The arrival of Kuju Sheffield's much-anticipated update to Sensible World of Soccer (X360) this week was marred by nonfunctional online play, causing Microsoft to pull the game from Xbox Live Marketplace. Publisher Codemasters and Microsoft have made a fixed version of the title available, and it's now available again for download on Xbox Live Arcade for 800 Microsoft Points ($10).

Users in Codemaster's online forums have confirmed that the online play is indeed working. Any users who downloaded the buggy version of the game can redownload the title free of charge after deleting the original.

Microsoft's sole Xbox Live Arcade offering for the holiday week arrives the day after Christmas: Blitz Games' family friendly multiplayer title SpongeBob SquarePants Underpants Slam! (X360). The title will hit Wednesday for 800 Microsoft Points ($10).

The four-player game features the cast of the Nickelodeon kid-favorite show in a contest to collect the underpants of the Lord of the Sea, Neptune. Underpants Slam! also boasts four player multiplayer, both online and off.

This week's additions to the PlayStation 3's online PlayStation Store bring so much new content to the marketplace that they are said to constitute its biggest update ever.

Included in the avalanche are four original games, nine pieces of downloadable content, two demos, and one old PlayStation classic.

Game Republic's miniature car racer Toy Home sells for $9.99, as do the dot-collecting tail-growing antics of SCE's Snakeball, which also has a free demo available. PlayStation Eye-requiring titles Trials of Topoq and Mesmerize: Distort, meanwhile, respectively go for $5.99 and $1.99. All are PlayStation 3 exclusives.

Along with the expected $7.99 Omega: Operation Dawn expansion... Read more

Atlus today announced plans to bring a strategy RPG entitled Drone Tactics to Nintendo DS in North America. Drone Tactics was originally published by Success Corp. in Japan under the name Insect Wars (on that note, who remembers Battle Bugs on PC?).

It features both the traditional turn-based tactical element of most SRPGs as well as an involved customization aspect allowing players to modify weapons and power-ups on the insectoid robots that make up the game's squads. The strategic element is displayed in 2D with sprites, while robot modification sequences and battles are rendered in real-time 3D.

Drone Tactics features a single-player campaign consisting of several dozen maps, and multiplayer via local wireless. In addition to releasing a batch of screenshots from the original Japanese version of the game, Atlus said it plans to release the North American version on March 25, 2008.

Cleveland-born director Dwight Little (Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid, Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home) has been chosen to direct the live-action film adaptation of Namco Bandai's Tekken fighting franchise.

"The film plays out as a science fiction story set in the near future, about a rebel who rises up against the Tekken Corp. to seize freedom for his people," Little (pictured left) explained to Variety. "It's a gladiator story, but the video game has a complicated enough storyline that it provides the template for a martial arts spectacular."

The Tekken Corporation has never been featured in any of the existing Tekken games, which revolve around the no-holds-barred King of the Iron Fist Tournament. However, the game's mythology does include a private corporate army known as the Tekken Force.

With a script written by Alan McElroy (Left Behind: The Movie, Spawn, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers), the movie enters production on February 4.

Once rumored as a summer release, fans excited for the online-enabled Xbox 360 version of Codemasters' Sensible World of Soccer (X360) had to wait until last night for the game to actually arrive. Unfortunately, a bug in the game disabling arguably the most important feature--online play--has caused Microsoft to pull the game from Xbox Live Marketplace.

"This game has been pulled. I'll post an update when it is available again," writes the ever-vigilant Larry "Major Nelson" Hyrb on his Microsoft-sanctioned blog. "In the meantime, if you downloaded this busted version, please delete it and when the new one is available you’ll be able to downloaded (sic) it again (at no charge if ... Read more

The Japanese online PlayStation Store now features Sony's PSP Media Manager software as a free download. The software allowing easier media transfer on Sony's portable installs through a Japanese interface but apparently runs in English, and can be used on most Windows-based PCs.

Sony still sells the Media Manager software in the U.S. for $29.99, although the retail version includes a six-foot USB cable. The software can be set up to automatically convert and optimize video and audio files to run on the PSP.

