Let's start this week early, shall we? Coming up on retail shelves starting July 27 all the way to the first few days of August is another hailstorm of PC games from the independent front, though you'd probably love this week for the release of Namco Bandai's SoulCalibur IV and its limited edition kits. But if there's anything more significant this time, it's the appearance of more Olympics-themed games as the week heralds the eve before the World Olympics in Beijing. We take them all at the full story.

Gameleons has revealed their latest title for mobile gamers: The Overtaker 3D. This Fist Person Shooter looks to offer a lot of gaming while on the go. To find out more about this game, head on over to the full article by clicking on the "read more" link below.

Last time, it was the United Kingdom and South Korea. This time, it's Poland. And yes, the strain of bird flu involved was the dreaded H5N1 strain, which has been known to infect humans as well as birds.

Find out where those sites were located after the jump!

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has just revealed their plans of creating a new subsidiary in Poland that will manage their games portfolio for the PlayStation 3, Playstation 2, and PlayStation Portable. It will be called Sony Computer Entertainment Polska and will be based in Warsaw.

This is important for gamers on the said region because it could improve distribution of Sony's videogame-related products. The new subsidiary will also be taking care of localization to further broaden Sony's market reach.

Sony Computer Entertainment Polska will start operations on April 2008. The designated general manager for the Poland subsidiary Marcin Ziobrowski had this to say:

Our commitment to the Polish games market is clear. Not only have we today announced the launch of the Polish PlayStation Store, online store front for PlayStation 3's PlayStation Network, but we will also be focusing on delivering even more game titles to our Polish consumers in Polish.

It was probably inevitable; the fact that Apple's iPhone is now available with a software unlock in more than 40 countries all over the globe before it's even supposed to be officially available in some of these areas.

The image (left) shows the list compiled by the iPhone Dev Team of 32 countries and 69 carriers with the iPhone software unlock already been tested and good to go. The phones were confirmed to have working incoming and outgoing calls, as well as SMS compatibility, EDGE/GPRS access, and non-visual voicemail access.

In actuality, however, the list above has recently been appended with an additional 10 countries and 11 carriers according to additional contributions from the source's website. With the growing number of software unlocked iPhones being made available worldwide, who knows? Perhaps you'll find a working iPhone just around the corner from where you live before you know it.

Additional countries and carriers include:

• New Zealand/Vodafone
• Spain/Movistar
• Poland/Orange
• Czech Republic/Vodafone
• Bahrain/Batelcom/MTC Vodafone
• Israel/Cellcom
• Hungary/T-Mobile
• Belgium/Proximus/Base/Mobistar
• Kuwait/Wataniya
• Ireland/Meteor

If there was one thing that grabbed our attention regarding Microsoft's upcoming Xbox Live update for this spring, it would have to be the new region limits. As detailed by UK community manager AceyBongo, this new update will disable your Live account's ability from downloading Xbox Live Marketplace content that's not within your console's region.

We'll be taking a break from this rather morbid news for the moment, as we pick up a press wire detailing the other features that are expected to kick in for this latest update brings to our consoles. The list spans 125 noted tweaks, ranging from added interface to bug fixes:

• New Features:
• “Download manager” - Marketplace items now download in the background, queue up to six pieces of content
• DVD bookmark support will remember the film’s timing and location when resuming viewing
• Fast-forward and rewind now offered at 2x -16x for any videos saved to hard drive
• “Boot to Dashboard” setting will bypass the loading of any disc in the drive and open directly to Dashboard during power-on
• Begin slideshows from any photo
• Music player saves “shuffle” setting
• Much player save “repeat” setting
• Music player now displays which file is currently playing in the playlist
• Music volume level persists between game / reboots
• 8 new locales added (Chile, Brazil, India, South Africa, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia)
• Separate settings now offered for Game and User volume controls
• Themes can now be set from the “System” blade on the Dashboard
• User-selected music continues play when switching from Dashboard to game or game to Dashboard
• “All Arcade Games” added as a selection in the Xbox Live Arcade area
• Personal gamer pictures allowed as Gamertiles – displayed only to those on your Friends List
• Added support to disable sound effects when navigating Dashboard
• Instantaneous “Change Theme” option added upon downloading new Dashboard themes
• Preserve folder structure of source when viewing photos
• A/B labels now provided to identify memory units in Dashboard
• Online status set to “Away” when screensaver becomes active

The complete list is available in the Full Article!

