaman tasked with guiding lost souls around levels in bubbles.

The challenge is to protect and manipulate these bubbles so that they don't pop and spill their innards everywhere.

This will entail drawing on bubbles, deflating them, cutting them, or joining them together. You will be able to fill them with things like gas and water, presumably to give them different physical properties.

Obstacles to face will include falling rock traps, fires and big tongued-frogs.

Eidos is aiming for eight worlds and 40 levels when the game is released. It has no specific date just yet.

"This will be THE new phenomenon on the Nintendo DS," said Ray Livingston, Eidos mouth for the game. "Every single person who has picked up this game has fallen in love with it instantly. We can't wait to introduce the world to Soul Bubbles."

Bob over to our Soul Bubbles gallery for the first screenshots. Warning: contains humour.


Screenshots here ...

via MCV


Business technology site Digitimes is reporting that Asustek owned manufacturing firms Pegatron and Unihan have struck a deal with Microsoft to produce around 500,000 Xbox 360 consoles a month from its bases in China.

Both bases are also OEM producers of Sony’s PS3.

The news comes after Microsoft blamed its North American hardware sales defeat at the hands of Sony’s PS3 on supply constraints – though it did at the time promise an improvement by next month.

Celestica and Flextronics are the current OEM builders of Microsoft’s machine, with initial manufacturer Wistron pulling out of its deal with Microsoft last year.

Wistron is also involved in the production of Nintendo’s Wii. ...

via Games Industry


Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games has returned to the top of the UK all formats chart, according to the latest data from Chart-Track for the week ending March 15.

The title, which was number one for three consecutive weeks, and has been in the top four since the Nintendo DS release in January, pushed last week's number one - Army of Two from Electronic Arts - down to number two.

Bully: Scholarship Edition moved up one place to number three, swapping places with Brain Training which fell to fourth.

Call of Duty 4 remained in fifth place while Carnival: Funfair Games from Take-Two jumped up ten places on the previous week into sixth place.

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock was also a big climber, moving up from 20 the previous week to seventh place, while Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 gained one place in eighth.

Cooking Mama 2 and the evergreen FIFA 08 rounded off the top ten.

The full all formats charts is as follows:

1. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games
2. Army of Two
3. Bully: Scholarship Edition
4. Brain Training
5. Call of Duty 4
6. Carnival: Funfair Games
7. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
8. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008
9. Cooking Mama 2
10. FIFA 08 ...

Okay folks, Sony has today rolled out firmware version 3.93 for the PSP. More features to the radio function and more support for PS Network titles. You can update through Network Update on your PSP or download it at Sony's website. The update log from the UK site is shown below:




Leave feedback via comments ...

via Computer and Video Games


Microsoft's decision to drop the price of its entire range of Xbox 360 consoles in Europe has resulted in an immediate and significant sales increase in the UK.

Sales monitor ChartTrack told MCV that Xbox 360 sales have leapt 36 percent since March 14 when the price cut was introduced. While the price of each of the threee Xbox 360 models was reduced, perhaps most interestingly the cost of the entry level Arcade unit was slashed to £159.99, making it cheaper than Nintendo's mass-market friendly Wii.

"During week 11, Xbox 360 enjoyed a 36 percent jump on week 10, which is a nice refreshing uplift for the console" said ChartTrack director Dorian Bloch.

During the same period PS3 sales rose six percent, while sales of all other systems fell. Software sales across all platforms also dropped week-on-week.

"We need to wait two or three more weeks to see if the 360 sales surge will carry on," Bloch added. "I would predict that it will increase again over the Easter period. It's a bit of an odd year for the industry - Easter is early, and doesn't coincide with the end of Q1 - when publishers traditionally release very big games - like it usually does." ...

via Computer and Video Games


Fable 2 will be released on May 30 with a PEGI rating of 16+, if you're to believe game e-tailer Play.com.

Attendees of last weekend's Play.com Live event received goodie bags containing a booklet that apparently dated and rated the anticipated Xbox 360 title.

Previous reports have tapped the game to come out no earlier than October this year, so we're naturally a bit sceptical.

We've dropped Microsoft a line anyway to get a positive denial, as there's a whole host of reasons not to expect the game anywhere other than leading up to Christmas.

For now though, Xbox 360 owners can pray to whatever gods they believe in for all this not to be a gigantic mistake on the part of Play. ...

via Games Industry


Nintendo has announced that Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii has sold more than 1.4 million copies in the US in just one week - making it the fastest-selling game in Nintendo's history.

Brawl sold more than 874,000 on March 9, and has sold at a rate of more than 120 units per minute between that launch date and March 16.

"Super Smash Bros. Brawl has made the leap from video game to cultural phenomenon," said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of sales & marketing.

"Game reviewers and the public alike praise its fun game play and extensive, inventive content."

The previous game in the series, Super Smash Bros. Melee, became the best-selling Nintendo GameCube game of all time with more than 7 million copies sold worldwide. ...

via Go Nintendo


We’ve heard that the boosting was quite different in the latest edition of Mario Kart, but it still wasn’t confirmed that snaking was gone altogether. Well, according to Official Nintendo Magazine (UK)’s review, snaking is a thing of the past. Here’s a portion of their review…

...

via Computer and Video Games


Concrete details on the Halo 3 Legendary Map Pack, including its release date, will be formally revealed tomorrow, Bungie has said.

The developer has already shown off one map set to be included in the pack; Ghost Town - an "abandoned shell in Africa" set around the Sierra 117 level from the single player game.

"Ghost Town will be joined by a pair of other maps in Legendary," says Bungie, "the first of which will actually be formally unveiled Tuesday - there's one of those press releases announcing it and concrete details about the map's release date and other sundry details. So, much to your chagrin, the wait is a few days longer."

In anticipation for the reveal, the Halo house has offered fans shots of the pack's snow-ed up vehicle roster, which have all been given lovely white paint jobs.


Our investigators tell us we should probably expect some snow maps, then. Because the arctic camo would stand out like a sore thumb in the jungle. ...