DLC - June 12th

YAY!! It's Thursday. Means it's almost weekend, MGS4 is in gamer's hands and update time! Provided any of you have peeked up from the new master piece, there are things to download! Let's get started with the links while everything finishes up downloading.

IGN PS3
PlayStation.Blog
ThreeSpeech - European Store Update
QJNet

Add-Ons
Army of Two: Veteran Map Pack drops today and bring two co-op campaign maps and a new multiplayer map with it. I rented this game from GameFly and have had it for a few weeks already but just haven't played it. Talking to a friend who has played it though, he paints a picture of RAWK so I'll have to play and download this for later consumption.

Guitar Hero III: Isle of Wight Festival track pack comes with 3 songs by 3 different artists/groups and will run you the usual $6.25.

Contrary to popular belief, it's actually Rock Band add-on content that makes the world go 'round. Not money or gangstas. This week we pick up 4 new songs and then the MTV2 Pack 01 that includes the previously mentioned songs. Sadly there are no previously released discounted songs this week, but 4 song still ain't shabby.

Demos
In the Demo department we pick up the poorly reviewed Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. Two weeks ago we received some pretty funny propaganda style videos to promote the game and then it was reviewed about as worse as any game could on the PS3. Today we can determine if IGN was a little too harsh or right on the money.

To start my sister seems to feel right on the money about this one. Within about 5 minutes she'd already exited the game. She's a controller snob and couldn't change her controls so she was done.

I however went in and played the game. Targeting is a chore, visuals aren't very crisp or polished. The constant commentary is about as annoying as I've ever heard, far worse than any of the Unreal games. That being said there was some fun to the level I played about 4 times through. The other draw backs wouldn't make me even consider buying this game; never mind I never liked any Quake game. I can't say I would have been as critical as the IGN Video review linked above, but I can't say I disagree with it either. At least it has some good "commercial."

Games
While everybody gripes for more PSone games, Sony has again graced us with a PSone Classic. Of course this won't be enough to sate the masses of fiendish complainers, but Syphon Filter 3 is now available for download at both the PS3 and PC stores for play on your PS3 or PSP on the go. From what I remember of the game it should be worth the $5.99 for serious fans of the series.

Along side the PSone Classic we also have a PSP title available for download. Keeping in step with the Syphon Filter theme, Syphon Filter Dark Mirror is now available for $15.99 at the PC Store as opposed to full price on UMD. Sony mailed me a demo of this over a year ago and I've played through it a couple of times. Pretty solid portable game I have to say.

Videos

Games
Fatal Inertia EX Phoenix Trailer - Seems like people would be more interested in WipeOut HD, but this doesn't look like a bad racing game. PSN Exclusive.
FIFA Interactive World Cup 2008
Kung Fu Panda Launch Trailer - I haven't seen the movie yet, like I wanted to, but the game seems like a goofy mix of fun and action. Shows some nice multi-player party game like elements, though It doesn't look like it could de-thrown the Wii for something like that.
Hail to the Chimp: Inshellitron - Pretty funny! Granny's quite competitive with that Inshellitron! Hail to the Chimp!
GameTrailers TV - Resistance 2 Teaser - TV Spot from SpikeTV for GT TV's exclusive coverage of Resistance 2. I'm going to DVR it and watch it.
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots “Theatrical” Trailer - Movie inspired trailer for the game. Looks great, sounds
Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution Leader’s Quotes Trailer

Movies
Hancock Trailer 2 - I already wanted to see this movie, but after seeing this and seeing a bigger piece of the premise I really want to see it now! I plan to work July 4th, but I may go straight from work to the movie theater for this one.

Themes
Along with MGS4's release today we also receive a MGS4 theme, and I like! Very simple, clean, minimalist theme. No sounds, but in this case sounds would really be out of place. The two backgrounds that rotate through usage of theme fit it very well and don't take away from the theme itself or get in the way of the XMB like some themes have. Icons are in japanese with the names of the section under theme. I may mix this theme's icons in with a few other backgrounds to play around. Very nice offering this time.

Two Hot Shots Golf 2 themes. One for the ladies and one for the guys. Both are pretty colorful with different backgrounds from the various courses in the game. Girls theme displays three of the ladies from the game, while the Guys display 3 of the male staff. Good enough for most I'd bet as it is a good offering, but I still like the echochrome theme better.

Wide range of wallpapers to help promote Syphon Filter games releasing today. Nothing special about them but they seem to fit well for PSP backgrounds.

The lone wallpaper for the PS3 actually cracked me up. Shows the "main character" from PJM in the forest with head phones on to go along with the PJM soundtrack that was recently released. Looks goofy, fun, and lends itself well as an alternate background to the many PJM themes.

Music
No music for the PS3 directly, but there are some MP3s for the Syphon Filter game released. 9 tracks in all, all fitting a spy sneak around game as it attempts to draw you into the situation or build suspense. Here's hoping that soon they release music that's not from a sound track like this and perhaps an album. I half expected them to release Wyclef's album on the PSN after they released the Burnout Paradise City music video.

Well that covers it for today, but there are a few pieces of news to drop on you guys.

Let's start with the rumors. For all of you who have 40Gb PS3s and are missing your PS2 and PSone backwards compatibility, there may be hope for you in the horizon. Current rumor states that some PS2 backwards compatibility could arrive with an October firmware update. Finally opening up the considerable PS2 and PSone libraries to current PS3 owners. I have a couple of friends with 40Gb models and they're unable to take advantage of my considerable PS2 and PSone collections. I mentioned this to one of them and he immediately said as soon as this releases he wanted to "reserve" all three games of the GTA III series. (GTA III, GTA: Vice City, GTA: San Andreas)

In the more ridiculous side of news, Jack Thompson is long winded. Many heard how there had been hearings called to address Mr. Thompson's actions in relation to his Crusade against violent video games; GTA series in particular. The hearings suggest that Mr. Thompson receive an enhanced disbarring at which Thompson went off on the presiding judge. Starting out by stating they weren't an actual judge and had no authority to pass any sort of judgment upon him, and filing quite lengthy - but well written - tirade to the effect. Further chronicling other corruptions in the Florida Bar and political scene. I never took him for a conspiracy theorist, but what he rants about does seem very scary. I would recommend everybody head over to Kotaku and read his entire response to the proceedings.

Well that concludes your weekly PSN update, I'm now going to go play some more PixelJunk Monsters!