Great news for alien, predator and marines lovers alike! An updated version of the Alien vs Predator multiplayer demo is available now.

The original demo released on 2/4 had a few issues with matchmaking, resulting in some players not being able to get into matches. SEGA and Rebellion claim that that has been fixed, and in addition, players will be able to create their own matches and browse for any available ones to join.

I’m sure this news will delight many. Enjoy folks.

Aliens vs Predator is scheduled to be released on February 16th in America and February 19th in Europe, on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.

On February 4, North American PS3 owners will be able to download the demo of Battlefield: Bad Company 2. This demo will feature Port Valdez, a vehicle focused map set along the waterline towards an oil industrial landscape in the Alaskan mountains. Players will be able to compete against a maximum of 24 players in the game’s Rush multiplayer. With five land and three air vehicles including Main Battle Tank, Quad Bikes and Mobile Armored AA, this demo is sure to give you a taste of the game’s detailed, sandbox environment as well as the vehicular warfare, destruction, and squad play. 

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 will be available in stores March 2, 2010 in North America, and March 4, 2010 in Europe for the X360, PS3, and PC.

Although these aren’t from the Demo itself, enjoy the screenshots here from the single player compaign.

I hope you were able to check out the CES galleries posted by ClassicMoments. Suffice to say, it was fun. The last booth we visited was none other than Sony.

There were several stations set up exclusively for gaming; Gran Turismo 5, some stations for PSP downloads, etc. There wasn’t anything eye-popping, but there was a little demo for the newest PS3 hardware/software: EyePet.

So EyePet is basically one of those games where you own and take care of a virtual pet. Only this time, you’re not gonna be using a stylus to care for it; you’re gonna be using your hands. With the use of the Playstation Eye Camera, you can use your hands to interact with the vitual pet inside the game. This was actually pretty cool.

So for the first portion of the demo, I had to wash the pet. With the use of a special card, I’m able to move the shower head over the pet, and rinse him down. Then at the top right-hand corner of the screen, you can change the shower head to shampoo, and soap him down. By putting my hands together in front of my pet, I was able to scrub him down and wash him. The whole process was pretty cool. But that’s not the coolest part.

The second half of the demo involved drawing. I was told to select from a list of general categories to draw of: planes, robots, etc. I chose a robot. So the lady gave me a blank sheet of paper to draw my robot on. So I did. And then magic happened. I put my drawn robot up to the camera, and with a few angle adjustments, the camera picked it up. Once the camera picked it up, my pet began to draw the same robot, and the robot comes to life! You can use it as a toy to play with the pet. Depending on what drawing you create, you can interact with your pet differently. A robot lets you play with other toys, and even play baseball with your pet, while an airplane lets the pet ride and fly around in it.

So overall experience, it was pretty fun. Looks like the title is still in the testing stage, but in every convention/expo, we see them so we assume that they’re investing lots of time and effort to make this work. Though it was suppose to be released in 2009, looks like it’s been pushed to 2010. We’ll let you know more when the news comes.

Sony has joined the motion sensor remote/controller band wagon. Tentatively called the Motion Controller, this motion sensor controller will be released in the Fall of 2010 in Asia, North America and Europe/PAL territories along with a series of software titles utilizing the Motion Controller and Playstation Eye Camera. And apparently, Sony will be vigorously promoting this Motion Controller, along with the DUALSHOCK series as the de facto controller for the PS3 platform. No pics yet, but we’ll get’em up as soon as we get them.

I don’t personally know how I feel about this. I don’t have anything against motion sensor controllers. In fact I think they’re awesome. I just hope they don’t make games that rely entirely on the motion sensor element and are slim on the actual quality of the game. We’ve also heard the Motion Controller will require the use of the Playstation Eye camera to get the full benefits. Hmmm. That’s not too promising… but we’ll definitely keep our eyes peeled!

Possibly the best looking baseball game of current generation gaming, MLB 10 The Show screenshots has been revealed!

It just looks better and better as they release the next version, and sports game fans rejoice once again. Too bad this is PS3 exclusive. Or is it?

We haven’t received anything of features list or release date, but we’ll let you know as soon as we get them!

Anyone could predict the partnership between Sony PlayStation 3 and Netflix, but not this soon.

Do we go well together?

The Official PlayStation Blog today announced that if you’re the current Netflix member, you won’t have to pay a single fee to steam it to your PS3. This includes TV series and movies. They also provided a link for a sign-up already.

http://www.netflix.com/ps3

Once you sign up, the pS3 owners will receive a disc that enables the free streaming from Netflix. It’ll be delivered within couple of days.

