Late last week, Netflix stock made a nice jump after company officials mentioned that they had a big announcement coming this weekend.  The announcement was to mention a new platform that they would be delivering instant streaming on starting in a short period of time.  Rumors started to swirl that it would be either the PS3 or the Nintendo Wii, but as of this evening, Sony and Netflix have put out a joint press release that the PS3 will have Netflix in the next month.

Basically, the service would work similar to the way it works on the Xbox 360, but instead of it being built into the actual operating system on the PS3, you would actually insert an Instant Streaming disc that would open up a Netflix front end that would allow streaming of movies.  The selection will be the same as it is for all other delivery platforms, and their will be no additional costs on the PSN, with the exception of needing a Netflix account.  Also, the Instant Streaming discs are to be offered as a free item, although the press release does make it sound like they might charge for them in the future.

So PS3 owners, are we happy, sad or indifferent over this development.  I like the idea of Netflix coming to other platforms, but I wonder if Sony could of made it easier by developing an extension to the Media bar that would support Netflix instant streaming natively, instead of using an extra disc to make the magic happen.  I can say this – I have already put in a request for a disc.

This week, we ran rather long on the main topic, so we skipped the community corner, but you will be happy to know that this upcoming podcast will feature nothing but community content, so if you have questions, get them in before Friday at 7PM Pacific time.  You can email them at tips@aeropause.com, post them in the forum in the Aeropodcast question topic, or phone them in via our voice mail at 206-339-8362.

The podcast was mixed by Stephen Munn, using music from Revolution Void.  Look for it at www.revolutionvoid.com.

Download the podcast from here or subscribe to the podcast using one of the services below: Also make sure to review us on iTunes.

* Total Number of games played – 1,217,424
* Total Number of Kills – 92,110,787
* Total Number of Treasures Captured – 1,860,645
* Total Amount of Money Earned – $38,841,367,350
* Total Time Played – 9,905 days (or 27+ years!)

I played the demo for a few hours in total, so there’s my contribution to the above numbers. Right now the demo is #1 out of the top 5 demo first-week downloads, and is on its way to become the most downloaded demo on PSN.

Additionally the game has landed 17 out of 34 perfect review scores thus far on Metacritic – with none coming in at less than a 90. Look for Uncharted 2 on the 13th!

Atlus dropped us a line to tell us to tell you to hold the hell off of trying to play your pre-release copies of Demon’s Souls for PS3 online. The online servers are not going live until this Tuesday (the game’s ship date), so anybody who tries to play the game online before then is going to get a server error.

So, to recap. If you somehow have a copy of Demon’s Souls already, don’t try to connect, get the error, and then FREAK OUT ABOUT DEMON’S SOULS BEING ALL BROKEN AND AWFUL AND NOT WORKING WTF I’M JUST WAITING FOR UNCHARTED 2 JEEZ!

Once thought to be mythical, the 32-player Capture-the-Fat game Fat Princess finally arrived on the PlayStation Store last week. With a $15 price tag, it stands as one of the more expensive PSN offerings… and with the recent news of terrible connectivity issues, you may be wondering if the game is worth your money. After spinning through the lackluster single-player campaign – which is really just a tutorial that overstays its welcome – and several hours of online multiplayer, I am here to report that while Fat Princess may not seem like a deal at $15, it sure is a ton of fun. Let’s do this without any weight puns.

Fat Princess is an effort to take a decade’s worth of first-person shooter buzzwords and apply them to a cute third-person cartoon environment. Class-based. Capture the flag. Voice chat. Online multiplayer. Stats tracking. The Princess has all of that, and if you think those terms have been left out in the sun too long when applied to FPS games, Fat Princess makes them all feel fresh again. In an online match, you will be on one of two teams. For the basic gameplay mode, your goal is to rescue your princess while making sure the enemy princess stays stuck in your dungeon. Other modes grant the win to the team who can occupy the most towers, or by rescuing the princess several times… and there’s even a surprise soccer mode that I haven’t seen anybody talk about. You begin each match (and indeed, every time you respawn in) as a simple classless villager. Deciding which class you prefer – Warrior, Ranger, Priest, Mage or Worker – is as easy as picking up a new hat. Since the hat mechanic is built into the live game, not determined before the match begins, you can change classes during the battle as often as you like.

The five classes come with their own strengths and weaknesses and therefore align themselves along different responsibilities during the fight. They vary according to health, speed and weaponry. The Warrior has strong weapons and a great life bar, but runs fairly slowly. The Priest can easily heal other units but his own life bar is skimpy. You get it. The fun part is being able to quickly change your identity and try out a different view of the battlefield.

