Halo 2 for VIsta DELAYED Yet Again

First, we were told the release date was suppose to be May 8th. Then it moved to May 22nd. Now it is delayed yet another week to May 31st.

Come on Microsoft, I know it takes time to release games, but this is the 3rd time. Not that I really care, but Major Nelson and some of his buddies have been playing Halo 2 for Vista a long time so there is no doubt that this is game is in fact done. I think this has something to do with the release of Shadowrun, which is due to be released on the 29th, maybe because Halo 2 will take the spotlight? Well Shadowrun is the new launch game for The Games for Windows platform.

P.S.: June 8th is the release date of Halo 2 for Vista in Europe

Guitar Hero Encore: Rock the 80's Box Cover

Released today the new box cover artwork for the upcoming Guitar Hero Encore: Rock the 80's expansion. Included on the cover is two new characters, maybe to be included in the game?

Rumble Coming to the PS3 in November?

According to the rumors section in PSM the rumble functionality that the Sixaxis obviously lacks may be on its way to the PS3's controller in November of this year. The article even mentions some specifics to the release of the new controller such as: there will be an announcement at E3 of this year and the projected release date of the new controller will be November 13th.
[From Kotaku]

With so much criticism over this feature I couldn't blame Sony for wanting to include it, but as mentioned earlier this year the PS3 games do not include the functionality for rumble. So if this new controller is indeed true, how will Sony handle previous games? Will they release updates to give older games rumble? Or will they just focus on new games for rumble?

Today's PSN Update

Today along with the new firmware update is some new content for the Playstation Store. Joust is now available for download in the downloadable games section. Also available are 7 new trailers. Among them are: MLB 07: The Show, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, and Championship Sprint. So if you own a PS3 and can get away from playing your games for a while go check out the new content, and while your at it make sure you download the new firmware update too.

PS3 Firmware Update 1.80 to be Released TOMORROW

Latest PLAYSTATION 3 Firmware Update Provides PlayStation, PlayStation 2 and DVD Upscaling Remote Play on PSP (PlayStation Portable) via the Internet and DLNA transfer of media content also enabled

London, 24 May 2007 - Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) announced today availability of the latest version of the PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3™) firmware. Version 1.80 features upscaling of PlayStation® and PlayStation 2 games, and DVD movies up to full 1080p HD resolution when viewed on a compatible HD TV set.

The capability to upscale DVDs to HD quality is a feature normally only associated with top range DVD players, and its inclusion in the latest firmware upgrade now allows PS3 owners with an existing DVD collection to dramatically enhance the viewing pleasure of their DVD collection when viewed through a compatible HD TV set1. Not only can DVD movies be enhanced to full 1080p HD quality but so too will PlayStation 2 and PlayStation games be upscaled to provide much improved gaming pleasure.

In a comprehensive update to PS3's already impressive capabilities, Version 1.80 also allows users to enjoy Remote Play on their PSP across the internet, allowing them to access their PS3 anywhere in the world where a broadband internet connection is available2.

Version 1.80 also allows users on a home network to seamlessly view and play rich media content such as images, music and video on their PS3, that is stored on their DLNA3 enabled devices such as PCs and laptops elsewhere in the house, reinforcing PS3's credentials as a home entertainment hub that truly deserves pride of place in the Living Room.

A host of other enhancements include the ability to print photo images stored on PS3's hard disk or inserted storage media to a selection of Epson printers.

PS3 owners will be able to upgrade their PS3 with the latest Version 1.80 firmware from 24th May 2007.

[From Kotaku]

Finally some good news for PS3 owners.

Guitar Hero III Announced

We all wanted another one, and today Activision has fulfilled our wishes. The new game which I am calling Guitar Hero III (not the official name at this time) will be made available to all Next-Gen consoles and the PS2. Plus, they will all sport WIRELESS guitars. Though all the tracks have not been announced Activision has promised that there will be more tracks on this installment of the game than any other. At this time the announced tracks are:

• Paint It Black (by The Rolling Stones)

• Cherub Rock (by Smashing Pumpkins)

• Sabotage (by Beastie Boys)

• The Metal (by Tenacious D)

• My Name is Jonas (by Weezer)

• Knights of Cydonia (by Muse)

• Rock And Roll All Nite (as made famous by Kiss)

• School's Out (as made famous by Alice Cooper)

• Slow Ride (as made famous by Fog Hat)

• Cult of Personality (by Living Colour)

• Barracuda (as made famous by Heart)

[From GamePro]

And bet there will be more to come. So for those of you who are sold now, the game is scheduled for a Fall '07 release, just in time for the holidays.

