As we reported yesterday, Namco-Bandai's bonkers Japanese roll-'em-up is making its way to Xbox 360 and PS3 and we've got the first screens of Beautiful Katamari Damacy, as it's currently known, right here.

If you haven't been fortunate enough to experience the joys of Katamari, you play as that little green dude with the hammer-like head and you roll around a sticky ball - called a Katamari - to pick up small objects around a giant house.

As more stuff accumulates on your Katamari, it gets bigger and you're able to roll up bigger things, like people and sofas. Eventually, you grow big enough to roll up entire cities, the Eifel Tower, the Great Wall of China and Zeus - from paper clip-sized ball to planet-killer in a few hours.

No, there's not a massive graphical difference - that's not Katamari's style anyway. But the new game promises to use the extra processing power to let you make bigger, meaner Katamaris. We can't wait.

A release date is yet to be announced, but the official Japanese website is up for you to poke around.

Screens Here ...

As we reported yesterday, Namco-Bandai's bonkers Japanese roll-'em-up is making its way to Xbox 360 and PS3 and we've got the first screens of Beautiful Katamari Damacy, as it's currently known, right here.

If you haven't been fortunate enough to experience the joys of Katamari, you play as that little green dude with the hammer-like head and you roll around a sticky ball - called a Katamari - to pick up small objects around a giant house.

As more stuff accumulates on your Katamari, it gets bigger and you're able to roll up bigger things, like people and sofas. Eventually, you grow big enough to roll up entire cities, the Eifel Tower, the Great Wall of China and Zeus - from paper clip-sized ball to planet-killer in a few hours.

No, there's not a massive graphical difference - that's not Katamari's style anyway. But the new game promises to use the extra processing power to let you make bigger, meaner Katamaris. We can't wait.

A release date is yet to be announced, but the official Japanese website is up for you to poke around.

Screens Here ...

Sims 2: Pets is making it's way to Wii, joining the Wii-exclusive MySims game later this year.

Originally a PC expansion pack for Sims 2, Pets lets you breed your own dogs and cats, with the typical create-a-sim customisation allowing you to create your perfect animal friend. With 22 dog and 15 cat breeds in there, you have plenty of options.

Once you've done God's work, you can then take your pet to the park to play fetch, and train them to learn new tricks.

This pet-breeding element is moulded into the usual Sims gameplay, giving you a family and a house to manage. The Wii Remote's pointer functionality is ideal for playing a game like Sims, and will allow you to create your house and instruct your Sims with PC mouse-like ease.

Sims 2: Pets is due to hit Wii in June.

via cvg ...

Sony America has released info on its Q2 line-up of games for the four different PlayStation platforms. And when the PS2 line-up looks better than your PS3 portfolio, you know there's something not quite right.

According to Sony over 100 first- and third-party titles will launch over the next few months, which Sony describes as "an impressively robust software line-up". Over 100 games across four platforms is bound to cover most genre of gaming but the only one that's missing - especially for PS3 - is the triple A genre.

"Our second-quarter line-up of PS3, PSP and PlayStation 2 software titles demonstrates a continued commitment from both SCEA and third-party developers to the PlayStation family of products," said Peter Dille, senior vice president of marketing, SCEA. "We are excited by the content being developed by our partners, but are also looking forward to launching PlayStation-branded exclusive games created by our own worldwide studios this quarter and throughout the rest of 2007."
via cvg ...

Hey everyone, I'm back....
But this time it's not a Vista theme pack, it's a full Naruto theme pack that doesn't freeze at all, and it works fully with 3.30 OE-A:thumbup: .
This theme was released earlier on this website, but as always, it didn't run with 3.30 OE-A, so with a ton of editing, I finally made it work with 3.30 OE-A.
The original, was quite impressive, but as I mentioned earler, it lacked the compatibility for 3.30 OE-A.
This pack includes the following....
32 bits high-res XMB icons (all icons)(Now working with 3.30 OE-A)
32 bits high-res "Konoha Leaf" Battery Icon
32 bits High-res Volume bar
32 bits high-res "Sharingan" Busy/Loading Circle
32 bits high-res Broken Data/ Loading Icon.
32 Bits high-res Savedata - Loading/broken data icons.
High Resolution background
Coldboot Text (seen on top picture)
Coldboot Wave
Coldboot Sound
Official Naruto Font (Works perfectly on Internet Browser)
Fully customized "XMB" sounds (Naruto Related) all 8 sounds...
Hope you like it ...
Just in case people on this website don't know where to flash the stuff, you flash Ltn0.pgf to flash0:/font/.... and everything else you flash it to flash0:/vsh/recource/, and also, you cannot flash the JPG, just put it in ms0:/PICTURE, then from the XMB, select Photo, then go to the pic, triangle, set as wallpaper, that's it!!!
EDIT: I just figured out that this works on 3.40 OE-A...
P.S. Don't forget to +REP ...

