Second part of PSP download mega sale has begun for Australia and Europe

We're slow in reporting this, so apologies for that, but if you haven't noticed yet, the second half of the mega PSP sale has kicked off, as of September 7

The first half was great, and offered up some awesome games. The second half (which runs through to September 21) is indeed bigger and better. There are a tonne of games you should be picking up here.

The full list:

WayForward to hit iOS platforms with Shantae

WayForward are 2D gaming geniuses (just check out our review of BloodRayne for proof), so the fact they're on board with iOS platforms can only be a good thing.

Shantae on iOS has been optimised for the platform and the fact that virtual buttons are not as great as physical buttons for action platformers. According to an interview with Joystiq, WayForward is very happy with how the game plays on iPhone and iPad indeed.

Review: Sengoku (PC)

Paradox Interactive's Sengoku is an incredible game. It’s intelligent, creative and fulfilling. Though it’s never going to hit the mass market, it’s such a rewarding strategy game that genre fans owe it to themselves to add it to their collections.

I kicked off the review with the conclusion, because there’s very little about this game I haven’t already covered in our preview. The build we played back then was pretty complete, though there have been some superficial changes, what we said then stands. But in the interest of going through it again:

THQ CEO believes in the future of cloud gaming

There's an interesting article over at [a]listdaily featuring an interview with THQ CEO, Brian Farrell, in which he expresses being a fan of cloud gaming, and how it can benefit consumer and developer/ publisher alike.

Who would have thought? Price cut = more 3DS sales for Nintendo

Nintendo America has released a statement claiming that is has sold 185,000 3DS units since the price cut that dropped its hardware price to $169.99 in the region.

That's a 19-day time period 260 per cent increase over the same period in July.

It's good news for Nintendo for sure, and very much needed. Now if only Nintendo could back that up with some decent downloadable content. We didn't get a single game in Australia this week... the same week that brought us BloodRayne and Rugby World Cup on the PSN.

Review: Rugby World Cup 2011 (PSN)

We all know who's going to win this year

Interesting truth: Rugby is a big, global sport. As big as soccer (as we call it in our little corner of the world)? No. But big enough that some 3.5 billion people tuned into the last world cup.

And yet, unlike the yearly NHL, NBL, FIFA and Madden games, Rugby isn’t a sport that gets that many video games made on it. There’s some, sure, but yearly editions? Not likely.

So the good news for Rugby fans is that the World Cup is a glorious time to release a tie-in videogame. Though it’s not quite the product of a FIFA soccer game, Rugby World Cup 2011’s faults are ultimately forgivable, as it’s a very playable game of footy.

Another Big Week on XBLA

The Xbox LIVE Marketplace is atwitter with yet another big release week. Four more titles hit the service today including the 'free' game that you'll be receiving (if you haven't already) if you bought all of the Summer of Arcade games within the window of opportunity.

My pick of the week has to be BloodRayne Betrayal. A beautifully drawn and animated 2D hack'n'slash that might just finally bring a little relevance to the long dormant BloodRayne series.

*note- Betrayal was supposed to have been delayed for XBLA until October, but a quick check shows that it is available right now. (at least it is in North America.)

And the top iPhone games for August are...

Boy did we apparently get that one wrong. The top game of the month of August, according to the metrics of Quality Index is one of our least favourite iPad games in recent months: Anomaly Warzone Earth.

When we reviewed it, we felt it wasn't anywhere near as innovative or interesting as it claimed to be, but the other critics apparently loved it. Qualityindex.com's metrics come from over 100,000 websites such as 148Apps, Pocket Gamer, and Macworld.

Retro Review: NES Open Tournament Golf (3DS Virtual Console)

NES Open Tournament Golf proves two things that are somehow both contradictory and yet entirely appropriate: Golf games have come a long way in the years since, and they haven’t changed at all. The result here is that there’s a game that is weirdly both badly aged, and eminently playable.

First up though, it is still amazing how much content is stored in this little download. There are three different courses to play though, and the game tracks player names, statistics and careers, and many modern golf games are unable to offer that much.

Review: BloodRayne: Betrayal (PSN)

Wayforward stands to benefit greatly from the digitally downloadable medium. As a 2D specialist, its games will never stand out on a retail shelf to the masses that clamour for the Call of Duty or Final Fantasy blockbusters, and yet over the years it has built a dedicated niche following, and the digital downloadable platforms allow Wayforward to produce more games cheaper.

BloodRayne is its newest project, and full props to publisher Majesco for revisiting this gory franchise with a risky 2D romp, rather than try for something more traditional. The result is by far the best game in the series to date (admittedly that wasn’t going to be hard), and Konami had better be on its toes, because WayForward has in many ways just proven it has a better grasp of the gothic than the teams behind Castlevania.

New screens + release date for A Game of Thrones: Genesis

We're utterly addicted to the Game of Thrones TV series, and something tells us that we're going to get hooked on the upcoming strategy game based on George R.R Martin's fantasy series of novels.

The game is being developed by Cyanide, and will be released on September 29. In keeping with the tone of the books there's going to be a lot of political backstabbing and nastiness, the developers claim. You'll be able to assassinate your opponent leaders, set up secret alliances, make use of spies and weaken economies.

Retro Review: Shock Troopers (PSN/PSP)

Shooters have taken many different forms over the years, whether that be first-person, third-person, isometric, 2D platformer, or even space shooters. Given all the variations on such a basic formula, it’s not hard to see why SNK invested into the shooting realm by developing or publishing titles like Ikari Warriors and Vanguard. Shock Troopers, though, is the definitive example of a polished shooting game that exceeds most of its peers - regardless of whatever subgenre it may be.

