The rumours have been confirmed as true and today Sony have given a brief glimpse of the new PlayStation Store front. Due to launch mid-April with a new firmware upgrade, Sony promise the store will be much easier to navigate and will load a lot faster.
Good news indeed and it’s looking very nice.
But there’s also some bad news - Eurogamer are reporting that Sony won’t be updating the store again until the new design is released.
MTV’S own gaming blog have spilt some info on Sony’s proposed PlayStation Store Updates.
Late April: PixelJunk Monsters Encore expansion pack
Early May: Echochrome
May: Elefunk
Late May / early June: WipEout HD
It’s unclear if these are just US dates, but it’s a safe bet given the MTV site is US based. Fingers crossed that the PAL releases won’t be far behind.
A day later than promised, GT5 Prologue is finally availiable to download from the European PlayStation Store. It can’t be much of a coincidence that the games release has been held back to the same day as its official release in conventional retail stores.
But there’s a pretty big kick in the pants if you intend to download it.
The game costs £25.99 (€33) from the PlayStation Store but a physical copy can be purchased on line and shipped straight to your door for just £17.99. That’s a pretty shocking price discrepancy.
Lets hope that Sony have the quick sense to re-evaluate the download price.
Once again the goldmine of info, the ESRB, have confirmed that PC game Darwinia is to be released on the Live Arcade. This has forced the developers Introversion to fess up and admit the rumors are all true and that the game will also be released with Multiwinia, the one line portion.
For those who know nothing about the game, the games official site describes it best:
The world of Darwinia is a virtual themepark, running entirely inside a computer network and populated by a sentient evolving life form called the Darwinians. Unfortunately Darwinia has been overrun by a computer virus which has multiplied out of control. Your task is to destroy the Viral Infection and save the Darwinians from extinction.
You can also find a PC demo at the link above.
The game is due for an Autumn release, so while we wait here’s some screens from the PC version to get you started.
This Wednesdays weekly XBLA update will be TiQal, the puzzle game with the pointless capital in the middle. Perhaps the game will explain why its in there…
Looking like a cross between Jewel Quest and Tetris (and a whole host of other puzzle games), the game features 120 levels, online co-op mode and cost 800 points.
If you’re able to purchase content from these stores then the minimalistic puzzler could be yours right now. If the demo that was release a few weeks ago was anything to go by then it should also be predominantly in English and playable with a minimum amount of fuss.
For those who can’t grab it, hopefully it’s winging its way to other regions soon.
After a small lifetime in which planets have probably been born and then died out, Sony have finally gotten around to releasing PAIN on the European PlayStation Store.
The game, in which you get to cause mayhem by flinging you character over the level and smashing stuff up, is now ready for download for£4.99 (aprox €7).
Six additional character downloads are also availiable for 69p (about €0.88) and the Fun With Explosives add-on is also availiable free of charge.
Good signs that Ikaruga is coming very soon to XBLA.
Sign Number 1: Inside MyGamerCard have just revealled Ikaruga’s achievements.
Sign Number 2: The latest issue of Official Xbox Magazine have reviewed it (awarding it a score of 9/10) and stating it’s “Out Now”. As the magazine is the April edition that shouldmean the game will be availiable by the end of this month…
Lucky people out there are playing preview code of this already and as a result new images have come to light.
The games reworking looks incredible and it’s also been confirmed that motion control using the SIXAXIS control is optional. So if you want to race old school, you can.
IGN brings news from Metanet, the creators of the excellent N+, that extra content is coming soon.
The first of three planned expansions is predicted to be around 200 levels, including new co-op multiplayer. There’s also plans to patch the game to enable the sharing of player designed levels over Xbox Live.
The best bit? That it may be sold for a piffling 200 points and there’s even the possibility that one of the packs will be given away free.
Metanet have also semi-confirmed in an interview elsewhere that a version of the game is planned for download from the PlayStation Store. Although in their own words “due to an exclusivity clause in our XBLA contract, it may not be for a while.”
You can read what we thought about N+ (hint: we really loved it) in our review.
If you’re looking forward to this summers release of Castle Crashers then you might be interested to know that developers The Behemoth have started up a blog at www.devblog.thebehemoth.com to keep everyone up to date.
The blog’s only just opened but expect it to be updated as they go along with lots of cool behind the scenes stuff. For starters there’s the video of the games artist Dan Paladin working on the world map. Nice if you like arty stuff accompanied by bad music stuff.