This Weeks XBLA Wednesday Releases

Another double release today for the Xbox Live Arcade. Today's releases will be:

Name: Xevious
Price: 400 Points
Availability: All Xbox Live members
Dash Details: Size: 13.5 MB■Single player ■Hi-Definition ■Control your Solvalou ship and destroy the XEVIOUS forces! Use blasters against air-based enemies and bombs against ground-based targets. Destroy And or Genesis to earn bonus points! Unique enemies, interesting BGM, a variety of scrolling background environments and many hidden gameplay features differentiated XEVIOUS from other shooting games released at the time. XEVIOUS was released in 1982 and became an instant classic

Name: Rush'n Attack
Price: 400 Points
Availability: All Xbox Live members
Dash Details: Single Player, Xbox LIVE Multiplayer 1-2, HD (High Definition). Download the full version of Rush'n Attack and get all four levels of difficulty, plus a complete set of twelve achievements. So many POWs and so little time! Relive the Cold War from your warm cozy couch.
Size: 39.9 MB (approx.)

[From Major Nelson]

Bad Sony! Take That Foot Out of Your Mouth

Jack Tretton the SCEA President and CEO recently had an interview with Gamepro. In the interview Gamepro asked Jack's opinion on the rumor of Microsoft adopting the Folding@Home project that, well Sony was first to adopt. Here is his response:

"I think what's very important to us, and I think is great for our consumers, is the pride that it gives you as a company to say that we're helping to fight and research Alzheimer's and that 250K people signed up in less than 60 days. And what we're doing takes 30 times longer on a PC, and that's a great testament to the PS3, but it's more a real feel-good thing to take your machine when it's idle to help contribute to that cause.

So if other companies can help contribute to that, I think that's great. But let's face it, if your motivation is for PR, to me, that's a little shallow. We go out of our way, correctly so, to make sure that we don't try to sell PS3s on Folding@Home. We try to look at it for just what it is, which is great community service for a great cause, and I think to look at it as a marketing platform is something that a company certainly wouldn't want to do. I'm certainly not insinuating that's Microsoft's motivation, but I'm not even sure how relevant it is to what were doing.

Would they be even having this conversation if we weren't doing it? I don't know. I would guess that the medical community would take help from anywhere they could get it, but the commentary that I heard is that Stanford isn't sure that [the Xbox 360's processing abilities] would help them very much, which is odd to be because if it helped at all, it seems like they would welcome it with open arms.

It's really ugly territory to get into, but let's take fighting a disease and see if we can get some credit for that. It's not a cool game to play one way or the other, so I don't want to even give the impression that that's our motivation and I'd be very disappointed if they're looking for PR value or to try to suck off some of the goodwill that we're doing."

So they don't want folding at home for PR value or to sell the PS3?

"takes 30 times longer on a PC"

"does it when the machine is idle"

"not sure if the Xbox 360 could help"

"let's take fighting a disease and see if we can get some credit for that."

"try to suck off some of the goodwill we're doing"


Lets go through the checklist:

1.) Brag about how much faster your PS3 is than the PC- CHECK

2.) Brag even more because the PS3 does it while it's idle- CHECK

3.) Put down your competition because your "Not sure they can help"- CHECK

4.) Take credit for fighting disease- CHECK

5.) Make Microsoft the bad guy because they want to help- CHECK


Not trying to sale the PS3 or get good PR huh? Doesn't sound like it to me. And well if they actually do end up finding the cure for cancer, you'll never here the end of it.

Nintendo Annouces Summer Lineup

Today Nintendo has announced this years summer lineup and it has some goodies in it too! Here it is:

Wii:

• Mario Strikers Charged: July 30 - Nintendo
  
• Metroid Prime 3 Corruption: Aug. 20 - Nintendo
  
• Battalion Wars 2: September - Nintendo
  
• High School Musical: Sing It!: Aug. 14 - Disney Interactive
  
• Madden NFL '08: Aug. 14 - EA
  
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour '08: August - EA
  
• Space Station Tycoon: August - Namco Bandai
  
• Brunswick Pro Bowling: August - Crave
  
• Dave Mirra BMX Challenge: August - Crave
  
• Pinball Hall of fame: The Williams Collection: Aug. - Crave
  
• Brothers in Arms: September - Ubisoft
  
• Looney Tunes: Acme Arsenal: September - Warner Bros.
  
