Nobilis and Frozenbyte have announced a new fantasy action game for the PlayStation Network - titled Trine.

"Trine is a fantasy action game where the player can create and use physics-based objects to beat hazardous puzzles and threatening enemies. Set in a world of great castles and strange machinery, three heroes are bound to a mysterious device called the Trine in a quest to save the kingdom from evil…

"The gameplay is based on fully interactive physics - each character's different ability helps the player battle an army of un-dead and defeat hazardous contraptions. The player can at any time freely choose whoever is best suited for the upcoming challenge or puzzle: The Wizard is able to summon objects to help solve puzzles and create new ways to overcome obstacles, the Thief uses her agility and dead-on accuracy to swiftly surprise the monsters, and the Warrior unleashes mayhem and physical destruction wherever he goes."

The game looks awesome, sort of a mix between The Lost Vikings, Super Paper Mario and high fantasy. I can't wait to see how it all goes when it is released in Q2 2009.

It appears I forgot about two new expansion packs for two Xbox Live Arcade games this week - both Marble Blast Ultra and Vigilante 8 released new levels for each game.

Vigilante 8: Arcade High Octane Pack
Price: 320 MS Points

"Rev up with 3 new crazy cars and 2 never-before-seen arenas in this groovy pack! Grab the Strider buggy (Sheila), Towmaster tow truck (Houston), and the Groundhog 6-wheel armored car (Loki), each with its own ultra cool special weapon. You also get a tricked-out Stunt Track arena and an explosive miniature Garage environment – both fine-tuned for some high octane multiplayer action!"

Click here to check it out on the Xbox Live Marketplace


Marble Blast Ultra:Marble Fu Expansion Pack
Price: 200 MS Points

"Test your mettle against fellow Marble Blast Ultra players in 5 brand new multiplayer arenas! Includes one new achievement."

Click here to check it out on the Xbox Live Marketplace

Bruiser and Scratch

Wii Points: 1,000
Game Type: Puzzle
Control Type: Wii Remote, Nunchuk, Classic
Players: 1
Publisher: Steel Penny Games, Inc.

"Bruiser and Scratch are stranded in a strange world with a dark secret. Their only hope in finding a path home is to unravel the mystery of this place, one oversized puzzle at a time. Along the way, they make new friends and meet up with old adversaries, each of whom plays a role in their journey. Bruiser and Scratch offers a number of tutorial levels to bring the player up to speed gradually. The story unfolds over 48 puzzles and six landscapes. And for players who can't get enough, Challenge mode offers 75 additional puzzles that range from child's play to mind-bogglingly difficult."

Hockey Allstar Shootout

Wii Points: 500
Game Type: Sports
Control Type: Wii Remote, Nunchuk
Players 1-2
Publisher: Big Blue Bubble Inc

"Use the Wii Remote™ controller as a stick and take the shot as you compete in three exciting Hockey Skills Challenges. In Head 2 Head, it's just you versus the best goalies in the world in a five-puck shootout. Race against the clock to post the most goals in the fastest time. The three difficulty levels will place you against three increasingly talented goalies, each donning the jersey of their home country. In two-player mode, each player will take a turn as shooter and as goalie, and the player who scores the most goals in five shots is the winner. In Sharp Shooter, you post a high score in one of three difficulty levels by breaking as many targets as you can. Each time a shot fails to break a target, an X will appear in the upper left corner. Three misses and the game is over. Power Shot has you take your best shot and watch the Shot-Speed Clock light up. You have three attempts to blast the fastest shot you can, and only the best speeds will grace the high score list."

I can't really tell you much about these releases. Both games have been announced previously but going by the screenshots it may not be the best WiiWare release week (if you can see them, as Nintendo loves to put up 160x120 screen shots that you can barely see in the media site which are completely worthless to any site who intends to use them... but I digress).

Might I suggest Sonic The Hedgehog 2 for Master System for Virtual Console? I have very fond memories of that game. Did you hate that first boss when you played the Game Gear version? Well you're in luck - it's a hundred times easier on the Master System.

