Halo 3 Goes NASCAR

Check it out! Halo 3 will go NASCAR. Yes, that race where cars just go round and round in circles for long hours. God knows why people are into it. Anyway, a Halo 3 branded NASCAR will be racing on the track on September 23rd by some dude who at this moment isn't really that important to us Bruneians to begin with anyway. But the idea of a Halo 3 car zooming around sounds kinda cool. No? Guess not. I would rather much see an army truck or helicopter with a Halo 3 brand on it. Well, who knows?

RRoD T-Shirt

Ever experienced the Red Ring of Death on your 360? Or do you know of a friend who has? Well, now you can help them remind themselves of those dreaded days by sending them a Red Ring of Death T-Shirt by SplitReason.com, an amazing gift I might add for the upcoming Hari Raya celebration. Have fun!

Long Lines for FFVII PSP

Japan saw the release of FFVII: Crisis Core two days ago. With it was also the release of the limited edition package where only 77,777 of them were made. Nice number don't you think? The package includes a PSP slim, specially numbered with an artwork at the back by Tetsuya Nomura, Final Fantasy earbuds and a Buster Sword cellphone strap. Not entirely impressive but having a limited edition PSP sounds good enough to me.

Some bloke at Wired.com wrote his encounter in Japan with the whole long lines and stuff where he found himself at number 551 behind a pack of 'homeless gamers'. Probably those who were camping out.

More of them quirky games

Looks like those people at Q-Games who just released PixelJunk Racers on PSN today isn't going to stop just yet. More quirky games seem to be coming and two teaser screenshots have been released on their website. Check them out and see if you can guess what they'll be about. More downloadable games coming November and December (respectively with the photos).

Buzz! Quiz TV

Have you ever played a PS2 classic called You Don't Know Jack? I have. It was fun. We even had it as party games at times when we were gathering at friends houses.

See, You Don't Know Jack is a trivia game where you get to play with your other mates in a question and answer sessions. The fun part was getting everyone to participate and try to get the correct answers by choosing the categories you think you know best.

Come November, Europe will see the release of Buzz! on the PS3, a trivia game the likes of You Don't Know Jack, but ofcourse with better content, tons more questions and with a promise of downloadable contents. The Blu-Ray release itself will feature at least 5,000 questions and with more companies contributing to the game, more questions will be released via downloads.
Find out more about Buzz! through this interview at IGN.

European PSN Releases for Sept 13

Thought I'd include the European PSN releases. Not as interesting as the American but good enough. Let me know if I missed anything.

• Fifa 08 demo (free)
  
• NBA Live demo (free)
  
• Harry Potter demo (free)
  
• Motorstorm Rally Car and Bus vehicle pack (£1.49)
  
• Ninja Gaiden Weapons Master add on (£2.99)
  
• Loco Roco trailer (free)

American PSN Releases for Sept 13

I've never really posted on any PSN releases thus far but this week sounds rather interesting. So I thought I'd post it here taken directly from the playstation blog.

New downloadable games:
• PixelJunk Racers ($6.99) - A single and multi-player slot car racing game, with 32 modes, 10 tracks and online rankings.
• High Stakes on the Vegas Strip: Poker Edition ($9.99) Ante up! Play limit or no-limit poker in five different game types. There’s single player mode or you can play up to five others online.

Demos, demos and more demos:
• PixelJunk Racers
• Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground
• NHL 08
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
• FIFA 08

Of course, more movie trailers and videos and wallpapers for your favorite new and upcoming games:
• Everyday Shooter trailer
• Warhawk trailer
• Lair Behind the Scenes video
• Feel the Noise trailer
• Juiced 2 trailer
• High Stakes on the Vegas Strip: Poker Edition trailer
• Soul Calibur IV trailer
• High Stakes: Poker wallpaper
• 2 PixelJunk Racer wallpapers
• Folklore wallpaper

I find it really interesting that the PS-Store is getting a lot of updates every week, even more so this week. I've been reading up on PixelJunk Racers and it's a good move for Sony to release the demo at the same time as the game's release. So I'll be trying that out first before I buy the game. I don't want another Piyotama experience to happen again. Man, that game was a disaster.

