On Gear Live: iTunes 8.01 released, addresses App Store updates, HD TV downloads, Genius

Nintendo DSi announced, larger screens, dual cameras, DSi Shop store

Posted by Andru Edwards
Categories: Corporate News, Downloadable Content, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Portable/Mobile

Nintendo DSi

Last week we talked about rumors of a new Nintendo DS, and this morning, those rumors proved to be true. CEO Satoru Iwata announced the Nintendo DSi at the company’s Fall presentation over in Japan, calling it a “third platform” for the company (where have we heard that before?). It looks fairly similar the the current DS Lite that we all know and love, but there are a few changes that make this one a worthy upgrade. First, it’s about 12% thinner, as it has given up its GBA slot. The screens are a bit larger, each being 3.25-inches in size. One of the bigger changes, though, is that the DSi features two cameras. You have one 3 megapixel camera on the outside of the unit, as well a front-facing camera on the inside so that you can take images of yourself.

The Nintendo DSi also has an SD card slot along with internal storage. You can save your photos right to the card, then put that card in your to pull it up in the Photo Channel. Nintendo is even launching the DSi Shop, an online destination for purchasing DSi software, similar to the Wii Shop. You use Nintendo Points, and content will be priced at 200, 500, or 800 points. 1000 points will be included with the purchase of the DSi. The unit will come in either white or black for the time being, and goes on sale in Japan on November 1 at ¥18,900 ($178).

Read More | Nintendo DSi product page

Advertisement

Metallica’s Death Magnetic Come to Guitar Hero III This Friday

Posted by Alex Lifschitz
Categories: Activision, Downloadable Content, Music, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Network, Xbox 360, Xbox Live Marketplace

Death Magnetic Guitar Hero III

If you’re keen on the ways of the music world, you may be interested: Metallica’s new album, Death Magnetic, will be released in its entirety on III this friday. It’ll also have full compatibility with the upcoming Guitar Hero: World Tour on all instruments, and will feature two exclusive renditions of the song “Suicide and Redemption” featuring extended solos. It’ll cost $17.99 on PSN or 1440 MS Points, though I would hope they might offer it for free to people who blew money on St. Anger. If you haven’t heard the new songs yet, they’re actually a pretty good throwback to the “...And Justice For All” days, though perhaps not to the stuff they wrote before bassist Cliff Burton succumbed to a bad case of being crushed by a tour bus. Check out the full press release after the break.

Click to continue reading Metallica’s Death Magnetic Come to Guitar Hero III This Friday


Rock Band Disc Export Title Update Goes LIve

Posted by Alex Lifschitz
Categories: Downloadable Content, Electronic Arts, Music, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

Rock BandRejoice, ye fans of backwards compatibility! Harmonix has just released the title update for that will allow players to export the first game’s song list into Rock Band 2 at their leisure. 55 of the songs are slated to have the ability to transfer over ("Run To The Hills”, “Paranoid”, and “Enter Sandman” are exempt) - you just pay 5 semolians, follow the instructions, and the songs are then burned to your HDD as any other DLC song would. Plus, you can also delete individual songs, if there are some you didn’t particularly care for. Personally, after being forced to play “In Bloom” into eternity during the first game, I’ll take that as a very welcome addition.

Rock Band is slated to have over 500 songs available for download and play by the year’s end, which is relatively unprecedented. Where they’re going from Rock Band 2 is anybody’s guess, but there have been some rumblings about a music creation system in the works (though Guitar Hero: World 2 seems to have that base covered already).


EA Scrabble iPhone review

Posted by Andru Edwards
Categories: Casual, Downloadable Content, Electronic Arts, Portable/Mobile, Puzzle, Reviews

Scrabble for iPhone reviewLast year, my interest in Scrabble was brought to life with the release of the Scrabulous Facebook application. It was a good time challenging Facebook friends to old-fashioned word battles, and destroying them all with my superior wordsmithing skills. Or not. If you wanna test me, feel free to challenge me on Facebook. So what’s the point? Well, the moment that I saw that EA had released a version of Scrabble for the and iPod touch, I had to grab it immediately.  I mean, an official Scrabble game for the mobile device that I use more than any other? What’s not to love about that?

Well, we will tell you. Step on in for our full review of the Scrabble app for iPhone.

Click to continue reading EA Scrabble iPhone review


Xbox 360 system update released, preparation for new Xbox experience

Posted by Andru Edwards
Categories: Downloadable Content, Hardware, Microsoft, Xbox 360, Xbox Live

Xbox 360 system update

When you log in to Xbox Live today, you are gonna get a notification that a system update is available for you to download. We are here to let you down easy, and prepare you for disappointment. You see, we know that, like us, you are patiently waiting for that new Xbox experience dashboard that we saw back at . That is still scheduled for the fall. The update that you get today does nothing. Well, at least, it does nothing noticeable. According to our pal Major Nelson, today’s update “prepares for future growth of the service.” “Prepares”? What?

Nevertheless, go ahead and hit the install, just don’t expect anything fancy to come of it.


Live from Sony’s E3 2008 Media Briefing

Posted by Andru Edwards
Categories: Action, Adventure, Corporate News, Downloadable Content, E3, Features, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Portable/Mobile, PSP, Sony, Sports

E308 Sony Briefing buttons

We’ve got notes galore for you as it pertains to the Sony E3 2008 Media Briefing, and we’ve also got a full gallery from the event for you as well. As if that weren’t enough, we’ve even got E3 2008 Sony Media Briefing video highlights as well. Anyhow, here’s the scoop, live from the Sony event.

