Soulcalibur, Tekken And Katamari Now Available For Download

Today Namco Bandai announced that it would start making future releases and back-catalogue titles available for download via PSN and Xbox Live.

"Expanding our distribution presence across all major platforms is an essential part of our worldwide corporate strategy," Robert Stevenson, vice president of online development at Namco Bandai Games America said.

"Through this initiative, our consumers will have access to our latest releases, best sellers, and hard to find classics with the press of a button."

Announced PlayStation Network Games for the PSP system:

Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny - $39.99

Tekken 6 - $39.99

Ridge Racer - $14.99

Me & My Katamari, available Dec. 22nd, - $14.99

Announced Xbox Live Games:

Ridge Racer 6 -1600 Microsoft Points

Beautiful Katamari, available Q1 2010

A lot of gamers will be very please by this announcement. I know I am. What's your most wanted classic game from Namco Bandai? Let us know in the comments below.

12/23/09 Ernice Gilbert

First Impressions: Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker Demo

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is the newest handheld iteration of the popular series and the full game will be released in 2010. But how well does it fair against the other titles in the franchise?

The demo doesn't last very long but one of the most notable things about it is that the visuals are actually quite stunning and on par with the PS2 versions of the Metal Gear Solid games, which is truly impressive for a handheld.

All of the basic MGS trademarks are here as far as gameplay is concerned except now, 4 Snakes can play at once thanks to the game's messed up storyline and the multiplayer function which this demo does contains.

You have access to a few missions that will test just how well you can sneak and it's always fun catching a faceless bad guy and tossing him off a bridge. Good times I must say.

Does the demo have flaws? Yes but there isn't very many of them. The cross-hair when you are manually aiming is a total pain and extremely touchy and the camera has a tendency to be irritating as well sometimes.

If you're a fan of the MGS franchise then you should definitely give the demo a shot as it is only around 100MB in size and pretty fun to play.

Hype Level: 4/5

12/22/09 Colton West

Reloaded Review: Dissidia: Final Fantasy (PSP)

Publisher: Square-Enix
Developer: Square-Enix
Player:(s) 1 Offline, 1-2 Ad-Hoc
Genre: Fighting, Role-playing
Release Date: (NA) August 25, 2009 (EU) September 4, 2009 (JP) December 18, 2008
Platform:(s) PSP
Rated: Teen

Dissidia: Final Fantasy is a game that differs from what your typical Final Fantasy experience would always be, but is that nessessarily a bad thing?

Story:
Dissidia's story centers around an eternal conflict that has been raging on between the god of harmony; Cosmos, and the god of discord; Chaos. Warriors have been summoned since the beginning of time to fight for each side but now the tides have turned in favor of Chaos.

The 10 warriors chosen by Cosmos to battle in the name of harmony must now bring the war to an end by destroying Chaos and his minions of evil.

Presentation:
Dissidia is easily one of the best looking PSP games out there without a doubt. The cutscenes are gorgeous whether it be the CGI scenes or the in-game ones, they all ooze with graphical goodness.

Each fighter is modeled in such a way that they look like they are taken directly from PS2 games which is very, very impressive for a handheld and the arenas in which you do battle are easy on the eyes as well.
Another thing to mention during battles is that the sheer amount of flashy effects that are going on at one time doesn't cause the game to lag at all from what I've seen.

Gameplay:
Dissidia truly shines in the gameplay department. Unlike other games in the series, Dissidia's combat occurs in real time making the action and the battles far more exciting and fast paced.

It features five different game modes including a story mode, arcade mode, quick battle mode, duel colosseum and a communications mode for multiplayer. Arcade Mode and Quick Battle are basically self-explanitory but with Duel Colosseum, you face off against a never-ending wave of opponents collecting items, gold and experience points to use on your desired character. The difficulty in Duel Colosseum is completely your choice which means you're never short of a challenge.

Story Mode can be played in any order you wish using any of the 10 fighters the game offers you. Each story took me around 40-60 minutes to complete so they aren't very long but consider that there are 10 stories plus sub-stories as well. The character roster also stands out as you choose from 20 different fighters (10 in story mode) ranging from the Warrior of Light and Garland from Final Fantasy 1 all the way up to Tidus and Jecht from Final Fantasy X.

