Those of our readers who are outside the US and still eagerly awaiting Rock Band may have heard the ugly rumor that PlayStation 3 owners outside the US wouldn’t be getting their fix until September. As an Australian who has been playing the game since 2007, I ask you this - what exactly are you waiting for?
Spotted at various JB Hi-Fi stores in Melbourne in the last four days:
Gears of War for $44
Project Silpheed for $44
Sega Rally for $39
Virtua Fighter 5 for $59
Strangely, we get the same as the other PAL territories this week - looks like someone forgot to tell Activision that Australians have never heard of Die Fantastischen Vier.
Australian gamers have continued their boycott of Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 software into the first week of January. When will it stop?
It’s not often that those of us outside North America get to play a game first - but that’s exactly the situation with the new Turok demo. OK, so it’s not a full game - but let us have our fun for once. The demo arrived on Xbox Live for Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan and United Kingdom. Sorry to those of you in the US and Canada, we have no information regarding when you will be getting your hands on this one.
via Major Nelson
Australians are back to their old habits, with the top ten for the last week of December consisting solely of Nintendo and PlayStation 2 software.
via GoNintendo
Games
Piyotama (£3.49, AUD$8.45)
High Stakes On The Vegas (£4.99, AUD$12.95)
Demos
Conan
Burnout Paradise
NBA 2K8
Add-ons
Guitar Hero III Foo Fighters & Velvet Revolver Track Packs (£3.99, AUD$9.95)
Video
High Velocity Bowling Trailer
High Stakes Poker Trailer
Piyotama Trailer
…And you thought the update last week was lackluster! Still no Everyday Shooter or Pain for PAL PlayStation 3 owners - hopefully the recently-released Uncharted can ease the pain.
Demos
Kane and Lynch: Dead Men
Add-ons
Folklore “The Origin of Belgae” pack (£1.49, AUD$3.95)
MotorStorm Domino & Adventure vehicle pack (£1.49, AUD$3.95)
Themes
Heavenly Sword
Killzone 2
Mesmerize
SingStar
Snakeball
Tori Emaki
The Age recently spoke to head of Nintendo Australia, Rose Lappin who had some great news for Nintendo fans in Australia - eventually, games will be released no more than two weeks after launching in Japan. And it looks good for Europeans, too:
“Our fans are very passionate and want games straight away. We are working on that as a priority and trying to get [the release schedule] to be more global.”
Smashing! I’ll put the kettle on, Rose.
The coming Thursday is a massive day for video game releases in Australia. It’s Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune for me, and SingStar for Kevin - what are you going to be picking up?
