via kotaku



The Japanese PS Pictogram design group is keeping the PSP fashion scene alive with the biggest collaboration effort yet. They're not just partnering with luggage manufacturer Porter, but instead having a four-way branding orgy, including dance group Genki Rockets. You may remember them from their appearance on Lumines II.

The X-girl × PS Pictogram × Genki Rockets × Porter PSP case and purse are now on sale for the low, low prices of 9,975 yen and 16,800 yen respectively. Together, that'll set PSP fans of the female persuasion back about $220 USD. Now, that's a bargain. Did I mention each comes with buttons?! Buttons!!! ...

Sony's PlayStation 3 is the best selling console on Amazon.co.uk, topping the superstore website's best sellers list. Nintendo's Wii trails behind in fifth place, Nintendo's DS handheld is at sixth and the Premium Xbox 360 pack at seventh.

Amazon are selling the PS3 at a reduced price of £389.99, 36 quid cheaper than the recommended retail price. In fact, you can get yourself a PS3, HDMI cable and a game for £420, saving you a fiver on the retail price - and the choice of game isn't awful, with MotorStorm and Resistance both on offer.

Another interesting item in the list is Crackdown - which has shot back into the chart at number nine nearly two months after it was released. It's almost as if it gives access to one of Xbox 360's most anticipated games, or something.

via gamesradar ...

Earlier this week, a handful of unannounced Sony products showed up on the Web site of retailer GameStop. Most of those products were unveiled this week at Sony's Gamers' Day press event in San Diego, starting with a trio of new PlayStation Portable games.

First off is SOCOM: Tactical Strike, the third handheld game in the series and the first from Vancouver-based studio Slant Six (the same team handling SOCOM: Confrontation on the PlayStation 3). The game represents a departure for the series, as players will no longer use the analog stick to directly control their team of soldiers. Instead, they will use a movement cursor to order troops around the game's environments, which the designers are using to try and emphasize more complex tactical maneuvers than were possible previously.

Also returning to the PSP is the sci-fi action adventure series Syphon Filter, with series protagonist Gabe Logan returning to take on the terrorists once more in Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow. Featuring a story by Atticus Kodiak author Greg Rucka and a soundtrack from 300 composer Azam Ali, Logan's Shadow is expected to see release this September.

Those weren't the only announcements related to the handheld hardware, as SCEA also confirmed that it's arcade-style sequel Pursuit Force: Extreme Justice would be coming to the US later this year. Finally, in a presentation to the assembled media, SCEA president Jack Tretton mentioned the PSP's long-awaited downloadable content service and said the company hoped to have it up and running by the fall. Originally, the service was set to launch in March 2006, but it was pushed back for more than a year for unspecified reasons.

via gamespot ...

While Sony Computer Entertainment America used its Gamers Day media event this week to give the press the chance to get hands-on time with titles like Uncharted: Drake's Fortune and Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, it was also a chance to announce new games. Specifically, during a presentation to the assembled media, Sony announced the much-anticipated PlayStation 3 debut of its SOCOM franchise of tactical shooters, SOCOM: Confrontation.

In a brief presentation to the assembled press, the game's director of development Seth Luisi introduced a trailer for Confrontation, saying the game had been in development for only four or five months so far. The trailer featured rifle-and-bazooka-toting soldiers shooting up an open-air Middle Eastern market and showed off the gameplay from several angles.

Luisi explained that the goal of Confrontation was to create "the ultimate SOCOM online experience," and to that end, the game will only be playable online. What's more, the game will actually be purchasable online, as Sony plans to make it available through the PlayStation Network, as well as through traditional retail outlets.

SOCOM: Confrontation will feature team-based combat for up to 32 players, multiple international special forces units, customizable appearances, and clan-specific options, such as uniforms. Luisi also said the game "takes full advantage" of the Sixaxis motion-sensing controller and the PS3 hard drive.