Every character in the game can be leveled up and powered up with items that give you attack and defense bonuses. Each fighter also has their own unique attacks and you learn more as you level up, except for Bartz who just copies everyone else's cause I guess Square-Enix didn't like him much.

Story mode is told through a mix of battles, cutscenes and map navigation that plays similar to a chessboard in a way. Each battle has varying difficulty but every single one of them is always enjoyable thanks to the game's simple control system which allows you to pull off attacks and create duels similar to those seen in the Final Fantasy: Advent Children movie.

With each victory, you recieve points that can used in a Museum to purchase icons from past games in the franchise, alternate costumes, music, gameplay bonuses and other nostalgic material that gives the game an unbelieveable amount of replay value.

My only real complaint about the gameplay is that there is no online multiplayer. Are you serious Square? Dissidia had the potential to be one of the best online experiences on the PSP but they had to ruin it by excluding this feature.

Sound:
I'll start by saying that the voice acting in the game is great. Every character is fully voiced and even has characters such as Cloud, Sephiroth and Tidus being portrayed by the same voice actors used in the Advent Children movie and in Final Fantasy X but don't worry, Tidus' voice isn't as bad this time around. The script however, is very cheesy most of the time but it's nothing too serious.

About 95% of the music in this game is redone versions of music from all 10 major entries in the series including some of the most well known scores. It all sounds great and only adds to the game's enormous nostalgic appeal.

Overall:
Dissidia: Final Fantasy is a game that will appeal to RPG fans and Final Fantasy fans. People looking for a fighting game as in-depth as say Soul Calibur or Tekken will be greatly disappointed.

It has countless hours of replayability, simple controls that result in epic battles, and a nostalgia factor only rivaled by Super Smash Brothers Brawl on the Nintendo Wii.

Definitely buy this game if you haven't already because it's more then worth the price.

Pros:
- Some of the best graphics on the PSP
- Simple controls but in-depth gameplay
- Countless hours of replayability
- Unprecidented nostalgia factor

Cons:
- No online multiplayer
- The occasional wonky camera
- Story doesn't last very long

9/10

Dead or Alive: Paradise Coming To PSP

According to word from the latest issue of Famitsu magazine, Tecmo will be bringing the renowned 'Dead or Alive' series to Sony's PSP.

If you're a fan of the volleyball games or the fighting aspect of the games then guess what. None of that stuff is going to be included in this release. What!?

The game is apparently supposed to be called 'Dead or Alive: Paradise' and will be just like the volleyball versions of the series, but without any of the stuff included in those titles.

That makes no sense whatsoever but I guess if you wish to see the girls of the Dead or Alive series in skimpy outfits then there you go. Seems..classy to say the least.

12/16/09 Colton West

Reloaded Review: Silent Hill: Origins (PSP)

Publisher: Konami
Developer: Climax Studios
Player:(s) 1
Genre: Survival Horror
Release Date: (NA) November 6, 2007 (EU) November 16, 2007 (JP) December 6, 2007
Platform:(s) PSP (also on PS2)
Rated: Mature

The horrors of Silent Hill are unleashed in handheld form for the first time. Does the game live up to the previous installments in the series or is this nightmare a dud?

Story:
Origins serves as a prequel to the franchise and was created to give us a back-story regarding the creepy and disturbing town that we have all come to fear.

Travis Grady, a truck driver working a job near the outskirts of Silent Hill is forced to stop his semi when he sees a girl step out in front of his vehicle. After nearly crashing his truck, Travis sees the mysterious figure run off into the fog and decides to follow her on foot. Why he didn't just jump back in the rig and follow her is beyond me. He eventually comes across a burning house and soon after, he finds himself being pulled into the nightmare that is the town of Silent Hill where he begins to unravel the mysteries of his disturbing and troubled past.

Presentation:
For a PSP game, Origins is one heck of a looker. All of the environments including the areas you explore and the city itself are very well rendered and far exceed the graphics seen in the original Silent Hill game for the PSX and even come close to matching Silent Hill 2.

