The Sims 2 Exchange Update Patch
EA has released a small patch for the original The Sims 2 game, which fixes an issue that users receive when attempting to upload content to the Exchange.

Blood Bowl Patch version 1.014
This patch will update your Blood Bowl install to version 1014. It contains a number of changes and fixes.

Dungeon Fighter Online Comic Con 2009 Trailer
This trailer for Nexon’s upcoming MMO will be shown off at the San Diego Comic Con this week.

Football Superstars Client RC107
This is the latest client for Football SuperStars, a MMO which allows players to meet in a football-themed virtual world and take part in matches.

WarCraft III: The Frozen Throne is debuting as the official game for World Cyber Games 2009. Gamers will battle one-on-one for the world of Azeroth in this real time strategy. WCG has announced the official tournament rules and regulations including changes for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, Starcraft: Brood War, TrackMania Nations Forever, and FIFA ‘09. This year’s Grand Final is scheduled for November 11-15, in Chengdu, China.
This year’s full lineup is listed in official press release following the break.

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Prepare to hand over your Wii Points — er, Nintendo Points — to Nintendo, because today’s update to the Virtual Console and WiiWare is a great one. WiiWare adds Art Style: Cubello (600 points), a puzzle game, and indie game World of Goo (1500 points), which you may have heard of after it showed extremely well at this year’s Independent Games Festival.

On the Virtual Console, Nintendo has added another of the many incarnations of Street Fighter II, this one being the Sega Genesis’ Street Fighter II: Special Championship Edition (800 points), as well as the very much beloved SNES RPG Secret of Mana (800 points).

It’s going to be difficult deciding what to buy; you’re looking at $37 if you opt to pick up all four games. While I’m rather partial to indie games, if you’ve never played Secret of Mana before, heed my words and give it a try. Its release is going to make even Phil turn his Wii on, and that’s saying something.

The latest Wii-kly update features a new musical rhythm game, Groovin’ Blocks as the WiiWare offering. Groovin’ Blocks will have you solving the action puzzles to the beat of the music for extra points. You and a buddy can play head to head even if you aren’t equals on the field thanks to the golf-style handicap system.

There are also two classic TurboGrafx64 shooters available as the virtual console titles. Final Soldier is a single player vertical scrolling shooter from the Soldier series. Pit yourself against aliens in super high tech fighter to save the Earth’s future. If you’re in the mood for a fantasy shooter in space try Cho Aniki. The title was fairly controversial in its day, and still is for many people. Who knew players would feel squeamish about consuming protein from their fallen opponents to power up. Maybe it was the two muscle bound homo-erotic avatars Adon and Samson that disturbed gamers.
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It’s not often that we get much insight into the decisions made by game companies — perhaps because the small events leading up to them aren’t usually given a second thought. Thanks to the enthusiasm of Bionic Commando producer Ben Judd, we now know what convinced Capcom bigwig Keiji Inafune to change the next-gen reinvention of the classic NES title from a PSP game into the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC game we know today: a very special business card.

In an interview with 1UP, Judd explained how he came to know Inafune, who is best known as the creator of Mega Man and the producer of Onimusha and Dead Rising. The two became close following the success of Dead Rising, which allowed Judd to pitch the idea of making a new Bionic Commando to Inafune. According to Judd, the creator responded with a simple, “Eh, it sounds OK.” After having one of the original directors replay the game, Inafune changed his tune, deciding to pursue a PSP game using the Ultimate Ghosts ‘n Goblins engine.

Judd explains what happened next in the interview:

We were probably two months into preproduction. We had a full design document with some nice art in it. After E3, Inafune-san asked a lot of the press what games they wanted to see from Capcom. A lot of them said Bionic Commando. A lot of them said Street Fighter 4. One of the press guys, Ben Turner, had a business card with the Bionic Commando 1UP icon on his card, and he gave it to Inafune-san, and I just s*** myself. ‘What?! This is the Bionic Commando icon!’ I pointed it out to Inafune-san, and he said, ‘You totally set this up. His name is Ben and your name is Ben.’ I said, ‘No, he really does like the game!’ I think that was the nail in the coffin that really made him say, ‘This is really worth doing.’

I remember a week or two after that, he came back to me and said, ‘Instead of making a PSP game, let’s go with a next-gen game and make it multiplatform.’

