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November will see the release of two new console titles from the Lego stable.

First off is the follow-up the Indiana Jones adventures in Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues. In this title, players will once again get to re-create adventures from all the movies, including the latest including the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Jones will visit South American jungles, Peruvian Ruins and many other places.

The second release I’m quite keen to get hold of is the Lego Rock Band game, bringing the fun of multi-user band members and the Lego universe together.

Until these titles are available locally in the next two or so weeks, why not build something related to Lego Rock Band? A tour bus might be a great idea…

Get the building instructions here (direct PDF link).

It’s quite unbelievable, really. I bought my PSP in October 2005, preparing for the huge event that was to be Gran Turismo on a compact gaming device. Needless to say, I was let down, as were many, many other avid fans of the genre. Most people are fooled just once. Not me. I bought the PS3 special package that included GT5 Prologue, once again with the implicit understanding that a full version of the game would be released in a very short timeframe following that purchase. That was about two years ago.

There’s good news for those who still care to be excited about the Gran Turismo franchise. A preview of the final game for the PS3 was shown in August and a release date set for early 2010.  And today, after four years of waiting, Gran Turismo for the PSP has finally been announced!

Amazingly, the game will be available on a UMD, making it available to owners of older PSP models. Here’s the blurb from the official website:

Massive content including over 800 cars and 35 tracks with 70 layout variations, can now be enjoyed on the PSP “Playstation Portable” anytime, anywhere. That’s what Gran Turismo for PSP is all about.

Led by cars like the ’74 Lamborghini Countach LP400, there are many models making their first appearance in the series. As for the tracks, there is the popular Nürburgring, and a dirt track that can be driven by 4 players simultaneously.

There are many new innovations such as the single races where the player can nurture their personal AI driver, head to head racing using the Adhoc mode of the PSP, and trading and sharing of cars. The popular drift trials are also included in the game.

GT on the PS3 is absolutely awesome and one of my favourite titles on that platform. From the screenshots and the preview movie, the portable version looks just as good. I just hope that I can still find my dusty PSP in the cupboard somewhere…

and then, I hope it still boots up…

A new version of the Sony PS3 is to be launched overseas sometime this September. The PS3 Slim is much smaller, featuring a space-saving design and promising to cut down on its larger brother’s carbon footprint by consuming about 40% less power.

The PS3 Slim offers built-in WiFi, two USB ports, 120GB hard disk and both HDMI and optical audio output. Blu-Ray drive included, of course. The new PS3 does away with support for third-party operating systems and backward compatibility. No more running Linux or building cheap supercomputer clusters!

At the same time, Sony announced the imminent arrival (though with no specification of a date) of the 3.0 firmware update for the PS3. The firmware update improves the console’s interface with quicker access to certain items and shortcuts to downloads and games. Messaging has moved up to the main menu and is no longer hidden beneath a layer of options. Some avatar icons will be available, as well as new content for purchase.

A new version of the console is great news. As an existing owner of a PS3, it’s of little interest to me, though. Far more important to me is the answer to the question: where the hell is Gran Turismo 5, already? And there seems to be an answer to that too, it seems. According to Blast, Gran Turismo 5 will launch in October – it’s a title I’ve been waiting for since I bought my PSP about four years ago. The same title prompted me to purchase the PS3 with the GT 5 teaser disk in a bundle.

Could it finally be a reality, and how on earth will it stack up against Grid and similar high-octane racing games that have impressed me? Time will tell. I’ll believe it when I see it!

This weekend was the first time in a long time that we put the PS3 to good use. Since we are Lego fans, we stocked up on all three Lego titles available for the console, namely Star Wars, Indiana Jones and the newer Batman.

The Star Wars game for the PS3 was particularly difficult to get hold of. When it was first released, I took the approach of not buying it and instead wait for when we were ready to play it. Little did I realize that the title was very popular and simply sold out. When I eventually got around to looking for it, there was no hope of finding a copy locally, not even pre-played. I had to resort to importing it from overseas. It seems that game titles rely on scarcity, too…

So far, Alexander has been car-crazy and has been playing The Cars game every now and then. That’s fine, but doesn’t do much for a youngster’s interpersonal skills. Whilst I initially balked at the ludicrous price tag of an additional PS3 controller, that’s been the single best addition to the console.

