Publisher Ubisoft and Mac developer TransGaming have partnered to release Ubisoft games on Macs, the two companies have announced. Initial offerings will include ports of Ubisoft's pet simulators Catz and Dogz, along with Telltale's CSI-themed adventure effort Hard Evidence. Other titles were not...

So. Much. Irony.
Police who previously used internet chat rooms to set up sting operations are now playing Grand Theft Auto IV online to catch kiddie fiddlers.

Nintendo of Europe has released a series of videos, from a couple fitness and health experts, looking to give you an incentive to try out Wii Fit. The videos are from Dr. Klaus Pfeifer and Dr. Alfred Rütten from the Institute of Sports Science and Sport at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany. They offer some tips and advice on why you should maintain good posture and exercise regularly, although they don't directly reference Wii Fit or the Wii Balance Board.

To be released this fall across North America

Security firm says pages on the US PlayStation site are under attack.
IT security firm Sophos is claiming that hackers have compromised a number of pages on the US Sony PlayStation website.

Famitsu's article about Mega Man 9 features the same beautiful screenshots we got in Nintendo Power last week, with one exception: the small image seen here, featuring a greyscale Mega Man next to the real one. The article wonders if this could be a playable character, although in the infobox at the top of the article, Famitsu identifies Mega Man 9 as a single-player game. It could be an alternate character, or just a costume choice, or a new weapon-based color scheme, or even an enemy!

The infobox also says that Mega Man 9 is scheduled for September. If this really does follow the NES games, then minimal translation will be necessary (and hastily done), so we can look forward to jumping through boss doors soon!

To be released this autumn

You've probably read our Firmware 2.40 post (if not, do!), where we go in depth with the new in-game XMB and Trophies system, but there's nothing quite like seeing it in motion. Thankfully, the second Firmware 2.40 video is up now on the PlayStation.Blog and, this time, Eric Lempel guides you through the wonderful world of Trophies.

In our opinion, Trophies look pretty hot. From the overall premise, to the way the comparing of Trophies with friends is implemented so that you can see what games you and your friends own. Not only that, but the "You got a Trophy" message is exactly how we would want it to be. The only thing we have to wonder is, will there be some satisfying sound effect to accompany the message?

So there you have it. Firmware 2.40 has been fully revealed and will be available to download on July 2nd. Yeah, that's the day after tomorrow. There's no word on when older games will be patched to incorporate Trophies, but believe us when we say we'll be hounding publishers until they tell us. Most future games will support Trophies out of the box, including PSN downloads. So, what do you think?

So, we're finally able to talk officially about PS3 firmware 2.40. Available "very soon" (stay tuned for an exact date), this hotly anticipated firmware update has been the topic of discussion throughout various internet forums and our own site. Many rumors stemmed from supposed leaks, and we can now say that many of these reveals were right on the money. The features to be added in firmware 2.40 represent the biggest jump for PS3 owners, more so than 2.00 released a few months earlier. The key features of the update include the most-wanted things voiced by a majority of PS3 fans. In-game XMB and achievement-like trophies are the two biggest additions to this update.

In-Game XMB
Finally, in-game XMB will be implemented for the very first time. When one presses the PS button, it will bring up with entire XMB. No features are hidden in this menu; you will be able to see all of your Photos, Music and Video. While everything can be seen, not everything can be accessed from the menu. For example, if you want to click on a video, a message will tell you that the game will end if you proceed any further. This will allow players to jump from one activity to another quickly on the PS3. For example, you can jump from a game of PixelJunk Monsters, directly into Resistance 2. Then, you can quick to a video on the hard drive, and then listen to some music. It makes the entire system much easier to use.

Continue reading Everything you need to know about firmware 2.40

Yes, you read that correctly. We've just received word from Sony that the long-awaited European release of the DualShock 3 is coming soon. We'll have our hands clasped around the buzzing wonders from Friday the 4th of July and they will cost £39.99 (we've requested a price in Euros too, because we know how much you love those).

There's no word on whether any different colours will be available, so we're going to assumed that you'll have a choice between black and black. You can count on SCEE to announce something so long-awaited without a modicum of pomp. Despite the lack of a fanfare, we're happy to see DualShock 3s finally becoming standard everywhere in the world. All that's left is to phase out the SIXAXIS models and start bundling DS3s with all PS3s. Here's hoping.

[Via Press Release]