• George of the Jungle: September - Crave
  
• Boogie: Fall - EA

[From IGN]

DS:

• Picross DS: July 30
  
• Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day: Aug 20
  
• DK Jungle Climber: Sept. 10
  
• Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol: Sept. 24
• SimCity: July (Electronic Arts)
  
• Namco Museum DS: July (Namco Bandai)
  
• Drake & Josh: July (THQ)
  
• Glory Days 2: July - (Eidos)
  
• Madden NFL '08: Aug. 14 (Electronic Arts)
  
• High School Musical: Makin' the Cut!: Aug. 14 (Disney Interactive)
  
• Heroes of Mana: Aug. 14 (Square-Enix)
  
• I SPY: Fun House: August (Activision)
  
• Jewel Quest Expedition: August (Activision)
  
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour '08: August (Electronic Arts)
  
• Worms: Open Warfare 2: August (THQ)
  
• Luminous Arc: August (Atlus)
  
• Mega Man Star Force (Pegasus, Leo, Dragon): August (Capcom)
  
• Operation: Vietnam: August (Majesco)
  
• Turn It Around: August (Majesco)
  
• The Wild West: August (Majesco)
  
• Full Metal Alchemist Trading Card Game: August (Destineer)
  
• Drawn to Life: September (THQ)
  
• Zoey 101: September (THQ)
  
• Crayola Treasure Adventure: September (Crave)
  
• Nancy Drew and The Deadly Secret of the Olde World Park: September (Majesco)
  
• Holly Hobbie & Friends: September (Majesco)
  
• Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trials and Tribulations: September (Capcom)
  
• Looney Tunes: Duck Amuck: September (Warner Bros.)
  
• Pet Luv Spad & Resort Tycoon: September (Activision)
  
• Animal Genius: September (Activision)
  
• George of the Jungle: September (Crave)
  
• Jam Sessions: September (Ubisoft)
  
• Professor Brainium: September (Destineer)
  
• Indy 500 Legends: September (Destineer)

[From IGN]

Sounds good can't wait for Metroid Prime 3.

This Weeks VC Update

Today Nintendo has released 3 more Virtual Console games. They will be drum roll please:

Donkey Kong Country 2™: Diddy's Kong Quest™ (SNES®, 1-2 players, 800 Wii Points): In the sequel to the immensely popular Donkey Kong Country™, Diddy Kong® gets the spotlight, along with his girlfriend, Dixie Kong™ - a great little monkey with a dangerous ponytail. The action starts on the wreck of King K. Rool's Gangplank Galleon that has apparently broken up on a reef offshore from the Kremlings' Island. Diddy and his friends will have to work together to rescue Donkey Kong®, exploring all the hidden areas of the Kremlings' island: a spooky haunted forest, treacherous swamps, a giant beehive oozing with sticky honey and lava-filled caves, just to name a few.

Streets of Rage™ 2 (Sega Genesis, 1-2 players, 800 Wii Points): 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 showing Adam chained up at the feet of Mr. X. The city then once again returned to its nightmarish state as criminals ran rampant. Unable to contact their old friend in artillery, 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.

Blazing Lazers (TurboGrafx16, 1 player, 600 Wii Points): Blazing Lazers is a vertical-scrolling shooter that was praised for surpassing the limitations of the hardware of its time. Players control the extraordinary firepower of their Gunhed Star Fighter to take on the Dark Squadron that has begun its invasion of Earth. Collect power-ups to increase your ship's battle strength so it can cut through enemies and defeat the bosses in all nine areas. Of course, as part of the "Soldier" series, the game contains a good combination of fast-paced speed with catchy, drum-propelled background music, coupled with the Field Thunder that can be used to destroy enemies in one fell swoop for the ultimate sense of satisfaction. With its fine-tuned difficulty levels, Blazing Lazers is a shooting game that anyone can enjoy.

