It’s been two weeks now since there’s been a real update to the PlayStation Store, so much of what’s been released today is catching up for missing out on the past few weeks – Rock Band songs, videos, and a UEFA Euro 2008 demo.

Of course, the big news is that Gran Turismo 5 Prologue has been released. I’ve spent some time today playing it, and I think it’ll be a fine holdover for diehard Gran Turismo fans.

The new Warhawk Broken Mirror pack is also now available for $8, as well as a bundle with both the Broken Mirror and Omega Dawn DLC packs.

Hit the break for the full list of content. Read the full article

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As a proponent of digital distribution, I love what Sony has done in terms of pushing large, retail-style games out through the PlayStation Store. Xbox Live Arcade is a great service, but with a cap on size limits, there’s no chance that you’re ever going to see something like Warhawk available on the Xbox Live Marketplace. PSN, on the other hand, has a multitude of full size games that go well beyond the scope of old school ports and small indie games like Everyday Shooter.

This movement begs the question: are discs and physical media doomed as a format for deliver games? Steam has become the definitive place to purchase games for many PC gamers (myself included), so what’s to stop consoles from following the trend? Michael Donahoe explored this possibility and took a look at how the three respective platform holders are handling digital distribution.

Downloadable games are really clicking this generation. It’s easy to see why, too — it’s the lazy way to play. Hell, all you have to do is hop online, push a button, and boom, you’re minutes away from getting your game on. Right now, all three of the major consoles are vying for your virtual bucks. Each one offers easy-to-play classics and smaller titles designed to quickly kill time. Of course, not all of these attractive appetizers will fill your gaming belly like a meaty retail game. Or at least that’s the case now, though Sony might be changing the way the menu is written with upcoming main-course titles like Gran Turismo 5: Prologue and SOCOM: Confrontation.

The full article can be read at 1UP.

image via Coding Horror

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: irony knows no bounds.

Lair had a bumpy launch and the months following were no smoother; gamers and reviewers alike bashed the game for the difficulty in controlling the game and wondered aloud why there wasn’t the option to play the game with analog sticks rather than with Sixaxis motion control. Factor 5’s Julian Eggebrecht claimed that any other control method would have broken the game’s illusion and stated that he believed his personal experience of having the controls work eight out of ten times was sufficient.

Following that, Eggebrecht bashed Warhawk’s motion controls (which are optional, mind you), stating, “I see motion-sensing as a complimentary, additional new step in terms of controls and where it fits you should use it and where it doesn’t fit, don’t force it. Please don’t force it.”

Suffice it to say, if irony were made of strawberries, we’d all be drinking a lot of smoothies.

Then earlier this year, Eggebrecht admitted that Lair should have included some form of control that didn’t involve twisting and twirling the Sixaxis. He also said that, provided the opportunity came along, Factor 5 would somehow fix the control problems. Well, that day has come as we’ve learned that Sony Japan has revealed a free update for the game which will bring analog stick control.

While Japan should be seeing this update on April 17, there’s no indication of a release elsewhere. We’ve contacted Sony to see when we can expect to see the patch Stateside. We’ll let you know as soon as we get the word.

via Evil Avatar

Yes, once again there’s going to be nothing new in the way of downloadable content for PlayStation 3 owners this week. The store remains open but frozen as the renovations are completed. But next Thursday should make for one hell of an update, with all the catching up to do plus Gran Turismo 5 Prologue and hopefully plenty more.

In the meantime, I’d once again signal you to focus on the barrage of awesomeness that the PS3 is receiving this month, which will be topped off with Grand Theft Auto IV at the end of the month. Suddenly a lack of DLC doesn’t seem so bad, does it?

Or if the anticipation of all that is too great, go pick up March of the Penguins on Blu-ray. It looks great, and it’s simply fascinating.

Normally I’d be writing about the new demos/games/videos/downloadable content that’ve been released on the PlayStation Store today, but as per part of the ongoing store upgrade, there won’t be any new content added either today or next Thursday.

Look on the bright side: this is a rocking month to be a PlayStation 3 owner. Aside from the new PlayStation Store, there’s also Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, DualShock 3, Warhawk’s second expansion and the 1.3 patch, the Metal Gear Online beta… it’s a flurry of awesomeness on PS3.

As Jonathan reported earlier, the new (free!) map pack for Unreal Tournament 3 is now available for download from the PlayStation Store. You’ll get Facing Worlds and two other maps I couldn’t care less about because Facing Worlds is the greatest thing ever, courtesy of Epic Games and Midway. That sure is awfully nice of them, and it makes me wonder if we’ll get to see a similar pack for free on Xbox 360 once the game gets moved over to Microsoft’s box.

