In other news, Microsoft is late to the party AGAIN. (I know it’s a lame analogy. At least I didn’t say “LAN party.”)

The HD DVD player for the XBox 360 is “officially” $50. Not recommended unless you have the shelf-space to buy one of every “limited edition”, made in China toy and keep it in the original packaging…

Good rumors from the Destination Playstation conference. Per some sources at the retailer show, alongside the Gran Turismo 5 Prologue launch on April 15th will be a redesign of the Playstation Store.

The new Playstation Store is rumored to look a lot like the SingStore (that’s it in the picture) and have an improved navigation system. I’m still not sure it will measure up to XBox Live where I’m spending at least 10x more than I am in the Playstation Store. Then again, at least the rumored launch date isn’t April 1st.

[via Kotaku]

The killing blow was probably Warner’s well-timed (or poorly-timed, depending on which side of the battle you were cheering for) pre-CES announcement that it was dropping publication of the HD DVD format. A big studio switching formats like that likely motivated the quick one-two of Blockbuster and Netflix officially supporting only Blu-Ray. After all the bad news Toshiba’s concession quickly followed the final Friday announcement by Wal-Mart that they would follow suit.

I’m actually shocked that Toshiba dropped out of the race so gracefully. Their losses may be into the hundreds of millions of dollars, but the move should save consumers a bundle as higher sales should lead Blu-Ray drive and disc prices to fall.

Speaking of falling prices, new and used XBox HD DVD drives accompanied by stacks of games are already littering eBay. Prices are only half what they were last week – and they’ll probably be half that after the holiday on Tuesday.

If you’re now in the market for a Blu-Ray player, the PS3 is future-proofed with support for version 2.0 of the Blu-Ray format. Oh, And, it plays games too.

On sort-of-sale are the the 40GB PS3, which comes with a $40 Target gift card, and a stack of popular PS3 and XBox 360 shooters, which each come with a $10 Target gift card. Hop on over to CheapAssGamer for the full list and copies of Target’s Sunday flyer.

This won’t be the last nail in HD DVD’s coffin, but it’s a major one. It also means you should cancel your order for that XBox 360 HD DVD add-on. Microsoft has already admitted that they “could still develop a Blu-ray Disc drive for the Xbox 360.” Get with it already Microsoft, you’re falling even farther behind PS3 in the tech race.

Anyone reading this actually buy an HD DVD add-on for the XBox 360? It’s hard to be sympathetic to money bags, but tell about it in the comments and we’ll try.

Update: It looks like Best Buy has followed the Netflix lead today. They’ll be pushing Blu-Ray players in stores, though they’ll continue to sell HD DVD discs.

Game publishers need to wake up and realize it’s a lot easier to buy a console than a new PC. Both Crysis and Bioshock were huge titles available, on the PC, and made headlines. Neither made the PC top 10 list though. The numbers are over at Shacknews (2007 PC sales and 2007 console sales) and are worth some attention. WoW is actually the number one and two PC game for sales. It doesn’t change that fact that Mario Party 8 beat out the whole rest of the PC game field, but it stands out to me that none of the six Warcraft or The Sims games on the top 10 list require much PC hardware to run.

What does that mean to gamers? … you’re better off paying eBay release-day prices for a Wii, PS3, and XBox 360 than you are to drop $4,000 on a new gaming PC.

The different-from-normal weapons are a big draw too. A bit more challenging to fight with than typical Halo 3 cannons. The bow is a sweet weapon as long as you’re holding it and avoiding the knife is a really good idea. The most fun weapon is the shotgun’s secondary mode and the havoc it causes. It’s a heck of a lot of fun to lob a flare into a crowded room or a sniper post. Dinosaurs like the heat, they’ll move in on the flare and tear up the place.

There are some problems reported with MP server lag. They mostly seem to be resolved tonight. Things are good enough that my wireless network is probably dropping more often than the servers.

The real problem … if you want to play with the cool kids stay off the busy Turok servers and drop a comment on Kotaku.

Devil May Cry 4 looks like one of the best games (other than Super Smash Bros Brawl) there is to wait around for. These trailer (above) and gameplay (that’s HD, low-def here) videos are leaving me drooling to grab it on Tuesday (Feb 5th).

Gameplay is far more important to me than graphics or storyline (Gah! Did I just say that?). Seriously though, there are some pretty sweet pictures on Flickr but you can’t play them and I don’t care if I’m shooting, slashing, or smashing as long as it’s fun and going somewhere. Based on the reviews (and #2) there’s going to be a lot of gameplay too. Enemies regenerate and Capcom is known for making hard games – it’s a good thing that the action is fast and combat is so sweet. There are two characters to play in this over-the-top action too, first Dante and then Nero from earlier in the series. Rumors of all sorts of secret extras that the game press can’t talk about should keep things exciting too. Play up.

The site reviews video games for all systems (Wii, PS3, Xbox 360, PC, & older consoles) and gives each a rating. None of these ratings are on a 9-out-of-10 scale either. What They Play uses ESRB ratings to pronounce games “safe” for various ages. I’ll lay odds that the site is affiliated with Jack Thompson given that the game ratings are fairly harsh and put almost every popular game on the market in the “Teen” (13 or older) category and anything remotely like a shooter in the “Mature” (17 and older) category.

