This BurgerTime experience evolves the arcade classic and enhances it with a unique 3D rotating environment. Platform Nation’s Rich Montalvo has reviewed the Xbox 360 version of the game and it looks like he really enjoyed it, even if the difficulty drove him insane. Check out his review here. Also another article to check out is this really interesting interview that Rich had with John Greiner, Head of the BurgerTime development studio, Monkeypaw Games.

BurgerTime World Tour hits WiiWare on February 9 and will cost 1000 Wii Points.

This extra piece of downloadable content is now available on Xbox Live Marketplace and PC and will cost 400 MSP / $5. Here’s what you can find in the DLC pack.

• Building: Cement Factory (accelerates all constructions on the island)
• Character Trait: Constructor (free cement factory, construction workers gain skill faster)
• Character Outfit / Vanity Item: Engineer helmet (for male and female avatars)
• Mission theme: The largest city in the Caribbean – build a huge city across the whole island while fighting all kinds of disasters
• Decorations: Tropican flagpole, Small park, Flower bed 2, Flowering tree 2, Constructor statue

I don’t play Tropico 4 and I don’t plan to any time soon. From what I’ve seen of the game, it’s trees trees and more trees, so the addition of some kind of concrete to the game would be a great.

Tropico 4 Quick Dry Cement Add-on is out now on Xbox Live Marketplace and PC now.

It was inevitable, I guess, but in a way that you’d hope it would never happen, sort of like how you keep telling yourself you’re not going to eat the whole pizza, but it’s Friday and you had a rough day and…

Anyways, Battleship, the classic board game from Milton Bradley, has now gone from a movie to a video game. For me, this is one step of extrapolation too far. As far as the entire known universe is concerned, the board game had no discernible plot, characters, or setting aside from a four-sided body of water of indeterminate size that may or may not be hosting a maritime conflict. To make this a movie, this meant applying a thick slab of creativity gravy all over the offering, i.e. putting in aliens.

Now, developer Double Helix Games is concocting an entirely new story to go alongside the movie with the Battleship video game in which you play as demolitions expert Cole Mathis. How his possibly (probably?) victorious actions coincide with those of super alien-fighting duo Taylor Kitsch and Rihanna remains to be seen, but the game itself will feature the “merging of tactical and action elements” where players will “fend off the enemy beachside while ordering attacks against their marine counterpart.”

This sounds like it could be an interesting blend as the press release purports “seamlessly switching” between the two modes of play, but like I said, this is a video game based on a movie, and those don’t necessarily have a good track record, let alone those that are based on a movie that is based on a 80-year-old board game. Look for it on May 15^th for Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii with portable versions from developer Magic Pockets for the 3DS and DS handhelds.

Source: Joystiq

Yesterdays upgrade to the PS3 firmware provides a speed improvement on the web-browser and new Terms of Service. Released on the PS blog today, Sony Network Entertainment VP, Eric Lempel outlined the few changes.

“First off, once you download the new system software, you will be asked to accept a change to our Terms of Service. In an effort for more unity between PlayStation Network (PSN) and other Sony Entertainment Network services, your “PSN Account” will now be named “Sony Entertainment Network Account.” Please note that this change is one in name only and will not change the PSN that you know and love. You’ll still play games online, still have access to the latest downloadable games and add-ons, and still experience a wide variety of movies, sports and music across PSN.
With this system software update (v4.10), we’ll also be updating the PS3 Internet Browser with improved display speed.”

I’m not sure who uses the web-browser on the PS3 for their main browser; but good news, it’s faster and will now display some pages that it previously could not.
The main confusion lies with the changes and unifications going on at Sony right now. To clarify, the account name is all that is changing, NOT the PSN itself. The account and the service are separate.

Here’s my take on this: Up until today there was the PSN “service” with games and movies and content, and to access it a user needed to create a PSN “account” (gamertag associated with an email). As Sony has rolls out more “services” like movies and other media, they desire to have a more unified (and service independent) “account” name. So, yesterday we logged into the PSN “service” with our PSN “account”; but tomorrow we’ll login to the PSN “service” with our SEN “account”.

