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PlayStation Store Gets an Update Including Super Puzzle Fighter II

Posted by Paul Hamilton Categories: Downloadable Content, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Network

PlayStation Store
The has some new content, possibly due to the flood of owners hitting the service looking for their download. Among the other new items are Turbo HD Remix for $9.99 (comparable with the download of the same game made available last week) and online add-on for $9.99 or the whole game and add-on for $29.99.

Sony is also putting up some new demos for NASCAR 08, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2008 and All-Pro Football 2K8 plus additional videos and trailers. Warhawk is available from the PlayStation Store for $39.99 or as a retail box which includes a bluetooth headset for $59.99.

Read More | PlayStation Blog

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Console Downloads This Week Featuring Metroid and Hexic 2

Posted by Paul Hamilton Categories: Adventure, Puzzle, Retro, Virtual Console, Wii, Xbox 360, Xbox Live Arcade

Downloadable Games for Week of August 13: Metroid, Shining in the Darkness, Cratermaze, Ecco the Dolphin, Hexic 2Following a light week, Microsoft returns this Wednesday to the two game new/old format, dropping Hexic 2 (800 Microsoft Points) and the Sega classic Ecco the Dolphin (400 Microsoft Points). Hexic 2 comes from famed Tetris creator Alexy Patjitnov and follows up the packed-in original XBLA title and adds new modes including same-screen or Live multiplayer; Ecco the Dolphin boasts enhanced graphics and sound plus a “Best Time” leaderboard.

These games join more than 75 others on the service which has been a huge success for Microsoft as detailed in a lecture by Marc Whitten this week at GameFest, where he discussed the company’s plan for attracting the casual gamer to the XBox 360. Whitten stated that they’ve seen a 156% average financial return in the past year on XBLA titles, earning more than $30 million to date. Based on this success they expect revenue on XBox Live Arcade to double in the next fiscal year and predict that by the end of this year they will have reached 45 million downloads of over 100 available titles.

On Nintendo’s similar download service, Virtual Console, they’re dropping three new games this week including the original NES classic Metroid (500 Wii Points), plus the Sega dungeon crawler Shining in the Darkness (800 Wii Points) as well as the TurbGrafx-16 game Cratermaze (600 Wii Points). Nintendo is choosing now to push the original Metroid title onto the VC as a means of keeping their Metroid brand fresh in gamers’ minds as they prepare to release the marquee Wii game Metroid Prime 3: Corruption in two weeks. As part of this effort, next week’s VC title is expected to be the SNES sequel, Super Metroid.

Read More | Gamasutra

BioShock Demo Hits Xbox Live Marketplace

Posted by Paul Hamilton Categories: First Person Shooters, PC, Release Dates, Xbox 360, Xbox Live Marketplace

BioShock

has announced that BioShock is gold and they also managed to sneak a demo of the game onto Xbox Live Marketplace. The 1.35 GB download has caused a flood of traffic, and some are reporting errors or stalls when trying to get their hands on a copy. If only PC gamers had such problems; 2K did confirm that they would be releasing a PC demo, but said only that it would be coming “later this month.”

Early reviews for the game have been exceedingly positive and with the game only a little more than a week from release, this should help hold you over for the next eight days.

Read More | Major Nelson

Xbox 360 Sees New HD-DVD Player Update

Posted by Chris Pereira Categories: Accessories, Hardware, Internet, Xbox 360, Xbox Live

Xbox 360 HD DVD playerOwners of the Xbox 360’s HD-DVD add-on will be the recipients of a new auto-update next time they try watching a movie while connected to Xbox Live. The new additions (tweaks, really) are minor, but the more improvements, the better. Those without access to Xbox Live will be able to download the update from Xbox.com later this week.

The list of improvements:

  • Added option for user to select from the following audio output formats via TOSLINK or HDMI: -Digital Stereo (2 channel PCM) -Dolby Digital 5.1 -DTS 5.1 -WMA Pro
  • Added “Dynamic Range Control” toggle for digital audio output
  • Improved HD DVD networking support
  • Improved HD DVD title compatibility
  • Improved performance with MPEG-4 AVC / H.264
  • 1080p via HDMI is supported on the Xbox 360 Elite with HDCP compliant displays
  • Improved parental controls

Read More | Major Nelson

Xbox 360 Spring Dashboard Update Hits Wednesday

Posted by Chris Pereira Categories: Accessories, Internet, Release Dates, Wireless, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, Xbox Live Arcade, Xbox Live Marketplace

xbox 360 dashboard messaging

The long-awaited Spring Update is finally set for launch tomorrow (Wednesday), with the headline feature being all-new Xbox Live integration with MSN/Windows Live Messenger. This is the third such major dashboard update in the life of the Xbox 360, and contains a long list of new features – but it’s ultimately the weakest of those three releases.