During December, Microsoft will be adding or releasing several new pieces of goodwill towards their Xbox 360 owners. The first step is their "Friendship is free" program, which allows anyone who bought the following games to play online for free using a silver account.

The games are as follows:

A Kingdom for Keflings
Aegis Wing
Bomberman Live
Hardwood Hearts
Hardwood Spades
UNO
Small Arms
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix

I'm not sure exactly how this whole deal actually works, but I would have loved to see some more, perhaps less looked at games to have also joined the festivities. Marble Blast, Assault Heroes 2, GripShift, Lost Cities, Roogoo, and whatnot. Hell just make them all free and not play favorites.

PowerUp Forever

"Survive! Assimilate! Evolve!

"In PowerUp Forever you have to grow to survive – and to grow you must destroy! Hunt and defeat enemy Guardians to harvest their glowing energy cores, gaining power to grow your ship and expand your weaponry. As you evolve you attract the attentions of ever-larger enemies, and your fight for survival goes on."

Click here for the official Namco Bandai page.

I can't find the pricing, I'm assuming it'll be 800 Points. The Microsoft monkey hasn't pulled the lever putting the game's splash page onto Xbox.com yet.

"Take a ride through an intergalactic journey where you slide, stack, and ignite your blocks to blast away the world-ending Meteos. Only you can stop them from falling and crushing your planet! Master combo links and power-ups to challenge your friends in intense multiplayer sessions.

"Puzzle games don't get any better than Meteos Wars, where the story, situation, and environments formulate an explosive adventure."

Click here for the official Xbox.com splash page.

Click here for screenshots of Meteos Wars.

[These regular XNA Community Games overviews being done in official association with XNA review site XNPlay, and will link to their impressions and reviews of the latest XNA titles.]

Another week, another batch of indie titles dropping from the skies above into the laps of you, the unsuspecting Xbox360 users and another mixed bag of titles for your pleasuring nodes to enjoy.

XNPlay's XNA Game Highlights

Ladybird Galaxy (Price: 200 Points)

Bringing the UK:R "Blue Skies In Gaming" ethic to the Community Games service, Ladybird Galaxy is a neat little collect-em-up that whilst simple is a lot of fun.

Shed (Price: 200 Points)

Not as we first believed a game about the finer points of English gardening habits but a hypnotic card game that's more compulsive than you'd anticipate from glancing briefly over the screenshots.

XNPlay's Best Of The Rest

Melvin's Meltdown (Price: 200 Points)

An awkward match 3 with a disappointing base mechanic. Shoot radioactive tins with your colour controlled laser using the appropriately coloured button on the controller.

Monaco 360 (Price: 200 Points)

A homage to some of the earliest arcade racers and one certainly reminiscent of "Best Racing Game You've Never Heard Of"* Monaco GP. Let down by a few fundamental flaws that err more towards the frustrating end of the spectrum than the fun. One to keep an eye on as it's only a few tweaks away from becoming great fun.

Hive (Price: 200 Points)

A fairly dull RTS where you appear to spend more time watching your little robot creatures move and bang into each other awkwardly than doing anything constructive. Basic.

Plasma Spheres (Price: 400 Points)

Some great ideas sadly constrained by a less than responsive physics engine that makes everything feel like wading through treacle. Lots of potential shown in this little puzzle platformer and hopefully it'll be developed further as time goes on.

Golden Royal Blackjack (Price: 200 Points)

It's Blackjack only now 100% more potato sounding. Unlock backgrounds and new card skins as you traverse your way up the ranks to become master of the under 21's.

Torino-X (Price: 200 Points)

Tower Defense meets 3d Space Shooter meets the ugly stick. Too many buttons, too little entertainment.

Updated

As there's currently no patching service available to community games, should anyone wish to update a game the only way to achieve it right now is to pull the entire game down from the service, patch and resubmit.

We've been keeping a track of the resubmissions, so if you've previously downloaded any of these titles in the first days of their appearance - you might want to grab them afresh to ensure you're up to date.

