Although it hasn't been officially announced yet, the Sydney Morning Herald says that Sony will be releasing PlayTV in Australia next year. As one of the territories that support Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB-T), along with some other PAL countries, PlayTV being available in the land down under is entirely possible. 

So far, SCEE has only officially announced PlayTV for the UK, France, Italy, Germany, and Spain. PlayTV is the new feature made specifically for the PlayStation 3. It's basically a black box that lets the console pick up TV broadcasts via DVB-T, and the console can record the programs. The recorded videos can then also be transferred onto the PlayStation Portable.

The Herald says that the biggest problem with PlayTV appearing in Australia may be the local networks' reluctance to have a personal video recorder (PVR) have access to their electronic program guides. We'll probably hear more about it from Sony Australia soon, so stay tuned for updates.

Wondering if you favorite country will be included in Konami Digital Entertainment's latest Pro Evolution Soccer release? Erik Hansson over at the Level7 site has just picked up what appears to be a complete listing of the national teams making it to PES 2008 (Xbox 360, PS3, PSP, DS, PC).

That's all the details we've got on this news, which ties in nicely with the celebrities expected to make an appearance in the game. Stay tuned in case we receive more update - or if some lucky gamer confirms this lineup based on PES 2008's upcoming demo release. For now, here's the list (translated by the Winning Eleven blog):

• Austria
• Belgium
• Bulgaria
• Croatia
• Czech Republic
• Denmark
• England
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Greece
• Hungary
• Ireland
• Israel

The complete list is available in the Full Article

We were informed a couple of days ago that Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) provided several media outlets in France with a list of upcoming video game titles for the Playstation Portable and the PlayStation 3 for the rest of 2007.

A similar list, now, has been given to members of the gaming press in Spain. The new list is more concrete than the first one and serves as further confirmation to some titles that are yet to be officially announced such as Loco Roco 2 and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue.

Without further delay, here's the new list for Spain and we hope to see a similar thing for other markets around the globe.

PlayStation 3 (PS3) titles:

• Singstar Next Gen: August 22
• Warhawk: August 29
• Heavenly Sword: September 12
• Lair: September 26
• Folklore: October 10
• Eye of Judgment: October 24
• Ratchet & Clank: November 7
• Time Crisis 4 & GunCon 3: November 18
• Gran Turismo 5 Prologue: November 21
• Uncharted: Drake's Fortune: November 28

PlayStation Portable (PSP) titles:

• SOCOM Fireteam Bravo 2: July 4
• PaRappa the Rapper: July 11
• WipEout Pulse: September 10
• ATV Offroad Fury Pro: September 19
• Pursuit Force: Extreme Justice: September 19
• Patapon: October 19
• Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow: October 24
• SOCOM Tactical Strike: November 7
• Everybody's Golf Course: November 7
• Loco Roco 2: December 7

Proein has signed a deal with Capcom to distribute their titles in Spain. Proein, which is Eidos Interactive's publishing arm in the Spain, signed a pretty big deal which includes the rights to games such as the ever popular Devil May Cry 4, Lost Planet: Extreme Condition, Monster Hunter Freedom 2, Moto GP, and even new titles from the Mega Man franchise.

Mark Beaumont, the Executive VP and head of Capcom consumer software publishing in Europe and the US, spoke on this deal and why they made the decision to partner-up with Proein.

Capcom has successfully worked with Proein for a number of years and have been impressed by their professionalism and unrivaled market knowledge. We are really pleased to take the relationship to the next level by choosing Proein as our sole distributor for Spain.

Proein's MD Mercedes Rey shared the same sentiments saying that "We are delighted that Capcom has chosen Proein as its partner in Spain to distribute its games. Capcom is a leading worldwide developer that owns some of most renowned franchises in the history of gaming." Both groups should be happy considering Spain has a solid market for quality titles and Capcom has been known to deliver the goods with each one.

 

Electronic Arts' 2nd Burnout Bandslam has just been concluded, with over 5,000 bands from the U.S. and 2,100 bands from other locations participating. Two and a half million MySpace users took part in the initial judging with the final selection conducted by an expert panel. The two grand prize winners, "Never Heard Of It" (U.S.) and "Showing Off To Thieves" (UK, Europe), walked away victorious.

Winners of the contest will receive a demo recording deal with Virgin Records and EA. They also get a chance to have their song included in a future Burnout videogame. One Runner-Up band from the U.S. and from each of the participating countries across Europe will receive one Epiphone Les Paul Custom Guitar.

