‘The Wheelman’ delayed until 2009

In 2006, it was announced that The Wheelman would be released for PC, Playstation 3, and Xbox 360 during the 2007 holiday season. During this season, it was then announced that the game was to be released sometime in 2008. But guess what? The game now has a projected release date of early 2009, leaving hopeful racers to hold onto their seats just a little bit longer.

According to Midway, this game has been pushed because they want to make sure that they are putting out the best developed game that’s out there so that we can have a high quality experience that won’t disappoint us. They state:

“Midway is committed to developing and publishing high-quality games. It is important for us to support the development team with the resources and time needed to make Wheelman a great game experience. Wheelman is now scheduled to ship for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC in the first quarter of 2009.“

The Wheelman is an edge-of-your-seat action racing game starring Vin Diesel. For those of you that didn’t know, Vin Diesel is a hardcore gamer that created his own video game company, Tigon Studios. Tigon Studios partnered up with Midway, Paramount Pictures, MTV Films, and MTV Games to develop this high action game. As an undercover agent, you act like a driver-for-hire that secretly fights crime in the underworld of Barcelona.

Check out the video below:  E3 2008 Direct Feed, Car Trouble Scene, HD from GameTrailers!

Resistance 2 Public Beta Test

Get ready for the Resistance 2 Public Beta, coming to you in September 2008! Nathan Hale will be duking it out against aliens in the United States - reportedly, San Francisco, Chicago, and Twin Falls amongst other US locations. The game will feature an 8-player campaign co-op and a 60-player online multiplayer.

The first way you can get your hands on this beta is to subscribe to Qore in the Playstation Store. If you subscribe now, you’ll also get to participate in the public beta for Socom: Confrontation! Originally, Kotaku posted that this was the only way to get the keys to the beta test, but received a response from Insomnic themselves saying that this was incorrect.

The second (and earliest) way, according to Insomniac, was to pre-order the game through a program that will soon be announced. That is, you put down a small deposit on the game, voluntarily participate in the beta test, then put your money down on the remainder of the cost on the release date, which will also ensure that you get your hands on the game.

Insomniac stated that they will be allowing more ways into the beta test, but will announce it after they test international servers. For the full response from Insomniac to Kotaku, click here.

Tera Patrick in Saints Row 2

Here’s an eye-catcher!

The adult entertainment superstar, Tera Patrick, has been assigned as a “Special Producer” for Saints Row 2 - developed by Volition Inc. and produced by THQ. As a matter of fact, she’ll be one of the celebrity appearances at Comic-Con 2008 that will be promoting the game and she’ll be taking pictures and signing autographs on exclusive SR2 art at the THQ booth on Saturday from 2:30 - 4:00pm… giving you another incentive to make the trek to southern California!

You may be asking the same question we are. What will Tera Patrick be doing for THQ? We have not the slightest clue… If she’s not assisting in developing a character in the game, she may just be giving some insight or providing her voice for a character. I guess we’ll just have to wait until a news story breaks out about this at Comic-Con -OR- through an exclusive news release from IGN.

You can pick up Saints Row 2 on the following release dates:

• North America: October 14, 2008
• Australia / Asia: October 16, 2008
• Europe: October 17, 2008

Playstation Store SALE til July 31st!

From now until July 31st at 2:00pm PDT, get $5.00 off of the following games (original price: $9.99):

• Pain
• High Velocity Bowling
• PixelJunk Monsters
• High Stakes on the Vegas Strip: Poker Edition
• Rocketmen: Axis of Evil

Hurry on over to the Playstation Store so you don’t miss out on these amazing deals!

Comic-Con 2008 — WIN A PS3 CONSOLE!

It’s that time of the year again! Comic-Con 2008 has started in full swing today [after yesterday's sneak peek] and is expected to bring in about 125,000 people to the San Diego Convention Center in California. This event is scheduled until Sunday, July 27, and registration has closed - That’s the second year in a row that Comic-Con has been SOLD OUT! Amazingly enough, Comic-Con had a wait list of 300 exhibitors that couldn’t land a booth in the event. Second-hand ticket prices have soared and are difficult to find, but you can still try your luck on San Diego’s Craigslist Ticket Sales.