Smashell
Headbanger
Totem
UAV Wars
Crystal Crush
Snake360
ZXS4:Guitarpocalypse
Galax-E-Mail

*(c)Rev. Stu Campbell

Starting this week Major Nelson will begin to post not only the Top 10 Xbox Live Arcade titles, but the top XNA Community games too, and there certainly are some weird games popping up.

Firstly, it appears that Super Street Fighter II Turbo continues to be the top game of the week, despite Banjo-Kazooie releasing last week. This does make some sense since the game was released for those who preordered Nuts & Bolts beforehand.

Community games certainly is a weird bunch though. Games like In The Pit, Head Banger and Swords of Monsters got into the top 10 while games like Blow, Lines and Biology Battle, which I consider to be the top tier of Community Games right now, are not present at all. Word Soup is doing very well for itself, not surprising since it's quite a popular parlor title in the UK.

Top Arcade Titles (Full Versions purchased)
1 Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix
2 Banjo-Kazooie
3 A Kingdom for Keflings
4 UNO
5 Castle Crashers
6 Worms
7 Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
8 Aegis Wing
9 Bomberman Live
10 Portal: Still Alive

Top Community Games NEW! (Full Versions purchased)
1 Word Soup
2 Golden Royal Blackjack
3 Weapon of Choice
4 Colosseum
5 ZSX4 Guitarpocalypse
6 Sin(Surfing)
7 In the Pit
8 Head Banger
9 Snake360
10 Swords and Monsters

[This blog's owners are helping to organize the Game Developers Choice Awards again for GDC 2009, and for all game developers reading GSW, it's time to go nominate for Lifetime Achievement and other special awards for the big developer ceremony.]

The 9th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards has launched a call for nominations for its three Special Awards, including Lifetime Achievement, Pioneer, and Ambassador Awards, with nominating power for Gamasutra members.

Voted on entirely by game professionals, next year’s 9th Annual Award Ceremony will be hosted on March 25th, 2009 in the Esplanade Room in the South Hall of San Francisco’s Moscone Center, as part of Game Developers Conference 2009.

As the first part of this year's voting process, three special Choice Awards - the Ambassador Award, the Pioneer Award, and the Lifetime Achievement Award - are available for nominations after logging on with your main Gamasutra.com user ID. (You can register for free if you do not currently have one.)

These special awards honor individuals whose achievements have made an impact on games and the game community as a whole, and not necessarily only over the past year:

Meteos™ Wars

Developer: Q Entertainment Inc.
Publisher: Q Entertainment Inc.
Genre: Puzzle and Word
Price: 800 MSP
Availability: Not available in Korea

Click here for the official Xbox.com splash page.

Click here for screenshots of Meteos Wars.

Click here to download the demo.

PowerUp Forever™

Developer: Blitz Arcade
Publisher: NAMCO BANDAI Games America
Genre: Shooter
Price: 800 MSP
Availability: Everywhere

Click here for the official Xbox.com splash page.

Click here to download the demo.

This week we got the chance to sit down with RealNetworks, the people behind PC casual spaces RealArcade and GameHouse, about their new plans to break into the casual games market with their new WiiWare and iPhone titles. That game is Tiki Towers - a game bringing the tower building of World Of Goo with a mixture of monkeys.

Also coming this week - Meteos Ware and PowerUp Forever for Xbox Live Arcade, Astro Tripper and Lumines for the PlayStation Network, and Bruiser and Scratch and Hockey Allstar Shootout for WiiWare.

Xbox Live Arcade

PowerUp Forever And Meteos Wars This Week On XBLA
This weeks nets you a new top-down, almost soothing shooter, and a classic Nintendo DS puzzler now playing in HD.

Community Games Round Up W/XNPlay: Flying Cats And Light Cycles
Our first of our joint venture with XNplay = check out the latest XNA Community Games now for download

Community Games Round Up W/XNPlay: A Hive Of Ladybirds
Out second look at XNA Community Games. Ladybirds, Card games, Racing games and plenty more.

