A real nostalgic blast from the past this, as Just Add Water announces the return of the classic Oddworld series, with an enhanced remake of the award-winning Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath exclusively for PS3. Originally released in 2005, the first- and third- person action-adventure represents the first game in the multi-million selling Oddworld series to appear on a PlayStation console since 1998’s Oddworld: Abe’s Exoddus. The game will be made available as a digital download via the PlayStation Network next Easter.

JAW has been working closely with Oddworld founders Lorne Lanning and Sherry McKenna to ensure that this new version will be true to the spirit of the original game, while adding all manner of enhancements, such as stunning 720p visuals, more detailed characters,  normal mapping and self-shadowing, re-mastered dialogue, support for PlayStation Move and additional bonus material still to be announced.

In the game, players take on the role of the Stranger, a rough and tumble bounty hunter who tracks down outlaws for moolah. Using a special weapons system that gives a whole new meaning to “live” ammo, players encounter strange species and hostile challenges aplenty on their travels. When Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath was first released on Xbox in 2005, it earned a Metacritic rating of 88, and was nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Animation at the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences’ Interactive Achievement Awards, as well as garnering many other awards from the gaming press. Here’s Stewart Gilray, managing director of JAW, talking about the game:

“Since word got out that we’ve been working with Oddworld Inhabitants there have been many rumours circulating about what we’re working on. Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath is the first project in what we believe will be a long and fruitful relationship. Having the chance to update this great title and release it on PS3 is just a brilliant opportunity, not least for us, but for the fans too.”

Warner Bros. Interactive has announced today that a new playable demo of Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole  will be available for download via the PlayStation Network from September 8th. The demo enables players to take to the sky as they defend all of owlkind and do battle with the evil Pure Ones. As a brave winged warrior, players will learn several amazing aerial combat maneuvers and have the chance to explore the landscape in the world of Ga’Hoole with full 360-degree flight mechanics.

Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole is an all-new flight action game that gives families the chance to battle against evil in the skies, and which is being released to tie in with the 3D fantasy family adventure movie of the same name from critically acclaimed director Zack Snyder. Both the movie and game are based on the New York Times children’s bestselling series, Guardians of Ga’Hoole, by Kathryn Lasky. The game’s storyline features the adventures of a young owlet called Soren who arrives at the Great Ga’Hoole Tree and tells of his escape from the evil Pure Ones, revealing a new threat to the owl kingdom. Players can take control of their favourite owl and fly around the kingdom fending off evil with their feathered allies.

2K Games is clearly wasting no time in getting fresh Mafia II content out there. Just a few days after the full game was released, 2K has announced that more DLC, in the shape of  Jimmy’s Vendetta, will be released on September 7th via the PlayStation Network, for $9.99.

In Jimmy’s Vendetta, fans will experience arcade-style gameplay with more than 30 new quests and the addition of a leaderboard ranking system. The all-new storyline gives the player an alternate perspective on The Mob through the eyes of Jimmy, the guy the other guys call when they need to finish the job. Players will get their hands dirty helping Jimmy clean up other people’s messes as they deal with the Italian and Irish mobsters that live in Empire Bay. As the player progresses, new quests will be unlocked, including assassination and timed vehicle pursuits where you can earn points for precision-timed vehicular power slides, lofty jumps and intense speed. Multipliers and combos will add bonus points to overall scores that will be immediately posted to the new online leaderboard system. Sounds good, and here’s to more Mafia II DLC in the future.

Activision has released six fresh screenshots today showcasing Apache: Air Assault. The game, which is due for release on PS3 this autumn, is the first helicopter combat game from acclaimed flight sim developer Gaijin Entertainment, and sees players controlling a variety of lethal Apache attack helicopters outfitted with cutting-edge military weaponry. The aim of your mission is to patrol the skies and prevent terrorist attacks in the world’s most volatile warzones.

Apache: Air Assault features more than 16 multi-stage missions involving air and ground strike operations off the coast of Africa, high in the mountains of the Middle East and deep in the jungles of Central America. Each location has been meticulously created using high-resolution map data from real-world satellite photography. Apache helicopters are among the most sophisticated combat aircraft in the world, and in the game the player will get the chance to fly multiple variations, each with its own extreme weaponry and highly detailed damage modelling. Here’s Activision’s David Oxford talking about the game:

““No games on next-gen consoles have been dedicated to helicopter combat simulation, but that is about to change this autumn. Apache: Air Assault offers fun for diehard military enthusiasts and flight sim fans as well as gamers who just want to blow stuff up.”