The software is not currently available for download from the U.S. PlayStation Store. Shacknews contacted Sony for further availability information, but has not yet received a response.

While it surpassed the Xbox 360's worldwide install base earlier this year, the Wii was still second place to Microsoft's console in most European territories and North America. The Xbox 360's North American lead is still intact, but the Wii has now overtaken Microsoft's install base in the UK, according to the latest data from ChartTrack as reported by MCV.

The Wii sold 100,000 units in the week ending December 1, putting it ahead of the Xbox 360's install base for the first time since its launch. MCV did not reveal UK-specific total numbers for either console, although reports earlier this year placed the Wii at 1 million units in a record 38 weeks after launch.

Sales of the Wii in Japan quickly surpassed Microsoft's poor-selling Xbox 360 soon after the Nintendo console's launch. As mentioned previously, the Xbox 360 still holds the top spot in America, although with sales of nearly 1 million consoles last month, the Wii is quickly closing the gap.

Publisher Aspyr Media has released the first set of screenshots from Hellbent Games' Xbox 360 port of Gas Powered Games' PC RTS Supreme Commander, set to release in Q1 2008.

Speaking to Shacknews, Aspyr stated that the Xbox 360 game will not incorporate the additions and changes from the recently-released PC expansion, Forged Alliance, with one small exception--three of the game's new nine units are drawn from Forged Alliance, with the other six exclusive to the console. There will also be three new multiplayer modes, with existing maps modified to support those modes in addition to the standard assortment.

GameSpot has an Advance Wars: Days of Ruin preview, going hands-on with a near final build of the game.

Update: Sony has confirmed to Shacknews that the streaming of PlayStation games to PSP over Remote Play was indeed part of yesterday's 2.10 PlayStation 3 firmware update.

"With the PS3 2.10 firmware update, many original PlayStation games can now be played via Remote Play on PSP when the discs are inserted in a PS3," said an SCEA rep. Also playable are any original PlayStation titles that have been downloaded from the PlayStation Store.

Original Story: The latest firmware updates for the PSP and PS3 enable the streaming and playing of all original PlayStation games on a PSP via the PlayStation 3's Remote Play functionality, Shacknews has confirmed.

Both downloaded PlayStation games stored on the PS3's hard drive and PlayStation game discs inserted into the system are now playable on a PSP from any location with wireless internet access.

Though lag is likely to be a slight problem with faster-paced and reflex-based titles, slower and more tactical efforts, such as role-playing and strategy games, are best-suited for streaming across the internet.

Allowing users to access certain PlayStation 3 media and titles through the internet, Remote Play has become increasingly full-featured as firmware updates have progressed. The feature was recently expanded to allow PSP owners the ability to power the PS3 on and off using the portable system.

Mega-gaming retailer GameStop has provided a few more details on the Wii reservation program that Nintendo of America mentioned last week, which is meant to help holiday shoppers acquire the elusive system.

For one day and one day only--this Friday, December 21--those who pre-pay for a $249.99 Wii at GameStop, in full and while supplies last, will be guaranteed a unit in January.

To commemorate the occasion, customers will be given a special case containing what GameStop refers to as a "guarantee slip". A phone call will notify them when the Wii itself arrives in-store.

Of course, some restrictions apply. The vouchers are only valid at the store they were purchased at--they cannot be transfered to another location-- and the system must be picked up by January 25.

New firmware updates for the PlayStation 3 and PSP are now available, bringing the consoles' operating systems up to 2.10 and 3.80, respectively.

As reported yesterday, the latest PlayStation 3 firmware brings support for DivX- and VC-1-encoded video to the shiniest console of them all, along with Blu-ray profile 1.1 compatibility and a voice changer.

The PSP, meanwhile, gains the ability to play streaming internet radio.

To obtain either of the new firmwares, internet-connected system owners can use the PS3's "System Update" option, the PSP's "Network Update" feature, or check out SCEA's sluggishly-updated support pages for the PlayStation 3 and PSP.

Originally slated for an early 2008 release, Media Molecule's LittleBigPlanet (PS3) was recently given an estimated October or September release window on the semi-official ThreeSpeech blog. Sony has responded to Shacknews' inquiry on the game's retail date, giving an ambiguous response that makes the delayed release window seem likely, with the official date coming soon.

