For those of you who were having to wait up to what seemed like seven eons and a day to connect to a game, feel blessed by the gaming gods with this new turn of events.   After a couple of hours putting my time in making princesses fat everywhere I am delighted to say that the average time it took for me to join a game was about 25-30 seconds (down from an average of around 3 minutes for me), which is very solid especially considering the matches are up to 16 on 16 players…in addition to having mostly lag free matches.   So if, like me…you were about ready to retire your many faceted magical cap for something different you’d best put on your robe and cap for a few more guiltless hours of pleasure with combustible chibi humans.   To get all the details (patch notes for starters) take a look into the company blog at http://titanstudios.com/blog/ and take note of some proposed future updates which could make this game much more well rounded.

On paper, flower sounds like an interesting diversion—more of a tech demo than a game. But seeing the game in motion was enough to convince me that I wanted to try it, and I did enjoy thatgamecompany’s last game, the PSN-exclusive flOw. Until release, all that had been shown of the game were idyllic meadows full of flowers, stately wind turbines, and meandering valleys. But, as you play through this masterpiece’s six levels, a narrative emerges. I say this without hyperbole and after nearly a week to consider it—Flower the most emotionally powerful game I’ve ever played, on the PS3 or anywhere else. If you own a PS3, I would recommend skipping my review and experience it for yourself. As in all games, knowing what happens diminishes the effect, and never has that been more apparent to me than it was when I was playing through flower without any idea what was in store for me.

As a final warning: spoilers ahead.

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Virtually everyone who has access to Xbox Live or a DS has had a chance to lose hours, and in most cases their soul, to Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords. The gem-shifting puzzle game is returning in the form of Puzzle Quest: Galactrix, albeit taking a turn from fantasy to sci-fi and trading in their old columns-and-rows system for hexagonal gem-based challenges.
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When it comes to purchasing Xbox Live Arcade games, I am always quite frugal. Personally, I won’t pick up an XBLA game that is anything short of stellar. (I like to save my money for the big retail games … and booze, too, I guess.) Unsurprisingly, Rocketmen: Axis of Evil is one of those games that I would not buy … never in a hundred years.

Why is Rocketmen so utterly horrendous? Hit the jump for the rest of my review!

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Peter Moore may not work for Microsoft anymore, but that doesn’t mean he can’t talk smack complain about Sony’s Playstation Home from his position as the President of EA Sports.

Here’s what Moore had to say about Home:

“I just wish it would ship. I [previously] questioned it a little bit, whether I’d want to wander around there. Phil Harrison showed me a demo - it’s very cool, but let’s go already. And so I’m disappointed that it’s been pushed back a little bit again.

“But I really hope it gets going and becomes that portal to the PlayStation Network and we can utilise it. But boy, I just wish we’d get going.”

While Moore may or may not still have a bias against Sony, I don’t think this quote suggests any bias. He does compliment Home, and you can’t blame him for being anxious - when something’s been delayed as much as Home, of course people just want it to finally be ready and are disappointed when it’s not.

He’s just expressing the same feeling plenty of gamers have, but his prominent position makes his opinion actually matter.

SEGA announced today that a demo of their newest Marvel-based game, Iron Man, will be releasing tomorrow on the Xbox Live Marketplace. SEGA has also said that a demo for the PS3 will be coming “soon” to the PlayStation Store. Alongside the announcement, SEGA also released a new trailer for the game (extremely bad music included).

I’m pretty excited to see the release of Iron Man, being a big fan of the comic books and the superhero himself. Of course, the video game will be based on the highly anticipated movie starring Robert Downey Jr., who is also providing the voice of Iron Man in the game.

The game will be releasing on every console that’s currently accepted in today’s society, including the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, PlayStation 2, PSP, Nintendo DS, PC, and mobile, on May 2nd.

After weeks of back and forth between the two software giants, it seems that a deal has finally been reached under which Take-Two will be absorbed into EA. Many were certain that this wouldn’t happen, due to Take-Two’s continual rejections of Electronic Arts’ offers.

It turns out, according to a source within Take-Two (who has asked to remain anonymous), that EA made an offer that, simply put, couldn’t be refused. Things are still being finalized, but information on what will be happening to Take-Two’s biggest franchises can be yours after the jump.
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It looks like the team behind the once-homebrew, 3D version of Chrono’s earliest adventure has finally settled things with Square-Enix. If you’ll recall, the game was put to an end by Squenix after some copyright infringement accusations came up way back in 2004. Well, according to the team’s official website, it looks like they might have made amends with the RPG giant and are now working together to get Chrono Trigger: Resurrection to WiiWare and PSN within the next year. Hit the jump for the full release if you’re into reading that kind of thing.

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Another Thursday, another Playstation Store update … and another disappointment. Honestly, there’s nothing worth mentioning coming out this week, nothing. Yes, there are new Nine Inch Nails songs for Rock Band and new No Doubt (?) downloadable content for Guitar Hero III, but other than that it’s slim pickin’s.

Check the full list of downloadable content, trailers and videos after the jump.

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I think we should all mark February 26th down as the official Sony day. In addition to the two previous announcements made today, Sony has announced that they will be releasing a limited edition God of War PSP entertainment bundle in June of this year. The bundle will include a limited edition “Deep Red” PSP (ooh, shiny!) with the hero of God of War, Kratos, etched into the back, along with a copy of the game God of War: Chains of Olympus, the smash-hit comedy Superbad on UMD, and a voucher to download a copy of the Playstation One game, Syphon Filter: Combat Ops, from the Playstation Store.

All of this for a mere $199.99. Get your checkbooks out, ladies and gentlemen. This is a deal not worth skipping.

[Edit: Another pic courtesy of our friends at Kotaku after the jump.]

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