The creatures are well designed as well but most of them resemble featureless blobs of nothing. As you have come to expect, Origins is covered in fog and tons of it at that. This is used to hide draw distances but it adds to the fear because you can't really see what is approaching until it's just a few feet away.

Another thing that is a bit of an annoyance is this weird static filter that covers the entire screen at basically all times and it can be very distracting.

Loading screens are extremely abundant in this game and happen every single time you open a door, open the save point or even open your menu on occasion. Granted, these load screens are short but it happens so often that it can pull you out of the game's atmosphere.

The cutscenes are done in a mix of in-game scenes and horribly compressed, blocky CGI cutscenes and there is no excuse for how ugly they look.

Gameplay:
The gameplay in Origins doesn't differ much from any of the other games in the series. The combat system is still very shotty but has been slightly improved since the other games. You have the option to use both melee and ranged weapons and all of the melee weapons are breakable which is understandable. I don't think a pipe is going to last forever when you're driving it into a creature's ugly skull.

Some of the weapons such as television sets, toasters and large jars can be charged up and thrown at enemies resulting in a very powerful strike, but it's at the expense of the weapon.

Transitions from the normal world and the Otherworld happen at your command by walking up to mirrors and activating them. Also in typical Silent Hill fashion, nearly 90% of the doors in the game are jammed and cannot be opened. Now answer me this, Travis has a huge supply of deadly blunt objects at his disposal so why on earth can't he just break the freaking door down?

There is also no HUB on screen at any time so when you're near death, the only way to see if you need to heal is to either go into your menu or listen to the speed of Travis' heartbeat. The screen will also start to throb red to basically smack it in your face but if you're really caught up in a heated battle, you probably won't notice it. I died plenty of times even though I had a large supply of first-aid items because of this.

Sound:
You know that you're always going to be getting a terrifying assault on your ears when you play a Silent Hill game. It's a pretty chilling experience when you're in a dark hallway and can hear the groans and shrieks of a creature coming from somewhere in the room.

Akira Yamaoka's musical score is also great as always, though not the best he has ever done. It's a mix of ambient music and lyrical pieces, all of which are very somber in tone and add to the depressing feel of the story.

The voice acting on the other hand is mediocre at best. The actor portraying Travis does a good job at making his seem more human but all of the other voices are below average, with very few exceptions.

Overall:
Silent Hill Origins is a very solid entry in the franchise and considering it was the first game that wasn't developed by the team that did the first 4, it turned out rather good. The game features unlockables ranging from special weapons to different outfits that will keep you playing past your initial play-through. It's far from being perfect though, but at least it's still better then the abomination that is the PS2 port.

Pros:
- Great graphics and atmosphere
- Excellent sound design
- Intriguing story and protagonist

Cons:
- Far too many loading screens
- Horribly compressed cutscenes
- Mediocre voice acting

Score: 6/10

12/15/09 Colton West

Associated Press Top 10 games of 2009

Remember Time magazine's Top 10 games of 2009 that was released earlier this week? Yeah, well they have company, only this time Lou Kesten of The Associated Press actually did some research and came up with something admirable, not perfect but admirable.

Still though, where the hec is Modern Warfare 2? Boy I tell ya.

1. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

2. Assassin's Creed II

3. Dragon's Age: Origins

4. Batman Arkham Asylum

5. inFamous

6. Ratchet and Clank: A Crack In Time

7. Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story

8. Borderlands

9. Forza Motorsport 3

10. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

It's better, but man is it far from perfect? Allow me to be of some help:

Modern Warfare 2, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Killzone 2, Demon's Soul. I feel quite better now.

12/11/09 Ernice Gilbert

NPD: Nintendo still is boss, PS3 sees 88% growth and XBOx 360 surprises all

It's that time again folks, time to see how the gaming industry performed for the month on November, and according to Anita Frazier of the NPD, things were not so bad, in fact this past November was the second best in the industry's history.