via Gaming Bits

With the recent release of NPD sales numbers for March 2007, Nintendo can once again claim the top spots in gaming console sales.

From Nintendo's announcement: "With the first quarter of 2007 now completed, Wii has already notched over a million systems sold in America this year, while the DS now stands just shy of 1.25 million for the same period. Wii remains the fastest-selling new console in more than a decade, based on NPD sell-through information over the first five months of availability. So far this year, Nintendo has sold more video game systems than all other manufacturers combined."

Since debuting in November 2006, the Wii still has been a rarity on retailer's shelves. Nintendo says shipments of the Wii will increase this month from ramped up production. Embarrassingly for Sony's PS3, it was knocked down one notch by Nintendo's Game Boy Advance. You have to give Sony credit, however, for the PS2 staying tough in the #2 spot.

Here's the announced numbers for March 2007 gaming console & handheld sales from NPD:

Nintendo DS 508K
PlayStation 2 280K
Wii 259K
Xbox 360 199K
PlayStation Portable 180K
Game Boy Advance 148K
PlayStation 3 130K
GameCube 22K
Xbox - r.i.p. ...

via GameZone

SEGA of America, Inc. today announced that four titles from its SEGA Genesis™ library, Streets of Rage 2, Toe Jam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron, Shining in the Darkness and Kid Chameleon, will soon be available for download on the Wii™ Shop Channel. Prices start at 800 Wii™ Points for SEGA Genesis titles. Wii Points can be purchased online or at select retailers at an MSRP of $20 for 2,000 points.

Streets of Rage 2 - To celebrate their defeat of the syndicate exactly one year before, Blaze, Adam and Axel met for drinks. The next morning, Axel received a frantic phone call from Eddie 'Skate' Hunter, Adam's younger brother, whom he was living with on the edge of the city. Blaze and Axel found Adam and Skate's house wrecked and a picture of Adam chained to a wall at the feet of Mr. X. The city then once again returned to its nightmarish state and criminals ran rampant. Unable to contact their old friend from the military, Axel and Blaze team up with Skate and Max Thunder to free the city and rescue Adam from the Syndicate. It is up to you to take down Mr. X once and for all!

Toe Jam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron - A number of Earthlings hitchhiked on Toe Jam and Earl's spaceship on their trip back home after the first game, and are now infesting Planet Funkotron. Toe Jam and Earl must track down the Earthlings and capture them in large jars and ship them back to Earth in space ships. It is also your funky mission to find 10 beloved objects belonging to Lamont the "Funkapotamus," the source of all funk in the universe, to persuade him to return to his favorite funk-filled planet. Use your "funk powers" to assist in evading and capturing the earthlings, such as Funk Move and Funk Scan.

Shining in the Darkness - Dark Sol has vowed to reign over the enchanted Kingdom of Thornwood and only you can stop him. Roaming the dark labyrinth, you will seek out enemies and collect weapons, all of which will help you pass the test of the Ancients and become a shining knight. Get into the adventure with a stunning 3D perspective, amazing cinematic views, and fast-paced scrolling. You'll move from battle to battle, solving puzzles and discovering secret items in this engrossing struggle between good and evil. Find the powerful Arms of Light and battle the deadly beasts that keep your people desperate and starving in this epic journey for peace.

