via cvg

Sony has revealed the pricing details for PSN titles in the UK and it looks like we'll be paying a little more than our European friends.

Update: Sony has sent us the following info.

The release schedule for PSN titles currently looks like:

Tekken 5: DR - March 23 - £6.99

Blast Factor - March 23 - £3.49

Gran Turismo HD - March 23

Super Rub-A-Dub - March 30

flow - April 6

Go! Sudoku - April 13

Go! Puzzle - April 20


Sony has only confirmed prices for two titles but we hope to have an update soon regarding the rest. We expect flOw and Super Rub a Dub to be £3.49 too, but we'll let you know.

Update ends

If Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection, for example, goes for top whack at £6.99, that's 8.87 EUR in today's climate.

Specific details on the line-up of game we can expect to see from the March 23 launch have yet to be made by Sony.

Just in case you missed it, Sony announced that first-party PS3 games will go on sale from launch at £39.99. ...

Sony is to introduce a Blu-ray player priced at $599 USD, the same price as a 60GB PlayStation 3 console in the US.

The BDP-S300 will comes with all the same bells and whistles as its more expensive Blu-ray players, only now you won't have to re-mortgage your house to get one underneath your telly.

Already there's plenty of hustle and bustle on the internet asking how this new player will affect already-criticised PS3 sales. The console was always thought of as somewhat of a Trojan horse for the Blu-ray format, and now it's no longer the cheapest way for consumers to play the high-def disc format.

Our colleagues at Next-Gen.biz received a response from Sony Computer Entertainment America's PR boss Dave Karraker, who argued that the PS3 was always about high-def games and not movies.

"Yesterday's announcement from Sony broadens options for movie lovers and will help to further expand Blu-ray adoption, so it is a benefit to consumers and the company," he said. "Our research shows that the number-one purchase driver for the PS3 is the ability to play high-definition, next-generation games. PS3 has always been about gaming first and foremost."

We'll find out if Sony's right when the BDP-S300 Blu-ray player arrives this summer.

via cvg ...

Microsoft will introduce a £19.99 Platinum Hits range across Europe this month, which coincides nicely with the PS3 launch.

"Platinum Hits lets gamers enjoy a broad portfolio of titles at an amazing price and ensures that gamers can get the most from their Xbox 360 with a great library of blockbuster hits," said Jeff Bell, corporate VP of global marketing.

The Platinum Hits range has been doing the rounds in the US since last October. Forthcoming titles due on the budget label will include Battlefield 2: Modern Combat, Burnout Revenge, Fight Night Round 3 and Top Spin 2.

Chances are these will form the second wave of Platinum Hits games for Europe.

via cvg ...

Alekmaul post on his site (translated via babelfish)


download via comments ...

Tomorrow Battlestations: Midway players will get the chance to engage in fresh new Pacific battles as two new historical battle maps and brand new vehicles become available on Xbox Live Marketplace.


The new battle maps will re-enact two epic battles from the Pacific war: The Battle of Sibuyan Sea and The Raid on Truk. Both maps and five new vehicles will be available to download from March 1st.



The Battle of the Sibuyan Sea provides a new multi player experience based on one of the major battles of the Leyte Gulf Campaign, the greatest naval warfare battle in history that effectively destroyed the Japanese fleet in October of 1944. Players command either the US Fleet featuring the USS Iowa and USS Enterprise or Japan’s finest fleet, Kurita, featuring the super battleships Yamato and the ill-fated Musashi.

The single player battle, The Raid on Truk, is based on Operation Hailstone, a massive naval air and surface attack launched by the United States Navy against the Japanese naval and air base at Truk. The devastating attack took place in mid-February 1944. Players command the US Fleet in a four phase battle starting with a P-38 air strike and leading to the command of the USS Enterprise and her screening force.

The new battles will also feature a new and unique set of air, sea, and undersea vehicles that will challenge the player’s skills and naval strategies:

P-38 Lightning
A fast, powerful and distinctive twin-engine interceptor and one of the most important American fighters of the Second World War. Its long range and twin engines made it well suited for duty in the Pacific.

Nakijima J1N1 Gekko
The first Japanese aircraft designed and built specifically to intercept and destroy other aircraft at night. It was deadly against Bombers and as a powerful kamikaze plane against ships.

USS Iowa (BB-61)
The lead battleship of its class. Nicknamed ”The Big Stick”, this famous flagship fought in numerous and significant battles in World War II and the Korean War.

IJN Shimakaze
The IJN Shimakaze (“Island Wind’) is considered to be the fastest and most powerful Destroyer of World War II and she was the only one of her class built.

Type A mini-sub
The Type A mini-sub was a two-man submarine. Difficult to detect, the Type A submarines were used during the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and throughout the war. ...

via IGN, Reader Q&A with Casey Hudson, Project Director of Mass Effect

...

Admin in the FreeDO forum posted


Now we were promised a DC FreeDO release over a year ago, so don't be holding your breath, but still great news. ...

via engadget

While we appreciate Microsoft's concessions to the DIY gaming community with the XNA Game Studio Express, that's still small compensation for the fact that at the end of the day, that $400 white box in our living room isn't quite "ours" -- Microsoft still calls the shots as to what code can push that hardware around. At least until today. Apparently a vulnerability has been discovered, and while the jargon is rather over our heads, it doesn't take a hax0r to understand the potential upshot: homebrew on the 360. The word is that there's a "critical vulnerability in Microsoft's Xbox 360 that allows privilege escalation into hypervisor mode." Toss in a method to "inject data into non-privileged memory areas" and you've got "an attacker with physical access to an Xbox 360 to run arbitrary code such as alternative operating systems with full privileges and full hardware access." Sounds like a good time for all! The exploit works in kernel 4532 and 4548, but Microsoft is aware of the flaw, and has patched kernel 4552, which was released on January 9th. We can't quite tell if this will actually mean that Joe consumer will end up with homebrew as a result of this hack, but it's promising all the same.

More Info ...

via pspfanboy

Steve's been crazy for this game. Maybe it's because it promises "the highest kill rate of any PSP game ever!" [Source: Gamespot] This PSP-exclusive version of Total Overdose certainly has been receiving decent reviews, making it far better than the "refried port" I thought it would become:

Gamespot (74/100) says the new game absolutely trumps the original: "By trimming the fat and ramping up the ludicrous factor, Chili Con Carnage does what Total Overdose couldn't, and creates a wildly over-the-top action game that's not only bizarre and funny, but also fun to play all the way through."
IGN (77/100) says the game is fun but mindless: "All this is great, it does get a little repetitive after a while. You'll find that you're performing the same "jump, lock-on and nail a headshot" move over and over and over again."
Play.tm (85/100) notes that you'll have fun, as long as you play by the rules: "If you play it the way that it's clearly meant to be played, as opposed to just blasting through the levels as fast as possible, then you'll be rewarded with one of the best action games on the PSP."
Not great, but certainly not bad. Maybe we'll find out what Steve thinks about the game once he picks it up. ...