The hardware numbers:

PS2 - 203.1k

PS3 - 710.4K

PSP - 293.9K

Xbox 360 - 819.5K

Wii - 1.26M

DS - 1.70M

The software numbers:

Modern Warfare 2 Xbox 360 - 4.20M

Modern Warfare 2 - PS3 - 1.87M

Super Mario Bros Wii - 1.39M

Assassin's Creed II - Xbox 360 - 794.7K

Assassin's Creed II - PS3 - 448.4K

Left 4 Dead 2 Xbox 360 - 744.0K

Wii Sports Resort - 720.2K

Wii Fit Plus - 679.0K

Dragon Age: Origins Xbox 360 - 362.1K

Mario Kart W/Wheel - Wii - 315.0K

As you can see, MW2 destroyed all in its path selling over six million copies on Xbox 360 and PS3 combined. Assassin's Creed did extremely well also, with over 1 million in combined sales.

But it's on the hardware side of things where all the talk is. Xbox 360 outsold the redesigned PS3 Slim with Microsoft's flagship console selling well over 800,000 units. PS3 however had its best November since release, selling over 700,000 units, that's an 88 percent rise above last year's.

Good numbers all around, but don't you just love the PS2's indurance?

12/11/09 Ernice Gilbert

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker comes to the U.S. on May 25th, EU May 28th

Kojima and his team are putting the finishing touches on Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, the highly anticipated PSP title. According Kojima-san, it is the true sequel to Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.

As you may know, anything the man touches becomes gold, and surely, if we're to go on what he's delivered in the past, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker will be another Triple A title.

Get your hands on it in the U.S. on May 25th, 2010, and in EU on May 28th, 2010.

Can't wait for this one.

12/05/09 Ernice Gilbert

PSP Minis will soon be playable on PS3?

I would not be too surprised if most other PSP gamers found the 'PSP Minis' on the PSN to be a bit pricey just like I do and considering they are only playable on the PSP, does not make them top priority among PSN shoppers especially when you could just buy a PSone Classic or UMD Legacy title in their place. But what if they could also be played on your Playstation 3?

According to various sources that spoke with Joystiq, Sony may be in the process of exploring ways to expand the number of players who buy and play the 'Minis' by making them also available on the PS3. This change (according to the sources) will also be taking place very soon, even possibly before Christmas.

Furthermore, you will be able to play all existing and presumably all future releases as well in a higher resolution on the PS3 giving you a little more added incentive to purchase them.

However, it is unknown at this point whether the 'Minis' can be bought once and played on both systems like the PSone Classics are, or if you would need to purchase them individually for each platform.

It would be a really terrible idea on Sony's part if they decided to do this and charge us more, but I suppose only time will tell.

12/05/09 Colton West

PSPgo will die unless games get cheaper, this according to Traveler's Tale founder

Jon Burton, founder of Traveler's Tale has echoed what many have been saying ever since the PSPgo was launched. He said Sony's digital games service needs to support cheaper prices or the PSPgo will go the way of the Dinosaurs.

"I own a PSPgo but I don't want to buy LittleBigPlanet, for instance, as I can get it 20 percent cheaper on UMD from Amazon and could resell it once I'm finished with it," Burton told attendees at the Developer Jury Service.

"But if I download it, I get no discount and no chance to resell - how annoying is that? I'm betting on Sony making PSPgo games much cheaper than the UMD versions, or the PSPgo will die."

The man has a point.

12/04/09 Ernice Gilbert

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker gets an official release date

Although it was leaked by Famitsu, Konami has now official announced the release date of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker for PSP and PSPgo.

March 18th, 2010 is when you'll be able to get your hands on this highly anticipated exclusive Playstation portable title, that is if you leave in Japan. Nothing was said about a North American or European release so we'll just have to wait.

Nonetheless it's good to know that the game will finally be out in just a few months, it's about time we get our Metal Gear fix wouldn't you say?

Via JPS.

12/03/09 Ernice Gilbert

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands will be launched in May 2010

There seems to be no slowing down with the Prince of Persia franchise. It has been well received across the boards and today, Ubisoft announced that the next installment will hit store shelves sometime in May of next year, and it'll be available for "consoles and handhelds".

No details were given other than "it'll feature many of the fan-favorite elements from the original series as well as new gameplay innovations".