 

Nibris' Sadness is starting to get a lot livelier, at least on the news front. The folks at Cubed managed to pick up some new artwork and info on the game, and it's definitely pointing towards intense psychological drama as well as tons of dead people.

First off, the characters. According to the new report, the young woman (whom we know as Maria) is of Polish-Hungarian origin. She also spent her childhood in England, and that's where grew up and started a family. As far as we can tell, Maria is also the same person who has a son in this game, though the new report doesn't say much about it. Furthermore, most of the game time will be spent on playing her, so you might as well get attached to her life story while you're at it, especially since the secondary character will most probably be her son.

Related to this are the monsters they'll be encountering. You'll encounter 18 different species of monsters in the game, with some of them being friendly or hostile depending on your choice of actions throughout the storyline.

Now for some gameplay tidbits. One playthrough is now expected to last 20 hours, with a short portion of that spent in Poland. If we're lucky, that might also mean that we'll be able to relive the events of the train wreck that started most of the storyline in this game. They also mention that there won't be any loadtimes, and that the graphics will involve a lot of fog effects with the quality of most visuals being near that of the artworks they've presented to the public thus far.

More importantly, they're planning to pull out all the stops for dramatic effect. In addition to getting voice acting onboard as part of the game's initiative, they'll also be working with an orchestra to get the most effect out of the game's story. Bad news or no, Nibris' game has certainly got our interest piqued. Keep checking QJ for more updates to this intriguing release.

 

There were only eight people who lined up for the launch of Sony's next gen videogame console in Warsaw, but as discovered by SPOnG, the turnout wasn't due to lack of enthusiasm. It was more of a financial problem.

"It's very exciting," PS3 fan Olek told SPOnG. "Although I think it's a little bit too expensive for common sense. It's over 2000 Polish Zloty, but well… [looks around the group] there are still people willing to buy it." Olek continued by adding that the PS3's high price point was fine by him. "The PS3 has advanced technology, the Blu-ray drive, the graphics, it's worth it. But still, it's a lot of money."

SPOnG notes that while the PS3's high price point is a definite mark against it in places where a console's high cost will sting more than usual, the launch does give Sony a chance to catch up on the competition in Poland. Microsoft's Xbox 360 only launched in Poland in November. Also, as far as fans like Olek are concerned, there's another selling point that the PS3 carries with it: a name.

"I don't really have any desire to buy an Xbox, Playstation is an icon of gaming culture," said Olek. "Every new Playstation release is welcome."

Check out the launch pictures, courtesy of SPOnG, below.

More pictures await after the jump!

Thanksgiving's just finished, and as we're packing up the leftovers and polishing off the apple pie, we're letting you know there's more holiday goodies on the way as game developer 1C announces the release of a new set of treats for their upcoming Theatre of War title.

Set in WWII, the Theatre of War RTS will offer players a chance to play one of six major factions - US, UK, France, Germany, USSR, Poland - as they fight through 40 campaigns worth of battles and skirmishes taking place on both the Western and Eastern fronts of World War II. Up for grabs are nine new gameplay vids showcasing some of the game's highlights, from artillery strikes and tank blitzes, to infantry assaults. Take special note of the Germans, who will also be a focus in these videos of the frontline.

Download: [Theatre of War goodies 1]
Download: [Theatre of War goodies 2]
Download: [Theatre of War goodies 3]

Replay Studios' Sabotage got a new lease on its production life when ML Enterprises stepped in to help produce it.  Apparently, the game's developement  has been experiencing "some structural and communication problems. " ML E's support, according to Sabotage Creative Director Sascha Jungnickel, "will be the beginning for long lasting partnership.”

Sabotage is a third person action game featuring Résistance fighter and MI6 agent Violette Summer. Summer's mission is to infiltrate German military camps in France, Poland and Germany during WWII and sabotage them. He must kill high Nazi officers, rescue civilian hostages or solve other missions. The game uses lighting and shadow-effects to match the player's stealth infiltrations and is heavy on the suspense and silent action rather than the firepower.

Originally set to be released at the end of 2006, Sabotage will be available only in German speaking countries.