So today’s Wipeout PSN Store update also includes with it a few new perks for the ever-expanding Burnout Paradise. The good news is that BP – with all the attendent patches and expansions that have shipped thus far – will be available as a direct download on PSN for $30. When I posted this a little while ago it didn’t garner much attention (at least here), but I think it’s a sign of things to come. This is the first time an already-shipping retail disc product has been converted into a download on the network. Surely, this is an initial apocalyptic horseman sighting for the GameStops and EBs of the world?* As for the download version, I know a few people that are going to double-dip on this one – they already bought the retail version but want the convenience of the HDD install. I get that, although I won’t be doing it myself. If Criterion had provided some sort of discounted side-grade from the disc version to the DL one though, I probably would have considered it. Maybe that’s how they will curb the used games market in the future? Mail us your retail disc and we’ll give you a code for a download? I could see it.

The bad news: when Criterion initially announced trophy support would be coming to the PS3, they said they would be retroactive (due to the “locked online profile”). As it turns out, not so much. They couldn’t swing it for some reason. Therefore BP will be like every other PS3 title**; you need to play again on a fresh game to unlock trophies. Which, of course, sucks.

I can’t really give them a hard time since they provided us with such a great game, and steller amounts of free DLC, and a trophy patch they didn’t have to do for free. But guys, could you have told some of us a few weeks ago when you submitted the patch for testing? There have been players out there going for their 101% license, thinking they could watch a bunch of trophies magically unlock the day the patch shipped (today). I’m not one of them, but damn, I feel their pain.

Personally I never completed Burnout Paradise, so I might dive back in, but there’s no way in hell that I’m deleting my old save file. I’m going to see if I can “push it aside” onto a memorystick and unlock a few trophies on a new game, then migrate back my old game later. Or maybe I should just start over – the Stunt Runs I largely ignored in the early game and they’re fucking killing me in the A class license.

(Of course all this will take place after I play the other “Out” releasing today. Today is for Wiping more than Burning.)

* I very much look forward to the proxy battle soon to be fought between the likes of Sony/MS and the retailers over ISP bandwidth caps. And by “look forward to” I really mean “quake with icy dread”

** yeah yeah, Mainichi Issyo fans, I know you have retroactive trophies, but goofy Japanese cat-themed RSS readers don’t count

This is just weird. The already-venerable Folding@Home screensaver/protein folding experiment contained within the PS3’s firmware has now been fused with Sony’s strange new “Life” initiative. If you launch the Folding app from the XMB as of this morning, it will automatically update (twice) and in the process re-name itself.

What happens now is that the PS3 continues to fold in the background of this application. Apparently the graphics synthesizer is just sitting around twiddling its thumbs while the Cell tries to solve Alzheimer’s, so they have given it something to do. The old Folding app has become a back-end for this new suite of services. I say “suite” because, as of launch, it’s only one other mode; but this has obviously designed with expansion in mind. More on that in a bit.

It appears like the old Earth 3D globe from Folding, but now has a nifty realtime cloudcover overlay, which would have been great for watching Ike’s progress last week (see above) had they shipped this app before today. Oh well, next time. The IP lights of the various worldwide folders are gone from this view, and replaced with major city labels. Each city has current weather conditions, a live camera view, and Google News headlines for that area. You can click through the headlines to launch an in-line browser window of that story. So this is basically a very fancy pseudo-RSS newsreader with several pieces of flair.

You can also choose custom music to listen to while you browse (or let it do the “around the world tour”, BBC-style). The built-in music is straight from Polyphony digital; i.e. slightly absurd Japanese elevator muzak, which comes in an assortment of “moods”. Needless to say, I recommend you import your own songs.

Holding down square will allow you to cycle between the old Folding “channel” (as in, view) and the new Live one. There are currently only the two channels in this menu, which is why I mentioned earlier that we can expect several more channels to land within this thing in the future.

LwP is pretty much a high-def, slightly more functional version of the Wii planet weather service, except with the whole fighting-cancer-in-the-background thing. As both a map and world news freak, honestly, I will probably use this a lot. It’s just so very nouveaux 21st century.

(The current webcam view of Toronto they’re using sucks, though. I volunteer my new balcony view for service.)

(Updated below.)

Here’s a Microsoft quote from a year ago. I love this quote, because it is so fiendishly slippery:

“Every game will work with every Xbox 360 system,” a Microsoft spokesman told GamePro when asked about the “Hard Drive Required” sticker. “But just like some games will require you to have a Memory Unit to save games, some games will require you to have a Hard Drive to experience them.”

Didja catch that?

All 360 games will actually run on all Xbox 360s. Huzzah!

Unless of course they require something else. Like a hard drive. So all 360 games will not run on all 360s. Just ones with the right overpriced peripherals attached to them.

When the 360 launched, MS was pretty adamant that there would be no breaking of this rule. Then we found out that you need an HDD for Xbox backwards compatibility. No biggie. Oh, and for MMOs. (Plural? Isn’t there just the one?) And for that UK football game. And for online co-op in Crackdown. And for online multiplayer in Burnout Paradise. But that’s all, we swear.

Check out the Ninja Blade product page.

This is why you don’t buy a Core system – even at the new, tempting $199 price. To make that system actually play all Xbox 360 games properly, you would need to add either a $120 20GB drive, or a $200 (yes) 160GB 120GB drive. The big HDD costs as much as the Core unit by itself. To contrast, a Pro system with the 60GB drive included will run you $299. You’ll end up paying more if you try to buy it piecemeal.

