With the exception of Deathspank (possibly the greatest name for a game ever), this week’s Store update pales in comparison to recent weeks in terms of note worthy content, unless of course you happen to fancy some more EyePet avatars for your collection. Just watch as your friends list slowly declines.

Downloadable content has also been spread rather thinly, restricted mainly to everyone’s favourite set of music titles that have featured for the 9000th week running. On the plus side, Blur finally gets a PS3 demo and there is a reasonable roster of special offers and minis to choose from.

This week’s PSN Store update can be read in full after the break.

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Man, what is it with July? Yesterday we get word that Kane & Lynch: Dog Days will be hitting stores one week early. Now, the next Professor Layton game is following suit.

According to the press release sent out by Nintendo, “Previously scheduled for release on Sept. 20, [Professor Layton and the Unwound Future] will now be available a week earlier, treating newcomers and experienced players alike to a mesmerizing mix of mystery, time travel and puzzle-solving fun.” Gamers should now plan on heading to the store on September 12 to get their copy. Read more… »

One of the biggest draws of the Xbox Live Arcade, in my opinion, is that it offers incredibly accessible family titles right alongside hardcore greats such as Ikaruga. The fact that I can literally quit out of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and join my wife in a game of Catan or Carcassone in a matter of seconds really speaks volumes for the value of the wide variety of the marketplace.

Risk Factions, thankfully, honors the Xbox Live casual legacy. Read more… »

While cynics initially credited the fact that the Halo 3 beta was included with the original Crackdown as the reason for the number of units it moved, no one could have predicted the levels of cult-classic fondness that gamers would later develop for it. It didn’t compete graphically or technically with any of its contemporaries in 2007, and yet the leaping traversal, over-the-top action, and sandbox playground mentality won over the hearts and minds of skeptics. More recent open-world superhero titles like Prototype and Infamous owe a huge debt of gratitude to Crackdown for paving the way to their success.

Fast forward to three years later, and much has changed. The majority of Realtime Worlds moved on to develop APB, while a few key players splintered off and formed Ruffian Games to keep Pacific City stocked with shiny, pulsating new orbs in Crackdown 2. It’s immediately obvious that the game doesn’t stray far from the formula that made the first so engaging, but whether you’ll find that to be great or disappointing will be largely a matter of personal taste. Read on to see how the game played for us at Gamer Limit!

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Should it be illegal for retailers to rent or sell violent video games to minors? That could soon be the case in California, where an overturned 2005 law is being reviewed by the Supreme Court. Attorney General, Jerry Brown, recently submitted a preliminary written argument to pass a law banning the sale of violent video games to anyone under 18.

That doesn’t sound so bad does it? Little Timmy shouldn’t be playing excessively violent games and heaven forbid his parents should have to actually pay attention to what their children are playing. The motivation behind the law is understandable, but the execution has more wrinkles than Jabba the Hutt after liposuction. Read more… »

Today IO Interactive announced that Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days has gone gold and will be hitting store shelves one week earlier than expected.

North American gamers should now plan on picking up their copy (be it PS3, PC or Xbox 360) of the co-op based, third-person shooter on August 17. Europeans will get the game on August 20. Unfortunately for our friends in the East, the Japanese release is still on track for an August 26 release. Read more… »

If you guys are anything like me, you were raised on the ridiculous balls-out action films of the 1980′s. With movies like Predator, Commando, and Tango & Cash ingrained into my psyche, it should come as no surprise that I am eagerly anticipating The Expendables; a up coming action flick starting Sylvester Stallone, Jet Li, Bruce Willis, Jason Statham, and Mickey Rourke (with a cameo from the Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger himself) that promises to be a throw-back to the glory days of the genre.

In an effort to promote this masterpiece, a retro-style flash game was added to the official Expendables Facebook page. Basically functioning as a Contra clone, The Expendables flash game features three difficulty levels, dependent on which character you choose. It is important to note that in order to play the flash game, you need to “Like” the Facebook Page. It may not be the most robust title, but at least you get to play as Sly again (and not in some lame Judge Dredd game this time). Read more… »

Before I went to film school, I watched the Academy Awards. I believed they were a sincere arbiter of what the “best” movies were in a given year. I did not understand how those decisions were made, but trusted that the people making them had expertise which I lacked, and so I did not question their decisions. I learned in school that a small minority of the members of the Academy were people who actually knew anything about the art of filmmaking, i.e. directors, actors, cinematographers, or screenwriters. The rest of them were producers, agents, distributors, and other “suits” who really only knew about one thing: money.

Hollywood has patted itself on the back with award shows like the Oscars for decades, and no one wanted to see that the emperor had no clothes. Whatever clothes he’s wearing now are being seen on Blu Rays or DVDs sent through the mail instead of through film projected onto movie theater screens, and fewer consumers are willing to purchase those Blu Rays or DVDs every year. There’s a reason why ticket prices are skyrocketing, and why we’re being flooded with a series of remakes. Hollywood is creatively drained. They’ve beaten the tropes to death. The audience has figured out that there’s nothing under the hood, and aren’t willing to pay what Hollywood is asking.

I’m finding distressing similarities in the seeming mentality between those who hand out the Oscars, and those who handed out the E3 Game Critics Awards; considering the similarities between the two industries, the present state of film may say a lot about the future of video games.

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Today brings some bad news for fans of the Driver games. Word got out the the fifth installment in the series, Driver: San Francisco, has been pushed back to Ubisoft’s fourth quarter (January to March 2011).

This news was discovered when some super sleuths combed though Ubisoft’s estimated sales report. According to the report, Driver: SF has been pushed back in order to avoid the “competitive market at Christmas.” Read more… »

To say “it’s been done before” is quite the understatement these days.  Flagrant rip-offs of popular franchises practically inundate the market, and with Singularity this fact becomes all the more apparent.  However, Singularity also shows that in some respects, a rip-off can stand solid, though rising beyond that simple task is a difficult affair.

Borrowing nearly every gameplay element from particularly memorable triple-A titles, Singularity at first glance manages to seem like it could stand on its own.  Unfortunately, it simply doesn’t do enough beyond what its obvious inspiration tried to guarantee any kind of fame.

So what does this title take, and what do we receive?  Keep reading and see. Read more… »

There’s a certain magic to be experienced when playing a highly regarded game nearly twenty years after its original release. It’s not something that gamers get to do often, especially in an age when high-quality releases threaten weekly to bury us even during supposed “summer droughts.” Too often, years and years of praise and hyperbole create in our minds an image of perfection that no game, especially one that has suffered the ravages of time, could live up to. We play a classic, sit back after the credits roll and wonder why we bothered, and we wish we could have played it in its prime.

Hidden among those hundreds of disappointments is the inverse: a classic game that creates in you the feelings of pure admiration and gratitude, and we know that this game is and was something truly special. And, perhaps, it can be made more special by our many years of separation from it, as if the people we are today were the ones meant to experience it.

This is that game.

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