Hurray! VGB is celebrating its third birthday today! There’s no better way to do this than by giving away a present (of your choice) to a lucky reader.

What do you need to do to win? Answer this question: “Which game are you most looking forward to playing and why?” Leave your comment below, everyone has an equal chance to win! Also, we are sensitive to birthday flattery. Just sayin’.

Here are some ideas for new/upcoming fun games: Left 4 Dead, Call of Duty: World at War, Prince of Persia, Kingdom Hearts RE: Chain of Memories, Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe, Animal Crossing: City Folk, Fallout 3, Gears of War 2, Tomb Raider Underworld, Chrono Trigger DS, Mirror’s Edge, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, Resistance 2, The Last remnant, LittleBigPlanet, Motorstorm: Pacific Rift, Sonic Unleashed, Guitar Hero: World Tour, Rock Band 2, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts, James Bond: Quantum of Solace, Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia, Fable II, Far Cry 2, Saints Row 2, Dead Space, NBA Live 09, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, Red Alert 3, etc. It’s your call, so it can be older games too.

What are the rules? Winners must be located on planet Earth. All you have to do is leave a comment on this page with your answer before the November 30th competition ending date is over. The winner will be announced the next day. Fill out your real email so we can contact you if you win (your email will be invisible to other readers, only the site staff can see it). Good luck!

The NPD Group has released the top bestselling games in America this year-to-date from the January to October timeframe, as well as a look back at last year’s favorites.

Top 5 games of 2008 so far:

1. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) — 3.5 million
2. Mario Kart (Wii) — 3.4 million
3. Grand Theft Auto 4 (Xbox 360) — 3.2 million
4. Wii Play (Wii) — 3 million
5. Wii Fit (Wii) — 2.8 million

Top 5 earners of 2008 so far:

1. Wii Fit (Wii)
2. Grand Theft Auto 4 (Xbox 360)
3. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii)
4. Mario Kart (Wii)
5. Wii Play (Wii)

Overall top 5 games of 2007:

1. Halo 3 (Xbox 360) — 4.82 million
2. Wii Play (Wii) — 4.12 million
3. Call of Duty 4 (Xbox 360) — 3.04 million
4. Guitar Hero III (PS2) — 2.72 million
5. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) — 2.52 million

From here we find out this information about clubs. (I rearranged it a bit).

—

Club feature is added.

A club is an organization for users that share the same objectives. Clubhouse is a private place for members of a club to gather around. Even users that are not added to your Friends List can request to join or get invited.

• You have to purchase a club before using it. But during Closed Beta test you can use it for free.
• Each user account can only create one club.
• The maximum number of members for each club is 32, including the creator.
• The maximum number of clubs each user can join is 5, including the one created by that user.
• Users that are not members of the club will not be able to enter the associated clubhouse.
• You can add furniture to the clubhouse.
• Bulletin Board is available in the clubhouse. Only the leader (owner of the clubhouse) or subleaders (assigned by the leader) can post messages on the board.
• Maximum number of messages to be posted at the same time is 4.

Note: if you have joined 5 clubs already, then you cannot create your own club.

※ To learn more about how to create a club, please refer to Menu Pad > “Help” > “Clubs”.
※ You have to set up your PlayStation®Network wallet before purchasing a club.
※ Club is a service that requires regular payment. During Closed Beta test users can enjoy this service free of charge.
※ Note: all the clubs and clubhouses will be deleted at the end of Closed Beta test.

—

I like the idea of a club. I’d like to create one for PS3Blog.net readers. But I have a two worries:

1. Just 32 users? So there’s me, Tosh, Darrin, Gary, and Trev. Add a couple friends of mine, and that leaves just about 22 slots for my readers. That’s not enough! Tosh and I thought that maybe “32″ means “32 people in the clubhouse space at the same time”, with more members allowed. But the wording I’ve seen contradicts that.
2. I really don’t like the line that reads “Club is a service that requires regular payment.” I hate having to continuously pay for something. That’s one of the reasons I like PSN - it’s free! I can stomach paying a one-time fee for a club, but I’m not so sure I’m willing to continue paying month after month.

What do you all think?

and:

and:

‘Nuff said.