So, while it is technically true the PSN had a name change it was only the account that changed, and not the beloved PSN.

Source PS Blog

Mass Effect 3 isn’t the first game to do it (not by a long shot), but one of the more interesting features it will have is the ability to import your character save file from prior Mass Effect games. This means that, for players who have journeyed through space with Commander Shephard, they will be able to see the consequences and benefits of actions in prior games. To many, this will probably give the feeling of a sense of ownership over the decisions they made (and continue to make).  You can really start to feel like you are part of the universe that is created when you know your actions will have consequences.  You understand the worlds, the characters, the situations.  You get the inside jokes. You know how your crew behaves.

But what about for people who haven’t played any of the prior games? Are you missing out by not playing previous entries in a series? Does playing Halo 3 before Halo make it less of a game? Saints Row: The Third? Gears of War 3?  It made me wonder:

If previous games of a series that you haven’t had an interest in (until the latest version) are available on your current console, what do you play first? 

(You may need to refresh the page to see the poll)

For the sake of argument, assume that the story in this series progresses from one game to the next. I’ll be honest; I got Gears of War 3 for Christmas this year, and before I even bothered opening it, I replayed the first, and played (for the first time) the second one.  I didn’t want to feel like I was missing out on something by not knowing the full backstory.  Yeah, most games today will feature primers, or do a good job through exposition to get you caught up on what’s happening, but can that 15 minutes really make up for the hours spent beating a game.  Putting your personal time and energy into the story makes the next iteration mean that much more to you.  So I guess I would say that I’d play the games in order of what’s available, rather than the latest. But then I think about a game like Assassin’s Creed. The series is incredible, and while I feel the first game lays some pretty serious groundwork for the other games in the series, it’s also the worst of the bunch by far. Most would say skip it (or play a small bit and then skip it).

Give us your take – vote above, and drop a comment below.

View previous ASQ: Staying Alive

A Simple Question (ASQ) is a weekly segment for Platform Nation.  Give a response and let the world know what you think; there is no right or wrong answer here. If you have a suggestion for a question, hit me up on twitter @vttym.

We have a unique review today; I’ll be reviewing some PC hardware, something that I haven’t been able to do in years (Mac guy). Today I’m going to be talking about and reviewing the Antec High Current Gamer 520W power supply unit. If you want to see several pictures of it, check out the unboxing post I did early today.

The unit itself is actually a nice unit. For those of you that have messed around with power supplies, you know how simple these are to install but how much of a problem they are if you don’t have one that is strong enough. The install was simple, 4 screws, just like every other PSU out there. The next part of the install was obvious, hooking everything up to it. The HCG-520M has one of the less clutter/cable management types of system where all the cables detach from the PSU itself so you only have to use what you need. This type of system here is really what you want because you only have cables in your case that you need. It takes any excess out which then helps with opening things up for a better air flow inside your PC, and let us not forget just how much better it also looks. You don’t really want a rat nest inside your case. I did have a small problem with the cable management system though, but that’s really because it’s only a 520W unit, it only comes with one set of the PCI-E cables. Most likely you won’t need more than this, especially if you only need 520W’s, but it would have been nice for one more.

After the install I fired up my personal gaming PC; you can see its specs here (I have a few other things installed as well, like another HDD, USB hubs, and several USB powered devices). It stared up without problems. I wasn’t quite sure if the HCG-520M would have enough power to keep everything going but I had 0 hiccups. Alright, now that that’s done, how about if I overclock it a little bit. Again, not a problem. So I figured I’d put max my PC out with some benchmark tests, surely this would really draw some major watts. And yet again, not an issue, nothing. The PSU itself was cool to the touch. Not bad, not bad at all.

Antec’s HCG-520M really surprised me. I really didn’t think it would have enough juice it in to power everything under a long load. What sucks even more is that I spent around $140 on my Corsair CMPSU-750HX which I love but I could have went ahead and picked up the HCG-520M for about $50 cheaper as Energy sells it for $90.

