Are you ready to lay the smackdown!? Well, before that, get ready to make a decision about which store you’re buying this year’s Smackdown vs. Raw from, because many stores seem to be offering different bonuses. Ranging from different characters to even money off of Pay-Per-View events, it seems like there is something to try to appeal to each Hulkamaniac… or Kanonite… or whatever’s in now. Take a look to see which stores are offering which bonuses on WWE’s newest addition to the Smackdown vs. Raw series.

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Syphon Filter: Logan’s Shadow made a pretty big impact on the PSP scene after its 2007 release. I can only assume that the extremely warm reception the original title received (ranging from Game of the Year and Editor’s Choice awards from many publications) was the primary focus behind bringing the portable game to the PS2. With that being said, there is an inherent downside to bringing a portable game to a home console; this is to say nothing of a game nearly three years old.

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Perusing the list of summer game releases coming up, I sighed at the thin crowd lined up until September. I noticed a few singing games coming out over the summer from Disney like Disney Sing It: Family Hits and Disney Sing It: Party Hits. Family Hits got me nostalgic for the old Disney songs and I broke it down all shower tune-esque to Aladdin and Jasmine’s A Whole New World. I’m taking a break from The Little Mermaid’s Under the Sea though, Kingdom Hearts kind of burned that song into the ground for me over time…

So it got me wondering, do you all like to sing in games? Are you the lead singer of a plastic band when your friends get together? Let us know what your favorite game to sing in is! SingStar? Lips? Karaoke Revolution? Desperately awaiting Glee? Or will you be joining me on some PS3 Aladdin reminiscing? Let us know!

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Sony’s press conference followed Nintendo’s yesterday, which was a tough act to follow but they really pulled out their big guns.  Heart1lly’s live tweet recaps the PlayStation Move, 3D gaming, Kevin Butler, and lots more.  The press conference was very exciting, but for those of you who may have missed it, here’s the live tweet recap.

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New York, New York! It’s the city that never sleeps. According to Japan, it’s also plagued by malevolent demons. But not to worry — the theater troupe of Little Lip Theater is always on call. Yes, they can put on a magnificent show, but they’re also tasked with keeping the citizens of the Big Apple safe. Unfortunately, their newest member isn’t quite who they were expecting: the nephew instead of his respected uncle Ogami! How are they supposed to put on mindblowing performances and keep the peace with this mousy greenhorn tagging along? It’s up to the player to see that Ogami’s successor, Lt. Shinjiro Taiga, rises to the occasion in Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love, for both the Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 2.

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Putting out a solid sports game every year isn’t the easiest thing to do. Companies either don’t improve enough from the successful title or they try to do too much and turn a game that was once great into a disappointment. Sony’s MLB series was struggling to break through the baseball market with 2K Sports’ and EA’s titles getting all the spotlight. It wasn’t until they decided to take a couple of years off to create The Show that they became the baseball franchise for three years running. With MLB 10 The Show, Sony hopes to yet again provide the best baseball experience to gamers by introducing some new features while improving presentation, Road to The Show, and the all-important online play.

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After a long day’s work of gaming (I use the term ‘work’ loosely here), there is nothing I like more than to take an hour break in between furious gaming sessions to relax with. This for me is almost always a music/rhythm game, because they’re just so easy to pop in and get down to business with. And hot damn it’s always what I want and when I want it. I had always wanted to get into the SingStar business, and as a lover of Spanish music, when I heard SingStar Latino was being made for North American PS3 gamers, I was more than ready to finally get started. (Since playing this though for review now I’ve gone out and picked up SingStar Vol. 1 and SingStar Vol. 2.)

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The MLB 2K series has been struggling to return to it’s former glory but the one department in which they always shine is who they choose as their cover athlete. The cover athlete used to belong to only Derek Jeter aka Mr. November, but for 2K8 they went away from that formula and put Jose Reyes on the cover. This year they decided to go with Cy Young pitcher Tim Lincecum aka The Freak. For next year’s title 2K Sports once again chose another up and coming young baseball star in Evan Longoria of the Tampa Bay Rays. Longoria is one of the best players in Major League Baseball and he’s only going into his third year. He made his debut in 2008 and was named AL Rookie of the Year. The third baseman who hit 33 homeruns and drove in 113 RBI’s this past season, is known for not only his hitting but his glove as well winning a Gold Glove this year.

