Blue Dragon, Microsoft's hit Far East RPG, is set to receive a stream of download content through Xbox Live.

The free download content adds two new difficulty modes to the Mistwalker RPG, "hard" and "super hard" which adjust the toughness of the game's colourful baddies. Also added is a "new plus" option which lets you play through the main quest again with all your stats and goodies intact.

Japanese fans will be able to grab the downloads from 8am tomorrow, and as for Europe we're still waiting on a date for the three-disc RPG.

via cvg ...

In the wake of details hitting on LucasArts new Star Wars game, The Force Unleashed, the company has set up an official website.

Confirming a release for November 2007, the site features concept art, game details and an FAQ on the DMM (Digital Molecular Matter) and euphoria technology employed. Combined with Havoc physics, we're promised these "groundbreaking" technologies will "create true next-gen gameplay and the Force like it's never been seen or experienced before."

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is set between Episode III and Episode IV in the movie series and sticks you in the shoes of Darth Vader's apprentice, aiding the Dark Lord of the Sith in ridding the universe of Jedi. LucasArts has spoken of a branching storyline, explaining that "Decisions made by players throughout the game will determine the path of the story, including multiple endings that will rock Star Wars continuity as they know it."

via cvg ...

via pspfanboy

The Pink PSP is all the rage (everywhere but America). But, the Pink PSP headphones are not as nice. At least, according to PSP GadgetZ. The man that buys everything PSP-related was surprised to see that although his new black headphones worked fine, these pink official earbuds do nothing at all. Is it just a one-time defect, or is the entire line-up of pink headphones from Sony busted up? I'd like to think the former, but just in case, you may want to avoid this import. ...

via pspfanboy

sthpark7791 from the PlayStation boards just posted some really sexy pictures of his new import silver PSP. Obviously, it's quite shiny, but he has a few other things to say:

It feels "stronger" than the original black PSP.
The analog nub has more resistance.
Buttons are a lot harder.
So not only is it sexy, it appears to have some added functionality too! This really makes me angry that SCEA still refuses to bring any other color here to the States. What's up with that? Interested importers can pick up a system from SuccessHk for $196, the same cost as a US system. Or, for the poor, you might be interested in simply getting an official replacement faceplate.

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Campanile has released a new version of his app for the DS:


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Bob Fossil has released a new version of his game:


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via ign

So you've managed to rack up a ton of high scores on Electronic Arts' Pogo.com server playing all sorts of crazy little Flash-based games, huh? Care to take that experience on the road? Because five of the more popular games on Pogo.com are heading to the Nintendo DS, and everything you do in this compilation can benefit you if you've got a Pogo.com account using the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service. EA let us go hands-on with a near final version of Pogo Island for the handheld, and if you like casual games you'll probably find a lot to like in this collection.

Pogo Island takes five games popularized on the Pogo.com website and condenses them for play on the touchscreen, dual-screen handheld system. Poppit is a familiar puzzle game where you remove two or more balloons from a stack -- the rest of the stack shifts around when gaps are made, so it's strategic to pop balloons that will allow others to settle in for a bigger combo. Word Whomp is a "word scramble" where you try to form the set of three, four, five, and six letter words out of the six letters that are given to you. Squelchies is a cool puzzle game where you pull down colored critters from a stack on the upper screen and slide them into other columns to form bigger chains to remove them from play. Tri-Peaks Solitaire is a neat variation of the card game where you can only remove face up cards that are one value higher or lower than the face up card in the stack. And finally, Phlinx: a variation of Bust-a-Move that puts heavier emphasis on dropping stacks of colored gems instead of removing them with like-colored chains.

All of these games are tied together in what's called the Adventure Mode, where you wander a board game playing each of the mini-challenges. There are also smaller stand-alone games within Adventure Mode where you'll have to perform tasks like sorting nuts and bolts of like-color into the proper bin while they fall into play. All of these games use the Nintendo DS's touch screen function...even the spinner, where you find out how many spaces to move, is spun with a flick of the stylus.

The Nintendo DS version allows three different profiles to be saved to cartridge, which will come in handy because you'll probably have multiple people in your household playing to earn tokens which can then be applied to your attached Pogo.com account. By connecting your Nintendo DS to the internet via the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service you can transfer tokens earned in the adventure mode as well as the individual challenges. But that's as far as the online support goes -- any competitive simultaneous multiplayer is handled locally, and it's only in one game: Word Whomp. The game has an alternating multipayer in the form of Party Play, where as many as four players share the system as the game dictates which game each person plays.

