Microsoft has stepped up its Xbox Live Arcade output lately by releasing two games each Wednesday. This week the company is expanding on that with three game releases...sort of.

Microsoft today announced this week's slate of Xbox Live Arcade Wednesday releases, and it includes two downloads consisting of three games. Beginning at 2 a.m. PST on Wednesday, Xbox 360 owners will be able to download Big Huge Games' strategy game Catan, as well as a combo pack including Atari's arcade shooters Centipede and Millipede.

Big Huge Games made its name developing the real-time strategy PC series Rise of Nations, but its latest effort stretches back to the roots of turn-based strategy, the board game. Catan, based on the board game Settlers of Catan, drops three or four players onto an uncharted island and has them race to colonize it. Players can compete against one another online or try out one of the game's six different artificial intelligence personalities.

Arcade aficionados will remember Centipede and Millipede as a pair of track-ball-equipped shooters in which players had to eliminate encroaching arthropods through a field of mushrooms while avoiding spiders and other creepy crawlies. Both games will be playable in arcade-authentic and "evolved" varieties, with the latter including prerendered graphics with visual effects like motion blur and particle-based explosions.

Catan will be available for 800 Microsoft points ($10), while the Centipede-Millipede combo pack will sell for 400 Microsoft points ($5). Both downloads are rated E for Everyone.

via gamespot ...

via gamespot

While Paper Mario is perhaps the best-known dimensionally challenged mascot, he wasn't the first. Designed by New York artist Rodney Greenblat, PaRappa the Rapper debuted on the original PlayStation in 1997 and is set to celebrate his 10th anniversary with a return to the spotlight.

Sony Computer Entertainment America today announced that the PlayStation Portable edition of the paper-thin puppy's premier game will find its way to North American retailers this July. PaRappa the Rapper on the PSP will feature the original PlayStation game, along with a handful of new tweaks and features. Notable additions include a four-player rap battle mode and eight downloadable remixed versions of the original game's songs. ...

via eurogamer

GamesIndustry.biz has learned that Sony is to conduct an internal inquiry after hitting the headlines for displaying a decapitated goat at a press event for God of War 2.

"It has come to our attention that at The God of War 2 launch showcase held in Athens, Greece, on 1st March 2007, an element of the event was of an unsuitable nature," a spokesperson said.

"Whilst we pride ourselves on creating engaging experiences we are committed to making sure these are appropriate in nature and do not cause offence to either attendees or our consumers in general.

"We are conducting an internal inquiry into aspects of the event in order to learn from the occurrence and put into place measures to ensure that this does not happen again."

As reported by yesterday's Mail on Sunday, pictures of the God of War 2 party showing the headless goat were published in the latest edition of Official PlayStation Magazine.

Some copies have already been sent out to subscribers but the pages in question will be removed from the remaining 80,000 issues.

The Mail on Sunday article alleged that guests at the God of War 2 event "were invited to reach inside the goat's still-warm carcass to eat offal from its stomach" - a report dismissed by Sony as "categorically untrue".

Speaking to GI.biz the spokesperson explained, "In keeping with the theatrical nature of the event, the attendant media were invited to eat a bowl of food that purported to be from the animal - but in fact was a cooked traditional Greek dish."

The spokesperson added that the goat was not slaughtered specifically for the event; the organisers, a Greek production company, purchased the carcass from a butcher.

He observed that Computer Entertainment UK did not play any role in the organisation of the event, and there were no members of the British media were in attendance - including the author of the OPM report.

"The writer of this article did not attend the event and has portrayed the theatre as a literal occurrence," the spokesperson said.

"This is not a true representation of the event, but nevertheless we realise the imagery and the inaccurate description of the event would cause offence and have thus taken action to stop it from circulating."

The spokesperson went on to state that the company was "shocked" to see the article appear in OPM, and immediately contacted Future Publishing to address the issue - not only after being contacted by the Mail on Sunday, as the newspaper implied.

"Sony Computer Entertainment Europe does not in any way, shape or form condone cruelty or mistreatment of animals," he confirmed.

"Sony Computer Entertainment Europe takes the sensitivities of the general public and issues of animal welfare very seriously and is sorry for any offence or distress the event or perception of this event may have caused." ...

via engadget

While it's hardly a secret that the Xbox 360 will be getting a 65nm CPU upgrade sooner or later, China's Commercial Times (not always the most reliable source) is now reporting that the console's Xenos GPU will also be switching over to the cooler, lower-power chips, supposedly sometime this fall. According to the paper, an "engineering version" of the new and improved 65nm Xenos GPU has already been sent out, with production set to get underway in May, which would certainly seem to make a fall launch a possibility. Unfortunately, there's still no word on a possible disc drive upgrade to go along with these other revisions, which we all know is the real culprit for most of the console's noise problems. ...

New from Divineo USA



Your custom recharging and docking station for your Wii Remotes! Includes two rechargeable battery packs customized for your Wii Remote. The recharging dock allows you to charge a battery pack in just over 1 hour! Each rechargeable battery pack provides up to 20 hours of game time and can be recharged up to 500 times! Custom slots can dock two Wii remotes. Powered via a USB connector directly from your Wii game console. ...

via Xbox 360 Fanboy


We just wanted to remind everyone that FASA's holding an IRC Chat today at 2:00 PM PDT to 6:00 PDT to celebrate the end of the Shadowrun beta. There prizes given out, as well as the opportunity to ask the developers any questions you might have about the June bound FPS. The chat will be on the #Shadowrun.FASA chat channel, on the Gamesurge server. Will you fellow testers out there be playing to night and shooting the breeze with the devs? ...

Ooo-eck, the latest Devil May Cry 4 screens have just landed on our desktop and they show off a new environment with previously-unseen icy baddies.

Keen-eyed viewers can also spot the similarities between this and Capcom-cousin Lost Planet. In case you haven't already, click on over to the latest trailer which emerged on our video player last week and look out for our full hands-on report soon.

Screens Here ...

via Kotaku


Call him Agent Zero, call him The Hibachi, or call him Dr. Crazypants, Gilbert Arenas is now the cover athlete for NBA live 2008. The 6'4" point guard (2 inches short than me) for the Washington Wizards will be appearing on all versions of the game, including the first versions of NBA Live for the Wii and PS3, following the cancellation of the 2007 PlayStation version late last year.


Despite his slightly crazy attitude that fans and players alike have dubbed "Gilbertology," the once second-round draft pick has worked his way up to being an All-Star starter and now what many of today's athletes consider a supreme honor, the EA cover shot.

Dreams can come true. He's living proof. ...

via PS3 Fanboy


Leave it to EGM's rumor mill to churn out a tasty new rumor. It's rumored that an XBox staple, Dead or Alive, might be making its fifth iteration exclusively on the Sony gigantor bot -- the PlayStation 3. Actually, that's not entirely true. Team Ninja is supposedly making something revolving around the DoA universe on the PS3. Not specifically the fifth entry into the franchise. What was that last God-awful fighting game spinoff? Death by Degrees? Bad call, Tekken, bad call.

Also mentioned in the magazine is the idea that Nippon-Ichi's popular SRPG series, Disgaea, will be making its way onto the PlayStation 3 as well. Not much else is known -- will it be on the PSN (since the games are, admittedly, not the finest looking), will it be a remake, sequel, what? No matter, we'll find out in due time. Personally, I'm not too fond of the games. You waste too much time getting absolutely nothing at all accomplished. Levelling up is a joke, blah blah blah add your own opinions. ...