"We have not provided a release date for LBP yet," a Sony rep told Shacknews. "We will be doing so soon."

When LittleBigPlanet was announced at this year's Game Developer's Conference, Sony promised a demo for the title before the year's end and said the full game would arrive in the first few months of 2008. Sony recently admitted the demo was not coming, and it now appears the promised release window may prove false as well.

Sony's system software version 2.10 will arrive on PlayStation 3 tomorrow, according to an official Sony UK support site post captured by NeoGAF before it was removed. The update will presumably come to Europe and other territories at the same time.

The update includes support for playback of DivX-encoded movie files or VC-1 encoded Windows Media Video files, although DivX files larger than 2GB or those encoded in DivX 3.11 cannot be played. Other features include support for the final standard Blu-ray profile, version 1.1, for playback of Blu-ray discs encoded to support the profile.

A voice changer will be added as well, allowing PS3 users to disguise their voices online. The recent Xbox 360 Fall Update added similar support for DivX files as well as playback of files encoded in the non-proprietary XviD codec.

The first trailer for Resident Evil: Degeneration has infected the internet, providing the general public with its first look at the Capcom-helmed CG film.

Based on the footage, which features series mainstays Claire Redfield and Leon Kennedy, the events of the movie appear set within the confines of the established Resident Evil mythology, instead of deviating from it as Paul W.S. Anderson's live-action trilogy did.

Resident Evil: Degeneration is due out in 2008. Though Capcom has yet to specify if it will first be released in theaters or if it will go straight to retail, the involvement of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment strongly suggests the latter.

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Modern updates of two old-school classics hit the online Xbox Live Arcade this Wednesday, December 19.

Selling for 400 Microsoft Points ($5), Stainless Games' revisiting of Atari's Tempest adds all sort of fancy graphical effects to the tunnel-based shooter. Of course, the original graphics are included as well.

Kuju Sheffield's reimagining of Sensible World of Soccer, meanwhile, is priced at 800 Microsoft Points ($10). Based on the supposedly fan-favorite Sensible World of Soccer '96/'97, the latest release in the series adds online play and high-definition assets to the mix.

Going by this week's additions to the Wii's Virtual Console, Nintendo wants gamers to celebrate the holiday spirit by slaughtering robots, monsters, and aliens.

New to the online storefront today are NCS' Super NES side-scroller Cybernator, Sega's Genesis shooter Alien Storm, and Monster Lair for TurboGrafx-CD, Westone's third title in the side-scrolling action-RPG series Wonder Boy.

All three titles are priced at 800 Wii Points ($8).

While Nintendo is not planning to add online multiplayer to any Virtual Console titles, NoA president Reggie Fils-Aime has indicated that future online Wii titles may very well support voice chat.

"I would not be surprised to see that capability come to this system," Fils-Aime said in a conference call this morning.

Though Nintendo is known for its overly protective online safety measures, such as dictating that users first exchange and enter a series of random digits to communicate with one another, the company has already made inroads into online voice chat with the Nintendo DS.

Released in early 2006, NST's Metroid Prime: Hunters (NDS) allowed gamers that had swapped friend codes to speak to one another. Other games, including Game Freak-developed, Nintendo-published Pokemon Pearl (NDS) and Pokemon Diamond (NDS), supported the capability as well, with Nintendo eventually releasing a specialized headset to facilitate communication.

Following this morning's announcement of a Wii raincheck program, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime stated the company has no plans for Wii Virtual Console titles with online multiplayer.

The Virtual Console section of the online Wii Shop Channel provides Wii owners with a selection of downloadable classic retro games from a number of long-dead systems, including the NES, Super NES, Sega Genesis, TurboGrafx-16, and more. New titles are uploaded to the store each week.

Though most titles released on the service are exact replicas of the originals, some include new features and new functionality. For example, this week's VC release of HAL Laboratory's Pokemon Snap (N64) added the capability for players to save their in-game photographs to the Wii Message Board and send them to other Wii owners via online messaging.