In case you haven’t guessed from the title of this post (and the video lying above this) Rockstar have released the first official trailer of GTA: Chinatown Wars. Unfortunately there are only a few glimpses of actual gameplay, but what we can see still looks pretty interesting. The main thing is not to blink.

So, from what we can gather from the trailer (being that it pretty much tells you in the trailer), you will play as Huang Lee. Lee is out to avenge his father’s death and restore his family’s honour, which means that Rockstar just stepped even further into the realm of cliché storytelling.

Whatever the case GTA: Chiantown Wars is looking like a must buy for the DS; a handheld that has a distinct lack of anything remotely violent and adult rated. Oh, and there’s always the fact that Rockstar may cause the usual controversy by allowing the player to deal drugs.

Sounds like a great game to me!

Ubisoft revealed new details today on Techland’s upcoming Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood. Alongside these new details came a trailer (see below) and a bunch of new screenshots.

The game will follow the story of the McCall brothers across a variety of settings from “”a ravaged Civil War-era Georgia to the Aztec ruins of Mexico.” They will be able to take advantage of new weapons such as canons and machine guns, and try these out in shooting modes that are unlocked by gaining a high accuracy percentage during shoot-outs.

Co-op play will be a new feature in Bound in Blood, with players taking on the role of either one of the brothers. Depending on who you pick there will be specific abilities and weapons that only that character can use. For example, one character may be good in a long range fight while the other loves a good close range scrap. Or one will use a lasso while the other deploys dynamite. There will also be the ability to use horses, canoes and wagons.

Multiplayer wise there will be numerous modes and maps to play around in. Along with the obligatory deathmatch modes there will also be team-based objective modes, plus a new bounty system that increases a player’s bounty as their kill count rises.

The game is due out this summer, for the PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. If you fancy trying out the original it’s currently a steal at £11.91.

A few days ago a rumor popped up that the next iteration of the PSP may come with a sliding touch screen (see the concept above). It’s just a rumour of course, but now Acclaim’s David Perry is saying that the PSP2 is real and they already have a prototype. Not only that but it apparently doesn’t have a UMD drive.

Earlier today Perry wrote this on his twitter account;

“I hear Sony finally has the PSP2, and thank goodness they’ve removed the stupid battery-sucking UMD disc drive.”

Later he spoke to Kotaku about his comment, saying that he had “spoke to a developer” who is working on the update right now. He believes that Sony would initially sell games on memory sticks to please retailers, but would eventually move to a full download only system. Bear it in mind that this is pure speculation, but it would make sense considering that Sony has ramped up availability of downloadable games through the Playstation Store during the last year. Of course, a download only store would also allow for the full back catalogue of the PSP so you wouldn’t be missing out on any older UMD only games.

Put this down as a rumour for now, but Perry believes we will see a PSP2 as early as this autumn. I would certainly agree that Sony need to ditch UMD however, as it’s not exactly been the most financially viable move they could have made. UMD films failed miserably, and consumers are starting to come around to the idea that downloads are a far more efficient way of playing the latest games.

Of course, this doesn’t mean you should put off buying a PSP if you’re thinking about buying one. It could be a while before a new PSP hits the market, so you should get good use out of any PSP you buy now. Plus, with some great games in the line-up can you really afford to miss out? £110 is a pretty good deal right now.

UPDATE: Sony says that the UMD business is “critical to us this year and beyond”, although Sony is “making a concentrated effort for digital distribution” (source).

Come 12th March Midnight Club: Los Angeles, which received generally favourable reviews, will get a pretty substantial update. Rockstar’s downloadable South Central (an iconic district in LA) content will hit both Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 for free, with an extra premium pack costing $9.99 (which should be around £6.80, but I bet we end up paying more) or 800 Microsoft points.

The free portion of the content - which was accidentally leaked back in December - will add a new area to the game’s already large map that includes new online races. The premium pack adds 9 new vehicles, 26 races, 12 battle maps, 10 delivery missions and more. Vehicles include the ‘2008 Range Rover Supercharged’ and the ‘1970 Chevy Chevelle’.

Sounds worth the price to me!

