My dad loves football, but he finds football video games too complicated. I can’t really blame him either; I’ve tried to get him into Madden, but when you really break the 800 LB gorilla of a gaming franchise down, it’s tough to explain; even if it is second nature when playing. That’s exactly why NFL Blitz works so well — it’s America’s favorite game (Yeah, that’s right, I said it baseball) boiled down to its most basic elements.

Now, after years of being absent, the arcade style footballer returns; in all of its glory — well, sort of. It’s still just as frantic and fun as you remember, but it also comes during a turbulent time in the NFL, once that changes the very landscape and identity of what NFL Blitz is. Still, if you have even the slightest love for NFL Football, Blitz is a blast, especially played with friends.

If you’ve never played NFL Blitz, it’s basically a suped up version of Madden. The players are bigger and ripped with muscles and the plays more explosive. The game nixes strategy and philosophy for over-the-top action and adrenaline. In Blitz, there are no penalties, teams can catch on fire and it takes 30 yards for a first down rather than the standard ten yards.

The action in Blitz is fast, fun and in-your-face. It’s not uncommon to have score upwards of 30 points in the first quarter, and you’re bound to jump off your feet at least a few times. This is where Blitz excels, there’s never really a dull moment, and it gets even better when you’re playing against friends. This is the type of game that friendships are tested on, as it’s extremely fun to play against your friends in Blitz. Think throwing the game winning hail mary in Madden is fun? Imagine the thrill of doing it in Blitz, complete with players on fire and jumping clean over their opponents.

The most impressive aspect of Blitz is how much it retains the original arcade feel. Games are quick and easy for anyone to jump in and pick up and play. Perhaps more impressive, they’re also just as easy for anyone to win. It’s this accessibility that seems to be missing from most other current gen sports games. Blitz even features the old school Midway style codes to be entered at the versus screen for effects like different stadiums, characters and effects.

This isn’t however, the NFL Blitz of old, not completely anyways. The NFL is a much different league than we saw when the last entry in the series was released and that’s something that Blitz both falls victim to and benefits from at the same time. This season, the NFL has been tougher on late hits, and as a result, you won’t be able to stop your opponent’s touchdown celebration with a late, bone jarring hit. Sure, the hits in Blitz are ferocious enough, (come on, I delivered a piledriver to a Quarterback during a sack) but the late hits were a big part of the original games.

Aside from the Play Now option, you’re bound to get the majority of playtime from the game’s Blitz Gauntlet mode. Similar to modes found in games like NBA Jam and Mortal Kombat, you’ll face off with teams in a ladder format, with bosses mixed in. These bosses range from fictional characters (zombies) to team inspired creations (my Packers for instance had to face off with guys in overalls, Packer Jerseys and cheeseheads). These boss battles also feature powerups spread throughout the field, which makes them feel different than your standard games. There’s also a trading card game similar to that found in Madden, but I didn’t like it there and I don’t here either.

Tim Kitzrow from the original Blitz and NBA Jam games makes his return, and is just as entertaining as ever. Him and his announcing partner openly mock pop culture, including games, which includes Blitz. My favorite was when the two said that next year they’re going to audition for Madden because it pays more. Visually, NFL Blitz is on par with what you’d expect, though I was a bit disappointed at the lack of detail in some of the player’s faces. Sure, sometimes Aaron Rodgers looks like himself in the game, but others he just looks like another nameless, faceless NFL Quarterback.

The Blast Factor:NFL Blitz proves that arcade style sports gaming still has a place in modern gaming. It’s a blast to play, especially with other human players, and its accessibility makes it easy for just about anyone to jump in and play. . If you’ve got even the most slightest affinity for the sport or multiplayer gaming — you owe it to yourself to check out this modern day revival.

Alright, stop me if you’ve heard this one before. The PlayStation Network, the online network that’s home to all of Sony’s PS3 and PSP downloads is down. The good news is that it seems that this doesn’t seem to be as big of a problem as the outage that took the network offline for months earlier this year.

“We’re aware that some of you are having issues trying to log into PSN. We’re working to resolve the issue, and we’ll update you here,” Sony Tweeted on it’s official PlayStation account. The Twitter account has been updated saying that the service should be back up and running in a matrer of hours.

Based on the Comedy Central animated series created by Devin Clark, Ugly Americans Apocolypsegeddon is a multiplayer twin-stick  shooter, allowing up to four people to tangle with the hordes of the undead and demonic that are attempting to bring about the end of the world. Players can choose one of four protagonists from the show, Mark (the human), Leonard (a drunk wizard), Callie (a demon girl), or Grimes (a cop). Each character has their own special abilities, and can level up a list of attributes and gain access to thirty different weapons.

The end of days is coming to New York City and its up to you to put a stop to it… again. Ugly Americans progresses smoothly from an opening cutscene to set the mood, straight into the first chapter of your journey.The flow of the game works relatively well, setting the chapter up, playing through a level and ending with a boss fight. Each boss fight demands that the player figure out the bosses patterns and attacks, but most of the fights can be won by simply circling around the level and shooting. With a top-down viewpoint, gamers move their way through a variety of levels ranging from a side-scrolling cityscape to a enclosed club setting with a giant cross-dressing demon named Bethany charging after you and blasting your characters with techno music.

