Konami's attempt at a Silent Hill hat-trick for the month of March may have fallen short just before the buzzer: Silent Hill: Book of Memories has had its release date changed from March 27 to May 31, according to Amazon and Gamefly.

As you'll recall, Book of Memories was originally slated to be released in February, relatively alongside the Vita's North American debut. It was then delayed until March, as was the Silent Hill HD Collection, in an effort to extract the highest amount of retail synergy possible from Silent Hill: Downpour's release.

We've reached out Konami for confirmation; in the meantime, those of you who absolutely must be terrified on the go should load your MP3 player with the Silent Hill 2 soundtrack.

Joystiq, its parent companies and their affiliates are not responsible for panic attacks, mental breakdowns or other disruptive/embarrassing public episodes caused by listening to the Silent Hill 2 soundtrack in public.

[Thanks, Adam!]

Sony may be on the verge of closing down its shooter studio, Zipper Interactive. According to Kotaku sources, there's been "chatter for several days" about an impending closure and the possible cancellation of a current project. Sony has not commented on the situation.

Those with short memories may recall Zipper Interactive for it PS Vita shooter, Unit 13. But the company's roots go much deeper -- Zipper Interactive was founded in 1995 and spent the remainder of the '90s making Windows games. In 2002, Zipper created a little PS2 game for Sony called SOCOM: US Navy Seals and, after spending the next few years pumping out sequels, it was acquired by the publisher in 2006. The developer completed work on the large-scale multiplayer shooter, MAG, in 2010.

When it was released earlier this month for PlayStation 3 and Vita, MLB 12: The Show encountered some significant issues with its online pass, which gives users access to online multiplayer. At least, that's what it's supposed to do, but Vita players encountered a curious bug, namely that their online passes were unredeemable on the Vita. The pass could be redeemed via a PlayStation 3, albeit with one tiny problem: It unlocked online play for the PS3 version instead.

The problem has since been fixed for those who have yet to redeem their online pass, according to the PlayStation forums, but at least one user tells Joystiq that related problems persist. Vita owner Benoit redeemed his pass on March 6 before the fix, thus unlocking online play for the PS3 version, which he doesn't own. Per the advice on the forums, Benoit waited a week for the problem to be resolved before finally contacting customer service.

The chain of emails that followed saw Benoit promised a replacement code that was never delivered, after which he was asked to provide photos of his receipt and the online pass itself. Upon providing these, he was told the proof was invalid. Now, nearly three weeks after release, he remains unable to play the game online. We've contacted Sony to see what players in Benoit's situation can do.

This isn't the first time an online pass has caused unnecessary trouble for legitimate customers. Just this week, users complained that online pass codes for Ninja Gaiden 3 are broken. A similar issue cropped up for numerous DLC packs in Batman: Arkham City last year. Now, thanks to the Vita's ability to Cross Play with the PlayStation 3, it looks like we have a whole new class of online pass issue.

The Simpsons Arcade Game took the top spot in the list of downloaded PSN and PS3 games for the month of February, though there is no mention of whether free PlayStation Plus downloads are considered. [Update: Sony has confirmed that PlayStation Plus downloads were not factored into this list -- this list is all sales.] Following The Simpsons is Gotham City Impostors and House of the Dead 3, according to the PlayStation Blog.

With the launch of the PS Vita last month, Sony is now ranking downloads for that platform in its own specific, monthly list. Escape Plan was the most downloaded Vita game for the month, followed by 3G freebie Super Stardust Delta and Tales From Space: Mutant Blobs Attack.

Hit up the PlayStation Blog for the full list.

Foosball, the table game with a surprisingly rich history, is coming to PS3 and Vita this spring in the form of Foosball 2012. Developed by Grip Games, the game features a "World Tour" single-player mode with 30 locations, and multiplayer support for up to four players with online and couch co-op.

It'll also support the PlayStation Move and allow players to control Foosball 2012 exactly like they "would control a real table football, with 1:1 movement precision." We don't think the Move warranty covers spinning the controller like a drunken madman and the ensuing breakage as it hits the floor.

For those without Move, the DualShock 3 and Vita controls will be identical and the game supports cross-platform play (pay once, get both). Also, out of curiosity, we looked up how much a decent Foosball table costs, and they run from hundreds to thousands of dollars. We expect Foosball 2012 to cost significantly less.

