9dragons, the martial arts MMO from (the new) Acclaim is currently running their open beta phase and have finally added a European server for us on the motherland. 9dragons is a massive-multiplayer martial arts title, re-creating the ancient myths of early Asian, allowing you to explore, learn and battle rival fighters along with your friends, mentors and fellow disciples.

Chop more: 9Dragons

Having played around with developing on the Torque Engine in the past, I still like to pop in and see what’s going on with the enhancement of the engine and related tools from time to time. That’s how I came upon Dreamlords and whoa was I surprised. The power of Torque is starting to really shine and Dreamlords looks to be an extremely interesting title. Combining an MMORPG with traditional RTS battled and long-term tactical strategy, Dreamlords looks to be a must for any indie games and MMO fan.

Hit the jump to watch an introduction to Dreamlords gameplay..

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Old but what the hell, I just found out that indie games darling Gish is heading to the PSP, bringing it’s dark and ultra-stylish art direction to a slowly dying platform. I’ve heard rumors all around that Sony is approaching high quality indie developers to bring their games to the PSP, which may be a smart move on their part, considering the few who still are interested in the PSP are homebrewers and indie developers. Gish is a unique 2D side-scrolling title, completely physics-based and featuring a Tim Burton-esque meets Japanese animation style ball of tar, rolling around and causing havoc. Congrats to the folks behind Gish!

Read more: Gish | Gish for PSP @ DVDboxoffice

A few days old, but hey, even old news is post-worthy when it points out how badly the PS3 is doing in the market. Over in Japan, the sales figures for January have rolled in and boy was it a surprise. Nintendo sold through around 405,000 units of their Wii console in comparison to the Sony PS3’s paltry 148,000 units. These are sold, in the homes, not ’shipped’ which Sony (and to a degree Microsoft) are so often touting as their sales figures. The key for Nintendo’s success is to stretch their current lead throughout the rest of the year, with solid first and third party new releases and some real expansions in their online service, which is a bit weak to say the least. Online Wii Sports anyone? Yes please!

For the PS3? Sony can probably just hope their marketing team and execs don’t completely alienate the Europeans, who are their last hope of reclaiming market dominance. Though it’s starting to seem quite clear that mainstream games and consumers are replacing their PS2s as this generation’s console of choice with the Nintendo Wii, leaving the PS3 battling it out with the Xbox 360 for the fickle hardcore gamers market.

Read more: Wii outselling PS3 by 3 to 1 in Japan

Never has 3rd party accessories been so fashionable as now with the Nintendo Wii. These little beauties are genius, even if they are ‘prototypes’, basically an over-the-counter set of wrist weights with Wii stamped on them. Wiilympics? Wiirobics? When will the brilliantly delicious madness end!

Sweat more: Wii wrist weights prototype

Gaming and financial analyst Roger Eherenberg’s epic post tracking EA’s stock price and strategy is a great great read which he’s just revisited and revised. I’m actually still ingesting it all after the third read, but I can’t help but agree on just about every point raised. Focusing on EA’s mistake with focusing too much on the PS3, the article also takes Sony to task for their continued mis-steps in getting the PS3 into the homes of gamers and Nintendo’s brilliantly handled Wii which Eherenberg predicts is replacing the PS2 as the console of choice for mainstream gamers.

Read more: EA Revisited: Playing Catch Up on the Wii, Waking up to the Failure that is PS3

Artist Rosemaria Fiore created a brilliant photo project, documenting her playing retro video games like Tempest, Gyuss and Quantum from Atari, Centuri and Taito. The photos are long exposure snaps, consisting of 1 second of gameplay per frame, resulting in excellent and complex patterns which normal players would never normally see. When I saw these photos for the first time, I instantly though “Geometry Wars”. My bad.

See more: Long exposure photos of gaming classics

Wow! That’s all I can say. Many think of me as a Sony-hater, but I’ll prove them wrong here by saying how amazing this looks, but oh, this is for he PS2! Granted, give the devs a few years and $30 or $40 million dollars and they could pump something even more beautiful out on the PS3, but, who can afford a PS3 plus games, plus accessories anyways?

Check the video after the jump..

Read more of “God of War 2 Pegasus gameplay video, who needs a PS3?“

Nearing a year after the closure of Rockstar Vienna, who was rumored to be developing Manhunt 2 for the PS2 before their sudden closure, Rockstar Games has announced Manhunt 2 for the PS2, PSP and (shock!) Wii! Not that anyone still cares about the Manhunt license or anything, the exciting news here is that Rockstar is making a go at a Nintendo Wii title! If anyone was doubting that the big N was trying to attract the 3rd parties, eat up a bit of that piping hot crow. Granted, I’d rather have a GTA Wii or Max Payne Wii, but who knows, if things work out well for Manhunt 2 Wii, guaranteed we’ll see more Rockstar titles appearing on the platform. Rockstar Games also went on to say that Rockstar London is developing the PS2 version, Rockstar Leeds the PSP and Rockstar Toronto the Wii version, with of course, Rockstar North overseeing all three. Look for all 3 versions appearing this Summer.

Read more: Manhunt 2 announced for PS2, PSP and Wii

Game designer / celebrity David Jaffe (God of War) recently live-blogged a focus testing session for Calling All Cars, the upcoming PS3 download title and there’s much to take away from it. It’s quite clear Jaffe cares deeply about his craft and it’s also pretty fucking clear that high quality focus testing groups are hard to find.

An amusing back and forth over IM between Jaffe and Adam (one of the designers):

adamorth (6:00:57 PM): GOD DAMMIOT!!!!!
spdrmn375 (6:01:06 PM): what?
adamorth (6:01:13 PM): not only is #4 stupid, but he’s a fucking asshole
spdrmn375 (6:01:18 PM): y?
adamorth (6:01:23 PM): jesus!
adamorth (6:01:27 PM): what a fucking snot
spdrmn375 (6:01:29 PM): what?!?
adamorth (6:01:39 PM): no swag!
spdrmn375 (6:01:49 PM): lame
adamorth (6:01:55 PM): he called me an idiot
spdrmn375 (6:02:01 PM): why?!?
adamorth (6:02:18 PM): becuase i told him not to keep pressing the buttons
spdrmn375 (6:02:24 PM): for what reason?
adamorth (6:02:46 PM): because he kept rushing through the menu to create game ahead of the host
spdrmn375 (6:03:07 PM): ah…sweet! BLOG TIME!!!

Read more: David Jaffe live blogs focus testing for Calling All Cars