Slitherine renames game following EA copyright allegations

Wargame specialists, Slitherine, has renamed its strategy game, BBC Battlefield Academy following copyright allegations by EA. Now called Battle Academy, it’s now available on Mac and in demo form. 

It's a pity EA got all antsy over a game that so clearly has nothing to do with its FPS franchise, but those are the breaks. At least the new Mac version is exciting stuff, and hopefully introduces a new legion of players to the game.

Mac App Store gets three GTA games

GTA fans with Macs rejoice; Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City and San Andreas are now all available for purchase and download via the Mac App Store.

They're available individually, and all carry the same bargain price of $AU15.99... given how much value you get out of each of those games, that's a bargain frankly.

PC/ Steam gaming should watch out. With the Mac App Store gaining popularity and offering games on the cheap, those Macs might start looking more and more appealing as gaming devices.

Retro Review: World Heroes (PSN/PSP)

Fighting games in the 1990s were a dime a dozen. You almost couldn’t enter an arcade without seeing two people duking it out, surrounded by people eagerly watching and waiting to get their shot at the machine (which lead to many real-life bruises). After the release of Street Fighter II, many of these games started becoming derivative in an attempt to capture some of the game’s immense popularity. World Heroes might go down as one of those knockoffs, but it definitely has some heart to it beyond the play mechanics. Sadly though, it’s not an ideal experience for newcomers to the fighting genre and seasoned veterans have likely already played more engaging titles.

Might and Magic Heroes Kingdoms ramps up for season three

They're dime a dozen on the Internet, but at least with this one it has a major, great franchise to name it. Free to play MMO, Might and Magic Heroes Kingdoms is about to kick start on its third season, and comes with a range of new features to entire players back for another go.

Set to start on September 15, this season of the city-building and conquest MMO brings new player vs. environment (PvE) and player vs. player (PvP) content to get people clicking even more.

The game itself plays out in the world of the RPG/ strategy franchise, and along with the new gameplay features, Heroes Kingdom will also receive an avatar customisation and an in-game store.

If you're keen to give it a go you can check it out at http://mightandmagicheroeskingdoms.ubi.com

Australian devs announce war journalism game, Warco

This is something very different, and will be a very refreshing take on the horrors of war after so many years of glorifying it through the likes of Call of Duty; Australian developers have announced a game in which you play as a war journalist.

Madden NFL 12; this instruction manual is pathetic

At a time where traditional games retail is under fire, where more and more gamers are moving to online portals to buy and play their games, publishers seem to be taking two routes to encourage retail sales.

One is publishers like Nintendo, and NIS America, who are offering stuff that makes buying a game through digital channels feel inferior. In the past year, I've picked up four game soundtracks without even trying; through the Mario Brothers All Stars collection, Xenoblade Chronicles, Ar Tonelico Qoga, and Sacred 2. Packaged in a nice box, with a nice colour manual that makes it worthwhile buying in store... a collectors piece, if you will.

On the other hand, there's this:

Retro Review: Super Mario Bros. (3DS Virtual Console)

So here we go again. For possibly the 1000th time (may or may not be an exaggeration), people are able to play the original Super Mario Brothers in another form. If you hadn’t experienced it on the original NES, or the SNES remake, the Wii Virtual Console version, the Game Boy Color version or the Wii port of the SNES remake, you’re now able to play it on the Nintendo 3DS if you happen to be an Ambassador.

The problem is, this is easily the worst version to date.

7 Wii exclusives that deserve PS3 remakes

No More Heroes managed a successful jump to the PS3, but it’s by no means the only game that was a Wii exclusive that would benefit greatly in the jump to Sony’s console.

It’s not just about the HD visuals, in fact, as we’ve seen with many HD remakes, and indeed No More Heroes itself, simply taking a game and moving it to HD doesn’t always result in a visually pleasing game. No. The below list is more about games that would benefit from the PS3’s other capabilities that it has superior to the Wii, from online, to the dual-stick controller, and so on.

Also note: this is purely a list of fantasy. For obvious reasons some of the games below will never be remade for PS3. Though perhaps a Wii U remake is on the cards…

Review: Ugly Americans: Apocalypsegeddon (PSN/ XBLA)

Ugly Americans is a silly show that we in Australia have been largely protected from. The first I’d heard of it was when the PSN/ XBLA release, Ugly Americans Apocalypsegeddon, landed on the digital shelves.

In the interest of giving the game a fair go, I went and tracked down some episodes of the show, to better understand the comedy that it purports to have. It doesn’t really have any; it’s incessantly juvenile with shoddy animation, gross out moments that teenagers grow out of quickly enough and groan-worthy silly plots. The good news is, for the fans of that, then Apocalypsegeddon is going to go down a treat.

Retro Review: Shock Troopers (PSN’s Neo Geo Station)

Why do they always have to take the girl? The violent gang known as the Bloody Scorpions have kidnapped a scientist and his granddaughter in hopes to obtain the ultra-powerful drug Alpha-301 – allowing the owner the power to transform typical human beings into near unstoppable ultra-soldiers that could easily take over the world. Thank God we’ve got eight heavily armed super-human soldiers at our disposal to bloody up the Scorpions, and of course save the girl in the process.

Many gamers missed out on the Neo Geo games of years past, because of the high prices of the systems and games themselves – some games costing as much as $US300 - but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t great games on their systems though. Neo Geo’s libraries were slam packed with well-known hardcore fighters and shooters galore (e.g. King of Fighters, Metal Slug, Ikari Warriors, etc.) and Shock Troopers is one of Neo Geo’s best little hidden gems that so few have heard of, or better yet, played. But, PSN’s Neo Geo Station is about to change all of that.