Good news motor fans - the European edition of Gran Turismo 5: Prologue will have a special bonus, in the form of an unlockable Ferrari F1 car. It’s the one from the 2007 season, and it looks very nice indeed.

So there, almost a justifiable reason to go out and pay money for a game demo. Gran Turismo 5: Prologue will be released this March 27th in both Blu-ray and download forms, for an almost acceptable £25. Strangely the downloaded version costs exactly the same as the boxed Blu-ray copy though, the cheeky bastards.

It is admittedly a glorified demo that they’re charging money for, but it does include 70 or so cards and half a dozen tracks, and at this rate the full version of Gran Turismo 5 will be lucky to make it out before 2010, so it’s possibly worth letting Sony rape your soul just this once.

For the handful of people who might be interested in such a thing, our forum is back online now. We did briefly remove the forum and hope the comments section would take its place, but we didn’t count on the spambots posting hundreds of messages each day proclaiming “boiled! swastika mellowed? vital resistant brim, scorching backbends!”.

We hope some of you will use the forum, all five of you even. You could for instance, say what you’d like to see more of on the site or what direction you’d like us to go in. Ignoring the obvious comments like “more, better content” cause we’re too lazy for that stuff.

That’s right, NiGHTS is coming to the PlayStation 2. Not some strange kiddie-fiddler wii-mote re-interpretation, but a nice little re-release of the Saturn original, with a slight lick of paint for the visuals.

You could just consider it a retro re-release or something, but whatever man. The purple flared hermaphrodite is coming to Japanese PS2s at the end of this month - 21st February. No word on a PAL release.

Here’s the video from Jeux-France.

Brief and vague summaries are what we’re about, so here’s a quick round-up of the latest PSP news and some of the updates on the PlayStation Store.

» PSP firmware 3.90 is out now. The big news is that it includes Skype. So now you can use your PSP to chat with people overseas and such. However only the new Slim model PSPs will be able to use Skype, us fools who bought the original PSPs won’t get to play with that. However something called Go!Messenger will be available for all models, which is a video and voice messenger service just like Skype, except without the massive userbase.

» Patapon has got a UK release date. It’s 22nd February, which is even a little bit earlier than the US release. Good news people of Europe!

»The PlayStation Store got a bunch of nice updates last week. There are demos of Devil May Cry 4 (kind of “more of the same” but it looks sexy), Turok (the demo’s a little bit awful, although it does use the worst possible level to showcase the game), and Fifa Street 3. There’s also PixelJunk Monsters, which is a very cute looking tower defense game. It’s surprisingly addictive, and best of all it’s only £3.49, which is even cheaper than the US store price.

So yes, go out and grab PixelJunk Monsters now if you can.

Last week Resistance 2 appeared on our radar, impressing us (well, me) with its fancy pants and 8 player online co-op. This week some official shots have been uploaded, and it’s looking mighty nice. Parts of it bare an uncanny resemblance to Crysis, but with the nice “1950s Alien Invasion” theme that Resistance does well.

To save you looking around, here are those pretty screenshots;

It’s due out some time later this year, which is nice. Keyboard & mouse support would be nice, but it will probably be reasonable with the Sixaxis too.

Resistance: Fall of Man did take something of a beating from critics and the public at large - even though despite it’s overuse of brown and grey it was actually pretty decent. “It’s not as good as Halo!” they cried, even though five years prior the same people were describing Halo as a poor sci-fi Goldeneye clone. Gamers typically have a short and selective memory.

Anyway, back to the point of this post - Resistance 2 has made its debut in US magazine Game Informer, and some kindly forum has hosted scans from the Resistance 2 article, a screen from which you can see next to this post.

Frankly, and admittedly wearing my PlayStation fanboy hat, Resistance 2 is looking set to be a corker. Apart from improving on the original in every way and using an increased colour pallete, Resistance 2 will feature 60 player online battles, 8 player co-op, class-based characters, and two entire campaigns to play through. Does that not sound good?

It looks as if the PlayStation 3 may actually have a glut of decent exclusive FPS games this year - with Haze due in the coming months and Killzone 2 and Resistance 2 both appearing before the year is out, not to mention the multiformat titles like Farcry 2 and Turok. Like buses, and all that.

Just to reiterate what we mentioned last week, this week sees no new releases. Nadda.

Well, it’s to be expected with Christmas just a few days away. Some online stores have already started their Christmas/New Year sales, such as play.com and all the other usual suspects.

If you’re looking forward to January’s new releases, the main thing to look forward to is Burnout Paradise for the PS3 and 360. The demo is already available to download, so you should download that if you haven’t already - it looks like it’s going to be pretty great. That’s due for January 25th. There’s not much else on the horizon - most of the silly publishers have blown their load for Christmas, knocking each other over in the process. PlayStation 3 owners will get the delayed Haze to look forward to in January (or December 31st according to Amazon), which could be awesome - it’s from Free Radical, responsible for Time Splitters and a significant part of the ex-Rare team responsible for Goldeneye. It probably won’t have any of the fanfare of Halo, but may well shit all over it in terms of goodness. Assuming the release date doesn’t slip again.

So that’s your lot.

