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Sony unexpectedly announced the availablity of Final Fantasy VII on the US Playstation Store during E3.

Then, like an internet “Mexican Wave”, European users started demanding it too… AND… We’ve got it just a day after the US release (today)!

No one will know if it was planned to come out in Europe in the same week or whether SCEE were listening and rushed to get it to us early. The Playstation Store update was about a couple of hours later than usual tonight so it’s a possibility.

You can download it from the PS Store for £7.99/9.99 euros (1.3GB download) which is very reasonable considering it’ll cost you much more than that to get hold of pre-owned FFVII discs from eBay.

Small request: Please consider giving Metal Gear Solid the same treatment and we’ll all be even happier!

UPDATE 05/06/2009: I must have read someone’s mind! Konami has JUST confirmed Metal Gear Solid is going to be released on the US Playstation Store on 18th June. Hopefully it will hit Europe at the same time.

When you’ve been a train man as long as I have, you see a lot of people meeting, parting, joy, sadness… After a while, it doesn’t even get to you anymore. I wonder how long it’s been… There’s an invisible rail between me and the passengers. I could never live their lives. I’m just a train man plain and simple. It’s easier that way. That’s not to say that the crossing gate of my heart doesn’t hurt now and again. Back during the war, I remember there was a lot of painful scenes then. But, that’s a story for another day.
Train man, Sector 7, Final Fantasy VII

Anyone catching the news coming out of E3 will know that Sony and Microsoft, as well as Nintendo, all now seem to be seriously commited to providing motion control systems for their consoles.

Nintendo are pushing ahead with a new iteration of their control system called Motion Plus which is an add-on for the Wii-mote that promises more precise movement tracking.

Microsoft surprised everyone with Project Natal, a motion tracking system which requires no physical controller. It tracks your body movements and even claims to include advanced facial recognition.

Sony also launched a new motion controller dubbed (unofficially) by the internet as the PSPenis! (Well, the prototype is a stick with a big purple bulb on the end so they should have seen that one coming!) It uses the Playstation Eye for tracking and also promises tracking precision to millimetre accuracy.

As all three companies now have a motion control strategy it makes serious sense for third party developers to begin designing games based solely around motion sensing. So we could see some very different games in the near future.

Although, there is at least one guy that doesn’t seem particulary happy about this prospect…

Other great Sony news from E3 (I’m focusing on Sony because I missed the Nintendo and Microsoft press conferences!) is the announcement of Final Fantasy XIV to be released on the PS3 in 2010. Yes, that’s in the same year as Final Fantasy XIII is coming out. Also Project Trico was officially announced and named The Last Guardian. It’s the sequel to Ico and Shadow of the Colossus and it looks stunning.

EDITED 04/06/2009: I’m completely wrong of course! The Last Guardian is the prequel to Shadow of the Colossus and Shadow of the Colossus is the prequel to Ico. Thanks to LiQuidGFX for spotting the mistake.

There is also a shedload of new PSP games being released in the coming months including a new Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid: Peacewalker as well as the previously announced Little Big Planet PSP and Motorstorm Arctic Edge.

It looks like Sony are finally getting the message that Playstation owners want games and lots of them. Which is great news!

Although the fact that someone leaked a load of pics may have something to do with the timing!

I should wait for the official announcement at E3 (when we were intended to find out about it) before I comment but my first impression is a little underwhelmed.

I’m not too keen on the new design (it slides apart now!). I prefer the old one to be honest, but thats only my personal preference.

The biggest change is that they’ve dumped the UMD drive and replaced it with 16GB of on-board flash memory. Getting rid of the UMD drive is a good thing but 16GB is a little miserly when you consider the size of PSP games. iPods come with about 120GB of space as standard now so you would expect a new PSP to at least equal it. Do Sony want us to buy lots of games or not?

Strangely they have shrunk the screen size to 3.8 inches. Probably to squeeze some more battery life but I can’t help thinking this is a step backwards.

But, like I said… We should wait until Sony officially tell us about it. I am being negative about unconfirmed speculation.

If they announce a load more PSP games in development, more integrated connectivity to the PlayStation Network for online gaming and bringing trophies across to the PSP. I would be very happy!

Source: http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=216083

When I first posted about Radio 1′s Big Gaming Weekend last bank holiday I admit I was a little cynical about the whole thing. But I am pleased to be completely wrong! It wasn’t too bad at all.

Call of Duty 4 won the best game of all time poll and Final Fantasy VII (my own choice!) came in at a very respectable third place.

The best part of the entire weekend was hidden right at the end of bank holiday monday and was a two hour gaming soundtrack mash-up mix by Jaguar Skills.