A few months ago, Gearbox sort of casually mentioned the fact that their forthcoming title Borderlands would require the HDD. And then MS made them backpeddle like crazy when a small furor erupted. How much do you want to bet they were telling the truth the first time?

It’s been said before, but I’ll say it again: they need to stop selling that Core unit. This is really disingenuous. A memory card is one thing, but requiring stupendously overpriced proprietary HDD is something else altogether. Something that rhymes with “bass tape”.

On second thought… perhaps they are dropping the Core, and this week’s fire-sale prices are just a way of clearing them out. We shall see.

(Also, let’s see if they edit that product page. I wouldn’t put it past them. “Sorry, it was an error.”)

Update: Yup, look at that. All mention of the HDD requirment is now gone. As is “user creatable content”. Somebody really needs to get their shit together on the MS Xbox site.

((Thanks Xav for the correction on the drive size. He points out that apparently they make this “HDD required” error a lot.))

From Software has taken the wraps off their oft-rumoured new action game, Ninja Blade – an Xbox 360 exclusive. (Link to offical site).

Let’s see here:

Buckled dom armour, lots of scabbards, crazy metal forehead-thing… check:

Motorcycles and a modern city setting… check:

Giant scaly Rancor beasties to fight… check:

But wait… something is missing… I can’t quite put my finger on it….

Ah, I remember now:

Get Itagaki on the phone, he’ll know what to do.

The Euro-centric E3 kind of snuck up on us this year. Maybe that’s because only one of the three platform heavies is doing a conference at all – that would be Sony, and that would also be right damn now. (Or at least, a little while ago.)

Here’s the cliff notes version on what has surfaced from the various liveblogs of the event:

• A new PSP, the “3000″ model. An enhanced, brighter screen; a built-in microphone; generally rounder overall appearance, Home button. They’re introducing it in Yurop with the Go! Whatever stuff that we’ll probably never really see here in North America
• Live demos of the latest Sony Online Entertainment stuff – Free Realmz (which sounds like a horrifically casual/gratis MMO); The Agency, and DC Universe Online
• a 160 GB model of the PS3 is launching on Halloween; not sure if that’s here as well, or not (EUR 449)… it will also come with Uncharted and a voucher for PAIN
• PlayTV, the magnificent TiVO-like attachment for the PS3 that will never work in our ass-backwards North American cable environment, is getting some…er, play
• There’s a detachable Blackberry-style minikeyboard coming, sort of like the 360 Messenger pad, although I think this one attaches on the top…
• some Tamagochi-like app called EyePet…sounds like it incorporates some of the drawing-recognition tech they demo’d earlier in the year
• a brief Heavy Rain demo (!!)
• something about SingStar, kebabs,and Turkish parties
• some awkwardness involving a native and the LittleBigPlanet demo
• and still no motherfucking Wipeout HD

(Updated the post with image links to the new PSP and keyboard pad)

From Ye Olde PlayStation Blog, we learn that Criterion is going to be making the entire Burnout Paradise retail game available for download. I didn’t see that one coming. At least, not quite as quickly as this. It’s an extremely aggressive move into “full” digital distribution. From the blurb:

The download will be $29.99, but it’s not the disk version of the game we originally released back in January. This is an all-singing, all-dancing version complete with all the free packs so far. Here are some of the highlights. All new game modes, like Online Marked Man and Online Road Rage. Awesome new vehicles, including the Hunter Olympus and Nakamura Rai-jin Turbo. 70 all-new challenges featuring against-the-clock gameplay and leaderboards plus the in-game calendar and news page. Check the details on our website.

I’ve mentioned before how impressed I am with Criterion’s ongoing hyper-support of Paradise. This really is a steal. No mention of how big the whole thing will be in bytes – I’m guessing somewhere between “pretty big” and “fucking huge” – but hey, that’s what user-swappable harddrives are for, amirite?

What do you guys think of this move? The 360 will be getting the ability to install any game to the HDD in the fall as well, albeit with the disc still in the drive. Is this an attempt to mirror that functionality somewhat on the PS3 side, or is it part of a larger push on Sony’s part, to finally put the retail shops under the digital-distribution sword? Or, is it just Criterion kicking ass as usual, a unique one-off? Hit the comments and tell us your theory.

Really, Nintendo ought to be embarrassed. I had always assumed that there was some technical reason (like copy protection) that was responsible for the Wii’s lack of DVD video playback. As it turns out, not so much.

Some enterprising hackers have combined elbow grease, Mplayer libraries, and the Twilight Princess executable-hack into a workable DVD player for the Wii. Full instructions can be found at Wii Fanboy. As long as you have an SD card, and a copy of Zelda: Twilight Princess, you can add this homebrew channel to your system without mucking anything up.

Which brings us to the aforementioned embarrassment: what the hell, Nintendo? You just didn’t want to pay the fee, or what? Some people would have loved this functionality at the outset. It worked wonders for the PS2. Sure, everyone and their dog has a DVD player these days, but a spare one for the kids’ room (or whatever) never hurts. And the fact that some people tinkering with MPlayer managed to make it work really reflects badly on them. It was always a pure software issue; nothing more.

Now, stay tuned for the announcement of “official” DVD support for the Wii, and the attendent crooning and swooning over the paradign-shifting company and their amazing new PS2-era feature. I’d bet significant money on that happening. They fucking hate it when people start fiddling with SD cards.