Sony, abiding perfectly to the “believe in the sales” maxim has decided to release a fourth version of their immensely popular PlayStation 2 console in India by Diwali - the festival of Light, which occurs somewhere around late-October or early-November. While the Wii and Xbox 360 compete neck-to-neck in the International market and the PS3 slowly catches up, here we have Sony selling the PS2, the first version of which was released in *drum roll* 2000. That’s 8 years ago, people. 2 years shy of a decade.

AC adaptors will be integrated into the console itself now, but even then, the PS2 will be “slimer, sleeker and more suave” [sic]. It will be priced the same as before, at Rs. 6990 (approx. $165). The PS2 has become the best selling console in India very recently because of this cheap price, easy availability, combined with the fact that there are still games being made for it. The Xbox, on the other hand, was nowhere in sight until the 360 came along with its humongous price tag.

Another reason why the PS2 is big here is, that pirated games for the PS2 are pretty much everywhere. For the Xbox 360 though, you need to buy original titles, which cost somewhere around Rs. 2000, which no sensible Indian consumer will be willing to spend. The PS3 is too downright costly and the Wii isn’t available officially (I don’t remember the last Nintendo console available officially here…)

In addition, Sony will also be introducing the PlayStation Network for India by the end of this fiscal year, which should bring India into the realm of online PS2 gaming.

Sony Country Manager (awesome title there) Atindriya Bose said, when asked about whether it will affect the PS3 market:

“We do not market it as a PS-2 or PS-3. It is the experience of the PS that we market. PS-3 is for the next generation. People who are first timers in the gaming market want to pick up PS-2 and experience that, before upgrading to PS-3,”

Now that’s funny. “How do we make money off of casual gamers?” they asked. “I know, milk the PS2 until we’re totally out of stock, release the PS4 and then release PS3, because it’s the console for the better gamers which the Indian crowd has become! Perfect plan!”

Source: The Economic Times

Now there’s something you don’t hear everyday. Veteran RPG developer BioWare mentioned in an interview by MTV that they are interested in the cultural phenomenon that is the Apple iPhone. Of course, there’s no hard words here and it’s all just speculation for now, but BioWare definitely have their eyes on the Jesus phone.

BioWare is currently working on Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood for the DS, which surprised fans since BioWare isn’t exactly known for developing much outside the PC frame. Of course, they did make the Xbox 360 hit Mass Effect, but it was ported over to the PC anyways, so BioWare wasn’t completely out of their element. When asked on the handheld experience, Greg Zeschuk says:

“It’s actually been great fun. That was almost one of the sort of hidden reasons to do a handheld game. One thing was to try something different and explore a different platform, and as you know, kind of sort of work in a lighter flavor of environment in terms of the game we’re working on. We’re nearing the end and it’s turning out really great.

In terms of handhelds, it’s been great because it’s also so fast. The cycle to make changes and improvements is very short compared to the hundreds of thousands of text in a full next-gen console or PC product. The iteration cycle is really short, and that makes it ideal for a short-attention span where you want to do something different every day. [laughs] It’s pretty exciting, actually. It’s been a really unique experience and one we’re definitely interested in pursuing.”

And when asked on whether they are interested in the iPhone,

“We look at every platform that comes along. Obviously, something that’s as big a cultural and technical success as the iPhone is something you really got to take a close look at. Certainly, there’s nothing written in stone yet but we’ve got a lot of folks looking at it. It’s intriguing. I think one of the things that we’ll have to see how it shakes out is what type of consumer buys games on it and what type of experience they’re looking for. You want to always mash the consumer experience with what you’re building. We want to understand what people are going to do with it. Who knows. We’re definitely looking at every platform.”

Still, BioWare is committed to the PC, for which they will be releasing their original IP, Dragon Age, a fantasy RPG that doesn’t really rock our socks yet. They are, of course, working on Mass Effect 2 and some more mysterious products.