European Winner – Showing Off To Thieves
They clinched the top spot with their debut single "Everyone has their secrets". Driven by powerful vocals, incisive lyrics and crushing rhythms, their distinctly British sound has captured the attention of the people from MySpace.

U.S. Winner – Never Heard Of It (NHOI)
This independent band is considered on of the hardest working bands on tour. As of 2001, they have self-booked and financed 11 U.S. tours and even expanded their schedule to Europe and Japan. They have been asked to play The Warped Tour two years in a row. They have also started their own label called Unmotivated Records, put out a full length CD and got a nationwide distribution deal because of their extensive touring and fantastic tracks.

The full list of Runner-Ups:

• UK- Inuendo
• U.S. – The Sun Also Rises
• Denmark- Zenith
• Sweden- Anagoes
• Norway- Jeroan Drive
• Ireland- Boss Volenti
• Germany- More Than Crossed
• Spain- Avenue and Silhouettes
• Russia – Apshell
• Italy – Let Me In
• France - Kiemsa
• Holland – Note to Amy

The next Burnout is currently being developed for the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 and you can expect a ripping soundtrack for the game. Another thing you might want to watch out for is Burnout Dominator for the PSP which will be out this April 27.

The PS3 has been in Europe for less than a month and its titles are sitting on top of the charts. Resistance: Fall of Man took the top spot in Italy and Spain. Germany on the other hand was taken by storm by S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl (both the normal and limited editions).

The three countries definitely have different gaming tastes with the exception of Insomniac's Resistance, Evolution's MotorStorm, Formula One Championship Edition, Virtua Tennis 3, and the PS2's Final Fantasy XII. Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars are surprisingly absent from the Spain and Germany charts even though it's a definite hit in the UK. Oh well, to each their own. Here's the complete list for Italy, Spain and Germany:

Italy (for week ending on April 1)

• Resistance: Fall of Man
• Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2
• MotorStorm
• Formula One Championship Edition
• Final Fantasy XII
• Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories
• Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
• Virtua Tennis 3
• Ridge Racer 7
• Pro Evolution Soccer 6

Check out the charts for Spain and Germany after the jump!

After Monster Hunter Portable 2nd was released - and hit sales of 700,000 on the first week, Capcom has announced that Monster Hunter Freedom 2 will be released in September 2007... In PAL regions.

PAL would normally mean UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand. PAL, by the way refers to the region format - and it's devastating to know that North America is NTSC. It looks like Capcom did take its massive sales on the first week as a signal to ship global. The sad thing is, there hasn't been any announcements regarding a North American release.

Monster Hunter Freedom 2 will share all the goodness of the original Monster Hunter Freedom but with 50% more content. Anyway, let's keep our fingers crossed for a NA release date. Stay tuned.

 

World Rally Championship driver Colin McRae is no longer a stranger to gamers. A number of racing games named after him have come out already on multiple platforms. His newest exploit would be Colin McRae: DIRT, to appear this 2007 on both next gen consoles, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Unknown to all of us, he's about to zoom his way towards our PSPs!

Actually, there was a 2005 racing title that featured the said racing icon. Unfortunately though, it didn't quite pick up. This time around, developer Codemasters would like to make sure this new title is not going to eat other racing game's dirt. Some of the new features include:

• international real-life race routes like the ones in Japan, Germany, Britain, Sweden, the United States, Finland, Australia, Spain, Greece and other 9 countries
• 20 famous races and 300 tracks all in all
• new car models like Toyota Celica VVTLi, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VIII, Peugeot 206, Lancia Stratos and 30 other classic models

Also, we learned that there would be an experience mode wherein players will play as McRae himself earning credits and making better records. Most excitingly, the new game allows for multiplayers, supporting up to eight players in one time. Now, that will make things dirty! Anyway, an official title for the game has yet to be announced as it is currently deep into development.

    

A soundtrack containing an eclectic mix of music gathered from around the globe has been a staple of EA's FIFA franchise through the years, and this year is no different. With FIFA 07 set to launch in over 15 languages and 40 countries worldwide, it's only natural that EA would also put together a soundtrack that represents each country and its passion for football.

Steve Schnur, Worldwide Executive of Music and Music Marketing, had this to say about the project: “No sport is more celebrated around the world than football, so what better way to live the magic of the real-world game than by listening to the anthems and songs that will be discovered by football fans around the globe as they play through the season.”

