Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has announced today that it will halt production on Eight Days and The Getaway 3 (tentative title) which were both PS3 exclusives being developed at Sony’s London Studio.Sony has issued the following statement:

“It has been agreed that production of both Eight Days and The Getaway will cease immediately due to the redistribution of resources and budget. This decision was made following an internal review of all games and it was deemed that with the incredibly strong list of exclusive first party titles coming up both this year and in the near future, resource should be reallocated to enhance those projects closer to completion.

“Worldwide Studios has a reputation for innovative and entertaining games, with titles such as LittleBigPlanet, SingStar,Buzz, EyeToy and Eye of Judgement, and will continue to push the boundaries on all PlayStation platforms.”

The Getaway 3 was the third chapter in the Getaway saga and was supposedly to deliver a game based on a  next-gen graphics engine which would capitalize on the storage capacity of the Blu-Ray disc drive. 

Eight Days however, was much more anticipated due to the awesome demo of an exploding gas station shown at E3 2005 and the demo of a car being shot up at CES 200.  Eight Days was a crime epic set in the desert of Arizona and featured open environments that you can run in, with fully-modeled buildings that you can exploit when the action gets too heavy on the streets and outskirts.

Originally scheduled for an October 2008 release, the entire game took place in a time-line of eight days and during the course of the week and a day, you must achieve all of your goals. The biggest part of the game was the map system, which includes states that you must cross and was reportedly one of the largest game maps for any console to date. You would never have time to linger in one place too long, and once you visited a spot on the map you would never go back to it again. The neatest thing about Eight Days was the incorporation of the Google Maps system which would “tie into a real-life clock” which basically meant that whatever time of the day you were playing the game, the same time frame will be occurring in-game as well.

Hopefully these games will not be canceled indefinitely, especially Eight Days – but as soon as any news pops up regarding either one, we will be sure to let you know.

Thanks: StrategyInformer

Sony has announced the official Play Station Network Eye of Judgment Tournament. The competition is scheduled for Friday 30th May (12:00 GMT) for all players in the PAL region. Scoring for the tournament is the same as for regular matches.

Our first tournament, ‘Natural Power’, will call upon players to create their own super-deck of cards to beat all comers, but there’s a catch. No Biolith cards will be allowed. The top 2 players won’t just receive the joy of being victorious, they will also receive an exclusive online ranking title on the global leaderboards for their eternal glory!

Contestants have until Friday 6th June (12:00 GMT) to battle it out for the top spot on the leaderboard. Instructions on how to enter the tournament follow the break
Read the full article

Def Leppard’s Guitar Hero III outing and the obligatory weekly dose of Rock Band tracks (now finally with a full album!), there’s a ton of great new content now available on the PlayStation Store. The biggest release is certainly the Variety Map Pack ($10) for Call of Duty 4 which naturally includes four new multiplayer maps.

A new PS one Classic was also released today with R-Types ($6), ending that particular drought. (Even though you and I both know we probably won’t see another Classic for weeks.) There’s also the Biolith Rebellion 2 expansion set for The Eye of Judgment, whichs adds more than 100 new creatures, spells and abilities, so that sounds like a must-buy for fans of The Eye.

There’s also plenty of videos, demos of both echochrome and Iron Man, a map pack for Army of Two, downloadable songs for Karaoke Revolution, and more. So hit the break and check out everything now available for download.

Read the full article

The latest World of Warcraft v2.3.0 to v2.3.2 US patch is now available for download. The Blizzard team has the boat and zeppelin vendors and NPCs back on duty and many more general and UI changes in store for this latest patch. There are also quite a few Rogue specific changes this time around as well. Full patch details are listed after the break.

Read the full article

All right World of Warcraft players, your wait is over. Blizzard has released the 2.3 patch for WoW, and it’s loaded with changes.

Not only does it introduce a brand new 10-man raid instance named Zul’Aman (it’s over in the Ghostlands), it loads in a ton of changes to classes as well. This patch also brings with it the start of WoW’s PvP Arena Season 3, which is reportedly scheduled to begin on November 20.

As usual, this patch is available in a ton of region specific flavors. You can grab the US version from the links below. The remainder of the regional patches will be released during the regularly scheduled maintenance periods for those regions. Check out FileFront’s version 2.3 patch page for other regional versions as they become available.

You can check out the patch notes for this release after the break, just prepare for some serious reading.

US Version

US Full Version
US Incremental Version

Read the full article

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) have announced the nominees for The 2007 British Academy Video Games Awards (which apparently went down last night). BAFTA first started recognizing video games back in 1998, but it wasn’t until recently that BAFTA started to give video games equal status with television and film. In fact, as we saw earlier, Will Wright (mastermind behind The Sims) was bestowed the prestigious Fellow Award; a first in video game history.