The gameplay itself is pretty standard; move your character with the left analog stick, shoot with the right, release a special attack with the right bumper. The game is easy to learn and quick to master, but unfortunately, the easy to learn, repetitive style of play is also easy to get bored with, even with the shifting levels and interesting looking bosses to contend with. Each of the playable characters all eventually end up feeling the same, and with the exception of their special attack essentially don’t differentiate from one another. The attributes and stats that come with leveling up are also pretty standard (strength, health points, agility, etc). Throughout the levels, players can also pick up items to help boost these stats such as Demon Babies that give you a permanent buff while you’re carrying them. The weapons, while very intriguing and humorous, are all very similar. High fire rate weapons equal less damage, while slow firing weapons do more, so essentially the only weapons that need to be used are the heavy hitters, as the majority of the fights in the game consist of players trying to knock down a giant health bar while circling the enemy.

The Blast Factor: Ugly Americans is a game that clearly caters to fans of the show. With a script written by the creator, the game falls a little flat on those looking for an interesting twin-stick shooter to have fun with. The linear feel of the levels leading up to the eventuality of a boss fight, players might very well feel a sense of disappointment or perhaps even boredom as they progress through the game. The multiplayer aspect is one of the redeeming qualities of the game, but it is difficult to actually get a four player matchup as so few people are playing it.

You? How about you? I see a few hands there.

Blast Magazine is partnering with Sony to hand out a slew of beta invites for the upcoming Resistance 3 multiplayer beta kicking off August 4.  How do you win? Just enter a comment on this post and you’ll automatically be entered. You can post as many times as you want, but you’ll only be entered once.  Please note, these codes are for users with North American PSN accounts only.

Oh and be sure to follow me on Twitter @JoeSinicki. I’ll be slinging codes there every now and then as well.

Winners will be chosen sometime Monday! Good luck!

One of our favorite game’s from this year’s E3 was Starhawk. The PS3 exclusive quasi western-space shooter featured an original concept and more importantly was incredibly fun to play.  Now, here’s a new look at one of the game’s cinnematics, which introduces us to Mercenary Emmet Graves.

StarHawk is expected to launch later this year on the PS3.

The PlayStation Network has been back up for over a month now, but that hasn’t done much to ease people’s fears about their personal data getting stolen in another crippling attack — so much so that sales of prepaid cards for the service are reportedly up.

Well, at least that’s what Capcom Europe head David Reeves says . “We have seen on PSN, and probably Sony are in a better place to tell you this, that there is a resurgence in people buying the generic PSN cards in retail stores rather than putting up their credit card details,” said Reeves.”People are playing it a bit safe at the moment because the hackers will be back [laughs], that’s my personal opinion. I mean … they will right?”

So have you stopped using your credit card on PSN?

Sega sent out an e-mail this morning to users of its Sega-Pass service informing them that an “unauthorized entry” had been detected in the system and as a result, was taking the service offline. The good news? According to the publisher, all payment issue is stored on a separate server, so no payment information was stolen.

“We have identified that a subset of SEGA Pass members emails addresses, dates of birth and encrypted passwords were obtained,” the email warns. “To stress, none of the passwords obtained were stored in plain text,”

Sadly, stories of video game companies getting hacked are all too familiar this year. Starting with the massive hack that took down Sony’s PlayStation Network, a number of high profile companies have been the victims of hacks  including Bioware and Nintendo.

I really liked L.A. Noire, and more of it is never a bad thing, especially when it comes this quick.

Starting today, players will be able to download a number of add-ons for the game. “The Naked City” DLC case ($4.00 for PSN/320 Microsoft Points), “A Slip of The Tongue” DLC case ($4.00/320 Microsoft Points), Broderick Detective Suit and Gun ($1.00/80 Microsoft Points), Sharpshooter Detective Suit and Gun ($1.00/80 Microsoft Points), The Badge Pursuit Challenge ($2.00/160 Microsoft Points), and Chicago Piano Machine Gun (free community unlock) are all available.

On June 21st, The “Nicholson Electroplating Disaster” DLC will launch, with “Reefer Madness” hitting on July 12.

“With its blend of real crime influences and noir atmosphere, L.A. Noire contains boundless potential for new stories and new cases,” said Sam Houser, founder of Rockstar Games, in an official press release received by Blast. “The four new cases are strong standalone stories that sit perfectly alongside the main game.”

Don’t want to pay for each piece of DLC separately? The Rockstar Pass, which costs only $10 is now available and allows users to pick up all of the DLC as it becomes available; netting you a 50% savings. After this week, the pass goes up to $12.

Go get ‘em detective.

What’s better than one Batman? Try a bunch of different Bat-men. Such is the hope of Monolith Productions, who unveiled Gotham City Impostors, a new multiplayer game featuring the caped crusader set to hit PC, PSN and Xbox Live.

