From the same devs, unsurprisingly, that brought you the Steve Jobs parodying Korg DS-10 Plus game announcement: handheld synthesizer creators AQI have just announced Elvis Presley & KORG DS-10 Audition, a new competition in celebration of the 55th anniversary of Presley’s debut that’s asking DS-10 composers to create their best techno remix of Elvis hits.

Fantastically unlikely as it is, it’s all on the level with the Presley estate, and winners of the competition will see their track officially promoted and sold on iTunes and released on a special CD in Japan.

Full contest details are available at the official site, and users outside Japan will be submitting their entries via the newly established ElvisAudition YouTube channel, so watch that for further developments ahead of the October 20th cut-off date.

Musical/lyrical/visual incongruity’s got to be the oldest trick in the horror movie maker’s handbook, and with good reason, it seems: it works awesomely, even in Left 4 Dead. The startled witch bit is terrifying. [via Alice]

CAVEAT EMPTOR: PS3 SLIM REMOVES LINUX INSTALLATION OPTION

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8.18.2009

Brandon Boyer

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One side note to this morning’s PS3 Slim announcement: buried within Sony’s press release is this “new feature” addendum:

Removal of “Install Other OS” feature

The new PS3 system will focus on delivering games and other entertainment content, and users will not be able to install other Operating Systems to the new PS3 system.

Translation: no more installing Linux on your PS3. I can’t honestly say I’d seen the feature gain much traction over the past few years, but for those that were holding out for a price drop specifically for it, your best bet is grabbing one of the remaining standard 80GB models at their newly dropped price.

GAMESCOM: THE 3 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT SONY’S PS3 SLIM/PSP CONFERENCE

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8.18.2009

Brandon Boyer

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1.) Sony officially announced its $299 PS3 Slim.

After months of strong rumors, Sony has officially announced its new model PlayStation 3: the 120GB Slim, to be released in just two weeks time on September 1st, at a pricepoint of $299. Starting tomorrow, current standard 80GB PlayStation 3s will see their price dropped from $399 to $299, and the 160GB models will fall to $399. The price move puts the Slim model on par with the standard 60GB Xbox 360, and $100 less than the 120GB ‘Elite’ model 360.

2.) Sony announced, ‘Minis’, a new PSP downloadable game series

As mentioned to UK outlet Develop in mid-July, Sony has officially announced a new line of exclusively digital-distributed game series to be known as ‘minis’, with a strict 100 meg size limit, and a 99 cent to $9.99 price structure, clearly targeting the iPhone’s App Store market.

That goes for its game titles themselves, too, many of which have been directly lifted from the App Store, including Tetris, tower defense game Fieldrunners, Mountain Sheep’s shooter Minigore, and Gameloft’s Hero of Sparta, all as spotted by the official UK PlayStation blog.

The blog says Sony announced 15 games will be available at its October 1st launch, with a total of some 50 available by the end of the year.

3.) Sony announced a new PSP Digital Reader, starting with Marvel, IDW comic books

Also launching for the PSP this December, a new Digital Reader app, which will let users purchase, download and read — “page by page or frame by frame” — a series of comic books coming from partners like Marvel (Spider-Man, X-Men, Fantastic Four), IDW (Transformers, Star Trek), iVerse (Archie), and a wider range of “titles from indie and local publishers.”

Cryptically, Sony also added that, according to the PlayStation Blog, “the Digital Reader isn’t just comics, though — more on that at a later date.”

If you missed EA’s live-stream of this morning’s GamesCom conference, you missed Double Fine head Tim Schafer showing off my favorite new detail of Brütal Legend‘s combat: a double-team attack that can be pulled off with any number of partners in the game, but specifically the first, where lead character Eddie had his female cohort mount his shoulders, concert audience style, and used his lifted lighter to ignite her flame attack.

But still, what you do get is the trailer above, with little slices of wooly mammoth, beast riding, and mosh-pit-protected brilliance, along with bits of its online multiplayer, which is demonstrated at greater length (and with 100% more rhythm-game attacks), below:

And, the capper: Double Fine has also announced that a demo for the game will be released via PSN and Xbox Live next month, with a slice of gameplay to tide you over for the following month until its October 13th release.

And the second in what will be a very trailer-heavy morning (with Europe’s GamesCom conference in full swing) is another from Harmonix, this time the first gameplay of their TT Games partnered Lego Rock Band, showing just what it means to devastate with the power of its plastic-rock, and I’ll be damned if turning the music chart gems into Lego bricks isn’t the cutest extra touch.

ONE SHOT: TOKYO-GO-GO SAYS 8-BIT IS DEAD

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8.18.2009

Brandon Boyer

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But it still lives on in our hearts. [another joint via Tokyo-go-go]

Due for an official release September 8th, and coming live to the Penny Arcade Expo just a few days before: Metroid Metal‘s Varia Suite, the band’s first recorded collection of — well, as you might guess — metal remakes of various Metroid themes from throughout the game’s history.

Metroid Metal’s site has more information on both the album, and their PAX live performance, and the Silent Uproar record label is taking pre-orders for the album both in standard form, and in a bundle with an awesomely iconic T-shirt.

The fact that Broken Rules’ cult indie PC hit And Yet It Moves would be coming to the Wii was very stealthily announced at this year’s E3, tipped off only by an entry in an accompanying Nintendo release list.

But the studio is now giving themselves more of a public face with the launch of their new site, twitter account, and the release of the video above: the first that shows how the Wii-mote will be integrated into its world-revolving play, and, as a bonus, probably the best use of human-stop-motion I think we’ve ever seen in a games trailer.

LittleBigPlanet creators Media Molecule promised an earth-shaking announcement to be revealed today, which came in the form of the video above, showing off the latest addition to your creator’s toolbox: water.

As minor and elemental as it may seem, it caused ripples enough (sorry) to bring down the Media Molecule site itself, and, on further reflecting (sorry, sorry), with good reason: the team are already expecting it to change the way people interact with its levels in as much the same way as the Metal Gear pack’s Paintinator gun gave the game an action bent.

No word yet on release date, but Sony and MM promise more details soon.