The Worker, for example, is an absolute necessity for the first half of any match. Although being a Worker may dredge up horrible memories of the expendable lives of the peons of WarCraft, in Fat Princess they get a much better deal. Initially, Workers are tasked with the first line of defense: building the castle doors (which swing open for your team but bar out all else) and collecting nearby resources. Chopping trees and mining stone (ore? metal? crystals? The imagery is unclear) will allow the team to upgrade all the classes to an advanced state… meaning better weapons and more abilities for your dudes. Workers can also build siege equipment (ladders, bounce pads, catapults) at predetermined locations on the map. Even once the castle is more or less fully upgraded, Workers can still be of use as their axe can do damage, and the upgraded worker gets to carry bombs.

But the fun part lies in the split-second decision to change classes. I’ll usually start off as a Worker and hustle logs and stone around the map. Then I’ll flirt with being a Ranger for a while, because I like sniping guys with arrows. If I’m playing single-player, eventually I’ll end it as a Warrior and make a run for the princess, since he has the longest life bar. In this way, you can switch at your whim between playing as a passive defender or as a full-aggro killer. As somebody who has long since passed his prime FPS days, I really appreciate and enjoy being able to enter a Fat Princess match knowing that I can tailor the experience on the fly.

The fat part comes into play as a silly way to make things more difficult for the opposing team. With their princess locked up in your dungeon, any class can feed her cake to make her fat. The princesses have several levels of obesity, with each level making it harder and slower to ferry them back to base. Cake spawns all over the map, so in every game players need to pick it up and stuff her face. With an eye on the prisoner’s weight, your team can avoid making the inevitable rescue mission too easy for the enemy.

Obviously a person’s weight can be a sensitive subject, and I could understand someone feeling uncomfortable with the game’s title and obese women premise. The only thing I can offer is that the game does not make that huge a deal about the ladies being fat (no, they are not the only women in the game; your player character can be customized to be female). In fact, you’re quickly taught to value having a fat imprisoned princess. But it’s not like the game is peppered with fat jokes.

The game is stacked with internet jokes, however. For example, one of the randomized bot names in Pwnan, and the play-by-play announcer will occasionally yell “They’re in our base, killing our dudes!”

Fat Princess games have no artificial timer. While the lack of a timer can make the single-player campaign mode drag on interminably, it is nice to play a game without a ticking clock in the background. Setting the bots to easy and playing a single-player skirmish is a great way to get accustomed to the game’s mechanics (or fully explore one of the six or seven available maps; they are full of secrets) without being interrupted by a sudden GAME OVER after 20 minutes.

In a nice touch, there’s a violence slider that switches from blood-and-gore to just blood to neither, making the game no more inappropriate for kids than a Tom and Jerry cartoon. My four-year-old son has mastered the controls well enough that he can reliably win when positioned inside an easy single-player offline match with 31 bots.

Your character can be customized using almost 100 parts… eye color, hair, beard, etc. These elements are unlocked simply by playing, whether you play online or offline.

There is no local multiplayer option. I could have used a 2-man splitscreen option, or even 4-man with a linked camera a la LittleBigPlanet. But sadly, local offline play in single-player only. In addition to being able to set up local single-player skirmishes with bots, there is also a Gladiate mode with puts you in an arena with the goal of defeating waves of enemies. If you watch the game’s credits, you get to slice through enemies while Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “I Like Big Butts” song plays. There is a menu option that indicates future DLC is on the way. Given the relatively high price, it would be nice if we could get a content update or two for free.

Developer Titan Studios knows that the online portion has problems, and they have promised a patch to address the lag and connection issues. Until that arrives, it will continue to be difficult to get into an online match. What usually happens for me is that the game tries to connect but then fails at the last step and dumps back to the main menu. It takes at least two minutes to roll through this failure. It is frustrating and could have the same unfortunate result as what happened to Castle Crashers on Xbox 360… by the time the patch arrives, everyone has already left the game.

Assuming that they get the online mode reliable, I have no problem giving Fat Princess a 4 out of 5. I have already put over ten hours into it and I consider the $15 well-spent. But if Titan can’t act quickly, Fat Princess will fall off the map.

For hilarious, chaotic-yet-accessible gameplay, but lacking local multiplayer… Fat Princess on PS3 gets 4 out of 5 Aeropausonauts.

Fat Princess was released July 2009 (NA) on PlayStation Network. Rated T

Check out Fat Princess and other PS3 reviews at Test Freaks.

No, no. Turns out, Sackboy is an unlockable character in Rag Doll Kung Fu. I had no idea. You had no idea. And since RDKF’s unlockables are mad hard, we had no chance of ever finding this out.