And now, without further ado, here's the list of artists and the songs they contributed, along with the country they represent.

Angélique Kidjo - Wele Wele (Benin)
Belasco    - Chloroform (UK)
Bersuit Vergarabat - O Vas a Misa… (Argentina)
Bitman & Roban - Get On The Floor (Chile)
Blasted Mechanism - Blasted Empire (Portugal)
Boy Kill Boy - Civil Sin (UK)
caBas - La Cadena de Oro (Colombia)
Carlos Jean - Get Down (Spain)
d.o.c.h.! - Was in der Zertung Steht (Germany)
Elefant - Uh-oh Hello (USA)
Epik High - Fly (Korea)
Fertig, los! - Sie ist in mich verliebt (Germany)
Infadels - Can’t Get Enough (Mekon Remix) (UK)
Keane - Nothing In My Way (UK)
Malibu Stacy - Los Angeles (Belgium)
Mellowdrone - Oh My (USA)
Mobile - New York Minute (Canada)
Morning Runner - Gone Up In Flames (UK)
Muse - Supermassive Black Hole (UK)
Nightmare Of You - Dear Scene, I Wish I Were Deaf (USA)
Outlandish - Kom Igen (Denmark)
Paul Oakenfold - Beatiful Goal (UK)
Persephone's Bees - Muzika Dlya Fil'ma (USA/Russia)
Plastilina Mosh - Peligroso Pop (Mexico)
Polysics - Tei! Tei! Tei! (Japan)
The Prototypes - Kaleidoscope (UK)
Ralph Myerz and The Jack Herren Band - Deepest Red (Norway)
Seu Jorge - Tive Razão (Brazil)
Shiny Toy Guns - You Are The One (USA)
Stijn - Gasoline & Matches (Belgium)
Suferosa - Royal Uniform (Norway)
Tahiti 80 - Big Day (France)
The Feeling - Sewn (UK)
The Pinker Tones - TMCr Grand Finale (Spain)
The Sheer - Understand (Holland)
The Young Punx - You've Got To… (UK)
Tigarah - Girl Fight (Japan)
Trash Inc. - Punk Rock Chick (Lebanon)
Us3 - Kick This (UK)
Young Love - Discotech (USA)

After giving us all the latest build to his now popular Nintendo 64 emulator Daedalus, StrmnNrmn took a much needed break from the development scene and went to Barcelona, Spain. But StrmnNrmn's heart must really be into delivering us a better N64 emulator as fast as he can because just coming back from the vacation, he's giving word that he'll "have something ready by the end of next week, or early July".

The next release of Daedalus will tackle a bunch of graphical issues like "adding new combine modes to fix various pink+black textures" among others. Since StrmnNrmn suspects that stability problems related to operating the emulator with dynarec for an extended period of time are caused by the memory running low, he is looking into reducing memory requirements for the coming build. This plan can also improve the Expansion Pak support, says the author.

Time willing, StrmnNrmn promises to look into adding support for configuring the controls on a rom by rom basis. Also up for the coming build is an improvement on the savegame support.

Moving away from the upcoming Daedalus build, StrmnNrmn also highlighted in his blog some clarifications on his issue with PSDonkey. Just before he released his latest Daedalus build, StrmnNrmn received a comment by PSDonkey saying, "I went ahead and compiled the new source for everyone and also added a couple of minor changes to the source for speed improvements."

Having read this, the Daedalus author went into "a bit of a Hulk rage" (his own words) and wrote in his blog that he "[suspects] PSdonkey might simply have been attempting to take partial credit for several weeks development work".

PSDonkey however came clean and made a clarification. He says,

"About the pre R5 build that I made. Yes I did change a couple of minor things in the source code and things seemed to run a tad bit better. However, after reviewing your updated R5 release, none of the changes that I made in the other build had any effect in this new R5 build that you released. In fact most of what I did was clean up some of the excess code and I can see that you already did this in your R5 release."

Having read this, StrmnNrmn extended his apologies and even invited PSDonkey to drop him an email so they can "talk about the possibility adding [PSDonkey] as a contributor on sourceforge".

And that's all StrmnNrmn has for us this week. I bet the coming days will again be nerve-wracking for all of us whose already excited about the prospect of yet another amazing build of the Daedalus. Keep up the good work, StrmnNrmn!