Players take the side of either the Batz, modeled after Gotham’s Dark Knight, or the Jokerz — guess who they’re modeled after. Since the game is multiplayer only, there’s no huge Arkham Asylum story, but there is a bit of one tying everything together; it turns out a group of concerned citizens have put on a Batman cowl because they’re sick of the Joker and his minnions.

The game is described as being somewhat like Team Fortress 2, with quick matches and easy to pick up and play controls.

No date or price has been announced for the game as of yet, but expect to see more at E3 in June.

Shortly after midnight Pacific Time, Sony announced that they had begun systematically restoring PlayStation Network services. Upon logging in, users will be required to download the latest firmware, as well as change their account password.

This mornings reactivation restores most, but not all of the provided services after the PSN network was hacked last month. As of this morning, users will be able to play online, chat, use friends lists, compare trophies, use PlayStation Home, as well as any of the services video functionality including Hulu Plus and Netflix. The PlayStation store will b restored at a later date.

The following video was also posted on the official PlayStation blog featuring the company’s Computer Entertainment head Kazuo Hirai explaining the process of restoring the network.

Square Enix, the publisher behind games like Chrono Trigger and the Final Fantasy series has confirmed that they have been the victims of a hack — one that resulted in over 25,000 e-mail addresses and 350 resumes being compromised.

“Square Enix can confirm a group of hackers gained access to parts of our Eidosmontreal.com website as well as two of our product sites,” said a Square Enix representative. Reportedly the hack was focused on sites for fan favorite series Dues Ex.

“We immediately took the sites offline to assess how this had happened and what had been accessed, then took further measures to increase the security of these and all of our websites, before allowing the sites to go live again. We take the security of our websites extremely seriously and employ strict measures, which we test regularly, to guard against this sort of incident.”

The infamous Hacker group known as Anonymous has been linked to the attack.

The New York State Attorney General  Eric Schneiderman has reportedly subpoenaed Sony regarding the highly public hack that has left the PlayStation network inoperable since mid April Bloomberg reports.

Bloomberg reports that the Attorney General is specifically looking into what Sony told consumers about the security of their network following the breach.

Stick with Blast for more on this, and all of your up to the minute PSN breach news.

photo courtesy of Rueters

Sony executives, led by Kaz Herai, the company’s Executive Deputy President held a press conference this morning in Tokyo to finally talk publicly about the intrusion that has crippled the PlayStation Network since last month. The executives apologized deeply to the crowd, and thanked them for their continued support.

There is some good news on the horizon for PlayStation owners though. Sony announced via that some services will be back up and running this week such as:

• Restoration of Online game-play across the PlayStation®3 (PS3) and PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) systems
  -This includes titles requiring online verification and downloaded games
• Access to Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity for PS3/PSP for existing subscribers
• Access to account management and password reset
• Access to download un-expired Movie Rentals on PS3, PSP and MediaGo
• PlayStation®Home
• Friends List
• Chat Functionality

They go on to announce that they are working on building a much more secure network  such as:

• Added automated software monitoring and configuration management to help defend against new attacks
• Enhanced levels of data protection and encryption
• Enhanced ability to detect software intrusions within the network, unauthorized access and unusual activity patterns
• Implementation of additional firewalls

They are even instituting a new customer appreciation program geared towards customer loyalty as well as a way to say thank you for sticking around.

But with this good news also comes the bad. According to PC World, users are already experiencing the fallout from the cyber-hackers from erroneous charges on credit cards from a plane ticket to Germany as well as groceries being purchased in Japan.

Overall this was a nightmare for PSN users and the company and all at the hands of cyber-hackers. The company did the best they could by shutting the service down as quick as possible, but 10 days later, there is still no PSN for the users, though with the latest news the system is almost up and running. And that is probably the best news of all.

Additional reporting by Joe Sinicki

For those unlucky enough to have a Sony Playstation 3, at the moment, then you know that as of today, that things are not good for the company. Or the users.

For the past week and half, the Playstation Network (its online services such as online play, Netflix, etc.) has been experiencing issues, but without any ETA provided by the company as to when it will be fixed when the issues first issued.

This is not good news by any means, and the blog goes more into detail about what can be done. The good thing is that with this announcement today, they have also given an ETA as to when the Network will be up and running, which should be within the week, but is too little late

Here’s your first look at Atari’s upcoming downloadable Ghostbusters title Sanctum of Slime. The game will hit PSN, Xbox Live and PSN in Spring of 2011 and casts players in the role of a rookie Ghostbuster hired by the team from the original film to help prevent a paranormal tragedy. Wait, something about that feels so familiar.

Oh well, check out the never before released trailer and screens below.

The PSN store is fast becoming the premiere testing ground for smaller indie games. For every Limbo that Microsoft throws into the spotlight, Sony usually has three other strange, yet lovable little games available that you should also be playing. Such is the case with Hoard, the latest to hit the PS3 download scene.

Essentially a cross between a strategic, dual-stick shooter and a board game, Hoard pits up to four dragons against each other over a medieval landscape in a contest of wealth and plunder. The gameplay is, at heart, pretty simple. You fly around an overhead map, attacking villages, caravans, castles, and other human constructions, pick up the gold left behind from the attack, and bring it back to your lair. The dragon with the most gold at the end of the game wins. Easy-peasy.

