Joystiq Street Fighter IV demo!

PS3 Blog gives us some video time with Street Fighter IV!

Killzone 2 from Sony Gamers Day

RE 5 feature from Gamevideos and Capcom

Phil Harrison leaves Sony on Feb. 29

No good can come from this:

"Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. today announced that Phil Harrison, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios will be resigning from his post Feb. 29. President and SCEI group CEO Kazuo Hirai will be taking over Harrison’s duties at that time. Neither Harrison nor the company are commenting on the reason for his departure. The timing is seemingly strange, however, with the PlayStation 3 enjoying a renewed popularity in recent months." Gameinformer online...

Phil Harrison was a visionary at Sony and his loss will certainly effect the future of the company and the viability of the PS3 as a whole. It makes me wonder what the circumstances of his departure are.

Jaffe Shows off Twisted Metal Head-On for the PS2?

Today. Playstation Blog had the exclusive story on David Jaffe and the first project from Eat Sleep Play. This game is for the PS2... Yes, you heard right. It's for the PS2! Seems Jaffe and crew can't get over their old console home. I hope one of these design geniuses will head over to a modern console. Yes, there certainly are plenty of PS2s out there; But considering some of the new Playstation 3s won't have backwards compatibility, there probably won't be as many customers out there as they might hope by the time this game releases.

Hopefully, Jaffe's next project will be for the PS3....

Discovery Channel's Rise of Video Games: It started out as history, what is it now?

" LEVEL TWO

• Premiere: Wednesday, Nov. 28, at 8 p.m. ET/PT
  In the late 1970s and 1980s, instead of controlling "things" like spaceships and tennis rackets, videogame technology let players command recognizable characters with real faces and back stories. Game developers were liberated to create more complex video games with heroic journeys — and Japanese creators like Shigeru Miyamoto rose to prominence with star characters Mario, Donkey Kong and Zelda. But in the 1990s, Generation X emerged and the games of their childhood couldn't satisfy the new teen angst that now permeated pop culture. With Sega's Genesis and Sony's PlayStation, gamers dismissed cutesy cartoon characters in favor of grittier heroes like Sonic the Hedgehog and anti-heroes in games like Grand Theft Auto III. As players grew up, their youthful idealism was replaced with a warier view of the world and a yearning for photorealistic, angry anti-heroes. This episode features interviews with Trip Hawkins (Silicon Valley entrepreneur and co-founder of Electronic Arts), Al Lowe (creator of Leisure Suit Larry), Tim Schafer (creator of Full Throttle) and other notable figures in the gaming industry."Discoverychannel...

OK, the first show was pretty bad. But this show? Who wrote this? The show begins where it left off. But when they reach the Playstation One they go directly to the present. Talking about the newest technology and trying to talk about how Hollywood has taken notice. The main theme of the show seems to be about stories in games. They try to say that Super Mario Brothers has a story? What story is that? Save the princess? I suppose that's a story. For a 2nd grader.

There is much hyperbole about how important games are becoming in the larger medium and I really hate to say that this is really an exaggeration. The mass media industries aren't taking any more notice of video games than just another form to publicize their latest film or try in some pathetic attempt to get more money out of people who play games. It's not about excitement or passion folks, it's about money. This also makes me wonder, if games are so important why isn't this show on CBS, ABC, or NBC rather than Discovery Channel?

I know I've been hard on this show. I am really happy it exists. I just wish it was better. But since it became cool to have shows about video games on cable, isn't that what we all have wanted...

Fatal Inertia delayed for PS3? Cool!

"Oh, Fatal Inertia. Once announced as a PlayStation 3 exclusive launch title by Koei, the Unreal Engine 3-powered racer eventually went multi-platform and released on Xbox 360 first, while the company struggled to get the PS3 version up to speed. The recent completion of Unreal Tournament III on PS3 means studios should have an easier time developing on Sony's hardware with Epic Games' engine, but that doesn't help the dozens and dozens of companies who have been attempting to make it work now.

Koei recently issues an updated release schedule to the media, with Fatal Inertia conspicuously absent from the list. When asked, the publisher said there was no formal release date for the futuristic racer, but they expected the PS3 version to arrive sometime in Spring 2008. There's no word on if the PS3 version will include additional content, but given the delays have been technical issues, we wouldn't rule it out.

You can get a taste of the game right now, however, by logging into Xbox Live and downloading the demo."1UP...

OK folks, I'm not being a party poop here. I just want everyone to realize that Fatal Inertia for the XBOX 360 was all most DOA. The game is just really in need of some major tweaking and maybe even some control changes. The longer the developers have with the game, the better. I hope the game comes out next summer completely overhauled and 180 degrees better.

Holy Release Dates! Unreal Tournament 3 due out in December!