Turok also is getting the downloadable content treatment today, although it’s not free. $4.99 will net you five new maps (although that statement might not hold true if you don’t view changes in time of day as constituting a “new” map).

$8.99 is the asking price of the new flOw bundle, which simply includes the full game and its expansion pack. Nothing new about the actually content, but if you want to take the plunge with flOw, this is the way to do it.

For the next two weeks (until April 15) you’ll find Warhawk on sale for just $29.99, $10 cheaper than it normally costs. You can use that saved money to buy some of the downloadable content that’s been released for the game since last August, or maybe you can just change paces and pick up that flOw bundle.

Videos, themes, Rock Band tracks, and an update to High Stakes: Poker Edition are also new on the Store. Hit the break for the full list of content. Read the full article

SCEE has announced that the Warhawk expansion pack Operation: Broken Mirror will be available on PSN next month for £3.99.

It has also revealed a few more details about the pack including the new APC vehicle and the seven new arenas of the Vaporfield Glacier.

“The Glacier is a new Eucadian stronghold where snowy conditions blanket an intricate network of freeways and towns, the hub of which is the war torn Radial Village,” says the official blurb.

“Desperate for an advantage, the Eucadian army has established a research base in the southern polar wastes, far away from the active battle fronts. However, there is a mole in the camp and secret intelligence has been leaked to the Chernovan command instigating a lethal invasion force.”

The eight new areas are designed for 4-32 players. The APC holds up to six of those players and can deploy a deadly blue bubble shield capable of destroying Warhawks on contact. The vehicle also acts as a forward spawn point as a bonus.

Warhawk fans can also look forward to a free patch early next month, which will add two new items useful items. The first is a wrench which can be used to repair vehicles. The Bio Field Generator repairs your allies.

No release date or cost for Operation: Broken Mirror has been released for North America yet, but word should be out soon.

via CVG

Apparently, Sony’s really excited about the upcoming Warhawk expansion that bring a few new tools, paint schemes, and other additions to the PS3 game. In fact, they’ve just released this new trailer for version 1.3 to outline two new gadgets: the Bio-field generator and the Mechanic’s Field Wrench. At a glance, they seem kind of…familiar. The bio-field generator creates a small area where your teammates are healed and your enemies are damaged (which is similar to the field generators in Halo 3); and the mechanic’s field wrench has you whacking on vehicles to repair them (which seems pretty reminiscent of Team Fortress 2). Of course, neither of those games feature quite as many flying death machines, so it’ll probably be a different experience to use them in Warhawk.

Chris Eden, one of the top dogs when it comes to the PlayStation Network, discussed the platform at GDC but what with all of the other big names talking, much of what he said was lost in the commotion. But GameSetWatch was listening and last week they posted a recap of Eden’s GDC session.

Aside from the impressive numbers he gave on PSN – 2.8 million users, with 100,000 signing up every week since Christmas; 46 million total downloads; 50% of PS3 owners going online – he also provided a list of the top-selling downloadable games for both the US and UK. While fl0w topped the list in the US, it dropped to third in the UK. Mortal Kombat 2 was the more popular fighter in the US, while Tekken 5 takes that award in the UK.  The full lists, starting with the best selling:

In the US: Fl0w, Mortal Kombat 2, Tekken 5, Pain, Warhawk, Bowling, Super Stardust, Calling All Cars, Aquatopia, and Everyday Shooter

In the UK: Tekken 5, Warhawk, Fl0w, Loco Roco, Mortal Kombat 2, Super Rubadub, Calling All Cars, Gripshift, Lemmings, and Super Stardust

Eden also talked about how Sony doesn’t recommend prices on content and allows companies to set their own prices on DLC. There’s also no schedule as to when content can be released; as soon as it’s ready to go, you can expect to see it on the Store the following Thursday.

With so few restrictions compared with the Xbox Live Arcade, you can certainly understand why a developer would opt to publish their games on PSN versus XBLA. As the install base of the PS3 grows larger and PSN becomes an even more enticing platform, we’ll hopefully see Microsoft loosen up some of its restrictions and let the developers and publishers be the ones who are in control of their content.

April is set to be a huge month for gamers; especially PlayStation 3 owners. Not only is the PlayStation Store being updated, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue and and Grand Theft Auto IV are both releasing, the DualShock 3 will finally make its way to the United States, the Metal Gear Online beta is starting… it’s going to be incredible, to say the least. Adding to that lineup will be the next expansion for Warhawk, as confirmed by John Hight.

He didn’t go into any specifics on what the expansion is, but I’m guessing it has something to do with the v1.3 patch that Dylan Jobe talked about last month. It’s adding several new items, new VoIP options, Home integration, and new paint schemes – that’s certainly a substantial amount of content for a free download.