A trailer will also be shown at the VGAs on December 12th, 2009. Exciting news!

11/30/09 Ernice Gilbert

Massive PSN update this week!

The regular Playstation Network update will not only be arriving two days early this week, but it will also be a massive one featuring tons of new games and other goodies to quench your thirst for content. Below is a list of the games and other content that will be released in the new update, including a PSone game that is one of my favorites of all time.

This is a list of all the PSP content. Little Big Planet PSP and Tekken 6 will be arriving and both will set you back $39.99. Six PSP Minis will also be arriving including: Fortix ($4.99), Pinball Fantasies ($6.99), Blast Off ($2.99), Bloons ($3.99), Kahoots ($4.49), and Let's Golf ($6.99).

The PSone catalogue will also be updating with new games including: Command & Conquer, Dino Crisis, Reel Fishing, Fighting Force, Backstreet Billiards, and International Track & Field.

For the PS3 only, there's a sale on many titles running from now through next Wednesday, December 2. Dropping from $9.99 to $4.99 are Flower, The Last Guy, Prince of Persia Classic, Comet Crash (not to be confused with the newly released Gravity Crash, both of which also have demos available), and Bomberman Ultra.

And dropping in price from $14.99 to $7.49 is Smash Cars and Invincible Tiger: The Legend of Han Tao. There's also the sale on the Killzone 2 DLC to celebrate the franchise's five year anniversary, a temporary price drop on Fate Unlimited Codes to $14.99, and the Uncharted 2 Eye of Indra 2 motion comic for just $0.99.

Other new releases include Madden NFL Arcade ($14.99), Diner Dash ($9.99), Gravity Crash ($9.99), and the new Borderlands DLC ($9.99).

That isn't even all of it so if you have the cash to fork over for all this stuff, be sure to pick it up and if you can only afford a few, be sure to pick up Dino-Crisis, especially if you're a fan of survival-horror!

PSP Firmware update 6.20 is now live, comics coming Dec.

Remember all the new PSP capabilites Sony showed off at GamesCom earlier this year? Well now through firmware update 6.20, you can have them all... almost.

The portable system now supports playlists for video and photos, and those you already have can be transfered over from your PS3 or PC unto your PSP. The comics system detailed at GamesCom is included in the software but won't be available until December.

Maybe now that all the added features are included, you could finally get yourself a go?

Get the full thing at the EU PS Blog.

11/19/09 Ernice Gilbert

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories now has a release date

For those of you who've been looking forward to the Nintendo Wii remake of the original Silent Hill, you will be happy to know that the wait won't be much longer.

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories will be released on the Wii in North America on December 8th of this year, just in time for Christmas.

'Shattered Memories' is more then just a graphical enhancement over the original too, as this title shakes things up quite a bit with new controls and gameplay far different from what Silent Hill veterans are used to.

The Playstation 2 and PSP versions of the game have no confirmed release dates yet but we're willing to bet it won't be far off from the Wii's.

Five new PSP bundles for Japan

Sony of Japan has announced five new PSP bundles for the region, all for the PSP 3000 hardware.

Four are 'Value Pack' bundles which will include the PSP 3000 and accessories - but no game - for JPY 19,800 (USD 219.50). The consoles will come in Vibrant Blue, Piano Black, Pearl White and Radiant Red colours.

The fifth is a special Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G bundle, which will include a copy of the 3.5 million plus selling Capcom title and retail for JPY 18,500 (USD 205).

The bundles will all be released in December. There's currently no confirmation of their release outside of Japan but as soon it becomes available stateside we will update the info for our thirsty gamers.

A gamer's rant: We're getting pimped

You know, gamers are the most passionate group of individuals. Some will defend their console of choice vigorously, and others even start petitions to make sure their voices are heard on a particular issue. Many are too busy to get involved too deep, but that's not to say they're aloof of the situations plaguing the industry.

Today, while reading through some comments, I stumbled upon a very long post by a member of our readership. His issue was with publishers, developers, and console makers. According to him, they're taking advantage of gamers financially, trying to squeeze out every last penny from us. He even created characters in his post. We thought you'd find this interesting. The topic was about EA predicting the end of disc based games in less than ten years. Read on.