I’ll be honest; I’d largely gone off the PSP and it’s been a while since I even turned mine on, but this weeks announcements have plucked up my interest in Sony’s handheld again. A number of announcements for new PSP games have come out of this year’s Destination Playstation meeting; including PSP versions of Assassin’s Creed, LittleBigPlanet and Rock Band. The best announcement? A Hannah Montana PSP entertainment pack including a Lilac PSP (I’m totally not kidding!).

Also announced were Motorstorm: Arctic Edge, versions of Madden and Tiger Woods and, um, new Petz games. I bet you can’t guess which one of those I’m least excited about.

Here’s a rundown of the games announced:

• The Hannah Montana PSP Entertainment Pack is “part of a new focus on expanding the PSP market to female gamers” and includes a new Disney Interactive Hannah Montana game, a UMD containing a selection of Hannah Montana episodes, a 2GB Memory Stick Pro Duo, and - the icing on the cake - stickers! Hopefully this pack will not the light of day outside North America
• The Assassin’s Creed PSP Entertainment Pack will include a completely new original game set in the Assassin’s Creed universe, a black PSP and more goodies to be announced at a later date.
• Ubisoft are bringing a new line of Petz games to the PSP, and that’s about as much as I can stomach writing about it.
• A PSP version of LittleBigPlanet will be made in conjunction with the PS3’s versions developer MediaMolecule. The game offers new Sackboy adventures and environments, but with the same creating and sharing experience that made the first game so popular. As I don’t own a PS3 I’m fairly excited about this.
• Motorstorm: Arctic Edge, which is also in development for the PS2, will bring the racing action of the PS3 versions to snowy Alaska. Players will have to avoid collapsing ice bridges and avalanches in three different altitudes. You will also be able to customise your vehicles with different parts, pimping your ride out while you take it online to face others. Check out the trailer here.
• Rock Band Unplugged will use the PSP’s directional pad and buttons to play along, along with wi-fi support (but sadly no online multiplayer) and a “fully featured” online store.
• Madden NFL 10 will give allow you to build your own formations and plays, and that’s about as much as I know about American Football. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 will be pretty much the same as always, and have both on and offline play.

So there’s plenty for the PSP owner to get excited about this year, and that’s just the games that have been announced. I wouldn’t get too excited about Petz though, unless you’re about eight. If so then stick with it my friends, the good games will come when you grow older. It’s not all shovelware crap, I promise!

Destination PlayStation News: LittleBigPlanet, MotorStorm, Assassin’s Creed, more coming to PSP - Playstation Blog

I first mentioned that Metal Gear Solid would be making the jump to the iPhone back in December, but now we have a trailer and some further information to go along with that.

Metal Gear Solid Touch is basically a retelling of the story from Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, but from a different perspective.  From the looks of it though it’s a little more than an on-rails shooting gallery, as you’ll play the game from over Solid Snake’s shoulder and use your fingers to do all the work. You can move the reticule by sliding your finger across the screen, tap to shoot and zoom in and out by pinching the screen; which should be familiar to all iPhone owners.

Advancing through the game will also, wait for it, unlock wallpapers for use on your iPhone!!! Sounds exciting, huh? Whatever, it will still sell by the truckload…wait…truckload? The game is download only so maybe that’s the wrong word to use here, but screw it.

There’s no release date or pricing structure yet, but we should know that pretty soon.

Bored of Brain Training and Animal Crossing? Don’t have much money to spend on your loveable little Nintendo DS? Well fear not my good friends; here are three games that you may want to add to your collection (you can check prices by clicking on each of the games titles).

Puzzle League DS

Puzzle League has been around since the days of the SNES, and it remains just as addictive as it was back then. However, Puzzle League DS takes advantage of the DS by using the stylus to horizontally drag the blocks that rise up from the bottom of the screen. You then have to place similar coloured blocks into columns of three, upon which they promptly vanish. As with Tetris the game ends if a block touches the top of the screen.

It’s incredibly addictive, but with addiction comes frustration. Thankfully you can share this with someone in head-to-head modes, where clearing blocks dumps them on your opponents screen.

Theme Park

I grew up constantly playing Theme Park on my Mega Drive, so it’s a game I hold close to my heart. If you fondly remember the game like me, or even if it’s new to you, it’s an excellent addition to your Nintendo DS library.

