After seemingly getting lost on the way, and adding a few pounds too, the rumbletastic DualShock 3 controller arrives in Europe on the 4th July 08.

You can pick one up online for around £33 (Gameplay or Play.com). Also there’s a list of DualShock compatible PS3 games as a handy reference. Ooooh, Wipeout HD is on the list. Want!!!!

Popularity: 1% [?]

Sony have revealed that the latest PS3 firmware update (2.4) will be released into the wild on the 2nd July 08. This firmware allows in-game access to the XMB (XrossMediaBar) as well as trophies. Sony have made other tweaks too like upping the max number of people you can have in your PSN friends list to 100 and adding google search to the XMB.

Video showing the in-game XMB:

Video showing the new trophy system in action:

Super Stardust HD will be the first game to offer trophy support, with Quiz TV following on the 4th July 08. The following games will also offer trophy support:

• BUZZ! Quiz TV
• LittleBigPlanet
• MotorStorm Pacific Rift
• NBA 09
• PAIN
• PixelJunk Eden
• Resistance 2
• SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation
• Warhawk

A half-decent firmware update then. Nice one Sony. Keep it up!

Update 3rd Jul 08: Mmm, the firmware was available for a bit until it started bricking PS3s so Sony yanked it. No word on when it will become available again. Boo.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Whilst waiting for the official release of Condemned 2 on the 4th of April 08, you can practice your forensic skills on the PS3 demo that’s available on the US PSN store. The demo weighs in at 714mb and unless you live in North America you’ll need to create a US PSN account (tip: use google to find an American address).

On with the Dexter like blood splatter analysis and the scary looking characters.

Condemned 2 is released on the 4th April 08 on PS3 and Xbox 360

Popularity: 11% [?]

Sony Japan has released the PS3 and PSP demos of Echochrome. At the moment theese demos are only available in Japan. However, if you’d like to play them now you can by following these instructions:

For the PS3 version:

• Create a PSN account as shown in this PS3 Japanese account creation video tutorial
• Log in on your PS3 using this account and download the demo from the PSN store (37mb)

The text is in Japanese but the dialogue is in English. I had no problems playing the game, but then again there aren’t many controls!

For the PSP version:

• Download the demo from PSPFanboy (3.8mb)
• Unzip it
• Create a folder called NPJG90019 into the PSP/GAME directory
• Copy the eboot.pbp into this folder
• That’s it. Now enjoy the demo

The PSP demo requires firmware 3.90 and above, so don’t bother trying unless you have this firmware version. Oh, and the triangle button pauses the game and the X button speeds up your character.

You can see a trailer for Echochrome here.

Echochrome is released in Japan on 19th March 2008 on PS3 and PSP. UK release in Q2 2008.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Popularity: 8% [?]

Popularity: 7% [?]

Popularity: 7% [?]

Hot on the heals of Sony Japan’s Patapon comes this deceptively simple, but quite challenging puzzle game. As you can see from the video it involves moving the camera around so that your character can get from one and of the level/picture to the other. Simple. However, it looks as though there could be some very fiendish levels to solve in the final game, judging by the quick montage at the end of the video.

Anyway, enough waffle. On with the video:

Echochrome is released in Japan on 19th March 2008 on PS3 and PSP. No word on a UK release date yet.

Popularity: 17% [?]