Until now, as long as we buy the aforementioned Time Saver’s Pack. Coming to the PSN Store this week, this DLC will unlock Sackboy and “a range of other crazy costumes.” Media Molecule doesn’t mention a price, and also doesn’t mention if this DLC will arrive simultaneously on PlayStation Stores of all regions.

Since we all received Rag Doll Kung Fu for free from Sprint a few months ago, this may be the game’s only chance of wringing a few bucks out of us.

Source: Media Molecule

For those that might want to get their basketball fix a little earlier than normal, 2K Sports is trying out something new for this year’s NBA release.  Yesterday it was announced that people could download a new title via the PSN or Xbox Live Arcade in September called NBA 2K10 Draft Combine.

NBA 2K10 Draft Combine will allow gamers to create a player that will then go through the process that most potential draft candidates go through before the official NBA draft.    Draft Combine will team you up with a trainer, allow you to play in pick up games, and work through drills to boost your skills.

Any player that goes through the Draft Combine program will have the ability to export that player into the new My Player career mode in NBA 2K10, and they will have a Draft Combine patch on their uniform, showing they participated in the NBA 2K10 Draft Combine program.

Check the jump for the full press release and more screenshots.

2K Sports Announces NBA 2K10: Draft Combine, a Totally New Downloadable Game Experience

Get a taste of NBA 2K10’s all-new gameplay and My Player career mode while living the life of an NBA hopeful going through the real NBA Draft Combine.

New York, NY – July 28, 2009 – 2K Sports today announced NBA® 2K10: Draft Combine, a download-only title that will provide pre-season fun for basketball fans leading up to the fall launch of NBA 2K10. Planned for release this September on Xbox LIVE® Arcade for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PlayStation®Network for PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system,, NBA 2K10: Draft Combine will allow fans to create their own custom player with the utmost detail and, for the first time in the NBA 2K series, begin their career by experiencing the on-court life of an NBA hopeful going through the NBA Draft Combine at the world-renowned, ATTACK Athletics gym in Chicago.

“We’re giving our dedicated NBA 2K fans an incredible opportunity with NBA 2K10: Draft Combine,” said Greg Thomas, senior vice president of sports development for 2K. “Gamers will have exclusive access to online content and get to test drive NBA 2K10’s new gameplay features, advanced player progression system and the all-new My Player career mode before the game launches this fall.”

Features of NBA 2K10: Draft Combine include:

· Building custom players by working with a mentor, the 2K Insider, and increasing their NBA stock through a variety of challenging basketball drills and 5-on-5 games.
· Over 300 different signature customizations, including player-specific shooting animations, dunk and dribble packages and more to allow each created player to have his own unique personal style.
· Ability to strengthen all parts of the created player’s game with a variety of drills, such as shooting, post offense and defense, attacking the basket, dribbling, challenging shots, boxing out for rebounds and more to progress through the NBA Draft Combine.
· Organized games that will allow players to gain valuable skill points and offer a variety of specific in-game objectives that will need to be accomplished in order to gain them. At the end of each game, a full analysis will be available for gamers to review their player’s performance and strategize their further improvement.
· All players created in NBA 2K10: Draft Combine will wear a special patch on their uniform throughout the rest of that player’s career to denote that they have completed the NBA Draft Combine.
· Online leaderboards to track the highest ranking custom built players, and where a player stacks up against the competition.
· Opportunity to unlock special achievements on Xbox 360 and trophies for PLAYSTATION 3 system.
· Fans can take their custom built players from NBA 2K10: Draft Combine and use them in the all-new My Player career mode in NBA 2K10 launching this fall, allowing them to continue their journey of becoming an NBA legend.

NBA 2K10: Draft Combine, developed by Visual Concepts, is planned for release in North America, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and India this September on Xbox LIVE Arcade for Xbox 360 (400 Microsoft Points) and PlayStation Network for PLAYSTATION 3 system ($4.99). For more information about NBA 2K10: Draft Combine, please visit www.2ksports.com/games/nba2k10dc.

2K Sports is a division of 2K, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO).

About Take-Two Interactive Software

Headquartered in New York City, Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. is a global developer, marketer, distributor and publisher of interactive entertainment software games for the PC, PLAYSTATION®3 and PlayStation®2 computer entertainment systems, PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system, Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, Wii^TM and Nintendo DS^TM. The Company publishes and develops products through its wholly owned labels Rockstar Games and 2K, which publishes its titles under 2K Games, 2K Sports and 2K Play. Take-Two also distributes software, hardware and accessories in North America through its Jack of All Games subsidiary. The Company’s common stock is publicly traded on NASDAQ under the symbol TTWO. For more corporate and product information please visit our website at www.take2games.com.
NBA

The NBA and individual NBA member team identifications used on or in this product are trademarks, copyrighted designs and other forms of intellectual property of NBA Properties, Inc. and the respective NBA member teams and may not be used, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of NBA Properties, Inc. (C) 2008 NBA Properties, Inc. All rights reserved.

Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox LIVE, and the Xbox logos are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies and are used under license from Microsoft.

“PlayStation” and the “PS” Family logo are registered trademarks and “PS3″ is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. The PlayStation Network Logo is a service mark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.

All trademarks and copyrights contained herein are the property of their respective holders.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

The statements contained herein which are not historical facts are considered forward-looking statements under federal securities laws and may be identified by words such as “anticipates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “expects,” “intends,” “plans,” “potential,” “predicts,” “projects,” “seeks,” “will,” or words of similar meaning and include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the outlook for the Company’s future business and financial performance. Such forward-looking statements are based on the current beliefs of our management as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to them, which are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict. Actual outcomes and results may vary materially from these forward-looking statements based on a variety of risks and uncertainties including: our dependence on key management and product development personnel, our dependence on our Grand Theft Auto products and our ability to develop other hit titles for current generation platforms, the timely release and significant market acceptance of our games, the ability to maintain acceptable pricing levels on our games, our reliance on a primary distribution service provider for a significant portion of our products, our ability to raise capital if needed, risks associated with international operations, the matters relating to the investigation by a special committee of our board of directors of the Company’s stock option grants and the claims and proceedings relating thereto (including stockholder and derivative litigation, actions by governmental agencies and negative tax or other implications for the Company resulting from any accounting adjustments or other factors) and risks associated with the Company’s concluded process to evaluate its strategic alternatives including stockholder litigation arising therefrom. Other important factors and information are contained in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2008, in the section entitled “Risk Factors,” as updated in the Company’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended April 30, 2009, and the Company’s other periodic filings with the SEC, which can be accessed at www.take2games.com. All forward-looking statements are qualified by these cautionary statements and apply only as of the date they are made. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

This is something hardcore older gamers have been waiting to see, something the Nintendo online store has done very well — bring in emulated games from other systems. It has them wondering what other developers for other platforms will jump into the pool. The co-hosts of the PS Nation Podcast are die-hard Sega fanboys, so their great hope is to see Saturn games on the system.

I never had or played a TurboGrafx-16. Did you?

Seen on SiliconEra.

The weight is finally over for fans of large gaming characters as Fat Princess is finally coming to the PSN on Thursday, July 30th for the price of $14.99.  The price is about where I thought the game would come in, and the developers have proven my earlier Daikatana joke false.

The launch for the game will come to Europe and North America with a simultaneous release, while Japan will get a separate version at a later date.  Anyone else ready to find save their bootylicious Princess from certain disaster?

Check out the Playstation blog for more info.

Savage Moon, a downloadable tower defender exclusive to the PlayStation Network, was released earlier this year… but as it is on a 50% discount for another day, I’m only getting to it now.

As a tower defense game, it is pretty much as expected. Giant space bugs attack in waves, and you have to place towers to keep them from reaching your home base. As you progress you unlock new tower types and have new enemies to gun down. Although it feels like the tutorial takes three whole levels, which is a pretty big slice of the game’s twelve. The setting is a series of moons that have been turned into mining operations to keep the human race alive. If too many bugs attack your mining HQ, you lose the level.

The visual Space Poo vibe does not do much for me. But the backstory does contain an intriguing twist in that the moons are considered to be living beings… and the bugs are merely the moon’s white blood cells. So there’s a bit of a conservationist “What Hath Mankind Wrought” angle to it, even if you have to dig into the game’s supplementary materials to learn this.

Unlike the flat 2D PixelJunk Monsters, Savage Moon is full 3D, with reasonable dual-stick camera controls. There is no grid system for placing towers, as you find with some tower defense games. The land-based bugs are limited to certain paths – although some levels have very, very wide “paths” – and you are largely confined to building on the path walls. Although a blocking tower can be placed over certain intersections to impede the aliens, and that never fails to tick them off. Perhaps the coolest feature is the ability to jump inside a tower for a first-person perspective on the zerg rush. Savage Moon has about a dozen Trophies, several of which are not hard at all to collect.

Had I bought Savage Moon for $10, I may have felt it was a little anemic. With only twelve levels (there is a Vengeance Mode that pits you against infinite enemy waves), no multiplayer, and a more-or-less ugly aesthetic, Savage Moon doesn’t seem quite as robust as PixelJunk Monsters. But $5 is a very nice price for a serviceable tower defender. We’ll see if I feel the game steps up the value as I spend more time with it.