via Computer and Video Games


Altus USA has released eleven new screenshots from Xbox 360 version of Spectral Force 3, a Japanese RPG destined to hit the States later this year.

From the looks of things, the game will be standard Atlus fare, with lots of stats, anime style characters and a stat-based RPG combat system.

Also from the screenshots, we've deduced the translation might well be unintentionally funny. "Wihdraw, Meufa! My holy sword will smite these ingrates!" Awesome.


Screenshots ...

via IGN


Following the news of Ikaruga's imminent release on Xbox Live, another date of interest has emerged on Microsoft's official Japanese Xbox page. April 2 – or International Children's Book Day as it is sometimes known – is also the date for the release of Namco's Mr. Driller Online.

As spotted by the eagle-eyed inhabitants of the Neogaf forums, the date is remarkably close, though as yet we can't confirm whether it will also herald the release of the game in the West. Namco's cult favourite blockbuster was only recently announced for the Xbox 360's online service, and boasts four-player online play, as well as offline split-screen and both Standard Driller and Quest Driller for the solo player. ...

via IGN


Hudson kicked off its support of Nintendo's WiiWare download service this past week with the Japanese release of Star Soldier R. But this launch title was apparently just the start of many downloadable titles to come from the company.

At a press event held in Tokyo today, the company introduced its upcoming lineup for the service. While confirming that it has over 10 titles in development for the service, it provided a first glimpse at four of the upcoming titles.

As previously announced, Hudson has Bomberman and Tetris due out shortly for the service. Bomberman will support Wi-Fi battles and will be available in June. Tetris will follow in July.

It appears that the recent confusion over two Bomberman games apparently being in development for the Wii may have at last been cleared up. The Bomberman title mentioned in this story from a couple of weeks back is actually the WiiWare game. That is, unless Hudson has two different eight-player Bomberman games due out for the Wii in June.

In addition to these three titles, Hudson announced for the first time today a WiiWare version of Alien Crush. This digital pinball game was originally released for the Turbo Grafx years ago, but is now being revived on WiiWare with Wii-style controls and a five player Wi-Fi score challenge. A Japanese release is planned for August.

Catalog franchises aren't all that's due out from Hudson for the service. The company also announced Blue Oasis, a completely original title where you build an aquarium and raise fish. A Japanese release is planned for 2008.

All these announcements concern Japan only at the moment, although the company did note that one of its principles with WiiWare development is to make games that can be enjoyed with players both locally and throughout the world. Expect to see many of these games in your part of the world at some point. ...

via Games Industry


The BBFC has responded to industry concerns over whether or not it can handle the increased workload that the Byron Review recommendations would lead to, dismissing them as "nonsense".

In the report, published yesterday, Tanya Byron recommended that the statutory rating age be reduced to 12, with the BBFC taking responsibility for all titles rated '12', '15' and '18'.

But speaking to GamesIndustry.biz the BBFC has strongly defended its ability to take on the extra classification work.

"We're very touched at the BBFC about how concerned people are about us and our resources," said a spokesperson. "It's nice to know people are worried, but the fact of the matter is that we'll have no problem dealing with it."

There was also some clarification over the number of titles that the BBFC would need to work on, with the body rating 258 videogame titles in 2007.

"At the most, if we take the 12-plus and 16-plus games from PEGI it's about 500 games [per year]," the spokesperson went on.

"We classified, last year, about 17,000 works [including films], and that's gone from 7500 in 2000. The film industry wasn't concerned about our ability to cope with the huge influx of work - they just assumed that we would, and we did.

"Not only can we cope, but we've improved our turnaround times. Most of the games, particularly at the '12' end can be looked at in a couple of hours, because we get all the cheat codes, and all the things we need to get through the games quite quickly - and that's not much different from watching a DVD.

"When they moved from video to DVD - and think how much more material you can get on a DVD than a video - nobody from the industry debated about whether we'd be able to cope. This is a red herring, it's nonsense."

The Byron proposals have been accepted by the government, but still need to go through a period of public consultation before they become definite, and one of the issues that needs more discussion is the procedure for games that are on the cusp of a '12' rating.