EA Reveal 3 On 3 NHL Arcade For XBLA And PSN
Arcade style hockey on your way from EA.

Denki Reveal Quarrel For Xbox Live Arcade
Risk meets Countdown meets Scrabble in this new title from Denki.

EXIT 2 Coming To Xbox Live Arcade
Taito's PSP puzzler brings its sequel to the Xbox Live Arcade.

PlayStation Network

Astro Tripper To EU PSN This Week
PomPom's award winning shooter making its way to the PSN in Europe this week.

EU PSN Store Update - GTI Club+, Brain Challenge
Classic arcade racing and brain puzzler now available in Europe.

NA PSN Store Update: Get Your Himmelssturmer On
Soldner-X: Himmelssturmer now available in America. You can also grab Age Of Booty DLC, and a demo of Flock! for those with Qore subscriptions.

Trine Announces For PSN - Puzzle-Platforming In Style
Beautiful 2D platforming coming to the PSN.

WiiWare

GamerBytes Interviews - RealNetworks Talk Tiki Towers And Their Journey Into WiiWare
We chat to RealNetworks about their upcoming WiiWare tower-building game.

EU WiiWare Update - Rotohex, Bang, Strong Bad 4 and Pit Crew Panic
a substantial release selection for WiiWare in Europe this week with a bit for everyone.

NA WiiWare Update - Bruises and Scratches
North America get Bruiser and Scratch and Hockey Allstar Shootout this week.

The gaming press have got their hands on Flower, the new experience from thatgamecompany. With that comes a ton of new media showing off the game. GameSpot, GameVideos and GameTrailers have jumped on it - check out the videos and previews below.

GameVideos

1UP.com - Flower Hands-On Preview by Alice Liang
Flower 'Level 2 Pollination' gameplay HD
Flower 'Level 3 Flower Power' gameplay HD

GameTrailers

Flower - Breezy Gameplay HD
Flower - Color Burst Gameplay HD

GameSpot

Flower Gameplay Movie 3
Flower Gameplay Movie 4
Flower Gameplay Movie 5
Flower Gameplay Movie 6

In this round-up, we highlight some of the notable jobs posted in sister site Gamasutra's industry-leading game jobs section, including positions from Insomniac Games, Planet Moon, Activision, Telltale Games, and more.

Each position posted by employers will appear on the main Gamasutra job board, and appear in the site's daily and weekly newsletters, reaching our readers directly.

It will also be cross-posted for free across its network of submarket sites, which includes content sites focused on online worlds, cellphone games, 'serious games', independent games and more.

Some of the notable jobs posted in each market area this week include:

Astro Tripper (€3,99 / £3.19)

"Astro Tripper is a furious shoot-em-up experience inspired by the painful, knuckle busting experiences of years gone by. An evolution of PomPom's 2001 award winning game, Space Tripper."

"Travel the surface of large horizontally-scrolling platforms, and pit your highly maneuverable craft against hoards of enemies eager to blow you to bits, eat you or worse."

Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords (£15.99)

"Building upon the addictive and easy to- learn gameplay of a puzzle game by integrating story and character progression elements found in RPGs, Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords delivers a brand new type of game that pushes the puzzle genre to a previously unseen level. The PSN version of the game also includes the content from the ‘Wrath of the Plague Lord’ expansion pack."

PowerUp Forever

Publisher: Namco Bandai Games
Developer: Blitz Games
Price: $9.99USD

"Survive! Assimilate! Evolve! You must grow to survive - and to grow you must destroy! Hunt and defeat enemy Guardians to harvest their glowing energy cores, gaining power to grow your ship and expand your weaponry. As you evolve, you attract the attentions of ever-larger enemies, and your fight for survival goes on."

Age Of Booty

Age of Booty Map Pack 4 (free)

Download the new “Tell No Tales” and “Port in a Storm” maps! The “Tell No Tales” map will appear in the 2v2v2v2 playlist. The “Port in a Storm” will appear in the 2v2, 3v3, and 4v4 playlists.

