Plain Sight is indie devs Beatnik’s first foray into the vast ocean that is the current gaming landscape and I have been lucky enough to visit the guys at their London studios to see the game and get hands-on with the current build.

Designed with the short attention span of the current generation of gamers in mind, Plain Sight offers up small slabs of fast action deathmatch gameplay that is highly addictive and infuriating in equal measures. I didn’t get a chance to play a network game against other people due a rather game crippling bug that had not been removed from the test build I was playing, but did have plenty of time to get to grips with the game and have my ass handed to me over and over again by 10 AI bots which were stuck on the hardest difficulty setting.

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Do you like ‘Guitar Hero’? Do you like ‘House of the Dead’?  Then you’ll love Epicenter games upcoming budget Wii title “Rock of the Dead”.  Using your GH controller, you need to play the riffs that appear over each walking undead to kill them in a la ‘Typing of the Dead‘.  The game features a co-op play mode and classical music done in the rock style for the soundtrack.  Epicenter have also managed to rope in the stars of the internet based cult series ‘Dr. Horrible‘, Neil Patrick Harris and Felicia Day, to lend their voices to the protagonist and his interest.

While I’m not saying that this will be the best game the Wii has ever seen, it certainly seems to have the potential to be a cult classic…  Let’s just hope it lives up to it!

‘Rock of the Dead’ is expected to be a budget title at retail costing  $30 to $40 when it shambles its way onto the shelves this summer.

Source: Fake Plastic Rock

Sony are advising all owners of the old style ‘fat’ PS3′s not to connect them to PSN due to a bug in their clock software that was triggered when it rolled around to 01.03.10.  Sony are hard at work fixing the problem and are hoping to have the issue cleared up tomorrow, but in the meantime they are doing their best to remind everybody that this only effects owners of original PS3′s and not their shiny new slim model.

Here is the full statement from Sony:-

As you may be aware, some customers have been unable to connect to the PlayStation Network today. This problem affects the models other than the new slim PS3.

We believe we have identified that this problem is being caused by a bug in the clock functionality incorporated in the system.

Errors include:
* The date of the PS3 system may be re-set to Jan 1, 2000.
* When the user tries to sign-in to the PlayStation Network, the following message appears on the screen; “An error has occurred. You have been signed out of PlayStation Network (8001050F)”.
* When the user tries to launch a game, the following error message appears on the screen and the trophy data may disappear; “Failed to install trophies. Please exit your game.”
* When the user tries to set the time and date of the system via the Internet, the following message appears on the screen; “The current date and time could not be obtained. (8001050F)”
* Users are not able to playback certain rental video downloaded from the PlayStation Store before the expiration date.

We hope to resolve this problem within the next 24 hours. In the meantime, if you have a model other than the new slim PS3, we advise that you do not use your PS3 system, as doing so may result in errors in some functionality, such as recording obtained trophies, and not being able to restore certain data.

As mentioned above, Please be advised that the new slim PS3 is not affected with this error. We are doing our best to resolve the issue and do apologise for any inconvenience caused.

For the latest status on this situation please check either the PlayStation blog (for SCEE: www.blog.eu.playstation.com/for SCEA: www.blog.us.playstation.com) or PlayStation.com.

Square Enix have revealed their UK launch event plans for Final Fantasy XIII, the eagerly awaited latest instalment in the award-winning series that has sold more than 92 million units worldwide.  Fans attending the UK launch event on 9th March will be treated to a very rare opportunity to meet both Yoshinori Kitase, the producer of the game, and Isamu Kamikokuryo, the game’s art director, who will be available to sign games and answer questions. High-profile DJ and TV presenter Alex Zane will also be entertaining fans as the MC for the event.

As an added bonus, the first 50 people to attend the signing dressed in Final Fantasy costumes will be given a free Final Fantasy XIII soundtrack and everyone who attends the launch will have the chance to win goodies.

The event will take place on the 9th of March 2010 at the Oxford Street branch of HMV in London from 5.30pm – 7:30pm, with entry being free to all.

Capcom have announced more characters that are to be included in Super Street Fighter IV when it hits us later this year, and this time it’s the turn of Street Fighter III refugees Ibuki, Makoto, and fan favorite Dudley to join the roster. This takes the total number of new characters up to 9 as the new batch join the already confirmed newcomer Juri, Dee-Jay & T-Hawk from SFII and Adon, Cody and Guy from SF Alpha.

The thing is, how often does a company add an odd number of new charcers to a game like this?  So expect a final mystery announcement sometime before the games release, especially as there is an extra mystery voiceover at the end of the announce trailer, along with what sounds like oil being poured. So another big grappler, maybe the legend that is Haggar?  We can only hope!