"That's something that we're going to have to work through - at the moment this is still some way off," said the spokesperson. "As far as I know the government isn't expecting much to happen before the Autumn [following the consultation period], so there's plenty of time to work these issues out." ...

via Kotaku


R4 carts, you either love 'em or hate 'em. People who want to play pirated DS games, they love 'em. Retailers in Akihabara, they love 'em, because they sell a ****ton of them. But Nintendo? They hate 'em. And may have started doing something about it. We knew that they'd begun to grow concerned over the carts late last year, but over the past week many specialist retailers in Akihabara have put up notices saying they'll no longer be selling the R4, following threats made by Nintendo. Same goes for some Japanese online retailers.

So is this the end for the naughty little cartridge? Eh, probably not. Nintendo may be able to strong-arm the little guy, but not the littler guys they don't even know about. Or the internets. ...

via pspfanboy

On its online instruction manuals, Sony Computer Entertainment has a few images for use as labels. There's one for the original PSP-1000 series, and another for the current PSP-2000 series. However, curiously there's also a placeholder image for the logical next-step: the PSP-3000 series.

The availability of the PSP-3000 image on the PlayStation site shouldn't come as a signal that a redesign is impending -- it's clear that Sony plans on revising the hardware through its supposed ten year life cycle. However, it does seem to display a bit too much forethought from the web designers that created and uploaded this image. How long will it take before we hear rumblings of yet another PSP redesign?

http://manuals.playstation.net/docum...mg/in_3000.gif ...

It's been about four months since we had any substantial grappling news from THQ, but the Los Angeles County-based publisher put an end to that today: WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 is coming.

Although it won't be formally announced until tomorrow, THQ has confirmed with IGN that the latest installment in the storied wrestling franchise will be making its way to the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS, PSP, PlayStation 2 and mobile devices this fall while boasting a bevy of bells and whistles.

Rest in peace (PS3).On the Xbox 360, PS3, PSP and PS2, the biggest change in the action will come with a strong focus on tag teams. For the first time ever, players will be able to team up for co-op storylines in the Road to Wrestlemania mode and take advantage of an overhauled tag structure to earn attributes on their way to the top. Tag teams -- both in and out of Road to Wrestlemania -- will utilize the same momentum meter, break opponents with double team finishers and make "hot tags" for the win. Also making its debut will be Create-A-Finisher, which allows fans to choose from more than 500 animations in their quest to build the ultimate move. Specifically on the 360 and PS3, fans can look for the debut of SVR downloadable content, although THQ is mum about what it might be.

WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 marks the franchise's second title on the Wii, and THQ looks to be building on the motion controls and interactivity of the first outing. The game promises more match types, more weapons and the debut of online gameplay, which will feature matches and rankings. Although the title will pack Road to Wrestlemania like the aforementioned versions, the Wii copy of SVR '09 will be the only place to find interactive entrances and victory celebrations that range from posing on the ramp to slapping the taste out of a beaten opponent. Successfully get the crowd hyped on your way to the ring and you'll get an in-match bonus.

Seasoned players who pick up SVR '09 on the Nintendo DS will probably be in for more than a few surprises. Gone are the stylus-heavy controls of last year and in their place is a more traditional d-pad/grapple system gamers that have grown up with, although the stylus will still play some part in the action. Being developed by Tose, the folks behind Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime, the DS version of SVR '09 will pack a season mode with an RPG approach. Players will interact with Superstars, upgrade their abilities and complete missions to become the champion. Create-A-Superstar will make its Nintendo handheld debut, there will be a larger roster of Superstars, and the title will pack a wealth of new match types.

Is he sneezing or attacking (PS3)?"The ambitious cross-platform launch of WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008 last year yielded tremendous growth for the franchise, as we delivered multiple gameplay experiences across seven platforms and greatly expanded our audience of WWE videogame fans," said Bob Aniello, senior vice president, worldwide marketing, THQ. "With dynamic new features and the extension of our gameplay experience through downloadable content, WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 will bring more console, handheld and wireless gamers together to enjoy the virtual world of WWE."