Or the expansion might be something altogether different and unrelated; either way, Warhawk fans have plenty to look forward to.

More from the land of Home: Kotaku is reporting that a source has revealed to them that three first-party games – Warhawk, Uncharted, and Resistance – will see themed areas within the social networking hub, completely with mini-games and other extra content.

Resistance’s area would let gamers visit areas of the game they never were able to previously, as well as access bonus content like radio communications from the game that will flesh out the game’s backstory.

Uncharted would take things a step further by having its area be home (no pun intended) to a 2D side-scrolling arcade game.

Saving the best for last, Warhawk’s area will purportedly contain a “war room” where you’ll be able to plot out a strategy for upcoming games with other players. Using a 3D replica of a game level, you’ll be able to really create more sophisticated strategies than you could possibly hope to with voice chat.

I was already excited about Home, as you’ll have no doubt noticed over the past many months, but if games turn out to have these sorts of areas within Home that can expand upon the game’s experience, that would truly be sweet. Imagine an MMO where you could access the auction house from Home…

Exciting, isn’t it?

Take a look at any game on PlayStation 3, and it’s hard to deny that Warhawk has been treated to the most extensive post-launch support on the system. Whether in the form of patches or add-on packs, Warhawk has been significantly improved and fleshed out since it was released last August. 1UP learned at GDC that game director Dylan Jobe and his team have no intention of ceasing that support, so long as players want it.

“As long as the community exists and as long as there is an appetite for playing the game and new content, that’s good for us and we want to try to do split deliveries — you can always get free stuff and you always have to option to buy certain content,” said Jobe.

Those of you who remember the game from earlier in its development cycle will know that the game was originally planned to be a full release, with both single- and multiplayer components. However, the single-player portion was scrapped and we got a multiplayer-only title for the discounted price of $40. While Jobe explained, “We made a strategic decision to go multiplayer only and I would be against doing a set of single-player expansion packs for Warhawk,” he did say that “if we look at doing single-player in the future [it would be] related to a new product.” So the potential for a Warhawk single-player experience isn’t out of the question, but don’t expect to see it released as DLC for the current game.

He revealed that  developer Incognito would be interested in doing more with Warhawk beyond the current game, saying, “if there is an opportunity that presents itself for us to further the franchise then we’ll definitely take advantage of it.”

Warhawk 2 confirmed? I hope so.

via 1UP

Factor 5 prez Julian “8 out of 10 times” Eggebrecht recently talked about last year’s PS3 flop, Lair. For months he championed the game’s controls, claiming that allowing players to use analog sticks would destroy the game’s experience. He knocked Warhawk’s motion controls. He claimed that Lair’s controls worked (what he apparently thinks is a good ratio) 8 out of 10 times. He thinks the Wii’s graphical capabilities are much greater than what we’ve seen.

And now, he regrets not giving gamers a choice over whether or not to use motion controls. “If you’re on a platform where this whole motion control is something new and not being pitched as the main feature of the platform, you should probably give the choice between having different control schemes, there is absolutely no doubt about it,” he said.

But all is not lost for the game if things work out as he hopes. “If we find a chance in the future that would bring Lair to the audience which didn’t get any access, that would be fantastic,” he explained. “I can’t say anything quite yet, but there might be something in the works there. We might have a chance yet to bring those back to the table and hopefully, if that should happen, they would give the game a second chance.”

It’s unclear exactly what he could be talking about – a version of Lair on a console other than PlayStation 3? A revamped version of Lair on PS3? There are plenty of guesses to be had, but for now we’ll have to hope that Eggebrecht’s revelation on the game’s controls will give this game a second shot.

via 1UP

It didn’t take much of a stretch of the imagination, but following some detective work by GameFAQs members playing Twisted Metal: Head On, David Jaffe has confirmed suspicions by stating that Twisted Metal on PS3 is developer Eat Sleep Play’s next project.

A message in the game was deciphered to read as “METAL IS COMING ON PSTHREE.” Kotaku contacted David Jaffe, who confirmed this was true but declined to comment on whether the game would be released on Blu-ray or through PlayStation Network.

Jaffe recently spoke with 1UP, telling them that a new Twisted Metal would have to be a triple-A product and not soem Steven Segal-esque rehash.

If we were to make another one, I think part of our goal would be, ‘How do we satisfy the fanbase that we have that we’re very grateful for, but how do we also kind of rethink the series as a whole and the franchise as a whole, in order to really take it out of that, kind of…

I’m terrible with analogies, but I keep throwing them out to you. We don’t want to be the Steven Seagal of action movies; we want to be the Schwarzenegger of action movies, and so we want to figure out how to really turn it into a AAA product before we make another one.

