411mania talks about this week's game releases. Highlights include MagnaCarta II, Tales of VS., SingStar Queen, and Hearts of Iron III.

On Magna Carta II, 411mania writes: "Even though the title indicates that this is the second MagnaCarta game, it is actually the third in the series, the first being for the PC and the second for the PS2. Unfortunately, Atlus' release of the PS2 sequel a few years ago wasn't very well received - some were impressed with the visuals and a lot of people liked the story, but many found the combat system off and most agreed that the voicework was bad. Luckily, MagnaCarta II features a whole new cast of characters, a new storyline, and a different fighting system, so knowledge of the previous games are not necessary."
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MCV: Following on from reports of a pending arrival for the long-awaited wireless microphones for Sony's SingStar, SCEE has confirmed to MCV that an early 2009 arrival is indeed on the cards.

An SCEE spokesperson stated: "We are indeed currently testing wireless mics with our community. We haven't actually announced the launch date or price point yet."

The source went on to say that the release date was likely to fall "in the early part of the new year".
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Three Speech writes: "Exciting stuff just in from Sony…

It's the first anniversary of SingStar for PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3) and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe have a special celebration gift for loyal PlayStation®2 (PS2) SingStars: the ability to play our collection of PS2 discs through SingStar PS3! Arriving right in time for the holiday SingStar party season, a free online update to SingStar PS3 will allow PS2 SingStars to upgrade to PS3 safe in the knowledge that they can take their whole collection of discs with them – while PS3 SingStars can now dust off their PS2 discs and relive the SingStar parties of holidays gone by.

All you'll need to do is connect to PlayStation®Network when the online update goes live on December 16th – 10:00 AM GMT."
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Give it up for Southampton, UK. About 50 brave souls will sing every SingStar song on the PS2 and PS3 discs in the order in which they were released. All of them. One after the other. Non-stop.

Before phoning the loony bin, hear them out (get it?). They are doing it to raise money for the Multiple Sclerosis Society.
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Official PlayStation.Blog:

Hey everyone, just wanted to give you a quick update on some recent SingStar news. Yesterday we announced that SingStar PS3 Vol. 2 will be coming to the U.S. this October. You can check out the full details on SingStar PS3 Vol.2, as well get the latest on today's SingStore update at IGN.

Coming out of Leipzig, you may have read about a cool new SingStar PS3 disc swap feature which incorporates the SingStar PS2 library. We wanted to make sure everyone was up to speed on what the disc feature entailed, so here's the lowdown from the SingStar development team:

SingStar track compatibility across PS2 & PS3 is enabled via the Disc Swap feature.
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Sony unveils the PSP 3000, 160 GB PS3, controller keypad, EyePet, and Heavy Rain.
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Edge writes: "The present and future of the SingStar franchise was brought more into focus at GC Leipzig Wednesday, as SCEE announced sales milestones and upcoming products for the karaoke series.

Through multiple press releases, Sony Europe has revealed that SingStar as a franchise has sold 13M discs across PAL territories, supplemented by sales DLC sales of 2M songs via the SingStore. In late April, SCEE announced that it had sold 12M retail copies of the games as well as 1M SingStore songs across the same region.

According to SCEE, one SingStore song is sold every ten seconds. My SingStar functionality has also been embraced by 200,000 users, who have uploaded over 50,000 videos to the service to date."
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NextGen Player reports:

"Playstation Canada has a solution for SingStar players who want to let their inner rock stars come alive. On Tuesday, June 10, Playstation Canada is having it's inaugural SingStar night at Revival Bar in Toronto."
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In 2008, the team at MTV Games are proud to present to you the MTV Rhythm Game Track Finder, your beacon in the confusing swirl of rhythm games.

The regularly updated database will allow you to search any artist and any song to find out which rhythm games it is in and to compare song lists for any major music-based video game.

The database currently indexes song lists for more than two dozen rhythm games, including a range of SingStars, Guitar Heroes, Dance Dance Revolutions, Rock Band, and lesser-known favorites such as FreQuency, Elite Beat Agents and the Donkey Konga series.
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During a recent Sony event in Chicago, the focus of which was SingStar for the PlayStation 3, GameSpot had an opportunity to spend some time with SingStar 80's and SingStar Amped for the PlayStation 2. Sony makes no secret of the fact that the upcoming games don't add new features to the formula already established in the "Pop" and "Rocks!" editions, they're song packs, each boasting 30 tracks for you to sing along to.
Both SingStar 80's and SingStar Amped are currently scheduled for release in North America on September 14.
Here are the lists:
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