It’s the final PSN update of 2009, and with it comes a hefty supply of festive frolics to savor. There’s the release of Hustle Kings and the PS One classic Vagrant Story, along with a continuation of the special offers found last week with a few additions, including Fat Princess.

Elsewhere, there’s the usual explosion of downloadable content, as LittlebigPlanet takes center stage with the belated release of the Pirates of the Caribbean water pack which I’ve been anticipating since the summer. Or, if you can’t afford that, you can always buy an adorable Sackboy avatar for £0.20. The AdhocParty application is also finally available, which means you can now play Gran Turismo PSP online afterall.

That’s all for now until the next PSN update which is scheduled for January 7th after a holiday hiatus, so I get a well deserved break. As always, a full listing of this week’s update can be found after the jump.

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Blizzard has been a heavy hitter this year, with the announcement of the latest expansion for World of Warcraft and development of Starcraft II and Diablo III chugging along, but perhaps the biggest news to come from the gaming giant was given by J. Allen Brack, who stated the company is definitely looking to return to the console market… “at some point.”

This might come as a shock to some fans, who’ve been convinced that Blizzard is against the console market since its last console game was released over nine years ago. However, this begs the question, just which game is Blizzard hoping to return to the market with?

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Last week, Develop magazine asked a panel of game developers why they believe there is a lack of third-party support for the Wii despite its massive user-base. The responses were not positive. Three years into the console’s life and developers are still afraid to touch it.

After the first year or so, it should have been clear to anyone that developers who had not expressed interest in the Wii were never going to be won over. Despite that, Nintendo continues to catch heat, essentially for not copying from Sony and Microsoft’s playbook. The same lamentations are repeated over and over again; the arguments have gotten old.

With the frequency of “Wii is a failure” pieces being published, you would assume that there aren’t any Wii fans among enthusiast gamers, much less those who would rate it above the 360 and PS3. That’s not true, though. There are such gamers.

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Have you ever wanted to get your 256-player shooting on, but haven’t been able to get your hands on one of the many, many beta codes floating around the Internet? Well, do not despair, gentle soldier, for your time has come.

Zipper Interactive announced today that its upcoming online FPS, MAG, has gone gold. To commemorate this development milestone, Zipper will be opening up the previously closed beta to anyone with a PS3 and an internet connection, including all territories where PSN is available.

Read on to get the full details and learn how you can be another pretty face in a 256-player crowd.

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Nearly the entire roster for the upcoming Super Street Fighter 4 has been confirmed up to this point. Alongside the old street fighters Dee Jay and T.Hawk, and the newcomer Juri, some old favorites from the Street Fighter Alpha series – Guy, Cody, and Adon – have been confirmed.

However, a Japanese blog indicates that the newest issue of Famitsu will be revealing the remaining five characters left to be revealed in the roster – even though the character select screenshot on the internet shows only four remaining slots.

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There’s only a few more days left until Christmas; did you get all your shopping done?

If not, the Internet has some great last second deals.  SEGA is offering its PlayStation Store games (ALL of them) for 40% off, Good Old Games dropped the price of 171 of its DRM-free titles by 25-40% (that’s almost their entire catalog), and apparently Amazon.com is offering the first Holy Invasion of Privacy Badman! game for FREE when you pre-order its just-announced sequel which releases in March.

Find the SEGA games on sale after the jump.  Just hit the links for the other specials, and Merry Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa!

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Today word got out, via Major Nelson’s podcast, that Ruffian’s sand box super cop sim Crackdown 2 is slated to arrive in the “first half of the year.” While this may not be as specific as some would like, it’s better than Microsoft’s vague “2010″ date listed.

Aaron Greenberg, Microsoft product management director, appeared on Major Nelson’s podcast and stated: “Starting in January, we have a triple-A exclusive title pretty much every month for the first half of the year.You got Mass Effect 2, you got Splinter Cell [Conviction], you got Alan Wake, you got Crackdown 2. We know we got things like Fable 3 and Halo Reach coming later in the year. Those are just the exclusives, it doesn’t include Final Fantasy [XIII]. There’s no way we had a first-half of the year like that last year.” Read more… »

In this fast-paced and modern age of wi-fi, live tweets, and diet coke, who really has the time to research and read those wonderful academic papers on the vast world of gaming? Well, I do apparently.

If you’re interested in the multi-faceted world of games design, but can’t bring yourself to read past the abstracts on “them wordy papers”, or if you would just like some recommendations on what to read, look no further as Gamer Limit takes you back to school. Although, if you are reading this at school, then some kind of crazy paradox has happened and you need to click “read more” before you blow up the multiverse.

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It’s a source of serious controversy in plenty of gaming circles, but PlayStation Home has still managed to rake in more than 10 million users since it hit open beta in 2008.

The company believes that Home should be a “core element of every studio’s marketing strategy”.

Read on to hear what Dan Hill, business manager for SCEE, had to say on this recent milestone.

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Despite being Gamer Limit’s resident Indie Guy, Osmos flew right under my radar when it was released back in August.  It wasn’t until the game was nominated for a Spike VGA (ugh, I know) that it popped to the forefront of my “to play” list.

Is it truly one of the finest indie games of the year, what with its ambient electronica soundtrack and simple controls?  Or, is there a reason it lost the “Best Indie Game” award to the experimental PS3 gem Flower?  The answer to both of these questions, dear readers, is “Yes.”

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[Each week, our goal is to scour our news posts, Gamer Limit blogs, and our forums looking for topics that make us laugh, sit in shock, or just sit in confusion making us ask the question: WTF?  The top three stories from the Gamer Limiters who make us evoke those reactions will be featured in our brand new editorial called Three Jeers of the Week. So c'mon Limiters, if you find something interesting, let us know about it.  You could be the feature for everyone to see.]

To pick-up right where we left off last week, I have searched Gamer Limit looking for the most shameful posts, and, let me tell you, I struck gold.  If you dare to look at the filth underneath the video game industry’s glitz and glamor, I’m sure you’ll be just as appalled or laughing hysterically as I was.  Either way, read on for the dirty truth. Read more… »

Merry Christmas everyone!  The Limitcast crew is finally recovering from our charity antics, Nick’s crotch juice is still stained into my scrubs (and memory), and it’s time to get the podcast back on track.  Since it’s Christmas, we are inviting all of the readers and listeners out there to give us your wish list for the holidays…and beyond!

Let me stop you real quick though, before you start jotting down every damn game you missed this year.  We don’t want that.  Give us your wish list for the industry or secret desires you’ve had for future games or your favorite characters.

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