Today Nintendo of Europe and Australia added new games to the popular Wii Shop Channel. The game went live at midnight CET. Wii owners with a high-speed Internet connection can redeem Wii Points to download the game. Wii Points can be purchased in the Wii Shop Channel or at stores like Amazon UK.

The WiiWare games are:

Art Style: Cubello (Nintendo, 1 player, Puzzle/Shooter, 600 Wii Points = €6 / £4.50 / AU$9): It mixes the strategy and feel of a traditional puzzle game with the precision and reflexes required in a shooter. As each stage begins, various colored cubes form into one large object called a Cubello, which floats and rotates as you play. Launch additional cubes from your magazine and try to connect four or more of the same color, removing them from the Cubello and eventually leaving only its core. Take on the challenge of either Stage or Endless mode and watch what happens when Bonus Time is activated. The straightforward controls and goal ensure that anyone can play, while offering enough depth that even advanced players will find themselves quickly addicted to the unique world of Art Style: Cubello.

Cue Sports: Snooker vs Billiards (Hudson, 1-4 players, Sports, 800 Wii Points = €8 / £6 / AU$12): It’s the perfect WiiWare pool game for experts and newcomers alike. Featuring realistic controls in which players use the Wii Remote just like an actual cue, the game lets anyone try their hand at pool in the comfort of their living rooms. If you’re not ready to use an “actual” pool cue, you can set the strength of the shot using the buttons on the controller. — Players can choose from the most popular variants of pool, including eight ball, nine ball, rotation, and snooker. Players can try their hands at trick shots too, or even set up their own! Once they feel like true pool sharks, they can go online to play with up to four players in a Wi-Fi Matchup.

Strong Bad Episode 3: Baddest of the Bands (Telltale Games, 1 player, Adventure, 1,000 Wii Points = €10 / £7.50 / AU$15): Rock and roll! Hurting for cash, Strong Bad sets out to dominate the “Battle Royale of the Bands.” Can he rule the stage and win the big prize? Or will he be drowned out by the competition? Find out in this high-voltage episode.

Yummy Yummy Cooking Jam (Virtual Toys, 1-2 players, Action, 1,000 Wii Points = €10 / £7.50 / AU$15): Yummy Yummy Cooking Jam is a frenetically active cooking game in which you must serve food to your customers as quickly as possible. This could be a simple task, but the customers aren’t very patient, and you’ll find a multitude of annoying insects that make the noble mission of satisfying your small gourmets’ stomachs much more difficult. In the game’s Career Mode, your goal is to become the best chef in the city. To do so, you have to prove your worth by cooking in four fantastic restaurants: the Hot Dog, Hamburger, Pizza and Mexican Restaurant. Enjoy playing Yummy Yummy with your family, serving delicious food to the most surprising characters: vampires, ninjas, extraterrestrials and mafia thugs. Put on your chef’s hat, sharpen your knives and turn up the heat.

Tosh covered this in the side bar, but the topic is worthy of more coverage. Sony will begin mandating trophy support for all new PS3 games in 2009.

Many gamers are happy, since they like trophies and this will mean that more games will feature them. But this also means that some developers that don’t want to add trophies to their game will just not put their game on the PS3.

I don’t like this kind of thing at all. This crosses the line from basic technology, stability, and obscenity issues to actual creative content. This would be like the movie theater chains mandating that all new comedies use laugh tracks or all new action movies must have at least two car chases.

It’s normal for bosses, investors, and big clients to make these kind of demands, but Sony (and Microsoft/Nintendo) is essentially a middle-man between independent studios and the public. If I were a passionate independent developer, and some clueless beaurocrat middle man started to tell me how to design my product and what feature list it needed, I would tell them to kiss off! What’s next: all games must feature bald space marines and singing purple dinosaurs?

OK, I’m probably overreacting a hair. Trophy logic can’t be that complicated to program in to a game and it’s not that invasive on the game experience. However, I still think that this is the wrong way to go. If a development studio is able to fund and create their own products, they should have maximum creative control over the end user experience and shouldn’t be mandated into supporting the platform’s latest brand-identity marketing gimmicks.