Some examples:

• Halo 3 is rated “Mature” – as in only for ages 17 and over
• It takes a lightweight like Lego Star Wars to pull in an “Everyone 10+” (like they need two levels of Everyone ratings…)
• Major games like Rock Band, Guitar Hero II & III, and Super Smash Bros Brawl are rated “Teen” – only for ages 13 and over

If you still live at home and rely on your parents’ green (or at least a credit card or ride to the store) to buy games you’d better add whattheyplay.com to the Hosts file on all household PCs.

Rockstar Games gave a sneak peak to the elite of the new Grand Theft Auto yesterday and the internet is all abuzz with it’s fancy new bells and whistles. According to this article the new game features faster load times, a souped up physics system, and the ability to get totally freaking drunky pants. How drunk? Drunk enough to make the game shake and wobble like a fat guy singing Prince at a karaoke bar. Now that kids, is some good clean fun.

GTA IV has an expected release date of late April this year.

Quick, shoot! It’s a zebra … and a field … ?

Far Cry 2 is months off but Ubisoft is already bragging about their new graphics engine. It really is the most phenomenal-looking, uh, grass I’ve ever seen in a game. The 45-seconds of scenery contains no gameplay though. Keep watching for more trailers as they finally add more huts, a lion or two, and maybe some playable characters for the October 31, 2008 release.

The newest Turok trailer is DULL! Gameplay looks smooth, but is a sniper video supposed to keep us interested?

Speaking of not intereting, the graphics don’t measure up to Gears of War either. When Turok launches on Feb 5, 2008 (PS3, Xbox 360, and PC) I’ll still be in line for it. Where else can you stab dinosaurs in the neck and also shoot at 16 other players at a time? If you’re in line with me (short line, huh?) hop on over the the Making of Turok videos at GameTrailers.com, part 1 and part 2 for better video coverage of what to expect.

In case you’re thinking this is just as stupid as the PS3′s (barely) motion sensitive controllers, yes, I like the motion sensing features. For some reason I spent too much time in front of car wheel and flight simulation controllers as a kid – I couldn’t hold my controller still to save my life.

[via our friend Muneeb @ digiplastic]

What makes the 2.0 spec so hard to meet? Unless you’re reading this on an iPhone your PC already meets the requirements: two secondary decoders, 1GB of local storage, and an internet connection. The Playstation 3 meets all those requirements, with its hard drive and Ethernet port covering the last two items and the extra graphics horsepower covering the decoders. On the other hand, I figure most PC and laptop Blu-ray R/RW’s probably meet the standards too. If you dropped the cash on one of those hold your breath and hope your manufacturer is around long enough to dish out the firmware upgrades.

[via Ars Technica]

Hi Kyle, sorry to shoot the messenger but we’re tired of hearing about delays.

Sony apologizes, via some poor guy named Kyle, for more LittleBigPlanet delays. First it was late 2007, then spring 2008. Sony still hasn’t spilled the beans on an official target date, but rumors now say September’ish 2008. Take some small joy in the gameplay in the video above and a lot of joy from Kyle’s promise of a public beta “far enough ahead to implement change and fix things” . When do you guys think that is coming?

Three individual Rock Band song downloads Tuesday for Xbox 360 and Thursday for PS3. All three of these are about $2 each. All three are a bit more upbeat than last week’s update:

• Blink 182′s “All the Small Things“
• The Monkees’ “Last Train to Clarksville” (cover)
• Sweet’s “Action” (cover)

really sweet artwork by: RatherNotSay, Creative Commons licensed

Investigator Ethan Thomas, still with the Serial Crimes Unit (SCU), is back and the gameplay has a whole new fighting style. Hand-to-hand fighting in the original Condemned game was a bit disappointing but the new combo system plus visceral sound effects and even more visceral killing methods (like breakig someone’s head on a toilet bowl) sounds more fun. With weapons from bricks to guns to gas canisters and anything else in the environment I’m thinking of what fun Dead Rising was, add in the criminal investigation element and this game will be a blast if the censors ever let it out to us.

According to PC World, similar plans are also underway in the UK. North America is the only major game territory still selling more than one model (here we have a 40GB version at $399 and an 80GB at $499). So its likely the U.S. market will similarly narrow to one overpriced system instead of two.

Since the game is playable from start to end, entering beta testing, and on the fastest gaming system ever sold to consumers … where can we see it? Would someone in beta testing let us know how good this one is?

Soul Calibur fans are about to get one new character to play. It’s either Darth Vader or Yoda, and only one because 1UP reports that Darth Vader is only available on the PS3 version of the game while Yoda is only available on the Xbox 360 version. That’s unfortunate, but probably meant to build even more controversy and argument.

Gameplay reports from CES08 are that Soul Calibur IV plays exactly like it should. Kudos to the developers for not messing up a good thing. The biggest change seems to be in the eye-candy department. The characters and rendering are beautiful, despite the incomplete state of the game displayed as CES. Check the 1UP screens to see for yourself.

First video trailer of gameplay is after the jump.