The Capcom Unity Blog has announced a very special edition of Dead Rising II – the High Stakes Edition, which is so exclusive it will only be available here at the Capcom Online Store. Here’s everything you can expect to find in the strictly limited-edition pack:

• Dead Rising 2 Game (Xbox 360 or PS3)
• Poker set in a black high-impact case sporting the Fortune City logo and including:
  100 poker chips- 4 different colors featuring the Fortune City logo
  2 decks of ‘blood-stained’ custom playing cards featuring character art
  5 green dice
  1 ‘blood-stained’ dealer chip
• Fortune City Visitor Map featuring the game map and ads for Fortune City locations and attractions
• Terror is Reality XVII admission ticket with redemption code for the unique Psycho skills pack downloadable content. (One Dead Rising 2 High Stakes Edition will contain the‘Golden’ Terror Is Reality XVII admission ticket, which is redeemable for Burt the Zombie, a 6’ Dead Rising 2 zombie replica)

The Dead Rising 2 High Stakes Edition pack is available to download now for guaranteed delivery on the September 28th release date.

The wait is finally over and the stylish killing can commence pronto! Yes, snazzy open-world shooter fans should get themselves down to their local games emporium right now if they know what’s good for them (taking care to put their clothes on first, of course!), as today is the day that Mafia II hits the streets, and we mean HITS! 2K Games’ epic crime-action tale is now availabe for the PS3, and by all accounts it more than lives up to the first game.

The pistol-packed period piece transports players to Empire Bay, a fully realised and immersive urban cityscape set in America during the 1940s and 1950s. The action unfolds with white-knuckle car chases, explosive gunplay, compelling characters and an engaging narrative set against a backdrop of meticulously detailed period environments.  Here’s Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K, talking about the game:

“Mafia II is what gamers want in a mob game – the marriage of a compelling story with edge-of-the-seat action and lifelike characters that immerse players in an epic entertainment experience. When you add in a setting that accurately reflects a period in history that has never been rendered so beautifully, it sets a new benchmark not just for the action-crime genre, but for any game set in the real world with a rich story to tell.”

Namco Bandai Games Europe has today announced an exclusive Collector’s Edition of forthcoming tactical action-adventure game, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, which will be available across Europe on October 8th, 2010. The custom Collector’s Edition retail box of Enslaved will contain a hard-backed high-quality artbook featuring concept art and exclusive images documenting the development process of the game at Ninja Theory’s studios in Cambridge, UK. The package will also contain a separate CD featuring the game’s original soundtrack, written and produced by the fantastic Nitin Sawhney.

Enslaved is a cinematic gaming experience inspired by the classic Chinese novel, “Journey to the West”, and features Lord of the Rings’ Andy Serkis as dramatic co-director, and lead character, Monkey. The story comes from the pen of Alex Garland (The Beach, 28 Days Later), and takes players on a gripping, surprise-filled journey as two ill-matched characters, Monkey and Trip, form an uneasy union in order to survive their way through a perilous, post-apocalyptic America.

Disney has released some brand new screenshots from its upcoming TRON: Evolution PS3 game which is due for this release this winter to coincide with the release of the new TRON: Legacy movie.  The game is an immersive, third-person action-adventure that pulls the player into the unique digital world of TRON, where they get to explore TRON’s cities using the free-running phenomenon Parkour, navigate among unique rebel factions, and fight in an epic battle against a dictator’s relentless army, in the prequel to TRON: Legacy.

Key features of the game include action-packed combat using your light disc and a combination of Parkour and martial arts acrobatic fist-flinging movements; fast-paced light cycle racing and combat; a voiceover cast including actress Olivia Wilde as Quorra and Bruce Boxleitner as Tron; and an innovative online experience featuring persistent character progression.

The PC Tron game that was out a few years back was excellent, so hopefully this will be as good and really push the PS3 to its limits.

If you like your PS3 games to be truly scary, dark and twisted, then you’ll be glad to hear that Konami has today revealed that Saw II: Flesh and Blood will be hitting stores on PS3 on October 19th, just in time for the release of Saw VII 3D, the seventh instalment of the popular horror movie franchise from Lionsgate and Twisted Pictures. And to help get you even more excited, and yet strangely fearful, about the game and the film’s upcoming release, Konami has also issued some new concept art that you can choose to look at from between your fingers if you’re feeling brave. The images reveal newly created deadly traps that challenge the player to think fast under pressure. Here’s Zombie Studios Producer, John Williamson, sharing his vision for the game, as revealed in the concept art:

“Just the silhouette of the character in the trap had to make the viewer uncomfortable. You had to know instantly that something bad was going to happen to this person if you didn’t get them out.”

Ulp, I think we know that already!

Following on from last week’s story about the first ever PS3 hacking device, the PSJailbreak, MCV reports today that a hacking website (which incidentally appears to have crashed today due to the interest in this story!) has warned those tempted to use the device that they risk being banned from using their console on the PlayStation Network, possibly for good. This would of course mean that they would never again be able to use the banned console to play multiplayer games on PSN, and that they could possibly even be banned from accessing the PSN store with it. According to the report quoted by MCV on HAXnetworks, “the Backup manager game ID could be logged/recorded by Sony when logged into PSN (when online).”

The site says that once Sony detected that someone was using the jailbreak device, they could then block the user from PSN, just as Microsoft currently blocks modded Xboxes from Xbox Live.

MCV also reports that rival devices to the PSJailbreak have started appearing online, with the makers of the initial device actually having the gall to ask customers to only buy from “authorized dealers!” A bit rich, that!