The new PS3 Slim is scheduled to be out in September 2009, which is about 10 days from now. Slimmer body, reduced power consumption and a nice price tag, there is no reason not to pick this a PS3 if you haven’t already.

For myself I will give it a pass. Lately my Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii have been pretty under-utilized. Adding another console to the current situation would be a waste. Having said that, I will probably rush out to get one if Square-Enix suddenly announce the release of Kingdom Hearts 3.

So what are your thoughts on the new PS3 slim? Will you buy it on the day of release? Or just stick with the current fatty PS3.

Cast your votes on my poll located on the right of the page sidebar. Love to know what you guys think.

Edit : apparently there’s some bug with the polling plug-in. Will try to get it fixed asap.

Remakes of a classic game is like a double edge sword; It could turn out to be really awesome,  even surpassing the original or it could end up to be a total burn out.

One of my favourite games of all times, TMNT Turtles in Time has gone through the route of upgrading itself, hoping to be a part of the high definition elite pioneers. The good folks at GameVideos threw in a nice comparison video showing both the past and present.

Here are my thoughts after watching the video;

• They retained the original feel of the music, which is a huge plus plus for me.
• Gameplay remains unchanged. Still the good old hack, slash and slam-o.
• Graphics … Well I just wished they used cel shaded (ala Tales of Vesperia style) instead of 3D. Feels like I’m moving a clay model around the screen -_-”

Regardless I can’t judge the game until I played it. I’m crossing my fingers that Ubisoft will follow the SNES version instead of the arcade. I mean, fighting Super Shredder in hardest mode is totally mind blowing

After 4 months since the arrival of Street Fighter 4, Play-Asia finally has Madcatz products in stock along with some arcade joysticks from Hori.

At the time of this post, the products posted below are available in stock. If you haven’t pick up any arcade joysticks, here’s your chance to do so now.

Links Updated 22nd August 2009

Xbox 360

Hori Blazblue Fighting Stick (available)

Hori Fighting Stick EX 2 (pre-order for September 2009 restock)

Madcatz Street Fighter IV FightStick Tournament Edition (available)

Madcatz Street Fighter IV FightStick (available)

Madcatz Street Fighter IV FightPad Ken Edition (available)

Madcatz Street Fighter IV FightPad Blanka Edition (available)

Playstation 3

Hori Blazblue Fighting Stick (available)

Hori Real Arcade Pro Stick 3 (pre-order for August 2009 restock)

Hori Fighting Stick 3 (pre-order for September 2009 restock)

Madcatz Street Fighter IV FightStick (available)

Madcatz Street Fighter IV FightPad Ryu Edition (available)

Madcatz Street Fighter IV FightPad Chun Li Edition (available)

Madcatz Street Fighter IV FightPad Ken Edition (available)

King of Fighters XII Arcade Stick for Playstation 3

Joytron The King of Fighters XII 3in1 USB Pro Stick (White) (available)

Joytron The King of Fighters XII 3in1 USB Pro Stick (Black) (available)

Exar The King of Fighters XII USB Stick (available)

Other Playstation 3 arcade joysticks that might interest you (cheaper than Madcatz or Hori)

Mayflash Universal Fighting Stick, Saulabi 4k Arcade Joystick, R4 Ready4 Fighting Stick

Neko recently purchased Wipeout HD from PlayStation Store and we gave it a spin last Monday. First impression? Wow!

The game is everything I would expect of a Wipeout game and more.  Having played on a 4 : 3 ratio using component cables, I didn’t expect much from the graphics. Man, was I wrong. The graphics were absolutely fantastic, mesmerizing. I can’t imagine how good the game will look like if we ran it on full HD 1080p resolution.

Music from the game is top-notched, although I’m sure it will be promptly replaced by your own. Like Pulse, Wipeout HD also supports external music (mp3 format) which is placed inside the HDD. Changing the music is a bit tedious as you have to access the ‘Audio’ option each time. Bad implementation if you ask me. They should just allow you to change the music the moment you hit the pause button instead of navigating through menus. A ‘rotation of songs’ options would be a big welcome as well.

Overall the game plays exactly the same as its PSP counterpart, with the exception of Zone races. Not much in terms of gameplay but I like the way how the tracks turn different colors as you hit different zone levels. At the side you see a ’speedo meter’ lookalike that shows which zone you are at now, along with the help of an announcer. Simple yet interesting touches.

Here are some of the minor bad parts about Wipeout HD. Apart from the music problem mentioned above, it was sad to see that Elimination type races has been omitted from HD. It was great fun playing it on Pulse, so kinda wonder why they took it out. AI and the learning curve could have ease up a little. Normally things start to get nasty after the 4th grid. For HD, 2nd grid was enough to make you replay the same race over and over again to hit gold medal (Skilled setting).

Get past these minor setbacks and its all good.

Final comment : A must have for any PlayStation 3 owners who is in need of a good racing game. Then again racing enthusiast would probably have gotten the game aeons ago.

There will be a price cut for the Playstation 3 US version (from USD$599 to $499) starting from July 12th. The news was confirm by both GameDaily and Kotaku.

I’m not really sure if it will cause any impact on the Asia version of PS3, but hey who knows Sony decided to start slashing prices for other regions as well. I would say it’s a good start. Gonna hold back a bit longer before getting a PS3.