There are variations on the theme, of course. One game mode focuses on kidnapping and ransoming princess, for instance. Anytime you put a royal damsel in distress, the pesky humans will send out knights (aka, fried food) to rescue her. Hold on to the gal long enough and the humans give up and just provide the ransom instead. As it turns out, this is an incredibly lucrative career choice, as those princesses are worth lots of gold.

The interaction with towns is an area of particular creativity in Hoard. Sure, you can go around blindly burning everything to the ground, but as is so true in life, if you merely hurt them just enough, the humans will give up and start working for you. So long as you don’t destroy their town center, a conquered town will stop attacking you (while their archers will continue to attack your opponents) and send a steady stream of gold-laden caravans to your lair in what can only be presumed as a pre-Mafia, fantasy protection racket.

Letting towns prosper also makes the pay offs far more substantial. Caravans might start out carrying a few hundred gold, but as the game progresses, will end up containing three or four times as much. Beyond merely attacking towns, caravans, and princesses, the board offers several other creative obstacles. Wizard towers offer tons of gold and even special gems, but are absurdly well protected. One blast from a tower will send your dragon straight back to its lair to regenerate health.

Giants will often appear later in a game and start rampaging against both humans and dragon kind. If you attack one hard enough, it will get distracted and follow you instead of attacking a village. From there, you can potentially lead the idiotic brute to towns protected by other dragons, or just set it off to terrorize the hillsides. There are a lot of little touches like this that affect the gameplay in minor ways, but add up to a level of strategy that will please RTS-centric gamers without completely leaving casual players or newcomers behind.

While there are certainly some layers of depth to Hoard, the game is, at heart, built around the same sensibilities of a board game. There’s no persistent level building from game to game. You build up your dragons stats within a single game, but nothing remains past that. The maps vary in size, but are all fairly small and don’t change in any fashion beyond buildings falling and rising. The whole entertainment value of the game relies entirely on its pick-up-and-play design. Matches last about ten minutes, and then the game kicks you back out to the main menu.

The visuals are more utilitarian than beautiful. Hoard looks fine for what it offers, but the maps are rather bland looking, with simplistic representations of buildings and human units. The single player games consist purely of tutorials or bot-matches, so anyone expecting a story-driven campaign or anything beyond simple multiplayer will be out of luck.

For about $15, Hoard offers a distinctively fun and creative multiplayer game. It’s one of the few games that works equally well whether all players are in the same room or across the globe. Hoard is sure to draw in non-traditional gamers who want a game that mixes easy action with more strategic, slower pacing. That’s not to say Hoard is slow—it’s still all about gathering up as much gold as quickly as possible.

Blast Factor: Hoard is a pretty narrow game. It’s not epic or particularly deep, and is mostly just for players who want a quick match of something different. That said, the game goes about giving players a creatively fun multiplayer experience very well.

Console owners, prepare to become addicted.

This week, at the Social Gaming Summit in London, Rovio CEO Peter Vesterbacka confirmed that console versions of the addictive puzzler Angry Birds, would be released in the next year.

Rovio and publishing partners EA and Chllingo and hoping to follow in the footsteps of PopCap and Plants VS Zombies, which made the transition to console earlier this year, and will be debuting on the Nintendo DS later this year.

Vesterbacka also shot down rumors of an Angry Birds sequel, but did mention that they’ve played with the idea of doing a spin-off title that exlores the game’s story from the pig’s point of view.

Konami’s classic X-Men arcade is finally on its way to consoles. The announcement was made at this week’s New York Comic Con and will come packed with new features.

The updated X-Men arcade will feature six player drop-in, drop out support along remastered visuals and the ability to create custom VS matchups.

No release date has been announced for the anticipated port, but it’s expected to hit before this Christmas.

Check out the announcement trailer below!

The first in a recently announced series of DLC packs coming up for the critcally acclaimed Red Dead Redemption, the ‘Legends and Killers’ pack will be released into the Wild West sometime in early August. It will feature 9 new multiplayer map locations – more than doubling the amount of territories in the existing multiplayer modes, 8 new multiplayer characters from Red Dead Revolver, and a new Tomahawk projectile weapon with corresponding Challenges/ Achievements/ Trophies for both single and multiplayer. It will run $9.99 on PSN or 800 MS Points on XBLA.

In case you haven’t logged on to Xbox Live or the Playstation Network this week, Electronic Arts and Hothead Games have made available a new game called DeathSpank.

DeathSpank is an action-RPG, which blends epic storytelling, addictive gameplay, a whole lot of humor, and randomly enough, evil chickens. The game was developed under the direction of Ron Gilbert, who’s otherwise known as the guy who created the amazing (and hilarious) The Secret of Monkey Island series, so I’ve got to imagine that it’s on-par with some of those great games.