It’s great that there’s a resurgence of PC gaming, or at least PC game development. Valve is already doing fantastic with promising stuff in Steam Cloud. Blizzard show their respect for the venerable platform by making pretty much all their games PC-exclusive (and they’re all big hits, too). I mention this because I believe that Blizzard has every authority of accusing Microsoft for not doing anything for Windows and gaming.

Ever since Microsoft dipped its feet into the console world, it’s never come back, devoting all of its gaming attention to the Xbox and Xbox 360. This is with good reason, as Blizzard COO Paul Sams notes, because it is where Microsoft Games’ bread and butter is, and it is their system, after all.

But they just can’t continue to ignore Windows.“Certainly they have a lot in Windows. And Windows is a system that supports all the business applications as well as games.” he says. That’s true: active participation from Microsoft is what is necessary to bring forth the PC as a gaming platform. Windows is easily the most widespread platform right now, with more copies of Windows in this world than every other console combined.

Take heed, Microsoft, and mend your ways!

In what must be one of the more interesting adaptations to come in the future, Guillermo del Toro will be working on a Frankenstein adaptation. And he’s planning Doug Jones to play the role of the iconic monster. Details are pretty sparse right now, and I wouldn’t expect this movie to start getting serious anytime before 2010, but it’s pretty interesting all the same.

This news come from ShockTillYouDrop, who interrogated him while on the red carpet at the Hellboy II premiere.

Del Toro will be sticking to the original vision that Mary Shelley had for Frankenstein: “Tall, pale with blackened lips, achingly beautiful but completely flawed.” Del Toro also mentioned Berni Wrightson, famed comic artist and horror illustrator for designing the look of Frankenstein. Apparently, the movie is still so early that Del Toro was surprised when he was enquired about it.

Del Toro has an actor in mind for Victor Frankenstein as well, but refused to mention him. No Igor either. We wonder how the “It’ ALIVE!!!” scene will turn out here. Very intriguing indeed!

Family games live or die by their controls, and motion controls even more so. Why is it that games like Boom Blox are so instinctive and intuitive, when others like SSX Blur are so forced and laboured? For me it’s that one-to-one freeform movement that brings the magic and makes the games come to life.

Video Games are often at the cutting edge of technology. The latest innovation to sweep the game playing masses is the motion controller. This takes six tiny accelerometers and uses them to work out how the controller is moving in real space.
The first time you take hold of the Wii’s TV remote styles control, or the Playstation 3’s Sixaxis controller, and play a game just my tilting and waggling the experience is almost magical.

After the success of Wii-Sports and Warhawk PS3 a slew of similar games started hitting store shelves. However, these are often less successful as they imitate the real innovations, and lack the investment, of the system selling launch games. After trawling through these various titles the last year, I thought I might try and shed some light on what makes or breaks these gesture based games.

For me the joy of controlling a game by movement alone is the simplicity and directness of the experience. The cause and effect gap that usually separates me from the game starts to disappear. The ball is hit towards me in Wii-Sports, so I simply wait for it to arrive then swing my racket to return it. No buttons, no training, no thinking, just me and the game working together.

This is best delivered when the controller’s motion match real life. Their beauty is that they are flexible enough to be shaped to fit the game you are playing. If these gestures are also in sync with, performed at the same time as, the game world you have a pretty special experience on your hands. Even though the controller might struggle at times, if it generally matches the movements you make you can start to play the game more instinctively. No one has to tell you how or what to play, the freedom of the controls simply invites experimentation.

Games that haven’t had the time and money to develop these nuances usually revert to
using waggles in place of button presses and stick movements. For me this makes a mockery of having a motion controller. What’s more the game would usually be better without the motion controls. Waggling is a rough science, and one not suited for accurate schemes that have been designed for button presses.

Golf games on the Wii present an interesting dichotomy. Some, such as the recent (and by no means poor) We Love Golf from Capcom provide a swing that is based on the player matching their motion to the on screen guide. This takes the usual button presses and replaces them with movements. Others, such as Tiger Woods throw the old control schemes out and simply ask that you swing the Wii-mote like you would a club.