Being able to instant message while gaming, watching movies or doing whatever else on the 360 is certainly a nifty feature, but isn’t going to be worth taking advantage of for the average user – at least not until the mini-QWERTY keyboard is released. USB keyboard support is being added, but unless you’re sitting fairly close (or wireless keyboards are supported), you’ll be stuck typing with the virtual keyboard. And from having sent hundreds over messages over Live, let me say that using that is nothing short of an exercise in patience.

In addition to the IMing capabilities included in the update, the following features have been added:

  • On-screen pop-ups that immediately display the name and gamerscore value of a just accomplished Achievement, allowing gamers to see their progress without leaving or pausing the game. 
  • An even safer way to communicate through Xbox LIVE with enhanced family settings that enable different default settings for video chat and voice chat.
  • A new, standalone Xbox LIVE Marketplace blade houses all Xbox LIVE Marketplace content in one easy to navigate space.
  • Xbox LIVE Arcade enhancements that showcase what games friends are playing directly from the friends list. Boasting about high scores, comparing progress and checking out leaderboards are all easier now as well.
  • Faster access to free, trial version of Xbox LIVE Arcade games through an improved Auto Downloads feature.
  • The ability to fast-forward, pause and rewind video as it is being downloaded on Xbox LIVE Marketplace.
  • Owners can now set their consoles to turn off after downloading content from Xbox LIVE Marketplace to help save energy, and download speeds have been increased.

The Marketplace blade will certainly be useful, but what Microsoft is really trying to do is simply make it as easy as possible for you to hand over those Microsoft Points. But the new Achievement notification will be sure to go over well, especially with me, as I’m the type of person who always checks out what achievement I just unlocked - even if I’m in a multiplayer game.

For more details on the free download and a full list of features, check out this page on Xbox.com.


Tekken Dark Resurrection Delayed

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Fighting, Internet, Namco, PlayStation 3

Description

Well, while Tekken: Dark Resurrection was initially promised “this month” by Namco Bandai, February has passed and there is still no sign of the brawler on the PlayStation Store. If IGN’s latest release list is to believed, the game should be available on March 8th, another week out. With Namco Bandai promising basically a straight port of the arcade and Japanese PlayStation Network releases, it seems strange that the US version would see an unexpected delay. One can hope that extra functionality or optimization is being worked into the product, but that would seem to be doubtful at this point.

Update: Looks like IGN was wrong, according to reports, Tekken: Dark Resurrection should hit the PlayStation Network today at 5pm PST, only a mere day late.

Read More | IGN

Tekken Dark Resurrection Promised “This Month”

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Fighting, Internet, Namco, PlayStation 3

Tekken Dark Resurrection HD

Tekken: Dark Resurrection for the Playstation 3 will officially be available to US customer this month, according to a report on 1up. Namco has not offered any pricing or an exact availability date, but the release time frame will put the game squarely against Sega’s upcoming Virtua Fighter 5 release on February 20th. Of course, the Tekken: Dark Resurrection download will more than likely cost less than half of the retail Virtua Fighter release, which should Namco’s sales. Namco also clarified that the release will not include online battles, but their statement leaves open the possibility that such a feature could be added in the future. North American availability has trailed the Japanese release by almost two months; online gamers have speculated that this might mean additional gameplay modes and content, however, at this time it looks like this is not the case.

Read More | 1up

Tekken: Dark Resurrection Download Hits Japan

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Fighting, Internet, Namco, PlayStation 3

Tekken PS3

Tekken: Dark Resurrection for the Playstation 3 has been made available via download through Sony’s Playstation Store in Japan. For 2,000 Yen ($16), gamers can get an HD updated port of Dark Resurrection for the PSP, including support for 1080P. Like the PSP release, it appears the download does not support direct online play, but will support ghost mode updates.

Read More | Game Watch

Parappa PSP Gets Downloadable Content

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: PSP, Screenshots, Wireless

Parappa PSP

Parappa The Rapper will be hitting Japanese PSP consoles on December 7th. The game is basically a port of the original Playstation version with the graphics modified to fit the aspect ratio of the PSP screen. It has been previously reported that the game would support the PSP ad hoc networking mode and game sharing to support up to 4 person multiplayer, but now Game Watch is reporting that gamers will be able to utilize the PSP infrastructure mode to access the Parappa site to download additional songs. The downloads will not include new stages; the new songs will merely work with existing stages. While not as exciting as a completely new Parappa game, the ability to add content over the internet should help extend the play value of the port.

Read More | Game Watch Japan

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