It is official Rock Band is getting released on the PS2 as well as the Xbox 360 and PS3. Seems that the PS2 wil actually get unique game elements as well and the European versions of Rock Band will get localized music, maybe it’s like Pokemon - Gotta Catch ‘em all? Aside from this news, new tracks were also announced:

Rolling Stones “Gimme Shelter”
Deep Purple “Highway Star”
The Clash “Should I Stay or Should I Go”
Faith No More “Epic”
Smashing Pumpkins “Cherub Rock”
Radiohead “Creep”
Beastie Boys “Sabotage”
Jet “Are You Gonna Be My Girl”
OK Go “Here It Goes Again”
Nine Inch Nails “The Hand That Feeds”

From the press release:

Leipzig, Germany – August 22, 2007- Harmonix, the leading developer of music-based games, and MTV Games, a division of MTV Networks which is a division of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), along with distribution partner Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS), announced today plans to release the highly anticipated music videogame Rock Band™ on the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system in Europe in early 2008. As previously announced, Rock Band forthe Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PLAYSTATION 3 system will be released in the U.S. this Holiday 2007.
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One of our editors brought you a full review of the new Madden 08 game for the Xbox 360 and for the most part it was very positive and he went as far as to call it “the best football game to ever hit next gen” but this editor has a bit of a different opinion. I see it as a solid game, but not worth the purchase as it has not evolved enough from it’s other iterations.

Proof that this Madden is still the same game is the fact that one of my buddies and I sat down for the first time without looking at one instruction manual and played a full game without losing a step. The only thing I had to ask about was what the speed burst was now, aside from that all of those extras in there (which there are a ton) are not that necessary. By these I mean the mismatch crap, the possesin catches, the icons for players and all of those other “upgrades” really don’t add value. It was funny because we played the 360 version and my buddy doesn’t even have a 360 and actually still plays Madden on the original Xbox, but he played just fine.
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Are you stuck in the last-gen with only a PS2 to your name? Do you wish you had that terrific motion control with your DualShock controller? Well, your time has come. The Zero G line of controllers will soon be released to remedy your pain.

The unique motion sensitive “Motion Controller” introduces motion sensing technology to PlayStation®2: a 3D motion sensor provides for intuitive steering and movement, matching the functions of the left mini joystick. The sensor can be turned on and off, accommodating the player’s individual preferences. The official license grants for optimum software compatibility. The “Wireless Controller” with a turbo feature for all analogue buttons provides for up to 300 h wireless gaming experience within a range of 10 m. Both devices are equipped with switchable vibration effects.

Too bad they didn’t make a wireless controller with motion controls. That would have been nice.

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So with all the new football games coming out Tom Brady finally gets one of his own. Superbowl MVP Tom Brady is named the cover player for the #1 kids football video game Backyard Football ‘08, which is slated to be released this Fall.

OK so he didn’t get the cover of Madden or 2K, but hey it could be worse, he could be doing info-mercials for hair products and Backyard Football is actually a pretty fun game, although very cutesy. It will be scheduled to realease on the Wii, DS, PC and PS2.

From the press release:
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In case you’re still living under a rock, in a bubble, or somewhere stuck in the past, EA Games will be shutting down their servers for their 2006 titles, not just those of the sport variety. That means it’s time for you to pony up the cash for one of their yearly updates or suffer without the non-sports titles online.

The September 1st shutdown will effect the following titles:

Arena Football, FIFA Soccer 06, FIFA World Cup 2006, Fight Night Round 3, Madden NFL 06, Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects, MVP 07 NCAA Baseball, NASCAR 06 Total Team Control, NBA Live 06, NCAA Football 2005, NCAA Football 2006, NCAA March Madness 2006, NFL Head Coach, NHL 06, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06

An additional shutdown on November 1st will cause the following titles to stop working online:

Burnout Revenge, Need for Speed Underground, Need for Speed Underground 2, Need for Speed Most Wanted.

The shutdown effects titles on the PC, PS2, PSP, Xbox, Xbox 360. So sell those titles off now before they’re only worth a few pennies.

Neilson, better known for their television and radio ratings determination, of which no one understands, has released a study suggesting people spend the most time on the PS3 than any other system according to ps3fanboy.com. Here are some of the findings they came across:

The average session with a PS3 was 83 minutes in the month of June. In comparison, the average Xbox 360 session lasted 61 minutes, and the average Wii session lasted only 57 minutes.

“Nielsen GamePlay Metrics uses console data collected from the Nielsen’s People Meter TV sample combined with Nielsen GamePlay Metrics’ proprietary audio signature library that matches the unique audio signature of every game tracked on the six most widely available video game consoles, including PlayStation 2, PLAYSTATION 3, Xbox, Xbox 360, Wii and GameCube. The GamePlay Metrics user sample includes more than 12,000 households with approximately 33,000 individuals.”

An interesting caveat however is that the PS2 accounted for the most minutes of play time. This was another report from the useless information department.

Hot Shots Tennis is the next in the long line of games from the Hot Shots series from Clap Hanz. With the very strong success of the series worldwide for the PS1, PS2, PSP, and soon the PS3, it was only a matter of time before the series branched out from golf into other sports. Clap Hanz continued with the proven Hot Shots theme in this new setting. How did it pay off for them? Here is a breakdown of some of the facets of Hot Shots Tennis for the PS2:

Presentation and Graphics: Hot Shots Tennis sports some of the better graphics we’ve seen on the PS2. Granted, there isn’t as much going on as in God of War or Gran Turismo, but Clap Hanz made their style work perfectly. The characters and environments looks very crisp, especially upscaled to 1080p through a PS3. There were times when I honestly forgot this is a PS2 title. There are some spots where jaggies are fairly evident, which is to be expected on the PS2. Otherwise, the game looks terrific. 4 of 5

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Sony sent over a retail copy of Hot Shots Tennis for the PS2 for us to review. I got to play a good bit the past few days, and the game is very solid.

I gave my impressions of the demo a little over a week ago, and many of the same things apply to the final code of the game. The game has a fairly deep career mode, where you play through against opponents to level up and unlock new characters, stages, costumes, and various other power-ups.

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Rockstar games today announced that another title from their PS2 dominating lineup will come to the Xbox 360 and Wii, Bully: Scholarship edition. This version will be just as funny and have all the same gameplay aspects and will be available for both next gen consoles by this winter. No PS3 love?

From the press release after the jump.
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We watched and watched, made a sandwich, then watched some more before dropping our knowledge on the big 3’s conferences at E3. Trying to avoid the fervor and jumping the gun, we really wanted to give our readers a well rounded commentary instead of rushing a half assed editorial. Ebert once said that you need to watch a movie twice before reviewing it properly and thats what we strove for.

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Let us know what you guys think. Only you can prevent forest fires.