I’m glad to hear Twisted Metal PS3 is coming, and I’m pretty sure this will be another Warhawk-esque situation where the game will be available on PSN and in stores, with the retail version packing in something extra so as to keep retailers happy.

via 1UP

The developers of the terrific PS3 game Warhawk are holding a contest that’ll require some artistic talent and will land you both a limited edition Warhawk statue and the pride that comes along with seeing your creation end up in Warhawk. 50 new insignias and 20 new paint schemes will be selected by the dev team and included the v1.3 patch, so there are plenty of chances to win.

There are, of course, rules and such which can all be viewed in this post over at PlayStation.Blog. Basically, you can’t stick The King from Burger King on a Warhawk and submit it, nor can you make use of any words or anything offensive. You’ll have to be clever with colors and shapes to win this one, so count me out.

Good luck, and should you decide to enter, be sure and share it with the community here at Gaming Today.

First it was the news that Japan would be getting DMC4 PS3 bundles this month that made me envious, now comes word that Europe will be getting their very own cool bundles as well during January. These new bundles include the 40GB PS3 with a ‘Pick N Mix’ option of two games and the choices range from stellar to mediocre. Folklore, Formula One, Genji: Days of the Blade, L.A.I.R, Motorstorm, Ratchet and Clank: Tools Of Destruction, Resistance: Fall Of Man, Singstar PS3 with microphones, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune and Warhawk with headset are the games available to mix and match.

The bundles will only cost the consumer and extra £50, so if you were planning on purchasing that 40GB PS3 for £299, you can now get two games included, which will save you an extra 50 quid. If the a deal like this were to hit the States, maybe I could finally persuade my domestic partner to let me drop around 700 American dollars on a PS3 bundle- MAYBE. The likelihood of that occurring though, would the be equivalent of my waking up one morning looking like Sophie Marceau.

European gamers can look forward to the ‘Pick N Mix’ launch on January 18, and this deal is expected to run until further notice.

Thanks: MCV

Okay, so I was wrong by assuming that the PlayStation Store for PC updates would be weekly, but bi-weekly still seems like a possibility. This week is a small but very, very nice update with a variety of videos, wallpapers and a theme, all of which are obviously free, in addition to the PSone Classic Warhawk and the downloadable game SOCOM US Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo.

SOCOM looks like an exciting addition to the downloadable sphere, and at $14.99 the price is just about right. It’s one of my favorite PSP games, and certainly one of the best shooters on the system. Warhawk costs the standard $5.99 price, which may or may not be an adequate price if you liked it on PSone.

To download the games, go to http://store.playstation.com and you’ll be able to purchase and download content to transfer to your PSP.

Yesterday’s hefty PlayStation 3 PlayStation Store update is going to have to compensate for the next two weeks, as there won’t be any update next week due to the holidays. But that shouldn’t matter, because there really is a ton of stuff included in this week’s update, including four downloadable games (one of which even has a free demo, something we need to see more often on PSN), the Warhawk Omega Dawn Booster Pack, new Guitar Hero III tracks, Rock Band tracks, content for MotorStorm, Folklore and High Stakes Poker, the PSone game Warhawk, tons of videos and a BlackSite: Area 51 demo – among other stuff.

So what are you waiting for? There’s a crapton of good stuff, so hit the break for the full list of content and then get downloading. Read the full article

We’ve been tracking the progress of the latest Warhawk patch for more than two months now, and it has finally gone live today. Servers went offline early this morning as the patch was rolled out, so next time you start the game you’ll be prompted with a download.

The Omega Dawn expansion Booster Pack will be available tomorrow as a part of the weekly PlayStation Store update for $7.99. We’ve detailed much of the information on the patch previously, and any lingering questions have been answered in an FAQ on PlayStation.Blog. You can read it here.

Cool detail: the dropship can pick up vehicles and bring them around, and any players in that vehicle will remain in it while it’s being transported.

Sony’s Dylan Jobe mentions in the FAQ that there is new content in the works for ground troops and, more importantly, that it’ll be free. He didn’t go into any further detail, but it sounds like Warhawk is going to see continued support from its developers.

For the same price as one Heroic Halo 3 map pack, you’ll be able to pick up the Omega Dawn expansion pack for Warhawk next Thursday, December 20. It’ll be available through the PlayStation Network for $7.99 or GBP 3.99 for those of you on that side of the pond.

The expansion pack, which we’ve detailed previously, includes a huge nighttime map with six different layouts, new layouts for the original maps, and a new dropship vehicle you can use to transport your team around en masse.

Personally I loved Warhawk, so this seems like a no-brainer to me. Is anyone else still playing the game?