News from Play Asia:

Welcome to this week's Movie/Music news roundup, containing all new Japanese and Hong Kong Video and Music releases from this week listed at Play-Asia.com. Around 350 new items are covered in this week, including new J-Pop, Anime as well as Japanese, Hong Kong and Western movie releases and much more.

Here's a summary of all new releases that were published between Saturday, February 2nd and Friday, February 8th. If some specific item that you are looking for is missing, please don't hesitate to contact our customer service with your request.


J-Pop Music releases (137)
ENKA Music releases (23)
Anime Soundtracks & Drama CDs (26)
Video Game Soundtracks (4)
Hong Kong Version Music releases (7)
Blu-ray Disc Movies (11)
HD DVD Movies (1)
Anime & Animation (34)
Hong Kong Version Movie releases (17)
Japanese Movies (28)
Non-Japanese Movies / Japanese Version (54)
J-Pop DVD releases (11)
ENKA DVD releases (1)
Idol DVD (9)
UMD™ Video & Music (2)

http://www.play-asia.com/SOap-23-83-...9-en-84-n.html ...

via Eurogamer


PopCap boss Greg Canessa has said "online functionality" will play a major role in the Live Arcade version of Peggle when it is released in Q2 2008.

He was talking to Evil Avatar in an interview arranged by Microsoft's Gamerscore blog, but was coy about letting too many details spill.


Peggle is a cross between Pachinko and Puzzle Bobble, and has proved wildly popular on this here Internet; we gave it 9/10 and liked it so much it finished as our 12th favourite game of 2007.

PopCap recently raised our hopes with promises of a DS version of the puzzler, but Canessa put an end to those rumours by saying Nintendo had not approved it and perhaps some reports had jumped the gun.

...

via Computer and Video Games


Our mate Major Nelson sends word that a multiplayer demo of ex-Battlefield boys Kaos' shooter Frontlines: Fuel of War is now up on Xbox Live - but only for a limited time.

The online demo weighs in at 1.11Gb, allowing for 32 player deathmatch and 60 (!) weapons and vehicles to be tried out on Kaos' dedicated servers.

Here's the Major's official blurb:

"The War of the Future Begins Today! Battle with up to 32 players and over 60 next-generation weapons and vehicles on Kaos dedicated servers, In the year 2024 - amidst overpopulation, environmental decay, and erosion of political structures - high tech warfare is waged over depleting global resources and the fate of civilization. With intense action and open-world environments, gamers utilize shared targeting systems and squad based teamwork to move the frontline forward in an all-new game mode."

Nelson adds: "This multiplayer demo is available for a limited time." If you fancy trying before you buy, you'd better download it tonight while Eastenders is on (unless the missus won't let you on the telly).

...

via Eurogamer


Capcom strategy bigwig Christian Svensson has said Okami Wii is playable all the way through and could come out as soon as March in the US.

However, speaking on the official publisher forums he revealed there would be "a little lag" between the American and European releases, because Nintendo production times take a little longer here.

"We haven't given an official date - we've only ever said 'spring'. But March 25th is a possible date for the US on the current schedule," said Svensson.

"That said, it's a huge game with a lot to test, and while [Ready At Dawn] has been kicking *** on it, I don't want people freaking out if it's not exactly on that date. It's completely playable all the way through now on Wii, optimisation and bug fixing is where it's at in the process right now."

Importantly, Svensson went on to talk about the new paintbrush motion-sensing controls, singing its implementation praises for speeding up gameplay and lending the title an action-feel.

"It takes about 10 minutes to get used to using the Wii drawing, but once you do, it's effortless and as fast as the PS2 version," he said. "The act of physically drawing also has an amazing feel to it and really changes the pace of the game, just as we'd hoped it would.

"It's really quite amazing and gives the combat and puzzle segments much more of an action feel than existed on PS2. That and the game is even more beautiful than it was on the PS2."

Svensson also confirmed you will now be able to skip cut-scenes, but mentioned little else the Wii version would have that the PS2 original didn't; no major new content for starters, as "40-60 hours of content is plenty for anyone".

However, "there will be a couple of reasons" to splash out, apparently, and we are promised more on this very soon, as well as finding once and for all if it will have16:9 support.

Late last month a man on the inside told us Okami would be out on Wii this summer, after retailers had supplied the initial 25th March US forecast.

We shall see. ...

via Eurogamer


Capcom has temporarily pulled down the American PS3 demo for Lost Planet and shut down the multiplayer servers.

It has to address some "issues that have come to light", according to the US PlayStation blog, and a sparkly new version will available as soon as possible.

The error being reported is "not being able to connect to any multiplayer lobby", which tends to make playing with your friends online a little tricky.

Meanwhile, we are still waiting for Capcom Europe to announce its plans for our Lost Planet demo. ...

via Computer and Video Games


Sony's complex PS3 hardware is a 'nice fit' for Ubisoft's ambitious Far Cry 2 - but developers Ubisoft Montreal admit that compromises have been made. "We were somewhat worried by some of the reported high complexity of developing for the PS3", reveals Tech Director Dominic Guay, "but the raw processing power is impressive".

After a slew of delays, and some unfavourable comparisons between 'identical' Xbox 360 and PS3 ports, it seems developers are finally getting to grips with Sony's machine. "We made sure we had a group of programmers that were not scared by complexity and had a large console programming experience to work on the initial PS3 R&D of Dunia (Far Cry 2's graphics engine). At that point, we didn't know what to expect."