Lastly, let features live and die on their own merit. If a feature is appreciated by users and the development resources are justified, developers will generally support the feature on their own terms without coercion. We are seeing this willing developer adoption of trophy support. Why take the choice out of the hands of the developers and force those that feel otherwise into compliance?

I’m sure my coblogger Henning would love to enforce split-screen support on all games, but isn’t this kind of decision best left in the hands of the developer?

EA has revealed that downloadable content will be coming for Mirror’s Edge in early 2009. The PC release of the game is also set for release in January of 2009.

Back in September Sony had reportedly snagged the exclusive rights to downloadable content on the PS3 version of the game (just as Microsoft snagged exclusive downloadable content for Tomb Raider: Underworld and Grand Theft Auto 4) but the press release from Electronic Arts makes no mention of the downloadable content being exclusive to any one version, which means Sony might have lost out on the exclusivity after all.

Mirror’s Edge is out now for the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3. Here is the launch trailer for the PC version of the game.

Capcom has released the first 11 minutes of footage from the upcoming CG Resident Evil film, Resident Evil: Degeneration.

As you can see from the footage below, the film is really everything that a Resident Evil movie should’ve been as it feels a lot more true to the actual Resident Evil games than any of the live action films (for better or for worse, depending on your own tastes) and seems to be based off of Resident Evil 2, what with Claire and Leon running around blasting zombies.

Give them a look below, divided into two parts.

Resident Evil: Degeneration Part 1


Resident Evil: Degeneration Part 2

Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix is almost upon us! The game releases on November 25th, 2008 for Xbox 360 and PS3 via their corresponding download networks (Xbox Live and PlayStation Network).

However if you peep the official PlayStation Blog you’ll notice a lot of people complaining about the fact that Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix won’t include support for Trophies upon it’s release. Which comes as an incentive to download the Xbox 360 version over the PS3 version, since the 360 version has Achievements that you can unlock.

But now Capcom has “Hadouken!” those fools in the back with a new announcement:

Gamers who purchase the PlayStation Network version of Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix will receive an exclusive album called “Street Fighter Underground Remix” that they can download for FREE! The album is seperate from the game, but will include hip-hop remixes of classic Street Fighter II songs from the likes of Redman, Hieroglyphics, DJ Qbert, DJ Toure, Zion I, Mistah F.A.B. and Oh No.

So now the dilemma has shifted a bit: If you buy the Xbox 360 version you can unlock Achievements to add to your GamerScore. But if you buy the PS3 version you will get the above exclusive soundtrack. OH THE HUMANITY! Of course, I’m sure Capcom would be happy if you just purchased both.

Capcom also released the second trailer featuring the classic Karate Kid song “You’re the Best”:

Check out the first You’re the Best Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix trailer if you missed it.

JoWooD has told Eurogamer that Arcania: A Gothic Tale (aka Gothic 4) has yet to be given a date, and revoked the “late 2009″ date that the game had previously been given from a spokesperson at the publisher. Although it could still arrive in 2009, this might mean that the game will be a 2010 or beyond release.

Thankfully though for Gothic fans, fans do have the Gothic 3 expansion, Gothic 3: Forsaken Gods, to satisfy their craving for new Gothic material, which is out now in the United States and is scheduled for release in the UK on December 5th.

Forsaken Gods is supposed to bridge the gap between Gothic 3 and Gothic 4. There isn’t a lot of details on Gothic 4 at this point, but we do know that it will be developed by Spellbound. It will also be the first game in the Gothic series to be released on consoles, as Arcania: A Gothic Tale is scheduled for release on the Xbox 360 and PS3 in addition to PC.

Sadly, the third game in the series was almost universally panned due to it’s low-grade development by a little-known PC developer from India (Trine) (unhelped by the game’s prevalent bugs and glitches), instead of the original developer of the franchise, Piranha Bytes. So it’s to be seen if Spellbound will be able to return the magic to the series. Which has a passionate following, particularly in it’s country of origin (Germany), due to it’s alluring open-worlds that are packed full of ferocious action.

Gothic 4 will keep the fantasy tone and setting of the world intact with a story that is set around ten years after the events in Gothic 3. Some interesting aspects of the game will include the ability to control the day and night cycle via magic, and the ability to ride all kinds of beasts.