Here’s a cool Developer Diary from the new Tomb Raider Anniversary for the PS2. The graphics look great for PS2 and the gameplay looks spot on, just like Tomb Raider Legend.

If you’re a Tomb Raider fan, this game is a must get.

Today Sony released a new firmware update for the PS3, reaching version 1.70. There’s some pretty big new features.

The best part of the new firmware is allowing play on the PS3 of downloadable PS1 games. This is going to make me buy even more! For one price, you get the game to play both on your PS3 and PSP. As of now, none of the games work on PS3 yet. I would expect some updates and more PS1 games made available either this afternoon or next Thursday during Sony’s normal release schedule.

You can also use PS1 saves on both PS3 and PSP for these games. So you can take your gamesaves with you wherever you go to continue on your game. This is a cool feature as well.

The last big thing in the update is that vibration now works with PS1 and PS2 games when you use a controller adapter and fire up your 3rd party only controllers (sorry, Dual Shocks still don’t work). Hopefully we’ll see a version of the SIXAXIS with rumble sooner than later.

No official update from Sony on the PS3 site yet. There’s also a lot of rumblings on the internet of Guitar Hero controllers now working properly on the PS3. If this is true, this is amazing news for Guitar Hero fans. I would have bought the game for PS2 for cheaper than the 360 if this was the case a few weeks ago. Oh well.

Yesterday, it was uncovered how to play God of War II in HD on your PS2/PS3. Just hold L1, L2, L3, Square and Circle as you boot up the game to access HD mode. Of note, this isn’t 720p, it’s actually a Full Buffer 480p, which makes it much prettier than the standard game, but not as good as true 720p. You can see a screen grab of the Island of Creation site here.

Anyway, here’s a video of the game running in HD mode.

In case that wasn’t good enough for you, here’s the HD version.

I’d played Guitar Hero 1 and 2 on PS2, but never got this into the game. With the 360 version, I’m utterly obsessed. I’m dreaming about songs in the game, waking up singing them. It’s bad.

I was in the car this morning and a great classic rock song came on: Shooting Star by Bad Company. All I could think was “Wow I wanna play this is GH2.” I need to break myself away from the game for a while.

Oh it’s calling my name. I better run. I hope it didn’t read this…

Today Ubisoft and Gearbox officially announced they’re bringing their Brothers in Arms series to the Wii and DS this year. The DS game, innovatively titled Brothers in Arms DS, will ship this summer, while the Wii game, titled Brothers in Arms Double Time, will be out this fall.

The Wii title will feature all 31 playable levels from the previous Brothers in Arms games. Of course, you’ll get to use the Wiimote to issue commands and such. So there’s not much new here if you’re already played the games on Xbox or PS2. The DS title will 16 missions and three different campaigns with some added multiplayer goodness. Should be a good DS title.

From the press release:

“Brothers In Arms on the Wii and DS systems is really exciting for us,” said Randy Pitchford, president of Gearbox Software. “I am a huge fan of both systems and thrilled about making games for the two platforms. In the entire space of first-person shooters on video game systems, Brothers In Arms really lends itself to both the Wii and DS interfaces. Imagine using the Wii Remote to give actual hand signals or aiming with the DS stylus from a covered position. That’s what you can look forward to with Brothers In Arms Double Time and Brothers In Arms DS.”

Many of us played with LEGO’s when we were little. Some of us had to play with Mega blocks because dad had to get a case of Bud pounders instead. Anyway, we have all played the Lego Star Wars games and had an absolute blast. Well now we get to enjoy and expect much of the same when Lego Batman: The Game is released for all systems, both current and next gen. No official word on the date yet, but ign.com has some intimate details of some of the storyline. It looks like shit is gonna hit the fan when all the criminals that the Caped Crusaded and his homoerotic sidekick had captured all escape and run amok on unsuspecting Gotham. They also claim that it will be the same team that worked on the Star Wars games so expect a high replay value and many unlockables. Check back often for updates.

