Games Cheats and Reviews

Tales of Monkey Island is making the jump to the PlayStation 3, joining Sam & Max on PSN.

Telltale Games and LucasArts are releasing a package that will include the entire first season of Tales of Monkey Island next week. The third episode of Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse will be available the following week.

The release is good news even if you aren’t a PS3 owner. Tales of Monkey Island is getting a major discount across all available platforms, dropping down to $20 until the end of the month. You can find the discounted version of the PC game on Telltale’s website.

Exclusives on the PlayStation 3 have a higher average Metacritic score than those on the Xbox 360, according to an analysis on IndustryGamers. The comparison found that 360 exclusives have an average score of 66.6%, while the PS3 exclusives average at 75.6%. The 360 does have a much larger number of exclusives, however, at 218 to the PS3’s 60.

The year-by-year breakdown shows a steady decrease of 360 exclusives, which makes sense. Developers were reluctant to put their games only on the PlayStation 3 when it first launched, due to a smaller install base. The two are slowly reaching parity, and are now achieving roughly the same number of exclusives above a 70% score. Xbox 360 still has far more exclusives in a given year below a 70%, but that’s not exactly something to brag about.

One could say this has something to do with Sony’s studio culture and how it cultivates exclusive titles, but the explanation might be more simple. The findings could be attributed to the law of large numbers — as the number of tests increases, the probability of a consistent average increases too. The PlayStation 3’s lack of exclusive games in the study means that outliers have a greater impact on the average. The 360 had a head start at launch, and a larger install base that gave it more exclusives per year for quite a while.

Ratchet & Clank and Resistance developer Insomniac Games has entered into a multi-platform publishing partnership with EA Partners, breaking a 16-year streak of PlayStation exclusivity.

While terms of the agreement were not disclosed, it was revealed that the deal covers an entirely new franchise created by the company, which will be published on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles.

Having played Car Jack Streets on the iPhone, I can say that having real buttons to press can only be a giant step forward. Virtual d-pads seem cool, until you’re barreling down the street, trying to escape the cops or catch another crook and beat him down. Then, they kinda suck. So this announcement about the release of the game for PSP, today, for $5, is SWEET! Also, since it’s a “mini,” it can be played on the big screen on your PS3. Super double plus good for console/portable integration!

Paul Farley, Managing Director of Tag Games, said, “We are delighted to launch Car Jack Streets as our first ever PSP and Playstation 3 title. The Mini’s platform is a perfect fit for Car Jack Streets and we know that the Sony fanbase are going to really enjoy the mix of retro and action game-play that Car Jack Streets provides. CJS is currently Tag’s most successful title and has been a hit across each of the platforms we have launched on to date. We fully expect the Mini’s launch to continue this trend and perhaps pave the way for a larger PSN release in future months.”

Check out these new release screenshots and stay tuned right here for any new details as they appear.

Sharing: It’s Win/Win

It’s probably safe to say there’s about a 5-million-unit gap in worldwide sales between the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. They’ve just announced that 360 sales have hit 40 million and at last count several months ago, the PS3 was at about 34 million, so 5 million seems to be just right.

Four of the latest Greatest Hits games on the Playstation 3 will be bundled with a DualShock 3 controller.

PSUNI: "Sales, sales, console sales." It’s a hit song in Latvia. The chorus goes "Wii, Wii, Wii all the way home." Anyway, in the battle for second place, the situation is hotting up. With Microsoft announcing 40 million worldwide Xbox 360 sales the question now is how far behind is the PlayStation 3. If we look at the figures, the answer is ‘not very’.

The Lost Gamer writes:

Over the past couple of weeks rumour has continually speculated that the Xbox 360 title, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction, is to make its way onto Sony’s PlayStation 3 console.

Today however, Ubisoft have aimed to kill such rumour by reiterating that the title is exclusive to Microsoft’s console, and will be only making its way to PC.

The official box arts for the PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of F.E.A.R. 3 have been revealed.

Brandon Thompson writes: "Gamers can debate all day about which video game character is the hottest; but there is no debate as to which console has the hottest exclusive game babes. The Playstation 3 has some of the best exclusive titles and among those are some of the hottest babes. We run down out top five ps3 babes.

Sure we could have run down the usual list of fighters and Ninja Gaiden babes, but those aren’t exclusives. These women are only from games found on the Playstation this generation. As usual, we don’t number our top fives, but you’re welcome to. Have a suggestion or better PS3 exclusive babe? Let us know."