Tech Director Guay is also impressed by the potential of Blu-ray and PS3's hard drive for streaming games in real-time. "The hard drive and Blu-ray are making our life easy considering FC2 is an open world continuously streamed around the player. That streaming bandwidth and disk space is very appreciated. So, in terms of AI, game structure, physics, dynamic time of day, open world gameplay, dynamic weather system, destructible vegetation, all of those things where we had really pushed the envelope technically, they run well on PS3."

The PS3 version, unsurprisingly, won't match top spec PCs. "However, the notable area where we had to make some tradeoffs is in some assets resolution which had to be brought down from the higher end PC configurations due to memory size difference. However, the good new is that since PS3 players are not outputting over the top resolutions like high end PC users, this is not a big deal. It's somewhat proportional to our video resolution output."

To read more about Far Cry 2, including an exclusive Q&A with Creative Director Clint Hocking, check out PSM3#98, on-sale 14th February in all major UK newsagents. ...

via Games Industry


Netflix has announced that it will be phasing out HD-DVD movies in favour of Sony's Blu-ray format, stating that the movie industry has already chosen a winner in the battle of hi-definition formats.

Movies on HD-DVD, developed by Toshiba, will be dropped from the online rental service by the end of the year, with the company stating the format war has been damaging to consumers.

"The prolonged period of competition between two formats has prevented clear communication to the consumer regarding the richness of the high-def experience versus standard definition," commented chief content officer Ted Sarandos.

"We're now at the point where the industry can pursue the migration to a single format, bring clarity to the consumer and accelerate the adoption of high-def.

"Going forward, we expect that all of the studios will publish in the Blu-ray format and that the price points of high-def DVD players will come down significantly. These factors could well lead to another decade of disc-based movie watching as the consumer's preferred means," he said.

Microsoft backed Toshiba's HD-DVD format for the Xbox 360, launching a movie playing peripheral, but the company has never released uptake figures and has slashed the price of the device on a number of occasions since launch.

Sony's PlayStation 3 is built around the Blu-ray format, with the company clearly stating that Blu-ray would be the key differentiator between the two home consoles.

Netflix claims to be the world's largest movie rental business with more than seven million subscribers accessing over 90,000 titles. It currently stocks around 400 Blu-ray movies.

"From the Netflix perspective, focusing on one format will enable us to create the best experience for subscribers who want high- definition to be an important part of how they enjoy our service," added Sarandos.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Warner Home Video, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment and Buena Vista Home Entertainment all endorse the Blu-ray format.

Paramount Home Entertainment and Universal Studios Home Entertainment have backed HD-DVD. ...

Via Xboxer.tv

The poor, poor child. This boy's EVIL PARENTS gave him an Xbox 360 for Christmas. Only, on the day, they took the console out of the box and replaced it with clothes - as punishment for him sneaking a look at his presents before Christmas.

They then took things a little bit too far. It's funny for the first few seconds, then you start willing them to tell him it's OK. But they don't.


See psychological scars and a hatred of humanity form before your very eyes! The comments on YouTube are not for the weak of heart, either. Devastating, emotional viewing. Sadly, it was uploaded too late to make this year's BAFTA nominations. ...

Via Video Gamer

Developer admits to "slight differences" but is "working really hard right now to put them on par graphics wise".

The PS3 version of hotly anticipated FPS Rainbow Six Vegas 2 will not be a port of the Xbox 360 version, its developer has said.

Speaking to VideoGamer.com in an interview you can see elsewhere on the site, Vegas 2 designer Philippe Therien, from Ubisoft Montreal, said that the team is "working really hard right now to put them on par graphics wise" but admitted that there will be "slight differences" between the two versions, including lighting.

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2, the follow-up to December 2006's Vegas, features an extended story, a new main character, new multiplayer maps, a sprint option and a CoD4-esque levelling-up system. The PS3 version of the first Vegas game didn't run as well as the Xbox 360 version, suffering from frame rate problems.

Speaking on potential differences between the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game, Therien said: "It's very important for us that the 360 and the PS3 version are the same. We're working really hard right now to put them on par graphics wise. As far as the gameplay goes it's going to be the entire same product."

However, when pressed on whether there will be any noticeable differences in graphics, he admitted to "slight differences", saying: "The two consoles don't handle everything in the same way. Lighting doesn't come out the same on both consoles. But other than those very slight variations they should be the same graphically."

Therien added: "They're (the PS3 and Xbox 360) very different. PS3 and Xbox 360, it's not the same at all. When we were working it's not like there's a 360 version and it's being ported on PS3, that doesn't really work. So what we did is we split the team in three, we got people working on Xbox, people playing PlayStation and people working on PC. These three teams are working together but in parallel to make sure everything gets to the same point. That's not to say that one console is better than the other, they're just different. We just want people to choose the platform of their choice to play Vegas the way we want them to."

Therien also confirmed that the development team had help from the Assassin's Creed team with Rainbow Six Vegas 2's graphics. He said: "The guys who worked on Assassin's helped us out with presentation." Knowledgeable gamers will know, of course, that both Rainbow Six Vegas 2 and Assassin's Creed were developed by Ubisoft Montreal.

Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is due for release on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC on March 21 ...