“While DeathSpank is definitely one of the funnier games out there, it’s more than a one trick pony,” said Vlad Ceraldi, Director of Game Development for Hothead Games. “We’ve built a game with fast-paced, addictive combat set in a world that has a tremendous amount of depth that is filled with dynamic characters, colorful environments and tons of cool weapons and loot. And yes, we still have ponies too– trick ponies!”

DeathSpank is rated “T” for teen, and is available now via the PS Network for $14.99 or on Xbox Live Arcade for 1200 Microsoft points.
For more on DeathSpank, please visit, www.deathspank.com

Lost Planet 2 hasn’t even been out a month, and Capcom is already releasing another set of multiplayer maps, early next week. Map Pack #2 will feature the Dockyard Battle and Frozen Wasteland maps, and will be available for download via the PlayStation Store on June 1, and on Xbox Live, Wednesday, June 2.

The Dockyard Battle map drops 16-player multiplayer matches into the overland battleship of Lost Planet 2′s Episode 4. Where as Frozen Wasteland (which I’m admittedly fired up for) will bring back the snowy trenches and imposing tower of the original Lost Planet: Extreme Condition.

Map Pack #2 will be available for $4.99, or 400 Microsoft points.

Well, this is a nice surprise.

Today, we here at Blast were happy to be sent a press release from Sony, informing us that they’ve reached a deal with HBO to bring their original programming to the PlayStation Network’s video on-demand store.

Beginning today, Ps3 owners will be able to download episodes of some of HBO’s finer shows, such as Curb Your Enthusiasm, Big Love, and True Love. New episodes of shows like these, and others such as The Sopranos, will appear on the PSN store every Tuesday.

“The HBO library of premium original content is a perfect example of how PS3 has become the most content rich entertainment platform in the living room,” said Peter Dille, senior vice president, marketing and PlayStation Network for Sony Computer Entertainment America. “When you combine the iconic programming from HBO with the existing TV, film, live sports and original programming available on PlayStation Network,
our customers have access to the content they want, when they want it, at home or on the go with the PSP.”

Individual episodes of most shows will run you 99 cents apiece, where as True Blood will cost $2.99 per episode.

For you PS3 owners who never too them time to watch it when it aired, please, do yourself a favor and download “The Wire” when it becomes available. It’s easily one of the greatest television shows ever produced, and totally worth the cost of about a buck an episode.

EA Sports today announced a demo for the upcoming World Cup themed FIFA title will come to Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network tomorrow and detailed the game’s soundtrack as well.

In the demo, you can play as either Spain or Italy and try out the game’s new Two-Button control mechanic and even save and upload your replays to brag to your mates about.

EA also broke news about the game’s soundtrack and said it’ll feature 28 artists from 20 countries to celebrate the “cultural vibrancy”  of the first World Cup to ever be held in Africa.

As the resident soccer nerd here at Blast, I have to pinch myself almost daily in amazement that this is actually a World Cup year.

A new firmware update for PS3 owners (v3.21) should be available world-wide this week that will, among other less obvious things, disable the ability to use Linux on the device. This option was only available for non-slim models and has apparently given Sony piracy worries. PS3 Linux users can decline the update, but will have their machine’s capabilities severely hampered. Here is a short list of things continued Linux users won’t be able to do:

* use network features that require signing in to PlayStation Network, such as online features of PS3 games and chat

* playback PS3 software titles or Blu-ray Disc videos that require PS3 system software version 3.21 or later

* playback copyright-protected videos that are stored on a media server (when DTCP-IP is enabled under Settings)

* use features and improvements that are only available on PS3 system software 3.21 or later

This shouldn’t be a problem for most, but Linux users who do want to update will need to back up their data. It will be inaccessible following installation of the update.

via: IGN

Developer of the Battlefield series, DICE, announced today that their recent downloadable offering, 1943, has sold 1 million units on XBLA in just 8 months. This makes1943 the fastest to reach the 1 million mark in the service’s history. Thanks to some ingenious marketing and a proven shooter experience that skips many of the bells and whistles typically incorporated with a box title, 1943 has set a very high mark for what can be accomplished in a $15 game. This one lets you fight in 24 player battles on land, at sea and through intense aerial dogfights. It does only have 3 maps, though more are on the way.

Here’s to more awesome shooters on the cheap. Sometimes less is more. 1943 is also available for PSN and soon for PC.

Revealed yesterday at the 2010 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco was TellTale Games’ announcement of Sam and Max Season 3, arriving on the usual suspects, but also the PlayStation Network, a first for the series.

The season, like those before it, will release once every month, starting April 15. This time around it’s called "The Devil’s Playhouse,” and based on the trailer below, we couldn’t be more excited for the downloadable adventure game.

"The Penal Zone” kicks things the five part series off next month when it comes to the PSN, PC and Mac. Nothing for Xbox 360.

More information about the game, and the series, at “The Devil’s Playhouse” game listing at TellTale.

The recently announced non-Tomb Radier game, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, has a new First Look at Gamespot. In addition to this subtle re-branding with the game’s name, the upcoming download-only title for XBLA, PSN, and PC will feature a top-down, fixed camera, rather than the 3rd person camera that was the standard for the Tomb Raider series.