[From Kotaku]

GRAW 2 DELAYED on PS3 AGAIN

Ubisoft has announced that Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 will not make it to PS3 owners in June as anticipated, instead they have assigned a new release date of August 31st.

[From PS3 Fanboy]

With this being the second delay of this game, which was suppose to be released in March I'm beginning to wonder if Ubisoft like Sony.

80 GB PS3 CONFIRMED (For Korea)

At first there were two available PS3 consoles, a 20 gig and a 60 gig. Now that Sony has discontinued the 20 gig there is only one available console, which is the 60 gig. Announced today was the new 80 gig console. The console, at this time, will only be released in Korea. The new console will be released on June 16 for a price of 518,000 Won ($558) for the Koreans this is the only PS3 console that will be available to buy in this region. Just like the previous 60 gig that was released in Europe earlier this year, the new console will be "identical to the European model in terms of all other technical specs [apart from the size of the hard drive]." Which means this console to will be lacking the backwards compatibility chip the consoles in Europe lacked. When Sony was asked about any future plans of the console they replied with "We have no plans to release the 80GB model PS3 in Europe at this time."

[From Gamespot]

Like they said in Europe at this time. They didn't mention North America or Japan. Prediction: You will see them soon.

New Releases: Week of 5/20

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End-(360, PC, PS2, Wii, PS3, DS, PSP)

Halo 2-(PC)

Odin Sphere-(PS2)

UFO: Extraterrestrials-(PC)

Dawn of Mana-(PS2)

Naruto: Ninja Council 3-(DS)

WarTech: Senko no Ronde-(360)

Brooktown High: Senior Year-(PSP)

Death Jr. and the Science Fair of Doom-(DS)

Marvel Trading Card Game-(DS)

Major League Baseball 2K7-(GBA)

The New York Times Crosswords- (DS)

XBLA Wants YOUR Opinion On New Games

Over at Gamerscore Blog they want your opinion on games you would like to see come to the Xbox Live Arcade. So head on over and let your opinion be heard!

Starcraft 2 Officially Announced

We all knew it was coming, the only question was when. Well the answer is now! Although the game was officially announced there is still no date available on its release. Also released was the official Starcraft 2 website you can get to it by clicking here. For those who haven't seen it yet here's a clip of the announcement trailer:

Riddick CONFIRMED for Next-Gen

From 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.

So there you have it Chronicles of Riddick: Assualt on Dark Athena, look for it on shelves later this year for the PS3 and Xbox 360.

Wii Passes the 7 Million Mark

According to VGChartz in the latest worldwide console sells, the Wii has now sold 7.09 Million units. Just ahead is the 360 with 9.71 Million and the PS3 comes in last with 3.31 Million.

Xbox 360 Owners Being BANNED

From Gamerscore Blog:

Keeping Xbox LIVE Fair

One of the great things about LIVE and the unified community is that we work hard to create a level playing field for all gamers and have a no tolerance policy towards inappropriate behavior like hacking or cheating. As part of our commitment to our members, we do not allow people that we have detected to have modified their console to connect to LIVE. This is an important part of our efforts to try and maintain a fair gaming environment for the large majority of gamers that play by the rules. This topic is more important than ever given the recent release of the Halo 3 beta. As a result, some consumers that try to login to LIVE who we detect have illegally modified their console will get an error code (Status Code: Z: 8015 - 190D) when trying to connect to the service. These users will not have their account automatically banned from LIVE, but they will no longer be able to access the service from the console they modified.

We have stated in the past that customers can only enjoy access to the Xbox LIVE community through the use of a genuine, unmodified, Xbox console and we will continue to enforce this rule to ensure the integrity of our service, the protection of our partners and the benefits of our users.

I don't have a problem with this just as long as innocent people don't get hurt in the process.

Another PS3 Blunder: PGR 3 Used to Promote GT... Again!

Kia's Spanish website was the culprit this time. In an attempt to compare the Kia to a Ferrari, the automobile company used a car from obviously PGR 3 (can tell by the license plate). The only problem with this is well the giant PS3 in the the picture.

Warhawk Beta Update

The upcoming PS3 game "Warhawk" is having a Beta that will be going public on May 24th, 2007. In order to take advantage of this beta you must register on the PlayStation site. I guess this gives you PS3 owners something to do while Halo 3 Beta is out.