Sony has been aggressive since PS3 slim launch, and looks like they’re really trying hard to expand their market share. So now, PS3 can do online gaming for free, and won’t cost you anything if you already have Netflix account. With all the video formats supported, PS3 is now a very strong contender to becoming the central home theater + gaming system in the living room.

It also puzzles us though, because we know that Sony has their own VoD service for PS3 through PSN. Does this mean that now Sony is giving up on their VoD service?

Well, not anytime soon, but in couple of weeks.

Slimmer on the outside, fatter on the inside!

Sony announced that there will be new 250GB version of PS3 available for the purchase starting November 3rd, 2009. The price will be $350, which is about $50 more than the 120GB version.

With recent sales spike on PS3, Sony is pushing it really aggressively. Will Sony do a catch up or even exceed the rival’s sales figure?

What? More Gran Turismo 5 screenshots?

This time though, it’s not something that you’ll see often; Gran Turismo 5 screenshots of cars crashing into each other. Oh, the humanity!

Whether they’re crashing or racing, it looks fantastic.

Looks like Gran Turismo 5 will be one of the most realistic looking racing game to date.

Hwaaachaaa!

That’s the best kung-fu impression I can do in writing. I wouldn’t say I’m a die-hard kung-fu flick fan, but I do enjoy them occasionally. And like others, the kung-fu genre has gotten its share of video game incarnations. Invincible Tiger: The Legend of Han Tao is one of them, albeit not the most successful one.

Invincible Tiger is an Arcade title by Namco Bandai Games America for the X360 and PS3. Like any quality kung-fu flick from the 70s, the story is fairly linear: There’s an ancient artifact known as the Star of Destiny that gives its user control over an army of immortal warriors, and the Evil Overlord has come to claim it. It is up to the former Legendary Warrior, Han Tao to recover the Star of Destiny from the Evil Overlord.

The gameplay is your basic 2D brawler. You have the punch, kick and jump buttons for your basic maneuvers. With a combination of the punch and kick buttons you can string three hit combos. Pressing the () button allows you to interact with glowing objects, which I’ll explain later.

There’s no side-scrolling in Invincible Tiger; all of the action takes place in a single area. Theses areas are fairly large with multiple tiers. For example, the first stage puts you in front of an old chinese house. You can fight on the ground, the second floor balcony, or you can take your brawl on to the roof a la Croughing Tiger. The glowing objects I mentioned earlier can be vines hanging down, or doors you can go into to access another tier. You can also pick up barrels, pots, and somtimes weapons that enemies have dropped. Once you have cleared the area of all the enemies, you move onto a boss.

As you fight off hordes of thugs, thieves and ninjas, your Yin Yang gauge fills up. The circular gauge can fill up in two different ways; the white bar fills up with offensive actions like attacking, and the black bar fills up with defensive maneuvers, like dodging, or even getting hit. This gauge does a couple of different things. You can use it to heal yourself when you’ve taken damage by meditating. Or, you can fill it up to unleash Hyperstate, where Han’s attacks do more damage with speed increase. The more balanced your gauge is, the longer your hyperstate lasts (hence the Yin Yang).  This gauge also serves yet another purpose. If you keep the gauge filled, it acts as a point multiplier. Speaking of points, you get different multipliers for meeting different requirements, such as varying you attacks, keeping your Yin Yang meter balanced, and killing as many enemies as possible without taking a hit.

This game also provides a multiplayer mode both offline and online, where you can team up with a friend (or stanger) to take on the Evil Overlord and his goons. In a co-op game, you have separate health bars, but share the same lives and the same Yin Yang gauge, calling for some stratgey and planning.

So, first the good. It’s well presented. The backgrounds look cool and are very reminiscent of a kung-fu flick, with barrels and pots that the hero can use to wreck havoc or make his escape. You seen vertical lines run across the screen at times that really recreate the feel of an old flick. A cool visual feature the title offers is the ability to set 3D settings. Through the Main and Pause menus you can choose from two different 3D settings: Anaglyph 3D that functions on all TVs and Digital 3D that requires a compatible TV and possibly an emitter. This definitely adds to the visual experience.

However, no matter how sweet a game looks, unless it has a good story or plays really well, it’s just NOT enjoyable. Obviously, the storyline is a falls a bit short in carrying the game through. So it’s gotta be in the gameplay. Unfortunately, the gameplay in Invincible Tiger doesn’t quite cut it either. But its not the concepts that I mentioned earlier that fall short; it’s the execution.

