New Japanese PSN titles

As if the dearth of content on the European PSN wasn't enough, more and more content seems to be appearing everywhere else. The Japan PSN today received a bumper bag of fun - have a look at this list:

Guilty Gear
King of Fighters ‘95
King of Fighters ‘96
King of Fighters ‘97
Little Princess: Maru Oukoku no Ningyou Hime 2
Real Bout Garou Densetsu Special: Dominated Mind
Samurai Spirits: Kenkaku Yubinan Pack
Septentrion
Spectral Force 2
Spectral Tower
Suna no Embrace
XI (Sai) demo (aka Devil Dice) *released for free.

Sigh. Q*Bert anyone?

New Street Fighter 2 HD Remix

Ryu Ken! Ryu Ken! Tatsu Hadoken!! Ah yes, those words bring back many happy memories. From the days when you played games until your fingers were so blistered that you just couldn't take any more... ok, maybe one last round ;o). Street Fighter 2 is a game that always brings a smile to my face, and it would appear that the game is headed for 1080p goodness on PS3. Check out Brian Dunn's blog here, and expect more artwork and goodies to appear there over the course of the games development. This image is the first one released, with all the characters, backgrounds and animation getting a make over. Chun Li in HD?! Fight!!

Lair renamed, more screens

Lair has a lot resting on it's shoulders. It's one of the games that PS3 owners point to when trying to convince friends and family that yes, the system really was worth £425.

In Japan where everything is just that little bit different, the game has got a new name: Rise From Lair. Coolio! So far the European and US name remains Lair. You can see some new screens here. Let's hope it's not rubbish. That would be bad....

Ps Don't worry, that picture isn't from the game ;o)

Championship Sprint Hits US

PS3 owners in the US can now download the classic top-down racer Championship Sprint. The game will cost you the paltry sum of $4.99. European gamers will be surprised to hear that out PSN Store has been updated with exactly fuck all. Thanks Sony, we love ya!!

Insomniac Grilled

Three Speech have done a nice interview with Insomniac, Ratchet & Clank and Resistance creators. As well as confirming some technical details on how the new R&C game is shaping up, they also confirm that they have plans to develop a PSN downloadable title. Read all about it here.

Blu-Ray Humps HD-DVD?

Oh ah! It appears that the release of the PS3 has helped the cause of Blu-Ray in Europe. No real surprise really, especially when you consider what the PS2 did for DVD. North America and Europe both showed spikes in Blu-Ray sales following the PS3's arrival, and the format has continued to perform well. The week of the PS3 launch saw BR account for 87% of all HD sales, and has remained ahead of HD DVD ever since. BR is so far responsible for 67% of the total sales of HD disks so far this year.

Friday for Folklore demo in Japan

While Europe sits around on it's collective hands waiting for something (anything!!) worthwhile to arrive in the PSN Store, our Japanese pals can look forward to a new demo on Friday. Folklore will weigh in at 1,019 MB but at the moment that's about as much as we know. Exciting isn't it?

We reported a few days ago that the demo would be arriving in June, but we didn't realise that meant June 1st. That's efficient isn't it? If you haven't yet set up your own Japanese PSN account you could always console yourself with a few games of Q*Bert. Hmmm.

PS3 price drop meaningless, BoA

Ah yes, I do love it when big money corporations talk about games. It's the price that we seem to have paid for the industry going completely barmy and becoming so mainstream. Oddly enough I don't remember analysts making statements about the Speccy v C64 war. Sign of the times folks.

This time it's Bank of America bringing us the undoubted benefit of their wisdom, with Michael L. Savner having this to say on the PS3's current 'sales problems',

"Despite growing anticipation that a $100 price cut for the PS3 is imminent this summer or early fall, we do not believe such a move would meaningfully improve stagnant PS3 sales and we are growing more concerned that a share shift away from Sony and Microsoft to Nintendo's Wii platform is incrementally negative of all third-party publishers,".

Lordy! But that's not all...

"Based on our analysis, we conclude that a $100 price cut for the PS3 (we have dismissed a potential $50 cut as meaningless) would still leave the 'all-in' cost for a PS3 console and basic accoutrements 20-25% higher than the comparable Xbox 360, and does not even reflect the possibility that Microsoft could also lower its hardware prices. Further, an important driver of Sony hardware last cycle was exclusive games, such as Grand Theft Auto. Unfortunately, Sony does not have a similar advantage this cycle. Halo 3, a highly anticipated game release this year is a Microsoft-published game only for the Xbox, and Grand Theft Auto IV, by Take-Two's Rockstar unit, is being released on both the Sony and Xbox platforms."