Pogo Island's developed to sort of fit the Pogo.com style like a glove, so most of the games and its interface have been designed with a minimalist appearance -- don't expect the game to floor you with elaborate 3D visuals. But simple works, and works well on the Nintendo DS. ...

via ign

Go into any dentist office and you can probably dig up one of those Highlights magazines that's chock full of "What's wrong with this picture" challenges. Most of them have already been defaced by the time you get your hands on the issue since your dentist is one of the more popular ones in the neighborhood, of course, but wouldn't it be great if you could get that experience on the Nintendo DS? That's apparently Namco's mindset as it's bringing a quirky, but admittedly surprisingly cool and addictive little game called QuickSpot to the system.

QuickSpot is Namco's continuation of its capitalization of Nintendo's "brain training" focus for DS products. This game pushes one type of theme: matching differences between an image on the upper screen and the same image on the lower screen. As fast as you can, spot the difference (or differences) and circle it with the stylus. Get it right and you'll move onto a different picture. After a set amount of time, you'll be graded on speed, circle accuracy, specific recognition of elements. That score will stay with you on the cartridge, and each day you can track your progress.

Namco clearly had a lot of fun coming up with images to display in the challenges. Some of them are random bits of art, some are parodies of anime and film, while others are based around Namco's enormous library of videogames, past and present. It's hard to say how many different images are in QuickSpot, but we've seen a ton. Many are reused and recycled, but even when you've seen an image, you might find at least ten different things that don't match up...so even if you know the picture, you won't know what's wrong with it.

Hey, we all laughed when Namco revealed a DS version of Point Blank, a game that's nothing but a bunch of challenges where you tap on the screen as quickly as possible. And believe it or not, that actually turned out pretty darn nice. Now here's a game where it's about looking at the upper screen and circling differences on the lower screen. And the same thing: it actually works as a full-on DS product.

It's a one-trick pony, but in our early playtime with the near-final game, Namco stretches this idea out pretty well: you've got challenges where you have to match differences that move, that are on the same image but upside down, and others where you have to scratch away a silver layer before you can see the image.. ...

via ign

SEGA's Virtua Tennis 3 could be the most accurate console-to-PSP port that we've seen so far. In fact, if you were to play it alongside the PS3 version (which we have in-house and previewed last week), it would be difficult to tell the difference between the two. Impossible as that may sound, it's because of the PlayStation Portable's small LCD screen -- it keeps the resolution and detail discrepancies from being immediately noticeable (they are there; they're just hard to spot.)

But when I say that Virtua Tennis 3 is an accurate port, it isn't in reference to the visuals. No, what it really means is that the game's PSP content is identical across the board. In fact, some could say that the handheld version is actually bigger than its PS3 counterpart because it allows people on four different machines to play each other (via ad hoc). Without an online feature, you can't do that on Sony's next-gen system.

Besides the ability to play human opponents, Virtua Tennis 3 also boasts every other feature that you've already heard of. All 12 mini-games (which are divided into "Training" and "Court" types) are included here with personal favorites like Alien Attack (pinpoint robot smashing), Avalanche (avoid giant tennis balls while collecting fruit) and several others stealing the show. Players can even create their own athlete and take them through the "World Tour" mode where they can earn better skills and stats, compete in tournaments and exhibition matches, and eventually become the undisputed world champion of net sports. It may sound traditional, but at least it's fun.

Now if you like a smidgen of realism in your arcade Tennis, don't worry -- you'll have around 20 different stars to choose from. Maria Sharipova, Andy Roddick, Gael Monfils, Roger Federer, and a bunch of other folks whose last names drive our spell-check programs crazy have made the cut. Each star has their own strengths and weaknesses too, so the person you choose will always affect your capabilities on the clay and on the grass at all times.

"Is there anything to worry about" you ask? Well, right now, I'd have to say not really. Though Virtua Tennis 3 doesn't blow us away with its features or add anything drastically new over its predecessors, it still does what it's always done, and that to play a monster game of tennis. Admittedly, the PSP analog nub is a little stiff, but it isn't anything we haven't run into before and it seems to work pretty well with the couple of guys we tried it with. The majority of this game is all about "pick up and Play" and being smart with your volleys / smashes / lobs anyway and blinding speed isn't really necessary.

Anyhow, we'll be back with more on the PSP version of Virtua Tennis 3 as we near its release in late March. Certainly, the good news for us all is that it's already fun to play and lends itself well to the portable market because of its coin-op nature and multitude of mini-games. ...