EA Purchase Bioware And Pandemic Studios

EA have further broadened their scope for the take over of the gaming industry, with their purchase two major developing studios; Bioware Corp. and Pandemic Studios.

EA will pay up to USD 620 million in cash to the stockholders of VG Holding Corp. and will issue up to an additional USD 155 million in equity to certain employees of VG Holding Corp., subject to time-based or performance-based vesting criteria.

EA will also assume outstanding VG Holding Corp. stock options and has agreed to lend VG Holding Corp. up to USD 35 million through the closing of the acquisition.

Bioware are due to release Mass Effect for the 360 this November, and will be published by Microsoft. Pandemic are currently developing Mercenaries 2 and Saboteur.

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Ratchet Demo On PS3 Store

The American's always get stuff before us, and this time it is in the form of Ratchet & Clank 3 demo, a great reason to clean off the dust and boot up the console.

If you can't afford to move to the US and download this demo, then I suggest you create another account to sample the greatness of this franchise.

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Project Gotham Racing 4 Demo On Marketplace

If you can't wait until this Friday to get your PGR4 goodness, then head over to Live Marketplace and grab the download for the demo of the game

The demo is sized at 1.27GB and allows you to try out three cars and two bikes in a small selection of Arcade Mode as well as an exclusive Nurburgring Snow Challange.

Also, if you are in the US or Canada, you can download a demo for F.E.A.R. Files: Extraction Point, which comes in at just under 500MB.

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Toyota To Release Free Yaris Game On Live Arcade

Toyota is the first company to use the 360's Live Arcade as a sole advertising platform. Their game is titled Yaris, and features three versions of the small car; Yaris Sedan, Sports Sedan, and the Liftback.

The game has eight different tracks, and the more coins you collect from races, the more items you can buy to suit up your car. Items include various weapons, shields and tires.

If that wasn't enough, you can even gain 12 achievements from this free game. The game will be available on Live Arcade this Wednesday, and yes it will be free.

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Simpsons and Conan Demo On Marketplace

360 owners will be happy to hear that they can now get the demo for The Simpsons Game from Marketplace.

The demo is identical to last weeks Playstation 3 demo and sees you take control of both Homer and Bart. The pair need to stop the giant Lard Lad statue, which has come to life and is destroying the town, along with his army of miniature Krusty's.

This section is a sort of parody towards the great Shadow of the Colossus, and from what we sampled, is looking to be a pretty good game filled with all the usual humour and slapstick you tend to expect from the comical show.

If that doesn't interest you, you may want to download the demo for Conan, where you can execute a portion of the game’s many fighting moves and combinations as Conan decimates his foes using a variety of deadly weapons, hand-to-hand combat and even his surrounding environment.

Both demos come in at just under 500MB each.

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BBFC Reject Revised Manhunt 2

The BBFC have rejected the revised version of Manhunt 2. Rockstar's appeal for the initial rejection was suspended, pending the outcome of the classification for the revised version.

David Cooke, Director of the BBFC had this to say:

“We recognise that the distributor has made changes to the game, but we do not consider that these go far enough to address our concerns about the original version. The impact of the revisions on the bleakness and callousness of tone, or the essential nature of the gameplay, is clearly insufficient. There has been a reduction in the visual detail in some of the ‘execution kills’, but in others they retain their original visceral and casually sadistic nature.

“We did make suggestions for further changes to the game, but the distributor has chosen not to make them, and as a result we have rejected the game on both platforms. The decision on whether or not an appeal goes ahead lies with the distributor"

This comes after the game was allowed to be released, alebiet with the AO rating, meaning it will not be stocked by "family-friendly" retailers such as Blockbuster and Walmart.

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Looney Tunes Invade Live Marketplace

To possibly get one in on Sony for their Simpsons Demo, the American Marketplace now features a demo for another cartoon, in the form of Looney Tunes: Acme Arsenal. The game sees you play as a variety of different Looney toons as they fight for their lives.

Also up for grabs are demos for Bee Movie, Thrillville and Bladestorm.

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This Weeks Releases: Crime Scene Edition

Move on guys, nothing to see this week.

Only releases worth noting are the movies. The Kingdom is out in the Cinema, and is a great action movie to watch. Also Control is said to be a good one to watch too.

And if you have a Blu-Ray player or PS3, you might want to pick up Pixar Shorts, sure to be a great looking movie to have for the system.

Click the jump to see what else might interest you.

Blu-Ray
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Pixar Short Films Collection: Volume 1

DVD
Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer
Flyboys
Louis Theroux Collection

Cinema
Control
Daywatch
The Heartbreak Kid
The Kingdom

Xbox360
NBA Live 08
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - Hard Evidence

DS
Tank Battles
Dead n Furious
Cookie & Cream
Naruto Ninja Council
Honeycomb Beat
Glory Days 2

PS2
NBA Live 08
Top Gun
Garfield: Lasagne World Tour
CSI: 3 Dimensions of Murder

PS3
Madden NFL 2008

PSP
Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08

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PSN Gets The Simpsons Demo

If you want to give EA's new Simpsons Game a try, then you better have a Playstation 3, as there is currently a playable demo for it on the US Playstation Store, sizing in at just under 700MB.

It's the first time that the Playstation 3 has landed a significant third-party demo before Microsoft's Xbox 360.

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Sony Cut Price of PS3 Again, Introduce 40GB Unit

Sony have confirmed that they will be slashing the pice of their Playstation 3 console yet again, this time down to the price of £349 for the 60GB "Full" unit, and will still come with a Sixaxis pad and 2 first-party games.

They also announced the long speculated introduction of yet another SKU, the 40GB version for only £299. This will include just the console and a Sixaxis pad, but expect retailers to start bundling games and random Blu-Ray movies to make it look more attractive, as you will definitely need persuading if you wish to buy this console, seeing as Sony have removed a few features from this unit.

The first is not major, but still a loss - 2 USB ports from the front of the console. Next, the memory card reader (which was able to read a handful of various cards) has also been taken out. The most surprising loss to the new unit is the ability to play backward compatible games (PS1 and PS2), and will make owners of the PS2 hesitate at the idea of not being able to play their older games.

All in, the prices are very attractive, and if yo have no inclination of playing last generation games, and want a Playstation 3 then this price is very attractive. Comparing it to the Elite, which is the same price as the 40GB version it seems like a bargain, especially considering that the Playstation 3 also comes with a built-in Blu-Ray player.

The price drop and 40GB unit will start rolling out on October 10th. Now if only the console had some good games.

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