There is a closed beta now open for the new Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising that you can sign up for here. This MMORPG seems to have some nice potential and was something I was very much looking forward to. This looks to set you as a demi-god that rises and forms his/her own band of merry gods to fight classic mythical creatures in a quest for ultimate power. This sounds like a Roman Myth exploding into a video game, I wonder if Kid Icarus will put in a cameo?

From the press release:

Perpetual Entertainment announced today that aspiring heroes can now sign up for an exclusive opportunity - the chance to enter the closed beta playtest of the upcoming Roman mythology-based online game, Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising. With co-publishing partner, Platform Publishing, the San Francisco-based game developer recently launched a signup page where visitors can register for the chance to get access, play and provide feedback on the game during its final testing phase.

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This is one impressive stat, the Wii has added it’s 100th title to the Virtual Console, this is double what is available for the Xbox 360 Live Arcade. Over 4.7 million games have been downloaded since the launch of the Virtual Console back in November.

Here are the top five classic game downloads globally to date:

1) Super Mario Bros. (NES, this was a no brainer, what kid in the 80’s didn’t log a lifetime into this bad boy)
2) Super Mario 64 (N64, Mario with better graphics.)
3) Mario Kart 64 (N64, Mario committing vehicular manslughter, sweetness)
4) Super Mario World (SNES, Mario with Yoshi and a cape, score!)
5) The Legend of Zelda (NES, Link, bombs and a Tri-force, happy days)

Now lets all hope for more regular titles to hit the Wii along with more units to come state side for those of you still searching.

Nintendo has announced their anticipated launch schedule to keep us gamers busy during our long hot summer. Of greatest interest have to be the Wii titles: Metroid 3 in August and Mario Strikers in July. There are also a gigantic DS lineup announced, of greatest note are the 3 versions of the Mega Man title, sly devils and their different versions, as well as the SimCity EA game coming to a hand held near you. Can’t wait to see the distribution of Wii and DS titles become a bit less lop sided.

Wii
July 30 Mario Strikers Charged Nintendo
Aug. 20 Metroid Prime 3 Corruption Nintendo
September Battalion Wars 2 Nintendo
Aug. 14 High School Musical: Sing It! Disney Interactive Studios
Aug. 14 Madden NFL ‘08 EA
August Tiger Woods PGA Tour ‘08 EA
August Space Station Tycoon Namco Bandai
August Brunswick Pro Bowling Crave
August Dave Mirra BMX Challenge Crave
August Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection Crave
September Brothers in Arms Ubisoft
September Looney Tunes: Acme Arsenal Warner Bros.
September George of the Jungle Crave
Fall Boogie EA

Nintendo DS
July 30 Picross DS Nintendo
Aug. 20 Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day Nintendo
Sept. 10 DK Jungle Climber Nintendo
Sept. 24 Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol Nintendo
July SimCity EA

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Just in case 60GB isn’t enough for you, and you don’t have the stones to upgrade the hard drive yourself (trust me, it’s insanely easy and doesn’t cost that much to get a 120GB 2.5″ HDD), you’ll now be in luck with Sony Computer Entertainment Korea confirming the 80GB model.

Not only do we have box shots showing the 80GB size, but now we have the official SCEK website showing the specs in a few places. According the the spec, the 80GB model will sell for KRW 518,000 (USD 557 / EUR 412 / GBP 232) and will hit the shops on June 16. Here’s the kicker: the 80GB model will be the only one available in South Korea as there are no plans to launch the 20GB or 60GB versions there.

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FINAL FANTASY TACTICS: The War of the Lions has been announced for the PSP for October 2007. The original Tactics which I rave about came out in 1997 on the PS1 and gave everyone a reason to talk about Ivalice and the FF franchise. Now with The War of the Lions we have reason to rejoice while playing with our PSP’s. This game boasts exclusive content not found on the original classic including all-new CG sequences, all-new jobs, new 16:9 widescreen presentation, new head-to-head multiplayer and new storyline elements. Also unique to this launch is that it will be released simultaneously in North American and Europe, this almost never happens.

Here are some recent titles that Square has churned out:

Final Fantasy XIII
Final Fantasy XIII Versus
Final Fantasy Crisis Core
Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Rings of Fate
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Crystal Bearers
Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings
Final Fantasy IV DS
Final Fantasy XII International
Final Fantasy XI: Athena’s Holy Soldiers
Final Fantasy Dissidia

A fairly decent lineup for the team over at Square. Keep em coming and we will keep buying.