Finally, Luisi said the game would be supported long after its release with regular downloadable theme packs for sale through the PlayStation Store. While he wasn't specific, he did say the packs would include new modes, special forces, customization options, and weapons.

Sony is planning on showing more of SOCOM: Confrontation off at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in July, with the final release of the game set for this holiday season.

via gamespot ...

CVG has up a piece noting the fact that not much about Zelda games have changed since the move to 3D. Chalk that up to the greatness of Ocarina of Time if you will, but the same mirror moving, fire-arrow switch activating puzzles have been in the last several titles. Is it time for some kind of radical change to the equation?

via slashdot ...

There's been a lot of buzz these past couple days about the iPhone's FCC filing and what it says -- or rather, what it doesn't say -- about the handset's internals. The fear basically revolves around the fact that a lack of testing on the GSM 900 and 1800MHz bands indicates that it lacks those bands entirely, but we can assure the globetrotters out there jonesin' for an iPhone come next month that there'll be a full range of RF spectrum waiting for you. How do we know? Well, first of all, in the year 2007 (or 2005, for that matter) it's simply idiotic to release a wide-appeal phone with any fewer than four GSM bands. Quadband GSM chipsets have been commodity items for some time now and add virtually no expense to a handset's internals. Second of all, quadband phones never have their non-US bands mentioned in a filing, particularly in a test report.

Let's take a look at a released phone that we know to be quadband -- that is, a phone that supports GSM on the 850, 900, 1800, and 1900MHz bands, offering coverage pretty much anywhere in the world that a GSM tower exists. For our purposes, we'll pick on the RIM BlackBerry 8800. You're going to get a frightening peek into our daily FCC-lurking insanity here.

via engadget ...

Word is beginning to spread that certain people in the Halo modding community have only gone and made some hidden Halo 3 game files public. There are some extreme spoilers in here - should they turn out to be correct - and you've been warned.

Apparently found by retrieving hidden data in the live beta, the details have revealed secret weapons, vehicles and equipment that will appear in the final game come September 26.

The information also suggests new modes and rankings for single and multiplayer campaigns.

Now the details aren't confirmed but they look good to us. And don't go expecting Bungie or Microsoft to comment on any of it either. It's all rumour and speculation until you get your hands on the final game.

New equipment:
Instacover
Smoke
Jammer

New vehicles:
Chopper
Pelican
Shadow

New weapons:
Flamethrower
Claymore Grenade

New game mode:
Infection (described as "Destroy the Flood or become infected. Score points for killing flood or big points for infecting a human. The player with the most points wins."

New ranking info:
The highest rankings are now Killpocalypse and Killionaire, instead of Double Kill and Triple Kill.

A reference to a map editor was also made but all information has been removed from the forum in question.

via cvg ...

A next gen redux of the splendid Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay is underway with developers Starbreeze finally confirming Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena which is due to debut on Xbox 360 and PS3 before the end of this year.

Dark Athena will be more than a simple port of the original game though, which went great guns in its original Xbox incarnation and really put Starbreeze on the development map. Dark Athena will apparently boast an additional 40 per cent single-player content set on board the scavenger ship Dark Athena. What that means we can only guess, but it certainly sounds intriguing and it looks like some kind of assault will be in order.

However, word is one of the main attractions of Dark Athena will be a superb multiplayer mode, with visceral hand-to-hand combat and shiny shiv action featuring heavily if it follows the course of the original game.

via cvg ...

Here are eight more screens that prove once again that Rachel, sorry, Ninja Gaiden Sigma is easily one of the best-looking games on PS3 so far.

The high-res textures and detail of the characters and environments have been blended beautifully by some awesome focus blur and soft lighting - it really brings the game to life.

All the explosions and fire effects look amazing too. And if that's not enough, Rachel even turns up adding some virtual breastage to the visual treats on offer, with enhanced bounce for PS3, might we add.

Screens Here ...