Steve’s Final Thoughts: The Antec HCG-520M is a really nice PSU that’s made for the budget gaming PC. It’s affordable, and yet, has all the perks of the more expensive PSU: high continuous power (520W), a really nice cable management system, and the Antec name backing it. If you’re in the market for a budget PSU, you’ll be lucky to get such a great bang for your buck then what the HCG-520M is offering.

Here’s all of the official specs:

• 520 watts of Continuous Power
• 80 PLUS® Bronze certified — up to 87% efficient
• High Current Hybrid Cable Management — special 10-pin and 5-pin modular connectors for High Current rail
• Quiet 135 mm Double Ball Bearing cooling fan
• Stealth Wires: all wires darkened for minimal visibility in chassis
• All Japanese brand capacitors for reliability
• Thermal Manager: an advanced low voltage fan control for optimal heat & noise management
• Up to 90% power available on +12V rail
• ATX12V version 2.32 and EPS12V version 2.92 compliant
• Heavy-duty protection circuitry on all rails prevents damage from a variety of dangers:
• AQ5 — Antec Quality 5 year limited warranty on parts and labor
• MTBF: 100,000 hrs

Side Note: If you’re in the market for a CPU cooler, check out Antec’s KÜHLER H₂O 620. I bought that for my PC when I built to keep my Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz Quad-Core cool. Even with me overclocking my i5-2500k, it’s cooler then it running normal with the stock cooler. The other two great things about the KÜHLER H₂O 620 is its price because you can get it for only about $55, and the fact that it’s zero maintenance. You install it, it works, nothing else to do with its liquid cooling system. Ever.

Not only has the Creation Kit been released, but Bethesda have also released a High-Resolution Texture Pack for download which makes the game look…better! If your PC can handle the texture pack then I recommend this as a download to make your Skyrim experience look even more gorgeous.

For more information on the Skyrim Creation Kit check out this post. Hopefully I’ll be able to check out some of the great mods that have been released so far. (apparently there is a Wheatley from Portal 2 mod that makes a floating Wheatley follow you around Skyrim, awesome right?).

The original Sanctum game was a really fun game, it was a great tower defense game which featured a twist giving you the ability to jump down onto the map and actually take down the enemies yourself. With plenty of different enemy types including tank-like enemies and flying enemies, you have to place your turrets strategically, upgrade them and kick some alien butt.

Not much is known about what Sanctum 2 will be bringing, but you can assume it will be more of the insane tower defense fun that the original featured. I’m glad that it will be available on Xbox Live, PSN and PC as the original was only out on PC which obviously limited the amount of gamers that were exposed to it, which was a shame as the game has some great co-op gameplay too.

Keep your eye out for more Sanctum 2 info on Platform Nation as it comes out.

The game has been available for the price of 1200 Microsoft Points since the release of the game in September last year, but as of this moment the game is now available for the cheaper price of 800 Microsoft Points. Here’s a little run down of what the game is:

BloodRayne: Betrayal delivers over-the-top stylish action with a healthy dose of bloodshed. You are Rayne, the sexy dhampir with superhuman strength, speed, and agility, recruited by the vampire hunting Brimstone Society for one last mission. The target is a lavish, yet sinister ball in a secluded castle with plenty of dark surprises. With the help of a mysterious friend, and members of Brimstone, Rayne must infiltrate the manor, take out the fiendish horde, and stop an evil master plot once and for all.

Check out the trial game on the Marketplace and see if it looks like the kind of game that you would enjoy. If you do, then get it for the cheap price of 800 Microsoft Points.

If you aren’t aware of what Fallout: New Vegas is, then I don’t know what rock you have been living under. If you aren’t aware of what you get in the Ultimate Edition then I suppose that’s understandable. In the Ultimate Edition you get access to all four of the DLC add-on packs for the game. This includes Dead Money, Honest Hearts, Old World Blues and Lonesome Road. All four of these packs put together raise the level cap of the game to 50! You’ll even get access to the pre-order bonuses originally available at the game’s launch, Courier’s Stash and Gun Runners Arsenal.

Fallout: New Vegas Ultimate Edition is available in stores now for North American gamers, and nearer the end of the month for UK gamers.