Two-player games are now a reality and open up a new dimension in gaming for someone who is used to grabbing the steering wheel all by himself and determining without intervention which way to go…

We started our adventure in the deep jungles looking for ancient artifacts in Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures.

Our progress was reasonably swift, though we needed to work on our teamwork to circumvent traps and to progress. It’s a fantastic game and is great fun. As with all games in the Lego series, different characters have different abilities. There’s no violence to speak of and no worrying about dying and having to restart a level: characters simply bust into their component parts and re-animate. That is useful in that kids (and adults alike) are not discouraged when an obstacle requires many attempts to pass. With Indiana Jones and Marion trapped on the mountaintops in the snow, we decided to venture into space and try out Star Wars: The Complete Saga.

Both games are similar in operation and gameplay. Once again, very enjoyable and a lot of fun. There are plenty of puzzles to solve, often by having characters build bridges and the like out of Lego bricks scattered around. In the palace section, we needed to co-ordinate the use of four characters.

I haven’t had the opportunity to play games on the PS3 like this in ages. Can’t wait to start on Batman some time soon! Highly recommended for young and old alike.

My Logitech Harmony remote control is capable of controlling all devices near the LCD, except for the PS3. I had considered purchasing the Sony PS3 remote control, but after seeing this I’m glad I held out: Logitech will begin shipping a special adapter that will interface the products of the Logitech Harmony remote control range with the PS3.

The Harmony adapter is a sleek device that requires a power connection but does not use up any of the PS3‘s USB ports. Instead, the adapter is paired to the PS3 unit as a Bluetooth device. Once the necessary device has been added into the Harmony‘s internal configuration, all PS3 Blu-Ray commands are available through the Harmony remote control. For more information, see the Logitech product information page. The Harmony PS3 adapter will be shipped to Europe and Africa sometime in July.

The PS3 has been moaning to move to the newest release of the firmware, version 2.42. Here’s a question, Sony. Why the hell is there no download manager built into your online updater? The stupid thing restarts from the beginning, even though I’m on my 5th attempt and have already progressed to 56% at least once. Not my fault the Internet connection I have sucks – you could make this experience a lot more streamlined, efficient and cost-effective for me! Why should I have to resort to a manual download (with download manager) if you provide an online update?

Worst of all, this update seems to provide little benefit. I should simply skip it…

In the batcave, we focus on racing games. Alexander’s favourite is MotorStorm, a Mad Max alternate racer set in the mud puddles and sand dunes of central somewhere.

His excitement couldn’t be greater when he got to see the trailer for MotorStorm 2. That trailer is now a permanent fixture in VLC and is replayed ad-nauseum.

MotorStorm 2 is to be published by Sony and developed by Evolution Studios. The setting this time is an island in the Pacific…

The graphics have been enhanced and some monster trucks added. The monster trucks will be able to ride over cars, break most vegetation, and destroy structures.

16 tracks will add to the excitement, as will the added challenge of having to deal with driving through pools of water. There’s the promise of a 4-player split screen. I hope it supports the G25 steering wheel.

Something to look forward to on the PS3…

Codemasters‘ latest racer is available on pre-order. Racedriver GRID promises to be a continuation of the excellent racing simulators I remember playing on the PC. With the power and graphics capability of the PS3, not to mention my skunkworks project VRSX, GRID is a must-have addition to my present collection.

In Racedriver GRID, various racing modes and competitions are available including racing around the streets of San Francisco to drift racing in Japan. From the movies highlighting some aspects of the game I am astounded by the realism and graphics quality. The damage model looks impressive, though I’m not sure how a car’s handling and performance will be affected by crashes and bumps.

As with the recent TOCA series, a career mode is available and through the participation in that, the player is able to trade and upgrade cars and take part in various races.

Update: I’ve ordered the game and have just been informed that there is stock. Should be here quicker than I thought!