The “anything you can do I can do better” competition between the Sony PlayStation 3 and the Microsoft Xbox 360 for the title of ”Master Swiss Army Knife Console King Toaster Oven” continues as Sony announced their partnership with Netflix on Monday. Remember when video game consoles didn’t cost 500 dollars and just played video games? I do.

Starting next month, PS3 owners (who are also Netflix subscribers) will be able to instantly stream thousands of movies and TV shows from the Netflix catalog to through their PS3. The only stipulation with the service out of the gate, is that PS3 owners will need to have a free Netflix-provided Blu-ray disc (available from netflix.com/ps3) in their console to utilize said service. This may be something that is eventually phased out by a future firmware update, but that’s purely speculation at this point.

Sure all these “extras” are nice to have, but its getting to the point where console manufacturers are going to need their own “Jimmy Football” and a slew of infomercials to justify the cost and explain the “jack of all trades”  functionality. Geek-gate tested! Geek-gate approved! Hit the jump for the full press release. Read more…

We here at Ripten enjoy games quite a bit. (Well, some of us. The jury’s still out on that shifty Naylor character.) In fact, one of our highest-rated games of 2007 was Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. All things considered, you can see why we’re really excited for Infinity Ward & Activision’s latest foray into the Call of Duty series, Modern Warfare 2, and this trailer does nothing to satiate our hunger.

The trailer, titled Infamy, is the newest trailer for Modern Warfare 2, and it’s amazing. No spoilers, but there’s a rather large reveal at the end of the trailer, and I have no doubt that it’s making a lot of people excited. Maybe this is just me, but does this trailer make anyone else wish that there was a Call of Duty movie? Yes?

Good.

Rumor has it that the God of War games, including a demo for the upcoming third game in the series, are coming to the Sony PlayStation 3 on a single Blu-ray disc. Read more…

So for the past week & a half, we’ve been holding a contest over on Twitter to give away an Xbox 360 andBut  a copy of Sacred 2. Plenty of you entered, but to my dismay, only one of you guys can win. I wish I could give everyone that entered an Xbox 360, but if I could do that, I probably wouldn’t be writing for Ripten, and I’d probably have a trail of cops behind me trying to recorder the 100-odd Xboxes that suddenly went missing from my local game store. But enough of my rambling, the winner of the Sacred 2/Xbox 360 contest is…

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The console versions of Sacred 2 came out about two months ago, and while it’s recieved pretty decent reviews, a lot of people haven’t played it, or just didn’t have the chance to. Maybe you couldn’t afford the game’s $60 price tag. That’s understandable. Maybe you just don’t have a console to play it on. That’s also understandable, too. But we here at Ripten aim to remedy both of those situations, by giving away an Xbox 360, a copy of Sacred 2, and some swag for it!

Hit the jump to see how you can get your hands on this prize.

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There have been rumors abound about some sort of Ghostbusters content in LittleBigPlanet ever since the jerks over at the Playstation.blog started tugging at our heart strings and teasing potential Ghostbusters content in the game. While I don’t actually own LittleBigPlanet (or for that matter, a Playstation 3) I’ve been waiting to see what Media Molecule and Sony have been holding back in the game. Today, the Playstation.blog finally revealed what we knew the entire time- that Ghostbusters costumes were indeed coming to LittleBigPlanet.

Some of you will be disappointed to learn that there aren’t any special levels or packs with this DLC, other than the costumes themselves. You can grab each costume individually for $1.99 off of the Playstation Network, or if bundlin’ makes you feel good, you can go for the full 4-pack of costumes for $5.99, and save yourself a Jefferson.

[via Destructoid]

Of course, by “frolicking”, I mean “killing gods and monsters”. And by “field of sunflowers”, I mean “mythical mountain of the Gods”. But that’s a simple mistake anyone could’ve made.

Sony put out a Fan Kit Starter Pack [update: back at E3, apparently. Whoops.] full of God Of War concept art, logos, and other assets, but the best part of the bundle is probably the 19 screenshots from God Of War III, complete with Kratos’s blade-slinging badassery. Hit the jump for the gallery and see the images yourself, which each feature an insane amount of HD next-gen bloom.
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Sucker Punch’s original IP for the PlayStation 3, inFamous, saw a surge of sales its first week, topping out around a shocking 176,000 units. This gives inFamous more voltage than other IPs like LittleBigPlanet (110,000) and MotorStorm (107,000). This also puts the static charged game among the top five selling PS3 exclusives.

Hmmm, something about wattage, maybe?

PSX Extreme

I was wrong. It’s not another day- another minute, another rumor. Team ICO announced that they were working on a new game for the Playstation 3 over a year ago, and as of this point, all we have got from them was a picture of a single chain hanging down a well. Not very informative, and very annoying to fans of the ICO series that demand brand new information. But today, a trailer for Project Trico supposedly leaked, courtesy of Playstation LifeStyle.

