via Computer and Video Games


Oblivion expansion Shivering Isles is to release as a digital download for PS3.

According to Bethesda, the expansion will be available on PSN as of November 29, although it's not yet confirmed how much it'll cost. It also appears that initially the download will only be available in North American, where Shivering Isles has just shipped on disc.

The expansion features 30-plus hours of new adventuring, new quests, monsters and expanded freeform gameplay.

Presumably Shivering Isles hitting PSN will pave the way for further DLC for Oblivion on PS3. ...

via Computer and Video Games


It looks like Microsoft has started a new wave of Xbox Live bannings against naughty console modders, according to a report.

The banning campaign is aimed squarely at dirty pirates who have modified their DVD firmware or DVD+/-R DL discs - specifically those using Toshiba-Samsung and Hitachi-LG drives.

According to our own clued-up Del Boy, these modified drives allow Xbox 360 owners to play copied games, which obviously isn't very good news for the platform holder.

As always Microsoft bans console serial numbers from its online service, but Xbox Live accounts are free to go about their non-naughty business on another consoles. It's only 300 quid down the toilet for them then. Oh well... ...

via Games Industry


Nintendo has revealed that Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii sold over 500,000 units in its first week of sale in the US.


Released in Europe last Friday, the game debuted at number five in the UK all-formats charts, although the Chart Track data only accounts for the first two days of sale in the region. ...

via Eurogamer




Americaland Nintendo has confirmed that it will be launching two new special edition DS bundles on Friday in the States - but Nintendo Europe says there are "no plans" to release them here.

The new bundles - one for Zelda: Phantom Hourglass and one for the Best Friends version of Nintendogs - each come with a specially printed DS model.

My birthday's next weekend, by the way.
The Zelda one (pictured, unless I've forgotten) is gold with a Triforce logo in one corner, while the Nintendogs one is pink with a footprint in the same position. Neither is as nice as my red and black one, so ner.

Although neither version is available in Europe, we do have a choice of white, black, pink and silver.

The new DS bundles will go on sale in the US for USD 149.99, which saves a few "dollars", which you could then spend on Slitherlink or Picross DS if you're any kind of human. ...

via Eurogamer


There's a new demo of Blacksite on Xbox Live Marketplace ahead of the Xbox 360 and PC versions' end-of-November launches.

The new demo weighs in at 988MB and sees you battling aliens in small-town America. We would give you more details, but we forgot to bring our Xbox 360 to the office this morning. It's heavy, all right.

This isn't the first demo, of course, with Live users already able to download a small taster that sees players blasting their way through alien scum in a petrol station before admiring a fancy old beast ripping its way through some buildings.

The full game's due out on 30th November for 360 and PC, with a PS3 version to follow, and you can read more about it in our first impressions and interview with Midway's Harvey Smith. ...

via Computer and Video Games


Sega's expansion to online lizard-basher Phantasy Star Universe, Ambition of the Illuminus is now available for purchase and download on Xbox Live Marketplace.

Sega says the PS2 and PC versions of the expansion will be released on January 11, 2008.

The 1600 Microsoft Point download (about 14 quid) adds both single-player and online content to the much-underrated action-RPG, including new missions and levels including the Granigs Mines and the Ruins of Old Rozenom City, which sounds quite moody.

It's a 1.92GB download, but at least you don't have to go to the shops. You can read our original write-up on Illuminus right here. ...

via Games Industry


The newly-launched PlayStation Store for PC does not spell the end of the road for Sony's Universal Media Disc format, according to Darren Cairns, head of online marketing for Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.

He told GamesIndustry.biz: "The UMD business is still good for us and our publishers. It's still a burgeoning market, and we're still selling a large number of PSPs on a weekly basis, so there are a large number of new people coming into the market."

The potential to offer titles at a lower price point, because the costs of production and retail are cut, might seem like good news for gamers - but there are no plans to head down that path any time soon.

"I don't think that this would give us any cause for concern over UMD, I think they sit very well together. When you talk about the more casual games, pick-up-and-play games, you would definitely want to put them through the Store rather than have disc production, in to retail, and so on."