The new screens look really amazing and I can only imagine that the elevated camera position will lend itself to some very acrobatic platforming fun – but, you know, with guns and stuff.  Lara has no release date yet, but we will certainly let you know when she gets one.  Catch all 6 screens and the full preview over at Gamespot.

Kotaku reports the first in a series of Bioshock 2 DLC packs will arrive March 11th for 360, PS3, and PC. The Sinclair Solutions Tester Pack has a multiplayer focus and will include 2 new playable characters, a third weapons upgrade, 5 new masks, 20 new trials, and a rank increase to level 50 (with new Rank Rewards).  The Sinclair Solutions pack will be 400 Msoft points on XBLA and $4.99 on PSN and for PC.

Playstation’s official blog released a new trailer today for the promising LBP-esque exclusive, ModNation Racers.  The trailer features ridiculous new weapons, such as the ‘Camel Jump,’ ”Turntable of Destruction,’ ‘Barrel Launcher’ and many more.

ModNation Racers features fully customizable drivers, karts and tracks that can all be shared with friends over the Playstation Network. More to come on this title soon, as the Spring 2010 release date is soon to be announced. Catch the trailer for yourself here.

Visceral Games, the studio once named EA Redwood Shores, and the team responsible for “Dead Space” and “Dante’s Inferno” expressed interest in developing for the Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network in a recent GamaSutra interview.

Visceral Games general manager Nick Earl sees the digital space as a venue the studio can suceed in.

“Our express purpose is to make the sort of AAA hits that are just naturally found on 360 and PS3. We also do some PC work as well. That’s not to say that we don’t have smaller efforts under way and direct-to-consumer efforts on XBLA and PSN.”

“We had really, really strong results with Battlefield 1943, which was created in a studio even bigger than Visceral and had to pay for its share of infrastructure.”

But when it comes down to it, Earl believes it’s all about the final, polished product a studio puts out.

“It comes down to quality and innovation and being able to bring something that’s interesting to the gamer. I think we’ll have some interesting offerings over this year and next that show our confidence in the space,” he said.

No idea what Visceral may or may not be working on at the moment, but color me interested. What about you? Interested in a bite-sized offering from a big studio like Visceral?

Source: Destructoid

Capcom’s earnest attempt to rekindle the flames of the Mega Man series will be tested next month when the publisher unleashes Mega Man 10 on digital platforms across the board, but it’ll hit Wii first, before Xbox 360 and PS3.

Mega Man 10 arrives on WiiWare March 1, PlayStation Network March 11 and the Xbox Live Arcade March 31. The game will be available for $9.99 across the board.

As for the game itself; it’s a continuation of the 8-bit style of Mega Man 9 and will feature all the weapons, special weapons,power-ups, game-modes and side-scrolling bliss you can wrap your head around.

Take a look at the Capcom blog for tons more about the soon-to-be-released project.

The PixelJunk series is king of the PlayStation Network.  With three groundbreaking titles released in less than two years, Q-Games has surprised players and critics again and again with new concepts and an unparalleled level of polish while simultaneously proving that 2D gaming is far from dead.  Over a year after the first three games’ releases, PixelJunk Shooter arrives, and it is nothing short of spectacular.

Don’t be fooled by the simple name "Shooter", as it’s anything but a typical shoot-em-up.  Though Shooter depends on standard “shmup” gameplay for survival, the game really shines as a shooter-platformer hybrid loaded with elemental puzzles and an excellent fluid dynamics engine.

Shooter, unlike previous PixelJunk games, starts off with a simple plot: contact with a lucrative mining complex on a distant planet has been lost, and you are sent to investigate the situation.  Right away your ship dives deep into beautiful caverns and mines, full of flowing water, boiling lava, deadly creatures, and survivors desperately needing your help.

Nice aiming there…

Your ship is equipped with omni-directional thrusters, a limitless supply of small rockets and homing missiles, and a grappling claw.  The controls are simple and tight, with R1/R2 firing weapons, L1/L2 releasing the grappling claw, the left stick controlling movement, and the right stick controlling aiming.

The goal of the game is simple enough:  get through every area of a level by saving all of the survivors in that area.  Collecting survivors gives you points, while allowing too many survivors in one level to die will force you to restart the level from scratch.  Get too hot, either by proximity to lava or by sustaining enemy fire, and you’ll have to restart from the last checkpoint.

Sadly, you can't flip the crab over for massive damage

The real thing that sets Shooter apart is its outstanding fluid dynamics engine.  Water, lava, and various other substances splash and flow realistically, and interact with one another in interesting ways.  For example, a pool of hot lava can be cooled with water to form soft rock, which can then be blown apart or carved through to form a path that previously did not exist.  Later on, you will encounter flammable gas, which can be ignited with lava to cause a wave of explosions to ripple through the caverns.  You will encounter other elements with which you can interact, but those are best left undisclosed until you discover them yourself.  Most of the puzzles you will encounter in Shooter will involve skillful manipulation of these elements to find a way through existing impasses.

To help you on your way, you will come across giant sponges, water bombs, lasers, mirrors, fountains, and more.  You’ll find special power suits that give you powerful new abilities that will completely change the way you play the game– again, these are best left undisclosed.  So while shooting things is the way to stay alive, mastering the elements is what you need to win.