The biggest issue I had with this title is the controls. They feel really sloppy. In the initial stages, the waves of enemies are smaller, and don’t provide too much of a problem. But as you progress, enemies become tougher and more in number, and that’s when you really start to have out-of-body experiences. Here’s what I mean: Like any good ol’ hardcore beat-em ups, enemies try to trap you between them. And like any hardcore beat-em up character, Han has a combo that attacks both sides. But that attack only comes out on the third strike of a combo. As I’m pressing the right combination of buttons, Han is sometimes caught in an animation (or sometimes he’s just standing there), and the first input doesn’t register. So while I’m trying to do one combo, Han starts doing another combo, the result of which is him being beaten silly. After awhile, you just start to give up on strategically using combos, and just mashing. This can get old pretty quick. After a bout an hour or two of gameplay, the action just started getting repetitive, and frustrating.

But the boss fights are another story. You actually need to strategically dodge and attack at the right moments to inflict damage. There are a total of five bosses in the game, and each challenge you with a unique strategy that you must employ to defeat them. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t get frustrating at times. But the frustration doesn’t get in the way of the fun and satisfaction you gain from defeating the boss.

Now let me set it straight that I love beat-em up games. I really do. Even though I get seriously frustrated at times, it all seems worth it at the end. But with Invincible Tiger, the satisfaction didn’t quite even out with the frustration. The game looks great and has some great sound effects. But the gameplay gets repetitive quick, and the sloppy controls result in a lot of frustration. The online co-op capabilities are pretty sweet, but again, you encounter the same issues you would in single player.

If you’re a die hard kung-fu junkie and want a video game fix, or you like that drop of frustration in your beat-em ups, this game may suit you well. This game had a lot of potential, but could not quite tap into it all in its execution.

Our Score: 6.5 /10

Great potential, not so great execution.

*Although I did write about multiplayer co-op, I was not able to play it. I didnt’ have anybody to play it with on my console, and after about 45 min in a lobby, I decided to give up. We’ll update the article as soon as I get some multiplayer actions.

We thought Gran Turismo 5 would resemble the reality of cars and racing, but not this real.

We usually tone the quality down (jpg 85 which is still higher than most other gaming websites) for screenshots to speed up your download time, but these screenshots are in such high quality that we bumped it up almost to the max. So even if there’s waiting time, just relax and enjoy the extra seconds of download time. It’ll be worth it.

Such high quality we can easily trick people to think that these are actual photos, not video game graphic.

Gran Turismo 5 will be available at early 2010 exclusively for PS3 .

I know it’s a bit late, but I just had to squeeze this in. Demon’s Souls, an award-winning action RPG for the PS3 is now available in North America!

This game looks awesome! Many have claimed it to be the best RPG this year, and you’ll see why when you look at some of the features and the innovation that’s been put into this game.

For those of you not familiar with this game, it’s basically an action RPG game. The story goes that the last king of Boletaria, King Allant the XII, in his thirst for might, awakened a long forgotten evil: the Old One. Now hordes of demons have overtaken Boletaria, plunging the once prosperous kingdom into darkness and fog. Summoned by a mysterious maiden in black, you must make your way into Boletaria and become the last hope for humanity in a place lost to demons and darkness. Sounds like fun!

As I mentioned above, the game incorporates a lot of innovative ideas, espeically in its online features. One little feature not mentioned in the list below, which I thought was cool was the fact that as you’re playing along, you can see the ghosts of those players who are currently in the same area as you are. I thought that was pretty cool. But enough from me, check out the key features list:

• Ultimate hardcore RPG challenge – In this brutal land, death is inevitable, but not final. Combining the best features of an action game and RPG, you’ll slice, smash, shoot, and ensorcel some of the most horrible, vicious enemies ever encountered. Are you strong enough to face the impossible and win?
• Groundbreaking online capabilities – Network features go far beyond any previous RPG, allowing players to leave hints for each other, replay death scenes, cooperatively revive dead players, or invade another player’s game to wreak havoc. Not merely an add-on feature, multiplayer options are vast, and uniquely focused on changing and intensifying the single player experience.
• Freeform and flexible – The open-ended structure of the game means that there is no single path, but rather a wealth of options. Set your own pace and progress as you like. Build exactly the character you want by creating a detailed avatar, nurturing the right stats, and customizing your skills and equipment.
• You act, the world reacts – The World Tendency system changes the aggressiveness of monsters and the rewards for killing them based on players’ actions. Different events and NPCs may be triggered, as well.

If you’re into hardcore gaming and RPGs (ooh! me! me!) this looks like a good one to check out.