“It’s been a milestone year for me, from winning a Gold Glove and the Silver Slugger Award, to now being selected as the cover athlete for Major League Baseball 2K10-this has been a truly humbling experience,” said Longoria, All-Star third baseman for the Tampa Bay Rays.

This year 2K Sports is allowing the fans to choose the cover at 2ksports.com. The voting will run till December 8^th and the final cover will be released on December 11^th.  Unlike other sports games no curse comes with being on the cover, in fact both Reyes and Lincecum had improved seasons after being on the cover; Lincecum winning NL Cy Young again this year. I’m sure this makes Longoria less hesitant to be featured on the cover. MLB 2K10 will be available in the spring of 2010 across all platforms.

[Source: IGN]

Fellow grooverites, take heed! Konami has announced an official track listing for the newest iterations of the impossibly popular dance simulation game, Dance Dance Revolution X2 and Dance Dance Revolution: Hottest Party 3, releasing tomorrow for the PlayStation 2 and the Wii. I’ve always missed out on the Hottest Party installments but I think the third time should be a charm, especially since it has new added moves via the Balance Board and waggletastic new ways to make yourself look like an idiot. Here’s to you, fitness!

Interested? Of course you are. To be quite honest, the inclusion of the lovely Lady Gaga’s “Just Dance” in Hottest Party 3 has me sold, though I’m not typically a fan of the more Americanized mixes. Need my heavy rotation of J-pop and techno.

For the full tracklists of both games, you can check out the official PDF from Konami. Happy browsing!

Have you always dreamed of being a DJ?  Is traditional rock not your thing?  Do you fall asleep each night counting down the days to DJ Hero’s upcoming release on October 27?  To help get you even more pumped, check out the game’s intro cinematic after the break.

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There are many titles that have simply disappeared through the rifts in time. Be it for a lack of widespread appeal or any number of various unknown factors, Bloody Roar 2 is one such title that fell off the radar of gamers. Spawning several less-than-stellar sequels across a variety of last-gen platforms, the PlayStation outing Bloody Roar 2 highlights the best of what the series had to offer – a unique and fast-paced fighting game with a beastly twist.

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If you know me, you know that I love to sing. Granted, I’m not that great at it – but that doesn’t stop me, not at all! I’m also quite the rhythm game fanatic, so I will drop the cash on anything and everything even remotely related to music (yes, I bought Jam Sessions, and regret it). When given the chance to experience a volume of SingStar featuring the classic melodies of Queen, I jumped at the chance. I popped that sucker out of the case faster than Freddie came out of the closet, and I was thoroughly satisfied.

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For a limited time, if you buy Guitar Hero 5 and you submit the unique game code with the game, a receipt of your purchase, and some sticker on the GH5 packaging, you will receive Guitar Hero: Van Halen for free before it’s out in stores. Submissions must be postmarked by October 31, 2009, but if supplies are limited, it’s advisable you do this quickly after GH5 hits store shelves on September 1.

This actually makes Guitar Hero 5 very tempting, and no doubt this could make a GH5 purchase necessary for some on the Spawn Kill staff.

[Source: Activision via Joystiq]

Activision’s latest Tony Hawk title is heading to North American retailers on November 17 and is heading to the U.K. and Germany on November 20. Unfortunately, the official price has not been released yet, but retailers still peg it at $120, which is expected, given the skateboard peripheral being shipped with the game.

For those not in the know, Tony Hawk: Ride is the tenth installment in the Tony Hawk series. It requires players to hop on a skateboard-like peripheral that is equipped with special sensors that detect motion so that players can actually simulate real skateboarding. It’s a bit of a stretch, but we’ll see how the game actually functions when it ships.

[Source: Kotaku]

Adding to the known setlist of 85 songs in Guitar Hero 5, Activision has revealed twenty four more songs that will be in the game. Among these songs are some re-recorded tracks like “Bring the Noise 20XX” by Public Enemy and unreleased singles such as AFI’s “Medicate” that will soon appear on their new album, Crush Love. Activision also mentions many of the bands featured in Guitar Hero 5 have never been in a rhythm game before, such as A Perfect Circle and Grand Funk Railroad.

Check out the new twenty-four tracks revealed by Activison below, as well as the ones previously announced if you haven’t seen those yet.

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