There will be many major announcements that will be coming up at Comic-Con for future video game releases. While some are kept secret, we were able to catch wind of a few things that’ll be going down for this extravaganza.

Will Wright just completed a discussion and demonstration of his latest video game, SPORE, which is scheduled to release on September 7. And later today, Capcom will deliver a sneak peek of Street Fighter IV, which will feature both old and new characters. If you’re lucky enough to go today, you still have time to catch the world premier of the demo, Afro Samurai: Resurrection, which is rumored to release sometime in the fall of 2008. You can also be one of the first people to battle in Socom: Confrontation in the Sony booth TODAY AND TOMORROW ONLY! MotorStorm: Pacific Rift will take its place on SATURDAY AND SUNDAY. Lastly, Sony has announced that you will have a chance to play LittleBigPlanet, Buzz! Quiz TV, and SingStar - so make sure you make it over to Comic-Con! If you want to hear about more amazing demos and releases, stay tuned to ThePS3Guide for more major announcements.

As promised - you have a chance to win a Sony Playstation 3 Console and one of the following games: LittleBigPlanet, Buzz! Quiz TV, and Singstar. CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT AN ENTRY TO THE SWEEPSTAKES!

*Did you go or are you going to Comic-Con? Be a guest author at ThePS3Guide by clicking here and submitting your contact info.

‘MAG: Massive Action Game’ Announced

At the 2008 SCEA E3 press conference, Sony announced the launching of their new project: “MAG: Massive Action Game,” created by none other than Zipper Interactive. This game will feature an all-out war between 256 players in squads of 8. Each squad will have different objectives to complete in their battle and players will be rewarded with medals. MAG will feature character customization so players will be able to personalize their character and specialize in a specific area of battle. It’s all about teamwork, not the player themselves (for example: Battlefield, Call of Duty, etc.) because of long term goals that will be set. Agreeing with Kotaku’s article, this game does resemble a futuristic version of Socom, but on a larger scale. Coming from a Socom addict – I know I’m going to LOVE this game.

But, you may be thinking what I’m thinking – how in the world is Zipper going to accommodate such a large online player base on their servers? There were times where Socom Online lagged a little, so how will this reduce lag, if any? If there is lag, will the graphics look anything like they do in the trailer? All we know is, Zipper is coming up with an advanced new server architecture that is structured well enough to accommodate such a large number of gamers and make this game run smoothly.

MAG is an online-only game and earmarked to be released in 2009.

If you haven’t seen the video yet, you can download the conference in the Playstation Store or view the trailer below:

Firmware Update ver. 2.41

In the first week of July, Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) released firmware update version 2.40 for the Playstation 3. Some users reported that they could not see the XMB after this update, so it was temporarily removed from the system for some tweaking. A few days later, version 2.41 was released - so now we can update!!

Version 2.41 added the two things I dreamed of and begged for Sony to implement into the PS3 since I bought it on the release date - The in-game XMB and the trophies! Now you don’t have to wait to exit your game to see who’s online or what your friend’s message says - just press the PS button on your controller and the XMB will pop-up over your game so you can check that info or send a quick message out.

The trophy system displays your accomplishments in specific games so you can show off and compete with other online users. Currently, this feature only works for Super Stardust HD, but according to the Sony reps, the following games will be using the trophy system as well: Resistance 2, Socom: Confrontation, Warhawk, PAIN, PixelJunk Eden, NBA ‘09, LittleBigPlanet, Buzz! Quiz TV, and Motorstorm Pacific Rift.

What other gifts did Sony give us with their firmware update? Let me take a deep breath…
You can now have up to 100 players on your friend-list (it was originally 50), search the web from your XMB (powered by Google), view the date and time from the XMB, the text entry field can now be cleared at once when using a keyboard, reassign controllers, adjust controller vibration settings, print playlist images, use a small music control panel, use noise reduction settings for stored media, AND support of upscaling of blue-ray disc video content. *WHEW* That was A LOT of goodies!

Thanks to the developers and programmers over at Sony for their hard work in bringing out the best in the PS3!