It’s a pretty good week for lovers of the music rhythm genre, as not only is Guitar Hero 5 begging for you to spend even more money on plastic instruments but The Beatles finally get their own game in The Beatles: Rock Band. Yes, it may just be Rock Band stuffed with 45 of The Beatles best songs but, come on now, it’s The Beatles!

Colin McRae: DiRT 2 is there for all you Rally lovers, and Championship Manager 2010 comes along just as we’re getting over our addiction from the last one. Section 8 is the odd one of the bunch, but it does look pretty damn good if the videos are anything to go by.

Guitar Hero 5 (PS2, PS3, Wii, X360) 11/9 (PS2 is 8/9)

Kurt Cobain wouldn’t exactly be thrilled at being included in a game with mass market appeal, but Activision knows how to push a few buttons. Cobain or not, Guitar Hero 5 is still going to sell by the bucketload and the updated graphics, 85 songs (with more for download) and the Guitar Hero Studio (which allows anyone to import their songs, providing they own the copyright) will do a lot to bolster that appeal.

The Beatles: Rock Band (PS3, X360) 9/9 (X360) 11/9 (PS3)

The Beatles, on the other hand, were no strangers to milking their success. I suppose being the biggest band in the world gives you a bit of an excuse though. As stated above there will be 45 The Beatles songs, with more available for download, and various dreamscapes that will make you believe there was more in that can of coke than you were lead to believe. Don’t worry though, you can calm yourself down with your free copy of Guitar Hero: World Tour.

Colin McRae: DiRT 2 (DS, PS3, PSP, Wii, X360) 11/9

Colin McRae may be gone, but Codemasters makes sure his name lives on in the videogame world. Thankfully the game is a good homage to the legend, with a new engine and whole roster of events and tracks to keep you occupied. Just make sure you don’t get stuck in the mud!

Section 8 (PC, X360) 11/9

At first glance you may think it’s just another futuristic shooter, with that word that describes a ring of light around someone’s head coming to mind. Then you see the unique ‘burn-in’ feature that allows you to drop onto the battlefield from 15,000 feet above the surface. This is supposed to eliminate fixed spawn points, but it remains to be seen if the game on the ground will be able to successfully follow an awesome start to each level.

Other releases:

• Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s Wheelie Breakers (Wii) *Out now*
• Taisen!! Ka to Chan no Kororonpe! (DS) 9/9
• Windy x Windam (DS) 10/9
• Mean Girls (DS) 11/9
• SingStar Motown (PS2, PS3) 11/9
• Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (DS, PS3, PSP, Wii, X360) 11/9
• Diva Girls: Princess on Ice 2 (DS) 11/9
• Mary King’s Riding School 2 (Wii) 11/9
• Love is… in Bloom (Wii) 11/9
• My Beauty Salon (DS) 11/9
• My World My Way (DS) 11/9
• Championship Manager 2010 (PC) 11/9
• Mini Ninjas (DS, PC, PS3, Wii, X360) 11/9
• Time of Shadows (PC)  11/9

(All images sourced from Gamespot)

The triumphant return of ‘Latest UK Releases’ (it has been on a holiday to a nice sunny beach and, as a result, is now sporting one hell of a tan) is admittedly a rather boring one. I’ve highlighted only two games that I think are worth it this week (ok, Metroid Prime Trilogy is also pretty good but the games aren’t new so it only gets the bulletpoint treatment), complete with the usual short commentary from your’s truly.

Champions Online (PC) 4/9

Champions Online may not be coming to the Xbox 360 anytime soon but at least PC gamers can enjoy its lovely cel-shaded (or ‘comic shading’ as the developers refer to it) visuals. One of the more intriguing ideas the game employs is the ability to create your very own nemesis once you reach level 25. Defeating your nemesis’s minions will give you clues to the whereabouts of him or her, leading to a showdown. The level cap is 40, which may not seem like a lot but I’m sure it will be expanded upon in the years to come (providing the game lasts that long of course).

Dissidia: Final Fantasy (PSP) 4/9

Similar to a fighting game the one big difference is that it includes characters from nearly every single main Final Fantasy game in the franchise. Ever wanted to see Cloud and Squall fight it out? Well, here’s your chance. I don’t think Final Fantasy fans need any more prompting than that.

Other releases:

• Silas (PC) *Out now*
• Pool Hall Pro (Wii) 31/8
• Fate/Unlimited Codes (PSP) 3/9
• Il-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey (DS, PS3, X360) 4/9
• Guilty Gear 2: Overture (X360) 4/9
• Zorro: Quest for Justice (DS) 4/9
• I Did It Mum! Dolls House (DS) 4/9
• Warriors Orochi 2 (PSP) 4/9
• Metroid Prime Trilogy (Wii) 4/9
• SuperCar Challenge (PS3) 4/9
• The Humans (DS) 4/9
• SoulCalibur: Broken Destiny (PSP) 4/9

(Images source)

I hope you’re as eager for more information on the recently announced Fantasy Life (DS) as I am because Level 5 have responded to my wishes. What we have are two images of the games character designs (created by Hideo Minaba), each representing the twenty unique job-based “lives”. As explained before each of these “lives” have their own set of quests and a unique ending with their very own Nobuo Uematsu vocal theme.