Think that's all the news you'll get on this momentous day? It's not even close. First, let's confirm that Chris Jericho, Jeff Hardy, Matt Hardy, Randy Orton, Mr. Kennedy, Undertaker and John Cena are all in the game. Second, why not click on over to our interview with THQ Creative Manager Cory Ledesma for nine pages of information about what Road to Wrestlemania is all about, hints on the DLC and tons more. Then, go download the brand new trailer. Next, grab some screens from the gallery below.

After all that, you have our permission to fall into a SVR '09 coma until the fall.

http://uk.psp.ign.com/articles/862/862604p1.html ...

Joke all you want about poor PSP software sales over in Japan, but you'll have to always add a footnote thanks to Monster Hunter. The first one topped a million, the second one may very well top two million, and the third one, just released today, looks like it's off to a fantastic start.

Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G got Japan to rise early on a chilly Spring Thursday morning as many major retailers gave the game the Dragon Quest treatment and opened shop ahead of the standard 10:00AM opening time. One such shop was the giant Tsutaya retailer in Shibuya. The home to the official launches of products such as the Xbox, the Xbox 360, and any number of Dragon Quest games was given the honor of being the official starting point for MHP2ndG.

The Tsutaya launch event kicked off at 6:40AM, twenty minutes ahead of the start of sales. Famitsu.com reports that over 120 people were lined up for the event. But more telling was the presence of television cameras, signaling that Monster Hunter may have some mainstream appeal. Either that, or Capcom had gotten some celebrity talent to join in on the launch fun.

While Monster Hunter may very well have penetrated the mainstream, it turns out that there were, in fact, two major stars in attendance at the event. Junichi Koumoto and Satoshi Inoue from comedy duo Jichou Kachou took to the stage prior to the game's release and offered a few words on their love of all things Monster Hunter. In addition to being fans of the series, they're also featured in the commercials.

MHP2ndG producer Ryouzou Tsujimoto was also in attendance at the launch event. He greeted the crowd, then said he was surprised at the number of fans and media in attendance.

A crowd of 120 people is actually rather tame for a major game release in Japan. But it turns out that this was on the lower end of the lines that formed around Tokyo. Famitsu.com sent its reporters around town and found lines topping 200 in Ikebukuro. Just to the south, in Shinjuku, a line of 12 people that had formed at the large Yodobashi Camera at 1:00AM had grown to over 300 just prior to the store's early 9:00AM opening time. As clerks rushed to sell the game, the line kept on growing, eventually reaching into the 600s thirty minutes after opening!

No Monster Hunter for you, according
to this sold-out sign at a Tsutaya retailer
These were some hardcore fans, it seems. Famitsu spoke to a few who'd chosen to line up for the game and found that most had invested over 1,000 hours into Monster Hunter Portable 2nd. One person even claimed a total time of 1,400 hours!

"Things haven't been this lively since Smash Bros X.," an employee of the Akihabara Yodobashi Camera, itself having served a line of over 200, told Famitsu. "No, actually it's probably livelier than that. At this rate, it's possible that we'll sell out by the evening."

He wasn't exaggerating, as reports of sell outs were widespread. The Asobit City game shop in Akihabara sold out of the game within an hour of opening time. The Shinjuku Yodobashi actually sold out of the Hunters Pack G PSP bundle pack two hours before opening time (the store distributed tickets).

The PSP has been at the top of Japan's hardware charts for the past couple of weeks. Judging by the impressive showing today, it will likely keep that crown throughout the remainder of this month, and possibly into next month as well. This time, however, there's an unexpected cause to the system's success: a game.

http://uk.psp.ign.com/articles/862/862513p1.html ...

kid101skater has claimed that he has via the PSP got an exploit working on the PS3, now this does make some sense because as we know the PSP is fully hacked to bits and possibly the most impressive homebrew scene exists on the PSP.

Heres the info that kid101skater revealed:


Now for the moment take this as a rumour,most hacks get debunked but its always nice to know that groups are trying their best to get homebrew on the PS3 and more interesting if its via the PSP. ...