Jack Tretton hits the stage after a montage of upcoming games for PS3, PS2, and PSP. He starts joking around and giving a brief history of the Shrine Auditorium. Playstation brand was seeded 15 years ago this week, where Sony decided to create it’s own videogame console. He talks about the long-term 10 year strategies employed into the Playstation and Playstation 2. Says there were marquee games for those titles, but they came out years after teh console debut. Same for the Playstation 3. He gives some props to PS3 as well, talking about Blu-ray and the Cell processor.

“We’re here to talk about genre-defining kick-ass games” - alright, let’s do it. That would be a big change from what Nintendo had to offer us. Games like Metal Gear Solid 4 is the reason why you buy a Playstation 3. Over 75 titles are exclusive to the console. Today Sony has three successful platforms on the market at once. They start with PS3.

Click to continue reading Live from Sony’s E3 2008 Media Briefing

Gallery: Live from Sony’s E3 2008 Media Briefing

  • E308 Sony Briefing MAG 11
  • E308 Sony Briefing MAG 12
  • E308 Sony Briefing MAG 10
  • E308 Sony Briefing MAG 9
  • E308 Sony Briefing MAG 8
  • E308 Sony Briefing MAG 7

E3 2008: Live from the EA Media Briefing

Posted by Andru Edwards
Categories: Action, Adventure, Casual, Corporate News, Downloadable Content, Electronic Arts, First Person Shooters, PlayStation 3, Portable/Mobile, Release Dates, Survival Horror, Wii, Xbox 360, Xbox Live Marketplace

We are seated for the Electronic Arts E3 2008 Media Briefing. We start the conference off right, with a montage of a ton of upcoming titles, focusing on some new sports titles, upcoming Sims releases, and a bunch of casual games like Monopoly, Boogie, and Operation (aw yeah!) Of course, Spore is also featured here as well.

John Riccitiello hits the stage to talk about what EA has this afternoon to show us, and he says they won’t be doing PowerPoint, statistics, or sales figures. Instead, they are going to focus on the games, and we will be hearing from the people that make the games.

Rod Humble of The Sims Studio comes out to talk about The Sims. He announces Sim Animals. in this game you create groups of animals and their friends, habitat, etc. Some animals are friendly like deer and rabbits, while wolves and bears can stir up trouble. We then get a trailer. We get a baby cub bear interacting with a squirrel, and then a fox joins the fray. It seems that you basically control the game by using the world as your UI, you have a hand similar to Black and White. Will be exclusive to and Nintendo DS in January 2009.

Click to continue reading E3 2008: Live from the EA Media Briefing


Xbox 360 Content License Transfer Tool now available

Posted by Andru Edwards
Categories: Corporate News, Downloadable Content, Editorial, Internet, Microsoft, Xbox 360, Xbox Live Marketplace

Looks like has finally gotten around to attempting to fix the horribly, horribly broken DRM model, which we have written about in the past here and here, with the release of the Xbox 360 Content License Transfer Tool. The video above, hosted by Major Nelson, shows off exactly how users go about consolidating all their licenses to a single Xbox 360 console. There are a couple of issues here though, and they need to be addressed - after all, if you are going to work on a tool to help your users, the help shouldn’t result in new problems.

Click to continue reading Xbox 360 Content License Transfer Tool now available


echochrome hits the PlayStation Store

Posted by Andru Edwards
Categories: Downloadable Content, Music, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Network, Portable/Mobile, PSP, Puzzle

echochrome

Oh, happy day, echochrome has arrived. In case you’ve been under a rock, echochrome is a delicious puzzle perspective game, which is simple and deceptive all at the same time. The graphics are simple, the concept is amazing, and we’ve been waiting for it since last year’s . It is now here, along with a few other pieces of content - like new Rock Band tracks - on this weeks PlayStation Store update.

Games and Demos
echochrome ($9.99) for PS3
echochrome ($9.99) for PSP
Dark Sector demo (free)

Expansions and Add-ons
Rock Band tracks ($1.99 per track) - “Zero” by Smashing Pumpkins, “Time-Sick Son of a Grizzly Bear” and “Red Tandy” The Mother Hips
Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore tracks ($1.49 per track)

Videos
Battlefield: Bad Company “Redford Blog” video
echochrome trailer
Dead Space “Announcement” trailer
Dead Space “Ship Date” trailer
Kung Fu Panda trailer
NBA Ballers: Chosen One TV spot
Turok “Kane Gameplay” trailer
Turok “Bring It” trailer

Themes and Wallpapers
4 echochrome wallpapers
3 Kung Fu Panda wallpapers


PixelJunk Monsters Encore expansion set for May

Posted by Andru Edwards
Categories: Casual, Downloadable Content, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Network, Puzzle, Release Dates

PixelJunk Monsters Encore

I’ve recently been playing the hell out of PixelJunk Monsters, a game that we feel is one of the shining stars of the . If you haven’t yet tried it, seriously, go download it. The 2D strategy game is something that we almost can’t stop playing once we start. This is why we are happy to hear that Q Games has made it known that the first expansion pack for the game, titled PixelJunk Monsters Encore, is set to drop on May 1. We can expect a new island, called “Toki,” which will feature an additional 15 levels, as well as a little bit of housecleaning behind the scenes to the overall game mechanics. Even better still, the expansion will include five new songs by Otograph.

Visually, there are a few tweaks here and there that we can expect - weather effects, new tree shapes, and a few other small upgrades. Nothing over the top.

No word yet on pricing details, but this is DLC for a fairly inexpensive game, so it shouldn’t cost much.

Read More | Destructoid

Advertisement