A bipartisan bill has been introduced that would, if passed, require cigarette-esque warning labels on video games. Authored by house reps Frank Wolf (R-VA) and Joe Baca (D-CA), the Violence in Video Games Labeling Act (H.R. 4204) would require all games rated "E" or higher, regardless of actual content, to bare a label that reads "WARNING: Exposure to violent video games has been linked to aggressive behavior."

This isn't the first time Wolf and Baca have tried to introduce such legislation; "The Video Game Health Labeling Act of 2009" was essentially the same bill, although it only applied to games rated "T" and up. Its proposed warning label also made mention of "other violent media," which is absent from the dynamic duo's latest draft.

"Representative Baca's facially unconstitutional bill -- which has been introduced to no avail in each of six successive Congressional sessions, beginning in 2002 -- needlessly concerns parents with flawed research and junk science," says ESA representative Rich Taylor in a statement to Gamasutra.

Taylor goes on to say that the supporting evidence used by Baca in the past has been "exhaustively reviewed" by "numerous medical experts, research authorities, and courts across the country, including the United States Supreme Court," which collectively found the data "lacking and unpersuasive."

Baca's resolve, however, refuses to waiver. "The video game industry has a responsibility to parents, families and to consumers to inform them of the potentially damaging content that is often found in their products," Baca told The Hill. "They have repeatedly failed to live up to this responsibility."

When asked to comment, a fictional ESRB representative said "What am I, chopped liver?"

Ready at Dawn is known for having crafted two excellent God of War games for PSP, as well as assisting in their porting to the PlayStation 3. Unfortunately for Ready at Dawn, the company isn't known for much else – an issue that co-founder and CEO Ru Weerasuriya aims to fix by setting a new direction for his studio.

"When it came to really decide what we wanted to do next, I think most of the guys internally just wanted to do something that, in some ways, we had built this company for. It's taken us time to get there and we've wanted to do new IP, we've been working on it for a while, and we felt the time was right and it was just the perfect alignment of everything that was happening," Weerasuriya told GamesIndustry International.

Which isn't to say the team never considered resting on its laurels and crafting yet another portable God of War, this time for the Vita. "It's an idea that was floated as far as what could happen on the Vita. And especially with a platform like that, we were enticed I think by the prospect of doing something on that platform, but it just didn't align with what we wanted," Weerasuriya said. He'd still love for Sony to do such a project ("There's so much potential for it!"), but for the first time in four-plus years, his studio isn't working on Kratos' next portable game.

PSN's Spring Fever hits its second week today with the launch of PSN's Rayman 3 HD for $10, 20 percent off for PlayStation Plus subscribers, and Warriors Orochi 3 for $50. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine finally touches down on PS3 for $40, including the Elite Pass. For Vita, Sumioni: Demon Arts is available starting today at $20.

Final Fantasy Origins, Tactics and V-VIII from the PSone are 30 percent off for regular PSNers, and 50 percent off for Plusers (regular price $10). PSN's Spring Fever includes DLC for Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, Saints Row: The Third and more -- if all of this is a common symptom for the modern fever, we hope to catch it too.

Continue Reading

Mortal Kombat is a fairly tried and true formula by fighting game standards, but what happens when you introduce the Vita's massive array of sensors into the mix? As this latest trailer shows, the results can get positively wacky.

Fear not though, fighting purists. Most of the truly outrageous stuff, like tilting the Vita to balance Skarlett over a pit of spikes while skulls are thrown at her, is relegated to the Vita-specific Challenge Tower, which introduces 150 new trials and tribulations designed specifically for Sony's handheld.

Canabalt, the deceptively addictive single-button platformer from Adam Saltsman, is available for PS3, Vita and PSP as a PlayStation Mini in Europe right now, and is set to hit next week in the US. Canabalt costs £1.74/€1.99/AU $3.45.

Canabalt has already made its run as a free Flash game and an iOS title, and Saltsman (or Mr. Atomic, as we assume he sometimes prefers) is hard at work on the official iOS movie tie-in game, The Hunger Games: Girl on Fire.

Developer Zipper Interactive cut its teeth on the PlayStation 2 with the SOCOM series, becoming legend to military shooter fans with a trio of outstanding titles. In the following generation, however, Zipper hasn't been as consistent. Initially, my time with Unit 13, the dev's new military shooter for Vita, was nothing short of a love affair, but after only a few hours the game quickly lost steam.

