Criterion and EA have just revealed the title for the Burnout 5, Paradise. The above trailer shows very little, in fact the crashes the series is known and loved for are nonexistant. Wake me when something interesting happens.

Burnout Paradise will be out this winter on Xbox 360 and PS3.

Press Release follows…
[Read the rest of this entry…]

While arcade perfect and enhanced for online play, Capcom’s release of Street Fighter II Turbo on Xbox Live Arcade was not without faults. The dated graphics and lack of widescreen support didn’t hinder the timeless gameplay, but it didn’t add anything.

Capcom is now committed to beefing up their support of Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network with new releases of Super Puzzle Fighter II in the summer and Super Street Fighter II Turbo in the fall. But they won’t be ports, they’ll be completely remade and redrawn from scratch to take full advantage of 1080p High Definition displays. The masters at Udon comics will handle the artwork and designs, while Backbone Entertainment will recreate the games.

1up got some comments from Backbone’s Christian Svensson that you can read here.

So the full title is Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix… wow, what a mouthful. A pity its not a fully new Street Fighter IV, but if Capcom insists on milking their classics, at least they’re not being lazy about it and giving the games the full on Mario Allstars treatments!

In related news, a not online, not enhanced, not arcade perfect, SNES port of Street Fighter II Turbo is coming to Wii Virtual Console soon. It will be $8, just like the regular Street Fighter II you just bought.

The low end 20gb version of Sony’s PlayStation 3 is being discontinued. This toned down version of the console retails for 100$ less than the full fledged 60gb version. It wasn’t selling well though such statements are relative. The 60gb wasn’t selling well either but when comparing one to another the 20gb was doing much worse.

This quote from a Sony rep is especially ridiculous:
“Due to the overwhelming demand for the 60 GB model from both retailers and consumers, we have ceased offering the 20 GB model here in North America,”

I’m amazed at that company’s ability to maintain the illusion that they think the system is selling well. Maybe they should cease offering the 60gb version due to overwhelming demand for the Wii and XBox 360…

Source: Tech News World

A news roundup for Guitar Hero Fans

First, on Red Octane’s knowledge database yesterday they accidentally revealed Guitar Hero III is coming to PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii this winter. Kotaku has the info before it was pulled from the site.

Good: 9 Tracks from Guitar Hero have been made available on Xbox Live Market Place for Guitar Hero II!
Bad: They’re in three packs of three, costing 500 points each.
Ugly: At this rate, to make the entire songlist of Guitar Hero available, it would cost over 7800 points, $98 US Dollars.
We’re off to a bad start if this is the way it goes, because 47 old songs shouldn’t cost more than a full game of 78 with a guitar. Hopefully future packs won’t be quite as steep, or they’ll balance it with some sponsored content or even brand new songs. Pile this on to the numerous defective guitars, and Guitar Hero on next-gen is off to a rocky start.

Hugo Weaving may have landed the role of Megatron in the 2007 Transformers movie, but the video game adaptation will feature Frank Welker. This will be the first time Frank Welker has voiced Megatron in over 20 years, last seen in Transformers The Movie in 1986. According to GameSpot, Welker will be joined by Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime. GameSpot also has an interview with Frank Welker, and one with Peter Cullen.

GameSpot also released 3 new screenshots from the game, shown here. All three feature Bumblebee fighting Decepticons.

Update! The rub with posting stuff like this in the morning is that by the evening all the press-releases are out and I gotta update the post. So, check out the new game site, http://www.transformersgame.com/. Make sure you’ve got your flash up to date and you’ll get more screen shots from the game , the developers’ blog, and, even a poll to name some of the new Transformers that appear in the game. Coolest of all is a new interview with Peter Cullen and Frank Welker. Just click through to the videos section for that. Bonus: watching Welker talk and hearing Fred from Scooby Doo.

In what may be the most ambitious music game ever conceived, the developers of Guitar Hero have teamed with MTV and mega-publisher Electronic Arts to release Rock Band for PS3 and Xbox 360 this winter. USA Today brings us the story.

Take Guitar Hero II’s guitar/bass co-op play, add in some Karaoke Revolution singing, and keep the beat with a set of drums. Theres been no mention of how the drums will look or operate, but with so many successful music games under their belt, Harmonix should be able to find something that works for casual and hardcore gamers alike.

Game|Life reports from the press event early Monday that there will no longer be cover versions of songs, instead you’ll be treated to the real thing. Latency problems that kept Guitar Hero II from having full online multiplayer have been resolved and Harmonix promises your band can have practice online instead of in your garage. And though not formally announced at this time, a Wii version is inevitable.

Now… is it too much to ask they get The Clash in there?

This has been a long time coming. The countdown clock to the first look at the proper sequel to Grand Theft Auto III has been running at Rockstar’s site for a while, leading up to this final moment.

Check it out. Hopefully it was worth the wait. I don’t know myself yet because I wrote this post a while ago and programed it to appear when the countdown clock reached zero.

Cure for cancer, cure for AIDS, make a gamer want to not play PS3 for days.

Distributed computing has been done for years on PC. Sci-Fi nerds spare cycles and bandwidth to help the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence for example.

Now with the super powerful Cell processor combined with a current lack of compelling software, Stanford University’s chemistry department has released a version of their Folding@home software on Playstation 3. Basically you can turn it on, and let it run while you’re not playing games and Stanford will use your game machine’s horsepower to run simulations of protein folding. Understanding the hows and whys is beyond me, but the research is currently being used to explore cures for various ailments, including some cancers and Alzheimers.

So go ahead and download it on PS3, you’ll find it on your XrossMediaBar under the network icon. Or if you like the idea you can toss it on your PC, Mac, or Linux box.