Most people have already heard about the first God of War, but if you haven’t here’s a quick recap:

Normal Game – Hit something with a bunch of attacks till it dies
God of War – Beat something mercilessly until you can do a finisher on it ranging from something as mundane (relative to this game anyway) as ripping something’s wings off and stomping its head in or ripping its arm off and beating it to death with it to the more spectacular using your swords to scale an ogre like a fucking mountain and ripping its eye out.
Which would you rather play? Yea.
Gameplay
God of War 2 picks up shortly after the first one left off. After defeating Ares, Kratos is the new god of war, and quickly proceeds to piss off the rest of gods of Olympus by being his dickish Spartan self. The first level of the game sees Kratos become mortal and get chased across an entire city by a colossal statue. And after that it goes on at a pretty similar pace. I think this PA strip sums it up best. It has all the standard features that you have come to expect from this type of game, mostly combat and a few puzzles, but even the puzzles are pretty fucked up (I can’t get past these gears…better throw this guy in there to stop them). The controls have remained the same, and a couple of new moves have been added to Kratos’ blades. Also new in the game are a couple of new magic spells and weapons. Overall the game plays almost identical to the original, and has a really epic feel to it, which is appropriate since its Kratos vs Olympus.
Also, it comes with a second dvd, that contains a lot of behind the scenes extras.
Graphics
The game manages to squeeze every ounce of performance possible from the PS2, and the graphics are even better than the original. There are virtually no load times, and the levels are huge, as well as plenty of cut scenes. The detail in a lot of the levels is staggering. It’s a great sendoff for the PS2…not that it’s the last game that will be made for it (they were still releasing games for the PS1 last year)…its just the lat one that anyone will buy.
Sound
The soundtrack rocks, and the voice acting is very well done. Every battle sounds and feels like something out of 300 or Lord of the Rings.
Overall Review
I dont have an arbitrary system for rating games yet, so lets just close on this…you need to play this game, unless of course you’re this douchebag.

You heard it right the Wii is going to get a quick lesson in brutality from the folks over at Rockstar. The sequel is scheduled to arrive on the Wii, PS2 and PSP. Let’s picture shanking people with a Wii remote… poetry in motion. Crackin skulls only the way the Wii can.

It’s like everyone and their mother is pulling exclusives from the PS3. Kotaku confirms, via Japanese Famitsu magazine, that Ace Combat 6 will make it’s way onto the Xbox 360 with Xbox Live support.

This has been a pretty huge series from Namco on the PlayStation (both PS1 and PS2). To have it’s exclusive rights pulled is a slap in the face, and really shows how well developers want to back the PS3.

It was recently rumored that Ace Combat 6, Warhammer: Mark of Chaos, and Beautiful Katamari, all Namco titles, would appear on all three now-gen consoles. I guess the announcement of Ace Combat 6 for the Xbox 360 is step one in fulfilling that plan.

Once again, my reasons for owning a PS3 are getting smaller and smaller…

Sony of Japan dropped a press release today to date the upcoming PS3 Firmware Update v1.60. Everyone has been looking forward to this “big” update that has long been promised, so let’s see what they had to say…

The new firmware will be released on March 22, 2007. The press release mentions it’ll be released in the afternoon, which I’m assuming is just for Japan.

Details of the firmware update are as follows (from Babelfish translation):

• Folding @Home: Now you can participate in the worldwide distributed computing protein folding experiments from Standford University, in hopes to further understand human genetics. You can access the Folding @Home application under Network on the XMB
• Internet Browser Pinpoint Zoom and Resolution Settings: You can now choose to zoom into a portion of a website if you have a huge display and can’t read things, or you can set the browser resolution to a different size so everything can be viewed easier
• Full size on-screen keyboard: Makes it easier to type messages and web addresses with the controller
• Remote Play via Wireless Access Point: People with a 20GB PS3 can now utilize the Remote Play feature with a PSP by using any wireless access point. (No official word if you will be able to use the PSP to access your PS3 at home from anywhere, maybe in a future update)
• Background Downloading from the PlayStation Store: This one is cool. It’ll make a big difference when downloading things on the PS3. No longer do you have to sit and wait at the download screen forever. No official word if you can queue up downloads, or if you can load games from disc while downloading.

Overall, not a very impressive update. Sony talked up a big March update to the system, and they really aren’t adding much, other than the background downloading. I’m assuming v1.60 will also include backwards compatibility data for PAL consoles without the PS2 hardware.

So, Sony, where’s the rest of the big updates? This one just brings an “eh” from me.