Kid Chameleon - The local arcade is packed with kids, all lining up to play the latest, most realistic video game they've ever seen. It's called Wild Side, and it uses holographic images to immerse the player in a strange world. But there's a problem, kids are being sucked into the game and now several of them are trapped. With more than 100 levels to adventure through, you'll take on several different forms such as a Berzerker, a Micromax, a Maniaxe, or a Skycutter, which will make you much more powerful. It's up to you, Kid Chameleon, the best gamer in town, to get yourself inside the game so that you can defeat the games' boss and bring your friends back to reality.

The Wii Shop Channel serves as the Wii’s online storefront where visitors can redeem Wii Points to download games. Users need a high-speed Internet connection to access the Wii Shop Channel. Users can buy Wii Points at retail or with a credit card online from the Wii Shop Channel and redeem their Wii Points to download these and other classic games. ...

"You're just an ordinary guy trying to survive." So says Dean Martinetti, producer at Sparks Unlimited, after demoing the opening scene in Turning Point: Fall of Liberty, in which a flat-capped builder becomes the unlikely hero of the US resistance. However, there's nothing ordinary about what we've just seen, because the streets of New York - its tower blocks and famous landmarks such as the Empire State Building and Statue of Liberty - are engulfed in flame and are being unceremoniously razed to the ground by an invading German force. Nationalist flag-waving this ain't - well, not unless you're a Nazi - and contrary to Call of Duty and Medal of Honor et al, there's no heroic leader to save the world and the US doesn't win.

Full article ...

If SEGA Rally is anything to go by, it seems the battle lines in the next-gen war - as far as arcade racers are concerned - are being drawn in the mud. Following in MotorStorm's messy wake on PS3, this latest entry in SEGA's long-running series - and the first title from the company's brand new SEGA Racing Studio - seems determined to steal Sony's mud mantle.

Sitting down with SEGA for a first early at this latest iteration of the SEGA Rally franchise, it's clear the team behind it - consisting of race development veterans from Criterion, Codemasters, Rockstar North and Rare - are passionate about the series. For a start, unlike SEGA Rally 2006, which never saw light of day in the west, this next-gen version dumps any simulation pretensions in favour of returning to the franchise's shamelessly arcade roots.

Of course, with the might of PS3, Xbox 360 and PC behind this new game, it's the slickest entry in the series yet, promising impressive visuals, state-of-the-art physics and handling, as well as the core close competitive racing elements SEGA Rally's known for. Even at this stage, it looks like the development team is set to hit its lofty goals. Certainly, there's plenty of graphical bluster on display, with a wide variety of locations - ranging from frozen artic wastelands to blistering safari tracks - and the usual next-gen touches like self-shadowing and a rather nifty, appropriately-reactive two-tone paint job on the cars in evidence.

Sadly, it's too early to state with any certainty how the final product will look. The frame-rate was erratic, although it's set for a significant amount of tweaking, while water and particle effects are currently undergoing a complete overhaul. What's more, the build we saw lacked any form of damage modelling, although SEGA did mention it wouldn't affect car performance when implemented, to maintain the game's arcade sensibility. Of course, there's still plenty of development time to go and, even now, the game looks promising.

Showing off one of the game's jungle-based tracks, roadsides were packed with lush, detailed foliage, SEGA's trademark set-piece elements - like the towering waterfall looming against a rich backdrop of distant mountains - and plenty of persistent, interactive environmental objects. For example, clip one of the track-side huts and the porch will crumble, sending wood and debris scattering across the road - a nasty surprise for anyone following your tail.

Of course though, it's the mud effects that SEGA's keen to trumpet at this stage. Unlike some other racers, SEGA Rally's mud is more than a flash visual effect. As your tyres carve up the track your actions have an actual effect on the road surface. Bumps and grooves remain in place for the entire race, making for significantly variable conditions as your car's suspension and wheels react accordingly. As loose top soil is dislodged on the first lap you benefit from increased grip. However, as water slowly seeps from the ground to fill gouges in the dirt, you'll need to constantly analyse the road ahead and adjust your approach accordingly.

While it's difficult to assess just how much of an impact all this will have on the final game without going hands-on, it certainly promises to add a considerable amount of depth to your usual arcade racer fare. What's more, with around three tracks per environment, plus a variety of modes including practice, championship and - of course - online multiplayer, SEGA Rally is certainly heading in the right direction.

via ign ...