Rather than offer a story, Unit 13 presents itself as a set of over 35 missions, which offer a variety of objectives. Some require covert infiltration and some, for instance, must be accomplished within a specific timeframe.

In the beginning, Unit 13 does a great job of pushing its leaderboard mentality, where score is king and it's your runs versus the world, but the entire framework feels meaningless. Orders are barked at you, and you execute them, with little in the way of reasoning other than, "These dudes are bad, so kill them before they do their bad dude things."

Continue Reading

Proficient electronic pinball developer Zen Studios announced Marvel Pinball: Avengers Chronicles this morning for the spring. The pack will be DLC for XBLA's Pinball FX2 and PS3's Marvel Pinball, and a standalone product for the PlayStation Vita.

The Avenger pack will include more character interaction, dialogue and action than any of the developer's previous tables, noted Zen Studios. The four tables include: Marvel's The Avengers, World War Hulk, The Infinity Gauntlet and Fear Itself. You had us at Infinity Gauntlet. Thanos is a badass.

Continue Reading

Lego bricks inspire creativity, but that sense of discovery and creation is all but lost in the video games from developer Travelers Tales. The experiences are largely linear affairs, with not much in the way of making your own fun.

Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes has a different design philosophy. Rather than give players a list of levels they can select, TT Games has removed the barriers around Batman's hometown. While the vision of an open world is welcome, a short demo of the game during GDC showed there's still a lot that tethers The Dark Knight to Gotham.

Continue Reading

Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes has more heroes than usual -- going beyond the Bat-family into the wider DC Universe. You can see Superman looking totally oblivious alongside the appropriately gruff Dynamic Duo in the gallery below.

Lego Batman 2 also has real human voices speaking the English language, something you don't expect from a Lego game! In fact, the first human voice we hear is that of Clancy Brown, who provides the menacingly deep voice of Lex Luthor for Superman: The Animated Series and other DC Comics animation.

When Sony's internal Japan Studio set out to work on Gravity Rush (Gravity Daze in Japan), the game was positioned as a PlayStation 3 title. According to an interview with the US PlayStation Blog, the team "came across PS Vita along the way" and realized it was "perfect for the game."

That's not the weird part, though. The game's primary influence is cited as Realtime Worlds' 2007 Xbox 360 game, Crackdown. "I really like the aspect of unlocking skills and becoming more powerful, and achieving a higher level of freedom as you become more powerful," one team member said. "I enjoyed moving in that game." Given that Gravity Rush is an open world game in a third-person view with an upgradable character, the comparison makes sense. Both games feature unrealistic art styles accentuating the fantastical gameplay, making their crossover even clearer.

While Gravity Daze has been out for a bit in Japan, Gravity Rush won't float to US shores for another few months.

[Image credit: PlayStation Blog]

Yes, there's a Super Monkey Ball game on PlayStation Vita, because the Vita is a device capable of playing video games. Sega has officially begun promoting the game in Japan, announcing a June 14 release date in that region, and a Japanese title: Super Monkey Ball Tokumori Asobita! (It's Super Monkey Ball: Banana Splitz over here).

The Vita game features a level editor that allows players to generate new Monkey Ball levels from photos. There's also a weird two-player co-op mode that tethers two Monkey Balls together with a line. Other than that, it's the Monkey Ball you know and loved until you got so frustrated you swore you'd never play again.

Several high-profile downloadable titles hit the PSN this week, with Journey being the can't-miss experience from thatgamecompany. Our Jordan Mallory was smitten by Journey, calling it a "beautiful, evocative and unequivocally transcendental experience." He may have used such words to describe a burrito he once had, but, in fairness, it was a really fabulous burrito.

If you're looking for a co-op, run-'n'-gun shooter, it's worth trading a Hamilton for Shoot Many Robots. For something a little more cerebral, stealth action puzzler Warp is also available. Head on over the PS Blog for all the details on this week's PSN update.

Game won't stock Tecmo Koei titles Ninja Gaiden 3 and Warriors Orochi 3, Tecmo announced today, asking players who have pre-ordered through Game to to try again at another, more stable retailer, such as Blockbuster (ouch). Capcom announced that Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City will also not hit Game shelves, following in Asura's Wrath and Street Fighter X Tekken's foot-stomps.

Game is on the brink of collapse, recently taking new titles from EA, Ubisoft, Capcom, Namco Bandai and Tecmo Koei off its shelves, and is looking to sell itself and everything it has -- which, at this point, isn't much.