"My guess is that Midway will start shipping the title to North American retailers on Monday, December 10th," said Rein. "It could show up in stores as early as December 11th but more likely toward the middle of that week."Gamespot

This is amazing news! This game really had a snowballs chance and now for it to arrive on the estimated date that was given by retailers is wonderful... Prepare to frag this Christmas, an awesome first person shooter on PS3. Good to see yet another good game for the PS3 coming in 2007. Ratchet and Clank, Uncharted Drakes Fortune, and Call of Duty 4. Not much, but good enough....

"Only On" PS3 Ad

Unreal Tournament 3 site Updated!

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	Hey UT Fans, Make sure you check out a major update to the Unreal Tournament 3 website today. We have included new vehicles, characters, weapons, game info and more cool stuff. More updates to come too! Don't forget that the release of the PC version is right around the corner. Here is another outstanding wallpaper image of some Concept Art from UT3 to wet your appetite!

Penny Arcade and Ratchet and Clank. Yeah!

Sony's got an Ad Campaign that might help Business. Or not!

Article on PS3 campaign is basically about them bringing back the cool white room campaign. But they are trying to turn it into something mass market and that is scary. Not the good kind of scary that they had going last year, a bad kind of scary. Like clowns and large annoying teachers who want you to write three papers in one week scary.
They are going to be highlighting their system selling games: Uncharted Drake's Fortune, Heavenly Sword, Ratchet and Clank Future Tools of Destruction. These are more or less ALL their games coming out this fall other than Haze and all their multiplatform games. Which, of course, they can't count on any of these coming out except for the ones listed above. So that is probably why they are focusing on them.

Playstation Blog Updates us with Warhawk 1.1 patch info!

Click here folks for the full run down. All of this is great and this really does show that developers are really committed to their online properties on the PSN. I'm hoping that this trend continues because the next big game coming to PSN is Unreal Tournament 3 and developer participation there will be a requirement.

Capcom's BIG Announcement! Lost Planet?

Capcom's announcement from 1UP"Capcom Reveals New Games, IP in London
Lost Planet PS3, sci-fi Dark Void, SF2 HD delay, more.
By Patrick Klepek, 10/17/2007
What happened in London was supposed to stay in London until embargoes expired, but Games Radar defied the marketing folks at Capcom this morning and published a story detailing many of the announcements coming out of their media briefing overseas today. Games Radar has since taken down the article, but the announcements are no less intriguing.

As Street Fighter IV is announced, another is delayed. Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD will not find itself on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network this year, as Capcom works on reducing the effects of lag for online multiplayer. The remake will also introduce true widescreen support and remixed music.

Capcom also revealed a brand-new sci-fi IP, Dark Void. Does Dead Space have some competition? Not much is known about Dark Void, but Games Radar said the trailer showed "third-person and air-vehicle gameplay with a character wearing a steam punk jetpack, skydiving and landing in the cockpit of a gyroscopic aircraft, and then jumping and climbing through airbase fortesses [sic]."

And confirming something we all suspected would happen eventually, Lost Planet is arriving on PlayStation 3 in early 2008. The PS3 version will include all content released over Xbox Live, bonus characters from the PC version and apparently support up to 16 players over PSN.

Additionally, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney made an appearance on Nintendo DS, but we already knew about that one, along with Wii Love Golf from the studio behind Mario Golf.

1UP is at Capcom's event now, but our lips are sealed until later this week -- stay tuned."

Some cool announcements but Lost Planet for the PS3? Is this a big deal? I dunno, I guess I'll give it a shot, but it seems a little anticlimactic.

Sony's Rat Race: Trailer!

December, the Last issue of PSM, sort of....

The news that PSM is going the way of the dodo after this month isn't news. But what is news is that they are actually changing the name of the magazine to Playstation: The Official Magazine. Early this month it was announced that Future was bringing Playstation: The Official Magazine out to the US. What wasn't stated was that it is taking the place of PSM. My reviews of PSM have been unfavorable, but I don't think changing the name and maybe including a demo disk are really going to enhance the writing. At least Future isn't in fantasy land about the number of Sony magazines that this market will support. All the best to Future and their new prospects...

Bionic Commando the Next Generation Edition: Exclusive Gamespot Announcement!

Did you want this? I'm not sure I do...

Unreal Story is more Unreal than Planet Unreal knows!