Glancing at the list, the odd thing I’m seeing here (other than being dominated by console titles) is that it contains a few titles that have yet to be released without even so much as a demo. It is my understanding that the entry submissions were closed back in July. Still, how do games that were in development (and still in development) get nomination status? Is hype enough to deserve a nomination? Are these the Standards and Practices BAFTA have chosen for judging video games? It leaves one to debate how “prestigious” the BAFTA Video Game Awards truly are.

Portal should have been judged by itself for Innovation. Heck, Team Fortress 2 deserves some recognition for Artistic Achievement. At least Guitar Hero II is getting some well deserved props. Anyway, you can read the full list of nominees after the break.

Read the full article

Sony has confirmed that the PlayStation Eye will be out in Europe on November 7 and will come bundled with a free copy of editing suite EyeCreate, which lets users take pictures, video, and audio clips before saving them to the PS3 hard drive.

When The Eye of Judgement is released on October 26, it will include the PS Eye and consumers who purchase the bundle will be able to attain a free copy of EyeCreate from the PlayStation Store. This month also consists of releases that are compatible with the PS Eye: Operation Create Feature, Aqua Vita and The Trials of Topoq.

With double the sensitivity, twice the frame-rate, and four-times the resolution of the EyeToy on PS2, the new PS Eye also has a microphone that can focus on different audio inputs.

Via: GamesIndustry.biz

Chris and Steve have been posting information regarding The Eye of Judgement, out this month, which presents a new style of gameplay where collectable trading cards, embedded with a CyberCode, are brought to life in the 3D game through use of the innovative “9 Fields” battle mat and Playstation Eye. Players compete by selecting a card and placing the coded card in front of the Playstation Eye for their respective creatures to come to life and battle on screen. Players take turns placing cards as they jostle for control; the winner is the first player to conquer five of the nine squares of the “9 Fields” battle mat. The gamers task is to conquer the board by deploying their cards more skillfully than their opponent.

Players have four ways to play The Eye of Judgement, single player against their PS3, against an opponent in two-player mode, against an opponent online, or letting the PS3 play out a round with the cards the player owns. The Eye of Judgement comes with a starter deck of 30 character and spell cards manufactured by Hasbro. Pre-constructed decks and booster packs, sold separately in stores, can be purchased to strategically build the perfect deck using the 110 cards unique cards available.

KEY FEATURES

• A revolutionary new way to use the PS3 system, based on traditional trading card games and given a new dimension in 3D by next-generation technology.
• Developed in collaboration with Hasbro and its Wizards of the Coast subsidiary that produces MAGIC: THE GATHERING
• Four ways to play: player vs. PS3, PvP offline, PvP online, PS3 vs. PS3 using players own deck.
• High Definition 3D animated characters and vehicles come to life seamlessly into the on camera view of your tabletop.
• The Eye of Judgement will be bundled with Playstation Eye, 9 Fields mat, stand, a starter deck of 30 cards, and a booster pack of 8 cards. More than 100 different characters and spells will be offered via additional booster packs and pre-constructed decks, available at major retail chains.
• The Eye of Judgement is a socially engaging title that will appeal to gamers of all ages and abilities.

Tons of Screens Can Be Seen Here

MORE AFTER THE BREAK

Read the full article

Thanks to PS3 Fanboy, we now have a glimpse of what SCE Studio’s Eye of Judgment bundle will look like when it hits store shelves late October. As Chris had covered earlier, the Eye of Judgment bundle will be priced at $70 and include game disc, PlayStation Eye camera, battle mat, 30-card starter deck, and an eight-card booster pack. The bundle certainly sounds like a sweet deal if you can get past the weird factor.

To our dismay, it looks like SCE opted for a hard plastic casing for Eye of Judgment. If you’ve ever had to deal with opening those near indestructable molds of flesh carving apparatus, you’d know how much a PITA they can be even with a chainsaw handy. In any event, we can only give you fair warning, kiddos. We’d hate to see you playing Eye of Judgment cyclops-style come October.

So here’s toasting to future PornTube user content.

Via PS3 Fanboy

Headlining this week’s PlayStation Store update is the pair of demos in NBA 2K8 and Clive Barker’s Jericho. Additionally, more downloadable content for Motorstorm and Ninja Gaiden Sigma have been released. And to top it all off, the usual assortment of trailers. Have a look at the official list, and then get downloadin’.

Demos

• NBA 2K8
• Clive Barker’s Jericho

Trailers/Videos/Wallpapers

• NBA 08 Upside Progression System tutorial
• Eye of Judgement Overview
• Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock trailer
• Iron Man trailer
• We Own the Night trailer