Both these games provide polished enjoyable experiences and have obviously thought carefully about their controls. But for me the joy of the Tiger Woods free swing mechanic simply eclipses any other golf game controls. So much so, that I ended up selling my graphically superior 360 version simply because I couldn’t bear playing it without the instinctive motions. And this is in-spite of the 08 version of Tiger on Wii being a pretty ropey game. Playing with some friends through the winter, we often encountered bugs that resulted in miss-scored holes, inaccurate ball lie and the odd crash. But we were happy to persevere because it was such fun to hit the ball.

This one-to-one real life motion control is few and far between, and for good reason. To produce a game like this requires a team devoted to refining the controls over the life of the development. Many were worried about the added cost of PS3 and 360 high definition graphics and surround sound. Ironically then, it is getting those Wii controls right that will cost the savvy teams most dearly. But make the investment here and the game is simply easier and more enjoyable to play. For a family audience this is invaluable as we can all genuinely enjoy video games together.

You may have noticed that I like to make a bit of a song and dance about games get these controls right in my reviews. Of recent note has been the brush painting in Okami, the one-to-one block nudging wonders of Boom Blox, the well matched motions of Family Ski and the excellent badminton sensitivity of Sports Island. These games are a handful out of the hundreds on offer that simply wouldn’t be as much fun without motion controls. Although they often cost a little more than the movie tie in, or cross platform re-releases, their hand crafted controls create a whole different experience to the tick the box waggling of less devoted developers.

Well what did you expect? It’s Mortal Kombat, it’s DC, you have to have it high on the sex! Total Mortal Kombat just received a render of Catwoman from a source they are too shy to reveal. The render looks great, graphics-wise. I like the soft colours there - as a thumbnail, the render looks just like a comic panel from a Batman issue! Very crisp, and we thank TMK for having it in high-resolution.

She looks sort of slutty with that chain pulled down to conveniently show off the boobies. I mean seriously, she’s the quietest, sneakiest thief in Gotham. But what the hell, it’s Mortal Kombat. And if the DC Universe can invade Mortal Kombat sans explanation, pretty much anything can happen! The goggles look sort of weird, though. Couldn’t we just do with a body-hugging catsuit (heh, get it? catsuit. Heh, heh)?

Catwoman will be included in the DC roster of the game, alongside the likes of Superman, Batman and the Flash. Going by popularity, I’d wager the inclusion of Wonder Woman (who is probably Catwoman’s competitor when it comes to being sexy in this game), Green Lantern and maybe Aquaman. Martian Manhunter would be pretty cool, too.

Check out the full image below, and don’t mind the watermark. It only stays so long as the image isn’t officially released. Click on it for big res glory.

Trust Hollywood to not let a money-making oppurtunity slip by. While a sequel wasn’t the first thing on our minds when we saw the epic 300, we all thought about it sometime or the other, and then rumours began. Official word came here and there, and now it’s definitely up: the 300 follow-up will happen!

Variety reports that Legendary Pictures has confirmed a 300 follow-up with Zack Snyder signed on as director (yes!) and Frank Miller working on the writing. What’s more, if the report is spot-on accurate, Miller is working on a graphic novel, which should be in every way as awesomely epic as its predecessor! This is excellent, with both Snyder and Miller on the project, it has to be awesome! I, uh think.

Snyder, however, has said that he’ll wait for Miller’s novel first before he commits anything, but yeah. Legendary is going to make sure that the story is as great as it was before, because as Thomas Tull from Legendary said, “The vision of Frank Miller’s universe that Zack Snyder brought to the screen in ‘300′ is unlike anything ever seen before.” And that’s totally true.

We wonder what the movie will be about. Will it be a prequel with Gerard Butler back kicking Persian ass as Leonidas? Will we see Leonidas Jr. become a badass king? Will we see the Spartans taking revenge? Speculation abound! We will see where Legendary and Miller go with this.