Hmm. It's easy to read this and think, "yeah right, now fuck off back to your Excel spreadsheets", but maybe this guy has a point. Time will tell, but I suspect that the $200 price drop that Savner suggests may well be met with hysterical laughter from Sony. Now, back to my spreadsheets.

Silent Hill 5 this year? Yeah right...

The games industry is one littered with rumour, counter roumour and complete rubbish. Most stories fall under the "Highly Speculative" category, some actually have some foundation in truth and a very few are bang on. It's easy really. Let's try it.

"Halo 4 released Christmas 2010!!!"

Do I have any facts to support this? Course not. Easy isn't it?! Ok, let's put our cynical heads to one side for a moment. Rumours of the next installment of everyone's favourite pant filler Silent Hill are discussed in an an interview between Electric Shock Magazine and Konami chief director Masashi Tsuboyama. Tsuboyama neatly avoids actually saying anything concrete about the game, even stopping short of confirming that the game would make E3. TGS 08? Maybe... I wouldn't like to speculate :o)

FIFA v PES Mind Games Round 1

The battle between EA's FIFA series amd the Konami beast that is Pro Evolution Soccer has been raging for some time. Like the Mortal Kombat v Street Fighter arguements of yester year, PES and FIFA each have their own fans.

EA have been talking to MCV, a trade magazine here in the UK, and EA Marketing Manager Dan Holman couldn't resist a little snipe,

"I'm happy to say that we're comfortably on top in the whole FIFA vs Pro Evolution Soccer battle, our market share has kept on increasing over the past three years, and more and more core gamers are being converted to FIFA all the time."

Hmm. Certainly the gameplay gap has narrowed between the two, as EA has striven to copy the PES formula. But more sales do not, we would suggest, mean a better game. EA will still need to pull out all the stops if they are to exclipse PES as the more discerning gamers number one footie game.

Xbox 360 Failure Rates Soar

Having had two Xbox 360s fail on me before I gave up and refused to get another one, this article interested me. Basically it's GamesIndustry.biz letting off a ittle steam about the hardware failures and the incredibly poor way that MS have dealt with them. Anyone who has been left on hold for hours on end waiting to find out if anyone at the MS end knows where their console is will agree with a lot of what they say. Antway, if you are thinking about picking up 360 it might be worth a read.

PS3 Releases

This week Euro PS3 owners can look forward to... well... nothing. No new games this week. In fact you have 18 days to wait before a new game appears for the system. And that's Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Let's hope that Sony go some way to filling this void by giving us something worthwile in the PSN Store. For a change. Must try harder Sony.

Elsewhere Asia has no releases while America gets Surf's Up. This is a dream come true for any gamer who has always wondered what it would be like to be a surfing penguin. Is that a Linux reference?! ;o)

Sony Sued Again

Phases. We all go through them. For a while I liked Southern Comfort. I wore eyeliner for a bit. I even had an Xbox 360 phase(!). Sony, it appears, are going throug that phase that some kids experience, where they steal stuff. Not just sweets from the local shop though. Oh no. Sony are into technology. First it was Rumble technology. Now it seems to be Blu-Ray.

Target Technology, a company based in California, is taking legal action against Sony over its technology being used in the thin alloy film coating on Sony's Blu-ray discs. Oops. Sony have just handed $97 million in damages to Immersion Corporation after loosing a recent fight over the force-feedback technology used in the Dual Shock 2 controller.

Still, maybe they'll grow out of it. I wonder if I still have that eyeliner...

Folklore Demo in June

According to watch.impress the Japanese PSN Store is to get a playable demo of Folklore In June. The game looks a little like a grown up Pokemon type thing. With pad waving. Ok, so it sounds better than that. Much better. And the visuals look pretty tidy too. If you don't have a Japanese PSN account yet, looks like you will need one in June.

Resistance Opens Servers

This might not be the best news you have ever heard. depending on your experience of playing on open servers. R:FoM is to get open servers. In other words rather than just playing against people from your own country you will soon be able to get "Totally fucking owned you fucking newb!!" by our friends in other countries. Smashing. You want my advise? You have a Friends List. Use it.

New GT 5 Details?

French games magazine Joypad are currently running an interview that they scooped with Gran Turismo series creator and Polophony Digital boss Kazunori Yamauchi. The mag suggests that...

• All cars and tracks from GT4 will be included in GT5
• More cars and tracks should be downloadable
• There will be 4 driving views
• Damage for the race cars(!)
• All Ferrari & F1 cars
• New city tracks
• Online drivers 12-20
• Changing weather during races

How much of this is true remains unclear until we learn French. Merde!