Would-be crime-fighters, take pen to calendar: Justice League Heroes is officially scheduled to arrive October 17. The action RPG from Warner Bros. Interactive and developer Snowblind will arrive for PlayStation 2 and Xbox, while the Nintendo DS will get a version with a separate storyline, and Game Boy Advance players can tackle Justice League Heroes: The Flash. A PSP version of Heroes will arrive in November.

To prep players, Warner Bros. is offering a prequel story, in comic book format, via the iTunes Store.

Featuring an original story by comic book veteran Dwayne McDuffie, Justice League Heroes puts players in control of a DC Comics super-team. Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, The Flash, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, and Zatanna join unlockable characters Green Arrow, Aquaman, Huntress, and Hawkgirl in a quest to fight evil -- and look good doing it.

Via IGN ...

Would-be crime-fighters, take pen to calendar: Justice League Heroes is officially scheduled to arrive October 17. The action RPG from Warner Bros. Interactive and developer Snowblind will arrive for PlayStation 2 and Xbox, while the Nintendo DS will get a version with a separate storyline, and Game Boy Advance players can tackle Justice League Heroes: The Flash. A PSP version of Heroes will arrive in November.

To prep players, Warner Bros. is offering a prequel story, in comic book format, via the iTunes Store.

Featuring an original story by comic book veteran Dwayne McDuffie, Justice League Heroes puts players in control of a DC Comics super-team. Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, The Flash, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, and Zatanna join unlockable characters Green Arrow, Aquaman, Huntress, and Hawkgirl in a quest to fight evil -- and look good doing it.

Via IGN ...

Microsoft's Xbox 360 maintained hardware sales figures in Japan from the week prior on stronger software selection to bolster increased interest in the territory.
Media Create Co. on Fri. reported that the 360 sold 2,101 units from Oct. 2 - Oct. 8. The week prior, the hardware sold 2,195 units.

The consistent sales were helped by two new Xbox 360 releases in Japan and Capcom's prior week release of Dead Rising.

The Xbox 360 has performed poorly against handheld offerings in Japan like the Nintendo DS and the PSP. Microsoft will drop new RPG offerings like Blue Dragon and Eternal Sonata to boost future sales.

Microsoft has sold over 5 million Xbox 360 units to date, mostly in the U.S. and Europe. ...

Via Joystiq

Several reader comments had good things to about Nintendo's new Touch Generations game, Clubhouse Games. The pick-up and play title includes 42 classic board, card, and party games with 35 games playable online over Wi-Fi. In addition, up to eight people can chat online, the game supports local network play using one cartridge (always a plus), and the Rumble Pak is supported cuing a player's turn to play (Wikipedia). With a current average review score of 81%, here's a roundup of reviews:

IGN 85% - "There's a little something here for everyone; for every game that you couldn't care less about, there are two or three games that'll suck your attention for days and days ... Clubhouse Games is that one true cartridge that should be in everyone's Nintendo DS collection."
WHAM! Gaming 80% - "If you are looking for a compilation of mini-games to pass the time once and awhile, Clubhouse Games will fit the bill quite nicely."
Modojo 80% - "Clubhouse Games is an example of substance over style, and I love it. While the games won't win any awards for graphic achievement or soundtrack, they're still quite fun to play."
Nintendo Power 70% - "If you plan on playing with your friends, it's indispensable; if you'll be going at it alone, there's a fair amount to do but you may lose patience with the scoring and lack of single-player variety. [Nov. 2006, p.87]" ...

Point your eyes at this first in-game video from upcoming PSP war game Medal of Honor Heroes, which transports the series' Nazi-blasting battlefield action to Sony's handheld.

This latest WWII battler focuses on new adventures in the lives of past heroes from Medal of Honor - Lt Jimmy Patterson, Sgt John Baker and Lt William Holt. Hit the movies tab now to see the trailer.

From the footage you can get a fairly good idea of the task ahead - countless German soldiers to be defeated using typical console skills like fine aiming down the barrel of your rifle, fighting alongside Allied buddies, leaning around corners and staving in faces with the butt of your rifle.

MOH Heroes is set to launch its handheld offensive on 10 November and we'll have a review real soon.

Trailer and News at Gamesradar ...

