I don’t mean to alarm you, PAL users, but if you turn on your PS3s and head to the PlayStation Store, you’ll notice something. Content. New content. Games, demos, music, even Rock Band content. I know, it’s a shock, but if you start at Prince of Persia Classic and work your way down from there, one item at a time, taking it nice and easy, you should be OK.
During the 1970s and early 1980s, Burt Reynolds was one of the biggest actors in Hollywood, starring in classics like Deliverance and Smokey and the Bandit. The guy even released a solo album and posed in the buff in magazine Cosmopolitan. He was a superstar! As a superstar, he knows all about stardom. No wonder Microsoft has roped in Reynolds for promoting its interactive game You’re in the Movies. Says Reynolds:
It’s great to be able to share some of my experience with everyone about what it takes to be a movie star. You’re in the Movies on Xbox 360 allows everyone to have a piece of the action and have a fun time with their friends and family, staring in their own features, from the comfort of their own homes.
And they don’t even have to pose naked on dead animal pelts in Cosmo! The 70-plus-year-old Reynolds will be appearing the game’s TV spots fully clothed (we hope). Press release after the jump. Burt Reynolds above. Naked.
Kratos, that-chick-from-Heavenly-Sword, Sephiroth, Snake…don’t ever say Sony aren’t getting right behind the idea of cross-promoting their games through LittleBigPlanet sackboys. Today, for example, we hear they’ve added another PlayStation mascot to the game. Say hello to the sackboy version of Piposaru, star of the Ape Escape series. He’ll be a bonus for Japanese consumers picking up early copies of the game. Kinda like the spacesuit/tshirt offer in the US, only with a cheeky monkey.
This can’t be good. Just as with the PSP, hackers have, well, hacked Home and apparently decrypted Home’s beta client. Because of hacker StreetskaterFU’s handiwork, approximately 9000 unencrypted files are available for someone’s viewing pleasure. As website PS3HaX points out: “These files can help us better understand PS3 games and the PS3 network structure.” This is backend stuff, but the hack lays the ground work for exploits like possible ways to take advantage of the in-game XMB and maybe one day offers the ability to enable homebrew applications and game backups sans hard drive swapping.
The Wii’s onboard storage is meagre. Doesn’t get the job done. The console’s compatibility with SD cards helps, but is hampered somewhat by the Wii’s inability to read cards larger than 2GB. So let’s get around that, shall we? A CAG user shows us how, a process that basically involves loading a 4GB card with 2GB of dummy files, inserting it then deleting the dummy files, letting you use it. Which effectively doubles your storage space. Handy!
Forget for a moment that we called 2007 “The Year of the PSP.” Somebody, somewhere *must* have called 2008 “The Year of the PSP” as well. Sony is now claiming that next year, 2009, will be “The Year of the PSP.” The new PSP-3000 has been released, and the company is bullish on upcoming titles. Says PlayStation Canada mouthpiece Matt Levitan, “I also think 2009 is going to be the year of the PSP. We have Resistance: Retribution coming in February but I’ve seen a lot of the stuff in development and it is not a mistake by any means to a buy a PSP now.” That’s right, if you missed picking up a PSP during its last “Year Of The PSP,” make sure you get one during the next “Year of the PSP” or maybe even in “The Year of the PSP” after that.
While Street Fighter IV is definitely coming to consoles this “Summer”, the future of the PC version’s not looking so rosy. While a PC iteration of the hotly-anticipated fighting game is still on the cards, Capcom can’t commit to even the vaguest of release windows, instead saying only that the “PC version is in the works, but will come post-console release”. Disappointing, but really, how many of you are really going to be playing a Street Fighter game on PC?
No doubt, one of this year’s biggest releases is Gears of War 2. Microsoft and developer Epic clearly have expectations, things they’d like to achieve. But it’s got to be more than simply making money and milking a nascent franchise. The game’s designer, Dude Huge, offers this:
Another game movie incoming. EA Montreal developer third person shooter Army of Two has been licensed for film to movie studio Universal. EA is attached as the film’s producer, which is a first for the publisher. Scribe Scott Z. Burns (The Bourne Ultimate) will take writing duties, and producer Scott Stuber is also attached. He previously was attached to the Halo flick. Burns talks about the film version:
Very nice chase video promo for the upcoming Need for Speed Undercover. Hot cars, great look. Of course, all those camera angles make for more style than substance of what the game will really feel like, but let’s say something out loud and hope EA hears it — a replay mode that features a sexy AI cameraman to zoom around a chase like this would be HOT.