It’s official: Britain really does get screwed over on console prices. Today the new various coloured 40Gb PlayStation 3 models have been released in Hong Kong, costing less than a British Wii. The 40Gb model costs just HK$ 2,680, or £170 in real money. That’s £70 (or HK$ 1,100) less than the older 60Gb models, though the newer models do have crippled PlayStation 2 backwards compatibility. Annoyingly, it means the PlayStation 3 now literally costs almost twice as much in the UK as it does in the Asian market. And Sony wonder why they’re not selling enough systems…

In other “Sony hate the West” news, today sees the release of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue in Hong Kong (with Japanese and downloadable PlayStation Store versions to follow later this week). Or that might just be “Sony hates everyone” news, because they’re charging full price for the game, which is essentially an early demo of Gran Turismo 5. It does look absolutely stunning though. If you want, you can sign up for an account on the Hong Kong PlayStation Store and buy it online that way.

On the same topic, it’s worth having a quick rant about the DualShock 3 pad. It was released in Asia last month, and is really a nice improvement over the old Sixaxis pad (with added rumble and weightiness). It won’t be released in Europe and the US till Spring 2008 - the bastards! Well, I say bastards, but I’m in Asia so it doesn’t really bother me. Still, Sony, those bastards!

It being that time of year again - the end bit - it seems fitting to do a round-up article. We’ll write round-up articles about anything we will, bunch of cretins that we are, but today we’re specifically going to do a kind of “Best Of”, or more precisely, the ten best downloadable games available for the PlayStation 3 on the PlayStation Store. But it’s not in a specific order so we’ve avoided using the words top ten. Maybe think of it like a “ten downloadable PS3 games you might want to consider playing before you get hit by a bus, if your priorities are so messed up that downloadable PS3 games are even on your mind in such a situation”.

Anyway, less faffing about. On with the games!

 Super Stardust HD (£4.99) 

If a game’s quality is based on how many times we’ve booted it up to have a play (which it shouldn’t really be), then Super Stardust HD would be the game of the year. It isn’t particularly original - a remake of an old Amiga game that involves flying around a planet in a little spaceship and shooting a load of asteroids and enemies - but it’s just really compulsive and hypnotic.

For less than a fiver, this is better value than a ten dollar whore. Besides being a brilliant game with a decent range of levels, there’s an online scoreboard which pushes you to progress either against the world’s best or your friend’s scores, and a lovely two player co-op mode which is great fun if stupidly hectic. If you own a PlayStation 3 you have no reason not to buy this game.

 Tekken 5 DR (£9.99 or £14.99 for online version) 

This is a bit of a world first for consoles. One of the first “proper” console games to be made available for download. Although it’s actually a high definition remake of the arcade game, so the graphics don’t quite match the standard of a typical PlayStation 3 game, but it looks very nice anyway. This is a very complete package (indeed, more feature packed than the full price PlayStation 2 version of Tekken 5), with a stupidly large number of characters, a bunch of unlockables and the the ability to earn money to customise and dress up your favourite characters. If you opt for the more expensive online version, you get an online versus mode as well as some meaning added to the ranking system.

 LocoRoco Cocoreccho! (£1.99) 

This one’s a little bit odd. It’s essentially a short, more puzzle orientated version of the PSP game. On the UK PlayStation Store it sells for £1.99 and is described as an “interactive screensaver”, but on the US store the same thing is sold as a normal game download for twice the price. An odd case of reversed cross Atlantic screw over.

Despite the stupid “screensaver” description, it is actually a game, and a very charming one at that. The extremely low price is very nice too.

 Warhawk (£19.99) 

War! Rah! This game has a strange history - originally planned as a big scale release, then used as a slightly naff demonstration for the Sixaxis pad, now the game is a “sort of” full price release available to download on the PlayStation Store. It’s also available in real shops, where it costs twice as much but comes with a “free” bluetooth headset for shouting at people online.

If you consider this a half price normal game release, then it’s bloody great really. It’s similar to the Battlefield series, a big 32 player deathmatch where players can either run around on foot, or hop into a range of tanks and Warhawk planes to blow each other up. The only compromise with the budget price tag is that the game has no singleplayer mode. If you like shooting at people online though, this is great stuff.

 Super Rub ‘a’ Dub (£3.49) 

A bit of an odd one, but we like this. Not just because it makes impressive use of the Sixaxis’ motion control and plays a little bit like Super Monkey Ball (or any other tilting maze game), but because the wet plastic ducks really turn us on. It’s also an ideal way to introduce any non-gamers to the PlayStation 3 - it’s incredibly simple, but the realistic water effects will have people cooing around the TV, and the only control required is tilting and shaking the pad. It’s extremely good fun in short bursts.

 Calling All Cars (£4.99) 

Some people love this. Us, we haven’t quite managed to get into it. But it’s a great party game. Developed by the God of War team as a little showcase for downloadable gaming, this is like a comical Cops Vs Robbers version of a Capture The Flag game. Players drive around in their cars and try to catch little criminals and take them to the jail or roaming police van - except players compete against each other, trying to get the crook themselves or grab them from an opponent.