It's getting hot in here.

Among the most outstanding aspects of the game are the boss battles.  At the end of each act (there are three acts in total, with five levels each), you will come to a classic boss fight.  Each boss is completely different from the last, and will put your skills as a pilot to the test.  These bosses combine the old-school trial and error/dodge all the bullets mentality of past shooters with the new functionality of a fluid dynamics engine and a high-tech ship.  If there was any one thing that really surprised this reviewer about PixelJunk shooter, it was how fun and exciting the boss battles are.

Once you beat all three of the bosses, you’ll notice PixelJunk Shooter’s biggest shortcoming—its length. When you beat the game in the scant few hours it takes, you’ll be left wanting so much more.  For the PSN game’s cost, the length isn’t too awful. Most of your time playing the game is spent learning new concepts, so when the ending comes with a “To Be Continued”, you might just feel a bit ripped off.  Fortunately, there are still plenty of gems and survivors to collect in each level, so you may still want to go back and play through a second or even third time.  If high score hunting is for you, you can also enable a “score attack” mode which will show your cumulative score as you progress through each area. This adds a whole new level of competitiveness to the game, and with two players the added communication required makes the game that much more intense.

That highlights another important point—like all PixelJunk games to date, Shooter features fantastic offline multiplayer functionality.  Anywhere through the story, a second player can join in on the action to help with the challenges and enemies.  While the haunting quietness and steady discovery of the singleplayer mode can be very calming, two player mode brings a certain social, semi-casual fun unseen in most of modern gaming: just like PixelJunk Monsters and Eden, Shooter is a great couples game.

Two players can clear an area more effectively.

Q-Games always makes sure to use the features of the PS3 to their fullest extent. Like previous games, YouTube recording and custom soundtrack capabilities are built in.  Navigating to the Photos section of the XMB reveals built-in screenshot functionality (all the screenshots in this review were taken using it).  Online leaderboards let you compare your scores with friends and the rest of the world, and the game’s remote play functionality is unmatched, presenting a new control scheme perfect for the PSP.

Blast Factor: PixelJunk Shooter is presented beautifully with vibrant, elegant vector art and a haunting soundtrack that builds up at just the right moments.  Q-Games perfectly blends challenge and fun in its most epic PixelJunk game to date.  PixelJunk Shooter can really appeal to anybody, and is great for short and long sessions alike.  For the price, PixelJunk Shooter is a great deal.

PixelJunk Shooter is available exclusively on the Playstation Network for the Playstation 3 for $9.99. A copy of this game was purchased for reviewing purposes.

D3 Publishers side-scrolling, sarcastic, kind-of-hates-himself Matt Hazard returns to the Xbox 360 in their Xbox Live Arcade game, Matt Hazard: Blood Bath and Beyond. The game costs 1200 Microsoft points, and is available for download. Many of us (or at least a few of us) remember Matt from the October 2008 release of Eat Lead: the Return of Matt Hazard, a third-person shooter similar in style to that of Gears of War. Even fewer of us remember him from his original side-scrolling arcade games.

Much like its predecessor, Blood Bath does an excellent job of satirizing the gaming culture of the next-gen, poking fun at countless genres, even pointing out that you can find Eat Lead in the bargain bin at your local retail store. ("Budget cuts, bad reviews… but that’s besides the point." claims your command buddy right at the beginning of the game.) While the writing is charming, there isn’t much story to be found; essentially you’re thrown into a side-scrolling shoot em’ up with the threat of having your past-self be deleted by your nemesis, Neutronov. D3 cuts out voice acting and replaces it with standard text boxes, so unfortunately, Neil Patrick Harris and Will Arnett won’t be repeating their performances from Eat Lead. Unfortunately Blood Bath never quite takes full advantage of the parodies that it creates throughout the game, and the player is left with one-liners that never actually go anywhere.

Graphically, Blood Bath is well-made for an arcade game. 3-D character design and levels make this game pop, and the gore that will amass on your screen as you plow down wave after wave of enemies is incredibly satisfying. You are rewarded for killing enemies with showers of blood. Smooth and polished, Blood Bath’s art style stands out from other 3-D and 2-D side-scrollers. D3 offers 8-levels of walking left to right while spraying bullets in random directions until you hit something. Eventually, the gameplay gets repetitive, but between levels there are different bosses that you will face to break the monotony. But once those battles are over… back to the horde. What D3 does do for this okay 1-player game is the addition of 2-player co-op, which is definitely one of its stronger selling points. Because lets admit it; blood baths are more fun with friends and 2-player has been around since Contra.

Here's Matt Hazard, accidentrally trapped in Wii's de Blob

Mechanically, the controls all work generally the way they should. However, there are tedious occurrences that happen far too often during play. Matt can jump, shoot, throw grenades, and even shoot into the background at approaching enemies, but what he can’t do is stop and shoot. A lot of the enemies you face are above you, and you have to jump and maneuver up and down obstacles to progress through the level. More often than naught, Matt would aim his gun up to attack… and then run into death water. Or cannon fire. Or a spiked wall. Or a piranha. Yeah, you get the drift. It gets almost impossible in the harder difficulties to actual control your fire, especially because of the amount of enemies that are thrown at you. But if facing a challenge is appealing to you, these harder modes will definitely present one.