Via Kotaku

An enterprising individual has figured out what to do with his damaged PSP. Make an omelet with it and put it up on Yahoo Auctions. The seller points out that the omelette was made with seaweed, and there is a "faint sweetness" to the dish because a dash of sugar was used. The seller adds:

Please know that it was the work of an amateur, but was made with heartfelt sincerity.
Continuing, the seller mentions how happy a child would be to find this in his or her lunch box, and that it should be okay to eat because it was made without the memory stick or the battery. Bids started at 2,000 yen (US $17), and approx. 30 bids later, the PSP omelet went for over 8,000 yen ($67) earlier today. The winner shall be sent this this delicious portable in an ice pack, along with presumably the box, memory stick and battery.

More info ...

There's a fascinating article up on Next Generation that drops this tidbit: the Xbox 360 Division lost $1.26 billion in fiscal 2006.

Why is Microsoft willing to put up with this? Defense:

"Remember that Microsoft partly entered the game console business for defensive reasons," Rosoff said. "The company was concerned that a PlayStation successor would become the default gateway to networked entertainment in the home--Ken Kutaragi promised as much--and cut into consumer PC sales."
He continued, "It's very hard to calculate the worth of a defensive business. I personally think Sony will have a really hard time with the PS3--fewer games at launch, $200 price premium, and yet they're losing more money per console than Microsoft is on the 360. More long-term, imagine no PlayStation 4 and how Microsoft might profit from such an environment."

The 10 million number that Peter Moore keeps yakking about is apparently the magic number of consoles sold that guarantees third-party developers to choose you are their focus, guaranteeing heavy royalties. Great reading. ...

Destructoid is reporting that the judge presiding over the Thompson V The World case has ruled that the court will not prohibit the sale of Bully in Florida.

At 1:51, Niero called, saying that the judge will not prohibit the the sale of Bully. In the time that he played the game, the judge said that he did not see anything so violent that would require the game to be held from being shipped. The judge and Take Two employee used a cheat code in order to skip around in the game.
It sounds like Jack didn't take the news well, once being asked by the judge to be seated and another time "silencing" his expert witness. Justice FTW!

The real question, and I hope Destructoid gets to the bottom of it, is what cheat code did they use? ...

Via Gamespot

The GP2X--which stands for 'Game Park Times Two'--was first released in the UK this year as an alternative portable that runs on Linux. The handheld sports two 200MHz CPUs with 64MB of RAM and custom graphics hardware and decoding chips. It connects to a PC via USB and also takes SD cards. It retails in the UK at £124.99 (around $231).



The GP2X.
So far, approximately 30,000 units have been sold in less than nine months, and Craig Rothwell, the Director of GP32/2x Distribution Ltd., is confident that sales will reach 50,000 by Christmas.

Rothwell is delighted at the way that sales have been picking up for the underdog, which can play games, movies, and music as well as show photos and e-books. And although GP2X still has a way to go to catch up with the likes of the Game Boy Advance or the iPod, he thinks things are looking good.

"Things have really sped up in the last few months," said Rothwell, who attributes this growth in sales to a number of factors. One of the things he firmly believes is that people "have had enough" of larger companies and their restrictive policies on homegrown game development.

"We think it's [the growth in sales] because essentially the system is completely open whereas Sony and Apple and big companies like that lock down their systems. We pretty much let people run whatever they want on it. We don't have any secrets about how it works, and we release all the documents. In fact we encourage people to hack the system and see what they can get it to do."

Rothwell used to own (among other systems) an Amiga, and looks back on the early days of computers, especially the 16-bit era, fondly. With the GP2X, he says that he wants to try to recreate this kind of computing community.

"In the late '80s and early '90s, all systems were open like ours. They were all owned by small companies like Sinclair and Amstrad and Tiny. And then the big guys came in and put an end to it. I used to really like doing all that hacking around with the systems and things and it had a huge scene at the time. We know that the market is still there--it hasn't disappeared--so that's the market that we're trying to appeal to now."

He also revealed his "cunning plan" to make the GP2X easily upgradeable, with plans to do so at some point in the future.

Rothwell believes that there is great gaming potential for his company's handheld. There are over 200 freeware games for download posted in the files section of the company Web site, and he recently ran a coding competition, and several people rose to the challenge of creating new games and applications. He added: "It's essentially a PC, so ports are really easy."

It's not just indie games and freeware coming out for the GP2X though. Payback, a Grand-Theft-Auto style car game is the first big-budget game to be released for the handheld, and will be available for £24.99 (around $46) this month. There are also a number of other games in development for the system, including an RPG called Elsewhere from Japan. ...