It’s very fast and frantic, though a little bit too shallow and repetitive. The four player local and online multiplayer modes are the game’s focus, so if you can get a group together who’ll enjoy this (people who can handle the frantic gameplay but don’t mind the repetitiveness - ten year olds with Attention-Deficit Disorder for example), then it’s worth a punt.

 fl0w (£3.49) 

This is the type of game pseuds would toss over, but throwing that stigma aside, it’s quite good. Our only gripe, is that it’s a port of an online Flash game that’s available to play for free in your web browser. But it is only a few quid, and it looks lovely in high definition. Think of it as a relaxing gobble ‘em up.

 GripShift (£6.99) 

This was originally released on the PSP, and received enhancements and a high definition makeover for the PS3, so it’s essentially a proper full game, with a £6.99 price tag. A bargain, as Matt Gander would say. The game is basically a stunt racing game, mixing high speed racing with puzzling, usually on loopy tracks. The game looks slightly bland, but it’s technically solid.

If it was a full price release, it’s arguable if we’d still care about it. But considering the ultra low price, and the fact that this “puzzle racer” includes 150 levels, slick visuals and a four player online mode, it’s worth looking at.

 GT HD Concept 2.0 (Free) 

Is it a proper download game or just a demo? Well, as the name says, it’s a concept really - a kind of ultra realistic high definition upgrade of Gran Turismo 4, teasing us as to how good Gran Turismo 5 will eventually look. Although there’s only one track, it does look stunning (photorealistic, if it wasn’t for the stupid looking bystanders). Anyone with PlayStation Store access has probably already downloaded this, considering that it’s free, but all the same it’s worth noting for its awe factor.

 Everyday Shooter ($9.99 on US store) 

This isn’t available in the UK store yet (boo!), but we thought we’d mention it because it’s very spiffy. You can always pop onto the US store and try to download it there, assuming you have a Mastercard and a made-up US address, or just wait for its UK release. It’s a very cool little shooter that features nice abstract graphics and sound effects that mix with the music. A bit like Rez in that sense. Sole developer Jonathan Mak won three awards at the Independent Games Festival for it, so it must be good!

So, that’s us done then. If you tally up the cost of those ten games, you’re looking at around £55 for the lot. A bit of a steal really, considering that half of them have enough content to justify being full price on their own. We haven’t even mentioned any of the downloadable PSone games - which are £3.49 a pop and can be played on both your PS3 and PSP. Currently the PSone selection is quite limited, but some of the games (like Destruction Derby) bring back fond memories.

Now we’re going back for some Super Stardust.

We don’t bother with every new game screenshot nowadays, but this is Street Fighter IV, so it deserves some of our attention. If you ask us, it looks pretty sexy, although hopefully the Manga style won’t look too naff. It shouldn’t look as funny as the Street Fighter: The Movie game though, which featured E. Honda as a sex starved rapist.

1up.com have published the first ingame screenshot from Street Fighter IV, to hype the January 2008 issue of EGM which will have exclusive Street Fighter IV coverage. Basically it will play much like a normal Street Fighter game - in 2D - but feature highly detailed, slightly Manga style 3D graphics. It should be the first proper Street Fighter update in over fifteen years (we’re not sure what to make of Street Fighter III and EX).

The official website also hosts the teaser trailer to stick your eyes on.

It’s official now, the PlayStation 3 will be getting DivX playback capabilities and full DivX certification. This came via an announcement from DivX, Inc. CEO Kevin Hell;

“We are excited to work with Sony Computer Entertainment to bring DivX to PS3. Our technology will expand the multimedia functionality of PS3 by enabling users to enjoy access to the broad library of content in the DivX digital media format.”

By receiving certification, that should mean the PlayStation 3 will be a full DivX enabled device, able to play DivX videos from hard disk or CD/DVDs, as well as streamed over a network. The update will come via a system update in the coming months.

This could pass for games related news we suppose. Transformers director Michael Bay has posted a rant about the HD-DVD Vs Blu-ray situation, saying “Microsoft wants both formats to fail so they can be heroes and make the world move to digital downloads”.

It makes sense, and we kind of agree with him. Microsoft are indeed sneaky bastards, and their scheme to pay studios for HD-DVD exclusivity fragments the high definition disc formats and benefits no one.

Currently Blu-ray accounts for 75% of HD disc sales in Europe, and has almost the entire Asian market (with over 96% of sales in Japan, and a seemingly similar amount in Hong Kong), not to mention the fact that with its increased storage capacity it is the technically superior format, as well as having the greater studio backing.

Ultimately the situation is a mess. Blu-ray is the format that should win the market on merit, but some studios are exclusive to either HD-DVD or Blu-ray, making it impossible to just buy any film you want on either format. Microsoft’s hope for digital downloads to win over sounds reasonable in theory, except for a slight problem - outside of Asia, who has the bandwidth to quickly download a high definition film? Blu-ray discs store 50Gb of data, which is more than some British ISPs allow to be downloaded each month. HD films (of the lesser 720p variety) can be reduced to a mere 5Gb with extreme compression, but that’s still quite a lot by the standards of the typical UK and US web connection.

So basically, it’s all hopeless.