So how wild would it be to see a new wave of consoles to hit the streets in 2008. Everyone has their current favorite when it comes to a handheld and their next generation console right? What if there were some new additions next year to make your decision making even more difficult. Stranger things have happened and there are two possibilities that I can see happening.

1) SEGA mans up and decides to strap on a set and go back to making consoles. I was a huge fan of the Dreamcast system and thought it had some memorable titles and some interesting peripherals like the VMU’s, controllers and keyboard to name a few. SEGA could use all it’s market research and all the differeent opinions everyone has expressed with the existing three next generation consoles and make the perfect console. One that would not die (360), one that was not a gimmick (Wii) and one that was not overpriced (PS3). SEGA could come out into the battle field and mop up the mess that is the current next gen console war, come on SEGA go get the daddy pants and make us a SEGA Saturn Xtreme.

2) Microsoft decides to hit another gaming market and fully develop and launch their handheld gaming system. This could change the face of gaming if MS decided to delve in and give Nintendo a run for it’s money in the handheld market. Just imagine a handheld with the processing power of a 360, with wifi, chat & messaging, a small HD, and LIVE. I drool just thinking of this handheld monster. This could really take a chunk of the DS marketshare, just look at the PSP and it’s current success.

What do you think…?

We brought you news of a mysterious countdown that we were sure would be the announcement of the game and behold, here it is.

They announced their new game and also previewed the 400th episode of the Simpsons as well. A demo was unveiled, which reportedly showed Homer running around eating everyhitng in sight. Good news to all, the game actually looks like the cartoon now, wonder of wonders! There is over 8,000 lines of dialogue and almost an hour of new footage created just for the game. I look forward to seeing the Simpson clan on my next-gen console.

You can sign up for the game’s newletter and check out some nice pics from the event along with some coverage here, enjoy.

Halo 2 for Windows Vista will be available June 2007 and comes with much anticipation. Many gamers believe FPS games are best played with a mouse and keyboard, since I played hundreds of hours on the Xbox already I think I will pass on this one.

A couple of things that do interest me in the Windows Vista version are the map editor, which will alloy people to edit and make their own personal versions of maps and the 2 new multiplayer maps that are specific to the PC version, District and Uplift.

The PC version will get it’s own servers to play off and will actually allow gamers to now play the game from the disc, this mean no more having to load the entire game on your hard drive, but instead playing it like you would off your console.

From the press release:

Key Features:

• Exciting single-player gameplay. Experience firsthand the epic struggle between Master Chief and the Covenant armada. Brandish dual-wield weapons and Covenant arms, while piloting human and non-human vehicles and aircraft to battle intelligent AI alien enemies.

• Unmatched online gaming. “Halo 2” for Windows Vista will tap into the power of Games for Windows — LIVE to deliver online matchmaking for its Gold account members. The service will enable Windows Vista gamers around the globe to connect via their PCs and play in an innovative and competitive online forum.

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Sega had an official press release today in which they announced the launch of the expansion for Phantasy Star Universe on the PC, Xbox 360 and PS2. It was fairly broad, but two important things were announced:

1) The expansion entitled Ambitions of Illluminus will be a downladable content on Xbox Live similar to the Oblivion Expansion.

2) There will be a special community event available for US players starting May 25 entitled “Operation Firebreak”.

Hit the jump for the official Press Release from Sega.

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So here is our latest weekly installment entitled the rumor mill, here will be the grand hall of speculation and rumors, so sit back and enjoy the conspiracy theories.

We will start off with a biggie, there are some rumors flying around about a World of Warcraft game hitting our next gen consoles some time in 2008. It is also rumored to be an entirely different game than the current versions made solely for the consoles titled World of Warcraft: Azeroth Adventures. That means this game will not be a PC port of Burning Crusades or the original and will be made from the ground up to utilize a controller as the main input. Think of the potential of having Azeroth played in HD, on your flat screen, in 5.1 surround sound over Xbox Live. This would fit in nicely with the newly developed and imminently launching keyboard input device.

How sweet the sound of a rogue in stealth ganking a noob on your 360. Blizzard why do you mock us and not release this already? This game could single handedly change the face of MMORPG for the consoles. Or you could just skip WoW and make us a Starcraft MMORPG for our consoles(giggles like a school girl!).