See screenshots of the 3 new charcters in action after the break.

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In a recent interview with the LA Times Jimi Hendrix’s stepsister, Janie, about the future of Hendrix’s music in the face of the new album of unreleased material due out later this year, “Valleys of Neptune“.  During the interview she says that a Hendrix version of Rock Band will see the light of day before the end of this year. Before you explode with joy let me slightly deflate your bubble slightly, Joystiq did the legwork and contacted Harmonix to deny or confirm this startling announcement and got this reply:-

“While we have not made any official announcements regarding Jimi Hendrix and Rock Band, we are excited to say that we are in discussions to bring more of his music to our platform. Stay tuned.”

Seems like a no brainer to tie it into the release of the new album on March 9th if you ask me, but I guess we’ll see soon.

Sources: Joystiq & LA Times

Way back at the Eurogamer Expo ’08 I stumbled across an interesting little game PC being demoed in the Indie Arcade section of the event, Beatnik games ‘Plain Sight’. Since then the game has spent the best part of 2 years going in and out of public betas, not normally a good sign for an indie game, but Beatnik have managed to pull themselves through the dark times and Plain Sight will finally see the light of day on March 22 exclusively on Steam for the very reasonable sum of $9.99.

Playing as your average ninja robot about town, you begin each game with a sword and a quantum of energy. Leaping across each level leaving a bright trail in your wake, you must destroy other ninja robots to steal their energy. As you get more energy you change colour and get bigger, stronger and brighter. This is where the catch comes in! You only get to convert your hard earned energy into game-winning points if you blow yourself up. The more opponents you take out in the explosion, the higher the multiplier, the higher the score!

Key Features:

• 13 multiplayer maps
• Battle up to 20 players
• 5 self-destructive gameplay modes, ‘Deathmatch’, ‘Ninja! Ninja! Ninja! Robozilla’, ‘Lighten Up’, ‘Team Deathmatch/Weakest Clink’ and ‘Capture The Flag’
• In-game power-ups
• 30 different robot upgrades to spend your experience points on
• Perfect your skills against AI ninja robots in the offline practice mode
• Dedicated server software included

See our full screenshot gallery after the break.

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This week sees Harmonix reinforce their promise to bring more genres of music to rock band as we are graced with a 5 track pack from soul legend Otis Redding, including his timeless classic “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay”.  That’s about where my knowledge of Mr. Redding’s songs end, but I’m assured that the other songs in the pack are hits too, including “Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)”, “I’m Sick Y’all” & “I’ve Got Dreams to Remember”.

Continuing the not-rock theme this week is “Let Forever Be” from British dance legends The Chemical Brothers, Danish popsters Alphabeat with their recent hit “Fascination” and American pop-punksters All Time Low.  Luckily there is one track flying the rock flag, Brian Setzer’s interpretation of his former band, The Stray Cats, greatest hit “Stray Cat Strut”.

The Otis Redding tracks will be available as a bundle for 680/£4.39, but if that much soul doesn’t float your boat then all of this weeks track will be available individually for the usual 160/£0.99 each when they are released on Tuesday via Xbox Live and Thursday on PSN.

Full tracklisting with video links after the break.

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In what has been a big day for release dates, Capcom have dropped another on us in the form of their own blue hero Mega Man’s next adventure, Mega Man 10.  Set for a staggered launch, the game will hit its spiritual home first with the WiiWare release launching on March 1st followed by the PSN release on March 11th and finally on XBLA on March 31st, possibly as part of the ‘XBLA Block Party‘ promotion.

Great new additions to Mega Man 10 include the option to play as fan-favorite character Proto Man from the start, as well as an all new “Easy Mode” which will allow more fans to indulge in the challenges that make the series great. Additionally, “Mega Man Challenges” mode will allow players to practice their skills and prepare for the hair-raising adventures ahead of them.

If you can’t wait until March, then pass the time by checking out out massive gallery of Mega Man 10 screenshots after the break.

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Following the success of their ‘Summer of Arcade’ promotion last year Microsoft have announced their new promotion coming this March at their X10 event, the ‘XBLA Block Party’.  During the promotion we will see the long awaited release of the HD reworking of Rare’s classic FPS Perfect Dark, alongside brand new IP’s in the form of Toy Soldiers and Scrap Metal.

Also part of the block party will be MS’s retro gaming hub for the Xbox 360, Game Room, which sees classic arcade titles such as Asteroids, Centipede, Crystal Castles, Red Baron, Tempest and more with all of their original arcade cabinet artwork make their way to Microsoft’s console with 2 payment structures.  You can either use the pay-per-play setup or purchase the games outright.

See the latest screenshots of Game Room and Toy Soldiers after the break.

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