Featuring hip hop remixed as chiptunes, adverts from the Grand Theft Auto radio stations, Pacman, Mario, Outrun and Street Fighter 2 mash-ups AND even the Ulysses 31 theme!

Fortunately, if you missed it live you can still listen to the mix on the BBC website at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/biggamesweekend/feature/jaguarskills.shtml. The full tracklisting is also on the same page.

(If you want an mp3 version of the mix, there are a few copies floating around on rapidshare. Google it!)

I’m not the greatest fan of reality TV but that’s a rant for another post. Nevertheless I have been forced into watching a couple of episodes of The Apprentice and I came across this mash-up by Cassetteboy the other day.

Made me chuckle!

“Take us BACK to the paradise city!”

Criterion have announced the release date of the Big Surf Island update to Burnout Paradise and it’s going to be out on June 11th. Although no price has yet been set (that I am aware of, correct me if I’m wrong).

There is also a new video on Criterion’s site: http://www.criteriongames.com/packs/island.php

Definitely added to my shopping list… Those jumps look crazy!

It seems like a couple of years (slight exaggeration) since the Tomb Raider: Underworld trophy patch was announced for Japan.

But it’s finally making it across the shores according to an announcement by Keir_Eidos on tombraiderforums.com (I’m assuming this is all geniune?):

PS3 Trophy Patch announcement
I am pleased to be able to announce that the PS3 Trophy Patch for Tomb Raider: Underworld has a confirmed worldwide release date of Thursday the 28th of May.

Sorry for the delay and thank you very much to those who were able to wait patiently, it’s really appreciated and I hope you get some great Raiding out of it.

I expect there will be more whoring than raiding when the trophies are released!

Now for fuck’s sake! Get off that Hannah Montana game people! Have some self respect!

Source: http://www.tombraiderforums.com/showthread.php?t=152210

Just heard about this next interweb phenomenon in the making… Basically, find a plain old black t-shirt on Amazon with a picture of three wolves and the moon. Then just insert this comment:

This item has wolves on it which makes it intrinsically sweet and worth 5 stars by itself, but once I tried it on, that’s when the magic happened. After checking to ensure that the shirt would properly cover my girth, I walked from my trailer to Wal-mart with the shirt on and was immediately approached by women. The women knew from the wolves on my shirt that I, like a wolf, am a mysterious loner who knows how to ‘howl at the moon’ from time to time (if you catch my drift!). The women that approached me wanted to know if I would be their boyfriend and/or give them money for something they called mehth. I told them no, because they didn’t have enough teeth, and frankly a man with a wolf-shirt shouldn’t settle for the first thing that comes to him.

The internet will then add a few hundred more comments for you, including a 2300% rise in sales of the t-shirt in question too!

Remember… Most shirts like this only contain one wolf. This shirt has three wolves, plus a moon. You are basically getting three wolves and a moon for the price on one wolf. You won’t find that deal anywhere else.

The page is here and there are about 298 five-star ratings so far!

Go wolves go! Rise up to that moon you long so much for!

I’ve been hearing rumours about this for the last week or so but an official press release on the BBC website confirms that Radio 1 and 1Xtra are indeed doing a Big Gaming Weekend this bank holiday running from 22nd to 25th May.

I’m slightly sceptical that it may mean that a load of DJ’s that aren’t really interested in games may be forced to talk about a subject they aren’t particularly that enthusiastic about… But I’ll be happy to be proved wrong.

DJ leaderboards, a top 100 game countdown, game reviews and game soundtracks are going to be part of the mix. I’m looking forward to hearing which soundtracks are played. Comic Bakery might be a long shot but I think the recent Mirror’s Edge theme, Still Alive by Lisa Miskovsky, would fit well into Radio 1′s existing playlist… Especially the drum ‘n’ bass remix here!

Does this mean that playing video games is socially acceptable yet?

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2009/05_may/20/gaming.shtml

Sony are giving away Rag Doll Kung Fu: Fists of Plastic for free! The catch is that it’s only on the US Playstation Store (The UK Store is still selling it for £7.99).

Fortunately it’s easy for UK Playstation owners to make themselves a US PSN login. There are a few guides to this on the internets already but as a brief guide you just need to create a new user on your PS3 and then go to register a new Playstation Network account. When you are prompted for your region make sure to select America. The only slightly tricky part is when you are asked for an address and zip code… I found that Beverly Hills 90210 works well!

As an additional bonus you’ll find a lot of PS3 and PSP demos on the US store which haven’t made it to Europe yet (…even though the full games have been out for months in many cases! PixelJunk Racers for example.)

But hurry… The free Rag Doll Kung Fu offer is only open until Thursday 21st May!