World War Flying

Blazing Angels wasn't much of an interesting game when I first tried it but it seems like the up-coming Blazing Angels 2 looks a bit more promising. Dropping the story line and favouring more of an arcade feeling, Blazing Angels 2 might just be very interesting and may just separate itself from other world war games. Check out the following preview.

Best Wishes

Just a short note that we at BruGamers.com would like to wish all you Bruneian Gamers happy fasting. Don't spend too much on the gaming - not good during Ramadhan. =)

Take care and best wishes for the month.

A '2' in Gaiden

Ah~ yes, Ninja Gaiden. The game that can be fun and frustrating at the same time, yet very rewarding. Although, I haven't touched Sigma because of Oblivion but I know it will be a great adventure once I do.

Let's forget about Sigma for awhile and aim at a new Ninja Gaiden. Yes, finally, Ninja Gaiden 2 has been announced and will be exlusively for Xbox 360 next year. Check out the teaser trailer below.

Castlevania: Naked Girl or Human Sacrifice

Now what are you seeing? The somewhat naked girl in Castlevania or human sacrifice? Whatever you think, this Castlevania: Dracula DX Chronicles (PSP) trailer is all in German, 'cept maybe for "Dracula" since that's pretty universal. Check out the German trailer.

PSP Themes

Updated your PSP to version 3.70 yet? Tried out the new custome themes setting? Got bored of the available themes currently? Well, you can go here to check out other themes such as Lemmings, WipeOut and Hot Pursuit. Have fun!

Also, note that a 3.71 firmware update is coming along with a PS3 1.93 update which apparently will also see PSP themes included in the PS-Store. Neat!

Now, when are they gonna include this feature for the PS3?

Loco Roco Cocoreccho in EU PSN

Loco Roco Cocoreccho, already released on Jap PSN, will be released next week on the UK PSN. This game will come with a £1.99 price tag - cheap because it's not really a full game and apparently not a real Loco Roco game. It's been said that this is really an interactive screensaver for the PS3, thus the price tag.

So those with an EU PSN account (yes, I'm looking at you my brother), go download this and let me know (or allow me to try it) what you think.

GT TV part of GT5 Prologue

Do you love Top Gear? Do you watch a lot of auto TV programs? Fancy yourself Gran Turismo? Well, good news for you. Sony has announced that Gran Turismo 5 Prologue will include a feature called GT TV where gamers can download TV programs similar to Top Gear.

GT5 Prologue is shaping up to be a full game rather than a demo with all these added features and the amount of cars and tracks it includes - also, don't forget online play. Remember how we used to pay for a prologue? Well, now I think its worth paying for.

Heavenly Release

Heavenly Sword is finally here followed by a lot of great reviews! Play Magazine – 10/10, Game Pro Magazine – 4.5/5, Game Informer Magazine – 8.75/10, Electronic Gaming Monthly Magazine – 8.33/10, GameZone.com – 8.8/10, and 1Up.com - 8/10.

One thing I like, and something that I realise and like about Heavenly Sword graphics, is what 1up had to say about it - "Heavenly Sword’s visuals are arguably the best the system has seen to date. I can’t talk up the graphics enough — not only are the characters and environments incredibly well detailed, but there’s very little of that typical (and easily abused) “next-gen gloss” applied to them, so you get a much cleaner-looking game than fare like Gears of War or Virtua Fighter 5.”

I saw how great the graphics were from GoW and VF5 but they were too shiney. I was waiting for a game that had good graphics but less glossier. Came the Heavenly Sword demo and I saw what I've been wanting from a game graphics.

Anyway, looks like I'll have to look for extra money this month. Anyone wanna buy my copy of Gundam and some old PSP games?

Online Games Outselling Music and Video

In a recent analysis, GamesIndustry.biz reported that the online gaming business is outselling music and video in digital distributions. Apparently, this is due to the continued growth of MMOs.