File size: 100 KB

Age of Booty Map Pack 5 (free)

Download the new “Feeding Frenzy” and “Urban Brawl” maps! These official maps will appear in the 2v2, 3v3, and 4v4 playlists. The Triple Trouble gameplay mode is also unlocked in this package.

File size: 100 KB

High Velocity Bowling
High Velocity Bowling - Tiff’s Big Zero Trick Shot Pack (free)

It’s time to bowl – High Velocity style! Add this downloadable Trick Shot Pack to your High Velocity Bowling selection. The Tiff’s Big Zero Trick Shot Pack gives you another opportunity for a gold star.

File size: 100 KB

High Velocity Bowling - Gearhead Ball Pack ($0.99)

It’s time to bowl – High Velocity style! Add this downloadable Trick Shot Pack to your High Velocity Bowling selection. The Tiff’s Big Zero Trick Shot Pack gives you another opportunity for a gold star.

File size: 7.43 MB

Startup developer React! Games have posted a new job position available on Gamasutra's JobSeeker program, which hints at an Xbox Live Arcade game being in the works.

The job position, which is for a Senior Programmer, suggests that they are working on a game "for Xbox Live" that "will use the Torque Game Engine". Most intriguing is that the game "is a remake of a classic game from the 80s using mainly 2d sprites".

React! Games are currently a very small developer with about 3 people currently working on this title, according to their profile. Whether this game is a true remake or more of a clone is probably a little too far off to understand. If it is a true remake it'll be very interesting to see who the publisher is. Currently the only XBLA publisher who is doing remakes on Xbox Live Arcade and also releasing them on PC is Capcom, but with such a small team and no mention of a PSN version it would be quite unlikely to be them.

Midway or Atari I could see going into this mode. They haven't released any XBLA games in a while, and considering their current state of affairs could and should take advantage of the current XBLA climate. Or it could be something completely out of the blue, like Southpeak's Lode Runner remake.

Source: JobSeeker - React! Games Job Profile: Senior Programmer (Generalist)

Shin'en have opened up their website for Fun! Fun! Minigolf, their first project for WiiWare. Complete with the site is the first trailer, which you can check out above.

FFM is looking incredibly good for a WiiWare title. Nice, crisp graphics with a pleasing design to it. I also like how it's somewhat grounded in reality much in the way a Hot Shots Golf is, compared to 3D Ultra Minigolf on Xbox Live Arcade.

The game will be coming out on the 22nd of December in North America, and will get released in Europe and Australia on the 2nd of January for 900 Wii Points.

Source: Fun-Fun-Minigolf.com

Novaleaf have announced their "Holiday Blast" competition for their XNA Community Game Biology Battle, where you can win Xbox Live Arcade points by hitting specific points on the online leaderboards.

To win these prizes, players must get ranks with other players globally in these 5 categories:

1) Global Top Scorer Challenge (1600pts x2)
2) The 20th Place Gamer (1600pts)
3) The 50th Place Gamer (1600pts)
4) The 100th Place Gamer (1600pts)
5) The Magic ZERO Challenge (1600pts)

The competition begins on December 14, 2008 at 9:00 AM Pacific Time and ends on January 15, 2009 at 2:00 AM Pacific Time. Good Luck.

Source: Biology Battle Website

While Indie games are somewhat their own subset of gaming nowdays - it was all we had 20 to 25 years ago. Teams of 3, 4 or more people would make the majority of games available to consumers. It brought us people like Will Wright, Cliff B,

To celebrate that, GameTrailers and Spike TV held a new special, dedicated to the new line of top Independent developers. Geoff Keighley goes around the world and interviews Dylan Cuthbert of PixelJunk fame, 2D Boy, the people behind World Of Goo, David Hellman, the man behind the art of Braid, and Dylan Fitterer, who created Audiosurf.

During the show there is one exclusive announcement - PixelJunk Monsters will be coming to the PSP native in a brand new version of the game. It sounds like they will be expanding on it a little bit too, possibly with new levels.

To watch the special or get the download links, continue reading.