Newsdump

Master Chief brings a wicked Ryu

Obviously, we're kidding - he probably couldn't work the joystick through that armor. However, we can point you toward the next best thing. Our man inside tells us that a huge chunk of the Halo 3 dev team just registered to participate in the world finals of theEVO2006gaming tournament, taking place in Las Vegas this August 18-20. We're guessing they're most interested in Dead or Alive 4 than Street Fighter, but there are six different ass-kicking simulators - plus a real man's game, Mario Kart DS - in the cards.

Oh - and yes, you can still register even though this is the finals. Winners of previous rounds will be seeded further along in the tourney bracket. So head to Vegas, but bring your "A" game - the 2004 EVO finals were wherethe infamous "Daigo Umehara vs Justin Wong" matchtook place, so these guys play for keeps.

PlayStation 2 squeezes out more Hits

Just in case you didn't already have enough PlayStation 2 games - and why would you, given that the system's been out for almost six years? - Sony has added another stack of top sellers to its Greatest Hits lineup.

SOCOM 3: U.S. NAVY SEALs, Shadow of the Colossus, Ratchet: Deadlocked, Jak X: Combat Racing and Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves are all now available for $20 - proving that if it's got a Sony logo on it and it came out last fall, people bought craploads of it, whatever it is. There's even something for those sick of endless sequels: diamond in the rough Shadow of the Colossus. No doubt Jak X does fantastically original things with the combat racing genre. We can't possibly imagine another reason it might be so popular...

Old game more popular than even older games

Street Fighter II' Hyper Fighting has become the fastest-ever selling game on Xbox Live Arcade. The publisher, Capcom, has chosen not to reveal exactly what that number might be... but what it means is that if you go onto Xbox Live right now, you can probably find somebody to play against.

We liked the game a great deal, but Wired News blogger Chris Kohler seems to think - afterinitial misgivingsabout network traffic screwing up the game completely - thatyou can still have a lot of fun with it(but the lag still sucks.)

Slow down time with the Wii-mote

Yesterday, we reported thatUbisoft plans to put out seven launch games for the Wii. Cool enough, but apparently that's now how things went down in France. According toJeuxpo.com- love the French Little Man video pop up ad, guys - the publisher also plans to slide a Prince of Persia game out during 2007. Ubisoft US hasn't had much to say on the matter, but we'll take it to be true for the moment.

Resurrected to feast on your wallet

According to the latest issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly (via 1UP,) Konami has plans to bring its 2D masterpiece, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, to the Xbox Live Marketplace. Nice trick, getting a PlayStation game up for download before Sony even manages to make good on its promise to get them onto PSP - and one of the best ones at that. No word on whether the game will see any "improvements" along the lines of removing two-player gameplay from Galaga or the horrible new graphics for Robotron 2084. No word on how much Microsoft Monopoly Money it'll cost to download, either.

Re-barred

Nobody expected the bastard child of Law & Order and Shonen Jump to become a hit, but stores can't seem to keep Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney in stock. The Nintendo DS adventure game (reviewedhere) has managed to keep styluses scratching screens since its September '05 release - so much so that Capcom keeps having to print up more copies. If you're ready for a cross-examination of a clown, head down to your local shop before the latest batch is gone. And if you've already managed to win every case, why not take a look atour latest screensof its sequel, Justice for All?

August 4, 2006