I am all out of words, Sony has gone all guns blazing with some awesome announcements at the Games Convention 2008, Germany. Sony has always had big plans for its PS3 and its showing them off now, here is a brief from the Playstation blog, visit the blog for full coverage….

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune PS3 Bundle with 160GB PS3 System

The 160GB PS3 system announced at the GC will be available here as part of a new limited-edition bundle that includes the hardware, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune game, a PLAYSTATION Network voucher for PAIN, and a DUALSHOCK 3 wireless controller. We’re hearing from a lot of you that more PS3 storage space is important, particularly since the launch of our video delivery service, and this new model delivers more memory and a whole lot of content packed-in….

New PSP Entertainment Packs with updated PSP (PSP-3000)

We also unveiled at Leipzig an updated PSP system (PSP-3000), which we’ll be offering here initially through the previously announced Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters PSP Entertainment Pack and a new PSP 4GB Memory Entertainment Pack. I’m personally excited about the 4GB Memory bundle because we’re including a - you guessed it - 4GB Memory Stick PRO Duo, which is the biggest Memory Stick we’ve ever bundled with a PSP.

PS3 Wireless Keypad

Lastly, we’ve announced a new Wireless Keypad for PS3 that will make text communications and Web browsing much easier. The Wireless Keypad snaps onto the top of a SIXAXIS or DUALSHOCK 3 wireless controller and comes with some cool features, including a mode that turns the main key area into a touch pad (similar to a touch pad on a Laptop computer). Once in this mode, you can slide your finger on this area to move the cursor on the screen and tap to enter.

Also check out the newly released Heavy Rain Trailer here

The new Tomb Raider trailer has surely mesmerized me and I would have certainly married Lara Croft if she was for real. Hey wait a minute, she is real.

The Original Mercenaries was quite successful and popular, the sequel has all the ingredients of being a bigger success. This one will feature Online Co-Op and will be available on most platforms including PS2. Read more below…

The game features three confirmed playable characters, all from the original game: Jennifer Mui, Mattias Nilsson, and Chris Jacobs.

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames is set in August 2010. The story follows the player’s hunt for Ramon Solano, a druglord who contracted the player’s mercenary for a job then subsequently refused to pay and tried to kill him/her. Following a militaristic coup, Solano becomes the dictator of Venezuela. He uses his position to seize control of the country’s oil supply, resulting in an international incident and distress among OPEC. Alongside Solano’s Rebel Forces, a large portion of the Venezuelan army fiercely support the dictator’s cause. The other rebel forces, in opposition to Solano, have risen under the name of the PLAV–the People’s Liberation Army of Venezuela. Soon, numerous other factions join the fight for control of Venezuela’s oil.

Among them: The massive Universal Petroleum Corporation and its private military; the Rastafarian Pirates (the equivalent of the Russian Mafia from the original Mercenaries game); China’s PLA; and the AN (Allied Nations–a less controversial pun on the UN). These six forces will inevitably form the backbone of a war to determine the fate of the country’s oil supply.

Betrayed, the player’s mercenary will ally him/herself with any of the other factions to get even with Solano, and make some money along the way. Source.

Football season started with some excellent matches and to add to the great run, a ton of new info about PES 2009 was just leaked. The interview below will give some very interesting facts about the game, and did someone mention Manchester United ….

After waiting a while for any sort of news, we have an avalanche of info all at once! Thanks to Lami, Hunter from PESGaming and most importantly Sparky from the Pro Evo League Live UK website. They posted an in-depth interview with a member of the industry who had the chance to playtest PES 2009.

Here the full interview posted by PELLUK:

With regards to the gameplay, would you say it resembled PES6 or PES2008, and what aspects differ. The gameplay is PES2008, the way it should have been. You can no longer run straight through everyone with Etoo or Ronaldinho without any effort but you can beat players by running if you time your moves correctly. It is very realistic and the AI in defense and attack is massively improved. The refereeing in PES2008 was abysmal, has it got any better? (please elaborate with examples i.e bringing play back etc)

The refereeing is probably the same although the collisions are much better so the decisions are often correct. The diving works better too. Managed to win a pen with an expertly timed dive over a defenders outstretched leg - looked class.

For the full interview click here…

A new Lara Croft is in town and her name is Alison Carroll. She is now a part of a urban legacy of Lara Croft Models. “[Lara Croft] has everything a man would want from a woman and everything a woman would aspire to be like.”Bizarrely, Carroll has to undergo archaeology and weapons training before meeting and greeting the hordes of Lara Croft fans.

 That hasn’t stopped her posing for a few pictures, which you can find in our new Lara Croft model gallery. We’re not ashamed. Carroll will no doubt help create buzz around upcoming game Tomb Raider: Underworld, in exactly the same way previous model Karima Adebe did before Tomb Raider: Legend two years ago.