Original Post:

EA sports boss Peter Moore predicted that the disc based games don't have ten more years of life left in them.

"Look at the platform we're on, it's a burning platform," Moore said at the 5th play Digital Media Conference, according to IGN, "as a concept, do you stay on the platform and face certain death, or do you jump in the water and face probable death? Most of you would choose probable death, so you start moving toward a hybrid model of digital distribution."

"As an industry, I still think we may be as many a decade away from saying goodbye to physical discs," Moore continued. "The important question is what does the next console look like? Does it actually have a hard disk drive?"

I don't know about you Mr. Moore, but I sure do hope the next wave of consoles have hard disk drives, I'm a collector, I like to touch and feel stuff. I like to see Uncharted 2, and Halo 3: ODST sitting on my shelf, as I ever so often dust them off and go for a "spin."

Do you think it's a good idea to do away with discs altogether? Share your thoughts.

That was the original post, now here's his rant:

This is a bad idea on many fronts...

1) What if I want to sell my game? You can't because its now useless as a re-sellable product.

2) What if I want to loan it to a friend? You can't because protection rights will prevent it if they haven't already done that. So you're game is basically locked to your console. If your friend doesn't have the game you want to play, you'll have to bring your hard drive, re-download it, or something similar... from the way these guys are talking you might have to walk to your friends home with your console too.

3) Not having a physical product is nice to revisit those retro games that weren't originally released on your modern console (i.e. XBox's San Andreas ported to XBox360 as a download). But like Ernice said, I want to see my collection if I'm collector of great games.

4) I like the option to download a game, but I'm not interested in a DOWNLOAD ONLY world of games. Look at the new PSP GO, it represents the direction that Executives are thinking. Unfortunately for them, I can predict that the PSP GO will FLIP FLOP & FIZZLE. Personally, a hybrid device (which SONY already has in the original PSP) that can handle physical media and downloads is a much better option.

Lastly...

5) I truly despise the planned prostitution of the gaming community by console designers. If PSP GO gains traction (which I expect it won't) that will be the green light for other consoles to jump off the fence and pimp the remaining gamers.

What do I mean?

We already subscribe to electricity, internet, and an online-gaming account. But with their proposed intentions we're suppose to go buy a console that requires games we can't touch, can't sell, and can't loan to or from a friend.

What should that mean to you? Well in business terms, what it's saying is this...

BUSINESS MAN #1: We need a way to fight the economic crunch the increase sales to get that Christmas bonus looking right.

BUSINESS MAN #2: Hmmm, I know. Let's pimp the gaming community! We'll be digital pimps!

BUSINESS MAN #1: Digital pimps, is that legal?

BUSINESS MAN #2: Sure is, check this out! First, we remove legacy compatibility for older games and accessories so gamers have to buy games for or latest console. Booyah!

BUSINESS MAN #1: Yeah, yeah! Sounding good.

BUSINESS MAN #2: But wait, that's not all! Next, we phase out the physical disc and go all digital-download!

BUSINESS MAN #1: hmmm, but won't the gamers be pissed they can't get their hands on the game?

BUSINESS MAN #2: Dude, they're already downloading them these days, and since we control what the console can do we just make it all digital and the gamers don't have a choice but to get the download instead of the disc. Mo Money, Mo Money!

BUSINESS MAN #1: Music to my ears because you know we'll cut out the fees to distribute DISC's and save money while maintaining the same cost to the gamers. YES! And you already heard about that mail man stealing all our stuff the other day so we won't be seeing that either. SWEET!

BUSINESS MAN #2: I know, I got the best ideas. Sony's PSP GO ripped off my idea big time. But a least we got the name, we're "Digital Pimps" and we're here to prostitute all gamers.

BUSINESS MAN #1: And if anyone asks, we'll say we're doing it for security purposes and for our ease of use... like how the government does with us when they want to make drastic changes we don't necessarily need or want.

(ouch)

Erskin

Is this true? Or is Erskin hallucinating? Share your thoughts.

11/02/09 Ernice Gilbert