Thankfully most of the hard work involved in guessing which job each character represents has been done by Andriasang, which posted a full list of the jobs that was first published in Japanese weekly game magazine Famitsu. Unfortunately you still have to match each job with a character from the picture, so put your answers on a postcard and send them in (e.g the comments section)! Some of them are obvious, like the fisherman, but others are a lot tougher to identify.

Hit the jump for the full list of jobs and a picture of them all.

(more…)

Back at E3 2009 Microsoft announced that Facebook and Twitter would be integrated into the Xbox 360 dashboard. Speaking with Eurogamer Microsoft’s James Halton revealed that both services are due sometime this autumn, but didn’t give an exact release date. However, apparently they will arrive “before Christmas”.

Now, you may wonder why they’re not part of the dashboard update coming later next month (currently being trialled by a selection of Xbox Live users). The reason is that both will be separate applications so will launch separately, much like when a game is released on Xbox Live Arcade. In that way they want be that intrusive if you don’t want to use the services.

Personally I’m tired of people saying “What’s the point? We can do this on our PC”. You can also play games on your PC, but that doesn’t mean you always want to. It’s just another way of updating your Facebook/Twitter when you’re not at your PC and I’m all for that. I’m not sure my friends on both sites will want to know what game I’m currently playing, but it’s still a cool feature nonetheless. Although, do separate applications mean we won’t be able to update our Facebook/Twitter from inside the game? Even if it’s updated automatically? It doesn’t sound nearly half as good if that’s the case.

There’s no word on the Last.fm or Sky integration yet, but hopefully they won’t take too long to arrive.

In other news the DSi now has Facebook intergration (also announced at E3), but it’s Japan only for the moment.

Forget about Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars being exclusive to the Nintendo DS because Rockstar have now confirmed that they’re porting it to the PSP in time for autumn.

The PSP will reportedly take advantage of the PSP’s more powerful hardware, meaning a graphical update and new story missions. Rockstar will also offer a downloadable version for the PSP Go!, alongside the regular UMD release.

“Rockstar’s work with the GTA series has been an enormous part of the success of PlayStation platforms,” said Jack Tretton, President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America. “We’re excited to welcome the critically acclaimed Chinatown Wars to the outstanding line-up of great games headed to the PSP platform this fall”- Kotaku

I think Chinatown Wars is an amazing game, and it’s probably the best game available on the DS, but maybe the DS wasn’t the right platform when it comes to mature games as the sales seem to reflect that. These poor sales have obviously prompted Rockstar to look to other platforms to make a profit, or maybe they were planning this all along - who knows? Whatever the case it’s good news for those that only have a PSP, but I’m curious about whether or not the touch screen mini-games will lose their appeal with you obviously not being able to use a touch screen.

 After yesterday’s dazzling Microsoft E3 press conference Nintendo really had to work hard to impress on the same level that Microsoft achieved. The announcement of Project Natal may have suddenly threatened Nintendo’s position at the top of the casual motion controlled market, so Nintendo had to have something at least equally as impressive. Unfortunately Nintendo didn’t rise to the occasion and delivered a pretty lack lustre presentation that only had a few worthy announcements.

Cammie Dunaway – whom I personally like to call Mrs. Smiley – was the first speaker to take to the stage. After getting through the business talk Cammie started to talk surprises, upon which she immediately revealed the first surprise of the day – New Super Mario Brothers for the Wii. Nintendo also confused people by saying they were taking Mario into the ‘fourth dimension’. Consequently this just turned out to be a fancy word for the four-player 2D Mario game that was demonstrated live on stage by Cammie and three others.

The game will see players working together to reach the end of each level, but whilst doing so they are also competing with each other for the familiar coins scattered around a level. At the end of each level the players are ranked from 1-4 depending on how well they managed this girl, Cammie predictably coming in fourth. While the view does pull back pretty far players can also get wiped off the screen if they fall too far behind the player in front, and dying will place the victim in a bubble that others can either free them from or leave them behind. It should be with us by Christmas 2009.

Next up was Wii Fit Plus, which seems to be Nintendo applying their tried and tested formula of milking something as much as they can after we’ve all just finished buying the one before. Wii Fit Plus will be arriving in autumn 2009 and includes six strength and yoga activities as well as fifteen new balance board games. Juggling and skateboarding are included in this, as well as a game called ‘Perfect 10’, which Cammie described as “Brain Age for the backside”.