[Editor's Note] You can stop to shoot if you hold down the right bumper, which allows you to fire at a 360 degree angle while stationary.

Blast Factor: Regular story mode lasts from 2-4 hours, but there is always second run-throughs with your friends waiting to happen. With a little more effort and focus, this game could have been a lot cooler, and ultimately a lot more fun to play. Unfortunately for Matt Hazard, his second appearance seems about as lack-luster as his first, but hey, he really is trying his hardest to stay alive.

Matt Hazard: Blood Bath and Beyond is available for the XBLA and PSN at a cost of $15 or 1200 Microsoft Points. A copy of this game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes.

Block Cascade Fusion is going to be released in the new PSN minis section and Gamelion has released their first trailer for the game.

The game comes off as a warped version of Tetris. The goal is to create a line of at least five similarly colored blocks by rotating and arranging the falling squares properly. Once the timer stops, the fusion will start and erase linked blocks. The basic concept is simple but the game looks like it can be addictive and fun once tried out. The game comes with trance and dance music which will make the game play incredibly interesting. The more you win, the more trophies you can unlock.

Check out the trailer here.

Interested? Check out the game’s website page. Want something more streamlined? They’re on twitter and Facebook too!

What better way to shed those extra Beef Wellington and Cheesecake pounds we threw on this Holiday season than by jetting around the world of Dark Void an entire two weeks before the game hits shelves?

Shoot to kill

Perfect! Because Capcom today announced that a demo for the gritty shooting/flying/action game will make its way to Xbox Live tomorrow (Jan. 6) and the PlayStation Network Thursday, Jan. 7.

New to Dark Void? This video should clear things up!

The war-stricken streets of Shanghai is a place you want to go to, right? Because this Thursday, when Electronic Arts releases a demo for Army of Two: The 40th Day, that’s just where you’ll be thrust to.

The demo for the co-op-themed shooter takes gamers most of the way through the game’s first chapter, so it sounds like a pretty hefty demo, which is always nice.

“THE 40TH DAY is non-stop action in an explosive Shanghai. The game has been designed with a focus on co-op gameplay and it has been our goal to refine this core experience in all aspects of the game,” said executive producer Reid Schneider. “The demo will give players the opportunity to experience this evolution and the new co-op moves and tactics available to players at any time in the game.”

A demo for the title comes to PSP January 13, a day before the title releases.

Madden NFL Arcade will be available on November 24 for the PSN and 25 for the Xbox LIVE Arcade.

This is a new way to play Madden which focuses on a fun, pick-up-and-play, 5-on-5 game between fans. Each team included features the five top offensive and defensive players.

We can’t give you the whole list of available players, but we can give you a list of the teams which are included in the game: Bears, Bengals, Bills, Broncos, Browns, Buccaneers, Cardinals, Chargers, Chiefs, Colts, Cowboys, Dolphins, Eagles, Falcons, 49ers, Giants, Jaguars, Jets Lions, Packers, Panthers, Patriots, Raiders, Rams, Ravens, Redskins, Saints, Seahawks, Steelers, Titans, Vikings, Texans

Are you excited? Let us know below. Don’t forget to mark your calendars!

October 22. Mark that date on your calendar. The official Rockstar-branded storefront opens on the PlayStation Network. Among the titles offered are Beaterator, GTA: Chinatown Wars, GTA: Vice City Stories, GTA: Liberty City Stories and The Warriors. All of the titles will be available for digital download. WE’re also happy to announce that beginning October 15, Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition, Midnight Club: L.A. Remix and Manhunt 2 will join the Rockstar Legacy Collection and be available for digital download on the PSN as wall.

Sony today announced a partnership with Amazon.com to make available a ton of PlayStation Network content in download-code form on the mega-shopping site.

Much like the system already in place for Xbox Live content and WiiWare games, Amazon.com will sell you a download code for a game or piece of content of your choice and immediately email you the code to download in the PlayStation store.

What I like about this is the ability to gift content to friends and family. That is, if I’m feeling generous.

“With more than 600 million pieces of content downloaded to date, consumers are turning to PlayStation Network more than ever for digitally distributed entertainment content,” said Peter Dille, senior vice president of Marketing and PlayStation Network. “We are excited to team with Amazon.com to expand our reach with Amazon’s market leading ability to target current and future PlayStation consumers.”

Commence downloading bliss over at the Amazon PlayStation Network Hub!

Source: PlayStation.Blog

There’s a new teaser for Fight Night Round 4. Watch Marvis Frazier describe his legendary fight with Mike Tyson. Yes, he only lasted 30 seconds, but it’s still pretty cool to hear the boxer reminisce about going up against Tyson. Curious about Fight Night Round 4? Check out the Demo on PSN and Xbox Live. Look at the clip below and comment with your thoughts.