Late Night Consoling

In an extremely brief press release dated tomorrow but revealed today, 2K Sports made the statement everybody seemed to know it would one of these days: the company is returning to the football video game market. The company announced All-Pro Football 2K8, its first football game since Electronic Arts acquired NFL exclusivity for games in 2004. Though 2K will of course be unable to use the NFL brand in its game, prior rumors have suggested that the may seek to sign players individually, including licensing all-time greats of the sport.

"Football gamers have been awaiting the return of the 2K series," said Greg Thomas, president of developer Visual Concepts. "All-Pro Football 2K8 will deliver an authentic next generation gridiron experience and we are happy to give fans another choice in the football category."

All-Pro Football 2K8 is almost certainly coming to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and seems like a likely candidate for Wii. 2K Sports expects to ship the game this summer.

Breaking from its frequent strategy of announcing Xbox Live Arcade releases mere days before their availability, Microsoft today sent out a list of ten titles that are coming to the service starting in February. Each game will be released on a Wednesday, in keeping with the Xbox Live Wednesdays program, though Microsoft noted that not every week may see a game release. The full list is as follows:

- 3D Ultra Minigolf Adventures (Wanako Games, Sierra Online) - Screenshots
- Alien Hominid HD (The Behemoth); includes "exclusive Xbox Live Arcade features" - Screenshots
- Band of Bugs (NinjaBee); tactical strategy game, includes level editor - Screenshots
- Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (Konami) - Screenshots
- Catan (Big Huge Games Inc., Microsoft. Game Studios); remake of popular board game - Screenshots
- Eets: Chowdown (Klei Entertainment Inc.); remake of PC game of the same name - Screenshots
- Luxor 2 (MumboJumbo LLC) - Screenshots
- Paperboy (Digital Eclipse, Midway); enhanced arcade port - Screenshots
- Root Beer Tapper (Digital Eclipse, Midway); enhanced arcade port - Screenshots
- Worms (Team 17 Software Ltd.); Worms in its 2D incarnation - Screenshots

Ubisoft today confirmed the existence of Blazing Angels Secret Missions, a followup to Ubisoft Romania's Blazing Angels Squadrons of WWII, which has so far shipped for PlayStation 3, Xbox, Xbox 360, and PC, with a Wii release forthcoming. As of today, however, Secret Missions has only been announced for Xbox 360 and PC (to which the press release refers as "Games 4 Windows").

Secret Missions appropriately focuses on experimental aircraft and weaponry, putting the player into the role of an elite member of a special airborne team sent to conduct clandestine missions against the Third Reich's own experimental equipment around the world. Ubisoft notes that the background of Secret Missions has been researched from actual World War II projects.

The publisher promises boosted graphics over the game's predecessor, a new campaign, and multiplayer modes including cooperative, capture the flag, free for all, and others. Ubisoft also sent along some initial screenshots.

Ubisoft plans to ship Blazing Angels Secret Missions this spring.

Sony today released two PSP downloads, one considerably more exciting than the other. First up is the latest firmware update, which raises PSP's system version to 3.10. Among its changes are the ability to play MPEG-4 AVC video via LocationFree, the addition of a dynamic volume normalizer, and the option to "conserve memory" while browing the web in order to facilitate viewing of larger web pages.

Also available is a demo of Guerilla Games' third person shooter Killzone Liberation, released in October 2006. It is being hosted at the official PlayStation site.

Sega today announced the opening of the Armored Core 4 official site. It contains screenshots, movies, and information on FromSoftware's upcoming mech action game. Sega plans to ship Armored Core 4 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 this spring.

Codemasters sent word today that it has launched the official site for IR Gurus' flight combat game Heatseeker, in the works for PlayStation 2, Wii, and PSP. The site consists of screenshots as well as various pieces of information about the game, which is expected to ship this spring.