The aim, of course, is to build a theme park across a variety of different locations with an assortment of rides, shops and other attractions. The game itself is not as complex as some tycoon games today (such as Rollercoaster Tycoon) but it’s fun enough to hold your attention for a good month or so. Unfortunately like Sim City DS (read my review here) it only as one save slot, but you’ll forgive that when you see how full of charm Theme Park is.

42 All-Time Classics

I can’t really fault 42 All-Time Classics. I’ve had it since its release in 2006 and I’m still playing it today. There’s just so much longevity in it that it’s hard to ever grow bored of it, and if you do you can just move onto one of the other 41 games! It’s even further increased when you have friends who have DS, as you can play most of the 42 games with up to eight friends (plus online) and I’ve always found it great fun at parties.

Along with the pictured Bowling there’s card games such as the ever popular Blackjack, Old Maid, Hearts, Texas hold’em and more. Board games include Connect Five, Checkers, Chess, Ludo etc. A few others are Darts, Billiards and Balance. That’s just a few of the 42 games available to play. For £14.91 you can’t really go wrong!

The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, a ’sequel’ to 2004’s The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, has been given a release date. The game will ship to European retailers on 24 April.

The game itself is not a direct sequel to the original game, but more of a remake with new content on top of it. An improved version of Butcher Bay with redone graphics will be part of the package, along with an entirely new single-player campaign and several multiplayer modes. So, in essence, the game is more or less an episodic update to the original, although a direct sequel is reportedly in the works.

Atari also revealed that playable demos of the game will be coming to Xbox Live and PSN sometime next month. An official website for the game is also now online.

The original game was one of the most well received movie games of all time, with many players actually saying that it was far better than the movie it portrayed. You can make the decision yourself by picking the game up in the Xbox Classics range, but be warned that it’s not backwards compatible with the Xbox 360 (Apparently one of the reasons Microsoft wanted to do a remake of the original for the 360 is because they couldn’t make the Xbox version backwards compatible with the 360).

After teasing us with the promise of an announcement of a new game over Xbox Live Capcom have finally officially announced Lost Planet 2. Lost Planet 2 is the second sequel Capcom has announced in the last few weeks, the first being Dead Rising 2.

The game will take place ten years after the first game, with some levels departing from the frosty conditions of the first game and heading into the jungle. It will also feature co-operative play and will join in on the current trend at the moment to have a Gears of War style cover system (co-op and Gears cover system? That’s all bases covered then!).

Also, Resident Evil 5 producer Jun Takeuchi is producing the sequel.

There’s no date for the game as of yet, but a trailer was released on Xbox Live only. If you don’t have access to Xbox Live at the moment Kotaku have the video for your viewing pleasure.

I only ever played the demo of the first game, and from what I played I found it pretty average. Of course, I can’t base the entire game off a demo so I might pick it up in the Xbox Classics range instead; which means that the game is available for a relatively cheap price.

UPDATE: Kotaku has a scan from Japanese weekely game mag Famitsu that hints that Lost Planet 2 may only be for Xbox 360. It also reveals that the game will have online play and the co-op will be for up to four players.

UPDATE 2: It’s true, as for now Lost Planet 2 is only being developed for the Xbox 360.

UPDATE 3: Ok, scratch that last update. A Capcom spokesperson had this to say:

“All we can say at this time is that we’ve announced Lost Planet 2 for the 360. That’s all I can say” - Kotaku

So maybe it isn’t an Xbox 360 exclusive after all, and let’s not forget that Capcom said that all its major console titles would be developed as multi-platform games in the future (source).

Image courtesy of Gamersyde.

EA have gone and released a teaser trailer for Mass Effect 2, which is apparently coming to “multiple platforms”. The trailer is above for your viewing pleasure, but be warned that it will be over before you know it.

The trailer seems to indicate that the main character from Mass Effect, Commander Shepard, has been killed in action. Does this mean that we won’t be carrying our leveled up character over from Mass Effect like was once hinted at? Don’t walk away in disgust just yet, as I really doubt Shepard is really dead. It’s called the hype machine, and it works wonders on the fanboy crowd.

There’s still no word about a release date, but I for one am hoping for the end of the year. As usual I’ll be keeping you updated here.