The video shows what appears to be the main character, a young Ico, running down a corridor, until an adorable, cat-rat-griffin thing comes up behind him, and saves him from certain death. The trailer’s really well done, so I assume it’s not fake, but as with the supposed Beyond Good & Evil 2 footage from earlier this month, you should still take it with a grain of salt. All I can say is that if this is truly a trailer for Project Trico (and even in the early phase as the original poster claims) then Project Trico is going to be a fantastic game.

(via Playstation Lifestyle)

While there have been slight hearings of a speculated Playstation 3 redesign, there have been no confirmations from Sony, but today pictures from a Chinese message board tell us differently, showing off an outer shell and a box for a ’slim’ PS3. Read more…

You’ve probably already seen the Killzone 2 commercial, whether it’s on the internet or on TV, where the course of a bullet is followed closely throughout a warzone. If you haven’t, you can see it after the jump. Guerilla Games released a brand new trailer for the game on the PSN that allows you to move the camera around as the bullet moves, allowing you to see new angles of the trailer in gorgeous high-def.

This is all done easily because the trailer was made in 3D using the Killzone 2 engine. The “4D” trailer is also much longer than the normal Behind The Bullet trailer that airs on television, and it allows you to actually unlock audio commentary from the Killzone 2 team and screw around with visual filters that affect the way the video plays. You can see the brand new 4D commercial on the Playstation Network now. Read more…

Keita Takahashi, Noby Noby Boy’s proud father, has posted an update on the PlayStation Blog today to let the world know that Noby Noby Boy will be receiving an update “in the hopes that more people can enjoy the game”. The update will include an offline multiplayer mode, Takahashi says, adding “it’ll still be fun”. Oh and regarding the long journey to Mars? “Please be patient.” Offline multiplayer sounds great to me, since Noby Noby Boy is best played with a friend in the room. What I really want from this mode is that each person controls each end of Boy, resulting in madness.

In the depressing economic times that the United States is currently going through, not a lot of money is being spent by consumers today, especially when they can find a similar item for a lot less. Read more…

In shock from scandalous accusations, Sackboy slowly saunters from the shadows and into the spotlight.  As indulgent as that alliteration might be, there really aren’t enough words to adorn LittleBigPlanet.  I asked whether the game could live up to the hype last month, which is ultimately for you to decide, but in my opinion LittleBigPlanet has launched itself into a whole new stratosphere of excellence. Read more…

Chelsea here, posting a bit of news for John, who currently has his hands full with SingSterling. What is SingSterling? Why, it is Destructoid editor Jim Sterling’s 24-hour SingStar sing-a-thon for charity of course!

Right now Jim has only raised about half of the amount he’s aiming for, so he’ll only be singing for 12 hours. However, if the full $5,000 is raised before the end of the 12 hours, he’ll not only keep singing for the full 24 but also complete his singing marathon with Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up.” Read more…

Health regulations held it back, but in the end nothing could stifle the return of WipEout; the futuristic racer accentuated by unnecessary punctuation. Gorgeous Britishness and stunning presentation underscore the virtues of this high definition remake. Read more…

Hey look up there! It’s me; I’m so famous! I’m in this band called Your Favorite Constellation, you’ve probably heard of us. No? Probably because we’re not a real band, just a Rock Band…band. But if I chose, I could make myself into an collectible figure, which obviously means I’m famous.

Now you can feel as cool as I do and get all sorts of customized gear for for your plastic instrument-wielding band in Rock Band’s newly launched Merch Store. From cheap stuff like keychains ($3) to full on customized Bandmates™ figures ($69) the store has everything you need to promote your virtual band. Read more…

Being that this is the internet, a bunch of rumours pass across the Ripten tipline in the span of a single day, and for the most part, we try to post as many as we can. Though the cries of a thousand deluded forumgoers screaming “Crysis upgraded for mobile phones!” will always be ignored, one tip piqued my interest, coming straight out of the November issue of EGM.

According to a NeoGAF member that recieved their issue early, Quartermann’s monthly rumour section held some pretty surprising information, namely that Sony’s 1st-party blockbuster LittleBigPlanet would have Disney-related DLC, as well as other third-party characters. Of course, this single piece of news wouldn’t suffice to fill Quartermann’s rumour section as a whole, so hit the jump to read the full list of rumours. Read more…

David Cage of Quantic Dreams discusses Heavy Rain in front of an eager audience at this years Leipzig Games Convention, just as we predicted. A gameplay trailer, all real-time, is shown at Sony’s conference and as soon as we get our hands on it, we’ll share it with you. Read more…

An 80GB PS3 will be available to European buyers this Friday. At a healthy price of 399 Euros it’s certainly attractive, but Sony have more in store for us. At the Leipzig Games Convention, Sony have announced the release of a 160GB PS3 for 449 Euros. Read more…