The full interview with Judd can be found here. It delves into his journey to becoming a U.S.-born producer in a Japanese company, PS3 trophies, Virtual Console, and much more.

The PlayStation Portable Store is a no-show this week, but there’s more than enough good stuff on the PS3 to make up for it. (Assuming you have a PS3, of course, otherwise you’ll just be left envious of those console-playing folks.)

PixelJunk Eden is the obvious highlight, making it the third PixelJunk game from Q-Games to be released on the PlayStation Network. Eden is a bit more abstract than the previous two games, which you could easily identify as a tower defense and racing game. $10 is the price for the full version of the game, or you can check out the demo that was released last week and read 1UP’s review.

LEGO Indiana Jones joins Madden 09 and FaceBreaker as the three new game demos this week. Madden’s demo is disappointingly short, letting you only play through the Madden IQ test and then a single trip down the field as you try to score a touchdown with the Giants in the closing moments of this year’s Super Bowl. It doesn’t really give you a great look at the game while the FaceBreaker demo does let you try out the create-a-player mode with your camera and play as many 90 second bouts as you wish.

Check out the full list of content after the break, including four new Rock Band tracks and some Soul Calibur music, which isn’t the slightest bit cheap.

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It’s Monday morning; time for another Wii-kly update. This week gamers can train for fraternity hazing with the WiiWare title, Pong Toss-frat Party Game. Toss your balls into cups of what assuredly would be root beer for an E for Everyone rating.

The virtual console offerings are ART OF FIGHTING 2 and Chase H.Q. giving gamers a variety of genres to choose from. A full description all these titles follows the break.
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Chances are that you aren’t going to be particularly familiar (or enthused, if you’re like me) with this week’s game that have been released on the Virtual Console. Two Sega Genesis imports — Super Fantasy Zone and Grey Lancer — have been released for 900 Wii points each, along with one new WiiWare title, Pirates: The Key of Dreams, for 1,000 Wii points.

Pirates: The Key of Dreams (Oxygen Games, 1-4 players, Rated E for Everyone—Mild Violence, 1,000 Wii Points): Pirates: The Key of Dreams is a frantic nautical shoot-’em-up. Sail your way across the Caribbean, cannons blazing, looting booty, running blockades and ultimately battling Blackbeard himself. The player takes control of a navy captain sent deep undercover as a ruthless pirate in order to seek out and retrieve the Key of Dreams, a valuable and dangerous cursed artifact. Rescue castaways to bolster your ship’s crew, gaining performance increases to your navigation, weaponry, structural integrity and cartography skills. Collect increasingly powerful weaponry including rockets, mines, chain shot, saw blades and a flamethrower to hurl destruction into the path of your enemies. Play against three of your scurvy friends or A.I. opponents in pitched multiplayer battles over 35 levels, set in seven themed environments. Choose from different ship types that reflect your play style. Play in turbo mode if you’re pirate enough.

You can find descriptions for the two VC games after the break.

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This week’s Wii-kly Update gives gamers two new WiiWare titles and a console game as well. Download a new twist on the classic brick-breaker arcade games, Block Breaker Deluxe. You don’t have to get up at the crack of dawn to go fishing with Cocoto Fishing Master. Save the world by fishing.

On the virtual console is Samurai Shodown, originally for the NeoGeo. This was a “revolutionary” fighting game for its time which has inspired many sequels. The full details for each game follow the break.

That’s all for now. Check back next Monday for more classic games and WiiWare titles.
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Colleges looking to the future to fill the needs of their students and society, are a seeing video games. Over 200 institutes of higher learning now have programs to train the developers of the future.
Video games are seen by most as entertainment or stress relief. However video games are an excellent way to teach people through virtually simulating situations that are difficult to train for in real life. Doctors are honing surgical skills; fire fighters and other rescue workers are preparing for disasters online and both civilian and military personnel are logging hours of flight time without every boarding an aircraft.

Alternative controllers are also being tested at universities such as a head band the measures blood flow to the brain to activate in-game events. It’s fantastic stuff. Just be warned that just because a school slaps the word game in front of their program, doesn’t mean you’ll be employable after graduation. Choose your programs and your colleges carefully.

via The Philadelphia Enquirer