When asked if he felt that the Store could go on and offer a much wider selection of general entertainment media in the future - building on the current film trailers available and adding music tracks and video perhaps - he reiterated that the focus to begin with was on games.

"The PC Store is very much targeted at getting lots of really good game content at the start for the millions of PSP users that we've got. Longer term, the PlayStation Store is predominantly for game content for day one and we're working on the plans to build that out after.

"For us being able to deploy and push additional content, whether it's an additional overlay for a GPS or whatever, it's important going forward. But what we wanted to do was really establish the PlayStation Store on the PC, as it is already on the PS3."

The downloads themselves currently have no defined size limit, and they will vary according to game title. As an example the Bboy full game download weighs in at around 835MB, but full titles won't necessarily include all content found on the corresponding retail UMD. ...

via Eurogamer


The Sony PSP Store for the PC launched last night with a downloadable line-up headed up by a PSP version of PS3 titles Go! Puzzle and Go! Sudoku, downloadable versions of UMD games B-Boy and Fired up, and something else - a rhythm-action game called Beats. We had a quick play to see what it's like.

Once you go through the PSP Store download process (which involves logging in with your PSN account, making the purchase and then using a special PSN download manager program to transfer the game directly to your Memory Stick), and select it from the Game menu on the XMB, you're shown to nice orange title screen which lets you pick between the two main game modes - My Music Challenge and Jamming - or other set-up options.

Beats is a fairly straightforward button-matching music game, but the twist is that you can use your own music. When you go into the My Music Challenge, you're invited to pick a song from among any MP3s stored on your Memory Stick, and then select a difficulty level. You're then presented with a fairly simple screen with a trio of circle in the middle. As the music starts to play, little face-button icons (squares, circles, Xs, triangles) move towards these little circles, and it's your job to press them as they move over one.

If they're approaching the centre circle, you just press the corresponding button. However, if they are going towards the left one, you hold left on the d-pad at the same time, and so on for the right-hand circle. Vertical bars on either side of the play area tot up your points multiplier (which increases as you match more beats without missing any out) and collect "overdrive" power as you correctly match special flashing versions of the normal icons.

Naturally the idea is that the icons move across the screen in varying sequences and rhythms that match the tone and tempo of your chosen track, and the effect was pretty reasonable on our first few attempts. There's a slight amount of frame-rate drop as the beat-matching kicks off a minor firework display in the background, but it's not particularly intrusive.

Beats also includes a Jamming mode, where you can create songs using a selection of instrumental loops, and this mode supports up to four players. You can then also your compositions via Game sharing. Other options allow you to change the game's background theme - which incorporates either static or dynamic (so, wobbly) visual elements in addition to signature music - or the visualiser that goes along with the beat-matching. Again, there are quite a few provided with the game.

Anyway, whether it all amounts to GBP 4.99 worth of value over the long haul will be up to one of our reviewers to decide in due course, but for now that's Beats - an interesting little rhythm game and the sort of little project it's always nice to see Sony doodling around the margins. Works quite well with Modest Mouse and Arcade Fire, or you could just listen to your CDs and drum your fingers on the desk. You decide. ...

via Computer and Video Games


Talk of Sony making a PlayStation Phone has erupted on the internet once again as Sony Computer Entertainment's co-chief operating officer, Jim Ryan, states that such a gadget is "definitely plausible".

Speaking to the Economic Times, Ryan said, "The PlayStation is a proven success and so is Sony Ericsson. Convergence with the two arms working together is definitely plausible. It is hugely intellectually seductive to have a console oriented phone."

He goes on to comment: "What has been done is finding a match between a camera and a mobile phone, and that has been done wherein the mobile phone features are not reasonably inhibited and the camera is also a reasonably competitive product. It is hugely intellectually seductive to have a console-oriented phone".

Ryan later explains that, should such a device work well, the phone functionality would have to be built into a primarily game-playing machine, not the other way around like cameras in phones.

He makes no mention of when a so-called PlayStation Phone device may actually come into fruition.

This follows previous rumours sparked off by a patent filled by Sony Japan's Ericsson Mobile Communications dept. for a PSP-looking, phone-enabled device back in November last year. Check that out here, if you can be arsed to read through lines of repetitive, over-complicated jargon. ...