Source

I firmly believe that Little Big Plan is worth buying a PS3, even if you are a die-hard Xbox 360 fanboy. LBP is by far the most innovative produvt that I have come across in a long time. The game is due for release in a few months and Sony belives that people will buy a PS3 just to experince LBP. Read on…

“Our target audience is everyone,” explained associate producer Eric Fong, speaking to GamesIndustry.biz last month at Comic-Con 2008 in San Diego, where the game was being demonstrated to the public.

“It’s got enough complexity that people can play it and enjoy it for many hours; at the same time, if you’re just a casual user you can run through and play the game and have fun with it. Everything you see in the developer levels, you can create as the player.” Talking up the game’s sales potential, he added: “It’s going to be a hardware seller. Not only do you have the platforming experience that a lot of other games will have, you have this creativity that really is exclusive to LittleBigPlanet.” But some believe Sony’s real challenge is in communicating the game’s unique features to consumers, a point which Fong conceded.

 ”How do you explain the game…without getting your hands on it? It’s a difficult thing to do.” Therefore events like Comic-Con and Germany’s Games Convention, which takes place later this month, have become a crucial part of Sony’s aggressive consumer awareness campaign.

Source.

The ever so popular Fifa series is ready with another knock-out game in the series after a successful run with Fifa 08. The game has been announced for a October release and from the looks of its initial screens, the game looks to improve on its high benchmark. IGN previewd the game (lucky dogs), here is a brief from their initial impressions.

According to next-gen Line Producer David Rutter, there have been over 250 key improvements in FIFA 09 made to the core gameplay. That manifests itself in countless ways, but the primary examples that we were shown dealt with the responsiveness of the players. Players change direction more realistically. Their traps are quicker and, depending on their attributes, their first touches are significantly better. A forward making a run will gesture for the ball as he makes his run; his run off the ball will be faster than if he made it with the ball at his feet.

Collisions aren’t often thought of as a huge facet of soccer (especially by Americans), but it’s another aspect of the game totally redone and modified. Momentum dramatically affects collisions, leading to totally different outcomes. A player tackled by a player from behind after he’s run for twenty yards may do a full flip before hitting the ground; one tapped from behind will fall slightly forward. Players can elude tackles on their non-standing leg, and there are in-air collisions when players go for headers.

Source…

I love my PSP, who doesn’t. Until now I was busy busting ancient Greek monster butt with Chains of Olympus, but that is about to change. I will soon have my hands on Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max for the PSP, yes its SF on the PSP. The game has been out for quite some time but we in India will get our hands on it only now, the game has been very highly rated, check out a review summary and video below.

Most gamers have an affinity for the Street Fighter series. And for good reason - it’s as historic and industry changing as the Mario franchise. Virtually every game in the fighting genre has copied the most seminal in the series, Street Fighter II, in some way or another. Whether it’s the character design or finely tuned combat system, it’s easy to see the influence. And it’s these very elements that make the first PSP Street Fighter, Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max, such a treat. Click here to read the full review.

Remember the GhostBusters, well a game based on the popular series may be in grave danger of being busted. The Ghost Busters game assets have been doing rounds of the internet for some time now, but if the new reports are to be believed, the game may be in danger.

Sierra has assured that Ghosbusters “will not be cancelled”, but offered no further details on the title or any of the others believed to be on the chopping block.

Original Story: In the wake of the recently completed Activision Blizzard merger, the company has revealed that only five franchises from Vivendi Games’ Sierra portfolio will be making the transition to the newly-formed company’s publishing operations. Read full story here.

Tomb Raider is a legendary franchise and for good reason, Lara Croft, she is the reason. Lara is the most fantasized character in gaming till date, no wonder she has movies, books and even music albums named after her. The latest iteration in the series is called Tomb Raider Underworld and is due in a few months. A teaser trailer for the game was released recently, check it out below….also read the wiki summary of the game.

Differences from previous iterations in the series are that Lara’s environment will be an “interactive world that reacts and remembers”, such that footprints left in the mud or mud transferred to Lara’s knee from kneeling on the ground will be washed away by rain, the bodies of the foes she encounters will remain where she killed them, and any destruction to the environment she causes will be permanent. According to creative director Eric Lindstrom, this is “to not only reward the player for the effect they’re having on the world, but to give them navigational aids.” The game uses an animation blending system that allows Lara to interact dynamically with her environment, such as pushing foliage aside with one or two hands, depending on if she is carrying a weapon.  

It also features a “hybrid lighting model that combines dynamic lights with carefully created light maps” and a weather system that changes the environment, for example, “If Lara’s negotiating a wet ledge she’s more apt to slip or lose grip,” which makes “the environment … her adversary” for a large part of the game.