Well if you were waiting on any of the below titles, you’ve got one less excuse… the price. For the next little bit these games are only going to set you back 5 bucks….. so cmon, make an impulse purchase (or two). If it were up to me you’d all be buying the first two games listed…

The Last Guy, PixelJunk Eden, Echochrome, Novastrike, and Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando are all getting blasted with the “temporary price reductor-ray” (patent pending)

The inner-geek in me has been waiting for a good Punisher game for years now. When word of this PSN-exclusive game first surfaced I had my doubts, and now that I’ve seen the video? I still have my doubts.

The art style really captures the grittiness you want from a Punisher game. And the brief glimpses inside what appears to be a meth lab certainly seal the deal as far as capturing the spirit of the franchise goes. But who can really tell much about the gameplay from a few quick cuts and some generic FPS styling?

Still gonna wait this one out and hold out hope. Anyone with me?

It’s be an understatement to say we’re excited here at theBBPS (well at least Ryan and I) about the realization that WipeoutHD is available to purchase on the ‘ol PS3. We’re been waiting for what seems like forever, and I for one am damn ready to risk seizures to play this damn game.

So to celebrate Ryan created this kick-ass desktop wallpaper, in glorious 1920X1200 cause he takes his shit seriously. Around here we just love to share and share-alike with you our faithful readers. So please, d/l and enjoy!

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

Marvel really knows how to tickle my fangasm bone.  I’m a die hard fan of the Punisher.  Hell — I’ve even gone so far as to defend the 80’s film adaptation on this very blog.  And yet video games and comic books have a spotty track record at best.  For every gem like Ultimate Alliance and Freedom Force there are a dozen Marvel Nemesis’ out there.  Even The Punisher has had more than a few games before, most of which were stinkers.  So what are the chances that this one might be worth a look?

It’s tough to say.  On the one hand it’s a PSN exclusive.  It might not sound like a big deal, but Sony has been notoriously tough on the quality of downloadable games.  For them to shell out the dough to make this an exclusive suggests that there is something here worth a glance.  On the other hand the film Punisher War Zone comes out on December 5th.  For this to get an announce in September and a release date of 2008 suggests that this is likely a quick cash grab to go with the release of the movie.  And if it is a cash grab, does the decision to develop a smaller title for digital distribution instead of a full-fledged retail game mean that reduced development cost and time could still eek out a winner?

It’s being pitched as an arena-based first person shooter with a complete single player experience tacked on.  Honestly, I don’t know how I feel about the choice of genre.  Here’s hoping the Punisher: No Mercy screenshots released tomorrow give us something to start looking forward to.

Sony’s been making my brain hurt a little lately. After a few years of DLC conditioning at the hands of Microsoft my gray matter got used to the idea that a downloadable title was something that shipped in a bite-sized chunk and was something that wouldn’t warrant a disc-based release. Turns out my brain — and Microsoft — were dead wrong.

Despite the presence of select full-fledged PSP and PS3 retail titles on the PlayStation store, Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty marks the first real retail-quality title to be available exclusively online. So how do things hold up? Does it maintain all of the glory and grandeur of the original R&C: Future, or is it simply a stripped down follow up meant to milk the pocketbooks of the R&C faithful? Hit the jump to find out;

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If you’ve ever read my memoir Geek Like Me, you’ll know that one of the key components in any geeklife is the love of obscure and useless trivia.  Getting the opportunity to show that off is tantamount to nerdgasm.  When Jeopardy! hit the PSN late last week, it was a rallying cry for trivia-nerds everywhere.

The first of several big trivia releases this fall, Jeopardy! has the distinct advantage of being reasonably priced and available as a direct download.  At $14.99, you’ve got to wonder just how complete a package this really is.  So how did things play out?

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