This is from Planet Unreal's Preview of UT3."The PS3 version is indeed scheduled to be released shortly after the PC version, but it’s evident that this isn’t due to any sort of technical difficulty. A PS3 was up and running UT3 along side the PC’s, and it looked to be identical. The difference in release simply comes down to Epic’s desire to get UT3 in stores this November, and it was their choice to favor the loyal PC players first. A Xbox 360 version will come at some time, but specifically when we don’t know."
This is some insane news considering the supposed reason for the delay of the PS3 version IS technical difficulties. I really wonder what the heck is going on. Delaying a game perhaps until February because they want to give their loyal PC fans the game first. Seems a little insane. What this bolsters is the idea that perhaps the PS3 version will be out before the end of 2008.
I would really love to hear more form Epic Games about all this. Definitely would love to hear what the status of the PS3 and Pc versions are now that the demo is out. Also, was the demo simply to get tweaks taken care or to judge server load or what? For a game still scheduled to come out in less than 2 months it would be wonderful to see more information on the game.

Unreal Tournament 3 to out Halo 3, Halo 3!

The demo for Unreal Tournament 3 for the PC just went up today. I downloaded it on the slow and crazy Fileplanet severs and was playing around the time that the demo went active at 3 PM EST. I was probably playing by 3:30. I have an old PC, not in the biblical sense but in the technological sense. It is a single core 2.4 Ghz machine with 512 MB of RAM and a ATI card with 128 MB. I looked it up once a few weeks ago and the PC is worth around $300. The demo runs so smoothly and so quickly that all the reservations I had about buying this game are gone! When I get a new PC I can turn everything up and really enjoy the graphics. But all of the effects are on and a lot of the textures are on. The game runs SO FAST it's like I'm playing the Unreal Tournament 2 on this machine. I just pre-ordered the collector's edition so I can make maps for the PS3 game that is coming out early next year. If this game looks as good as it does on a high end PC and runs as fast as it does on my PC on the PS3. This will be my Game of the Year for 2008 for the PS3. I don't care what else comes out, nothing is going to trump this title.
I was so happy with the gameplay and the speed of the title that really nothing else mattered. The game looks good on my PC but nothing extraordinary. But what is extraordinary is how seamless it runs. There is no slowdown, no screen tearing, it all most runs better than Resistance on the PS3. It is amazing! I forgot how awesome the Unreal Engine 3 is. A game that can scale as much as this does, should be put in some kind of Hall of Fame. I had a tremendous time playing this game. I played both maps offered in my favorite single player Deathmatch. The weapons are awesome and have been tweaked to make them all work and make them all fun.
This will be the first game I've ever bought on the PC and the console. It will be the best $120.00 I've ever spent! If Epic and Midway need more time to get the PS3 version right; I say give them all the time they need. It will be worth it.
Oh yes, I was going to talk about Halo 3 wasn't I? Halo 3 is a great game. I believe I gave it an 8.5/10. The graphics are great and the multiplayer gameplay is one of the best ever. But if Unreal Tournament 3 came out on the PS3 this holiday season with the proper hype it would beat the living stuffing out of Halo 3. Fortunately for Microsoft and Bungie they have been given a reprieve. If there was a game that would be system seller for the PS3, this is the game to do it.
I've seen plenty of footage from the game's modes and the extensive multiplayer that absolutely nothing Halo 3 can offer to compete with it. There is a tool set that comes with Unreal Tournament 3 that will allow the player to create everything from new maps to new GAMES ALL TOGETHER! All of this certainly pales in comparison to the features that Halo 3 has. If the reviewers thought that Halo 3 was a great value. they haven't seen anything yet. The biggest question is what features will the XBOX 360 version of Unreal Tournament 3 have? Will it be stripped out version because of the closed network that is XBOX LIVE?
Just as I thought, though the game is probably doomed because Epic and Midway don't usually sink the money necessary to hype a game the way that Microsoft did. Obviously Sony isn't helping them very much either. This should be the flagship title for the PS3 and Sony doesn't seem to worried about the fact that it isn't coming out this holiday season. They have Haze after all... I'm sure Haze will do about as well as Blacksite Area 51. OK, but nothing special.
Unreal Tournament 3 should be bigger than Killzone 2. But the hype just hasn't been there. If Midway would put some money behind this title and get some commercials and maybe a hardcore gaming tournament, featuring Unreal Tournament 3 it might really help sales. Instead of assuming everyone knows how great UT3 is, maybe Midway, Sony, and Epic need to be sure people can't miss it.
Halo might be big, but Unreal was big before the XBOX even existed. With it's latest installment it could be the BIGGEST of all. XBOX 360 is the shooter platorm, Midway needs to push this game on to the 360 as soon as they can after the PS3. With the higher install base and the interests of that install base it is necessary. Whatever they need to do to fix everything so that games can be uploaded on to the 360 needs to be done. Whatever network sharing, hyperthreading, whatever needs to be done. It will be good practice for when new content comes out for the Orange Box later next year.
Microsoft needs to get a grip on this whole closed network thing and figure out how they can have a secure environment and a place for players and developers to share software and information. You know. the way they did with EA.
Until then, Halo 3 might be KING but the REVOLUTION IS COMING!