Now I don't have a PS3 yet, but this game is making me consider picking one up soon. I don't like that you can't jump, but I love the God of War, Devil May Cry style of gameplay.

Get it here
Now this is a nice use of the iPhone and an alternative to all those damn pricey cell phone games out there.

Damn this looks REALLY nice on the animation front. I can't wait to play it now. I've tried going back and playing the first one again, but I keep getting my ass kicked. I think my RTS skills have severely weakened over the years as I used to be REALLY good at it.

EA's hockey title finally catches up.
By Todd Zuniga, 08/06/2007

Finally. After years of waiting for Electronic Arts to catch up with its competition when it comes to online leagues (namely 2K Sports), fans have reason for celebration. We've learned that NHL 08 will be the first of EA Sports' franchises to feature full online leagues on both the PS3 and Xbox 360.

For details, we asked NHL 08's online producer Jeff Atienza about the big move to online leagues. First, why has it taken so damn long for EA to get on the online league wagon, considering 2K Sports has been at it for years?

"Last year was our first crack at NHL on the Xbox 360, and we basically started out last year with a three-year plan for our next-gen NHL franchise," said Atienza. "In our first year, we wanted to concentrate on our core gameplay experience. NHL 08 (year two in our plan) is all about adding depth to the entire game from gameplay, to audio, to dynasty, to online. Online leagues are just one part of the online depth, and I think fans will be really happy overall with online this year."

Last year's NHL title, lauded for its Skill Stick innovation scored an 8.2 on 1up, an impressive showing. The new version's move to 60 fps, along with a new skating system makes it a great candidate for online leagues. So how robust is the online feature?

"NHL 08's online leagues don't have the full complement of features that a typical Dynasty season would have," said Atienza. "We are looking to add more depth to online leagues next year. But we do have full stat tracking."

One bummer is that there won't be player trades in NHL 08's online leagues, but they are looking to add "a bunch of other Dynasty features for next year."

As for the variety of leagues, it's possible to create one that features anywhere from two to 32 teams, or any combination in between.

"The team you choose to play with is also your choice-that includes any team available in the game (NHL, AHL, International Teams, Swedish Elite League Teams or a Finnish Elite League Teams)," said Atienza. "Your league can have a combination of any of them as well."

So why NHL, instead of one of their more popular sports? After all, the NHL no longer sets the real or video game world aflame-and hasn't, really, since 1994. We see this as a sort of test-case that let's EA work out the kinks on a smaller franchise before they push it into all of their sports titles (one promising sign: the early impressions of NHL 08 range between great to excellent). So why is NHL first?

"I can only speak for my game here," said Atienza. "Online is the way of the future and we are happy to offer some compelling new online game modes and give the community what they are looking for."

As for future sports titles, nothing is confirmed, but we're guessing the NHL online league means all of EA's sports games will start having online leagues after NHL 08's 9/11 release. But maybe that's just wishful thinking.

I can't wait to be able to play this. I think an Online league is just what Madden and all the other EA games need.

Watch the other parts here.

August 3, 2007

Pachter: PS3 Port Caused GTA IV Delay

Pachter: PS3 Port Caused GTA IV Delay Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter says Take-Two management has "stumbled badly for the first time" with the delay of GTA IV, and said that he believes difficulties porting the game to the PlayStation 3 are to blame and that the company's new green light policy appears to be a failure.

"We think it is likely," said Pachter, "that the Rockstar team had difficulty in building an exceptionally complicated game for the PS3, and failed to recognize how far away from completion the game truly was until recently."

"We think it is also likely that Take-Two had a contractual commitment to Sony that it would not favor competitor Microsoft by launching the Xbox 360 version of GTA IV prior to launching the PS3 version," he continued, "and believe that any delay of the PS3 version necessitated a delay of the Xbox 360 version."

The delay has caused somewhat of a valuation quandary for Pachter, as he adds "we are unprepared to predict what Take-Two management can truly deliver until we see some positive results."

"We think that new management is doing many things right," he says, "but believe that some structural obstacles remain. The company has begun an initiative to improve the green light process for new projects, but given the delays of Manhunt and GTA, its process for monitoring projects under development appears to be a failure."

Pachter concludes, "Until we see evidence of better controls over work in process and greater diligence in project selection, we are not confident that the company will gain market share in future years."

Source

Now I've seen reasons behind the 360 being the delay also, but bear in mind that EVERY time GTA4 has been demoed it has been on a 360 and not a PS3.

BLOG - The multiplayer beta for Infinity Ward’s much-hyped Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare will be restricted to US Xbox 360 owners, publisher Activision confirmed today.

The Infinity Ward developed FPS title, which sees the renowned CoD series shift from its traditional WWII setting to a modern arena of combat, will not be available in multiplayer beta format to European gamers according to CVG, who received confirmation of the disappointing news from the publisher Tuesday.

Activision chose not to comment on why the beta, set to launch later this month, will be a US exclusive, although an official line on the matter is expected in due course.

While multiplayer betas are becoming an increasing phenomenon, as evidenced by the success of the recent Halo 3 beta, there’s clearly still work to be done in executing them on a widespread scale.

Next-Gen's Blog is reserved for opinion pieces, quirky news stories and general news detritus. We welcome your comments on this article.

Source

I would love to get into this beta, but knowing my luck I'll be without internet when it happens, Like I was when my 360 broke during the Halo3 beta.