Reggie and his perfect hair were next to take the stage, talking about Wii Motion Plus just like last year. Eventually he got on to showing a demonstration of Wii Sports Resort using Motion Plus, beginning with a sky dive. Moving the Wii Remote around would change the position of the sky diver depending on where you had the remote positioned. The demo also showed off archery; where you held the Wii Remote and Nun chuck like a real bow, and free-throw basketball; with Reggie and another guy competing to see who called throw more balls through the basketball hoop in the allotted time limit. It’s not as impressive as when we saw it a year ago, but it still looks just as fun to play as Wii Sports. Wii Sports Resort will be released on 26th July.

Reggie also announced a few upcoming games that would be compatible with Motion Plus; including Tiger Woods Pro Tour 10, Grand Slam Tennis (the former two will be bundled with Motion Plus), Virtua Tennis 2009 and Red Steel 2. Red Steel 2 was demonstrated live on stage, and the sword he was using in the game seemed to respond accurately to any movements the demonstrator made with his hands. The game will only work with Motion Plus, so I’m expecting it to lose a few sales because of that.

Meanwhile third-party games coming to both the Wii and DS included;

• Final Fantasy: The Crystal Bearers (Wii)
• Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (DS)
• Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story (released this autumn for DS)
• Golden Sun DS (finally making its return on DS)
• The Women’s Murder Club: Games of Passion (coming 13th October for DS)
• Cop: The Recruit (an open world game similar to GTA for DS)
• Style Savvy (a fashion game for DS)

After this came some games only for the DSi. Flip Note Studio, a sort of movie maker that was originally introduced as Moving Memo, will be coming in the summer. Mario Vs Donkey Kong: Minis March Again features gameplay similar to earlier instalments in the series but also includes a level editor. Nintendo emphasised the sharing aspect of the DSi here, as levels will be able to be shared between friends over a Wi-Fi connection. Also emphasising the creation and sharing aspects was Wario Ware DIY, which allows you to create your own mini-games, and the ability to share the photos you take on your DSi on Facebook. It’s not on par with Microsoft’s Facebook announcement, but at least it’s there.

Satoru Iawata then came on to talk about the direction the games industry is heading in and how Nintendo can expand the gaming demographic. Apparently something called Wii Vitality will aid in this quest, a small device that fits onto your finger and lets you know what’s going on inside your body. Well, at least that’s what Iawata led us to believe. No software was shown making use of this device, so we will just have to take his word for it.

A late surprise was another Mario game, and not just any Mario game but a sequel to the excellent Super Mario Galaxy. Super Mario Galaxy 2 marks first time a fully 3D Mario game has appeared on the same console, and that may go some way to explaining why it doesn’t look like it’s doing anything innovating at the moment.

Talk then proceeded on to games we already knew about (The Conduit, Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, Dead Space: Extraction) before trying to please the ‘core’ gamer with Metroid: Other M. I’ve never played a Metroid game so it doesn’t really interest me, but for what it’s worth it looked ok.

So, in summary Nintendo failed to wow in any areas. I’m sure they’ll make tonnes of money through targeting the casual market, but for the ‘core’ gamer there are only updates to already established franchises. Nintendo doesn’t seem to want to try anything new on the game front anymore, falling back on well known characters and the shovelware that populates every local game store.

I previously posted a rumor about the possibility of a new Nintendo DS Lite but Nintendo have now officially confirmed it. Nintendo President Satoru Iwata, speaking last night at Nintendo’s autumn press conference in Tokyo,  announced an updated version of the DS Lite called the Nintendo DSi. While it has the small ‘i’ in there - like any modern gadget that wishes to be cool must have- it also sports a range of other new additions. There’s now two cameras (they’re a disappointing 0.3 megapixels though)  and SD slot to save those photos on. There’s also the digital music player I mentioned the other day, which is part of the reason Nintendo are improving audio in allowing you to adjust pitch and playback.

The DSi removes the GBA slot (which I’m not too fussed about as I’ve never used it) but in return makes the screens 17%  bigger (3.25 inches) than the original DS Lite and it also makes the handheld thinner than its older brother. There’s now an in-built browser (so you don’t have to buy one anymore) which will allow you to download games and keep them on your DSi. This will come along with the new DSi shop, which will allow you to use points to purchase games; 1000 of which customers will get for free until March 2010. Speaking of downloads they’ll also be improved wireless capabilities, but I’m not too sure what that means.

Sounds fancy, right? I don’t really see all that much to get excited about myself. A 0.3 megapixel camera is not going to get you a decent enough picture that you’ll be proud to have in your collection, and a digital music player seems pointless when your mobile phone can do the same thing (or you could just get one of the many mp3 players out there that do the same thing but much better).  Iwata says that it’s a “third platform”, meaning that it’s not meant to replace the DS Lite but complement it. I guess that means I’ll stick with the original Lite for now.

The DSi is coming to Japan from November 1st but won’t be available until Spring 2009 over here in the UK.

Hit this link to see the DSi in action, or this link for a comparison between the old and new.