As a gamer, we shouldn't be surprised at this especially looking at how well World of Warcraft did and the amazing popularity of Xbox Live Marketplace. Even here, a lot of people used to go to Cybercafes just to play LAN games but I see more people playing online at home on Battlefield. Plus, with the recent addition of Warhawk and Sony's free online gaming, they're just opening more and more people into the online world. It won't be far now until most digital distrubution is covered by the gaming community.

13 Minutes of FarCry

I wasn't big on FarCry when it came out. I didn't like the change of environment where it took the FPS genre then. Then, a lot of shooters started to follow its direction. Still not my favourite, still love war shooters, but to this day, I've learned to try new things in gaming. I mean, Oblivion has obviously become an all time favourite game.

Anyway, went to dig out old liepzig news and totally missed out on this 13 minutes video of FarCry 2.

Let's Boogie!

I was writing my Heavenly Sword order for the PS3 the other night while my wife went browsing around the Wii game section. Awhile later she came with a game called Boogie. I've never heard of it, but then again, I wouldn't read a game of such title anywhere. Had a look at it and my wife wanted to get it, so I bought it for her.

See, Boogie is a game about singing and dancing. It isn't normally my kind of game but when I saw my wife playing it, as ridiculous as it looked picturing me moving my right hand, and only my right hand, to the beat, I kinda liked it a bit when I tried it. But like most Wii games, I quickly got bored of it. But y'know what I love about the game? The songs list.

The game opened with You're The One That I Want, a classic I love so much from a movie I love even more. Grease. That caught my attention. That was the one that made me go and try out Boogie. And looking at the songs list, although not all was interesting (Britney Spears is in it?), I enjoyed the songs.

Also, the game includes an in-game video editor so you can create a video out of the dance moves you made with your character. Oh yes, you can customise your characters - not that much - but good enough.

Now, anyone knows where I can get a USB mic?

Slideshow with Music on PSP

I haven't posted anything much on the PSP for awhile - that's because I haven't touched it for... quite some time actually. Almost two weeks ago, Worms Open Warfare 2 demo was released for the PSP. And, as a person who love Worms (who doesn't?), I downloaded it and have been playing it for awhile.

Anyway, I want to mention about something else other than Worms. PSP latest firmware update. Why? Because I love this update.

• You can now set custom themes in [Theme Settings] under [Settings].
• Support has been added for assigning buttons in [Remote Play].
• A scene search feature has been added under [Video].
• Sequential playback is now supported under [Video].
• Simultaneous playback of content under [Music] and [Photo] is now supported.

Finally, something that I've been waiting for, playing music and viewing photos simultaneously. Something the PS3 has been able to do since day 1. Great for slideshows.

Oh, one final thing, I saw the Gold PSP on display at Hua Ho. It actually looks cool. Also on display was a PS3 version of Oblivion. Yeah, a PS3 game at Hua Ho electrical section. Didn't know Hua Ho has started selling console and handheld games.

All Unreal

Have you heard of Unreal Tournament? Okay, I'm kidding. Who hasn't. Anyway, I don't know if you guys keep up but UT3 has updated their website with hi-res screens and all the videos you need to know about the game. I suggest you check it out if you are an FPS fan. And believe me, if you are, you'd have played UT. And checked out the developers walkthrough video I posted awhile back.

Oh, I also uploaded 28 screens here.

Horror Playing

I love horror movies. Even moreso, I love horror games. Resident Evil was only good on its first game. The second one wasn't too bad. Fatal Frame was okay. Alone in the dark, Clock Tower, Obscure, Forbidden Siren... they're like been there, done that kinda thing. Doom... that was a different kind of horror. It was fun though. See, I love horror. I feed on it. It's like I need it. When I played the latest Doom, I turn off the lights just so I could feel the hair on the back of my neck stand. But I haven't seen any good horror flick, be it movies or games, for years. Hell, that Thai movie, Shutter, everyone talked about and said it was scary made me laugh (but only because Thai language is funny).

That was kind of a long introduction. Anyway, I meant to tell you that the game that always make me keep coming again and again is Silent Hill (except for the fourth one - didn't like that so much). Silent Hill rocks. And here are two Silent Hill 4 gameplay vids I'd like to share. The second one shows the transformation between the two worlds in real time. Check it out!